Stacyverb

Budget Bytes vegetable tian

Stacyverb is not a cooking blog, but sometimes it is an eating blog!  And cooking is how we get to the eating part, so....

The other day when I mentioned some of my current favorite blogs, I overlooked one that has been particularly rocking my world lately, and that would be Budget Bytes.  Beth, the woman behind BB, had me with this line: "I am broke and I love to eat."  ME TOO.  She has tons of great recipes for meals that are easy and very inexpensive to prepare. 

Since discovering Budget Bytes a few months ago, the menu here at Boogaloo Acres has vastly improved.  And I think it's made us eat healthier, too.  For example, let's say I'm in the grocery store and I'm thinking about treating myself to some ice cream.  Because of the way Beth breaks down her recipes to show you exactly how much each serving costs, now when I think about spending $3.99 on a pint of Ben & Jerry's, my next thought is immediately, but for $3.99 I could buy ingredients for a whole dinner for two with a Budget Bytes recipe and still have leftovers for lunch.  (Yes, really.)  Sometimes the siren song of junk food is irresistible, but usually, the real meal wins out.

Here's one delicious example, which I made for dinner last night.  It's called Summer Vegetable Tian.  It's got one onion, one potato, one yellow squash, one zucchini, and one tomato (the first good-looking one of the season--hurray!), plus garlic, thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper. 

The onion and garlic are sauted in olive oil and then spread over the bottom of the baking dish (Beth suggested rubbing the dish with a little butter first, so I did). Then you layer your sliced veggies like so, sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and thyme, cover it all with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil, top the veggies with shredded cheese (I used mozzarella) and bake it for another 20 minutes or so.  More detailed instructions and much better pictures here.)

This would make a great side dish or, as I had it last night, a tasty vegetarian dinner by itself (we're a meat-eating household, but we do enjoy meatless meals as well).  It was a nice cozy dish for a rainy night when I was home alone, snuggled up on the couch with some silly sitcoms and a glass of white wine from the wine fairy.

When I make this again, I think I'll add another tomato (this was a little unbalanced in favor of the squashes) and more salt and pepper.  Beth's instructions clearly said to be "GENEROUS" with those, and she was right.  I salted and peppered it again on my plate, and that really helped the flavors of the veggies come together.

Thank you, Budget Bytes!

Sweating and swearing

Like many people, I prefer to exercise at home instead of in public.  It’s not because I’m sweaty and ugly while exercising—who isn't?  Gym memberships are expensive, but nope, that’s not it either.

The real reason I work out at home is this: I’m very vocal when I exercise.  I cheer myself on.  Sometimes there’s profanity.  Occasionally I insert a Bob Costas-like commentary marveling that this athlete (me) has overcome great obstacles just to compete in the day’s events (meaning, I’m tired and cranky and don’t feel like exercising, but I’m doing it anyway).

How does anyone exercise without saying anything?  When I see people jogging down the street, they might be huffing and puffing, but I never hear them singing along (loudly, and way off-key) to their iPods.  Or making “neeer, neeer neeer, neeerrrrr!!!” noises during guitar solos.  Come on--how do you get a good workout without all that?  Nor do I hear any of these runners saying the things I mutter while riding my recumbent bike:  “Keep going...you can do it....” or “Twelve more minutes?  Are you #*@% kidding me??”  I guess with a gym membership, you might have a personal trainer to keep up this dialogue with you.  But hello--what a waste of money, when I can just stay home and yell at myself for free!

Let’s imagine me in a yoga/aerobics/whatever class.  If my behavior toward my Wii trainer is any indication, I’d probably get thrown out for mouthing off at the instructor.  My Wii trainer takes a lot of verbal abuse.  When she tries to encourage me by calling out things like, “Don’t give up!” I tend to snap defensively, “Who said anything about giving up, beeyatch?!?”  Plus, sometimes I accuse her of lagging behind because she’s hungover.  (Seriously—I think she has a problem.  She frequently rubs her head and reminds me how important it is to get enough sleep.  Uh-huh.)  I’m guessing that would be frowned upon in a real class, right?

I’m no expert on gym etiquette, so maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about.  But when I pass by health clubs with large windows and see the people inside, I’ve never noticed anyone completing their workout, climbing off a piece of equipment, and marching around the club with their arms upraised, hollering “WOO-HOO!” and waving to an invisible crowd.  Does that ever go on?  Also, as far as I know, gyms generally don’t allow cats on the premises, so to whom do their members direct their post-workout imaginary press conferences?   (“Well, thanks, I appreciate that.  It wasn’t my best, but I feel pretty good.”)  Again, I’m ignorant here.  That’s not my world.  You tell me.

Anyway.   I’m pretty happy with my current workout regimen of pedaling a rickety old recumbent bike and beating the crap out of computerized boozehounds, so you won’t see me testing these theories in an actual gym anytime soon.  I’m sure you’re all relieved about that.

Finished: Black sparkly hat

Don't worry, I'm here.  Thank you to everyone who sent their condolences about Nacho Kitty.  I really appreciate all your kind words!

What have I been doing, since I clearly haven't been blogging?  Well, here's one thing:

Terrible picture, but anyway.  It's the Peace Street Hat from the Holidays Gifts 2011 issue of Interweave Knits.  Although you can't really tell from this photo, the hat has a hint of sparkle.  I held one strand of black alpaca together with a strand of metallic yarn (also black) to create this subtle shimmery effect.  The buttons are some pretty glass gems from Blue Moon Buttons.  This is my new go-to hat for the holiday season.

Let's see, what else?  I'm trying really hard not to catch a cold.  Yesterday I felt yucky all day, but last night I had a hot toddy and then a lot of sleep and I'm feeling much better this morning.  I'll be eating tangerines all day to load up on vitamin C and ward off any cold germs (not to mention scurvy--man, there's nothing like a pesky case of scurvy to ruin your Christmas vacation).

I hope you all are doing great and enjoying the holidays!

I can haz Mimosa necklace?

This is a recent picture from a day when I was trying to have a photo shoot of my Mimosa necklace for my Etsy shop.  As you can see, Little Kitty wanted to get in on the action.  I have so much "help" around here sometimes!

This morning Little is at the vet for surgery.  I found a lump on her this week, and the vet thinks it's a tumor in her breast tissue, which probably means cancer. :(  She's having the lump removed today, and then we'll know more.

Please think good thoughts for our beloved Little.  I hope she'll be home, healthy, and "helping" me again very soon.

The Mustache Party at the High

This week I won free tickets to attend the High Museum's Mustache party!  It was a fabulous evening that included viewing the Dali exhibit, grooving to the sonic stylings of Lyonnais, and watching the French film La Moustache.  Of course, everyone in attendance was encouraged to sport a wacky mustache, whether real or fake.  Adverb and I had a great time, as you can see.

By the way, did you know that November is also Movember?  Men all over the world are growing mustaches this month as part of the campaign to "change the face of men's health," raising awareness and funds for men's health issues (especially prostate cancer).  You can learn more here.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!

For Christmas, I got a Wii.  I'm not into video games normally, but I wanted a Wii for exercise.  I'm not terrible about exercising, but I get bored easily and I just wanted more options, so if I wasn't in the mood to ride my stationary bike or whatever, I could do something else.

The other thing is, the Wii gives me a chance to play sports virtually.  Most sports aren't do-able for me in my wheelchair, but with the Wii, I can now sort of play tennis (and ski, and swordfight...). :)  

Besides having the Wii Sports that came with the Wii, now I've invested in Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus.  They're all super fun and certainly have been keeping Adverb and I entertained throughout this cold winter.

While I physically never will be able to do some of the Wii Fit Plus games because I can't stand up, I've been able to improvise on a lot of the activities by sitting or kneeling on the balance board.  And I have to say, I've only had it for less than three weeks, but I can already tell that the yoga activities in particular are helping my posture.  Before, I used to get headaches at least twice a week from tension in my neck and back, but since starting the Wii Fit Plus, I haven't had one single headache.  Woot!  Maybe it will also make me taller....

Before I got my Wii games, I would exercise fairly regularly, but I really had to psyche myself up to do it.  Now, I have so much fun doing it, sometimes I have to force myself to stop.  The cuteness factor alone is a motivator: just look how adorable I am here, doing some Rhythm Kung Fu with celebrity Miis Georgia O'Keeffe and Frida Kahlo!

P.S. I hope you enjoy the new banner and color scheme.  I just had to brighten things up around here to get ready for spring!

In which I assault an innocent library book

[Warning: The end of this post contains spoilers.  I'll warn you again before you get there.]

When I heard that there was a new novel that dealt with the subject of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), I was intrigued.  This is the brittle bone condition that I have, and it's quite rare, so I was excited to see it represented in a book by a very popular author.

Here I'll pause to say that I'd never read any of Jodi Picoult's books before.  All I knew about her was that she writes what I perceived to be sappy family dramas--not at all the type of thing I normally read.  But I set aside my pre-conceived notions to read this because of the subject matter.

When I started the book, I was thrilled with it.  Picoult (or someone on her staff) clearly had done a lot of research on OI, and I was impressed with how realistically she portrayed the psychological and physical aspects of the condition.  (At times it was a bit too realistic--I did have a few PTSD-type moments while reading her graphic descriptions of fractures and emergency room scenes.) 

The story in Handle With Care centers on a little girl named Willow who has Type III OI (a much more severe form than what I have).  She's precocious and pretty tough despite being so physically fragile.  I definitely recognized my childhood self in her.  Other characters include Willow's parents and sister, her mother's obstetrician, and the lawyer the family hires for a controversial lawsuit.  The novel raises important questions about disability and who gets to decide which lives are worth living or not.  It all continued to seem very promising.  However, after a while, I had a major problem with the way the story was being told.

[Stop reading here if you don't want to know any more specifics about the novel or how it ends.  If you do read the book, please come back later and read the rest of this post and let me know what you think.]

Picoult writes the book from multiple points of view, alternating chapters told by Willow's mother, father, sister, doctor, and lawyer.  Did you notice anyone missing there?  Yup--Willow does not get to tell her own story or make her own voice heard.  This pissed me off to no end.  It absolutely reinforces one of the most frustrating things I experienced as a kid with a disability--being talked about like you're not there, as if you're a baby or an inanimate object with no opinions of your own.  (Never mind the fact that Picoult did an absolutely dreadful job creating individual voices for these disparate characters.)  The story kept taking more and more ludicrous turns (the lawyer's birth mother for whom she's been searching just happens to end up on the jury?  Puh-lease!) and the characters became less and less likeable, but I kept on reading.

But then I got to the end.  Ladies and gentleman, I don't endorse this type of behavior, but when I reached the end of this novel, I physically threw the book (library property--gasp!) across the room.  (It was unharmed.)  Because get this: the last chapter is finally narrated by Willow herself and...guess what happens.  She DIES.  She freakin' dies, in a scene fraught with very cheesy symbolism (the only kind of symbolism Picoult can write, as far as I can tell).  Infuriating.  Willow was the center of the whole story, but Picoult chose to make it be about the rest of the characters and how Willow's OI had affected them.  And then, of course, we can't have a character with a disability go on to live an interesting, productive life--nope, she has to die tragically.

I looked the book up on the internet afterward and saw that it has gotten many bad reviews.  But I didn't see any reviews written by anyone with OI, or anyone who mentioned specifically being upset as a reader with a disability, so I felt that I needed to put this perspective out there.  The world does not need any more patronizing portrayals of people with disabilities, especially kids with disabilities (don't get me started on the Jerry Lewis telethon).  I had hoped that such a popular author as Jodi Picoult could raise awareness of OI (which I'm sure she has), but do it in a way that was not belittling or demeaning to the population she portrays.  I was wrong.  Maybe if I want a book like that to be available to the public, I will have to write it myself.