Thursday, December 14, 2006

Comfort & Joy

Comfort -- We've been sick :( Chase is better, but now I've got the sore throat and fever thing that's going around. Since we may not get to do our regular Sunday dinners for a few weeks, we planned Thursday dinners for this week and next. Tonight we had true comfort food - shepherd's pie. The filling was fresh onions, carrots, and green beans, and frozen corn and peas, and tofu. I used 3 medium white potatoes and my japanese white yam for the topping. We also had steamed broccoli and homemade wheat bread.

Before it went in the oven:



Ready to eat.





I have been wanting to make a sesame seed candy, but was waiting until I found soymilk powder so I could adapt a recipe that used powdered milk. Well, I haven't found any powdered soymilk in this whole huge town. I decided to make the candy today anyway using coconut and vanilla custard powder I got from the asian market. I also added in agave nectar and peanut butter and a few coconut flakes. Here is Black and White Sesame Seed Candy - pure fat and totally high calorie and deliciously addictive.





Joy -- This past Sunday we put up our Christmas tree and decorations. Here are some pictures of my favorite holiday things.

My prelit artificial tree. Chase is allergic to fresh Christmas trees.


My mantle.



My wall banner.



My star-shaped Santa pillow.




My handpainted Santa gourd.



A picture of Chase, 3 years old, with Santa.

13 comments:

Emmy said...

Hope you feel better soon!!!! The Shepherd's pie looks great. I haven't made that in ages. The sesame seed candy looks divine!!!

What a pretty Christmas tree. I can relate to Chase, I'm allergic to fresh Christmas trees too :(

The star-shaped Santa pillow is so cute!!!! Love it. And what an adorable flashback Santa pic :)

Nikk said...

Awww, what adorable pictures! I love your decorations.

I want some candy! It looks sinfully amazing! :)

Freedom said...

Sorry you don't feel so well. It seems lots of blogger have been sick lately. I love your santa gourd, and the pillow!

Anonymous said...

Seems like everyone's getting sick. I hope you feel better soon! The shepard's pie looks so delicious! I've never heard of a Japanese white yam. What does it taste like?

Kate said...

I am sorry your sick and hope you feel better soon. The shepard's pie looks amazing and so yummy. Your house looks to pretty for christmas!

JENNA said...

Feel better soon!

I'm in love with the santa gourd!

JENNA

urban vegan said...

Love your tree--how sweet. Glad you're feeling better.

laura k said...

Diann, I hope you all feel better soon. There has been some nasty stuff going around, that's for sure.

Your shepherd's pie looks wonderful--I love shepherd's pie, and I have made it before with lentils as a protein. Tofu would be amazing too...

Your Christmas tree is lovely. And I love the wonderful holiday pictures. The one of Chase reminds me of one my parents have of me when I was a baby--I was sitting with Santa and crying my head off!! At least Chase seems to be happy. Hehehe.

Crystal said...

Love the Santa gourd - I'm always looking for new crafty ideas :)

I have to laugh...I finally figured out what your name means...A TX Vegn..here I thought ATX was some crazy cross country sport. Oh well.

-Crystal

erica said...

Love love love shepherd's pie.

and Chase was certainly a cutie!

Happy Holidays!

Anonymous said...

I hope you are better now, a whole 5 days after you posted this !
Sending you good thoughs anyway :)

Chase looked very mature for 3 y.o ! Beautiful eyes and smile too :)

Kati said...

Hope you are feeling better now! I know what it's like - I've been sick recently, too, and it's not fun! I bet having your house all decked out helped cheer you up at least. I know having my Christmas tree up helped me feel a little better.

Do you make your breads in a bread machine? They always look so perfect. It makes me want to bake bread, but I never have good luck with yeast. I keep thinking maybe a bread machine would take the guess work out of it for me, but maybe it's just a "user error" that technology can't fix.

aTxVegn said...

Hey, everybody, thanks for your comments. I really only had 2 bad days of sickness, so I'm much much better now.

Laura, the shepherd's pie was really tasty. I thought about using lentils, but Chase just loves tofu so much I used it instead.

Crystal, I'll post a picture of the yam soon. It tastes like a sweet potato or a really creamy white potato.

Erica & Gaia, Chase is still a cutie, with gorgeous blue eyes!

Katie, I make my bread dough in a bread machine, then bake it the oven. It's too easy and the kneading and rising get done perfectly every time.