crack the plates

After a week or so of mild temperatures, Richmond is once again covered in a thin blanket of snow. Looking through some old pictures today I happened upon a few from this time 2009–and a day, in particular, when I introduced my northeastern-Pennsylvania-housemate and my upstate-New-York-bred-boyfriend to a recipe direct from some of my fondest childhood memories: snowcreme. A cotton-candy-sweet mixture of fresh snow, (soy)milk, a little sugar, and a pinch of vanilla extract, all whipped up in a stainless steel bowl, snowcreme is the finest confection old man winter can offer. Behold!:

I emphasize my friends’ places-of-origin because I was so baffled by their lack of awareness of something I, a Southerner with extremely limited snow experience, so delightfully cherished. For truly, my familiarity with the stuff only extended so far as the infamous Blizzard of 1993 (which has its own wikipedia page) and fewer than a handful of other pathetic dustings. My ever-clever momma taught me about snowcreme when the blizzard hit, seeking, as she might have been, a way to distract the six restless nine-year-old girls who’d just been snowed in at my birthday party. (Yeah, the biggest meteorological event of the decade happened a day after my ninth birthday.) How could two people who grew up with seasons of snow year after year never think to whip it up in a big bowl with some cold milk, sugar, and vanilla? Heavens to betsy! I exclaimed, in my mom’s accent, I’ve got to teach these boys something!

Ever the inappropriately under-dressed, over-confident belle, I trotted out to the back porch in one of my more laughable get-ups: thin pink nightgown over pumpkin-print pajama pants, protected by a red WECI hoodie. I harvested the primo first layer of fluffy snowdust from the back-porch railing, even as new snow continued to come down. (Protip: There’s a narrow window between when the snow falls and when it gets soggy, hardened, and yucchy–so time your collection well.) Befuddled onlookers snapped shots of my work from behind the screen door:

harvesting snow

at work

As you can see in the picture, I did some of the work with the snowcreme on the back porch, feverishly whisking the snow into a sweet soymilk and vanilla base. By the time I got back in the house it was ready to be served.

I can’t quite remember how my housemate & boyfriend described their first experience, but I’m pretty sure the words “transcedent” “miraculous” “glorious” and others from their heavenly ilk flowed like honey in the kitchen conversation that day. And it didn’t hurt that I’d just made some of Isa’s pumpkin oatmeal cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance, either…

Zoomie (my housemate) delighting in cookies

…or that I decided to make a chocolate-mint version of snowcreme with Vitasoy’s Chocolate Peppermint holiday soymilk:

Lucky housemates. The feast:

Snowcreme recipe, veganized:

• Whisk some soymilk (vanilla, chocolate, or peppermint!) in the bottom of a large stainless steel bowl with a little organic vegan sugar and a dash of vanilla extract
• Go get some snow. Preferably light, fluffy, and fresh. Scrape it off into the bowl. Whisk til the mixture thickens. Grab a stainless steel spoon and start to do more stirring, less whisking. Add a bit more milk as necessary. Eat!!

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, my friend Matt encouraged our congregation to consider the ways we can embody the counter-cultural, anti-materialistic message of Jesus in one of the most insanely commercial times of the year. (You know, that time when Christians are supposed to be so joyously anticipating the advent of his radical life & message?) On several Sundays, folks shared their plans: donate an equal amount spent on gifts to a charitable organization, write a few meaningful cards instead of sending a slew of autographed pages, making presents instead of buying, hosting parties instead of giving individual gifts. All great ideas.

I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time studying 60′s counter-culture while in seminary, particularly that of the diggers & yippies, and so I naturally wanted to try to organize a “free sale” for my community. Free stores/sales still pop up every once in a while, but they’re by no means as common or popular as they once were. The diggers who opened the first stores claimed that Americans (Amerikans?) had entered a post-scarcity world where new items no longer needed to be produced or purchased. Instead, whatever you needed was likely sitting unused (or underused) at your buddy’s house, and too much was being thrown needlessly in the trash. Beloved communities didn’t need superstores to buy more; instead, they yearned for a centrally-located space where people could share what they no longer needed and the needy could take home whatever might improve their lot.

Fast-forward about 40 years. Nate & I realized that much of what we own we don’t need for a variety of reasons–don’t use/don’t like/have duplicates, etc. The clutter was getting to us; our possessions had become a part of us, and they wore like wet clothes. How wistful I got over the days when I could pack everything I owned into my compact car! Of course, I didn’t sit around feeling sorry for myself too long–I got to work organizing the free sale! And on Sunday, January 10, from 12pm-10pm, we invited friends & neighbors into our home to take what they needed. Over 30 “shopped”, most brought items for sharing, and no one left unhappy. It was exhausting, to be sure, but truly a success.

For those who might like to try one of their own (& I highly encourage it!) here’s a little run-down of what we did:

1) Went through our stuff: clothes, toiletries, housewares, media, kitchen items, even some food. On & off, this took a few days. It was difficult in all the usual ways that going through and getting rid of stuff can be for packrats, so don’t expect it won’t be if you’re that type. We found it helped to amass everything in one obvious, centralized location such that we could observe our progress.

2) I made facebook & e-mail event invitations; I announced the event at church and in safe public spaces. I emphasized the following: “Feel free to take whatever you need/find interesting/would like to give away to someone else in need.” I also noted that it would be a community event open to those who didn’t need or want to give away stuff, but simply wanted the company of like-minded folks: “this will also be a time for visit & brainstorm the ways that we can continue to live into a countercultural, anti-corporate vision of peace, sharing, and simple abundance. So come for conversation, tea, dreaming…”

3) I quickly addressed guests’ burgeoning desire to bring stuff to the free sale. Two possible reasons for this: we grow up hearing, skeptically, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, so folks have a hard time with the “truly free”, instead preferring to bargain/barter/trade. Second reason: people got really excited about the idea & opportunity to clean out closets and help others! If you host a free sale, anticipate that friends will want to bring items for giving away–and how. By the end of our sale, we had replenished stock at least fourfold.

It may also be wise to advertise, when possible, your availability to pick items up. Folks may not take you up on the offer, but it’ll be encouraging & hospitable to those who need it.

4) We allowed folks to come just a couple hours early that day to drop items off.

5) We arranged items by room, clearly marking what was available for taking and what wasn’t. For instance,

• a huge table in the kitchen had all the kitchen stuff
• the bedroom hosted all the clothes (on the bed, in neat piles), shoes, and purses/bags
• an even bigger table in the office held the housewares and etcetera
• the living room was the common area, where lounging, talking, and cupcake-consumption happened

6) We opened our home from 2-10pm (officially). We gave everyone who came in a brief “tour”, explaining how the rooms were arranged

7) We stood by, making new batches of cupcakes, cups of tea, grinding coffee beans, and answering questions as folks browsed, dreamed, and enjoyed the simple abundance of togetherness.

8. We connected items with folks looking for particular things, sometimes giving beyond what we had planned: in one case, a student & friend from Nigeria had recently moved and needed kitchen wares. After rounding up items from the common table, I searched our pantries for extras to make his transition a little easier. A pot I hadn’t planned to part with, but that I didn’t need too terribly (just liked a lot), went his way when I learned of the need. Don’t be afraid to open yourselves to this kind of exchange! It might feel uncomfortable at first (we like things, we really like them!) but eventually the pain of the trivial loss is replaced by the soothing understanding that you have provided for another in need.

9) We closed up shop a little late, crashed, and went easy on ourselves the next day. It was great fun, totally worth it, but as I mentioned, exhausting. Plan for it. But, of course, don’t let it discourage you… instead…

…Build beloved community! De-clutter your life! Loosen the stranglehold of consumerism! Host a free sale today!

Much peace,

Adrienne

A guest post by my sweetie, Nate, a programmer at a local web development firm:

After finding that some code you’ve previously written would be useful in some program you’re working on currently, it would be a shame if you had to just copy-and-paste that original code into your new project, right? What if there was a bug in that original code? Now you have to fix it in two places: the original program, and the program you copypasta’d it into.

A better idea is to “include” code you’ve previously written in a new project. You do this by saying (in C) “#include <file.h>” where file.h is a file containing some previously written code. Now, when you find that bug and update file.h, your new project will benefit from the fix automagically.

Applied to cupcakes: delicious desserts that #include a file like <yummy.h> are a way for the chef to say “Look, I’m awesome, and have already mastered the cupcake thing. I’ll just #include the yumminess I’ve created in the past”.

Thus, these delicious vegan cupcakes “#include <yummy.h>” and import all that tried-and-true vegan cupcake numminess into the new batch.

chef’s note: Inspired by the beer glasses, I made these cupcakes for the Richmond Hardware Co-op work day. The Hardware Co-op is a ministry of the Richmond Church of the Brethren that accepts donations of old computer hardware, cleans it up, installs free/open-source software (like Ubuntu or Kubuntu Linux), and donates the finished machine to the needy in our community. (I use Kubuntu. *grins*) If you’re local & want to help at the Co-op, be in touch with Nate here or Mark here.

nom om om om om!!!

Richmonders: if you haven’t yet seen Fantastic Mr. Fox, I urge you to go check it out at the dolla theatre as soon as possible. It may only be there through tomorrow night, so hurry! Nate & I have seen the film, which uses stop-motion animation, four times already and can’t really get it enough of it. (Hint: We’re both unabashed Wes Anderson fans who’ve seen all of them countless times. The Life Aquatic & Bottle Rocket are the faves.)

Fantastic Mr. Fox is based on Roald Dahl’s children’s book of the same name. Like The Witches, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Charlie & the Great Glass Elevator, the Twits, James & the Giant Peach, and more, Fantastic Mr. Fox balances whimsy & a delighted macabre sensibility. Dahl’s style & Anderson’s come together beautifully for a wild, captivating ride. Masterful attention to detail, great voice talent, mind-boggling set construction, and a fun story that seamlessly integrates the text of the original with new plot points–you’ll be so glad you made time for it!

Our favorite character, Kylie Sven Opossum, listens as Mr. Fox explains his plan:

From an amusing interview with Wes Anderson, George Clooney, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Eric Anderson:

What is the moral lesson for this film?

George Clooney: Stealing is good, we applied that I think. I don’t even know

Wes Anderson: It’s a celebration of stealing yeah

Eric Anderson: To be true to your animal nature

George Clooney: That’s it let’s start again, it’s to be true to your animal nature.

Clearly, you’ll have to judge for yourself. $3 per adult tonight and tomorrow at Kerasotes Cinema 10 at 600 Commerce Road; the theatre swaps movies out on Thursdays. 7:10pm is the posted time, but I’d call just to be sure. (765) 935-3446 You’ll get a robot but it isn’t too much of a hassle to navigate the menu. Let me know what you think!

Do you love Indian food? Do you love cheap Indian food? Are you a Richmonder (or other rural friend) who loathes driving at least a half an hour to eat decent Indian food? Do you like saving money? Do you care about per meal costs?

If any of these questions resonate with you at all, I encourage you to stop reading this blog post and head to patelbrothersusa.com to take full advantage of their super sale on SWAD micro curries. Scroll down to the bottom of this Super Sale page and check out the list of microwaveable meals at .99 cents each. All our vegan favorites are there: baigan bharta, bhindi masala, aloo mutter, channa masala! (Other offerings include dal makhani, dal tadka (probably vegan; a simple dal), dhingri mutter, methi mutter (peas and fenugreek in a creamy sauce), mutter paneer, navratan korma (vegetables and pineapple in a very-dairy sauce), several paneer dishes, pav bhaji (contains butter), peas pulav (peas and rice–likely vegan), shahi rajma (red beans in tomato sauce–maybe vegan), and vegetable biryani (possibly vegan).)

I didn’t want to blog about the order that I placed with patelbrothersusa.com until I had successfully received it, but now that it’s been here a few days and we’ve tried our stuff, I can recommend it with utmost confidence. Though the recipes are dissimilar from the ones I use, they are nonetheless quite tasty. The baigan bharta–”roasted eggplant in tomato and onion sauce”–is smoky, creamy deliciousness with discernable vegetables (despite its being a MRE) and not a lot of fat or calories. The bhindi masala–”okra in exotic mild curry sauce” –is not nearly as a good as mine, but it is plenty delicious. Only two downsides: it has a lot of fat, so you’ll need to split it with your sweetie or split it between meals; the texture of the bhindi is also lost in the processing. Small worries, though! The channa masala is comforting and filling in a very bright sauce; the aloo mutter is solid, a satisfying lunch over some rice on a snowy day.

Now look–patelbrothersusa.com is a pretty, shall we say, bootleg-looking site. It sports an early 2000s aesthetic with more than a couple broken product links. I’m not going to lie–I was a little dubious about my first order with them, but I went ahead and made it because I am familiar with the chain and know that their Flushing-area store is extremely popular. (Just google for reviews). And you know, I’m so glad I didn’t let the look of the website deter me, because N & I ended up getting a ton of delicious meals for $1.15 each with shipping.

Two nights ago we had a regular feast–onion naan, basmati rice, bhindi masala, baigan bharta, and aloo mutter. Thanks to patelbrothers.com, we food coma’ed ourselves for a little over $5! $5!! The spread:

I’d serve this stuff to company.

Psst: if you’re feeling rich, pick up a bag on onion naan on the site for $3.99/10 pieces. (bottom right hand corner). It’s yummy warmed in the oven for about five minutes and features whole cumin seeds and other spices that give it a divine flavor.

Not only do you save money, but as I mentioned in my post from a few days ago, you save time. These micro curries take 2 minutes in the microwave or 5 minutes on the stove top in boiling water. And it’s enough food that if you just pair one of them with some rice you’ve got a complete satisfying meal for well under $2.

Better still, there’s nothing crazy in these MRE (meal-ready-to-eat) packages, crazy as MRE packaging itself is. Cases in point:

• ingredients, bhindi masala: okra, onion, vegetable oil, tomato paste, spices (cardamom, cumin, clove, black pepper, white pepper), garlic, salt, coriander leaves, turmeric powder, red chili, coriander powder.)
• baingan bharta: eggplant, onion, tomato paste, vegetable oil, green peas, tomato, green chilies, salt, cilantro, coriander powder, cumin, garlic
• chana masala: chick peas, onion, palmolein oil, tomato, cilantro leaves, salt, chili powder, green chili powder, spices (turmeric powder, cumin, coriander powder, garlic, black pepper, chili, cassia, clove, cardamom, star anise, fennel, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, caraway).
• aloo mutter: potato, onion, green peas, vegetable oil, garlic paste, cilantro, tomato paste, ginger paste, dry red chilies, salt, coriander powder, green chilies, turmeric powder, cumin, bay leaves.

….Why are you still reading this!? Go to Patel Brothers now and order some tasty cheap Indian food! This sale isn’t going to last long. In fact,  it’s already gone off & come back again: I hesitated so long about making my first order that things went back to regular price–and I had to e-mail the owners to see if they might put them on sale again. Well, they did–so take it advantage of it! Seriously, you can thank me later.

Much peace & happy eating, friends.

Hello friends and foes, les liaisons dangereuses y amigos!

I had hoped to give you an update before the 6th of this month, but I’ve been dutifully working on my thesis before tomorrow’s first meeting with my advisor in the new year. Blessed with a quiet home, good tea and coffee, and bountiful blankets for snuggling, I’ve been able to get a lot done. Today I hope to read many more articles, finish a book (or two) and, of course, write write write! But first, a cheery update re: what I’ve been up to lately.

As this post’s title suggests, my chief kitchen (my chef chef?) concern in 2010 (at least the early part) is finding a way to provide fast, delicious, healthy, vegan meals for myself and Nate …on a budget. Last year my strategy toward eating well & saving money was to to cook exclusively from fresh, raw ingredients–from scratch–all of the time. I was so committed to saving money on the grocery bill that I regarded even a can of beans a luxury and insisted on preparing my own from dry in the crock pot.

While using raw ingredients (including dry beans) definitely saved me money at market, I, like many women, was missing something huge: I wasn’t counting the cost of my time in the kitchen. A good 2-3 hours start to finish every night has a cost–a time expenditure, yes, but also a cost on one’s mental, physical, & spiritual energy. I was so caught up in a routine & way of thinking such that even if I had been at work, school, and volunteering all day, I would still come home, running on empty, and prepare a big lush meal that I barely had the energy to enjoy once I’d finished. While I might have been saving money in the grocery store, I probably expended way more in crucial non-cash resources.

So I’m doing something different this year. I’ll still try to delight you with my elaborate creations on a regular basis, but they’ll be more likely to feature a canned or frozen or prepared ingredient. I’ll still focus on organic, fair-trade ingredients, but will now have to navigate my desire for something prepared/more easily accessible with my desire to avoid a lot of excess packaging.  Of course, if you have any ideas towards these ends–especially recipes–please send them my way!

Here’s one of my early examples in 2010: spicy chick’n pizza. Ingredients: one store-brand organic pizza crust, one jar of non-GMO pizza sauce, chopped shallots, chopped onions, chopped garlic, frozen organic spinach, chopped organic mushrooms, and two Boca brand vegan spicy chick’n patties, chopped. Assemble (15 min), bake for 10 minutes (while reading an article), let sit for 5, voilà!

Cost: $5.59. About the same price as an Amy’s Kitchen organic frozen pizza, only double the size. About half the cost of a commercial delivered pizza, but way more nutritious and delicious (and organic), taking no more time than you would if you drove to pick up your pizza or waited for them to come to you. Win!

Further win, in the Italian theme: our cat Unix as stromboli (paradoxically, wrapped in an American flag throw)! She’s been doing a lot of burrowing lately.

Christmas came early this year to my Richmond Communities in Schools study buddy, a precious elementary student not quite to where she could be in her reading and writing. A few days before Christmas, Nate and I paid a visit to her mother’s apartment to deliver a bookcase that Nate had put together, I embellished with little purple flowers, & we both filled with books gathered from all over–eBay, Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.

In total, we were able to deliver almost 90 books, many within her current reading range, to a home with fewer than 10. Thanks especially to the generous eBay seller who, upon learning who the books I bid on were intended for, included many many more at no extra charge!

Nate & I celebrated “our” Christmas on the Tuesday before heading to see his family in New York. Two shots of our tree:

Nate was given a pair of cthulhu slippers, a donation to the Free Software Foundation, bike etc from buyolympia.com, including two Portland-area bike zines and a pair of bicycle socks, a donation to Bikes To Rwanda which came with a free t-shirt, a Kubuntu mug, a Kubuntu t-shirt, a lb of ginger green tea from TeaGschwendner, a silver teaspoon, Sjaak’s vegan truffles, and some C. Spencer Yeh 7″s.

Me? Well, for starters, the new laptop I’m using, refurbished by someone on eBay and found at a great price. I love it! Also, an adorable owl mug, some vintage mushroom juice glasses, toasted coconut vegan marshmallows from Sweet & Sara, more chocolate, a cthulhu plushie, mushroom slippers custom-made on etsy, and lots and lots of love.

Ah, the redundancies of vegan coupling (aka four boxes of “surprise” truffles under the tree):

The long, slow drive to New York: here, through the Pennsylvania Wilds:

Continuing the tradition of doing something outdoors on holidays most people spend inside in front of televisions, we took a walk over the (relatively) newly-installed Walkway Over the Hudson, “the world’s tallest pedestrian bridge–a 120-year-old railroad bridge re-engineered 212 feet above the Hudson River.” Nate & his dad:

The view of the other bridge into Poughkeepsie from the Walkway:

On Christmas day, we opened presents with Nate’s parents and his sister and brother-in-law and then sat down for a big late breakfast. (organic cheerios with soymilk and Tofurkey biscuits for us. :)) No pictures of those wonderful events, but later that night I suddenly encountered a Rancor Beast while at Nate’s rich aunt’s:

The Rancor Beast ATTACKS!! aaaaagh…my nose…

The Rancor was uncovered in the Star Wars Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy, which we delighted in while waiting for dinner at the Aunt’s. What a surprise to receive it from Nate’s parents just a few days later as a New Year’s present!

And, of course, that which completes one’s holiday break: watching little ragdoll twins (named One & Zero) attempt to eat various succulents:

Don’t worry–they didn’t get far.

…Coming soon…check back 2 January (at the latest!)

In the meantime… happy 2010! Hope it is full of peace and love and joy.

Adrienne