Not so winter wonderland

We've been getting these little flurries over the past few weeks. Nothing major, but it has caused delays for school on the last two Mondays. It's a tease, and only makes me *really* want a big snow storm, so that we can go sledding and make big pots of soup.

And also, it reminds me how fucked the environment is.

But, I prefer to think of sleds and soup :)

100! Look ma, one pot!

AC stealing a macaroni noodle. And the shot.

My 100th post - fun :D

I've been spending most of my time at the Y or on the net, leaving little time for much else. Things like having a decent conversation with AC, changing out of my gym clothes, working or cooking a decent meal have just not occurred to me.

Leave it to JUST REDUCED FOR QUICK SALE! semi-soft bell peppers to get my attention while at the market yesterday.

They weren't organic, but the freegan in me had to purchase six tri-color bell peppers for, get this, two dollars and sixty two cents.


Because of their impending compost-worthy fate, I had to act quick - so I started cooking as soon as we got home tonight. I also had a couple packages of needing-to-be-consumed tempeh in the fridge, and a half-box of whole wheat fettuccine that has been in the pantry for several months.


I used Crystal and Ryan's roasted veggie sauce recipe, modified to use canned tomatoes and feature only roasted bell peppers and onion; I also ended up not needing the tomato paste. To add to the sauce, I made Vegan with a Vengeance tempeh sausage crumbles (page 22), minus the fennel seed. Given the extraordinary amount of peppers and two packages of tempeh, I doubled the recipes, BUT I managed to keep it to one pot :) I topped off the plate with some vegan grated topping.


Yeah, I know. It's macaroni and sauce.

But it took forever to make - I worked real hard!

We didn't eat until 8:30!

And, it tasted really good!

Of course, by the time it was finally ready to eat, I had already filled myself with sneaky "tastes" of the sauce and tempeh, stolen saltines from the pantry and leftover carrot sticks from AC's lunch. But, whatev. I had a few bites of the final dish.

You know, as I post these photographs, I keep thinking about Susan V. She posted a little while back about the "truly awful" photographs she took in her early days of food blogging: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/09/odds-and-ends.html (about a third of the way down). Dang... if those are awful, I hope she never sees my pictures! ;) I'm currently saving money for a "real" camera, and with that will come motivation to learn how to use it really, really well, and maybe even a photography class. I can only hope that one day, my pics turn out half as incredible as hers - even her truly awful ones :)

Friday!

A happy Friday silly laugh for you: http://www.stuffonmycat.com/index.php?itemid=2955. I don't know who Alexis is, but girl, let's hang out. Red wine, black and white kitty cats, ridiculous shenanigans - it's like we're sisters!

Check out my 43 Things list over there - "Finish reading Ishmael" is done! :D

Also? my kid's bike was stolen from our porch yesterday. See? To the right? Yeah. No bike.

Dood, I know! Totally blows. I realize that I've been on a mission to get rid of stuff, but this isn't exactly what I meant. Send some good lovin' vibes that the person who took it has a change of heart and puts it back.

<3 life

http://www.freewebs.com/bluebricks/lifelove.htm

(via wooster)

We base our life decisions on like, *really* important stuff

l: maybe we could pick a place to move *together*
m: and after ac is done college, we will all join pc!
l: yes, most def
m: where would we move?
how about canada?
or mexico?
l: hmmmm... i'd consider it.
mexico might be more my speed.
or shit
let's just go to costa rica
m: yeah?
l: dude, they have no army
m: bahahahahhaa
l: yea
m: falling off of the fucking couch!
l: they're all peaceful and shit
they just all smoke the cheeb
and surf
l: man... i'm so projecting like 10 years from now

Awesomeness

You want to recycle what? http://www.recyclethis.co.uk/ :D

(via Treehugger)

Freeduce, Freeuse, Freecycle.

Near the top of my 43 things list is "Get rid of stuff." Freecycle has been a lovely assistant to me in accomplishing this goal:




















That's what I posted to my local Freecycle group today, and what will hopefully be gone by the end of the week. Yay!

Getting rid of stuff is such an overall cleansing practice, yes? Clear space in the house, clear space in the mind :)

Curtains!

So, you already saw the skateboards (http://mdmintake.blogspot.com/2007/01/windows.html). Here's part two, the curtains;

Before:



After:


Still need some finishing touches - I'm adding white origami birds to the end of the branch (some hung with fishing line). Duh, of course I'll post photos.

See the full set on flick'r: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikaelamartin/sets/72157594450328041/

Breakfast and blogs

Those are some of the ingredients for the yummy Vegan with a Vengeance sausage tempeh gravy I made a little while ago. Jase took care of the biscuits:

I'd never made the gravy before and it turned out super thick. To thin it, I think next time, I'll add some veggie stock and maybe blend half of it. Meh. We'll see :)

One of my 43 things (what are yours?) is to "organize my blogs." I wanted to take my three blogs, merge them into one (now that there are tags, I see no reason to keep them separate) and change the URL. I was having difficulty orchestrating the move, not wanting to post anything until I figured out what was what... and ugh, Blogger's been no help whatsoever. So, I've had to come up with a new plan. I'm posting to this blog only, so topics will drift from the usual foodie-local-organic-veg*n subject matter.

Meanwhile, I've accepted the fact that in order to move forward, I will have to cut and paste the entries from my other two blogs into this one. Fun! :) I'll also be updating the profile and links section, and trying to figure out where the hell the old, pre-beta www.jamintake.blogspot.com came from.

Wish me luck!

Well said... unfortunately.

I check Blue Jake daily for some wick'd cool (that's Rhode Island speak for pretty spiffy) street art and unconventional, creative portraiture. This entry's caption is fucking brilliant: http://www.bluejake.com/archives/2007/01/07/quest_mechanical_corp.php

It was a beautiful day-- it felt like late May. Almost enough to make you forget about the gigantic global warming catastrophe that is most definitely going to be fucking all of us in a few more years.

That about sums up every conversation I had this weekend.

Skateboards!

A work in progress for a few months now has been the front windows. I finally came up with a skateboard solution. The curtains are also hung, but I've not taken pictures of those yet. So, for now, it's a skateboards before and after series :)

Before:



After:



See more photoa on my flick'r page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikaelamartin/sets/72157594467789855/ !

Blogger

I'm not really wanting to post because I've received no response from Blogger support yet. Bum deal, man. Guess I'll keep reposting the question...? Ugh.