Mr. Lee! and Christian the Lion

I have to say, this is one of the cuter things I have seen in a while. Pictures from kitties point of view! My favorites are when you can see his whiskers in the picture. It surprises me that the camera doesn't always point more downwards and that it looks up when Mr. Lee looks up.

In other news - The men who raised Christian the Lion were on the Today show today! They were all about conservation and how it was more normal to have an exotic animal back in London in the late 60s. They introduced him back into the wild with the help of George Adamson.

Trilobites!!!

Trilobite eyes are compound eyes made of calcite!!!

I love trilobites, btw, because my dad read the Cartoon History of the Universe to me and my brother when I was in like first grade, and trilobites were in there and they were so CUTE!

This trilobite picture reminds me of Gregor, who kind of has a soft spot in my heart because he was sad and got an apple stuck in his shell.


I learned this from History channel's Evolve series on the Eye! It has lots of other interesting things in it too.

McCain Is Scared!

So, McCain has lowered himself to attacking Barack's person, saying he would rather win an election than a war. First of all, I don't remember McCain being so petty in the past. Some politicos on a Sunday morning news show I was watching agree with me - that this sort of thing is below the old McCain. Unfortunately, he has centered his new ads around this idea - playing into Americans fear of "the other." I think this is pathetic and it saddens me. Hopefully it will really only resound with the backwater hicks that would have voted for McCain anyway. Honestly, I don't really think of him as much of a war hero anyway, since he sucked at flying and graduated at the very bottom of his class at the Academy. He was probably a cocky asshole when he was young anyway.

ANYWAY. This is all besides the fact that I'm not even sure if this counts as a war right now. What constitutes a war? Isn't this just an occupation almost? Didn't Bush already declare victory for the "war"? I'm not sure if this "war" can be won anyway, its not like you can wipe all the violent people in the world out. I don't think there will ever be an end to violence over there.

Pesto & Pepperoncini Pizza

This was yummy -

1 pre-made pizza crust
sun-dried tomato pesto
garlic
olive oil
grated italian cheese blend
pepperoncinis!
olives

Smear olive oil on - cut up garlic roughly - bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes to soften garlic. Smear pesto on, load up with cheese, pepperoncinis and olives. Bake until cheese is melty and golden brown, YUM.

I will admit that I got heartburn from this pizza though, but it was worth it!

I ain't 'fraid of no 'poo!

Sooooo. Many of you haven't heard of this particular movement, BUT there are people around the country abandoning shampoo for a more natural approach. I, myself, have officially been no 'poo for one week.

Day 2 of No 'Poo:


Why would someone do this, you might ask. Well, everyone has their own reasons. Personally, I was sold by a comment made on this blog by a woman who sounds like was in a similar situation to mine - could get curly hair with the use of a lot of product, but then when she went no 'poo, her hair ended up being in gorgeous shiny ringlets! I want shiny ringlets! So anyway, that was pretty much it for me, and since I'm off the boys right now, I figured now was the perfect time to go through an ugly phase, if my hair did turn gross and greasy and disgusting during the transition. Plus, its fun to experiment with different things sometimes. I mean, our hair didn't evolve to be shampooed everyday, so I figure something interesting will come of this, at least.

Day 4 of No 'Poo (Did a vinegar rinse the night before):


One of my initial concerns was that I didn't want to smell like a dirty head of dreadlocks. Not that all dreadlocks are dirty... But you know what I mean. I was assured by this article that my head wouldn't smell. After all, you do still "wash" it everyday in the sense that you get it wet and rinse it whatnot.

Day 5 of No 'Poo!:


So, during this week, I took a shower everyday and worked through my hair a lot with my fingers to try to distribute whatever grease was up there. At first, it just felt waxy more than greasy. I did a vinegar rinse (link above) on the night of the 3rd day, and the waxy feeling gave way almost instantly to a smoother, silkier feeling. As you can see, it fluffed up nicely everyday. Ever since I cut my hair shorter, I've been going for the super volumized curly sort of 80s look. I am pleased to say that I have been able to maintain this without shampoo OR any styling products whatsoever. Some other blog that I can't remember said that you can wash with a little commercial conditioner and that it will clean it up a little, so I actually did that the 5th day or so. I did another vinegar rinse the night of the 6th day. And then, this morning, one week after my last time shampooing, I tried the baking soda "wash" followed by a vinegar rinse. For those of you who are wondering - I actually also used styling products last night and it worked perfectly, super giant and curly ;)

Day 8 after no 'poo!:



I happen to think that I have the right kind of hair for this sort of thing - coarse, wavy, and lots of it. I think I will keep going with it for a while and see what happens. As a side note, I found FOUR gray hairs while checking out my head this week. Makes you think about your own mortality, that.

UPDATES:
2.5 weeks no 'poo
4 weeks no 'poo

O-BAM

I love Jon Stewart.

Also, McCain is just coming off as a sore loser, an angry old man. That's the way I see it, at least.

Oh no!

This is very sad.

That's what I'm talking about

This is awesome. Makes me very happy. You know, I haven't bought an album in like 6 years, I might just consider buying Nas' new one.





I heard about this from a MoveOn.org email, btw.

INDUSTRIAL

Also, I have a new piercing. It's a week and two days old, and I tell ya, these people are amazing, I have no idea what they did, but I can sleep on it and its not doing anything weird. Best piercing ever.

Oil Speculators Out!

Here is an article by one of my senators out here in Colorado, Ken Salazar. They actually have a pretty interesting family history, you should check it out. (Can't find a link right now...) ANYWAY, I am happy that at least someone is talking reasonably about drilling for oil. I bet most Coloradans would be against nasty out of staters coming in and wrecking all our wilderness anyway. Coloradans love their wilderness.

Catching Up... & Madison ROCKS

Madison is the number 3 healthiest city in America, AND they showed the Union terrace on the Today show. Le sigh. Here's the video, they talk about Madison first, briefly.



AANNNNDDD....
Here are all the cool links I've run into for the past few weeks that I've wanted to share with THE WORLD.


Christian the Lion is so sweet, I cried every time.

Nintendo is BACK.

This article entertained me a for a good few hours, looking through all the links. I was literally laughing out loud at work. In my defense, it was a Friday afternoon...

Turco's Mac N Cheese Pizza

My friend Amy was bragging about how she got to eat Ian's Mac N Cheese Pizza tonight for free because they're opening a location in Chicago. I decided I could make my own damn mac n cheese pizza. I subsequently decided that "Michelle's" wasn't a good name for a Pizza joint, I would have to stick with "Turco's". Way more Italian. Am I right, or am I right?

Pre-made pizza crust of some sort
Garlic
Olive oil
Mac & Cheese
Salt
Grated Italian cheese mix

Make the mac and cheese like it says on the package. I used a fancy organic kind because I roll like that. Brush olive oil onto pre-made crust, sprinkle with some salt and minced garlic for good measure. Slice up some garlic cloves into large chunks, roll in the olive oil, and bake for 10ish minutes at 350 to soften the garlic. Finish up the mac and cheese and spoon that baby on there. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top of it. Bake at 350 for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is delicious golden brown on the sides and all melty-yummy. It's genius.

Best Potato Mush Ever / Vegetarian Cottage Pie!

Potato Soup

Every Once in a While, I get a crazy thought like, ‘Maybe I’ll try a liquid-only diet!’ So I made this potato soup since I have all this stuff just sitting around. Turns out, its more semi-liquid than liquid but it is SO delicious.

5 smallish red potatoes
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
2 tbsp olive oil
half bag of frozen peas & carrots
1/2 bag of some flavor of instant potatoes (I had butter & herbs)
3/4 bag onion soup mix
1/4 – 1/2 c half & half
1/4 c butter (half a stick)
~2 c water
1 bay leaf
salt
pepper
minced garlic
parsley
dried chives
some chicken bouillon if you’re not veg – I cheated

Cook the potatoes, chop them up!
Soften up the onions in the olive oil, add the garlic at the last moment (~30 sec), before adding some water and potatoes.
Blend up about half this mixture until smoothish. Return to pot.
Add more water if needed, frozen peas & carrots and onion soup mix and bay leaf, heat until near boiling.
Add instant potatoes and stir around well.
Add half and half and butter and all the spices how you like them.
Heat and mix until everything is nice and yummy.

I eat mine cold or room temp because I heard the complex carbs are better that way and heating them up destroys them, but that may or may not be a myth. (Note: Wikipedia says its true, and they have a reference I'm too lazy to read right now) It’s excellent however you want it. IMO.

Cottage Pie!!!!

So, I took the leftovers of the above and made a lovely cottage pie type thing. Find some random savory pie recipe off the internet - make sure you don't overwork it like I do EVERYTIME - put it inside a pie tin or oven-safe bowl. Split the leftover potato mush into two - Mix one part with Quorn grounds in some pleasing ratio, put in the bottom of the pie crust. Overlay with remaining potato mush. The savory crust could use some salt or garlic sprinkled on it. This was very yummy, IMO.

Best Banana Bread on the Planet (No Eggs!)

I had overripe bananas but no eggs! Finally I found a recipe online that didnt call for eggs. I actually combined a couple recipes. This uses more banana than normal, so its extra yummy and moist. Also, you can add more sugar if you want.

No Egg Banana Bread

½ cup sugar (evaporated cane or brown)
½ cup butter (unsalted) VEGAN: Try using 1/2 c apple sauce & 1/2 c oil
4 bananas, mashed
2 cups flour (1 cup organic white & 1 cup whole wheat spelt)
½ tsp baking soda
¼ cup half & half VEGAN: soy/rice milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
Handful of diced dates
Handful of diced pecans

Preheat Oven to 350 F
Spray pan
Mix flour, baking soda, salt, spices
Cream softened butter and sugar together separately
Add mashed banana, milk, vanilla to creamed butter & sugar, Mix.
Combine wet and dry, mix well.
Add to pan
Bake 1 hr to 1 hr 10 min.

Glaze!: 1 c powdered sugar, 2 tbsp lemon juice, ½ tsp vanilla

Tip: I actually don't mash the last banana as much because I like the chunks of the banana in the bread.

I brought it to work and got compliments on it, this is really killer banana bread, people! In the future, I will try to replace some of the butter with "healthy" oil or apple sauce. ALSO, I do live in Boulder, CO, so I don't know if baking at sea level would change it or not.

Let me know how you guys like it!!! Especially if you did any recipe alterations or tried the vegan version.

Mango Salsa & Catfish!

Story is, I made the mango salsa and realized it wasn't really the best for eating with chips - but it sure sounded super yummy with some fish! Be sure that it gets caramelized in the oven. Of course, you can use any white fish, catfish is just what I had around. Seriously, when I tasted this, I couldn't believe that I made it.

Mango Salsa
2 mangoes
1 peach
¼ sweet onion or ½ smaller onion
1 clove garlic
2 serrano peppers
2 kiwis
juice from ½ lime
1-2 tbsp chopped cilantro leaves
1 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

Chop everything into small pieces as you cook. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and cook onions for about 5 minutes, adding the garlic for the last minute. Add mangoes, peach, and serrano peppers as they are chopped. Add lime juice, brown sugar, and salt. Sautee until onions and mangos are soft and caramelized. Remove from heat. Add kiwis and cilantro.

Catfish

thawed catfish fillets
rosemary
ground multi-colored peppercorn
paprika
cayenne pepper
oregano
minced garlic
juice from ½ lime
1 tbsp olive oil
mango salsa

Put the olive oil and garlic in the bottom of a foil-lined pan and flip the catfish fillets in it to distribute evenly. Sprinkle the oregano, cayenne pepper, and paprika across the fillets. Spoon the mango salsa along the sides and in between the catfish fillets. Sprinkle the rosemary and pepper across the fillets. Juice the lime onto the fillets. Bake the fish until almost cooked through. Then broil the fish until fully cooked and the mango salsa is slightly blackened and caramelized on the edges. Delicious!

Yay!

So, I've wanted to start a blog for various reasons for some time now... For recipes, test-runs, and the like. I always thought it might be hard, but all these other people were doing it, so it couldn't be so bad. Just as long as I don't have to touch any HTML - I am sick of dealing with HTML.

The blog is named after what my pet sitter calls my crew, "Georgie & Co." Which is what they are. Georgie being my cat, and the rest of the crew including Simon (cat), 2 lovebirds, 4 fish, and 2 recently deceased snails. Actually, I'm probably selling the birds soon, but fish and cat are still a company, dammit, so the name stays! If I ever get my act together, I may start an Etsy site selling semi-homemade goodies under the same name! So, watch out!