Tycho Talk

It's a modified recipe that started off on a box of lasagna noodles. It's so low-rent, but that's part of its charm.

Lasagna

1 pound hamburger. I use super lean. I also recently tried Italian-flavored Neat, and it worked pretty well.
1 jar (26 oz/3 cups) spaghetti sauce. I'm partial to Prego.
1.5 cups of water. I will sub up to most of this with wine, if I've got some around.
16 ounces of cottage cheese or ricotta. I use full fat, because there's not that much of a difference in calories, and it tastes a lot better.
3 cups mozzarella. Store-brand shredded is fine.
1.5 cup Parmesan. Get the shredded stuff from the deli, not the can; the can only brings sadness.
2 eggs. Chicken eggs.
Spices. You can get fancy about it, but in the spirit of the recipe you can go with some garlic salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning blend.
9 lasagna noodles (uncooked).

Brown up the hamburger in a sauce pan. Dump the jar sauce and water/wine on top, simmer for 10 minutes. Here's where you can add any veggies you like; I'll often throw in a bunch of sliced fresh mushrooms. Eric thinks some red pepper flakes and Worcestershire sauce helps, but I'm not convinced.

In a separate bowl, mix up the cheeses, eggs, and spices. Save a few pinches of Parmesan.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Take a 13x9 lasagna pan, put 1 cup of the meat sauce in the bottom. Then three lasagna noodles. Then 1.5 cups meat sauce, and half the cheese mix. Do another layer of noodles, sauce, and cheese. Top it off with three more noodles, the rest of the sauce, and the pinches of Parmesan. Foil up the pan, and put it in the oven for fifty minutes. Take the foil off, and put it back in the oven for another ten minutes. Let it sit for another ten minutes or so after it comes out of the oven, it will set up and not look like so much of a train wreck when you dish it out.

Serve with cheap-ass garlic toast made with sliced bread. You'll have enough for dinner and a couple of days of lunches too. Also good to make for those times when you want to make a church lady casserole.

the whole list

I awoke after being up late- Mike, JD and I went to see 'A Band Called Death', which was a surprisingly sweet family story that was about as gritty as 'My Neighbor Totoro'. Anyway, it had been a midnight showing and so we'd gotten to sleep around 3am. I woke up before JD, who has an amazing capacity for sleeping. Finally around noon we started moving, and planning what to do with the day. I wanted to go to the nursery but Eric didn't- but he was up for BLT feast later, and so bacon needed to be purchased. JD and I went to the nursery where some awesome Texas sage (note: not an actual sage) had come in, and I had many nice ones to choose from- we're going to plant them around the pool machinery, creating a nice silver and fuchsia hedge around the thing.

Having done that, we stopped at Man Bites Dog, since we hadn't eaten anything and it was after 2pm. I tried the veggie dog- I don't think those come off as well as a lot of the veggie burgers out there, but it wasn't too bad. Then we went to the store for bacon and such. After dropping it off, JD and Eric went to check out the sale at the local game store and pick up JD's dog Meatwad. Then we all got in the pool- Meatwad a little reluctantly. We swam around until we got hungry.

Eric started the bacon, I fixed a box of brownies (with Amaretto!) and we toasted some onion rolls for BLTs. Eric had the inspired idea to get cherry tomatoes instead of big ones, cut 'em in half and roast the whole lot. They tasted sweet like ketchup but simpler. It's the only way I've ever had tomatoes on a sandwich and liked them. Oh! Eric also made mayonnaise- he saw a quickie method using a stick blender, and for reals had a jar full of oil and eggs that he turned into mayo in about 20 seconds.

We watched some Daily Shows and Futuramas, and had ice cream and brownies. Now Eric and JD are playing Netrunner while I'm remembering what keeping a journal is like and playing LoL while listening to Howie Day.

He was in town recently; Mike and I went to see him at a venue in west Austin earlier in the week. I have seen this guy in concert about four times now, and even though he doesn't have a huge catalog, he's still a mesmerizing artist, to me at least. It's like Jeff Buckley; he's known for one song (at least he wrote it) and it's not even in his best top five songs. In my opinion, of course. I even got to mumble to him directly. I got flustered and felt like an idiot. Dude's like ten years younger than me, I'm not sure why I act like a nervous fan. I guess I still see creating music as magical. I can reproduce music fairly well in more than one medium, but actually making new music out that comes out of your head and out into reality is something that completely baffles and amazes me. And Howie Day takes his acoustic guitar and a bunch of effects pedals and sounds like a well-appointed band with back-up singers.

Tomorrow I have to go in to work, but I don't expect it will be very busy. I've been riding my scooter in... it uses less gas, and it's more exciting than driving the car. Which I still love to death. Eric's not really been riding his bike much and is thinking about selling it- and also about getting a newer car. He's just about settled on a Honda CR-V, 2011 or so, I think, since it has a lot of USB ports or something.

This has been my life. Sometimes I get to noticing that I feel really odd here off and on these last few months- and I think it's because I'm happy, and I'm not quite sure what to do with that. It's not something I'm used to.

Okay, I probably need to explain the icon. Someone in LJ land wrote a very convincing and very mean essay that posited that the Twilight series is thinly-veiled Joseph Smith slash. And illustrated it with this pic, which cracks me up every time I see it.

Also, I had the most delightful dinner this evening of leftover rum ham and popovers. Then hot tub time.

Also also, last night Eric and I ate at 888 (so how do you say the name of that restaurant in your head?) and I had some very tasty cashew chicken with brown rice. Brown rice is the best rice there is, and if you disagree you are wrong.

Also also also, tomorrow night is Eric's birthday dinner at Fogo de Chao, aka meat on a sword place. It's a day early because I can't miss choir rehearsals (major work coming this Sunday, want to hear some Latin singing in a Unitarian church service?) on his actual birthday Wednesday. This was definitely the wrong month to start a weight loss program. I'm using Lose it!, which is a phone app that gives you badges and stuff. I sent them a bitchy email when they gave me an 'Extravert Award!' badge for getting three friends. I resented the implication that introverts don't have friends. Maybe they will send me a pony to keep me company in my Fortress of Solitude by way of apology.

So, who among us has not ever asked the question, "What shall we eat tonight?" If you're dating and neither of you cooks, this generally means "where shall we go to eat?" Because I have a delightfully left-brained capacity for making nerdy lists, and taking tastes into account, here is the list JD and I have made. Feel free to steal the idea if it appeals to you.

Here's where it gets extra-dorky. I was gonna make it a "roll a d20" option, but JD said it should be d12s because of my well-known fondness for dodecahedra (@@) so we came up with a couple more options for 2 d12s. Then he reasonably (jerk) pointed out that this would mean choices in the middle of the list get picked more often, so we did some adjusting and put stuff on the outsides that we won't want to do as often. We'll probably keep tweaking it. Behold.

Dinner Dice!

Roll 2 d12. If you veto the result, roll again. If you veto a second time, you have to suggest a category. If the other person vetoes, they make the next roll. Alternately, if someone has a craving, suggest that!

1. You can’t roll a 1 with 2 d12, stop cheating!
2. Fancy-pants (Wink, European Bistro)
3. Cheap American (Phil’s Ice House, Waterloo)
4. Mid-priced American (Cheesecake Factory, Marie Callendar’s)
5. Home cooking (Hoover’s)
6. Chinese (Twin Lion, Little China)
7. Cheap Indian (Masala Wok, Curry in Hurry)
8. Mid-priced Indian (Bombay Bistro, Clay Pit)
9. Italian (Olive Garden, Andiamo)
10. European (Blue Dahlia, Mirabelle)
11. Pizza (delivery- Gatti’s, Pizza Paradise)
12. Mexican (Los Reyes, Jardin Corona)
13. Greek (Zorba’s, Tino’s)
14. Texan (Mesa Ranch)
15. Barbecue (Rudy’s, Pok-E-Joe’s)
16. Sandwiches (Thundercloud, Jimmy John’s)
17. Tacos/Burritos (Taco Deli, Torchy’s, Freebirds)
18. Dessert For Dinner
19. Breakfast Food (Waffle House, Cafe Java)
20. Grocery store crapshoot (go to HEB and get creative)
21. Movie dinner (Alamo Drafthouse)
22. Other eastern (Thai, Asia Cafe)
23. Other Latin American (Cuban)
24. Fast food (Wendy’s, Sonic)
25. Frozen Hot Dogs in the Sink (sad face! Good thing you can’t roll this with 2 d12)

I just went to a Slow Food presentation on bread. The lady very clearly has forgotten more about bread than I will ever know, but she was a terrible, terrible speaker. I just felt bad for her. And the bulk of the tasting seemed to be "taste this bread from HEB. Isn't it terrible?" But there was good bread too. And OMFG, BUTTER. A swipe of whatever butters she had (there was Irish butter, and Italian butter, and goat butter) made crappy bread into manna from heaven. I sure don't need to develop a butter habit, but wow.

There's been all sorts of pleasant socializing this last few days. But first, a doctor visit!

I went to the doctor on Thursday, but the results of the genetic test I was going there specifically to discuss were still not in. So, since I was already there anyway we talked about my Vitamin D level (evidently since D is fat-soluble, fat people usually need to front load a lot of it), my shin splints (probably just a stretched tendon) and head lice (I've had a close call with them, but a very, very thorough check revealed no signs of them on me). Overall I'm pretty healthy for a 43yo obese American woman.

Friday Anton and I had our semi-regular sushi lunch at Mikado. Since I don't eat fish my options are limited, but tasty enough and the sort of thing I don't mind ordering repeatedly. In fact, now one of the waitress just asks if I want the usual now- but this time they were out of Mushroom Package, one of my staples. The picture of the sign announcing this with the cute little anime mushrooms sure confused people on Facebook. Still, I ate well.

I didn't do a lot Saturday; in fact I crashed for three hours in the middle of the day, which I hadn't expected- I wasn't especially sleep deprived. But if I didn't need it I probably wouldn't've been able to sleep that long, so there you are. Eric and I went to 'The Jerk' quote-along at the boring Alamo (the more suburban one), and it was a really good time. I have always loved that movie, the comedy's held up pretty well, and the pizza-in-a-cup concoction the Alamo made for the event was superb. The notion always sounded gross, but when I took one bite of Eric's I ordered my own. It was basically 4 seasoned flat breadsticks in a cup of layers of spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese. Everything about it was perfect for what it was. Awesome! I can't say I enjoyed the bit of Eric's beer milkshake that I tried, but they can't all be home runs.

Threeve and AVR came over after that. We ended up gabbing until 5am, though it wasn't as late as it seems because we jumped ahead an hour in there for DST (*glare*)- so I slept in. I awoke in a foul mood for some reason today, and it persisted but I shook most of it off for our small celebration of Pluto Day that was built around the fact that Anton wanted to try making a dark chocolate pomegranate pie. Things with pomegranate have been a bit over-done in the last few years, so I wasn't expecting a lot, but there was something about how these flavors combined that was stunningly wonderful. It was a good sweet, tart twang that probably wouldn't have necessarily screamed 'POMEGRANATE', but made it so much more than the chocolate ice box pie that was its humble ancestor. Anton sure can bake the hell out of some pie.

Eric can cook the hell out of some pasta, too. He tells me the baked pasta dish he does is simple, but it's probably one of my favorite things that he makes. Good stuff. It's basically spaghetti sauce, rotini, Italian sausage and mushrooms in a pan covered with mozzarella rounds and put right under the broiler so they get melty and browned on the top. Delicious.

Casting a pall on the evening though was the Transformers movie. It was the Riff Trax version so it wasn't unbearable ("slow motion explosions- the textured vegetable protein of Michael Bay movies") but... ugh. Even allowing for my girlness, this was a barely watchable movie. Oh well. Plutonium PIE!

Hmm, a whole mess of stuff has happened, and I have been lax in posting.

My birthday definitely had it's good points. I kayaked, and the weather could not have been more perfect. It was the first time I went by myself, but it wasn't too much of a challenge; it's a broad, shallow river so really it's mostly about steering. The trees were turning, and I even saw a very shy deer among them. Dinner that evening was delightful... business was slow and they pulled out a fancy almost-a-throne chair that usually graces one of their semi-private rooms. I think about 16 people showed up. I had delicious gulyash or goulash or whatever, and black forest cake.

The coven-closing went about as well as could be expected. On Sunday, I engaged in life-affirming activities of which I shall speak nae further, but I got a little over two hours of sleep before going into work the next morning. I regret nothing! Going to work on two hours of sleep is a pretty surreal experience, I will say. I was down 40 or so IQ points, had the dexterity of a .10 BAC and you know how you have an internal clock that tells you approximately what time it is? That was offline, so every time I looked at the clock I was completely surprised. It was interesting.

Tomorrow, I am going to the UT-Aggie game here in town. I'm going with a bunch of Aggies, and will be in my Longhorn finery. The weather looks like it could be terrible, though the forecast for rain seems to be shaping up to blow itself out by the evening- then it'll just be cold. UT is scheduled to lose. Well, I can live with this.

I commissioned a ring that was supposed to be ready two weeks ago, but was ready today. When I went to pick it up, it was white gold, though I was expecting yellow. When I mentioned this, he said he could've had it ready 2 weeks ago if he'd known that. Bother. But it sure looked awesome... I can't wait to see it in yellow gold.

Tonight I went back to choir for the first time since last spring. Folks were glad to see me, and they were really hurting for tenors, so it's no wonder. We're right about ready to ramp up and practice the hell out of a couple of pieces for the end of season performance. One's a many-layered Kings Singers bit, and the other is in Latin. Me gusta.

An Oatmeal cartoon said I should not post about stuff I eat. I say, fuck that. I'm not trying to win a Pulitzer here, I'm entertaining myself. So, we went to Asian Market, or more accurately to the restaurant that used to be inside the Asian Market (called, I believe, Asian Restaurant) and had cumin beef and stir fried green beans and dumplings, which were all super delicious, and then tried to go to Ann's Cakes for a cupcake but they were closed! Thankfully not 20 yards away was a coffee place called the Cupcakery or some cutesy shit like that. They weren't as good as Ann's but that's like saying quickies aren't as good as taking your time- they're still a lot of fun. I had the double chocolate and Eric had one called lemonberry. I think he liked them as much as Ann's, but I'm one of those "more frosting!" people and Ann's puts frosting in the middle, though I think when it's there it's ganache, but you get the idea. Yum.

New icon. Tim Kreider imagines himself receiving the Palme d'Or in this cartoon. "I always knew I was different you see."

Our front lawn live oaks don't look well. There's big hunks of branches that have no leaves on them, no catkins, no buds, nothin'. It's distressing. Eric went to the internet (quick! To the internet!) and discovered something called "Sudden Oak Death Disease", which is about the most unambiguous name for anything ever. Apparently it's curable, which just confuses me. In any event, we decide to put out the call for an arborist (I feel like the whitest person in the world). So what song does the iTunes decide to spin up randomly? Go on, guess. Threeve got it in one, I bet- 'The Trees' by Rush. There is trouble with the trees indeed. Thank you Leftenant Obvious. And so now as I write this it decides to play a Rasta cover of a Radiohead song by a band called the Easy Star All-Stars from an album called 'Radiodread'. Yeah, now you're just fucking with me.

Anyway, did you know that North by Northwest has the best french fries in all the world? Because they do.

What an evening... pasta (with mushrooms and bacon), an artichoke, veggie cibatta from Sprouts, and a black forest amaretto cake for dinner. Lego Rock Band to take the taste out of a terrible romantic comedy ('The Tao of Steve'; I tell ya I think I'm about to swear off of romantic comedies forever) and hanging out in the hot tub on a cold, clear night. The only thing that could make it better was if I didn't have to go to work in the morning. Well, as the song goes, every rose has its thorn- but yeah, I've got it pretty good. Hey, want to see the cake?
( sure! )