I’m often mistaken for a creative person – I apparently have the appearance but none of the talent of an artist – but I’m really not creative. So when I do have a creative idea, you guys are gonna hear about it. I’ve been sewing up a storm on the trusty 15-91 this weekend. One of the things I made was napkins. That’s not the creative thing. I’d probably have made napkins sooner or later because I love cloth napkins, but the truth is I had plenty of them to begin with. But I saw Clotilde’s recent post on Chocolate and Zucchini about making napkins from fat quarters and had to make them much sooner than later because I have an ever-growing fat quarter obsession collection.

You see, both my mother, who can actually sew (unlike me), and I agree that the best part about sewing is picking out fabric. Until I bought my 15-91, it was the only part of sewing I liked. There is a lot of really neat fabric out there. The problem is I don’t have anything to do with most of it. I’m not going to wear it; I’ve been wearing black every day since the ’80s and I’m not about to stop now. So I buy fat quarters with hazy plans of making a quilt – the world’s largest quilt at this rate – when I’m 60. (A fat quarter, for those of you who are wondering, is a quarter yard of fabric, but one that’s been cut as a corner of the yard instead of a strip. So say a particular fabric is 44″ wide. If you went to the fabric store and requested a quarter yard of it, they’d cut you a piece that was 9″ x 44″. But a fat quarter, which is a “quilter’s cut”, would be 18″ x 22″. It’s always 18″ wide, but the height will vary. Fabric stores will often have fat quarters for $1, and there are tons of them on etsy, usually for $2 or $2.50.)

Soooo, inspired by Clotilde’s post, I raided my fat quarter stash and made some napkins. Where I got creative was in how to store them. They’re so pretty I want to look at them, so I got the idea to hang them up on a faux clothesline. It’s just some kitchen twine strung between two nails. Might not work for everyone, but our house is very casual. I didn’t need to figure out where the hell to put something else in my over-stuffed kitchen AND I can gaze admiringly at my pretty fabric when I’m not gazing admiringly at my sewing machine!

What do you think? I’m thinking it will be fun to tell guests to choose their own napkin and unpin it.

I could pretty easily be talked into doing a napkin tutorial, by the way, although it would be almost identical to the one Clotilde linked to. They’re just about the easiest possible thing to sew; it’d be a great project for kids, or a really great housewarming gift.

I also made oilcloth placemats although this picture makes them look terribly wrinkly. The oilcloth came all folded up and you can’t iron it so I’m just waiting for it to de-crease. I think maybe the chalkboard-everything craze is a bit 2009 (not that I follow trends very much), but I made these because if left to his own devices after finishing his meal during a dinner party, Mark becomes either very destructive or very creative. I hope to encourage creativity. Unlike me, Mark is extremely creative and very artistic. We do also very occasionally serve children and I suspect they may like them nearly as much as Mark.

One of the cats walked on this placement just after I wiped it clean and Mark chose to immortalize the paw prints. I very quickly found myself questioning the intelligence of this whole placement idea.

This is what the back of the placemats look like. Mark says they are hideous!

Finally, I made an improved lunch bag. Some time ago I made a very basic cloth lunch bag, which has been okay, but I’ve been a bit harder on it than I anticipated. I’ve been putting holes in it by dropping forks and knives into it, I’ve been spilling things in it, and I’ve been putting a heavier load than I thought in it, partially because I switched to a smaller laptop bag and have been putting a book to read during lunch in my lunch bag, and sometimes I read huge books. So I took the same concept but used canvas, which is sturdy, for the exterior and laminated cotton, which wipes clean, for the interior. I made it slightly larger, and I made a small, matching silverware holder to go inside. I managed to find the same exact fabric as the canvas in regular cotton, so I used that to make a matching napkin.

Here it is all packed up:

I don’t have any food today, sorry! I know it’s been a while, but we’ve been out of town. I hope to have a real food post soon, but since I don’t know when that will be I thought I’d pop in and wish you a happy new year. We’ve been in Charleston visiting Mark’s family, so I also thought I’d share some of the pictures I took of various animals there to tide you over until I’m able to do some proper cooking.

The first ones are from Middleton Place, which has beautiful gardens.

Lots of water fowl, which I love. I think this is an ibis:

I grew up next to a farm that had peacocks and I’ve loved them ever since.

My first word was “duck”.

Mark has decided that I have “catdar” because I constantly spot kitties. I usually then chase them around attempting to both pet and photograph them. This one was very friendly. Success!

Water buffalo.

I love this and the other sheep pictures I took. The sheep had been driven off from their shady resting spot by a terrorizing toddler. After he left, they wished to return but in the toddler’s place was a much quieter but still untrustworthy Renae, who was trying to photograph the water buffalo. Unaware of this, I started heading back to my group and encountered all of the sheep lined up several yards away staring at me like they were going to eat my soul if I didn’t get out of their spot.

I was reading Folly Beach- and Charleston-themed novels while I was down there this time. I did some reading after returning home from a day of lugging my tripod and camera around Middleton Place and found the narrator of the book I was on at the time taking his camera and tripod to Middleton Place for a day of shooting. Weird, huh?

I recently got an infrared filter for my camera and spent most of the trip taking pictures through it, which then got converted into kinda-creepy B&W pictures that I’m really into right now. My poor mother-in-law had to drag me around town and wait patiently while I set up my tripod and took exposures anywhere from 10 seconds to 5 minutes. It was suggested we go to Magnolia Cemetery for the types of pictures I was taking. It was a great location and I got some fun shots. I wasn’t expecting to run into much wildlife there, but I did. Apparently there are even alligators there, although I unfortunately didn’t see any. I DID see this goose practicing his ballet poses:

Wouldn’t it have been hilarious if after my parents had repeated the word “duck” to me a million times, trying to get me to say my first word, my first word had been “goose”?

Other than the fun infrared pictures I took, the blue heron was my favorite part of Magnolia, though. What a beautiful animal. He tolerated me for a while and let me get pretty close:

Eventually, though, he got tired of me and took off across the water …

… and landed on a tree on the opposite side:

I returned home from Magnolia Cemetery and picked up a different book I was reading, only to have the main character die and be buried in…Magnolia Cemetery. What was going on with the books I was reading mirroring my life?? Well, at least I wasn’t buried in Magnolia.

In more materialistic news, Mark gave me a Vitamix, which I’ve been very much coveting, for Christmas, so if anyone has any favorite things to make in one, please share! I feel I have a lot of blending to do this week.

Those of you who live in the US may have heard (or dealt with) about the slightly freakish snow the East Coast got last Saturday (it doesn’t usually snow in October in the mid-Atlantic region). Ordinarily this is something I would have been loudly whining about – probably right here in this blog – but as it turns out, Mark and I left for LA Friday night and missed the whole ordeal. Yes, it was snowing at home and I was in California enjoying sunshine and 90-degree temperatures. Boy, was that a great feeling.

For our late evening flight, I prepared onigiri (rice balls), which is perfect travel food. I wish I had taken pictures while preparing it, but I was busy getting ready for the trip. Next time I’ll take pictures and do a real post, but really it’s so easy, you don’t need much of a tutorial. And as with most things Japanese, there is little point in me doing a tutorial when Maki of Just Hungry has one that can’t be beat.

To summarize, though, I used a mold similar to this one (Maki’s tutorial explains how to do it without a mold). Just prepare some sushi rice, but don’t cool it and don’t season it as you would sushi – just cook it. Then stir in some salt to taste. Next, fill the mold a little more than half way with rice, then (optionally), make an indentation in the middle of the rice and add about a teaspoon of filling. The filling can really be just about anything as long as it’s not too wet. I used pickled radishes this time. Umeboshi is traditional and I often use it, but I was afraid Mark wouldn’t like it and didn’t want to worry about marking what was in each onigiri. Then fill the rest of the mold with rice, put the top on the mold, and push together. Then unmold – my mold has tabs on it that facilitate pushing the onigiri out.

Finally, and this is also optional, wrap the onigiri in nori, which you can cut out into fun shapes. For traveling, I then wrapped each onigiri in plastic wrap. Unless you use a mayonnaise-y filling, these will be safe at room temperature for quite some time, which is one of the many reasons they are so great for traveling. Other reasons include: you eat them with your fingers, they are filling, they are healthy, and they are super-portable.

For maximum fun, be decorative with the nori.

And now time to bombard you with pictures, though I will try to keep them mostly food- and animal-related. Last year I went totally nutso over the food in LA. As the Angelenos would say, it’s amazing. Here is an example of how amazing: Monday night Fort and Mark and I were at an event, after which we were meeting friends in Silver Lake. I was hungry and my friend warned me there was no food at the bar we were going to and so urged me to find something on the way. I figured that would be a hopeless cause, as we were in a hurry. Then, a block from the bar we drove by a restaurant called Vegan House. There wasn’t anything else around, just a random, open vegan restaurant with, of course, awesome food. There is no need to plan your meals in LA if you are vegan: vegan food is EVERYWHERE. (Except the airport. I hate LAX.)

Another example: I was browsing thrift and book stores near Fort’s new apartment in Echo Park and walked by an ice cream shop. I had really liked the book store I was in and thought how neat it would be if this ice cream shop a few doors down had anything vegan. Turns out it was ALL vegan. That’s LA: I think it might actually be harder to NOT be vegan there.

So anyway, here’s a little recap of my trip. I managed to forget to take pictures of many of my meals – despite the fact I lugged my new camera everywhere – but I did get a few. Saturday Fort took us for a walk through nearby Elysian Park. I love this picture I took of a lizard because he’s looking right up at me and I swear, SMILING! (I have another photo where he’s NOT looking at me or smiling, which makes me all the more sure that’s what he’s doing in this one.)

We hit up wine country on Sunday, where Mark made a new friend …

… as did I.

The views were almost as great as the animals.

Oh yeah, the wine was pretty awesome, too.

Even if I had to share.

Monday night was not only the best holiday of the year, it was Mark’s and my 7-year anniversary. Do you know who we were??

Tuesday we again met up with our friends, who suggested we check out Mohawk Bend. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of our food because it was very dark but I did snap a shot of the menu because I thought it was really cool that everything is “vegan unless marked” otherwise, instead of the other way around! Not only that but they have separate kitchens for the vegan and non-vegan stuff. Everything was delicious here and the drink selection was terrific.

I chased a few cats around throughout the week. There are a particularly high number of them in Venice, where we went Wednesday.

Because I am a great wife, I suggested we go to Disneyland on Thursday, as Mark LOVES Disney. Disneyland fun, see?

Disneyland also vegan-friendly! Vegan gumbo in New Orleans! In a sourdough boule! If you’ve ever tried to find vegan food in a non-Disney theme park, you know how incredible this sort of thing is. It was good and very, very filling. Just what you need to fuel an action-packed day.

The rides are super-fun at Disney …

… but Mark found it very typical that I took more pictures of the ducks than anything else.

Disneyland and Disney World are kinda the same and kinda different. The castles…very different. Like Disneyland in general, it’s much smaller, for one thing.

After a long, hard day of Disneying, we were starving, so I checked my phone for vegan-friendly restaurants in Anaheim. Tana Ethiopian got good reviews and I love, love, love Ethiopian, so away we went! Veggie soup:

Awesomeness:

Friday the unthinkable happened: it RAINED! Actually, I didn’t have a problem with this, other than the fact that LA drivers are even worse in the rain than they normally are, and normally they are even worse than Northern Virginia drivers, who I previously thought were the worst. Mark and I took it easy and stayed local while Fort was in school, though. Which was fine because it gave me a chance to check out Sage Bistro, which was great.

A bright respite from the rain. The counter up front actually contains the vegan ice cream I mentioned earlier.

Mark’s Cobb salad:

My tuna melt with German potato salad:

The snails come out when it rains in LA.

Our final day was yesterday, Saturday. Fort insisted we go to his favorite beach, Malibu. I’ll let the pictures do the talking: gorgeous!

And that was our trip…and also an explanation of where I’ve been during my lull in posting. I’ve really missed Fort and V and am already looking forward to returning to LA, but in the meantime I’m glad to be home with Gomez and Torticia…if slightly less glad to be going back to work tomorrow!

I’m still here! Yes, I survived the earthquake (pretty strong here in Northern Virginia, but I thought it was fun), the hurricane (not strong at all in NoVA, in fact, I was almost disappointed it wasn’t more exciting until a co-worker in Vermont started sending me pictures from there, then I felt contrite), the floods, the downed trees, etc, etc. etc. My lack of posts is not related to any of that, though, it’s the same old thing it’s been most of the summer: I AM SO BUSY!

As I’ve alluded to, and which you can tell from the multitude of raccoon pictures I’ve been posting, I’ve spent most of the summer getting into wildlife rehabilitation. I received a comment recently from someone who was also interested in raccoon rehabbing but didn’t seem sure if she could do it, so I figured I’d say a little about my experience so far. Wildlife rehabbing is something I’ve considering doing for years, but although I’m known among my friends as being very practical, down-to-earth, and capable (at least I think I am known that way!), one of my major weaknesses is a sensitivity about both animals and medical stuff. By medical stuff, I mean, I come very near to passing out if I have blood drawn or watch it being done to someone (or some animal) else, and if I think I have some ailment, like the time I had plantar fasciitis, I have to make my mother research it for me because reading about anatomy makes me sick. So for a long time I’ve told myself there was no way I could get into animal rehabbing because as soon as I encountered an injured animal, I’d either burst into hysterical tears or be paralyzed with horror.

But then I decided I didn’t want to be someone who loves wildlife so much she can’t help them. It doesn’t make sense. My decision to become a (for now) apprentice rehabber was not just to benefit wildlife, but to benefit me. To become a better person. To fix something about myself I can be better at. To overcome my fears. Parts of this summer have been hard, really hard. Harder than I was hoping my first year would be. Much of it has been exactly what I expected it to be: I clean up raccoon poop; it’s not glamorous. But parts of what I’ve been doing – in addition to helping with the raccoons, I’ve been transporting animals for our local wildlife rescue group – have been beneficial in unexpected ways. Not only have realized I’m not paralyzed by upsetting situations, but I’ve been talking to a lot of rehabbers and I’ve found it easy. See, I’m extremely shy. I may not seem like it within the context of my blog, because it’s my blog, but I find it difficult to talk to strangers. Somewhat to my surprise, I have found I really enjoy talking to all the people I meet, and I’ve been asking questions of everyone to learn everything I can. I had/have a bad view of Northern Virginia; there are a lot of things about this area that don’t sit well with me: McMansions, materialism, self-absorption. My perception has changed a lot as I meet more and more compassionate people and learn more and more about the wildlife population here. There are a lot of good people here after all!

So, Jill, if you are reading this: if you want to work with raccoons or any wildlife, don’t sell yourself short! I haven’t had to insert any feeding tubes and if I do, I’ll probably freak out the first time, but I know now I can handle it if I tell myself I can handle it. And for those of you who are interested in wildlife but aren’t sure the hands-on stuff is for you, contact your local wildlife organization: there are a lot of other things out there that are easy to do (driving animals in boxes around is not hard work!) but are so helpful and rewarding.

Alright, that’s the end of my public service announcement for the day. This IS a food blog, right? Where is the food, you are no doubt asking. Unfortunately, there is no food. I’ve wanted to post, and I’ve even snapped a few half-hearted shots of some of my meals, but honestly, in addition to not having time to blog, I just haven’t made anything blog-worthy to tell you about. However, weeks ago, Jes tagged me in a Seven Links post, which I figured would give me something to write about, but I never found the time to sit down and do it. I don’t really have the time today, but I’m making the time. So essentially, I am supposed to link to seven archived posts in seven different categories. It’s harder than it seems, but in the hopes that at least some of my archives are more interesting than I am lately, here we go:

Most Beautiful Post

At first I thought this one would be next to impossible to choose, because what is “beautiful” about my blog, other than food in general being beautiful? But then I realized that although it’s sort of cheating because they were just about the most off-topic posts I have made, the answer is easy. I have to select two, though, because there is no way to choose between them.

My memorials to Tigger …

… and Brachtune.

Most Popular Post

Curiously, this one should be very simple to answer just based on statistics, but the truth is I don’t look at my logs that often; at least not lately because I’ve been so busy. Whenever I do look at my logs, I’m always surprised by how many hits Thai Sticky Rices and Sauces gets; a lot of people come in via googling for sauces for sticky rice. But as far as getting continuing feedback, I think the bread bag tutorial may be the most popular.

Most Controversial Post

Okay, this is the hardest one! Have I ever done an even remotely controversial post?! Believe me, the fact that I haven’t is not because don’t hold controversial opinions or do controversial things, because a large contingent of the planet would probably think I do. But the goal of this blog is to attract not only like-minded vegans, but friendly omnivores. I don’t want controversy here. I want love, peace, and happiness here like the damn hippie I am! This is a food blog (regardless how hard I try to make it a cat and raccoon blog), and I want food to be the great unifier, not the great divider.

I honestly can’t think of a controversial post, but there is one that some random person on the internet has left a nasty comment on a couple of times, and I’ve deleted the comment both times. That’s as close as I think I’ve gotten to controversy. It was one of the old posts with Tigger and this person left a comment about how she wouldn’t ever eat at my house because I let my cats on the counter. I don’t remember which post it was because Tigger was ALWAYS on the counters, but bizarrely, she’s left the same comment twice over a span of like two years. Both times I was undecided about allowing the comment and then replying, “that’s fine because I would never invite someone as rude as you to eat in my house”, or just deleting it. I would never delete a comment made by someone who respectfully disagreed with me, and I’ve allowed other less-than-friendly comments, but I just felt that particular comment was nothing but mean-spirited and meant to hurt my feelings, and it goes against everything I want this blog to be for me and others. I know a lot of people on the internet are into sparring with each other, but I just didn’t want to be reminded of that negativity every time I looked at that post. So I guess my big controversy is I controversially deleted the single mean comment I’ve ever gotten, so none of you even knew there was a controversy. If any of you remember a better controversy, comment and tell me! I won’t delete your comment! (Unless you hate on Tigger, of course.)

Most Helpful Post

I don’t know how “helpful” I usually am; sometimes I think I’m the opposite of helpful because I’m really very relaxed about cooking: I don’t measure things, so I sometimes wonder how useful my recipes are when they are usually just estimations and approximations of what I did. And I am not really a pioneer of any techniques or even flavors. But if I have to pick a post, I would say the tofu press tutorial, just because sturdy tofu presses are hard to find and I haven’t seen any posts like that one.

A Post Whose Success Surprised Me

I’d expect a post with “A-Not-Very-Good Attempt” in the title to fall pretty flat, but I was surprised by how many people commented on my kitchen in my “not-very-good” attempt at seitan ham. Since then I’ve noticed I always get a lot of comments whenever I post photos that show more of my kitchen (which has gotten even better since that post!) than just the food I’m working on. We live in a rental house and the kitchen, although adequate, is nothing special. However, someone I had just met pointed out to me at a party once that my kitchen is obviously the kitchen of someone who loves to cook and that was why she (and everyone else) likes being in it. And it’s true, *I* like being in it, and I guess that vibe transcends to others.

A Post I Didn’t Feel Received the Attention It Deserved

Hm, this is really hard to answer because I’m always flattered by any attention my posts get, and I have a lot of great commenters that keep me going! The only one that comes to mind is maybe the kaiser roll post, just because I don’t think anyone made them (other than those who already have and love The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, which the recipe is from) and they are GREAT. Now, my high school hair in that post, on the other hand, got way more attention than it needed!

The Post I’m Most Proud Of

This is hard, too, but I think I’m going to go with my three miso posts because, well, I made miso. I wasn’t formerly known as a particularly patient person, but fermentation, especially of miso, has taught me the way. I am proud that when I want to know how something is made, I MAKE it.

Wow, that took way longer than I hoped it would! Thanks for making me do it, though, Jes! I’m supposed to tag other people, but honestly, that sort of stresses me out and I’m stressed out enough with work right now, so if I’ve inspired anyone else to go through their archives, I’d love to read your seven posts, but please don’t make me call on people.

I hope to be posting much more frequently this fall as things calm down both at work and with the wildlife. Although I haven’t come up with any blog-worthy posts yet, I am doing a few new things I’ll eventually be posting about: making red wine vinegar, making beer(!!!), and I got a CO2 tank so I’ve been carbonating everything – expect soda recipes galore this fall!

Mark and I were invited to an open house at The Wildlife Center of Virginia this Saturday and decided to make a weekend out of it. The Wildlife Center is in Waynesboro, which is not terribly far from Charlottesville, which I’ve always wanted to explore. We got to see their hospital facility and then meet their non-releasable, resident animals. We weren’t allowed to see any of the patients, of which they see between two and three thousand a year. But it was cool to see where my parents’ money goes (Mark requests a donation to this place from my parents in lieu of Christmas gifts each year).

I thought this kestrel was just adorable!

Many of the other people at the open house were eagle fans. In addition to several other eagle patients, the center is raising several eaglets from the Norfolk Botanical Garden that were orphaned when their mother was tragically killed by an airplane, and most of the visitors have been watching them grow on the center’s eagle cam. We weren’t able to see these eagles, but we did see a couple of non-releasable eagles, such as this guy.

They also have a lot of owls. You might as well know now that I am totally fascinated by owls.

After visiting the Wildlife Center, we drove about 40 minutes east to a town (if you can call it that) called Schuyler, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where out in the middle of nowhere (we had absolutely no cell phone coverage at all) there is a most exciting establishment: a completely vegan bed & breakfast! The White Pig is a B&B and animal sanctuary, specifically for potbellied pigs. It’s a beautiful restored farmhouse:

The innkeeper, Dina, and her husband raise pigs they have rescued. I wish we had stayed two nights instead of one because we did not manage to find time to explore the farm or even see the pigs: we’re definitely going to have to go back. We DID see numerous non-living pigs. My friend Pig was right at home!

It’s a very interesting – and very wonderful – feeling to be staying in a place, especially one so remote, where everything is vegan, including the toiletries. There is even a “no meat on the premises” policy! I don’t generally feel unwelcome when I stay in a “normal” hotel or inn, but let me tell you, I felt damn welcome here! The back of the house:

An old barn next to the house:

Smark being silly:

After settling into the White Pig, Mark and I drove about half an hour into Charlottesville, looking for dinner. We found Lemongrass, a cute little Vietnamese/Thai place near the University of Virginia that had vegan meals noted on the menu. I noticed that some of the things marked vegetarian but not vegan were almost definitely really vegan as well, and in fact, asked about the tofu summer rolls, which fell into that category. Our waitress said I was right that the menu was sometimes wrong about the vegan items and checked with the kitchen to verify the summer rolls were also vegan.

I had the Orange-Tamarind Tofu, which was really good.

Mark had the Cashew Seitan. Let me tell you how Mark felt about the cashew seitan. None of the meals marked vegan were also marked spicy (although as I said, I believe several, if not all, of the vegetarian dishes may really be vegan), so when we ordered I asked them to bring us the selection of “hot stuff” you usually find at Thai restaurants, so we could spice them up. They didn’t remember to bring the hot stuff out, but Mark – the boy who will literally pour an entire bottle of Tabasco sauce over just about anything I serve him, and I cook fairly spicy to begin with – informed me the cashew seitan was so delicious it didn’t need hot sauce. I couldn’t refrain from stealing half of it from him, either.

Later that night we stopped by Whole Foods (I can’t decide if the Charlottesville store is bigger than my local store in Fairfax, or vice versa, but it’s pretty huge) and picked up some Sheese and crackers, which we ate sitting on the porch of the White Pig, drinking the vegan red wine and eating the vegan chocolates we’d been left, and gaping at the stars, which we don’t ordinarily get to see unobstructed by city and suburban lights.

The next morning we went down for breakfast and found two yogurt granola parfaits waiting for us, which I forgot to take a picture of, but which were delicious. Then it was time for blueberry pancakes, which Mark informed me were better than my pancakes. They were. The only time I ever cook breakfast is when Fortinbras is over and demands that I make him pancakes (he can be a bit demanding). So starting what promised to be a long day with a perfectly cooked homemade breakfast was delicious and wonderful. It was also so weird to be able to eat breakfast food while out! So weird that at first Mark avoided buttering his pancakes because we’re so used to just assuming we can’t do that. I had to remind him we could eat everything!

I also ordered box lunches from the innkeeper for us, which I didn’t photograph. They included “chicken” salad sandwiches, which Mark didn’t love because he’s not a fan of mayonnaise, but which I thought were really good. We packed up the car, including the lunches, and were off to Monticello, home of our third president and a prominent founding father, Thomas Jefferson. I’ve always wanted to see Monticello and it lived up to my expectations. Although it was sweltering (95 degrees!), it was just lovely. We had some time before the tour, which I had booked earlier, and stopped into the cafe, where they serve food made with produce grown in Jefferson’s garden, and I was shocked to find a vegan wrap available, although I didn’t buy it since we had our box lunches. I tell you, I barely feel weird any more as a vegan! The world is beginning to find me normal!

Not much else really has to do with veganism or even animals in the rest of this post, but I’ll share a few photos because Monticello is simply breathtaking, and well, it is Independence Day!

The house itself:

We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the house, but the kitchen is not actually in the house (!), so I can show you that:

Part of Jefferson’s beloved garden – he was a huge fan of vegetables and in fact introduced several of them to our country:

I’m telling you, it is ridiculously pretty:

I had never seen a blooming artichoke before:

A random view from the grounds:

Another:

We had a really great weekend. I highly recommend that any of you in the DC metro area make a weekend trip to the White Pig, and if you haven’t seen it (and even if you have), Monticello. In fact, any of you who plan to visit DC from other areas may want to consider including this as a side trip. Charlottesville and Monticello are just over two hours from DC, as is the White Pig. After a few days battling crowds, traffic, and the general unpleasantness that is DC, believe me, you will cherish a night or two in a serene setting, especially one that’s all-vegan!

Good news, everyone! I finished categorizing my recipes and have finally made them available in an index to the right, in navigation panel. If you notice any problems with the index, or have any suggestions to make it more user-friendly, please let me know. And if there is anything you would like to see me post, feel free to request it – I could use the inspiration. I also swapped out the default WordPress search, which sucks, with a Google search engine, so I think things will be much easier to find from now on. Believe me, I had problems finding things before, so I know it was a mess.

In other news, it is Mother’s Day here in the States, so enjoy my favorite picture of my mom:

Isn’t she pretty?!

I’ve replaced the earlier photo I had of my mother here with one she just sent me where she’s actually smiling. I also look less block-headed and have hair. You even get a better view of our awesome sofa. Altogether a superior picture.

Mom smiling again! Because I’m getting married! And she’s in a castle!

Anyway, Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. I love you!

And while I’m at it, Happy Mother’s Day to my mother-in-law – I couldn’t have asked for a better one.

And Happy Mother’s Day to all the other mothers out there. And, uh, everyone else, too.

I spoiled my appetite for dinner a second time this week, and so wanted something very small and very quick later, and yet also wanted to feed Mark. I had some tofu shirataki in the refrigerator, and decided to go that route. Shirataki noodles were all the rage a year or two ago, with their 20 calories and very low carbs. I don’t make them that often because honestly, they don’t fill me up. But they seemed like the perfect thing when I wanted to eat something small not long before going to bed. I used three packages because I knew Mark would eat two. Here’s what I did.

Tofu Shirataki with Peanut Sauce and Veggies

3 packages tofu shirataki
1 small head broccoli, cut into florets and steamed
1 bell pepper, red, orange, or yellow, chopped
2 cups napa cabbage, chopped
5.5 oz baby corn (Super H sells these adorable 5.5 oz cans of these)

Peanut Sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 oz coconut milk (Super H sells 5.5 oz cans of this too, which is great when you don’t need much)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated
1 large clove garlic, grated
squirts of sriracha to your taste
juice of 1 lime

Remove shirataki from package and rinse very, very well in a sieve – this stuff has a funky odor you need to get rid of before using. Place in a pot, cover well with water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Put all of the peanut sauce ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, adding some water if necessary to thin. Set aside.

Heat some oil in a wok, then add the bell peppers and baby corn, frying for a couple of minutes. Add the broccoli and cabbage and fry another few minutes. Next, drain the noodles and add them to the wok, stirring well and frying another minute or so. Pour the peanut sauce over the noodles and stir well.

I just wish I’d had something red to use for a better presentation!

So in news you probably don’t care about, I’ve been on a bag-making kick this weekend. First, I had this awesome fabric I had been considering using for my lunch bag but didn’t, so I made farmers market totes/grocery bags out of it. I LOVE this fabric. Each of the bags reverses to both green peppers and tomatoes. Adorable!

Next, I needed a tote for the beach. As I mentioned in my last post, Mark’s family lives near Folly Beach in Charleston, so we spend a lot of time there and I need something to lug my towel, books, and sunscreen around. I had a linen/cotton blend fabric leftover from a previous project that I used for this.

The inside is a cute squid and seahorse fabric, but I only had a fat quarter of each of two matching colors, so the lining is two different colors, but I think it ended up being even cooler that way.

I got all crazy and added a pocket to this one. Since I didn’t have any more squid fabric, I used a matching seahorse fat quarter I had to line the pocket. I left the selvage on the linen fabric because I liked the fringe effect.

I’m quite pleased with my beach tote and can’t wait to use it. You can’t really tell, but behind the tote it is STORMING! We’ve gotten so much rain today! (Which is partially why I spent all day making bags.) I’ve been getting alerts about coastal flooding and tornadoes all day. BAD DAY FOR THE BEACH. A girl can dream, though.

Next up, a smaller tote with bats and glow-in-the-dark skulls. You may not know this about me, but I’m a closet goth. I don’t really identify as a goth, but I have loved bats and Halloween and haunted houses and dark things since I was a kid, and I’m not kidding, black has been my favorite color since I was about 3. AND I LOVE BAUHAUS. IT’S TRUE. Oh, and I may have possibly met my husband in a goth club. I guess you could say I have gothic tendencies. I live with snakes and lizards and other things that go bump in the night!

Basically I made this tote just because I loved the fabric. And I DO need a book tote. This will also be good for keeping in the car and using as a bag when I need to run into a store for a couple of things. Lined with a cool red fabric I used for Christmas gift bags.

Yesterday I had to go to the fabric store to pick up nylon webbing for the straps for the retro veggie bags because I didn’t have enough fabric to make the straps. While I was there, I found these fruit fabrics for 50% off. I already have a ton of reusable grocery bags, but they’re getting kind of grungy and they aren’t the kind that launder particularly well. So fruit grocery bags it was! Green apples reverses to red apples, oranges reverses to bananas, and grapes reverses to cherries.

Finally, I declared our house a paper-towel-free zone a long time ago, but I’ve noticed that our cleaning person keeps bringing in contraband paper towels and using them to clean. I bought her cloth paper towels from etsy, but I don’t think they were big enough for her. And then at the opposite side of the spectrum, I have Mark, who thinks nothing of sopping up spilled beverages (and he spills a lot of beverages) with our best bath towels. So I took a yard of cotton flannel that I never used in the rag quilt I’d intended it for, and cut it into 12″ squares. I made a total of 16 cloth paper towels; some were a bit longer on two sides in order to use up all the fabric. Then I had fun trying out every overlocking stitch on my new sewing machine to finish the edges. Good times. I folded them up neatly and put them in a basket. Then, because I think part of Maria’s resistance to the cloth paper towels is she doesn’t feel right leaving soiled items behind her, I found a little pail and labeled it “DIRTY” so the used ones have a set place to go. I stored both the basket and the pail under the kitchen sink with the cleaning supplies, so hopefully they’ll be seen and used by anyone who needs to clean stuff around here. We’ll see if anyone other than me and the cats follow through.

No food tonight, so if you don’t have or don’t like cats, come back in a day or two for an on-topic, food-related post. If you have playful cats that are somewhat destructive, then stick around.

The kittens have a bazillion toys, which is good because they love to play. They are quite capable of amusing themselves, but their favorite game is playing with a human-held toy on a string or stick; usually this is a feather on the end of a string, attached to a stick. They leap around like nuts and are generally extremely amusing. However, they are very hard on their toys and tend to destroy them quickly. They eat through strings, so many toys get tied back together again and again until a string that started out several feet long is suddenly a few inches long. They even break the sticks the strings dangle from. And of course, they destroy any feathers on their toys within seconds. And you don’t usually know if feathers were humanely sourced. So I set out to make a heavy-duty dangle-type toy they would have a harder time destroying.

What you need:

various ribbons
thread
about 1 yard cord elastic

plastic cord/cable cover (for hiding electrical cords along walls), about a yard long

I went to the hardware store and scouted out things to use for my “stick”. I tried several different things and what worked best was this Cordmate Cord Cover:
. I think this is the same thing; it was a little cheaper at Home Depot, where they also had longer lengths you can buy separately and cut to fit, which was even cheaper. I bought the kit with 3 36″ lengths because I wanted 36″ and don’t have a saw. It was $10, but I can make two more toys.

I bought a few different types of red ribbon for the “feather”. They were 55 cents to $3 a yard at the fabric store, although I happened to get 25% off those prices. I chose red because I have a theory that cats see red best, and I know red was definitely Tigger’s favorite color. The color, of course, doesn’t matter, so get what you want. I got one type of ribbon that was lightly wired, to provide a bit of the stiffness you’d find in a feather. I got another one that was more gossamer, like the soft parts of a feather. And I got a heavier velvet one that was strong enough to attach to the string to without tearing. So pick out some ribbons and then cut them into lengths about 6 to 8″ long.

Take two pieces of the sturdiest ribbon you have and line them up, back to back, then sew a buttonhole near the top. (If you don’t have a sewing machine, you can just snip a hole, but sewing a buttonhole will really help reinforce it.)

Put a pin at one end of the buttonhole and use a seam ripper to rip the middle of the hole open. (The pin stops you from ripping too far.)

Arrange the rest of the ribbons in a way that they fan out a bit and then put them between the two you’ve sewn together with the buttonhole. Pin.

Sew all ribbons together just under the buttonhole. I used a zigzag stitch and went back and forth a few times to make it as secure as possible. You can do this by hand if you don’t have a sewing machine.

Cut a length of the elastic. I have found that 30″ the ideal length, so cut 32″ or so. Tie one end through the buttonhole and trim the end. Other than possibly some very sleek, round elastics, most of them will tie a very tight knot that won’t come undone (I had to cut the knots on the prototypes I made that I didn’t like).

The cord cover comes with a self-adhesive strip on it for attaching to a wall. You could leave it on and just not peel the paper off, but eventually it’s going to start coming off as you handle it and get all sticky. So just get rid of it now. It took me about two or three minutes to rub the adhesive off with my thumb. I tried using a razor to scrape it off, but the thumb was a lot faster and easier.

The cord cover is also flat on one side (the side you peeled the adhesive off of), and rounded on the other.

Put the flat side on a table, hanging over by an inch or two, and then drill a hole, about 1/2″ down, through both sides. (I love projects that involve using my grandfather’s drill!)

Push the other end of the elastic through one of the holes, then pull it out through the top of the rod. You may need to use tweezers to pull it up, but I just kept pushing it until it popped up on its own.

Tie the elastic.

And that’s it!

The cats love it! It’s very, very, very hard to take pictures of them playing with it, though. I really need a video camera to properly catch it, and I should, because they can be hilarious. Gomez especially does these bizarre contortions mid-air that are amazing, but I just can’t get them on camera! So these pictures are pretty shoddy, but they’re the best I got at catching them in the air:

Torticia tends to get lazy and starts lying on her back, expecting the toy to come to her, although I always go and pick her back up and make her play properly because she’s getting pudgy!

It’s a bit hard to make Mezzie out in front of the glare on the glass behind him, but here he is leaping from his cat tree.

And doesn’t something look really wrong with the angle of Tort Reform’s head in this one?

Finally, since this is a cat-only post, here is a sequence of pictures I took the other night after giving Gomez catnip. He’s a surly drunk! Mezzie likes the ‘nip, but Tortellini doesn’t do more than just kind of sniff it daintily and look at Mez like he’s crazy for eating it. But just seconds after eating some and rolling around it in, Mezzian always starts beating his poor sister up!

Fortunately, Tort Reform just puts him right back in his place.

Okay, that’s it for tonight – back soon with food, I promise!

It’s Saturday evening and Mark and I are preparing to head home tomorrow. I’m becoming extremely anxious to see the kittens, but I’ll be sorry to leave our friends – and all this delicious food – behind and am looking forward to returning soon. Unfortunately, Virgin America may end up charging me for two seats I’ve eaten so much!

Earlier in the week, Fortinbras and I went hiking in Runyon Canyon and afterward stopped at the first vegan restaurant we came to, California Vegan on Sunset Blvd, which had a very similar menu to Lotus Vegan, which I discussed in the previous post, although that just meant it was delicious. I had the baked soy “fish” with vegetables:

For dinner that evening, Fortinbras found and wanted to check out Veggie Grill, which Fort kept calling “vegan fast food”, but it was so much more than that. We started with the wings, which were incredibly tasty:

Fort ordered the Carne Asada on a bed of kale instead of a bun. He absolutely loved it.

I had the Bayou Chickin’, the char-grill taste of which was amazing, and the mac & cheese, which seemed to use Daiya (which impressed Fortinbras, although I’ve made very similar at home).

Veggie Grill also has beer and wine (a house red and white on tap; the red was really pretty good). Fort’s planning to go back often.

Last night Mark and I dragged V to Shin Barbecue, which I was dying to go to after reading Quarry Girl‘s post about it. Now, one of my all-time favorite meals is dolsot bibimbap and I have no problem going into a “normal” Korean restaurant and asking them to make it veggie for me even if it’s not on the menu. But I could absolutely not pass up the opportunity to check out a Korean restaurant offering vegan meals right on the menu, separately prepared from the meat in the kitchen. Boy am I glad we didn’t miss this! Our waiter was extremely helpful when I told him we were vegan; the service was really outstanding. And the food? Incredible! Really, really good.

We got six vegan banchan, including the kimchee, which was vegan! Yum, yum, yum. We ate it too quickly for me to get a picture, although we also later got refills.

Then, our appetizer, the tofu steak:

Next up the kimchee fried rice. I’m not always a huge fan of fried rice because it seems so greasy and heavy, but this was soooo good! It was not at all greasy and seemed almost light.

And the seitan bulgogi, which Mark in particular loved. We had intended to actually barbecue this at our table, but the kitchen forgot and sent it out already grilled. I wouldn’t have said anything in the first place, but the waiter brought it out with apologies, then brought us some beautifully sliced, marinated veggies for us to play with on the barbecue to make up for it! (As if we needed more food…)

We also got the kimchee soup, which they made vegan for us (it usually has beef broth). Oh, yumminess in a bowl!

This morning we went to the Getty Villa and afterward wanted lunch. Fortinbras found a vegan restaurant just a few miles from the museum, but either Mark entered the address into the GPS wrong or the GPS just hates us, because we ended up on I-10 nowhere near the alleged restaurant. So we decided to just head back to Fort’s ‘hood, but the GPS wasn’t done messing with us and delivered us to some heavy off-highway traffic. I was started to get cranky-hungry and was quite displeased, when I happened to look over to my left as I was driving and see “Ethiopian Vegan Restaurant” in big green letters. So I pulled into a very handy parking spot and we enjoyed an all-you-can-eat vegan buffet for $9.99 each. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Ethiopian food? Well, I do, and this was all-vegan and all-amazing. A very happy detour indeed! The restaurant was Rahel Ethiopian and I wish it would relocate to Northern Virginia.

So, the question everyone is asking is: am I going to move out here or what? Well, quite frankly, I would actually consider moving here solely for the food. And the lack of snow. There is still a lot to explore and I’m eager to return; this city is very large. I didn’t take many great photos on this trip for various reasons, but here are a few sort of crappy ones that show some of the non-food-related things I did.

Jathan took us to Venice Beach, where Mark was interested in the graffiti artists.

(By the way, Jathan also showed us the Banksy documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, which was really good. Watch it if you can.)

I didn’t know there were really canals in Venice until Jathan showed them to us and now Mark and I are both dying to live in one of the houses that line them. (I saw a lot of cats here, too.)

Mark and I accidentally found ourselves on Mulholland Drive one evening around sunset and very much enjoyed the views. This was taken with my phone and looks like a fake movie backdrop to me.

Fortinbras and I went hiking in Runyon Canyon, which gave me my first close glimpse of the Hollywood sign:

V and Mark and I went to the Griffith Observatory, which has fabulous views of the city, although it was so smoggy or hazy when we went that my pictures aren’t that great. The Hollywood sign is actually behind me in this picture, but you can’t see it.

Not a great picture, but from the Observatory, here’s the city at sunset.

All of tomorrow will be consumed by travel and time zone changes, but the reward will be two sweet, probably very confused kittens whom I miss very much!

Hello from L.A.! I’ve been here for nearly a week and so far I can say L.A. is hands down the best city I’ve ever been to for food. It seems like there is a vegan restaurant on every corner, and every one I’ve been to has been really good. We’re here for 11 days, and ordinarily when I’m staying with friends or renting an apartment, I look forward to cooking in several nights. But, my friends, 11 days is not enough to eat everything I need to eat in this town!

Our second day here, our friends were trying to decide where we should eat dinner and, after googling, suggested Native Foods, mostly because it was nearby. I didn’t realize at first the restaurant was completely vegan, and was overwhelmed once I did. I finally chose the bacon cheeseburger because I thought it was a funny thing for a vegan to order:

Mark ordered the reuben:

Both were delicious and the chef even stopped by our table to see if we liked it. The omnivores we were with also enjoyed their meals – although I’ve found non-vegetarians usually don’t like fake meat, the bacon cheeseburger even went over very well. Unfortunately, things disintegrated to this shortly before we left:

Our hosts Jathan and Travis requested that I make dinner the following night and to that end took me to their neighborhood produce store. A produce store is pretty much all the greatness of Super H minus all the badness. That is, it’s a store almost entirely filled with produce, including exotic Asian fruits and vegetables, with a couple of aisles of rice and other staples, but with no meat, squid machines, or tentacles. I’m terrible at deciding what to make under pressure, but Mark came to my rescue and suggested stuffed peppers, I think mostly because Jathan and Travis found some TVP and were somewhat frightened of it and Mark thought it would be funny if we made them eat it. I made the recipe up on the fly; it was wild rice, TVP, onion, veggie broth, tomatoes, a chili pepper, and various seasonings. I also made a quick pasta dish to accompany it. I’m pleased to say that all plates were cleaned so I guess I didn’t screw it up too much, and the TVP wasn’t too scary.

Then we moved from Jathan and Travis’ house to Fortinbras’s place in Studio City, where he took us to Lotus Vegan, which he hadn’t been to although it’s right down the street from him. Apparently he’d been waiting for me. He got a “chicken” lunch:

And I got the yellow curry with “fish”:

Fortinbras was in raptures over both meals, but when he ordered dessert, I thought he was going to explode from happiness:

This chocolate cheesecake was probably – okay, definitely – the best vegan cheesecake I’ve ever had, or at least it was until we returned later that night with Mark in tow and tried the strawberry cheesecake which may have been even better. Now, remember Fortinbras is not even remotely vegan, but he still thought it was one of the best cheesecakes he’s ever had, vegan or not. He was also head over heels in love with the coconut ice cream that he ordered to accompany it. Fort’s going to be a regular at this place now.

For dinner, Fortinbras, Mark, and I went to Leonor’s Vegetarian Restaurant, which is not entirely vegan (it is vegetarian), though they are planning to begin using Daiya instead of their current non-vegan soy cheese soon. They were very helpful about making sure our meals were vegan after we asked about the cheese situation. It can be tricky to find vegan Mexican food, so I was excited to order these “shrimp” tacos:

They were pretty good, although I really prefer burritos to tacos.

In the midst of scouting out used bookstores today, I stopped for lunch at Daichan, which serves “Japanese soul food”. It’s a cute little place filled with Japanese tchotchkes.

I had the vegetable poki, which was not necessarily the most exciting meal I’ve ever eaten, but a nice, healthy, refreshing lunch, especially after all the other stuff I’ve been cramming down my throat since I got out here, most of which has been amazingly delicious but not exactly health food. It also seemed like something easy to replicate at home, which I think I will be doing.

Tonight Mark and I went to Pure Luck. I told him that they were known for their carnitas tacos made with jackfruit, although since he also prefers burritos to tacos, he ordered the carnitas burrito:

I ordered the BBQ sandwich, also made with jackfruit:

Both of these were really, really good. Mark declared my BBQ sandwich to be the best thing we’ve had here, although he thoroughly enjoyed his burrito as well. I think he might make me go back to Pure Luck again before we leave, he liked it so much. Although I’m trying to fit all the restaurants I want to try in, I won’t argue about going back there.

All in all, the food in this city is absolutely AMAZING. I thought San Francisco and NYC were good for vegans, but now I don’t think you can beat L.A.

Mostly I’ve been eating, but I’ve also done quite a bit of thrift and book store shopping. I absolutely loved Small World Books in Venice Beach. They had a great selection and a cat named Conan. All book stores need a cat, in my opinion.

Today I went to Iliad Bookshop, which is a huge and wonderful used book store. I really wish this store was in Northern Virginia. I have no idea how I think I’m getting my suitcase home after visiting this place; it’s going to weigh a ton. Of course they also have a cat! She looks very much like Brachtune except she’s missing an eye, due to mistreatment by her former owners before she was rescued by the book store staff.

Think it’s strange I saw a one-eyed cat? Well, the aforementioned Travis has a no-eyed cat, Radar:

Travis actually rescued Radar a few years ago after seeing a story about him on the DC news: he was in an animal shelter volunteer’s car when it was stolen right out from under her. He was eventually found again, and Travis felt the need to adopt him after watching the news segment. Radar is a super, super awesome cat. Watching him play is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. He’s also very sweet and affectionate and slept with Mark and I most nights we were there.

When Travis adopted Radar, the shelter made him adopt Radar’s buddy at the same time because they had bonded. Demon has both his eyes and I guess he’s supposed to look out for Radar, but Radar doesn’t seem to need much help, and moreover, Radar seems to enjoy attacking Demon. Nonetheless, they are best friends, and Demon is an extremely cute, affectionate, and playful – and very large – boy. He also slept with us, although he took up most of the bed.

I’m running into tons of cats here, but as this has gotten very long I’ll spare you any more photos for now. It’s great that I’m getting so much kitty contact, but I’m starting to really miss those kittens of mine. Their sitter tells me they are doing fine, but I’ll be extremely happy to see them when we return home.