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Treed

Fruits and Vegetables (Snacky Time)

It was the year 2000 and I was but a young lad in college. One random night my roommate decided to buy a juicer called the Juiceman. The thing was being continuously endorsed on television between the hours of 2 and 6 a.m. by the then Juiceman himself, so we knew it was awesome. We then spent about a week's worth of beer money on a shopping cartful of produce. Back at the dorm, we methodically juiced the cornucopia of fruits and vegetables in its entirety. Yes, this was a monumental waste of time and money, and also one of the lamest nights of my life. However, it was the first time I drank anything like a parsley-broccoli-lime-apple cocktail and let me tell you, it put me in awe of the power of juicing. Awe.

A decade later, I got a juicer which I finally used the other week. I had some produce odds and ends which were threatening to go rogue on me en masse so I decided to intervene. The result? The kale-pear-apple-lemon-lime-orange juice blend you see here. Although it doesn't quite beat actually eating the stuff, it was surprisingly tasty (and an easy way to clean out my produce drawer). They can't all be winners though: a later attempt at a carrot-ginger-apple juice failed miserably and caused many a frown.

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Branchy

Carbon Pawprint

A while ago, my good buddy Nick sent me an article about how the carbon footprint of owning a dog is equivalent to owning an SUV. I bet that's pretty accurate, depending on what you're feeding the guy. At the least it helps make an old photograph topical:

Also has a tendency to roll over.

Oxtail Stew

When I was a kid, my mom would make an oxtail stew that was just fantastic. It was essentially an oxtail stock with a healthy dose of tomatoes and your choice of root vegetables. I liked it so much as a child that it's now one of my favorite comfort foods and it usually makes a couple appearances during the winter. The only thing is that it takes some hours to properly prepare, although a couple beers help pass the time (and flavor the stew).

A four liter portion of a larger batch. This is a parsnips and fennel version. Adding parsnips was a past innovation of my brother's which I thought was a good idea and so naturally I stole it. I also usually throw in some greens (kale, turnip greens, bok choy, whatever) a couple minutes before I eat it, usually with white rice or thick noodles. Delicious.

Winter...

Winter has been in full effect around here. Although one nice thing about the snow and cold is that the parks and everything empty out a bit and you can go for a peaceful run, dog walk, are whatever other kind of moving by foot activity you like to do.


Snowy bench by the river.


Exhaust pipe icicles. Mondrianesque bricks.


Your run of the mill Herring Gull. The red/orange spot on the beak is a dead giveaway. I guess hungry gull chicks will peck at that spot, prompting the adult to regurgitate some food. Now that's the life.


Snowy riverwalk. I often walk the dogs here where they usually run around in circles and eat snow.

Ring

Nothing to report. Just came across an old photo I took of my wedding ring, decided to post it:

Took the photo about three days after it was made. For whatever reason, the wood is a bit darker now.

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Tunnel

(First post of 2010. Check.)