cooperation.

team spirit?
that's never been my strongest suit.
cooperative collaboration, bordering on opportunism?
well now,
that's more like it.
last night travis came over.
yeah.
from @vegan_magic_time.
and he brought a bunch of fresh vegetables right along with him.
that dude ran 100 miles on saturday!
yet,
here he was on wednesday ready to rock out on some expert dinner
as if he'd just casually strolled a bit a few days earlier.
that's pretty effin' tough.
so we couldn't out any mincey, minky b!tchbaggery on the stove.
nope.
not in the face of such tough stuff,
because, i mean, there's no such thing as weak-sauce wednesday.
that sort of poop isn't invited to MY dinner parties.
instead, we had some collaborative cooperation,
and the results were impressive.
neighbors,
check the teleport, then we'll discuss the details:

ka-ba-da-BOOOOOOM!!!!!
c'mon, man.
that's what's up.
y'feelin' it?
i sure hope so, or else you might be dead inside.
*

travis made some fresh ginger-carrot sesame sexxxiness,
with soy and garlic and rice wine vinegar, and whatever else he had poppin',
plus, i noticed some sriracha and stuff slippin' in while it marinated-
that fancy dressing got tossed up in a tasty batch of cold rice noodle salad!
yellow sweet tomatoes, orange bell pepper strips, cucumber discs,
and those fat flat noodz.
...i contributed a secret crawnchy surprise to the equation-
popped quinoa with toasted cracked black pepper, in a baby bit of olive oil.
you got that?
quinoa-pepper-pop sprankles!!!
daaaaamn!
that's bangkok noodle salad, and it's expert.
*
how about those sesame oil seared, seitan-broth braised,
BIG-garlic-slice activated green beans??!!?!?!
yeah!!!
guys,
when you've got access to the sexxxiness,
and the ingredients have all but picked themselves,
there's really nothing for it but to allow events
to unfold along a predestined path of perfection.
sossamon sprankles aren't for the wimpy ones...
and when they're toasted up right,
they'll take an already awesome meal, and turn it right on up to eleven.
no joke.
*
szechuan coconut tofu?
you'd better be ready to be rocked out of your socks, kids.
i got sauces for days, duders, and this meal had nothing but stand-outs.
like an all-star supergroup of dippable, drippable, drizzlin' sizzlers.
sriracha, garlic, GPOP, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, smoked paprika,
cumin, hot paprika, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic oil, and ho' sauce-
dumped down on a two-side dry fried exxxtrasuperfirm tofu cube situation,
with onions and coconut shreds factoring heavily on the fringes.
those jauns got garnished with freshie-fresh basil, cilantro,
and of course, coconut sprankles.
why?
because too much is the right amount.
obvi.
jeez.
rules is rules, fools;
and it's not doing it right we believe in.
it's OVERdoing even righter!
hahaha.
*
lastly,
but somewhat more impressively, and perhaps most importantly,
there's that parcel of time consuming pouches
packed with pure dark-side lightning-striking force-choking POWER!
friends, just to step up our shark-gluttony,
we made DUMPS ON YOUR FACE!!!!
yep.
dumplings are dope, and delicious, and deviously distracting-
they look so simple, but they take so long.
2:1 flour/warm water ratio, with salt,
plus way more flour for dusting that sticky stuff
once it's mixed, and rolled.
really,
it's basically getting two more dumplings out of the dough,
all things considered,
just from all the exxtra added non-stick insurance on the boards.
expert.
these jammers have a whole new world of filling within.
onion, garlic, and shredded housemade seitan,
plus, seitan-broth blanched sweet potatoes and crushed carrot,
with tamari and rice wine and liquid smoke thrown into the mix.
what. the. actual. F*. have i even been doing with my life until now??
a wider world of dumpy plumpin' has me pumped to make MORE FOOD.
huh?
oh.
i almost forgot.
TWO sauces, and scallion sprankles complete the look.
yuuuuuuup.
sriracha chili-garlic sesame soy stuff,
spicy,
but not distractingly so...
...and a marginally more traditional soy-ginger-mustard-garlic joint.
i mean, it's not complicated, but it's delicious-
GPOP, powdered sugar, a drop of sesame oil, crushed garlic, grated fresh ginger,
ground mustard seed, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and scallions,
married in a muddled mass, and left to activate while everything else got prepped.
what was the best?
there were too many standout superstar servings,
and you know i had to freehand a whole lot of extras while i was at it.
we had life-is-short dessert-first cookies,
and we also had dessert-is-important cake, too.
if you weren't in the know about dessert appetizers,
you're welcome.
*

hanging out with vegans is about a billion times better
than hanging out with everyone else.
why?
because they get it, AND they do it.
folks who know and choose to ignore the hottness of a conscientious, conscious,
compassionate, considerate, capable, culpable, cogent kind of life,
but still choose to skimp out on the BIG action?
basically,
that's worse than the dimbulbs and doo-doo-butts who couldn't be bothered
to learn about what might matter in the world outside their immediate convenience.
free will used to discard and disregard a prime tenet of identity,
and reason, and infinite nature?
A is A, you mutha-'ucks.
get after it, get with it, and get on it.
that's why hanging out with vegans is almost always a more enjoyable experience.
it's not just about big dreaming it, kids, it's about being it.
real talk.
but that's just my own self-satisfied vegan opinion!!!
so,
knowing that there are equal contributors present,
and professional appreciators attending,
and active participants interacting with righteousness,
right in my kitchen, right alongside me?
it's great.
also,
it makes me want to try even harder to achieve even better things-
and it takes the mealtime solidarity up a whole notch, or maybe even two.
i am grateful for these select few and very special folks who've spanned
time alongside us here in the Folk Life & Liberty fortress.
time isn't for wasting, it's for investing-
and i'm witnessing many happy returns on those whom i've banked on;
never quiet, never soft.....