I fucking love avocados.

Taking a page from my friend Max's book, I'm gonna preface this with "Oh man you guys, I had the best sandwich for lunch."

Toasted whole wheat bread. Sliced avocado. Tomatoes. Mozarella cheese. Vegenaise (vegan mayo, which was cheaper than real mayo). Swedish-style mustard. Romaine lettuce. Yellow onions. If I still ate meat or had bacon, this would be the perfect BLT+. I ate it too fast to take a picture.

Vegetable Soup Stock

AKA "throw a bunch of vegetable scraps in a pot and boil the hell out of it." Also, look everyone I got batteries for my camera! Here's the "before" picture.

I keep the odds and ends of veggies used in other recipes in a freezer bag to use for soup stock. This one's made of bits of green onions, red onions, yellow onions, one small potato, maybe 3 celery stalks, part of a tomato (which I'm finding makes stocks slightly bitter), 2 small carrots, and a heap of pre-chopped garlic. The house buys pre-chopped garlic in bulk, so I don't use fresh-chopped as much as I'd like. There are some spices in there, like salt, pepper, and a bay leaf. I don't remember everything I smelled in the cupboard and thought "this'll be nice," then threw in. I'm precise in my cooking, I know.

As a basic veggie soup stock recipe, you can gather
1 onion
2 carrots
3 celery stalks
1 head garlic (which is what gives it more flavor)
1 bay leaf
and as much salt and pepper as you like

Quarter onion. Peel garlic. Cut carrots and celery into... chunks about 1-2 inches long. Throw all ingredients in the largest pot you own. Add enough water to fill your large pot. Bring water to a boil, then let simmer for 1-2 hours. Strain veggie bits out, wait for the stock to cool, and refrigerate or freeze for later deliciousness.

Here we have the "after."

I spent a decade exoticising the otter

I find that the webcomic Cat and Girl too often describes my life or my thoughts.

A Few Good Links

GOOD gets in on the food politics posts. This one's about disposable dinnerware.

Avocado salad I could probably eat for a week straight (PGEW)


Happy Mardi Gras everyone. I'm gonna go try to find some delicious paczki.

Coffee

Luxirare does coffee food porn. Picture in this post taken from her blog.

For those of you not familiar with the term, "food porn" is a picture (usually a detailed close-up shot) of food to make it look incredibly aesthetically appealing and less like the mess that's usually on your plate. I'm a sucker for it. Luxirare is my favorite at it.

Also, how much of your favorite caffeinated beverage would it take to kill you? It would take 110.8 macchiatos (labeled on the website as espresso shots) or 181.52 cups of black tea to kill me.

Valentine's Day

I'm going to make 2 dozen crimson velvet cupcakes on Valentine's Day, and all 3 of my readers are invited to partake. There will probably be some left over on Monday, which means the two readers from out of state have time to get to New Orleans.




note: this image is not a cupcake i made

Moar Food Politics

I've just heard of a book called Against the Grain by Richard Manning. From what I've read about it, it sounds like a case for feeding cattle grass instead of grain to help fix the environmental destruction caused by certain forms of farming. I might (with my meager funds and book store gift certificate) buy this and Omnivore's Dilemma, then contrast their arguments. There's also the option of The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Kieth, which sounds like it's along the same lines as Against the Grain.

Some day I'll get to posting more about delicious things and less about my conflicted thoughts on said delicious things.


Note: I couldn't find Against the Grain on the website for the book store where I wouldn't have to pay my own money, so I purchased The Vegetarian Myth and The Omnivore's Dilemma. They should be here in the next week, so I can start reviewing and analyzing with a little more background than I already have. In the mean time, I'll post a recipe or two and buy some batteries for my mediocre camera to post some food-porn.

Dietary Restriction

I'm pretty into trying to cut meat out from my diet. I'll try not to rehash every tired argument about being vegetarian or vegan everyone's heard before. I've never been a fan of PETA. Well, in middle school I was into them, but fuck middle school. I'm not particularly offended at what some have called the subjugation of animals. I'm more concerned with the environmental impact of and having some form of relationship with the meals I eat. My love of food and love of over-analyzing everything means that I think about what's on my plate and going into my body a hell of a lot.

I feel like the worst foodie* who is into politics ever, because I haven't read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma yet. I'm really feeling the need to read it right now, and maybe blog about some of the products I'm cooking with and their origins and impact on the environment and my body (bio, nutrition, etc.) I think I have a little bit of what Pollan writes about buzzing around my head, just from looking into the locavore and freegan movements. This project could encourage me to buy more local and simpler ingredients. What I don't want to happen is that I learn about this, think long and hard about it, and then continue to buy what I consider to be "bad" foods while feeling guilty but somehow secure because of my knowledge of how horrible it is. The Liberal's Dilemma, if you will.

I think a lot about what I put in my body. I think about how what I put into my body effects the world around me, with its path starting in a strangely global way but leading into my tummy. So much goes into things we consider simple, particularly convenience foods, with things like ramen, frozen meals, and the ever talked about fast food having an incredibly complex path into our mouths. This isn't just about how going veggie (or vegan, maybe possibly some day) could effect my health. Currently I rarely eat meat, maybe once or twice a week, with the goal of complete vegetarianism in mind. Going vegan is a maybe, some day. These decisions are based more on the environmental impact of feeding our meat when it's still alive and growing, giving it range land, slaughtering the animal, storage, and then transporting the dead meat in freezer trucks. That's a hell of a process, and a time commitment, for a burger or sausage.

I'd also love to do a deconstruction of some of the vegan and vegetarian recipes I find all over, too, for their overall environmental impact. Soy-based meat and dairy replacements involve a huge amount of processing. Some ingredients that seem to be staples for some vegan meals involve shipping from far away, which I'm not entirely comfortable with. But, I have to remember to stick to one project at a time.

There is so much involved in one meal, it blows my mind. My next project will probably be an analysis of each meal I eat, maybe just for a day or two, and trying to find viable replacements that are both better for the environment and for my body.

Unfortunately, I'm dirt poor right now. That could put a damper on my plans for more involved projects. If only I could get a grant for eating...




*what does this word even mean

Why isn't it summer yet?

I want to make tea-tinis.

Pasta Primavera

Tonight I made my own twist on the Poor Girl Eats Well recipe for penne primavera. Absolutely delicious, fairly quick, and I got to feed my roommates before they dashed off to do important scholarly things.

All the cooking steps are the same as the PGEW recipe, but here are my altered ingredients based on what was in the house:
A fistfull of uncooked spaghetti (I'm scientific, I know), then cooked and set aside
3/4 c broccoli florets (cooked in a separate pan, as one of the housemates has an allergy)
1/2 c green peas
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced
8-10 medium white mushrooms, sliced
2 small yellow onions, thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, diced
1/3 c white wine
1 T heavy cream
1/2 t salt
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 t dried tarragon
1/2 t dried fennel
1/2 t dried oregano
Grated parmesan cheese, for garnish

OH MAN

I forgot to link my absolute favorite food blog. All the ingredients she uses are insanely expensive, and her food and fashion posts are essentially the same, but it's all incredibly beautiful. This is Luxirare.