Happy Valentine's Day

I wanted to wish you a happy Valentine's Day.  

Actually.... I just gave myself the most prettiest festive V-Day manicure and

 no one noticed it today so I wanted you to compliment it.  

So I took a little hipster picture of my ugly mug flashing you a peace sign.

Compliment away....

Then the doodle interrupted to give me some Valentine's day puppy loving.

And then the Neener came in and we took some more horrible family photos.

But we ended up with this half decent one. 

(You can compliment it if you want.)

Happy Valentine's Day my bloggy friends!

And my real life friends who read this blog.

And my real blog friends who are pretty much real friends.  

I hope it is filled with peace signs and puppy kisses and no bitterness!

Even if you're single - cuz you're a hot single betch. 

Paris Hilton says... 

you can judge how hot you are by looking at your friends.

Juding by these shots - all my friends are hotties. 

Wooo hoo!  You sexxy things you.  

Also, we went to the movies tonight and we saw Paul.

I know I have puritanical American values,

but seriously, I have NEVER seen so many people making out at the movies.

And seriously, an alien comedy movie is not exactly romantic right? WTF?  

ps.  I thought it was funny.

Slowwww Food

About a week ago I picked up a few packs of seeds.

I planted them in a little propagator in our kitchen.

And slowly, very slowly, they have come to life.  

Sometimes I think maybe I am far too impatient to ever really be a gardener.

And other times I think it's the most exciting thing ever.

Look....

This little seedling will hopefully produce tons of golden tomatoes for me by summer.

And these carrots are coming along ever so nicely.

And look at this beauty!  

I searched high and low for tomatillos last summer - 

I LOVE them in salsa, but I couldn't find them in England.

Who knew they would sell tomatillo seeds at the garden center?!

I can't wait till they're ripe and ready for the picking.

This cute little guy wants to be a basil plant when he grows up.  

He'll be perfect match for my summer tomatoes.  

I've also planted mint, strawberries, eggplant, and peppers.  

But they're trying my patience a little more and

 haven't all decided to pop their heads up from above the soil just yet.  

I'm not sure whether I have a green thumb or not 

- this is the first time I've been really invested in any plants.

I just can't wait to see what summer brings.  

It is one of my goals in life to be as self sufficient as possible, 

(....maybe I was Amish in a past life... nah)

and I think growing your own food is very exciting and special.  

It really makes you respect all the hard work that goes into growing food.

I also like the idea that this is the most seasonal, local, organic food I can get my hands on.  

It's fantastic!

Are you growing anything?  

If you haven't started yet it's not too late! 

 Go get yourself some seeds!

But hurry, summer will be here before we know it....

Carrot Soup with Harissa

Dear Friends,


Sorry for the lack of posting.  The lack of sun in the winter after work and bad lighting in our kitchen means I have been taking less than stellar food photos and I have been reluctant to share them.  But I figured at this point my blog is dying a slow painful death, and maybe you're not all food photo snobs and maybe you're just interested in what's being served up for dinner around here lately.


So if that's the case, let me share this little soup recipe with ya... It's from my favorite cookbook, yes yes you guess it, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone!  Ha I need to branch out...

Carrot Soup with Harissa

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
• 3 Tablespoons white rice
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• Salt and pepper
• 7 cups water or Veggie stock

In a soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat and add the onion, carrots, bay leaf, parsley and rice.  Stir frequently, until the onion is soft.  Then add the spices, 1/2 teaspoon salt and some pepper and cook for about 5 more minutes.  Add the stock or water (I just used some stock cubes to be honest), bring to a boil, and simmer for 25 minutes.  

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup to the desired consistency.  Seriously if you don't have an immersion blender, get one.  They make pureeing soups a lot less messy and less of a hassle.  

I picked up some store bought Harissa paste, which is a spicy condiment you can find at the grocery store, probably in the ethnic section.  

The addition of Harissa takes the soup from a mediocre soup to the most perfect carrot soup I have ever tasted.  It plays nicely on the sweet flavor of the carrots, while really adding that extra zing to make it sing!  There is certainly something about this sunny little concoction that is helping me fight off these February blues.  The best bit is the soup is freezable, so I highly recommend making as much as possible and freezing it for a quick, easy and healthy week night meal.  Note : this recipe makes 4-6 servings.  

In unfood related news, Heidi has eaten 3 important pairs of shoes in the past 2 weeks and my H20 audio device.  (I highly recommend them for any of you swimmers.) I'll admit I cried two out of the four times I caught her.   In the year that we have had her she has always stuck to only chewing her bones, now she seems to be seeking revenge against me for starting work.  Anyone have any tips?  She is doing this very sneakily while we are home. 

A Vegetarian On a Soapbox

Dear Friends,


As many of you already know, I am a vegetarian.  Duh.  Now, when I was younger, I used to go all PETA on people's asses.  Telling them that eating meat was disgusting and wrong, abusing boys at high school football games for "killing an entire cow" to make their leather jackets.  As I got older, I simmered down with abusing people for making a different life choice than me.  Not because I think that eating meat is any less wrong or less disgusting than I did in highschool, but because I don't think attacking people is a good way to help them see the light.


Now more often than not, I leave most my comments to myself, and instead try to lead by example (our wedding was even vegetarian), and get very excited/give my friends lots of tips and advice when they announce that they've decided to embrace the vegetarian way of life.  Unfortunately, I actually only have a few vegetarian friends, and alas, even Nick is not a vegetarian - which I would like to point out before I continue this little rant.


Hi people that are meat eaters and read this blog, I like you.  I like you a lot.  I like when you come by and leave nice comments.  (and occassionally mean ones - hi Charlotte - you telling me my pictures were wack was possibly my most fave comment ever.)  Now that I have said that... I am going to go PETA on your asses.


I understand that there are many causes one can be passionate about in this world and sometimes we must choose our battles wisely, but I think vegetarianism/veganism is more of a way of life than a cause.  I can't count number of times I have been absolutely disgusted when a person has said, "I just don't want to know where my meat comes from."  But friend!  You are PUTTING THAT INTO YOUR BODY!!!  You, you crazy person who counts calories, and worries about getting enough protein (which we vegetarians have NO problem with BTW), and portions out your food so as to make it match the food pyramid.  Maybe you prefer to buy things that say local and shop at farmers markets in the summer.  You think about and worry about food... and you don't care where it comes from?!?  Nothing offends me more than an individual who chooses the ignorance is bliss route when it comes to meat eating.  You should know what you are eating.  You should know the process that landed that pig on your plate.  Ignorance is certainly NOT bliss for the animals you are eating, the conditions many of them are raised in are absolutely horrible, not to mention inhumane.  


I bet plenty of you love animals.  And if given the opportunity to kill a cow yourself, you just couldn't do it.  There is a reason you couldn't do it, silly - it's because it's WRONG.  Killing cows and pigs for your own carnal pleasure is wrong, especially ones that have been raised in factory farms.  There is no way on earth that you can call yourself an "animal lover" if you eat animals.  It's a contradiction.  Plain and simple.  


Personally, I am mostly a vegetarian for ethical reasons, but there are other reasons to be one as well.  It's better for your health, it's much better for the environment (hello cows are big methane producers), no worries about foot and mouth disease, food poisoning, or consuming weird antibiotics or hormones either.  


If you have read this far, thanks for sticking with me.  I think Sir Paul McCartney can explain things a little more eloquently and in a little more detail than I can... so can I kindly ask that you meet your meat before you leave this page, or leave any snarky anti-vegetarianism comments on this blog.  After you watch it, be my guest.

And, if by any chance you have been contemplating vegetarianism and don't know where to start, or are now contemplating it, please PLEASE email me and I promise that I will help lead you in the right direction.  And I won't judge you if you still really like bacon or can't imagine a life without hamburgers.   


xoxo


Kelly


ps.  Are any of you already veggie?  I would love to know why you chose this lifestyle too!  

Tweet Tweet.

My friend has been hassling me about getting twitter since she says FB is dead now that all our moms are on it.  (Hi mom).  So here I am.  I don't know what I'm doing, but I guess I'm late to the club.

Will twitter enhance my life or just provides me with another distraction from actually doing useful things?

Follow me if you want, but be warned, I'll probably write a lot of crap and you'll soon discover what a crazy dog lady I really am.  So be it.

KellyLeighDC