I had a lot written....

....then everything got erased when my browser crashed!  Boo! 

Anyway, the family visit was great yet very very rainy.  The day after they left we've been having 70 degree weather and clear skies.  Not fair!  At least eating is an indoor activity and we sure did a lot of that.  We had so many great meals including taco night at my house Friday night (with Amey!) and dinner at Millenium on Saturday night.  Another highlight was accordion shopping at Accordion Apocalypse in San Francisco.  Here are some cute pictures Jake took:

Me trying to figure out how it works.  Despite my look I was enjoying it!  (Also I got new glasses of the cat eye variety.  I love them!)

 And this is the accordion that I covet!  Where can I come up with an extra $1300?? 

This adorable picture was taken in San Fransico when Ezra and I stopped at a toy shop before breakfast.  He immediately zeroed in on the parrot puppet. 

My mom took most of the photos on the trip including our trip on the steam train through the redwoods and the family reunion at Grandma's house in Escalon.  Maybe I'll post a few good ones when I get them from my mom. Hopefully my family's next trip will have better weather, because the storm really was a bummer.  At least we didn't lose power!

SF and Snow!

Last Friday and Saturday we went up to San Francisco and celebrated my birthday a little late.  We had a great time eating lots of food, touring the Saturday morning farmer's market, seeing our old Kalamazoo roommate Liz from 8 years ago (the last roommate we ever had and one of the few roommates we still like), going to a cooking demonstration with my favorite cookbook author, going out to lunch with said author and going to a concert/art showing late on Saturday night.  Lots of fun and I was really tired afterward.  Unfortunately I worked the next three days and by now have recovered. 

Little guy (who we still haven't met) is  still constantly in our thoughts.  Our vet thinks it's a good time to get a puppy because it will keep Turnip moving (her arthritis has been bad lately) and she's still young enough not to hate it too much.  Our goal this week is to find a time to go meet him.  It will be so hard to not just take him home right away!  He still needs about one more month of mommy and sister time though.  Until then I can ruminate on the brave, friendly and heroic dog he will become!

 And yesterday we had quite the experience of snow that didn't melt right away and stuck around all day (and it still here this afternoon)!  It's not unheard of for it to snow a little and not stick around, but yesterday we had big snowflakes falling all day and had amazing packing snow.  We invited Sandra, Matt and the boys over and Matt and Jake I think had the most fun making snow forts and a snowman!   It was really beautiful out and not too cold that we couldn't enjoy it.  Here are some of my favorite shots:

Well, here's a cute little guy....

My co-worker's dog just had puppies and I overheard her one day talking about giving them to a rescue group when they were born.  So on January 17th momma had 5 puppies and two survived.  One male and one female need to find homes and I've been waiting for the perfect brother for Turnip to be born!  He's a blue-nosed pitt bull and will grown up to be a fairly big boy.  Unfortunately my co-worker and I live about 3 hours away from each other so we haven't had the chance to visit him yet.  The first picture is from January 17th, the day that he was born and the second picture is from 2 weeks later. 
These pictures are just unbearably cute and I'm all smiles every time I look at them!  We're not certain we will be adopting, but we're leaning in that direction.  We have a vet appointment for Turnip next week so we can talk to Dr. Good about the issue. 

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!