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Another somewhat disappointing recipe yesterday – mostly my fault as I did not buy enough shitake mushrooms – so no recipe post today. Worse, I think I’m repeat posting a blog picture (see thesis writing posts in 2006). But that can’t be helped. This is what I’m doing right now. Having almost completed my introduction and my literature review chapter, I now have to face the dreaded third chapter. You know, the one where I explain why I’m right and everyone else is wrong. Yikes. So I’m distracting myself by making pretty outlines, like the one above. Outlines give me a sense of peace. They are comforting and they make me feel accomplished.

Sigh.

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Olives and I have a complex relationship, one in which I feel that olives are often misunderstood. We got off on the wrong foot I think. When I was five, I was standing in front of what I thought was a towering pile of chocolate almonds (my greatest weakness) but when I ate one, I was unpleasantly surprised by a particularly olive-y olive, pit and all. Ugh. Ever since then, olives and I have been at odds. I love love love olive oil, olive bread and olive paste. I hate hate hate whole olives.

But the thing is, I want to love whole olives. They are in all of my favourite things (read: martinis) and they look so good! And I feel as though I should have grown into them by now. Like peas (peas are a lost cause). So when A. and I were in Italy, I tried a big green olive and promptly gagged. When we were in Czech Republic, I ate a deeply marinated black one with cheese and well, I gagged less. Sigh.

But in the spirit of trying again, I made this pasta sauce last night (see kind of odd looking picture above), from ‘Eat, Drink & Be Vegan’ (slightly revised). And you know what? It was really tasty. I think the key with olives for me is to mix them with something else…10 cloves of garlic does the trick.

‘Olive Oyl Pasta’

2 tbsp olive oil
10 cloves garlic, chopped (not minced…weeeeee!)
1 big shallot
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 28 oz tin of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, halved and pitted

+pasta
+green salad with homemade mustard vinagerette (read: dijon mustard, white wine vinager, lemon juice, garlic, salt and olive oil blended together at the last minute)

= olive-y good times.

In a large pot on med-low heat, cook up the garlic, spices, and shallots in the olive oil for about five minutes. Stir pretty regularly and keep an eye on the garlic to make sure it doesn’t burn. Add tomatoes and bring to boil. Turn down and simmer for about 15 minutes while you make your pasta and veg. Toss in the olives and then add to pasta. Or, as will be the case today, leftover chickpea/quinoa/fennel casserole (consider it jazzed).

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Yesterday, Fialonia and I made a fennel/quinoa/chickpea casserole that looked and smelled fantastic but was lacking in the flavour department. I haven’t really figured out how to jazz it up yet so I’m not going to post the recipe. And because of this, I have nothing to say this morning. But I feel as though I should say…something. So here it is.

You may recognize the cute little donut character above from the Extra chewing gum ads on tv. Isn’t he the sweetest? But here’s the thing. I can’t watch these ads without feeling awful at the end. I want the donut, not the gum, to win. Why can’t the donut go to the party?? Who hates the smell of donuts?? Coffee, I’ll give you. And that little onion on the commercial is a jerk, who keeps forgetting that donut exists. But donut!? He can barely walk and he’s trying so hard. Plus everything freaks him out. Let him go to the party!!

Everytime the commercial ends, I’m sad. Sad for donut and sad for a world that doesn’t like the smell of donuts.

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Ugh indeed. I can’t sleep. I haven’t posted for the past two days because I’ve been haunted by a ridiculous headache…one that has induced nausea on a few occasions over the last day or so. Lame with a capital ‘L’. And now here I am, 3:30 in the morning, staring at my cat and wishing I could fall asleep that easily. Double Lame.

My head is too full, that’s the problem. I’m firmly convinced that when too much is going on, the brain actually gets full and that’s why my head hurts and why I can’t sleep. Like when you eat a big meal and your stomach can’t digest it. My brain cannot digest the junk that’s filling it, which runs the gamut of ‘what kind of dress should I wear to my wedding’ to ‘how am I going to finish chapter three’ to ‘when in the next two days am I going to get to my taxes’. Argh.

Right, I’m off to hunt down a mug of warm soy milk and a jane austen book with names that will tire me out. With luck.

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Happy Earth Day! In honour of Earth Day, I’m going to try extra specially hard not to do anything too carbon intensive today. Should be easy enough; I never take the bus anymore, I don’t smoke anymore (aside from the occasional engagement party), and almost all of my food, save my coffee and the odd condiment, comes from either Ontario or Quebec (which is about as close to the 100 mile diet as I can get). I would promise not to go out and spend money on things I don’t really need (needless consumption will get us in the end, mark my words), but I can’t promise that as today I am meeting with MM and others at ‘Mike’s Place’ to discuss tomorrow’s conference. The First Annual Graduate Ethics Conference, featuring yours truly, MM, and others who are clearly of less importance. Sounds like a real hoot, eh? Yeesh.

On an unrelated note, glorious chickpea patties were made on Monday night and I simply must share this recipe with you. It’s inspired by Eat, Drink and Be Vegan – I say ‘inspired by’ because I didn’t have half of the ingredients (who has capers just lying around the house??) so I reeeeaaally had to improvise. They were oh so yummy though! A delightful alternative to veggie burgers which I have always found a little creepy.

Curry Enhanced Chickpea Patties

2 tsp olive oil
1 large-ish onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 19 oz tin of chickpeas
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp tamari
1 1/2 tsp hot curry powder
2 cups cooked bulgur (actually, the recipe called for short grain brown rice…which unlike me, most people have lying around the house. The bulgur was awesome though. Just sayin’. If you do choose to use rice, be sure to start it cooking before you start the rest of the stuff.)
3/4 cup quick oats

+olive oil for frying
+greens!
+buns!
+ketchup and dijon!

= good times

*Warning: this recipe needs to sit in the fridge for 30 minutes after it’s made. While it’s doing that, do the dishes, make up the veg and toast your buns (hehe, ‘buns’).

Right. So cook your bulgur (cooks just like basmati rice) and while it’s cooking, chop up your veg. In a frying pan on medium heat, saute the onions and celery with the olive oil until the onions are translucent. While they are saute-ing, take out your food processor and puree the chickpeas with the garlic, Worcestershire sauce, tamari, and curry powder. When your onions and celery are done, stick them in the food processor and keep puree-ing. Now add one cup of the cooked bulgur and puree some more. Add the other cup and pulse a bit to incorporate but still have a bit of texture. Dump it all into a big mixing bowl and stir in the quick oats. Cover and let refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove and form into patties then fry those puppies up!! About 7 minutes per side, until golden. YUM!

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Last night, I took some time away from thesis-ing to make another care package for A.. One of the only good things about him being out of town for a year is care package fun. There is something so relaxing about putting random knickknacks in a tiny box, thinking up funny notes, and decorating said box. Plus who doesn’t love mail? Fun times for everyone concerned.

But I’m running out of ideas! I’ve sent treats and newspaper clippings and magazine articles and books. I’ve sent random dvds and video games, sudoku puzzles and even regular stuff like soap, tissues, etc. But I need some more ideas – any thoughts? Whatever it is, it has to be small-ish. Think shoeboxes.

Help!

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As noted yesterday, I was really in the mood for something colourful and something that would go well with my red and white quinoa and my grumpy disposition. Well what’s more colourful and cheerful than lemons and limes? Plus given the sour mood I was in yesterday, this soup was more than a little appropriate. Both Fialonia and I really enjoyed it; I was particularly pleased because I like all things lemon and lime (except for lemon jelly roll – that’s just wrong).

*inspired by Eat, Drink, and be Vegan

Cheerful Citrus Soup:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large-ish onion, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp mustard seeds (I used brown)
1 1/4 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp oregano
1 1/4 tsp thyme
1 1/2 cup dry red lentils
1 19 oz tin chickpeas
1 small-ish yellow zucchini (could use green too, of course)
1 large tomato
5 cups water (if you have a little white wine, replace 1 cup with that)
3 bay leaves
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice and lime juice. Roughly two medium lemons and one lime.

Dice/mince all of your veg. Put the onions, celery and garlic in a big soup pot with the olive oil and saute on medium heat. Once the onions are translucent, add the salt, pepper, and other spices and keep stirring for about 5 minutes. Now add the lentils, the zucchini, the tomato, the water, the bay leaves, and 2/3 of the tin of chickpeas. Stir it all together and then bring to boil. Once boiling, turn things down to low, cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir in the lemon/lime juice and remove from heat. With a hand blender, puree the soup until somewhat smooth but with a little texture. Pop back on the heat and stir in the remaining chickpeas. Done!!

The picture above shows the leftover lunch soup I had today – I stirred in 1 cup of baby spinach leaves to up the greens factor and skipped the quinoa for some “rustic” bread. But last night the soup stood alongside a 1/2 cup of mixed quinoa. Yum!!

>Late Night Thesis Writing Rule #1: When feeling slightly unsure of your thesis work, do not, I repeat DO NOT check to see if you got that scholarship you were hoping for. The result (no) will bog you down for the next hour and make you feel as though what you are writing is worthless (see, it was worthless before but you were able to convince yourself otherwise. Now where are you?).

Argh. I thought by going to bed last night that I would feel better about this whole thing, but I clearly do not. What really grates my vegan cheese is that I got the damn thing last year. My marks haven’t changed, my references have barely changed (and in a good way), and my writing hasn’t changed. What has changed is my subject area. The first time I got this scholarship, I was studying religion in global civil society, a pretty sexy topic. Now I’ve moved to a feminist critique of global ecological citizenship, a pretty sexy topic I think because it deals with another real issue. The term ‘ecological citizenship’ is being thrown around everywhere (policy papers, state environmental websites) and yet we aren’t even sure what it means, particularly for the poor, women (who make up a huge chunk of the poor), etc etc etc. But no. Apparently, it is not sexy. At least not sexy enough to get money. Boo.

I don’t think this would bother me half as much if I didn’t already feel unsure of where my research is taking me. But I do and so therefore it does. Bah. You know what this means? I need a new recipe to take my mind off things. Something with quinoa and colourful vegetables. Herb & Spice, here I come!

>So the coffeecake is a no go for the next couple of days – the faux sour cream made it’s way onto more than a few chips and there was not enough left for cake. Ah well. I’ve had a slow couple of days, cooking wise. I remade the tomato soup (still awesome) and remade a lentil stew (still awesome) and today looks to be leftover day. I promise to try new recipes tomorrow. I’m thinking a pie of some sort might be in order…

In lieu of recipe posts, I’ve decided to post (terrible) pictures of my shiny new Miss Knit socks!! Miss Knit is a good friend whose blog is attached to this one. She is the queen bee of knitting and decided to send surprise socks to lucky me. Yayaya! I loves them. So pretty and so warm.

These are happy feet!

The socks arrived in the mail yesterday, just in time to cheer me up from the post-party blues. Thursday night, you see, MM, LG and the ladies threw me a ‘You’re Engaged!’ party. Twas glorious, complete with ‘bride to be’ ribbon, ‘i do’ napkins, tiaras, and ticky tacky heart-covered sequin garland. Fantastic!! We opened prezzies, drank wine, ate nibblies, and played ‘Block Drunk’, MM’s version of drinking Jenga. The night was perfect.

But this morning, I woke up with the post-excitement blues. Nothing to look forward to for a bit except thesis-ing and marking (this is actually not true; I have heaps to look forward to but as none of it was happening thatminute, I was feeling blue). And I suddenly missed A. something fierce. Sensible Healthy Ezmy realized that a walk was in order, but when I went downstairs, I noticed a spiffy package in my mailbox.

So yaya for cheery red Miss Knit socks! They saved the day!

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I don’t know who Linda and Roland are. But I do know this: they are weenies. ‘Save the date’ cards/emails/fridge magnets (that’s right, fridge magnets) are for weenies. Weenies who plan and prepare and who probably have other things like centerpieces and bootineres (spelling?) and monogrammed napkins all about 10 years in advance of the actual day.

Right?

Lately I’m not so sure. I’m trying to maintain my nonchalant, it’ll all come together by itself sort of outlook to this whole wedding business, but it keeps being jarred by ‘save the date’ nonsense or ‘what!? you haven’t booked a place yet!?’ comments or what have you. Subscribing to marthastewartweddings.com probably didn’t help matters (but she has such great ideas!! I can totally make 175 individually wrapped cupcakes with little personalized notes on top…can’t I?). The thing is when A. and I got engaged, we sort of tossed around a couple of ideas of what we wanted/didn’t want (to be honest, we probably talked more about the latter than the former) and I thought well, we have more than a year so that’s heaps of time, right? Apparently not. Apparently I’m supposed to book my hotel/caterer/ceremony location in the first 18 months and then go dress shopping a year before and have my colours all picked out about 20 years ago, etc etc etc.

I find myself slightly envious of women who knew what they wanted when they were 5 and the fact that I feel envious of these people irritates me. Also irritating? The poor naive you looks I keep getting from married folk whenever I say things like ‘oh I’m sure it’ll be pretty basic planning…invites, food, booze, music, dress, licence and we’re done right?’ These looks make me uncomfortable and cause me to question my core principles on the subject of wedding planning. I have always been of the mind that people make too big a deal of the wedding planning part. I mean who cares? It’s a big party. No one notices if the napkins say your name on them or if the flowers don’t perfectly match the dresses. What matters is that the food is good, the music doesn’t blow, and you have a marriage licence. That’s what I still think. But lately, the Martha Stewarts of the world have been inflitrating my sensible wedding brain. Case in point: when we ‘announced’ our engagement, we called a couple of people (parents and such) but then basically just posted the news on Facebook. Easy right? Wrong. Because the older relatives who can’t hear as well and who aren’t on Facebook didn’t hear directly from us. This made me feel bad so I got little cards to say that we were engaged. But then it seemed kinda silly to just write “We’re Engaged” on said cards so I figured we should pick a date. But now that we might have a date, I feel bad just letting the old folks know without telling the younger folks. But I don’t want to tell the younger folks because I don’t know who we are inviting yet. But but but but. On top of this, because of Martha Stewart (who will hereforth be blamed for everything), I actually stood and stared at these stupid little cards for a full 20 minutes, worrying about making a statement with the colour of them. Seriously. In the end, I opted to just write ‘we’re engaged’ on the cards and give a roundabout ballpark idea of when we might be getting married. Easiest thing really. But the fact that my mind went off track like that worries me. I musn’t be tempted by crazies. I must resist the urge to become ‘one of those brides’.

New recipe post tomorrow. Coffeecake!