Sketchbook #4

Sketchbook #3

Sunshine

The sunshine is coming back, and the winds are a little calmer. I think spring is finally here to stay. The bicycling is pleasant. The air smells like flowers, and it only rains half of the week. It's a nice time of the year to be here, and I don't feel like traveling unless it is on my bike.

Sketchbook #2

Sketchbook #1

I worked on a couple of cartoon sketches this weekend.

Indian Food

I am going to attempt to make a great dinner for my beautiful wife, son, and daughter this evening. It is called "Sukha Gobi Alu Aur Mirch" in Hindi, which translates to Cauliflower, Potatoes, and Red Bell peppers. It is a popular Northern Indian dish that I can actually prepare in a wok. Since we started eating vegetarian, it definitely makes food prep in one sense easier, but in a another sense more difficult. A lot more preparation has to go into it. We try and avoid a lot of fast food. It's a lot healthier for everyone that way. I also feel like it is a more thoughtful thing to do, both environmentally and morally. I do have to give full disclosure that occasionally we "fall off of the wagon" and eat fish.

I've been trying to excercise in the mornings as well. It makes my head a little less foggy from waking up at 4:30 in the morning and makes me a little stronger for my daily bicycle commute, which is 7.69 miles each way. (I know this because of mapquest.) It's relatively hilly around here, so any help that I get is appreciated. I plan on posting more about my daily commutes.

I got this particular recipe from Neelam Batra's book, "The Indian Vegetarian". This particular recipe calls for.
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 serrano peppers
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 tablespoons of ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
3/4 teaspoons of turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
2 cauliflower (about 1 1/4 pounds each) cut into small florets
2 medium size potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 cup seeded and finely diced red pepper
2 tablespoons peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 cup loosely packed finely chopped cilantro (fresh coriander), soft stems included
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon garam masala for garnish (This should be sold in grocery stores). I can also post the recipe for this if want it.
2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro for garnish.

I'll update you on how my cooking endeavor goes this evening. For now, we are watching "Land of the Lost" and are going to get Valentine's Day shakes later.

Last week

Last week we went to the beach. It's still crazy to me to see so much water. It's strange not to see land on the other side. The water is really cold (about 50 degrees), so you don't want to stay in it too long. I almost got knocked over by a sneaker wave and ended up waste deep. Funny how fast that can happen!

The beach has a long tunnel through the side of a cliff from one side of the beach to the other. One beach is sandy and very smooth. It was nice to lay a towel on. Once inside of the tunnel, it is very dark, rocky, and easy to twist an ankle. The other side of the beach is also rocky. It's odd because the two sides of the beach are only separated by a few feet of rock. There are large rocks to climb that are covered with barnacles. There are also strange sea animals that appear to be rocks, but are soft and contract when you touch them. It is like an alien landscape. It was fun to run through the shallow little sea caves in the cliffs that have miniature waterfalls running in front of them. To be so beautiful, the beach had very few people.

After we left the beach, we went to eat ice cream and drove the two hours home.