Photos
- Two tofu “cubes” as mentioned (the off-white yellowish pieces with a bit of texture)
- 1 mini (Persian) cucumber
- 3 small radishes
- 1 small strip of Violife vegan feta cheese (other brands are also good), cut into cubes
- a handful of cherry tomatoes (yellow in this salad)
- a handful of mixed greens (spinach, arugula, possibly one more thing I forget right now)
- half a small lemon, for juice
- Instead of an email, I ended up writing a post.
- Speaking of writing, I tweaked my custom AI prompt for “post polish” with Kagi’s assistants (I will expand on this further down the line)
- Due to the above, I also learned that Kagi featured a picture of my blog in their update post.
- The update post itself reminded me how cool Kagi’s small web is, now even better!
- Due to the above, I also learned that Kagi featured a picture of my blog in their update post.
- Playing around with Kagi’s small web, I found another interesting blogger to follow
- Reading the Micro.blog feed, I found out miljko is building an Emacs to Micro.blog package!
- Emacs + Micro.blog + frequnt posts = another person to add to my RSS feeds
- This reminded me about adventures on Micro.blog by Scott. Yet another RSS feed to add.
Lazy Chopped Salad
One of the awesome things that came out of me becoming mostly vegan since August of last year is the farmer’s market.
The walk there, every weekend, takes me about 40 minutes. It’s through the quiet streets and city parks of Upper Manhattan that stand in contrast to its otherwise loud and grungy surroundings. It’s not a particularly big market, just one short street behind a school, but the smaller selection of food (especially since I don’t buy dairy or meat products) motivates me to explore different ways to make food. 📷
One of my more recent discoveries was the extra-firm tofu, which they sell already cut into snack-size, water-free pieces. I sometimes just grab one right from the fridge and eat it “raw”.
Lazy Salad
I call it “lazy” because of how I mix it, and also because I was too lazy to make more food. The tofu makes this filling enough, at least for me.
What’s in it
The cucumber, tomatoes (both not in season yet), and the lemon are from the grocery store. The rest is from the farmer’s market. My local store tries different varieties of cherry tomatoes, but I find the ones I like the most seem to come from Canada. As for the mini cucumber, I grab whatever they have because they often don’t have any. It’s a shame because these cucumbers are tastier, and their size makes them perfect for a quick addition to any meal, or even as a snack on their own, cut into strips with a small dash of spicy salt.
The difference a good knife can make
You can cut all these veggies with whatever knife you have, but it’s the chef’s knife I got not too long ago that makes me want to chop. Vegetables! I mean vegetables, yeesh.
With this knife, it’s easy to cut softer things (like leaves or tomatoes) without a problem. I did watch a couple of YouTube videos explaining a few cutting techniques and how to hold the knife when I bought it. While I’m /far/ from being an expert, I recommend you also watch a couple if you get one. You don’t want any fingers in the salad; this is a vegan recipe after all.
You can see from the picture that I didn’t chop anything too fine. Big enough to stab individual pieces with a fork, small enough that it fits in the bowl you’re going to eat from. Fast and easy.
Middle Eastern salad seasoning
I think most if not all Middle Eastern salads use three main ingredients when it comes to making the salad “dressing,” or as I call it, juice, because that’s what it is. It’s just lemon, salt, and black pepper.
I recommend you find a place that sells black peppercorns that you can grind yourself. You can taste the difference immediately. I get my black pepper at the same place I get my coffee beans (along with the salt, pink Himalayan, which I grind also, but that’s not as important). As for the lemon, get a real one and squeeze it with your hand over a strainer, or get a lemon squeezer. I love my personal portion with half a lemon, but this might be too much for you, so just squeeze it into a spoon and use that if you want less.
Mixing
Add the salt, the pepper, and the lemon on top of the salad. If your bowl is full of salad to the point that pushing a spoon in to mix it means you’ll end up spilling stuff over (as the case was for me), just cover it with another bowl, upside down. Then, above a sink (because some juice will spill out), carefully turn the whole thing over, and back - do this 3 to 5 times, and… it’s ready.
You could make the salad in a bigger bowl and mix it. Actually, you can also use your hands (you washed them, right? And you use them anyway to chop the veggies, so you’ve already touched everything). It is sometimes easier to “massage” the salad gently.
Stuff to change around
You could easily substitute vegetables in the salad depending on what’s available. A red onion (I’d do half) instead of the radishes, or perhaps some Seitan-based meat instead of the feta cheese or the tofu. You could also add almonds or pine nuts to the mix if you feel fancy (want super fancy? throw the pine nuts into a frying pan and heat over low for a few minutes to toast them lightly). You can change the portion or how fine you cut also.
Over the past few days, I’ve been taking walks again. This was something I used to do regularly, but now that I sit here on a park bench, I realize it’s probably only been a weekly habit at best. 📷
Both weather and work kept me away from my walks. With the weather getting better and work pressing, which means I need to reset my brain often, I find myself craving walks more often.
Sometimes I catch myself thinking about how we take certain things for granted. This park, this bench, this pleasant breeze right now; the fact that I can walk at all. It’s all truly wonderful, isn’t it?
Some color goes a long way 📷
It’s Pie day for me.
Well, the pie day was on March (3/14). But every month on the 14th, I decided to have a pizza. Otherwise, I don’t eat cheese. I stopped completely, besides unavoidable butter in some pastries and such. 📷 🍕
More signs of spring 📷
I took a walk and listened to the birds for a moment. It’s always nice to get chances like this in Manhattan:
Oddly Satisfying. 📷
A good day to have a blog
Since waking up early in the morning (sleep? What sleep?) I’ve been active around my blog and enjoyed dedicating time to this personal work that doesn’t get much attention during my day-to-day.
Here are a few things I got into:
Then, thinking about all the stuff I’ve done around my blog today, I thought about expanding my “blog check list”, adding the few items I’ve learn. It is now divided into maintenance and inspiration parts:
* Blog Stuff to do
** Maintenance
- [ ] check taonaw email
- [ ] tinylytics:
- [ ] most popular posts in the last month (3 places)
- [ ] Insights can be interesting
- [ ] new webmentions (under *Account* on the Micro.blog site)?
- [ ] "On this day" if exists:
- [ ] check for typos
- [ ] check for bad links/broken images/missing emojis
- [ ] check plugins (updates?)
- [ ] delete used bookmarks (Micro.blog)
- [ ] photo page (add 📷 to posts)
** Inspiration
- [ ] Check old blog for posts to import
- [ ] Journal
- [ ] Bookmarks (in Micro.blog)
- [ ] RSS feeds!
- [ ] Kagi small web (in browser) for sites
- [ ] Take a random picture
I feel like a very efficient blogger today 😄
We were sitting at their bar, but we also had a mocha and a cappuccino toward the end. Something about the flag and the security camera above it makes things feel relevant and eerie. 📷
On my way to get some fresh vegetables for my usual soup. It’s a good day for that. 📷
Greenland? Nah, just the Hudson, NYC. 📷
