Sunday, February 21, 2010
Messing around with templates
Blogger has been quietly adding a bunch of gadgets/widgets to their blogger platform, making the need for crazy customized templates less important, placing the ability to get crazy complex, in the hands of even novice blog designers. I usually use a template by Lena Toews, of Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates, but I'm thinking I may take a stab at a custom template of my own, with heavy reliance on the gadgets, for the first time in years. Maybe not today... but soon anyway. So, if you read my blog via a reader (like Google Reader) then you won't know or probably care what I'm talking about but if you read on the blog itself and you see stuff that's all messed up or looks "templatey" without the requisite customization, that's way. Stuff's in work.
What *do* digital natives want from their libraries?
My guess is that it's actually more picture books. And maybe juice boxes.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Some Recipes
Paige has started using a site called Tastebook (not as like Facebook as you may think) to save recipes. My mom gave her a Tastebook cookbook with recipes from our family and others that we enjoy -- all veg. If you can believe it, I don't have a Tastebook account so I can't share a lot of what we have been eating recently, but there are a number of recipes online that we've made recently that are now a part of our routine. Some of those follow:
*About vegetable broth: We have started using a paste bouillon called "Better than Bouillon" that we found at Whole Foods. It is a brown vegetable stock -- infinitely better than powdered vegetable stock -- that can be used in French onion soup (like the recipe below) or chiles or pasole or any number of soups where a beef or turkey or pork broth is called for. In recipes that use a chicken stock, I will generally use a light vegetable stock, or make a light stock ahead of time using celery, carrot and onion, with salt and pepper. I also like to use various colors of miso in soups or gravies, to impart a nice umami.
Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burgers - Allrecipes.com
Rich and Simple French Onion Soup - Allrecipes.com
Various un-meatball recipes at The Kitchn -- and my personal favorite, for which I substitute Matzo Meal for bread crumbs, again using the Better than Bouillon mentioned above as the liquid for the boiling part. I like these just plain or with some BBQ. Also good with spaghetti.
Fantastic Risotto -- this one using Butternut Squash
A really good Cauliflower Dal
I could add a few other recipes... You can also look in my own Food category to see things we've cooked in the past year or so. I'll mention that I eat a lot of pizza too, and we do quiche and omlettes pretty frequently. I like a plain margarita pizza, but I've been known to put vegetarian italian sausage crumbles or even sauteed brussel sprout quarters on it. (Don't knock it until you try it.)
I love a nice sandwich with fresh wheat or sourdough bread, mayo and mustard, avocado, thinly sliced cucumber, sprouts and a medium hard cheese or farmer's cheese.
Paige cooks dal (there are a gagillion recipes for basic mung bean dal on the web) quite frequently, and I will do a spinach, mushroom, artichoke heart (or all of the above) lasagna about once per month -- and please, take the time to just boil the lasagna noodles the old fashioned way. No-boil noodles may do something different in a meat lasagna, but they are HORRIBLE in a vegetable lasagna. Taste like wet cardboard. Blech.
We also do a fair amount with dumplings which, if you look at my un-meatball recipe, you'll see that it's very similar to a matzo ball or a dumpling, except for the nuts and cheese which are surprisingly tasty... You may just not want to call them a meatball or people will have a different expectation in the taste.
Indian Food -- which is largely vegetarian in traditional constructs, is always a wonderful night out. We also discovered that there are a lots of "house special" Chinese dishes that are vegetarian. If you're in a big city, most Tibetan restaurants have extensive vegetarian options.
It's worth noting that we do a lot of beans during the winter. Spring, summer and fall we eat... well, seasonally.
So... I hope this gives you some idea of what we eat. I welcome comments or suggestions too. And if you friend Paige on Tastebook (email me if you want her tastebook handle) that's a good way to get a lot of our more current "everyday" meals.
*About vegetable broth: We have started using a paste bouillon called "Better than Bouillon" that we found at Whole Foods. It is a brown vegetable stock -- infinitely better than powdered vegetable stock -- that can be used in French onion soup (like the recipe below) or chiles or pasole or any number of soups where a beef or turkey or pork broth is called for. In recipes that use a chicken stock, I will generally use a light vegetable stock, or make a light stock ahead of time using celery, carrot and onion, with salt and pepper. I also like to use various colors of miso in soups or gravies, to impart a nice umami.
Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burgers - Allrecipes.com
Rich and Simple French Onion Soup - Allrecipes.com
Various un-meatball recipes at The Kitchn -- and my personal favorite, for which I substitute Matzo Meal for bread crumbs, again using the Better than Bouillon mentioned above as the liquid for the boiling part. I like these just plain or with some BBQ. Also good with spaghetti.
Fantastic Risotto -- this one using Butternut Squash
A really good Cauliflower Dal
I could add a few other recipes... You can also look in my own Food category to see things we've cooked in the past year or so. I'll mention that I eat a lot of pizza too, and we do quiche and omlettes pretty frequently. I like a plain margarita pizza, but I've been known to put vegetarian italian sausage crumbles or even sauteed brussel sprout quarters on it. (Don't knock it until you try it.)
I love a nice sandwich with fresh wheat or sourdough bread, mayo and mustard, avocado, thinly sliced cucumber, sprouts and a medium hard cheese or farmer's cheese.
Paige cooks dal (there are a gagillion recipes for basic mung bean dal on the web) quite frequently, and I will do a spinach, mushroom, artichoke heart (or all of the above) lasagna about once per month -- and please, take the time to just boil the lasagna noodles the old fashioned way. No-boil noodles may do something different in a meat lasagna, but they are HORRIBLE in a vegetable lasagna. Taste like wet cardboard. Blech.
We also do a fair amount with dumplings which, if you look at my un-meatball recipe, you'll see that it's very similar to a matzo ball or a dumpling, except for the nuts and cheese which are surprisingly tasty... You may just not want to call them a meatball or people will have a different expectation in the taste.
Indian Food -- which is largely vegetarian in traditional constructs, is always a wonderful night out. We also discovered that there are a lots of "house special" Chinese dishes that are vegetarian. If you're in a big city, most Tibetan restaurants have extensive vegetarian options.
It's worth noting that we do a lot of beans during the winter. Spring, summer and fall we eat... well, seasonally.
So... I hope this gives you some idea of what we eat. I welcome comments or suggestions too. And if you friend Paige on Tastebook (email me if you want her tastebook handle) that's a good way to get a lot of our more current "everyday" meals.
More thoughts on food
Josephine asked in a previous comment:
And of course, I'd be happy to... but I feel like I should possibly start by outlining some philosophies, ideas, etc., related to what we eat... or more specifically, what I eat, because in truth Paige and I do eat differently for breakfast and lunch and even some dinners, even though we're both home and using the same kitchen. Also, she's been vegetarian longer than me and is slightly less adventurous... Also, she doesn't crave things like calimari or sashimi or kalbi like I do so... anyway, there's that. But here we go...
1. When I started transitioning to vegetarianism, it was all about me. It wasn't a "carbon footprint" thing, or an animal cruelty thing, or even an "eating local" thing (although in Southern California even if you only shop at conventional grocery stores that's what you're doing). No, when I started my Monday - Friday vegetarianism it was for my weight, energy and health. It was all about me. I was tired of having poor digestion, being gassy, having heartburn, being lethargic after lunch, and my clothes not fitting the way I wanted them to. Monday through Friday vegetarianism was a way for me to take control, eat in the quantities I desired while limiting the calories and changing the composition (carbohydrate/protein/fat, vitamins and minerals) of my diet. In essence, it was a way to diet without dieting.
2. My dietary restrictions were and are, as much about being and staying conscious about what I put into my body as they are about consuming the actual food. I like to eat, believe me, and I like to cook. But let's face it, even for folks who don't leave the house on any given day like us, the tendency is to marginalize the selection and preparation, take short cuts and just get the meal to the table. Placing some restrictions on the ingredients you use, the ways you prepare them, and how you think about a "main dish" vs. a "side" causes you to get very intentional about what you end up eating.
3. My week's routine can be and often is shaped by what I put in my body. That means that if I want to have local, non-chemically fertilized vegetables; local, non-hormoney cheese, eggs, or milk; or local bread made with good ingredients I need to build in time to source that. In CA, that meant trips to Mother's Market or the Farmer's Market, or to the big Whole Foods. It means fewer trips to Trader Joe's and Pavillion's. Here in Durham, it still means a weekly trip to the Farmer's Market (oops, missed it today) or to Weaver Street in Hillsborough or Carrborough, or to Whole Foods. It means I bake our bread more frequently, and we... get backyard chickens. (BTW, in LA, you can have unlimited chickens in your backyard and even a rooster. I don't know about surrounding incorporated areas but it's not hard to find out.) Basically what I'm saying is that if this is important to you, errands, money and time need to shift to facilitate. (And yes, we still shop at TJ's and visit a Kroeger now and then.)
4. I took baby steps. Moving to vegetarianism was a process that took a few months. I was already only eating meat mabye two or three days a week so limiting it to the weekends wasn't that hard, but doing so still caused some small, beneficial changes. It meant that I couldn't just run to get fast food (in most cases) if I was "starving" which, let's face it, if you're reading this, you're not one of those unfortunate few in this country. Moving slowly allowed me to learn on the go and still have meals out with friends on weekends and not be "that guy" who "can't" eat what everyone else is ok with. The move to mostly organic was also iterative and is still progressing; it is also influenced by price, still. And of course, we are "whole vegetarians" meaning we eat diary and eggs, but not fish or other meats. That said, we are reasonable people. If we go to vietnamese and order vegetable dishes and note upon tasting, that there may be fish sauce in something, we don't get crazy and throw the plate and rush to empty our stomachs. We just eat it and know what we are putting into our bodies. (Good fish sauce is one of my favorite things on the planet... I miss it 99% of the time but occasionally it finds its way into something I didn't know about. Again, being conscious of what's in stuff is a process.)
5. I wanted to do it... and my partner is supportive. I began my M-F experiment when I was single. When you're making decisions for yourself, it's pretty easy to stay true to your intentions. If you've ever tried to diet or do something in your house when others aren't participating, it's hard. That Paige is vegetarian and we share a philosophy is super helpful. She says she wouldn't care if I ate meat. She says she still wouldn't. I'm here to tell you though that if she started eating fish or meat, I wouldn't be far behind... That said, yoga is a huge part of our lives and the way the body has to work to process meat seems to run counter the the way the body wants to function when you are doing a practice like yoga. (Alcohol is a similar story, but I drink my share of wine... maybe someday that will be different but for now this is how it is.)
There is a lot more to say on this that relates to our lifestyle which, I'd say, is still in development. (Is one's life ever not in development?) Plus, we have a baby on the way...
Anyway, Jo asked, so recipes will be in the next post.
"Would you be interested in sharing some of your favorite recipes with us? Here or on facebook? Just some simple recipes that you and Paige love to eat to nourish your bodies? You share with us, we share and we are a part of that food revolution.!!!!!!!"
And of course, I'd be happy to... but I feel like I should possibly start by outlining some philosophies, ideas, etc., related to what we eat... or more specifically, what I eat, because in truth Paige and I do eat differently for breakfast and lunch and even some dinners, even though we're both home and using the same kitchen. Also, she's been vegetarian longer than me and is slightly less adventurous... Also, she doesn't crave things like calimari or sashimi or kalbi like I do so... anyway, there's that. But here we go...
1. When I started transitioning to vegetarianism, it was all about me. It wasn't a "carbon footprint" thing, or an animal cruelty thing, or even an "eating local" thing (although in Southern California even if you only shop at conventional grocery stores that's what you're doing). No, when I started my Monday - Friday vegetarianism it was for my weight, energy and health. It was all about me. I was tired of having poor digestion, being gassy, having heartburn, being lethargic after lunch, and my clothes not fitting the way I wanted them to. Monday through Friday vegetarianism was a way for me to take control, eat in the quantities I desired while limiting the calories and changing the composition (carbohydrate/protein/fat, vitamins and minerals) of my diet. In essence, it was a way to diet without dieting.
2. My dietary restrictions were and are, as much about being and staying conscious about what I put into my body as they are about consuming the actual food. I like to eat, believe me, and I like to cook. But let's face it, even for folks who don't leave the house on any given day like us, the tendency is to marginalize the selection and preparation, take short cuts and just get the meal to the table. Placing some restrictions on the ingredients you use, the ways you prepare them, and how you think about a "main dish" vs. a "side" causes you to get very intentional about what you end up eating.
3. My week's routine can be and often is shaped by what I put in my body. That means that if I want to have local, non-chemically fertilized vegetables; local, non-hormoney cheese, eggs, or milk; or local bread made with good ingredients I need to build in time to source that. In CA, that meant trips to Mother's Market or the Farmer's Market, or to the big Whole Foods. It means fewer trips to Trader Joe's and Pavillion's. Here in Durham, it still means a weekly trip to the Farmer's Market (oops, missed it today) or to Weaver Street in Hillsborough or Carrborough, or to Whole Foods. It means I bake our bread more frequently, and we... get backyard chickens. (BTW, in LA, you can have unlimited chickens in your backyard and even a rooster. I don't know about surrounding incorporated areas but it's not hard to find out.) Basically what I'm saying is that if this is important to you, errands, money and time need to shift to facilitate. (And yes, we still shop at TJ's and visit a Kroeger now and then.)
4. I took baby steps. Moving to vegetarianism was a process that took a few months. I was already only eating meat mabye two or three days a week so limiting it to the weekends wasn't that hard, but doing so still caused some small, beneficial changes. It meant that I couldn't just run to get fast food (in most cases) if I was "starving" which, let's face it, if you're reading this, you're not one of those unfortunate few in this country. Moving slowly allowed me to learn on the go and still have meals out with friends on weekends and not be "that guy" who "can't" eat what everyone else is ok with. The move to mostly organic was also iterative and is still progressing; it is also influenced by price, still. And of course, we are "whole vegetarians" meaning we eat diary and eggs, but not fish or other meats. That said, we are reasonable people. If we go to vietnamese and order vegetable dishes and note upon tasting, that there may be fish sauce in something, we don't get crazy and throw the plate and rush to empty our stomachs. We just eat it and know what we are putting into our bodies. (Good fish sauce is one of my favorite things on the planet... I miss it 99% of the time but occasionally it finds its way into something I didn't know about. Again, being conscious of what's in stuff is a process.)
5. I wanted to do it... and my partner is supportive. I began my M-F experiment when I was single. When you're making decisions for yourself, it's pretty easy to stay true to your intentions. If you've ever tried to diet or do something in your house when others aren't participating, it's hard. That Paige is vegetarian and we share a philosophy is super helpful. She says she wouldn't care if I ate meat. She says she still wouldn't. I'm here to tell you though that if she started eating fish or meat, I wouldn't be far behind... That said, yoga is a huge part of our lives and the way the body has to work to process meat seems to run counter the the way the body wants to function when you are doing a practice like yoga. (Alcohol is a similar story, but I drink my share of wine... maybe someday that will be different but for now this is how it is.)
There is a lot more to say on this that relates to our lifestyle which, I'd say, is still in development. (Is one's life ever not in development?) Plus, we have a baby on the way...
Anyway, Jo asked, so recipes will be in the next post.
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