bring on October!

October is my favorite month for so many reasons.  I think it may also be Amy Lee's favorite month, because she released the second Evanescence album in October 2006 and now, after an agonizing 5-year hiatus, she is releasing a new Evanescence album with an almost completely new line-up on October 11, and yes, I have it pre-ordered through iTunes.

That's only part of the reason I can't wait for October to start.  Yes, I've been eagerly awaiting this album while covering my ears with my hands and singing "LA LA LA LA LA" any time someone gossiped about the band breaking up for the last 5 years or so, and the rumors were not helped by the fact that we actually know one of the former band members and were aware that he had moved on to another band.  However, I refused to believe a talent like Amy Lee's could be squandered, so I'm glad I was right.

There are a few other reasons I'm psyched for October - two can be found on amazon.com, one will remain a surprise a little longer.  I mentioned before that Isa has a new book, Vegan Pie in the Sky, and I couldn't be more on the edge of my seat waiting for Dynise's book, tested in part by yours truly, Celebrate Vegan.  It was due to come out the week after the new Evanescence album, but when I visited Amazon, they're saying it isn't being released until November now and that makes me a little sad.

The point of all that really is this: tonight we ate the last meal on the menu, which meant I had to construct the new menu tonight.  Did you catch that?  I had to construct the menu?  Isn't this something I have raved about in the past as one of my favorite parts of each week?  Haven't I reveled in flipping through pages of countless cookbooks to find the perfect combination of meals to get through this next week?  Had to?


I realized after dinner that I was not at all excited about menu-planning this week and wasn't terribly psyched for it last week either.  It shouldn't take a brain surgeon to figure out why - I'm bored of my current cookbook collection.  To my credit, I've been a very good (=frugal = freakishly cheap) girl this year and I haven't bought a new cookbook all year.  Considering we're nearing the tenth month of the year, I'd say I'm doing pretty good.  Yet, it couldn't last forever.  I had a little help with variety in the beginning of the year, when I had just gotten Appetite for Reduction and had a constantly renewing source of recipes I actually had to cook for recipe-testing for Dynise.  I've been slowly stagnating since then, and just recently I've realized that I've been through my cookbooks so many times, I can't even look at them with fresh eyes anymore.

Lucky for all of us, there's a surprise ending, but let's talk about dinner first:

I will probably always think it's funny to call this "Hooker Dinner," but that doesn't change my love for the sweet-salty blend of flavors and textures that makes up Pasta Puttanesca from Vegan Express.  I served it with garlic bread so we could scoop up the leftover tomatoes and olives from our bowls after the pasta was in our bellies.

Mister has been kindly picking up the Superfresh leg of my usual shopping adventures ever since I've been hitting up Trader Joe's on the way home from work.  As you can imagine, some interesting things have been finding their way into our home.  He's been shopping with me enough times to know that the goal is almost always to find the lowest price on a product, unless to do so would compromise its quality.  I can only imagine that some kind of pang of pride for his adolescent home, New Jersey, pulled the jar of New Jersey tomato sauce into the basket by his heart strings.

It wasn't very good.  I shouldn't say that.  It was clearly very fresh and made from real ingredients.  I would liken it to making a batch of homemade tomato sauce, from the dicing of the tomatoes...to the part where you make a kind of weak, watery gazpacho with them, rather than a thick, chunky sauce.  I had to let the sauce simmer a little more lively and longer than the recipe said to allow it to reduce acceptably, and I also felt inclined to add some savory flavors to complement the olives.

It worked out well enough - both our bowls went into the sink pretty clean.

Now for the happy part of menu planning.  When I went over to my bookshelf, half-heartedly looking to see if there was a book from which I haven't cooked in a while and which interested my palate, I noticed something I've been keeping in the corner of my eye for months:

When Mister and I moved in February, we got rid of a ton of stuff - we moved just as much to have a good reason to purge as to get away from that apartment.  We ended up taking a bunch of books to a used book dealer who was happy to write up a credit slip for us to use to buy "new" books from them.  We started out with nearly $100 worth of credit (which means we gave them a lot of books and that they are generous with their appraisals).  One afternoon I went browsing in there and found the gem pictured above.

I already had two Moosewood cookbooks and one of the things I like to make the most from them are the slow-cooking stews and soups, so I scooped this up.  Unfortunately, it was not soup weather, so I just put it aside on the shelf to wait for cooler times.  Well, Saturday greets October with a chilly, chilly day and even the rest of this week isn't supposed to see temperatures out of the low to mid 70s, so I think I'm safe to start investigating that new treasure.  And so, my first adventures will be....

1. Autumn Minestrone from Moosewood Restaurant Soups & Stews Deck.  I plan to serve it with a long, crusty loaf of Italian bread and a bowl of olives.  (Would anyone have found it completely offensive had I written "a long, hard loaf" of bread?  Sorry, too much Anne Rice - she gets a little carried away sometimes.)

2. Mediterranean Stew, also from the card deck.  This chunky pottage will be accompanied by Roasted Cauliflower and Olives from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy, because I figure Mister will respond better to the first week with not just one but two soup dinners on the menu if cauliflower is involved.

3. Warm Chickpea Ragout with Swiss Chard, Carrots and Harissa, also from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy because hey, I had the book open!

4. Hoisin-Braised Tempeh Tofu and Chinese Vegetables, also from VTF&E, but the twist here is that I've never actually made this one before.  The reason is because I usually employ this book when I'm either anticipating being brain-dead or already am brain-dead.  As such, I've managed to complete avoid the logic that would make a person say, "well, yes, my husband is deathly allergic to tempeh, but I can substitute tofu."  I'm kind of excited about this one so I'll let you know how it turns out.

5. Vegetable and "Sausage" Skillet from an old issue of Eating Well magazine.

6. Seitan and Broccoli with Pantry BBQ Sauce from theppk.com.  I had an incredible experience with the recipe here, so I thought it was worth another go.

Thursday's the new Friday

I've reached the "weekend," so to speak.  Despite being very happy at my new job, it is still a welcome break.  I would like to say [just one more time] how much my quality of life has improved with this job change.  I came home, stopped at Superfresh, CVS, and the wine store before getting home and spending at least a half hour talking to Mister before starting dinner.  We ate dinner and everything was cleared and cleaned by 9 and I've just spent the last hour or so "surfing the web," a luxury I usually reserve for one Sunday every two months or so.  I have so much time!  I'm just really happy.  Finally.

Despite my early start and euphoria, tonight was still not going to be the night for spanakopita, so I made Chana Masala from Vegan Express while the tomatoes were in that delicate place between perfectly ripe and rotting.  Cooking with fresh tomatoes is both a rewarding and stressful experience.  For one thing, nothing beats the flavor of lightly sauteed, summer-fresh tomatoes, or the sweet explosion of flavor from a raw grape tomato at the peak of ripeness.  On the other hand, I really do get seriously grossed out from the seeds.  I don't know what it is, but it's enough to turn my stomach sour if I look too long.  If only I could buy pre-seeded tomatoes.  But that leads to the last point - there is really only one or two days that they are truly, incredibly edible and if you miss those days, you're either coaxing flavor from a hard, yellow-green, overly-acidic tomato, or begging the one you're trying to cut to refrain from rotting for just one more minute while you try to dice the grainy, falling-apart flesh while it separates itself from its skin (but never its stupid seeds...).

Anyway, tomato-induced trauma aside, dinner was light and tasty:

I can't tolerate Indian-influenced recipes served on brown rice, so I used white Jasmine and it was perfect.  I would have preferred basmati, but until I have my huge chef's kitchen when Mister's solo album goes gold, there's only room for two rices.  The tomato curry sauce clung very lightly to the creamy chickpeas, with a very subtle hint of What-is-that-Oh!-it's-lemon lying just beneath the garam masala and turmeric.  As a contrasting but perfectly intense side dish, I roasted some asparagus with salt and pepper.  I thought about adding some garlic, but decided to let the simple spices of my childhood draw out the naturally perfect flavor of these right-sized stalks before they go missing (or obscenely over-priced) for the winter.

In case you can't tell, I was as satisfied with our dinner as I am by my new urban-centric life.

On that note, I'm off to celebrate with red wine, dark chocolate, and a book about NOLA witches.

eat, drink, and be merry

...for tomorrow, we die.  Or go back to work.  Same thing.

All kidding aside (who's kidding?), I had such a delightful weekend, I am both dwelling on each moment and regretting that it all ends when I go to sleep tonight.  Each day has adventures of its own, so we'll keep a positive outlook, shall we?  Probably the best way to guide you through my fabulous weekend is another picture parade, with me popping in from time to time to share a fun story.  Let the good times commence!

There has been a lot of good eating going on lately.  I snapped the above picture while having a surprise lunch with my dad.  I surprised him by being in center city mid-day on Thursday, so we went to Farmicia for a nice little lunch.  Although I was tempted by the Hummus and Avocado Sandwich, I ended up getting the Tres Tamales, which was three (no, really?) perfectly sized tamales, stuffed with their vegan chorizo and "vegetables" (which appeared to actually just be diced chili peppers).  I love how the tamales came in a Tv Dinner-like tray-plate.  In the leftmost top were scrumptious refried black beans.  In the middle was a very spicy salsa roja, and on the right was a pickled cactus salad.  Being an adult, I tried the pickled cactus, even though every cell in my body was saying, "No...I don't think that's a good idea..."  It wasn't, but I chewed up one piece and swallowed, satisfying my need to be adult and classy.  Then I chased it with a nice swig from my celebratory peach fizz (peach nectar + cava).  Dad enjoyed a Crab Cake on Brioche that was thick enough he decided it would be in better taste and manners to make it a fork-n-knife sandwich, rather than trying to unsacrimoniously shovel it all into his mouth.

This bit of my breakfast was part of a super-awesome discovery just before I left the produce section of Whole Foods last week: Mango Nectarines.  Interesting flavor - they look like a champagne mango with their yellow-pale green skin, but they taste more like a nectarine.

Speaking of Whole Foods, I think I'm falling in love with Trader Joe's.  We'll recall that the logistics of my first journey out there were probably not ideal for making me put it on my list of places that I regularly shop.  However, yesterday, I got done teaching a bit later than I wanted to and in order to redeem the day (because teaching someone how to make music isn't fulfilling enough :P), I decided to get off the train at Suburban Station instead of Market East.  Trader Joe's is just a few short blocks from the stairway from subterranean to the city surface, so I decided to take my chances on the buses running more frequently on a Saturday (they do).

I got all these veggies for only $19.95:

• 2 zucchini 
• a cucumber 
• 3 shallots 
• 2 garlics 
• 2 limes 
• 1 lb bag of lemons 
• 7oz arugula 
• a bag of snow peas 
• a bag of broccoli florets 
• a bag of shredded cabbage 
• a red pepper 
• an orange pepper 
• and a quart of vegetable broth

as a result, I saved about $15 total for this week's grocery bill, which is pretty significant considering this menu has seven dinners, not 5 or 6 like normal.  Also, this came in handy when I went to Superfresh and discovered that ThePowersThatBe have decided that consumers were getting their canned beans for a steal, so in the one week between the last time I shopped there and yesterday, they felt justified in increasing the price of beans 32 cents.  

When you're talking about beans, that's a serious number.   I mean, really - $1.19 for a 15oz can of chickpeas?  I guess it could be worse... they're still 80 cents more expensive than that at Whole Foods.  

Anyway, I ended up making the least expensive meal last night, primarily because I wanted to use up my Tofurky sausage and leftover Coconut Rice before something bad conspired between them in the fridge. The only thing I needed to buy for Stewed Lentils with Soy Sausage from Vegan Express was a can of tomatoes.

I heated up the leftover Coconut Rice from our Jerk Seitan the other night, but there really wasn't quite enough leftover to match the volume of the stewed lentils.  In the future, I think we'll need twice as much rice and I probably could have used more than 1 cup of diced tomatoes, too.  The 2 sausages instead of four, though, was right on.

After dinner, since it was Saturday and all, I made myself a little cocktail:

Pineapple Malibu Rum + 100% Papaya nectar + Lime Perrier

Speaking of fruity cocktails, Mister and I had brunch with my parents today (this appears to be turning into a monthly event) and while Mister and Mom stuck to French press coffee, Dad and I decided to celebrate the true nature of brunch: an excuse to drink frilly cocktails way too early in the day.

Closer to the camera is my beverage, April in Paris (st. germaine elderflower liquer + white wine + champagne).  I felt a little silly ordering it, with all that flowery name and whatnot, but I needn't have felt that way since my dad followed up by ordering a Ruby Slipper (absolut ruby red vodka + lime juice + triple sec + cranberry juice + champagne) which is the pretty pink drink further from the camera (and close to my father).

The menu at Valanni is pretty diverse and full of tasty-looking things beyond their fruitilicious cocktails (now might be a good - or damning - moment to point out that Valanni is a fabulously trendy hotspot in the heart of Philadelphia's "gayborhood").  I decided to get Cinnamon French Toast with a citrus glaze and vanilla-maple syrup, sprinkled with pecans and dried curants.  I had no idea how thick the bread would be!

For my savory side, I also ordered Roasted Potatoes which required me to ask our [very nice] server for salt - apparently the cook isn't a fan.  Roasted anything should always involve salt.  I guess you have to play it safe, though, when you're cooking for a bunch of strangers who may or may not have hypertension.

The purpose of my parents' visit was to bring me gifts from afar - Arizona, to be more specific.  The last time we had brunch with them was right before they left to visit my sister, so today was the "now we're home and we have presents" phase of brunch.  Oh, and also because we love each other.

Anyway, there were two big special presents that provoked the visit.  The first is this amazing handmade bowl:

The creator is Michael Nowack, a now-local artisan.  To my surprise, it is both microwave- and dishwasher-safe!  Add that to gorgeous and we have a winner!

Because my parents love my husband more than me, they also gave us two hot sauces and a grill spice mix that contains not just one kind of hot pepper - no, there are five chilies in that mix.  The pain they are clearly trying to inflict upon me, though, was balanced out by the sweetness of the other special gift.

This is Mesquite Flour.  I saw some in Essene yesterday, so it's comforting to know where I can get more if I need it, but this is "special" mesquite flour.  My sister, apparently an earth mother, plucked the pods from her very own mesquite tree and pounded them into this flour all by herself.

You know what they say: You can take the girl out of Africa, but you can't take Africa out of the girl.

Once we'd digested brunch and finished up any last-minute errands that needed running on the weekend, I made dinner.

This image just brings joy to my heart in that welling-over kind of way.  Doesn't that look tasty?  Hearty? Savory?  It doesn't hurt that it's also an attractive color combination, but anticipating the taste makes me want to drool even now.

I served up Pasta E Fagioli from Veganomicon with a delightful mixture of olives and the last of my Apothic Red.  I'm finishing the wine with a few squares of my dark Belgian chocolate from Trader Joe's (and kicking myself a little for not picking up another three bar set while I was there yesterday).

Farewell, Weekend, until we meet again!

how low can you go?

[note: Blogger crapped out on me mid-post last night, so "Part I" will be last night's post, leading to "Part II" which is tonight's dinner adventures.  Look it as a bonus post!]

I have pretty low blood pressure.  I have since I was a young teenager.  The same way that some people (ahem, Mister) need to eat a certain way to manage their blood sugar levels, I sometimes have to eat to manage my blood pressure.  It's actually a fairly enviable position in which to find oneself - I fear, though, for the day Mister's family history of heart disease threatens our little family because we love salt.  Although I am good at enhancing the flavor of foods without adding salt, I would not be as happy a little chef if I couldn't add my precious Mediterranean Sea Salt to roasted vegetables.  In fact, my world might stop turning if I couldn't sprinkle roasting broccoli or asparagus or potatoes with this magical mixture.

I don't have any pictures because Mister and I were in quite a rush to eat (hungry, hungry hippos), but dinner really wasn't anything especially attractive tonight anyway.  I made Pasta Puttanesca from Vegan Express and roasted some broccoli with olive oil and the sea salt blend as a side dish (gotta get some green in there, right?).  For you to truly understand why I love this blend so much, I want to clarify that there are plenty of other flavor elements besides just the incredible chunks of sea salt that catch themselves in a floret to deliver a satisfying crunch when you bite down.  The ingredients on my blend are: sea salt (really?), garlic, basil, oregano, lemon peel, red bell pepper, and the ever ubiquitous "natural flavor."

Speaking of red bell peppers, I don't know what happened to the one I was supposed to slice for tonight's dinner!  I know I got one, but I'm wondering if I accidentally used it for a different recipe.  In any case, I ended up substituting my orange bell pepper for it and I don't think it mucked up the flavor too much.  The pasta was good, but not as good as I wanted it to be and not as incredibly tasty as the roasted broccoli.

Speaking of broccoli....  When I was at Trader Joe's, I saw a bag of broccoli florets for what looked like a pretty decent price - probably a better deal than anything but frozen.  I looked around a bit and discovered that I would get a lot more broccoli for my buck if I bought the convenient pre-cut bag of broccoli than if I got a couple of spears and spent all that time separating the little florets from one another.  Score one for convenience!

[Part II]

Ever since our "celebrity chefs" came to visit and put on a little show a couple of weeks ago, I've been craving chickpea burgers.  Chef Michael Solomonov (Zahav, etc), made turkey burgers, served on the burger thins I love.  They looked so much like chickpea burgers, I kept hoping that if I wished hard enough, they would be.  Alas, they remained little beige patties of ground-up birds, so I had to DIMyself.

I didn't take a picture of the burgers because a) they were not even close to as attractive as Chef Solomonov's turkey burgers and b) burgers just aren't all that exciting to photograph.  Even though the turkey burgers looked very tasty, I would not have whipped out my camera if I'd had it with me.  I might have just had a small inspiration, though.  We'll get back to that later.

Along with the Lemony Garlic Chickpea Patties from Vegan on the Cheap I made the Middle Eastern Chopped Salad from Vegan Express.  This was most definitely worth photographing:

Local cucumber, tomatoes, and a yellow bell pepper came together to make a colorful and festive looking salad, sprinkled with fresh parsley and lemon juice, enriched with olive oil and oil-cured black olives.  I love cucumber-tomato salads dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.  I think I would have been happy to include some garlic as well, so I'll keep that in my mind for the next time I make this salad, but I will freely admit that I am sorry I've never made this before.  It's a lot of chopping, so between that and the made-from-scratch burgers, dinner took well over an hour to prepare, but it's nearly Friday, right?  A little sleep deprivation never hurt anyone, right?

"rudolph" the red-faced trainer

I'm feeling a little bit like Rudolph at the beginning of the song.  No one likes being excluded from "reindeer games," but when you're talking about work relationships, that silent, withheld "why?" is ever-present on the mind.  It's all good - just one more kick in the behind to get me moving [again] on what feels like a continual search for a job closer to home.

But you don't want to read about my [continual] work frustrations.  You want to read about happy things, like our delicious and easy-to-make Pasta with Beans and Chard from Vegan Express.

Ain't it pretty?  It's super tasty, too, and not nearly as salty as I am right now.  Rather, it has a sweet taste from the combination of tomatoes and cranberries (which I sub for the raisins Mister hates).  It was a good dinner for slurping while sharing my tales of woe with Mister.  Now that I've given up (at least temporarily) on trying to understand the twisted minds of my colleagues and the disconnect from reality of just about everyone else on the second floor of my office building, I can focus on fun stories like this:

A few days ago, I was unloading the dishwasher (by the way, I love my dishwasher).  Even though I knew I shouldn't, even though I know wineglasses are delicate, I was tugging on one to try to dislodge it from the top rack where I had apparently placed it between the wall and a hard place.  To no one's great surprise, the wineglass finally yielded to my tugs and broke free of the rack...quite literally.

After I located the few shards of glass that fell down onto the door of the appliance, I carefully disposed of them and placed the chunk-missing wineglass upside down in the recycling bag.  I didn't really mourn the wineglass's loss, since it was one of a set of six and the other six are still dusty from the move.  That set of 6 5 is just one of several sets of wineglasses of varying heights, depths, shapes, and colors.  Nevertheless, I was touched to come home after a craptastic day at work to find that Mister had gone out today and bought me a new wineglass - the prettiest one in the store, he said.

As luck would have it, astonishingly stupid days at work normally result in an inadvertent detour through the wine store on my way home from work, so I just happened to have a bottle of Cupcake Red Velvet wine (on sale, which is important a couple of days before the paycheck and right after a person pays their rent...).  The glass is a little smaller and therefore holds a little less wine.

That's probably a good thing.  The wine itself is a blend of merlot, zinfandel, petite syrah, and cabernet, which comes off with the vaguest sparkle.  Though the wine is most definitely dark, owed primarily to the blend starting with 47% zin, it has an obvious light berry taste and kind of resembles a chianti, both in flavor and mouthfeel.  Before I take all the fun out of this wine by over-analyzing it, I would like to point out that though I think it would be awesome to be a sommelier, I really just like to rave about drinkable wines.  This is not gourmet nor impressive by any stretch of the imagination, and I would serve it more for the novelty of its name than for any desire to share an incredible vintage with treasured guests.  I have a decent stock of those wines already in my head - this one's just for fun.

salad season is here

As I shared my menu last night, I realized it is 50% salads.  I'm completely okay with that for two reasons: first, salads fit into this whole detox effort I was babbling about.  Second, and more importantly for my overheated Greek husband, they do not require cooking, which means the kitchen (and therefore, the "dining room") remains the same temperature as the rest of our hot home.

Tomorrow, in exchange for him washing the towels I couldn't bring myself to launder on my final day off, I told him he could get a Blendini and turn on the A/C, so if it's cool in my home when I return to it, there had better also be a pile of clean towels waiting to be folded.

Anyway, tonight I made Spinach, Artichoke, and Chickpea Salad from Vegan Express.  From the title, you can guess at least three things that were in it, right?  From the trend salads seem to follow when they find their way into cookbooks, you might imagine that those are the only ingredients, apart from possibly some tomatoes and a crunchy garnish, wouldn't you?  Going into it with that mindset, you might be surprised by how darn many ingredients this "simple" salad had.  Let's just say I got good use from my pretty measuring dishes.

That was round one - a cup of tomatoes, a half cup of carrots, and a third of a cup of oil-cured olives for spite.  Round two consisted of a cup of shredded cabbage, a half cup of roasted red peppers, and a can each of artichoke hearts and chickpeas.  I was supposed to only add a cup of chickpeas, but seriously?  What was I going to do with the half-cup left over?  Besides, we like chickpeas in this family.

Another fun thing was serving the colorful, festive salad in my huge red Martha Stewart bowl using the gorgeous and unique Rosewood salad servers my sister gave me for Christmas this year.  I think they're from somewhere in Africa, but I can't remember where she said they came from.

Anyway, they're beautiful and functional, just like I like 'em.

The lighting for this picture is awful, but I wanted to show our little dinner table all set with the salad and accompaniments.  We have some extra mixed olives, in case the 1/3 cup actually in the salad isn't enough.  We also have a gravy boat because I think it's funny that I have two gravy boats that have never been full of gravy.  Actually, that's not true.  The gravy boat we had our tahini salad dressing in tonight, the one on the table, sat on the table my father dined at as a child and teenager.  Surely, sometime in his youth, that gravy boat actually had homemade gravy in it.  So let me amend my statement: in the 8 years that I have been in possession of my Dixie Dogwood dinnerware set, that gravy boat has been destitute of gravy.  It made a perfect vessel for the tahini sauce from Mister's lambless gyros, which magically morphed into a salad dressing tonight.

The salad was delightful and the tahini sauce really went well with the Mediterranean flavors.  The olives made a salty companion to the barely in-season grape tomatoes, while the crunch of the raw cabbage played nicely with the chopped baby lettuces and crisp orange carrots.  After dinner had settled as much as salad is going to settle, Mister and I ventured out into near-record heat to get a cool treat from Rita's Water Ice (so handy to have one a stone's throw from the apartment - we can tell if it's open just by walking down to the corner).  Chocolate water ice for me, Passion Fruit Ice-Vanilla Custard gelato for him, we headed back to the apartment so I could be introduced to a young Robert DeNiro's sinister side in Cape Fear.  This is just one of the movies that Mister could not believe I had never seen and which resulted in us subscribing to Netflix.  After spending most of the second half of the movie with my hands over my face, we decided to move The Tourist up in the queue, taking what was originally the place of Taxi Driver (I need a short break from intense violence starring Robert DeNiro - you must understand - I was introduced to the old, comedic DeNiro.)

Well...back to "real life" tomorrow, at least for a couple of days.  I'm just focusing on Thursday when I get to take a half day and spend the evening at the ballet.  Then, it's Friday!  See?  I can do it.

nothin' to write home about

Last Meal on the Menu Night is always a risky place to be.  Sometimes, I hold off on a recipe because I've lost interest in it, other times because it was too time consuming to make during the regular work week.  Sometimes I save the best for last and other times I'm not sure how it will turn out so I wanted to leave wiggle room for a replacement dinner.  In any case, tonight's Last Dinner was BBQ-Flavored White Beans with Sausage and Spinach from Vegan Express.

Leaving it for last, in this case, actually was somewhat strategic for two unrelated reasons.  The first reason had to do with how darn long this week felt.  Honestly, I feel like I haven't seen my piano students in two weeks, but I know I taught last weekend because I had a new student start.  The week didn't exactly drag by, but it really took Friday a while to get here.  I wanted to ensure I wouldn't have to put out a lot of effort for the Friday night meal (I was also counting on a lack of energy due to anticipated trouble sleeping last night, since there's an Irish bar across the street and whatnot).  The other reason was that I was a little concerned about the BBQ sauce.  Like I mentioned when I added it to the Sloppy Joes, I wasn't sure how I would feel about using it, unadulterated, as a main ingredient.  The flavor is pretty strong and tangy, which is not at all like the homemade BBQ sauce I usually use in this recipe.  In fact, at some point this week, I was kicking myself for actually buying BBQ sauce when I am perfectly capable of making BBQ sauce I knew I'd like for far less money.


Truth be told, I wanted to buy the BBQ sauce.  I was curious, since I've never actually bought BBQ sauce before, and I had heard good things about Annie's.  I'm glad we tried it, although it wouldn't be a "regular" in our pantry or fridge.  The most amusing thing for me was how perfect the amount in the bottle (12 oz) was.  Apparently, 12 oz = 2 Tbsp + 1 cup, because that was what I needed for the two recipes and that is exactly what came out of the bottle.  I had to shake the last bits out for dinner tonight before rinsing and recycling.

Anyway, all that being said, you really can't get too excited about beans-n-wieners, even if spinach and organic BBQ sauce are involved, so I'm just going to move on to the new menu:

1. Bulgur and Red Lentil Pilaf with Kale and Olives from The Complete Vegan Cookbook.  It's been a while since I've made this, but I just adore the tastes and textures, and it was the main reason I decided to start my dinner-hunting in that book.

2. Curried Bulgur Casserole with Garbanzo Beans, also from The Complete Vegan Cookbook.

3. Tuscan Vegetable Ragout from Vegetarian Times: Fast & Easy.  It's been quite a while since I made this and I don't know why - it's quick, easy, and delicious, and if I really wanted to make the effort, it never has to be the same twice.

4. Warm Chickpea Ragout with Swiss Chard, Carrots, and Harissa, also from Veg. Times: Fast & Easy.  See, I'm doing this two-fer theme...two recipes with bulgur from the same cookbook, two recipes for Ragout from the same cookbook...see?  I know, I'm so clever.

5. Garlicky Tofu with Spinach over Pasta also from VT:F&E.  I was a little rice-heavy last week and since the first two recipes this week use bulgur as the grain, I wanted to make a concerted effort to have more pasta for my Mister.

6. Broccoli Pasta with Savory Sauce.  Ditto.

angry belly

This has been the sickest winter in years.  I don't think I've been ill this frequently since I was working part-time in a public school and the other part of the time I was going into relatively filthy homes to tell other people how the county thought they should raise their children.  Just when I finally stopped sniffling and sneezing, something horrible happened to my digestive system.  But first, pictures of what has transpired since Friday:

On Saturday, I went food shopping.  In an utterly adorable move, Mister followed me out the door when I was on my way to Whole Foods.  Like a little puppy, he walked beside me and explained that he wanted to spend time with me (since I'm never home since I'm always either at work or commuting to/from).  He misses me when I'm at work, which I love.

However, after dodging drunkards to get to Whole Foods and Superfresh and filling our baskets despite a large number of people milling around without the vaguest clue why they came to this magical place with so much food, I had no desire to actually cook any of the food.  I don't want to lay blame on one of my favorite restaurants, but that may have been my most recent undoing.

Pictured just above is the Vegetable Sayadia at Cedars on 2nd and South.  We haven't been to Cedars in ages, but now it is literally around the corner.  In fact, I think if I could leap moderately tall buildings in a single bound, I could walk out of the little tunnel that leads to the street, jump one block East and be directly in front of the restaurant.  I got this once before with my friend, which inspired this recipe, and when I proposed that we dine there on Saturday, I knew that was what I was going to get.

Mister always orders fries with peppers and onions.  I always steal a few and eat around the onions.  We also got baba ghanouj for an appetizer and Mister wanted a plate of olives and feta.  I ordered my Sayadia without mushrooms this time, and as a testament to their continually spectacular service, our server asked if I would like to substitute eggplant for the fungus.

I love Cedars and would never want to accuse them of wrong doing, but something has not been right with my belly since Saturday night.  There was some kind of little growly thunderstorm going on Saturday night and woke up Sunday feeling extremely nauseated.  I'll spare some gory details, but let's just say my digestive system felt the need to cleanse itself of something...

That being said, I have also been dizzy and have a strange taste in my mouth, so I'm wondering if I have some kind of inner ear infection.  Since I get motion-sick pretty easily, being dizzy could be enough to nauseate me.  I'll admit, I was more than a little nervous about taking the no-way-out train to work today (and took two plastic bags, just in case).  I'm kind of hoping for the infection because I don't want to think I got food poisoning from one of my happy places.

Anyway, since I was not feeling my best, Sunday was not as productive as I wanted it to be, although there was an exciting hour and half that gave Mister and I the opportunity to see just how wet we could get when there is a drenching downpour and the Philly Car Share car won't unlock.  I made dinner last night and did not stuff myself with it only because I thought it might make me puke.  Not the dinner - dinner was awesome.  Just that whole putting food in my mouth and swallowing it action.

I made Forty-Clove Chickpeas and Broccoli from Appetite for Reduction.  I can't get over how wonderful it smells when its roasting away in the oven (which I'm still trying to figure out how to work, but I could probably fill a whole post with that adventure).  I really could have gone to town on this if my belly was behaving, but I could barely finish my broccoli on mashed potatoes.

When I got up this morning, I had really high hopes for my stomach.  Within minutes of waking, I was fairly certain I was going to lose my breakfast...although I hadn't actually eaten any yet.  For reasons I may never know, I did cut up and apple and make tea, even though I thought I was going to lose it the moment I put a slice of apple in my mouth.  Miraculously, I ate breakfast and took a shower before needing a short nap.  I made it to work (with my two bags) and upon returning home, was just hungry enough to try my hand at an old favorite:

Pasta with Beans and Chard from Vegan Express never lets me down.  I always forget how good it is until I'm eating it.  I put it on the menu because I remember that it's super-easy to make and tastes good, but then I take my first bite and can't believe I don't make this more frequently.

It's tasty, it's attractive, the only thing I would improve is how soupy it is at the bottom.  I think I should start draining the tomatoes, but I'm hesitant to do that since they're "Italian" which means the juices have all the good stuff.  Regardless, there is just too much liquid, so maybe it will be a compromise...half-drained?

In any case, I like the way the savory garlic-infused olive oil brings out the sweetness of the dried cranberries I sub for raisins since Mister is personally offended by them.  Although the recipe says a person could use cannellini beans or "pink" beans, I can't imagine anything fitting the texture need the way the cannellini beans do. 

Sweet dreams!  Here's hoping I don't wake up wanting to barf again!

somebody loves me

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy not too far from here, (also known as the 1980s) a man named Michael W. Smith was getting some quality airplay on the radio (remember the radio??).  His music colored at least part of my adolescence, alternately preventing me from doing something stupid and causing me to think with a little more depth about where my life would go.  I remember one song that attached itself to my heart in a particularly possessive way:

Somebody love me - come and carry me away
Somebody need me to be the blue in their gray
Somebody want me the way I've always dreamed it could be
Won't somebody love me, love me?

Talk about the heartcry of a teenage girl!  Are the lyrics cheesy?  A vegan wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole.  Do they perfectly sum up the lovesong almost every good girl with an eye toward marriage sings in the depths of her heart?  Does a bear....ahem, you get the idea.

Anyway, before I veer too far off course, I just want the world to know that somebody loves me.  My favorite part of every day is coming home from work and seeing my husband and kitty.  On Mondays, this is particularly rewarding since I hate to leave them after a beautiful Sunday spent together.  On this particular Monday, though, coming home was even better than usual due to a surprise I got upon opening the door to our apartment:

What?  Doesn't everyone's sweetheart write love notes with Sharpies on scrap paper and then suspend it at eye level just inside the front door using dental floss and scotch tape?  How adorable is that? 

Or for that matter, how cute are these big, doleful eyes?  Angst is getting so worked up over the move, I feel kind of guilty that I started packing so soon.  I just know how time gets away from me and I didn't want it to be this time next week with nary a book nor trinket packed.  In a few weeks, he'll be fine and have fun exploring his new home, but for now he's quite the sad sack.

Anyway, with Angst keeping a close eye on me from Mister's dining chair, I prepared a dinner he didn't have the remotest interest in begging for: Pasta Jambalaya from Vegan Express.  This recipe is so good and although I really enjoy making it with cavatappi pasta (because cavatappi pasta looks cool), I really think the rotini made for a beautiful photo.

I also used fresh parsley this time, which I don't ordinarily do.  I really hope I'm able to cultivate a little window herb garden in the new place because I truly enjoy cooking with fresh herbs, but they're just so darn expensive.  The parsley isn't terrible and you get a lot for your money, but I don't think I've ever used it all.  With little herb plants growing in my window, I can just take what I need and let the rest continue to grow and thrive until I need more.

On a (pretty much) completely unrelated note, there's been a lot of chatter lately about Whole Foods selling out to Corporate Satan Monsanto by compromising on Genetically Engineered alfalfa.  Due to spending most of my weekday waking hours at work and most of my weekend hours packing, I really haven't had the chance to explore this topic as much as I'd like to, so I would love to get a little feedback from my peanut gallery, if you'd be so kind.

1. What are your thoughts on GMOs, and/or the Whole Foods "situation"?

2. Are you interested in reading my take on GMOs in general, the implications of Whole Foods meeting Monsanto "halfway," and what that means for me and my choices as a consumer who cares about my health and supporting agriculture that shows caring for world health?

refriedillas and via-to-go

Was that even English?  I'm looking at the title of my own post and thinking it looks like a jumble of letters, but if you take your time and read it more than once, it will make sense...especially in the context of the post!

Today was awesome.  For one thing, I've been waiting for today all week.  For another thing, almost everything about today was pretty darn good - the sun was out and the weather was gorgeous (if not a little on the windy side).  I got up shortly after Mister left for work with an enthusiastic kitty waiting to say hello (actually, he was yowling outside the bedroom door) and had a delightful breakfast:

Apple Almond Oatmeal
serves 1 (but easily multiplied)

1 small apple, diced
1/2 cup dry oatmeal
1 cup nondairy milk (I used So Delicious Coconut Milk)
1 tsp Earth Balance
1 tsp Cinnamon sugar
1 tsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp sliced almonds

Melt the Earth Balance in a large skillet with sloped sides.  Saute the apples 2-3 minutes, until golden and tender.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and stir well to coat evenly.  Add a couple of Tbsp of the milk, then sprinkle the oats over the apples and stir to combine.  Pour in remaining milk and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, stir in maple syrup and almonds.  Cook 3-5 minutes on low, stirring often, until all liquid is absorbed.

I hope you like oatmeal, because it's only October!  No fear - I have some other tricks up my sleeve, so you won't spend the winter learning 1001 Ways to Cook Oatmeal.

Since we leave for California on Thursday, it's a short cooking week and I was able to buy all of my groceries at Whole Foods, affording me some free time to play my piano before heading out to teach other people how to play the piano.  It's a pity how infrequently the teacher practices...  Regardless, although I had plenty of time to finish everything I had written on my to-do list last night, tomorrow is supposed to be another spectacular day for roaming around the city I love, so I saved some "errands" for tomorrow.  You know, really burdensome things like shopping for make-up and playing at Williams Sonoma.  I'll be crying all the way down Chestnut Street.

Before I got on my train this afternoon, though, I stopped at the adorable hidden-under-the-stairs Starbucks at Market East and bought myself a present: Cinnamon Spice Via.  Okay, two presents - as long as I was there, I treated myself to a short peppermint Americano.  The short size is probably one of Starbucks's best kept secrets - 8 oz of your favorite drink; a little less costly, and more importantly when relying on public transportation schedules, a little less bladder-filling. 

I can't wait to try the Via, but I will.  Tomorrow, I will drink hazelnut coffee with my Mister like I do every Sunday.  Monday, though, I will have a new weapon to battle the coffee at my office (which is much better than the coffee at our old building, but still tastes like a paper cup, even when you drink it from a mug).

Dinner was Big Quesadillas with Refried Beans, Spinach Arugula, and Avocado from Vegan Express.  I've renamed it Refriedillas because the linguist in me cannot deal with quesadillas that aren't even made with quesas falsas.  For you non-Spanish-speakers out there, quesa=cheese, and there wasn't even fake cheese on this tasty little fold-over dinner.  I realized I should have taken a picture before I folded them over after I folded them over and effectively sealed them shut.  A few tweaks to the recipe resulted in a very tasty and filling dinner - I spread the refried beans over the entire tortilla because I didn't see how it would seal shut otherwise - tomatoes are not known for their adhesive qualities.  Also, I placed a layer of avocado inside each 'dilla rather than on top of them because although I know I need to work on presentation, Mister is more interested in practicality and loves food he doesn't need to use utensils to eat.  Maybe it would have been prettier to place them artistically on top of the 'dillas with a nice splat of salsa...but I'm pretty sure we both would have taken the slices off and discarded them rather than finding a way for them to fit into the 'dilla.

They were tasty and super-quick, therefore a good "back pocket" recipe.  I really ought to start storing those somewhere - a "back pocket" file or something.  We'll put that in the category of "cool things I want to do with my next kitchen."

slurping my dinner (and savoring dessert)

It is finally cold enough for Mister, with all his hot Greek blood, to put on a sweater.  That means it is undeniably soup weather.  Normally, when I get home from work and start preparing dinner, I let Mister help me choose from our list.  Tonight, however, I arrived home after a walk that was quite brisk in both senses of the word, and all I could envision on our table was the Tomato Chickpea Soup with Tiny Pasta and Fresh Herbs from Vegan Express.

Tell me that doesn't look hearty and heart-warming.  I was so relieved when everything came together to create a chunky, meal-like soup that I almost didn't complete dinner.  I considered it, but in the end, I did make a second attempt at making grilled cheeses with Rice Vegan and trying to force it to get gooey, while not burning the sandwich.  I only accomplished the latter, so I think that for my next trick, I'll see what Vegan Gourmet has to offer.  Essene and Whole Foods stock it in multiple flavors and it's not all that much more expensive than the Rice Vegan slices were.

One thing I'd forgotten about Nava - her other pet ingredient (the one that isn't sun-dried tomatoes) is dill.  Something I try to forget, in the hopes it will magically change one day while I'm not paying attention, is that I don't really like dill.  It smells awful and smell is a big part of taste for me.  Since part of the title includes the words "fresh herbs," I did chop up some basil and parsley, but I didn't want to buy fresh dill because I knew I didn't like it much so it would probably be a waste of money. I'm starting to wonder, though, if I might like dill more if it wasn't rotting in a plastic "jar" on my spice rack.  Maybe next time I make this soup, I'll find out.

I had just the littlest dessert, but savored every tiny bite:

A while ago, Chocolate Covered Katie did a little vegan chocolate round-up and I've been working my way through her picks.  I was thrilled with the Endangered Species chocolate Mister bought me one random Monday.  I was pretty darn satisfied by the Vivani that last took up residence in my cupboard.  I've been nibbling at the bite-sized pieces of Lake Champlain chocolate they put out for me at the register of Whole Foods, but let me tell you now - Theo is amazing and giving Endangered Species such a run for its money that I've nearly forgotten how the Vivani tastes already!

I might need to do a chocolate round-up of my own in November!  Thoughts?  Requests?  Suggestions?

get a helmet

Happy Tuesday!

I can't believe it's only Tuesday.  I have a feeling this week is going to drag by now that I'm so focused on next Thursday when Mister and I flap across the country to our West Coast fam.  Also, I had a heck of a Monday.

Since I was too busy being depressed and contemplating everything a person could possibly contemplate to convince him/herself that it's okay to lie down in a pit of depression for a little while, I couldn't find the energy or even desire to do much more than dump the leftover chili into my well-loved Calphalon 2.5-quart saucepan and pour a glass of Shiraz while it warmed up.  Wasn't I just talking about how ridiculously optimistic I can be?  Well, not always, apparently.

Although I still wasn't happy when today began, I'm pretty sure my evening doldrums were, at least in part, hormonally driven, so I picked myself up by my not-so-imaginary bootstraps and plodded to the train station this morning.  It wasn't the best day, but it wasn't the worst day either, and by the time I rode home in the second-oldest car in SEPTA's line-up, I was ready to actually cook a nourishing and non-disastrous meal for my beloved husband (and me!).

I can't really ever go wrong with pasta, especially where Mister is concerned and even more so if the pasta, true to form, is integrated into an Italian-type dish.  Enter Pasta with Beans and Chard from Vegan Express.  I've made this at least half a dozen times in the last year and Mister loves it every time.  I served it with some mixed olives and fake Parmesan.  I have to admit...there is a serious discrepancy between the vegan "parmesan" and the real thing.  Once this cannister is used up, it won't find its way into my refrigerator again.  Also, there is a DIY "Parmesan" recipe in Vegan on the Cheap, in that opening chapter that I would like to try.  Additionally, while my dear sister and I have been planning our West Coast adventures, I made the possibly bizarre request to go souvenir shopping at a local supermarket.  The main goal is to leave with a bottle or three of McCormick brand Garam Masala, but as long as we're there, I'd like to see if I can find some Parma!, which seems to be easier to find on the internet and West Coast of this grand country.

Angst thought he wanted to share dinner, but it ended up he was really just interested in loving my boot:

unexpected blessing?

Today has been an up-and-down kind of day.  I have decided to donate my faithful little car to Purple Heart this week.  Even if it would be an easy fix, I haven't moved the car an inch in over three weeks and I just don't trust it anymore.  The past three weeks have proven that I am not as dependent on my car as I thought I was, and although I regret not being able to just hop in my car during a break at work to go to Starbucks, I didn't do that nearly as often as I thought about doing it.  I cleaned out the last personal effects this evening and I was astonished at how irrationally melancholy it made me.  After all, it's just a car.

not as pretty as the Audi, I know

It's not even a very attractive car, but it has been my car for half the time I've been driving and longer than the three cars I had before it.  It's a little bizarre to feel nostalgic or emotionally attached to a car, but it served me well for many years, giving me no trouble until May, which is why I tried so hard to save it.

I have wanted to be done with a car for years and I do feel liberated, not having to navigate traffic disasters and construction zones, not having to circle my neighborhood like a mechanical vulture waiting for someone to vacate a parking space so I can actually go home after work.  I think the way I'm feeling about my poor car's departure could best be described as a feeling of homesickness.  Maybe you can relate, or maybe you're more convinced than ever that I'm not in full possession of my mind.

Anyway, after I said goodbye to my little car, I made Thai **** Green Garden from Vegan Express for dinner.  Like I said I would, I sauteed the vegetables in peanut and sesame oil and instead of laying the vegetables over a bed of jasmine rice, I soaked some rice stick noodles.  I mixed together the peanut sauce from Vegan on the Cheap and served in my very fashionable measuring cup.  I tried to find a gravy boat but I've misplaced them (yes, the vegan has two) somehow.

Mister couldn't eat it.  If what you see above was what you got, it would have been fine, which he prove by getting a new bowl and just putting the vegetables and tofu into it.  There was something about the rice noodles that weirded him out (I loved them) and despite his approval of the peanut noodle salad I made with the same peanut sauce, he could not stand the peanut sauce tonight.  He insisted it was different and explained that last time, the sauce was "chalky" whereas this time it was "slimy."  I'm not sure I appreciate either of those words being applied to something I've made, but at least it wasn't my own recipe, so nothing personal.

Therein lies the disguised blessing - not only was it not personal because I didn't write the recipe for the food he wouldn't eat, but I didn't slave over it for an hour or more.  If Mister doesn't like something from Vegan Express or my other "Blink and Dinner's Ready" cookbooks, it's not that big a deal because I didn't put that much effort into it.  He felt bad that he didn't like dinner (but not that he described something I made as "chalky" or "slimy") so to try to make him stop pouting, I cheerfully pointed out that dinner can only get better as the week progresses!

Sometimes I wonder if my optimism annoys him.  Oh well, just like the noodles and sauce, more for me! 

Speaking of awesome things, I've saved the best for last because I really prefer to end my posts on a positive note.  Today, since it was Sunday and I had plenty of time to devote to breakfast, I made my first oatmeal of the season!  I wanted to make it super-special and had just enough sleep the night before to have capacity for thought this morning (granted, it was nearly noon by the time I had breakfast).  Lucky you, that means there's a recipe attached!

I have been drinking my morning coffee/tea from that Lake Tahoe mug every day for almost three years

Autumn Pear Oatmeal
serves 1 (but very easily multiplied for a family)

1 small red pear, diced (I don't peel, but you're welcome to - you'll get plenty of fiber from the oats)
1/2 tsp cinnamon sugar
1 tsp molasses
1/2 cup dry oatmeal
1 cup nondairy milk (I used So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk)

Heat pears in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until the pieces begin to let go of their juices.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and stir to coat.  Saute for another minute or two, until pears are juicy and tender, then scatter oats over top of them and stir to combine.  Pour in milk and stir to combine.  Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low.  Stir in molasses and simmer 2-3 minutes, until all liquid has been absorbed by the oatmeal.

Enjoy!  It should be plenty sweet from the molasses, cinnamon sugar, and natural sugars in the pears caramelizing a little, but if you need it sweeter, I'm sure a drizzle of pure maple syrup would be a delightful addition.

Finally, I had a little photo-shoot with my favorite [uncooperative] model today.  Here are a couple of favorites - most of the pictures are blurry because he doesn't like when Mommy points that little silver box at him.

chickpea soul train

Actually, those three words have very little to do with one another, but it caught your attention, didn't it?

Let's handle the most obvious first - chickpeas.  Dinner tonight was Curried Chickpeas on Chutney Bulgur from Vegan Express.

I left out the chutney because Mister and I felt a little...adverse to it the first (and last) time I made this.  Instead, I steamed the bulgur in vegetable broth spiked with powdered ginger and a scant handful of cilantro, adding just a small pat of Earth Balance and pinch of sea salt.  It doesn't make much, so I served it with whole wheat flat bread standing in for naan and a bowl of thasos olives.

Since that was the last item on last week's menu, let me share the new one I composed last night.  All recipes are from Vegan Express because I fully anticipate this week will be at least as exhausting and busy as last week, if not more.

1. Tomato Chickpea Soup with Tiny Pasta and Fresh Herbs - it took every ounce of self-control not to put this on last week's menu, but I'm trying really hard to ease Mister into soup weather with just one soup dinner per week right now.  I also intend to make more grilled cheeses and try not to burn them while attempting to make the Rice Vegan gooey.

2. Thai Steamed Green Garden with Coconut-Peanut Sauce - I discovered the last time I made this that I just really don't care for steamed vegetables, so this time I'm going to lightly saute my veggies in a little peanut oil with just a drop of toasted sesame oil.

3. Gingery Rice with Sweet Potatoes Carrots and Peas - apparently, my goal is to see if I can change at least one major component of every meal I've chosen for this week's menu.  It's kind of like coached improv.

4. Pasta with Beans and Chard - it has been ages since I made this last and that's a shame.  It is sinfully simple and too tasty for the little effort it takes to make.  Continuing the theme stated above, since Mister hates raisins, I'll be substituting dried cranberries (which I always do when I make this but I couldn't let it go unsaid).

5. Big Quesadillas with Refried Beans, Spinach Arugula, and Avocado - at least with this one the ingredients list actually gave me the choice between spinach and arugula.  It seems a little wrong to call something a quesadilla when it has no cheese, not even fake cheese, but I can't think of anything better to call it beside Folded-Over-Tortilla-Thing, and I guess neither could Nava.

Now, let's shift gears.  I had a couple of surreal experiences the past couple of days on the train.  For one, I would like to point out that children, and people with children, are like cats.  Have you ever noticed how a cat will walk into a room full of people (assuming he's not a 'fraidy-cat like Angst) and instantly know who is allergic or who hates cats?  Have you ever noticed that the cat will then lavish all of his/her attention (and fur) on that person?

People with children are like that on the train.  They will spot the person who doesn't like kids the minute they get on the train and use their Obnoxiousness-Radar to locate the cluster of seats nearest that person that will hold them and their 500 children.  On my way to work today, that is exactly what happened - Mom, Dad, and their four offspring parked themselves directly across the aisle from me and the little boy and little girl on the aisle seats spent the entire time they were on the train staring at me.  At one point, I winked at the girl and that freaked her out enough to look straight ahead for a while.

That is the train I ride to work every day - the SEPTA R5.  Not exactly space-age technology, eh?  One night this past week, I walked right smack into my childhood on that train and it smelled awful.  When I was a child, my parents used to take my sister and I into Philadelphia around Christmastime so we could go to Wanamakers (five points if you remember the monorail - it's in a museum now which kind of horrifies me) and see the light show.  I still do that every December with my dad.  Anyway, I remember that the seats had backs that could flip so the people sitting in them could always face the direction in which the train was moving (good for motion-sickness-inclined little girls).  I had forgotten all about them until I got onto the train some night last week and sat in the oldest car in SEPTA's current line-up and saw those blasts from my past.  Smelled them, too.  I don't think they've been cleaned since I was a child.

Speaking of old, see how well SEPTA maintains their trains?  That is the R5 on fire about a year ago during the city SEPTA "workers" annual strike.  My father was on that train and because he's such a charmer, he sent that picture to my work email to let me know he was okay.  Thanks, Dad, you really know how to ease a girl's mind.

Anyway, tonight, on my way home from teaching my three favorite students (pretty fortunate, considering I have only three students), I had this kind of otherworldly experience.  I just happened to be in the front car and I looked through the window of the "cockpit" at the right moment to see the city skyline come into view.  It was so beautiful and I wondered if the conductor was so used to seeing it that he missed how amazing it looks at twilight.  Amy Lee's ethereal voice was pumping through the earbuds from my iPod as I looked out over the city as we approached 30th Street Station.  I was absolutely caught up in the feeling that I was looking out at a different time.  All I could see were street lamps and cars, but not close enough to identify them from any specific era.  Having passed through some ancient and/or stark stations in the last three weeks I've been commuting this way, I was struck my how post-apocalyptic/steampunk these adventures could appear and I allowed myself to spend the last few minutes of my ride in a fantasy of old-timeyness.

How awesome is that?  I mean, there is just absolutely nothing modern about that, but you know that once upon a time that building held the hopes and dreams of this city's residents.  There was surely a time that those magnificent doors were the Great New Thing and beyond them was the stuff that fiction was made from.  I love that they've never changed it - Suburban Station looked like that when it opened just a little more than 80 years ago and still looks like that today.

Through all of these great adventures, from relieving me of the stress of driving to restoring my ability to see my home through a tourist's eyes again, enhancing and developing my love of my city, there is one thing shining through:  It appears I have somehow inherited my father's great love for trains.