this past week

I've been juicing every day! It's crazy. Even right now I'm craving some juice, but I'm just feeling a bit lazy about cleaning the machine.

I've realized that I need an extra 15 minutes in the morning so I can juice and then clean the juicer.
I make enough so when I come home I can have juice in the evening. I use to come home and have a beer.


For a week I was hooked on a beet, apple, pear, and ginger combo. It had that deep red colour from the beets, and the pear gave it a nice texture. It was the best.

This week it's been anything goes. I do find apple, carrot, and ginger is a good base to start with. Today I made pineapple, celery, carrot, pear, and ginger. I stopped taking pictures though because I don't want to bore you with endless pictures of juice.

As for the rest of my week...

The time flies by so quickly.  It's just one juice after another and then the week is gone.

Wildlife Rescue has been going well. I'm getting use to the routine of it. I've started working on my next level of volunteering so I can take on more responsibility. The staff are so nice and helpful. I can see myself volunteering there for a while. It does get quite busy in the spring so I'm glad I started in the winter when it's quieter so I can ease into the job.

There was red tailed hawk in this past week. I've never seen one so close-up before (probably a good thing). They are quite impressive. He stared at me as if he had no fear, and maybe even as if he could kill me.  The rest of the birds are mostly pigeons with the occasional robin or thrush.
***

Wednesday we went to see the Blues as they were in town to face the Canuckleheads (as we call them). db and I sat up in the nosebleeds and watched the game. I enjoyed it even though the Blues gave the Canucks two goals as if gifts. After that game I decided I wasn't going to watch hockey for the rest of the season, but they were in Edmonton next and I just had to watch because I suspected they'd win, and guess what?

The last 3 days have been work, work, work. I haven't had any time to bake or do anything fun like that. Maybe tomorrow I'll try a new recipe from my brunch book. I should make something nice for my day off, something to go with my juice.

Vacation

I'm back after a little vacation, and then a week of just getting back into my work routine.

My mom was visiting for a week, and I took a few days off. I barely opened the computer at all, so I haven't been making my rounds.

We had a nice visit. Here's what we did.

The Brackendale  eagles are famous. You may have heard about the annual eagle count that is done in early January.

This year the count was on the low side (956). On average there is around 1600 a year. Imagine at the peak what it must be like!

We started in Squamish at the official "Eagle Viewing" site, and then we drove further along one of the roads to see if we could see others.

That's where we spotted this one atop a tree.

Then these two (a juvenile and an adult) were perched next to a creek.

We drove along Paradise Valley road where all of the trees are loaded with moss. It's not that uncommon to see trees covered in moss on the we(s)t coast, but this whole area is unique because it had tree after tree after tree covered. It turns out that it's a protected area funded by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

 

On the way back to the highway, we spotted another eagle. It's near the top of one of the trees on the left.

I zoomed in as far as I could with my camera and tried to steady it on the car to snap some photos. I did get a few nice ones. I tried taking a video, but whenever I selected the film option, the eagle would stop moving all together. I swear he knew what I was up to.

They are beautiful birds, and I feel very fortunate to have seen so many in such a small area.

Near our place we see them occasionally, but they are soaring so far above that we never really get to admire their beauty. At our last place we would see more because of the sloping green belt that was fairly open, so I think the eagles like to hunt there. We're more enclosed by the forest where we are now. I do love watching them soar high above in the sky though.

Thursday we went to Seattle. We started off at Pike Place Market. I think mom really enjoyed it.
Here's the flower area. In the summer it was full of fresh flowers. It was nice to see it was still vibrant full of beautiful dried flower arrangements. I think if I lived in Seattle I would buy my flowers here, and always have an arrangement in my home.

I didn't really take many pictures in Seattle. The weather was pretty damp, and we were more about getting to and from places. Plus, I had taken so many pictures of the market and downtown last time we were there. I guess I should put them on my flickr page. I'll do that after this post.

I did, of course, take pictures of our food. We were seeking out a vegan restaurant on Broadway Ave, and couldn't find it. We finally went into the grocery store and asked if someone knew of it only to learn that it was now the grocery store!

So we went back to Pizza Pi, which was fine with me. Mom had never been, and db and I were ready to try something else on the menu.

db had a calzone, and I had this lovely pizza with a sundried tomato cream sauce topped with olives, spinach, and artichokes. Of course they use teese on all of their pizzas.

Mom had one of their sandwiches. It was very good food.

Mom asked why they didn't use the daiya cheese, and they said it didn't work well with their ovens. I'm kind of glad in a way because teese really is a good product, and daiya has taken the vegan cheese world by storm. I'd like to see teese continue to thrive as well.

We did bring back a dozen donuts from Mighty O donuts (I really like their website as well so check it out). I mean...vegan donuts! Need I say more? They also serve a very nice coffee. If you're going to the coffee capital, you should at least have coffee. There is of course an obscene number of Starbucks (it's Starbuck's hometown after all), but there are also numerous independent coffee shops serving their own roasts or a local roast.

I really like Seattle. Next time we go, I'll take more pictures. I guess you can just go to Google Maps and wander the streets on the street view, but I like the personal photo better (not my photo by the way).

Of course it wouldn't be a fun vacation without the girls. Prima and Gigi loved having mom here.

Prima sometimes gets a little overwhelmed when there are too many people to keep track of. It's mostly just db and I so she hops from one lap to the other. She likes to be the center of attention all of the time. With mom here, she wasn't the center of attention, but did still get a lot of pets from all of us. She's very needy. 

Gigi particularly liked having the sofa bed open in the living room. Some days we never made up the sofa because we knew we'd be out all day, and the girls liked having the bed out to lounge on.


Even after mom left, I kept the duvet out for them to sleep on.

The cats had a nice vacation as well, and they really deserved it after the craziness of the holidays with trees in their room, people for dinner. They really needed the break! Ha.

Juicing fun

Mango, apple & banana. I tried the puree disc option that came with my juicer. We had one overripe mango, and one perfectly ripened mango; it was a perfect opportunity to try the puree disc.

The mango pureed pretty well. The smaller portions stayed pulpy so there were some chunky bits in the juice, but that was expected and we didn't really mind. The banana went through very smoothly. Blender? No thanks.

I switched to the juicer disc and added some apples to make our juice. Very tasty.

So, the puree disc was a nice surprise. It made a very creamy smoothie.

My next creation was an empty-the-fruit-bowl juice.

Our fresh produce box gets delivered once a week, and was on its way, so I decided to juice the rest of the fruit we had left. It was all pears left over in the bowl, and just one apple. I zipped some fresh ginger through (we love the zesty ginger flavour in our juices), and then added a carrot, a beet, and the fruit.
The beet gave the juice the beautiful colour. The picture actually doesn't bring out the full red colour that it really was. The beet was a little tougher to juice. I am reluctant to put any force on the food plunger since everything pretty much runs through by itself, and they recommend that you don't use any force, but the beet needed a little push. I think that's okay. Bottom line, the juice was refreshing, and felt like the pick-me-up I needed.

(P.S. db thinks I might be working for Breville because I take photos of the juice next to the juicer. I assure you I'm not working for them, I just like the backdrop.) 

lemon cashew crepes

This is the brunch book. You saw my photos of the Tofu Benny? Let me refresh your memory from my Christmas Day post.

There's been a recipe in the book that I've wanted to try, but was a little intimidated at the idea of making crepes. It seems silly because I've made injera, tortillas, and canneloni crepes. So could crepes be that much different? Yes.

I did have some success, but I think I would have had better success if I had the proper tools i.e. a thinner spatula, and maybe even a crepe pan. Yes, my regular frying pan worked okay, but it's a bit too large, so I couldn't get a uniform size to the crepes.

That's okay though because they were delicious.

The filling is a lemon cashew cream, and they were topped with a blueberry sauce. I put the traditional dusting of powdered sugar to top them off. I have to say it was all worth the effort.

Michelle Obama featured in fur-free ad.

Woo-hoo! I was so glad to see this, and very happy to see that it made the news.   It's great to see powerful and influential women say no to fur. You can also read more on PETA's site.

Run Holiday Vegan Run update

I'm running, I'm running. I haven't written about my running much lately, and that was mainly because I wasn't running much lately.

I did take a solid 2 weeks off from running, and just did a little yoga to still feel like I was making some sort of attempt to keep in shape. Since Christmas day I've been back at it, building up my endurance again (how quickly it goes). Christmas morning was cool and beautifully sunny outside. There weren't many runners out that morning, and the one I did see wished me a Merry Christmas.

It was a little icy in parts. I had to watch my footing when crossing the creek bridges since they ice up a little. It was a glorious run. I hope to make it a Christmas tradition from now on.

We had such dry weather that I really was trying to take advantage of our luck. A couple of days after Christmas I ran, and it was another clear and frosty morning. I decided to run to the bottom of the hill towards the inlet because I suspected that the ground would be drier there. However, once down by the inlet, I discovered the sidewalks were more slippery that they had been at home. I tried to run on the crunchy grass until I went into the park where I could run the trail. The trail was hard from the ground freezing, but the traction was so much better. I ran until I thought I'd had enough, and then even managed to run up the hill home. That's the first time I've done that, and it felt fine! It took me almost 10 minutes to run up it, but I did it.

New Year's Day I wanted to have another run like I did on Christmas Day, but it was pouring. I stayed in, hoping to run later in the day, but the rain never eased up.

The Sunday after New Year's (oh that's this past Sunday!) I had better luck. Even though it looked pretty dark around our place, I could see the sky breaking up down at the inlet. I loaded some new music onto my ipod (Transglobal Underground), and headed out. It was one of those tough days when my legs feel heavier than they are, and all I want to do is stop.

I ran to the inlet with plans of running the trail again, but once there I had an achy calf and achilles so I thought I should ease off and stick to the paved trail with the strollers & cyclists. Without planning to, I ran further than expected. I knew I wanted to do a long run and went for it, forgetting that I should just increase by 10%. Oops. I was too far into my run to stop, so I kept going.

I'm a little sore today. Tomorrow I'll try to take it a bit easier and do a short run before going to the wildlife rescue.

CBC News - Canada - Setting the stage for a spring election

What do you think? Is this Harper's plan?

CBC News - Canada - Setting the stage for a spring election

Juice Vegan Juice

Here it is. This was the best gift ever. I've been juicing since I took it out of the box.

db got an excellent deal on the juicer, and jumped at the chance to bring this into our home.

It has a puree disc and a juicing disc, so I can do softer fruits as well (like bananas, mango, berries etc) and make smoothies right from the juicer.

This afternoon I felt like a little pick up so I made us some juice from pineapple, apple, cucumber and ginger. Delicious.

I love this machine. Is it possible to love a machine? Well, I love what this machine can make for us. 

A simple New Year's resolution is to make more juice!

I can't wait to make my first all veggie juice!

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

CBC News - Politics - PM seeks Parliament shutdown until March

Excuse me, but what is going on here?! This government is out of control...no wait...it is taking too much control. I can't believe this is going ahead. Surely, no one is really going to let them shut down Parliament until such a late date.

I know I'm going to write my MP about this.

CBC News - Politics - PM seeks Parliament shutdown until March

Christmas Day

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, and are all very stuffed with their favorite foods. Um...I forgot to take pictures of our dinner last night, but I can assure you it looked as delicious as it tasted. We had wild mushroom & butternut squash ravioli with a simple spicy tomato sauce. db brought out a Super Tuscan wine he's been saving for a number of years. It was smooth and warming. We also had a spinach salad with pear and balsamic. It was a nice simple dinner.

I do have a photo of our Christmas morning breakfast though.

I know, I know. You're saying, "what is it?" It's from my Vegan Brunch cookbook, and it's called Tofu Benny! I marinated the tofu, pan-fried it. The bottom is home fries with green pepper and onion. I opted for the home fries base over the English muffin, because I love potatoes and could probably eat them every day. I also didn't have any English muffins. There is also some tomato in the middle with a little liquid smoke, and on top is the hollandaise sauce, which was a little strange because it really tasted like hollandaise sauce! The texture of it reminded me of that non-vegan eggy sauce, but the flavour really was so much better.

db was impressed as well, and I always know I've come up with something good when he's impressed. He's such a good cook. 

It was a nice way to start our morning, and a great breakfast after my run.

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you're all having a restful day.

It's fairly quiet here in whoville. The cats have finally settled down (I think).

It's clear and cool here. We didn't get any snow for Christmas (I was hoping, but no luck), but it made for an easy run this morning. I couldn't think of a better way to start such a beautiful sunny day than go for a run. The other runners I saw out there wished me a Merry Christmas as they passed. It was nice.

For db and I (and most of us) it's all about the food. So without further delay here's the food.

The Christmas Eve menu started with Hot and Sour Soup, and it lived up to its name. db did a beautiful job on the soup. The wine was a Gewurztraminer by Cono Sur winery, which I couldn't really taste by the time I finished my soup because the spiciness was so strong. So I waited until my mouth cooled down to finish my wine.

Our main dish was a recipe from The Artful Vegan, our favorite special occasion vegan cookbook. We made the Cajun-Crusted Tempeh with Lemon-Caper Dill Cream and Braised Collard Greens served with Pecan Dirty Rice.

The lemon-caper dill cream was a cashew based cream, and I think I could almost eat this daily it was so good!

The Cajun-crusted tempeh was dipped in a vegan aioli sauce that db had made earlier in the day, and then dredged through the cajun spice mix I put together.

The Pecan dirty rice was actually "almond" dirty rice because I realized at the last minute that I didn't have any pecans. Fortunately, almonds subbed quite nicely.

The wine we paired with this dish was Smoking Loon Viognier from California. It was a very nice wine with the spiciness of the cajun tempeh.

At midnight we wished each other a Merry Christmas, kissed the cats (even though Gigi doesn't always appreciate kisses), and exchanged our gifts. It was a wonderful and delicious Christmas Eve.

It looks like Christmas Day's menu will be another feast. I'll post more on that later.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Marie Dubas - La Charlotte prie Notre-Dame (1934)

This is something my inlaws listen to every Christmas. Even though we can't be with them at this time, db and I found this on you tube and listened to it on Christmas Eve. It's a tradition in his family, and I'd like to share it.

The Christmas Tree Adventure

This year we returned to the organic Christmas tree farm we've been going to for the last 3 years.

It's about an hours drive from our place, but we think it's worth it. We support a small business, and we get to choose and cut our own tree.

It was snowing that day (Dec 13th), and by the time we reached the farm the snow was really starting to accumulate. It was so beautiful to be out in the country in the snow.

After a good search, we decided on this little tree. It was a bit narrower so it'd fit nicely into our space. Our plan was to put it on the ledge between our two living room windows, so we'd have to crop the top a bit. db took out his tape measure and checked the height. It would be a good fit.

We paid for the tree and put it into our tree bag, and it just fit into the car with the seats down. We were ready to go, but then db realized that he couldn't find the car key. So the search began.

Everyone there (the family working that day and a couple of friends) began to search. The snow was piling up quickly. Someone brought a bucket of hot water our and poured water around the car, and then around the spot where we had cut the tree. We took everything out of the car, and searched every inch of it. The tree came out of the bag, but nothing. No car key.

I took a rake and tried to retrace our steps through the farm, but realized the impossibility of finding anything in the snow.

It was definitely a "needle in a haystack" kind of situation.

Plan B. Get a key cut. One of the men told us that there is a place in Mission (or Abbotsford - I can't remember which) that will cut keys for you.

db goes inside and starts calling, but we need to initiate this through the dealership, and it's Sunday and dealerships are closed.

db tries to reach a co-worker who doesn't live too far away. She always has her cell phone with her and on. He could get the work keys from her  (it's a company car), and then drive to work to get the spare set in Vancouver (about an hour and a half from where we are). He can't reach her. 

db calls the company's roadside assistance while I wait outside standing around the fire with the family and friends getting acquainted. I also take another look out in the field, because it can't hurt.

Roadside assistance is no help. There's nothing else to do, but get the spare set of keys. Someone wisely suggests that we rent a car to go get the other keys. Furthermore, one of the family members is heading back into Vancouver and could drop us at the rental place.

We book a car at the Abbotsford airport since it's the closest open location. The roads are looking quite bad because of the snow. The woman who drives us to the airport is super nice. It turns out she owns a place on the Sunshine Coast she rents out to friends, but gives us her card because she would be willing to rent to us as well. She drops us at the airport. db and I are the only people at the airport who don't work there.

We get the rental car. We drive home to get db's work keys (an hour?). We drive to his work (another 45?). Then we drive from Vancouver back to Mission (over an hour). We pick up the car with the tree in it. db follows me out. I'm in the rental. It's now around 7:30pm. It's snowy, dark, and it's Sunday so there's very little traffic. The highway does seem to have been salted so it's a bit clearer, but it's by no means completely clear. It's slow going.

We're driving from Mission to the Abbotsford airport to drop off the car, and I see an airplane sign, and turn off the collector route, thinking it's a short cut. It turns out to be an airstrip and not the airport. We really have never been to Abbotsford so we don't really know where we are. We turn around. On our way back to the highway, there's a tow truck in the middle of the road in the process of pulling a mini-van out of a seriously deep ditch. We have to wait about 15-20 minutes in what seems the middle of nowhere while this accident is cleared.

Finally we get back to the highway and find the airport (it's around 8:45 or so by now), drop the car, and head home (another hour).

Our $30 tree cost about $110 in the end. At least we were fine after driving what seemed every road from here to Mission and Vancouver and back in poor conditions.

The plan had been to grocery shop, pick up the tree, come home and bake Christmas cookies. The cookies got made, but later that week so I was a little late sending them out to family.

The cats were very happy to see us after being alone all day and night. We were happy to see them too, an of course we were exhausted from the very stressful day.

Tonight we decorate our tree. I hope it looks even more beautiful than I could hope because it is a very unique tree for us this year.

Oh yes, I forgot about db's company having to get a new key made because it has a chip in it, so a completely new one had to be made for the car.

Also this past Thursday, someone from the tree farm called us to say they found the key (it had rained all week) about 10' from the where we cut the tree. We drove out on Sunday to pick up the now useless key, but the remote to unlock the car still works. db also decided to wear his jacket with the zippered pockets just to be safe.

CBC News - Canada - Tories pondered weaker emission targets for oil and gas

It's very distressing to think that our government could be taking actions like this.

CBC News - Canada - Tories pondered weaker emission targets for oil and gas

I'm so disappointed in this government for so many reasons. I feel like we're never being permitted to know what's really going on unless something gets leaked or a whistle blower comes forward.

Can't we be a leading nation? Can't we be a nation that aims for something greater? Am I too much of an idealist for believing our country could make the necessary cuts to greenhouse gases?

Food this week.

Brrr, it's cold! Snow is on the way for us. This will be the first weekend of snow, which means unploughed streets, cars getting stuck on hills, buses re-routing or not showing up at all, and all of that fun stuff. Hopefully, my commute to and from work will not be too disrupted.

So that's the outside. Inside, we've been keeping toasty warm of course, and have been eating warming foods.

db made a stuffed focaccia; something he hasn't done in a long time (as in ever since I and then he gave up cheese and became vegan). Now that we have daiya in our life, he realized that it was possible to make a stuffed focaccia. He also put chanterelles (did I mention he found more a couple of weeks ago in our trusty spot in the woods?) and pine nuts in the bread. Oh yum.

I had cooked a Sugar Pumpkin with intentions on making a pie, but...of course...my busy schedule kept delaying the inevitable.

My co-worker, jh, had mentioned how someone had brought a pumpkin soup to the potluck, and how much she enjoyed it. Just her talking about the soup made me want to make my own.

I even had Sour Supreme on hand to put a little in the center to help cool the soup's heat. It turned out quite well, and was perfect on a chilled night in whoville.

Now if I can just get to the baking!

Cold weather running

I'm faced with a chilly run tomorrow. It's clear and cold here; the temperature hovers around zero through the day and then dips down at night. The upside is the sunshine and dry conditions, which are great for running.

I went out Sunday and had a nice short run. Once I was warmed up I was fine. Even with the wind in my face, I was doing okay. I just kept going at a nice easy pace and got my run in.

Tomorrow morning I want to take advantage of the clear weather again and go a little further. It will feel great and I'll be so happy to have gone a longer distance, but I hate that first step outside, leaving behind the warmth of my home to step out into a chilled air. That's the toughest part of the run for me right now. Even if I feel sluggish, I know how to deal with that; I can talk myself through the most difficult of times. But to step out into the cold in just my running gear...brrr!

It's going to be a cold one tomorrow.

In whoville this week...

I've been busy, but I like being busy. I'm adjusting to my new 6 days a week schedule. Sunday is truly a day of rest for me now, except that I have to spend it getting all the other chores done Fortunately we have an organic produce box delivered once a week. Otherwise I don't know when I'd grocery shop. db actually does most of the grocery shopping while I'm at work on Saturdays.

Bottom line though, I'm loving my life right now and that's a good place to be for me.

My 4 hours a week at Wildlife Rescue has so far been very exciting. The jobs could be called "mundane" (laundry, dishes, cleaning out the pigeon aviary), but I find it all part of the cycle of care for the animals (well, it's really all birds right now).

There seem to be new birds when I arrive each week. Part of me finds this exciting, but it also bothers me because I know they're at the rescue because they're injured in some way. There are always pigeons. City life takes its toll on pigeons, and they have all sorts of injuries. Once they're through the tough part of recovery, they move outside to the aviary. There's even a cool room they spend a couple of nights in before going to the aviary so they get acclimatized to the outdoors before being moved to the aviary.

I seem to be the one who doesn't hesitate to take on the pigeon aviary first. It's a lot of pigeon poop to clean, but I don't mind. I like setting up new food and clean dry towels for them on some of their perches. I've never really taken much notice of pigeons since they always seem to be just part of the cityscape, but seeing them in this new context gives me a new point of view. They really are unique, and each one seems to have its own personality. I'm basing this on how they react to me being in the cage. I could be way off on this one, but each one does seem unique.

This week I did another round of cleaning the indoor cages for the pigeons, and then I couldn't avoid it anymore, I had to take on a more challenging bird: a Varied Thrush.

With a bird that moves so quickly, and is already stressed, I was convinced it would escape and I would spend the rest of my shift trying to catch it, but fortunately, I found it easier than expected and remarkable that I could handle such a flighty bird (I'm sure it won't be so easy all of the time, but at least it helps me feel more confident going in next time). Next stop gulls. I have yet to deal with any really larger birds.

I'm always nervous that I'm going to injure the bird or do more harm than good, but I'm realizing that I'm more capable of handling them than I thought. I guess that's part of the learning curve at the Rescue.

***

Some other good news this week is that I got a raise! I mean I received an real raise in recognition of the work I've been doing for this independent little store. It was completely unexpected and very exciting for me. It's been a long time since I've been rewarded for the work I've done.

My other job (I have 2 part-time jobs) gives everyone a small percent raise once a year and it is not negotiable, and it is pennies. We're expected to do so much, and are paid so little.

This new job has been such a breath of fresh air for me. I really feel like I'm contributing to a small business' success. That is rewarding in itself.

***

Food from this past week in whoville

Almond cookies. This is a Veganomicon recipe. I need to adjust it a little since I substituted the all purpose flour with some of my other flours (oat, rice, spelt). I'm still learning, and am determined to come up with a perfect cookie flour blend.

Two books arrived in the store this week, Flying Aprons Gluten-Free Vegan Baking Book & Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I've already mentioned the latter of these two, and I was certain that I would buy that book when it arrived, but then...the Flying Apron's book arrived. It looks like such a great book with so many delicious looking recipes.

The next time we go to Seattle, we're definitely going to the Flying Apron Bakery.

Another delicious item from our kitchen this week was a pumpkin risotto. I absolutely love risotto. I love making it, as well as eating it. This recipe is one of my favorites because the pumpkin makes the risotto so creamy. Now that we have daiya in our lives, we can also add a richer cheesey flavour, bringing it all together.

Toronto Humane Society President Speaks Out About Allegations - CityNews

Toronto Humane Society President Speaks Out About Allegations - CityNews

I am absolutely horrified by this news. This is exactly why we need strong animal cruelty laws so animals can be protected from such abusers.

I think it's a good time to remember this quote from Gandhi, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

We've got a long way to go, but I believe we're on the right road when we can recognize the acts taken by the Toronto Humane Society as criminal.