Not really a recipe
I have been trying to get into the habit of taking a real lunch to work with me, and making up a batch of brown rice for the week that I can top with stuff seemed like a good idea - it would be filling and easy to throw together in the morning. Unfortunately, while I know brown rice is much better for me than white, I have not yet come around to liking the taste as much. So I decided I needed to make something aggressive enough to put on brown rice, while still being compatible with its flavor. I settled on making a spicy batch of vegetarian chili. Chili is fun, because I just go to the store and wander the aisles looking for stuff I want to throw in. Today, I ended up with:
- a large red onion and a couple of cloves of garlic, sauteed together in olive oil until well cooked,
- two huge carrots shredded finely, two green peppers, two "long hot peppers" (that is what the Giant Eagle called them - no idea what they actually were), and a cup of rehydrated TVP, all cooked in with the onion and garlic for about five minutes until softened,
- two cans of kidney beans, a can of black beans, and two large cans of crushed tomatoes, brought up to a simmer,
- a handful of oregano, basil, and chili powder, two handfuls of cumin, and about four chipotle peppers, after which the whole thing simmered through two periods of hockey.
The end result had a really nice texture (I chopped all my veggies very fine, and while I find TVP fairly flavorless I really like how it binds something like chili together) and a great flavor. It was also incredibly spicy; I have always associated chipotles with a smokey flavor, which the chili definitely has, and didn't think about the added heat. I don't mind, but this is definitely a chili to serve over something, not just to eat a bowl of plain. It also is an insanely huge batch of chili - I can never make a dish like this and not end up with enough for a week of meals and plenty to freeze. Fortunately, chili freezes wonderfully, and I am going to make up containers that I can thaw out and use to make up two or three lunches out of. Next time I would probably leave out the unknown hot peppers and remember to throw in shredded celery as well.
The latest issue of Knitty featured an adorable pattern for 
For this particular nautiloid, I used Red Heart worsted weight acrylic leftovers, with a dark green head and alternating rows of red and orange for the body. I wasn't sure how the alternated color rows would look - they're sort of hard to see even in the pattern images, but it really adds to the spiral effect. The biggest tip I have for making the pattern is to make sure you knit fairly tight as you go along, so that the stuffing doesn't show through, and then to stuff firmly, so the spiral shape really holds up.
Many of the journals and weblogs I read have been sharing their pictures of spring, celebrating the warmth and flowers and green, and I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. There was a particuarly lovely view off my deck this morning, I think. We'd only accumulated three to four inches by this time, but don't worry, it didn't actually stop snowing until early evening.
I hid from last weeks parting blast from winter by watching Buffy re-runs and knitting this vest, dubbed the Zipper "See My" Vest due to the spontaneous outbursts from the Simpson's soundtrack that this project seemed to enduce in onlookers. My 
I'm way overdue in finally photographing the quilt I made over the holidays, so to make up for it, I've put together a fairly extensive write-up about this 
To borrow a phrase from a friend of mine, I am insufferably proud of my latest craft achievment. I've been on a bit of a knitting kick after discovering Elizabeth Zimmerman's books and falling in love with them, and I just finished my first sweater. It's the "Ski Sweater in Color Patterns" from Zimmerman's book Knitting Without Tears, which I would recommend to anyone looking to get beyond scarves and learn some intuition for garment design (the third word in the title lays the stress on the "e" rather than the "a", in case you're a smart alec like my brother and were going to ask...). I made the sweater with Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Ranch Red and Black; I think it took five skeins of red and four of black. I love working with Wool-Ease, and for a first sweater I wanted something cheaper than the expensive boutique yarns (and Wool-Ease isn't too much more than a nice acrylic) but a nice enough yarn I would really wear the sweater. The 15% wool makes the texture nice, and it's a fairly thin yarn so the sweater didn't turn out too bulky - particularly nice since there's always an extra strand being carried along the backside. I just noticed their coming out with Wool-Ease Sport and I'm planning on grabbing a couple of balls to make socks (I've had my eye on the Highland knee sock pattern in Folk Solks but am a bit intimidated). 
By the way, a comment below reminded me that some people don't like cast iron because they were told you can't wash it with soap. You absolutely can use soap in cast iron - just use a gentle liquid soap and don't scour, then dry thoroughly. And when I started using my own I remembered another oddity - don't panic when, the first time you use yours, it appears that you've horribly burned the bottom. Cast iron is silvery gray when you buy it, but well used cast iron is very dark black - obviously, there's a transition period. You can see in this picture how much it looks like I just ruined my pan, but it's fine (though it would appear that I didn't let it heat very evenly...) Eventually, the whole pan will change color, but don't worry if even after a dozen uses it still looks splotchy.