Do something creative every day in 2013

Looking over my "life list," I remember how many items are about expanding my range of ways to be creative: knitting, sewing, beading or making jewelry, playing with photos, writing. I found iHanna's lovely blog when she was the curator of the @sweden Twitter account. One of her first posts for 2013 was about her intention to make a collage every day this year, a kind of "project" she has done before (here's a list). I decided that I wouldn't (couldn't) make a commitment to one particular art form, but that I could make room every day for creativity.

Jan 1, I took a "photo safari" around Zaragoza and put up three blog entries with some of my photos. Jan 2, I pillaged the magazine pile and cut out words and images related to the turning of the year, and to my exploration of making major changes in my life. It was hella fun, and I ended up making two collages: one inside the cover of my current journal using mostly words, and another more visual one on a journal page. I've taken photos of them and will decide if they are good enough to post (the photos, not the collages), because I'd like to document these projects. But I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't manage to write or post about this every day. Maybe I'll end up doing a weekly round-up on a particular day; I'll see how it works out. I'm adopting iHanna's tag of #365in2013.

Life list #3: New recipe every week: Aloo Gobi

I'm getting a box from my CSA, Featherstone Farms, every two weeks this winter. In the past, I've always done the summer share, and I love it, but I'm a big fan of winter root veggies and the kind of greens that you can get in the late fall. I'm interested to see what kinds of crops we'll get. So far in the first two boxes I have received cilantro, parsley, delicata squash, beets, kale, spinach, potatoes, red and white onions, radishes, tender cauliflower, fabulous broccoli,  cabbage, and napa cabbage. Oh, and a pumpkin!

I can tell I'm going to have to make sure I don't get behind on cooking all the vegetables! Today, I roasted some of the carrots and potatoes with olive oil and salt, roasted the beets in their jackets, steamed the spinach, and baked a kabocha squash I had from before. For my new recipe of the week, I made a cauliflower curry from the slow-cooker cookbook. All the vegetables were from the farm except the garlic and ginger.

Slow-cooker cauliflower curry (Aloo Gobi)
Chop a red onion, super fresh cauliflower and sweet crisp carrots. Throw in a few small potatoes, garlic and ginger, some chopped cilantro. Season with Garam Masala, salt, pepper, cumin. Add two T of good tomato paste (in the absence of fresh tomatoes) and a splash of beer to moisten. Mix it all up in the slow cooker, then cook on low for 4-5 hours. Everything gets melty and permeated with the sauce, and the whole thing is yummy.

The carrots are not typical, but I couldn't resist. I could have added a sliced jalapeño or serrano pepper, some turmeric, maybe toasted some black mustard seeds, but I didn't have them on hand. One can also prepare this on the stove top, but I LOVE my slow-cooker.