Aaaahhhh, day off.

Slept well. Actually, slept late. I got up at 8:30 this morning and would usually be up around 6:00. Feels good sometimes. I stumbled out of bed and got ready to feed the cats when I noticed Deimos them nosing around my bag that I left on the bench by the front door. I guess Chrome bag is the new catbox. It had a large amount of cat piss in it along with my laptop bag, new shirt from Strong Hearts Cafe, a thermal, and many other items. I was just informed that Euronymous puked up his breakfast on the rug in the living room and to top it all off...IT'S SNOWING!!!! And now breakfast. Cheers!

Too much to do and not enough time to go to work

The past two days have been nice and warm with yesterday winning out because it was sunny as well. Though I did spend the morning inside rebuilding parts of one room and rearranging part of the kitchen, we did get a lot done outside. We raked the garden, which doesn't sound like much, but it's about 30'x50' and full of huge rocks! We finished the fence except for the gate area and I was able to add to the trails a little. 14 or so garlic plants came up already, although next year we'll have to plant more since that will only last a month or so. The sprouts are more than ready to get outside for the year. It's so satisfying to get these things done after being shut in for so many months.

Chugging along...

AS Spring rears it's head, I realize how far behind I am in life. Winter has definitely made me a bit lazy, but with everything coming back to life I feel a bit more motivated. Our starts are almost too tall to stay in their trays, but with another dusting of snow on it's way we can't get things into the ground quite yet. The construction of our porch is also about too start. At this point we are pulling nails from some reclaimed wood and the fun part should start in the next few weeks. Actually the fun part will be sitting on the porch in the afternoon during a thunderstorm with tea and a book, or grilling seitan out of reach of direct sun during a mid Summer day. I'm mostly happy that our six months of Winter is almost over.

Spring?

Well, it looks like we finally made it past the frostiest part. This Winter has been way too long. Now we get to be wet for a while as the Spring rains bring everything back to life. It'll be nice to see all the trees and bushes turn green and yellow and pink and all the wonderful colors of plant life. Our seeds are sprouting indoors and soon we will start working the garden. Our greens have sprouted as well as broccoli, cauliflower, peas, tomatoes and a few others. This years we are going to put a fence around the garden to keep Ed from using the potatoes as a cat box. Soon it will be time for bbqs and bonfires!

Will Winter ever end?

The weather has been getting warmer lately so naturally the garden planning has started along with thoughts of nature walks, biking, bonfires and bbqs. When I got up this morning there was something akin to blizzard outside! We had gotten a couple of inches and continued to snow on and off all day. It all a part of living out this way I guess. So, to help us to forget about the outside I baked a dozen vanilla agave cupcakes and some basic chocolate cupcakes with a bowl of chocolate buttercream frosting for the both of them. For dinner I decided on pizza. Actually, it was going to happen because Hell's Kitchen is on and we're an old married couple that has weird routines. It's going to be fairly basic so that I can same some of the ingredients for either a mini lasagne or eggplant "parm" in the next day or so. We decided on spinach, onions, crumbled tempeh and our version of ricotta(block of tofu, 1/4c or so nutritional yeast, 1TBSP vegenaise, 1 1/2 TBSP Celtic sea salt, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1 1/2 tsp garlic podwer, 1 TBSP olive oil, and a splash of soy milk. Blend well in processor.-The measurements are an estimate since I usually only measure when I bake!)

Full blown snowpocalypse.

Winter is in full swing and the garden is covered in snow. All that is visible are the stakes marking the garlic and asparagus. This year we are going to double the amount of hot peppers and probably plant all of our squash around the border of the property to maximize growing room. I'm hoping to take advantage of things already growing in the area such as burdock, dandelion, red clover, wintergreen, blackberries, etc. We've gone through almost everything we grew last season so we are going to work a little harder this year.

the new year

So, it's been a while since my last post due to the holiday season and other random things. This year I hope to lean more towards the healthier side of vegan cooking as well as keeping things simpler and more local. Yesterday we had a simple potato dish for breakfast.
1 T Earth Balance
1 T olive oil
1/2 Spanish onion, diced
1 quart fingerling potatoes sliced into 1/4 inch thick discs
1/4 cup veggie stock
1 t paprika
2 t dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F. In an iron skillet on medium melt EB together and olive oil. Add onions and cook for about five minutes. Add potatoes and coat with oil/onion mixture. Turn heat to medium-hi, add some salt and broth and continue to mix for a few more minutes. Remove from heat add stir in paprika and rosemary then place in oven for 20 minutes or until potatoes get soft and begin to brown.