WELL NOW I'VE GONE AND DONE IT

Somehow in my struggles I cracked and broke off a chunk of the plastic miso container. Grumble, wumble.

In other news; do these blackberries make you think of many small, curly-haired creatures? 'Cuz they do to me.

A Light Lunch on the Veranda

Or inside of my hot apartment. Nevertheless I found it scrumptious! Come to think of it, I'm not really quite sure I know what a veranda is...

• In the mug: simple konbu broth'd miso soup with onion slivers and melty kabocha wedges

• Onigiri filled with homemade hijiki nimono (a simmered seaweed dish, I didn't have aburage so I used pieces of leftover baked tofu)

• Kwees and kurrahts

3 Points of Mild Concern

• My roommate, one Aberforth Bottleslap, (Don't you wish that was her name? It's not. But close) has begun to call me "Little Muskrat".

• I wish to bathe in earl grey tea and almond milk, but know not how I could go about this economically.

• For some time I've been excited by the notion that dinosaurs could have been furry and we will never know; they existed some 60 million years before any human beans could have caught a glimpse, and skull structure might not say just everything. Yet of course, not only are there records of skin imprint findings, but likely a frillion other thoroughly scientific reasons as to why our extinct pals were, in fact, reptilian in nature. Huff.
  

"Everybody wants what a dino has; dinos, dinos, got pizazz"

Harvest of the Heavens

1:30 a.m. on a Thursday night. TGIF? I am about to munch on a late night black sesame seed onigiri, or rice ball. 9:10 a.m on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have a seminar class on the culture of Taiwan.

We recently learned about the significance of rice and its role in different aspects of Taiwanese society. Our professor showed us a video on rice cultivation and the very strenuous work the skilled farmers endure in the muggy, overwhelming heat out on the paddies. Since watching it, I find myself suddenly conscience of how often I eat rice and how much of it I see, everywhere.

I think this old expression that the video narrator mentioned is wonderful, meaningful, and amusingly graphic: "For each grain of rice, 1,000 beads of sweat".

My Not-Yet-Complete Assignment on Post-WWI Iran Sighs Up At Me

Hear the words I sing,
war's a horrid thing--
still I sing, sing, sing,
ding-a-ling-a-ling.

Grub.

For dinner: Baked tofu, steamed spinach and steamed rounds of satsumaimio (Japanese sweet potato), a simple salad with a dressing of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and grated carrot, rice with Korean olive-oil roasted nori.

For the baked tofu; I combined 1/4 cup of shoyu, 1/4 cup of mirin, and liberal ginger gratings, marinaded one sliced up 20 oz block of tofu, sprinkled with black sesame seeds, and baked in oven at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Paku paku!

Evening jams.

Thingamabobs from Etsy I Would Buy, Had I Monies

Who-zits and What-zits galore.

Head adornments for a bona fide forest critter

Hair-a-glimmer at a ragtime affair

For all your flouncing needs

These charming undergarments are handmade by an artist called Clare Bare, and she is kick-arse. She creates awesome unmentionables with vintage fabric and organic cotton. I want to point her out because I've seen her items elsewhere, and would like to share! And no, that is NOT me--some people were confused.

Lentil Curry in a Hurry

Din-dins one night last week. I had very hungrily thrown the ingredients together without really paying attention to what I was doing. So, while this Indian-inspired concoction luckily turned out pretty sassy, I will recreate it and record my steps so that I can write out a recipe. In the meantime...food pr0n?
How do you feel about lentils, do you prefer the green ones used more often in Mediterranean as opposed to Indian cuisine? Moi, I find myself partial to the red ones.

Harrison Ford and Numbly Treats

Prancer's got some attitude and no antlers. I, however, acquired like, ten rice balls. Fo' free! Every Friday, my school hosts a viewing and small forum discussion on a culturally/socially relevant film, and there is usually pizza. This past week's was Blade Runner, and instead of pizza there were rice balls galore. There was a curry one which I found particularly groovy. After the movie there were still many rice balls left, so a friend and I saved them from some other fate and (with permission) eagerly brought home a stash each. Above is shiso flavored konbu and ten-grain konbu.

It was the first time I had seen Blade Runner, it was very neat. I figure the rice balls were added a novel touch to the movie's Asia influenced dystopia concept? There was fruit too, and all was well.

Pan-a-cakes!

It is a Friday morning, the palm trees are swaying, and I do not have a class until noon-ish, so I thought this morning a fit one indeed for a breakfast-ly treat. A very generous vegan friend of mine recently offered me a bunch of baking ingredients that he wasn't using, and among this fountain of abundance is some Ener-G egg replacer. I've never used it before, and until now when I have tried veganizing things I have used the 1/4 cup of tofu, mashed banana, etc=1 egg substitution method. The egg replacer was easy to use and worked really well with these pancakes. This recipe is flexible and the major ingredients in these can be easily substituted, I just used what I had on hand. These were yummy adorned simply with a drizzling of agave nectar.

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  
• 3 tsps baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 "egg"
  
• 1 1/4 cups + 2 tlbs almond milk
• 2 tlbs walnut oil
• 1/4 cup oat bran (hot cereal)
• 1 tsp vanilla
  

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium to large bowl. Add liquid ingredients, stir just until lumps of flour disappear. Cook over low/medium heat. Stick to your chest with agave nectar and wear as pasties; shimmy.

While mine came out pretty silly looking, were they to come out as uniform rounds, I would say this recipe makes 12 small to medium sized pancakes.

Oh-ho, Dear Readers

Hello, ladies and sirs. My name is Brittany. I am back from spending my junior year abroad in Japan, during which I started a blog I had intended to be on vegetarian and cultural findings and conundrums. Now that I am back in the New World and can be a bitch in the kitch again--I had no access to cooking facilities in Japan--I thought I'd start a new, more organized and, um, consistent one. I still plan to leave my Japan blog; The Ninjin Tales, up for memory lane-ing.

Here, I will post on vegetarian culinary deeds, seeds and daily blundering about. While many meals I make for myself are vegan, I do dabble in the dairy a bit. Those recipes should not be non veganizable, however! Please, if you might, read on, and tonight--give in to your tempeh-tations.