Go Panthers ...

Quick poll: Anyone else watch 27 episodes of "Friday Night Lights" in the past four days. (Three days. I just don't want to sound like a loser).

Anyway, here is what I've made, watched and read in the past few weeks.

FOOD

Mushy Vegan-ish Burritos: I tried to re-invent the vegan burrito that I ate at this restaurant in Brooklyn with decent results (minus the fact that I accidentally bought real sour cream instead of fake sour cream. Idiot. Sometimes I get so caught up in being at Whole Foods and cramming Soy Chorizo into my hand basket that I forget that not everything is soy this).

First I fired up some minced garlic. Then I added two cans of black beans, that I squished into something not super pretty. Then I added a shitload of Spinach and waited for it to wilt down and stirred it all together. Then I added Daiya Cheddar Cheese -- one of my new favorite things -- about a cup of salsa, and a bit of sour cream. I mashed avocado on a wheat wrap, then threw down the mush.

Pretty. Damn. Good.

Quick Red Posole with Beans: Ugh. When I wait too long to do these Weakly Reviews I forget how I feel about meals. Eating it doesn't stand out as a memorable experience. I'm going to guess that I really liked this posole because, dude, it has hominy in it and hominy is like my favorite. It makes your teeth feel hilarious. Also: These are all the same ingredients we always use, except in a different order. OH GAH I FORGOT TO TAKE A PHOTO OF IT!

Louisiana Gumbo: This speaks to all your fake meat needs with double dosages of a) soy sausage and b) chicken-ish seiten. Seiten is so hit or miss for me. These huge wing-like pieces of fake meat kind of skeeve me out to work with, even though I know they aren't made with anything gross. I think that I wish I'd browned them up more while making this. It's good, don't get me wrong, but I like my fake meat a little more well-done.

Veggie Pot Pie Stew: I really liked this hearty stew with pot pie flavors. What really makes it is the thickening agent -- flour and water mixed together in a something that the recipe creator refers to as "slurry"-- which gives it a real gruel vibe. Likey like. We skipped the mushrooms. The recipe is from "Appetite for Reduction," my favorite vegan cookbook.

Pumpkin Polenta with Tomatillo (and technically Avocado) Salsa: This is a nice gateway between the end of summer and fall. Pumpkin polenta with a homemade tomatillo salsa (that I forgot to put a hot pepper and avocado into). We had it with fake Italian Sausages.

MOVIES
Mommie Dearest: Movie One of our Mental Illness marathon should have been saved for the finale. One of the best things about it is Roger Ebert's review of it, when it was just released, in which he disses it and says "It left me feeling creepy."

Regardless, it was a totally delicious film.

Sybil  This one stars Sally Fields playing everyone. I remember watching it in class in high school. It is so very long. I always forget that it is based on a situation that came from close to my home town.

Terri: This indie flick is the story of a high school misfit who is taking care of his dementia-saddled uncle and has opted to wear pajamas to school every day. He is taken in by the school's assistant principal and two other socially-challenged classmates. It was ok.

Catfish : I want to believe that this documentary about a guy who befriends and 8-year-old girl, an artist, on the internet, then is friended by her entire family and social circle is true. It's pretty gripping and pretty awful as it unfolds. If it's fake, as the internet has suggested, I choose not to know.

Mega Python vs. Gatoroid: This sci/fi original film stars Debbie Gibson and Tiffany, the former as an improbable activist professor, the latter as an improbable game warden. It's cute that someone sat down and wrote this movie and wasn't at all embarrassed to send it to the sy/fi network so that we could watch it.

It's Kind of a Funny Story: My gah. This movie about a kid who checks himself into the psyche ward and in the process learns a thing or two about love (from Zach Galifianakis) is so, so, so stupid.


TV MARATHON
Friday Night Lights: The First Season: I guess the world was right. This show is tits. I think it might require an entire post of its own.

BOOKS
The Art of Fielding: A Novel by Chad Harbach: This is my numero uno book from 2011 so far. It's got a small college baseball team frame, but that doesn't ruin it at all.

Full review here.

The Visible Man: A Novel by Chuck Klosterman: If you are a fan of Chuck Klosterman's essays, but think his last piece of fiction was a little bunk and played outside of his strengths, this will change your opinion. This is a pretty good little short novel about a man who has the ability to become something like invisible and he uses that to observe people who are alone to get to the root of who they are at their core.

Full review will be here.