smushed chickpea love

I have a feeling that February is not going to be a terribly restful month.  Lucky me, it's the shortest month of the year, so even though I anticipate a lot of unsettledness and crowding, at least I can face it armed with the knowledge that it will end.

Since I didn't get too much accomplished yesterday, packing-wise, I pretty much devoted all of today (except for the time spent at Salon Sugar, having my grays camouflaged and cut) to packing.  I got all my music books packed, as well as one small bookshelf.  The big bookshelf may have to be a Me&Mister collaboration, since at least half those books are his and I don't want to just go around deciding which of his books to keep and which to donate...

The main problem I'm running into is the growing City of Boxes.  Fortunately, they can be stacked on top of one another, but eventually they will give me anxiety.  Miraculously, all of the things that are now in boxes that are beginning to take over my living room and bedroom actually had A Place, and since I've displaced them, they're just clutter again.  I'm cutting this week as a loss, in terms of taking things to the thrift store, but I think I'll spend most of next weekend filtering out what is definitely not following us down the street and moving it to the thrift store.  At least that way, we'll have more room for boxes!

Although I usually make a relatively time-consuming dinner on Sundays, 'cause I can, I made something short and sweet tonight instead. 

Lemony Garlic Chickpea Patties from Vegan on the Cheap, served with roasted red potatoes I tossed with olive oil and Mediterranean Seasoning from my trip out west.  To make the patties, I got to use two happy kitchen toys tools: my food processor and my new burger press.  It is so fun to smush those little round balls of almost-burger! 

The "dough" seemed like it was going to be too dry to hold everything together (since the only liquid was 3 Tbsp lemon juice), so I added a bit more lemon juice.  All told, I used the juice of two Meyer lemons and it definitely dominated from the first bite, but not in a bad way, just in a "Oh, hey, there's the lemon" kind of way.

This pan is a secondary vision of Mister's Heaven: A roasting pan full of potatoes, generously decorated with herbs, spices, and salt.  I gave in and bought one of those adorable bags of tiny red potatoes, which lengthened the scrubbing process but decreased the chopping time.  They came out really well - crispy outside, squishy inside, and well-seasoned.

After dinner, I just couldn't get back into the groove, so I think we're finished packing for the evening.  Angst is trying to help - he already has one of his pillows (and himself) in a box.

packing lists

I'm a list girl.  I used to be incapable of taking a trip (vacation) without making a list of what I was going to pack, checking everything off as I packed it, and then re-checking it when I was re-packing to leave my destination.  I make to-do lists, especially when I want to justify taking a day off from work.  I make grocery lists each week and wish lists at least once a year (Christmas).  I have a running list of restaurants I want to visit in New York and cookbooks I will eventually add to my shelves to compensate for the five I got rid of in the packing/purging process.  The whole 9 months between my engagement and my wedding can be retraced by following one huge list I still have on my computer.

I am actually surprised that I haven't made a packing list for this move, but I think that's owed to the completely overwhelming nature of packing up my entire home.  With my wedding, I could construct a timeline, replete with projected deadlines for the completion of various tasks, and with the included reward of being able to check off the finished things.  The only way I have any clue how far along I am in this packing process is by the growing City of Boxes developing residences throughout my already crowded home and by [eventually] running out of things to put in boxes.

I had already anticipated running headlong into nostalgia and other such pangs during the unearthing of things I probably haven't looked at in years, so while I have had to force myself to look at some things objectively enough to say "even though this is old, it's kind of ugly and not really worth anything," and recognize that I was only holding onto it because it once belonged to someone who isn't part of my life anymore, I can let them go with the understanding that I don't love that person any less without an ugly teapot to remind me of them.  On the other hand, I've found some fun things that I've rushed over to Mister to share:

 It's a funny little Christmas plate and aside from the fact that it is obviously hand-painted, there's nothing special about it.  Until you turn it over to wrap it up...

"Hand Painted in Italy for F.B."  FB are the initials of my mother's mother, Florence Beverly.  That's pretty darn cool.  Quick side story that will only be funny to women old enough to remember "adopting" Cabbage Patch Kids: My mother's mother was one of [I think] five children and all the girls had names a CPK creator would envy: Florence Josephine, Erma Matilda, Henrietta something-or-other; amazing names.

Anyway, back to 2011, after two days off from work, I managed to get there today.  I even brought home two more boxes, which made for a challenging walk home from the train (since the buses still aren't running near my home).  I may still do a little packing tonight, but I decided to take a blog & Beaujolais break first. 

Since my green pepper urgently required my attention, I decided tonight was as good a night as any to make my favorite Cajun Red Beans and Rice from The Accidental Vegan.  This is absolutely my favorite rice-n-beans recipe; I'm pretty sure it's the generous addition of Worcestershire sauce, although I think the scant bit of liquid smoke helps.

In place of the usual Tofurky sausages, I used what was left from my homemade seitan.  I'll tell you, this recipe is going to save us hundreds of hard-earned dollars.  It was actually a bit better with the seitan than with the sausage, though I think I'll slice the seitan next time, rather than cubing it.  Lots of chewing.

Finally, in my effort to stave off more packing until tomorrow, I constructed the new menu for next week, which may very well be the last full menu before we move.  I have quite a collection of Cooking Things, as well as an entire 3x1' shelf of herbs and spices, so next weekend we'll probably have to start packing some of it.  I probably won't realize how much that limits me until it's too late, but suffice it to say that I anticipate only getting two or three items in before switching to sandwiches/take-out.

So, in the spirit of list-making, I present to you
The Last Full Menu in This Residence

1. Pasta with Red Peppers and Basil

2. Chickpea Broccoli Casserole from Vegan with a Vengeance.  Since it bakes for about 45-60 minutes, I figure it will give me time to pack while it's baking - hooray for multi-tasking! 

3. Orecchiette with Cherry Tomatoes and Kalamata Tapenade also from VwaV.

4. Rice Island Casserole from Vegan on the Cheap; I have a few tricks so it doesn't take as long as it did last time, but even if it does...see #2.

5. Tuscan White Bean Pizza also from Vegan on the Cheap, because pizza is awesome and there are no leftovers (I suspect that will also become important over the next 15 days).

6. Pasta Jambalaya from Vegan Express