Yes, I braved the icy frozen outdoors to go get fresh herbs and such from the Co-Op. It was worth it.
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| Lovely icicles outside my bedroom window |
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| Snow mounds by Trader Joe's |
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| Looks a bit like mashed potatoes doesn't it? |
Short Post: Stew and Snow-cream!
Today we tried THIS beautiful recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen: Dilly Stew with Rosemary Dumplings. It was delicious and actually not that hard to make... the biggest problem was I had to separate it into two pots at one point because our big pot wasn't big enough. Also ... the dumplings... they grew to be humongous ... ! Next time I will take "spoonful" to mean a small spoonful rather than a heaping one.
Yes, I braved the icy frozen outdoors to go get fresh herbs and such from the Co-Op. It was worth it.
And what else delicious is there to eat when you don't want to go too far from home? Well you can always try to find some clean snow (we found ours on the roof) and using this recipe (well, we used almond milk instead of cow's milk) we made something that wasn't quite ice cream but was more like a really really good snow cone in a bowl ("Shave ice" as they call it in Hawaii). I would recommend adding the sugar and milk in gradually though, because we didn't need all that sugar actually... putting it all in might make it too sweet. I ate two bowls even though I was shivering, 'cause it was oddly good. And it was just really fun taking a chair outside and spooning snow off the neighboring apartment roofs xD
Yes, I braved the icy frozen outdoors to go get fresh herbs and such from the Co-Op. It was worth it.
SNOW! And Life's Pleasures
So today I walked back from my job interview. In the snow. It was beautiful and probably one of my happiest moments in the last week.
No, I don't know yet if I got the job.
Yeah, my toes were a bit cold, and my fingers and nose too, but it sure beat sitting around at home. Everything was beautiful, and I was enjoying it so much, in fact, that when I got home I decided to go walk around the park because I wasn't ready to be inside yet. There were too many awesome things to see.
There was a family sledding down the tiny little hill in the park... the happy squeals made everything twice as cheerful. It reminded me of the old Lionel Barrymore recording of "A Christmas Carol" that my mom plays every Christmas Eve... the part where Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning and goes to stroll around town in the snow, greeting his neighbors. "He had never imagined that any walk, that anything, could give him so much happiness."
In a world where happiness seems so elusive, isn't it great that sometimes we can get so much pleasure out of something as simple as walking in the snow, which takes no money, no fancy technology or anything like that? The greatest joys in life are out there for us to grasp if we can open our hearts and our eyes a little. The world is beautiful. People, animals, plants, the forces of nature, the stars in the sky. Science. Art. After spending a morning talking with the daycare director about how children love to explore everything, I know that deep down we all want to keep being amazed at this world and this life God gave us. All the little things. That doesn't mean that life isn't hard. Snow is cold and wet and people get sick in the winter and the clouds block out the sunlight and make us lethargic and traffic gets delayed and the list of woes goes on.
But that doesn't mean that the world is any less beautiful.
To bring this full circle back to veganism, thinking of all of life's little pleasures reminded me of a conversation I had with a teacher at BYU Hawaii, when I was finishing up my big 20+ page paper on LDS values and Animal Rights. I don't remember all that was said, though I think most of it was positive... but near the end of the conversation my teacher said, in reference to giving up animal products:
"But life has so few pleasures already."
I didn't know what to say to him at the time (curse my tendency to become passive when I can't immediately think of the right response!) but later that day, and many times since then, I have thought to myself, "how sad." How sad first of all that people believe there are so few pleasures in life, when there are so many, even if at times they are hard to see. How sad that the irony of that statement was lost to both of us in that moment--the irony being that if there are few moments of pleasure for us human beings, we think it is justifiable to take away the even fewer pleasures and joys the animals in our charge might have, such as the joy of parenthood and other relationships, the joy of freedom, open air, and room to play, and most of all the joy of life itself. And as time has gone on, how sad it is that people believe that our pleasure in food will disappear if we decide to take a stand against cruelty. I can honestly say that the pleasure I take in food has tripled. I enjoy grocery shopping, cooking, and eating so much, not just because I love food, but because it gives me a wholesome feeling being constantly reminded of the peaceful world I am dreaming of and trying to live toward ("live toward"--I just coined a new phrase!). I feel peaceful, yes, and that is one of the most important aspects of true joy.
And joy is even better than pleasure, isn't it?
No, I don't know yet if I got the job.
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| check out this crazy snowman! |
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| Rose hips |
There was a family sledding down the tiny little hill in the park... the happy squeals made everything twice as cheerful. It reminded me of the old Lionel Barrymore recording of "A Christmas Carol" that my mom plays every Christmas Eve... the part where Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning and goes to stroll around town in the snow, greeting his neighbors. "He had never imagined that any walk, that anything, could give him so much happiness."
In a world where happiness seems so elusive, isn't it great that sometimes we can get so much pleasure out of something as simple as walking in the snow, which takes no money, no fancy technology or anything like that? The greatest joys in life are out there for us to grasp if we can open our hearts and our eyes a little. The world is beautiful. People, animals, plants, the forces of nature, the stars in the sky. Science. Art. After spending a morning talking with the daycare director about how children love to explore everything, I know that deep down we all want to keep being amazed at this world and this life God gave us. All the little things. That doesn't mean that life isn't hard. Snow is cold and wet and people get sick in the winter and the clouds block out the sunlight and make us lethargic and traffic gets delayed and the list of woes goes on.
But that doesn't mean that the world is any less beautiful.
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| Excuse my squinting and pokey curl xD |
"But life has so few pleasures already."
I didn't know what to say to him at the time (curse my tendency to become passive when I can't immediately think of the right response!) but later that day, and many times since then, I have thought to myself, "how sad." How sad first of all that people believe there are so few pleasures in life, when there are so many, even if at times they are hard to see. How sad that the irony of that statement was lost to both of us in that moment--the irony being that if there are few moments of pleasure for us human beings, we think it is justifiable to take away the even fewer pleasures and joys the animals in our charge might have, such as the joy of parenthood and other relationships, the joy of freedom, open air, and room to play, and most of all the joy of life itself. And as time has gone on, how sad it is that people believe that our pleasure in food will disappear if we decide to take a stand against cruelty. I can honestly say that the pleasure I take in food has tripled. I enjoy grocery shopping, cooking, and eating so much, not just because I love food, but because it gives me a wholesome feeling being constantly reminded of the peaceful world I am dreaming of and trying to live toward ("live toward"--I just coined a new phrase!). I feel peaceful, yes, and that is one of the most important aspects of true joy.
And joy is even better than pleasure, isn't it?
Adventuring in Search of a Future (and a Job)
Well, I'm back in Bellingham, and as of this moment I'm watching big flakes of snow fall into the darkness outside, and listening to people whoop in the park next door, and feeling some butterflies about my job interview tomorrow.
Yep, I have a job interview tomorrow... it's for an educational childcare center called Kidsworld. I am so nervous!
It has been weird coming back to Bellingham but not going back to school. Now that I'm graduated I have to pay off my student loans and start working toward the next set of goals in my life. The list of those goals is getting longer and longer!
While I was out tromping around giving people resumes the other day, I came across this by chance
At the time I thought to myself, "Ah, I love it. I wish people thought this way more often!" and inwardly thought of all the social justice issues that people are so apathetic about and how I wish I could find a way to light a fire inside them. But now suddenly I'm realizing (as always) that I'm guilty of this too, in some way. I spend so much time and attention on browsing the internet lately, it's ridiculous....
At the same time, though, I try not to beat myself up, and so I'm going to try and focus on the ways in which I've been doing better at being productive.
-I've applied to 13 jobs since January 3rd... which means I've done an average of one per day. Which may not seem like much, but it's a lot better than I've done on any of my other job searching binges.
-I earned some money cleaning someone's house the other day (YESSSS)
-Art-wise, 2012 is off to a good start because I actually FINISHED A PICTURE.
-I put up a bunch of my old schoolbooks up on Amazon, which I've been meaning to do for ages but have never done before
-I started working on a short story again
But more importantly, I suddenly have an entire list of things I WANT to do with my time, and I have so many angles I want to approach my future from.
My main three goals for the next 5-10 years are 1) to become financially independent 2) to become a published author and 3) volunteer and/or work for an organization which helps animals.
In an upcoming journal I shall have to tell you about my dream of creating a haven for "damaged" or "broken" or "lost" people and animals to heal and be safe and loved, and how I came to this idea.
But in the meanwhile... there are so many ideas floating around in my head. Writing and/or illustrating children's books about animals... writing articles and short stories for publication (stories about people who feel unloveable, people who need acceptance before anything else), volunteering... job searching makes me realize just how many paths a person's life can go down, and how many ways people interact with each other.
No matter where you work (grocery store, bank, construction company, hospital, restaurant, whatever) you can make a difference by being an example of your principles, and trying to love the other souls you come in contact with. When I got contacted for this daycare job I'm going in to be interviewed for tomorrow, I found myself thinking at first, oh, if I get this job I hope it isn't too demanding so that I don't have time to really do the important things in my life. But then I realized that I was thinking about it all wrong. If I get this job, the most important thing while I'm there will be focusing on loving those kids, and trying to figure out how I can make a difference in that sphere.
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt.
And to end, because my brain is falling asleep and I have to get up for my interview tomorrow (if I can make it through all the snow), here's something to commemorate MLK JR day. I've been seeing a lot of really great quotes about nonviolence, which is always awesome. But here's one that will hopefully encourage people to realize the importance of doing what they can.
"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
P.S.another quote which was taped to my late brother's door for a very long time.
"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do." - Helen Keller.
Yep, I have a job interview tomorrow... it's for an educational childcare center called Kidsworld. I am so nervous!
It has been weird coming back to Bellingham but not going back to school. Now that I'm graduated I have to pay off my student loans and start working toward the next set of goals in my life. The list of those goals is getting longer and longer!
While I was out tromping around giving people resumes the other day, I came across this by chance
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| "Why are you committing most of your attention to life's least important things?" |
At the same time, though, I try not to beat myself up, and so I'm going to try and focus on the ways in which I've been doing better at being productive.
-I've applied to 13 jobs since January 3rd... which means I've done an average of one per day. Which may not seem like much, but it's a lot better than I've done on any of my other job searching binges.
-I earned some money cleaning someone's house the other day (YESSSS)
-Art-wise, 2012 is off to a good start because I actually FINISHED A PICTURE.
-I put up a bunch of my old schoolbooks up on Amazon, which I've been meaning to do for ages but have never done before
-I started working on a short story again
But more importantly, I suddenly have an entire list of things I WANT to do with my time, and I have so many angles I want to approach my future from.
My main three goals for the next 5-10 years are 1) to become financially independent 2) to become a published author and 3) volunteer and/or work for an organization which helps animals.
In an upcoming journal I shall have to tell you about my dream of creating a haven for "damaged" or "broken" or "lost" people and animals to heal and be safe and loved, and how I came to this idea.
But in the meanwhile... there are so many ideas floating around in my head. Writing and/or illustrating children's books about animals... writing articles and short stories for publication (stories about people who feel unloveable, people who need acceptance before anything else), volunteering... job searching makes me realize just how many paths a person's life can go down, and how many ways people interact with each other.
No matter where you work (grocery store, bank, construction company, hospital, restaurant, whatever) you can make a difference by being an example of your principles, and trying to love the other souls you come in contact with. When I got contacted for this daycare job I'm going in to be interviewed for tomorrow, I found myself thinking at first, oh, if I get this job I hope it isn't too demanding so that I don't have time to really do the important things in my life. But then I realized that I was thinking about it all wrong. If I get this job, the most important thing while I'm there will be focusing on loving those kids, and trying to figure out how I can make a difference in that sphere.
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt.
And to end, because my brain is falling asleep and I have to get up for my interview tomorrow (if I can make it through all the snow), here's something to commemorate MLK JR day. I've been seeing a lot of really great quotes about nonviolence, which is always awesome. But here's one that will hopefully encourage people to realize the importance of doing what they can.
"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
P.S.another quote which was taped to my late brother's door for a very long time.
"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do." - Helen Keller.
I Owe You, Bees.
Sorry for two posts in one day. I'll try to keep this short. It'll be mostly pictures anyway.
I recently watched this 4-minute video about pollinators and read a thingy on DeviantArt about the maker of the video.
It's just another reminder to me of how much we depend on other creatures for our survival, and how careful we have to be not to drive away our benefactors.
Remember that without bees, bats, butterflies etc so much of our food would not even exist. Therefore we would probably not exist. Without them, actually, most plants which reproduce by creating seeds would probably not exist because those seeds are the fruit that results from pollinating the flowers.
When I was growing peas on my apartment balcony, I wondered how in the world bees would find my tiny patch of vegetable plants when there wasn't much else flowering nearby. But they did. Perhaps it was because I let my bak choy and daikon bolt so they were flowering a bunch too, but just the same I was so happy one day when I walked out and saw a bunch of bees flying around. It seemed like a small miracle.
So... it's good to remember that we really don't have the right to do whatever we like with our "resources", and if we think we do, eventually we'll end up destroying ourselves xP So just remember to be grateful for even little "bugs" like bees and other little creatures like bats.
I recently watched this 4-minute video about pollinators and read a thingy on DeviantArt about the maker of the video.
It's just another reminder to me of how much we depend on other creatures for our survival, and how careful we have to be not to drive away our benefactors.
Remember that without bees, bats, butterflies etc so much of our food would not even exist. Therefore we would probably not exist. Without them, actually, most plants which reproduce by creating seeds would probably not exist because those seeds are the fruit that results from pollinating the flowers.
When I was growing peas on my apartment balcony, I wondered how in the world bees would find my tiny patch of vegetable plants when there wasn't much else flowering nearby. But they did. Perhaps it was because I let my bak choy and daikon bolt so they were flowering a bunch too, but just the same I was so happy one day when I walked out and saw a bunch of bees flying around. It seemed like a small miracle.
So... it's good to remember that we really don't have the right to do whatever we like with our "resources", and if we think we do, eventually we'll end up destroying ourselves xP So just remember to be grateful for even little "bugs" like bees and other little creatures like bats.
Dinner With Friends!
So I'm two days away from heading back up to Washington... actually less since I'm flying out Tuesday morning.
Yesterday we had some good friends over for dinner and I made the ENTIRE THING!! I was so proud of myself. Even though it basically meant spending all day in the kitchen and my feet hurt by the end of it, everyone enjoyed everything and so it felt really good. It's nice to just hang out with friends and family, and even better when everything is vegan.
Making such a big meal is a real milestone for me. It really boosted my cooking confidence.
The Menu:
-Rustic Winter Stew with Mashed Potatoes or Rice (I didn't feel like making Polenta)
-Cornbread
-Zesty Bean and Corn Salad (a double batch)
Drinks: Water and non-alcoholic Sparkling Burghundy
Dessert: Chocolate Pudding Pie with whipped MimicCreme on top
So basically, I am really grateful for the internet because without it I could not cook awesome meals like this.
Rich (our main guest)'s wife also brought an amazing cucumber salad that tasted kind of Vietnamese. It was awesome.
This dinner served about 12 people if you count the two little kids. I was glad that we fed everyone well and still had some rice and mashed potatoes left over (and cornbread and bean salad too!). Actually there was some pie left over too.
One of the best moments of the night was when Rich was teasingly trying to guilt me for creating such tasty food that it caused him to overeat. My response? "I regret nothing!!"
He burst out laughing.
On the one hand I'm glad I'm going back to only having to cook for two people since cooking for so many has been a little difficult and sometimes exhausting. But on the other hand it's really nice to be able to share delicious vegan food with other people and get compliments on it... it also is a nice way of surprising people, showing them that you don't have to really give up tasty food when you're vegan. You just have to make it a little differently and sometimes it tastes even better. My sister just told me "vegan food is the only way I like eating vegetables!" Hahaha.
I guess I'll have to start going to potlucks and stuff xP
In general I'm fairly satisfied with how things have gone food-wise on this trip. I feel humbled that my family has bought me what I wanted to cook with while I've been here, and my parents have both been very supportive... the kids for the most part have tried everything I've made even if they thought they wouldn't like it. It's been good.
I will miss them...
Looking to the future: the next vegan potluck in Bellingham is scheduled for February 18th! I will have to start thinking of what to bring... xD
Yesterday we had some good friends over for dinner and I made the ENTIRE THING!! I was so proud of myself. Even though it basically meant spending all day in the kitchen and my feet hurt by the end of it, everyone enjoyed everything and so it felt really good. It's nice to just hang out with friends and family, and even better when everything is vegan.
Making such a big meal is a real milestone for me. It really boosted my cooking confidence.
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| The aftermath |
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| Rustic Winter Stew (the pic on PPK is better >_>) |
The Menu:
-Rustic Winter Stew with Mashed Potatoes or Rice (I didn't feel like making Polenta)
-Cornbread
-Zesty Bean and Corn Salad (a double batch)
Drinks: Water and non-alcoholic Sparkling Burghundy
Dessert: Chocolate Pudding Pie with whipped MimicCreme on top
So basically, I am really grateful for the internet because without it I could not cook awesome meals like this.
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| Cornbread (of course) |
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| Bean and Corn salad |
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| It's beautiful....!! |
This dinner served about 12 people if you count the two little kids. I was glad that we fed everyone well and still had some rice and mashed potatoes left over (and cornbread and bean salad too!). Actually there was some pie left over too.
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| My little sister talking to Rich |
One of the best moments of the night was when Rich was teasingly trying to guilt me for creating such tasty food that it caused him to overeat. My response? "I regret nothing!!"
He burst out laughing.
On the one hand I'm glad I'm going back to only having to cook for two people since cooking for so many has been a little difficult and sometimes exhausting. But on the other hand it's really nice to be able to share delicious vegan food with other people and get compliments on it... it also is a nice way of surprising people, showing them that you don't have to really give up tasty food when you're vegan. You just have to make it a little differently and sometimes it tastes even better. My sister just told me "vegan food is the only way I like eating vegetables!" Hahaha.
I guess I'll have to start going to potlucks and stuff xP
In general I'm fairly satisfied with how things have gone food-wise on this trip. I feel humbled that my family has bought me what I wanted to cook with while I've been here, and my parents have both been very supportive... the kids for the most part have tried everything I've made even if they thought they wouldn't like it. It's been good.
I will miss them...
Looking to the future: the next vegan potluck in Bellingham is scheduled for February 18th! I will have to start thinking of what to bring... xD