Luscious Fibers, Food and Life

dinner and some sookie, sookie

On Sunday Sarah joined us for dinner and some vampire love. Sarah and I have been faithfully watching TrueBlood this season and it's becoming a Sunday night get together. For dinner I made pumpkin curry lentils, cauliflower with spicy vinaigrette (both from The Vegan Table) and kale with onions.  It was a tasty meal, but I wanted the curry to have a bit more flavor so I might play around with that recipe some.

After dinner Sarah and I settled in for TrueBlood and Grant quickly left the scene.  We took a break half way through to dish out the results from my first recipe from The Vegan Scoop (and the first time using our new ice cream machine!) I made chocolate peanut butter and we decided to throw in some pretzels at the end. OMG...so good. So much better than store bough vegan ice cream (I still love Turtle Mountain). We will definitely be making many more of the fantastic flavors from the vegan scoop and probably mixing them up a bit with our own add ins.

saturday sweets and some catch up

Apparently I only post on weekends. Lately I've been too busy and really not much other than work is going on in my life. However, this morning I did get up early and went to Target with my mother. Then we headed to Starbucks for a little coffee and people watching.

When I got home I decided I wanted to make something and I remembered reading a recipe for cinnamon rolls earlier in the week. They caught my eye because they used whole wheat flour and rolled oats. I love anything with oatmeal. The recipe is from My Sweet Vegan by Hannah over at Bittersweet. I was in the mood for something sweet but liked that it was a heartier dough. I did change the filling because I wanted nuts and cinnamon (I actually used the cinnamon roll filling from The Joy of Vegan Baking) and I added a little icing. They turned out pretty good. They are not a light, standard yeast roll, but we liked them.

I wanted to post a couple pictures from last Sunday when we visited with friends. It was a nice visit and the walk was lovely, even in the slush. I love this picture of Eli...what a sweetie.

Some catch up...

obamacakes, originally uploaded by suz4t.

Did I ever show these? They were dessert on election night and they were so appropriate. I'm way behind on posting because it's been a crazy couple of weeks.

Election night was great. We had lots off friends and family over and enjoyed every minute of watching the results. You can see lots of fun pictures here.

After Obama won Grant, Sarah and I headed to U and 14th and partied in the streets of DC with many happy and hopeful people. The energy was incredible and the mood quite celebratory. What a night!

Here are some favorite pics of the night...

a butterfly and pumpkin two ways

Yesterday I had a nice time hanging out with friends and their little ones. I was lucky enough to see Marcella and Eli in their Halloween costumes a few days early. They were really cute and quite happy with themselves as you can see from the photo.

In the morning I tried a new recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking....Pumpkin Spice Bread. It was a hit. I made the version with a little oil and less applesauce and it was quite luscious. I highly recommend this recipe and it's perfect for fall.

a night with friends and eddie

Early this morning I briefly shared my night out, but here is the rest of the story. Last night Sarah, Angelique and I went out for a bite and then to an evening of incredible music, thoughtful stories and high-pitched screaming (mostly from the 3 of us).   We had the amazing privilege of seeing Eddie Vedder perform solo and it was absolutely fantastic.  

I've been a fan of Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam since 1991 when I was a flannel wearing, grunge inspired, espresso drinking young women running around Seattle looking for where Pearl Jam might have their next "impromptu secret show." Ahhh, life was good.

Fast forward 17 years (omg!) ...

Our evening started out at Teasim where I had some yummy tempeh curry. Then we headed to the back entrance of the Warner Theater, hoping we'd be there when Eddie arrived.  We hung out for about 45 minutes but figured we we're not going to see him so we headed inside and took our seats.

Liam Finn opened and played for about 45 minutes.  We hadn't heard him before and it was a nice treat. He uses electronics to layer his music on the fly and it makes for a fascinating show to both hear and see.

Eddie came on around 8:30ish and true to form, he played until after 11pm.  He played most of the music from Into the Wild as well as some other great favorites. Here are some highlights...

• Trouble, Cat Stevens - this song is one of my all time favorites
• If You Want to Sing Out Sing Out - Cat Steven - Everyone sang out.
• Black Bird, Beatles - This song was really touching. He told a story before singing about how he learned why the song was written and how that really touched him. He talked a bit about civil rights and he asked us to think about the song's origins and the possibility of having our first African American president while he sang.
• Porch, Pearl Jam - Fantastic. What's not to like about a song that starts by asking " What the fuck is this world running to?"
• Throw Your Arms Around Me, Hunters & Collectors - just dreamy.
• All Along the Watch Tower, Jimi Hendrix - Always great and there was a surprise guest on this one, Brendan Canty, drummer from the late 80s DC punk rock band Fugazi - sweet!
• Hard Sun, Eddie Vedder - played with Liam Finn. Good times...

It was a truly amazing show and only solidified why I've always admired Eddie Vedder as both a performer and humanitarian.

After the show we decided to try and see Eddie as he left the theater. We waited, reminisced, laughed (ok giggled) and had a good time. Angelique, being an incredibly good mother, left around midnight. Sarah and I continued to hang-out with high hopes.  Some time later (only a couple hours later) Eddie emerged. He did stop to say hi and actually talked with us (about 15 or 20 people) for about 20 minutes or so. He was very gracious, thoughtful and appreciative. We talk a bit of politics, a bit about the show and a bit about life...just as I would have imagined.  He shook everyone's hand and thanked us personally. It's a moment to savor and remember for a long time to come...

Thank you Angelique and Sarah for sharing this night with me and for supporting (ok, encouraging) my 12 year old girl behaviors.

See more pics here.

a new ride and some columbian culture

sweet ride, originally uploaded by suz4t.

This morning I took a trip to REI and picked up my new bike. I had done the research and knew I wanted a comfortable cruiser that allowed me to sit upright. It seemed that the Electra Townie 21 was the best choice for me. I called around and not many shops carried the women's model, but I finally found it. I took a drive to REI, took her out for a test ride and thought she was perfect! The color is platinum and it has a quick release basket and bell..does it get any better?

This afternoon I headed over to James for a little get together to hear more about his trip to Columbia with Jean, Dr. David and David. As part of this Columbian celebration, James made two traditional desserts and everyone said they were quite yummy.



One of them was named "Three Milks" and the other was a deluce de leche cake. Both were quite beautiful. We watched a great slide show that Jean and James put together. They took many wonderful pictures and I could tell they had an incredible trip.  It was also nice to hear more about David and David's families.

dinner with friends and a FO!

dinner with kate and lawson, originally uploaded by suz4t.

Last night Grant and I had Kate and Lawson over for dinner. It had been a while since we visited with them so it was great to catch up. We had a good dinner (pot pie and super food, kale) and for dessert we had blueberry grunts.

Have you heard of the dessert "blueberry grunts"?  I hadn't, but Vegan Yum Yum posted the recipe and I always love what she's whipping up so I tried it out. It was very good and easy to make. Perfect for in-season berries.

In knitting news. A few weeks ago I finished Katja and this past weekend I got a picture of Marcella wearing it. She's so cute!

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.

look at that face!

I got a visit from little Eli yesterday. He has grown so much and is smiling all the time. It's amazing how much he has changed.

Yesterday was the first gathering of my crafty friends on an afternoon. We've been getting together when time allows during the week, but with busy work and baby schedules, we decided to try an afternoon meeting and Kate named it "Crafternoon." I think it was quite successful...very cozy and relaxed.

Amanda, Sarah and Eli came over a little before crafternoon started and we visited for a while, which was nice because we hadn't seen them in a couple weeks. Then we were joined by Amanda and Marcella and then Kate and her co-worker Amanda (lots of Amandas.)  We spent the afternoon catching up, knitting, sewing and scrap-booking. It was really nice time and I think we'll probably stick afternoons, especially because we love the name so much.

You can see more crafternoon pics here.

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.

 

<