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Sunday, November 13th, 2011
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7:28 pm - Music I listen to in the dark.
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| Saturday, October 29th, 2011
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12:10 pm - Ahhh, I can't stop buying Vera scarves!
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| Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
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9:34 pm - Scarf shopping spree.
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| Thursday, June 17th, 2010
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9:59 pm - How's bout a recipe? Chunky Veggie Soup n Spelt Dumplings
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I had some produce to use up so I made this easy and comforting soup! The dumplings were an afterthought and I'm glad I made them. Extra comfort food-iness!
2 TB Earth Balance margarine 1/2 tsp. Vegemite (optional) 2 onions, cut into chunks 3 large carrots, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tomato, cut into chunks 2 ribs of celery, sliced 3 small yellow potatoes, peeled and cubed 1 small broccoli crown, seperated into florets 4 -1" slices of firm or extra firm tofu water or veggie broth 1 TB olive oil 1 tsp white miso 1 TB summer savory 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 1 TB soy sauce 2 TB cornstarch mixed with 2 TB water salt and pepper to taste
For Dumplings: 1 cup flour (all purpose or white spelt) 2 tsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 1/3 cup plain rice, almond or soy milk
Heat margarine in a soup pot. Add Vegemite and stir around to let it dissolve with the margarine. Saute onions and garlic briefly then add all veggies and water to cover. Bring to a boil and add olive oil, miso, dried herbs/spices, soy sauce and cornstarch mixture. Lower heat and let simmer until veggies are tender.
Meanwhile saute slices of tofu in olive oil with salt and pepper until browned on both sides. Cut into cubes and set aside.
Prepare dumpling dough: Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add rice milk and stir until dough forms. Add a little more rice milk if too dry.
When veggies are tender add tofu and bring soup back to a boil. Season with salt and black pepper. Add balls of dough by the teaspoon on top of the boiling broth. Cover and let boil for 5 minutes. Dough will double in size.
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| Sunday, February 21st, 2010
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9:04 pm - More food posts!
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Thought I'd post some stuff here from my food blog. Sorry don't have much to say except that making food and enjoying it on the weekends is what I look forward to these days. The weekdays are so busy and tiring that I like to relax as much as possible with some good food and a book. Hope everyone had a good weekend, it's going to be another crazy week.
Yesterday's post:
 Another meze lunch with lots of things to nibble on and again with the mediterranean theme. I just got a new cookbook, "The Greek Vegetarian" and I wanted to use it today. I made from it Eggplant Puree with Walnuts and Fava Bean Stew with Mint. I also made hummus and a greek salad.
 Hummus on the left and Eggplant Puree with walnuts (Makedonitiki Melitzanosalata) on the right. The eggplant puree was delicious and garlicky. The walnuts are first ground to a paste and then processed with roasted eggplant pulp.
 Fava bean stew with mint (Koukia Stifado me Dyosmo). Delicious and filling tender fava beans with a base of tomatoes, red onions, garlic, mint and dill. I added dill because I'm crazy about it and a lot of greek dishes have fresh dill so it seemed rather fitting.
 Greek salad with cucumbers, olives, red onions and "Betta Feta", a tofu based faux feta from The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook. Drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice.
 First of the jasmine blooms I've seen this year.
 Buster eating pita.
 Dessert is banana bread that I made with the biggest ripest bananas that I found in our fruit bowl. The cake sunk in the middle a bit because of my impatience. I peeked in the oven way too many times!
Today's post:
 Last night for dinner I made pita pizzas using whole wheat pita bread, tomato sauce, fresh sliced tomatoes, red onions, mushrooms, tangy black olives, faux feta and oregano. Delicious!
 For lunch today I made this tasty penne dish with walnut-dill pesto, sauteed garlic, eggplant, zucchini, tomato, mushrooms and olives. A gorgeous symphony of flavors!
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| Saturday, February 6th, 2010
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8:16 pm - It's all Greek to me. (xposted from the vegan mouse blog)
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I went to the library a few days ago and checked out a Greek cookbook called "The Olive and The Caper". It's not a vegetarian book but there are so many appealing vegetarian recipes in it that I wanted to try out this weekend. I should say that my interest in Greece and greek cooking has been sparked up again because of a suspense novel that I'm reading that takes place in this magical place. (The book is My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart by the way.)
 First up, Eggplant and Yogurt Dip. I swapped greek yogurt for plain unsweetened soy yogurt. It's a beautiful mixture of eggplant pulp, yogurt, garlic, red onions and salty black olives. This was amazing. I'm definitely going to make this for parties.
 Next, "Russian" Salad. Green beans, carrots, potatoes, in a lemon-caper mayonnaise (vegan mayo of course!). It's supposed to also have lima beans and peas but I left them out. Very good and creamy.
 For the main dish I made Gigantes which are big beans in a tomato based sauce. We're supposed to use authentic greek big beans here but large lima beans are a popular replacement. I didn't really use the recipe from the book but instead adapted this recipe I found online. The beans are baked with diced tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, dill, oregano and olive oil. I replaced the honey with a bit of sugar and left out the carrots. They baked up beautifully (though a little mushy) but were so tasty both warm and at room temp.
 Closeup of the tender buttery beans. The dill flavor shined through just the way I had hoped.
 My plate with a side of pita for dipping!
 To go with the Mediterranean theme, dessert was orange blossom cake with fig yogurt sauce. I used kittee's basic vanilla cake recipe and subbed a little orange juice and orange blossom for some of the water. For the sauce, I just whisked a few spoonfuls of fig jam into plain soy yogurt.
 The cake was moist and sweet with orange blossom notes. The yogurt sauce took it to another level. So many beautiful flavors!
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| Monday, December 7th, 2009
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10:16 pm - Hehe, cute!
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On the twelfth day of Christmas, devilandmouse sent to me... Twelve castles drumming Eleven budgies piping Ten antiques a-leaping Nine amulets dancing Eight vacations a-cooking Seven bats a-reading Six devils a-painting Five co-o-o-ollecting recipes Four tori amos Three fantasy novels Two renaissance faires ...and a tristania in a thomas hardy.
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| Sunday, October 25th, 2009
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5:01 pm - Food post: Za'atar pizza
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| Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
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9:37 am - Good morning!
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This has been a great morning so far. Woke up early, walked the dog, went to the store for dinner ingredients (taco night!). It's humpday and the Dodgers won last night so I'm in a good mood. Oh and I also got paid, yay!
This weekend should be fun. We're going to the see the play Nevermore on Saturday. Hopefully I can convince my husband to take me out to a romantic dinner beforehand. Dinner and a play just sounds right together. Anything with pasta and red wine! Or Thai food...I'm not picky.
I've been on a quinoa kick lately. On Monday I was craving it badly so after work I came home and spent about half an hour preparing quinoa-black bean burritos. They were fabulous and really hit the spot. I have a tiny bit of leftovers that I will eat for lunch today before I leave for work. I bought more quinoa in bulk and would like to make another dish with it. I've been eyeing this quinoa-bean loaf.
Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday. Two more days til the weeekend!
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| Saturday, September 12th, 2009
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5:34 pm - Muffins for the Weekend & Thai Red Curry
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Delicious muffins that I made yesterday and today. I finally cracked open my brand new copy of 'Vegan Brunch' and made the "Bakery Style Berry Muffins". I used strawberries in mine. I also made fluffy banana-cinnamon muffins from a recipe I adapted at vegetarian times. Find the recipe here.

And a simple Thai red curry with potato, carrot, eggplant, mushroom, zucchini, tofu and onions. Mmm.
xposted from theveganmouse.blogspot.com
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| Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
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8:21 pm - Meze Supper.
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| Saturday, September 5th, 2009
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9:11 pm - Tea for One.
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Ah, weekend! There's nothing better than a restful and relaxing weekend after a long and hard work week. I did a bit of shopping this morning and afterwards came home to make another marble loaf cake. While that was in the oven I watched an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot and then later made a tray of "tea for one" to take to my room. I enjoyed this light supper while watching 'Desperate Romantics', a mini-series about the Pre-Raphaelite painters. On the tray: hot ceylon tea with soymilk and sugar, an "everything" bagel with Tofutti non dairy cream cheese, marble loaf cake and fresh nectarine slices.
xposted from theveganmouse.blogspot.com
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| Sunday, August 30th, 2009
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5:26 pm - Curried Chickpea Burgers
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This is another "revamp" recipe where I take a dish that I made a day or two before and turn the leftovers into a brand new dish. You remember the chickpea korma I made on Thursday? Well, it made a lot and after a few days I wanted it to be something else already. So after some thought, I decided to make curried chickpea burgers with the leftovers. The curry had a lot of sauce so I drained all that off and mashed up the chickpeas/carrots/cauliflower mixture that was left, added a few handfuls of breadcrumbs, a few tablespoons of whole wheat flour, a sprinkle of cayenne, dried parsley and 1/4 of a chopped onion. I put the mashed mixture in the fridge for a half hour for it to firm up a bit before I shaped them into patties. They were baked for 30 min. (flipped over halfway) in a 400 degree oven.
 Oh my god, wow. These were perfect. Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. I served them in a hot pita with lettuce and a garlicky cucumber sauce (cucumber, garlic, vegenaise, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, parsley). It was so freaking delicious! Kind of like falafel with a kick of curry flavors.
 Kind of blurry but here is my sandwich mid-bite. So yummy.
xposted from theveganmouse.blogspot.com
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| Saturday, August 29th, 2009
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5:11 pm - Marble Loaf Cake
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Last night my husband and I went to Baja Fresh for dinner. After dinner which was really good and filling by the way (I had a burrito mexicano bowl), my husband wanted to go to Best Buy which was next door. I hate Best Buy so I ducked into nearby Ralph's supermarket while he shopped. I wandered the bakery section drooling over the cookies, cakes, turnovers and pies. I was mad that I couldn't have any as they all contained dairy and eggs. One that caught my eye especially was a marble loaf cake. I used to make marble cakes as a kid with prepared cake mixes. They were lovely. I was determined to make one this weekend, vegan style. I used kittee's vanilla cake recipe again (I used rice milk for the liquid), portioned out 1/4 of the batter and mixed in some cocoa powder to get the chocolate part of the cake. I poured the vanilla batter into the loaf tin and poured big dollops of chocolate batter in random areas on top of the vanilla batter, then took a butter knife and swirled it through cake a couple of times. About 50 minutes later, I had my very own marble loaf cake!
 Moist and delicious. And you can bet that I'll be having this with tea later on. Next time I will use a higher proportion of chocolate to vanilla in the batter.
xposted from theveganmouse.blogspot.com
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| Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
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11:18 am - breakfast and lunch in bed.
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 Yesterday's breakfast: english muffins with Earth Balance margarine, a piece of orange blossom cake and hot ceylon tea.
 Today's lunch: toasted pita with walnut spread, cucumber salad with olives and tomato, half a banana and more hot tea!
I highly recommend eating meals in bed. It's great to just leisurely eat while reading a book or on your laptop or what have you. It makes you slow down and enjoy your food and just be more mindful of it all. I plan to do this more often. Usually I wolf down food before I head out the door or mindlessly in front of the tv and that's not a good way to enjoy food.
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| Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
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10:08 am - Breakfast in Bed.
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I have mornings to myself before going to work and I usually get loads of things done before then. I work on jewelry, run errands, walk the dog, do a bit of cleaning and many other things that I allow myself to squeeze into these free hours. I was off yesterday and worked on jewelry so I took a break from that today. I walked the dog early this morning, came home and after a fresh shower, I prepared a tray of breakfast that I brought to my room to eat. It was a lovely little breakfast of pita toasts with margarine and a drizzle of agave syrup, a bowl of oranges and mangos sprinkled with cinnamon and a cup of my favorite Ceylon tea. It was delicious. I should do this more often!
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| Monday, May 4th, 2009
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9:54 am - Food pics!
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| Saturday, April 25th, 2009
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7:45 pm - Food post!
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x posted from theveganmouse.blogspot.com
I made baklava! And a sandwich! And kabob!

I love baklava. I never thought I'd be able to make it myself. It just seem so complicated, all the layers of gooey, juicy, walnut-ty sweetness. I used a recipe from a cookbook called "Tables of Lebanon" and just went for it. I had to switch out the butter for Earth Balance margarine which was no big deal. I sprinkled the top with chopped almonds as I did not have pistachios. It came out pretty.
 One of these delicious pieces goes a long way. It's ridiculously sweet! I may have to share these with friends.
 Bonus sandwich. My lunch today.
 Bonus broiled tofu and veg (squash, onion, green pepper) kabob. My dinner. I seasoned the tofu and veggies with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and a kabob seasoning blend (granulated onion, garlic, sumac, parsley, salt, pepper, tumeric and other spices). I served them with hummus and bulgur relish with lots of chopped tomato and onion.
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| Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
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8:06 am - Food post!
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I keep forgetting to crossover my food posts here! I've been so busy and my head's been everywhere. Must remember next time. This was last night's dinner. I made a beautiful meze plate with hummus, bazargan (Syrian bulgur relish) and za'atar in olive oil. I used pita and sesame crackers for dipping. It was delicious. The relish is very fruity and is flavored with olive oil, lemon juice, tomato paste, pomegranate molasses (hence the fruitiness), cumin and cayenne. I topped the relish and za'atar dip with fresh chopped onions and tomatoes. Very very good.
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| Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
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6:38 pm - Tori's new single from her upcoming album.
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I miss Tori. I didn't pick up her last album because I wasn't really feeling it but I think I might get this one. She's always evolving. This song gave me chills. It reminds me of some of the stuff from "Choirgirl Hotel" and "Scarlet's Walk" which were amazing records.
Ok I've listened to this three times already. Can't wait to pick up the album.
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