New Orleans Part 3

We thought Jackson and Olivia would enjoy riding the ferry across the river to Algiers and back, so we walked down to the waterfront, where we trekked past a huge fountain and a shopping mall in search of the ferry building.

Inside the pretty ferry building. Then Jackson and Olivia had to go potty, so we trekked back across the plaza and into the shopping mall, and then back to the ferry building.

But the ferries run every few minutes, so no worries. We made it on board.

The kids loved the boat ride.

Watching the waves.

From Algiers Point, a nice view of New Orleans. 

Loved this exuberant Louis Armstrong statue. 

Waiting to head back. So hot.

When we got back on dry land it was daiquiri time! We had dinner at the Olde NOLA Cookery on Bourbon St.

I had fried eggplant with aioli, and a Greek salad.

The kids had fettucine alfredo with veggies. I had such a craving for vegetables, I was scooping up whatever veggies they didn't eat from their pasta.

Tony ordered some alligator bites and shared with the kids. I was surprised that they tried it and even more surprised that they liked it!

Back to the apartment and immediately to the pool.

Boiling water...for brushing teeth, washing hands, sponge baths. I was extremely grateful we chose to stay at an Airbnb. If we'd been in a hotel, with no stove, we would've had to check out because we would have had zero access to clean water.

That evening it rained, and I was also grateful for the daiquiri go-cup.

Sway

Tony and I had a "date lunch" over the weekend while the kids visited my parents. 

We ate at Sway, a fancy Thai restaurant. When I say fancy, check out the restaurant interior by clicking that link. The design is beautiful. Not kitschy like some Thai places. We had the option of communal seating or window bar. We sat at the bar, with a view of the dreary, rainy sky and one of the moon towers.

I started with the po-pea jay, a vegetable spring roll with tomato chutney. I admired the slab-of-rock presentation. The roll was good, a little dry.

Sway brings out dishes as they are ready so I got my side of baby bok choy with toasted garlic, before my entree. I love bok choy and it was sauteed to perfection.

I ordered the green curry with tofu, eggplant, fingerling potato, peas, Thai basil, hot peppers, and more of that toasted garlic that seemed to garnish every dish. The server warned me this was one of the spiciest dishes and I thought, "Bring it on!" Well, it was a challenge! The curry was delicious, but you know how a curry's heat intensifies when it sits overnight? I was actually afraid to bring home leftovers because I wouldn't be able to eat it if it got any hotter! Luckily I was able to eat it all at the restaurant, haha.

Kosmic Kombucha is a local company and they make a special kombucha just for Sway, with Thai flavors like coconut water, ginger, and lemongrass. It was the perfect drink to wash everything down!

Truly out-of-the-ordinary flavors and experience, we'll be back for sure.

Georgetown

It's official, my parents are buying a house about 40 minutes from us, in Georgetown. They will get the keys in a couple weeks. This weekend, Tony and I decided to visit Georgetown and get a feel for the area. Jackson and Olivia napped in the car while we drove around. When they woke up, we stopped by a fun playground.

 

 

After the kids worked up an appetite, we ate at the Monument Cafe. The building resembles an old-timey diner, the type we saw everywhere when we lived in New York state.

 

While we perused the menus, our server brought us each a giant, fluffy biscuit.

 

I ordered the garden sandwich -- a big slab of cornmeal-crusted fried eggplant, tomato, mushrooms, avocado, swiss cheese, and sprouts, served on hippie wheat bread, with a side of housemade potato chips. Tony hates eggplant, so I could never get away with making a sandwich like this at home. I savored every bite -- it was a great sandwich!

 

When I saw "key lime pie" on their daily specials board, I knew I had to order a slice. Even though it's my favorite type of pie, key lime pie is another thing that I never make at home. Tony doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, so I'd end up having to eat most of it by myself. When it comes to key lime pie, I lack the restraint that such a scenario would call for.

 

Divine! Jackson and Olivia "helped" me finish it off. I didn't really need help, but we always tell them it's important to share, so I felt I had to set a good example. It was tough!

CSA - Our First Box!

Much to my delight, we've finally joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) program with Johnson's Backyard Garden. We are getting a box every two weeks to start with. Here is the first week's bounty!

I'll break it down -- sweet potato greens, spinach, basil, okra, eggplants, butternut squash, pattypan squash, summer squash, onions, potatoes, hot and sweet peppers, bell peppers, and cucumber.

We started out by slicing some hot peppers on a frozen pizza.

Then I planned my weekly meals based on the veggies we recieved, and went grocery shopping. This is a new method of meal-planning for me, but I think I can get used to it.

One evening I made a lovely Mediterranean feast, full of farm-fresh vegetables.

I made hummus topped with more of those wonderful hot peppers.

I made a pesto quinoa salad using basil, onions, and cucumber, as well as tomatoes from our own garden.

I roasted the eggplants and made some lovely baba ganoush, sprinkled liberally with smoked paprika.

Finally, I sauteed the sweet potato greens with garlic and a pinch of salt.

It was all so good. I'd never eaten sweet potato greens before in my life. That's one benefit of joining a CSA -- getting to try veggies you've never even seen at the supermarket!

Another benefit is that, when you pick up your box, you know everything is fresh, having just been harvested at the farm -- possibly that very morning. Also, it feels good to have my money going to local farmers. Local food is becoming more important to me, as I learn about the necessity of helping the local economy and reducing environmental pollution by cutting down food transportation costs.

I was feeling under the weather today. Tony has passed his summer cold on to me. For some reason, summer colds make me so much  more miserable than winter illnesses. To aid my recuperation, I made one of my all-time favorite comfort food recipes -- the Chard Florentine from Vegan Yum Yum. Except, I used spinach instead of chard, since that's what came in the CSA box.

Are you a CSA member?

Vegan Heritage Press is hosting a giveaway of several of their awesome cookbooks -- check it out!

Some Food I Made This Week

I haven't felt much like cooking this week. It's hot out and stuff.  But here are a couple of dinners that I managed to put together and felt worthy of committing to blog-memory.

Cooking out -- veggie burgers, corn with garlic butter, grilled peaches.

Spelt crust pizza with cashew cheeze, tomatoes, basil from my garden, and grilled corn left over from the night before.

I made another batch of kale chips in the dehydrator, this time using Averie's recipe. I've made them in the oven before, but this way is so much better. Oven chips have to be eaten right away or they get soggy, but these keep in the fridge for days. My dehydrator cost $60 and it's going to pay for itself in kale chips, in no time at all.

I had a couple of dehydrator failures this week as well. I tried making the rye bread and corn tortillas from Ani's Raw Food Essentials. After ten hours of dehydrating, they were still goopy and messy, and tasted pretty gross. I don't own a fancy Excalibur dehydrator like Ani uses, so maybe something was lost there. But I did get good results with her eggplant bacon.  I'm looking forward to having it on BLT's for lunches this week.

Thoughts on dehydrating so far...it's nice to not have to turn the oven on or mess up any pots and pans. But it's labor-intensive in other ways. Cashews have to be pre-soaked in bowls. The food processor gets used a lot. And the dehydrator screens must be cleaned after use. So there is still dishwashing to be done. Also, pre-planning is a must. If you think you might want some kale chips for lunch tomorrow, you best get on that tonight. And don't wait too long because you can't leave the dehydrator running and go to bed!

 I hope today is less eventful than yesterday. A guy hit my car in the H-E-B parking lot. He backed into me and I couldn't go anywhere because there was another car right behind me. Luckily, me and the kids are totally fine and there is just a minor scrape on my bumper. The man was Canadian, so of course he apologized like 20 times and that was actually kind of funny.

 

Tasty Testers

Before I moved, Krys from Two Vegan Boys sent me some recipes to test for her. I knew they would be great because her meals always look so yummy. It took awhile, but after settling into my new kitchen, I got around to making them.

First, some sweets. Coconut chocolate mint pudding, and chocolate raspberry pancakes.

The pudding was made with coconut milk. So creamy and rich.  The pancakes were gobbled up by Jackson and Olivia. Fresh raspberries on top -- how could anyone resist?

Next, some potato corn chowder made in the slow cooker. Vegan sausage was added to make it extra-hearty. I used Field Roast Apple Sage sausage. It was my first time trying a Field Roast sausage. It's no big thing to make my own sausage at home, but I have to say these links were really good.

My favorite of the bunch was a curried eggplant casserole. There's a layer of mixed veggies, topped with eggplant slices, covered with a soy yogurt curry sauce, and baked in the oven. I served it with basmati rice. Even Tony, who fears eggplant, admitted that this was good stuff. And, to my surprise, baby Olivia ate a big helping. You never know what little ones will end up liking, so I always let them try everything.

Are you doing any recipe testing at the moment? Or have you tried out a new recipe from any source, that you enjoyed?

This morning we are going to check out toddler storytime at our local library. I'm a librarian by profession, so I am a big supporter of public libraries! Then I have to fill out some paperwork to get Jackson enrolled in daycare. He will go part-time, two days a week, and he is not starting until September, but I still get a little teary-eyed thinking about it. Such a big step for my buddy. I'm used to having him around all the time. But I know he is ready. We toured the school yesterday and he blended right in. He loves to play with other kids. I'll be the one crying when I drop him off on that first day, not him!

Any fun plans this weekend? We are going to IKEA to get some stuff for the house. It's still looking kinda bare. When you move from a two-bedroom apartment into a two-story home, it's going to look bare, I guess. I'm not really looking forward to it. IKEA can be overwhelming. It's a huge store. If it gets to be too much, we will go back for the rest some other time. No hurry. On Sunday, we are taking Monster to a Boston Terrier meetup and then I am taking some goodies to the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale. I've never been to a vegan bake sale, so I'm looking forward to bringing home some yummy treats. I haven't decided yet what to bake. Any ideas?

Have a great weekend!

An Assortment of Appetite for Reduction Recipes

I don't own Eat, Drink and Be Vegan, so for this week's PPK Cookbook Challenge, I turned to a recent acquisition in my cookbook library -- Appetite for Reduction.

Early in the week, I did a bit of prep work. I made the Basic Baked Tofu and the Sweet and Salty Baby Maple Carrots, and I also cooked some quinoa and bulgur.

(Let's just pretend those little feet in the corner aren't there, and I'm not the mom who lets her son sit barefoot on the dining room table.)

I hoped that the carrots would be a good snack for Jackson, but he wanted nothing to do with them.  Fortunately, Tony and I liked them and they did not go to waste.

So, the first meal we had was the Caesar Salad with Eggplant Bacon. Eggplant bacon, you say? Yep.

Tony the eggplant-hater recoiled in horror. More for me! Although the eggplant didn't really crisp up like bacon, the smoky flavor reminded me of baba ganoush made from grilled, charred eggplants, and I appreciated the extra note of flavor that the "bacon" added to my salad.

I made a double batch of the Caesar Chavez dressing so I could use it the next day on Mediterranean Bowls.

The dressing made a nice sauce over the bulgur, roasted cauliflower, baked tofu, and chickpeas.

Finally, another bowl -- the Supergreen Bowl, with Green Goddess Garlic Dressing.

Chock full of quinoa, edamame, and steamed broccoli. I love using the entire broccoli. If your broccoli stalks seem tough, just peel off the tough outer layer with a vegetable peeler. Then, thinly slice the stalks, and they will steam to tender perfection along with your florets.

My verdict on the bowls was...hmm, I don't know if bowls are for me. The grains seem to soak up the dressing and dilute its flavor. But I loved both the Caesar Chavez and Goddess dressings, and will use them on salads in the future.

Next week is free choice week on the Cookbook Challenge, and I'll be cooking from Robin Robertson's Vegan on the Cheap.

Yesterday I received something in the mail...

Soy curls! Liz at Vegan Food Rocks did a giveaway, and I won these. Soy curls are not sold locally, so I am really excited to have this opportunity to try them out! Thanks, Liz! I think I'm going to make tacos. Have you tried soy curls? Any suggestions on what else to make with them?