Amazing Raffle - Ganiggle Knits

An amazing raffle giveaway. She had me at every copy of her knitting patterns but she's also throwing in body butter and three bars of soap. Maybe this will be my belated X-Mas/Birthday gift to myself if I win. Find the contest here.

Make Your Own Soda and How to Stay Goth Past 50

How to Stay Goth Past 50...I love it!!! Debating whether or not to go to an Apoptygma Berzerk concert tonight. Plus it's only $15!!

Okay...very important...there is a Soda Stream contest. What is it? It's a machines that allows you to carbonate water and make your own sodas. You can also mix and match the syrups to make your own flavors of course! Plus you can just add your own flavorings. You know I like to experiment with anything. Find the contest details at Mommatudes. I can only sort of wish you good luck because I want to win!

Crazy summer

It's been a crazy summer...lots of highs and lows. Still searching for that middle ground. In the meantime please enjoy this cartoon of a topic my friends and I have recently explored.

Risotto = Yum

What I'm making for dinner tonight:
Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto

I included some optional ingredients, steps and substitutions. The basic recipe is good by itself with lots of pepper. You can add just about any other additions in place of the vegetables. Some ideas:
Fresh Fava beans (Chianti anyone?)
Steamed Kabocha, other squash or sweet potato chunks
Fresh peas
Drizzle of Truffle oil or other seasoned oil just before serving
Cooked Pancetta or Bacon
Pre-sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, artichoke, etc.
Chinese white pepper instead of black

Basic Risotto Recipe
Feeds 4 four for dinner or even more for appetizer portions
Prep time – 10 minutes
Cook time – 40 minutes

2 Tbs. Or so Olive Oil
1 small or half a larger onion (can sub the same amount of shallots) chopped fine
2 C. Arborio Rice
½ C. White Wine (or sub stock)
6 C. or so of Chicken or Vegetable stock (I used chicken this time)
Fresh cracked black pepper (yes, fresh cracked)
¼ C. Grated Parmesan
Chopped fresh Italian parsley (optional)

1-1/2 C. Asparagus tips – I cut 4 inches off a 1 lb. bunch and cut the 4 in. portion into 2 in. pieces. I save the rest of the stem for stir-fry.
8 oz. Sliced Baby Portobello mushrooms (about 1 ½ cups)

1. In a saucepan, heat up the broth until it is almost boiling and turn off heat. (If you are not using wine, heat up the extra ½ cup in this step too.) While broth is heating, heat oil in a large saucepan (rice will expand to at least 3x times is current volume). Lower heat to medium low. Add onions and sauté (do not brown) until softened.
2. Raise heat to medium. Add rice to onions and stir until rice is well coated with oil and looks more “chalky” white, about 2-3 minutes. I didn’t have time, but you can even wait until rice turns slightly golden.
3. Turn heat back to medium low. Add wine (or hot broth sub) and stir slowly with wooden spoon while cooking until fully absorbed. Continue adding hot broth at ¾ C. to 1 C. intervals (depending on how rushed you feel) while stirring until absorbed before each addition. Don’t walk away for more than a few seconds or you will haz a major sad. Your risotto will stick and burn. If it sticks a little, it can be rescued with some broth and agressive stirring. See step 5 if you are adding some vegetables. Keep doing this with the broth until the rice is cooked and creamy but still a little chewy.
4. Turn off flame. Add pepper, cheese and parsely. It should be salty enough with the broth and the cheese.
5. To add vegetables: a. Raw: When you have about 2 ½ C. of broth left add asparagus with the next interval of broth. Then add mushrooms with the rest of the broth. Keep stirring until rice is cooked. It will be soupy at first but the extra broth helps the veg cook better I think. b. Cooked: Add with last interval of broth. c. Go to step 4. Yay!

F-F-Fiber...

Another contest at Phat Fiber. The fiber is a pretty blue and yellow and comes with a pattern to boot!

Webs Giveaway!

Need I say more? Enter here:
http://knitpurlgurl.blogspot.com/2009/02/wonderful-webs-giveway.html

Thank you Knit Purl Gurl and Webs!

Happy V-Day...more yarn...and real insurance

Hooray...I've won two more yarn contests. Right now, aside from swaps, that's pretty much the only way I can get yarn unless I've saved for awhile.
I won some really pretty sparkly Zen sock yarn from Knitwith Homespun. She had an error spotting contest and I won with a random draw.
I also won some surprise stash sock yarn from Elevenses. We were asked to pick our favorite fictional character, good or bad, and I was a random pick.

Hurray...I can't wait to get these packages. It always brightens up my day at work.

For even better news, I have real health insurance! I can take as much medication as I am supposed to. I don't have to stretch it out. I can get real help and not just get by anymore. Not only that, I can put the extra money towards getting another car and paying down my loan. Sadly, my last car died on me and I had to drop the class I was taking.

I didn't have any for years and I finally was able to afford some on my own for only $153/month. It was not the greatest. $500 Rx deductible, had to pay much of lab bills, $50 co-pay...let's just say shitty...brought to you by Aetna. Fucking Kaiser declined me because I'm too overweight for them and have asthma which is from when I was a child, not related to my weight. I'm a size 16 and 5'9", not skinny, but the floor doesn't shake when I walk. Yet, they helped that dumb bitch OctoMom deliver her babies to the tune of over $1 mil.

Anyway...this is the best V-Day ever. I'm with someone I love, yarn on the way, 2lbs of See's (no, I'm not going to eat it all myself, as great as my insurance is, I don't think it covers gastric bypass), plants and a stuffed animal delivered to my office.