Happy 2008

Happy New Year! Yeah, it’s January 9, but I’m a little behind on everything.

My big announcement for the year is that I’m no-kidding-really vegan now, or at least trying really hard! It’s something I feel I’ve been working up to for a while, I just had to stop pretending that I’m kinda sorta a little ok with a little animal exploitation now and then, because I’m really not. I watched Earthlings on Google video yesterday. It was not an easy thing to watch, but now I am surer than ever that I really need to do this for my own peace of mind as much as for the animals and the well being of the planet. So far so good, I feel awesome about the decision. :)

The Wisconsin primary is coming up in 2/19 so I’ve been doing a little research. I knew I liked Kucinich, but the more I read the more I love him. Check out this abolitionist-online interview. Plus his wife Elizabeth is awesome too, check out her amazing accomplishments.

I should probably update on more stuff, and I have pictures to post, but I’m not in much of a bloggy mood lately. Maybe over the weekend.

Happy Chanukah!

Talk about last minute, it's the last night! Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. Hopefully you're enjoing the weather where you are more than I'm enjoying the seemingly endless snow here. It's pretty to look at out the window, but driving 40 miles through mostly country highway to get to work in this crap sucks. Enough bithcing and moaning. Put on your yalmulka, here comes Chanukah, on to the latkes!

Autumnal latkes from Veganomicon.

Mmmmm... fried in greasy goodness, but at least the veggies are a little more nutritious than plain ol' white potatoes, right?

I really like these, it's a nice change from the traditional potato and onion latkes. Word of warning: I wouldn't add the 1/4 water, the vegetables have more than enough moisture and if your batter is too wet it will fall apart in the frying pan. I would even suggest adding some breadcrumbs (which I did for the last part of the batch) and letting it chill for a while before frying so they stick together better.



This dinner was very loosely based on the stewed tofu in miso gravy recipe in VwaV. As you can see I used red wine, making my tofu purple :) A la the 'nomicon cassoulet I baked some whole wheat biscuits on top. I'm considering baking biscuits on top of every pot of stew from now on, I see no reason not to. I love me some biscuits.

sorry the picture is crap

Butternut squash soup with sparkled ginger cookie (VwaV recipe). If you've never tried putting ginger cookies in squash soup I highly recommend it. It's a great way to get more cookies into your diet :P

pumpkin cheesecake pie

I brought this home for Thanksgiving. It went pretty fast, I will definitely make this again. So yum!

My sister and cousin with one of my aunt's dogs, the Great Dane pup Athena. Athena is about 30 pounds heavier than the last time I saw her, she's about 125 pound now. She's so sweet! She was found wandering in the woods a little over a year ago, she's lucky some deer hunter didn't get her.

Annabelle went to her new home on 12/1. Last Saturday we took Smokey home. He's a Basset Hound/Labrador mix, aka Bassador. He already has a nickname at our house, Giant Head.







Hehe, I heart him! :)

Hope you are all surviving the holidays and have safe travels.

Annabelle

She's kind of a spaz...



but really sweet. :)

Weekenomicon

My copy of Veganomicon arrived last week, so I tried out a couple recipes over the weekend. Hope your weekend was a delicious as mine :)

Chickpea cutlets


Of course I love chickpeas and seitan so this seems like a match made in heaven, but I only liked them OK. I think next time I'll add some more seasoning and bake them instead of pan-frying. I do like that you can whip these up in about half an hour.

With a little chipotle citrus BBQ sauce they made a yummy sammich.



White bean and leek cassoulet with biscuits (sorry 'bout the crappy pic quality)


Soooo good! Maybe my new favorite cold weather comfort food. I had some locally grown organic haricot tarbais from the farmers market that were just waiting for a vegan cassoulet recipe to come along, once I paged to this I knew those beans had found their purpose. I usually go all cheap and use dried herbs, but I highly recommend splurging and going with fresh thyme on this one, at least the first time around. The biscuits are easy to throw together and I love that you get to bake them right on top of the stew. Next time I might try them out with whole wheat pastry flour or spelt.

The dish was well received by all.


VwaV Gigantoid Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies (with the addition of chocolate chips, because PB and chocolate should always live in harmony)


Mona went to her forever home on Saturday with a nice lady and her German Shepherd. Our new foster is coming home with us tonight. She recently gave birth to a littler of 9 and was spayed just yesterday so I imagine she'll be wearing one of those ridiculous lamp-shade collars for a while. Pictures coming soon!

Glorious Food!

I'm patiently awaiting the arrival of my Veganomicon. In the mean time I've sampled a couple of the recipes available on the PPK. Here's the Hot Sauce Glazed Tempeh.



I've also used the marinade with tofu, it's excellent and easy to whip up with stuff I usually have on hand. I also made the Chickpea Noodle Soup (no pix sorry) and it's really perfect for this chilly weather.

Here's a couple test recipes from Melody that I made recently.

Seitan Turkey Breast



Served with mashed potatoes, gravy and steamed asparagus. I don't think I got the texture of the "turkey" quite right here, not a chewy as seitan I've made before. Flavor was still really good, and made for a satisfying meal.

This Black Bean and Quinoa Chili was a wonderful spicy dinner.



Both Woodman's and Trader Joe's were out of Quinoa so I settled for TJ's harvest blend, which is cous cous, orzo, baby garbanzos, and red quinoa. Very delicious.

I love the fall, it makes me want to cook again. :)

Country Life Garden

Last Sunday I went on a little road trip with my friend Teena up to Portage, WI to meet up with some other area veggies at Country Life Garden restaurant. They have an excellent salad bar. I had the Harvest Day Nut Roast



and the Simply Silky Cheese Cake



And this cute little dog greets you and walks you to your car after your meal.



Lovely rural atmosphere and nice folks. Hope we can make this trip again. :)

Mona

Jason and I have volunteered to foster dogs for Shelter From the Storm rescue. This is our first foster dog Mona, she came home with us yesterday.



She likes to sit with her paws crossed like that, very lady like. Mona is about 6 or 7 years old, possibly a shepherd mix. The markings on her face look rottweiler-ish to me. She was picked up as a stray and taken to a shelter in northern Illinois where the rescue org picked her up. Now she'll be with us while she waits to be adopted. She is a little shy and withdrawn, but she's still pretty new here so hopefully we'll see more of her personality as she gets more comfortable. She seems pretty easy going, but does seem to be a bit of a resource guarder around other dogs, thankfully not with people. Today we learned that she likes to rush the door when you come home, I had to chase her down but thankfully we got her safely back without too much trouble.

Hopefully we'll have the chance to help out lots of dogs like this.

Picnic Point

We have precious few days left where being outdoors will be this enjoyable. Picnic Point is a lovely little peninsula near the UW campus that is just perfect for jogging and enjoying the view. Here's a few pix I took last weekend.

Happy Halloween!

We went out for Madison's Halloween festivities last Saturday.

This was my costume.




I could totally take Soleil Moon Fry in a cuteness contest.

Little known fact: Punky had a drinking problem



These are our friends in their costumes. Wicked awesome.



These clever young folk are dressed as beer pong.







That's some scary shit!

Dexter keeps an eye out for ghosts...and trick-or-treaters.



Hope you had a great one!

Life ain't fair

This past Monday my cousin's son suffered a horrible accident and they had to amputate his right arm. I don't know why the universe lets horrible things like this happen, but if you could send good thoughts for his recovery it would be appreciated.

Thanksgiving 2005 - I meet Bennie for the first time

Little Bennie's surgeries have gone well and they plan to bring him out of sedation tomorrow. He's a trooper like his dad, so even though life is going to be a little different for him I'm hopeful that he'll be just fine.

Thanks for lending an ear and sending your healing vibes.