Monday, March 31, 2014

...another spring snow...

...we woke yesterday to about 4 inches of wet sticky snow...
...it was really pretty...I love the way it softens the world...
...it must have been windy...look how the snow is plastered on the lamppost...
...and the little dogwood tree is really weighed down with snow...
...and the little 'Christmas' trees by the door were frosted like cupcakes...
...the view out back was equally delightful...

...it warmed up and melted away by afternoon...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

Saturday, March 29, 2014

...a rainy Saturday and a power outage...



...it turned out to be a good thing that I had vegan pimiento cheese on hand...we needed a cold lunch...

...because our power was out all day Saturday...
...but that just reminded us that we had given each other a generator for Christmas...but we'd never even taken it out of the box...so the outage gave us an incentive to get it all set up...

...the Man is going to wire it into the circuit box...like he did in Balsam Grove...

...but until he gets the time to do that...he can apparently 'back-feed' it into an outside outlet and power one whole side of the circuit box...

...the power goes out here fairly often...lots of above ground power lines...and lots of trees...so we're happy to have an alternative source...

~Have a lovely day!

Friday, March 28, 2014

...Vegan Pimiento Cheese...

...just thought I'd share some yummy vegan lunch fare with y'all...
...the recipe is over at Fat Free Vegan...
...it's actually a a pretty simple to prepare hummus...and it really looks like pimiento cheese...
...it was really good...
~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

....white deer...

...a while ago (right after Christmas)...I posted about the little white deer in our neighborhood...
...and we were wondering if she had made it through the rather rough winter we've been having...
...well...I'm happy to say that we saw her again...
...and she seems happy and healthy...

...in theory you'd have to see 30,000 deer in order to see one albino one...

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

...W.I.P. Wednesday...Hope...and a little more winter...

...I could just as well have been spinning my wheels...this looks exactly like it did last week...only bigger...

...I'm exactly back where I was a week ago...
...we had quite the little snow squall in the afternoon...they were actually advising people not to drive in the 'white-out' conditions...
...so we woke up to another dusting of snow...and 19° F...(-7° C)...it is supposed to be spring here...

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Vegan Sauce Crème...Sauce Suprême


There's a new post over at The Vegan Version...

...It's a Vegan Sauce Crème...

...and we used it to make Vegan Alfredo...
...so creamy and good...
...in other news...we're having a little snow squall this morning...we don't expect it to amount to much...1 - 3 inches...and Scout still had school...but it is supposed to be spring...

~Have a lovely day!

Monday, March 24, 2014

...book club and the Iranian (Persian) Feast...

...so the big day finally arrived...and I guess y'all knew when I said tomorrow...I meant Monday...
...so...I opened the thawed seitan...and skewered it...
...and put it alongside the peppers and onions on the grill...
...put them on a platter and set them on the highest part on the sofreh...
...I made little labels for everything as well...this is the lettuce with vegan 'honey'/vinegar...
...just a plate of mixed pickles...
...a cucumber and tomato salad...drizzled with a quick vinaigrette...
...dolmas...or stuffed grape leaves...these are vegan...but they came from a tin...which you've seen in my shopping with my out of state friend post...they were good...now I'm anxious to try making them from scratch...we actually have a wild grape vine in our woods...wondering if those leaves would do or if they are special...
...the cucumber-mint-soy yogurt dip...that you've already seen...
...and the hummus...
...the spread so far...
...a fruit salad for the dessert table...
...on the table there was the molded atta halva...the fruit salad and a chai tea...
...oh wait...I forgot to put the bread out...three different flat breads...one was whole wheat...
...and tossed around some pillows...
...and the guests started to arrive...

...it was funny...everyone got out their phone when they came in to take a picture...there were only seven of us tonight...but we devoured almost all of the food...

...everyone had a good time eating and discussing 'The House of Sand and Fog'...several of the group had gotten together to watch the movie version of the book too...I did not...it was just too sad for me to want to sit through it again...

...Have you ever done a 'theme' dinner?

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

Saturday, March 22, 2014

...more book club prep...

...I got some of my homemade garbanzos out of the freezer...
...and made some hummus...just regular...garbanzos, garlic, lemon, tahini...simple stuff...but so good...
...then I got a box of seitan out of the freezer to thaw...I could have made seitan...it's not difficult...but I keep a list of everything in the freezer and when it needs to be used by...and this seitan needed to be used up...
...I ground up some whole wheat with my coffee grinder...to make atta...which is basically cream of wheat with the bran included...
...sifted it into a pot of almond milk...
...added some cardamom pods...and sugar...
...cooked until thick...
...oiled my little molds...
...and poured in the atta halva...
...I washed and dried some romaine lettuce leaves...
...and mixed vinegar and blue agave nectar...the traditional Iranian dish is for lettuce dipped in honey and vinegar (but I don't eat honey) and is served on the 13th day of the new year...
...cut up some peppers...for the kababs...
...and skewered those with some onions...
...then we set about getting the sofreh ready...
...we moved the coffee table...and layered about 4 quilts on top of the hardwood...
...then we put some boxes for nice flat plate holding surfaces...and topped it with a white tablecloth...
...when the halva was cool...we unmolded them and topped them with some almonds...

...OK...now we're as ready as we can be...

...I'll cook the kebabs and show you everything on the sofreh tomorrow...

~Have a lovely day!