Spring Wake Up

It's officially spring according to the calendar. The weather is getting there, albeit slower than I'd prefer. Inside our tiny apartment it feels like summer. At least in our glasses, that is, because we finally got a juicer! And when better than a nice, long three day Seward's Day weekend to try it out?! Thank you, Mr. Seward for purchasing Alaska. I wasn't born here and I probably won't die here, but wherever I go, Alaska will forever be my home. But seeing as how my lovely state doesn't support my marrying my true love, we probably won't be calling Alaska home much longer. But enough of spring and politics, on to juice awesomeness!

Here's the juicer we decided on. It was a random deal on Amazon that I think is already gone. So sorry because the name brand versions of this retail for over $300. It's a slow speed, masticating juicer. The slow speed is supposed to be better for maintaining more of the nutrients in the juice by not heating up as much during the juicing process. I don't know how much of a difference this makes but sure, why not get the most out of the plants?

Our first attempt was celery, apple, orange, carrot, kale and mint. I love it, it tasted like the smell of summer, very green. K wasn't as enthused by it but she drank it down nonetheless. I was immediately drawn to the dry pulp leftovers and the possible uses for them. I used this recipe as a starting point for these crackers. For the spices I added coriander, cayenne, and organic no salt vegetable seasoning and a pinch of sea salt. The no salt seasoning is basically dehydrated veggies and super delish and available at Costco. Get some. I also added nutritional yeast to help bind and add a little tang.

I don't have a dehydrator, so I just set my oven as low as possible. I think I ended up leaving them in for about 5 hours and then I left them in overnight with the oven off. In the morning I had crisp-ish, super fibery crackers that tasted like tomato vegetable soup. Interesting and pretty tasty. The amount of celery fiber is a bit overwhelming, I would definitely reduce that next time.

For the next batch of juice I wanted to use the pulp for a sweet bread so I kept the ingredients to carrot, apple, orange and ginger and lemon. This juice was a big hit and I will definitely make this combo again. It's invigorating and just plain good.

As a gluten free, vegan, I don't get a lot of baked goodness in my life. It's truly sad. So I was determined to make myself something baked and sweet out of this juice pulp. I started with this recipe. I've used this recipe before and it works well with whatever you have on hand. The last bread I made was more savory sweet with black beans, squash and chipotle as the puree.

I used 1 1/4c of pulp as the puree and I added a smashed banana to add back some moisture. I used canned coconut milk because I had it on hand, although last time I used almond milk and that worked just as well. I only had brown sugar, so that's what I used. For the flours I had coconut and sweet rice. I also added 1t of cinnamon and about 1/2t of cloves. I ended up baking it for about 75 minutes. Then I decided that it needed frosting because damn it, I don't ever get frosting! Waaaay back on the top shelf of one of my cabinets is "normal baking staples" that I never use. One of which is a bag of confectioner's sugar. So I whisked together a healthy two cups of that plus about a 1/4c of the above carrot orange juice and 1t bourbon vanilla. I poured about half of it all over the top of the bread / cake and popped it back in the oven for about 10-15 more minutes. Thus creating a glazed doughnut crust that really just made the dessert incredible. Fucking incredible.

Some might say that it's not vegan due to the confectioner's sugar used and the possibility that bone char is used in filtering the sugar. I am more frugal than idealist and it was in my cabinet so I used it. And I realize that 100% vegan is unobtainable if you get too damn nitpicky. Do what you can, where you can and don't sweat the small stuff. For me it's vegan, for you it might not be, we'll both survive.

My next plan for the juicer is tomato kale juice with basil. And maybe another round of cracker experimentation with the resulting pulp. I'm also thinking about bumping up our Full Circle box to weekly delivery instead of our every other week current schedule. Or just more Costco runs :) Either way, the juicer now has a permanent home on our tiny counter and is going to get hopefully daily use.

And in non-juice news, I also chose this long weekend to quit smoking! Again! Guh. I've also recently broken my upwards of 4 cans a day diet coke habit. So if I can really (yes, I CAN) quit smoking I'll be down to almost no bad for me habits. And that's a great way to wake up to spring.

Thankfullofvegetables

I'll start this off by saying I am very thankful, I have a wonderful life with my incredible wife. I am so lucky, my thanks will never end. But I just don't care about the Thanksgiving holiday. Even when I ate meat and wheat-tastic bread stuffs (I will always miss you, Stove Top) I wasn't big on the whole shebang. This year being gluten free, vegan and avoiding potatoes (talk about NO options!), I wasn't exactly counting down the days for the meat / wheat / spud fest. My stomach seems to like less and less food and I have had a really negative attitude about food in general lately. I really just wanted to not do anything, stay home, watch netflix and eat hummus and baby carrots like every other day and pretend Thanksgiving didn't exist. Luckily for me, K is truly incredible and made the day so superb! I was home sick (thanks db stomach!) on Monday and she convinced me to search for gf, vegan recipes for the holiday. I found some GREAT recipes and we got the goods to make everything. Then comes Thanksgiving morning and I did NOT want to cook. Again, lucky me, K came to my rescue and got my whiny ass back in the kitchen and got the grub made. And holy hell, it was SO good. So, so, so good. And the blog I found, Gluten Free Goddess has renewed my interest in food in general, giant thanks there! I am super excited to try more of her wonderful recipes.

The icing on top is that we brought all the dishes to our friend's house for a multi-family Thanksgiving feast and there were several people in the same boat I'm in. It felt great to be able to fill their plates with food they could eat. It's such a lonely, hungry holiday when you're the vegan/vegetarian/allergic to whatever person staring at a table full of assorted meats, bread, cheeses, and the only vegetables are probably swimming in more meat, cheese and bread. Being able to help others avoid that fate really made my Thanksgiving grinch heart grow several sizes! And the dishes all got rave reviews from the meat eaters as well. Win, win, win!

We made a few changes to the recipes but kept it as close as possible. I somehow never picked up molasses so we just used more maple syrup and some random corn syrup we had in the cupboard. I'd have rather not used the corn syrup but whatev's, it is what it is. And what it was, was DELICIOUS! I used butternut squash in place of the sweet potato and it worked great. The veggie loaf was great, just have to figure out some new name for it that sounds more appealing and befitting of its tastiness. The showstopper was the pumpkin pie with pepita pecan brittle. Oh. My. Goodness. Delicious. Back in the day, when I had my pick of pies pumpkin was rarely on my radar, pecan generally won out. Pumpkin was always so bland and boring. This recipe has made me a believer in the power of pumpkin! It almost got axed from the menu, the recipe was daunting and as mentioned above, I was not super stoked about cooking. Sweet, endlessly patient wife of mine is to thank for it getting made, without her encouragement and help it surely would not have. And it was actually a lot easier than I expected. The pecan coconut crust is very macaroon like and I want to make just it again but in cookie form. Maybe later during this lovely long weekend we get! Here are some shots of vegetable bounty and the links to the recipes. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Polenta Recipe with Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa Fresca Recipe

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2010/10/pumpkin-polenta-recipe-with-tomatillo.html

Green-Cabbage and Red-Apple Slaw with Brussels Sprouts  

http://www.marthastewart.com/314563/green-cabbage-and-red-apple-slaw-with-br?center=0&gallery=274421&slide=282029

Red Quinoa Recipe with Roasted Butternut Squash, Cranberries and Pecans

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2010/01/red-quinoa-with-butternet-squash.html

Easy Cider Roasted Vegetables Recipe

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2005/11/brown-rice-roasted-vegetables.html

Vegan Garden Loaf Recipe with Maple Apricot Glaze  

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/05/garden-loaf-with-maple-apricot-glaze.html#ixzz2Cid3yagP

Karina's Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie with Praline and Coconut-Pecan Crust http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2010/11/gluten-free-pumpkin-pie-with-praline.html

B Batteries Salad

We got our delicious box of veggie goodness yesterday. So I figured it was about time to use the beets from the prior box from two weeks ago. And I had a not-sure-how-old head of broccoli that was pleading to be used and basil from our new veg box. Enter B Batteries Salad, so named because I love alliterations and Demetri Martin is pretty rad as well. I don't have a specific beet salad recipe, I generally just make some sort of vinaigrette and hope it's delish. And generally, it is. This time, I measured and wrote down the process as I made it. So in hopes, it can be replicated...

And here is the rambling recipe:

B Batteries Salad

3-5 beets
1 head broccoli
10 basil leaves, chiffonaded

1/4c - 1/3c oil - I used safflower, but whatever floats your boat...
1/4c red wine vinegar
2T Dijon mustard
1T red miso paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8c maple syrup
1/2t - 1t cracked black pepper
1/8t - 1/4t cayenne pepper
2T apple cider vinegar
1T lemon juice

Boil beets, I boiled mine whole and it took about 40 minutes on a low boil. While the beets are a boilin', everything else can be done.

Chop the broccoli into small florets with as little stem as possible. Or leave the stems on, no diff. I peeled the stalk of the broccoli and sliced it into rounds. Nice broccoli taste with a water chestnut like crunch. Plus the stalk is full of vitamins and damn it, I paid for those vitamins, I'm eating 'em! Broccoli florets and stalk rounds can then be parboiled for about two minutes or left raw. If you parboil them, be sure to shake as much as the excess water out of the florets as possible. I parboiled mine to better match the soft (slightly overcooked, shh) beets.

Combine oil and vinegar in mixing bowl, whisk in mustard and miso paste until emulsified. Add maple syrup, garlic, black pepper, cayenne pepper, apple cider vinegar and lemon juice and whisk until combined. Feel free to add the ingredients in small increments and taste test as you go. It is always a "little more of this, dash more of that, oh shit now I need to add that" kind of process for me. If you cut up the broccoli before making the vinaigrette you can use the broccoli florets for taste testing. Once you feel the vinaigrette is where you want it taste wise, mix in the chiffonaded basil and refrigerate.

Once the beets are done, after about 40 minutes, rinse them under cold water, peel the skin and remove any funky bits. Slice into thin quarter slices or dice. Combine beets, broccoli, broccoli rounds and vinaigrette in a large bowl. Or preferably a large food storage container with lid, since it's going in the fridge anyway. Mix until everything is nice and all up in each others' shit. Refrigerate and let the magic happen for however long you can wait or eat immediately. Top with more cracked pepper and cayenne pepper, if so desired.

Whew, alrighty! There ya be, my recipe! Take it, make it or leave it :) The dressing is a pretty generous amount and you could probably use only half or thee quarters and save the remainder for salad. Or use it all and sop it up with french bread....mmm...bread. Jeez I need to get on learning about baking some gluten free bread!

All alone, all four of us...

We are finally getting settled in our new digs. I must say, as much as I've loved my roommates (some more than others, but whatev's), it is SO nice to live alone. With my amazing little family of K and the kitties. Just damn perfect. I am a lucky, lucky girl, that is for sure!

This is round two for me living in the Marine View, K's first time. I forgot the walls are constructed of solid concrete or I don't know, adamantium! Whatever they're made of makes it pretty impossible to hang pictures with nails. I have lots of pictures that require said nails in order to be hung. FML, what am I to do? How do I hang large framed pictures? I think our answer is to drill and just patch the shit before we leave. Or not hang them. Which is just a ridiculous non-option. Even if I had somewhere to store them (I don't, more on that below), I wouldn't want to not have them hung. And then what? Wait until we move out until we get to have them up? Eff that noise, they're going on the walls...somehow. We also had dreams of putting up lots of mirrors towards the back of the apartment to bring in the light from the few windows we have. We shall see about that as well.

Storage space, or lack there of. Holy crap the Palace spoiled us. Well we did pay a damn pretty penny to be spoiled by it! But the amount of built in storage space and extraneous storage closets / rooms to keep my arts / crafts / crap really was amazing. And obviously uncommon. Hello cookie cutter one bedroom apartment, where is your full wall of built in bookcases with mirrored doors? And we only have one built in mirror, in contrast to hell, 16!? mirrors at the Palace. So while K was on her mini trip to ANC to pick up the new rig, I wanted to try and unpack the rest of our totes that have been taking up all of our tiny space. And that's when I realized we didn't have enough storage. Oh I knew that was the case going into it, but that is when I really knew it. I would open a tote, rifle through it and look for stuff I could put away and not find anything. Okay, I put some stuff away, but the majority of it needs somewhere to be put. If I unpacked it, it would just be on the floor. And we don't have near enough square footage to do that. So I shoved all the un-unpackable totes in the corner, where we hope to put our dining table (with sweet wall mirrors surrounding it) someday and put the dining table semi decently (awkwardly) skewed next to the bookcases and behind our rando recliners. I arranged the recliners and side table to make our cot couch and coffee table space look much more living roomy. Looks pretty cute if you put on blinders for walking past the corner of totes and flotsam. But I digress, back to storage. I looked at freestanding shelves at Fred's, seems to be the best option. But even then, those will take up space. I'm tempted to keep our storage unit that we rented for the move. Maybe organize and keep the craft / art / crap that I actually think I will use in the next three months at the house and send the rest to storage. I don't know though, I like the idea of just living with wonky, crowded storage and keeping the $85 a month in my pocket.

In other, other news:
K flew to ANC and drove back our brand new '94 4Runner! She's cute, needs a name and possible a catalytic converter. Oy, don't get me started. I think the brief-but-felt-like-forever time apart was very good for us. K got some much needed time with friends she has been missing and I missed the shit out of her while she was gone and got in some fantastic Ver time, with a bonus karaoke appearance. Yikes!

Also while she was gone, I moonlighted at the knife shop for a weekend guest appearance. Mr. D had knee surgery and needed some help. I figured I was just going to be sitting around missing her anyway, so why not sell pointy things and make moola while being mopey. It was great, kind of funny how I was able to just slip back into the spiel. And cleaning the shop just cemented how much I LOVE having a state job. It's true, I fucking love being a state worker. I do my job (that I enjoy!), I get paid regularly, I get weekends and evenings off. I don't get calls at home, I don't work holidays and I have insurance. Yup, I'm sticking with it.

MC Lou is a plant uprooting demon. K brought back some African Violets and some kind of really cool looking plant that looks like aloe but the spikes are different. The aloe looking one is actually five or six little plants that have been replanted temporarily in one pot. So maybe that's why she had NO problem uprooting and removing ALL of them from the planter this morning while I was home sicky and sleeping. Then I cleaned it up and she did it again while I was out of the room. Really MC?! Ugh, it's a damn good thing she's fucking adorable.

Gluten free for me! This one will get its own post someday. After months of continued and unexplained sickness, I am taking the "go gluten free" advice of an incredibly smart and amazing lady who happens to be one of my best friends from forever ago (middle school) and is now a chiropractor. I was tested for Celiac Disorder by my doctor, yeah the same one who still doesn't know what's wrong with me, and didn't test positive for gluten intolerance. But then my above mentioned smart, amazing middle school bestie gave me the rundown. Basically she said the tests that they run don't test enough and that I very well could still be gluten intolerant and that most likely that's what is wrong with me. So I've been giving it a shot since the 16th or 17th. So far it is a little difficult but only because I haven't had the chance to stock my pantry properly. It feels very similar to being a vegan, reading labels and being hyper aware of what people offer you. Ugh, not that great, but if it makes me better then buh-buy delivery pizza and regular bread, hello not feeling like crap 23-6.

We have been mulling over wedding options. And bejesus it seems like the more we discuss it, the more new options we come up with to choose from. Which is making choosing just one very difficult! So I made a list of our top locations and pro's and con's, yes I am that nerd. Hopefully this will make one just stand out and we can forget the rest. I would like to have some stuff pinned down, even if it was just the colors or flowers or you know, the date! Little things like that :P It's getting closer and closer, whatever date it ends up being. I just saw that July 14 is a Saturday...I like the idea of a Bastille day wedding. I'm not a huge fan of combining holidays and weddings, like Christmas or Valentine's day, but Bastille is a French holiday, no one would know but us...and my mom. And she'd be proud and fucking love it :)

Magna-poet

Life as now

After being sick pretty much all winter, I went to the doctor to see what the hell was up. I was nauseous all the time, my stomach hurt, I never ate so I lost a bunch of weight. The doctor originally prescribed some kind of antacid which did not help. I hate drug companies. Anyway, after it didn't work my doctor took a bunch of my precious, precious blood and ran a bunch of different tests. Apparently one was a really expensive one, but good thing you have health insurance! That's what the nurse said to me. Yeah but I have to pay my deductible. So I'm still paying for it. And that turned out negative, I want a refund. But what it did show was that I have H. Pylori. It's some stomach bacteria that like 50% of the world has but symptoms aren't always present. I could have picked it up when I was younger and it never affected me until now. I looked it up and I had EVERY symptom except one, vomiting. Luckily the nausea has never gotten to that point. But it was like a ray of light shining down. I know what's wrong!! I know what's wrong with me! So they prescribed this crazy (read: expensive) treatment of antibiotics. Which funnily enough have the same side effects as my symptoms. Actually worse. On top of all the regular stuff I had a horrible metallic taste in my mouth for days. Really, really horrible. But the treatment should make me right as rain.

My doctor also send me to a surgeon (who I like way more than my regular doctor) and she scheduled me for an ultrasound to rule out ovarian cysts and gallstones. The ultrasound was on Tuesday and then I had a follow up with her on Thursday to discuss the results. Apparently I have polycystic ovarian syndrome. Lots of little cysts on my follicles basically. The doctor said my primary doctor would be prescribing me birth control as that's how it's treated. I don't know what this will mean as far as the whole makin' babies thing, we're just gonna have to wait and see. Most of the sites I've found say exercise and a low GI diet are good ways to combat PCOS. Which sounds a lot better than hormones.

On top of all this, I'm sick. Like bleeeh flu sick. After my doctor appointment I only made it two hours before I had to come home and crawl into bed. And I couldn't get up today either. I suppose it's the antibiotics lowering my immunity. Although I did make it downstairs once today and I might make it down again. We'll see.

But for now I have two lovely kitties keeping me company. We got a kitten! And not just any kitten, oh no! My beautiful K had to drive to Anchorage for work and was up there a week. The day before she came back she send me a bunch of pictures of cats in a shelter and told me she was getting one. I was sick and exhausted from the meds and super deep cleaning the house in prep of the surprise party I was throwing her the next night, so I didn't really believe her. But she said she picked one out and she was bringing it home. Luckily I only had one more day to wait to see them and plenty to do to keep me busy until then. At the same time K was picking out a kitten and visiting her fam-damily up in ANC, I was planning her golden birthday party. She turned 28 on the 28th and all she said she wanted was a party. So the roomie and I went to every store ON EARTH to look for gold decorations and things that could pass for gold. I was really impressed with what we came up with actually. It was a super fun theme. We had gold, orange, yellow snacks, drinks, a "special" four layer lemon cake, and fixings for fancy shmancy grilled cheese panini's. And gold crowns and Ed Hardy tattoos that I found at the last moment.

Below I give you party and new kitty pics. And a shot of the art I framed for K, found on my interweb love, etsy. Our little kitten's name is M.C. Lou for Mama Cass because we both love Mama Cass. And it also stands for Micro Cat because she is TINY! And the other crazy thing about her is her front feet. They both have extra feet, or at least the start of extra feet. The "thumb" toe on each of her front feet have more than one claw. One has three and a little pad below them and the other isn't quite as developed. We should have named her Chernobyl. Jack thinks we should have never adopted her, but what does Jack know? She's just mad she has to now share us. But it's been about two weeks now and they get along much better. Not quite BFF's but they'll get there.

I am a lucky girl.

Still tickin'

So maybe it's been a while. Six months huh? That is a while! Let's see where my lil life is at...

I am currently gainfully employed by the State of Alaska, title Office Zombie I. Some day if my rational thinking skills degrade enough, I can move up the corporate ladder. It is very, very different from working in the private sector. I at least like some parts of my job (at least I keep telling myself that) and definitely love the security and benefits!

Which is good since I've also had some weird, I don't even know what you'd call it ailment, I guess. I've been sick for months and have no real clues as to what is causing it. It's just great, super fun, lemme tell you! But on the plus side, and yes I know this is vain, being too sick to eat made me drop like 20 lbs. Heck yeah! At least I get something out of it, right?! And it makes me aware of what I eat, so maybe I can get all better and just keep losing weight! Also heck yeah!

I quit smoking. Oh yeah. For reals. I quit October 20th. I have smoked probably a total of 5 cigarettes, either a full bummed one or stolen drags. And pretty much all when drinking, not when stressed. Which to me is a really good thing. I know that I still want to do that when drinking, but I also know I don't really drink much. So if say I want a puff and that's it, then I will do that. But even when drinking I haven't liked it. It's like my brain is so trained to want it, it just does automatically and now it's having to relearn that it doesn't like it. And it's doing damn good job!

My amazing future wife is just that, amazing! I won't say that it's sunshine and roses everyday but that's okay! It's better than that, it's honesty and communication! SO WEIRD! She is really a truly incredible person and I'm a lucky girl. We've decided on Spring / Summer of 2012 for the wedding. Mainly so we have more time to save up for it. We're both on the same page: this is it, let's do it right. The latest wedding plans are looking "ship shape" :) We'll see if they last, it is still a long ways off. But not that far!!

We're looking to add another cat to the fam-damily. Jack is such, such, such a sweetheart. She has become this lovey, adorable cat since we moved into The Palace. But she's also super needy. She meows all the time. Meows because you came home and didn't immediately pet her, meows because she just walked into the room and you didn't immediately look at her, meows because she is staring at the wall... Oh and she often wakes one or both of us up around 5AM. It's usually me because I'm up off and on anyway. And K buries herself way under the covers so Jack's claws can't get to her anymore. And somewhere in our crazy, lesbian minds there is some chemical seeping into our bloodstreams. A chemical that says "Yes, another cat would fix all your current cat problems." And so we are looking for another cat, preferably a kitten. I really think that if Jack is to like a new addition at all it will have to be young. I think she'd just be pissed at us for bringing another adult cat in.

Let's hope another six months don't pass before I post again...