Mary Oliver / Patagonia / Rasta

 This was made 3 years ago but popped into my youtube feed when May Oliver passed. Lovely. And a nearly empty lineup of fun waves.

 

pesto 2026

 I've been gravitating towards cooking via gram measurements over cups lately. and pesto is a prime example. What is a packed cup of basil? who knows. but x grams is easily measured. so, from Jamie O, but no cheese/plant based: 40g basil, 1 clove garlic, pinch salt, 1/2T miso, 3T evoo, 50g nuts. 1st five in a blender, grind nuts in a coffee grinder then add to blender at end. I'm growing a whole bunch of different varieties of basil this year; used pistachios for the nuts. Tomaters in the pic are apricot zebra, blue beauty, barry's crazy.

 

 

Best Tiny Desks

 The Bob Weir one I've listened to more than 20 times

 

the Weight, from COVID times

 

Billy Strings

 from various sources

 

Tori Amos on Rick Beato

 one of the best interviews I heard in the past few years

 

Travel vloggers

 It's a pretty big genre on youtube. Here are some I've really enjoyed the past few years:

Kombi Life Pan Am highway (there's a theme...) except south to north. Took him forever as his vw bus broke down constantly. Legendary channel. Recently european trips that are also fun.  

Max & Lee Pan Am  Videos started in Baja and were amateur at that point, so that was a bummer, but I really enjoyed their slow way of travel. Super sad ending though: Lee basically had a mental breakdown cause of social media, they broke up, she actually lived in SB for a while, committed suicide by Amtrak!!!!!!!!!! eek. onto happier thoughts. 

Eva Zu Beck long career on youtube. She has a video with an Iranian goat herding family that is really stunning. A real pro. Recently got hired by National Geographic to do a show that is decent. 

 Nick and Mathilde french couple. Started watching when they were in convoy with Eva at the start of Pan Am, they've been on the road now for 4 years and are in central Asia currently. 

Toyota World Runners Pan Am, another sad one as after the trip and they got back to Canada they died in a car accident. The videos from this trip are unbelievable, great camera work and narration, and a really cool custom vehicle (Landcruiser with a camper). Peruvian Andes and then Bolivia, Argentina Altiplano videos particularly great.

 Dan Cycles the World Pan Am, by bicycle, but via dirt as much as he can. Also great camera work and narration. Seems like a really, really nice and cool guy. Baja and Peru videos were particularly awesome. In Bolivia/northern Chile right now. 

Go Alone. Pan Am, but then also a couple of neat vids in southern Africa.  

Kepa Acero Legendary surf traveler 

Desert Drifter another sad one as he passed in a car accident. SW US hiking: cedar mesa, etc 

Dylan Graves: Alaska trip

 Dylan Graves has a number of videos on youtube about novelty waves that are enjoyable. This is a more conventional trip, except it's a boat trip in Alaska, not the Mentawais, so not that conventional... Really enjoyable wildlife, fishing, etc, the Alaska experience. 

 

 

The Occ cast

 

 Old youtube content popped up in my feed. Occy's podcast stopped having new content a while ago, there are some great interviews. I posted about the Jack Johnson one back in 2019. Here are a number of other good ones. 

Dane Reynolds

Tom Curren

Rob Machado

Dave Rastovich

 

Paul Theroux quote

 

 from Fresh Air Fiend, I'm not familiar with the 2 books mentioned but I love the line anyway...

 

"The first book that was read to me was Make Way for Ducklings, and the second was The 500 hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, by Dr. Suess. As soon as I could read I wanted to be a hero. 

 

 

Paulina Borsook interview

 great interview from Amanpour & Co, about silicon valley, tech (and not in a good way)

blog reboot

 the iphone killed the blog, for me. cause blogger doesn't have an app to allow for posts from the phone (and its camera...). also too many distractions. but I did quite like how the blog is a receptacle of memories. so, trying again. 

 

 

yellow thai curry

 made a simple yellow thai curry today, for the first time in a while, and took some pics. it seems like yellow curry recipes always involve potatoes; potatoes cooked in coconut milk are so good. i also used green garlic, beet greens, and fava from the garden.

combine ~2T Mae Ploy yellow curry paste with the cream top of a can of coconut milk, simmer until the oil separates, then add the rest of the can, and add a can of water or stock. 

Then add veg to the sauce/broth. I added a couple sun dried tomatoes, 4 green garlics, 6 medium yellow potatoes, some beet greens, some fava beans, and a little fish sauce. More veg, herbs, tofu, would all be good, too.

 

Patagonia graphics

a few of my favorite graphics on capilene 

Moroccan Lentils

 This recipe comes from Cafe Morocco by Anissa Helou, where it's called lentils with swiss chard. Basically it's brown/green/"normal" lentils cooked with greens and herbs and a nice spice blend. It's super easy, too, as there's no saute step, it's all just boiled together.  

Moroccan Lentils

1.5c lentils

1lb greens

3oz cilantro (this is about 1 bunch in a store)

1 onion

4T evoo

1.5t cumin

1t paprika

1/2 t pepper 

~1/2 t salt

juice from 1 lemon

Cook lentils with 1Q water for 15 min, add greens, cilantro, onion and cook 5-10 more min, covered. Add evoo and spices and cook another 10 min covered - till lentils tender. Add salt and lemon juice at end.

 

Sheridan Anderson

 

I got a capilene shirt on ebay cause of the cool/funny graphic, signed Sheridan. I'm a patagonia supporter cause of their environmental stance and their clothes last a long time rather than being a climber, so I guess it's slightly poseur-ish to like the graphic but whatever. Sheridan Anderson wrote a couple books and did illustrations for climbing books and journals. The above graphic was the cover of Summit magazine in 1970

Got a grain mill

 I bought a bunch of kamut berries a while ago thinking I'd get in to sprouting but didn't. So recently got a grain mill to make fresh flour. Pretty yummy.

fresh favas, lightly steamed/mashed beforehand, good aged cheddar

taco pizza ish with lentils, hot sauce, good aged cheddar

Xonequi

I love masa harina but making tortillas is hard for me. I can make quesadillas, empanada-style, alot easier. But lately I've been doing things like polenta made with masa, tamale pie - chili with a masa-based top crust, and something I'm calling mishmash which is basically garlic/onion/spices/mushrooms, masa, liquid, then black beans. The classy option, though, is Xonequi, basically black bean soup with masa harina dumplings cooked in it at the end. It's so good. Recipe is from Diana Kennedy's My Mexico. So garlic, onion, cumin, coriander, ground chipotle, black beans; masa, warm water, ground chile, chopped onion, evoo, make balls, simmer about 15min at end of soup cooking.

 

Here's a version with fresh favas added

Chickpeas a couple ways

 The VIPER lab did the eat by the alphabet again Feb 2023. I had chickpeas a couple of different ways and enjoyed each one. For U I made Usal - indian chickpea curry. For Y I made chickpeas with Yemeni spices. Mostly I eat them fairly simply, I cook them with garlic, kombu, CA white sage, then pour over some EVOO.

soak 'em

I save smaller cloves for cooking with beans, don't bother peeling them

White sage, the CA native medicinal plant is great for cooking chickpeas

kombu in there, too

 

The Indian and Yemeni dishes are pretty similar, just the spice combos are different, so spices, garlic, onion, cook with tomatoes, chickpeas at end. For one of them I used a concentrated red sauce and cooked for less time, the other got diced canned tomatoes and cooked longer. The Usal is from East by Meera Sodha, a really nice veg cookbook.

The Yemeni one I roughly followed this. Basically it's 2 onions; T coriander, cumin; couple cloves; seeds from 8 green cardamom pods, 1/2t fenugreek seeds, turmeric; a cup or so cooked tomatoes, cilantro. Use a coffee grinder for the spices.

A couple more days, A & G. Not pictured hippie hummus (has hemp seeds)

The red sauce is Romesco, basically red chilies (arbol, ancho) with ground almonds and ajo (garlic)

Green garlic, garbanzo, gochujang

cilantro pumpkin seed pesto

 from healthy hedonist holidays, p.36. delicious

1c chopped cilantro

1/2c evoo

1/4c lime juice

1t salt

pinch cayenne

1c pumpkin seeds, roasted, cooled, ground in a coffee grinder

 

blend first 5, add seed meal at end.