My favorite breakfast spot...

...is my backyard.  Earlier in the year I posted pictures of the pathway Zach and I cleaned up...now the raspberries are beginning to get ripe.  We get about a pint of them ever 2 days, maybe a bit more.  If you have room, and you don't need much as you can see, I really highly recommend growing a small berry patch.  With careful maintenance last fall (tips from my mom as well as online tutorials), I got plenty of berries with almost no work.  Mainly the labor consists of cutting the berry canes at the end of the year, tying them to the fence (you can see an old chain-link fence the picture that divides my yard from my neighbor's).  I want to add that though I did not fertilize them or do anything else, I am looking into it for this year.  As I inherited this patch, I cannot tell you which varieties are planted here, only that there are about 4 different kinds that all ripen at different times.  All are thornless, which is a relief to me because blackberry picking always ends in blood and ripped clothing.

at the beginning of spring...not much growth over the winter

Berry patch now in June.

Yum yum!

We have strawberries, too.

I, for one, welcome our new artichoke overlords...

Look at the giant artichokes that we had for dinner (there were two, this one is slightly larger).  That is a normally-sized dinner plate and a normally-sized oven mitt.

Vegan Soul Food w/ additonal Memphis Crunk

Even though I'm trying to eat ever increasing amounts of vegan food, sometimes I'm not great at controlling what I eat.  If there's a cookie around, as there often are at work, the rational part of my brain focused on high cholesterol is overridden by my impulse of "Ooh, free cookie!"  And in my life, there are an unbelievable amount of free cookies.

But in keeping with my desire to be vegan and save the world or myself or whatever I still try and try.  Sometimes it's not very hard.  Working at a library, I have an endless supply of new and innovative cookbooks at my disposal.

Enter this one:  Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry.  This caught my eye on the shelves of MI library because of a place I ate in Atlanta that served vegan soul food - Soul Vegetarian.  This cookbook is probably my favorite vegan cookbook ever. More than just an African-American cookbook, it's an American cookbook, period.  Fresh tasty stuff that is good for you, too.  Indulgent treats.  Multiple recipes for watermelon, which I've just really gotten into recently.  Includes Lunches, Dinners(entrees like Tofu and Beans), Desserts (even a recipe for a vegan coconut butter pie crust which I am anticipating with all my soul!), drinks with names like Memphis Mint Julep and California Slurricane.  Tonight's dinner was greedily ripped from the pages, without many changes at all:

Yes, I still eat on the floor.

Shaved Cucumber Salad with Citrus-Cilantro Dressing(p. 61), Rosemary-Roasted Tofu Cubes (p. 146) and a Frozen Memphis Mint Julep (p.37) on the side.  The only changes I made were subtracting the sweetener from the Cucumber salad dressing and adding, like waaaaay more paprika to the tofu cubes.  The cubes definitely reminded me of something meaty...chicken nuggets with a mildly bacony flavor.  I never say this, but I am probably going to buy this cookbook after my library loan period is up.  It's a keeper!

Memphis Mint Julep or "green mint slurry with booze."

crafting ex nihilo

Recently I came across this book at work:

It was on hold for someone else, but I got a chance to glance through it quickly.  I recommend taking a look at it if you love to make things out of trash or other cheaply-acquired objects around.

The most interesting craft I noticed was a messenger bag made out of something I have a frickin' ton of: Those plastic tube-y bags that newspapers come in.  Somehow my husband and I happened upon a subscription to the Oregonian that we never paid for.  I use the newspaper for various projects (not, ahem, for reading) but the bags sort of piss me off.  What a waste of a bag.  

The project consists of a no-sew way to put the bags together with a hot clothes iron to melt them into a thicker plastic.  I'm going to try to get a better look at the book in the future, but in the mean time, I made this:  

I made my own "fabric" from the bags by layering them in a basketweave pattern.  I then sewed it into a typical tote-bag shape and added handles.  This is, of course, a test because I have no idea if I made the fabric thick enough, or melted enough, or even too much.  Going to give it a try and update if it works well or falls apart or whatever.

Find the book on Amazon:  Ready Made: How to make [Almost] Everything

April

Whew!  The last two weeks have been a whirlwind.  Ever since we got back from vacation it's been sunny enough out to actually garden and do yard work, and there is plenty about our yard to keep us busy. Luckily, since I got a new camera, I'll be able to tell my story all in pictures!  How exciting.  They all zoom really large, too.

Last week we went on a cruise to the Caribbean.    It was so awesome to get away somewhere sunny  after months and months of darkness here in Oregon.  I had no idea how vitamin D deficient I was.  I currently have more energy than I can remember having for years!  

While we were gone our tree exploded into bright pink blossoms.   I have no idea what kind of tree it is, but I've seen a few of them around here.  We've been gardening a LOT.  

This is our back yard.  Yep, just a tiny walkway with  a RED RASPBERRY patch growing on the side.  The canes will arch over towards the house in the summertime, so we're going to have to find a way to keep them all neat and organized.  This path was mud and weeds yesterday and now we've reclaimed it with teamwork.

I've gone vegan since we returned from the trip and I haven't been hating it too bad.  I think I'm going to try to be moderate about it and only do it like 5 days a week and then eat regular vegetarian on the weekends.  Best ease into it.  This is a raw vegan apple pie (just the crust in this picture).  I have the recipe ready for you to try.  It's freaking fabulous.

The pie with all the apples in it.  Yum!  To be fair, I'm not a raw vegan and making a regular pie with margarine would be easy enough, but I've been dying to make one of these and I took up the opportunity to make something that is semi-good for you.  Dates have tons of sugar, though, so none is actually added to the pie.  Enjoy it with a glass of iced rose tea, for a no-sugar-added dessert. 

So other than that, I've met some of my more lovely neighbors and gotten to know them a bit.  I can't wait for summertime here in Oregon, it's great.

Here's your pie recipe:  http://notsoaveragemama.com/2011/08/29/raw-apple-pie-a-yummy-good-for-you-recipe/

Vegetarian Bibimbap

Beep Beep Bop.  "Robot food" is what we called it in college.  I used to go to a tiny lunch place in Pittsburgh to get their Vegetarian Bibimbap.  Mine is pretty good, too.  Loosely follow the directions here.  I added an egg and a tiny bit of Kimchi.  Very healthy and great food for an afternoon being green!  Lisa knows what I mean...

Mystery Food

What is it? 

 Hasselback Potato.  Yum.