After a close call with my cilantro plant, the little beast is now thriving thanks to Tim’s TLC while I was away in Chicago. Its success has inspired me to expand my herb collection to mint, parsley, chives and basil. I want to be a good gardener, but I’ve gotta take it slowly. One small success at a time.
I’ve been enjoying learning a bit about herbs and pot plants. For example, mint tends to take over a garden and can choke neighboring plants. So I gave it its own pot with plenty of room to expand (tabbouleh and tea, here I come!).
These two links were helpful:
How to Grow a Herb Garden in a Pot
Companion Planting
Soon I think I’ll have to expand my cilantro crop. What with all the guacamole and Indian food I eat, this little guy just isn’t going to cut it (but he sure looks good!):
While in Chicago, my family was not only cool enough to throw me a belated birthday party, but my sister even surprised me with a vegan chocolate and zucchini cake served with whipped soy cream and berries. Folks, this cake was incredible. We were all blown away. The combination of chocolate and berries was delicious, and the soy cream really rounded everything out.
She started with the recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini, then veganized it using some special kind of magic intuition I only wish I possessed. Luckily, she sent me the recipe. I hope I get a zucchini in tomorrow’s organic box so I can try making this for myself.
Vegan Chocolate and Zucchini Cake
For Cake:
2 cups Whole wheat flour
1/2 cup Cocoa powder
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Baking powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 cup Canola oil
1/4 cup Unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup Granulated sugar
1/2 cup Light brown sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Instant coffee powder
1.5 bananas (to replace 3 eggs)
4 Tablespoons Water
1/4 cup Soy Milk
2 cups Zucchini, grated
1 cup vegan dark chocolate chips
For Topping:
3 Tablespoons Light brown sugar
1/2 cup Slivered Almonds, chopped
- Preheat oven to 360F/180c for 15 minutes.
- Grease and flour a 9 inch cake pan. You can use cocoa instead of flour.
- In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour,cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Mash the bananas. Once mashed, add the water and mix together.
- In a medium bowl add oil, applesauce, sugars, vanilla extract and coffee powder. Using a hand mixer beat the mixture at a medium speed for 3-5 minutes.
- Add the banana liquid and mix. Now also add the milk and beat until well combined.
- Reserving half a cup of the flour mixture, add slowly the remaining flour to the wet ingredients, while beating it in at a low speed. Combine the grated zucchini, chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of flour. Add this to the batter and mix it well. Note that the batter is thick at this stage. So don’t worry.
- Pour the batter in the prepared cake pan and smooth it out using a spatula.
- Prepare the topping by mixing the brown sugar and almonds. Sprinkle this mixture evenly on the batter. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes.
Flickr photo set: Chicago - August 2009
My latest trip back home to Chicago was totally retro:
- My best friend from high school got married
- I drank my first White Russian since New Orleans
- I made Krusteez Waffles with my aunt, who used to make my sis and I pancakes on the campstove back when we were kids (does that mean we’re not kids anymore?)
- I caught up with my good friend, Dawid, from UIUC
- We ate Italian at Superossa, pizza at Papa’s Pizza place, and almost went to Ruby Tuesday’s (all restaurants we used to frequent but haven’t been to in years and years).
But some things do change. New additions include:
- Mom’s new horse, Lass
- Stephanie and Jolan’s new trailer in Woodsmoke
- Mom and Dad’s new house on Gilbert Ave
- Dad’s fab twice baked potatoes
- And of course, we’re all drinking age now so let the Labatt’s beer flow.
And let’s not forget: I turned 30 recently. My family threw me a fantastic belated birthday party at Woodsmoke. Highlights include:
- Thunderstorms and lightening - the rain set the mood for a nice cozy night in the hideaway
- Keeping it simple with Chicago-style veggie dogs and cabbage slaw, thus allowing us to spend more time relaxing and talking rather than slaving away in the kitchen (though that can be fun, too)
- Stephanie’s fantastic vegan chocolate and zucchini cake with whipped soy cream and berries - I even went back for seconds!
- Presents! Everyone was way too generous, yet simultaneously sensitive to my minimalist packing style. They were also eerily in tune with my tastes - it’s amazing how well we seem to know each other despite living so far apart.
- Mom’s impressive bird house skills - my birds get to live in a rocket ship!
- Stephanie’s card - I won’t go into details, but her comments about Big Sur were spot on - it really is amazing how far we’ve come since last January
- Just having a birthday party, with candles and singing and all the trimmings. I haven’t had one of those in years - it’s really nice!
- Having all of us together in one place for a change - a rarity these days.
All in all a fabulous trip. I’m lucky I have such great family and friends to go home to.
Check out all my pics on Flickr: Chicago - August 2009
Magazines must love Flickr - it’s full of people like me willing to give away their images for free. Is it cheesy if I say that the thrill of “seeing” my picture in print is payment enough?
I wish I could take credit for this photo… this was taken by Everett Christopher at Rachel and Dave’s wedding in Austin on July 12th, 2009. It’s always too cold in England for tank tops, so I’m glad he managed to catch this rare moment in tattoo freedom. It’s also appropriate that he got such a full-on view of the poblano pepper, which I had done in Houston as a tribute to my time in Texas.
You can see more pics from the wedding on Flickr:
Rachel and Dave’s Wedding Photo Set
How exciting is this? Tomorrow morning I head to Switzerland, the birthplace of my beloved Bircher muesli! I’m flying into Basel airport then heading to Interlaken for a long weekend of mountain walking and jaw dropping at the great Eiger. I’m very excited, and have two bowls of Bircher on the soak for the trip in. I’ll be back next week with stories of cereal and Swiss Alps. And in case you don’t get the Basel 2 reference, don’t worry about it - it’s a reference to my previous life as a banker. Can you imagine?
Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com
A quick post for a busy week…
This salad was a random creation inspired by Heather’s Quinoa Recipe. It was outstanding! Colorful and full of texture, and remarkably healthy with loads of protein from the quinoa and lentils plus healthy fat from the seeds and olive oil. It all comes together in one pan for an easy one pot meal that would be great hot or cold.
The quantities given in the recipe aren’t exact - like I said, I threw this together. Just do what feels right; it’s hard to go wrong!
Lentil and Quinoa Salad with Basil and Lemon
olive oil
1 shallot, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 handful of frozen sweetcorn
1/4 zucchini, diced
handful of chard, finely chopped
quinoa, cooked
puy lentils, cooked
handful of basil and parsley
squeeze of lemon juice
salad leaves
Saute the shallot in the olive oil until soft. Add the pepper, corn, chard and zucchini and saute until tender. Add the quinoa and puy lentils and cook until warmed through. Right before serving, stir in a good amount of basil and parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice. Sprinkle with toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds and serve on a bed of lettuce.
I made a super simple accordion photo album last night for some pics of the new place I wanted to send to the grandparents. Didn’t take a photo of the finished product, of course, but it turned out very well and only took about an hour to make. Much better than sending someone a stack of printed photos that they’re only going to store away in some drawer until the end of time.
Easy one page accordion album
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