Beet Pr0n

Golden Gate Chicago

Damen and the River

Did you know that you can get paid for having an opinion?

From forever ago, I had an essay about being a snotty, brat and suddenly finding myself without a steady job or healthcare on NPR. Click this purple text to listen to it.

Ohio Street Beach, September

Lepidoptera

I am not scared of moths.

Gifts

The Kite.

She flies. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I have a job.

I have a few jobs, actually. But this one is new. Read my blogging and listen to my podcasting for Generation PRX at Youthcast.org. Find that bitch on iTunes, and you'll have a new episode every other Wednesday, featuring my mellifluous voice and a kick ass radio piece by a young American.

Sue, Arielle, Ming, and Li

Fuck Yeah Seedlings

Sunflower, arugula, lettuce, carrot, watermelon, beets, cosmos, zinnia, sweet pea, stock, sensitive plant, and nasturtium. Edibles by Skyfire, florals by Gethsemane.

May

My First Love is Being a DJ

I'm a co-host on Zartan and Friends this week at WTNRradio.com, with my boy Jubei. Disseminating mp3 downloads of some bomb soul/hip-hop/jazz/psychedelic covers for the next week. Just register real quick and an hour plus of mixed music is yours for the keeping. Only streaming today between 6 am and 2 pm wherever you live.

Eggplants

My nearest grocery store, Andy's Fruit Ranch, is where I shop the most and I am devoted. It's filled with Balkan imports like cured sausages, healing teas, and tons of cookies and chocolates, as well as Middle-Eastern specialty items like rose water and tahini. And as their name indicates, produce is the specialty. Eggplants (or as I like to call them when I am feeling fancy, aubergines) were on special this week for 39 cents a pound, so I revisited some dishes I made earlier this year.

Baba ghanouj I actually make pretty regularly because of how low maintenance a recipe it is. This is all you need to make it:
Get two large or three medium eggplants. Check their bottoms. The one's with clefts are female and have more seeds in them. Bitter seed removal is a bitch, but there are a bit fewer in the rounded bottom males. Stab the aubergines with a fork a bunch of times, wrap in foil, and then roast them at 425 for an hour plus. The squishier the better. When they're done, top and tail them and peel with your hands as soon as you can handle the heat. De-seed as best as you can and then chop roughly and throw in a bowl. Drain as much liquid as you can from the eggplants. As it settles in the bowl, it will come to top and you can pour it off.
The next part is all about taste. Into the bowl I throw in two large cloves of garlic, minced, and a whole lemon, because I love those things. I also use about a handful and a half of finely chopped parsley. Then it get two tablespoonsish of tahini paste and a healthy drizzle of olive oil. Mix it all up, salt to taste, and there you go. Fresh baba for snacking. Turn down the oven to 350 and make some fresh pita chips in 10 minutes it takes to combine ingredients while you're at it.

Fried eggplant lasagna is as good as it sounds and looks.
I generally have a lot of time on my hands during the day, so I made my own sauce for this, and I also purged the eggplants, which takes about two hours and isn't totally necessary, but enhances the flavors. I won't belabor how to make a lasagna, but suggest putting tons of romano and smoked mozz in there if you can, and also to consider the eggplant in it's floured and fried form.
Slice up two 'plants and lay the slices in stacks on a cutting board, sprinkling each layer with salt. Lay another board or flat something on top, plus about five pound of weight-- a big pot of water on top of a coffee table book on top of a second board works well. Slip a second book under the bottom board and let the pressure squeeze the juice out of the slices and into the sink. Run an errand, and when you come back, you have salty, less bitter slices, that you can then dip in flour and pan fry in olive oil till brown. Eat them right then, or slip them amongst the layers of cheese, sauce, and noodles for a badass, filling lasagna that you can eat for a week. Unless you have boys around. They will kill that shit in a night.

(crossposted to Crows in the Kitchen)

F My Life

I got an editorial assignment to turn some material from FMyLife into audio that I complained about doing and that I think turned out okey-dokey.

And while I'm here at Vocalo, blogging, I'll link to the other piece of immaterial work* I made today: a cutting of an exceedingly long (12 mins) interview/story with a stalwart Chicago jazz bassist into a coherent, and perhaps punchy, narrative.

*I have this problem with the ephemeral nature of audio because I work for hours on something, very delicately and nimbly, and the fact that I can't pick it up and hold it bothers me GREATLY.

All in a Day's Work

Replace "Walking" with "Biking" and give or take on that 24.7 miles.

Shedd

Two Years Ago