Yeaaahtoast

Whedon: Veg head?

2010-08-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

I thought I’d combine this post with two of my favorite things: vegans and Joss Whedon.

I know, I know, how the hell am I going to connect those two things together coherently? Well, let me take a stab at it.

While noshing on some AMAZING buffalo tofu last night (sorry, no photo), Evan and I watched one of our old Whedon favs “Dollhouse”. Specifically we were watching S01E07 in which a touch-induced contagion spreads quickly through a local college campus causing people’s inhibitions to fall greatly out of whack. Funny enough, the epicenter of the outbreak happens to be in a building dedicated by Rossum.

Echo happens to see a news report about a death on the campus and feels an inexplicable need to go to the school. Later you find out that she is familiar with the location and you get some great flashbacks to Caroline. In her flashbacks, Caroline is a HUGE animal rights activist!

She discusses AR with friends over dinner, and though I can’t pinpoint what she’s eating, her remarks about animal rights caused me to stop eating, pause the show, and ask Ev “Hey! Think she’s a vegan!?” To which he replied, “Wait, what?” which led to an agreement with me that Caroline could definitely be a vegan based on her AR actions presented in this episode.

A quick Google search reveals that most people are just generally a little miffed with her silly plan to go sneak in, film the doggies and kitties in the animal experimentation lab, sneak out, and leak the info to the press… (Yeah, that’ll stop a multi-billion dollar company like Rossum… sure Caroline.)But, I didn’t really find a lot of people talking about her possible veganism. Makes me wish her food was in focus for the camera so we could see what it was, or that Joss had written in a scene of Caroline at a buffet so we could REALLY see what this girl eats. (Wouldn’t it make a great character trait, and might explain her rather… um… malnourished stature?)

Well, I’ll let you guys talk amongst yourselves on this one, I cannot make a concrete call either way on the eating habits of a completely fictional television character on a program that's already been cancelled. However, it would be cool if Joss wrote a vegan into the story, even if it’s not obvious. And even if she can’t remember it herself.

Shoot.

2010-08-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

Ugh, why do I do that? Why do I always do that!? Why do I somehow get involved in other people’s drama? Even with the best of intentions, and sometimes with no intentions at all, I get wrapped up in things anyway.

Now I’m rather adamant about keeping my work life separate from my blog. I may complain here and there, but in general I think it’s better not to say where I work or what I do. That is, unless I get a job at an awesome place like, I don’t know, like NuVal, Open Sky, or a publishing company where I can be more open about my day-to-day. If you must know anything at all, know that I work with kids, teens, adults, and seniors. Sound too general? Well, it is, but it’s also true!

That being said, I don’t want to restrict talking about certain things that do go on in the workplace. I’m speaking more towards co-worker relations, or even to a broader extent, the general nature with which people interact. We spend so much time together, there’s bound to be some wacky antics going on!

I (for the most part) like my job. I like my coworkers, I like my boss, I like her boss, I like the highest up boss, and mostly I like our purpose, intent, and practices. I’m lucky, I know. Many people out there aren’t so lucky, I wasn’t in the past

However, I’ve gone and done it again… got involved where I perhaps shouldn’t have. I am guilty of a large workplace faux pas: becoming personal friends with your boss. Thing is, I swear it doesn’t affect our work relationship! I am also friends with another coworker, and they don’t necessarily care for each other much. How does that happen? Well, they both fulfill different desires I want out of friends and are wonderful in their own way. Since I wouldn’t be friends with someone unkind, in that respect they are very similar.

To often though, I’m finding myself involved in a deadly game of he-said-she-said, but in this case it’s more like she-said-she-said. All I know is that hearsay doesn’t hold up well and tends to just exacerbate negative emotions.

It leaves me to wonder though, workplace frienships: fun or folly?

Fear not sweet bloggers...

2010-08-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know, my template is horribly off!!! I'm in the process of reworking the code so it looks nice and shiny. Please bear with the mess.

Somebody's got a case of the Mondays...

2010-08-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that was totally me today. Too bad I went to sleep AN HOUR late! Grrrrrrrrr. Ah well, live and learn right? I had just enough time this morning to have a nice piece of the cake I baked last night. The consensus: meh. I told Ev to eat a piece so I can throw it away already. Since the frozen fruit I put into it was already on it's last leg, I can bear to part with the wasted flour and sugar I also put into it.

Work went by surprisingly quickly, mostly due the the very long meeting that greeted me when I first walked in. Hours later, happy hours though I might add (I love the company I work for), and ducked out to head to Chipotle for lunch. What can I say? I woke up way too late to make my lunch this morning. But fear not, it shall not happen again, my salad and leftovers are already nestled in the fridge waiting for me.

So much for the bike ride tonight though, I was just too damn tired. That, and my shoulder being wrenched from Evan's practice judo take-downs in the pool didn't help a lot. I decided to cut my losses and research a few things online: blu electronic cigarettes (non-nicotine of course, I just think they look cool), catch up on my Google Reader, check out collapsible rear baskets for my new bike, and just general dicking around on the internet. Fun stuff I know.

I did make a few neighbors jealous this evening which stemmed from one of those "look in the fridge and see what you can throw together" moments. I happened upon this jar, and I knew everything was going to be Ok.

Starting with some shallots sweated in EB, I added A LOT of this curry paste (it's VEGAN!) along with some water, red lentils, and garbanzo beans. I was hoping the lentils would break apart and create a lovely gravy... which is exactly what happened!
Naturally I forgot to start my rice BEFORE my actual meal, so I threw some brown rice together with some "traditional" Indian spices.
Actually, I have no idea if those are traditional or not, I just did a quick google on 'indian rice' and nabbed a few ideas. I threw in some cumin and cinnamon as an afterthought. It all came together nicely right in the nick of time with just a little green veg, broccolini.

We raided a neighbor's tree after the karate potluck yesterday and nabbed a few (3) fresh figs. Hmm, guess it's not a true raid until you hit at least 5 stolen fruits though, at least... Evan caught me with a peeled and sliced fig in one hand, fixed lens Canon in the other, leaning under the hood light of the kitchen trying to push down the flash popup with my nose in order to get a picture. He immediately took over and snapped this lovely dessert shot:
Isn't it all moody and ponderous? On a side note: my nails were weak, brittle, and refused to grow when I was omnivorous. Now that I eat mostly vegan, they grow so fast and are super strong!

Figs, sigh, I really want to like you, I really do. The only thing that comes to mind are womanly nether-regions when you are near. I know, that's TOTALLY messed up, and probably the most offensive thing I could ever say to a fruit (but perhaps a BIG compliment to women everywhere!?!?!?) but it's the truth.

So instead of that taste, I'll leave you with another, perhaps even one more sweet... Evan and Digger bonding in Hawai'i:

Woo, ok

2010-08-02T00:23:00.000-07:00

I think it's high time I got back to blogging!!! Makes it easier now that Evan and I are living together again so I have access to his wonderful photographer equipment!

Though I haven't been actively blogging, I am still attached at the hip to my Google Reader, so I've been caught up on what's up with everyone on my blog roll so far. But, I have so much to catch you guys up on, I'm sure I have enough blogging material for a year!

Since Evan's on summer vacation (almost makes me want to be a regular school teacher so I can have breaks too) he's been the cutest little house "husband". While we're not really at the "honey-do list" point (and I hope to never really be at that), I can totally ask him to do things for the house during the day and come home after work with a few big chores already done.

It's also made me LOVE the weekends, when I actually have time to relax and enjoy our time together as a couple. It makes it so much easier to plan romantic-y things to do in Pasadena too. I adore this city, and am glad we've moved back.

Today started out pretty awesome, mostly because while Evan showered, I had my first SIAB!!!
In the mix:
- chocolate almond milk
- frozen strawberries
- 1 large handful of organic baby spinach (you really can't taste it)
- cacao nibs <- New obsession with theseI never thought I could really do smoothies, mostly due to the fact that I HATE bananas and most smoothies contain either frozen or fresh ones. BLEH! However, the frozen strawberries add a nice texture and flavor, without adding just plain ice. I approve of greatly.The afternoon was spent at our karate family potluck pool party. Whew, say that five times fast! Since I just picked up a Marie Callendar's peach pie on our way there, there's not much to blog about. The party was awesome, it was great to reconnect with Sensei Victor since we're officially going back to karate next Saturday!After that we popped down to the slightly sketchy side of south LA to pick me up a bike from a seller on Craigslist. I am now the proud owner of a slightly faded, but very comfortable woman's Schwinn (photos to come). And since I was more mobile now, Evan and I biked over to our local Fresh & Easy to pick up some pizza supplies (love homemade pizza). We started with this:I had every intention of getting the plain whole wheat pizza dough, but since my own rosemary plant kicked the bucket during the move, I caved and got seasoned white flour focaccia dough instead. Ev picked up some local goods at the farmer's market in Montrose today, name some creamy mild goat cheese and chunky sun-dried tomato paste. I grabbed some artichoke hearts (of course) and our basil plant is overloaded so I thought we should prune it a bit and eat the cuttings! The Brita water pitcher supervised the topping procedure.
Yes, I very clearly marked the halfway part of the dough so we knew how much space we had. We actually almost got into a fight putting on the sauce because I just cannot relinquish my power over cooking!!! I HAVE to have everything perfect! Somehow we made it work. Pre-oven (my side of basil, arty hearts, an eensy taste of the goat cheese, and lots of Daiya vs. Evan's side of goat cheese, basil, sun-dried tommytoes, and 4 cheese mexican blend):
Post-oven melty goodness:
Yes, we ate the WHOLE thing (it was pretty small). Since the oven was still hot, I decided to make that coffee cake I had planned on making earlier in the day in order to use up old frozen fruits. About half a large bag of frozen mango and frozen peaches went into this, along with a white cake recipe from VegWeb. I loves me some vegan cakes:
Look at that crumb!
Since I finished baking at 11:30pm, and have already brushed my teeth, I will save the cake for the morning with coffee.

Phew. Ok, time for sleep, tomorrow is another Monday.

I know, I know...

2010-04-09T00:15:00.000-07:00

Where the hell have I been right???

Well, here's what I've been working on:
-New recipes
-Lots of reading
-Designing an entire fashion line and sewing it
-Working full-time
-Looking for a new apartment
-Trying to save money
-Getting over being sick
-Fitting in time for the BF

And the big ass thing taking up my time: P90X.

Yeah, that's right P90X. It's insane. Insanely wonderful.
I love having a solid and regimed fitness plan. I do really well with rules I guess, I always thought I might do well in the military for that same reason.

I've also come across some crazy diets recently that I (and my Doc) have given big honkin' thumbs down to. The largest being the HCG diet. So glad they changed it from a daily injection to drops under the tongue, but I'll pass on the pregnancy hormones this time, thanks.

Hey, if it works for you it works for you I guess. Now, I have my own HUGE doubts about homeopathy, but many of my coworkers are on this diet and are not aware of what exactly their taking. Yeah, losing a pound a day seems great, but that doesn't sound healthy does it?

Not to mention that I don't mess with hormones. I don't eat meat or dairy, I don't eat soy very often at all, heck, I don't even take birth control pills! And because of that, and the fact it might make me MORE fertile, I'm a no-go for HCG.

I also have been looking into the Eat Right 4 Your Type Diet, but got turned off by all the meat I apparently need to eat as an 0-. Combine that with no oranges or coconuts and my BS light starts blaring. Research indicates that this may be fluff as well, and I definitely never start anything without researching it thoroughly first.

So for now, with the advice of my doc, I'm going to limit my wheat consumption, nix the coffee, reduce my sugar intake and see how I feel. After a week, I gotta say that those things are definitely clogging my body up. It actually hasn't been that hard to give up my toast in the morning, and there are so many gluten-free breads now I think I'll be just fine.

And the P90X is just to kick up my workouts. I love running/yoga/hula, but it's been raining and cold, and sometimes you just want to buckle down and do 50 pushups in a row and lift some weights ya know? Am I a pro @ it? Not by any means, but with the few changes I've made in the past coupla weeks, I feel even that much better!

Trying my hand at a few things

2010-03-01T23:51:00.000-08:00

Namely: Mahea's Gone Crackers, sprouting seeds, and chia pudding. Let's work in reverse, shall we?

So far, I'm munching on the chia pudding. In the mix:
-3/4 cup almond milk
-2 tbsp chia seeds
-2 squirts raw agave sweetner
-1/2 tsp cinnamon

I fork-wisked the first three ingredients together in a cutsie clear teacup(that's quite frankly too small for tea anyway) and stuck it in the fridge to set while I took my run. The cinnamon was stirred in as an afterthought when I realized that basically cinnamon makes everything better.

And I do say that I'm "munching" on my puddang because we all know the little *bite* you get out of gelled chia seeds, though I wish I had let it set a tad longer as I like less of a bite. Still fun to get a small crunch factor though.

I definitely do see a difference when I'm chia-less in my diet. I seem to have more energy when I've snuck the little bastards in, and enjoy them sprinkled on the ever present massaged kale salad. *Note* Kale is always bought dinner BEFORE massaging, so as not to take advantage of it.

As for the sprouting seeds, I'm using the Big Raw Blog's jar method, and currently my lentils and sunflower seeds are soaking in my own little mason jar. Yeah, I'm one of those "mason jar people". I do believe that sweet tea and lemonade just automatically taste better coming out of a mason jar. Go ahead and blame it on my Texan daddy, I don't mind. But I digress... In a few days (if i've done it right), I should be the proud muncher of some newly sprouted numblies.

I've seen sprouted things in the market before, and while I enjoy mung bean sprouts and alfalfa sprouts almost on the daily, I've never ventured out into the world of other sprouts. After Big Raw Vegan Blog posted twice about this, I knew I had to give it a try. The towel method I shall try after my jar method experiment.

And lastly for the "Mahea's Gone Crackers" or as Evan calls it "Mahea's blatant rip off of an excessively overpriced trademarked cracker" I think I've nailed down a good recipe:

1 cup brown arborio rice (not brown basmati)
1/2 cup quinoa, washed
3 tbsp tamari
1/2 cup flax seeds
1 1/2 cups broth
1/4 cup sesame seeds
black pepper
Olive oil

*Prehead oven to 3-fiddy.*

1. Cook the rice and quinoa with 2 cups of plain water and the 3 tbsp of tamari. (I'll confess I just threw them into my rice cooker for 1 cycle and that works fien.)
2. When cooked and cooled to the point of not burning yourself, transfer 3/4 of the mixture to a food processor and add the flax seeds. Slowly drizzle in the broth till mixture is sticky and looks like lumpy porridge. You may not use all the broth and that's ok.
3. Transfer to a large work bowl and fold in the remaining 1/4 mixture, sesame seeds, and broth (if any left). Season with black pepper.
4. Oil your 1/2 sheet pan very lightly and plop out the mass into the center. Use a rubber spatula to gently pull the goop around till you end up with the whole surface covered in a relatively uniform thickness. You will pull to hard and see the pan below, just go back the other way to patch it up.
5. Bake at 3-fiddy for an hour, till edged pull away and the center feels hard and dry.
6. Cool completely on pan (the carry over heat will help to finish the dehydration) and crack into pieces. Store in an airtight container and try not to sneak out of bed at midnight to devour them.

Picture soon... soon as I buy that new Canon. Which will be soon. But not yet. Patience!

In the nick of time.

2010-02-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

I'll be the first person to admit that time management is not something I do well.

Ugh, as soon as I write that, I am already reaching for the 'delete' button. However, I need to leave it alone, it's the truth. Though I'm not happy about it, that truth needs to be admitted.

It's a great joke in Hawai'i, that we run on Hawai'ain time. Basically, this means we're always 20 minutes behind what the actual clock says. You might think it stops at just a joke, but it's a universally known truth that we Hawai'ians tend to be 5-20 minutes late for just about everything. Not only that, but it's perfectly acceptable as well, and usually expected.

Well, I'm not in Hawai'i anymore (as is painfully realized every day that I wake up) and I'm also older and out of the nest so I directly feel the consequences of my own tardiness.

I HATE to admit it, but I am in some way always late to work every day. *CRINGE* (Trying not to delete that either...) When invited out, I'm sad to say that Evan and I tend to be the "late couple". I hate it. I mean, I REALLY REALLY hate it.

A lot of the reason I'm late in the morning is because I haven't had enough sleep. I go to bed late, every day. Not late as in "oh it's 4 am", more like late as in "I was supposed to be in bed 45 mins ago". So what's with all the late nights? Nothing really. I'm typically just watching TV or futtzing around on the internet.

I have some strange notion that when I'm sleeping, I'm missing something in my life. Instead of recharge time, I feel like I could be doing something anything that would be more interesting that sleeping. Problem is, I am so tired at that point, I am just watching TV or on the internet as I already said; i.e. doing mindless worthless activities.

I know that if this continues, it could mean disaster later in life: business meetings lost, potential wedding FAIL, missed appointments, tests, birthday parties... It's not that bad now by any means, but it does make me feel unreliable. I want to be counted on, depended on, hoped for, but that's impossible when one is chronically late.

Some people can live and work by a schedule, a date book, or day-to-day plan. I've tried, and failed miserably. While I like a clean and orderly house, desk, planner, car, etc, a clean and orderly schedule I avoid like peanut butter and bananas(aka: DEATH). I'm not a "fly by the seat..." girl, I would die as a "minute-by-minute planned" person.

So that brings me to the word of the ~~day~~ ~~week~~ ~~year~~ ~~millennium~~ eh, probably the most important word of all time: BALANCE.

It always comes back to balance. Time, being the most challenging thing to balance of.. well... all time I guess! It seems hard to balance something that's constantly running away from you.

So that's a new goal of mine: Finding the balance in time management.

This will include a stricter bed time for sure, but also not planning things so close together I'm not sure if I'll be on time for the next gig. Also, a stricter wake-up time, so I have enough minutes to cook and eat breakfast, get on some makeup, flat iron. But also, I hope to see fluidity in things as well, know when I can push something back if it'll be better for me.

The idea I'm going for is that less mindless activity and more thoughtful activity will not only fill my days, but my mind as well. That way, I can go to bed (early) knowing that I had an amazing day that left nothing to want.

Here comes the sun...

2010-02-22T14:42:00.000-08:00

To tell you the truth, I miss blogging. I don’t have many readers, but it can be so cathartic to get all the jumble out of your head and out into the world. Even if no one else is paying attention, writing has always been a relief for me.

I can’t say that a lot has been going on in my life, but when I think about everything that's happening, it certainly is quite a chunk of action! First thing's first though: THE SUN IS SHINING!!! After the cloudy meed Los Angeles has been recently, it's so nice to see sunlight! Gotta get me some sun viatims!

Sunlight aside, I'm happy to report that I got a promotion at work. I’m in a new position, one that is challenging and comes with its own schedule change and higher pay scale (THANK GOD). A full-time schedule has allowed me to quit my second job and not have to wake up at 4:30am. That means more sleep and hopefully less stress.

I’ll still be living paycheck to paycheck for a while, but perhaps if I stick to “poverty mode” (been there for a long time), I may be able to actually afford a plane ticket home to see my family (FINALLY!). I have so many loose ends to wrap up with them, graves to visit of family who died while I was away, old high school ties to finish up, and I need to see my parents!!! There is such a void inside of me, and it grows every day I leave things in my life unfinished and every day I spend away from my real home.

Luckily, my bosses helped by being very considerate with the position and the schedule change. They worked around my hula and yoga classes so I didn’t have to give those things up. (Side note: I wasn’t willing to give them up actually, I would rather have stayed at my old lower-pay position in able to do the things that I love.) Turns out that sticking to your guns can pay off in the working world.

I also got the OK from Mr. Stiles to move back in together just in time for our 5 year anniversary. (FYI to catch you up, we used to live together but it was a ~~disaster~~… well let’s just say it was not perfect at all. With no car and only a part-time job, I was more of a part-time partner too. I used Evan for everything, he was quite a crutch for me, and our relationship suffered terribly. When we moved out, I was really upset with him. We didn’t break up because neither of us wanted to, we just knew that we couldn’t live together at that time. Turns out that moving separately again was the BEST decision that was ever made in our relationship. We both got space, room to think, room to make new friends and I gained a lot of independence. I was able to meet my wonderful roommie, who has made my life so exciting and rich. And I feel more complete as a person than I have since I first started battling depression.) Now that I have a slightly higher wage, we can look for a nicer place that where we have been living, and have started having fun talking about where we want to look, what we want out of a new place, how we might decorate it, etc. It’s too much fun making plans with that man, I love him so!

On the downside, I haven’t been training as much as I should have for the triathlon that’s 1 MONTH AWAY!!! But, I do have a month, and I can hone my skills as much as I can during that time. The skies are clearing up so hopefully the rain will hold off until I can get out my running shoes and bicycle helmet.

Those huge things combined with:
- trying to get to the art gallery for a show I really want to see
- checking out my favorite used book stores for free crappy paperback novels
- cooking simply (because I can’t really spend a lot on groceries this month)
- playing with my cat and getting him the exercise he needs
- grabbing a new couch in off the street from the neighbors who are moving out
- spending time with my roommie
- launching a new business prospect

= me having a full (and bountiful) plate.

I suppose happiness is a lot easier when you have other things to distract you from the negativities in life. It’s easy to wallow when you’re sitting still, but much harder when you’re running all over the place trying to accomplish something meaningful.

I feel like this is a ‘get stuff done’ week. I’ve already got clean laundry and a clean house thanks to this weekend. Now it’s time to start crossing off other things on my list. It’s funny that as I do it, I seem to also be crossing off the “growing up” item as well. It’s an unspoken to-do, but a very important one. After all, growing up does not mean growing old.

Hiatus

2010-02-02T23:46:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, a good friend's mom (whom I was close to) passed away so I'm taking a short hiatus. Be back soon!

muttergrumble

2010-01-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

I've been having an irritating day. I only have a handful of readers, so hopefully this rant won't disturb a large # of people.

I went to bed on-time last night, but for some reason couldn't pull myself out of my warm covers-cave this morning. When I finally fell out of bed, I was SO TIRED and cranky.

The kitchen was a total mess when I awoke. I shirked my nightly duty of dishes and breakfast prep, so I had to rush through a dirty kitchen and sadly opened the fridge to confirm that I had no breakfast. Super angry face.

Got to work just fine, but sans make-up and flat-ironed hair, and drowned some of my sorrows in a large cup of coffee. I didn't really miss eating breakfast when I thought about how much my teeth are ACHING. Yes, I've started wearing my retainer again. A week ago I noticed one of my problem teeth shifting a bit, which of course causes all others in that row to move too. OUCHIES. Worst part is that it's right at the front of my mouth, so even when I'm not wearing my retainer I can't bite anything solid.

So with my retainer in I suffer from a lisp and aching, but my retainer out results in a hard time biting/chewing and more aching. Yay for teeth! Now that I have dental insurance, I figure it's a good thing to get my teeth all aligned so my checkup goes smoothly. (I'm only 26, but going to the dentist alone seems so ADULT to me, it's kind of fun!)

I can certainly be thankful that it happens to be a gorgeous day in Southern California. After last week's storms, we had a lone day of sun till another front rolled through. However, it's supposed to stay sunny till the weekend and right now there's a big blue sky out there with large fluffy clouds rolling in.

Though my lunch plans got messed up and I burned my mouth on pizza I shouldn't have been eating in the first place, I decided to do something good for myself. So I ditched the car @ home and rode my bike back to work. It's just a few short miles and I really should be biking to and from work every day since I live ridiculously close. Can't really argue with reserving fossil fuels, saving miles on my car, and getting in some training for the triathlon. It barely took me 20 mins, and I was able to enjoy the sunlight for a while. I look forward to a slightly harder trip home, what with the incline + fatigue, but a nice cool sunset temp to ride in.

I was also dismayed by how far behind I am on my Google Reader. I follow so many wonderful blogs, and since I tend to go unplugged on the weekends, I get rather behind come mon and tues. Looking forward to yoga tonight, but I'm hoping that I can leave all my frustration at the door when I enter or I'm in for a difficult practice.

While catching up on back posts, I saw this quote from Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga about a wonderful yoga sesh she had recently. It was one of the messages her Dharma had during the class:

"Find bliss and happiness from inside and within, especially when you are young, because nothing external will ever fulfill you and this only intensifies as we age."

*sigh* That tends to put a lot of things into perspective doesn't it? Money, numblies, fluffy sheets, kitties, music... none of these things can ever make you truly whole unless you already can find and recognize happiness within yourself. It is awfully hard to keep that in mind every day isn't it? Thanks for reminding me Averie, I really needed that today.

Of course a medium iced mocha with soy doesn't hurt either. Let's hope that tomorrow is a better day!

If you want to check out Averie's post: here you go. Her yoga poses, recipes, and quick wit make this a great blog to follow!

Calling all Los Angelenos

2010-01-26T11:51:00.000-08:00

I'll be fruit picking at CSUN for charity during that time, but you should totally check it out! It's pretty close to Los Feliz area, so east LAers can enjoy it too. Perhaps a short hike in Griffith to work off all those vegan numblies? :)

Amazing weekend!

2010-01-24T17:11:00.000-08:00

I hope that you all had the lovliest of weekends! I did definitely!

Friday night started out with Indian food. Evan could not believe that me, foodie me, didn't like Indian food when I first tried it. "Meh." I said... Meh indeed! I think the reason is that I expected it to taste a certain way, and it didn't. Ah expectations, they really can mess everything up. It's like when you think you're drinking really bad coffee, only to realize that you are really drinking very good hot chocolate!

In any case, I LOVE Indian food now. LOVE IT. I have cravings for it way too often. And the people at India Sweets & Spices are so amazing to veggies of all kinds. Not only to they help you with correct pronunciation, but they patiently answer all your questions about ingredients and suggest things for you to try.

After grabbing some awesome basmati, curry, dosas, samosas, and chutney, we booked it over to the RedHouse for friends and fun. Andrew was making enchiladas with fresh tomatillos... lordy, I had a bit and it was delish.

We rounded out the night with a little bit of nostalgia in the form of Michael Jackson "Moonwalker". Does anybody else remember this??? Duuuuuude. My brother and I used to watch this over and over and over and over. I still remember the time my mom caught me doing Michael Jackson dance moves in the shower (I was making a lot of noise and she thought I was hurt). We had several Moonwalker virgins, it was a whole HEAPING steaming ton of fun. Plus, we all sang along, makes it so much better.

Saturday started out early with hula, as it always does. After that I enjoyed some Starbucks lattes in bed with Evan, and was so happy to see that they have multi-grain bagels! YUM!

After taking care of some errands including pho and cupcakes, we popped off to his school to get some stuff ready for his class on Monday. It's so strange going into an elementary school as an adult! I love though that it's large with bright colors, and Evan decorated his room with lots of dinosaur figurines. As far as I'm concered, no other decorations are needed than those.
Saturday evening was spent at Saladang in Pasadena to celebrate Barbara's birthday! I love this place too! Thai food is so light and fresh, and Saladang's menu is simple but their food is so artful. I shared an app because I didn't want a whole entree, and I was also a bit full from the pho we had earlier.

Both of us needed to get to the Container Store, so we went to Old Town Pasadena and rewalked the streets we so often frequented during our time in college. Ev got some great stuff, but I only found a small snack bag that is good for work, though I was originally looking for pantry expansion, shelving, and dish racks. Ah well, I guess the extra money I would have spend there will come in handy for something.

Pasadena seems to leech everything from us (especially when we lived there), and Sat was no exception. Sure enough when we got back to the car, we noticed that Ev's magnetic band-aid covering his unfortunate 3-day-old-brand-new-car-got-rear-ended dent had been STOLEN!!!! We figured it would happen one day, but considering it's been on his car since Xmas and we have only gone to Pas this 1 time, we didn't think it would be so soon. Damn you PASADENA!!!!!! *shakes fist* So far on the Pasadena Stolen List: 4 bikes, 1 car stero (ripped out of Ev's old car), 2 sawhorses, large collection of Magic: The Gathering Cards (seriously wanted to cry), and 1 Band-Aid sticker. *shakes head*

Saturday night rounded out with some Eternal Darkness, a game that Evan and I have bonded over. I'll do a review of this game soon, but damn, it's scary, clever, and fun!

Sunday started off with a trip to the Atwater Farmer's Market where I got some great eats. The sun was shining, it was beautiful, and I was having a great morning. The roma tomatoes were so luscious, I had to eat one in the car on the way home. Then some more errands including a frustrating trip to Target. Hmm, dish rack, not found in "Kitchen". Not found in "Home Storage". Not found in "Housewares"... Where found? Oh yeah, by the friggen Tupperware in the grocery section next to the apples. YEAH, THAT MAKES SENSE... Dear Target: Can I please have back the 45 minutes I spent walking around and getting bad help from TWO employees? Kthxbai

After that I decided to kill myself by joining Veeence for a bike ride. An 11.2 mile, 3 inclines, but-and-crotch-hurting, sweaty bike ride from my houe to Universal Citywalk and back. BTW Universal Citywalk is effing insane. There's way to much stimulation there, although I did consider buying a $6 giant gummybear at one point. With some Jamba in me, I did the last leg back pretty well, and learned all about pacing.

Sunday was left to more errands, grocery shopping for grains, nuts, tofu; all the things I can't get at my farmer's market and meal planning. Phew, what a weekend! I felt really great though, mentally and physically rested and pleasingly stretched.

Looking forward to Monday. Kind of. Can't great weekends just last forever? Please? :)

Camera Catch Up

2010-01-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

Hello my lovely chickadees! So I know you're all dying to know about my camera situation right? Yes yes, stop crying now, I'll tell you everything.

Well, I didn't end up buying a new one on Friday. Why's that Toast? Well, I was going to, looked around at Target and Best Buy and found one I thought was acceptable. (P.S. Can I just say how hard it is to go camera shopping with a photographer boyfriend!?!?!?) Acceptable that is, until I happened to take a look at the other side of the display, the "out of my budget at the moment" display. I fell in love with a Canon and now my life has meaning. We're going to be together some day. Evan's ok with it.

I just couldn't settle to buying some crap-doodle camera, so I've decided to save myself for the Canon. It's not an SLR but I'm very fine with that, small enough to still be a "point and shoot" style camera but super sexy enough to take amazing pictures. Besides, if I need something truly stunning, I can always borrow Evan's camera.

I didn't write down the model, partially to keep myself from snooping across the internets to find a deal on it, and partially because new models come out so often. By the time I have enough moolah for that price range, I might see something I like even better.

It was not a total bust though, Evan's parents informed me Friday night that they *think* they found the cord to their old camera (update: it was NOT the right cord, sadness ensued). That same night, Veeence lent me his Nikon that he hasn't used in forever, and he's currently digging around for that cord/card reader. So two cameras minus two cords = no bloggie pics, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. And that light of hope is only $1.95 + shipping from Amazon.

Have faith and stay tuned. My camera life may be pooped out, but the rest of my life is anything but.

Porridge when it's pouring

2010-01-19T22:34:00.000-08:00

I remember the tropical thunderstorms of my youth. Torrential downpours, thunder that resonated in your chest, sweeping winds and driving rain that blew in from both sides at once. Nature is quite glorious isn't it?If you're anywhere around California, than chances are you've gotten a few drops of rain this week. But the storms over Los Angeles are finicky, lavishing attention for only a few minutes at a time (and boy what attention!). I want some rain damn you! Oh mighty Zeus, kick some butt up there and flood my backyard! (Not really though, please don't flood me out!)

The cold and the rain mean 1 thing and 1 thing only: space heater. Wait, no! I mean: soup. Yeah, soup. So sad for me that I discovered 2 past-their-prime lemons too late for my raw kale salad last night, but good news for my eats tonight. However, thin soups are so not my style and I knew I didn't want noodles so what to do what to do...

I remember when I was young my mom would make jook for me, a thick rice porridge with shredded chicken and flavored with green onion and anise. Somehow I've outgrown the anise flavors of my youth (too much Chinese food), and I don't eat chicken anymore, but my love for thick rice porridge has never lessened. Taking into account the leftovers in my fridge, I came up with a recipe that's hearty, citrusy, warm, thick, gooey, and down home, with some added protein. You'll need a large pot and a medium skillet for this one.

Lemony Porridge with Brown Butter Leeks
1 cup rice (I used 1/2 brown 1/2 calrose white)
3 cups vegetarian broth
2 leeks slices to 1/4 inch rounds, white and light green parts only
2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 block firm silken tofu in 1/4" cubes, or crumbled
Pepper (white or fresh ground black)
2 tbsp Earth Balance
2 lemons juiced
Optional: 2 tbsp chia seeds

1. Don't wash your rice! Unless you see foreign material, keep it nice and dirrrrrty (you know that's not really dirt right?). Just dump it in the pot with the broth and cover, bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add garlic to rice pot, continue to cook, stirring occasionally to beat down the foam or unstick some bits from the bottom of the pot.
3. Heat up the Earth Balance in the pan and cook till foamy, swirling it around.
4. Add in the leeks and toss to coat, stirring constantly till the leeks begin to soften and take on some color.
5. Uncover the rice and test for doneness, when rice is tender add the silken tofu cubes and 1/2 of the lemon juice.
6. Stir rice porridge carefully, heating through the additions, and salt/pepper to taste. Also taste for lemony-ness, and add more lemon juice if you want. (I used all of it.)
7. Stir in chia seeds and kill the heat on both burners while you grab some bowls.

Serve by spooning porridge into bowls and top with leeks. Makes 2 adult main dish portions or 1 dinner/1 lunch for 1 lucky person (all fingers point to me). It's supa fast, supa easy, and supa yummy, though maybe not the most haute cuisine.

Ok, now it's time for space heater! Yay! (Lordy, is it really only tues...?)

PB Giveaway

2010-01-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not talking about peanut butter, though it conveniently does have the same letters. I'm talking about the lovely Meredith over at Pursuing Balance!She's having a Wholly Guacamole giveaway. Check out the entry here and while you're at it, peruse her amazing blog. She's such a wonderful role model!

-Photo from BlissTree.com, guac faces

Update

2010-01-18T23:55:00.001-08:00

Added some new foodie bloggies to the blogroll. Scroll down and look right to check out some amazing people!

Broccoli Cashew Cream Alfredo

2010-01-18T23:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, no camera for now. New one on Friday, promise. In the mean time, enjoy this great picture. I'm pretty sure that bunnies make everything better (except food).Also in the meantime, try this cashew cream alfredo, I promise it makes good numblies. Requires some kind of grinding instrument: Magic Bullet, Vita-Mix, or food processor, or any spinny/blendy thingie you use.

Broccoli Cashew Cream Alfredo
1 cup cashews
1/2 block firm silken tofu (drained)
3/4 cup broth of your choice (I use vegetarian "chicken" flavor)
1 box of Ancient Harvest Quinoa spaghetti
1 broccoli crown, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
dash of nutmeg
(optional) 1/4 cup toasted almost slivers

1. Cook Quinoa pasta according to directions on box.
2. While pasta is cooking, grind the cashews in a food processor (you can use soaked cashews if you want or are used to that, but I didn't). Don't grind them too much so you get cashew buttah, that's not the point here.
3. When the cashews are crumbly, add the 1/2 block of firm silken tofu, and pulse to combine.
4. Drizzle or pour in small quantities of the broth until the consistency is smooth. Make it a bit thinner than you want your end sauce to be, as it loses a bit more moisture when we cook it with the broccoli.
5. Drain your pasta.
6. In a large pan (I just use the pasta pot) saute the garlic in olive oil to get some color, then lower the heat and add the chopped broccoli and cook till just barely tender.
7. Dump the cashew cream sauce all over the broccoli and stir to combine. Heat through and add salt/pepper to taste. Please don't burn your mouth.
8. Toss in cooked pasta and stir to combine. Plate it up and top with toasted almond slivers and a dash of nutmeg.

Serves 2 large main course or 4 smaller portions as a side dish.

Note: I'm sure you can definitely sub out broccoli for another veg of choice if cabbage flowers aren't your thing. Or you can omit it all together and serve something green on the side.

Have I mentioned before how much I love this Quinoa pasta? Actually, according to my blog archive, I haven't. Well, let me just say that I see a future for italian food in my life now. Previously, the thought of semolina... heavy, toothy, white product pasta meals made me gaggy. And then there's the whole wheat pastas, which for me are rather lacking in taste and too abundant in texture. Not only did these heavy wheat pastas raise my blood sugar through the roof, but they made me super loagy.

Since Evan's mom has Celiac's Disease, she's come up with a myriad of gluten-free products to replace those things that used to make her sick. She brought over a box of this amazing pasta one night when Evan was making dinner and I wouldn't stop raving about it. I was happy to grab a box of this @ Henry's, and definitely had alfredo on the brain.

If you can snag a box of this stuff, please do! Have a good Tuesday everyone!

CCK "Vitameata Vita-Mix" Giveaway

2010-01-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a day! Tons of rain and a great giveaway. If you don't know Chocolate Covered Katie's blog, then it's time you learned. The best time in fact, because she happens to be giving away a Vitamix blender. I do believe that's more than enough incentive to check out her blog.

Why are you still reading this... GO! GIT!

Oh I see, you're waiting for another link: ENTER HERE!!!

Stretching it just a bit

2010-01-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

I always thought the goode 'ole medieval rack would be a great stretching tool... that is, up until the point it rips your limbs out of your sockets of course. Before that moment of horror, it probably feels really good right? Eh, maybe that's a bit too morbid for y'all, even on a Friday.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about stretching, in all its forms. Though I've always had a love of yoga, I never sought to do it regularly (even when I was working at a studio!). Now that I'm running a lot in training for the triathlon, my body seems to crave stretching. I find myself waking up and getting into a great uttanasana first thing in the morning. I'm certainly not there yet, but I look forward to the day when I'm motivated and excited to get up earlier and squeeze in a few vinyasa before work. Will I ever be a "yogi"? Probably not. Will I get a yoga certification? Only when I decide to make it more of an important factor in my life. Not there yet, but stretching for it feels really good.

I also stretch my food choices every day as well. I eat a mostly vegan diet, which is often seen as quite a restricting. I opt for optimism and take it as stretching my food horizons, discovering new fruits, veggies, grains, legumes, and cooking methods.

A quick Google search will reveal a wealth of cultures whose eats are mainly plant based. With ease, they can be converted to vegan foods as long as your willing to fool around in the kitchen. A love of cooking and experimentation is necessary to your own culinary discovery and diversity.

Being from Hawai'i, my kitchen preferences lean towards asian flavors. Japanese cuisine is probably my unofficial forte. Being foodie minded and living in Los Angeles, which is an amazing amalgamation of cultures, has branched me out into Indian, Ethiopian, Latin, and Indonesian flavors. I may not be able to properly say all the names of the spices, and am sometimes the only non-ethnic person in a very ethnic market, but I've had more delicious food in the past 5 years than in my entire life.
Speaking of ethnic markets, those have also helped me to stretch my dollars. With a trip back home to visit my family in the forefront of my brain, I had to cut back on everything else, including groceries. Enter in the ethnic market: where even the most exotic spices are affordable as opposed to the inflated prices for the same items at specialty/gourmet stores(Whole *cough* Foods).

In terms of groceries one also has to think of ethnics AND ethics. Waking up earlier on Sundays in order to get down to the local farmer's market may not sound like a good way to spend one's weekend, but wait... actually it does ('cept the waking up early part I guess). Not only can you check out the offical organic certificates, you can also talk to your local farmers and find out exactly where your produce is coming from. By talking with vendors, you'll be able to find out exactly how far that carrot has to travel to get to your tummy and hopefully work towards conserving fossil fuels.
I've found that many farmers and farm workers are actually the ones selling at markets too. With the large usage of immigrant agriculture workers in Los Angeles, the treatment of those humans is also important. One can't sugar-coat the fact that farmwork is innately hard, and that just because they've come to my local farmers market doesn't mean that they're treated like kings, but putting faces to names and food makes the act of purchasing items a lot more real. I love to seek out people from the smaller family-style farms in hopes of reducing the human exploitation factor.

There's more stretching to be written out, about the mind and horizons. However, I need a bit to mull those over so I'll sequester them in draft form for now.

(New camera this upcoming friday, and the search still continues to get the pics off the old memory card. I have so much to show you and 3 new recipes!!!)

IGE Giveaway!

2010-01-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

Did you know that Iowa Girl Eats is having a giveaway? Aren't you glad I'm here to tell you!?

You'll die even more when I tell you that it's regarding Amy's Kitchen, the leader in natural frozen meals! I'm impressed by their vegan pizzas which stare me down through the Whole Foods freezer door.Head on over to Iowa Girl Eats is to find out how to enter for a chance to win some numblies and to get to know a really great girl! But hurry, it ends on thursday...

Diete & Diaeta

2010-01-09T09:36:00.000-08:00

Frustration is.... having a memory card full of blogging pictures and not being able to find a way to get them off. However, after a whole weekend of whining to Evan about my camera and the fate of my blog, I've come to realize it's time to move on (for now).

Payday is next friday... so I'll just have to wait to get a new point and shoot camera then, and solve the case of the wrong-or-missing-cable-to-the-other-camera later.

As many of you know, or may not know, I really have one obsession in this world (other than my cat) and am happily a member of the "First Order of Brown". That is, I'm another minion of the deeply loyal and insanely informed Alton Brown empire. Basically... he is my God, and in Alton I trust.Now, I could write about a dozen blog entries as to why I want to move to Georgia and camp out in front of his house with a wok, a 1/2 sheet baking pan (purchased from a restaurant supply store of course!), while munching on fresh homemade biscuits as a bottle of modena vinegar dangles from the handcuff on my wrist, but this isn't on of those posts. Although, I did find out the deal sealer: he has two corgies. Good man, good man.

Nope, instead, this will be a post about a great episode of Good Eats I watched last night entitiled "Live and Let Diet". I had noticed that he was starting to get a little chubby lubby around the middle but figured "eh, he's a professional chef and he's getting older", and who am I to question the Great Leader? Well, after checking him out in his snazzy tux on Iron Chef the White House Battle, I said "Hey now, he looks damn good!". My Google searches for the eating plan he outlined in the show lead me to Dear Alton Brown: The Internet Is Worried About You which confirms that viewers noticed his amazing weight loss, but thought he was sick. Best part of the article:

Bottom line: you guys can go back to googling “Giada’s Boobs” and “Bobby Flay is a Douche” again. Alton’s fine.

Since I and Alton are big fans of lists, I love that he outlined his diet into 4 easy to read and follow lists thusly:

Eat Everyday
- Fruits, Whole Grains , Leafy Greens, Nuts, Carrots, Green Tea

3 times a week
- Oily Fish, Yogurt, Broccoli, Sweet Potato, Avocado

Once a week
- Red meat, Pasta, Dessert, Alcohol

NEVER!
- Fast Food, Soda, Processed meals/frozen dinners, Canned soup, “Diet” anything

Now this plan works for him, but not neccessarily for everyone. For me the Never list should be easy to knock out without a ton of effort. And since I don't drink or eat red meat, that's easier. The hardest part, following THE GOLDEN RULE: Eat. Breakfast. Every. Day. No. Exceptions.

Now I'm sure there are things he didn't mention in the episode like exercise, vitamins, stress, and sleep which greatly affect healthy living, weight loss/gain, and nutrition. He did make a mention of quantity, noting that his amazaing almond recipe he limits to a few 1oz portions a day.

If you don't have the Food Network and are patient, you can wait for the Good Eats Fan Page to update with their YouTube clips and a transcript soon. If you're not patient, there's always internet-related ways to solve that. :)

Whine whine whine...

2010-01-07T15:39:00.000-08:00

This girl is under the weather. I can't quite figure it out, but I think I'm on the verge of getting sick.

I've been dealing with A LOT of stuff lately. First of which started on New Year's Eve when I pulled out my little Kodak camera to take a picture of my roomie and I, and realized the LCD was completely cracked. Luckily the hard screen wasn't cracked, just the underside where all the ooey gooey screen goodness was. Point being, I can't use it at all anymore (it was already dying so it wasn't a big surprise, but I can't exactly shell out for a new camera right now).

Moving on to crappy situaiton #2, which is titled "The Situation In Which Toast Inherited a Camera From Evan's Mom, But For Some Reason the Cord Doesn't Work With Computer Anymore". I'm sure it's user error, and I'm about 99% sure it's the right cord (I'm a nerd, I keep ALL cords), but it just wasn't working.

Aside from those two things which directly = in no bloggie pictures of numbliness, I had to deal with some drama surrounding the triathlon I'm training for. Combine that with less sleep than I'm used to, talking to bosses about money @ work, crafting, and supporting my boyfriend as much as I can with his work issues right now, rearranging my ENTIRE group of kitchen cabinets, breaking the vacuum, finishing cat sitting, running as often as I can, being uninspired with food lately, PMS, and not even having enough time to paint my toenails, I haven't had much time to rewind, unwind, relax, or do anything of the sort. *breath*

I've also been sneezing since Sunday nonstop, and seem to get a fever around 3pm every day. I'm eating quite well, but haven't been that into my food lately which is so strange! I made a nice bowl of oatmeal this morning with oats, water, soymilk, chia seeds, lots of cinnamon, slivered almonds, and agave. I ate about 1/4 of the bowl before I was just disgusted. Come 11:30 I was HUNGRY, so I took lunch early and ate a collard wrap with brown rice, black olive hummus, salsa verde, and tapatio. It tasted great at the time, but right after finishing I felt really gross.

I've since been nursing my uneasy stomach with green tea (it's amazing how comforting a mug of hot water + leaves is) and after a few burps felt a bit better. TMI??? Well, it's true. Vegans are the fartiest burpiest people I know!

I think I need sleep. I think I'm going to skip my run tonight and just try to rest. Evan's coming over to spend the night, we'll do some simple baking and of course video games as well. It's his last real night of Christmas Vacation and then he's back in the classroom helping the kiddies succeed in some book learnin'.

Pray that I can make the last 2 hours of work. I'm a bit warm and I think a headache is coming on.

Chicken FAIL

2010-01-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

Lordy, what next? Another FAIL, you betcha. Just to show I'm not biased towards chickens, (although I am because I ~~secretly~~ openly adore them and plan on raising some, not for eating silly), I've got a loverly article from the LA Times about those extra plumped chicky breasts you might find in your local megamart.

I'll leave you to read the short but informative article and deduce of it what you will. Suffice it to say that your little chicken pieces are being pumped full of salt water and preservatives and you might not even know it. Ah fine print, gotta love it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2010-01-01T01:41:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe NYE. May all your numblies and sippies be delicious in 2010!!! HNY from Evan and Toast!

Beef FAIL

2009-12-31T11:27:00.000-08:00

"Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia."

(Um.... how is that entrepreneurial exactly???) The NY Times published a very interesting article about the quality and processing of leftover beef bits. The "entrepreneurial" company, plainly named Beef Products Inc, actually gained exemption from the USDA in 2007 for having supposedly undetectable levels of E.Coli. (Yummy right?) Beef Products became a mainstay meat for fast food restaurants like McDonalds and was widely served in lunch rooms.

"Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated."

As the number of cases of E.Coli and Salmonella tainted meat grows every year, one can't help but think of the children. I noticed the pressure on the quality of school lunches started to accelerate in '09. Hopefully more Americans are shifting their focus more towards better health standards in public institutions.

"School lunch officials said that in some years Beef Products testing results were worse than many of the program’s two dozen other suppliers, which use traditional meat processing methods."

And yet, despite obvious problems, this meat is still being used. You needn't ask why, this answer is plain: BECAUSE IT'S CHEAP. Behold the power of the almighty dollar.
Nuts to the FDA for approving this process, which uses ammonia as a processing agent but doesn't require it to be listed on the label. Ammonia is naturally present in meat, it's true, but injecting fatty and discarded hunks with extra amounts seems obviously wrong. "She can't take much more ammonia sir! She's already loaded as she is!" Besides sometimes smelling like ammonia (enough reason to keep walking) and tasting not-quite-right, I'm not sure how any logically-minded worker or Beef exec didn't have the mind to pause and reflect on what exactly they were doing to FOOD.

I find it absurd that there's so much excess meat, enough to cause a significant loss in profit, that it needs to be chemically treated and sold. I won't rant on how we should, at the very least, shrink the industry and focus on quality meats. I'll save that for another time.

I suggest you go read the article and think for yourself. If you feel so inclined, write to the USDA and/or FDA about this issue. And before you order that drive-thru hamburger, consider this...

"At 6:36 a.m. on Aug. 10, the Beef Products plant in South Sioux City, Neb., started up its production line for the school lunch program. In 60 minutes, the plant produced a batch of 26,880 pounds of processed beef that tested positive for E. coli.
Six days later at the same plant, another 26,880-pound lot was found to have salmonella, government records and interviews show."

That's a quality assurance FAIL if ever I saw one.
Eat healthy and responsibly!

Citation: Quotes and Image
Moss, Michael. "Safety of Beef Processing Method is Questioned". New York Times. 2009: 1-4. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html 12-30-09.

Date-Night In

2009-12-31T00:34:00.000-08:00

Somewhere along the way, I got the idea for Evan and I to do a "date-night" in. Plans were hastily made at lunch and I got really excited! I randomly started looking for recipes, I wanted something a little more special than just a regular nightly cooked meal.

Breakfast began late as usual (I have a really hard time waking up, but once I am up I am up), so I opted for cold cereal having no time for stovetop oats. Peanut Butter Puffins with plain soymilk to the rescue, in a car-drink-holder-friendly glass, for breakfast on the run. Needless to say I was starving and ran home to lunch to eat frozen numblies because I was too hungry to cook. (Numblies not pictured)

When I got back to work I began to research an intruiging recipe I found: Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes. I had all of the ingredients on hand, except for the mustard and capers. Evan brought those two items after work and we set to making dinner!
First of all these cakes, or caeks as you know I like to call them, were extremely simple and quite fast to make considering the length of instructions. Evan did most of it by himself while I prepped the remoulade. We fried he caeks in canola oil, and kept them warm in the oven @ low till they were all cooked. Normally I don't fry, but this was a rare occasion. No smoke points were reached luckily, and I believe we made it through without a single burn! (Big deal for us!) Behold their numblie goodness, besides the obligatory restaurant knock-off vegan ceasar salad.

Evan's first remark was "Well, they taste nothing like crab caeks. But they're quite delicious anyway!" and I realized I hadn't even had a real crabcake EVAR in my life so I didn't really have anything to compare it too! I definitely count that as a good thing, but taste-alikes alone, these were AMAZING!!! Go make them, now, NOW I BEG OF YOU! Trust me, these caeks are NOT a lie. :)

Crispy, warm, exquisitely seasoned, complimented perfectly by the spicy smooth remoulade. This is going in "My Favorites" for ever and ever. I see these as the perfect elegant brunch or light dinner to be served at parties (yes, I dream of dinner parties, I do), especially to omnis. It's hard not to love these when they're nutritious, tasty, and filling. <3 ISA FOREVER!!!After dinner, Evan made me a souffle. Not just any souffle (and unfortunately not vegan either), but THE souffle. THE souffle he's been promising me and bragging about ever since we first started dating. THE one he has claimed for 4.5 years that he'll make for me. FINALLY he made it! (Love you Evan!)I'm not sure exactly how he did it. All I know is that when it came time to beat the egg whites he asked where was my electric mixer, one of which I do not, nor ever have, owned. It involved me in as much as I drove to 2 stores in a flurry, buying a single hand mixer at 9:30pm. The proud chef produced a small souffle in an actual souffle dish, and one in a mug of mine. Note the whipped cream bottle on sofa chair.I got the one in the actual souffle dish and pretty much ate it like this:
But then Evan did this:
And he forced me at gunpoint to join in. Gunpoint I said!
After all was said and done, I realized I don't much care for the texture of souffles. The flavor was wonderful caramel-y chocolate, but the texture threw me off, it was like eating a dish sponge. I think I've definitely lost my taste for eggs, yay for veganism and saying no-no to battery cages. Anyway, the wonderful thought and love behind it was sweet enough for me. (And corny too!)

Overall it was a successful way to end 2009 I think! I hope you get everything done before 2010 that you need to. Stay safe and warm!

Review: Imagine Creamy Portobello Soup

2009-12-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

I was really excited to grab this from Henry's Market for just a few bucks. I LOVE muskrooms (that was not a typo) and will devour just about anything containing them. I also like my soups creamy, so I thought this would be a perfect match.

Sadly, I wasn't to thrilled with it. It seemed rather watery instead of creamy, and the mushroom flavor tasted more like canned button mushrooms (tinny) instead of robust portobellos. As you can see in the picture, the warm brown undertones of the cover were lost and I basically had a bowl of gray. I appreciate the low salt content, but it tasted like there was NO salt at all. If this is their "new improved flavor", I'm a bit worried as to what their old flavor was.

After adding some leftover risotto to give it more heft, body, and flavor I was still unimpressed. I ended up eating a cup more and getting rid of the rest. At just a few bucks per carton, I'll give this brand another try before I make a final judgement. Let me know your experiences with this brand if you have any!

A loss and a win

2009-12-29T23:03:00.000-08:00

Doesn't that just look SO yummy!!!???
Well I hate to say this, it wasn't. It seems I botched my first attempt at pumpkin oats. I'm not sure if it was the two heaping tbsp of organic unsweetened canned pumpkin I put in, the stingy amount of agave nectar (I'm skeptical of sugar in the mornings), or the fact that I was late and it had to sit in tupperware for 15 mins till I got to work... BUT I hated it. It tasted raw squash-y and just plain bleh. Yes, that is a technical term.

I may save the pumpkin oat recipe for this weekend (after consulting a few more blogs as to ingredients), when I can try it again at my leisure. I must admit, I'm not the biggest fan of pumpkin, I only have 1/2 of a tiny slice of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. However, I'm not scared off yet. Thankfully, last night I pressed and chilled some fresh coffee so I got held over *almost* to lunch on just iced coffee with soymilk and agave. I know, I was a bad girl today! I did polish off ALL the rest of the chili at lunch though, so some good came of it. Yes, there was sour cream, and yes there were chocolate chips. :)

Got in a little run tonight, LOVE my new toy. Says I ran for 56.43 minutes and took 4,329 steps! What fun technology and pedometers are. Oh lordy, 11 pm and I still need dinner, to feed all the cats, dishes, shower, and time for my book. Better get my butt in gear!

Really Raw!

2009-12-29T00:21:00.000-08:00

Oh man, after discovering the amazing world of raw desserts, when I saw these Raw Gingerbread Men on Chocolate Covered Katie's blog, I knew what I had to do.

Luckily I now have a food processor since the demise of my Magic Bullet left me blender/processor/grinder-less. Using her recipe, Evan and I whipped up a 1/2 batch. I LOVE the texture of these guys:
All hail to the Mother Dates!
Evan definitely approved. (P.S. It's impossible to get a "normal" picture of him, he's just that outrageous!)
Thanks to Katie for the recipe, I see so many possibilities for ingredients and toppings!

Chile, Chilly, CHILI

2009-12-28T21:48:00.000-08:00

Lookie what Santa brought me!!! And by Santa I of course mean Evan's parents. THANKS BARBARA AND DUSTY!!!

It is, after all, the ONLY thing I asked for this year. :) I am completely amazed how I managed to live for so long without one. I remember food processors being this scary contraption that my parents used to haul out on special occasions. My mom used to explain to me how complicated they were to put together, how awful they were to clean, and how DANGEROUS they were. Basically, she made me believe that if I so much as looked at the blade the wrong way, I would DIE. She was definitely just trying to keep my safe, as I've already nicked my finger on the S blade.

I LOVE this thing though. It's about 7 cups, a great size for just me and sometimes Evan, easy to clean, easy to put together, and comes with a dual sided grating/slicing blade (and of course, an S blade too). I've been dreaming up ways to use it, and got to on Xmas morning, grating Fontina cheese for Evan's mom. Yeah I know, not exactly a grand vegan christening.

I had chili on the brain today. I don't know what it is about that rich, thick, beany, wholesome goodness that chili evokes. Oh wait, it's because it's rich, thick, beany, and wholesome! I've never really cared for meat in my chili anyway, so it's very easy to veganize with great results. I HAD to use Sally (Yes, I name ALL my kitchen appliances) and was delighted to discover that I didn't even use a cutting board for this whole meal. I only used a single medium sized knife.

First the garlic and onion, then carrots:

Followed by celery and green bell pepper. Isn't it beautiful!?
After that the camera decided to act up, so no "in the process" pictures. But, here's the recipe. BEWARE: IT HAS A FLAVOR! So, if you want your chili less spicy I'd omit (or just use less) cayenne. On occasion this recipe has turned out watery, in which case I add either some TVP to soak up the goodness, or some arrowroot to thicken it up.

Vegan Chili
1/2 large onion, or 1 whole small one, sliced or chopped
4 large cloves of garlic, sliced or minced
2~3 carrots, sliced or chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced or chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced or chopped
1 12oz can of diced fire roasted tomatoes (I used the no salt added)
1 12oz can kidney beans (I used the no salt added)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup broth of your choice
dash of ground ginger
olive oil
sea salt
black pepper

1. In a heavy pot, sweat onions and garlic over medium heat with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt for 3 minutes.
2. Add the carrots, celery, bell pepper and all your spices. Stir thoroughly to incorporate spices, cook till celery is tender 3~4 minutes.
3. Drain and rinse beans, add to pot with a few grinds of pepper. Cook till there's no bean liquid at the bottom of the pot.
4. Strain diced tomatoes (reserving liquid for another time if you want) and add to pot along with the broth.
5. Add a dash of ground ginger and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste, and adjust salt if needed.
6. Top with your favs, and devour.

My ALL TIME FAVORITE chili toppings are sour cream (tofutti), chocolate chips (IT'S AMAZING I SWEAR!!!), and cilantro. Here's my chili all dressed up, waiting for me to take it out for a night on the town. I missed the cilantro! But recovered some before I hit the dining table. Delicious with a glass of sparkling berry water.

Alrighties, time for some dessert now! I've been waiting for Evan to come over so we can try the numbly-sounding Raw Gingerbread Men from Chocolate-Covered Katie. Now he's here, WOO!!!

What are some of your favorite chili toppings?

"Whole Foods is returning to its health-food roots..."

2009-12-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

Thank (random celestial being) for Mr.Mackey! The CEO and co-founder is going to reunite Whole Foods with its healthy "whole food" ideals in 2010.

You can read the full article here.

I loved Whole Foods about a year ago. I would say that half of my shopping happened there, a very SMALL half, but I always made a point to go there.

It happens to be a place where you can find niche vegan foods that no one else has the customer base to keep in stock. As a new veggie, I could find just about any vegan meat substitute on the market in Whole Foods. Now that I eat less processed foods, and rarely eat soy processed fake vegan meats at all, I've found myself going there less and less.

Good food costs good money. Hands down, that is something I have come to learn and accept. However, the emphasis of WF in the past few years has definitely been on the never ending rows of high-priced indulgent and gourmet products. I definitely agree with Mackey's stance and believe that the "health food" and "gourmet" sides of WF have always been at conflict.

While I have discovered amazing things there, like dark chocolate balsamic vinegar spread and smooze popsicles, they don't stock my shelves regularly because they're not whole foods. As the Vegan Freaks would say, those are "sometimes" foods, treats to be enjoyed once in a while, but shouldn't make up a consistent part of my diet.

I'm excited to see how 2010 will pan out for Whole Foods Market. Perhaps I'll have to take another look and here's hoping that instead of being buried in garlic-parm-sourdough-croutons-with-carmelized-medditeranean-fig-spread, I can grab some local organic produce and enjoy a fresh juice at the juice bar.

It's raining!

2009-12-10T22:40:00.000-08:00

Wahoo! I love Los Angeles in the rain (aside from the crazy ass drivers). And since i'm privileged to live by the equestrian area, my neighborhood is full of lovely dripping trees, the smell of sweet grass, and the occasional massive equus caballus wandering around like something out of Shadow of the Colossus. Great game BTW.

I don't know how or why, but i was craving tempeh like a madwoman. Specifically bbq. So after work i hit up Henry's to see if they even had tempeh (they did) and scored a bottle of vegan bbq sauce for 99cents!!!

I whipped this up, just cubed the tempeh and fried till golden, smothered in bbq sauce with some spinach sauteed in a bit of olive oil, salt, and a dash of fresh organic CSA lemon juice.

You can see the wonderful lemon juice combining sexily with the bbq sauce at the bottom of the plate. Clearly they were made for one another. And yes, that is my desk, complete with keyboard in the way. I eat most of my dinners here, maybe it's because I'm also gaming. Maybe not. You'll never know.

My pastels have been calling to me so i think i'm going to get some hot tea and paint to jamie cullum like i used to do in college. Yay for kitties, space heaters, rain, tempeh, and art!

More important.

2009-12-10T00:32:00.000-08:00

I had a post for you tonight, but it can wait.

Unfortunately for so many factory farmed animals, THIS cannot wait. Please petition for the pigs. They DESERVE it.

Farm Sanctuary's Petition

Do it NOW. Please.

Rice is nice, but it's just a grain...

2009-12-08T00:02:00.000-08:00

Anyone? Anyone? *sigh* You people need to watch more of THIS.
Quick post before bed. I made this last night and had it again for lunch today:
Pineapple Fried Rice
3 cups cooked rice (I used brown cooked with veggie broth)
3 tbsp minced garlic
olive oil
~1 cup frozen peas
1 can pineapple chunks in pineapple juice
~3 tbsp hoisin
~1-2 tbsp your favorite hot sauce, I used siracha
~2 tbsp tamari or shoyu

- Saute the garlic in olive oil till softened.
- Add rice and stir to warm through.
- Add peas, hoisin, hot sauce, and tamari. Stir to combine and heat peas.
- Drain and add pineapple chunks. Heat through.

Sorry for the ~ (approximations), I'm great at rough estimates, but sometimes I tend to just drizzle things in here and there.

There's certainly a LOT of variations on this and a wide variety of things you can add. That's all I had on hand and the bf exclaimed it was some of the best rice he ever had.

It's cold and rainy here in Los Angeles! Time for snuggles with the kitty.

The great BLORP! And lemon curd.

2009-12-05T23:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, there are indeed changes going on with the blog, one day it'll be kickass. Till then it (like some of my food recently) is a mess.

Speaking of messes, remember that gratin I wanted to make? The one with fennel and potatoes and courgette? Clearly, I have NO IDEA how to make a gratin. You'da thought I would have looked up a recipe first, but I didn't. Most of the time when I "wing it", my creations are at least edible. This one, well let's just say that I kind of choked those last few bites down.

I present to you the great, the unthinkable, the (un)edible Blorp!!!!! *insert wet sloppy noise here*

Ah well, live and learn. I also tried baking (gasp, I know) some lemon poppy scones which ended up coming out like pancakes. I used this recipe. Sadly no picture (because I was laughing too hard). Suffice it to say that my poor 1/2 sheet pan looked like it had massive lemon poppy tumors all over it.

However, success was made on the curd so here's the recipe!

Luscious Lemon Curd:
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cups h2o
1 1/2 cups turbinado cane sugar
pinch sea salt
4 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/4 cup soymilk
2 tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread (not the sticks!!!)

1. In saucepan whisk together the juice, water, sugar, salt, and egg replacer.
2. Bring to a boil, boil and whisk steadily for one minute. Mixture will thicken and should coat the back of a spoon.
3. After a minute, remove pan from heat and stir in milk, zest, and Earth Balance.
4. Resist the urge to burn your mouth snarfing it, cool, and transfer to storage in the fridge. It will thicken more over time.

Here I drizzled some hot curd (I know, I just told you NOT to do this, and I burned my mouth for my own stupidity) over my aforementioned lemon poppy ~~scones~~ pancakes.
I have to admit it was quite delicious! I can definitely see this curd slathered on toast!

Farm Fishing Fail!

2009-12-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

I technically can't call myself a vegan. Though I don't partake in meats, honey, eggs, butter, or dairy, I do eat fish on occasion with a nip of seafood here and there. I've got my own resons for this, and am open for discussion of course :).

However, I do realize the negative impact farm fishing has on the environment and try not to consume seafood from these sources. This is a repost from Vegan.com's blog. I love that the solution is very similar to what happens in many aspects of our existence. Killing all to get some of the bad is a tying theme in movies, politics (think Hiroshima), and even medicine (think chemotherapy). While it's not the SAME thing, this attitude of "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." attitude is frightening!

Invasive Asian carp have escaped southern fish farms and are making their way up the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. They eat 40% of their body weight in plankton, which is the same stuff native species of fish eat. So, in theory, the fish native to the Great Lakes could potentially be starved out.

Man-made problem with no practical solution. Environmentalists are concerned with ecological disaster that will result, fisherman are worried about their $7 billion dollar a year industry, and businesses and government are worried about disrupting commerce if the Mississippi/Great Lakes shipping channel is closed to keep the carp out.

I’m a vegan, so I couldn’t care less about the loss of “fishing industry,” which, besides killing animals, is killing the rest of the planet as well. But yet another ecological disaster is not something we need. And transportation issues are a bear to resolve- especially in the U.S. where public transportation is stigmatized and severely underfunded- even though the public and the government know it’s the only solution to the crises of emissions, overcrowding of roadways, and wild habitat destruction. The most practical solution is to close the locks that connect the two waterways. Transportation would be disrupted. Goods would have to be re-routed over land. This requires more trucks on the road and/or trains (and the accompanying tracks if none exist). That’s more roadway crowding, more emissions, and more wild animals killed.

You see where this is going. Somebody is going to think up something drastic. Probably something insane.

The Army Corps of Engineers refuses to close the locks. They “would not close the locks without first studying the possible effects.” Wonder how long that study will take? Let’s hope nothing catastrophic happens while they’re studying.

In response to the Corps’s refusal, this is what “the authorities” have chosen to do:

In the continuing struggle to keep the fish out, Illinois environmental officials planned to dump poison Wednesday night in a nearly six-mile stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near Lockport to kill off the carp while the electrical barrier is turned off for maintenance. Crews planned to use large cranes with nets to scoop up an estimated 200,000 pounds of dead fish, which will be taken to a landfill.

Man made problem, man made solution. They plan to dump poison in the water. Besides being absolutely heinous, the solution will cause more problems to be solved, yet again, by man. And invariably, ultimately, it’s the animals who do the suffering, are displaced, and are killed. The poison they dump in the waterway will kill every fish in the water, not just the carps, and any other animal in the water. And that includes human animals. The Great Lakes are a source of drinking water for nearly 40 million people. Tonight, the government of Illinois will dump poison in the drinking water of 40 million people to “avert an ecological disaster” and “protect a fishing industry” because the government of the U.S. won’t close shipping locks.

Just another fine example of the genius of civilization.

via yahoo.com

FFTY!!!

2009-12-02T23:08:00.000-08:00

(Busted out ye olde kodak, don't mind the gratuitous use of flash...)

Look at what was waiting for me when I was running out the door this morning from FARM FRESH TO YOU, my first CSA box EVAR!!!:

Unfortunately I was LATE, so I only had time to pop the top and grab the first small fruit I could see... a loverly persimmon! When I got home it was time to unpack.

Nice reusable cardboard, pretty sturdy!

The lovely bounty within:

Fantastic with fennel, napa cabbage, curly kale, mustard greens(?), satsuma mandarins, meyer lemons, eureka lemons, butter lettuce, persimmons, limes, garlic, and leeks. YUM!!!

I had the rest of the galette for dinner, so no pics, but I had to research fennel as I've never cooked it before. I'm not too into the anise flavor, blame it on many years of chinese cooking and later years of absinthe. However, I thought a gratin would be nice with some potatoes.

I'm going to be busy for the rest of the week so I thought I'd prepare a bit ahead. Sorry mr. fennel, you're first on the chopping block!

When I chopped the fronds off I was SCARED. Very pungent anise, so I tasted a bit of frond... BLEH! TOO MUCH! I was sad, but I kept hacking away...

And found a nice center with a much more mild flavor raw. Slivered with a courgette:

Vegan Gourmet shredded, mozzarella flavor.

And lastly, I love to prepare garlic ahead of time, it saves a cutting board or two. A head and a half, minced, and tossed with a wee bit of olive oil and fresh pepper. It's too easy to toss this in a pan with a pinch of sea salt and have a great beginning to any meal.

The gratin will follow tomorrow night, I'm going to do my best to keep the camera working and post as often as I can. Oh yeah, going to bed on time helps A LOT! :)

Savory Vegan Galette with Mushrooms

2009-12-02T00:04:00.000-08:00

I have the worst luck with technology sometimes...

I took some amazing shots of my dinner for you all and for some reason the camera cable isn't working. AND the memory card is this weird fat style and won't fit into my regular camera so i can't dld the pictures that way either!!!

In any case, here's the recipe i made, Savory Vegan Galette With Mushrooms:
6 small cioppolini onions
2 Tbsp olive oil
sea salt
fresh pepper

***The night ahead: Peel, trim, and toss the onions in the olive oil, salt, pepper and roast at 350 degrees for 20 mins. When cool, roughly chop or slice, store in fridge overnight.

For the crust please refer to Sarah's recipe @ In Praise of Leftovers
She got it from Julia Child, and with vegan subs (Earth Balance for butter, Toffuti Sour Supreme for sour cream) it's mine!

Make the crust and let it sit in the fridge for 1 hr. While you're waiting:
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
6-8 mushrooms of your choice, sliced or chopped
8 quarters (2 full) of marinated artichokes, chopped
4 cups spinach (raw)
1/4 to 1/3 block of Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella Flavor cheese, shredded
your favorite tapenade
sea salt

-Sweat the garlic in the oil for 2 minutes.
-Add mushrooms and turn up the heat to saute. Wait till they take on a good color and shrivel up a bit. (Basically to when they look DIVINE!)
-Add the marinated artichokes and fold in the spinach, cook till spinach is just barely wilting.
-Add the aforementioned roasted onions and turn the heat off.

-Roll out dough on floured surface till 1/8" thickness (sometimes i go a bit thicker).
-Spread a nice even layer of tapenade over surface.
-Glop the spinach mass into the middle and try to make a nice even layer with 3-4" dough margin around the mass.
-Sprinkle with shredded vegan cheese.
-Fold in outside dough edges as far as they reach to the middle without squishing your ingredients out. You should see a good amount of bare spinach mixture in the middle of the galette. That's the money shot.
-Brush the top of the dough with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
-Bake at 350 for 30mins.

-Let rest 2 mins before cutting --> Filling is EFFING hot!!!

Was definitely enough to feed me and Evan, with a nice chunk for lunch tomorrow. I can't wait to try some sweet dessert galettes soon.

Hopefully the camera will be working sometime in the next millenia! Happy eating till then!

9 weeks!

2009-12-01T00:21:00.000-08:00

Of running that is! I started Couch to 5k, in prep for the Pasadena Triathlon I'm trying for. When I get new batteries in mah camera I'll be able to post all the yummy eats I'll be whipping up this week.

I started the day off with some TJ's blueberry oatmeal microwaved with some Silk Vanilla Creamer for thickener and some coffee. Lunch was some TJ's Soy Nuggets with tonkotsu sauce for dipping and a mound of fresh spinach with balsamic. I snacked on some dark chocolate covered pretzels this afternoon while picking out new herbs for my potted garden. I love working almost right across the street from an Armstrong Garden Center, there's no better way to spend your work breaks than strolling through luscious plants.

After a nice run, I decided to roast some of the ~~shallots~~ cippolini onions since the package suggested it. I drizzled them with olive oil, sea salt, and fresh pepper and roasted them at 450 for about 15 mins before I saw that they were starting to barely burn. So, I flipped them over and turned the oven off.

WOW! They are honey sweet with the slightest peppery bite at the back of your throat for good measure. I'm thinking some couscous with this maybe?

Leftover green bean casserole for dinner from Thanksgiving (yes, it was still good!). Thanks to C'est la Vegan for her amazing recipe. Campbells be damned!!!

Now finishing up folding laundry, a nice glass of peppermint tea, and a hot shower. I'll be up late tonight and will suffer for it in the morning, but it was worth it starting my running regime and getting all the dishes done... Thank Buddah I have some Silk vanilla creamer for coffee at work tomorrow!

Happy International Meatless Day!!!

2009-11-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

Though my FB event only got 53 people confirmed for this day, that's 53 people this day who are going to be eating compassionately!
Hooray for vegans! Good going gang, every year we gain more and more support, and i look forward to the future.
And thanks to my omni friends for giving this a chance, you'll love it i swear. Especially if i'm cooking for you!!! :)

B.T.W.

2009-11-20T17:55:00.001-08:00

Yes, i will be moving vegan dreams recipes and reviews over to this site. Thanks for emailing and reminding me!
It requires a bit of time in front of the computer, and i'll put it on my list for this weekend.

O.M.G.

2009-11-20T17:51:00.000-08:00

Bloggie, i'm sorry. I've been so busy! Between photo shoots and cooking cooking cooking, i haven't had time to update.

I know i've wronged you, and that wrong cannot be undone. But, i will make it up with picture love this weekend.

Promise!

I'd really like to not be....

2009-10-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

Congested. It makes working a WHOLE lot harder in my honest opinion. I got random people calling for billing and asking me if i'm ok "because you sound like you were crying". Super sweet, but embarassing!

Oh well. Ratatouille (the dish not the movie, though the movie is AMAZING too) has made being slightly sickly a whole lot easier. Left out the eggplant, and subbed a red potato in as thickener. YUM!

Picked up a mess of art supplies at the expo, mostly stuff for oil painting so i can play around. However, if you dabble AT ALL in watercolors, pick yourself up some Aquabords, they're well worth your time.

Ok enough ramblings.

I do think...

2009-10-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

I'm going just a little insane.
Everything has been twice as hard as it usually is today. GRR, is what i say to that.
I really think that most problems in the world stem from lack of communication.
That also happens to be a pet peeve of mine.
Let's work on it, things will get just that much better.

A Special Offer!

2009-10-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hey all my artist friends, here is a special offer from American Artist and M:R.

You can get American Artist magazine up to 59% off! Drawing, watercolor, workshops, etc...

Here's the link: American Artist Publications so check it out!

Fantastical Dinner! (and dessert)

2009-10-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

Ok so, I love Real Food Daily with all my heart! It was my fondest wish for my friends to join me there for my birthday dinner.

The first time I went to RFD was on a drive-by whim with Evan. The table over, I saw a girl eating a wrap and instead of a tortilla or flatbread, there was a collard green leaf keeping all of her numblies in. The seed of collard wraps was planted in my brain.

I was perusing YouTube when I got the craving... that's right, for raw vegan flourless chocolate caek. But, I knew I didn't have very many walnuts and I realized that I only had TWO mejool dates left. So I had to improvise and make a smaller caek. Here's what I ended up with:

Dusted with powdered sugar, it was just enough to satisfy the craving. After eating my dessert first, I then went on to dinner and whipped up some mexican rice. But wait, WOAH, hold on. What if, WHAT IF, I take that rice and wrap it in a collard leaf? Maybe I de-veined the leaf first with a paring knife? And maybe, just maybe, what would happen if I added some leftover herbed cream cheese and sliced green onions???

Then what would happen if I rolled it???

Then WTF would happen if I took a bite!? Just one amazing bite....

The rest was history. Crunchy, warm, spiced, slightly bitter, creamy, delicious.... From now on I WILL wrap everything and anything in a collard green leaf.

Oh yeah here's the recipe for the Raw Vegan Flourless Chocolate Caek:

2 mejool dates, pitted
small handful of walnuts
extra small pinch of sea salt
smallest splash of vanilla extract
1 tbsp cocoa powder

1) Pulse the crap outta everything in a small food processor, or *ahem* Magic Bullet, till smooth and dreamy. Push together in somewhat of a caek-y shape. CONSUME!!!

Cold weather

2009-10-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

means pasta for me. For those of you who know me best, you know that i really don't like italian pasta very much. It makes me feel... well... BLEH after i eat it.

However, when the weather goes below 75 degrees, i want the heartiness and tooth of great pasta.

For your enjoyment, last night's psketti. Which was actually fettuccine, but whatever.

Teehee!

2009-10-05T16:05:00.001-07:00

So, I got a great girl compliment today.

Lately I've been trying to take more care in the way I look like making sure my hair is ironed and nice-looking, my clothes aren't raggety, I have a smidge of makeup on so I don't look so flushed out, etc. A coworker came up to me this morning and said she hated me because she bet I just rolled out of bed, got in the shower, got out and had my hair look just right. After telling her that I look like an angry frizzy cat in the morning, have to use a smoothing serum and pin iron my hair so straight, she said she hated me less.

Granted, I did wake up a little earlier in order to get my makeup done just so, my hair did, and clothes coordinated more than usual, but wow... it's so nice for other people to notice when you think you look good.

So far, the strange happy feelings from friday have carried over the weekend and into this week. I hope it lasts!

Latest obsession:

2009-10-03T21:47:00.000-07:00

Marina eyeliner from Bare Escentuals.

The girl in Sephora may have used the smashbox creme eyeliner in navy on me, but B.E. has never done me wrong.

That with Smoked Clay for contour gives me the most simple slightly smokey eye look.

Let me be selfish for a moment please...

2009-09-30T00:44:00.000-07:00

Coming off of empathy for a good friend, let me say this: I wish i had had the chance to say goodbye. I hope i will when it really counts. I'm terrified that i won't. And just confused by it all...

Bleh!

2009-09-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

I usually don't take medication when i have a headache or tummy ache, sore muscles etc. But at lunch i went home and my shoulder started hurting to the extent that i laid down on my bed and whimpered for half an hour, all the while pleading "please please make it stop!" (Yes, i can be SO pathetic at times.)

After slathering on 1/4 jar of tiger balm and not receiving relief, i took a big honking ibuprofen that was prescribed to me earlier in the year when i was extremely sick.

Now i'm back at work, pain free, but soooo loopy and rather sick to my stomach from all the meds in my system.

Thank god i'm only writing postcards at the moment, because every time i stand up i almost fall over! Throwing up is probably not in the forcast, but i might consider it if my stomach continues tripping balls while the rest of me sits in a corner being emo.

Homemade Beauty Products veganized

2009-07-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

So my Proactiv is so old, i think it would make a really great base for explosives, but not something i want to put on my face. So, since i'm also scraping the money barrel till tomorrow (payday), i decided to whip up something at home.

So far i've made a lemon scrub with natural sea salt:

A cucumber and green tea toner that's so refreshing:

And a cleanser/mask from agave nectar and finely ground groats:

So far, no new breakouts (even tiny ones) to report. However, i've also been resting more, eating better and exercising regularly, so i can't attribute all the results to things i just slop on my face.

Pics and recipes to come.

Fun Toasty Facts

2009-01-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

-My favorite food is toast, naturally. Pancakes come in close second though...

-I have a deep-seeded and crippling fear of zombies. I'm not sure where it came from, but sometimes it keeps me up at night. More than I'd like to admit.

-I adore Danny Elfman. His works have taken me on some of the most amazing adventures of my life! From Beetlejuice to Batman to Nightmare and beyond, his music has been some of the best I've ever heard.

-I HATE bananas. That's right, I'll say it again. I HATE BANANAS!!!!
You can only imagine how hard that is when you're trying to be vegan.
I don't care how often people say "Oh but you can't even taste it!".
Horsesh*t.
I can taste it.

-I am a blog template whore. I change my template as often as possible to confuse readers and give myself a migraine.

This was a failure

2008-08-23T23:14:00.000-07:00

I'm making a note here: THIS SUCKS ASS
It's hard to overstate my bad connection
Internet service
You made me your b*tch
Because you can
For the good of those who get
The net before they are dead

But there's no use crying over every new bill
You just keep on charging while i'm popping a pill
On the telephone line
I'm just wasting my time
Hoping that i will be still alive

I'm really just angry
I'm freaking out so bad right now
My credit score may not be great
So sue me
No wait, i was kidding
Just a quick joke to pass the time
Is the background check done yet
It's time to get into bed

Now just point out where i gotta sign on the line
And i'll get that drug test mailed right to you on time
Here's my debit card pin, i'll confess all my sins
I just hope i will be still alive

Go ahead and put me
On hold for your sup to come right on
Maybe you'll find someone else to help me
Cause i need my You Tube
My clan must all think that i have died
Anyway, this chat was great
Give me my router today

No i don't want someone to come straight to my house
I can hook it up, i promise, all by myself
Send the UPS man
Let me track it so i can
Sit at home and i'll be still alive

And when i get it i'll be still alive

When i'm online i'll be still alive

And when i'm pyro i'll be still alive

When i backstab you i'll be still alive

Still alive, still alive

In the mean time, check out my clanmate's sweet vg review site The Good, the Bad, and the Videogame by Gryphon Osiris . It is teh sex.

I can haz internets pleaze?

2008-07-08T14:51:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so since ATT screwed up my internet situation, i am withouts. Sigh, and the pyro update for tf2 came out recently too!
LAME!
More to come, from another library closer to my house hopefully!

Shout out to my eGO's : i'll be there soon!!!

Other than Stumble...

2008-03-25T14:27:00.000-07:00

This is probably the best firefox extension...

Pic Lens allows you to browse, search, and view pics in a similar-to-iphone 3d format. It's really easy to use and eliminates those pesky banners and page load times that kills me in photobucket.

In Memoriam

2008-03-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

R.I.P.: Gary Gygax. May all your rolls be natural 20's and all your feats be great.

(yeah, few days late... so what? i've been busy)

What's that smell?

2008-03-04T12:50:00.000-08:00

Nick says:

Good gawd this man will not shut up. Anyways, good morning!

Michelle says:

haha, goodmorning too!

Michelle says:

smells sour in here....

Nick says:

I thought it smelt like nail polish... was weird

Michelle says:

yeah, it's not a "natural" smell

Michelle says:

but this place makes me sneeze so bad, my alergies have been flaring up since sunday morning

Nick says:

Good gawd, what is up with me and getting the motormouth customers today?

Michelle says:

they can smell your fear

Nick says:

Ogawd, is that what that smell is?

Nick says:

My fear smells artificial D:

Michelle says:

and lemon-y?

Nick says:

MAH FEAR IS LEMONY~!!!

Michelle says:

Best. Quote. Ever. I'm going to blog that.

Work ramblings...

2008-02-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

Michelle: I drink more here than i do at home.
Michelle: That sounded bad.
Karen: We all do.
Michelle:
Michelle: Knock 'em back!
Karen: Ooh, cold ones are good!
Michelle: Unless they're from this office, then they're "slighty-cooler-than-body-temperature ones"
Karen: With mold growing.
Michelle: And a leaky roof.
Michelle: Word to your PC, motherboard lovas!

(i know there's some clever stuff missing, but just use your imagination and it WILL be funny)

Congrats

2008-02-26T18:04:00.000-08:00

Goes to Occidental College (my lovely Alma Mater) and the Oxy-Caltech Symphony Orchestra who are invited to play at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York.

The announcement was made on NPR this morning, and after 3 cd's and spotlight shows, the group has made its way into the halls and hearts of New York's finest.

Better yet, i played with them for a bit, so i guess that makes me awesome too!

Um...Ok....?

2008-02-26T13:10:00.000-08:00

So, the strangest thing happened to me today. This morning actually.

We live by a traffic light and sometimes traffic backs up there so when i pull out of the apt driveway and nice people usually let me in cause they're waiting for the light anyway.

This particular morning, a nice woman (let's call her Jean) in an SUV let me go in front of her while the light was still red. As i pull out, i notice something isn't quite right: The car in front of her, driven by an extremely old lady, was in the middle of the two lane road, blocking traffic.

The light turned green and i got behind said old woman (let's call her Crazy Mae Mae) and started on my merry way to work.

Well, Crazy Mae Mae decided that the gas pedal was over-rated and proceeded to coast through the intersection of the (very short) green light. I could see her talking, gesticulating to her even-older hubby (let's call him Bobby Roxorz) and i didn't get too annoyed cause i was getting ready to turn right and leave her domain.

Meanwhile Jean is primping her hair in the SUV behind me, generally looking flustered like she was a little late for work (i was too at that point). Coming up to the next light, Crazy Mae Mae slows WAAAAAAAaaaaaaaay down, and leaves 2 car lengths in front of her and blocks me next to a parked car so i couldn't turn right.

Crazy Mae Mae then proceeds to give me the double middle finger, shoving it over and over at her rear view mirror and screaming something. Needless to say Bobby Roxorz looked very meek and disturbed by it all. I actually look to my left and right in disbelief 'truly you don't mean me my good madam'. Then i did something shocking. To show my ignorance and confusion, i shrugged at her through my windshield.

Now Crazy Mae Mae, well that got her going and she went off at me, hands and obscenities flying.

So she repeated the actions over and over through the red light, Crazy Mae Mae was on a roll. But all weird things come to and end and at the green she was forced to go forward by the honking coming from behind me.

I suppose I'll never really know what pissed her off so bad, as all i did was pull out of my driveway BEHIND her and drive normally. I think the woman who let me in must have been trailing her all down the road to go faster and got pissed. Either way, even through her cataracts, she should be able to tell the difference between a black SUV and a small while Mazda.

All in all though, i feel bad for Bobby Roxorz. He seemed like a nice man.

iBand

2008-02-21T17:03:00.000-08:00

Yeah, i was going to do this last night, but i ran out of time. Ladies and gents, the next wave of music:

Gotta love the effort these guys put into it.

I wish evan was going...

2008-02-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

On his Asia trip, because i would have insisted he get and wear this:

It's an actual (non-gay) money belt. Sure, it would be kinda hard to purchase something on the fly, but if you find a good ATM, you can stock up on bills (or coins?) and since Evan is about as skinny as a lich, no one would be the wiser.

Course, since man-purses are now in fashion (think about it, briefcase, square purse???) i think this is cool too:

And it also appeals to my hiker/tomboy side, so i may have to purchase it somewhere along the line. Along with some Birkenstocks. Yeah, that'd look HOTT.

More info and other pics (+ ordering info) can be found here, courtesy of Cool Tools:
Kickass Belt
Butch Purse

Recovery

2008-02-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

What a weekend. That's all i gotta say.

You know, i've been having the strangest dreams... if they're not about zombies (typical Mahea nightmare) then they're about Alton Brown. Yes, don't laugh, it's not funny, it's serious business.

That man is truly a gem, and totally my type (aside from the "married with kid" part of the equation). I've also made his southern biscuits recipe about ONE THOUSAND times this weekend in an effort to channel him into existence in my (Nico's) kitchen. I can't get them to rise quite enough, maybe my baking soda has gone flat, or too much dough handling???

Sometimes, when i hear the clang of my brand new stainless steel measuring cups and the light hits the glass jar of (vegan) buttermilk, i can almost hear the famous 10-note Good Eats theme and hear Alton's sweet siren song asking me to pass him the french whisk (for the saucier of course!).

Next i'm going to try to make his loverly squash and potato dumplings. That is... when i finish cleaning the kitchen, have the time, etc etc. (They look sooooooooo gooooooood!!!)

Evan's parents get to meet him. The jealousy, it overcomes me. One day it'll boil over into a huge pile of gumbo, perfectly seasoned, and definitely (dare i say it?) Good Eats.

100th post!

2008-02-15T17:12:00.000-08:00

Huzzah! I've made 100 posts! So i guess my new found ability to blog at work has enabled me to blog the way i used to... i.e. every day.

So, ever since Vince got me an awesome USB drive for Christmas, i've been curious as to what other kinds of USB's people have been using. Seems that people can't mount USB devices into about anything they want.

And so i share with you this page from my google reader, an awesome example of a USB mod... Make Magazine

Valentine's Day 2000

2008-02-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

It's Valentine's Day, also know as "Single's Awareness Day", time to forget your latest fad diet and fill your cheek pockets full of caramel clusters and hallmark cards.

Luckily, for the past few years, i've always had some kind of goodie on V-day, whether it be from a lover or friend. This wasn't always the case. In high school i saw girls toting around bundles of flowers and secretly (ok, openly) longed for sickly-sweet and way overpriced blossoms to parade around under the other girls noses.

Being the tomboy that i was (ok, and protective parents who didn't let me date) i never really had the boyfriend with enough time, ego, and cash to send me flowers at school so i was always empty-handed (99cent store valentines do NOT count).

While i lamented my last V-day of senior year in High School, i got a runner from the office who presented me with a delicate dozen of white roses. I was stunned, and even more stunned to see they were from my best friend Nick who knew i was a romantic and knew i didn't have anyone to send me anything.

That was the first year i ever really felt special on this Holi-fake. Remembering that day is good enough to make me feel special for the rest of my life.

Ok... the chocolate helps too...

I know, i know

2007-12-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

WTF Toast!?

Yeah well, i was going to write this long post about how i haven't been writing and here's an update on my life, blah blah blah wasting net space good thing it's totally free and doesn't even (really) exist...

But all you need to know is that i'm sick. No, not projectile vomiting "you're not eating that ever again" sick, i mean my body is saying adios and it's breaking up with me. Apparently someone cheated on someone else and ended up getting preggers with virus DNA and then exploding in my bloodstream, raising my temperature above "mahea can function" level to the level where i start drooling on myself while i'm trying to drive home after being kicked out of work because i turned the building into a volcano with the molten lava snot streaming from my nose and perspiration scattering off my shivering body.

Believe me, if i wasn't so unbeliveably/home from work/"please hold my hand"/"i want my mommy" sick, i'd leave some amazingly witty message.

For now though, MAHEA HATES ALL.

(and please make it better!?kthx*COUGH*)

Oh man,

2007-11-19T21:59:00.000-08:00

My uterus is a fiery hellmouth right now... but you didn't need to know that did you?

Like i was saying... Oh man, it's been a while. After getting sick, getting better, getting sick again, not being able to blog at work, and being very busy at aforementioned work, i remembered by lovely loveable loving blog with its amazing new layout.

I've been plagued by womanly afflictions, and a persistent earache of titanic proportions so i'll keep it short and bitter... anyone who be reading this right now is teh r0x0rz.

HOLY CRAP

2007-11-04T12:28:00.001-08:00

I'VE FOUND IT!!! THE SINGLE MOST GREATEST BLOGGER TEMPLATE IN ALL THE WORLD!!! REVEL IN IT'S CRUMBLY GOODNESS!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAAAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

Error 404

2007-10-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

Please bear with me while i find a template i like...

I want to do something that matters...

2007-09-17T02:21:00.000-07:00

I think that's something we can all say about our lives. And yet, i look at the people around me, live, work, sleep, and die around me, and i don't think that they would all be able to say that.

More time than i'd like to admit is spent in the observation of others and i've come to find (and have been confirmed in numerous conversations with my peers of higher-than-average intelligence) that quote "normal people" don't seem have the desire to learn, understand, utilize, infer, reason, perceive, wonder, ponder, application and production desires that i, or even my friends, have.

Even i get tired of thinking, of questioning things i'll never fully understand, and take joy in doing something merely for the simplest of pleasures. I revel in banality at times; early to bed early to rise, 1 protein 1 starch 1 vegetable; and live under a blanket of the unrelenting cliches we pride ourselves on breaking free of. Yet, in those moments, however long they be, there's an unspoken understanding that it will not last forever. This understanding, i believe, is from a deep and personal desire to not only analyze the cliche, but to also change it, make it unique, stamp it as my own creation, and in doing so, lift it up beyond the mundane and hope to inspire others to do the same as well.

I don't believe that anything you think or want can be wrong. I must, of course, preface that with my belief that how you act upon those thoughts and desires can be inappropriate when negatively affecting others (although that, in it of itself, provides a huge spectrum of grey, those shades and tones i don't wish to discuss now)and that can be considered wrong. But, as graphic and beastly as it may be to say, for whatever demented reason, if you think you'd like to kill someone in the most masochistic way and not act upon it, i think that's completely fine. But i digress...

All my life i've been astounded by what humans in all our glory have come up with. The smallest painting of DaVinci, or Dali if you prefer, a passage of Emily Dickinson, it is incredible to think of how any of it came about. We have the power to rearrange atoms, to create, to destroy, to move, and to form, and call it what you will (a muse, inspiration, or even despair) it all begins with a single thought; A thought to pick up a brush, to get our of a chair, to light a match, to take a breath in preparation to speak... Every single wonderful, amazing, great, unbelieveable, beautiful, disgusting, shameful, hopeful thing we've ever done starts with a thought.

So when i say i want to do something that matters, i first do it for myself. I take the banal and make it unique, make it my own. And then i want to do the thing that would seem like it would be the easiest thing in the world to do... you'd think it would be easy to just make someone think. And it usually is... you smile, someone thinks "aww, how nice", "wow, she's cute", "he looks like a happy person" but the true art is in getting them to think about what you personally want them to think about. I want to make others think about making ways for others to make others think about making ways for others think about making ways for others to make others think and so on and so forth.

Ahh, now how to do THAT? Well my friends, THAT is the hard part. Maybe what matters most is to strive for the answer to THAT question. And in doing so, in questioning the questions that have always and never been questioned, by getting you to question, maybe that can be my something that matters.

this tickled me...

2007-09-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

Cat Haiku of the Day

The rule for today:
Touch my tail, I shred your hand.
New rule tomorrow.

I suck.

2007-08-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'm such a f*cking pussy. I can't even tell my boss that i want more money and what exactly does he expect me to do around here?

Sigh...

Laptop Cooler Pad

2007-08-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

USB Powered and Most Efficient Metal Cooler Pad with 3 Built-in Fans for Laptop Computer

So....

2007-08-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, almost a work week without a blog post! I really wish i had something to write, but i haven't been feeling well and i've been working a lot. Add some pms, and fatigue and you've got one boring ass week so far.

I am however looking forward to tomorrow night's festivities, as i've been pulling my hair out for a year waiting for R. Kelly's next hip h'opera to come out. Now, after months of crying in a corner, i will find sweet relief.

And it's fred's bday party. Yay fred!

So work workity work work, time to invoice, then car wash, then clean house, and THEN Ritz Carlton hot tub and maybe some hanging out with friends. Mine is a hard life...

I sold my soul to the company store...

2007-08-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

I've been working so much lately, and i'm supposed to be only doing 4 days a week, and i've been doing 6. Now, i wouldn't mind so much if:

#1: our hours weren't so long already, 6 pm everyday (which is long for me)

#2: my boss didn't have me do extra errands after work, which last till about 9-10pm and then i have to come in the next day

#3: when i am at work, i am actually doing work (instead of goofing off while he screams in farsi at his mom), hence the blog post...

#4: i wasn't already mad at him for making me take his mom to their burnt home after a full day work, in my brand new car, and their effing chihuahua with long nails whimpering and scratching my leather seats (don't ask, i'll just scream)

I keep telling myself it's more money, more money, but you know, i hate focusing on money! It makes people to do bad things... And i'm around it all day, money is so important here (yeah, i know, i work at the RITZ-CARLTON) but it makes me want to go home, hide in a carboard box and eat food i got at the 99 cents store.

But seriously though, they have some good things at the 99cent store...

"I'd like to visit that Long Island place, if only it were real,"

2007-08-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

Oh man, so tired after birthday partying, thanks to everyone who came (and wanted to come but lives far away (Ms. Maren!!!)), it was totally sweet and awesome and teh roxxorz. Ok, so not witty today, maybe that's due to the 2 kick-my-ass drinks i had last night. I am such a cheap date...

I really hate working on Caturdays, i got so bored that i wikipedia'd wikipedia. I'll be the first to admit, that was a little weird... and a little longer article than i expected it to be.

But hands down, it's more exciting than google'ing google or google'ing wikipedia.
I then wikipedia'd Google, and it has the longest list of footnotes i've ever seen!

Can't wait to get home and pick out my new seatcovers!!!

This sucks!

2007-08-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

Today was supposed to be my day off. So i was all nice and cuddled up at 7 am when my boss called and texted me 4 times in a row (to make sure that i was awake) to tell me to be in at 9. I'm never going to sleep in ever again...

Tino

2007-07-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

My boss has a dog he brings to work. Actually, it's a chihuahua, so "dog" doesn't really apply to this critter. His name is Valentino, which is the same horrible name as our apt manager's dog as well, and he is more irritable and cranky than Pippin on his worst day.

However, sometimes he gets into this amazing happy dog mood. He really wanted to play with Dean (my boss) and was hopping around, wanting attention, and being playful. Dean doesn't have time today to play around, so he kept telling him to get down and go away. Dean's mom Fay (the flower arranger) practically screams in farsi at this dog whenever he moves.

I think it's sad that they want him to sit down or lay down in his bed all day long and wait while they're working. 9am - 6pm, they encourage him to hop in bed and sit still. Of course they periodically walk him, but how utterly ridiculous to think that this living breathing animal is something you can turn on and off, play with when you want and sit idle until you're ready again. Maybe that's why Tino gets into foul moods, his poor owners never give him enough attention.

I keep thinking about myself, how i treat animals like family members, and how shocked i was to see dogs being treated with a "whatever" attitude in latino neighborhoods. When i remember the times of the hawaiians, the native americans, it's easy to see that even now that separation between man and beast is so evident. It leads me to ponder many things... whether our love for animals stems from more advanced brain function, more sense of self, community, emotion, the endless waves of animal rights, the boredom of society, etc etc etc.

I'd like to think that i love my cat because i'm smart, but i can't deny that i think banality has something to do with it.

YESSSSSS!!!

2007-07-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Alright, i have a job! I have an awesome job!

I am now with Piccolo, floral artistry by design at the Ritz-Carlton in Pasadena. It's so freaking great. I get to do wedding plannings, website work, and hands-on floral arranging experience. I gets to work wif flowars!!!

My boss is a young and hip persian who likes to wear jeans and open shirts. He's cool, a real estate shark too, and the casual business environment is very welcoming. His mother does most of the arranging, with Dean (my boss) doing a lot of designing and concepts. There's also a latino dude named Diego, who does like everything from arranging to cleaning Dean's car, who has a great and funny attitude that's kind of muted due to the language difference.

Right now we're working on Dean's sister's wedding, so everything is personal. With 12 people here working on flower balls (topiary balls if you wanna be technical) it's been a great big argument with everyone screaming insults in farsi. Ah, i love it. Stressful, but it's totally awesome!

I really think this job is going to be so great, and i get to pick out the laptop i'll be using at work. Can we say "DVD burner"!?

Sometimes you just gotta

2007-07-10T03:21:00.000-07:00

Kill some nazis to make yourself feel better. In lieu of battlefield 2142, i've come back to an old love, Wolfenstein (RTCW) in multiplayer mode. There's just something so comforting about taking grenade and ramming it down someone's hideaway.

The cold is going going, almost gone, got a terrible cough still. Hopefully i can get rid of it by this weekend as we're planning on going to see lucas. Oranges and tea, that's my regiment for the next few days.

Got a few days of work in last week, but the temp agency is coming up a little short. Tomorrow i gotta expand the playing field they've got me on, and send out yet ANOTHER batch of resumes and check-ins.

Wish me luck on the job front.

FOR SPARTA!!!

2007-07-08T01:28:00.000-07:00

300 is the one movie that is (primarily) about men that doesn't give me penis envy. Usually, when i see strong men in main roles there's a part of me that wants to be like them. However, in this movie, i completely and utterly don't want to have a spartan penis like their's as part of me, so much as i'd rather have, well...you know.

The movie: simple, shallow, stunning, gorgeous, abs galore! Amazing cinematography to boot, the whole thing just looked too damn good not to get all swept up in it! Sigh, there's too much to talk about this movie, so i'll save it for another post, but needless to say i went out and found myself a shiny new abs-licious desktop background, and made sure that i had the mp3 of "It's raining men" queued up on my ipod.

Sorry i've been out...

2007-07-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

Here's the scoops.
Lost my job.
Got a new one.
New one lied and told me to my face that they had to "invent" money with which to pay me cause they didn't have it right now.
Flabbergasted and didn't take the position (100 other things wrong with it).
The job search continues...
Less than 50 bucks to my name and a head cold.
Not fun...

Ahhhhhhh

2007-06-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

Effervescent!

Well, the long concert weekend is OVER! Thanks to evan and nico, and my sneaky parents, for coming to the show and getting a lovely deli meal out of it! My weekend has been officailly shot by all the hullabaloo, and i'm still here at work on sunday, and won't be home till about 9 pm.

But, god willing, the kitty will be snuggly and evan got me the latest issue of Fables to read. This series is seriously good, pun intended! HAR HAR! I'm barely willing to lend out the previous issues, so if you're interested give me a heads up, they read like hotcakes. Hmmm, that doesn't make sense, but i'll keep it anyway. Basically it's all the fables we know, like snow white, 3 pigs, riding hood, etc, who have been exiled from their fable homelands by a mysterious adversary who's taking over everything, and have set up a community in New York under the not-so-watchful eye of the humans (called "mundys" for "mundane"). They have enchantments, spells, disguises, etc to keep the truth hidden, and have set up a local government within the new Fabletown, with the big bag wolf as their sherriff! And in case you were wondering, yes, it's a very grown up story, like, goldilocks has many assault weapons and somebody has seeeeEEEEeeeeexxxXXXXxxx...

I can't reveal any more of the story, but they're such a pleasure to read!

In other news, as you can see, i've totally mastered the [img] tag in all of it's glory. Hooray! Looking forward to Ev's party on friday, and to FINALLY not having to train it all the way over to NR days in a row. I need a drink, and some yoga. PLEASE!

Dear Readers.

2007-06-05T08:39:00.001-07:00

I can't write until my allergies calm down. Till then, the radical reconstruction of the South after the Civil War was neither radical nor a reconstruction. Discuss.

New Feature

2007-05-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

Now you can click on the headers to the left to see previous things i've written, thought, played, quoted etc. Just click on the appropriate header to check out what i've done before!

I haven't had a muse lately,

2007-05-30T07:03:00.001-07:00

I've been in a funk for a few days that i can't seem to shake. It's getting better, but i have no idea what brought it on or what was feeding it.

Had a bit of Pasadena-itis, or mabye it's more like couch-itis, and really pushed to go out lately. Evan and i took trips to Hollywood with the gang, and went to Santa Monica the other night as well. It was REALLY nice to get out of the house and away from our usual diggs for a while.

Hollywood was, well, it's Hollywood, what can i say? Weird people, greasy pizza, pimps, ho's, trannys (not too many though), and slutty dressed girls galore. I won our whore watching game thanks to that pimp in the white suit and the purple car with spinners. Holla!

Santa Monica was very nice also, but Cali beaches always throw me for a loop. We walked around the city part and checked out a few performers. For some reason, we bypassed the breakers and the gospel singing 8 year old to stand and watch this one dude playing an electric travelling violin. Ok, so the cheesy dance-cats beat he had on in the background was a turn off, but the man actually had some talent. I'll have to go back and grab one of his CD's later.

If you venture off 3rd street promenade, there are some surprisingly cool stores around. We found a british tea house and british market (man, i was so tempted to get some marmite, i LOVE that stuff!), a few pubs, a strange import shop, exhale spa and yoga place (i am in love with one of the teachers there), and the lululemon athletica store (note: they just opened one in old town where ghiradelli's used to be!). There's this awesome vegan/vege place i've wanted to try called Real Food Daily, but the line was way too long and we were in more of a coffee and toast mood. Regardless, they have some amazing sounding food there (that i can actually eat!), and it's located on 5th and Santa Monica right next to a great indian/buddhist/yogi store.

We headed to the beach, and it was soothing to feel sand in between my toes again. There was a peace exhibition thing near the boardwalk with crosses and candles representing all those who've died in Iraq during the war. They also had poster boards with pictures and names of the first 1000 us soldiers to die. Looking at those faces, i recognized the straight expression, neat, shaved, pristine nature of the military, so often i've seen with my marine brother. Thank GOD he'll never go to Iraq. Dodging the screaming kids chasing after bubbles, we didn't have much time for the actual pier, but managed to snag a churro on the way back to the car. Then it was to Fred and Warren's for fun times and bed.

I believe our Memorial Day bbq was a success, we definitely had enough food to feed many more people. You all were there so i don't need to go into details, but my first run at a pineapple upside-down cake turned out very well! Thanks for coming everyone, and i'm sure we'll have many more this summer. Or maybe this fall, if it's less hot.

Still looking for freelance, still needing more money and more sleep. But other than that, i hope this funk, like so many before it, wafts off so i can be myself again. Oh, and allergies: yeah, thanks, f*ck you guys.

Not much going on...

2007-05-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

Haven't really had anything to blog about, that is, until i go outside this morning and find my bike tire to be let out, for the second time in 2 months. Ok seriously, who is so lame that the prank they decide to play is based on letting someone's air out of their tires?

Seriously, i use my bike every day, it's my only means of getting around without help. That being said, it'll only get me places locally, i'm not about to go trekking to Long Beach on it, but i can actually get around in pasadena. That being said, it's how i get to work. Yeah, riding at 5:45 am does suck, but i HAVE to do it. What i don't HAVE to do, and what i hate to do, is come tromping back into the house to wake up my warm and sleeping boyfriend to steal some of his sleep time to take me in to work. He understands, he's nice, and he does it, but what I don't understand is why someone would flatten the tires, but not even try to steal the bike. (Evan's bike got the lock cut off and stolen a few months ago from the same place where i put my 2 bikes now)

I mean, do the homeless who set up shop around Lake and Maple (btw, when the hell did that become the haven for these people, like 3 months ago it just exploded in a mass of cardboard signs with "Help, veteran needs food, will work..." scrawled across the front?) honestly have nothing better to do with their time? Or is it some jerk-off in the apartment building who's making the problem?

Maybe it would have been better if Robert had put in those gates, although cumbersome, it must keep someone out. If i had the money to get a swank bike lock with lasers, or even a bike pump, i'd be all over it. But i don't, not now. So to whoever is doing that, or did it, or whoever(s), i swear if i ever catch you, i'll rip your nips off with my crescent wrench and make you eat them WITHOUT any seasonings. TAKE THAT!

MIA

2007-05-17T07:18:00.000-07:00

Ah, seems like i haven't been posting lately, rest assured, i am still alive and well. This week has been exhausting! That late night trip eating pies with Lucas really messed up my sleep schedule for the week (for those of you in the dark, i have to get up at 5:30 am everyday to get to work, so when i stay out till 2 am... ouch!). Then the night after that i had chorale at UCLA till 10, meaning i'm lucky if i get to bed before 11:30 or midnight and then wake up at 5:30. Super ouch! I seem to be back on schedule now, and my brain is slowly regaining shape after being a big slushy pile of mush for the past few days.

However, i have been writing reviews for every movie i watch on Netflix. Evan pointed out how as soon as i got an account the only thing i was ordering were strange indy foreign films. I LOVE foreign films, they really know what they're doing. I've recently seen In the Mood for Love (chinese), The Scent of the Green Papaya (vietnamese), Bad Education (spain spanish), and City of God (brazillian w/ portuguese). City of God was particularly awesome, and i will be keeping an eye out for the dvd.

Coming soon: A gyoza making party, anyone interested?

Stupid People Doing Stupid Things

2007-05-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

a.k.a. "28 Weeks Later"

If stupid was a train, the only stop would be in retard-ville, where this movie would get on and never leave.

Similar to the first one, the basic plot is that someone does something stupid, someone gets infected and fucks with everyone else, the world goes to SHIT, and the military spends the rest of the movie with their thumbs up their asses, with one wannabe byronic hero boasting some crap about justice and life... then shed a few tears, add a shocker right before the ending, and voila: you have just created the world's greatest zombie movie. Truth is, despite the overwhelming lack of sense portrayed in the characters (they should have known what children actors would have done to the movie), it was an AWESOME show. As ususal, there were tons of jumpy moments, chaotic scenes in the dark, music that was climactic and repedative, cinematography that was cinna-licious, and the cast wasn't bad to look at either. But seriously though, it was a very well done movie which left me wanting more by it's new "Dawn of the Dead" style ending (hooray, we're all fucked!). And while i haven't had any yet, i'm sure some sweaty screaming nightmares are in my future (The first one had me imagining infected crashing through my bedroom window for a month!)

I'll post more later about this movie, when it's not 7 am and i'm tired, but i leave you with a few things to ponder:

Was the dad like really smart after he turned, cause he needed his keycard to get around the building, so did he use it when he was infected?

Wasn't the daughter wearing waaaaay too much eyeliner?

Don't you think the mom just got REAMED in this movie? Poor thing, she never got a break.

Anyone want to go running? I think we need to start training...

It's finally happened!!!

2007-05-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

So i've been thinking about a new template for a while. Not that blogger's pre-made templates are bad, but i wanted something more unique. So naturally i googled "free blogger templates" and copied/pasted the best one i could find. Luckily, most of it is just basic HTML and i've been able to tweak it from the original enough so that it's very Toasty.

It's not done yet, so no criticism please, but compliments are ALWAYS welcome...

This just in:

2007-05-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

It looks like a massive case of fatigue has taken over the ooman named Mahea. It's a falling over at work, wishing it was thursday cause that's the day the bosses don't come in, too much allergy pill kind of tired. We are being assured that it is unrrelated to the late night excursion to go investigate and photograph the Griffith Park fire. We are being told that Mahea, and fellow NEEEEERD! boyfriend Evan Stiles, were amongst the many amateur photographers out last night, joined by numerous onlookers who were lame and ate pizza out of their cars. It is unclear at this time if Mahea and Evan were able to adequately mock those quote LAME people. And Mike has some new news in health, Mike?

That's right Brian, it seems that the allergic reaction (i.e. hand sized welts on Mahea's legs) seems to be going down as the rate of calamine lotion application goes up. We can see here that this area's redness and swelling has calmed down significantly and it is notably less itchy. The swelling here around the knee looks to be controlled by medication and icing, though we are not being told the brands of medication at this time. We do realize that although the situation if finally starting to look up, Mahea is prepared to whine well into the next week. Back to you Brian...

Thanks Mike, that was riveting. Up next, chocolate, cat naps, and what's REALLY in Mahea's secret hummus recipe, could it be puppies? All that and more, after the break. *shuffles papers*

Vampires in a Vegan World

2007-05-09T07:13:00.000-07:00

I love the headline that Magic Stones sent in: Toxic products found in blood of BBQ lovers. It's like, dude, barbecuers have poisonous blood! Veganism would be a lot harder if vampires really existed, because my friends would be all like, hey, you'd better eat these ribs so your blood will be toxic to vampires, and I'd be all, no way eh, I'm like vegan and stuff, and I'd be totally risking my life for my principles instead of living my cushy real world vegan existence where I feel awesome and have reduced risk of all kinds of health problems and oh yeah, I don't have as many toxic products in my blood.

(From Vegan Pr0n dot com.)

Links

2007-05-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so just a heads up that most of my image links are offline. I rearranged my photobucket albums and broke them, and i'm too lazy at the moment to redo them all at once. Enjoy! (All regular links work, just not images)

It's 7:32 am...

2007-05-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

and i just had a bowl of vegan chili with beans. I swear i'm white trash sometimes.

I had one of those dreams last night, you know, the type where it's the same dream 3 times, each from a different perspective.

I was on America's Next Top Purger, oh, i mean "Model", and all the girls and i went out for chinese in Chinatown. It was late and we barely found a place open, when i realized that i had nothing nice to wear to the judging panel the next day. Leaving the girls to get the food, I ran off to find a clothing store, which incicentally was robbed when i was in the dressing room.

Each of the outcomes was different in the 3 versions, meaning i guess that in the first two i got shot, but the last one i hid and was fine. It was almost surreal because that version was F/P as opposed to 3rd P like the other two. I remember scrunching the dress up to my neck as i hid, the way it scratched against my throat as i struggled to breathe slowly, and the heat from the body of a robber as he stood close by. All 3 took place in about 15 minutes, freaky eh?

The weirdest feeling though... the second time, when i got caught, the robber did that weird siren thing in God of War, and i my head got all ripply and shakey and i couldn't hear straight or see straight. I'm sure Evan will give anyone a demo if they haven't seen it.

In other news, i caressed a roma tomato this morning, it was awesome, and i took a loverly spill on the bike last night. I sprained my left ankle and got some nasty road rash on my left leg and left elbow. I might as well scrape my left cheek on some gravel to make the look, and feelings, complete. Wanted to go to karate, but i guess this'll force me to take it easy. Luckily, i have an amazing boyfriend who driveth me to work today. Supposed to go volunteer at the ranch friday, we'll see how that goes...

B*tchfest in response to fred's blog...

2007-05-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

I love Fred's idea that people are demanding because in business money is involved and money is seen now as inherently eeeebil.

I was a waitress for 4 years, and honestly, it's the hardest job i ever had, harder i think than even tech support. Not only do the customers try to buy a product, but #1 it's food (people are really snippy when their blood sugar is low let me tell you), #2 they can see me (see if i am punching in their order, if i am checking on it, bringing it out yet, 'why is she talking to that other table when my food is probably ready!')(and i HAVE to see them, so if there's a problem, it's literally, in my face), and #3 they know that part of my livelyhood is in their hands (i used to have a friend who would put $5 on the table and remove $1 every time the waitress did something he didn't like).

I've had kids throw their drinks in my face, color on the walls with pens, and pour melted butter in my hair several times(we served crab legs). The only thing worse than dealing with the kids, was dealing with the parents. They're the ones who became the deamons, demanding that their kid's food be brought out right away so they can have some relief from parenting, who laugh as their hellians smeared ketchup all over the table (aww, he's so cute!).

Then there's the pre-purchase questions:
What's in this burger?
Can i have coleslaw instead?
How long is it going to take, i have to leave soon?
If i get this dish, can he share and just get a side?
Why are these prices different if it's like the SAME thing?

And the techie questions:
My burger is rare, i wanted it well done, can you fix it?
This tastes funny, can you fix it?
This isn't what i wanted, can you fix it?
I'm not going to pay for that, can you take the bill and fix it?
My kid just threw up here, can you fix it?
I am generally unhappy with my life right now and want to take it out on someone but can't on my kids or spouse because it isn't appropriate so can i yell at you till you fix it?

I remember my managers always spouting "The customer is always right" at every staff meeting, yet i never was willing to swallow that tripe. After years of service, i've decided that "The customer is always human." is a more fitting phrase. Humans make mistakes, we think we're right when we may not be, we get angry, we expect, we retaliate, we deal. However, some people deal and reason better than others, and the sad fact is that most people don't understand their emotions enough TO deal. That's why i got out of that biz, sure i made $400 bucks in tips on a good night, but aside from the aches of running around for 8 hours straight, i was starting to see people as grubby whining little Paris Hiltons, waving fists of money at others in order to get them to do what they want. When you say jump, i say fuck you.

For things to remember about people service, check out fred's blog. He's got some good tips on how not to be an asshole. (This is the SUPPORT LINE is it not!? I'm not getting ANY SUPPORT!!!)

Other things i've downloaded:

2007-05-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

Medium, Season I

The Ghost Whisperer Seasons I & II

Battlefield 2142, single player mode.

The Windsor Pilates Ball Workout

The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Season II

Under Rug Swept by Alanis Morissette

Yoga Shakti by Shiva Rea

Other things i've played:

2007-05-01T07:07:00.001-07:00

God of War II by Sony.

Other things i've thought:

2007-05-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

About alternative ways to calm my cough. Yak's milk?

About freelancing, i need to make more money...

That i should have cooked the cornbread longer...