Perfect cold weather soup recipe

We just made a fabulous Chicken and Dumplings recipe for dinner tonight.   I'm a huge fan of epicurious.com, where I have found many good recipes, but this one might be the best one yet.  Tender, sweet dumplings in thick yellow broth....

<drools>

INGREDIENTS

For the soup

• 2 tablespoons olive oil


• 1 (3-pound) chicken, cut into pieces


• 1/4 cup flour, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste


• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut into large chunks


• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks


• 2 stalks celery, cut into large chunks


• 1 bay leaf


• 1 sprig thyme


• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric


• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste


• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth


• Fresh parsley

For the dumplings

• 1 1/2 cups flour


• 2 teaspoons baking powder


• 1/2 cup coarsely ground cornmeal


• 1 tablespoon sugar


• 1 teaspoon kosher salt


• 1 3/4 cups heavy cream

PREPARATION

1. In a wide, heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid, heat the olive oil.

2. Dredge the chicken pieces in the seasoned flour, then brown them in the oil over medium heat, about 2 minutes a side. Remove and set aside.

3. Add the onion to the pot and cook for 2 minutes.

4. Add the carrots, celery, bay leaf, thyme, turmeric, salt, and pepper and cook for 1 minute more.

5. Stir in the broth.

6. Return the chicken to the pot, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the first five dumpling ingredients.

8. Add the cream and mix until just combined.

9. Drop about 12 heaping tablespoons of the dumpling mixture into the pot. Cover and simmer for 12 minutes more.

10. To serve, scoop the dumplings and chicken into bowls, then cover with broth. Garnish with the parsley.

Score one for the humorless feminist!

I filed a complaint about an offensive character name in WoW the other night, and this morning when I logged in I had a response!  The official Blizzard response cites privacy concerns for the reason they can't tell me exactly how my complaint was resolved, but a quick search and an attempt to add "Vadgetastic" to my friends list revealed that there was no one on my server by that name anymore.

So I'm assuming said character has undergone a mandatory renaming, and I am feeling smugly self-righteous.

It might just keep me warm all day.

Playing WoW when you're a woman

So, I've been playing World of Warcraft for over two years now, almost two and a half. I have three level seventy characters. I've done extensive ten-person raiding, and I have dabbled a little with the 25-person content. I have worked extremely hard to gather around myself the kind of people with whom I want to play the game.

It wasn't always easy.

The guild I am now the GM of was founded my a friend of mine after I begged him to do so. I needed safe people to play with, and the guild I was in at the time--named Faith of the Fallen, after the Goodkind book, so I should have KNOWN--was terrible.  Full of immature kids, it seemed.  It was the thirty minute conversation about what a Dirty Sanchez (WARNING: you probably don't want to know) was that made me realize I HAD to quit that guild and never ever group with them again.  I told the GM I had deduced that the guild really wasn't woman-friendly, or for me, and I was going to quit.  He said okay, didn't argue or attempt to persuade me to stay, and I quit.

And so I begged, and the new guild was born.

The Pentaverate was initially just a handful of folks we recruited to sign the charter, my husband, my friend, his wife and me.  It was small.  It was safe.  It was a refuge from the sexism and harrassment I found elsewhere in the game.  I had decided, in response to the general sexism of "Girls don't play WoW" and "Girls aren't any good" to just be honest that I was a woman.  This was contrary to my GM's wife, who never told ANYONE her gender.  Somedays, I really wished I'd gone that route.

While playing openly as female, I experienced the following:

1. Having a male gnome repeatedly plant his face in my crotch while we were on a boat together.  When I moved away, he followed and repeated this, whispering "I'm the perfect height for you."


2. Similarly, having a male character on a broom repeatedly move his broom handle back and forth, ostensibly to simulate a sex act.  I had to log off, as asking him to stop did nothing.


3. Having a group speculate on what I was like in bed, and what I looked like, from looking at my character.


4. Hearing that top raiding guilds wouldn't take women because they're either incapable of being good enough to raid or they bring too much Drama.


5. Repeated and creepy requests to engage in cybersex. (Granted, these were from people who didn't know if I was a girl or not, but ew.)


6. Last night, I opened a ticket for GM intervention on a character name that reeked of the particular sexism of 13-year old boys.  I can't wait to hear what happened to "Vadgetastic"...

Is my guild perfect?  No.  I've had to explain why it's not okay to call things "gay" or to say that one was "raped" in that BG.  But all it takes is looking at that list to remind me that the community we created is leaps and bounds better than most.

Being a friend is hard...

This morning, as I was dropped off near the law school, I passed a car sporting a "Friends don't let friends eat farmed salmon" bumpersticker.

My friends, I have let you down. The list of things I am supposed to monitor your behavior for is long and varied. Drink and drive? Of course. Vote Republican? I do my best.

But in this, I have let you down. Forgive me?

Google Reader!

I have a Google Reader Problem and admitting that is the first step.

It started slowly.  I used it to watch Tomato Nation, Cute Overload, and XKCD.  Slowly, I added a few feminist blogs to the mix.

But it snowballed.  I'm reading politcal blogs, writing blogs, sex blogs.  My friends' blogs from all over the web.

Google Reader tracks your reading habits.  Here's what mine is saying right now:

From your 69 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 4,937 items, starred 58 items, shared 52 items, and emailed 14 items.

No wonder I don't have time to read fiction anymore.

The president-elect's pick for AG

"At the beginning of the 21st century, this nation faces problems that are old and that are new: racial, sexual orientation, and gender inequality all remain. … The solutions are contained within a new, dynamic, progressive movement that has the ability to inspire and motivate the people of this nation in the way that progressives have in the past. That ability exists in this room, and in the law schools, and in the courtrooms, and in the law offices around this country. It is our task to unlock, to unleash the creative energy needed to give life to this renewed movement. It is not enough for us to gather at annual meetings, to participate in panels, and to return to our communities, and be content to observe, or to passively criticize, the now dominant governing philosophy.

Quite simply, it is time to act. It is time to organize. It is time to retake the levers of government and to use them for the common good. It is time, finally, to be true to our ideological heritage. And so my challenge to you tonight is to leave this convention renewed in your convictions, and committed to using your abundant talents for the good of the citizens of this country.

At the end of every week, I want you to ask yourselves, what have I done in the past seven days to advance the cause? How have I made more likely this liberal renaissance?

…Now we all lead busy lives, and we can all find reasons, excuses really, not to do that which we know is needed. The struggle is larger than any of these excuses, and is ultimately dependent on individual sacrifices large and small. I urge you to find your own way in this new effort. I implore you to create relationships with other members of the progressive community to bring to bear your combined talents.

This can be—this must be—our time. We must seize this opportunity. For the good of the nation we love, we must make this new century our own."

--Eric Holder, from a speech to the American Constitution Society in 2004

Here's a guy who knows why I went to law school. This is tremendously encouraging.  This is not Ashcroft. This is not Gonzalez.

Things are looking up.

Wrath of the Lich King

I haven't talked about it at all since I moved from Live Journal to here, but I play World of Warcraft. This week, a new expansion came out, complete with new content that will allow me to level my characters to 80.  Also this week, my friend Jared stepped down at the Guildmaster of the guild we encouraged him to found over two years ago.  He asked me to take it on, and I did so (with a little trepidation.)

Balancing law school and WoW has been a challenge, though not an insurmountable one.  I've watched Jared deal with some fairly silly but time-consuming conflicts as GM, and I worried that it would be the same thing for me.  To prevent that as much as I could, I took steps to promote a few more people, and I am going to try to delegate a few more responsibilities to the old and new officers.  One of my new guys is a military officer, and he loves his chain of command.  I'm thinking I have just the folks I need to stand between me and the rest of the guild to make this work, but I have an eye on promoting a couple more folks...

Heading the guild's going to be interesting.  I'm hoping I can fill the shoes he left, and that people's faith in me is deserved.

Do you think I can put this on my resume?

At long last, a book review!

The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Bujold's Chalion series doesn't disappoint, though I have found at times that I am not as drawn in as I expect to be given the plot descriptions. Somehow, her depictions are detailed and well-drawn but not intimate.


I'll keep trying. :)


View all my reviews.

Twyla Tharp on Creativity

Things I Can Be Happy About, the Right Now Version

1.  I have a really good coffee-shop caliber hot chocolate with whipped cream.

2.  I'm going home to Kansas for Christmas.

3.  Tonight, Jenn and I are starting a Sekrit Projekt.  More to come in the next few days.

4.  I am loved.

5.  I finally got to start the new Michelle Sagara West book, Cast in Fury.

"Law cannot trump love."

In the wake of the election, I coasted on some good feelings.  Obama!  Jeff Merkley!  Kay Hagan!  But there were some flies in the ointment to be sure.  My worst fears about Prop 8 and other measures supporting institutionalized bigotry came to pass, and while I KNOW that they won't last--in time my generation will surpass older ones in voting numbers and the bigotry will fall away--I cannot help but be sad for the millions of people who were told that their love was somehow LESS than that of other people.   Of course, as is often the case, my sadness is mixed with a very real anger.  I know I'm not the only one.

My sadness will pass, but I suspect that my anger will not.  It reminds me of many of the reasons why I wanted to go to law school in the first place.  This is an example of law used for Evil.  Like the Dred Scott v. Sanders or Plessy v. Ferguson, it's an easy example of how the majority can fail to protect the minority, in matters that challenge ingrained prejudice.  For now, law is the bad guy in the story, but one of these days, a court somewhere (maybe even in CA, soon, for Prop 8...) will do what it's supposed to, and stand between majority prejudice and minority rights, like they did with Loving v. Virginia.

So I'll leaven my anger with a little hope, since that's the other message of Nov. 4th:  that dedicated people can put their hands on the arc of history and bend it toward a better day.

Oh, this is what winning feels like...

In the wake of the elections in 2000 and 2004, I had almost forgotten that sometimes you wake up the day after election day and feel GOOD about what happened the night before.  I'll return to something like substance soon, but for right now what I really want to say is so simple.

Yes, we did!

Rachel Maddow gets it.

I live in a state now that votes entirely by mail.  To me, that's the most democratic way to conduct elections, since it allows me to vote at will, after careful consideration.  I can research.  I can consider for up to two weeks who deserves my vote.  Once I have done so, and the ballot is complete, I can mail it on my own stamps, or I can take it to an official drop box here in town.  They look like white mailboxes, and there's a fair number of them around.  I never need to worry about taking time off to go vote.

When I did need to go to place to physically vote--when I lived in Kansas--my voting precinct never had more than a 10 minute wait.  I can't imagine being an hourly employee and arriving at my polling place to a 6 or more hour wait on election day.  Had I ever confronted that on my way to work, I wouldn't have been able to stay and vote.  That such things happen in my country is outrageous to me, and that they happen disproportionately in poor districts amounts to the kind of covert racism that has no place in a 21st century democracy.

I can only hope that the new administration and the 111th Congress make lasting and thoughtful election reform an act of the first 100 days.

Early Voting...

Man, these Google voting videos have been amazing.

Here's the most recent one: