Luscious Fibers, Food and Life

Weekend Round-up

Hey Everyone...

I know it's been a while, but I haven't really had much to say and haven't felt much like writing. But Grant is finishing up dinner and I did take a few pictures this weekend, so I thought I'd share.

Friday Night: A New Vegan Cookie

Friday night I watched Becoming Jane and made a new cookie. I really like Becoming Jane, but I always like period pieces full of affluence, distinction and honor.  It was a good flick. After the movie I was in the mood for a little sweet treat with tea, so I tried a new cookie from the Joy of Vegan Baking. The Chocolate Coconut Macaroon was an incredibly easy cookie and it's a one pan no-bake so what's not to love about that?  It tasted more like the no-bake cookies I grew up with rather than a traditional macaroon, but I liked those better anyway.

Saturday: Pancakes on the Roof, A Walk in the Wetlands, Fireworks and Chili (again on the roof)

Saturday morning I tried a new pancake recipe, Easy Weekend Pancakes, from Vegan Yum Yum. It's a thinner pancake, which I prefer and uses spelt flour (or any flour.) We've found a new favorite and it really is easy, just as the name states. (So easy I made them the next day too.)  Grant and I took our pancakes to the roof, it's officially open, and enjoyed our breakfast with views of the monument, capital and cathedral.  As you can see from the pics, it wasn't all that warm and it was a bit blustery, but we enjoyed ourselves.

After breakfast and some discussion about our day, we decided to go to a park a coworker had told me about. Huntley Meadows Park is the largest fresh water wetlands in the area and is home to many birds, frogs, insects and mammals. It's a beautiful park and the trails are nicely groomed. It was an easy and pleasant walk.  For the first part of the walk we were in the forest and then all of a sudden it open up into this huge wetlands area. The boardwalk path brought us out over the water and we were able to look for frogs, turtles and water birds.  It was a great find and we plan on going back on an early sunny morning to see what will be waiting to greet us.

 

 

 

From there we ran some errands and got back home just in time to heat up some chili, crack open a Corona and head up to the roof again. This time to watch the Cherry Blossom Festival Fireworks. We have a pretty good view and you can beat the commute back home.

Sunday: More Pancakes, Laundry and Not Much Really

Sunday wasn't all that eventful, but I did love the pancakes so much, I made them again using all purpose flour. And guess what? I still love them.  Oh and I also tried making Cheezy Quackers from Have Cake, Will Travel. They are suppose to be like the little fish crackers, but without all the junk and dairy. I didn't have any cute little cookie cutters so I used the cap of my rice wine vinegar.  Grant and I both liked them. A good salty snack.

That's it. Perhaps I'll have more to say now that I've opened the door a bit. Otherwise, I'll at least provide weekend highlights.

sushi anyone?

Last night I made sushi, specifically makizushi, for the first time and it went pretty well.  I didn't have too much problem with assembly, and even tried a roll with rice on the outside (as my first roll), as you can see those turned out in more of an eye shape. I made two kinds of rolls, a spicy tempeh roll (from Veganomicon) and an elephant roll...both were very tasty.  The rice was a bit mushy, so I'll have to work on that, but we look forward to trying again soon. 

Last night we stayed up late watching the returns. Some of my family are caucusing in Maine today and my niece actually saw Obama yesterday...very exciting. I'm hoping she'll blog about that today.  Obama gave a good speech last night. It was still his message of hope and change, but with some substance behind it.  It was something I've been saying he needed to do and obviously my thoughts rank high in his decisions.

Today Grant and I are off to Eli's dedication and brunch. More later...

dinner with friends

Last night Greg and Kyla came over for dinner and to watch/discuss the Florida returns.  We also celebrated their recent engagement - yeah!  We had veggie pot pie and spinach salad for dinner. It was a cozy, relaxed evening and we all had a really nice time.

Tonight I'm getting my haircut and then I'm going to try and watch the rest of Lost Season 3 (I think I have 6 more shows!) on ABC online for FREE, so that I'm all caught up for the season 4 premiere tomorrow night.  I'm not sure I can pull this off.

veganomicon - incredible!

Last night's dinner was fantastic!  I cooked 3 recipes from my new cookbook, Veganomicon (I LOVE THIS COOKBOOK) and they were all very tasty.  We loved the "easy greens" (I used kale) with garlic, ginger, rice wine and soy sauce...great new flavors.  The chickpea quinoa pilaf was very hearty and delicious. Oh and quinoa, which besides being fun to say, is also considered a "complete food" because it contains all essential amino acids...super!  Lastly, the chili cornmeal-crusted tofu. These were very good...a hint of lime with the chili heat...nice.  Both Grant and I commented that the texture and flavoring remind us of fish sticks, so maybe these would be good with some fries, salad and beer.  We opened a new vegan wine that we hadn't tried before, Frey red wine. We must have liked it as the bottle is empty this morning.

For dessert I tried a new recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking - the chocolate, chocolate chip peppermint cookies.  These were also very good. They were rich and chocolaty - yummy.

made it through the storm

Yesterday we spent the day inside because of the snow storm going on outside.  It snowed all day and into the evening. I think we got about 8 inches, which was much less than the 3ft originally predicted.  Since we knew that we'd pretty much be inside all day, we had made plans for inside entertainment.

Dad made us brunch at exactly 11:15. We had ployes and vegan sausage. Ployes are a traditional French Acadian pancake and my dad makes them perfectly...nice and thin.  They are great with syrup and fruit - yum!

Mum and I decorated the tree on and off most of the day.  She and dad have so many ornaments. Many bring back wonderful memories from growing up and she has a number that I'm not as familiar with, but that are quite beautiful. I, of course, want to look at each one which makes trimming the tree a longer process.  I think the tree looks great!

In the afternoon I cut up some "tud" (fudge for those of you that don't know the family pronunciation, thanks to my niece Sarah) that I made on Saturday.  I made the recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking and it's the first time I've made fudge. I think it's pretty good and my dad does too as he can't stop eating it.

For dinner I made some curried couscous with cranberries and garlic roasted brussel sprouts, along with some leftover white bean and garlic stew.  All very tasty!!

It was a terrific snowy Sunday. Something I haven't had in a long, long time. Here are a couple more snowy pics...

ah sunday

Sunday was just like Sundays are supposed to be. Some quiet time, a yummy breakfast, church and spending time with friends. I got up early, sat by the newly decorated tree and worked on my current knitting project...it was nice. At some point I decided to make waffles.

I tried a new recipe, banana oatmeal (sans raisins), from Vegan with a Vengeance, and they were quite tasty. Grant and I hadn't tried making waffles since becoming vegan and these, like just about everything else we've tried, were delicious and will be made again.

Later in the day I went to a baby shower for my friend Amanda. It was nice visiting with everyone and we played some fun games that made us laugh a lot. Amanda received many beautiful gifts and books. It was a book themed shower and we reminisced when old favorites were opened and aaaahhhhed when for the new stories. I got her two of my favorite picture books, The Polar Express and One Morning in Maine. Now she just needs to have this baby!!!

a nice saturday

Wüsthof ®  - Oh My!

Today I used one of our new knives and let me say...OMG! So I've been using the same knives that I purchased in Seattle, a $115 set, over 13 years ago and lets just say, I'm surprised I haven't chopped off a finger by now. Well, my knives were probably too dull to chop off a finger, but I was definitely needing to put a lot of pressure on my veggies in order to cut them...not the safest prep I'm certain. Well no more! This knife cut through my veggies like butter. It was amazing and beautiful. I didn't know what I was missing.

So this morning I was cooking up one of my favorite recipes, Sarah Kramer's Veggie Pot Pie, for our  friends Amanda and Sarah who have a new little one, Elijah. I cut out a panda for the crust, just for him...ok, really for Sarah. I thought it was pretty cute, but you know I love pandas.

Grant and I brought them some eats and visited for a while today. It was nice to see them all and to finally hold Eli for an extended period of time.  He even smiled and laughed for me. He was sleeping, but I like to think he was just having such a good time hanging out with me. Or maybe he was laughing at me. I'm not sure, but he was very cute.  Grant held him too...first time holding a baby...EVER!  He did a really good job and Eli was completely quite for a good minute or so :)

Oh and last night we got our Christmas tree. A little early this year, but since we're both traveling at different times this month, we thought it would be nice to have a tree for some of the time that we're here together.  After much frustration and event a late call to my dad, we did finally get the tree to stand up.  It should be fine as long as you don't blow on it.  It's funny, even though we live in a much bigger place this year, we still got a smaller tree...I guess we're just used to it.  We're decorating tonight, more pics tomorrow.

 

<

Soup and Salad (and me on TV)

 

Last night for dinner Grant and I had one of our favorite soups, Quick Ginger Carrot, from Sarah Kramer's book, La Dolce Vegan!  I also made my famous (which I got off all recipes.com a few years ago) holiday salad (with a few too many toasted almonds) and we had some garlic toasts leftover from our party.  Everything was quite yummy and it was nice to sit at the table for the first time in over a month (previously the table was covered in wedding planning stuff) and enjoy a meal together.

Oh and see the card in the background? That is an adoption certificate for the turkey we adopted this weekend. Her name is Cicada (completely appropriate for us as we have an odd affinity to cicadas.)  There are lots of turkeys to take care of if you'd like to adopt one too.

Lastly, Grant and I were on the news this weekend while at the Celebration for the Turkeys. Ok, so we were not interviewed or anything and we actually didn't realize we were in the clip until someone else mentioned it. Take a look and you'll see us at the end. News story for Celebration for the Turkeys.

Vegan Pal and Yarn Balls with Goodies

 

Sign ups for Vegan Pal 2 are open. You don't have to be vegan to participate and this swap is a bit different than other swaps I've been in.  For this swap you'll be giving and receiving a magic yarn ball. I have to admit, I'd never heard of this before, but apparently many people have.  I believe the idea is that you wind up a ball of yarn and during your winding, you hide little gifts and trinkets in the yarn so that when it's unraveled, your swap partner finds surprises.  It all sounds very tricky to me.  Check out all the different magic yarn balls on flickr.

So if you're interested in being creative with yarn spun from cotton, rayon, bamboo, linen, hemp, banana, corn and various synthetics then check out Vegan Pal 2!

Now on to last night's dinner...

...YUMMY!  We cooked up all the great veggies we picked up at the farmer's market last weekend.  We had roasted beets and leeks (both tasted good, Kirstin) sauteed chard with garlic, corn on the cob and fava beans (via Maine) with garlic and mint.  Everything was really tasty and definitely worth cooking even in this oppressive heat.

I am knitting, really!

I know lately my blog looks more like a vegan cooking blog than a knitting blog, but I am knitting (and cooking too!)  Here is the yarn I'm working with right now for a secret project.  I can't post pictures of the project, because it's a gift.  Hopefully I will finish it soon and post pictures as well.  Until then...

 

Here is some more vegan baking. :)  Some of us got together last night for pizza and dessert.  I thought I'd try some new cookie recipes, as well as the always perfect, Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies from Dreena Burton.

I tried two recipes from Sinfully Vegan and both are just ok for me.  I'll have to do some searching online and see if others had more success. The first recipe, Little Oaties, actually taste quite good (I bet even better with a few chocolate chips...next time). Oatmeal cookies are one of my favorites and these are chewy, not hard, which I like.  The only thing I don't like about these is that they're very crumbly, but aside from being a little messy to serve, they're yummy.

The second recipe I tried was Mom's Warm Peanut Butter Cookies. I was a little suspect because there was only 5 ingredients, but I thought I'd give it a try.  Half of the batch I made traditional and the other half I made a thumbprint and filled it with chocolate chips right out of the oven.  These cookies turned out to be a little dry and really thick...or maybe peanut-buttery, which wouldn't seem like a bad thing, but it took me forever to eat one cookie because it was like I was eating peanut butter right from the jar. You know you can't do that fast, and I love it out of the jar just like the next person, but no so much in my cookie.

So not a complete success, but a pretty close.  Ok, now I'm off to make Jelly-filled donut cupcakes. I couldn't pass these up when I saw them online.