The Soup Experiment- Carrot Quinoa

From: A Vegetarian Times sometime in 2007

Times Prepared: twice

Recipe:

3/4 cup quinoa

5 cup veg broth

2 TBS butter

1 cup onion diced

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp corriander

1 bag carrots cut into chunks

splash lime juice

salt and pepper

combine quinoa with 1 1/2 cups broth, boil, cover and let simmer 12-15

saute onions with butter and add cumin and corriender

add carrots and 3 1/2 broth. Boil, cover and let simmer 10-15 min

puree carrot mixture

add quinoa and season to taste with lime, salt and pepper- serve warm.

Comments: For the latest run I had to use a purple onion which created a muddy orange colored soup which wasn't the most beautiful. Also 3/4 of a cup of quinoa makes a ton of cooked quinoa. It overpowered the carrot soup. Next time we will make less quinoa and probably add more broth.

Tools note- make sure to have a really good mixer or at best an immersion blender.

Overall- tastes alright. Not as good as last time when we used better quality veg broth, white onions and had an immersion blender to get a better consistency.

I got married!

A week and a half ago Ryan and I got married.

Now we are back in NYC and our regular life can start again. I will not be touring this spring and instead will try to live the NYC lifestyle, whatever that means.

Hopefully it includes blogging more than once a month.

maybe...

Winter Wonderland

Ryan and I are in OKC for Christmas. We narrowly missed the blizzard on the East Coast and luckily our flight pattern took us through St. P/ Minn instead of the snowed in Atlanta. (who would have thought St. P/ Minn was a better chance for nice weather?)

This week it's been about 50 degrees here in OKC with sun. Until today. We woke up this morning to sleet and since then it has snowed and snowed and snowed. We have received about 4 inches of powdery white stuff which is blowing around the streets.

I am apparently NOT dreaming about that whole "white Christmas" thing.

The Plastic Jungle

For those of you who read this blog as often as I write it, you probably know that for most of the last year I have been on tour, at summer stock or living at someone else's house. I have a home in NYC with my boyfriend, but in the past year I have spent about 6 weeks in it.

Starting in November there was one major thing I was looking forward to. It wasn't any particular place or restaurant or even a particular person (Sorry Ryan). It was being able to not live out of a suitcase. Our tiny place in the city doesn't really have closets or storage but we have made do and I was really looking forward to being able to leisurely sort through drawers and hangers of clothing to put together an outfit that didn't include jeans or one of the 5 shirts I've been living in since last year.

I got home and got the bad news. The building is pretty sure we have bed bugs. Bed Bugs are pretty gross. They don't spread any major diseases or anything but they are very difficult to kill and it can take several months of treatments to get rid of them. You used to get them by traveling outside the USA but in NYC you can get them anywhere. People pick them up on the subway or at a restaurant. Since we do live in NYC AND we both have been traveling extensively both in the US and abroad we weren't that surprised. Dismayed and upset but not surprised.

The building gave us a huge list of things to do before the guy comes to spray. Since Ryan is in finals I had to wash or dry every piece of fabric in our apartment and then package it in sealed plastic bags. I had to clean the entire place with a certain kind of soap and vaccum all of the rugs. We also ended up tossing most of our pillows and the others went through the dryer on hot. I also had to bag up all shoes, books, records, personal items, DVD's, VHS, CD's, electronics and jackets after inspecting and cleaning them. It took me a week.

Then they came and sprayed leaving a haze behind and small puddles of white-ish grey liquid. They also overturned our bed and bed frame, and put all the plastic bags in the center of the room so it's even harder to find whatever it is you are looking for. We now wait 2 weeks and then they spray again and then we are under watch for 6 weeks before they declare our apartment clear. If they find more evidence of bugs we go through the entire process again. At that point I will probably just bag and box and send it all to go live in my parents garage.

So currently, instead of living out of a suitcase, I am living out of grande zip lock bags and twisty tied industrial garbage bags until we leave for the south.

Oh, how I miss you little suitcase.

Back in NYC

I have returned to the center of the universe. I will be home for 14 days before we are back on the road again. For the holidays Ryan and I are traveling to Oklahoma City for Christmas, Houston for New Years and then San Antonio to prepare for our wedding.

While I am in NYC I am hoping to finish any last minute wedding prep, visit a few museums and clean up our apartment.

Coming back to NYC is always a little rough. After leaving the land of the cars my walking muscles are pretty out of shape and I am hoping to be able to reclaim some muscle tone before returning to the south. It is always louder and more crowded here than you remember. With the holiday season approaching the city is even more crowded than usual with all kinds of tourists. I have a good friend coming in tomorrow and I kind of dread walking through mid-town to see the holiday decorations.

58 Days till we get Hitched

So the other day I realized (actually theknot.com told me) I only have 60 days until my wedding. Holy cow! How did the time go by so fast? I feel like we just got engaged a few weeks ago. Perhaps that is because since we have been engaged we have spent less than 6 weeks in the same city.

Not being together makes planning a wedding a little difficult, mostly because Ryan has opinions. If he didn't care about any of the wedding stuff I could just do whatever I wanted but since he cares everything goes through me and then him and then a discussion and then eventually is decided.

But the thing I miss the most about spending this time apart is the excitement of being engaged. Ry and I completely missed being able to run around and "flaunt" our engagement. We missed being able to be giggly and cute and silly. That's not really our personalities anyway but I would have liked the opportunity. We will get to spend the final 3 weeks together so that should be fun.

I've had a few job offers for the spring but they are all another tour. Ryan and I have decided that I shouldn't tour but finding a "at home" job makes me nervous. I guess we will see how things turn out.

Medical in Mexico

So last week I stepped off the sidewalk in Idaho Falls ID and fell down. It was early, it had snowed and the sidewalk did not continue in the manner you would have assumed it would have continued. After sitting in shock for a bit while my cast gathered around, I managed to get up and to make it to the theatre. (we weren't even late to call)

Thoughout the first performance and the load in I didn't even look. I figured that if I was bleeding my long johns would soak it up until I noticed and since I could walk, it wasn't broken. Upon checking my wounded knees I noticed that the right one had doubled in size and was turning a nice green color. The left one was also painful but since it seemed to be the second to hit the ground, it had sustained less damage. We put some ice on them and I managed to limp around for the next few days. My left knee currently is spotted with some big purple bruises and my right knee is striped, green and swollen at the time publication.

The next day I woke up with a very sore shoulder. I had been carrying 2 big bags on my right side when I fell and apparently I yanked my shoulder pretty hard. A couple days later that pain had gone away as well.

The second day I noticed that my mouth was hurting. It seemed not only had a bruised both knees, and yanked my shoulder that I had bitten the inside of my mouth pretty badly. Pretty bad got worse as the week went on and when it got infected eventually my head, neck and ears were in painful shape. It was at this point where I figured I should probably go see a doctor. We were in Brawley CA and Kelly and I had quite a medical adventure.

Brawley CA is a small town a few miles north of the Mexico border. We i-phoned for clinics and came up with El Salud Medical Center. I called in to see if I needed an apt and the lady asked me several questions to see if I was pregnant before letting me come in. When we arrived I signed my life away and was asked such a litany of personal information I gathered that one.. they needed the answers for some sort of funding and two... most people attending the clinic did not receive regular medical care.

After tons of paperwork I waited to be called to wait in a different waiting room. Then I was called in an measured, weighed and temperatured as if I was cattle all while the techs fired basically the same questions at me. Then I waited again. Finally I was called in to see the doctor and I waited some more. Around 2 hours after arriving at the clinic the doctor walked in gave me and Kelly both a pop and lock handshake and asked me again about my medical history and if I was pregnant.

I left paying nothing (thank you equity insurance) and with a small paper ensuring that I could receive 10 days of antibiotics and 60 mega pain killers. I am currently awaiting the day in which I feel 100% better but that day might be sometime after this tour is completed and I am eating and sleeping on a normal schedule.