ReedyBearModify

2025-08-15 05:13:00

I've gardened a little bit. I have tomatoes growing with some Coleus and Bee Balm (native to my area). One Okra plant. One Anaheim pepper plant. (Wasps ate my Kale)

I'm expanding my garden this year (in preparation for next year), and I want to do more companion planting. I want to grow native plants alongside my food plants.

But the "companion planting" lists all list non-native plant species.

The "native plant" lists don't mention a thing about companion planting AND are excessively long and overwhelming. I found one from my state's department of natural resources that is probably 50+ plants with no pictures. SO it would be a lot of homework.

And my state's University Extension Office doesn't talk about companion planting AT ALL. I expected them to promote it.

I suppose I could reach out to my local master gardeners, the free seed coordinator at my local library, or other local groups that might be able to help me with this. Yeah. That's a good idea.

2025-08-15 04:22:00

I made this a little while ago and it was inspired by Sport Peppers that my mom gave me from her friend's garden.

Hash Browns:

• Two Freshly Grated Potatoes, fried in oil (baking them would likely be easier, produce crunchier potatoes, and reduce oil. You MUST squeeze the water out of them before cooking them. A clean kitchen towel is good for this.)
• One Zucchini - cut into thin strips, each about a half-zucch in length
• Pseudo-riced Cauliflower (tiny bits, but i don't have a ricer)

Sauce:

• Onion, caramelized
• Spicy Peppers (As many as you want. Blackened some, but this is probably not necessary)
• Tomatoes (one or two fat ones. I used all the ripe little matoes from my garden.)
• Carrot (one or two)
• Nutritional yeast (for nutrients moreso than flavor)

Cook it, BLEND IT.

I don't think I added ANY seasonings to the sauce. It was FANTASTIC

And then:

Ya cook the cauli first to soften, then add the zucc and already-cooked potatoes. Zucc just needs to be hot, doesn't really need cooked. Then you serve the hash brown mix with sauce on top. Don't pre-mix the whole batch because then it won't store well.

The texture from the zucc and potatoes was fantastic. The cauli didn't add much texture (and it shouldn't). The sauce paired really well with it. But I cannot state strongly enough how FREAKING GOOD the texture of the thin zucc was.

2025-08-15 04:10:00

I recently cooked some chili, made from scratch. It came out FANTASTIC, except I could have made it like 3x spicier (it IS spicy, but it doesn't hurt (me) and it should).

You don't get good measurements from me because I cook primarily on intuition. Usually this leads to great results (for my tastes). Sometimes I blunder. It makes my dishes much less repeatable, but MANNN I like the creative part of cooking and measurements just don't give me that.

All the veggies were diced.

Recipe:

• Oil (excess oil removed from my 'all natural' peanut butter)
• 2 Onions (carmalized some)
• Red Bell, Green Bell, and two small/med anaheim peppers
• Carrots (a small bunch, diced. Should have boiled first. Did not skin them.)
• Whole bulb gahlic (too much bc causes lengthy aftertaste, use less)
• small can chipotle peppers (GREAT choice, buuut they have a lot of salt!)
• 1 can black beans, 2 cans kidney beans
• hella tomatoes (like 6 big ones from store + a few that were ready in my garden)
• veggie stock (2ish cups, homemade from scraps I had collected and frozen)
• A bunch of Ancho Chili Powder (expensive! But it's just the ancho chilis without added salt or paprika, so I prefer this over regular chili powder)
• A fair bit of nutritional yeast (a lot, but not a ton)
• California Reaper Pepper Powder (a smidge, but I wish i'd added wayyy more)
• Paprika (decent amount, not a ton)
• Oregano (Not sure the role this plays, but a recipe listed oregano so I added it. I'd be curious to try this dish side-by-side with a no-oregano version)
• hella crushed red pepper (less for spice and more for flavor. i love crushed red)
• Did I add Olive Oil late in the cooking process? I meant to but I think I decided against. I don't remember. (I think I ended up not using it because intuition)
• NO salt (the chipotle peppers had plenty), NO cumin (idk intuition said no), NO cayenne pepper (intuition again, but I'd have used it if I didn't have the california reaper. Cayenne isn't my favorite flavor), NO black pepper (initially intended to, but I'm glad I didn't add it), NO tomato paste (I bought it but decided against bc intuition. I stand by this choice)

Next time, I'd be interested to try using fresh habanero peppers for both flavor and spice (and because they're available at my local grocer and hotter peppers are not). Def would like to pre-cook the carrots a little more. They didn't soften fast enough so I had to cook the whole pot 10 or so minutes longer than I wanted. This was fine, but I think transformed the flavors in a way I wasn't wanting. An earlier taste test was 5-10% better, I thiiiink. I'd still leave the cumin out. Basically I fucking nailed it with this chili other than the spiciness, the garlic amount (flavor was great, but then i tasted it alllll niiiiiight), and the carrots' cooked-ness.

I'm curious about adding greens to it - spinach or kale. I originally wanted to add Tofu, but my pot was full ... and anyway tofu doesn't add anything flavor-wise. It's good. I like tofu, but it's role is mainly as a protein booster, not a flavor or quality additive. I originally wanted to add sweet corn (for more nutrients!) but intuition told me not to.

2025-08-14 07:06:12

I previously drafted a letter about an idea for energy pricing brackets.

Today, I:

• Submitted a Letter to the Editor to my local paper
• Emailed my State's EPA office
• Emailed my State Rep & State Senator for my district
• Emailed my Governor and Lieutenant Governor
• Emailed all members of the Public Utilities Committee of my State House
• Emailed the Chair, Vice Chair, and Minority Spokesperson of the Energy & Utilities Committee of my State Senate
• Emailed the Chair, Vice Chair, and Minority Spokesperson of the Energy & Environment Committee of my State House

(I might have messed up the committee names)
('Emailed' may mean that I submitted a contact form)

2025-08-12 10:23:00

If you refuse to mow your lawn, the city fines you.

If you refuse to pay the fine, the city gets a lien on your house.

If you still refuse to pay, you will have to vacate your house.

If you refuse to leave your house, police will come to remove you.

If you do not come out, police will force their way in and pull you out.

If you do not let them pull you out, the police will kill you. (assuming you're using a weapon. If no weapon, they might just overpower you.)

Sure, most of us will mow our lawn or pay the fine. Most of us would not let it get that far.

But that is the ultimate threat. That is the ultimate threat behind every law.

I wrestle with this a lot. There are laws I want - I support the "stop killing games" movement which would require game producers to allow people to keep playing games that they own.

But when I think about the ultimate outcome - company leadership would be arrested or shot if they do not comply with the law - is that worth it?

In reality, companies will just mostly follow the law if it gets passed. And if they don't, they'll be taken to court and fined. And they'll pay the fines.

That's how most things actually go.

It fucks with my head.

I can't quite reconcile the premise of this post with the reality of what actually happens.

But compliance is required and non-compliance results in prison or death. (paying the fine is compliance)

But most laws actually are followed. So. Idunno. I've been mulling this over for months and feel no less torn.

Also I think laws about mowing are really stupid, but yes I mow my lawn.

2025-08-12 10:14:49

But you do need to support the right to access abortion.

Not liking something, and using the power of the state to prevent and punish something are two very different things.

When you vote yes for a pro forced-birth policy or a pro forced-birth politician, you are voting for people with guns (cops) to prevent people from getting abortions.

You're saying "If a doctor performs an abortion, they should lose their medical license and go to prison for murder."

You're saying "If a woman performs an unsafe abortion at home, she should be tried for murder and sentenced to 20+ years in prison".

You're saying "If my [neighbor, daughter, sister, friend] gets an abortion, I want them to go to prison."

So, dislike abortion all you want. Don't get one. Don't date someone who's pro-choice (and discuss it before you have sex if you're that serious about it). Whatever. But don't use the police state to force those views on other people.