Cooking plant-based recipes from scratch: a five day retrospective

We have become a husband-and-wife cooking team. As of late, a vegan cooking team. A lot of heart goes into our food. Matt is a gifted cook, and I can do a few delicious dishes really well. Usually, Matt is the line cook to my executive chef (i.e. I tend to coming up with ideas. find recipes, crave specific ingredients, and/or sometimes I just demand my favorites of Matt's repertoire. In other words, the poor dude is a slave to my whim. Hope he doesn't mind my role, because, well, too bad; it ain't changin.').

It's funny, though, because the more we cook at home, the more restaurant food disappoints. We can often do it better; and moreover, making it at home costs a shocking fraction of the price of eating out.

A lot of times people say, "Well, going out to eat is a special treat." Sure, but cooking and creating together is just as spesh to me.

Below, what we ate for dinner (and for lunch the next day, as leftovers) this week

Sunday: Caramelized Onions and Quinoa -and- Collard Cole Slaw

Monday: Crispy Cajun Chickpea Cakes

Tuesday: Indian Style Spinach and Potatoes (the naan was not homemade--this time) -and- Dessert: Sweet Couscous with Cardamom and Pistachios

Wednesday: Yellow Curry with Sweet Potatoes and Tofu

Thursday: Root Soup -and- Boule (french bread made by Matt)

Tonight: Vegan Pizza...can't wait!

barbie girl, barbie world, etc.

Amidst the grannies, the middle-aged moustaschioed miata-driving men, and the hard-working single moms, we have a new neighbor at our condo who's doing his or her part to preserve Austin's peculiarities.

Austin, Part I

autumnal. (soundtrack.)

I can't say that I like you, but I do respect you

I was reading a book on my patio about the Cold War, and then the wind blew. The gentle, cool, refreshing fall breeze distracted me from the words on the page, and I looked up. Blue jays squawking in the trees above me, such annoying (but beautiful) avian beasts. Then, at eye level, a few feet away from my face, a dancing prismatic wonder caught my eye. A perfect spider web. It was reflecting the late-morning autumn sun and was undulating slowly in the breeze, the same gentle wind that distracted me from my words on the page. The web was so very gorgeous. I've never said that about anything related to a spider before, but it was. Truly. That spider, if only he had the capacity, ought to be proud.

Pretty Stuff in Hill Country

We've been eagerly awaiting temperatures falling below 327-degrees here in Central Texas so that we can, once again, go outside. If you wanna know the reciprical of Minnesota winter, well, it's pretty close to Texas summer. I feel equally homebound, cabin-fevered, and stranded here in late July as I do back home in mid-January.

Today, we meandered through the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. Big fancy name, yes, but it's free to enter and just a little blip of trail on the rolling hills radar. The hike smelled piney-fresh as the crumbly limestone trail leads through a charming coved corridor of live oak, cypress, and juniper trees. And all this with a perfect cloudless azure backdrop.

Beautiful days in Texas (and there are quite a few now for many, many months) assist me in not falling into the yearning-for-midwestern-comforts trap, to which I sometimes fall prey.