strawberry-lavender spritzer (and syrup)

Drinks count as food, right? How about if you make them from fruit? Or if they have fruit floating in them? Either way, I'd like to talk about a couple drinks I made for my second VeganMoFo entry this month!

When the husband and I threw our housewarming party in August, it was 90 degrees and humid, and we knew that cold drinks would be essential to the event. There was, of course, lots of beer, but I wanted to keep our guests hydrated, not dehydrated, and to provide interesting options for people who don't drink.

On the left, iced tea with mint. On the right, Strawberry-Lavender Spritzer! If you click on the image, you can see it up close, and read my little cards--I labeled each drink, and also provided options if people wanted to turn them into cocktails. (I recommended bourbon or rum with the iced tea, and vodka or gin with the spritzer.)

The Strawberry-Lavender Spritzer was the BIGGEST HIT of the day. It ran out very quickly, and I only got to have half a glass myself! I got the idea from the Kitchn's Blueberry Lavender Vodka Spritzer recipe, but I kept it non-alcoholic, and replaced blueberries with chopped strawberries.

You can follow that link for the recipe; you make a simple syrup with the fruit and lavender, then mix it with lime juice and seltzer. I also added a bunch of frozen strawberries to our drink container, for looks and to keep it cold without watering down the flavor.

I felt sorry for myself that I barely got to enjoy the spritzer at the party, so I recently made more of the strawberry-lavender syrup for myself. I figure I'll add it to seltzer to make my own Italian sodas at home, and to glasses of soymilk for tasty strawberry milk!

Such a pretty pink!

 The syrup recipe is easily scaled up--I think I made a quadruple batch for my 2-gallon drink dispenser above? And I made a double batch the second time around, so that I can enjoy it (and offer it to friends, as a mixer and as a soda base) for a while to come!

Happy VeganMoFo! (and beetroot curry with meyer lemon chutney)

It's the first day of VeganMoFo! In case you've never heard of it before (in which case you must be new to vegan blogs--welcome), VeganMoFo is short for Vegan Month of Food, and it's a celebration of vegan food blogging! Blogs that participate in VeganMoFo commit to writing at least 20 posts about vegan food during the month of October. I love participating in VeganMoFo, and reading the blogroll at the main VeganMoFo headquarters, because it helps me find other great vegan blogs and get inspired  in both my own cooking and blogging. Also it makes me get myself in gear--I may have trouble posting more than once during the other months of the year, but when VeganMoFo comes, I don't kid around!

The past year has been really busy for me. Kevin and I got married and honeymooned, I was promoted at work, and then we bought a house. All of these things have been awesome, some (the house) more time-consuming than others, but it all adds up to me not being as adventurous in the kitchen. Instead of inventing my own recipes, I've mostly been relying on the recipes of others. Most of my VeganMoFo posts will be pointing you to some of the great vegan recipes I've made from around the internet. (I'll also toss in a couple things of my own, but I make no promises.)

Today we start with Beetroot Curry from Jeyashri's Kitchen. It's a pretty simple recipe, to which I added about a cup of beans for extra protein. Because I can't eat nightshades, I make my own sambar powder--anyone looking to do the same can just search for a sambar powder recipe online and just omit the spicy things! (To replace the hot pepper, see my guide for replacing peppers in cooking.)

 To the right, cooking alongside the curry, is Meyer Lemon Cherry Chutney from the Kitchn. I'd had some Meyer lemons that I wanted to turn into something really lemony, and this seemed like the best recipe to try. Despite the fact that Meyers are sweeter than most lemons, this is a really sour chutney! I like sour things, but I wasn't prepared for it. Fortunately the beetroot curry was mild and a little sweet, so the two things together worked perfectly.

Here we had the curry, the chutney, and some plain millet and lettuce to mellow out the stronger flavored food. If you were to try either the curry or chutney recipe on its own, I would recommend pairing the curry with something strong and sharp in taste; pair the chutney with mild, sweet-ish flavors. I strongly recommend both, especially together!

Vegan MoFo's coming! and a (brief) Colorado recap

I have officially signed up for the Vegan Month of Food (also known as VeganMoFo), a month celebrating vegan food blogging! I'll be writing an entry every day for the whole month of October. In the meantime, pardon my sparse posting.

Coming soon! Image from veganmofo.com

The summer went by incredibly quickly, with all the moving and settling in and traveling we did this year. One of the highlights from the summer, other than buying a house, was traveling to Colorado for the husband's cousin's wedding. The wedding itself was great, but we also loved being in Colorado! I'd  been once before, for another of the husband's cousins' wedding, but this time we took an extra couple days to explore the area more. We went to a bunch of craft breweries (the husband's area of interest) and vegan restaurants (mine). Unfortunately I was more about eating than about taking pictures, BUT I would love to tell you my favorite stops along the way:

I'd discovered Root Down in Denver through the PPK forums, where they said it was a great restaurant for vegans and omnivores alike. My in-laws liked it a lot that time, so we all went back for a fantastic dinner.

 

I had a delicious Chilled Pea Soup with coconut milk sorbet as my appetizer, and an equally awesome Rhubarb Risotto (not pictured because I ate it so quickly). Root Down has a small menu, but it already has gluten-free and vegan options in it, and they can adapt things to your needs easily. They were fantastic about my allergy list.

The husband and I went to Watercourse Foods in Denver twice, once on our own, and once with my in-laws. It's a vegetarian restaurant with the BEST vegan comfort food. Ever. I didn't take pictures, but the servings are enormous and filling.

We spent time in Boulder next, and had a fancy dinner at Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant. It reminded us of a ritzier version of Garden Grille in Rhode Island, which is the husband's favorite restaurant. A great meal! The desserts were fantastic, too.

But for me, the REAL winner in Boulder was Native Foods. Those of you with Native Foods in your cities have NO IDEA how lucky you are. They are a vegan fast-er food chain, with healthy, hearty meals. They have full ingredients lists of all their offerings on hand, which made ordering allergy-friendly meals a breeze.

Our first meal was lunch, which neither of us finished because there was so much food! I got a personal pizza heaped with greens, and some of the tastiest sweet potato fries of my life. The husband got tofu buffalo fingers, I think, and a big salad.

We liked it so much we went back for dinner that very night:

The husband got a burger of some sort, we split a cucumber seaweed salad, and I had a buddha bowl. I really want Native Foods to come to Boston; I would eat there alllll the time.

I found all the places we went in Colorado to be very food-allergy-friendly, and all the meals we ate we delicious. Vegan selections were pretty easy to come by even at the most non-vegan-seeming locations. Those of you who live there, count your blessings! Those of you planning to go there, make sure you arrive hungry.

One last thing: on a walk to visit a brewery on the outskirts of Boulder, we saw PRAIRIE DOGS!

I had never seen one before! They were so cute. Between the wonderful people, the beautiful weather, the awesome food, and the scenery (complete with prairie dogs), Colorado is quickly becoming one of my favorite states.

earth machine compost bin

House decorating/beautifying is still taking place, as well as yardwork. I've been doing yardwork! The most yardwork I've ever done is maintaining a tiny flower garden when I was in college, and now I'm mowing! I'm creating flower beds! Everything is a process; pictures will come soon (or, more realistically, when the projects finish--so maybe not super soon).

In the meantime, my greatest domestic triumph is that we've started composting! When we first moved to Waltham (the Boston suburb I now call home) and went to pick up our recycling bin from the city municipal building, the lady who works there told us that Waltham has teamed up with another nearby suburb to provide compost bins to residents at discounted rates. A lot of places do this, as it saves the municipality time, money, and space by not having to pick up so much garbage,  so if you're interested in getting a compost bin, look into whether your city or township has a composting program or subsidy.

from earthmachine.com

The city gives you a choice of compost bins, and I went with the Earth Machine, since it seemed like the easiest. It retails for around $60, but with the city subsidy, I paid half that. The only trick was that I had to go to the municipal center of the next town over and pick i up--then drive it home. We have a tiny car, but fortunately the composter comes in parts that you assemble at home:

Getting it into the car was tricky, getting it back out was much tricker.

I had already plotted out the place it would go in our back yard: close to the house, but not so close that it would be a problem in case it attracted critters or began to smell (I know compost is not supposed to do either thing if you do it right, but I was afraid I might mess it up).

You have to put it somewhere flat or the convenient bottom panel won't sit properly. I put it by that rock because the rock is already hard to mow around, so I figured adding a hard-to-mow-around compost bin wouldn't change much.

My first step was the attach the bottom panel to the bottom half of the bin.

It clicks in, but it doesn't actually secure with anything, which might be frustrating for if I ever want to move the compost bin. So I'll just aim not to have to move it ever.

Putting on the top half of the bin was trickier than I imagined.

The dude at the municipal center told me I'd have to get someone to help me with it, but I had thought he meant because I was a girl and it might be too hard for me. Nope. It's really just more of a two person job--it's hard to click all the tabs into place at once if you're by yourself. I finagled it by stepping inside the bin and sitting on one edge while I pushed on the other.

Next was sliding on the door to the compost bin,

...which was no big deal.

It comes with convenient pegs to secure the whole thing to the ground. Again, there's nothing to secure that bottom screen to it if you remove these pegs, but these are still handy in case I get really vigorous with my compost turning.

They were also easy to drive into the ground.

And voila! I have a compost bin!

I've had it less than a month, so it's much too early to know how it's doing, compost-wise, but the results are pretty dramatic in terms of waste reduction. In composting our food scraps, we have reduced our garbage by 1/3 to 1/2. And I'll get some great compost to apply to the gardens I'm hoping to have ready next spring... A pretty good deal! And even if it doesn't work out, it's an interesting experiment.

My biggest complaint, however, is that I got the first manicure of my life a week before setting up the compost bin, and the set-up process chipped my nail:
 

...so I guess they were not meant to be installed by ladies with pretty nails. I normally don't have pretty nails, though, so I guess I don't mind.

I've been so busy with the house that I haven't been cooking that much in the way of new and exciting recipes yet, but I'll try to get back in the swing of food blogging for September. I'm definitely planning to do daily Vegan Month of Food blogging this October, though, so that should put me back on the front lines of blogging. See you soon!

my writing on thehairpin.com!

My favorite website, the Hairpin, just published some of my writing! This is so exciting.

It's a short piece of creative nonfiction called "If Obituaries Were in the Conditional." Check it out! (And if you found my blog via the Hairpin, enjoy the recursion?)

 More substantial blog updates coming later this month. Turns out buying/moving to a new house takes up a lot of time!

house tour

Soooooo one of the reasons I haven't been posting much lately is that the husband and I have been in the process of first searching for, then buying a house! We're buying a house! We close (and move) in less than two weeks, which is exciting and awesome and overwhelming.

As we get closer and closer to moving, I'm starting to miss our current place already. It's a tiny condo that the husband bought a few years before he met me, and we're really happy to move onto a bigger, better place... but over the past 3 years, we've really turned his condo into our home. It'll be sad to leave it behind. So! I thought I'd give you a little tour before we left for good.

Our place is a converted attic, the third floor of a building. So after one flight of stairs outside our unit, you get to our front door--which opens to another set of stairs. If you were coming into our place, you'd enter at that door at the bottom of the stairs. Come on up!

Now, when you get to the top of the stairs, you can turn left to see our dining/office area:

On the far left there's a big window, which was hard for me to get a picture of because of all the light.

Now, turn to your right.

Our living-room area! Please ignore the stupid-looking cat tree. You may recognize the t-shirt pillow shams from this how-to entry!

Now we'll go through the living-room area to the hallway on the left!

So many doors! The closed white door to the far left is a bathroom, the next door is the kitchen, then the bedroom, and the closed white door to the far right is a closet.

Let's go into the kitchen first!

The kitchen is the one room where I didn't get to pick the paint colors. The husband had renovated it back before he met me. I like it, though! You can almost see my container garden on the fire escape out the window. And on the wall is my beloved yard-sale-acquired vintage kitchen clock. I've had it in every kitchen of every place I've lived since 2006!

Here's the view of the kitchen if you're standing by my beloved clock. This room is the room where the slanted ceilings bother me the most. The husband and I are both 5'8, and we each bump our heads at least once a week. It's perfect for someone under 5'5, though; hopefully the person who's buying our place is short!

Okay, continuing the tour. Back into the hallway, where you can see...

The husband's gecko tanks! Some people think lizards are creepy, so we'll move along... Let's peek into the bathroom!

Is it weird that I'm showing you pictures of our bathroom? I don't care, because I freaking LOVE our bathroom. The colors make me really happy, from that gorgeous blue to the beautiful tiles...

TO THE BRIGHT GREEN SHELVES. Like I said before, I picked out the paint colors for all the rooms but the kitchen, and I love them.

Done in the bathroom? We're almost finished! The last room is our bedroom.

More bright green shelves! Something really interesting to cats must be happening outside the window.

Here's a view of the bedroom if you're standing by the window. You may recognize the shade on the skylight from my how-to entry on how I made light-blocking shades.

Okay, thanks for visiting my place! Let me walk you down the stairs...

What's that you say? You love my green-painted stairs? WELL, before you go, let me tell you about them! I've done a lot of home improvement and decorating type stuff around our place over the years, and the stairs are one of my favorite big changes.

They used to look like this:

The carpet here was old, grungy, hard to clean, and clawed by the cats. (You can see my paint chips on the left--I had a rough time narrowing down the colors!) So the husband and I ripped up the carpet.

...and discovered that the carpet hid the fact that the treads were too old and thin to walk on much longer. They needed to be replaced. So when my parents visited one weekend, my father (who is super DIY-savvy--he built the house I grew up in!) and the husband, in just one morning, replaced the treads with some inexpensive pine.

They put on the trim I THINK not just to look pretty, but because the risers weren't level? Anyway, it did look pretty. We then we primed everything:

It was tricky to paint and prime our stairs because we had to either paint ourselves in the house for the day, or out. So we had to plan accordingly! But after a couple weekends, the stairs were done!

Nice and green. I am so proud of these stairs! Annnnd that leads you out of our place. Fritz (the creepy cat at the top of the stairs) and I say goodbye... and thank you for coming on our house tour!

I'm going to miss this place. However, I'm excited to show you some before and after photos when we move into our new home!

vegan jerky review

I was never that into jerky back when I ate meat. In fact, I think the only jerky I knew of was Slim Jims (which always seemed like they'd be cool because Macho Man Randy Savage endorsed them, but were sorta gross), and some strange venison jerky one of my dad's friends made. But other vegans must miss jerky, because I've seen a few vegan jerkys (jerkies? How does one pluralize jerky?) out there. Primal Strips were the first vegan jerky I had. Made primarily from gluten, but also incorporating soy and mushrooms, Primal Strips were great late-night-paper-writing snacks when I was in college. But then I became nightshade intolerant, and the flavors I liked best had hot peppers. Plus they are hard to open, wet and sticky, and a little too sweet. And while I can have gluten, about half of my family members cannot, so my now-vegan-but-one-time-Slim-Jim-loving brother is out of luck.

Enter Morels the Vegan Butcher's "What a Jerky!" Morels the Vegan Butcher started out as a food truck based out of Louisville, Kentucky, but has moved onto catering and selling their food at stores in their area. They were doing a promotion to encourage online sales of their new jerky, so I signed up for a free package of Yoko's Teriyaki Jerky. They assured me that their jerky is nightshade free and were nice enough to give me a full ingredient list so I could see for myself (the package says "spices," which can be tricky if you're allergic to a particular spice). The jerky is soy-based and is also gluten free, so I'm totally going to send my vegan, gluten-free, jerky-loving brother a package soon.

So... what's it like?

The jerky is basically made from soy curls, if you've ever had those. It's chewy and just tender enough to sink your teeth into, but isn't so moist that your fingers get wet holding it (unlike Primal Strips). The teriyaki flavor is subtle and very slightly sweet, which balances the saltiness.

Each bag is $5, which seems reasonable considering it's all natural, made in small batches, and is very high in protein (and therefore filling). As I said above, I'm definitely ordering some for my jerky-loving family members. If you like jerky, or even just salty, flavorful soy snacks, I recommend giving Morels the Vegan Butcher your business!