Le Menu (October 30 - November 5)

 

Monday - Asparagus couscous with chickpeas

Tuesday - Hot and sour soup (from Color Me Vegan) and mini baked wonton cups (veganized)
Wednesday - Black bean and seitan taquitos (adapted from Our Best Bites version)
Thursday - Pulled "pork" sandwiches (using Butler Soy Curls) and loosely following this recipe
Friday - Pizzas using vegan cheese and pepperoni, plus a plethora of veggies
Saturday - Pacific Foods carrot-ginger soup

Crusing for a haunting?

It's been slow, but I do have a bit of new stuff to show.  We haven't seen the contractor for more than a month, so we've been focusing on doing what we can on our own in the dining room.  Hopefully by the end of tomorrow, we'll have all the crown molding up and the new chandelier installed.  We keep joking that the original owners are going to haunt us for painting the oak woodwork in the dining room, but I think if ghosts show up, I'll lead them to the dining room and ask them if the dining room doesn't look 100 times better.  Since they're ghosts, they won't be able to lie.  They'll love it.  They also can't complain too much because we replicated the paneled walls that were here when they lived in it.  It was some dude in the 30s who ripped out the paneling, not us.  We should score a few points for putting it back.  If the 1930s guy weren't already dead, I'd suggest they go haunt him instead because he did lots of screwy things to this house.

Anyway.

In all honestly, we did feel a lot of guilt about our decision to paint, but previous owners had darkened the original stain to almost black (and made it so it didn't match any of the other woodwork in the house), and the north-facing room was like a cave.  I *love* it now!  The blue-grey is so absolutely perfect above the creamy white.  It's a room I want to look at now. 

Our super-tall neighbor-helper makes the room look small, but that's still a 10' ceiling.

Our new table looks tiny in the room, but it's 10' long.  The chandelier is ready to go up!

And here's a shot of our kitchen from the dining room.  The green tape shows where the island is going.

My pantry, my obsession

I've posted before about my borderline-unhealthy preoccupation with my pantry.  My obsession is only deepening with time.  I think it's because it's the only nearly-finished part of my kitchen.  And it's so flippin' cute. 

I dug out some bowls and storage jars that I bought 2 years ago (back when I idealistically thought that kitchen remodels could be completed in months rather than years) and added them to the shelves.  I also removed the plastic tarp from the marble and moved the microwave so the side with the cabinets and counter top could be my full-fledged baking center.  The cabinets below now house my mixing bowls (the ugly, utilitarian sort), measuring cups and spoons, pie plates, muffin tins, etc.  My Kitchen Aid sits on the right side of the counter. 

I ordered some custom vinyl labels for all of my storage jars and spice jars from a seller on Etsy, and I can't wait to get them.  They were fairly inexpensive, and I loved being able to pick exactly what I want the labels to say.  (Not many ready-made label packs include ras el hanout, sumac, berbere, mitmita, and the like!)

The lowdown on the flo

Our floors are finally finished and we were able to move our furniture back in place.  Not that we didn't enjoy cramming into our tiny sunroom with a piano and several extra large pieces of furniture, but you know.  Living on the edge like that can be dangerous.

Now that the floors are done, the wallpaper-stripped, plaster-patched walls look especially bad.  We'll get to them, but with Halloween so close, we're capitalizing on the haunted house look. 

Big Bertha and a mean curry

About a week ago, I stumbled onto the Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP) website, which contains a whole slew of vegan recipes created and compiled by Seventh-Day Adventists.  Almost all of the recipes look really yummy, and the two I've made so far did not disappoint.  Tonight, we had "Big Bertha Burgers" (I think oat-pecan burgers sounds much nicer), along with roasted purple potatoes (a-MAZ-ing!) and sliced pineapple.  I should have taken a picture, but since I had to be three places at once, I didn't take any.  If you really want a picture, there are a few here.  Picture or no, they're worth the effort.  I thought they were the best "veggie burger" I've ever had, and E told me never to buy store-bought ones again.  ;o)

The other recipe we tried and loved was the black bean curry (recipe below the burger recipe).  It's rare that we find a dish that ALL of us like, but everyone loved this one.  (I substituted spinach for the kale and diced sweet potatoes for the carrots.)  I served it with a red lentil dahl, brown basmati rice, and fruit salad.  Normally we would have had naan with this meal, but since the grocery store versions have ghee, I will have to learn to make naan myself.  There's a recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking that I'm planning to try.  For desert we had L2's birthday s'mores cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.   Recipe is reproduced here. 

Big Bertha Burger

• 4 cups water 
• 1⁄2 cup Braggs Aminos (or low low-sodium soy sauce) 
• 1⁄4 cup nutritional yeast flakes 
• 2 Tbsp canola oil 
• 1 Tbsp flaxseed meal 
• 1 Tbsp dried sweet basil 
• 2 garlic cloves, minced 
• 1 large onion, finely chopped 
• 1 tsp ground coriander 
• 1 tsp dried sage 
• 1 cup chopped cashews, walnuts or pecans 
• 4 cups rolled oats

Place a 3-quart pan on burner over medium heat and add the ingredients in the order given above, except for the rolled oats.

Bring the water to a slow boil, quickly stir in the rolled oats and immediately remove from heat. Cover and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 375°. Form oat mixture into three-inch round patties and place on oiled baking sheets.
Bake for 25 minutes on each side. Serve with whole-wheat buns, soy mayonnaise, lettuce and slices of onions, tomato and pickles.

Black Bean and Coconut Curry

• 1 med. onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 inch fresh ginger, grated
• 1 carrot sliced 1⁄3-1⁄2” pieces (I subbed three diced sweet potatoes which made plenty for all of us)
• 1⁄2 c. water
• 1 small zucchini, diced
• 1 head of kale, cored & chopped (I subbed spinach)
• 1 can black beans, rinse & drain
• 1 t. salt
• 2 t. curry powder or
• 1 14-oz. can coconut milk
• 1-2 t. cornstarch (depends on how thick milk is)
• 1⁄3 c. raisins, golden are nice (I omitted.  Gross.)
• 1 T. lemon juice

Steam the first five ingredients in a covered skillet for five minutes.

Add zucchini, kale, black beans, salt and curry powder and simmer for three minutes, adding additional water if necessary.

Whisk cornstarch in a couple of tablespoons of the coconut milk, and then combine with remaining ingredients.  Add raisins and lemon juice to skillet and cook until just thickened.

Serve over brown basmati rice. 

Happy birthday, L2!

L2 had her very first friend party for her 12th birthday.  Because she wanted to punish me, she chose to have her party at the bowling alley.  At night.  With music blasting.  And 10 screaming, giggling, boy-chasing girls as guests.  And because I must have done something horrible in a previous life, Hubby had to go man the concession stand at the high school football game, which left me to "party" alone.  Never has time gone so s-l-o-w-l-y.

The good news is that L2 had a blast.  Her friends showered her with lip gloss and fingernail polish, and they teased her by making her name "Kevinlover" or some such craziness on the bowling score-keeping screen.  She insists Kevin is gross, so I'm not too worried.

My baby girl is 12.  How can it be?  She's been a part of our family since she was 6 years old, but it seems like just yesterday that she bounded her way into our lives.  That stinker.  What would we do without her?

I made two batches of s'mores cupcakes - one for the party and one for the family party on Sunday.  The recipe is from the cookbook Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and can be found here.  

Round 2 of vegan s'mores cupcakes, which L2 herself chose.  I'm pretty sure she picked the hardest recipe in the book. 

Welcome to the community of iPod owners, miss L2. 

Pizza night!

So Friday has been Pizza Night for as long as I can remember, but we've been able to substitute Make-Your-Own-Pizza-Night for Pizza Hut and Little Caesar's.  It's a lot more fun to make your own, and the homemade versions certainly trash on your body a little less.  We used whole wheat crusts, pizza sauce, broccoli, meat-free Yves pepperoni, olives, portabellas, green and red peppers, tomatoes, and Daiya cheddar cheese.