repetition is funny

i can't hold it in; i need to share!

i just made my first curry dish from scratch EVAR, and it's awesome. yes, it's simple blah blah blah and probably nothing to be SO proud of blah blah blah. i don't care, i'm proud and i'm sharing.

such an easy recipe. totally vegetarian. and, as northern meals go, very small ecological footprint. I found the recipe here. I used pre-minced garlic and ginger in little jars because it's more efficient than raw stuff up here. and i used half a can of diced tomatoes but not the juice. and what else did i change...? oh yeah, only one onion and no jalapenos. i didn't want hot, just good. i wasn't sure about the mustard seeds, but i happened to have some, so i used them and it turned out really good.

actually, this week has been very (for the north) low impact since we were given an enormous, massive, huge chunk of caribou meat. i'm under-zaggerating when i say chunk... we thawed it out and cut it into 2-pound roasts and got 8 of them. it half-filled the kitchen sink before cutting. i took about one tenth of the whole and made an enormous caribou stew last night. the way i figure it is they gave us basically one half-bum of a caribou.

anyway, i often feel like my ecological footprint is massive when i consider my northern lifestyle. i commit the worst sins ecologically, including frequent flying, transporting my food, heated and refrigerated, over long distances, and living off of diesel-fuelled electricity. pretty dirty living, the north. so it feels good to know that the lentils for tonight's dahl came up on the boat, as did the canned tomatoes, garlic, ginger and spices. boats are less polluting than airplanes (assuming they are properly run and maintained). last night's stew had imported carrots and potatoes, but the meat was local.

it feels good to know that every scrap of wood that comes into town is used and re-used and re-used again. it feels good to know that this month the students' council is going to be campaigning to reduce the town's waste: turn the lights off, don't waste water, reuse all you can.

funny thing: marsha gets mad at me because i wash all our 'recyclables' and leave them on the counter instead of throwing them in the garbage. eventually they all go in the garbage, but she gets annoyed that i don't do it. but i don't even think about it... it just doesn't occur to me to put them in the trash with potato peelings (which really should be going into the composter anyway!) i was well-programmed, wouldn't you say?