christmas eve was fun tonight.

a dear friend today asked for a corn souffle recipe, this is what happened

it is a very good recipe.

Corn Souffle
1 (16 ounce) can whole corn
1 (16 ounce) can creamed corn
1 (8 ½ ounce) box jiffy corn muffin mix
½ cup corn oil
2 beaten eggs
1 (8 ounce) carton sour cream
3 ounces shredded cheddar cheese (or any cheese you have in the fridge)
_______________________

Throw all this shit - except cheese - in a big bowl and mix. Then pour into baking dish or soufflé dish or dutch oven or whatever williams sonoma is calling it now that can spend a lot of time in the oven.

Bake @ 350 (what happened to the goddamned degree symbol on the computer keyboard? Fucking Lenovo communists…) for 45 minutes.

Top with cheese and bake another 10 minutes (or until you are ready to sit down. Nothing can hurt this dish, including keeping it in the oven for an extra five - or 55 - minutes.)

Fun variations:

1. As noted any kind of cheese will probably work (well, maybe not bleu). I always add something extra to the cheddar because why not live dangerously life is very short.

2. i usually toss in a fair bit of Tabasco (to the main mix) - unless my mother will be in attendance.

3. I sometimes add a third can of mixed corn (yellow and white) preferably from some politically correct (non-anglo) corn cannery. If memory serves, the recipe-given can sizes are not exact to what’s available in the Chicago region (this is from a southern cookbook where can proportions are different) so you kinda have to fudge the proportions and do math anyway. Again, life is very short and shouldn’t be wasted on math so just go ahead and add that third can. Or not. Whatever really.

Finally, Google has six image pages of canned corn, most of them from japan. Canned corn is how humanity is going to perish.

sorry no snark.

here's what i love most about the new republicans:
so, you are the republican party and you run a candidate (let's just say, oh, i don't know, palin) who - by all sound analysis on both left and right - costs the party the ticket (in fact, possibly the presidency in 2008). instead of going away however, the candidate and the candidate's (insane but unemployed and therefore available) base and the media keep this 'darling' in the public's eye.

the candidate gets money and attention. the base gets money and attention. the media gets attention (and money). win-win-win except for those who want some kind of actual government and political discourse.

two years later: HEY PRESTO! 'the economist' runs a piece saying the candidate has done a fab job re-making herself and is a savvy business-person and is now a politician to be feared on both left and right.

perhaps this pattern will ultimately hurt the right most and perhaps barry's long-game really does have an achievable end-game but i am very fearful we will be stuck with more sarahs, xtines and joes. and eventually they'll win.

and no my beloved lefties many of you on the left coast, barry is not a republican.

today's cognitive dissonance

researching the sad end of thomas cranmer due to 'economist' article referencing sad end of thomas cranmer and lack of real anti-catholic sentiment in britain in 2010. article noted both protestant and catholic atrocities in henry-edward-mary-lizzie struggles and lengths all parties went to (INNARDS!!!) to ensure supremacy.

on the video screen: spice girls 'what i really really want'

we have noticed lilCatZ

has acid wash butt.

BADGERS WIN!!!!

NO BADGER CULL IN WALES!!!

a day forward in human development.

course, that was in wales and in 'merica we still cannot cull baggers...

sometimes you walk in the door and there's a dead bird

sometimes Other Things:

grendel likes barf

this should not necessarily be a surprise as he loves his meat (and doritos, obv.), but still!

baby cat fun!

cheap cheap cheap but can't help it

this is so awesome you all MUST see:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8610362188397291938&safe=active#

thank you my fav wonkette commenter in MN who does not know i exist though i worship him from afar.

the naming of cats is a difficult matter

but now it is done and in honor of tom* and because of harry (and just cold ignoring the dicks), i think we have - at long last - found our grendel**.








* tom technically does not deserve this honor as some of us in chicago are still mad at him (for the brilliance). but nonetheless and after many years and a couple of margaritas, we have found grendel. i hope some of us still have The Shirt.

** also technically this is not a grendel-y shot, but harry knows how grendel-y grendel is.

teachable moments

it is a well established fact that baby kitteh (loki? sure, why not. let's go with loki today.) likes his MEAT. meat and only meat. meat up high on the kitchen peninsula. meat down low in the basement. meat on the plate. meat on the BBQ. kibble meat from harry's bowl, kibble meat from kerfuffle's plate.

all meat all the time.

Except!

DORITOs!!

here is the meat man himself - with delicious non meat flavored snack food product.

i sincerely hope

my new computer is not coming from one of those suicide factories in shenzhen.

HOW is this possible?

i don't even officially OWN this animal yet - hell i don't even have a name for him (moth? grendal? shambles? smaug?) and somehow, someway he has developed a pooch-y tummy that makes him look like one of the who's down in whoville.

clearly, if i had children my children would be wall-e children and feast on marshmallow fluff, potato skins and vanilla frosties with chocolate sprinkles.

with that plethora of mixed literary references pooch-y boy and i leave you all.

almost as heartbreaking as 2004 and thanks CA.

if california is so damn visionary and golden state-y and land of lotus dreams and teslas and 1/8 biggest economy anywhere etc. WHY DID WE WAKE UP TO A FUTURE WITHOUT ORLY TAITZ, CALIFORNIA!?!?!????

this is not the behavior we have come to expect from the CA electorate and i demand to see CA's long form birth certificate.

also: it is NOT 'the year of women'. this is the year of a handful of random elected candidates in random primaries in random states in JUNE that happen to have an X chromosome some of whom were already elected.

that is just stupid, stupid media.

also, if it really were the year of the women orly taitz would be in office now wouldn't she?

recking his own rede.

the other day someone very dear to me asked about this. here is what i think:

it's being a hypocrite or speaking one thing (rede) while doing another (recks not his own...), as in:

1. laertes nannering on to ophelia about hamlet's immoral intentions all the while (laertes) planning to go to paris and schtup many marais whores.

2. be a republican and nanner on about the immorality of the godless and the homosexual and the non-child creater and then be caught in the primrose way with a young boy who is toting your luggage.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-05-06/news/christian-right-leader-george-rekers-takes-vacation-with-rent-boy/

3. or that other dude with the wet suits and unmentionables in FL (obv FL).

but i could be wrong.

the great thing about kittehs?

every night is a night of dancin.

this statement would horrify roz.

dec 2004 i wrote this (SERIOUSLY) pissed and (probably) tipsy:

2004 philosophy and fuflans:
___________
i don't think the problem lies with the democrats or their message or their strategies or kerry's election campaign or political consultants or right wing morality or left wing populism or the politics of hope vs. despair.

i think in fact, a portion of our citizenry is basically a bunch of under-educated medieval peasants who fear the witch and the homosexual and the darkening of the seasons by lucifer. somehow -- unwisely in my book -- we've let them believe that they can leave the demesne without their lord's permission, speak without mockery and vote.

so the good news is we can stop beating ourselves up. the bad news is that those wattle and daub houses are REALLY unsanitary. also, it's likely the Albigensians were ahead of their time too and look how well THAT ended.

______

and it's gone so well from there.

altered reality #1

kerfuffle coming to grips

new kitteh

needs kleigs and bounceboard to be properly viewed.

new kitteh is hazy in outline and smoky in tone. tiny. also.

altered reality #2

harry, resigned.

we have seen the enemy

and it is peapod.