Wednesday

db is really the creative cook in our house. He can take any ingredients and make a fabulous meal out of it. (If only he had a blog! Naw...it would just be about hockey, and maybe shrooming.) On the other hand, I like recipes. We have dozens of cookbooks that I like to use regularly. I have a few standbys that I often return to, but when I have a handful of ingredients that I want to use, I'll turn to my cookbooks to guide the way. And what a selection of vegan cookbooks there are out there in the world, which is a great thing because it means more people are interested and more people are cooking vegan. Hurray! 

Yesterday, I had broccoli as my main ingredient that I wanted to use. I turned to Veganomicon to whip up these broiled polenta with broccoli mixed in. After putting all of my energy into the polenta, I put together a quick mixed greens salad with radicchio and raspberry vinaigrette with a healthy sprinkle of hemp seeds.

 Earlier in the day (I had the day off), I had time to bake another selection from the Flying Apron's Gluten-Free and Vegan Baking Book.

ginger wheel cookies 

I skipped the wheel spoke part with the fork tine making the pattern and just opted to sprinkle generously with sugar before baking. These are soft and chewy cookies. Very tasty.

Last week was a busy week. That usually means that work is eating up most of my time and I suppose it does. Three consecutive days of running around the warehouse does tire me out. There's also the day when I tend to the phones and web orders which is a lot of work for one person, so by three o'clock I'm pretty much worn out.

The upside of the week?

• Creole Stuffed Peppers and Mexican Millet from what else? The Veganomicon. Photos should follow once I can finally upload them. I'm having trouble loading photos right now.
• The long slow run (or LSD). Even though it was a tough run, I still felt great knowing that my training is coming along and I can feel my fitness improving each week. This is definitely good.
  
• The crocuses in the garden (once again photos should follow). We spent a good chunk of time in the garden Sunday doing the big spring clean up. I'm pretty determined to do as much of it as possible so that our homeowners (m&d) will be reluctant to bring in any landscapers.
  
• The St. Louis Blues. We went to the hockey game Saturday night. Yes the Blues lost and yes it was a deciding game for the team with regards to hopes for the play-offs, but it was actually a great game and I really felt it could go either way. db and I were sitting close to a fairly rowdy crowd and we were booed pretty heavily in our Blues jerseys. However, on our way to the game at the skytrain station this guy with a pretty serious mohawk saw db's Blues hat and went up to him and shook his hand. It was quite funny. So now we'll just enjoy the rest of the season for the Blues. Ah well, there's always next year.

it's here!

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm a little late I know but I do hope everyone had a nice holiday.

Yes it's here. The ultimate vegan cookbook (hey that's part of the title!) arrived under the tree (yes, we did say "no gifts". db and I did hold up the bargain, but we both know each other just that well to know that the other would buy one thing). Here it is. I will sing it's praises only after I've tried some recipes, but I've read through a good chunk of it and I have to start singing praises now because it is an entertaining read as well. If you've ever ventured over to the post punk kitchen blog you'll know what I mean.
For now you can see some pictures if you click here.

More later.