Domestipithecus

So, apparently Earth Day is coming. Do you know how I know this? The glut of ‘eco-friendly’ wedding posts in an old wedding community I used to frequent during planning, but now go back every now and then to look at pretty dresses.

Reminders of how to have a ‘green’ wedding go from corn based disposable plates and cups to recycled paper invites. People seem to have some sort of ‘I’m soooo much greener than you’ thing going on. It pissed me off last year and it still does.

CORN? Yeah, lets give Monsanto more money by using even more of our valuable land to grow yet more of their GMO corn that is not meant for food. Not to mention the boatload of chemicals used in making corn products. Sustainable? Sure. Eco friendly? Not particularly.

People don’t seem to understand that ’sustainable’ and ‘eco-friendly’ (or whatever you wat to call it) do not mean the same thing. Leather is a sustainable product. Leather is NOT an eco friendly product.

I want to yell at these people, “If you are so concerned about the environment, don’t serve meat at your wedding!” but we all know how that would go over.

The best thing you can do for the environment is to stop consuming animal products. It is not knitting with bamboo yarn (again, sustainable but not eco-friendly), it is not using corn plates and it is most certainly not buying into this whole “green” label.

I agree that every little thing counts. Yes, use recycled paper for your invites! Use live, potted plants for your centerpieces (a friend of mine is doing succulents!). Do as much or as little as you want to make your wedding what you want, but please, don’t brag about how ‘green’ you are and then talk about your menu of steak, chicken or fish. Hell, serve a whole cow and pig on a spit (not that I condone this), but don’t tell me how green your wedding is because you had DIY seat covers.

I like to educate about a vegan lifestyle. If people ask, I’ll talk to them about it. I don’t like to be pushy about it. I certainly dont like being proselytized to, so I don’t do it to others. But if someone asks me how they can be more ‘green’ I am going to tell them to cut down their consumption of animal products. Cutting them out all together is better, of course, but baby steps are good.

I’m not the most environmentally conscious person out there. Far from it. I went vegetarian because I love animals. I had rats for pets and loved them like crazy for crying out loud, how could I justify eating a pig or cow? When I met Mr. Pithecus, he was vegetarian as well, though for environmental reasons. Our decision to go vegan was based on both.

I am not saying we are better than those that eat meat, but don’t try and get into a ‘green’ pissing contest with us. I am not saying don’t bother with the recycled stuff if you are still going to eat meat. Just don’t be all righteous about your recycled toilet paper while chowing down on a plate o’ ribs.

I know I have a lot of meat eater friends who read this blog. I hope I don’t offend them with this rant. Most of you don’t buy into the whole ‘look how green I am’ thing anyway. You all have brains.

Now I have to go make some non organic coffee in my department store bought french press and drink it from my commercially bought mug on my non-eco friendly couch while watching my giant, ungreen TV.

Woo! I got a new camera. This one to be exact. I had some fun… (click through to see full details)

Color select mode. I had fun with this, but Mr. Pithecus actually took this pic.

This is one of my favorite. It’s the croissants from lunch at the Pithecus-in-laws.

Some easter candies

Vegan “Cadbury” creme eggs (my sister-in-law calls ‘em Cadbury Veggs) made by me. I used Bryanna’s recipe (search for ‘creme’ to find it)

Pretty flower

The in-laws’ puppy dog (no bigger click through on this one)

And last but not least, a little collage made on Picnik of my favorite veggie, brussel sprouts!

I love my new camera!!!

I also just ordered this (click through to go to site):

Also, I will be working on re-vamping this site as soon as I figure out some stuff.  I’m totally not as web savvy as I used to be.

Last night I used Vegan Dad’s recipe for vegan “corned beef.” I’m not big into the steaming of seitan meats because I have texture issues with food, but I followed his instructions exactly.What resulted was a bit more rubbery than baking yet not as hurl inducing as boiled seitan. I just can’t eat seitan that has been boiled. The rubbery, blubbery blob that forms is enough to make me gag just thinking about it.

Anyway, instead of making the reuben sandwich on the linked page, I made corned beef hash. I cut it up unevenly, just some random chopping, to try and get the consistency of the real thing. Semi-recipe below:

1 recipe of Vegan Dad’s corned beef
2 russet potatoes
1 tbsp horseradish (though I think I would have liked more, all I had was 1 tbsp)
1 white onion, chopped
2 tbsp earth balance
seasoned salt, pepper to taste

1. chop potatoes into 1/2″ cubes and put into 10″ skillet. Cover with water and bring to a boil, then simmer for about 5 min. Less if you made the cubes smaller.

2. Drain potatoes and set aside. Wipe out skillet and put earth balance and onion in. Let cook at medium heat for 5-7 minutes.

3. While the onions are cooking, chop the corned beef into uneven, somewhat small pieces. You could also coarsely grate it and I think it would be fine. I actually only used about 3/4 of the recipe and left the rest to make a sandwich for Mr. Pithecus later.

4. When the onions are ready, add horseradish and distribute evenly.

5. Add potatoes and corned beef to skillet and mix. Then flatten in the pan and let cook until that yummy crustiness forms on the bottom. Then mix around and repeat for more yummy crustiness.

I served this with some mustard greens we got in our produce box this week.  I used this recipe. I did not like it. It wasn’t the recipe, Mr. Pithecus loved it. I just don’t really like mustard greens it seems. Way too bitter for me. I don’t like a lot of bitter. I will pick the baby arugula out of any salad (and really it looks like Sigmund the Sea Monster anyway) because it’s just too bitter.

No pictures because my camera is poopy and well, hash doesn’t look very good at all. It tasted awesome. Apparently, it was even better today, straight from the fridge.

I need to blog about a new vegan restaurant in Pasadena call My Vegan next. It’s yummy and happy and vegan vegan vegan!! AND THEY DELIVER!!!!

Mr. Pithecus and I are getting on a flight headed for Seattle, WA this evening. We are going to see Lucy, an australopithecus afarensis.

There was great controversy when Ethiopia decided to let her tour the states. I am not sure I thought it was a good idea either. Her fossil is so fragile and such a treasure that it seemed risky. So risky, in fact, that The Smithsonian actually refused to host her because they were against her traveling.

Even though the outcry from the scientific community was quite loud, there were still places that were willing to take her in. She arrived in Houston, TX in August of 2007 where The Houston Museum of Natural Science let her hang out for a little over a year.

Then she traveled to Seattle, WA where she resides at The Pacific Science Center until March 8. She was then supposed to move on and enjoy a stint in Chicago, IL at The Field Museum.

Unfortunately, Seattle is losing money. They are way under the estimated attendance and are having to lay people off. Also, due to budgetary constraints, Chicago backed out.

So the next stop for Lucy may be back to her home in Ethiopia.

To me, seeing Lucy in person is a once in a lifetime chance. Something that my old physical anthropology teacher and I talked dreamily about. When I read about the possibility of Lucy coming to the states in 2006 or so, I told her about it and we talked of a road trip to visit her because we both knew it was a chance that may never again present itself.

So we are off to crazy cold Seattle and me without a winter jacket. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures at the vegan restaurants we visit while up there. I am looking forward to trying out Pan-Africa Cafe and a couple other places I have found through Happy Cow and  seattlevegan.com.

…in Southern California.

Last night looked like this here:

It hailed and it stuck around for a while on the ground. It’s supposed to get down to 40 degrees tonight and is currently just below 60 degrees. Yeah, yeah, I know I’m a big baby, but that’s freakin COLD for this area.

In other news, the coconut milk ice creams were yummy. Mr. Pithecus liked the coconut flavor one the best and I liked the chocolate peanut butter swirl. You can taste the coconut in the background, but it was fine because I think it went well.

Mr. Pithecus and I went to a Thai place with his dad on Tuesday. They are not a veg place, but they are very accommodating (just ask for no fish sauce or eggs in anything) . We had the yellow curry (the BEST yellow curry I have ever had), drunken noodles, fried rice and oh so yummy sticky rice with mango. Well, I dislike mango, but the coconut cream and sticky rice is SOOOO good.
Curry and fried rice (sorry we had already started in when I remembered to take pictures):

That’s the drunken noodles in the background - here they are in their own shot:

Yum-MAY!

Also finished knitting a little bunny for a little boy’s 1st birthday. Benny’s Bunny:

Fuzzy bunny butt:

I’ll be back later this week to post things from my sister-in-law’s engagement party. I forgot to bring my camera with me, but I took pictures of all the stuff I made.

So we have two cousins of Boo’s that are going to have children this year. A third child for one and a second child for the other. I don’t know who is due first, but neither should give birth until I am done with the baby things.

For baby #2 I will be making Trellis from Knitty. I am making it out of the same yarn (had it left over) as I made the Alphabet Blanket for their #1 baby. I thought that would be a cute touch. I am also going to design a hat to go with it. Probably something basic with the twists from Trellis. It is going along pretty quickly, though when my confidence in how simple it really is goes up, so do my mistakes. I am almost done with the right/buttonhole side, but I have to rip back a bit because I screwed up somewhere and can’t figure it out.

Progress so far:
Back:

Left Front:

Detail:

I intend on making the same things for the baby #3 from the other cousin, but in a different color.

And going in backwards order from the entry title, I baked some cookies. Happy Vegan Cookies from VegWeb. Boo brought these into work today. We had a few last night as well. They are so good. I love the touch of cinnamon in the batter. I will be making another batch soon and freezing the dough in individual cookie balls. I like to be able to pull a couple of balls out of the freezer and pop them in the oven for a quick cookie or two. Also keeps Boo and I from eating too many at once.

I was using up some chocolate chips that aren’t vegan with the vegan recipe. Boo and I, starting in the new year, are slowly getting rid of everything not vegan (though we had already mostly been doing that). In dribs and drabs we are using up/gifting/giving away non-vegan stuff (like the chips). We don’t want to waste anything by just tossing it.

This made for some densely chipped cookies. More chip than cookie, but hey, nummy. And as of now, Boo has informed me that they are all gone, so I don’t think anyone complained.

Cookies:

So for dinner last night, I made my mother-in-law’s turkey/chicken “meat.” I made a double batch and formed half of it into a log for baking and slicing for sandwiches, and the other half into nuggets. Fried the nuggets up in oil (yeah, not too healthy but mmmMMM good) and made a ranch dip for them.

Frying up:

I had also spent the day simmering a Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup. I had a boatload of tomatoes from the box scheme and needed to use them before I had to throw them out.

We sprinkled in some Tabasco sauce to give it a kick. Also note that Boo and I love, love, love garlic, hence the two whole heads.

Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup
1 large onion, chopped
2 small carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 heads garlic, roasted (I roasted these ahead of time)
8-10 smallish tomatoes, cut in quarters, skins on.
1-2 tsp salt
(all herb additions are approx as I was throwing some in, tasting, and altering from there)
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp “italian seasoning mix” I used Ralph’s brand
A sprinkle or three of red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
oil for frying

1. In the bottom of a soup pan, add oil and onions. Cook until translucent (though if you want a slightly different flavor you can go until carmelized)
2. Add celery, carrots and salt. Cook for a few minutes.
3. Add parsley, bay leaves and seasoning. Mix around and let cook a few minutes more.
4. Add tomatoes and fill with water to cover. You can use veggie broth here. I used water so it wouldn’t be too salty and the onion/carrot/celery mixture would sort of make it’ own veggie “broth.”
5. On high heat, wait for it to boil then turn the heat down and simmer for um… well I let it simmer for about an hour.
6. Remove bay leaves, throw in roasted garlic and use an immersion blender (or you can do it in a real blender too, it’s just messier) to puree the stuff.

You can serve from here but since I hadn’t made the nuggets yet and I like my soup a little thicker, I let it simmer for quite a while. Lowest heat. It thickened a bit and was a near perfect consistency. This made enough for Boo and I to both have a bowl with dinner, sent a bowl into work and froze 3 Earth Balance containers full.

Mmmm soup:

Boo went out to drop a bunch of stuff to Goodwill, so on his way home I asked him to pick up a baguette for the soup. I like to eat my soups with a bread “spoon.”

This is our dinner spread:

Oh the ranch… easy peasy
Few blobs of Vegenaise, couple shakes of garlic powder, onion powder and dried parsley. Add water to make more liquidy… and there you go.

Whew, that was a long one.

I am so crazy excited. Vegan Essentials just notified me that the Angel Food kits are in and I ordered some! YAY for vegan meringue!!!!!!

My favoritest cookies I used to make were meringue surprise cookies. Meringue with chocolate chips “hidden” inside. Oh good gravy I cannot wait to make these vegan-wise

*dances*

When Boo and I would get back from our long runs while marathon training, I would cook up a tofu scramble to help feed our depleted bodies. It worked quite well except for the getting home from running anywhere from 10 to 18 miles and having to freaking chop veggies and cook.

One day I decided to get tortillas and make the scramble and assemble breakfast burritos the night before so we could just nuke them. They were fine like that.

Then, when I was having my mother, sister and cousin in the house the morning of the wedding (my family stayed here, his family stayed at his parents’ house) I made them up a week ahead of time and froze them.  That worked even better.

Now, I make a double batch when we are running out (about 3 or 4 left) and put them in the freezer so we always have a quick breakfast (or even a lunch or dinner if we feel like it). This is based on the tofu scramble in How it All Vegan.

I take two blocks of extra firm tofu, not silken, and wrap and press before even starting the fauxsage mix.

For the inside, I make a fauxsage (scroll down to see). I used to chop it up into small bits, but since we got a KitchenAid grinding attachment as a wedding gift, I am able to grind the thing up. This works so much better as it distributes wonderfully throughout the mixture. Much better than the chopped pieces.

This time I made an apple-sage sausage. Basically I used the pumpkin-sage recipe linked above, but used apple sauce instead of pumpkin puree and I upped the sage a little.

Once the sausage was done baking, I put it on a rack to cool and started preparing the veggies. This will vary depending on what we get in our box scheme and what I have already prepared, but frozen.

This time
1 large yellow onion - chopped small but no need for full on dicing
1 large green pepper - this was frozen this time so was already chopped
3 medium red potatoes - diced
4-5 cloves of garlic - crushed (though Boo and I love garlic so I usually throw in even more)
3 small vine tomatoes - chopped
Approx 1Tbsp curry

After I finish the veggies, I grind up the sausage - about two-thirds of it. It should be cool enough by this time. I save the other third for other things like country sausage gravy or pizza topping.

I lightly spray a large (I use this one) pan and put the potatoes in. Once they seem near done, I take them out and set aside.

Then the onions and peppers go in. Cook them for a little bit, you don’t want them all the way done or they will get crazy mushy. Once they seem cooked but still firm, add the crushed garlic. Stir that around for a couple minutes.

Add ground sausage. Cook for a couple minutes.

Add potatoes back in. Cook for a couple minutes.

Take the tofu and crumble it in. Cook for a couple minutes and then sprinkle in curry. I usually just add this from the container so the measurement is a guesstimate. I sprinkle some on, mix and if it looks like it needs more, add some.

Once the curry has been thoroughly mixed with all the ingredients, add in the tomatoes (juice and all). Mix it up and then let it cook a bit. I put the cover on to keep in the moisture, but it’s not necessary.

After that is all done I set the mixture aside and cook the tortillas. I just buy flour ones at the store. I cook them briefly over my gas flame on the stove, just enough to soften and brown in spots. Then I roll. Boo taught me how to do this well - he worked at Del Taco when he was younger.
Place a good amount on the tortilla (ignore the bit of filling I dropped on the counter)

Fold it in half and with a little pressure slide the top towards you, compacting the filling

Fold the sides in slightly diagonally so that the open part is a little slimmer than the bulk of the burrito

Et voila! A nice looking, tightly packed burrito.

I stack ‘em while I make ‘em

Then spread them out to cool before putting into freezer bags to await being eaten!

To cook after freezing
Wrap loosely in a paper towel on a microwave safe plate. Nuke for 1 1/2 minutes. Flip. Nuke for 1 1/2 minutes.

MMMM good eatin’.

Because Thanksvegan isn’t Thanksvegan without it. I lurve Tofurkey. My first and second vegetarian Thanksgivings I disliked it. Now I can’t think of the day without it. Weird eh?

The day was nice, but my sister-in-law had to go to the ER because her stupid contact abraded her ENTIRE cornea. The poor thing was in pain the whole day. They told her it should feel better today, but she has to go to en eye doctor person to get it looked at. She’ll be fine, but it just sucks.

Boo told her that at least it’s happening now and not the day before the wedding. I don’t think that was very comforting, but he was trying.

Anyway, without further ado, I present the Tofurkey Day goodies.

I baked Tofurkey. One for the meal and one for Boo and I to slice up for sandwiches for the weekend. I roasted them with one red potato, one sweet potato, about 8 cloves of garlic and one yellow onion. I tossed the veggies with a spray or three of oil, sage and thyme.

I made the basting recipe on the box, so no fancy stuff there.

Then there was the Sweet Potato “Buttermilk” biscuits. They were so good. Flaky and tasty. I used this recipe on Chow, but made “Buttermilk” instead of milk (soy, of course). One Tbsp. of vinegar and then fill to one cup. The recipe comments said something about them not rising much, so I figured the extra acidity would be perfect (as the commenter suggested). I got crazy flaky delicious biscuits. I did grate frozen Earth Balance buttery sticks and then refridgerated the dough for a couple hours before rolling, cutting and baking.

Before baking

After baking

Look how high and flaky!

I also made Easy as Pumpkin Pie ice cream pie. I got a chocolate cookie crust (yes I was lazy and bought pre-made) and drizzled some chocolate on top. Heaven. So amazingly good I almost didn’t want to bring it because we wanted it all to ourselves.

This was the spread at my mother-in-law’s with a good shot of her homemade “turkey” (includes the Tofurkey and biscuits)

Clockwise from the top left: rolls, Tofurkey, green bean casserole, mom’s “turkey”, baked sweet potatoes, biscuits, soysage dressing and in the middle, mashed potatoes. Cranberry stuff from the can and agave-cinnamon earth balance are on the periphery.

The gravy

A typical plate of food

And of course, there was wine. Frey wine

For dessert, my sister-in-law made an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. I only had the apple. It was awesome - and I don’t particularly like baked apple stuff. I heard from everyone else the pumpkin pie was great as well.

The pies and mom’s sampler plate The white on the ice cream pie is defrost stuff

Gratuitous puppy shot

That’s Maggie, Boo’s parent’s dog.

I hope everyone had a good day full of friends and family, and of course, a boatload of food.

Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to kiss me once ore even twice, but it has been a long, long time. In internet time it’s been almost a whole generation!

I have been cooking away and taking pictures when I remember. I think the wedding stuff settled down (oh the thank you cards I had to write, my hand be cramped up!) just in time for the holiday buzz. Not to mention we have THREE weddings next year (possibly 4) of good friends and relatives.

A good friend and ex co-worker got engaged in Vegas this year. She and her guy have been together for years and have been friends for even longer. I used to ask her all the time if she was engaged yet. She finally was able to beat me to the question by telling me she was This one is in June.

I think I mentioned that Boo’s sister got engaged in August. If not, Boo’s sister got engaged in August. We had all traveled to Hawaii for his brother’s wedding and she and her guy stayed an extra week. He proposed on the top of Diamond Head on their one year anniversary. Soooo romaaantic… Boo is officiating his sister’s nuptials and I will be a bridesmaid! Wait… I’m married now, does that mean I will be a bridesmatron? Ugh. This one is in October.

Our friend that officiated our wedding proposed to my other awesome friend after 5 years together. They are so perfect together and Boo and I are crazy happy for them. They are the awesomest. Is that a word? This may happen in Sept. They don’t have a date as they just got engaged this past weekend.

Boo’s cousin got engaged to his long-time love the day before our wedding. They kept it so quiet I didn’t even know until she had already flown back to their home (he stayed here to visit with family a little longer).  This one has no date and this is the “possibly 4″ I mentioned above. They talked about wanting something very small with immediate family only. Though, Boo and his cousin are very close and cousin considers Boo one of his closest friends, so we may end up going. We don’t know if this one will happen next year or in 2010.

Whew.

Married life is pretty much the same as before, with more stuff. Boo and I lived together for about a year before we were married so not a lot changed. Except we do the sappy “Good morning my wife” “Good morning my husband” thing.

So what have I been up to in the kitchen, you ask? Wait, you didn’t ask? Eh, I’m going to tell you anyway.

Broccoli and Noochy Mac.
Fresh broccoli from our box scheme

Amazing Mac and Cheez sauce from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook which is our favorite nutritional yeast (nooch) sauce

Horrible picture of the meal (it tastes awesome)

I mostly just steam the veggies we get, so this is how the broccoli was prepared. Veggies taste sooo good just steamed.

To give the noochy mac an even homier feel, I like to cook some chopped up Tofurkey Kielbasa and add it to the mix. Reminds me of a grown up version of the hot dogs and mac and cheese I had when little.

A while back I asked a friend of mine what to do with too many sweet potatoes. Our box scheme has them in there quite often and sometimes there are just too many. He had a lot of great suggestions, but I ended up doing a delicious sweet potato soup. I pretty much cut up sweet potatoes, onions, one yukon potato and garlic and then tossed them with olive oil, dried sage and thyme.

Then I roasted them until I felt they were done (sorry no real recipe here), pureed and served.

This freezes great. All pureed veggie soups do. Roasted root veggie soups are a favorite in this house so now that winter is coming there will be more of them. I love making a huge batch and using up the saved Earth Balance containers to freeze it for lazy, cold nights. A little bread for dipping and you have an amazingly comforting, filling meal.

As a side note, I have to go to Whole foods today. So. Not. Happy. Of course, it was my scatterbrainedness (bzuh?) that made this have to happen. I need Earth Balance Buttery Sticks for my sweet potato biscuits I am bringing to the Thanksvegan feast. I don’t want to use the tubs because it is softer and the biscuits may spread to much.

Yes, I said Thanksvegan. I am lucky enough to be going to Boo’s parents’ home for the holiday. An all vegan household. Mom is making her own “turkey” and sides and I will be bringing the biscuits and a Tofurkey, just because Thanksvegan isn’t Thanksvegan without it.

Oh and I made Bittersweet’s pumpkin pie “ice cream” last night that I may bring a bit of. But Boo and I might want to keep it all for ourselves. It’s crazy good.

I promise to be a bit more posty going forward. I will definitely be bringing my camera to the Thanksvegan (I love that word) feast so you all can share in the yum.