How is Life?

What a crazy busy life I have had recently. I am not complaining mind you because most of it has been fantastic but it has also kept me away from home and off the computer. I did take many pictures so I can fill you in on our adventures.

Almost every day we spend some time at the boat. I love sitting in the cockpit and watching the sunset while digesting dinner. The best decision we have made in a very long time is keeping the boat at the Inner Harbor 15 minutes from home.

Speaking of the marina my little duck friend took food right out of Jackie’s hand on Sunday. It wasn’t a fluke because she did it twice. Jackie (Walid’s wife) and I have given her a name “Patoot” which is Arabic for duck. Patoot now comes when I make that kissy sounds that people make to call cats (though they rarely come when called)….talk about adorable! She is really a precious little duck.

Okay so enough duck gushing here is some of the other stuff I have been up to lately.

Ferran and Jose:

The end of September Dan, Will and I spend the day together. We started with Vietnamese (at Me Kong Delta Cafe) for lunch which Dan and I love and Will agreed. In fact he said the Pho was the best he ever had. Will used to work for Ian and used to create many of the dishes you saw on my blog before May 2011 when he went to work at Woodberry.  As you see above we ordered a veggie stir fry.

After our Vietnamese lunch Will and I hung out at the boat until we picked up Dan to head to DC. Ferran Adrian and Jose Andres were having a talk at George Washington’s Lisner Auditorium and we got tickets to the sold out event. Will borrowed by copied of El Bulli 2003, 2004 and interviewed Jose for his thesis so he was looking forward to the event as much as we were. It was fascinating to hear Ferran talk about his thoughts on food, recipes and philosophy. My favorite part was watching Jose as Ferran spoke. The admiration Jose has for Ferran was absolutely touching.   I love stuff like that.

We all came home with signed copies of Ferran’s new book “The Family Meal” which isn’t vegan but the ideas I will get from this book will be invaluable. Dan’s copy will be going to my best friend Louis who loves cooking as much as I do and will go into his signed cookbook collection.  Love you Louis!  :-)

After the table we went to Jose's restaurant Jaleo for dinner because Will hadn’t been yet. We were there during the tomato festival so we had to get the watermelon and tomato caviar skewers which were delicious.

Will ordered the dessert which was a tomato and strawberry sorbet (which didn’t seem to have any added sweetener) over olive oil cake with yogurt foam and macerated strawberries. I just love how Jose’s mind works.  I always get ideas eating at Jaleo.

The Boat:

As you know I absolutely adore my husband. He asks so little of me that when he does I do my best to comply. Recently we have been spending every spare moment on the boat. Like I said Dan asks so little from me I really couldn’t say no, nor did I want to. Spending time at the boat has meant working on, shopping for, sailing as well as relaxing at the marina. We have made huge progress on the boat so far and have really been enjoying relaxing in the cockpit (the back) watching the sunset while sipping mugs of green tea. The back of the boat has become our floating deck and we both just love it. Docking the boat 15 minutes from home has been fantastic in case you missed my earlier comment. ;-)

The only problem with spending so much time on the boat has been the wifi speed which was painfully slow. Seriously slow doesn’t accurately convey the problem. It was so bad I gave up taking my laptop to the boat. This was both good and bad. The good part was that I was able to relax and/or be productive on the boat depending on my mood. The down side was that I got so far behind on the blog that I had difficulty pushing myself to get back into the habit. However we now have a wifi booster on board and that should make it easier to keep up the blogs. *fingers crossed*  Today went well so let's hope that continues.

Aimee and Michael ("the kids") were the first visitors to the boat which was very fitting I thought. We took the boat out for a quick trip to the Inner Harbor at sunset and Aimee enjoyed it which was a miracle since she isn’t a huge fan of water other than pools.

Here are a few photos of what the boat interior looks like at the moment. We still have more work to do but we are making a lot of progress I think.

Food on the Boat:

We have been eating dinner on the boat most evenings and I am still getting my sea legs in the galley (kitchen). However I am starting to come up with some shortcuts that would work at home or on a boat and here they are:

• Premade spice mixes has been a life saver. I have come up with three mixes so far (Mexican, Southern Italian and Indian) and those have been key to make quick dinners on board.

• Keeping dried mushrooms on board has also been very useful. Not only do they take up little space but they add a lot of flavor to a variety of dishes. I soak them in hot water in a sealed container for 30 minutes before I start cooking and they are ready to go.  The dish above was a whole wheat noodle soup with dried mushrooms.

• I took an electric hot water kettle to the boat and that has also been very helpful. It boils water faster than using the propane stove which is great for making tea or preheating water for making risotto or pasta on the stove.   This pasta dish was topped with red sauce, fresh greends Tatsoi I think, and nutritional yeast.  Fast and delicious, does it get any better than that?

• We bought a pressure cooker for the boat and that also is great. It means that meals cook quickly and with much less propane. Additionally it means I can keep dried beans on board and those take up less space than canned beans which is also fantastic since you know how many beans we eat. ;-)

• Peanut butter sandwiches on whole wheat toast with either apple slices or bananas have also played a big role in food on board. They make a quick nutritious breakfast that is easy to keep on board.

• I have been keeping whole wheat pasta, soba noodles, and risotto on board as well. These are take up little room and I can cook a partial package and have just enough for the two of us with no leftovers to store. Additionally when you combine the dried mushrooms with the risotto you can whip up something when guests stop by which isn’t your typical boat fare.

• We have been eating a lot of hummus with crudités. This really is the ultimate boat food. Collard wraps with pecan nut meat are also great to have in the refrigerator. Raw meals come together quickly on board if you do the prep work at home.

• Additionally I have also been making a lot of raw cashew and veggie based sauces to keep on the boat. One was cilantro, lime, garlic and curry and that turned out very well. Another one was tomato, balsamic and garlic which I really loved. There is also a roasted red pepper, sherry vinegar and smoked paprika sauce. These are great for dipping veggies into, or for topping sandwiches. This was a veggie burger topped with a tomato, raw cashew, balsamic and garlic spread and veggies.

• Roasted portabella mushrooms have been very popular with us lately. These can be cooked at home or on the boat. I have come up with a few different marinades for the mushrooms to add flavor. One is balsamic and Dijon and we like this one a lot. Another is balsamic and Worcestershire (vegan of course) and that one is more “meaty”. These roasted mushrooms are good hot or cold and work well on toasted bread, topped with one of the sauces above and some arugula. They are also good sliced and slipped into a rolled collard leaf. This time I used the roasted veggies but sliced them and added Swiss chard, kale, onions, garlic, crushed red peppers and served it over quinoa.

• For snacks I am keeping the following on board: roasted seaweed, dried fruit, trial mix and nuts (both flavored and plain). These are all very handy to munch while sailing. When I also have peanut butter on board I have been stuffing dates with it and that makes a nice snack.

I hope this gives you some ideas for quick and nutritious food. Trust me if I can do this quickly in a little galley on a boat you can definitely do it at home.

Dr. Greger:

I mentioned that Dr. Greger was looking for volunteers to help with his site Nutritionfacts.org and since I love his work I felt compelled to lend a hand. Dan thought I was biting off more than I could chew but it was such a good cause how I not help? I have been enjoying my interaction with Dr. Greger. He is as nice or possibly nicer than I expected him to be. If any of you have a little free time to help out please do. It is a great cause and you might just learn something in the process….volunteering is definitely a win-win in my book.

Here are a few shots I took for an upcoming Dr. Greger video. These will be posted on his site (nutritionfacts.org) on December 2 if you want to check them out. I will put a link up to the video when it is posted.

Phil was in Town:

Last week our buddy Phil was in town from Springfield, Missouri. It is always wonderful to see Phil. I picked him up at the airport, we stopped at the marina so he could see the boat and then we went to dinner at the usual place. I know I have said this before but it is a shame we live so far from Phil. However I suppose because of that we appreciate the time we spend with him more.

Dan and I ordered our favorite appetizer the antipasti platter which they make vegan for us.

Ian has also added a daily vegetarian special. The night we were there it was a whole wheat pasta dish with olives, tomatoes and feta. We had them substitute mushrooms for the feta and it was perfect.

Phil got the garden Caesar salad and the chicken and olives. I just love that we have a neighborhood restaurant where we can get vegan food and our omni friends can order something with meat.

What if Life isn’t Perfect?:

I am constantly surprised by the number of people who seem to believe that my life is without problems because nothing could actually be further from the truth. The only difference in my life is that I refuse to dwell on the negative, but trust me there is plenty of it there. I think that when you dwell on what is wrong you give it more power over you. Instead of focusing on cancer, my aging parents, my ever growing to-do list and complete lack of free time I choose to put my attention on what is good in my life. This positive focus doesn’t make my problems go away but it does help me to forget about them. There are times I go weeks and don’t think about cancer and that is a great thing. Stress isn’t good for anyone’s health and the more you can reduce it the better off you will be.

No I haven’t always been like this in fact for most of my life I was the opposite. I would obsess about what was wrong and this just seemed to made things worse. It finally occurred to me one day that my own behavior was causing me more harm than the things which I was upset about. It took me months to train myself not to focus on what was wrong. Believe me if I can do it I know you can.

I try to write my blog as I live my life. Since I don’t dwell on my problems in real life I do the same thing on blog. Now I am curious have any of you tried not to focus on the positive rather than the negative in your life? How did it work for you? Do you feel more at peace with life when you don’t give the negative aspects more focus than is necessary? What do you use to keep life in perspective? When I have difficulty letting go of what is wrong I find that quietly meditating works wonders to clear my mind. Sometimes all I need to do is concentrate on my breath and that is enough to quiet my mind. I am very curious to hear what techniques you use to bring more peace into your life.

Happy Thoughts:

Wow, life has been very good lately I am not sure where to start, but here goes:

• Spending evenings on the boat means that my husband is taking time to relax each day and this is huge. Dan works entirely too hard and too much so any time he relaxes I am thrilled. Deciding to keep the boat at the inner harbor was one of the best decisions we made.

• We have been doing a lot of work on the boat and it is really starting to show. She is definitely starting to come together and is feeling like “our” boat.

• I have made some friends at the marina and I love that. One of the ladies I met has been very curious about our food and said recently that she can see herself giving up meat since meeting me. *woo hoo* You have no idea how happy this made me. I get so excited when I hear things like this.  

• I love that I have a duck friend at the marina that follows me to the boat when I arrive. She did this on Monday and I thought it was the cutest thing ever!

• Hearing Ferran Adria speak was a once in a lifetime treat that I will never forget. How often do any of us get to listen to the father of molecular gastronomy talk about his philosophy about food? I am such a foodie geek. LOL

• We are becoming friendly with the captain (Robert the retired MD) who brought our boat up from Grenada. He is a wealth of information and a very kind and generous man. Sometimes you just never know where you will meet people with whom you will click.

• The weather this past weekend and today was in the mid 80’s. We had fantastic weather for sailing over the weekend and we used that to spend time with Walid and Jackie.

• I took some pizza almonds that I made to Pam (our CSA farmer) this past Sunday and she really enjoyed them. These has been so popular with everyone that I might investigate what is involved in selling them. Clearly I would need to have a commercial kitchen make and package them and I am not positive I have enough free time to make that happen soon. But it is definitely worth investigating.

Signing Out:

It is a nice walk around the Inner Harbor from the marina to Dan’s office. I am going to get a few miles in this evening but walking over to meet him and then we will walk back together. Nothing like face time with my hubby to put a smile on my face.

Another Great Weekend and a Few Recipes

Saturday was for sailing:

Time has been flying by recently. We have been getting a lot accomplished but very little of it has been at home. I have gotten pretty good at making food that is portable or taking the ingredients with me and whipping things up on the boat. I will need to write a post about that soon so I can share what I have learned with all of you. There are definitely some tricks that I have picked up.

Saturday we had good wind and took advantage of it to figure out what the boat would do. Did we have a good time? No doubt about it! When we left the dock the wind was about 5 knots but it reached 13.6 knots so we had a great day to try things out. We got rid of the prior boat over a decade ago so we really needed to “get our feet wet” and it was the perfect day for it. We had the boat moving at 7.6 knots which wasn’t bad for our first trip out. I was pleased with how she handled which was a little bit of surprise. Since the last boat was a racer I assumed she would have been much easier to handle but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Here is Dan behind the wheel.

This is me trying my best to see over the cabin. The world is just not made for short people. ;-)

I loved this picture of the Inner Harbor as we were coming back to the marina.

Here are a few more shots I took while we were out.  Sailing out of the inner harbor is definitely different from having the boat on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

We go right by Fort McHenry on our way to the bay. It is great be surrounded by history. It isn’t like being in Italy but we have our share of American history at least. ;-)

While we were underway I made us a salad of: tatsoi (an Asian green), quinoa (which I cooked at home), marinated mushrooms (also made a home), tomatoes and pine nuts. I was able to toss this together while Dan took the wheel.

We sailed for about 4 hours and it was getting cold (temps in the mid 60’s and a lot of wind), and we weren’t really dressed for it, so we headed back for the marina.

I couldn’t get warm so I made us some hot green tea. When that didn’t do it I decided a mostly raw dinner was out of the question. Thank goodness I had stashed some of the Tasty Bites packaged vegan food on board. See even we eat “packaged” food sometimes. ;-) I am sure you know me well enough to realize that I didn’t eat it as it came out of the package though. It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t tinker with it now would it?

Sunday:

We started our morning at the farmers’ market like always. Fall is definitely fast approaching as the winter squash is plentiful now. *boo hoo* It is always sad to see summer end. However I am consoling myself with the good wind we always have in the fall. On the Chesapeake sailing is better spring and fall than it is during the summer. Additionally the powerboats don’t seem to come out as much and that makes for less dodging them since many of them don’t seem to understand the “rules of the road”.

Here are some of the fun hummus flavors I picked up at the market on Sunday.

After the market we came home and lounged around for a while since neither of us got much sleep last night. There was a new episode of Dr. Who on so you know Dan couldn’t go to sleep. I am not sure what my excuse was for getting into bed so late, but I am going to blame it on Dr. Who keeping Dan up. ;-)

Dan ran out to the hardware store to pick up some materials to make a device to hold the spring line up at the marina so that it will be easier to dock. Good thing one of us is handy isn’t it? As you probably guessed I am not the handy one in our family. ;-)

While he was gone I made another batch of curried split pea soup because it travels really well. I measured this time so that I can share the recipe which you will find at the end of this post.

Since it was so cold last night I thought some hot chocolate would be nice to have on the boat and whipped up a batch of almond milk and part of that became hot chocolate. This recipe will also be at the end of this post.

I also wanted to make a sweet and spicy pickled salad of sorts. I had something similar at Jesse Wong’s a few months ago and knew I could make it my own, and dare I say improve on it from both a nutrition and taste perspective. I have also shared that at the bottom of this post.

When we got to the marina it was much later than we had intended it to be. I got busy stowing everything on board so that we could go out if we decided to. Dan took care of installing his new device on the dock. While he was busy with power tools I took a little time to write this post and get some veggie chili with mushrooms in the crock pot. The boat came with a crock pot on board so I wanted to test that out and see how it would work on board since that was a new idea for me. For some reason I never used a Crockpot on the prior boat. Since it seemed to work fairly well on high I may start making more meals in the Crockpot on the boat.

Before I forget Dr. Greger is looking for unpaid interns for his site nutritionafacts.org to help spread the word about the health benefits of a whole food vegan diet. As you have probably guessed I don’t have a huge amount of free time but helping Dr. Greger is a fantastic cause so I am thrilled to be able to lend a hand. If you can spare 10 hours a week for 10 weeks please join me in volunteering for Dr. Greger. I am sure you will find it very rewarding. I hope to see you there soon. :-)

Recipes from this weekend:

Curried Split Pea Soup
Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 cups Bob’s Red Mill “Vegi Soup Mix” (green and yellow split peas, barley, lentils, and whole wheat alphabet pasta)
8 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 onion, peeled and minced
32 ounces homemade canned tomatoes (or 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes no or low salt)
2 tablespoons garam masala
½ - 1 tablespoon turmeric (this can be bitter so start with less how much you need will depend on how much is the garam masala you used)
½ tablespoons fresh ground black pepper (to make the curcumin in the turmeric more bioavailable)
2 tablespoons black mustard seeds
fresh lime wedges to finish

Directions:

Combine the water, bean mix, and bay leaves in your pressure cook and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Use the quick release method, remove the bay leaves and add the remaining ingredients, except the lime and cook until the onion is tender. Serve the soup with wedges of lime to bright the flavor.

Almond Milk Hot Chocolate
Serves 2 – greedy vegans ;-)

Ingredients:

3 cups homemade almond milk, with the oats to thicken it
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of mace
stevia to taste, depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have

Directions:

I combine this in Mason jar and shake well to combine. By doing that you can shake the jar and pour out the amount you want to heat and store the remainder in the refrigerator. Also it travels well this way.

Spicy Sweet and Sour Salad of Bok Choy and Carrot
Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
approximately 10 whole cloves
whole dried chilis (like you see in Asian stir fry), add these to taste depending on how much you like heat (I used 15 or so but I love heat)
2 carrots, cut into sticks
4 cups shredded bok choy
¼ cup golden raisins
sesame seeds for garnish
spicy greens to be a bed for the salad (I used tatsoi)

Directions:

Combine the water, vinegar, spices, and heat on high until the liquid is just beginning to bubble. Now add the carrots so that they will begin to soften. Once the vinegar has cooled add the bok choy and raisins and store the salad in a jar in the refrigerator. Periodically turn the jar over to distribute the marinade. To serve place the salad on top of the greens and dust the salad with sesame seeds. Don’t forget to tell your family not to eat the hot peppers as they are very hot.

Happy Thoughts:

• It was another fantastic weekend for us. Dan didn’t spend any time at work so we had lots of face time and you know we loved that. ;-) We had a great sail on Saturday and a very relaxing dinner on board on Sunday.

• I have a new little feathered friend at the marina. The most adorable mallard has decided that she needs to greet me every time I come down the boat. I am sure it has nothing to do with my feeding her the leftover pancakes that the delivery crew left in the refrigerator. ;-) Thank goodness Michelle can to the rescue to tell me what I should be feeding the duck. My little friend (who I now need to name), hung around with me for an hour under Sunday after I gave her the end of the pancakes on board. I swear one day I am going to arrive at the marina and she will be waiting for me on the boat.

• I have a new human friend at the marina as well. Chris, two slips away, and I are really hitting it off. We both love to cook, and talk and have been spending a lot of time together. It is very nice to make new friends.

• The wind has really started to pick up on the Chesapeake which is fantastic. After all sailing is no fun when you don’t have wind. ;-)

Signing out:

I have been spending so much time at the boat that things at home are now out of control. Time for me to get busy and get some things done at home so that I can relax at the boat. Talk with you again soon.

Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse and an Update

This is going to be a quick post because it has been a productive but not very exciting weekend at our place.

We made our usual trip to the farmers’ market on Sunday and this time came home with mother lode of produce. I must have been having local produce withdrawal since the market was closed last week due to the hurricane. That is the only explanation I have for the amount of produce I picked up this morning. There was so much we had to make multiple trips to the car to drop things off.

Today we came home with: a big basket of apples, three big bunches of kale, 8 cucumbers, 6 tomatoes, a bunch of cilantro, 1 enormous bok choy, 4 eggplants, 1 pound portabellas, 1 bunch black radishes, 2 bags mixed baby lettuce, 6 ears of corn, and 1 cantaloupe.  We also bought two different types of hummus. The varieties today were caramelized peach with habanero and Fusion. I was intrigued with the fusion which was a combination of Asian Fire (a spicy Asian hummus) and curried mango. Those flavors together blended beautifully.

The weather was so beautiful when we got home from the market we went for a trek up and down the hills on our neighborhood which was a little over 3 miles. It was a very pleasant way to wake up.

Additionally we have been enjoying the white bean cheeze that I made on Saturday. If you haven’t tried that recipe but are looking for a low fat cheeze replacement I think you might like it. We like it on salad on to dip veggies into. It also makes a nice cheese replacement in quesadillas.

Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse:

I first heard of Kris Carr in regard to her documentary “Crazy Sexy Cancer”. It is difficult to argue with the success she has had in stopping the growth of an inoperative cancer. When a girlfriend of mine mentioned that she was thinking about doing this cleanse you know I got interested since this is a pattern with me.  The cleanse in this book is surprisingly similar to our regular diet (minus the dinners out). Since I was comfortable with the diet and exercise portion of the plan I have decided to give it a try to see how I feel. Please note the author does talk about enemas and colonics and that is something that I will not be doing because I have read of the dangers associated with them.

The reason I am mentioning this 21-day cleanse is that a few of my friends are going to do it together so we can share our experiences. If are interested in joining in let me know either by posting a comment here of by sending me an email at veganepicurean@gmail.com .

In keeping with the upcoming cleanse I made an awesome green juice today. This one included: 1 cucumber, 4 big stems/leaves of kale, ½ lemon, 2 carrots, 2 stalks celery and two cloves of garlic. I finished this juice with a sprinkle of cayenne and a pinch of sea salt on Dan’s serving. This made two 16 servings of juice. Even though this juice wasn’t sweet Dan still enjoyed it and that was a huge shock to me.

Happy thoughts:

We have had an extremely productive weekend which means that I have a lot to be thankful for.

• Saturday while Dan did some guy things (insert power tools here) I got busy reorganizing both my main and overflow dry goods pantries. OMG am I a food hoarder. I swear I could feed us for months from what I have on hand. No exaggeration I have over 25 pounds of various dried beans in the house, and somehow none of them are black beans. ;-) It is my goal to make meals based on what I have at home over the next month, other than trips to the farmers’ market, until I can reduce my inventory. It felt good to get my food organized.

• Sunday I did the same thing and cleaned and reorganized our two refrigerators and big freezer. No surprise I discovered I have over 20 pounds of nuts and seeds in the freezer. Again, time to work on reducing my food inventory. Can you tell organizing was overdue at our house? *LOL* It was great to cross these tasks off my to-do list.

• We had two days with weekend without rain. Given the forecast prior to the weekend we were very fortunate. With the nice weather we were even able to cross off a few yard work tasks.  Being productive feels good.

• Dan and I had a lot of “face time” so far this weekend. We have had a very nice weekend together even though we have been busy getting stuff done. So far we haven’t decided what we are going to do on Monday. But the weather is supposed to be rainy so whatever it is I assume we will be inside.

• I mentioned a treadmill desk on Facebook the other day and Dan has graciously offered to build me one. Isn’t he just the sweetest thing? I think I will keep him. ;-) Once he gets that finished I will let you know what I think of it. We both thought it was a good idea since I am more active during the summer, and summer is coming to an end. Besides I spend so much time either reading or online if I can get some exercise while I do that it will be fantastic.

Signing out:

I hope you are having a fantastic long weekend. Talk with you again soon.

Another Crazy Weekend and Pecan Taco Meat

I have been having one of those summers where we are home very little. Not being near my computer does make it tough to stay current with the blog.

Thursday:

We went to Ram’s Head On Stage to see Euge Groove who gave a great performance. He was the first artist who came out to sign CDs and chat after the show. Personally I thought that was a very nice touch on his part.

The picture above is one I took under very low light and I was extremely pleased with it. Apparently I can take pictures that don’t involve food. LOL

For those of you who may be going to Ram’s Head order the veggie sandwich (hold the mayo) and the red pepper hummus with all veggies (hold the pita) and you are good to go. Not only is this combination vegan but fairly healthy vegan if you avoid the potato chips which come with the sandwich. ;-)

Friday:

Like all Friday’s mine was particularly jam packed. However this particular Friday I also had an appointment and we ran some errands after that. We did a little clothes shopping and then ran to West Marine for a few things that grew once we were inside. Both Dan and I got sandals with non-marking soles, sailing gloves and hats. We also picked up some extra sailing gloves while we were there since we know none of our friends are likely to have their own since all of them but Dennis don’t sail.

We were shopping longer than we expected so the evening turned into dinner out which we didn’t decide to do until the last minute. You know that meant that Ian didn’t get any advanced notice and fortunately he forgave us for that. ;-) I love having Open Table on my phone. It is very convenient to make reservations using my phone while Dan drives.

The weather was so gorgeous we had dinner on the patio. When we arrived it looked like all the tables outside were taken but no, there was one set up for us. It definitely pays to be a restaurant regular. Not only did we get a table on the patio but it was in Jenn and Janine’s section which was very nice. Since Jenn was working Dan grabbed the extra sailing gloves to make sure they fit her as I was worried that small might have been too big but fortunately that wasn’t an issue. :-)

I was in a vino mood and asked about a sparkling red that I had tasted a few weeks ago and it was only available by the bottle. Since it was 5% alcohol we decided that one bottle wouldn’t be that bad since we rarely ever drink now. The trick will be to not order this ever time we come in but I think we can do it because it is a perfect summer wine and we don’t typically enjoy sweet wine but will make an exception for this. It must be good because it is Italian … all the good stuff is you know. ;-)

We also had a pot of tea which was half green and half hibiscus.

We started with the vegetarian plate of the day which also happened to be vegan (Gee...I wonder why LOL). This dish included saffron rice, ratatouille, a corn salad over avocado and snow peas.

Then we ordered a dish that is one the regular menu but asked them to remove the smoked mozzarella and replace it with cubes of tofu. It certainly does come in handy knowing that Ian has tofu in the kitchen now. ;-) This pasta dish included tomato, fennel, green onions and I am fairly sure there is white wine in the sauce. It was a good summer pasta.

Saturday:

It rained overnight which meant it was muggy and humid when we got up. Thank goodness for air conditioning was all I could think. Since Dan promised to start exercising again he did go with in the morning for a nice little 3.5 mile walk to start the day.

While we were out for our walk we saw this cute little Mini with a red mustache like Snidely Whiplash from Dudley Doright. I could not help but see the humor in this. After our walk we had small bowls of oatmeal and then a small green smoothie (kale and banana).

Dan went downtown to the office to get some work done and I stayed home and worked on my new website. Have I said recently that I am good with technology? Well, I am not good with technology so it was a frustrating Saturday for me.

Dinner was a simple stew of mixed beans (13 to be specific) which I pressure cooked and then added canned tomatoes, Italian seasoning, fresh shitake mushrooms, wine vinegar and zucchini. Nothing too complicated just simple healthy food. To Dan’s stew I added some cooked pasta and pine nuts for extra calories.

Sunday:

We started our day at the farmers’ market like usual. We picked up two containers of hummus, the version with Old Bay (the traditional Maryland seafood seasoning) and a super hot version called XXX. I loved the heat in the XXX hummus but I do love heat. I found out today that the “hummus dude” also has a restaurant. When I look up his menu online if he has vegan options I will be checking it out and will let you know what I think.

While we were at the market Rudy and I had a quick talk about the causes of autism, He is going to bring me an article next week to read.  I love that one of our organic farmers has a PhD is biochemistry. He and I have the best conversations.  :-)

This is a cute bumper sticker I saw when leaving the farmers' market. I love unusual bumper stickes in case you hadn't noticed.

We came from the market with our usual ridiculous amount of produce with included: red leaf lettuce, kale, collards, oyster mushrooms, baby carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers and a basket of peaches (about 100). Yes I really do love peaches that much. Plus I will freeze some of them for smoothies. :-)

Breakfast was leftover soup from Saturday night because it was quick and easy.

Lunch was corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes, and roasted red potatoes with a spicy red pepper dipping sauce. The sauce was something that I whipped together in the Vitamix. Combine roasted red peppers, raw cashews and chili garlic sauce to taste.

Dinner was a taco salad which included: red leaf lettuce, cilantro, salsa, roasted sweet potato, tomatoes and was topped with pecan taco meat. The pecan taco meat was loosely based on the raw dinner we went to at Great Sage earlier this year. Soak pecans in water for a few hours and then drain thoroughly. Place the drained pecans in your food processor and pulse until they resemble ground meat. Now stir in finely diced red onion, grated garlic, a finely diced jalapeno, a little lime juice (or you could substitute wet hots for the jalapeno and lime), ground cumin, chili powder and no-salt seasoning. Stir well to combine all the flavors.

Happy Thoughts:

We had another great weekend though it was more busy than relaxing. However there is always plenty to be thankful for such as:

• We had a lot of fun at the Euge Groove concert Thursday evening in Annapolis. We both love live jazz and Euge did not disappoint. I was also thrilled to get some great pictures at the concert.

• Friday was another busy day but a productive one as well. We stopped at Marshalls before dinner and I found a cute Calvin Klein sweater, a Jones of NY sweater and a red floral maxi skirt. Dan found a great pair of Calvin Klein shorts for the boat. We also picked up some white organic tea and no-salt lemon pepper. Four bags later we were off to the boat store where we able to find more items that were on our boat to-do list. It was definitely a productive shopping trip.  ;-)

• Friday we had a very nice relaxing dinner on the patio. It was definitely the perfect way to wind down the week.

• I was very happy that I didn’t need to twist Dan’s arm to get him to do a little exercise this weekend. Dan claims he will be exercising more often now. Let’s hope work doesn’t continue to get in the way.

• Sunday we were fortunate to get more rain, in fact it rained most of the day. I don’t typically enjoy rain on the weekend but things have been so dry here that a rainy weekend was actually a very welcome sight. Not to mention it was nice to get it out of the way before the boat arrives. ;-)

• Even though Dan had to work again on Sunday we spent the morning together and he worked from his home office rather than going downtown. It was nice to have him at home for lunch and dinner and periodic green tea breaks.

Signing out:

Like always I am up later than I should be. Given what time it is now it looks like we won’t be getting up at 5:30 tomorrow morning. *rolls eyes* Oh well, you can’t win them all. We will at least focus on getting earlier than normal.

Looking at my schedule Monday doesn’t appear to be too hectic. I hope to have time to write another post tomorrow. Don’t forget to join us that the bookclub blog where we start discussing chapter one of “The China Study”. Talk to you again soon. :-)