Fish Chowder

I love seafood chowder. Years ago, someone gave me a great potato soup recipe that lends itself to a great base for any sort of chowder. Seafood is delicious and often healthy, but can be cost prohibitive. Using it in chowders is a great way to get great flavor with minimum investment, because you can use so many types of seafood to make it. Clams, shrimp, fish, or even with potatoes and vegetables alone, it’s a creamy and hearty meal-style soup for cold days.

I found a good deal on a 2 pound bag of frozen Swai, and used half of it to make this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium potatoes
• 3 carrots
• 4 stalks celery
• 2 medium onions
• 1 lb Swai (or white fish)
• 1 stick butter
• 1.5 C of milk/cream
• 1 C water
• 1 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoons pepper
• Chopped fresh parsley (or 2 tablespoons dried)
• Optional: 1 can sweet corn

Thrifty Finds – 19-Jan-2020 “Nautical”

So, I’ve been playing with going more “Coastal Cottage”, even though I’m land locked. I was raised near the coast, and miss some things about that. From a design perspective, it really just means adding a little more red into the house and some nautical themed pieces. It all started with a cross-stitch styled throw featuring a number of famous light houses. Then I found a decorative anchor that I put over the fireplace. Then a few pieces with rope themes.

Today I was thrifting and looking for a better wax melting pot. I found two fish themed kitchen pieces. At first I passed them up. Then decided I had to have the silver platter. Then realized for a few dollars more I could own the blue hot plate. In addition to being “nautical”, it’s the deep blue as well. It comes ready to hang, so I just need to decide where it will look best.

Cat Food Can(dles) and Decluttering

I was given a load of food by a friend who was going on vacation and didn’t want to toss it or leave it till she got back. There was no way I could use it all myself, but I gave it a try. At the end of a week and a half, though, it was time to clean out the fridge and toss whatever wasn’t eaten or cooked.

I was in one of those “get rid of it” moods, which is always the best mood to be in for cleaning clutter. But I ended up with a lot of containers–glass and plastic. I decided to clean them out and think about how to use them.

Some of the glass ones, I filled with drawer clutter–old batteries and screws that had been in an old broken plastic box. So they are now serving as drawer organizers.

Meanwhile, I had two large containers of hair conditioner and one of shampoo sitting on the edge of my tub. I always buy the larger sizes because the price is better. But then I end up with big clunky bottles, sometimes with just a little bit left. I don’t actually care for that, but never thought about how to make it better. So, I took two plastic mustard containers, one with a small opening, and one with a larger opening, and I transferred my shampoo into one, and emptied both the large conditioners into the other. I like having two small bottles as opposed to the three big ones now. And I am keeping the larger shampoo bottle under the sink for refills till it’s empty. Curly hair doesn’t require as much shampooing, so I don’t need a lot around all the time.

Embrace Race: “Mommying While Muslim”: Raising Healthy Muslim Children in a Post-9/11 World

Jan 28, 2020, 8:30 PM — Eastern Time (US and Canada)

I like this particular group and the seminars they offer. It seems like a good idea to support and promote them here at the blog; so, for folks who are focused on unlearning racism, “Embrace Race” is a great resource.

Here is the link to register for this particular seminar. And here is the description, to help you decide if you’re interested. If you can’t make it to the actual seminar, you will be notified when the recorded version is available, if you are registered.

Description: A child born on September 11, 2001 is a young adult now. Which is to say that every Muslim child in the US today has grown up in the shadow of 9-11 and the deep hostility directed by so many against her identity and against Islam. Join us for a conversation with the hosts of the Mommying While Muslim podcast about how they, and mothers and families in their networks, have mobilized to meet the challenge of raising healthy, resilient Muslim children in an age marked by anti-Muslim hate crimes, school bullying, and travel bans. Between them, Uzma and Zaiba are parents to eight children between the ages of 4 and 17. They’ll offer their insights and perspectives and, as always, we’ll invite you to share yours – and your questions – as well

Additional anti-racism resources are also available at this site.

Auschwitz Memorial on Twitter

While I believe it’s important to remember lessons from the past, it doesn’t help to traumatize people or distress someone who is already dealing with depression. So just a heads up that if you find specific Holocaust stories upsetting, you may want to skip this post. I know that you can understand what happened and be dedicated to making sure we don’t let it happen again, without diving deeply into the specific stories of horror that happened in the past.

That being said, there is something inside me that believes that some of us, if we can cope, should remember these victims, on an individual level, so that their deaths don’t become statistics. These were human beings. Some of them, like Claude Alexander, may have only been human beings for a very short time–but they were people who deserved dignity and compassion and remembrance.

Springwoods Park

Friday afternoon I took my cat, Mr. Kibbles, to a new vet down on Anderson Mill. On the way there, I noticed a park on the side of the road. It’s one of those things I drive past now and then but don’t fully notice. So, I decided I’d go back and check it out, just to see what it’s like.

For some perspective, here is a shot of the road from the park entrance, showing how suburban the area just outside this park actually is.

I’d say it’s actually a well maintained and holds a surprising number of amenities for such a compact space. If you don’t live in North Austin, I wouldn’t go out of my way for it, but if you are in the area around Anderson Mill, and like days in the park, it’s worth checking out.

Candle Experiment – Remnant Candles

Let me start by saying I do not make candles, and this is not a “how to” instructional article. It’s more a “here’s what I tried, whether it works or not” post. I’ve been reading about making candles, because I have a load of cat food cans, and was thinking of reusing them as candle holders.