Spicy roasted tomato and black bean soup

I have been loving this soup from Everybody Loves Sandwiches, although this time around yielded a particularly spicy batch. I usually don't find jalapenos to be all that hot--I guess these were especially potent.

(Roasting tomatoes courtesy of Dave)


A dab of sour cream on top and some chips make for a nice addition.

Rainy day activity: Making a mix

This weekend brought the craziest batch of rain and wind that I can remember. We spent Saturday hunkered down in our apartment, although it did end up raining inside for much of the day (that bucket had to be emptied out multiple times, and every towel I own is currently in the wash). While keeping an eye on the buckets I decided to do something I hadn't done in a long time: make a mix CD.

Before I go on, I have to say that I much prefer mix tapes to CDs, but I can listen to a CD on my computer at work and in the car. (Note: most of the records that can be seen in the above picture didn't actually make it on the CD for some reason or another.)

There was a time when I used to spend hours on a mix tape. I'd get a big pile of records and spread them out on my bed, carefully working out the order--there's a bit of a science to this, as you need to make sure the songs flow nicely from one to the next, and then there's the whole issue of timing (hate it when a song cuts off at the end of the side). This time I kind of winged it, and as a result it's not my best work, though I'm still pretty happy with it.

I made a cover for it using my Yellow Owl stamps. My technique for naming mixes usually entails picking one of the song titles--pretty standard, I guess.

I found most of the songs online in some form or another, so enjoy:

Chambers Brothers - All Strung Out Over You
Half Japanese - Face Rake
The Rats - Broken Wire Telephone
Great Plains - The Night Won't Live to See the Day
Kurt Vile - My Sympathy
The Testors - MK Ultra
Neil Young - Thrashers
Abner Jay - Vietnam
Mike Rep & the Quotas - Out
DNA - Blonde Redhead
James Brown - Love Don't Love Nobody
Guided by Voices - The Other Place
The Who - Can't Explain
Pavement - From Now On
13th Floor Elevators - Splash 1
Yo La Tengo - House Fall Down
Tommy Jay - Lust, Honor, and Love
Pere Ubu - Life Stinks
Sic Alps - Bathman
Screaming Urge - You Make It Hard
Crime - Frustration
Hank Williams - Lost Highway
Poison Girls - Jump Mama Jump
Avant Gardeners - Strange Gurl in Clothes
Meat Puppets - Love Offerings
Daniel Johnston - Spirit World Rising
Daniel Johnston - Held the Hand
Avengers - We Are the One

A walk in Van Cortlandt Park

After months of cold and snow I've been dying to get outside and go for some nice long walks--especially since we live within walking distance of the third largest park in the city.

Saturday was a beautiful sunny 50+ degree day so we decided to take the opportunity to walk across Van Cortlandt Park and into the neighborhood of Kingsbridge.

Of course, we didn't think about the fact that the trails would still be full of snow--and worse, mud. Poor Dave was wearing his brand-new sneakers!

Throughout our several-hour traverse, we encountered many trees, babbling brooks, and even a couple of cardinals.

It being the Bronx, however, we also saw discarded shopping carts,

the remains of what must have been a raging keg party (i.e. beer cans and red plastic cups galore),

and some sweet graffiti in a tunnel going underneath the Major Deegan. Speaking of which, several highways run through the park, and at one point the "John Muir Nature Trail" actually puts you alongside the Mosholu Parkway. Which makes for kind of a funny "nature trail." No matter though--I like some city in my nature.

I'm not sure what this building is for but I like the graffiti.

The other side of it seems to have been at the receiving end of a paintball battle.

I tried to take some pictures of the geese in this field but the broken fence looked cooler.

We saw a lot of these signs towards the end of our walk. There is a giant tortoise and the hare statue at the entrance in Riverdale but I don't know what the significance is to the park.

Here's about where we came out of the woods and saw civilization--the end of a long and muddy hike.

Coming out of the park we passed the Van Cortlandt House. Built in 1748, it's the oldest building in the Bronx and is now a museum.

There were many children playing on the lawn.

After all that exercise we rewarded ourselves with a carrot cake from Lloyd's Carrot Cake and some beer and mediocre bar food at the Bronx Alehouse. Which I guess defeats the purpose of all that exercise but I don't care. (Lloyd's calls themselves the "bakers of the world's finest carrot cake" and I think they might be right!)

Destination: Marfa, Texas

I'm very excited to say that I've just booked a trip to Marfa, Texas, for Memorial Day weekend. We'll be staying at the newly opened El Cosmico, a campground on the outskirts of town that features renovated vintage trailers (as well as teepees and tents--but screw that).

We'll be staying in the Royal Mansion (above).

Here's a sample of what the interiors are like (not sure which one this is from). A little less 1950s retro (a la last year's trailer experience at the Shady Dell) and more 1970s hippie. Which I think fits in with Marfa pretty well (not that I've actually been there yet).

I look forward to four days of relaxing in hammocks, visiting art galleries, and maybe seeing some mystery lights.

New living room entryway garland

I finally got around to stringing up these weird shadow puppet things (I don't know what else to call them) that I got at Spoonbill and Sugartown a few years back. I've always hung them on the wall but now with this grand entryway to the living room it seemed to make more sense to hang them like this.

The bright light from those windows is making it a little hard to photograph these guys in any detail but basically they're Victorian-era illustrations of hands forming shadow puppets, with the shapes they make (bunnies, birds, etc) projected onto the sleeves. I'm really not doing a very good job describing these things.

New-old mixing bowls

A couple weeks ago on the way to a family function we stopped at our favorite* pair of vintage furniture stores, 30 West and Mission Mod, which both are coincidentally in the same town where my mother lives.

While we didn't see anything on a larger scale that we needed--not that we need much at this point--we didn't leave emptyhanded. This assortment of pyrex mixing bowls were a much-needed replacement for the chipped and cracking set we'd been using.

I love the colors, and I don't even mind that it's technically not a matching set--in fact, I like the mis-matched aesthetic much better.

*I'm not just saying that because there is an insanely cute french bulldog named Olivia waiting at the door to greet you at 30 West. The man who works there is also very friendly and knowledgable, and the prices are great. But man, that dog is cute.

Recipe card file

I've been more and more turning to food blogs for recipes, which has resulted in lots of scraps of paper, with ingredients and directions scrawled on them, overflowing from between the cookbooks in my kitchen. Which is really not the most functional way to store them. So I began to search for that perfect recipe card file. I love this one that I found on etsy, but am not in love with the price tag, so I set out to create a similar, more budget-friendly version.

First I found a plain wooden box, also on etsy, for $6.

It came with a variety of alphabetized dividers, but I decided not to use most of them (I haven't completely discarded them though).

Also inside the box were these index cards dated from 1966. I'm not sure what exactly they refer to or what type of institution they might have been used by, but this Murray guy did a lot of fighting and "horseplay." Also of note is the name "Julius McJunkin."

Moving on...I bought a few packs of multi-colored index cards and used the address stamper to add "INGREDIENTS" and "INSTRUCTIONS" to each card.

Then I copied all of the handwritten recipes onto them. This was particularly time-consuming. And I'm not nearly done, as I still have to copy all of the bookmarked recipes online.

I cut up a thin cardboard mailer to make the dividers and used some alphabet stamps to label them, creating five categories (one for each color of index card): breakfast, sides, soups, entrees, and treats.

Finally, I made a stencil and painted the top to add a little something to the plain wooden box. It may not be quite as nice as the letterpressed cards, but it cost me less than $10 to make.