The Antisocial Socialist

Awhile ago I had some potatoes and let them go too long and they sprouted, so I planted them, and they grew new potatoes, which for some reason surprised me a great deal.

I got overly frustrated with life this morning and took my frustrations out by weeding rather than murdering an elected official, and dug up some of the potatoes while I was at it:



Then I roasted them with some tofu and mushrooms and fried up some kale and look:





Anyway, delicious. The potatoes were the one thing in my garden that was an unmitigated success this year, and they were kind of an accident.

Tonight's dinner. The salad was technically part of lunch as well.

I almost never make anything super-fancy just for myself these days—seriously, half my meals come out of a can—but fiddlehead season comes but once a year, and my mom brought me some, so I got to make some of these tasty-but-dangerous delights.

Here is a recipe for how to make fiddleheads.

It came out excellently, holy shit.

The Southwestern salad is my own recipe, more or less. Sauteéd jalapenos, avocados, grape tomatoes, cilantro, and walnuts. The dressing is olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, black pepper, and lime juice. 

Other delicious things I have made or participated in making this weekend: Homemade falafel balls, pear-walnut pie, and more of that avocado pasta that I am obsessed with at the moment.



















In other, related news, my apple tree is blossoming!

 

And Cocoa is looking extra-cute:

Like every teacher in the entire world, I managed to get sick immediately after closing up. I should know better than to plan anything immediately after school is done, since I tend to spend the last month or so plowing through and ignoring my body's desperate pleas for surrender.

Instead, I did laundry, because that was getting problematic, and I baked like a mofo. Expect a post about my first vegan cheesecake experiment soon (when it's eaten and I find out if it's actually good and if it held together, but damn if it doesn't at least *look* pretty).

And I gardened. Here are some pictures of what my garden looks like atm.
( maybe of interest to some )

I managed to faff about during the day, between the baking and the gardening, and left social plans until the last minute because I was honestly feeling like utter shit and didn't even know if I would be awake and mobile when it came time for fireworks. In the end, misslynx and I went to the celebration in Woodbine Park at the last possible minute (we arrived as the show was starting). Worth it, even though I feel like worse shit this morning.



I rather enjoy watching gunpowder used for its intended purpose.

Anyway, today is party, despite the fact that I am clearly dying and will soon be dead of the Plague or the galloping consumption of what have you. I do really want to sleep but I feel like if I ever stop moving, I will spend the rest of my vacation in sloth-mode and regret it come August when I have to go back to work.

Want some pictures (mostly blurry) from the past few days? Of course not. But you're gonna see some anyway!

Friday: Went to see Primal Scream. I was vaguely aware of them in the 90s but only really started listening to them recently. They were pretty great and we ran into the singer at the pub afterwards. I have no pictures as we were really far back, and then we were too close to take pictures in a way that wasn't awkward.

Saturday: Gardened with my mum in the afternoon. Planted ALL THE THINGS. Here is my garden at the moment:



Currently in the ground: cherry and grape tomatoes, snap peas, snow peas, pickling cucumbers, kale, collard greens, and ghost peppers. It got scorchingly hot over the weekend and I have no idea what will live and what will die, but I'm pretty psyched. I also got a rose bush, which is already starting to bloom.


Admittedly, I am most psyched about the potential for ghost peppers. Gotta love planting instructions that come with a warning to "use extreme caution."


And here is my apple tree in full bloom!

Saturday night, well, you already know what happened. But here is a picture of most of the Kitten Bloc:



Anyway, the show was really phenomenal. It was exactly as balls-out insane as I would expect a Laibach show to be (I've been into them for ages but have never seen them live). As much performance art as music, with amazing visuals/propaganda videos. I am utterly in love with the new album.

And yes, apparently Milan Fras noticed and kinda did a double-take.



At the pub afterwards, L. showed everyone a trick to light up your beer with your cellphone:



Sunday: If Kitten Bloc was not enough to convince you that I am a massive nerd, a bunch of us drove down to Buffalo to go see the Welcome to Night Vale live show.

I don't want to say too much about it because apparently it is a thing to not say much about the live shows until the tours finish, but ZOMG SQUEE. Like the other live shows, much more on the hilarious side than the grinding existential horror that's been the podcast lately, and so worth a 2+ hour road trip to another country to see.


Here, have a very blurry cell photo of Cecil making a claw hand, for reasons.


The cast at the end, taking adorable to a whole new level.

Now I'm home and my body hates me but yay, weekend of awesome.

As you know, pickling is my ENTIRE LIFE right now.* I've been using the vinegar technique so far, with the first batch of pickles due in a few days, but I decided to try to fermentation method as well. The advantage of fermentation (besides that they're supposedly tastier) is that the pickling process is way faster—3 to 10 days as opposed to a month. Mine looked to be fermenting like hell, so I tried the jar I made three days ago.



Verdict: It tastes like a full sour pickle! I tried another one just to be sure, though.

Guys? Guys? I made actual pickles, aren't you proud of me?

Here's what my fridge looks like at the moment:



I'm hoping the thunderstorm last night, which is giving me a terrible migraine, spurred Audrey II back into over-production. I collected about a half-jar's worth of cucumbers yesterday, and I'd like to do another jar of the fermented ones. Possibly pickled jalapenos as well; I have a lot of jalapenos.

Those of you who are familiar with fermenting things: Is it okay to boil the water to make the salt dissolve faster? That was my one issue with the method: It took forever to dissolve the salt, and the first time I tried, Marinetti started drinking the salt water and I had to start again.

PICKLES!


* Cucumbers. My liver. Whatever.

The good news: We have a rose. It is red and perfect.

The bad news: While admiring our rose, zingerella discovered that the soccer yobs barfed on our lilies.

WHO DOES THAT?

1. If you need a laugh, and share my sick sense of humour, check out Stop My Abortion! The story is roughly: Woman gets pregnant, woman can't afford a child (especially after she gets fired from her job for being pregnant), woman asks the holier-than-thou pro-life movement to put its money where its mouth is. If pro-lifers donate $40,000, she won't get an abortion. So far, she hasn't raised anywhere near that, but that hasn't stopped her from posting some utterly hilarious entries.

The set-up is clearly a joke, but you wouldn't know from the flood of angry comments and e-mail (along with the occasional donation). This may challenge Kerblog and Cats That Look Like Hitler for the shortest amount of time between me discovering a blog and me blogrolling it.

2. Speaking of the recently blogrolled, Twisty has an excellent post about the breast cancer industry. Why did I take so long to blogroll I Blame the Patriarchy? You know what to blame.

3. Some of you may be wondering how the garden's doing. For those who care, I have posted some food porn.

( You must be over 18 to click here )

I've been busy, and so has my digital camera. So here are about a gazillion photos.


Marinetti admires my kneesocks. He should, because they are awesome kneesocks.

( Garden photos )

( Marinetti loves the rooftop patio )

( Around town )

( Emergency rally against Gaza attacks )

*waits impatiently for Doctor Who finale to download*

The always-awesome groovitude guessed, correctly, that I would like the art of Moira Hahn (sheppardzo_14 on LJ).



Um.

Wow.

That is all. I think I could spend hours looking at the pretty.

---

In other news, huzzah! The maggots are gone, including Ken Lay. The next step is to get a carnivorous plant of some sort. We are torn between the the ones that look like condoms and the ones that look like vagina dentatas.

I lose. It's May 31st, and I'm already wearing sandals outside of the house. I've been defeated by global warming (I shouldn't have to resort to such desperation until August at least). Now everyone has to see my toes, although at least I painted the nails Trollop Red.

I hate sandals.

Anyway, the heatwave yesterday was lots of fun.


The kitties did not think so, however.

( More photos, including some camwhoreage )