Thoroughly Disgusted

I really don't have words for this. Read about this and speak out!

I want this now!

I don't know why I'm enjoying Tool Academy so much. It's pretty bad. Anyways, I need to have this Zombie board game. WTF! I could probably play this shit for hours. HEAR ME NOW: IF YOU KNOW ME YOU KNOW I LOVE ZOMBIES. It's my dream one day to write an awesome book explaining the profound understanding zombie movie makers have of our psyches. An accredited academic zombie theses if you will. It's true! Shut up! You don't know!

V-Day Activities and Food

So here's how Valentine's Day went down. Elie got a surprise night off of work, which was so nice. I made roasted red pepper pesto from the Healthy Hedonsit. It came out way good! I even hand roasted the pepper over the a flame on the stove. I'm impressing myself (except for setting the chopstick I was using as a skewer on fire, two forks is better).
This picture may not look the most appetizing, but this is after I had been eating and pushing it around the plate. I was happy to have it again the next night for dinner. We also had a small salad to go along with it. But this time I had taken two baby cauliflower heads and sauteed them with a little bit of olive oil, fennel seeds, and garlic. I added those to the salads for a super flavorful crunch amongst the verdant greens. Of course, this was accompanied by my favorite beverage of organic green tea steeped with freshly grated ginger. Yes, that is my Smith College mug. I must always be representing the ivory tower 'cause that's how I role.
After that awesome meal we spent the evening watching T.V., eating some more, and playing Zombie Fluxx. What's Zombie Fluxx? Only the best zombie card game I've ever played!!! Whatever, all in all it was a lovely day.

Most Awesome Brownies Ever!!!!

There's a never ending battle between me and my sweet tooth. One that I am perpetually destined to lose. So that means I have to find many, many healthier alternatives to satisfy my endless cravings. That being said, I will be bringing you some of my favorite recipes from books or blogs. I present to you now some of the most amazing brownies I've ever had. The recipe comes from the fabulous culinary blog 101 Cookbooks, definitely worth your time to explore. But here's the best part, other than the fact that they freaking rock. They are completely flourless and use 2 cups of cooked black beans. Yes folks, BLACK BEANS!
Of course, everyone is completely grossed out when I tell them about these. But let's just say I didn't have that many left over for myself. People at my job were eating two at a time. They're small, but rich. So worth a try. I don't know what else to say about it other than just go make them. I posted the link to the recipe below. I made them completely vegan by substituting the eggs with a flax/hazelnut milk mixture. If you want more details about that let me know. Have at it!
101 Cookbooks Black Bean Brownies.

Eco-knitting

April, the official Earth month, is now over. But what I love is that these magazines, many of which are still available, have a green theme. Amongst my favorite are the knitting magazines. Both Vogue Knitting and Knit1 have excellent patterns, articles, and yarn reviews pertaining to environmentally safe crafting. What's cool is that you can go to the Vogue Knitting website and download free patterns using organic fibers. In fact, there's a myriad of sites that keep up the earth-friendly knitting all year round. Check out PurlSoho.com. They offer yarns thatare soy, silk, and bamboo derived. Do-it-herselfer, Quircky Knit Girl, refers readers to a pattern that shows you how to recycle plastic shopping bags and knit them into a bag you can use at the market. Knitters all over the Net are learning to take the power of their needles in hand and use them to make the earth a happier, healthier planet.

Staying on the Paperless Path

So I've seen Kindle, a digital reader from Amazon, and devices similar to it a lot lately. Amazon came out with their product back in November. I didn't think it would really catch on, but I read on their homepage today that they're having to work hard to keep up with orders. For book lovers everywhere, it's definitely exciting to know that one day we could carry many books at once in a small hand held device. Obviously, this device takes energy, but it uses a rechargeable battery. This kind of technology could be an enormous development in the fight to save trees and eliminate paper.

But there's a romantic spirit in me that is beckoned by the smell of an old book. This spirit thrills at the odyssey of exploring dusty shelves with 100's of faded bindings in a strange used book store. Think of not rushing out and getting that shiny new copy of whatever you were so breathlessly anticipating to add to your library.

I'll start crying if I think of not going to Strand again!

Maybe there's some sort of compromise. Remember the library? That's a great way of not wasting paper in the production of books. One takes out a book, enjoys it for free, and returns it for someone else's reading pleasure. You're basically recycling. Or maybe book publishing should be once of the last sacred institutions that are allowed the privilege of using our planets trees? Maybe publishing houses should be green and actively participate in reforestation?

Does anybody own one of these hand held digitals readers? Do share!

Go Paperless: Digital Magazines?

In honor of Earth Day both the Yoga Journal and Vegetarian Times have recently come out with "paperless" issues. Paperless meaning that you can digitally access and view the issue online. I applaud their efforts, great idea! Using Zinio, a company that specializes in digital magazines, one can zoom in, flip through, and see all the pages clearly. Sponsors are happy, because their ads are still visible just as they would be in the 3-D version.
Sounds like this could really catch on.

I'm all for saving paper and using this medium more often. My only hang-up was that it took a while to load and sometimes there would be a delay in responding to my "flipping" a page. I'm sure the quality of this experience is contingent upon many things, i.e. speed of your Internet connection, how long it's been since you've defragged your computer recently, etc. Check it out for yourselves and let me know what you think. Eyestrain, anyone?

Link for Yoga Journal

Link for Vegetarian Times