Monday blahs

It's Monday. And I think I fell asleep sometime before three last night, but not by much. Then I woke up at four-thirty with the little kitty chewing on my hair. (If she loves you, she'll gnaw on you. Strange but true.)

The moral of the story is, when going out for coffee with friends, switch to decaf after the first few cups.

troutkitty was write-off-ing this weekend, which happens twice a year and involves an assortment of people from her writer's group taking over the rec centre room thing at D's condo complex, and bringing computers and laptops and writing desks and chairs and blankies and pillows and slippers and snacks, and spending the weekend in an enforced quiet zone, writing.

I can no longer remember why, but at dinner afterwards, it was decided that mockingspike and queenzulu were formerly elephants. And jestyna had pants with loopy things on the sides that are even more tempting to tug on and annoy her than when she wears her jeans with the hole in the knee that troutkitty perists in poking at.

Also, my girl wants a pony. (Not that this is news. *g*)

Me, I want a hammock for out on the balcony. And I need to get some more large plant pots, and a couple more boxes, and the brackets to put them on the balcony railing. And some plastic mesh for the climbing vines (morning glories for sure, and I'm going to give the sweet peas another try).

(stares at outside) Be spring already, dammit!

Yummy food

We had brown rice and spinach and paneer curry tonight. And it's dead easy to make, once you get the ingredients.

Make a pot of rice. (I like brown basmati or jasmine.)

Chop up half an onion. Brown it in a little bit of oil. Add either half a package of frozen spinach, or a bunch of fresh, well-rinsed. Dice a roma tomato and add it to the pot. (The little oval ones--tomatoes, not pots.) Add a teaspoon of cumin, half a teaspoon of tumeric (both available in the spice section at Safeway), and two teaspoons of garam masala (we found it some at Superstore in the NE. Actually, if you're local and want to try this recipe, the $3 bag we got fills a large (empty) mayonnaise jar and is enough to last us, oh, the next ten years, so I will share!)

Stir. Add hot pepper flakes if you want it to be spicy. You might need to add a bit of chicken or vegetable broth if it gets all clumpy. Or water will do, too.

When the spinach starts to a) defrost, or b) wilt, add a cup or so of paneer (frozen cheese curd stuff--you can buy them frozen at a grocery store with a decent amount of East Indian food.) Or you can strain some cottage cheese until you've just got the curds.

Add a couple spoonfuls of cream, or low-fat sour cream, depending on your preference.

Put on rice. Eat. Yummy!