The above image is of my teeny front yard, or what was once a front yard. I haven’t grown grass there in years. I’ve been a vegetable gardener for the past 25 years or so, and after moving into my current house about ten years ago I realized two things. The first was that I didn’t like to cut grass (I’ve always known that), and the front of my house received the best sunlight. So you know the rest…yup, tore it up and planted food. Anyhow, I spent the better part of the morning today preparing the soil. I planted a few things in pots today and should start to get things in the ground over the next week (I also have a small garden in the rear of the house). The Mundo is in the background mounted with three crates getting ready to get more plants and supplies. Exciting. Anyhow, if you’d like to see a few pics from previous years gardens, click here. You may also find Food Not Lawns interesting.
I generally do not post things on this blog related to politics or the military (other than my posts regarding military bicycles), it’s just not what I want this blog to be about. But when I came across this photo today I couldn’t help myself (I found it at A Taste for Social Media). Has anyone seen this image before? I’d be interested to know if it is real or just Photoshopped…and if it is real, where it is and what the circumstances were. Peace.
The above image is of my teeny front yard, or what was once a front yard. I haven’t grown grass there in years. I’ve been a vegetable gardener for the past 25 years or so, and after moving into my current house about ten years ago I realized two things. The first was that I didn’t like to cut grass (I’ve always known that), and the front of my house received the best sunlight. So you know the rest…yup, tore it up and planted food. Anyhow, I spent the better part of the morning today preparing the soil. I planted a few things in pots today and should start to get things in the ground over the next week (I also have a small garden in the rear of the house). The Mundo is in the background mounted with three crates getting ready to get more plants and supplies. Exciting. Anyhow, if you’d like to see a few pics from previous years gardens, click here. You may also find Food Not Lawns interesting.
I generally do not post things on this blog related to politics or the military (other than my posts regarding military bicycles), it’s just not what I want this blog to be about. But when I came across this photo today I couldn’t help myself (I found it at A Taste for Social Media). Has anyone seen this image before? I’d be interested to know if it is real or just Photoshopped…and if it is real, where it is and what the circumstances were. Peace.
I’ve mentioned many times on this blog that this dish (Lebanese Chicken-and-Rice) is one of my all-time favorite recipes, I could eat it a couple times a week and not tire of it. I’ve also posted many variations of it, and this is yet another. The thing I did different this time–other than using brown rice, which I generally do now–is that about 10 minutes before the rices was done cooking I lifted the lid and layered a pound of fresh spinach on top. After it was finished I gently folded it into the rice. The recipe is below, but if you’d like to see other variations of this recipe–with many more photos showing it being prepared, click here. To see other Lebanese-inspired recipes, click here.
Lebanese Chicken-and- Brown Rice
Makes 4 servings
3 tablespoon olive oil
4 chicken breasts
4 ounces diced onion
2 ounces whole wheat spaghetti, broken into pieces
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup long grain brown rice
3 cups hot chicken broth
2 tablespoons minced parsley
Heat the olive oil over high heat in a heavy-bottomed pan. Sauté the chicken on both sides until golden brown. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Add the onion and vermicelli to the pan and cook until golden, then add the garlic and cook another minute or two. Add the cinnamon, cumin, allspice, and salt; sauté two minutes while stirring. Add the onions and pasta back to the pan along with the rice, stirring to fully coat it with with the oil and spices. Then add the chicken breasts to the pan, pushing them gently into the rice. Pour in the broth and cover the pot with a lid. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Remove the pot from the stove and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with minced parsley.
48 live vegetable plants, 120 lbs/54.4kgs top soil, 2 bags (5 lbs/2.2 kgs each) organic vegetable fertilizer, a jean jacket, 2 lbs/.91 kg brown rice, 2 lbs/.91 kg boneless chicken legs, 3 liters of red wine, a quart of milk, and 1 lb/.45 kg fresh spinach.
Okay…so I hail from Buffalo, NY and we are “famous” for our wings (but there’s so much more that there is to know about our cuisine and beautiful city). At any rate, this being partially a food blog I offer the obligatory chicken wing recipes. Some of these recipe have been posted before, but not in a while. And if you’d like to read a brief history of wings, with personal recollections regarding them, read this post which is a re-print from a previously published magazine article.
Traditional Buffalo Wings
Preheat enough vegetable oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit to fry as many wings as you see fit. While the wings are frying melt a good sized piece of whole butter in a large bowl and swirl in Frank’s Hot Sauce. When the wings float and are crispy and cooked throughout, remove from the hot fat. Drain them and toss with the butter and hot sauce.
Puerto Rican Wings Adobo
6 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon ground oregano
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
24 chicken wings
Combine all the ingredients except the wings in a food processor and purée until smooth. Toss the chicken wings with the marinade and refrigerate 1 hour or over night. Roast or grill the wings 30 minutes, or until fully cooked.
Lebanese Lemon-Garlic Wings
6 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup lemon juice
2/3 cup olive oil
24 chicken wings
Combine all the ingredients except the wings in a food processor and purée until smooth. Toss the chicken wings with the marinade and refrigerate 1 hour or over night. Roast or grill the wings 30 minutes, or until fully cooked.
Tandoori Wings
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup plain yogurt 4 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 jalapeno peppers
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 small onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro 24 chicken wings
Combine all the ingredients except the wings in a food processor and purée until smooth. Toss the chicken wings with the marinade and refrigerate 1 hour or over night. Roast or grill the wings 30 minutes, or until fully cooked.
Yup…it’s that time of year again. Time to start thinking about the victory garden. That’s a savoy cabbage plant pictured above. Future food for my son and I. In a few months I plan on eating it. No, let me rephrase that. In a few month months, after I harvest the cabbage and some cayenne peppers from my front yard garden, I’ll make kim chi–or rather, combine the ingredients and it will make itself–and then I will eat it.
Many of you likely know that I have finally (finally!) given up car ownership (or in my case, truck ownership) and have have seamlessly moved from being car-lite to car-free. Well in a last act of departure I had to “surrender” the plates to the DMV today, and it seemed appropriate–as if in some final death march–to carry them on one of my bikes. Done. Finito. Fini.
The above image is of a pin that was given to me yesterday by a friend (thanks Jane!). It’s a miniature version of a sign that I’ve had in the front garden for the past years. Actually the sign in front of my house is the second sign…the first was stolen (how’s that for irony). It’s an image/slogan that began with Sister Karen Klimczak. Anyhow, I was going to write a long post on how much I enjoy having the sign in front of my house (though I don’t always believe I do what it says), how much it means to me, and how powerful and beautiful I think the below quote and prayer are…and also how much inner work I feel I need to do to be able to actually embody some of the things I share on this blog. But I don’t know where to begin. The image, I believe, and the below words, speak for themselves.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
The Prayer of Saint Francis Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
I made this bread today because I happened to come across a package of wild rice I had in my freezer from at least a year ago. It’s similar to any of the whole wheat bread recipes on this blog–including the Ezekiel Bread recipe–with the exception that it contains wild rice. Delicious…anyhow, here’s the recipe.
Whole-Wheat Wild Rice Bread
Makes 3 loaves
1 cup (6.6oz/187g) wild rice
3 quarts (96floz/2.83L) water
____________
cooked rice
2/3 cup (5.3 oz/157ml) cooking liquid
2 cups (11oz/312g) whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons (.2oz/5.6g) instant yeast
____________
4 cups (21oz/595.3g) whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons (.75oz/21g) vital wheat gluten
2 cups (16fl oz/.47L) cooking liquid
____________
1/4 cup (2fl oz/59.1ml) honey
1/4 cup (2fl oz/59.1ml) olive oil
3 teaspoons (.3oz/8.5g) instant yeast
3 teaspoons (.5oz/14.1g) kosher salt
Combine the rice and water in a medium pot and bring to a boil; lower the heat to simmer and cook the rice for about 50 minutes or until very soft. As the rice cooks add more water to the pot as necessary because the cooking liquid, which is full of nutrients, will become part of the recipe. After the rice is cooked allow it to cool in the liquid to room temperature, refrigerating if necessary. Then drain it, squeezing it with your hands or the back of a spoon, reserving the cooking liquid.
Place two bowls side-by-side; one will hold the pre-ferment, the other autolyse. In one bowl combine the cooked and drained rice with 2/3 cup (5.3 oz/157ml) of the cooking liquid, 2 cups (11oz/312g) whole wheat flour, 2 tablespoons (.5oz/14g) vital wheat gluten, and 2 teaspoons (.2oz/5.6g) instant yeast. Stir just until combined then cover it with plastic wrap. In the other bowl combine 4 cups (21oz/595.3g) whole wheat flour and 1 1/3 cups (10.5fl oz/315ml) cooking liquid; stir just until combined then cover it with plastic wrap (take care not to get yeast into this bowl). Allow the bowls to rest at room temperature for about an hour, during which time the preferment will begin it’s job multiplying yeast and fermenting flour, and the autolyse will soak liquid, swelling the gluten.
After an hour or so, combine the ingredients from both bowls into the bowl of an upright mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the honey, olive oil, salt, and 3 teaspoons (.3oz/8.5g) of yeast (add the yeast and salt on opposite sides of the bowl). Knead the dough on medium speed for about 8 minutes. Place the dough in a lightly oiled container, cover it loosely, and allow to ferment for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in bulk. Deflate the dough and allow it to ferment an additional 30 minutes.
Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and cut it into 3 pieces. Shape into loaves and place into lightly oiled pans. Loosely cover the loaves with plastic wrap and allow to ferment for 30-60 minutes, or until double in size and when gently touched with a fingertip an indentation remains. Preheat an oven to 450f (232.2C).
Bake the breads for about 30-40 minutes, adding steam to the oven a few times (either with ice cubes or a spray bottle) and rotating the breads every ten minutes. The breads are done when they are dark brown and sound hollow when tapped upon. Remove the breads from their pans and allow them to cook on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before slicing.
I caught glimps of these as I was unloading my bike this evening after a brief ride home and just after it had stopped raining. Separately they are beautiful; together they are–I think–stunning. I love how they are in contrast to one another. One is brightly colored; the other dark purple, almost black. One is smooth, the other jagged. The bright one has a dark background and the dark one has a…well, you get the idea. Click it for a larger view.
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.” –Mahatma Gandhi
I’ve mentioned a few times on the origins of this blog, but in the event I’ve yet to bore you with it I’ll state it again because sometimes I veer off course. A little over four years ago I started this blog as a sort of public diary on my efforts to simplify my life (read the first post here). And while I’ve always been an avid cyclist one of the ways in which I planned to simplify was to bike even more (and drive less). I have, I believe, been successful. One of the original names of this blog, in fact, was going to be, My Two Mile Island, and that I would ride a bike within a two mile radius of my house instead of driving, no matter the weather. This has bee mostly successful also. I mention this because I’ve been reflecting lately–on this blog, but mostly my life–and some of the twists and turns it has taken. And I mention all this because I’ve been thinking of my motives for going car-lite and now car-free (yes…ta da…I finally did it…sold the truck yesterday). And sometimes I really question myself…am I a bit nuts (well, yes, but I mean really). Here I am 50-years-old with creaky knees and a sometimes aching back–and I can afford a car–but I choose to voluntarily give up car ownership. Why, I wonder, am I doing this…I mean really…why? So I mentally listed some of the reasons, and here they are in no particular order.
Going “green,” or doing it for the environment. I list this first because this is what most people think when I tell them I am car-lite or car-free (“oh, that’s so great…your going green, I wish I could do that”)….but, believe-it-or-not, it is actually low on my personal list of reasons. Yes, of course I want to do good things for the planet (I really do believe we are destroying it, not just with cars but in so many ways), but that’s not the only reason I choose not to own a car…it’s not even the main reason. Like any good American the main reasons that I choose to be car-free are for selfish reasons. Money is a big one. I am tired of the insurance payments, high gas prices, and never-ending upkeep and repairs of a car. Health is also a reason–but not the main reason–I like the fact that I burn calories and not gas when I walk or bike. But here is the real and main reason–the top of the list–on why I choose to go car-free. Drum roll please….because I like to walk and ride bikes more than I like driving a car. It makes me feel free.
For much of my adult life I’ve felt this way. When I was a teenager living in the suburbs I would sometimes leave my car parked in the driveway to save money and hitchhike the 5 miles to work (money for beer and marijuana was way more important at the time). This of course was when hitchhiking was viewed as semi-safe and people would actually pull over to give a stranger a ride. I remember how free I felt walking down the road with my thumb out thinking I was some sort of character out of a Jack Kerouac novel.
And when I became a bit older and moved back to the city I again was car-free. For the first 5 or 6 years my future (now ex) wife and I were together we we car free. I would bike, take a bus, or walk to work. Walking was, and sometimes still is, my favorite form of personal transport. Sometimes when I walk and am in deep thought I’ll arrive at my destination and not remember much of the walk…sort of like I meditated my way there.
Will I stay car-free permanently? I don’t know. I hope so, but I can’t be sure. We had a really mild winter this past year, but I have to admit it is a lot easier dealing with the extreme winters on foot when you’re in your twenties rather than your fifties. But still I plan on giving it a try.
The top of the two photos is an image of a bumper sticker I put on my truck a couple years ago. It is actually what caught my eye as the truck pulled away; the last thing I saw of the truck. Interesting, I think. A sort of mock evolution…an ape to a bicyclist. But I really think it’s a good metaphor for life in general (mine and yours)…life is in constant motion and evolution. I am certainly not the same person I was 5 or 10 years ago, or even just a couple years ago. It would be impossible; I’m in a different stage of life than I was a decade ago. Things change and so do we.
So for now I plan on giving this a try, who knows what the future holds. And this is what I was thinking about as I was riding to work this morning with the cool but damp spring air on my face and in my ever-thinning hair. I felt free, and a song by a similar title–one of my favorite Who songs–kept ringing in my ears, especially the opening line….“I’m free, and freedom tastes of reality.”
A jean jacket, a cell phone, a camera, a small bag of tools, two New York State automobile license plates (more on that later), and four cement blocks.
Okay…so this is pushing the limit what what to carry on a bike. These blocks, the best I can figure weigh about 38lbs/17.2kgs each (152lbs/68.9kgs total)….it felt like more. I know it is claimed that the bike is able to carry more weight–and it likely has–but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t difficult. I’ve carried bulkier loads than this but this was a bit nerve wracking to say the least. Often on this bike–because of the way it is built–I can’t tell the difference or am not aware of a load because it rides the same. Let me just say that I was fully aware that I was hauling a bike full of cement. Thankfully I only had to carry them about a mile and a half.
In the event that you missed the super moon last night (also flower moon), here’s a couple images. The top photo was taken while I was out walking my dogs, and the below image was shot in my back yard. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It was incredible. Click either for a larger view.
This is a play on traditional spaghetti-and-meatballs…in place of meat I used fish for the balls. I could have called it by it’s fancy-sounding Italian name, polpette di pesce, or it’s French cousin, boulettes de poisson, but in English it is what it is…fish meat(less) balls. Anyhow, these are so easy to make and really delicious. If you like fish and pasta (as I do) then you will love these. I used tuna but you can really use any fish you like (so long as it is fresh), and while I finished cooking them in tomato sauce and ate them with pasta, they are great on their own or served with a side of rice pilaf. To make them you simply puree all of the ingredients in a food processor, shape them into balls, and saute them in olive oil. Delicious. The recipe is below.
Fish Meat(less) Balls
Serves 4
1 pound fish, diced 2 slices whole wheat bread, crusts removed, diced 2 large eggs 1 small bunch parsley, chopped 1/2 small onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon basil 1/2 teaspoon crushed hot pepper 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and process until a smooth paste. Shape into balls. Heat a cast iron or non-stick skillet with a few tablespoons olive oil over medium high heat. Saute the fish balls on all sides until browned and cooked through or finish cooking them in sauce.
Today was such an incredible spring day and it felt good to be on a bike. As I’ve mentioned many times on this blog one of the things I really enjoy about transporting yourself on a bike is that you see so much more…you are an active part of your surroundings. These are a few of the pictures I took when I was running errands this morning, and pictured in this post. Anyhow, the above photo is the always impressive Albright Knox Art Gallery, the photo just below is Hoyt Lake, the one below that is Chapin Parkway, and lastly, two radio towers reaching for the clouds. As usual…click any for a larger view.
Urban Simplicty 