Mega-post

So I just got a new laptop last week and I've basically just been playing around with it since and trying to accustom myself to it. I switched my from 7 year old desktop PC to a MacBook Pro, so it's, uh, a bit of a change. I'm still importing all my old stuff over and trying to "start with a clean slate" in terms of organization goes (or lack there of from my old PC). Love it so far! And it is a BAJILLION time faster than my old computer. Seriously, I can't believe how much time I'm saving already! New monitor and tablet (!!!) come this week, so I will, for once in my life, have a proper setup. So many plans!

Little sis came to visit a couple weeks ago and we had a great time. I took thursday/friday off of work, and had monday off for Labor Day, so it was a nice vacation for myself also.

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and then watched "The Shining" under it (by those stupid installation "waterfalls" that are killing all the trees, you can kinda see them in the nighttime photo.) Of course, my sister's first night there, we had some drunk crazy dude come sit all cozy next to us in the already packed park for the movie. He was loud and obnoxious and totally in his own world...and then proceeded to take his pants off. Needless to say, he created a disturbance for most of the beginning of the movie. He eventually left and we could watch the movie happily (or as happily as you can watching The Shining...)




Friday night, we all went to see Fuerzaburta in Union Square. I've been wanting to check this out for quite a long time now and my sister's visit was a perfect opportunity. We really didn't know what to expect going in and I'm really glad about that. I'll just leave you with these pictures and tell you that a) this took us by surprise at every angle b)the props/stage were AMAZING c) we danced like maniacs and d) we left the show SOAKED. p.s. these pictures are in a pool ABOVE our heads and was lowered to within a few feet of our heads...




Sunday we went to Coney Island! It was her first (and last...Astroland closed down for good yesterday...) and she loved it! It was an absolutely perfect day out and we were beach bums for the whole day. Later on in the evening, we went to Foodswings and then chilled in a coffee shop, sketching.





Some Food from this past weekend! There were all these flood warnings in effect, so I didn't really leave the apartment the whole weekend. More cooking time!

Lentil Soup:

I had a TON of peaches (and still do) so I made two loaves of peach bread this past weekend. I veganized my mom's recipe:

Peach Bread (makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients:
5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 TBS baking powder
2 tsp salt
6 TBS vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups soy milk
2 egg replacer (I used ener-g)
2 cups chopped peaches
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix dry ingredients together in a (very)large bowl. Add remaining wet ingredients and mix gently. Bake in two greased loaf pans at 350 F for 1 hour (maybe a little longer; mine came out a tad undercooked in the center)

enjoy!



Chickpea Cutlets (from Vcon) with a concocted onion sauce. Steamed green and wax beans on the side.

Super-salad with curry-ranch dressing!


Abundance of tomatoes=tomato sauce from scratch time!! This is actually the second time that I have made a batch this week. The first time, I made a chunky tempeh "sausage" sauce with lots of garlic and roasted red peppers. It wasn't too pretty, but it was really, really damn good. Here's the plain tomato basil sauce I made tonight. I'm going to use it over some breaded and baked eggplant tomorrow for dinner: