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Angela’s Broccoli Rabe (rapini)

Broccoli rabe – pronounced rob – (raab, rapini) is an odd vegetable. It is bitter like kale, but sort of has a broccoli taste as well. You can also find Broccolini™ a trademarked hybrid of broccoli and chard, which is similar. We tried it for the first time at home and loved it! Here is the recipe to make a delicious side dish!

2 bunches broccoli rabe (it cooks down A LOT)
1 medium onion, frenched
3 cloves garlic, minced
butter
olive oil
salt
pepper
2 Tbl grated parmesan (reggiano is best!)

First, bring a big pot of water to the boil and add a liberal amount of salt. While the water is coming to temp, rinse the rabe, remove woody stems and cut into 2″ pieces. Blanch the rabe in the boiling salted water for about a minute, then strain into a colander and rinse with cold water.

In a large skillet, put in about 1Tbl of olive oil and 2Tbl of butter over medium flame. When the butter is melted, add onions and garlic. Sweat the veg (watch the heat and reduce if they are starting to brown, you want translucent, not brown) until limp. Add in the broccoli rabe and turn up the heat a bit. Don’t burn your onions/garlic. Saute until rabe starts to cook down, getting soft. Salt and pepper to taste. Easy on the salt since you’re adding a couple of tablespoons of parmesan NOW.

An excellent side to beef and potatoes!

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American Politics and Other Follies

First off, Americans are notoriously uneducated when it comes to politics. Most don’t even know about third parties and most don’t even know who they are voting for at all. It’s a sad state that this country is in, my friends.

Politics in America have been increasingly encroached upon by religion. This is a disturbing fact and it’s one that can lead this country to ruin. If you’ll read some history, you’ll notice the influence of religion leading to the downfall of many empires. The Roman empire is a notable one. It astonishes me that a country founded upon separation of church and state has ended up almost as much a theocracy as any country in the Middle East. There’s a very detailed book about this: American Theocracy by Phillips. It’s a dry read with lots of statistics, but an eye opener nonetheless.

While we’re on the subject of reading, another book I’d HIGHLY recommend is Reckless Endangerment by Morgenson, et. al. This book is a detailed account of just how we ended up getting screwed by our own government, who allowed the greed of banking and Wall Street to run rampant. You Democrats out there who seem to think that the whole of all evil is rooted in the Republican party need to understand that it was Bill Clinton and his cronies who allowed this to happen in the first place. ALL the events that came down in 2008 and brought us to the brink of destruction as a country go back to the Clinton days.

If Americans would READ and educate themselves, perhaps our government could be held accountable, but as it is, the politicians know that by bringing in religion and class warfare they can keep stupid Americans distracted and do as they please. Continue reading “American Politics and Other Follies”

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AOL 2.0

It saddens me that Facebook has become AOL 2.0. People never leave there. I’ve watched my blog stats erode horribly since FB has taken over the goddam internet.

I am a Twitter girl, I admit it. I tend to hang out more on Twitter than anywhere else. I like the immediacy of it and the massive amounts of information that flows in the stream. It’s perfect for news junkies like me.

It pains me that the various social sites have pretty much ruined blogging as we know it. If I don’t cross post to FB that I made a BLOG post, it will quite literally never get read. I has a sad about that. Truly.

I would leave FB altogether if not for the pages I run and the sad fact that no one would ever read this blog if I didn’t link to it from there. ;_;

Having a FB page has become more important than a website these days – so FB would have you believe. I just have to disagree. While YES, FB is free and has billions of eyeballs, I still think a site is better if you actually want people to FIND you via search. Site + FB + Twitter = good coverage, IMO. For ALL of these, you gotta work it! Especially FB and Twitter.

As for the other social sites begging for eyeballs and time, here’s my take on them:

Google Plus: I tried, I really did. If they made it work BOTH WAYS so I could post TO it as well as FROM it, it would be relevant to me. But since G+ expects you to drop everything and use it exclusively. Well, NO. Just NO.

Pinterest: I just don’t see the point. It’s been said that Pinterest is for FB people who can’t read. I would have to agree. I tend to post articles and stuff, not just a picture. Not for me.

Formspring: The Ask Me Anything site. It was interesting for about 10 minutes. Again, I just don’t see the point.

Instagram: Hipster hangout. ‘Nuff said.

Tumblr: I think this is trying to give more of a blog feel. Don’t need it, I’ve GOT a blog. Redundant.

iMood: An OLDIE but a goodie. I’ve used iMood since my very first blog back in 1998. It’s silly and I love it. Very old skool.

Twitpic: I use this to post pix on Twitter. Twitter is going to “phase out” (read: fuck over) all third party apps soon, so I guess twitpic will be going away. I may keep using it anyway. I’ve got a lot of pix over there!

LiveJournal: Still crosspost to it and still read several feeds there. I still have a soft spot for LJ, despite the huge number of truly fucked up people there. :)

MySpace: MyWho? Ha! Rumour has it that MS is trying to relaunch as a music hub rather than the sad excuse for social media it became. I deleted that profile long ago. I hope it works out as a music hub, tho. We need one.

And my take on other online resources that we use:

WordPress: I love using WP for my blog. I also love that you can get a FREE BLOG over at wordpress.com if you don’t want to mess with software, etc.

Etsy: Where my little handmade earring shop (Boneless Cat Designs) is hosted. I like Etsy for the most part. I hope they don’t let it become overrun with commercial people and screw up the handmade vibe.

Spreadshirt: Our comics T Shirts provider. They do good work, although not particularly cheaply. We don’t do enough volume to order shirts in bulk, so the print on demand availability of SS is perfect for us.

Storenvy: Where the rest of our comics shwag is located. Ease of use and FREE are the keys to Storenvy. If we were bigger, we’d do something else, but for small biz, Storenvy totally rocks!

I realise that the FB people probably didn’t even read to the end of this post. It’s long and it talks about stuff other than Facebook, after all. Facebook is the new AOL. And it’s a shame that so many people really don’t even know what they are missing! It’s a big internet, people. Why not leave the safety of FB and explore? FB really is NOT the internet. I promise.

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The Paradox of Being Fat and Healthy

There was an article about a news anchor who got a snarky email from a dude who said she should not have a public job because she’s fat. (It’s here at Upworthy.) From that article, I found fatnutritionist.com. This site’s author reflects what I’ve been saying for years: you can be fat and healthy.

For the record, I *do* think dieting is a huge problem. I have dieted my whole life and I think it’s what started and ensures my obesity. I think starving so much when I was young messed up my metabolism. I also think that genetics has a HUGE impact on your body type and how much weight you’ll carry. You can NOT fight genetics, people.

I’ve been called fat my WHOLE LIFE. And that’s not a lie, I have BEEN fat my whole life. I was called Fat Pratt in elementary school (this is the first time I’ve publicly admitted that, btw). In High School, I ate saltines for lunch every day and was still 15 pounds heavier than my peers. I didn’t look fat, but at 120 pounds, I certainly FELT it. How crazy is that?

While I’ve always weighed more than the charts say I should, I’ve looked OK. I have photographic evidence that I looked pretty damn fine at 165 pounds (the famous vinyl dress photo). I never looked like I weighed as much as I did – I could always fool the age/weight guessers at the fair. But you know what that does? It sets up a fucked up little vicious circle in your brain that goes like this: you’re fat -> no, I look pretty good -> but look at the scale -> Ok, I’ll diet -> but I look pretty good -> you’re fat. Which leads to constant self loathing and dissatisfaction with yourself. No bueno.

Middle age has been horrific for me. The weight gain is awful and by gods it’s STAYING. I exercise at least 5x/wk. I count calories. I have to wonder, why do I do this? I really think it’s habit at this point. I’ve lived my whole life this way! I agonise over the weight, exercise as much as I can without hurting myself and count calories until I’m blue in the face. AND FOR WHAT?

I really can’t answer that question. It’s not like it’s working! Again, how crazy is that? Pretty damn, if you ask me.

I have a beautiful husband who loves me even at this tonnage. Yet I am disgusted with my body and I hate to be touched. It is a BIG problem in our relationship. Some days I feel a bit better about myself, then I get a glance at how fat I am and that’s the end of the self esteem.

THAT is the tragedy of all of it. The self loathing is pretty intense. I try not to indulge it, but it’s there every time I get dressed. It lurks in every corner of my existence.

I’m not into blaming others for my fat ass, but dammit, the societal pressure is pretty huge! NO, it’s not anyone’s fault (including my own, I try to remind myself), but it certainly FEELS like it’s all my fault and I should just stay out of public until I can lose 75 pounds or so. Being at cons is excruciating – despite the fact that I’m surrounded by fat nerds who totally do NOT judge. I feel like a total failure for being unable to shed this weight that’s glommed onto me in the past decade.

Obesity and weight loss are complicated things. They are inexorably linked and so very, very painful for those of us in the never-ending loop. Knowing that there are people out there who are actually exploring this concept of fat and healthy is comforting. People like Linda Bacon (Health at Every Size) who promote the idea that there actually is a wide range of sizes in humans and fat humans can be healthy is a good thing.

But it remains that I don’t WANT to be fat, yet I am. And it hurts my psyche every single day. I wish society would cut me a little slack. But even if attitudes change, I think the psychological damage is done. I don’t think I’ll ever cut myself any slack.

The paradox of being fat and healthy is that there’s nothing to blame. No disease, no disorder, not a thing to point to and go: “SEE! It’s not my fault!” Therefore it must be YOU. Which is also incorrect, but that’s what you think and feel. It’s insidious.

This is not a “pity me” post or a “fishing for compliments” post or most definitely NOT a “give me advice on diet and exercise” post. It’s just a post about my response to the fat newslady clip and the information I found on Fat Nutritionist and Linda Bacon. My obesity is not something I talk about and I feel it’s about time I did. I wanted to acknowledge that being fat is a shameful thing in this day and age and I’m not immune to those feelings no matter how wrong they are.

We all have our crosses to bear and this is mine. I’m glad to have found some tools to help myself get out of the self loathing and self blaming loop. I hope these tools will help others who are in my boat. I think there are a LOT more of us than we know – just hiding in the fat closet, dying to come out. If I can do it, anyone can.

Thanks to Michelle for a brilliant blog (Fat Nutritionist) and Linda Bacon (Health at Every Size) for doing the work you do. IT DOES MATTER!

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Rainy Oct 1st

I love the weather today! It’s the first of October and the dreary rain is just the ticket. I am determined to enjoy the rainy and cold weather of my last winter in the South. Once we get to the desert, it’ll be pretty much one season all the time. And one time all the time. AZ does not do Daylight Savings. Yay!

I will miss a few things, for sure. Seasons, green grass and trees, my birds, my yard bunnies and this house, even, will be missed. We toyed with the notion of reaffirming the house and refinancing, but ultimately, it’s just not worth it. The place still needs about $10k of rehab (windows, bathroom and kitchen) to be considered “nice”, not to mention it really needs an addition, too. I hope someone can pick it up for $30k and put $30k into it, thus making it above market value. I doubt it in this neighborhood, tho. I rode around the other day and saw a ton of houses for rent from the same owner, which tells me they were sold for a song out of foreclosure and an investor bought them. This ‘hood has reverted to exactly how it was in the late 90s. It’s too bad, but that’s how the market is. Bah.

Speaking of housing, it’s clear we’ll have to pay a LOT more in rent than previously expected. The market in Phoenix is on fire and rentals have gone up several hundred dollars a month since I first started looking early this year. I read an article in the PHX paper that was about how tight the rental market is and how landlords are getting 20 calls for a property the moment it’s listed. Not good for us. I think we’ll end up with Nick out there starting his new job and looking for a place and me being here, waiting for a place to be found. Ugh. My Twitter pal Samantha is in the same situation, only worse, since they want to sell their house. At least I don’t have to worry with that! It’s gonna be challenging, to say the least.

I don’t know how people with human children can put up with the constant whining, being underfoot and all that. Missy Kat has been especially needy this week and it’s driving me mad! She is literally my little furry shadow. This morning, she whined and stomped on me until I got out of bed! WTF? I really don’t know how people can put up with that shit for, like, YEARS. GAH! Yah, no, clearly I do NOT have the patience for children, I can barely deal with cats! This is also why I do not have dogs: they are too needy. Even DJ for all his loviness, is pretty independent. He only asks for lap or whatnot once or twice a day. Missy, however, is like LOVEMEOMGITHASBEENMINUTESSINCEYOUPAIDATTENTIONTOME. Gods.

I really want my Etsy shop to sell out. Go over there and buy some freaking earrings for crying out loud! You know you need some skullies for Halloween or Day of the Dead! GO! For that matter, I’d like for the Think Weasel! shop to sell some shirts, too. They are really cute! You know someone who’s Adorkable, right? Of course you do. :)

We are trying to stop smoking again. I feel like I can do it this time. Of course, I’ve done it before, so who knows if it’ll stick. With the stress of moving, I’m betting I’ll start up again, but for now we’re doing pretty well with it. I severely wanted to last night and did not. Not having any cigs in the house helps, too. The one exception to that is if we get our hands on some real Djarums. Fuck the not smoking, if we can get those, I’ll huff them in a heartbeat! :)

Oh, I wanted to tell you about a couple of movies we’ve watched that are really fun and great for October: Wasting Away and Fido. Both are zombie comedies from a few years ago and both are very entertaining. We highly recommend them for this Halloween season! The Revenant is in Red Box right now, but it’s kinda slow and weird, so it’s more of a meh than the others.

Last week was a tough one. We had some anxiety boil over and I had to deal with the Vile Organ. I hope this week is blissfully calm and bullshit free. Have a good one, everybody! MUWAH!