Teenage love date night

So the hubby and I have been busy lately with our new house. We finally just bought some living room furniture so we don't have to sit on the futon anymore! (Yay).
We started a tradition of Friday night date nights a few years ago and have been pretty good at actually committing to them.
We used to do themed dates where we would try to match where we ate with the movie we were seeing or whatever activity we decided to do that evening. Sometimes it worked out, and sometimes not.
I missed the creativity that went into planning those dates and wanted to start again. I got a lot of inspiration from http://loveactually-blog.blogspot.com/ which is a wonderful blog full of great ideas.

I knew we wanted to go see Snow White and the Huntsman so I was thinking of what fit with that. I came up with nothing but I did think that it would be cute to do a teenage "going out to dinner and a movie" kind of thing. The first thing that came to mind was making a mix tape. I mean, what else did you make for your boyfriend in high school??

I made mix CD instead with these gems:
1. You're My Best Friend- Queen
2. I'm Yours- Jason Mraz
3. Fly Me To The Moon- Frank Sinatra
4. Wouldn't It Be Nice- The Beach Boys
5. Truly Madly Deeply- Savage Garden
6. I Can't Help Falling In Love With You- UB-40
7. Chasing Cars- Snow Patrol
8. I Want You To Want Me- Letters to Cleo
9. I Swear- All-4-One
10. Grow Old With You- Adam Sandler
11. Love Song- 311
12. All My Life- K-Ci and Jojo
13. Come on Eileen- Save Ferris
14. Crazy Little Thing Called Love- Queen
15. You and Me- Lifehouse
16. Ocean Avenue- Yellowcard
17. That's All- Michael Buble
18. I Like the Way You Move- Outkast
19. For you I Will- Monica
20. Let's get it on- Marvin Gaye

We ate at the fanciest place I ever ate at on a date in High School which was Olive Garden, and then we went to the mall to see the movie which did not live up to the hype. The date was fun though and I am now inspired to come up with some more themed date nights!

We bought a house!

I have been meaning to write for a while as many things have been going on lately. Shortly after my last post, my husband and I bought a house!

Of course this makes the process seem easy, and for the most part it was. I was actually surprised by how effortless it really was (except on our savings account).

We have been going to open houses whenever we felt like. It was mostly to see what things were going for and what to expect and look for in a house. Knowing our budget is limited for the area we work in, we were more than willing to put in the effort to renovate a house. We were not looking for granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. Our must-haves were:

-liveable conditions so we could move in without HAVING to do renovations first.

-a place for my husbands woodworking tools

-at least two bedrooms

The second weekend in January, I saw an open house for a few townhouses, one being within walking distance to the metro but also at the top of our budget.

Now I have to add a little bit of back story. My parents have a house that was built in the late 50's and most of it has been renovated except for one bathroom. Everthing in this bathroom is electric blue. For some reason, my dad loves it and that is why it hasn't changed.

*Not actually their bathroom, but it is similar.

Ok, now back to this townhouse. We walk in and see why it is in our price range. Not much had been changed since it was built in 1971. About all the owners had done was put in new cabinets and granite countertops in the kitchen but left the old 1971 vinyl floor. The basement was scary and half finished. But, given the awesome commute I would have my husband and I thought we could live with it and renovate.

Upstairs we went. I turned left and I gasped in horror. The SAME horrible blue bathroom my parents have stared back at me.

Needless to say, I came to the realization that moving to this house would not be possible. Knowing that this house was at the top of our budget and with that knowing we would not be able to change the bathroom for a long time. I couldn't do it.

However, out we drove to the other open houses. Of course these were not next to the metro, but were 50k less than the one we just looked at. Now I want you to understand that we have been to a lot of houses all over the county. We walked into the next townhouse and were told by the sign when we walked in to take our shoes off. The house had brand new hard wood floors and carpet. It had three bedrooms, two and a half baths and a basement that was half finished and half-unfinished with enough space for my husbands stuff and since was an end unit, we had an extra patch of grass for my garden. We put an offer in the next day.

Throughout the entire process I was dwelling on the fact that some horrible event was going to happen. I have watched enough HGTV to know that if the home inspection didn't turn up a horrendous rodent problem and mold growing in every crevice, that it would come in above the appraised amount and we would have to back out.

Surprisingly, nothing liked that happened. The sellers didn't give us everything we asked for (some credit money for some things to be fixed) but besides that, everything else was fine.

Twenty-five days after we put our offer in we were living in our house.

Now I don't know if I mentioned it in a previous post, but my husband and I before we bought our house lived for three years with our roommates and their daughter (who was born 3 months after we moved in together and is now 2 1/2). The arrangement worked out wonderfully despite friends and family telling me that it was a bad idea and would never work.

I will admit there were some difficulties. Two couples were never meant to share a TINY apartment sized kitchen and one refrigerator. We had very different diets so everything was separate and I got accustomed to having all of my groceries for the week fit on a single shelf in the fridge. There also wasn't much room to cook with the 2 feet of counter space I had that wasn't taken up by the toaster or microwave.

Now I have my own kitchen with more cabinets than I currently know what to do with. Hopefully that and my soon to be garden will mean more posts! :)

What up in 2012

So..the holidays are over with which is bittersweet. The cold weather is a lot easier to get on with when there are gifts to open and yummy foods to look forward to. Now I need to focus on getting my garden in shape and figuring out what to plant in about 3/4 months.

I also make new years resolutions. I always could be in better shape and instead of going at it with no plan I have made a new plan!

Each month my husband and I are going to learn a new activity. This month we are going to do rock climbing. Next saturday and for the two Saturdays after that we will be learning to rock climb.

The classes each month aren't just going to be fitness related. I would love to take some guitar classes and maybe some art or language classes but we will see. Hopefully this and the wonderful jar of summer peaches I got at the last day of the farmers market will get me through the winter!

So...what now??

For the past 2 or 3 posts I have started it off by apologizing that I don't post more often and I always end with a commitment that I will do more so in the future. Then life happens and I forget.

The summer was lovely. My husband and I booked a trip to Hawaii in July. We went to the Big Island, Maui and Oahu. It was amazing.

Haleakala National Park in on the island of Maui and we went up there to see the sunrise and do some hiking one morning. After the sunrise, we walked a few miles on the sliding sands trail, and this was our view. It is the most breathtaking landscape I have ever seen.

Also during the summer I faced some medical problems. I was diagnosed with IBS which has made me have to make some changes in my diet. The only dairy I have on a regular basis is yogurt. Kashi protein bars are my best friend!

I have also had a long term issue with my left shoulder and I have finally started to go see a chiropractor for it and have noticed wonderful results. I have done physical therapy, acupuncture and cortisone shots and I was amazed at how quickly I have felt better with my chiropractor!

Other personal issues have come up in recent months so with everything going on I have neglected my garden.

I planted peas, carrots, green beans, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and some other vegetables. The peas TOOK OFF! They grew to be about 6 feet tall. My lettuce did well and my green beans (the three plants that decided to sprout) did well too. My broccoli also did well.

Everything else was either eaten by the deer or didn't grow. I don't know what happened to my carrots. I got one. The one was great and tasted wonderful. It rained really heavy right after I planted my carrots and I think all of them were washed away except for one. My cabbage also did great but a few days before I wanted to pick it, the deer decided that it would be a wonderful nighttime snack and left cabbage remnants and hoof prints in my garden.

I did raised beds for the first time and they turned out wonderfully. I bought just regular white wood (I think pine?) boards and my husband built them for me. Every gardeners book I read recommended cedar but the costs were astronomical and I felt that it was more cost effective to buy the pine boards and replace them if need be in a couple years. So far they are still fine and it has been 10 months since we put them in.

The farmers markets are done for the year except for the one community close by that has the year round market. It is always a sad time for me. I feel that my summer is officially over and all that is left is the cold winter. I know I have Thanksgiving to look forward to and then Christmas but I love being outside and it makes it difficult when the sun goes down at 5pm. I even bought some peaches in a jar at the last farmers market. I told my husband I was waiting for a dreary day in January or February to open those up. Yummm....thinking about those now.

My husband and I are going up to PA/NJ to visit his family for Thanksgiving. That is first for us because it is my favorite holiday and we have always spent it with my family. Sooo..this year I am having a nice dinner with my family the sunday before Thanksgiving and I told my mom I am going to cook everything and that it will be all vegetarian. I promise I will try my hardest to remember to post pics and recipes! :)

What's to come

So..yeah. Haven't written in forever.

I was online just wasting time and reading one of my favorite blogs:

http://pacingthepanicroom.blogspot.com/

I felt inspired to start to document my life more. I enjoyed posting my recipes and food but I couldn't be creative and culinary day after day. I'm sure people don't want to see me on the days I throw together tacos. I enjoy photography but haven't really been serious about it since high school. My husband has taken over that role in our family. We have a sleek new DSLR that I have fiddled around a bit but..yeah. I'm thinking this blog is going to be less about food and more about lifestyle. Really, I just want to tell my story. :)



This past weekend my husband and I went out with friends of ours who happen to be married and happen to be vegan. Its exciting for me to have friends who share my views about eating and the environment. We went to go see Forks over Knives which was a great documentary. It showed how a plant based diet is how we should be eating for our health. They had a few people in the movie who had before and after blood test results and it is amazing after being on a vegan diet how much everything improved for them. I think it is a great movie for non-veggie people to see because it doesn't have the animal rights/welfare focus to it like many other movies of this type have. Not that I think that isn't important, I just felt like this movie could appeal to more people because it isn't about the industry its about personal health.
After the movie we went to a vegetarian restaurant which was fun. My husband and I normally go alone so it was wonderful to be able to go there with friends (Both of our families and all the rest of our friends are meat-itarians).
After the movie I pledged to be 95% vegan. I have for the entire week and have seen great results so far. I haven't changed much of my diet (I didn't have that much dairy in it in the first place) but have become more aware of my food choices and overall health.

Need my passion back

I became a vegetarian when I was 12 years old. I remember having to learn about what I could and couldn't eat and learning how to tell my family about why without sounding preachy. I was so passionate about it. I mainly became a vegetarian for animal rights reasons because to be honest, at that time I really didn't know about the health or environmental reasons. I just knew I didn't want to eat animals anymore and I never went back to it. I tell people it is probably the most important decision I have made in my entire life. I say that because of the impact it has had on so many other parts of my life besides my diet.

So fast forward to today. I am still a vegetarian and I cook most of my meals at home and from ingredients I get from local farms, but I feel something is missing. I have tried talking to my husband about it, how I feel that I don't have the passion that I used to have. My feelings about animal rights and vegetarianism as a whole are still the same but I don't know how to express it. I am all for joining a club or a group or donating to a cause but I want to do more. While online reading a few of the vegetarian blogs I like, I got excited when I saw that on Sept. 11 there is VegFest DC! I'm hoping this is my vegetarian revival :).

http://dcvegfest.com/

A girl can dream

My husband and I have been talking on and off since we have got married (almost 2 years ago) about where we are going to live. Currently we share a 3 bedroom + den apartment with another couple and their 1 year old daughter. Believe it or not it has worked out great despite everyone telling us they would never would be able to do that! :)
My dream would be to own a house with a little land for a garden and a nice deck or patio. The other day my husband and I got to talking about houses again and decided that we would love to build one. He got his sketch pad (thank god someone has artistic ability cause it sure isn't me) and we sat in a park for three hours and talked and doodled about what we wanted our house to look like. I love craftsman style houses and would love nothing more than to live in a bungalow with nice big windows!
I then started to research what the costs would be and I was a little shocked. To get what we wanted would cost a lot more than I was thinking. I was searching online earlier this evening for how much it would cost for eco-friendly building materials when I stumbled upon this:

Photo credit: Tumbleweed Houses

I don't know if you have heard of the guy that lives in his 67 foot square house. I found his website (http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/) and thought to myself, "now if my hubby and I decided we weren't going to have any kids, this would be perfect for us." Most of the houses have a multipurpose room, a small kitchen, bathroom and then a ladder to a loft which is where you sleep. I then found this one. It is a 743 sq foot house with 2 bedrooms or it can have an optional 3rd bedroom for 837 sq ft. It comes with 1 1/2 baths too! I was so excited. Not only can I have my craftsman style house for a price I can afford but I can also have kids!

Now, I do have a tendency to get obsessed with an idea to find out two or three months down the road that I was crazy but at least this gives me hope and something to look forward to! :)

Hello Summer

Apologies for not writing in a while. I haven't had much time lately to sit down and post pics and write recpies. I have still tried my best to maintain the localvore lifestyle. I must admit that I have changed and have become more flexible with my food choices. I think deciding to become a localvore in October, at the end of the season was very difficult. I have to say though that I am impressed with myself and my husband who most of the time although sometimes unwillingly went along with it. I haven't changed the way I eat so much since I became a vegetarian 15 years ago.
I started my garden in March and it has turned out wonderfully! I got my seeds from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange which is a wonderful company. I grew peas, green beans, carrots, squash, zucchini, brocoli, lettuce, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, tomatillos, 4 different kinds of tomatoes, and pie pumpkins. I will post a pic soon!

When our first seasonal farmers market opened the first week in May was a wonderful thing. I was so excited about the strawberries! I had been eating mostly apples for the last 6 months! Asparagus and peas too! I really didn't know what to do with myself! It was also nice going and seeing the same vendors that were there last year and having them remember us. There is something to be said for that. :)

I have also made it a point to visit farmers markets to wherever I am traveling. Three weekends ago I took a business trip to Charlottesville, VA and I was able to go to the Saturday farmers market there which was wonderful. It is pretty large and they have a variety of vendors. Charlottesville also has a wonderful "live local" movement. Many of their restaurants and stores are big supporters of that which is always nice to see.

I will try to keep this updated more often! Hope you are having a wonderful summer!

Finally Some Homemade Pasta!!!

I got a pasta maker as a christmas gift from my parents. I made some pasta a few weeks ago but I didn't have my camera handy so these are pics from our second trial.

To make the dough I used 3 cups of all purpose flour and one cup of semolina flour. I mixed the flour on my pastry mat and made it into a well and added 4 eggs and a tsp of salt.
I scrambled the eggs and salt inside the well and then started to incorporate the flour until I got to a dough substance. My husband then took over and started kneeding the dough and adding a tsp of water at a time till the consistency was right.


We then cut it up into lemon sized pieces and put it through the pasta maker going through each setting twice except for the last one. Then we put it through the fettuccine attachment and made the pasta.
The biggest problem I have encountered is trying to find a pasta drying rack. I bought a multi-tiered clothes hanger but that didn't work so my husband and I hung a long string across our living/dining room and hung the pasta off of that. It wasn't the prettest sight but it worked!

My husband made some homemade pasta sauce and we some local salad and wine to go with it. I love homemade pasta!!

Oh..I am also really excied about my garden that I started last weekend! I planted some lettuce and peas and then when it decides to stop pouring outside I am going to plant carrots and broccili. I will keep the blog posted with pics and updates! :)

Apple Pear Turnovers

One of my new year resolutions this year was to become more social. I am definitely more of an introvert and I don't go out of my way to meet new people.
I started to learn how to knit a few years ago in college when I bought a beginners book, some yarn and a couple pairs of needles. Nothing really came of it, but I enjoyed it. I decided I could combine my interest in knitting with my resolution by joining a knitting club.
It is wonderful! There is a variety of skill level and everyone I have met so far has been so nice and helpful.
Anyway, two weeks ago we had a yarn swap/ Potluck party. I signed up to bring something but of course I didn't decide what that something was until the night before when I am standing in front of my fridge looking inside to see what I could possibly make with the ingredients I have on hand. Ok..I had Phyllo dough, pears, and apples. Uhhh..How about turnovers??

I looked online for a recipe and found some hints on how to make them, what temperature to bake them at and so on.

I diced up one apple and one pear and put them in a bowl with some cinnamon, sugar, and ginger. I didn't really measure, I just kind of put enough in till it looked right. I made mini turnovers so each had about a teaspoon of filling in it. On top of the filling I put a small piece of butter.

The phyllo dough was the hardest part. I didn't make it from scratch, I bought some organic phyllo dough from Whole foods a few weeks prior for a dessert I never made. I thought it would be like puff pastry and would thaw in about 45 min. That wasn't true. I looked at the box and I was supposed to refigerate it overnight and then have it sit out for 2 hours before using. I started making the turnovers about two hours before the party. The dough was a little bit tough to work with. I counted out eight sheets and then cut about 4 inch squares out. I placed the mix in the middle and then wet my fingers and sealed the edges with my fingers and then a fork. I then brushed the turnovers with egg and put them in a 375 degree oven for 12 min.

When they came out I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top. I think they turned out pretty good. If I were to make them again I think I would use less layers of dough and more filling. :)

oh..and sorry about the bad quality pic, I forgot to take one before I left the house so this one was taken in my car with my phone.

Cinnamon Apple Crepes and Veggie Wontons

My husband and I go to the Vienna Farmers Market when it is open and at the market they have a guy there that makes crepes. Last year when the Vienna market closed for the season, we went to the all year round Falls Church farmers market and they also had a crepe station. We got used to having Saturday morning crepes and when the season at Vienna ended this year we went to Falls Church to find that their crepe vendor was also closing for the season. This forced us to make our own!
My brothers got me a crepe pan for Christmas and we have been trying to perfect the recipe since then. It takes a while to get the consistincy right and move the pan in the right way so the batter coats the pan before its starts cooking and flipping it in a way so it doesn't break. We bought Whole Foods organic pancake mix and put in our own local ingredients. Most of the time we did a tomato, basil, onion and egg crepe but this week we didn't have any tomatoes on hand (I guess the local farmers can't grow them in the winter! :) ) so we made cinnamon apple ones. I mixed a couple teaspoons of cinnamon and a bit of sugar in a pot with a little bit of butter and put three cut and peeled apples in it. I cooked this for about 30 min. This became the filling for my crepes and then topped them with powdered sugar. Yum!!

While we were at the farmers market last week, I saw a head of cabbage that was beautiful. I decided at that point that I wanted to make potstickers. I have never made them before, but I knew they had cabbage in them so why not?

I got some wonton wrappers and bought some local squash and carrots from Georgia and mixed in the cabbage with some tofu. I put about a teaspoon of the filling in each wrapper and sealed them. I then placed them in a pan of oil for about 1 min and then after they browned I covered the bottom of the pan with water and put a lid on it for about 2 min. This will steam cook the filling. I served this with some soy sauce and they were wonderful!

Bread Obsession

I hope everyone had a wonderful holidays. I have been so busy since Thanksgiving that I haven't had time to do a lot of things including updating my blog. I got some wonderful Christmas presents from my family (pasta maker, hand blender and a silicone pastry mat to name a few!!!) so I will be up and cooking new and exciting things soon.

I have realized over the holiday season that I am a much better cook than a baker. I tried making cookies (chocolate chip and gingerbread). The chocolate chip were alright but the gingerbread not so much. I did make some dark chocolate peanut butter cookies that pretty good.
I guess I am too much of an improviser when it comes to cooking. I like thinking about a dish and then seeing ways I can improve it or make it more of what I like. It is hard to do that with baking. I feel everything has to be exact or it won't turn out right. Hopefully it is something that comes with time and practice and soon there will be a successful cookie baking post here. :)

So, onto my obsession! My job requires me to drive all over the dc area. Naturally because I am all over the place I have found many interesting stores and restaurants. A few months ago in a shopping center in Potomac, MD I saw a new store coming in. Above the door it said Breadsmith. I love bread and basically anything that has carbs so immediately I was interested. A couple months ago it opened and I now I don't think I can eat bread from anywhere else. It is amazing!!! I know this is what bread is supposed to taste like! Crusty on the oustide and wonderfully soft on the inside.

Their breads are made from scratch in the store everyday and with real ingredients (wheat flour, salt, butter..etc). Some breads are available everyday and then some varieties are baked once or twice a week or seasonally. They also have cookies, scones, muffins, rolls and pizza dough. I have tried the stoneground wheat, rustic italian, coffeecake, and cinnamon cobblestone.
They have a stores around the US (mostly in the so I would suggest seeing if there is one near you and trying it out.

Thanksgiving Pie!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! :) I have been so busy since then that I haven't had time to sit down and talk about my pumpkin pie!

When I first decided that I wanted to become a localvore, I got really excited about Thanksgiving and I was determined to make a real pumpkin pie. I went online looking for the best recipe and found a great one at http://www.pickyourown.org/pumpkinpie.php.

I bought a pie pumpkin from the farmers market a few weeks before Thanksgiving. I had organic sugar on hand ( I could of used local honey, but honestly I have never had honey in a pumpkin pie before and I wanted it to go well the first time). My mom had pumpkin pie spice from Penzeys Spices and I got organic evaporated milk at whole foods. The eggs were also from the farmers market.

Ok..so on to the pie making! First I washed the outside of the pumpkin with some warm water. Then I cut it into four sections and cleaned out the inside with an ice cream scoop.

I made sure to save and dry the seeds for some toasted pumpkin seeds. After I was done scooping the pumpkin goop I went to put the pumpkin in a metal steamer to find out my mom didn't have one. I asked if she had anything that I could use to steam the pumpkin. After looking through a lot of stuff, we finally stumbled upon a home canning pot and inside of it was a metal rack for the jars. It was also perfect for my pumpkin slices!


I steamed them for about 25 min and then took them out and spooned out the meat of the pumpkin. I then followed the recipe and put it inside my pie crust.

For the pie crust I wanted to make one out of butter. I didn't want to use crisco or anything like that so I looked online and after A LOT of searching I found this recipe. http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_pie_crust/.
The crust turned out really well!

I made the denser pie that the recipe talks about which is 1 can of evaporated milk instead of 1 1/2 and three eggs instead of 4. The pie turned out wonderfully. It was really good too so I was proud of myself. I think I will experiment a little bit more next year!

Tostadas

So, it is no secret that I love Mexican food. I could really eat it everyday. I had a craving for it today so I thought that I could try to make tostadas.

I bought the refried beans at Whole Foods, along with the tortillas that they make in store (they are so fresh and chewy!). Everything else I was able to get locally.
I made pico de gallo from fresh tomatoes and onions ( I would prefer cilantro in it too, but my husband hates it). I got the monterey jack cheese, lettuce and sour cream from vendors at the farmers market.

I put a little bit of organic canola oil in the pan and put one tortilla in for about 30 sec on each side till they were golden brown. After that you just put them on the plate and layer everything one on top of the other.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will be posting what I made including my attempt at a real pumpkin pie (from a pumpkin, not a can!).

Winter Farmers Market and Lasagna day!!

My husband and I were excited about going to the Falls Church farmers market this Saturday. We normally go to another farmers market during the spring/summer season, but that one closed last week for the winter so now we are making our seasonal switch. The Falls Church market lasts all winter and we are able to get apples, cider, salad mix, and a few other things all winter long.
One of the vendors was a dairy so I got some ricotta cheese and decided that I was going to make lasagna!


Umm..so yeah, it was good! It was kind of like the soup I made last week in that it surprised me with how good it was.

I made my own sauce with seven tomatoes that I peeled and then cut into chunks and simmered into a sauce with a large elephant garlic clove (I found out after eating that I should of put in another one), and about 1/4 cup of chopped onion with 4 tbsp of olive oil. When the sauce was almost done I added about 6 large leaves of basil that I chopped up and then I started on the cheese mixture. I got my ricotta and added one egg and some Italian seasoning. I shredded some colby cheese and sliced some fresh mozzarella.

I put a little sauce in the bottom of a casserole pan and then added my no-boil lasagna noodles I bought at Whole Foods. I was excited about the noodles being the only non-local product in my entire dinner (ok, the salt isn't local either). On top of the noodles I put the ricotta mix, and then the colby cheese, and then 1/3 of the sauce. I repeated this 3 times and then I topped it with some fresh mozzerella.

I served it with a wonderful mixed lettuce salad with some carrots added. I was nervous about using the no-boil noodles but they worked out wonderfully and I think they make the lasagna less runny because the noodles soak up all of the excess water from the sauce. Will be making this again and hopefully can get a picture of a whole lasagna instead of a half eaten one. :)

A soup kind of day

Today in DC it was about 50 outside and rainy. I was planning on sometime this week having soup so I thought that tonight would be perfect!

I have to admit that I cheated a little bit. I bought no-chicken broth instead of making my own and the rice and beans I added were Eden canned Caribbean style. Oh, and my roommates had celery they had left over from a party dip platter and they weren't going to eat it..BUT! Everything else that was in it was local.

I started with some olive oil and a clove of elephant garlic with about 1/4 cup of onions. Those sauteed for a few min and then I added chopped carrots, potatoes and celery. After those cooked for about 7 minutes I added one quart (the whole carton) of no-chicken broth. I brought that to a simmer and added one large tomato that I chopped and took the seeds out of. I cooked all of this for about 30 min and then I added a can of rice and beans. I wasn't sure if it would taste good. I kind of made the recipe up as I went along but it was AMAZING!!! I was impressed with myself. :)

I had the soup with a wonderful grilled cheese sandwich my husband made. What a wonderful meal for a cold rainy day!

Meat and Potatoes Vegetarian Style

I grew up with a mom that cooked a lot, so I know the basics, but everything I have been doing recently is new to me. A lot of my cooking so far is a combination of what I know from watching my mom and guesswork. I have been surprised at how simple cooking can be. I tell people that I now cook almost all of my meals at home and they ask me where I get the time and energy. How can I possibly make my own tomato sauce from scratch after working all day? I tell them that very little of my time is actual work. I would say on average for a meal I would spend about 15 minutes prepping. The rest of the time is spent waiting for the meal to cook or do whatever it needs to do so I can eat it.

So, I got a little excited about the beautiful broccoli that was available at the farmers market this past Saturday. I bought way to much for two people to eat so I am trying to incorporate it in every dish I make this week. I had some leftover potatoes from last week so I decided I would try my hand at some twice baked potatoes.

I coated four potatoes in Olive oil and put them in a metal pie dish in a 400 degree oven. They were a little small so I put them in for 40 min. When they were finished I let them cool while I steamed my broccoli. I cut the potatoes in half and scooped out the potato in a large bowl. Some of the skins weren't very cooperative but it isn't noticeable once the stuffing is in them.

After I scooped them I put the skins back in the pie plate and then took the bowl and added the broccoli, about three tbsp of sour cream, about 1/2 cup of milk, and 1/2 cup of colby-jack cheese and salt and pepper to taste. I mashed it all up and then scooped it back into the potatoes. After they were all back in the pie dish I put a little more cheese on top and baked them for 15 min.

I served the potatoes with a Quorn chik'n cutlet and some steamed carrots. If you haven't tried Quorn, it is amazing. I am not a big fan of fake meat, but these cutlets are really good. I just pan fry them in a little bit of olive oil and they are the perfect replacement for chicken. Yum!

Penne Vodka sans vodka

Hello All!!

I have been thinking about making a blog for a while now, but I didn't know what to write about. A friend of mine recently let me borrow Barbara Kingsolvers Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and I am now committed to becoming a localvore. The book literally changed how I feel about everything I eat and where my food comes from. I felt overwhelmed! I already frequented the local farmers market, but I didn't feel I had the time to pick up all of the fruits and vegetables and actually make things with them.

So I started about three weeks ago and so far so good. I am cooking dinner about 4-5 nights a week. I buy all of my fruits, vegetables, eggs and dairy (milk, cheese, butter) from the farmers market and then what I can't get there I buy at Whole Foods. Tonight I decided to make Penne with Vodka Sauce after my husband, who has been kind of apprehensive about this whole localvore thing, suggested it.

I started with mincing two cloves of garlic and 1/4 of a large onion and then putting that into a large pot with about two tbsp. of olive oil. After browning them I added seven large tomatoes that were skinned and cut into quarters (I like chunky sauce so if you like it smoother cut them into smaller pieces). I set it to medium heat and let it simmer for about an hour stirring it every 10 minutes or so .

After it got to the consistency that I wanted I added 1/2 cup of heavy cream and was reaching for the vodka when I realized we didn't have any. My husband even asked me when we were at the grocery store if we had vodka and I told him, "oh yeah, of course we do!".

So it turned out to be a very nice tomato cream sauce which I put over spinach penne that I got at Whole Foods. Hopefully soon I will have a pasta maker and I will be making the pasta along with the sauce!