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.

I want an IKEA kitchen

I've been spending way too much time in the 2010 IKEA catalog, but seriously - every kitchen looks so efficient, organized, and downright clean. My kitchen is actually pretty well organized for how little space I have, and I have been quite creative in adding storage space and effectively using the decently large cupboards. However, my space is far from efficient. There are times I have to move Mister's bike in order to open a door to an extra cabinet and extract the electric mixer, immersion blender, or 8x8 baking pan. My spices have long since spread out from the 3-tiered wall-affixed spice rack, as well as the pan into which I corralled the extras, and are now about to push each other off of the edge of the counter they have taken over. I have all but given up on trying to better organize my kitchen (and my home) because I recognize that there comes a point where no amount of organization, nifty gadgets, or extra shelving will conquer the unnecessary amount of stuff we have crammed into our home.

I can't wait until that fabulous day that we move. Oh, the purging that will occur along with the packing...it will be glorious!

Anyway, I probably should have checked the 10 day forecast on weather.com prior to planning this week's menu, though it probably wouldn't have done much good since I'm convinced they're just guessing. It appears (from the gorgeous 80-degree day we enjoyed today) that we have shaken the first cool-down of September and the first part of this week will be summer-like and wholly inappropriate weather for soup dinners. Fortunately (for me), another cold front is supposed to amble in mid-week, making the second half much more amenable to warming-from-within meals. While I wouldn't mind having soup for dinner just about every night of the cooler months, I think Mister would appreciate not having the three soup dinners I planned for this week three nights in a row, so we'll see how I can work that out.

I wanted to enjoy the day a bit because it really was beautiful out (and because sometimes I think if I stay in our tiny, dark apartment too long I'll scream or lose my crackers or something) and when I went to Whole Foods yesterday I saw that the bookstore across the street was having a "buy 2 get 1 free" sale. Also, I needed to try to find black beluga lentils. Having searched the dried and canned bean areas of 4 separate stores, I have come to the conclusion that only restaurants and Nava Atlas are able to purchase these tiny little legumes. The Spice Corner in the Italian Market alleges to carry them, but all I found where they were purported to be were French green lentils (which I also needed). Perhaps I will check back in later in the week. On to the bookstore!

Not surprisingly, my three books are cookbooks - here's the haul:
1. The Accidental Vegan by Devra Gartenstein - My eyes were drawn to this book because of reasons I mentioned previously about accidentally consuming an almost completely vegan diet. I will not say I am Vegan because I still eat yogurt and honey and occasionally cheese, and even if I forsake those things I will still say only that I follow a vegan diet. The reason is this: Presently, at least, I find the entire vegan lifestyle to be too extreme. I have already "deprived myself" of a lot of things in the best interest of human beings: I strive to purchase fair trade goods, I do not purchase clothing from stores or labels that have been confirmed users of sweatshop labor, I sponsor a little girl named Ruth in Zambia, blah blah blah. My reasons for becoming a vegetarian do not now and never did have anything to do with the animals. I think it's terrible how they are treated but I care much more for the impact of the meat industry on the environment and its greed-induced starvation of the hungry in our nation and others. It is my compassion for milk-cows and disgust with the unsanitary guidelines for milk-harvesting that have caused me to (generally) forsake dairy. On the rare occasion we purchase eggs, they are organic and free-range.

That was way longer than I intended it to be. The point I was getting to is this: my diet has been growing slowly more vegan than ovo-lacto vegetarian, so I thought I would give this book a look. As it turns out, not only is it thought-provoking, but it also has some really fun and inventive recipes (which is why I love vegan cookbooks) and an entire section of savory-sounding seitan recipes - in fact, they were the clincher.

2. The Vegetarian Cook's Bible by Pat Crocker - I loved this book because the first 130 pages are a comprehensive discussion of the various health benefits of vegetables and fruits, as well as some grains. The author shares how your diet affects each of your body's main systems (Cardiovascular, Endocrine, Digestive, Immune, Musculoskeletal, Nervous, and Respiratory) and then goes through whole foods from apples to zucchini, including grains, herbs, and spices along the way, sharing each food's health benefits (actions), uses, how to buy/store, culinary uses, and then points to several recipes in the book that use that particular food. It appears to also have some great recipes along with some killer food photos, but that is really an added bonus - I bought it for the first 130 pages.

3. The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau - Honestly, this one won my heart because I'm a sucker for entertaining and for entertaining page layouts. The subtitle, if you will, is "200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion." I figure it might help catapult me to my destiny as a less pastel, more animal/human-friendly Martha Stewart. The structure of the book is slightly confusing for my categorizing mind - there is no Soup chapter or Dessert section - it is arranged by menu, and therefore goes from the appetizer to the dessert of a specifically-themed menu meant for, well, entertaining. As I've mentioned before, I really do appreciate it when cookbook authors take the guesswork out of meal construction and just tell me what to serve with the main course. Each page is a pleasure to behold; in addition to the recipe, the author provides nutritional information, serving suggestions and variations, informational tidbits, and Compassionate Cooks' tips (how to get ham flavor without the pig) and Food Lore (like fennel and pomegranate seeds as ancient viagra). That was just randomly flipped to, by the way, and not the reason I bought the book.

I always make the same mistake, though: I buy new cookbooks the day after planning and shopping for the week's menu. Oh well, it will give me at least a week to carefully dwell on each one before making selections for next week's menu. I'm really excited about those first 130 pages of book #2, though, because of my fascination with nutrition and holistic health, so I plan to use it in bringing a bit more depth of thought to future posts.

In case you were wondering, we had Pasta Jambalaya tonight. It was very good and came together faster than my other two Jambalaya recipes, probably owing to the use of pasta in place of rice. I probably should have let the celery saute a little longer - it was a little too crunchy - it seemed out of place. It was tasty and fun but definitely higher in fat than my other recipes (due to the delightful Tofurky Kielbasa) and not quite as stick-to-your-ribs hearty. In the end, it was nothing to spend a lot of time babbling about (especially after how long this post is already), but I'll probably make it again. It's pretty, too!