Kevin's Compendium of Useless Fantasia

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Let's take a look at what I did in March:

• I wrote a short story as part of a trade for someone making dinner for me. It's a silly story, but it got some laughs out of people I read it to. I read it to three people individually, and I even read it at a story reading. I was pretty embarrassed to be reading my own stuff, but I am very pleased with how well it was received. I will have to remember this and use it as motivation to write more stuff.

• I wrote a haiku.

• I made strawberry jam using the calcium-activated pectin I got for Christmas. I mashed up 2 quarts of strawberries and added a little less than a cup of sugar. I filled 4.5 half-pint jars, and it was very good. It also gelled up nicely. I will definitely be making more jams with this pectin as the summer goes on.

• I made a strawberry glace pie and a lemon meringue pie for Pi Day. I used pre-made graham cracker crusts for the first time, and I have to say that I'm not very impressed. They fall apart way too easily. However, the pies were still very good.

• I made a dinner of chicken and rice. I made the rice with turmeric and lemongrass. For the chicken, I cooked onions and garlic in some canola oil, then added some bone-in chicken thighs. I topped it with some of that spicy Asian chili sauce, the kind with the rooster on the bottle. I then topped it with some red wine. I put the chicken stuff on top of the rice, and it was very good.

• I expanded the Random Boggle Board Generator to a 7 x 7 board. I was pleased to find that, with the way I had programmed the original, expanding it was very easy to do.

• Inspired by an off-hand comment from a friend, I wrote a children's picture-book story, my first ever. I did not illustrate it, however. I don't think I'll actually do anything with this one, but it's good to know that I can actually write this kind of thing. I might try some more experiments in that area.

• I made flatbreads for the first time. A friend told me that I could just make pizza dough and bake it at around 400 or 425 degrees for about 12 minutes. I made a batch of pizza dough with spelt flour, but I forgot to put anything on top of them besides olive oil. I ate them with some hummus that I made.

• I made chicken and flatbreads for dinner. For the chicken, I put split chicken breasts in a skillet for a while, then added olives (with pits), plus the vinegar, some pepperoncinis, and some chili peppers that came in the jar of olives. Very good chicken, and I got to eat the olives afterwards.

  For the flatbreads, I used whole wheat flour. I topped half of them with olive oil, salt, savory, and oregano. I topped the other half of them with olive oil, granulated garlic, and paprika (lots of paprika). Flatbread was eaten with homemade hummus. A salad and root beer rounded out the meal. The remains of the flatbread were finished with some tuna salad. Tuna salad on the paprika flatbread is very good.

• I made blackened tilapia for dinner. The first time I tried blackened fish, the whole house filled with a really caustic smoke, so I was a bit apprehensive. Armed with a better recipe and a bit more of a clue, I decided to try again. This turned out almost perfectly. Everyone enjoyed the fish, most having a second helping even though the seasoning had a bit too much salt in it. I used a recipe I found online: 2 T paprika, 1 T salt, 1 t onion powder, 1 t garlic powder, 1 t cayenne pepper, 1/2 t ground white pepper, 1/2 t ground black pepper, 1/2 t thyme, 1/2 t oregano. Next time, I think I will cut the salt down, probably to 1 t. I might up the paprika a bit, since I really like paprika. I noticed that the second round of fish was spicier than the first, probably because of the spice that had accumulated in the skillet. Yum.

  I also made barley salad to go with dinner. It was a bit too olive-y for some, but I found it enjoyable. I made enough to have lots of leftovers to take to work.