Chili Sin Carne

Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients. This hearty, vegetarian chili can be made in under an hour. We made it last weekend for the first time and it was delicious. This recipe serves 10 and would be perfect for a football (or cricket?) party.

• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced (1 ½ cups)
• 2 carrots, diced (1 cup)
• 1 small bell pepper, diced (1 cup)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (4 tsp.)
• 1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes with juice
• 1 15.5-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 15.5-oz. can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 12-oz. pkg. veggie crumbles (or if you couldn’t find them, like us, use veggie sausage)
• 2 Tbs. chili powder
• 1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 Tbs. light brown sugar
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 10-oz. pkg. frozen corn

Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, and sauté 2 minutes. Add carrots and bell pepper, and cook 2 minutes more. Add garlic, and cook 1 minute, or until fragrant. Stir in 2 cups water and all remaining ingredients except corn, and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Fold in corn and ½ cup water, and simmer 10 minutes more.

Serve with shredded cheese on top and crusty bread on the side. Perfect for a fall day!

On the last night of our vacation, we took an evening kayak tour of a bioluminescent bay in Puerto Rico. Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Fireflies are a common example. The living creatures that we experienced were dinoflagellates.

We arrived to a small harbor that sits very far east of San Juan just around sunset. It was just light enough to get our bearings from land before we hopped into a two-person ocean kayak. We were among 20 kayaks on the tour and each kayak was outfitted with a green glowing ring in the front and a red glowing ring in the back. Think glowsticks in the shape of a circle from a 1992 rave.

We paddled single-file and zig-zagged through the moored boats in the harbor until we reached a small opening in a forest of mangrove trees. We later learned that these were red mangroves and dinoflagellates survived by eating its tannins that colored the water red from its immersed branches. Once we were in the maze of mangroves, we were glad that every kayak had the green and red lights. There was no other source of light. Even the night sky was obscured by the mangroves that were snarled above our heads.

The trip into the bay was against the current and it took us a solid 25 minutes to reach the open lagoon. As we approached, I noticed that the water turned a radiant light blue every time my paddle dipped into the ocean. With no other lights around, it was an eerie yet calming effect. The intensity of the light increased as we entered the open bay. We huddled in a pack of kayaks in the middle of the bay for a few minutes as our tour guide explained the bioluminescene effect to us. He said that the reason for the effect could be a defense mechanism as the light grows brighter when the organisms are disturbed, although there was no empirical evidence to prove this theory.

Our guide then invited us to dip our arms in the water as deep as we could. I looked down and it looked like a million sparkles floating through the water. As soon as I touched the surface, the water surrounding my hand and arm lit up a gorgeous bluish white. Swishing my arm faster and faster underwater only intensified the chemical reaction. I was transfixed as I used my paddle to create even more disturbance in the water. I never could see any of the dinoflagellates themselves — only the trace of light they emitted.

My favorite moment was scooping up water in my cupped hand. By this time in the tour, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness and I could make out even the smallest specks of light. My hand was full of sparkling movement which eventually stuck to my palm as the water seeped through my fingers. It was like unlocking some kind of alchemical mystery.

Last week I was in Luzern, Switzerland for all of 36 hours. It was a brief stop with one long day of meetings before continuing my journey to Bangalore, India. I forgot my camera on this trip, but luckily my phone takes pretty good quality photos despite not having a built-in flash. Here are a few quick snaps while in Luzern just before leaving.

Sunday’s brunch at the ITC Windsor Manor in Bangalore was excellent. Lots of food options, including both Indian fare and, for lack of a better term, “western” fare. It was all-you-can-eat and all types of drinks were included. Although I didn’t want a beer or wine at 1:00pm, the waitstaff didn’t want to take “no” for an answer.

Waitstaff: “Sir, can I offer you something to drink.”

Me: “No, thank you. The water I have right now is fine.”

Waitstaff: “Sir, how about some beer. Kingfisher, maybe?”

Me: “No, thank you.”

Waitstaff: “Sir, how about a glass of wine? Red or white?”

Me: “No, thank you. I really do not want an alcoholic beverage.”

Waitstaff: “But sir, we have great mocktails here.”

Me: “Sure, fine. What do you offer?”

Waitstaff: “No worries. I will prepare something you will really enjoy.”

A few minutes later, the waiter returned with a bubbly glass of light blue liquid. I was expecting some kind of fruity concoction resplendent with tropical umbrella and fresh fruit. Instead I got this mysterious elixir.

A Blue Sparkle at the ITC Windsor brunch.

Me: “Wow. This looks interesting. Not what I expected!”

Waitstaff: “Yes, sir. We call it a Blue Sparkle.”

Me: “What’s in it?”

Waitstaff: “Sprite with blue food coloring.”

Me: “Splendid.”

If you ask me what I’ve been listening to lately, an easy way for me to respond is 14tracks.com. I’m continually impressed with the selections they serve up each week. I made a few suggestions earlier in the year for future themes. Although they didn’t directly use my idea to spotlight the Ghost Box label from the UK, this week’s selection of “Hauntology” is pretty close (plus it includes some Ghost Box artists).

Aside from the actual music choices, though, I absolutely love everything about this site. The design is beautiful. Its purpose is powerful. The user experience is gorgeous. It’s a fantastically executed mini-site to help promote Boomkat’s online store. I hope 14tracks.com is driving new customers to Boomkat. They deserve it.

Lately I’ve been playing with the idea of porting my Blogger site over to WordPress. Blogger is a great platform, but I wanted the opportunity to have more hands-on experience with WordPress primarily because we’re using it for a couple different web projects at work. Rather than take the plunge with a hosting company and use WordPress.org, I’m taking the much easier step with the free (but limited) WordPress.com option.

I found this dark theme and quickly realized it suits my needs quite well. Although it can’t be none-more-black, it’s simple and I like the multi-column layout. Most of all, though, I love that the footer is twice the height of the main body. Footers rule.

At the moment, I’m juggling this new site as well as my old site as I figure out my next step. Moving everything over to WordPress will be painful. There are a lot of hard-coded links in my blog posts to Blogger which would stop working. Plus I’d lose all of my HaloScan comments from my old site unless I hop onto an install of WordPress.org and use this import utility.

So for now, my old site will lay dormant and I’ll start writing more here at blog.nervousmusic.net.

I’ve had an idea for a good mix in my head for a long time. I’ve been too unfocused lately to actually mix it, though. So I’m just offering up the unmixed version. You’ll have to pretend that the tracks flow together seamlessly until I’m ready to labor over some mixing software. I hope you enjoy it just the same.

Apnea Monofin Mix (1 hr 1 min; 103MB)

Proem “I Don’t Know How To Tell”
Deru “Soulik”
Joker “Do It”
Martyn “Far Away”
Clubroot “Talisman”
Vaccine “Wishful Thinking”
Deru “Spot”
Joker & Rustie “Play Doe”
Zomby “One Foot Ahead Of The Other”
Burial “Southern Comfort”
DJ2000F “You Don’t Know What Love Is”
Kode 9 “Curious”
Pinch “Angels In The Rain feat. Indi Kaur”
Disrupt “Bomb 20″

Here’s a great way to start off a holiday long weekend. A few minutes after getting home from work, I spy a small bug a few feet away on the wall. It looks a bit like a tick, but its body seems a little long for a tick. In any case, I go in for a closer look just to be sure. I’m just a few inches away and I scare it. It starts to fly. So it’s definitely not a tick. And it flies right into my mouth and I promptly swallow it. Happy Labor Day!

No, the beer wasn’t vegetarian. But everything else was. We celebrated our 4 year anniversary last week at Armsby Abbey in Worcester. It has quickly become one of our favorite restaurants of all time. They consistently serve great, fresh, local food with an excellent rotating showcase of 20+ beers on tap.

On August 26th, Armsby Abbey closed from 6pm to 10pm to host 65 people for a 5 course vegetarian meal. All ingredients were sourced from farms and other spots within 50 miles of the restaurant. Accompanying each course was a beer from the Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project based in Cambridge, MA.

The owners of Armsby Abbey as well as the couple behind the Pretty Things project made their rounds to say thank you and check in to see how the food and beer was treating everyone. Everything was remarkably good. A 5 course meal each with its own beer over 4 hours in a chilled, laid back atmosphere. A perfect way to spend a late summer evening.

It was so refreshing to see local restaurant and farm owners gather together for one special evening. I only hope they make a habit out of this kind of thing. Everything was delicious and you can see for yourself in the night’s menu.

I’d like to think it’s an auspicious sign of things to come, but I can’t help but think that two hailstorms in two weeks is not a good thing. I witnessed a hailstorm while in central India in early May. And then just last weekend an even bigger hailstorm in central Massachusetts. What gives?