Back In School

So I'd forgotten how awfully painful and time-consuming studying is. This may be the end of the blog.

Beans! Beans!

OK...so I am writing this post while my next door neighbor is arguing with door-to-door Bible thumpers. Hopefully they will ignore me. If they don't, hopefully Loki will eat them. Or at least scare them away. Or knock them over in joy. (The Bible thumpers tend to be both patient and persistent though...I tend to walk by them, but have heard several stories from people who have tried to engage them in discourse.)

Anyhows, this is the second in the meet-the-cats series. Ms. Beans. Real name Beanie, nicknames number in the thousands. (Various combinations of Bean, Evil, Toast, Zucchini, B-zoo, E-zoo, E-bean-zucchini, Toastikin, Stupid-cat, Cat-with-eyes...they keep making themselves up.) She's sort of the dumb blonde of the cat world...or to quote my family, "she's got a little short bus in her." Very cute and very sweet though. Beans means well.

Beans doesn't come downstairs often -- she's terrified of the dog.

Funnies thing about this picture is that it is unposed...the cat actually took it upon herself to grab a tennis ball.

And like the tennis ball. Cats are weird.

Tofu Scramble

Yeah, I know. The "T word"...identified almost as closely with vegetarians as salad is. And indeed, I love both salads and tofu. But anyways, I just came back from a conference that tried to be veg-friendly (and I commend them for that) and sadly, failed. There were no vegetarian protein options...and they missed several easy opportunities to provide decent vegetarian food. (My 3 biggest pet peeves: pepperoni pizza but no cheese pizza, tons of hamburgers but no veggie burgers, and the 2 salad choices were 1/2 cup of plain lettuce or a nice large chicken caesar.) They did have hot pretzels and sno-cones (which made my inner 6-year-old very happy), but it was definitely not nutritious food. Although on a positive note, the Mango Room, within walking distance of the KC convention center, is amazing. The staff was superfriendly, the drinks were strong and tasty (though not cheap), and you can make an excellent vegetarian meal from appetizers and sides. (They also offer to make certain main dishes vegetarian.) Ordering the "vegetarian meat pie" made me giggle, but it was worth it. (They're like samosas only hotter...) Now I'm hungry again. (There was also an Italian restaurant, oddly closed on weekends, that we wanted to visit...try again next year.)

But anyways, back to the whining...the not-so-great convention food made me want something warm and comforting, despite the ridiculous heat. I looked in the (nearly empty) fridge, and voila! Tofu Scramble. It's very versatile, as are all bek-cipes. And very tasty, though not very photogenic.

Here we go: heat 1 tablespoon olive oil (I used the garlic oil that I talked about a few posts ago) over high heat and add 1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced (or shredded), and 1 potato, unpeeled and thinly sliced. (I used about 8 fingerling potatoes.) Stir frequently for 5 minutes. Then lower the heat to medium and add 1 bunch chopped green onions and 6 to 8 cloves chopped garlic. (My green onions were frozen -- if you use fresh, add about a tablespoon of water.) Saute for about 2 minutes, and then (keep the heat on) sprinkle on 1/3 cup nutritional yeast, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper. Crumble in a package of squeezed-out firm or extra-firm tofu, and cook for about 5 minutes more until everything is mixed and heated through. You can change spices, add or subtract veggies as the contents of the cupboard dictate, or even omit the tofu and have this as a side dish. (If you do that...use only about 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, and add some water to the pan so that the spices stick and the veggies can steam a little.)

And just a shot to show that I can take in-focus, well lit photographs.

The good news and the bad news...

So I'm back from KC...very fun conference. The good news: the Tubey sleeves are finished. The bad news: I'm ripping out Lana. This may be obvious to most people (and ironically, probably would have been obvious to me had I not been so tired), but I'll say it anyways: don't work on a complicated pattern on very little sleep. Let that be a lesson that you do not need to learn firsthand.