conuly

As I said. So after Thanksgiving we're going to be trying to use up a lot of the vegetables from the CSA pickup.

That's the stuff we haven't eaten already - a lot of carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash. The nieces, as a rule, don't like carrots, sweet potato, or squash. Orange vegetables as a group. I've already apologized, but it's GOT to be used up. Poor babies. I keep trying them in different ways, too, but... *shrugs*

Mostly we have butternut squashes, but there's this red one that looks like a small, red pumpkin. Not sure what sort of squash it is, but really, excepting spaghetti squash they're mostly interchangeable, aren't they?

As Ana was doing her homework she glanced over at me grating potatoes. "OOOH! ARE YOU MAKING POTATO PANCAKES?" Yup!

Then she watched me grating the carrots and parsnip that went in the pancakes as well, and I convinced her to try a little sliver of parsnip. "It tastes... a lot like a carrot." Yes, it does.

And THEN she looked over and saw the red squash thing. Itching for another distraction, or possibly just in a very good mood, she burst out with "Is that a pumpkin? Are we going to get to eat that?!?"

Me: No, it's not a pumpkin, sweetie, but we are going to eat that, probably next week.
Ana: Wait... is it... *face falls slightly* is that a SQUASH?
Me: Pumpkins are squash. And yes, so's that. And yes, we are going to eat it. Next week. It's got to be used up, and we're on a budget.

She took it very well, I must say. Now I just have to dig up some new recipes that maybe won't taste so offensively... well, honestly, I'm not sure why the nieces don't like orange vegetables, but it's an awful pity, they're cheap and filling and nutritious. Still, I wish I knew what it is about them that bugs the girls so much. (Evangeline used to adore carrots, at least, but for a while she's been copying her sister in that respect.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/17/pakistani-mangoes_n_929548.html

Apparently Pakistani mangoes are very delicious, and now they can be sold in the US.

Me, I think I'll pass. Not a fan of mangoes, although I do realize that different varieties, like different varieties of apples, will taste different.

We got purslane with the CSA, and I absolutely chowed down on it right then and there. Mmm. Love that stuff. (And like a fool, I waited for the CSA. We have it growing all over this part of the Island, though a different variety. Of course, I'm a little reluctant to take from the sidewalk... but then, it's not like plants I buy in the market are grown in hermetically sealed environments. That's what sinks are for, right?)

I mostly toss that stuff in salads, but I'm looking into ways to cook it. Apparently it cooks somewhat like okra. I'm thinking... gumbo? Toss some purslane in gumbo? Or maybe cook it with lentils? I'm finding some nice Indian recipes for purslane and lentils. Purslane is a very sour, lemony plant. Maybe it'd go well with potatoes? (Think about it.) Or maybe I can go weird and mix it with some sort of fruit? I also had blueberries (THOSE didn't even make it HOME), and believe it or not, munching on first a blueberry and then a bit of purslane, that didn't taste half bad. Maybe purslane mixed in a light fruit salad - some blueberries, some strawberries, some raspberries, just what's in season? I'm making honey chicken this week, maybe I can make something with purslane as a side? (Truth is, much though I adore that stuff, I got a bit too much to just gnaw on. Help me out here!)

That’s Not Trash, That’s Dinner

It's linked to some recipes:

Sweet Corn and Black Raspberry Ice Cream
Broccoli Stalks with Lemon
White Gazpacho with Watermelon Rind

( Read more... )

Blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup
Cooked apricots with yogurt and honey
Sausages

VERY tasty, and my pancakes came out PERFECTLY, every last one. Yay!

But now, here's a question Ana asked me and I couldn't quite answer. Why is it that when I bake (or cook in pancakes) blueberries they turn blueish-greenish, but when I make them into syrup they're all purple? Is it the baking powder or...?

A quick run-down of some of the comments here....

Oh, I was soooo upset, my school gives out free food on weekends to poor families, and once when school was closed for the snow they sent out text messages and gave the food out anyway, and I can't believe these people can afford cell phones but not food, and they can come in for handouts but not school! LOL!

1. It's not as though the parents make the decision to close schools, you twit. In fact, I bet a lot of them were upset that they had to take an unpaid day off of work to stay with their kids, or else they had to scramble to find childcare because they couldn't take the day off.

2. If you don't make many calls, cell phones can be cheaper than landlines. And if you have to pick just one or the other, it makes sense to go with cell phones, especially if you're looking for work, because you can get that "Come in for an interview!" call wherever you are.

3. Also, you may be eligible for a free cell phone for just this reason.

Oh, gosh, if I only had $100 to spend for the month, you can bet that feeding my kid would be my priority!

Well, goody for you. Meanwhile, if you get kicked out because you didn't pay the rent, or you don't get that new job because you don't have a phone to answer calls, I hope you still have that $100 next month.

I mean, if I had only $100, and I had to feed kids and handle every other bill that had to be paid, yeah, I'd take advantage of free options here. Because I think there are a LOT of things kids need. Like a roof over their head, running water, heat, and clothes that fit.

These kids would be better off hungry than eating food that's been near plastic.

You're a loon. That is all.

These breakfasts suck! I'm going to talk to you about my wonderful breakfast! Why can't the schools serve my wonderful breakfast instead???

Because... we don't want... to pay more taxes to afford this? Or was that a rhetorical question?

This breakfast is unhealthy.

No argument here.

OMG, what sort of person has kids if they can't feed them? It never occurred to me that people might do that!

1. The sort of person who can't afford birth control.
2. The sort of person who doesn't realize how tight their budget is going to be after children.
3. The sort of person who realizes they'll never have much money, and wants kids anyway. Admittedly not the choice I'd make, but I'm not quite comfortable with telling people not to have kids.
4. Most commonly, the sort of person who could afford to feed their kids, and now can't. Apparently, in this person's perfect world, nobody ever loses their job or suffers catastrophic medical bills or loses their home to some sort of disaster.

Wow, can't they buy $25 worth of rolled oats? In bulk at Walmart, that's 25 pounds! Unless it's a lot to carry home on the bus...

Or unless they don't have $25 upfront, and have to pay twice as much (or more) over the course of several months instead, or unless their kids don't like oatmeal but will eat school breakfast (again, not necessarily the choice I'd make, but a valid one), or unless they have no place to store these oats, or unless they choose not to support Walmart because Walmart underpays its workers, thus contributing to the problem of poverty. They say beggars can't be choosers, but that's not actually true.

I can't believe people buy their kids new shoes! And cable! When they're poor!

Yes, heaven forbid your children have shoes that fit and don't have holes. As for cable, that can cost as little as $15 a month. Sure, it's an unnecessary expense, but really? That $15 a month is probably not going to provide breakfast for two children, for the whole month.

Now, I do have a question about free lunch/breakfast, which is why parents can't opt to just get the money that would've paid for their kids food, possibly in the form of food stamps. The government reimburses schools $2.76 for each free lunch bought... uh, served. Even if we count that some of that is the cost of trays and forks and lunch ladies and all, some of that money could go directly to the families instead, couldn't it, thus allowing more choices.

(And also sour cream and onion dip from scratch. With onions. Because doing it yourself TOTALLY makes it healthy!)

This is because I realized yesterday, as I sliced potatoes for potatoes dauphinoise (with goat milk, and no cheese) that I could use that mandoline for something a little more productive - chips! (These chips are really too thin for the dip, and the mandoline is not adjustable, but that's minor.)

It's amazing how few potatoes it takes to make quite a lot of chips. In the bags, they overcharge.

But it's really a lot of effort for me to have a little snack. At least bagged chips are in airtight, uh, bags until you open and eat 'em. (And in NYC, leave it open for a day and they're soggy with the humidity. It's 'cuz we're a bunch of islands.)

Would ziploc baggies mitigate this problem? Are they good enough? Or is there another solution? Because I would like to have onion garlic potato chips again (once I figure out how to make flavored chips), and after a period of not having them (because I was/am eating a lot healthier than I did when I was a kid) I found out that they're much too salty. (Plus, overpriced. Did you see what I said about how few potatoes it takes to make even one bag of chips? It's like one potato per bag, and a little more!)

...

Actually, you know what I'd really like to do? Wise used to make this chip called Crazy Calypso which was delicious, but then they stopped selling it. And then they sold a very similar chip called Mambo Mania... but they stopped selling that. If I could replicate that chip (but without the icky stuff like whatever food coloring made it pink) I could die happy. (And I would, if I started living off of them. Mmm.)

( Thyme-Lime Chicken )

( Spinach rice )

( Our usual green beans )

We also had mashed sweet potato, which shouldn't require a recipe, and this great fruit salad:

( This great fruit salad )

I don't always make the sweet potatoes. Sometimes I make plantains instead. (Slice plantains, fry in a skillet, serve with salt and a lemon or a lime.) And instead of fruit salad, I often have pineapple or mango for dessert. Depends on whether I can get cherries and whether I want dessert. Mango = yucko! But everybody loves this meal, and it's worth remembering to start it early so the chicken can marinate. That's why I try to make dessert with it as well.

(Quite a lot of them have to do with the TSA situation, I'll try to group them together.)

Placards, kilts part of plans for scanner protests
Oversecured America
AP Exclusive: Color-coded terror alerts may end
Schneir on Security's recent update about it all
And an LJ link
An update from the ACLU saying the TSA isn't training its scanners
Why Cavity Bombs Would Make the TSA Irrelevant
TSA chief: Resisting scanners just means delays
For the First Time, the TSA Meets Resistance
TSA Chief: US Will Never Ease Screening Policy
You, apparently, can't just say "Screw it, I don't need to fly today"
Shirtless 8-Year-Old Boy Gets TSA Pat Down
A Pat's Papers article on flying dead bodies
And he happens to think the TSA blog is "actually sort of fun"

Whew! That's a lot!

Bizarre squidworm discovered

Behavior change causes changes in beliefs, not vice versa

On turkeys. Hey, could I raise my own heritage turkey for the holiday next year? You *can* keep poultry in the city if they aren't noisy. And we already have wild or feral turkeys in Staten Island, among other places.

On stuffing your turkey with White Castle burgers.

Coyotes have been released in Chicago to help keep down the rodent population. I suppose that's not very much different than encouraging peregrine* falcons in NYC.

*Peregrine means wandering, of course, and is related to the word pilgrim in the obvious way.

A fluffy little article on Yiddish.
And for that matter, you can check out a nifty language map to see where Yiddish is spoken in the US!

It's time to sign up for SantaThing. This also makes a good gift. However, I will get you nothing in return, so bear that in mind.

University Kicks Student With Down Syndrome Out Of Classroom; Other Students Protest And Are Ignored

On tattoos to improve/monitor your health

Our Disappearing Apples

On taxes

Some graphs on race and the death penalty

Obama, S. Korea leader agree to hold joint military exercise. If somebody manages to start the Korean war up again, I'll be very irked. I'm already irked, frankly, because I see the likelihood of this.

Allergic Teen Seeks High School Perfume Ban

Conservatives at odds with Vatican over condoms

Children Born 'Late Pre-Term' More Prone to Low IQ
Minnesota is using paperwork to deter induced labor

The use of braces for younger kids is increasing

And one from Motortrend.com that's... just well-worth reading for the fun of it.

And FINALLY (I think) one on a school which banned... wait for it... wait for it...





PENCILS!

An article on a self-teaching computer, haven't read it yet

( Read more... )

Spaghetti tacos, a more interesting article than it sounds

( Read more... )

At Brooklyn High School Named for Murrow, the Television Studios Are Dark

( Read more... )

Footprint Fossils Offer Earliest Evidence of Dinosaurs’ Ancestors

( Read more... )

A Seed Library for Heirloom Plants Thrives in the Hudson Valley

( Read more... )

Done!

Mixed-use neighborhoods may reduce some crimes

An article ambitiously titled "Evolution in Action" about how some skinks give live birth

What to do if you lose a body part. Not likely to come up, but better to read it now - are you really gonna go google if your fingers get chopped off?

An article on the bedbug conference

Hilariously, it notes that the bedbug control folks all religiously checked their rooms first thing. It'd be the worst kind of irony to come home from this event with a few little hitchhikers!

Interesting quote here: “People still have in their heads that bedbugs means someone’s dirty,” Mr. Linde said, “but I handle multimillion-dollar homes in Westchester and Connecticut, and believe me, no one’s dirty.”

"People" think bedbugs mean you're *dirty*, but *he* doesn't bring up dirt, he brings up wealth. Because people do think the two go together (or don't, rather).

( Read more... )

In Mezuzas, a Custom Inherited by Gentiles

( Read more... )

Thousands of Trees Killed by New York Tornadoes

This is right on the heels of a huge tree-killing storm only half a year ago. Two years before that we had the storm that took out half the (remaining) trees on our block and a spire off the church up the hill. They call these "freak storms" but how freakish can they be, really?

( Read more... )

A Perk of Our Evolution: Pleasure in Pain of Chilies

( Read more... )

Family Fight, Border Patrol Raid, Baby Deported

What's all this crap I keep hearing about "anchor babies"? For crying out loud, the girl's mother's family has been in the US four generations, but she still got swept away.

( Read more... )

Mormon-Owned Paper Stands With Immigrants

( Read more... )

(Wow, it's like all I ever do anymore!)

So Pretzel Crisps has changed their icky ads to... MORE icky ads. This is a pity, because their pretzels actually taste pretty good.

Here's some information on actual shelf life (compared to use-by dates)

One on the media and 11 year old girls using the pill (most likely for medical reasons)

Another editorial on the NOT-A-MOSQUE that would NOT be at the WTC site. (Also, an interesting version of the twenty zillion words for snow myth.)

On using superheroes to teach philosophy

Apparently, orangutans will mime to communicate. Cool!

And here's aNOTHER editorial on the non-mosque. One of the comments goes "Why here, when there isn't a big Muslim population here?" Well, I don't know if many Muslims live in Lower Manhattan, but a lot of them work there. I have another article coming for a later post about two mosques in the area that have to regularly turn away worshippers due to lack of room. That kinda indicates to me that they need a new place to pray.

Apparently, you're legally required to have tons of bright lights and signage in Times Square. (Even the cops and the train station have neon lights.) I had no idea!

"What stimulus could mean if it included the formerly incarcerated"

On an article about prisons and voter representation. Fascinating and disturbing.

And finally, on the proposal to close schools in NYC for Muslim holidays. (Of course, IF we were to do this, we wouldn't have to cut school days. We could start the year earlier, or end it later. Or we could increase school HOURS somewhat to make up the lost instructional time. It needn't be in small increments, it could be one half-hour a week or something. There are so many options.)

Here's an article on a ball to teach Braille. (Braille or braille? Does it need a capital?)

A Russian spy was caught in NYC, the article is only a few days old. I'd feel nostalgic if I could actually remember the Cold War.

In other news, we also have a thief in the city... who wears a cat mask. There's a video.

There's a nifty story about some French guy who traveled all the way to Alaska to learn the extinct language Eyak.

An Alternet article on school lunches

Here's a link to an article about an honest-to-goodness flying car. With a video. Why haven't I heard of this before?

The "winner" of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has been announced.

The ACLU has finally gotten around to suing over the no-fly list. Yay.

And in SERIOUS news (by which I actually mean *serious*)... WTF IS GOING ON IN PENNSYLVANIA?

1. The kids keep coming home from school cranky and yawning. They get to bed too late.

2. When Jenn and/or 'dul gets home, it's already pretty late, and that's when they start cooking dinner.

3. Bonne-maman eats too late.

4. I'm home all day.

These added up to...

5. I should just make dinner every night instead of twice a week.

Which is what I'm endeavoring to do - prep dinner during the day, heat it at dinnertime. Anybody have any simple meal ideas? They should NOT rely on dairy (some substitution is okay, but it adds up fast), and they SHOULD have a good amount of vegetables or fruit in them.

Today I made:

Black beans with corn, red pepper, garlic, and culantro (that's not a typo)
Kale with tomatoes and sweet chorizo (bonus, the sale gave me three ounces of the spicy type free, so I'll use it elsewhere)
Sweet plantains with lime juice
Rice

So you can see that I have a green veggie (the kale), a yellow/orange veggie (the corn, and the mangoes for dessert), a red veggie (the tomato and red pepper), some starch (brown rice and plantains) and, of course, some protein (black beans and the chorizo). So that's a pretty complete meal, and other than the fact that mangoes cost a dollar apiece right now and I don't like them it was all pretty inexpensive, though it'll be cheaper still if I plan my menu in advance for next week. That's why I'm asking for ideas! Ideas for sides or for main dishes (which do NOT need to be meat-based) are appreciated. No crock-pot, so nothing like that.

The girls are having fluffernutters for lunch. On wonderbread, no less! (Well, it's whole wheat....) This makes me...

[Poll #1443022]

They can't have seconds, though. Because I am STRICT. (And because I'm saving the rest to make fudge.)

[Poll #1443023]

He introduced me to we_swap_snacks and I'm so in my first snack swap.

I got matched with somebody in Saskatchewan. Which I apparently can't spell. Hold on. Spellcheck, I choose you!

Huh, there's an a in that word. Got it.

So, as I was saying, I got matched with a Canadian. I was hoping for somebody overseas, but I've never been to Canada, so that's all right.

Having never been to Our Neighbor to the North, I have no idea what sort of snacks are common there, so I'd love it if my Canadian friends can post about snacks they miss after visiting here, or things they've seen in the media but have never personally had. Also, I'm going to keep a running list once I get it started of things I'm buying to swap, so any critiques of "Man, that's ALL OVER THE PLACE" would be useful. I'd hate to embarrass myself sending something she can pick up down the block for a buck!

I'd also like to send some NYC-specific treats, and here I have the opposite problem. Having lived in this city pretty much my whole life, I have no idea what's NYC-specific! If it doesn't say I ♥ NY on it, how can I tell? (And I really am reluctant to buy tourist crap.) I may post in newyorkers for help picking NYC-specific snacks and convenience foods.

Any advice?

( MY LIST! )

AND I'm making muffins, and I've made cookies. The chocolate chips are going in the oven in the morning, the dough is in the fridge right now.

But I made blondies. And I absentmindedly overfilled the pan, put twice as much batter in as I should've. Whoops. (It's a very stiff batter! I got confused!)

Now I have this very deep blondie, haven't cut it up yet, and the middle collapsed. It'll look funny. Nobody would appreciate it. *sniff*

You think I should just give in and eat it myself? Buy me some vanilla ice cream to go with it, and eat it all up? I'd share some with the kidlets, anyway....

[Poll #1367669]

I've never yet heard of anybody being offended by kosher salt, but I guess there's a first time for everything. Bonus? I've finally found out why kosher salt is.

WHAT a silly waste of time this all is. Oh well, fools and their money. (That's gotta be in the Bible somewhere, right?)

Also, while I grant kudos to the creator of this... food... for mentioning that Jesus was a Jew, I think it's worth mentioning that Jesus probably kept kosher. And as far as "keeping Christianity alive" goes, I wasn't aware that a religion with billions of members was in risk of dying. (And if it were, I really doubt that table salt would make the difference.)

And this avocado was pitted through with this fibrous brown/black stuff, like... I don't know, like scar tissue on the inside of the flesh. On the inside of the hypothetical flesh, that is.

So, in this situation, I have two questions:

1. What causes this?

2. Since this hypothetical avocado is damaged goods, do I have to replace it? Or did I would I have saved my sister a world of trouble, so no worries there?

I've gotten over my beets aversion (and they taste surprisingly good grated on salad, you know), but I don't think I'll ever go so far as to put it on a sandwich.

Do New Zealanders really do that? Why? (And no, Americans don't "still put it on our burgers", because they just don't belong there.)

(Well, in fairness, if I can slip grated carrot into hamburger patties every time I cook them, I'm sure a small amount of grated beet in there as well wouldn't go too far amiss. Makes it ever-so-slightly healthier, and softer as well. But that's not the same as putting it on a burger, like one would put pickles or mustard on a burger.)