kokoro no yoroi

eider has already posted and I've posted on y!gallery, but I want to cover all bases! It's been a long time, but tis the season and we couldn't resist! Proudly presenting the Odessa Castle Advent Calendar 2009!

For those who might not remember the old bishink calendars, each number on the image will go live with a holiday treat on the corresponding day, starting December 1st and going right up through December 24th. What will be behind each door? Festive Fanfic? Frosty Fanart? Other Holiday goodies? Check in every day to find out!

But you don't have to wait until tomorrow to get started. We've also compiled a list of the best of Christmases Past to tide you over in the meantime.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and enjoy our smorgasbord of yuletide treats!

Presenting, Odessa Castle's Holiday Special, an advent calendar of stories and other goodies to unfold through the month of December (if all goes well!).

[The title here is a reflection of the last two movies I've watched, however unlikely: Ernest in Love (which is a musical adaptation of Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest") and Ernest Saves Christmas (which is actually way funnier to me now that I have lived a good amount of time in the state of Kentucky); both of which have contributed great dolloping helpings to my holiday cheer. That, and the fact that we accidentally wound up downtown just as a horse-drawn carriage came through the Christmas-lit streets bearing none other than Mr. Claus himself! Ho ho ho!]

The link that says "Christmases Past" should go live tomorrow, hopefully-- it'll be reposts of the best of our previous years' holiday offerings. :D

Saturday evening update: YES, Christmases Past is now online.

I'm in experimental recipe mood today! Breakfast came out well, in as much as it was just a hardboiled egg, mashed up with mayonnaise and mustard and a chopped green onion for faux egg salad, spread over a dinner roll, with a side of cottage cheese (dear self - 1% store brand cottage cheese tastes like ASS. v_v)

The real experiment is going to be what I'm cooking for lunches next week. Here's the recipe so far, as it's been popped into the crock pot:

1 lb. boneless chicken, chopped up into bite sized pieces
1 bag coleslaw shredded cabbage (which has shredded carrots in it too... eh, whatever)
1/2 cup cooking white wine
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 shot sweet tea vodka
3 Tbsp butter
dark brown sugar
salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder

In a small (2quart?) crockpot:

brown the chicken in a few tablespoons of oil. layer half the bag of cabbage on the bottom. Cover with chicken pieces. sprinkle chicken with spices. If you still have room, add more cabbage to the top of the pot. Top with cut up chunks of butter (mine was frozen) and a layer of brown sugar (I'm not sure how much - not too thick, just sort of loosely covered. maybe 1/4 cup loosely packed?) Mix the wine, lemon juice and vodka - pour over everything. Cover and set on low and walk away.

I'll go back later to stir it and see what needs adding for flavor. I'm anticipating a sort of sweet and sour and alcoholic lemon chicken. Maybe. We'll see! This is experimental, after all! More reports later, when I know what it's doing.

Edit #1 - ahhahaha, I forgot how much cabbage cooks down! Added the rest of the bag of cabbage in after stirring it around, as there was room. Plenty of sauce forming at the bottom. Sauce is surprisingly sweet&sour TASTY. Yay!

Edit #2 - mostly successful! The sweet vs sour wasn't blending very well - taking a bite was OMGSWEET! followed by OMGSOUR! aftertaste. No middle ground. So I dredged all of the chicken and cabbage out of the pot, poured the sauce into a pan on the stove, added in about a teaspoon of ground ginger and a dash of cinnamon and a glug (yes, that's my technical term =P) of thai sweet-chili sauce, whisked it all around, added some corn starch to thicken it up, and tada! Not really "lemon", per se, but a decent sweet and sour oriental sauce that I poured over the chicken and cabbage and put the whole mess over rice. Works for me. ^_^

Headspace. Bar. Late evening.

( do I even remember how to work one of these things? )

Dear god, it's almost December! Where did the year GO??? x_x But 'la! The wishlist meme is going around the flist again, and I've got a few people pegged with "things I can maybe do", so I guess I should post mine.

1) Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 unlimited holiday wishes.

2) Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list.

( Some of my favorite things... )