leapster

yay yay for leap day.

i kind of thought i should do something really rad to celebrate but i am still pretty wiped out so the most wild thing would probably be to stay up past 10 p.m.

i read something funny this morning that back in the day women could only propose to men on leap day. here is a charming visual from 100 years ago.

i can't really think of anyone i would propose marriage to right now, so if i want to keep with tradition i am going to have to wait four more years to ask him. of course, i'm not really much for tradition.

we'll see what this wondrous year brings.

something old, something new

 

radness. i made the crispy tofu sticks from table for two and they turned out awesome. the only thing i would do differently is to press the tofu longer and maybe use tofu steaks (i'm thinking the cajun ones)for more flavor. i didn't dip them in anything though, so that probably helps too. my niece ate three of them with ketchup and loved them so much she didn't touch her macaroni, which kind of bummed me out. don't worry, her mom and i ate all but 1/2 cup of the stuff.

since i still had veg stock from the soup the other day and we have too many mushrooms for two pizzas, i am making mushroom barley chowder, also from tft. i didn't find the quick cooking barley so i had to do it o.g. style which is 45 minute barley. at first i typed broccoli, oops.

this week is kicking my butt. i am so glad it is almost over but i need to dig deep and find some energy since i am going to see the magnetic fields on sunday night. i know i am older now but i will not be one of those people who just stands there. i will at least have the decency move to the back when that time comes. for now i will still be spazzing out up front and accidentally hitting people with my bag while i do so.

new stew-dent

 

this probably wasn't the best recipe to launch the new blender with, but you have to start somewhere. it's chickpea mash stew from the everyday vegan. i was really excited for all of the chopping action now that i have a knife that doesn't suck. i was a little bummed about having to wait for the soup to cool before i could puree it, but patience is a lifelong lesson for me. since i had to wait a bit, i went to the grocery store for a few things i missed the other day. i want to make these breaded tofu sticks for my niece so she can have something fun for her lunch and so can i!

since there was no picture i'm not completely sure how close i got to the expected result. i didn't want to overpuree the soup but at the same time i knew that the cooking time was not long enough for the chickpeas and carrots to get sufficiently soup-friendly. at first i felt like i had a huge pot of salsa, but after awhile it looked okay. then we tasted it and realized it was like calabasitas but with carrots and celery added in and chickpeas instead of corn, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

since no one was home, i was at my slowest and most relaxing pace. this took a lot longer than it should have but i was enjoying myself and didn't care. i only had a spoonful because by the time it was done i didn't even want to eat it anymore. it was nothing to do with the soup, which was great. it was more my own fault for making it such a time suck.

my blender has this "easy clean" feature where you can pour warm water and a few drops of soap and at the press of a button it pretty much cleans itself. you probably could always do that and just press any of the eight or so odd buttons but having one that say "easy clean" is quite rad.

price choppers

i tried to do research and i also tried to wait, but last night i gave in and bought a combo blender/food processor at the macy's one day sale. it was supposed to be $80 and came out to $56 and some change including tax. it's an oster 6878 with a 40 oz. glass jar for blending and a 3 cup container for processing. i'm sure it's good enough for my entry level "skills".

i was looking for a $20-30 immersion blender but walked out with this instead, go figure. i can use this beast for the stew i want to make tomorrow and many other recipes i have had on hold, but my little heart is still set on getting an immersion blender as well. i shouldn't be greedy with the gadgets, but since i still share a kitchen, i would rather keep the big guns out of sight and leave the little guy out for sharing.

i got the cutest dorkiest mini chopping boards at the market the other day. one is shaped like a bell pepper and the other like an apple. those will come in handy when i don't want to lug around the 11" x 14" board i got the other day that doesn't fit in any of our cabinets, which seemed like a negative until i realized that since it could not be stored in the kitchen, it could not "accidentally" be used to cut meat.

p.s. by being vegan, you cut your risk of heart disease by 90%, how rad is that?!

Dark Horse

I think I am giving the good cooks and bomb bakers at work a run for their money. It's awesome. In the beginning it was easy things like a fruit salad and spinach dip, both on-the-package recipes. They loved both but I didn't really do anything except chop and mix. Now I am doing the real work, cupcakes, cookies and other baked entrees from scratch, so I can accept the compliments readily since I feel I have truly earned them.

I even won over an ominvore today. I am bringing her a square of lasagna and the recipe tomorrow. I typed it out and added my own notes so it is funny, at least to me. I know I tend to overnote, but I overtalk, so it isn't much of a stretch.

Since I am cuckoo for cookbooks I might be picking up another one tomorrow. I am going to have to go through all of them and make a "best of" for quick reference. I am going to see which ones are in the library network that can be routed to my nearest branch too. Make the system work for you.

lasagn-yeah

 

total success! i don't think i have made this dish since before my niece was born. i am fairly certain it was a maternity meal due to all of the folate from spinach and enriched pasta and much tofu protein.

since it has been so long, i forgot how much work went into it. this ended up to be quite the undertaking since i was enjoying my new knife (santoku baby!) and chopping board way too much. prep work for the sauce easily exceeded its stove top simmering time. at least that gave the spinach plenty of time to drain.

anyhow, the extra effort paid off. i got three separate rounds of pats on the back from my sister. the second best compliment was when i asked her if she wanted to take some to her veg co-worker since we usually share when we overcook or overorder. she couldn't have said "no" any faster. the best compliment was that my niece wandered into the kitchen after she already had dinner and dessert to have a bite from her mom's plate. she insisted on her own portion straight away. she hasn't been as excited about my latest endeavors as i have been, so it totally made my day that she loved it.

bake it til you make it

 

i tried to make the black bean burgers from veganomicon today. they didn't turn out as well as i had hoped so far as density and shape, but the taste was still okay. i will probably crumble them into nachos or burritos. i can't remember ever making a burger of any sort, so that's my consolation for now. next time will be better.

i did make another pan cookie and another dozen carrot cake cupcakes. i am pleased to say, neither of those operations were a bust and i used all but a tablespoon of the frosting. so one recipe frosting is for about 2 dozen cupcakes, heavy on the icing. you probably could get three dozen going lighter.

tomorrow i am going to make spinach lasagne for dinner. i haven't made it in years, so it will be nice to have back in rotation. we are also having a taco tuesday and grilled tofutti sammiches and soup this week. thursday and friday are usually free for alls.

i totally have to go to bed soon but i am too hyped up. i do this every sunday.

in cupcakes we trust

i came home, ate a cupcake, and jumped in bed for a nap. monday and tuesday i went to bed early and was really rested. tuesday and wednesday i was all hyped up on some craziness and went to bed super late. today i was totally wrecked when it finally caught up with me. i guess i have a one late night/week maximum.

we saw waitress last night. it was adorable. i want to make pies now but you have to crawl before you walk.

did i mention how awesome the pre-nap cupcake was? my lord. i never get that excited about anything i make because i'm using a recipe so it's not really "mine". today i was like "damn girl, that was good". so, damn girls (isa and terry)---it was good.

v-c day!

 

victory on the cupcake front, huzzah! i made the carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing from vegan cupcakes take over the world and they came out awesome. i had to leave out the walnuts since my sister and niece are allergic. nuts or no, they're delicious.

i haven't used a mixer in ages since i never really mastered it and i kind of like the extra arm work, but i had to bust it out today for the icing, which turned out lovely. it was more than i needed and i do not go light on icing, ever.maybe i will whip up another batch of cupcakes, but not until sunday so i can send them away, otherwise they'll be stuck with me for years to come.

these were supposed to be for my mom and sister to share, but my mom didn't seem very interested about them, so my sister and i already ate half the dozen. who can say no to fresh cruelty free cupcakes? not me!

back to the books

my library books are due tomorrow but i returned them a day early to be safe. i didn't finish reading any of them, but i will check them out another time for sure. since i had to surrender those, i picked up some new ones:

autobiography of a fat bride - laurie notaro

girls sleuth: nancy drew and the woman who created her - melanie rehak

feel this book - ben stiller and janeane garofalo

before i even touch any of these, i need to finish chelsea handler's my horizontal life: a collection of one night stands .

we are celebrating valentine's day half tonight and half friday night since my niece is with her dad tomorrow night. we are having dinner and presents at home tonight and will probably go out for dinner on friday, one or both nights will feature a cheesy romantic comedy.

tomorrow i will probably make carrot cake cupcakes i would have made earlier in the week, if this week wasn't totally having its way with me.

scene report

 

keeping it in my pants until the record comes out is going to be harder than ever.

vacation all i ever wanted

since i am going on vacation tomorrow, it just had to follow that today would be a complete mess. i stayed about two hours over and i am so drained. this happens almost every time i am due to go out of town and i always think i will be too tired to enjoy my vacation. you can never be too tired to rock and roll though, at least not yet. all of the frustration will be transformed into positive energy when i spazz out at the night marchers show tomorrow. swami take me away.

drop

 

these are whole wheat biscuits from table for two, the cinnamon-raisin variation. i read about them last night and thought it would be a really quick easy bake for grab and go snacks. plus i am on a whole wheat pastry flour recipe kick. i could not find my rumford and had to use the other baking powder. i looked three times and got a bit irritated. i know i will find it later when it is the last thing i am looking for.

these turned out decent, but i know where i messed up, next time will be better. vwav says not to apologize for your cooking so i am signing off.

can't sleep list

recipes
primaries
possible wga resolution
tornadoes
petitioning
kenya
vacation day
nightmarching (which totally reminded me to check invisible children)
to valentine or not to valentine
40 days of no potatoes
food processors
tax return

mac's back

 

i think this is the third mac and cheese in two weeks, but no one is complaining. first was from nava atlas' book, then road's end, and this last one is from christina pirello. i think i enjoyed it the most of the three. my favorite recipe is the one that is hiding in my room somewhere but this is really close to what i remember and only seems to lack breadcrumbs.

this picture is after we ate half the pan. i scrambled it around so it wouldn't look half gone, which made it look completely messy, but who cares, it's all going the same place right?

chickpea chickadee

 

this is my first non-cupcake recipe from the ppk gals. it is the chickpea broccoli casserole from vegan with a vengeance. any feelings of said vengeance could easily have been exorcised whilst mashing chickpeas. in fact, i think a few may have gone m.i.a. in the process.

isa warned it would be a bit bland and it was, but not too bad. it reminded me of a scalloped corn dish i made at thanksgiving so i think next time i would add some garlic and nutritional yeast and that would just about do it. other than that it was a solid side and quite filling.

i should have taken a picture when it was fresh out of the oven but this will have to do.

the old man was snoring

i like rain, i know we need it, it's good stuff. but i also like to go outside and since i don't have a rainsuit and don't believe in umbrellas, i'm kind of left hanging.

i bought one of those old lady plastic rain bonnets one time but it didn't look as cool as i thought it would. if anything i would probably bust out a flower covered swimming cap.

or maybe i just need to shut up and get a rainsuit.

absentee

i have two three day weekends in a row, awesome.

i took today off from work because i was going kind of nuts and just needed a break. i know other companies have personal time or sick time or whatever else, we only have vacation or non paid time off. i had enough vacation so i said eff it and had my boss sign off on it. at first i almost felt bad like, oh but you are off next friday too, isn't that too many absences?

but here is the thing, i have never had an unplanned day off at this job. i always have my ducks in a row before i hit "out of office" on my email, so even if i took off every friday this month, it wouldn't matter. also, that's kind of what they want some of us to do anyway. i was kind of pissed when i read the memo again, that we're on workshare for another month. i hope it doesn't go into another month because that will totally suck, but i wouldn't be surprised in the least. every other time this has happened, i have been in the clear to work a full week, hopefully that continues, but that doesn't make me not feel bad for my 32 hour compatriots.

i'm really glad i didn't quit my job yet because guess who did... my brother...again.