FOUND!

Add a new item to the list of apartment awesomeness:

There are some good things lying around in boxes on the sidewalks within 4 blocks the house around 8 or 9 pm most nights of the week. We picked up all of this at just 3 places last night. Already made compote with the apples and strawberries, scarfed down the grapes with shredded ginger (magic!), I've roasted some of the eggplants for eggplant caviar, and stuffed my face with more fresh strawberries. I should add that the best find we didn't even take, which was so many hardy greens - think collards. But I picked up the winter CSA this weekend, and the fridge is seeping greenage. But point being: this neighborhood is prime free food spot!

In other news, for those keeping track at home...

We were all forced to buy new calendars.

Some hot sailors kissed.

New Brunswick celebrated global warming.

First polar bear swim of the year.

We got a new pet.EP danced with a dog. I thought this was a camera. (It's not.)

What have you done in 2012?

CSA Wish Fulfillment

1st week of CSA was quite satisfying, though according to the veterans in the volunteer corp yesterday, the early weeks are a bit light on the harvest. I am not disappointed, though. I picked up:-spinach
-kale
-romaine lettuce
-cilantro-sage
-thyme
-radishes-garlic ramps
These came in generous bunches, and I even got extras for volunteering!

This is what garlic ramps look like:

First CSA meal included: coconut rice with lemony fried seitan and vegan sage-nutmeg creamed-spinach with coconut milk for the cream. With salty radish on the side and almond bits on top.


The spinach is Bittman's, though the addition of coconut milk to all my cooking should properly be credited to roommatenews.com, that is EB.

CSA Suckas!

Among the many and varied pleasures of summer, I am so excited to be picking up my first CSA share tomorrow. Will report back with the results.

The fact that I already paid for it makes the fact that I will soon stop receiving a paycheck feel pretty okay. Oh, summer.

The Comforts of Home (update)

Two notes to share:

1) Home-made haircuts are OUT. MG has lost his mad skilz. Or perhaps he never actually had any and was just deluding himself/never looking at the back of his head. It's been known to happen.

As luck would have it, though, there is a basement parikmakherskaya just around the corner from my woodland hut that charges 100 rubles* for a haircut, doesn't rush you or question how short and implicitly unfeminine the desired haircut happens to be, does not cause any bleeding of fingers or ears throughout the duration of the haircut, and asks you whether you are indeed Natalie Portman, the person in the picture you brought with you for reference. It was bar none and hands down the most enjoyable (not to mention most decent, and I'm not just eating up the flattery) haircut I've ever received. And whilst I waited, I got to watch some of the most impressive back-combing outside of Memphis happening all around me, for free. Gulia will be seeing me again rel'soon.

Question: how/how much do you tip a stylist on a 100 ruble haircut? Is it kosher to give the receptionist 100 rubles and the stylist 500? Or is that insulting?

*That's $2.90, people.

2) This is a sparrow hawk.


I think these are his eggs.

They are now in this gote's tum tum.

ETA: Okay, okay, okay, maybe not literally his eggs, and maybe not literally captured from the air by yours truly. But maybe his:


Or at least certainly captured by this king of Russky Produkt and at in turn by MasterGote? Or, can we at least agree that shopping in Russia is a kind of hunting? And MG did cunningly find this medal winner in his local cooler section. Enh? Ennnnh?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation...

Step One: Operation Food Decompression: Bahn Mi in Sunset Park. MMMmmmMmmMM:


Step Two: Friends!

Step Three: art + trips => Dia Beacon


Step Four: Hair cut, Kentucky Curtis loves Brooklyn, pledges to vote Obama, MG compared to Rachel Maddow, Irish Haven officially named "Best Bar Ever," konfetki are purchased and consumed, E&A officially named "Best Hosticheks Eva"

Step Five: acquiring new "job skills"


And a SNEAK PREVIEWWWWWW!!!!!

The Solution to the Puzzle Was...

Jellyfish. Brighton Beach is full of jellyfish. And delicious buckwheat. Nina Simone was a gift.