Domestipithecus

This was the Indian food feast Boo and I enjoyed while watching the end of So You Think You Can Dance (my prediction was right!)

The naan was the most nummiest

Especially with the Dark Shiner

Then, today while browsing through FoodGawker I saw Banana Fritters that had been linked from Salt and Tumeric. I needed to make them NOW. So I did. Though, I did “dessert” them up by adding some powdered sugar and chocolate sauce.

And look!! I am learning how to use the macro setting… sort of

This weekend Boo and I are off to Hawaii for a family wedding (no not ours). We’re staying a fancy resort so maybe we will be able to get fancy veg resort food. Though, if memory serves, vegetarian/vegan food is not easy to come by on Oahu. Let’s hope the hoighty and the toighty of the resort has better choices than I remember from Waikiki.

Friday, the 4th, we took Vinny to the vet.

Vinny relaxing on his favorite scratching thingy:

He had seemed to be eating less and would squeak at me in the morning until I gave him wet food. This is not a normal occurrence. Wet food is a sometimes treat in this house, so this was odd. Especially since after he ate (Jack got some too), he was fine.

It was difficult, but I tried to look at his teeth (he is not very cooperative) and it seemed there was a demarkation. So I made an appt and Boo and I took him in Friday.

Poor baby did ok, but he does indeed have a tooth or so that needs to come out. They did blood work that day and called Sunday with the results. Everything was fine except a slightly elevated kidney enzyme. I freaked. I lost a cat a long time ago to kidney failure and my brain shorted and “Slightly elevated enzyme” meant “Vinny is going to die like Peabody did.”

The Dr. expained it was most likely just slight dehydration and that they usually test it against urinalysis, but they didn’t have a urine sample. So when he goes in on Friday (the 11th), before they do the teeth, they will do kidney enzymes and urinalysis. Then if all is well, they will take out the poor kitty toof.

The rest of the day was spent at Boo’s parents’ house celebrating his sister’s birthday. It was on the 1st but her boyfriend planned something special for her so we celebrated on the 4th. Yummy Smart Dogs and Not-wings along with some cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.

Saturday Boo and I continued our marathon training in the morning and then went to fellow Raveler subliminalrabbit’s yard sale and scored some pretty yarn and a bookshelfy thing.

We saw WALL•E Sunday after doing some shopping. It was wonderful. We both enjoyed it so much.

Then we had to go to the running store to get me some new running shorts. The pair I was wearing had been with me through two marathons and decided to just stop holding up at some point on Saturday. I couldn’t find the same ones in the store but I found a suitable substitute. I did find the new version of the ones I love (I bought them in 2006) so I will be getting a couple pairs of these soon. They are a little longer and the key pocket has moved - both are good things for me.

Today will be spent doing some cooking I think. We got a new produce box today and I always love diving into that.

Not like I post every day usually, but this has been a pretty long absence.

We’re settling into the new place, slowly though. We don’t have a lot of storage furniture like shelving and such so there aren’t a lot of places to put things. The last place had so many built-in bookshelves and things that we didn’t need any. Now we have no built-ins. We have a fireplace so there’s the mantle. Currently it is holding all of the knick-knacks and such that I have so far unpacked. It is full.

We do like this new place, though it is more difficult to keep cool than the last one (no central air here). The landlord just told us how to turn on the attic fan, so that shoudl help some. She also told us we could put a window unit in the bedroom. We will probably need to do that seeing as it’s only June and it’s pretty hot. It’s only going to get worse from here.

In other news…

Boo and I are still training for the Pasadena marathon. The released the course and I have to say I am disappointed. It’s rather… crappy I think. Too many “run down this street for a mile and then turn around and come back” sections. I hate that during training never mind the actual marathon. Eh, it’s not THAT big of a deal. I’m just being whiny.

We have a catering tasting thingy-do this Saturday. We’ll also do a tentative set up for the reception site so we can put in an order for the tables, chairs and such.

We have a cake tasting July 19 with this place. Sounds soooo nummy. Hello pumpkin chocolate chip with maple cream cheez frosting! All her cakes are vegan and organic so yay!

We plan on asking a good friend of ours, D, to be our officiant. He’s a really great guy who we like a lot and he’s very articulate and witty. Boo and I are very excited to ask him as is K, his girlfriend, and our other good friend. We ran it by her first so as to not put him in an awkward position if it was something he wouldn’t really just not want to deal with, and she thinks he would be honored. That made Boo and I feel honored that she thinks he would be honored so there’s all sorts of squishy good feelings going around. So we’re getting together the weekend of July 13th so we can ask in person. We can’t wait!

I think that’s all the updating for now. I don’t feel like cooking tonight though so we will be ordering from Egg Roll Express. It’s OMG delicious chinese food with amazingly yummy vegetarian “meat” dishes like sweet and sour pork and kung pao chicken. We obviously haven’t had any of their meat dishes, but their fried rice is the best I have ever had.

I don’t think I’ll have to do much work convincing Boo.

Since we borrowed Veganomicon from Josh’s mom I have been obsessed. I love it. I want to make everything in it, except for that nasty portabella mushroom steak thing. *hurl* I despise mushrooms. They are disgusting and slimy and they taste like moldy dirt. You want to torture me? Make me eat mushrooms with cilantro. I’ll give away any secret I know to avoid putting that bile-rise inducing “food” in my mouth.

I have gotten better with the mushrooms. I can actually eat food that they have come in contact with. I didn’t used to be able to. I remember going to chinese buffet years ago, back when I ate meat, with my co-workers for lunch. I would go to get something from the buffet and I would come back to a mushroom on top of my peking dumpling. I would then have to give it to someone else and go get another for myself. I ended up getting a lot of dumplings for other people that way.

Cilantro I will never, ever be able to eat. That leaves out a LOT of food when you live in SoCal. They put it in EVERYTHING. When I first moved out here, I couldn’t figure out why all the food I had tasted like dirt. Finally, a friend figured out that it was cilantro. I didn’t even know what cilantro was. They don’t use a whole lot of it back in New Hampshire. Here, they use it like salt. *shudder*

Well. That was a rant.

What I had originally started this post for was to put up some pictures of things made from the book mentioned above, my own stuff and other new cookbooks.

Below is my own home fried potatoes with a tofu scramble from How It All Vegan! (minus the mushrooms). Isn’t it cool how the tofu looks like scrambled eggs?

This is my own roasted garlic mashed potatoes (roast 2 heads garlic and mash with 4 largish russet potatoes and some earth balance), corn and vegetarian bangers (sausage) from a mix I bought while in Ireland. I also sliced up and sautéed some elephant garlic to put on top of the potatoes.

This is my easy peasy (though I used corn) vegan shepard’s pie. Easy peasy because I layered the potatoes that were left over from above on top of a can of corn which was on top of onions and Boca Ground Burger that I had fried up. I used regular ketchup on top with onion powder, garlic powder and Italian Seasoning mixed in. This was incredibly yummy and tasted just like I remember from when I was a kid (except my mother, knowing that I hated peas, would use peas. Stupid peas.)

I love how the camera caught the steam rising from both plates.

And last, but certainly not least, Boo had flowers delivered yesterday. They are gorgeous.

I love me my Boo.

We got our first organic produce delivery on Monday. It was chock full of goodies. We ordered from Paradise O on the recommendation of a fellow Rose City Knitter, subliminalrabbit.

Just look at the veggie goodness! I have only used the red chard but I see in our future steamed artichokes, a yummmmy salad, possibly Aloo Gobi and Butter Paneer Masala and and and and and…whew. I’m tiring myself out just thinking about it.

Over Thanksgiving I made my pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting (all vegan). It came out better this year than last and I think it’s because I added more pumpkin puree so it was crazy moist. I always make cupcakes with any new cake experimentation first so I can taste it before subjecting anyone to a possible fail. CN has no problem with that as he gets to eat the test cupcakes.

After deciding that the cupcakes were missing something, I remembered that last year I had used Sugar in the Raw and this year I was using white vegan sugar. That made a difference in the taste so I changed the second batch to turbinado sugar (the same as Sugar in the Raw). I also added more pumpkin puree. I honestly have no idea how much pumpkin pie spice I put in, but it was until it tasted right.

The cake was fantastic, if I do say so myself. The frosting needs some help, but I’ll work on it.

Then there were the pumpkin seeds to deal with. A little kosher salt and peanut oil solved that problem.

Tuesday I had a dentist appointment. I had to get an old filling replaced. It’s all fine now. The only place that hurt when the numbness went away was the site of the injection of the Novocaine. I couldn’t open my mouth all the way for a day. So I made salami. Seitan salami to be exact.

I used the recipe in the latest issue of Cutting-Edge Vegan Cuisine newsletter by Bryanna Clark Grogan. It’s ok. Not “OHMYGODITSSALAMI!” but it’s close. It’s a little too moist for me so I put it in a very low oven to dry it out, kind of like with meringue cookies. Now it’s back in the fridge.

I also whipped up a batch of “Even Better than Veganaise” that I got the recipe for over at Epicurvegan. It’s yummy, though the recipe makes a lot. I will need to cut it in half next time. I have a picture, but it really doesn’t photograph well so I won’t be including it.

Now I have to go get ready for date night. I think we’re going to hit Crown City Brewery and add a couple more beers to our scorecard. There isn’t a lot there for us to eat, basically just a veggie burger and some sides/appetizers, but the over 100 different beers is worth a not so tasty dinner.

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.

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

My fiance (I am going to have to come up with a clever nickname for him) and I are both vegetarian. His sister and mother are both vegan. This means that all recipes and the like will be either of the above and will contain no meat. We do use dairy and eggs still, though we use Earth Balance, vegan “butter” and Veganaise, vegan mayo. They taste pretty good.

You will probably notice that my blogroll has links to blogs that cook with meat. I sometimes use them as a reference for non-meat dishes, substituting tofu or some other meat replacement in place of the meat. Sometimes that isn’t possible, but I still like to get inspiration from others. The sauce, method of preparation etc, can all be used for non-meat dishes.

That said, yesterday I made some Agave Wheat bread in the bread machine. Agave is a substitute for honey. A good one at that. I originally got agave nectar so his sister would have something to sweeten her tea and other things when she was over for a visit. The first time I made the bread, the recipe called for 3 tbsp of honey so I thought I would give the agave a try. It was very good. This time around I added 3 1/2 tbsp which made the bread a little more moist and a tiny bit sweet.

I also made “loaf”, as the family calls it. It’s a variation on a recipe that my future mother-in-law found. She simplified it to within and inch of it’s life and now we have turkey. chicken and beef substitute, depending on the flavoring put in. The texture is perfect, unlike some other meat subs, and it tastes great. Sliced, it makes great sandwich fixins.

Of course, I had to round it out with dessert so I made brownies. I didn’t have any solid chocolate, so I needed to use cocoa. I located this recipe. I had to cook it longer than it said and used a microwave for the cocoa mix like some commenters did. They came out ok. Nothing spectacular. It may have been the cocoa (Tollhouse) though so who knows.

So this morning I sent my fiance off to work with a loaf sandwich on agave wheat bread and a brownie for dessert. He was pretty happy.

Today probably won’t have a lot of cooking, just a lot of cleaning and getting into costume for handing out candy. I wish I had decorated, but we just got back from three weeks in Ireland on the 21st, and my car was in the shop, we just didn’t have time to buy/make any and put them up. I’m thinking having one of my ratties on my shoulder while handing out the treats will either creep out the kids or they’ll love it. I’ll report tomorrow.