Black Bean Veggie Burgers

Back in Ann Arbor, Becky and I would grill all through the summer grilling season. And one of our favorite things to grill on short notice were the Morningstar Farms Spicy Black Bean Veggie Burgers. These are exceptional veggie burgers because they don't try to taste like fake burgers. (Becky doesn't eat meat, and I like real burgers.) With black beans and corn and spiciness, they are delicious and full of protein. And they are not available on the west coast. And the grilling season lasts all-year round here! It's tragic.

So this has forced us to roll our own.

Ramble On!

When we started this blog, I pitched it to Eli as a place where we could share recipes, pictures, and travel stories. But my ulterior motive was getting Eli to blog about the financial meltdown. And it worked! Temporarily.

Meanwhile, we used my Flickr account for sharing travel photos and stories. And when Sam was born, we figured people were more interested in pictures of him, so we use Flickr for his pictures, too. We have posted lots of recipes on this blog, though, so at least that has been useful to us (and hopefully to you!).

However, I really wanted to have a personal website, with a blog. I've wanted to rant about all sorts of things, but some of them didn't quite seem right for a shared blog. So I'm announcing (after only three paragraphs) that I am now blogging at www.rebeccastanek.com. I'm not yet sure what I'll be focusing on, but please come along for the ride!

Telling the Internet to get LOST

Like some people in this article, I will be going on an internet blackout at 6 p.m. PT tomorrow night. And if you don't know why, then I must ask you what cave you've been living in for the past six years.

With the rise of VCRs and then DVRs, the networks have been worried about people time-shifting their shows and skipping the ads. But now, people are connected by Facebook and Twitter, and having real-time conversations about shows. So why not start simulcasting the biggest events -- like awards shows (as has been done recently) and big finales -- in all time zones? Wouldn't that increase the buzz even more? I know that NBC is full of epic fail when it comes to this, but I can't think of a better time for ABC to take that kind of risk.

At one point I threatened to start a "Simulcast the LOST finale in all timezones!" campaign. I half-suspected that was why ABC was airing it on a Sunday. But I never had time to do that, so instead, I will avoid my internet tomorrow night, and catch up with everyone on Monday morning. Maybe when the next Big Television Event rolls around, I'll be able to watch it live with everyone.

S is for Sam, and for Santa Barbara ABCs!

The ABCs of Santa Barbara
Originally uploaded by R Stanek

Back when I was pregnant, I wanted to make an alphabet poster for [untitled], using letters from signs around town. Well, Sam turned 7 months old today, and I finally finished the poster! We hit up many local Santa Barbara institutions, particularly the nearby neighborhood joints (Derf's, Los Gallos, etc.) that we frequent. And this was definitely a joint effort: I took nearly all the pictures, and dealt with cropping and scaling, but Eli did the assembling of the poster in Photoshop. In my defense, there is no way my laptop could have handled it.

I can't wait to see the poster on the wall. Happy 7 months, Sam!

(Week 20 of Project 52.)

Careful!

Caution!
Originally uploaded by R Stanek

I just really love the bright red sign against all the blue and gray. Also, the breakwall does get very slippery sometimes, yikes.

Week 19 (yes, I know it's late, but there's a good reason) of Project 52.

True Love is Forever. Apparently, so is The Gap

I just realized that today Eli and I are both wearing the same shirts that we did on the day we got engaged.

In October, 2005.

What's sadder, that I remember this*, or that apparently neither of us has gone shopping in four and a half years?

*There are actually pictures, which is how I remember. Also, Eli's shirt is really orange. I'm not losing that brain cell any time soon.

The solitary flower and/or photographer

Scrubbing bubbles
Originally uploaded by R Stanek

I know I said "no flowers", but I'm using this picture because it actually has a story behind it! I was lagging behind the rest of the family while walking in Santa Monica, and wanted to get a picture of these great flowers. While I was doing so, and older gentleman came up to me and we had a chat about trees, California, photography, etc. I learned that this is a bottlebrush tree, which I'm sure saved me some time that would have otherwise been spent with a National Audubon Society Field Guide.

Most of my hobbies and interests are naturally solitary pursuits -- reading, photography, jogging -- and that often suits me. That doesn't mean it's lonely, though. I enjoyed the photowalk I did with local Flickrites, and people often approach me while I'm out and about with my camera. And I don't take pictures of other people, generally, so it's not even because of that. People just want to talk about cameras and trees and art, and I've started to enjoy that.

(Week 18 of Project 52. Uh. Did I say I was going to stop taking backlit pictures? Sorry about that.)

Busy Busy!

Busy
Originally uploaded by R Stanek

It's busy everywhere right now. Busy on the blog! Busy at home, now that Sam's eating solids and we're making baby food! Busy at work! Busy with photography, as I'm working on an alphabet project for Sam's room.

So I thought this busy photo was appropriate. I'm still going through the pictures from last weekend's photowalk, and experimenting with the post-processing, and some conversions to black and white. Hopefully some of those will see the light of day!

Courgette (Zucchini) Bread

Back when I was in the Peace Corps (I know, I know) I took spring break 1998 to visit Mike V. on Mafia Island, a small island off the coast of mainland Tanganyika. Mafia is exactly what you would expect from a desert island in the Indian Ocean, complete with a fantastic coral reef. Luckily, V was friends with the folks who ran the scuba dives from the main resort on the island. Which means...free scuba diving!

Yet it does seem kind of rude to just tag along on a dive trip, especially since the resort prepares lunch for the guests, so we had to bring our own lunch. Since it was pumpkin season on Mafia (who knew?) we also decided to bring some homemade pumpkin bread to barter for some better food. Although we lacked a real oven, it's possible to make quick breads by building a very basic "convection" oven. You put one sufuria (a pot without a handle) on a three piles of coins inside another larger sufuria which is placed on a kerosene stove. When you cover the large sufuria, convection will bring heat all the way around the bread. It works pretty well, although temperature control is a fine art that depends on the temperament of your kerosene stove.

Joining us on the dive trip that day (pictured above) were the resort folks, Sam (who was British), and a woman whose name eludes me for the moment (who was a white Kenyan). The paying guests were a nice family from Denmark who were very blond. At lunch we brought out the pumpkin bread, and everybody was baffled. Bread made with pumpkin? Nobody had ever heard of such a preposterous thing! Sam said incredulously, "what other crazy things do you Americans make...courgette bread?"

Indeed we do!

In spite of their apprehension, everybody enjoyed the bread and I got two more free days of diving that week.

The Truth About Pandering

One of the great things about Michael Steele is that he often accidentally speaks the truth, like in his mention of the GOP's infamous Southern Strategy. In return, a conservative blogger complained, "Steele’s job is to make TODAY’S GOP attractive to voters, not to declare that we haven’t pandered enough to any group."

Let me spell this out for Mr. Cargosquid. If the only demographic your party consistently attracts is white men, maybe the problem isn't that you're not pandering to other groups. Maybe the problem is that you've been pandering to white men. Remember when I pointed out that in many circles, male is the default? Well, to the GOP, white men are the default, and everyone else is a special interest group.

(Special interest groups who should stay in the kitchen! Ah, Medina.)