Renaissance Faire, Foods

Sunday was our one-year anniversary.. Chris took me to the Renaissance Faire - woohoo! It was a surprise so I didn't have time to get a fun outfit.. but I think I looked OK. Heck yes I got my face painted

We got a wax mold of our hands.. mine's red and his is blue. We're Superman!

The stocks!

We took a tour through that dungeon in the background to look at medieval torture devices.. terrible stuff!

Yesterday afternoon I made a peach pie. I made the filling from fresh peaches that my Mom picked over the summer and I had just frozen it since then. So I thawed it out and - voila! Pie!
Tonight for dinner my little bro come over so Michelle and I made this meal from a recipe her aunt had. (Her aunt is a vegetarian.) It's a tempeh stir-fry in a teryaki-peanut sauce, I'll put up the recipe in a little bit. It was great!
Now I must go - LA Ink is on tonight!

Family and a Present!

Well I had a busy "fall break!" On Saturday I went to work like usual, then my sister and I came back here to West Chester to watch Ben perform with the marching band at the football game. After the game the three of us drove down to DC to visit my Grandma. We got there pretty late so we just went to bed, and Sunday we got up and went to Asylum for the vegan brunch! It was pretty cool, the atmosphere was.. interesting. It was pretty much a twenty-something crowd with lots of tattoos and dark clothing.. so the three of us there with our Grandma seemed a little out of place. But the food was so cool!

The other side of the menu had a regular brunch, but my family played along and all ordered vegan things! Here's what I got, the vegan breakfast wrap. It has tofu scramble, cheese black beans and home fries wrapped up inside. Yum.
Grandma got the huevos rancheros, she said it was really spicy, but good! We all cleaned our plates haha.

Christine got the chili cheese tofu scramble.. she thought the texture of the tofu was a little off, but it tasted good. I think she was just expecting eggs.

Ben got the breakfast sandwich. It has soysage and tofu scramble on it. He said it was good but he thinks that the faux meats are always over compensated. Like before he said smart dogs were TOO hot doggy.. if that makes any sense. Like the attempt at getting the true flavor was overpowering.

After that we went to the Renwick gallery to check out the quilt exhibit.. we're big quilters. :-D I got inspired.. I want to start something!
And we had to leave that night because Christine didn't have fall break and had to get back to school on Monday. Here's the whole gang! Grandma, Ben, Christine and me. We're just missing our other brother, Nick.. he's Christine's twin. But he couldn't make it. Yar.

When I got back I had a surprise! Bazu sent me this vegan chocolate bar.. she must know about my coffee addiction... I feel so badly though! This was a thankyou for donating when she did the Walk for Farm Animals.. but I'm a college kid.. I only gave a measley ten dollars! Bazu it probably cost you that much to send this.. you shouldn't have!All in all it's been a grand week!

Wednesday Dinner

Firstly, Monday, October 15th is blog action day! Blogger's everywhere will unite to bring one important topic to everybody's mind. This year it is:: the environment! So head over to the website and check it out.

Secondly.. tonight for dinner we had pan-fried tofu that I had marinated overnight, roasted veggies, and couscous. This meal was omni boyfriend and roommate approved! Pat (Michelle's boyfriend) couldn't make it for dinner tonight but I bet even he would have liked it.. and he's a real meat man.

This weekend I'm going with my sister and my little bro to visit our Grandma. She lives right outside of DC, so on Sunday morning we're going to have brunch at Asylum! I'm pretty excited, Chris and I didn't get a chance to go there on our vacation over the summer. You guys should check out their brunch menu and give me suggestions! Huevos rancheros?

VACATION!

So on Friday we went to Harrisburg, and helped Chris' sister and her boyfriend move into their new apartment. They've got a really nice place.We left on Sunday and headed for Baltimore!

My favorite fish at the aquarium was the perching fish. It really perched on the coral!After Baltimore we went to DC and stayed with my Grandma. Monday was the Holocaust museum, the Renwick gallery and lots of walking. We took a break on a bench and saw it as a good photo op..On Tuesday we stopped at Sticky Fingers bakery! Chris got a blueberry muffin.My Grandma got some sort of almond muffin..And I got a sausage and egg sandwich and a mocha latte. Mmmm..We went to the Hirschorn museum.. at Bazu's suggestion. It was probably even my favorite place.
And we had lunch at a little place called the Wellness Cafe. Chris and I split the "Totally Vegan" burrito.
And we got ABC cookies for dessert!
That day we also went to the National Museum of the American Indian and learned about my people! Haha. Oh and also the Air and Space museum. That night we met my aunt and uncle for dinner at Yuan Fu, a vegetarian restaurant in Rockville, MD. We got three appetizers. This is a taro root ball, and in the background is fried mushrooms.
And these were uhm.. curry dumplings. They tasted really curry-y.This was seaweed salad. Not too bad. Chewy..
My aunt and uncle shared the fish filet.I got the kung pao beef!
Chris got sesame chicken.
Grandma got chicken steak portabello.
And my cousin got something called jade rolls.

On Wednesday Chris and I came back to West Chester, went grocery shopping, and then made some cookies! From my recipe here. We filled them with vanilla Soy Delicious and had ice cream cookie sandwiches for dessert. He made me spaghetti for dinner :)

Tomorrow I will be 2-0! Chris is working all day, but my family is coming out to West Chester to hang for a little bit and have dinner.

Oh yes, and did I tell you all that my little bro Ben just moved into the dorms here at WCU last weekend?? He'll be a freshman music ed major here on trombone, but he's hoping to switch to music composition. I'm excited :-D

"Meat" and Potatoes

Well I work 9-5 every weekday, and Chris usually works nights. So lately when he happens to work 9-5 too he'll come over for dinner afterwards. And I usually just do a veggie stirfry or something. But the other day he told me vegetables don't fill him up! Well.. YAR! So last night I made a manly "meat" and potatoes meal! (Sorry about the crappy picture.)

It's the same chik'n type thing I made a little while ago, with roasted potatoes and a cucumber/tomato/onion side salad. I think he liked it OK :-)

Ooh and my next exciting news!! Chris is taking me on vacation for my birthday, yayyyy. Tonight we are leaving for Harrisburg to see his parents and help his sister move into her new apartment. I'll give her that quilt I made.. which I'll have to remember to photograph and show you guys. Then on Sunday we're going to spend the day in Baltimore, and then it is off to Washington DC for three days to see some museums (and of course check out the veg eats!) I'm totally going to Sticky Fingers hehe. So I should have a good post after that trip I hope.

Yayyy I turn 20 on August 25th. Ugh.. two days before SCHOOL starts again. Junior year, here I come. Well.. I'm at work so I better get to it. See you guys later!

Family Vacation (Pt. 1)

My family is on vacation for the first time in 7 years! We've been in Virginia Beach since Wednesday afternoon. Last night we went to a neat restaurant in nearby Norfolk called Amalfi Ristorante. It's an Italian place with a ton of vegan/vegetarian items on the menu. I got the Roasted Vegetable Risotto with Vegan Sausage. There were red peppers, artichokes and mushrooms in there. Very neat.



Christine (the vegetarian sister) had Penne alla Vodka that she said was excellent. And then I had to get the vegan raspberry cheesecake of course! It was pretty neat, I'd like to try making a cheesecake myself sometime. (I got it to go, as you can see.. I'm sure it looked much prettier before the car ride.)



Tonight for dinner we went to Waterman's Beachwood Grill right here on the main strip. Christine and I split the Morrocan Hummus Platter, it was excellent. Their pita bread was awesome.



We also found a very cool health food store and cafe called The Heritage. They had an awesome bulk foods aisle. All the mixes that might be questionable (and that we would normally have to read the ingredients for) had labels that said vegan if they were. It was awesome, and I got one called Maple Nut Deluxe. Below is a picture of the labeling, cool huh? Christine and I also got the Peanut Butter Blast smoothie in the cafe, it was natural pb, banana, soymilk, honey and vegan chocolate (I got mine with no honey.) Very awesome!



Oh yes, and one more thing. We found a grocery store a little further away called The Fresh Market that was great. About half the store was fresh fruits and vegetables. They had a really large dried fruit and nuts section too. I got some food from the bulk aisle.. a Wasabi Rice Mix, and Oriental Rice Mix and a mix called Mexicali Fire. A very cool place. I also got a Luna tea. I'll show you guys later.


Well here's me and the little brother during some night beach frisbee.


And here.. Christine and myself. I don't have any good pictures of me and Nick yet. He's Christine's twin. Haha and don't worry, it ends there, there's only four of us kids!


Now I'm off to bed.. tomorrow we are heading to Annapolis, MD, and Sunday we're going to my cousin's high school graduation party. More later!

New York City

Today I went to NYC with my brother, sister, and her boyfriend.
Here's me and my bro at the MoMA!

For lunch we went to Bunchberries, this little cafe. I got a grilled tofu wrap with wheatberries, black beans, romaine lettuce and a thai peanut-lime sauce. The orange thing is a sweet potato which wasn't in the description but.. showed up in there anyway!

Been Gone Too Long

Ahh! A whole week since the last post. Well, I've been in Nebraska visiting relatives for pow wow. While I was there I wasn't able to do much cooking, but I did do some variations on the oat bars. It mostly involved bananas, which turned out fantastic!

In any case, as a result of the vacation I don't have much else to post, not even MwM. But hopefully this week will bring about some good cooking. I leave you with a shot of me at pow wow.