a mellow weekend so far

I went to a gathering of the coven at namoda's on Friday night. It had been too long. Much talk of queer woman stuff, drinking all the beer & sake left over from my rebirthday, and petting a highly pettable kitty.

I stayed in on a Saturday night. Don't faint from the shock, but I Just Wasn't Feeling It. Drinking just one cup of tea for all of yesterday, in the morning, may have had something to do with that.

I'm considering KEXP's MLK Day thingy because I get tomorrow off; I used to go pretty often back when it was on Capitol Hill or in Columbia City. Unfortunately, this year it's at the Clock-Out Lounge, a perfectly reasonable venue that would add a bus to my usual bus-and-train each way. When I am Imperatrix Mundi the trains will go everywhere: Airport Way, Beacon Ave., Rainier Ave., Delridge, Madison St., Lake City Way, N 45th St., N 85th St., Aurora Ave., Northgate Way.

updated Beans of the Gods

I've been making my Beans of the Gods weekly for lunch for years since even before the pandemic, but I had reason to update the recipe: I ran out of hot sauce a couple of weeks ago, in my case Sriracha. So here's the new recipe, at least as good as the old one:

2 cups dry black beans
1 1/2 quarts water
1/4 cup chili powder
1/4 cup vinegar
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil

1. Wash and pick over the beans, then soak them overnight in the water.
2. Mix the vinegar and the chili powder thoroughly at least three hours in advance of cooking.
3. Add the chili powder & vinegar mixture, garlic, and sesame oil to the beans and simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally. You may need to add water eventually.

Notes:

1. The lowest setting on my stove's double ring burner – my favorite – is probably hotter than the low setting on most burners.
2. The vinegar, which I remembered from Sriracha's ingredient list, appears to be essential to making the beans tender instead of crunchy.
3. I was using chili powder that's waaay past its pull date. You may get away with less, or I may like fresher stuff even more.