Miscellaneous

Benjamin said I need to start updating the blog more frequently again.  I don't have any pictures to post but I can write some stuff so here goes.

After most of the summer being bored with food and the idea of cooking dinners, I seem to have turned a corner and am getting back into it.  Not coincidentally, I have finally gotten interested in Star Trek: The Next Generation and am finding myself genuinely wanting to know what happens next instead of thinking, "this is the dumbest show in history," every time I watch it. I think maybe having a show to watch is key to my whole cooking methodology. Fortunately, if I run out of new things I can just watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the first three seasons of Alias over and over for the rest of my life.

So far this week I have made two things I remembered fondly but had only made once, the Manzana Chili Verde from Veganomicon (I thought for sure I had posted about this, but apparently not - it isn't very photogenic) and the Yassa Lemon-Mustard Tofu from Vegan Eats World, which even though I said in this post was "the best tofu ever in history" still exceeded my expectations. One bonus of making that dish is seeing Ben's unenthused expression when he learns we are having baked tofu and carrots for dinner. But he was blown away, too! The sauce is amazing.

I have also gotten into making iced coffee at home, using The Pioneer Woman's method. I halve her recipe, because who has a 2-gallon container that fits in their refrigerator? A half batch keeps us both in iced coffee for an entire week and costs about $7, including the sugar and almond milk. This has basically changed my life. It takes about 20 minutes to strain out on the first day, but that's a lot less time and hassle than stopping at Dunkin Donuts every morning on the way to work.

One other thing going on over here is that Ben is on the quest to develop the perfect key lime recipe. He has made (and singlehandedly eaten) three entire pies in the past 9 days and has learned a few things, but still has a ways to go before perfection is reached. He tries to explain it to me and ask my opinion all the time but I do not especially like key lime pie and have nothing to contribute. He's going to make a blog post about it once he's figured it all out, though, don't worry.

Finally, we have at last reached August, which is the month before it's time to go to Spain. I had originally tried to be low-stress by booking modern hotels in Granada and Cordoba that were easy to get to by car, but last weekend I decided to throw caution to the wind and find more interesting places to stay. Ben agreed this was a good idea (and I made him promise to remember that when we want to kill each other as a result of driving around on narrow, poorly-marked, one-way cobblestone streets in ancient city centers trying to find our hotels) and now I am super pumped about our accommodations throughout the entire trip. Now I just want it to be time to leave!