smushy and green

I don't think I understand the big deal with avocados. One of my favorite bloggers, Nicole of Another One Bites the Crust, absolutely loves avocados and puts them on everything but dessert (and sometimes I think that's because she hasn't figured out how to incorporate them yet).

Tonight, I made Pasta Della California again, and this time I employed the help of a, well, employee of Whole Foods to help me find a ripe avocado. Perhaps we went too far and my avocado was too ripe, but it was just kind of mushy. It tasted kind of green (not a bad thing) and I'm still struggling to find the right words to describe the texture. I keep thinking of the yolk of a hardboiled egg, but that's too chalky. In any case, I can't seem to find a satisfying avocado. I'm not giving up, but I'm not going to actively pursue this healthy fat, either.
The sauce was exceptionally flavorful, though, and I didn't remember it being so intricate last time, so I think the whole dish came out better this time around.

Angst has developed an amusing new habit. I guess it was only a matter of time, since cats like to sleep/hang out on elevated surfaces. His new favorite place to sit/nap is on whichever chair I have vacated. Mister calls him "the mommy" when he does this, which seems to confuse and alarm him, since I then explain that if he's the mommy, he'll have to get up and make dinner or go to work (depending on the time of day). I was sitting at my computer, leaving my dining chair empty, and this is what I turned around to see (and yes, the chairs are directly beside each other):

He's so cute, snoozing away on my chair, isn't he?

1. I am grateful to have tomorrow off to spend with my husband before the insanity begins at work.

2. I am grateful for the opportunities presented by the insanity at work.

3. I am grateful that unlike 10% of the adult American population, I get to go to work.

4. I am grateful for the innovations in transportation that allowed me to try a ripe avocado from New Mexico (obviously, I'm not as committed to eating locally as others might be...baby steps, folks.)

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll BLOW your house down!

Today was so weird, weather-wise. It was miserable and rainy when I woke up, but it slowly tapered off and turned the middle of the day absolutely gorgeous! The sun was out, the air was mild, the birds were singing...okay - I made the last part up, but you get the idea. I wanted to take advantage of the day because tomorrow is supposed to be about 20 degrees colder and not at all the kind of day you want to wander about your neighborhood (and I'll be at work). My father and I went to Macy's to see the Christmas lights show that we've seen since I was a child and rode the monorail. By the way - it does not feel good to know that the object of a cherished childhood memory now resides in a museum! Afterward, we wandered around center city and the Reading Terminal Market a little while, then parted ways. I completed my menu for the week (which I shall share shortly) and set about to buying the things necessary to make these delightful meals. I made a short stop in to a bookstore to grab Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and while I was looking at some other books, the most amazing thing happened.

I heard screaming and clattering, and if it were the night before Christmas, I would have jumped from my bed to see what was the matter. It wasn't though, so instead, I merely peered out the window to see dead leaves swirling violently after scurrying sneakered feet that just barely cleared the (heavy) easel sign outside that had just been laid down by the most powerful wind I can recall in Philadelphia. When I crossed the street and approached the entrance to Whole Foods, I found that the wind had also huffed and puffed and knocked over a whole bunch of potted pine trees on steps outside. It was amazing how much destruction only one gust of wind could cause. Granted, we were in the middle of a wind advisory that I had (and I suppose many others had) gallantly ignored, so I shopped as quickly as I could and ran home as fast as you can with a load of groceries on your back. That is to say, not much faster than normal.

Anyway, no interesting food stories, really. Last night we had veggie burgers and tonight I heated up the leftover Coconut Curry Tofu from Monday. So, without further ado, here is the new menu:

1. Black Bean and Sweet Potato [Carrot] Stew from the Global Health Alliance Cookbook my sister gave me for Christmas last year. If you want the whole story, go back a couple posts.

2. Tempeh Shepherdess Pie from Veganomicon. I have skipped over this before, despite how delicious it sounds, because of the tempeh, but I'm just going to substitute baked and smoked tofu and hope that works!

3. Pasta Della California again, from Veganomicon. I made this before, so this time I grabbed the first person I saw wearing a WF apron and made her help me pick out an avocado. It better be good.

4. Chamomile Couscous with Savory Spinach because I was looking through some old posts and thought, "hey, that was pretty good!"

5. Curried Tofu with Mixed Baby Greens - I'll admit, the final recipe spot witnessed a showdown between this guy and P.B. Thai, but I think you can see who won.

I almost wrote earlier because I knew what I was grateful for by 1:30 PM.
1. I am grateful that the rain cleared up and gave me such a beautiful day off.
2. I am grateful that Macy's still hosts the largest active pipe organ in the country.
3. I am grateful that I have this Sunday off, too, to finish my hair :)
4. I am grateful for the nearly 2 hours I got to spend with my dad today.
Please excuse the crappy picture. It was taken blindly with my cellphone. It's the cute that counts.

brush the dust off the cover

Sometimes you need a little time to fit obscure gifts into your life - have you noticed that? Sometimes, someone gives you something and your first reaction is, "Oh...gee...thank you." Or, to borrow a phrase from my mother, "that's interesting..."

My sister has devoted her adult life to the service of others. After college, she did a year with Americorps, and I think she was only stationary for about 6 months before she was getting shot up with immunizations and plunking down in an airplane bound for Africa. Her heart preceded her by about 10 years, but she finally made it, courtesy of the Peace Corps. She was in Zambia for about two and a half years before taking the long way home (through Zanzibar and Thailand, and I think a few other places before landing in California and my beloved Tahoe). Upon her return to America, she moved to our nation's capital to actually work for (as in, get paid and wear clothes from a store and live in a building with a closing door) the Peace Corps. She is currently about 6 months away from getting her Masters degree in something long that I can never remember but will help her help others more effectively.

Last Christmas, she was full of Peace Corps influenced/produced gifts, including my everyday-is-a-holiday calendar and a spiral bound collection of recipes from all over the world, appropriately titled:
Food From Around the World: A Global Health Alliance Cookbook.
Apparently, it was a collaborative effort of her fellow students, the introduction would lead you to believe:
The Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH) is a diverse college with students, staff, academic professionals, faculty, and alumni who have lived, worked and traveled all over the world. This cookbook highlights the favorite recipes of the members of the MEZCOPH community.
The Global Health Alliance (GHA) is a student organization within MEZCOPH which is dedicated to improving the well-being of diverse populations. The proceeds of this cookbook will support various donation efforts as well as the GHA in future projects.

Anyway, a lot of the recipes call for meat and when a recipe from some hitherto unknown part of South America (as an example) uses meat in a recipe, it's really not the kind of meat you can replace with tofu or seitan. Considering the impoverished status of most of the countries visited by these students, though, there are a few vegetarian meals as well. I figured that since this week was so weird menu-wise anyway, this would be a good week to explore this cookbook a little more. I'll be honest - I looked through it when I got it, and it's been spending quality time with my relatively unused WIC cookbook on a shelf in the hallway ever since. It's okay, though - I know she just bought it to support the GHA.

Enough babbling - tonight I made the Coconut Curry Tofu from that little cookbook and it was really good! I really think that surprised the heck out of me and Mister.
You're supposed to serve it over rice, but I kind of like it swimming in broth/sauce. I think my husband would disagree, but he's okay. He just dumps the excess sauce in the sink before refilling his bowl.

I have finally resolved the rest of my week, so I will probably complete my menu tomorrow night (so I can shop for it on Wednesday), but I'll tell you now that the other recipe I will make from this book (probably tomorrow...duh) is called Black Bean and Sweet Potato Stew, but since I do want Mister to eat it, I will be substituting carrots (yes, I got some) for the sweet potatoes.

1. I am grateful to have enough money to keep my home warm when the wind is howling forcefully outside the windows.
2. I am grateful for the resolution of today and the revelation of tomorrow.
3. I am (now) grateful for my sister's support of the GHA planting a really good curry recipe in my Pier 1 (that's international!) bowls.
4. I am grateful that my old coat is still so warm :)

making it count

Today may very well have been one of my last Sundays off for a while. I won't know for sure until sometime this week, but let me say - if it was, I spent it well.

In addition to a weak and horribly cold grocery shopping trip - by the way, December in Philadelphia is officially too late to still be stubbornly wearing your fall jacket - I revisited dear Candi KaBoom at Salon Sugar, had a nice dinner out with the hubby, and made cookies!

I got two dinners' worth of ingredients, as well as a frozen pizza for Mister and some veggie burgers as a back-up/quick dinner. I have no idea how this week is going to go and I'll do my best to keep you updated, as well as a big announcement coming soon! If I need to, I can "finish" my grocery shopping on Wednesday. I may also finish my hair that day!

So, today, Candi just cut my hair. I'm really bad at keeping up with that whole 6-8 week trim thing. I think the only time I've ever pulled it off was when I lived 5 minutes away from my salon, which was moderately priced, and my hair was only 2 inches long at the longest and shaved in parts, so obviously, upkeep was important. I haven't had my hair cut since Labor Day weekend, when Salon Sugar opened. To say I was in urgent need of a haircut would not do justice to the mutiny my split ends were organizing. We got a little crazy and I'm happy with the result, as well as our plans to draw "lightener" (Candi's euphemism for bleach) through my hair on either Wednesday or Sunday (depending on whether I'm off), then retouch the black streaks and add in some unnaturally bright red streaks. It's going to be great - I'll have pictures!

When I was at Salon Sugar, Candi told me she had recently had a lot of vegan/vegetarian clients in the salon and wanted to be able to give them restaurant recommendations, so she asked me about places Mister and I like to go...which soon had me fixated on going out to dinner. Horizons is closed on Sundays, so we went to La Fourno - I sound like a bunny rabbit, but I swear, they have some of the best salads there.

On Friday night, probably around midnight, Mister came into the kitchen (I swear, I spend the majority of the time I'm home in there. If I'm not prepping, I'm cooking, and if I'm not cooking, I'm cleaning up) and opened the food-containing cabinets and kind of wobbled back and forth, looking from side to side.

Me: Do you need something?
Mister: I want cookies.
Me: We don't have any. I'm sorry. Do you want me to make you some?
Mister: No...it's late.

So I made him cookies today.
I made Sparkled Ginger Cookies from Vegan With A Vengeance and they were wonderful. I really need to get Isa's cookie book. My next cookie conquest will definitely be the Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles. It's like everything you ever wanted in a cookie all rolled into one batch!
1. I am grateful to have had today off and to have accomplished so much and still had time to relax this weekend.
2. I am grateful for a husband who listens to me babble until I come to a rational conclusion.
3. I am grateful (this time, anyway) that his only guidance in my decision-making process was "I want you to do whatever will make you happy."
4. I am grateful that Isa is still pumping out cookbooks - I will own them all!

a tale of two dinners

I truly intend to write everyday so I can record my gratitude attitude, but yesterday my brain was way too busy thinking about something big and exciting (to be revealed in a future post) and I could barely focus on making dinner, much less writing about it. I did remember to take pretty pictures, though!
That is the Thai Pinapple Fried Rice. I was going to make it the night I made the Chickpea Stew with Fried Polenta but I really had very little faith it would come together quickly (lots of chopping - I knew cooking would go fast) and I was really hungry that night. It was really good and the coconut milk helped everything stick together in a way that made it easy to eat with chopsticks.

I've heard it said that you learn something new everyday. Yesterday, I learned how hot pineapple chunks get when you stirfry them in a wok on high heat for 7-10 minutes. Hot.

Anyway, while I was chopping I was chatting with my parents. This weekend they are celebrating my mother's *mumblemumble* birthday and their 40th wedding anniversary. That is so rare these days and I think it's wonderful that they still have so much fun together - today they went up to NYC to see the Rockettes Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall. Granted, bus trips with a bunch of people from their church kind of screams "old people hobby," but it still sounds fun!

Tonight's dinner was Hearty Stew which seems to vary from Colleen's recipe each time I make it. The recipe calls for tempeh, which I've mentioned before does not get along well with Mister's belly, so the first time I made this, I used Steak Stirfry Strips by LightLife. This time around, I used Ray's Seitan, but that is not the major variation.

This morning I tried to put together the week's menu and grocery list. I didn't get it completely finished because I remembered the uncertainty that presented itself to me at approximately 6 PM on Friday and realized that I really can't plan a menu for this week until that is resolved. Fortunately, I'm scheduled to be off from work on Wednesday, so I can take care of additional shopping then - I did get two recipes and I'm going to pick up some veggie burgers as back-up.

Anyway, the point is that I realized last night that I had underestimated the number of carrots remaining in the bag and needed to pick some up in order to make dinner tonight. So my plan had been to make my list and do my 3 days worth of shopping today so I could get carrots. Then came the 30-degree temperatures with wind, rain, and very wet (but beautiful) snow, and all I wanted to do was drive to lessons, teach, and drive home. I completely forgot to stop at some lovely suburban food store on my way home and pick up just the carrots.

I made an executive decision: Corn is an acceptable substitute for carrots.
And I was absolutely right - I think I actually like the corn in the soup better than the carrots! I love the combination of potatoes and corn. Dr. FAdkins is rolling over in his grave. Look how pretty the corn made it, though! It was sooooo good, between the corn and the seitan. I am also officially in love with this herb combination: thyme, tarragon, and marjoram.
Marjoram smells so much like tea I can almost imagine it tasting sweet all by itself.
Tarragon also has the most divine smell. I'm not a big fan of anise/licorice-scented things, but it's subtle enough to enjoy.
I love how people talk about the "subtle hint of lemon" in thyme. Thyme is one of only two herbs I can smell the moment I take the cap off the jar (mint is the other). That is not subtle in my book.
Yesterday I was grateful for:
1. a few minutes to talk to my parents and tease them about telling the whole world about their anniversary.
2. getting home safely and finding parking relatively easily for a Friday night.
3. the end of a very busy week.
4. a mind-blowing and flattering conversation I had shortly before leaving work.

Today I am grateful for:
1. time to relax this morning before heading out to work.
2. time to play Christmas songs on my piano in that "quiet" time.
3. my special treat - a peppermint americano
4. the first snowfall in Philadelphia! It was so pretty - I love snow. I hate when people say you won't like snow when you get older - it's not true! Any young folks reading this - it's not true - don't believe them!

everyday I write the list

1. I am grateful for how quickly I can make Chickpea Stew with Fried Polenta when I get home from a long, exhausting day at work.

2. I am grateful that I had a Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Clif Bar that I could eat in the 10 minutes between training sessions.

3. I am grateful that my husband stayed awake long enough to take out the garbage tonight.

4. I am grateful for having the opportunity to overhear two people from Marketing at work tell the Director of my department that the training we did yesterday and today was the best training they had ever been to and the best organized.

Bonus: I am extremely grateful that I had the good fortune to overhear my Director's response to each of those two people: "It was really all Natalie - she did everything."

step aside, mr reese's

Somewhere along my brain-dead ride home from work tonight, I managed to extract a few things from the squishy gray matter residing in my skull. Many of those things were about what I would like to eat when I got home - specific things pulled out of the "everything" that I wanted to eat. Today was the kind of day where calories just shouldn't count and probably don't since I ran around like a lunatic who had recently escaped the asylum today (I do work close to where Byberry Asylum used to be) and adrenaline makes the metabolism speed up (and I was running on adrenaline most of the day). I was hungry and thirsty and couldn't stop thinking of everything I wanted to eat and drink - a lot of good ideas came out of that mess, but here is the best one:

a scoop of chunky peanut butter sandwiched between two pieces of 72% cocoa dark chocolate

A week or so ago, I was in Rite Aid picking up a few things. I couldn't tell you what I went there for, but I know that as I left, I saw a sale on the amazing and luxurious Ghirardelli chocolate squares. A bag of these babies -->
ordinarily sells for about $5, but I got it for $1.50. I could not pass that up. I don't know if you can say these are vegan, as they are manufactured in a facility that also processes milk and therefore the chocolate could contain trace amounts of dairy, but they don't put it into this specific product on purpose, so I picked them up. SO GOOD.

Actually, they're great on their own, but with a salty, chunky, peanut butter "filling" they are nothing short of utterly amazing. I thought I would just have one. I was wrong.

Anyway, I had the same dinner tonight as I did last night, so here we go... I made the Orzo Pilaf with Roasted Red Peppers and Peas. It was very good and came together exceedingly quickly, which surprised me. The recipe certainly gave the implication it would be a fast cooking recipe, but I really did not think the orzo would absorb the broth quite as quickly as it did! I tried to deny it, but cooking 12 oz of orzo (2 cups uncooked) in 28 oz of vegetable broth does not quite get the pasta to al dente. A full quart would probably do just fine, as I was able to get the pasta to Mister's specification of "fully cooked" by adding about 4 oz of water. It was a fast and easy recipe, reliant completely on pantry staples (dried orzo, canned broth, jarred roasted red peppers, frozen peas) which will make it a very convenient choice for future busy weeks. Of course, I'm sure my schedule will slow down soon...it's such a shame sarcasm can't be adequately communicated through the written word sometimes.

It sure it pretty, too, isn't it?

Since I missed last night, we'll do a "double feature" today. Here are the 8 things for which I am thankful today:

1. I am grateful for my Director's kind words and efforts to build me up in the presence of her peers.
2. I am grateful for my supervisor's confidence in my abilities and his willingness to share that with me when I feel nervous.
3. I am grateful that I did not have to participate in the new hire training today on top of the company-wide trainings I helped facilitate.
4. I am grateful for the sale on Ghirardelli squares I took advantage of when I didn't need chocolate, knowing there would come a moment when I did "need" chocolate.
5. I am grateful for the coupons I got in the mail from DSW and Macy's to provide the incentive and urgency I need to get myself new shoes.
6. I am grateful for Sarah McLachlan's willingness to share her angelic voice and fiery disposition for the last two decades. (I've been listening to Wintersong the past two days - amazing holiday album).
7. I am grateful for the quiet moments I had when I got home from an insanely busy, no-lunch-break, nine-hour-long day.
8. I am grateful that this Friday, two paychecks will deposit into our bank account.