Category: Life

Food, Life, Success Dinner

Success Dinner: Homemade (from scratch) Creamy Tomato Soup

R. Hamilton

So, hello everyone! I made something delicious in The Half Ginger Kitchen, my feet are killing me! I should actually be in bed but I just had to share what I made.

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Now, I don’t like using recipes. I really don’t. If someone can tell me how to do something that is different. I don’t like opening a cookbook and following a cookie cutter recipe. If I did that all the time there would be many houses on fire (see post  Chicken Fried Evil). Alton Brown, Paula Dean, and several others will never know the tears their recipes put me through. So, I’ve decided that I’m no longer following them. I’m making shit up as I go.

I did have to google the proper way to roast garlic, but I just needed temp for that. But that’s how far I took the seriousness of my from scratch soup. The only thing I didn’t do myself was the chicken stock and that’s because I didn’t have a chicken carcass to boil for a hour or two. But it still turned out AMAZINGLY AWESOME! Oh, and the cream. I used Kalispell Kreamery Half and Half. Not only to support a relative’s business, but because it’s some of the best stuff available.

So here it is.

Kas’ Soon to be Famous Homemade Creamy Tomato and Roasted Garlic Soup

Roast The Garlic:

Take a bunch of garlic, and peel off the skins. Keep the cloves together and some of the skin on them. Rub them with olive oil. Oven. 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 30-35 minutes.

Forget it until the timer goes off.

 

Chop Tomatoes and onions

I used 5 Roma tomatoes and about half an onion. I chopped them up into neat little bowls like on the Food Network.

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That’s the oven with the garlic in it.

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I got distracted while the garlic was roasting, but that’s okay. Because I got everything else prepped. Once the garlic is done, you should be able to take out the cloves from their husks by holding the end of the bunch and pushing on the butts of the cloves with a fork. Make sure it’s cooled first.

Then, mix 2 tablespoons of butter, the onion, and ‘some’ garlic (I literally just put some in it. I had chopped it up and put about 2 cloves in it, if we needed t be exact). You want to be a vulture here. Do not leave this alone. Use a low heat and stir constantly. I actually didn’t burn it, but knowing my luck I could have.

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This stage usually only takes about three minutes of stirring and not burning. If you burn it you must start over.

 

Next, we add our tomatoes and chicken stock. Now, I didn’t peel my tomatoes, and it made the soup chunky. So I highly recommend peeling the tomato. It doesn’t effect the flavor, but if you don’t mind a chunky soup don’t worry about it.

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It’s not going to look very good at this point, but GIVE IT TIME! It will look better. You can season it at this stage with salt and pepper, or you can wait until the end. I seasoned both here and the end. Bring this chunky mess to a boil and them let it simmer for a while. I think I did 8 minutes.

While that is simmering, dig around in your mother’s kitchen. “Why would I do that?” you may be wondering. Well, you do it BECAUSE you might find this:

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I was SO EXCITED! I was tripping over myself with excitement. Until, I realized it wasn’t working. I tried everything and it wouldn’t work. So after the simmer, I did this:

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I did it by HAND! I have a tendency to do things by hand anyway, but this was ridiculous. I stood there for a while, chunking away. More and more and more chunking. So that happened.

I then poured the soup back into the pot and added the delicious KK cream! Oh it was awesome! So whisk that in, and wha-la! Soup.

BUT! Then something else happened. I was re-assembling the food processor and I heard a click I hadn’t heard before. I checked the top of the bowl and BOOM!

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I didn’t realize that I needed to use more force to get it to work. So, I decided that it was okay and I RAN IT ANYWAY through the PROCESSOR! BOOM!

It got rid of more chunks and helped thicken the soup. It was awesome.

I topped it with parm cheese and it’s fabulous!

These are my dishes from the food processor, I wanted to show that I was actually able to use it!

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Yum yum yum in my tum!

 

Food, Life, Rant

“I love (food), It’s my favorite!”: A Story of Acceptance

R. Hamilton

So, I’ve discovered recently that I seem to love every single food I eat. I only noticed it when my grandmother mentioned it a few days ago. She said “Well, tonight we are going to have sauerkraut and polish sausage.” I responded “Oh I love sauerkraut, it’s one of my favorite foods!” She kinda gave me this look that I took as ‘Really?’ and said “Kas, you say every food is your favorite food.”

This made me think. Because I don’t think I say that about every food. I certainly don’t say that about Mayonnaise. I hate that stuff, unless it’s in tuna fish. Or swiss cheese, unless it’s melted on a Reuben. Bananas I like if there is ice cream surrounding it. 

I’m going through my food index right now trying to think of a food that I do not like and that I don’t like with anything else. I mean, Greek Yogurt would be an option, but I have never tried it with anything (like fruit and whatnot). I can’t say that I don’t like spinach, because I do, as long as it isn’t cooked. I could say sweet potatoes, but I like sweet potato fries. See, this is difficult.

Squash. It is the only food I can say that I don’t like, and I don’t like it with anything else. Unless you count pumpkin pie. But I’m not going to count pumpkin pie. I don’t exactly love it, it is good, but it is more of Bryant’s favorite pie. So we have discovered something that I do not like. Squash. Maybe one day I will find a dish that I like with squash in it, but until then it is the only food I can think of. 

So, the title says that this is a story of acceptance. In a way it is and I am getting to that, so thank you for sticking with me. 

I have never been a small person. Not in height, not in personality, and certainly not in weight. I am the kid that could have played basketball because of how tall I was. I never played basketball, I just don’t care for it. Being taller than everyone else never played into my favor. I was made fun of a lot. It effected every aspect of my life. I didn’t have many friends, I had three grade school friends as a constant (Erica, Josh, and Ben) and in Middle School I met Dee and Arika. Soon, Josh moved and Ben was in a different grade team than I was on. We still saw each other but it was mostly at football games and lunch. Then Erica left our group, and joined who I have determined to call “Them”. “Them” were people who made fun of your size, the clothes you wore, they way you talked. “Them” made me hate myself and everything about me. I ate to comfort myself and then I would hate myself for eating, because it would never fix the problem. I would go out in the summer, but avoid popular places. I hung out with the same people until I left in the eighth grade. I thought this would a turning point in my life, I was starting a new school where no one knew me and it was going to be different. 

BUT! It wasn’t. I felt the capital letters there would break up the somber mood I wasn’t going for. But I like said this is a story of acceptance. The rest of my junior high year sucked as well. High school got better, the reason being, because I stopped giving a fuck (Mum, I apologise for my use of crass language). It’s true really, I did what I wanted, listened to what I wanted and plain stopped caring about other people. The only person who could decide what I was going to be me, was me. 

I developed a cover for the raw, broken, and insecure girl that I had been. The cover I developed kept her safe and made me appear to be a strong and confident person. The cover didn’t care if people didn’t like me, if people talked about me. And I grew comfortable with it. It’s different when you see other people do something, and it looks so easy. It’s easier to do something when you see yourself do it. 

I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense.  But to me it does. I was able to observe myself doing things. I like to say that I live in both the first and third person. I watch myself do things while I’m doing them so that I know I can do them. That’s the easiest way I can say it. It helped me grow as a person and I am happy with it.

This process helped me understand that it doesn’t matter how much I weigh, how tall I am, or how much I eat that I am just damn fine the way I am. Sure I may be on the heavier side, so what. I think I just needed more room for the awesome. 

 

I still struggle with myself time to time. But I’m the only one who is allowed to put me there. The world is not my oyster, because then everything would smell awful. I have all I need. 🙂

Food, Life

Adventures In Baking and Other Tall Tales

R. Hamilton

So, Hello everyone. It has been a few days. Longer than a few days. But I’m somewhat settled in Montana, Bryant isn’t here with me and I miss him like when you miss the bus and you’re late to work and nothing in the whole world can make up for the loss and anxiety you feel. I miss him like that. 

I do have a job, finally. I work at Super 1 Foods Bakery. It’s a really fun job, really labor intensive though. I’ve made tons of things. I can’t take pictures of my adventures though, because I can’t have my phone in the bakery with me. So instead of taking pictures of all the muffins, breads, and icings I make I just get to hold onto them in my mind and you can live vicariously through my thoughts. 

My first day at work was hectic. I had no idea what to expect from it and I can’t tell you now that a bakery is more than doughnuts. I’m still hoping for a better job though. If I can get a really great one that isn’t seasonal, then Bryant and I can be together again. I don’t care if we live here in Montana, or we live over in Washington. I just want to be with him.

Day two in the bakery, we actually finished early. So they sent me around cleaning everything and boy was that a load off. I still don’t know when things come in or when shipments are arranged. I just know I’m told to do something and I do it. But yeah, finished early on my second day. That is pretty cool!

I hung out with a friend of mine last night. I really missed hanging out with her. We talked for a long while, had a nice country rib dinner, and then had FroYo. She’s such a great person! She’s been one of the greatest friends that I have had my entire life. Her husband is pretty cool too. I’m really glad I have both of them in my life.

I stopped drinking soda (for the most part). I have been drinking Cascade Ice Naturally Flavored Sparking Water. I like the Pomegranate Mango and Raspberry Lemon flavors. All that is in it is water, carbonation, and fruit extract. That is IT! And it’s really tasty. The carbonation doesn’t last as long as soda so when I go to drink it I drink more of it than I would soda. I drink soda for bubbles, I drink this instead. Needs more bubbles. 

I’m sorta planning on starting an herb garden. I do want to and I don’t want too. The reason I do want to is because I love growing things. I don’t want to start one if I move back to Washington and I can’t bring them with me. So i’m torn on that.  

But everything is going well. There is a huge chunk of my life still in WA. And I miss him all the time. I can’t wait to see him again, and I hope that we can be together again no later than summer’s end. 

 

Life

You Have Arrived At Your Destination

R. Hamilton

So, hello everyone! It is an hour later in the day, but isn’t. People say it’s cold, but it isn’t. And I have been in Montana for a little over 24 hours! It was a pretty nice trip. Iwas  listening to “Outlander” as an audio book and I gladly thank my former government and psychology teacher for recommending it. It’s a little slow when I’m listening to it, but the story is really good. The narrator is Davina Porter, she’s okay but her voice was a little irritating over the ~14 hour trip. She does the male voices incredibly well, but makes Claire, the main character, sound awful. It was fine in the beginning, but after a continuous 12 hours (because I also listened to some music and “Herbert West – Reanimator” read by Wayne June and written by H.P. Lovecraft) of her voice it started to bug me. I’ve just got the the part where she was trying to run away from Jamie (Which is a stupid decision, that man is AMAZING) to be with a man that looked just like a vile man (because they are related) which I would think is a terrible idea. I mean, seriously, this evil man reminds you of a husband that hasn’t technically been born yet, so you want to go back to your husband. Could you imagine her going back and everytime her husband gets irritated or mad she would be reminded of the vile man ( I can’t actually remember his name. He isn’t as bad as Joffery though. I hate that guy.) But, I’m only half way through the audio book so hopefully Claire stops making terrible decisions and stays with the sexy hunk of Scotland that she’s also married. I’ve just realized I have forgotten the time travel element, which would have been an important thing to tell you because nothing I have said really makes any sense. But there you go.

So it’s a good book, It’s my kinda book. I wasn’t exactly prepared for the sexy parts. That’s usually not in the books I read, so of course I giggled immaturely when they buzzed into my ears. But it was fun. Through the next couple of days I’m going to try to finish it, but I don’t really sit for long periods of time with nothing to do but listen to an audio book. I tried reading and listening to it and boy did the plot get a tad twisted and confusing. 

The train was pretty uneventful, although I did get to see an orca whale. At least part of one. I saw it in the Puget Sound. It was cool. I tried writing on the way and I was distracted by the water. I like looking at water, I don’t like being in large bodies of it. I saw a lot of deer too. I like deer.

I slept yesterday from 10 – 4 pm, it was nice. A real bed, even if the mattress is a little softer than I’m used too. Cora is still a cutie, even if she’s the size of a boulder. She’s a cute boulder. She all stocky and wide. Absolutely ADORABLE!

Odie is still with us too. His age is showing but he’s still is as cute as ever. He has senior moments a lot and he doesn’t hear well. He’ll be 15 this Nov-Dec. I think. He’s such a good little dog.

Hopefully I will have a special post coming soon. I purchased a Loot Crate this month and I plan on doing a special Half Ginger unboxing!

Life

Trip Destination EXPOSED!

R. Hamilton

So, since I leave in the morning, I thought I would tell you all where I am going. I am going to…

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Specifically, Columbia Falls! I’m excited!

I’m hoping to find work there so that Bryant and I can finally stop living with our parents and have our own place again. I totally appreciate everything that his family has done for us and everything my family has done for me, but I am tired of not having my own place. I get to see the family tuesday morning at the train station in Whitefish and I can’t wait. I haven’t seen anyone in over a year and I miss everyone terribly. 

There is a lot I have missed out on. People I will never see again and people who I’m not too sure want to see me. It’s a big step going back to find work and I’m going to soldier on until I’m in a good place again. 

SO! My next post will be from my home town! See you all then!

Life

Packing

R. Hamilton

So, last few days have been BUSY! I have been ‘packing’ for the past two. I say packing in quotes because I’ve been procrastinating as I do it. Unfortunately, I have forgotten what procrastinating means. Last night I had a bag packed, and I unpacked it last night as well. I was not fully prepared for the task. BUT, I have space bags to help me out. They are roll out or vac out the air space bags… The vac out is significantly more efficient for space. I have two bags that I vacuum the air out and one that I roll the air out. My sea bag doesn’t hold as much as I had thought, but it holds more than I originally thought.  I almost forgot my sneakers, so I had to make room for those. The suitcase that I purchased is just big enough to hold my underwear and socks (that’s also where I put the sneakers). What I thought was a lot of room isn’t all that much room. I’m leaving some stuff that I wanted to take here to save a little bit of room. 

I really want to take yarn with me, even though I know I shouldn’t. I want to start making farmer’s market bags for the summer time. I think people would appreciate them. Not sure what kind of pattern I’m going to use, or if I’m going to do it at all, but we’ll find out. 

I am going to miss Bryant. He’s playing it off like it isn’t a big deal that I’m leaving. Which is fine, I wish I was the same way. Hopefully I can find work where I am going and he can join me soon. He means the world to me.

But, enough with the sentimental blogging. I have to vacuum out the bags again. Like I said I repacked them last night but it was about 1 a.m. and it was too late in the night to use the vacuum. I’m looking forward to this trip.

Apparently it is legal to bodily eject someone from public transportation in the state of Washington. So, there is your fun fact of the day. 

Bryant’s dad told me that last night when I shared the story of the crazy lady on the train. Crazy Lady is a real person, she cause a real incident, and she called me a wizard when I was on a train. I’m going to share the story with you all.

I leave Portland, Ore. at 4:45 p.m. Regular time, everything is on schedule. We ride for a few hours, make a few stops. We haven’t reached Spokane yet if I remember correctly. It’s late at night, so late a lot of people are asleep. This woman starts walking the train, pointing and whispering at people at she walks but no one really takes any notice of her… Until she starts screaming that is. She starts telling people things like “Wizards use computers, you must be a wizard.” She’s just creeping everyone out by now. A few people are disgruntled, but she walks out of our train car and goes somewhere else, everyone relaxes slightly. Then… THEN, the woman comes back with full force, she is shouting and throwing things about, she tries to take this poor kids computer demanding to know if he is a wizard. I was also called a wizard but I avoid her at all costs. The woman starts throwing trash behind her and up in the air. The conductor finally arrives and tries to calm her down. A man across the aisle tries to interject like most people who don’t know how to handle a difficult person and situation. He starts trying to ‘give the conductor advice’ about how to handle what’s going on and he isn’t making much sense. The conductor tells him to return to his seat and he tries to argue, but sits back down. The conductor gets the woman down stairs into where the bathrooms are and you can hear the woman screaming at the top of her lungs.

Eventually, the train starts to slow. We see flashing lights in the distance. We hear sirens. Police board the train. The start to inspect the trashcan and what not, they go back to the lower level of the train and we hear the woman being arrested. It was fun.

And that’s how I learned that it is legal to bodily eject someone from public transportation in the state of Washington, including Amtrak.

So today I will resume packing and hopefully get everything squared away. I’ll have to sort through my suitcase and decide what I don’t want to take with me. It’s a stressful time but hopefully it will be worth it when I get a job. 

Life

Rodney The Bear

R. Hamilton

So, I have a bear. His name is Rodney. Those two sentences eerily remind me of something that I had to write in the first grade about my favorite thing. Without the ‘so’ part. But, back to Rodney.

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That is Rodney. He is about 22 years old (give or take a few months). I have NEVER gone anywhere without him. Every move I have ever made, every trip I have ever taken, every new house I have lived in, I have had Rodney. 

I recently had to pull him out of storage, as I don’t want to have him in Bryant’s parents house because I don’t want their dogs to eat him. Because I would be so incredibly heart-broken that I would probably cease to have a happy day. I’m not even being hyperbolic for the most part. Rodney has been a crucial part of my life.

Bryant think it’s funny. He says that he has seen it more in girls. That we usually have a blanket or a teddy bear. But, Rodney is more than a Teddy Bear. He is a part of me. He is a constant that I have come to rely on for emotional support. We’ve gone across borders together. He’s the best little bear that a girl could need. 

This isn’t really a humorous tirade like I usually go off on, but a sentimental one. This time next week I will be on a train headed for new things.

I’m planning a few daily posts for the future. I’m hoping to have ‘Reading Room Mondays’ where I talk about a book I read over the weekend/week. Things like that. 

 

Life, Short Post

Update: Half Ginger Goes On An Adventure (a.k.a. The Trip)

R. Hamilton

So, here I am at 5:00 am and I’m updating my blog. “Why?” You may ask. Well, it’s because I’ve booked my ticket for my trip. Yep, that’s right, it’s happening. I’m still not going to tell you where I am going though. It will ruin the suprise!

But I did buy a new suitcase today. It’s smaller, as I’m trying not to take a whole lot with me. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. Isn’t that exciting? It came with an extra little bag too, which is nice. The one I fell in love with, well, I should have checked the price before I left the store. It was $140 and it was 50% off. The one I got, in green of course, was $70 at 50% off. AND, I got two bags instead of one. Pretty nifty in my opinion.

I also got a discount on my ticket, about 25% off. Which was STELLAR!

So, ticket is bought, luggage is… empty. I leave on the 22nd.

FUN TIMES!

Life

The Trip List

R. Hamilton

So (as I begin every post, mostly) there is a chance that I might be going on a trip soon. A really awesome trip. I’m not going to say where my trip may take me because if it doesn’t happen. I don’t want to disappoint all you readers and be all “WHHHHAAAA I’m going to this stellar place and I can’t wait to go and everything is magic and rainbows!” So, nope not telling. BUT! I do need to make a list of things that I’m going to take. So, that’s pretty much what this post will be about. I needed something to write about and I needed a place to put my list. I thought about buying new luggage too, but I don’t think that’s financially responsible right now.

List:

  • Toothbrush
  • Socks
  • Computer
  • Shoes
  • Undies
  • Camera (if I can find it)
  • Pants
  • Shirts
  • Phone and Charger
  • Bacon (probably not)
  • Crochet Stuff
  • Other stuff that I may find important

Apparently…. I need to get things together. I’m hesitating on buying my ticket away, to tell you the truth. I’ve never been nervous travelling, really ever. I’m nervous this time and it’s because I think it’s a last ditch effort to pull myself out of the rut I have found myself in. But I’m going to make the best of it. The longer I wait, the less money I’m going to have. So, the sooner the better.

Bryant and I have talked about it extensively. Since we’ve been together, we haven’t really been apart. He supports my trip though, and I really appreciate it. So,I’ve made a list. I have to fit it in to the bags that I have. I’ll have more money if I don’t buy new luggage… even though we found this amazing black luggage set with green piping. Oh my goodness it was amazing to look at… and it was on sale. I didn’t look at the price though, because I didn’t want to see it and be all in love and then be let down. Man, I love containers.

Life

The Gym And Why I Hate It

R. Hamilton

As some of you know I joined a gym back in January, you may not have known that I joined it in January, but now you do. The first month of my gym membership I went once. Yep a whole one time. It was hard to make time after work and everything, as I wasn’t sleeping much at night and when I got off work all I wanted to do was sleep. So that’s what I did. My mum, who is awesome, was really supportive of me joining the gym and I thought that was pretty cool. She sent me all sorts of cool little motivators. I went a few more times in February, not as many as to constitute how much I was paying for it though. Bryant’s mum joined our gym goings though, and we’ve been going quite a few times a week now (or at least trying too, it isn’t always constant). 

Yesterday… Yesterday the gym kicked my ass. I’m not kidding. It hurts to move today. The reason for the ass kicking is because I am quite lazy when it comes to working out. I would run sometimes on the tredmill (usually 30 minutes or so) or do a tad on the eliptical (also an ass kicker) but that was the majority of my working out. Until yesterday. I started weight training yesterday. I didn’t start with the 5 pound weights either. I started with 20. I can lift somethings, I don’t have a problem lifting bags of potatoes or anything like that, so starting out with 20 (well, 20 on each side of the bar) was pretty good. I did 3 reps of 12 and the first sign of how much I neglected my poor arm muscles… My left arm decided it didn’t want to participate anymore. It just decided that it wasn’t going to bend or be lifted. So of course the right arm decides the same thing shortly after. I move my arms as best I can in a way that can only be described as ‘octopus on drugs’. I sat down at the next weight machine and continued with my pattern of 3 sets of 12. My arms dropped on my last set at 10. I took a short break. I glanced in one of the horrid mirrors that gyms keep around so people can watch themselves fail. I could see the muscle in my arm cramp. I was liking watching a car accident. You see it happening and there is nothing that you can do to prevent it. I saw a bulge start to form under my skin, I knew what was going to happen right before my arm felt like it was on fire and being stung by a horde of angry dragon bees. For those of you who don’t know, dragon bees are a hybrid of a dragon and a bee. It spits fire and stings you at the same time causing HUGE amounts of pain. It’s even worse when it came from my imagination and I know that I’m just going to mutate the creature of pain further. But back to to story, my arms are on fire. Bryant helped my rub out the cramp in my arm, and the dragon bees disappeared. I knew they would be back, in greater numbers and more mutations. I sat down on the next machine, this one required that I reach up and pull down to work my back muscles. Easy enough, I thought as I sat down and began. It was entirely too easy, I assumed there had to be a catch. The catch, was bringing your arms back down to a resting position when you were done. Apparently while up in the air my arms had decided that they were not done rebelling and that they would rather stay in the up-right position and play freeze tag, with much less tag and more freezing. It was a slow bring down but the were eventually safe and back at my sides. A few muscle cramps later and I was done with lifting. With my arms anyway. Next was the legs.

Now my legs are in relatively good shape, they carry most of me around during the day and help e do menial tasks such as lifting. The legs were easy, I was thinking that the rest would be a breeze. I did calf extenders, knee lifts, and inner and outer hip adductions. It was awesome. Until I woke up this morning!

So, I didn’t sleep last night. CT kept my up with the utter nagging that I had spent the hours before lifting things that it didn’t think I needed to be lifting. Some Aleve and a rotation of the wrist braces proved to get it to shut up at about 6 am. I go to sleep.

Waking up was the hard part. I couldn’t move my fingers. I was able to lift my forearm and touch Bryant. He asked if I was ready to get up. His voice was pretty distant. I tried to move my legs and it hurt, moving my arms hurt, and once I was able to get the fingers going, they hurt too. I grumbled into my pillow, feeling like I had been hit by a truck and put back to bed again. 

So I was up and moving around eventually, I can’t sit in the same position too long, and I’ve discovered muscles that I  wasn’t fully aware that I had. 

I don’t really hate the gym. It is a place where I can go and work the muscles that have been neglected for a very long time. I just wish I didn’t hurt. But I’m off to the gym here pretty soon so that should be an interesting event.