I've hated milk for as long as I can remember. It's basically cow sweat massaged from the mudcrap-encrusted teats on lumbering fermentation factories, after all. I never really understood why, however, I was so angered by the bovine liquid until a few years ago when I realized that I am lactose intolerant. No wonder I always felt sick after being forced to drink milk! I associated milk with feeling bad, so of course I didn't want to drink it. Anyway, I got on a kick while living in Boulder of drinking these protein powder smoothies. One of my housemates taught me the recipe and I've been using it ever since:
8 ounces milk
1 serving chocolate protein powder
1 banana
spoonful of peanut butter
few ice cubes (optional)
Blend until delicious. I had a reason to drink milk but the lactose overload was fierce: whole milk combined with whey protein was disastrous. Eventually I switched over to soy milk and altered the recipe to use chocolate Silk; the extra chocolate made it all the better.
Jump forward to the present. I've been using soy milk with soy protein powder for a couple of years now. I enjoy Silk brand soy milk but the Kroger brand and other off-brand soy milk are just as satisfying, and typically cheaper. All told, though, it's a lot of soy to consume in a single day, especially on top of my typical fake-meat sandwich and any other fake-meat or tofu for dinner. I've been looking for alternatives to the soy milk but nothing really drew my eye until about a week ago when I noticed that Silk now makes an almond milk. I'd heard of almond milk before but never tried it because it sounded weird and was only sold (around here) in those shelf-stable boxes that are unappetizing. The original flavor was on sale so I bought a half-gallon. Smooth and not as chalky as soy milk but lacking as much substance I decided that, while I could drink it easily, I preferred the legume juice.
And then, mirabile dictu, at the non-ghetto Kroger in town, I beheld dark chocolate Silk Pure Almond. The flavor is (naturally) darker than chocolate soy milk and the texture is thicker, reminding me of silken tofu. It's awesome. I'm thinking of switching to this from now on, but the lower levels of protein and potassium (as compared to soy milk) give me slight pause. It's good but is it worth giving up the nutrients? My latest protein powder has extra calcium and potassium in it so I'm not too worried. Sure beats cow juice, though.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
The Garden
It's been about a year since I posted but such is life. Anyway, here are pictures of my garden finally. The space we have available is by and large not useful for growing anything because of sun levels, soil conditions, and whatnot. The front flowerbed was a mess when we moved in, having been overgrown with weeds and not cared for in some time. It also wasn't separated from the rest of the lawn by a border. Last fall I simply mulched it over to help kill off the weeds. Back in May I bought a number of edging blocks at Lowe's and created a real bed, filling it in with a bunch of organic top soil (though not enough it turns out). I moved the mulch around the corner of the house to surround the air conditioner, which had been invaded by weeds, too, when we moved in. Naturally the heatsink doesn't work too well if there are plants growing through it so it was in our interest to clean it up.
After preparing the bed with new top soil and tilling it in with the native clay-loam, I planted three tomato plants, four pepper plants, oregano, sweet basil, a geranium, and a set of yellow onions. All the plants were bought at Lowe's for the sake of convenience. Next time I'll probably try to get local plants instead. The bed itself is a small area (probably 3x15) that receives a decent amount of sunlight. I put a short, plastic fence around the outside to prevent deer and other mammals from getting into the garden. To the same end, I've laid down quite a bit of dog hair (mainly Tex's) around the outside to make it smell even more heavily of dog than it already does out there. Sarah bought a bird feeder that I hung from the sweetgum tree in the front yard, which has helped keep the birds fed and away from my tomatoes. So far I haven't had any problems with anything getting into the garden.
Laying the blocks with Lucy's help:
The finished result:
Having read up on companion planting and square-foot gardening I decided to try to cram all of these into the bed. Turns out they've done fairly well, except for the onions which have died off for reasons I don't know. I didn't understand how large the tomato plants would actually grow, so I simply put small three-foot cages around them. At the time it looked as though everything would have enough room. Later I bought four-foot plastic stakes that I tied them to before abandoning those for six-foot wooden stakes arranged in a triangle and wrapped with gardening twine. These, too, have proven too small for my largest tomato plant. Next season I'm going to be smarter about my planting and give the tomatoes enough room to grow together without shading the plants among them so much. The basil and jalapeno that are between two of the tomato plants are doing quite well though the banana pepper in the back has the added difficulty of being shaded by the flower box on the window.
At the end of June:
The cayenne:
Basil and the banana peppers behind:
The Lemon Boy (I think):
The Sweet 100:
Sarah's unhappy that my tomatoes have grown in front of said box so next year I'll plant something shorter below it. I ended the garden just past that flower box at the point where the existing lamb's ear was growing. Sarah dug up and rearranged the Lamb's Ear to fill in the holes and then planted a bunch of flowers in front of it.
The flower/Lamb's Ear portion:
On the other side of the walkway she planted some petunias next to the daylillies and sage that was already here. I've been collecting bricks from the lot behind us that is the site of an old house. I'll make a post just about it soon, but I've used those bricks to edge in front of the front porch's flower bed.
The front porch et al.:
I've eaten from each of the tomato plants, lots of the basil, some of the oregano, and a few cayenne and jalapeños. Only the banana and bell pepper plants remain to be tested and I'm waiting until they produce more and bigger fruits. The Lemon Boy tomatoes have been okay, though I suppose I shouldn't have expected a lemony flavor from them. They have a mild flavor but are a bit mealy. I ate one for lunch today. The Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes are best when fully ripe, otherwise they don't have all that great of a flavor. The Early Girls are decent, medium-sized red tomatoes that have been growing in funny shapes because of how the fruit has been pushed together. The reason I chose these three varieties is because I wanted to have the fruit maturing in stages, since each plant is supposed to fruit about two weeks apart. Instead they all produced at the same time. The Early Girl has ripened all at once, too, so I'll have quite a few tomatoes to eat in a few days. That's fine by me, though, since I eat so many every day. I was hoping to have enough produce that I could donate some or make salsa but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I didn't prune my tomato plants correctly so I have much more plant than fruit. Once winter arrives and everything dies out I'm going to till the plants into the soil and work on leveling out the blocks. I may build a composter on the side of the house, but I don't know how useful it would be. I've planted some banana peels in the garden this season every few weeks and I can only imagine they've helped. The garden itself is mostly organic. I say mostly because while I've only used organic top soil, organic catfish fertilizer (sparingly), and organic fungicide/insecticide (also sparingly) the plants were already growing when I bought them, I don't know what's in the native soil, and a few weeks after planting the pest control service came by and put pesticide around the whole exterior of the house, including on the back edge of the garden. I need to work on the soil structure, especially at the end where most of my onions were. I'm thinking they may have died out because of poor drainage and nutrition, since that end has some mulch buried down in it. I don't know. I used an old carpet tube to shunt the gutter's downspout to the edge of the garden thinking it would help with erosion, which it has. I need to do a better job irrigating next time. Anyway, all lessons learned for next season. Enjoy the pictures.
Today:
The Sweet 100 plant. Note - those stakes are ~5 feet tall:
The cayenne:
The jalapeños:
The Early Girl:
Looking west at the Early Girl, geranium, oregano, and cayenne:
The downspout (on the fence side of the pipe is my make-shift composting area where I place pruned tomato parts). Also note the failed onions on the left of the pipe:
The castlewall blocks:
The front porch again:
The flowers/Lamb's Ear again:
Part of today's harvest:
Some of the historic bricks:
After preparing the bed with new top soil and tilling it in with the native clay-loam, I planted three tomato plants, four pepper plants, oregano, sweet basil, a geranium, and a set of yellow onions. All the plants were bought at Lowe's for the sake of convenience. Next time I'll probably try to get local plants instead. The bed itself is a small area (probably 3x15) that receives a decent amount of sunlight. I put a short, plastic fence around the outside to prevent deer and other mammals from getting into the garden. To the same end, I've laid down quite a bit of dog hair (mainly Tex's) around the outside to make it smell even more heavily of dog than it already does out there. Sarah bought a bird feeder that I hung from the sweetgum tree in the front yard, which has helped keep the birds fed and away from my tomatoes. So far I haven't had any problems with anything getting into the garden.
Laying the blocks with Lucy's help:
The finished result:
Having read up on companion planting and square-foot gardening I decided to try to cram all of these into the bed. Turns out they've done fairly well, except for the onions which have died off for reasons I don't know. I didn't understand how large the tomato plants would actually grow, so I simply put small three-foot cages around them. At the time it looked as though everything would have enough room. Later I bought four-foot plastic stakes that I tied them to before abandoning those for six-foot wooden stakes arranged in a triangle and wrapped with gardening twine. These, too, have proven too small for my largest tomato plant. Next season I'm going to be smarter about my planting and give the tomatoes enough room to grow together without shading the plants among them so much. The basil and jalapeno that are between two of the tomato plants are doing quite well though the banana pepper in the back has the added difficulty of being shaded by the flower box on the window.
At the end of June:
The cayenne:
Basil and the banana peppers behind:
The Lemon Boy (I think):
The Sweet 100:
Sarah's unhappy that my tomatoes have grown in front of said box so next year I'll plant something shorter below it. I ended the garden just past that flower box at the point where the existing lamb's ear was growing. Sarah dug up and rearranged the Lamb's Ear to fill in the holes and then planted a bunch of flowers in front of it.
The flower/Lamb's Ear portion:
On the other side of the walkway she planted some petunias next to the daylillies and sage that was already here. I've been collecting bricks from the lot behind us that is the site of an old house. I'll make a post just about it soon, but I've used those bricks to edge in front of the front porch's flower bed.
The front porch et al.:
I've eaten from each of the tomato plants, lots of the basil, some of the oregano, and a few cayenne and jalapeños. Only the banana and bell pepper plants remain to be tested and I'm waiting until they produce more and bigger fruits. The Lemon Boy tomatoes have been okay, though I suppose I shouldn't have expected a lemony flavor from them. They have a mild flavor but are a bit mealy. I ate one for lunch today. The Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes are best when fully ripe, otherwise they don't have all that great of a flavor. The Early Girls are decent, medium-sized red tomatoes that have been growing in funny shapes because of how the fruit has been pushed together. The reason I chose these three varieties is because I wanted to have the fruit maturing in stages, since each plant is supposed to fruit about two weeks apart. Instead they all produced at the same time. The Early Girl has ripened all at once, too, so I'll have quite a few tomatoes to eat in a few days. That's fine by me, though, since I eat so many every day. I was hoping to have enough produce that I could donate some or make salsa but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I didn't prune my tomato plants correctly so I have much more plant than fruit. Once winter arrives and everything dies out I'm going to till the plants into the soil and work on leveling out the blocks. I may build a composter on the side of the house, but I don't know how useful it would be. I've planted some banana peels in the garden this season every few weeks and I can only imagine they've helped. The garden itself is mostly organic. I say mostly because while I've only used organic top soil, organic catfish fertilizer (sparingly), and organic fungicide/insecticide (also sparingly) the plants were already growing when I bought them, I don't know what's in the native soil, and a few weeks after planting the pest control service came by and put pesticide around the whole exterior of the house, including on the back edge of the garden. I need to work on the soil structure, especially at the end where most of my onions were. I'm thinking they may have died out because of poor drainage and nutrition, since that end has some mulch buried down in it. I don't know. I used an old carpet tube to shunt the gutter's downspout to the edge of the garden thinking it would help with erosion, which it has. I need to do a better job irrigating next time. Anyway, all lessons learned for next season. Enjoy the pictures.
Today:
The Sweet 100 plant. Note - those stakes are ~5 feet tall:
The cayenne:
The jalapeños:
The Early Girl:
Looking west at the Early Girl, geranium, oregano, and cayenne:
The downspout (on the fence side of the pipe is my make-shift composting area where I place pruned tomato parts). Also note the failed onions on the left of the pipe:
The castlewall blocks:
The front porch again:
The flowers/Lamb's Ear again:
Part of today's harvest:
Some of the historic bricks:
Friday, August 01, 2008
Dallas Gets Something Right
Naturally it has nothing to do with the idiocy that is the city council. Instead, it has everything to do with our fantastic rate of consumption.The McCommas landfill in southern Dallas is being turned into the first biogenerative landfill in Texas. Garbage will be pumped into channels which will be filled with water and seeded with microorganisms that feast on organic material and release methane as waste, which will be harnessed and used to produce electricity. In addition to recovering this energy, the process will dispose of several feet of trash each year and provide Dallas with tens of thousands of dollars in income every month. Awesome.
G.J. MCCARTHY/DMN
A large bulldozer works to pack trash tightly at the McCommas Bluff landfill in south Dallas.Saturday, July 12, 2008
Shorn
While I was away in Maine Debbie graciously took Jake to the groomer's for a bath and trim. Since it has been in excess of 100 here routinely I told her she might as well have him shaved. That was about a week ago, and this is what he looks like today:
I think he's happy to be cooler, though his coat acts like Velcro with burrs.
I think he's happy to be cooler, though his coat acts like Velcro with burrs.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Fungus
The old elm tree keeps trying to come back to life. Its roots are sprouting forth new branches while the rotting pieces of trunk still left have enriched the ground and are home now to a large colony of mushrooms.
Also, the dog with a new toy:
Also, the dog with a new toy:
Friday, May 23, 2008
Last Days in Boulder
Jake and I went hiking twice in our final three days in Boulder - once on Wednesday and once on Friday. On Thursday in between I went to see First Blood in the movie theater in Boulder, a one-off showing of the film to promote the dvd release of all four Rambo movies. It was awesome. Anyway, our first hike lasted about three hours and went up on the trails behind NIST that the dog and I usually see on long walks up the hill. Most of the hike followed the Mesa Trail, which is a fairly easy and pleasant walk. I didn't take any pictures because my last set of rechargeable batteries are all but dead and I didn't want to wait for the last two survivors to take a partial charge. Here's an altered version of the official Boulder trail map showing where we went. The thick blue line indicates our route:
On Friday I figured that I should go climb a mountain for once, so we hiked over to Chautauqua Park and thence up to Green Mountain and over to Bear Peak before going back down past NCAR home. In all, the hike lasted about 6.5 hours and I was wiped after it. I made several mistakes that led to such exhaustion: 1) I underestimated the topographical difficulties, 2) I underestimated our water requirements, 3) I overestimated our hiking speed and related to that 4) I underestimated our hunger. If I were to do it again, I'd take another bottle or two of water with me as well as some Clif bars. My camera's lame batteries died on the ascent to Bear Peak, but I managed to get a few pictures here and there out of them by letting them rest, which is why there are fewer of the second half of the hike. Here's the route we took, again highlighted in blue:
And now, for some of the many pictures.
The by-now familiar view of the Flatirons from NIST:
A weird house on the way to Chatauqua:
Jake relaxing in the shade at the entrance to Chautauqua Park:
Jake at the beginning of the trail leading out of Chautauqua toward Gregory Canyon:
The Flatirons from Chautauqua near Baseline Road:
A view back down toward Boulder from the Gregory Canyon trail:
What the trail looks like going up into the mountains:
Baseline and Bear Creek Apartments from the trail:
A small stream across the path before Ranger Trail:
A juncture:
Ranger Trail:
A lodge at the divergence of Ranger and Long Canyon:
Into the woods:
Another fork in the path:
Farther down Ranger Trail:
Jake attacks a patch of snow:
The aftermath:
A squirrel perplexed at our trek:
Pearl Street and northern Boulder:
The interior:
To the top:
Jake looks down on his domain:
From the summit:
Jake puts on his best Dragos face:
Baseline et al. from the top:
Onward:
And downward:
Our next goal:
A chipmunk:
A cool and refreshing-to-Jake stream:
The path along the creek in the canyon:
Back up:
Looking toward South Boulder
Eldora, I believe:
The view, at last, from Bear Peak:
Looking down at El Dorado Canyon and toward Denver, which you can just make out in the distance:
South Boulder:
Green Mountain:
The tip-top of Bear Peak:
Left leads you down a rockfall of slicing and dicing jagged stones and right points off a precipice and down onto more jagged stones; I went left. They really need to work on these trails, as they're easy to lose and damned dangerous:
Hooray, a sign indicating the trail. My camera quit working completely after this picture, so thus ends this post. Oh, I made it back home over an hour after taking this.
On Friday I figured that I should go climb a mountain for once, so we hiked over to Chautauqua Park and thence up to Green Mountain and over to Bear Peak before going back down past NCAR home. In all, the hike lasted about 6.5 hours and I was wiped after it. I made several mistakes that led to such exhaustion: 1) I underestimated the topographical difficulties, 2) I underestimated our water requirements, 3) I overestimated our hiking speed and related to that 4) I underestimated our hunger. If I were to do it again, I'd take another bottle or two of water with me as well as some Clif bars. My camera's lame batteries died on the ascent to Bear Peak, but I managed to get a few pictures here and there out of them by letting them rest, which is why there are fewer of the second half of the hike. Here's the route we took, again highlighted in blue:
And now, for some of the many pictures.
The by-now familiar view of the Flatirons from NIST:
A weird house on the way to Chatauqua:
Jake relaxing in the shade at the entrance to Chautauqua Park:
Jake at the beginning of the trail leading out of Chautauqua toward Gregory Canyon:
The Flatirons from Chautauqua near Baseline Road:
A view back down toward Boulder from the Gregory Canyon trail:
What the trail looks like going up into the mountains:
Baseline and Bear Creek Apartments from the trail:
A small stream across the path before Ranger Trail:
A juncture:
Ranger Trail:
A lodge at the divergence of Ranger and Long Canyon:
Into the woods:
Another fork in the path:
Farther down Ranger Trail:
Jake attacks a patch of snow:
The aftermath:
A squirrel perplexed at our trek:
Pearl Street and northern Boulder:
The interior:
To the top:
Jake looks down on his domain:
From the summit:
Jake puts on his best Dragos face:
Baseline et al. from the top:
Onward:
And downward:
Our next goal:
A chipmunk:
A cool and refreshing-to-Jake stream:
The path along the creek in the canyon:
Back up:
Looking toward South Boulder
Eldora, I believe:
The view, at last, from Bear Peak:
Looking down at El Dorado Canyon and toward Denver, which you can just make out in the distance:
South Boulder:
Green Mountain:
The tip-top of Bear Peak:
Left leads you down a rockfall of slicing and dicing jagged stones and right points off a precipice and down onto more jagged stones; I went left. They really need to work on these trails, as they're easy to lose and damned dangerous:
Hooray, a sign indicating the trail. My camera quit working completely after this picture, so thus ends this post. Oh, I made it back home over an hour after taking this.
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