Sleep, raisin bread French toast, weeding, the show = Good Sunday

Good Sunday:

• Slept in.
• Made french toast from yesterday’s raisin bread.
• Weeded most of the rest of the front herb garden (with help from the kids). It’s amazing what 15 minutes a day from each of us accomplished in a little over a week! Also, with kids that can now mow the lawn without excessive supervision, it frees me up to get other things done.
• Spent the afternoon and evening working on Tuesday’s show.

Ramping up for the week: An afternoon of cooking and baking

I spent most of the afternoon and evening cooking again. {This involved using and cleaning the Vitamix 3 to 4 times, but was totally worth it.} Probably I was procrastinating finishing those taxes, but I also had news research to do and just didn’t feel like spending time in front of the computer. Plus, I really wanted to get a bunch of stuff made so that we could start the week off with prepared food. I think this is everything:

• My typical weekend Breakfast Scramble
• Hummus
• Seitan {Basic Seitan recipe from The Sexy Vegan Cookbook. What’s different about this recipe is the addition of russet potatoes. I never have very much luck with seitan. This one turned out a little better than usual—not terribly puffy and the taste is pretty good. I think it will make good sandwiches.}
• Egg-less Egg Salad
• Two loaves of bread
• Double-Apple Muffins {I made this name up. The Basic Vegan Muffins with Fruity Variations recipe is from Vegan Holiday Kitchen. We were out of yogurt and applesauce, so I made some quick applesauce in the Vitamix with two red Pink Lady apples and 1 green Granny Smith, skins on. I added just a bit of water. It was fantastic just like that—somehow tasted like it had sweetener and cinnamon in it. So I used the homemade applesauce in the recipe, and ate the leftovers. Then I diced up a couple more red apples to mix into the batter at the end (the recipe called for peeling, but why lose those nutrients and fiber?—I left them on). I also added the few raisins we had left and some cinnamon. I baked them in the mini muffin tin. They are tasty, but not too sweet, and will make good snacks this week. Although I should have tripled the batch, because with 5 people they won’t go far.}
• Tahini Garlic Dressing {this was yesterday, but I forgot to mention it}

We ate the split-pea soup for dinner. It was a little thinner than I’d planned on, even though I used 3 cups of split-peas, but still tasty. Tomorrow, when some of the water evaporates, it’s going to be just right.

Kids camp, rainy days, and feel-good foodie movies

I helped out with the KPOV Kids Radio Camp this morning. It was tiring, but only 3 hours, and it was fun to meet and interact with kids in the general age-group of 10-12 and from schools all over the Bend area. There were about 10 kids, including my twins. It was a rambunctious and restless crowd, especially as this was their 5th morning at the station, but we managed to prepare and record a couple of different pieces that will be edited into a one-hour show that will air on KPOV.

This afternoon I dropped the twins off at the pool for a few hours while I took care of some annoying errands. I managed to get the kids there 3 afternoons this week, since it was spring break. They like it and it was good to keep them occupied.

This evening, my older stepdaughter and I cooked and baked. It’s been a couple of rainy and stormy days, so it seemed like the thing to do. I put together a crock-pot bean soup (the beans had been soaking for a day and a half at least, so hopefully they won’t take forever to cook). She made pizza, banana bread, and coconut cream pie! The pie is so good.

I also dropped my younger stepdaughter off at the roller rink to meet some friends for a few hours. That gave me flashbacks, because we used to do the same thing when I was her age. Weird that it’s popular again; at least it’s in a different place than we used to go to. The building that used to be just a roller rink when I was a kid is now a music venue (but can also host roller derby).

Late tonight, I needed a brain dump. So I picked a happy comedy on Netflix. Since Netflix rarely has any recent movies that I want to watch instantly, and I don’t enjoy crime dramas or comedies, I’ve barely been in there this year. But I watched Today’s Special and it was just right for my mood. IMDB describes it as a “super-feel-good foodie comedy,” and I can’t disagree. It stars Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show. I thought the writing was pretty good and it made me laugh out loud in a few places, which was all I was hoping for.

Close, but no cigar

Close, but no cigar.

Got show notes for the All Things Vegan February 14th show about 80% completed, but alas, I’m already getting to bed way too late. I should be able to finish them up tomorrow, though.

Here’s a picture of us with Dave of Dave’s Killer Bread at Winterfest the other day. I must admit we stopped by the booth several times “sampling” the Sin Dawgs, before running into Dave.

Dave of Dave's Killer Bread and Winterfest Yahoos

Broken hearts, hairy circus men with flasks, and meeting the killer bread man

My little step-girl had her heart broken today by her first boyfriend. That sucks.

But we went to Winterfest anyway—all three kids and a kid friend. Hopefully it was a good distraction.

Highlights:

• Larry and his Flask—a lively and crazy circus of hairy men who frequently swapped outrageous instruments (stand-up bass that did everything but stand there, french horn, trombone, harmonica, banjo…) and created music out of what looked like general mayhem.
   
• I finally got to meet Dave of Dave’s Killer Bread; he was at their Winterfest booth. Although he was a bit under the weather and was clearly exhausted from speaking to Congress today (!) and flying back across the country, he graciously talked with me for a few minutes. He said he shared a lengthy Gandhi quote with them—he was going to recite it for me, but I think we got talking about something else. I asked him if he was vegan, since all of his products seem to be. He said no (and seemed embarrassed); that it would be the most compassionate way to be, but that he had tried and couldn’t make it work so far. I asked him what had been his biggest challenge in trying to be vegan. He said vegetables, but his fiance had been making him juice recently, and that was working out pretty well, so there was still hope. Of course, I also gave him a card and asked him if  we might interview him sometime. He also signed coloring books for all the kids (even my 15-y-o) and we took a group photo.

• My older step-daughter and I shared a splendid chocolate vegan cupcake from Ida’s Cupcake Café.