Vélo!

I remembered that I really like working on my bike (I am starting to buy some tools!). I remembered, too, how absolutely freeing it is to be able to ride a bike to get around- I can do more things in a day, I'm less exhausted at the end of it, and I can take my time before and after transporting my own self. I'm falling in love all over again. I wheel down the road with a goofy grin on my face, sometimes singing, because: can't anyone else understand how important this little machine is?

That being said, the roads are icy and gritty as hell. I do my best to avoid the rough patches, but to avoid wett-butt I made this nice little fender friend out of old cider bottles and electrical tape. Pack-rat wins again! I'm going to make one to attach to the downtube, to protect my precious shins, and maybe paint it. Mustard or silver?

discounts and dill

I got home from Rouyn-Noranda a new and cuter woman. I made a lifelong pledge to dill, and so when I got around to groceries I figured it was high time I buy some. Spring is coming: the sun is shining, I took my first bike ride yesterday!

Dill is, I think, one of my favourite summertime herbs- a nice break from all of the sage and cinnamon I've been using to warm myself up. Plus, my grandparents' house always smells a little bit like dill and something else. Where this all comes from, though, was the idea of post a lovely little recipe for a simple springtime medley. It's really all about the dill. And cheap produce that you have to eat up, 'cause those collards were already starting to smell.

My favourite grocery store has excellent discounted produce, which means I buy a lot of vegetables, and a lot of vegetables that need to be eaten quickly. I am trying to simplify again, to stress less (including about food) and to take my time. I need constant reminders, but I'll get there. Last night I couldn't sleep until 3am, thinking about all of the things I could do and should do and how to get them done, moving over or moving away. What I need to remember is that things are going to be very, very fine and I know that I have good things to eat.

Discount & Dill Sautée

(for one, so use however much vegetables you wanna)

1 tbsp butter or coconut oil

1/4 onion, sliced

a little handful of yellow beans

a big handful of collard greens, cut up into manageable, eatable pieces

1 huge clove of garlic

about a tbsp of fresh dill, chopped

about a tbsp of sesame seeds

about a tbsp of sunflower seeds

juice of 1/4 lemon

Sautée the onions in the butter until translucent (or crispy brown, but I did that by accident. Translucent is probably better). Add the seeds to the pan and toast them a little bit by pushing the onions off to the side for a minute or two. Add in the garlic, yellow beans, dill, collards, and lemon juice. Turn the heat down low and put a lid on it to cook the beans until crisp-tender and the collards until wilted. Put it on rice! Sprinkle some pepper on it! If you are a dill fiend, like me, add some extra on top of the whole deal.

March Break was great- no fire ants, no MTV-whipped-cream-bikini-human-tacos (vivid memories of our annual family trips of Florida)- but today it's back to work. Back to the real world.

all night long

I've been listening to a Tom Cochrane concert on Radio 2, through that hockey song- Big League- and through his on-stage banter, all too comfortable so that it comes around to uncomfortable again. All of that for this moment:

I'm going north, to Rouyn-Noranda. I've got my semaine de relâche all mixed up- the whole famdamily used to go south every March to this song!