Domestipithecus

I have hardly been online as I have a deadline of this Saturday to finish the Alphabet Blanket. So. Not. Happening. My sinus/tooth-achy/sore throat thing came back. *sigh*

I did go to the dentist to make sure it wasn’t a toothache. I hate dentists. I love my dentist. He is the only one that actually took the time to figure out ho much Novocaine it REALLY took to numb me. I was always afraid of going because it always hurt. Apparently, I need lots of the numbing stuff for it to kick in.

The good news is, I don’t have any issues with my upper right teeth. The bad news is, one of the old silver fillings on my lower right side needs to go. It’s contracting and it needs to be replaced before decay gets underneath… or something. He said to plan on being there for a hour for my next appointment. An HOUR. *whimper*

Of course, the pain had all cleared up the day I went, and it’s back today. I couldn’t even knit. The pain was too distracting.

So now I have to get a store bought present for the baby shower. peh

The good news is that she’s not due until February. I’ll continue to work on it and not pick up any other knitting until it’s done, but I have a reprieve from marathon knitting sessions and stupid mistakes due to knitting too long and not paying attention as well as I could.

Next week I plan on making some paneer for a yet to be determined dish and some roti to go along with it. Should be fun! Stay tuned!

Yesterday I got some knitting done on the Alphabet Blanket (still no pictures) and I attempted the parsnip mash. I say attempted because it didn’t come out to my liking. They don’t have an exact recipe in the Cafe Paradiso Seasons cookbook I have just a “things to do with roasted roots” page. It’s almost to where I would think it perfect, but it needs a bit more work. I will try again after I finish the blanket.

I also roasted the first of too many pumpkins for my baking tomorrow. I am making my Vegan pumpkin cake with vegan cream cheese frosting. I decided to hold off on the pumpkin wontons until the weekend. I can send some in to work with CN. They are already jealous of him with me cooking these things for him all the time.

Yesterday I sent him into work with a loaf, homemade bread, veganaise and cranberry sauce sandwich. Basically the day after turkey sandwich that everyone loves, minus the stuffing and vegan.

Now I must head off into the kitchen and cut me open some pumpkins and scrape their innards out. The knit group meet tonight and since I missed last week due to illness I don’t want to miss another.

Monday, as you may have read, was super productive. Though I didn’t get any of the Alphabet Blanket knit, I did get much done in the way of home and hearth. This turned out to be a very good thing.

Tuesday morning I woke up ill. I had been waking a lot in the night and my throat was really rough and hurty. Yes, hurty.

I was out of commission until Thursday. I was up and about, but didn’t get anything done.

Finally, Friday I was able to be together enough to work on the blanket. Still no pictures, but I made it through the first charted letters.

Friday evening was an evening spent with old friends and co-workers at the diviest (divey-est?) bar in the old work neighborhood - “Roger’s Exciting Tattle Tale Room.” We just call it the Tattle Tale. It was pretty much the place to go for those early dot.com days. We were celebrating the company we had all worked for finally going public. Some of us are still working there, some of us left seven years ago. I left this past August.

We had all originally been promised we would be rich in a year (8 years later I’ll be lucky if I can put a down payment on a new car with the proceeds). Aside from us all having waited for soooooooo long, it was a very celebratory mood. I drank a little more than I should have, but CN took good care of me.

I knit some on the blanket today, so that’s progressing. I am going to sign off and make my list for WholeFoods so we can pick up the essentials as well as the Thanksgiving items for baking/cooking. I am going to make my vegan pumpkin cake with vegan cream cheese frosting. I am also going to give a pumpkin wonton recipe I found a try. I’m also going to do a trial run on the parsnip mash I have been dreaming about since I had it in Ireland and if that works out to my liking, offer to bring some of that as well.

Off I go!

The rattie cage arrived and I put it together.

I only managed to hurt one finger and get a tiny scrape on my forehead. The boys like having all that room. It took a little bit for them to get used to it, but they really seem to like it.
Denver and Henson taking a nap and Henson exploring:

Today I did a lot of laundry. Crazy amounts. Tons even. There is one more load drying right now and I started when it was still AM o’clock I think.

Aside from the metric crapload of laundry, I also did a little baking. CN’s mother has this recipe for fake meat. It can be used as chicken, turkey or beef depending on how it is flavored and if you add any other textures. For example, for meatballs, adding italian breadcrumbs, lipton’s beefy onion soup mix (yes it’s vegan! scroll to “Staples”) and some Yves ground “turkey” or ground round will give it a meatball texture and flavor.

Today I made what we call “loaf.” Chicken/turkey flavored loaf that can be sliced up and used as sandwich meat substitute. I would love to give out the recipe, but since it isn’t mine I don’t want to assume it’s ok to post on the internet. I can tell you what’s in it and show you pics. If you figure it out for yourself…. hehe

Ingredients:
tofu
great northern beans
chicken flavoring (the stuff pictured is from an asian market but Wholefoods Market also has a chicken flavoring that is vegan in it’s bulk section)
wheat gluten flour/powder (Wholefoods bulk section - though you can get pre-packaged wheat gluten just about anywhere)
Oven 375

Here are the pictures:

Beans and tofu mixed:

Adding some of the chicken flavoring:

After adding wheat gluten:

his shows the consistancy it should be. The mixture should resist being pulled apart and bounce back slaightly when shaped:

I like to shape it into a rough loaf before putting it into the pan because it doesn’t like to be shaped much ad when you try and push it into a loaf pan it just doesn’t want to do what you want it to.

Once in the pan I cover with aluminum foil to keep it from drying out.

1 hour covered and about 15 additional min uncovered makes a tasty treat:

This is sliced and next to the bread machine wheat agave bread I made (well I put the ingredients in the machine and IT made it…

I’m going to go make CN a loaf sandwich for tomorrow. The key to making loaf sandwiches is to slice the loaf thin and put many layers…

This can also be formed into “nuggets” and fried to make, well, nuggets and with the addition of Red Rooster hot sauce, CN’s mom’s famous “Not Wings.”

Yesterday I received the Cafe Paradiso cookbook I had ordered shortly after arriving back in the states. Creative Nickname, his sister, brother and I went there while in Cork. It was fantastic. The parsnip mash was so yummy I needed to reproduce it exactly.

All the recipes in this book are amazing sounding. They do have a couple of the dishes that we had there in the book and so much more. I can’t wait to make the Pumpkin gnocchi with spinach in a roasted garlic cream. How good does that sound?

The rat’s cage should arrive today. I am looking forward to putting the boys in their new home. I am sure they will love all the space.

I am thinking of making some pasta today. I only started making it by hand after we got the KitchenAid mixer and pasta attachment. We had no idea how good fresh pasta tasted. Now we can’t go back. We like to toss it with some olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes and parsley. I think I have some old pictures…

Making the pasta:

The olive oil cooking the diced garlic and the chopped parsley (that and the red pepper flakes go in right before removing from the heat):

Tofurkey kielbasa. This stuff is amazing tasting and it’s vegan!

The finished product (tossed the pasta in the olive oil mixture):

I make egg pasta, though I have made it with Ener-G egg replacer for CN’s sister. The pasta was ok, a little more slimy than I am used to, but not bad.

I’m going to go knit some on the Alphabet Blanket. Maybe next post I’ll have enough done for a picture.

I cast on last night for the Debbie Bliss Alphabet Blanket from The Baby Knits Book. Clever Nickname’s cousin and his wife are pregnant with their first. She’s due February, but I hope to have this done by the time the shower rolls around. Only, I have no idea when the shower is. I was told that I would get info soon. I hope it’s not in Nov. There is no way I will finish this by then.

Of course, if I were knitting now instead of typing up this post, I would be getting more done. Eh, logic schmogic.

On a somewhat more “getting things done” note; I ordered the rat cage. Yep, that’s it.

Tonight is the first meeting of the Rose City Knitters group on Ravelry. I am looking forward to meeting some new people, especially from the same area as me. We’re meeting at a local coffee house, which is perfect. Cappuccino and knitting. The only thing better would be a good beer and knitting. Though with too many caps, you just get shaky. Too many beers and you spend the next day frogging everything you did.

When my fiance (still no luck with a cute nickname) and I were in Ireland, the one vegetarian dish we could count on at most any place was a vegetable soup of some sort. I think the veggies in it depended on what was extra in the kitchen and in season, but they all had it.

We enjoyed it so much that when I saw a little “Best of Irish: Soups” book(let), I got it so I could make them at home.

Since I am sure that the recipe/book is copyrighted I won’t write it here, but I can tell you that there were parsnips, garlic, potatoes, onions veggie stock (this is what made it so orange looking) and dry white wine. It made the house smell amazing.

Here’s the roasted bits and all other stuff simmering on the stovetop:

After processing the whole thing (I used a blender):

Servings for two with a side of homemade sourdough:

Mmmmmm dipping… you can see the thickness of the soup here:

And last, but not least, clever nickname having his first taste:

It was pretty good, but needed something (there were no herbs or spices) that I just couldn’t put my finger on. I think cilantro would have been an excellent choice, however, I despise it. There is no way I would put that dread herb in my mouth voluntarily. I’ll most likely make a small batch and experiment sometime.

I think the next soup I make will be a leek and potato soup made on the same day as some fresh bread to use as a spoon.

I am waiting for the Cafe Paradiso cookbook to arrive. I ordered it online just a few days ago. It’s from a very good vegetarian restaurant in Cork, Ireland. Cute nickname, his sister, his brother and I went there for an early dinner one evening. Everything we had there was delicious and I can’t wait to get the cookbook to have their exact parsnip mash recipe.

Plans for the coming week:
Finish Ribby Cardi
Start paint stripping in living room
Order rat cage