The Good, the Bad, and the So-so

Tonight we had an interesting pasta meal. We made Pasta with Sweet Potatoes and Roasted Red Peppers from The Complete Vegan Cookbook. It's a puree of sweet potatoes (grilled, but I just boiled mine), topped with roasted red peppers, and served over fusilli pasta. I love sweet potatoes, but not sweet, so I did not put nutmeg and mace in the puree. We're so used to a veggie filled tomato sauce, we wanted more ingredients. So we sauted some onions and seitan to add to it. It was different and very pretty, but it just wasn't quite what we wanted. Chase and I thought about what we could do to make it better, and we decided we missed the tomatoes. So next time we'll add some roasted or sundried tomatoes. We did enjoy the fresh parsley and squeeze of lemon juice over the sauce, and we both agreed that using the quinoa bread to soak up the sauce was the best part! So this dish was just so-so.




Along with our usual steamed broccoli as a side dish, I made Marinated Cauliflower and Edamame Salad from the Fatfree Vegan Recipes index. I did substitute sundried tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes, so it's not as pretty, but it was quick and easy to make and this dish was good!



I wanted to use my farmers market Meyer lemons to make dessert, so I made Susan V's Calamondin (or Lemon) Pie. I just made the filling and put it in a store bought graham cracker crust. Chase loves that crust and they come with those nifty lids so it's easy for him to take home. Anyway, I don't know what I did wrong, but I made glue. The instructions for the filling say to cook and stir for 3 minutes after it comes to a boil. Well, after just 30 seconds it was unstirrable. I went ahead and put it in the crust and it was tearing up the crust, and it was so sticky I couldn't get the top smooth. I remember thinking a 1/2 cup of cornstarch seemed like a lot, but I put it in the fridge to set (as if....)

It sliced easily and of course it held together. We spent some time taking a nice picture. Then Chase took a bite and didn't say anything. I looked over at him and he said "It's like jello." And it was. It wasn't creamy at all. It was rubbery and so not what I had in mind. The lemon flavor was great, the texture was bad. Maybe my pan was too hot????

Here's what I will throw away, along with uneaten slices :(

I have a bird update. Two weeks ago 63 dead birds were found within a 3 block area of downtown. Two vet reports have come in and they both conclude that this particular flock of birds was infected with parasites. The birds had not eaten in approximately 2 days, and that, coupled with the drop in temperature overnight, caused their deaths. There was no bird flu or poison or fermented mistle toe - that was one of the rumors going around. The vets said the only thing unusual about this incident was that the birds ended up in the middle of downtown.

The bird incident was 2 Mondays ago, and I couldn't go to work until 2:00. Last Monday I went to work, then got sent home because our roof had collapsed in 2 spots. I'm wondering what I will walk into tomorrow.