On food, freecycle and sleeping babes

I know, I know, it's been awhile. Maybe I should stop starting my blogs this way. Perhaps you should just assume that my postings will be few and far between so no one will be disappointed. I can't help it. I get carried away with life and then realize, oops! I haven't written on the blog in a week.

Well I know this is a blog about crafts and being vegan but this month as I pointed out two posts ago will be all about food. I was looking around and some people have themes to go with Vegan MoFo. I don't have any such aspirations. I'll just cook some good food (hopefully it'll be good!) and post about it. I'll try to do a daily post about what we're eating. It won't always be dinner. Sometimes lunch or breakfast. Actually I couldn't have chosen a better month to do this because for the month of October I'll be working only in the afternoons. So I'll have the time to make lovely elaborate breakfasts to post about. I can't wait now that I'm thinking about it!

Ok so there are three things I want to post about today. First up is a sandwich I made from a Tofurky sandwich meat I picked up at an amazing health food store in Calgary last weekend. It was the hickory flavored one. Mind you it didn't taste at all like hickory anything, but more like turkey. Anyway, I was craving a good sandwich and I loved how thin it was sliced, reminded me of my pre-vegan sandwich days. So I whipped this little baby together.

Alex raved and raved about it (he had two sandwiches). Actually, I made it for him one day for his lunch at work and one of his coworkers was asking him as he was eating it whether or not he didn't miss meat. He laughed and said 'heck no!' This was the same coworker that asked him if he didn't miss cake because she mistakenly thought he was going to miss out on having a birthday cake on his birthday last month. As if! I wonder why people continually think we're deprived. Oh I should mention, it's the Tofurky sandwich meat on an italian calabrese bread with dijon mustard, cucumbers, tomatoes, onion sprouts and mixed leafy greens. So simple but so delicious.

Second, tonight we had pasta. Alex loves pasta. It must be the Italian in him ;) in any case he made the sauce while I was at work. It was the Light Tomato Marinara Sauce recipe from Nonna's Italian Kitchen by Bryanna Clark Grogan. It wasn't our regular recipe, we usually make the Ragu alla Napoletana but Alex didn't realize that when he went to make it. In any case, it was very good and definitely worth making again. I think it would be a good sauce for lasagna or other kinds of stuffed pasta dishes. Don't you just love the steam rising off it? So in the moment.

Third, I got a ginormous bag of patterns from a fellow freecycler today. I didn't realize it would be so much. A whole garbage bag full! And some of the clothing patterns are all the way from the 60s! Really vintage and oh so good. I can't wait to go thru and classify them all. Exciting! Too bad I'm on a sewing hiatus right now. But you can be sure that when it's time to make Christmas gifts I'll be all over it like white on rice!

And last but not least. My darling Ayla. I came home from lunch in anticipation of seeing her smiling face saying 'hi!' to me at the top of the stairs. Only to find her fast asleep in her highchair with a spoon in her hand. I love the spoon. I love that she has more 'attachments' to the ordinary stuff in her life than the few toys that end up scattered everywhere.

Autumn

I woke up this morning asking myself if today was the first day of autumn. Or was it yesterday? I don't know and I'm too lazy to check so I'll just assume it's today. It was a lovely day out, the morning was crisp and hazy. The perfect day to mark the start of autumn (if it is indeed today). This weekend I visited friends in Calgary and we had a nice time chatting and strolling at the mall. They have an amazing health food store in Calgary that was basically a vegan haven for so many things I can't find in Red Deer. I bought some soy jerky for Alex and some Tofurky sandwich slices. I can't believe how thin they're sliced! I also got my first bag of Tings! If you don't know what Tings are then you haven't tasted the best vegan snack food ever! Well ok maybe that's debatable but they're definitely worth another trip to Calgary sometime in the future to buy another bag. They're basically Cheetos (the crinkley kind) but without the smelly cheese. We all agreed that they were very addictive.

I had to add this last one even though it's slightly blurry because it's so typical of Ayla. Like we haven't seen her shoving someone off her before. It always cracks me up. :)

The other day we made the Salt and Pepper Tofu from Veganomicon. Well it's not actually in VCon because they forgot to put it in! But you can find the recipe on the PPK. It was delicous as usual. Definitely something worth making many many times.

I also made the Broccoli Cashew Teriyaki Tofu stir fry from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. I have to say that I've made this so many times and it just tastes better and better. I can't get enough of it, it's delicious.

I put together my grocery list for October because I want to be sure that we'll have some yummy things to make for the start of Vegan MoFo. Don't be surprised if I don't post till then but I'll try my best to be more regular. It's just hard trying to find something to write about when I'm neither cooking nor crafting lately. I'm still buried in my financial books. I get like that sometimes.

And last but not least. Just a glimpse of how entertaining Ayla can be. She's obsessed with the garbage can in the computer room. Now she actually likes to put things in it. You can see in the first picture she's putting her cell phone (my old one) in it. And then she's taking things out and snacking on them. Some might say 'ew' but it's only paper. No harm done :) If you click on the picture it should blow up somewhat (sorry for the resizing blur around the edges).

Vegan month of food aka VeganMoFo

Last year I kept stumbling upon blogs about VeganMoFo and really enjoying the entries. This year I've decided that I will participate as a way to get myself cooking more. We pretty much don't eat out because it's a hassle that's not worth it in the end. And now that we've been tightening the financial belt we'll have even less money for eating out. Enter vegan month of food! This October it will be all about cooking new things and using fresh ingredients. I'm trying to save money in the food department as well by buying more bulk and less pre-packaged. So starting this October look out around the vegan blogosphere for many more food posted related to VeganMoFo.

On a slightly different note, you'll notice that I haven't been blogging as regularly as I used to. Basically, I've had my head buried in financial books and blogs for the last few days. Hence, the belt tightening and saving bit. I'll come up for air every so often but there hasn't been any crafting going on. I'm trying to get our finances on the right track now that I'm no longer on maternity leave and getting a normal paycheck. A part of me wants to start a financial blog to track my progress but I'm not sure if I have that in me. My blogging can be really hit or miss as it is!

Babies and accidents

So today as I was folding laundry and sorting thru all the clothes that I've accumulated for Ayla and wanted to give away. My darling daughter was 'helping out' and opening and closing the dresser drawers and trying to dump all the clothes I am keeping all over the place. I kept trying to close them and tell her "no, we're keeping those" and "to help mama with these piles over here". Needless to say she wasn't listening one bit and that's how the accident happened. She opened the bottom drawer and somehow slipped and fell into the corner of it. Right in the middle of her forehead. I just stood there and saw the whole thing happen. It was like slow motion but not. And then the blood started gushing from her head. I never thought I'd see such a sight! My poor baby! She was such a trooper though. I think I kept my cool pretty well and she didn't get panicked. She cried for the cleaning and the bandaid application but then she was right as rain.

I wasn't sure if she'd need stitches and I was so fearful of her having a scar so I brought her to the clinic. Luckily she didn't need them and the doctor applied some tape. I'm hoping we get a restful night tonight but I'm imagining that she'll probably wake up at some point with a headache.

Oh, and yesterday she was playing with her doll cradle and leaned on it in a funny way I guess because somehow it ended up smacking her in the face! You can see somewhat in the above pictures a little bruise on her left cheek right beside her nose. It looks like a shadow in the pictures but it's really a bruise. This child is going to give me a heart attack! Babies and accidents, I think at this stage it's unavoidable!

Wrapping up summer

Today was a very lovely day out. The weather people were forecasting that it would be the last official day of hot summery weather here in central Alberta. I decided to give my friend a call who I had met in the mommy group on Facebook and ask her if she'd like to spend the day outside enjoying it. We went to Heritage Ranch and took a nice leisurely walk with the girls. I must say the good thing about living here is that there is a wealth of great outdoor places to take walks and enjoy nature without the traffic and noise of a major city.

We got some great shots as usual. I can't wait till the trees start to really turn and we can get some great fall pictures as well.

Ayla was complaining in these last two photos because Faith had been using her as a prop to try to stand up. She was not receptive to the idea by any means. She's just turned around to tell her to stop. I just love how Faith looks completely oblivious and innocent, especially in the second picture.

I've been making a budget so that we can get on top of our finances. It's actually been a very cathartic process for me. I'm now reading Women & Money by Suze Orman. So far so good. I'm on a money kick right now so not much sewing happening.

However, there has been some cooking! Yesterday we had a spinach and kale salad with mushrooms, green onions and tomatoes. For the main course we had gnocchi with a home made tomato sauce and a side of home made garlic bread. It was a major hit. We'll definitely make this again and again and again.

Summers past

It's been a pretty slow week and weekend. I haven't sewed or cooked anything worth blogging about. I guess I'm finding myself in a bit of a rut. I have many things on my 'to do' list but I don't have the drive to do any of them.

I got a new print from The Black Apple that I'm totally in love with. I'm going to add this to the two I already have. I bought 3 frames so I'm done buying prints for now. I got a free bookmark with this print that I'm totally loving as well.

I got a new haircut yesterday that I'm totally loving. I had my hair like this ages ago and I really loved it so I relaxed my hair on Friday then got it cut. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of myself with this haircut but I do have an old picture of what it looked like and really I haven't changed that much. Minus the labret piercing. I really liked that piercing too...

These pictures were taken with my good friends at the Montreal Jump Up in 2005. Every time I look at these pictures it takes me right back to the amazing time I had that summer. It's pictures like these that make me love summer so much. It's like when deep down a part of you yearns for what's gone. I guess it's all fitting as we're heading straight into fall right now. I'm sure the leaves will start turning any day now.

Random happenings

So it isn't exactly Monday today is it. I had every intention of blogging before this but alas the weekend was devoid of any creative endeavors. I was feeling particularly lazy and actually didn't even get around to reading Craft Inc. like I had wanted to. Since moving here we've had boxes of stuff under our stairs waiting to be sorted through. It was becoming a real fire hazard and we couldn't fit anything else under there that we might actually like to keep for whatever reason. So we finally hauled everything out and decided enough was enough. It's been two years and really if we haven't used it by now I can't see how it will be relevant later. Yet, yet upon opening those boxes I kept coming across things that I just couldn't possibly part with! Why is that always the case with junk? In any event, my sewing room is full of boxes of books because really that made up about 90% of what I had stored under there. I have a question, what does one do with all the textbooks from college and university? I didn't sell every book I acquired at school and now I have these huge, heavy and complicated looking texts just clogging up my area. I'm not sure what to do with them as they were quite expensive but it's been awhile and I'm sure classes are no longer using these editions. So, pray tell what do I do with these cumbersome texts?

I should mention that technically I didn't do anything this weekend in the sewing room but I did whip up a t-shirt yesterday night after Ayla had gone to bed. I didn't have a pattern and so I used one of my favorite t-shirts. Well I do have a t-shirt pattern but I wanted to use my favorite shirt so that it would have exactly the same or be very similar in fit. Well, it is nicely fitted on my body but the neck is a little too wide and so it hangs awkwardly as if it's stretched out and so I don't know what to do to fix it. It looks perfect on the dress form but that's because it's covered in fabric and the shirt clings to it perfectly. Unfortunately, I'm not covered in fabric. I thought about adding an elastic gather in the front but I really just wanted a t-shirt with nothing fancy going on. I'll have to ponder it some more tonight.

A couple of nights ago Alex made a really great dinner for us but I forgot to post about it. He made a panini with sautéed red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, baked tofu and fresh basil and a cucumber salad with fresh coriander/cilantro and his own homemade vinaigrette. It was all so very amazingly yummy that just writing about it now has me salivating.

Last night he made a tomato and peach salad topped with fresh parsley and again his own vanaigrette and I whipped up a pesto. Again it was a very good dinner but not as amazing as the panini and cucumber salad. I'm so terrible at taking food pictures you'll have to bear with me. It's definitely not the camera but the photographer.

And last but not least. Today Ayla used the potty! I know, I know it's seriously too early for her to be using the potty. But I was changing her diaper and before I could get the new one on her I heard her making forcing sounds. The old one was already tossed so there was only one option. I plopped her down on the as yet to be used potty and she happily sat there and did her business. Of course, I just had to take a picture. Of her, not the business... ;) I know she'll be terribly embarrassed one day that I posted this but I just can't help myself. Note how she's placed her hand, as if she knows this will be world news and to cover up her girly bits.