Sunday Sneak Peek

Hello!

The internet has been quite dead this past month, yes? I took a little break too, to enjoy some end of the summer-ness. Lots of painting and cooking and loungin' away from the computer. I'm going to Portland, OR in a few weeks for vacation too! I need to start planning what I'm going to do (i.e. narrow down the places I want to eat at, haha). I found this jaw-dropping list of vegan and vegan-friendly food carts from Jess' blog and I have some serious deciding to do.


This morning I wanted something different than my usual pancakes/waffles for sunday brunch, so I decided to go for some crepes from Vegan Brunch. I made a white peach sauce and the lemon-cashew creme filling (from VB) for the innards, and it was quite the tasty meal. White peaches are my favorite! We used to have a white peach tree in our yard, growing up, and it would be bent over in half from the weight of all the peaches by the end of the summer. So many yummy pies and peach bread!


Grilled eggplant with apricot bbq sauce on homemade foccacia bread.


I've made these chocolate-chip zucchini muffins twice in the last two weeks! I used the Vegan Brunch recipe for Zucchini Spelt muffins, but used whole wheat flour and added chocolate chips. Zucchini baked goods are incomplete without chocolate for me!


I picked up a small package of Teese last week and fresh figs were on-sale at Whole Foods, so I decided to make some fig and olive pizza with a whole wheat crust! I also made one with fresh tomato and basil, but forgot to take a picture of that one. Delicious! That's some homemade sauce on there too with all the heirloom tomatoes and regular tomatoes I got in my CSA last week.

Last week's brunch was chocolate chip waffles (I love my chocolate chips, what!) Waffles are always pretty to photograph. :)


I've been buying extra at the farmer's market for the last few weeks, and freezing stuff for winter months when I'm going crazy on root veggies. I always forget to do this! Gotta do tomato sauce soon. I've found it's a whiz to make homemade sauce with the Vitamix. No peeling skins or deseeding! Homemade sauce is the best.

Long weekend and lazy Sunday

Hello! I had an awesome long weekend with my Mom here visiting. We did tons and tons of walking and saw some cool/crazy stuff. I think I tired her out! :)


I dropped my Mom off at the train station this morning and had a lazy Sunday after I got home. Made brunch, took a little nap (which I never, ever, ever do!!), painted all afternoon and evening, and had a super-awesome salad loaded with stuff for dinner.



Blueberry pancakes that I made for Mom Saturday morning. We even had fresh cantaloupe from my CSA that I picked up that morning. So juicy!

I made this tofu omelet this morning for brunch, with an olive tapenade and sauteed veggies inside.

Loaded salad for dinner! This hit the spot in a mega way. And btw, fresh corn off the cob on a salad is my favorite thing lately. Yum! And I could eat those little golden cherry tomatoes like candy.


Some work in progress from painting today. I moved into the kitchen to be by the window and my sleeping kitty! And yes, he sleeps on a pizza box that we don't have the heart to throw away. He's on it 24/7!

Well well

So I've never really been sure I've liked sauerkraut or not, but I'm going to put it in a DEFINITE yes category after this past week. I never had it growing up, and I guess it never really has crossed my path in a memorable way thus far in my life. I finally made the Tempeh Reuben from VCON and it resulted in a happy taste-bud party in my mouth! Nik is a big sauerkraut fan, so he was pretty excited about this sammich. And ohhh what a sammich it is. We even had leftovers for lunch the next day! The bread is really yummy kalamata olive bread from one of the stands at the farmer's market too. Ohh delicious delicious messy sammich.


I haven't made these in a realllllly long while, but eggplant started popping up in my CSA last week and eggplant wingz are always the first thing that come to mind. Really easy to make and perfect for a summer meal. I cut my eggplant up, long wise (you could prolly skin it if you hate breading things that have a skin on one side), salted it and let it drain for 20 minutes or so in a colander. After rinsing the salt off, I dipped the eggplant in a mix of flour, spices (I go italian, with basil, parsley, thyme, garlic powder, sea salt, pepper), then dip in soymilk, and then into a bowl of panko bread crumbs. Bake on a pan with olive oil drizzled or misted over it, on 350F for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned and tender, flipping halfway through. I make up a hot sauce mix of Earth Balance + hot sauce + a little vegan worcheshire sauce + a few tablespoons of ketchup + a small drizzle of agave + pepper. I'm not really precise about it. Just make your favorite BBQ or hot sauce! I toss the eggplant in the sauce and serve. I had these with sides of fried green tomatoes, and a red onion/cucumber salad.


Pasta salad! It wouldn't be summer without a gigunda bowl of clean-out-the-fridge veggies because I don't wanna cook or go shopping!


Spicy stirfry! Which, by my standards, means it really isn't all that spicy. Veggies include bok choy, carrots, zucchini, red onions, and broccoli. Whole wheat lo mein noodles.


Blueberry-banana ice cream! One frozen banana + half a pint of blueberries + 1-1.5 cups soymilk + agave to sweeten. Whirled it in the vitamix and put in ice cream maker. Mmmm.



My mom is coming for a weekend visit tomorrow! We're going to a FREE show tomorrow night at Coney Island. Blondie, Pat Benatar, and The Donnas! How freaking cool is that?? I'm excited. I just hope it doesn't rain! Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Superhero Shop update!

Originals have sold, so I put up the prints from my Superhero series in my shop!

I love Sundays

Sundays are great; I have all day to make time-consuming things even though I have other non-cooking things that need to get done. Ha! I have been wanting to make the pierogies, from Vegan Brunch, for awhile now, and I had a cherry pie tester recipe for Jae Steele that I need to make pronto before all the cherries disappear. So I literally spent all day in the kitchen. Ha, I only got grumpy when I had to do my second sinkful of dishes.

Check out these gigunda blackberries I got from my CSA on saturday!



Mushroom Sauerkraut and Potato Pierogies, from Vegan Brunch. I really loved the Mushroom ones! And it makes soooo many! We fried them up, even though Isa says not to.



Cherry Pie tester for Jae Steele Really, really yummy, and I can't wait to have another slice tonight.



Unfortunately, I had to have a root canal saturday afternoon, so I had to be REALLY careful eating these yummy things. No fun! I have to go for part 2 on wednesday. I've never even had a cavity before, so this was super-scary. Wisdom teeth are next. Dunh dunh dun dun!

Tonight I have to work on a freelance project and finish up two more paintings. See, I have this series I am working on, that has about 20-25 paintings, and I'm still undecided if I'm going put them up in my etsy shop all together, or as I finish them. We'll see how I feel about them all laying around once I get further into the series. It's super-fun though, and my 2010 calendar will contain some of these images. I need to work faster!