Good Days.

Went Hi-Tech Shopping with Vince today. It was fun. I've been archiving video of Roller Derby footage and highlight clips and I ran out of space on my 250GB drive, so I picked up a 750. woohoo! It's copying over right now. It's going to take the rest of my natural life.

I saw a commercial that made me crave biscuits and gravy, and Vince expressed doubt that I could pull it off in the vegan fashion. I took this as a challenge and went home immediately. I called my mom for a refresher on her biscuit recipe (it's amazing, but she is number-averse, so for me it involves a lot of difficult decoding of vague terms into concrete measurements) and decided to get to work.

On the metro ride home, it was quiet until we all heard a voice saying, "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen." Now, normally when someone breaks the silence on the metro, everyone stiffens up, and this was no exception. I personally find it a grave offense when someone asks for petition signatures from every person on the train, or hands out religious tracts, or tries to sell a radio or something. I feel like there is something a little sacred about the silence on the train, that everyone gets this time before or after work for preparation or decompression, with only the clunking of the train and the rushing sound of the tunnel. It can actually be quite relaxing. So when some kid asks me and every other person if we're registered California voters, I resent the intrusion in that captive space, and I resent the interruption of our communal quiet time.
So today, we braced ourselves for whatever this guy was trying to push on us, and then the most amazing thing happened: he pulled out a Rubik's Cube. He continued, "Pardon the interruption, but I have Rubik's Cubes for sale for one dollar. If you have been in the toy store lately, you know that these go for 10 or 11 dollars, so you can save 9 or 10 dollars right now. Rubik's Cube. One Dollar." It took me (and, I think, everyone else) a couple of seconds to let our guard down, but then I'm pretty sure I saw a wave of smiles ripple through the train car as everyone remembered the last time they played with one, myself included. One woman close to him pulled a dollar from her pocket, and then the flood gates were open. Our smiles grew bigger as we saw more and more of us pull out wallets and purses. I coughed up the last dollar in my wallet, gladly. I mean, hey, it's a dollar. And it beats the hell out of someone just asking for it. I'll support that king of entrepreneurship. As we all pulled the plastic off (they were actually Cubos de Colores, Hecho en China), we kept smiling, glancing around at each other, almost giddy. He must have sold at least eight right there, within three minutes. I hope the rest of his day went as well. I know he made some of us happy.

The biscuits turned out pretty well, as did the gravy. I'm going to write this down here so I don't forget it:


Vegeable-mushroom gravy.

1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic

2cups veg stock
3/4 cup soymilk
1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms, chopped into small pieces.
2 tablespoons soysauce
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons flour

sauté the onions in the olive oil until clear, then add the garlic and cook until browned.
while that's cooking, warm up the veg stock and the soymilk together and add the dried mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes to soften up the mushrooms. add the rest of the ingredients, then the onions and garlic when they are good and dark, making sure to put the oil into the gravy mixture as well. stir continuously over low-medium heat until the flour and cornstarch do their job and thicken it all up. Gravy!



The mom-to-reasonable-person translation for the biscuits goes something like this:
"Grab a bunch of flour and put it in a pretty big bowl. Like, a lot of flour" (I'm going to say 2 cups)
"You're using self-rising, aren't you?" (Ok, so a little over 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt)
"Dad says 1 teaspoon of salt, but what does he know? His mom always made them for him". (Ok, fine. 1 teaspoon of salt.)
"Then take like a really big spoonful of shortening." (Um, what size spoon?)
"I don't know, really big." (Ok, let's say between 1/4 and 1/3 cup?) "Sure."
"Then add milk until, you know, it has the right consistency." (I am only able to fill in this one because I lived with this woman and made this recipe with her. I kept track today on my own and it's about 7/8 cup of soymilk)
"Then you put a big pile of flour on the counter and roll it out." (For the record, you should fold the dough over onto itself many times, then roll it out to about 1/2" thick, then use a cup or a circular cookie cutter if you have it, put the biscuits on a greased cookie sheet, and put in the oven at about 400F. For how long, mom?)
"I don't know. I just wait there. You'll know because it will smell like they are done. Then look and make sure they are just a little brown and they're ready." (Sigh. It's about 16-18 minutes.)