three pounds

What does a person do with 3lbs of leftovers?  I mean, seriously.  The only reason all that was left of Seitanic Red and White Bean Jambalaya fit into only one Gladware container was because I forced it to by putting my full weight on the lid to seal it.  It won't surprise me if it busts loose in the fridge.  I hope it doesn't though, because that will be a mess to clean up.

We'll get back to that in a moment, though.  Today was an interesting day.  I had gotten myself into this panicked mindset that my little R&R Staycation was drawing to an end way too quickly.  I mean, yes, when it's over I get to go to my new job, but it's still work and no one really wants to go back to work.  Except possibly new mothers after a year of being home.  Maybe they do.

Anyway, once I realized that my last day of work was a half a week earlier than I had given notice for, I was relieved that I was 4 days into 10, rather than 5 - 40% is way better than 80% in this situation.  I got up a little before noon - I got into "bad habits" these last few days because I was so overjoyed that I didn't have to go to bed by any particular time.  Unfortunately, since I will need to return to a "workingman's" schedule next week, I don't want to let myself get into the habit of staying up later than I have in years and sleeping later than I have in, well, years.  So, once I'd had a couple of cups of coffee and a nice little breakfast, I got ready to go do stuff.  Mister was sleepy, so I decided to just wander around Center City East looking for somewhere new and fun to eat lunch with my parents on Thursday.

Local folks - have you ever been inside the Curtis Center?  To be completely honest, aside from housing offices of various companies, I have no idea what goes on in that building.  I wouldn't mind working there one day, though, for two reasons:

Reason #1 - that's the lobby!  There is a huge waterfall/fountain thing with this huge arcade with a solitary baby grand piano hanging out in the middle (roped off presumably so loonies like me don't think it's okay to play it), flanked by an Mid-Atlantic attempt at palm trees!  And I must say, I wouldn't have thought to put huge potted ferns up on 3-story high pedestals to imitate palm trees.  I wonder who has to water them...

Reason #2...well, that is actually a tie.  My dad works right around the corner (in fact we've wandered in on lunchtime breaks near Christmas to see the gargantuan tree they put up in that same lobby), so it would be great to work less than a block from him - we could have lunch every day!  The other great thing is Cooperage, which is why I saw this magnificent sight today to begin with.  I wanted to see their menu to ensure there was something Mister and I could eat because they have these awesome outdoor "booths" that I've been wanting to eat at for at least a year.  Outdoor dining season in Philadelphia is relatively short, though, because not as many places have heat lamps as they should for such adventures, but even still, autumn can be a very rainy time here.

By the way, the only reason an awesome restaurant is comparable to working close enough to my dad to have lunch with him every day is because eventually, the old man will retire, and then what will I have?  An awesome restaurant :)  love you, Dad!

Anyway, after wandering around town for a bit, I stopped into Bodhi Coffee with my book and enjoyed a tall, steamy cup of Stumptown Roast before heading home to make dinner.  Good thing I had some coffee!  Actually, it didn't take all that long to make the Jambalaya since I was using the Le Creuset of Doom, apparently.  I don't know what magical powers that pot has, but it boils water more violently and enthusiastically than any pot I've ever seen.  As such, I can't imagine why I didn't think it would cook the heck out of the Jasmine rice I used in the Jambalaya in about 10 minutes flat.  Really.  It's a good thing I thought to check on it, even though it still had at least 15 minutes to go (according to the recipe, which uses a heavy dutch oven, which I have, but didn't want to clean), it was actually starting to adhere to the bottom of the pot.

I didn't take pictures of it hot because it really wasn't all that interesting looking, but have you ever wondered what 3lbs of leftover Jambalaya looks like?  Yes, I really did weigh it on our bathroom scale.

You can't really tell, but the top is definitely a little domed upward.

I figure it will be a good thing to just reheat if there is some point this week that I was too busy doing nothing of great import to have the energy to cook.  I mean, it's happened before...

diversity for dinner

So, over the weekend (when I wasn't writing my novel about Bay Area Eats), I got to construct and shop for my full week menu.  I definitely had another one of those ILoveTraderJoe's moments and each time I go there I find myself more willing to go out of my way to shop there.  I'm still getting used to the layout and the much smaller size than Whole Foods, but I pay about half of what I do at Whole Foods and I'm still working out that budget thing.

On Friday, I made Aloo Gobi from The Vegan Table because Mister Loves Curry, especially with two favorite veggies.

It was quite a bit more chopping than I anticipated, but by the time I crammed all 4 potatoes, 6 tomatoes, and head of cauliflower into my miserable little saute pan (near fail!), it smelled too good to think it wasn't worth the work.  I steamed some brown basmati over which to serve it and then called a very happy (and by then, very hungry) Mister to the table.

After dinner, I made up my new menu:

1. Granada Paella from The Urban Vegan, which is one of the main reasons I had to at least drop in to TJs, but the whole $25 for a bag I'd pay $50+ for at WF was also pretty alluring.

2. Bean and Bulgur Tacos, also from The Urban Vegan.  I've passed this recipe a dozen times, each time wondering exactly how that would work, but being unwilling to take the chance of finding out.  Carpe Diem, friends!

3. Orecchiette con Broccoli, also from The Urban Vegan.  Hopefully this time I won't make myself sick.  I do anticipate this will be my easiest and tastiest attempt because I bought a convenient and inexpensive bag of pre-cut broccoli florets at TJs and I plan to dissolve the miso in something that isn't rancid this time.

4. Fusilli with Lentil Sauce from Vegan Italiano.  I was poking through some old posts and came across the first time I made this and thought, Hey, that was pretty good - let's have it again.  So there you go.

5. Penne with Cannellini Beans and Escarole, also from Vegan Italiano.  I'm still finding my way around TJs, but for all I could see, Whole Foods is still the only place to go for escarole.  Not that it's a huge, irreplaceable part of my life.  There may or may not be a post soon on Pretty Woman in an Ugly World about a recent customer service encounter at Whole Foods that may or may not be fueling my search for an alternate organic grocer...  maybe.  

Anyway, with a fridge full of food and well-stocked cupboards, I did the logical thing and made Sloppy Joes from The Urban Vegan.  Nothing exciting - they were as fabulous as they always are, which unfortunately makes for seriously boring blogging, so we'll move on to last night's dinner: Fusilli with Lentil Sauce.

This makes an absolutely delicious sauce, but I'm not thrilled with how soupy it comes out.  I think 2 cups of broth + 14 oz undrained diced tomatoes might make a little too much liquid, especially when you include about 4 Tbsp of liquid condiments.

I think where I go wrong with the sauce is following the directions.  That whole Tyranny of the Recipe thing again... the recipe instructs me to cover the pot while the lentils bubble and boil their way to plumpy-tenderness, presumably so that the steam helps the process along, but I think they will still plump up just fine if I leave the lid off and allow the liquid to evaporate and concentrate a bit.  I think Mister will appreciate that, too, since puddles at the bottom of his pasta bowl make him a little sad.

As long as you ignore the puddle beneath this pile of pasta, it's really a very attractive (and super easy and tasty) dinner.  I really should make this more often.  I used de Puy lentils this time around and I think I probably would have done better with regular old Goya brown lentils.  The way they held their form was a little distracting - I would have liked them to blend in with the rest of the sauce a little more.

Tonight, Mister and I were both pretty starving by the time I got home from work, so ignoring the good sense that told me to save my fastest cooking meal for tomorrow night, I sped through the prep for Bean and Bulgur Tacos tonight.

In the little square of plastic, you see something you could easily mistake for very creamy guacamole.  You would only be half right...it's Trader Joe's Guacamole Hummus - 50/50 blend of avocados and chickpeas with various seasonings mixed in.  You can also see the little corner I dug out with a flatbread and part of a red pepper...quality assurance, you know.

It was a bit spicy, owed to the blended jalapeno and at least a little garlic, as well as some cilantro and lime.  It was an unusual color.  Does anyone like Fiona Apple?  On her first CD, Tidal, she sings a gorgeous song called "Pale September."  For some reason, the opening line (Pale September - I wore the time like a dress that year) always made me think of a pale chartreuse chiffon dress, gossamer against sunlight and a gentle breeze.  If I had married in September, rather than October, I would have hunted that color down and made it my wedding color...and promptly made enemies of my bridesmaids, at least three of whom would not have been flattered by the shade, but hey - it's my wedding, right?

Fortunately for everyone, I married in October, so they wore crimson instead.  My point?  The Hummamole (that's what Mister and I are calling it) was that color.

I shredded a big bowl of romaine lettuce and sprinkled it over top of a generous smear of the Hummamole on each tortilla, then topped it with the bean and bulgur mix.  It was light yet filling and really hit the spot with a variety of tastes and textures.  I guess in that way it was very much like the dinners in this post.  The heat and tanginess of Indian curry, the savory toothiness of pasta with a rich Italian sauce, and a new take on a familiar Mexican taco recipe, replacing the brown rice with coarse bulgur.   

speedy vegan?

I was originally going to title the post "Speed Vegan" but I didn't want it to be confused with the cookbook by the same name.  Although I sure would enjoy the SEO hits that may result from such a clever title, I don't want to be the cause of all the disappointment people would feel upon discovering this was not an associated blog.

However, I do want to share with you one of my cookbook gems: Vegetarian Times Fast and Easy.  This is a pretty good book - a lot of recipes are surprisingly tasty.  That truly was not intended to be the backhanded compliment it looks like.  What I mean is that some of the recipes combine bizarre (and sometimes difficult-to-find) ingredients but it always comes out well.  Other recipes you can look at and just know they'll be great.  I enjoy the first kind - I love being surprised by dinner.  This is actually pretty funny, considering what a picky eater I was as a child and how I hated to "try new things."

A few nights ago, I made one of the latter - an old, faithful standby, Tuscan Vegetable Ragout.

It's an incredible melange of crunchy, creamy, squishy, and squeaky.  Squeaky?  Well, yes - haven't you ever noticed how sometimes artichoke hearts make a squeaky sound?  You'll notice now.

Anyway, there are general ingredients - white beans, tomatoes, zucchini, artichoke hearts - which make up the standard Italian cuisine base, wouldn't you say?  Then there are embellishments, just like a good opera. [If I could take a brief detour: through my adolescence, I was trained as a classical vocalist.  One of my favorite things about Italian music was the Aria - the purpose of an aria is to showcase the ethereal voice and undeniable talent of, normally, a soprano.  As luck would have it, that was the part I sang.  The structure of an aria is similar to a canon in instrumental music - you start with a simple theme, but then to "show off" you sing through the exact same tune a second time but with wild - yet tasteful and perfectly articulated - ornamentation.  I am not saying that I fulfilled all the lovely descriptions I just gave of the Diva, but I did adore singing the second round of an aria.]

In Tuscan Vegetable Ragout, the ornaments take the form of cubed smoked tofu, sliced kalamata olives, and occasionally small pasta.  I skipped the pasta this time around because I felt like the menu was already quite noodle-heavy, so I served it on brown basmati instead.

The flavors of the various parts combine into a mouthful that is at once sweet (from the artichokes and tofu) and a bit savory (from the tomato-drenched beans and zucchini) with the satisfying crunch of zucchini combined with the smoothness of creamy cannellini beans.  There is nothing outstanding about this dish other than how perfectly its parts come together to make a whole.

Tonight's dinner, on the other hand, was quite outstanding, flavor-wise.  Tonight I made Singapore-Style Noodles with All That Other Stuff.  I nearly forgot how stirfries worked, which is amusing to me as they were all I did know how to do before I learned to cook.

I have gotten so used to chop-as-you-cook recipes that when I know I'm making a time-saver, I tend to automatically go to that.  You cannot pull of a successful stirfry this way.  No, fortunately, I remembered just in time that you really do need to prep all of the ingredients before you heat the oil.

This required 4 prep bowls, 2 knives, 2 measuring spoons, 2 measuring cups, and 1 whisk to accomplish, but I did pull it off and the result was terrific.  Love at first bite for Mister.

Me?  Well, it bit me.  Does it look tasty?  It totally is.  Does it look spicy?  It definitely is.  Furthermore, it's that sneaky spicy that doesn't hit you at first and then all of a sudden you're like "holy cow, my mouth is on fire!"  This should have been obvious as I was whisking nearly a tablespoon of curry powder and a teaspoon of harissa into the sauce, but it wasn't really.  I'm still stupidly brave about both of those ingredients and continue to forget how much harissa especially likes to kick me in the throat halfway through my meal.

It was absolutely worth it, though - I could only handle one bowl.  Mister had plenty of time to plow enthusiastically through two bowls while making mean jokes about dinner eating me.  He also had a good laugh as I tried to cool my burning tongue and lips by unwrapping the last Li'l Dreamer and pressing it to my tongue, which was sticking out through my lips.

Hey, ya know what?  I may have looked like a doofus, but it worked.  And it was delicious.

curry, burritos, and cookies, oh my!

Happy Friday!  I cannot believe it is already the end of the third week of January.  Next weekend is the last weekend of January, which blows my mind for two reasons: first, I can't believe I blinked this month away already.  Second, something for which I have been preparing since May is finally culminating...or at least, beginning to culminate: my dear student has her first college music audition.  Tomorrow is our last lesson before the audition, our last chance to iron out any last kinks.

Between that and a few other things that are irrelevant to a food blog, I've been a little distracted lately...pondering the meaning of life (why did I marry a philosopher?), what I am doing with mine (why am I so introspective?), and ultimately, how to be happy.  I do want to share some fun food stories, so here's a random selection from the last couple of days.

Last night, since the Spinach Drought finally ended, I finally made Chickpea and Spinach Curry from Vegan With a Vengeance.

I was going to write last night, but I got distracted by the pure incompetence of someone from whom I've been waiting to hear news for at least a week.  I was too pissed off to focus on the relatively calm post I had in my brain - I thought a fun title would be Calming Colors: Chickpea Beige.

I love the color combination of this flavorful curry: bright red tomatoes, emerald green spinach, and golden-beige chickpeas.  Although I appreciate the bold colors of crimson and hunter, it is the subtle, creamy taupe of the garbanzos that pull everything together and make this dish a thing of beauty.  This is no testament to my still-developing photography skills, but if I saw the picture above in a cookbook, I would want to make that dish purely because it is attractive (and appears to be made of food I like).

Even though the Great Spinach Famine of 2011 is coming to an end, we're not back in business quite yet, so I was only able to get half of what I needed.  As a result of forgetting that while mixing the curry spices, the result was a little more intense than it usually is, but it was still very tasty, even if it took Mister three breads to get through his servings.

Tonight, I made Barbecued Black Bean and Tofu Burritos, also from Vegan on the Cheap, which I've made once before.  Although I went back and read that post, in which I commented on wanting to marinate the tofu, here's what I did instead:

I sliced it as thin as I could without tearing it, then laid it on some towels to drain a bit.  After spraying and heating my skillet, I arranged the slices and let them cook a few minutes while I seasoned the "up side" with sea salt and chili powder, then sprayed them with olive oil.  Once the tofu was popping enough to nearly flip itself over, I turned each piece and seasoned the half-cooked sides.  One more flip and I turned off the burner while the tofu finished cooking on the cooling-down skillet.

I will always do it that way - it came out so well.  Also, as the black beans were simmering in my home-made barbecue sauce, it seemed like there was too much liquid, so I looked in the fridge and found what I was looking for: leftover cooked rice.  I tossed that in, stirred it up and let it heat through, then lined each tortilla with 3-4 tofu slices and dumped a healthy bit of beans-n-rice on the tofu and rolled it all up.

Sooo tasty...  Speaking of tasty things, do you know what time of year it is?

That's right, kids - it's Girl Scout Cookie time.  One of my most recently hired and trained employees brought some in to sell for her daughter, but she just straight up gave me these: Shout Outs are brand new to the line up.  Round wafer cookies, embossed with one inspiring word (3 of the 4 I've already eaten said "Lead" and I wonder if I should be taking that as a message), and aside from an undefined "Sugar" in the ingredients, these sweet treats appear to be vegan - no milk, eggs, or other recognizable animal bits to be found in the nutritional label.  Also, I'm a pretty big fan of serving sizes like this: 4 cookies = 130 calories.

just a little something to break the monotony

Yes, I did just quote a line from Will Smith's "Summertime" on the first day of winter.  Happy Winter Solstice everyone!  For anyone able to see the lunar eclipse, I hope it was worth the lack of sleep - at this moment, I can't think of anything worth missing sleep over, even a total lunar eclipse of a full moon on the Winter Solstice...which hasn't happened in four centuries.

Dinner was nothing special.  I made the Easy Tuscan Linguini and it didn't look or taste any different than it did the first time. (<--click for recipe)

It tasted great - don't get me wrong - but aside from the delightfully dark dinosaur kale I sliced up, there was nothing outstanding about this.  Sometimes you don't need outstanding.  Sometimes you just want to eat dinner.  One fun thing I did differently this time was this: while the garlic was sauteing and infusing the olive oil with flavor, I sprinkled on some of the Tuscan Seasoning from our California trip and let that simmer with the garlic and eventually, the kale and beans.

Here are my favorite parts of today:

1. an agent, explaining her dissatisfaction with her supervisor's handling of a request to take a few hours off on Christmas Eve to go to church (yes, we really do have our staff in the office on Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day.  LOVE Corporate America).  I asked her if there was an earlier service she could attend that wouldn't interfere with her schedule; she looked at me with the most honest eyes I've seen in that place and said, "I go to a Christian church - that's the only service."  So....who wants to tell my parents and in-laws that they go to heathen churches, since there are multiple services?  Not it.

2. I only had two trainings going on simultaneously today.

3. One of those trainings was delayed because the Director who made such a fuss about getting it done yesterday hijacked the training room I had reserved to host a supervisor meeting.  I have had the same conversation with her multiple times: I don't ask much, I just want the resources I need in order to do my job.

4. I'm drinking Champagne again.  I'd better make the braised bok choy soon or I'll have to buy more!  That would be straight-up tragic.

5. When I finally took my lunch break (5 hours into my shift), I found a little love note text message from my Mister waiting for me on my phone.  It may have been the first time I smiled without needing to be polite all day.

6. Don't let anyone else hear this, but I think things might finally be starting to wind down...shhh!

may your days be merry and bright

Happy Friday!  We made it!

It blows my mind that this time next week we'll have gone through the first round of holiday eating festivities.  I'm looking forward to the holiday, seeing family, not working, and not going to work.
Yes, I wrote that twice on purpose.  What a week and I'm not sorry to bid it farewell!  I had this awesome Good-news-Bad-news story with Mister during dinner tonight:

The good news is the week finally ended and I get to breathe for a couple of days.
The better news is that next week I only have to work two days!
The bad news is that means I have to fit a whole lot of work into those two days.
The good news is that lots of work makes the days pass faster.
The bad news is that lots of work makes the days disappear too soon.
The good news is, once I get through them, I'll be off for five beautiful days straight.

That seems a good place to leave it.  Speaking of getting through things, we've gotten through the menu this final night with a beautiful blend of cultures and cuisines.

Tonight's dinner was Cajun Baked Tofu with Cajun Beans and Rice, both recipes from The Accidental Vegan.  I've made the rice-n-beans before - in fact, it is absolutely my favorite beans-n-rice recipe.  The Cajun tofu was new and a delightful addition.  Since the tofu seemed the obvious Protein in the meal, I opted to leave out the veg sausage called for in the recipe.  I also discovered, while cooking and after Whole Foods was too far away, that I had only one of two tablespoons of the prescribed worcestershire sauce.  I subbed in a Tbsp of tamari, since it has a darker savory taste and could fill in if I closed my eyes and wished really hard (which I did, and it seemed to work!).

I also subbed an 8 oz can of tomato sauce for the 1/2 cup tomato juice that was the key part of the tofu marinade, which resulted in a fun lacquered kind of situation.  I flipped the tofu halfway through cooking and spread the remaining "marinade" over top of the tofu slices.  I whisked some harissa into the mix in place of hot sauce and was quite pleased with the heat it lent to the marinade - the tofu and rice-n-beans played well together, and the whole Cajun melange made fast friends with the Georges duBoeuf Beaujolais I picked up on my walk home from the train tonight.  I had actually intended to pick up the Beaujolais Nouveau people keep saying they see, but all I could find was a 2009 vintage - but hey! It was on sale and had a little hang-tag telling me it was the best year ever for Beaujolais due to....blahblahblah....a bunch of stuff my brain is too full and too tired to fit in.

Let's just say I had a sip during dinner and had the exact same reaction that I had to my favorite summer wine.  Mister was quite amused.

Mister loves me.

I'm not gonna lie - by the time I made it in the door tonight, I wasn't sure I would be able to extricate myself from a chair if I sat down, so I just stood in my kitchen, still wearing my coat, hat, and gloves.  After giving me my kisses, Mister walked away and came back with something lovely he thought would make me happy.

Yessir, it sure did.

 Speaking of things that make me happy (yup, looks like it's that Random time of year), has anyone else noticed that Starbucks has the most brilliant marketing ever?  One year, someone said, "Hey, why don't we make happy red cups for the winter holiday beverages?"  To everyone's ineffable surprise and delight, the world responded by thinking that was just the cutest thing ever, so now, the minute that bitter chill begins to infiltrate the breeze, Starbucks launches the Red Cup Campaign.  It's brilliant and it totally works.  I'll admit, I bought into the hype - I wanted a red cup.

Admit it.  You do, too.

P.S. You can get a Toffee Mocha Americano (not just a latte).  You want one because they are incredibly tasty.  Follow your heart.  I'll be waiting with my red cup, too.

which way is up?

I really want to say that I can't remember to blog and I don't know what happened which day because I'm super busy, but considering I just went back to work today, I might have to just plead insanity.  I'm kind of stressed out and I'm having trouble focusing, but I really want to write, so let's see where this goes (it might be along the lines of my December-January nonsense).  Let's get this party started...

Saturday, I finally made Pomegranate BBQ Tofu with Coconut Rice from VwaV. 

I'm not quite sure how I've served just the tofu and rice by themselves so many times without it occurring to me that something green probably ought to find its way onto the plate.  I ran up to Superfresh while Mister took a short nap - I figured if there was one food that would make him happy, it was probably roasted asparagus, so I grabbed half a pound, snapped off the ends and tossed them in the oven with the tofu (separate pan, though).

I had created the menu for the "new week" the night before, with every intention of shopping for it before teaching on Saturday...unfortunately, last week exhausted me more than I realized, so I slept just about until the time I had to get ready to leave.  I'll share my menu at this point, so the next couple of dinners make sense:

1. Jerk Seitan from VwaV, served on the leftover Coconut Rice.

2. BBQ-Flavored White Beans with Sausage & Spinach from Vegan Express, left over from last week's menu...because I can't make the BBQ Tofu without making this, also.

3. Pasta Florentine from The 30 Minute Vegan with Roasted Cauliflower with Olives from Vegetarian Times: Fast & Easy. 

4. Tuscan Vegetable Ragout from Veg. Times: Fast & Easy

5. Warm Chickpea Ragout with Swiss Chard, Carrots, and Harissa, also from VT:F&E (do you like how I shorten the abbreviation each time I type it?)

6. Pasta Jambalaya from Vegan Express.

You may have noticed a trend in the cookbooks.  Every one of the items on my menu, other than the Jerk Seitan, can be prepared quickly and with relatively little effort.  One of the reasons my brain is so scattered is because unless something unforeseen should occur, I anticipate the next three weeks being extremely busy and at least moderately exhausting.  As such, I wanted to craft a menu of items I was a) sure would cook up quickly and b) am familiar enough with that I can "whip them up" without thinking too much.

On Sunday, I dilly-dallied a little too long and missed the FarMar as well as the Italian Market, and just as I was getting ready to pop out the door for a trip to Whole Foods, the sky opened up and poured... just like weather.com said it would and I foolishly ignored.  After the rain, I headed out and got my shopping done so I could let Mister pick his poison for dinner.  He chose...

Pasta Florentine with Roasted Cauliflower and Olives.  I was actually a little worried about the pasta dish after Mister's assertion that "vegan food tastes like marshmallows," because I was certain the taste he was isolating belonged to the soy milk-nooch sauce that was also a part of this dish.  Evidently not, since he polished off a good, healthy portion (or three).

I had never made the side dish before and it was amazing, and for no good reason.  All I did was toss a bunch of cauliflorets with some [very high quality] olive oil and sea salt and black pepper.  In the last ten minutes of cooking, I added the olives.  Mister and I were both trying to figure out what made the cauliflower so outstanding - all I can think of is that I truly did not realize what a difference "best quality" EVOO would make.  Thank you, FIL!

By the way - right now might be a good time to wish my little blog a Happy 1st Birthday!

With all the crazy distracting me, even though I was aware I was coming up on one full year of doing this little blog, I totally missed the actually day.  July 24th was the official day, so I'm a little belated.  It's fun to see how I've grown in this year, not only in my photography ability (which was more or less nonexistent a year ago) as well as my sense of culinary adventure.  Have I fallen flat on my face?  Sure.  Was it fun?  Absolutely.

Anyway, last night we had Jerk Seitan on the leftover coconut rice.  It never ceases to amaze me how flavorful this dish is when I give it some time to marinate...it makes a world of difference from the first time I made it.  No pictures, though, because the lighting situation still sucks and it didn't look any different from last time either.

Tonight's dinner was BBQ-Flavored White Beans with Sausage and Spinach, which I also didn't take pictures of and for the same reasons.  I served it up with a little bowl of huge cherries and a little bowl of mixed olives.  It was a fun combination - I felt bad that there was no side dish after how well I'd been doing!

One last thing - thanks to Mandi at Chic Vegan I came across an incredible article.  It could be a little fruity, but it makes you take a step back and think for at least a moment (I Hope!).  Just the title itself is enough to provoke reflection:  Gratitude - the Grass is Green Where you Water it.  Give it a few minutes to change your outlook - we all need a gentle kick in the behind from time to time.

I put the D in Delirious

Before I begin, let me make one thing perfectly clear: If you are expecting this post to be coherent, you are being completely unrealistic.

Since December 26th, I have clocked 131 hours at work. In case you weren't counting, it has been only two and a half weeks since that date. My brain hurts, my shoulders grow new knots the minute immediately after Mister stops kneading them, and my left eye has been twitching at random points throughout the day. To say I'm stressed out and running on adrenaline might begin to cover it, but we've been through this before.

The point is, I'm exhausted and I don't expect to make much sense, but I really want to share about dinner tonight. I think I would like to share about last night's dinner, too, but I can't remember what it was.

Tonight I made Chili sin Carne al Mole from VwaV. I am very proud of myself for remembering to get tortilla chips on my way home so I wasn't halfway through the simmering process before Mister had a mild heart attack and explained to me for the umpteenth time the crucial role these chips play in chili consumption before bundling up and running through the Philly cold snap to get said chips. Didn't happen - I got them first.
There were several things of note about this chili:

1. Whole Foods did not have my now-beloved Ray's Seitan, so I got Michael's Savory Seitan instead. Once again, locally produced and terrifying looking in its little tub. Remembering how well Ray's worked out, though, I ignored how gross it looked. It was okay, but not as flavorful as Ray's or White Wave.

2. Cocoa powder does not dissolve completely, leaving a slightly gritty texture to the mole sauce. That was actually profoundly disappointing, because I had imagined it melding with the other ingredients to create a luscious, thick, velvety sauce that just hinted at a chocolate flavor. That is not what happened. It was thick and had notes of cocoa and cinnamon, but it was definitely a little chalky.

3. Chili is a slow-cooked meal for a reason. Don't taste the mole sauce until it's had at least 15 minutes of quality simmering time. So gross. I seriously didn't know if I was going to be able to eat dinner. It definitely improved over the next 25ish minutes, but I would not have been able to eat it without the aid of those helpful little multi-grain Tostitos.

Speaking of which, how devious is it that Tostitos is really trying to convince people that tortilla chips can be healthy? Popcorn is also a whole grain, but that doesn't matter when you slather it with carcinogenic "butter flavor" made of God only knows what. So, somehow I think the excessive amount of salt and what is probably an inevitable frying process probably strip these multi-grain tortilla chips of any nutritional value. It did make me feel better about buying them, though...I'm such a sucker.

And that leads to another tangent (did you read the title and disclaimer??): once again, I fell prey to the strategically placed items at the checkout of Whole Foods and added a travel size hand lotion to my purchases the other day.

I haven't used it yet, but I got to thinking the other day about whether or not vegan hand lotion existed and if it was any good. This is vegan as far as I can tell, so the next part is to use it and let you know how that works out - I have some seriously dry hands and work in a seriously dry office.

I think I'm going to call it a night. My eyes are starting to cross.