Brand New Life Experience.

I love it when you get to do some completely random thing that you've never done before, and never really even thought about as something you want to do. I love it even when these things are, by all accounts, pretty minor. In the category of things I've never done before, that I didn't know I wanted to do, is sleep in one of these (I went away for work. This was my hotel room).

I get in there.. what does it look like?

Then its time for bed, and what does it look like then?
See? See! A murphy bed! I never gave them much thought, but it was hilariously nifty.

In addition, I got my payback for my recent posts (here and here) in which I gloat about the lovely LA weather. Because, this is what it looked like where I went. It was actually 0 degrees almost the entire time. ZERO DEGREES! I'll say this, that is very very chilly.

Stuffed Samosa Potatoes... mmmm.....

Ok, so for Christmas I got the Veganomicon cookbook written by the good folks over at the PPK. I've been looking through it but finally got around to making something. Having an Indian craving, I started with Samosa Stuffed Baked Potatoes and sauteed spinach and tomatoes. Can I just say, OMG!

Basically, the potatoes are samosa stuffing (potato insides, corriander seeds, mustard seeds, cumin, peas, onions, carrots) put into carved out potato skins and baked again. I love samosas but am on a trying-to-eat-healthy kick which makes their deep fried goodness a little bit too much of a splurge. But, these totally do it! There is one flavor in there (maybe the corriander seeds? or, I also put whole cumin seeds in as my own addition so maybe that is it) that is absolutely the thing that makes samosas taste like samosas to me. I'm thinking its the corriander seeds but I'm not sure. Along with them, I had the sauteed spinach recipe from the same cookbook except this time I added chickpeas for some protein. Holy delicious dinner, batman. This was fantastic! Yowza!

Wintertime Bike Ride...

So, this was my afternoon on Martin Luther King day... sorry East Coasters!

I am very fortunate, in that I have a bike, love the ocean, am a giant chicken about riding on the street, and yet someone had the foresight to build a bike path almost directly from my apartment to the beach! This most excellent invention is the Ballona Creek bike path ("creek" apparently being a LA euphemism for "flood channel", but, whatever).

Its actually pretty scenic, especially at high tide and most especially in spring when the second half is lined with fields of yellow daisies. What I like best is that the first half basically goes through people's back yards and side streets, past elementary schools and small neighborhood playgrounds- the kind of things you normally just drive past and never look at very carefully unless they directly involve you. But on the bike you go slower, and on Saturday mornings you pass by people hanging out laundry, men playing soccer, kids playing, all kinds of things. And there is a completely random selection of people on the path itself (hard core bikers in whizzing groups, wearing lots of spandex; old couples going really slow and wearing visors; little families with kids on tricycles; people just strolling along).

Sometimes you get so caught up in your own daily routine, that you construct your own version of wherever you live. You make it out of the places you know you like, fill it full of people you already know or who are pretty similar to you, and can just exist in that bubble endlessly. I like the process of finding places I like and building a little world for myself- it makes a big city feel like home. But, I also like feeling like I'm really seeing the city the way it really is (instead of just my version of it), and really getting a quiet backyard peek into the LA's that people completely different from me have constructed for themselves.

Anyhow, here's the path! Starts off a little industrial (but I'm attached to this bridge. There is no clear reason why it is even there at all, yet its kind of large. and very rusty.)

And, it gradually opens up a little...

And there are more and more plants...

And then you get to see things like this...

And... you're at the beach, and can ride by the ocean! (or lay in the sun and read, either way)
Love it!

What a day, what a day!

So, I'm not a big one for political blogs (at least not writing them), so usually I keep away from that and focus on the really important things, like food and crafts and TV shows. But today seems a little too special for those things.

Doesn't it just seem really really nice, that this is who gets to be in charge for a while?

Tilt-shifting...

Ok, so enough with the food posts...

Today I tried my hand at this whole tilt-shifting thing, courtesy of this very fun website tiltshiftmaker.com. Generally, the idea is that this is a technique you would normally do using special lenses that results in changes in the area of the picture thats in focus as well as changes in perspective (I think). However, through the magic of the interwebs, you can do this on photos you already have, which is perfect given that I have no idea how to make a real camera do any of these things. The result is that a different part of the photo is in focus, and it can make it look like a minature model, or like a smaller scene. Apparently the best photos for this are pictures of scenes that have lots of depth in them. Having pillaged my photos, here are some of my attempts...

This is the Shinkyo Bridge, in Nikko Japan- I think it really does look like a little model:


This is in Osaka, I tried to focus on the couple on the bridge:


This is a lake in Glacier Park (after quite a hike!):


This is the poor fake Mammoth at the La Brea tarpits (which I love, irrationally)


You can see better, bigger versions (and other ones) at my flickr

Spicy Spinach, Sweet Potato, Adzuki Bean Soup...

This summer, I met a girl from the UK who told me about the show "You Are What You Eat" which THANK GOODNESS is aired approximately 4 times a day on BBC America. If you have not seen this before, do it now. Basically what it is, is Gillian McKeith, this teeeeeeeeeny weeny blonde British lady finds people who are less-teeny and have ridiculously bad eating habits.

The pinnacle of the show is when she lays out everything they eat for a week on one table (usually piles of fried beige stuff) and then on the other table what they SHOULD eat (usually awesome piles of colorful veggies and fruits and beans and things). Almost without fail, they think the awesome veggie table looks boring and gross. Another high point is when she does things like (I kid you not) make a body out of the amount of chocolate they eat in one year, complete with headstone. But, then she teaches them to eat good stuff and by the end they like it.

What is the point? The point is, based on this show, I have become obsessed with Adzuki beans, which she feeds these people all the time. These are a very old bean common in Asia, which is the same bean that is in all those Japanese desserts stuffed with red bean paste (mmmmmm... mochi with bean paste...). I have never had them outside of something like a dessert. So, finding myself in the bulk grain aisle (which I love), I bought some. But then I had to find something to do with them... enter "Spicy Adzuki Bean Stew with Spinach" which I found on BigOven.. I love pretty much every ingredient so let me tell you, I was pretty pumped.


Ingredients:
1/2 c Dry adzuki beans (I used 2/3-3/4 cup)
4 c Water
1 tb Canola oil
1 md Yellow onion; chopped
5 Garlic cloves; minced
1 lb Sweet potato; cut into bite-sized pieces
1 c Carrot (I skipped this. I hate cooked carrots)
4 Inches ginger; finely chopped
2 tb soy sauce (I used more)
Cayenne pepper to taste (I used lots)
2 c fresh Spinach leaves (I used an entire bunch)
1/4 c Coconut milk light (I used maybe 1/2 cup)

Instructions:
Sort and rinse the beans and place them in a large pot with the water, partially cover with a lid, and simmer. Heat the oil in a large wok or saute pan. Add the onion, garlic and cook over high heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the sweet potatoes and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring. Add all of it to the pot of beans. Stir in the ginger, cover with the lid and continue to simmer for a total of 40 minutes, until the beans, carrots and potatoes are soft. Midway, after about 20 minutes you can add soy and cayenne pepper; taste to see if there is enough ginger. It should be very spicy- seriously, make it spicier than you think you want it, the other ingredients are pretty sweet. Add more ginger if you need to. Just before serving, add spinach leaves and simmer; when wilted but still bright green, turn off the burner and add the coconut milk. Stir to heat through.

My thoughts:
This is awesome. Awwwweeeesome. But, make it spicy, I think it would be too sweet with the beans and the coconut milk otherwise. Also, they say you can serve it with rice, but I didn't see the point because I wanted soup, so I didn't do that. And, now that I have cooked with these beans, I can feel all proud and Gillian McKeith-ed. Also, its pretty much vegan, if you care about that kind of thing.

Infinite varieties of muffins...

I'm just going to throw this out there. I love muffins. It seems entirely reasonable that muffins could be their own food group. They're pretty much perfect. In addition to being delicious, muffins supplied a Trader Joes patron with this, one of the worst pick up lines I have ever heard (this happened to a friend, innocently shopping):

Friend: *perusing the bread area*
Random Dude: *loitering in bread area* "Hey... thats a nice sweater"
Friend: *looks down at total normal, slightly old sweater* "ummm... thanks"
Random Dude: "Hey... do you like muffins?"
Friend: "ummm... kind of I guess"
Random Dude: "what about STUD muffins??"
Friend: *walks away. only to pass by again later and see him trying it on someone else!*

thats out of nowhere, and its not even my story. but, I love that guy.


At any rate... I have recently acquired a very excellent basic muffin recipe (from the same source as my Mexican Wedding cookies. It is (as the title promised) infinitely adaptable... below you can see blueberry lemon. Yesterday we made cinnamon chocolate chip (yum). The only limit is your imagination!


Muffins:

1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup blueberries/cranberries/choc chips/chopped apple/nuts etc
optional: lemon zest, orange zest, cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, etc

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease cups of muffin pan.

In a large bowl, beat egg and then stir in the milk and oil. If you want to add vanilla (like for chocolate chip muffins) do it in here.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add this mixture to the large bowl, stirring just until blended (doesn't need to be entirely smooth). Fold in fillings. Divide between 12 muffin pan spaces.

Bake at 400 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes until golden brown on top and pulling away from edge. Remove from muffin tin immediately. Enjoy!!

... and this is what makes the traffic all worth it...

So, sometimes living in LA can get a little old, with the traffic and crowding and so on and so forth. Usually, this feeling gets fixed pretty quick when I remember that I can do things like decide to get dinner from any kind of restaurant you could ever want (last night: Ethiopian), wear flip flops year round, hear three different languages being spoken on my way down the street, and this kind of thing.

But today was a topper... this week the northeast is being buried in snow (or so I hear), but, this was how I spent my mid-January Sunday afternoon...




ahhh...