there was a little girl

There was a little girl,

Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,

She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

That poem, composed by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow while trying to quiet a daughter for sleep, is a perfect narrative for my relationship with Trader Joe's.  Well, the Trader Joe's in Philadelphia, anyway.

I love Trader Joe's for a few reasons.  First (and possibly most importantly), they have an amazing 10-grain bread that makes amazing toast (it gets all crispy and chewy in the best possible way) and even Mister likes it.  I bought the multigrain bread at Whole Foods for years before he told me he didn't like it.  Second, and also important, is that I usually save a ton of money buying produce there, rather than Whole Foods.  Let's compare: $0.69 for a red bell pepper (when they're in season) versus $4.99/lb (meaning the average pepper is over $2).  $0.39 for a potato versus the seeming bargain of $1.99/lb.  You get the idea.  Finally, they have the most palatably store-brand soymilk.

So what's horrid?  Ever trying to shop quickly.  Which can be important to me.  Also, ever trying to shop between 5 and 6 pm.  It doesn't matter if it's a weekday or a weekend - trying to shop at that hour is maddening.  The lines literally run halfway down every aisle and I'll be in line longer than it takes to shop.  Also, since their low prices do rely on seasonal produce, they don't always have stock of what I want, where I know Whole Foods almost always will (even if it's $8 asparagus).  This is not a bad thing, per se, but when it's already inconvenient to go there (on the other side of town completely), I want to get as much as I can to make it worth the effort.

One thing they're hit and miss on is arugula.  This week, it was a miss, so I ended up with fresh baby spinach, even though I have two bags of frozen spinach in my freezer.  Why the hunt for arugula?

Pasta Della California from Veganomicon had cried out to be made one last time before I do a snow dance and hunker down with a wintery menu of stews and chilis and other impossibly hearty things to be cooked slowly and to warm my innards from head to toe (or... at least my belly).

When Mister and I were shopping at Superfresh last week, I saw a surprising thing for December - a sale on Haas Avocados!  So I gently poked a few, trying to find a ripe one.... then took one that looked a good size and let it ripen on my counter the last few days.  It is so rare to find avocados for less than a dollar here in Philadelphia (not exactly prime avocado-growing climate), I couldn't resist the urge for a flavor and texture that always brings me happy memories.

Failing to find arugula, I opted for a slightly easier-to-eat green and honestly, I may always make it this way now - it was really good with the baby spinach and its silkier texture.  It seemed a better match for the nice squishy, creamy avocado.  The arugula provides a bitter foil for that creaminess and it works, but this was so good even Mister commented on the flavor.

So, with this last delightful dish (before I continue pressuring my friend to go to El Vez for their unbelievable guacamole and delicious margaritas via facebook chat), I bid farewell to the last gasp of warm days in December and look forward to some snowy weather....

have lunch, will travel

I can't say it enough - I love that I work in the city now.  Every single day I find a new or rehashed reason to appreciate it.  Some of the highlights include being able to walk to work somedays (there are two center city locations and one is only a little more than a mile from my home), being able to walk from one location to the other, and being able to walk to a variety of fun places for lunch.

Although I really haven't been doing anything special in the kitchen since I started (which should change sometime this week), I have had some wonderful lunch time adventures, so I figured we could do a little lunch-time round-up.

My first day of work it was pouring rain, but apparently the Big Guy managers like to take the trainees to lunch, so we ran through the rain to a crappy little bar next door.  I don't want to sound ungrateful and I don't think I will, since everyone acknowledged that we only went there because no one wanted to be outside any longer than we had to be.  The place was kind of a dump.  Several years ago, Philadelphia passed a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants - this has been both a blessing and a curse (since making people stand outside to smoke then creates a serious loitering problem for people who just want to walk down the sidewalk unmolested), but I swear, this place either still lets people smoke or so damn many people smoked when they were allowed to that the musty, stale scent of leftover ashtrays will never leave.  In addition to smelling awful, the menu was honestly burgers and salad.  I was very excited when I saw that a veggie patty could be subbed in any of the dozen burger configurations...until the "waiter" told me they didn't have veggie patties.  Okay, then - salad it is!

Our second day, they ordered Thai food.  I was cautious about anything with sauce, but all in all, I fared far better.  The third day, they let us go out on our own and that is where the fun begins.

Friday, I happily ambled over to Pure Fare in my brand new cowgirl boots (more in a minute).  It's about a block and a half away from one location and I could very happily go here every day for lunch.  If they double my salary, I could afford to do so, too!  Since that's not likely to happen anytime in the foreseeable future (I need more than a week to take over the world), I'll just let it continue to be a special treat.

There was a new salad I hadn't seen before (in the whole four times I've been in there), so I picked up the Wheatberry Salad with beets, roasted yams, tons of happy kale, and wheatberries, dressed in a nutty, tahini-like dressing and sprinkled with tiny, cute sesame seeds.  It was absolutely delightful and far more filling than I expected it to be.  I topped off with something I've been meaning to try for a while now: a Kale-Apple Smoothie.

This could absolutely become an addiction if it weren't so expensive.  It tastes incredible - just the right amount of sweetness from the apple (and I think they snuck a banana in there... I'm not complaining) with a lightness and, for lack of another word, greenness from the kale.  In a word?  Love.


Sunday found me at the more central location because of our Grand Opening of that store, and I was about 5 hours into my shift before we slowed down enough to send people to lunch.  I needed something fail-safe, so I headed to Starbucks.  I grabbed the Sesame Noodles Bistro Box, a banana, and my beloved Americano.  No, the beverage sure didn't go with the rest of the meal, but it made me happy for the last two hours of my shift...

photo from Starbucks' website

Yesterday, I remembered we're kind of poor and I'm just starting this job and should be cautious about finances, so I packed Leftovers Lunch and ate it on the steps of a church just off of Rittenhouse Square while eavesdropping on the organist practicing.  Have I mentioned I love working in the city?

By dinner, my plan kind of backfired.  I got home way later than I thought I would because I stopped into Trader Joe's to get food and ended up having a delightful surprise encounter with an old friend.  By the time I got home, I was lacking two things:

1. complete ingredients for anything on the menu (I didn't get to Superfresh)
2. the energy/desire to cook.

So, my money-saving Leftovers Lunch saved us the money to go out to Pietro's for dinner.  I wish I'd remembered to take pictures but please trust me when I tell you that the simple Spaghetti con Pomodoro Fresco was out of this world with flavor.  I only stopped eating so I wouldn't waddle home and I can't wait to eat the leftovers.  Mister essentially had a pile of mozzarella cheese (mozz sticks appetizer with a ricotta-less Broccoli Calzone).  I also had a pleasant Chianti that would have gone better with pizza, but I didn't want pizza.

Today, I completely forgot to take food, but a colleague used the opportunity to introduce me to my new favorite lunch spot for that location: Greenhouse.  As you approach, it just looks like a convenience store with normal convenience store stuff.  When you actually enter, you find a second room, as big as the first, and full of a hot/cold buffet.  Everything is labeled and looked fresh and delicious and it was far less expensive than I expected it to be (and the least I've spent on food so far).  I got mixed greens with sesame-sauteed spinach, snow peas, big chunks of cantaloupe, 3 halves of kiwifruit, a stuffed grape leaf, two pieces of teriyaki-glazed tofu that was stellar, and some black olives. It was an amusing combination (fusion, if you will) of Asian and Mediterranean fare and it was awesome.

Tonight, I actually bothered to cook (Mister, angel that he is, went to Superfresh for me today) and I decided to keep going on the faux-Asian theme with Seitan Pepper Steak from The Accidental Vegan.

As always, it was tasty - this time around, it seemed to have a more distinct ginger taste than I remember.  I wonder if that is because I used organic ginger - I don't think I do, ordinarily.  It seemed much "fresher" than what I get at Whole Foods, but I might have just used more or be imagining all this.  I wanted to make this first because it involves slicing 4 peppers and I hate when they sit too long and get all shrivelly.

Tomorrow is another adventure, but I have tons of leftovers in my fridge, so I must take my lunch again tomorrow....Pure Fare will have to wait at least another couple of days.  (I really could eat there happily every day if I had a million dollars.  Now that that song is stuck in your head, I'm going to skidaddle.)  

grocery shopping on saturday night

It's the thing to do.  It'll make you feel good.  All the cool kids are doing it.  Or, well, nothing quite says "party animal" like going grocery shopping on a Saturday night.  I'd say I'm a total loser, but working six days a week and not getting home until 9PM on five of them tends to make the food shopping schedule a little bizarre.  Besides, since everyone else is already at the bar, restaurant, dance club, or strip club, I don't have to dodge as many people as I do on say, Sunday afternoon.

I only did one "leg" of my shopping adventures.  I really just wanted to get enough food to make one of the recipes on my new menu, so I went to Superfresh and got a head start on about a third of my list.  My menu is short but my shopping list is relatively long.  The main reason for this is my desire to stock the shelves, fridge, and freezer with enough appetizing and affordable food that Mister won't eat pizza every single time he's hungry while I'm in California.

That's right.  I'm going back to California on Friday, for my first ever Sister-Vacation.

We've gone on plenty of vacations together, obviously.  I mean, we did live together growing up and all, so if my parents decided to go on vacation, they usually took us both with them.  However, we've never done more on our own than just hang out for a day at the mall or go out for dinner and drinks.  I've visited her at college and stayed with her when she graduated, but we've never actually gone somewhere together.

We're off to San Francisco and I am stoked.  I'm reading and re-reading my VegNews magazines for ideas of where to go and what to do.  Sometime in the next couple of days, I will make our reservation to dine at Millennium, a fine-dining vegan restaurant I've heard plenty about but never been to.  Very excited for that.  The other thing I am absolutely the most excited for (besides spending plenty of time with my sister) is our trip to Cinnaholic.  I want to drool just thinking of it.  Mountains of vegan cinnamon buns waiting to be turned into your own personal cinna-bundae (clever, yes?) with custom icings and toppings.  It might be fruitful to walk back to San Fran after that...

It seems so long ago this was just a little, crazy idea hatched through text messages and now it's nearly here!  I'm sure I'll ramble a little bit about the trip every day between now and Thursday, and then possibly go missing for a few days, then come back with a massive picture parade post, so let's move on to my mini-menu to carry us through until Mister gorges himself on pizza and sandwiches and I eat, drink, and breathe in everything I can on the West Coast.

1. Mexican Rice and Bean Bake from Vegan on the Cheap.  I was going to make the Salsa Rice and Beans, but I continually and unfortunately neglect this tasty recipe in its favor almost every time, so I decided to mix it up a bit.  It's not like I'm actually going to try baking the brown rice.  Can you hear me laughing from wherever you are?

2. Better Bean Burgers also from Vegan on the Cheap.  I was actually intending to make these tonight, but Superfresh was hiding the cheap black beans, so I will have to wait until I see the prices at Whole Foods tomorrow.

3. Pasta Shells with Black-Eyed Peas from The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook.  I was poking through some old posts and I came across the first time I made this, so I decided it was time to repeat.

4. Pasta Primavera with Fresh Veggies and Herbs from The Vegan Table.  Talk about a cookbook I've been neglecting!  I nearly had to blow the dust off of it!  Anyway, I wanted to make the last meal I cook this week to be something very big with lots of leftovers (for obvious reasons, I would assume) but more importantly, leftovers Mister would find attractive.  I remember this making a huge yield, so I specifically sought out the cookbook for this recipe.  Regardless, when I return from Cali, I'll have to devote a whole week to this book because I'd forgotten how many great recipes there are in there.

5. Chickpea Stew with Fried Polenta from The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook.  As I was making this for dinner tonight, I found myself reflecting on how this is truly one of my favorite recipes.  Because I've grown to love cooking so much and since I'm continually trying new recipes I find myself hesitant to declare "favorites" the way I imagine a mother avoids and appearance of liking one child more than another.  Realizing, however, that food does not have feelings, I would like to let you in on a personal secret:

I love this one the most.

a little piece of a national treasure

It is rare that I spend all day fulfilling my grocery shopping list.  Of course, it is also rare that I go alllll the way across town to Trader Joe's - in fact, it's been about 3 years since the last time I set foot in there.  It's not that I don't want to - I would love to be a more frequent shopper, but after today's adventures, I am more convinced than ever that I will not be able to indulge in that fantasy until one of two things happens:

1. I get a job in center city that allows me enough time on weeknights (purely by virtue of reducing my commute by 2 hours) to stop in after work, instead of trying to navigate SEPTA's horrendous and never-on-time bus schedule on a Sunday, when the buses run half as frequently as they're supposed to which is already on a 75% reduced schedule.  When you do the math, you should probably be able to figure out why it took me all day to go shopping there and Whole Foods.
2. Mister and I move closer.  Not out of the question, but not likely.  Even if we do, it won't be until March[ish] of 2013.

I'm hoping for #1, but I'm sure I've kind of given that away already.  In any case, after today, if I had foursquare, I'd be the SEPTA Queen.  Forget about Mayor - I passed over that with the third connecting bus.  Granted, this was all kind of a public transit fail, but I did get to and from Trader Joe's twice (I had to go back because I realized when I got home that the cashier keyed something in wrong and overcharged me quite significantly).  Speaking of which, the service at TJ's is pretty stellar - the girl who rang me up was cheerful and conversational and the lady who corrected my payment did so with a smile and without asking for some kind of proof that I didn't buy $25-worth of Blue Danishes (whatever that might be).

In case you're wondering, the purpose of my trip was to get the only vegan chorizo in Philadelphia for one of the recipes I'm making this week.  I figured, though, that as long as I was there, I may as well see if I could score some lower-priced, still-high-quality produce, etc.  That seemed like a good idea when I thought, "hey, the store is on Market St and dozens of buses come down Market St, so I'll just hop on one with my bag o' groceries to get back home."  Refer back to my comments regarding the frequency of bus service on Sunday afternoons if you don't feel like reading about how I carried my groceries about 15 blocks without the assistance of a bus.  And to think I've been complaining about the 7 blocks I now must walk to return from Whole Foods....

Anyway, with a fridge full of veggies, I decided to make the Vegetable Chili Bowl from The Low GI Cookbook.  It was actually written by Margaret Fulton and then contributed to the cookbook.  I had heard her name before, but they say you learn something new every day and today I learned that Margaret Fulton was made a National Living Treasure in 1998.  May we all strive for such lofty goals!

Mister and I dug into our bowls of chili with the help of organic corn chips from TJ's that cost less than the multi-grain Tostitos I usually try to use to assuage my guilty conscience.  It was a tasty little combo and the chips had a lot less salt than Tostitos, which I didn't realize was so overwhelming until I realized how subtly perfect these chips are.  We were pleasantly surprised by this chili.  I have begun to approach the recipes I chose from that cookbook with hesitance and an expectation that it won't be as exciting as I want it to be.  

I'll admit - I'm relieved to be coming to the end of these recipes, but I appear to have saved the best for [almost] last!  The fresh parsley was a nice touch and I was really happy with the way the two beans came out - I don't think I've paired chickpeas and kidney beans in the past.  It's a good, light, summer-appropriate chili, since the peppers make it sweet and the zucchini lightens up the flavor significantly.

With 20 cookbooks, it's no wonder Margaret Fulton is considered a treasure - especially if half of them are as good as this summertime chili was!

something old, something new

What a strange day.  Originally, the weather was predicted to be stormy and scary - thunderstorms and other such severe weather.  Instead, today was mild enough that I only wore a light jacket out of stubbornness and paranoia - the last thing I need is to get sick right now.  I suppose there's never really a convenient time to be sick, so I'll rephrase that: I really don't want to get sick again - I feel like I've spent the better part of the last six months either ill or trying (normally in vain) to battle some pathogen.

Mister, on the other hand, is definitely sick.  He slept most of today.  I left the apartment mid-afternoon and headed over to Whole Foods; I returned to the lingering scent of a recently extinguished candle and found Mister was not where I left him.  Instead of sitting at his computer, he had crawled back into bed, fully clothed.  He was fast asleep and remained so while I went to SuperFresh, CVS, and Essene, even stopping on the way home from Essene to chat with cousins (Greeks can't live too far from one another or they wither and die, I think).  He slept through two rounds of dish-doing, as well as some fun on You-Tube (you haven't lived until you've cried through this video) and Facebook.  The sun set, my belly began to growl, and all my plans to have a completely Mama Pea-inspired dinner, including dessert, went out the window as I looked in on his slumbering form.

I heated up what was left of the Salsa Rice and Red Beans and poured a glass (or few) of my newly acquired bottle of Apothic Red (did I leave out the trip to the wine store?  Yeah, that was right before Superfresh).  Nothing exciting there.  We did not make it to the Eiffel Tower light show, either.  In fact, unless you count the joy of spending almost $200 on groceries, wine, and toiletries, today was pretty well wasted.  Nevertheless, I do have a new menu for you!

1. Mama Pea's Meatloaf with braised skillet potatoes (and possibly cake).
2. 2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma from Appetite for Reduction.  I have passed over this recipe several times because Mister doesn't like brothy food (he refers to it as "runny").  However, he's gotten Kormas at restaurants, so he'll be okay.
3. Pasta Florentine from The 30 Minute Vegan.  It's been a while since we've had this - heck, it's been a while since I've cracked open this cookbook.  Anyway, I was glancing through some old posts and saw this and thought, "well, that's easy and always goes over well...why haven't I made it lately?"
4. Jerk Seitan with Coconut Rice, both from Vegan with a Vengeance.  It's been a while since we've had this, also, and the jerk spices of the Rice Island Casserole always make me long for this dish.
5. Pasta Puttanesca from One-Dish Vegetarian Meals.  If it's been a while since I cracked open 30MV and made the meal from there, it's been eons since I've bothered with this book.  Sad to say, ever since my "Vegan Experiment" became a way of life, I have largely neglected any cookbook that is not expressly vegan.  This is not without good reason - I never realized until the last 6-9 months exactly how dairy-heavy many vegetarian cookbooks are.  Nevertheless, this recipe is naturally vegan and supernaturally incredible.
6. Vegetable Etouffee also from One-Dish Vegetarian Meals and also a recipe I've neglected far too long.

Now, as I was putting my menu together, I had intended to only choose 5 meals because I thought Mister and I would go out to dinner tonight, either before or after seeing the Eiffel Tower in the plaza of the Kimmel Center put on its little light show.  Right now you're probably thinking (if you actually read the first part of this post), "Good thing you added that Etouffee, then, huh?"

No.

We did not go out tonight, but due to some mixed-reaction news I got pretty early in the day (as in, some time during the four hours Mister and I were both awake), we most certainly will be going out to dinner this week.  Specifically, we will be dining at Horizons.  The news?  They're closing.

This is devastating to me - Horizons is my favorite restaurant in all of Philadelphia (and we have a lot of great restaurants!).  One of my favorite parts of living in Queen Village is how close we've been to Horizons.  Don't get me wrong - the pricing still keeps it in the "Special Occasion" bracket of restaurant choices, but it was nice to know it was there.  Mister and I have often mused about a phenomenon we've both recognized during the time we've lived in the city: depending on where you live, your idea of proximity changes.

When I lived in the sticks, the last gasps of the Main Line, in a town that is more sub-rural than sub-urban, I thought nothing at all of driving 15-30 miles to find something fun to do.  When I moved into my Art Museum apartment, I enjoyed that there were many places (Art Museum, Wawa, restaurants/bars, work) that I could walk to, but I was still in a place where I didn't think twice about driving to a different part of Philly or out of the city altogether to find fun.  When I moved to the ghetto, the only time I went anywhere without being inside an enclosed vehicle was the one time we got three feet of snow and the only way to the bar was to walk.

Everything changed, though, when we moved down to Queen Village.  I had never been so close to everything I could possibly want.  Three supermarkets, Essene, two Farmers' Markets, flower shops, all of my favorite restaurants (except Azure, but they closed shortly after I moved) and bars (except Fergie's, but I stopped going there shortly before I moved) - there was no need to drive anywhere and the parking situation made me loathe to do so unnecessarily anyway.  Suddenly, if we couldn't walk there, a place was simply "too far away."

The point of all that babbling? Well, the mixed-blessing of the whole Horizons situation is this: they are closing Horizons, but opening a new place somewhere in Center City.  Presumably, the move is because they're doing so well they are always completely booked, but it makes me sad because I know Mister and I will not be as inclined to travel to the new location.  I'm hoping it will be somewhere close, like Washington Square or Old City, but with my luck, they'll have done so well that they'll end up in Rittenhouse Square.  Sad to say, if that's the case, we'll probably go once just to check out the new digs...and never again.

So, sometime this week, we'll dine at Horizons.  Some time in a few more weeks, we'll dine at Horizons.  I intend to go as many times as we can afford and Mister will let me before they close (tentatively set for July).  It's funny, because we didn't end up going there for Valentine's day because it was "just too far" from our new apartment for us to want to make the trip on a frost February evening.  Just a week or so ago, we had planned to go, "just because" and I postponed it, telling Mister I wanted to wait until we had a good reason to go, like a celebration of some sort.  Well, I wouldn't call this a celebration by any stretch of the imagination, but it's certainly a good reason if ever I had one.

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!

speed shopping and pasta fail

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

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

I thought this was too funny not to share.

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

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

1. Vegetable Lentil Stew

2. Radiatore with Escarole and White Beans

3. Salsa Rice and Red Beans

4. Coconut Curry Rice

5. Savory Sausage and Peppers

6. Better-Than-Takeout Tofu Stir-fry

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

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

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

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

$20 for groceries (revisited)

When I was taking the VeganMoFo survey and I got to the following question:

You have $20 to spend on fresh groceries and produce for the whole week (with a fairly well stocked pantry of dry goods, legumes, grains, and spices). What do you buy?

 I thought that it was a clever, make-ya-think kind of question.  I had no idea I would have to take it seriously a week later!  Nevertheless, I went grocery shopping today with the list I made from last night's menu planning and although I didn't have a dollar goal in mind (aside from spending as few of them as possible), that question/hypothetical situation kept repeating itself in my head.  I used my super-sleuth eyes to find the lowest prices on everything on my list and absolutely could not believe it when I arrived home with our entire week of groceries for...are you ready?  I don't think you are.  I have two receipts here to show any doubters that I walked away from the stores with everything I need for this week's dinners for only...(drum roll, please)

$22.54

No, I'm seriously not kidding.  That is how much I spent, total, between Whole Foods and Superfresh.  
No, I don't think I could be any more pleased with myself. :D

And just in case you still don't believe me (I don't blame you), here is what you can get for that amount:

• 4 ripe bananas
• 1 lemon
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 poblano pepper
• 1 loaf of multigrain bread
• 1 block of extra firm tofu
• 32 oz almond milk
• 16 oz ziti
• 28 oz crushed tomatoes
• 14 oz fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 15 oz cannellini beans
• two 15 oz cans of black beans
• 15 oz pinto beans
• 16 oz salsa
• 1 lb of colombian coffee
• frozen apple cinnamon waffles

for $22.54.  I'm not lying.  Here's how I did it: first, I made a list and did not even look at anything that was not on that list (even though I almost got distracted by the "upsells" at WF checkout again).  Second, if there were a few brands available (for example, the tomato products and pasta), I looked for the lowest priced item, even if it was only a few cents difference - those cents add up.  Third, I have a Superfresh club card, which not only makes me eligible for the $1 can of crushed tomatoes, but also gives me an additional 5% off my next trip after I spend $300 there (which, by the way, takes me about 2 months at least), and I got my certificate last time, so that knocked a little bit off the SF bill (5% to be exact).

So, to my great surprise and Mister's delight, we actually have a precious few discretionary dollars this week.  We have food, with at least one item on the menu promising leftovers.  I have a miraculously unopened bottle of Beaujolais and I'm looking forward to seeing how long it stays in that state - I'm betting for tomorrow night.  I have $3 in my wallet and a few in the bank, and only 4 days until that wonderful transfusion called "my paycheck."  I think we're gonna make it.

Then, in an effort to stave off Mister's use of those discretionary dollars for pizza by at least one more day, tonight's dinner was Tuscan White Bean Pizza.

What an attractive and tasty meal - the pizza, which I really jazzed up (more in a minute), served with a bowl of mixed olives and the last of the leftover soup.  I feel like a little bit of a glutton, revealing that Mister and I each start with 2 slices of pizza, but neither of us went back for more, so think whatever you want ;)

Now for the fun: the picture isn't the best, but it's the best I have to show you the big chunks of green hiding in the "sauce."  You may recall the picture of my mom industriously mincing fresh herbs when we were cooking together for Thanksgiving.  Well, she doesn't use a lot of fresh herbs, so she sent me home with fresh sage, thyme, and marjoram.  I ran out of basil recently and keep forgetting to replace it so I usually sub dried marjoram because it smells very similar - sweet, ever so slightly anise-y but nothing like tarragon.  Fresh marjoram smells almost floral and has a very strong taste - sweet and slightly floral.  Anyway - the chunks of green?  Yeah, that's marjoram.

Also, I sprayed the pre-made crust with olive oil and then sprinkled a few pinches of my California-bought Tuscan seasoning over top of it before I spread the "sauce" over top.  I laid the tomatoes down in overlapping circles and then sprayed them with olive oil, sprinkled the whole mess with my beloved Mediterranean Sea Salt and sprayed one last time.  I might have used a little more of the sea salt blend, but nothing is going to change that we are well past prime tomato season now.  For heaven's sake, there are only two days left of November and VeganMoFo!

Well, folks, tomorrow begins my descent into madness, but I do have a few more tricks up my sleeve so don't go anywhere far!

new Natalie action figure, with moving parts

I feel like I haven't stopped moving in days, even as I sit to type these words.

On Saturday, I got up early to meet up with parts of my family for some fun at Linvilla Orchards in Media, PA.  I saw my beloved sister-in-law for the first time in about a year and a half (she lives in Cali), and hug my dear little nephew for the first time!  Sister didn't want to travel with him until he was a year old (and I can't blame her), so it was very exciting to see them both (as well as her husband, who is obviously a very good daddy).  Her twin, the beautiful lady responsible for my wedding bouquets (oh, yeah, and also my wedding), was there with her little boys who are not so little anymore.  Both of my SILs are very protective of their children's privacy, so in place of a picture of my cutie nephews, I will show you the bouquets my wedding photographer said were the most beautiful he had ever shot:

(click on the picture to see them in all their glory)

My brother-in-law was also there, along with his betrothed and their beautiful, thoughtful little angel baby.  Little Angel is no stranger to paparazzi, so I will show you a sight never captured before on "film:"  Me, holding a baby:

She is in love with her Aunt Natalie and the feeling is mutual - she is so precious!  She is the most pensive baby I have ever seen...contemplative, even.  It's quite amazing to watch.  In any case, I carried her around for most of the weekend, so I should have my Madonna-arms in no time.

After a fun morning at the farm, I excused myself to teach, then returned home with every intention of purchasing the items on the grocery list I had carefully crafted the night before.  However, Mister, who had not eaten in days (literally) due to whatever plague he has now was actually hungry so I made dinner instead.  We had the Mandarin Tofu but without the spinach salad, since I hadn't gone to the store yet.  After dinner, I ran to Whole Foods for half my groceries and still made it out 10 minutes before they closed.

No rest for the wicked; the next morning, I got up early and ran to Superfresh to complete my grocery shopping and started to make the pasta salad I was taking with us to Wildwood to celebrate Father's Day with my father-in-law and family.  First, though, while the dressing permeated the pasta and broccoli, we went to Estia with MY Father.  I'm pretty sure he was making up for my birthday brunch at Mi-Lah because he got an omelet with sausage and bacon and probably one more kind of meat - it was impressive.

Mister took a short nap while I finished assembling the pasta salad, then we headed to the beach.  Things didn't go completely as planned, so we came back with the same 3.3 liters of pasta salad we took off with:

We had a wonderful time with my FIL, MIL, and the same crazy crew from Linvilla.  The minute I trekked through the sand in my new Nine West sandals, Angel Baby was reaching for me and trying to launch herself off of her mother to me.  I have never had a child react to me like that.  It's usually the opposite: trying to get away from the scary lady holding him/her captive while screaming like a banshee.  I have held one of my nephews exactly once because it was so traumatic for him and for me.

You have to admit - as flats go, those are some pretty edgy sandals.  I found it amusing that I was leaving little Nine West logo prints in the sand.  If you go to Nine West's website you'll find that these babies retail for $69.  That is not what I paid for them, since I got mine at DSW, but it struck me as funny that most people probably would not consider wearing such "nice" shoes on the beach.  For me, though, that was actually the primary purpose in buying them and breaking them in - they didn't actually stay on my feet very well until I baptized them with sand; now they work just fine!

In any case, there was no Grill-Off, so we took our pasta salad back to Philadelphia, stopping along the way to have a nice, quiet dinner at Godmother's in Cape May.  Quiet was kind of important after we were reminded just how noisy four children under the age of 10 can be.  We can probably add my bro-in-law to that list, since he acts like he's not too much older than 12, but he and Mister had a stimulating conversation about video games...

It goes without saying that we had gobs of pasta salad for dinner tonight.  I'll let you know, though, that it was very refreshing that the prep work took about 5 minutes and consisted of setting the table, stirring the pasta to make sure it was evenly coated with dressing and then scooping it into bowls and hooting "Dinner!" at Mister.

one shop stop

So, this past weekend really interfered with my plans to buy the ingredients necessary to make a week of, what do you call them? Oh, right - dinners. Saturday was a total loss because I'll be honest - there was no part of me that wanted to trudge 5 blocks through the rain to Whole Foods, then 5 blocks back in heavier rain, only to put away the groceries and splash my way up to Superfresh and back with whatever I didn't get at WF.

My delightful evening with my sister went much later than either of us had planned (funny how that can happen when you don't see someone in half a year), so I was up late and was still sleep deprived from an energy-sapping week at work, so Sunday started much later than I had intended. Late enough, in fact, that I only had time to make the cupcakes before we ran late getting to my parents' house (good thing I already had, well, most of the ingredients). By the time we got home from there, we were way too many innings into a championship series featuring our Hometown Heroes, the Phightin' Phillies, for me to safely venture past the rows of bars to get groceries (any stories you've heard about Philadelphia sports fans becoming irrationally violent in their victory celebrations are absolutely true). So I cooked dinner with what remained of our food and figured I'd get groceries after work on Monday.

I keep forgetting how much I hate to do anything after work any day of the week. I also forgot (AKA was completely unaware since I don't actually follow any sports) that the Phillies were playing a home game. So I convinced Mister to run up to Superfresh with me so I could get stuff to make dinner - it was worth his while - he got some tasty breakfast treats. I probably should have just gotten everything on that side of my list while we were there, but I just couldn't convince myself to put out that kind of effort. Also, the less time we are in the store, the less time Mister has to wander off and find some other complete waste of calories to bring home with us. So I got the ingredients to make Peppered Pasta and knew I would have to deal with the same issues tonight.

Tonight's dinner was Pineapple-Tamari Braised Seitan, primarily because it required the least number of items to be plucked from bins and shelves at WF. Again, I thought I probably ought to get everything on my list and save myself the trouble of going out again tomorrow, when the phreaking Phillies play what could be the last game in the series if they win...but I didn't have any coins for the meter-kiosk thing, so I just ran in, grabbed a pepper, a bunch of asparagus, 2 boxes of seitan (they were on sale!), and a carton of hazelnut Silk creamer, else no coffee for me tomorrow morning. I tried that on Monday and it did not go well.

I didn't get a parking ticket, if you wondered.

There is a part of me that thinks it's charming to go to the store each evening to get "fresh" groceries to turn into a meal. There's a realistic part of me that knows that there are specific days stores receive shipments, so honestly, it'll either sit on their shelves or mine, but it's not like someone walked out back and picked the pepper right before I came in tonight. By the way, I was completely surprised and very happy to find healthy looking asparagus this late in fall. I didn't have time to see where it came from, but it must be nice there!

I made tonight's dinner before, so I won't go into much detail, but it occurred to me that my food photography skills have probably improved since I last made this dish, so I will share pictures. If you want the recipe, go here.
I just peeked back, and yes, these are much better (more appetizing) pictures than that first set.