Gothic Granola

If you have ever read any Buddhist sutras translated to English, you will recognize the title structure:  "Thus I have heard..."

...Because 99.9% of the food produced in this household befits the adjective "mysterious," to the uninitiated.

Long time, no blog. I was camping in California for Wasteland Weekend.        

Thesis: The so-called glorification of busy in 21st-century, first world business stems from an unconscious cultural reverence of saints and mystics, and martyrs, to a lesser extent. Bias: I studied martyrs, mystics, and saints in college and see their characteristics everywhere: self-sacrificing, obsessive, whole-soul commitment to a cause that extends (sometimes) beyond their personal aims.

Most days, I ride my bike to work. After a few months, I figured out something... Rules for wearing a skirt (of any length) while riding a bike: 1) Don't. 2) Bring safety pins--both to pin up a long skirt before and to fix the inevitable rips afterwards. 3) Lose sense of shame. 4) Wear cute undies because you will flash people. 5) See Rule #1. Especially because of the cold, I've given up on skirts for a while. Soup! Because it's cold outside. There's probably 1,001 variations on some vegan, gluten-free, roasted butternut squash curried soup because it is brainlessly easy to prepare. Even a zombie could make it.

Ask a gluten-free person what they miss most and it's most likely bread and beer. When I brought this bread to my gluten-free friend, with shaking hands I presented it--"It's...it's bread. "

Clearing the table in one fell swoop often makes a mess.

Happy Halloween! Noodles look like brains. As I am Undead Q, brains it is for Halloween/my birthday. A chance stop at Whole Foods in Tenleytown yielded this Creamy Tahini and Broccoli Pasta recipe, which is eerily similar to pasta nests that I remade from my mother's recipe in 2011 . Like most Health Starts Here recipes, it is a blank slate. Add spice. I used a package of sweet potato noodles and two remaining skeins of millet noodles; they all clung to each other like the nests. Since I needed tahini for making hommos and had eaten the rest of a bag of broccoli-cauli mix last week, I substituted almond butter and indiscriminate frozen veggies for the eponymous ingredients.

Not in that order. Found some interesting articles this week, beginning with this one  on your date's eating habits, from which there shall be two posts. Today's post deals more with the meta aspects of dating a veg*n (vegetarian/vegan). The next post shall include reviews of eateries in DMV area that are veg-friendly (hell, that are Q-friendly, since as we know , just because it's vegan doesn't mean it's gluten-free).

Poison As a friend of mine states it so elegantly, when we GF-ers eat gluten, if feel like "our guts are rotting." All of my food intolerances--dairy, eggs, and wheat--provoke that kind of inflammatory response from my body. The sushi I bought at work yesterday? Q-poison. Didn't read the label--rule number one in eating out as a VGF person--and I was already eating when I noticed the sesame kale rolls were vegan, but, alas, not gluten-free. Poisoned. It's a fitting twist of fate, given that I am beginning a new job elsewhere on Wednesday.

I love carbs. Probably because I'm exhausted most of the time (work hard, play hard). This will soon change when I have a stable schedule, about which I am more excited than Samhain and Winter Solstice combined. To make a new routine that revolves around a stable work schedule will help me get grounded and stay grounded. For I know I can jump to higher creative heights when I have a stable base from which to jump. Speaking of jumping:  a spot of exercise with your dear blogger.  This is how I checked my form on one of my favourite moves from INSANITY. Exercising late at night obviously has its effects.

It’s squash season, or as I say it in my head, “skvosh.” When I can use my mom’s or my grandmother’s food processors, I jump on it. I like my squash grated.

For weeks now, I’ve been wanting to give yeast bread a go at the Abbey in order to test a jar of yeast, to see if it was still active. Bread creation satisfies me on many levels. This is hardly a new observation. Something I also find satisfying is making playlists and burning them to CDs.

Quick Cucumber Mint Pickle This was my third-place recipe for Wednesday's Foodie Call at ARL WFM. The ingredient was mint and the challenge was to come up with a recipe, make the recipe and get set up in two hours, and "demo" it--serve it in tiny bites with an attractive display--for another two hours. While I've watched cooking challenge shows for years, this took the cake--or the cuke. Since I'm customer service, I could use any ingredient from the entire store to cook. Being vegan and gluten-free, and it being summer (tomorrow), I gravitated towards produce.

Q is for Quinoa. Quinoa pizza bites are all over the ’nets. Google it. Figured I’d throw my hat into the ring, my colonial tricorn into the Coraline other-world ring, that is. The particular recipe I deconstructed and rebuilt is from a blog called “The Way to His Heart Blog,” taking its title from the phrase, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

“What does the Q stand for?” is at the top of my FAQ about Q. Especially since I work in a public place, people either see the tattoo on my arm or see my nametag. Yes, it’s my legal name. No, it doesn’t stand for anything, hence no period after the letter. Read here and here for details.

I went to the Library at Alexandria yesterday and borrowed a few books. I get such a kick out of saying I went to the Alexandria Library when in truth I patronised the Public Library System of the City of Alexandria, Virginia. While I was on the search for fiction, I checked out the cookery books as well. The few vegan or gluten-free titles they had were classed with the “health food” and “reducing diet” cookbooks. Really?

  Every artist is a cannibal Every poet is a thief Both kill their inspiration And sing about the grief --U2, “The Fly,” from Achtung Baby (1992) Why am I sharing my signature dish? Why not. It’s carried me through pre-ganism (when I was testing out this vegan thang because I thought it would keep me safe from other issues with food…subject for another post). It’s carried me through breakfast, lunch, supper, and snacks as a vegan and likewise when I became gluten-free.

As I am going to be a panelist on the Words Made Flesh: Intersections of Sexuality, Gender Identity, and Spirituality panel at my  alma interfectoris  LGBT alumni conference next weekend, I wanted to share a symbol I now wear on my right hand. As there’s no way to tell if a person’s ace(asexual) without asking them, the ace ring was born on AVEN or another similar online forum ( symbology here ; check out this blog post for  details on the ring ).

This was so gourmet I impressed myself. The pomegranate molasses elevated it from ordinary to extraordinary. Granted, the butternut squash tasted a tad bland with all the other spices going on, but you say "reduction" and "seared" and all else is forgiven. It's not a true reduction, but it's viscous enough to be like one . Seared Tempeh with Sesame Pomegranate Molasses Reduction, Braised Greens, and Butternut Mash 2 8-ounce packages of tempeh (I used the plain soy and flax flavours; make sure it's GF.) 1 quart water 2 yellow onions, half-mooned 2 cloves garlic, sliced thin or pressed pinch Kosher salt 1 teaspoon celery seeds 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 1/4 teaspoon allspice 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil 2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses 1/2 teaspoon GF tamari 4 cups dandelion greens or other bitter greens, ribboned 2 cups roasted butternut squash 1 tablespoon maple syrup 1 teasp...