The Cape Without Cod

To celebrate John's parent's 50th wedding anniversary, the whole family (all 20 or so of us) spent the week on the beach in South Yarmouth on Cape Cod.


Before heading down to the Cape, John and I took a detour into Central Square for lunch at Rangzen Tibetan Restaurant where we were joined by Emilie from The Conscious Kitchen and her husband. The four of us enjoyed a delicious lunch from the buffet and good conversation. After interviewing Emilie several months ago, it was so much fun to be able to meet with her in person!

Emilie must have heard my secret cries for a week without homemade cupcakes! It was so thoughtful of her to bake these and transport them by bike. They were devoured rather early in the week and I can now attest to the fact that her baked goods taste just as amazing as they look! Thanks Emilie!

On the way out of Boston, we stopped by Wheeler's Frozen Desserts to get a taste of their famous vegan ice cream. I had a scoop of peanut butter (my favorite) and Mexican chocolate. Still waiting for they day when they open up shop in my neighborhood...

While on the Cape, we didn't do much eating out, but one afternoon while shopping in Chatham, we stopped into the Anytime Cafe where they had a vegan wrap on their menu. Not the tastiest wrap I've ever had, but certainly edible.

A few cool pictures from the trip... an amazing orange full moon on our walk home from dinner one night. And a jellyfish from our dock at the mouth of the Bass River. John got stung one night while in the water (I was safe on land)!

Home for the week was a little cottage merely 50 feet from the water. When we first arrived, I was a bit skeptical as to how I would be able to cook anything in the miniature and dated kitchen, but it grew on me and I was able to turn out quite a few meals for myself and to share with the family. The stove/oven combo must have been straight out of the 1950's! But I managed to make things like tofu and asparagus stir fry, baked tempeh, roasted chickpeas, and a beautiful peach and blueberry crisp! The potato salad on the bottom right (please excuse the camera lens in the photo) is a family favorite put together by my father-in-law. John's family went out of their way to make sure I had plenty to eat :-)
The hydrangea must be the most popular flower on Cape Cod, because we saw them everywhere. I especially loved this heart-shaped one from my sister-in-law's garden. And I couldn't not post a photo of one of the gorgeous dahlias planted by my father-in-law.

One foggy afternoon we went on a whale watching trip to Stellwagen Bank, just northwest of the tip of Cape Cod. I was a bit skeptical that we would actually see anything, but we saw a number of minky whales, and had numerous sightings of humpback whales! One pair was a mother and baby (left photo). It was amazing to be so close to these majestic creatures.
We also trekked over to Chappaquidick Island, sight to the famous beach scenes from JAWS, to enjoy a final day in the sun. Lunch was picked up from Skinny's Fat Sandwiches (I got a pretty tasty tofu salad wrap) and I baked some chocolate chocolate chip pecan and peanut butter oatmeal cookies for dessert. It was a perfect beach day (the first photo in the post is from the beach on Chappy).

After returning to Boston for one night before heading home, we soothed our sun-soaked bodies with some of the new Purely Decadent coconut milk ice cream, cookie dough flavor. I am still sad I haven't been able to find this stuff in Houston.
So that wraps up my posts about my month of intense traveling and I should now be getting back to blogging about life in Houston!

Maple and Mustard Magic

This week the focus has been mainly on warp-speed wedding planning (we're aiming for early Oct. 2007), not really food. But even in my cooking haste, we've had a few tasty dishes. Monday night I tried a new recipe from VWAV, the Maple Mustard Potatoes and Beans. I needed to use the green beans in the fridge I had from last week's farmer's marker, as well as some new potatoes that I bought there. I figured there would likely be enough leftovers for lunch the next day .... wow was I wrong! I loved this dish, the maple and mustard were a great combination. I wonder how it would taste on different veggies?

Tuesday night, John cooked up some zucchini flowers that we spotted at the farmer's market. I had never had these before, but John remember them growing up, so he was in charge of the cooking. He dipped them in plain soy milk then coated them with flour, salt and pepper and fried them up southern style! (The browned thing beneath the fried flowers is a mini zucchini that was attached to one of the flowers, how cute!) Simple, but good. Served them along with some yellow squash and mushrooms sauteed with pesto and almond-crusted homemade seitan patties.

A Weekend to Always Remember

Okay, I'll get to the good part at the end, but first a bit about food. On Saturday I made my first attempt at vegan sushi (or any sushi for that matter). I made spicy tempeh rolls as well as some miscellaneous veggie rolls. Fillings included avocado, carrot, green onion, cucumber, and toasted sesame seeds. I could not have accomplished this without the first episode of the Post Punk Kitchen, check out the video online! John helped with cutting the rolls and with plenty of emotional support during the rolling. Altogether we made six yummy rolls. I served our sushi on my newly purchased Japanese-inspired sushi plates from Sur La Table along with some wasabi (of course) and low-sodium tamari. With so many leftovers, I brought them along to a party that same evening and they were gobbled up. No one seemed to notice or care that it was vegan sushi, all I got was compliments!



In addition to the sushi, I also made some cupcakes to bring (since it was a birthday party). And, I admit it, I cheated and made boxed cupcakes from Cherrybrook Kitchen. To try and make up for my laziness I bought my first pastry bag to try and decorate the cupcakes, as you can see I had a rough time, but I figure you have to start somewhere! Hopefully my skills will improve with time. The cupcakes were pretty tasty, of course no where near the yumminess of homemade, but sometimes shortcuts in life are neccesary. I promise my next cupcake post will be my own creation!




Sunday was a very special day. We celebrated father's day at my parents' house with me cooking dinner (tomato and mango salad, seitan fajitas, farmer's market corn, and banana pecan brownie sundaes). Yay for dads! I feel so lucky to have two wonderful parents who have always loved and supported me, even through some of my crazy decisions.

Last night we also celebrated ..... our engagement! John asked me to marry him on Sunday morning and I happily accepted. I came downstairs to find a beautiful flower arrangement, mimosas, and a little box on the table. The morning couldn't have been more perfect. I am so excited to marry John and spend our lives together! Of course now comes the hard part, figuring out the details of the wedding ..... I'll keep you posted!

Flowers for Now, Food Maybe Later

Okay, so I am getting over a nasty stomach bug, which has left me with absolutely no appetite. Hopefully by the weekend my stomach won't do flips when I think about food. (which has been really tough these last few days since I think about food so often now, what to cook, what to blog about, etc.)

So instead I have a picture and a short, sweet story. This is my now blooming hydrangea. John bought it for me nearly two years ago after I was feeling sick. We decided to save it and keep it on the porch of our townhome in the city. That poor thing has been through a lot. It lived through our near miss Hurricane Rita. We left for a two and a half week trip to Patagonia and thought it was dead when we returned. It also survived a recent powerwashing of the building, which left all the plants with yellow leaves (bleach in the water I think). Somehow, it has found the strength to bloom even in the Texas heat!! I thought it was so cute.