"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."*

So upon discussing doing the Veggie thing for a month, my husband replied, " We are going to be hungry!" But he agreed to do whatever I wanted...and I agreed we could eat a couple non red meat meals a week. So there it is.
In related news my brother in law Billy recommended Mark Bitmans cook book which in turn prompted me to check out his website www.howtocookeverything.tv and I hope to pick up his cook book, it looks simply divine!

*Billy also shared this comment from Michael Pollan

Merry Christmas....

from our house to yours!

Success!

Flexitarian

So I have been a meat eater for a little over a year now and what a year its been! Easy meals, large steaks...restaurant flexibility!

But, alas, despite the culinary enjoyment, I am starting to doubt my carnivore life style. I started eating this way to alleviate some of the dizzy spells and anemia I was having. Mostly though, because my son Forest, who was a veracious nurser, was hard to keep up with.
It was also just too hard to cook a well balanced vegetarian meal with two babies in diapers( hence dizzys and anemia.) I think all we ate was pasta before I made the switch.

Anyway, I've noticed I don't feel as healthy as I should, and my usually fast metabolism has gotten soooo slow.... and I've gotten around ten extra pounds of weight to contend with.

My kids have gotten older, no longer nurse and I have more time now, ...so I am going to do a month of veg meals for myself and my family this January* and see if I feel any better.
I found a fabulous blog that has some great tasting and easy recipes.

I would love to try any vegetarian** recipes any of you want to share, and to post my results ( and my families reactions!) So drop me a line or feel free to leave recipes in the comments!

Thusly inspired,tonight I will be making this spicy thai coconut curry soup***:



* I have always been a lacto-ovo veg so that eggs and cheese are allowable ingredients
** it has to be after the holidays cause I plan to enjoy the pork roast me Mums making!
*** Will there ever be a Zen Palate in Maine?

THE MUSE!!!!!!

Be still my heart,I f***ing love this band.

Oh Man I just found out these guys are playing in Boston this March and I HAVE to go see them. They seem influenced by some of my favorite music... perhaps a Radiohead /Jeff Buckley esque inspired sound? I love the complex layering they do, that comes off sounding simple...but then ends up as a gorgeous rich sea of melody...and I've heard that they are just fantastic live.
Did any of you see them on SNL last night? If you haven't heard them check them out on you tube. Better yet, Buy an album.
Or, car pool with me in March and watch me try not to pee my pants in excitement. Forgive me for my hysterical joy, but I've wanted to see these guys for ever! It's on my "to do in my life time" list. Check them out!

[Muse] Sing for Absolution

New Years: resolved

My husband and I just realized the other day that we've turned into a couple of squares.
How did this happen? Was it when we bought the station wagon? When we had kids? When we moved out of our apartment? When we started cutting our own hair?
I am not thinking that we should try to recapture the wild days of our early twenties or abandon the practical choices we've made to support our life together. We love our life. But New Year's is coming up and that means making resolutions. So I am resolving to stop being such a fuddy duddy* and be playful in life again. And I'd encourage anyone to do the same!



* the fact that I used the term "fuddy duddy" only further illustrates the problem.

Phoenix Rising

I am working on a design to cover up parts of the two tattoos on my wrists. I am calling it phoenix rising.

I designed the bones of the tattoos in black. I based them on a Mandala of the four directions, representing the spiritual, the mind, being grounded and the creative. The overall idea is to be symbolic of finding balance in life.
I got them done at a local shop known to be reputable. The design was simple enough to trace onto my body, but some how the artist REALLY messed them up while tattooing. They were orignally delicate in design and completely symmetrical since I used a compass to draw them. I went home. The swelling went down. I was disappointed. I went back. The artist was fired.

The owner and senior tattoo artist felt awful and wanted to fix them for me. But some color would be needed to cover up the mistakes. So he embelished them with color and then went to town going outside of the lines with what he called "fractile images"ruining the whole symbolism for me. The point is, they are definitely not what I wanted. I do not like mixing cool colors and warm colors, as a matter of fact, I don't even LIKE bright colors. I am more of an subtle earth tone kind of gal.

So 7 yrs later I have found an artist I can trust and I am really excited!I am planning to darken the colors and cover what I don't like. There is no way to do this with out going bigger and it's taken a while to come up with something I KNOW I'll want on my body forever... especially since I don't typically go for big tattoos. But I think I've figured it out. Here's the preliminary piece.*



Also did I mention that the wrist is an extremely tender area? I only hope that having since given birth twice over with no drugs will have changed my idea of what's painful. I'll keep you updated on the progress. Wish me luck.


* These are NOT drawn with a compass and are just an unfinished rough idea of what I'll be doing
-Please respect that these design were created for me and are owned by me-

First Snow

We have a hauntingly beautiful stand of Pines in our backyard that look amazing anytime of year and after this last Sundays snow storm they were so peaceful I felt like I was in another era.

Here she is!

* Sorry for the delay in posts, my blog had and attack of cookies, which have mysteriously vanished *