The Hierarchy of Needs, or My Endless To-Do List, in no particular order...

1. My house is a mess. It needs to be un-messed, in steps that are too overwhelming to detail.
2. Rabbits are messy. Their mess should be removed as well.
3. Too many blank walls. Too many piles of artwork waiting to be hung, or framed and then hung. Each placement is a new debate.
4. Dear god, will the dishes ever be done?
5. Work. I work five days a week and I am always busy the whole entire day and sometimes after. Work has its own to-do list, which company confidentiality rules compel me to avoid posting here.
6. OK, mostly I am working on a tool thing and also planning for how we will show elections-related stuff in search results. This does not sound very involved when I put it like that. It is, in fact, very involved, and I have buried myself in it. This is 40+ hours each week of my head being chock-full of thoughts that cannot be displaced with "life."
7. The yard. It's useless. Full of weeds and a "compost pile" that's really just a heap of food waste that we hope rots nicely. We need the yard to not be full of weeds and mulch but rather pavers, wanted plants, fruit trees, and some comfortable patio furniture.
8. To de-shittify the yard, we need to find some kind of landscaping contractor to do the job, which involves spending more time on Angie's List than anyone has any desire to, plus actually contacting, consulting, and negotiating with said people.
9. Also the front yard, which has fewer weeds but a small lawn we want to kill and replace with native plants. The killing and the planning and the digging and the planting represent far too many items on the to-do list, not to mention item No. 1, which is getting up the energy/wherewithal to actually start.
10. I like reading books. That's good for your brain, right? I want to spend more time doing that.
11. Get out of the food and cooking rut. Get excited again.
12. Actually speak to and spend time with other human beings outside of a work context. Being friendly with people I am engaging in some kind of transaction with does not count (see also: why I love Sunday mornings).
13. Groom the bunnies, even though they hate it. Especially Ollie.
14. Magazines! I'm behind on every magazine I subscribe to. That also counts as brain-reading, right? It's not like I read Cosmo. These are, like, feminist magazines and stuff.
15. Sleep more.

Father's Day

This father's day marks the ninth without my dad.

I tend to ignore the holiday when it rolls around--not much I can do. I'm not within grave-visiting distance, and honestly, sadness and missing come in their own time, not according to the Hallmark calendar.

More than half the men I know now are fathers. There's newborns and toddlers right on up to the parents of grown children. (Mostly I know the parents of young'uns, of course; that's just the age I am.) If I think too hard about it, about their age and their kids' age, I compare it to my own age and my dad's, and line up timelines like they're some kind of meaningful statistic. They're not.

One of my good friends, who had a daughter with his wife two years ago, is about to turn 40. I remember my dad's 40th birthday. My mom organized a big "Over the Hill" surprise party at a hotel restaurant, with family and friends. I would've been 8. At the time, 40 seemed so old. At 30, 40-year-olds seem downright youthful. But mostly I remember it was just a lot of fun--a fitting celebration for a good man and a great father.

I don't know what my friend is doing for his 40th, though I wouldn't be surprised if there's a party. When they had the baby, we slowly lost touch. Now I mostly see them when we happen to be at the farmers' market at the same time, and there's about 10 minutes of catching up and a minute of promises to make plans, which never happens. Who knows whose fault that is.

We only got one more milestone birthday with my dad, his 50th. I think there was a party then, too, but things were different. I was a senior in high school and my dad had been diagnosed with terminal cancer a few months earlier.

Ten years ago in August. That's when we lost my dad. I am not sure when I last saw him, anymore; I just remember I wasn't there when he died. I was busy trying to sleep--opening shift at work the next day. My cousin banged on the door for an hour, and eventually my roommate let him in, but it was too late by the time we got to Olympia.

That cousin is getting remarried this summer. I haven't seen him in ages. I remember he wanted my dad to officiate his first wedding, but my dad, a man of strong faith, wasn't comfortable with the role, not being a priest and all. He didn't make it, anyway.

It's hard to say how much losing my dad changed my life. I have a good idea how much it changed my mom's and my siblings', but I was older. But it still hits me at the most random times, as well as the expected ones.

I hope my friends who are fathers get lots more father's days.

Weeds I have known and do not love

This isn't about food. And this isn't a blog I update much, since Facebook is a million times more convenient, but for fear of annoying everyone, ever, I just want to post about the weeds I am trying to remove from the backyard. And how much I hate them. In fact, this list is in ranked order.

8. Miners lettuce - it's edible, but dying off, and tends to come up when I remove other, more noxious weeds.
7. Oxalis or creeping woodsorrel - I'm not sure which it is, to be honest, but they don't bother me that much.
6. Groundsel and black nightshade - easy to remove, not that annoying.
5. Filaree - they look nastier than they are (spiky, but not really), but sometimes the buggers are hard to get out.
4. Field madder - dislike largely for its prolific nature and tendency to grow up between the chain link and wood fence, making it impossible to remove completely.
3. Sowthistle - meh to thistles and dandlelions, for they are often spiky and big and have soft stems that are difficult to pull out, roots and all.
2. "Little" mallow - this garbage's about 6 feet tall in spots, with roots as thick as my arm and impossible to pull out with my bare hands.
1. Catchweed bedstraw - hate it! Sticks on everything, then you find little burs and leaves on your clothes later, plus it is a skin irritant. Die, you horrible little plant, die.

Sometime soon, I hope to have happier topics. Assuming I ever update the blog again.

Cold weather solutions, one pot at a time.

Despite predictions of a stormy, gloomy, perhaps even snowy weekend in the Bay Area, I awoke to blue skies. It was admittedly chilly, though. I've been on a cooking roll lately, but I haven't been much for soup until today. Soup is the kind of thing I usually throw together sans recipe, so every time it's a little bit different. Here's what I made today.

Leek, kale, and white bean soup for a cold winter's night

• 1 tsp olive oil
  
• 2 leeks, cleaned and chopped (I like to slice the stalks lengthwise into quarters, then chop into 1/4" pieces)
  
• 3+ cloves of garlic, crushed and minced (I think I had 7-8, but they were small)
• 1 carrot, diced
  
• 1/3 cup dry sherry
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tsp. dried tarragon
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 4 red potatoes, diced about 1" (bite-size)
• 1 can cannellini, drained and rinsed
  
• 1 bunch kale, chopped small
• salt and pepper to taste -- I love black pepper in this kind of soup

In a large heavy pot, saute the leeks in olive oil on medium heat for a few minutes. Add the garlic and cook until the leeks are starting to cook down. Then add the carrots and cook until things begin to brown. Turn the heat on high and add the sherry to deglaze, then stir. Turn the heat down to medium high and add broth, dried herbs, potatoes, and cannellini. Bring up to a boil, then add the kale and turn down to medium and let it simmer until at least all the vegetables are cooked through. Taste and season with salt and pepper, then let it simmer a few minutes more before eating.

Once I had the soup sorted out, I figured out the direction I could go for a side: rosemary quick bread. I found a recipe that had been taken offline, but still available as a cached copy. Its original source was the '97 Joy of Cooking, but I had to veganize it, so it ain't cheating.

Rosemary olive quick bread

• Flax egg replacement: 2 tbsp. flax meal mixed with 1/2 cup water, stirred and left alone for a few minutes
• 1 cup unsweetened plain rice milk
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1-1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 4" sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• handful chopped kalamata olives

Preheat the oven to 350' F. Whisk together the flax meal egg replacement, rice milk, and olive oil in a large bowl. Add the flours, baking powder, rosemary, and salt and mix to incorporate. Fold in the kalamata olives. Pour batter into a lightly greased pan--a bread loaf pan would be ideal, but I just had an 8" square glass dish that worked fine. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

...aaaand I just spent 20 minutes writing about my food instead of eating more of it. Now I'm cold and still hungry!

Pick 3 for dinner.

Of this week's market veggie haul--which included asparagus, cauliflower, kale, and broccoli--I asked Kevin what appealed to him most for dinner. He picked collard greens, red cabbage, and cremini mushrooms. I took this combination as a challenge: I like to have at least a tiny spark of inspiration when I cook, and I was feeling a bit underwhelmed at the prospect of my new favorite stewed greens with garlic, soy sauce, and liquid smoke, which could take on the mushrooms and cabbage easily but: booooring.

So I thought. And I paged through recipe search results and a variety of cookbooks. And then I put that all aside and made these.

Orange-soy glazed tempeh and mushrooms

• 1 8-oz. package of tempeh, diced into 3/4" cubes
• 1/2 lb. small cremini mushrooms, sliced in half
• juice of 1 mandarin orange
• 1-1/2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 2 tsp. maple syrup
• 2 tsp. sriracha (or to taste)

Put the tempeh and mushrooms in a bowl. In a small container, mix together the rest of the ingredients, then pour over the tempeh and mushrooms. Toss together and let it sit for at least half an hour, or however long it takes to prep the other dish, occasionally giving it a quick stir.

In a large skillet, pour a thin layer of cooking oil and turn the heat on high. Pour in the contents of the bowl, marinade and all (there shouldn't be too much excess liquid). Bring it up to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium high. Let the sauce get bubbly and reduce significantly. Try to stir it as little as possible--you want to let it caramelize and brown just a bit, which takes time. Once the pan is nearly dry, turn off the heat for a few minutes, then turn it back on to medium high or high in order to achieve a nice crust. (Though...it might burn a bit. Mine did. Still good, though.)

Ginger-garlic collard greens with cabbage and carrots

• 3 cloves garlic
• 1" peeled fresh ginger root
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1 bunch collard greens
• 1 large carrot, sliced into matchsticks
• 1 cup shredded red cabbage

Prepare the broth first. Using a microplane zester (or small box grater), mince the hell out of your garlic and ginger. Stir together with the rest of the liquid ingredients and set aside.

To prepare the greens, cut off the raggedly bottom inch or so of the stems, then separate the leafy portion from the rest of the stem. Chop up the stems into about 1 to 1-1/2" pieces (bite size) and place them in a pot. Roll up the leaves and slice them into ~2" sections, then rough chop the whole thing and set aside.

Pour the broth into the pot with the stems and turn the burner on to medium high heat. Bring to a boil, then add the collard leaves. Turn down the heat to medium, stir, and partially cover. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until the leaves are bright green and starting to cook down. Add the cabbage and carrots and continue to cook until everything is tender and you're ready to eat.

These two dishes taste really nice mixed together with a mound of brown rice.

Crazy, hazy, lazy winter dessert

In retrospect, I could've made this a lot more complicated without much additional effort. There should've been sliced almonds, for instance. I might've added a layer of melted chocolate. Or I could've remembered those apples I picked up yesterday and made a crisp instead. But no, it's Valentine's Day, and for some reason, I wanted a berry dessert. But it's far from berry season. What to do?

If you've got jam, you can make...this. I don't know what to call it. Somewhere between a crisp and a bar cookie, I guess. It requires maybe 5 minutes of work and 20 minutes in the oven. To be honest, I didn't even really measure -- it's not such hardcore baking that it can't manage a little fudging.

What you need:

• Jam or preserves (I used raspberry fruit spread, with seeds)
  
• Rolled oats -- ~1 cup
  
• Brown sugar -- 2-3 Tbsp
  
• Flour (whole wheat works fine) -- ~1/2 cup
  
• Pinch of spices (I went with cinnamon and cloves)
• Pinch of salt
• Oil or melted butter/margarine -- up to 1/4 cup
  

Heat the oven to 350 F. Mix together all the dry ingredients with a fork, then drizzle in a few tablespoons of oil. Mix again, and if it's not quite coming together, add a little more oil and mix until the desired consistency is achieved. It shouldn't be OILY, just moist and starting to clump. Press a little bit more than half of the oat mixture into a pie plate (or other similarly-sized baking dish) to form a nice, flat bottom crust. Tamp it down with the fork or your hand. Then, spread a few dollops of jam on the surface, going for maaaaybe 1/4-inch thick layer. Spread the remaining oat mixture evenly over the jam layer. Stick it in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the top layer starts to brown and the jam is bubbly. Let it cool a few minutes, then dish it up and eat.

SIMPLE.

YUM.

Lazy summer solo dinner

Ah, the joys of having an Indian market nearby. My boyfriend is biking his way from SF to LA all week, so I'm on my own for dinner. I don't really enjoy eating out by myself, so I've been making myself food and ending up with enough leftovers to bring lunch to work (an unusual thing for me).

Tonight, after deciding that falafel or delivery pizza were not adequately healthy options, I checked on the freshness of my leftover Trader Joe's pizza dough and headed to Safeway for some spinach. Well, that was a mistake -- it costs $4.50 for 5 oz. of organic spinach at Safeway. That's criminal. Organic greens at the farmers' market or even Whole Foods cost around $5 a POUND, if that. I decided that was stupid and went to check out the new produce shop across the street. Unfortunately, it had just closed--I missed my window while poo-poo'ing overpriced greens. So I hit up the Indian grocer in the same strip mall for some fresh veg curry and flatbread.

I got my curry and my bread, but then I saw the sprouted mung beans. Sprouted mung beans are delicious -- crunchy, a little sweet, crazy good for you. So I picked those up, a jar of mint chutney, and a bag of bhel mixture, which is a mildly spiced blend of puffed rice, sev (crispy noodle bits), and poori fragments (small, deep fried, puffed bread). At home, these mixed with a tomato, half a bunch of cilantro, and a couple little baby onions to make a nice little salad-y thing.

And of course, there are leftovers. Plus all the curry and dal. Who needs to cook?

Newborn-friendly fried brown rice

Some very good friends of mine recently had a baby, and my gift (or general tendency) was to offer home-cooked food and market bitch services. I'm a regular at the farmers' market and am pretty good at piecing together emails, texts, and voice mails into complete shopping lists. I've been willing even to venture up to the dreaded meat counter at Whole Foods, all for the sake of friendship. But my own cooking remains veg-friendly.

Of course plenty of people bring food to new parents, but I suspect few take on the challenge of unusual dietary restrictions with the kind of enthusiasm I do. (I am weird. See also: how much I enjoy vegan cooking despite not actually being a vegan.) The mom's been avoiding likely gas culprits like onions and tomatoes and the dad hates broccoli and cauliflower anyway, so it can get tricky to make flavorful, interesting, healthy dishes.

Last week, I assembled this dish, which they told me was the best yet. (Almost despite myself, I enjoy the ego-stroking.)

The fried rice contained:
--2 homemade vegan sausages (using this recipe, also found in the
Vegan Brunch book, as a base and riffing with black beans and five spice powder)
--3 scrambled eggs
--handful sliced shiitake mushrooms sauteed with chopped green garlic (3)
--1 red bed pepper, diced and sauteed
--big handful sugar snap peas, cut in half and sauteed
--~2 cups cooked brown rice, 1 day old (from the rice cooker)
--~3 tablespoons minced cilantro
--4 skinny carrots, grated
--~1 tablespoon curry powder (I used a homemade blend from an Indian recipe)
--drizzle of soy sauce, to taste
--slivered almonds, pan toasted in a little oil

Basically, I tried to gather something of every color that was fresh, seasonal, and local--though a few things I had to fudge, like the red pepper and the slivered almond and of course the sausage ingredients--and put it together in a logical way.

The thing with fried rice is that you cook all the components separately, then mix them all together with the rice. It's also key to use rice that's at least a day old, so it's had time to dry out just enough that it won't turn to a mushy mess in your frying pan. Luckily Kevin has a great rice cooker, so that part was a snap.

It could do without the egg, truth be told, but they're not vegan and it does add a certain something. I bet subbing in a mild tofu scramble (with sulfur-y black salt?) would work.

It's not fancy, exactly, but it looked festive and, by all accounts, tasted lovely. Which is really all you need in a meal.

Saucy greens party!

I made up this recipe for greens -- really, any kind of greens work, but probably the more tender/bitter types are best, not so much the kind you want to de-stem, though those will work too -- using a bunch of leftover Live Earth Farm share greens to bring something quick and easy to a work potluck. It got some compliments and I liked it quite a bit, so here it is:

--2+ bunches of any kind of green (I had mizuna, arugula, baby tatsoi, and a handful of red russian kale and collard greens)
--2" piece of ginger, peeled and microplaned into oblivion
--2 cloves garlic, microplaned
--1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
--2 tablespoons soy sauce/bragg's
--1 cup vegetable broth
--a tiny bit of mild cooking oil and salt and pepper to taste

Mix together everything except the greens and the mild oil and s&p so it's ready to go. Wash the greens and chop or tear them roughly into bite-sized pieces (if necessary). They don't need to be totally dried off; in fact, a little water might be helpful. Heat up a really big pan with drizzle of oil, then add the greens. Cook, turning often, until the greens are wilted. You may need to do this in batches. Once they're just wilted, pour in the sauce. Bring to a boil, then turn down so it's just simmering. Let it simmer for awhile, until any stems are tender. Season to taste and eat. Be sure to hold onto that broth! You could cook extra greens in it, or use it to liven up whatever bed of grains you're eating with the greens. It also goes well with toasted almond slivers.

BTW, this blog will probably be archived, due to a change in blogger publishing rules. Since I don't update often I haven't really bothered to deal with it yet, but I will, eventually.

Hearty crepe filling I just made up!

So, it's Candlemas, which I didn't even realize it was called until this year (and my very well-educated French coworker explained the whole thing to me). Growing up, we always ate crepes on February 2, due to some vague French tradition that was never fully explained. Of course, in the US, Feb. 2 is also Groundhog Day, so there's some bizarre conflation of a deeply traditional high church-kinda holiday during which you make crepes to use up your butter and eggs before Lent and the celebration of a rodent who pretty much always sees his shadow and dooms us all to a long winter.

I don't celebrate religious holidays -- as a rule, not being religious -- and I don't need to use up any butter or eggs (I don't even keep them on hand), but I do like crepes, so I'm OK with any tradition that gives me an excuse to make them. Vegan crepes are easy and delicious, but making a meal-type filling can take a little imagination. Here's what I came up with using vegetables I had on hand from the wonderful farm share.

--2 leeks, washed and chopped
--3 cloves of garlic, minced
--1 cup vegetable broth
--1 tbsp maple syrup
--1 tbsp liquid smoke
--2-3 tbsp soy sauce or bragg's
--1 8-oz. pkg tempeh, chopped small (1/2" cubes)
--1/2 cup fresh sliced shiitake mushrooms (optional; these ultimately didn't add much)
--1 bunch kale, de-stemmed, washed, and roughly chopped
--1 tbsp dijon mustard
--1 tbsp red wine vinegar (just need some acid -- lemon juice, other vinegar would work)
--2 tomatoes, chopped
--salt and pepper to taste, plus olive oil and red pepper flakes

Saute the leeks with a pinch of salt in a little bit of olive oil until they begin to soften, then add the garlic and red pepper flakes. In a small bowl, mix the broth, maple syrup, liquid smoke, soy sauce, and tempeh together. When the contents of the pot have started to brown, turn the heat up and pour the liquid + tempeh in, using the liquid to deglaze. Stir in the mushrooms, mustard, and vinegar and bring to a boil. Add kale and stir to combine. Return to a boil, then turn down to simmer for 15 minutes or so. Add the tomatoes and stir, allowing them to cook down and disintegrate into the mixture -- maybe 5 minutes. By now everything should be pretty well cooked and mellow, so taste it and make any adjustments.

You can eat it with a crepe (as a filling or using pieces of the crepe to scoop it up) or maybe over rice. It's a one-pot meal, if you don't need starch. And it tastes pretty good!

Thanksgiving plans.

It gives me great pleasure to obsessively plan my menu every year, but the trouble comes when we have to execute it. Not that it turns out awful, just a lot of work and there's the occasionally disappointing result.

In past years, we've had a Mediterranean menu, Japanese, and Indian. This year, I wanted to go super-duper simple, fresh, local -- and, of course, very vegetarian. I feel like we sometimes get sucked in to recipes that sound divine but end up being overly complex to prepare and underwhelming in flavor. I'm hoping this year's choices will remedy the problems of the past but still satisfy everyone's desires: for taste, for the joy of cooking, for an easy family holiday.

• Chilled pumpkin soup (my sister's offering)
  
• Roasted beet and arugula or cress salad
  
• Stuffed delicata squash with apple, walnut, and shallots (got sweet dumpling squash, which are similar to delicata but rounder)
  
• Cranberry beans (substitute cannellini or others if I can't find them at the market) Update: I got some of these.
  
• Roasted cauliflower with fennel, onion, and marjoram
  
• Kale with panfried walnuts
  
• Dijon roasted potatoes, because what's Thanksgiving without potatoes?
  
• Bread - maybe Margot's veganized challah, sculpted into the shape of a turkey?
  
  
• Sweet potato pie with three-nut topping (from Vegan with a Vengeance)
  
• Apple cobbler or crisp with vanilla soy ice cream (from Kevin's mom)
  
  
• Pilgrim's Pride - cranberry-ginger-sparkling apple juice drink, just to be festive.

The recipes are simple but should taste nice. Very veggie-heavy and healthy, but veggies we are like. It's not a big group -- though if you're in the Bay Area and want to join us, shoot me a line -- but we all like cooking and eating healthy.

I also have in mind to incorporate one of Kevin's wishes: a walk in the park, though not the kind he'd prefer (Pt. Lobos -- too far). Hopefully the meal prep itself won't be so taxing that I can't make it, like last year. I'm also thinking of getting Up from Netflix since it seems like the kind of thing we all might enjoy while lingering over a well-deserved dessert overdose.

Delicata squash stuffed with spiced brown fried rice.

Stuffed delicata squash
Originally uploaded by emily ca..

Another attempt to throw random veggie ingredients together to create something that doesn't appear to suck.

Here are the things I had:

• 1 delicata squash per person
  
• 2" piece of ginger, peeled and microplaned into mush
  
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
  
• 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
  
• 1 tsp ground coriander
  
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
  
• 1/2 tsp ground serrano pepper (cayenne, etc. would work)
  
• 3 little chopped sweet/hot peppers (I'm not actually sure, they were from the farm share and I can't be bothered to look at the newsletter -- either way works for me)
  
• 2 tomatoes, quartered
  
• chopped cabbage and lacinato kale
  
• handful slivered almonds
  
• 1-1/2 c. cooked brown rice (preferably day-old)
  
• white wine to deglaze
  
• 2 scallions, chopped
  
• 1/2 big fat carrot, grated
  
• 1 stem basil, leaves torn

Heat your oven to around 400 degrees F. Slice the squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and pulp, add a dribble of olive oil and a pinch of salt and bake until tender but not totally brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the fried rice. First fry the ginger and whole seed spices, then add the ground spices, then the peppers and tomato. Add a pinch of salt to encourage things to get reeeeal saucy. Add the cabbage and kale and cook a little more ('til greens are wilted), then add the almonds, stir, add the rice and cook for a few more minutes. If it is getting a little sticky on the bottom of the pan, add maybe 1/4 c. white wine and turn the heat up high, stirring to deglaze. Once you think things are pretty much cooked, turn the heat down low and add the scallions, basil, and grated carrot. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

When both your rice and your squash are ready, scoop the rice into boat-like squashies, and stick it back into the oven for about 5 minutes.

Then you can eat it.

Yay! I'm hungry.

I never post anything but recipes!

Is that really so terrible? I don't think so.

Here's a soup I threw together for dinner. It tastes pretty delicious and can be made with stuff you might have sitting around (and not only if you have a spice addiction collection rivaling mine) plus something that's in season and wonderful.

You will need, roughly:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 small kabocha squash, diced (~1/2 in cubes) -- this is the awesome seasonal ingredient!
  
• pinch nutmeg
  
• 1 tsp each ground coriander and cumin
  
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper (I have some neat ground serrano pepper, but you could use good paprika, cayenne, etc.)
  
• 2 bay leaves
  
• 3/4 c. red lentils
  
• 4 c. broth (or cheater concentrate + water)
  
• salt & pepper to taste

Saute the onions and garlic in a little olive oil in a good-size soup pot. Add the squash and cook a little more. Dump in the spices and stir around. Add the lentils and stir, then add liquid. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, partially cover, and let simmer for 30+ minutes or until the lentils are cooked and squash is tender. Season to taste and eat.

The other thing I made was much easier: quinoa tabbouleh.

All you need is:

• Some cooked quinoa
  
• A diced red onion
  
• Some chopped up parsley
  
• Diced cucumber
  
• Toooomaaaaatooooooo (I love tomato season, and heirlooms are leaving soon)
  
• Dressing of lemon juice and olive oil
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

I am not even going to explain that. It's a goddamn salad. It tastes good. It's good for you. Eat it.

I'd like to do this more often, I would.

But life is exhausting. I don't know how people with kids do it.

I haven't done anything fun lately, honestly, but I have been cooking a little bit. Not as much as I'd like, but there are the occasional little discoveries. If you know me, you know I consider the farmers' market on par with going to church, except better, since I'm agnostic but I can't deny the gorgeous bounty of planet Earth.

Corn is in season. I think we're supposed to avoid corn products as part of some conscientious avoidance of Big Agriculture, but I figure a few ears of seasonal, organic white corn from vendors I shop with year-round can't hurt. Certainly doesn't hurt the taste buds. Three for $1 and I can plan a meal around them: what goes with a nice ear of corn?

Sub-question: what goes with a nice ear of corn that will require as little effort as possible to prepare, AND be healthy, AND use other vegetables (since god knows we get an obscene amount from Live Earth)? That's a lot of things to consider. Many nights my tired little brain can't muster up the creativity and decision-making powers to find the answer, and we go to a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant after much debate and whining (the latter mostly on my part).

Tonight I managed to hit all the points.

There was the corn, steamed ('cause it's easy and Kevin doesn't dig grilled corn for some bizarre reason).

There was a bunch of chard, fresh from our share, chopped and sauteed with garlic.

And there was a salad made of leftover quinoa, black beans, heirloom tomatoes (see? better than church), red onion (snatched from the garlic braiding activity station at Live Earth's solstice party), and a cumin-apple cider vinaigrette.

Recommended!

More posts about buildings and food. Or just food.

I just made some food with ingredients I had sitting around my house!

I made:

Brown rice!
Spicy split mung dal!
Mixed green salad with shredded cabbage, carrots, and apples!

The brown rice is self-explanatory, if you've ever successfully made rice.

The dal is simple. The explanation is kind of complex, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy.

Take 1 cup of split yellow mung dal and wash it, then put it in a pot with 3-1/2 cups of water and 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric. Bring it to a boil, then turn down the heat and let it simmer until the lentils are cooked. When they're cooked, you'll be able to blend them with a whisk--they'll dissolve into a creamy puree.

When they're almost ready, in a separate small frying pan, heat a little canola oil and add 1-1/2 teaspoons of whole cumin seeds. Fry them until they turn brown and fragrant, then add some minced fresh ginger and cayenne pepper. Stir and cook briefly, then pour into the freshly pureed mung dal and stir. Next, add some chopped cilantro (or another flavorful green--I used some mizuna, which is similar to arugula, and it was nice and peppery) and a little fresh lemon juice, stir, taste and adjust seasoning, then serve.

The salad was also easy, but it turned out well.

I had: some mixed salad greens from one of my favorite farmers' market vendors, and green cabbage, carrot, and apple from the CSA share. I made a dressing with some fresh ginger, ground coriander, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and a hint of agave nectar, then tossed in the salad green. I shredded some of the cabbage (cutting super thin strips is bizarrely satisfying) and grated the carrots and apple. The result is refreshing and a tad spicy and sweet.

The result: this stuff is TASTY... if you are a fan of GINGER. Which I AM.

Awesome snack to get you through the peanut butter crisis.

Surely you've all heard that processed peanut butter snacks are out due to salmonella. Way to go, industrial food complex! But that doesn't mean you can't have peanut butter at all--the jarred stuff, they say, remains safe and delicious. So here's something I made last night from a veganized and healthified (well, healthier) recipe found on Recipezaar.

-2 tbsp. ground flaxseeds
-3 tbsp. water
-1/3 c. canola oil
-1/2 c. sugar
-1 tbsp. molasses
-1/3 c. natural crunchy peanut butter
-1/2 tsp. vanilla
-1 c. rolled oats
-1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
-1/2 tsp. baking powder
-1/4 tsp. salt

In a small bowl, whisk together the flaxseeds and water, then set aside. In a large bowl, mix oil, sugar, and molasses until smooth. Mix in the flaxseed mixture, then peanut butter and vanilla. Stir until smooth (besides peanut chunks!). Add the rest of the ingredients (oats, flour, baking powder, salt) and mix until a thick dough forms. Spread the dough into a small, lightly greased pan (8-9" round, pie plate, 8" square) and bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely before serving.

You won't miss those peanut butter Clif bars.

And yeah, maybe someday I'll actually blog again.

Who has time to blog anymore?

My god, I have never worked so much in my life. Sure, I got paid for 40 hours a week before, but I didn't always WORK 40 hours a week, y'know? There wasn't always 40 hours of work to do. Now, I have to account for how many hours I work on each project I have, so I'm working my ass off for a solid 40 hours a week and end up being in work mode for a little more than that. Add to that my commute time and I'm away from home about 11 hours a day. When I get home, I want nothing more than to watch Rachel Maddow and space the hell out.

It's great, though. I love working there. I hope it continues. I still don't know.

Now I am focusing my non-work energy on Thanksgiving. We are having only four people this year: his mom, my mom, my mom's "don't call him my boyfriend" friend, and my sister. The theme is Indian food. The menu is as follows:

• Andhra-style sprouted mung bean salad (if you've never tried sprouted mung beans, you're missing out)
  
• herb-laced yellow mung bean dal
  
• sliced white radishes with winter squash
  
• greens and plantains with toasted almonds
  
• char-flavored spiced eggplant and potatoes
  
• stuffed cauliflower with tart tomato-coriander sauce
  
• brown rice pilaf with broccoli, cashews, and cumin
  
• homemade raita, cilantro chutney, and tamarind chutney
  
  
• chapati (whole wheat flat bread)
  
• sweet potato-stuffed paratha
  
  
• saffron coconut soy ice cream and masala ginger apple crisp
  
  
• barley tonic, ginger lemonade, and cinnamon rooibos chai

It looks like a lot. It might BE a lot, but the recipes seem not super complicated and someone besides me is making some of it. I am ridiculously organized and my house is almost clean and it's only Saturday. Sunday is prep-planning and shopping day.

I have a headache and I need sleep badly.

Totally true things that are totally insane.

No, not that I saw the Mountain Goats last night. That's not insane, unless you want to call my love of a band that has brought me friendship, new bands to love, lyrical pleasure, and many happy times "insane."

But this, the threatened "outing" of No on 8 supporters by the Yes on 8 campaign is totally nuts. Oh, it's on now. If California fails to defeat the constitutional gay marriage ban, it might depress me even more than a McCain victory.

And you know the McCain campaign has gotten desperate, too. One of his young volunteers claimed that she'd been beaten up by an Obama supporter, but ended up in jail herself for filing a false police report. Because she made the whole thing up. Way to effing go. Whether this was a solitary act of insanity or a coordinated effort at race-baiting, the Republicans are the only ones looking worse for wear.

Is it just me, or is it funny that it's proud Red Staters who want to bring back "communist" as an insult?

If you care, here's more--gossipy but true--about the place I call work. Valleywag failed, however, to take the bait CFO Blake Jorgensen set out: photoshopped pics of himself in drag. I'm sure he's feeling very hurt right now.

This has totally made the rounds already, but if you hate broccoli and don't read 80,375 blogs already, click to reaffirm your disavowal of delicious little trees.

The last thing is totally true, and totally awesome. The only totally insane thing will come if this guy doesn't become our next president.

And here, just because it's been stuck in my head for weeks:

Yay for seeing the same band over and over again!

Yeah, Steve said we had to go see the Mountain Goats. They are playing the Fillmore, so we're hoping the show sold out so we get free posters. Anyway, tomorrow I better have more energy than I've had the rest of the week, because I have some serious rocking out to do! WOO!