Miss Rachel

The storm hit us hard in central Connecticut, and I don’t feel like talking about it here yet or posting “OMG! so much snow!” photos so I’ll just show you some food stuff. I went to Whole Foods on Friday and brought home a nice big haul.

I did not lose power and hence, I was able to cook some good meals. Friday night’s dinner was tofu with curried potato and collard greens. I cook the tofu separately in a nonstick pan with some oil so it develops a nice crust.

I’ve been enjoying tofu a lot lately, and I also had some for breakfast yesterday. This was seasoned with turmeric and cooked with some mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes. I sprinkled the whole thing with fresh cilantro.

That’s it for now.

It’s wintertime, and we’re expecting a big storm. Rice and beans is a good combination anytime, but it’s especially appealing when the weather is cold and blowy and snowy.

Here’s what I did: I sauteed a diced onion and some crushed garlic in a little oil for a few minutes, added 1 t of chili powder and 1/2 t each of coriander and cumin and 1/4 t of cayenne and cooked and stirred for a few more minutes. Then I added a can (15 oz.) of black beans and a can (14.5 oz.) of diced tomatoes and simmered everything for about an hour.

I served it over rice. Note: I also think this would be really good over a potato, but I had some leftover brown rice hanging around so that’s what I used. (And this post is called rice & beans so I had to use rice - ha!)

I love winter squash in general, although acorn squash in particular has always seemed kind of bland and dry. However, I tried cooking it Nikki’s way (with vegan butter and maple syrup for the variables) tonight, and it came out pretty nice.

I also roasted some Brussels sprouts (with olive oil and salt and pepper).

Although I get tired of the “I’m doing god’s work” tone of some #librarian bloggers, I feel like screaming when I read yet another blog post by a non-librarian saying libraries are obsolete without any evidence to support their postulation. Have these people gone to any libraries recently? And did they ever go to libraries before these institutions supposedly went extinct? Are they saying “oh back in 1990 I used to go to the library and it was so busy” and “now I go to the library and I’m the only person there?” Somehow I doubt it. So before you go assuming that just because your iPhone and your tablet hold a lot of books means libraries are no longer used, go to some libraries a few times a week (like the one where I work for example) before you tell me they are obsolete.