snark snark snark

Just testing... Wow.  Some people are super paranoid.

On to the weekend!  I don't think I've been so happy to see Friday night since December and all its madness.  This last training class really took a lot of energy and my boss decided to treat himself to a 5-day weekend, so I was pretty happy to get on the train tonight.  I stopped on the way home to pick up a wine, but "accidentally" ended up with two bottles - I couldn't decide between red and white, until I remembered it was a long weekend, so I got both.  Cheers!

my first favorite Riesling of 2011

I had some trouble deciding what to make for dinner tonight - first of all, it's hot as Hades in Philadelphia right now, and secondly, it's darn difficult to try to follow a dinner at Horizons!  I'm not as insecure as some people, but I am well aware that my cooking is no where close to the caliber of Horizons' chefs.  By the way - rumor is, Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby (co-owners, spouses, cooks) are coming out with a third cookbook.  I wonder if they'll make it easy on me and put together a box set?

I decided to fight fire with fire and got to work cooking Seitan Pepper Steak from The Accidental Vegan.  Fortunately, in between healthy gulps of water that wasn't quite cold enough, the Asian nature of the cuisine helped me to decide between my Chateau Ste Michelle Harvest Select Riesling (best white wine ever) and my darling Apothic Red.

I sliced up what was left of the seitan and stirfried it with the peppers and some tamari.  I thought about adding some vegetable broth to moisten the seitan a little, but in the end decided the tamari would be an adequate (if not thirst-inducing) marinade.

Although Mister was not hungry when I started cooking, he managed to fit two healthy servings into his hot, sweaty belly before mopping his poor Greek forehead with his napkin and dissecting his PlayStation (since it wouldn't let him play games while I was cooking).  I had a little difficulty choosing between this and Seitan Cacciatore when I was putting the menu together, but I'm very glad I chose this one.

Now, on to enjoying my well-earned break!  I have some adventures planned for the weekend, so hopefully I will have some fun to share over the next few days, but what I'm looking forward to the most right now is not waking up to the sound of an alarm for the first time in weeks.  I will sleep until I'm done, even if it's afternoon when I finally get up.  Though, something tells me the heat won't allow that.  So much for our disastrous thunderstorms...I guess I'll just have to look for drama somewhere else.

heaven's on its way

So, according to some flawed math and heretical theology, we are a little less than four days away from Judgment Day.  Supposedly, it says in the Bible that at 6pm on Saturday, all true believers will be swept up to heaven to be glorified and reunited with God, while the rest of us live out our final days in increasing chaos and squalor.

Sweet.  I've always enjoyed the idea of living in a dark, decaying, post-apocalyptic city.

There are two indications, for me, that heaven is on its way: I just finished the last Coconut Drop Cookie and tonight we had the second and final non-Italian meal for dinner.

With Rice Noodle Bowl with Broccoli and Bell Pepper from Vegetarian Times magazine out of the way, I can look forward to spending the final days before I'm either swept up in a blaze of glory or condemned to suffer for the next six months chowing down on delicious Italian-style dinners, complete with red wine and olives (hey, what does anything matter at this point, right? and while we're on the subject, I would like to express my disapproval of the purported date the world will finally and for all times be destroyed by its Maker - Oct. 21st is one week before my 4th wedding anniversary and Mister and I have big plans for our 5th, so I'd prefer to "suffer" for 18 months, if it's all the same).

By the way, I hope you know me well enough to know I'm kidding.  God already told me when the world is going to end, and it's expected to coincide approximately with the date that I give birth and pigs fly while throwing the snowballs they made in Hell at the monkeys that are flying out of my....oh!

Anyway, dinner was nice.  I was actually quite pleased with both "Asian" meals that inched onto this week's menu and did not find myself craving Italian while preparing or cooking them.  That being said, I am really looking forward to cooking the Italian out of my system between now and the Rapture.

I must admit, the 5 day forecast is not helpful in dissuading some of the crazies that everything is okay:

Well.....okay, up until it's all sunny and bright and not even a little apocalyptic-looking on Saturday... I mean, Judgment Day. 

What kind of food do you suppose makes the most authentic and appropriate Tribulation Era meals?  Should I even bother with menu planning?

Sorry.  I'll stop :)