Fun With Your Food

Richard and I trekked up to LA’s Thai town and tried some new Thai food.

It was pretty cheap and that made me happy. Only 5-6 bucks a plate and so much better than any fast food at that price.

The tofu there was AMAZING. I don’t know how they cooked it at all. It was crispy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. I had Thai basil and chili with tofu.

Richard had Masaman curry with tofu. WOW. I snuck some bites from his and started pondering a trade haha.

I want to make more trips to LA’s Thai town for the food alone.

Afterwards I tried to convince Richard to get some Durian but the smell made him refuse.
Soon though, I am trying Durian dang it!

Thanks to everyone for wishing my mom a happy birthday- she LOVED it

Are there any exotic foods you’ve been itching to try?

Teddy

I just wanted to say a BIG happy birthday to mom!
I love her lots and I hope she has a great day

Teddy

Last year about 2 weeks after Halloween I took this picture. It is still my favorite Jack-o-Lantern ever. Is it not one of the saddest faces you’ve ever seen? While I was in Big Bear I rediscovered him and was inspired to learn a little more.

Pumpkin Fun Facts:

• Using pumpkins as lanterns at Halloween is based on an ancient Celtic custom brought to America by Irish immigrants. All Hallows Eve on 31 October marked the end of the old Celtic calendar year, and on that night hollowed-out turnips, beets and rutabagas with a candle inside were placed on windowsill and porches to welcome home spirits of deceased ancestors and ward off evil spirits and a restless soul called “Stingy Jack” hence the name “Jack-o’-lantern”.
  

• The pumpkin is the state fruit of New Hampshire. (I thought it was a veggie!)
  

• In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.

• Pumpkins are 90 percent water

• Native Americans flattened strips of pumpkins, dried them and made mats.

• Colonists sliced off pumpkin tips; removed seeds and filled the insides with milk, spices and honey. This was baked in hot ashes and is the origin of pumpkin pie.

• The name pumpkin originated from “pepon” the Greek word for ““large melon.” (Has anyone seen- My Big Fat Greek Wedding?- this fact should have been slipped into that movie!)
  

What is your favorite Pumpkin recipe?
(I must admit I have not used it much besides in pie- I want to try it as a crust though)

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Sources : 1 2 3

Hi Guys
Something is wrong with Blogger and it’s not allowing me to post pictures and is giving me a hard time.

I really want to update my blog to beta but am not sure how. Can anyone give me instructions? I don’t want to lose all my previous posts. How do transfer all your past posts?

See you tonight (I’m DEFINITELY staying in, too tired to go out)

Teddy

Last week it was my friends , Eva, birthday

Eva is allergic to dairy and enjoys trying Vegan food. It turned out that she had never been to Native foods and there’s where we went along with Cara.

We had Native Fries

Chicken fingers

And I had a Soul Bowl to go.

Everyone tried the chicken fingers and was impressed. Cara is allergic to chicken and can’t eat it but loves the taste. I know she’ll be frequenting NativeFoods now for those fingers.

The Soul Bowl was a new thing for me to try (sometimes it’s good to step outta your box right?). I enjoyed how all the flavors complemented each other but next time I’ll say no cauliflower.

Overall I think we all enjoyed it more than we had expected- which thrills me because now they’ll both want to go there more often.
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Baby Update
Richards Nephew was born!
Welcome Landon Lee Brokaw to the world!

Last night Richard’s older sister (she lives in AZ) when into labor!!

Richards going to be an uncle again.
We’re both excited and can’t wait to hear more. No word yet though and because of our work hours I won’t be able to hear anything more until tonight. But I’m betting he’s going to be a BIG baby. Every one of Richard’s siblings were big. 10 lbs- that’s the guess.

Everyone have a great Friday!!

My step brother Rob (NOT a vegan chef by any means) is a chef and while we were up in Big Bear he helped with cooking quiet a bit.

One of the nights there he and John made stuffed peppers. The stuffing included rice, mushrooms, garlic, and onion (I’m sure there was more but I didn’t prepare it!)

The last night I there it was PIZZA NIGHT. Rob was pretty much in charge of the whole deal. Look at him prepare that dough! (I’m sure he hates that I posted this picture).

My pizza was vegan with mushrooms, olives, fresh tomatoes and basil. Thanks to everyone for doing the veg thing with me up in big bear for a few days.

When you hang out with non-veg friends/family what do you make/eat?

Teddy

I posted a couple of days ago that I was craving fish and I got great responses. Today I attempted to satisfy my craving a traditional way- Miso soup (I added some noodles to make it filling)

The soup was good but missing my favorite part- NORI :-/. I didn’t realize we were out of it until it was about time to take it off the stove. A little disappointing because I was looking forward to that ocean taste of nori. On the shopping list this week- NORI and some ground kelp to make some tuno.

I had a hankering for some baking. I decided to make some brownies. The recipe is loosely based off of Sarah Kramer’s (La Dolce Vegan) Espresso Brownies. I didn’t have all the right ingredients which forced me to make it up as I went. They turned out a lot more espresso-ey than I had intended but Richard loves them. I like them as well but apparently not as much as he did!

I like to cook my lunches the night before to avoid waking up at 4 am for cooking. Earlier today I was catching up on blogs when I noticed Leslie had made some tacos with a chili mixture filling. Those pictures put my chili need into overdrive. Therefore tomorrow’s lunch will be black bean chili. I prefer my chili VERY chunky and for some reason I need corn in it (I guess it’s not chili but south western chili). I added some of my Soycatash to the chili too. I’ve already snuck bites of it and I can’t wait for tomorrow’s lunch.

What do you put in your chili? Beans? Corn? Like it spicy or mild?

Teddy

Family portrait weekend (not official pictures- just ones Richard snapped while we were posing)

As I mentioned last week, John’s 3 sons flew out from England and you bet we seized this opportunity for a family photo. From left to right the boys are Rob, James and Charles.

My mom, grandma and I

OK enough of the formalities. This is the REAL party.

A POOL PARTY

What pool party would ever be complete with out violently bashing each other with foam noodles?

John found a new use for his noodle. It became a mouth operated water pistol

All I wanted was to be left alone to float on my duckie.

okay the FOOD

Regretfully, I forgot to take pictures of the food spread Rob and John prepared for us (Rob’s a chef- should probably mention that). I’ll just say that my favorite bit was the sweet potatoes made with coconut milk OR the hollowed out pineapple with ice cream inside.

However …

I made this for dinner when we got home. A roasted portabella mushroom sandwich (that’s not lettuce, it’s basil).

I was way off when I said that I got 15 baby artichokes; there are about 25 of them. I steamed about half of them to put in our lunch.

Tonight (the 18th) is my parents 7th anniversary! It’s also been 7 years since all the boys have been out at the same time. We all went out to our favorite Thai food and ate until we BURST (I almost did- I swear).
Richard and I fought with my parents to pay and although they don’t know it yet, I SNUCK THE MONEY IN MOM’S PURSE! HA!!
Take my money mom- it’s YOUR anniversary

Tomorrow the boys leave for home. Everyone’s going to miss them terribly, but let’s not damper the mood- this weekend was wonderful.

Yesterday Richard and I decided that was the day I was getting a camera. Of course, I’m not going to buy ANYTHING without some extensive research.
We spent about 6 hours alone researching 30 cameras. We even came up with a rating system for what we had read about each camera. One star meant it was alright, two star means good reviews, three star was EXCELLENT.
6 hours pass and we have the cameras narrowed down to about 4.
Panasonic Lumix (FX8k), Sony CyberShot(w50), Fuji Funpix (F20), Olympus FE 190

The first 3 cameras are all rated 3 stars but are also about 250 bucks (not including a decent sized card) and the Olympus rated 2 stars and was under 200. As you can tell, I got the Olympus plus a card for the camera for under 250(I would have enjoyed the more expensive ones but it’s just not reasonable right now)
Reasons: GREAT features for my needs. 6.0 Megapixel, 3x optical zoom, Ultra compact, 2.5 inch screen, Macro and SUPERMacro functions, Lithium battery, 14 different settings and Image stabilization (I can not keep my hands still!).

I took my first pictures with it today and I’ll be posting them tomorrow.

I know I’ve said this 100 times but really THANK YOU for your suggestions. They helped out a lot .

Teddy

P.S. Yesterday was a mini family reunion/party with family portraits. They’re going to be great pictures