Creamy

Time for some reflection.

It’s been a little over a year since I began this blog and a little longer since I began my journey into ‘domestic’ skills. I was looking back at my old posts and was seriously shocked at how bad some of my food was…not saying it’s super awesome now but I think I’ve come a long way. And sometimes I look at all the things I’m doing and I feel very much like a “Jack of all trades but master of none” because I love to explore but sometimes I don’t have the time, skill, or patience to hone some of these skills. I’d really like to make more pastries but we honestly don’t eat many sweets so we end up tossing a lot of it away. I’ve been trying to make smaller batches to prevent this but even still it’s likely that we won’t eat all of the pie, pastries, cupcakes, etc that I make. Maybe once I start making my mini tarts I’ll be able to make smaller batches.

But another problem that I run into is the vegan aspect. I’ve read so many random ways to sub for eggs or other agents but it’s really hit and miss depending on the item I make. I haven’t really found concrete sources that really help with subbing. Applesauce is good for more condensed items that don’t spread, flax is good for earthy foods, bananas can be hit or miss because sometimes it overpowers other flavors, the list goes on. I made some Persimmon cookies and I didn’t have any flax meal on hand because I keep forgetting to buy it. Didn’t have any bananas, applesauce was out of the question because of the spreading issue….so it left me with a few options…use cornstarch, a weird baking powder/oil mix that I use occasionally or leave out the egg altogether. But eggs are so great for baking that I really didn’t know what would happen if I left the egg out and I couldn’t find good vegan recipes so I used a Tb. of cornstarch…maybe 2…can’t remember. I also cut the recipe in half which meant only using one Persimmon for the pulp but I doubled it since it seemed a bit too dry (probably the lack of wetness since I used the cornstarch instead of a wet ingredient) and the other Persimmon was almost going bad so I figured it would just make it more Persimmony. I found the recipe on either recipezaar or allrecipes…but changed it to include more pulp and vanilla extract. I’ve never baked these before but they were really soft when they came out and I was worried that they’d be gummy and lacking consistency but they firmed up once I let them cool. Personally, I couldn’t taste the Persimmon but maybe it’s just subtle but Nathan said he could taste it. It seemed like a sweet Oatmeal cookie to me.

The batter was really orange but they came out more brown which was kind of disappointing. They’re super yummy and Nathan even stole one after they came out of the oven which seems promising since he never usually likes to eat sweets. Did I mention in my last post that I made some roasted pumpkin seeds. Mmmm…I remember making these as a kid with ‘Cajun’ spice but simply used olive oil, coarse sea salt, and some cayenne pepper. Omg, so good. I had so many I was super regular all week lol. I was planning on making potato-leek soup with my goat-cheese/tomato tarts tonight but I didn’t want to chance that it would suck so I’m going to wait a until sunday to make it. I did make my vegan cheese which I’ll have to post later. The recipe is on Veg. Times website and it’s ‘Pepper-Crusted Cashew Goat Cheese’…I ended up baking it for about 50 min instead of 35 since I forgot to turn it since I was knitting. It looks promising but I haven’t tried it yet to know if it’s good or not.

Anyway, this post is all over the place tonight. So many thoughts going through my mind. I bought some more dahlias and Nathan seemed to like the ones that looked black…not sure if they’re actually black dahlias but they look awesome.

Crappy pic I wanted to post them since I’m not sure if there will be more of them next week. Thinking about the kitchen…I feel really awesome because I replaced most of the cabinet door handles all by myself and it wasn’t easy. I don’t know who installed half the shit in this complex before we moved in but it was done so horribly I seriously think they did shit work and kept the rest of the money. One of the handles I have to replace wasn’t even screwed in…it was glued on. And one of our drawers has a cheap plastic runner so the wheel is now square…I want to replace it but they glued the runner instead of screwing it into the wood…so now I have to figure out how to get the glue off and then buy a new runner and install it…ya I’m so hardcore…no wonder my nails are always splitting with all the housework I do. I wish I lived in the 1950s and just cleaned and baked…haha But back to the cabinets…they look better than the cheap ass plastic handles that were so worn and falling apart but I really need to paint the wood since they used crap paint…they couldn’t even be bothered to take off the hinges before painting the wood…they seriously just painted over them…but I should quit complaining because we live a lot better than many people in the world so bitching about cabinets is sort of mundane.

I’m still knitting my sock which seems so slow but with all the cleaning, home improvements, and cooking I haven’t had much time this week. I decided to watch movies today instead of the radio which didn’t help me speed up my knitting but it was nice to take a break from listening to the radio. Watched ‘How to marry a millionaire’ and ‘The big sleep’. I really love Humphrey Bogart now and I just think our society is becoming so square in certain ways. I know that women have better opportunities now, in general and not taking into account race and socioeconomic status and all the other factors, so I know it’s not like many women/men in these movies are a good portrayal of how they lived. But The Big Sleep was so great and it makes me wonder why we’re pushing so hard to make 1st Wld. citizens live to be over a hundred. Sure, I’m a huge advocate of living healthy and ethically but I also don’t understand why certain activities are condemned for medical reasons. It’s like our society is mandating a ‘healthy religion’. Doing drugs, drinking, swearing, or not having a certain type of lifestyle is accused as being excessive, life-threatening, or wrong…and I’m not saying that people should do these things just for the hell of it but I think back to my history in Protestant Orange County and wonder why so many of my peers were so against exploring. I seriously am confused when Nathan tells me how he knew so many white Catholics (and Catholics in general) in St. Louis because I never knew any in Orange…only latino/as were Catholic. But anyway, I’m not advocating that we do a bunch of socially wrong activities but I think we need to loosen up a bit. Like the smoking ban in Santa Cruz….I personally hated when people smoked in diners or in airplanes but I don’t think we should police these things in such a way…both legally or culturally.

Why is it that we’re so focused on abortions, drug/alcohol consumption, and our work status when people are committing mass murder by exposing people to horrible working conditions that affect entire communities? Sweatshops exploit people, create worse shanty towns/environmental conditions, are usually abusive in regards to women, and create little or no job security for the workers. We have people like Bernie Madoff who fucks over people for money, other CEOs who can’t be bothered to take a coach class airplane seat instead of private planes, our government which has historically abused people, created coups, enacted embargoes for lame political reasons, and generally dicked over a lot of citizens by sending them off to wars that shouldn’t have been started and has taken away food support instead of trying to get communities out of poverty. And we, as a collective society, are concerned about if someone wants to smoke weed or a cigarette?

I mean, honestly, where are our priorities? It feels like we’re tying to make everyone live a long time so that we get max production out of people to feed taxes while keeping us ignorant to bigger issues. We don’t even have full health care which is just criminal…sometimes I feel like I’m becoming a Libertarian which I hope doesn’t happen haha. But honestly, I feel like the 1st Wld. needs a wake up…we should be more concerned about where our electronic parts are coming from in terms of raw materials than if someone wants a random smoke. We should be more concerned about the working conditions of outsourced industries that affect millions of people rather than if one woman decides she doesn’t want to carry a fetus for her own reasons.

And that is another thing, I got crap sex ed. To be honest, I’m grateful that I had friends in high school that talked about sex even if they weren’t practicing themselves…and I had a great Environmental Studies teacher who talked to me and my class partner about contraception when we asked her what our text book meant when they listed all sorts of contraception because we had no clue what anything other than a condom was. I read recently that abortions are on the decline in countries that have a wide variety of birth control which seems to me as a good sign…why does the U.S. feel that the best form of protection is not having sex. It’s unrealistic…I mean some venereal diseases have been around for centuries…sex is what makes life possible and genetics make things possible or impossible. We pump women full of hormones for their eggs or surrogacy and let couples pay thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars to create children but if a woman doesn’t want to have a child then they might as well have sold their souls to the goddamn devil.  Seriously, people all over the world are living in horrible conditions, get no help with substantial political stability from their former colonial powers, are subjugated to slavery/trade/migration because the 1st Wld. is so xenophobic and apathetic.

This post is so all over the place, but I just don’t understand why the U.S. pushes certain agendas. Well, I suppose our society pushes them to make us forget about bigger issues…at least that is how it seems to me. And I write this because I feel if I type about it then maybe others might think more on these issues. It comes down to what does it mean to be political. I’ve done more marching and protesting than most people in my lifetime because of my parents. Just because I’m not ‘actively’ protesting doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything. We live in a very consumer driven society and I am always thinking about what I consume…mainly food because I do believe that ‘we are what we eat’. I’m blessed that I can eat so well. I might not be a professor or employed by an activist organization but that doesn’t mean I’m not doing my part. I think one of our biggest obligations as a world citizen is to read and think critically and then to talk or write about it. Also, not everyone can a ‘full-time’ activist because we need people to work in certain occupations to make our society function…we can’t all be full time activists because we need people to sell, market, clean, etc. It’s just a reality. But at the same time I think we ought to strive to encourage more people to think globally. Everything we do effects the world, especially in regards to 1st. Wld. citizens.

Anyway, the last thing I’ll bitch about, I think people with peanut allergies should all die…ok ok I don’t mean that. But I’m so tired of trying to find peanuts at my local markets because people have peanut allergies. First they take away my airplane peanuts and give me some horrid pretzels. Then they slowly take away peanuts from everywhere…and I mean everywhere! I finally got some peanuts at Wholefoods but then they took most of the varieties away and now there is the lone vacuum-packed bag that sits in a corner away from all the real nuts. Personally, I don’t understand why they didn’t just offer two types of snacks on airplanes and really…is it the peanut’s fault that people are allergic to it? I say no, leave the peanut alone…it’s a mofo’ing legume!

Vive le legume!

I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost

I can’t believe it’s Nov. already.

Where does time go? It seems like yesterday that I was in HS waiting to turn 18, then 21….and it felt so slow. Now I feel like the years go by so quickly but maybe I’m just getting nostalgic in my old age. Halloween was pretty uneventful which is a good thing since there are usually a handful of deaths each year. Celebrated our 4th anniversary since our commitment which was nice…I like to look up the wedding gifts for fun especially since the modern ones are so unromantic. This year was Appliances for the modern day. Appliances? ok sure, I actually did ask Nathan to get me the Le Creuset Skillet and we’re going to get him this awesome bag specially made for him so we weren’t planning on romantic…and ya so my gift would kind of be an appliance but really? Who thought up appliances as a wedding anniversary gift?

“Here you go honey, a new food processor to make me food!” or….wait…what kinds of manly appliances do guys use? Irons? Haha I usually iron….oh wait I got one…”Oh Nathan, here’s a Fry Daddy so you can make your deep-fried tofu”

I think the traditional one for this year was linen which is so much more abstract and imaginative than…appliances. Bah, stupid modern crap….I think they should come up with a post-modern list that would include: kindle, iphones, ipods, basically anything mac related, and something labeled as ‘green’ even if we don’t know for sure if it is actually sustainable, eco-friendly, or/and fair trade.

So we didn’t do much but we had a lot of fun thinking up a design for our pumpkin and doing our costumes. I’m proud that Nathan carved the pumpkin so well since I suck at it. He’s randomly more logical than me in certain areas and apparently pumpkin carving is one of them. We brainstormed what our pumpkin would look like and drew out some ideas. He set to work while I made the pizza since I wasn’t going to mess with our year long tradition of Pizza Saturdays. I seriously think the only time we’ve missed out on Pizza Saturdays is when on vacation which is pretty awesome if you ask me….which you didn’t.

We totally got compliments on our pumpkin but it sucks that our candles kept running out. Then I started freaking out because the candles we had were super old so I have no clue if they’re vegan since I’ve had them since before I became one. Now, of course, I’m looking into making vegan candles since it seems easy and relatively cheap and good for emergencies…especially since we have quite a few power outages up here. Anyway, I’ll post our pumpkin.

Can anyone guess who it’s modeled after? Or is it whom? I really need to look that up but I think ‘whom’ sounds really lame. Anyway, for those who didn’t guess it’s supposed to be Paul Stanley. So awesome…really the mouth totally makes it. It’s super tiny just like his mouth in most pictures. Nathan was really upset because we didn’t have all the fancy tools to make really crazy designs especially since he thought it was totally cheating. He kept bitching that it’s not fair to use all these random tools to get some great looking pumpkin and then also using patterns because it makes our pumpkin look not so creative but I reassured him that ours was way more original so screw the pumpkin tools. I think the compliments helped with his mood since our neighbors seemed to get the reference.

So since we usually love Halloween but don’t usually plan we felt pretty good with our face make-up. We didn’t actually dress up but just did KISS faces. I was Peter Criss and Nathan was Paul Stanley. We’re on a KISS theme this year…and I mean the entire year we’ve been loving them. I was kind of annoyed since the Cat Man had way more make up then the stupid Star Child. Took me twice as long. We had lots of fun listening to KISS and random bands while getting ready. Really, I think it’s one of the best Halloween ideas that I’ve/we’ve thought up.

We used pink ‘drum sticks’ for a lot of our pics which was really fun. Re was the drum for Nathan’s picture haha. Also, I wore my red boots which look way cooler than the picture I posted. Nathan calls them ‘Fuck me’ boots which I thought was too funny. I just thought they looked like quirky red boots.

I know that my make-up wasn’t totally original since I wanted to make it a bit more fem. since I looked really weird with the black make-up going to my forehead so I washed it off and just made them reach to my eyebrows. I also didn’t have any green eyeshadow so I used blue instead. And I have a ton of red-eye fotos of myself which is so irritating. I guess it has to do with certain pigments and random biological crap that I’m not going to write about since it’s easy to just Yahoo it…that’s right…not Google….Yahoo! I hate stupid google…::grumbles::

Unfortunately, I’ve pretty much decided to remove my lip ring since it’s so hard to find the right size and gauge. I’m really sad about it…but even when I found the right ring I ended up eating the balls so quickly that it was stupid and then it’s kind of hard kissing sometimes because it moves around or if the ball is missing it pokes me or Nathan. Maybe that is too much info, but I’m really sad about it. I need to find another place to pierce now…especially since I got that piercing as a bet against Nathan. It has so many great memories.

Have I mentioned I started composting? I’m so proud of that and it’s really fun to dump my food clippings but someone hid the shovel this week so no one has been able to turn over the compost lately. I also am waiting for our Sigg water bottles which should help cut down our plastic water bottle consumption. Um…let’s see what else…oh! I bought some small tart pans with removable bottoms so I can’t wait to make some vegan goat cheese-tomato tarts and maybe some vegan dessert tarts! so exciting….and I should be making some Persimmon  cookies this week.

The only thing left really is knitting now. Not to spoil Christmas but I’ve pretty much given up on making big items for my family this year for Christmas since I still am waiting on my big order of yarn. So, everyone who is family…I think I’m going to make socks since they are so awesome. I really hate Christmas since 1. Nathan and I are only children and really hate opening presents in front of people because it feels so weird and 2. I never know what to get people even if it’s Nathan and 3. it makes everyone go into ’shopping spree’ mode. Even Nathan…omg I’m still mad at him for buying me this huge computer screen since we originally agreed to only spend a certain amount on each other. He justified it by saying that I never get anything since I hate spending money on myself so he wanted me to have something really nice…haha so post-modern…instead of jewels he buys me a huge computer screen. We’re so weird. But anyway, Christmas is so hectic but I hope my knit gifts will be nice and awesome because the designs that I have are so beautiful.

My sock is coming a long nicely and almost done. I finished the decreases for the gusset and am working on the foot but I haven’t worked on it this weekend since it was our anniversary so I’m a bit behind. I can’t wait to finish these socks and try the patterns out of my new book. To be honest, I made a swatch (to check the gauge of the yarn/needles) and it was actually smaller than the pattern stated and it’s still a bit larger than my foot. It’s not super loose but I really like my socks to be tight fitting. One of the reasons why I like this new sock book is that she gives tips on how to make a sock fit better for each pattern and gives the standard size for the pattern which is nice since I generally have smaller feet than these patterns and Nathan has bigger feet than these patterns. Anyway, here is my progress.

So technically, my swatch was smaller than the pattern and yet the sock is still a bit bigger than I had expected. It might have to do with the yarn since I’m not using the silk/alt fiber that the author recommended but I can’t believe it’s as loose as it is. But I think most patterns are for ‘average’ sizes which probably means it’s meant for a size Woman 8 and I’m a 7 so that might make a difference. Damn, that picture makes my foot and calf look fat…Anyway, I ought to log since this post is so random. Take care and eat healthy food!

And if you don’t blast this clip and watch it…well…something is wrong with you

tallahassee

I love Woody Harrelson.

He’s super sexy and really into talking about smoking weed which is kind of awesome. That and we just saw Zombieland and he was super fun in that and apparently he’s a vegan and does a lot of activism. Brangelina was so 2005….plus I totally have never liked A.Jolie. Ok, in Lara Croft she was kind of awesome at the time but we watched the movies a few months ago and god was it awful. Anyway, back to Woody…he’s just really unique in that he can do and wear stuff in movies and pull it off.

The movie was pretty good except it was pretty scary for me. I actually screamed which was totally embarrassing but I don’t think it was too loud but still…humiliating. I don’t know why I’m so afraid of movies since I know logically there weren’t velociraptor in my Grandparent’s house, or that creepy Japanese horror undead weren’t in the bathroom as I took a shower, and logically I should have known that there wasn’t an axe-murder in the bathroom or zombies. But it didn’t stop me from practically running out of the movie bathroom since right before I walked in there was this scary poster for The Fourth Kind or whatever. The bathroom was totally deserted and I kept thinking ‘what if someone is in the stall next to me and I’m going to die while peeing?’…Pee Faster! Pee Faster! was my mantra and then I kept turning around while washing my hands because I didn’t trust the mirrors with my reaction time…but I still took the time to open the door with a paper towel since I didn’t want germs.

Then I had to go and watch Zombieland and well…no spoilers…but I was scared the rest of the night. Good movie though. Just wish I wasn’t so afraid of scary movies.

We also went to the bookstore and picked up some things and I got a new knitting book that looks really awesome and helps with sock/knitting design. I’m excited. Anyway, my sock is coming together nicely…I’ve turned the heel and really pretty close to being done…hopefully.

Looks more like a sock now I suppose.

Went to the Farmer’s Market and it definitely had a different feel from the earlier months since the wind has been picking up lately and the tourism has really died out. I feel kind of bad because I didn’t pick up any squash because I really didn’t want to walk half a mile with a bunch of heavy squash. I already get sore feet and achy shoulders from carrying it all back to the laundry mat that I figured I’d just buy some at the grocery. I did see some lovely squash flowers and picked up more of my Dahlia’s.

I don’t think we’re going to eat the Spaghetti squash but instead might do some carving since I only bought one big pumpkin since they weigh a ton. I’m planning on roasting the Acorn Squash and then filling it with a wild rice pilaf which I’m excited about since I have some chestnuts that I’m going to throw in. I also got a sweet pumpkin for my pie that I make. Still gotta try and find some evaporated soy milk online but I keep forgetting.

Anyway, I didn’t want the flowers to go bad so I thought I’d make Butternut Squash ravioli with a Sage-Butter sauce with a side of Bean Stuffed Squash flowers. Many of the stuffed squash flower recipes were either with cheese or some weird vegan nut cheese recipe that I just didn’t have the energy to make. Instead, I pureed a can of Great Northern beans with some garlic, thyme, and some sea salt. Removed the stems and the stamen since I read that most flowers are the males since they let the females develop and whatnot. I did find a little caterpillar nestled in one of the flowers so I helped him outside into the green grass. Washed and shook dry and made a slice on one side of the flower for easier stuffing action. I must say, I’m proud of my little bean dip and I really want to make some more for dipping veggies and bread in. I made about 20 stuffed flowers and ended up using all of the bean spread (with a little bit for me to eat off the spatula). I pan fried them although I think a lot of people deep fry them. Set them on a paper toweled plate in the oven at 250 to keep warm while I finished off the pasta and sauce.

I really need to remember to buy a pasta roller/machine thing because making pasta dough is easy but I never can roll it out as nicely as I want to since it dries out, won’t roll, and generally is a bitch. I managed to make 9 raviolis and they were pretty dough heavy but I did stuff them to the brim. I got the recipe off the food network…basically roast the squash and get a cup of insides and puree it…slice up some shallots, cook in some oil, add puree and let cool. Then stuff. For the sauce…just melted butter with some sage that I left cook while the pasta was boiling. Topped it off with some minced flat-leaf parsley. I think it’s an Emeril recipe and I just omitted the dairy for those who want to look it up.

These blossoms really reminded me of tamales since the bean puree was thick and the petals wrapped nicely around the filling. I must say these were delicious and I still have more that only need to be fried up so it will be a good snack. I really was motivated to make the filling with beans since I wanted to get a fair amount of complete protein even though I know that some vegans don’t think it’s necessary for each meal but we really hadn’t gotten much protein today. Unfortunately, Nathan was totally weirded out by them. Well, partially my fault since I told him about the caterpillar I found in one of the flowers so he was freaked out that there were bugs in them. And he knows, logically, that we eat bugs all the time and that a little bug here and there isn’t a big deal…but he can’t get around that phobia which is ok. Plus, I kind of have to force him to eat flowers in salads since for some reason it freaks him out. Oh well, I loved them and it just means more for me!

Those little flowers barely had any room on that plate! Well, I have to admit it wasn’t my favorite dish and I probably won’t try it again. I think I may just not have a tolerance for Butternut Squash right now…it was just a bit too overwhelming. I only ate 3 of my 4 and it was hard because it was just too much squash. Even if I made them smaller I would have to make another dish to fill me up which just seems insane since I spent about 3 hours making dinner (including roasting time so it wasn’t always active time). I was surprised that I ate the sage since I’ve always hated the smell because it’s always so pungent that it gives me a headache. But it was mellow in this dish and I did like that. Overall, a very beautiful dish but I think next time I’ll stick to my tofu ricotta ravioli. And not tell Nathan about the one bug I found in the flowers haha.

Some of my flowers were burgered so I had to cut off the stems but I filled a small bowl with water and placed it in the bathroom for a bit of a Central American representation in two rooms.

I love these flowers..have I mentioned that yet? They’re like my fall Daffodil…so bright and lovely and I just want to lay in a field of them…but who knows…I think they grow like bushes but still….maybe a field with tall grasses and Dahlia bushes. I remember my childhood when I see these flowers. In Santa Barbara I explored so much; the lagoons with their succulent plants that always seemed to be in bloom, the tall grasses of my elementary school where a bunch of kids would tunnel through the grasses like rodents making our paths, and the Family Student Housing gardens that always had fields of poppies that I used to lie down in while watching the sun set. I love playing online games and I really hate having to defend them from those who think that players give up on life and only enter the ‘world’ through a certain virtual reality. But I think that so much of our memories and realities are self-conditioned and our society shapes our realities much more which can be devastating for some. Dealing with racism, physical hardships, socioeconomic gaps, the list goes on…but all those realities can be hard to deal with and I’m not saying that we should advocate for complete escapism or lack of activism but sometimes certain activities can be freeing. I have a lot of good memories from online games but I realize that I can’t always use it as an extension of my reality because Santa Cruz (and the world) has so much beauty in both traditional senses and non-traditional senses. And with my last post, I think of how these games can actually create communities and to a certain extent friendships as well…there is so much developing in virtual worlds that it still hasn’t set up as many boundaries even after a decade or more of their existence. I suppose that we question virtual realities so much that it irritates me since no one ever really questioned television for so long even though I think it can be really unhealthy and promote a certain level of complacency towards knowledge and news. I’m not as well learned as I should be and I really have to search for a lot of cross references half the time because I hate feeling ignorant. I think part of that is having such an academically geared family that I feel like I need to know so much and I don’t let myself off the hook for much. That and the fact that Trivial Pursuit always makes me feel dumb since we always play the older version so of course I don’t know half the things that my elders do. Plus, I’m really not competitive, although I am with Nathan maybe because I feel like we’re on a similar playing ground so I don’t feel so dumb.

I’ve been really into thinking about different learning processes lately because I feel like part of the reason why I can’t understand or learn certain things has to do with the way I learn. I was always really good at learning music….I taught myself at least 4 different instruments and I’ve always been really visual. Like I was telling my mom the other day…I didn’t roll my eyes as much as she thought but I actually try to visualize things when people talk to me so I roll my eyes up to imagine. It wasn’t until Nathan asked me why I was rolling my eyes at him years ago that I realized that it was off putting. What? Rolling my eyes? Well I did roll my eyes a lot and when my mom would get mad I would roll my eyes because I was thinking ‘here she goes again’ but for the most part I was just thinking. Even when I write I stare at the wall a lot forming my ideas and figuring out what I want to write…it’s annoying. Nathan has learned to adapt to this though but he still randomly asks ‘ what are you staring at?’ to which I have to explain that I’m trying to imagine the scenario in which he’s talking about. Like with knitting….well part of the reason why it was hard to learn was because a lot of it was the English way which I think is knitting with the right hand…but also because they would write out how to do things and I couldn’t picture it. I really have to look up videos or pictures of how to do certain stitches, methods, etc to learn knitting. Same with sewing…my mom taught me during Thanksgiving years ago and I picked it up rather quickly because it was hands-on and I could visualize what I needed to do.

Or another thing…when people tell me their phone numbers or how to spell something I need them to go really slow…like one letter…pause…another letter…pause…I had to ask Nathan some number the other day and he had to start over 2 times because it was too fast for me…because I try to imagine the numbers first before typing them…but when someone spews off a bunch of numbers or letters I just can’t grasp it….

Who knows…maybe I’m just dumb. haha. But I wonder why I picked up on music so quickly…It’s weird because Nathan (I refer to him too much) can memorize lyrics so easily but I never remember lyrics to the point that I continue to sing wrong ones even though I know the correct ones. But we were talking about it and I think part of the reason is because I listen more to the music rather than the lyrics, the lyrics are an afterthought. I’m working on that but maybe my years in band and being around music makes me prone to picking up the little details of the music. I really should look up studies on the left-handed brain or on other learning issues because I feel like people learn in so many different ways. It’s amazing…not only the brain but also our bodies in relation to our organs…our culture…our society…or global community. Nuts. And I don’t feel particularly artistic…never have…even when I excelling at music at so much. It just flowed…

It’s been hard learning to knit though especially now that I’m reading up on the math and dimensions of design…it’s new so I hope that my current confusion will dissipate with more reading and studying. I really am kind of excited about calling myself an ‘artist’ once I get more experienced. And I can’t wait until people ask me ‘what I do’…because I’ll say…’well, my first job is taking care of my home with my partner and making good food and living as eco/ethically as we can and my second job is being an artist’. How cool is that? Working two things that I love…well mostly love…gotta hate the cleaning and the knitting mistakes. Anyway, take care all and eat yummy food.

 

 

I need a rain dance pls.

Why won’t it rain more?

I’m sick of it being gloomy and rainy and then sunny and way too warm for 4 days straight. Bah, I want my rain. But I can’t do much about it except wait for evening when the fog usually rolls in and it’s beautiful.

I’ve been doing a lot of knitting on my corn socks. Yes, corn yarn. It feels super soft although I’ve been warned never to iron them unless I went a hot, sticky, sugary mess….but I rarely iron my clothing unless it’s something that really gets wrinkly. I’m not sure if this book sort of sucks in terms of the editor or publisher because I know that one pattern has some serious issues and I even emailed the publishing house for the correct pattern and they totally copped out and sent me a link to a site that was basically a woman’s blog and she happened to notice some of the errors and made a corrected chart. Unfortunately, I didn’t want the chart since I had already been to that site but I wanted to check and see if there were more corrections. Bah, anyway, I’m not going to even bother with that pattern.

I’m really wondering if knitters have to play with patterns a lot or if this book just didn’t get as much attention to detail as it should have because this sock pattern is a wee bit off. And I’m totally following directions and rereading them, looking up the types of stitches to double check that I did learn the correct way to do it…and still it’s a bit off. It’s really the heel, the rib pattern wasn’t layering quite right so I adjusted it but the rib moved over a few stitches. I haven’t had difficulty with other patterns from online, magazine, or other book sources before so I’m really wondering if these designers had other people make them to make sure the patterns worked. Who knows but I really don’t want to give up on this book because it has some really interesting patterns and deals with a lot of interesting yarns instead of the regular animal fibers.

So, back to my point, my socks are coming out nicely and except for a minor flaw they look pretty good. I still have about 5 more rounds to do before I turn the heel and I’m pretty excited to be making socks for the first time. It sounds boring but if I want to start doing designs and such I need hands-on experience and besides…I love socks. I’m using Crystal Palace Yarns “Maizy” which has 18% elastic nylon which should be good for stretching and shaping….and I got it in Stormy Purple.

Small pic, and hard to see, but the cuff has 5 cables which was rather annoying and I’m glad to be done with them. I don’t mind cables but the yarn is quite fine and doing  about 12 of them in a row gets annoying. I’m not usually a fan of multi-colored yarn but I think for some projects it really makes them more interesting. I’ll try to keep updating my progress and hopefully I won’t do something wrong and have to unravel…

In between my knitting I have made some new food although the salad was pretty basic but oh so yummy. I’ve been really scared of trying heirloom tomatoes because they look like aliens and I’m still overcoming my fear of tomatoes. Sure I eat them all the time but certain things just scare me for some reason…fried green tomatoes? I feel like there are worms in there but I’m not sure if that was from the book that I read when I was younger or if I just made it up in my head…or sun dried tomatoes…my mom used to try and force me to eat them and I would literally gag…it was like my throat would close up and I was getting sucked down a tube and my life was fading from me and then…I would spit it onto the plate rather than sacrifice my life for a stupid, nasty tomato. So I have issues…but I told myself that I need to woman up and buy them before I regretted it. So here they are…my lovely tomatoes from the farmer’s market.

I really loved the peach looking tomato and it was rather sweet in comparison to the green one which was definitely tart and less juicy. The red one tasted a bit like a regular tomato but perhaps I haven’t developed my heirloom tomato palate. Peachy, since I didn’t look at their official names, had a beautiful marbled interior that was amazing to look at and I kept the slices large so that we could enjoy the colors as well and experience different tastes and sizes as they filled our mouth. I know, that sounds a bit pervy but I stick to my claim that most food is super sexy and we might as well enjoy it. Tried out a pretty basic recipe from one of my cook books but I only had sourdough in the fridge which made it look a bit less impressive than italian country bread that I think the recipe recommended. Basically toasted the bread in the oven and spooned the nut,garlic, olive oil mix onto it and let it toast for an extra minute. I probably didn’t need to let it toast more since the recipe used cheese which would have melted it but oh well. Totally great side dish to our dinner and I kept eating the left overs out of the bowl the rest of the night.

I’ve been really into hand mixing lately which I know is good for the food since we can better gauge, season, and handle the dish and plus it does give an organic feeling to cooking. I still use spoons to mix up the liquids initially since I don’t want my hand covered in dough but I really do love feeling doughs and foods in my hands. So, I hand mixed the seasonings and liquids of this salad especially since I didn’t want to break any of my Maters. It’s kind of silly how basic this recipe is and Nathan thought it tasted a lot like Bruschetta which it did after he said it. So basically I made a larger version of it and I can’t believe I fell for that cook’s recipe! He should have named it ‘Fancy Bruschetta’ but I’m not really all that mad but it does feel weird when we think certain foods are new and exciting and then we realize that we’ve had similar dishes before and it’s not as exotic as it initially seemed.  But maybe that’s the anthropology background I grew up around…always exotizing cultures and people…but now I’ve shifted it over to food. Omg, I’m a horrible person…

So let’s shift gears because I don’t want to dwell on my new discovery. I made some more turnovers which came out better than the originals but I still have a bit of a hard time getting them to seal. I let it defrost in the fridge for about 4 hours and made the filling…peeled two ripe pears, mixed in some cornstarch, turbinado sugar, cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg. Hand mixed again since the pears were really ripe and I thought that a spoon would break them apart.

I actually remembered to sugar the tops before I baked them! I’m proud of myself for that since they came out a bit salty since the vegan butter I have access to has salt mixed in so I can’t control that aspect of the dough. I did omit the salt that was in the recipe but it still was a bit salty since I had forgotten to add sugar to the tops and it really did offset the salt. I’m thinking of buying another measuring tape since I use this one for baking all the time. I’m really bad with measurements…I always think an inch is way smaller which is why I keep my soft measuring tape near me when I knit because I have no concept of length. I’m still having trouble with the seal and I used rice milk which didn’t seem all that great. I usually use flax seed but I ran out and I keep forgetting to buy more so I’ll have to try that next time. Another issue which I’m sure is probably partially my fault are the layers…the foto isn’t as great but when they came out of the oven I could really see the layers but I still feel like I could have gotten more puffiness and flakiness. I may not be an official pastry student but I’ve read a lot of different sources, looked at tutorials, and watched a lot of videos on how to prepare the dough all the way to baking it…so I feel like I have a rather good grasp as to handling the dough and I chilled it a lot between the steps because it was getting a bit warm that day. Anyway, my point is that I wonder if animal fats/veggie shortening work differently than vegan butter in the mechanics of dough. Maybe I’m just expecting a ton of puffiness from my first puff pastry dough and that probably isn’t realistic. They tasted great and I would say that about half of them sealed up and the over half burst open the second I put them on the baking stone…but it was really amazing to see them puff up rather quickly. I could have over filled them too since I’m fairly new to pastries but over all it was really satisfying

To sum up the last two paragraphs…Lots of work, I’m a noob so the pastries probably didn’t come out as well but I decided to blame everything else since theoretically I knew what I was doing. Haha, now I need to make more to prove that I can make fantastic looking pastries.

Let’s see, I wonder if I have any new rants to go on about. Well, Santa Cruz has officially banned smoking downtown, west cliff, and by our area which really makes my blood boil. We’re seriously going to fine people who smoke to generate income for the county which is the 4th most expensive place to live in the U.S. When we went to Monterey I noticed they had ashtrays attached to the trash cans which was really great because people don’t have to litter. But Santa Cruz has the brilliant idea of not putting many recycling bins downtown and no ashtrays and then they decide to bitch about cleaning up. When we went up to Natural bridges the roads were all being repaved but they weren’t even horrible to begin with but lower downtown, beach hill, beach flats, and numerous other parts of SC are in major need of repair but they decide to repave the roads where there are million dollar houses. And it’s conflicting to me because I rant and rave about this but I don’t feel like I have much of a right to say anything because I don’t consider myself a local and I don’t intend on living in this city for the rest of my life. I suppose I feel like it’s appropriation if I start looking for ways to improve the city since it’s not my city.

SC has major housing, homeless, and general city issues but they never focus on these problems but instead decide to pull stupid bans that only serve to bring in money. Everyone likes to think of SC as so liberal and it is in some ways…culturally I suppose, but I feel like our civil liberties are being violated when things like this happen. They argue that it’s better for children…well I think walking by a person smoking for 30 sec is going to do a lot less damage than the fact that we’ve taken P.E. out of many schools, many children (and adults) are eating hormone-pumped, genetically modified, trans-fat, etc food, are inhaling exhaust/smog and I could probably think of a million more things.

Really, drinking coffee is probably worse than that…and to be honest I don’t think smoking downtown is that big of a problem…maybe one person for every two blocks? And seriously, how many drug deals go on that aren’t dealt with and I think that is more dangerous than this new ban.

I really hate what the U.S. is becoming…or is. And I know, before anyone posts, that we’ve been eating genetically modified foods for a long time…like corn…but that also took a lot longer and the way First world countries have forced the world to obliterate so many strains of food is horrible and dangerous when a new pest or disease worms it way into our perfect, bland food.

I really want to move away from this country but it’s going to take a lot of work and even then I know it’s not a solution and I remember criticizing my peers for wanting to do the same thing. But in a way I think I justify my desire because both Nathan and I come from families of immigrants and in a lot of ways we had very migratory lives. When people ask where I’m from I honestly don’t know what to say…I usually say ‘down south’ since it’s somewhat true but what is my hometown? I don’t know…is it where I was born but didn’t live? or The place I was at longest…well technically I suppose SC is the longest but I divide my time here by my mental well being…the first few years were really hard and I didn’t venture out or even really realize my surroundings.

And if I move I know there is that criticism of wanting to move to a European country…as if I’m falling into that colonial state of mind in that I want to become like them and be the white colonial power. But I think it’s wrong to think in that old frame of mind because we’re neglecting to see the millions of post-colonial subjects that live in the EU and who have voices and communities and are very much trying to claim their right to be there. And to be honest, certain countries seem easier to move to…like not learning another language is a plus but this is still a dream of mine that I’m attempting to research so as to make it a reality. But it’s problematic because I know there are conflicts wherever I go but perhaps I want to choose which fights I can join instead of feeling tired of having to justify why I don’t want a huge house or why want to part of the traditional working sector.

I think I realize as I grow older how hard it is for people who have moved a lot to claim an identity. If I move to another country I’ll finally have a more solid identity…as a foreigner…an ex-pat, and American. And I’m not saying I want to become some huge nationalist to a new country and go on about how much better it is than the U.S. (although I think most countries have many and different aspects that are better) or that the U.S. is a horrible place but instead I just would like to live somewhere else. If someone moves cities it’s not a big political deal but saying I don’t want to live in the country has so many ramifications on both the nationalist and post-colonial sides. I’m screwed either way. I also don’t want to erase my history or identity but sometimes I feel like I can’t relate to most people because I’ve had such a mixed history. I had to learn how people acted in different parts of the state and then in C.A. and to adjust to that and then to figure out my own cultural identity which is at times insane. I’m not latina enough and I’m not white enough which is fine but I don’t want to justify myself by knowing big fancy spanish words.

I remember when I was at a conference in Honduras and it was discussion on Women’s rights and many of the ‘liberal/intellectual’ women were using very academic language that I couldn’t understand but of course I knew my spanish wasn’t as great as a native speaker. And yet at one point some women interrupted and they said they couldn’t understand and basically accusing them of patronizing them (or perhaps matronizing?) with these huge terms because they were indigenous and relatively poor in comparison yet they still wanted to organize. I felt really good after that because I may not have great skills but it’s very much apart of me and even though I do want to learn more I still know more than most people think. I have dreams in spanish and I think about my experiences all the time and that won’t ever change. But at the same time I have to recognize that I can’t really share the same experiences with other Salvadorans/Latino(a)s/Indigenous people because many of them have a collective memory or experience. Many lived in poor areas, or at least in the same community where they faced racisim together or perhaps had to leave their home country because of war but I feel like there is always something that binds them even if they still have their individual differences. And I know collective organizations/communities are problematic because one way or another select ideas/agendas/experiences get promoted over others so I know just because someone grew up in South Central L.A. doesn’t mean they feel connected to their community for that sole geographic/cultural reason but I think most times it does.

So where does that leave people like me or that minority of minorities that doesn’t feel connected? I don’t think it’s wrong to want to live a life that a person chooses, especially if we keep thinking about why we make those sorts of choices. I like to believe that I think more about what I do and don’t do than many of the world’s citizens but again…I’m privileged enough to get to questions and make choices and for that I’m grateful but it doesn’t mean that I owe this country my loyalty when it’s oppressed, murdered, enslaved, and generally stomped on my ancestors and others without a second thought. Where was the reflection and questioning of our governments? It still continues with us blindly agreeing that going to Iraq was important because somehow the attacks of 9/11 were directly linked to Iraq…

It’s really hard writing and hoping that people can read through my sarcasm, my exaggerations, my moods, and my political bull. Half the time I write without realizing that people will indeed read this but I try to be careful not to turn this into some sort of diary. I’ve never been very good at diaries actually so maybe this blog is really lame and meaningless. But I suppose in the grand scheme of things our lives are pretty mundane when we think of the plants and stars and the evolution of life…I think I’m becoming too self-reflective. I think being a libra amplifies this tendency because I try to be fair even though I’m far from it.

Anyway, I’ll sign off before I start questioning why I’m not going to continue to write. I’m posting this show that is super funny that I found on netflix and I can’t wait for the 4th season. The IT Crowd…just a clip but super funny. Just for context…Jen gets a bit of an ego after getting ‘employee of the month’ and she doesn’t really know anything about computers…

Update: Embedding disabled but hopefully those who want to view it can still be viewed by clicking through to Youtube. Sorry ’bout that >.<

I’d like to be…under the sea

Fall is finally settling in.

Ah, how I love fall/autumn. Everything always feels so crisp and I love the cool wind on my face as I bundle up. I’m so excited because it always seems so quiet during Fall and maybe pensive as well.

I’m getting anxious about my knitting projects since I still haven’t received my yarn and Nathan probably won’t get his vegan shoes until Nov. >.< Sometimes it is rather annoying to be vegan….He ordered his shoes in august and since the shoes come from the UK it will take longer and my yarn is from Canada so I’m sure it’s moving slowly. I’m seriously considering ordering more yarn in hopes that I might get it by the time I finish the project that I have yet to start. In the meantime I’m knitting a kittie bed and maybe will do some dishtowels out of boredom until my yarn arrives.

In other news, I have some pics of my beautiful Dahlias…well not mine but in my home. One of them was actually two toned: part solid color and part mixed. Totally bizarre when I first saw it but kind of neat.

We went to Natural Bridges this week which is about a mile from where we live. We hadn’t been for years so I figured we ought to head up especially since I hadn’t seen the tide pools. We first headed to the Falafel House and picked up…Falafel and then sat at the picnic tables over at Natural Bridges. We had a friend who was probably more interested in our food than us but he was really cute.

Posting some pics nothing too interesting or in need of explanation.

Well maybe a little. First one is pretty awesome to be near because all these pelicans, seagulls, and other birds hang out on top. This is the only reason that I can guess why it’s called Natural Bridges but I should look it up. Second one is where the tide pools are at and I love that time of day when the ocean looks part silver. The fourth one is a sea anemone or at least it looked like one. Actually it looks like a monster to me.

We had lots of fun walking around and relaxing. The climb back up the hill was our second workout for the day since it was pretty steep and sandy…my poor buns! Zomg, I’m super excited because we got our Stepper on Friday and put it together on Sunday. I swear, every time we buy something there is always something missing or wrong. Like our Stepper, we were getting ready to put the screen on and connect the wires when we realized that the ground wires didn’t have the male piece. We looked everywhere to see if maybe it was in a small bag but nothing. So I figured I’d go get the stupid piece of metal and get showered but then Nathan figured out we could just use foil as a substitute. Because I’m awesome, we had electrical tape handy to make sure the wires didn’t disconnect. Oh, and I’m also super awesome because I bought a wrench a few months back and we actually needed one. I think all those times at Costco with my dad is slowly becoming beneficial…He and my great grandfather both loved tools so maybe that’s why every time I’m at the hardware store I have to pick up something that I don’t immediately need. Ah, I love going. I’m hoping to sand down our windows and repaint them and also get new handles on the cabinets since ours are crap. Our complex could actually be pretty decent if they spent more than the bare minimum on repairs and paint. I mean really, isn’t that why all those home decorating shows are so popular? It seriously doesn’t take much effort or money to make places look better. Anyway, I’ll focus…

So yes, we got our stepper in our tiny apt. but it’s super awesome. Unfortunately we didn’t have curtains in the kitchen since our pets like to look out the windows and it’s nice to let the light in. But now I so don’t want our neighbors to randomly see my sweaty tomato face as they walk by since that would be awkward. So for now we’re really ghetto and are using a sheet until I can find some curtains that we like. Which is actually kind of hard…I’ve been looking online for awhile and most don’t really suit our tastes or aren’t cotton/hemp/plant based. The ones that are plant based are always white or brown or some other color that I really don’t want on our walls. Anyway, I present, our sort of crappy window curtain.

Not that we can really sit on our sofa anymore unless we shove it over but oh well. We don’t really sit on it much anyway. It mainly is our grocery bag holder and cat bed.

I got Nathan to put up our cross yesterday, it still needs a candle but at least it’s up. Also my sun mirror for my mom since I’m not sure she’s seen it.

Sort of a boring blog but I wanted the familia to see my awesome new wall hanging. Anyway, take care and eat lots of yummy food

1 tamale, 2 tamale, 3 tamale, floor

Happy Birthday to me!

I am resigned to aging gracefully and admitting that I am no longer anywhere near my teenage years. Didn’t do anything eventful except decorate cupcakes and make pizza and hang out with Nathan. I’m going to keep this post relatively brief since I’m in the middle of cleaning but my floors are still wet so I have a bit of time.

First, cupcake pics. Ripped off the decorating from the Vegan cupcake book so it’s not remotely original.

Super cute though. And super sweet. If I remade these I wouldn’t have put the fruit spread on b/c it was a bit overwhelming. Good thing we only ate one a piece. I assume the spread was to anchor the berries down but I’m sure the icing would have done the job by itself. Will have to try again when I eat the rest of the batch haha.

Next up, Tamales! Finally got around to making them a few weeks ago and it was super crazy. I had Nathan help me with the assembly and our tamales came out good but some didn’t have enough masa to hold them together. I was trying to go off the recipe and it seems that they skimped on the masa but we learned and most of them came out nicely. They’re pretty small and remind me of little poops. Gross, I know, but it was super funny at the time and they were super duper tasty.

Apparently there are many ways to make tamales and I guess using corn husks is the Mexican version. I didn’t even know that Salvies use Banana leaves but it makes sense. Not only can you use different wraps but even how they are tied/wrapped/rolled/etc varies. In retrospect I should have youtubed how to make them so that A. I would have made them bigger and B. seen the different ways to steam them. We tied the ends which makes them look cute and then steamed them for about 40min. I used my veggie steamer which didn’t hold all of the tamales and the ones on top seemed to be a bit less firm than the bottom ones. Next time I’ll cut the recipe in half and maybe make them bigger. Overall, I suppose they could have been steamed longer but they were great. The masa was delicious and the filling was really spicy since I used almost an entire can of chipotles. Omg, these look so good I might make them again tonight.

There are some new items on my cooking list that I want to make: Nectarine-blueberry turnovers, vegan puff pastry (I know it’s going to be a nightmare), fritters, still need to make my vegan cheese, and some pies. I don’t really want to make puff pastry since it gets so warm in our kitchen but I can’t find any at our local grocers and I’m not sure if regular brands at Safeway contain non-hydrogenated veggie butter. Since I have access to non-hydrogenated vegan butter I probably will have to make it myself. I’m kind of in love with nectarines right now and watermelon….so many melons at the Farmer’s Market it’s funny to see all the heirloom melons that I didn’t even know about. Makes sense but I feel like I learn something every time I go. Lots of Dahlias are still around so I’ve been picking them up. Apparently they grow in Central America so I think it’s kind of fun to keep that in mind. Another thing I really need to keep in mind is to stop burning myself on the oven. I think I’m up to my 3rd burn and it’s always when taking the pizza stone out. I think it’s because I don’t always pull the rack out far enough and since I’m always trying to do it sort of fast because I’m paranoid our cats will want to run into the oven.

Anyway, Nathan’s mom came to visit last week which was nice since we hadn’t seen her in over a year. We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which we’ve hadn’t been to in awhile. It didn’t seem much different except for the new Seahorse area which was amazing. I don’t think people are capable of hating these little guys because they’re just so magical. I was most fascinated with the Leafy Sea Dragon. Leafy Sea Dragon hope that works.

I was really annoyed because I don’t think my battery charger was plugged in because my camera died after two pics and I had left it in the charger for at least 8hours. I don’t think the Wests like pictures anyway but I made them take one haha. They weren’t expecting the flash but it’s cute anyway.

Well, I’ll post more soon but I’m not really that exciting. It’s been a busy few weeks and hopefully I won’t be posting anymore butt rock music but it’s so tempting! I swear we’re way too silly because we love playing some of those songs all the time. I’m not sure which is worse though butt rock or our pop fascination. I am getting us back into listening to EBM in between because I think we might overdose on our hair bands. haha. Well, anyway, back to cleaning for me. Yay.

Nice songs

Here’s looking to you kid

How anyone got through the mid-20th century is beyond me.

So, I’ve been knitting up a storm trying to get my act together in hopes of making more stuff. Unfortunately, my cooking might take a bit of a back burner but I’ll try to keep it up. Really, I’m trying to consolidate most of my ‘outside’ time into one day so that I have at least 30hours a week while Nathan is working to work on my knitting. I just can’t seem to focus on my knitting when I have other things to do since I tend to make mistakes or not make much progress when I’m only sitting down for 20min and then having to cook, clean, or run errands.

Anyway, I did pretty well this week and I tend to listen to the radio while I knit since I don’t have to watch anything. Unfortunately, our local radio website went down for a good few hours so I decided I’d watch movies instead. I eventually picked Casablanca since I’ve never seen it. Wow, that movie was fun. I don’t know if it’s considered a great movie in terms of the story but it’s pretty iconic and a lot of older movies can be crap just like modern movies are mostly crap. So it was really fun to watch and I was so impressed by their outfits and their drinks….and H.Bogart was totally sexy. Jeez, I wish he was right here so he could tell me, “Here’s looking to you kid” wow!! it’s not just the phrase but the voice…::swoons::

But I was totally fascinated with their white tuxedos and their Champagne Martini’s. It was like a light bulb went off in my head…Champagne? in a martini? Hmmm…..so I mentioned it to Nathan and we agreed it had to be the classiest thing we’ve ever heard. Just like investing, we’ve been trying to diversify our palate. We’ve been trying out wines which has been so fun and flavorful, we’ve been actually tasting different beers for a year which can be exciting…but we don’t really try mixed drinks because we generally know that certain things don’t sit well with us. Anyway, we looked up a recipe for this martini and most were Vodka, Champagne, and some sort of fruit liqueur. Headed to one of our local markets and picked up some sparkling wine since we didn’t feel like throwing down 40US on champagne and picked up some of Cointreau.

Mixed it up and boy did we feel classy. Too bad we don’t have any martini glasses.

I read on one website that these drinks were ‘lethal’ and I just sort of laughed thinking maybe they were weenies. But I can now say from experience that these things will land with an unexpected punch and an amazing headache the next day. How in the world people in the 40s and 50s drank so much is beyond me. Seriously, three martini lunches just seems scary. Anyway, being that it was the weekend it wasn’t horrible that we got a bit too drunk without meaning to. It tasted nice and it did feel super neat to act like we were in casablanca but next time I really gotta count these things.

Champagne Martini:1 Us:0 Totally Brutal.

Anyway, I finally got around to making some Vegan Enchiladas. I actually busted out my shredder attachment which I haven’t ever used because…well I never shred things. I shredded up a zucchini and about a pound of seitan….give or take. The seitan came out really fine and soft which was to be expected considering it’s not as dense as chicken. And I must say my seitan is softer than the store variety. I dumped the seitan in a bowl with a can (15oz) of black beans, strained. I sauteed half a large onion, garlic, 4 chipotle chilies, and zucchini. Plus a bit of spice. I’ve never tried cooking with chipotle peppers since I didn’t think they were all that special but I bought a 4oz can of them a while back on a whim. Damn were those things hot. And we like our food spicy. I only added 4 but I might up it to 6 next time since the veggies, seitan, and beans diluted the heat a bit. Mixed it all together and prepped the tortillas and pan with sauce. It’s a sign that I’m trying to cut down on my cooking time since I actually bought pre-made enchilada sauce but oh well. I poured about a fourth of it into the pan and laid the torillas in the sauce while I spooned the mix onto the tortillas. This allows tortillas to coat a bit more evenly. I also picked up a bag of shredded Rice cheese that was flavored as mozzarella since I’m trying to find a good cheese substitute since we still eat cheese on our pizza. It actually tasted really good which made me so happy that I just wanted to eat the whole bag. The texture was a bit stiff but once my saliva started breaking it down a bit it had a better texture. Nathan was a bit skeptical since he’s always had bad experiences with fake cheeses and I’ve tried it once before with horrible gagging as a result. It claimed ‘gourmet’ melting but we made half cheese enchiladas and half non-cheese just in case.

Baked them at 350 for about 15min. In my experience, a lot of vegan proteins never turn out well if cooked at the same length as meat since it dries out too quickly. We even got these Lemon-herb kabobs at the market last week and they said to grill them for 15 min but I knew they were going to dry out (which the did) and we really ought to have grilled them at the same time with the veggies since they cook up in under 10.

Anyway, the enchiladas came out really great despite the lack of spiciness. The cheese melted decently and it was so great tasting until…..

I found out they’re not vegan. Omg….I wanted to strangle the company. I was so excited that it was a great product I looked up their website and was looking at the other cheeses they offer. I randomly decided to look at the ingredients because some vegan products have the most random things in them. Turns out that it has casien listed and I was shocked and disappointed that this great rice cheese was in fact non-vegan. ::Sigh:: I suppose I really ought to either A. research some vegan cheeses and see if they’re carried locally and B. get around to making my vegan cheese which I attempted once but I wrapped it up too much so it didn’t firm up as much as it should have.

I actually need to check my other cheeses now that I think about it since I picked up a bleu cheese and feta cheese that was in the vegan area of…Wholefoods. I can’t believe we’re shopping there now. They recently opened up two stores in the santa cruz area and I’ve been pretty adamant about not shopping their since I like to support more local stores and the farmer’s market. We have so many organic, fair trade, and local options that I felt like the Wholefoods would just take away from our stores. But I gave in because Nathan wanted to see it and to be honest I was a bit curious. But it’s easier to blame Nathan for my horrible treason.

I’m not sure how other Wholefoods markets are but I felt like they were really pushing for a local feel because there were signs hanging from the ceiling that had pictures of local farmers stating where they came from and basically persuading us that they did indeed buy locally. Hmm…although I’m not too sure about how true it is and what proportion of their stuff is local and really…we live in Central California. We have oodles of food in this state that it’s not much of a stretch to say they’re buying locally. But they did have some great produce that I can’t find anywhere else….Mushrooms galore (our local farmer’s market only sells Shiitake and Oyster) they even had Chanterelle mushrooms at 30US per pound. God, this is why I don’t take Nathan shopping usually because he totally is willing to buy so much food and I spend a lot of money on food when I’m alone. Imagine with him….’go ahead and get some mushrooms who cares about price….let’s get some fancy champagne vinegar for our salads..’ seriously I think he’s more of a food freak than I am sometimes.

But they have a good variety of chile peppers which Santa Cruz seems to lack and they have fresh loaves and a really great vegan section. They had Vegan Gyros! I’ve been thinking about inventing my own recipe for awhile and it turns out someone has made them already which could be nice if they don’t taste horribly. Anyway, I can’t really justify spending money there but I do it anyway…guilty pleasure…and they seem to kiss our asses since I think they’re trying to win over customers. Anyway, I’m sure this hasn’t been all that exciting for people since I’m sure they have Wholefoods near them and I’m just weird about my food. Oh well.

Let’s see….I made Thai Fried Rice the other day which turned out yummy but not as fried as I had hoped. I’ve never made a fried rice dish even though I love them and Veg. Times had a big bowl of it on it’s cover that I decided it was time to buckle down and try it. I actually refrigerated the rice for a few days which was annoying since it was a bit clumpy when I dumped it into the wok. I just used a fork to mash it down and separate it…for those wondering if they have problems. I actually pretty much used my Sesame stir-fry recipe but substituted rice for noodles. I fried up 7.5oz of tofu, then stir-fried the onion, garlic, serrano, 1/2 bell pepper, and broccoli and added some sauce. Added the rice and let it fry up but I think the sauce didn’t allow for as much frying as I had intended. I really should have cooked it longer and added more oil if I wanted a crisper finish but I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out in general so I fried it up until I couldn’t see much oil in the wok. Added the snap peas towards the end and then the tofu. Yummy but not as hot as I’d like it to be. I really need to make it again since it’s just so tasty for lunch.

I need to work on my photography but really, when I’m super hungry I barely even remember to take pictures.

Next up….I know…everyone is probably hoping I’ll just end this stupid post…

Anyway, I made lavender seitan chops which I’ve been dying to make forever. Apparently, the lavender season is pretty short up here and is actually around during June mostly. Somehow I missed it during the early months but I was lucky to stumble upon it at the Felton Farmer’s Market a couple of weeks ago. I saw this recipe about a year ago and I thought it sounded so lovely. I usually just make rosemary chops which are tasty but lavender just seemed so unusual. The pictures are kind of crappy and I didn’t add as much lavender as I should have because I wasn’t sure we’d even like it. It’s too bad that I missed the season since it was a great lunch dish. For those who would like to know…I take about 1/4-1/3 cup of all-purpose flour, about 1tsp. of course sea salt, and chop up as much rosemary or lavender as I like and then dredge the seitan. I tend to use a good deal of olive oil in hopes of giving it a better texture.

>.< I really should have added more lavender but oh well. A nice light lunch with steamed broccoli. It seems my cast iron pan is always making a cameo since I have to move it around a lot since our stove is a bit small.

I bought a Jicama ages ago and never used it for some reason. I think most of us do that right? Buy food that we like and then let it rot? I am trying to lessen my waste but sometimes it can’t be helped. Anyway, it began sprouting a while back and now has at least 2ft. worth of stem which Re is blocking but you can see a bit. Nathan wants to plant it since it seems like a waste to throw away but I need to check how big the plants get first.

Well, that’s all I have to write although I’m going to post some random pictures from New Mexico and around the house.

Taken in Santa Fe, it was a huge Mexican Restaurant that I wasn’t too thrilled about going to since I was on a romantic kick. Well, I did have to sleep with paper in my hair as curlers and have men staring down the front of my dress all day so I wasn’t too pleased but after a Vodka Daiquiri everything was fine. I’m not a snob since I’ve roughed it in Central America and the U.S. but we were on vacation and I just wanted a more romantic day while in Santa Fe. I totally recommend the Georgia O’Keeffe museum cafe because it was super cute and had a great lunch date feel. We had a hard time in New Mexico in terms of food because not that many places had many Vegan/Vegetarian options and sometimes I feel like a broken record but just because I can eat beans and rice for a long time doesn’t mean I want to while on vacation and wanting to have one nice dinner with my guy. The Persian place we went to was really great but most of the food was really geared for appetizers, but again, I’m not so much complaining as explaining how hard it can be to find places to eat while being on vacation as a vegan. My mom did find a really great Asian place which blew my mind but I still wished there had been more Vegan friendly places that served New Mexican food.

I curse my round face. So not fair. It’s hard to tell since these pictures are small but all three have me with devil eyes. I’ve had this problem since I was a kid and even though most cameras (including mine) have the anti-red eye flash I still manage it anyway, I think it’s because my eyes are a bit of a lighter brown…not hazel but a reddish medium brown that might reflect strangely. I don’t know, I’ve never looked into it but I’ve had devil eyes for as long as I can remember. These were taken at the Asian restaurant and the name is kind of unoriginal (Asian Noodle Bar I think) but it was kind of hipster and really good food. My drum instructor used to tell me that I looked so much like my grandma and I can see it now that I’m older. Broader/round faces and I think our faces when we smile are similar but I’m such a mix of my dad and mom it’s weird. Nathan’s the same way…we’re mutts.

My cousins from my Tia Marielos look like miniatures of her and her ex-husband that it’s scary. But as I’ve grown older I can tell that a lot of people look more like one parent than the other. But Nathan and I are super cool and take a lot of random features/genes from all over our family. I have a really bad farmer’s tan too now that I look at these pictures…thankfully I’ve been smart enough to roll my sleeves up when we go on our exercise to even it out since it’s really really embarrassing.::Sigh:: I wish I were darker like my dad since I think it’s so beautiful to have darker skin.

Random cat pictures. Fe loved the box that my grandparents sent the chile in and she just looks so cute. Re tried to one up her later by hanging out in our paper recycling bag and it’s really annoying that she keeps doing it because she kicks out all the paper eventually and I have to clean it up every time.

Well, I suppose that is it for this super long blog. Hope it wasn’t too boring. I’m going to finish this off with a great song and I couldn’t find an actual video for it and the live ones weren’t as good.

Eat good food and be the strutter.

Chile Top Forest

I was stemming the peppers to put them in the freezer and all I could think of was how great these tops look. Too bad I’m not into claymation because I thought these tops looked so magical. Ah, how I wish I could explore this forest as a miniature.

And I should probably mention that this is gunna be image heavy since I had so much fun and haven’t updated as much as I’ve needed to.

I’m not sure if I’m going to fit everything I want into this post since I’m hoping to grill up some tacos soon and I’m getting hungry. We finally bought a grill, well I actually got it and lugged the thing to the car since Nathan was working. Just a little Weber one since we don’t do much grilling but now that we have one I keep thinking up so many dinners. I was really motivated to get one now since I got my box of New Mexican Chile (Thanks to the grandparents!) and I felt like they needed a real smokey flavor which I didn’t think my oven would give them. Lame excuse but I also figured it would be nice to sit outside with Nathan and just relax with the grill.

Washed them up and Nathan set up the grill…I’ve never grilled anything and Nathan hadn’t done it in years so we were having fun adding lighter fluid.

We also grilled up some corn and we made Kabobs with my marinaded Seitan Asado recipe, onions, peppers, and tomatoes. The coals died down a bit and we really ought to have put more in since it took a bit longer to cook but it turned out super yummy…

I let the peppers steam for a couple hours in a pot and then plunked down in front of my computer and watched netflix shows to pass the time.

Yup, still got our handy little plastic chair. He’s super useful now that we have the grill too b/c we can alternate grilling and sitting between the two of us. Oh and my infamous purple running shorts also make a cameo. I’m sure Nathan is also excited that his running outfit is on display….

Anyway, more pictures of peppers

I didn’t really know what to do with the chiles in terms of freezing so I used my typical wonton way in which I laid out sheets of foil and froze them individually for about an hour before taking them out and wrapping and folding them up. Then I wrapped a bunch of plastic wrap just in case since I didn’t want my precious peppers getting freezerburn. I ended up having about 6oz. of pepper juice which I saved and I’m thinking of putting it into a salsa or maybe using it for a marinade. I only wish I had more peppers since I’m afraid I’ll eat them all up in a week…Oh, and I read that most people seed their peppers but I left them in. I doubt I’ll ever seed them since I personally like as much spicyness but I wonder if there is a notable difference. Well, we’ll see.

I have some more food stuff to write about I suppose. First off, I’m super excited about making tempeh tuna salad. Omg! sounds soo good. Ever since I made those spicy tempeh rolls I’ve been amazed at the texture of mashed tempeh. Plus, I’ve been using some seaweeds in cooking and it really brings out a seafoody taste and smell which works well for substituting and mimicking fish…It’s strange though since I’ve always hated tuna salad but tempeh tuna salad? totally different story. I also really need to try out some enchilada and tamale recipes but they seem so time consuming but I really need to work on some yummy vegan versions.

Anyway, ever since I got back from New Mexico I’ve been recreating this Chinese dish that I had which was basically a stir-fry but with a sesame oil base. My mother asked my we only eat pasta once a week and I had to think about it…well it turns out I think it’s because I suck at making pastas/noodles. Not that they turn out horribly…in fact I think my pesto pasta is uber…but I’ve never really explored pasta since I’m kind of on this whole complete protein kick…eating a veggie pasta just doesn’t seem good enough since I wonder if I should have added beans or tofu….But I’m trying and I have to say this dish is super.

Personally, I like using udon noodles because a lot of the noodles at our market have egg in them and I love that they carry round udon. I cook the noodles and then rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking process. I cut the tofu up and coat them with cornstarch and then fry them up…kind of deep fried but not overly so. Set them on a platter with paper towels to soak up the excess oil. Then I stir-fry some garlic, sliced onion, broccoli, mushrooms, and carrot. The Julienne tool my mom gave me totally works and is really nice for stir-fries and salads…oh how I love these weird cooking tools. Anyway, I soften up the veggies and then add the noodles and sauce.

Oh the sauce is about .25cup soy sauce (I use the reduced sodium tamari), about 1-2 Tbs. toasted sesame oil, and a crap load of chili oil….mix and taste to your liking…then I add about 1-2 tsp. of cornstarch to thicken the sauce and then add it into the stir-fry with the noodles. I add the tofu at the end but it seems to get a bit mushy since it absorbs some of the sauce so ideally I’d like to lightly reheat it again in a separate pan before spooning out the dish. Anyway, it comes out so nicely and I’ve made this a few times since I got back. Gotta love stir-fry.

Mmmm…

The only other thing I’m going to post are my crappy danishes. I used to love my Martha baking book but the more I research the more I feel like her recipes don’t follow through. I’ve used her danish dough recipe twice and I’ve had to use a egg replacer (flaxseed and water) and the dough never comes out nicely and is really hard to work with. After reading other recipes and watching a Julia Child PBS show from years ago featuring a French pastry chef, I now feel like I need to try other dough recipes. The show I saw didn’t use egg at all in the recipe and actually used pastry flour which might help with the overall feel of the dough. Anyway, the ones I made were ‘apricot bowties’ and the show I watched also used apricots but they were basically termed as egg like pastries because when cooked, the apricots look like sunny side-up eggs. I thought I was the only one who thought this until I saw J.Child’s show and now I want to make them again because it’s so funny how eggy they look. Of course mine look like mini burritos whereas hers were more like a platter with eggs on top but the imagery is still the same.

So it took me a few days to make the dough because I didn’t start it early and it needs a bit of resting time. I looked up a vegan pastry cream recipe which I hope to modify since it seemed a bit more like a glaze than a cream. Cut out my dough and wrapped everything up and sprinkled some sugar on top. The end results were not nearly as beautiful as I had hoped but they tasted great which is kind of the most important thing to consider when I make a new dish. Lots of photos….

Not my best in terms of cooking or photography but I think the ‘bowties’ give some indication of how the fruits could be confused with eggs. Also, my crappy pinwheel….but after seeing that PBS show I really want to try pastries again since I really ought to learn how to make them better. At least I now know that I like apricots but I still don’t like apricot marmalade.

Oh I suppose I should post my spicy tempeh rolls that I remade with regular rice and made them with the nori on the outside. Personally, I think if I make them inside-out again the white rice will totally hold together better than the green rice I used before but I thought I ought to take pictures for those who want to see what it might look like.

I actually didn’t make as much rice as I should have and the ends of the rolls were a bit swishy because of the lack of rice. Well, at least folks now have an idea of how the rolls look with each style.

Well, I ought to sign off now…I’ve already eaten my tasty tacos and now I’m super tired. I’ll try to post the rest of my photos and experiences later this week. Until then, eat good food and be happy

I think I just wasted 2.5 hours of my life

I’m so depressed I don’t know what to do.

::Cry:: I just got back from the new Harry Potter film and I am now in the wallowing stage of my emotional roller coaster. Started up irritated, then mad, then exasperated, and now just down right in the blues. Of course I tried looking up reviews to fuel my anger again but all these critics are saying the film is great. Nathan pointed out they’re film critics rather than fans of the books but I snarled that it didn’t matter.

I suppose I should acknowledge the fact that I’m kind of a Harry Potter fan; I’ve read the books a million times, forced Nathan to watch the 5th movie at least 6 times while in the theatre, and maybe read stupid fan fiction….a lot. Ok so I’m a nerd and not even in the cool Hipster sense in which everyone thinks playing the original nintendo or being good at electronics is cool. I’m the kind of nerd that plays online games and gobbles up every crappy fantasy/sci-fi movie simply because they are so few and far between. Plus I grew up with Disney which puts my tolerance for lame movies pretty high. Seriously, we watched the previews and I was super excited that the Frog Prince and Princess movie is being made and I got totally freaked out by that Apocalyptic John Cusack movie and was telling Nathan how I didn’t understand how that is considered entertainment.

I don’t know, I’ve always been a softie and really imaginative. Instead of counting sheep as a kid I would imagine I was this elf from one of my super awesome comics and I had the posters on my wall. I’m just a fantasy freak although I’ve never dressed up to a release. But that also has to do with the fact that I don’t like going to opening nights because I hate hearing everone’s annoying laughs and comments through the movie which is why I didn’t go to see this Potter movie until 3 weeks after the release because I love a nice quiet theatre.

Anyway, I’ve waited almost a year since they pushed back the original release date and really expected it to be better since they wanted more time to work on the stupid film. Seriously, I hate filler chapters in books and I seriously don’t want a filler movie for 2.5 hours. It’s hard to figure out if Nathan would have been lost in the movie since I’ve talked so much about the stupid books that he knows most of the plots through me. But either way he still had questions and thought certain points were totally unresolved. Omg, and the stupid love interests just seemed all wrong. Ginny just acts like a ho since it’s never clear if she broke up with Dean before moving onto Harry.

Bah, it just upsets me that A. the series has never kept a director on for more than one movie (except for Yates who did 6th and will finish off the series) but somehow they all seemed somewhat consistent with the books and engaging, B. the dialogue sucked balls in this one, C. if they’re going to axe like 60% of the damn book at least make the plots they do include explanatory and somewhat linear with the books. Nathan has more faith than me and keeps telling me that they’ll include all the crap they excluded in the 6th movie into the last two movies but I really don’t get how they’re going to pull it out of their asses. Maybe they’ll turn out alright.

I have to admit some parts were good…the flashbacks of Riddle’s life were creepy…I love Maggie Smith, the entire Weasley cast (especially: Rupert Grint, Julie Walters, and Mark Williams), gotta love Robbie Coltrane, and even Michael Gambon. And gosh I just fall to pieces when I see my Ricky on screen, Alan Rickman, he’s just so dreamy. Thankfully he’s a bit too old for me otherwise Nathan might be a bit worried. But even seeing a lot of the charcters on screen didn’t help since much of their dialogue was cut from the book or just added as some random scene.

Anyway, I’ll stop babbling about how lame this movie was and I’ll have to mull over it. Maybe I’ll go see it again from a less critical perspective but I doubt it. I just have been so excited to have a series that is under the fantasy genre without it totally sucking. It’s probably why I used to watch so much anime before Santa Cruz stopped carrying it so much and we don’t go to San Jose much anymore to buy it. Seriously, rent Dungeons and Dragons and you’ll totally see how much fantasy sucks but after awhile it doesn’t seem so bad.

Willow? Classic. Old Star Wars? Epic but only without the extra scenes. I still curse the day I believed Nathan when he said the verison we picked out didn’t have the added scense. Bah stupid CGI in pre-CGI movies that used model spaceships that looked way better than the CGI in the newer movies.

Well, I’ll probably post more later this week since I have oodles of things to write about and pictures but I think I’m going to reread the 6th Potter book to make up for such a crap movie.

/wave

So let’s see…I currently live in santa cruz, california with my nai-nai-poo. That’s him in the shorts…something I’m sure not even his mother has seen in a decade. But being that we were in Mexico at the time it really didn’t make sense to be die-hard about pants. Anyway, we also take care of our mini zoo which includes : two fat cats(re and fe), trotsky the gecko, and two lovebirds (mango and voxie).

So I’m a sorta-vegan…I know it’s so annoying when people are like ‘oh i’m vegan’ or ‘oh i’m going to free tibet with my bumpersticker’. It’s a fine line between believing in one’s choices and using those choices to promote one’s social status. But anyway, I’m mainly vegan but I do admit I eat cheese here and there…well some cheeses more then others..like Brie..I can eat a .5lb of that and not even notice. I blame it on my family…my southwestern and salvadoran heritage just always pops some cheese in somewhere. Like enchiladas or pupusas….mmm I love cheese but thankfully santa cruz doesn’t carry salvie cheeses so I stick to the brie..mainly.

So being vegan is a big part of my life because I love food and I have to come up with ways to make old dishes taste similarly while meeting nutritional reqs. Golly gee this post doesn’t sound articulate or interesting like those peeps in nebraska so I’m going to end here and maybe post something else.

Tulum and Chichen Itza

Last year Nathan and I went to Mexico together and took lots of pictures which my family has yet to see. Tulum was beautiful and had lots of iguanas running around (my header is actually one of the iguanas that posed for me). As you can see I suffer from tomato face which is super embarrassing since I also have a round face. Some of pics might be of our hotel too if I can find them.

We actually went to Chichen Itza first since we flew into Cancun. Got lost in Cancun for a few hours doing circles in the city before finally getting onto the highway. Chichen Itza is actually pretty far from Tulum considering we had drive inland and then back again and then continue south along the coast…double-backing I suppose. We only spent two nights there since there isn’t really much tourist things to do besides the ruins. The hotel was decent but we were kind of scared of the centi/millapeds that came out at night.Notice!! my memory might blow so if I get the buildings wrong then let me know or just ignore my ramblings. I believe this picture is supposed to be where astronomers would do their thing. I think the dome was actually built so the light would do some fancy thing that like line up with certain windows or lines in the ground…yup this post is gunna bite me in the ass…I know it. I can already hear my mother going into a lecture about this place. Next up is a boring looking building that I believe the scholars would write their fancy stuff…again I could be wrong. I think the guide said that the structure was influenced by another community since the arcitecture is different from the rest of the site.Again the tomato face emerges as I snack on a cliff bar. There were a lot of these types of carved stones placed on the ground. It was rather nice since we couldn’t climb or get too near some of the ruins so these little pieces gave us a chance to get a closer view. The next few pictures (including the one with both of us) are shot near the main part of the site…I guess the plaza area and ball court. Really, I think this photo shows how delirious we were in the heat because the shot really doesn’t show the little jaguar in the background. Actually I can’t even tell if that’s a jaguar…all I know is that we’re looking stupid posing next to a ‘don’t cross the fence’ sign. But at least we can see the larger structure in the back.  No idea where this one is from..I think it’s near the ball court though..Doesn’t Nathan seem so excited?   Honestly this last one I can’t remember what the mural is about plus it’s hard to see as it is. I ‘m guessing the guy on the right is staring at the middle guy thinking “What the hell is going on”, while the middle guy is spewing what looks like a million baby snakes from his decapitated head…At least that’s what I imagine since there is that round bubble on the left side with a skull looking glyph..maybe it’s his head rolling away. That concludes the made up tour of my blog.

Identity

I grew up with two anthropology parents who both happen to be Latino/Hispanic/etc. So Identity has always been a topic in my life that has permeated every aspect of my experiences.  I’ve spent the greater part of my life moving and often times being surrounded by either Salvadoran/Latinos or white intellectuals due to my parent’s ties to the universities. It’s given me many memories which cultivated the way I see myself and this can be frustrating.

As a little girl I remember wishing my parents would come to my school for the sole purpose of showing the other latino kids that I was actually latina and not making it up. I remember one girl in particular used to make fun of me until she saw my dad one day in the office dropping off my lunch that I had forgotten. After that she never teased me but ignored me…which was the better of the two options if I couldn’t ever be her friend.

And those kind of sentiments are still present even today. I feel as though I walk a fine line between being “white” and being latina in the way people interact with me. A few weeks ago I was riding my bike to longs and this latino guy sided up next to me and struck up a converstation. Questions like : are you a student?, why are you still in santa cruz (since I’m not a local), are you latina?, can you speak spanish?, and then his conclusion of who I am…you should get out of your bubble.  Within the short span of meeting this person I felt like he had sized me up and I spent the rest of the day irratated because I’ve dealt with that for so long and I still don’t know how to respond.

My spanish isn’t so great and everyone seems to want to tell me that I should learn. Well thanks for that suggestion but the thing is that I forget the language being that I don’t know anyone here who speaks it. And it’s not even that I forget, I just get rusty. But everyone seems to think I’m ashamed. What I fail to understand is that I’ve known many latinos whose grammer was horrible but because they ‘looked’ more latino no one said anything. They’d correct them but it wouldn’t be a huge deal. What bothers me even more is when non-latinos precede to tell me how they know way better spanish and that I have a limited vocabulary. But now I’m going on a tangent.

The point being is that I never seem latina enough so people treat me accordingly…either I’m ashamed or trying to be white or (in the views of non-latinos) I’ve forgotten my culture. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I’m rather light-skinned and everyone assumes that to be latina I must be dark or at least ‘chola’ looking..that I have to listen to salsa and reggaeton. But I listen to EBM/Industrial…which for anyone who wants to know has a Mexican group called Hocico which I love…but right there again..I’m justifying an aspect of my latino connection by stating that group. ::sigh::

I suppose most people look for key cultural indicators when they meet people and I just seem so ambiguous that they take it out on me or act a bit racist or hurtful. I know logically I should brush it off and not waste my time thinking about these kinds of attitudes. But I can’t because I feel as if I’m failing to resist and thus becoming another blank face in the U.S. There’s “a bit of a crowbar” space as Eddie Izzard would say when it comes to where my identity falls.

Anyway, I suppose I should end this post because my other thoughts seem disconnected. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I don’t want a pat on the back or someone to tell me ‘you define yourself and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise’. I mean those things make me feel better but it doesn’t make it easier to deal with in the future. I’m still going to be shunned by latinos that don’t know me who think I’m white-washed and thus an outsider….or I’ll get strange looks from non-latinos who can’t figure out what I am. So this ends my post and I really hope if anyone reads this they don’t think I’m all sad. Really I’m just thinking and hope to share my experience as a human hodgepodge.

focaccia and debates

How I love focaccia bread. I’ve been making this bread for a long time with different recipes and I think I might have found the best one. As I’m writing my cute little dough is rising and the rosemary is just lovely. It takes a few hours to make since I let the dough rise twice for a total of 2hr15min.  It’s a wonderful bread to have on hand to use as a snack while preparing dinner or as part of a lunch. I know a lot of people don’t have time to make these breads often but you can just make the dough and cut it in half (which is what I do). During the week you can just pop it out and put it on a baking sheet and let it rise for 45 min. add some toppings and put it in the oven. Anyway, I was listening to the debates while making my bread and thought it was an interesting debate. 

Personally, I think Palin did well in comparison to some of the interview clips that I have seen. She did seem much more articulate and I thought some of her tactics really worked for her. She stated at one point that she was so obviously an outsider to the washington political scene and that she wants to get things done instead of constantly changing her position which she accused Biden of doing throughout the debate. I must admit that I liked that tactic and it really worked to reinforce her image as a go-getter, mom, middle-class kind of person. Now, I’m not saying I”m supporting McCain/Palin but just simply pointing out what I thought were her stronger points. But I must say I was hoping she’d be a bit more knowledgeable about specific positions that she would take. I felt like she tended to shift to reciting themes when she wasn’t quite sure how to answer…themes of ‘ensuring freedom’, ‘helping the american people first’.

Biden knew his stuff and I pretty much expected that. But to be honest I didn’t feel swayed to support Obama/Biden more. I grew up always being very conscious of the civil war in El Sal. and the struggles that my mother’s family had to deal with. Obama/Biden talk about change and while they discuss the war I don’t feel confident in their proposals. Everyone seems to forget that so many wars throughout history have been created and/or backed by the U.S. Look at Central Am., the Phillipines, Iraq, etc. I just don’t think it’s as simple as sitting down with some of these countries will do the trick. Sometimes I think Washington politicians ignore the magnitude of our past legacies. And while I don’t think it’s productive to sit in the past, I do think we should take these things into account when other countries are royally pissed at us and don’t want to deal with us. Because Obama might be ‘different’ but he’s still representing our legacy and he is still working within the old framework of our government.

The debates were interesting and both of them had strong points. Although I won’t be voting for the Republican candidate, I can’t say I’ll be voting for Obama either. Nathan and I have been joking about voting for Clinton anyway but we’ll see. Anyway I should go and pop my focaccia in the oven.

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So I just thought I’d share the recipe really quick in case anyone wants to make this bread. It’s originally from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant  by The Moosewood Collective which my mother bought while she was in NY. I changed the whole wheat flour to All-purpose because I didn’t like the wheaty taste in the focaccia.

2 Tbs. chopped rosemary   1 Tbs. olive oil, plus more for the topping

1 package of dry yeast       1.25 cups of all-purpose flour

1tsp sugar                          1-1.5 white bread flour

1 tsp. salt                           1 cup boiling water               salt and rosemary leaves for the topping

• Place the chopped rosemary in a medium bowl and pour in the boiling water. Let it cool so that it doesn’t burn you since the yeast likes warm water.
• Add the yeast and sugar and let stand for a few minutes until it’s foamy/bubbly.
• Stir in the all-purpose flour and salt. Be sure to add the salt afterwards or in the middle because I read that salt kills yeast.
• Add in small amounts of the bread flour until the dough becomes consistent.
• Dump the dough onto a floured surface and knead, adding more bread flour as needed. Knead for approx. 10 min
• Oil a bowl and turn the dough so that all the sides are covered with oil. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place (such as on top of the stove) for 1.5 hrs.
• Poke the dough and knead for a few minutes. Oil a baking sheet and stretch the dough onto the sheet. Let it rise for 45 min.
• Preheat oven to 375. Poke shallow holes into the dough. Drizzle with olive oil and extra rosemary and salt. Let bake for 25 min.

kats and knits don’t mix

Most of us in the U.S. (and maybe other countries) grew up seeing cute little pictures of kittens playing with balls of yarn. Yet it’s not so cute when I’m in the middle of a project and they start running away with my yarn. Alas I’ve learned to deal with this since they’re my furry children and they’re just too cute to stay mad at.

But last night they crossed the line…I like to keep my knitting projects in bags so that the yarn stays clean and I can easily transport a project if I need to do laundry. And since we don’t have cable we watch our tv shows and netflix movies online. So being lazy I also tend to keep my current project near my computer which is also a popular lounge place for my cats since they love to overheat themselves. I tell Re that she can’t sweat all her fat out but she pays no heed and always plops down on my computer. Anyway, last night they apparently thought it would be fun to play with my needles. I woke to a disaster area…My yarn was all tangled and my knitting needles seemed to cry out for help. The project itself was intact but suffering under all the cat hair stuck to it and giant dusty bunnies were clinging on for dear life. Tenderly, I started cleaning the scarf and untangling the yarn…when I saw one of my needles. The poor thing had been mauled by my jaguars and had chew marks and was splintered badly.

::Sigh:: So I suppose I have to get new knitting needles. I did get my revenge though by giving the cats their flea medication. In other news I’ve found a pattern for my mother’s scarf that I like. It will be my first cable project (those snake like patterns) and I’m thinking of using fair isle to make it red and white. Fair Isle knitting is knitting with 2 or more colors on the same row which are often used in those norwegian sweaters. I’ll be sure to post my progress

The Cats strike back

So the cats were not happy at all with their flea medication yesterday. I usually put it on them and then feed them wet food so they forget about the event because they are so happy to not have to eat their dry food. I totally forgot and this morning Nathan found that his shoes had been urinated on. Our cats are very crafty when it comes to these things…strike at night while we sleep…push the surge-protector to turn off our computers and then run so we can’t tell who did it..these things happen when they decide that we’re meanies to them. I know they think it’s just ‘eye for an eye’ and yet I try to explain to them that flea medication is actually a good thing. Well at least Nathan got new shoes out of it.

Well I feel kind of bummed out today thinking about Santa Cruz and the students and housing etc. Santa Cruz is always in the top 5 most expensive places to live and I totally believe it. Housing here is a huge issue because the city is pretty anti-growth which I understand, but it’s frustrating because a lot of the housing is overpriced and rundown. This attitude is mainly because of students who tend to party and wreck the place so I think a lot of apartment places figure they can get away with these actions since students usually move out of santa cruz within a couple of years. Then there are all these new and somewhat nice apt/condo style places that are super expensive that are often rented to students who have parents willing to fork out the money. We both have known so many people who have parents who give them tons of money, buy them houses here, cars, etc and they turn out being super into drugs or just don’t ever do anything..sure they might work a part time job but that is just to fund their food, clothes and fun time. And I look at how we live…I just want to be happy, eat healthy food, ride my bike for all the good benefits, maybe start knitting items for those less fortunate when I get better…and I must say I feel a bit jilted when meeting people who don’t have to worry about things like rent or buying house items that we need. I’m not saying we’re struggling..in fact I think we’re very lucky to be able to buy organic and be able to splurge on new computers (I’ll be putting mine together sunday !) but it doesn’t mean we’re super loaded. It’s simply frustrating to see many young people my age who don’t seem to consider how lucky they are since they are separated from people who would love to have their parents buy them a house instead of living in a studio with 2 children. And I’m sure there are many young people who work hard and deserve all the family support that is given to them, but I’m only trying to point out the cases in which I know and see young people take for granted that they will always have money without ever having to work and worry about if their lifestyle will be taken away.

And of course I’m very privileged and I’m sure there are lots of things I take for granted both now and in the past that I continue to benefit from. Living on Beach Hill we’re very close to the Beach flats which is considered the ‘ghetto’ by many people which I think is really racist since it’s mainly latino families who live there. Actually that area is where the Pupusaria is and we go down sometimes to buy them. Anyway, we also live in an area that has a lot of students but also has a lot of druggies and homeless people. Over the years, Nathan and I have seen many homeless men sleeping next to our apartment, we’ve seen crack pipes on the ground and we had to eventually scare off this one resident crack head who was always around but didn’t live here.

Ah the tales are endless of prostitutes making calls here or druggies hanging around and lower downtown is more of the same. The one laundry mat that I used to go to was frequented by homeless people who would often steal laundry and buy drugs there. One time I was actually standing near the dryers (protecting my laundry) and on my left a woman was selling different drugs while the man in front of me was laying out his weed to show to the underage girls he was hanging out with. That place closed down because (from what I heard) the manager stole all the machines and sold them. Now I go to another place that is mainly frequented by latino families so I actually feel safe now and don’t have to worry about my stuff being stolen. It’s funny because the manager  used to manage the old place I went to but quit because of all the shady business the owners were doing. So we chat every now and then and it’s a nice little place. People talk to me and ask questions if they’re new and it’s great because I feel connected to people. They often play latino radio stations and I laugh at the funny parts that I can understand…and I get to see real working families do their thing and remember that I have a lot of things going for me. It’s a small weekly reminder of how I’m still connected with other people who aren’t just here for the university or Silicon valley.

Wow this is such a big post but I really needed to vent and just write. Let’s see..went to the Mercado today and bought some chili peppers and it’s nice because that Mercado is next to my laundry place!! We make burritos once a week so I had to stop and get them. Rode down and got Nathan some shoes because he doesn’t like his boots. He dislocated his toe last year while on vacation and it still hurts him every few months. After that I went to Petsmart where Nathan and I have made nicknames for all of the employees. They’re all really nice (although 2 of them are sort of loopy) and many of them know me.

I swear chili peppers are out to get me. I ran out of gloves so I carefully seeded the peppers but two of my fingers ended up burning anyway…Not as bad as the one time where I had to soak my hands in Mylanta for 8 hours. The avocados were lame because they weren’t Haas I think…we went to another market since ours is closed until sunday for reconstruction. So this week’s burritos were not inspiring. I baked some more focaccia bread for Nathan’s breakfast (bread and grapes mmm).

Oh I almost forgot to talk about housecleaning and cooking items!!! So my dream wish which I hope to fulfill in a couple of months is to buy the 8 set Calphalon stainless steel which has so many pieces I love. We already have one of their frying pans and a steamer and I lovingly wash them and dry them. I also want a Shun bread knife and maybe one of their Japanese vegetable knives. We have their paring knife and Santoku which is all we really need since we don’t eat meat. Anyway, I know sustainability and eco-friendly things are popular so I thought I’d post how I doing these things also. I use a vinegar/water mixture to clean most of the house and there are many websites that show different ways to employ vinegar in housecleaning. I still use windex for the bathroom but I’m going to finish that bottle and use vinegar because I’m scared the windex might absorb into my bum! It’s great for getting out cat urine and when the cats were urinating on the bed I used it to get the smell out and used baking soda to get the stain out. For awhile we were buying Swiffer wet pads to clean the floor…oh so easy and fast. But we realized after many pee episodes that the fragrance was irrating the cats. The Swiffer odor would stay for hours even with the windows open and they were so sensitive they’d become upset and pee to let us know ‘hey do something else’. So I went and bought a bunch of rags and use soap and water to clean the floors. I still use the swiffer mop and just wrap the rags onto the mop and do that. It’s more labor intensive but the cats are happy and it’s probably more eco friendly since I don’t throw the rags away and there are less chemicals in the house. Thanks to my mum, I have lots of great teatowels that are great in the kitchen and I’ve been buying these vegetable sponges that spring up when put under water. I’m not sure yet if they’re totally eco friendly but it’s less packaging material since I get 6 instead of just two since they are are dehydrated and thus look like wafers. We do have a lot of bottle/can recycling mainly because the water here is very lime/other mineral loaded. It took us about 6 months to find shampoo/conditioners that wouldn’t dry our hair out because of the water. And again vinegar on the tiles helps me clean the shower. So yes we need to work on not buying so much bottled water but for now we just can’t stand the taste of the water. Maybe a filter will do the trick. We do recycle a lot though so I think that (at the very least) is positive. I don’t know how my mom does it with just one trash bag a week. We range from 1-2 a week. It might have to do with the fact that I clean so much (not saying my mom doesn’t) but we live in a small place with 2 cats and 2 birds so they shed, poop, make a mess so that may be a factor. Anyway, this post is way too long but here are some pics of today. Notice my baskets on my bike! yay Nathan put them on because my rack is too thick and the clamps were too skinny so he had bend them to fit. He didn’t think until he recently put my 2nd one on that we could have just bought longer screws to reach the clamp holes..doh! Well at least he fulfilled his manly housework duties for the year. So until next time..be happy and eat yummy food.

These are of me, food, and the green bottle is my vinegar cleaning mix. Oh and mom that’s your Santo Nino de Atocha charm you gave me!

Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies

So today I decided I’d bake some cookies since I haven’t eaten them for so long.

Well I should start at the earlier part of the day. Sunday’s are our lazy days which we typically get nothing done and goof around. I had baked some croissants the day before since the batch made 2 dozen so I have a bunch in the freezer. Ate some steamed red taters and broccoli later which is just so yummy. Finally decided to go out since our market was finally open from the reconstruction they’d been doing this week. So we headed down first to Chefworks which is just the best cooking store. Ah I spend every few weeks exploring that place. Anyway I bought a baking pad which is just so beautiful. It’s like parchment paper but reusable. So after that we headed down and did our shopping. I was so excited because they actually had Energ-G Egg replacer on hand and I got the last box. I’ve heard such great things about it so I figured I’d try it out on the cookies instead of the tofu I was planning on using. Stocked up my bike and we headed home.

The recipe I used is from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook which is usually pretty consistant. I melted the chocolate and butter and added all the good stuff and it was looking oh so divine. I know they probably look like poos but they look and smell so tasty in real life. Geez we’re giggling right now. Anyway so I put them into bake and was so excited…10 minutes later I pull them out and was horrified.

 They really looked so much better pre-baking..anyway the binding agent (the Energ-G replacer)  did not work. I could deal with flat cookies but the cookies would fall apart when I tried to move them to the plate for cooling. I thought maybe making them into brownies might work better since the batter would be smushed together and might bind together.

And again I’m sure it looks like poo in a pan. Anyway, the batter melted down and ended up mixing together and I decided to try cooking it for 20 minutes. I’m not sure if both actions worked or just the time aspect but the batter seems much more dense. It still crumbles but the bottom seems to hold a bit. So I’m left wondering what happened and vegan baking can be really hit and miss. I just don’t understand what happened since everyone goes on and on about how wonderful this egg substitute is. Well I think I may have found the reason after searching online. The given amount for a fake egg is 1.5 tsp. of Energ-G replacer with 2 Tbs. of warm water. But I guess that quantity is for leavening. I’ve encountered only 2 sites that suggest using 1 heaping Tbs. of the replacer if the recipe is wheat-free and is being used as a binding agent. I’m still unsure about whether I want to try it again soon since this was a total flop. I’m thinking about using it as topping on a coffee cake or something. Oh well.

Bread and Computers

Today was another bake day. I’ve been meaning to try out some loaf bread recipes but have been a bit scared to do it. I got the recipe from a site www.sourdoughhome.com which has a lot of interesting topics for baking. I used his seven grain bread recipe but modified it a bit. I actually used a 10 grain cereal and dry yeast since our market still hasn’t ordered any fresh yeast. I ended up only using 1.5 cups of Whole wheat flour and a lot of the all-purpose. Anyway I mixed it up and kneaded it and left it to rise.

  Boy my fingers look fat in that picture.

I then proceeded to put my computer together. The case is a beast…it could probably eat my old computer it’s so big..and the fan is the size of a cake pan. I’m proud to say I put most of it together although Nathan did help me figure stuff out and he put in the power supply and the processor fan. Interesting I know. Anway here are some pics because I’m proud of my effort and my power supply even came in a faux velvet bag. It looked fancy.

So that’s pretty much it. I’m not going to install the hard drive and CDrom until tomorrow because it takes forever and I don’t want to stay up until midnight trying to install all the software and upgrades. Windows stopped making XP so we went ahead and got Vista upgrade which the Best buy guy said should work since we didn’t buy the full version of Vista. If it doesn’t work…well I don’t even want to think about that. But on the plus side everything is pretty much in there and I’m a day away from being able to play games and watch movies without the lag.

Back to my bread…I just pulled it out a little while ago and it looks pretty nice. I’m really worried I didn’t let it rise enough the second time so we’ll see when we eat it. Either way I think it turned out nicely for my first loaf bread and I’m happy with the aesthetic results. I just hope it’s not a rock when it comes to eating it.

Bento Box

I’m super excited…I just bought 2 bento boxes and other stuff. Bento boxes are a Japanese cultural item which are lunch boxes and the food is often artistic. I stumbled upon a Lunch in a Box Blog about a year or less ago and loved seeing how she made fast lunches for her family that were both interesting and nutritional. Food is such a big aspect of my life it’s kind of borderline crazy. I love looking at food pictures and reading about how to prepare dishes.

I’ve been itching to buy bento boxes for a while but never got around to buying the items. But lately it’s been on my mind because I hate when Nathan forgets to eat breakfast and goes hungry for hours while working. Plus he’s kind of anti-fruit in that he doesn’t like to actually take it out of the fridge…If I slice up apples and put grapes and oranges on a plate he will eat them right up, but he thinks of them more as snack foods and won’t willingly go to get them. I guess he likes meals in general so I guess he just thinks eating random pieces of fruit is unusual. It might also have to do with the fact that he’s been a vegan for so long that he is in ‘complete protein’ mode. Anyway, I know that if i prepare a bento box for him and add fruits and veggies he’ll eat them right up.

So yup this is sort of a random post but I was just so happy shopping for bento boxes. Oh how I can’t wait until my rice molds get here so I can make rice balls in the shapes of bunnies and bears.

Changes in the wind

This past week has been really strange…it’s been so quiet and lonely. It’s as if Beach Hill has come to a stand still and I hear only the wind. Even our birds have been quiet and I wonder if it has to do with bird migration. I think the weather might finally be changing and maybe this is affecting people.

I did my weekly circuit of going to Petsmart, Longs, Trader Joe’s and the liquor store where I buy our water. I like buying the tall 1.5L of water there since Longs sells smaller bottles and I feel like I might save more plastic that way. Anyway I looked on the yahoo map and I think I’m doing about 3 miles just for my Petsmart day and I ride my bike to other places as well so I’m getting some good excercise every week. The scale told me I actually gained weight but I’m not too bothered since muscle weighs more then fat so hopefully I’ll start losing the fat but I am more concerned about being healthy then skinny. Hmm I feel so melancholy…maybe it’s the weather…

In other news I’ve been pondering Big stores vs. local stores. Nathan works at a local store and knows so many people here and remembers what they want to buy without asking. And when I go to the local market or laundry mat I recognize many people and talk to them. When it comes to Petsmart though I wonder why they remember me. Sure I usually come in around the same time every week but I’m sure other people are creatures of habit. But I notice a lot of people buy in bulk so maybe they don’t frequent the store as much and therfore don’t establish a connection with the workers. But in many ways I think our Petsmart is unique because many of the workers have been there for awhile and it seems like the floor staff is pretty small.

When I go to Trader Joe’s it’s always a horrible experience even though I only go there once a week. They have so many workers and it’s always packed with people who think they are the only people shopping. I can’t count how many times I’ve been run into, cut off, or had to ask people if they could move so I could get by (which they wouldn’t). I only go there for OJ, Brie, and soap but it’s starting to get to me and I’m thinking of buying the stuff at our actual grocery market. I know I sound like a horrible bitch but seriously I can’t stand it anymore when people in the express line start getting chummy with the worker when there are 7 other people waiting. Sure I talk to workers at both TJ’s or our main market and I usually bag my own stuff but I just get annoyed when they are finished bagging and haven’t paid and are sitting there talking. I don’t even care if they have finished and the person is ringing me up and they are still talking to people..I just don’t want to stand there listening to their random conversation while the rest of us are holding our 3 items. Eh but I guess I’m going off on some lame pet peeve.

Let’s see…ran into our ex-non-resident crack head guy at longs. I run into him so often it’s kind of creeping me out. I just hope he doesn’t start hanging around again since it’s kind of scary when he and his buddies are around. I remember last year during the fall/winter I wouldn’t even leave the house alone after 5 because I didn’t want to deal with the drunk/etc people around. Earlier this summer I was going to walk down and buy some water and this guy came up to me drunk saying hi and I guess he was hanging out with some of our neighbors. Nathan was going to run to longs but he ended up following me down the hill and picked me up because I guess he heard the guys saying some weird stuff about me and he didn’t want them to start something when I was by myself. It’s not like we live in a terrible area but we do have a lot of people who have lifestyles that can be scary sometimes. And being that I’m 5′1″ and I don’t carry a knife or pepper spray it can be a bit scary at night. I’ve actually started thinking about buying one though just in case…

Anyway, I should get back on track and not get lost in memories. I cleaned out part of our closet today and boy was that a sweaty adventure. At least I sorted out some old school books I don’t want anymore and got rid of some boxes. Nathan is kind of a box fanatic because he thinks we might need them again if we move. It makes sense for some things like our flat screen t.v. since it has to be transported upright, but for other things like old cell phone boxes it just ends up taking up room. I guess we just forget to throw them out after 30 days and they end up in our closet taking up so much space. Well at least I made room for all my comic books. Yup I love comics but I don’t like most of that marvel stuff…I only collect one series and I think I really like it because it’s written and created by a woman. Some of my favorite anime is done by women so maybe I tend to identify more with these sorts of graphic novels/movies/comics because they come from a different perspective. Ah I could go on about anime for so long…some of the series or movies are so well developed and the directors and cinematographers are really cutting edge (well I think so).

Hmm let’s see..oh update on the bread…it turned out great but I think the recipe calls for too much salt..so I’ll take that into consideration next time. I made Curried red lentils for dinner and that turned out great as well but I think it’s kind of tough to mess up that dish.

Well I suppose the debates are important to remember…I totally forgot last night and we missed the first 30min but it could have been worse. I still don’t feel all that great about Obama but I guess I’ll vote for him. Sometimes I think the Ox in me is actually there…I just feel so conflicted for voting for someone who I don’t believe in. And I think about times when the popular vote should have put a certain person in office and the electoral vote overrode it. Personally I don’t like that there is even an electoral system and it goes to show how our founding ‘fathers’ (where were the women then?) didn’t show trust in the people. Sure we can argue that the people back then were uneducated but that doesn’t mean they were idiots. It’s about communication and open information. People who don’t have certain types of education can still make good choices if they are given information from all around and can discuss it within their communities. Anyway I’ll try to stick to the point…I guess I have a lot of things on my mind so I keep wandering. I thought the debates were alright but I couldn’t stand listening to McCain make jokes especially when it was followed by silence. I thought it was a bit rude too since he would also interrupt the moderator and that tactic made me feel as though he was marginalizing Obama’s presence by assuming he had the right to act in that fashion because he thought he was the main event. I thought it was funny when McCain said he knew how to hunt down Osama and that he would make sure to do so if he became president. It just sounded so silly to me and I kept thinking ‘why hasn’t he created an Osama hunting party already then?’. I’m sure if he really knew how to ‘hunt him down’ that the Bush Admin would be putting his face to the grill on that issue and I feel as though that statement underminded the work that the U.S./International forces have been doing. One thing I’m confused about though is this concept of buying healthcare across state lines (McCain right?). I not sure if he means that the policy will be in another state and the coverage will be in-state. And even if that is the case I wonder how competitive can that be? I mean I’m sure state people will want to pass bills that help their state keep health insurance in-state for the benefit of their state economy. But maybe I should research that.

I thought it was worrisome when McCain said he’d do a freeze across the board on programs. I felt like he was ignoring that some programs (like people’s socioeconomic status) vary in impact and beneficial results for poor/middle class americans. The results for an across the board freeze wouldn’t mean leveling the programs equally regardless of the economic savings. I think it would make low and middle class people struggle more than ever with that kind of stance. Also I didn’t like Obama’s analogy of using a ’scalpel’ on programs to make sure important programs weren’t put on hold. I know it sounds knit-picky but I really don’t like how medicalized our country has become. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t invest in medical research or deny people medication where it is needed. I just personally feel that many conditions can be solved through cultural, social, economic or political means. I’ve taken a Medical anthropology class and many other classes that refer to instances where people became ill (not just physically) due to problems in society. And I guess those classes just remind me to be careful of what we consider a simple ’scalpel’ fix. I mean to say that preventive care (for individuals and society) needs to have a greater emphasis in the U.S. so that we don’t wind up in economic, political, social, health, etc turmoil. Looking back though I know Obama meant that he would put less important programs on hold but I still think my point is somewhat valid. I think he has the right idea but I think politics also revolves around vocabulary. Palin uses a certain way of speaking that may be authentic but is also serves to bring her closer to the ‘joe six-pack’. But again I think I’m being a bit critical of one reference by Obama but it just stuck in my mind and I wanted to discuss it.

I really need to work on making shorter posts…when it comes to the debates I guess I felt a tiny bit better about resigning myself to voting for Obama. It’s just that I don’t like to choose something that is decent rather than the best. Maybe it has to do with being an only child, or having leftist parents, or maybe because I’m naive and an idealist. But I know that if I do go to the polls it will be with a heavy heart. Maybe it’s also the Libra in me that feels that it is so unfair to expect so much change when I feel in my heart that we won’t get it in our lifetime. Change is always coming but I just don’t feel that these next few years will be a burst of change like the other decades that expierenced revolutions, social rights/freedoms, and social unity (and of course some were left out even then). At least we have hope and the goals though…I hope that doesn’t change.

Parasites and Pesto

Boy am I tired…

Well to start with I just want to let people know that I figured out some of what McCain meant by his healthcare policies thanks to my mom. I still need to research but I’m too pooped today. So I feel silly for not having known before but knowing is half the battle. And I know how lame that sounds haha.

I went to the market today and bought a bunch of food. The clerk said it had been so slow and Nathan’s place was slow also…again I think it’s the wind and weather. I was really happy to find that they’re expanding their spice/herb/seed/etc selection and I picked up some poppy seeeds. I swear we spend all our money on rent, food, and computer related items. I must confess though that it is worth it to buy our organic stuff. I used to be a sort of a hypochondriac probably because my mom liked to watch shows about disease/etc and my dad used to think he had all sorts of weird things. Nathan still laughs because for the first few years we were together I thought I had intestinal parasites and that this random hole in my finger was how they entered. We’ve been buying organic for about a year and we both just Love garlic which I’ve read helps get rid of intestinal parasites and is antibacterial in general. I happily told Nathan my findings and he laughed and said maybe that’s why my parasites went away…I suppose it will be a mystery. And although I’m not freaked out anymore that I have a brain tumor (that story is for another day) I do get paranoid about all these health risks so I feel like fresh organic food is helping me stay healthy and fight off the long list of diseases I could get.

I groan about how expensive it is live here but I am thankful that we have access to organic products. The only things that I think might not be organic are some of the flours I buy and items such as the poppy seeds that aren’t labeled. Anyway I rode home with my weighed down bike and I started thinking about how easy it would be to run me over. I usually take the bike paths if I can or go downtown since it’s partially one-way and one lane but I still have to venture out. I read on www.medicinenet.com that 700,000 people die a year from cycling accidents so I think I might start remembering to drop my bike and run if some car crash happens. But I thank my mom for giving me my Santo Nino de Atocha charm which I always wear. I used to have one in my car and he protected me I think..I did get into 2 car crashes but they weren’t my fault and they were pretty minor so I think maybe he helped out. For those who aren’t familiar he is supposed to be Jesus as a child who has helped people in many ways such as people who need food or travelers needing to find the safe path. I also read that he helped miners during an explosion in New Mexico a few hundred years ago. I think it’s funny because he was concerned that people were starving and I worry also about us having good food..so maybe there is a spiritual connection.

Anyway I came home and talked to my mom which is always nice. Oh I forgot to mention she bought me a baking stone/pizza stone!! I was so excited but kind of worried that it didn’t have a note so I had no clue who had bought it for me. I didn’t use it today since I have to clean it but I can’t wait to make pizza later this week. Today, like most of my days, was a big baking/cooking day. I made some Lemon Poppy muffins which smell really great and I hope they taste great too. I kind of mixed up different recipes and used a banana for the eggs so I’m sure it will have a subtle taste in the muffins. I always remember the Seinfeld episode when Elaine has issues with her urine because of all the poppy muffins she eats but they think she’s a heroin addict. Anyway here they are… Mmm I can’t wait until tomorrow. I’m not a morning kind of person so I’m not very motivated to make pancakes or breakfast burritos in the morning. Plus I never want to eat that much when I wake up so I tend to eat toast or eat some muffins while I wake up because there is no thinking involved.

So I decided I’d make Home-made Basil Pesto and French Baguettes for dinner. The last time I tried was a disaster since half my basil was rotten and the pasta was so heavy that I accidently let go of the lid and dumped it all in the sink…that ended up being a pizza night. So I decided I’d try again and the results were fantastic. I should probably mention beforehand that I don’t like to make my life difficult but sometimes the Gods decide I need to learn a lesson. Many recipes, such as pesto, suggest using a food processor to make our lives easier and I must agree it’s a handy tool. Apparently I’m not allowed to have one. The first one had it’s engine blown out because it couldn’t handle my delicious hummus which I claim to be the best. The little guy just couldn’t handle the thicker hummus and I couldn’t imagine making less hummus at a time. The second one was bigger and was doing great but I made a mistake by leaving the base out one day. My birds were in their curious stage where they hadn’t realized which items to chew on and proceeded to chew off all the wires on the processor. Well at least they figured out to stick to paper and their chew toys. The third one was thrown out simply out of my lack of time to deal with cooking while I was in school. Our birds chew on lots of paper so I clean quite a bit and unfortunately they tend to fly by the sink and drop the shredded paper in the sink. So the sink ended up clogged and I was too annoyed to clean the sink so the processor ended up looking like a sewer item after a month or so. This happened during our ‘let’s eat out because it can’t be that much more expensive or unhealthy’ phase. So it seems that the powers that be just think I was meant for a stronger connection to my food, well that’s how I try to think of it.

Coming full circle, I decided I’d make Pesto Pasta and in order to so I did it the good old fashioned Italian way…Mortar and Pestle. It took me about 2.5 hours to make dinner not including the bread which I had started an hour before. I got slowed down because I had to shift out the bad leaves and clean the dirt off and then chop them up plus chop the garlic and pine nuts. Then I went ahead and started grinding it down. It turned out great but I think I’d buy more basil next time. The bread turned out tasty but I need to work on my loaf shaping skills. As you will see they ended up looking like Hot Pockets which is kind of embarrassing. But they tasted good and we’re sitting with full bellies. I’d write more but I’m just too tired to actually think about interesting things. Take care and eat tasty food. P.S. I know I look like some Betty Crocker with that pink spatula but I picked pink because it reminds me of Pepto Bismal. I loved that stuff as a kid and I guess I find the color comforting. Plus I always know where to find it because it’s so bright.

Shepherd’s Pie

Nothing exciting today except that my Bento Boxes came!!

Pretty calm day though…I cleaned the house and talked to a friend who lives in the northern part of California. And then on Nathan’s break my package came. I think in the future I might buy another one and use Nathan’s new one as his breakfast bento. He tends to leave the house without eating because he’s not hungry so maybe having a morning bento and lunch bento would work but we’ll see. He also comes home for lunch so I’ll have to figure out what he likes.

Anyway, made vegan shepherd’s pie and we always have so much that it was a good bento lunch. We don’t bake our Shep’s pie since it takes so long to make it as it is. I noticed my camera gets blurry on a certain setting since the batteries exploded. I just figured it out so a few are blurry.

The monkey one is mine btw. Actually I think it’s supposed to be a gibbon and those are apes so ignore the monkey reference. They’re a bit small for Nathan if he works a full day so like I was saying I might buy a bigger one later so he’ll have a morning and lunch one when he goes in early. The top tier (which I didn’t post) has a Lemon Poppy muffin and I’ll cut up a kiwi tomorrow for him. The pics are also of my rice ball molds and dip containers. I also got some cup holders which will be good when I buy nuts or put other stuff in them.

The only other news is that I think I might be getting sick. Nathan was getting sick but he got rid of it within 3 days by loading up on o.j. and cough drops. So I drank my juice and hopefully I won’t get worse. We don’t usually get sick that often and even then it’s pretty mild since we make sure to fight it fast. I seem to always be the one who gets more sick though which is annoying when Nathan is sick-free after a few days. Well take care everyone.

Bunnies, Rice, and everything nice

Well I haven’t posted in a few days and thought I should get into gear.

I was fairly sick Saturday and ended up taking a 4hr nap because I felt so horrible. I hate getting sick when I have things to do like laundry but oh well. The rest time seemed to pay off because I was feeling loads better by Sunday with only a slight stuffy nose. Today I’m great so hopefully I won’t get it again. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to post some cat pictures but they don’t like to stay still very often.

 and yes that is chinese take out in that bag. I wasn’t up to cooking while sick and Nathan had work so he picked up some soup for me.

What a nice picture of the computer boxes that we have in our place. But I don’t feel so annoyed since we just put our computers together a couple of weeks ago so they’ll probably make it out into the recycling bin soon.

Anyway, those are our girls…you know I do think it was fate that brought us our kitties because we spent about 2 months trying to find the right kitties. I wanted boys but Nathan was really into girls for some reason even though he’s had a lot of boy cats in his life. He wanted a short-haired grey kitty and I wanted a furry black lion. And we also wanted them to be kittens so they’d be friends and get along. We spent so long searching..we went to at least 3 shelters in Santa Cruz, went to San Jose, Watsonville, and Monterey county. Still we couldn’t find the kitties that we felt connected to and I remember feeling a bit upset. And finally Nathan went by our local Petsmart one evening before coming home from work and spotted our girls. The woman told us they were sisters but a lot of people question if that’s true…well I don’t know but I do know that litters can vary in the way each animal comes out. So we got our kitties in the end and we probably baby them too much but I suppose that’s ok. I did get mad though tonight since one of them knocked down one of my rice balls.

So yes today we decided to head up to San Jose and go to this Japanese dollar store called Daiso. I’ve read from “Lunch in the Box” blog about all these great items that can be found there for bentos and it’s super cheap. So we headed up and it was really bizzare to go to Southeastern San Jose. We don’t head up there often so it’s always a bit weird to see how these people live. Anyway, I haven’t been to a suburb area for a long time and it really freaked me out. I felt like I was in the twilight zone because there were no people around. Sure there were lots of cars but no people on the streets. Well we saw one man working as a sign holder but he was hiding behind it to shield himself from the sun…so we saw his arm. I’m sure there are parts of Santa Cruz like that but I felt like this experience was magnified by the fact that there were large, wide streets with masses of cars which were driving by these corporate stripmalls. I remember growing up and stripmalls weren’t home to Bed Bath & Beyond or Macaroni Grill. The stripmalls tended to be places that had dollar stores, bridal shops, etc..stuff that people needed but not a high traffic customer area I suppose. So it felt weird to see no people but lots of movement plus big corporate shops that I usually think of being near regular malls…maybe I’m just a out of touch with regular U.S. life.

So I was kind of freaked out but we forged ahead on our journey…to find the previously unheard of Eastridge Mall. We eventually found it and noticed that the mall was a bit desolate. The other San Jose malls are a huge deal…sometimes I feel like the malls are the main source of entertainment in San Jose which is ok right? Each to their own or however that saying goes. But this mall seemed so vacant…it was huge but I don’t think the housing is developed enough for it to be a main attraction. It felt creepy getting out of the car because of the endless rows of parking space and the single engine planes that were coming in for landing to the nearby airport.

We walked into the mall and looked at the map and there was no Daiso. Frowning, we turned around and started looping around the mall in hopes of finding a Daiso that might be on the outer part of the mall…maybe it was a little island of it’s own? We didn’t know. We looked on Nathan’s iphone to look for the place and we were lost…we spent about 30 minutes going in circles thinking we might have missed the dollar store. Eventually I decided that enough was enough and that we were going to 411 the place. Turns out the Daiso was in the mall. Yup it seems the mall didn’t bother updating all the maps and figured that maybe the local shoppers would know where to find the place.

So we headed in and finally entered Daiso. I read that this location is actually quite small for most Daiso spaces probably because it’s located in a mall. But the place was pretty great…I got some plastic vegetable steamers so that I don’t have to heat a quart or 2 of water for a few pieces of broccoli for Nathan’s lunch. We bought chopsticks, travel forks with cases, a triangualr rice mold, pill boxes, a hand held mirror, and some other small items. We spent under 30 dollars which I think is pretty decent for all the stuff be bought…oh and I got a Fish Grill, but not for cooking fishies.

We headed back and had some In-N-Out food…Grilled cheese and fries…oh so yummy. Although I did get a sodium headache from the food but it was worth it since we only go there a few times a year. Headed back over the hill and saw lots of dead animals and 2 dead deer. It’s always a bit sad to see the animals especially if they are small since they tend to not be whole at that point. I (and I think Nathan would agree) that we need better mass transportation in the U.S. for reasons of lower emissions, energy costs, sense of community, and to lower animal deaths. I know that many feel that we should help humans before we help animals but I think we should do both at the same time. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice one for the other espeically since I think all life is important for the world in terms of maintaining healthy ecosystems. I haven’t read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair for awhile but I do remember that he discusses socioeconomic, political, and animal injustice. And I know that hitting a deer and cruelly slaughtering animals seem different but I think they are very much the same thing. We are so far removed from nature and animals that we often don’t think twice about how these animals live. Even pets have become a commodity since we carry them around like dolls or breed them for physical appearance rather than usefulness. For me, it’s not so much about eating animals but rather how we treat them beforehand. I love listening to the sea lions at night and I remember walking by deer families when I was a student. I suppose I just wish to remember that they have as much right to live as we do and we should strive to protect all life when we can. I’m not perfect and I know I eat cheese every now and then, but I do try. And I’m not saying I’m better than others for not eating meat but rather pointing out that I think we need to continue to care and think about those who don’t have voices. Another point that I’d like make though is that I think how I feel mainly pertains to the first world because most of us aren’t farmers or aren’t working in poor working conditions. Again, I think we need to remember how we rely on animals (for food, entertainment, love, spiritual connections, etc) in a modern/postmodern nation since we are no longer connected to their deaths regardless of the reasons for those deaths. I hope that didn’t sound like I was on a soapbox…but I’m sure it does. I think human and ecological rights are just as vaild as animal rights though so I hope I don’t offend anyone with this post.

Anyway, I made some rice balls when I came home. I made two Yaki Onigiri which are rice balls that are grilled and I brushed them with some soy sauce. They turned out tasty but I think I should grill them longer next time to be more crispy. The other ones are small rice balls in the shape of a bunny and a bear..the one with longer ears is the bunny. It’s hard to tell from the pictures but maybe you’ll be able to tell the difference.

Maybe next time I’ll cut some nori and give the bunnies whiskers and put two seeds for the eyes. But they were yummy so they served their main purpose. Now I feel bad about this post because I’m eating rice bunnies, but really I just like them because they’re cute and not because they’re supposed to look like bunnies…oh well.

::update:: And while re-reading this I feel really hypocritcal for going off about the whole pet thing in terms of appearence when we wanted cats that looked a certain way. So I’m sure I should be slammed for that but to defend my post our kitties were abandoned/homeless and we only wanted kitties that were abandoned because many places end up putting cats to sleep because they don’t have the space. And again I recognize that we could have adopted older cats which are usually the ones that get put to sleep since most people want kittens. It’s hard to justify this post now that I’ve re-read it but I would like to say that we didn’t just want those physical appearences for aesthetic reasons alone…we’ve both had ties to those sorts of cats in the past and I suppose we wanted to remember those past cats that we lost while knowing that these kittens had their own identities and backgrounds and would bring us joy. So again I stick to what I said earlier in that I didn’t want to sound like I was on a soapbox…I was just thinking and that of course I have my own faults and contridictions which came out clearly in this post.

Tuesday bike rides

So I write a lot about riding our bikes but I feel like we still need more excercise. I’ve decided that Tuesdays will be our couple bike ride day. We stuck to the bike path and Nathan gave me a work out since he’s taller so he can go faster. Doubled back and made a stop at our local New Leaf market.

Got stocked up on more veggies and fruit…I gave into Nathan’s pleas for some frozen ravioli which he likes. I’ve been reading up on random websites about vegans and their most common health issues. And I took some lame online test to see if we’re eating properly. Turns out we need to start eating those dark leafy greens and probably remember to take our B complex/other vitamins for things like B-12 and vitamin A etc. I’m really bad about taking vitamins because they are so big and chalky that I have to remember not to gag. Eugh I don’t like to think about it. Well I posted yesterday that I bought some pill boxes that have a chain so I attached to Nathan’s bento strap so he won’t lose it and he’ll be reminded to take it when he eats.

Did loads of cooking..well it seemed like it. I marinated some tofu and seitan in some garlic hoisen sauce. I’m planning on making some steam buns tomorrow so the seitan is still absorbing and I just broke them down right now into smaller pieces than the ones in the photo.

 

Mmm I remember the first time I ever had a steam bun. My mom took me to this Asian market in Irvine (I think) and we picked up some fresh ones and they were so great. I’ve been tempted to try cooking with seitan because I think it’s the closest texture to meat. And while I don’t want to mimic the image I like how the seitan can be chewy like pollo asado or other items that I loved before my diet switch.

Anyway, Nathan has a long day tomorrow so I packed his breakfast and added nuts. Apparently we don’t eat enough nuts either. I cut the muffin since it was kind of a large one and it seemed easier than smushing it down. The top tier is a skinned orange and I don’t know if that’s ok to do since he’s not eating it right away. But I suppose we’ll find out tomorrow if the orange maintains its freshness.

And that’s the little pill box with our daily vitamins. It seems so lame to be excited over lunches but I’m really happy to feed us good food. Moving on I spent a few hours putting our lunch together. It wasn’t that long really because I’m including the time to marinate the tofu and I cooked dinner in between. I was going to saute some spinach Italian style (well I always see that side dish at Italian places) but decided I’d make it for our pre-dinner snack tomorrow. Nathan’s been going on and on about this dressing by www.anniesnaturals.com and the one he wanted to try was the goddess dressing. They also make an organic version for anyone interested. I’ve been rolling my eyes about this so-called dressing but gave in since I know he’ll eat things if I spice it up with some random item that he likes. Plus it gave me a chance to use my new dip containers! I tasted some of it and it is super duper good. I now feel happy to have found a good vegan dressing that we both like. He claims I’m picky but I think he’s picky too haha.

It’s hard to see but the dip container is actually in the shape of a cat…I thought it would remind Nathan of our cats, but I’m sure he’d rather forget them because they are so stinky and naughty. Just joking on the stinky part folks…well mostly. So I made some more rice balls and grilled them which took forever. And I also grilled the tofu and we’ll see how that turns out. I don’t like cooking with tofu because I feel like the sauces never come out right but hopefully this lunch won’t blow.

Making all this food left me without a bento box but I plan on buying some more soon. I’ve started a notebook for recipe testing and a food log. My mom gave me a recipe book and she wrote down a bunch for me and left pages for me to fill in later. But not all the recipes I try are great so I figured I’d start a notebook and test them or modify them as I work with them. The food log makes me cringe because I feel like I’m counting calories. We eat good quality food but we don’t tend to remember which items to include in our diet such as leafy greens, nuts, etc. So I figured the log will help me plan out balanced meals and be prepared to spend time cooking so we don’t end up having an energy crash which results in eating junky/fatty foods.

Let’s see what else…Oh I’m super frustrated with our market because their fruit is limited and they never stock enough basil. They have the usual apples, oranges, pears (which I don’t really like), some mangos, and tons of limes and lemons. Personally I don’t think many people even use limes often. They have some pomogranates which I’d have to seed since they are very messy and stain items. But I’m a berry fanatic…I have to have at least some frozen berries on hand because I just love the tangy but sweet taste. When we go to Jamba Juice some of them remember that I’m probably the only person who still requests their Raspberry Rainbow and it’s not even on the list anymore. Back to the point, our market seems to not have a large selection of fruit and variety is important since we get bored of eating apples all the time. So I’ve resigned myself to going to the farmer’s market which I haven’t been to since I moved here 5 years ago. It just creeps me out to go by myself with all these hippies playing drums. And I like hippies but it’s not my thing so it scares me to walk into the market and consider I might never make it out. It’s irrational I know, but I know I’ll have to face them and hope that I won’t end up in the mountains. And believe me I know I sound mean, I would rather face all the homeless people on lower downtown than face hippies…maybe because I know that we aren’t very different. Ugh I need to stop thinking about this. So I’m going to go tomorrow in hopes of finding some different fruits and hopefully some basil for my pizza.

I tend to listen to www.kazu.org while I cook and clean because I like them better than the santa cruz NPR/PRI/local station. Anyway, I was listening to a program which was discussing the economic crisis and how individuals should manage their money. For a large part I agree that individuals shouldn’t have large amounts of credit card debit if they can’t pay it off. And Nathan and I both have cards and we tend to buy higher priced items and then pay them off quickly. Like we bought our T.V. on credit and we paid it before they were going to start charging us the compounded interest for the 18 months that we didn’t have to pay interest. I recognize that we live in a consumer oriented society and many people feel they have to live in a certain social class that is actually beyond their means. And I also recognize that some people use credit just to get by because they feel it’s the best option. Anyway, what I don’t agree with is blaming families for buying homes when they shouldn’t be able to afford them. Well I don’t think it’s their fault that they wanted a 3 bedroom house and the loan companies told them they could afford it. It’s about bad information and lack of government responsiblity to care for its citizens. Sure, if a familiy buys a huge house that they shouldn’t even consider then I do agree that the families were a bit naive. But I think it’s unfair to deny families/individuals the right to owning a home if they choose. And I’m a bit rusty on my anthro/sociological terms but what about gentrification? No one has given a rat’s ass about poor people (and often times poor minorities) being rooted out of their urban spaces so that mostly white rich families could remodel the homes and live in ‘the city’. But now that the housing market has blown up and people are being foreclosed on, now we care about people not having homes. I look at santa cruz and it’s horrible that many of the locals and minorities have had to move out to capitola or watsonville because they can’t afford to live here because of the university and downtown development.

And I totally acknowledge that I came here first as a student. Lower downtown and beach area is considered the ‘ghetto’ part of town (strictly the santa cruz area) and yet it’s still overpriced. If there are drunk/drugged people on lower pacific (downtown) the cops won’t even care. But if a homeless person is simply sitting on upper downtown (the nice, expensive area) the cops will harass them and tell them to leave. Of course the students and upper middle class/upper class people shouldn’t have to see homeless people…it’s a compeletely horrible attitude. I’ve sort of gone off topic it seems but I find that all these events are linked. Why aren’t there better programs the homeless, the drug addicted, or simply the poor? National medias/government talk about the middle american and feel we should help them. But the reality is that many of these ‘middle americans’ aren’t middle class, they are struggling to achieve middle class status. They might make enough money to be categorized as middle class but all these expenses, lack of community transportation, and decent homes are forcing people to live beyond their means. It should not be a crime to want a 2-3 room home to raise children and poor people often don’t even have the luxury of having a home. We had a neighbor a couple of years ago that was living in a smaller studio than ours with two young children and both parents. I just feel as though our society has turned a blind eye for decades in regards to poor families and here we are trying to blame ‘middle-class’ families for wanting a home. We live in urban areas most often because of job opportunity, but of course there are other reasons. Personally, I would love to have a small home some day so that I don’t have to worry about our neighbors being bothered by watching T.V. because our walls are so thin. I mean to say, that everyone should have the option to have a home (which includes owned apartments or condos) if we choose. Quality living is not just about choice but how our society considers each other and how we ought to live. Building bad homes won’t help anyone…we need quality homes that are affordable to all sorts of people but I also don’t believe the rich should buy whatever they want…like loads of property all over the world that they don’t use. Imagine how many homes could be built on ‘Brangelina’s’ estates? I know the media loves Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for all the humanitarian work they do but they also feed into that upper class mentality when they buy homes all over the world for vacations etc. I guess it can be argued that people with money should have the right to buy what they want because they earned it. Well to an extent maybe. So many CEOs and upper management get paid an indecent amount of money to cheat and rip off consumers and their own employees…how is that ‘earning’ their salary?

I didn’t really mean to post this much but I’ve seen and continue to see so much social apathy that it bothers me. I just wish everyone could be happy and provide for their families in the best way possible instead of having to wonder if they have to apply for food stamps or lose their homes. Maybe some would call me naive and I do feel like I am. I never wanted to do Peace Corp, but instead the American Corp. There are so many communities, voices, individuals that need help and it bothers me that so many are being brushed aside right now so to focus on the ‘middle american’. What about the Indian reservations, the urban poor, the non-urban poor, the minorities, the immigrants, and so on.

Well I’ll post tomorrow. Take care and eat good food.

blue, green, and purple

Hmm my brain feels tired.

On my last post I mentioned the farmer’s market and ours happens to be every Wednesday. I treked to Petsmart and Longs first and dropped off the stuff before heading to the open market. I was a bit nervous and made a point to go earlier in the day for better selection and so to avoid the musical hippies. I didn’t realize that many tents sold cooked or assembeled food. Kind of weird to see packaged pizzas and Indian food stands but I thought it was neat. I didn’t buy much since we had bought a bunch of food earlier in the week. I was tempted to buy hierloom tomatoes but we have other tomatoes that I didn’t want to end up with rotten food. Anyway, picked up some plums and raspberries and strawberries. I was kind of hoping to get some peaches but our fridge is pretty small and I knew I wouldn’t be able to fit all of it. Anyway I also was excited because I got some purple cauliflower and some romanesco. Romanesco is a type of broccoli and we’ve seen it occasionally but were kind of freaked out by the shape. Hmm…picked up loads of basil for our pizza and also some green onions for the steam buns. I took the time to deleaf (is that a word?) all the basil and rinse it because if I make pesto it takes so long to shift out the bad leaves.

I didn’t get a chance to make steam buns because I ended up making muffins since we were out. So I made blueberry muffins and I kind of forgot how to make them and added the wet ingredients into the flour instead of mixing the sugar, butter, and bananas separately to get them nice and fluffy. But they looked good but we’ll see.

 

Used my pizza stone for the first time and it was really great. We used mozzarella cheese with a tomato sauce. Half was topped with roma tomatoes with basil and the other half was faux pepperoni with basil. We added fresh basil on top when we pulled it out. Before and after pics.

I used Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook again and the downside to that cookbook is that the recipes tend to take a lot of time. Like croissants…I compared her recipe to others and there are a lot of sites that show a fast recipe. And for Stewart’s pizza dough recipe I had to let the dough rise twice for a total of 70min and I wonder if other recipes take as long. Not that I mind but I do like to compare recipes and modify them when I feel up to it. I didn’t bother trying the pizza air-spin thing because I knew it would end up on the floor with our cats stepping in it. Kind of just dumped the dough on the pre-heated stone and started pulling and rolling it out. Turned out so great! I didn’t try the faux pepperoni though but Nathan said he really liked it.

Nathan has a later day tomorrow but I went ahead and made his breakfast so he doesn’t have to get ready while trying to pull items out of the fridge. Similar to yesterday, blueberry muffin, nuts, strawberries, and raspberries. Lunch is left over ravioli with vegan cheese…pretty good stuff considering I notice the taste difference way more than Nathan does. If the fake stuff doesn’t make me gag then I think most non-vegan/vegetarians would probably like it. Anyway, chopped up the funky broccoli and cauliflower and pulled out a dip container.

That’s it for today really since I’m too tired to think about the debates but I will say I’m sick of McCain’s jerky attitude and sometimes I feel like he sounds as though he is patronizing the audience when he compares himself to Obama. Anyway, I also feel really proud of myself because I’ve gained some muscle and can actually make it up the hill with my packages without passing out on the street. But I still need to work on the other (bigger) hill that also leads to our house. At this point I don’t think I can ride up with 5-10lbs of food/etc on my bike for that one. Oh and I seriously need to start my knitting but there has been so much random stuff I’ve been doing lately that I haven’t had a good sit down day do it…oh well.

bread

Nothing very interesting today. Sent back a video card at kinko’s and that was horrible. I had to wait in line for 20minutes because none of the employees figured they could stop what they were doing for 10min to help out 5 people. I swear this lady took 20minutes babbling on about the worth of the package which was a free sample she was sending back. I didn’t see why it was a big ordeal but I sat there anyway waiting for someone to come up and help me. 30 min later I finally walk out the store and that lady was still there taking her sweet time while the other 4 people were waiting.

Made some baguettes and this time I didn’t cheat on the starter time. I started the starter yeast last night since it had to do its thing for 12-16 hours. The bread came out much better this time but it still seems a bit salty. I used my baking stone which fits perfectly for my tiny stove but not for my huge baguettes. I should have made 4 smaller loaves but I didn’t think they’d come out so long so I ended up wrapping them like tapeworms. Well that’s what I imagined they looked like. They turned out much more rustic looking (and tasting) and didn’t look like hotpockets. Made some pesto pasta and it took less time since I had already cut off the stems and discarded the bad leaves. Still took about 1.5hours to make but I didn’t feel rushed since I had made the bread earlier in the day.

steam buns

Finally made some steam buns today! I felt bad because I hadn’t made them earlier but I really had other food items that needed to be used up first so they wouldn’t go bad. This week was an Italian week…pizza, pasta, ravioli, and more. I didn’t realize until this week that I tend to crave foods and then get over them for a few weeks.

Anyway, the buns came out great. I sauteed some green onions and garlic…dumped in the seitan and marinade and added a bit of rice vinegar. I feel kind of lame because I was supposed to add rice wine and not vinegar but it came out great. Added some cornstarch which gave the seitan a bit of a hard exterior and thickened the sauce. I don’t use bleached flour so the buns don’t have that pristine white look that most buns have. They also turned out smaller  than I had thought since I cut down the recipe a tiny bit too much so I had to make them smaller. Mmm so yummy…they have the right amount of sweetness but a nice tangy flavor is noticable. Nathan even commented that it tastes like real Chinese BBQ pork/tofu. He’s been a vegan for about 2 decades (although he eats a bit of cheese now because he can’t resist things like my pizza). But anyway, he grew up eating a lot of chinese/southeast Asian food so he was really surprised how close it was to Asian cooking, especially since we tend to not have great luck using Asian recipes. He was a bit smug since he picked out the marinade so I gave him props for that. I took a picture while eating one to show the inside of the bun but I must have been focusing too much on eating and the pic came out a bit blurry…

They don’t look as round in that picture I suppose because I waited a few hours to take the picture but they taste great and it’s the first time I made them. I tend to not care about the aesthetics on the first go since I’m more worried it will taste like cat poo.

I’m a bit upset though because everytime I read about steaming the recipes suggest to put in about an inch of water. The first time I did that I almost burned my pot because the water evaporated by the time I started putting in some other veggies. So I usually but a quart or less of water because I’d rather have too much water than a burnt pot that cooks off the teflon. But I decided today I’d try out the 1 inch suggestion again and it totally screwed me over. I kept checking the water but by the time I got to the last one I could smell burning and sure enough the water was all gone. The poor little last bun got thrown away because I didn’t want evaporated teflon absorbing into my bun. So I’m pretty sure the pot is ruined but I suppose that gives me an excuse to buy a stainless steel one. Personally I don’t mind using stainless steel because I cook (and clean) so much that it doesn’t take that much effort for me to cook with it. Plus we get most of our fats from oil in the pan so I don’t think it makes a big difference in our diet.

In other news I listened to this radio program that featured Isabel Allende. I can’t remember if it was the BBC Word program or what because I tend to tune certain things out while I’m cooking. Anyway, I’ve read two of her works and I really really don’t like her. Firstly, I think she totally ripped off Gaby Marcquez and secondly I feel that she uses her cousin’s fame to her advantage while attempting to deny that she is in fact upper class (or at the very least upper middle class). I really feel like she thinks that because she’s latina/south american that she can’t be categorized as bourgeoisie. I guess she came out with a new memoir and she said she left out members of her family whose lives were boring because no one wants to read about that. Or if someone had a very specific difficulty she would have to present it in a way to come across to others or she just left it out. She justified this by saying she just loves to tell stories and that she has so many dramatic things within her family that she wanted to write about it.

And I know this topic might seem strange for a blog but I’ve had beef with her for years and she keeps popping up and U.S. lit just loves her because she writes magical realism and she’s a latin woman. But it upsets me that everyone makes her life to be so hard and yet she does come from an educated background and all these ‘experiences’ come from the many choices that were available to her. And yet I’m listening to her talk about excluding family member’s from her memoir because they seemed to have boring lives. So apparently readers only want to hear about her husband’s daughter who isolated herself and became a drug addict. Or some weird lesbian relationship between her son’s wife and her stepson’s girlfriend. Sure those topics are interesting but I don’t think everyday life is boring. I look at my life and I suppose for many americans it would seem boring and backwards and anti-feminist. I love my life…I love cooking and maybe I should have been a chef or maybe I should have gone into a fashion school since I love to create things. But just because I don’t have some crazy love life, etc doesn’t mean that my life (and other’s) are boring. In fact I think that is one reason why people are attracted to Indie movies. They tend to show micro aspects of lives within a larger framework.

I guess I just dislike her to the point that I am willing to pretty much disagree with whatever she says or writes…and that sounds really personal. But I just feel like there are so many experiences out there that are neglected because they don’t seem interesting enough. And I think it’s because the U.S. doesn’t want to know the truth about how horrible border crossings can be, or to see a community massacred and dumped into a ditch, or live near sweatshops where the chemicals burn skin and children might eat tainted food. I feel as though readers within the U.S. would like to read about a latina writer who has political connections who writes magical realism while writing memoirs about how interesting and difficult her life was. I’m sure certain parts of her life were difficult but I think many people in this time have difficulties regardless of their race or socioeconomic status. Maybe I just don’t find her life all that interesting and I think I really see her as a part of the upper class telling all these ‘white people’ about how she struggled. I’m being redundant but honestly I’ve known so many more interesting people who have struggled more than she claims to have. At the same time I know others who didn’t struggle in the same way but who have very interesting perspectives and experiences. I suppose what bothers me about the interview is that she gets so much publicity and she goes around talking about how great she is. And although I’ve never heard anyone say it, I feel as though people see her as a female Gabriel Marquez in terms of magical realism. She even said that her memoirs weren’t so much based on fact (which I understand that point) but rather storytelling. I think it can be argued that memoirs and biographies and autobiographies are essentially fictional outside of the given ‘facts’ that are noted in the books. I just can’t grasp why people like her and buy into ideas that her life is so interesting and dramatic that it’s almost seen as real life ‘magical realism’.

I should end this because I’m rambling. And I know lots of people like her and obviously she appeals to a lot of readers. I guess from my standpoint and background I can’t relate to her and she bugs me. I actually skip the A’s in bookstores because seeing her work bothers me to no end. I’m probably being childish but I know I hold grudges relentlessly and to a fault.

spell check and pattern check

so I haven’t been knitting for about two weeks…I think I was put off by my cats destroying a pair of my needles and I had so many kitchen toys and recipes that I got distracted. Anyway, I sat down today and started knitting my mom’s project. I changed the pattern because I wanted to do Fair Isle but I didn’t want to deal with cables on top of it.

So it was really annoying because my book and other websites didn’t tell me that when weaving in the color I’m not using that I have to alternate between weaving and regular stitches. So I spent 3 hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and then found two sites that told me…seriously I need to write a knitting book or buy a 50year old one that gives every little detail. Anyway, so I restarted the project 3 times because I was figuring out when to weave and its a learning process. So I’ve made a lot of progress considering I was watching movies and making food in between.

Anyway, when it comes to this post I don’t do the auto-spell check. I tend to re-read it and I still end up with typos but I try. My point is that I take the time to read my blog and read it aloud just to make sure. But this book I got for my birthday can’t even bother to check if the pattern is correct. The sides are lopsided…one side has 1 red stitch and the other side has 3 red stitches plus 2 white stitches. Plus they messed up by saying that to repeat 3-21 rows but when I ended the first part I was on the wrong side…side 2 I guess if people can imagine. I’m supposed to be on an odd side but if I follow the pattern I end up on an even side which isn’t a huge deal to fix. It just upsets me that I’m trying to make this scarf and the pattern seems to be completely wrong. It’s a published book…I’d rather that the text be messed up rather than the pattern. Ugh so now I have to start over because the pattern looks so weird with one side short and one side long.

P.S. I’m not spell checking this until tomorrow because I need to restart this project…grr

Why o why do lefties exist?

Today was pretty eventful in terms of buying stuff.

The kitties ran out of food so we headed to the vet for their expensive food. I swear these cats eat better than we do…well actually probably not but close. One of our cats has a food allergy so she has messy poops if she eats regular food…and I’m sure everyone wants to know that. Our other cat doesn’t have a poop problem but she loses all her hair if she eats regular food. So we’ve been buying this vet stuff and we’ve tried duck, lamb, rabbit, and venison. We first tried out the duck and rabbit thinking that in nature those would be the animals they’d probably eat and like. But no…our cats like the venison. We laugh everytime because we imagine our cats trying to take down some huge elk or something….we obviously have boring lives. haha

Afterwards we headed to capitola and hit up the fabric store. Yay! got some fabric so that I can make a knitting needle case so the cats won’t chew on them and for easy transport. Also I decided that plastic bags for produce is not great so I bought some white cotton fabric to make bags for produce that I need to bag. Plus I got more needles and random stuff so I’m pretty excited. Did some knitting today too and the pattern is coming out nicely since I’ve modified it.

Went over to Best Buy and I swear Nathan knows 50% of the santa cruz county people because of where he works. And to be honest I’m a completely jealous person. It seems like everytime we go somewhere there is some young woman waving and saying hi (and there are men too) and I just want to wear a shirt that says ‘He’s mine so don’t even think about it’. It’s pretty lame considering we’ve been together for almost 4 years…haha it’s pretty funny though for us looking back after a few hours and reflect on how I am. But anyway back to the story. So we went originally to see if there would be a cheap power supply for our friend’s computer that Nathan is fixing. Turned out there wasn’t. But there were 2 Wiis. We’ve been wanting one forever and Nathan actually got one last year but sold it to a friend who had been waiting in line a few times and never got one. So we’ve been waiting and today it seemed to be calling for us.

We ended up buying our Wii. Our beautiful little Wii. We also got the Zelda game which is really for me because I’m such a zelda fan. It’s funny because I’ve owned (well now Nathan and I) all of the Nintendo platforms except for the first one but my aunt had one so I can sort of count that.

We came home and Nathan hooked up the Wii and we were really excited to play the sport games because they’re really fun and we’re both competitive. But now I’m sitting here a tiny bit upset and sort of laughing at myself at the same time.

The thing that bothers me is that I suck at sports. And it’s not because I don’t like them or because I’m not made for sports. It comes down to the simple fact that I’m a lefty. I realized tonight that I’ve learned how to play all sports as a right-hander but not very well because a. I don’t play them often and b. it’s against my nature. I can actually play sports (and Wii sports) better with my right arm simply because no one taught me properly how to play with my left. But I’m constantly having to rethink how to play because I’m stilling think as a lefty but with a right arm. We were playing baseball and I was trying to use my left arm and I couldn’t even understand how to hold my arm because I wanted to hold the controller like I do on my right. Logically I would simply play with my right arm since I’m more physically comfortable with that position but I can still feel myself trying to figure out how the curveball or bat will swing from that position. It doesn’t feel right in either arm (or foot).

And what it comes down to is that I live in a society that supports structural lefty-ism. It’s funny because I think about this almost everyday. I actually once wrote a paper that mentioned how my childhood was affected by this and it’s probably why I willing taught myself right-handed things to make life easier. But no one ever told me that I shouldn’t have to do that. Like scissors. When I was a young girl they had two types of scissors…lefty and righty. The right-handed ones were long, sharp edged, and a child could fit their entire hand in the one handle with the thumb in the other one. The left-handed ones were half the size and the handles were only big enough to place my forefinger in and my thumb in the other. Plus the blades were rounded so I wouldn’t hurt myself. Another example would be knives. Our kitchen knives are built for the comfort and control of right-handers but I use my left hand so the knife doesn’t hold well at all.

It sounds petty but I really feel confused sometimes having to do things and wonder which way to do it. Things that haven’t been taught to me I automatically do left-handed but there are so many programed activities that I do right-handed. Another example is knitting actually. I bought my first supply about a year ago and couldn’t learn because I was looking at websites that mainly did the english style that is right-handed. I gave up for a time because I couldn’t translate the process because I was trying to do the style left-handed and I kept messing up. Then this summer I bought a book that showed a left-handed style and I picked up knitting quickly. Of course now that I’m doing Fair Isle knitting I’ve learned both but the english style is still strange to me.

And you know what? The only consolation I get for being left-handed is that I’m supposed to be more ‘creative’ than right-handers. But I seriously think everytime I’ve read that statement has been followed by ‘left-handers have shorter lives than right-handers’. So I’m screwed either way. I know lefties are a minority but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be taken into consideration. Like when I was in college…the theatre sitting was arranged so that all the left end seats had tables for lefties. But I would walk into class and all of them would be taken by righties who weren’t taking notes so I had to balance my notebook on my knee instead. I could have used the right-hand table but then I would lean so far over that the person next to my felt like I was cheating or invading their space.

We’ve come a long way since the time when lefties were forced to become righties but I do really feel like there should be more lefty rights. Often times left-handed items cost more than right-handed items which is just unfair. So I’m upset now but I still had a good time playing the Wii. I just am bothered that I have to relearn certain things or succumb to a life of faux right-handedness.

In other news I made some Cornmeal drop biscuits today. Thought I’d take a break from muffins and they turned out nicely. They do look a bit like cookies in terms of form which seems strange. We also placed Buzz (our spider plant) in the main room. We bought him so that maybe our birds would like to sit in a plant but they gave him a buzzcut so we decided that he’d be better off in the main room if we wanted him to live. Our outdoor cactus has a huge flower and baby cacti are forming around the base so we might buy a bigger pot so he can grow into a big cactus with many little baby cacti. Take care and eat good food.

::update:: so I originally said ‘institutional lefty-ism’ and I thing I was typing too much to realize that is not what I meant. haha good think I reread my new stuff. Anyway I meant structural lefty-ism in which our society is structured to make lefties have a harder time but I suppose ‘institutional’ could work as well. I suppose it could mean the same thing in terms of government, schools, progams, etc being an institution that supports rightie ways. But either way I’m not an intellectual but I do think that ’structural’ is the better term and I feel kind of lame for not having caught that last night. Maybe I was just too upset.

Orange

Whew tiring day today.

I ventured out to the farmer’s market again and I was embarrassed because I went a half hour early and the people told me I couldn’t buy anything because they weren’t open…wow I’m a noob. Anyway, this week was an orange week…odd I know. I bought a couple of beautiful yellow/orange bell peppers, orange cauliflower, orange cherry tomatoes, and some yellow raspberries. I’m think of doing stir-fry tomorrow so I’ll try to take a picture of the cauliflower. Nathan totally thinks I’m becoming like the woman on Splendid Table on NPR or PRI (not sure which one) because I’m always talking about how beautiful and vibrant food is. At least I haven’t started making those noises that often sound a bit too bedroom like for our hearing tastes. On a random note, I think I have some gene that makes me prone to crying while cutting onions, hence the blog name oniontears. I was really proud of myself because I’ve built a small immunity to white onions and thought that yellow onions would be milder. But no…maybe it was just this particular onion but I was crying for 15 minutes and had to sit in front of the fan to dry my eyes because my hands were all oniony.

Look how pretty. I treked all over santa cruz with my goodies and went to petsmart and the local market AND I made it all the way up the hill without stopping. I must admit that I’ve gained some good muscle…I remember when I had to be on the lowest gear because I couldn’t get my butt up smaller hills. So I’m happy.

Made some tortilla soup for dinner which I really love. I watched the movie this weekend while knitting and I got so hungry thinking about it that I made some. Nathan says he likes the TVP in it but I think seitan might be better. I used 4 serrano peppers and it was spicy but I was hoping it would be hotter. I really don’t like using jalepenos which are about the only hot pepper I can find at the local markets. Personally, I feel like they have a very distinctive taste that isn’t always suitable for dishes. Maybe it’s in my head but I love using serrano, or anaheim, or small peppers that have a bit of a bite. Although now that I think about it I don’t think anahiem peppers are very hot but I like them. Anyway, I also tried making home-made tortillas but I really need to buy a cast iron pan because I have to oil my pan which gave the dough a greasy surface. I ended up just slicing a regular flour tortilla and fried it for the toppings. I’m proud of Nathan because he always knows that cebolla means onion probably because he likes this one taqueria and I guess he just picked it up while listening to the cooks. It’s interesting also because he probably picked up on the words because he’s a vegan and always listens to make sure that the cooks don’t add ‘crema’ or ‘queso’. So I guess being a vegan has helped him learn a bit of spanish haha. 

And lastly, I thought I’d post a picture of our cactus. We still haven’t named him though. Nothing has stuck so far but I’m sure we’ll get a good one eventually. He’s a trooper…he’s been knocked over like 3 times because these people were playing soccer in our driveway/courtyard and we were a bit concerned that his roots had been messed up. But he’s happy and healthy with little babies on the way. I don’t know if that means he is actually a ’she’ but oh well…

Chinese stir fry

Today was not a great day for me.

Woke up and it was super duper hot in the apt. We open the windows and have a fan but it’s still pretty hot for a few hours of the day. I don’t mind as much but the cats suffer. RE sprawled out on Nathan’s chair for most of the day and the fan was near her so she took advantage of that. FE (who is long haired) really suffers and meows about it. I feel so bad and I’m thinking of buying her a floor fan so she can cool off. Her favorite place right now is on the bottom of the kitty tower which is by my computer fan so I think she likes it.

 

RE really isn’t that fat. She just lets it all hang out when it’s hot.

Anyway, so I did laundry today and was taking the basket out to the car and was coming back to get the rag bag when I realized…I had locked the door. Thankfully I had my car keys but I didn’t my wallet or the housekeys or anything to entertain myself with. Plus I only had about an hour before Nathan was going on break and he takes the car later in the day because it’s kind of dangerous to ride at night even with our lights on the bike. So I headed down to his work and hauled myself over to the laundry place and actually finished quickly. I did manage to clean my car which was productive.

I decided I’d sew my produce bags before making dinner and that was a disaster. I haven’t pulled out my machine for awhile so I had to relearn it abit. Considering I’ve never taken classes I think I’m decent but having to adjust the tensions was the only thing I did. First I had to look up and see how to thread the bobbin…then the tension was all messed up and I didn’t have my guidebook so I kept fiddling with horrible results. So I wasted a bunch of time doing nothing. Ugh…I guess tomorrow I’ll have to look up my model online or try and remember where I put the book.

And lastly, the chinese stir fry. It turned out ok…not horrible but not great. The sauce was all wrong because it was super thick and too sweet because of the thickness. The veggies were ok but the recipes told me to fry the tofu and then shove them to the corner while I fried the veggies. Well that didn’t work because there was so much food and the tofu started crumbling and took forever to cook. I should have cooked it separately and then just added in the end to heat it back up. And I also cut up way too many veggies so the pan was overwhelmed with food so I had to start cooking smaller amounts and then transfer it out. The chilis were horrible in that they weren’t hot at all. The woman told me that the ones I got were similar to Habanero but we couldn’t taste them at all. So by the time I finished everything, half of the veggies were cold and the sauce was too thick. Ended up having to nuke the food which was fine. It actually looked better than it tasted. It wasn’t disgusting but it certainly wasn’t good chinese.

I think next time I’ll leave out the cauliflower out and halve the amount of onion and bellpepper. Well at least I’m making progress with Asian cooking since we never seem to get it right.

Anyway, random note. I read that orange cauliflower was discovered about 30 years ago in Canada and it has way more vitamin A than regular cauliflower. I was pretty excited reading that because vitamin A is one of the vitamins that we’ve been lacking a bit. Also tossed in some bok choy in the stir fry for the leafy green aspect. Hopefully the cooking for the rest of the week won’t blow. I’m toying with the idea of making Seitan Asado tacos…mmm

Seitan Asado and random crazies

Had an interesting day…

I usually don’t go out on fridays because there is so much traffic (all the students going home for the weekend) and all the people come out to go to the bars and a good bunch of them are weird/freaky/crazy. And I don’t mean that in a nice way.

So I did some more laundry since I had locked myself out of the house yesterday and I keep forgetting to stay away from there on fridays because that is usually when the weirdos stop by. This week I spent 20 minutes talking to an ex-’gangbanger’ who had been to prison for 6 years for a drug bust and I think he really wanted to hook up with me even though I told him I have a partner/boyfriend. Seriously I was praying that the dryers would hurry up and since my cell phone is currently not feeling up to the job, I couldn’t find an excuse to stop talking to him. I usually don’t mind talking to people but this guy was totally creepy but harmless enough that I felt too bad blowing him off. I swear it’s because I was raised to be nice to people that I attract crazies.

Not to generalize, I am going to anyway, but I often see a lot of local teenage girls who like to hang out with older men/young men who are a bar above being homeless and these girls like them since they can drink and do drugs underage with these guys. And I’m not talking about certain races since it seems to be a good mix of white, black, and maybe slightly less amounts of latinas. It’s really sad, I’ve seen girls cooing over some older guy’s weed and I just always hope that these guys aren’t gross enough to get them drunk and sleep with them. Back to my story, this is totally how this guy was acting to me…as if I should be impressed that he was stupid enough to get busted by the cops. I’ll even tell you what he told me because I honestly wanted to say, ‘wow no wonder you got caught’.

Apparently, he knew this prostitute who was his ‘friend’ for a few years. He gave her money randomly when she told him that she was sick or couldn’t pay the bills or whatever. Already setting himself up as the good guy. So he’s dealing drugs and this prostitute tells him that her boyfriend wants to buy his kilo of cocaine and 12 grams of black tar heroine. So it turns out that the boyfriend was an undercover cop and he got busted.

Seriously I’m thinking, ‘wow you’re a dumbass and is this story even true’. He obviously wasn’t big time because no one sells a kilo of cocaine to one person unless they have a bunch. Usually the dealer will buy a kilo and cut it and deal smaller portions to their clients. At least that is what I know from the people I’ve known who were dealers. And even still, a kilo of cocaine is a bit different than a kilo of weed. It sounds like I know so much or that maybe I’m into these things but honestly we just have known people who were small time and they were really nice people…they just had interesting side jobs.

Oh ya that’s even how he started talking to me…he asked me if I had weed which is just lame because even if I did smoke I’m not going to tell this random person who could be a cop. I swear people are weird. I’ve had people downtown ask me where they can find weed (mostly tourists) and I can’t believe they’d ask me that and expect an honest answer. Sure Santa Cruz is pretty drug friendly but we’re not stupid enough to proclaim we do drugs unless we have cards. Medical M.J. cards that is for those who don’t live in a weed happy city. Back to the weirdo, he kept trying to get me to ‘go have a beer’ with him and I told him I had a boyfriend and that I don’t go to the bars. But he kept insisting we hang out and gave me his phone number. At least I didn’t lie when he asked me if I had a cell phone because I didn’t have mine on me and its half dead as it is.

I think I seriously have this huge sign on my head that says, ‘Freaks, weirdos, and ex-drug addicts are welcome to talk to me’. And I only get the stable ones…it’s really easy to brush off unstable ones but how can I be mean to someone who thinks they can get in my pants by talking about their prison life? Ok, putting it that way makes it seem easy, but I feel that these people have feelings even though they’re freaky. Personally, I totally question half the stuff he told me because most latino gangbangers/drug dealers have tattoos (again generalization) and this guy was topless for awhile and he didn’t have a mark on him. Oh did I forget to mention he was at the very least 35yr. old? It was just strange. It was as though he thought I’d be impressed like those local young women I see and that I’d just jump at the chance to hang out with someone from the ‘flats’.

So that was really a bizzare laundry day. Came home and made Seitan Asado which had mixed results. It tasted great but was way way too dry. I think I either need to buy a real baking dish (and not use a brownie dish) and not poke holes in the foil which may have dried out the seitan. It was tasty and I honestly feel that if it hadn’t been dry that a non-vegan would have thought it was real chicken. Even looked like it too. Made some gauc and fried a tortilla for a side dish. It’s a learning process and I know I say that way too often. But I’ve never roasted anything, meat or vegan meat, so I’m proud that it wasn’t so horrible that we had to throw it out. All these ‘home economic’ crafts that I’m learning are pretty much self-taught so I feel that even my failures are meaningful. It’s not like I have so much experience and just suck at it…I truly am learning everyday how to do things and I feel satisfied with the results.

I had Nathan arrange the chips since I’m crappy at that whole ‘interesting food plate’ thing and it looks kind of cheesy but I think it’s cute. Plus on my ghetto camera it’s not easy to take some magazine photo.

And another thing, isn’t Asado gender determined by the meat? like Carne Asada is feminine. I thought that Pollo Asado was correct but I only found 2 good recipes online. But when I typed in ‘Pollo Asada’ I found tons of recipes. So I’m confused as to which phrase is right…am I wrong or are a bunch of gringos publishing online versions incorrectly? I’m sure I’m wrong because I know there are exceptions to the gender rule, but I still wonder.

In other news, I’m sure  everyone has stopped reading this by now, one of our birds laid two eggs awhile ago. We’re pretty sure both of them are female although we still call Mango a boy. They don’t get along well and we read that having two female lovebirds often creates tension so that’s why we think they’re both females. Seriously we kind of regret getting them not because we can’t handle birds but because our first one, voxie, wasn’t socialized and would hide underneath paper when humans got near her cage. But we got her anyway and she’s kind of crazy so we got her a friend thinking she’d learn how to act with the new nice lovebird. Instead she corrupted Mango and they’re both annoying and strange but they can cute and nice depending on the season. Anyway, we don’t keep them in their cage during the day so that they can fly and feel closer to freedom as pets can. So I was cleaning their bedding today and I don’t do it as often as I should because they only sleep in there so it doesn’t get dirty as much. I was cleaning the corn cobb out and found two cracked eggs…I totally freaked out and went to text Nathan online. I don’t know if one of them got mad and destroyed the eggs or if they just fell or if something else happened. I’m in the kitchen pretty often because I cook and clean and I’ve never seen them mate so I hope they weren’t fertile. I’m pretty sure they weren’t since I know chickens can lay infertile eggs. Plus we have a lot of birds around here so maybe one of them just reached maturity and laid some. Either way I was both relieved and upset about it. I just feel so out of touch with them since we didn’t notice that one of them was fat with eggs. But they often look fat because they push up their feathers if they’re cold or if they’re cleaning themselves.

Well I suppose I’ll end the post now.

you can even marry harry, but mess around with ike

Yay for saturdays!

Nathan’s last day of work also happens to be Pizza Saturdays. It’s kind of fun too because we make part of it together since I like mine with tomatoes and he likes his fake meat. He put some Canadian Bacon (faux) on this time and said it was really good. I’m super full now and we had our Crispy Cokes with our pizza.

My mom and her partner know all about crispy cokes. It’s the beautiful combination of ice and a cold soda which creates an extra crispy beverage. Crispy water also works but we usually save the definition for both items that are cold. It’s not nearly as crispy if the soda or water is warm…mmm so tasty. And the great thing about them is that they never get old. Everytime I experience a crispy drink it’s like tasting it for the first time. That nice bite of cold ice with the extra cold fluids.

In other news I watched Mad Money and Cool Hand Lukeon netflix today while knitting. Their online selection isn’t that great and they took out some movies that I really liked. Anyway, I gave in to watching Mad Money and to be honest it wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. Sure it was cheesy but I did find the whole ‘women bank robbers’ plot to be fun because we always see men pulling off those cool movies. Like The Sting or Oceans 11, etc. Plus, I love Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah so I decided it’d be interesting enough to knit to. Pretty cheesy but I didn’t expect it to be great anyway.

Watched Cool Hand Luke and that was a good movie. I didn’t really expect it to be as sad but I guess that was naive of me being that the summary told me it took place in a prison camp. I also felt a bit sleazy while watching the sexy car-wash scene, especially when she was rubbing her jugs on the car window. And I know that sounds raunchy, but honestly the characters were totally thinking along those lines so I might as well say it how it is. Seriously, I think I was blushing when the one guy was saying, ‘pop it baby pop it’ in regards to the pin that was holding her breasts in. And it’s not because I’m a prude or just simply against those sorts of displays. I just didn’t expect a classic movie to show those kinds of things since sexuality was obviously only created in my generation.

Great movie though, and ever since Newman died we’ve been talking a lot about him and I haven’t seen many of his movies so I thought I’d get around to it. Nathan always buys the the Newman tomato sauce because he likes him too. Anyway, made progress on the scarf since I tweaked the pattern. The picture looks a bit strange because it’s not on a flat surface and the sides are curling in since it’s in stockinette stitch.

Once I wash it and sew a lining on the back it should look much cleaner along the edges. Knitting with my right hand is still a bit hard and I kind of cheat and wrap the yarn with my left hand sometimes because it’s easier. And I need to find a good ankle sock pattern because I noticed a couple of my socks have holes in them. I’m pretty impressed because those ones are 4 years old so they lasted a lot longer than I thought.

Coming back to movies, I was talking to my mom today about how my taste in movies is really strange. I’m a huge weenie and can’t watch scary movies and I don’t really consider myself as a girly-girl (and there is totally nothing wrong with that). But seriously, I can’t even say The Ring without freaking out and right now I’m concentrating on the blog rather than the movie. I remember when I saw Jurassic Parkand I was afraid to go upstairs because I thought velociraptors would be waiting for me. Or those stories about snakes coming up through the toilet…totally scared me into thinking they might bite my bum off so I would pee quickly just in case. Nathan can seriously be sitting next to me and yell ‘AHHH’ and I’ll scream…or chucky omg…I couldn’t even watch a commercial without being scared some crazy doll would kill me. Maybe that’s why I only like stuffed animals because they’re so cute and nice. Anyway, back to movies, I just love musicals, fantasy/anime, and comedy. I think that growing up with two anthropologists has made me a bit wary of watching those horrific documentaries because I grew up seeing them both in film and in real life. I suppose that I use cinema as true entertainment rather than wanting to expose myself to subjects that I’ve dealt with for a long time. Horrible excuse I know. I watched Best Little Whorehouse in Texas this weekend and I didn’t even know that was a musical. I was really excited but again scandalized that a 1980s musical would have a bunch of half naked women dancing about being whores. I just didn’t realize that a popular movie could be like that and it’s totally different from CabaretI think. Just in the sheer numbers of nudity and also that the film takes place in rural America and the townspeople were totally ok with it. It was a cute movie though…I didn’t even know Burt Reynolds was ever that young and Dolly Parton was much more full-figured than she is now.

I think that living around Disneyland really corrupted me in regards to movies. I even had a sing-along tape and I still randomly start singing, ‘ look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities…’ 5 points for anyone who can remember that song. It’s just that incorporation of song and dance within film that I love. I actually would watch some Bollywood films when I lived in Northridge because I loved the musical aspect. Maybe it also has to do with being latina because I grew up around so much music, dance, and food that I love to see it in film. But I also enjoy the parts of musicals that are sad, depressing, violent, or pensive. In high school I was in band and eventually went on to focus on the keys such as marimba, xylophone, vibes, bells, etc. I loved being in the middle of all the sounds as they were being created and being apart of it, while also telling a story such as Edward Scissorhands or Carmen. Maybe that is why I loved band because it reminds me of musicals.

And while thinking about Disney films I wonder if that plays into my unnatural affection for inanimate objects. Think of Wall-e, or Beauty and the Beast, or even the ones with animals that could talk and had feelings. Nathan and I feel so connected to animals and to a lesser degree inanimate objects, but I don’t really know why Nathan feels close to objects since he didn’t grow up watching so much Disney. Anyway, when we first moved in together we bought those 1.99US plastic chairs that can be found in the hundreds at Longs during the summer. He kept breaking his because he’d lean back on them and the legs would give. But my chair was always in good condition. Eventually Nathan bought an Office Max chair and I knew it would break too so I passed on getting one. Eventually it did break and I looked up a company that makes good chairs and furniture that meets our style tastes. So the chairs arrived and we threw out Nathan’s chair because it was nonfunctional in every aspect. But my little chair was still great, but we didn’t need him. After a few months we decided we’d put him out by the trash in hopes of him finding a new home since a lot of people here pick up old items that are still in good condition. The night came and it started drizzling…and we could see from our window that my little plastic chair was all by himself and lonely. We even make up voices for pets and this chair. We started a whole dialogue which sounded like this:

               ‘ Hey guys, I’m really cold…it’s raining. Guys? Hey guys? I’m all alone. Guys, it’s kind of scary…can I come in now?’

We couldn’t take it and a couple hours after putting him outside we went to fetch him. Seriously I’m almost getting watery eyes thinking about that memory. So now we still have him and we use him to put our backpacks on him or our shopping bags. Plus he’s good as a step-stool since our computer chairs are on wheels so he’s sturdy. And I told Nathan that we can’t ever give him away after the first time because I would probably cry at the thought of abandoning him. He’s a good little chair.

I <3 zelda

So I decided I’d play zelda on Sunday because I figured I might as well put our Wii to good use. Which is why I haven’t posted for a couple of days…I’ve been playing zelda. I think the most productive thing I did was feed the cats…I even begged Nathan to make me steamed taters and broccoli because I was in the middle of a hard area and couldn’t feed myself.

I really think I need one of those electrical dog collars but mine would force me to stop playing after a certain time instead of shocking me to keep within the perimeter. I don’t really have this problem with other games or activities…it’s just zelda. Maybe it’s because I grew up watching people play it on the old Nintendo and I later got the N64 ones and I still play them every now and then. It’s just a great story. Plus the game was supposed to be released on GameCube (I think) a few years ago but they pushed it back and eventually put it out on the Wii. I never bought the GameCube one (Wind Walker I think…or maybe Wind Waker). It just didn’t feel ‘zeldaish’ to me…the cell-block graphics felt like it wasn’t even a zelda game. I’m not sure if that is the term (cell) I kind of erased all memory of that game because to me it was totally un-zeldaish.

So now it’s Tuesday and I feel ashamed of myself for wasting all that time fighting monsters and learning how to do this spin attack with the controllers…

Well now I’m in the land of the living once again. I feel like it’s going to be a Chinese/Mexican/Southwest week. I even bought some wonton wrappers for tomorrow. I plan on making some more tortilla soup since Nathan really liked it and I do love soups.

Made a Chinese/American soup for dinner…mmm so tasty. I haven’t made this soup since last fall and I really need to remember to make it more often because it’s one of the fastest recipes I have. It takes me longer to chop up the veggies than it does to cook. Dumped in some garlic, onion (had some crying again), carrots, sweet peas, bok choy, and green onion. Also added some TVP for the protein. Turned out great. I’m planning on making wonton/dumpling soup tomorrow with seitan. I’m so excited to use seitan now because I think it’s more versitile than tofu and TVP in regards to shape. Tofu can be used as a filling in wontons but I feel as though it doesn’t absorb sauces/marinades as well or evenly, but the seitan seems consistent.

 

I also made some Blueberry-lemon scones tonight but I didn’t realize the dough needed to freeze for at least 2 hours so I’m not sure if I’m going to bake them later or in the morning. Last time I made scones they came out good but I didn’t wrap them tightly so they ended up having ‘refridgerator’ taste after a day so I was bummed. But I decided to make them since we bought a pastry blender today. Nathan thinks it should be called Pastry Knuckles since he imagines cooks duking it out with the blenders around their knuckles…this is why I don’t take him to Chefworks because he loves to make my cooking items seem silly or create stories.

I try not to let the items hear him though in case they decide to break or not work properly since they might be offended. Seriously, I don’t even talk badly about my car when I’m near it or in it. I’m a firm believer that certain objects perform better if they are encouraged and told they’re doing a good job. So far it works, especially since my little car has had it rough since a drunk driver smashed into it while my little guy was parked.

Reminds me of parking karma. Nathan probably thinks I’m bonkers on this (and many other things) but I totally think that if I try to seek out a good parking space that I will get one. If I don’t get one and still park far away, I feel that the parking spaces remember that I made the effort and still didn’t spend a bunch of gas trying to find a good parking space. I looked and then decided that the farther parking space was still a good choice. And really, this has worked for me for years. It’s like the parking lots have an interconnected database that remembers nice drivers from annoying ones and I’m at the top of their list. I really need to limit my imagination…

So yes nothing interesting this weekend…well our weekend is different from people who work monday-friday but same thing I suppose. I did try my hand at double-pointed knitting last night and that didn’t go over well. I think it’s because some of these mitten patterns are trying to be all fancy and make things harder. And the mittens I want to make are on thin thread so the needles are slightly fatter than a toothpick. I have small hands but seriously! I feel like a giant trying to knit with twigs…but I need to buckle down this week and start it because Nathan and I were practically crying while riding our bikes home because we were cold and our break levers were like ice.

Speaking of knitting I made some progress on Nathan’s scarf, simple black and grey stripe pattern, since I hadn’t worked on it since the kitties chewed the tips off the needles. Busted out my new needles and watched National Treasure 2 on netflix last night. I hope I don’t offend people when I make fun of random things because Nathan and I make fun ourselves all the time so it’s not really personal. Anyway, that movie was so fun to watch and we kind of had our own script going with the movie. Like when Nick Cage is going on about this piece of Native American carved wood and the language is only studied by a handful of people in the whole world and the only one they know is this woman. So being that I’m not an intellectual and I kind of forgot how this world works, I’m thinking ‘oh I wonder what tribe this woman will be from since Native Americans would be interested in studying their history and histories of other N.Am communities’. Turns out the woman is Helen Mirren and she’s playing the part of Cage’s mother as well. So not only is she not American but she’s white too. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But I just sort of thought maybe someone who shares ties with these communities might be in the movie rather than some cambridge schooled woman, well at least in terms of the identity of the character. Another good moment was when Cage is saying ‘I’m going to kidnap the president’. I was really expecting the other characters to at least start laughing at the idea but instead they’re yelling and jumping, ‘NO! what are you thinking? You can’t kidnap him! You’ll go to prison!’. I’m even laughing now…I half expected Cage to whip out his ninja outfit and proclaim he was not only an intellectual, but a ninja equipped with poison darts, throwing stars, and nun-chucks. I like fantasy and adventure movies like most people but I think there is a very big line between bad writing and entertainment. But here I am being critical when this movie isn’t really worth it. I guess I just had so much fun picking it apart and thought I’d write about it. It’s almost as though watching bad movies is actually really fun.

Well I suppose this will end my totally boring post for the day. I did try to spice it up but my zelda weekend didn’t allow for many interesting events. I’ll try to take pictures of the yummy scones if they look pretty.

over-cooked peas are not pretty

I’m totally depressed right now.

It’s because I’m too trusting. I trust that websites will give me good recipes and that they know what they’re talking about. So I made Wonton Soup today and it was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever made…Worse than the stir-fry which is saying something because we could at least eat that. I haven’t been able to find consistent recipes so I eventually went with this Emeril one I think. I should have known when he said to add the green onions to the soup and let it simmer for 20 minutes that he didn’t know what he was talking about. But I figured he might just do things differently. So I added the peas and onion and broth and let it simmer for 20 minutes while I made the wontons. By the time they were ready the onions and peas were so over cooked I didn’t even want to look at the soup.

The wontons were terrible and that part is my fault. I thought I could sub a sauce that had similar ingredients to the home-made version…onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, etc. But the sauce was way too sweet and sour for the wontons and I felt like I was drinking crappy soup with spicy thai or something. I don’t even think I could fry the wontons because the sauce would still be too powerful.

Ugh..so the lesson for today is to trust myself with veggies but not to trust myself when it comes to Wonton fillings. I’m going to make it again this week  since I still have a bunch of wonton wrappers and because I need to learn how to do Asian cooking. I guess the main problem are the sauces since I figure that it’s the same as pasta sauces in that they’re pretty versatile and I can spice them up depending on the dish.

 

Anyway, now I’m pissed at the world…just had some Saturn Cafe food which was good. But seriously I asked for no fries and they kept insisting that Nathan get me some (we did take out) so he relented. I’m already paying for the greasy food so I don’t care if I’m paying for the fries but not actually getting them. For being a vegetarian restaurant they certainly aren’t trying to prevent food waste.

Looked up some websites to take my mind off the wontons…so I hit up www.wwtdd.com and the perezhilton one. I like the former because half the time he’s making fun of himself and others and it’s not so focused on how the jonas brothers are hitting the charts. The other one is just good for general information but he’s such an ass kisser. But now I’m just more upset. I’m sick and tired of these women with huge fake tits and everyone drools all over them. Not that I’m against it because of obvious reasons…I really liked Girls Next Door which was H.Hefner’s girlfriends t.v. show. But I’m sick of guys thinking ‘Wow nice big tits’ or something. No…I think in this Plastic world we need a new phrase….’Nice Big Implants’. I don’t care what anyone says but fake ones look fake no matter which technique they use or how they hang like real ones. I love when older actresses proclaim they have the body of a 20 year old…no, I want to say, you have a body that looks better than the average 50 year old. And even when they say this they’re not revealing all the things they do to their bodies like skin peeling, plastic surgery, enemas, 4 hours a day of exercise, etc…Or what about Demi Moore and her leech treatments? I mean seriously, are we going to start lining up for hepatitis so we get really sick and lose weight while we’re at it?

And of course we can blame media for this but I think there are many ways to age gracefully and even still what about men?  Shouldn’t we be as critical of the state of Jack Nicholson’s bum? But instead most of these men look dumpy after awhile and they’re still getting dates with women half their age. At least H.Hefner looks good still…

~~~

In other news I went to the Farmers Market today and got the usual items. I was taking the back way to get there since it had more shade and guess who I saw? The ‘ex-gangbanger’ guy from last friday. He called out to me but I waved and kept walking…I felt bad about blatantly ignoring his attempts to call me over but I really don’t have time to make people feel better when I think they’re full of shit. Anyway, I’m kind of biased when it comes to shopping at the Farmers Market because I’ve figured out which tents are run by latinos so I try to give them a leg up on their items. I don’t care if people say that everyone in the U.S. has equal opportunity, I’m still going to support my people when I can because a lot of these manual labor fields are heavily latino so I try to give them the edge.

Which brings up another rant…I’m sick and tired of radio people not even trying to speak Spanish properly. I hear them reference French, Chinese, Russian, etc during pieces and they sound like they took the effort to learn how to say the words properly. But when it comes to Spanish they can’t even try at the easy stuff…like Halepinos instead of Jalapenos…or even names…it drives me up the wall.

I can’t even say my name the way I like it because people can’t say it and I don’t even have a hard name. Actually had a T.A. during my 2nd year of college fumble over my name, some weeks I’d be ‘latifa’ or ‘laursa’. And maybe I’m totally wrong, but I feel like it’s a bit racist, as though certain languages are more cultured and historical so they are worthy of being said with an accent and said properly. I’m tired of people telling us to speak english in America (hello America makes up the entire Western Hemisphere) when some of us were here before the states were well…states. And I don’t even care if they say it wrong but I like when people at least try. I notice when I talk some latino workers that they actually compliment my spanish because I’m actually trying and since they appreciate my effort I tend to speak way better spanish. I would have long conversations with this cafeteria worker at UCSC who was from El Salvador and because I didn’t feel like he was judging me I could actually speak pretty well. So it’s not that I want radio/media people to have perfect spanish, rather I would love to hear them try because it makes me feel as though they care enough about latinos.

Anyway here are some pictures. The scones came out yummy but some were a bit floury on the top, I think I need to distribute the faux cream more in order to spread the moisture evenly. One of the pictures you can see my apron that my mommie made me. Actually makes me look a bit fat from the other pictures that Nathan took so I’m not posting them…yes I’m that vain…and that fat.

Halloween and anniversary

Here in Santa Cruz Halloween is a really big deal. They close down the streets on Pacific (downtown) and bring out all the cops they can. I read on the local paper that they estimate around 30,000 people will show up this year but who knows what the real count will be. Anyway, everyone goes downtown at night dressed in their costumes and look at shops, hit on people, stab people, and get really smashed.

I’ve only been once and that was enough to last me a lifetime. It’s kind of fun but it almost always ends up raining and it’s super cold…I sound so lame but I prefer to be nice and warm. Then there is the violence…I think last year was the first year in which people weren’t stabbed, shot, or pummeled by groups of drunk men. I even saw a San Jose cop car today so I’m assuming SC is really upping the police force downtown. Last year Nathan’s store held a party and the cops totally harassed us because they thought we were selling drugs to people downtown and came inside and were looking at all of us and asking questions. Totally ruined the night because they should have been more concerned with the people outside rather than 10 people eating pizza, cake and dancing to stupid music.

Plus the 31st is our anniversary. So it was doubly lame last year, but we still had each other…as cheesy as that sounds. So this year we were deciding on what to do…should we go to San Francisco? Maybe Lake Tahoe? Las Vegas since Nathan has never been (I sort of vetoed the idea)? We couldn’t decide and then I thought up a great anniversary event…let’s get tattoos! Nathan has one and I’ve always wanted one but never got around to it. It’s kind of our thing to do events together which sounds really obvious since we’re a couple. We actually got both our lips done together but Nathan had actually had his pierced before and had taken it out a few years back. Ah that was a great day since he lost the bet and had to pay for my piercing. He didn’t think Andy Gibb was a solo act and we did our handshake which sealed his fate.

Anyway, we’re probably not going to get the ink done until later this week since we’re scared the artists will be hungover from the Halloween chaos and the last thing we want is a crappy tattoo. I was really surprised when Nathan showed up with flowers today since I can usually tell if he’s going to do certain things because he tends to hint or ask me weird questions.

So now I feel really spoiled.

I made us our anniversary dinner which I had intended to be more dessert oriented. I had gone to Chefworks earlier this week for bottomless tart rings but they didn’t have any. I wanted to make pistachio tarts with a cream filling topped with berries and pistachios but they didn’t have any tart rings that I felt comfortable using since it would be a new adventure for me. So instead I decided on cupcakes! I’m a big cupcake fan and Nathan and I don’t eat sweets often probably because we’re vegan. I remember when I first started the transition into veganism and was really surprised after a few months that I couldn’t tolerate eating certain baked goods as often because it was just too much sugar. Anyway, I decided on a carrot-ginger cupcake recipe with toasted pecans folded into the batter. I toasted the pecans in the oven for 10 minutes and the aroma was indescribable, I wanted to make a pecan pie right then because the pecans smelled so beautiful. I must say they turned out super yummy even without frosting. The frosting was a cream cheese frosting in which I added ginger but excluded the orange zest since I had forgotten to buy one at the market today. For anyone interested, there is a vegan cream cheese brand that we like which is Tofutti. They also make sour cream and probably other items which taste great. Oh, and I also used the Ener-G Egg replacer for the cupcakes which I hadn’t tried since those horrible poop brownie cookies and it worked incredibly well since I modified the quantity to a Tbsp.

I don’t have a box grater or a zester since I haven’t needed them so far…I ended up cutting the carrots Julienne style as finely as I could and minced the ginger since it seemed easier.

So that pretty much concludes this post and I think Nathan wants to do some Wii bowling with me. I’ll be sure to post the tattoo pictures but I don’t think it will be until Sunday or Monday because of all the partying people like to do on this holiday.

Rainy saturdays

Nothing exciting today.

Went to Osh hardware since our local one closes early on Saturdays and is closed on Sunday. Was annoying because we forgot to measure the spaces for where we want to put up some shelves but at least we got some ideas for monday. Went over to this store called Bevmo and we thought it sold a bunch of random drinks. But it was really just a glorified liquor store. I was bummed because I thought they’d have some interesting hot chocolate mixes or weird sodas. They did have some really high end liquors which was fun to look at since I’d never seen them before.

Headed over to Staff of Life which is a health food store but it’s kind of far to bike to so I don’t usually go there but it was on the way home and we needed some items. I was really excited that they had fresh cranberries since I haven’t seen them fresh or frozen at either our local market or the farmers market. I remember that my mom used to make cranberry muffins for me during high school which is probably one of the reasons I make muffins so often. I’ve never made any so I picked some up and I’m planning on making some cranberry-pecan muffins since I bought too many pecans for the cupcakes. Nathan also picked up his rooster sauce…the hot sauce that is Vietnamese (I think) that has a big rooster on the label. He loves spicy food and we keep forgetting to buy some since our local market doesn’t carry it. Also picked up some AL sauce which is really A.1. sauce…I don’t know why but I always called it AL sauce because the 1 on the label doesn’t look very ‘1-ish’ to me.

Headed back home and made some pizza and was happy to get some carbs in me. My tummy hadn’t been feeling great since I didn’t get any carbs for breakfast, just fresh fruits, and lunch was tortilla soup so the chilis were wreaking havoc on my tummy since there were no scones to battle them. Still tasty though. I’ve become obsessed with these yellow/orange bell peppers from the farmers market because they are so beautiful. It’s a great motivator to use beautiful food since I want to actually eat them. I never really liked cauliflower until I saw the purple and orange variations and since then I’ve been eating them.

We also watched this PBS show called The Meaning of Food which was really interesting since I’m a novice cook. I’ve always felt that food is an important part of our lives, but I feel that I didn’t expose myself to different types of food because I was so busy with school activities. I loved eating In-n-out and del taco and all those things, but I can’t keep up that sort of lifestyle anymore because of our diets and because I’m concerned about preservatives, chemicals, fats, etc. The only thing I wish the program had included was some vegan/vegetarian foods/communities since I have to modify most recipes. I really want to try my hand at tamales but I’ll have to figure out how to prepare the seitan and get more experience with it.

Anyway, it’s been raining today so the kitties were acting pretty loopy. Earlier, RE had the mouse toy in her mouth and was just standing near the door meowing…they also love to run through the studio going from one window to another to look and smell the rain.

In other news I totally forgot to add my scary halloween last night. I was making the frosting and listening to the radio…being productive. And I turn around and look at the window and I see a pair of eyes staring at me from outside and I started screaming. I’m just glad the windows were closed because the neighbors would have thought I was being murdered…turns out it was Nathan pulling a Halloween prank on me…he didn’t even have to be elaborate since he knows I’m such a weenie. He did get some good punches in the arm though for scaring me.

Oh and I found a wonton recipe! I actually had one in a cookbook that I have but the recipes are pretty diverse and I’d have to stock my kitchen with all sorts of things that would probably go bad since I don’t eat food from different countries every day. So I flipped through it today and was happy to find it. I only wish that I’d found it before the horrible wonton soup day.

I think the weather is really affecting me…I haven’t been able to hold a steady stream of thought for a few days on this blog. I’m all over the place but it’s all food related. I have been thinking a lot about migration, maybe because it’s not being talked about in the political scene since the candidates have steered clear of that issue. But I’ve been thinking about it on personal terms. Both my parents moved/migrated during their lives and during my life we moved around a lot because of their jobs/education. Not every 6 months but still more than most people I knew. And Nathan moved a lot too which is one of the many things we share and the fact that we’re both single children really made us independent in certain ways. Maybe both of these factors have caused us to be relatively stubborn and set in our beliefs because we had to figure out our identities, more or less, given that we were placed in new atmospheres. At the same time we don’t know for certain our identities, but we know that we’re different. It sounds horrible but I think I’ve come to rely on Nathan more than I would on friends because I know we’ll always live together and be involved in each others lives. Maybe this sentiment will change as I grow older and as other people become settled with their identities. But when I would move, I noticed that after a few months my life seemed so vastly different to my former friends because of the locational difference. I still wanted to be involved but it wasn’t possible because they were growing in an unchanging atmosphere in that they were still dealing with the same places and people. Of course people change regardless of their surroundings. It reminds me of that movie Chocolat in which the main character wants to continue to move while her child wants to stay. I feel both of those sentiments. I think I could move and sometimes I want to move to Chicago or Missouri or New Mexico, or somewhere different, but I don’t think I’m ready because I’ve moved so much that I want to experience my surroundings at my own pace. Maybe this feeling is the cause of my desire to stay home and cook, knit, bike everywhere, etc. I need to stop and explore life around me and see where it takes me. Sometimes I felt like I was a mini anthropologist, although not anywhere near as aware of my actions, because everything seemed so different and I was dropping into people’s lives that had been going on for years before I came. And then I’d leave and I’m very grateful for those experiences since I got to see parts of the world and parts of different U.S. lives.

I sit here and complain about all the vices of this city (mainly students and I’m sure my parents will kill me for typing that) and yet I can’t imagine moving yet. I feel like I’ve finally begun my own adventure into the world without my parents and it’s so different from their work. While they explore communities, I’m exploring food and other areas. And Santa Cruz is a great place for me to sit and ponder my life and what I want to do…yes, a place to stop moving and begin to search where my heart is content.

Wontons, a follow-up

Yay for the time change…at least I feel like I’m sleeping in for a few days.

Got up this morning and made some cranberry-pecan muffins and they turned out great. Nathan was asking me if the extra muffin on my plate was for him because he thought they smelled so good. I’m pretty happy with them but some seemed a bit loose around the bottom. I’m not sure if using an unripe banana vs. a really ripe banana affects the binding aspect. Either way they were yummy with a nice hint of cinnamon.

I love the one to the right because the cranberry is poking out and looks so cute. Anyway, the batter seemed really thick, not dry but really thick…it took me a while to fold in the cranberries evenly. I wonder if it’s because I added the nuts a bit early or it may just be how the recipe is.

We headed out to Borders today to pick up some tattoo magazines for some ideas since we’re still pondering the specifics. Looked at some great cookbooks too. Came home and started on my wonton soup. I started a chinese stock which came out so bland…if I had know I would waste an hour making bland stock then I would have just boiled some water and added some bouillon cubes. Oh well.

Made the wonton filling and it smelled and tasted great. Nathan kept creeping into the kitchen eating the filling while I was cutting up veggies. The recipe had me stir-fry garlic and ginger in peanut oil, add the seitan, and then add the green onion, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Came out so much better. I took a picture of the seitan pre-cooked and chopped up for those who haven’t seen it.

Ah the wonders of cornstarch. I recently discovered how useful it is and I feel as though cornstarch is a hidden secret because my cookbooks and some online recipes never suggest using cornstarch for tofu and other dishes. I find that using a cornstarch/water mix to seal the wontons really helps them stay together. Made about 25 or so and dropped them into the broth and added some bok choy. Topped it off with green onion and I included water chestnuts which are one of the best things to eat.

 

Look how cute they are floating to the top. Nathan thinks we should have had more wontons since I saved about 10 to fry later for lunch. I have to agree that there should have been more of them because we couldn’t get enough…the recipe said it was a serving for 6 but we cleared the bowl in a matter of minutes. I suppose the servings might be for smaller bowls that are accompanied by another entree…either way we ate them all haha.

Well, it seems that I finally made some good wonton soup and I’m happy about that. One step closer to making good Asian food.

Paper or electronic?

My feet are so cold right now. I really need to make regular socks because my ankles are so cold, but I just love my little ankle socks.

So I went and voted today. Yay for me. Although I do like those little stickers they hand out. Our polling place had both electronic and paper ballots and I felt like I was at a grocery store, ‘Paper or electronic?’…um…paper! Then I felt like maybe I made the wrong choice but I trust paper ones more so than some machine that might vote for McCain for me.

Afterwards we headed over to American Apparel for a couple of sweatshirts since we haven’t bought any for a year. I can’t even find my cranberry one (I think it’s somewhere in my car) which leaves me with one good sweatshirt and one that’s more for looks. So we went and I bought a green one this time. I think it makes me look like Kermit the Frog but it was that or a purple grape so I opted for the green. I love green. I love colors, but I usually only wear black in public. It’s kind of funny because a lot of my P.J.s have hearts and rainbows and apples, but I would never think of wearing something so colorful in public anymore…

Now that everyone knows what my P.J.s look like, I guess I can move on with the blog. We headed over the our hardware store and had the guy cut us some wood for our shelves. It’s pretty exciting since I’ve never done this stuff and tomorrow I’m going back to get the paint but they were closing so we didn’t want to bother them with mixing paint…plus we were going to ride our bikes home with the wood so we figured we had enough stuff. Well when I saw ‘we’ it actually means me since I have the baskets on my bike so I had this slab of wood poking into my back and I prayed I wouldn’t get splinters. I must admit I felt pretty cool like I was so hard-core that I even strap wood to my bike. This one woman even complimented my bike and my bungee cord…which was kind of weird but very nice.

I must say that picture makes my hair really shiny…I haven’t dyed it for a couple of years and I never really liked it natural, but I kind of like it now…and I really need to cut my hair but it’s really a pain since I do it myself. I’ve blown way too much money on getting it cut and it still comes out horrible. I not going to pay 80 bucks to get a trim and ask for some choppy layers only to have them cut my hair way too short with layers that reminds me when I was 14 and loved boy bands. It seems that no matter what I spend on my hair that it never comes out right so I finally started doing it myself since I know that I won’t cut off to much and if it turns out horrible…well at least I didn’t waste money.

Anyway, Nathan made pasta tonight and it was super yummy. I’m thinking of making Pasta frittata with it since we tend to make way too much pasta. I’m kind of excited about it because I get to use the broiler and I’ve never even opened it before. Yay for new adventures. I have a feeling this is going to be a french/italian week…I marked this recipe for stuffed eggplant which I thought might go nicely with a pasta…mmm.

And Nathan feels miffed now that I didn’t take a bunch of photos of his pasta before he added the sauce. He sauteed garlic and onion in premium olive oil, then he added the fresh, locally-grown orange bell pepper and succulent mushrooms. Always a humanitarian, he added Newman’s Tomato/Basil sauce to give the vegetables substance. A chef never gives away all his secrets so he shooed me away while he carefully seasoned the sauce to perfection. Once it was ready, he allowed me back into the kitchen and carefully added sauce to pasta bowls for a delicious meal.

Oh and I have to update my tattoo news…haven’t gotten anything done but we did go Monday to the shop and talked to the guy about what we want. We made an appointment for next week with him since Nathan is working the rest of the week and it gives him time to draw it up. So we’re closer and I actually am glad we didn’t get it done on the same day since it gives me time to let it sink in a bit. It was really hard finding images to base our idea on since most of the magazines show faces, flowers, tribal, or rock-a-billy/retro styles…and that’s not really what we were going for. I’ll be sure to post next monday the results of our meeting.

So that’s the news from Santa Cruz, hopefully something exciting will happen this week so I can post random things. I’m planning on getting a wok tomorrow for stir-fry and so I can fry the wontons for our lunch this week. Take care and eat great food.

The other, other white meat

I feel so frazzled today, I biked all over the place and had tons of stuff to drop off. I feel bad for my mom who talked to me right when I got home and my mind was so tired that I was forgetting names like Martin Luther King…seriously…I’m talking and I say, ‘and Martin Luther..::flash back to germany:: oh um…ya Martin Luther King?’. I was embarrassed just talking to her because she got me on an off day. I went to a million places today and had to remember everything we needed, I usually write it all down but I forgot since there were so many things to do.

I actually did laundry today which mainly has to do with avoiding the weird laundry guy. I hate having to rearrange my days but I suppose it’s good to stimulate the brain by mixing up my life. I saw a pregnant woman there too…they creep me out…I don’t know why but they do. It’s not like I don’t like kids, I used to babysit a lot, but just seeing mothers-to-be freak me out. I remember one time this friend of the family asked if I wanted to touch her belly. I politely declined but she grabbed my hand and made me rub it…eww I don’t even want to think about it. Actually I think that is the only time I’ve touched a pregnant woman’s belly. I caved in a week ago and bought one of those celebrity magazines since I was in a crabby mood and thought I’d take my mind off life with the magazine. I reach the end and there is this ad with a pregnant woman modeling her clothes and they portrayed it in a way that if viewed at a certain angle I couldn’t even tell she was pregnant. I guess it just creeps me out that women can look sexy and modern while carrying these babies. Hmm…that doesn’t sound right…I don’t think pregnant women should be unsexy…I guess I just don’t want to feel forced to be excited with them. Yay rub my belly!! or Yay I still fit into these jeans but I got a huge tumor-like bump! But now I sound anti-preggers and anti-womanhood. Honestly I have no problem with women whipping out their boobs to feed their kids or when they make baby voices…it’s purely a pre-natal phobia.

Anyway, I bought a wok today which was great in theory. I had to season the damn thing which meant cooking oil in it for 10 minutes and repeating 3 times. The apt. was so smokey that my eyes were burning and the cats were meowing so loud I was afraid someone would call animal services. I had 3 out of 4 windows open, the fan on high, the oven fan on, and the door open with me guarding the entrance so the cats wouldn’t run out. Still, our place looked like a smoking den. I did at least get the veggies chopped but the onions only added to my eyeball irritation so I sat outside waiting for Nathan to come home.

And that is what sucks, Nathan got to cook with our new wok because my eyes were so messed up that I had to go into the other room to minimize the burning. So he got to stir-fry the tofu and veggies which wasn’t that fun for him but I would have loved it. Turned out great! Stir fry with rice and rooster sauce on top. He actually cooked the tofu in oil and then added the teriyaki sauce towards the end…then we added the rooster sauce for added spiciness.

I honestly don’t like tofu unless it’s cooked the way I like it, but this stuff was great! Not soft and evenly cooked…mmm I need to become a career person so I don’t think about food so much. Food is just so great though, I bought two beautiful purple eggplants…I wonder why they call them that…anyway, I’m excited because I’m rather picky with eggplant and I have this dinner planned out. I want to make Fettuccine Alfredo with the sauce base being tofu, I even picked up some vegan parmesan cheese. As a side I’m going to make stuffed eggplant topped with garlic, bread crumbs, and a tomato sauce. Yum I’m in heaven!

I’ve been thinking about veganism in regards to seitan and fake meats. It seems as though many non-vegans think that eating these products mimics eating real meat which seems to equate a cheater vegan lifestyle. I can understand this perspective and for a while I felt the same way. But I do miss certain flavors and foods that I can’t eat as a vegan. And I realized, many of these foods (like pollo asado) don’t taste great because of the meat, the food tastes great because of the marinades or spices, etc. When I make replications (oooo Blade Runner) of recipes I have found that the end results taste similar because of sauces, marinades, spices, etc absorb into the vegan protein item. The end results have little to do with the content of the protein item. But like most deli meats, vegan meats are still processed and shouldn’t be eaten in excess. It’s an incredible journey to become vegan, a few years ago I detested eating fake meats because I felt like I was trying to substitute meat, but now I feel that I’m substituting flavor rather than meat. Many fast food joints actually use soy in their burgers because it’s cheap and I read that prisons use TVP/soy products because it’s also cheap and can be used in the same fashion. So I suppose that non-vegans can read this post and understand another aspect to eating foods that taste similar. I think that in the U.S. we’re so meat oriented that we forget how much spices,herbs, veggies, fruits actually contribute to the taste of a dish. Hot dogs are a good example. If we buy a gernero hot dog that essentially is pureed meat we still consider it a hot dog. But what about quality sausages that are filled with quality meat and spices. What a lot of people don’t realize is that genero or good sausages are filled with the left over products like ears, lips, skin, etc. What makes a sausage good is the fat and the spices…and maybe that lovely intestinal casing that once held poo in it…haha I just love to say it because I loved them before I knew what the casings were. And vegan sausages are similar in that they rely on a lot spices to make it taste good. Mmm I love a good polish sausage or Italian sausage…vegan I mean…but I like them because of the taste rather than the image of a real hot dog. I suppose I’m just trying to say that vegans who eat fake meats aren’t living vicariously through these substitutions. We’re enjoying them because we like how it tastes rather than the meat taste…well at least from my perspective. Maybe other vegans feel differently.

Big buxom eggplants

Food, food, food…an unending aspect of my life.

I fried up some wontons for lunch today and they were quite tasty. I really like the wok and it was fun to deep fry them since I’ve never done it before. I didn’t fry them for long since I didn’t want them to be super fatty and I made a dipping sauce with various condiments.

The only thing is that I felt like I was wasting a bunch of oil for 10 wontons…maybe I should research what to do with the left over oil. Made more muffins since we ran out which is annoying. I usually make at least 12 to last us the week but the cranberry recipe makes fewer muffins so I ended up just making smaller muffins to last us.

I began painting the shelves which was pretty boring but I got 4 coats on the 3 pieces but I have to paint the other sides tomorrow. The fuchsia berry looks pretty awesome in my opinion.

Later, I made the pasta frittata but I used super firm tofu that didn’t really melt down like eggs do. I think I’ll have to use silken because it sort of just ended up like a casserole with tofu mixed in. oh well. I was going to make an Alfredo sauce with faux chicken TVP and asparagus but I realized we still had so much pasta left over even after I made the frittata so I nixed the idea for later this week.

But I did go ahead and make the eggplant recipe. I think it’s called Provencal Eggplant. I felt all professional because I brushed the eggplants with olive oil and rubbed coarse sea salt on the skins. I modified the filling since I didn’t have some of the ingredients so I sauteed onions, carrots, garlic, zucchini, bell pepper, pine nuts and added dried basil. I also sauteed some garlic, bread crumbs, and soy parmesan for the toppings. The sauce was a home-made tomato sauce with tomatoes (I know obvious), garlic, onion, and some spices. Oh and I added TVP that had been re-hydrated with No-Chicken bouillon to give it some flavor and gave the dish more protein than just some fake cheese. We also ate a side of left over pasta so we could get rid of it.

I need to buy a book that tells me how to make my dishes look more artistic but I was hungry and just sort scooped up the sauce and poured it over the eggplant. The recipes were from the Moosewood Collective cookbook, Sundays at Moosewood for those who are interested. I saw at borders that they have come out with a few others which I want to take a look at eventually.

It came out really yummy but I think that I should have scooped out a bit of the eggplant flesh to make room for the filling. It was good, but at times I felt it was a bit eggplant heavy but it might just be my personal taste that is speaking.

In other news we need to replace our portable water bottles since we think our Nalgene ones are the old version that aren’t BPA free…I suppose we can use or old ones for something random or recycle them..we’ll see. Boring day so I’ll catch you on the flip side.

Sopapilla! Here we go again! My, my how can I resist you?

Well I haven’t posted for awhile and I think I was really stressed out about the tattoo.

Turns out we spent monday talking to the guy because we didn’t get to talk to him much last week so we ended up going into more detail this time around. He thought we wanted really fine detail on some parts which isn’t possible for the place we want it since my arm is pretty small. So we’re going back sunday and hopefully we’ll get our art done…I’m pretty nervous about it but excited as well.

I made the Tofu Alfredo sauce last week and it turned out really tasty. The only problem is that the silken tofu was still pretty chunky and looked like cottage cheese in my opinion. I’m sure if I had used a food processor or blender it would have come out smoothly but I was aiming for the taste results. I blanched some asparagus and then cooked it towards the end with the sauce.

I’ve been craving sandwiches lately and Nathan has this really great recipe and I asked him all sorts of questions so I could replicate them. When he first made them I thought he was putting way too much effort into a sandwich since I figured a sandwich is just a sandwich. He just looked at me like I was the crazy one and went back to toasting the bread. He slathers on olive oil, sprinkles basil and garlic powder on the bread and then toasts it. Then he adds spicy brown mustard, sliced onion, fake meat and then tops it off with horseradish. He usually also adds avocado but we’ve had bad luck with them being partially rotton for a few weeks so we’ve haven’t used them. Mmm! I don’t like fake meat that much but the deli ham is pretty good so now I’m hooked.

My weekend was pretty boring as everyone can tell since all I’m posting are food pictures. Between the post election slump and the non-tattoo events I guess I really didn’t feel up to doing much. Although I was upset that they’re raising our rent…I don’t really even want to rant about it because there seems to be no point. I was telling my mom how crappy this place is that I don’t even know who would want to rent this place besides us.

Seriously, when we moved in the toilet seat paint was so worn down that half of it was wooden…and they didn’t even bother to replace it even despite how much money we were going to pay. We later noticed over the years that parts of the bathroom wall would glow and we finally left the light on to see if it was glow-in-the-dark paint. Turns out someone had painted a naked woman with huge breasts, seriously they’re the size of small watermelons, right next the sink. What we didn’t find out until this year was that there is also a penis spewing out semen towards the breasts…we didn’t notice this because the towels block the image and I happened to have done laundry and hadn’t put the towels back up.

Our place is a real class act. I mean who does that besides hormonal teenagers? Anyway, I’m also annoyed that the rent is raising because we’ve put up with a lot of crap and still stayed here…Therehave been times when neighbors were having parties and the guests would pee on the side of our building for us to see. They weren’t even embarrassed that we were 5 feet away from them but they were probably so tanked that they didn’t care. And I totally am all for public urination but in public places. I don’t think these people would like it if I showed up at their place and whizzed all over the yard. But the street? Sure go ahead! I’ve seen worse things on the street than some pee so I don’t find it that offensive.

Then there was our old neighbor, well we’ve had so many of them, that was totally on uppers. I was convinced he was doing meth but it could have been speed or a combination. This guy was totally out of control and I think if anyone had met him they would have figured he was straight-laced, San Joser, corporate kind of guy. Thankfully I didn’t see it but our manager told us to watch out for him because he had seen him outside naked and starting a fight. We actually heard the guy but we just figured he was sitting outside whacked out. He actually came over once at 7 A.M. and told us to keep our birds quiet which is ridiculous considering they’re no where near as loud from the outside of our apartment than the inside. They’re birds, they chirp in the mornings, and even though I think they can be annoying I don’t want some cranked out guy coming down from his high telling me they’re too loud. But we let it go since it’s better to nod than start a fight with some crazy guy.  

So I’m frustrated with our living situation and I suppose we’ll have to start looking for a new place since we’ve been over the rent for a few years and it’s not worth it to stay when they keep raising it. I’m not a business person and the way I was brought up really skews my perspective on so many issues. I just believe we’re getting ripped off to live in this 2 room studio apartment while paying over a grand per month. We’re not even living in some posh Soho studio…we’re living in a crappy studio that doesn’t even have a functioning heater. Well I don’t mind the heater since it would probably kill us or blow up the place considering our landlord.

Landlord, what a horrible word because it totally fits. This is why I’m crappy at Monopoly…I can’t justify making people live in crappy places while charging high rent…and even if this place were decent I would still think it’s wrong to charge this much rent for such a tiny place. I don’t even know if we’ll find a place for awhile since most of the available places are studios and only want one person or don’t want pets. Which just irritates me because these places are geared towards students making it hard to find good living situations with students competing and willing to have their parents pay the rent. We knew this one student who was paying around a three grand per month with two other roommates and their parents had fully decorated the house with new furniture. Or my former roommate’s parents actually bought a house here for her but they were a bit on the controlling side. The list could go on and on which I’m sure no one wants to read/listen about. And I suppose someone could say I’m jealous and sure it would be pretty nice to have my parents give me anything I want in life but I think that living like some of these students just makes them ignorant, arrogant, and insensitive to the real world, etc. Anyway, my point is that we have to compete with students for nice places and it’s difficult because the owners know that an undergrad is more likely to pay the rent because it’s not their money. Whereas we have to deal with credit checks and discrimination on how we look.

Even in Santa Cruz, I get followed around stores because workers think I’m going to steal something because I’m wearing all black and have a back pack. This reaction is one of the reasons why I don’t completely love Chefworks because they tend to be rude and follow me around. If I dressed like an average person with capris and a cute white top with blonde highlights and strolled in to Chefworks they wouldn’t bat an eye. It doesn’t matter that I have the cash every time I go, they still treat me like I might run off with something. Honestly, it’s a bit hard to smuggle a cast iron pan even if I’m the weight I am now. And I don’t like taking Nathan with me because they actually recognize him from his work so they treat us nicely when I’m with him. “Oh hey we should set up a discount between our two stores”, they say to Nathan while completely ignoring the fact that I’m the one shopping. ::Wave:: Hello? I’m the one who knows all these kitchen items (well that’s unfair because Nathan does know quite a few) and I don’t want to be ignored because someone happens to recognize my super popular partner. Maybe what I should do is have him distract them while I smuggle knives, tart rings, and spice racks out of their store…it would serve them right.

::Sigh:: so I went off and didn’t mean to. Well I was telling my mom that I’ve been having strange dreams which isn’t unusual for me but sometimes the dreams are stranger than strange. Like I had a dream about my Great-grandma and maybe that has to do with the fact that I dug out her picture of Mary that I kept after she died because she hung it in her room. It’s not an heirloom in the typical sense since it’s kind of a genero picture of Mary but I’ve always liked that 1. It was belonged to her and 2. It’s kind of folksy in that I think my Great-grandpa Ross made the frame and she tied some yarn around the sides to suspend it on the wall. It just seems like something she would do even though I didn’t know her all that well.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about her and Southwestern cuisine since it’s nearing christmas. I keep meaning to make Posole but I keep forgetting to soak the corn the night before. I can only find the huge tubs of hominy which is rather inconvenient since I cook for two people and we end up having way too much hominy that tends to go bad. But our local Mercado carries a few bins of food like hominy and chilis which is easier than buying a ton of hydrated hominy. So I’ve been thinking about the Southwest and my Grandma Lydia and I remembered how much I loved eating Sopapillas. The only other time I really remember eating them was in Santa Barbara because there was a New Mexican restaurant that served them.  Granted I can’t eat them with honey anymore but I suppose maple syrup will suffice. I looked up the recipe online today and I actually even used vegetable shortening which I never use since it kind of grosses me out. It might be because it reminds me of lard but who knows. The Sopapillas turned out great and it was pretty exciting watching them puff up. I made them pretty tiny so that they can fit in Nathan’s bento box easier. I read on some random website that that some people will eat them with rice, beans, veggies, etc which was strange since I thought of them as dessert items only. But now I’m very interesting in using them as an afternoon snack…at least it’s not as weird as sugar on avocados. So here they are and I know it’s not a great picture but oh well.

It’s kind of gross looking at the oil soak up on the paper towels. I actually made a bunch of them since they’re so small but I had to use another plate since the other one had three layers of paper towels and the sopapillas were teetering a bit. I’m not even sure if anyone in the family has made them since Grandma Lydia died…I don’t recall but either way it was nice to remember her and all the memories I had fishing and hanging out in Monte Vista when I was younger.

Too tired to think of a title

I really like wednesdays because of the farmers market but doing all my errands and going to the market is a pretty tiresome. I wish I had a bike trailer for the sole purpose of making one run instead of having to come home often to unload all the crap. But it’s good exercise so I guess doing my bike routes is good for me.

I tried a Persimmon slice today and they tasted pretty good. Reminded me of a papaya but I don’t know since I never liked them before so it seems weird that I thought they were similar. Maybe I’m off my rocker so don’t be scared of them because I made some weird statement. Anyway, they have been creeping me out at the farmers market because they look like orange tomatoes and I couldn’t imagine them tasting fruity. But they turned out pleasant and maybe next week I’ll buy some.

It’s kind of cool to go to the farmers market because I also get to learn the food seasons which never really crossed my mind since many grocery stores import fruits/veggies from all over the world to maintain year around food stocks. Of course I realize that produce has seasons andI like to consider myself somewhat aware of food and global impact. But walking through the markets these past weeks, it has been so interesting to see the squash emerge and the berries fade into a memory. The only problem is that I don’t really like squash so I’ll be hard pressed to find good recipes.

I made a garlic-olive-caper spread today for a snack this week. I didn’t really feel like mashing it down into a smooth texture so I left it chunky. I’m too tired to walk and grab my camera and load up the picture so maybe I’ll do it tomorrow. I hadn’t expected the olives to be as salty so we’ll definitely be getting our full sodium intake when we eat some. I feel sort of bad for Nathan since I try to plan out lunches with a relative theme. But tomorrow he’s getting the olive spread with bread and for the entree beans and rice since we made burritos for dinner. It’s kind of crazy that earlier this year I thought making burritos were a task but now it’s sort of an easy meal. Maybe I’ve made progress in the cooking area.

Speaking of food, haha what a lame sentence since all I do is talk about it, I’m planning on making a pie tomorrow. I haven’t gotten around to buying a pie dish since we don’t really eat pies unless it’s Nov or Dec. If it weren’t for Nathan I’d probably gorge myself to death with pies…mmm. Anyway, I did the lazy thing and bought a pre-made pie crust and I only have to make the lattice tomorrow. I found an old vegetarian times magazine that I had shoved in between some cookbooks and it turns out it was a Nov issue. Flipped through and they conveniently had a cranberry-cherry pie recipe. I kind of went over board two weeks ago and bought way too many cranberries and after 2 batches of cranberry muffins I still needed to find a use for the box and a half that I still had. So hopefully the pie will come out nicely and I’ll be sure to post pictures.

I’m too tired to say anything interesting except that I hope I stop singing the theme song to Best Little Whorehouse in Texas soon. It’s just so catchy and who can resist a little Dolly music?

cherries,berries, and pies!oh my!

It’s been a rough couple of days.

I got a flat yesterday but thankfully I didn’t go far and walked to Nathan’s work and had him put on the spare. I actually learned how to do it once but that was a few years ago so I thought I’d bust out my ‘you’re the man of the house’ card which is just great. Although he refuses to clean out the shower if it gets clogged with hair because it grosses him out. So I suppose I’m a mini man when it comes to household hairballs.

Anyway, the cats have been peeing again this week and I realized it was because we haven’t changed out their litter for a while since I’ve been riding my bike to Petsmart and can’t lug 20lbs of cat litter on my bike. Turns out that the litter was the only issue and they’re happy again. At least it was relatively easy to figure out unlike the swiffer episode but I think I was in denial because I really wanted to make my life easier with the swiffer.

So because of the random events yesterday I didn’t make my pie and I was bummed. I did get to make it today and I can’t wait to eat a slice. I used frozen cherries which might have added some unwanted juice because it overflowed a bit but not too badly. The recipe called for 1.5 cups of sugar which seemed like a lot and I omitted the sugar on top because I could feel my teeth rotting just imagining it. The lattice looks a bit wonky since I’ve never done it before and so some of the dough strips are skinnier than others.

I’m pretty proud of my lil pie and I hope it tastes good.

I also made some olive oil potato salad which turned out great. I have some olive oil that has lemon juice mixed in and I’ve been trying to use it up since it has an odd taste for certain dishes. But for the salad it was perfect since it called for lemon juice. I added some red onion, dill, and green onion. I suppose next time I might add some celery and other herbs if I’m up to it. Still a good afternoon snack though.

And lastly here is a really bad picture of the garlic-olive-caper spread from Sundays at Moosewood that I made. Hmm I need to remember to check my photos since this one looks so crappy. Oh well…

 

Pissant

Well we got our tattoos done this weekend and we’re still paying for it.

We went in on Sunday and got all inked up. I went first since I figured mine would be faster since my arm is smaller and I knew I might be too scared to watch Nathan beforehand. Mine ended up taking longer which I think might have been because my arm is smaller and so doing some of the shading might have been a bit more difficult on a small surface. It took about 2.5hours for mine and a little under 2 for Nathan. My arm is scabbing up and it’s weird because everytime I heard about tattoos scabbing I thought it would look like huge scabbed pustules and the art would be totally covered. But as of now my arm just feels bumpy in certain places but the color remains.

I must say it hurt quite a bit. And getting tattoos isn’t really the sort of thing in which I can ask them to go a bit easy because it hurts. I think the colored shading hurt the most since my arm was feeling pretty raw by then. So I’m not sure if I’ll be going back anytime soon since the memories are still fresh. I have wanted to get jaugar glyphs on my shoulders for a long time so we’ll see. I think my arm is a bit swollen from the work though because I swear my forearm looks fatter than the other one. And the muscles are really sore today which is odd since yesterday my arm wasn’t so bad.

That picture makes it look really big but I think Nathan just hit up the zoom on my camera. It was kind of creepy on sunday night because the eyes were a bit bloody and made my kitty look a bit evil. So we’ve spent this weekend pretty much recovering from the ordeal. Monday I konked out and slept a lot probably from all the pain from the night before.

The only other interesting thing this weekend is that I got some crazy virus and it wouldn’t let me run online virus scanners so Nathan spent most of today looking up solutions and he finally figured everything out and fixed my computer. Another reason why I keep him around. I decided to read since I didn’t have much to do and pulled out Ender’s Game by Orson Card. I really find it a good read but I can’t really say I like the book which seems really contradictory. I suppose it reminds me of other sci-fi novels written around the same era which is rather vague since many of the books I’m thinking of have a bit of a generation gap but they seem to have similar themes. I think I’m pretty cynical which is probably why I’m a fan of escapism but I’m sure I’m not as cynical as I feel myself to be. Anyway, my point is that I love certain aspects of these books but some of the characters become so jaded and critical of everything when the characters haven’t (or barely) reached adulthood and once they reach this level of maturity, regardless of age, the characters resign themselves to a life outside of the system partially. I think it’s rather difficult to live outside of society even if we choose to be a hermit because we were still raised within a structure. No matter what choices we make I feel as though we’re still feeding into the powers that be…well the human powers that be. There are so many things I dislike and I don’t pretend to be knowledgeable on so many things because half the time it means shit. We elect people to offices because we think they’re pro-women’s rights, anti-gay marriage, lowering taxes, helping urban poor, I’m just spewing out a bunch of reasons why we back elected officials not my beliefs. And then it turns out that these people are having sex with underage young people, are racist, are taking bribes and screwing over everyone.

So I’m thinking of how can I be critical of society and still find hope within myself. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t crying joyfully when Obama won, I knew he would and that’s great. I didn’t feel united with the U.S. because I wasn’t really raised within a nationalist framework. If anything I’m annoyed that we’re not thinking more critically about other issues such as alternative fuel. Why not eliminate fuel by riding bikes? expand mass transportation? Why is it that most Americans are struggling to get by when Western Europe works less and still makes similar wages? Why aren’t former colonial countries held responsible for their past actions but instead act racist towards former colonial subjects when they migrate to the ‘first world’? Why are we critical of indigenous people trying to live their lives by hunting endangered animals while we breed, slaughter, and act maliciously towards thousands of farm animals? It’s all so frustrating and yet none of these issues really come up because we’re proud that women are breaking the glass ceiling and people of color are finally coming into mainstream society. And I’m not saying these achievements aren’t important but I think it’s a bit hypocritical to go on about how gender/color doesn’t matter when all we’re talking about how much it really does in the subtext. If it isn’t a big deal then why are we talking about it? Why are people shot for looking ‘arab’ when they’re from India? Well I don’t really think race exists in the U.S. in the manner that it has been spoken and dealt with in the past. I’m really putting myself out here to be criticized…I mean everyone talks about Obama as the first black president but I find that title bothersome because he’s African-American, not black in the sense that his father’s side has a slave history in the U.S. And I’m not saying that he didn’t have to deal with racism because most people of color, even those who are not such as E.Europeans, Irish, Jews, light-skinned latinos, etc, experience racism because it’s always around. But the U.S. majority seems to be jumping for joy and recalling the days of de-segregation and revolutionary ideologies. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t write down the election as a milestone but the language we use is outdated and doesn’t really work within our current society.

I really went off track from talking about cynicism in sci-fi lit. I guess that re-reading Card’s book reminded me that I can’t forget certain histories even if I choose to stay at home. It doesn’t matter that I’m not some great professor or lawyer or business person or social worker or astronaut…I’ll always be concerned about the progress of humanity or lack there of. Which reminds me of my last (and hopefully brief) irritation. Santa Cruz has recently been talking about ‘cleaning up’ lower Pacific which is our downtown. I’ve mentioned before how crappy lower Pacific is in terms of the lack of quality care by the city and the amount of police harassment. The city has done this before in that they think that by adding more police that the unwanted people will go away. It never works for long. I might be biased but I feel that the people really pushing for this ‘clean up’ are upper middle/upper class people who want to enjoy their time downtown without seeing the lower classes. I think it’s pretty shitty since many of the upper class do drugs but they just do it in their homes…ah the remnants of the 60s and 70s. But they don’t want their kids and guests to see homeless people or ‘degenerates’ on lower Pacific. It upsets me that the city would rather spend time and money to clean up lower downtown (which won’t happen) instead of repaving the streets that we live by. Nathan’s on this 3rd tire because the roads are so bad that our bikes can’t take the potholes and bumps. It’s not like we live in a ghetto but honestly, if the city has time and money to harass homeless people then you’d think they’d have enough money to repave our streets. Seriously, when I lived on West Side (west santa cruz ) the streets were pristine and repaved every few years from the look of the streets. But that probably has to do with the fact that the area is relatively rich so I suppose the city would rather comply to bitchy rich people than bitchy non-rich people. Honestly, they’ve installed new lines on our street and instead of placing new asphalt like the west side they simply rolled over the 10ft. of work they did and left the street crappy. And beach hill is home to senior residences, apt, hotels, etc so it’s not an unpopulated area. And that isn’t even taking into account the amount of tourist traffic we get mainly in the summer but also throughout the year. But Santa Cruz caters to rich families so much that everyday people like me don’t matter even though I’m helping to lower emissions by not driving and I reuse plastic bags and have cloth bags for food.

I suppose I should end this post. I know it’s pretty lame that I am so critical but I don’t mobilize people to change our local govt. I know I’ve written before that I don’t feel compelled to making a difference because of all the crap I’ve seen growing up. It is an excuse and yet for me it is a way for me to justify being a bit happy with my life by choosing to cook and think and create. I don’t know…sometimes I think I’m too out of bounds…there was a time in which I loved to lead like in band…or when I asked for money to help those hurt by hurricane Mitch…or when I tried to argue with people that caring for others was important because we’re all human and deserve a good life. But now, I feel that I deserve a few years of being selfish. I’ve spent a long time caring about others, I still do care about the world, but I feel that I’ve spent so much time being critical and an idealist that I need time to just be happy. I remember one time as a freshman I practically yelled at another student for stating that 3rd wld people wanted to live in horrible conditions and that if they were on drugs or drunk that it was their fault. And I remember recalling memories of young boys sniffing glue or drunk men who couldn’t even stand up and I was so angry about that statement. I might not be a person of great renown but I think that I’ve dealt with enough memories that I can somewhat justify a break from helping the world. It ties back to these sci-fi books…when is it ok to be selfish and when can I finally rest after enduring these memories. Like the guy who did our tattoos asked if my dad came here as the MS-13 which was such an asshole question. But I remember the stories of them when I lived in El.Sal. and yet those stories never scared me as much as the war did. Sometimes I wish I had been raised differently so I could continue to care and feel compelled to help 3rd wld. communities. But at the same time I wonder why all these young people are so keen on correcting the 3rd wld rather than trying to fix all the horrible actions that the 1st wld continues to carry out.

So I’ll end here. Long post and my writing will probably anger a lot of people. Not just for content but also because I love run-on sentences.

I love baby murlocs

I hate starting off these blogs because I feel I have to be creative in the opening line.

So it’s been a mellow week because I’ve been stewing over a lot of things, I’ve been especially thinking over my lifestyle. Nathan’s really supportive and so is my family but at times it’s a bit hard to deal with people. It’s hard to assert dignity when I feel as though people are looking down at me and don’t understand that I ride my bike because even though I have money, that I don’t buy clothing all the time because I don’t want to be a consumer, and that staying at home doesn’t have to carry the historical connotations of ‘home economist, housewife, stay-at-home mom, homemaker,etc’. I don’t particularly dislike those terms, but in today’s society I feel that those words mean that women are limited, quaint, uneducated, and refusing to think beyond a Man’s world.

And then it’s even more frustrating when people assume that we’re vegans that it’s really easy to cook so that assumption compounds upon the fact that I’m supposedly ‘living the easy life’ while Nathan works. Well I suppose in some ways I do have it easier because I don’t have a time frame in which I’m required to work but I’m constantly working throughout the week instead of having a punch card sort of job. Anyway, back to the food aspect, people assume that being vegan is easy which doesn’t even make sense in my mind because our entire meals are created to incorporate as many nutrients as I can think of. And I eat food very differently than when I was living with my parents, we often had a meat dish with sides of veggies,etc. Granted we weren’t big meat eaters and my mom did make a lot of random food but I’m generalizing. My point being is that I can’t simply put in a block of tofu in the oven and make some veggies, mainly because I don’t like tofu life that and because I have the time to make different types of food throughout the week.

Even with meat substitutions it isn’t enough because of all the dairy/animal products that we’re missing out on. And besides, it gets pretty boring eating beans and rice everyday. I think that our biggest consumption patterns revolve around food and not just by buying fresh organic veggies either. We love eating all sorts of different foods and we really indulge in global recipes throughout the week. I suppose I’ll end my writing for now to post some pics of food from this week.

First up, I made garlic/onion bagels. If I ever did write a cookbook I’d want it to be a like a one-sided discourse between me and the reader. Hopefully I got the me vs. I grammar thingy correct but I’m rotten at this sort of stuff. Half the time I can’t even speak correctly. Anyway, the problem I have with recipe books is that a. they never really give substitutions and/or b. the recipes are rather plain or vague. Like onions, well sometimes I think certain onions taste better depending on the dish but they just sort of write ‘chop up some onions’. I think there is a bit of room for discussion on these types of random things because I know as a novice cook that I think about it and use trial and error when the recipe is vague. 

So I’ve gone off track. I made bagels. Apparently my online resources are hording their recipes because I only found two decent recipes for onion bagels and they weren’t really what I was looking for. Maybe there is a secret society of bagel masters and they off anyone who tries to publish bagel recipes. Anyway, the recipe came out great. I think the barley malt syrup (I just used maple and I think it’s a 4/3 ratio) made the dough quite dense. I was telling Nathan that I felt like I was in pre-school and playing with PlayDoh…anyone remember rolling the clay out and making worms or snakes? It was creepy and fun at the same time. I’ve read a few ways to make the bagel shape ranging from breaking a hole in the ball to simply pressing the rolled out pieces together. I used Martha’s technique because she makes me feel like a mini chef in my 5 star restaurant home. I made mini bagels for Nathan’s bento since they fit better…so I wrapped the dough around two of my fingers with the seams facing towards the cutting board and slightly pressed them together. I then rolled my mini bagel killer knuckles on the cutting board so that the seams would mesh and look well…seamless. 

I used yellow onion for anyone who wants to make them. They were really really tasty but I’m a bagel fanatic so I’m biased.

I made wonton soup as a side this week and made the dough myself. I was really bummed that the packaged stuff at Safeway has eggs in it so I have to start making the dough now. The picture of the thickness of the dough really doesn’t do my work justice because the wonton wrappers were too thick even at that gauge. I figured out though that the smaller amounts of dough I work with the easier it is to roll into a thin sheet. It took so long just to make about 10 of them and they were still a bit thick. They weren’t bad but they tasted a bit doughier than I would have liked. Since I made square wrappers I used a new folding technique and I think they look like little boats. That’s cornstarch that I splattered on them to keep from sticking by the way. The day after I made those my shoulders hurt from working the dough…I need to become a body builder for faster cooking.

For the main dish I made Batter Fried Seitan which was supposed to be fish. I didn’t think to take a picture but it came out kind of ugly so maybe next time. I recently cleaned out some of my cupboards/food storage places since one of them contained nothing but gift bags/plastic bags and some expired soy protein crap that I can’t remember why I even bought two years ago. Because of this I kind of forgot to use cornstarch for the seitan so that the batter would actually stick onto the wheat meat. It’s kind of silly since I remembered to use it for the wontons but I put the stuff away and totally forgot about it. Anyway, the seitan came out really tasty but the batter kind of slid off a bit so the chunks looked like they had misshapen arms and legs. The sauce was garlic based and I ended up doubling the amount of garlic and I should have put in more cayenne pepper to make it nice and spicy. Seriously, it’s probably this month’s favorite recipe because it was so delicious and perfect. Between the seitan, rice, and sauce it was close to perfection. mmmm.

Lastly is a crappy picture of Veggie and No-Chicken Flavored TVP Pot Pie. I really couldn’t get a good picture of this for some reason but it might have to with the lack of contrasting colors..who knows. I don’t think I’ve ever had a pot pie and they actually gave me the creeps because I remember that childhood rhyme with the king eating his black bird pie and the pictures with the birds poking their heads out. Even as a non-vegan back then it was disturbing…what kind of kid wants to see their animal food still alive and I could tell the difference between a chicken head and animal crackers.

It reminds me of this story that my dad and uncle told me. When they were younger in El Sal. they had different animals like dogs, chickens and I think my great grandfather practically had a mini zoo that puts my own to shame. He had pigs, lots of different types of birds for domestic and recreational use, dogs, etc. Anyway, so one day my dad’s family decides they’re going to kill one of the chickens and so they go and prepare it and make the meal. My dad and uncle (maybe even my aunts) were giggling throughout the meal and one of my aunts didn’t know why. I’m not sure if she asked where her chicken was or if they told her but basically they had slaughtered her pet chicken and didn’t even tell her until after they had finished the meal. I can’t even imagine how horrified she was but the humor remains in a sort of good natured/twisted way in which we partake in these activities while still being unnerved by our own actions. Much like the black bird rhyme…I’m not sure if anyone followed me on that train of thought.

So the pot pie…I kind of made it my own recipe like I tend to do. I usually take one recipe as a framework and reference other recipes to get a feel for what works and then modify as I wish. I added onion, potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, mushrooms and .5cup of TVP flavored with a no-chicken bouillon. The only spices I used were basil, oregano, and salt. I ended up using oregano because I didn’t have any marjoram and I read that the plants are related although oregano has a stronger taste. I had never heard of Roux before and I modified the recipe by adding garlic since I hadn’t added it to the veggie mix and I left out the cheese that was written down. Poured it over the veggies in the pan and layered the dough on top. I really need to find a good pie dough recipe because the one from the book was a bit too flaky and I’ve had those kind of problems randomly in the past. Our apt retains heat really well so even though the dough was chilled the top layer dough wasn’t holding together by the time I need to place it on top. So I rolled out what I could and then made a patchwork of dough.

I need to buy an actual pie dish but I keep forgetting so I used a cake pan instead which still worked just was well. I’m planning on making some Japanese food for tomorrow and I would have made it today except Nathan reminded me that it was Pizza Saturdays. I can’t believe I forgot either…it’s probably one of my favorite days. So I’m planning on making some sushi and I’m hoping to make a few variations such as: avocado rolls, cashew/avo/cucumber rolls, and artichoke/macadamia nut/cucumber rolls. Plus I hoping to make some koroke which are basically mashed taters, some people add a filling like meat, that are coated with bread crumbs and fried. I had never had them until we went to a local sushi place and they’re one of the best things…especially with the plum sauce on the side. I didn’t realize that there are different types of bread crumbs but I went ahead and picked up some Panko bread crumbs for the koroke.

So the only thing I want to comment on right now is our national discourse of race and nationality. I just sort of wish other minorities could be talked about on a national level because it seems like Latinos are the new Black. I’m using that analogy loosely but I think it has some merit. I was hoping that during the elections that we would hear more about Asian communities especially because it is a huge area in terms of land, identity, culture, history, etc. Sometimes I feel as though the U.S. only allows one new minority into the discussion and maybe that is because the U.S. doesn’t want to be bombarded by a huge amount of complaints and sentiments. I don’t even like the phrase that the U.S. is a ‘melting pot’ because we’re not all mixed and we still are very divided in so many aspects that I won’t bother listing them. Not only Asians but Africans, Middle Easterners, mixed people from Latin America, Indigenous people throughout the Americas, Eastern Europeans, etc haven’t really been brought into a good political/national discourse. And even then, race/nationality doesn’t even touch on gender/sexuality/class/socioeconomic conditions/religion/environmentalism/etc that are important to people. I’m pretty sure JKF was the only catholic to be elected and what does that say about the U.S. in regards to secularism? I know that other people in high power govt. positions vary in race/identity/religion/etc but if we regard the president and his cabinet as the face of our nation then I think we ought to question these things.

Sometimes I wish the world was a little more like It’s a Small World ride in Disneyland. I still love the singing and dancing and seeing all these representations of world cultures even if they are exaggerated and exoticized. It always gave me a warm feeling that maybe we could be happy and live happily while accepting that others live differently. But I suppose it is difficult to include everyone within a single nation but I’d still like to see it happen.

koroke dokey

So I made some fun food this weekend.

I didn’t actually get around to making sushi till tonight. I spent a few hours making bagels on sunday and since Sundays are our lazy day I felt proud that I actually did something. I did make a nice little evening snack though that I can’t wait to do again. I bought some spinach since we need to up our leafy greens but I have a tendency to not make it until some of the leaves start to brown. Anyway, I made some sauteed spinach with garlic and olive oil. I also made roasted mushroom with pine nuts. They had a nice flavor and a bit of spice from the crushed red pepper flakes that the recipe called for. I personally think I added too many breadcrumbs but Nathan thought it was fine.

I need to replace my camera…I think it’s getting worse but oh well.

Monday was fun because our market has been under construction for a few months and they finally finished this weekend. I grabbed some stuff and I’m planning on making pumpkin pie with a real pumpkin this thursday! I’m pretty excited since I picked up a pie dish as well so my pies won’t look funny. Well, the market also has a bunch of good deli stuff and Nathan went kind of crazy with the marinated food…we got two different types of marinated artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and olives. We also picked up some sandies that are just soo yummy and we’ve been missing them since they closed the deli these past months. So I got off lucky and didn’t have to cook a bunch on monday.

So I finally got around to making the sushi today and it was a lot of work. I first made the koroke which are fried potato balls. I made mashed taters and sauteed some onion and mixed them together afterwards. Then I made a little work station of flour, egg mix, and panko bread crumbs. The egg sub I used was 2 Tbs water + 1 Tbs oil +2 tsp baking powder. I figured out that it was easier to roll the potato balls in the flour and keep doing that to the others since the eggs and bread crumbs made my fingers look like fish sticks. I read one recipe that said to refrigerate them for at least 2 hours so that they would be extra crispy so I did it since we weren’t ready to eat.

 

Oh I forgot, I also started my home made pickled ginger since I didn’t want to buy it. I’ve read that real pickled ginger comes from young ginger root rather than the kind that we get at the market. But I went ahead and made it my way. I boiled the ginger (maybe it was a simmer) in some water. Then I poured the ginger into a rice vinegar and sugar mix (equal parts). I might have added a bit of salt. Then I just put some plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge. The one recipe said to let it pickle for 5 days to get it just right but I ate some tonight and it was fine. It was a bit tough in some places but it seemed a bit more tender than last night. I read that the pink hue increases with age so mine is a yellowy color still.

Let’s see…the rice was kind of a pain since I read that after rinsing the rice a few times that it’s best to let it sit for 30-60 min in more water. So while that was taking place I made Plum/Duck sauce which ended up more like a salsa. I simmered white vinegar, apricot preserves, and ginger and then mixed in green onions at the end. I need to find another recipe because it was good but way to thick for the koroke…at least in regards to how I wanted to eat them.

After that I pulled out my wasabi powder and it smelled so bad…like baby poop after they eat their peas or something…when Nathan came home he was totally grossed out by what smelled so bad and I used my patent, “Not my fault” line. So that didn’t go well but that was probably the only disaster in the meal.

For the rolls I chopped up some cucumber, artichoke hearts, avocado, and macadamia nuts. I was going to make a roll with cashews but I was kind of pooped from all the random crap that I was doing that I only made one. Oh and I forgot, once the rice was done cooking I mixed in rice vinegar, sugar, and salt that I had heated over the stove beforehand and then mixed it into the rice in a separate bowl. I mixed it and alternatively fanned the rice and maybe I’m so totally an American noob for believing some of these sushi websites but they say fanning the rice cools it while the liquid mixture gives it a shine and flavor. Well obviously fanning cools but I’m just explaining.

Back to the rolls. I got out my little mat and placed the items on top of the rice…it was pretty nerve racking because I was hoping it would turn out alright. Rolled them up and proceeded to make a total of 3 rolls. The only thing left to do was to deep fry some of the koroke but I’m saving a bunch since there is no way we could eat an entire plateful.

 

 

Drum roll please…..

 

I kind of cheated and picked the pretty ones for the picture but it was pretty hard to get the end pieces to hold together probably because I didn’t spread the rice out evenly on the edges. Now I feel bad, even my food has to adhere to beauty standards.

The only thing I didn’t like was that the artichoke hearts still had a vinegar taste even after I had rinsed them. I’ll have to look fr ones based in water or something but they still tasted great. So that is pretty much in in regards to cooking. Nathan was awesome today because he went to the tire shop and dealt with the whole thing so our car has new tires.

Thanksgiving week

yay for updates!

So I haven’t posted in awhile mainly because I’ve been too lazy. Plus I really haven’t made new exciting things which seems to be the major feature of this blog now. I have been catching up on my knitting though which also means that I’ve been watching lots of online shows and movies.

Thanksgiving was nice and quiet but it wasn’t really a big deal for us. We both don’t really like that holiday and I think I hate it more because I never really liked the food as much as other holidays. Turkey, cranberry fluff, wild rice, those annoying green peas with the tiny onions swimming around…the only food items that I loved were pumpkin pie and the rolls with butter. So Thanksgiving wasn’t all that exciting…I did make sheps pie and a pumpkin pie though for a little celebration. Nathan totally loves sheps pie and I always feel bad that I don’t make it as often as I’d like but it is somewhat of a pain to make. Between the mashed taters and all the veggies it’s just a bit tiring. Nathan did make most of it though since I had worked for a few hours making the pie. Plus I was crying too much from the onions so he offered to cook. It’s really embarrassing that I still have my onion problem and I live in fear that Nathan will buy me these onion goggles that are sold at Chefworks. I really think I can build an immunity to them but we’ll see…maybe it’s a mental thing.

Anyway, the pie took awhile since I had to mash the pumpkin and tofu by hand. I’m thinking of buying an immersion blender with the logic that since it’s not a huge appliance that a mishap won’t befall it. It just took so long to try to mash the tofu which had mixed results since I decided there was no way I was going to spend hours trying to puree it. I need one of those huge mortar and pestles from latin america but I’ve never bought one since they weigh so much. If I had a big one the time would probably be cut down since I would be able to apply more pressure and force. Another problem I had was using evaporated condensed milk since we don’t drink milk. I looked up a bunch of recipes and most were just trying to make the milk sweetened even though I had typed in ‘vegan’. I eventually found some but they all were so different that I had a really hard time grasping the fundamental parts of the milk. I finally picked one that included brown sugar, soy milk, and cornstarch. But I should have looked at the recipe beforehand because the pie called for brown sugar which made the pie a bit more brown sugary than I would have hoped for.

In the end the pie came out tasty although not as tasty as my Grandma’s pie. The tofu is still visible in the pictures/pie but it came out nicely and tasted yummy.

I’m sure the milk sub that I used also darkened the pie now that I think about it.

I made the batter fried seitan with garlic sauce again last week and made sure to take pictures.

I don’t know what makes this dish so tasty…I think part of the greatness is the nice fried textured on the seitan that tastes great with rice and then the sauce just tops it off.

Besides those two dishes I haven’t made anything that interesting. I was avoiding the markets this past week because of all the shoppers and sort of lazy since everyone else seems to be lazy from over doing it on the turkey. So I justify my laziness. I did make more bagels though which is a task but they weren’t exactly new. Although Nathan did get a bit of kick watching me make them…he thinks I should try donuts but I don’t think I’m talented enough to make them and selfless enough to share them.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the events in India this past week and it feels odd that I’m so concerned about it when I wasn’t really bothered by the N.Y. attack. I was saddened that so many people lost their lives but I think I didn’t feel shocked that it happened because the U.S. has done a lot of awful things to other countries in the past and present that I didn’t think we were immune to violence. And I know, the U.S. does a lot of good things but we can’t neglect certain factors like military coups, our excessive amount of consumption of goods/energy in comparison to the world, the fact that we push embargoes for lame reasons, Free trade zones, etc. So back to my point, I guess I felt conflicted because we’re all getting ready for thanksgiving, or at least talking about it, and these horrible things are happening in India. And what bothered me the most was the media kept referring to the Americans that had been killed and I never heard mention of all the Indians who had died or were injured. They were referenced in numbers like ‘10 bodies’ or ‘150 injured’ etc.

But while this aspect might bother me I can’t for sure say that this is remotely accurate. We don’t have cable so our exposure to certain medias is rather limited to radio and online sources. But I was still bothered that the programs I was listening to were interviewing people in the U.S. connected to the people who died and I haven’t heard any interviews from Indian citizens about how they feel. Hopefully in the next few days I’ll hear more and I generally don’t actively seek out news on the weekend since I’m spending time with Nathan and relaxing.

So that’s all for today. I suppose I might look up some more shows online to knit to or something.

Murloco

Back from the land of the sick finally.

It’s been so long since I’ve posted that even my mom commented so I suppose I’ll get my lazy bum to type a post. I got sick last week which went by quickly in terms of the really horrible parts. I mainly slept, read, or played WoW (the online game). Nathan seems to be fine which is lame since I feel that he should suffer too. I did make tasty Faux Chicken and Rice soup and Nathan was super jealous since he loves the soup but he didn’t want to steal my sicky food. I ended up making him extra the next day so that he could enjoy the wonderful soup.

The only nice thing about being sick is that I don’t have to do anything but sleep so it was pretty nice. But by the end of the weekend I was bored and really disgusted by the state of the apt. and lack of good food besides soup. Today was my first real day back so I actually made some new food instead of having Nathan reheat soup for me or making pizza because it’s easy.

Today I went to the bookstore and looked at the cookbooks for about an hour. The one I went to, our locally owned store, has some really great vegan and baking cookbooks but I must say their Asian cookbook selection was rather small. Still I found a really great Chinese cookbook that has a lot of great recipes that we like but that I haven’t made. Mmm…sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken, Ma Po tofu, pot stickers, etc. Of course I’m going to have to modify half of the book but it’s a work in progress.

For dinner I made Ma Po tofu which called for .5lb ground pork which I replaced with .5lb meatless ground which is a fake meat sub that works nicely in almost any dish. We recently found some Schezwan (sp?) peppercorn at the market so I toasted those on the flame and then grounnd them down. I also finally got to use my sesame oil and Nathan’s Schezwan hot sauce which I used in place of chili-garlic sauce. I swear I spend half of my time mincing garlic or onions which is horrible because I just want to stuff my face with the lovely garlic.

The only thing that I don’t like about the dish is that it doesn’t really call for any veggies besides green onion so I’ll have to experiment with the recipe to add a bit more diversity. So I made some bok choy that was cooked in oil with garlic, ginger, salt, and sugar with a bit of water towards the end. It went over really well with Nathan and I love those cooked greens so I was looking forward to eating it.

Mmm so tasty. It’s really strange, I must by getting used to tofu because I didn’t fry the tofu and I still thought the tofu tasted great. Usually I gag while eating soft tofu and try to imagine that being done with the meal. But it seems that I’m getting better at eating tofu.

The only other thing I’ve made lately was a cranberry-pecan loaf which turned out great. I’m not sure I liked the orange juice in the recipe and next time I think I’ll try using soy milk instead. I found the O.j. made it a bit too tangy and I already have issues with orange juice so soy milk sounds better. I really love cranberries now…they’re just so cute and round…it surprises me that I haven’t really ever thought much about them unless it was my mom’s muffins or cous-cous.

Hmm let’s see what else…I went to my local ‘doctor’ place which is really PP. Seriously, I’m not going to drive over the hill to go to Kaiser and wait forever and I don’t like their buildings. There was this one I used to go to down south that made me think of a post-nuclear war building in which zombies would come after me. The place just looked so dusty and creepy….scary. So I’ve been taking this one birth control pill and it’s really weird there because the place reminds me of Kaiser in that they never know who I am or what I’m there for even though I filled out the paperwork. But some of them are nice and they have the best cost in the county so it’s pretty awesome.

Anyway, so I go in and the woman is all confused because she thought I’d bought 14mo. worth of pills and I’m like…uh nope I only got 6mo. She finally figures out that they just cleared me for the time which was annoying because I had already been waiting for awhile probably because they were weirded out by my supposed abundance of pills. Then she leaves only to come back and tell me they don’t carry the kind I get so she leaves to get some on duty doctor.

Which sounds great in theory, right? A doctor should be able to tell me about the other kind they offer and answer all my questions. The guy comes in and I couldn’t tell if maybe he was on meds or was trying to act cool. He didn’t even tell me anything and I kept asking him questions…oh are there side effects? Will there be a change in my moods since I’m switching? what is the difference? etc. Seriously, at one point he told me ‘I don’t know, it’s probably a placebo affect’. Which is not all that comforting when this is my body. Then he told me that women ’supposedly’ liked the old stuff because it had lower testosterone but that they haven’t had any problems with the new stuff they carry.

Ugh…the testosterone freaked me out so I only ended up getting 3mo. worth in the event I grow chest hair…I’m pretty sure I’m genetically slotted for getting facial hair in the future so that doesn’t worry me…I’ll just invest in waxing products. But the other stuff does freak me out and I had a dream the other day that I had no boobs and I was trying to figure out how to get them again. And the guy was really lame…I think the nurse could have done the job just fine since I walked away with little to no information on this type and I had to see his horrid woolly socks that looked stinky and gross which is just totally unprofessional. Well maybe I just didn’t like the guy and his socks didn’t help him.

~~~~~~

So that was a great day. But let’s see…I’ve been playing WoW again which is fun in some ways but lame in others because I have to deal with annoying people on multiple levels. It’s really interesting because most ‘real’ women tend to play casters or healers in the game but that is changing. I made my first character a hunter mainly because I like the action and I get a cute little pet to fight with me. He’s a lion called honeybuns and Nathan’s is butterbuns…they’re both golden. But the downside to being involved in action type classes is that there is a lot of sexism and general male competition…like…who can do the most damage, who has the better gear, who knows the mathematical efficiency of clicking different abilities…I’m serious, people actually spend time figuring out these crazy math equations which I tend to believe are made up or are useless because I’m not going to spend all my time figuring out which abilities to click first.

Because of all this I decided I’d play my priestess which is fun because I made her a shadow priestess. Not that anyone cares but each class has 3 different talent trees to focus their expertise. Like hunters can become better with their pets, or better with bow attacks, or better at doing random stuff like trapping or stunning, etc. So I decided I was not going to be a healer but instead be a super cool shadow priestess and kill people with my darker side rather than heal all these people. It’s been great so far but I still get people asking me to heal and I’m like ‘nope I’m shadow noob!’.  Ah, it’s wonderful.

But anyway, I took a picture of my character saving baby murlocs from evil murlocs…the king thanked me. They remind me fruit loops because they’re so colourful. They’re kind of a cross between fish and frogs and they’re super cute.

So I suppose I’ll end here with the cute little baby murlocs.

Leggo my Eggos

Ugh I’m crabby and crampy.

I think it’s the new meds…well I hope so. I really have issues with the medical/science world even though I know how much better we are thanks to vaccines, learning to be clean unlike the days of old, etc. But at the same time certain things bother me like women’s health/preventive care. I had this one doctor try and pressure me to use the  3/4 yearly period pill and I was so not having that. I don’t care what kind of degree a person has, I’m not doing things that I don’t think are true. And really this is my main argument, what might be ‘true’ to a medical field might be incorrect in other areas and the medical field is still too weird to be telling me they know everything.

Anyway, this doctor told me that women shouldn’t really even be having periods as often as we do because back in time we were giving birth, pregnant, or working so much that our bodies would skip the cycle. That’s nice but I sort of felt like I might be messing up the evolutionary chain if I just decide to stick with the old cycles…but I kept those thoughts to myself. Then she goes on about how that it might be the cause of these women’s health issues because we’re having too many cycles. Personally, I really don’t care if there are a bunch of published papers on this stuff because I don’t want someone telling me what to do with my own body especially when it seems like women’s bodies are always doing the ‘wrong’ thing. Like ‘irregular’ periods…maybe it’s fine for that individual. I know that fem/anthro/socio/etc people have written about this so I’m really depending on those memories.

I guess it comes down to the fact that I don’t like being told what to do when I have no given information, when people are somewhat patronizing, and/or I’m being told because the powers that be say so. And another thing, I hate how they advertise that women will be carefree, happy, independent, and productive with this type of pill. Ultimately I feel it’s up to the individual to decide what they prefer but I think it’s a bit ignorant to assume that women can’t be all these things while on their period or that to feel otherwise is wrong…that we have to fix it. I have known young women who had really bad cycles and for that I can understand wanting to change their cycle or try to ease the pain and I’m sure that really wasn’t fun. But personally I enjoy bitching about the time of the month and yelling at guys for being dicks about comments pertaining to cycles. As if guys don’t have cycles…plus it reminds me every month that I am different from not only bio men, but also from other women and it reminds me that humans are still animals and I think we forget this connection because we’re consumed with production, work, technology, medicine, politics, etc.

So anyway, my new cookbook is pretty great even though the dishes are all meat. I don’t mind though since a lot of the dishes are ones we like so it’s good for those recipes but the veggie and noddle recipes are not as great. Well the veggies are tasty but they’re almost all just variations of a veggie that is stir fried with ginger, garlic, and some sesame oil. But those are nice to have since I’m always scared I’ll get gout from eating only protein and rice…I actually knew someone who got gout probably because she only ever ate Mongolian beef with rice. Tasty but not a balanced meal. But I’m sure there were other factors but it still creeps me out.

So I made some kung pao seitan which turned out great. I need to buy some cooking alcohols for the recipes which call for a dry sherry and I think some sort of wine if our local market doesn’t carry the Chinese ones. So I ended up using mirin as a sub for the sherry which turned out tasty but probably not as close to ‘authentic’ kung pao.

I added a side of broccoli cooked with ginger, garlic, and….sesame oil. Came out really really super good. I ended up making this again on sunday but I added more chili. I had flaming mouth last night much to my satisfaction.

I also tried out the lemon chicken recipe which wasn’t deep fried like most recipes but just lightly fried in the pan. Personally, I thought it was great but Nathan found it too lemony. We kind of differ in tastes in that he likes the darker sauces with mushrooms, chilis, garlic, etc while I enjoy those but I love the fruit sauces a bit more. It still came out tasty and it was really fun making the sauce and the seitan fried up nicely with a great taste from the oil and flour/pepper mix that I had coated it with.

Lastly I tried an apple pie recipe and I don’t think I’ve made an apple pie for at least two years. I’m getting a bit better at the pie dough but it looks a bit different from the pictures which I know isn’t really something I should go by since the pictures are supposed to look the best they can. Great pie though, I was a bit nervous since I didn’t have to do a blind baking and I was scared that the dough might not hold well but it came out nicely. I’m glad I didn’t add any sugar on top because the pie had a nice sweetness that wasn’t overdone to the point that my teeth hurt.

I really wonder how long pies can last w/o refrigeration because the recipe said I could leave it wrapped on the counter for up to two days and yesterday was the third day and I didn’t get sick. I’ll probably have to scrap the rest of the pie today but it’s kind of crazy how those things work out. Like in El Sal. I remember they wouldn’t refrigerate eggs or mayo but I think part of the reason was because people ate those items quickly. But it’s really interesting to think about how much we rely on keeping food fresh. Maybe it also has to do with having smaller families and buying in bulk…making food last longer because we don’t have time to eat certain foods quickly…hmm.

Well I should write more but I’m really close to being max lvl for my WoW character. Someone really ought to write a book on all the slang and abbriviations that people use in online gaming/sims. I was even thinking last night about how certain words have mutiple meanings depending on the context which isn’t that surprising but at least interesting to think about. So take care and try to avoid the holiday mob.

Garlic is sexy

Whew, I can’t say I’m not happy to see December pass by.

Double negatives, I know but you all have to deal with it. That month is just too crazy and stressful and I like to keep myself relatively mellow these days. I did visit the southern regions of the state to visit my mother since I hadn’t seen her in so long. I remember the days when I actually called that place home and would drive down on the weekend and it wouldn’t even tire me. Fast foreword a few years and I feel like I spent a day traveling across the entire country.

Got some good loot and Nathan even got some cool slippers that he likes to joke reminds him of Mr. Rogers. But keep in mind that anything comfortable is labeled under ‘grampy wear’ to him. I roam the apt all the time in p.j.s and slippers and he thinks I’m crazy because apparently once I’m not stinky anymore I should be in public clothing. But I can’t understand why anyone would want to wear jeans and non-comfy shoes when at home. I tell him that if I ever start wearing muumuus that he can either leave me or give me a wake up call.

Anyway, I can really tell that I haven’t posted for a long time because I’m talking about a bunch of random crap that probably is only interesting to me and my cats. Nathan actually had fun with the cats on the way back to santa cruz b/c one of them ended up peeing in the car (at least it was a rental) and by the time he got home she was so pathetic that she actually just laid in his arms like a wet noodle as he washed her off in the shower.

Seriously, he spoils re way too much. But I did get fe addicted to belly rubs so I suppose I don’t have much room to talk. I don’t know if I can ever have kids though, I actually think about it since half of my family on both sides had kids early while the other half had them when they were a bit older. Anyway, I was on the plane back to SC and I got to experience for the first time the crying babies on the plane who happened to be right next to me and behind me. I generally don’t care how people raise their kids as long as it doesn’t bother me personally, but I do contemplate how these parents could get their kids to calm down. The younger one I understood would be hopeless because toddlers don’t care either way and they seem to calm down when they feel like it and that is how the one baby acted and it was fine for most of the ride. But the other one was a bit older and I wanted to smack the dad for playing into the baby games. This kid would want the light off then scream that he wanted it on….back and forth, back and forth…I would have ignored the kid or told him I was gunna throw him out the window if he didn’t behave. But those kind of things now leads to thousands of dollars worth of therapy.

Or when I’m shopping and these parents are asking their toddlers to come back and they stand there waiting for them…sure it might work on a dog but I think it would be easier to just death grip the kid’s hand while they wait in line. But we live in SC where people are weird and I’m sure if I ever have kids, well I count my cats as my babies, that I’ll make all those annoying parental practices too. People might think I’m mental, but I seriously consider my cats to be mini humans who will never go through their toddler, preteen, teen, and adult issues of hating me and thinking I’m dorky and lame. We love spooning our cats and holding them, making baby voices to them, and doing kissy faces with them. I remember growing up and hearing from various people that cats are loners, that they don’t like to be with humans, and that they just weren’t as friendly as dogs. I wonder if these assumptions actually manifest these cat attitudes because our cats, and Nathan’s prior cats,  seem to be very involved in our lives. Our cats love to sit on the fridge and look down while I cook and sit in the bathroom while we shower, maybe we got reincarnated cats that just want to be with us. But I really do wonder if cats just get a bad rep. from our prior assumptions of how they should behave. I’m sure people have written books on it…

Well I suppose the new year is something new. The only thing I don’t like about new years is having to remember the new year…I’ll be writing 08 for at least another 3 mo. I suppose most of us are making resolutions which I never keep but I do hope that I become more active since I’ve generally been a pretty active person in my life. We actually went on a 1.5mile walk on New Year’s Day which wasn’t as inspirational as it might sound. First of all I couldn’t find my favorite shorts which are bigger since I have gained weight and they fit really great. So I was forced to wear my smaller ones that are purple and the only comfy, crappy shirt I had that was clean was my purple Lakers shirt that is starting to fall apart so I don’t wear it because I want to cherish it. But I didn’t have anything decent to wear so I ended up looking like a big, plump purple grape…I ended up finding an old sweatshirt to wear over because I knew I was going to look like a grape lady.

So we walked and another fun fact was that I couldn’t find my razor blade since it somehow fell off the hook while I was gone so I had to walk the streets really hairy. Now, I confess that Nathan and my mom know that I don’t hardly ever  shave my legs anymore since I generally only have to shave the lower parts of my calves and being that I wear pants and live in SC it’s not all that weird. I’m sure all the guys reading this, and maybe women, are thinking ‘ew gross’ but I certainly do feel that it’s a bit unfair that women have to do so much grooming while men remain hairy, unmoisturized, make-up free, etc. But that’s an old argument and even though I say these things I still wear makeup, shave, pluck, find cute undergarments and I would never wear a skirt with hairy legs. I should have just written that I’m too lazy to shave all that frequently. But if we keep up the walking I’m going to shave because I’m still a big goob and that’s ok because I do like some fem things that society pushes on us. 

So we walked, and now I’m sore from walking and I’ve been been cooking all day. I really should have put all our stuff away and cleaned the apt since it’s horribly gross but cooking is way more fun than cleaning so I opted for cooking. Plus it really bothers me when Nathan doesn’t eat breakfast so I whipped up some blueberry scones and used my new vegan cookbook. Turned out faster and tastier than Martha’s and I must say that I love some of her recipes but her scones are way too laborious and the dough didn’t turn out well even though both recipes were done by hand. I felt like kicking myself though because I should have added some pecans to the scones and maybe in the future I’ll add lemon zest or something. Pecans and Brazilian nuts are my new faves especially since I toasted pecans awhile back. I’m posting pics because these were the first scones that weren’t shaped like triangles which bothers me since I don’t really consider these scones ‘true scones’. She calls them a type of biscuit which I don’t think is accurate but I also haven’t studied the fine art of scone making but one day maybe.

Super fast and easy which seems to make me think that they’re not ‘true scones’ but once again I’m learning and from my experiences food items that sound fancy usually take a long time to make.

Obviously this isn’t a food pic but I haven’t taken any pics of our new shelves which I hand painted in Fuchsia Berry. We’re supposed to have three of them but only two are up at this point. I know the pic is fuzzy and off because I’m short and trying to take a picture on my tippy-toes is really hard and this is the least fuzzy out of the millions I attempted. And yes the wood isn’t even on the wall brackets but we have a weird wooden border by the bathroom that we didn’t want to mess up so we just made it a bit off center. Pooh bear is so huge and I’m so grateful that he and my piggy bank aren’t on my dresser anymore because they take up way too much room. I’ve always had piggy banks but as I grew I didn’t really use them. Then my dad bought me the one in the pic that actually looks like a piggy and the best part is that I never have to break it because it has a little hole in the bottom. I had this snoopy one forever and boy did I love him. I thought he was so funny sleeping on his dog house.

I also think it’s weird that I haven’t grown out of the stuffed animal faze. Anything cute and fluffy ends up being squeezed to death. So anyway, I also attempted a Pumpkin pie today because I must say I was rather miffed that my mother called my first one ‘interesting’. Geez, I’d like her to try to puree those tofu chunks with a little pestle and mortar! I was so proud of my little pie and that one little comment just deflated my ego…hehe well don’t worry mom I’m not serious and I”m sure anyone else who saw that pic was thinking it looked like weird poop in a pie. But I was upset because it did look a bit…unusual but it did taste really good. So I whipped out my new food processor and boy did the dough really come together quickly without any effort…I almost feel like I’m cheating now.

I made the dough and set it chill and baked the pumpkin. I read on some weird website that I could make my own condensed milk by simmering it because they said that condensed milk just has about 40% less water content. It seemed to work a bit but I think I should have let it boil down more. Boiling that milk totally took me back to El Sal. when my abuelita would get fresh milk from the cow next door. She would boil the milk and my cousins would eat their warm milk in cereal! eww I still can’t imagine eating cereal with warm milk but I never really ate malt-o-meal (or whatever that brown stuff my mom would give me) or oatmeal or whatever other warm breakfasty food people eat. So I would wait for what seemed like forever for the milk to cool and then…then I had to carefully attempt to avoid letting the skin of the milk from entering my bowl. Unfortunately that stupid skin would slip in and I would attempt to eat around it. So back to my baking, I was boiling the soy milk down and the milk started getting a skin which was just soo soo gross, it reminds me of that stuff that baby cattle have to emerge from when their mother pushes them out.

So let’s see, I pureed the pumpkin and the silken tofu and they came out so creamy. Added the soy milk, pumpkin spice, and brown sugar. I ended up adding about a 3/4-1 cup more pumpkin than the recipe called for because the milk wasn’t as dense as it should have been. I didn’t bother making a fancy crust but instead used a cookie cutter to decorate the pie with dough shapes. I’ll take a picture of baked pie later.

Aww how cute. Nathan laughed at my pie (in a nice way) and told me it looked pretty spiffy. My grandma asked me today what kind of dough I use for the pie and it’s a pretty basic one from Martha… I think it has a french name but it has all-purp flour, butter, and some cold water I think. I just mixed it up and then divided it in half and wrapped it up and set it to chill in the freezer for an hour. Then I rolled out the dough and placed it in the pie dish and the other half I rolled out and made stars. I was kind of bothered that the pie filling was more pumpkin looking than all these other pies that I’ve seen and I think it’s because I used light brown sugar rather than dark brown. I think it has about 3% less molasses than dark brown sugar. So I baked the pie and I think that the tofu really worked as a leavening agent because that baby was almost as jiggly as a meringue. Well at least I remember those pies as jiggly and totally gross. But I just looked at my pie and it seems to have solidified a bit and not really jiggly which is kind of a bummer because it was pretty cool to look at when I moved it.

I made some fun stuff in the last two days that I didn’t take pictures of. Today I made my wonderful hummus which is hands down the best around. I like my hummus to be obnoxiously garlicky and rather thick which is why I burned out the motor on my first food processor. I did use lemon juice today instead of water because I had half a lemon which would have gone bad so I figured it wouldn’t hurt. Probably the only reason why I’m still with Nathan to this day is the fact that he loves that I over do the garlic. I keep him around just for that lovely garlic breath and great ego boost. Well, he is a great person and super awesome and sweet but really…garlic love!  So I made him a little hummus sandie for tomorrow and we had it for dinner since I was pretty pooped from cooking.

I also made wonton soup for lunch today which is relatively easy since we bought 6 packages of eggless wonton wrappers while we were down south since I have yet to buy a pasta machine. It’s kind of crazy because these wrappers are probably made by humans since they weren’t uniformally circular which was interesting to think about. So I made a bunch of wontons and froze about 25 for future soups and frying and boiled about 15 for lunch. The soup itself is rather easy…boil the wontons and add bok choy which bothers me since I love my soups full of veggies and tvp and rice. But the wontons are pretty filling and they totally are the reason why I ended up taking a nap afterwards.

Yesterday I tried out tofu scramble for the first time which had mixed results because of my own major mistake. I chopped up some onion, bell pepper and garlic and started cooking them up. Added the tofu and spices and totally forgot that I had taken the cap off my turmeric bottle that resulted in 1/8 of a cup in the pan…at the very least. So I tried to scoop it out but those spices stick like ticks and weren’t letting go of my lovely veggies and tofu. I made them ranchero style which is weird because growing up I never liked ranchero style eggs. But they sounded tasty….gods I really am growing up. So it ended up too turmeric but we ate it and I think the salsa helped but I’ll have to remember to dig out the cap for that spice bottle. I also made home fries which are just the best things and I didn’t really eat them until I went to denny’s. I remember my grandma and great-grandma making fried taters but I don’t remember them having other veggies and so therefore I don’t really consider them ‘home fries’ but instead super tasty taters. So I chopped half an onion, half of a bell, and only one tater which in retrospect was a mistake since the other veggies kind of overwhelmed the taters and I just wanted loads of fried taters. The home fries came out way better than the tofu scramble but I should have added at least another tater (or less veggies) but now I know. Ah how I love to learn.

So it seems that I’ve written way too much but I do love writing, I know…everyone can eye roll at that, but I should probably end this so I can do something else. One last comment, I’m so annoyed that vegan cookbooks don’t ever use TVP anymore which is just so handy in soups or grain/burrito/etc dishes. When I first started eating TVP I didn’t like it because I could taste it because it had no flavor. Then I realized that rehydrating it in a bouillon gave it so much flavor and actually made a soup or dish really tasty without making the protein stick out. Personally, I think that tofu and seitan stick out in dishes which is fine but sometimes I crave certain recipes that are more about flavor and aroma rather than the protein texture which is why I love TVP. So yes, I’m starting to actually keep a mental notebook on all the things that vegan cookbooks seem to lack. I need to buy a new notebook since my birds shredded my other one..don’t invest in a shredder! I’ll give you our birds. I still have to find that sopapilla recipe for my aunt (and for myself) since the birds munched my book.

Hopefully this doesn’t have too many typos and weird sentences since I’m so not going through this whole thing again. Take care and happy new year and eat good food.

kitty in a box

So today was sort of boring.

I didn’t really do anything exciting but I suppose we all have those days. I went over to the the other market which is on the west side of santa cruz but still the same chain because our local one hasn’t been carrying our favorite pizza sauce. It’s this really great stuff that is called Gia Russa, I think, and it’s imported and way pricey but damn it’s good sauce. I ended up buying 3 jars of it since I haven’t been on that side of SC for at least a year.

I think we’re becoming progressively spoiled when it comes to food because I must say Nathan and I were a bit disappointed with my pizza that I made in Bakersfield. And seriously, I gotta thank my mom for that pizza stone because i can really taste the difference in the crust. See, I’m spoiled. Anyway, I used a different sauce that turned out sweet which we didn’t like and then our dough rose for too long and I think it affected the taste, and then the mozzarella we used seemed to be like vegan cheese in that it didn’t melt…plus it tasted like crap.

I know I say I’m vegan but we still love eating cheese on our pizza and we’re not perfect so everyone can eat me. Considering all the food I make and the quality of the food I think that one little sin each week is pretty minor in comparison to other things. Plus the cheese we get is fresh, organic, and local so I feel that at least I’m making an effort. Anyway, now that I’m back home I was itching for Sat. for our pizza and boy did that pizza live up to our expectations. Although our market didn’t have basil this week it still was super yummy and fresh and goddamn was that sauce good. I don’t know how to describe it. I’ve used other sauces but they just don’t compliment the pizza as well.

Once I was finished with the dough I began my first attempt at making homemade Seitan. It’s actually pretty simple and I’ve been using it quite a bit and it’s rather pricey for only an 8oz. box. Especially considering the longest recipes take about a day and a half to make. I started with about 3.5 cups of whole wheat flour and then mixed in olive oil, soy sauce, pressed garlic, water, and some chili powder. I let it sit for an hour and then filled the bowl with cold water. I can’t wait until tomorrow to start the process of getting the starches out of the dough. There are faster ways of doing it but I didn’t have much time so it seemed easier to just let it sit. I’m already thinking of all these different types of seitan to make like a citrus-herb seitan that might mimic those lovely fish dishes that I used to love.

Did some laundry…pretty boring but I got a compliment from some guy about how it looked nice. Ended up cleaning the place up a bit and unpacked. The cats seemed to think that cleaning time was actually ‘act like crazies and knock crap over’ time. It was pretty funny at first but then they kept knocking over their litter box cover and peeling it out of the kitchen. I took out the recycling and replaced our paper bag with a modelo box which fe claimed right away.

So that is news from SC.

Purple Cauliflower and Purple Potato soup

Well today was another Farmer’s market day.

Yippy I was so excited since I hadn’t been in two weeks. I noticed some of the stands weren’t there and it seems that there isn’t much selection. A lot of dark, leafy greens, squash, and regular produce like onions, garlic etc. I picked up some broccoli raab (or rabe) which was nice since I haven’t seen it before and I’ve been wanting to try it out. I got this recipe in a mag I picked up a few weeks ago that has a broiled tofu with mango sauce that is set on top of broccoli raab so I thought I might as well try it.

I picked up some really pretty flowers: pink tulips and some other flowers that are a mix of yellow and orange which are just so festive. I’ve never cared for tulips mainly because everyone else seemed to like them which bothered me since there are so many great flowers out there. But they are kind of cute so I gave in a bought a bunch.

 So I posted last time that I had made some homemade seitan and had left it overnight to sit. I think I may have misunderstood the recipe directions because I was squeezing the seitan in the water which seemed to make the seitan come apart which ended up washing a larger portion of the ball than I would have liked. Eventually, I started dunking the ball in fresh cold water and then squeeze the water out over the bowl which really sped up the process. I was really amazed how the dough became harder and chewy in texture the more I squeezed out the starches. I then boiled the seitan in broth which was no-chicken bouillon with about .5cup soy sauce for an hour. Stuck in the fridge and waited for a recipe to come along.

I figured I’d make cauliflower soup today because the recipe sounded tasty since it was supposed to be curried. I don’t know if Nathan and I are flavor freaks but I put in 1Tbs. of curry and didn’t really taste it in the soup. Next time I’ll have to add more. Pretty basic recipe: cauliflower, onion, garlic, curry, and broth. I recently picked up some purple potatoes and thought I’d add them in and since they were purple I figured I’d also buy purple cauliflower at the market since it would look kind of interesting.  I boiled the potatoes separately which was loads of fun because it turned the water blue. Then I stacked the taters on top of each other so that I could take a nice pick. I seriously need to buy new bowls that are shallow just for pictures. The soup ended up being a dull purple and when I added the rice wine vinegar it gave it a redish hue and became more of a mauve. Interesting to me at least. So it didn’t come out super purple but it was still fun. Oh and I blended the soup so that it was smooth.

I started freaking out towards the end of the soup process that I was going to be hungry later on which is always an issue since I don’t really keep snacks around the house except for nuts and occasionally some blue corn chips. So I busted out my homemade seitan and Nathan looked a bit worried about my enthusiasm to use it. He later told me that he really wasn’t sure if the seitan would be any good since most people don’t make their own proteins. At the time I didn’t realize his hesitance since I was getting hungry. I minced some fresh rosemary and whisked it with about 3Tbs. of flour and some course sea salt. I dunked the seitan in the batter and fried them up in some olive oil. The last chunk got the crappy end of the dusting since i hadn’t anticipated that those suckers would be so flour friendly.

I know, I went a little photo happy with this post but it was such a weird and exciting dinner that I had to take pics. The seitan came out really tasty and tender and Nathan gave it two thumbs up. I noticed that my homemade seitan came out juicier and tender than the store bought stuff which wasn’t bad but different. I’ll have to make some more within the next day since it seems that homemade stuff is just as good and way cheaper than buying it. The soup was great (even though Nathan still thinks the taters were kind of creepy looking) and had a very strong cauliflower taste which seems obvious but I expected it to be milder but I suppose cooking it really released its flavor.  All in all, a great meal.

Happy Birthday to my Papi

So where to begin.

I’ve been sort of depressed this week because I had a horrible cooking day during the week. I’ve been really into making greek food since I got the food processor and especially since I haven’t made any in at least a year. So I decided to make falafel this week and was so pumped about mixing it all together and learning exactly what goes into a falafel ball. I whipped up a Tahini dressing to go on top and it was good enough to eat off the spoon (which I did).

So I had to let the falafel mix sit in the fridge for at least 30min so I come back and start heating up the oil to fry it in. Started shaping the patties and they weren’t holding together at all. I figured they’d harden up in the oil but they didn’t even really fry. So I thought maybe my oil wasn’t hot enough so I dumped the goop onto the plate and started over. The second batch held together alright but only because I was super careful when flipping them. They ended up breaking apart once I put them on the plate so that was lame. The third set of patties really got the brunt of my anger because I decided I was gunna let those babies fry until they decided to hold together. They didn’t….instead it turned into black charred goop. I don’t get it.

I ended up shoving the batter into the pita bread and then pouring Tahini sauce for dinner because I wasn’t going to make a second dinner and I was too mad to even think of getting take out. So I think the recipe is majorly wrong which seems weird since I know they test these recipes. Maybe they use crazy beans or something but I think the recipe needed more flour. To make matters worse I went to the market the next day and the stupid deli had cute, perfect falafel balls waiting to be bought. Arg, stupid recipe.

I’ll have to try it again since it actually is a pretty simple recipe but as for now I can’t deal. The rest of the week was somewhat uninspiring and we even ate out once because I was so over cooking after the falafel recipe. But it gave me an excuse to catch up on my knitting which I really needed to do.

Seriously, I tell Nathan he needs to lose some height because his scarf is taking so long. I keep knitting more stripes and then I’ll have him test the length and it’s still too short. So I’ve put his project to the side for a few days since there is only so much 1×1 ribbing that I can do without going crazy. I decided I’d buckle down and actually try double pointed knitting since it’s kind of essential to know for socks, mittens, small items, etc. It was really scary at first since the needles were flying all over the place and poking my hands in different areas, but once I got a few rounds knitted the needles became less mobile and the work is starting to show.

Kind of hard to see the detail since I’ve only done about 9 rounds but it should come together nicely. I didn’t really do a gauge test which is kind of important since knitters want the items to come out in a certain size. So I’m thinking that the mitten might be a bit big so I’m not sure if  I’ll try doing some decreases to make the wrist smaller or if I’ll just finish the one mitten for the learning experience and then do a gauge and start again.

I’ve been watching a lot of movies since I’ve been knitting and some of them weren’t all that great. Good movies but not was great as I had hoped. But I’m really weird and I thank my parents for giving me odd taste in things. I’ll let everyone know a secret…my dad actually secretly likes watching those blockbuster comedies that are really pretty bad and cheezeball. Think of Be Cool, Analyze That, etc. But of course my dad never would want to go see them with a friend or probably admit that he wanted to see it so I was his partner in crime. For a long time I felt totally embarrassed that I actually knew these movies rather than some cool indie movie since students (and professors too) tend to think that smart people should act smart which really translates to boring. Sure my dad is super smart and can do the intellectual talk but I still have that little reminder that he likes some cheezy movies.

But my mom doesn’t get off the hook either in giving me really weird taste because it’s totally her fault that I love those period movies. I’ve pretty much maxed out netflix’s period pieces and I’ve seen some of the worst BBC movies. Nathan totally brings up Eddie Izzard in Dress to Kill in which he makes fun of older British film genres in being subtle to the point of extreme boredom. But I must say I wouldn’t have gotten my Trivia Pursuit question right if it hadn’t been for the super boring Mansfield Park by the BBC. But now that I think about it my family really is to blame for pretty much all my movie interests. Like my grandpa totally got me into watching older movies (and oldie music) and my grandma got me hooked on those T.V. documentaries and educational programs. My cousins in El Sal. forced me to watch Sailor Moon and Thundercat which is probably why I’m into anime now and my abuelita and tias are to blame for those telenovellas and scandalous movies in which are so obviously over done but oh-so-great.

So I kind of went off track, but my point is that I’m really picky about movies and Nathan doesn’t think I have a consistent pattern. Let’s see…I watched Roxanne mainly because I have to build up all those movies that everyone has seen except for me. Wasn’t all that great and it seemed kind of lame that Daryl Hannah would fall for some guy she’s never talked to since she’s supposed to be some super smart astronomer. But I do love Shelley Duvall so that was fun. We watched the Dewy Cox movie and I was kind of disappointed in the actual movie which is strange since I usually like movies he’s been in but this one wasn’t as great as I had hoped. I’d probably think it was really great if I had been plowed but I suppose sometimes movies don’t live up to our expectations. I did enjoy the fact that it seemed like half the cast of 30 rock and the office were in that movie though…well I’m exaggerating but it was still cool.

Started to watch Dan in Real Life and I couldn’t take it and turned it off. I get that most movies are about upper class characters that  seem poorer than the are because they are down to earth and have issues like everyone else. But seeing those scenes with everyone hanging out and playing games and generally acting like they had been on way too many happy pills. “oh wow she’s great! She’s lived in Thailand, Germany, saved baby whales! ::lots of bouncing:: Wow she’s just so great!” Who seriously acts like that when the meet someone. Build a church after her then you bouncing blondie. So yes, couldn’t take that.

Anyway, I’ve been watching too many movies especially since it seems that cable shows are starting up. I really love watching some of these movies though and remembering how hot these actors were. Like James Spader was totally hot until I saw Stargate when I was younger and it ruined it for me. Or Alec Baldwin…I watched Married to the Mob awhile back and I seriously didn’t know he was ever that skinny or good looking. I think he’s still pretty nice to look at but 20 years really does change a person.

I don’t know why I’m even writing about all these movies but I suppose it’s easier to talk about that rather than the details of knitting or online gaming or something. I gotta be accessible to the masses.

Well the only other slightly interesting thing was that I made braised tofu over broccoli raab with a sweet veggie sauce. The recipe came from Vegetarian Times but I think I’m going to modify it a bunch but I’ll start off talking about the basics. So I made mango chutney which was pretty easy and probably not really an authentic version. Mango, garlic, apple cider vinegar, ginger, sugar, etc (I didn’t have any fresh peppers so I added two dried ones and some Cayenne pepper). Nothing to fancy and then I cooked it up. In a separate pot I heated oil and added onion and a bell pepper and let them soften up. Mixed in a tomato and the mango chutney. Cut up the tofu and brushed the sauce on top to give it a bit of flavor in the oven.

I had an issue with the flash so hopefully the two plate pics give a bit of variety. I tossed some coarse sea salt in with the greens to give them a bit of flavor and I thought it would stand nicely against the sweet and spicy sauce. Turned out really tasty but the tofu was a bit on the bland side. Not in a horrible way since the sauce and greens were mixed in and the tofu had a nice, barely crispy texture which was great. I just think it would have been better to make extra chutney and marinade the tofu before hand to let it absorb the flavors. It also seemed to be missing something which I will have to work on.

What a long post and all I did was talk about movies…and I’m probably going to watch some more now and work on my knitting.

Skank-o-pita

My buns hurt.

This typically happens on Wed. since I tend to ride all over the place getting food, doing laundry, and for some reason believe I’m super homemaker by attempting new and often complex dishes. I seriously think I put myself through some of this because I subconsciously believe that society is right in that I don’t work enough or hard enough. But I am working on this.

So let’s see. Did some laundry which was so exciting but I did work on Nathan’s project so it passed time. I saw a young woman there with her family (kid and partner/husband) and boy did she remind me of my Tia Marielos. The makeup, the sort of chubby-but-cute face, the bangs…it was weird. Except she looked nice. Not that my aunt isn’t nice but she’s pretty feisty, funny, and speaks her mind which doesn’t tend to lend itself to the ‘nice, sweet’ image. I could be wrong though. Anyway, I totally wanted to stare at her but I tried not to. It’s weird how genetics work like that…people look similar regardless of race, location, even gender which can sometimes be a little shocking. I only mean in the sense that our society tends to think in binary genders so seeing someone and not being sure of ‘what’ they are is sometimes shocking, uncomfortable, etc. But living in Santa Cruz we see it a lot so I’ve gotten used to seeing people as individuals rather than boy, girl, etc. And sure, I grew up with pretty smarty pant parents but we still didn’t live in places that saw these kinds of diversity. I’ll stop rambling now.

So anyway,  went down to the Farmer’s market and nothing new or interesting except….Celery Root!! I’ve been seeing some recipes with it and hadn’t seen it at the market so I’ve been keeping an eye out. It kind of reminds me of the Harry Potter movie when they’re planting these mandrakes that look like fat ugly babies that are all root colored and flabby. Not the sexiest of foods but still interesting. Now I gotta figure out where I saw those recipes since I spend have my free time looking up recipes and figuring out what I can change.

I kind of strolled down to Chefworks with the excuse that I really needed some stuff. I’ve been feeling kind of bad because I bought this cheap wooden pastry brush awhile back but I think it has animal hair. At the time I was thinking about cost since I didn’t think a brush would be all that useful. But alas, those brushes really are handy and I kept looking at the bristles and wondering if some poor horse or bunny or squirrel had been harmed. So I bought a cute little silicone one which I’m sure some third world citizen made and is living in horrible conditions by the factory. Well I doubt it but still I really do try. Bought a fancy little grater with two different gauges for baking and salad type stuff. I hate box graters because I find them sort of hard to clean. Just so you know. Lastly, I got a sort of needless item which is actually really handy, a oil/candy thermometer.

After the falafel day I decided it would be nice to know if my oil is too hot, especially since I’ve been kind of into frying stuff. Like today, I thawed some wontons I had made and didn’t realize I had let the oil get a little too hot. Mine turned out a bit too crunchy and although they tasted fine I felt like they absorbed way too much oil. So I gave Nathan the lightly fried ones since I’m giving like that. As a side I made a an imitation greek salad since I’ve been very greek lately. This one stand at the farmer’s market sells mixed bags of salad which I started getting because they look so festive. The only thing I don’t like about the stand is that it seems to always attract hipsters which is alright but they can be a bit pretentious. Well all groups can be but I like to shun all groups since most people annoy me…did I mention I’m becoming increasingly anti-social. Anyway, the salad mix even has flower petals which just so cheerful that it makes me actually want to eat salads more. Topped it off with some olives, artichoke hearts, red onion, and raspberry vinaigrette.

I need to start making a list for Nathan’s pros…maybe I’ll pick random ones but my #29 reason to keep him around is because he loved this lunch. I must say it was uber and beautiful. The artichoke hearts are a bit bulbous looking which is kind of funny but boy do I love those hearts. We’re kind of weird in that we like certain things to look a certain way or are just plain nutters on why we pick certain things rather than similar ones. Like the artichoke hearts, I didn’t want to get canned ones because I, for some reason,  feel like I might die from eating them or they will just suck in general. Probably that whole early canning industry thing weirded me out since it doesn’t make sense for me to be freaked out in this era. So Nathan reached at the top of the rack to get me my special glass packaged hearts but he’s into weird stuff too so it works out.

I’ve been waiting all week to make spanakopita which I kept referring to as ‘Skank-o-pita’ because I forgot to take the time to read the name properly and it was jsut so fun to say. I bought a box of frozen phyllo dough and stocked up on some spinach last week but didn’t get around to making it until today. Really fun, tiring and annoying all at the same time. It started off fine and I even partially made Tabbouleh since everything was pretty mellow. I cooked down the green onions, garlic, and spinach and then mixed it in with the hand-crumbled firm tofu. Mixed in some spices and the filling was good to go. The problem started with the dough because I figured that I had achieved a certain rank in cooking and could underestimate the delicacy of the dough. Well to be honest it wasn’t totally my fault since it was wrapped in plastic and taped which ended up tearing some of the sheets since I didn’t think the tape would be so hard to break. The tear had a ripple effect and it was kind of hard to separate the sheets. Plus I didn’t anticipate how much room all this crap needs. I like to think I have decent kitchen space because of our island but I really should have cleared off the counter more for the sheets. Anyway, layered them and oiled them up, dropped some filling and made them into triangles. I also should have wrapped them better since some of the edges were just dough so the filling wasn’t as spread out. Started popping them in the oven and I think the timing or the oven temp. was off because they really didn’t turn a dark golden color but I was too tired and hungry to care since they were cooked and toasty.