A few weeks ago we purchased a 93 Eurovan from a lovely couple in Santa Fe (pictures of the van should appear in future posts). He had recently had triple bypass surgery and now they have an extremely restrictive diet in the hopes of reversing his heart disease. This diet is vegan, except it excludes nuts, avocado, and any oils. She was sharing what a challenge it has been, yet how much better they both feel. After sharing some favorite vegan spots (Mint Tulip, Thai Vegan and Annapurna's) we said we would stay in touch about food in our lives.
This inspired Lane and I to change our diets. While not as extreme as that of our Santa Fe friends, we're moving toward healthier eating. Although we don't consume many animal products, we're trying to cut them out and live a plant-based life. I can't deny that last week I looked longingly at some cheese my colleague was having for lunch, but I do feel like things are changing for the better. It helps that I picked up Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian from the library. I love his writing style and his recipes have never steered me wrong. Many of the dishes are vegan, or can easily be made so (by not including cheese, for example). I'm also rediscovering my love for Japanese food. I've made a few soba noodle bowls with miso broth and vegetable maki. The last week has also seen two batches of mole sauce from scratch. I used them to make roasted butternut squash enchiladas. They were downright delicious, if I may say so.
Other tricks I've been trying to be sure our lysine levels are ok (word has it vegans have trouble getting enough lysine) are to include some type of legume at each meal: miso in the salad dressing, or sauteed and crumbled tempeh on salads.
I haven't been on the totally straight and narrow, however. Yesterday I needed to whip up a dessert for a neighbor who was helping us with a project. What was the quickest thing I could come up with? Chocolate chip cookies. With butter. And eggs. I only made half a batch but that didn't stop me from scraping the dough out of the bowl, licking the spoon and stuffing two cookies into my mouth.
They were the best cookies I've ever eaten.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Yurt-ing
The first weekend of winter break we headed to the Enchanted Circle for some nordic skiing and yurt-ing excitement. Here are some pics from that adventure:
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| The yurt was cozy and offered all we needed to stay snug and well fed. |
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| Wheeler Peak from the yurt |
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| Fresh tracks after the storm. We saw two does and one buck mule deer. |
Monday, December 5, 2011
Snow Day!
Today marks the first snow day of the year. Albuquerque public schools covers a large area, so even though our part of town barely received a dusting, other parts received several inches of snow. The two-hour delay at 5:30 gave way to a cancellation at 7. I, for one, am relieved because we spent yesterday skiing in 3 feet of powder at Wolf Creek in Colorado. Walking is presenting itself as a challenge and I can't imagine trying to wrangle middle schoolers in my somewhat feeble state.
So what is a teacher to do on a snow day?
So what is a teacher to do on a snow day?
- Get caught up on grading
- Plan, plan plan for curriculum needs
- And...cook!!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Mint Tulip-icious
Whether or not you are Vegan, you will love lunch at Mint Tulip, simple, vegan food done well. We just finished up the vegan burger and a grilled veggie sandwich. The veggie burger was a lovely shade of pink thanks to the sweet beets. With the regular burger fixin's and some vegannaise, it was very satisfying. The grilled sandwich had tomatoes, asparagus, artichokes and what I think was cashew cheese. The bread was perfectly toasted and the cheese added a nice flavor. Strangely, what really stood out for me were the sides. The potato salad was perfectly balanced with mustard and not-too-mushy potatoes. The pasta had a lovely earthiness from (roasted?) mushrooms that added a depth and intensity not usually found in a pasta salad.
The aesthetic reminds me of places we used to frequent in Portland and Seattle--good colors, quiet music and a lack of pretension. Their hours are 10-4 Monday-Saturday and dinner is served on Fridays. Tonight's menu includes polenta with grilled vegetables and a faux meatloaf.
I sincerely hope that their location near campus (2110 Central) and word of mouth will help them stay in business for a long time to come. While I am not usually out and about during lunch hours, I think we'll get here when we can. Vegan places are few and far between here in the land of carne adovada and posole and I welcome Mint Tulip with open arms!
The aesthetic reminds me of places we used to frequent in Portland and Seattle--good colors, quiet music and a lack of pretension. Their hours are 10-4 Monday-Saturday and dinner is served on Fridays. Tonight's menu includes polenta with grilled vegetables and a faux meatloaf.
I sincerely hope that their location near campus (2110 Central) and word of mouth will help them stay in business for a long time to come. While I am not usually out and about during lunch hours, I think we'll get here when we can. Vegan places are few and far between here in the land of carne adovada and posole and I welcome Mint Tulip with open arms!
Monday, November 7, 2011
It's Most Assuredly Fall
It's 5:30.
It's dark.
I rode home in driving sleet.
This mac and cheese recipe is in the oven and the fire is going in the woodstove.
It's definitely fall around here.
It's dark.
I rode home in driving sleet.
This mac and cheese recipe is in the oven and the fire is going in the woodstove.
It's definitely fall around here.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Catching Up
I've been away from the blog for quite some time now. Teaching has been occupying most of my waking hours and, sadly, left little time for writing. As the seasons are turning and things are settling down on the work front, I'm hoping to be able to write more often.
Since the last post, not too much has happened. We're down to one chicken--Buffy couldn't take the summer heat. Chippy is still clucking on and we're getting the most delicious eggs. The garden has been hit by frost. The last remaining butternuts won't make it and I wasn't able to salvage the last of the tomatoes. We've had a good run, though, considering my lack of garden attention. Here is a pic of some of the squash:
Overall I think the volunteer butternut brought in ~10 good-sized squash. Not bad for not even trying!
The haphazardly planted flowers are saying their good-byes, too. The cosmos and zinnias are finished but these are still blazing on:
I planted a "save the bees" mix from Botanical Interests and wasn't sure what was going to come up. The cosmos, zinnias and India blankets did the best. I should snag some of their seeds for next season!
Here are some long overdue pictures of our new back wall. We are so glad to have some privacy and the wall acts as a sound barrier, too.
Yes, the fence around the coop looks pathetic. Chippy figured that out right away and we've given up on trying to contain her for now. She's a free-ranger, that's for sure. The bottom of our shoes can attest to that!
We asked to have hooks for the ladder installed when the wall went up. Clever us! Thinking ahead really paid off this time.
In other Lean-to news, the North Valley Dirt Park opened just a few weeks ago. This is a county-owned and managed project that is just a few miles up the road. It is behind a community center and offers spectacular dirt riding, from the pump tracks to the table top jumps to the bmx practice course. If you are unfamiliar with a dirt park, it's a place to ride bmx, dirt jump and mountain bikes. We are almost always the oldest people there by about 20 years and I am invariably the only woman. I've had very incredulous looks by the adolescent males at my bike and I, but that usually stops after they've seen me ride. One young person even told me I was "shredding it." Hah!
The dirt park has been a great way for us to get more in touch with our community and it is good fun to be out there with the youth. As a middle school teacher you would think I would get enough of that during the work day, but in this environment it's a totally different story. One of my favorite things, though, outside of picking up on tween slang, is seeing how much we improve week after week. I can jump my bike higher and further than when we began and my confidence is improving. While I'm no where near doing 360s or "one footers," I'm having a blast. And it's fun to go wearing my cardigan:
The last few evenings we've been at the park until dusk and I'm already mourning the loss of sunlight that will come with the change in seasons. I hope that I can finagle my work schedule such that I can still get a few laps in before sunset.
We've also been enjoying revisiting local restaurants, like Thai Vegan.
Yet I'm lamenting the fact that I've been so exhausted that cooking really feels like a chore. Today I woke up with the woodstove raging and rain pelting our windows. It was a perfect kind of day for lots of tea drinking and veggie chili making. I think more days like that are on the horizon. I've got to use up all of that butternut squash somehow!
Since the last post, not too much has happened. We're down to one chicken--Buffy couldn't take the summer heat. Chippy is still clucking on and we're getting the most delicious eggs. The garden has been hit by frost. The last remaining butternuts won't make it and I wasn't able to salvage the last of the tomatoes. We've had a good run, though, considering my lack of garden attention. Here is a pic of some of the squash:
The haphazardly planted flowers are saying their good-byes, too. The cosmos and zinnias are finished but these are still blazing on:
Here are some long overdue pictures of our new back wall. We are so glad to have some privacy and the wall acts as a sound barrier, too.
Yes, the fence around the coop looks pathetic. Chippy figured that out right away and we've given up on trying to contain her for now. She's a free-ranger, that's for sure. The bottom of our shoes can attest to that!
In other Lean-to news, the North Valley Dirt Park opened just a few weeks ago. This is a county-owned and managed project that is just a few miles up the road. It is behind a community center and offers spectacular dirt riding, from the pump tracks to the table top jumps to the bmx practice course. If you are unfamiliar with a dirt park, it's a place to ride bmx, dirt jump and mountain bikes. We are almost always the oldest people there by about 20 years and I am invariably the only woman. I've had very incredulous looks by the adolescent males at my bike and I, but that usually stops after they've seen me ride. One young person even told me I was "shredding it." Hah!
The dirt park has been a great way for us to get more in touch with our community and it is good fun to be out there with the youth. As a middle school teacher you would think I would get enough of that during the work day, but in this environment it's a totally different story. One of my favorite things, though, outside of picking up on tween slang, is seeing how much we improve week after week. I can jump my bike higher and further than when we began and my confidence is improving. While I'm no where near doing 360s or "one footers," I'm having a blast. And it's fun to go wearing my cardigan:
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| See that guy in the back? I can do that, but on a smaller scale. :) |
The last few evenings we've been at the park until dusk and I'm already mourning the loss of sunlight that will come with the change in seasons. I hope that I can finagle my work schedule such that I can still get a few laps in before sunset.
We've also been enjoying revisiting local restaurants, like Thai Vegan.
 |
| The P.E.T (pumkin, eggplant, tomato) dinner combo is great! |
Yet I'm lamenting the fact that I've been so exhausted that cooking really feels like a chore. Today I woke up with the woodstove raging and rain pelting our windows. It was a perfect kind of day for lots of tea drinking and veggie chili making. I think more days like that are on the horizon. I've got to use up all of that butternut squash somehow!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Putting It Up
This time last year I was canning like mad: pears, peaches, prickly pear, plums. The pantry shelf was full and I felt oh-so self-satisfied. This year,however, I've done practically nothing and last year's jams and preserves are down to a mere handful.
What's the change this time around? Instead of putting up food for us, I'm teaching my middle school outdoor education students the art of canning. With a parent volunteer each student took home 1/2 pint of loganberry jam and today we canned 16 half-pints of prickly pear. I can't exactly call that one jelly, because I'm not convinced it's going to set. It might end up being 16 half-pints of prickly pear syrup. They'll love it just the same.
The Householder's Guide to the Universe comes to mind often these days. Harriet Fasenfest devotes quite a few pages to the notion of working part time, so one can household the rest of the time and I can see why. I've been putting in 10-12 hour days at work and then a few more grading papers at home. It's exhausting and doesn't leave much time for canning or even cooking, for that matter. I'm missing the summer afternoons where I'd start pizza dough at 4 to have for dinner that night and be able to tend to the garden properly. Now I'm just thankful that the tangle of tomatoes are finally ripening and that the volunteer butternut is still chugging along. It's a big mess, with a giant sunflower toppled over into the whole shebang. It has a certain beauty, and the bees and goldfinches love it, but it is a reminder to me of how much I work, how little time I am spending at home, and how I do miss being in the garden and the kitchen on a daily basis.
Don't get me wrong, I really love what I do. I get to teach middle schoolers about convection currents and ecosystems; pythagorean theorem and variables. It's just that I'm seeking some sort of balance. It'll come but by then we'll be in the dead of winter with only dreams of spring ahead.
Happy harvesting and preserving to those who are in a state of abundance!
What's the change this time around? Instead of putting up food for us, I'm teaching my middle school outdoor education students the art of canning. With a parent volunteer each student took home 1/2 pint of loganberry jam and today we canned 16 half-pints of prickly pear. I can't exactly call that one jelly, because I'm not convinced it's going to set. It might end up being 16 half-pints of prickly pear syrup. They'll love it just the same.
The Householder's Guide to the Universe comes to mind often these days. Harriet Fasenfest devotes quite a few pages to the notion of working part time, so one can household the rest of the time and I can see why. I've been putting in 10-12 hour days at work and then a few more grading papers at home. It's exhausting and doesn't leave much time for canning or even cooking, for that matter. I'm missing the summer afternoons where I'd start pizza dough at 4 to have for dinner that night and be able to tend to the garden properly. Now I'm just thankful that the tangle of tomatoes are finally ripening and that the volunteer butternut is still chugging along. It's a big mess, with a giant sunflower toppled over into the whole shebang. It has a certain beauty, and the bees and goldfinches love it, but it is a reminder to me of how much I work, how little time I am spending at home, and how I do miss being in the garden and the kitchen on a daily basis.
Don't get me wrong, I really love what I do. I get to teach middle schoolers about convection currents and ecosystems; pythagorean theorem and variables. It's just that I'm seeking some sort of balance. It'll come but by then we'll be in the dead of winter with only dreams of spring ahead.
Happy harvesting and preserving to those who are in a state of abundance!
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