Something Green

“Green” has gone from being a simple and understated color to being a wildfire movement in the last couple years. The time for half measures and talk are over, we are in serious danger of leaving our children and their children with little more than a wasteland. The consumption of “goods” of our nation alone is outrageous. The united states is only 5% of the worlds population but we use 30% of the worlds resources. If you still don’t understand why this green movement is so important, please click the picture below and watch the story of stuff. It is a fast paced 20 minute video that will give you some clarity on issues at hand and why it is so important to get involved.

 

To Post or Not to Post

So I have this mini dilemma with wordpress and blogger. As far as the list of ‘pros and cons’ wordpress wins without question. Though the one thing I desire most wordpress can’t give to me the way I want it to. I like and prefer the layout and setup of the dashboard as well as the other features it offers. However what I miss most about blogger is the ability to edit entirely the layout and CSS. I do realize that I can purchase the ability to do that with wordpress, but as a part-time blogger with little income that’s not something I am interested in doing.

So I have this constant back and forth about staying here or going back to my old blog. It’s a really random dilemma that only seems to pop up at the moments that I sit down to blog and usually in my contemplating I can’t really decide then get side tracked by other things and end up not blogging at all. I guess I should just make up my mind huh?

 

Onigiri in My Bento

I have been nothing short of obsessed with onigiri, bento, and all types of other Japanese food lately. Well, you know I think it might just be all things Japanese. I love how rich in tradition and culture they are. So I’ve been spending the last couple weeks immersing myself in recipes and information. On payday last week I bought a rice cooker and some sushi rice, since then i’ve made 2 attempts at making onigiri. The first wasn’t really bad but i think it was just that my choice of filling was very mild in flavor. I’ve determined that the filling needs to be a little more intensely flavored to balance the rice. After that I also entertained the idea of flavoring the rice.

I spent a little time looking up something on flavoring the rice and found a recipe for flavoring the rice for sushi. Which is adding to it a mixture of rice vinegar with some sugar and salt. So my second attempt was much better. I sauteed some mushrooms for the filling with a garlic and sesame combination that came out really tasty. I actually ended up pouring in a little more sesame oil than i meant to, but it totally balanced with the rice. The peanut and I had them for lunch as pictured at the top (sans seaweed, I’ve determined seaweed is an acquired taste). At dinner I made them yaki – though I had to do it in a pan so it doesn’t feel very authentic but it will do for now.

While I work on perfecting my onigiri style I am going to venture into the world of bento. For those of you who don’t know bento is a Japanese boxed lunch. It’s main difference to an American boxed lunch is that instead of plastic bags and tupperwears they approach it like an art form. The bento boxes are like stacked trays with divided compartments. They are very cute mind you. There are at least a few sites that you can purchase bento boxes from, I’d say the most popular is jbox.com.

I’d love to hear about any favorite recipes or resources.

 

Daily Show — President Goofus vs. President Gallant

I just couldn’t resist. And might I mention that I love Jon Stewart, I could watch him all day long. Maybe I could trick him into marrying me…

more about "Daily Show — President Goofus vs. Pr…", posted with vodpod

 

You killed it!

Yes, yes I did. Not only did I completely ignore it but quite effectively murdered December. Well I’ll try to make up for it by actually posting. Somehow every year I forget that December is the single most hectic month in my year, it’s possibly overshadowed by my deep and child like love of Christmas. There are at least 4 birthdays – including my own that is just 5 days before Christmas. So what does this mean for me… this means everything needs to be done. My car inspection and registration, and this year my drivers license needs to be renewed as well. My yearly’s with the obgyn, eye doctor and dentist. Work picks up especially on the weekends, all while i knit until my fingers are stiff whenever i have a free moment and still didn’t get all my gifts 100% finished in time to give. I’m sure it could be more hectic and will in years to come when the peanut gets older.

Christmas felt really different this year and even though it was only 4 days ago is seems like it’s been weeks. It was good for the peanut more toys than clothes this year, the highlight being an original Bigwheel (of course how could it not!). Though I was all but cursing when I found out it required a woodblock and hammer to assemble. Took about an hour to put all together, between that and the other toys that required assembly my day was full haha. I can’t say that i was disappointed that all I really got was money. It was actually quite helpful, I spent a large chunk on some yarn and a few stacks of plastic draws (to add to the few I already had) so I can finally organize all my yarns. I’ve gone back to using my EOS camera rather than the digital point and shoot because i can never seem to really come up with a photo that is acceptable. There is always something, whether it’s not completely in focus, it’s too dark or bright white right in front from the flash no matter how I change the settings I can’t seem to get the pictures I really want from it. Another annoying thing is that most of the manual settings don’t save, and have to continually reset them. So i am just going to leave it for play around pictures I don’t really care about and use my EOS when i want or need quality pictures. I have tons of Christmas pictures to develop and set to disc.

It’s been unusually warm the past couple days and feel like I’ve been bitten early by the spring cleaning bug – ok, unseasonably early but i can’t help it. I don’t know what I’ll do once spring actually rolls around, maybe tackle the closet.