vegan arroz con gandules

I think I've perfected my arroz con gandules recipe.  Unfortunately, I don't measure the spices.  I only measure the water and the rice.

around two tbsp extra virgin olive oil
around half cup onion, diced small
around half cup bell pepper, diced small
two - four cloves garlic, minced

about one tsp cumin
about half tsp ground coriander seed
about an eighth of a tsp chipotle chile powder
about a fourth of a tsp turmeric
about three-fourths of a tsp of salt

15 oz can green pigeon peas (Goya brand) aka gandules, undrained
around two tbsp tomato paste
three and a half cups water
two cups white rice

Saute the first group of ingredients for a few minutes.  Then add the spices.  Saute a minute more.  Then add everything else.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer on very low for 18 or 19 minutes.

notes:

We use organic onion and bell pepper form our garden.  The pepper is Purple Beauty.

The spices I list can be replaced by one packet of Sazon Goya con Culantro y Achiote.

Green pigeon peas aka gandules can be hard to find.  Go to the Mexican part of the grocery store though I think they are not Mexican.  They are Caribbean.

You can use half cup tomato sauce instead of tomato paste.  Just eliminate half cup of the water.

Actually it gets burnt a little tiny bit on the bottom.  So I guess I haven't perfected it yet.  But this is close, and maybe in a thicker pan it wouldn't burn?

poetry reading and kirtan

We went to a poetry reading.  The featured reader was late.  He got stuck in traffic.  He is someone I heard read years ago, a taxi driver from San Francisco, Joe Donohoe.  I've got his card right here on my keyboard to remind me to visit his website.  Years ago when he was at Luna's, he read an amazing poem about driving gypsies on New Year's Eve.  This time he read an amazing poem about finding a dead motorcyclist on a bridge.  The Rasputin one was pretty cool too.

Also an important pravrajika is visiting, and Thursday night there was a women-only program at V's house that involved kirtan singing.  It was amazing.  There was so much energy in the room.  I don't usually talk about energy like that, but I can't help it.  In this case, really--the room was thrumming with it.

What else?  I've received some beautiful letters and shared lunch with good people.  Thanks, friends.

sideshow bob

Here is a walking stick kale, I think, in our garden out back.  Ming asked if I had watched the Simpsons, and right away I knew he was going to say our plant looked like Sideshow Bob.

angel's trumpet

On a walk we encountered a tree covered in these huge, luxurious flowers.  Someone putting away his trash can told us they were angel's trumpet flowers. 

post-birthday birthday trip

We went on a post-birthday birthday trip.  I was spoiled rotten by friends and family.  Here's us at Guadalupe beach.  We're standing in front of a body of water that is not the pacific ocean.  You can't see them in the picture unless you zoom in really close, but there are some small birds in the water, possibly plovers?

Here's a bone we found.

Mom baked me a brownie nut cake.

Here's me being sung to.

Yesterday we took the train home.  We were stopped for about an hour as the police investigated a suicide--someone jumped in front of the train.  The announcement person said, "A trespasser was hit."  But once we got to the station, we asked about it.  We were stopped in front of a raisin field where we saw some farming in action. 

Field workers went down the rows, picking up papers filled with raisins.  They dumped the raisins in the truck and skewered the papers on long, thin poles.  Then they took the papers off the poles and put them in a pile and lit the pile on fire.  We had the perfect view.

As our consolation, the train workers gave us snack packs.  Here's Ming's.

And those are my birthday posts.  It's great having such helpful people in my life to have a lot of fun with.

art birthday part II

Here's a sidewalk skeleton.

Here's some advice.

And something about cops...

Some graffiti in an alley. 

Here's a sidewalk stencil we saw twice: octopus with ship.

Ask instructions.

And finally, Mexican wrestling masks.  This is the store where Ming bought me a beautiful silver ring.

When I was taking closeup pictures of the masks, the shop owner bothered me, trying to figure out if I was taking the pictures professionally though my camera is small and obviously not professional!  It was my first time being bothered while taking pictures.  Here's a pink one.

art brithday in SF

For my birthday we went to San Francisco.  We saw a lot of art there on the street.

We were in the Mission District.  We went to Mission Delores.  Here's a picture of the ceiling of the mission near where the altar is.

Here's a stained glass I liked.

Here's a headstone I liked.  We were in a hurry to meet a filmmaker.

Here's a statue of Father Junipero Serra.  I thought it was St Francis of Assisi at first because the mission is his.

Then we left the mission.  Here's one of those grates people put around a tree.

 

Here's one of my favorite pictures of the day, lotuses with locks.

fine

I had a delicious birthday.  I don't have time to blog about it.  However, here is a picture for you, of the sign on a bridge in Folsom, where we were two evenings ago, photo by Ming.

my missive

Dear friends and relatives,

Hello.  How are you?  I am sick with a cold but in fine spirits.  Tomorrow is my birthday.  I won't tell you how old I am, but I'm old enough to know a thing or two.  One of the things I know is that I'm grateful to you for reading my blog.  Thanks, readers. 

This evening we went to Folsom to meet in person a new friend who I met online.  It was great.  We walked around near the river and sat on rocks until the mosquitoes came.  Then we went to a cafe that had recently been bought and they didn't have tea yet.

Talk soon!  I have many adventures on my plate, and I will tell you all about them after they happen.

love,
Laura-Marie

more pics

Here's a small portion of our backyard garden.  This is plot six.  In the back is our new Thompson's seedless grapevine named Fig Tree.

Here's a wood duck on some midtown art.

Here's a tag, I suppose.

Okay, now is modern times.  Yesterday we were in Berkeley, and here's a Day of the Dead sticker Ming noticed and photographed under a table at my favorite restaurant.

Then in the evening we went to a concert at 924 Gilman.  These stickers were stuck to a trashcan.  Do you recognize the design from a previous picture I posted, from somewhere in Sacramento?  I was surprised to see them.

And we saw a favorite band of mine, Tooth Soup.  Here's a picture of them playing, photo thanks to Ming.

And here's a very artistic one of them playing, again thanks to Ming.

Thanks for looking at all these photos, friends.  The concert was fantastic, and my hearing is back to normal.  Hurray!

life update

Oh em gee, so much has happened.  The primary thing is that Kitty died.  I wrote some poems about it which should appear in the new hat genius.

But I don't want to talk about that.  The neighbor fixed my computer, so I am computing from home again.  Thanks, neighbor.

We found two fans at the park.  I thought about picking them up and sending them to my nieces.  They were excellent fans.  In the end, we just left them there.

Here are the fans in context.

Here's some sidewalk dog art.

Sorry I'm going to barrage you with pictures.  Here's our plot at the community garden where we have a plot.

On my most common walk, I pass a place where there was a green glitter explosion.

Here's a great cactus Ming spotted, and I took pictures.

Here's an art board I made with two friends the summer I was 16 years old that I've been carrying around with me for 19 years--right now it's on our front porch.

Finally (for this post) is something from a walk--it's still there, last I checked--there are a lot more words than this.  I think it might include a marriage proposal.

forget me not

Still got a virus.  Do you believe me that I'll be back to blogging soon?  I will.  As for this moment, I'm at a library.  Life's trying to get me down but I'm thriving like a plant that thives on neglect only it's not neglect.  Of course, I could crash at my moment.  Wish me luck through space and time!

bay guardian

I was quoted in this article about The Icarus Project.  Please read it.

http://www.sfbg.com/print/2012/09/11/still-soaring?page=all

My virus is not fixed yet, but I'm using a library computer. 

don't mind me

I got a virus!  Be back soon.

four minute party

Last night I saw my friend K for tea.  She had ginger coffeecake for us, which she baked herself.  She also had nutritional yeast popcorn.  Both were delicious.  And I drank peppermint tea.  The conversation was good.

Then we went to a party where I lasted about four minutes.  I was chatting with E last night and told him the name of my next book will be Four Minute Party.

This morning we went to old town.  I had been to the train museum before but not its gift shop.  So I bought some gorgeous postcards.  One of them looks like this.

Then we walked around old town.  We ate free taffy from a candy shop.  We ate free mini-donuts from the mini-donut shop. 

Then we went to the farmers market at Cesar Chavez park.  We bought organic grapes, pluots, apples.  We bought pea greens.

They had purslane for sale!

To get totally out of order...here is a beautiful bee pic Ming took yesterday at our garden.

And our potato harvest.

We protested yesterday afternoon and the week before.  Here are the people on the other street corner--I love the "No torture No drones" sign.

Finally I leave you with a picture I took outside the train museum gift shop after Ming pointed out to me the way someone fixed a hole.

karaoke

Today we went to SF Zine Fest and had a great time.  I don't think I'll blog about it a lot, though.

Last night we went to a party.  It was a friend's going away party, at a bar.  I have been to bars only a handful of times, in my life--I don't drink.  But there was karaoke.  My friend who's moving away sang a duet with her friend, and they seemed so happy and were dancing.  I had grapefruit juice.  Ming had Coke.

As for me, I thought about singing "Hand in Glove" or "This Charming Man" but we had to leave early.  Maybe next time.  This was Pine Cove Tavern, with free popcorn.  And someone brought vegan cookies to share, in a paper bag, coconut lime, I think.

anarchy

me:  [something about how anarchists won't talk to me because I don't look the part]
Ming:  We can buy you a black hoodie.

graffiti, seeds

Here are two instances of riverside graffiti.

And here's evidence of Ming's seed saving.