Vegetarian Chinese Food!

YUM! SO! TASTY!

I haven’t found any Chinese places in Baltimore that do vegetarian food made with wheat gluten (yet… there may be a place in Charles Village?).  So when Mr. EG told me that he needed to return to Philly today I requested that he bring me back food from Chinatown.  Specifically Sweet & Sour “Chicken” and some General Tso’s “Chicken” from Kingdom of Vegetarians.  It pretty much survived the bus ride back to Bmore and I’ve devoured half of the sweet n’ sour.   I’m now feeling the “Chinese food coma” but because I’m so happy to have good vegetarian food, that I haven’t had to cook, I felt the need to do a post.  Behold, the wonderful food!

Sweet n’ Sour “Chicken”

Remains of Mr. EG's General Tso's "Chicken"

Leftover General Tso's

Leftovers! I love leftover Chinese food!  It means I don’t have to cook tomorrow night and I get to have food  that is not readily available to  me (again!!!).

When I first moved to Philly in 2005 I was so happy to find out that there were so many veggie places.  And Chinese food?  I was ecstatic!  That sort of food didn’t exist in northeast Ohio.  And it doesn’t exist so much in Baltimore.

Please Baltimore, won’t you give us Vegetarians some love?

Don’t get me wrong Bmore, the Indian restaurants are great, but I can’t eat Indian every time I eat out.

Henna in my hair!

So, lots of women like to dye their hair.  When I was younger I tried kool aid and also boxed dye.  As my natural color is brown, with red highlights when the sun hits it, and I liked the red highlights, I always tried red colors.  About two years ago I started reading about henna on Henna For Hair. I bought my first body art quality henna and right before thanksgiving went to it.  It turned out great.  I even had enough left over to use for root touch ups for the next 1.5 years.  My roots didn’t really show that much, just some sparkle from the gray that’s starting to slowly trickle in.  However, I wanted a change without frying my hair or my scalp. So I ordered more henna.

I mixed it with lemon juice and water and left it to sit 12 hours to dye release.

henna doing its dye release

Gathered my supplies: dye released henna, gloves to prevent stained hands, applicator bottle (can be used for roots), hair pick/comb, plastic shower cap, alligator clips to keep hair sectioned while applying henna. Plastic bag cut open to use as a cape (keeps henna off my back). Not shown, plastic wrap, paper towels, bobby pins.

bag used as a cape

my supplies

 

 

looks like mud

Clean up the henna on my ears/forehead/neck and wrap it up.

all wrapped up

paper towel to keep the drips away

 

 

All wrapped up and shower cap/ plastic wrap bobby pinned into place, then four hours until I rinse it out…. Speaking of rinsing here you go:

time to rinse my hair

this is not chocolate

second rinse

1st conditioner rinse

 

Am I done yet?

 

still not clear

 

Oh, come on already!

 

lets try conditioner again

 

I’ve been rinsing for an hour. That’s it, I’m done for the night.  Here’s what it looks like:

 

it's red!

And this is what it looked like last week:

original color

Both are pretty, but the henna adds some fiery spice!  It should mellow out in the next week or so.  In the mean time it will turn shower water yellow/orange as it finishes rinsing out.

 

Uh, make sure you clean out your tub afterwards if you ever decide to try this! And wipe up those henna globs on the counter and floor!

 

Any interesting hair dying experience? Share them in the comments!

Perky Snood

I’ve got lots of hair. See the photo below?

my hair

As it is sometimes hard and/or heavy to contain I thought I’d try something a bit different.  On to Ravelry for a snood! The perky snood to be exact (also found here).

The pattern starts with a chain, and since I really like the foundation single crochet, that’s what I did. 37 of them with 12 chains at the end for turning.  (I suggest just doing the chain 49 as in the instructions as it is easier to finish. As I found out at the end…) Since I used some worsted weight cotton, an F hook, and regular treble crochets (yarn over 2x, extended treble as is written in the pattern is yarn over 3x) my gauge was a bit off.  I wound up doing the following: row 1, row 2, repeat row 2 four times instead of six, instructions for row 9 and repeated 8x instead of 7x, instructions for row 17, instructions for row 18, then decreased for 4 rows.  For the border I followed the instructions but without using an elastic the first time. (This is where I figured out that using a foundation single crochet was not a good idea [and this is why you should always read through a pattern first]).  After buying some thin elastic headbands I did a second round of the border and finished off.

To increase at the beginning of a row chain 9 and then do a treble or extended treble in the top of your last treble (or extended treble, whichever stitch you’re using throughout the pattern) from the row below.

 

chain 9

put your stitch here to increase

 

The end of the increase row should look like this:

 

see the beginning ch 9 from row below, your increase stitches go here

 

this is how the end of an increase row should look

Before doing the border:

 

this will be a snood

Final product:

looks kinda big

It holds my hair!

 

Since I made this out of worsted weight cotton, it is kinda bulky, and unusual looking. Really I made it just to wear around home when I can’t be bothered, have stuff to get done, have no plans to go out and just want to keep my hair out of my face.  If made in a nicer, thinner yarn perhaps I’d wear it out and about. I’ll be adding some sort of decoration to it, perhaps some crochet flowers?

Anyhow, hope these notes can provide some help to others.