The Wonders of Running Along the Charles

I really feel lucky to be living where I live and to run along the Charles. I remember in vet school when I started to fall in love with Boston and on the third or fourth flight back home from abroad I felt like I was coming home as I flew over the Charles in to Logan, and now I live less then a mile form the Charles.

Running along the river is quite enjoyable, I hope they keep the paths cleared in winter because if they do I will continue to run along them in my winter running gear. I find myself entranced when I run along the river several days of the week...despite being in the city there is still a decent amount of wildlife to appreciate.
There are small flocks of geese every 2-3 miles that know how to stay just enough out of reach but close enough that I can get a good look at their faces as I pass. There is even a flock of local white domestic geese that lives under the BU bridge in a sort of "Common garden" where the community comes to take care of them.
I often find myself watching a diving cormorant with interest, waiting to see when and where it resurfaces, or if it will have a fish in its mouth when it does.
Today was quite funny, I was jogging along when I spotted an adult red tail on a fence at face level about 6 feet from the road. There were tons of runners going by and NO ONE seemed to notice him but me, I got to watch him closely as I approached and as I passed him he turned and looked right into my eyes, he was just as close as the ones I care for at the wildlife clinic. And what did I do? Stupid me just says as I pass "Aren't you a handsome fella?" even though the bird has no idea what I am saying, and as I say it a young male runner passes me from behind and says "Why thank you" as he passed on the other side of me. I couldn't stop laughing. Luckily he was quite a bit faster then me and passed me quickly so I didn't have to explain myself, but I almost had to stop I was laughing so hard.
I also enjoy watching a regular black lab at one of the docks along the esplanade...she is there with her owner probably 2-3 times a week when I run, he tosses her frisbee off the end and she takes a blind flying leap in to the air to catch it and land in the water 10 feet below.
The tiny sailboats are fun as well, on windy days in particular when there are 20-30 of them in a big conglomeration, I love watching them nearly tip over and just when they look like they are going to capsize the sailor throws his body against the opposite side of the boat, to the point where he might go overboard too, and the boat balances out and rights itself. It is a beautiful site.

Mark's stir fry creation

Lately my quick and easy dinner in less then 30 minutes meal has been a stir fry of some sort...I keep frozen veggies well stocked in the freezer and always have some sort of fake meat around. Then I use these premade chinese sauce packets (vegan obviously) from the store and top is all over rice.
Last night I started to throw one together for Mark and I when he came over and decided to intervene, which is always a little funny to me since he has literally cooked me one meal in the three years we have been together, but then he acts like an expert when it comes to cooking. Well, I also know to just stand aside and let him take over otherwise I get irritated by all the back seat driver cooking tips.
So I fried up some veggies and tempeh while cooking rice, and then rather then place a packet of the orange mandarin sauce over it, Mark decided to add only half of the packet of that sauce along with lots of crushed red pepper, chili powder, and some cayenne pepper. He also added Cashews, which were a nice addition, but cashews are expensive so I was a little peeved when half the $6 jar of cashews went in to the meal. The result was a little spicy, maybe a little too oily (from the excess safflower oil), but overall tasty...I actually think the orange sauce in the background was the best part of it, but it is fun to experiment and still have a tasty meal with leftovers in less then 30 minutes.

Red Lentil Vegetarian Restaurant

Mark and I went on a date the other night, first one in awhile...we went to the Red Lentil Restaurant in Watertown, a vegan/vegetarian restaurant that Mark's mom had gotten us a gift certificate to.

It was interesting...sadly they did not sell alcoholic beverages there, but the food was super tasty.
I ordered the seitan crepe with black bean and pineapple salsa.
Mark ordered the mexican pizza.
The other waitress in the place who was not serving us made a point to walk over and tell us that we had studied the menu hard and made excellent decisions....



Then since we still had $6 leftover from the certificate I ordered a vegan chocolate cake slice to go, which I enjoyed as lunch the following day.


After we walked across the street to pick up a bottle of wine. It was a weird experience because the shop keeper was very helpful trying to help us pick out a bottle, and then some random guy came in and he started helping too even though he needed to purchase things for himself. I commented about it to Mark later in the car and he told me is was cause I had dressed up and with my sexy boots on all the guys wanted to help me out...funny.

vegan ziti with broccoli and soy sausage!

This one was also super tasty...and made leftovers for a week!

Ingredients:
1 box ziti
1 block vegan mozzarella- shredded (I again used my favorite "Follow your heart" brand)
1 bag of microwaveable frozen broccoli
1 tube of Lightlife's Lean Vegan Soy Saugsage
1 jar spaghetti sauce

DIRECTIONS:
Boil the ziti as directed on the package.
While ziti is cooking, heat the broccoli as directed in the microwave.
Meld the soy sausage in to 1 inch balls and fry in olive oil.
Combine the ziti, soy sausage, and broccoli in a lasagna dish once cooked. Mix in the sauce, stir all the ingredients well.
Top with the shredded mozzarella.
Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.



Interestingly, I know the picture doesn't look like the fake cheese melted, but when I mixed it all up in the tuperware containers with the leftovers, every time I microwave it the cheese actually seems to melt!

quick and easy vegan fake chicken cashew curry

It is always nice when you decide last minute to put something together and it turns out to be delicious.
Mark and I were on the fence on Wednesday as to whether or not we wanted to go out for dinner or stay in. I wanted to go out, but seeing as I have no money that all depended on Mark's willingness to pay for me. His compromise was that I could make dinner for us and then he would pay for drinks when we went out.
Well, it worked out and I threw together this dish in 20 minutes, and what do you know it was excellent!

INGREDIENTS:
1.5c quinoa (uncooked)
1 can red kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
1 bag frozen broccoli florets or 2 cups fresh broccoli florets
1 can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 box of Trader Joe's "Chicken Less Strips"
1 jar of Kitchens of India's "Rich Cashew and Cumin Cooking Sauce" (see attached picture)
1-2 TBsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
cook the quinoa according to the box/bag
If using frozen vegetables begin frying to thaw in a pan
Add a small amount of olive oil and the TJ's chickenless strips.
Stir fry for another 4-5 minutes
Add the chickpeas, beans, and any other fresh vegetables.
Stir fry for 4-5 minutes
Add the jar of Cashew Cooking Sauce and mix in, frying for an additional 4-5 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Serve the stir fry/curry over the quinoa.

Mark agreed, it was quite tasty. It was also hot, ad the closest I have ever come to cooking something at home that tasted like it was from an Indian restaurant.

Attached is a picture of some leftovers which I had for dinner tonight, and it was still tasty.
The only change I will make next time I throw this together is adding some peanuts or cashews to the stir fry.

vegan stuffed shells

Well, this vegan creation was mediocre, but I think I know what changes to make to it so that next time it is superb.
I borrowed some online and cookbook parts to make this dish...

Ingredients:
1 box jumbo shells
2 15oz. cans of tomato sauce
1 6oz. can tomato paste
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. onion powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil
1 bag of frozen broccoli florets
1 block vegan mozzarella
Vegan "ricotta" (recipe below)

Start boiling the pasta shells.

For the ricotta:
In a blender blend 1 block of tofu, 6oz. tofutti sour cream, 2 tsps. tahini, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp. olive oil, 1 tsp. basil leaves, 2 Tbsp. oregano and some salt and pepper.
Once blended mix in the broccoli florets (I used a bag of the steamable broccoli so it only needed 5 minutes in the microwave before I could mix it in to the ricotta).

For Sauce: In a sauce pan saute the garlic in the olive oil, then mix in tomato cause, paste, and spices.
This is one thing I would do different next time...I thought making a sauce more from scratch would be better, but next time I will just use a pre made jar from the store.

Line a casserole dish with a layer of sauce. Then fill each cooked shell with some of the ricotta mix and place open side up in the dish. Once full, cover with a layer of sauce. Then sprinkle with vegan mozzarella (here was my second mistake....rather then use my favorite block of vegan mozzarella which requires shredding the cheese I used vegan rice milk flavored mozzarella strips and shredded them by hand....although the other cheese takes more work to shred it tastes SO much better, I will have to get it next time.

Once assembled cook at 375 for 35-40 minutes.
I took a picture of the shells before I put the sauce on them but sadly can't post it...I just found out my picasa web album is at its limit so I will have to adjust that first and then post it.

RATATAT I will keep coming if you keep playing

Went to my sixth Ratatat concert last night, and as always LOVED it. It was my 3rd or 4th time to a ratatat show with Mark, and we typically end up in our own little world and dance the night away. This time Jenn and Will came along, and it was super fun hanging out with them. They live nearby in South End so we really need to hang out with them more often.

We got there at 8:30 and the first opening band was finishing up, thank GOODNESS since they sucked. Then there was a second opener, I forget their name but it was 4 dudes from Worcester, they were decent. It was funny though, I was looking at their outfits, and they were all in scrubby jeans and flannel shirts, some open, some tight. It looked like they were either from "That 70's Show" or the early nineties. It got me thinking, and I hypothesized about this with the others...who dresses like that? And if you are trying to hit it big by playing on a big stage all the time, you have to think about what you wear, so did they plan those outfits? It was almost as if they had planned to look like they didn't care about their clothes, or as Will put it were "delibretly casual". Mark didn't think so and thought they probably always dressed like that, but my theory is that they planned the outfits since they weren't famous enough yet to actually not care, they just wanted to look like they didn't care.

Then Ratatat came out...it was the first time I saw them and it was just the two of them, normally they hire someone to star on keyboard and/or drums. But this time they just played the other stuff in the background and rocked it out on their guitars like always. They played for over an hour and I loved every second of it. The third song they played was Mark's all time favorite, so even though we were at the back of the crowd where there was a step so that we could see above everyone's heads, we took to dancing without a care in the world from that point on.
And even though they played for about 90 minutes, there were still a lot of songs I wish they had played that they didn't. I guess that's what happens when you have over 120 minutes of recorded songs on your albums, you have to pick and choose which to play live.

I know Mark and I felt old going to the concert, but afterwards we felt refreshed, and I swear I don't care if I am 45, if Ratatat is still playing shows, I will be there!

asparagus-linguine type dish: Blog #1 of vegan dishes

I think I am going to start posting recipes of REALLY good food I cook with pictures...but the first one I want to list I forgot to take a picture of, sorry!
But last week I decided to make a meal that was completely non-vegan, and I transformed it in to a vegan masterpiece! I warned Mark with all the fake stuff in it it would either be really good or really bad....luckily it was phenomenal!!

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch of asparagus, cut in to 1 inch chunks
5 Tbsp vegan margarine
1 white onion, chopped
1/2 cup dry sherry
1 cup vegan creamer (I used the Silk brand)
3 Tbsp chives, chopped
1 block vegan mozzarella cheese, shredded (I used follow your heart vegan gourmet cheese)
1 package soy ham, cut in to thin slices (I used Lightlife brand)
1 lb. linguine pasta

Boil pasta as directed until cooked
Boil the asparagus until tender
Drain the asparagus
Melt the margarine in a large skillet and then add the cooked asparagus and chopped onion to this.
Stir/saute until the onion wilts
Stir in the sherry and let saute for 3-5 minutes
Add the creamer and let it come to a simmer.
Add the soy ham, shredded mozzarella, and chives.
Remove from heat and in a separate boil combine this sauce with the cooked pasta.

The original non-vegan recipe also called for soy parmesan on the top at the end, but I didn't have time to go to whole foods to pick that up so I went without it.
It was delicious, I will definitely have to make it again...maybe for some non-vegans to show them how tasty fake can be sometimes!

my crazy cat

My cat is insane lately...I think the apartment is too small for her. She loves to run full speed from one end to the other. There are two particularly funny parts to this:
1. When she starts her run in the kitchen on the linoleum she can't get her footing right away and it becomes like a cartoon where you hear her feet scrambling but when you look at her she is running in place for the first few steps.
2. I remember learning in school that cat's have very poor vision when they are trying to focus on things right in front of them (a trade off for having good night vision). Well, this is definitely the case when Lily runs full speed through the apartment. The first time Mark and I saw it we were siting on the couch with a movie having a glass of wine when Lily tore out of the kitchen but her run came to an abrupt head bashing crash when she ran head first in to the legs of the coffee table and almost knocked Mark's wine over...too funny. Especially when after these incidents she acts like nothing happened. I guess the other night before i was home she ran in to the back of the couch. I shouldn't be laughing, but it is quite hilarious.