butternut squash chocolate chip cookies

Tonight I baked up some vegan butternut squash chocolate chip cookies. They're my favorite vegan sweet potato chocolate chip cookies with baked butternut squash in place of the sweet potato. Anyway, they're great. They were originally made with pumpkin, so butternut squash isn't so far off.

exploding butternut squash seeds

I was cooking up my butternut squash seeds in the microwave and after just a couple minutes they started exploding. They were making a mess. So I took them out and ate them half-raw.

strawberry oatmeal

I am so happy I had creamy oatmeal with fresh strawberries in it. Strawberries are in season in my homeland almost all year round. And I brought some back to Sacramento with me. So good!

butterflies mating

We went to a eucalyptus grove at Pismo Beach to see monarch butterflies overwintering. They mate on the ground, and these two were right behind my mom's foot. She moved away from them, and my dad took a picture.

us at Avila

My parents and I went to Avila Beach's pier and had lunch at Pete's Pierside Cafe. My parents took this picture of us.

the Getty

After the zine fest, and after lunch at Samosa House East, which was delicious, we went to the Getty. It was our first time. It was a Sunday, and it took an hour to get through the road from the freeway to the paying booth (it costs $15 to park) and finally to a parking spot. Then we waited in a long line to take the tram from the parking area to the museum. We met my friend L at the top of the stairs near the statue of a naked boy holding a frog.

Then we looked at art for an hour or so, took a snack break, and looked at art for another hour or so until the museum was closed. Then we stopped by the gift shop and bought a few postcards--I got two postcards of James Ensor paintings we unfortunately had not seen.

The city views from balconies were good. Erik and L took pictures I haven't seen yet. After the visit, we walked from the museum to the parking structure, a 15 minute walk, and it was getting dark. We enjoyed the views of the cars on the 405, their red and white lights.

I don't know if we'll ever be back, but I hope to go back one day.

LA Zine Fest

Two days ago Erik and I attended the LA Zine Fest. We arrived in downtown LA right before 11, got a little bit lost, got found, and parked! The Last Bookstore seems fantastic.

I was really impressed with the quality of the zines. I wanted to buy much of what I saw. I traded with a few people, which was great, and bought maybe seven inexpensive zines. I also got some free things like stickers and postcards and a small button badge that says Up For Trades which I wore.

I met four friends for the first time. I was very excited to meet Carrie McNinch, who makes the famous daily comics zine You Don't Get There From Here. It was amazing to meet someone in person who I had known for years through her comics, and it was like talking to an old friend.

I am so lucky to belong to such a vibrant community.

back of sign

Yesterday we went birding at Vic Fazio then to Berkeley for photocopying and fun. I took some pictures and have posted them here for your viewing pleasure.

Y2K curtain pattern

At our favorite restaurant in Berkeley there are Y2K curtains in the women's bathroom.

Erik with Berkeley plum blossoms

parking sign

Erik took this picture for me.

bathroom light

I'm always afraid of getting in trouble for taking pictures in bathrooms. This one's at Shorebird Park.

rusted garbage can

garbage can

garbage can with me

RIP

the star of the show

potato leek soup

Tonight I made some vegan potato leek soup for dinner. It's delicious! It feels really wholesome too. I had to make myself stop eating it so there would be some left for Erik, who's doing yoga.

It's really easy. It only needed to simmer for 20 minutes. It's very quick, for a soup.

The older I get, the more I find myself loving potatoes. And I never much thought about leeks, but they keep showing up in our CSA.

Here's how I made it, but I think it's forgiving.

***

about five medium potatoes, diced
about two and a half leeks, white and pale green parts only, chopped up
earth balance
two vegan bullion cubes
salt
pepper
plain unsweetened unflavored soymilk

I sauted the leeks in a tablespoon of earth balance for maybe five minutes. Then I added potatoes, enough water to cover, a teaspoon of salt, and two vegan bullion cubes. Simmer for 10 minutes--stir. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Mash the soup with a potato masher. Put some in a bowl and add some soymilk. Stir. Eat!

***

Oh, and I'd like to thank my ex-mother-in-law for the potato masher. So much of my kitchen stuff came from her--the green tupperware measuring spoons, for example. Thank you!

Chewy Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

Today I made the chewy chocolate raspberry cookies from the Veganomicon. You can see the recipe here--I didn't make them in cookie sandwich form, though.

http://yeahthatveganshit.blogspot.com/2008/02/chewy-chocolate-raspberry-cookie.html

They are so good. I had been craving sweets, and these were perfect.

carrot oatmeal

Oh my god, carrot oatmeal is the best! I got this idea to grate a carrot and a half, saute it in earth balance, and then make oatmeal like usual, only I added a tsp of vanilla. It was subtle! It was tasty. I love it.

"Never Get To Know" by Paul Baribeau

This is one of my other favorite Paul Baribeau songs.

"Ten Things" by Paul Baribeau

Plan-it-x super sale

I sent twenty bucks to Plan-it-x records for the super sale. I got sent a lot of cds and two dvds. One of the cds was Grand Ledge by Paul Baribeau. I was so happy because I love the Paul Baribeau cd I already had. I'm listening to Grand Ledge right now and love it. It has "Ten Things" on it which I find inspiring.

I also got Here, Not There by Heathers which I sent to my best friend A because she liked the two songs of theirs I put on her latest mix.

I also got Romance, Conflict, Adventure by BFF which I want to give someone but I don't know who.

And all the other cds I don't know and haven't listened to yet, and I haven't watched either of the dvds, but I am so happy they are waiting for me.

radicchio

We got radicchio in the CSA last week. Erik really likes it. I think it's quite pretty.

Here's a not-the-best picture of it from wikipedia.

quinoa in chocolate

Hey, we tried some dark chocolate with puffed quinoa in it. It's pretty good.

quinoa for breakfast

I tried something new, making quinoa for breakfast. I made it with sweetened soymilk and cinnamon and salt, and I put some molasses in Erik's bowl. It's okay--it's good for a change. After it was cooked, I kept putting more and more extra soymilk in it, and the quinoa kept absorbing it.

When Erik noticed, he said, "This isn't oatmeal. This is grain bubbles." Do you ever eat quinoa? I hear it has good protein in it.

party night

I wrote a blog post then deleted it because I wanted to use what I wrote in my new zine instead.

It's party night! Party night for the downstairs neighbors, that is. It's a work night for us. Erik's working a 12 hour day.

I'm going to bed--night, friends.

new

I made myself a new address book. My old one, I couldn't stand to look at it anymore. It was emotional deciding who to keep in and who to leave out. My old one was made of grocery bag paper. This new one, I used regular white computer paper and some pretty scrapbooking cardstock for the cover. And I bound it with string. Anyway, I need to proofread everything in the new one against the old one. Then I can put the old one away and not have to look at it every day.

new postal rates chart

http://www.undergroundpress.org/pdf/postalrates.pdf

Thanks, Zine World!

haircut, zine libraries, dinner

Guess what? I cut my hair! It's not dramatic, but I'm happy with it for now. Thanks for your encouragement, J! You helped me find the bravery.

I get contacted by zines libraries wanting me to donate zines. The postage can be expensive. But I do it because I want people to read. The other day one in Tokyo contacted me, and this morning one in West Covina.

Last night we went to dinner with our friends HR and M. It was fun. We talked about movies, games, books, their recent wedding, their rings (for which they paid a fortune). We ate Lebanese food.

It's SAT scoring day four.

my hair

I want to cut my hair, but I've read some tutorials and watched two youtube videos and don't feel confident that I can do it! I asked my friend HW and she expressed concern about never cutting curly hair before. I don't think Erik will do it. It's so thin--seems like it should be easy--but I'm afraid of messing up and having to pay money to get it fixed. So I don't know what to do, but I'll keep thinking about it.

romanesco broccoli

Here's a picture I took of Erik holding the strange thing that came in our CSA this morning.

Colas by Dan Zanes and Friends

This is my new new favorite song!

Pollito Chicken

The Dan Zanes song "Pollito Chicken" is incorrectly labeled "Polito Chicken" in Windows Media Player. I was looking for the lyrics and got confused because I didn't understand it was labeled wrong.

Anyway, here's a link to the song lyrics.

http://www.danzanes.com/songbook/nueva-york/pollito-chicken

"After the Curtain" by Beirut

My new favorite song!

happy

Happy February, friends! It's valentine time.