Recipe meme

The idea is to choose one ingredient from your tagger’s recipe, and post a new recipe with that ingredient. Nick tagged me with a chicken recipe. His recipe just happened to have pepper in it, so I’m going to be a little silly and post about the Czech goulash we make.

2 pounds of stew beef, cut up in small pieces.
Half a Vidalia onion
1 T Olive oil
1 c beef stock
1 t paprika
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t salt
2 T flour

Brown the onion and beef in the oil. Add the other ingredients, except the flour, and stew slowly. At the end, make a thin paste of the flour and some water and stir it in and cook until nicely thickened.

We usually serve this with potato or bread dumplings. Here’s the bread dumpling recipe I used last night.

1 slice of bread, torn up or pulverized in the food processor.
1 c flour
1 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 egg
1/4 milk

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the egg and milk. Shape into two logs and let rest about an hour — less works if need be. Cook in boiling water about ten minutes each side. Slice. Put several slices in each bowl or plate, and ladle goulash over the slices.

I’m a non-tagger most of the time, but feel free to play if you’d like — link here so I can see your post.

One word

1 Where is your cell phone? None

2. Your significant other? Teaching

3. Your hair? Brown

4. Your mother? Greening

5. Your father? Quiet

6. Your favorite thing? Kindness

7. Your dream last night? Unremembered

8. Your favorite drink? Water

9. Your dream/goal? Gospel

10. What room you are in? Living

11. Your hobby? Choose?!

12. Your fear? Everything

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Undepressed

14. Where were you last night? Armchair

16. Muffins? Banana-nut

17. Wish list item? Books

18. Where you grew up? Toms River

19. Last thing you did? Dishes

20. What are you wearing? Moose

21. Your TV? Off

22. Your pets? Bed

23. Friends? Some

24. Your life? Uncondemned

25. Your mood? Okay

26. Missing someone? Yes

27. Car? Corolla

28. Something you’re not wearing? Rings

29. Your favorite store? Salvation Army

30. Your favorite color? Green

33. When is the last time you laughed? Morning

34. Last time you cried? Yesterday

35. Who will resend this? Unknown

36. One place that I go to over and over? Paranoia

37. One person who IMs me regularly? Noone

38. My favorite place to eat? Indian

39. Why you participated in this survey? There

40. What are you doing tonight? Sleeping

41. Favorite animal? Cat

42. Beach or Mountains? Mountains

43. Cake or Pie? Pie

44. You? Me

That 25 things meme

1. When I was little, my music favorites included Laura Branigan and Culture Club / Boy George.

2. While scanning on the radio in the car, I’ll stop for a song by Red Hot Chile Peppers, Bare Naked Ladies, or Journey, among others.

3. I have played the following instruments at least once: piano, organ, synthesizer, harpsichord, viola, handbells, guitar, one-string dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, recorder, pennywhistle, autoharp.

4. My chorus teacher advised me not to pursue a music career.

5. I miss the New Life choir. It is awkward for me to perform music during worship, and that awkwardness continued with that choir. But it was such a small group that every voice really mattered, and we did such beautiful music most of the time (and no bad music), and the pianist / director was really good at helping us with phrasing and emphasis, all the little subtleties that make music out of a bunch of words and pitches and rhythms.

6. I don’t like saliva. Including sloppy toddler kisses. I also don’t like (detest) wet kitty noses. Dog tongues and noses are infinitely worse.

7. Consequently, I don’t share food. I mean, you can eat off my plate, but I can’t eat off yours. I won’t even eat off Amy’s plate, whether she touched the item or not.

8. On the other hand, cleaning up puke or poop doesn’t bother me quite as much as you’d guess. Perhaps because they are infrequent messes.

9. Then again, don’t ask me to clean out the kitchen sink strainers. And don’t you dare get bits of food or other nasties in my nice clean hot soapy dishwater.

10. I’ve never broken a bone.

11. When I was two, I had surgery to correct crossed eyes. Last night, I thought for the first time, how exactly did they do that?

12. When I was three or four, I had stitches on my chin because my sister dared me to jump off the cement porch steps.

13. Around the same age I choked on a penny. Cookie Monster was balancing an apple on his tongue. I didn’t have an apple, but guess what I did have?

14. In high school I had a couple of stitches in a finger because when, in chemistry class, I pushed to make sure the rubber spatula tip was securely attached to the glass rod, the glass rod broke.

15. I developed a pyogenic granuloma on my right index finger during pregnancy. That thing was as thick as my finger, and bled profusely at the slightest provocation. It disgusted me. They had to cut it off and cauterize it, finally, a few weeks after Amy was born.

16. My first knitting project was a pair of red and black slippers for my first boyfriend.

17. I didn’t knit again until some time after I got married — to a different guy.

18. I think dating / courtship is a confusing and messy process. My own experience included three official boyfriends, two covert dating relationships (we sure acted like we were dating but wouldn’t admit it even to each other), many crushes (some perhaps mutual), and one semi-fling.

19. I tried to adopt the pro-courtship / anti-dating approach made popular by certain Christian authors and speakers, because the reasoning made some sense, but in practice it didn’t work very well.

20. I was aggravated with myself when I developed a crush on Mark, because I thought I didn’t know him well enough yet, and didn’t want my feelings to cloud my judgment.

21. Through much prayer and reflection, I eventually felt like God was telling me to “Go ahead and date him — have a little fun!” (That’s not as God=Santa as it may sound.)

22. Even worse (to some of my friends), I chose to get married instead of being a missionary. I still think I made the right choice for me, before God.

23. I’m thinking this much about dating and marriage because of an email conversation with a young friend.

24. I generally like email better than the phone.

25. I don’t really feel that bad about refusing to tag anyone for this meme. If you want to do it, please do, and let me know!

Doug’s questions

Tell me how you met your husband.

We don’t remember. We were both in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at our college, and must have met through mutual friends, but we don’t remember a specific first meeting.

What were some of the qualities about him that you were attracted to?

His goofiness and gentleness come to mind. He wasn’t flashy or overly charming, and not whiny and needy either.

What are some of the hardest things for you personally in terms of being a parent of a young child?

Trying to figure out how exactly to do what I want to do for her — to help her with emotional literacy, to help her have a strong and healthy sense of self as well as good manners, to help her learn how to be alone contentedly without feeling abandoned or neglected, to teach her about God in such a way that doesn’t alienate her or manipulate her, etc.

And balancing the ways we spend our time — making sure I take care of myself in a healthy way, without either becoming her personal servant and jester or her zookeeper.

At the end of your life (lets assume for the sake of this question, you’re going to live to a ripe old age) what are some of the goals/ things you would like to say you accomplished (could be in any area of life)

To live out grace, compassion, and respect more and more.
To have made my daughter’s wedding dress.
To have had a good marriage and good friendships, including with daughter.
To have the eyes of my heart enlightened, to know how wide and how high, how deep and how long, is the love of Christ.

If you were an animal, what would you be and why?. (ie. I am like a tiger…strong, silent, bla bla bla)

Cat. Ornery, smart, sometimes lethargic and sometimes playful, deeply affectionate at times, quite solitary at other times.

What are some of your favorite scriptures and why?

Jeremiah 2 — God’s tone of passion, the absurdity of our waywardness.
Galatians — Grace! The absolute impossibility of adding anything to our salvation.

Do you have a favorite biblical character and why (You may have more than one).

Maybe Job. He spoke as he perceived — he complained and questioned, even as he trusted that God could and would vindicate himself.

Seven more things

Missy tagged me for the seven weird things meme.

1. My favorite music as a preteen included Laura Branigan and Boy George. Oh boy.

2. Brace yourselves for this one: I had a crush on Ollie North during the Iran-Contra hearings. Yeah, I can’t believe it, either. How old was I then? Oy.

3. I hate getting the dregs out of the kitchen sink drain cup. I avoid it at almost all costs. Likewise, I hate touching food that has been in Amy’s mouth or even touched by her spoon. I don’t like to share food in general, but sometimes I can.

4. And yet I am almost the opposite of germaphobic. I am not exactly driven to keep the house spotless, I don’t like using strong chemicals, I forget to wash Amy’s hands when she’s been outside, we don’t take placemats to the dining hall or use shopping cart covers, and so on. Not that we live in a pigsty or anything.

5. I have equal contempt for both sides of many things. E.g. people who think church should be all about what’s old and traditional and people who think it should be all about the latest thing; to me, both err by thinking age (in either direction) has anything to do with excellence or worth.

6. It’s pretty laughable how I claim compassion and respect as my parenting motto of sorts; maybe it makes sense precisely because I am so prone to contempt instead, so that I need to fight consciously to aim at compassion and respect.

7. I once put salt and pepper on a hotdog. Having observed my family putting salt and pepper on all sorts of other things, I wondered why not a hotdog. I don’t remember how old I was, but I remember everyone’s reacting so shocked and appalled.

I’m still in a no-tagging mood; if you want to play, go ahead, and let me know.

Five by Five again

This time Invisible Emma got me. I don’t know her. But she has a kitty for an avatar photo. She grabbed my blog from Gabriel at Salted Lithium. I recognize his name from Thordora’s blog, but I don’t really know him either. How about that?

So here we go again.

Five Things Found In My Bag

My dulcimer bag this time:

1. CDs for sale
2. Music stand that fits between the dulcimer and the dulcimer stand
3. Wedding ceremony outline with music selections, from yesterday’s gig
4. Tuning wrench
5. Tube holding two pairs of dulcimer hammers

Five Things Found In My Room:

This time I’ll use the music / craft room.

1. Hammered dulcimer
2. Sewing machine
3. Twelve-year-old Ficus tree
4. Home-made shelves and desk — just boards and boxes
5. Amy’s First Year scrapbook album

Five Things You Have Always Wanted To Do:

1. Be who I really am without cost to myself or anyone else
2. Pet any kitty in sight
3. Ride a horse across a huge meadow, often
4. Fly (without apparatus) (also often)
5. Hear God’s voice and know it for what it is (would once be enough? One reason I’m glad I wasn’t around when Jesus first came is that I don’t think I would have been one of those people for whom one encounter was apparently enough. And can you imagine being one of those people he never even noticed?)

Five Things I Am Into Right Now:

1. Cleaning my oven. Last night’s baking soda and salt paste did an amazing job. Now I am trying Sandi’s scouring paste on the remaining spots, letting it sit while I’m online.
2. Thinking about mothers and daughters and spouses and friendships and wondering how it all works and why it doesn’t work and how to make it work better and how to deal with it not working better and things like that.
3. Getting a little more green as I’m able.
4. Trying not to be obnoxious about it.
5. Not accepting obligations I’m not really obliged to accept; like tagging people for memes.

Play if you like! Let me know if you do.

5×5

Kathryn tagged me with this meme.

5 Things Found In Your Bag

Wallet
Planner
Glasses case
Blistex
Keys

5 Favorite Things In Your Room

Noise machine from my father-in-law
Kitty
Journal
Bed
Improvised curtain

5 Things You Have Always Wanted To Do

Perform on a real stage (successfully)
Be the family that invites people over all the time
Get comfortable in my own skin
Love other people well without losing myself
See Jesus

5 Things You Are Currently Into

Sewing
Knitting
Practicing music for a wedding next weekend
Playing with Amy
Blogging

5 People You Want To Tag

None right now. I don’t enjoy this part. Everyone says it’s unfair to just say play if you want to, but that’s really what I feel like doing. If I change my mind, I’ll let y’all know.

Seven things

So no sooner did I make my peace with not doing this meme when Shelley tagged me for it, than Pistol Pete tagged me, too. I suppose I should comply.

1. Sometimes I think it would be cool to have chickens, and maybe a cow. Then I laugh. Then I think about it again.

2. When I’m drawing, my facial expression matches what I’m working on.

3. When I’m concentrating, I forget to breathe. My dad does this, too.

4. I was fired once. And the homeschooling co-op (almost a school, except kids could take one or a few or all their classes there) kept me on for the other class I was teaching. I can’t believe I stayed — but only for the rest of that school year.

5. This is my fourth attempt to do this meme. One I never published. One stayed up for a day. The most recent only lasted as long as it took for me to write this version.

6. I have been Presbyterian (USA), Plymouth Brethren-inspired head-covering rockin’ priesthood of all believers fundy non-denominational, Pentecostal (not really), invisibly oppressive but still rockin’ Bible church fundy non-denominational, and Presbyterian (PCA). I only regret the second to last.

7. I wrote and performed this music, which I haven’t yet recorded on a CD. I get more inquiries for this tune than for anything else I’ve done. I wonder if I’ll ever get to making that next CD, but if I do, guess what’ll be included?

Random Christmas hoopla

Tagged by Thordora for this one.

teh rules:

Here are the rules, as decreed by someone higher up than myself.
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas
2. Please refer to it as a ‘hoopla’ and not the dreaded ‘m’-word
3. You have to specifically tag people when you’re done. None of this “if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged” stuff is allowed…then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you — but the more, the merrier to get this ‘hoopla’ circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I’d like to get as many people involved as possible.

Here we go:

1. My dad and I used to wrap most of the presents, even ones for us (boxed and labeled, so still secret). The rules were to try to disguise the gift, and to be creative with the paper, and definitely to add ribbon and such.

2. I still like to wrap presents, and I don’t like gift bags. Not very green of me.

3. I searched and searched for a nativity set I would like. I didn’t really find what I wanted — something simple, wooden, not mass-produced, not holy wood from Israel that costs a fortune — decided on Fontanini, got a whopping bunch of figures all in one year, thanks to family generosity, and don’t really like it right now. Maybe I’ll like it again later.

4. I listen to Christmas music whenever I feel like it, any time of year. Especially if it’s my own album.

5. I find a lot of Christmas music very annoying, but I like a lot of the traditional carols and hymns, done simply and beautifully.

6. Our Christmas tree skirt is a white blanket wrapped around the stand.

7. I have a love / hate relationship with presents. I rarely want to buy any for anyone, and I usually don’t even want to receive many. I am afraid of things that look like obligation.

8. I don’t decorate the house. I had a hard enough time agreeing to put up the tree. I did put out the stuffed tree I made as my first project on my sewing machine, and the bobbing reindeer thing because I figured Amy would like it. And someday I will make stockings for us.

9. We don’t have anywhere to hang stockings.

10. I used to make my own Christmas cards. I don’t even send cards anymore. I have a hard time seeing the point. If it’s to update friends on what I’ve done all year, well, they must not be very good friends if we haven’t been in touch since last Christmas.

11. I used to write back to Christmas cards. Since I rarely got replies, I don’t bother anymore.

12. I’m not really as much a grinch as I sound.

And I hereby tag Sandi, Tamara, and Beauty. I would tag ama but she doesn’t do memes. I mean, hooplas.

33×365

Oh what a fun project I discovered today!

I found it when I decided to visit citycrab, a blogger I used to read regularly.

Here’s the project home: x365.

Basically, you make a list of 365 people you’ve known in some way, and you choose some meaningful number of words or other limiting format (most folks do their age), for the challenge of saying what needs to be said in a short form. Each day, you write that many words about one of the people on the list.

I’m going to do it.