dude, we're freegans

maybe this will force me to memorize this prayer

2010-03-17T11:44:00.001-07:00

I suck at the rosary. maybe if I see this every time I log in...

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy!
Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished
children of Eve, to thee do we send
up our sighs, mourning and weeping
in this valley, of tears.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us; and
after this our exile show unto us the
blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus;
O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.

"Because I'm leeeavin', on a jet plane!"

2010-02-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

pretend like ben affleck's singing that. yeeeah. now you get it. oh baby baby baby baby. now pretend like britney's singing those baby-babies to you*. NOW you got it!

I'm in such a good mood - I get to see my man for the first time since december today at four for the whole long weekend! we're going to SB for the long weekend, his birthday, and v-day (wow!). I haven't had a valentine since motherfucking levi samuel warner (bastard bastard bastard!) senior year... and this man o' mine, hoo-doggy! it's a little like this: <3, with a little of this: :D thrown in for good measure.

and you guys, it gets better! I just had kasha for breakfast! (now pretend tracy morgan's saying that. yeah! too bad I can't find a vid online for that one.)

quarter cup buckwheat cooked in soymilk + chai concentrate. mix in chopped dates, moreia's almonds, almond butter, and a tiny drizzle of molasses. HELL YEAH. that's got me feeling "spunky" for the man!

he asked for spunky, btw. srs.

*2:12. seriously!

"And remember, don't drive like my brother..!"

2010-01-24T13:40:00.000-08:00

I love sunday afternoon Car Talk study sessions :)

and slacking off on saturdays! I went to Border's downtown and read the entirety of The End of Overeating, by David Kessler... and now I'm menu-planning, to prevent deviation from The Plan!

[The Plan: drop at least 5 pounds by spring break (march 17) in order to be far sexier than christmas-break-sugar-fiend mary and make the BF want to lavish and ravage all day long.]

The Plan has me gluten-free (not a big deal, actually!), mostly vegan (vegan except for the MASSIVE tub o' Nancy's I bought before starting the plan), and raw as much as I can (ugh.. fiber bloat).

but this book..! I liked it, all in all. I feel like Kessler gets it. he seems to have had a few love-affairs with food of his own, so he knows what it's like. I gained some tricks, including the planning - if I've got all the food I'm allowed for the day written down, there's no rationalizing food outside of it!

today was:

--Bob's Red Mill hot cereal with jam&brown sugga' for breakfast... and ho-made tabouli and a minneola for lunch! the tabouli is dank: half a bunch of IP (italian parsley, y'all), 1/4 cup of uncooked quinoa, cooked.., a roma tomato, a slice of diced red bell, a celery stick, and a tablespoon of raw pistachios. I doused it in lime, and put half aside for lunch tomorrow. WIN. I wanna make this this summer for my family!
--also, ho-made greek yogurt. oooh baby. with moreia's meyer lemonz and maple? yesh preese.
--dinner's gonna be a mish: roasted sweet dumpling squash with broccolini and sun-dried tomato pesto and navy beans.

squash: microdestruct it 'til it's soft, peel it, slice it, rub it with italian spices and salt and pepper, roast it, dice it.
broccolini: steam it, baby!
pesto: foodprocess SD tomatoes (5 of them?), clove elephant garlic, tablespoon raw pistachios, drop of oil, and red pepper flakes.
beans: maybe. I'm not sure I'll want all that, yet.

sigh... these guys make me feel so much better about my education, haha. I wanna hang out with click and clack :) they're about as seedy as my minneola I ate with lunch! ba dum chh!

"Gimme that Christian Side Side-Hug!"

2010-01-18T21:01:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Oj0-splZw

I'm going to murder my boyfriend! this damn thing is going to be stuck in my head for YEARS!

ANYWAY

I'm starting the The Raw Divas 7 Day Detox tomorrow - an all day fast to kick it off! - which is going to keep me raw and vegan for all meals for 7 days. I'm using this blog to document everything I eat and to keep me honest... and if that doesn't work, well, I've got them rough riders filled up with christ's love to keep me straight!

WOOP!

"So, with his passion to kill still keen and unabated, Venters lived out that ride, and drank a rider's sage-sweet cup of wildness to the dregs..."

2010-01-11T13:44:00.001-08:00

I have become a cowpoke.

SERIOUSLY. I have fallen in love with the american western tradition. yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a west coast girl, and have been all my life, but dude, if you haven't gathered this from my grommy vernacular already, I grew up in a socal beach town. I'm more likely to get maytagged in a gnarly rip (get tossed underwater like the spin cycle of a washing machine) than straddle my hoss and ride off'n to the sunset.

so read RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE (and thank you, google books!). it's sooo romantic, both in the historical/literary and sentimental sense of the word. those are two of my favorite things, fyi. if only my man'd figure this out. le sigh.

it has been inspiring me to light out into the territory on my own a bit, which has been fun. the other day, I mished to woodland and picked up chiles de arbol, the cheapest avocado I've seen in ages (and to think they're five for a buck in SD...!), maria's galletas, and the most amazing pan dulce ever. seriously. they were so good. I need to rework my receta. ANYWAY, yesterday's ride (astride my faithful peugeot) was to the international market, where I got some super cheap henna, delicious pistachio nougat candies, and ZA'ATAR!

for those not in the know, za'atar is this amazing middle eastern spice blend of thyme, marjoram, oregano, sesame, salt... the combinations are mutable, but the taste is undeniable - zingy and almost lemony from the thyme, but toasty from the sesame. it's bomb dusted on pita that's been oiled and then broiled, but yesterday, I did a good thing for LD and me. I dredged some tofu in it, pan fried it, and served it with cauliflower broiled with garam masala and cilantro and a dish of tomatoes sprinkled with lime, cumin, and sea salt. YUM.

for dessert, we had baked pears, but not just ANY baked pears! no sir, these were stuffed with all kinds of things: muesli, dried figs, crystallized ginger, and chocolate chips. soooo good.

a taste:
"He had shot a masked outlaw the very sight of whom had been ill omen to riders; he had carried off a wounded woman whose bloody lips quivered in prayer; he had nursed what seemed a frail, shrunken boy; and now he watched a girl whose face had become strangely sweet..." how can you resist?!

"You're a senior, double major, you've got such big ideas..."

2010-01-02T19:46:00.000-08:00

ho man, my hungarian ancestors would be so proud of me tonight.

I got some NC patty-pan squashies at work today. it's completely and utterly the wrong season for them, but hey, they were free and organic. I like both of those things.

I had grabbed an NC red bell pepper intending to cook them squashies my favorite way: a horribly untraditional goulash. it's usually got gypsy peppers (yeah, I'm part gyspy, what now!), sweet onions, soft squash, tomatoes, and TONS of paprika. it's pretty much one of my favorite ways to use summer squash - paprika is one of those magic spices, like cumin. you can't go wrong.

with that in mind, I sauteed my onions to a nice brown, mixed in my garlic and spices, and was well on my way to having perfectly cooked squash and peppers. however, being the lazy-ass cook that I am, I didn't check to see if I had any cans of tomatoes to simmer the other ingredients in into saucy oblivion. I like having canned tomatoes on hand in winter over real tomatoes, because at least I know the canned stuff is picked when it's ripe. you never know with the fresh ones in winter...

all this is fine and dandy, but there were no tomatoes to be found. drat. I improvised. here's the results - I served it with shredded cucumber mixed with "mediterranean" (which is different from "greek", I've learned) yogurt and cumin and salt and pepper. super yum.

fava bean goulash great-grandma hates me for

1/4 of medium yellow onion, sliced
*1 clove of garlic, chopped
generous pinch each: *paprika, *oregano, *thyme, *cayenne, *black pepper
*2 patty-pan or other summer squash, roughly chopped
*1/2 of large red bell pepper, sliced thick
*1/2 can of fava beans + some of their liquid
*more paprika
pinch of chile molido - totally not traditional, but I love it with beans

saute the onion on medium 'til it begins to get brown, then mix in garlic and first set of spices. stir until it's aromatic, then add squash and peppers. saute for another 10 minutes (or as long as it takes to change your laundry), then add the fava beans and their liquid. sprinkle in more paprika (I'm a fiend) and the chile molido, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

makes enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow

*dude, everything I starred was free. so was my cucumber. the yogurt wasn't, but the blueberries and blackberries that'll be on my fro-yo after dinner will be!

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie it's amoreeee"

2009-12-09T20:56:00.000-08:00

must. try. immediately.

I haven't eaten pizza in AGES (probably since summer), because I feel a tremendous amount of TRUE GUILT over it's complete void of everything I try to do with my food. yes, I know, load it with veggies and you're square... except for the gobs of cheese, refined flour crust, blah, blah, you know the drill.

your vegan mom is quickly becoming my favorite resource. she gives us this melty cheeze sauce, and it SERIOUSLY looks good in this picture.

when I get home from visiting the family, this is happening.

*LD made such a fuss over what a "stupid!" movie Moonstruck was when I made her watch it with me. it's one of the few true problems I have with that girl. how can you not love it? sigh. Chrissy, over on the wall, bring me the big knife. I want to cut my throat.

"Let there be snow, and mistletoooooe..."

2009-12-07T22:32:00.000-08:00

I swear to science, our lady of guadalupe, and tom waits*, I think we're going to have a white christmas here. here, in mother-flippin' yolo county. I don't believe it, but it rained all night last night, and tomorrow we're going to spend the day hovering between the 25-35 degree range... yeesh. I don't know what to think.

I wish I could cook. I haven't been. it's not like I'm actually studying for finals. it just doesn't seem appropriate. ah well, there's thursday's ladies' pre-break holiday tea to bake for (so stay tuned for an experiment involving honey, ginger, molasses, and ...lemon? we'll see.), and then my family when I go back to ENC for 2 weeks! there will be:
-pan dulce
-a flourless chocolate torte OR ganache cake for momma's birthday (haven't decided yet - it all comes down to whether or not I can find a spring-form pan at SPCA between now and friday)
-gingerbread men to decorate with barwick and stephie
-christmas pie (miguel gave me pie privileges! this is HUGE!)
-granola bars for brosef. I'm not sure whether to try these eat air ones on him, which I've had success with, or make him be my tester for the your vegan mom's ones. they definitely seem to have more ingredients he'd tolerate.
-my favorite persimmon cookies!

maybe the broham will even let me pack him some lunches. I love making him accidentally eat vegetarian - he's scrawny, tall, and 16, and thinks he's some real damn meat 'n taters guy. maybe I'll make him accidentally love my seitan chili sin carne al mole (shamelessly adapted from VwaV - really, I just added more beans and brown shugga', but ya know)

*the idols and false prophets I worship. what, I'm catholic! we know that we're all going to hell, no matter what we do! plus, tom waits is really a demi-god everyone should know and love. check this steezy shit out yo.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife"

2009-11-29T19:16:00.000-08:00

gaaah, Pride and Prejudice. I'm rereading it now, and, I gotta say, man. it's just so good.

anyway.

not a bad day at work. got to play with the most wonderful SD (and discuss our girl and boy problems), and worked 8 straight hours with the main man target. mmm :)

it is thanks to this main man target that I have a delish din-din to immortalize for future reference. I was hungry as shit after work, but, after halfway implying to him we should have a playdate later, I realized I shouldn't gorge too much. it needed to be filling, but light. yeah. opposing concepts. I know.

I was like, "Well shee-it, I'll just make a small supper with hella flavor and call it a night. And if He doesn't call after 10 or so, I'm gettin' some goddamn fro-yo. Hell, I may just get Yoloberry anyway, dairy-bloat be damned!"

and so this curry was born. I used to love my momma's chicken curry*, but, since I do not indulge of the flesh anymore (unless it's the main man target... sigh. if only.), I'm not privy to its pleasure-play of flavors. it's shredded chicken, apples, raisins, celery, curry... so good. well, since it's freezing around here anyway, I figured I'd stew it up and ignore its chilled-bird roots.

Pre-Playdate Curry

1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 red jalapeno, coarsely chopped
1/2 golden delicious or other mild, firm apple, chopped
1/2 pound asparagus, cut into 1-2 inch bites
olive oil
1/2 cup veggie broth
2 TBS tomato paste
1 TBS curry
2 tsp tumeric
2 tsp cumin (these are all just accounting for my more or less generous dashes)
half a handful red lentils

saute the garlic, jalapeno, and apple together in the olive oil on low 'til they begin to get nice and fragrant. mix in the asparagus, and cook for about 2 minutes, until everything begins to sizzle. when it does, add all the spices, broth, and tomato paste, bring to a simmer, and then mix in the lentils. cover, turn back down to low, and cook until lentils are soft, and sauce has reduced, about 15 minutes.

hoo baby, this was good. I wanted to serve it on wilted collards (my current favorite green), so I mixed in the lentils to thicken it up (the red lentils are great because: a) they cook fast; b) they break down nice and quickly, making a really tasty mush; c) I got a BUNCH of them NC'd :D), but more broth can be added to make it more soup-y - probably would just need to adjust tomato and curry ratio.

*Mark Darcy: ...I realize that when I met you at the Turkey Curry Buffet I was unforgiveably rude... and wearing a reindeer jumper. That my mother had given me the day before. But the thing is, um, what I'm trying to say, very inarticulately, is that, um, in fact, perhaps despite appearances, I like you. Very much.
Bridget: [Bitterly] Apart from the smoking and the drinking and the verbal diarrhea...
Mark Darcy: No, I mean I like you very much. Just as you are.

damn, son, I just tied this entire post together. the P&P quote from the title and the content of this meal are brought together by Bridget Jones's Diary. I knew there was a reason I loved that movie.

"it's just a sham. a sham with yams. it's a yam-sham!"

2009-11-25T21:44:00.000-08:00

so, comrades, it's the day before thanksgiving*. k.stein and I spent the morning baking up a storm (and when I charge my camera, I'll post the evidence), making cranberry bread a la martha, pumpkin muffins-to-bread de VwaV, and apple pie.

and none of this is as important as what I made for dinner.

food EDITS:
-the cranberry bread had an entire bag of cranberries in it - it could've used more sugar, or maybe some agave. agave would've been nice.

-my sleazy beezy roommate took our muffin tins to her boyfriend's (wtf), so isa's delightful pumpkin muffins became a loaf. shouldn't've been - it's really dense and kinda crumbles when you try to slice it. it's yum, though, molasses-y and full of the dusty, fall tastes of allspice, cloves, nutmeg... so good. my coworkers will appreciate it tomorrow when we're chopping lettuce and stocking kale at 4:30am. oh, and isa, you are my goddess.

-the apple pie was an adventure. it had a betterhomesandgardens butter pastry crust, which, while definitely not vegan, was tender, and very easy to work with. k.stein assembled the filling, with mixed apples, sugar, maple, brandy (she's my favorite drunk), and cinnamons, all dotted with butter. we haven't tried the pie yet, but it sure turned out pretty - a nice looking lattice crust, with three little hearts in the center (because I'm cutesy and stuff like that sometimes).

we made empanadas/apple turnovers with the leftover crust and filling, which were pretty amazing. I hope the pie's ok - I think some of the success of the empanadas was that it was a sealed pocket, so the filling stayed moist. we'll see how this lattice works.

anyway, those are the baked goods. dinner was bound to be a quick affair, as I got off work past supper-time. work was wild today (who'd've thought, a grocery store being busy the day before thanksgiving), and I was tired, grumpy, and not in the mood to screw around constructing one of my hyper-calorie conscious meals. I wanted some damn food. food with swear words in the name.

duh! pasta puttanesca. the name means "pasta of the whores", and is traditionally full of capers, tomatoes, anchovies, shrimpies, and kalamata olives. I ditched the fish-flesh here in favor of pumpkin. ...yeah, I know. but I had about half a can leftover from isa-bread, so why not. it was AMAZING, well-spiced and rich and filling yet still fall-y. I'm calling it my premeditated dinner of necessity, because I sort of just got things, and threw it together, all the while with a glorious vision in my head.

PUMPKIN PUTA SAUCE (pardon the obscenities :D)

good quality olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 shallot, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 - 1/3 cup kalamata olives, roughly chopped
1 can crushed tomatoes (I used the muir glen fire roasted ones)
1 TBS tomato paste
1/2 can pumpkin (plain, none of that nasty pre-flavored crud)
1/2 - 1 tsp crushed red pepper
2 tsp paprika (adjust as necessary - this is me trying to measure my dashes and pinches)
1 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper

saute the onions and shallots in the oil on medium heat 'til they begin to get fragrant, 3 minutes or so. mix in the garlic, and saute until it's beginning to get brown. mix in the tomatoes, olives, tomato paste, and pumpkin, stirring to mix it all together well. add spices, and adjust to taste - you may want it spicier, or more paprika-y (I like paprika and tomatoes a lot).

serve over good-quality bite-sized pasta; conchiglie or penne or orichette would all be good. if you want (and I did), douse your pasta in a tiny bit of cream before you add your sauce - it adds a interesting new dimension, but is totally not necessary.

mmm :)

*this pretty much sums up my feelings on thanksgiving - the title and these both come from "pangs" (thanks, joss!):
Anya: I love a ritual sacrifice.
Buffy: Not really a one of those.
Anya: To commemorate a past event, you kill and eat an animal. It's a ritual sacrifice. With pie.

exposition

2009-11-23T18:58:00.000-08:00

this blog is my celebration.

but first, backstory. my name is mary, and I've got this weird life. I've been living in northern california for three years now, and love it. I'm just about to graduate from UCD with my BA in english and education. I'm going to teach your kids someday, how about that?

at any rate.

I live in this bitchin' aggie (about my colloquialisms and affectations - I curse like a sailor and love slang too much for a classically educated literature student =/) town that's all kinds of involved in the locavore movement. for those uninformed, urbandictionary defines locavore as such:

[noun] someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles, usually for ecological reasons.

we're in the seat of yolo county, which is surrounded by farms, farms, and more farms. I work in a co-op, which you'll hear me reference often - it's one of the most amazing parts of my life. it's this alternative grocery store that focuses heavily on buying local, organic, sustainable, bioethical... you get my point. I work in the produce part, which means I've got my hands on all kinds of wonderful fruits and vegetables, most of which are grown less than 50 miles from the store.

one of the best perks about this is the NC. NC is a term you'll hear me throwing around plenty, too, so let me define it now:

[noun] any item that has been deemed unsellable, and thus, "no charge". consists of mostly damaged, past-date, or returned items.

produce is a great department for nabbing the NCs - bruised fruit, greens that fall on the ground, all of it I get to take home for dinner. for a college student who works full-time to pay rent and tuition, this is a big deal. my best girl and coworker LD and I scrounge hard, and hardly ever buy anything. because she is so righteously independent, she will not read recipes, choosing to "just make shit up". needless to say, I go over and cook for us 5 of 7 nights a week.

I have grown heavily dependent on food blogs. I'm a laissez-faire vegetarian/vegan (which means mommy chavez can guilt me into san diego chile verde and carne asada burritos whenever I go home to visit), but really strive hard to be conscious and considerate when I cook for LD and me. I've turned into a real, live freegan, which, thanks to urbandictionary, is defined as such:

[noun] 1. somebody who abstains from contributing to the economy and salvages society's wasted food and resources rather than purchase more themselves. Often pertains to a VEGAN (somebody who doesn't eat/wear animal products) who only makes exceptions when dealing with otherwise wasted items.
2. a person who, in reaction to the statistic that the west wastes 25% of all it's resources, get items from the trash that are perfectly good. It is often smelly, but hundreds of items can be found, perfectly fine, that otherwise would be wasted. Is often linked with environmentalism and activism.

so, you'll see a lot of my recipes of necessity here! I'm mostly starting this so I can stalk my blog heroes online (I love you, isa of postpunkkitchen, susanv of fatfreevegan, and heidi of 101cookbooks!), but also because I need my own system of cataloging the ones that actually turn out right! my mother believes in writing everything down, but anyone who has ever been in a kitchen ONCE knows that handwritten recipes get covered in all KINDS of mess. the internet is a safe place. we'll leave it at that for now - I'm pretty sure I have winter veggie pasta at SD's calling my name (or texting me impatiently, har har.)