And Love Will Steer The Stars

So… I’m home. Finally. It seems I can never come home from Bling!Fest in a timely manner, though the traffic this year was nowhere near as bad. All critters are accounted for, and seem to have been fed since they didn’t eat each other.

I have decided not to do a travelogue this year. All but a handful of those who read my blog were actually there. The highlights of the weekend for me weren’t any of the planned events, though I tip my hat to our hostesses for all the work they put into making those planned events as wonderful as they were. Nope, I love the odd little incidental stuff that happens when you put a group of creative, slightly bent people together. I do wish that I could have had more time to talk to people, to get to know a few of those I hadn’t had the chance to meet before. Unfortunately, my body did what it always does… it sabotaged me, and I was ill one of the days so I had to leave the party early on Saturday night. But I laughed a lot, and that’s always a gift.

And of course on the way home I got to hear krzykat making pig noises at the pigs in the truck next to us. Not like “oink oink oink.” Nope. The actual noise a pig makes. I laughed so damn hard I was wheezing.

For those who were at Bling!Fest, and even for those of you who weren’t, here’s the recipe for Cilantro Chicken aka Seaweed Slop.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, coarsely chopped
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, chopped
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1/2 head garlic
1/3 cup chicken stock
1 can hominy
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
3 cubes chicken bouillon
salt and pepper to taste


Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat, and sauté the onion until tender. Place the chicken in the pot, and cook until lightly browned. Puree the cilantro, garlic, and 1/3 cup chicken stock in a blender or food processor. (You can finely chop the cilantro and garlic if you don’t have a food processor, but it really works best if it’s pureed.) Mix into the pot with the chicken and onions. Cook and stir about 5 minutes, until mixed and heated through. If it doesn’t look like there’s quite enough liquid, pour enough chicken stock (or water) into the pot to cover all ingredients. Mix the hominy, water chestnuts, rice, and bouillon into the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, or until rice is tender. Increase the amount of water as needed to attain desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper

The fabulous Fellow-soup of the Ring (balogna), named thus by Deb, not me, so please don't beat me with baguettes.

All amounts and times are approximate, given that I didn't really have a recipe per se. So guesstimations are just fine.

3 C diced potatoes
1 C sliced carrots

1/4 C butter
1/4 C flour
2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 can (I think it's like 14 ounces or something) chicken broth

8 oz keilbasa (ring bologna of your choice will also work)

3 1/4 C milk

3 C shredded cheddar cheese

I think the original recipe that I based this on had you cook the carrots and potatoes in the soup. To me, that just takes too long. So I cook the carrots and potatoes first until they reach the desired doneness.

In the pot you're going to cook the soup in, melt the butter and add the worcestershire sauce. Once the butter is completely melted, add the flour. Using a wire whisk, stir the flour into the butter to make a sort of doughy concoction. Stir this in the pan for a few minutes to cook the flour, but don't burn it.

Add the chicken broth. I usually add about half, then use the whisk to completely blend in the roue before adding the second half of the broth. Whisk until it's blended well.

At this point, dump in your carrots, potatoes and keilbasa. Cook until these three ingredients are heated.

Slowly add the milk, stirring until it's blended. Heat until it's just below the boiling point.

Add the cheese in small increments, melting it into the base of the soup.

Salt and pepper to taste.

And that's it. You can of course add other things. You can saute some onion and celery in the butter before you add the flour. You can put in about 3/4 tsp of dry mustard when you add the worcestershire sauce. You can double the keilbasa (which I've done on more than one occasion).

Oh, and it's really best if you have some extra shredded cheese to sprinkle on the top when you're serving the soup.

Enjoy. :)