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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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…