Handstands, clothing (ranty) and people chow

[flexagon]

Sometime late this week I encountered a really good lentil-and-rice food, mujadara, in one of the work cafes. There are a million recipes online but I think I'll try this one soon; it looks fairly plain, like the one I had. Something about it kind of hit my "people chow" button, by which I mean I can imagine it coming in giant 20lb bags labeled People Chow and that it would make for a pretty satisfying diet (compared to other 20lb bags of glop). It's also dairy-free, gluten-free and pareve. If I can make some as good as they had at Zillian, I'll try making up a batch and freezing portions for dinners.

It's been a good week for handstands. This Monday was my first time working totally solo in a planned, going-to-be-weekly way, and I basically did press exercises until dizzy and shaky (including pressing off my lowest surface yet, possibly in an ugly way). Wednesday in LCS class I succeeded in a new press drill, one where I lean my head into the wall and do a press handstand -- and which I repeated on Friday and again today, making it officially Not A Fluke. Today I went to see my secondary coach -- does he seriously not have a name yet? I shall call him Fine-J -- and got a bunch of positive feedback and a handful of new drills for the next few times.

And, sigh, I bought clothes. Partly because stuff is on sale at Nomads, including this gorgeous tank top that was totally worth it at full price, but also because things wear out, circus schools change their dress codes, and things start bugging me that didn't bug me before. I can win in the short term, but things don't stay okay. So in exchange for the two long-sleeve Nomads tops, I am ousting my last two green tops, both of which have burnout patterns that faded into teal/blue near the bottom and both of which are too busy and off-palette for me to enjoy wearing anymore. Good riddance. Green is, with the exception of one last T-shirt, dead -- long live blue, purple, gray and black.

Comments

[coraline]

ooo, I will totally try that recipe. Thank you!

And the clothing form that company is super dangerous looking -- most of them look extremely you, and some of them look extremely me :)

[flexagon]

Yes, indeed. You've complimented me on Nomads clothing before, without knowing it. :D

If you want to try some on in person, the Hempest in the Garage at Harvard Square carries some (not all) of their clothing.

[coraline]

Thank you!

Additionally, I have recipe recommendations now for the lentil thing :)

[flexagon]

Lay 'em on me (though I can't possibly try it now until next Sunday the earliest).

[coraline]

ok, i used this recipe:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/11/print/mejadra-from-jerusalem.html

which given that it's from Yottam Ottolenghi (who has a track record for me of recipes for things that I always find very tasty) and relayed through Serious Eats (who generally do a great job checking recipes for instructions/usability/correctness) I had a bunch of problems...

- I don't know what their standards are for "small/med/large saucepan" are, but I have what I consider a standard set of saucepans... I should have done the lentils in the LARGE saucepan, because the small and the medium were both a little small for the amount of water and lentils indicated (the lentils got a LOT bigger as they absorbed water -- I also put a couple of inches of water over the lentils and then had to add more water twice while they cooked (which meant cooling down and then restarting the boil each time I added water) because they absorbed more than I added.

- I used a stock pot for the "combined lentil and rice" step (after I tried putting the rice and spices and oil in my large saucepan and went "there's no way cooked rice PLUS the lentils are fitting"), and again had to add more water as I went because the rice absorbed all the water... and after I did the "cover with a dishtowel and the pot lid and let sit" the rice was STILL uncooked. So I turned the heat back on and added more water and let it simmer on low for longer... and forgot to stir it and burnt some to the bottom (that's on me.)

- the amount of cinnamon called for is more than I like in my savory dishes.

- the onion thing seemed like WAY MORE TROUBLE than I wanted to bother with.

in conclusion, I would use this recipe again! But I'd cook the lentils in my largest saucepan, with a good 4" of water on top of them to start (and check it as I went). I'd drop the cinnamon a bunch in the spice mixture. Then I'd add an extra cup of water to the rice+lentil stage in a stockpot or dutch oven, and check/stir the mixture regularly to keep it from sticking to the bottom and make sure the rice had enough water. While the lentil/rice mixture is cooking, I caramelized a couple of onions in a skillet (which is much less annoying to me than frying, although you don't get the nice crispy onion thing going on) and I also cooked up some zucchini I had around because it seemed good to add a little more veg.

In the end I got a thing I would definitely agree is people-chow -- it was tasty, although I think I would have found it took bland without the onion/zucchini thing (in part because I want some texture in my food and without the veggie texture I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much.)

hope that's useful! tell me what you discover!

[drwex]

I finally readmitted a small amount of (very dark) green back into my wardrobe after years of banishment. Also some dark brick reds. And white, of course. Otherwise I think we have nearly identical palettes, which is interesting because based on your mundane photos it looks like we have somewhat different hair color and skin tones.

[flexagon]

Due to my lighter (I'm guessing) coloration, white is not an "of course" for me; only small amounts look good, and only when my skin is being especially cooperative in having some color and also not being broken out.

Black and grey look good on basically everyone, and blue doesn't clash with any skin tones (except maybe the very red-faced?) so I think these are the core "safe" colors that many people who bother to have a palette at all will come down to. Black is a stark/dramatic look on me, and grey is softer.

Purple's a relative newcomer. It doesn't pop my eyes the way blue does, but it looks good enough, and goes less boringly with blue jeans while also working with black or grey pants, so it's an easy snuggler with the core colors.

[coraline]

I'm amused that you have ended up close to the same place I have -- for me, I love the best blue more than purple but there are many more purples that I like than blues for some reason. So I think I have more purple clothing than blue. But it's a limited color palette that all works together.