Here’s looking to you kid

How anyone got through the mid-20th century is beyond me.

So, I’ve been knitting up a storm trying to get my act together in hopes of making more stuff. Unfortunately, my cooking might take a bit of a back burner but I’ll try to keep it up. Really, I’m trying to consolidate most of my ‘outside’ time into one day so that I have at least 30hours a week while Nathan is working to work on my knitting. I just can’t seem to focus on my knitting when I have other things to do since I tend to make mistakes or not make much progress when I’m only sitting down for 20min and then having to cook, clean, or run errands.

Anyway, I did pretty well this week and I tend to listen to the radio while I knit since I don’t have to watch anything. Unfortunately, our local radio website went down for a good few hours so I decided I’d watch movies instead. I eventually picked Casablanca since I’ve never seen it. Wow, that movie was fun. I don’t know if it’s considered a great movie in terms of the story but it’s pretty iconic and a lot of older movies can be crap just like modern movies are mostly crap. So it was really fun to watch and I was so impressed by their outfits and their drinks….and H.Bogart was totally sexy. Jeez, I wish he was right here so he could tell me, “Here’s looking to you kid” wow!! it’s not just the phrase but the voice…::swoons::

But I was totally fascinated with their white tuxedos and their Champagne Martini’s. It was like a light bulb went off in my head…Champagne? in a martini? Hmmm…..so I mentioned it to Nathan and we agreed it had to be the classiest thing we’ve ever heard. Just like investing, we’ve been trying to diversify our palate. We’ve been trying out wines which has been so fun and flavorful, we’ve been actually tasting different beers for a year which can be exciting…but we don’t really try mixed drinks because we generally know that certain things don’t sit well with us. Anyway, we looked up a recipe for this martini and most were Vodka, Champagne, and some sort of fruit liqueur. Headed to one of our local markets and picked up some sparkling wine since we didn’t feel like throwing down 40US on champagne and picked up some of Cointreau.

Mixed it up and boy did we feel classy. Too bad we don’t have any martini glasses.

I read on one website that these drinks were ‘lethal’ and I just sort of laughed thinking maybe they were weenies. But I can now say from experience that these things will land with an unexpected punch and an amazing headache the next day. How in the world people in the 40s and 50s drank so much is beyond me. Seriously, three martini lunches just seems scary. Anyway, being that it was the weekend it wasn’t horrible that we got a bit too drunk without meaning to. It tasted nice and it did feel super neat to act like we were in casablanca but next time I really gotta count these things.

Champagne Martini:1 Us:0 Totally Brutal.

Anyway, I finally got around to making some Vegan Enchiladas. I actually busted out my shredder attachment which I haven’t ever used because…well I never shred things. I shredded up a zucchini and about a pound of seitan….give or take. The seitan came out really fine and soft which was to be expected considering it’s not as dense as chicken. And I must say my seitan is softer than the store variety. I dumped the seitan in a bowl with a can (15oz) of black beans, strained. I sauteed half a large onion, garlic, 4 chipotle chilies, and zucchini. Plus a bit of spice. I’ve never tried cooking with chipotle peppers since I didn’t think they were all that special but I bought a 4oz can of them a while back on a whim. Damn were those things hot. And we like our food spicy. I only added 4 but I might up it to 6 next time since the veggies, seitan, and beans diluted the heat a bit. Mixed it all together and prepped the tortillas and pan with sauce. It’s a sign that I’m trying to cut down on my cooking time since I actually bought pre-made enchilada sauce but oh well. I poured about a fourth of it into the pan and laid the torillas in the sauce while I spooned the mix onto the tortillas. This allows tortillas to coat a bit more evenly. I also picked up a bag of shredded Rice cheese that was flavored as mozzarella since I’m trying to find a good cheese substitute since we still eat cheese on our pizza. It actually tasted really good which made me so happy that I just wanted to eat the whole bag. The texture was a bit stiff but once my saliva started breaking it down a bit it had a better texture. Nathan was a bit skeptical since he’s always had bad experiences with fake cheeses and I’ve tried it once before with horrible gagging as a result. It claimed ‘gourmet’ melting but we made half cheese enchiladas and half non-cheese just in case.

Baked them at 350 for about 15min. In my experience, a lot of vegan proteins never turn out well if cooked at the same length as meat since it dries out too quickly. We even got these Lemon-herb kabobs at the market last week and they said to grill them for 15 min but I knew they were going to dry out (which the did) and we really ought to have grilled them at the same time with the veggies since they cook up in under 10.

Anyway, the enchiladas came out really great despite the lack of spiciness. The cheese melted decently and it was so great tasting until…..

I found out they’re not vegan. Omg….I wanted to strangle the company. I was so excited that it was a great product I looked up their website and was looking at the other cheeses they offer. I randomly decided to look at the ingredients because some vegan products have the most random things in them. Turns out that it has casien listed and I was shocked and disappointed that this great rice cheese was in fact non-vegan. ::Sigh:: I suppose I really ought to either A. research some vegan cheeses and see if they’re carried locally and B. get around to making my vegan cheese which I attempted once but I wrapped it up too much so it didn’t firm up as much as it should have.

I actually need to check my other cheeses now that I think about it since I picked up a bleu cheese and feta cheese that was in the vegan area of…Wholefoods. I can’t believe we’re shopping there now. They recently opened up two stores in the santa cruz area and I’ve been pretty adamant about not shopping their since I like to support more local stores and the farmer’s market. We have so many organic, fair trade, and local options that I felt like the Wholefoods would just take away from our stores. But I gave in because Nathan wanted to see it and to be honest I was a bit curious. But it’s easier to blame Nathan for my horrible treason.

I’m not sure how other Wholefoods markets are but I felt like they were really pushing for a local feel because there were signs hanging from the ceiling that had pictures of local farmers stating where they came from and basically persuading us that they did indeed buy locally. Hmm…although I’m not too sure about how true it is and what proportion of their stuff is local and really…we live in Central California. We have oodles of food in this state that it’s not much of a stretch to say they’re buying locally. But they did have some great produce that I can’t find anywhere else….Mushrooms galore (our local farmer’s market only sells Shiitake and Oyster) they even had Chanterelle mushrooms at 30US per pound. God, this is why I don’t take Nathan shopping usually because he totally is willing to buy so much food and I spend a lot of money on food when I’m alone. Imagine with him….’go ahead and get some mushrooms who cares about price….let’s get some fancy champagne vinegar for our salads..’ seriously I think he’s more of a food freak than I am sometimes.

But they have a good variety of chile peppers which Santa Cruz seems to lack and they have fresh loaves and a really great vegan section. They had Vegan Gyros! I’ve been thinking about inventing my own recipe for awhile and it turns out someone has made them already which could be nice if they don’t taste horribly. Anyway, I can’t really justify spending money there but I do it anyway…guilty pleasure…and they seem to kiss our asses since I think they’re trying to win over customers. Anyway, I’m sure this hasn’t been all that exciting for people since I’m sure they have Wholefoods near them and I’m just weird about my food. Oh well.

Let’s see….I made Thai Fried Rice the other day which turned out yummy but not as fried as I had hoped. I’ve never made a fried rice dish even though I love them and Veg. Times had a big bowl of it on it’s cover that I decided it was time to buckle down and try it. I actually refrigerated the rice for a few days which was annoying since it was a bit clumpy when I dumped it into the wok. I just used a fork to mash it down and separate it…for those wondering if they have problems. I actually pretty much used my Sesame stir-fry recipe but substituted rice for noodles. I fried up 7.5oz of tofu, then stir-fried the onion, garlic, serrano, 1/2 bell pepper, and broccoli and added some sauce. Added the rice and let it fry up but I think the sauce didn’t allow for as much frying as I had intended. I really should have cooked it longer and added more oil if I wanted a crisper finish but I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out in general so I fried it up until I couldn’t see much oil in the wok. Added the snap peas towards the end and then the tofu. Yummy but not as hot as I’d like it to be. I really need to make it again since it’s just so tasty for lunch.

I need to work on my photography but really, when I’m super hungry I barely even remember to take pictures.

Next up….I know…everyone is probably hoping I’ll just end this stupid post…

Anyway, I made lavender seitan chops which I’ve been dying to make forever. Apparently, the lavender season is pretty short up here and is actually around during June mostly. Somehow I missed it during the early months but I was lucky to stumble upon it at the Felton Farmer’s Market a couple of weeks ago. I saw this recipe about a year ago and I thought it sounded so lovely. I usually just make rosemary chops which are tasty but lavender just seemed so unusual. The pictures are kind of crappy and I didn’t add as much lavender as I should have because I wasn’t sure we’d even like it. It’s too bad that I missed the season since it was a great lunch dish. For those who would like to know…I take about 1/4-1/3 cup of all-purpose flour, about 1tsp. of course sea salt, and chop up as much rosemary or lavender as I like and then dredge the seitan. I tend to use a good deal of olive oil in hopes of giving it a better texture.

>.< I really should have added more lavender but oh well. A nice light lunch with steamed broccoli. It seems my cast iron pan is always making a cameo since I have to move it around a lot since our stove is a bit small.

I bought a Jicama ages ago and never used it for some reason. I think most of us do that right? Buy food that we like and then let it rot? I am trying to lessen my waste but sometimes it can’t be helped. Anyway, it began sprouting a while back and now has at least 2ft. worth of stem which Re is blocking but you can see a bit. Nathan wants to plant it since it seems like a waste to throw away but I need to check how big the plants get first.

Well, that’s all I have to write although I’m going to post some random pictures from New Mexico and around the house.

Taken in Santa Fe, it was a huge Mexican Restaurant that I wasn’t too thrilled about going to since I was on a romantic kick. Well, I did have to sleep with paper in my hair as curlers and have men staring down the front of my dress all day so I wasn’t too pleased but after a Vodka Daiquiri everything was fine. I’m not a snob since I’ve roughed it in Central America and the U.S. but we were on vacation and I just wanted a more romantic day while in Santa Fe. I totally recommend the Georgia O’Keeffe museum cafe because it was super cute and had a great lunch date feel. We had a hard time in New Mexico in terms of food because not that many places had many Vegan/Vegetarian options and sometimes I feel like a broken record but just because I can eat beans and rice for a long time doesn’t mean I want to while on vacation and wanting to have one nice dinner with my guy. The Persian place we went to was really great but most of the food was really geared for appetizers, but again, I’m not so much complaining as explaining how hard it can be to find places to eat while being on vacation as a vegan. My mom did find a really great Asian place which blew my mind but I still wished there had been more Vegan friendly places that served New Mexican food.

I curse my round face. So not fair. It’s hard to tell since these pictures are small but all three have me with devil eyes. I’ve had this problem since I was a kid and even though most cameras (including mine) have the anti-red eye flash I still manage it anyway, I think it’s because my eyes are a bit of a lighter brown…not hazel but a reddish medium brown that might reflect strangely. I don’t know, I’ve never looked into it but I’ve had devil eyes for as long as I can remember. These were taken at the Asian restaurant and the name is kind of unoriginal (Asian Noodle Bar I think) but it was kind of hipster and really good food. My drum instructor used to tell me that I looked so much like my grandma and I can see it now that I’m older. Broader/round faces and I think our faces when we smile are similar but I’m such a mix of my dad and mom it’s weird. Nathan’s the same way…we’re mutts.

My cousins from my Tia Marielos look like miniatures of her and her ex-husband that it’s scary. But as I’ve grown older I can tell that a lot of people look more like one parent than the other. But Nathan and I are super cool and take a lot of random features/genes from all over our family. I have a really bad farmer’s tan too now that I look at these pictures…thankfully I’ve been smart enough to roll my sleeves up when we go on our exercise to even it out since it’s really really embarrassing.::Sigh:: I wish I were darker like my dad since I think it’s so beautiful to have darker skin.

Random cat pictures. Fe loved the box that my grandparents sent the chile in and she just looks so cute. Re tried to one up her later by hanging out in our paper recycling bag and it’s really annoying that she keeps doing it because she kicks out all the paper eventually and I have to clean it up every time.

Well, I suppose that is it for this super long blog. Hope it wasn’t too boring. I’m going to finish this off with a great song and I couldn’t find an actual video for it and the live ones weren’t as good.

Eat good food and be the strutter.

Chile Top Forest

I was stemming the peppers to put them in the freezer and all I could think of was how great these tops look. Too bad I’m not into claymation because I thought these tops looked so magical. Ah, how I wish I could explore this forest as a miniature.

And I should probably mention that this is gunna be image heavy since I had so much fun and haven’t updated as much as I’ve needed to.

I’m not sure if I’m going to fit everything I want into this post since I’m hoping to grill up some tacos soon and I’m getting hungry. We finally bought a grill, well I actually got it and lugged the thing to the car since Nathan was working. Just a little Weber one since we don’t do much grilling but now that we have one I keep thinking up so many dinners. I was really motivated to get one now since I got my box of New Mexican Chile (Thanks to the grandparents!) and I felt like they needed a real smokey flavor which I didn’t think my oven would give them. Lame excuse but I also figured it would be nice to sit outside with Nathan and just relax with the grill.

Washed them up and Nathan set up the grill…I’ve never grilled anything and Nathan hadn’t done it in years so we were having fun adding lighter fluid.

We also grilled up some corn and we made Kabobs with my marinaded Seitan Asado recipe, onions, peppers, and tomatoes. The coals died down a bit and we really ought to have put more in since it took a bit longer to cook but it turned out super yummy…

I let the peppers steam for a couple hours in a pot and then plunked down in front of my computer and watched netflix shows to pass the time.

Yup, still got our handy little plastic chair. He’s super useful now that we have the grill too b/c we can alternate grilling and sitting between the two of us. Oh and my infamous purple running shorts also make a cameo. I’m sure Nathan is also excited that his running outfit is on display….

Anyway, more pictures of peppers

I didn’t really know what to do with the chiles in terms of freezing so I used my typical wonton way in which I laid out sheets of foil and froze them individually for about an hour before taking them out and wrapping and folding them up. Then I wrapped a bunch of plastic wrap just in case since I didn’t want my precious peppers getting freezerburn. I ended up having about 6oz. of pepper juice which I saved and I’m thinking of putting it into a salsa or maybe using it for a marinade. I only wish I had more peppers since I’m afraid I’ll eat them all up in a week…Oh, and I read that most people seed their peppers but I left them in. I doubt I’ll ever seed them since I personally like as much spicyness but I wonder if there is a notable difference. Well, we’ll see.

I have some more food stuff to write about I suppose. First off, I’m super excited about making tempeh tuna salad. Omg! sounds soo good. Ever since I made those spicy tempeh rolls I’ve been amazed at the texture of mashed tempeh. Plus, I’ve been using some seaweeds in cooking and it really brings out a seafoody taste and smell which works well for substituting and mimicking fish…It’s strange though since I’ve always hated tuna salad but tempeh tuna salad? totally different story. I also really need to try out some enchilada and tamale recipes but they seem so time consuming but I really need to work on some yummy vegan versions.

Anyway, ever since I got back from New Mexico I’ve been recreating this Chinese dish that I had which was basically a stir-fry but with a sesame oil base. My mother asked my we only eat pasta once a week and I had to think about it…well it turns out I think it’s because I suck at making pastas/noodles. Not that they turn out horribly…in fact I think my pesto pasta is uber…but I’ve never really explored pasta since I’m kind of on this whole complete protein kick…eating a veggie pasta just doesn’t seem good enough since I wonder if I should have added beans or tofu….But I’m trying and I have to say this dish is super.

Personally, I like using udon noodles because a lot of the noodles at our market have egg in them and I love that they carry round udon. I cook the noodles and then rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking process. I cut the tofu up and coat them with cornstarch and then fry them up…kind of deep fried but not overly so. Set them on a platter with paper towels to soak up the excess oil. Then I stir-fry some garlic, sliced onion, broccoli, mushrooms, and carrot. The Julienne tool my mom gave me totally works and is really nice for stir-fries and salads…oh how I love these weird cooking tools. Anyway, I soften up the veggies and then add the noodles and sauce.

Oh the sauce is about .25cup soy sauce (I use the reduced sodium tamari), about 1-2 Tbs. toasted sesame oil, and a crap load of chili oil….mix and taste to your liking…then I add about 1-2 tsp. of cornstarch to thicken the sauce and then add it into the stir-fry with the noodles. I add the tofu at the end but it seems to get a bit mushy since it absorbs some of the sauce so ideally I’d like to lightly reheat it again in a separate pan before spooning out the dish. Anyway, it comes out so nicely and I’ve made this a few times since I got back. Gotta love stir-fry.

Mmmm…

The only other thing I’m going to post are my crappy danishes. I used to love my Martha baking book but the more I research the more I feel like her recipes don’t follow through. I’ve used her danish dough recipe twice and I’ve had to use a egg replacer (flaxseed and water) and the dough never comes out nicely and is really hard to work with. After reading other recipes and watching a Julia Child PBS show from years ago featuring a French pastry chef, I now feel like I need to try other dough recipes. The show I saw didn’t use egg at all in the recipe and actually used pastry flour which might help with the overall feel of the dough. Anyway, the ones I made were ‘apricot bowties’ and the show I watched also used apricots but they were basically termed as egg like pastries because when cooked, the apricots look like sunny side-up eggs. I thought I was the only one who thought this until I saw J.Child’s show and now I want to make them again because it’s so funny how eggy they look. Of course mine look like mini burritos whereas hers were more like a platter with eggs on top but the imagery is still the same.

So it took me a few days to make the dough because I didn’t start it early and it needs a bit of resting time. I looked up a vegan pastry cream recipe which I hope to modify since it seemed a bit more like a glaze than a cream. Cut out my dough and wrapped everything up and sprinkled some sugar on top. The end results were not nearly as beautiful as I had hoped but they tasted great which is kind of the most important thing to consider when I make a new dish. Lots of photos….

Not my best in terms of cooking or photography but I think the ‘bowties’ give some indication of how the fruits could be confused with eggs. Also, my crappy pinwheel….but after seeing that PBS show I really want to try pastries again since I really ought to learn how to make them better. At least I now know that I like apricots but I still don’t like apricot marmalade.

Oh I suppose I should post my spicy tempeh rolls that I remade with regular rice and made them with the nori on the outside. Personally, I think if I make them inside-out again the white rice will totally hold together better than the green rice I used before but I thought I ought to take pictures for those who want to see what it might look like.

I actually didn’t make as much rice as I should have and the ends of the rolls were a bit swishy because of the lack of rice. Well, at least folks now have an idea of how the rolls look with each style.

Well, I ought to sign off now…I’ve already eaten my tasty tacos and now I’m super tired. I’ll try to post the rest of my photos and experiences later this week. Until then, eat good food and be happy

I think I just wasted 2.5 hours of my life

I’m so depressed I don’t know what to do.

::Cry:: I just got back from the new Harry Potter film and I am now in the wallowing stage of my emotional roller coaster. Started up irritated, then mad, then exasperated, and now just down right in the blues. Of course I tried looking up reviews to fuel my anger again but all these critics are saying the film is great. Nathan pointed out they’re film critics rather than fans of the books but I snarled that it didn’t matter.

I suppose I should acknowledge the fact that I’m kind of a Harry Potter fan; I’ve read the books a million times, forced Nathan to watch the 5th movie at least 6 times while in the theatre, and maybe read stupid fan fiction….a lot. Ok so I’m a nerd and not even in the cool Hipster sense in which everyone thinks playing the original nintendo or being good at electronics is cool. I’m the kind of nerd that plays online games and gobbles up every crappy fantasy/sci-fi movie simply because they are so few and far between. Plus I grew up with Disney which puts my tolerance for lame movies pretty high. Seriously, we watched the previews and I was super excited that the Frog Prince and Princess movie is being made and I got totally freaked out by that Apocalyptic John Cusack movie and was telling Nathan how I didn’t understand how that is considered entertainment.

I don’t know, I’ve always been a softie and really imaginative. Instead of counting sheep as a kid I would imagine I was this elf from one of my super awesome comics and I had the posters on my wall. I’m just a fantasy freak although I’ve never dressed up to a release. But that also has to do with the fact that I don’t like going to opening nights because I hate hearing everone’s annoying laughs and comments through the movie which is why I didn’t go to see this Potter movie until 3 weeks after the release because I love a nice quiet theatre.

Anyway, I’ve waited almost a year since they pushed back the original release date and really expected it to be better since they wanted more time to work on the stupid film. Seriously, I hate filler chapters in books and I seriously don’t want a filler movie for 2.5 hours. It’s hard to figure out if Nathan would have been lost in the movie since I’ve talked so much about the stupid books that he knows most of the plots through me. But either way he still had questions and thought certain points were totally unresolved. Omg, and the stupid love interests just seemed all wrong. Ginny just acts like a ho since it’s never clear if she broke up with Dean before moving onto Harry.

Bah, it just upsets me that A. the series has never kept a director on for more than one movie (except for Yates who did 6th and will finish off the series) but somehow they all seemed somewhat consistent with the books and engaging, B. the dialogue sucked balls in this one, C. if they’re going to axe like 60% of the damn book at least make the plots they do include explanatory and somewhat linear with the books. Nathan has more faith than me and keeps telling me that they’ll include all the crap they excluded in the 6th movie into the last two movies but I really don’t get how they’re going to pull it out of their asses. Maybe they’ll turn out alright.

I have to admit some parts were good…the flashbacks of Riddle’s life were creepy…I love Maggie Smith, the entire Weasley cast (especially: Rupert Grint, Julie Walters, and Mark Williams), gotta love Robbie Coltrane, and even Michael Gambon. And gosh I just fall to pieces when I see my Ricky on screen, Alan Rickman, he’s just so dreamy. Thankfully he’s a bit too old for me otherwise Nathan might be a bit worried. But even seeing a lot of the charcters on screen didn’t help since much of their dialogue was cut from the book or just added as some random scene.

Anyway, I’ll stop babbling about how lame this movie was and I’ll have to mull over it. Maybe I’ll go see it again from a less critical perspective but I doubt it. I just have been so excited to have a series that is under the fantasy genre without it totally sucking. It’s probably why I used to watch so much anime before Santa Cruz stopped carrying it so much and we don’t go to San Jose much anymore to buy it. Seriously, rent Dungeons and Dragons and you’ll totally see how much fantasy sucks but after awhile it doesn’t seem so bad.

Willow? Classic. Old Star Wars? Epic but only without the extra scenes. I still curse the day I believed Nathan when he said the verison we picked out didn’t have the added scense. Bah stupid CGI in pre-CGI movies that used model spaceships that looked way better than the CGI in the newer movies.

Well, I’ll probably post more later this week since I have oodles of things to write about and pictures but I think I’m going to reread the 6th Potter book to make up for such a crap movie.