Live & Let Live

I don't know about you, but I love red cabbage. I put it in almost every salad I make, although admittedly, I don't make salad's often enough. I almost always have a head of red cabbage in my refridgerator; It seems to last forever - I just cut off the browned bits and shave myself off some.

Last month I pulled out my head of cabbage and found that it had a growth - literally! A new cabbage head was growing out of the center. Inside my refridgerator I was not just storing but actually growing food! This is what it looked like on April 12th:

I've had food grow in my kitchen before - ginger root, potatoes, onions sometimes, but that seemed to happen more often when the food was in the cupboard or drawer. But a cabbage? I considered planting it, but decided I'd just keep it awhile, shaving my bits around the new head. Heck, I would have fresh cabbage all the time!

Yesterday I was cleaning out the refridgerator, and found that my cabbage had tripled in size. I finally decided to let it live, and planted it in my kitchen garden. I buried the base and left the new growth above ground. I started wondering if cabbage was a winter vegetable and needed colder weather to thrive. Had I killed it by taking it out of the cold and planting it in the ground just as the weather was warming up?

This morning I had an answer of sorts. When I planted the cabbage, a majority of the leaves were white with purple tips. After only 1 day in the sun and earth, the whole new head is a rich, deep purple. It seems to be happy in it's new home. I wish my camera were working so I could show you the change...

Tasty Eggs

I don't like plain eggs. I'll eat them, because if feels more responsible than a big waffle coated in butter and maple syrup, but in general - I don't like them. Hard boiled is okay, but the rest - eh. If I'm going to eat them, I usually try masking taste with other ingredients, like sauteed onions and red peppers.


I was watching Ratatouille again recently (I know, I'm a little obsessed), and I wondered what Remy put in his omelette. I know it's an animated film, but I also know the Pixar guys worked with a professional chef to develop all the dishes in the film. I'd never had eggs with herbes in them before, and I started wondering what would be good. So I did what I always do - searched the Internet for a recipe to try.


Almost all the recipes said to use "your favorite herbes" which really was no help. One recipe for "Luxury Scrambled Eggs" called for adding cream which I thought might be interesting... I'd tried adding milk before, but never cream. This morning I decided to just give something a try; this is what I did:


I mixed together 1 egg, a little bit of cream (maybe 2 tsp? - I didn't measure), some chopped parsley (maybe 1 1/2 tbsp.?), salt & pepper. In a small pan, I melted a small pat of butter, and threw in the chopped white and pale greens of 1 scallion. After those softened up a bit (maybe 2 minutes), I added the egg mixture. I cooked that for a few minutes longer, mixing it around occasionally. Just before it was finished, I threw on some diced tomatoes and grated a little edam cheese on top.

Oh, it was so good! This is my new favorite way to eat eggs (it actually tastes nothing like plain eggs). Next time I'm going to try adding in some mushrooms as well. It was so beautiful too! (I would have taken a picture but my camera has died for good this time.)

Food Crisis

I came across some thought provoking articles on the global food crisis and on global food production that I wanted to share:

Fresh Air interview: Paul Polak, Tackling Global Poverty His Own Way
Paul Polak, founder of the nonprofit International Development Enterprises, has spent 25 years working to eradicate poverty in Bangladesh, India, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and other countries in the developing world.
His perhaps-surprising conclusion: Government subsidies for the rural poor often make things worse....

Wall Street Journal Opinion article: Africa Does Not Have to Starve
Rapidly increasing world food prices have already led to political upheaval in poor countries. The crisis threatens to tear apart fragile states and become a humanitarian calamity unless countries get their agricultural systems moving.
Now, with conference committee negotiations over the final shape of the Farm Bill at a critical stage, Congress needs to change the foreign food-aid program and help avert this calamity. The Bush administration has urged, rightly, that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) be allowed to buy food locally, particularly in Africa, instead of only American-grown food....

Local News

I recently added local news to my Google News page, and since I don't get the newspaper it's kind of nice having a way to see my local news.

But today the first news article I saw was not very pleaseant. Just so happens this occured all of two blocks from my house: 17-year-old shot in face in Anaheim

My Green Sympathies

While I'm not a militant environmentalist, I do have some serious green sympathies. For example, I don't think we should legislate to prevent people from buying ridiculous gas-guzzling vehicles (unless there is some justifyable need, like business purposes), but I would encourage eco-friendliness and reserve the right to be judgemental of those that aren't.

I think there are lots of reasons to try to be more eco-friendly. Not just for environmental reasons, but for economic reasons as well. Reducing waste is good in any system, and renewable and sustainable resources are preferential to limited ones. It may cost us more in the beginning, but I think it likely it will pay off in the end.

Driving cars that get better gas mileage only saves me money (and I like that). The more we recycle instead of fill landfills, the less total resources each of us is consuming, and therefore the more people the planet can support (and let's face it the population isn't shrinking). Whether you buy the global warming arguement or not, it certainly won't hurt the environment if we try to be eco-friendly.

Personally, I'm regularly thinking of how I can make small changes in my behavior to be more eco-friendly. Mostly little stuff (recycling most of my trash, starting a compost heap, considering gas mileage when purchasing a vehicle, walking or riding my bike instead of driving on occasion), but I try not to be wasteful. I wish there were better public transportation around here, and would love to one day have a house with solar panels (I realize I would still need outside energy, but love the idea of reducing my dependence).

I came across the article below today, and was excited by the idea. Even if they do not accomplish their goal of carbon-neutrality, I love that they are making a try, and I believe any reduction would be a good thing. I've posted the intro below, but you can click the link to see the rest.

Abu Dhabi Aims to Build First Carbon-Neutral City
by Joe Palca Listen Now [7 min 46 sec]
Morning Edition, May 6, 2008 · In Abu Dhabi, there's an area of nothing but wind-swept desert. But 10 years from now, if all goes according to plan, a city of 6 square kilometers housing 50,000 people will rise in the United Arab Emirates — and it will be carbon neutral.
The project, called Masdar City, will burn no gas or oil, so its contribution to greenhouse gases will be minimal. Masdar is the centerpiece of emirate Abu Dhabi's plans to get into the renewable energy market, a hedge against the day its oil wells run dry....

I'm Out

I have been spoiled with good olive oil.

For the last two years or so I've been able to acquire very fresh, tasty, olive oil direct from Italy. I picked some up on my own trip in 2005, my brother and his wife have brought me bottles when they visit, and my mom brought me back two bottles when she went to Italy in October... and now it is all gone. As far as I know, there isn't any on it's way to me in the near future.

I'm sure I'll pull through, but I found myself saddened when the last of my Christmas bottle was eaten up. I'll go check out the olive oil selection at my local Italian market - maybe they have something fresher than I can get at the market. Or maybe I must now just go to Italy and bring myself some :)

Beltane Eve

One of my favorite books is Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon. It's a retelling of the Arthurian tales from his sister Morgaine's point of view.

If you remember, Arthur's mother was married and had a daughter with another man before she was wisked away by Uther. The daughter later beds Arthur and has his child. She is often portrayed as evil, or seeking to usurp Arthur's power by means of their child.

This version is different. To pull from the Wikipedia article:
"The Mists of Avalon is in stark contrast to other retellings of the Arthurian tales, which consistently paint Morgaine as a distant, one-dimensional evil witch or sorceress; with no real explanation given (or required) for her antipathy. In this case Morgaine is cast as a strong woman in pain who has unique gifts and responsibilities at a time of enormous political and spiritual upheaval; as she is called upon to defend her indigenous matriarchal heritage against impossible odds. The Mists of Avalon stands as a watershed for feminist interpretation of male-centered myth by articulating women's experience at time of great change and shifts in gender-power."

I've always been intrigued by mythology - norse, native american, greek/roman, and celtic - and fantasy stories woven around those myths. I really enjoyed Bradley's take on the tale, and the descriptions she offered of some of the rituals.

Today I found myself on Wikipedia, and that led me to the page about Beltane (which made me think of this book), which signifies the begining of summer. Tomorrow is Beltane/May Day, and tonight Beltane Eve, so if we were pre-christian celts right now, we'd be building big fires and beginning the celebration. Maybe we'll have a little fire on the patio tonight...

How Cute is My Neice?

Just wanted to share some photos:

Still in Need

Remember how I said I needed a vacation? I still haven't had it. In fact - I'm not even sure what happened to the last two weeks or so. I just know I worked a lot!


I've been really busy - at the office until around 7pm most nights, often not getting home until 8pm... not really even time to make dinner. I can't even remember.


This last weekend it finally slowed down. We removed the carpet in the music room last Sunday, and this weekend had inted to remove the tile (yes, there is at least one layer of tile under all the carpet) and lay the laminate floor that is in the rest of the house, but that didn't work out. Bobby had to work on some plans (fire sprinkler designs) and my parents were using their table saw to lay flooring in their own house.


Saturday morning Bobby and I finally made it down to a local cafe I've been wanting to try - Cafe Casse Croute. It's a little French-Canadian cafe, and what drew my attention were crepes. I'd run a Google Maps search for restaurants near our house because I'm tired of driving so far for everything, and I was intrigued. That was months ago. I had the chicken crepes, and Bobby had poached eggs benedict. This was the first time I'd ever had crepes filled with something you wouldn't put on pancakes, and it was lovely. filled with chicken and broccoli and a creamy white wine sauce - just lovely. Both our meals were very good (although I think mine was better), as was the orange juice, the service, and the price. We agreed we would come back again.


I most of the morning watering the backyard really well (we really must install sprinklers) and deep cleaning the barbecue, but I wound up spending most of the afternoon trying to rest. I had a headache all day. I tried taking tylenol, and later some aleve, but they weren't really helping. I haven't had a headache like that for years. I felt stressed and irritable for no reason whatsoever, and as if I had a long list of things I needed to get done, as if I shouldn't be relaxing.


Sunday I woke up around 8:20am - a little late for me) and it was already 78° outside, and I knew we were in for a hot one. I made sure all the windows were closed and turned on all the ceiling fans. Since I was going to be inside all day, and didn't want to do anything productive or responsible at all, I wound up playing computer games all day. Playing all day, and comfort foods like tuna melts for lunch and spaghetti for dinner also helped me finally relax. Unfortunately now I'm back at work, undoing all that hard work.

Dan in Real Life

I think I first heard about Dan in Real Life on public radio - they were giving it a fairly glowing review, and some of the clips they played sounded interesting, so I added it to my Netflix queue. It showed up about a week ago, and we finally got around to watching it last night.

Synopsis from RottenTomatoes.com:

Just as LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE did in 2006, DAN IN REAL LIFE reveals that Steve Carell is an actor who can do more than just comedy. He's won both accolades and awards as bumbling boss Michael Scott on THE OFFICE, but there's a greater depth to this performance as a single father and man in love. Advice columnist Dan Burns (Carell) has his hands full with three daughters that he's not willing to let grow up. The girls still grieve for their mother who died four years ago, and Dan hasn't made any attempts to date. So he's pleasantly surprised when he meets Marie (Juliette Binoche) at a bookstore when he goes to his parents' Rhode Island home for the annual family reunion. But his joy is short-lived when he discovers that she is dating his brother (Dane Cook), forcing Dan to hide his feelings and chemistry with Marie. Carell adeptly balances his role's humor and heartache, while Binoche (CHOCOLAT) is radiant as ever. Comedian Cook (GOOD LUCK CHUCK) shows surprising talent as the third leg of their love triangle. Through his duties as director and co-screenwriter, Peter Hedges deserves much of the credit for creating a film that is sweet without being sappy. Even though he's working with a far bigger budget than he did for his directorial debut, PIECES OF APRIL, he still maintains the feelings of intimacy and honesty that made that film such a critical favorite. What could have been a standard romantic comedy of errors turns into a strong film that goes deeper than many of its peers in the genre. DAN IN REAL LIFE also succeeds thanks to its soundtrack from Norwegian indie pop musician Sondre Lerche. The singer's compositions, both originals and favorites from his career, perfectly suit the film's tone and moods.

I really enjoyed this movie. Carell did a really good job with the part, and the movie had a good balance of serious and funny scenes. Bobby's not generally inclined towards romantic comedies, but we both liked the film and found ourselves laughing out loud to a number of scenes.