Assorted Miscellaneous and Not-Very-Interesting Things

I don't really have anything too exciting to post today, jewelry-wise, but I do have some food-related thoughs (what else is new).




We had a delicious summertime dinner the other night - soba noodles, tempeh, and veggies in peanut sauce, served over lettuce. The soba noodles were cooked and rinsed under cold water; the tempeh was browned and sprinkled with a little soy sauce, and we used whatever veggies we had in the fridge - carrots, broccoli, and awesome green beans from my step-dad's garden. I just threw the chopped veggies in with the noodles as they cooked and it turned out perfect. The recipe for the peanut sauce came from a cookbook so I maybe shouldn't print it, but it should be pretty easy to find a good peanut sauce (also called gado-gado) online.

For those of you (poor souls) that aren't familiar with soba noodles, I highly recommend that you go out and buy some. They are made from something really healthy, buckwheat flour, I think, and I know that doesn't sound all that exciting, but they are really good. When I'm feeling particularly lazy, I eat them with just a bit of soy margarine and salt. Yum.

Next thought... I used to buy vegan cookbooks all the time, but it got so that I had so many, most were never being used. So I gave a bunch away and for the last couple of years, I haven't bought any new ones, but I recently caved and bought Vive le Vegan and Vegan with a Vengeance (I've heard so much good stuff about this one, I can't believe I waited so long to buy it) - they both look awesome and I can't wait to try some exciting new recipes this week. Hopefully everything will turn out amazing and I will have lots of mediocre food photos to share later this week (the food won't be mediocre, just the photographs - I think my jewelry pics turn out way better than my food pics - maybe it's the ugly old Mervyns-clearance-sale plates that I'm too cheap to replace...)

Final thought... I purposely don't post a lot about Carlos here, other than pictures now and then, because to be honest, I'm not usually too interested in hearing about other people's children and their latest achievements, problems, etc. (I feel like a jerk but it's true, unless it's someone I know pretty well), and I really don't want this to be considered a mommy-blog. No offense to the mommy bloggers out there, it's just not my cup of tea. Anyhoo, it occurred to me recently that some of my out-of-town family and friends would probably appreciate at least an occasional scrap of information or anecdote about the little guy so I'm going to throw you all a bone. Plus, he's been so cute and interesting lately (not to mention challenging... oh yeah, he's a toddler!), it's fun to share.


So... on that note, here's what's new with Carlitos.

• He's starting to count. Sometimes he gets the numbers in order and sometimes not, but it's always cute.


• He's learning colors. Again, he doesn't always get them right, but more often than not he does. He likes to play with his stubby little toddler crayons; he doesn't really color with them, just plays with them and says the colors.


• His ball obsession has lessened, and he is now really into cars, especially hot rods like his Papa's, and tractors. Matt took him for a ride on the tractor the other day and ever since he's been saying "tractor ride" practically nonstop. He also likes to sit in our cars (or on the tractor) and 'drive', meaning play with the steering wheel and all the buttons and levers. This means that we often get into our cars and find things adjusted very strangely.


• He likes to run and jump, and he likes even more to say "running" while he's running, and "jumping" while jumping.


• He's going to turn two in less than two months! I can't believe it. I need to start figuring out what we're going to do for his birthday - anyone have any ideas? And when he turns two, he's going to start preschool! Very minimal hours - just three hours a day, two days a week. I hope he likes it.