Phocas and Francis

Not How It Should Go.

2007-12-14T16:21:00.000-05:00

I've been dealing with a lot of death recently and it's taken its toll. This one is more tragic because it was not time and it should never have happened.

Phil "bear magnet" Nierenberg died of complications from chemo yesterday. My heart is breaking for Dani and all those who loved him.

With love to all of them, please feel free to read about his struggle and amazing courage at his blog:

Bear Thoughts.

If you are interested, please make donations in Phil's name to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Donor Services, P.O. Box 4072, Pittsfield, MA 01202, so that they can find a cure and no one ever has to go through what Phil went through again.

A Wednesday in the Life of Lyco

2007-12-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

So this morning, someone lovely left a chunk of candy cane on the dining room table. Somehow under my helmet. It stuck to said helmet. I placed said helmet upon my head and blithely rode off to work. When I arrived at said work and removed said helmet, said candy cane was FIRMLY lodged in said bangs of doom (or s-bod). The s-bod was sticking straight up and holding fiercely to the helmet. I yanked. No good. I had to walk into my office with my helmet stuck to the candy cane and stuck to my hair - I clearly went straight into the bathroom, but not before a coworker saw me. It took me 15 minutes to get said candy cane out and it involved ripping and yanking feverishly. My coworkers came in and laughed at me. Then they told me it was too warm out and to work harder.

And later on that day in a series of emails from a coworker:

CW: "And now you know, when I see the word 'gas,' I think of you."

Lyco: "I hope that's because of my project."

CW: When the project fits the gal....

Braised Tempeh Bowl

2007-12-06T12:21:00.000-05:00

This made a fantastic winter meal. Keep the pieces warm in the oven as you assemble so everything comes out nice and toasty.

Serves 2

Lyco's Braised Tempeh Bowl

1 package tempeh
1 container Pacific Organic mushroom broth
1/2 cup red wine
1/3 apple cider
2 shallots, thinly sliced
7 small-med mushrooms, sliced
1 small bunch spinach, cleaned and stems removed
3 garlic cloves, minced and separated
5 sun dried tomatoes
2 roasted yellow bell peppers
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
olive oil
salt and pepper
Enough brown rice for two people

Preheat oven to 375. Cut tempeh into two even pieces and then slice those pieces down their centers (the tempeh thickens a lot as it cooks). Place all four pieces in a small pan evenly spaced. Cover with the wine and apple juice, then add enough mushroom broth to submerge the tempeh. Throw in the sun dried tomatoes and the bay leaf, and add some pepper. Cover the pan and cook in the oven for 1 and 1/2 hours, occasionally adding more mushroom broth to keep them submerged. When the tempeh is done, pull it out and lower the oven temp to 250. Remove the sun dried tomatoes onto a cutting board to let them cool. Once they are cool, slice them. Put two large bowls in the oven to warm them up.

Cook rice while tempeh is braising and keep warm. Slice the roasted peppers and keep aside.

Warm about 1 tsp of olive oil in a large nonstick pan over medium high heat. Saute 1/2 of the shallots with 1 clove of the garlic for about 1-2 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and thyme and cook until soft. Put mushrooms on a plate and stick them in the oven.

Lower heat to medium and add another small drizzle of olive oil, the remainder of the shallots, and another clove of garlic. Cook until shallots are soft, or 3-5 minutes. Add the spinach and 1/3 cup of the tempeh broth and cook spinach until soft and wilted, about 3 more minutes. Remove onto the mushroom plate and put into the oven.

Turn the heat up to med-high (on the higher end) and add another tsp olive oil and the remaining garlic. Still until the scent is released, about 30 seconds. Add the tempeh and fry on each side until golden, about 3 minutes on each side. Remove to mushroom plate and put back in oven.

Put the remaining broth from the pan into the sautee pan and reduce by 1/3. Then assemble your plate:

Evenly distribute the rice into the warmed bowls, carving a large dip in the center. On the bottom of each "dip", put in half of the spinach, top with two of the pieces of tempeh, and cover with the half the shallots and mushrooms. Pour the juice evenly over each dish.

Turn the heat back up, toss in the roasted red pepper and tomato slices to warm them up - about 30 seconds. Then lightly dress them around the edges of the rice.

YUM!

Garden Update - Building Cold Frames

2007-11-19T08:03:00.000-05:00

My recent post got me a lot of emails and a surprising number of them asked a simple question:

"What's going on with the gardening, Lyco??"

So I will give you a short garden update while I eat my yogurt and drink my morning coffee of pre-bike winter ride warmth. Brrr.

As you know, I don't have a garden of my own right now. I have herb pots, and a couple chili peppers I grew this summer, but that hardly counts. I am, however, volunteering at the 7th Street Gardens. Which, as I said before, raises organic produce for low income DC residents. It also provides nutrition and urban gardening classes to them and to local public school kids. So what have we been up to?

Well, it's winter, so we busied ourselves by building cold frames. It started by driving down to Virginia to a couple local dumps and foraging as many old windows and scraps of plywood as we could. We then had a bunch of railroad ties and 4x4s donated to us - so we used those as the "frames". That next volunteer day, we overturned all the soil by the brick building on the eastern end of the property, leveled it out, and put a series of 4x4s and railroad ties along the back wall to make a 2.5 foot high space. We also used 4x4s to create the front space for the cold frame - measuring it by the window. We set the 4x4s into the ground 3 inches. For every two windows, we cut a piece of used plywood on the diagonal to connect the back and the front. Lots of drilling and hammers and nails, etc. At the end, we had 24 feet of cold frame. We had also contructed row covers over 4 more of the boxed garden beds. And yes, we only used non-treated wood. Period.

So what's with that?

Well, the row covers are covering collards, kale, broccoli, parsnips, bok choy, and 3 kinds of radishes. The cold frames are now hosting carrots, lettuces, and spinach, beets, turnips, chard, brussels sprouts, and leeks. We still have other carrots, 2 kinds of onions, leeks, several lettuces, 3-4 kinds of winter squash, kohlrabi, lots of herbs, and some apples out there uncovered and just taking that cold to the face.

A lot of the time lately has been spent tearing out the summer crops, turning over the soil, and getting in the seedlings before the soil got too cold. Eggplants, marigolds, tomatoes, melons, etc. all came up and out. We also had a big day where 12 volunteers showed up out of now where so we got them to dig up and sift out the soil in a back area we plan to expand into come spring. On top of that, we've been testing the soil beds to see what needs to be changed for the next season, painting new signs for the winter crops, and dealing with the fact that our tool shed was robbed and all our motorized equipment stolen. Sigh.

Anyway, for the gardeners curious, we have 32 beds, so I can't really go into details about how we're mixing all the plants. Suffice it to say, we're planting quick growing plants with large plants so they will harvest in time to make room, and interspersing thinly rooted plants with root veggies to make the most use of the garden. A few obvious pairs:

Spinach, broccoli, radish, turnips
beets, parsley, kohlrabi, radish
brussels sprouts, cabbage, chard, carrots

Things grown by themselves: leeks and onions - why? Because faster growing roots will hurt these sensitive little guys.

Anyway, that's it I guess. if you really want more detail, email me again and I'll answer your questions directly, off the bl@g.

P.S. - Knitting season started and I'm SO psyched! While staying in Takoma Park last week, I bought a beautiful warm orange and browney yarn and I'm eagerly starting a double stranded hat. And I think, after years of doing this, that I finally have perling down. At least, the base of my hat says so :). I know, I'm stupid. Whateves.

Passed the Bar

2007-11-16T19:22:00.000-05:00

Well, I passed the NY bar exam. My office mates and the policy department took me out to celebrate. It was incredibly sweet of them.

I think I lasted an hour at the bar.

I know I should have gone out and gotten wasted (or whatever the term is for it right now), but I was just so relieved to have passed that I couldn't have energy for anything else. I went home and drank a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau (it came out 2 days ago!) and cooked a big dinner. And then slept in today until 9:00. My boss just chuckled when I slunk in at 11:00. Nice guy.

So yeah. Big life accomplishment, check.

I just want to say one little thing. Just one thing about that whole experience. Let this be a lesson to you that you CAN take the bar exam and keep your sanity and balance. I did not go insane, with perhaps the exception of the last two weeks, and I passed.

During the exam, I got one of the essays entirely wrong. I only wrote two paragraphs in another one. I ran out of time on the MBE - both sections.

And I passed the bar. So just don't believe the hype. You CAN pass the bar and stay balanced.

I guess that's it folks. Thanks for stoppin' by!

P.S. - Willie, I got you something that will TOTALLY make up for my tomslackery. Totally.

Vegan Down Home Bowl

2007-11-14T12:53:00.000-05:00

So I'm in this book club, and it's pretty hot. It's full of a super diverse group of women who are all highly intelligent and interesting. The deal is that the person who hosts picks the book and then you cook dinner and clean up afterwards. We meet once a month - and since there are 10 of us, you really only host once a year, so it's not huge commitment or anything. Anyway, something interesting that has occurred is that the women have been cooking traditional meals according to their backgrounds. So last month, one member who is from India made amazing chai, saag paneer, and this incredible chick pea dish and served it with raita and had Indian deserts. Wow! So when it came time for me to host (I picked The Hummingbird's Daughter - magnificique!) I decided to do a vegan South'rn meal. I made Down Home Bowls, and everyone ate WAY more that I thought! The deal is that you make everything separately and then serve it together in a big dish. Make enough so that each person has two pieces of cornbread - one to crush into the bowl, and one to sop of the remaining juices!! Because you want the sop, make everything juicy. I made the beans the day before and just made the greens and cornbread the day of. I served it with mulled apple cider.

Serves 10.

Easy Crockpot Pinto Beans

3 cups Pinto Beans
2 tsp olive oil
1 hot pepper, minced
1 celery rib, chopped
1 large onion, diced
2 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp vegetarian Worcestershire sauce (optional)
1 tbs dried oregano
1 tbs garlic powder
1/2 tsp thyme
cayenne, salt, and pepper to taste
1-2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 container Pacific vegetable broth
water

This is a really chill recipe, so make it the way you like it. Turn a crockpot on high heat up the olive oil. Saute the onion, hot pepper, and celery until softening, about 5 minutes. Add the beans, half the liquid smoke, the Worcestershire sauce, the dried herbs, and cayenne, salt and pepper to taste. Stir well. Add broth until beans are covered by 2 inches of liquid. Cook in crockpot for 3-4 hours. Go back and add the rest of the broth and probably some water until the beans are covered again. Taste it and adjust seasonings, adding more of whatever you want to get the desired flavor. Let it cook for another 3 hours or until beans are tender and liquid is thickened. Take off the heat and add the vinegar.

The Best Vegan Cornbread Recipe Ever

I got this recipe off the internet a long time ago and it is really the best one.

2 Tbs ground flax seed
6 Tbs water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp table salt
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup earth balance, melted

Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray 8-inch-square baking dish or a large cast-iron skillet with nonstick cooking spray.

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the ground flax seed, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer the ground flax seed in the water for 3 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well-combined. Add the ground flax seed mixture, soy milk, and canola oil to the flour mixture. Beat just until smooth (do not overbeat.) Turn into prepared skillet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack 10 minutes; invert cornbread onto wire rack, then turn right side up and continue to cool until warm, about 10 minutes longer. Cut into pieces.

Savory Chard

3 large bunches of chard, roughly chopped with stems and cleaned well
3 tbs olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/3 hot pepper, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/3 cup red wine
2 tbs soy sauce or Bragg's Amino Acid
dash of hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

You need a huge pan for this, if not, you should do it in batches. Heat olive oil in large, deep pan. Saute onion, pepper, garlic, ginger and chopped chard stems until softening, about 5 minutes. Add chard and coate in olive oil and seasoning. Add the liquids and cook, turning chard every minute or two, until chard is tender and reduced in size by 2/3s. Adjust seasonings.

Take large shallow bowls, and put beans and greens in halves. Top with two pieces of cornbread. Serve with hot sauce for people to adjust the heat.

Savory Tofu Recipe

2007-11-11T21:10:00.000-05:00

Just a note to say that I firmly believe in the superiority of White Wave Extra Firm tofu over all other tofus for when you desire a firm texture. It's delicious and stands up to anything.

For those interested in my life - read along - if not, skim down to the recipe below. Things are going well. I have a long term and short term case each. I'm learning lots. I like my coworkers and we're starting to bond outside of work. I still love DC. I'm building a strong community in my neighborhood and getting really involved in the urban gardens. I'm biking lots but mostly commuting/errands - about 50 miles a week. I know my bike is suffering, but I don't have the skills to deal with some of her issues. But still fighting my way through. I'm realizing that I'm gonna have to pay out a little in the dough-section to keep it up. Dough is something I lack. I'm po'.

I should probably write something soon about what a HUGE RELIEF it is to not be in law school anymore. I don't regret it - I loved the intellectual challenge. But damn. I'm glad that's over. Anyway, back to the recipes:

Crispy Fried Savory Tofu

Serves 3

1 package White Wave Extra Firm Tofu
liquid smoke
4 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs balsamic vinager
1/4 cup
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp minced ginger
2 large garlic cloves, pressed
2 tbs stone stone ground mustard (anything but yellow)

1/3 cup corn starch
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Cut tofu into 9 slices and press between 2 dish towels and something heavy (cookbooks, etc.), turning top towel once to press out moisture. Put tofu slices in a large container to marinate them.

Mix next 8 ingrediants in a bowl and pour over tofu slices, turning once. Let marinate for 1 hour, turning occasionally.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan over med-high heat. Place cornstarch on a dish and dredge tofu slices, knocking off any extra but making sure they are coated. When oil is shimmering, add the tofu in batches, cooking until each side is golden and crispy - about 3 minutes per side. Drain on newspaper or a paper bag. If you want, this is good with gravy or a balsamic reduction, but it's also amazing on its own!

I served this with rice and roasted veggies, but it's a staple with me so I serve it all the time. Yum!

The Air Car

2007-11-06T17:09:00.000-05:00

Holy crackers this is the coolest thing I've seen in a LOOOOOOOOOONG time. Apparently this car does, among other things, the following:

To fill the tanks it will take about to 2 to 3 minutes at a price of about $5. After refilling the car will be ready to drive 121 miles.
Because the engine does not burn any fuel the car's oil(a litre of vegetable) only needs to be changed every 50,000Km.
The vehicles have a small computer screen that shows the speed and engine revolutions. The system allows for infinite possibilities such as GSM telephone systems, GPS satellite tracking systems, programs for delivery people, emergency systems, internet connections, voice recognitions, map presentation, traffic information...
The temperature of the clean air expulsed form the exhaust pipe is between 0 and 15 degrees below zero and can be subsequently channelled and used for air conditioning in the interior of the car.

Check out the Air Car!

Cloud 9...hundred

2007-11-01T17:06:00.000-04:00

I actually made a difference in the world today. Me.

*I* made a difference. In the world. A difference. Like, not a pretend one. And not some indirect one. Not one of those "I did research for the guy who helped write the brief" ones. I actually directly made a difference.

Law school actually worked. Amazing!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T20:58:00.000-04:00

I'm in this beautiful little moment where the kids have finally petered out from tricker treating, and the neighbors are settling back down, but it's not quite late enough to go upstairs. There was a sweet neighborhood Halloween party - a very different ballgame from our annual shindig but lovely. So since I'm taking some well-deserved but rare me time, I decided to make a personal batch of my Halloween snack (the stuff I brought to the party) for myself - extra salty and extra spicy. I can see the pumpkin flickering out on our stairs, and I have Amos Lee blasting through our recently acquired stereo. Happy Halloween!

Lyco's Spicy Salty Halloween Snack

For the pumpkin seeds:
seeds from one pumpkin, picked clean of scrap but not rinsed
2 tbs Earth Balance, melted
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs canola oil
2 tsp curry powder
1 tbs creole spice (recipe to follow)
salt to taste

For the popcorn:
1/3 cup popcorn
1 tbs canola oil
2 tbs Earth Balance, melted
2 tbs soy sauce
4 tbs nutritional yeast
3 tbs creole spice
extra cayenne and salt until happy with life

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Put pumpkin seeds in a bowl with butter, oil, curry, and soy sauce. Mix well and lay out on a single layer into a baking pan. Top with creole spice and salt. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes or until golden, tossing occasionally. Pull out of the oven and cool.

While pumpkin seeds are cooling, heat oil in a large pot with a top that you can easily crack and heat oil over medium high heat. Add popcorn when it sizzles and pop, tossing constantly, until popping slows to 1-2 seconds. Put in a large bowl. Mix butter and soy sauce, and drizzle a little of that onto the popcorn, tossing some of each of the ingredients on and tossing the popcorn until all the liquid is gone and the popcorn is well coated. Adjust the salt and cayenne to desired amount and add in 1/3-1/2 of the pumpkin seeds. Yum!

Fall Feast

2007-10-21T23:43:00.000-04:00

Today we got the house ready for winter by sealing all the cracks in the windows and the floors. My house gets darn cold in the winter and hopefully this will do something to help. It was the roommies plus 3 of my friends. We got lots of fall beers and just tackled every room in the house. It’s rather funny that we are all in our late 20s and early 30s and yet no one could resist the obvious “caulk” and “crack filler” jokes.

One of my friends who came works at Asbury Farm and brought us 2 pounds of their lamb, so I whipped this up with stuff we already had on hand to feed everyone once the winterizing was done – it worked well that most of the CSA veggies and the local farmers markets are giving us fall veggies. Since most of the house is vegetarian, I made a veggie version of this stew with lentils to accompany the lamb. Another of my roommies had some Brussels sprouts, so that was that. The sweet potato biscuits are just a fun thing to make – I highly suggest them. My roommie made the apple cobbler, so that recipe isn’t in here – but I think she got the cobbler recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and added a dash of ancho chili powder and garam masala to the apples. To make this meal come together, first get the lamb stew cooking, then tackle the lentils and Brussels sprouts, and end it with the biscuits. Put the oven racks so that you can put the sprouts on the bottom and the biscuits on the top. When you pull everything out, reduce the oven heat and put in the cobbler. We all sat around and ate like kings while watching the Red Sox game, and I’m snuggled up in a chair writing these recipes out before I forget them – trying to digest the apple cobbler. Now back to full attention on the game – Cleveland just sported a beautiful display of running into one another trying to catch the ball. Amazing.

Irish Lamb Stew

1/2 cup + 2 tbs flour
1 tsp each ground dried sage and rosemary
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 lbs cubed lamb shoulder
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 oatmeal porter (or stout beer)
½ cup red wine
1 lb small potatoes, diced
3 carrots, coined
3 parsnips, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
3 stalks celery, sliced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbs dark brown sugar
2 bay leaves
32 oz beef broth
1/2 cup pearl barley
8 sprigs parsley
3 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs rosemary
1 sprig sage
¾ cup frozen baby peas

Salt and pepper lamb, dredge lamb in ½ cup flour. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the lamb in batches, until browned on all sides, about 4 minutes per batch. Remove each batch to a plate. Reduce heat to medium and stir 2 tablespoons of flour with the dried herbs into the Dutch oven. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat, 1 minute. Stir in the beer and wine, scraping up the browned bits and cook until thickened slightly. Add the parsnips, carrots, bell pepper, onions, celery, garlic, and brown sugar. Cook until the liquid is reduced by 1/2, about 20 minutes.

Return the meat to the Dutch oven. Add the bay leaves, potatoes, broth, and barley. Tie the parsley, sage, thyme and rosemary in a bundle with kitchen string; add to Dutch oven. Cook, stirring occasionally for 45 minutes. Add frozen peas, reduce heat to med-low, and continue to cook, until the lamb is fork tender, probably another 15 minutes. Skim off any fat and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove bay leaves and herb bundle and serve.

Lentil Stew

3 small potatoes, diced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
2 large stalks celery, sliced
1 large onion, diced
2 parsnips, diced
1 large carrot, coined
2 tbs olive oil
1 bay leaves
Liquid Smoke
1 small can diced tomatoes
2 tbs flour
1 tsp each dried rosemary and sage
Several sprigs of thyme
½ cup red wine
5 cups vegetable broth
½ cup barley
2 cups French green lentils

Heat olive oil over med-high heat. Add first six ingredients and cook about 10 minutes. Add wine, tomatoes, bay leaf, and 6-7 shakes of liquid smoke and cook another 5 minutes. Add flour and dried herbs, stirring constantly until thickened. Add broth, lentils, thyme, and barley and cook on med-low heat until barley is tender and lentils are soft but not mushy – about 25 minutes.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

2 lbs Brussels sprouts, halved and outer leaves removed
3 tbs coarse salt
Pepper to taste
2 tbs thyme leaves
3 tbs walnut oil

Heat oven to 400 F. Toss sprouts in oil and sprinkle with 1/2 salt and pepper. Toss again and top with more salt and pepper and thyme leaves. Bake until outer leaves are crispy, brown, and cut sides are caramelized, stirring occasionally ~ 25-30 min.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

1 sweet potato
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
5 tsp. baking powder
4 tsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
2/3 cup cold solid vegetable shortening, cut into small pieces
4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat an oven to 400°F.

Prick the sweet potato several times with a fork. Place it directly on the oven rack and bake until very tender, about 1 1/4 hours. Let cool completely.

Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and increase the temperature to 450°F.

Peel the sweet potato and force it through a food mill or wire sieve. Add the buttermilk and whisk until smooth.

In a large bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add the shortening and butter and cut them into the dry ingredients until the pieces of fat resemble corn kernels. Add the buttermilk mixture and stir until a soft, crumbly dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead 8 to 10 times, until it just holds together.

Roll out and pat the dough into a rectangle 6 by 12 inches. Using a knife dipped in flour cut the dough into 12 rectangular biscuits. Transfer the biscuits to an ungreased baking sheet. Bake until the biscuits have risen and their edges and bottoms are lightly browned, 12 to 14 minutes.

Serve with apple butter.

Cream of Broccoli Soup

2007-10-18T21:26:00.001-04:00

It's fall here and the CSA dropped about 800 pounds of broccoli on our doorstep. So I made this. I tend to be scared of making soups, but with my roomie's prodding, I launched into it. Rather glad for the outcome too. It was yumtacular and flexible to boot - just use whatever's around. I served it with seitan coated in whole wheat flour and nutiritional yeast - baked them in the oven whilst the soup was cooked.

Lyco's CSA Cream of Yummy Soup

3 tbs butter
4 cups broccoli, diced
1 medium zuke, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 medium shallots, diced
3 gloves of garlic, minced
5 medium mushrooms, diced
5 wild mushrooms, diced
1 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup flour and nutritional yeast mix
3/4 cup cream
3 cups vegetable stock
1 cup shredded cheese (we used CSA cheddar)
salt and pepper to taste

Put the stock in a medium pot and bring to boil, then keep warm. Heat the 3 tbs butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, shallots, and bell pepper and cook until onion is barely translucent, 3-5 min. Add mushrooms, garlic, mustard powder, and cayenne, cook 3 min. Add broccoli and zuke, cook for about 5 min, or until a lot of the veggie juices have been released. Add the flour/nutritional yeast mixture and stir until thick coating forms. Slowly mix in the stock until bubbling and cook for about 5 minutes. Using an immersion blender, blend soup until thick and creamy (otherwise do this in batches in a food processor or a blender). Slowly stir in the cheese until it melts, then slowly mix in the cream. Adjust salt and pepper and serve with crusty bread. Yum!

This can easily be made low fat by using nonfat creamer and less cheese. It can be made vegan by using earth balance, vegan cheese (or not), cashew cream, and a bit of soy creamer. Enjoy!

Thank God

2007-10-17T09:55:00.001-04:00

Landon is home.

Seitan Pot Pie

2007-10-16T11:12:00.000-04:00

I was not satisfied with the chicken pot pie recipes I have found, so I made my own, substituting Seitan for the chicken since my house is mostly veg. This served 4 as a main course of hungry folk and then another 3 lunches the next day.

Lyco’s Seitan Pot Pie

3 large carrots, diced
2 large stalks celery, diced
2 small/medium potatoes, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 packages “chicken style” seitan, 1 cup fluid reserved, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 bay leaf
1/3-1/2 cup frozen peas
2 tbs butter
3 cloves garlic
7 medium mushrooms, diced
1/3 cup celery leaves, chopped
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/3 tbs paprika
1/3 tsp dried ground rosemary OR sage
1/3 tbs dried thyme
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup flour/nutritional yeast mixture
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup cream

Pie Dough (make 2 batches)

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1-2 tsp dried oregano
5 1/3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
5 1/3 tbs cold vegetable shortening
1/2 cup ice water
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Make the pie dough by combining the flour, oregano and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until mixed. Add the butter and shortening and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add in the water 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulse until mixed. Take out and work with hands just until a smooth ball forms, being careful not to overwork the dough. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Repeat for 2 batches - this makes for thick crust on both ends - if you prefer thinner, reduce accordingly.

In a medium pot blanch the carrots and potatoes with the bay leaf in boiling water until just cooked through, about 5-8 minutes. Drain and reserve (keep the bay leaf).

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a deep casserole dish with butter.

In a large skillet or pot, melt the butter over medium high heat. Saute the onions and celery with the bay leaf until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and mushrooms to the pan and continue cooking until the mushrooms are soft and give off their liquid, about 5 minutes. Add the dry spices and stir well. Sprinkle the flour/nutritional yeast mixture into the vegetables to make a roux, cooking for 3-4 minutes to slightly thicken. Slowly add the stock until a thick gravy is made. Add the wine, cream, celery leaves, and parsley, stirring well. Cook down the fluid if it’s too wet. Add the precooked veggies and seitan, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Remove the 2 balls of dough from the refrigerator and place on a floured surface. Roll out the dough to fit the dish. Gently transfer first batch to the bottom to the dish, pushing in to fit the bottom and pressing around the top to create the bottom part of the seal. Then transfer the mixture to the deep casserole dish. Top with the next circle of dough, trim to 1 inch from the edge, then turn the edges under and flute diagonally with a butter knife. Brush the top of the pastry with the egg wash and cut a pattern of slits over the crust. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the contents are hot and bubbly, about 45-60 minutes.

Vegans: This can easily be made vegan by substituting Earth Balance for the butter and soy creamer for the cream. Just omit the egg on top.

Buen Camino

2007-09-27T22:00:00.000-04:00

Hola!!

I'm back from DC with wonderful adventures under my belt. Among them are a 250 km hike through the Spanish Pyrenees involving my humping a Saint, riding a bucking pony on a dare (yes, I won the longest ride BITCHES), and a narrow escape from a decent hurricane (no, I am not dead).

Put simply, Spain est bueno. While I now wish I had known even a teensy bit of Spanish before embarking on a hiking pilgrimage through rural Spain, I picked up some as I went. Oh yes, such important phrases as "dos cervesas por favor" and "dos cafe con leches y dos tortillas por favor", "Como va?/Que esta?" and the ever present "quiesiero la campena o habitaciones doble?" Yeeeahhh... something like that. My favorite thing I learned was "buen camino", or "good way." It's what bikers and hikers say to one another on the trail.

Anyway, old people mostly thought us batty and young people mostly thought us fun. It actually tended to have the same effect no matter what. I'll tell ya one thing right now though: I ain't n.e.v.e.r. goin' on a vaca in Europe again unless I can guarantee a plethora of Italian bikers. Them boys is cheeky in EVERY sense of the word. Heh. No but seriously folks, they're a lot of fun. Anywhere we found ourselves by the road, they made our days a little bit brighter with their jokes as the going got tough and their charm when things were simply going. And the views of their rears. Sorry, but a gal's gotta be honest.

Aside from hot men in spandex, we were completely blessed with kindness throughout our journey. We were, to be frank, woefully unprepared for anything. Seeing as how we made our plans on the plane on the way over. And not even really then. Incidentally, have you had a moment to enjoy an international flight lately? Because they are simply wonderful and involve not only two decent meals but free booze at both every turn AND high altitude. Lovely chaps, those international flight stewardesses. Much hotter than the Americans. I mean, I hate to diss on us, but those girls rocked the socks off any American stewardess I've ever seen. Then again, that's only because I'm not a flight stewardess. However, to be an American flight stewardess, I should think I must age about 20 years and gain about 20 pounds. And wear far too much makeup and probably have some mole that no one discusses but everyone gapes at. But I digress. Back to the kindness... we were completely moronic about the whole thing and yet everywhere we turned was a bit of grace. Even after I chucked our tent in a 5:00 cold wet a.m. outrage, we still managed to make it through just fine. Better than fine in fact.

Part of our lack of preparedness, and probably the most amusing to look back upon, was the fact that we had just spent the last however long sitting in front of our laptops studying for the bar and eating cheetos and other such nonsense. This caused a wee bit of a problem when we hiked somewhere close to 17 miles our first day out on the trail (forever after known as the Day Lyco Learned to Hate the Poor) - due mostly to the fact that a small impoverished village changed the trail markers to lead us astray round 4 miles into their invested, horrible village full of mocking and chicken-laden children. I hope God sends a plague their way. Just saying.

After a few days, we were adjusted, but still in hilarious amounts of pain. Particularly enjoyable were the star burst bruises on our hipbones from the 37-pound packs, the thumb-print blisters covering our feet, and my ass after I sat in a nest of baby spiders- though that was not quite normal. After the first day or two, we could hardly walk after arriving at our destination. It was mostly pride that kept us upright to be honest. However, after a touch more than a week of this, both of our bodies had adjusted to the packs and the constant hiking. We learned that after about ten minutes of stiffness and pain, we were warmed up and ready to go. Even at 6:00 a.m. A most unfortunate time. Quite ironic to see more sunrises than sunsets on one's vacation, but Spain has a tendency of not letting go of its sun until close to 10:00 p.m. - and often I am too exhausted to keep up until then. Anyway, everything but the feet seemed to adjust, and though my toes grew something akin of hooves on them, the pain in my feet was not the tickliest thing I've ever felt.

The trail is a Catholic religious pilgrimage that grew out of an ancient Pagan religious pilgrimage (don't they all??). It was amazing to see the two cultures overlap in the ancient areas and really uplifting to be so embraced by the locals because of the nature of our journey. We spent a lot of time resting in gorgeous tiny stone churches and in pastures that were too overwhelmed with cow turds.. you see, since many of the mountain towns are REALLLLLY rural, they have all their own livestock. They like using our trails to move said livestock. And you would not BELIEVE the explosions that come out of those cows. It's particularly nice when the sun has hit it and there is an ode de 10 other farm animals' poop mixing in. I very much enjoyed trying to pick out exactly what combination of animals we were smelling at the moment ("Definitely a heavy dose of cow and chicken... and do I detect some... yes, some sheep this morning!).

I can definitely say that it was some of the loveliest countryside I've ever visited. The views from the top of the Spanish Pyrenees were definitely my favorite. But the vineyards in the valleys were amazing too. The cities were my least favorite - I got too accustomed to the silence of the mountains. It just digs it in that ultimately I'm happiest tucked away in the mountains somewhere.

Upon my return, I zoomed to Atlanta to be the maid of honor in my best friend's wedding. It was so amazing to just spend a week with all my old friends and my best friend's family. I missed them so much. It's almost worth moving back to Atlanta just to have those people around me again. Almost. But I was surprised at how nice it was to be back amongst my loved ones. I feel like we've had some kind of invisible wedge between us (I've been gone from ATL for 8 years) but the wedding just seemed to dissolve it all and it was like I'd never left. The wedding was, without doubt, the loveliest wedding I've been to ever. Afterwards, I went back to the cabin with all her climbing buddies and proceeded to get into a drinking contest. FYI, I will always beat you when the booze is whiskey. Just sayin. So after much whiskey, there HAPPENED to be a pony behind the cabin quietly minding its own business that we determined needed some molesting. So molest it we did. The boys all took turns riding it only to get bucked off one after another. I talked a lot of smack and they then made the huge mistake of betting me I couldn't do much better. I guess I should have told them that I rode horses growing up. But anyway, after I stayed on the pony and calmed it down to a docile state, I spent the remainder of the evening talking about 18 times the amount of smack I was beforehand. That's what they get.

After that, I packed up to go to Mexico with the Madre Unit, only to have a hurricane destroy Tulum. Which is where we were going. So that was out until next year. Instead, I went up to Asheville, which is probably the best place on earth. I joined up with my best friend and her new husband for brunch and a hike and spent a couple wonderful days with K & B and their new BABY! Holy cow that baby is a cutey pie. One month old now. Plus, they basically live in heaven. A gorgeous farm a few minutes from Lake Lure. Whilst in the area, talked to a long time Aville friend and found out she was getting married. She and her fiance just finished building their log cabin in Tennessee and the reception will be there (the wedding is at her parent's historical farm - should be gorgeous)! I am in charge of churning the pumpkin and vanilla ice cream. For about 80 people. Eep! Hopefully her pumpkins are harvestable by then! The Blonde Bombshell doesn't know it yet, but she's co-captain of this ice cream team.

I got back to ATL just in time for college ball season to start. Which, of course, meant nothing else happened except that. But that's fine, we all got Michael Vick dog chew toys for the dogs and enjoyed the dog days of summer. Get it? DOG days!

In the two weeks that I was back in DC before work started, I read the entire Harry Potter series (lots of fun), started football season in style, going to the last baseball games in RFK, and have finally gotten my new shiny green computer from Cyberpower. Oh, and took some nice long bike rides down the Potomac. Having this computer makes me feel weird - mostly because I don't even understand the stats enough to nearly appreciate them. But for once in my life, I realized that I am woefully technologically incompetent and resistant to change. This time, instead of going with what was easy, I got expert advice and now have a Ferrari that I'll drive at 25 mph. Oh well. Did I mention that it was green??!

Speaking of green, I am now also volunteering at a local garden project that orients itself toward urban food production for disadvantaged DC residents. I'm super psyched to have my hands in a garden again. It totally gets my itch scratched - they grow everything I do plus some. And it's also been a great way to meet some fun new like-minded peeps in a sometimes overly conservative city. I've also joined a book club comprised of some pretty amazing women in the city. I promised them I'd join in as soon as I finished the Potter series. Which just happened. And even though I am now seeing the light of day again, I miss the little buggers. But glad to be on to some new books.

All this and the game of balancing my time with a job. I adore not being in school anymore. I love practicing law - I'm heading up my dream litigation project and getting to work on some kick ass side projects to boot. I'm applying things I learned in law school and learning lots new. Plus, my coworkers and work environment is amazing. I can bring a dog to work (I'm going to adopt as soon as I get paid) and I'm an easy bike ride away. My life has been crazy for years now. It's so nice to have things be simple. Monday-Friday I work and exercise and cook good food with my roommates and spend much needed time by myself or catching up with long distance peeps. Saturdays I garden in the morning and ride bikes in the afternoon, Sundays I go to the farmer's market, then Mass, then go watch football with friends. Then life starts all over again. If I had my way, it would be just that simple all year.

So as you can see, when with work on top of everything, I am really not gonna have much time to be bloggin. Plus, when I went to Spain, I needed to figure some things out for myself. Happily, I think I realized what I needed to, but I think it involves not blogging about my personal life anymore. So I'm still not saying I'm ending the blog, but if I keep it - it will be quite scaled back to garden, cooking, and silly little things that happen to me. What I am saying is that my life requires a new kind of attentiveness and until I achieve that balance, blogging is an easy thing to drop.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs...

Oh wait a minute... what I actually mean is this:

I wish you all a buen camino!

Reason No. 2334.8 Why I'm Not Blogging More

2007-09-26T19:41:00.000-04:00

I *want* to blog, I really do. However, work is keeping me a trifle busy. Apparently I need to draft some legislation. By tomorrow. I got this news at (ready for this?) 4:30 pm. Today is the first day I brought my work computer home with me. Me thinks the start of many.

While I am primarily a litigation peep, the peep who normally does this will be out of town. While I would feel way more comfortable having her do this and me just helping, this is why I'm not an intern anymore. I'm psyched for the opportunity, if not a little overwhelmed.

I promise to at least do a post about Spain, beyond that, it's gonna be hard for me to figure out this whole balancing thing. Work comes first and all that.

And now to read 600 more pages to "get updated" on the issue before my phone conference tomorrow a.m.

Back and Badder Than Ever

2007-09-25T14:15:00.000-04:00

Even in a bridesmaid's dress.

More To Come.

El Spain

2007-07-29T12:40:00.000-04:00

I'm off homedogs. I'll be back in September with likely limited to no blogging on the way. I'm even thinking of deserting el blog entirely. But that doesn't need to be decided now.

All that needs to happen now is that I need to get my ass to Spain and clear this head of mine. 14 days of hiking ought to do the trick.

To my friends, good luck and unicorn hearts.

Joy

2007-07-25T23:26:00.000-04:00

Just an announcement to say that Ken and Britney had their BABY this morning at 7am - a little girl at 7 and a quarter pounds. Her name is Carolina Harmony and she is totally healthy and happy (and so is Brit). Brit's water broke at 12:05 am and she slept for 5 hours and got up and fed the farm animals and then settled into the bath and had the baby without problem or peep. She's clearly the most amazing woman on the planet. Ken told her, after the baby was born, that he was honored to have fathered her child. Beautiful!

There's no way I can have failed the bar exam if that angel entered the world on this day.

Here I Go Again On My Own

2007-07-21T14:41:00.001-04:00

Well, it's back to just Lyco.

I'm off to Albany. I got my rental card loaded up, my reservation confirmed, and my mixed cds.

To everyone out there taking the bar, good luck hommies. I believe in you.

Send me thoughts on Tuesday and Wednesday! God knows I need it.

MBE chatting

2007-07-20T21:09:00.000-04:00

How studying for the bar makes you speak nonsense:

Jes: I have a negotiable instruments question for you. an accommodation party or suretyship party is a co-signer, a guarantor of the debt.
Lyco: right
Jes: and if the primary obligor defaults, the holder of the note can go after the accommodation party.
Lyco: right
Jes: so, suppose the note in question is a purchase money mortgage, it's secured by a house
Lyco: ok
Jes: Has the accommodation party just satisfied the debt, in which case he can get indemnity from the primary obligor for the $250,000 he paid? or has he just bought the debt as an HDC, and he can collect the $300,000? or does he get to choose his own adventure as between the two of those? i assume if he's an HDC, he can foreclose on the house if the oblogor won't pay up. can he if he's suing as an accommodation party?
Lyco: Ummm... hang on, I don't even understand what you're saying.
(a few minutes pass)
Lyco: Ok. I think I understand. So homedog buys a house, and writes a check to homeskillet and homeskillet says "FUCK NO YOU CHEATING SOB" and so homedog called homeslice and says "hey slice, write the check for me" and slice says "sure homedog, you're my dawg yo." and slice writes a check and dog indorses it to skillet. Skillet sayd "if you don't pay me, I'm SO cashing this check you sketchy SOB." So then homedog defaults and slice FREAKS and says "dude, I'm gonna challenge this naz unless you accept less" and skillet sayd "FINE whateves" and they settle. If that's the case, skillet ain't got no nothin and slice has both instruments. So how would that happen? But if dog can't pay, then it's got to go to what the instrument is based on right?
Jes: well.... i guess that's what i'm trying to figure out.
Lyco: Hrm. I see the predicament.

Lyco: yeah, I don't know. I have nothing about whether an AP has a right against the collateral or just the right to get paid. Common sense tells me that if they get a judgment in their favor, the court will go to the collateral to satisfy the debt.

Jes: yeah it does seem that way
Lyco: I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't know.

EIW Pointers and Tips

2007-07-20T19:13:00.000-04:00

I'm kilt deep in bar review panicking about the NY bar and I keep getting hits for freakin' EIW crap. And I remember my red hot moment as a corporate whore and cackle at the the thought of how freaked I was for EIW. So now that I'm a gainfully employed lawyer type studying for the bar, I'd like to share my advice to all you hot little 2Ls about to start your EIW madness. Unfortunately, my brain doesn't work, so I asked Scott to help me out some because everyone knows he's even more of a corporate whore than I am, so here you go:

Come up with a nickname for your interviewer in the first few minutes of the interview. The standard format is the first letter of their first name followed by a single meaningless syllable that is vaguely friendly and slightly offensive. Preferable words to use after the intial are "spot," "dawg," "slice," and if you're trying to use the ten dollar words, "skillet."
Midinterview erections are perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed of, provided you're not a girl.
If you're in a hotel room, it's a good ice breaker to mention how awkward it is that the bed is a mere 3 feet away from your interview spot. Be sure to use a double-entendre.
Always show up fashionably late to your interview. Be sure to order room service during the process. Remember, you're worth it!
The following activities show confidence: gum chewing, pen clicking, foot tapping, pencil flipping, and drumming on the arms of the chair.
It's considered fair game to move the signs outside of the doors with the interview lists on them. It's also considered fair game to print out your own and replace them. This is looked at as being forward-thinking and is heavily rewarded in the industry.
When being asked what you plan to do with your career, be as honest as possible. The interviewers reward honesty with regards to your future plans and they will definitely see you as a better investment of their time and money if you give them a firm honest answer. Some of the best include "I'll probably go clerk for a judge if I can get my GPA above a 3.0" and "I've always seen myself going into politics."
Finally, 95% of people get call backs. If you're not one of them, it's time to start doubting your choice in law school.

What he said

2007-07-19T12:49:00.000-04:00

Paleo feels me.

Buh.

2007-07-18T22:46:00.000-04:00

8.5 hours at the LOC doing a practice exam. Not as good as I wanted, but passing. Barely. Ate some enchiladas and now I'm gonna go back and figure out what I did wrong.

I can't wait for this to be over so I can go to Spain. And then my best friend's wedding. And then Mexico. Wherever it is, it's not here taking the bar trying to not think about all the crap I've mussed. Still, even with all that, I'm pretty happy (considering).

However, I really need some distance.

P.S. - been cookin' some awesome CSA meals but no time to write about it (le sigh). Did some grilling, some summer squash with garden basil, roasted cauliflower, and a delish green bean salad with sesame oil. At least I'm eating well. Buh.

Big Hurdles, Little Blessings

2007-07-13T20:59:00.000-04:00

I think I have strep throat. Going to the doctor Monday to confirm. Not good.

On the more unicorn and rainbow side of things, today was awesome. I confirmed that my friends and I are the geekiest people alive because we were kicked out of the library on a Friday for staying past close. We then sat at the outside tables of the library across the street for three more hours. At least I embrace my geekdom. To our cred, it was possibly the most beautiful it's been all year outside tonight. Sitting on the white marble steps of the John Adams Building with nice company, a soft breeze, and a gorgeous sky can't be beat. While drinks on the roof of a friend with Thai food and wine was the perfect closure, my impending illness of doom dictated I ride home instead.

The ride home was amazing. The weather was still perfect for it and I was listening to Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever. I rode by the Supreme Court, the Senate Buildings, Union Station, and a few minutes up a busy street led me to my lovely little block. I'm so glad I'm staying here.

Now for more torts questions. Then I'm done with the multistate subjects and it's on to New York specifics. Oh yeah...