sammich time!

Who doesn't love sandwiches? Really. Great for a light dinner on a warm summer evening. This was probably the most time consuming meal I've ever put together for myself and myself alone. Making a main course and several side dishes is common place when cooking with friends. When I'm flying solo, however, I tend to stick with a one pot straightforward meal with minimal dishes and prep time. So tonight was special.To start, I put together a hodge-podge marinade based off a recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance for the tempeh. While that was stewing, I put together the potato salad. The potatoes, carrots, peas, and scallions were all from my neighborhood farmer's market. Turmeric adds to flavor as well as giving it a nice color. The green beans were the easiest part. Chop the stems, a little olive oil, onion, and garlic, and saute them up. Green beans are one of my favorite veggies when they're fresh, so I tend to keep the garnish minimal.A quick look at the tempeh post marinade and post cooking.
The sandwich has tempeh, tomato, avocado, vegannaise, brown mustard, and some of that homemade pesto. The intense grill marks are a product of the "Lean Mean Fat-Grilling Machine" my parents gave me when I moved out. Although it's not grilling up any fat, it is great for hot sandwiches; not to mention important grill marks.

Let's be honest, this was a pretty kick-ass dinner. When the rest of my vegan posse returns from vacation, we will have to do hot sandwiches again.

food porn

Alright, day one of documentation. Today was homemade pesto day. Typically, I add an excess of garlic to everything I make. The pesto was not an exception.

Minus the bad breath, it packs a punch. I made a spread that I can have on toast, consisting of the pesto, tofutti cream cheese, and a little dill. Pesto also went into my pasta salad that I make every other week. Easy, inexpensive, and great leftovers that I don't have to reheat.The rest of the pesto is living in a tupperware for now, until I come up with other things to make with it. Possibly grilled pesto sandwiches?

failure to post

For shame. I have taken another leave of absence from the blogging community. While my flickr remains reasonably up-to-date, my poor little blog has sat stagnant. to remedy this, I have resolved to refocus on a new topic to get the ball rolling. My most recent adventures have been in the realm of cooking and baking. After maintaining a "vegaquarium" diet for around a year (also called pescatarian, or abstaining from eating pork, poultry, and beef, while still consuming fish) I slowly excluded fish, eggs, gelatin, and eventually dairy from my diet. Veganism is a new adventure, and has inspired a great deal of cooking and experimenting the kitchen. While it is easy to be a bad vegan, or mostly eat frozen gardenburgers and other pre-packaged foods, my diet changes include limiting the amount of pre-made junk I consume. Cooking from scratch rather then buying mixes is a great way to maintain control over what you are eating, and how much. Foods that are pre-packaged often contain preservatives, require a great deal of processing for shelf-life, and produce an incredible amount of waste due to inefficient packaging. So, all good reasons. It is not just an ethical choice, but nutritional and environmental as well.

So that's my spiel. Every day I do a bit of research and learn more about the foods I eat. Yesterday I was reading on making smart decisions at the grocery store about how to eat well and not spend a fortune. While eating only organic food is ideal, the cost of produce that is certified USDA organic runs around twice that of non-organic. Especially when you're eating veg, maintaining variety and balance by eating a wide range of fruits and vegetables is essential. Some produce retains pesticides moreso then others. By choosing what is and isn't essential to buy organic can save some serious cash.

For the next few weeks I will try to update regularly with food adventures, past and present. Flickr photos can clue you in to my past experiments (at least the ones that photographed nicely). Cheers to better blogging!

Apartment Preview

This is a first look at my new place in Seattle. I moved in over the weekend, and am still in the process of organizing and planning for furnishing, rearranging, and decorating. I think the decor is pretty much figured out, with a palette of cool toned blues and greens with chocolate brown to compliment the beautiful mahogany woodwork. The building was an upscale hotel built in the 1920's in anticipation for the World's Fair. Now it is a nice apartment building on the hill with boston ivy covering the north side. Until finals are over, no time to decorate or go hunting around for furniture. But in the mean time, a preview of the place. Artsy shots of the chandelier in my unit as well as the building and other neat little quirks will be on my flickr in a few weeks. Cheers!

Sonja cat posing for the photo op.

I got this table second hand, I just adore it. Not to mention that it's just the right size for the space.

Birth date

Many years ago, I decided I was ready to be born, and came screaming into the world at 2:38 AM in Anchorage, AK. Nice job mom! So to honor this day I hosted a little cupcake party at my apartment instead of going to Typography II. We made vegan chocolate banana cupcakes with chocolate frosting. They turned out super yummy and all in all it was a good day. A few pictures courtesy of the lensbaby are on my flickr. Cheers!

Razi made the birthday sign. She also brought me flowers :)

Whirlwind

Shame on me for not updating more frequently. Just a quick check in about past, present, and future events.

Past.. Animal Spell, an exhibition of the work of Justin Bibbens and Amy Ross at Punch Gallery in the TK Building [Seattle]. Beautiful. There were animal crackers at the opening. yay!

Present. A million projects, some progressing along better then others. For lack of blogging, I am trying to keep my flickr updated with photos of my ongoing works. Check the "Design" section for projects and other shhtuff.

Future. Moving in two weeks into a lovely studio. Really lovely. Hardwood floors big windows crown molding chandelier with matching wall sconces lovely. As soon as the apartment is no longer a [complete] disaster, I will post pictures. Oh, and finals are also happening in two weeks. How does that work?, you ask. Well, it doesn't. Not very well, anyway.

Future future. I will blog more. Because on May 3 I will have completed two of my four years of college at Cornish, and will spend the span of time between May and September working myself to death to save up for next fall. A little sewing and furniture/apartment DIY will also happen.

meow meow meow!

Yay! This is Sonja, my new best friend. I adopted Sonja on Monday from a local shelter. She is a year old, and was found back in October with her litter of kittens under an I-5 overpass. Still a kitten herself, she and her litter were brought into the shelter and fixed up. All of her beautiful kittens not only survived, but were adopted into loving homes. Now, mama cat has a home too. Although I've only had her for a few days, she has already made herself at home in our little apartment. She's a five star gal, and I look for many years of having this fluffy friend purring in my lap.

Our trip down to Portland this past weekend was tons of fun. Lots of good food, good jazz, and some good coffee, too. A few photos from the trip, primarily highlighting what we ate (I wasn't allowed to take pictures at the performances) are up on my flickr.

More kitty updates and oodles of photos are undoubtedly soon to come. The family is coming to visit this weekend, so it's going to be a fiesta in Seattle. All of my favorite things in one place.