Spring cleaning, part one.

it seems criminal
to recycle hemingway
coffee-stained or not

So not a Friday five.

Five things that I am going to do, starting in 2013, in no particular order:

• Eliminate selfish, thoughtless negativity.  In my work relationships, my personal relationships, even the entertainment I choose.  My time on this planet is too short and deserves more laughter and less frowning.  (This one is gonna be tough.  I admit that wholeheartedly.  Please bear with me.)
• Read more.  A whole lot more. Time to get back to my Read-a-Thon-stuffed-McGruff-the-Crime-Dog-winning-days of elementary school.*  
• Write more.  It's fun!  I like it.  I hope you do too.
• Yoga.  I do it now, sporadically, when time permits and/or when muscles are achy and/or when it's really cold and rainy outside.  I think that defeats the purpose of yoga.
• Slow down.  Because really, unless someone is dying or about to give birth, nothing is that important.

These are not resolutions, because resolutions are (frankly) copouts.

These are things I am going to do. 

Dammit.

Happy forthcoming 2013!

________________
* Don't worry, I won't ask for $0.10 for every book I read.  I might raid your kids' next bookmobile visit though.

We survived! Hooray.

Now that the world hasn't ended and the holiday madness is starting to subdue, it's time to recap the last 3 months... 

Find free fun - other than teaching English once a week, which is still really fun: check, sort of.  Walks around town are fun.  Photo walks, always fun. 

with my ragtop down so my hair can blow

Not entirely free but most definitely fun: Laurelthirst free music (free if you don't buy a drink or tip the band, but not supporting the pub or the band is lame).  Game night sponsored by Goodwill (chess and 1987's National Geographic are our recent faves, approximately $3 each). 

so, it is down to you

and it is down to me

 also a fave

(but only when I win)

Those are not "free" per se.  Free is nerdy and/or wanderlust and/or local historical DVDs from the library, and OPB - none of which involve getting out and about, or any interaction whatsoever, really.  So, yeah... more to explore in this "free fun" arena.

Branch out on gluten free baking: ehhh.  I made none of the aforementioned recipes, but I did make these (with peppermint extract and candy cane topping, probably should've left both out), and some things from this (transformed into GF goodness when needed), and the aforementioned maple almond butter sandwich cookies.  But rest assured.  I am going to make this soon.  And these.  Maybe.

and we did make this delicious ginormous 

gluten free peppermint ho ho

Finish Wildwood: check!  I SAID, CHECK!!  Yes, I am quite excited about this accomplishment.  After several hundred pages of PhD-level vocabulary, enough references to 12-year-olds doing yoga/meditation to last a lifetime, and constantly getting "Bandit Queen" stuck in my head, I was ready to call it quits. But all of the sudden there was a rabbit using a colander as a helmet which was AWESOME so I plowed onward. I can see how others might love it, and it did make me want to listen to all the albums again.  But I think I'll skip Volume II for now.

Anything on The List. Nothing this quarter but something is coming soon.  A new transmission means that selling my car and therefore, #12, likely looms in my 2013 future.

Speaking of...here's what is in store for January:

• New soup recipe every week:  I love soup.  Really, really love soup.  Soup like this, and this.  Looking forward to three months of delicious soup.  And a lot of lentils, apparently.  

the first "this"

(with fritos)

• Spring cleaning: time to pare down.  Significantly.
• Shamrock Run 2013... Q: what's 9 miles after 13.1?  A: cake.
• And yeah, learn how to drive a stick shift well.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And here... we... go!

Belated Friday five.

Five recipes I've tried and enjoyed recently, in no particular order:

• I used to love Annie's Goddess salad dressing.  LOVE IT.  It was the only salad dressing I used for years, and I would also use it instead of vegenaise on sandwiches, as a dip for grilled cheeses, with pita and falafel...  (I would only buy it on sale, though, because really, $4.50 for a tiny bottle of salad dressing?)  But then came the food intolerance which meant that in addition to soy sauce, xanthum gum and therefore all store-bought salad dressings were out.  Last week we had some leftover tahini after making hummus and I ran across this simple version (with tamari instead of soy sauce) which was pretty close, although I think this one might be better. 
• I'm not a big cauliflower fan, but this roasted cauliflower soup was amazing.  We used cream instead of milk and surprisingly, it wasn't overly rich or heavy.  Roast the onions with the cauliflower and add crumbled bacon to take it over the top.
• Ran across this carrot and leek frittata recipe while looking for something that contained no gluten, potato, dairy, or soy to make for some friends last weekend.  I left the milk out, obviously, but it was really lovely and even looked almost exactly like the picture!
  

  

• Cashew garlic sauce on... something. I can't remember what we put it on, but I remember the cashew sauce I had on the walnut pesto "pizza" at Blossoming Lotus and this was very similar. So easy, so tasty!  It would probably be delicious with the broccoli I'll be steaming to go with the recipe's Wild Mushroom, Lentil and Olive Burgers. Yunno, whenever I get around to that.
• To my surprise and delight, I learned by accident a while back that corn+dairy apparently doesn't have the same gastronomic ill-effects as other grains+dairy (thank you, Fritos, cheese and September road trip).  Have I not posted this cornbread yet?  How is that possible? I think we're on batch #3.  We just keep making it and it just keeps getting better and better.  This last time, we used bacon grease instead of butter, half-and-half yellow and blue corn meal, and muffin tins instead of an 8x8 pan.  The muffins went really well with the aforementioned cauliflower soup and will be going really well with the Mexican corn soup on the menu for later today.

When I got my "diagnosis" this summer, I told my naturopath that I was excited about the challenge ahead of me.  Apparently, I was the only patient she'd had who'd ever had THAT reaction.  I have my weak moments for sure (hello, crappy pizza I had after that show two weeks ago) and I will continue to taste things even if I can't eat/drink them.  But despite all that, the diet continues to be challenging but fun, worth it for the physical/mental health benefits, and oh so delicious at every turn. 

(About either of them.)

just a smidge jealous
joy met barefoot contessa
say "who?", you're disowned

Or the foundation of a beauty school dropout.

welcome to my world
in which tp rolls become
christmas ornaments

happy holidays!

Well, with 8 hours of sleep in between... and some coffee.

today i learned that
four drinks, no dinner, late show,
twelve miles = possible