A top thing I missed

19. Learning that my friend Fluff once rode a Greyhound across the country while wearing a thong as a bra. A remarkable (though barely comprehensible) achievement!

Top Eighteen Things

1. Quote: Virtue isn't virtue until it slams up against vice. --Detective Frank Pembleton, Homicide, Life on the Streets

2. Quote: My goal is to get a goal. --Jes

3. Quote: Are you there, bitch? It's me, Margaret. --Anonymous

4. Best dental descriptor:

“I look in the mirror and go ‘Oh no! More spots, more acne!' And I’m not comfortable being photographed when I’m being myself. I don't like people who tell me I look crap. I think kindness is a good quality, and that doesn't always mean honesty."

“I believe the Aborigines say that every photo takes away a bit of your soul. It’s very odd but I think there’s some truth in that.”

KK (Keira Knightly) when you look in the mirror, the acne shouldn't bother you. The damn pony teefs should. Get those suckers filed down or something. They make me uncomfortable!
-- Michael K. DListed

5. Quote: You have the right to remain silent; although personally, I don't feel remaining silent's all it's cracked up to be... Smoke? --Detective Beau Felton

6. Best Band Names in a YA book: Tennis with Guitars, Plasma Nukes, Baby Batter, Beat Noir-ay, WAGBOG (what a great bunch of guys). Also, best Tennis Technique and Tennis Teacher description: "We hit the ball as hard as we can so it flies over the fence and lands in the bushes outside the tennis area. Then we spend the rest of the period 'looking for the ball.' One day we were goofing off, holding the tennis rackets like guitars and practicing duckwalks and windmills and scissor jumps. I suck at this also, of course, but Sam Hellerman is surprisingly good. The PE teacher in charge of tennis-related activities is named Ms. Rimbaud, which is pronounced Miz Rambo. She looks a little like a frog. If were were actually a frog, she would be highly prized as a source of arrow poison by the natives of South America because of her rich red color." -- King Dork by Frank Portman

7. Quote: Every second thing Steph says.

8. Felt Army by Jen Waters of Shush Creations, especially "Susan", who "enjoys gardening, making sarcastic comments and is most comfortable in muumuus."



9. Best sending of cool pictures and book recommendations and links and so forth due to infallible taste: Felicia Quon

10. Best chicken pot pie recipe: Scott Banta.

Chicken pot pie ( pot pie au poulet)
serves four
2 1/4 cups chick.stock
1/4 cup white wine
2 lbs chicken breast or thigh (boneless skinless)
2 cups green beans, 1" pieces
2 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
5 slices bacon, crumbled
2 tbsp oil
2 small onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup flour
1 tbsp tarragon, chopped
1/2 tsp sherry vinegar ?
package of puffed pastry
1 egg yolk w/ 1 tbsp water for egg wash

- Bring wine (or substitute) and stock to boil, add chicken and simmer til done. Set aside.

- Add beans, carrots, and celery to stock, simmer until tender. Set aside and reserve stock.

- Fry bacon, set aside and drain off all but a tbsp. of fat from pan.

- Add onion and garlic to pan, saute until golden.

- Stir in flour and tarragon and cook for one minute until crumbly.

- Strain stock into pan and whisk smooth.

- Simmer until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add vinegar and remove from heat.

- Salt and pepper to taste.

- Cut chicken into 1/2' pieces and add to stock along with crumbled bacon and veg's. Mix together and refrigerate til completely cool.

- Divide this among four french onion soup bowls.

- Roll out pastry and cut into rounds slighly larger than tops of bowls. Fold edges of pastry down onto rim of bowl and slash so steam can escape.

- Brush with egg wash, put in 400* oven ( on a cookie sheet to catch drips ) until tops are golden, about 25 min.

11. Best new social club: The Lucky Bitches. With thanks to their official sponsors: Lids.







12. Best purveyor of murky, indeterminate accents and taker and star of thousands upon thousands of fishing pictures (these are only a tiny fraction of the available options): James Waring










13. Best Awards Ceremony Companion: Megan McDiarmid at the Edgars



14. Best unpaid editor of my work: Dr. Bill Juby

15. Best (and only) thing I knit this year


16. Best new kid: Nathaniel



17. Best Post-op Recovery in a White and Brown Dog: Frank Juby-Waring



18. Quote: Either it's murder or this library has a very strict return policy. --Detective Steve Crosetti

Merry Christmas to one and all. You should all be on this list, and so should about a million other things, but I have run out of blogging steam.

xox

Susan

Thanks, Frank

I love getting up at 5:00 a.m., 5:30 and 5:50 for a dog who feigns stomach upset but secretly just wants to chase deer.

Oh well, at least I'm up and hard at work and looking as fresh as someone who was awoken multiple times on fraudulent premises. I'm going to let it go this time because Frank agreed to star in the Christmas card again. If we don't get one to you, here's what it looks like. If you look very carefully, you may see a dog in this image. He's very well hidden. Due to his camo. Really, only the whites of his eyes give away his position.



What is that I hear behind me? I believe that's the peaceful sound of Frank snoring. He did have a very tiring morning...

Now, with no sort of graceful transition into a new subject, do you know who is cool? Lauren Mechling is. Do you know what's cool? The trailer for her long-awaited new book!

On the less cool front, Susin Nielson (who was the show runner for Alice, I Think, as well a writer on the first DeGrassi Jr. High and a creator of the wonderful Robson Arms)has just been exposed to the downside of writing for younger readers. Her book Word Nerd is sweet, funny and poignant and emotionally astute. I'm fairly sure it's not learning kids how to swear, though. Yeesh. Bravo to the librarian and Meredith Tutching of the OLA for not caving in to pressure to sanitize the books chosen for the Forest of Reading awards. If books are going to remain relevant to younger readers, they have to reflect the real world, at least a little bit. I think younger readers can handle a few milder than mild swears (and is "boner" a swear? really?) in book about what it means to be an overprotected kid. Susin's new book, Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom is a terrific charmer and will be out soon. Look for it.

Now I must do a lot of work in a short time so I can return to trying out recipes in the holiday edition of Bon Appetit, including items like this little gem, which was easy and delicious, though because of platter size constrictions, I had to make several little yule stumps. I'm going to give them out to the various developers wreaking havoc around this neighborhood. I also plan to attempt the meringue mushrooms too. I can only guess at what they'll look like nestled amongst the stumps... Probably not like this:

What came before

Sometimes I wonder...






What people are thinking...





When they buy homes...





In new subdivisions.



After all,






There are hundreds just like them already for sale in this town.



Perhaps every one should come with a picture of what was there before mounted on the wall.