End of January Wrap Up

Despite my best intentions I seem to only update the blog once a month!  I probably would do it more if I got more feedback, mostly because I'm motivated like that.  Also, not much happens to us unless I just put up more pictures of food, the dog and our view!  And there's nothing wrong with that.

Jake was gone for the first part of January to see family, watch football and interview for the Kalamazoo College job.  Once he got back he took me to the Le Creuset outlet store in Gilroy where I picked out some major pieces for my kitchenware collection!  This was my holiday present.  I picked up a red tajine, a blue grill pan and a huge yellow lidded saute pan (which turns out to be the most used piece in the kitchen now).    I was like a kid in a candy store, but instead of candy there were $200 pots.  Because it was an outlet store the pots may be one season behind in color or style, have little imperfections (that I don't even notice) and cost way less than 'perfect' and brand new ones.  There was one piece I really did adore but held back.  The yellow batter bowl will be acquired next!  I have vague plans to go back to the outlet mall to do some clothes shopping and I may have to swing by one more time....


Here's the Moroccan tajine and the yellow saute pan:

I loosely used a recipe that came with the tagine.  This is what I did:

Sauteed red onion and garlic in the base:

 

Then added some cubed fake chicken:

 

 Then cubed eggplant, preserved lemons and a whole tablespoon of tumeric:

  

I found the preserved lemons at a Middle Eastern store in San Jose.  They are basically pickled lemon but you use the rind, not the flesh.  The come whole so I scooped out the flesh and chopped the rind.  They weren't as sour as I expected!  I think I'll try making my own next time.  They take a month to make, but we have such great lemons here I bet mine would be better than jarred.

 The top cone is then placed on the base and left there for about 2 hours.  The purpose of the conical shape is that the steam condenses and collects on the lid and then falls back into the stew creating a concentrated flavor.  It smelled amazing while cooking. 

 
While the tajine was cooking, I made a salad with spicy Moroccan cooked carrots:

Looks like a big yellow blob, but it was a delicious yellow blob!  Along with the salad I made a bulgur and vermicelli pilaf to go with the stew.  Garnished with cilantro for color and flavor.  Incredibly good!

I've been a cooking maniac lately!  I'm trying to use my cookbooks a lot more because I have so many and I enjoy trying new techniques that I may have not thought of on my own.  I've probably tried about 20 new recipes this month.  My favorites being some smokey collards done in a slow cooker and apricot almond chocolate bark.

Also, Happy Anniversary to my grandparents!  A few days late, but I just wanted to know I've been thinking about you during this busy week.

Backlog of December

I am so bad at updating this!!  The longer I wait to post, the more I have to share all at once.  So, the theme here is quality, not quantity!

At the beginning of the month Jake and I did a mini Chanukah celebration by eating latkes.  I took a photo but latkes do not photograph well at all!  Especially on our orange plates.  I served them with homemade roasted applesauce which was fantastic. 

Jake's been doing his fair share of mushroom hunting with Turnip.  They came home with this big guy!

We only eat the chantrelles that he finds.  Today at the market we saw that they are selling for $15 a pound.  When they're free they are even better!

Last weekend Amey hosted a super fun gingerbread making party!  Tons of candy, kids and healthy treats!  This was my first attempt at making a gingerbread house and just because I have to be different, I made a Hanukah Hut.  I think it turned out fantastic and was really fun to make.  I considered myself a confectionery architect for the day.   The house structure was made by me (flavor: espresso-chocolate gingerbread) and the royal icing was made by Amey.  Both recipes were from the most recent issue of Vegetarian Times.  The walls were strong and the royal icing dried like glue.  No need for load bearing candy canes or the hot glue gun that I brought.  I considered it s success!

Next up was the bake sale at work benefiting the Sunshine Club.  This organization is run by ER nurses that as far as I can tell, uses the money to help needed families during the holiday season.  They are currently running a gift card drive and a coat drive.  I am always happy to bake for a fund raiser!  I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls (shown here without the icing) and peanut butter fudge. 

The rolls are actually pretty orange but I had weird lighting.  I've made them a million times and are amazing.  I've never had peanut butter fudge (or even heard of it) but I came across the recipe here and it just sounded too good and easy not to try.  If you do attempt it, use white sugar (bad I know!) and peanut butter that's not too oily.  I made it a second time a few days ago for another holiday party and it turned out too soft.  Learn from my mistakes.  They both sold really well.  People were cutting into the cinnamon rolls as soon as I took them out and while I was icing them.  I had to tell them to slow down! 

Then because I didn't really getting my cinnamon roll fix, I made my own mini batch of cinnamon rolls the next morning with half whole wheat flour.  I got my fix but tried to make it a teeny bit healthier.   I really like chopped up pecans in them.  These are mini sized and so yummy.

 

 And of course I can't leave you without a dog picture!  Here she is in her brand new "jumbo" sized blue bed.  She gets one new bed a year during the holiday season.  The brown one got caught out in the rain so I put it by the fire to dry out.  Turnip figured out that she can use both beds to make a super jumbo nest in front of the fire!  She's so freaky smart. 

It's raining non stop here and the fire is always going.  Hopefully no trees will fall down in our driveway trapping us in like in January.  Also, I really hope the power stays on! 

End of November Update

Jake came back from New Orleans and all I got were these awesome beans!
 

In full disclosure, I asked for him to bring me back some of these famous beans.  He also brought some roasted garlic Louisiana brand hot sauce and some creole seasoning.  Such a good husband for a wacko foodie like me!  Can't wait to try some Creole/Cajan cuisine - something I'm not too familiar with.

Then there was Thanksgiving.  We had some friends over for our annual Orphan's Thanksgiving and ate and ate and ate yummy food.  I actually don't like Thanksgiving food pictures because they are, well, ugly and never are able to transmit the deliciousness.  The pictures of Thanksgiving food always look like a greasy pile of brown goo, which I guess they are,  but it's more fun to eat them then look at them.  I did get a shot of my pumpkin pie....

 

....and it was a disaster!  I tried a different recipe which some friends rave about, but it did not set up at all was basically pumpkin pie pudding with a slightly raw taste.  My guests were very polite and loved the flavor.  The topping was great which was pumpkin seeds and walnuts glazed with maple syrup and molasses.  That part was a keeper!

I've been cooking up a storm with my seven days off and last night was a super yummy meal!  I made polenta topped with an herbed tempeh bolognese sauce. I love this kind of rustic Italian food.  I also made a refreshing Israeli salad with oranges, avocado and red onion that Amey first made for me a few weeks ago and became obsessed with.  It is so so good and the recipe is from Olive Trees and Honey.

 

I also felt like I needed to redeem myself after a failed pumpkin pie, and failed again.  I had high hopes for this vegan pumpkin cheesecake, but the texture was off and I think it was my fault by putting it in the fridge too soon.  Looks pretty though!

 We've had the wood stove going everyday lately.  This is what Turnip looks like about 20 hours a day.

And our first holiday present came in the mail today from Pat and Gary!  A new pressure cooker!  Can't wait to throw some of those beans in there!  Thank you!

Weekend Without Jake

Jake left for New Orleans on Thursday but I found many things to keep me busy!  Friday night I went over to my friend Amey's house to help prepare and then eat an Israeli feast.  The whole dinner is documented here, where Amey has delightfully turned me into a cartoon has illustrated our hilarious conversations.  Such an honor for me and Turnip to make it onto her blog!  The dinner was as good as it looked in her photos and that salad will be making an appearance on Turnip Mountain's dinner table sometime soon.

Saturday I ended up meeting with my friend Erin again.  We haven't seen each other in about 8 years but this month I got to see her in Montreal and then she came to San Francisco for an African studies conference.  Such a treat to see her two times this month!  We ate at Gracias Madre, an all vegan Mexican restaurant in the Mission District that turned out to be one of my favorite meals of all time.  We were very hungry and dug into our food with gusto, so there are no pictures to document this fabulous meal.  I am already trying to get some local friends to take a road trip to eat there again.  It is definitely worth the long drive to eat there!  Can't wait to take Jake there as well.  He's going to love those tortillas and potatoes especially.

Then today, I woke up to this:

I let Turnip out to pee and she moved fast!  Turns out it is hail, not snow, but a novel experience nonetheless. 

Turnip hides from the cold and jams herself into the crevices of the couch.  Too adorable!

Must say goodbye to the weekend, for I'm working the next three nights in a row.  Jake will be home tomorrow evening and then it's time for my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving!

Twenty-Ingredient Pie

Yum!  Full of fruit and almost every fall flavor.  I especially liked the rum soaked golden and purple raisins.  Make it!

I didn't put pears in it because all I had was apples.  So I guess this version should be called Nineteen-Ingredient Pie.

A Whirlwind Weekend in Montreal!

Last weekend Jake attended an environmental philosophy conference in Montreal and was on a panel about animal rights (his talk being more about biotechnology). I tagged along because I could and even though Jake was busy most of the weekend, I got to explore the city (within a few subway stops at least) and meet up with a friend I met in Israel who I haven't seen in 8 years. Montreal reminded me of Europe not only because it is Fracophone, but because of the look and feel of the city as well as the cultural diversity and things to do. The first day there we met up with Erin who took us on a personal tour of some of her favorite places in Montreal. Lucky us, Erin enjoys food as much as we do so most of our tour is food related! She took us to a farmer's market that reminded me of San Francisco:


And after consuming many baked goods throughout the day, we still ended up at a cookie shop called Nocochi Cafe that has amazing little Persian cookies and tea:

The cookies were full of chickpea flour, dates, figs and pistachios. Really unusual and tasty!

Here's me and Erin. We haven't changed a bit since we met 10 years ago (according to both of us)!


I didn't have many chances to eat in restaurants while in town, so I ended up at this vegetarian cafeteria-style cafe called Le Commensal that had amazing food that you pay for by the 100g. It had dishes ranging from vegetarian hippie food with sprouts up to classy modern vegan fare. This is not the best picture, but pictured here is vegan potato salad, beet and apple salad, chickpea and mint salad, a half an avocado, ginger tofu, seitan bourguignon, and coconut milk seitan. This was dinner Saturday night and I went back for lunch on Sunday because it was so good.

After lunch on Sunday I was on my own and explored the city by foot and subway in 40 degree weather. But it was sunny and tolerable. I was loving the cold weather!

Typical building of Old Montreal - reminded me of Paris:

Popped my head into a Catholic Mass at the Notre-Dame Basilica which was a beautiful old church that could rival many of the ones in Europe. They choir was singing and the 7,000 pipe organ was playing. It was beautiful! After I had enough of church, I found a cupcake shop across the street. Needed some green tea to warm up and had an amazing red velvet cupcake for some sugary energy. I'm usually wary of buying cupcakes because they are usually so dry, but this is one of the best cupcakes I've ever had!

This cool building was right near our hotel. Took this cheesy photo because it was on my guide book.

This monster guy is the Canadian milk mascot. They look like knitted sock puppets and were really cute. Here's a shot the shows the weird, the old and the modern.
I'm not usually one for Christmas decorations, but these perched on a shiny building caught my eye:
Later in the afternoon I headed to the Musee Des Beaux Arts because I cannot travel without going to a museum! Plus I didn't have Jake there to make me hurry up and leave.

They had a small wing about Napoleon of which they have one of his original hats. I'm not particulary interested in Napoleonic history, but I liked this room because of the window.
One of my favorite pieces from the collection. By Tissot in 1877. The picture, of course, doesn't do it justice.
This is actually from our hotel. This same design was in tile form in our bathroom in Paris. I thought is was crazy that the past two hotels I've stayed in had this same art. My friend Erin said they were some famous design for china. I haven't seen them in California.

Sunday night we braved the cold and went to get some poutine at Resto La Banquise, a 24 hour restaurant specializing in this unusual dish. Poutine is a Quebecois dish french fries, cheese curds and gravy (this one is vegetarian) and was very gross and inedible after about three bites. Maybe if I was a little drunk I could have eaten more, but all the salt and grease was just too much. Jake thought it was pretty awesome though. This picture makes my stomach hurt:

As per Jake's tradition (ok, the one other time he had been to Montreal), we went to one of Montreal amazing bagel shops to buy half a dozen to eat on the plane and to bring home. Wood fired, covered in sesame and completely delicious - everything I now desire in a bagel since Jake first brought one home many years ago.


It was too short of a trip to travel so far, but those were the circumstances and I'm glad I went.

I Am Certified!

As a nurse one must not only have a license, but has to have a large collection of certificates in special areas of one's particular practice. For example, as an emergency nurse I have be competent in ACLS (advanced cardiac life support), ENCP (pediatric trauma), TNCC (adult trauma) and keep these certificates up to date every 2-4 years. Next week I signed up for a non-mandatory class called NRP, or neonatal resuscitation. There is always another class to take or certification to renew. I get paid to take it and it's just good stuff to know even if it isn't mandatory. Last month I took 4 classes for work and was pretty tired by November 1st. Looking forward to not studying for a little while!

The big news is that last Friday I took and passed my CEN, which stands for Certified Emergency Nurse. I studied on my own for three months and it was one of the hardest test I've ever taken. Management had been encouraging me to take it, even though it is recommended that you have 2 years ER nursing experience before taking it (I've only had a little over one). It is also amazing that I passed because the content is in areas of emergency nursing that I never work in, such as the trauma and cardiac room (where the real sicky patients go). I'm not sure yet what having my CEN means, but I'm hoping for a raise! We'll see. I'm not pushy about it because they are going to cover the cost of the test (and it was not cheap!) and I'm just happy to have a job right now. So, I'm pretty proud of myself for passing and hopefully some of the information I studied will stick with me!