taking more time than usual to choose
Jan. 7th, 2013 12:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reflectedeveGood morning bbs. (This posting every day thing is kind of strange.) I am back at work, and a little twitchy! However, yesterday I performed kind of an amazing transformation on my messy little apartment, and I am feeling badass as a result. My roommate will not know what hit the place when she gets back.
So![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
snowflake_challenge Day 7 is ... well, a bit of a challenge for me. In your own space, share something non-fannish about yourself. A passion or a hobby or a talent, something that people might not know about you. We are more than just our fandoms.
See, the thing is, I'm pretty sure you guys already know what my grand passion is outside of fandom, because it's linked to what I do in fandom as well. I suppose that I tend to do more illustration for other peoples' stories around these parts, while in the rest of my life I'm invested in being a storyteller myself ... but I've made comics here. I'm a cartoonist in both spheres. Also I talk about it constantly!
And fandom is, as I've said for years, basically my favorite hobby. I guess the other ones that sort of stand out would be ... cooking and singing. (And possibly theology, but I'm actually a little rusty there.) My upbringing with regard to food was ... a little strange? I mean, first of all, I spent most of my childhood as a faculty kid living on-campus at a prep school, and we ate a lot of our meals in the dining hall to save money. This lead to me being exposed to very mediocre versions of a wide variety of dishes, and being a picky kid, eating a lot of plain pasta with butter. (It also meant that, when a friend got a whole bunch of free Dartmouth meal plan dollars from her job, and invited a bunch of us over to the cafeteria to share them, I was overcome with nostalgia.)
Nobody can say that my parents, who come from 1950s working class backgrounds in New England and Chicago respectively, have been unadventurous eaters ... but nevertheless, their cooking repertoire does boil down to meat-starch-veggie a good three-quarters of the time. On the other hand, my dad's brief stint with working for the Department of Nutrition (in an administrative capacity, I think) lead him to have very strong feelings about such things as junk food and artificial flavoring, which means that lots of things (including soda and any cereal more sugary than Kix) were banned from my house.
I didn't really learn to cook at home. I think I left knowing how to make a cheese sauce from scratch (macaroni remains a comfort food on occasion), but that was about it! But when I was off on my own I was determined not to live on ramen. I'd received a copy of Bittman's How To Cook Everything for Christmas, but didn't find myself taking to it, and instead quickly discovered the world of food blogs ... and then, everything was beautiful. I started to amass a repertoire of vegetarian (and some vegan) one-pot meals (good for work lunches!) based on first-order ingredients. I'm not actually vegetarian at all, but it seemed to me that this was a good way to keep my diet healthy and affordable, and made clean-up a lot easier; I save my carnivorous urges for the occasional restaurant meal or visit home. I'm not a very intuitive cook, so I stick pretty closely to recipes. I wouldn't say I'm super impressive ... but I have fun.
As my art time became more and more serious--much more like work--cooking became something of a replacement hobby, something that required me to set aside my pens in order to immerse myself in veggies and spices (and dance around to music or listen to audiobooks). Most of my dishes don't have long stretches of time to be left alone in, so I usually can't settle into another pursuit while I'm cooking, which has been good for me.
Grad school has made cooking for myself a lot harder (the time factor), but it has given me more opportunities to cook for others occasionally, which is awesome. I've taught myself a few extra desserts in order to contribute to potlucks (not something I do a lot of, since my focus has been on feeding myself healthily ... and also I keep dragging my feet about learning to bake, because it kind of freaks me out). I'm often the one bringing the vegan option. (I do try cooking for my family sometimes too, when I'm home, but mostly just sides and things. They insisted on eating my spinach mushroom risotto with pork, even though it's a perfectly good main course on its own, sigh.)
Um, jfc, herds of teal deer. Here, have a few of my favorite recipes! I get them from the internet, after all.
Coconut Red Lentil Soup - pretty sure I've linked this one before, but that's because it's my favorite. This curry soup is incredibly savory and super easy to make, although it does take awhile. I like to eat it over rice, which makes it stretch to twice as many meals! But it's also really good without.
Winter Pasta Sauce - it took me awhile to start warming up to kale, I must admit, so this was my gateway recipe. It's a delicious creamy green pasta sauce that I've actually had to place restrictions on so I don't make it too often! Super easy, too. I don't like goat cheese very much (I know, I know), but I sub in feta and it works really well.
Black Bean Tomato Quinoa - requires almost no actual cooking at all (just the quinoa itself), and deeply delicious! Nom, the lime dressing.
Palak Daal - one of my staples, and a seriously great healthy comfort food (plus a good way to introduce a big helping of spinach into your diet). The urad daal can be a little tricky to find (at least, here in New England), but I've found it to be worth it ... or you could sub in another lentil.
Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup - super delicious, but requires alteration (probably the recipe I mess with the most). I start this one out with the relatively standard sauteeing of onions & garlic before I add more things and follow the recipe. Gives it more dimension.
Chocolate Cherry "Ice Cream" Popsicles - this became my signature summer potluck contribution, and was a hit with our resident vegans and most everyone else too. Even better with frozen raspberries, although then you also have to add sugar (to taste).
Vegan Rice Pudding - mmm, creamy. Ridiculously easy to prepare, also.
Actually, speaking of recipes ... my mother agreed to lend me her crockpot for the rest of the school year. I've never used one before, but I'm hoping it will help me find a balance between my work and healthy eating! Does anyone have a vegetarian crockpot recipe or two they'd like to recommend? :D?
Also, oh man. Definitely lunchtime.
So
snowflake_challenge Day 7 is ... well, a bit of a challenge for me. In your own space, share something non-fannish about yourself. A passion or a hobby or a talent, something that people might not know about you. We are more than just our fandoms.See, the thing is, I'm pretty sure you guys already know what my grand passion is outside of fandom, because it's linked to what I do in fandom as well. I suppose that I tend to do more illustration for other peoples' stories around these parts, while in the rest of my life I'm invested in being a storyteller myself ... but I've made comics here. I'm a cartoonist in both spheres. Also I talk about it constantly!
And fandom is, as I've said for years, basically my favorite hobby. I guess the other ones that sort of stand out would be ... cooking and singing. (And possibly theology, but I'm actually a little rusty there.) My upbringing with regard to food was ... a little strange? I mean, first of all, I spent most of my childhood as a faculty kid living on-campus at a prep school, and we ate a lot of our meals in the dining hall to save money. This lead to me being exposed to very mediocre versions of a wide variety of dishes, and being a picky kid, eating a lot of plain pasta with butter. (It also meant that, when a friend got a whole bunch of free Dartmouth meal plan dollars from her job, and invited a bunch of us over to the cafeteria to share them, I was overcome with nostalgia.)
Nobody can say that my parents, who come from 1950s working class backgrounds in New England and Chicago respectively, have been unadventurous eaters ... but nevertheless, their cooking repertoire does boil down to meat-starch-veggie a good three-quarters of the time. On the other hand, my dad's brief stint with working for the Department of Nutrition (in an administrative capacity, I think) lead him to have very strong feelings about such things as junk food and artificial flavoring, which means that lots of things (including soda and any cereal more sugary than Kix) were banned from my house.
I didn't really learn to cook at home. I think I left knowing how to make a cheese sauce from scratch (macaroni remains a comfort food on occasion), but that was about it! But when I was off on my own I was determined not to live on ramen. I'd received a copy of Bittman's How To Cook Everything for Christmas, but didn't find myself taking to it, and instead quickly discovered the world of food blogs ... and then, everything was beautiful. I started to amass a repertoire of vegetarian (and some vegan) one-pot meals (good for work lunches!) based on first-order ingredients. I'm not actually vegetarian at all, but it seemed to me that this was a good way to keep my diet healthy and affordable, and made clean-up a lot easier; I save my carnivorous urges for the occasional restaurant meal or visit home. I'm not a very intuitive cook, so I stick pretty closely to recipes. I wouldn't say I'm super impressive ... but I have fun.
As my art time became more and more serious--much more like work--cooking became something of a replacement hobby, something that required me to set aside my pens in order to immerse myself in veggies and spices (and dance around to music or listen to audiobooks). Most of my dishes don't have long stretches of time to be left alone in, so I usually can't settle into another pursuit while I'm cooking, which has been good for me.
Grad school has made cooking for myself a lot harder (the time factor), but it has given me more opportunities to cook for others occasionally, which is awesome. I've taught myself a few extra desserts in order to contribute to potlucks (not something I do a lot of, since my focus has been on feeding myself healthily ... and also I keep dragging my feet about learning to bake, because it kind of freaks me out). I'm often the one bringing the vegan option. (I do try cooking for my family sometimes too, when I'm home, but mostly just sides and things. They insisted on eating my spinach mushroom risotto with pork, even though it's a perfectly good main course on its own, sigh.)
Um, jfc, herds of teal deer. Here, have a few of my favorite recipes! I get them from the internet, after all.
Coconut Red Lentil Soup - pretty sure I've linked this one before, but that's because it's my favorite. This curry soup is incredibly savory and super easy to make, although it does take awhile. I like to eat it over rice, which makes it stretch to twice as many meals! But it's also really good without.
Winter Pasta Sauce - it took me awhile to start warming up to kale, I must admit, so this was my gateway recipe. It's a delicious creamy green pasta sauce that I've actually had to place restrictions on so I don't make it too often! Super easy, too. I don't like goat cheese very much (I know, I know), but I sub in feta and it works really well.
Black Bean Tomato Quinoa - requires almost no actual cooking at all (just the quinoa itself), and deeply delicious! Nom, the lime dressing.
Palak Daal - one of my staples, and a seriously great healthy comfort food (plus a good way to introduce a big helping of spinach into your diet). The urad daal can be a little tricky to find (at least, here in New England), but I've found it to be worth it ... or you could sub in another lentil.
Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup - super delicious, but requires alteration (probably the recipe I mess with the most). I start this one out with the relatively standard sauteeing of onions & garlic before I add more things and follow the recipe. Gives it more dimension.
Chocolate Cherry "Ice Cream" Popsicles - this became my signature summer potluck contribution, and was a hit with our resident vegans and most everyone else too. Even better with frozen raspberries, although then you also have to add sugar (to taste).
Vegan Rice Pudding - mmm, creamy. Ridiculously easy to prepare, also.
Actually, speaking of recipes ... my mother agreed to lend me her crockpot for the rest of the school year. I've never used one before, but I'm hoping it will help me find a balance between my work and healthy eating! Does anyone have a vegetarian crockpot recipe or two they'd like to recommend? :D?
Also, oh man. Definitely lunchtime.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-07 07:57 pm (UTC)I love kale and it always irritates me that the only time you can get it in the stores in my little town is during Christmas.
The Thai-spiced Pumpkin Soup sounds both easy to make and very yummy. I must definitely try it one day.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-01-08 05:41 pm (UTC)