Grace

me: man, i don't think i could ever get tired of beans and rice
thomasbstone: Man, I celebrate our differences so freaking hard

The first time I made this, it was simply a variation on black bean and corn salad which also included watermelon because I had a little bit which needed to go. The watermelon worked so stunningly well in the recipe, adding crisp freshness while totally absorbing the flavors of it, that I decided it was more important than the corn.

This works very well if you have bits of watermelon that are not up to par for eating because they’re insufficiently sweet or have been hanging around in the fridge long enough that they’ve picked up too many other flavors to be eaten plain. Or, if you’re just sick of eating watermelon, but it’s not gone yet.

Black Bean & Watermelon Salad

2 cans (about 3 cups) black beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 cups watermelon, small dice
1/2 med. red onion, small dice (about 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cajun spice blend*
2 Tblsp. lemon or lime juice
1 avocado, diced
1/2 chipotle pepper, minced + ~1/2 tsp of the adobo from the pepper can.
couple of cranks of black pepper
(fresh cilantro to taste)

Throw all this in a bowl and mix ‘er up. Best if it gets a chance to ripen in the fridge for a few hours.

*About my cajun spice blend: I first made this for making jambalaya and catfish, but I cannot speak to the authenticity of it. Regardless, I use it for so many things and have remade it several times since. I should figure out the proportions of stuffs and post it but here’s what it includes: black pepper, cumin, fennel seed, thyme, smoked paprika, smoked salt, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes.

The mama(')s(') (I don't know which apostrophe is appropriate here, because I'm not sure whether I am addressing plural mamas) wedding went off fairly well this weekend. Everyone seemed to get there okay, the brides were radiant, and the pot luck was varied and tasty. The cake Maria made was beautiful and tasty and got almost all eaten up. I got to spend a lot of time with my family - I even won a few hands of poker against my card shark uncles before getting cleared out on a particularly contentious hand of 7 card no-peek (what, I was showing a straight). Also, I learned a few more kinds of poker. Pretty good use of 50 cents - which was my total buy in.

The only thing that didn't go off without a hitch was the music for dancing. This was my department. Ian and I had planned to take turns running music off of my laptop, which would then go through my uncle's PA. Difficulty 1: I ran off just prior to the ceremony to help Maria wrap her sari, and then had four different people call me to ask what the password on my computer is, so they could play the theme for "Hey, look over here, we're gonna start a wedding already." There is no password to log on to my computer. Apparently, no one had tried clicking on the one user name to get in. Immediately following the ceremony, I put on soft music for eating and chatting. That much went well. Difficulty 2: Then we tried to get folks dancing. However, once I started playing music off of the data CD that they'd given me, halfway through the first song, Winamp freezes. I use Winamp 2.9 specifically because it's a little tiny program which doesn't have much in the way of moving parts to get broken. I have never had it freeze (unlike stupid flagellating iTunes, which freezes in a slight breeze). But there it was, hooked up to the PA with people on the floor, frozen and silent. After some poking and prodding and watching the door to my CD drive fall off, I determine that the CD drive has declined to read the disc. The dancing momentum never really recovered after that, even though I got the music going again about 10 minutes later. There were more little things that made me doubt my DJ abilities after that, and I have determined that I never want to do something like that without a proper crossfader and preview abilities. But, honestly, nobody there is going to ask me to DJ their wedding any time soon.

The bread I was making the other day came out wonderfully. I feel a little silly for the number of happy dances I've done over it, but I seriously thought it was going to be a semi-edible brick, and it turned out to be one of the better loaves I've ever made. This baking in the dutch oven thing is pretty cool. The big thing I'd change is I'd actually want it a bit more sour. I swapped half the water for starter, and I was afraid this was going to go too sour. Next time, I think I'm going to do the whole rise out of the fridge instead of half in and half out.

Here's some pictures. Unfortunately, the pictures I have that show the grain of it inside are all kind of blurry.

I'm currently attempting a sourdough, multigrain version of the No-Knead Bread presented in a New York Times Article (11/8/2006). It's an interesting approach. It takes advantage of the fact that, when left to sit, flour and water will create their own gluten strands without a whole lot of prodding and stretching, and also that a longer rise with less yeast makes for a nicer texture and flavor. It also capitalizes on the beautiful crust a wetter dough will provide, and makes the most of it by baking the whole thing in a dutch oven, covered most of the time to maximize the crust-enhancing steaminess. Maria turned out a loaf of this about a week ago and we were both pleased with the results, except that it wasn't big enough. Additionally, one thing I did over vacation was to cozy up with one of Maria's holy books, The Village Baker over the vacation and got a starter going. As yet, I've only made one batch of sourdough, which ended up with the taste I wanted, but a little, well, flat. We'll see how it turns out here. I also added some rye and whole-wheat flour and some cracked wheat berries.

On other foodie notes, the garbage disposal bit it over the weekend. Our fabulous landlady has already replaced it, but it also seemed like an opportune moment to bring up composting again, as it would greatly reduce the amount of stress on the poor disposal, which had been chawing virtually all our food waste (or, at least, that which the dog didn't take care of) in lieu of compost.

Anyone know where I can get hold of a used plastic 55-gal drum? For cheap if not free? It shall make a composter par excellence. It may even roll around for proper mixing an aeration.

RPM Fiberworks is still slow getting off the ground, though I have made some sales. Right now I'm trying selling some yarns in smaller hanks, at 50g for $3.50. I had them listed at 100g for $6.50, but I'm seeing how folks will respond to the under-$5 price tag. I also want to redo the pictures. Originally, I was thinking the more natural looking pictures would be fun, but I'm going to snitch some white oaktag from work for a background. I also suspect that things may take off when I get some other kinds of products up - the bags, some prefab stuff (mmm...recycled dish towels), and especially the kits of which I dream.

I'm also still spinning fresh fiber. One of the women from the monthly spinning group at Webs who raises Angora rabbits brought two of her 6-week-old bunnies to the group tonight. We were taking turns holding the bunnies and letting them sleep on our laps while we spun. I love that my phone has a camera.
( I love bunnies. They toil not, nor do they bark. )

So, I finally launched the Etsy shop selling knitting supplies that I've been plotting for a while now.
RPM Fiberworks
Right now, it's just recycled yarn, and that's going to be the primary focus, but I'm also planning on expanding to project bags, some prêt à porter goods, and knitting kits which will include a pattern, yarn, and project bag, with optional needles.

Also, I will soon have at my disposal rather a lot of venison. Any thoughts? Maria and I are already plotting the ultimate Vermont cheesesteak and venison kebabs.

I'll leave you with a ridiculously cute picture of Neko and Isis watching the birdies that are nesting in the eaves of the house.

Somewhere, there are newborn leopard cubs.

http://www.zooborns.com/

Good goulash, are they cute!

Spent most of my afternoon at school playing a rambunctious game of Apples to Apples with a group of boys in grades 4-8, followed by a few quick rounds of Balderdash. Yes, we were supposed to be playing strategy games like Settlers of Catan, but my co-teacher who was supposed to get people going on Puerto Rico (which I've never played) was out sick, as was her son, who was supposed to be the top secret backup plan. I couldn't reasonably shoehorn the whole group into just Settlers and Carcassonne, so we went to plan B and played a big game together.

It's difficult to stay professional playing these games. For example, I couldn't play "Zucchini" on "Manly" in Apples to Apples. I was also struck at how much the age spread showed up while playing Balderdash. The first round, I had them reappropriating the acronym AICP. The fourth graders, uniformly, came up with answers involving cat poop. When you got to the eighth graders, they had gotten to "Australian Industrial Chair Products" and "Anal Inspector Car Patrol." The younger ones also couldn't get past voting for their own.

So, I put to you the same question we introduced ourselves with today:
What is your favorite trump card in Apples to Apples? What is the card that, if played, cannot fail?

I’ve been sick since the weekend, living on mostly brothy soup, tea, toast, and orange juice for several days now. Tonight, I made this risotto along with pan-fried cod, breaded with cracker crumb, tarragon and smoked paprika, and topped with lemon-butter sauce, and asparagus sauteed with lemon, black pepper and salt. I suspect this meal would have tasted pretty good even if I had eaten a proper meal since Saturday, but, tonight, this tasted amazing.

About the rest of the meal I’ve probably told you as much as you need to know (though comment if you’d like to know more), but this risotto was the centerpiece as much as anything. It was a beautiful sweet, smooth foil to the sharpness of the lemon in the other two parts, and was delectibly sweet entirely due to the beet and onion, sauteed together at the beginning.

Sweet Beet Risotto

1/2 med. beet, washed and grated
1/2 med-large onion, diced
1 Tblsp. butter (or oil, if you want it vegan)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried tarragon
1 cup arborio rice
1 1/2 c water
1 1/2 c stock (pref. mushroom stock)
2 Tblsp. parmesan cheese (optional)
(salt and pepper to taste)

Melt the butter (or heat oil) in a large saucepan over med-high heat. Add the grated beet, diced onion, and salt. Stir occasionally until the onion starts to be noticeably cooked and it starts to smell sweet. Add the tarragon and the rice. Stir this around a little before adding the water and stock. Turn down to med-low heat and stir occasionally to make sure it’s not sticking to the pot (as risotto is wont to do). When the liquid is mostly absorbed, leaving a creamy, tender risotto (30-40 minutes), add the parmesan cheese, check seasoning, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Variation: I actually used a little porcini mushroom powder in this, but I don’t expect most people to have that lying around. If you have a little whole or ground porcini to throw in, awesome, but I doubt there’ll be a horrible gaping hole without it. It’s probably more essential if you’re not adding cheese or mushroom stock, but you can be creative, too.

I like this game. It makes me feel like a crazy alchemist. For the upcoming Project About Which You Shall Hear More Later, I am dyeing a somewhat horrible baby-duck color yarn (a nice color for a duckie, but not for anything adult). My current dyestuffs include "Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade" Kool-Aid, a little vinegar and the remainder of some jasmine green tea from last night, which was sitting on the stove and seemed like a good idea...I mean, you want green yarn, you use green tea, right? I will, with luck, have some finished pictures later tonight. Maybe I'll photograph my new planter, which Maria and I snitched off the side of the road in the dead of night under cover of a light drizzly fog.

My life is fun. I like spring. Something, possibly a popcorn, sprouted in my spare teapot, and has a shoot headed purposefully towards the spout. This is not just a metaphor.

So, now that the front bumper of my car is nominal again, it's the rear bumper's turn.

On the way home from tutoring on Wednesday, I was pulling off 91-S at Exit 18. There's a separate ramp for right turns, which has a yield sign at the end. There being fairly heavy traffic on Rte 5 shortly before 6, I stopped at the end of this ramp waiting for an opening. Then, someone smashed into the back of my car.

My car is pretty much fine; the damage is localized to the rear bumper: all my lights still work, my trunk opens and closes, and the bumper isn't dragging or anything, just scratched and cracked in a few places. The guy who hit me on the other hand, smashed out all but one light on the front of his car, had his hood crunched up impressively, bumper hanging by a single clip, and the radiator getting too familiar with the more interior parts of the engine. Seeing as his car was a 10 year old Saturn, and likely not worth much to begin with, I have suspicions that his car is totaled.

Short story is that the car insurance industry is going to have this kid by the short and curlies for quite a while. I do mean kid. He's 19 years old (his DOB is on my copy of the accident report from the state trooper), and being 19 and a guy is enough reason for the insurance companies to ask for the rough monetary equivalent of a kidney. To load on top of that totaling your car (at your fault), hitting someone else, and getting a ticket for it (remember that trooper?), puts it more in the monetary range of asking for your first born, and leaving a testicle as collateral.

So, I'm trying to figure out how I should proceed here so as to be as little of an asshole as possible. I need to make sure there's nothing going on with the rear of my car that I can't see, or will screw me later (à la the front bumper). I'm expecting, though, that the damage will be under $500. Does it make sense to get an estimate, then figure out if I should ask him directly or go through the insurance company? Am I thinking way too hard about this? Should I just take the absolutely not my fault pass and tell Mr. Insurance all about it?