Garden, Day 5: The Sproutening!

The mache is the only thing that hasn't sprouted, but it takes quite a bit longer.






God, I LOVE growing things.

More Food: Lunch, Quinoa Pilaf

Quinoa Pilaf, originally uploaded by primalux.

Saute shallots, mushrooms, and peppers in olive oil. Add greens (I used collards, arugula, some other spring baby greens) and edamame. Salt. Add cooked quinoa, I cook mine with beef or mushroom stock to really amp up the umami. Finish with a good white wine vinegar. Trust on this last step. The acid does it. I CRAVE this dish constantly.

More Food: Breakfast

Breakfast, originally uploaded by primalux.

Crostini with goat cheese and fresh basil. Topped with sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, and orange bell peppers. Poached eggs on top of that.

The Bitter and Sick and Die Alones - Hurt is all I get (Live at Atalante)

This song takes my breath away. So amazing. So beautiful.

Best Salad Ever

Best Salad Ever, originally uploaded by primalux.

My dinner tonight: spring greens, romaine, purple cabbage, carrots, orange bell pepper, cucumber, tomato, edamame. Dressed in olive oil, seasoned rice vinegar, smoked sea salt, freshly ground pepper.

With a Greyhound to drink.

The garden is a go:

More pictures here.

So I'm growing spearmint and basil, which are the two actual plants in the pictures, as well as mustard greens, collard greens, broccoli rabe, mache, and kale. I also bought seeds to grow sprouts, alfalfa and mung bean.

And now I wait. And try to learn that thing called "patience".

New Mix

Random Thought

This has occurred to me twice today so it probably means something a little more real than random: I much prefer dating intelligent, knowledgeable men with no real formal education to guys who learned everything they know, including the ways they think and process, because they went to school and got a degree. There's a lack of structure in the former that I find so much more interesting and intriguing. And, let's be honest, more authentic.

Tallest Man on Earth

Dear Sweden,
Please keep making beautiful men who make creative, honest, amazing music and I will carry your torch FOREVER.
Love, Marie
P.S. Tallest Man on Earth is playing the Fillmore in September. WHO WANTS TO GO??

Ugh. Stop it. You're perfect.

My last three meals.

Most recent up top. Click through to flickr for descriptions and ingredients.

Le. Sigh.

Beautiful amazing boy from last summer emailed me again. He's still on the other side of the world but every time I hear from him I swoon just a touch. He's a little bit of magic.

Garden Planning

I am so excited about having a garden again, I can't even tell you guys. I live in basically THE foggy, cold neighborhood of San Francisco, which normally I like to bitch about. The rest of the city will have sun and a degree of warmth but my house and my park are just grey and cold. I'm finding it pretty serendipitous that the exact things I'm interested in growing, lots of greens primarily, actually prefer this weather. This makes me a happy lady. I'm going to be growing some herbs too, but I think I'll just keep those inside in front of my bay window, which faces west. The only sun we often get here is in the late afternoon, so this will allow them to take full advantage of that.
This morning has just been all research, research, research. When I finish this coffee I'm gonna take a break and make myself something delicious to eat. Then it's off to work. YAY BUSY LIFE.

My newest mix:

Update: Track Listing for those who requested it.

1. Bat For Lashes - I Saw a Light
2. Einstürzende Neubauten - Blume (French Version)
3. PJ Harvey - Oh My Lover
4. Okkervil River - For Real
5. Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart
6. Tom Waits - Alice
7. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Strange Form of Life
8. Einstürzende Neubauten - Blume (English Version)
9. Interpol - Leif Erikson

The sun

came out while I was walking home from the market with bushels of fresh basil and mint. It was perfect. I was listening to "Runaway" by The National. I'm drinking wine and making a new mixtape right now, which I will post later. Next weekend is officially "Start the Garden" weekend. I've also decided that I love the act of alchemy that is cooking way too much and I need to get back to my roots, so I'm only going to eat out now if it's an actual quality food experience. I went out to Alembic last Wednesday with the biologist and it was a superb and fucking transcendent food and whiskey experience, and that's really the only time it's worth it. Otherwise it's gonna be me here in my kitchen, transforming one thing into another. I wish my place was more conducive to dinner parties. I miss having those. Maybe I'll have them anyway.

Last night Logan and Danielle hosted a "Jersey Shore Season 2 Premiere" party and it was awesome. Vegan sausage and peppers, the fruity drink concoction that is "Ron Ron Juice", and even a hot tub. Great times. I looked like a total Jersey stripper. Witness:

Head on over here to see the rest of my shitty cameraphone pics of the party.

RAWR!

I feel like I am chewing up and spitting out the entire world right now. It's fucking stellar.
I need more creative people in my life. I want some real partners in crime.

Snippet, Take 2

This song will forever remind me of a specific night almost a year ago. I went on a date I was really not excited about going on, I showed up a little bit tipsy cause I had beer for dinner, I immediately liked him upon meeting him, and by the end of the night I was taking him to my place which I rarely do (I usually opt for their place. Easier to escape and then they don't know where I live). We fucked, it was awesome. I put this album, which I had just gotten, on beforehand. We fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and heard this song for the first time. It was perfect. Perfect for that guy, perfect for that night, all of it. Especially lying there, in the middle of the night, with a stranger who was one of the first people I'd ever felt disarmed by. Glow from the laptop, the line "we are capsules of energy". And then I never saw him again. But every single time I heard this song I flashed back to that night, and to him, and to that moment.
And somehow he's now back in my life.

Skin

I'm a sucker for scratches. Ha. And anatomy.NSFW. Via Unscathed Corpse

This.This a fucking million times.

Radio Interview!

A while back I mentioned that we were interviewed about our Alcatraz bird blog MAGANRORD. Well that interview is finally airing tonight! The show is CrossCurrents on KALW. If you're in the bay area the station is 91.7 and it will also be on the web at kalwnews.org. It airs between 5 and 530 pm. Listen to our awesomeness!