Red Pepper Cream Pasta with Baked Sweet Potatoes

Tonights dinner was just okay.  A little underwhelming.  I think I may have hyped it up too much and now I'm disappointed.  You can find the recipe here.  I pretty much followed it to the T.  The only sub I made was using jarred roasted red peppers instead of fresh.  That cut down on a lot of time and work.  Which I'm glad I did since I wasn't that impressed.  I think I made a few mistakes with this one.  I ran out of my bow tie noodles so I used the rest of my vermicelli noodles.  Not a good choice of noodles when you need it to pick up the sauce.  I also think I might not have cooked enough noodles.  There was not only too much sauce but it was also too rich for me, I barely finished a 1/4 of my bowl and had enough.  It wasn't that it tasted bad just missing something that I couldn't put my finger on.  For seasoning I used salt/pepper, red pepper flakes and a little paprika. 

The sweet potatoes were great.  I wish I cubed them a little bigger and didn't bake as long because they were a little too soft and I was looking for something a litte tougher but they were still good.  I chopped them up, sprinkled cinnamon, sugar and chili powder drizzled with olive oil and baked in the oven.  I had this with a side of good bread.  So all in all the bread was good, potatoes were great, pasta..eh...probably won't make it again. 

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

Veggie Chow Mein and Fresh Squeezed Orange Lemonade

Old pictures of Bella being a princess

 I hope my mom is wrong when she told me bad things happen in 3's but it seems to me that my life is heading that direction.  Bella has always been a princess in my book but now I think it's true...shes a REAL princess.  Other dogs get into bark, sticks..rocks even but not Bella.  She gets into bedazzled jewels.  Last night we got home around midnight.  We left bella in the bedroom for a second and when I came back in she was looking at me with some sort of jewel stuck to the cornea of her eye.  You couldn't miss it.  I think she just really wanted to be fancy.  After the whole ordeal I figured out where the jewel came from.  An old shirt of mine I got in New Orleans has the word NOLA covered with these jewels.  I had put the shirt on my bed that morning for just a minute and back to the closet it went.  One of those jewels must have fallen off and found it's way to Bella's eye.  Of all places...Bella's eye. 



Too bad I didn't get a picture of the jewel.  Here's just a picture of Bella being cute!

  Luckily UC Davis Vet Clinic is open 24 hours for emergencies.  We got over there within 30 minutes of it happening and they were able to get the jewel off of her eye.  Luckily it didn't have prongs or anything that punctured her eye.  It was just on the surface.  She now has an ulcer where the jewel was but it should heal fine with some drops they gave us.  Crisis averted!! 

On happier news I went shopping with my mom and sister yesterday and got a WOK!!  I've been wanting one and it was super cheap at Ikea.  Only $5!  I also got two jars for my homemade dressing and some cute dishes!  I love dandelions!   I know I said I was going to stay away from the kitchen until the house was back to normal but I just couldn't help myself.  Not only did I get a wok but I got a whole bag of lemons from my friend Ashley who has a tree in her backyard.

 I figured a simple stir fry or "chow mein" and some fresh squeezed lemonade would be simple enough.  I found the chow mein recipe here.  I made a few adjustments so see below for my version:

2 T olive oil
2 teaspoons of hot chili sesame oil
1 small onion chopped
1 celery stalk sliced
handful of baby carrots sliced
2 cloves of garlic chopped
2-3 cups of frozen stir fry veggies (mine was a mixture of broccoli, water chestnuts, baby corn, snap peas, mushrooms, carrots, red peppers)
5 ounces of veggie broth
3 T soy sauce
3 T Apple cider vinegar
1 T agave nectar
1 T cornstarch mixed with just a little bit of water
Cooked vermicelli noodles (I didn't really measure just took a few handfuls and cooked them)

Directions:
1.  Heat both oils in the wok over medium heat
2.  Add the oninos, carrots and celery stir fry for a minute or so
3.  Add in the frozen stir fry medley
4.  Stir fry until heated through add the garlic and stir fry another minute
5.  Add the broth, soy sauce, vinegar, agave and cornstarch.  Cook until the liquid starts to boil and thicken
6.  Add in the cooked noodles and mix well until all is incorporated and heated through (I started cooking the noodles around step 1-2)



I LOVE lemonade.  It's one of my all time favorite drinks.  So when one has an abundance of lemons...well duh I'm going to make lemonade! 

I have an old juicer my mom found at a garage sale awhile ago.  Perfect excuse to put it to use.  I also had some oranges we got at the farmers market last weekend so I figured we'd spice up normal lemonade with some added orange juice. 

Juice from 4 lemons

Juice from 3 oranges

4 Cups of water

3/4 Cup of agave nectar

Mix all together in a pitcher, chill in the fridge and serve with ice cubes.  Perfection!!

After everything the past week this meal made it all seem to go away.  =)  An hour in the kitchen does that to me.  The recipe I've been wanting to make since the farmers market last weekend is back on schedule.  Can't wait!  Creamy red pepper pasta with baked yams.  I got a tasty loaf of bread and bottle of moscato to go with it!  Stay tuned!! 

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

My kitchen is missing me

No meals to post.  I've been out of the kitchen and eating out the past few nights (Thanks Steph for the Chipotle coupon!!).  I'm sure I could manage to cook something in my pathetic of a house but I just can't find the energy.  We now have 4 machines in the house to dry everything and they are so loud that I can't stand being in the room for more than an hour at a time.  I don't know if it's the noise or the recycled air being blown around, or both, but it makes me feel like i'm in an airplane.  I don't do well in airplanes, they always make me sick so needless to say it's not ideal for cooking.  Plus I need to get some groceries and I just don't think it's worth it if I can't put all my effort into the food.  Plus I don't want the food to go bad before I get a chance to cook it.  I'll just have a reunion once the apartment is back to normal and cook the most awesome meal EVER!!  Well that's what I'm telling myself at least.  I honestly hate eating out so much (who would have thought I would ever say that!).  It's not that I mind eating out, I enjoy the occasional treat from the local restaurant, but every night is lame.  I prefer my own home cooked meals.  I prefer spending my money that way.  At least I live in Davis with plenty of vegan options while eating out. 

It looks like we are being pushed back to put in new carpet.  The space between my floor and the ceiling with dry wall from down stairs isn't drying like it should.  They took down the false ceiling and insulation but are trying to salvage the piece of drywall so they don't have to take that down and replace it.  They came by today with more machines and techniques to get it to dry.  Cross your fingers.  In the meantime replacing the flooring and getting everything back to normal is put on hold.  It's just crazy that water...something we all can't live without....can do SOO much damage.  Such a shame.  =/  On a postitive note we got a new toilet!  Woot!  =)  The water doesn't run anymore which helps me sleep at night. 

Since I don't have any photos to look at I figured I'd post a video my boss put together the night of the incident.  I look absolutely horrified in the video...rightfully so.  They have a big sense of humor so this should make you laugh.  Just to clear my name it wasn't actually "poopie water" and the smell was just from the moisture soaking into the carpet/wood.  They just wanted to play it up and make fun.  Enjoy.  =)

The meal after the "incident" -- Fried Cabbage

You can really learn a lot about someone based on how they react to a crisis.  In general I freak OUT!  Instead of using the adrenaline to my advantage I let it do the opposite.  I usually can't even figure out basic things to do.  Typically standing in one place yelling.."RICH....OMG....what do we do?" sums up my reaction.  My husband on the other hand is the complete opposite.  He stays calm, evaluates the situation, figures out what the first move needs to be, then acts.  That is why we are so perfect for each other.  While I'm standing there ... well freaking out for lack of a synonym ... he gets stuff done and trys to calm me down.  What would I do without him?? 

Monday night we got to experience our reactions to crisis first hand.  Lucky us!!!  Our toilet overflowed without our knowledge, flooded our living room and hence flooded the office I work at downstairs.  We live in an old building and the toilet constantly runs water.  We can sometimes get it to stop by wiggling the handle a certain way but it doesn't always work and sometimes it starts again on it's own.  So when the toilet started running water we didn't think anything of it.  I finally got up to try and get it to stop and walked into a puddle of water in my living room.  You can imagine my horror!!!  Then I proceed to freak out, finally settle enough to go downstairs to see if it's gone through to my office and to walk by the window and see the ceiling tiles and insulation hanging by a thread.  More freaking out ensues.  All awhile my husband has turned off the water, started soaking up water with towels, took our pots and pans downstairs to catch some of the water (not that it helped) and continue to try and calm me down.  What a guy!  Eventually I calmed down enough to call my boss/landlord who got a restoration company out to start the clean up process.  Lucky us we have insurance.  =) 

Here's a shot of the apartment now with all the lovely machines cleaning up the mess.  The bathroom is to the left of that doorway and the floor must slant into the living room because the water came right in.  That wood was under the carpet and is now almost 100% dry.  Hopefully only another day of these machines (they are so noisy!), and new carpet on Saturday!  Of course I have to wait a few weeks before the restoration company cleans and returns all of my towels.  Luckily my mom is to the rescue with plenty of towels for us to use in the interim.  My apartment didn't get the worst of it though.  Pretty much just the carpet had to be torn up and the machines put in to dry everything up.  Downstairs in my office got the worst.  The carpet torn up, ceiling tiles and insulation ripped out, not to mention the desks, computers, files that got drenched.  Luckily some of it they can salvage some we have to replace.  What a nightmare!! 

So needless to say I haven't done any cooking.  My kitchen table which is normally where I do my prepping is in the living room with stuff piled high (as you can partially see) and I only have one pot to use for cooking since the rest are soiled with water filtered through the floor/ceiling, mixed with pieces of the drywall/insulation.  Not the ideal situation for making a meal.  Last night we had chipotle and tonight I just wasn't in the mood to go out for dinner.  I had food that needed to be eaten in the fridge.  I figured I could put something together with my one pot.  I had half a head of cabbage left over from the soup I made so I figured I'd make some pan fried cabbage over noodles.  Those yams I was telling you about are just going to have to wait.  =/

I started the cabbage and put my pasta in the microwave to cook...about 2 minutes later all the power in the apartment goes out.   Apprently my microwave triped the breakers because of all the machines they have going...Nice!!  So after about 10 minutes of not being able to find the breaker box (my husband isn't home mind you), calling my boss to come help me in the dark, him fixing it and getting the power back on, I try to be smarter than the system and move the microwave in my bedroom since I thought it was on a different breaker but no...it proceeds to blow the breakers again.  I got the message loud and clear..NO pasta tonight!

I'm not going to let it get me down though...I took some left over rice and added it to the pot with the cooked cabbage and heated it up.  So now we have some fried cabbage with rice instead of pasta.  Here's what I came up with:

I heated about 1 Tablespoons of olive oil, along with about 2-3 T of butter in my pot, chopped one shallot and added it to the pot with 2 teaspoons of brown sugar.  Let that cook down a little.  Added the chopped cabbage (I used half of a small head) and let simmer until cooked.  Added the left over brown rice and heated through.  It didn't need anything extra, no salt, pepper or other spices.  I ate with a few slices of left over rosemary bread  that I got at the farmers market this weekend.

I have to say for a half kitchen, one pot and no microwave it was a pretty good dinner.  Although the night warranted half a bag of skittles for dessert.  =).  I'm off to bed early tonight.  I'm still trying to catch up from my lack of sleep on monday night/tuesday morning and honestly I can't handle much more drama tonight...I figured my bed is calling my name.  Here's to hoping the next few nights are uneventful.   Maybe I'll stick to eating out in the meantime.  =) 

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler

Cure a Cold with Cabbage Soup

I know I just made soup but you can never have too much soup.  Plus it's cold and raining out.  I was feeling slightly under the weather and I can honestly say I felt better after eating this.  Okay so maybe it won't "cure" your cold but it definitely won't do you any harm. 

I went to the farmers market today and picked up a cabbage and it was just begging to be added to a soup.  It was really my pleasure to ablige.  I found the recipe by doing a quick google search.  I wanted something easy since I wasn't feeling all that great.  I made a few adjustments.

Added chopped baby carrots
Red pepper flakes
A few dashs of crystal hot sauce
italian seasoning
I used a can of diced tomatoes instead of italian roasted

I added the carrtos in with the onion/garlic.  When I added the broth I brought to a boil but didn't add the cabbage until the carrots were soft.  Added the cabbage and let cook for only about 2-3 minutes.  Added the tomatoes, red pepper flakes, hot sauce, and italian seasoning.  Let it cook for another 10-15 minutes. 

Perfect end to my saturday.  My wonderful parents came over and helped me unpack the last few boxes from when we moved last June.  We did some decorating and I feel like the apartment is finally becoming more like home.  I still have a few projects to do and things to get to make the finishing touches but that is really never ending job. 

I also picked up some yams at the farmers market.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I can't wait to cook them.  Stay Tuned.  I hope everyone enjoys there three day weekend!

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

Homemade Salsa Using Canned Tomatoes

So I know this goes against my last post about trying to be better about buying the right ingredients for the right season but I already had the tomatoes and I had a craving for salsa.  Ripe tomatoes in season would have tasted better but this was pretty darn good for canned tomatoes.  You can find the recipe here.  I didn't have fresh parsley so I just tossed in some dry (didn't measure).  I also didn't have a lime so I just threw in some lemon juice (didn't measure either).  Lime would have been ideal.  I also was out of jalapenos which never happens but I did have some of the juice left so I just threw some of that in there to add some spice. 

Since just using this for tortilla chips seemed like a waste of energy, I decided to make a burrito.  I used some left over rice from yesterday, melted cheddar daiya, salsa and some tapatio.  Voila!   Dinner just like that.  =)

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

Italian "Wedding" Soup

So it's rainy and gloomy again.  It's looking more like winter then spring.  Oh how the earth loves to tease me.  Although I don't know much about agriculture but I'm sure the farmers are enjoying the rain.  I've been reading a book recommended by a friend "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and it makes me feel a little guilty for wishing for the sun, because I know the earth needs the rain.  So as much as I LOVE the warm weather I will resist praying to the sun god to make the rain go away.  The book is a great read so far.  It's a true story of a family who "lives off the earth" for a year.  They decide to only eat/buy food that they grow themself, or comes locally to avoid food that travels across the world.  It's very eye opening.  It makes me think a lot more about not just the food I'm eating but WHEN I'm eating it and WHERE it's coming from.  Like I've said so many times I try my best to make the best choices when cooking but when I read something like this I know I still have so much to learn.  =) 

Yesterday I was inspired by Amy''s canned soup, Hearty Italian Soup.  The rain and cold makes me want to eat soup night and day.  So I decided to try my hand at an Italian Wedding Soup.  Typically made with meatballs, I veganized it.  I didn't follow a recipe for this, just through together what I thought would go well together.  I don't often "throw" something together.  I'm not the best at creating new meals.  I usually have to follow a recipe, so I'm VERY proud of this since I came up with it all by myself.  There are a few adjustments that I would make next time to perfect it, but this was really good and totally hit the spot.  Some of the measurements are estimated because I didn't really measure everything. 

Before I post the recipe, please enjoy my new garage sale find!!!  Don't you love my new vintage corningware!!  I got three all the same style but different sizes.  Love them!!!

Italian Wedding Soup

1/2 Cup Cooked Brown Rice *Optional
1 smal onion
4 garlic cloves (Next time I would use more, because I love garlic)
1/2 small shallot *optional, I threw this in there because it needed to be used before going bad
Tablespoon or so of olive oil
1 Can of chopped tomatoes
Tablespoon or two of chopped fresh basil
1 Tablespoon of Oregano
1 Can of white beans
4 Cups of veggie broth *I used no chicken broth for the first time but veggie broth would work fine
Vegan Meatballs
            1/2 "tube/roll" of Gimme Lean "beef"
            1/4 Cup or so (didn't measure) panko bread crumbs
            2-3 leaves of basil chopped
            A few dashs of onion/garlic powder
            Few dashs of oregano
            Red pepper flakes
Spinach (I had some left over stuffing from the raviolis so I just used that and added it at the end since it was already cooked) I'm not sure how much I used...
Salt and pepper

1.  Start the brown rice if using
2.  Chop the onions, garlic, shallot and basil
3.  Heat the olive oil, add the onions, garlic and shallot until soft
4.  Add the can of tomatoes, basil, oregano and a little salt and pepper.  Heat to saute for about 5 minutes or so. 
5.  Add the can of beans, stir, then add the broth.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes or so.  In the meantime put together the meatballs.  Mix all the ingredients together (it will be really sticky) and mold into small meatballs
6.  Add the meatballs and cook until heated through
7.  Add the cooked spinach until warm
8.  Season further with salt and pepper if needed. 

Didn't realize this was so blurry..sorry!

Meatballs

Before bringing to boil

All finished.  Aint it pretty!

I felt it needed more spice so I put a ton of crystal louisiana hot sauce which gave it the kick it needed.  Next time I would maybe add a few peppers or red pepper flakes?  I loved the meatballs I made the last time with spaghetti but this time they weren't my fav.  I might would leave them out next time.  When I ate Amy's soup she had garbanzo beans which reminded me of meatballs, not that they taste like them, but it might be good in this soup.  Anyhoo...I loved the soup and I think y'all will too.  I had with some left over foccacia with carmelized onions.  I then had some sorbet for dessert.  Is it wierd that I enjoy eating it in a martini glass now.  It's just so much more classy really....hmm...maybe I'll have a cinna bun to top it off??  Don't judge me...I don't like wasting food!!

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!