Jack Crossen’s Wordpress Blog

I really like the photograph “Airstream Trailer: Home on the Range” by Eric Curry. You can watch how he made this photograph on YouTube - Painting With Light

When it’s quiet and still - the day a potentiality.

Who knows what adventure and opportunity await?

Thank God for this morning and every morning - a chance to start fresh.

If you happen to be in Seattle, Hillside Quickie’s Cafe on Capital Hill, has a BBQ on the 4th of July.

Anthony Bourdain said that some of the worst food he ever had was at a vegan cafe in Berkeley. Unfortunately he has a point - vegan food can be pretty bad. Some vegan cafes have cooks/owners who started a business based on political or life-style choices, rather than with the idea of preparing food that tastes good. Not true for Quickies - they know how to cook and I’d say some of the best food I’ve had anywhere was from them. The Tacoma location is my favorite - totally laid back Rasta-style. They sometimes answer the phone, sometimes they are open, that sort of thing. I don’t want to make it sound like it’s not a great place, everyone is really nice and I like the fact they aren’t obsessed with time and the phone. The most amazing thing to me are the baked goods but their entrees are very good - the mac and yease is ymmmm good.

If you can’t make it to Seattle and live in the North-end, both Gorditos and the Sno-Isle Natural Food Co-op have tasty vegan food.

I was looking at the picture of the big container of Horchata in Wikipedia and thought that drink looks tasty.

I was wondering where I might get myself one of those drinks in this neck of the woods and I see my favorite Mexican restaurant Gorditos has the two traditional drinks - horchata and agua fresca made with the fresh fruit of the day.

Next time I order their vegan burrito I’m going to get a horchata and an aqua fresca.

Making your own agua fresca sounds pretty simple. When the local fruit starts getting ripe I’ll try making a strawberry, peach, watermelon, blueberry or other fruit agua fresca. It sounds simple enough - blend some fresh fruit, add water and sugar - maybe a sprig of mint or lemon wedge.

Making your own horchata sounds a little more adventurous. I’ve seen recipes that say to cook the rice first (with comments that the drink doesn’t turn out…or it does) and other recipes that say to soak the rice overnight and ones that involve straining the blended rice with a cheesecloth. I think the way to go might be to just buy some rice or almond milk - add cinnamon, vanilla and other horchata spices/flavorings.

This is a cute video of Daniel and Daniela from Costa Rica making some Savory Mountain Bread to eat, and horchata to drink with rice milk, cinnamon, cocoa powder, allspice, clove, and brown sugar.

This video shows how to make Vegan Mayonnaise and an Eggless Spanish Omelet (In Spanish)

The vegan mayonnaise ingrediants are:

1/2 lemon
1/3 glass soy milk
1 glass sunflower oil
pinch salt
1 tsp dry mustard (optional)

It’s best to use a high-speed hand blender so the mayo gets nice and fluffy.

The Spanish Omelet is simply cubed fried potatoes and onions that are added to a mixture of chickpea flour and water (or soy milk) and then that mixture is fried in an omelet-like shape and topped with some of the veganaise.

The 2009 Burning Man Art Theme is Evolution. If your an arty type you can submit for a grant to build an art project, or you can send in a design for this year’s sticker (the deadline is June 14th).

The details are in this forwarded email -

“This is the official call for designs for the 2009 Burning Man
stickers. Your design could be THE sticker passed out with the
materials you receive as you pass through Greeters Station upon
entering Black Rock City. Other intelligent designs will become
various sticker schwag passed out randomly on and off the playa
throughout the year.

Don’t you just love driving down the road and seeing a fellow burner
with a “BRC” sticker? So do we! That’s why we are looking for
designs for the 2009 car stickers. This sticker is traditionally
printed on clear vinyl and can be square or round. Designs for the car
window stickers should be 2″ by 2″ if square and 2″ in diameter if
round. Please make sure sticker designs contain the Burning Man name
and the year 2009. This sticker is limited to only TWO colors.
Please design accordingly.

Designs for the “other” stickers can vary in size from 2.25″ by 5.5″
to 3″ by 3″. Round stickers are 3″ in diameter. Please incorporate
both the name Burning Man and the year 2009 into your design. These
other sticker designs are limited to TWO or THREE colors. Please
design accordingly.

Whichever type of sticker tickles your fancy (or maybe you’re very
ticklish and want to enter several sticker designs), remember there IS
a theme, and we like stickers that attempt to use that theme. This
year’s theme is “Evolution”. Read up on it at:

2009 Art Theme: Evolution

Wondering how to get your sticker designs to us? Well, if at all
possible, please post your creation on a web page and email the URL to stickers@burningman.com otherwise, send in a color separated vector
Adobe Illustrator file to stickers@burningman.com. Whether sending
your design or questions, please put “STICKER DESIGN” in the subject header.

The deadline for sticker design submissions is Sunday June 14th.
Natural selection to follow soon after, so don’t be late!

Once again, all artwork selected for stickers needs to be submitted in
a color separated vector Illustrator file in the actual size the
sticker is to be produced.”

Best Deals of the Week at TigerDirect.com

I quit watching cable news after the Presidential election but I get most of the political news I need from John Stewart.

Book Review - ‘Magic Bus - On the Hippie Trail From Istanbul to India’ by Rory MacLean - Review - NYTimes.com.

“They didn’t see we can only live in happiness if we conquer the restless dream that paradise is in a world other than our own.”

There are three Quickie vegan cafes in the Seattle/Tacoma area.

I’ve only eaten at the Quickie Too in Tacoma and it’s the best vegan food I’ve ever had that I didn’t cook myself. Their mac and yease is better than mac and cheese - it’s light, browned nicely in an oven, has the healthy goodness of nutritional yeast and is nicely spiced. They have good cookies too. Yelp contributors give Quickie Too 4.5 out of 5 stars which is high for any restaurant let alone one that serves vegan food.

They don’t give out the recipe for the mac and yease but I made a pretty close approximation using crumbled soda crackers, garlic sauteed in olive oil, nutritional yeast and a little Bragg liquid aminos combined with cooked mac and baked until brown on top. Bread crumbs would be better since the crackers leave a bit of a soda taste, but I couldn’t find any vegan bread crumbs and didn’t feel like making my own. Next time I’ll probably dry some bread in the oven and use that for the crumbles.

I’m on Quickies mailing list and found out that they have started a Sunday brunch at their Seattle Capital Hill Location.

The email says,

Come out on Sunday to our capitol hill location and try our newly
developed Sweet Southern Sunday Brunch. The new menu is awesome with
everything from biscuits grits and gravy to vegan crepes so come give
it a try

I’m hoping to make it down there one of these Sundays.