There's something about a man in a mask...

Originally uploaded by Green Cove

I just unloaded the contents of our Canon PowerShot to flickr, and I thought I'd throw a photo of my husband into cyberspace, just for kicks and giggles. Although it's not his real name, I call him Red online (just so that I don't have to keep referring to the poor man as DH or hubby). When I caught him, he was engaged in smearing a foul glue onto the foam and wood frame of what will be his airplane's hull. Red (with my help on occasion) is currently building a Cozy Mark IV. Progress is slow, but steady; you can track the plane's status on his website. Red's almost finished with Chapter 5 of the plan booklet, but he only has the web page updated through Chapter 3.

By the way, I also have a baby daughter, but you'll never see a picture of her online (I'm just paranoid like that). You will see all sorts of nauseating stories about her, though, as soon as I stick her with a suitable cute nickname.

Edit: Until she grows old enough to protest, my child shall be known as Bean (thanks to my buddy Inky for the nickname :) ).

Kitchen dominance is mine!

Here's a convoluted story for you: I was searching the NPR website a few weeks ago in search of the recipe for "wacky cake," which I had heard in the car sometime around Mother's Day 2007 (in a bizarre moment of almost symmetry, I decided that I needed to make that for my husband's first Father's Day). While I was looking for said recipe, NPR's search engine spat out a link for their interview with Isa Chandra Moskowitz from the Post Punk Kitchen. I'd never heard of her, or the show, but I was intrigued by the vegan cake recipe that followed. So I tried it - in cupcake form - and burned them to a crisp. In search of answers to my kitchen screw-up, I made my way to the Post Punk Kitchen website, found a recipe for homemade seitan, and am now entertaining a dangerous flirtation with vegan cooking.

I'm not a vegetarian, much less a vegan, but I am intrigued by all the unusual ingredients, flavors, and combinations that pop up in vegan recipes. And since I vowed a few months ago to stop supporting commercial agriculture as much as I can, that means I'm constantly on the lookout for viable meat substitutions (the only place in the area that sells pastured meat and poultry is the local health food store, and while it's a great place and I love it, buying a week's worth of animal products there would quickly bankrupt us). This evening I tried Isa's recipe for Seitan and Portobella Stroganoff; it was delicious.

I highly recommend seitan, by the way. Even the amateur stuff I've whipped up is delicious after a quick saute in the old cast iron skillet. I kept pulling pieces out for furtive nibbles while I was making the 'shroom sauce tonight. So full of tasty, wheaty goodness.

Recently moved from slightly more ridiculous blog

I've been terrible about keeping up with my old blog (The Fuchsia Moose), and I came to the conclusion today that it has to in part because of the incredibly stupid name. It seem kind of whimsical when I set it up last year, but now it just smacks of idiocy. There are no moose in my neck of the woods, and I murdered my fuchsia plant last summer. Thus the switch.

So here we are, at The Reclusive Housewife. Which is basically what I am. While my stupid moose titled blog was supposed to be for gardening, I think I'll expand my horizons on this one and include all my little Suzy Hausfrau projects, like knitting, cooking, complaining about the news, etc.

It should be fun...for me, at least.