Consumer Strike 2009

It's been so long since I had time to read any blogs it took me over an hour to catch up! Now I kind of want a nap :) Not simply out of sloth, but because I worked over 58 hours in five days, every day including Christmas until today. Hello, $3.16/hr waitress overtime...

Meg, the Vintage Flapper undertook a no-spend month challenge for the month of December. Darling and I discussed last February, during which we didn't even spend money for food (except once, I think). We've decided to undergo a similar challenge in 2009, but with some pretty important changes.

First off, we are going to label our experience a Consumer Strike. We want our actions to represent not only a series of frugal choices, but to also express our desire for dramatic changes to the economic system. We believe that corporations have been too long rewarded for exploitive employment policies, misleading advertisements, irresponsible packaging and shipment, and excessive use of experimental chemicals in food products. Thousands of people are being laid off right now because that system is not sustainable, environmentally or economically, and I don't believe that citizens should be pressured by the government to "stimulate" corporations who have dug us into a deep and terrible pit. I in no way wish to offend the many laid off workers or the families who are suffering due to this recession; our actions are not intended to bring an end to our faulty system, but encourage rapid and drastic change for the better.

Our consumer strike will last for the first two months of 2009. During January and February we will do our best to abide by the following guidelines, each of which is designed to improve the quality of our lives while abstaining from supporting irresponsible corporate mechanisms:

* Our transportation will be limited to walking and taking the bus. No accepting rides from friends or borrowing cars.

* No eating out or visiting bars or coffee shops, even if a friend really wants to take us out and offers to pay.

* The only grocery store we will visit is Wheatsville, which is a worker-owned co-op. There we will only purchase local eggs, which are packaged in containers we can return and are reused by the farmer, and organic bulk items we will package ourselves in canning jars. No packaging, preservatives, or convenience foods will come home with us from these trips. Except, of course, in the case of 7th toilet paper, which I am not yet prepared to go without.

* We will obtain our fruits and vegetables from Greenlings, which will be limited to only local produce. This will stimulate our most vital economy: that of our community.

* Excepting groceries, our money will be spent only on debt servicing, rent, bills, and preparations for our travel plans in March and April (plane tickets and hotel reservations, mostly).

During this Strike we hope to achieve a greater understanding of ourselves and our money, evaluate our priorities and financial habits, and inspire those observing us to challenge themselves and improve on their own lives. Obviously if an emergency comes up, we will react accordingly.

I have lots of other fun goals for the new year, including learning to preserve food with my canner and the dehydrator I've yet to even experiment with, developing my knitting skills, look at volunteer opportunities, arrange regular baking workshops, and reintroduce myself to our dentist and optometrist. So much to do, so little time between shifts!

Christmas Fun

Our holiday schedule was overwhelmingly busy. Tuesday Darling and I hosted a sugar cookie party, for which ten people at a time were in my kitchen cutting out, baking, and decorating cookies. Afterwards we attended a community dinner with three neighbors (Darling managed to prepare his delicious borscht despite the cookie madness that lasted from noon until three). Immediately after dinner my husband and I went to the Austin Ballet production of The Nutcracker.

Christmas Eve Darling and I went to a Baptist church to listen to my sister-in-law sing. I steamed a figgy pudding that night and we watched A Christmas Story.

Christmas day we woke up early and ate a light breakfast. Darling surprised me with a home canning kit and a kitchen thermometer, which I am incredibly pleased with. It's absolutely huge,
I am now capable of preserving 7 quarts of food at a time (I think). And now that I have a good kitchen thermometer with a clip I am that much closer to making my own yogurt and cheese, and am perfectly capable of making my own cough drops and candies. My kitchen prowess will increase exponentially with these tools, and it introduces a leap towards independence and sustainability. I have a grand plan that involves procuring many local apples, turning it into apple juice, passing it on to my friend with the tools and know-how to produce beer and wine, and enjoying cheap, local, and affordable organic hard cider.

Hope everyone else is enjoying the holidays!

"oh dear me, let me see..."

Last night Darling and I watched Babes In Toyland (the 1960's color version) via youtube. I've always loved Mary and disliked her beau Tom, who's best song compares her to "just a toy".

Seeing this song again makes me wonder if the seeds of Tread Softly were sown earlier than I thought. This was my very favorite, if only for the colors and melody, but even as a young child I related to Mary's anxiety over paying bills and meeting debt payments (the earliest Christmas I remember involved a huge fight over credit cards). If you haven't seen the movie, do so. Mary's not the ditz she claims to be. Like the overwhelmed debtors of today, she assumes her inability to meet basic living expenses while raising 6 siblings is a failure of intelligence.

Little Holiday Miracles: Butter, Linux, and Work

Darling and I purchased two pints of organic whipping cream on sale for 2/$5. Organic butter is so expensive, even on sale, that making our own seemed worthwhile. I researched the process rather briefly online before deciding to try the least complicated process.

I poured about a fourth of a pint of whipping cream into a narrow, widemouthed jar that fit easily in my hand. Then I shook it. Within a couple of minutes it became whipped cream far better than anything out of an aerosol can. As I continued shaking, it became thicker and thicker, until suddenly the butter and buttermilk separated. The result was about a 1/4 cup of incredibly delicious creamy butter. The entire process took less than ten minutes. I traded some to my neighbor in exchange for a couple of slices of bread and enjoyed buttered toast, pasta, and salad from our garden. For dessert we had iced chocolate cake made from scratch with whipped cream. I haven't checked prices to figure out if we'll be saving money by making our own butter, but the taste is so unbelievably superior I may never buy Earth Balance Buttery Spread again!

We were experimenting in the hopes of producing a most delicious and impressive sugar cookie recipe by Monday. I'm hosting a Cookie Decorating and Gingerbread Baking Party/workshop on Monday, so I need to prepare a lot of dough this weekend.

Today Darling's Christmas present arrived, but he's not putting it together until Christmas day. I mentioned before that he'll be building his own computer, but I didn't know until a few days ago that we will be using the Linux operating system. Doing some research, I'm learning that Linux is an excellent alternative to proprietary systems. I'm still very nervous though, I always figured that Linux users were super techies and I could not fathom their penguiny software. Guess I'll be finding out :)

Another present arrived via e-mail a little after the packages came: a note from our lawyer, informing us that Darling is legal to work in the U.S. again! He's so excited and can't wait to get the card.

Rent Solution

Yesterday our landlord, M, called and asked if Darling and I might want to consider farm work again. This was discussed earlier in the year, but never worked out due to the time restraints of school. Now that the Fall Semester is over, Darling and I have a lot more time on our hands, and with Spring around the corner, M has a lot less. I eagerly agreed and we sketched out a tentative plan.

Because M's land is out of town, we brainstormed ways to keep back and forth travel at a minimum. In order to get the most out of every trip, we will set out early, camp overnight, work most of the next day, and return home in time for the community meal. Our first excursion is planned for the first week in January. A previous tenant had a similar arrangement with the landlord, and gave it positive reviews, so I am really looking forward to this in the new year. If it works out as planned, Darling and I will be camping at least once a month, develop our farming skills under the instruction of a bio-intensive vegan, and pay our rent doing something we love. If we can cover most of rent this way, I will have the choice of either substantially reducing my hours, or, more likely, double our rate of savings and debt servicing. Having done very similar work in the past with Darling on two different farms, we know what we're getting into labor and "pay" wise (no money will actually change hands). We just need to iron out the details and get sowing!

Lovely Winter Days

I am currently listening to Now That's What I Call Christmas. More disturbing, it was in Darling's collection. Snug between KMFDM and Bella Morte, no doubt.

Yesterday Darling and I set out to run errands. The weather was so cold and wet we finally agreed, having reached the bus stop, that it would make a lot more sense for us to hit town on a nicer day. Why go out in freezing weather when it temperatures will be back in the mid seventies in three days? We purchased a couple of bottles of sherry and a six-pack of frozen tamales on the way back to the house and enjoyed both while watching Hogfather. So perfect!

Today I ran said errands in slightly nicer weather (cold, but not wet). Deposited money in the bank, mailed off Christmas cards, returned library books, and visited the grocery store. Silken Tofu is on sale, so I'm stocking up. Also purchased a couple of bags of flour and lots of dried fruit, which is now soaking in sherry for next week's figgy pudding. I did some knitting, had dinner with neighbors, and sent a chunk of money to my student loan holders. All in all, a nice couple of days off. Hoping to learn to knit mittens tomorrow. I do love having two and three day weekends.

Holiday Spending Spree

For some reason my last couple of posts haven't published, possibly because our Internet connection has been acting up. So I have a lot of catching up to do!

Darling and I have been decorating and preparing for the yuletide season. It snowed last week, which is a very celebrated phenomena in Austin, TX (today it is probably about 75 degrees F). We noticed the huge, beautiful snowflakes while hanging red and green lights in our front windows, so that kicked off our winter celebrations just perfectly. Two days ago Darling and I bought a small tree and set it up in our office. We haven't quite decorated it just yet, but we have purchased white lights and my wonderful Darling recycled a used aluminum pie pan to make a gorgeous star for the top.

For the first year we are buying each other Christmas presents. Darling picked out exactly what he wanted: all the components needed to build his own computer. As he has wanted to do this for several years, has just completed his computer building course at ACC, and is purchasing all the new, high-quality parts for less than the cost of our flat-screen monitor, there is no way I could refuse this request and I am in fact very proud and happy for my increasingly techno-savvy husband. We are a strange pair of Luddites, refusing common toys such as phones and television but embracing solar cells and programming languages

My own gift is going to be a surprise. When I was young, my mother could not prevent me from finding out what I was getting for Christmas before the big day. My curiosity is just overwhelming when it comes to gifts. I have just a little more self-control now, but it still feels agonizing to know that I have something coming but won't know what it is for WEEKS. Agonizing in a nice way, of course :)

Of course life isn't short of surprises. Last week I received an amazing Christmas bonus of over $600! This unexpected windfall has led to a certain amount of anxiety, probably because my finances have felt a little out of control. For the past several months, we have barely earned enough to get by, so my careful budgeting charts and procedures have fallen to the wayside. I am behind in many areas, debt servicing in particular, but don't want to mail the cash away to various creditors and find myself, yet again, without an emergency fund. There are also certain activities Darling and I have promised each other year after year that are consistently put off until "next year," certain indulgences such as a bottle of sherry, affording to mail various holiday gifts around the world, holiday contributions, and tickets to a performance of the Nutcracker. I know these are all justifications for not immediately doing something responsible with our windfall, which is why we will complete our holiday spending tomorrow (errands include going to be post office, the bulk section of Wheatsville, the dairy section of Sun Harvest, a liquor store, and a church), and then put the rest of the money in savings.

Yes, we are totally going to The Nutcracker ballet. But we are also going to write a big check to our lawyer, my brother, and our student loan holders. We won't go completely mad...Though looking at all the big ticket expenses I've listed in this post, it kind of feels like it. I promise that our spending spree ends tomorrow.

In other news, we chopped away the last of our basil (just before the snow) and have a large container of pesto. Yesterday I learned how to turn a heel and am my first sock is about half done. And Darling has created an amazing, Christmas Borscht recipe to use up the many beets our Greenling order provides.

A General Economic History of The United States

We humans live in a series of systems that occasionally seem inescapable. These systems are political, financial, religious, legal, social, ecological, intermixed, and more. Some of these systems are dangerously faulty (such as the American health system) and others are potentially broken (the economic system). Depending on which of these systems one finds most emotionally and intellectually engaging, one defines her role in her culture. Most of us prefer to be recognized by our small scale roles: we are wives in our family systems, parishioners or perhaps high priestesses in our religious systems, neighbors, volunteers, etc.

How the status quo defines the masses, however, is another thing. Our forefathers introduced themselves in our constitution as "We The People." Our nation began in such a way that the primary role of The American People was not to be subjects, but citizens. This shiny new democracy gave new privilege and responsibility to its people, which we are violently desirous to protect at almost any cost, even when France (our good friends at the time, who helped us win our independence from Britain by forcing England to withdraw, regroup, leave us alone, later ask to be allies, and send us handsome husbands with great accents a few generations later) pointed out the excellent benefits of socialism. Our role was defined as a political one, which implied that we were entitled to many rights, responsibilities, and precious freedoms.

It is nearly inarguable that the primary role of the people has shifted rapidly from "Citizen" to "Consumer" in the past forty years or so. Even though voter turnout has remained more or less steady for presidential elections (hovering between 50 and 60% besides a dip to 49.1% in 1996 and this year's record 61%), our importance as voters has been overshadowed in news forecasts and political speeches by our importance as consumers. From a historical perspective, this makes perfect, if disheartening, sense.

The birth of our nation coincided with the birth of the industrial era. With the industrial era came the incentive to produce, or participate in the production, of goods beyond the requirement or even desires of one's own household or community. Trade has gone on for hundreds of thousands of years, most likely a social activity more than anything else, but shopping as we know it, relative to human activity, is a concept still in its infancy.

Jean-Beaptiste Say was the first to develop an explanation for the role of money and consumer goods. Say's Law of Markets basically states that the moment a product is created, the producer would immediately exchange it for money, before it has time to decline in value. Then, the producer would become consumer, trading the money for new product, "for the value of money is also perishable." in other words, supply created demand. Formulated 200 years ago, this theory was simply an observation of what was happening. People really were buying just for the heck of buying, and selling for the benefit of buying more. Saving and investing had yet to become an issue: most American homes still featured a cow in the back yard and some hens in the kitchen and large multi-generation families. Most people probably had some money set aside, but it certainly wasn't as important as having their summer vegetables canned or the wool socks darned before winter.

Fast forward, to the Great Depression. By now, money was for more than pins and bobbins, and quite a large part of the market depended on the production and consumption of food, clothing, shelter, and entertainment. Suddenly, despite the abundance of goods, people weren't buying. In fact, people were practically hoarding what little they did have, and many continued to do so for the rest of their lives!

John Maynard Keynes observed the inability Say's Law to explain the Great Depression and created a general theory, now known as Keynesian Economics, to take into account savings, investments, wage adjustments, and most importantly, recessions.

Keyne's believed that the proper response to a recession is to lower interest rates and stimulate growth via infrastructure development. America is large enough that it stands to reason that we need new roads, bridges, schools, and so on pretty much everywhere, all the time. Pay the people, and they will spend money.

This is a very important swing in fiscal and social thought. I don't know about you, but I like having an infrastructure (though I would prefer more bike and buggy lanes, fewer overpasses, please). But, and this is a big and bold but indeed, this is the first time the yoke of our economic system was shifted from the shoulders of corporations and onto the consumers'. Before, producers were assumed responsible for the market as both sellers and the buyers. The government took big payoffs every once in a while, barely regulated when things got bad enough, and buyers were told to beware. With Say's Build It Sell It theory, businesses were on their own. Because Henry Ford recognized that his business would not succeed if his workers could not buy the cars they built, it stands to reason that many employers were at least vaguely aware of the need for some sort of wage-price equilibrium.

We could now see that the world economy depends on consumption, and consumption depended on employment. The government could produce jobs, employers were inclined to offer decent jobs, and consumers could leave their farms and take part in exchange for a better quality of life supplied by this arrangement.

Ancient social contracts were broken. Family was redefined: the elderly could no longer expect to be supported by their families upon retirement, neighbors no longer trusted each other to watch the other's kids, women demanded liberation. The benefits have been worthwhile, an amazing new freedom and quality of life our ancestors could not have imagined. However, the impoverished and downtrodden were no longer the responsibility of the families or communities they lived with: single moms, the chronically ill, the disabled, the newly immigrated and refugees, neglected and orphaned children, wounded veterans of war, the elderly, and others found themselves dependent on the state, and employment could not solve this problem. Even strong and capable workers were so busy earning money they no longer had time to insulate themselves from a potential lack of cash. They had little time to tend gardens, cook meals, train children, maintain their cars, clean their homes, care for their elderly, own livestock, or even clean their own homes. Women followed the men out of the house and into the workplace like confused Eves following our Adams outside the Garden on Eden in search of more fruit. The most temporary of unemployment could be devastating. The need to invest in the long-term future soared, the time and ability to prepare for the near future plummeted. Government and business had to step in and fill the space that family and community once occupied when it came to supporting the less fortunate or temporarily disabled. The government needed businesses to pay taxes, the businesses needed employees to consume, the citizens needed government to care for their unemployed.

In 1974 Arthur B. Laffer created a curve. He happened to be having dinner with the incredibly influential Jude Wanniski, Donald Rumsfeld, who was Chief of Staff to President Gerald Ford at the time, and Dick Cheney (some obscure bigwig you've probably never heard of...). Laffer's economic theory is based on the tax system. If you don't tax The People at all, the government has no revenue and ultimately fails, if you tax 100%, the people will have no incentive to work, earn no money, and the government fails (unless you are the Soviet Union which was going strong at this point, as Jonathan Chait points out in his book The Big Con). Besides 0 and 100, there are no hard numbers officially associated with the curve. It is just assumed, as this video explains, that at a certain tax rate earners at the top tax bracket will commit less tax fraud and invest more money than they otherwise would. An important note about this video: At one point he mentions that, in 1970 the highest tax bracket paid 70% tax, which affected people who earned as little as $108,000. He does not adjust for inflation to inform us that $108,000 in 1970 is the equivalent of over $500,000 today.

The Laffer Curve is pretty laughable, at best an experimental Voodoo Economics, a phrase George H. Bush coined to describe it, at worse an obvious visual aid to show how eager politicians are to bribe the rich. Yet it inspired a radical shift in the conservative Republican agenda: once dedicated to small government and a balanced budget, now only truly concerned with lowering taxes by any means necessary. With Laffer as his economic adviser, Reagan implied in more than one speech that cutting taxes would result in cutting government spending. Not so. The powers that be determined that "deficits don't matter," and since the 1980's every president has cut taxes, dismantled and handicapped countless important government programs, empowered corporate lobbyists beyond their wildest dreams, and failed to reduce or even curtail government spending.

Recessions hit in the 1970s and the 1980s, it was realized that oil and other natural resources are nonrenewable, education prices were increasing steadily, health care became totally unaffordable to the working class, the unions so many of our grandparents fought and died for went the way of the urban hen house, and everyone was getting a little worn out trying to keep up with the cost of living when wages ceased keeping pace with inflation. The rich were getting richer as the government cut their taxes time and time again, the poor were getting desperate as their benefits were cut. The tech bubble came and went, but benefited India and the corporations that now take their business there more than anyone else. Clinton proved to be the "New Democrat" by taking up the cause conservative Republicans once held dear, balancing the budget, while neglecting the traditional Democrat ideal of creating social programs. In fact, he created a surplus while cutting welfare benefits, replacing them with skill training programs that proved useless to the many single mothers plunged into desperate poverty as a result.

There's no telling what would have happened had easy credit not become available in the 1980's. Strapped for cash? Use credit. Starting, of course, with the elite, using credit cards went from being seen as a little tacky and suspicious (like writing checks today), to vogue, to the norm. For a brief period in history, consumers, government, and business could relax. By cutting taxes and encouraging investment, government only had to sit back and wait for a brighter, more profitable tomorrow. Corporations could continue to pay less than living wage to their employees, who would make ends meet with credit. The price of certain products could inflate based on how much consumers were willing to pay and how much they were capable of borrowing, which inspired a ludicrous housing market bubble. Other products and services could be shipped in from other countries, enabling consumers to buy despicably bad quality foods (cardboard stuffed wontons, for instance) at offensively low prices. Only recently has the housing market bubble burst, taking much of the credit industry down with it and leaving us stripped of our final weapon against an economy gone sour.

We have reached a point in history that, like the Great Depression, will require a massive reassessment of how our economic system works. Supply does not create demand - and more importantly - Demand Can Not Create Supply, particularly when it comes to nonrenewable resources such as oil. Producers are finding themselves between a rock and a hard spot: not only is the market flooded with unwanted product, but consumers couldn't purchase it if they wanted to, and the government is due any day now to find out that deficits DO matter - at least in the minds of voters. Right now our system is unsustainable: it depends too heavily on the exploitation of our people and our environment, the abundance of relatively rare components such as aluminum, and our willingness to consume products that are bad for us and harming our children. What will happen to the economy when everyone choses to abstain from foods containing dangerous hormones and pesticides, atmosphere destroying chemicals and oils such as gasoline, and paper products made from our old growth forests? Because every day more citizens are taking that route. And soon it will become very apparent that better quality products cannot permanently save our current economic situation.

Why not? Tune in tomorrow ;)

Home-made Vegan "Meat"

Jenny linked to my very casual Simple Bread Baking Instructions. Because preparing our own food is probably the most financially (and ecologically) productive activity Darling and I engage in, I thought we should maybe share what goes on in our kitchen in more detail.

Two days ago I had a day off and decided to make my own seitan. Seitan is basically marinated wheat gluten, which I learned to make from a borrowed copy of Sarah Kramer's amazing cookbook, La Dolce Vegan, two years ago. Until Friday I always followed her instructions for chicken and sausage to a T, but it seems I lost them during last year's move. Fortunately, making the gluten is as straightforward, easier, and faster than baking bread, and the flavor is a matter of spice.

The novice seitan-maker (seitanist?) has can begin her non-soy-faux-meat journey in one of two ways: you can start from scratch with white flour or purchase vital-wheat gluten at health food stores (or a Mennonite bulk store, as I do). If you happen to have a few pounds of white flour on hand, it's worthwhile to extract the gluten yourself just for the experience. it's more economical and just as healthy to use white rather than wheat flour, you'll be washing away the germ and nutrients with either flour. Of course make sure to use unbleached white flour to cut down on your arsenic intake.

All you will need to make the "meat" is flour and lots of ice-cold water. put about ten cups of flour in a bowl, add just enough cold water, stiring often, to create a sticky ball of dough. I haven't done this in years, so I'm sorry not to be able to give a precise amount, but add the water in very small doses (1/8 cup at a time?), stirring well in between additions, until you have a sticky dough similar to that of bread dough (in otherwords, you should be able to take it out of the bowl, with flour-covered hands, and knead it without having it fall apart and ooze uncontrollably between your fingers). If too much water is added, it is easy to compensate by adding more flour.

Knead this dough for about five minutes, then let it sit for at least ten minutes in a covered bowl.

Add enouggh ice water directly to the bowl to cover the seitan, and prepare yourself for an invariable sinking feeling. The dough will seem to instantly liquefy, leaving you with nothing salvageable. It is in all actuality playing dead, in the same way home-baked bread straight from the oven is at first soul-shatteringly rock-hard. Reach into the cloudy water, find the ball of future seitan, and pull hold the remnants together as well you can as you drain the cloudy water. What is left will be a small fraction of the original ball of dough. Knead this, add more water, and repeat, holding together as much of the flour as you can each time. Regardless of your dedication, entire chunks of flour will rinse away. Gluten is the sticky, chewy substance of flour that gives baked goods these qualities. What you are washing away is everything else, and there is a lot of it. Fortunately, gluten tends to bind together, so after the third or fourth rinse it should be easier to hold together, and will soon be a solid, sticky mass.

By this point I usually abandon the bowl and ice water, and knead the seitan under a running faucet for the rest of my life. Or at least it feels like it, which is agonizing for someone who desperately hates to waste water. Which is why I don't make this substance at home anymore. You are meant to knead and rinse until the water no longer becomes cloudy, which in my experience is never. So I generally knead and rinse until the water is hardly cloudy at all and I give up. And then you have a chewy, gooey, flavorless batch of future meat substitute.

If using vital wheat gluten, add one part powder to one part water, knead for five minutes, and you are done. I usually prepare two cups at a time, which is enough for at least two good "meat" heavy meals (four large sausages, for instance) or several meals such as stir fries or stews. The simmering process I use takes all day, so this is something one wants to do in bulk.

Fill a saucepan large enough to hold the all of your seitan comfortably with water. Add any savory spices and flavors you wish your "meat" to taste of. I might use the following recipe:

Five Cups Water
1 Cup Nutritional Yeast Flakes (provides a "chicken" flavor, and is loaded with B vitamins)
2-3 tablespoons thyme
As much fresh sage as I have in the house, or an 1/8 cup dried sage
2-3 tablespoons rosemary
2-3 tablespoons dill
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 tablespoon paprika
2 tablespoons celery salt
Lots of onion, onion powder, or both
Lots of garlic, garlic powder, or both
Anything else delicious and savory, to taste, until you have a delicious and strong-flavored stew.

Shape the seitan before adding to the broth. This is far easier said than done. Last time I did this, I cut out four sausage shapes with scissors and cut the rest into beef-tip sized chunks. The smaller the size, the better the texture and flavor. Simmer the faux meat in this stew until the liquid has evaporate within an inch. Let sit overnight (if eaten immediately it has a spongy texture), simmer some more in the morning, and store with its broth, either in the fridge (it might last about a week) or in the freezer (6 months?).

Dom likes to fry or bake large chunks of seitan to eat with eggs and mashed potatoes. I like to bread the chunks and fry them in the same way my Mom used to fry chicken. Lately, however, I have taken to sautéing the small chunks of seitan in their broth with lots of greens.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

4 Years Of Love

Darling and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary yesterday, and it was so wonderful! We shared a bottle of Texan red wine and spent the day reading to each other, enjoying a yummy brunch of our favorite breakfast foods (a green smoothie, local eggs and local potatoes), and generally just enjoying each other's company.

Traditionally we enjoy Mexican Food for our anniversary dinner, but this year we decided to go somewhere especially nice and discovered a lovely downtown establishment, Maria Maria. This was by far the swankiest restaurant I have ever stepped foot in, for which I borrowed a dress and shoes from a friend. Of course it was freezing by the time we needed to catch the bus, so I ended up wearing the following to get to the restaurant: A (borrowed) silky, glamorous black and cream knee-length dress with a plunging neckline, black tights (purchased, still packaged, from Salvation Army), gray slacks (Also Sally Army), a nice cream knit sweater jacket (adopted from the Lost and Found at work), my brown corduroy jacket (second-hand, from a friend), a brown scarf (purchased from a homeless man last year for $5), and the same black flats I wear as river shoes but are still quite comfy to walk in (Sally Army). So coming into the restaurant I looked like a bag lady, once there I nipped into the restroom and packed away the slacks, flat shoes, and other excess clothing, ate dinner looking fabulous, and changed back into my warm, comfy attire after paying the bill. Which was way less trouble than, say, finding parking downtown.

Comfortably attired, we walked home from downtown along the river, enjoying the stars and the moon and all sorts of romantic goo I doubt any of you want to read about ;)

I am so grateful to my Darling, who is so strong and supportive and - thanks to my mother's advice - never, ever, tells me "no." He is the most intelligent and loving, compassionate and aware person I have ever had the pleasure of befriending. I still can't understand what on Earth convinced this man to let me hijack his life. All I had to do was ask, and this angel agreed to spend his entire life by my side, which proves that there must be something to this weird wild universe of ours after all, something really worthwhile and deep.

Pie Pumpkins

Jenny asked me how one cooks a pie pumpkin. First, you don't do everything I did in my first attempt at pumpkin pie.

Do not use a large, jack-o-lantern type pumpkin, even if it's sitting on the side of the road, an abandoned (and free) Halloween decoration with no where to go. The smaller the vegetable, the sweeter and easier to handle.

Do not attempt to skin a raw pumpkin. Especially a raw, full-sized pumpkin. For hours.

Do not use a store bought pie crust.

Do not roast the seeds at over 400 degrees.

So, those are the don'ts. Here are the dos.

Choose a vegetable no larger than five pounds. I generally choose the smallest one available, between 1 and 3 pounds, since I have to carry it home with the rest of my groceries. You'll only need about a pound per recipe anyway.

Cut the pumpkin in half and pull out all of the seeds. Rinse the seeds, sprinkle with salt and nutritional yeast flakes, and bake at about 250 degrees until they are crispy (maybe 20 minutes?). These are very healthy and beneficial for men in particular, and taste better the slower they are cooked.

Scrape out the "guts," the same stringy goo you'll find in most squash. Place the two pumpkin halves in a baking dish with about a quarter inch of water and bake at about 350 degrees for 40 minutes or less, depending on its size. It is done when a fork easily penetrates the flesh, like a baked potato. You could also boil, steam, or even microwave the pumpkin. My cooking method is the one that heats up the house best. Usually I bake the pumpkin the night before I use it, simply to heat our home before bed. Have I mentioned we're not using the heater this year?

After the two halves have cooled, the skin should easily peel off. The pumpkin flesh should be soft and very moist. At this point you could freeze the pumpkin for later use, as I often do. I have considered pureeing it and then freezing, but don't really see the necessity.

Darling loves pumpkin. I put this vegetable in green smoothies (still frozen), muffins, bread, and of course, pie.

Tofu pumpkin pie is the heartiest, healthiest, and cheapest version. I combine baked pumpkin, silken tofu, soy milk, and spices in our blender and bake in a pie-crust for about half an hour.

When preparing pumpkin muffins or bread, I substitute yogurt for the oil and use a fork to mash this with the pumpkin until creamy. If I didn't use excessive amounts of sugar, this recipe would appear almost healthy :)

I don't know what conventional pumpkins are selling for, but at 99 cents a pound whole pie pumpkins are a steal compared to $1.25 canned organic pumpkins available where I shop.

Shopping and December Net Worth

Two days ago Darling and I walked down to The Savation Army for some recreational spending. We purchased a programmable coffee maker for $4.00, a Michael Franti documentary for $4.00, and a bag of Texas-themed cookie cutters (including an armadillo!!!) for $2.00. Except the documentary, these are things we've wanted for a long time, so it feels like money well-spent. And no, I didn't necessarily need cactus and boot-shaped cutters, but last year I had to carve my sugar cookies with a butter knife, so this Christmas everyone is getting gingerbread cows and liking them.

Now that I have a coffee maker, of course, I had to go to the store and buy coffee. Hopefully for the last time. Did you know Starbuck's managers get free ground coffee every week? Don't you wish one of your best friends works for Starbucks? Since I was at the store I also picked up cream of tartar for 99 cents, a box of Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Celestial Seasons tea, yet another pie pumpkin, coffee filters, a box of mustard (put up the wallet, Tread!), and then suddenly I was at another, non-locally-owned store, purchasing cheap yarn with which to learn to knit socks. So, um, spending binge, anyone? Shame on me.

My binge is possibly the result of being very, very stressed about money for the past several months, and having cash in hand. Which is no excuse. Ah well, Net Worth Calculating Time:

We have $729.91 in funds, $187.83 more than last month.

We are $15,214.79 in debt, $300 less than last month.

This brings our Net Worth to -$14,484.88.

So today's spending was...celebratory, I guess. Hope I do at least as well next month.