Things I've learned from T.V. Crime Shows:

Be smart enough not to leave any evidence if you're going to commit a crime. This means wearing gloves (latex or otherwise). Never speak so your voice cannot be recognized, and cover your face. If things get messy, scrubbing the site with bleach and then ammonia will destroy DNA in blood evidence.

Do not get involved with somebody who will flip on you during interrogation. If neither of you say anything, the cops have nothing. Chances are you'll both walk.    

Never invite the police into your home if they come knocking. If they want to ask you a few questions about what happened down the street, or your whereabouts for a particular time, they can talk to you on the front porch, otherwise they need a warrant to enter. DO NOT LET THEM IN if they ask. Regardless of their stated intent, if you allow them access they WILL snoop around. Remember, you have a right to your privacy.

If the police come knocking and want you to "step outside" or ask you to come outside to talk, DO NOT DO IT.  They can arrest you without a warrant outside of your home.

Never go down to the station unless the police are arresting you. Before saying ANYTHING pertaining to a crime, invoke your right to an attorney - regardless of your level of involvement. 

The cops will do anything to manipulate you.  They will  play "good cop/bad cop" or act nicey nicey. Whatever their method, DON"T BUY IT! Again, invoke your right to an attorney and let your lawyer handle it. Do not accept soda, water or anything while in the station that your prints/DNA could be lifted from. Do not submit to DNA testing or finger printing without a court order.

Keep in mind that cops rarely have an I.Q. over 120, so you are more than likely WAY smarter than they are. Just remember, invoke your right to an attorney who can protect your rights, be polite, keep your mouth shut and don't give them anything to go on.

Kea's Uncertain Future

Kea was a pure-white pitbull that was found by my landlords lying along the side of the road in South Kona.  She was malnourished, cut, scarred and looked as though somebody had tossed her out of a moving vehicle.  Taking another look at her condition, it was evident that she had recently whelped.  The condition of her teeth led me to believe that she couldn't possible be older than 3 years.

To assist with her care (and with my landlords' busy schedules) I opted to watch her for a few days.  Despite her physical condition, she was very affectionate, walked with a slack leash, and always had a "smile" on her face.  She was alert, intelligent and looked to assist me by following along in the yard while I gardened or resting by my side when I decided to take a break.  

Through no fault of her own, she lacked basic obedience training and liked to jump on you when excited.  She was also clearly not an "inside" pet as she didn't have any house manners. Because of her eagerness to please, I started working with her, beginning with the jumping habit. 

As I continued to lavish Kea with affection and positive reinforcement, my landlords informed me that a man in the area near where she was found was selling white pitbull puppies out of the back of his truck.  By the next day, word had reached this man that my landlords had "rescued" his dog and he confronted them demanding Kea's return.  As there is no law prohibiting that man from selling puppies or protecting Kea from an abusive situation, we had no choice but to return her.  It sickened me to think what terrible things may be in store for this wonderful dog, but our hands were tied. By evening on the third day, I said good-bye to Kea knowing I would never see her again.

I will never understand how people can feel justified by abusing animals.  We should all do our part by spaying or neutering our pets, making sure they receive proper vet care, and provide nourishment, protection and training.  NEVER EVER purchase pets from some "back-yard breeder" or out of the back of a pick-up truck. This only reinforces the bad behaviour of the sellers (and leads to more abuse of innocent animals).  

Her first litter sold for $300 a puppy.  I'm sure she'll be bred again to the detriment of her health and possibly that of her future offspring. When she gets to the point where she can't bear any more litters, she may once again be cast aside. I can only hope not.

Beware the Ides of March and Bring Sunscreen!

Yeah, that's right, bring sunscreen...and your aqua shoes! Prepare to walk along the shore about a mile to this secluded spot and plant yourself in the sand beside the palm trees.

In keeping with tradition, Morgon and I decided to cast the hazards of work aside and head to "A-Bay" (Anaeho'omalu) for some much needed Aloha.

The temperature was about 75 degrees, the water temp was comparable. There were enough trade winds to keep the waves gently undulating and you feeling cool.

We camped just off of the main trail where we discovered a hammock big enough for the two of us and nobody within 100 yards in any direction from where we were. Ahhh, just what you'd imagine in a Corona commercial. Except we brought Mike's Hard Lime, along with a couple of torrid romance paperbacks.

My personal zen is searching for seashells and I did manage to muster up the energy to find a few before packing it in and heading home.  

Eating Pumpkin - a Happy Expirement!

Not what you'd imagine when somebody says the word 'pumpkin'. These little guys are about the size of an acorn squash but are much sweeter.  They grow here year-round and make a wonderful side dish to many entree meats. For the environmentally consious culinarian, using pumpkin lays little to waste as the seeds are edible too.

I've tried them many ways and all experiments were successful. Some, I'm listing below:

Roasted Pumpkin with Stuffing

1  link spicy portugese sausage, chopped into bits

1 cup finely chopped white onion

1 finely chopped celery stalk with leaves

1 cup prepared white rice (or 1 cup prepared instant stuffing mix - I use pork flavor)

Mix above ingredients in large mixing bowl (I do this by hand) and set aside.

Take 2 pumpkins about 5-6 inches in diameter and cut the tops off.  Empty seeds into a colander for rinsing and baking later :)  Fill the empty pumkins with the stuffing mixture and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Voila! Instant dinner for 2!

Roasted Pumpkin (without stuffing)

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground black pepper

1 tsp. sea salt

2 tblsp. olive oil

Take 2 pumpkins about 5-6 inches in diameter and cut in half. Empty the insides into a colander for rinsing and baking the seeds later. Sprinkle open halves with above spices and drizzle with olive oil.  Bake face-down at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. This serves 4 and makes a great side dish to roast pork, chicken or beef.

Stove-top Pumpkin Cooked with Cornish Game Hen

1 cornish hen, halved

1 5-6 inch pumpkin, quartered and cleaned

2 tblsp olive oil

1/2 cup water

Ground sage

Sea salt

Black pepper

Celery seed

Add olive oil to a 10 inch deep skillet and brown the cornish hen halves on all sides.  Place hen halves with skin side up and surround with quarters of pumpkin. Add water and sprinkle spices over dish. Cover and cook on med/med-hi for about 40 minutes, or until squash is tender. Makes an easy one-pot dinner for two!

Baked Pumpkin Seeds

After rinsing seeds clean from remaining pumpkin flesh, place in a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees until they make a "popping" sound (10-20 minutes more or less). Sprinkle with popcorn salt and serve warm.

Ode to Coffee

O liquid sunshine, I need thee now!

Full, smooth-bodied and slightly mellow

Or dark roast brews I duly crave,

of its intense aroma, I am a slave.

Kenya, Brazil, Columbia blends,

Every decent bean to me please send.

My body aches as drowsy numbness pains

for lack of this stimulant pumping through my veins.

O elusive java, where did thee go?

I'd even settle for straight espresso.

For fear that I will not stay awake

until released for my next coffee break.

Composed by yours truly (Tina-Louise)

Friday, March 13th, 2009

after needing some decent brew

Another blog site you may find amusing (for the erudite coffee lover) is: http://caffeinating.blogspot.com/

The Truth About Love

It’s not easy being in a relationship much less to truly accept the other person for who they are with all their flaws and baggage.  To truly love each other, you need to know the truth about each other – even if it’s not so easy to take.

The toughest thing for me is to decide to be with someone for good.  The idea that this is it, this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with - to decide that I will make the effort to stay and not run off the minute that there is a problem is very difficult for me.

It always fascinates me how someone can go from loving you madly to nothing at all…nothing.  It hurts so much.  When I feel someone is going to leave me I have a tendency to break up first before I get to hear the whole thing.

So here it is…one more/one less…another wasted love story.  I really loved this one.

There’s a moment in life where you can’t recover from another break-up.

Then I think that it’s over, that I’ll never see this person like this. Well yes, we’ll run into each other and see their new boyfriend/girlfriend and act as if we had never been together.  Then we’ll slowly think of each other less and less until we forget each other completely.  Almost.

It’s always the same for me…break up, break down, drink up, fool around.  Meet one person, then another. Fuck around to forget about the one and only.  Then after a few months of total emptiness, start again to look for true love.  Desperately look everywhere and after a long period of loneliness, meet a new lover and swear it is the one until that one is gone as well.

Insomnia

Not being able to sleep is frustrating. My body is tired, my mind is not.  Perhaps it's tonight's full moon that's shining through the windows.  Who knows? So to pass the time, I thought I'd try my hand at free-form writing.  Below is just a rumble of words jammed together without any specific theme or meaning:

Front and Center

or was it find your center? Is there anything you're missing that makes you happy?  Is there a "right time" to talk about it, or is the conversation actually a "sooner hurts less than later" discussion? What are the rules REALLY? People mix business and pleasure all the time "now git out there and blow sumthin outta the sky!"

Dad was really a funny guy.

Sometimes buying that extra shot of cheap shop espresso gives adequate replacement to the six olive martini. The only way to understand it is to do it - right? At least I got the phone number. The sperm bank's down the street.

Therapy's crap.

At some point, you may have to actually engage your mind. So throw it at me, it shows you have real upper body strength. It's not like I hold back all the time. Sorry I fell asleep. I dreamed of the fork in the road as this golden utensil blocking my way to the other side. All I need to do is

Pick it up!

I want to express myself, but can't do it in front of a room full of people I DON'T KNOW. Tell your friend not to pretend. Back in Ohio it's not so easy being a big old dyke at 16. Just be who you are and you will be okay.

And the next dancer is...

Search over again - you really need to work it baby! Nothing less than perfect is good enough for me. Why am I really here? Are there ulterior motives? There is a lot to consider - like how our genetic material would combine. You need to CLARIFY! Business or life partner? C'mon c'mon c'mon. I know what's on your mind cuz it's on mine too.

What goes around

and quit holding onto that serious crap. Shockers my ass! Welcome to the new me. But be careful you don't misalign my chakras. It's a big decision and I really need to think it through. Closing on that condo without your dad. One big-ass commitment. It's not like I don't have anywhere to go this morning.

Welcome to the group

although I didn't move out of the storage room to get put back in the closet. Is this the part where you tell me I need to self-actualize? Where's Jesus in all of this? It's easier to walk away when the harder choice is to stay.

I was way outta line

coming to you of all people. And the apology might have meant something when I still loved you. I don't love you anymore and I don't know if we'll ever be friends. I can't feel guilty. I won't. I don't.

Ok

Ya know a light weight like me shouldn't really drink so much on an empty stomach, especially after taking so many antihistamines.

Exploring Lilikoi - a New Culinary Experience

I don't usually have a specific meal in mind while I'm looking in the garden. It just "comes to me" depending upon what's ready to be harvested. Today I picked up about 12 lilikoi fruit and set six aside for use on another day as I was only cooking for two people. I decided to create a sauce to use over fish and rice for today's brunch. The remaining six were cut in half. I scooped out their centers into a small sauce pan and added two teaspoons of sugar, 1/3rd cup of water and a dash of red pepper flakes (I actually added two dashes for more of a kick). When the water is reduced down, the sugar thickens the juice into syrup and the overall effect of the spicy red pepper flakes with the tangy-sweet lilikoi is wonderful! You COULD strain the syrup to remove the seeds, but I found they added to the color/texture of the dish.

The fish was a  16 oz. fillet of Atlantic salmon cut evenly into two pieces.  I lightly poached them in a skillet with a mixture of 1 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp teriyaki sauce and about 1/4 cup of water.  Totally cooking time for the poaching was about 7 minutes.

On each plate I scooped about 1/2 cup of jasmine rice. Placing the salmon alongside the rice, I drizzled the lilikoi syrup over both the rice and salmon. I topped each dish with freshly chopped parsley, basil, chives (all fresh from the garden) and white sesame seeds to contrast the black seeds in the syrup. If served with freshly sliced pineapple and mimosas, the meal couldn't be grander!

If there's any sauce left over, it can either be refrigerated or frozen for later use. As my mind contemplates the flavor, other possible uses come to mind such as iced tea sweetener, salad dressing or even drizzled over creme brulee or coconut and vanilla ice cream (sans pepper flakes, of course).