I love this show for obvious reasons.
I really would like to have a more normal sleep pattern. I'm just throwin' that out there in case anyone is listening...
I do not know what the story is but Vancouver has some of the most over priced thrift shops I have ever seen. I can say this with confidence because in the past I was something of a garage sale and thrift shop queen. I have been to thrift shops all over the country (USA) and Vancouver is indeed the most expensive and least interesting of the lot. The greater Vancouver area has about 20 Salvation Army thrift stores. I live almost smack in the middle of two.
A few weeks ago I was walking around Kerrisdale. There's a Salvation Army thrift shop on 41st. and something red caught my eye as I approached. It turned out to be a red pottery crock - from where I stood it looked like it could have been the red pottery I collect. I had about 4 dollars in cash on me and I knew without asking that there was no way in the world that thing was marked below 20 dollars. This was the store that has a ticket price of 25 dollars on a used Crockpot and dollar store highball glasses marked at 1.65 each. All the Vancouver Salvation Army thrift stores are a little too proud of what they have on the shelves. I knew I would be returning to the area in about a week. If that crock was there the next time - I would be prepared to buy it.
Well, it wasn't there. I don't have that kind of luck. And I am not living in the space age so going to a money machine DID NOT even occur to me - until just now. Just this very minute it occurred to me that I could have gone to an ATM. I never use the ATM. I forget they even exist. (Shrugs) Modern Day Cave Man.
But I did find a new thrift store on 41st called Treasure Village and for 3 dollars I bought a hand made artisan glazed tea pot complete with initials scratched into the bottom of the pot. It looks like the bowl and lid were made on a wheel.
SCORE because not only do I collect red Universal pottery, but I also collect random handmade cups and tea pots.
Show us a bird native to your habitat.
gulls.
What is the biggest lie you've told?
Submitted by lazywong.
All my 'nam stories are pretty much bullcrackers.
When my dad came home from an 18 month TDY in Taiwan he brought back with him lots of Asian treasures. Besides the hand carved teak statuettes of hands flipping the bird and peace sign - he carted back a box of bootleg albums. Everything from the Broadway soundtrack of HAIR to Jimi Hendrix to Hank Snow.
I loved looking at these records. The covers were assembled with no cardboard at all. The jackets were loose fitting clear plastic sheets with a printed copy of the cover art stuck in between the plastic layers and sealed. It was pretty clear that the manufacturer just ran an original album cover through whatever was used as a copy machine back in the late 60's - and they didn't care to use a lot of ink. The cover art looked as if it had been laying out in the sun to dry - faded and off colored. The wording was mostly in English with a few Oriental (wrong usage?) characters here and there. Sometimes the backside of the album would contain a few lyrics. The crack up about this is that the translations were horrible, possibly someone listening to and writing what they thought they heard. Hilarious. This didn't stop at lyrics - sometimes the song titles were just as garbled. Things like, "Cristo's Blue Persuasion" and "House on a Rising Sun" were common. The really weird part was that many of the albums themselves were red or orange transparent vinyl.
Among The Shadows of Knight, Elvis, Cream and Ella Fitzgerald was one Wanda Jackson record.
This is the song that made me a fan at 8 years old:
Vegans and animal lovers may not want to read any further...
So yesterday the husband and I went to the local Choices market. Yeah, Choices is one of those everything-is-marked-higher-than-it-should-be stores for people who want to eat organic/vegan/gluten free.
We don't usually do the bulk of our shopping at such places - honestly the produce always looks horrible to me at these high end joints - but we were in the neighbourhood.
I was looking at the meat selection, comparing prices for organic to the other stuff when I saw them...Organic chicken livers. I am not a huge fan of organ meat just because I know what some of those organs do, but these livers were ORGANIC. Certainly that means they have less chemicals and yuk flooding through those livers???
My liver meals are quite limited. At Christmas I might eat some liver depending on what I yank out of the fowl I am preparing. I like to use those giblets in my stuffing...
I enjoy a good liverwurst sandwich so I probably buy a small tube of that about once or twice a year.
There is a place in Jacksonville, Arkansas called Chicken Country that serves up some of the best fried chicken livers in the area. I am only in Jacksonville once a year these days so I usually go by and pick up a 1/2 pint.
Until I moved out of the south I had never had chicken livers any other way than breaded and fried. I don't really remember my mother cooking chicken livers, but it's something my dad liked so I imagine she did.
There is a place in Vancouver called La Bodega. Their menu consists of spanish styled tapas. One of their tapas is a chicken liver in chipotle cream sauce. I tried it, even though the livers were not deep fried. Doesn't look all that pretty but it is delicious. Keeping with my limitation of organ meat - I have eaten this dish once a year since we moved here. Although I think about it often!
I have cooked bovine liver 2 times in my life - the first time it
wasn't very good. The second time it still wasn't very good so I
figured I could live without it.
I have never cooked chicken livers...until last night.
Yeah, I bought the organic chicken livers. Shoot me! And to further gross you out - I also bought a small package of organic chicken hearts. I love eatin' hearts...
So, I tried to mimic the La Bodega Chicken liver sauce. Here is how I made them:
chicken livers cleaned up for cooking
chicken hearts cleaned up for cooking
mushrooms sliced thin
chopped onions
garlic
nutmeg/clove/pepper seasoning mixture called Royal Pepper
smoked paprika
salt
Port
flour
diced red peppers or red pepper topping
Soak your liver/hearts in a milk bath for about an hour then drain.
Saute your mushrooms and onions in the fat of your choice. If you really want to go all the way - use bacon or duck grease.
When the vegetables are done, scoot them to one side of the skillet, add more grease if you need too, then slowly put your livers/hearts into the skillet. Watch out, they spatter. Get some brown on them then remove from skillet. Put in your flour and wisk it around - you are making gravy. Add some water or stock. Bring it to a boil then add the port. Throw in your spices. Give it a good stir. Add liquid until it is thin enough to have some cook down time then put your innards back in the skillet and lower the heat to a slow simmer.
I used a red pepper topping so I put that in last.
The husband wanted nothing to do with the hearts (yay, more for me) but had a few pieces of the liver and thought it was pretty damned good. And I agree - it was pretty damned good. Too good.
As usual I forgot a key ingredient - the milk. It was still really good.
I imagine you could make this with tofu...HA!
Are you going to be amongst the first people to buy the iPhone 3G? If so, when do you plan on picking yours up and which one will you be purchasing?
I don't want to offend anyone BUT if you stand in line to get an iPhone - you are a tool. Plain and simple. You might be a really good friend, but standing in line for longer than 20 minutes for a fucking phone makes you a TOOL!
What criteria do you feel makes a good QotD?
Submitted by stueykins.
I think a good community asked QotD should obviously not be asked just so the asker can answer the question.
