Thursday, September 22, 2011

Yawansumsooop?

Alright, darlings.
I have decided to post a few recipes, even though they aren't entirely mine.
They're good, cheap and easy.
.....Like yer mom. HURNK!


Zucchini and Avocado Soup                                           


Get that crap!

2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 green onions, chopped       **(save out like 1/3)
                                   **Japan people (たまねぎ: 2 stalks)
1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger        **(I used like 1,000)
1 garlic clove,  chopped
2   14 1/2 ounce can of vegetable broth + 1 cup water
       **Japan people (I used 2 of those
       bigger dry soup packets and adjusted the h2o slightly)
2 medium zucchini,  thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon of salt                           **(disregard fascist recipe, season at will!)
1/4 teaspoon of freshly-ground black pepper        **(season away, you maniac, you!)
1 medium avocado, seeded, peeled, & chopped
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of chopped red bell pepper               **(dare I say, mmmmore?)

Cook that mess!

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add 2/3 of the green onions and cook 3 minutes; stir in ginger and garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute more. Add broth, water, zucchini, salt, and pepper. Cover and cook 10 minutes, until zucchini is very soft. Cool slightly. Stir in avocado. Puree soup however you damn well can. Food processors or blenders are best.
          **(I have a hand mixer and I blended the bejeezus out of the soup while covering it with a lid
         and using my available elbow to shield my face from the scalding dish. This part was not a
         happy time for me.)
Return to pan to heat through. Stir in lemon juice. Garnish with red pepper and remaining green onions.

This recipe yields 4 servings.




Kabocha Soup                                                         


Get that crap!

1/2 Kabocha      **(this is a Japanese pumpkin... not sure
1/2 onion                 what the best alternative would be...)
1 cup milk         **(substitute a little bit with cream)
2 cubes chicken bouillon
2 1/3 cups water
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to season
                          **This recipe really needs a little more - I added;
            black pepper (to taste... I like mine real peppery)
            salt (to taste... a little less than the pepper)
            cinnamon (1/8 tsp... or so)
            vanilla (1/8 teaspoon... or so)
            chives (however much you like on top)

Cook that mess!

Slice onion thinly. Take out kabocha seeds and cut kabocha into large blocks.
            **(You can cook the seeds with butter, salt and a dash of maple syrup. omg.)
Place kabocha on a plate and microwave for 4 minutes. Take off skin and slice kabocha thinly. Saute onion slices with butter in a pan. Add kabocha slices in the pan and saute together. Add chicken bouillon and water. Simmer onion and kabocha until soften. Puree soup. Add milk. Heat the soup over low heat and season with salt, pepper, cinnamon and vanilla. After pouring a bowl, garnish with chives.










ENJOY!!!




Oh my god. My mixer belongs in porn.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

What shall we make of it?

The sounds of the oncoming typhoon are raging outside.
It is incredibly frightening.
I said goodbye early to my students today, and hummed a prayer to the earth.
Let them walk home, let them all walk home.
Earlier this year I felt an earthquake that cracked the ground on which I walked.

I find myself in a space-time in which mother nature is PISSED OFF.
She is tired of being hacked away at by her own impudent, ungrateful children.
She is tired of watching them quarrel over illusions and snatch up her plenty with persistent greed.
I have never believed in a doomsday, but it seems that somehow she is slowly, gracefully lifting up her broken limbs to collect a cyclical due.
She is a loving mother, but will not think twice about thrusting us into the grave we have dug.

Surely nobody would choose to blast her mountainy breasts with dynamite
nobody would choose to pour toxins into her bloodstream
nobody would choose to scorch holes into her paper blue skin
if there wasn't a buck in it.
This is capitalism! Who's to stop progress?
Besides, how can we be blamed for some albeit unfortunate, natural disasters?

These things are not our fault! It's a cycle. It's science.
Why don't you turn to your precious science now, you butt-fucking liberal?
Because my mother is as much science as she is mystic.
Her bereavement is shown in climate change; which melts the ice caps, and scorches the earth with fire.
Her bereavement for the stress of enormous dams and extensive mining is shown through shifting plates. earthquakes.

What we have forgotten, for hundreds of years, children, is that we are tied to our mother.
And our mother is the only thing that ties us to the great stellar orgy.
If you treat your mother like a whore, there will be nowhere for you to run, even in death.
She is a living organism that can sense and love you and has thusly exercised incredible patience.
Perhaps this is the course of human destiny, for right and for wrong.
what say you?
Shall we further test her?
Or can we maybe do things just a tiny bit differently?

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Some days are just better than others.

My face looks something like this     :)))))))))))) ~!!!!!!***

Oh, but please don't worry. My happiness is generally kept in check by a healthy dose of cynicism and the mounting realities of being an adult. Today was just one of those better off days.


To set the scene, I was driving to school expecting an equally fart-tacular day as yesterday. I wasn't hungover like yesterday but was incredibly sleepy and not thrilled about my busy work line-up. The typhoon clouds finally started breaking, though, and the drive was just a little too beautiful for me to stay crabby. The sunlight was positively dancing over the moutains as it broke through heavy clouds. A crane soared over the rice fields and took a huge stringy dump as it passed in front of my car. It was somehow more poetic than observing the same scene with a non-shitting crane. That's when I started feelin' kinda groovy.

When I got to school, I got this card from one of my 6th graders.
 **(Yes, the image is inverted. If you cross your eyes, you will be able to read the secret birthday message! I did this for your pleasure. Don't mention it.) 



So last week we were studying birthday stuff and I gave the kids these cards to decorate in their own free time. Today aforementioned boy gave his card back to me with a message inside which, when translated, reads something like this;

________________________________________________

Dear Sarah Teacher,

Happy birthday!                  (<-- Totally not my birthday, little dude. But I love that you thought you
                                                                                                              remembered. ^_^)

Thank you for giving me English instruction that I can easily understand. I'm studying English and the reason I can understand so much is thanks to you. Thank you for giving me the understandable English.

___________________________________________



I know that I'm a good teacher, but a sentiment like that from any student, let alone an elementary schooler, was really quite unexpected. It made me feel great. It made me remember that it's easy to forget that people are saying and thinking good things about us that they may only rarely express to our faces.


So then I came home, and decided to keep rollin' with the beats that were jim-jammin' away in my brain box. They were telling me to finish this painting. So I did.      **(see figure Deltron Zero)


    *******   (Deltron Zero)    ******************************************************
                                                                                                 **********************************

Not the best picture.
But I'm pretty happy with the painting.

Anyway I hope you've had a good one, too.
Bis später, alligator.