Herman the Jazzmahn

The divorce is final.

As near as I can tell, I'm out about $15k, plus about 45% of my income forever.

I don't know if I'll come back. As always, jazzmahnATgmailDOTcom

I'm sure everybody noticed I'm on hiatus.

Gonna stay that way for a while too. Having the Ex possibly reading is killing any hope I have of being free to say what I want, at least until everything is finalized.

Also, I'm not at all sure I trust LJ at large not to forward friends only postings over there.

No more nudges, huh?

Took a break from all the work I have to finish to cook tonight.

Turned out pretty yumms, so I figured I'd post so I don't forget

Brown cut-up chicken breasts in a little oil with about 2 big sliced onions and a couple cloves of coursely diced garlic.

Deglaze with and then add flavorful cooking liquid, made up of 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock, 1/2 a cup of soy, maybe 1t thyme, lots of black pepper, a couple shakes of garlic powder, 1T of paprika, a cardomom pod, a bay leaf, and a splash (1/4c or so) of white wine vinegar. Zapped in the microwave for a minute or two then left to steep while the browning was happening (then pod/leaf removed, of course).

Simmer for like 15 mins until the chicken is almost done and some of the liquid has reduced. Add a can of coconut milk, and let simmer for 10 more, then salt & pepper to your tastes. Simmer 10 more, then the chicken will be done, and when you let the liquid alone for a while it thickens up a tad.

Oh Emm Gee, wonderful. This was the best pantry thing evar. Total cost was like $3 of chicken breasts and $3 of pantry items.

Dear everyone,

Talked to a couple of people and have now officially confirmed the rumors that are going around.

Not true, not one of them, it just didn't happen. You guys know me, and that type crap has never been what I was about.

I think I'm gonna start posting again on a once-a-week kind of basis. I'm making a clean break at life, and there's no use hiding any longer. I appreciate everyone that stayed around. I'll say right out that I'm gonna keep on the blog-blog thing. as much as possible I can't do life updates anymore of any sensitive nature whatsoever due to decided possible legal problems, and I privatized an ASSLOAD of previous life postings.

I'm jazzmahn now, divorced, secular urbanite. These last months have taught me that I missed who I am, and now that I've got my bearings again, I'm gonna go on being me.

So, email me at jazzmahnATgmailDOTcom if you want. I'd love to see everyone, but if my messy public divorce has taught me anything, it's taught me to trust my friends, 'cause they'd tell me if they thought I was a scumbag.

Also, if you were on the wrong side of the divorce thing, don't take it personal, but stay over there.

Welcome back, Cotter.

Congratulations! An Oracularity which you wrote the question
or answer
for has been selected and published in an issue of the Internet
Oracularities, volume #1387. It received an average rating of 3.9
on a scale of 1 to 5, with votes from participating readers. The
distribution of votes was 3b8a2, where each digit represents the number
of votes of value 1, of value 2, etc. Letters are used for digits
beyond 9. To participate in the voting yourself in the future, see the
instructions at the top of each digest.

Here's the Oracularity:

1387-06 3b8a2 3.9 ----------------------------------------------------
Selected-By: Klone (aka Daniel V Klein)

The Internet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
Your question was:

> Vampire cows. Are they a good idea?

And in response, thus spake the Oracle:

} Vampire cows are
} a force to be reckoned with
} when you slice them up
}
} Quite fine steak they make
} As long as you don't forget
} No garlic for me

Is one Nigerian letter a week too much? I find it to be super entertaining.

The problem at hand now is that as an asylum seeker I am only using asylum
papers issued to me by the South African government. According to South
African Law, asylums are not authorized to operate any form of banking and
finance related issues of this magnitude. Also, I am not authorized to clear
or make any withdrawals from the consignment in the security company because
of my political status.

The FDA is inspecting my warehouse and operation! Hope I didn't screw
anything up too badly, 'cause if I fail, I have no more job.

Wish me luck!

Lord almighty.

I was just thinking "I haven't updated the old LJ in a while", but then I looked, and it's been 12 days. Sorry to all that read, this winter I'm going to make a concerned effort to get back to three-a-week, but I'm the work-updating kind of a guy and with the new job and all, it's hard to break away for long enough to type an entry, much less to tear the mind away from the work-work to think of something to say.

And that's really all I have to say. I just looked back at my list of topics, but nothing's really sounding so interesting to write about.


Outback Sauteed Mushrooms (copycat)
-----------------------------------
I looked all over the internet for a good copycat recipe for these wonderful shrooms, and there appears to be only one. It's copied over and over again and posted under a zillion different names. And it starts with canned mushrooms. Yeah. So, I took the "general idea", tested with fresh, and now I'm posting. 'cause I love me some Outback Mushrooms. Blanch the shrooms if you care about a lighter color, don't if you care about a fuller taste.

1 medium onion, quartered and sliced
1c beef stock (or broth or whatever)
3/4c dry red wine (They supposedly use burgundy, but I used Pinot Noir with good results)
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1.5-2 lb button mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, and halved/quartered if large, blanched if you wanna
A little minced shallot (1 small, 2T maybe)
Tiny pinch of cayenne (optional)
Teensy splash of Lea and Perrins (optional)
Olive oil or clarified butter
Salt and Pepper to taste

Quarter and slice the onion 1/4" thick. Simmer onion in beef stock for about 15 minutes, until half the liquid is absorbed, then add 1/2 of wine. In large not-non-stick skillet, heat about 1T of oil to not-quite-smoking over super-high heat, then add 1/4 of garlic. Immediately add a couple handfuls of shrooms, taking care not to overcrowd and to keep them moving in the pan. Saute them until they start to get some color and start smelling really good, about two or three minutes. Remove, reheat more oil, then repeat for the rest of shrooms. It may take two or three batches, depending on the size of the skillet. When finished, heat 1t of oil, add last of garlic, all of the shallot, cook 30 seconds, and add the reserved shrooms, then sprinkle with a generous pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper.

Deglaze pan with the remaining wine. Add onion mixture (and cayenne/wortsa-whatever if you want). Simmer for 10 minutes, checking seasoning every so often. It will need a shocking amount of salt. This is ok, but it's easy to overdo it, so beware.

( Getting back into the kitchen... )

( ranty work thing, apologies, but it's all I could muster today )

I need cheffy work. There are no parties for weeks yet, and it's
distressing.

Philosophy versus Religion
...and for that matter: Elijah and John the Baptist -- What's up with that?
Giving up Catholicism for Lent

Getting back into the Kitchen

How's the new job?

Restrictive internet policies and you -- A guide to the WWW deprived

Poll and/or results of "How does that new version of Gallery look, anyhow?"

Why is pop music staying so "urban" for so long?

Apologies to all for the lack of updates and things. Work is hard, evenings are busy, and weekends are full.

I wanna go fishing!

In the history of time.

Ph34r my bad azz chef suit!

You know, I really ought to write down my ideas for good LJ entries, and
keep some sort of a list or something as they come to me. That way, when
I sit down to write something like this, I won't be stuck staring at the
screen when I should either be working or writing. Got to use those
neurons for something, donchanknow.

There is a lot of Christian music out there. Has anyone ever looked at
the WMP radio tuner? I usually use iTunes for stuff like that, but
there's no dice for doing new installs here, so I'm forced to use the
inferior WMP. There are about 100 streams listed, under "Christian Hits".
There's some duplication to account for things like multi-bitrate
streams, but there are still 65 streams. I had no idea. I watched a news
story about the Christian Media Phenom (tm) once, but I really just didn't
realize that there were tunes enough to support 65 24/7 stations. Wow.

See, that's not even a good observation. I gotta start writing the good
ideas down.

Editing for the smarty trousered amongst us.

New style for jazzmahn. I really like some of the new ones.

I wish I could think of something profound to post, but I have neither time of energy to do something like that on this lazy afternoon.

I've got a new icon, for god related talk.

It replaces that smartass God one.

I don't know if that has any hidden subconcious meaning, or what, but I needed to delete one, and the Rhino sthupping the Subaru HAD to stay.

I have determined the key! Thanks to change4adollar for the
help. Please note, those other two test posts will get deleted as soon as
I can get somewhere with real internet access.

Another couple of minutes seem to have come, and in the real office world,
I'd catch up on LJing, but I can't do that here.

I'm looking for email based games and time wasters. I've been querying
the Internet Oracle (help to oracle@cs.indiana.edu) quite extensively.
Does anyone know anything else like that?

(posting the following morning)

So it seems as if I don't have something set up right to do LJ posts by
email. I'm gonna write this down in an email and send it, well, I don't
know where I'm gonna send it just now. I might attempt to get the email
posting thing set up tonight. If I can get that together, I might be able
to post from here, and if not, I'll just do it from home.

I've finally, for about the first time in a week, got 17 minutes to spare,
so I figured I'd sit down and write a little.

( A little about my new job, that is. )

I better get back to it. There's little $5000 plastic trays to be filled
with $300 screws.

Also, please note that Tony Chachere's Creole Jambalaya Ready Serve Rice
isn't half bad. Not really creole or jambalaya, but getting there.

... that talking to a knowledgable person sometimes takes you further away from the answer you're looking for?

I'd love to expound, but I'm sleepy.  It's gonna have to wait for another day.

I watched Hell's Kitchen.  The whole idea of Kitchen reality shows sickens me.  How bout they do a real one, based on me, a couple years back...

Work 60 hours a week, at least two different places, across town from each other.

Can't afford a car, or health insurance.  The bus and clinic are plenty good enough.

Bust your ass 10-12 hours a day, six days a week, for almost enough money to make rent on an apartment the size of my current living room.

Get yelled at by a 20k-a-year exec that has the IQ of a muskmelon

Drink heavily, smoke lots, be generally alone.

No prize at the end of that endive, mofo. Talk about your reality.  Who wants to be a cook on purpose?  I mean, for the first 15 years, you make no money, work long and crappy hours, and have to sacrifice your hopes and dreams on the altar of practicalty. 

Who gives up a job as a lawyer or something for $6/hour in the kitchen?

Who do I know that's hitting my site all the time from China and the EU somewhere?  I've got a BUNCH of entries in the logs from there.

It's just odd, yes?