Miscellany

The last two nights we've had spectacular lightening shows. Last night even came with baseball sized hail in parts of the city. Tonight we're forecast for more of the same. (Lightening and rain, that is... hopefully no more hail! Although the person whose shed burned to the ground would probably prefer no more lightening too.)

I've got a weird, twitchy-congested feeling tonight. I just took some Tylenol, thinking I'm getting a headache... but I think I'll go add a decongestant as well.

Today I went grocery shopping. I only had a partial grocery shopping list (I hadn't planned on going grocery shopping when I visited my folks, but the offer of a car was there, and it was before the after-work crowd would be out), and no deadline, so I wandered the store, looking for other options of what to eat. I've been eating too much of the same stuff, and need to introduce some variety. Since I have a habit of coming up with great "recipes", cooking them for a while, and then forgetting them, I'm going to try to document my successes here... that way, when I need inspiration again, I can use my "recipe" tag.

Tonight's "recipe" is pretty simple. It combines "fresh" pasta ravioli, with a "sauce" technique taught to me by a former boyfriend. Plus some feta that's been in the fridge way too long, but apparently the brine has preserved it.

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Spinach Ravioli with Garlic and Feta
Ingredients:
one 350 g package of Olivieri Spinach and Cheese Ravioli
a generous pour of olive oil
half a *head* of garlic
a scoop of cubed feta

Cook the ravioli according to the directions on the package. Chop the garlic into tiny pieces. (If your garlic has been in the fridge too long, as mine has, remove the sprouted centres... I've heard these can be bitter.) In a small pot, pour in a small pool of olive oil, and add the garlic. Turn the garlic on low. Gradually increase the temperature on the garlic until it starts to get that lovely, nutty smell. At this point, the ravioli should be done. Drain the ravioli, then add the garlic to it. (Add a bit of ravioli to the garlic pan and swirl around to make sure you get all the garlic and oil.) Add the cubed feta. Toss and serve.

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Mmmmm! And I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!!! (Unless, of course, it succumbs to a midnight snack...)

In other news, I have *cable* tv! (Did I tell you that already? I let them hook me up when they offered me two months free, plus six months at about $30... after that, I'll either go down a level, or cancel and go back to my antenna. I can cancel whenever I want at no charge.) I can watch in *focus* now! And in *colour*! (I sometimes had trouble getting rid of enough snow to get colour on one of my channels.) I must admit, though... it seems rather freaky, getting so many channels on my TV. It's like I'm at my mom's *and* at home at the same time! ;)

Thursday night I watched two shows on the History Channel. :) Late last night I discovered, however, that I couldn't tape a different channel than what I was watching! Disaster! Friday nights have two shows on at the same time that I like to watch! However, this afternoon I got everything re-hooked up with a little help from tech support. Ahhhh! (Heh... he said that the downside was that I could only tape non-digital channels this way... given that I can tape *way* more than I could off the antenna, I'm not complaining!)

I have the windows open. Leaving the AC on for several days in a row, it gets *really* dry in here. It's cooled off enough outside that it's not too bad with the windows open. (It's rather too humid, but I'm okay with that for now.) If I close the windows, it'll get stuffy in here. It's not hot enough to justify using the AC. What time do you suspect I'll have to get up tonight to close the windows for the rain? Blech. I think I'll try closing them most of the way, and hopefully it won't get too stuffy that way.

I currently have three or four settings on my windows: stick (maximally open), pen (medium opening), wine cork (minimally open), and closed.

I have a great idea for window settings, and have half of what I need (dowels)... but I'm having trouble finding the rest (pieces of wood). Perhaps I'll have to get dad to rip some lumber for me. My idea is to take a piece of wood (about 1" x 1.?" x height), and drill holes along the length, into which I'll insert a 6" piece of dowel at the height I want the window open. That piece of dowel will then be able to support both the inside and outside window panes. (The inside ones are mostly self-supporting, but having the extra length there is easy.)

*yawn*! Time for bed. (Possibly after sneaking a ravioli or two...)