Lemon-Lentil Soup and Ghosted

"What's a word for people who are attracted to people of the same sex? And who don't eat meat? I know there's a blog with some recipes for those people…" Or at least that's what I imagine someone was thinking when they googled this and found our page. 

This week there was one cold day that got me all excited for fall so I decided we should make a soup.


We made plantains as a side because I had one that needed to be used, but otherwise I would have made fry bread or maybe rice. This recipe is a permutation of one in Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan.

In a medium-large soup pot on medium heat add 1 tbs olive oil and saute
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
3 minced garlic cloves
pinch of salt, pinch of pepper
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp cumin
1 ½ tsp paprika 
½ tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme

Once that's all cooked up add
2 cups water
3 cups vegetable stock
1 cup dried lentils
3 cups cooked chickpeas (I just used one can)
2 cups chopped zucchini
2 bay leave
Bring it to a boil then turn down the heat and simmer until the lentils are cooked (about 20-25 min). Now put maybe a little more than half of it in a blender and puree it, then add it back (if you want you can puree the whole thing, but this leaves some nice texture). Serve with lemon juice squeezed in! (I used half a lemon for the two of us)
-Syd

GHOSTED 2009
Directed by Monika Treut
Trailer

Ai-ling is a young Taiwanese waitress working in her mother's restaurant. When she is finally given permission to travel to Germany to visit her uncle (and secretly to uncover information about her deceased father's past), her whole life changes. She falls in love. And then other things happen that are less pleasant.

Set between flashbacks and present day Germany and Taiwan, this movie follows our main girl Ai-ling and her girlfriend Sophie, as well as Mei-li, a journalist, who is for some unknown reason persistently interested in Sophie and her relationship with her now recently deceased lover. Through these characters we slowly uncover that truth behind Ai-ling's death, but we are still not left with a complete sense of closure.

It's kind of weird, but it's actually not as bad as I made it out to be in the vlog. It was enjoyable. Honestly, I was a little bored... but I was also doing household chores. 

Queer Rating:

Lore: 6

It's not like the queerest thing I've seen..... but, I mean, we don't even get a sense of their relationship being weird because it's two ladies. Sure, they aren't like super out to the family, but they know, and they know that they know, and we know that they know, and there's no "wahhhh, I'm gay" sob story. This is like real life. And I want their cute little gay bar. 

Syd: 4.5

I get all that, but Sophie's family doesn't care because she doesn't talk to them, and I kind of feel like why Ai-ling's family doesn't talk about it is not because they're ok with it but because it would be more embarrassing for the family to disown her because of it. And these are older people we're talking about, maybe they already had their gay meltdown. Yeah the queer doesn't come up, but...I dunno, whatevs.

General:

Syd: 5

Lore: 3

Have a good weekend and get excited for our Halloween post! -Lore