A cooking post. o.O

[letterblade]

I thought I'd never see the day.

So I took cumin seeds, fresh pressed garlic, and pine nuts, and browned them all in olive oil. Then added chicken, cooked until cooked, and then a can full of artichoke hearts. Then water/chicken broth (had half a can of broth left, so filled in with water), and the rest of the spices--coriander, a bit of basil, two bay leaves, and dashes of ginger and cinnamon. When water boiling, chucked in a box of cous-cous (the instant Near East stuff that you cover for five minutes) and some capers, let stand...

...and poof! Pilaf of doom! And I made it up, out of my head! Never made pilaf before, much less out of my head. Just went by the seat of my pants and my basic bits of cooking knowledge.

Best part: one of the people I'm staying with apparently hates capers, but liked the pilaf so much he didn't even notice them.

Worst part: chicken a bit dry.

Weeeeeeeee!

In other news:

Am preparing for my brother's wedding (in which I am groomsmaid.) Bought dress and everything. Now must prepare piano music. Meep!

Am accumulating a closet full of Firefly bunnies. Wibble. One of them is Inara/River. Wibble!

If I posted a basic which-fandoms-are-you-in poll to you lot (so I can update my antique fiends-filters accordingly) would you actually answer it?

Rather important question:

(for any Mac geeks out there)

I want to update my processor.

446 megahertz G4 (digital audio) is what I currently have. Rest of computer jazzed up--more RAM, new hard drive, SuperDrive, good video card, shiny monitor of doom--but CPU painfully slow.

I need at least 700 megahertz, preferably more, but I also need cheap--preferably under $300--and relatively easy to install/deal with. I've been doing research and have turned up various chips. What I want to know is who makes reliable ones, or where I might find good reviews of various products, for I've not had good luck doing so. And whatever other things I might need to know when embarking on this task.

And, yes, this was spurred by hearing the tech specs for Revelation.

Comments

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

Huh. Pilaf is a lot like paella, but with couscous instead of rice. And somewhat different spices.

BTW, most couscous is that precooked stuff. I've never seen non-precooked couscous, but I know it exists somewhere.

[wired-lizard.livejournal.com]

Well, this probably isn't real pilaf--I'm just thinking of it as pilaf. And I think most pilafs are rice-based, although I recall hearing the term used for couscous dishes too...

I think my mother must cook with it. At least, I recall her taking more than five minutes to make couscous.

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

Well, you have to boil the water first. That takes a bit.