Pasties Galore!

I am sure there are better and more authentic pasty recipes online, and if you consider yourself a pasty connoisseur and refuse to bow down to anything other than the One True Pasty enshrined in the golden pagoda in Cornwall, then by all means, troll the internet in search of better, unadulterated recipes.

But all you have for now is this:

1. Make curry with finely chopped yummies. (Poor man's version: chop veggies; blend with curry sauce from jar.)
2. Make pie dough. (For a how-to, click here.) Roll out and cut into large squares.
3. Blob curry onto half of square, fold over, pinch edge closed.
4. Place on baking sheet and cook at 375 F/190 C until crust turn golden around the edges.
5. Eat.

P.S. Melissa gets the credit for this one too. 

Facebook Is a Time Suck

Stew You!

This is the stew Melissa made. She wants to make sure I give her credit for the title of this post. 

Cinnamon and Curry Sweet Potato Stew

Serves 6-7

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

4-5 cloves garlic, chopped (no garlic press)

3 red onions, diced

1 small eggplant, diced

3 tomatoes, diced

3 medium sweet potatoes, diced

3 carrots, sliced into coins

salt

coarse ground black pepper

paprika

cinnamon

yellow curry powder

2-3 cups water

2 boxes plain couscous (needs butter, salt, water.  Instructions will be on box)

Steps:

1) Dice everything and have it at the ready.

2) Heat oil in large pot.

3) Add garlic, agitate until just turning brown.

4) Add onions, agitate until coated in the oil.  Add 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper.  Put lid on and allow onions to sweat for 5-7 minutes on medium heat.

5) Add eggplant, stir and return lid to pot.  Let cook for 10-15 minutes at medium heat, stirring occasionally.

6) Add tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes; stir.  Add enough water to just barely cover the vegetables.  Return lid to pot and let cook for 5 minutes.

7) Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/3 paprika, 1/2 Tbsp curry, 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon.  Stir and return lid to pot.  Let cook down for 20-30 minutes on medium to low heat, stirring occasionally.

8) Taste stew, add additional spices as needed.  Predominant flavors should be curry and cinnamon.  Continue to cook for 30-40 minutes on low to medium heat until carrots and potatoes are soft all the way through.  Stew will reduce as it cooks, have no fear.  If the meal is delayed, you can turn off the heat and leave the lid on, re-warming the stew closer to serving time or cook the stew on a lower heat starting from step 6.

9) Remove from heat and serve over couscous with shredded coconut and/or shredded swiss cheese.  

MMMmmm, delicious.

Shakespeare Texts

I texted Alicia today.

Wilt thou walk with me under the ever-spreading leaves, the verdure of spring?

She replied:

Alas, I hath already trod that sacred ground, carpeted with Nature's providence.

I think this might catch on.

Melissa's Tardis Adventure

Melissa watches Matt Smith. I have every intention of watching Doctor Who, but when I do, I want to watch it from the beginning with the darkly optimistic, "good-looking but with a big schnoz" Christopher Eccleston.

P.S. I think Matt Smith is cute with his bow tie.

FAGE Total Plain Extraordinary™

Plain was the same as it ever was the same.
Plainly plain…
Samely same…
But then…someone lit the flame.
Plain rode away on lion’s mane.
Where plain met fruits with strangely names.
Such wonderful things they did contain.
A shot of life to a hungry vein.
The captive beast who broke the chain.
And there upon that fruited plane,
is where plain became what plain became.
So much more than more than plain.
Plain will never be the same.

One of the best commercials I have seen in a very long time.

I, the Pilgrim

I am currently reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Annie Dillard is famous for dwelling on the natural experiences of life and spinning deep and profound philosophy and theology from them. However, though she is cerebral, as  any writer tends to be, she chooses to throw herself back into the real, into the world. She does not remain in the mind, and I cannot help but admire that. It strikes me as extraordinarily practical and boldly imaginative at the same time.

"All right, then. Pull yourself together. Is this where I'm spending my life, in the "reptile brain," this lamp at the top of the spine like a lighthouse flipping mad beams indiscriminately into the darkness, into the furred thoraxes of moths, onto the backs of leaping fishes and the wrecks of schooners? Come up a level; surface."

- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek