Yummy Pinto Bean Wraps and a Trip to the Lou!

I made some really flippin' tasty Pinto Bean Wraps the other night, but sadly, I forgot to take a picture of them. I usually end up not blogging about things I forget to photograph - that is, at least until I make it again and can get a picture, but these, they were super tasty, and I just had to share this simple, super easy recipe, picture or not.

This is one of those dinners that can be put together in about 10 minutes, and I love those kinds of meals. The ingredients used can also be made in quantity as they are very versatile and can be used for burritos, taco salads, quesadillas, bowls, etc., with just a few other ingredients.

Without further fanfare, here is the recipe.

The local booty legend (aka revealing my sources):
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = local produce from The Root Cellar
++ = The Peace Nook (will denote whether product is local or just from the Nook)
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Yummy Pinto Bean Wraps

Bean Mixture:
2 cups pinto beans, cooked ****
1 cup sweet corn, cooked
4 tbsp Salsa Diablo (or other super, super spicy salsa)
dash salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Cilantro-Lime Rice:
2 cups long grain brown rice, cooked ****
1-2 tbsp dried cilantro flakes +
1 tbsp lime juice
dash of cumin
pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate for about an hour to allow the flavors to blend.

Fixin's:
Cheese
Sour Cream (tofu or regular, Brett used organic sour cream)
diced tomatoes + (the first local ones of the year!)

Layer rice and bean mixtures in warmed tortillas, adding any fixin's you desire. Roll up and fry.

This evening, I am off for a trip, all by my lonesome to good 'ol St. Louis, Missouri for a weekend of wedding planning. Brett, lucky for still being in school, is inundated with homework, and I know how it is trying to do homework and traveling, so we decided it would be best for him to stay home. I am really going to miss him though, in the entire six and a half years we have been together, we have only spent a night or two apart, and that was when Brett went to Illinois for something a few years ago. Sigh. But I have left him well prepared, I've made him pinto beans, cilantro lime rice, I seasoned up some lentils for him, defrosted some Super Beany Chili for him, made sure he had tortillas, local colby cheese with hot peppers in it, sour cream, and I baked him two dozen chocolate chip cookies, and a tray of granola bars. Whew! At least we know he will be fed. It is hard to believe Brett is thin, but he is.

Anyway, you may wonder why I am going to St. Louis for wedding planning since we are supposedly having the wedding here in Columbia... Well, plans changed. I don't want to get into all of it, but we are now going to be having our wedding in some garden in St. Louis proper, and selected family members will be invited. From my side, we are inviting my Dad, step-mom Stacey, step-brothers Josh, Zac, and Jordan, my step-grandmother Barb, and my grandparents from my Dad's side (they are coming up from Houston!). Brett will be inviting his Mom, Dad, brother (and his wife and kids I guess), his sister (and her husband and kids I guess), and both his grandmothers. Everyone is a lot happier with this arrangement but it does mean a lot more planning. We are going to try to get our good friend Neil to officiate the ceremony, and now Selina and Matt (Brett's brother) have to be "real" Matron's of Honor/Best Men, including, sadly, a dress which I hope Selina doesn't spend the rest of her days resenting me making her look like some sort of green puff ball (S, this is why I put picking out the gown in you and Stace's hands, I can't be the target of your later resentment. :-))

I feel horrible for poor Selina, she is such a rockin' friend and I don't know what I would do without her, but she has had to field all of my crazy questions including, I kid you not, asking her what a "boudanear" was (yes, I didn't know what it was and I also didn't know how to spell it - but she can be thankful that she wasn't Brett trying to explain to me what a "garter" was, I found out it is some sort of belt that has some really silly symbolism). I never thought about weddings until Brett proposed - ever. I'm also not much of a "girlie girl" flowers, hair, shoes (aside from sneakers, I like sneakers), invitations, all that is beyond me.

I am also thankful for Stacey; she has been Super Mom to me in all this planning. Let me tell you, planning even a small wedding in two months is a lot of work and she has taken the lead. Since I never really imagined a wedding or planned the things I want, all I had to go on are the things I knew I didn't want - Brett has taken to calling me Dr. No after I called my Dad with a list of no's not limited to, but including the following: No Dancing, No Singing, No Speeches, No Flowers (I have been overridden on that one), No Veil (I may be overridden on that one too, but I WILL NOT wear one over my face), No Bachelorette Parties (Brett doesn't want a Bachelor Party either), No Toasts, No Vows (too personal and private), No Pink (at least on me), No Standing Up When Bride Reluctantly (because people will be looking at me) Walks Down the Aisle (the eyes on me is enough as it is, what the hell is the standing up for? It's not like I brought about World Peace.), No Arbor or any weird Arch Type Thing, No St. Charles County (too many "Mom Memories"), and finally No High Heels. I may add to this list as we go along, but surprisingly the things I don't want aren't all that important of details. Stacey has also been very attentive over the years to what I like and who I am, so she has made sure to have Brett and I's personalities and styles in mind when she has been doing to work that I should be doing, or at least paying her to be doing. :-)

So anyways, we will see how I survive this weekend that will include: hair appointments, looking at flowers, looking at invitations, looking at places to hold the wedding, perhaps looking at shoes and undergarments, and who knows what else. Oh, and my Dad's birthday was yesterday, so we will be celebrating that sometime as well. WHEW!

That is the latest, I suppose. I think the biggest "next step" since I found the dress I want is to get Brett a tux (I am SO excited to see him in a tux, I bet he will look really good), is to pick a location, and then a time so we can send out invitations.

Selina, if you are reading this, I may be "blowing up your phone" this weekend, so watch out. You may need a vacation when all this is over, but I love you for it, and will happily begin paying you in mailed baked goods if necessary.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I hope I survive without having a panic attack over the difference between "Fern Green" and "Clover Green".

'Til next time.

Weekly Local Booty 10/5-10/11/08 and Bonus Family Pics (for Bob)

Well we had a very nice visit with Brett's mom and grandma (who we lovingly call Vern). We all went out to dinner last night at one of our favorite local restaurants, Cafe Berlin. It is a great place to take meat eaters, vegetarians, and vegans as they have something there for everyone. They source a lot of their ingredients locally, and they are locally owned. They also joined us after our weekly trip to the farmer's market this morning for some (very) fresh J&B's Huevos Rancheros. The meal was a big hit! Even with the 86 year young Vern. Everyone especially loved the cranberry beans. Oh, the cranberry beans. But I digress... It was so nice to see them, and we are really looking forward to going to visit them in Peoria for Christmas.

We got a little bit of garden loot this week - from the community garden no less. There are actually quite a few peppers that could be picked, but since we think this is likely to be the last round of peppers, we want to let them ripen on the plants so we can save the seed for next year. I would say we are going to have a pepper onslaught here pretty soon, and I'm looking forward to it. :-)

Here is this week's garden booty, brought to you from the community garden plot:















Hot banana peppers! The one in the back is turning purple on one side. I've never seen anything like this before, has anyone else? I'm going to do a little research to make sure it is safe to eat it. I'd hate for it to be some sort of disease or something. None of the others look like this.

So, not only did we get to have a lovely visit from Brett's mom (Linda) and Vern, but Vern also brought us homegrown (by a friend of the family) goodies! Check out what she brought us from Illinois:















A sweet potato and lots of yummy smelling red apples. We don't know what kind they are, so we're going to call them "Vernalicious". :-)

Here is this week's CSA, lovely as always:















Starting from the bottom right: a "carnival" acorn squash, boiler onions, a cucumber, radishes, a sweet potato, lettuce, and a yellow bell pepper.

Does anyone know what to do with radishes? We don't like them fresh, at least not the way we've had them, and are really at a loss. We got radishes fairly often at the beginning of the season and would try to choke through them raw or they would sit. Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

And this week's farmer's market booty - this ran us $34.50:















Starting from the bottom right: yellow and red tomatoes (likely to be some of the last of the season, we are at the tail end this year due to the cool weather and all the rain), garlic (!!!!!), 4 "yummy" sweet peppers, carola potatoes (so good!), a dozen eggs, 2 buttercup squash, mild local salsa, and 4 large sweet potatoes.

Our store of winter squash is pretty well complete now. I don't know if we have enough stored away to get us through on the local stuff, but we don't have room for much more. We may get the odd one here and there after we've stocked up on sweet potatoes, but there is only so much room in our apartment.

At the request of Linda's "other half" Bob, we snapped some pictures of her and Vern where they will now live in infamy on the "world wide web".

Here is one with Brett, Vern, and Linda (or Grenda as she is called by a few):















And for fairness' sake, since we both hate having our picture taken, here is one of them with me. Please ignore the funky bun hair-thing I have going on, I had been cooking all morning. :-(















Anywho, we had a great visit and also got lots of local goodies to work with this week.

We are doing really well with the Eat Local Challenge too. All we had to get from the "regular" store today was cookies. Having found yummy local salsa that is also sold at the Root Cellar (and thus available year round), has really made eating locally easier.

We also added a J and B's Favorite Recipes page - to help us remember which recipes we liked best, and if you all are curious as to what gets made most often, this list is a good indicator of it. We haven't really determined how exactly we are going to rate or rank our recipes, to us how "good" a recipe is can be better judged by how often it gets made. So we'll have to think on that. But the "best of the best" will be added to the favorites list.

Well, our tomatoes are trying to make a comeback - one of them so much so that it needs to be staked up, and the garden could stand a weeding around the tomato and pepper plants.

I'll probably be posting the garden update on Tuesday. Have a great weekend everyone!

'Til next time!

On the Joy of Simple Living

I’ve been thinking for awhile about lifestyle changes and all the little things people are doing everyday to lighten their burden on the Earth, to be better stewards of the planet and everything and everyone on it. There are many reasons we all do the things we do; we tackle problems from different angles, and there are many positive aspects of our actions that we might not often stop to think about. But I, still trying to find joy in the benign, everyday experience, have thought about it quite a bit lately.

To me, even if suddenly issues like peak oil and climate change were no longer a problem, I would still continue to live the way I do and continue to try to live better with less, to me it doesn’t seem right that just because I live in an affluent nation I should be able to consume so much more than my fair share of the world’s resources. Let’s go out on a limb even further and say that global hunger and inequality were suddenly eradicated overnight, I would still live this way as I feel a wonderful sense of calm, freedom and homeostasis with the world around me.

Let me explain further. There is a concept Barry Schwartz talks about in the book The Paradox of Choice. It basically states that choice is a positive thing, to an extent, but it can get to the point where there is so much choice that even the simplest decision is suddenly not so simple. And if one is a conscious consumer of either products or information, there is even more anxiety that goes into decisions such as “what type of cereal should I buy? I have 75 different choices?!” or even more difficult “what source of news should I trust?” Living simply reduces a lot of these choices, though one’s choice of media is no simple decision no matter what, but when you buy locally, say at the farmer’s market, there is a variety of choice, but it is still limited in many ways. You won’t find lemons at the farmer’s market in Missouri, nor will you find 5 different kinds of them! If you subscribe to a CSA as we do, well, you get what they give you, and that makes things pretty easy.

But living simply goes far beyond consumerism; it has a lot to do with what you don’t do. Giving up our car was perhaps the most liberating thing I’ve ever done. Getting somewhere on my own accord is such a rewarding feeling. I know I am doing my part to reduce the negative aspects of gasoline. Not to mention, I don’t make useless trips, and thus get useless stuff, I have to think twice before I go somewhere as my ability to get there depends on the bus schedule, the weather, and if I feel like walking. At first this was tough, but then I began to appreciate having to figure out other things to do with my time. I began to do things like watch the birds in the neighborhood, even though they are just ‘lowly’ house sparrows, starlings, robins, cardinals, etc, and let me tell you, they are truly fascinating. Some of my favorite things to do now include taking a walk to the garden after dinner or reading a good book on a Friday night with the windows open and a nice cool breeze, not very exciting, but truly enjoyable and peaceful activities.

I spend time growing my own food, attempting to play music, learning about the people I care about, spending time with my animals, cooking, really very basic things.

I know so many people who feel overwhelmed by the ‘hustle and bustle’ of life, and I feel truly bad for them. We only have one life, and there is so much around us that we miss, small gestures from kind neighbors, baby squirrels making their way around one’s neighborhood, these small things are truly what matter in the end. We often complain about how we ‘have no time’ and for many this is a valid complaint. However, I often feel like we spend an awful lot of time talking about how little time we have, and we have to remember that we choose how to spend what little free time we do have. It feels wonderful to slow down, spend more time preparing meals, reading, enjoying nature, good friends, family, and neighbors.

Why am I waxing poetic like this? I guess it’s that I’ve seen a lot of signs of changes in our world to come, things that could be very bad like potential wars or climate catastrophes, possibly economic depression or collapse. But I also see signs of a change in the conception of reality for many people, close friends and family are coming around in ways I never thought possible, and I’m constantly amazed at the caring and resourceful people all over the world doing their little part. Not to mention, living in fear or with intense anxiety over a future out of one’s control can leave one feeling helpless and hopeless and cause many people to either just give up or become paralyzed with fear.

I live simply for many reasons, but I’ve found that as I’ve simplified my life, I’ve also limited the things to be anxious about but expanded the things I can get joy out of because I now appreciate things I used to take for granted. I’m truly happy, and I think many others too find immense personal satisfaction and joy in doing what they think is right: living simply, doing more with less, and having an identity defined by much more than the stuff they own or the size of their paycheck, or even how they earn that paycheck. I am much more than an Institutional Research Analyst.

I can only hope that if our world is forced to live a more humble way of life in the future that it can resemble something similar to the scene in my neighborhood last night. It was a gorgeous night; folks were out on their porches, cooling off and enjoying the weather; families were gathering to chat in the parking lots; a group of kids from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds were playing a rudimentary game of soccer in the parking lot; kids on bikes, a common nighthawk screeching and diving for bugs, you get the picture. It was a wonderful scene and it again illustrates how rich and beautiful a simple life can be.

I must also make note of the amazing sense of community the internet has fostered. It seems that many feel isolated in their physical communities. Not many people share our interests or values; we are vested in different things. Some of us, as we move through different levels of understanding about the world around us, begin to become distanced from those that used to be close to us, as we no longer see reality in the same ways. The common ground upon which we once stood is no longer there. Our neighbors are more like strangers. But what we’ve forged here in the blogosphere, though not real in the physical sense, has all the aspects of a functioning community, and I can’t speak for others, but you all have taught me so much, enriched my life, and given me a sense of belonging that is hard to feel when you are ‘out of the mainstream’. I think, given the specialized, self interested nature of many of our Western societies, like minded people may not be found next door, they may be across the world, but so long as we are there for each other, continue to teach each other, to continue to help each other through the troubles we all face, personal or as a whole, we have a common interest and common goals that bind us in ways our physical communities used to. That is not to discount our physical communities – anyone from Columbia, Missouri who reads this blog and is interested in what we stand for or have to say, please contact us; we would love to connect with more like minded people – but until things change, by choice or necessity, at least we have something, and as humble and minimal as it is, it is something to be thankful for.

So what do you guys think? In your journey to live a more ethical, sustainable, and socially just life, have you experienced any unexpected positive outcomes? Has living simply made your relationships easier, more satisfying or a nightmare? What has the blogging community brought to your life? To your sense of belongingness and ability to influence those around you? Do you see positive change on the horizon or more of the same? What keeps you all plugging away, doing what you can to make the world a better place?

Fajita Burritos with "Traditional" Refried Beans

So I'm a little bit behind in my food posts as things were a bit hectic this past week.

We had a really good, albeit short, trip to St. Louis. My dad's graduation ceremony was held at the Missouri History Museum. It was a lovely ceremony with a good keynote speaker. It was also really nice to see my grandparents from Houston, we don't get to see them enough. After the ceremony, we had a nice lunch and looked around the St. Louis Art Museum for awhile. I will post some St. Louis pictures at the end of this post.

Onto the food. As you all know, Brett and I love Mexican food, it might go beyond love, but that is beside the point. :-) Anyways, we have been trying to get a good refried bean recipe down for a couple of years. Our beans have always turned out well, but they were also always more flavorful than authentic refried beans, and something always seemed a bit off. I did a little research and experimented, and have come up with the most 'authentic' recipe for vegan refried beans we've had yet.

Brett also made a good portion of this meal. I made the beans, he made the marinade, cut up all the veggies, and marinated them for the day. When I got home from work to make the meal, all I had to do was sauté the veggies and heat up the beans. Gotta love meals like that!

'Traditional' Vegan Refried Beans

1 cup of dry pinto beans, soaked overnight and rinsed

1 serrano pepper, stem removed

1 jalapeno pepper, stem removed

1/2 medium onion (or equivalent)

1/2 bulb of garlic, peeled

2-3 tbsp vegetable (or other) oil

1-2 tbsp salt (in water)

In a crock pot, combine all the ingredients and fill the pot with water. Simmer on high for 2-3 hours or until beans are soft. (You could also do this in a pot on the stove.)

Reserve about half a cup of the bean water.

Remove the peppers, garlic, and onion, and discard.

Mash beans with a mixer or potato masher, adding bean water and salt as needed to taste.

Fajita Burrito with Refried Beans

2 red bell peppers, seeded and sliced

1/2 red onion, sliced

1 package white button mushrooms, sliced

Just Another Fajita Marinade

refried beans

tortillas

salsa

Marinate the veggies in Just Another Fajita Marinade for at least a couple of hours.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add the veggies and cook for about 15 minutes or until soft. You may want to put a lid on the pan (if you have one) to help them cook faster.

Layer refried beans and marinated veggies in warmed tortillas and roll 'em up! Serve with salsa.

We both really like this mariade, it works really well with fajita style veggies.

I'll end this post with a few pictures from the History Museum St. Louis. Unfortunately, none of them will be of my dad's graduation. For one, the lighting was difficult for our camera and we didn't get many good pictures. And for two, well, I didn't ask him if he minded living in infamy on my blog, so I didn't think it would be fair to post the pictures without asking him first.

Anyways.....

I really have a thing with public transportation, so I was excited to take a picture of one of the Metro buses in St. Louis.

The Missouri History Museum. You can actually see my family walking up towards it.

Old trolly car.

Good 'ol TJ.

These posters are from 1943. I don't think we should have ever lost these principles.

And finally, they have an exhibit at the Museum where you can stand behind this thing that looks like the basket of a hot air ballon and the TV shows you 'flying' over St. Louis, seeing the arch, all that sort of stuff. It's a pretty silly, kitchy thing, but I thought it would be fun to take a picture of it 'flying' us over St. Louis. See the Arch in the background. It felt so real...... ;-)

I will try to get back on this afternoon and post the weekly garden update, and will try to catch up on everyone's blog soon!

'Til next time.

Mom's Visit and Candy for Dinner

As I had mentioned, my mom came to visit yesterday. It was such a nice visit; I hadn’t seen her since I graduated from college last May. Much, much too long since I’d seen her. We had very good conversation, and a nice time downtown. We had originally been planning on going to a tea room for lunch, but after calling a locally owned Mexican restaurant to see if their refried beans were vegan (they are made with corn or vegetable oil – not great for you I know, but hey – it’s not lard), we decided to go there. It was pretty good, I had heard great things about the place, but had just never thought to go there. I had a veggie burrito with guacamole and a Mexican mango soda. After that, we went to the best coffee shop in town, Coffee Zone, and I had a soy latte, Brett had a mocha latte with regular milk. Man I love that place, they have the best espresso I have ever tasted.

We walked around downtown for awhile, my mom got to see some of the nice ‘trinket and knick knack stores’ that sell locally made artwork, and she really seemed to enjoy it. I think I’ll have to try to get her up again when the weather is nicer so we can spend more time down there.

We got a couple of pictures, and she gave her permission to have her picture put up on my blog (Mwaaaahaahaaa can’t back out now Mom!), so here they are. Warning: I don’t always take the greatest pictures.

She also brought up our Christmas presents. What a good job she did, they were very thoughtful gifts, and things that I have been wanting. She got us a new coffee maker, one of those where you can program it to start making coffee at a certain time (the coffee maker we have is pretty old), AND this one has a reusable filter. It doesn’t take those paper filters, which reduces a lot of waste! An environmentalist and coffee lovers dream. She also got us a tea kettle! I have wanted one for a long time, as we drink a lot of tea, but would just heat water up in a pan. Until now, wahoo! So I was very happy with her choices in gifts. Thanks Mom!

Last night for dinner I made Chandelle’s Ginger Roasted Winter Vegetables with Maple Coriander Seitan. I think Brett put it best himself, it was like eating candy for dinner that was good for you. We had it over quinoa, which was super good, quinoa is something I could eat plain, it is just that good. The only thing I didn’t like about this meal was the rutabaga, which is nothing to fault Chandelle for; her recipe doesn’t call for it. It really wasn’t too bad though, the rutabaga was white and the rest of the veggies were orange so it was easy to pick them out. The flavor of rutabaga reminded me a bit of the bad cabbagey flavor of poorly cooked Brussels Sprouts. I don’t mean to offend anyone who likes rutabaga, we all have our own tastes, but it was not at all pleasing to my palate. The squash, sweet potatoes and carrots were so sweet when they were roasted and the savory flavor of the seitan went so well with the sweetness of the veggies. We will definitely make this again, but you know, actually using the right root veggies.

My only complaint, which is a very weak one, is that it made a lot of food. But now I get take this ‘healthy candy’ for lunch tomorrow, so I think it worked out all right. :-)

‘Til next time!