resolutions and oddities of the day
As apart of my New Year resolution to try four recipes a month, I made a delightful soup for dinner. However, I accidently put curry powder in my soup as opposed to garlic powder. I thought this was going to turn out badly, but Ohhhhhh no, it was simply wonderful. So my "creamy mushroom soup" became "creamy curry and vegetables soup," and well worth the oops. It's a pretty simple recipe, and with my using whole milk and adding in tuna, I think it comes to about 150 calories/cup. Definitely a good choice.
Is anyone interested in me posting recipes? I know there are a few cooks on my flist, so maybe we should all post recipes as we try new things. I got one request to share, so I shall. To be noted: THe amount of curry powder I used was an unknown quality. I'll just list the recipe amounts, and you can test to your liking.
Creamy curry and veggie soup
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
1/2 of mushrooms, chopped
1 clove garliccurry powder, used liberally
1 potato, peeled and chopped
4 cups chicken broth* (for weight watchers, reduced sodium kind is recc'd)
1 cup (lowfat) milk
Melt butter over medium-low heat, then saute onion until softened. Add in curry powder and mushrooms, stirring until they start to wilt. Add the potato and the broth*, bring to a boil and simmer partially covered, until potatoes are soft. Slowly add milk and simmer until heated through, adding curry powder to your taste.
~~Notes: The recipe calls for garlic, not curry powder. I couldn't find any garlic at the market across the street and it was too cold to venture to the real store. When home, I thought I'd found some garlic, and opened the bag and poured out curry!!! into my mix. Undaunted, I went with the flow, and made this recipe even better.
It also wants you to puree the veggies, but personally, I like veggies whole in my soup. And I used a variety of vegitables. It's a pretty flexibly recipe, play with it!
*I made my brother from bullion cubes because I am lazy and have little patience for spending a day making enough broth for a recipe for another day. That, and I don't like the chicken they have on bones here. And my pots are all too small. BOO.
This recipe makes about 6 servings. If you follow it for weight waters, it's about 104 calories/serving (a serving size being one cup), if you go my way with the whole milk? Probably closer to 150, though I didn't actually figure it out. I think I over guess, but I added a lot of stuff to mine too.
Today I suffered a migraine of wonderfully painful proportions, and wondered if I was allergic to work (of which I have a lot) or maybe school itself. Most likely, it is the kerosene heaters they use, and the gases. I wouldn't mind if the things actually kept me warm, but they don't so it makes me unhappy.
While grading student's diaries, I came across something rather disturbing. And at the same time, it was hilarious. I'll share more of the actual text privately, but publicly, I'll give you this much:
A student wrote in their diary that the English teacher for the regular English lessons (the lessons I teach are "extra" English lessons) was delicious. Yeah. "Sensei is delicious!" Now, the teacher I work with, did she have a sane "What crack are you smoking, kid?" reaction like me? No. This is Japan, after all. The bizarre and non-sensical reign supreme here. My JTE responded with "Have you tasted [sensei] already? How was it? Sweet? Bitter? Salty?" It does not help that the "delicious" teacher is male. I was somewhat horrified.
The student later called him "yakiimo," which is a kind of baked sweet potato. That personally, I hate, but Oh man. WHAT. And then another student mentioned the SAME TEACHER in passing, calling him something else that I forget.
. . . . . . I swear to GOD, I am not making this up.
Since I am at it, I should tell you the story of the Porn DVD in class that I encountered before heading home for Christmas.
So when I walked into this class, I noticed something was up with the boys. They were gathered by the windows, laughing and up to no good. Generally, students will talk amongst themselves and be silly before class starts, but you can tell, when that many are together, something is up. I looked over, and saw a black dvd case that had no jacket or anything on it. My first thought? "Oh, someone brought porn to school, hahaha." I did not expect that to be the truth, though the way they were laughing and passing it around and shoving it at each other and mocking the person it got passed to, it just seemed the most likely assumption.
The plight of the dvd came down to two students: I shall name them Aoba and Ben. (Because actual names are forbidden here, and these are more interesting then student A and student B) Ben was the last kid to have the dvd before the boys simply scattered, and he ran over to poor Aoba, shoving the case down his uniform jacket. Since my boys have those high collar uniforms, Ben's idea didn't really work. Aoba was studying and trying to ignore the stupid over the dvd, and was LIVID with Ben. He smacked him, and grabbed the dvd. Ben ran, and grabbed his face going "OWOWOW" and Aoba walked over, and was bending the dvd case, trying to break it. When it did break, the dvd inside popped out, picture side up, and what do you know. It was some chick with her thonged bum sticking up in the air. I was right, it had been porn.
Aoba picked that up and broke that in half. At that point, the teacher I work with went over, trying to stop Aoba from breaking it, saying something about "Wait, what if that's important to someone!" but it was too late. Aoba left to go back to his work, and my co-worker asked Ben if he knew where the dvd came from. He had no idea, and she hauled him out of the classroom, leaving me with a bunch of girls and the rest of the class, all going "Ohh, that poor guy!" It looked like he'd gotten taken away because of the dvd, like she thought he was responsible.
Luckily for him though, she'd just hauled him off to get him something for his face. Aoba didn't really hit Ben and leave a mark, so I thought that was useless, but hey man. Who am I to understand?
Tomorrow is a busy, busy day, and I have a lot of work to do, to try and make up for today's slack. Not that there was a lot that I could do about that, it took just about everything I had not to go and lay down in the tea room with the way my head was literally throbbing against my skull. UGH, what a headache. Which is why I hate kerosene.
Is anyone interested in me posting recipes? I know there are a few cooks on my flist, so maybe we should all post recipes as we try new things. I got one request to share, so I shall. To be noted: THe amount of curry powder I used was an unknown quality. I'll just list the recipe amounts, and you can test to your liking.
Creamy curry and veggie soup
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
1/2 of mushrooms, chopped
1 clove garliccurry powder, used liberally
1 potato, peeled and chopped
4 cups chicken broth* (for weight watchers, reduced sodium kind is recc'd)
1 cup (lowfat) milk
Melt butter over medium-low heat, then saute onion until softened. Add in curry powder and mushrooms, stirring until they start to wilt. Add the potato and the broth*, bring to a boil and simmer partially covered, until potatoes are soft. Slowly add milk and simmer until heated through, adding curry powder to your taste.
~~Notes: The recipe calls for garlic, not curry powder. I couldn't find any garlic at the market across the street and it was too cold to venture to the real store. When home, I thought I'd found some garlic, and opened the bag and poured out curry!!! into my mix. Undaunted, I went with the flow, and made this recipe even better.
It also wants you to puree the veggies, but personally, I like veggies whole in my soup. And I used a variety of vegitables. It's a pretty flexibly recipe, play with it!
*I made my brother from bullion cubes because I am lazy and have little patience for spending a day making enough broth for a recipe for another day. That, and I don't like the chicken they have on bones here. And my pots are all too small. BOO.
This recipe makes about 6 servings. If you follow it for weight waters, it's about 104 calories/serving (a serving size being one cup), if you go my way with the whole milk? Probably closer to 150, though I didn't actually figure it out. I think I over guess, but I added a lot of stuff to mine too.
Today I suffered a migraine of wonderfully painful proportions, and wondered if I was allergic to work (of which I have a lot) or maybe school itself. Most likely, it is the kerosene heaters they use, and the gases. I wouldn't mind if the things actually kept me warm, but they don't so it makes me unhappy.
While grading student's diaries, I came across something rather disturbing. And at the same time, it was hilarious. I'll share more of the actual text privately, but publicly, I'll give you this much:
A student wrote in their diary that the English teacher for the regular English lessons (the lessons I teach are "extra" English lessons) was delicious. Yeah. "Sensei is delicious!" Now, the teacher I work with, did she have a sane "What crack are you smoking, kid?" reaction like me? No. This is Japan, after all. The bizarre and non-sensical reign supreme here. My JTE responded with "Have you tasted [sensei] already? How was it? Sweet? Bitter? Salty?" It does not help that the "delicious" teacher is male. I was somewhat horrified.
The student later called him "yakiimo," which is a kind of baked sweet potato. That personally, I hate, but Oh man. WHAT. And then another student mentioned the SAME TEACHER in passing, calling him something else that I forget.
. . . . . . I swear to GOD, I am not making this up.
Since I am at it, I should tell you the story of the Porn DVD in class that I encountered before heading home for Christmas.
So when I walked into this class, I noticed something was up with the boys. They were gathered by the windows, laughing and up to no good. Generally, students will talk amongst themselves and be silly before class starts, but you can tell, when that many are together, something is up. I looked over, and saw a black dvd case that had no jacket or anything on it. My first thought? "Oh, someone brought porn to school, hahaha." I did not expect that to be the truth, though the way they were laughing and passing it around and shoving it at each other and mocking the person it got passed to, it just seemed the most likely assumption.
The plight of the dvd came down to two students: I shall name them Aoba and Ben. (Because actual names are forbidden here, and these are more interesting then student A and student B) Ben was the last kid to have the dvd before the boys simply scattered, and he ran over to poor Aoba, shoving the case down his uniform jacket. Since my boys have those high collar uniforms, Ben's idea didn't really work. Aoba was studying and trying to ignore the stupid over the dvd, and was LIVID with Ben. He smacked him, and grabbed the dvd. Ben ran, and grabbed his face going "OWOWOW" and Aoba walked over, and was bending the dvd case, trying to break it. When it did break, the dvd inside popped out, picture side up, and what do you know. It was some chick with her thonged bum sticking up in the air. I was right, it had been porn.
Aoba picked that up and broke that in half. At that point, the teacher I work with went over, trying to stop Aoba from breaking it, saying something about "Wait, what if that's important to someone!" but it was too late. Aoba left to go back to his work, and my co-worker asked Ben if he knew where the dvd came from. He had no idea, and she hauled him out of the classroom, leaving me with a bunch of girls and the rest of the class, all going "Ohh, that poor guy!" It looked like he'd gotten taken away because of the dvd, like she thought he was responsible.
Luckily for him though, she'd just hauled him off to get him something for his face. Aoba didn't really hit Ben and leave a mark, so I thought that was useless, but hey man. Who am I to understand?
Tomorrow is a busy, busy day, and I have a lot of work to do, to try and make up for today's slack. Not that there was a lot that I could do about that, it took just about everything I had not to go and lay down in the tea room with the way my head was literally throbbing against my skull. UGH, what a headache. Which is why I hate kerosene.