...was AWESOME. We ate it over brown rice and then we were ALMOST too full to eat the blueberry ice cream that I MADE with these blueberries from Our Land:
Oooooooo. Blueberries.
Have I mentioned that I accidentally bought a two-year subscription to Vegetarian Times¹? Oops.
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¹Even though I'm not a vegetarian. No, I don't know what's wrong with me. Oh, also? My tomato plants are starting to look insane. Partly because I only got around to staking 3/4s of them. But my mother has reassured me that they'll be fine. (There are billions of baby green tomatoes, you just can't see 'em in this picture.)
...Josh and I have concluded that the Jalapeno Popper flavor is, by far, the best of the Doritos Late Night series.
I mean, just in case you were wondering.
I. Josh got home and discovered that our basement had started to flood, and by the time I got home (which took longer than usual because the road I usually take was under water), he had:
A. Gone out and bought a sump pump.
B. Set it up and started it a-pumping.
C. Dug a trench outside to divert the water.
D. Changed into his pajamas, built a fire, and had a beer.
II. I made stuffed peppers using a recipe from the Veganomicon (which I've been loving -- not because of its recipes, as I've only used the one so far, but because the authors are hilarious), which were awesome.
A. Preparing them made me realize that my new food processor is going to make me even lazier, which I really wouldn't have thought possible.
B. We needed to offset the veganosity of our dinner, so we followed it up with a couple of Josh's famous (well, in our house) tuna melts.
III. To FURTHER offset any possible veganosity in the house, I made my first attempt at candied bacon (because I've been wanting to try making these cookies).
A. BUT THE BACON ATTACKED ME!:
i. Note to anyone who wants to make candied bacon: DON'T GET THE BOILING MELTY SUGAR BACON GREASE ON YOUR SKIN! YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO GET AWAY FROM IT! IT WILL ATTACHITSELF TO YOUR SKIN, CAUSING GRODY BLISTERS AND SWOLLEN FINGERS! OH, HOW IT WILL BURN! AND THEN YOUR STUPID HUSBAND WILL LAUGH AT YOU!
B. I overcooked it. So I will buy more bacon and try again tonight.
IV. Due to the monstrous winds and rain, we lost power at about ten.
A. Then some siding half-ripped off of the house and banged banged banged...
i. ...until Josh stomped outside with the flashlight and ripped it completely off.
B. Neither of us slept much, as we were too busy worrying about the basement.
C. We woke up to shingles on the lawn and in the road, missing sap buckets and a very sad tarp that'd been ripped away from its grommets.
i. We were especially grateful that the town had taken down a way-too-close-to-the-house half-dead maple last fall.
a. Even though that may have contributed to the water in the basement. But, hey -- I'll take a damp basement over a smooshed roof any time.
D. The power came back on at six this morning.
i. Although I technically had time, I didn't shower before work.
a. It's possible that I have stink lines radiating from my person. I'm afraid to ask my co-worker.
Well. I believe I have some explaining to do.
First off, thanks to those who've written -- and I'm sorry that I haven't written back. When I walked away from the internet a few weeks back, that included, for the most part, my email inbox. I also apologize to those who were participating in the Big Read -- when I walked away, I walked AWAY.
Clearly I needed a break.
Most of us in the blogosphere have dealt with blog angst in some form or another. I've dealt with it in the past, and it'll pass eventually, but at the moment, I'm just not feeling it. (IT being a desire to write.) Compounding the issue is Dread February, which isn't exactly the most inspiring month here in Maine. And as you may have noticed, I've been particularly sickly this past year, which has dampened my enthusiasm for, well, ANYTHING. I've hardly read any fiction at all over the last few weeks.
All I've felt like doing in my free time lately are nesting sorts of things: reading cookbooks and planning my vegetable garden. (Oh, yeesh -- before anyone starts getting all suspicious: No, I'm not pregnant.) My sickliness does have a bright side. It has resulted in a (quite possibly HELLO, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS) realization: Up until very recently, my Cheez Doodles and Flavor-Ice diet may have ever-so slightly contributed to my general ill health. So I've made a huge effort to change my habits, and I've been (I think) succeeding*.
So that's where I've been.
Going forward, well, we'll see. I have no plans to stop blogging, but I do think that it'll be a little while before I'm back doing regular daily posts. And you may be subjected to the occasional freakout about whatever food I've concocted.
The other biggie is that I've been accepted to library school. Yep. Finally taking that plunge. But what with that and other commitments, something has to give: so I've decided to put the Tallboy on indefinite hiatus. I feel bad about that, but it is what it is.
Thanks for being understanding.
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*I've been eating vegetables totally voluntarily! And enjoying them! Multiple times daily! And just this week I've made red lentil hummus (their recipe is a bit too salty for me, so next time I'll cut it down a bit) and spinach/cilantro pesto (that one I actually thought needed MORE salt... or something) and I dug out my pasta roller (to make some whole wheat/oat flour pasta (subbed the oat flour for the white), which was lovely) and then there were those coconut-lime bars...
And look at my lovely granola!:
I'm going to make more this morning, actually, as Josh and I pounded the first batch in less than a week.
And my lovely rye bread:
I bought my own copy of That Book so I could stop worrying about getting the library's copy all flour-y.
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