so, I subsisted on Clif Bars, protein powder, bananas, salad, pasta, smoky Motel 6 bed sheets and comraderie.. (awww, puke!) and of course, this fact: I scored! you know, when the puck goes in the net?

in general, I played OK. not great, not terrible. probably as well as can be expected for a girl who just started a year ago. same as our team, in fact; we won one game, lost one, and tied one, and didn’t make the final championship cut.. but the team we beat turned out to be the one who did. odd. more importantly, however, I scored my first goal, which also turned out to be the game winner in the bout we won. this is especially cool because I have not yet mastered much of a shot and I play defense so scoring is something I did not expect to do any time soon. I kept the puck. well, they gave it to me; I probably wouldn’t have thought to keep it. what should I do with it? put it on the mantle above the fireplace in the house I am buying? (but that’s another blog post entirely. stay tuned for that nonsense, I guess).

on a seperate note, the Patriots are still undefeated. in case you didn’t notice.

on a seperate seperate note, I am trying to buy a house. I decided to make a tag for it, even though I am note quite ready to discuss the details (don’t want to jinx anything!) but hopefully I will soon be writing about the trials and tribulations of original single pane windows and how I can’t afford my gas bill since I can’t afford new windows. and maybe advice for fellow Pittsburgh homeowners, or something.

whatever, you’re probably just here for the food..

homemade tarka dhal with wild rice and some zucchini; the tarka dhal is from a recipe I found online on a blog I’ve long forgotten. first attempt; note to self- don’t simmer all the liquids away from the lentils before finishing the dish:

you’se seen this dish before, but hell, it tastes awesome and it’s a really sunny photo, isn’t it? hot sauce tempeh nuggets and some salt & peppered greens:

ordinary tofu scramble with a bunch of chipolte pepers thrown in:

and why not some dessert? this is the only picture I have of these brownies even though I’ve made them three times now.. they are from Peter Berley’s Modern Vegetarian Kitchen. I’m iffy about posting book-recipes online but suffice it to say I found it with a little google reconaissance, hint hint. simply the best brownies I’ve ever had. previously touted Sinfully Vegan brownies come in at a close (and less fat-filled) second, but.. shiiiit. I’ll never bother with an ordinary brownie recipe again. (but I will try these soon..):

dark chocolate no-bake cookies:

peanut butter silk pie (from Vegan With a Vengeance):

and lastly, a batch of mini blueberry muffins I mailed to my brother; recipe is a mish mash of ones I’ve collected. the important thing is to top them with something that gets crunchy after baking, like raw sugar:

every time I fly, (as I did a couple weekends ago to visit my parents in massachusetts), I marvel at the physics of flight. fucking amazing. that’s all there is to it. that Newton’s Third Law helps a gigantic metal tube accelerate upward, downward and forward with just the help of a little internal combustion is simply stunning, when you think about it.

what’s more, to realize the incredible feat of engineering said metal contraptions represent was originally accomplished decades ago just boggles the mind. well, it boggles my mind, anyway. as I stepped onto my flight to Providence two weeks ago, I noticed this little plaque bolted into the doorway of the southwest jet I was boarding:

it measured only a few inches across and was rather inconspicuous; it hung right next to the serial number plate found on every other jet in use by the airline industry. nonetheless, it caught my eye, and when we stopped over in Philadelphia, I asked if I could take a picture of it before the rest of the passengers began boarding. (the flight attendant looked at me like I was stupid for asking; I joked something about not wanting wind up on a terrorist list for taking pictures of airplanes, and was a little disappointed when he didn’t even smirk).

anyway, when I got home I looked up the story behind this plane. turns out this ordinary little plane that shuttled me roughly 600 ordinary miles on that ordinary Thursday night was indeed the 5000th Boeing 737 produced, and the ordinary little 737 many travelers know and love (or don’t know and don’t care about) has a grander history than you might think. as Boeing beams:

With more than 4,100 airplanes in service, the 737 represents more than a quarter of the total worldwide fleet of large commercial jets flying today. More than 541 operators fly 737s into more than 1,200 cities in 190 countries. It is estimated that approximately 1,250 737s are in the air at any given moment, with one taking off or landing every 4.6 seconds.

how many seconds did it take you to read this post?

then I decided to hell with fall flavors, it was time to make some green tea ice cream.. so I tried this recipe from the have cake, will travel blog. pretty damn good. A++. will make again:

today, however, two students approached me and asked if I could explain how the site works, what the science behind the procedure is, and whether it was harmful. they were asking me because they were working an assignment for the school newspaper and I am apparently a trusted scientific resource. after asking a few pertinent questions, I was able to glean from my conversation with these kids that people apparently download audio files from the web site onto ipods and similar devices, then listen to them and experience some kind of altered state. the web site charges a fee for each “dose” and markets different files as the equivalent of taking doses of various drugs, illegal and otherwise. still convinced this was a ruse designed to target high school kids who might otherwise like noise or trance music but wouldn’t consider listening to it unless someone suggested it was rebellious or dangerous or secret, I tried my best to work around the school’s internet filters (once again foiled by that matronly rufus, Bess) but could not view the site.

what I did figure out, though, is that the web site itself, I-Doser.com, claims to offer, (ahem, sell), audio files that contain binaural beats that are designed to induce trances or altered states of mind in ways that mimic specific drugs. (as much as I want to explain it in detail here, I also want you to keep reading my post, so if you’re unfamilar with acoustic beats, it would probably work out better if you read the wikipedia article about them).

so, after reading a little more, I’ve learned that there has, in fact, been research to suggest that when a person listens to two sounds producing binaural beats at particular frequencies, they can have effects on brainwave frequencies, which in layman’s terms translates into causing a state of relaxation or meditation. that makes the topic sentence of this paragraph: yes, apparently there is some scientific evidence to suggest listening to files from this site can put you in a trance. maybe. I think? I suppose that’s the idea here; however, I can’t confirm the phenomenon because I haven’t had a chance to find a file that claims to contain said binaural beats that won’t cost me $20, (I’ll settle for free, though. and I admit I haven’t really looked around. I’m sure they’re all over filesharing sites..). either way, I’d like to know if this is all in a few high school kids’ heads, or if listening to a noise track through your earbuds on the bus ride to school (when you’re still half asleep anyway) can really make you feel high by the time you get to homeroom.

on a seperate note, leave it to the internet to find yet another way to make a fortune on kids who could probably score real drugs, cheaper. or even just spin around in a circle a bunch of times instead and get the same feeling. genius. I wish I’d thought of it.

so I didn’t have my camera at the inlaws’, but I came home with some leftovers and thought I’d present evidence of said sugar party for others’ enjoyment; it might also be nice to look at tomorrow while I’m intentionally avoiding sugar and giving my poor pancreas a rest.

first, some run of the mill chocolate chip cookies left over from mid-week. these are made with a new (to me) ingredient: Trader Joe’s semi-sweet chocolate chips. ooh-la-la. Giant Eagle’s chocolate chips now have dairy in them so I made the switch. quite pleased:

next up, my favorite oatmeal cookies- the plain old boring kind with nothing added. so good. the recipe is from the Betty Crocker “Cookie Book,” (veganized, of course). leave it to ol’ Betty to win the vegan oatmeal cookie battle in my heart:

three rotting bananas + nut allergy => slightly overdone banana bread - nuts:

and this last one isn’t mine but I think it’s time to share it’s awesome power with the world. it’s apple pie, and the best goddamned apple pie in the entire fucking universe. my mother in law makes it. I never even really cared about apple pie before I tried it several years ago. it’s amazing. I have her recipe, and if you want it, ask and I’ll give it to you. it’s actually not hard at all, nothing fancy.. just a perfect recipe. PERFECT:

that is all. still hoping to have some green tea ice cream to show off here soon, maybe a new concoction I’m working on involving brownies, fudge and mint, and maybe if you’re lucky something to read that involves non-food topics. stay tuned.

#2: Patriots 38 Chargers 14

I don’t have much to offer except a few more food photos.. this week was brutal on several levels and I felt completely exhausted up until about two hours ago.. and now that I’m rested I have to go to bed. c’est la vie. what’s been on my mind?

1.) the teachers union at my school came to a tentative agreement last week and our ratification meeting is this week. while I’m happy that we seem so close to a conclusion on the matter after working the beginning of the year on our expired contract and coming precariously close to a strike, I’m also not exactly looking forward to a several-hour-long meeting after a long day of school in cramped auditorium seats listening to union representatives tell me why I should be happy to approve a contract requiring me to do more work for less pay and shittier health care. blah.

2.) my team has aparently been up to some shady business. if you’ve been even minimally aware of the sports media over the past several days, you don’t need an update from me; suffice it to say that I’m disappointed they were up to no good and completely agree with the punishment and general consensus that ol’ Bill wasn’t just “misinterpreting” the rules. but if I hear one more student, or so-called “friend” for that matter, ask me about the gigantic asterisk that apparently goes down next to every Patriots victory of the Belichick era, I’m going to puke. want to know what I think? not only are they going to go to the superbowl as many predict, and win the superbowl as a few are calling, they are going to finish the season undefeated.. yep. I said it. now they have something to prove. they haven’t had that in a while. and you know how that works.

3.) but I still made some food.

earlier this week I tried a new recipe from Voluptuous Vegan, whose recipes have never been less than amazing every time I’ve tried them, but tend to fall on the fancier and generally more time consuming side of things. most recipes aren’t great for weeknights unless you want to modify them or do some prep work in advance. we chose the former, and replaced the absurd variety of peppers required for this chili cornbread casserole with a boatload of garden variety jalapeno.. don’t know why I’d never heard of baking cornbread with chili in the middle before but it’s a damn good idea:

sometime this weekend I threw together a desperation meal, (don’t act like you don’t know what I mean).. I was hungry and writing a paper and probably would have happily scarfed down cardboard but somehow ended up with my head in the freezer thinking that edamame sounded good.. so I threw it together with some TVP and every herb and spice in the pantry, and roasted up what vegetables were getting old in the fridge.. then I was surprised at how appealing it looked so I took a picture:

then tonight it dawned on me that I needed a decent, non messy, and microwaveable leftover dinner to take for the hour or so I am stuck at school before our ratification meeting, so behold a quinoa/black bean/mushroom stuffed pepper:

and finally, I realized this afternoon that our household contained no dessert.. which is simply unacceptable. (especially with a football game that needs to be watched). with limited ingredients and time, here be the thickest peanut butter cookies ever produced:

yep. I’d comment on the Pats and Chargers but, well, it’s only halftime and I don’t want to jinx anything.

I’ve been wanting to make cola cake for a while, but haven’t had a chance to do so.. but the other night I had some extra cherry coke in the fridge so I turned a normal batch of chocolate chip cookies into double chocolate cherry coke cookies:

(just use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, substitute cocoa powder for some of the flour and replace most of the liquid with cherry coke)

and these green tea cupcakes are just the latest method I’ve found to consume the bulk matcha powder I am buying in quantities that would make an emperor blush:

(buy Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and follow the recipe found therein)

just so you’re ready, I’m hoping to get to that cola cake in the next week or so.. and I forsee some homemade green tea ice cream in the near future.