Thursday, February 25, 2010

Some Tired Random Thoughts

I have decided to make it official - I hate February. Not only do I hate February, but the season of death that I was hoping left us when the calendar rolled around to January 1, didn't. No one close to me has passed away, but enough folks that I care about have suffered loss already this year. It can quite whenever it wants.

I do, however, like the snow, so I'm not complaining - too much - about the snow days the girls will have to make up. it's been beautiful. (Some photos have been uploaded to my Facebook profile.:)

What's up with the reading list? Yes, that list to my right. A friend from NaNo tries to read 100 books a year and I'm playing along. I thought this would be a fun way to keep track of what and how many I've read. It's been fun so far.

Okay, I think it's now time for Melinda to go to bed. I'll try to make the next posting have a little more substance.

Night all!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Oh Dear!

Almost three months since I've written anything on here, let alone posted some fiction. I'll try to post the end of "Divine Visions" over the weekend, really I will. And next year? I'm already planning to just take January off as much as possible. Between the work/stress/creating of November and December, I'm pretty much a mental zombie by January and shut down regardless. It's been that way the past two years, so I may as well plan for it. I did win NaNo this year again though, while sick. And I got to enjoy seeing some area winners cross that finish line for the first time as well. It was a heady month.

In the meantime, I've been promising a friend that I'd write up the following recipe for the most heavenly black bean soup. It'll warm you to your toes with its tastiness. And, it's vegetarian!

Heavenly Black Bean Soup

4 cans black beans, rinsed
2 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
3/4 c. button mushrooms, sliced and then loosely chopped
2 tbsp. preserved garlic in oil, heaping
1 packet dried onion soup mix

Toss it all into the slow cooker with about 4 cans worth of water, more or less, and let cook for at least 4 hours. Enjoy.

Yep, pretty easy. You could probably do it on the stove as well and just let it simmer for at least an hour. If you need to cut the amounts, try for a ratio of about 1/2 black beans to 1/2 veggies. This served six people, although a couple of us didn't eat that much for various reasons.