Rainy Day

T'was the perfect day for napping, except work got in the way. It's cold and rainy and dreary. And windy. Did I mention cold?

One of these days, I'll have a post about sewing. The whole point of this blog was supposed to be sewing. I'm itching to sew, but can't seem to get to it.

Work:

(Don't think we're just playing. I'm going to make them calculate mechanical advantage, potential and kinetic energy. But, yeah...we're also playing.)

Not at work:

Between black bean and corn soup, curried sweet potato wedges, Morrocan Stew, couscous with raisin and mint, cupcakes and a ton of other uneaten stuff in the fridge, it's leftovers tonight. And maybe again tomorrow, as well.

Pledging to sew something this weekend so I can get rid of this itch.

Chopsticks

Who wants to guess which one of my kids spent a year in Chinese Homeschool?

Quick Sesame Noodles

(This makes an obscene amount. For you newbies, this is how I cook. It's all guesstimates. If it doesn't taste right, just add some more of something.)

1 box of whole grain pasta
1 lb of shelled edamame
1 cup of frozen peas
A few handfuls of brocolli florettes
1/2 sweet onion
A handful of mushrooms

Cook the pasta. Saute the onion and mushrooms in vegetable broth. Steam the other vegetables. Toss everything together with the sauce.

Sauce: With 2/3 cup of vegetable broth, mix 2 Tbsp sesame oil, 2 Tbsp rice vinegar, 2 Tbsp Tamari, 2 tsp ginger, 4 cloves crushed garlic and a handful of chopped green onion.

Weekend Recap

Once in awhile, the "weekend of productivity" happens.

I left a lot out. Like Friday. Friday was crazy. And the most mundane things...grocery shopping multiple times, fixing the headlight, cutting the grass, fresh laundry and sheets for everyone, Halloween costumes taken care of, power outage...If I would have known all this was going to happen, I would have documented it all. Because, who knows when I'll do all of this again in a single weekend?

Cross Country County Finals...she didn't race. Her knee is hurt. But, we were there. :-)

Pupusas...yeah, I could make them. But for $1.25 each, why? You have to know where to go to get a good pupusa. Some pupusarias are, well..., not good. This one? One of the best I know.

Homecoming.

Planting salad sprouts. Everything else left to plant is bulbs. These will last only for a bit.

LAX...because the day was gorgeous.

Cleaning up the last bits of Irene. Yeah, I know Irene happened a long time ago. Cleaning up just didn't happen.

Butternut squash...you know I love it. The last time I made this salad, I steamed it. Roasted is far better and no problem to do. Peel it, dice it, toss with a little olive oil, sea salt, fresh garlic and herbs and roast at 500 until it's done. This squash gets so sweet. I just remembered this salad is supposed to have pepitas. Oh well, we forgot to notice.

Eating Fire

Here's how it goes around here:

I buy bananas, because I think we should have them around. Because my kid decided to become a runner and they are good for runners to eat. And because everyone else likes them. I'm not a huge fan, but will eat one occasionally. At any rate, there are only two scenarios. Either they get eaten faster than I can bring them in or the turn black while we all stare at them. The latter is common.

So then I am forced to do something with them. The obvious is banana bread. You already read about that on Monday.

But, my people are kind of spoiled or tired of banana bread, because they are all like "Really??? Banana Bread?".

So then I am forced to do something with the banana bread. Today, it was banana bread French Toast. I took a picture, but it's too blurry. You all don't need one anyway. You've seen French Toast before.

I have no idea how it tasted. I'm not a huge fan of banana bread and even less of a fan of French Toast. The kids ate it. One of them was all "Why did you have to use banana bread to make this? (in a voice that let me know she'd have preferred cheap, white bread)"...but she ate it. Which means (in 14 year old girly speak) that it tasted fine.

That's confirmation it was breakfast two nights in a row for my kids (for all of you keeping count).

The rest of us (Ryan and I) had this Indian-ish kind of dish that came from taking a few liberties with a vegetable biryani recipe. I'm not Indian and am not even going to pretend I can tell authentic from not even authentic-ish. All I know is that it was good.

And tasted like fire.

In the world of "tasted like fire", it was only half as fiery as the stuff I got at the Jamaican joint. A place where business all but stopped when I said I wanted the spicy (and they all stared at me). And then, as I was eating it, it occurred to me that perhaps that was a bad idea. But, for the record, I went the following day and did it again. I love fiery food.

Vegan Mayonaise

So, I made this "salad dressing" the other day using silken tofu (and had it in my mind it was going to turn out like dressing one pours over salad) and it turned out almost exactly like mayonaise. Except way less disgusting than actual mayonaise.

And then I thought about it and realized some people call mayonaise "salad dressing". Now it makes sense.

That was Monday. I split it in half. I left some plain (in the event we need mayonaise or something) and the other half I blended with basil from the garden.

It's more like a dip, but the flavor is good. This definitely has potential. And it's close enough to Miracle Whip my kids will never know the difference.

It couldn't be easier to make.

Put the ingredients in the food processor (or blender) and blend until smooth and creamy.

1 box of silken tofu
4 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp rice vinegar (or whatever kind of vinegar you have)
1 garlic clove
1 tsp stone ground mustard
1/2 tsp of salt

Dinner=Spinach salad with the aforementioned basil dressing/dip, Brussel's Sprouts and carrot/ginger/cashew soup (from a box...gimme a break...I can't be a chef every night. ;-) )

And because I'm running a restaurant....and because a mutiny is bound to happen if I cut them off animal products totally...and because I feel like they need significantly more calories than what we ate:

The kids had ham/cheese omelettes with toasted banana bread spread with Nutella.

Using stuff up.

Weird stuff in my pantry. I don't know why we have the mushrooms. The peppers came home with Ryan after I sent him for pablamo peppers awhile back. Ummmm...these are not what I wanted. The giant star of anise...I like the way they smell and they are pretty. What other reason did I need to buy them? Need to come up with ideas to use these things up.

Much easier to use up is old fruit.

The lazy way to use it is to feed it to the chickens.

Or the kids. These aren't the right kind of apples for a crisp, but who cares? My kids didn't know the difference.

Making one is easy-peasy. Just slice some apples and stir in some cinnamon and sugar. Make the "crisp" with a random mixture of oatmeal, flour, some spices and sugar. I put in some butter. I don't think you have to. Bake at whatever temperature the oven is already going at until it looks done.

Is it outrageous we've eaten 1/4 lb of cinnamon since the end of July? I bought it at some Amish grocery in Missouri. Not a tourist-y type Amish Market, but a real Amish grocery.

The filling for dinner...tofu tamale pie (almost vegan).

Hungry? Apple crisp, banana bread and the tofu tamale pie (I filled the pan too full and it kind of ran over.).

I'm thinking somebody else should wash the dishes.

Tandoori Chicken

First(and totally unrelated to chicken), proof kids will just do something because they want to. Regardless of comfort. Because you know this couldn't have been comfortable.

This recipe looked promising. It had all the components of something I knew would turn out good. I started making it last night. We ate it tonight.

The reviews:

Jac- "It tastes like those orange flowers in your herb garden." "Nasturtiums?" "Yeah, nasturtiums." (Has he been secretly eating my flowers?)

Joey (Who pretty much wouldn't eat anything for the first 5 years of his life and now is like a human garbage disposal. Seriously, He'll eat anything.)-"It's delicious. Do you think I could take one home?" I sent him home with three sticks.
Alicia (Her reviews of food are not reliable. She has a limited palate.)- "I don't like it." (Insert everyone's surprise here.)

Ryan- "Tastes like something I'd spend good money on. Tastes like lunch from Moby Dick's." (This is where I started getting suspicious of my own opinions.)

Joey's mom (By now I'm just calling it "chicken on a stick" while I'm forcing a plate of them into her hands...to get them out of my house.) -"This tastes like something I've had before. The flavor. Tandoori chicken."

At that point, I realized I evidently don't like Tandoori Chicken. Huh. Who knew? I love Indian food, but always order vegetarian. If this is what Tandoori Chicken is supposed to taste like...blah.

Macht Schnell!

I've told you I'm the slowest knitter in the world, right? This is why I don't even have one pair of gloves. I'm reminded of "macht schnell!"...because it will be cold soon.

Dinner=Baked Sweet potato with black beans and pineapple salsa and a bit of avocado. Have I ever mentioned the difficulties of finding a perfect avocado on the east coast? Spending time on the west coast (or somewhere like Panama) will spoil you.

What I've still got left to do. I've only had this stuff for 4-5 months. Tomorrow night, my living room will be overrun with little girls. I need to have these ready for them.

1 Hour

I'm just going to say it. Occasionally I am mean to the animals. My mean-ness sometimes includes ponytails. And sometimes we laugh. And then sometimes the ponytailed animal feels bad, because she knows we are laughing at her. And then sometimes I feel bad and take out the ponytails. But, for real...what's cuter than a ponytailed dog? Oh yeah. A well-groomed dog that isn't so shaggy she nearly forces you to get out the comb and rubber bands.

More on topic:

Somebody told me today they are in hibernation mode and don't I get like that when summer is ending? Umm...no. Because "hibernation mode" was defined as coming home from work and falling asleep on the couch in one's p.j.'s everyday after work. Who has time for that?

After I left work, I ran to the store, went to the dentist and then picked up Jac from the bus; I had exactly an hour until I was going to leave again to go hang out with the Yada Girls. (I would have had less, but my other kid offered to walk home in the rain and I let her. Is that bad?) During that hour, the carpet cleaners were here (trying to tell me technical stuff about my carpet in Spanish...which didn't work all that well)and I cooked dinner. Oh, and I took my kid to youth group. And then I looked at my texts (on my way to YG) and discovered the Yada Girls weren't meeting tonight. Turns out...I have all the time in the world. Or, a couple of hours anyway. Well, maybe one. And then I have to go pick up a kid.

Anyway. Hibernate? That's laughable.

Dinner was simple. Broccoli and red bells sauteed in olive oil and tons of garlic. I put it on pasta as it seemed like the right thing to do. But turns out we could have just skipped the pasta. Next time.

And pear cake. Because I had these pears walking around and threatening to attract fruit flies on my counter. I normally feed them to my chickens when they get like this, but I had this idea...pear cake. Turns out, somebody had that idea before me. Why reinvent the wheel? Her pictures are prettier, but whatever.

My house smells like ginger.

I had planned to have salad for dinner. Like a normal salad. But the lettuce was edging on slimy, so...

We had stir-fried vegetables, edamame, vegetable dumplings (I found lurking in the back of the freezer. I must have bought them at the Asian Market at some point. Is it bad I have no idea where they came from?) and miso soup. Oh. And a little dip I was experimenting with.

I have this thing for salad dressings in Japanese restaurants and always think I'll try to recreate them later. By taste. Because I don't even know the names of them to look up a recipe. But then I never get around to it.

Until today.

This came pretty close.

Sesame Ginger Carrot Dip

(Guestimations...I don't do a whole lot of measuring.)
2 small cloves of garlic
1/4 of a medium sweet onion
1 carrot
1-2" of peeled, fresh ginger
1/4-1/2 tsp of dry mustard
a few shakes of tamari
2 tsp of apple juice
1 tsp of sesame oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
a little salt and pepper

I threw all the solids in my little food chopper and processed until everything was coursely ground. Added the liquids and processed until creamy.

Turns out it tastes good on everything...even a spoon straight out of the bowl.

Changing Seasons

It was cold today. Cold is so subjective. In January, we'd say a day like today was warm. But today, it was cold.

It was a soup day.

I've committed to investigating the 400 recipes in this cookbook. I used to collect cookbooks, but I'm not much of a follower of recipes. I generally just cobble stuff together from experience. At any rate, I gave most of my cookbooks to my brother. Except for my vegan/vegetarian books.

In the name of variety and nutrition, I need a little inspiration from time to time. Because most of my cooking experience is more mainstream. Of course, I can do a relatively o.k. job of throwing something vegan together, but it's nice to have ideas. (Again...in the name of nutrition. But then...How come nobody mentions nutrition to people who eat the typical meat/potatoes diet? That's not all that great for you. I guess that's another discussion.)

Back to the book...it's one of the best options for those of us who aspire to eat more vegan, but still have a lot to learn and limited time to pull meals together. Everything I've made from it has been good.

Tonight was a black bean and butternut squash chili loosely based on the recipe from page 316. (Sorry for the blurry picture...today was lacking good light.)

Not vegan, but a mainstay in this house...dessert. I've found having a teenaged girl in the house means we always have cake or something sweet around. Tonight she made peppermint brownies. Think "brownie and York Peppermint Pattie lasagna".

Friday Review

(Click on the pics to make them big, Grandma.)

So, I have this class; Pre-Engineering. It's all by itself in the line-up I teach. Not since I was in charge of the engineering academy at my first school have I had a class like this.

The kids are just at a different level. And the class is less than half the size of all my other classes...16 kids.

All my other classes are the same and this is the third year I've been teaching that class...over and over, all day. It's weird to go from that to this and back again all before lunch. I explained this to them (in the event they were wondering why I was all erratic with my style). They said they would be patient with me. :-)

The truth is, while I love, love, love my other kids, I'm able to teach the way I think teaching should happen with a class like this. I gave them a vague-ish (open-ended) assignment to go along with the "History of Engineering" unit. They were to research Leonardo da Vinci's sketches and were to build a model of one of them using whatever they could find in the lab to build it with. (Because Leo didn't have Michael's or Home Depot down the street, right?) I told them to make it theirs and gave them very few rules.

Here's where it gets all sketchy (and is probably in violation of all the teacher rules). I didn't give them a due date. I told them to discuss it amongst themselves and when they were in agreement to let me know. They chose today...a month ago. Ahem. (I was a little concerned about the length of time they thought they needed...because, well...teens sometimes want to take advantage of things. I raised my eyebrows, and laughed a little...but in fairness, they did what I told them to do. And this wasn't the only thing I had given them to do.)

Turns out, it all worked out like I wanted it to work out. I'm pleased they took it seriously and am pleased they all had very different projects.

In other news, I'm the world's slowest knitter. (In reality, I start projects and forget about them.) Progress is being made. I have a fraction of one glove knit, lol.

Dinner was curried rice noodles with tofu and broccoli. (Minus the cilantro, because Alicia says cilantro smells like stinkbugs. I can't argue with her...because she's right...so I left it out.)