May 24, 2012
I am having so much fun with my CSA!  I get to choose from a bunch of different options, can add things like bread (Spinach Feta loaf this week), pickles (Carolina Spicy Sweet Dill Pickles), honey, preserves, and extra shares of veggies.  I have 6 big gorgeous beets so I am going to attempt to make beet chips to have as snacks for the clothes swap I’m hosting on Sunday.  I’ve got 2 huge tomatoes that will make amazing BLT-ish sandwiches on Wonder(ful) Bread, with Red Fire lettuce and the Carolina Moon Smoked Farmer’s Cheese I got at the Carrboro Farmer’s Market yesterday.  The smokey flavor of the cheese is a great imitation of bacon. The huge bunch of Kale I received will go into Green Smoothies and Goddess Power Salads, with lentils, wheat berries, onion, tomato, avocado, tahini dressing, etc. I’ve got 5 onions now so I’ll dice and freeze some, and the rest with go with my giant head of Brocolli into this Spicy Broccoli Dal. And there are Blueberries, too!  It’s so much fun finding new recipes and getting my produce prepped every week.  I feel so healthy and inspired.  CSAs fuckin’ rule.

I am having so much fun with my CSA!  I get to choose from a bunch of different options, can add things like bread (Spinach Feta loaf this week), pickles (Carolina Spicy Sweet Dill Pickles), honey, preserves, and extra shares of veggies. 

I have 6 big gorgeous beets so I am going to attempt to make beet chips to have as snacks for the clothes swap I’m hosting on Sunday. 

I’ve got 2 huge tomatoes that will make amazing BLT-ish sandwiches on Wonder(ful) Bread, with Red Fire lettuce and the Carolina Moon Smoked Farmer’s Cheese I got at the Carrboro Farmer’s Market yesterday.  The smokey flavor of the cheese is a great imitation of bacon.

The huge bunch of Kale I received will go into Green Smoothies and Goddess Power Salads, with lentils, wheat berries, onion, tomato, avocado, tahini dressing, etc.

I’ve got 5 onions now so I’ll dice and freeze some, and the rest with go with my giant head of Brocolli into this Spicy Broccoli Dal.

And there are Blueberries, too! 

It’s so much fun finding new recipes and getting my produce prepped every week.  I feel so healthy and inspired.  CSAs fuckin’ rule.

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May 8, 2012
Babies Against Amendment One

Babies Against Amendment One

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May 5, 2012

CSA Heaven!

I got my first CSA box on Thursday and HOLY SHIT is it the best thing ever. 

I got kale, romaine and red fire lettuces, strawberries, 2 spring onions, beets, a hothouse tomato, garden peas, and a bag of boiled peanuts. 

So far I have made:

-Watermelon-Romaine smoothies with apple juice and spearmint from my garden

-Daal with spring onion, tomato, and beets

-A giant salad with onion and garden peas

-Strawberry-Banana-Kale smoothie with almond milk, hemp protein powder and Amazing Green from Trader Joe’s

-Stir fried tempeh with kale and onion

I still have 3 freezer bags full of lettuces, greens from the onions and beets, a freezer bag (frozen) of kale, and I threw half the strawberries out because they were so ripe and I couldn’t eat them in time!

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April 18, 2012

Hummmmmus

Israeli-ish Walnut Hummus

I just made some DELICIOUS hummus using toasted walnuts instead of tahini.   I used to basic recipe from myjewishlearning.com. 

1/2 cup walnuts

juice of 1 lemon

1t each mustard, coriander, cumin seeds (I guesstimated* these amounts)

1 T olive oil for toasting spices and walnuts plus

2-3 T olive oil 

1 can chickpeas

2 cloves garlic

paprika, salt and pepper to taste

Hot water 

Toast walnuts in olive oil over medium heat for about 3 minutes then remove from heat and set aside.  Toast seeds in olive oil briefly (until mustard seeds start to pop) then remove and add to walnuts.  Make sure you change the oil in between toasting things so that it doesn’t burn on the second round.  

Toss the walnuts, seeds, chickpeas and olive oil (about 2 T) into food processor and blend away.  Add garlic, lemon juice and a little hot water when the mixture starts to get clumpy and stops spinning around (this is totally technical terminology).  Add a little hot water to creamify the hummus when needed until it is smoooooth.  Don’t forget the pepper, salt and paprika!  Bam.  That is how you do it.  And then you eat it.  I wish I had some pita.  

*I love that Tumblr thinks “guesstimated” is a real word. 

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April 17, 2012

The Cabin in the Woods Trailer 2012 HD (by PlayTraiIers)

THIS MOVIE IS AMAZING.

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Broke.

I’ve been making some questionable financial decisions lately.  (See “But that bathing suit is Marc Jacobs, and it actually looks super cute on me!  Originally $150 and up, found at Marshall’s for $49!  And the other one is cute too!  I cannot decide!  I shall transfer $100 from my Emergency Account and buy them both and maaaaaybe I’ll return one later once I decide definitively which one is cuter.  That’s a great idea.  Right?”)  I’ve got this amazing babysitting gig that pays me crazy well and is scheduled once a week, but in the last 6 weeks I’ve been cancelled on 3 times.  I get it, I’m not blaming them, but mama, I am BROKE.  Trying to decide whether it’s worth it to cancel my insurance until I go to grad school so I can “save” $120 a month from now until August broke.  Not leaving the house lest I spend money broke.  I should probably return one of those swimsuits broke (but seriously, how often do I even find ONE swimsuit that looks good?!  It’s been like 3 years!).  Selling all my shit on ebay broke.  Yard Sale broke?  Hmmm…that could work…oh or I could just get my finances in order and make a budget and stick to it and stop buying clothes and spending too much on groceries….Sigh. 

Is this my life right now?

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On Friday, I went to NCMA to tour the exhibition of works by El Anatsui, an incredible African artist.  We* have the most comprehensive exhibit of his works to date.  My favorites are his hanging metal quilts, made from countless liquor bottle caps which are folded and twisted into sheets and combined into large pieces, shipped to museums where the installer and curator decide how each one is hung.  Here is what NCMA has to say about their exhibit, entitledEl Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa:

“This expansive exhibition traces four decades of Anatsui’s prolific career, including his early work making use of traditional symbols in Ghana; driftwood pieces created in Denmark; chainsaw-carved wood work, metal assemblages, and draping bottle-top sculptures produced in Nigeria. Anatsui’s metal sculptures—constructed from thousands of Nigerian liquor bottle tops pieced together—transform a simple material into a stunning monumental form. While many of his works make use of found objects—including bottle caps, milk tins, and cassava graters—the artist says that his sculp­tures are less about recycling or salvaging than about seeking meaning in the ways materials can be transformed to make statements about history, culture, and memory.”

The exhibit is up through the end of July.  Check it out!

http://ncartmuseum.org/exhibitions/el_anatsui/

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April 13, 2012

CCOKC - Child Celebrities Opposing Kirk Cameron - watch more funny videos

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April 12, 2012
“ Sonnets to Orpheus, Part One, IV

You who let yourselves feel: enter the breathing
that is more than your own.
Let it brush your cheeks
as it divides and rejoins beside you.

Blessed ones, whole ones,
you where the heart begins:
You are the bow that shoots the arrows
and you are the target.

Fear not the pain. Let its weight fall back
into the earth;
for heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.

The trees you planted in childhood have grown
too heavy. You cannot bring them along.
Give yourselves to the air, to what you cannot hold.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~
(In Praise of Mortality, translated and edited by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy) •
My friend Kelli and her kids are in this beautiful video about Family in the face of Amendment One. 

My friend Kelli and her kids are in this beautiful video about Family in the face of Amendment One. 

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