I hurt all over

When I started working at the place I just left, about four and a half years ago, the hardest thing for me to get used to was sitting.  I just sat, tethered to a phone, all day.  Yes, I had a couple of breaks, and believe me, I used that time to move around as much as possible, but for the most part I just sat.  The reason this was so difficult for me was because I had been unemployed for nine months, during which time I got into wandering around the city when I wasn't begging people to hire me.  Before I was laid off, I had a pretty physical job - moving at least every hour to go from this room to that or this house to that school.

Conversely, I got a little too good at sitting over the last four years, and my 3 hours daily of commuting did not help.  I got comfortable and besides, sitting so much allowed me to pull off dangerously high heels (which I have consequently forgone in my new position...at least for now).  Now?  Well, my whole body hurts.  I have not had to stand up for 8 hours in a row for....well, probably 15 years, actually.  15 years ago, I worked retail between Black Friday and mid-January, but my body was 15 years younger and able to handle the stress - in heels!  Right now, I would love a good massage and a bottle of aspirin.

My new job had a Grand Opening celebration this weekend with all hands on deck from Friday until tonight.  Everyone was working the floor, including the President, Marketing Director, and a bunch of other people who usually spend a decent bit of time sitting at their desks.  I'm sure at least some of them are hurting, too.

Anyway, I don't have a whole lot to say about food.  I'm hoping to have some good stories next week so I can convince myself to write more.  I'm kind of in this place where I'm re-evaluating Angst Loves Spinach and trying to see what's important and where we're going here.  I started the blog in the hopes of developing myself as a creative chef and as an outlet for my love of writing.  I do love to write and I have had a ball the last two years doing so, but I've definitely gotten away from the original intention - to create recipes, not just babble about the recipes other people made up and I cooked.

I'd like to flatter myself into believing that at least a few people are reading these words in something akin to horror and thinking, "gee, I hope she's not ending the blog..."  If that is going through anyone's mind, let me give a word of comfort - that is not really my intention.  Here is what I am hoping for: I am currently adjusting to my new job and my new schedule.  Once I am adjusted, once my body finds a new strength so I'm not bone-tired when I get home from work, I will find that I have a ton more time.  My goal is to use at least some of that time to become more creative - set goals for myself, force myself to create something at least once a week.

I haven't heard anything (yet) about this year's VeganMoFo (and I truly hope it will occur again this year, but I certainly do not have the time or energy to be one of the initiators/organizers).  The last two years, this event has had a considerable influence on my posting and I'm hoping it will re-ignite the fire in my kitchen again this year.  I'm fairly certain that I will be up to speed and as comfortable as I'll ever be with my new job by the time it starts, so I want to make a schedule of goals to meet that month, culinarily speaking, so that I can spread my wings and stretch again.  I always feel such a sense of accomplishment when I come up with my own recipes, but lately I've been way to tired to do anything but follow someone else's [fabulous] recipe like a little KitchenZombie.

Nevertheless, I will, as I do every week, share the coming week's menu with you (as well as my joy that my new job is only a few short blocks from Trader Joe's, so I'll be stopping there after work tomorrow to pick up supplies):

1. Spanakopita from The Accidental Vegan with roasted fingerling potatoes.  I have never made this recipe.  I will admit, I'm a little nervous about making this recipe, the way I am always nervous when I try to make something Mister knows from his childhood of good eats made with love by a Greek father or a half-Sicilian mother.  My mother-in-law is getting awfully good at making Spanakopita from YiaYia's recipe, under her tutelage, so to go it alone like this is both invigorating and terrifying.  You can bet there will be a post the night I make this!

2. Seitan Pepper Steak, also from The Accidental Vegan.

3. Cajun Red Beans and Rice, also from The Accidental Vegan, because I used all of my self-control last week when I made the menu to not include this, since I had another beans-n-rice recipe on there, but this week, This is the beans-n-rice recipe.

4. Coconut Curry Rice from Vegan on the Cheap.

5. Baked Ziti, also from Vegan on the Cheap with sauteed cauliflower and broccoli.  This is also a new recipe (I believe - sometimes I space makings so far apart I forgot I made something before!), but when I was looking over the menu, I realized we had a lot of cuisines represented (Greek, Japanese, Cajun/Latina, Indian), but no Italian.  If I hadn't come upon this when I did, and if it hadn't looked as easy as it does, we'd have been reprising Isa's Pasta e Fagioli for the 100th time this year.

ghetto sommelier

I don't actually have any official training in wine, but my uncle did fine dining long enough to learn quite a bit and pass it on to me.  I want to say that he did actually have formal training in the art of being a sommelier, but I can't remember and unfortunately, I can't ask him.  What I do remember is him giving my sister a lesson on the 10 Steps to Tasting Wine on her 21st birthday.  What I remember even better is her not caring at all (she's the beer and cocktail half of us...I do the wine and occasional cocktails) while I did my best to absorb and memorize every word he said from the periphery.  Okay, occasionally I got distracted by the "are you kidding me?" look on my sister's face.

Anyway, I do love wine.  I make a lot of jokes about liking wine too much, and sure, there are times I do.  But I drink wine because I like wine, not because I'm trying to become inebriated.  This is why I had de-alcoholized wine served at my wedding and it was quite delicious.  Mister actually discovered Ariel wines relatively early in our relationship and gave me a beautifully packed crate of four varietals, surrounded with a hay-like substance and dried babies breath and other flowers.  He did this because he recognized that I actually enjoy wine and he wanted to share that experience with me, but he doesn't drink alcohol.  That was probably one of the most romantic gifts he ever gave me...my 29th birthday present was pretty good, too...

Isn't my engagement ring pretty?  Okay, anyway, back to wine....

The point of all this rambling is that over the years, I've tasted a great many wines from various regions and different colors: Pinotage from South Africa, Shiraz from Southeastern Australia, Cotes du Rhones from France (and despite my objections, it became a favorite), Tempranillo from Spain, Tres Milliones from Mexico, Malbec from Argentina, and its drier cousin, Torrontes, as well as several different Rieslings from Germany.... surprisingly, Pennsylvania has several vineyards that produce well-rated wines - one of the best reds I've had was a 1998 Cabernet Franc from Chaddsford Winery... but I maintain to this day that the rest of their wine is bordering on awful.

As I've tasted each wine, I've tried to figure out what is different about it, what is special.  As I got more involved in cooking and creating, I wanted to use my tasting experience to appropriately pair wines with my dinner.  There are times I regret a little that Mister and I don't crack open a bottle of wine and drink it down while eating dinner and then popping olives in our mouths while alternately discussing philosophy and world events (we only do the latter), but Whole Foods was the only place I could get Ariel, other than ordering it, which is an ordeal in the city, to say the least.  Due to alcohol laws in Pennsylvania, and the fact that Ariel is "real wine" that has simply had the alcohol removed, Whole Foods lost their "okay" to sell it (Pennsy's a weird state sometimes), so we haven't had it since our wedding.

Regardless, for my dining pleasure, I enjoy matching cuisines or specific flavors with a wine I think would complement the flavors, or so intensely contradict them that it works somehow.  I can't do cocktails with dinner - I don't know how anyone can, personally.  For me, a cocktail is an aperitif, possibly a dessert beverage, but the meal requires wine.  Obviously, the easiest dinner to pair with is an Italian dinner.  It's a no-brainer: Italian food = Italian red wine, or at least a full, dry red wine.  Asian fare usually leads me to Riesling (a German wine) because of the amazing juxtaposition, and on the off-chance that I make dinner too spicy, it has an amazing cooling quality.  It's the middle ground or one-offs that perplex me.

Tonight, I made Chickpeas Romesco and served it on Saffron Garlic Rice, both from Veganomicon.  According to Isa and Terry, this is a latina dish - Spanish, even.  A Tempranillo or Malbec probably would have been very appropriate accompaniments to this dinner, but I had something specific on my mind.  It was so specific, in fact, that if I had walked into Wine and Spirits and it had not been on the shelf, I would have walked back out, rather than buy one of the aforementioned latino wines.  Nothing against, 'em - I love me a good Malbec and it doesn't take much convincing for me to indulge (though paydays usually help).

Surprisingly, the wine I was determined to serve was American, and not even a "normal" wine, rather a blend.  Probably not surprisingly, that blend is Apothic Red, my current darling.  Regardless of that fact, as well as that it was on sale, I have so completely analyzed and memorized the flavors of this wine that I couldn't think of a Malbec or Tempranillo that would have matched the flavor I was going for.  So I swooped into the wine store, picked up a bottle, and the first sip at dinner confirmed that I made the right decision.

The savoriness of the garlic-oil rice and the perfect, chunky sweet-umami of the chickpeas and sauce worked perfectly together.  The wine brought out the sweetness of the ground almonds and subtle sprinkle of sugar in the sauce, while the almost meaty texture of the slow-braised chickpeas brought everything together.  It's nice to be right sometimes.

lovely day for an apocalypse

Soooooo....about that apocalypse thing...  I took the above picture on my way back to the train station after teaching yesterday, approximately 2 hours before all the good little kitties were scooped up by an invisible hand and delivered to heaven and the rest of us experienced a catastrophic earthquake unlike any seen/felt before, leaving us to survive continuing chaos and degradation until the world is mercifully destroyed on October 21st.

As you can see, I was not one of the chosen.  According to a comment on my last post, neither is one of my readers.  Unfortunately, neither was Angst.  He was very disappointed.

On the brighter side of things, yesterday was a gorgeous day - not bad for your last day of "normal" life, huh?  In a way, it kind of felt like one of those movies they put out a few years ago where everyone is going about their business like everything is normal, completely ignorant of the danger and destruction that awaits them in just a few short hours.

Or not.  "Rapture Fail," to quote so many others.  As much as I would like to live in the Time of Tribulation (not really, actually), I'm pretty happy the whole day passed with nothing more than gossip, sunshine, and a movie I liked far more than I thought I would.

I started the day with a smoothie date!  Kelly from Living On The Vedge met me at Pure Fare in Rittenhouse Square and helped introduce me to the wonderful world of smoothies.  While I still can't see them becoming a regular part of my breakfast rotation, I think they have a place once in a while, kind of like a special treat.  I plan to actually devote a post to my smoothie experience, so I'll move along in the day for now.  After we finished our smoothies and nice conversation, she headed to the Rittenhouse Row Festival and I headed to the train station for a relatively short day of teaching.

As I approached Suburban Station, I was caught off guard by this astonishing image.  First of all, the Comcast building is the tallest building in the Philadelphia skyline and is an imposing building to stand beneath.  It looks like it reaches straight up to heaven (maybe Angst should have taken the elevator instead of waiting) and, being clothed in reflective glass, it actually blends in with the sky until you notice that the sky looks a little pixelated and weird.  Then you have this moment where your brain yells, "Holy crap, that's a building!" 

The other incredible thing that caught my eye was the eerily perfect reflection of the building I was standing next to.  After I stood there gawking long enough to make a few tourists stare at me, I decided to pull out my camera and capture this amazing view before heading underground and out of my beloved city.  It is definitely things like this that cause me to pause and truly love my city.

After teaching, I returned to my fair city and found not a single stone overturned, so it looked like we were still safe from the zombie invasion for which the CDC was preparing America.  I was relieved to see the beautiful and historic synagogue on Lombard St was still in one piece, with the 10 Commandments standing proud and strong at the top.

Another welcome site was the steeple of St. Peter's Church on Pine St, the gold cross gleaming in late afternoon sunlight.  It came into view as I crossed 4th St and I was struck by the way it stood out against the magnificent white clouds, as if to say, "we're still here!"

So, the threat of apocalypse past, Mister and I thought we would enjoy the beautiful weather with a trip to Horizons, intending to drink in the temperate air and remarkable sky along with a tasty dinner and undoubtedly decadent dessert, possibly a cocktail or two.  A lot of other people had the same idea, so given the choice between dining inside and at the bar or eating elsewhere, we headed back toward home.  Mister tried to find another fun place to eat, but I really had my heart set on Horizons, so we just went home, where I prepared the last dinner from our menu, Fusilli with Lentil Sauce from Vegan Italiano.

I have seen recipes for lentil sauces before and aside from the way red lentils break down and thicken a sauce, I just couldn't imagine how it would work.  In fact, my original intention for this sauce was to use red lentils, until last night, when I pulled out my jar and found it to be lacking at least half the quantity I needed to make the sauce, so I hesitantly used regular ol' Goya brown lentils instead.

Mister and I were both completely surprised by how incredibly tasty the sauce was and how well all of the parts worked together.  Mister plowed through three big bowls and I chomped delicately through 1.5 (keeping his food math intact).  I am so sorry I didn't make this sooner.  I don't anticipate lentil sauces being my new passion, but I will definitely make this one again, and probably in the not-too-distant future.

After dinner, we watched Avatar and it was really a remarkable movie.  We both went into it with a trepidation we reserve for big budget blockbusters with CG main characters.  Our bro-in-law in California does this for a living, so we know CG has improved significantly in the last ten years, but Jar-Jar Binks really ruined everything.  We were both completely impressed with the movie in all aspects - CG, storyline, acting, even psychology (awesome inner battle with Jake Sully).  After the movie, we still had to wait for some of the drunks to stop screaming in the streets, so I put together this week's menu.  Having gotten through our Italian Week, I felt the need was quenched and we could move on to a completely ethnically diverse menu:

1. Italian-Style Rice Casserole from Vegan Italiano.  Okay, so I didn't make this last week due to a dearth of peas at Whole Foods, but I have the peas now, so we'll have it soon.  Besides, I can't go from all Italian to no Italian without doing irreparable damage to Mister's psyche.

2. Naked Burritos - I've seen one too many Qdoba billboards (I pass one every day on my way to work) and the craving for Mexican, more precisely burritos, set in.

3. Pasta Con Broccoli from Appetite for Reduction.  Old habits die hard...maybe I'm not completely over my Italian cravings.

4. Seitan Gyros from The Accidental Vegan, at Mister's request!  I almost always ask Mister if he has any requests when I start my menu planning.  98% of the time, he does not.  Last night, I asked again, and by habit, he said "no." Less than 30 seconds later, he stepped back into the kitchen and said, "Yes. Can you make me gyros with that seitan, since it tastes so much like lamb?"  How could I refuse my poor vegetarian Greek?  He hasn't had a gyro in nine and a half years.

5. Salsa Rice and Red Beans from Vegan on the Cheap.

6. Seitan Pepper Steak also from The Accidental Vegan.  Since the seitan recipe makes a 2-lb loaf and I don't know how long it will keep, I figured I should have another recipe that requires seitan on the menu this week.  I had some trouble choosing between this and Seitan Cacciatore, but ultimately decided that my menu, though far more diverse than last week's, still required a little more variety.

So there you have it: Italian, Mexican, Greek, and Asian.  Not bad!  We kicked it off tonight with Mister's request, since I had to bake the seitan this afternoon and I figured it might be easiest to just slice the seitan very thinly right after it popped out of the oven (okay, I let it cool a little tiny bit).  I set up a Build Your Own Gyro station on my long counter and let Mister construct his own.  I figured that was also a safer way to go about the Tahini sauce because it seems like I always put too much sauce on Mister's stuff.

Shortly after I took that oddly yellow picture, I think I figured out why gyro-serving places always give it to you in a little paper cone.  It's hard to keep those suckers wrapped in a cone shape without crushing the pita and/or getting tahini sauce all over your hands.

I did both.  SO, I decided I was not as good at gyro-eating as my Greek husband (unlike him, I think I only had one or two gyros before going vegetarian) and decided to turn my dinner into Gyro Salad (kind of like a Greek version of Taco Salad).

Second time around, I just skipped the pita altogether.  It was so good - the savory seitan really did mimic my memories of lamb and Mister was thrilled - it was exactly what he wanted it to be.  He so rarely requests anything other than "Whatever makes you happy, baby," that if he does want something specific, I fall over myself to make it for him.  The crunch of the chopped romaine was the perfect complement to the chewy seitan and the umami of the seitan foiled the semi-sweetness of the tomatoes as the smokiness of the tahini sauce coated everything with a layer of "something special."

there's lettuce in my pasta

Like I mentioned in my menu, I've always skipped over recipes calling for escarole, primarily because I can never find it at Whole Foods.  To my great delight, I came home with some yesterday, so tonight I made Penne with Cannellini Beans and Escarole from Vegan Italiano.

Isn't it lovely?  So... green!  I have a confession to make: I've never had escarole until tonight.  In addition to having an extraordinary amount of trouble locating it in center city, it was most certainly never a part of meals growing up outside the city.  Mister was very surprised when I shared my escarole epiphany with him since he grew up in a hippie family with a Greek dad and part-Sicilian mom; dark leafy greens and various other things that never crossed my lips until adulthood were a regular part of the days there was money for food in his childhood.

My take?  It's kind of weird, isn't it?  I think I imagined escarole to be a dark leafy green, kind of like Tuscan kale but with the texture of spinach or chard - a silky green that would linger briefly on my tongue before following the penne down my throat.  I couldn't have been too much more wrong - it was more like I had added lettuce to my pasta.  It was a little crunchy, a little bitter, and plenty chewy - more like the look of lettuce with the toughness of kale.  I should have realized I was wrong when I was chopping it.  It was actually tough to chop!  Ordinarily, my fancy new knives slice through greens like butter, but not this time - I actually had to put some elbow grease in.

The combination of escarole, tomatoes, garlic, and cannellini beans was classically Italian and completely delightful.  I served dinner with a generous bowlful of mixed Mediterranean olives in a vinegary brine, accompanied by a glass of Apothic Red for my sipping pleasure.  It could only have been a more perfectly rustic and Country Italian meal if we were eating outside as the sun set behind a far-off horizon with a basket full of crusty, warm bread to sop up the sauce.

And just when you thought I couldn't paint a more delightful picture of [food-provoked] happiness, you must have forgotten (or not known) that I baked last night after my post!

I called them macaroons, but Hannah calls them Coconut Drop Cookies.  They just magically appeared in my inbox one day, courtesy of the VegNews e-newsletter I get monthly.  Okay, the cookies themselves did not magically appear, but the simpler-than-pie recipe sure did and it took very little time to pull all of the ingredients together and make my kitchen smell amazing.

The best thing about these cookies (besides everything) is that the recipe makes 10.  That is a totally manageable number of cookies.  I really don't like cookie recipes that yield a tremendous number of cookies (unless it's the holiday season - any holiday season - and I'm baking for a crowd) because they make too big a mess and then I have too many cookies anyway.  Ten cookies?  Well, we'll get through almost half the first night and they'll be gone by tomorrow night.

They have the most amazing flavor.  Like I said, they are super simple to make, so please do yourself a favor and click that link.  Make these cookies and enjoy them with a tall glass of nondairy milk.  I rarely drink soymilk because it does have kind of a weird aftertaste when you're drinking it solo (I use unsweetened original - no flavor and no added sugars), but these cookies are so rich and flavorful, I dare you to try to eat them alone.  Actually, I don't - why mess it up?  Just enjoy with a cup of coffee or your favorite nondairy beverage - there are two delightfully contradictory flavors that come together in a way that enhances each: the tropical sweetness of toasted coconut and the spark of salt from an unusually large measure added to the recipe.

Dear Lord...I think it's time for dessert.

viva espana! (and a bunch of other places)

There are so many things to love about Veganomicon - probably too many to count.  For one thing, it's huge and full of just about any recipe you could imagine wanting, as well as several that never occurred to you until someone else said "blueberry brownies" and you thought back to that dark chocolate bar with dried blueberries your darling husband gave you as a gift on some random Monday.  Another great thing about this book is the center section where they keep all the slobber-inducing photographs of amazing looking, cruelty-free food (unless, of course, you take into account the inexcusable cruelty that those pictures don't pop out to create those very meals all by themselves on your dining table).  And of course, there are the sarcastic, wry recipe intros, such as:

If these chickpeas could talk, they'd probably be a little fresh and need at least a PG-13 rating due to extreme sauciness.  (On the other hand, if chickpeas could talk they probably wouldn't be vegan anymore.)

 In addition to all that awesomeness, there's one more thing: the incredible multi-ethnicity our authors bring to the proverbial table.  Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a Jewish girl from Brooklyn with an Indian name and a penchant for chickpeas, and Terry Hope Romero, a lovely latina married to a man so Greek, his mother brought her fresh oregano from Greece (way to go, Terry!).   The way all of these cultures mix and marry and rebound off of one another culminates in some of the most innovative and tastebud-challenging dishes I've had the pleasure of making and eating.

Tonight, I finished our recent tour of Veganomicon by making Chickpeas Romesco on Garlic Saffron Rice.  In case you're super curious by now, since every time the past 10 days that I've mentioned this recipe I've crossed out the Saffron, Mister and I are not big fans, so I leave it out, to no detriment that I've noticed.  I've made this before and I think I thought "Romesco" was a made-up word (not that Isa would ever do that), but this time around my curiosity got to me, so I checked it out.  Turns out Romesco sauce is a real thing!  Appropriately enough, it was born in Spain - for some reason, I had gotten the impression that this recipe came from Terry's mind, which makes sense (if it's true), since she has recently released her own solo cookbook, Viva Vegan!

After filling up on dinner, Mister decided to invade Angst's personal space by lying down on the floor to digest.

As long as Mister was willing to pet him, he didn't mind so much. 

Mister?  Where ya goin'?

In other news, I chopped up an Anaheim chili to saute with the shallots and garlic and I really thought it would pack a little more heat than it did.  I am quite a bit trepidatious to put this out there, but I might just be willing to start experimenting with jalapenos again sometime in the nearer future (heck, I've taken an 18 year break, why not?).  If I find that courage hiding somewhere in my purse or the back of a cupboard, I'll let you all know how it turns out!

gotta keep you guessing

There are no words to describe the euphoria I felt walking out of work last night, knowing that I was taking a little mini-staycation.  I took today and Monday off, which gave me two four day work weeks with a nice, restorative, and hopefully productive four day weekend in between.

The first thing I did when I got home was to open my brand new bottle of Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling and pour a conservative glass while I prepared dinner.  No.  Actually, the very first thing I did when I got home was stand in the kitchen for about ten minutes being confused and saying "duuuuuh" a few times.  After I got over the Stupid I caught at work yesterday, I was able to use the brain with which I was blessed and improvise a little.

See, I was a little caught between the last two items on my menu and I was missing one ingredient from each of them.  I really had very little desire to walk the 2-3 blocks necessary to procure the missing pineapple juice or cauliflower, so I had to think, which only took a little tiny bit less effort.

I decided to make Pineapple-Tamari Braised Seitan, regardless that I didn't have pineapple juice.  In its place, I combined pure apple juice with 2 Tbsp pomegranate molasses and then stirred in the tamari.  It came out pretty well, although I'm not sure I needed quite that much pom-molasses.  It was a little too sweet-tart and there was a little too much sauce anyway.

I was looking forward to today all week.  In addition to waking up at precisely the moment I would ordinarily scan my badge three times to get through three doors before arriving at my desk (come on - the employees don't even want to get in badly enough to require three levels of security...), I had big plans for the day.

There is a great little eco-chic boutique in Northern Liberties that just happens to be owned by my friend's sister.  Arcadia is the only place in Philadelphia that I know of where a person can purchase Matt & Nat handbags and OlsenHaus shoes.   They are having a huge sale right now - mark-downs so severe I couldn't even figure out a percentage or how they're making money in the deal.  I tried on a few things, including a nearly $300 dress they were willing to sell me for $50 (I didn't buy it, though - it was poking my ribs), and ended up leaving with a soft, comfy, flowy, mid-length skirt for $25 (original price: $90).  The sale is on through Sunday, so if you're local, please do yourself a huge favor and check it out.

I walked there and back, so in addition to some detoxing I've been trying to do this past week, I also found myself at quite an energy (calorie) deficit.  My shopping trip resulted in about 4 miles of walking and I naturally walk quickly.  Because that was apparently not enough activity, I also went to Superfresh and Whole Foods to shop for my mini-menu.  By the time I was paying for my treasures at Whole Foods, I was actually feeling fatigued, so I ate my banana on the way home, then opened up one of my treats and slathered it all over a piece of multigrain bread:

You cannot tell me that doesn't look amazing.  It tastes amazing!  This is the very same guacamole Mr Boss supplied at his BBQ the other night, and though it was awesome with charred veggie patties, it was great all by itself, too!

Dinner tonight was Red Lentil Coconut Curry.  Ironically, it has been almost exactly a year since I made this for Mister's birthday.

 

I served it with a culturally diverse appetizer/side dish type thing.  I cut two pitas into wedges, scooped the remaining Cava Mezze Kalamata Hummus into a small bowl and plunked down a nice mix of olives.  Each was tasty by itself, but I won't mix Indian and Mediterranean cuisine again because the tastes really are not complementary.  In retrospect, I probably should have done a little fruit plate, but it's too late now - Mister and I have already decimated the hummus.

  

Two Coming Soon features for you to look forward to (I can't make you guess ALL the time): 

First, I'm on my second reading of Skinny Bitch because it's just that great and because I'm trying to memorize it.  There have been so many times I've wanted to share specific paragraphs or sections that I've realized that what I really need to do instead is give such a thorough and enticing review of the book that each one of you goes out and gets a copy.  Once you finish reading it and know more than you ever really wanted to, you can pass it along to another blissfully ignorant soul.  Anyway, review and reaction coming soon.

Second, my mini-menu.  Part of my recent detox efforts have put me on a Second-Wind Fresh Kick, so I figured, if I'll have a four day weekend, why not shop on day one for a few meals and then again on Monday, for the week?  So, here is the current plan for the next three days:

1. "Saffron-Spiked" Moroccan Stew on Israeli Couscous from The Vegan Table.  There I go mixing world cuisines again, but Morocco and Israel are a little closer together (flavor-wise, at least) than India and Greece.  I made this before, to disastrous results, but this time I'm going to leave out the offending ingredient and see what a difference that makes.

2. Curried Cauliflower, Garbanzo and Tomato Salad from The Complete Vegan Cookbook. 

3. Bulghur and Red Lentil Pilaf with Kale and Olives, also from The Complete Vegan Cookbook.  I feel like I've made this before, but I can't escape how tasty it sounds.