Four Letter Word Tease

Most of you know about law school.

Still no decision. There is a horrifically masochistic system where you can "log in to check your status". All I know is that my file was looked at on 1/12/11. Not a word since then. I am pretty sure this put me in the maybe pile. Which makes me haz a sad, as the kittehs say.

Today, I come home. There is an envelope "Law School D Wants to Go To, Office of Admissions."

O_o?

You know that scene where Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the OG!) where he is carefully opening that last Wonka bar? That was me on the porch, like exactly. I took deep Lamaze-like breaths. I huffed. I puffed. I ripped open the envelope and it was like time was standing still. My legs got wobbly and my hands shook so badly that I couldn't open the folded letter properly. I saw the type, I saw the date -- "January 20, 2011"...it was like everything was going in slow motion. Then I ever so carefully open the letter.

You know that feeling when you get in a car wreck, or that heart has dipped into your stomach feeling when something happens, whether it's "your child has been rushed to the ICU", or "you won 50 million dollars"? Yeah. I had that going on. From the bottom of my guts all the way down to the tips of fingers.

"Hello D. We haven't made a decision about you yet, but let us tell you about some of our awesome departments and services -- just because."

ARE YOU #*$&(@#(*@&*(&(*(**(&#&^*!*&^!^&*! KIDDING ME!?

It took me 5 entire minutes for my fingers to stop shaking.

What a horrible, masochistic, awful, torturous and downright EVIL thing for law school of choice to do. EVIL. The good news is that I am going to school to learn the ways of the law, justice, and do it all with an evil and nefarious attitude. HOW PERFECT IS THIS SCHOOL!?

The One. The Only. Curry.

If you have visited my house more than say once, you are aware that I am deeply, truly, madly in love with habanero peppers. A meal isn't good unless you're sobbing and begging the sweet Lord above to kill you, and once you've forgotten the painful memories and literal heartache, BAM! Like a bad exboyfriend's friend request on Facebook, you're reminded of your delicious meal in the bathroom the next day. That's a tasty dinner. So people come over and I cook them curry. Usually it's tolerable, but since habanero peppers can vary in heat based on the season, time of year, conditions they were grown in, I either get a *just enough* spice or a look of horror and betrayal when my dinner guest goes, "OH MY GOD, D, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!? MY FACE IS MELTING OOOOOOOOFFFFFF!" And I use the same amount of peppers every time, so all I can do is shrug and say "Now you know what the disclaimer is for."

Regardless, most people love this stuff just as much as I do and it usually turns out great. If the above paragraph terrifies you, you can always lower the habanero quotient, or swap habaneros for serranos or jalapenos. And I will berate you endlessly and call you giant baby.

This recipe comes from Doug Irvine in British Columbia (Canadians do everything better), who apparently was sitting around one day and thought "Man, I love curry. I love all kinds of curry. I love Indian curry and Thai curry. Curry rules." I couldn't agree more. So the man is a GENIUS and combined the two. He should win the Nobel Prize in Curry. I vote we make that a category next year:

Ingredients:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large spanish onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 knob of ginger, about inch in diameter
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 cup of chopped cilantro or more to taste
3 habanero peppers
1 14oz can coconut milk
1-2 tbls Madras curry powder, available asian markets
1 tbls Thai Red curry paste
1 tbls sugar....and ...salt to taste

Chop onion and garlic and ginger, the onion medium dice the rest small dice, and place in a fair sized pot, not aluminum, in a small amount of olive oil, sprinkle with the curry powder, and cook on low heat, long and slow...the secret to a good curry is long slow cooking of the onion mixture.

While this is starting to go, cut chicken breasts into medium strips, across the breast, and about half inch by 3 inches. When the onion mixture is transparent and fragrant, remove it to a bowl, add a little more oil to the pot, and throw in the chicken pieces, raising the heat, and stir frying the meat, so it doesnt stick. Throw the onion mix back in, and add the coconut milk, the Thai curry paste and the sugar...bring to simmer, put on lid and finely chop the habs,seeded. Toss them in too, and let it go, with the lid ajar, so it will thicken.

While this is going, cut the red and green peppers into 1/4 inch strips about the length of the pepper, so that you have a pile of red and green pepper strips, use more peppers if you wish...PUT THESE IN LAST, ALONG WITH THE CILANTRO, and cook for about another five minutes, taste for seasoning, and add salt and more sugar if needed. Serve with Thai rice.

So I Was Thinking To Myself

...that holy crap, I need an outlet. Well that and work has become bizarrely slow, so instead of choosing to constantly click "refresh" on my email inbox looking for an email from the law school admissions committee, waiting on my ex-husband to return any of my emails labeled "Dude, I thought we agreed no red food coloring" or "Please stop taking the 2 year old on brain-jarring off-road trips in your Malibu Barbie Jeep" that I might as well start writing again. Otherwise, I'll go more insane than I already am and/or wreck the browser on my work computer.

So I shall write -- maybe sometimes it will be witty and engaging. Sometimes it will be mindless drivel. Sometimes I'll probably even wake up in the mornings with a wicked hangover and rush to the computer to quickly hit "delete" before my parents read some ranting tirade about Sarah Palin, Wal-Mart, or how we really need to bring back the idea of a dowry and child labor (mother of boys here -- I'm just sayin') after I drank that 4th glass of wine.

Feel free to input what else you think should go here. Recipes? I make a kickass curry. Pictures of the kids? They ARE pretty cute. Important current events that readers HAVE to keep abreast of (ZOMFG GUYS THEY'RE BRINGING BACK THE WOOLY MAMMOTH!).  Most importantly, we'll try to keep it less boring than watching the llamas at the zoo (most boring animal EVER) and more like the sea otter exhibit (they're always getting their freak on -- raise your hand if you HAVEN'T seen otters do it at the aquarium -- 'cause you're missing out).