Pickle In A Blanket, Fancypants Vegan Gourmet Style

Going way back here: A1 and I shared an apartment in Denver. There, the (in)famous Pickle In A Blanket was born. This culinary revolution consisted of a bunch of cheap shreeded cheese melted onto a flour tortilla, with a half Claussen dill pickle on top, a pile of mayonnaise unceremoniously plopped on top, and a shake of black pepper.

Now (back) in Boston, we have a more refined, grownup, vegan version:

That's Daiya vegan cheeze on a tortilla warmed in a skillet, caramelized ONIONS and garlic, Just Mayo, sri racha sauce, and still the star of the show: a half Claussen dill pickle. As much as I gobbled down the originals by the dozen or so per week, I gotta tell you, this ones tastes better.

Radish greens!

These are radish greens about to be sauteed with garlic and olive oil. They came (attached to radishes) from Daily Table, dailytable.org, an  awesome nonprofit grocery store in Dorchester that sells perfectly useable and safe and tasty food that isn't picture perfect for the corporate supermarkets, or is past its silly and arbitrary "best by" date. It was founded by the former head of Trader Joe's.

Example? Sure: how about a half gallon of Cedar's brand hummus, or baba ganoush, for $3.99?!? For the record, they both freeze in smaller containers just fine.

Orange juice price comparison at Boston Logan airport

Because everyone's hair is on fire over allegedly long security lines at airports, I showed up to Boston Logan airport 2.5 hours early. I then had one person in front of me in the security line, so I have some time to kill. The really intensive patdown and bag check after TSA's piece of shit machines flagged my bag for "explosive residue" did eat up about five minutes. Breakfast burritos strike again? I did receive excellent guest service from the lead TSO.

Anyway, I now have a couple hours to fill. I wanted some orange juice. But I didn't want to pay the outrageous prices. So instead I'm entertaining myself comparing the cost of bottles of orange juice in terminal C at Boston Logan international airport. For consistency's sake (and because this IS science, right)?), it is all 100% orange juice. All per ounce prices rounded to the nearest penny.

Green Express, gate C32
Tropicana 15.2oz, $2.99 ($0.20/oz)

Hudson News, gate C29
Simply Orange 11.5oz, $3.99 ($0.35/oz)
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

Go Go Stop, gate C29
Tropicana 12oz, $2.79 ($0.23/oz)

Wolfgang Puck Express, food court opposite gate C27
Simply Orange, 11.5oz, $2.79 ($0.24/oz)
Naked Juice, 15.2oz, $4.39 ($0.29/oz)

Johnny Rockets, food court opposite gate C27
Simply Orange, 11.5oz, $2.79 ($0.24/oz)

Hudson News, opposite food court / gate C26
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

Starbucks, mini food court near gate C10
Naked Juice, 15.2, $4.39 ($0.29/oz)

Hudson News, sorta near gate C8
Simply Orange 11.5oz, $3.99 ($0.35/oz)
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

Potbelly Sandwich, b/n gates C11 and C15
Tropicana 12oz, $2.35 ($0.20/oz)

Hudson News, gate C15
Minute Maid 15.2oz, $3.19 ($0.21/oz)

UFood Grill, gate C19
Tropicana, 10oz carton, $2.99 ($0.29/oz)

Dunkin Donuts, gate C20
Simply Orange, 11.5oz, $2.19 ($0.19/oz)

Conclusions? Well, you can draw some of your own. In short, Dunkies wins it, closely followed by Green Express, which of course has way shorter lines (or usually no line at all.)

And fuck you, Hudson News, since despite your virtual monopoly of airport convenience stores all over America, and the massive purchasing power you have as a result, you nevertheless sell the most expensive orange juice, by far, of anyone, including for crying out loud Starbucks.

And since 100% orange juice is regularly available at Boston area supermarkets (Star, Stop & Shop, etc) for $2.50 for a half gallon ($0.04/oz) and is rarely more than $3.99 for a half gallon ($0.06/oz) let's just call this all a gigantic ripoff facilitated by the asinine TSA prohibition against bringing in more than 3.2 fluid ounces of liquid toiletries, and more than 0.0 ounces of orange juice.

Baltimore, here I come!

Kids

Things I had to explain to a seven year old recently: the U.S. role in Nicaragua in 1984, and what a Ghost Bike (ghostbikes.org) means.

#BostonMarathon #MarathonMonday

I've never seen so many day drunk 18-22 year olds in one place at one time. #BU #BostonUniversity students, good luck with Boston Marathon Monday!

Boston Marathon Monday

As long as you're nowhere near Copley Square, or Beacon Street, or Commonwealth Ave, or trying to walk, bike, or drive anywhere in central Boston, and not taking the Green Line or the Red Line, "Patriot's Day" / Marathon Monday is quite pleasant.

Too bad I still live on Comm Ave, near Beacon Street, and have to take both the Green Line and Red Line today.

Related: the MBTA really dredged the bottom of the pond to find overtime staff to wear high-vis vests and filthy jeans and play Rent-A-Cop for a day with constantly chatty radios to meanmug people for their outrageous temerity to bring newspapers or Dunkin Donuts coffee cups into the T system. Really, residents of Boston, who actually live here, and pay taxes here: HOW DARE YOU?

Checking off the list

Totally gratuitous pic of the Rhode Island State House. And ominous clouds.

Shiggy

Just did some moderately intense shiggy after geocaching. Well worth it.

Providence, I kinda love you, and kinda don't. Let's talk.

My hotel in Providence

I've lived in apartments with just barely more square feet than this hotel bathroom I got with points.

Tasty Burger

Who would have thought Tasty Burger at the Back Bay Station would have such a tasty vegan option? Turns out the veggie burger is vegan if made as a lettuce wrap, as explicitly stated on the menu.

It's more like a salad than a burger, which is fine, and for six bucks, was quite tasty, and a nice alternative to just eating cashews and peanuts on the commuter rail to Providence.

Moving

Yep. That.

Farewell, friend

I bought these soccer shorts at a Big 5 Sporting Goods in Colorado Springs in late 2001 or early 2002, along with an identical lighter blue pair. They both served well, and now as I'm packing up for another move (this time just across town) I'm purging clothes.

As you can see, I've mended nearly every seam on the garment, by hand. I use what is essentially a double threaded, somewhat excessive overcast stitch that I sometimes refer to as the "hippie stitch". It holds!

These shorts have played soccer, coached youth soccer, run half marathons, and served as sleeping shorts for over a decade.

They've lived in three countries, and ten US states (and visited most or all of the others). For the last couple years, they've mostly been in semi-retirement status, out to pasture except when I can't find their replacements, or am going somewhere where destroying or losing my clothing is a reasonable possibility. Now the elastic is completely shot, I have backups, and, well, it's just time.

Travel well and dream big, friend. Go hang out with all of the other well loved shorts in the sky. If you see my dad's famous orange shorts, say hello for me! (And please tell them I'm sorry about that April Fool's incident. And that mom was in on it.)

p.s. the quilt in the background also dates to 2002, made for me by my lovely friends B and R. It's in much better shape! 

Hippie slop food porn, Cleveland edition!

Yep: In Cleveland for a few days, so it's potatoes and... wait for it... ONIONS!

Fancypants vegan grilled cheese

On fresh local sourdough, with Daiya, grilled onions, roasted red peppers, Tofurky "roast beef", pesto, dijon mustard.

Delicious!

Sinks, drains, and downright nastiness

Longtime readers of my blog know that I have a special hobby of cleaning out sink drains and p-traps. Check out my home renovation label for some earlier examples. This time around, though, it wasn't just a random whim to go hunt some biogoo: our apartment bathroom sink was starting to empty scarily slow.

I have now far surpassed my previous record for grossest nastiest yuckiest foulest thing pulled out of a drain or p-trap:

For size reference, those (in)famous needlenose pliers are just under six inches long.

Our apartment building was built in 1935, but I would roughly place the pink sink (and toilet, and bathtub) in the 1950s era pink bathroom craze, during which this delightful website, Save The Pink Bathrooms, estimates that perhaps one in four bathrooms built in the era had pink bathroom fixtures.

Anybody want to hazard a guess on the last time this sink drainpipe was cleaned out?

dinner!

Today's installment of last night's dinner:

Cauliflower, tempeh, carrots, fried polenta, and fresh basil on brown rice. Simple but delicious. 

FOODPORNPALOOZA!

I had a bunch of food porn shots on my phone that I finally got around to dealing with. Usually this is just cropping, but the blogger app for android sucks, and often fails to upload for no apparent reason, and with no explanation.

So, without further ado, here is a bunch of backlogged FOOD PORN!

Miso seaweed noodle soup, and fried tofu. I'm not gonna lie to you: this one was damn delicious.

Fiore's Bakery in Jamaica Plain. This is the "Steak Bomb" sandwich. Tasty, but kind of uninspired for $9: it's essentially a pressed panini with a scattering of salad greens and a basic balsamic vinaigrette.

The Buffalo Bomber from Veggie Grill in Portland, Oregon. Yes, this place is a (small) chain. Yes, there are local vegan options in Portland (though relatively few downtown, where I was staying.) Why do I consistently go to a chain, when I could choose local? Because Veggie Grill just does it right: all vegan, tons of choices, ridiculously friendly staff, great pricepoint.

Tempeh Reuben and tempeh skewer at Cafe Yumm, Eugene, Oregon. Eh, fine. A reasonable go-to when you need vegan options, but not a place I go out of my way to go.

Vegan pizza from Sizzle Pie in Eugene, Oregon.

Some random Asian noodle stir fry with puffed tofu and fried wontons. Basically Asian-themed hippie slop. It did the trick, but wasn't all that amazing.

Springtime salad

It's been in the 60s and 70s in Boston: 76 a couple days ago, which shattered the record for the earliest that temperature has been reached in the year. #globalclimatechaos?

With the warmer weather, I'm beginning to move away from the soups, stews, and chilis I've been making (despite how mild the winter was.)

This is an Asian tofu salad, with blanched Chinese spinach, other Asian greens (I forget which I picked up), scallion ribbons, soba noodles, and carrots.

The dressing was also the marinade for the baked tofu, which was more or less just randomly pulling things out of the fridge and shelves, and putting them in the blender: apple cider vinegar, the liquid from pepperoncinis, pickle juice, mustard, soy sauce, tahini, white miso paste, canola oil, sesame oil, garlic powder, ginger powder, lime juice. Kinda random, but it worked out well. Having a rocket powered blender helps.

Today is looking like bike rides.

Hello spring!

Food porn!

After almost a week in Oregon, with almost entirely takeout and restaurant food, I was really excited to get back into the kitchen last night. We ended up with a four part one bowl meal that was damn delicious, and pretty too!

This is a spicy two bean stew with eggplant and tempeh;
fried polenta hearts;
pesto with broccoli and scallions;
and a (homemade, of course) kalamata tapenade.

YUM.

We ate this while watching the first episode of season four of House of Cards. I have to say that I wasn't as impressed with it as past seasons. It is, of course, still smart, beautifully produced television. But it felt a little more... affected? We'll see. 

Irony

I'm emailing a friend about irony now, and it reminded me of this great comic from The Oatmeal (one of my favorite webcomics, but tread carefully, it can easily wipe out an afternoon if you start reading the archive...) 

Long before I had a blog, I saw this wonderful flyer posted at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (yes, my millennial friends, back in the dark ages, when people put up photocopied dead tree to advertise events, rather than create a Facehole event.) 

It read, completely un-ironically, something very close to "UMass-Amherst Anarchist Club Monthly Meeting: Student Union Complex, downstairs, Room 123, next to the ATM."