Kate Mulligan Wolfe

con, as in what she did to me!

2008-06-16T00:31:38Z

A little over a year ago, I was pretty much a former congoer. Over the last few months, I became the Rustycon secretary, and I'm working the Seattle in 2011 Worldcon bid. As of today, I'm on the Board of SWOC as a Member-at-Large. I think Gene and Bobbie have learned of my inability to say no, and have exploited it for their own nepharious purposes.

Oh, and I'm making horseradish mashed potatoes for a Father's Day dinner at Drew's parents' house.

what's for dinner

2008-06-05T06:56:55Z

I've decided to start posting about my culinary adventures. I know this is not a unique idea, but I get very excited about my experiments, (especially those that succeed!) Also, since I rarely follow a recipe, I need a record of it if I ever want to make it again!

This probably won't happen too often, as I rarely have the energy to spend hours in the kitchen.

So, what was for dinner, you ask?

Why, it was

I had quite the culinary success tonight, and I had to write about it. We went to the Pike Place Market Street Fair last weekend, and I picked up some lamb from the butcher there and a gorgeous fennel bulb from one of the produce vendors. But the major score was some spices at the middle eastern store! I got fenugreek, some very fresh cardamom, and cumin (that one wasn't a big score, but my cumin at home was really stale). The middle eastern store came first, before the meat and produce, and it was the spices that really inspired the stew.

I don't use recipes exactly or cook with exact measurements unless, of course, I'm baking. So this recipe is an approximation. But here's how I made the scrumptious lamb stew:

2lb lamb shoulder, cut into stew pieces by the butcher. He left the bones, for extra flavor.
11 small yukon gold potatoes (the 2" ones), quartered
1 large yellow onion, chopped into 1/2" pieces
3 medium zucchini, cut up
1 can chopped tomatoes, incl. liquid
6 small garlic cloves, smashed and roughly chopped
1.5c largish (no. 3) bulgur wheat
Coriander, about a spoonful
Cinnamon, about 1/2 spoonful
Cumin, 2 spoonfuls
Dried mint (the kind in a spice jar), about a spoonful
Fenugreek, 2.5-3 spoonfuls
Garam masala, about a spoonful

I browned the meat, then threw everything except the mint (I forgot) and bulgur wheat into my large crockpot, and added almost enough water to cover around 9:30 am. At around 1:30, I put in the bulgur wheat. And at 6:30, I remembered the mint and threw that in.

I served it with a dollop of plain yogurt, to add a bit of tartness, and some "No-Salt". The yogurt made it perfect! I would have normally added salt to the pot, but we're trying to get as much sodium out of Drew's diet as possible. The stew really only needed a tiny bit of salt, and since we're using "No-Salt", which tends to get bitter after long cooking, we added it directly to the bowls.

The bulgur wheat got so mushy you really couldn't tell it was there by feel or taste. I had been worried at about 4:30, because I tasted it, and the bulgur wheat was mushy and it wasn't that great a texture. But by the time we ate it, it had practically dissolved, and just served to thicken the stew (I didn't need to add any starch or flour) -- and of course add nutrition! I had actually intended for the bulgur wheat to be felt and tasted and have a definite presence, and to do that, I probably should've added it no more than an hour and a half before we ate, but I think this was better.

The fennel salad was so delish! It was super simple.

1 bulb fennel
1 granny smith apple
1/2 cucumber

Plain yogurt
Sour cream
Dill weed (dried)
Mint (dried)
Garlic salt

I shaved the fennel with a vegetable peeler, then quartered, peeled, cored, and sliced the apple super thin (but not as thin as the fennel). Really wide slices, I cut in half lengthwise. And I cut a cucumber in half lengthwise, scooped out the seeds, and sliced one half pretty thin.

The dressing was just 1 part yogurt, 1 part sour cream, and the herbs and garlic salt I just added until I liked it. I added way more of the herbs than the garlic salt, and less garlic salt than I normally would have, because Drew was eating it, too. I added about 3 tablespoons of the dressing to the salad.

We all loved the salad, and Drew and Cora both had seconds!

Cora loved being introduced to fennel. She loves trying new vegetables (yes, really), and was excited to hear I had a candy-flavored vegetable to try. So she sat in the kitchen, eating all the scraps of fennel that were too small to shave.
Oh, and cut up papaya for dessert. Which was yummy, too, but I didn't do anything interesting with it, because I was tired by then.

We got married! Come celebrate with us!

2008-03-20T22:23:20Z

Drew (latras) Wolfe and Kate Mulligan (Mom Burnout) got married, and now they want to make you eat chili!

When: Saturday, 7-10pm

Where: Room 1364 (PH floor in the tower)

Who: you!

Come see our wedding pictures and spend some time with the newlyweds!

Thursday night, con rate room

2008-03-20T00:22:06Z

We're cancelling our room for just Thursday night. So if you want a room tomorrow night @ convention rate, call them now

slip

2008-01-13T04:42:41Z

Missing costume element. Went to Target. Encountered two (2!) women, who worked in womens clothing, who didn't know what a slip is. Wtf? Seriously, the first lady directed us to the tights! What woman doesn't know what a slip is? When we explained, she's like, well, some skirts come with one sewn in... um, no, that's called a lined skirt!

??

2008-01-13T02:06:09Z

Where the heck is everyone?

Reception at Norwescon

2008-01-12T00:18:46Z

Some of you know Drew (latras) and I got married. It was a wonderful wedding, but we were not able to invite everyone we wanted to celebrate with. So we are having a reception at Norwescon! We have a suite on a party floor, and want to celebrate with YOU (well, most of you! :) )

Stay tuned for info. I'll try to remember to make all party info posts public, but you could always friend me (and if you leave me a reply so I know who you are, I'll reciprocate) so you can see any I forget to make public. Plus, then you have access to my incredibly sporadic, fairly boring posts about suburban soccer mom life, my goofy kid, and and how much my husband rocks! Woohoo!

corasmama @ 2008-01-06T22:27:00

2008-01-07T06:29:12Z

96% Mike Gravel
94% Dennis Kucinich
83% John Edwards
79% Barack Obama
77% Chris Dodd
76% Joe Biden
74% Hillary Clinton
68% Bill Richardson
35% Rudy Giuliani
28% Ron Paul
24% John McCain
19% Mitt Romney
18% Mike Huckabee
17% Tom Tancredo
8% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Too bad Gravel isn't really a viable candidate at this point in the game. That, and I'm pretty dedicated to Obama!

Cora's home

2008-01-07T06:01:04Z

a rare public pic of Cora! Enjoy!

thing that don't suck

2007-11-06T21:48:27Z

Things That REALLY Don't Suck.

People who, upon hearing that I'm having trouble with wedding planning, take it upon themselves to form a freakin committee and spend a whole bunch of their time and energy on helping me when they really don't have to!

People who volunteer to make gorgeous jewelry (I'll post a link later when I'm not posting from my sidekick) and do it all custom and beautiful.

Delicious cake.

My kid being in the wedding.

Seventy-twelve people volunteering to help with the food on the day of the wedding so I don't get curry or tomato sauce on my dress.

Marrying the man of my dreams!

things that suck

2007-11-06T21:27:11Z

Things That Suck.

People who don't rsvp.
People who say they'll do things for or in the wedding, then back out with little notice, or simply don't.
Dresses that don't fit right and can't be altered.
Having the officiant change 3 weeks before the wedding
The officiant telling us, 2 weeks before the wedding, that we can't have a bunch of stuff the way we had wanted and planned it.
Busses that come early, don't wait for you to cross the street, and end up costing you over an hour out of your day.
People who don't rsvp, til you've already given a headcount to the baker, and now you have more people than servings of cake. (Those people better not bitch if they get costco sheet cake!)
Tripping and falling in a marsh and losing a shoe and twisting your ankle and fishing out the shoe only to have the bus driver tell you you can't get on, because you're kinda muddy, and having to walk halfway home on a twisted ankle, in squishy muddy shoes, til someone stops and gives you a ride the rest of the way, and then you realize you are locked out.
Wrist corsage thingies, where the part that goes around the wrist is all velcro all the way around.
Having to go to Walmart.
Knowing it's still not the kind of wedding I really want, but can't have, regardless of how many things go right or how much money we can spend.
Socks that don't stay up.
Fibromyalgia.
Confusing transit websites.

even funnier

2007-09-16T23:39:03Z

omg this is too funny.

If I answer the first question differently, I'm East Timor!

You're the United Nations!

Most people think you're ineffective, but you are trying to
completely save the world from itself, so there's always going to be a long
way to go. You're always the one trying to get friends to talk to each
other, enemies to talk to each other, anyone who can to just talk instead of
beating each other about the head and torso. Sometimes it works and sometimes
it doesn't, and you get very schizophrenic as a result. But your heart
is in the right place, and sometimes also in New York.

Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid

Really? James Joyce?

2007-09-16T23:33:43Z

hahahahaha

You're Ulysses!

by James Joyce

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared
to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do
understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once
brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in
the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you
additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Ring!

2007-09-02T06:34:14Z

One ring down, two to go!

He put it on my finger tonight! I picked it out, and I looooove it. I hadn't really wanted a traditional diamond engagement ring, and I love, love, love tanzanite, which is that middle stone. Since I will probably frequently wear my wedding band by itself, I didn't want a "set" that fits together. And I've always loved this style of ring.

It's funny, though. Cora was with us, and she has very, very different taste than I do. Given a choice of any two nice rings, we picked different ones.

Although, while we were looking, the salesperson pointed out this one that he called the Kryptonite ring. It was freaking hideous! It was a whole clump of randomly placed raw emeralds, set in a HUGE (like the part sitting on the finger was 1"Wx1"H1.5"L) ring of raw looking, rough, clumpy, unpolished gold. We joked about how he was never going to sell it, unless, as he said, Lex Luthor walked through the door!

So of course, as we were looking at the ring we eventually bought, a couple came in and looked seriously at it (I think they eventually bought it)! This couple was wearing a ton of some of the worst gaudy jewelry I've seen. They brought their own loop to look at the ring, and were seriously discussing the MERITS of this ring and stuff. As hard as it was for us and the salesperson not to laugh, it was even harder to keep Cora from laughing, poor girl!

Oh, and

***** MDC Mamas, FRIEND ME! *****

I'm engaged!

2007-08-08T17:44:56Z

Drew asked me to marry him last night!!! Of course, I said yes. It was no surprise, as we've been discussing it for a while. But it is still wonderful, and I'm over-the-moon happy. I'm so excited to be his wife, and to start our life together!

We told Cora this morning, and she is very happy and excited, as well.

More details later...

pissed off

2007-07-13T19:59:39Z

So, I'm in a pissy mood today. My landlady's husband, the maintenance man, is a putz, and she kept changing the story to cover for why he said he'd be here 3-4 days ago and I still hadn't heard from them this morning.

So, I think I'll listen to something nice and uplifting. Like Denis Leary's "No Cure For Cancer"

So the neighbor (not the one who plays the thumping base all the time) who keeps going away and leaving their alarm clock set to Spirit105.3, to go off @ 2.30a for an hour and wake the whole neighborhood, now has to listen to an hour of Denis Leary, starting with "The Asshole Song" heehee.

book meme

2007-06-15T08:05:45Z

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next three sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"Not only are Ephraim's Children very aware of their surroundings, but they often react inensely to the stimuli they receive from their senses. This is what we mean by sensitivity. For example, you and I may be irritated by a scratchy tag on the collar of our shirt; and Ephraim's Child may very well have a tantrum until every particle of the tag has been removed."

From Parenting the Ephraim's Child, by Deborah Talmadge and Jaime Theler.

Yeah, no kidding!

2007-05-08T05:41:13Z

Never Date a Cancer

Clingy, emotional, and very private - it's hard to escape a Cancer's clutches.
And while Cancer will want to know everything about you, they're anything but open in return.

Instead try dating: Leo, Sagittarius, Gemini, or Aquarius

What Sign Shouldn't You Date?

I dated a couple Cancers... Bad, bad, bad! And I agree on the Gemini! (Guess who's a Gemini?)

Announcing...

2007-05-02T02:03:53Z

Announcing Kiran Shivde Schatz. My brother, Dan Schatz, and his wife, Geeta Shivde, welcomed their son, Kiran, into the world today! They ended up having to have a c-section, but mom and son are doing fine. He is healthy, happy, and nursing like a champ! Pictures to follow (friends only) when I get them.

Yay! I'm an aunt! Woohoo! :D

corasmama @ 2007-04-28T14:58:00

2007-04-28T21:58:33Z

Your results:
You are Derrial Book (Shepherd)

Derrial Book (Shepherd)		85%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)		85%
Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)		80%
River (Stowaway)		75%
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)		65%
Inara Serra (Companion)		65%
Wash (Ship Pilot)		60%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)		50%
A Reaver (Cannibal)		35%
Alliance		30%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)		15%

Even though you are holy
you have a mysterious past.

Click here to take the "Which Serenity character are you?" quiz...

tulip festival and awful pizza crust

2007-04-22T07:33:18Z

We went to the tulip festival today, Drew and Cora and I. We forgot his camera - D'oh! But we bought a disposable and used his phone. Got some good pictures, two of which will be forthcoming when Drew gets them off his phone and cropped appropriately (no rush, my love). The rest we'll have to wait until we finish the camera, have it developed, and scan in (wow! remember those days?!) My dad's gonna be in town next weekend, so we should be able to finish it off then (11 shots left).

We tiptoed through the tulips for a while, but, really, tulip fields all kind of look the same, don't they? So we moved on to the street fair. All three of us had aching feet by the time we left. Cora had a good time, especially dancing to the live music! She dances like a crazy person. Heehee. I love how uninhibited and unafraid she is to do her own thing.

Drew is so great with Cora. And with me! He is just considerate and thoughtful and kind and patient and chivalrous (and hot!) and funny. He rocks!

After we got our delicious elephant ears (whole wheat! who'da thunk?), we left for Drew's house to take a nap and have suppoesdly yummy pizza. We had ricotta, craploads of garlic, olive oil, roma tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella, parmesan, and salami. Should have been perfect. But I bought a dough that wasn't up to the task! It was barely edible, it was so dense and doughy. I should have recognized it and cooked the crust up first, then loaded it up with toppings. But no, I followed the directions. We were just recently talking about how I like to only use recipes as general suggestions, and do it my way... Should have done that here!

So, the moral of the story is: a tulip field is a tulip field is a tulip field, doing your own thing = good, too much wet toppings on an un-pre-baked whole wheat pizza crust = very, very bad. Oh, and I'm more in love with this man every day.

irc

2007-04-18T04:49:13Z

I've discovered IRC. I think I'll just stick to the channel w/ Drew's friends. I tried #politics, and those people are Seriously. Off. Their. Meds! (Apparently, being a self identified liberal puts me on the side of Hitler, and the Dems and progressives are the ones responsible for the Patriot Act and other erosions of our civil liberties... WTHeck? Whatev.)

But it's fun to get to know Drew's friends. I love my geek!

corasmama @ 2007-04-16T15:08:00

2007-04-16T22:11:01Z

I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile.
Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away
I let mine out, and chatter all the while.

I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day
Is any day that's spent without a friend,
With nothing much to do or hear or say.

I like to be with people, and depend
On company for being entertained;
Which seems a good solution, in the end.

What Poetry Form Are You?

Wow. My best friend (green00goddess) and I are so alike. We got the same answer! Heh. Not really surprising. We have some very different opinions on many things, but at the basic personality and behavior level, we are so, so similar! I love her!

don't these people sleep?

2007-04-13T14:05:38Z

Wow. It's not even 7 in the morning, and already my neighbor's music is up so loud I have the bass thumping through my walls. I would say it's like living next to a nightclub, but at least night clubs don't go 18 hours/day! And these people have 3 kids! When do they sleep?

Grr. I hate this... I really need sleep this morning, too. I'm going to see Drew today/tonight, and then tomorrow is all day with Drew and Cora. And I'm so tired... I don't want to have to scale back our plans, but I'm freaking exhausted! Freakin inconsiderate neighbors!

Spanish rice

2007-04-12T06:10:35Z

Does anyone have a really good Spanish Rice recipe, made with BROWN rice? I'm really craving spanish rice, and it always seems to be made w/ white rice (bleah!) Also, has anyone every tried putting meat or tofu in spanish rice?