Baked Onions With Pecans

Sally Fallon is an extremely talented female chef. I've been cooking from her classic Nourishing Traditions for about 2 years now, and this recipe is one of my favorites from it.

Baked Onions With Pecans
(adapted)
Serves 8

4 large onions
garlic (optional)
1 cup veggie stock
3 tablespoons butter*
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice*
1/4 teaspoon paprika
sea salt*
1/2 cup chopped pecans
*make sure you do not use too much butter, lemon juice, or salt, or else it will soak into the onions (and garlic), creating a terribly unpleasant and unpalatable, strong off-flavor

Peel onions, and slice along the equator. I like to give them another vertical slice, just so they end up as bite-size pieces. Lay them along a baking tray with their sides up. I choose to add halved garlic cloves as well. Mix stock, melted butter, honey, lemon juice, and paprika. Salt to taste. Again, make sure that the mixture is very light and subtle. Strong flavors will become even stronger when the mixture soaks into the baking onions! Pour over onions, and bake them for about an hour at 350 degrees, until onions are just tender. Sprinkle with pecans, and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Bon Appetit!

Daffodil Haiku

A Perennial,
Daffodils Are Everywhere.
Stop In Tracks To Smell.

(Photo Copyright CRK.)

Transmogrifier

I, like Calvin, own a transmogrifier!



This was a box that my housemate's mattress came in, and man, was it funny to see how excited a group of 20-year-olds can get about playing with such things.





We all remember Calvin's clone/transformation machine.
(For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about or never read Calvin and Hobbes, don't be offended, but how did you get through childhood?)

Fame By Association

Tea Leaf Green, a talented jam band, came to my city last weekend.
They played at the Pearl St. Night Club, and I was able to make my way up to the front row. The last song they played was the song I was waiting for them to play the entire time, my favorite, "The Garden (Part III)". As I was singing along to the words and dancing, the beautiful Trevor Garrod, keyboardist and vocalist, looked right at me and smiled during the moment of, "got a little bit a soul, got a little bit a rock n' roll in my bones..."

It was epic.

That familiar voice, from all the years of listening to it, singing right back to me as we flirted.
It was definitely one of those celebrity moments, where the audience and stage become one.



Tea Leaf Green on MySpace

"The Garden (Part III)" on Taught To Be Proud, by Tea Leaf Green

Got a little bit a soul,
Got a little bit a rock n' roll in my bones,
Don't you bury me when I'm old,
I may need 'em when I'm reborn,
When I'm reborn.

The garden that you planted is doin' well,
I thought you'd like to know,
The roses are growin' on the hound dog's bones,
It reminds me of the time, I told you long ago.

Darlin' let's let our hair grow long,
We can work on a farm, maybe live on a mountain,
I got an old hound dog, likes to run,
Needs a lot of room, and he hates to be chained up.

Just like me, just like we are supposed to be,
Just like me, just like we are supposed to be,
Just like me, just like we are supposed to be,
Just like me, just like we are supposed to be.

The mountain's sinkin', the river's risin',
The sky's fallin', I fear I'm dyin',
The forest is creepin' in, and I cannot stop it,
I don't want to try now, I can't remember how,
I used to dream about them valley highways,
Before I was chained to this country by way,
And left me here, lettin' freedom tear us apart.

OOOOOHHHH!...

Darlin' let's let our hair grow long,
We can work on a farm, maybe live on a mountain,
I got an old hound dog, likes to run,
Needs a lot of room, and he hates to be chained up.

Just like me, just like we are supposed to be,
Just like me, just like we are supposed to be,
Just like me, just like we are supposed to be,
Just like me, just like we are supposed to be.

MS Paint Art

I created this the summer after I graduated from high school. The original was a piece I did on canvas w/ acrylic for a boyfriend I had when I was in high school. This one, of course, took longer. The palm trees took about 3 hours alone! But the seagull was the toughest! I would have done more, but it was overly trying. I listened to a lot of Sigur Rós back then, and I probably went through the entire "Takk..." album multiple times while I worked. Singing along to the words of every song even though I didn't know Icelandic. It was pretty ethereal.

"Fingermade" (ha!) by a laptop scroll pad, not bad eh?!

Shun Dell

Thinking of buying a new computer?
Considering Dell? Don't.
This is why you do not want a Dell computer:



This has been going on for about a year and a half now. It first started with one vertical line. Then two, three, four, etc... A nice assortment of colors, also. Next, lines starting aggregating. I now even have a horizontal line. It's weird though, because they all go away if I torque the screen. I once tried bungee cording it for some semi-permanent torquing, but to no avail. Haha... anyway, my computer is destined to fry its LCD. And there is no use getting it fixed, since you could pretty much call my computer totaled. Not covered by warranty, either. Thanks, Dell!... Even though you recalled this product for this exact reason and have a customer service e-mail address made specifically for customers with complaints about vertical lines!

This should go on fail blog:



I also have an issue with my battery. Every time my power cord gets unplugged, the computer immediately shuts down. Though, it will stay on for as long as it's plugged in. I can't take my laptop anywhere, geez.

When I'm at the library, and I walk away from my computer, I'll put up this screen and feel comfortable being gone for any length of time:

An Affair With Food

Food.
It's a beautiful thing.
And not just any, 'ole kind of food.
No. I'm talking about the kind that nourishes your soul, as it makes its way down your savoring palate, feeding every cell in your body, filling your belly, and connecting to your heart in so many different ways. It's the kind of food that is stewarded intimately from the Earth, emanating of social justice and sustainability. Food that is grown with love and is right around the corner if you look for it. And I don't mean your corner-mart grocery store. I mean, your next door neighbor.
Food that is shared with others. Food that is cherished.
Oh, how my heart soars for these beings. These soil-dwelling creatures that present themselves so closely to my health every-single-day-of-my-life. It's incredible. I eat every day, and it's this food that keeps me going. If not, I wouldn't be here.
Wow.

Consumer Whores

I hate the mall. It's probably one of my least favorite places. I try to avoid it at all costs, but today, my friend needed to go there since it was the only place in our Valley where there is a T-Mobile store. There was absolutely no parking. We tried for about 5 minutes to find a spot, and I was dazed. "Are all of these people seriously HERE?! Why the hell are there so many people at the mall right now??... What could they be possibly doing?? Shopping. Buying, buying, buying shit." This is just gross. The moment we walked in, fumes, I mean toxic, toxic fumes, flew straight up into my nose, intoxicating my pores and suffocating my brain. I could barely breathe; it felt like I was inhaling chemicals - I was. I pretty much lost my sense of smell. So, while my friend dealt with his T-Mobile business, I decided to go into Track 'N Trail and H&M, the only two stores even remotely close to my comfort zone. I did buy at H&M the same two camis I had bought two years ago, which have since stretched out and acquired holes. A two-year lifespan isn't bad from a consumerist standpoint, I guess. My next stop: PRETZEL TIME! It's like a novelty. Mall = oily, salted pretzel. Mmm... fond memories. So, I go to customer service and talk to this heavily made-up woman. She tells me that the pretzel shops are at the two far ends of the mall. So I walk amongst all of the consumer whores: the teenagers, trailer trash pregnant girls, people with SO MUCH FUCKING PLASTIC they're carrying (bags upon bags of petroleum), dumbasses just aimlessly walking around, "Oh, where should I spend money next? Duo-dah-duo..." I thought, "Do these people actually have a reason for being here?... Why does this place even exist?" I saw this chick laying down in a chair getting her eyebrows waxed. Seeing that, I felt like I was in a "Why Consumerism is Evil" documentary. This wasn't my reality. So, I got to the pretzel shop, stood in line, and ordered two oily, salted pretzels and a lemonade. I tried paying with my debit card, but they refused to take it without a picture I.D. "It's store policy." That's bullshit. Visa's merchant contract says in fine print that stores are not allowed to enforce no service w/out a picture I.D. I had to walk away, and I was pissed. It was pretty sad that I was fighting over something so greasy and had industrial food chain written all over it. I had to walk back across the entire slew of consumer whores. I left with my friend, and decided that I wanted to go back to get those pretzels. I was craving them! So I went back (in a car this time, driving to the mall entrance where the pretzel shop is located), this time with my picture I.D., and asked them if I could have my order again. The guy reached into the case. I asked, "Um, do you have the other ones?" No. HE HAD FUCKING THROWN THEM OUT!!! No way. I said, "I want those ones right now. Pick them out of the trash, please. That is so wasteful! I was here only 10 minutes ago!" He said that they couldn't sell those to me. Alright, whatever. Not the time to mention a thing called COMPOSTING, I figured. The dude would probably look at me like an alien. So, now I was my own consumer whore, with my oily, salted pretzels, tasting exactly as how I remembered from my past. They were terrifyingly tasty.


I can't believe so many people were at the mall. PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY OUT DOING THIS SHIT ALL THE TIME!!!... When I'm in the little bubble out here in the Valley, being so deeply connected to my food, making my own stuff, etc., there are people buying oily, salted pretzels every day and buying MASS-PRODUCED junk (it's all just junk), taking up ENTIRE PARKING LOTS to do it!!! These people aren't being self-sufficient. They're just all sheep, flocking around like idiots guzzling down paychecks on nothing but things they don't need. Just stuff, stuff, and stuff! I'm not ignorant; I know this is going on around me all the time. I'm a consumer whore, too. We all are. But never, in like 5 years at least, have I been around such a concentrated area of consumerism at its worst. Wow, malls... these places still exist. I'm just so far removed from it all. I don't watch TV, ever. I avoid convenience stores, supermarkets, etc. If I ever go shopping, it's at a thrift store or online... Treating myself is going to local wholesalers of outdoorsy brands like Patagonia, L.L.Bean, Mountain Hard Wear, etc. I know it, but imagining a world where people do what I saw tonight, every day, frightens me beyond measure.

"Espresso Bean" Misnomer Rant

You know those little, chocolate-covered "espresso beans"?... Well, they're not actually espresso beans. There is no such thing as an espresso bean. Espresso is not derived from a special bean. Nor is espresso a particular roast. Espresso is just concentrated coffee. Making espresso is just a form of preparing coffee. When making espresso, ANY type of coffee bean is ground finely, and my favorite, percolated with boiling water in a stove-top Bialetti espresso maker. What an "espresso bean" really is, is just the previously mentioned finely ground coffee covered in chocolate, shaped into a small ball. It's not even a bean. Ugh!... A complete misnomer.