Miss Rachel
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The cancer
There’s really no way for me to talk about this without feeling as if I’m dropping a bomb on people so here goes… my Sweetie’s got “the cancer.” The prognosis for his survival is good, but he has to have surgery which is scheduled for this Friday, and there are all sorts of potential, negative side effects. It’s not as if he’s been feeling sick and got diagnosed either. Nowadays there are all sorts of tests that allow for early detection so the doctors know before you do, and I guess that’s a good thing, but it’s hard to feel happy about a cancer diagnosis. I mean, cancer just sounds bad, you know?
I’ve got some paid time off from work this week, and I’m grateful for it, but after almost a year, I still don’t have a full time job. I applied for an opening, but my employer moves at a glacially slow pace, and I’m getting frustrated by the drawn out process and even starting to doubt myself. Still, I’m trying to be optimistic and visualize myself getting it.
In other news, one of my oldest friends (my roommate junior year at Westover) who now lives overseas is visiting the U.S., and I’m going to see her for the first time in years. (The last time I saw her, her daughter was a baby; now her daughter just graduated from high school.) She’s staying on the Cape so I’m going there to see her for a day or two and then coming home for fun with cancer surgery.
I promise I’ll be back with some vegan food posts (the the vegan diet is good for cancer prevention, you know), but I felt I needed to get this announcement out of the way. Thanks for reading.
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I bought some local (from western Massachusetts - yeah!) collard greens at Whole Foods over the weekend, and I cooked them last night. No special method: just chopped with the large part of the stems removed and cooked with a diced onion in olive oil and garlic and some water. Served with pasta.
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The farmers’ market is back!
Tuesday was opening day for the West End Farmers Market in Hartford. I stopped in, and picked up some beautiful Connecticut grown vegetables: asparagus, Swiss chard and turnips.
That night I cooked the Swiss chard (along with some non-Connecticut grown mushrooms) and served it over shell pasta with steamed turnips (decorated with some parsley flakes) on the side.
Tonight I’ll be cooking up the asparagus.
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Vegan pizza!
A few months ago I made pizza topped with caramelized onions. Since then I’ve made caramelized onion pizza a bunch of times because it’s just so good. In addition to the usual garlic, diced tomatoes and vegan cheese, I also included mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes.
I’m looking forward to the summer when fresh, local vegetables like tomatoes and zucchini are available for pizza topping, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying caramelized onions. And don’t forget that Vegan Pizza Day is June 29 this year!
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Last night I made this dish: Macaroni peas, vegan-ized of course. I just left out the cheese. I got the recipe via this article in Slate: Dinner vs. Child: Peas Please! Personally, I’ve never had a problem eating peas, even as a child, but I was glad to find a new way to prepare them. If I make it again, and I probably will, I will add more garlic and possibly add some lemon juice. This dish is also very pretty to look at.
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Tonight’s dinner
Curried cauliflower, chickpeas, onion, spinach and tomatoes over rice. In a large skillet, saute a coarsely diced onion in some oil (I used about 1 T of coconut oil) with a few cloves of garlic (crushed), 1 T of curry powder, 1/2 t of cayenne, and a little salt. Add 1 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes including their liquid. I also added about half a can of water. Bring everything to a boil and once it’s bubbling, add cauliflower florets (I used a 12 oz. bag). Cover and turn heat down a little so mixture is still bubbling somewhat. After about 5 minutes, add 1 15 oz. can of drained, rinsed chickpeas and let simmer for another 5 minutes. Then add spinach (I used a 6 oz. bag) on top of the mixture and let wilt for a couple minutes; then stir in the spinach and let cook for about three more minutes. Serve in bowls as is or over the grain of your choice. (I used brown basmati rice. I don’t have much white rice left.)
This dish would work with other types of beans and possibly other vegetables. Making it further enforced my belief that one should always keep cans of beans and tomatoes on hand for dinner creations.
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Saturday night’s dinner: broccoli and cauliflower florets cooked with coconut milk, curry powder and garlic and served over basmati rice.
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Last night I made one of those dinners that was super simple, but so good. I loved it. I braised green beans and an onion with olive oil and garlic. Then I splashed on some lemon juice and mixed in cooked pasta. I used bow-ties. You could call the pasta farfalle if you’re being fancy, but then I guess you’d also have to call the green beans haricots verts.
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Chickpeas & cupcakes
Tuesday was Sweetie’s birthday, and since I knew I had to work that night I decided we should have a birthday-inspired dinner the night before. I cooked up some chickpeas with garlic, onions, tomatoes and a bunch of spices. It wasn’t quite Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe, but I did follow the spice combination in her Very Spicy, Delicious Chickpeas recipe and dinner was indeed delicious and spicy.
I served the chickpeas over basmati rice. I used up all our brown rice, and I’ve decided to try white rice for a change.
For dessert, there was no question of what we’d have: cupcakes. I took VCTOTW out of the library again, and made some birthday cupcakes. (I ran out of sprinkles by the time I got to the last few.)
I put some candles in one for Sweetie and snapped a pic before he blew them out.
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Blueberry muffins
I’m not one for getting up early and cooking. Most mornings, I’m a sip-coffee-for-an-hour+ before doing anything kind of person, but on Sunday I decided to make blueberry muffins. I followed this recipe from Madhuram’s Eggless Cooking: Vegan Blueberry Muffins (leaving out the lemon zest and lemon extract because I don’t want lemon flavor in my blueberry muffins).
I also poured the batter into only 9 muffins cups so I’d have nice muffin tops.
Sweetie and I enjoyed them with some Earth Balance vegan butter.
They were a bit fall-apart-y, but I can’t complain about homemade muffins, fresh and warm out of the oven. I had two.
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