Miss Rachel

Last Saturday, my mom and sister and I went Passports Restaurant in Gloucester for lunch.

It’s a pretty restaurant with a very charming atmosphere, but I didn’t get a very vegan-friendly feeling from our server. I know waiting on tables is a hard job (I’ve done it) so I always try to be very polite, but I got a sense that the waitress, once hearing that I was a vegan, was focused on what I couldn’t have, and didn’t seem very helpful about what I could have. The veggie wrap was really the only vegan choice, but first the waitress told me I “couldn’t eat” the wrap because the tortilla probably wasn’t vegan. But she checked and found that it was and then offered my choice of sides saying I “couldn’t have” the macaroni salad. She was right about that: I asked her why I couldn’t have that and she said it had mayonnaise in it so I said I’d have the pan-fried potatoes. I also asked her to include any kind of vegan condiment so my plate came with a big dollop of yummy mustard. Despite the limited menu, my lunch was tasty, and I enjoyed being there with my mom and sister.

On the way home on Sunday, I stopped at a rest area to buy gas, and I also noticed there was a farmer’s market advertised. There were only two vendors, one selling produce and the other honey. I like to support local farmers so I bought some zucchini. On Monday night, I cooked it my favorite way, as “fries” in the oven. I served it alongside quinoa and Gardein “Beefless Tips” with barbecue sauce.

I was never a big meat eater to begin with so it’s not something I feel needs to be substituted, but I serve vegan meat products sometimes because they do taste good and offer protein. I try not to have them too often because they’re highly processed. Vegan meat is also usually made from soybeans, and there is a lot of debate now as to whether soy is good or bad, but I think it’s safe to say that too much of anything is not good, and if you’re going to eat food made from soybeans, the less processed it is, the better. Here is an article from vegan author John Robbins that presents a reasonable perspective and debunks some of the most damning claims that have been made against soy: What about soy? It’s a bit long, but well worth a read.

How do you feel about vegan “meat?”

The Summer Solstice is tomorrow, and boy it certainly feels like it. The temperatures have only been up into the 80s, but the humidity is really high so we’re sweltering. Thank god Sweetie bought that air conditioner for our bedroom a couple weeks ago when we had the first little heat wave of the season. I’ve been really busy this weekend, doing all kinds of chores and errands, and I’m trying to mellow out now, but I’ve got the Sunday Night Anxiety Blues so I’m not really feeling so great.

ANYWAY, the good news is that I got a new MacBook Pro – the 15-inch one. I still have some file transferring to do from my other two computers (an eMac and a MacBook), but I’ve got some of it done and I’m just really happy with my new machine. It’s fast; it’s efficient; it’s light. It’s just great all around. It cost a pretty penny, more than the tax refund money I set aside for the purchase, but it was a good investment. I don’t feel any buyer’s remorse about it.

The weather has not put me in the mood for cooking at all so we ate out every night this weekend, instead of just the usual Friday. I had never been to Chipotle, but I heard great things about it, and one came to our town recently so on Saturday Sweetie and I checked it out. Can I just say yum!!! Wow, I see why people seem so excited about this place. The menu is small, but the vegan options are delicious. Sweetie had the Vegetarian Burrito and I had the Vegetarian tacos. I ate all three of them even though I probably should have stopped at two. But they were just so darn tasty. We’ll definitely be ordering from there again.

I do most of the cooking for dinner in our house, but Sweetie is big on breakfast. Every weekend he makes pancakes or scrambled tofu. and then he continues eating the leftovers on the weekdays, reheating the tofu or frying up up pancakes before going to work (!) – how ambitious, cooking on work day mornings – ! I’m not much for big breakfasts, but today I joined him for some scrambled tofu and vegan sausage patties, and they made for a delicious breakfast.

It’s still pretty hot and humid, but I’m going to take a nice cool shower and hope the Sunday Night Anxiety Blues wash down the drain.

Blue and I went up to Rockport this weekend to visit my mom and my sister.  Saturday night dinner, the three of us (me, Mom and my sister, not Blue) went to one of our favorite places, Passports in downtown Gloucester.  My sister treated us – w00t!

I love this restaurant’s location and atmosphere, but the menu isn’t very vegan-friendly. I had to ask them to make me something vegan.  I was nice about it, and said I didn’t want to cause any difficulty, and the waitress was able to procure a pasta dish for me.  I also shared some of the salad that came with my mom’s meal.

They do a nice job presenting the food there.  I love the little rosemary “tree” garnish on my pasta.

It was nice to spend time with my mom again.

After a dinner we went for a scenic drive.  I never get tired of this view.  You can actually see the skyscrapers of Boston from Niles Beach in Gloucester – so cool!

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.

On Thursday Sweetie and I went to New York with a friend of ours to go to the opera among other things.  Sweetie and she planned this trip months ago so all I had to do was arrange for pet care (my mom did the honors) and pack a bag.  Our friend wanted to drive – !  Driving in New York sounds scary to me, but we said OK, if that’s what you want to do and she did a great job of it.  We even found a parking space not far from where we were staying.

Our friend goes to New York frequently, and we stayed (in adjoining rooms) in the hotel she always stays at (the people there knew her on sight) on the Upper West Side.  It’s a no frills kind of place with bumpy paint on the walls and somewhat cramped rooms, but the people who worked there were friendly, and it was clean and it was cheap by New York standards.  We also had a great view.

How you'd like to have this for a patio?

New York roof tops from our hotel room.

Once in the city, we walked everywhere.  That afternoon we went to Zabar’s – so fun, so New York!  Not a lot of vegan stuff there, but Sweetie and I did get some rye bread (it’s delicious) and dark chocolate.  For dinner we walked to Lincoln Center and had dinner at Rosa Mexicano.   We had guacamole (which they make right at your table), frozen pomegranate margaritas and vegetable enchiladas.  Loved this restaurant – delicious food, good, fast service and clean bathrooms.

After dinner it was on to the opera at the Met. This was only my second time to the opera. The first time was in high school and our seats were miles away.  This time we were on the balcony, but closer to the front, and our friend had opera glasses that she shared with us. We saw The Barber of Seville, a light, comedic opera.

Here’s a not very clear photo of me inside the Met.

Afterward we had long, cold walk back to our hotel. It was only about a mile and a half, but it seemed long because my ears were freezing.  I would have been OK if I had a hat or scarf, but silly me, I didn’t bring either.

The next morning our friend made coffee on a coffee maker she brought herself (remember the hotel was no frills).  She was so well prepared.  We has stopped at a 24-hour grocery store on the way back from the Met so I could get some vegan creamer.  Then we met her cousin for breakfast at a diner where the only vegan thing I could have was a bagel or toast with jelly or French fries so I had the fries.

Then it was back home to Connecticut.  We were gone all of about 24 hours, but what a 24 hours they were.  We definitely want to do this again some time.