Nudibranch!

How saucy

I'm kind of super excited right now. Why? I just made my first thai-style spicy peanut butter sauce, all out of my head, and it's SO TASTY. Every now and then, you have to flatter yourself a little bit...right...?
Anyway. Here's the recipe, it's super simple:
   -3 large spoonfuls of peanut butter. I used creamy PB, but I see no problem with adding texture with crunchy PB if that's what you have in the cupboard.
   -Coconut oil, about a spoonful
   -A splash of milk, but this is optional. In the future, I'll leave it out.
   -Spices to taste, in this order:
   Chili powder<red pepper<tumeric<cumin<curry powder
   -Water, add throughout the mixing process to attain the thickness that you desire

And that's that! We poured it over bowls of black lentils and sauteed kale, with bread on the side. 

Food Tonight

Alright, I have a recipe to post. Get ready for some Awesome.
Anybody that has been food shopping with me before can tell you that I get...very excited about food. There's something about seeing the potential in (real) ingredients, and cooking new (real) meals that just makes me so essentially happy. It's creative. Art that fills your belly? Yes please.
I've only been experimenting with cooking for about a year, though, so I have a long way to go before I can say I'm actually good at cooking. But the love does show through, and I'm finding that simplicity goes a lot farther than you would expect, as long as the flavors are right.
This week, I and some dear people made sushi for the first time (no raw fish yet, we used cooked shrimp), it's really simple and we made a TON more for the money than we would have gotten at a restaurant. It was a slamming success. So satisfying.
On another night, I also learned that it's not a good idea to stir fry peas out of a can...They still tasted good mixed with (also stir fried) carrots and (extra) pepper, but they definitely didn't look all that appealing...

ANYWAY. Tonight, my brother and I made some curry rice noodles with veggies:
-Almost 1 lb. Chinese snow peas
-1 can baby corn
-1 can water chesnuts
-1 carrot (or more)
-2 sticks of celery
-A clove or two of garlic
-1 yellow onion
Start by throwing all these in a wok (chopped appropriately) with a splash of soy sauce, about a quarter cup of water, a quarter cup of vegetable broth (not really necessary except for some added flavor- we just happened to have an open bottle {yes, yes, bottled broth...} in the fridge, so we used that), and a tablespoon of coconut oil. Steam for between 5-10 minutes, until almost all the liquid is gone, stiring whenever you think about it. Once most of the liquid is gone, and the carrots are tender (if they're not tender yet, add more water and steam for longer), add a bit more oil if you think it needs it, and stir fry until the onions are a little browned- just a little, you don't want the other veggies to get mushy and fall apart.
And then,
-1/2 lb. cooked shrimp! Throw them in and keep stir frying until they're warmed through.

-Buy a package of rice noodles, and please follow the directions so they don't come out like a starchy, glompy clump. They are not like normal noodles. Ian learned this the hard way...but a comforting word: they still taste fine as starchy glompy lumps...
The curry sauce:
-1 can Coconut milk
-Curry powder to taste
-Tumeric powder to taste
-A teaspoon or so of cinnamon
-A pinch of salt to taste
-About 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
-About 1/2 table spoon of sesame oil
Combine all these in a sauce pan, heat, stir, and poor over the noodles and stuff when you're ready to serve!

La vie, etc.

Here's a poem that I wrote for a french class last year, I just dug it out from the depths of my computer. It's funny how I wrote it, and yet it makes me cry every time I reach the end...I have a tendancy to get right to the point, while never actually touching it, I guess.
Enjoy...if you can read french, that is.

~

Le ciel etais gris, et il devenait noir toujours. Mon tête etait malade, j’etais trop sommeil a penser.
Ainsi, je suis sorti, pour faire une promenade.
Quand je faisais mon promenade, j’ai ecoute et j’ai vue beaucoup d’histoires de vie:

Dans le parc, un bebe a mange avec sa mere- qui est-ce?
Deux jeunes ados courait avec leur chien- ils riaient sans connaitre le monde.
Le temps a passé sans moi. Hier, j’ai travaille. Je travaille toujours. Je n’ai jamais eu le temps de penser.
Je voudrais a penser encore.
Le ciel etais gris.
Un homme- c’est a dire, un viel homme- il marchais avec moi, dans le silence. Je pensais qu’il avait l’air gentil.
Dans la rue, il y avait beaucoup de personnes qui etaient au chomage. Une femme qui desirait juste pour un oreiller.
Il y avait tout le bonheur.
Les jeunes maries achetaient assurance, et s’embrassaient.
Un chat dormait dans une fenetre, quand un oiseaux a passé.
Derriere chaque fenetre, une famille vivait dans leur propre monde.
Quelque chose sentait bon, mais je n’ai pas fait attention. J’ai continue a marcher.
Sur la plage, j’etais seul. Je suis toujours seul a la plage. J’ai ecoute la mer. J’ai regarde. J’ai regarde pour long temps.
Sudain, un pere et ses enfants sont apparus. Ils etaient tres jeunes. Ils ont ri et a joue dans la mer. Et puis, ils sont partis, comme le ciel est devenu noir.
Et puis, avec une sourire, j’ai pleure.
Ma vie avait passé. Le ciel devenait noir.

-MT
(ps: some of the accents aren't there, but not because I don't know that they should be)

Entropy

It's the fifth week of the semester, work is nonstop. I'm learning something that spans several aspects of my life simultaneously in multiple ways, and it has to do with Entropy.

Entropy is the basis of the second law of thermodynamics. The law states that without the constant input of energy, all things fall toward a state of ultimate randomness. Of chaos. Of entropy.
All of what we know as Life is essentially an uphill battle, to maintain our "organized" states of being. We are fighting entropy, with every cell in our body, with every metabolite, and at the same time, we have evolved to incorporate the very same randomness that could pull us apart- we fight it, and on the other hand, we use it, to hold ourselves together. It's a strange thing.

I feel like my personal life is just a fractal of this same idea. I'm constantly struggling to hold everything together, and one day (one moment, even) of letting it go would unravel all my efforts faster than I could ever wind them back up.
This semester, I'm putting all of my energy into maintaining my state of struggle. Isn't that odd? But at the same time, it is also this same chaos that holds me together. I know it. I've felt it for a long time; you cannot have one without the other. All we are, bunches of energy. Vibrations, entropy, maintenance of our current state, growth, chaos.
We're amazing, you know. All of this, whatever it is.

Anyway. Somehow, this was supposed to relate to my need, tonight, to let go of my to-do lists, and barf out some words. I want to write. I want to be creative. I want to learn. Experience. Live.
And I am. This isn't one of those 'poor me and my struggles' diatribes, but my acknowledgement of the part of myself that I've been ignoring.
And what am I going to do? I'm going to start writing again. Reconnect. (no internet pun intended)
I'm going to start putting things up here. Maybe recipes, maybe poetry, maybe pictures, maybe ideas, philosophy, politics....who knows. But this is me. This is the next chapter. It's time to open our 'books', people. Me. All of us. Open your stories and join the journey.

Hello.