Midweek Munchies

All I have for you is a question this week, because it's been too hot to cook and I haven't been able to go grocery shopping due to lack of fundage. (I get paid in two days, though!)

Question of the Week:

If you were forced to choose only five meals to eat for the rest of your life, which five meals would they be? (Three courses plus a dessert, beverages, etc.)

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POO

Kai commented about this, but I wanted to share her comment with all of you, because I think it's so funny!

She was thinking of veggie cookbook acronyms . . .

Vegan With A Vengeance = VwaV
The Everyday Vegan = TEV
Vive Le Vegan = VLV

And the acronym of my potential cookbook?

Party of One = POO

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Thanks, Kai! That was a great birthday present! I laughed so hard!

happy birthday to me!

Because today's my birthday, I thought I'd sing you a little song! Unfortunately, since I don't know how to upload audio, you'll have to imagine my voice. But here are the lyrics:

"Happy birthday to me,
I don't watch much TV!
I'm writing a cookbook,
And have a cat named Ollie!"

It's good to be home! (+ rambling)

I celebrated my return to the Cities with a trip to Holy Land Deli with Ann and Michelle, who both picked me up from the airport! (Ann drove, but Michelle tagged along for an A/C hit -- they don't have air conditioning in their apartment, and neither do I for that matter, but it's been in the nineties for days now and they both looked miserable.) We ordered the "Vegetarian Shiek's Dinner for Two," which was more than enough food for the three of us with leftovers! Here's what was on the giant platter:

pita
hummus
tabouli
spanakopita
stuffed grape leaves
saffron Basmati rice
lightly breaded/fried cauliflower
falafel
three different sauces: cucumber, tahini, and hot sauce

AND THEN, the dinner also included Arabian tea and baklava for dessert. All for twenty bucks. I kid you not. The three of us ate ourselves sick for twenty bucks, plus leftovers. That place is just incredible.

Oh, it felt so good to eat lots and lots and lots of really yummy veggie food! (And it was all vegan, as far as I could taste/tell, except for the cucumber sauce, which was obviously made with yogurt.) Yes, even their spanakopita is cheese-free -- it's just loaded with tons of spinach, onions, and vinegar to make it extra-tasty! (And their spanakopita comes in a bread-like pocket, instead of in phyllo.) My tummy's happy, happy, happy to be home.

(Disclaimer: my parents actually were very generous and accomodating, it was just that we ate out quite a few times during the weekend, which is always a bit tough, especially following a week of lots of eating out.) Tonight will be the last time, if I have any say in the matter, that I eat out until Saturday, when we all go out to celebrate my BIRTHDAY!! (My birthday happens to be tomorrow, however.) :)

In other news, it is hotter 'n heck right now -- high nineties during the day, low seventies at night. My apartment is like an oven -- even the hardwood floors are hot! I have all the windows open and fans everywhere attempting to pull the cooler evening air inside.

I'm trying to see if I can live without the air conditioner, because it quintuples my power bill when I run it, and because I think it might be a waste of energy, when we really don't have that much miserable heat here. I'm going to see how long I can suffer through it!

Speaking of electricity, my first WindSource power bill came, and it only raised my entire bill by 26 cents. (I don't use much electricity to begin with, however -- my average bill is somewhere between ten and thirteen dollars.) It was a well-worth Earth Day adventure!

Speaking of Earth Day, I have been failing lately on my resolution of air-drying laundry. See, the family I nanny for has offered me the use of their washer and dryer for free, as long as I don't "get in the way" of the family laundry. Free laundry is pretty hard to turn down, and it could pose quite a challenge to wash my clothes at their house and then bundle them up wet to hang dry at home! So I've been tossing them in the dryer. I'm thinking of taking sheets/towels over there, but doing clothes at home. (I just need the willpower to turn down the free laundry!)

Segue,

I have been flattered by the chatter I've read around about my upcoming cookbook! I'm happy to have more recipe testers volunteer, although I don't have anything to give you at this time. (If anyone who has some of my recipes wants to hand one over to someone else, let me know -- I've got at least three more people queued up!)

Another segue,

I just finished reading David Sedaris's "Me Talk Pretty One Day," which I borrowed from Michelle. (Thanks, 'stache lady!) I am currently without a novel! I do have an issue of the Rake to read, plus the City Pages and Pulse, but I will need to go to the library SOON! And yes, the brand-spankin' new library is finally open! Perhaps I will run over there one day this weekend. Novels and cookbooks galore, oh my!

Another segue,

It's just so stinking hot. Boo.

yukkity yukkity yukkity!

We ate at "Old Country Buffet" with my grandparents today for lunch. It was pretty freaky. (Skirting a bunch of severely overweight people while trying to find vegan options was pretty interesting.) I stuck to the salad bar, which was actually okay, (they had chickpeas and sunflower seeds, and oil and vinegar as a dressing choice,) and also had some terribly overcooked white pasta with a basic red marinara.

I just hate chain restaurants.

Moo.

Greetings from America's Dairyland!

I have been in Wisconsin less than two full days, and have had two servings of cheese already! Spanakopita for dinner last night and Brie at the wedding shower today. Both were tasty, but I have to tell you, I felt really icky last night after all that feta. I'm better now -- I had an easy breakfast and dinner today, (hooray for Amy's cheeseless pizza!) had a reasonably okay time at the wedding shower, (I hate wedding showers as a general rule, but there were no stupid games and it was good to see Anna!) had fun visiting Jess and Dan and baby Aramae, and am now considering having a small piece of the birthday carrot cake with cream cheese frosting my mom made for me.

My tummy may never recover! Just goes to show that my idea of eating very little dairy is a good one. :)

vroom vroom

I'm "leavin' on a jet plane" this afternoon to spend the weekend in glorious Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (I have a high school friend's wedding shower to attend Saturday, and am also planning on visiting my friends Jess and Dan who recently had baby Aramae, and my parents and I will spend "quality time" with the grandparents on Sunday!)

Wish me luck dining in the land of brats and cheese. :)

I feel like a lazy bum flying to Milwaukee, but it's only a little bit more expensive than driving my gas guzzler all the way there, and since my transmission has been acting up, it seems much safer to me, too! (No possibility of being stranded by the side of I-94 in The Middle of Nowhere, Wisconsin.) Plus, cutting the travel time down to an hour (from 5 1/2 hours,) is a treat! (Well, it's more like three hours once you consider arriving at the airport early, the flight itself, and picking up my giant green suitcase.)

Hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekends! Eat lots of yummy picnic food!

a post just for Lauren

Here's a stinky update:

I like the Tom's deodorant! I'm not stinky, which is nice. Slightly damp, but odor-free. :) Not sure if this is the best thing or not, but it sure beats aluminum-based yukkiness that doesn't quite work anyway!

I have also been enjoying an aluminum-free deodorant by Adidas (Absorbent-Deo), but it's not perfect, either. Dove hasn't been working lately, and Certain-Dri has failed me horribly!

I have a buffet of underarm protection in my medicine cabinet right now.

I think I should go to bed -- Little Girl, Little Boy, and I spent the afternoon at the zoo, and I'm tired. Really tired. (The tigers were swimming when we were watching them, which was very sweet. This is not a "sad zoo," although we have one of those in MN, too.) So tired that posting about deodorant seems interesting to me right now! Sheesh.

recipe testing thank-you!

Hello everyone! I've been popping around to everyone else's blogs as usual, and received very awesome emails from those that volunteered to test recipes for me, and everyone's been so great. Thank you all! Just wanted you to know how much I appreciate your help:

I can test and test and test recipes until I'm blue in the face, but it is helping SO much having other people test them out for me. Why? Because they are my recipes, and I know how they are supposed to look and taste in the end, and also because I can be a bit snobbish (!!!) about my food and like things just the way I like them, and it's good to know other people like things that way, too! Every little piece of advice helps, and I'm so glad to hear what parts of recipes have been too complicated or confusing, or need more explanation. (i.e., how to peel a frozen banana! Thanks Leslie!) I really want this cookbook to be great, and the help of my testers will prove to be invaluable!

As a side note, and I'm sure as Dreena can attest to, food is expensive and testing recipes over and over again can become a bit costly. I hate to waste food, and since I'm only one person, I can only eat so much before I'm sick of something! (Fortunately, most of my recipes make a small number of servings, so that part isn't quite so horrible.) Also, I can only pawn so much food off on my friends. :) Although they are usually happy to partake -- Tony test-drove a brownie for me last night and said it was "a little strange, but really good." (Whole wheat pastry flour was the "strange," I think.) Having a few folks here and there help out has been awesome, again!

And many of you have asked how/why I chose recipes for you -- I tried to think of the things you blogged about often and offer you foods you'd enjoy/foods that would fit into your personality/lifestyle. (For example, Vicki and Kai both got some fun dip recipes because they both have kids, and kids like to dip things.) Hope I made decent choices!

Note: I haven't sent out any dessert recipes yet, because they are all still in the planning stages. Those will come in another month or so . . . watch out for the sugar!

And now, I must hurry off and get ready for work before I'm late! Sheesh.

Midweek Munchies

Question of the week: if you could cook with one famous chef, (dead or alive,) who would it be and why?

Here's my shopping (very little produce since I'm headed out of town this weekend, but I wanted to stock up on the "regular" stuff so next week wasn't such a shock!):

BREAD
1 loaf Great Harvest Bread Co. Country Wheat Bread

BULK
just under a pound of Peace Coffee Sumatra City blend (Fair Trade and organic)
just under three pounds of organic natural granulated sugar
organic flame raisins
sulphured dried apricots
dried cherries

FROZEN
1 box mint chocolate chip Tofutti Cuties
10 ounces organic blueberries
10 ounces organic strawberries
10 ounces organic raspberries
10 ounces organic peaches
10 ounces organic in-pod edamame
LightLife faux breakfast sausage

PACKAGED GROCERY
15 oz organic chickpeas
15 oz organic black beans
15 oz organic cannellini beans
8 ounces buckwheat soba noodles
16 ounces honey (from Canon Falls, MN! I love buying local products!)
Barbara's Bakery Shredded Spoonfuls cereal
Ka-Me Hoisin sauce
Westbrae naturals vegetarian fruit-sweetened ketchup
East Wind smooth peanut butter with salt
Sunbutter
Mori-Nu soft silken tofu
4-pack Seventh Generation TP
Seventh Generation lavender dish soap
Pet Promise cat food

PERSONAL CARE
Tom's of Maine peppermint gel toothpaste
Tom's of Maine lavender deodorant (something to try . . . anyone have any opinions about this product?)
Burt's Bees Garden Tomato toner
4-pack Preserve razors (the handles are recyclable . . . but #5 plastic, which I don't believe we can recycle 'round here! Bummer. At least there's less packaging than the Venus ones I've been using!)

PRODUCE
three organic bananas
two organic valencia oranges
one organic Asian pear

REFRIGERATED GROCERY
12 ounce tub Earth Balance whipped organic buttery spread (switching to this kind for the summer -- countertop margarine gets melty!)
16 ounces Earth Balance buttery sticks (been doing a lot of baking lately and ran out!)
sprouted corn tortillas
House organic firm tofu
Organic Valley plain soymilk
Holy Land Deli hummus (8 ounces)

I have to talk with someone at my co-op and ask them to please start stocking Bionaturae brand whole wheat fettuccine! They never have it. :(

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"plus one"

Ha! I just had the best evening last night, but I have a funny story to tell you about it!

I went to see my friend/former coworker Dan play drums last night -- he's a member of the (rather famous, especially if you listen to the Current!) local band called Cloud Cult (see the link over on the right . . . scroll down!) and I hadn't seen them play in ages! It was very fun -- saw Kid Dakota open, and then Cloud Cult always puts on a fun, trippy-dippy show. (Their painters were present this time, which was neat!) Dan was kind enough to put me on "the list," (I'd never been on "the list" before,) with a "plus one," because Michelle was going to come with me. Michelle wasn't feeling well yesterday, so I went to the show by myself. (This is an accomplishment -- I don't usually do that, but since the show was in Dinkytown, which is a very safe neighborhood near the U of M campus, I decided to suck it up. Glad that I did!) When I walked in the door, I handed the guy my ID and said, "I think I'm on the list." He found me and then said, "your plus one?" I said, "I have no plus one -- it's just me." He shot me a funny look; I said, "well, my plus one is sick." He said, "oh -- okay -- head on in."

Never thought I'd get crap from the door guy for NOT having a plus one! Sheesh.

The moral of the story? If I ever write a second cookbook, it might be titled, "Plus One: Healthy Cooking for Parties of Two."

Speaking of the cookbook, I'm going to work on it for a couple of hours now, and those that volunteered to test recipes, beware -- you may get an email today!

I have a choir concert tonight at the church -- we are performing the Minnesota premire of Karl Jenkins's "The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace." If you are in the area and bored, come on over to Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church for a FREE concert at 7:30 p.m! It should be a neat show -- organ, piano, brass, woodwinds, percussion, and lots of singing. :) It's a neat, somewhat unsettling, but ultimately hopeful piece . . . hope to see you there!

workshop!

I just signed up for a workshop titled "Selling and Publishing Your Book" at the Loft! (The workshop itself isn't until July -- that's a long time to wait!) Regardless, I feel like I'm making some headway! Perhaps this will give me the push I need to keep working on the manuscript?

cookbooks

Just because I don't have any VEGAN cookbooks doesn't mean I don't have any COOKBOOKS! :)

Here's what I have:

The Ultimate A-Z Bar Guide (Sharon Tyler Herbst & Ron Herbst): a great book to learn about alcohol. I hardly ever drink, but when I do, I want to know what's in it!

The Laptop Lunch User's Guide (Amy Hemmert & Tammy Pelstring): there are some neat recipes in this teeny little book that came with my Laptop Lunchbox!

The Christmas Cookie Book (Lou Siebert Pappas): this book was given to me as a gift and I've never cooked anything out of it . . . but it's very, very pretty, and has many "old school" Christmas cookie recipes in it like springerle and peppernuts, which I might enjoy making . . . someday!

Betty Crocker's New Cookbook: I grew up cooking from an earlier version of this cookbook, and still prefer it to "Joy of Cooking." Many recipes are not vegan, but easily veganized -- I've pulled muffin, piecrust, and pancake recipes from here with great success! There are also some awesome recipes in the beans and legumes section, and handy charts for cooking times for dried legumes.

The All New All Purpose Joy of Cooking (Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker): where I turn when Betty leaves me hangin'.

Gear for Your Kitchen (Alton Brown): I love this book. It's funny and interesting, and I've had it signed!

I'm Just Here for the Food (Alton Brown): even though I don't enjoy eating meat, it's still interesting to read the science behind preparing a variety of different kinds of foods. It's broken down by cooking method, which is just plain cool.

I'm Just Here for More Food (Alton Brown): AB's baking book. Truly fascinating, for those of you who love to bake. Funny as hell, too.

The Joy of Cooking All About Vegetarian (Rombauer, Rombauer-Becker, & Becker): I have lots of recipes flagged in this book, but haven't made any of them.

Jamie's Kitchen (Jamie Oliver): another gift cookbook; I love Jamie Oliver's philosophy of stripping food down (hence, "The Naked Chef,") and focusing on a few simple, high-quality ingredients over fussy preparation methods and complicated recipes. This is not my favorite of his cookbooks, because it is mostly "restaurant food" and a little too fancy for my tastes. (Plus, it's a lot of meat, of course.) But it sure is purty. And funny. (And I give credit to Jamie Oliver's first cookbook for my ability to bake bread from scratch -- those cookbooks, and a lot of practice, of course.)

That's my cookbook library. I used to have more, but I've gotten rid of ones over the years that I didn't use and/or didn't like. I check lots and lots of cookbooks out from the library and copy down a recipe or two here and there, and if I want to cry when it's time to return the book, I write it down on my wish list. I also have found many, many good recipes on the internet, and have a vast recipe collection of my own. (I actually worked about two years ago on digitizing my recipe box -- I had outgrown a side-by-side, double 4X6 recipe box, and decided it was time to join the 21st century.) I think, ultimately, unless I'm baking, I just "wing it" -- I never make anything the same way twice, and use recipes/cookbooks as more "inspiration" than anything else.

Cookbooks on my wish list:
Vegan with a Vengeance
Vive le Vegan (hi Dreena! Is that the one with the gooey brownies in it that I read about on someone else's blog? I miss brownies . . . !)
The Vegetarian Family Cookbook
The New Vegetarian Epicure
Sinfully Vegan
World Vegearian

And not a cookbook, but sounds very interesting:
Super Nutrition for Women (Gittleman)

SO, I guess the new question would be, what (top 5?) cookbooks are on your wish list?

AND, I forgot to add something to my gadget wish list: a Salter kitchen scale. I really should bake properly.

another question!

I started thinking of other "top 5" questions I could ask you all, and this one's too good to leave wait until next week!

What are the top five items on your "kitchen wish list?"

(Mine are modest because I have a small space, but feel free to dream big!)
1. Shun by Kershaw chef's knife, serrated knife, paring knife, and 4-inch (or so) slicer
2. All-Clad pots and pans: medium and small saucepots, tiny frying pan, 12-inch saute pan, large Dutch oven or soup pot
3. Food processor
4. rice cooker (I think I would like rice more if it was prepared properly -- I have a "bad rice gene," just like I have a "bad pancake gene" -- I can make good pancake batter, I'm just not very skilled at cooking them.)
5. vegan cookbooks! (I have none)

(I posted answers to my previous questions in the comment thread.)

Midweek Munchies

Since I didn't do any shopping this past weekend, I thought I'd post two questions this week!

What are your top five favorite/most used/can't live without kitchen gadgets/pieces of equipment?

What are your top five most favorite flavors or ingredients with which to cook?

(Your answers will help with the cookbook writing process, in the first full chapter, "Getting Started.")

Thanks!

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new breakfast!

I just had to share what I had for breakfast today because it's really good, and I've never thought to have it for breakfast before!

Pan-fried polenta! (With a little drizzle of maple syrup -- like pancakes, only better!) (I have a soy sausage pattie and some watermelon on the side, too.)

Leftover polenta is just about my favorite thing in the whole wide world, and now I can have it every meal of the day! (Not that I would . . . but I could!)

end-of-weekend blues

I realized I haven't posted all weekend! Here's an update:

~ I made a tofu and veggie stir-fry with brown rice for Michelle and I for dinner on Friday night. I used hoisin sauce again, and added a little extra garlic, ginger, and chili flakes this time. I made chocolate pudding cake for dessert, too! (The kind that makes its own hot fudge sauce in the bottom of the pan while it bakes.) I sent Michelle home with the "Sack It!" section from my cookbook to read and test out, and I will try to get recipes out to those that volunteered soon!

~ Saturday, I took Christine to the airport and then spent the day with my friend Chelsea and her daughters Olivia and Norah. It was great to see Chels and meet Norah, and I had SO MUCH FUN playing with Olivia! She's 18 months old, and just a ham. We danced, wrestled, dumped toys out of buckets and filled them back up again, sang songs, and looked at books. I feel kind of bad because I didn't spend much actual time with Chelsea, but I think it all turned out fine in the end! Jenny, a friend of Chelsea's, also came over and brought yummy lunch and it was good to see her, too. (Thanks again, Jenny my blog lurker!)

~ Saturday night I WORKED ON MY COOKBOOK! I edited and added a few recipes to the dinner section, and added more recipes to the dessert section, too. That was fun. :) I also baked a loaf of bread and a peach-strawberry crisp. Carbtastic!

~ Today, I did almost nothing, other than drink tea, eat toast (and some other stuff,) watch movies, and go for a walk around Lake of the Isles. (Thanks for coming with me, Ann!) I feel kind of crummy -- low-energy, tired, a bit achy. I don't know whether I'm just overtired or actually coming down with something, but I decided to lay low today. I watched "Angela's Ashes," "Zelary," and "Walk the Line." All three were wonderful, and a great way to spend a rainy day! (I'm addicted to Netflix, if I didn't mention that already!)

Now, I'm a little sad that the weekend is over. I have to steel myself for the next two weeks -- they prove to be beyond busy. I apologize in advance for infrequent posting, because I will be working like mad, seeing friends' bands play (and going to a CD release show!), and be out of town for Memorial Day weekend. I will attempt to post any interesting kitchen happenings, however! (I took a bunch of stuff out of the freezer for this week, though, so there probably won't be much!)

weird.

The family that I nanny for also employs a housekeeper, and her name is Diane. She's Parisienne, and very nice, and speaks with good, but not great, English. The other day, she was unloading the groceries and came upon a canteloupe. She was supposed to clean it/cut it up, and she didn't know how. I don't think they eat much melon in France, (I think they are native to the Americas,) and I asked her if she wanted to watch me do it so she could do it next time. She did, but made funny faces the whole time. I asked her what was the matter; she said, "I don't like fruit." I was confused -- she didn't like cutting up fruit? (I thought maybe we misunderstood each other -- language barrier and all.) She said, "no -- I don't like fruit. Raisins, maybe, sometimes a banana, but otherwise, no!" and made a grossed-out face.

I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF ANYONE WHO DIDN'T CARE FOR FRUIT BEFORE! Weird.

Happy Friday! Don't forget to call your mommies on Sunday, if you celebrate Mother's Day!

:)

I just searched The Loft website, and found a workshop titled, "Selling & Publishing Your Book." I'm registering for it as soon as I get paid again!
Thank you Lauren and Michelle for shoving me in the right direction!

thank you!

Very special thanks to Anna, Dori, Leslie, Melissa, Jess, Johanna, Courtney, Kai, Megan, and Emily, who all have volunteered to test recipes for my new cookbook! (I wanted to reply to all of your emails individually, but I was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers!)

(And you all, of course, will be receiving an extra-special thank-you in my "the author wishes to thank" section if I actually publish the thing!)