Cimmerian somthin'

just finished Cimmerian City by Rae Lindley. beyond it being Underworld meets La Femme Nikita described by someone with the writing skills of a highschooler, stay tuned for my soon to be written review for Multiverse Reviews. Someone really needs to look into peer review. Cimmerian City is kinda funny, but i don't think it was supposed to be funny.

also reading The Ape in the Corner office, by Richard Conniff. and this is a book that's supposed to be funny! Conniff compared monkey sociology with human sociology, and they are pretty much the same. very, very funny. i'd take this book to work and read it on my lunchbreak, but if i did, i don't think i'd be able to look my boss in the face afterwards without laughing.

on to Matt Browne's The Future Happens Twice, and we'll see what else shows up in the mail this week.


In DVD news, i've been netflixing old episodes of Samurai Champloo. i think i just got to the episodes they couldn't show on american TV. Fu warms up to Mugen, because she's jealous of Jean's momentary flame. it's a good show, even better when you get to see the episodes in order. it would be so romantic if Fu hooked up with Jean, but i know it will never happen. *sigh*.

it's still cold outside. time for some easy, fragrant, citrus olive chicken. this is way easier than it looks, and damn it's good.

Lemon Chicken with Olives
2 tbsp cinnamon
salt and pepper
1 to 1.5 pounds chicken parts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp ground ginger
1 cup chicken stock
1 lemon, cut into wedges
1/2 cup brown olives, rinsed of brine
1 tbsp honey
4 tbsp chopped cilantro

Preheat oven to 375. mix cinnamon with some salt and pepper in a bowl, and rub this mixture into the outside of the chicken parts. heat oil in a skillet, and fry the chicken over medium heat, browning the outside (you're not trying to cook the chicken all the way through). remove chicken and put in an oven safe dish. fry the onions in the skillet till golden, add the ginger and chicken stock and bring to a boil. pour this mixture over the chicken, cover with tin foil an bake in the oven for 20 minutes. remove the chicken from the oven, mix in the lemon wedges, olives, and honey. bake uncovered for another 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. remove from the oven, stir in the chopped cilantro.

serve hot, either over rice, or with crusty bread to soak up the sauce. this is very saucy!

People read this?

holy shit, i have readers. and they, like, comment n' stuff. i thought i'd have to beg and plead to get people to read this blog. but wow. very nifty.

alright readers, go check out the review for Flynn's Eifelheim. I trashed it. i doubt i will ever pick up a Flynn book again.

that Tokyo Babylon manga? yeah, i had no idea it was shojo . Not that i have a problem with shojo, it's just not my thing. i should have seen it coming though, seeing as how the story was created by four female manga artists. the Cowboy Bepotp was a lot of fun though. and much funnier than the anime version.

let's see. . what's on the reading list this week? i ventured into the biography area of the library, and gots me a copy of Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain. i love this man, and the book is hilarious. i'm suddenly really scared to ever eat in a 4 star restaurant. I'll take my local greasy spoon where i know the short order cook is smoking a cig with the same hand he just cupped my burger with. i liked his show on travel channel, No Reservations, but then the owners of Travel Channel realized people were actually watching the show, and they wrecked it.

i got some other fun goodies at the library, but i'll bore you with those once i actually start reading them.

what books did i actually *gasp* buy recently? surprisingly, quite a few. thanks to Multiverse Reviews for sending me the ARC of Hell's Belles, by Jackie Kessler to read & review. Paranormal Romance? i never read anything like that before, but I expect to have a fun time with it. thanks to the Friends of the Library bookstore, i'm also the proud owner of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (i remember loving book when i was a teenager!!), Greg Bear's Blood Music, and Gregory Benford's Foundation's Fear, which could either be a rip-off fanboy peice of crap, or something fun. I trust Gregory Benford. I've read him before, and I like him. when i told my husband i bought more books, he laughed his ass off, then said "great! more books! just what we need around here!"

okay, on to the food.

hot damn, have i been doing only vegetarian dishes on here so far? what?? that needs to stop! like right now!

i hope you like olives. lots and lots of really strong mediterranean olives. if not, thanks for playing, please exit stage left, I'll see you next week for something different. i got this out of a world cookbook, it was in the "north african" section.

Chicken & Olives:

you'll need:
2-3 pounds chicken parts, cut into peices
a large onion, chopped
oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp ground ginger
one 14oz can diced tomatoes
salt & pepper
8-10oz pitted olives (get the jarred kind in brine, not the mushy canned ones in water)
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp chopped cilantro

this dish is best served with rice that's been spiced with black pepper, cardamon, and a pinch of ginger.

you will also need a large non-stick skillet.

how to make:

fry chopped onion in some oil till soft. Stir in garlic & ginger. add the chicken peices, and turn them as they begin to get some color. then add the tomatoes, some salt & pepper, and enough water to half cover everything. get it hot enough to so it begins to bubble, then turn the temp down to a low simmer. cook on low for about a half hour (if you're going to make rice, now is the time to get it started so everything is done at the same time), adding some water if it gets too dry. drain the olives of their brine and stir them in. 10 minutes later, stir in the lemon juice and cilantro. serve hot, over rice.

super yummy, super olive-y, and if you put the leftover chicken n' olives in with the leftover rice, it tastes heavenly the next day.