Christmas came early this year to my Richmond Communities in Schools study buddy, a precious elementary student not quite to where she could be in her reading and writing. A few days before Christmas, Nate and I paid a visit to her mother’s apartment to deliver a bookcase that Nate had put together, I embellished with little purple flowers, & we both filled with books gathered from all over–eBay, Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.
In total, we were able to deliver almost 90 books, many within her current reading range, to a home with fewer than 10. Thanks especially to the generous eBay seller who, upon learning who the books I bid on were intended for, included many many more at no extra charge!
Nate & I celebrated “our” Christmas on the Tuesday before heading to see his family in New York. Two shots of our tree:
Nate was given a pair of cthulhu slippers, a donation to the Free Software Foundation, bike etc from buyolympia.com, including two Portland-area bike zines and a pair of bicycle socks, a donation to Bikes To Rwanda which came with a free t-shirt, a Kubuntu mug, a Kubuntu t-shirt, a lb of ginger green tea from TeaGschwendner, a silver teaspoon, Sjaak’s vegan truffles, and some C. Spencer Yeh 7″s.
Me? Well, for starters, the new laptop I’m using, refurbished by someone on eBay and found at a great price. I love it! Also, an adorable owl mug, some vintage mushroom juice glasses, toasted coconut vegan marshmallows from Sweet & Sara, more chocolate, a cthulhu plushie, mushroom slippers custom-made on etsy, and lots and lots of love.
Ah, the redundancies of vegan coupling (aka four boxes of “surprise” truffles under the tree):
The long, slow drive to New York: here, through the Pennsylvania Wilds:
Continuing the tradition of doing something outdoors on holidays most people spend inside in front of televisions, we took a walk over the (relatively) newly-installed Walkway Over the Hudson, “the world’s tallest pedestrian bridge–a 120-year-old railroad bridge re-engineered 212 feet above the Hudson River.” Nate & his dad:
The view of the other bridge into Poughkeepsie from the Walkway:
On Christmas day, we opened presents with Nate’s parents and his sister and brother-in-law and then sat down for a big late breakfast. (organic cheerios with soymilk and Tofurkey biscuits for us. :)) No pictures of those wonderful events, but later that night I suddenly encountered a Rancor Beast while at Nate’s rich aunt’s:
The Rancor Beast ATTACKS!! aaaaagh…my nose…
The Rancor was uncovered in the Star Wars Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy, which we delighted in while waiting for dinner at the Aunt’s. What a surprise to receive it from Nate’s parents just a few days later as a New Year’s present!
And, of course, that which completes one’s holiday break: watching little ragdoll twins (named One & Zero) attempt to eat various succulents:
Don’t worry–they didn’t get far.
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Since I didn’t attempt anything awesome in the kitchen today, I’m cheating and doing Whoa Wren’s VeganMoFo2009 survey.
1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
N & I drink Kroger’s Naturally Preferred Organic Red Box Plain soymilk pretty much exclusively. It’s organic, tastes great, and costs $5.00 a gallon (regular price $2.50/half gallon). With Silk climbing as high as $3.89/half gallon in this area, it’s the most economical.
NOTE: We love soymilk so much that, upon being asked at a job interview what he’d do with two million dollars, N said he’d secure a lifetime supply of the stuff for us. (To be fair, that was the “selfish answer”; he also answered magnanimously.)
2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Kale creations, bhindi masala, baked winter squash (or spaghetti squash concoctions).
3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
The master recipe is thus: stove-top-popped corn with about a tablespoon of melted earth balance drizzled over it, then tossed, then drenched in Bragg’s aminos from the spray bottle, then tossed, then tossed with white pepper, then tossed with about a third a cup of nutritional yeast. It is so good, sometimes we eat this as a meal…because just thinking about it makes us crave it unbearably…okay, I’m pretty sure that I’ll soon be typing with nutritional yeast breath.
4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
Devastatingly, I recently F-ed up two desserts in one night. Sigh.
5. Favorite pickled item?
Okra! And, you know, boring old cucumbers.
6. How do you organize your recipes?
The cookbooks are on shelves under the microwave. The printed-out collection resides messily in a structurally-unsound plastic folder-type thing. I also love to tape recipes to cabinets so that I can read them easily while working.
7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
Compost. Thanks to our landlords, we have a super composter.
8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
1) Stevia, because I’m addicted to it, but since it probably doesn’t count as a food per se I’ll name three more 2) Onions 3) Mushrooms 4) Watermelon
9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
My mom’s cabbage; my dad’s everything-in-the-cupboards vegan vegetable soups; any of the insane birthday cakes mom designed and ordered for me. She did not mess around with the cake.
10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
(guest written by N): Purely Decadent COOKIE AVALANCHE by SO DELICIOUS/Turtle Mountain
One cannot understand the Avalanche of Cookies without appreciating the taxonomy and characteristics of the manner of things one can find in such an Avalanche.
Surely, one does best when one encounters a veritable King Cookie (gendered bias intentional) in the course of Avalanche consumption. To qualify as Kingly, this nugget of wonder must be of sufficient size; say, approaching roughly half the size of a double stuffed oreo. Such a joyous event happens only about once per carton (so buy several cartons at once).
Princely cookies, thus, are chunks of delicious that are only about a quarter the size of a double stuffed oreo. These are still noble finds and a lucky consumer should enjoy three or four of them per carton.
We suggest giving your Avalanche lots of attention; excavate it carefully by digging in your spoon and flipping over big hunks to seek Kings and Princes jutting out. Then gently carve out the findings and enjoy.
Truly, you will discover that the thrill of cookie archaeology makes the Avalanche the most compelling and fabulous of all vegan ice cream delights.
–N
11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
this one bowl that is perfect for containing things made with the hand mixer. Okay, not actually an appliance, but it facilitates an appliance!
12. Spice/herb you would die without?
I use a lot of salt, thyme, tumeric, coriander and cumin.
13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
I grew up with my mom’s Southern Living Annuals. Of my own, probably Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider. I wish everyone could have a copy of this insanely expensive but gorgeous book.
14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Black raspberry from the Amish
15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
The GRIT’s vegan chicken salad (featuring GRIT yeast gravy & GRIT viniagrette)…it went over tremendously at a fourth of july get-together. Or anything smothered in GRIT gravy.
16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
I love seitan (especially Isa’s recipes!!) when I can get it, but I mostly cook with TVP from dixie diner and tofu.
17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
time: when I’m not hungry.
18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
10 boxes of Kashi cereal (Richmond Kroger is closing ‘em out at $2 a BOX!!); two bicycle helmets; a pair of bicycle gloves; two rolls of unbleached recycled paper towels; dust bunnies
19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Uhm, not to brag, but I can name basically every item in my freezer without looking. There’s a pound of quinoa, two pounds of Bob’s Red Mill vital wheat gluten, wheat flour, six quart freezer bags of whole raspberries from Michigan, several pounds of butter beans, a bag of Recipe Beginnings peppers, lots of dried Frontier herbs, a 6-lb block of SoyBoy tofu, two loaves of banana nut bread, blueberries from Monica’s great-grandparents’ house in PA, two boxes of Boca burgers, some homemade veggie burgers, bread flour, sesame seeds, frozen peas…the list goes on. Hm, now that I think about it, it’s actually kind of embarrassing to have all that food stored up. Good thing I’ve planned November’s blogging project to be eat-from-the-cupboards!
20. What’s on your grocery list?
I went shopping yesterday and today; yield: Mori-Nu tofu, granola bars, organic olive oil, organic water-packed extra-firm tofu, cereal, soymilk, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, pickles, veggie burgers, and mustards.
21. Favorite grocery store?
Not too many alternative choices in Richmond. I love our Co-op, but it’s currently in transition and closed. Nature’s Nook is good for hard-to-find ingredients, but not really food. Meijer has a great fresh organic section but it also uses old-fashioned open freezer cases and for that reason I routinely boycott them. Embarrasingly, Kroger is really my BFF. Cheap soymilk, tofu, a decent natural foods section and tons of good manager’s specials.
In Atlanta: Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market & the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market!
22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
ANGEL FOOD CAKE. I purchased Bryanna Clark Grogan’s recipe but I haven’t taken the time to make it yet. Maybe this month…?!?!
23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Probably Kittee’s because she encouraged me in this whole VeganMoFo thing. And Bryanna’s Vegan Feast Kitchen. To be honest, I’m still finding my way in the vegan blogging community.
24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Catbar by Endangered Species chocolates; coconut marshmallows by Sweet & Sara. Ritter Sport marzipan.
25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
The aforementioned 6 freezer bags of Michigan raspberries I brought back from the visit with Jiji.
26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
xantham gum, especially after Kittee’s post about it.
THE END
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Friends,
Today was a challenging one, plain and simple. A tough time tutoring my precious first-grade Study Buddy, a big project at work, and two hours immersed in the wholly unfamiliar–new clothes shopping–made for a sleepy, headachey Adrienne come dinnertime. Appropriately, I chose make an easy meal of TVP tacos and guacamole for my partner and myself. Good choice, right?
Except it doesn’t stop there. I couldn’t bear the thought of letting the first day of VeganMoFo pass without trying something new, something daring, something unusually delicious. I’m supposed to be blogging about whatever the heck I’m doing, after all, so why not do something interesting? And so I decided, in the eleventh hour, to try out the Angel Food vegan marshmallow kit I purchased several weeks ago from Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe.
I shan’t give a full report here–just know that even though it is for a different recipe, reading the Open Source marshmallow recipe before getting started is a great idea; that you’ll probably gum up whatever device you’re using to mix it, possibly rendering said device permanently unusable; that it may yield vastly less than you’d intended (and hoped!); and that, when all is said and done, your fingers and face may be so sticky that you consider making another batch on Halloween and just going as a marshmallow-fluff-covered-mess. Except that you actually won’t be able to make another batch, because you’ve just destroyed your kitchen in the process.
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