Kiefer Sutherland?!?

This...















becomes this:















I was pretty skeptical about these at first. Actually, I was really geekily excited about these at first because I felt so wholesome buying the whole wheat berries at the coop, but then when I actually got the berries in the blender and then added the milk and started actually blending them I was totally freaked out. And then after that when I started pouring them into the pan, I was skeptical. I was like, "I have ruined supper and all it was was pancakes! I am such a dork!". We have run the gamut of emotions on these pancakes. What a fun way to spend a beautiful Sunday early evening, huh? But I really liked them, on one condition- SERVE WITH SOME KIND OF FANCY SAUCE AND CHOCOLATE CHIPS! Then they are perfect.
Recipe from here, I changed the amount of oil and of course soymilk.

Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes with Rhubarb Strawberry Sauce

1 C whole wheat berries
2 T sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 T oil
1 1/2 C soymilk

Blend berries and milk (start with 1 1/4 C milk and add more if needed to make pourable batter). Blend slowly and then more and more. Blend a lot. Blend more than you might expect. Blend until you fear for your blender. Then say, "Oh, what the heck!" and blend some more.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Set batter aside for 5 - 10m to 'develop' (sounds menacing, don't it?).

Meanwhile, start your sauce. Boil some water to blanch the rhubarb in. Once it's boiling, dump the rhubarb in and cover and wait for it to boil again. Then take it off the heat and dump it into a colander/strainer and run cold water over it to stop it's cooking. Continue with sauce preparation...

Sauce;
2 C rhubarb
1 C strawberries
1/4 C maple syrup

Combine all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl, mix and nuke for 2m, let rest and nuke again for 2m (should be bubbling). Tada! Sauce!

Get out your trusty old cast iron skillet. Or non-stick pan* -shudder- (just kidding there, haha). Grease it up with oil (I just pour some in and then use a paper towel to drag it around and cover the whole surface- is that bad?). Heat it up. Pour out two small pancakes, wait until edges bubble and center does not shine and flip! and cook for a little less time than you did the first side. If they start smoking, you should flip them (ask me how I know). Repeat 3 more times for a grand total of 8 pancakes.

Serve with yummy rhubarb strawberry sauce and chocolate chips.

*actually, a nonstick pan might work better because these things are pretty sticky- to be completely frank, I practically fried these- I mean, it wasn't an inch of oil in the pan or anything, but it was sure a lot more oil than I'm used to using. Maybe I am oil phobic.

Hey, I read "Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton. I thought it was boring at first, but then I got all dragged into it and couldn't put it down. It's just a simple story, but boy do you want to know what REALLY happened. So then the book it was in is this compilation of 3 of her earlier novels so I'm reading another one something something country it's called. Huh.

I worked another wedge on my scarf you guys are probably all like, gads! woman, just show us a picture already or something. It's not done. Maybe I'll rework it in the OmegaCrys I got. Maybe I'll design a baby sweater next from the OmegaCrys, actually. I've got a few ideas knocking around I'd like to try out.

In other news I must relate a conversation I had recently with a girlfriend;

Her; "Have you heard of Keffir?"
Me; "The Keeper? (facial expression- bur?) Yes, I've read about it on a few forums."
Her; "The Keeper, what's that?"
Me; "Ah, (insert awkward explanation here)."
Her; "...not something you'd really want to try for the first time at your high school gym class, huh?"
Me; "Ah ha ha, no. Talk about a tragedy you'd never live down."
Her; "No, I said 'Keffir'."
Me; (still reeling from that last part of the conversation) (jokingly) "Kiefer Sutherland, yah, he's hot!"
Her; "NO, Keffir- you know, it's like this yogurt drink!"
Me; (finally getting it) "Oooh, ah ya I've seen it at the coop."

Now that's comedy gold right there, folks.

You pansy!

Look what I found on our front stoop yesterday!! Isn't he beautiful (maybe it's a she)? Did you know that the eardrum of a toad is bigger than it's eye if it's a boy and smaller if it's a girl? Don't say I never share with you...

Well, I keep thinking that I want to show you the yarn I got at the Mexican grocery, but I didn't want to keep calling it that, 'cause that sounds bad and I should be more accurate. So I thought, okay, I'll go online and figure out the name of this place (I did look last time, but then it flew right out of my head!). So I google, mexican grocery sparta wi and this is what I come up with! Scandal! It's dated '05 and I don't really have any way to verify any of it, so take it with a grain of salt. Anyway, they're there now, so I guess it blew over?/was resolved somehow.

So I went to La Tienda Mexicana a few weekends ago and got some yarn!!! It's OmegaCrys and it's a acrylic poly blend. And it's pink!!






















It's laceweight, so heaven knows why I got it, oh yea, that's right, it's yarn. I envision a baby blanket of some kind?

Also we got our CSA veggies, week 2! I'm most excited about rhubarb, in fact, I'm fantasizing about making more microwave jam using rhubarb and strawberries... I'm guessing I'd have to cook the rhubarb a little first somehow. I love rhubarb- I used to run around outside in the summer in our back yard as a kid sucking on a big stick of it. Weird.


spring onions!















some unidentifiable herbs because I forgot my sheet!















arugula which I had to eat all by myself because my husband hates it!













lettuce! I think it's ?butter? lettuce!












more broccoli! we have to eat this tonight, probably with tempeh!












the rhubarb I'm so excited about- I even forgot to get one more stalk in there!!!!














the few radishes that were left (we snacked on these on the way home- yum!)













the pansies I forgot to show you last time...












That's it folks. Maybe I will go start reading Wharton.

Saucy Garbanzos and Rice

Oh, man, we had the best supper tonight! I got ahold of some sumac earlier, and decided it would be good in some sauce, and oooohhh boy was I right! I can't wait to use this in mac 'n cheeze!!

Saucy Garbanzos and Rice

1 C rice, uncooked

1 can garbanzos, drained

sauce;
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T Earth Balance

1/4 C nutritional yeast
1 C plain soymilk
2 T flour
1 t sumac
1/4 t turmeric
1/4 t salt
dash pepper

Cook your rice.

Saute garlic in Earth Balance, remove from heat. Meanwhile, whizz together the rest of the sauce ingredients (in blender or just shake up in a jar/tupperware/lidded whatever) and add to garlic and butter. Cook on high, whisking constantly, until thick, remove from heat, dump in garbanzos and cover. Serve over rice. Channel the voice of Homer when he sees a donut (ahglaglahhhh).

We also got our CSA veggies- pics of those tomorrow... but we used the arugula to make a yummy salad! Here's the dressing I used for a large bowlful of arugula;

Easy dressing

2 T water
1 T olive oil
1 t maple syrup
1 t red cooking wine
1/4 t Dijon mustard
1 tiny clove garlic, minced

Whizz in blender, et voila! The sweetness was just the right thing to have with the fresh bite of the arugula!

Finished the book, some parts were good, especially the emotional parts, but some of the technical details of how to bring the story along were awkward. There, I said it. Next up, some Edith Wharton. Woo.

I got yarn today!!!!! And it's pretty cool yarn, too! She found it at goodwill for pete's sake! Stashed away. Otherwise, no knitting. It's hot!

Burro Pockets

Burro Pockets

1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T olive oil
1/4 C TVP
1 can black beans, drained

sauce;
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 10 oz can enchilada sauce
1/4 C nutritional yeast
1 t cumin
1 t oregano

dough;
2 1/2 C AP flour
1 C water
2 T yeast
2 t salt
1/4 C oil

Mix all dough ingredients in mixer (or by hand, you Luddite). Knead a little. Allow to rise, covered with a towel, for 30m in a turned off low oven.

Meanwhile, blend all sauce ingredients in blender or food processor.

Saute onion and garlic in oil, then add black beans, TVP and sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, until TVP is cooked and sauce is thickened.

Oil 2 baking sheets and pour a small bowl of water.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Remove dough from oven and punch down. Knead a little. Shape into a ball and divide into 8. Cover with a towel or proceed with filling the pockets.

Roll out your 8th of a ball into an oval. Lay it on your baking sheet and place 1/8th of your filling onto half of the oval. Lightly wet the 'bottom' half of the oval all around the edge and bring the 'top' over the filling to meet the bottom edge and press the edges together with your fingertips.

Bake for 15m or until golden brown.

Yummmm.
These were a riff off of my Camel Pockets. Pretty good, I wasn't in love with the sauce for some reason, but in the end they tasted good. I'll probably keep tinkering around with different fillings. Wrap anything in that bread and it would taste good!

Making progress in the book- it sort of is contrived, like, suddenly when we need backstory we meet a convenient character for her to dump her past history on, plus I was just getting into the real time story and was wrenched back into the past and I'd stopped caring about that...

No knitting progress.

By the way, donkeys are really interesting.

Jam on bread and jam on toast!

This represents the strawberry jelly we made yesterday... it was really good!
Whee! It was really easy and we got to have jam for dessert, jam on bread and jam on toast, jam is the thing I love the most, J - A - M spells JAM! (Thank you, Frances).
We didn't have any pectin, but we did have lots of strawberries we needed to use, and quick! Maybe you do, too!

Microwave Jam

2 C crushed strawberries (approximately 3 1/3 C fresh)
1 1/4 C sugar
1 1/2 T lemon juice
1/2 t Earth Balance, softened

Place berries in a microwave safe bowl and mix in rest of ingredients. If the strawberries have not released their juices (naughty!) then crush them some more and wait up to 30m.

Cook on high, uncovered, until mixture begins to boil (approximately 7m, depending on your microwave). Stir.

Cook in 2m increments 3 more times, stirring after each 2m until you have cooked the mixture 13m total.

Put a spoonful into a small dish and place into the freezer to cool, then check for consistency- if you want it thicker, bring to boiling again, boil 2m and test again.

Makes 2 C.

Only 12 more wedges on my scarf to go!! We'll see if it stretches out into a reasonable length for a scarf once I wash it!!!! Eeeee!!!!

Started reading a book I started waaaay back and put down as 'too frivolous', but now frivolity is the order of the day, 'I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone' by Stephanie Kuehnert. I don't know if it's out yet, it was on the advance reader bookshelf at my local bookstore. So far, so fun. Okay, I just checked, it's out right now. She even has a playlist for the book at her website.

Summer Fun!

Whee! We have some friends in from out of town and we've been having fun!! These kinds of things are what really make summer great!

We went strawberry picking and last night we had Strawberry Rhubarb Pie and we used this recipe, substituting 1 C sugar for 1 C honey. We also skipped the arrowroot and just used 1/4 C flour and 1 T cornstarch. And we used this recipe for the crust! Thanks Kittee! It turned out soooo super nice, although we used regular wheat flour instead of pastry so it was hard to handle without cracking... BUT it did not get soggy (even when we forgot to prebake it) and it was so tasty and good! Oh, and we doubled it to make a lattice top- so pretty! My friend did such a great job with it, I'm afraid she got stuck with the tricky dough while I made Tofu Paprikash. She also whipped up a great warm vinagrette type dressing with some spring onions from her garden for the spinach and it was so yummy! Did I luck out or what?

Pie crust;
1 C flour
1 C ww pastry flour
2/3 C vegetable shortening
1 t salt
up to 1/2 C water

Filling;
4 C rhubarb cut into 3/4" pieces
1 C sugar
2 C strawberries
1/4 C flour
1 T cornstarch
1/2 t cinnamon

Make dough, cutting shortening into flour, then adding water SLOWLY until dough sticks together and handles well. Roll out half of the dough and fit into pie dish. Cut 2nd half into strips.
Meanwhile, mix all filling ingredients together.
Pour into pie crust, cover with lattice, weaving strips over and under each other and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.
Mmmm.





























My friend also brought some hummus she'd made from some garbanzo beans she ordered- she had had them at an Indian restaurant when they lived in Japan and the translation from Japanese is 'black garbanzo'. It makes a really good hummus! You can see the color is kind of caramel-y and the texture is more texture-y.

Hope you're enjoying the summer too! It's finally here!

Dunno.

Hey guess what? I read a book this weekend, and my, it was dark.
I read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Yes, another post-apocalyptic novel. This time, no speculation/allusions are made as to why it happened, or what really caused it.
It was good.
I actually read Cormac McCarthy in college, maybe sophomore year, out loud on a long trip across America.
At first his writing style grated on me- it's very sparse etc. etc. And I always catch myself asking "Why does everybody love this guy?" BUT there is a SPOILER happy ending so I guess that I can forgive all. Plus he ends it so well. Lots of hope. Kind of a perspective shift.
He really is excellent at communicating a lot with just a few words. There are many times in the story where he just alludes to one thing and it gives off this whiff of a whole world of things.
I think it hit home because I have kids now and some of the story is sort of how a parent's baggage can impact how you raise your child. Also, zombies. No, wait, no zombies, just Eaters, no wait, he doesn't call them that...























These pictures are of mock orange blossoms. Apparently they smell very good, I couldn't tell you because I have horrible allergies. Ah well. I thought they were pretty. No, that's not my table, we were at Grandma and Grandpa's this weekend.

More knitting but then all of a sudden I realized that I knit a wedge backwards and had to rip back- arrrrrrrgh!

I totally made it!

I totally made the Lentil Salad from Veganomicon! I used all four of the radishes (wow- were they ever sweet and good!) and left out the carrots and tomatoes (didn't have any). Actually, I didn't have balsamic so I subbed apple cider vinegar, didn't have red onion so subbed yellow. I also added a wee bit of sugar. Oh yeah, and I used brown lentils instead of French. And it turned out well, a nice change of pace. A great start to summer!

Lentil Salad (as made by me)

4 C water
heaping T veg broth powder
1/2 t thyme
3-4 leaves Indian bay
1/2 t tarragon
1/4 t salt
1 C lentils, uncooked
1/4 onion, finely chopped
4 small radishes, grated

Bring broth, thyme, bay leaves, tarragon and salt to a boil in large pot. Add lentils and bring to a low boil, cover, leaving a gap, and cook 20m.
Make dressing meanwhile.
Drain lentils in mesh colander and pick out bay leaves.
Toss with dressing in a large bowl and chill until ready to serve.
Serve over lettuce.

dressing
2 T olive oil
1 T cider vinegar
1/4 t sugar
1 T dijon mustard
1 t bottled lemon juice
1 T water
1 clove garlic

pulse in blender until garlic is gone.

Stay cool!

CSA!

Woo! We got our CSA veggies in!!! It's all so gorgeous!
top to bottom, left to right;
broccoli, tatsoi
bok choi, spinach
radishes, lettuce!

I am particularly psyched about the spinach!! It looks so good.
I googled tatsoi, and I guess mostly you eat it raw, but you can saute it, too!
We will be gone this weekend, so we're taking it on the road... sharing the bounty, as it were.
Most of this we'll just eat raw, I'm thinking. Seems like the right thing to do. Maybe a light saute/stir fry of the bok choi. We had some of the lettuce for supper last night and it was so good!!

Hope your weekend it great!

Simple is Better

Well last night I made red lentil soup, which is always an exercise in restraint, because sometimes simple is better!

Red Lentil Soup

3 C red lentils
8 C water
1/4 C olive oil
1-2 onions, roughly chopped
3-4 cloves garlic*, sliced
1 t cumin
1 t coriander
1 t salt
1/2 t lemon

In a large, heavy bottomed pot, saute the garlic and onions until the onions are browning and carmelized.
Meanwhile, rinse lentils until water runs clear.
Add spices and salt to onions, mix well, add lentils, mix well, add water, stir, bring up heat to a boil, lower heat and simmer until lentils are soft.
Remove in batches to blender, adding water if necessary to get a consistency you like.
Stir in lemon juice and serve with bread.

*depends on the strength of the garlic-- some garlic is stronger than others!!

No reading, no knitting. Lots of tea parties and birthdays were celebrated yesterday (yes, I live with a 3 year old).

I leave you with this.

Great Caper Bake

This, I thought, was reaally good!! It's Isa's Cesar Salad Dressing from Veganomicon, baked.

I have these capers I bought a long time ago for some reason I can't quite remember (pizza was involved somehow?) and so I've been wanting to use them in something. Well, I looked and looked and found cesar salad dressing recipes. But I didn't have any tofu. So I made this and it was great!!

This is Isa's recipe halved without the tofu. Am I weird that I just took dressing and made it a sauce? And I find it humorous that I look for a recipe to 'use up my capers' but it really only uses 1 t of capers. Next time I'll double it and make a 9 x 13" casserole, plus it was so good, I'm glad I've got lots of capers now!

Great Caper Bake

2T whole, slivered or sliced almonds or 1 T almond butter
2 cloves garlic
2 T olive oil
1 t capers
1 T caper brine
1/2 t sugar
1/2 t prepared dijon
1/4 t pepper
1/2 t salt
1/2 C water

1/2 pkg. Morningstar Farms chick'n strips
1/2 16 oz box or 3 C uncooked pasta

Blend sauce ingredients. Place chick'n strips in a large bowl and pour sauce over to marinate while you prepare the pasta.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Boil water and then pasta.
Drain pasta and add to sauce and chick'n, mixing well.
Pour into oiled 9 x 9" casserole.
Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 30-35m (sauce should be thick on the bottom or mostly absorbed).
Enjoy! (8 points per fourth).

SOON! Soon! we will have our CSA delivery!!!! I cannot wait! Veggies, ho!

Minimal knitting. A few 'wedges'. No reading, sorry folks.

I was recently introduced to the work of Swedish artist, Carl Larsson, and I particularly liked this picture- it looks like someone has just left their knitting.

Eating Rajmah

Last night we had... yes, I know I need a new opening line!
Hmm, how about, 'After a rousing bout of Uno...' (we did not play Uno) we ate Rajmah. Kinda sounds like we ate some poor hapless guy, don't it? But no cannibals are we. Rajmah is an Indian dish made with kidney beans. Susan already did it. But I found a recipe that uses canned kidney beans, of which I had many. I doubled everything except the spices, didn't add salt because the canned kidney beans had salt and I added 1 T sugar because it was pretty tangy, I don't know why. It was pretty good and after eating it for a while, I really liked it (?it had to grow on me?).

Rajmah

2 cans kidney beans, drained
1 can tomatoes, drained
2 T oil
1 onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t Trader Joe's ginger jarred (was this the tangy culprit?!)
2 t coriander
2 t cumin
1 t tumeric
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t garam masala
bay leaf
pinch cardamom
pinch cloves
pinch cinnamon
1/4 t pepper
1 C water

Saute onion and garlic, add ginger and spices. Add tomato and beans, cover with water and simmer until thick.

I called one of my favorite yarn shops yesterday to see if they had more of the yarn I'm using and they did, so I asked them to hold it for a week. I wasn't sure if I'd have enough to make this short rows scarf I'm working on. So I told myself that if I knit like the wind for one week, then I'll use up the skein I have and know whether or not to get the second.

Well, I then proceeded to rewind it into a smaller centrepullball than the centrepullball I'd already wound, checking to see if the repeats of color made enough for another length of scarf, which they did. Hey, why are you backing away like that and shaking your head? Hey, where are you going? Come on, now, don't you wind into a centrepullball skeins of yarn that are already made to pull from the center? What? No?

Anyway, it turns out that I have enough yarn for a whole 'nother repeat plus a little more. So I should have enough. But I'll still try to knit like the wind this week and see where I end up. So no reading, probably.

Everytime I make rice lately I end up pondering something while I stir and stir the rice with my fingers under the faucet in the wire strainer- I read somewhere that if you rinse the rice, you rinse off all the vitamins and stuff they spray onto the rice, but if I don't rinse my rice, it makes a terrible mess in my rice cooker*. This conundrum is completely representative of so many things in my life I can't even tell you. Next time I think of one I'll tell you and call it 'the white rice conundrum'.

*Not to mention the fact that I SHOULD be using brown rice anyway!! And the fact that I'm wasting water as I wash the rice under running water!! Agh!

More, more, more!

Well, this weekend I made lentil walnut dip and pancakes (amongst other things*).

First the pancakes. I used my standard go to recipe for the pancakes from vegweb- Easy Pancakes. Except, this time I really broke with tradition and *gasp* didn't wait the recommended 5-10 minutes between mixings, hey! I didn't even mix it twice, really, just folded the chips in after blending everything in the blender.

Seriously, it takes 2m or so on one side to cook, then 1m or so on the other, twelve pancakes, do the math, starving kid and husband... not gonna happen.

And guess what? The world did not collapse around me! Ha ha, no, really they turned out fine. The first few pancakes are always kind of strange anyway, right? Right?!?

Easy (Blender or not) Pancakes

2 1/2 C AP flour
2 T sugar
2 T baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
2 1/2 C soymilk
1 T veg oil
1/4 C chocolate chips

Dry, then wet. Or just dump everything (not the chips!!!) in the blender and mix, stopping to scrape sides.
Do not overmix or they will be rubbery.
Fold in chips.
Cook on med high (I start at 6, then 4 then 3 as the skillet get hotter).

One time I reserved 1/4 C of the batter and added 1/4 C applesauce and 2 t cinnamon and then used it to pour swirl patterns into the freshly poured pancake. Fancy.

Lentil Walnut Dip

















The dip was gooood! I had this veggie soup I'd frozen that I thawed out and then added some teeny tiny stars pasta to it that I had gotten at the Mexican grocery. But it was a pretty light soup, so the dip and crackers made for a really nice lunch.

Then I turned the dip into casserole, but I blogged that yesterday.

This weekend we worked on the garage and I had a chance to organize my stash a little. Still needs work, but I'm one step closer.

No reading. You guys are going to think I'm some sort of book dilettante or something. Must. finish. Distraction.

Must get more yarn! Must get fun new spice to try experiments with! More later!

*we tried these smoked apple sage sausages and were they ever good and juicy!!

I Can Has Drape?

Well, last night we had casserole. Yes, my favorite thing to do with leftover sauce is make casserole, you got a problem with that?
I had made Lentil Walnut Dip, which, by the way, was great, it just made a lot, so...

















Lentil Walnut Broccoli Casserole

11/2 C lentil walnut dip
1 C plain soymilk
2 C rice, uncooked
1 T oil
1 onion, diced
1 t salt
1 package frozen broccoli, thawed and stems removed
1/2 package fake chicken, cut into small pieces

Saute onion, chicken. Cook rice. Mix dip with milk, salt, onions and broccoli. Mix rice in when done. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30m and 10m uncovered.

This was kind of bland. Hearty, yes. Filling, yes. Wholesome, yes, pretty much. But bland. So next time I'd add !more oil!, more salt?, garlic and some spices. Now, what spices go with lentils and walnut? I imagine things like sage and thyme. But really, this was mostly a way to use up that dip and get a supper out of it- mission accomplished.

I stopped reading Distraction with much excitement when SPOILER the author let slip that the protagonist was going to screw over his love interest.

In the world of short row scarves there is excitement! I finally have knit enough to determine that the scarf will have nice drape!!!! Isn't that cool?!? And the prognosis for "Does she have enough yarn to actually pull this off?" looks good.

See ya!

Business As Usual

Well, this was supposed to have looked a lot different than it did, folks, but I ran out of time! It's Kibbeh and it came from this post. What I ended up serving was the mixture before you let it cool, knead it and mix it and then shape it into ovals. What can I say... I have two small children? Yes, that's it.

Kibbeh

1 C red lentils
2 1/2 C water
1/2 C fine grain bulghur (#2 grade)*
2 T olive oil
1 onion, diced fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 t tomato paste (I used 1 T ketchup, I cannot tell a lie)
1 1/2 t paprika (could have used more)
1 t tarragon
1 t salt
pepper to taste
1/2 t lemon juice

*or grind it in a coffee grinder

Ideally you are supposed to cook the lentils in the water until they are mushy (20-30m), meanwhile sauteing the onions and garlic, and then dump the lentils over the bulghur and let that set for half an hour. But I was in a hurry, so I nuked 2 C of water 'til boiling (5 min in my microwave in a 2 C pyrex measuring cup) and dumped that over the bulghur while the lentils cooked. Then I drained the bulghur and dumped it into the pot where I had mixed the onions, garlic, spices and red lentils and cooked it until it was thick.

You can make lots of different kinds of kibbeh- with potato, in a tray, with pumpkin (scroll down, it's in the comments), or even in soup.

I even found this recipe which made me curious about sumac, and got me thinking about those sumac growing up at my parents-in-law! I call ultimate locavore if I grind my own sumac and use it!

Well, that's it for today... no reading yesterday and some knitting. Making some progress again after changing it all up one more time.

Well hello there...

Last night we had Esme's sauce with brown rice and edamame.

Esme's sauce

2 T tahini
2 T miso
2 T soy sauce
2 T olive oil
1/4 C nutritional yeast
1 T prepared mustard (I used dijon 'cause I'm fancy like that)
1 clove garlic, minced fine

Mix together and heat over stove. Add water to get sauce consistency you like!

Distraction continues apace. Suddenly there has been a reversal! Actually, I was thinking about it and it is an interesting question to consider whether things in our world will continue on like they always have amid dire predictions, or if, finally, some of our actions will come home to roost and the world will be very changed for our children. We feel a lot of guilt and possibly premonition about our future and so I guess that's why apocalyptic fantasy is fun/cathartic.

Ahem, I have changed the knitting pattern yet again. I would lower my eyes in shame except that I make no apologies for wanting to try new, fun things. Dudes, it's my hobby! So now I'll be experimenting with a new stitch for a bit to see what that gets me.

Oh yeah, so last night there were no bowls left in the house, and my husband likes to have a bowl of cereal sometimes before bed. So I come into the livingroom and see this measuring cup with a spoon in it with traces of soymilk there in the bottom and I look at him and say "Using a measuring cup for your cereal, huh?" and he says yes and then I say "Desperate times call for desperate measures." and then I realize what I've said is sort of a pun so I go, "Measures, measuring cup, desperate measures! Get it?!? Ha ha!". I hope you have enjoyed this moment in our lives.

Spicy Black Beans and corn tortillas

Last night we had spicy black beans with corn tortillas and refried beans. It was really filling and good! I got tired of looking at that Maseca in my refrigerator and not knowing what to do with it, so I improvised a tortilla recipe using my flatbread/tortilla recipe (left out the brown sugar, only used 1/4 C oil) and it turned out well! I found the spices from a post on vegweb but of course I couldn't find it again for the love of me!

1/2 C TVP (or you could use Boca or even tofu, frozen and crumbled)
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 T chili powder
1 t cumin
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1 t oregano
1 t salt
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T oil

Blend/food process together 1/2 of the can of tomatoes and 1/2 of the can of beans.
Saute onion and garlic, add spices and TVP and mix well.
Add to the onion and garlic the other half cans of beans and tomatoes and the blender ingredients.
Cover and bring to a boil, uncover and lower heat and simmer until thick.

Corn tortillas

1 1/2 C AP flour
1 1/2 C MaSeCa
1/4 C oil
1 t salt

Mix together, then slowly add water until it makes a ball; I used roughly 1 1/2 C water, your mileage may vary.
Make into a ball, flatten out a little and cut into eighths. Roll out thin and cook on a hot skillet until bubbling up and then flip and cook other side until brown spots appear.

Finished the exit wounds book- double meh. She ends the story with this wide open hanging open type of deal, you never find out what happens with the characters- lazy! No, I mean, it really bothers me. Maybe I'm supposed to all just 'decide on my own' what the rest of the story is, possibly she's trying to empower me or something, to free me from the restraints of the traditional reader/story constraint, but really? please. Lame.

Started Distraction by Bruce Sterling- it's ?I think? supposed to be sort of canonical sci fi, like really early good stuff and so far it's pretty good- different than recent sci fi, but that's to be expected. Mostly it's an exploration of what might happen in America if certain things (the internet, freedom of information) exploded. Pretty masculine. But I like it. I'm kind of waiting for a twist or I guess the climax of the story.

In knitting news, still cranking on the scarf, actually knitting it now instead of just trying to find a satisfactory way to knit it. Am afraid I will run out of yarn. Should have left provisional cast on on so that scarf can suddenly be a cowl.

Cheazy Hamburger and Mac

Well, there it is in all it's glory! I made my standard 'hamburger helper' recipe with the new golden cheaze sauce and it was good!

1 can beans (anything but black)
2 C water (one can full)
1/4 heaping C nutritional yeast
1/4 C pimento/chopped pickled red bell pepper
1/4 C ketchup
1 t onion powder
1 t salt
1/2 t yellow mustard
Blend.
1 onion, chopped
1-2 packets Boca ground beef
1 T oil
Saute.

6-8 oz pasta

Add blended ingredients to sauteed. Add pasta. Bring up heat and simmer until pasta is done and sauce is nice and thick.

Makes approximately 4 C at 26 points total to give you 6 points per cup.

Started a new book, it is a comic type of thing called exit wounds by rutu modan. Kinda dark so far.

And of course I didn't keep the knitting the same. But NOW I think I have the perfect pattern. Enough so that I'm continuing on past the first section, which I swear I have ripped out 20+ times. That pink yarn was looking preeeety fuzzy.

DIY Shrinky Dink Experiential

We just did this and it was so fun!!!!!!
First, get your #6 plastic and cut it into reasonable pieces with no imprints or anything.
Then, get your magic eraser and scrub and scrub them...
















'til they look like this;



















Then color! We used some permanent markers and some colored pencils. The colored pencils gave a much more iced/blurred/frosted look than the marker.


















Haha, oops, yes that is my coffee mug...


















The color will look like hardly anything, but remember, as it shrinks up, the color will concentrate.

Now you can cut and hole punch holes in them. The hole punch sized hole makes a perfect small hole for a jump ring.























Bake at 350 degrees until they stop shrinking- they will contort and curl and look all crazy but do not fear! Eventually they settle down! I used parchment paper and they came out all nice and flat.
Now you can sand them or whatever! Those sharp corners are sharp!




















The second one from the left was the colored pencil one and it's design was less sharp. I colored on both sides and got a cool layered effect from it! I really liked the marker ones... if you cut out quarter sized circles, they make nice stitch markers or zipper pulls!



















Woo! Have fun!

Ribz Redux

Okay, I changed my mind... writing and saying, especially, ribz, with that zzzzzzzzz at the end, is just too fun!

Let's see, what else did I make this weekend? We went to the farm and I made a Baked Lentil casserole, but doubled it and added some other stuff to jazz it up, like onion powder, garlic powder, onion soup mix, grape jelly!, and veggie broth. Much better. Put that over rice and shazzam! it's an easy, good casserole. At least I think so. Next time I make it maybe I'll make it with molasses for the honey, or maple syrup!

I also used the rest of the pumpkin almond sauce mixed with some spaghetti, put it in a casserole, put some bread crumbs on top mixed with sage and paprika, drizzled it with some olive oil and had a nice spaghetti bake. Also easy.

I might give up on the fire book, because it's so boring to read about these characters that I've already met. Their backstory is just not that gripping when you're like "Oh, yeah, I knew that about Juney." or "Oh wow, so that's how Mike and Signe hooked up.". It sort of loses the romance when you already know the outcome. Perhaps I will start yet another book.

I have been knitting, and ripping, and knitting and ripping the short row scarf and think I finally have something I like, but talk to me tomorrow. Not too many stitches, nice shaping, complicated yet mindless in it's own way. Oh, plus I thought up a baby cardigan that might be fun. I know, how is this a knitting blog with no actual things to show, right? Sorry peeps. So far I'm keeping everything under wraps. You'll just have to come here for the food.

aaaand...casserole!

So last night I did what I said I'd do with the rest of Lachesis' Alfredo Sauce and made a casserole. I was so pleased when it turned out!! It was a rainy, stormy night and a casserole pulled out of the oven seemed just right.

Green Bean Casserole

sauce;
1/2 C Earth Balance
2 C soymilk
1 pkg extra firm silken tofu
2 T white cooking wine
2 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
2 t salt
1 t pepper
pinch nutmeg
2 T cornstarch

Mushrooms, 5-6, diced
1 can green beans
1/2 onion, diced
1 T oil
2 C minute rice
1 pkt Boca ground beef
1 1/2 C water

Blend all ingredients in blender except cornstarch. Make a slurry of the cornstarch with a little water. Pour blended ingredients into medium size pot on stove. Heat. Add cornstarch and bring up heat, stirring constantly until thick and just bubbly.

Use 2 C of the sauce and reserve the rest for yummy, yummy pasta.

Mix 2 C sauce and sauteed onions, Boca and mushrooms, a can of green beans, and 2 C minute rice. Add 1 1/2 C water and mix well. Pour into oiled 9 x 13" pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes covered, then 20 minutes uncovered or until browned.


Tried again to work the short rows scarf with larger needles using garter ridge, just could not make it work. Even though garter uses more yarn than stockinette, I'm sticking with it. Trying a new way to proportion the stitches over the needle, back to garter. We'll see how this works out.

No reading yesterday.

Hit me with your best shot

Last night I tried Lachesis' Alfredo Stroganoff and it was gooooo-oood!

Alfredo

1/2 C Earth Balance, softened
2 C unsweetened soymilk (I used powdered that we keep around for baking/cooking)
1 pkg extra firm silken tofu
2 T white cooking wine (I used red 'cause that's how I roll, no, that's what I had)
2 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
2 t salt (cut this down to 1 next time)
1 t pepper (cut this down to 1/2 t next time)
pinch of nutmeg
2 T cornstarch

Blend except cornstarch. Mix cornstarch with approx 1/4 C water. Heat sauce on stove. Add cornstarch mixture and bring heat up, stirring constantly until thick and just starting to bubble.

Serve over pasta.

This made a TON, like 3 1/2 C at 3 points per 1/4 C. It is rich.
I think I'll use the rest as a sauce in a casserole.

Every morning I see this guy on my coffee (yes, I drink instant).
Doesn't he look smug?
Or is he grimacing, because he knows he'll never get $15 mil like this guy...

Tried a new stitch for my short row scarf, hated it, back to my beloved garter.