Vegan MoFo 15.1: Farmers’ Market, Brunch and Shopping

Sunday:

It was a good morning at the market though a little cold. Our farmers’ market haul this morning: acorn squash, delicata squash, red potatoes, poblano peppers, red kale, leeks, Brussels sprouts, red onions, parsnips, cabbage, cauliflower, and lacinato kale.  We actually have a litte room in the overflow refrigerator. I must be slipping. LOL

Dan thought it would be fun to go out for brunch and Ian agreed. This morning our brunch, made by Ian et. al, included: guacamole (a personal favorite), roasted veggies (artichokes, sweet potatoes, beets, onions, red bell pepper, red potato, portabello and cauliflower), tofu salad with edamame and black beans, szcheuan green beans, cucumber and red onion salad with tarragon and marinated mushrooms.   There was much more vegan food than I expected. To be fair Ian knew we were coming to brunch but still we didn't expect so many options. This is one of the reasons we adore Ian so much, he is too good to us. ;-)

Then I got a little fresh fruit.

After that I went back for a second plate of the items above. The tofu salad was particularly good. It included tofu, edamame, black beans and green onions.

There was also tofu scramble with mushrooms, green onions, spinach and tomato. Dan and I split this plate and that was all we could eat. We were both stuffed. To wash down all this food we had two pots of green tea.

Next we decided to do a little shopping at Cross Keys. For those of you that aren’t local Cross Keys is a gated community it northwest Baltimore that also has a small shopping mall in addition to housing, restaurants, a hotel, and tennis center. There is also commercial space (I used to have an office there) and medical offices. I took a few pictures to give you an idea of the neighborhood.

My favorite store in Cross Keys is Williams Sonoma. I also love Talbots but cooking has to come first in terms of priority for me. I stop into Williams Sonoma when I am looking for gift giving ideas. I found an interesting battery operated cold smoker. You place the food you want to cook in a bowl, cover it was plastic wrap and insert the hose into the bowl and then turn on the smoker. What an ingenious little device.

I was also smitten with the carbonated water/soda makers. They have two electric countertop machines. One of these may go on my Christmas list. This is what happens when I shop kitchen gadgets for other people I find stuff for myself, LOL.

Lunch with my folks was a simple Southern Italian red sauce with peppers, seitan sausage and cauliflower over quinoa. I didn’t write anything down but it was a simple red sauce with red bell pepper, poblano pepper, Italian seitan sausage and cauliflower. I finished it with red wine vinegar, fresh parsley and served it over quinoa. Even my parents liked it which is always a surprise. They seem to have embraced my seitan sausage and I think that is because I never serve it whole it is always a component of the dish. This may be something to keep in mind for the omnivores in your life.

Dinner for Dan and I was leftover soup from Saturday.

Dessert for Dan was strawberry banana soft serve and I had a few tablespoons that were left in the blender.

Happy Thoughts:

Today was busy and rushed but it was also good. Here are my happy thoughts for today:

• Lunch for Dan was extremely easy to pack this morning since we had a plethora of leftovers. I love having leftovers in the refrigerator.
• I was productive today and was able to cross quite a few items off my to-do list. Crossing things off my list always makes me smile.
• The tofu fra diavolo experiment today was a success. I will post the recipe tomorrow.
• We (Dan and I) both liked the butternut squash with chipotle and lime soup that I made this after. I will also be posting that tomorrow.

Signing out:

Sorry for the short post today. I was busy trying to catch up on the all the things I had to let slide last week due to all the errands. Things should be getting back to normal very soon, hopefully tomorrow.  I hope everyone had a great Monday. I will talk to you again tomorrow.