A weekend at home

Wonderful day at home! Started a little later than usual, meaning the kitty and I stayed in bed longer. He purred, I snoozed.

Read a bit. Wrote a bit. Made vegan gluten-free creamy broccoli soup, learned (first time ever!) how to make a crochet slip stitch (Thank you Youtube!), and worked toward completing a few pieces of jewelry. Here are a few pictures so I can remember this day!

First, There was soup: I placed veggie broth, onion, celery, zucchini, one large yellow Yukon potato, and toasted garlic in the pot,

Just fresh ingredients today. After cooking for about 20 minutes, I add broccoli – doesn’t take long for the florets to cook

Now ready to scoop into the blender where I add salt, black pepper, hot red pepper, a little turbinado sugar, and Earth Balance “butter”

After blending, return mixture to the pot where I add more broccoli and will cook just about another 5 minutes. This last broccoli should be simply warmed through.

Awww ….. melt a small dab of Earth Balance in the center. Perfect!

Practicing the slip stitch for use in the future, so I’m still just looping and pulling my Kansas State University purple yarn. Over and over and over …..

Two bracelets that can each be worn alone or together as a pair. Those are simply stop beads at the end to keep it together until I add the clasps.

And that is it for today!

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A few vegan meals

First, I’ve had many delicious vegan meals these past six months, but haven’t taken many pictures. These first two pics were taken in Philadelphia, when I treated myself in between meetings and discussion groups at the American Library Association’s MidWinter meeting in January. The first picture is taken in a small Indian Restaurant offering a scrumptious buffet.

This second photo shows my delicious warm hoagie with roasted squash, eggplant, greens, onions, and etc. Topped with crispy fried onions and a balsamic glaze. And yep! Tater tots. Now who doesn’t love a freshly fried tater tot?? I was really dragging this day and carried it back to the apartment a bunch of us were sharing and sat there all by myself. It was quiet and the meal fantastic!

Of course, there were also some tasty meals at home, too. One morning there was Engine 2 cereal topped with my own slices of banana, freshly toasted almonds, raisins, and topped with almond milk. Lots of protein to start my day

Then here is one of my staples – one of my favorite comfort foods. Creamed potatoes (veggie broth, almond milk, with just a little Earth Balance Buttery Spread). Topped with lightly sautéed vegetables of choice – this time zucchini, onion, mushrooms, and green peas.

And one of my new favorites – selection of veggies sautéed in a little olive or veggie oil, salt, pepper, and lots of garlic! I also add a little Earth Balance for a touch of butter flavor. This time there are carrots, green pepper, onion, and fresh from the garden zucchini and yellow squash.

Just trying to stay healthy and tastily well fed!

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My day in NYC continues ….

After that delicious vegan falafal meal, I was feeling pretty full and very satisfied. So I walked toward Madison Square Park to see an apartment building where two “celebrities” recently bought condominiums. Neither is an actor or musician or artist, and each has a career in a field different than the other, but they often happen to be in the news. And I just plain ol’ wanted to see where they lived!

The green in the park was particularly lovely, so I took a few pictures to show my hubby. He likes flowers just fine, but he really enjoys a variety of multiple green plants.

Had to take a few pictures of this building nearby. It was definitely a judiciary building of some kind but no signage anywhere. I took a picture of the top where there were two engravings, “Lex Scripta” and “Lex Tradita”. My plan was to go back to my hotel room that night to Google and perform one of my master Librarian searches 🙂 and figure out the function and history of this beautiful building. However, a young Asian man walked up on my left as I was taking pictures to ask me if I knew anything about the building. I told him that I knew nothing and was taking pictures for a Google search later. He whipped out his phone (which was much smarter than mine) to get the information right then and there!

While he was searching we discussed various carvings and sculptures of the building. A young woman with a shaved head and tattoos came up to me on my right side to ask us about the building. So we stood together for about two minutes discussing the beauty of this building, which thanks to Mr. Smart Phone, we discovered it was the NY Appellate Court building. Three people that most likely lived our lives in totally different ways shared a few minutes together in that busy city. Just one of the great joys of NYC !!

So the little signs at the top (Thank you Google!) mean “written law” and “customary or traditional law”. And if you want to read further, here is a terrific PDF document with color pictures and history about this particular court house.

This picture is fun because of the contrast between the older and more recent architecture.

Then there was The Mo Math museum. A math museum?? Who knew? Well, obviously I did not. I didn’t go inside this time, but I will explore inside during another adventure trip.

After that it was “catch the subway time” up to one of my fav stores to browse the variety of various top apparel designers. The Designer floor and Couture floor (third and fourth) are my two favorites

There is more, but I’ll tell later. So, here is a vegan meal I prepared recently at home, corn and okra, rice, and an abbreviated version of ratatouille with tender eggplant, the last of my basil from my balcony plant, and lots of onion!

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Librarian fun and food. I really like food.

Yesterday was a great day at work. Some reference. A little collection analysis and management via weeding. Working on the biennial survey regarding the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) – which is an important part of offering free access to U.S. government information. Yippee! Because I am all for transparency when it comes to a government by the people for the people!

OK, back to calmer thoughts. Since we Nimitz librarians are often not at our desks, we have dry-erase marker boards on our office doors to let people know where we are and/or when we will return to the office. Lately I’ve been drawing pictures on mine (and sometimes even my neighbor’s board, but shhh…. don’t tell her it’s me!). Not really sure why, because as creative as I like to think I am, drawing is definitely not a talent I possess. But for some reason, I cannot seem to stop this new obsession! Anyway, yesterday morning I drew a caricature of myself at the reference desk. Silly as it may look, I will share it anyway:

And of course there was food! For supper I had fresh Maryland corn with just a little salt. Green beans from my mother-in-law’s garden, and you’ve heard me brag about her garden. Still one of the best ever found on this earth! With onion sprinkled on top. Half of a whole wheat roll. I also made a small salad with apple, raisins, pecan pieces, and vegan mayonnaise. That fruit salad was so good it felt like dessert!

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Three of my favorite recent vegan meals

My my how I love to eat super tasty and healthy meals. Preferably with friends, but if I cannot be with friends, I can still eat the food!

This first meal I made a few days ago, kale cooked with a little water, apple cider vinegar, and raw sugar. Love me some kale! Green peas with mushrooms and potatoes, flavored with a little Earth Balance vegan “butter” at the end. A bit of salt and pepper sprinkled on both dishes. And my favorite jam on a piece of toast. Just because I love jam!


Then there was the tostada, crunchy shell on the bottom, covered with lentils and wild rice flavored just the way I like with hot pepper flakes, chili powder, and cumin. Raw onions, lettuce and tomato. Next day I prepared again but added some avocado. Either way – scrumptious!


Then last week I went to DC and finally trekked up to Amsterdam Falafel Shop in Adam’s Morgan


There I devoured the absolutely most delicious falafel I’ve ever eaten! After being handed the freshly fried falafel balls in a warm puffy pocket of bread, I moved to the toppings bar and loaded with hummus and crunchy pickled veggies. The pink on top are slices of pickled turnips.

You can tell from this picture that it was a beautiful very sunny day!

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And still I eat

One night a week I work the reference desk until 10pm. Which means I always take supper with me to work. This particular night I made a beet and orange salad, which also included broken pecans, thin onion slices, green bell pepper, mixed salad greens, sunflower seeds, and a little bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar – which was particular tasty mingled with the juice from the orange. Really, there are beets in here!



The following dish I sorta made up myself. Using a crockpot, I cooked some of my favorite vegetables (which means there is lots of corn 🙂 ) in vegetable broth. I also added pieces of Upton’s sietan and dried thyme and rosemary. I chose those two seasonings because they are often used when cooking poultry, and I wanted my brain to think “chicken”! (Sage could also work, but sage is not one of my favs.) After cooking for several hours, I scooped out a serving and placed it in a pot on the stove, turned the burner up pretty high to get it to boil and added a simple thickener of flour and water. I wanted hash.

It worked. So scrumptious! Treated myself to freshly baked vegan bread (from the store) and sopped up what I couldn’t spoon up!

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Librarian on the go

Last day of the work week, and starting it off with a tasty and simple vegan meal for the awesome librarian (that be me 🙂 ) – Virginia peanuts and 1/2 toasted bagel with organic raspberry spread. Oh my goodness! I’m ready for whatever comes my way! See below …

Full disclosure – in about 3 hours there will be 1/2 of a white chocolate/macadamia nut MOJO bar. Just coz I like to break it up like that!

Have a great weekend everyone. And try to learn at least two useful bits of info before Monday morning!

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Try new things for friends

Last night I made my second attempt at preparing an Indian dish. And this one? Absolutely delicious! Aloo Gobi – cauliflower and potatoes cooked in a wonderful mixture of spices. Turmeric, garlic, mustard powder, garam masala, ginger, and more. Had to change the recipe a bit because I truly wanted to try this dish but didn’t have fresh ginger (only had ginger powder), so I couldn’t make the garlic/ginger paste, and the recipe calls for mustard seed and I used dried mustard, and etc.). The color was a little off, so there is no picture. But the flavor was magnificent and I will try to improve next time!

No naan or any other flat bread in the house, so I substituted for that as well.

I like to “visit India” now and then, and I’m learning to enjoy the food. It is so very different from the foods I grew up with and it is taking some time, but there are so many vegetables used in Indian cuisine. And so many friends that love to eat really good Indian food and I want to be able to join them for such a meal.

But today I settled back down to my little apartment in Annapolis and enjoyed a meal from my Southern roots! Sweet potato, turnips, and green beans. With vegan cornbread on the side. Delicious! And that is Earth Balance Original buttery spread melting on the cornbread and sweet potato.

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First day of 2013

The Christmas Season is slower, giving me time to think and decide what to do better next year. I don’t make New Year Resolutions, but because of the slower times, I tend to start the year with a new pep in my step. Even though I returned to work the day after Christmas, the library has been mostly quiet and I have been weeding some materials from the stacks that haven’t been used for quite some time, something librarians occasionally do to make room for new materials. I’ve also had time to sit quietly in my office and prepare for the new semester. For this reason, I’ve had time to think.

Last year I began with the idea of again being a pescetarian, with the hopes of becoming a vegan in a few months. I called it “working toward vegan”. The fish I gave up entirely before the end of March. I’ve been a vegetarian ever since. However, as the year progressed I was eating more milk and cheese. There were about two eggs a week and lots of cream soups made with a little heavy whipping cream.

Now I will try harder. Coffee Mate I like as a substitute for Half Half, but besides being heavy with sugar, there is also a milk product included. The list of ingredients states this dairy product, but elsewhere on the label it specifies dairy-free, but that would not be true. From what I understand, they get by with that deception because the product no longer chemically resembles milk by the time it makes it to the rest of the powder. However, if it comes from milk, then in my mind it is dairy. Period. I’ll keep looking, but I’m going to finish up this container in the meantime.

So today, except for my morning coffee, it has been vegan with every mouthful! Started with creamy oatmeal with a little brown sugar and a few raisins. Dinner in a few minutes will be a quick and easy pasta dish with tomato sauce, onions, green peppers, and mushrooms. For snack today I had a few vegan ginger cookies, some peanuts, and some junk food – potato chips.

I just gave away a brand-new unopened container of Breyers low-fat ice cream. AUGH!!

Lunch was delicious! As you can see from the picture below, the New Years Southern tradition – black-eyed peas, collards and kale cooked together, a garnish of tomatoes and onions, and cornbread. It was so very very tasty! I need to work on the cornbread recipe, though. I just took my regular recipe and substituted rice milk for cow’s milk. And I did not include an egg. It was rather crumbly (as you can tell from the picture) but OK, and I’ve packed a piece for lunch tomorrow, but I believe it can be improved!

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There must be nutrition

Woke up very hungry this morning and thinking about some of my favorite meals. After this cup of coffee I will go to the kitchen and find something simple and tasty for breakfast. But in the meantime – let me share two of my favorite dishes that I recently created in my own little kitchen!

First – a fresh vegan salad. Made with all kinds of goodies like Romaine lettuce, pickled beets, fresh orange pieces, carrots, onions, and chopped pecans. With a slightly sweet balsamic vinaigrette drizzled over all. Add a multi-grain roll and I’m smiling from ear to ear with each bite!

Then a new vegetarian recipe I recently sorta made up. Spaghetti noodles cooked, then tossed in a pot on top of the stove with enough tomato sauce to coat. Could be my brother Johnny’s delicious homemade sauce, or could be a quick favorite sauce out of a jar. First, place just a few tablespoons of sauce in the bottom of the dish. Fill my little baking dish about half full – packing down the noodles and sauce. Top with a little ricatto cheese, freshly grated Parmesan, and thinly slice fresh mozzarella. Repeat with packing in noodles and cheese. Top with a little more sauce and place in the 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes (or a little longer).

So easy!! And my little dish makes three servings when also devoured along with a salad or another green vegetable. It’s like lasagna, but just easier than layering with the large noodles. See how pretty?

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