The joys of Previously Owned Home Ownership...

Yeah. The damned clogged sink.



It was still like that on Thursday, after I got home from pizza/beer with a former co-worker and some of my, well, now former co-workers. It was good times. And the best work stories always come when the booze is flowing.

Anyway, I picked up some Drano, an auger and some other clog-busting supplies at my lunch on Thursday. When I got home, I tried a plastic clog-buster thing that didn't work, realized I was a moron when I bought the auger and it wouldn't fit down the sink drain, so we went for the Drano. Poured half the bottle in to the non-disposal side.

Two hours later, no change. Poured in the rest of the bottle and went to bed.

Woke up, still no change.

It would have been nice to take an hour to deal with it this morning, but on my last full work day in the office (have I talked about that here? I'm "taking" the last severance date they gave me - which was today - since I got an offer for a full time position elsewhere, but I'm still going to be doing contracting work for my, well, now-former place since I was the only one left who did my job). Usually, when you're leaving a job of your own free will, a last day should be easy-peasy. Not so for me. Other people/stuff was running late and I knew I had to get in early if I planned to still pack up my desk and get all my stuff done and get outta there by four.

Figured I'd deal with it when I got home. It was a lot of "hurry up and wait" for the first half of my day until people delivered on what they needed to give me and I could get on with what I have to do. And then some MAJOR changes were told to me at about 3:55. Yeah. I'll jump right on that on Monday when I'm on the clock again.

Good-byes were a little sad, but I'll still be around in some form, so not totally sad, not nearly as bad when all the other laid off folks went in August.

On the ride home, decided to stop at Ace Hardware for more Drano, an auger that would work in the sink, and see if they had the zig-zag Christmas tree decoration I bought there several years back that I loved, that died on me last year. No Christmas tree thingy, but I did find an auger that would work for the sink, and some more Drano.

Came home, and found that the non-disposal side of the sink had drained. Cool! But why not the other side? Hmm. Didn't think too much, ran upstairs for a quick costume change in to work clothes, and back to tackle the drains.

Started running some hot water thru the now open drain. Hey... how come my socks are getting wet?

Opened the cabinets below the sink, water everywhere. GREAT.

Big, gaping hole in the U part of the pipe. Sigh.

Started to clean that up, then opened the dishwasher, which was filled with water. GREAT.

Suddenly recalled when our dishwasher broke and it got in to the heating ducts and started leaking in the basement. Ran down to the basement, and sure enough, water. GREAT.

My entire house now smells like cole slaw. WONDERFUL.

Worked on cleaning up what I could, which involved getting two utility buckets worth of water out of various places, cleaned up under the sink. Was about to pour myself a glass of wine when the hubby arrived home, so I left the bottle unopened and we examined the damage and discussed the action plan.

Hope to get up early tomorrow and hit the grocery stores for actual food, since they're talking about an icey storm hitting in the afternoon. Really, all I need is fresh veggies. And maybe soda. Shouldn't be too bad. I'm hopeful that by tomorrow night I'll have a kitchen with actual FLOWING water again and I can cook dinner. If I don't, it'll be take-out on paper plates with plastic utensils.

Quote Rosanne Rosannadanna.... if it ain't one thing, it's another...

Been fighting some kind of wicked sickness the past couple days. I think it's how I get the flu... none of the um... "body needs to expel stuff" symptoms, but I've been just absolutely beaten and tired and achy. Not fun.

Dinners have been lame. Sandwiches on Monday, take out yesterday and eggs & bacon & toast today (I am starting to feel slightly human again).

My reward for cooking tonight? What I first thought was a messed up garbage disposal.... turns out to be blocked up sinks. FUN.

I tried some home remedy shit for them, but have not had any luck yet. Baking powder & vinegar did get some draining to happen, but sadly I'm already low on baking powder and out of vinegar (and not willing to dump more expensive vinegars down the drain, literally). I just had to resort to apple cider vinegar so my kitchen smells like colesalw now.

Thankfully, cooking is not on the menu tomorrow. Old co-worker from is going to be in town, and a bunch of people are gathering for some fun times. I'm looking forward to that. I'm not looking forward to coming home and having to deal with the sinks.

And for the first time in awhile, the hubby came home all happy... he hit his comic book store, and in addition to his comic backlog, he picked up a new statue of The Beast that he was really looking forward to. He ooooh'd and ahhhh'd as he took it out of the box and set it down to look at it.... and the while trying to put a shelf in the bookcase he's ignored for a year and a half, whacked it with something and knocked off The Beast's hand. I expected him to be more grumpy about it, but he just ran to Menards to get ceramic glue, repaired it, and went on with the evening. And... after sitting in a box right by the bookshelf for a year and a half.... he finally put up his Dr. Doom statue. I'm at least glad I don't have to look at the box anymore.

Take that, Bill Gates!!!

It's always a happy moment when you manage to beat Windows in to submission.

For at least a year and a half, I've been trying to really get my current work's VPN working on my laptop. With little success. And it wasn't that big of a deal, since with working 10 hour days, I was pretty happy to come home and actually not be able to work due to technical difficulties.

But... since I'll still be doing some work crap for the soon-to-be-former-company, I needed to get it all straightened out.

And of course. It. Was. A. Nightmare. I hate Windows sometimes.

Started trying, in earnest, to get it all working last Wednesday. Gave up for the holiday weekend, and spent all last night trying everything I could think of and a couple of web suggestions.

Tonight, more web suggestions and other crap, and after finally re-setting a zillion and a half things, it is working. It is happy.

And god, I hate Windows. And god, I am SO happy I was not trying to do this on Windows Vista. I have at least a minor respect for XP.

It's gonna be a loooong week....

It was just one of those work morning when you arrive and BLAM! everything is an emergency. Not to mention that something I have feared messing up for the entire two years I have been there, I messed up for the first time this week. D'oh. That pissed me off big time. In the big picture, it's not a huge deal and all of the usual checks and balances to catch this error also failed, so it's not entirely me, but it is mostly me. Sigh.

Still have my cold, so I did not attempt any big cooking tonight. I fell alseep on the couch and when I woke, hubby had attacked the turkey I cooked yesterday (You weren't saving this for anything, were you sweetie? Not anymore!) and was making himself some sandwiches. I slapped some ham and cheese on bread for me and heated up tomato soup and it was dinnertime. Gourmet, huh??

I hope to be more motivated tomorrow, I have oysters I need to deal with. They had them at the grocery for the Thanksgiving holiday, and I just had to get some even though I had no plans to use them for Turkey Day. Might do some oyster & shrimp po' boys. Tomorrow for lunch, I'm meeting my old co-worker at the the Thai restaurant owned by another old co-worker, since the restaurant owner took a really good job offer in Texas, so his place is not going to be open for too much longer.

I should be less of a slacker and get on top of the Christmas decorating this week. But, I figure i gotta clean and vacuum first, which means this weekend at the earliest. I'm one of those people who doesn't want the tree up too long, but we've got stuff coming up every other weekend until Christmas, and well, I don't wanna be that much of a slacker. And my tree is pretty and I do love looking at all my ornaments (note to self... must talk about my ornaments in a future rambling edition).

Stuffing report

Not a success at recreating my dad's stuffing, but not too far off in any case. And I knew where I might be going wrong while I was making it, but forged ahead.

Too many giblets. I just went a little too nuts with the giblets in the stuffing. I remember my dad always trying to sneak in more and more each time he made them and my mom fighting it... well, I guess my mom was good at keeping him in check. I had no problem with the giblets being used for the stock - that wasn't too overpowering - but chopped in to the stuff was a bit much. Especially since I used several of them.

Also, I used a couple loaves of Italian bread, and it was a little to much "white" and not enough "crust" for my tastes. But, all told, it's stuff that is easily fixable next time around. I might have another go around Christmas, and bring it to our Christmas brunch to make my mom & bro try to see if I've got it down right.

In any case... I'm happy. It's not a horrible, total mystery on how my dad did his stuff. I guess i did spend enough time poking around the kitchen and asking questions when I had the chance.

No pictures of the process.... apparently I'm the last stop on the cold that was being passed around the hubby's family the past two weeks. Woke up feeling like I was hit by a truck, immediately counter-attacked with large amounts of OJ and chicken soup for lunch. Feeling a bit better, but still pretty out of it.

I'll most likely be spending the rest of the evening browsing appetizer recipes. We've got the brother in law's annual Christmas party on the 8th and I'd like to bring something (since I usually do). Thinking the mushroom/phyllo triangles out of the current issue of Cooking Light, but was thinking maybe something else too. Hmmm.

Happy Shopping Day!

Yep, I am an idiot. I went out and did some shopping.

I hoped to catch some early bird specials, mainly Michaels, to get more garland for my tree. The "early bird" specials ended at 10am. I woke up at exactly 9:59am. Whoops.

Headed out anyway. Drove over to Menards... saw the parking lot... and kept on driving. It was a madhouse.

Went over to Michaels and spent about twenty minutes yanking the garland I wanted off the back of the hook things. Of course, the ones in the colors I wanted were way in back behind 20 other hanging garlands, and I wanted four and they only had three. No matter, made my way to the register and with all the coupons it ended up being about 1/3 off rather than 1/2 off. Still worth the price of sleeping in. And there was no waiting at the registers.

Walked around Staples, nothing interesting. I'm in the market for some kind of NAS (that's "network attached storage" to you non-techies) and while everyone seemed to have USB external drives on sale, no ones that you can attach to the network.

Drove past Menards again, and it was still a madhouse. I'm not dealing with a madhouse just for a couple bucks off something. Sorry, retailers of America.

Tried to go to Dunkin Donuts to get some coffee, but they were apparently "out" of coffee coolattes. And this DD can't properly cream and sugar coffee, so I just headed home to get caffeine in to my system.

Putzed around a the house a little, and decided to head back out since TV viewing options sucked, and I might as well get some of it out of the way. Hit Tuesday Morning and got a couple small gifts and some backup Christmas cards, hit TJ Maxx and finally found a new Christmas tree skirt that fits my tastes, picked up Jacques Pepin's "Complete Techniques" at Half-Priced Books for myself, and walked around a few more stores with no success. I think tomorrow I'm hitting Hallmark, Crate & Barrel and some other stores to get some more odds and ends. Hopefully with more success for picking out gifts for others and not just buying myself stuff.

Then - to the online stores!!

Some people in my life are getting sweaters for Christmas. Lame, I know, but they've given no indication of what they want, and I was at the Old Navy site. Looked at Kohls, but their website was waaaaay bogged down and kept losing the contents of my shopping cart, and I got pissed and gave up. Sorry Kohls... learn how to provide enough resources for your site and maybe you'll get some of my business next year.

Then it was on to looking for a present for one of the little cousins... her mom mentioned last night that she wanted a bunk bed for her American Girl dolls. Looked at a bunch of cheap-ass shit that is probably coated with lead paint, and finally found some handmade ones that were decent. But apparently, the market for crafty type-products over mass-produced shit must be going up, because prices are steep. I'm trying to get something cheaper off Ebay, but I know that may work. In any case, I'd rather spend the money on something of quality.

Browsed a bit more, looking for stuff for the hubby. He's a hard one to buy for. I know he mentioned he wanted a couple books off Amazon, but he has yet to give me the list. And I'd like to get him a couple of "surprises"... they apparently did a Shelby GT-H matchbox-type car that I missed (he's driven them in Vegas, twice, and has flat out said he's trade me for that car. And he's serious.

I've also seen a couple things that I think he'd like, but they've been out for awhile, which makes me wonder if it's stuff he's already seen and was "meh" about. Grumble.

And I'm lazy. It was pizza for dinner. But that should be expected on a day where I spend a lot of time shopping and the hubby is sitting upstairs in his underwear until 5pm, playing video games.

Happy, Happy Turkey Day!!!

Happy, happy Turkey Day,
Hunger pains will go away,
When you hear the Pilgrims say, it's Happy Turkey Day.
Happy, happy Turkey Day,
Let's all eat the Indian way,
As Bastille and Cape Cod Bay, it's Happy Turkey Day!

As much as I love cooking for the holiday, the point at which I am done is kinda like the "it's time to open presents!" moment from when I was a kid. Weeeeee!!!

Last night, they were all over the TV talking about SNOW! that was supposed to hit us overnight. Chicago sees a lot of snow, but it seems like everyone has amnesia and forgets every year before the first snow that it's now big deal, it'll melt quickly, and there will not be a rash of weather releated deaths and disasters from it. Yeah. This is what was on the deck when I woke up this morning....


Terrifying, huh?

Woke up, had some coffee, and tackled pecan pie numero uno, my usual pie. This is the world's easiest pie crust, seriously. I usually make it a day ahead and let it chill in the fridge overnight, then let it rest for a few minutes on the counter before I start working with it. Of course, it's easier with a food processor, but it's also not hard to do with just a pastry blender, one year I even used two forks, and got it done.

My preference for a pecan pie is more pecans and less of the goo that holds it together. I know a lot of people like the goo, but I like the nuts. In fact, the first four letters of my maiden name are "Nutt" so I'm pretty used to being a nut by now (rimshot!). I never bother to toast my pecans beforehand, and when filling the pie I do my best to make sure all the nuts get in there, which sometimes leaves some goo in the bowl. Which is fine. I also mixed up the fillings for both my pies last night and just let them chill in the fridge overnight, so this morning in a sleep-haze, it's just getting the dough in to the plate and pouring everything in.

Tart Pastry

1/2 flour -- 140g
1/4 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons cold butter -- in small pieces
2 egg yolk
4 tablespoons water

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter with your fingers or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles course meal or tiny peas. Whisk the egg yolk and 2 tablespoons water together in another bowl, add to the flour mixture, and blend until the pastry is smooth and holds together in a ball. It can be mixed in a food processor; process first the flour, salt and butter quickly together, then add the egg yolk and water through the funnel and process until the dough balls up around the blade. Wrap in foil or plastic and refrigerate it for at least 20 minutes. You can roll this dough out with a rolling pin, but you would have to chill it, wrapped in plastic, for at least 20 minutes. We find it easier to pat it into a pie pan or springform with our hands. Pull pieces of dough from the ball and press them over the bottom and sides of the pan, using the heel of your hand. The dough should be thick enough to hold the filling, but be careful that it is not too thick around the bottom edge or the finished tart will seem coarse. If there's time, cover the lined pan snuggly with foil and refrigerate it before filling and baking it. Bake as directed in the filling recipe. Or prick the bottom with a fork and bake it unfilled for 12 minutes in a preheated 425 degree oven. If you use a springform pan, do not remove the sides until you are ready to serve the tart.

Pecan Pie

3 large eggs -- slightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar -- 150g
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons melted butter
1 1/2 cups pecan halves -- coarsely chopped
1 Tart Pastry Dough

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a 9 inche pie pan with the pastry dough. Combine the eggs, sugar, salt, corn syrup, vanilla and butter in a bowl and blend well. Stir in the pecans. Pour into the lined pan. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 35 minutes. Serve with whipped cream.

And the food porn shot.... woooo.....



Then it was time to tackle pie crust number two.... actual rolled pie dough. It was my first attempt ever at a rolled pie dough, since I never had a rolling pin or enough available counter space to do a rolled pie dough. It started out slow since my dough was pretty firm, but once the dough temp got more to room temp, all was right with the world. I rolled it between sheets of parchment paper, and it was a breeze.

Look! Rolled pie crust! I'm filled with a sense of accomplishment!!




And in the pie plate. Wooo! A half-assed decorative edge!! Don't I rock?



Melted the chocolate and added it to the bottom, and let the shell chill in the fridge while the oven came up to temp. An hour later (used the convection setting of my oven, which usually means I need a few more minutes cooking time) I took this outta the oven.....





Pretty. Mmmm. Pie.

Time to throw the sweet potato casserole in the oven. It's actually kinda a hybrid between the Mashed Maple Bourbon Sweet Potatoes (and I leave out the bourbon) and the Candied Sweet Potato Casserole. I do the potatoes on the stove top, using OJ instead of water, and adding the butter, sugar and maple syrup of the the Mashed Maple potatoes, then pack that in to a dish, and use the pecan topping from the Mashed Maple potatoes. And when all is said and done.....



Yum. Good stuff.

The green bean casserole..... before onions, and after baking/onions.





That's just Trader Joe's haricot verts, nuked, covered with a mushroom bechamel sauce, then the fried onions from the can. Plop the cold bechamel on the top, and pretty much follow the rest of the directions on the can for heating it thru and topping with onions.

Salmon mousse was a disappointment. It could have used a LOT more flavor (beyond just "salmon"). I was trying for a horseradish flavor to it, and it was not there. Oh well. And no picture, since I unmolded it at the in-laws.

I might just be stupid enough to hit some holiday sales tomorrow. Mernards has a neat "adjustable" ladder for super cheap, and an under-cabinet CD player. If I hit the store at 9am and they have them, great, if not, oh well. Also want to hit Michaels to get some more garland for my Christmas tree. Bought some I really liked last year, but I didn't get my huge-ass tree until the next day, and didn't realize how much garland it would need. Hopefully they have the same stuff in stock.