Miss Rachel

We’re having a cold snap here in Connecticut. The weather and the presence of over-ripe bananas seemed to indicate the time was right for making banana bread. Sweetie will often do me the favor of eating the over-ripe bananas (which are way too sweet and yucky for me), but this time I didn’t want him to so I put a note on the bananas in the morning before leaving for work.

After work, I came home and cooked up some red quinoa and steamed some beautiful asparagus for our dinner.

After we ate up that yummy goodness, I started in on the banana bread. I adapted the recipe from the Tassajara Bread Book. I just switch Ener-G Egg Replacer for eggs. It’s easily the best banana bread I’ve had, and it’s also quite nutritious. I admit only three bananas were not enough make up the two full cups of banana pulp the recipe calls for so last night’s loaf wasn’t quite as good as usual, but Sweetie and I managed to put away a good chunk of it anyway.

This weekend there was a three-day-long reunion and centennial celebration at the school I graduated from in 1985. Since I had class on Saturday, I decided to attend the Friday festivities only. There was a performance of music, drama and dance, a cocktail party, dinner and of course, lots of talking and laughing with my friends.

I dressed in my favorite black dress and wore red lipstick, and I looked pretty darn fabulous if I do say so myself.

Highlights of the evening included talking to an art teacher who I took a fabric design class with my senior year. I told her how much I loved the class and that I still have some of the fabric I made. (I want to get one framed so I can put it on the wall.) I also had a nice chat with the art history teacher and told her how I learned so much in her class, and how it truly affected how I look at art. I also reminded her of the time me and a friend spilled the entire carousel of slides on the floor one night when we were up studying. We were so flustered, we didn’t try to put the slides back in, but we left a note apologizing and then took off.

Then there was my favorite English teacher. He was the king of inappropriate comments, and when I mentioned his being inappropriate, he dismissed me, saying “Please don’t say that. You mean naughty.” Here’s a classic remark, regarding the central vacuum system in the school: it’s a free abortion service!” Ha! He could never get away with that in a public school. The man makes me laugh.

Since it was my class’s twenty fifth reunion, a dinner reservation had been made for us and a shuttle bus provided, to a nearby restaurant. There were only 8 of us (plus one person’s spouse and a friend of mine from the class of 1984). The thing is I am only close to two of the people (one of them was my roommate senior year), but I was able to talk to everybody about real stuff. I have a very good memory and I shared with some of them about different things I remembered them saying and doing, stuff I certainly couldn’t have talked about back them. For instance, one night this girl tried on a prom dress that had been given to her by a friend from outside the school. I remember seeing her in it (in the dorm) thinking how gorgeous the dress was, and then she started saying how it was “awful” and tacky and that she certainly wasn’t going to wear it. I kept my mouth shut back then, but I was just blabbing up a storm Friday night (helped out by wine). Of course, she didn’t even remember the incident or the dress, but she seemed to find my retelling of the story funny.

I had three glasses of wine which is a LOT for me so after dinner, me and my two close friends went back to the house where one of them was staying and talked for an hour or so. I finally felt sober enough to drive and headed the 35 miles home, and got into a bed at 1:30. Very late night for me.

The best part of the of the event was definitely spending time with my roommate. We talked and laughed so much: about how she used to scare me by telling me stories about witches and stuff, and that the closet in the room next to ours was haunted. (!) About how she was really into food and turning out the light before going to bed one night, she said, “Mmm… scrambled eggs tomorrow morning!” (Already planning for breakfast!) About how she is the only person I know who ever complained that she had fat knees! About how this girl used to visit us in our room and sit on my bed and after she left, my bed would smell (eeewww!). About the time her mother found her pot pipe, and told her it was “a really cute gum dish.” (!) Although my time at the school was one of the unhappiest in my life (mostly due to academic and parental pressure), the friendships I have from that time are why I so value my time there and enjoy going back.

It’s also a beautiful place:

I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies yesterday and they were delish. I like to make cookie dough and then bake only some of it and store the rest for later for two reasons: nothing beats fresh cookies, and I can control the amount I eat more easily. It’s kind of easy to go overboard eating these cookies if I do say so myself.

I find cookies easy to make. I know they may not be easy for everyone, but for me they are. Pie crusts are my nemesis. For me, the hardest part of making these cookies is measuring out the peanut butter because it’s messy. Here’s the recipe:

Miss Rachel’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup Earth Balance (I use the soy free kind)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened chunky peanut butter (the kind you have to store in the fridge to keep from separating)
1 1/2 teaspoons of Energ-G Egg Replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons of water
1 1/4 cups regular flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
~1 cup of chocolate chips

Cream the Earth Balance and sugars, then add the peanut butter and blend well. Then add the egg replacer mixture and blend that well. Add the flour and baking powder and once that is almost completely incorporated into the mixture, add the chocolate chips and mix until the batter is uniform and the chips are evenly distributed.

Drop by tablespoon-sized (or larger) blobs (blobs? OK, blobs.) onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Press down on the tops of the blobs with a fork to make a crisscross pattern  on each and then bake in a 375 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool on the pan for a few minutes and then remove with a spatula. I confess that I forgot to grease the cookie sheet yesterday, and the cookies still came out fine, but it’s usually best to lightly grease it.

These are cookies that actually taste better once they are no longer hot so allow to cool for a few more minutes and then enjoy. Store the rest of the batter in an airtight container in the refrigerator so you can make fresh cookies again. That’s it.

Of course, these are all gone by now.

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On a completely unrelated note, yesterday I also but bunny ears on Blue. I know Easter is over, but it’s never too late to put bunny ears on your dog.

Next to purple (and maybe pink), green is my favorite color.  I also enjoy eating greens.  I think my favorite greens are Swiss chard, and I buy them fairly frequently. A couple of months ago, I realized I was buying the same vegetables over and over: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans, sweet potatoes and Swiss chard so I have tried to branch out since then, but last week, there was the most beautiful Swiss chard at Whole Foods so I bought it even though I was probably “due” to add something else to the rotation.  Seriously, how could I resist this?

It’s very easy to prepare: wash the leaves and then cut them crosswise into about 1 inch strips.  You can include some of the stems because they’re quite edible too.  I like to braise my Swiss chard: first cooking it in oil with crushed garlic over medium heat, and then adding about half a cup of water, bringing it to a boil and covering the pan until the chard is done, still bright green, but limp.  It only takes a few minutes. Swiss chard cooks down quite a bit, but I usually find the bunch I get at the store is enough for two generous servings.  I use nutritional yeast as a seasoning for a lot of my vegetables (see my vlog where I talk about nutritional yeast a little), and Swiss chard is no exception: hence, the yellow topping you see below.  I served the chard alongside some vegan shells and “cheese:” Road’s End brand is quite yummy.

Yesterday Sweetie and I made a trip to our favorite restaurant It’s Only Natural.  It’s great going to place where almost everything is made vegan as a matter of course. We were also impressed by this paragraph on the children’s menu.  It’s a sad state of affairs that they have to say it, but I give them props for taking a stand against some of the crappy-ass parenting  out there.

Sweetie had a brunch special (scrambled tofu, pancakes, homefries) and a smoothie, and I had the Cajun Tempeh.  We also got an order of Sweet Potato Fries to share, but I ate most of them.  I was too full for dessert, but I didn’t want to miss out on their fabulous vegan Velvet Cake so I got a piece to take home.

After we got back from brunch, I went out to a friend’s condo.  She’s away and needs someone to look in on her cat.  The kitty, China, is quite playful and charming, but a little scary too as she tends to bite without any apparent reason.  Yesterday she got a hold of my hand, and she didn’t break the skin or leave any marks, but it wasn’t pleasant.  She is a beauty though.

We’ll miss you.

I’ve been in funk lately, and the only thing I can connect it to is that Woody is dying.  The past week her decline has been especially noticeable.  She has trouble standing and walking.  She’s not eating.

I have a weird sort of disconnect between my feelings and my mood.  For instance, you’d think “Her cat is sick and dying; of course she’s going to feel sad.”  The thing is, I don’t actually feel sadness directly, just a general discontent.  When my dad was sick with Alzheimer’s, slowly slipping away, it was almost agonizing to face so I kept going just feeling generally kind of “bummed” about it.  There was only one time, in therapy, where I let the sadness in and I began crying, great racking sobs, but only for about a minute before I pulled back.  My therapist said she could understand why I pulled back because those feelings are hard to feel.

Although feeling a general discontent is not good, I can function when I feel this way.  Of course, I like to deal with things head on, and I do think it’s healthier to actually experience your feelings, but on the other hand, I do have to function. I have stuff to do, places to go. I need to keep going.  Even though my cat is dying.