Mixed Greens, Kiwi, and Mango Salad

For the last few–okay, one–weeks, we’ve been broke. Utterly, horribly broke. It’s our fault for not budgeting, but it’s not our fault that S also got her account debited three different times for the power bill. That’s all on Georgia Power.

At any rate, broke means one thing around here: cutting back on food. We’ve already paid for everything else, including the power for the next three months, but we’d not bought groceries. This week was a series of pasta and rice dishes, with tater tots thrown in just for that regression to age three that we needed.

So today, S and I went shopping while G slept off anesthesia. We make a habit of watching Take Home Chef, mostly because Curtis Stone is pretty but he does also make some amazing food. Earlier this week, he put together a salad of arugula, pomegranate seeds, persimmon slices, and a raspberry vinaigrette. It looked like heaven on a plate, and I got paid yesterday. So part of the day’s goal for shopping was to find the ingredients for this salad. We’d add grilled (well, pan-fried) chicken, and it would be a complete meal. G could have vegetarian Jell-O and saltines.

Except that Kroger lacked arugula. And persimmons. And even–heaven forbid–the pomegranates. They did, however, have the raspberry vinaigrette.

I very much doubt you’ve seen a pair of twenty-two-year-olds pout so much in the produce section in your life. You’d think we’d been told no chocolate for the rest of our lives. And then we looked at each other, remembered that we know how to cook, and took a good look at what was available. No arugula? Okay, baby Italian salad mix of radicchio, Romaine, and spinach. No pomegranates? Um…how about kiwi? And as for that persimmon…well, a mango would do just fine, right?

Fortunately, they had the raspberry vinaigrette. I think we would have cried otherwise.

This salad is heaven. It may actually be more heavenly than the one Curtis put together. It is that good. Small pieces of mango and kiwi, mixed with the lettuces, three pan-fried and sliced chicken tenderloins (they didn’t have breasts last time I bought chicken, and I can’t justify a whole chicken in this house) tossed on top, all doused in that wonderful vinaigrette? One of the best meals I’ve had in ages, and it really was no effort. I think the hardest part was cutting the mango, because those things are impossible. There’s hardly any left. We each had at least two bowls. I am in love with this salad.

Mixed Greens and Fruit Salad
Mixed greens (radicchio, Romaine, and spinach, preferably, because that’s what we used), about three handfuls (like my measuring system?)
One mango
Five kiwis
Raspberry vinaigrette (you could make your own, but the name-brand bottled stuff worked just fine)
Four chicken tenderloins, thawed

Now, if you want to be fancy and have a grill, you can grill the tenderloins. Otherwise, get a dry non-stick frying pan very hot. Toss the tenderloins in and watch them closely. Now’s a good time to have your lazy beloved roommate start cutting up the fruit, if you want. Make sure you don’t burn the chicken. You’ll be sad. It doesn’t really need seasoning, either. Just wait for it to be cooked about halfway up the tenderloin and flip it over. Then wait for the other half to be cooked on the outside, and a few extra seconds to be sure. Take out of the pan, put on a plate, and let them cool so you don’t burn your fingers when you cut them. Dump water into your Very Hot Pan; it’ll be a lot easier to clean.

Now for the fruit. The kiwis are easier to do. Cut off the ends, then the skin in strips. Cut the kiwi into small cubes and toss into your salad bowl. Or, if you’re like S, a completely separate bowl. The mango’s the hard one. What’s supposedly easiest is something like peeling it, then cutting off chunks until you’re right to the pit. Then you can cube the chunks. Just make sure not to take off a finger with that sharp knife, dealing with that slippery mango pit. Add those to whichever bowl you’re using. Then add the greens to the salad bowl and, if you dirtied a second bowl with the fruit, dump it on top.

Remember that chicken? I know it seems really plain and bland, but bear with me. Just cut it into strips and add those to your salad. Now pour the vinaigrette on that thing. It soaks into your chicken, especially if it’s still warm. Toss the salad around, make your bowl, and remember that you can come back when it inexplicably vanishes the first time around. It is that good.

Especially good is when you realized that blackberries are currently cheap and got two containers plus a half-gallon of vanilla bean ice cream. That for dessert, plus the heavenly salad, is the best meal I’ve had in some time.

Up tomorrow: Turkey burgers for the omnivores, veggie burger for the vegetarian, and mashed potatoes for all. I need to buy butter. Buns might help, too.

Oh hai, forgot about this.

I am not scheduled to work until 3. This is greatly screwing with me. I keep thinking I either have the day off, or that I’m late.

Anyway, news linkage!

A study of Ugandan men shows little difference in sexual satisfaction before and after circumcision. You may or may not remember the idea that circumcision can cut HIV infection rates by up to 50%. I have questions about how they test that (for one thing, I would think it possible that condoms are less comfortable with a foreskin than without [but then, I have no cock to test this thought with] and that may lessen likelihood to use condoms), but if it’s accurate, then hey, not my body part they’re amputating. As long as it doesn’t make people go, “Oh hey, let’s make circumcision of infants the norm!”, I don’t care what grown men do to their penises.

The next Bond girl has been cast. Gemma Arterton has been in five other productions. I have no idea about her acting ability, but I do have an issue: She’s not sexy like Bond girls are supposed to be. She’s cute, yes, but not “let me do you now” hot. Vesper Lynd, she is not.

Australia’s government has decided not to form a reparation fund for the so-called Stolen Generation. Now, Australian politics and history are not my forte. However, here’s what I do know: The Stolen Generation is made up of Aboriginal children who were taken from their families and placed with white families, supposedly to help the two cultures assimilate. Really, to wipe out Aboriginal culture, I think. According to the article, it happened between 1915 and 1969. So…here’s the thing. These children were forcibly taken from their homes and placed elsewhere (not even always with families, if I recall correctly, and I’m sure I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong; sometimes in white-run homes), and…they get nothing. Right. This makes…perfect lack of sense.

Musharraf says it’s Bhutto’s fault she was assassinated. This one is basically, “My culturally ingrained misogyny. Let me show you it.” Because if it had been a man, I very much doubt he’d be saying that. Incidentally, Pakistan apparently still can’t decide exactly what killed Bhutto.

In today’s bizarrely gross news, a Texas man apparently killed and cooked his girlfriend. It’s up in the air as to whether or not he ate her, however. Ick.

Stephen and Jon will be back on the air tonight. This article reads more like a blog post than an actual news article, but I still like it, even though it’s basically things I knew and stuff we’ve been speculating about (like how they’ll perform). Our vote: Jon sits there and stares at the camera for 22 minutes.

A twelve-year-old beat a seventeen-month-old to death with a baseball bat. Apparently, she was crying while he was trying to watch TV. Why on earth would you let a twelve-year-old with a temper like that watch a toddler?

NaBloPoMo #16: Praying for Rain

I’m going to post about the water thing for real, but omg, the Georgia governor prayed for rain and it totally worked, for real!

You know, he didn’t check the forecast in advance or anything.

NaBloPoMo #14: Change of Living Situation

OH MY GOD LATENESS.

Due to mold and toxicness and evil management (I will probably share this story later), G and I were cleaning for a long time. We just moved my mattress out to the living room, so we can sleep a little further from the mold.

That’s right. We’re sharing a bed in the living room, just to escape the mold.

Also, my current escape from stress is to laugh at everything. I think it amuses G, which is good. S too, though she tends to stare at me a little more when I collapse laughing.

NaBloPoMo #13: Mobs and New Jersey. Sort of.

Apparently, telling the mob to stay out of New Jersey is totally effective. Totally.

Yeah, this is the entirety of the post, as I CANNOT BREATHE.

NaBloPoMo #12: Corrupt Cops

Bolingbrook, IL, Sgt. Drew Peterson’s third wife was exhumed today because of people realizing her manner of death was kind of suspicious. You see, she was found facedown in their bathtub with a wound on the back of her head. The suspected cause of death? Accidental drowning.

Except there was no water in the tub.

Investigators theorized the tub had drained.

Apparently, this is what happens when you allow cops to investigate one of their own, and problems are only noted when the fourth wife goes missing.

(I have a real topic for tomorrow, a painfully real topic that requires lots of links and discussion, but it’s going to have to wait, because I have fifteen minutes left to post this and am not in the mindset for realness.)

NaBloPoMo #12: Moldy Apartment

Symptoms of black mold poisoning. And another list of symptoms.

Why am I posting this as my day’s NaBlo? Because, one month and one week ago, our upstairs neighbors flooded their bathroom. Rather, their children were not properly supervised by the babysitter, turned on the bathtub, and left it running until it flooded their bathroom. The immediate effect of that? It flooded our bathroom. According to G, who was home at the time, water was literally pouring from our ceiling. Maintenance came and tried to dry out the bathroom, and the guy promised to come back and check. Cue now, when they haven’t come back to check. Our bathroom ceiling has leaked one more time since then. We called maintenance then, and they came when only S was home. She didn’t know what was going on, and maintenance was supposed to come back.

Over the last couple of weeks, S, G, and I have had weird stuff going on. G has started falling asleep relatively early and sleeping a lot, I’ve had an extremely hard time waking up (to the point where I don’t hear my alarm at all), and we’ve all been itchy, sneezing, nauseated, vomiting, and missing work. We’ve also all had mental fogginess, and I’ve had muscle pain, with my joints worse than usual, too.

Yesterday, S and I were talking about it. We realized that, hey, it’s gotten worse lately, and only started after the flooding upstairs. Sadly, we’re almost positive now that we have mold in our ceiling (and possibly walls and floor) that are making us sick. Maintenance is supposed to be coming tomorrow, when I have the day off. (S will also be home; she managed to break her arm today.) I’m making sure they look at all those places, as well as checking under our kitchen sink. (Before, our garbage disposal was backed up and leaking. There’s some mold under there, but not very much.)

I just want this fixed, and I want to be compensated as much as possible for missed work and screwed-up health. It’s just plain wrong that it’s going on at all.

Meanly, I also hope upstairs is getting mold spores that are making them sick. Bastards.

NaBloPoMo #11: Racism in the context of…hair?

All right. I was going to talk about Veteran’s Day and my grandfather, who flew a bomber in the South Pacific during World War II, my relative who was a drummer in the Civil War, and my uncle who was forced into retirement from his position as a colonel with the U.S. Army because the government does not appropriately value its experienced workers, even when it’s something as important as managing supply lines, but everyone is talking about that today.

So instead, I’m going to talk about how, apparently, making fun of hair is racist.

A wee bit of background: High School Musical is, by most accounts I’ve read, a really terrible Disney movie. For some reason, it has a decent Internet following. “Fandom” is the group of people interested in the same show, movie, band, or whatever; in this particular case, High School Musical. “Fanfiction” is fiction written about the show, movie, etc. In this instance, it’s about romantic relationships between two teenage boys.

I have never seen High School Musical or read much about it, or any fanfiction. So I have no idea how in character any of it is, especially as regards the jokes in question.

The big, huge to-do? Apparently, authors are including jokes about one kid’s hair. The kid is black, or half-black; I know the actor’s mother is Italian, but I don’t know about the character’s background. He looks like this:

Now, personally? I love his hair. I think it’s really cute and looks good on him. I also realize that teenage boys will tease each other about anything, even between friends, and it’s not meant to be hurtful or taken seriously. Then, I think most normal people realize that.

Not large portions of this community.

Arguments range from, on the one hand of idiocy, “Well, people make jokes about how the other kid is pale, and I don’t like it!” to, “People LOSE THEIR JOBS OVER THEIR HAIR AND THEREFORE THE FANFICTION REGARDING TEENAGERS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS.” Because, you know, what happens between teenagers who mock each other (in fanfiction, no less!) clearly makes a massive impact on what happens in the real adult world.

Let’s put this in a non-race perspective for a moment.

G is losing her hearing. She’s going to eventually be totally deaf. She’s 20. Do I mock her for this? HELL YES. But if it ever, EVER influenced things at work or her ability to get a job, that would be COMPLETELY DIFFERENT and utterly wrong.

Or here’s this one. I have a genetic condition that leaves me in constant pain, sometimes unable to walk without a cane, and foresee eventually needing a wheelchair, at least part of the time. G calls me crippled, I call myself crippled, and we joke about it. But again, if I was to lose my job over it, it would be completely wrong.

You see? There is a massive difference between “joking between friends” (which it looks like this is) and “affecting people’s lives outright”. The hair thing appears to be the former in this context. An example of the latter is a teacher being fired for having an afro. And yes, that is from last year.

And the thing that gets me? It looks like they’ve called his hair “poofy”, “shaggy”, etc. It doesn’t look (and again, I haven’t read, so I don’t know) like they’ve used words like “nappy” or “kinky”. Those words certainly have different connotations. When my brother-in-law calls my older niece’s hair “nappy” (she’s his stepdaughter), I want nothing more than to hit him, because that definitely has racial connotations, and not in a remotely positive way. But that’s not the same as teenage boys teasing each other. Not in the least.

NaBloPoMo #10: Writers’ strike

Most of you probably heard about breakdown in talks between Hollywood writers and producers. But how many of you know what the strike is really about?

It’s about fair payment for the work of the writers. Their work continues to pay off for studios, for producers, for advertisers, well after the original airing. But the writers make nearly nothing. They currently earn $0.04 per DVD sale. All they’re asking in that regard is to have it doubled–$0.08 per DVD sale. When the average DVD is around $14.99 for a movie and $39.99 for a TV series season, that’s nothing. That’s 0.5% of the price of the average movie on DVD. The studios can certainly afford that.

And they make nothing, nothing for episodes aired over the Internet, or offered for download. Others sure do. Why else would networks make them available online? Advertising dollars. And yet, the writers, the backbones of the show, do not get paid.

Am I upset by the fact that my shows will be out of episodes soon? Sure. But on the other hand, not only is 24 canceled, but the writers deserve their pay. So pay them.

NaBloPoMo #9: No news

Due to great roommate drama last night, being at work all day today, and then grocery shopping tonight (yay! We have food!), no news post for today. I’ll probably do one in the morning hours to make up for this. Mea culpa.