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February 05, 2008

Spaghetti and stuff

Before I forget this one... an invention that Jeff liked. Vegetarian too!

Let's see... I sliced two yellow onions, thinly, and sauteed them in butter and olive oil for about 20 minutes, until they were sweet and yummy. Added a few cloves of minced garlic towards the end of that time. And a teaspoon or so of sugar, just to be sure of the sweetness. Then, while the spaghetti was cooking, I tossed in all the spinach we had - maybe 10 ounces - and let it cook down. Added salt and pepper. I had chopped some Kalamata olives, which I mixed in around then. And at the last minute I decided to put in some Brie, since we still had too much hanging around - I cut off the rinds and chopped it up, then added it. It melted, but not to the point of disappearing. Not TOO much Brie. And then some deliciously toasted pine nuts.

And I think that was it. 'Twas good!

Posted by ktingey at 07:14 AM | Comments (6)

February 01, 2008

Greenishness

We're tossing around this revolutionary idea - can we be a one-car family? We had three cars for an embarrassingly long time, because we were too lame to get rid of one. Now we have the Subaru, and my ancient Tercel (1993!). It's a good little car, but is starting to have some things wrong with it, plus of course to Jeff it's miniscule and horribly uncomfortable - why he chose to drive it to Seattle I don't quite know.

So we were talking about getting a new car or a new used car, but I balked and resisted. I wanted a small car, a hybrid car, and now, finally, no second car at all. Given our lifestyle, do we really NEED two cars? We both work at home, after all. True, when we need another, it's awfully nice to have - if we happen to be going different places one night, or if Jeff has to drive to Seattle. But most days the only driving that HAS to happen is taking Ethan to school. We even carpool on pickups. And if you consider what it costs to maintain and insure a car, much less to buy a new one, one begins to wonder. Or at least I do.

My radical proposal is that we at least try being a one-car family and give it a fair chance. It would mean Jeff likely renting a car when he has to go the office (in Seattle), since flying is even more inconvenient. And environmentally unsound. It may mean that if we're going in different directions, one of us has to - gasp! - take the bus. It's lowering to admit, but I only recently rode the bus in Portland for the first time. I mean, Portland has a great public transportation system. If we had to, we could take the bus all the way to Ethan's school - of course, then I'd be spending two hours getting him there and then getting home again. But I COULD.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Posted by ktingey at 11:54 PM | Comments (8)