Greek Kebabs

Holy Crap. I found this recipe and thought 'hell, let's give it a go'. I may never need to pay for another kebab. Warning: I cannot follow a recipe to save my life (because the real world may not present itself with exactly 1.26mg of a bullion cube).

Kebab
- 1 1/2 lb lean ground beef (or lamb) (I used 500g beef + 500 g lamb... mix 'er up)
- 1 small onion, peeled and coarsely grated (I had dehydrated onion - 1/3c. rehydrated)
- 1/2 c soft bread crumbs (I used 3/4 cup given how much meat I had)
- 1/2 c crumbled feta (optional) (I don't know how much I used - maybe 200 g?)
- 2-4 garlic cloves, crushed (4... hardcore stinky breath baby)
- 1 large egg (2 whatever sized egg I had)
- 1/4 c. currants or chopped raisins (I firmly denounced currants and chopped raisins, in the name of kebab)
- 1 T grated fresh ginger (nope, no fresh ginger on hand so I used 1 t dried and a few good healthy shakes for good measure)
- 1 t cumin (that, plus a few more shakes)
- 1/4 t each, ground cinnamon and salt (meh, I don't know - I shook and let it be)
- olive or canola oil, for brushing (nope)

1. Preheat your grill to medium high. Soak about 10 bamboo skewers in water for at least 10 minutes to prevent them from burning. (nope - I used a george forman and my metal Korean chopsticks)
2. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, mixing gently with your hands. Shape handfuls of the meat mixture into sausage-like shapes about 3' long around the ends of the skewers. Brush them with oil and grill, turning often, until cooked. Serve with tzatziki. Makes about 8 kebabs (I cut cup some fresh cilantro and threw that in as well (a good handful), mixed it up and made meatball sized balls. I put most of them in the freezer so I can pull them out and make a nice kebab whenever the hell I want one but 3 skewers went on the grill and holy crap are they good with mayo on the naan and some tomatoes and cucumbers cut up - my mouth is watering typing this in memory of the blessed kebab that is being digested as I type)

I went the lazy route and had naan on hand so I didn't make mine, but may in the future. It looks like an easy recipe

Naan
1/2 c. warm water
2 t active dry yeast
1 t sugar
2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 c canola oil
1/4 c plain yogurt
1 lg egg
melted butter for cooking

1. In a large bowl, stir together the water, yeast and sugar and let stand for 5 mins until foamy.
2. Stir in the flour, slat, oil, yogurt and egg and stir, then kneed until you have a soft, pliable dough. It will be a little sticky. Cover with a tea towel and let it rise until doubled in size, about an hour.
3. Divide the dough into 6-8 pieces and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece into a thin circle or oval.
4. Cook naan on your preheated grill or in a hot skillet drizzled with oil - when the top has big blisters and is golden on the bottom, flip it over and cook until golden on the other side

Invisible man in the grey suit

I startled awake last night because in my dream there was a man who was speaking to me. He had on a grey suit and a fedora... but he was invisible.

I lit a candle then went back to sleep (tea light candle in a glass jar - no possibility of fires). The rest of the night I had other weird dreams... one of them had dragons in them - friendly dragons.

Can't imagine what my dreams might be like if I actually did drugs or some such thing...

Local muppet

The past couple of days have been spent in class. Not me teaching but me as a student (granted I taught a CPR class last night, but the class during the day wasn't my instruction). I learned about tribunals and administrative law. I was appointed as a member to suss out if people working in EMS have been naughty and if so, what to do.

The point of this blather was there was a guy from a different tribunal (having to do with traffic) who looked like a muppet (the one with the moustache).

Loved it (not the course, just that he looked like a muppet).

Steve Miller - Fly Like an Eagle

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future

I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eaglehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
Till I'm free
Oh, Lord, through the revolution

Feed the babies
Who don't have enough to eat
Shoe the children
With no shoes on their feet
House the people
Livin' in the street
Oh, oh, there's a solution

I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
Till I'm free
Fly through the revolution

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future

I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
Till I'm free
Fly through the revolution

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future

***
Woke up with this running through my melon.

Impending doom

I just feel sick to my stomach with a feeling like everything is about to unravel and be destroyed. Do you ever feel that way?

Not seeing clearly

My vehicle was parked outside on the street minding its own business when WHAMO!!! a jackass cracked the side mirror. Fortunately for me, the said jackass then knocked and confessed his sins.

I will be getting it replaced this week for a whopping $300-400 and he's lucky the outside plastic bit seems to be intact or it would be an additional $100. Crazy how much money these things cost.

It feels that I am not handling other things correctly, though. I was upset at my volunteer first aid gig because for almost 3 years things have been sideways and when I volunteered on Thursday the unit was dirty and there wasn't a BP cuff/sharps/whistle tip in the jump kit and the new guy thought you could take a BP with just a stethoscope.

I finally lost it and resigned. I'm tired of volunteering with people who don't know their head from their ass and if left to the girl I was volunteering with two weekends ago, she would have had the guy who was in a wonky heart rhythm (who would have spiraled and gone into cardiac arrest according to the paramedics who came back to thank us and show us his ECG - he was cardioverted and flatlined for 24 seconds) just 'rest' because she thought he was 'tired'. No shit sherlock... he was having an asymptomatic heart attack! All I can say is thank god I was there because he came back after 2.5 hours and thanked me. Who knows what the rest of his life will be, but because we sent him away he lived another day.

Granted, what just flashed through my mind is the film Laurence of Arabia. Have you watched it (if you haven't I wouldn't necessarily say go and watch it... it's a classic but I found it a bit tedious)? Well, the part that flashed to mind was when Laurence saved a man's life who then took another man's life and was then put to death because of it. The Arabs said that Laurence shouldn't have saved the guy because it was the will of Allah that he die.

I don't know who should live or die and I'm not going to make that decision. Not at my pay grade. I don't understand much of what goes on from an energetic or universal perspective... I feel a bit lost at sea and really wish I could talk to my guide again.

Where are you S and why can't I talk to you right now? I miss you.

Elliott Brood - The Valley Town

When the wind bends the trees
And them clouds are pushin’ east,
Come on inside.
Dry your clothes,
Warm your bones,
Fill your glass and set yourself at ease.

When the dust in your room
Covers all that you do,
Get yourself outside.
Morning train
Is pulling away,
Hear the whistle fade and set yourself at ease.

There's a house by the hill
How I long for her still
My home sweet home
Home Sweet Home.

***
If you ever have a chance to see Elliott Brood live... go. One word: go.

Messed up hare

There was a baby hare yesterday that was being tormented by a neighbourhood cat. I don't like cats and feel they're evil if given half a chance so saved the baby hare from being stressed to the point of dying. I cornered it, caught it (not hard, it was tired from being chased/tormented) and took it to a local park. It's best that if it is going to be eaten that it's eaten by a coyote, hawk, etc that would eat it for food, but it may survive... who knows. It wasn't bleeding or obviously mangled in any way.

Then I went on a date with the second engineer (the one that I said I felt I wasn't ready to date and he was coming on too strong). Wow. Sat on a patio, had drinks and food and then WHAMO! he went in for the kill.

All I can say is this morning I sent an email telling him I didn't want to have any contact with him in the future...

I feel like the baby hare did. Chased, tired and wishing there would be someone to protect me.

The master of conversation

Right. If you are one of the people who have had read about my encounters with the real world, you may remember the date I had a few months ago with the picture of the movie Scream on a coaster. Well, I thought I'd try my luck again (he is actually cute, another engineer (wtf is it between me and physicists/engineers/mathematicians?)).

Well, I was right and wrong. Chemically, it is a hit although I am refraining from jumping someone's bones for the sake of it. The pheromones are a rocking but that does not mean there could be a successful relationship.

Let's just say that he is not the master of conversation and feels uncomfortable in silence. At one point, to fill the void, he came up with the gem: "So, over the past few months I've been sneezing a lot". How is one to respond? All I could muster was "that must be uncomfortable. Why's that?" Not that I gave a shit about his allergies, it just seems like he's the type of person who must speak incessantly.

We were walking through a park (en route to the lake shore) and he then mentioned another gem: "oh, looks like there's a wedding" when we passed a photo shoot for a wedding party. I had no retort other than to remain silent and wait for the next no-shit-sherlock moment.

My question to you. Why is it people feel the need to state the blatantly obvious? People do it all the time and it puzzles me. I'm sure I've done it at some point so I'm not saying I'm perfect, it just happens with such regularity that it makes me wonder.

"Ooooh, there's one of my feet"
"Aaaah, there's a tree"
"Wow. Bird. There's a bird"
"Oooh, there's one of my feet"

Are we regressing to being 3 year olds verbally and mentally? Where is the interesting conversation in the world?

Have I mentioned

How much I love my new dog?

Happiness.

Playing with fire

It's been busy. Not so busy that I can't talk, just busy.

Volunteering and one job interview has kept me running and realising something about myself. I'm either not yet ready to date, or I'm ready but the guy who asked me out isn't my cup of tea. He has a doctorate in engineering, intelligent, cute (in an I'm an inch or two shorter than you sort of way - almond shaped eyes), stalky (which I like), etc. He was way too eager. It actually scared me because I need a bit of time to slowly work into getting to know someone it seems.

Is that it? There are people that you meet that you feel like you have known them your entire life and it's just comfortable being with them from the moment you enter into each other's orb. That wasn't the case with him. Do I take that as an it's a no go or do I tell him to slow down and take it easy on me because I have realised I'm not entirely over the chap I lived with and last loved? I've no clue.

I also had an interview as a health and safety officer for the feds. I haven't heard back (interview was last Wednesday but god knows the feds are not quick about communication) but I'm not feeling the love towards the position. I don't know if I can handle being utterly hated and needing to be so nasty/picky to shut businesses down, investigate deaths, blah blah blah. We'll see. Maybe they won't deem me worthy, who knows.

Then, I am going to apply for a ems/fire position in another city that is drivable along with other things that have popped up. I love being self-employed, but I'm not going to get a mortgage this way. I have no idea if I could handle being a fire fighter...