Tuesday, March 20, 2012

oven

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/nontoxic-oven-cleaner.html

I'm gonna try this out tomorrow. 

As it turns out, angel food cake does rise when you bake it. For the past few days whenever anyone bakes anything the whole house smells like toasted marshmallows.

sm 

--

Sara Mae 

Martens

Architect

LEED AP 

Graduate Student, KU School of Architecture

resume & portfolio


Saturday, March 17, 2012

Blog Revival

Tis a quiet night in ad astra. the kind of night that makes a person want to start working on their action item for the week. Which, for me is to find a free website that works for us. and see about this blog thing.
Spring break 2012 woo hoo!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Thanksgiving

Thanks be to Chels (and helpers). Our first annual Vegan Tgiving was a testament to the great stuff Ad Astra is made of. Housemates, close friends and significant others filled three long tables stretching through the Map Room and living room. I believe the Tofurkey pleasantly surprised a few omnivores, guessing from the quizzical exclamations like, “I always pictured Tofurkey to be tofu molded into the shape of a Turkey!” and “Yum!” The traditional TG staples were well-represented: Green Bean Casserole, Stuffing, Sweet Potato Mash Bake, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, Pecan Pie, and Apple Pie. Nontraditional (at least for me) crowd-pleasers included Vegan Mac ‘N “Cheese” and Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie. Wine was abundant, of both the jugged and corked varieties. Good food, good tunes, good company.








Recipe for Vegan Mac N Cheeze (from Common Feast, a Zine by the lovely House of Commons co-op in Austin, Texas):

1lb shell pasta

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallot, minced

1 c nutritional yeast

2 tbs apple cider vinegar

½ c Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

½ small container of Earth Balance – softened

1 Tbs onion powder

1 package silken mori nu tofu

5-7 oz soy milk

¼ c stone ground mustard

Pinch turmeric

Boil Pasta. In a skillet, heat a bit of Earth Balance, garlic and shallot. In a blender, combine garlic/shallot and the rest of the ingredients. Pour over cooked pasta.



Thursday, November 19, 2009

Ad Astra will have a very special Vegan Thanksgiving Feast this Friday in celebration of friendship, community, and the lives to chicken and dairy cows! Several house members will cook the meal from scratch, using some recipes they've tried before and some new recipes obtained at the NASCO institute in Michegan earlier this month.

This will be the first major social event hosted at the Ad Astra house since our "Dress as Your Patron Deity" party towards the beginning of the school year.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

NASCO

Ad Astra sent a small delegation to the NASCO institute last week.   They all came back very excited and full of new ideas on how to improve the House.  We look forward to hearing from Deacon, Ezra, and Jena on co-op improvements in the coming weeks. 

New Toilet

After 5 weeks of running downstairs every time nature called, upstairs Ad Astrans have a brand-spanking-new toilet!  This state-of-the-art waste disposal system has a dual flush.  That means less water for #1 and more for #2.  Yay conservation!  (Of course, the mellow yellow policy still applies).

Not only do we have a new toilet, we installed it ourselves. The night before buying the toilet,  UKSHA director Aaron Paden removed the toilet from the floor and set it in the bathtub.  It then fell to Ian and Jena to carry it down to the dumpster.  The smell was... not good.  The next day, Aaron arrived at our house with the new toilet.  He and Jason carried it upstairs and did the bulk of the installation, while Chelsea and I assisted with tool retrieval (once you're wedged in that space, you're not getting out easily).  But oh no!  The toilet was too high for our old water supply line.  Deacon found a box of random supply lines in the shop, but none of them fit.  Thus, it was left until tomorrow, when I could run to Cottin's Hardware and get a new supply line. A little twist, a turn of a knob, and presto!  The upstairs people are very, very happy.  Oh, and it' super slick, too.  You flush with a button on the top of the tank instead of the standard lever.  Snazzy.   


Our new Glacier Bay Elongated Dual Flush High Efficiency 1.1/1.6 GPF All-in-One Toilet

Posted by Beth

Sunday, November 8, 2009