YarnFoodCoffee

Quesadillas with a side of... wait, that's not quacamole!

So lately I've been trying to replicate these awesome veggie quesadillas I had at the local farmers markets. I figured it was just beets, braising greens, onions, mozzarella, and some kind of hot sauce. So yesterday I picked up some greens at the market (but no beets, sold out fast!) I made them last night for dinner. Just finely slice the onion, sautee in oil, add the greens, and cover, shaking occasionally until they're nice and wilty. Uncover, add some hot sauce, and shake the pan around. Then move the greens to the side of the pan and place a tortilla in the pan. Cover it with cheese, top the cheese with the greens, add more cheese, top with another tortilla, and brown both sides. Slice and serve. SO GOOD!!!

So about 15 minutes ago I got hungry, and decided to make another batch! But as I was adding hot sauce and shaking the greens, what did I find in the absolute center of the pan but a CATERPILLAR!... and not just any old caterpillar, but a brownish-colored, slimy one... cooked to perfection.

EWW! was my response, but I tried to make the most of the situation, since I hate to throw away food, and flicked the little bugger into the trash using a spoon. I finished making the quesadilla, trying to convince myself that it would be ok, that I could handle eating this after finding a bug in it. I plated my food, sat down, took a bite and swallowed, and noticed the taste was off... like there had been a caterpillar demi-glaze. I tried to take another bite, but spat it out onto the plate, and threw the whole thing away.

I'm not hungry, anymore.

Oh, yeah. By the way...

I moved.  Last month.

Yeah... kinda slipped my mind to mention it here.  Ah-haha.

New projects begun, and some older ones almost finished, and the results of an experiment—complete with human [self] testing.  Yay!  Updates soon, promise.

The Filicidal Tendencies of a Western-Washington Knitter

A story recently circulated the media about a Carnation, WA woman starving her 14-year old step-daughter almost to death. The step-mother allowed the girl only one-half cup of water each day, locking the girl in the parents' bedroom at night so she couldn't sneak out and drink more water. The step-mother did these things—and admitted to doing so—to punish the girl, claiming she had behavioral problems. The level of dehydration caused the girl's teeth to rot to the point of needing extraction or caps. Both parents were neglectful towards the girl; the last time the girl was seen by a doctor was at least 3 years prior, and the father claimed he ignored the water-restrictions because he thought that the step-mother/daughter could "work it out themselves." Oddly enough, the girl's 12-year old brother suffered no noticeable neglect, had seen a doctor within the last 2 years, and the family's 2 pet dogs had recently been taken to veterinary appointments.

When CPS took the girl to the hospital for treatment, she was 4'7" and weighed 48 lbs. In other words, she hadn't physically matured since the age of 10. Thankfully, her foster father has reported a 20-lb weight gain in the girl in the month since she came to live with him, and she is attending a private school and making fast friends, with no signs of psychological or social disorders.

Thank the gods.

One aspect of this tale has been blown completely out of proportion by some reports:

the step-mother was an avid knitter, at one point blogging about a stash sufficient to complete 72 projects. This is absurd, seeing as not every whack-job with dependents (biological or step-children) does not need or have a hobby, and the hobby does not designate extreme mental illness and the capacity to do harm against a child of the same sex as the antagonist.

At the risk of sounding cold and disconnected (and a wee bit hoity-toity), I believe it's about biology at the most basic, primal, and unemotional level. Looking at the scenario from an animal-behavioral perspective, the stepmother sees the girl as competition for her mate's (the father's) attention. This explains pretty much every instance of conflict in step-parent/step-child relationships, also taking into account current social phenomena (cell phones, TV, fashion, etc.) But this woman has gone beyond any rational human behavior, careening in the direction of filicidal tendencies. In conclusion, Ladies and Jellyspoons:

the woman's a nut job who doesn't know how to handle having a teenage step-daughter except trying to kill her, and needs to go away for a VERY long time... without any yarn. See how she likes THAT punishment.

[Amazing what one can learn from human behavior by taking an animal behavior class. Does that mean the term "inhuman" is flawed?]