short and sweet while my hands are clean

It's been a messy, dirty day.  One of the few things I do look forward to with the imminence of springtime is that the warmer, more humid days restore the moisture winter sucked from my hands.  I look forward to the day I can wash my hands without having to immediately slather them with hand lotion, before they become taut and shiny and feel all papery.  Blech.

Anyway, I'm waist to eyeball high with boxes right now and a little overwhelmed by the knowledge that tomorrow is our last full day in this apartment.  When I look around, it looks like there's still so much to pack, but when I pull out the boxes (the guys at the liquor store love me - they won't have to pay their recycling bill until March) and start putting stuff in them, I find myself running out rather quickly.  We had an early dinner (more in a moment) and then I got to packing up my kitchen, but I figured it was time for a Blog & Wine break, so I opened up my Malbec before I packed up the corkscrew.

Dinner tonight came to us via the talented (and busy!) hands of the cooks at Blackbird Pizzeria.  My intention had been for us to eat at Blackbird - less trash and clean up for me - but there was not a single table open in the whole joint!  Good for them - it's always great to see a business like that do so well while other pizza parlors only blocks from there are switching hands so quickly they're not even bothering to put up the new signs.  We ordered our food to go and flipped through Grid while we waited for dinner.  While we waited, it occurred to us that one reason there were no tables open was because they are not exactly fast food.  Anyway, we got our bag of goodies and took it home:

After far more deliberation than I felt the menu warranted, Mister decided on the Chickpea Salad Hoagie, which appears to be the vegan equivalent of chicken salad.  It was a lot of sandwich - probably about 14" (Mister's guess).  He started out enthusiastically enough, but he seemed to lose steam about halfway through, beginning to devote more of his attention to the fries.  Once he'd finishd the first half, he rewrapped the second half with great gusto, at which point I realized exactly how big a sandwich it really was and he made some comment about only being able to stand the texture one half at a time.

Mister takes his sandwiches very seriously.  If they aren't perfect, it's as though it is a personal offense.

Speaking of serious - these are some serious fries!  Mister and I agreed (as we conquered that pile with the zeal of people who haven't eaten fries since...well, okay, since Monday) that these are very, very good fries.  The outsides are perfectly crispy while the insides maintain a soft, light texture, and the folks at Blackbird have the salt thing down pat - not too much, not too little.  It's like the Goldilocks of French Fries.

As I mentioned, I got the Roasted Eggplant Grinder and it was astonishingly good.  I ate the whole thing happily, along with my share of the fries.  It's ever-so-slightly too oily, but that's really just my terrified-of-fat-calories side talking - the garlic-infused oil really makes the sandwich.  The marinated eggplant, broccoli rabe, and roasted red peppers certainly help create an amazing sandwich.  I definitely preferred this sandwich over their cheesesteaks, mainly because this sandwich had just a sprinkling of Daiya, rather than it being a main ingredient.  I think it worked very well on this sandwich because there were several other bold flavors to balance it out - it really kind of dominates the seitan in the cheesesteak.  Perhaps if the seitan was seasoned a bit more creatively, it would hold its own against the Daiya...food for thought.

Anyway, I'm about to run out of wine (and steam), so it's back to the boxes...let me leave you with a few glamour shots of our mess:

I don't know why I was surprised, but it actually took two boxes to pack all of my cookbooks.  I guess this makes sense, since I had three shelves devoted to them... 

I refer to this as my Fail Box.  This is probably the crappiest packing I've done yet.  I just kind of tossed all of my cookware into a really big box.  It's crammed in there pretty good and Mister already practiced picking it up, so I think it will make its way two blocks without any major damage.  It is neither orderly nor attractive, though.

from the floor to the middle

middle to the top...that's quite a pile

I have absolutely no idea what's for dinner tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Italian Feast Friday

A lot of times, I like to mix things up - I dig the fusion cuisine.  I'm not terribly skilled at concocting fusion recipes just yet, but I love piecing together a side dish from here with an entree from there, so to speak.

Nevertheless, sometimes a completely unified dinner is fulfilling in a way I can only describe as peaceful.  It's as though all the components that make food into a meal come together and harmonize in such a way that you would have to be oblivious to the world around you not to pause mid-chew and appreciate how good your meal is.  I would say it's a zen-like experience, but that would introduce fusion language into a very coherent dinner.

Tonight, I welcomed a hard-earned weekend by making Clara's Pasta e Fagioli from The Urban Vegan.  From Dynise's description, I expected the results to be a lot soupier, but it was undeniably a pasta dish.  I suppose I could have added the cup of broth for flavor without interfering with the "pasta dish" aspect too much - I cannot fathom how one little cup of broth would have turned the monstrous portion (48oz of leftovers crammed into GladWare after we each had two helpings) into soup.  Don't get me wrong - the weather is becoming perfect for soup, but Mister has already made it clear that he is not ready for that yet.

Following Dynise's own method of eating this delightful bowl of pasta and beans, I ran out for fresh bread to turn into garlic bread and I was really quite thrilled with the results - I dare a restaurant to make a more attractive plate:

Well...okay, it would probably be a little prettier without that burnt edge there, but I'm not perfect for heaven's sake.

To round out the perfect Italian-ness of our dinner, I served up the last of the olives and poured myself a healthy, celebratory glass of Francis Coppola Diamond Malbec (AKA: Velvet).  Okay...the wine is Argentine, but that's really just a short swim from Italy anyway.  Regardless of geography, it could not have completed the flavors of our dinner tonight better if it was grown in the foothills of Tuscany.

parmesan-crusted pork? no, thanks

Yesterday was the first day of my favorite month. I love October for many reasons:
1. the weather is perfect
2. it starts smelling and tasting like fall
3. the leaves in Pennsylvania are at their peak of beauty
4. people start lighting fires in their fireplaces (I love that smell when I'm out taking a walk on a crisp autumn night)
5. we're coming up on another wedding anniversary (I love that!)
and now,
6. because of all the wonderful posts to read (and write) for Vegan MoFo III! I am so excited to be a part of this!

I was previously unaware that this day even existed, but yesterday was also World Vegetarian Day, which I celebrated in grand style...because nothing says, "we love animals" like a Brazilian steakhouse featuring a "parade of meats." Not exactly how I imagined observing World Veg. Day or kicking off VeganMoFo2009, but long story short it was my boss's fault.

As I mentioned before, we recently added about 100 new agents to our staff at work. My colleagues and I make up the management team of the sales department and the Vice President wanted to thank us all for hiring and training these new staff members, as well as hitting projected sales goals in August, so he took us out to dinner. Fortunately, the salad bar was really good - hearts of palm, chunks of cantelope, tabbouleh, herbed cucumbers, steamed asparagus, and a really good mixed greens salad. The greens were so fresh and spicy there was no need for dressing. Also, on the table were fried polenta and bananas. Despite the continuous parade of servers carrying 12 different meats on 12 different skewers for my dining partners to pick off with little tongs, I thoroughly enjoyed my salad (to the great amusement of two male colleagues who had two of every meat). I also especially enjoyed two conversations:

Vice President to female colleague: "Why isn't she (me) eating?" as he observed me passing on all the meat presented to me.
Female colleague to VP: "Because she's a vegetarian."
Evidently, no one told him this earlier.

A server presents a skewer of parmesan-encrusted pork loin to my Jewish colleague who has just finished observing Yom Kippur.
Her: "Ooh, what is that?"
Me: "Parmesan-encrusted Pork."
Her, to server: "No, thank you."

In case you missed that, the combination of Pork and Cow's milk cheese is not exactly kosher.

So that was how I kicked off World Vegetarian Day and the first day of Vegan Month of Food.

Tonight I made Two-Bean & Kale Soup without the cheese toasts. The kale is really a mouthful! I think I need to chop it smaller next time...the pieces were way too big. I feel like either I should know this, or I did something wrong, but kale is really....sturdy. It doesn't wilt like other greens. It looks like it does, but it doesn't, it just turns greener. It's a very hearty green and I enjoyed having to chew it so many times before I could even consider swallowing, but I definitely think I need to cut it up a little smaller next time. It's a good soup for a mildly chilly night, getting a little touch of creaminess by blending cannellini beans with vegetable broth - I love that trick!

Anyway, due to good times and good wine*, I was way too tired to start my MoFo blogging last night, so I may do a "double issue" one of these days to make up for it. Enjoy and please feel free to leave me comments if there is anything you'd like me to write about this month.
Possible topics:
1. Why aren't you vegan?
2. What's wrong with honey?
3. Why isn't your cat vegan?
4. How did you make a cupcake so good someone wants to make love to it? (funny story)
5. What makes some sugar vegan and some not?
6. Amazing egg substitutes
7. Insert interesting topic here______

*Crios Malbec, Argentina - sooooooo good. Soooooo smooth. It was like drinking velvet.