Adzuki and Me

In addition to my love for music and art, some of you already know that I am a big fan of things I can put in my mouth. Like food. And drinks. To name but a few. I have been cooking a lot at home this last year, as an attempt to save a little bit of money and stave off the boredom of eating the same things everyday, which I tend to do. I've been experimenting with beans a lot, especially as I am not much of a meat eater (I don't eat "cute meats" and only eat fowl and fish about 3% of the time), and I've come up with a few staples that I can whip up tout de suite. Namely, a black bean and edamame salad (I thought I made this up but my friend Gail pointed out that she actually made it first and I totally copied. Oops) and white bean spicy hummus.

I remembered that my mom had given me a vegan cookbook a couple years back--I am not a vegan, clearly, but I have been eschewing most milk products for soy which is wreaking such havoc on my hormones but that is another topic for another blog...anyway I was bored with my black bean repertoire and needed something new and different to spice things up a bit.



Vegan Planet, by Robin Robertson, is a fun intro to Vegan cooking, and I found the perfect recipe for a Middle Eastern bean-lover such as myself: Quinoa Tabbouleh with Adzuki beans.

Now, I had never even heard of an Adzuki bean, much less know what one tasted like, but I trusted Robin and her option to include Adzuki beans in the Tabbouleh. Where does one even find an Adzuki bean? I went straight to my favorite health food store, Perelandra in Brooklyn Heights, and they had dried organic ones in their bulk section (I had to maneuver around a woman who was totally hogging up the bulk food room with her 500 bags of stuff, but I survived).

Adzuki beans are these tiny little pinkish Asian beans that don't get much bigger when you stick them in water. They taste sort of like dirt but in a good way, and add a good amount of protein to a dish--that paired with the quinoa and you are packing a pretty hefty meal, my friends.

I adapted the recipe to my taste, because I must have been a heavy smoker in my former life or something--I always need twice as much seasoning as the recipe calls for. In a nutshell:

1 cup prepared quinoa
2 medium tomatoes (the recipe calls for yellow but I used regular ones)
a bunch of red onion (I eyeballed it, around 1/4 c I guess?)
a bunch of adzuki beans (approx 1/2 to 3/4 c)
lots of cilantro
1/3 c olive oil
a lemon
salt and pepper

I mixed up the tomato, cilantro, onion, and salt and pepper in a bowl, poured the beans in and mixed it together, then added the quinoa once it cooled down. I prepared the dressing: the olive oil, lots of salt and pepper and an entire lemon, and poured it all over, mixing it all together. I stuck it in the fridge for about 1/2 an hour. The cookbook suggests an hour, but I really couldn't wait. I also topped it all off with some labneh , which I pretty much put on top of everything. It was nom nom nom good.


I'm drinking a decent Australian Cab along with it, because that is what I had on hand, but this would taste really good with a Mojito or some sort of lemonade. Next time!

Go with the Flo

My intro to Florence and the Machine was a mere week ago when a friend of mine sent me this video and said
"WATCH THIS."

The first thought that struck me, besides her amazing, booming voice, was her very Stevie Nicks-esque way she twirled and danced on stage.



Fitting, as from what I've read about her, she has dabbled in witchcraft herself.

I'm not normally a big fan of chick rock, although I actually did obsess about Stevie Nicks just a tad when I was a teen...but Florence Welch is a breed unto herself, I think. She can go from being very PJ Harvey, as in the song "I'm Not Calling You a Liar", and, in my opinion, sound almost Grace Slick-ish in what is my anthem of the hour, "Cosmic Love".

The song "Between Two Lungs" has a sweet, almost 60's sound to it, which is definitely not my thing, yet I find myself listening to it on repeat, feeling like a teenage girl who's locked herself in her room to fantasize about her hunky high school crush.

Check out this remix version of "Cosmic Love", courtesy of The Music Slut, and tell me you're not hooked!

It's a Small World (NSFW)

In the last year or so I have had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with photographer Sarah Small and her photography.

I am a great fan of Sarah's work, it being equal parts humorous and dark, beautiful, and sometimes disturbing.

One of her most recent projects, a book for Toys in Babeland called Moregasm, features beautiful images of beautiful people, accompanying a very modern how-to sex book (I'd like to interject that a male friend and I actually considered posing for some of the pictures before remembering that our friends and family might actually see said pictures...but I digress).

Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the opening night of Sarah's exhibit The Delirium Constructions at the Tribeca Y Gallery. Each image invokes contemplation as to why the subjects have been placed together in certain situations. Here are some of my favorite images from her show.


©Sarah Small


©Sarah Small


©Sarah Small


©Sarah Small

The exhibit will be up at the Tribeca Y Gallery through March 26th. Unfortunately for you they won't be serving the delicious Belgian Delirium Tremens beer (interesting name for a beer, no?). You can also see a wide variety of Sarah's work here.

Christina Hendricks for New York Magazine

Being one of the few people who work in advertising (or maybe even the UNIVERSE) who doesn't watch Mad Men, I never really paid attention to the characters or the actors who played them. I mean, everyone knows who Jon Hamm is, of course, I don't live under a rock, after all! But other than Don Draper, I really didn't know the difference between the characters on the show, they all sort of looked the same to me.

And then I discovered Christina Hendricks while watching the Golden Globes this year. I'm sure I'm the last person in captivity to have noticed Christina's, er, golden globes, but being a woman of curves, I have grown to embrace, appreciate, and applaud beautiful women with shapely, feminine bodies.


(via http://justjared.buzznet.com/)

Christina appears on this week's issue of New York Magazine, and the photography by Marco Grob is stunning.



I was particularly in awe of the inside shot, lit so beautifully and enhancing ALL of Christina's assets. I kind of can't stop staring at it.



Well, if Jon Hamm wasn't enough of a reason for me to jump on the Mad Men bandwagon, maybe Christina will be an incentive. Anyone got a copy of the DVD you wanna loan me?

Joey L and the Cradle of Mankind

Last Saturday I ventured into the urban jungle of Long Island City in support of photographer Joey L's opening, the Cradle of Mankind.

The show, curated by the fabulous ladies at Heart Art Productions , Celeste Holt-Walters and Audrie Lawrence, was housed at The Foundry, a gorgeous 19th century building that was the perfect backdrop to Joey L's cinematic images of natives of Ethiopia.

20 year old Joey L already has quite an impressive portfolio of images as well as extensive travels under his belt. These particular portraits of folks from various Ethiopian tribes are stunning; all of the subjects seems quite relaxed in front of the camera and clearly trust the photographer to do their likenesses justice.

The portraits were displayed throughout The Foundry with a soundtrack provided by Karaoke Killed the Kat's Chris Goldteeth and Lord Easy, and free-flowing booze. There was also a production company shooting footage of the party for a documentary about Joey L and his travels (I think I did a really good job of avoiding the cameras--nobody needs to see my silly mug on tv!)

Congrats to Joey L and Heart Art Productions for an awesome turnout and beautiful show! Check out the pics, courtesy of Celeste Holt-Walters:

It's More Than Just Sleepyhead

(image via artistdirect.com)

As I have mentioned before, I am a bit of a music fan.

I don't purport to be any kind of expert or music snob, I like what I like, tending to lean toward the indie-ish variety. I am never one to be the "first" to discover bands, and I can sometimes be a little predictable (coughanimalcollectivecough) but I make no excuses, I know what I like!

I first heard Passion Pit when they played with Phoenix over the summer, my friend Kathy had gotten me tickets and, not really knowing either band, I went blindly. As much as Phoenix were the main attraction, I found myself very drawn to the dancey vibe that Passion Pit had going. A half hour in and I was hooked.

(video for "Sleepyhead", which is also now, unfortunately, featured in a Palm Pixie ad--darn sellouts!)



Kathy and I went to see these darlings again last Friday at Terminal 5, a venue that I really WANT to love, but I can't seem to. It tries to be a medium-sized concert space, with two upper levels of balcony that in theory should be really great--and they ARE, if you have no desire to watch the band perform whatsoever. After multiple tries finding space around the balcony that would enable us to actually see what was going on, and almost taking down overzealous teenyboppers in the process (more on that in a sec), we found our way back down to the floor and had to be satisfied with standing behind some freakishly tall puberty-aged boys (hooray growth hormones!)

Now, I do not my fancy myself an "old" person, regardless of my physical age..and I have been to my share of GA shows and stood in the front row, without second thought. However, when sharing space with overamorous, over intoxicated kids (I'm thinking ranging from 16-20), I suddenly feel like I've instantly turned into my grandmother. And not in that "let me bake you brownies and give you money" kind of way.

The band started with "I've Got Your Number" and from the first note we were surrounded by flailing bodies heaving themselves at the stage, each other, and us. Many were wearing flashing neon jewelry, rings that blared like strobe lights, that they were utterly mesmerized with. Two kids next to us fluttered their hands in front of their faces, obviously entranced by their flashing rings, and spent almost the entire show photographing or filming their hands. Teen couples dirty danced while making out voraciously to songs like "Moths Wings" and "Little Secret". So very romantic, especially the one couple who stood swaying in a spoon, his face buried in her neck for about 3 songs until they skittered off to do more Ecstasy (I assume).

At one point a kid lit up a cigarette next to me, and the grandmother in me came out again as I pointed my finger and tsked. "You can't smoke in here!" Grandma fumed. He looked at me, scowled, and kept puffing away.

Regardless of such distractions, Passion Pit puts on a fun show. Lead singer Michael Angelakos voice does well live, and if dancing is your thing, then this is definitely a band to check out. Just be respectful of your concert neighbors--and be sure to step carefully over the half-passed out dude slumped over on the floor of the exit on your way out.

America's Refrigerators

I stumbled upon this photo essay at Art Bistro, a really great community for artists and people who love art.

As someone who loves food, photography, and voyeurism, I thought this was pretty brilliant.

Mark Menjivar, a photographer in San Antonio, TX, photographed the contents of various peoples' fridges, and then includes information about said people.

Here are a few of my favorites:


(c) Mark Menjivar (via artbistro.monster.com)

The woman who resides in this household can bench press over 200 pounds. Note the snake in the freezer.





(c) Mark Menjivar (via artbistro.monster.com)

This person is the owner of a defunct amusement park, and a former WW II Prisoner of War. He really likes packaged foods, canned goods and fruit cups!

You can see more over here or at http://markmenjivar.com/.