Easter Ceviche

The new job has significantly slowed my posting habits, but luckily Tavo has been a regular poster...his phone has recovered, thank you. (though we didn't try the oven method--Pinknest, that sounded a bit too much for our tendency towards error!!)

So, this was actually put together the day before Easter, because it was balmy and warm. Easter actually dawned quite chilly--but Tavo and I braved the odds and took a walk to many numerous bars and drank in celebration!

Ceviche

Take a lb or two of raw shrimp(or any other seafood, its up to you), shell and cut if desired, and put in a glass or ceramic bowl. Squeeze the juice of 6-7 limes, and let it sit.


Take a tomato or two, onion, cucumber, jalapenos, cilantro and chop them up


I like to seed the tomatoes, and seed and peel the cukes. I leave the jalapeno seeds in, of course.


Mix all together. If you use small shrimp or fish, you can eat this fairly quickly. We decided to cover and set in the fridge overnight. The acid from the lime juice cooks the raw shrimp--crazy, but true.

Serve at cold or room temperature with tortilla chips.

I've heard variations of seafoods, serving sides, etc--how do you like to eat ceviche?

I have the worst luck with cellphones

You can imagine what happened.....

-g.

So, hopefully being the hip, health-concious, urbanites that I know you all are I include these pics in today's post as a celebration of winter finally leaving our fair ATL. Of course you know this is the "NO!!1! They be stealing my bucket" motif. If not: check out this AWESOME SITE and get school'd on the LOLabulary.

-taVo

Tornado hits Atlanta

A tornado ripped through Atlanta last night, really hitting Cabbagetown, the neighborhood directly north of ours. Tavo and I are fine, but some of our friend's places were hit--everyone is okay. More pics to follow. Here's video from CNN of Cabbagetown.

Link to Cabbagetown footage

Fake Chicken Nuggets...have I forgotton the real thing?

I made the Chickpea Cutlets from Isa's book Veganomicon, which is all over the web--here's the link to her blog: Post Punk Kitchen It's a great site, a great show, and I often use recipes from this site.

So, if you read vegan blogs (I do religiously, despite my moderate veggie status--yeah, yeah, I'm nuts for sardines) this recipe has been going nuts on the blogosphere. And I, as someone who hasn't eaten chicken for going on 12 years, think its great too. So I served it to my very picky meat eater friend who is always game to at least try the new recipes.

It didn't fly.

I think it was the fact that I hyped it, because I love the recipe. Maybe that or the fact I baked instead of deep fry. At any rate, I ate mine and his too, and he ate mostly the leftover oven potatoes from Sunday brunch.

What do you think?



Isa's Chickpea Cutlet Recipe:


1 cup chickpeas
2 T olive oil
1/2 cup wheat gluten
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup water or broth
2 T soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 t lemon zest
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t sage

extra oil for frying or baking

Directions:
-Food process chickpeas, oil, broth and soy until no whole chickpeas remain
-Add remaining ingredients and knead for 3-5 minutes
-(For nuggets) press dough into large rectangle, approx 1/2 inch thick, and cut into desired size pieces
-Preheat oven to 375 and bake on oiled pan, 20 minutes. Flip and bake additional 8-10 minutes


-eat with lots of excellent condiments--who knows? Maybe I like it because I'm crazy for condiments? (and wine)

Little Talbot Island

I left Richie and the gang and moved onto Little Talbot Island, an island on the Atlantic Coast in north FL, about 30 miles from Jacksonville.

You have to arrive before 5--but I talked the Ranger into staying until 6 so I could drop Richie at the airport. I arrived at sunset--a bit more tropical than Gennie Springs.


My neighboring campers were...trees. It is so awesome to roll into a site on Sunday night. I felt like a retiree!


Good trails around--this is the "wetland" area nearby--I guess during the spring these end spots are often flooded--they are so beautiful, though. Seriously--there is electric et al at every site; sign up for 34 or 35--you'll have this as your view.



Next day, I decided to hit the beach...I didn't swim here, though.


Lucky enough not to run into alligators the whole trip. I went here.


But even the beach I went to didn't allow swimmers.


The surfers didn't seem to care.


And I found an oddly decorated tree.


I staked out my spot.


And had a simple lunch.


This is the ideal life, seriously. Only thing missing was Tavo--I'm going to bring him here. And force him to eat sardines ;)


Came home to my solo site...only to be shared with beer thirsty raccoons...all good, I can share.


While we're talking beer, how about I beer boil some veggie hot dogs? (seriously--when it comes to hot dogs, eating the veggie is probably just as bad as eating the real deal. Less nitrates, perhaps?)


hmmm...then it stormed. Okay--honestly, it didn't bother me too much. Worth the entire $1 to buy, inflate, and sleep on an air mattress.


I went to the beach in the morning after swabbing out the wet tent, chair, etc. Hopefully they'd dry enough to pack. While at the beach, I encountered a mysterious coconut. I didn't eat it, though I was tempted.


Last look at the beach


and it's time to head home.


Passed some cotton fields--okay--you tell me. Why are there like 5 fields with cotton still on them? Shouldn't that have been harvested in the fall? Or is there "winter cotton" like "winter wheat"? You tell me.


Land 'O Cotton...and cows.


Took back roads as opposed to interstates. Winded up rural Georgia and did it up proper with a picnic by a pond next to a Baptist Church. When I say back roads, I don't joke.


Just can't beat a few days that you don't have to...do.

-Lini

more Gennie Springs...

It's supposed to snow tomorrow in Atlanta--okay, that's crazy. I moved to the South specifically to get away from springtime snow! I think I need to make the ground hog chocolate chip cookies or something next year...

At least it was warm in Florida--I just can't get enough of this place--private campground off some dirt (sand) roads--want to take Tavo there as soon as he gets home!

Here's the crew, sans Deanna and myself--we are all cooking madmen.


Okay, now a pot of my lousy broken percolator coffee--but you can see all the ingredients for some fantastic Cuban coffee coming up-and it DID!-with two Cubans to oversee the process, it was dope.


Deanna and Michael whipped up eggs, sausage, and ridiculous amounts of breakfast goodness.

A slight beside--both Danielle and I were equally intrigued and pleased by the peanut butter and jelly in one jar combination.


..and it was time to hop in the water again!
All these white flowers were blooming--so beautiful


and the only picture I have of the river that I'm not sitting in it


root systems of Cyprus trees are pretty amazing


can't tell, because I wasn't brave enough to actually immerse my camera in water, but there are scuba divers right under us


haha, okay--not him...but here are some "where's waldo" type pics




Here are bubbles from the divers and the springs coming up--hard to determine which is which ;)


the whole crew floating down the river--we floated near, we floated far--when you have hours and plenty of beer, its fine to maintain hollering distance...you can always kick you feet and paddle closer.


Hawks in the tree tops and swooping slowly overhead


Turtles sunning themselves


I was fascinated by the turtles...


more turtles (I actually have about 15 more pics, but I'll spare you)


Michael and the Blue Heron


Lini in a tube

Gennie Springs

I went camping in two places over the last 5 days, and was such a ridiculous shutterbug that I'll break up the posts. This is Gennie Springs, Florida--underground springs that stay around 72 degrees all year and have lots of caves for those wild and crazy scuba divers. Cave diving is one of the most dangerous activities--here's a sign that Richie and Deanna are pondering...


We decided to stick to inner tubes, instead.


But I'm getting ahead of myself. So, last week I quit my job and managed to finagle a cushion of 5 days before starting the new job. Tavo had drill in San Diego, so I knew I was going to be lonely for 2 weeks, and decided I needed to go somewhere warm too. Florida. Only about 5-6 hours to a nice, warm beach--Gulf or Atlantic, I'm fine with both. Discussing at the bar, our friend Richie (see above photo in inner tube) said he was camping with his friends on saturday--did I want to check out Gennie Springs? You bet! Richie and I drove down together, leaving at 6:45 am on saturday morning (pretty impressive, considering he was up until 4 or something friday night!)


The florida welcome center gives you not only free maps, but also Free Juice! Here's our Juice man--he was very cordial.


Richie partook in Orange, I chose Grapefruit.


Onward--here is our campsite.


We met up with Richie's friends from Florida State.

Deanna


her boyfriend Michael--he's staying hydrated. Smart man!


Michael and his girlfriend, Danielle


So, when are we going to eat?

Veggie hot dog for me!

We tubed all evening, then got started on the real food. First, let's get that fire going.


An appetizer of bread


and molten brie



got the grill going?




I didn't eat it, but it looked good--here's the pork tenderloin


and an especially lousy picture of some delicious potatoes


We had asparagus too, but it was eaten before photo op. But look what else came with dinner!

Patron, salt, and a deck of cards. Things proceeded to get rowdy...

and around 4 am we decided to call it a night.

More pics and tubing tomorrow.