Street Art Thursday.

It's been a crazy day- I almost completely forgot about my bloggerly duties...

Today, a piece from Banksy, from the Santa's Ghetto project:


There are some amazing pieces as a part of this project. Definitely worth checking out.

In which I finally make peace with 'Fredo.

One of my favorite dinners, pre-veganism, was a nice fettuccine alfredo. Unfortunately, even before going vegan, my lactose intolerance set in, making it impossible to enjoy it without consequence. You might even say, it betrayed me.

(Waits for groans to subside)

Anyways, faced with a miserable night and a nearly empty (vegan) larder this weekend, I checked the internets for a vegan alfredo sauce recipe, on a lark. Lo and behold, I found a recipe via In a Vegetarian Kitchen that not only used ingredients we didn't need to leave the house for, but it was freakin delicious too. And it's dead simple to prepare:

Pasta with Enlightened Alfredo Sauce

6 servings

• 2 tablespoons nonhydrogenated margarine
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
• One 12.3-ounce container silken tofu
• 1/2 cup rice milk, or as needed
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 12 ounces pasta (see Note)
• Steamed greens (spinach or Swiss chard) for topping, optional
• Sliced sun-dried tomatoes for topping, optional

1. Cook the pasta in plenty of steadily boiling water until al dente, then drain.

2. Meanwhile, heat the margarine in a small skillet. Add the garlic and sauté over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden. Remove from the heat.

3. Combine the sautéed garlic and margarine with the tofu and rice milk in a food processor. Process until completely smooth and creamy.

4. Combine the pasta and sauce in a large serving bowl and toss together. Season with pepper and taste to see if you’d like to add more salt. If the mixture needs to be moister, add a small amount of additional rice milk and toss again. Serve at once, passing around greens and/or dried tomaotes for topping, if desired.

Now, we used plain soymilk, and didn't use the sundrieds or steamed greens, but those two items will be a must the next time. It's just as rich and yummy as you remember alfredo sauce being, without all the folderol that comes with the real thing. Yum!!!

Street Art Thursday (with a smile.)

Via Wooster Collective.



If that doesn't make you smile, you may want to go see your doctor.

Funny how time flies.

I'm always fascinated by how things connect in my mind. I got all excited this morning when I found out that the Indigo Girls are coming to Bloomington (about 45 minutes from here) at the beginning of February. It's been a long time since I've seen them live, but I hadn't quite realized how long ago. Almost another lifetime ago.

It was September 22, 2002. It was at the very end of a four year long relationship- we had already broken up, but were trying to "stay friends" and I had already bought the tickets, so we went to the show. Front row seats in a pretty small venue- one of the better ticket scores I'd made, getting those, because they had a big fanbase in the area, so I really had to be quick. It was a great show, but the company made the night awkward to say the least.

If I remember correctly (there's not set list online for this one), it was month later I started therapy. I had lost myself in that relationship, and without it, I had no idea what to do with myself. Seeing a therapist was probably the best decision I could have made at that stage in my life. It was a long, occasionally painful process, but I was able to reclaim my personality and find my passions again.

And here I am, five years later. Five years? Wow. I don't even know the me of five years ago anymore, and I have to say I couldn't be happier about that. I'm a much stronger, happier person, and although I have my moments, "I am more me", as Peter Bjorn & John said. So I feel like now will be as good a time as any to reunite with some old musical friends, don't you think? :)

It feels like weakness.

Tomorrow night, I got back to the sleep lab for a second sleep test, this time wearing a CPAP mask all night. This is so that I can be sure to have the proper setting on the CPAP machine I will soon have at home.

I've not been able to come to any better acceptance level of the situation than the last time I posted about this. I'm still freaked out, and I can't shake the general feeling that I'm broken somehow. Of course, I didn't actually break anything, but when you get to a point in life where you're on stomach meds every night, and your knees are falling apart, and you've got sleep apnea, you can't help but think that there are forces conspiring against you somehow.

I'm not really big on being "normal", but I do wish that my body worked the way it ought to. I don't think that's too much to ask for.