Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Arctic Blast And Soup

If I could bottle and sell how my kitchen smells right now, I would be so rich.
Or, maybe not. It really just smells like an Indian restaurant. Why don't they sell Indian Restaurant incense? Indian Restaurant Glade Plug-In's? Indian Restaurant scented candles?
I'd be more apt to buy those than anything titled "Wind Plums" or "Seven Sea Breezes" or "Rain and Fairy Farts" or whatever the hell they come up with to name those things.
Why don't they sell scented products that smell like babies' heads and good clean sweat and the way Maurice's fur smells when she lets me rub my face up against her? Baby chickens- now there's a damn fine scent. The armpit of someone you've just fallen in love with? The scalp of someone you've loved forever?
Screw "Apple-Pie" scented candle and give me "Scent of Childhood Copy of Little Women." Or anything by Louisa May Alcott. Her books smell like magic. So does The Wind In The Willows.
I'd even go for "Freshly Cleaned Hen House." Call me crazy (go ahead- really- I don't care) but I love that smell. It's the same smell you get when you enter one of the FFA exhibits at the county fair. Hay and warm animal and poop and pee. What about "Good Rich Dirt?"
I could deal with all of those but put me in a room with that fake cinnamon smell and I'll make any excuse I can to get the hell out of there.

Okay. I have no idea how I got started on THAT one.

I'm making a soup. Here's the basic recipe. 
It's supposed to look like this.


Yeah. We'll see about that.
Of course my soup doesn't have any actual butternut squash in it. Rather it has acorn squash and sweet potato. But beyond that, I've stuck pretty close to the recipe. I'm excited about this. Probably more excited than any soup warrants.

It's been another good day. I drove to town and dropped off library items and went to pick up my bio-identical hormones and got gas (petrol gas, not intestinal gas) and took May some eggs and had lunch at Fanny's. A BLT, thank you very much, and it was amazing. I sat there and read my New Yorker and ate that sandwich and chatted with May when she had the time and it was so cozy in her cafe, the blue skies outside the window, the warmth and old walls within. I ran by Publix, came home, put everything away, took the trash and recycle and picked up the critter-trap from Brian.

I've put the chickens up and got the trap set but I really don't have much faith. I think the kittens are under the house and are staying warm by the heating ducts. Besides that, I'm not sure they're heavy enough to trip the trap. I'll probably find Luna, my outdoor cat of sixteen or seventeen years in it. And boy, will she be pissed. But I am doing my best. I set out more minced chicken for them right where the trap is this morning and they did eat that.

Hoo boy.

I have to check it regularly because if they DO, by some miracle, get trapped, they'll freeze to death if I don't bring them in.

I've set all the spigots to drip and the garden sprinklers too. I'll turn on the taps before I go to bed. I've brought in one of the chicken waterers and cleaned it so that I can fill it up with water tomorrow because all of their waterers will freeze tonight.

I've done what I can. Maurice is curled up behind me on my chair, my house smells heavenly, it is warm and cozy. I haven't talked to my husband since last night but I am assuming that he is fine.

It's time to go finish up the soup. Cashews and squash and sweet potato and onion and garlic and ginger and turmeric and cumin and, and, and, AND coconut milk?

Let me just say that if I die tonight, I'll have died happy.

I hear one of the baby kitties. Maybe I'll go put a can of tuna in that trap along with the can of cat food. I sure don't want them dying tonight.

See you tomorrow.

Love...Ms. Moon


14 comments:

  1. You are so on with the smells of Life. A new book and, kittens and on and on. I am all about the smells of Mexican and Spanish and well your kitchen.Ahh just a idea, a little bit of peanut butter placed in the right place for your kitty help place??? I am not being mean just that it might slow them down a bit.Lots of warming goodness to go with tuna.I am so wishing I could be there and help.Ok in my mind I am, so there kittas come to the safe place,PLEASE! For all of you I wish warmth.

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  2. Have you ever seen the line of Demeter colognes? They make scents like Tomato and Dirt and Grass and Laundromat and a ton of others, all of which I love.

    Also, I went on a business trip recently and met a woman from Tallahassee, who, when I told her I read the blog of a woman from Lloyd, said, "Oh! I think I know her! I named my daughter May because I knew her daughter May and it was such a beautiful name!"

    Which it is.

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  3. mary i- They are too tiny to trip the trap so I'm just feeding them. They will live or they won't. I'm doing the best I can to help them.

    Blue Gal- No! I've never seen those scents. Or, smelled them, as it were. I will though.
    Really? Do you remember the woman's name? That is so precious. As is May.

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  4. Her name is Tara, but I can't recall her last name. I'll look it up. Google the colognes on Amazon! There are some crazy ones.

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  5. Unseasonably cold here. 20 degrees colder than normal for this time of year. All you can do for the kittens is feed them and you are doing that.

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  6. That soup does sound tasty, even though I'm actually not a big Indian food lover. Don't hate me. The other thing that freaks me out is blending hot soup. Once I did it at a restaurant and burnt the shit out of my breasts. Honestly, it was BAD. Since then, I don't blend soup. But this sounds so good that I might have to venture into soup blending again.

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  7. Well, your house definitely sounds like the right place to be in winter weather! The soup LOOKS great, at least. I need a soup recipe for winter squash, too. Maybe I should look one up that resembles this one.

    I do not get air fresheners at all, especially since, as I understand it, they actually deaden the smell receptors in the nose.

    Would it help to put a heat source in or near the trap? Is that possible?

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  8. This morning I wrote "surprise and delight" on a piece of paper and put it by my bed, and what do you know, that's exactly what this post did, with it's perfumery. Even though I'd prefer pumpkin pie candles to the scent of anybody's armpit. But I'm fussy that way.

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  9. Blue Gal- Weird. I don't recognize her and we have no FB friends in common which, for Tallahassee, is strange. Anyway, that's pretty awesome. I'll ask May if she knows her.

    Angella- Supposedly they're hormones that won't kill you. What do I know? They make my life worth living. My NP prescribes them.

    Ellen Abbott- Jeez, yes. Too cold. And the kittens will live or they won't. Not much I can do about it beyond feeding them, as you said.

    Elizabeth- I just blended small batches of it at a time in the blender. Worked lovely.
    You don't have to love Indian food. I promise.

    Steve Reed- There's a link for the recipe in the post. I can't really put a heat source down there under the house. I'm hoping that the duct work is enough. Hoping.

    Ms. Vesuvius- Ah. That made me feel so good! Thank you!

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  10. Now I want a Wet Dirt scented candle!

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  11. Funny, I made cream of butternut squash soup last week. Good but my cream of celery was mo' betta.

    Did'ja know that LMA, early on in her writting career, wrote porn to pay the bills? Read an article about her years ago.

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  12. Okay--I just sent the recipe to my wife. LOL. I like this kind of soup. Looks delicious and like Fall. I hope the little kittens are okay. You are good to put out food. Cats like boxes too. Mine explore every new box that comes from Costo. Maybe a box will keep them warm.

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