A lot can happen in a year....

On Sept 22nd 2010 we welcomed or first child Everett James. I know that every woman and every pregnancy is different, but I had such an easy pregnacny I'd gladly do it again. I had no morning sickness, didn't gain an excessive amount of weight, and didn't have trouble moving around until the last month. We wanted his sex to be a surprise, but the way I was carrying him, 90 % of the people I spoke with said the baby would be a boy. We went on a vacation to the east coast in July when I was 7 months. There were a couple of days above 100 degrees, but I climbed the stairs to the Statue of Liberty like everyone else.
The only downside to the trip was that we had a car accident in Delaware which ended up totaling the vehicle. The impact wasn't that bad, but cost of repairs exceeded the value by a few 100 dollars. I loved that car, but it had a good long life. RIP 2000 Xterra. We ended up getting a victory red 2010 HHR to replace it. Not my first choice, but we got an awesome deal on it.
It was our intention for Everett to be born at home, but he had other plans. For the last few weeks of my pregnancy he stayed firmly in breech position with one leg down and the other up. The midwives won't deliver a breech baby and neither will most doctors, so I needed a c-section. After the surgery being delayed for 10 hours (not eating anything more than a granola bar and juice box that whole time) I received a spinal that numbed me from the armpits down. I was more concerned that I couldn't breathe than that they were cutting me open. He was 7 pounds 9 ounces, 20 3/4 inches. The nurse measured him twice, she didn't believe it. Brian made a comment that I was vegan throughout my pregnancy, to which the nurse said the usual "Did she get enough protein?" Brian pointed to Everett with a "well, duh!" look on his face. In the recovery room I was very sick from the spinal. I really wanted to breastfeed only, luckily Everett was fine with waiting a bit. Now at 7 weeks he's 13 pounds about 23 inches, and fitting very well in 3 month size clothing. I'm going back to work in a week, which I think I'm ready for. Maybe.

End of a busy week

Every spare moment I had, I was knitting a sock and a scarf. I didn't finish either for the weekend which was super disappointing. I participated in my second Civil War reenactment and I liked it far better than my first attempt years ago. I'm looking forward to giving it another go when it's warmer out next year. It was a very cold weekend, and I was wearing far to little clothing. I did not get sick however. I'm sure I would be feeling it today. It amazes me how everyone around me will get sick, but I won't. I don't want to say that it's my vegan diet helping keep me healthy, but, well.... yes I do. So I have not been cooking much lately, so we've been eating out a lot. Mainly we get burritos from, Pancheros, Qudoba, or Zumbas. Zumbas is a bit of a drive, but by far my favorite place. I need to get a picture of their burritos sometime. So I'm just posting a random food picture from my gallery. Mmm.. Molasses Cookies. I need to make these again.

Vegan Mofo 2009 survey

On the Manifest Vegan blog I found this VeganMofo 2009 survey from WhoaWren so I thought I would join in on the fun.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk? Vanilla Almond

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Roasted Eggplant dip, burritos, splint pea soup

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Coconut oil and salt

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
Vinegar noodles... just as bad as it sounds, don't know what I was thinking.

5. Favorite pickled item?
Cauliflower

6. How do you organize your recipes?
I'm in the process of adding my favorite recipes to Tastebook. Otherwise I have recipes to try scattered all over the house.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
I've been bad lately, we have a compost pile, but I've just been using the trash.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
Avocados, dark chocolate peanut butter, and apple cider.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
Making berry jam with my mother.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Ice cream, vanilla

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
Stick blender.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Cumin.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Alton Browns first cookbook

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Strawberry.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
lasagna

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Tempeh has really grown on me these past months

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Dinner

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Lunch bags, a basket, lighter, microwave splatter guard

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Cabbage soup, bread, walnuts

20. What’s on your grocery list?
Always soymilk, earth balance, bread and oat bran

21. Favorite grocery store?
Better Health Market. Novi, MI

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet
I know there's something, I just can't think of one. Usually I can find any recipe online If I search long enough.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Eat, drink and be vegan

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Endangered species dark chocolate

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
Vegan meat balls. At them with spaghetti.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
Kolrabi. Not really scared of it, but I received from our CSA and didn't know what to do with it.

Pickles!

I've gotten into canning in a major way this year. With our CSA membership, I've been receiving tons of in season, locally grown produce every week. So much produce that it was extremely hard for me to use everything before next weeks delivery. Brian surprised me one day by getting me a large pressure canner, and I've made it money well spent. Today I made watermelon rind pickles. I've never actually tasted watermelon pickles, so I didn't know what to expect. One can didn't seal properly, so I took the oportunity to give them a taste, and they're really good! Earlier this year I made a batch of bread and butter cucumber pickles, which seem to sweet to me, but Brian likes them. I also made pickled cauliflower, which I like alot. Both are pictured below.

October 3rd

Today was a busy day around the house. Do laundry, wash dishes, pay bills, etc. I made zucchini soup for dinner, which I will have pictures of later. We're going to a euchre party at Brian's aunt's house tonight. I'm bringing fresh sliced watermelon, homemade salsa and chips, and potato salad (another picture to post later.)
This isn't the salsa we're having tonight, but one that I really want to make again. It's avacado pico salsa with hearts of palm.

October is Vegan Food Month

So I'm a day late starting this, but, in honor of Vegan food month I'm going to post my food pictures everyday. (Or at least as often as I can.) I'll start off with a good fall dish: Root vegetable gratin.

ANTS!!!!

I understand that no matter how hard you try it's impossible to keep the outside from getting in. That will not, however, stop me from attempting to stop ants from invading my house. Coming home from work one night I was greeted by a distraught dog and thousands of ants crawling over what was left of her breakfast. They only seemed interested in my dog Dagnys' food, so after thoroughly cleaning I moved her bowl elsewhere and they were gone. Simple enough, but I eventually want her food bowl out of the middle of the living room floor and back in the spot by the back door. I tried to explain to Dagny that she really need to eat all of her food as soon as I feed her... but she never listens. After a few days I put her dish back in it's original spot... just to see what would happen. 24 hours went by without a sign. Then after the next day of work, I came home to more ants. I want the ants to go away without using chemicals that will give Dagny cancer or cause her to grow another leg, so what do I do? Internet research revealed that ants have issues with Borax, which I happened to have a lot of in the house. After making sure the area was clear of ants I created a 1/2 inch high borax wall around the dish. Take that ants!! Left over-night with a bit of kibble in the bowl, there were no ants in sight. But when I got home that evening the ants were back. They just crawled right on over the Borax wall with little effect so far as I could tell. Frig! So the next non-poisonous cure is to construct a moat around the food dish. The food bowl rests on top of a small dish which is in a pie pan 1/2 full with water. I was careful not to choose a pan that was too much larger because Dagny would likly drink the water allowing safe passage for the ants. Another day of work passes and I come home to find the usual trail of ants, but none are in the food or the moat. Five ants, however, found their way into her water dish. Perhaps they couldn't bear the shame of returning to the nest empty-handed and decided to off themselves. I had no problem with that. It was the first time I could clearly see where they were coming from, and it wasn't the back door. They were coming up through a hole in the floor for the water pipes under the wash-tub. Giving the Borax thing another try I dumped a few cups worth of it all around the pipe. And now I wait.