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Tofutti "Cream Cheese"–Not Made from Food
February 1st, 2009 by
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Tofutti’s “better than cream cheese” flunks the “made from food” test. Here’s the story: [Read more →]
Tags: lactard · made from food · omni means everything · Things that are not okay · veganNo Comments.
New Fermentings
January 4th, 2009 by
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Kombucha
The cranberry kombucha is all gone. It was lovely, but it tasted so unlike tea that I tended to foget there was caffeine in it. I think next time I will not use black tea for this.
Meanwhile, I have a new 3-quart batch of rose hips kombucha that’s looking close to ready!
Below the cut, Weinkraut and Sourdough
Tags: bread · kombucha · kraut · locavoracious · process oriented · recipe · Refusa the goddess of food recycling · sourdough · symbiosis · vegan · vegetarian · weinkrautNo Comments.
Stuffed Squash
December 16th, 2008 by
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This is my own kitchen invention, inspired by something that an ex once dreamed up.
Time: one hour. Servings: 4
Ingredients:
1 Winter Squash–butternut, acorn, or hubbard
1/2 cup brown rice
1/2 cup wild rice
16 oz corn kernels (canned, frozen, or fresh–your call)
16 oz roasted tomatoes
1 tbsp garam masala, or to taste
Garlic (in whatever form), to taste
OPTIONAL pinch cayenne pepper
Method:
Preheat oven to 400 Fahrenheit
Slice squash in half (if using Butternut, slice it the long way), excavate seeds, and place squash halves face-up on a cookie sheet. Consider saving the seeds and roasting them. Smear butter or brush a neutral vegetable oil on the open faces of the squash (to preven them from drying out in the oven), and bake the squash for about an hour. Do not wait for the oven to finish preheating before putting the squash in; this is a waste of energy.
After you get the squash in the oven, IMMEDIATELY put the rices in a pot with 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to lowest setting and simmer for 50 minutes.
After 50 minutes, add corn, tomatoes, garam masala, and garlic to the rice pot. Mix well and continue to simmer ten minutes.
Now your hour is up, and your squash is done. Remove the squash from the oven and scrape the meat from the shell. Mash well, stir into rice mixture. Serve in shells for extra decorative effect.
VARIANT: Stuff green peppers instead of squashes.
Tags: autumnal · recipe · squash · vegan · vegetarianNo Comments.
Mock Trial Not Guilty!
December 16th, 2008 by
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Yesterday was our Final Trial for Public Defender training, and I got a not guilty on all charges! Even though the jury was loaded with public defender staffers, not guilties are not guaranteed–several of my colleagues’ clients got convicted, at least on the trespass (in park after hours) charge.
An object lesson learned during the trial: co-defendants’ counsel repeatedly referred to the alleged three-on-one mugging as a “fight.” This made sense for the alleged stabber, who was running on self-defense, but it opened the door for the prosecutor’s closing argument ”Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a complicated case. This was not an old-fashioned dust-up, it was an old-fashioned BEAT DOWN!”
I have to give him props for the rhetoric, even though I wanted to beat him down when he said it.
The prosecutor, who is really another first-year public defender, later told us “I had no idea how to do a prosecutor’s closing. I figured it should be just like the opening, only with more yelling and embellishing.”
Yeah, that’s about it. Oh, and tell the jury to ignore the law. That was a good one too. Especially the part where the judge overruled our objection to his saying that.
Tags: public defender · trialsNo Comments.
Kombucha Made of Win
December 16th, 2008 by
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I just made an awesomely win-ful, eye-poppingly tart Cranberry Kombucha. You should too. This is how it goes:
Ingredients:
Cranberry Kombucha!
1 bottle store-bought Kombucha, any flavor (buy it at whole foods or your local health-food store).
1 cup sugar (cane, beet, corn, maple, whatever)
4 tea bags (your choice) or equivalent amount of loose tea
1 gallon-size crock pot (or scale up)
5 fluid ounces cranberry cocktail concentrate (with real sugar, not HFCS. You could use straight up cranberry juice to similar effect)
Tags: brewlog · process oriented · recipe · symbiosis · things that are shinyNo Comments.
Sandwich Made of Win
December 16th, 2008 by
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Tonight’s problem: Have bits in the kitchen; don’t want to cook anything complicated; don’t want to go to store.
Solution: Put bits on sandwich. Details below, along with suggested substitutions.
Bits:
1 Uglyripe Tomato
1/2 White Onion
1 bucket mixed weird salad greens
1/2 tub baby bellas
1 link Tofurkey brand Italian Sausage substitute. Consider any German, Italian, or Polish sausage (cooked), or the veggie-sausage of your choice. Breakfast sausages not recommended.
1 jar Irish Stout Mustard (consider any good honey mustard, brown mustard, or condiment-of-choice)
Garlic salt
Black pepper
Asiago cheese (consider parmesan, cheddar, or fresh mozzarella)
Slightly sweet kaiser-ish rolls
Made-from-food organic ketchup
Dill pickles
Protocol:
Toast roll over low heat on skillet until insides are lightly burnt and outside is soft and mushy. While that’s going:
Slice sausage into bits (or crumbles). Slice up appropriate amount of shrooms and onion for number of sandwiches (in my case: 1). Mix in bowl and douse in garlic salt. I then sauteed all of that and a heap of shredded asiago in a cast iron skillet over medium heat with canola oil. I would not put the cheese in next time. If you are using cheddar put the cheese on top of the rest at the very end when everything is cooked, then cover until the cheese melts. With asiago, parma, or romano I would go ahead and shred the cheese right onto the sammich after hot veggies are added. With mozzarella I would put a nice briney slice of fresh, raw mozz right on the sandwich without any use of heat on the cheese.
Put stuff on sammich. Eat. Drink pumpkin ale. Be merry.
Tags: process oriented · recipe · things that are shinyNo Comments.
Incorrigible Dicta: the New CPCS Public Defender Blog
October 27th, 2008 by
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Announcing the new Unofficial CPCS Public Defender Blog, Incorrigible Dicta!
Dicta was conceived during New Lawyer training this year and carried to term by new lawyers Alejandro Ramos (Springfield DCU) and Andy Cowan (Lowell DCU). The blog will be serving sentences (as well as paragraphs, phrases, and even articles) at http://www.dictablog.net.
Dicta is intended to have a threefold mission: first, to give an agency full of storytellers a place to tell stories. Second, to give the general public an insight into the world of the criminal court and general legal news that they simply don’t get from the mass media. Third, to give CPCS an (unofficial) presence in the tightly interconnected public defender blogosphere. Basically anything related to the law is on-topic.
Incorrigible Dicta will largely, if not entirely replace the “on the legal system” section of Mostly Plants. I may cross-post some articles, and occasionally post one here, but most of my legal commentary will be there. Hopefully some of my readers will stick around for the travel and outdoor posts, though I notice my legal commentary is by far the most popular.
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Overheard at the Crag
October 20th, 2008 by
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On a particularly sharp climb at Peter’s Kill
Climber:”What’s this red stuff coming out of my knuckles?”
Belayer: “That’s personal weakness! You’re forcing it out by climbing!”
Tags: climbing · FOCNo Comments.
Marijuana Policy: MA Residents vote YES on 2!
October 16th, 2008 by
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This November, Massachusetts voters will have the opportunity to vote for a referendum to decriminalize possession of 1 ounce or less of marijuana. Voting YES will keep casual users out of jail, save the state millions of dollars, and free up space in the jails.
Please allow me to address some common arguments from opponents of Question 2. None of these are “straw” arguments that I made up just to tear them down, they come from the statement of the President of the MA district attorneys association here [MA sec of state's webpage].
- Question 2 is an endorsement of substance abuse [Read more →]
Tags: drug policy · fact check · love not hate · psa · Things that are not okayNo Comments.