Category: photo

Kombucha

You’ve probably seen those expensive bottles of kombucha tea at the health food store, but did you know you can make it for pennies? Of course, if you don’t like it, you don’t give a crap. Most people seem to either love or hate it. Not too many falling to the indifferent spot in the middle. If you hate the smell or taste of vinegar, than you might as well move along now. This will not interest you.

A few weeks ago, I got a scoby from Steph and started up my own batch. Here is my second batch fermenting away:

That’s the one I’m currently drinking. Batch three is about to be bottled. The basic recipe is 3 quarts filtered water, 1 cup sugar and 3 green tea bags. I have not added any additional flavors although some people do. For the third batch I backed off the sugar by about 1/8 cup as it seemed just a bit too sweet.

Here’s my main scoby resting while I wash out his house and bottle up the finished tea:

Looks pretty weird, right?

And here it is all bottled up ready to go in the fridge.

I haven’t really noticed any benefits, I just enjoy it. And I’m using it to replace evil Coke Zero in my life.

So, I guess I’m now officially a dirty hippy.

Bikeversary

Just over a year ago, I finally stopped thinking about riding my bike and actually started doing it. The height of summer might not have been the best time for this undertaking, but I did it and haven’t looked back.

It all started with little rides in my neighborhood at the beginning of July on a mountain bike I bought new in San Francisco in … 1995. The first rides made me want to puke. But I kept at it and tried to avoid the mid-day sun. And at the beginning of August, I started commuting to work 2-3 days a week, 9ish miles each way. And, it’s awesome!

After doing some 20+ mile weekend rides, it was time to think about getting another bike, a lighter road bike. I found this Fuji Finest on Craigslist. It fit, the price was right and it passed Matt’s look-over with bike mechanic eyes. It’s much more fun to ride than the commuter. Probably weighs half as much.

And we’ve had some fine adventures. Riding out to Stone Mountain and back. The ITP/OTP Ramble – 47 miles! And the Beltline Bike Tour – 27 miles. Quick rides to meet friends for dinner.

And, no, riding in Atlanta isn’t that bad, at least in town. Sure, there isn’t a ton of infrastructure, but cars have been pretty respectful to me on city streets. It helps that I’m mostly using 35mph or less roads and do my best to avoid dangerous roads.

Here are the resources I use the most:

Bikeforums.net: if you have a question, it has probably been answered on this site. If you can’t find your answer with their search bar, try using google – site:bikeforums.net your search string here

Atlanta Bicycle Coalition: nervous about riding city streets? These guys have a class for that! They also have organized rides for all levels, provide a bike valet service at events and are awesome advocates for cycling in the community.

Sheldon Brown: this is pretty much the encyclopedia for cycling on the internet. Learn how to do anything from installing brakes (I’ve done this!) to adjusting your saddle properly.

Zoic: ladies, want cute cycling clothes? Zoic has cute shorts and skirts that you won’t be embarrassed to wear around.

Shebeest: They make the normal road cycling shorts, but in matte fabric. Love mine. Hate having a big shiny ass. They also have some nice commuter shorts, capris.

This is getting long, so I’m not going into what I carry on my bike, exactly what I wear for commuting, sweat, stinkiness, winter, sore butt, etc. Feel free to ask about these things or I’ll eventually post about ’em.

Texican NOMfest

Look at me all bloggin’ like I didn’t neglect the hell out of this thing for a year or more. Sadly Godaddy was hosting my blog AND my domain registration. At least now Kevin’s hosting my blog over on Dreamhost with his stuff and I’ll just move my domain when it expires. Oh, and I’ll remember, just like an elephant.

I hear there are people who don’t really care much about food and just eat whatever. I don’t know any of those people. So we get together and have these amazing potlucks. The latest had a Texican theme. Eating started pretty much immediately after we arrived.

First course: Frito Pie and a White Sangria (one of my contributions)

And here’s the spread. And this isn’t even everything.

Dranks:

Redneck caviar, stuffed jalapeños:

Jicama salad with cilantro on the side for the haters (also my contribution)

Chilimac

Fixin’s

Tamale, taquito (I think) and guacamole

Sampling chilimac, redneck caviar and a stuffed poblano

Did we save room for dessert? No, but that didn’t stop us. Chocolate flan, Mexican wedding cookie, sopapilla

And all vegan, of course. Okay, time to go finish the patriotic as fuck cake I made for tonight’s potluck. Oy.

Cornbread-Stuffed Poblanos

Last weekend we headed up the road to Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe to pick up some of those new Teese Mozzarella Sticks and other random bits.

There might have also been a baked good bonus for local folks, Peanut Butter Rocky Road Poundcake that Leigh baked from Hearty Vegan Meals For Monster Appetites. Which were delicious, by the way. Back to that cookbook though. Kevin picked it up and started flipping through it. Next thing I knew it was in the bag coming home with us. Yay!

As I was looking through trying to figure out what I wanted to cook from this book while making my shopping list, I may have gained 10 lbs. Banana Split Waffles? Maple Bacon Doughnuts? Crispy Mac & Cheese Balls? You get the idea. So one of the recipes I picked out was the Cornbread-Stuffed Poblanos. Okay, so they use mayo or sour cream for the moisture instead of soy milk. Still, they weren’t deep-fried so it seemed like a good place to start.

And they were really good. Using salsa in the batter made them extra tasty. And the pepper roasted up a bit while they baked. Even so, I think next time I make them I’ll back off the sour cream, the option I used, and just substitute soy milk to make them more of an everyday kind of dish.

The sides are Jicama Salad I had leftover from a potluck and we split a Gutenfleischer’s vegan steak that I heated up on the George Foreman.

Vegetarian restaurant in Cabo San Lucas

Who knew there was a vegetarian, mostly vegan, restaurant in Cabo San Lucas? We sure didn’t until we saw their sign from the main drag. The El Ameyal Hotel and Wellness Center has a vegetarian restaurant that you get to by walking through the center courtyard of the hotel by the pool. You dine under a grass hut outside but don’t be put off by that. It’s perfectly comfortable under there. They only have a Spanish menu, but the staff was able to help translate enough to figure it out.

First off, they brought this delicious vegan cream cheese and some sort of dark bread. I would be happy to eat that spread on bagels every morning.

Kevin got the Pastel Cubano. It was a layered dish of black beans, plantains and tofu and came with a side of veggies. It was tasty but a little too much mush for me.

Beth got the Seitan al Chimichurri. And boy was that a lot of seitan! They tried to rely on the sauce too much for the flavor rather than seasoning up the seitan really well. It would’ve really been awesome cut in strips in a taco or burrito. Also, did I say that was a ton of seitan?

Taylor ordered Tofu con Hongos Mixtos, tofu stir fried with mushrooms with a side of brown rice. Also a huge portion. I’m weird about mushrooms and have to be in the mood for them. It was pretty good for being mushrooms and all. Taylor seemed to like it, so that was the important thing.

And I got the Albondigas de Espinacas, balls of spinach in a béchamel sort of sauce with a hint of nutmeg and a side of brown rice. I’m not sure how the spinach balls were formed. Maybe just pressed together, possibly baked? They weren’t crisp like croquettes. Whatever, it was awesome.

And yes, they had vegan desserts that weren’t just a pile of fruit. I didn’t really love them though. Kevin got this Tofucake that was similar to key lime cheezecake, but I think they used agar as a thickening agent. So it was a bit weirdly smooth and the texture just wasn’t quite right. The taste was nice and so was the crust, made of raw nuts and dates, I think.

If you’re a vegan vacationing in Cabo San Lucas and are getting tired of chips, guacamole and questionably vegan beans, you should definitely seek this place out for some tasty, healthy food.