Is it Art?

I think this is a fascinating interactive website that could be art... or it could be an interesting way to quantify feelings... or it could just be pretty... or it could be a complete waste of time (but I don't think so) or... you be the judge and check it out for yourself!!!

www.wefeelfine.org

So these 2 guys (Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar) decided to "harvest" human feelings from blogs all over the world. They took the feelings and gave them colors and shapes depending on whether the feelings were happy or sad and how strong they were. The shapes bounce all over the screen (Madness) and you can click on them to see what they mean - the blog that matches that feeling (sometimes it has a picture linked to it) will post at the top of the screen. These guys have created a database of millions of feelings - and made the database pretty! What a cool way to share information!!

In addition to displaying feelings in Madness (random bouncing shapes with colors), they have also created visual displays of their database that include montages of pictures, quivering mounds of feelings and metrics (numbers) linked with colors. All of this is interactive.

I know this is not what you think of as typical artwork, but it's a pretty interesting and a fresh way to show a database of information. I find myself mesmerized by the Madness display and the crazy spinning scene of colors.

Couldn't the mass of human feelings consolidated into one interactive display be considered artwork?
Enjoy the Madness!!

Delicious dinner (great leftovers!)

This is one of my favorite easy meals during the week to make for dinner. I actually like it even better as leftovers and love taking this for lunch. It basically requires a pot, a 9x13 baking pan, and a big mixing bowl - the clean up is easy! The recipe has been adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen.



Spinach Rice Casserole

Ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked brown rice
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 3 cups minced yellow onion
• 2-3 pounds of fresh spinach leaves - torn into pieces
• 1 tsp salt
• 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (depends on how much you like spice)
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp black pepper (also depends on how much you like spice)
• 2 tsp prepared mustard (yellow is spicier, dijon makes it sweeter - have fun experimenting)
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, shelled - divide into two 1/4 cups
• 2 eggs, beaten (optional)
• 1 cup milk (optional)
• 1/2 cup grated cheese (optional)
• sprinkling of paprika

Directions:

1. Cook the rice - if you already have cooked rice in the frig I recommend heating it up before mixing it in later, the casserole cooks better when the rice is warm to start
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees - grease a 9x13 baking pan (I use cooking spray)
   
3. In a sauce pot heat the oil - add onion and saute until soft approx 5-7 min, add garlic and saute another 2-3 min - stir frequently
4. Add salt, stir into the onions and garlic (approx 1 min)
   
5. Add the torn spinach leaves a couple handfuls at a time - cover the pot to cook down - stir frequently and continue to add until all the spinach has been cooked in
6. In a large mixing bowl start with the optional items - eggs, milk, cheese - I like using 2 egg whites and soy milk - the consistency of the casserole is a little richer, but it is still tasty if you choose to not use the eggs, milk, and/or cheese. For the cheese I have used soy cheese which cooks well, and goat cheese which adds an interesting flavor to the casserole.
7. After mixing (or not) the eggs, milk, and cheese add the rice, spinach mix, nutmeg, peppers, mustard and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds to the bowl - mix well.
8. Pour the mixture into a 9x13 baking pan - sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds over the surface of the casserole, along with paprika.
9. Bake for 35-40 min until lightly browned on top.

Other options -

• Mushrooms - I have also added mushrooms to this casserole in the spinach mix; I added them after the garlic and with the salt - cooking for approx 5 min to let them brown.
• Green Onions - I have chopped and added these into the mixing bowl - not cooking them ahead of time - they add a nice flavor and slight crunch to the final casserole.

Happy Cooking!!

Cool stuff to do with fruit (really cool)

Since this is my blog I have decided I am going to talk about the totally awesome fruit bouquet I got from the people I used to work with. It is AWESOME.

I knew these things existed, but what a totally cool thing to do with fruit and what a great gift too! It's beautiful. It tastes good. You get more than your 4 servings of recommended fruit - strawberries (some dipped in white chocolate), pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes!

The fruit bouquet was so big it didn't fit in the refrigerator - I had to take it apart. I totally recommend this as a crazy gift idea for people you know who like healthy food. The site is www.ediblearrangements.com.

Thank you cath lab (Lori, Beth, Deb, Rich, Renee, Ruth, G, Damiso, Tom, Zach).

Lettuce watch the fifth week

So... I got a little behind on posting - here's a great picture from last week of the tomato and lettuce harvest I turned into dinner. Yum!

By the way, thanks for the advice on how to rid my garden of pesky pests. I have not showered the neighbors recently (they are appreciative) and seem to be getting a handle on the bugs. A few people suggested using dish soap and water and spraying it on the plant and leaves. I am trying that and we'll see what happens.

Happy gardening!

EAT AT JOE'S (flash flash in neon)

Something has gone terribly wrong in my garden. The leaves have all fallen off my pepper plant - there is now a lone stalk, about 6 inches tall with a small pepper blooming out of it. No leaves. It makes me think of an anorexic super model, pointy curves along the stem where there used to be leaves, big bobble head at the top.

My tomatoes are doing no better. The leaves on my tomatoes are turning yellow and crinkling at the edges. The ones that aren't yellow and wilting are being eaten by something. Whatever is eating them is very indiscriminate - there's a hole here. Another hole there. A little from this leaf, a little more from that one. What happened? There are also little black specks on my tomato leaves and around the base of the plant - what are these?!? They look like little black microscopic turds. Is something snacking on my tomato leaves, then leaving me little black buggy turds? Grrr.

When I watered the plants tonight I almost wet myself (as in peed my pants, nearly) when a giant brown and gold bug with wings jumped out of my tomatoes. I blasted it with water - forgetting that I am on the top floor and there are people below me across the alley... oops, the neighbors were none too happy with my squealing and water destruction routine. Apparently the bug was not afraid of the high-pressure stream of water, it just kept settling in different places. I kept blasting. It kept moving. My neighbors finally started hollering. I stopped blasting. Brilliant!

In the process of blasting the icky brown bug all over the place I managed to blast my tomatoes here and there... a couple green squiggly worms were unleashed into the dirt below. Yuck. Where did these come from? I live on the fourth floor of an apartment in the middle of LA? Did the worms claw their way up the walls? Is there a sign on my garden that says "Eat at Joe's" and is flashing in some neon color only bugs can see?

I disposed of the worms - at least those I had blasted off. I am on my way back upstairs shortly to do further battle with the bugs. Oh yeah, my basil is also turning yellow and wilting and something is eating at that too - but of course only a little from this leaf and a little from that. I just want a couple nice green basil leaves to pair with a delicious tomato and some fresh mozzarella, drizzled in olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper.... I digress.

Time to do battle - shut the neon sign down. Lights out Bugs! I'm coming for you!!

By the way... if anyone has any advice I would love to hear it.

Help support state parks

So this post is a little off topic from what I usually talk about but I think this is really important. There are a lot of public programs that are suffering right now because of the economy - state parks are one such program.

To this end, a number of public programs are having to look for private funding to help make ends meet. Cascadian Farm (a yummy food company) has agreed to donate up $25,000 to NY state parks for trail maintenance and development. That's $25,000!!!

In order to get the $25,000 though people need to participate.

Here's how (it's really easy):

1. Go to this website: www.parkvisitor.com/cascadianfarm
2. Type in something about why you like state parks (it doesn't even have to be about NY)
3. Type in your email address
4. If you want notices and stuff from Cascadian Farm click the little box below - if you do NOT want notices, just leave it blank
5. Submit! That's it!!

For your time Cascadian Farm will give you a $1 coupon and donate $1 to NY state parks for each person that goes to the website and does this.

So... please, please, please help out! Take a minute to write what you like about parks and please pass this message along to others.

Thanks!

First Harvest

So here's the first harvest, Check out these beautiful little tomatoes. They are scrumptious too - little flavor bombs!

It really is possible to have a garden in LA. Updates of the lettuce will soon follow - it is growing beautifully too.