Loligo

… that I can make using my new mandoline. Pommes Anna was the first thing that came to mind, but there are so few ingredients in it -- I really doubt that vegan margarine can adequately take the place of butter here. (For anyone surfing through, I'm not a vegan, I just have a severe dairy allergy.)

I make tortilla espanola all the time with diced potatoes instead of sliced, so if I can't come up with anything more inspiring to try, I will fall back on that with authentic slices.

I have potatoes, sweet potatoes, a few turnips, and a whole bag of rainbow carrots on hand, and I know where the store is, so no vegetable is off limits!

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Spent a couple hours this afternoon perusing this year's Yuletide. And as the charge ran low on my laptop and I closed it, I felt an overwhelming swell of nostalgia for Yuletides past. For just a moment, it was 2006 again or 2007, and we were all the people that we were back then, and fandom was what it was -- and then the moment passed, and the gulf between then and now was dizzying.

Much love to every one of you who was a part of those days.

This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/47019…. comments on that entry. Comments on Dreamwidth preferred.

… to write my travelogue.

I never reported on my trip to Ireland this summer -- my version would have had a lot more stress and grumbling about jet-lagged children, the difficulties of navigating Irish roads, and the omnipresence of dairy in Irish cuisine. (At more than one restaurant I ended up eating plain poached chicken on green salad, though I also had some excellent fish and chips in other places and amazing vegan salads at Cornucopia in Dublin.)

So it is good that you get to enjoy Jane Smiley's version instead, in the New York Times. She covers the first three days of our trip: we went to every place pictured in the story, and nearly every place listed. I even bought my mother a sheep Christmas ornament from the same place that Jane bought one.

In other news, I hope that everyone celebrating a winter festival this week is having a lovely time!

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This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/46877…. comments on that entry. Comments on Dreamwidth preferred.

I just learned the secret to delicious roasted pumpkin seeds -- blanch them in boiling water for five minutes before roasting.

It made such a huge difference to the texture! The outer part (husk? shell?) turns out so light and crispy this way!

This changes everything.

This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/46828…. comments on that entry. Comments on Dreamwidth preferred.

THE

INEVITABLE

GLADIATOR

EPISODE

!!!

My most favorite ridiculous trope ever! Every sci-fi show has to do it sooner or later, and I savor each and every one of them.

I was stunned but pleased to see Supergirl going there so soon. It looks like the ep will center on a new character that I'm very excited about -- the only downside to that is that the "heroes forced to fight each other" variation doesn't have much impact when you don't know one of the heroes well. And if they're hoping for the new character to come across as ambiguous instead, they're fighting against too much comics & cartoon history, so that variation isn't quite on target either.

But whatevs. GLADIATOR EPISODE!!

This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/46815…. comments on that entry. Comments on Dreamwidth preferred.

I saw this nearly a week ago and I've been meaning to post about it ever since. My apologies to anyone in Champaign or Chicago who might have been prompted to see it if I had posted on time! Their tour has now headed back south toward Texas.

Anyway, the Invincible Czars are on tour with screenings of Nosferatu accompanied by live performances of the score they wrote for it. It is well worth seeing! The music is haunting and effective and breathes new (undead) life into the film. I just saw parts of the movie on TV a few days before seeing the live show, and our cinematic language has changed so much since 1922 that it's hard to really find the horror in Nosferatu when it's shown with its original orchestral score.

To me, the section in the Count's castle has always been the scariest anyway, but with the new score some of those moments are so stark and chilling now, they are absolutely timeless. There are other sections that they couldn't drag into the 21st century *quite* so effectively. The part where Dracula Orlock is tip-toeing through Wisborg with his coffin under his arm still looks silly, no matter how you score it. We all giggled.

It turned out to be great Halloween fun for almost the whole family. We had planned to leave the kids at home, but Chuckles insisted she wanted to see it (and in fact enjoyed it and bought a Nosferatu sticker afterwards). So Kal-El couldn't be left home alone. He played Monster Hunter on his DS the whole time and was thoroughly bored, but you can't win them all I guess.

This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/46772…. comments on that entry. Comments on Dreamwidth preferred.

Love it: Cawston Press rhubarb soda.

I had this when we were in Cardiff this summer and thought it was one of the most delicious thing I had ever tasted (I am a big, big rhubarb fan). I was resigned to never having it again once my vacation was over, but we came home and there it was in our Kroger!!! It certainly wasn't there before.

Hate it: Sofas where the back cushions are sewn onto the back.

HATE HATE HATE. For one thing, when you have kids and cats climbing all over your furniture, those seams are under a ton of pressure, and then they rip, and they are a bitch to fix. Also, it's much easier to take a satisfying nap on a sofa when you can take the back cushions off to give yourself more room. We are looking at buying a new couch for the new house, and 90% of the models at the local furniture store have the cushions sewn on. Our next best option is to drive an hour (or two) to MIssouri to a bigger furniture store, since I absolutely will not buy a couch without sitting on it first.

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Show, you have killed me. I may never recover from Pearl's song.

(By which I mean I want to watch it over and over and over again, without Kal-El trying to make jokes about it because he is uncomfortable with strong emotions.)

This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/46687…. comments on that entry. Comments on Dreamwidth preferred.

We drove back from Michigan on Sunday, taking a long detour through small-town Indiana to avoid Chicago traffic. In one particular town, there were a whole bunch of yard signs saying "Pence Must Go!"

"Ha ha!" we said. "Wonder who Pence is? Must suck to be him right now!" imagining him to be the county sheriff or something.

Er, apparently he is the governor of Indiana, and rumored to be Trump's VP pick. Probably not the exit scenario that Indiana's unhappy citizens had in mind -- but it could still work out for the best, when the Republicans crash and burn in November. (Not if, WHEN. knock on wood)

(No, we did not know the name of our neighboring state's governor, but in our defense, we live much closer to the borders of Missouri and Kentucky. Jay Nixon is governor of Missouri! And Kentucky… uh, you got me there. I will admit to shame for not knowing Kentucky.)

This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/46641…. comments on that entry. Comments on Dreamwidth preferred.