Posts Tagged ‘blah blah blah’

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Last supper

Friday, July 18th, 2008
Thanks to everyone who offered their condolences for my recent loss.

My new oven will be delivered tomorrow. I have needed a new oven since we moved into this house, but I’ve never HAD to buy one, so I’ve been putting it off. It is kind of a blessing in disguise, although choosing a replacement oven was not without it’s own trials.

The oven that died is the original from when the house was built. It’s 23 years old and never held a consistent temperature since I’ve lived in the house. It’s always required constant babysitting of my oven thermometer to not turn every cake and meal into charcoal. In a nutshell, it was time.

Unfortunately, it is a 27″ drop-in oven. The counter around it is built to fit a 27″ drop-in oven, and nothing else. There is only one 27″ drop-in oven on the market these days. It is small, it is crappy, and it is $1200. If I was going to spend that amount, I did not want to settle for a newer (admittedly better) version of the same thing. I had a tough choice to make.

I decided to shell out a little more, and get an oven that I love. Namely, this oven. I had enough money saved from my cake business to buy it in cash, thankfully. It will not fit where the old oven is, so it will have to sit on the other side of the counter (in the dining room) until I can figure something out. I can’t afford to remodel the kitchen right now, so I’ll just have to get used to having the stove in another room. It’s hard to describe, but I’ll take a picture once it’s here and in place.

Here is a picture of the last meal my oven ever made:


Baked BBQ Tempeh, couscous and mixed veggies (from the freezer!). Easy, but good.

Buying ovens isn’t all I’ve been up to the last few days. I’ve also made petit fours (among other things which I didn’t get pictures of)! These were for a bridal shower. They were having a zebra stripe and monogram theme, with red accents.



I think the zebra stripes turned out so cute:


(Hopefully) pictures of my beautiful new oven tomorrow!

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I have no photos, but I’m famous (not really)!

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

My camera died. It has since been resurrected, but it was dead right over 4th of July. Even though I don’t have pictures I will tell you what I made, and you can imagine how pretty it was!


I picked up some Smoked Apple Sage Field Roast Sausages to throw on the grill. They are pricey so I wouldn’t normally buy them, but being a holiday I couldn’t resist. They are so good. 

I also made the Seitan Ribz from FFV for the first time. Wow! Aside from the fact that the edges got burnt a little on the grill, they were freakin’ awesome. I will make these again on my grillpan soon. If you haven’t tried them, you really should! Even my dad thought they were good, and he’s an avid eat-meater.

To go along with the ribz and sausages, I made some black bean quinoa salad. I was pretty much the only person eating it for some reason, but it turned out so good! I used some tomatoes and bell peppers that I picked up at the farmer’s market – so flavorful!

For snacking I made the Creamy Asian Pear and Tempeh Salad with Wasabi Dressing from V’con. I picked up some wasabi rice crackers for dipping, and it went over so well! I was surprised so many people liked it since the people in my family don’t typically like unusual tastes. I had just enough leftover to make some sushi with it the next day. Seriously yum.

You didn’t expect me to forget about dessert, did you?! I made the Lemon Bars from V’con, which were soooo good! For some reason they turned out a little, um, green. I’m not sure why, but they tasted awesome. 

I also made Crystal’s Avocado Pie 2.0. I thought it was awesome, but no one else would even touch it. I couldn’t get one person to even taste it! It made me sad because there is no way I could eat the whole thing, so I ended up throwing like half the pie away. I still have a bunch of homemade soy sweetened condensed milk left though, which tastes so good I could eat it with a spoon. I still haven’t decided what to do with it yet.

So there you have it. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but hopefully I’ll have some more yummy food porn to post soon.

Also, I was featured on the cover of the business section in the local paper on Monday, which was pretty cool. You can read the article here, if you’re interested (please ignore the magnificently crappy picture of me).

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A thousand words are worth a picture

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

I don’t have any pictures to share today, so you’re just going to have to trust that I have been eating (but not cooking) some awesome food the last couple of days.


The most notable thing I ate – which I have been craving since I finished it – was a dish from PF Changs. I ordered the eggplant stir-fry and asked them to add tofu to it. I wish I had a picture, but even seeing it wouldn’t be enough to make you appreciate the true awesomeness of this meal. I craved it as I went to sleep last night. I craved it when I woke up this morning. I want it right now. If you go to PF Changs, trust me on this: go with someone who will share food with you, split the tofu lettuce wraps (the other perfect food) and then get the eggplant with tofu. Then you can die happy.

I also ate falafel… again. What?

Other things I have done since my last post include a surprise girls’ night for my sister’s 30th birthday (that’s what the cupcakes were for), for which I was DD – so no drinking on my part. We went to dinner, we went downtown, we danced, we got harassed by strange men. It was good times.

After all that craziness, I really needed a chill out night last night with a couple of friends. Nothing on earth beats sitting on a patio with your good friends, drinking beer, eating fries and laughing at each other and yourself into the wee hours of the morning. It’s rejuvenating.

I promise to have more to say soon, along with some actual pictures of food!

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Compensating

Friday, May 23rd, 2008
We have water! We still have to have someone come out and rehang drywall so they can put the sink back. Right now it’s living on our (wet) bedroom floor:


The plumber cut a very large hole to find a very small pipe:



Hopefully all of that will be over with soon. Oy.

This post is pic heavy because I am both trying to make up for my lack of posts, and trying to make up for the fact that it will probably be Monday before I post again. I have a wedding cake and groom’s cake to make and deliver to Oxford, MS tomorrow, and another small wedding cake to be delivered in Memphis on Sunday. I will be crazy busy/extremely exhausted, so I’m apologizing in advance.

In the meantime, pictures!

Banana Wheat Germ Muffins from V’con. These were very tasty, and not too sweet. I baked them in muffin liners with little animals on them, because they are adorable.


My first ever seitan! I used the recipe for Seitan O’Greatness from the PPK forums. I really liked the flavor and how easy it was. The Brit loved the texture, but wasn’t so crazy about the flavor. Anyone who knows him would know what a huge deal that is – he actually almost liked it! I’m going to make it again and switch up the seasonings until I find something he’ll like.


I will take this opportunity to introduce two of my favorite kitchen tools. First, my cast iron wok (all oiled up here, ready for action):


Second, my rice cooker. I freaking love my rice cooker:


Using these two tools, together with my Seitan O’Greatness, I made a yummy sweet and sour stir-fry that was actually pretty good. Even The Brit ate it!


I always make a little extra rice so I can have rice pudding. This time I added some currants, which I love! I shook up the soy milk before adding it, and for some reason it stayed really foamy even after cooking it with the rice. You can see the little bubbles:


We bought some more strawberries and I decided we should have strawberries and champagne. After trimming and cutting the strawberries, I macerated them in some Grand Marnier and a little sugar for about half an hour. Then I poured on a little Silk Soy Creamer (The Brit used real cream) and served them up with a glass of nicely chilled champagne. Indulgent, I know! (sorry for the crappy picture)


And last, this morning I made ‘Egg McVegans’ using this recipe. I pressed the tofu overnight in the fridge so I would have more time this morning. Also, I used Gimme Lean ‘sausage’ instead of the veggie bacon. The tofu was a little too vinegary for my tastes, but I may try making these again with less vinegar and maybe some more seasonings. All in all they were pretty good, though.

They sure looked like the real thing!

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The joys of home ownership

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

So, a pipe burst in our wall and we shut the water off to the whole house yesterday afternoon. We’re now waiting for a plumber to get here and presumably tear a huge hole in our bathroom to get to it. 


The good news is that it is on the opposite end of the house to the floor we’ve just laid/are about to lay. The bad news is it’s ruined the carpet in our bedroom and closet, which must now also be torn out and replaced.

Sometimes I really miss living in an apartment.

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