Pumpkin curry

I could eat this all the time (if it wasn't for the stinky kitchen afterwards):

Roast some diced onions and garlic in olive oil + butter till they get some colour. Add diced butternut squash or other pumpkin, and some baby carrots (cut in halves). Roast until browned. Add a bit more oil, sprinkle with cumin, curry, kurkuma, coriander, stir fry for a couple minutes more. Then add about a cup of chicken broth and about 1/2 cup of cream and/or unsweetened coconut milk. Cook till everything is soft, maybe add some salt and pepper, serve with basmati rice. Air out the kitchen for the following two days *curry odour lingering everywhere*.

Powell Gardens

Flowers...Butterflies...

and, er, Dinosaurs?
Peekaboo!
(That was the "Jurassic Garden" exhibit. Very fun.)

Critters at Ernie Miller Park

Yay! The weather was, at least for a brief period over the weekend, really nice and not too hot. So I dragged hubby out to see some green, and boy, the first thing we noticed on a patch of prairie grass was this super green praying mantis:

Actually, the black and white makes it stand out even more:

Leaves...
...being eaten by huge nests of webworms (*ick*, but at least they're not spiders):
Those, and the deafening concert of cicadas high up in the trees, made the whole place seem kind of eerie..

But we also saw some "nice" animals, like a large blue heron (too fast for me to take a picture of),

and, finally, a lone baby deer across the creek (who didn't seem worried about us at all - I hope his mother was waiting somewhere in the wings).

Camouflaged Grass

Knitted grass! What will they think of next! The pattern is available for free on the Mochimochi website. Despite my inability to follow a pattern or to, actually, knit, I've bought some green wool. Next: Incomprehension, anger, despair, boredom, followed by me tossing the whole thing and starting something new. Yay!

Best vegetarian burgers. Ever.

I found this recipe for walnut oatmeal burgers on one of my favourite food blogs, everybody likes sandwiches (slightly adapted from My Food Geek's original recipe).

Now I've tried my share of meatless burgers made of beans and grains and tofu and whatnot, but nothing was ever a keeper. This one definitely is. My first thought biting into it was: "This actually tastes like the real thing!", i.e. it had a certain "meatiness" to it, and the texture was just right, juicy and soft. Excellent!

I ground up the walnuts in a (cleaned up) coffee grinder, which made them a little mushy like peanut butter, until I added some of the oats to the coffee grinder to absorb some of that oil, and then it worked fine.

Cooking the burgers in broth after frying them seems odd, but they keep their texture nicely and this is what makes them wonderfully juicy.

I didn't try them with the accompanying garlic lemon green beans *forgot to buy beans at the grocery store* but will definitely have to, since they sound delicious. Instead, we had corn on the cob the first day and Greek pasta salad the second day. Next time, I'll make the whole recipe and see how well the prepared burgers freeze!

And, of course, some more cat pics

Fun with Black & White

Yes, I've finally discovered the black & white function on my camera. Took me only about 3 years. Life is more fun if you don't read the manual. (Or is it?)

What made me happy this weekend:

• Shopping at Michael's craft store
  

• New shoes

• Driving up and down a country road (me at the wheel!) with a very patient hubby

• Burger, onion rings and chocolate shake at Fuddrucker's - a well deserved treat!
  

Thinking cool thoughts...

Does that iceberg almost look like it has teeth? And it's chomping down on the other icebergs? Eww. Cannibalistic icebergs. Now THAT's refreshing!

Excessive Heat Watch! zOMG!

We had almost two hours of heavy thunderstorms last night. Everything was there: rolling thunder, booming thunder, crackling thunder. Constant lightning. What am I doing? Sitting rolled up to a ball on the couch, white-knuckled, watching TV at midnight (Conan O'Brian had a duck on the stage. HAH!). What are hubby and stupidcat doing? They lie in bed, snoring softly thru all the ruckus, the flooding, the balcony planters being blown around. Man.

Omaha, Old Market area

Note to self: Stores don't open before noon on Sundays. Pressing your nose against the windows does not make them open any sooner. The leather jacket store a) is the only one to open earlier and b) has the greatest air conditioning on this planet. I was so happy, I almost would have bought a fleece jacket. 'Nuff said about August in Nebraska...

ConAgra Foods campus & park. Very nice and green.

Second note to self: ConAgra's Andy Capp Steak Fries with Cheddar (french fry-shaped potato and corn chips) are.the.bomb. I'm afraid we're going to have to pick those up on every trip to Nebraska, since they're not available here. Aww.

Gaah!

I'm sorry, I can't post - too busy playing BOGGLE!