A Watched Pot NEVER Boils…

(Quick) COOKING ADVENTURE #67: Garlic Chicken Sausage Pasta with Asparagus

It’s taken me some time to do get up the nerve to write this Cooking Adventure. I say this because I’ve recently been battling with the nastiest stomach bug known to man. Everything that could possibly seem delicious is immediately revolting in my mind. I’ve been subsisting on a diet of crackers, bananas, and muffins. Whenever I try to eat anything else, I immediately become nauseated. It seems to be closely tied to the migraine that I’ve been fighting the last couple of days. So you can imagine that it hasn’t been easy for me to relive the experience of a meal with so many strong flavors, some of which just don’t mesh with an upset sensitive stomach. It’s quite sad because this really is a wonderful recipe. A friend from work had made it several weeks ago and gave me the recipe to make. I made it twice. The first time, I had no issue. The second time however… well, that’s when this stomach bug popped up. I have the feeling that I will be avoiding asparagus and goat cheese for quite some time after this episode. I can’t even say their names without getting sick. Urgh.

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Inspiration Through Music: Bersarin Quartett

Ambient music can be one of the most inspiring genre’s of music in my opinion. It’s filled with various sounds and instrumentals in some cases all constructed in a way that ask for you to look beyond the melody and rhythm. You can see things happening to each and every unusual noise that happens. The music is meant to be background noise, it’s meant to keep your ears on alert. What I’ve always found with listening to ambient music is that my ears are able to recognize a lot of these various sound effects and translate them into scenery for my writing. When the ambient music is mixed with classical, it trancends a level of beauty that I find very hard to describe. Any piece of music that can stimulate my inspiration but also be enjoyable to listen to on its own is always, in my opinion, brilliant. Very recently, with Spotify as my tool for finding new music, I was introduced to the works of Bersarin Quartett. I’ve never been so excited about ambient music so much.

Madagascar Hissing Meatloaf

COOKING ADVENTURE #66: Epic Meatloaf

Two weeks. I’ve been waiting two weeks to make this damn meatloaf. This heavenly concoction wrapped in celestial bacon, and coated in a divine ketchup brown sugar glaze has been on my mind day and night. And while I underwent my search for a new vehicle, I kept hoping that I’d be lucky enough to have some time here to get groceries and time there to actually make the meatloaf. Well, finally tonight, my time came. And the finished product didn’t disappoint one bit. I allowed it to bake as I tuned into the live coverage of the manhunt for the last suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. It was a tense, edge of your seat evening in more ways than one. I’m just glad that everything turned out okay in the end. As the crowds in Boston cheered as the suspect was apprehended alive, I, too, cheered as my meatloaf came out of the oven looking like the best thing I’d seen all week (besides my new car, of course.)

Playing Catch Up…

Hello, folks. Well, as some of you know, IZZE 3, my Kia, has officially died and I’ve been on the search for a new vehicle for the last week and a half. I’ve managed to find a wonderful Nissan Versa that will become the latest incarnation of IZZE. Because I’ve been without rides to the grocery store and have been driving all over the place with my parents in search of a new vehicle, I haven’t had the time or resources to do a Cooking Adventure or an Inspiration Through Music blog. That situation will be remedied tonight. I plan to execute the Cooking Adventure and then write about it and have it up tonight. Inspiration Through Music will hopefully follow it if it isn’t too late in the evening for me. But since I live in Maine and nine o’clock is universally regarded as “late”, the blog might follow Saturday night.

Apologies for those who have been sitting on the edges of their seats in anticipation for a new Cooking Adventures blog. The last thing I wanted (or needed) right now was for my car to go and die on me. When I’ve had it less than a year. And after I’d finished replacing half of the other parts on it. Let’s just say that they guy who sold it to me is a REAL piece of work and hopefully won’t be selling cars to anyone else because he knows absolutely NOTHING about how to properly fix them. And when I say “piece of work” I mean it by the number 3 definition: this definition.

*clears throat* Now that I’ve vented a little bit, I feel slightly better. Slightly.

Stay tuned tonight for Cooking Adventures. Meatloaf. It’s going to be amazing…because of bacon. If it’s not, I’m going to curl up in a fetal position and cry.

~KSilva

Inspiration Through Music: Brandi Carlile

Just like driving, I have a very hard time trying to write a scene without music playing unless its a very specific scene that requires silence. In the car, I need there to be some other noise besides the rolling of tires on asphalt, the rush of air as cars pass, and the obnoxious honking of other vehicles wanting you to get out of their way. And just like when your driving, it’s good to find the right music for your mindset and the trip you’re about to take. In my current project, Night Time, Dotted Line, the entire novel is about two characters traveling from one coast of the United States to the other and the things they come across along the way. The whole novel basically takes place on the road. In my search to find good road music, I came across a song that I’d almost completely forgotten about who fits both of the characters perfectly, Brandi Carlile.

Weekly Update

So folks, there is a situation that limits me from doing my Cooking Adventure’s blog… which is a Greek tragedy. My car has yet again developed a problem and is in the shop… probably for the weekend. This means, I’m not going to be able to go to the grocery store to get the ingredients to make that amazing meatloaf that was supposed to be this week. Perhaps if someone wonderful gives me a ride to the grocery store Saturday night or Sunday, then I can do it this weekend. But not before then. Sorry.

As far as Inspiration Through Music goes, I apologize for that not being up sooner. I’ll hope to have that up by tomorrow Saturday evening.

Thanks for understanding!

~KSilva

EDIT: As of today, I’ve found out that the transmission in my car is gone. I will now have to find a new car this coming week. I apologize for any delays in getting posts up. Hopefully, this car crisis will end in me finding something that is dependable, but also something that I’ll want to drive. (I’m hoping for a used Mini Cooper… but I’m open to other options.)

Flying Over the Cuckoo Cake

COOKING ADVENTURE # 65: Easter Nest Cake

You may be shaking your head while looking at the above picture and saying to yourself, “What is that thing?” If you are a supreme chocoholic, you’re probably drooling into your lap saying, “UMMM… Yes, please!” Believe it or not, my reaction is closer to the first one I mentioned. I was tasked with making some kind of a dessert for Easter… which was only a few days after my brother’s birthday. So, bare in mind that we’ve just had a rich Tetris-themed birthday cake not a couple days earlier. And the first thought of what I could come up with for Easter was… “Hmm… Why not cake again!?” …Bad idea, Katherine. Bad idea. I’ll be clear. Nothing was wrong with the cake per say. But when the last one (along with copious amounts of alcohol and coffee has caused your ulcer to be unhappy) the last thing you should do is feed the dragon, so to speak. But I went ahead and did it anyway… just to see if I could. Oh… I definitely could.

Inspiration Through Music: Fink

Every time I do one of these Inspiration Through Music blogs, I wonder what it is that my readers get out of reading this. Besides discovering new music, there is an appreciation that I hold for all of these different artists, soundtracks, and styles of music. There is something in them that, no matter what they are, helps me to be able to write, to do what I love to do. In a way, they assist in a kind of weekly writing exercise that is great practice at keeping my mind sharp. Working a busy schedule, I don’t always have a moment to sit down and work on my books. I’ve got groceries, cleaning, cooking, and the obligatory playing with the lemon-eyed demon. It’s nice when I can just sit down, turn on some music, close my eyes, and be able to just “feel” where a song is taking me. Not only “feel” the song, but be able to translate what I’m seeing into words. I had the pleasure of being able to do that this week while listening to Fink, someone I discovered only a couple weeks ago.