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I have returned! I assume few of you had any idea I was gone, but in any case, after a week of no phone or net, it's good and bad to have them back.

Obviously I can't catch up on everything, but if you did post something that you'd like me to see, please let me know. It doesn't have to only be something important -- odds are I'll be flattered that you want me to read it, whatever it is and for whatever reason (unless it's a rant about me, in which case I'd have preferred email).

( One photo (of one of my favorite bridges) )

The garden continues to produce as well and I'm eating salad like it's going out of style. Or out of season, anyway. The kale is bountiful, but so are the share leafy greens, so I don't quite need them yet. Same for the cukes, which at some point I imagine will be turned into more real (fermented) and fake (vinegar) pickles. :)

And the shed is supposed to arrive early next week, and then the backyard will be DONE! Yay!

2 cucumbers
1/2 bunch leeks
1/2 bunch basil
1 lb potatoes
1 bunch spring onions
1 lb greens beans
1/2 bunch beets
(green peppers and escarole traded away)
--
1 cucumber
1 tomato
1 green pepper
1 onion
1/2 eggplant
1/2 bunch kale
1/2 head lettuce
1/2 lb green & yellow wax beans
2 oz. basil
1/ 2 bunch sage
1 zucchini
1 beet
--
1/2 pt blueberries
1/2 yellow watermelon

Late summer and harvest really kicks into high gear! Meanwhile, Red Fire reports that they've already lost 1/4 of their (HUGE, so there's still plenty left) tomato crop to the Blight. Hopefully the rest will be safe, but I fear for future updates. Steve tells me his crop is still clear and hopefully it will stay that way.

In urban homesteading news, my tomatoes are still thriving and we ate the first one of the season this weekend! If the Blight hit, it would absolutely break my heart and I really feel for the hundreds of farmers and thousands of home gardeners who have lost all or part of their crop. None of mine are from big box stores, but neither were the acres of fields lost by local farmers, of course, and I have no idea where the neighbors got their plants. The rest of the garden is also doing great.

Late last week, with Mark's invaluable help, I started a half-bushel of cucumbers on their journey toward half-sour dill picklehood. Real, fermented, old-school pickles, which I will soon taste to see how they're doing. And for those who might be wondering, that's about 25 pounds, which is a LOT. I turned the ones that didn't make the cut into Sweet Swedish Refrigerator Pickles.

Finally, I racked the hefeweizen onto blackberries (harvested from the backyard and frozen in earlier years, then thawed and pureed) and it is a lovely shade of purplish-pink. I also received my scores from the Sam Adams Long Shot contest. I submitted my dunkelweizen (Froggy's Slam Dunk) and I think I did pretty well: 34.5, which is on the high end of the "Very Good" category. Given the obvious flaw (I underfilled the bottles and it ended up a bit undercarbonated), I am very happy with that result, and judges' comments were generally quite positive. I've never entered a homebrew contest before so I don't really have anything else to go on. Seems okay to me, anyway. Maybe I'll scan and post the sheets.

1 bunch spring onions
1/2 bunch beets
1 lb new potatoes
1 summer squash
1/2 bunch arugula
1 cucumber
1 mini red cabbage
1/2 head bibb lettuce
1/2 pound cauliflower
1/2 bunch basil
--
1/2 bunch scallions
1/2 bunch yellow chard
3 ears corn
1/2 lb carrots
1/2 head romaine lettuce
1 tomato
2 zucchinis
1 cucumber
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 head cabbage
--
1/2 pint blueberries
1/2 small watermelon

One-third of the way into CSA season and I am still very happy with the share-split situation. I think Park and Red Fire both have a lot to offer and I love getting the best of both worlds. (Since people have asked, if I had to go back to only one or the other, it'd Parker.)

( Week 6 )

( Week 7 )

I also still have garden lettuce heads up for trade.

And I'll be walking a marathon to raise money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Even a few dollars helps.

As is my unfortunate habit, I'm not sure I've mentioned (except for announcing auditions) that, for the first time ever, I have taken on the theatrical role of director. And my show opened last night!

I am directing a one-act as part of Festival@First6: Tables Turned. It's called Not Funny, written by the wonderful Chris Lockheardt. I sum it up thusly:

Stabbing is no laughing matter, except when it is. Emily and Brad work out some relationship issues while he exsanguinates. It's funnier than you think.

There are still plenty of tickets for the rest of this weekend, and I urge you to get in while you can, since next weekend will almost certainly sell out. Last night was an amazing opener and I am so super proud of my fabulous cast, Elizabeth and Michael (are they on LJ? I don't actually know). They are both new faces to T@F and have stepped up admirably. I had a lot of qualms about doing this, both beforehand and every step along the way, concerns that I was basically superfluous, couldn't really affect the outcome, etc, but it's not only come together really well, but I actually feel like I can take some responsibility for that, which is pretty awesome.

Knives! Blood! You have to see it. :)

PS: There are also seven other playlets, including (most significantly and awesomely), one written and directed by

plumtreeblossom. But there are too many names to list, and besides, I'm a little focused... :)

Yesterday I walked home from rehearsal.

This is only notable because I'd arrived on my bicycle, which was no longer there when it was time to go home. All I have left is a broken piece of the chain that was locking it to the stop sign. People suck. Blargh.

I suppose I'll be walking more, which I really need to do anyway with the Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk coming up. (Donations gratefully accepted -- the Walk benefits the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.)

I've been lax in mentioning it, but this September I will be doing the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk. It's a 26.2 miles charity walk on the Marathon route and I'm quite excited to participate. The fabulous

anomie666 and I formed a team (The Somervillains) and have two additional teammates but would certainly welcome more if anyone else would like to walk the walk.

If you aren't walking but would still like to help, I would very much appreciate any donations to help me reach my fundraising goal. Contributions can be made online. Thank you so much to those who have already given.

In addition, training moves on, and if you'd like to join me/us on our walks, we have been posting them to the

davis_ramblers community and will be doing so more often in the coming months. Our next planned walk, as posted, is 4 miles Sunday morning.

Thanks for listening.

So I've got a lot of lettuce growing in the garden, and I've been eating it, but it just keeps on growing, because lettuce works that way. Pretty soon it will be time to harvest it for the season. Would anyone like to swap a fresh, sweet head of lettuce for something else? Say, something from your garden or otherwise, or even something not harvest-related. :) I have romaine, red-leaf, and green-leaf.

I am also still quite open to swapping for homemade soymilk, tofu, and/or okara, which I posted about before to much interest but nobody ever actually followed up with anything concrete.

Also, I can offer homemade assorted vegetable krauts, and, relatedly, am always happy to take excess farm share items off anyone's hands. (

desert_born, I need to get you yours to see if you like it. :)

And speaking of fermentation, the sparking apfelwein, recently made famous in sorbet at Baitcon, is also available.

Current Mood: bartery

Forgot to post this last week, but better late than never.

1 bunch chard
1 bunch carrots
1/2 bunch red russian kale
1 head red lettuce
1/2 lb green beans
1 lb fava beans
1/2 bunch baby fennel
1/2 bunch purple kohlrabi with greens
--
12 oz cucumbers
12 oz summer squash
1 lb baby potatoes
1/2 bunch dill
1/2 bunch carrots
1/2 head red lettuce
1/2 bunch kale
1 head new garlic (with stalk)
small amount (~2 oz) basil
--
1/2 pint blueberries

I've also been eating from the garden: lettuce, parsley, basil, thyme, mint, and kale are among the harvestables. And there have been sour cherries and mulberries from public trees as well as wild blueberries in the woods. [ETA: And blueberries from the yard, too! How could I forget those?] And the most recent kraut (extra big batch) turned out great.

My newly-acquired mad skillz are making short work of the farm share this time around (it's gotten easier to deal with every year, go figure), and even with being away for four days, I had the need to harvest my own garden lettuce for a Tuesday lunch salad. And it was yummy, oh yes. The lettuce, of course, loves this weather.

This weekend, I used farm-fresh bounty for multiple ice cream flavors including a Chunky Strawberry (which was one of the best things I've ever eaten, ever), Strawberry-Balsamic-Black Pepper sorbet (copying the flavor profile of last week's awesome jam, and also awesome), and Sugar Snap Pea, which, while not at the same tongue-exploding level as the others, was still really good and garnered more "Who'd a thunk it?" votes than any other flavor. In other frozen homesteading news, I also used my apfelwein in a sorbet that went over very well.

1 bunch Swiss chard
1 lb sugar snap peas
1 bulb fennel, with voluminous fronds
1 bunch orange carrots
1/2 bunch yellow carrots
1/2 head escarole
1/2 bunch beets
1/2 bunch turnips
1/2 head romaine lettuce
1/2 bunch parsley
--
1/2 head green leaf lettuce
1/2 bunch scallions
1/2 bunch stripy beets
1/2 bunch mixed chard
1/2 lb hakurei turnips (no greens)
1/4 lb carrots
1 small (and pointy) head cabbage
3 cucumbers
Squash mix: 1 zucchini & 1 small summer
--
1 pint (somewhat iffy) strawberries

The lettuce is already dwindling: a mere 2.5 head total for me this week, though there are plenty of other leafy greens. It's been a great week for urban homesteading though. Activities have included starting new batches of both vanilla-chocolate porter and apfelwein, canning the best jam ever, and my very first kraut, which turned out amazing and inspired all sorts of additional cooking so that I could make a reuben for lunch, which was possibly the best sandwich I've ever made.

The kraut contained much of the previous haul: Napa cabbage, bok choy, collard greens, kohlrabi, hakurei turnips, beets, and carrots. I should really take a picture because it's so absurdly colorful. I am totally hooked and have already started a new batch with the Napa I got from C&A and this week's bok choy and mustard greens.

To avoid last week's confusion, I will be dividing the list: Parker, then Red Fire, then the RF fruit share, but be aware this is just *my* take-home, not the total, and of course many of the measurements are very fudge-y. This week, Parker was about twice as big as Red Fire.

1 head romaine lettuce
1 head red leaf lettuce
1 head chicory
1 pound sugar snap peas
1/2 bunch carrot
1/2 bunch hakurei turnips
1/2 bunch mustard greens
1/2 bunch chard
1 head broccoli
1 bunch arugula
1/2 head bok choi
--
1/2 head green leaf lettuce
1 bunch dill
6 garlic scapes
2 hakurei turnips
1 lb summer squash (1 zucchini, 1 yellow)
1/2 bunch baby white onions
1/2 bunch purple kale
1/2 head broccoli
1 head cabbage
--
1 pint strawberries

We have here a giant jar of pickles, minus the ones that the roomie and I ate and decided we didn't like these particular pickles. It seems a shame to throw away such a large quantity when there might be others who are not so snobby about their pickles (or whose tastes simply differ) who might want them.

So who wants a mostly-full gallon jar of Vlassic Whole Kosher Dills? Pickup at my place.

This message may self-destruct upon resolution.

[ETA: As long as I'm posting... anyone have any popsicle mold things they aren't using? I remember having some ages ago, but I gave them away because I wasn't using them. :]

The list is long, the bounty is huge!

1 pint strawberries
1 bunch Russian red kale
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 head Napa cabbage
1 head Bibb (is that also a place?) lettuce
1 bunch collard greens
1 head escarole
1/3 lb mesclun
1/4 lb spinach
1 purple kohlrabi
2 (maybe 3?) Hakurei turnips
1 zucchini
1/2 bunch (baby?) scallions
5 small carrots
1/6 lb garlic scapes
1/2 bunch dill
1/2 stalk broccoli

One of last week's experiments was spinach paratha, which was fantastic and will certainly be made again.

This year I am trying something new with my farm share. I am once again with Parker Farm (yay Steve!), but I am sharing it with a friend who has a share with Red Fire, which we are also sharing, along with a fruit share. I am hoping the results will be more variety, ease of trading away things I don't like, etc, and while it's a bit early to make the call since this is only the first week, it seems to be working well so far. My side of this week's haul is as follows:

1 bunch chicory
1 head romaine
1 head red leaf
1 head bok choy
1 bunch pea tendrils
1 bunch spinach
1 (smaller) head romaine lettuce
1/2 bunch new beets with greens
1/2 bunch Hakurei turnips
2/3 lb spinach
1/2 bunch kale
1/2 bunch green garlic
1 head broccoli
1/2 pint strawberries

A "bunch", of course, is a somewhat arbitrary measure and the sizes vary. In this case, the Red Fire bunches that were halved weren't that large to begin with whereas the Parker bunches were huge. (The chicory was approximately 2.5 times the size of my head and I could build a fortress of solitude in the lettuce.)

Well, yesterday was the first night of auditions for this summer's one-acts, and for the first time ever, I have to pick a cast! Eek! I'm still quite nervous about the whole process, but feel better than I did before having seen people read. I didn't get to see everyone I would've liked to read my play (there's just no way to manage that), which certainly adds to the challenge.

There are still two more nights of auditions with plenty of open slots, so if you already know you're interested in acting, or if you're not sure, sign up and give it a go. Actings in the festival is a very small time commitment since each person is only in one 10-15 minute short, so it's great for folks who want to do theater but don't have the spare time for a real rehearsal schedule.

Check it out and come on down!

I am directing Not Funny by Chris Lockheardt. After some struggling (those of you who asked me about the play early on may recall my stumbling over trying to explain it), I finally came up with something I feel not only sums it up nicely, but also includes one of my favorite words: Stabbing is no laughing matter, except when it is. Emily and Brad work out some relationship issues while he exsanguinates. It's funnier than you think.

At the Armory for Voidstar Circus and it's great. Come on down, it's not too late!

So I saw the Star Trek flick last night. It was largely fun, and I mostly enjoyed it while watching (in part due to misguided optimism).

What I liked a lot included excellent special effects and fun action scenes, but especially lots and lots of pandering to the original. There were many references, back-filled explanations, and just a lot of fun stuff. The fun stuff was, imho, the best part of this movie, and there was a lot of it.

What I didn't like, hated, in fact, was their handling of women. Women existed to give birth, to die, and drape themselves on men. That was it. At the least, they had an opportunity to take a crew member and make her into something, and they chose to make her even less relevant than she was in the original. Oh yeah, and she was also the only black character, as I recall.

I realize I'm going against every other review I've read (not a single one of which even mentioned the above issue, which kind of horrifies me), but I can't really recommend this movie. I also realize my opinion doesn't mean jack, but I figure there's got to be at least one other person out there who feels similarly and might be glad to know they're not the only one. (I already know I'm not since two people in my extended group were also annoyed by it.)

I have a Treo 650 and two batteries which currently don't charge due to what I'm pretty sure is a problem with the charging circuitry in the phone (as opposed to the charger or the batteries). The phone works fine otherwise, except that I can't use it right now because the batteries are dead. (The messed up charging circuitry succeeded in quickly draining the spare. :(

Anyone out there have a Treo you no longer use? It doesn't even have to work, the screen can be cracked, whatever -- I'd just like to use it as a charging station for my batteries. There are assorted compensation options.

And if you're trying to call me today, use email. :/

The weather seems excellent for running 26.2 miles, if that's what happens to be in your plans for the day. Me, I'll be at the finish line collecting timing chips and giving out medals to lots and lots of people who can do something I can't even approach. At least for now. Maybe next year I'll be receiving one myself.

Best of luck to all the runners, and a Happy Patriot's Day to everyone!

I know there are things going on tonight, but few are as awesome as seeing Entrain at Johnny D's. I've seen literally hundreds of live bands and these guys are one of my favorites. Hope to see a few of you there. :)

[ETA: Yes, I know I posted this last-minute, but it seemed better than nothing. Next time, as soon as I put it in my calendar, I will post the gig. In any case, DerekA and I went tonight and it was AWESOME. :]

+ Fun seder with a full house of all-around fabulous people
- Not enough room for everyone we'd like to invite
+ Awesome food all around, including homemade <18-minute matzah
- No leftover charoset or paté: must make more
+ Really good wine
++ Manischotz for the third cup totally worked!
+ Singing!
+ Acting out the plagues
+++ Chocolate toffee matzah omg
- Many things that went (or threatened to go) wrong in the final 24-hours including miscommunication, food failing, things being left on the subway, and who knows what else
++++ Everything being awesome anyway!

I wonder if we are the only twelve people in the world who can say that we had (veg & K4P, of course) Manischewitz jello shots for the third (or any) official cup of wine at a seder. Either way, that number should and will grow.

[ETA: While I may or may not have been the first to come up with the idea, Google supports that I totally just invented the word Manischotz!]

This morning I was woken up before full sunrise by the noise of an airplane overhead. No, seriously. It took me a moment to determine I was actually awake and not dreaming some scene from

davis_square, especially given the hazy, pre-dawn light. I went back to sleep and it soon happened again, but I soldiered on, managing to oversleep as per usual. (It's also a testament to the particulars of sound that the roomie, whose bedroom is on the other side of the of house, didn't seem to hear anything.)

I'm excited by all the positive response to my last post and look forward to sharing. (I updated the entry with details of what I ended up doing with what I had at hand, which included okara from 5-6 batches.) And I plan to make a habit of drying my okara, which makes it so much more useful.

I've really enjoyed getting back into making my own soymilk and have even figured out how to make it pretty drinkable for the rare occasions when I want to drink milk straight. (But even when used in other things, it's so much yummier now.) Even better is the homemade tofu -- so good that I enjoy eating it plain and without further prep, which is not something I can say about any tofu I've ever bought. It also makes the best scrambles ever. And when I know what I'm going to use it for, I sometimes season the soymilk so that the tofu turns out flavored, which is pretty cool.

There is a lot of okara left over so I hope to find time today to make a batch of veggie burgers to freeze for later use.

ETA: If anyone is interested in bartering for any of the above, let me know. :)

Cooking Updates:
* I've got the double batch of tofu I made this weekend marinating now.

* As for the backlog of okara, I used a bunch of it in a veggie loaf, feeling too lazy to make burgers, but ended up slicing and rebaking in pieces, anyway. Next time I'll just do patties in the first place. I'm going to dry the rest for use in baked goods and other random things.

* Dried Okara == win! Now *this* is a form that I can see being useful in breads and such, not to mention that once I dry it, it'll keep for a while. I ended up using all of it to make a nummy "cheezy" shake-y topping.

If you need to expand on your answers, you can leave a comment. As always, anonymous comments are enabled.

[Poll #1371263]

Some stuff done at home today:
= Boiled down maple sap into syrup
= Started a batch of apfelwein
= Made soymilk

And also stopped by a local co-op to pick up my piece of a group bulk order.

Damn dirty hippies...

ZOMG so good! See it ASAP. That is all.

Last year, I saved seeds from a few plants (though not as many as I would have liked) with the intent of growing as much from seed this year as I could manage. (Of course any amount would shatter my previous record of not-at-all.) I figure I can also buy seeds, but they come in packets of way-more-than-I-need, and I would imagine the same holds true for most of us, so I thought, hey, this is a perfect opportunity to get folks together to share the seeds we already have before we go out and buy more.

What do you think? Does this interest anyone else? Should we start a group? Does a group already exist that I could join?

Seeds I harvested myself include chives, parsley, pumpkin, butternut squash, and possibly tomato. Alternately, if you're not much of a joiner but have some extras, I'll be happy to take them off your hands and also offer some of mine if you'd like.

I've been thinking recently about various issues and the assorted ways in which the population with which I spend most of my time nowadays differs from that from my childhood and adolescence. Though it also made me realize that in many cases, I have no idea one way or the other, beyond the default assumptions, which seem to be very different where I am now from where I grew up.

So, a poll!

Note the use of "raised" rather than "born". And you can decide for yourself where the line is between "raised" and "adult" if it applies to you. For the language question, I know some people may have multiple "first" languages, so I tried to clarify what I meant. [ETA on Q1: Your parents, grandparents, etc, all count as part of your lineage. As per the wording, your answer should refer to the one that goes furthest back, not the most recent.]

[Poll #1346353]

(One thing I hate about LJ polls is how they expand in vertical space after you answer them. I wish they didn't do that. Or didn't show the response stats until you hit the "expand" or something.)

I don't know if it was the pokes from assorted people or just coincidence, but WMBR net access, along with the online audio stream, is BACK UP!

The links are on the web site, though as of now the page has not been updated to reflect it being back up. So if you couldn't make it out on New Year's Eve and don't have a radio handy or aren't local, you can still tune in from your desk. :)

Link: Highest quality feed.

(A little more info is in my previous post.)

Tune in to WMBR this Thursday at 4pm to listen to a broadcast of the Post Meridian Radio Players' Red Shift: Interplanetary Do-Gooder in Countdown to Chaos, our New Year's Eve show performed at the Orpheum.

Thanks to

psilocin for making this happen.

[Unfortunately, their online audio stream is currently down, so you'll have to turn on an actual radio. Or if anyone reading this is with MIT Network Ops, maybe you can poke the right people to get the radio station's network up again? The ticket was filed a week ago, wtf.]

( Herein lies the saga of Gingerbread Fjords, with pictures! )

Current Mood: dorky

Congratulations derspatchel, top scorer in this round of the Lyrics Meme!

All comments have been unscreened and I will shortly post a separate entry with all the answers.

---

I always have fun with my lyrics memes (which aren't really memes, or maybe the "memes" aren't really memes), but anyway) and as y'all know, enjoy playing with themes of various sorts. This one is a little different and adds in an funky challenge factor that some may hate but I hope most have a good time with. It's all about covers! Specifically, covers I like.

As usual, my goal is for people to get them and not to stump you with obscure selections because I think it's only fun if people know them. It might be a little tougher this time in that the excerpts are all on the short side, but each song is reasonably well-known at least two different ways. So what you need to supply for each is the name of the song, the original artist, and the artist of my favorite cover version. There may be multiple covers, but you can only have ONE official guess.

Confused? Here's an example:
0. I used to cry, but now I hold my head up high
Answer: I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. Cover by Cake.

Behind the cut are your 18 selections. Don't forget to explain the subject line for bonus points. Enjoy. :)

( To life! )

Scoring:
1 point per title, original artist, and cover artist, for a total of 3 points per lyric (3x18=54)
6 bonus points for explaining the subject line
For a possible total of 60 (sixty!) points

Some helpful hints:
- Comments are screened
- Each artist/lead is used only once. This could be useful to know.
- There is no Johnny Cash because there is just too much Johnny Cash. (And though I love the man, my favorite cover of Hurt is Sad Kermit's.)
- Yes, there are indeed awesome covers that didn't make the list. It's not meant to be exhaustive.

( Scores )

Sunday's barbecue was a great success and thanks to everyone who was part of it. If you left a container that you want back, please let me know ASAP, otherwise it will fall into the melting pot of our existing plastics collection, never to be seen again.

I count nineteen (and counting?) flavors mixed at the event and five additional flavors done the next day. If I left yours out, please let me know!

( All the flavors and lots of yum back here )

I think my overall favorite was the Vodka Blackberry and I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of it, since the color was unbelievable. (But heck, I'm kicking myself in general for the lack of pictures, but I was going non-stop pretty much all day. If anyone else snapped any, please let me know.) I also really adored the Honey Lemon.

I didn't really have a particular expectation regarding how much ice cream would get made, so I can't say it's more or less than I thought, just that I was and am very very pleased with the results, particularly given the large number of would-be attendees who were out of town or otherwise unavailable. And how about a big hand for the folks who hadn't done this before but who jumped into the fray anyway! :)

I've been a vegetarian for around 15 years now, and vegan for most of that. I rarely crave the stuff I don't eat, because most of it doesn't really register as food to me, and anyway, it's generally a desire for a certain sort of seasoning or something that is easily satisfied with a veggie option.

So you can imagine how weird it was for me to suddenly be craving flesh. More than craving, really, it was like a primal need. When chocolate didn't work, I tried gnawing on a carrot, but it just didn't satisfy, even when I added peanut butter. Also (this is so weird), it wasn't even just flesh I wanted. It was (I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this) brains. I mean, how can you crave something you've never even eaten? I don't know if all these years of not consuming cholesterol has caught up with me, but I'm telling you, I needed some. I tried some meditation, the usual Breathe-Watch-Allow, trying to sit with my feelings, but it wouldn't go away.

Then my roomie came home and I wanted to talk to him about it, but he was raving about some sort of mob in the street, and I found I could really only get one word out when I tried to speak. But he finally shut up once I ate his brain, which really hit the spot.

I'm still craving more, though. Maybe I can convince Farmer Steve to start a CSA brainshare. That'd be awesome.

Current Mood: undead

Finally back off my feet after much prep. The paté is done. Two (different) batches of matzah ball dough are chilling. The tofu is marinating with caramelized onions. The loaf is prepped and ready to bake tomorrow. Matzah has been baked. Yes, I made matzah, and for this, I believe I rule.

Still hours of cooking to do tomorrow! :)

~~Tomorrow's~~ Tonight's Menu looks to be:
( not *everything* to be made by me, of course )
...And lots & lots of wine.

I think we need more mouths!

Not all new skills provide a net benefit to one's life.

I have discovered that I can make really amazingly good kettle corn at home quite easily. So can you. But that doesn't mean you should.

Nor does it mean you should throw in a teaspoon or so of chili powder as a variation, as if merely sweet and salty weren't enough.

Since I know one person will ask, I'll include my recipe.

( But behind a cut because really, we don't need this! )

[Up-to-the-minute Squash Inventory: 7 Butternut, 7 Delicata, 4 Pumpkin]

Last week, I completed my silly goal to hike all of the colored trails on the Fells map, plus the bonus of a blazed, named trail I came across over the course of the project. Thanks to spwebdesign, c1 , treacle_well, psilocin, and DD for joining me along the way.

I am very glad I did this, since despite the many miles I've hiked in the Fells, there were plenty of areas I hadn't seen. Like most people, I tended to stick to a few particular areas and trails that I particularly liked, but now that I've done all of them, I have even more favorites. I also discovered all sorts of great spots along the way.

Following is a list of the trails and brief commentary on them. (Ask if you want to know more.) The names, blaze colors, and distances are from the map, though in some cases, they are wildly inaccurate. I've noted where I am aware of the discrepancy, but I can't speak for the accuracy of any of the others, either.

( West of I93 )

( East of I93 )
( Cross )

The Fells is so criss-crossed with trails and fire roads that you can really set any path you'd like and move about any number of ways without a plan. It isn't too difficult to wander aimlessly and then figure out where you are based on what you can see and what's on the map. The excessive number of auto roads that chop the Fells have one "feature" which is to facilitate navigation, in that at worst, you can always get to the nearest one and figure out your way from there.

Since I had a bunch of corn and squash from my farmshare (okay, still do), I search the archives for corn. I used the recipe

shrinkingmary scanned in here, but I'll mod/copy the recipe for records purposes.
( Recipe behind the cut, along with my notes )

It was quite yummy and dead easy, but I strongly recommend multiplying the recipe and using a larger pan -- it's mostly corn and zucchini so it takes a bunch to feel filling. You'll want to eat a lot of this. :) I'd also add some chili powder next time to round out the flavor. A dollop of nutritional yeast sauce worked great on top. Finally, there is no need to dirty up a blender for the tofu -- just mash it with a fork.

( Picture behind the cut! )

(Cross-posted with mods from

vegancooking)

So I have some new housemates now. One of them seems to have some serious issues regarding respecting other people's space. I recently discovered that he's been hanging out in my bedroom when I'm not around. Actually, it seems he used to only do it when I wasn't around, but lately I've come home to find him sleeping in my bed! Yes, I know it's more comfortable than his room, but you might think fixing up his own space might be the more proper course of action. The worst part is that he doesn't even bother making sure the bed is made, so he's right on the sheets. His grooming isn't what it could be so he drags an assortment of bits of cruft into the bed with him. I started closing my door, but unless it's well-latched, he just goes in anyway. I've tried discussing the issue with him, but it's like he doesn't understand a word I say. Hmph. Lucky for him he's so cute & fuzzy.

Current Mood: silly

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CSA Farm Share 2009: Week 9
CSA Farm Share 2009: Week 8
CSA Farm Share 2009: Weeks 6 & 7
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I need a hug!
Jimmy Fund Walk
Lettuce Prey
CSA Farm Share 2009: Week 5
CSA Farm Share 2009: Week 4
CSA Farm Share 2009: Week 3
Free Pickles!
CSA Farm Share 2009: Week 2
Farm Share 2009: Week 1 Bonanza!
Auditions Continue Tonight!
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Not so bold
Got Treo?
Race Day
Entrain!
Counting of the nom-ers
*yawn*
Soy Delicioso
What's your opinion? We'd like to know. (tm)
Gettin' my kumbayayas out
Boildown! (Bring it.)
squee!!!
Victory Seeds!
Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!
Tune in *online* at 4pm (eastern) for RED SHIFT!
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Pining for the Fjords
[lyrics] The memes are tough now, just gettin' tougher
Ice Cream Round-Up
Weird Cravings
Tentative Seder Menu
[Food:Kettle Corn] Why do the bad things feel so good?
Fells Trail Project
Corn & Zucchini Tamale Pie
Housemate venting

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