On another note

I love this movie a lot and just noticed that it is on Hulu.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/167845/wristcutters-a-love-story

Just something to pass the time, dear readers.

Baked Ziti & Indian Food, or why I should just give up on Tofu Saag

Recently, due to the heat wave and other weird psychosomatic stuff, I have had a crazy craving for Indian food. I'm admittedly not the greatest Indian chef...I tend to burn my spices, be heavy handed with the pepper and then sort of sob through my meal. I have been on the road to getting my balances right (don't get me started on the great onion puree debacle of '04) and feel like I'm starting to get there, especially with my favorite dish of all time: Channa Masala.

My Channa Masala recipe is pretty simple:

~ 1 1/2 cups dried chick peas, soaked overnight, then boiled 1 hour in salt water, dump water, simmer another 2-3 hours in new water.

1/4 c curry powder from indian store (get the kind that has turmeric and coriander towards the top of the ingredients. I am not a fan of garam masala, I find it to be too clove and cardamom heavy).

1/4 c cilantro

1 yellow onion, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, diced fine

1 1/2 tsp minced ginger

3-4 Tbsp tomato paste

1-2 fresh vine ripe tomatoes

olive oil

salt and pepper

Get your chickpeas going in advance. Without the soak, you'll just have to cook them longer (and vegan rumor has it they cause more gas), but leave at least 4-5 hours to get them tender as you want them. Ghee is not in my vocabularly, so I start off with olive oil. Into the olive oil, toss your onion and get it going. When it is just starting to turn translucent, add the garlic and ginger. About a minute after, get the curry powder in to toast a little. Quickly add the tomato paste when the powder starts to change color. Chickpeas and enough water to thin out the sauce so it can really get around the chickpeas. Over the next 20 minutes, cook the sauce down over a simmer until the sauce is once again thicker. Add cilantro and fresh chopped tomato just before serving, so they have time to heat to the temperature of the dish but not actually cook through. I pulled out the Channa masala twice, once for my dear friend Jeremy's going away dinner (at which he brought me some fantastic Russian Vodka) and again the next week for my friends the Machete Archive, who hung out.

The tofu saag I attempted was lousy. Used a garlic/onion/curry base, then added tofu sour cream the first time (nope!), cream chz the second (nope!) and diced tofu both times (not bad but still, not there. Any suggestions on the Saag situation, appreciated.

Let's end this post on a happy note: I attempted this baked ziti recipe, subbing ziti for penne, ricotta cheese for my tofu ricotta (viewable in my mega thanksgiving post) and mozzarella for daiya. And parmesan for more mozzarella, which was a bad call, since it was a little too much daiya at the top. It is possible. The ziti came out looking fantastic and getting destroyed by roommates and me in a manner of about 36 hours.

Pineapple Cake, Butternut Squash again and Lime & Basil

I haven't got much to say about my attempt to make this

cake, except that I used fresh pineapple. It came out pretty good. I guess my number one wish regarding this cake was that the cake itself was a little more pineapple-y. I also wished for a moister cake. Th

is had more the consistency of coffee cake, which is probably apparent from the photograph of the crumbled piece of cake I cut off.

http://priyaeasyntastyrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/02/vegan-pineapple-cake.html

I also returned to Butternut Squash in Chapel Hill with Dork. We ordered the fried tofu to start with, which was tasty. She got a club sandwich and I got a the hemp burger. I was not overly impressed with either sandwich, particularly the burger which was like, three inches in diameter and absolutely drowning in the bread and the amount of mustard on that bun. I think stir fry is the way to go there. We got a chocolate cake for dessert and it was pretty but I've reached a point where I'm off chocolate for good, I think.

Across the street from the shopping center that holds Butternut Squash is probably my favorite Chapel Hill restaurant at the moment: Lime & Basil.

LnB is a vietnamese/pan asian restaurant with a focus on the awesome. I usually just order starters (one or two) and can make a whole meal out of them. This most recent trip, I was with my parents who encouraged me to just order a whole bunch of things I'd hoped to try. Pictured are the fried veggie spring rolls, tofu summer rolls, tofu curry and the edge of my coconut juice. Not pictured is the tofu summer salad. The food is always pretty good, filling and light. I was not particularly taken with the curry, but I'm not a fan of potato in curry in general. Overall I'd recommend the place for a casual lunch or dinner. It's by no means fancy but definitely well priced and accommodating.

Durham Garden Center SALE

Locals to the Triangle: do you have space in your garden?

I just got an email that Durham Garden Center is literally giving away tomatoes. I can verify this. They have several varieties: large cherry, sweet 100, lemon boy (yellow), cherokee, german...I have about 12 new tomato plants now. Yes, 100% free. They also have watermelons and

They're also running a sale on most annuals, herbs and vegetables for buy one get one free, so I picked up some herbs (peppermint, mint chocolate, ginger mint, cilantro) and some new guinea impatiens. Hooray. Get over there while the getting's good!

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 46 (The end!)

I woke up as early as possible, drank some grapefruit juice and started my lessons. A coworker agreed to swap shifts with me at the bar so I could start at 4, definitely getting off by midnight. After finishing lessons at 2:30, I scooted over to my fav local bakery, Guglhupf, and bought some pain paysan (house sourdough, 25% rye, 75% wheat). At home, I rolled some cukes and avocado together in nori and scarfed it, then headed into work.

All I have to say about work today was that I can't stand basketball.

Fortunately, I got off around 10:30 due to the pacified masses, came home, took a shower and Sicka and I headed back to the bar to wait on midnight.

12:00 am was a Makers, a Bells two-hearted and a ripped off piece of pain paysan. All guests agreed that pain paysan is effing delicious.

By 12:45 I was pretty wrecked from my two drinks. Miss Steve got me a PBR which I nursed until about 2am, then Sicka drove me home. At home, I decided that my other long-lost friend, pasta, shouldn't have to wait. I tossed some tofu macaroni and broccoli in a pot, then melted down some daiya with silk and makeshifted a mac and cheese. While it cooked, I had part of a Snicker Dude from Liz Lovely. Sick and I also sampled a little bit of bread which was...obviously not quite right. I think I made it through about 1/4 of the mac and daiya before my stomach protested and I had to stop and go to bed. Which is cool.

This morning, my head and tummy reminded me at 7:45 that I have NOT drank, eaten that much salt, or wheat, or processed stuff in over 6 weeks. I pounded water like it was my job. Then passed back out for 5 more hours.

Now, I have to say that my head feels surprisingly okay and my stomach is as good as can be expected.

Reflections on Raw Life:
-Eating raw is pretty rad. You can eat pretty much until you are stuffed and not feel guilty about anything you put in your body.
-Once you purge all the processed stuff, you feel pretty good.
-Your environmental impact can be pretty much negligible, especially during farmer's market season.
-Save money! No more processed stuff! If you avoid all the raw "treats" like cookies, crawkers and so on, think about the cost of eating a banana and a salad every day. Probably 6-10 dollars.

I'm considering picking a day of the week to be 100% raw overall, and then try to do 50-60% the rest of the time. But man, raw recipes, aside from drinks, probably will be few and far between, because I like raw fruits and veggies just the way they are :)

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 45

A good day...

I bought a pineapple and cut it up, and got inspired.

I call it a Pink Escape (Pink Pina Colada)

~Waste parts of 1 pineapple (the tough ring in the center, the shavings with some of the brown holes around the outside, but not the skin. Eat the rest of the pineapple as you ordinarily would...)
(OR) appx 1 1/2 c pineapple.
~1 medium to large banana
~Appx 1 Cup Coconut water
~1/2 c strawberries

Blend until smooth. Drink with umbrella. :)

This was probably the first drink I ever made that I would rate a 10 on drinkability. I pounded these in like, 20 minutes then immediately regretted it.

at work, I snacked on the rest of the pineapple that I didn't use for the pina colada. Work was nuts, but it was all good, made decent money and still got out by about 12:30. Finished off the pineapple with some Chia. Those who like shakes...MAKE A PINK ESCAPE. It's delicious!

Failure of the evening: baking bread for tomorrow. Using the "getting started" guide recipe from the vitamixI ground up some white wheat berries, made the yeast, mixed the dough and then tried to "knead" in the vitamix...which didn't work, either because the dough was too watery or because it was too hot. But nothing came together, and after about 10 cycles of "kneading" I gave up and baked it as it was. It didn't rise when I proofed it. Boo hiss. Anyone got any advice on vitamix bread baking?

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 44, or Urumbo

So, today marked the slump. Urumbo was described to me as Shona (a Zimbabwe and South/East African language) for "the troubles." I think they meant it more in the way the Irish say "the troubles," but I'm taking both, man, because I am seriously facing my worst time right now, on the last mile. Number one, my brain is all over the place.

Got up this morning (had the day off) after getting a wonderfully unfulfilling 5 hours of sleep only to find out that my hairdresser is sick and couldn't come. I then failed to accomplish the one thing I was supposed to do today besides get my hair cut. But y'all don't want to hear me gripe, so let's talk food, gardens and veg*n, shall we?

After my stop at the bank, I hit up whole foods and picked up some snacky-poo for myself. I lazied out and got some pre-made guacamole (made in store, the only kind I find bearable as far as premade guacs) and seedless cukes to dip in the guac. I cut the bad boy up and had a mighty filling lunch, then set about my major task for the day, gardening.

As you can see, I got my garden turned over and some of my crops held over from last year (lavender and rosemary) and my bulbs are coming up and making life a delight, particularly on the walkway up to the front door, which is lined with Daffodils and paperwhites, creating a beautiful stink of spring and a splash of color, too. The paperwhite smell, for those unfamiliar, is most similar probably to the Easter Lily (one of my students just gave me a plant for the holiday, it is living in my room), in that it's pervasive, somewhat treacly but overall pleasant.

I believe I mentioned that I'd put in two raspberry bushes last Thursday and over the weekend, they really took! The foliage increased, the plants seem to be in good shape. Granted, the bushes I planted this week were a little more robust straight from the store, but I think you can still see the difference (newbie plants are the two on the left, week-olds on the right). So, if you, like me, have soil that's full of clay and essentially destroys anything but the heartiest of plants (seriously, my lawn is half dead because my yard is totally overtaken by trees, ivy and crabgrass). I also put down a couple of fig tree-lets (that are literally 6" tall right now and absolutely darling).

The real challenge of the day was that my vegessentials order came in today and the temptation to eat something, anything out of that box of joy was great. There were the cookies. There was pasta. There was chocolate and there was fake cheese. There were 3 fake meats I am really excited to try. There are 2 more days. I'm trying, and everyone says they're proud right now but I am JONESING for some processed wheat with partially hydrogenated soy involved. It's taking a lot of will power to pour myself a bowl of Chia with fresh cut strawberries with local honey* or pour myself a glass of grapefruit juice and a handful of cashews (that was dinner and evening snack respectively) instead of just going downstairs and tearing through a frozen bagel. I've had NY bagels in my freezer since early march =/. /rant

Anyway, I'm getting my plans together for the rest of the garden. I just found out that planting basil and rosemary side by side is bad news, so I think the rosemary side of the garden will be for brassicas, since I recently learned that rosemary and basil hate each other and battle it out underground, as do their counterparts. For those unaware, rosemary is a good compliment to things like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts. Rosemary and the brassicas should be kept away from tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano and carrots, apparently. Oregano is also supposedly good for cukes. As far as eye-candy to help yr dirt candy, the 3 big reccs are geraniums, marigolds and borage (new to me this year, but I'll sniff some out).

Any gardening tips out there in the blog world? I've had a heck of a time keeping my brassicas alive, hopefully this year with the division they'll at least get a fighting chance to battle it out with the evil squirrels (seriously, I've had squirrels eating my cucumber stalks before they even reach a decent size through like, 3 attempts last year. I don't want to sprout my seeds only to see them become very expensive sprout feed for squirrels.

Gosh, there I go again. Just trying to resist Liz Lovely's cookies. Til tomorrow, kids.

*Yes, I know honey is not considered vegan. NC has one of the highest number of indigenous flora of any state in the US. People who never had allergies move here and are debilitated by sinus pressure, snotties, sneezies and so forth. I try to work about 1 tsp of local honey into my daily diet at the beginning of the season and have just had some slight itchy eyes. Plus, I'd totally eat a bee, or a wasp. It is one of my secret desires to get a fig that has eaten a wasp. You can fight me on this, but honey (and, for that matter, insect byproduct in general) is not something I get up in arms about. Obvs, when I find out if things are truly vegan for YOU all (like beer) I get that info to pass along, because we all draw our line in the sand in different places. :)

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 42-23

Oh, some crappy days. Something I ate on Monday really didn't agree with me. I've narrowed it down to the almond butter from Mara Natha (a company I don't really like much to begin with) or the raw crackers =/. Either way, I was in severe intestinal distress for most of Tuesday (and believe me, it's not fun having tummy cramps and having absolutely no appetite when you're a waitress and have to be around food all night). I packed myself another arugula salad w/ strawberry vinaigrette, but ended up just eating a little bit of kimchi, a pickle and some grapes and strawberries that my co-worker Kat (who had mentioned that she thought bringing fruit habitually over candy was a good idea) brought for all of us. Day 42: Bust.

Day 43 was busy, but strangely so. Wednesdays are my double days. I managed to get out of work at the Fed fairly early and head to whole foods Chapel hill to pick up some pineapple and kombucha for a snack. Then, only one of my lessons showed up. The whole day. I finally got back home at about 7, where I worked on LAM! LAM! 2.0 until 8, when we left to play a show at Craig's House in Durham with Just Friends (Ex Fake Accents/Puberty) and So Cow, who were both rad. So Cow are on tour from Ireland and if you dig the Beach Boys, Hefner, or twee pop in general, you should check their schedule and see if they'll be near you. It'd be, as they say, "grand." We got home from the show at 4am, when I realized I'd consumed all of, oh, about 150 calories and promptly shoved an avocado down my throat. So, two days where I probably coulda eaten a little more.

I won't lie, these extra six days are really starting to wear on me. I placed an order from Veganessentials of shit that is sure to make me sick as a dog on Easter Sunday. I HATE having to choose a vegan online shop. Did anyone else notice that Cosmo's seems to have an exclusive on the reduced fat vegenaise (PS OMFG reduced fat vegenaise!)? While VE has all the Larsen stuff (which makes sense, I suppose). Either way, my list of stuff due to arrive on Day 44 is as follows:
Daiya Shredded Vegan Cheese - Cheddar
Daiya Shredded Vegan Cheese - Italian
Organic Cowgirl Veggie Steaks by Viana
Organic Chickin Fillets by Viana
Seven Grain Crispy "Chicken" Tenders by Gardein
Match Meat Vegan Meat Alternatives - Crab
Vegan Sliced Baked Ham by Pure Vegetarian
Liz Lovely Artisan Cookies - Goats A' Grazin'
Liz Lovely Artisan Cookies - Snicker Dudes
Organic Tofu Elbow Macaroni
Bow Wow Bon Bons Truffles by Rescue Chocolate (SIDEBAR: these profit animals, choose these as yr truffles!)

So I can't wait for this stuff to come! :)

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 41

So, first day of raw extension...I was kind of a heifer. Lunch was guacamole with cauliflower and some raw crackers. I also picked up some almond butter (raw) and some Ezekiel sprouted grain tortillas, which I'm debating eating. Instead, I made chia with almond butter and bananas for a snack, then fixed myself a dinner of an arugula salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, walnuts and avocado with strawberry vinaigrette (my single fav thing to eat with arugula).

Strawberry vinaigrette
1/3 C olive oil
2/3 C strawberries (4-8 fresh strawberries, depending on size)
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp crushed dried mint
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp agave nectar
pinch pepper

Blend until the consistency of salad dressing. Keeps in the fridge for up to a week.

Oh yeah, my pickles came out again and I noshed on them! :)

One other purchase I made, that led to a realization: black cherry juice (the cheapest unpasteurized juice they had), is gross. I think I have to come to terms with the fact that I don't like cherry juice. Something in it makes me gag. So there.

40 46 Days of Raw: Day 38-40

Man, the past couple of days have been KILLER.

On Friday, I was able to accomplish a *little,* although my Weds and Thurs shenanigans sure didn't help my energy level. First thing in the morning, my dad called asking me how to use the "juicer" and what recipes I could give him for "juicing." When he says "juicer," he means the vitamix. I keep telling him to just kind of experiment but he wants recipes (from books) so I'm just making stuff up to give him. Sometimes they're mediocre, sometimes better. Day 38 was a decent smoothie, but I wouldn't go out of the way to call it mind-blowing or anything. Good nutritional value, if nothing else!

So here's my Day 38 smoothie:
1/2 C almond milk
1/2 C water
1 banana
1/4 head cabbage
1 vine ripe tomato
1/2 c mixed berries
(you can add 1 tbsp maca powder)

I also polished off my cookies before heading to work. For a work snack, I packed a handful of almonds and a handful of cashews. When I arrived, I found a pleasant surprise: fresh fruit! Where I work, the security guy/backwait, Jim, often brings in candy for the waitstaff. Sometimes it is movie candy like whoppers, mike and ikes, dots, skittles and reeses pieces, sometimes it's fancy fare like chocolate dipped pretzels, truffles, jordan almonds etc. This week, he said he checked the schedule and saw I was working and brought in strawberries, blackberries and green grapes. Another server on shift mentioned that it would be great if we did it every week, so we were having healthy snacks instead of scarfing down 800 empty calories every night. Time will tell!

It was a rough night at the bar. A popular local fellow got married and the bar filled to the brim with people who had already had quite a few drinks. This resulted in two bar fights, several spilled and dropped drinks and a lot of running around and headache. It was sort of exhausting.

When I came home I ate my snack as well as some chia, knowing I'd have a rough day Saturday, and oh, how Saturday delivered.

Day 39:
9:15 am I arrive at the studio to wait on my lessons. I taught from 9:45 until 11, then had a break in which I scooted to buy some sheet music for my 12:30 student, as well as pick up a snack at Trader Joe's of a Cherry Pie Larabar and some pineapple slices. I spied a new "healthy" fast food place called Evos that I may or may not try. Their menu looks kind of meh.

Of course, my 12:30 didn't show up, so I waited around until 1:30 for my next lessons, then finally got out at 3:15, headed back to Durham and quickly assembled some pickles (ready on Monday) and chopped up half a cabbage, a tomato, an avocado, a cucumber and poured vinaigrette over it. Unfortunately, by the time I finished chopping, I had to be at work, so into the tupperware it went.

I scarfed it down in fits through the night, which was also ridiculously busy, then finally got to go home and immediately spooned some chia goodness into a bowl with almond milk and a banana. By 2:15 am I was losing consciousness. That's what 14 hours of work will do though!

Day 40:
Well, when I started this, I thought today was Easter and I'd be enjoying some delicious bagels and rye bread and maybe a veggie burger or some hummus. Oh, so I was wrong.

Taught this morning...but was late. I was totally knackered from last night. I had to drive to Raleigh, so I stopped in at Earth Fare on my way back. Earth fare, my beloved. I picked up some Raw Crackers from the Raw Bakery. They are exactly what I remember raw crackers being like...sort of the analogue of Road's End Mac and Chreese. They have most of the attributes I miss in crackers...crunchiness, saltiness...but then weird things I don't want or need (like a sort of fatty oily flavor, a crumbliness from being made of seeds). I am still grateful for their existence and will eat them with guac as soon as I can get to it. I also put away another one of those Raw Organic bars for some energy while I prepped myself a raw sushi salad...I'm working out a dressing recipe which I'll share as soon as it's good enough *to* share. It was tasty but a little salty and definitely too thick to be a dressing.