Today, I went on an interview for a Financial Services Representative.
I am proud to say I did not make it through the interview and cut out after the info session. Because yes, I am THAT awesome.
Or, in other words, I'm more likely to be one of those dirty hippies yelling and screaming at the wall street types than be one of those wall street types.
And I figured it would be good interview practice. HA.
In other news, I'm starting to have more ideas for writing, so that's good. Even if I'm not actually writing...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Mourning
I'm in mourning.
Yesterday, I came up with the fantastic idea that I would bike into boston. Good idea, as I've been eating too much and not exercising enough.
I've winterified my bike as much as possible, wore as many clothes as I could and still look-well if not awesomely well put together-decent enough for being amongst other people (it included long underwear and a fleece).
Biking in was great! It was still sunny, traffic wasn't the pits. The bike lanes were hilarious-I'd be in one for about 100 feet and then it would veer into a snow bank.
No thank you, I don't want to crash my bike into snow. No cars hit me, I am still whole-except for my right hip, which is slightly sore.
Anyways. I was downtown at this event called "Dating While Feminist, Part Deux" which was a really neat panel/small group discussion about the issues that come up in dating someone, expectations and what life is like as a feminist dealing with people who are a)pseudo-Feminists-using the name but not actually feminist b)proto-feminists-refuse to use the name...but are way cool Feminists despite that c)Unconverted-those people who haven't really had interaction with feminists and feminist ideals beforehand d)sexist pigs-UNTOUCHABLES! AHHH.***
But yeah. That's not really the point of this post.
Let's go back to what I first said. I'm in mourning. I started biking home last night ~9:45. As you can imagine, we're not on the South Pole nor is it June 21st. So, it is completely dark at 9:45. Except for all those street lamps. And headlights. And store lights. Perhaps I should rephrase that? There is practically no source of natural light. So it's kind of dark.
I had a head lamp and a red flashing light attached to my backpack for safety. My father made me a holder for the bike light, as I managed to break the strap off the original holder when I was trying to get it off my old mountain bike onto my new, spiffy commuter bike. It was this giant square metal/plastic thing that screwed on to the handlebar of my bike.
Unfortunately, I don't have the headlamp anymore. Its parts and batteries are bits of smooshed litter on Mass Ave, somewhere in Cambridge at this point. I feel awful, contributing to litter.. But would you stop to pick up pieces in the middle of a busy street with a T bus right behind you? No? I thought not. Moral of the story? Buy a head light that doesn't slip easily and don't break the strap off the original holder.
But bike at night. It's great fun.
***Seriously. Don't pay attention to what I'm saying. It's all made up. Well-the definitions are real enough. But not the terms. I made those up. Don't repeat them!
I've winterified my bike as much as possible, wore as many clothes as I could and still look-well if not awesomely well put together-decent enough for being amongst other people (it included long underwear and a fleece).
Biking in was great! It was still sunny, traffic wasn't the pits. The bike lanes were hilarious-I'd be in one for about 100 feet and then it would veer into a snow bank.
No thank you, I don't want to crash my bike into snow. No cars hit me, I am still whole-except for my right hip, which is slightly sore.
Anyways. I was downtown at this event called "Dating While Feminist, Part Deux" which was a really neat panel/small group discussion about the issues that come up in dating someone, expectations and what life is like as a feminist dealing with people who are a)pseudo-Feminists-using the name but not actually feminist b)proto-feminists-refuse to use the name...but are way cool Feminists despite that c)Unconverted-those people who haven't really had interaction with feminists and feminist ideals beforehand d)sexist pigs-UNTOUCHABLES! AHHH.***
But yeah. That's not really the point of this post.
Let's go back to what I first said. I'm in mourning. I started biking home last night ~9:45. As you can imagine, we're not on the South Pole nor is it June 21st. So, it is completely dark at 9:45. Except for all those street lamps. And headlights. And store lights. Perhaps I should rephrase that? There is practically no source of natural light. So it's kind of dark.
I had a head lamp and a red flashing light attached to my backpack for safety. My father made me a holder for the bike light, as I managed to break the strap off the original holder when I was trying to get it off my old mountain bike onto my new, spiffy commuter bike. It was this giant square metal/plastic thing that screwed on to the handlebar of my bike.
Unfortunately, I don't have the headlamp anymore. Its parts and batteries are bits of smooshed litter on Mass Ave, somewhere in Cambridge at this point. I feel awful, contributing to litter.. But would you stop to pick up pieces in the middle of a busy street with a T bus right behind you? No? I thought not. Moral of the story? Buy a head light that doesn't slip easily and don't break the strap off the original holder.
But bike at night. It's great fun.
***Seriously. Don't pay attention to what I'm saying. It's all made up. Well-the definitions are real enough. But not the terms. I made those up. Don't repeat them!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Ethical Dilemma
Sometime this month is February Vacation. I had the mother of a friend of my sister's call and ask me if I would like to house sit-to the tune of $50 a day. That's good money for 6-7 days when I'm unemployed.
This household has a number of pets-a few dogs, some kind of reptilian or bird like pet inside. Or maybe a cat. I don't really remember.
They also have chickens. Yes. Chickens as pets. Which is not so odd a commodity-it seems they are growing in popularity. I've even tried to talk my parents into getting chickens.
But I'm vegan. She told me I could have all the eggs those chickens lay that week. I politely responded that I was vegan..
However. I became vegan mostly because of animal rights issues, although health and especially environment play into it. These chickens are not going to be slaughtered just because they've stopped laying eggs as productively. They are living a good life.
...So do I eat the eggs? Or do I not break veganism at all....
This household has a number of pets-a few dogs, some kind of reptilian or bird like pet inside. Or maybe a cat. I don't really remember.
They also have chickens. Yes. Chickens as pets. Which is not so odd a commodity-it seems they are growing in popularity. I've even tried to talk my parents into getting chickens.
But I'm vegan. She told me I could have all the eggs those chickens lay that week. I politely responded that I was vegan..
However. I became vegan mostly because of animal rights issues, although health and especially environment play into it. These chickens are not going to be slaughtered just because they've stopped laying eggs as productively. They are living a good life.
...So do I eat the eggs? Or do I not break veganism at all....
Monday, January 17, 2011
Recent Foods
This weekend (and today) were a weekend of cooking and baking. Which seems to be the norm since I have become vegan. So, I'm going to show off. Hope you forgive me. Also, I think I need to get over my carb fetish. What's that? you're surprised I have a carb fetish? You shouldn't be. I love carbs far too much for my own good. Eat them too much.
But anyways.
Saturday
On Saturday, i got home from from the Sessions Committee for New England Yearly Meeting (the group that organizes New England Quaker's business/social annual gathering held in august... www.neym.org) to which I was nominated back at the very beginning of the year at Young Adult Friends midwinter. I went with two other YAFs and met two more there. It was nice to see them so shortly after having seen them earlier this month. There was a lot accomplished at this meeting and needless to say, I am stoked for yearly. Except for maybe the food. I might be eating cereal and salad with no dressing all week. We'll see..
But this entry is about food. So, onwards, my friends.
The first thing I made was a gluten-free vegan cornbread slightly adapted from glutenfreegirl.com's recipe for cornbread. It came out absolutely delicious. Tasted exactly like any cornbread I'd ever had. Or almost, at least. It was slightly slightly heavier.
Yes, it is next to a very heavily glutenized loaf of bread. As no one in my family actually NEEDS to eat gluten free, this isn't an issue at the moment. We do love our wheat flour. Everyone agreed that this cornbread hit the spot, however.
I also made the Vegan Girl's Guide to Life Twice baked Chipotle sweet potatoes. The skins fell apart, probably because I didn't follow the instructions precisely when it came to removing the flesh to mix in the chipotle seasoning.. So they look a bit funky, especially the foil 'skin.' Sorry for it being sideways. I'm feeling too lazy to go back and fix that in iPhoto and it won't let me here. As you can see, we still have a vestige of christmas hanging around.
Onwards. After this, I made vegan banana bread in preparation for Sunday morning (I have no pictures of the loaf, whole). What's that you say? What did I make for sunday morning? Well, onwards, I shall show you!
Sunday
I woke up Sunday morning with not a hankering in the world for Banana Bread French Toast. Funny, since I'm usually all over hot baked goods for breakfast. Not this morning, no sirree. So I went to go snowshoeing instead for an hour and came back, took a shower and finally convinced myself that I should just make the damn french toast. After all, I'd already made the banana bread. What could hurt? I could always give it away to someone..somehow.
So I made it. Dude. DUDE. I think my life is changed. I can't believe i didn't feel like eating french toast for breakfast. I must have been crazy. Look how crazy delicious this is:
(Yes, the mustard greens are under the sweet potatoes and onions) Also, there's red sauce under there. Very very onion-y red sauce. I killed the onions yesterday, having forgotten to get more on Friday. Whoops.
I also made my lunch for the week, Kale and Chickpea Tagine with Quinoa. Only without the quinoa because we apparently left it in New Hampshire over Christmas. Whoops. So I'm eating it with plain white rice. Forgive me for not taking a picture of the rice. You've all seen it before. Also, I forgot to take a picture of it while it was hot, so this is post-refrigerator, wilted look.
Monday
Only one thing I made today, from the wonder that is theppk.com Their orange-cranberry muffins have been staring at me for a while now, so I finally made them, the applesauce replacement for oil followed. I also did not have fresh cranberries, so I used the dried ones I've had sitting around for a while. I left out the zest because we didn't have any oranges and because I don't like zest (could have used clementine zest).
Yum. This weekend was full of yum.
But anyways.
Saturday
On Saturday, i got home from from the Sessions Committee for New England Yearly Meeting (the group that organizes New England Quaker's business/social annual gathering held in august... www.neym.org) to which I was nominated back at the very beginning of the year at Young Adult Friends midwinter. I went with two other YAFs and met two more there. It was nice to see them so shortly after having seen them earlier this month. There was a lot accomplished at this meeting and needless to say, I am stoked for yearly. Except for maybe the food. I might be eating cereal and salad with no dressing all week. We'll see..
But this entry is about food. So, onwards, my friends.
The first thing I made was a gluten-free vegan cornbread slightly adapted from glutenfreegirl.com's recipe for cornbread. It came out absolutely delicious. Tasted exactly like any cornbread I'd ever had. Or almost, at least. It was slightly slightly heavier.
I also made the Vegan Girl's Guide to Life Twice baked Chipotle sweet potatoes. The skins fell apart, probably because I didn't follow the instructions precisely when it came to removing the flesh to mix in the chipotle seasoning.. So they look a bit funky, especially the foil 'skin.' Sorry for it being sideways. I'm feeling too lazy to go back and fix that in iPhoto and it won't let me here. As you can see, we still have a vestige of christmas hanging around.
Onwards. After this, I made vegan banana bread in preparation for Sunday morning (I have no pictures of the loaf, whole). What's that you say? What did I make for sunday morning? Well, onwards, I shall show you!
Sunday
I woke up Sunday morning with not a hankering in the world for Banana Bread French Toast. Funny, since I'm usually all over hot baked goods for breakfast. Not this morning, no sirree. So I went to go snowshoeing instead for an hour and came back, took a shower and finally convinced myself that I should just make the damn french toast. After all, I'd already made the banana bread. What could hurt? I could always give it away to someone..somehow.
So I made it. Dude. DUDE. I think my life is changed. I can't believe i didn't feel like eating french toast for breakfast. I must have been crazy. Look how crazy delicious this is:
Yeah. I know. This recipe is easily found in Vegan Girl's Guide to life. I changed nothing.
I knew I was heading for a pizza party later that day, so I made pizza to bring with me! I was going to make the same thing as I'd made way earlier this month, pizza with sweet potatoes, caramelized onions and spinach. Last minute, I decided what the hey, I'll substitute mustard greens for spinach even though I've never had them.
Still not sure that was a good decision, but it is one of the healthiest pizzas I've ever seen:
I also made my lunch for the week, Kale and Chickpea Tagine with Quinoa. Only without the quinoa because we apparently left it in New Hampshire over Christmas. Whoops. So I'm eating it with plain white rice. Forgive me for not taking a picture of the rice. You've all seen it before. Also, I forgot to take a picture of it while it was hot, so this is post-refrigerator, wilted look.
Monday
Only one thing I made today, from the wonder that is theppk.com Their orange-cranberry muffins have been staring at me for a while now, so I finally made them, the applesauce replacement for oil followed. I also did not have fresh cranberries, so I used the dried ones I've had sitting around for a while. I left out the zest because we didn't have any oranges and because I don't like zest (could have used clementine zest).
Yum. This weekend was full of yum.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Randomness
I'm still working on that vest. Went to a retreat last weekend and actually got to a pretty sweet place in the vest, which I am very happy with. But it seems to be moving slowly, especially given that I haven't worked on it since.
I made sourdough bread again yesterday. Left the starter out overnight to proof it, made the dough in the morning, let it rise for FOUR hours, punched it down, shaped it into a loaf and shoved it in the warmed oven to rise again for two hours. Finally baked it. Still heavy and dense, but not as bad as my first try (the second has been the best so far). Time needed: ~18 hours.
I'm writing again! After National Novel Writing Month, I burnt myself out for a month-which is not too unusual for me. It happened last year and frankly, I'm not surprised it happened this year. I'm currently only writing Fanfiction (fiction based on already created piece of work...in case you didn't know. Which I'm positive you do. Just covering the bases) out of the Firefly world (a tv show starring Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Summer Glau etc that was cancelled far too early in 2002 by Fox and then made a movie in 2005...again in case you don't know, which I'm sure you do). Hopefully, I'll get around to my nano piece as it's kind of whining at me, wanting me to finish it. Surprisingly, I don't think it's crap. Not in the sense that I think the first nanonovel I wrote was crap. It's something I can work with. Like putty sitting there unformed, but the majority of what it needs is already waiting to be formed into a piece of beauty.
I made vegan chocolate chip cookies. They never browned, which was incredibly disappointing. And then they didn't taste very good. But a funny thing happened. The next day, they tasted better. And the day after that, even better. I think the process of going stale actually made the texture/taste of these things better. Which is completely contradictory to anything I've ever heard...
Being Vegan is kind of awesome. My body feels way better, I'm more alert to the world. Last night, I made a dish from theppk.com called Cashew Vegetable Korma. I halved the recipe, since I wasn't cooking for 16 people and I still have two yogurt containers full of leftover. But it was delicious and I will probably have it for lunch all week.
I made sourdough bread again yesterday. Left the starter out overnight to proof it, made the dough in the morning, let it rise for FOUR hours, punched it down, shaped it into a loaf and shoved it in the warmed oven to rise again for two hours. Finally baked it. Still heavy and dense, but not as bad as my first try (the second has been the best so far). Time needed: ~18 hours.
I'm writing again! After National Novel Writing Month, I burnt myself out for a month-which is not too unusual for me. It happened last year and frankly, I'm not surprised it happened this year. I'm currently only writing Fanfiction (fiction based on already created piece of work...in case you didn't know. Which I'm positive you do. Just covering the bases) out of the Firefly world (a tv show starring Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Summer Glau etc that was cancelled far too early in 2002 by Fox and then made a movie in 2005...again in case you don't know, which I'm sure you do). Hopefully, I'll get around to my nano piece as it's kind of whining at me, wanting me to finish it. Surprisingly, I don't think it's crap. Not in the sense that I think the first nanonovel I wrote was crap. It's something I can work with. Like putty sitting there unformed, but the majority of what it needs is already waiting to be formed into a piece of beauty.
I made vegan chocolate chip cookies. They never browned, which was incredibly disappointing. And then they didn't taste very good. But a funny thing happened. The next day, they tasted better. And the day after that, even better. I think the process of going stale actually made the texture/taste of these things better. Which is completely contradictory to anything I've ever heard...
Being Vegan is kind of awesome. My body feels way better, I'm more alert to the world. Last night, I made a dish from theppk.com called Cashew Vegetable Korma. I halved the recipe, since I wasn't cooking for 16 people and I still have two yogurt containers full of leftover. But it was delicious and I will probably have it for lunch all week.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Food thoughts
I know my blog name doesn't really seem to reflect how my blog seems to have been going in the past few weeks, but I won't apologize. My interests are varied. And fickle, to say the least. I'm still knitting, I'm still thinking and talking about hiking (one of these days I'll actually organize a hike out in Western Mass) and I'm considering writing again (nanowrimo wore me out). For now, food is something that has taken up some goodly time of my thinking.
I realized recently, that dairy may be giving me some intestinal issues. It's that or possibly gluten, which I truly do not want to face. (i'm a bread person) I wasn't spectacularly excited at this new development, but it did give me a kick in the butt.
I should explain. For seven and a half years, I was a vegetarian, after hearing a lovely speech in french on how I should be vegan. I was unwilling to give up eggs and dairy products, so I chose being vegetarian. It wasn't much of a sacrifice-meat has never been a big part of my diet for the most part. That lasted for 7.5 years, in which I did not eat healthfully. Too much carbs. And dairy for that matter.
I changed back to omnivore near the very beginning of my hike, needing high calories without worrying about meat in my foods. I have since been enjoying the pleasures of eating meat. I've also been considering going back to vegetarian.
Naturally, with the realization that dairy could be an issue, I decided vegan could be the way to go. I've decided to go for it and am currently reading a variety of cookbooks and books about being a feminist and vegetarian-hopefully will get the one on veganism by melisser elliott soon.
So, I'm hoping to create a menu for the first few weeks at least, while being vegan. There are so many good ones in these cookbooks I have.
Anyone have any ideas?
I realized recently, that dairy may be giving me some intestinal issues. It's that or possibly gluten, which I truly do not want to face. (i'm a bread person) I wasn't spectacularly excited at this new development, but it did give me a kick in the butt.
I should explain. For seven and a half years, I was a vegetarian, after hearing a lovely speech in french on how I should be vegan. I was unwilling to give up eggs and dairy products, so I chose being vegetarian. It wasn't much of a sacrifice-meat has never been a big part of my diet for the most part. That lasted for 7.5 years, in which I did not eat healthfully. Too much carbs. And dairy for that matter.
I changed back to omnivore near the very beginning of my hike, needing high calories without worrying about meat in my foods. I have since been enjoying the pleasures of eating meat. I've also been considering going back to vegetarian.
Naturally, with the realization that dairy could be an issue, I decided vegan could be the way to go. I've decided to go for it and am currently reading a variety of cookbooks and books about being a feminist and vegetarian-hopefully will get the one on veganism by melisser elliott soon.
So, I'm hoping to create a menu for the first few weeks at least, while being vegan. There are so many good ones in these cookbooks I have.
Anyone have any ideas?
Monday, December 20, 2010
Knitting and a sidenote
On Friday, I knew I would be watching all three Star Wars in a row (4,5,6...1,23 don't exist) and I knew that that much time spent looking at a tv screen surely meant that I ought to have something productive to do with me. Such as knitting. I've had Talia on my to-do list for the last month or so and I have the yarn, so why not? I found the pattern on Knitty. I got four skeins of Berroco's Vintage yarn in this bright, brilliant purple. Already, I'm quite in love with my choice of color.
So far, it has come out truly beautiful. When looking at the pictures on the pattern, I had completely failed to notice how detailed the bottom hem is on the vest. And it truly is quite beautiful. I doubt mine is quite as defined as the model vest, but I like it, mistakes and all. It's purple after all. And I am always a sucker for purple, frankly. I can't wait for more surprises with this vest!
Also, I made a second loaf of sourdough bread yesterday, attempting to fix the problems with the first loaf. I believe it is fairly safe to say that i succeeded. Patience is key. I let it rise for 3 hours and proof for another three hours. Both times in a slightly warmed oven. Of course, turning on the oven to bake it suddenly produced a strong reaction to this wild strain of yeast in my starter and it poofed up even more, which was fantastic! It has a very unique flavor to it. I'm looking forward to being able to find new sourdough recipes to use with this starter I have!
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