Dear blog,

I apologize for neglecting you. You mean so much to me. My convoluted musings need a home and you’ve been great about giving them a couch to crash on.

Here’s why I’ve been away…

I’m working with a small web development shop. Actually, I co-founded this little web shop. We wanted to do something meaningful using our skills to help with Haiti relief. In our quest, we found some amazing techie types who were also moved to volunteer their time – including the awe-inspiring innovative crowdsourcing efforts of Ushahidi and Crisis Commons.

To make a long story short, our contribution is a web site that established a network between highly skilled people who want to volunteer to help Haiti and the organizations and individuals who can use their experience and talents. We felt desperate to do something to help and this was what we came up with.

The site has taken on a life of its own: thousands of visitors and hundreds of registered users. Now we’re hearing that people have used the site to connect with other volunteers and organizations, some even forming specialized teams that are planning ways to restore Haiti’s infrastructure in areas such as water and sewage engineering.

It’s a small contribution but we hope it helps. Sadly, it left me little time to think, let alone spend quality time with my blog. Hope you understand. I’m back…

The deep freeze of  ’10, O’ Ten or whatever we’re calling it, has left me committed to learning how to make delicious casseroles. Any excuse to keep the oven on while standing nearby.

I am a recipe rebel. I got the basic premise for this one from a one-pot cookbook I snagged at a sale, but I took many liberties. Fortunately, it turned out amazingly well, as evidenced by everyone getting thirds.

Here’s the lowdown on my version. Let me know if you try it.  Bon appetit.

Inventory

1 large onion

3 small zucchini

Generous number of garlic cloves

½ Cauliflower

½ cup Broccoli

1 yellow and 1 orange pepper

3 turnips

1 cup roasted carnival or butternut squash

½ package soft tofu

1 cup cooked black eyed peas or 1 can

Fresh thyme

Teaspoon sage

Teaspoon oregano

1 ½ cup all purpose flour

1 egg

¾ cup rice milk

Sea salt

Butter or butter substitute

Olive oil

Fresh pepper

Teaspoon White wine vinegar

Tabasco sauce

1/3 cup Vegetable broth

Execution

1. Roast squash —- rub it in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover in aluminum foil and stick in oven at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (until soft)
2. Roast veggies—- chop em to around the same size ( ½-1 square inch-ish),  mix together  and stick them in a 1-2 inch deep glass dish. Mix 4 tablespoons of olive oil with a teaspoon of vinegar, salt, pepper, fresh thyme, sage, Tabasco sauce, and pinch of cayenne pepper. Coat the veggies with the mixture. Let them roast in the over uncovered for about ten minutes. Remove from oven, cover, return to oven for ten more minutes.
3. Blend tofu, seeded and peeled squash, veggie broth, tablespoon of butter, ¼ cup rice milk, salt and pepper (use a blender or beater).
4. Remove veggies from oven. Mix with tofu blend and black eyed peas.

Sift flour with teaspoon of salt. Rub Four tablespoons of butter into flour. Add oregano, salt, pepper. Beat egg with ½ cup milk. Add enough to flour mixture to knead into malleable dough. Roll out dough. Cut out biscuits (I used a little star-shaped cookie cutter). Arrange biscuits on top of the veggies. Return to oven and bake until the biscuits brown. Serve with aged parmesan cheese sprinkled on top (optional).

I found out this weekend that Kim Kardashian makes mucho dinero ($10,000 according to my source) for each time she tweets product endorsements. Makes me wonder if booty implants would have been a better investment than graduate school.

I love Yael Naim’s version of “Toxic” and this performance on French television. It’s worth comparing it to Britney doing the same song on stage. And this would probably considered one of Britney’s better television performances. Pop really kills the soul out of a song, huh. I’m sure that the songwriters are grateful to Yael.