it's not completely the way i'd like it yet, but henceforth from now, any and all weblogging activities shall be going on at http://kerfuffle.org/headphones/.

please change your links accordingly. grazie!

for anyone else wondering what's been up with LiveJournal since sometime late last night, here's the scoop.

last night, i finished off making this week's giant pot o' soup. i'd started it the night before, quite optimistic that i'd get it done in one night (and especially since i'd gotten home early!), but alas, it was not to be. this one takes awhile, but most of it's time you can pretty much ignore it and do something else for, so it's really not so bad. it's a very simple recipe, and it's also quite healthy and very cheap---what could be better?

TIME REQUIRED: Either 1.5 hours or overnight for soaking the peas; your choice. The soup itself will take probably a good 2-3 hours to get to the nice creamy consistency you want, but again---you can ignore it while it simmers away peacefully; it only needs stirring once in awhile. Also, this recipe isn't kidding when it claims to be a giant pot of soup---it'll last the two of us a week, or thereabouts. Divide or multiply to obtain the amount you'd like.

INGREDIENTS

* 2 1 lb. bags of yellow split peas
* 1 large onion (sweet works well here)
* 3 or so stalks of celery
* as many carrots as you feel necessary
* 58 oz. (or thereabouts) of broth of your choice; for the one i made last night, i used beef broth. of the Swanson's 99% fat free/low sodium kind.)
* coarse kosher salt to taste
* a few bay leaves
* sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION

If you've never worked with dried peas (or beans) before, don't worry---it's really not very difficult.

DEALING WITH THE PEAS
The first thing you want to do is sort through the peas, removing any small stones or anything else that doesn't look like it belongs.

Next, you've got two options for soaking the peas. Option one: Place them in a big pot, add a whole bunch of water (I'd say it's not possible to use too much, really; just make sure there's quite a bit more than is necessary to cover the peas), and bring to a boil. Let it boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and let sit undisturbed for an hour. Drain; sort again (if you'd like), rinse, place once more in pot for the actual soup-making.

Option two: Throw the sorted peas into a big pot of water and let soak overnight (or at least 3-4 hours). Drain; sort again (if you'd like), rince, and place once more in pot for the actual soup-making.

Chop the carrots, celery, and onion into smallish chunks and add to pot of peas. Add broth, kosher salt, and bay leaves; turn stove on to moderately high heat; lid pot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once it reaches a boil, turn heat down just enough so that danger of boiling over is averted; allow to simmer (still lidded), stirring occasionally, until the peas have softened and begun to disintegrate into proper pea-soupiness. If soup is not thick enough, sift in some corn starch and stir vigorously. This will probably take 2 to 3 hours.

Serve hot; enjoy! This goes well with really quick and easy buttermilk biscuits, which i'll give the recipe for below.

Seriously, this is yet another time where I find it difficult to believe prepackaged mixes for these things exist---this is hands down one of the easiest, quickest things I've made outside of standard chocolate chip cookies. The odds are that they'll turn out brilliantly the very first time you make them, and you'll thusly have the recipe permanently embedded in your brain after having experienced such a rush (ahem). And then you'll want to share with all your friends, etc, etc.

TIME REQUIRED: Approximately 25 minutes. You could very easily throw these together at a moment's notice, provided you've got the ingredients in your house.

INGREDIENTS

* 2 c. all-purpose or cake flour (cake flour will make them lighter and fluffier, but all-purpose works well, too)

* 1 tsp. baking soda

* 3 tsp. baking powder

* 4 tbsp. butter (you can use more or less as you like, but this is a pretty optimal amount)

* just under 1 c. buttermilk (you can easily find powdered buttermilk in the baking goods aisle of your local supermarket; this stuff is brilliant because you can keep it for nigh on forever in your fridge and mix up exactly the amount of buttermilk you need, whenever you need it!)

PREPARATION

Preheat your oven to 450ºF. Next, mix together all dry ingredients thoroughly. Cut butter into small pieces and add to dry ingredients; use your hands to work flour and butter in together until butter is thoroughly incorporated into flour mixture (this is similar to making a pie crust, actually).

Add buttermilk to mixture, stirring just until everything is mixed together pretty thoroughly. Form into a rough ball; the dough should be slightly sticky, but if it's too much so, add a tiny bit more flour. If it's too dry (which it won't be), add a tiny bit of water.

Plop that dough ball down on your chosen lightly-floured work surface (countertop, pastry board, etc.) and mush it down into a flat, semi-rectangular shape; do not handle more than is absolutely necessary so that biscuits will be light and fluffy. Stop when the dough reaches a thickness of approximately 3/4-1".

Use a biscuit cutter or handy drinking glass (or cookie cutter, if you'd like star-shapes, etc.) and cut out biscuits. Once you've gotten as many biscuits out of the dough as you can in its present shape, mush the remaining dough back together and continue cutting biscuits until there's no more dough left. Place biscuits on ungreased cookie sheet(s); there should be at least 10 of them, unless you've chosen to make them in a particularly gigantic shape.

via the Null Device, here's a fun little game to help you waste a few more minutes of your Thursday away: Despot or Sexpot?

(i'd suggest the tagline as "the taches aren't telling," but that's just me. XD)

in other news, why can't we all just settle our differences with pillow fort wars?

i think i'm going to cry. XD

it is very much as they say: timing is everything.

i'm finally beginning to appreciate Sleater-Kinney's One Beat.

i didn't dislike it before. but i really wasn't sure how i felt about it. and there are still a couple of songs i really don't care for in the slightest ("Step Aside" being chief amongst them). but mostly, i do really enjoy it. i suppose this shouldn't really be a surprise, though---this is slightly similar to what happened with All Hands On The Bad One---but in a different way. i think the best way to explain it is that i needed to be in the proper state of agitation to really appreciate this album properly, and i guess i've finally reached it.

there were some songs that stuck with me from the start, though; "Far Away," "The Remainder," "Oh!," "Combat Rock," "Light-Rail Coyote," and "Lions & Tigers" are chief amongst these. but i really didn't end up listening to it much until now.

i was really glad they wrote a song like "Combat Rock," though. and still remain glad. we need more.

here are lyrics (top of the right column); here is the song.

also, creativity is mutancy. the Times told me so.

made a quiche last night. have made soufflé(s...?) before, but never quiche. turned out really pretty and quite tasty, although the time it spent in the oven was more like an hour than 30-40 minutes. i know things vary based on your oven, but my oven is still pretty on-the-mark, as it's still pretty new. but. it had bacon, sauteed onions, and cheese (one of those mixed bags of cheddar, asadero, and i forget what else). will add mushrooms next time, which will make it even better. did a cornmeal & garlic crust for it, and it turned out quite tasty. i <3 what you can do with pie crusts. XD

have also been painting! while it's historically been Spaz' Big Project to paint things around the house when the mood strikes him, i'm doing some as well this time. he's really good at it though; i haven't quite reached that level of mastery yet. hopefully i'll get there. the house is going to look really great, though; i'll take pictures once it's done. can't guarantee how great the quality of the pictures will be, but i'll try to make sure they're at least lit decently. XD

other goings on have been afoot as well. have been organising and putting things away like mad, as well as compilating like mad...amongst other things. several Big Bad projects are underway even as we speak; most of these are things which i cannot speak about here, under penalty of death by severe sporkage. so i shan't. XD

got a (much-needed) haircut yesterday; as a result, my hair now looks approximately 10,000.00935% better than it had been lately. have been asked if it was recoloured as well, which it wasn't---hasn't been for a few weeks or so (i've lost track already of when last i did it). it's kind of nice now, having dye that doesn't come out so easily---but i really do miss the colours from before. the purple was nicest of all. too bad there isn't permanent dye like that; i'd snap it up in an instant.

am using a leave-in conditioner now too, on advice of the lady who cut my hair yesterday. and truthfully, i had known i probably needed one; so far, it's helping nicely. this is the stuff i got, although it's in a slightly different bottle and has the words "hair healer" before "intensive leave-in conditioner." it's nice; most leave-ins i've ever used thoroughly gunked up my hair, but this doesn't. it just makes it soft and silky and nice. it smells like some sort of cologne, but you don't end up using enough of it for it to be obnoxious and/or overwhelming. also, the bottle isn't kidding when it says you only need to use it sparingly, which is also really nice.

...in other news, whilst madly sl0ring reccing some comics to Beeru-kaboo, i unwittingly discovered that Elizabeth Watasin has a blog, too.

i knew about A-Girl Studio. but it hadn't had a blog up as its main page last time i visited.

i am also shamefully behind in Charm School. must remedy this situation at some point. most likely when i have money for such things. ^^;;;

quick question: which breaks your head more conceptually, the idea of a Missy Elliott/Joy Division mashup...

...OR...

...the idea of a Missy Elliott/Shellac mashup?

just wondering. ^^