rambling

Randomness

I haven’t been doing much of anything.

I’ve been sleeping. A lot of sleeping. I’ve been indulging my SAD and letting myself not run into exhaustion like I normally do all winter.

The Mystery Mythic Missing Oranges

I was gifted a box of tangelos this winter for Christmas. They came straight from the grove, with a note saying that they were coming into season and would be shipped by such and such a date. I waited, then contacted the person that sent me the oranges that they hadn’t appeared.

That’s funny, the grove said, they’re marked as delivered to you about four days -before- you contacted us.

I had already asked the Post Office to hold my packages (way to drop the ball there, guys, it’s like you actually want to keep losing all my packages) but apparently they took that as a suggestion and not a customer request. Eventually I decided the package had just poofed. Again. And went on with life.

A box of oranges appeared the other day. The box is too clean and the oranges are too fresh to have been the original box. But I have the fruit now, so that’s all that matters.

Shamrockin’

I’m really terrible with photographing my nails. I don’t normally like St. Patrick’s Day and it’s not for two months anyway but I saw the Shamrockin’ polish on the Sinful Colors display this week and really needed to have that polish. I ended up with a Walgreen’s coupon that covered the sale so I splurged.

It’s a dot style glitter (I don’t know what they actually call this style glitter) in greens and white. There are supposed to be white and green shamrock shaped glitter mixed in but I didn’t manage to find any-but close to six weeks off of St. Patrick’s Day? That’s fine.

I’m wearing it over one layer of Wet and Wild’s Yo Soy. I don’t like the new Wet and Wild’s formula at all. It’s both thin and goopy. I’ll definitely go for more than 1 layer of the nude next time and will most likely reserve this color for the base coat for glitters.

Baskets

Polishes are my current obsession, and my collection finally outgrew its basket. I had to go to the dollar store and get a bigger box.

And green polish. Because I don’t have a solid, spring green in my collection. Head desk.

Black Orchid

Mid and I have been having ‘discussions’ around the subject of the appropriate lip color. Don’t fret, you can tell that I’ve been wearing it. He just hates 99% of the colors I find unless they’re in the nude range.

I however have finally found a color that I absolutely adore. That’s an actually fairly bare skin (I’m wearing ELF mascara-which I admittedly don’t like but I haven’t had time to get to Sephora, and ELF face powder-which I do like) and one of the black tube Wet and Wild lipsticks in Black Orchid. Which one? I don’t remember. It’s off of the ‘new item’ display that Walgreen’s has out now.

It’s not purple, it’s not red, it’s not pink, it’s not even really mauve. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but I like it. It toes the line of my ‘no unnatural lip color’ rule and it’s. so. dark. But I love it.

Beef Stew, or, How My Dad Taught Me to Cook

I didn’t learn how to cook from a book.

I didn’t learn by constantly practicing recipes constantly, by being tied to what someone else told me was the ‘right’ way.

I learned to cook by throwing things into a pot and looking at them.

I remember my dad cooking when I was growing up. It was always an interesting set up, with half of the kitchen covered in whatever he had dragged out of the cupboards and the other half of the kitchen covered in whatever powdery substance was involved-flour, chili powder, salt. If you walk into my kitchen while I’m cooking you’ll see what those kitchens looked like 20 years ago.

The thing is, watching my dad cook imprinted my own cooking styles on me. Why are my recipes so loose? Because I cook the way he does. It’s definitely a trial and error process but the thing is, you can learn a lot about food by dumping it into a pot and looking at it. Stirring it around, tasting it, seasoning it, and looking at it. You learn how you want it to taste by learning to recognize what ‘right’ it. The way that chili turns brown when seasoned right, how to tell if you need to thicken a stew. You have to interact with your food this way and let it tell you what this batch needs, and not what the batch of the recipe tester tells you it does.

We both cook barefoot as well, which has scared more than a few people throughout the years.

I don’t think I’ve ever said this to you, but thanks Dad.

The Beef Stew Not-Recipe

1 can beef broth, with salt

1 packet beef stew flavoring-I used Mrs. Dash’s

1 to 2 lb beef stew meat (or venison)

Root vegetables and onions, roughly chopped-use what you have. I used carrots and potatoes

Optional: red wine

Optional: salt free all purpose seasoning mix

In a large pot over medium high heat, bring all ingredients to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for at least 45 minutes. If the gravy starts thickening down too much add a little water. You don’t want to add a lot of wine, but a few splashes will round out the flavor. You can brown the meat prior to stewing but I never do.