preraphaelitepunk.com

In case the subject line is confusing (not that confusing subject lines have ever stopped me in the past), tonight’s two topics are (1) how happy I am to have my copy of Veganomicon, and (2) a bit more about the knitting I mentioned in my previous post, before Errol’s battery conked out on me. (And in case anyone’s been up at night wondering how Sid the Beetle is, he’s fine. Total cost for repairs and general maintenance that was needed anyway — oil change, tire rotation, and whatnot — was over $850, but at least he’s happier now and no angry dashboard eyes are glaring at me any more.)

Veganomicon
We all owe a tremendous debt to Isa and Terry for their previous cookbooks; even those I haven’t bludgeoned into borrowing my lending copy (i.e., the one without the spills and general cooking smudges) of Vegan with a Vengeance have, if they know me in real life, probably had items from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World shoved at them — and they’ve generally been happier for the experience. The latest installment is, as expected, equally great. I’ve only had a chance to try three of the recipes since getting my copy Thursday evening* — the chocolate brownie waffles, cornmeal-masala roasted brussels sprouts, and parsnip chips — but all have been, thus far, excellent. (Friday night, I also tried the salt-and-pepper tofu that is online-only; next time I’ll add more pepper, because I’ve gotten weird about black pepper in my old age, but it was rather excellent. I also added a thinly sliced zucchini and some shiitake mushrooms to the garlic and ginger, before adding the tofu back into the pan. Yum. [Note: The PPK forums are temporarily down, but they should be repaired soon. Try the link later, or, if you need the recipe immediately, e-mail me; I've clipped it to my Google notebooks.])

It’s my habit to flag spreads that have at least one recipe I want to try; with Veganomicon, this has turned out to be a little counterproductive, because nearly every spread has a flag:

It probably would’ve been more efficient just to flag the spreads with recipes I wasn’t interested in trying. o.O (Photo taken with Errol’s built-in camera and flipped, because I still can’t find the freakin’ card reader for my digital camera. Maybe I can figure out how to fix the built-in card slot that Nyman the PC has, because this is getting way beyond ridiculous.)

Anyway, the only problems I’ve noticed so far have been comparatively minor: like the previous two cookbooks, most of the recipes make 4 to 6 (or more!) servings, which is a hella lot for one person. There are a few typographical wonkinesses and probable instances where the spellchecker was sadistic and evil (e.g., p. 194, tip, “Simple tear up your old bread,” and several others that I noted but can’t seem to find now), but those are minor and don’t detract from the book’s usefulness. Typos happen, and usually you can tell that a slightly wonky sentence came about because the text was being tweaked and revised, but the revisions were implemented a little haphazardly. (Again, if anyone cares, I’ll start annotating my copy as I go through, to be able to give citations.)

Slightly more puzzling was the sprouts recipe calling for 6 T of peanut oil in the crumb topping, because that gave me a gruellike substance instead of the streusel-like crumbiness I’d been expecting, but it still turned out well. Yum. No, really: v. much yum. (Never thought I’d like brussels sprouts, but roasting them makes them seriously good, and not earwaxy at all. Honestly. I have been known to eat an entire pound of the roasted mini-cabbage things for dinner.)

At any rate, I’m all happy with my new cookbook, and have a shitload of new recipes to try. Most of them are savory and dinner-ish, so unless people want to come over in small, studio-apartment-friendly batches for dinner parties, with my lack of a dining table and my dog who wails mournfully when you eat garlicky food in front of him, probably there will be little sharing. Go get your own copy.

Veganknitacon
I’ve been experimenting of late with knitting; I’m still on my first project (well, my first since my unfinished Doctor Who scarf I did in high school), but I do indeed plan to finish it and move on to new projects. Currently, the “bathroom scarf” — so named because I unfortunately chose a cotton yarn in chocolate and latte, and then only later realized that that was the color scheme of our bathroom at work — is several feet long, enough to reach almost two spans; if I hold one end in each hand and stretch my arms out, I can almost straighten both wrists. However long that is, that’s how long the scarf is; I’m really bad at judging distance by eye. It’s ribbed (k2 p2, 32 st wide, if anyone cares) and striped, and if I’d chosen a thicker yarn I’d probably be finished with it by now, but in my concern over getting a fairly tight yarn that wouldn’t shred and lead to unintentional gains, I wound up selecting one that’s quite thin indeed: about the thickness of Fenric the iPod’s synch cord. Oops.

Anyway, I find that I rather like knitting, though I did get a few odd looks and a comment or two at the VW place yesterday. It’s lightweight, portable, and — unlike reading, at least for me — can be done while listening to music or watching television. I can’t quite knit while carrying on a conversation, at least not without knitting when I should’ve purled, or the other way round, but I’m getting there. Also, ten dollars’ worth of yarn will keep me busy longer than a ten-dollar book.

Not that I’m about to give up reading, of course. (Perish the thought!) It’s just nice to have another alternative to reading, when I’m short on cash for new books, or can’t find any new books that seem interesting, or have inexplicably forgotten my book (or finished the one I brought, and don’t have another with me) and need something to do. (Did I mention it’s also nice to listen to music at some time other than when I’m driving or cooking dinner?)

The down side, of course, is that Nigel is irrevocably convinced that all soft, squishy objects are necessarily his toys, so if I want to knit at home I have to wait until he’s conked out for the night, and then furtively pull the yarn and needles out without waking him. Otherwise, the hope and excitement on his face as he tries to steal the balls of yarn are just heart-rending. Poor little widgey. I tried giving him his very own skein of cheap acrylic to play with, but that works only as long as I’m actively interested in his yarn, as well; the instant my attention diverts to my own yarn, he tries to snatch that, too. Probably a metaphor for something. . . .

Another down side is that, if you’re not using acrylic, non-animal-fiber yarns can get reasonably pricey. I found some gorgeous linen yarn in a deep, rich purple shade, and would love to make a long, drapey, bell-sleeved lacy pullover with it, but the stuff is $20 a skein. At six or seven skeins for a sweater, that’s kind of beyond my budget at the moment (especially after Sid’s medical bills yesterday).

Still, I do think I like it and will keep up with it. There are plans for knitting scrubby washcloths of hemp or alloo yarn, akin to the expensive ones you see in natural food stores; possibly also soap cozies (also used for scrubbing). Fingerless gloves and arm warmers are in the wings, waiting for the right yarn to come along. I’ve also promised Sarah a scarf in black and pink — hopefully using the alien-face illusion knitting approach pictured here at far left, though I could try to adapt the pattern if she’d prefer something other than an alien wrapped around her neck. I’ve located a couple of vegan knitting blogs (note to self: must update blogroll; it’s sadly out of date), and am on the waiting list for Ravelry, about which I’ve heard good things — and only 10,391 people are currently ahead of me on the invitation list! Woo, and indeed, hoo.

For any future knitting-related blogs, I shall try to put any geeky details (about yarn, pattern adaptations, whatnot) behind a cut or on a linked page, so only those who choose to view it actually have to see it. I figure that’s the least I can do: details about food and modifying recipes are potentially interesting to everyone, or at least everyone who eats, but the (I can’t believe I’m typing this) knitty-gritty (sorry) details of yarn and its applications might make some few people glaze over and pass out, thus leading to unfortunate QWERTY-related accidents as they face-plant into their keyboards. I just can’t take that risk.

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*Note that it is a very bad idea to bring a cookbook for reading while you’re trapped in a car dealership while your vehicle is being serviced, particularly if you haven’t had breakfast, will be there for several hours, and cannot eat anything out of the machines because even the freakin’ Bugles have dried milk in them. The drooling and involuntary whimpering sounds also tend to upset the other customers. (Go back.)