recipes 1 Comment

Spicy Catfish Nuggets

I just created something yummy. Forgive the lack of measurements — I’m my Memaw’s grandbaby, and tend not to measure when I can get away with it. 🙂

Catfish nuggets, unfrozen
2 Tbsp butter
Cayenne pepper
Lemon pepper
Ground ginger
Salt & pepper

Preheat over to 350°F. Melt butter in a medium-sized bowl. Combine spices in a second bowl or dish. Dip catfish nuggets one by one in melted butter, then in spices, then place each in a glass baking dish. Bake at 350&deg for about 30 minutes, or until flaky.

For dipping: in lieu of tartar sauce, I combined mayonnaise with lemon juice and the drippings from the nuggets after they were done. They’re flavorful enough that they really don’t need any sort of sauce, though.

I ended up putting in more cayenne than I really needed, so my nuggets were super-spicy. I also think I may have left them a tad underdone (I was really hungry and growing impatient). Apart from that, though, I think I’m onto something here.

sewing

Cosplay Update

Since Aaron’s Fullmetal Alchemist costume arrived today, custom-made in the mystical land of China, I decided I’d better start work on my skirt again.

I’m not sure how, I but I somehow miscalculated the number of pleats my skirt is going to have. I’d planned on 12 pleats in my six-paneled skirt, but… wait… *thinks real hard* No, that’s right. It’ll be twelve pleats. I’m thinking I might have sewn the pleats in a little too far, though, because the skirt is supposed to poof outward from the hips, and I have the pleats sewn in for about ten inches down from the waist. I didn’t think about the poofy factor at the time; I was thinking about the fact that the heavy material I chose isn’t going to hold a crease very well.

Well, if it comes down to it, I do have a seam ripper. I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it, though.

I have an idea of how I’m going to make my helmet, but I haven’t started it yet. The hardest part is going to be attaching the frame for the helmet to the ball cap I bought at Goodwill. First, though, I want to get the skirt finished. One project at a time.

Did I just say “One project at a time”?

*shakes head*

Tell that to my multiple webpages, soy candle backlog, neglected plants, and my upcoming podcast.

weight loss

Atkins, Take Two

I forgot to mention: Aaron and I went back on Induction last week.

We had both been gaining a little weight back (partially due to our repeated visits to the Happy Rose Buffet). I had gained back 12 pounds total from my lowest weight, but had gained it back slowly between January and May of this year, and stayed pretty steady after that. Aaron, however, finally hit a point last month where he decided he had to go back on Induction, and I gladly joined in. (I’m not good at doing Induction by myself. I’m too easily lured to the dark side.)

The first week, I lost 4.5 pounds. I was stoked. Then we went to visit Amy in Dayton, and I somehow managed to gain back two pounds over the weekend. I’m back to losing about a half a pound a day, though, so I’m going to lay off the daily weight check and go back to weighing weekly again.

I’ve been rediscovering old recipes this week, like the Mock Cream Cheese Danish, and finding new ones, like Hamburger Pie. OMG, so yummy. burger baked in the oven with a filling of cream cheese, mustard, and horseradish. It may sound weird, but it’s really, REALLY good. (Props to the Atkins All The Way podcast for that one.)

You know, Induction isn’t so bad. 🙂

writing

Give It Away Now

So, it’s prewriting time.

The NaNo rules clearly state: “Outlines and plot notes are very much encouraged, and can be started months ahead of the actual novel-writing adventure.” Therefore, my prewriting exercises are completely legal.

Now I have to decide whether to keep my plot ideas to myself, or to share them with my readership for comments and suggestions. Or whether to just share them with my Aaron and Amy (my husband and my old roomie).

I’ll share the basic premise, anyway, I suppose: A vampire living in a modern-day college town falls in love with a mortal woman, while in the midst of attempting to avenge himself upon his father.

That’s the almost-run-on one-sentence version, anyway. I’m kind of proud of how the major plotline finished writing itself while I was reading the alt.vampyres FAQ yesterday.

I don’t know. I tend to be just as secretive with my prose as with my poetry and my music, so maybe making my NaNo public would do me good. Still, though, it’s a big leap. NaNo attempts are inherently *bad*, being Very Rough Drafts. (Really — when you’re cranking out 2,000 words a night, who has time to proofread?)

I don’t know. We’ll see.

writing 2 Comments

Writing

Despite my laundry list of things to do (various websites, mainly, and fabricating my cosplay outfit), I’m still seriously considering participating in NaNoWriMo. I participated last year (although I cheated by working on my existing story), and I’m already signed up for this year.

The interesting thing about my writing is that… well, it arouses me. Yes, in that special way. Back when I was pubertizing, writing was my favorite way to get my ya-yas out, and I wrote some really cheesy (and utterly unrealistic) soft-core porn during the summer of ’88. (I wish my Mom hadn’t made me tear it out of the back of my journal after she found it, because that shit would be worth a giant laugh 15 years later.)

I can look back on that and chuckle… but as that was my longest and most intense stint of fiction writing, it did make an impression. Now, when I sit down to write, I have to fend off the urge to write erotic scenes between my characters, even if it really does makes sense for them to hook up. Once I write the Big Scene, I lose all of my momentum, and my story suddenly seems stupid and vapid.

All of my old stories were still living on my Power Mac up until this evening (which might tell you how long it’s been since I’ve written). In all, I have the beginnings of thirteen stories. Of those, sex scenes are a vital part of four and an incidental part of another three. In just the beginnings. Beginnings consisting of 1,000 to 19,000 words. (Most are between 2,000 and 7,000 words, FYI.) I feel like such a perv, admitting that I write smut a lot of the time… but admitting your problem is the first step to solving it, right?

According to the NaNoWriMo rules, you *are* allowed to do outlining and note-taking before November begins — but no actual writing. So this year, I think I’m going to flesh out a story idea I had years ago… and the few sex scenes, though integral to the story line, won’t be overly graphic. Neither will they be early in the story (I refuse to call it a book or novel).

This year’s NaNo will also not be related to my 19,000 word project that seems to be mortally stalled and in need of a major rewrite before it’s even a third of the way completed. (Incidentally, I only managed to add 2,000 words to this story during November 2004.)

I’m going to give it my best shot this time, and I’m going to try to make it PG-13. If I’m not embarrassed when November is over, maybe I’ll share my results.