Juice Part 2

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Made another batch of juice, this time adding a couple of carrots. Definitely added some body and sweetness. This recipe yields a little less than a liter. I know this because I bought an adorable liter carafe today. I decided to time the entire process, and it took about half an hour including everything - produce preparation, actual juicing and cleanup. Not bad. I think this time will improve as I continue to do this.

First Foray into Juicing

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I have been sick for the last two days, which for me, means that I have been basically asleep for the last two days. Since I live in a house with very affectionate cats, this has meant very happy cats, and the occasional nightmare where I think I'm dying, but it's just Donald trying to sleep on my chest. he weighs 17 pounds. I am never without company, is what I'm trying to say.

During the three hours that I was awake yesterday, I watched "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead." It was interesting. I hated the animations, and the Australian dude was kind of annoying. However, Phil Staples was awesome, and there were some interesting things mentioned in the movie. Mostly, if you tell me that something might help eliminate migraines, and it's not dangerous or prohibitively expensive, I'm going to try it. I guess my official stance on this movie is "I didn't like most of it but when Phil Staples showed up it all became worthwhile. That dude is awesome."

So I watched this movie, and it was all "juice juice juice, juice is awesome, I will now go into awesome diners and try to make people feel bad about their diets because I am a wealthy mildly obnoxious Australian" and all I wanted when it was over was juice, but all I had in the house was a lot of chili. So I had some chili (I also got some potatoes, so technically, I had an awesome baked potato with chili on it) and I ate a carrot because that was the best I could do under the circumstances.

Now, my mother gave me her old juicer a couple of months ago, and it's just been sitting around. I was glad to get it, and I remember using it when I was little to make carrot juice, which I did not enjoy (no small children enjoy carrot juice, pretty sure) so this seemed like a good opportunity to use an appliance that I hadn't used in ages. I love appliances! But I didn't feel well enough yesterday to go get stuff to make weird hippie juice.

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Today, I slept forever, then I went to the store and picked up things to make one of the juices featured in this movie. It's called "Mean Green" (adorable!)

Ingredients:
4 stalks celery
1 cucumber
1 ginger root (size of thumb)
1/2 lemon
2 green apples
6 kale leaves

I went to ALDI and Trader Joe's and spent about $10 (but I'll have enough to make a few batches...ok, did the math and this batch, which yielded about 30 oz., cost $2.62). Peeled the cucumber and the apples (ha - I didn't peel the apples! But I should have! I will next time) and cut off the lemon rind. Then I made some juice!

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It's definitely healthy juice. It's not super sweet juice like I'm used to, but it tastes nice and it's not so healthy-tasting as to be off-putting (do you know what I mean? I drank kambucha once and the only reason I finished it was because it was $5 and it was so awful I *knew* it had to be good for me. Just me? OK.). I got two big glasses of juice out of it, and I was impressed by how well this juicer did. They have all sorts of fancy juicers now (there's a very long article on The Wirecutter about them, which is a fun read if you're into that sort of thing), and I do love gadgets, so I was kind of expecting this to not do a great job. I did try to feed things into the juicer slowly so that it would have a chance to extract the most juice. Juice juice juice juice juice...it doesn't even look like a real word anymore...Clean-up was pretty easy, and overall, it was a neat experience. I will do this again.

Juice!

Sunday night routine: cook, clean, wash. Read a book.

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I like routines. I think they're helpful for people who are not naturally organized or motivated to do things that aren't fun. This is why Wednesday night is vacuuming/light housecleaning night.

Sunday night is my arbitrarily designated "check the laundry levels, do some laundry if necessary," "do whatever dishes need to be done" and "get groceries and cook something that will last the whole week." For the laundry, this means doing the actual wash and then folding and putting things away. No dryer storage! For dishes, this is running the dishwasher if it's full then putting dishes away when they're done. Any dishes that need to be done by hand are done immediately after using them, so there's no sink of dishes to deal with EVER. This is all part of the "make everything a routine because otherwise it's all going to get messy and terrible." This is how it works for me. I realize that there are lots and lots of people who can totally handle their stuff without having to do everything completely. People who can do half a thing now, and the other half later! I'm not that person. This is all about how I've figured out how to manage my tendencies toward clutter. As for the cooking, in the winter, this is usually something in the crock pot. Tonight, it's chili, in anticipation of the very cold front that is moving in!

All of this is a nice end to the weekend, it gives me some semi-forced reading time (I have a tendency to check out library books and then put off reading them because I've got so many things I could be doing! Like napping! Or playing with Donald and James!). If I'm really organized, I can start the food in the morning and by the evening, it's ready, and my house smells amazing. This gives me plenty of time to play board games or go shopping or take naps or look at purses online or whatever I have chosen to do with my Sunday.

Crock pots are amazing and magical and every person living alone should at least seriously consider getting one. I will say that if you do this and you have cats, you might get yelled at for doing inexplicable things like "slicing vegetables" instead of "paying attention to cats."

Chili recipe from tonight (big crockpot):

1# ground turkey
1/2 # ground beef
1/8# ground sausage
2 onions, diced
(brown all of these together in a pan)

2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans tomato paste
1/4 # dried pinto beans
1/4 # dried great northern white beans
2 12-oz. cans cheap beer
chili powder and cumin to taste
4 medium-sized carrots
the biggest turnip I've ever seen
3 cups assorted hot peppers, seeded (I used habaneros and jalapenos)

Combine all in enormous crock pot. Cook on high until done.

Add some sort of vinegar and cayenne hot sauce to finish.

(Gee, that's a lot of meat for someone who just talked a whole bunch about not wanting to eat so much meat because of ethical considerations! This is the meat that was in the freezer. I have more, and I'll have to use it up as well, but from here on out, all the meat I buy will probably end up being INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE, and I will have to come up with a good veggie chili recipe)

Tonight's book: "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. LeGuin. I'm excited.

"Dominion" and how reading a book can change your life

Not always in a fun way...

I recently read "Dominion" by Matthew Scully, a Conservative Catholic vegan. He wrote Sarah Palin's VP nomination speech! We could not be more different. It's eloquently written and very, very compelling. It's about a number of things, but mostly about stewardship and how we are failing to live up to what we are called to do, from both a Biblical and an ethical standpoint. Among the topics explored are big game hunting (and hunting in general), whaling, animal experimentation and factory farming. I wonder if part of why it's so viscerally affecting is that I came to this book from a place of skepticism. What does a Conservative Catholic vegan have to say to me? Lots and lots. I spent the last two hours of reading with a knot in my stomach caused by grief and guilt. It's not a fun read, but I believe it's an important one.

For me, the sum of this is that the thin veneer of plausible deniability that I have so carefully cultivated over the years has been removed, and I've been wrestling with what this means for me and my relationship to food - particularly meat and dairy. It's easier to not read this book. It's easier to not think about what goes into what I eat, but I can't pretend that I don't know anymore, and I can't keep contributing to the amount of suffering that takes place in the meat industrial complex.

I am fortunate to live in a place where an organic, ethical food movement has taken hold. There are a number of farmer's markets and co-ops in the area where pasture-fed meat can be obtained. I can easily find Shatto milk at the store (if I really wanted to, I could take a day trip out to the dairy itself). Tomorrow, I'm probably going to check out Howard's Organic Fare/Vegetable Patch, which is a kind of local 24/7 membership grocery thing (I'm not entirely sure how best to describe it, but it's fascinating to me).

Equal in importance to this accessibility, I am in a position financially where purchasing these products is something I can do. This is certainly not something I could have even considered when I was younger, so in some ways, I'm lucky that I've come to this quandary at this point in my life.

I've considered vegetarianism, and there are many health benefits (as well as the prospect of environmental sustainability) but my biggest motivator is the guilt I feel over the living conditions of animals in factory farms. I'm not concerned about my health, and I'm a fatalist when it comes to the state of the world. We're doomed! I have come to accept this! I don't go out of my way to do awful things - I recycle, I try to minimize my driving, but we're not headed in a good direction, and I haven't seen anything in policy or other sea change that makes me think that we're going to turn this around in the time we have left to do that! I'm oddly chipper about it. But in the time we have left, I'd like to at least reduce the amount of suffering that my own personal existence encourages.

What's probably going to happen is that I'll go mostly vegetarian, and on the rare occasions that I eat meat, I'll try to buy it from ethical, local sources.

Seeing things, wanting things...(mostly pi)

I have been aware of the Raspberry Pi for quite some time, but I only saw one in person tonight. I want one. It's funny how seeing something tangible sometimes makes me want it more than just being interested in it conceptually. Another example: lightsaber replicas. Along these same lines, I hope I never meet Jeremy Irons...

Anyway, it seems like a fascinating project component. I certainly don't need any new hobbies or projects ... in my copious spare time, I help plan an international fantasy/sci-fi/concept/etc art convention (I'll probably post about this here one of these days) so I'm definitely keeping busy ... it's just that this is such an appealing intersection of cheap and technical and *interesting* that it's going to be hard for me to just pass on it.

Now I'm trying to figure out what I'd do with it. And, of course, what to do about the enclosure. (Legos. Obviously Legos.)

In Which I Ramble About Operas and Symphonies and I Do Not Talk About Cats At All

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I have the best intentions when it comes to seeing shows. I really, truly believe that I'm going to take advantage of the marvelous arts scene in Kansas City. There are fairly affordable tickets to a lot of things, and I always think "I'll just get back row tickets and it'll be cheap and easy and I'll see everything!" I never do this. I never, ever do this. I just forget, and things come and go and I realize after the fact and it's frustrating. This is how I missed "Tosca" at the Lyric Opera. I was so upset about "Tosca" that I got season tickets to the opera and have just continued to do that every year since. When I was younger, I got the cheapest package you could get. I really appreciated that with a subscription, I could switch performance dates and get additional discounted tickets. Now that I'm older, I get slightly nicer seats. I don't think I'm ever going to be a person with super fancy awesome seats, but the fact that I'm someone who gets season tickets to the opera at all, frankly, feels very fancy. As of this year, I'm trying this with the symphony as well. Sundays at the Symphony - the little subscription! For people who are interested in seeing symphonies, but are also kind of cheap.

Two facts about going to see live musical performances:
1. You can dress up!
2. You totally do not have to dress up.

Not everybody is into opera. (I would go so far as to say that most people are NOT into opera. Certainly not most people my age.) I love it. Yes, operas are long. They can be ridiculous, their storylines can be maddeningly inappropriate ("Cosi fan tutte" is TERRIBLE. "Turandot" is TERRIBLE.) but the music can be sublime. Opera is amazing. If you have never seen it live and you live in Kansas City, I urge you to give it a try. I would also urge you to not see "Norma" because it's a tough opera for a non-opera person to enjoy/stay awake for. Maybe try "The Barber of Seville," anything by Gilbert and Sullivan, "Carmen," "Turandot" or something with a piece that you've heard before. I think it can be very helpful to see a show where the music feels familiar. Opera is used in a lot of popular media (Bugs Bunny cartoons!), and when something is familiar, it's a lot less weird and intimidating.

I attended a performance of Mahler's 6th on Sunday at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. It was the first time I had been in the Helzberg Hall, and I was definitely impressed. The acoustics were wonderful, and the seats were supportive but not so comfortable that I worried about nodding off (I love classical music, but I do tend to get a little bit sleepy sometimes).

Music has always been a huge part of my life. When I was growing up, my dad worked at the UMKC conservatory, and I'd get to see a lot of shows. I've played the piano and the violin since I was four, and I've been in multiple string orchestras. I've performed in competitions and recitals, and while I haven't done any of these things in years, it is still of interest to me. Mostly, I enjoy music that I have nothing to do with. I find it engaging and relaxing, and similar to my advice about opera, if you have never listened to a symphony all the way through, preferably live, I think it's a good thing for people to do at least once. Some people find it incredibly boring. I recommend, again, something familiar. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky...Mahler is great. I'd stay away from Brahms if you're a first-timer...you will fall asleep. No judgment. It's veeeery soothing.

Kansas City is a very interesting city for the performing arts. It's sometimes surprising to remember that not every large city has an opera company or a symphony. Tickets to performances can be incredibly expensive. I consider myself to be very fortunate to live in a city where these kinds of experiences are both available and reasonably affordable. They have student rates, and back-row seats, and little packages that are all a huge blessing to people who are interested in this kind of thing.

Go see some shows! Attend the symphony! Check out an opera! Even if you hate it and you never do it again, you can say that you gave it a shot.

Three Words

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After a morning of waking up early and going to the vet (I'm not going to go into it. Everyone is fine, and Donald is the sweetest cat ever.), I decided to make a full breakfast. Right now, I've got smoked bacon from Hatfields Smoked Meats (owned by the Hatfields of "Hatfields and McCoys" fame. Missouri! If you're ever in Neosho, they are pretty amazing.) and brown farm eggs from some people my parents know. The coffee was roasted by a friend of mine. Sometimes I'll make waffles, but I run the risk of taking a mid-morning nap if I do that, and that's not the most productive start to a day (though it is very relaxing). Sometimes I'll make orange juice! Coffee AND orange juice? Fancy like a restaurant!

I didn't used to cook things like this unless I had friends over, because it seemed like a lot of effort for just one person, but I've come to the realization that cooking for one can be very rewarding. Washing a pan takes a couple of minutes, and more than makes up for the feeling of "ehhh" that sometimes accompanies cereal (I love cereal, but if you want a big breakfast and you settle for cereal, it can be a little bit of a bummer).

People who live alone and want breakfast, in the immortal words of Tom Haverford and Donna Meagle: Treat. Yo. Self.