tap my glass

Desperately low on substance in the fridge, i needed to eat something… and i needed it fast.

One of the beauties of having a house, and some yard, is the veggie garden. This year i planted a bunch of tomato plants, basil, red peppers, lettuce, and cilantro. The tomatos have been good allthough a little sparser than i would’ve expected (considering i planted 13 plants), the basil has been great, cilantro had its times (remember to pick flowers!!!), and the lettuce much the same as the cilantro. The peppers are just coming in full force now.

So back to lunch. I needed some, and had very little in the fridge. Some sundried tomatos was about all that was in there. So i went out to the garden, picked a bunch of basil, and the one tomato i could find. I came inside, pulled some shallots out, and sauted them down with some balsamic till tender. Then added sliced sundrieds and garlic. Of course s & p and oil al mucho. Once done, i took the whole bit along with the pile of washed basil, into the cuisinart with you!!! They had a bit of a pesto party in there they did. Cooked the de cecco pasta (the spooled fettuccine, best dried pasta money can buy), spooned directly into the original saute fry pan, added the pesto, and voila, lunch. Chopped my one tomato on top, some red pepper flakes, and now it is in my tummy, but not before taking this pic on top of my new filing cabinet. What a way to kick off what will likely be paradigm shiftastic weekend.

I’ve been the worst blogger every lately. Can’t really clasify myself as one. Classification blows anyways.

I ate about 2/3 of:
- 1 cup organic white flour
- 1 cup vanilla soy milk
- 1 egg (1 yolk, then 1 folded egg white)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (ya, its organic too)
- 2 tsp of baking powder (don’t know what this does)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- lots of grade a maple syrup
- some organic margerine
- banana

Banana waffles rule.

Checked out a new thai place last weekend, Sacred Garden. Its vegitarian, its on bank, ottawa south but before riverside. It was very tasty, as most ottawa thai is. The soup - the tom yum - not up to massive par, but tasty. The most striking part is everything had a frickin meat substitute “protein” in it!!! I think its ridiculous!!! Apparently there’s an art or something in coming up with things that look and taste like shrimp/beef/lamb/whatever that is made from plant, i’m not a buyer of it. Plus it all has wheat in it, and some people i know can’t eat that cause they’re celiac. So just substitute everything for tofu!!! Ok!!!! Which is good, but why not, i dunno, massively creative veggie/fruit dishes? Try some squash, eggplant, mangos, appples, hell roasted thai chillies!!! The food was good, the service was amazying, but holy crap, your special really isn’t “lamb protein” is it!!! Geez. Please correct me if you think i’m being unfair.

So i worked from home today. Lobsters were made last sunday, and the carcases have been sitting in a pot on the stove since then. I was home today, so i boiled the shit out of them, adding some other brothy items (onion, celery, carrot, salt). Eventually strained, and i had this kickass fishy broth… then i roasted a tomato, some garlic, and an onion, pureedished them, then added, and there you go. Some lobsteresque whatever soup. It’s pretty damn tasty. I had that round 4.

Stepping back a sec, i did have lunch too. I’m onto this silken tofu stuff for spread purposes. I had about half a block, mixed with minced pickle, tomato, shallot, and… was that it? O, and some kimchi, that stuff is awesome!!! Added a bit of rice vinager, s & p, mixed, and it works as a good filler. I had some tortilla shells, plopped it on top, rollled, consumed. Very good. Only prob is those tortilla shells are NOT good for you. 2 shells (and they were the small ones) had like 500 mg of sodium or something outragous. Hence, i took in a full days worth of sodium at lunch. And chances are, if you go to lone star, that fajita meal is enough for the day too.

This here is what i had for dinner. Of course i was hungry by 5 (little meat == little stay fulledness) so i went to that groc store on somerset near… shit i can’t remember, its the massive one whose name is a number i think? Its west of preston, just west of that city center bridge. Anyways, i got some tofu balls and veggies and stuff. And some vermicelli, the straight kind, its much better for saladish dishes. So i made that cut up some cuke, carrot, tomato, bok choyish, and got some sprouts. For the dressing i went vietai, into a little over 1/2 cup hot/warm watter dissolve 1 tbsp. sugar, add 1 tbsp. fish sauce, juice of about half a lime, and this up coming thai mixture - 4 chillis, 2 cloves garlic, a good tbsp of ginger, 2 inches of lemongrass, salt, all minced and mortle and pestles till you’re bored (which isn’t long enough, but who wants to work!!!). Mix it all together, and add a few tbsp. to the tofu balls, refrig the rest. Then fire up the q, and blacken the tofu balls for kicks. Once done, add vermicelli to a bowl, the tofu balls, then veggies of your choice, then drizzle with sauce. I like it, its got bite, and is very lite!!!!!

Yay for working from home!!!! But now i actually have to acomplish something… i think i’ll check the updates from the wsop.

Made this before my 10k race 2 weeks ago - dang, its been 2 weeks since my dang race. Anyways, if you want a light, easy, superb pasta meal, heres whatcha need:
- de cecco fettucine, its like 3 bux for a 500g ‘box’, when i say box its cause it comes in spools, its the cheapest, best, dry pasta money can buy, typically at nicastro type italian grocs - below recipe uses about half a box
- 3 or 4 cloves garlic, coarsly chopped
- 3 spring onions, chopped, 2mm at the oniony part, 2 cm at the green part (for flare!!)
- a can or a bunch of oil soaked artichokes
- 15 cherry tomatos, halved
- holy crap fresh sweet basil too!!!, roughly chopped
- olive oil!
Then do this:
- fill a big pot with water, a bit o salt, start it to boil (not if you’re lucky and have gas though, you could probably wait a bit)
- get your fry pan (large, or use a wok), put 2 tbl of oil in, heat it on medium
- toss in the chopped onions, saute for like 2 min
- then the garlic, in she goes
- saute for a bit, don’t burn or really cook the garlic too long!
- then toss in the rest, and bring the heat down so as not to overmassively cook
- put the pasta in when ready, cook 5 min or so (it doesn’t take al long to become dente)
- when its done, skoop it directly into the pan/wok, retaining some juices, but not too much
- mix up as best as can, add more oil if you want, serve immediatly with fresh parma and fresh pepper.
Yes, very tasty, my idea of a perfect meal really. This’ll serve 2 for lunch, or me before a 10k race (i had a bit left, but only cause i didn’t want to get over stuffed).

Working from home rules. For lunch i bbq’ed some sausages and tossed some onions shrooms and garlic some dried basil and rosemary and a bunch of organic olive oil in a pan. Once the veggies were good to go in went 2 cans of too salty but good unico chopped tomatos. And some pepper and hot red peppers. Eventually the sausages were charred n juicy so they came off, and cooled, and then sliced and into the sauce which was simmer super bubbly like. O ya. Boiled some water and tossed in some whole wheat spaghetti. Once complete and all done i topped my meal with some parma. O baby. All the while i had my laptop poised in the kitchen and answered msn’s and edited code wirelessly on the battery. Damn working from home rulez. Now its a long weekend and i’m feeling fine. Super kickass, time to get my framing on (tomorrow). But tonite, we drink and play cards and be merry!!!!!

So since i’ve been training now for this 10k i’m running in a few weeks, i’ve gotten quite used to running through the glebe in the evening. I just got back from a relatively eventful sprint run and thought i would share my delightful experience with y’all.

I run started like most others, slowly and with intent. However, the intent this eve was a sprint one, a 10×400m thingy where i run “as fast as i can” for 400m, 10 times. During this training i’ve only had to do this 2 times prior, and both times it was tuff. I had hopes of going to the track next to the school on glebe ave. near bronson. I got in, but after one lap some dude told me “if you stay in here you’ll have to hop the fence to get out”. This didn’t seem too appealing. So i wussily left to roam the streets of the glebe and do approximated 400m.

You know whats sweet about running through the glebe in the spring in the eve? The smells. Damn, them rich glebe folk sure bbq some fine meats. I think i like the smell of meat more than the taste these days. I’d rather devour a pound of the table’s avacado salad than a pound of any meats these days, a mix of veggies and spices is way more appealing than chewing thru fatty parts of a steak or having to cut through bone where you thought there shouldn’t be any on a cheap cut of ribs. Don’t get me wrong, i enjoy that, just not as much anymore…

I digress. From what? O ya, my run, not much happenned after that. Lots of people that walk on glebe ave just west of bank have mean looks on their faces. Everyone looks at you when you run, and i look at most people back. Some of the old dudes give me the feeling that “damn, no runners on my streets, i’m gonna raise this up at the next community council meeting that i’m on my way to right now”. I’m probably just being over sensitive.

Then i got home and had a shower. Then i ate what you see beside this, the first half of my dinner (2nd half tbd). This is last nights spinach, red onion (soaked to sweeten), cuke, and grape tomato salad with a 5:1 rice vinager to olive oil dressing. Surprisingly, super kick ass!!! The milk, in bk’s old lotr glasses, is so good’s chocolate mixed with fat free. Its good shit too. Hot damn i’m getting old.

Thanks for reading this far, if you really did - with some local bloggers out of the country or the blogging scene altogether, there seems to be less inspirational reasons to blog, but recent comments have refeuled some fire. Or mabye thats my colon. Naw, its the comments, thanks for getting this far, and thanks to those that originally inspired me to babble endlessly to no one in particular about nothing in particular for what would seem to be no particular reason but no doubt is actually quite reasonable. Ahhhh, thats better.

This is my friends new baby. Say hi to taco grande. He’s pretty cute. I’m not even a sucker for cute animals, but this one is pretty cute. Kinda useless and incredibly high maintanence, but cute.

In other news, the poker has not slowed down. Thanks to one of my friends being born 30 years ago yesterday, we convened at my house after the tavern for a gigantic ad hoc 19 person tournament. I of course, finished 2nd. It was lots of fun. Now the real question - do i toss the 30 or so empty touborg cans in the recycle bin for the folks that’ll come scrounge, or do i return em? I’m pretty lazy, and o so giving, i think i’ll leave em in the bin.

But wait!!! That was not the real question. The question i ask myself, is what kind of flour should i use for gnocchi tonite? I bought a flimsy potato ricer last weekend from domus. Fifteen bux compared to the stainless steel ma cuisine one. Which was, much nicer, but do i need to spend 50 bux on a stainless steel potato ricer that i might use 3 times a year?? I don’t very well think so. So the flour, yes, that is the question…

And let me just say, springtime comes and leaves are back on the trees again, i know not of the snappers, but they’re harder to see my friends, i will not hide from my close friends, i will live long on the weekends.

Just because something isn’t mentioned, or isn’t discussed, does not mean it is insignificant. Nor is the inverse always true.

Some people thrive on insignificance, discussing what may seem mundane, trivial, or just plain boring to some. This kind of exploration can often lead to promising, significant ends. This implies significance can have insignificant roots. Much of what i discuss here (perhaps even this), is quite insignificant in and of itself. But it helps me explore my thoughts and my observations in a forum that my brain can not as easily provide.

Back to my initial assertion. Much of what goes on in my life is not discussed here. This is a forum mostly for exploration of the insignificant, in an effort to derive significance. What is already significant may not be explored here, mostly for privacy reasons, but also because my brain, and in its communication with other brains, is a better forum for their exploration, if any is necessary.

There are significant things in my life that are not discussed here. Simply because they are not discussed here means nothing of their significance. I guess thats all i wanted to say. O wait. I have some bagettes in the oven. I ran out of regular flour so the leftover dusting is being done with corn flour… we’ll see how it all turns out.

O and i should also mention today was incredibly productive. Drapes were hung, plumbing was pushed, shelves were assembled, floors were cleaned (a little), aquariums were brought out of hibernation, and breakfast was eaten. Very productive. That is mostly over now, the night is here, and its time to get my play on.

When life is good, is there any reason to lament? I guess about food i’ve made, which has been little… lets see, what are the food highlights of recent days:
- dim sum at yangtzee last weekend
- coconut drink and veggie pho at vietam noodle house… at least i think thats what its called
- dim sum indonesian style at some indonesian place in kanata. Interesting, hardboiled eggs that were a little green smothered in peanut sauce, vedy strange but good!
- so much pho
- gluten free corn pasta with jalepno’s (no time to check spelling)
- spicey pickled eggplant from direnzo’s
- the veggie sandwhich from direnzo’s when they haven’t run out of the good bread
- when you get to smoke in a popular ottawa indian restaurant when the staff wanna party and you’re still there, but they don’t wanna push you out
- lots of fruit, including fresh figs n dates
- hazelnuts
- wings…

ok i’m kinda petering out there, but you get the jist. Life is super, i just wish i had more time to…. i dunno. I guess i don’t wish for anything but more of the same. And even that i don’t think i can handle. I’m just gonna roll with it. I do wish i had been taking more pictures of food and other stuff. THat i should give’r on. THen give’r some more.

O, one unrelated thing that was good. “He died with a falafel in his hand“. Very cool movie, totally my style, super kickass.

Thats about all i can say (recipe here, flour used was brown rice though). New jobs rule too. They’re scary as fuck, but they do rule. Especially when you sit in a meeting where your director and lead dude babble for more than an hour about the feature you’re doing, and most of it flys over your head. Thats fun stuff. O, and day old pizza made fresh with a gluten free crust including teff, ya thats right TEFF flour, is used. Super kick ass. I also tried some gluten free gnocchi using rice flour, very different, must try the leftovers to know for sure. More to say, but little time to type amidst stuffing my face. I guess i can say the predictions i made here are coming to fuition, and that i probably will be working 9 to 10 hours a day for a long whiles.