speed shopping and pasta fail

I nearly blew away today.  It is so windy in Philadelphia and its suburbs, it puts me just one level above my usual hatred for wind to a maddening frustration.  Wind is absolutely my least favorite weather.  Wind in conjunction with other things is the Worst Thing Ever; for example, wind + cold rain = misery.  Fortunately, today it was just so windy I thought I might take flight and my hair might become a single, huge dreadlock.  (psst!  for a fun story about me truly almost being swept away by the wind, click here)

I managed to make it to and from teaching without becoming airborne, so I decided to press my luck and go food shopping...since I haven't done that yet and we've been here nearly a week.  Mister was very excited that I was actually going to put food in the refrigerator and cupboards.  In fact, he was so excited that without my knowledge, he decided to join me at Superfresh.  I got home, found that the kitty was quite lonely, and asked him where his Mister was.  A couple of minutes later, Mister burst through the door, exclaiming that he went to Superfresh to "visit" me and I wasn't there.  He's so cute.

I thought this was too funny not to share.

After I put the food into the various places it belonged, I told Mister I was going to try to go to Whole Foods without blowing away, and before I could button my coat, Mister had his coat and shoes on and was ready for a field trip!  Let me pause for a moment and fill you in on the geography of our new home: it is 2 blocks east of our old home...Whole Foods is 5 blocks west of our old home...which means Whole Foods just got further away.  Granted, two blocks isn't a huge deal, but when it's so windy that you want to give up and go home after one block, well, you find yourself scheming about how to get all of your groceries in 10 minutes.  We detoured to Essene and I sent Mister after the pantry items while I picked through the produce.  Miraculously, and to the cashier's delight, we were checking out at closing time.

Now might be a good time to share the menu I constructed on my train ride to and from work today:

1. Vegetable Lentil Stew

2. Radiatore with Escarole and White Beans

3. Salsa Rice and Red Beans

4. Coconut Curry Rice

5. Savory Sausage and Peppers

6. Better-Than-Takeout Tofu Stir-fry

All of these dinners come from Vegan on the Cheap, since the moving out/in process has been a somewhat expensive one between the U-Hauls and the take-out, not to mention our Valentine's date (which was still far less expensive than it would have been at Horizons).

I didn't have the same trouble I usually do in deciding what to make first.  The reason is because I chose Radiatore with Escarole and White Beans specifically because the recipe said I could substitute spinach, which would allow me to use up the rest of last night's bag before it got all slimy and gross.

It came together just as quickly as the recipe implied it would and it sure looks pretty, doesn't it?  I'm not sure if I messed something up along the way or if I just need to get better at seasoning "to taste," (I'm not a big fan of tasting dinner while it's cooking unless it's a sauce or soup), but there really wasn't anything a person could call "sauce."  Mister took note of this and attempted to correct the "naked pasta" by dowsing his with olive oil and sprinkling quite liberally with the Mediterranean Sea Salt blend.  He was a good sport, but if I ever make this again, I will have to do something about the sauce situation - an idea that struck me during dinner was to combine recipes: I have this great recipe by Sarah Kramer for a spicy garlic sauce.  I usually use it for stir-fries or other Asian-influenced noodle dishes, but it might be worth a try here, too.

In other news, we're going to have to do something about the "dining room" light or else I'll have to take all my pictures by the stove.