Yesterday the sun was shining again. We walked the dog, and then I felt all inspired to do homey things. I started by sweeping leaves and then planted some new lettuces. That was enough outdoorsy stuff for me! I retreated to the kitchen to find something delicious to make for dinner.
I had no ideas for dinner. The family all suggested pasta, but I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for our usual pasta sauces. Then Vegan MOFO saved the day… I opened up my Feedly RSS feed and the first post to pop up was Veganopoulous’s post on Lentil-a-roni from Isa Does It. Bingo!
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I felt a bit like a the naughty kid wagging school today. I’ve been working longer hours than usual while we finish off a big project. I turned up at work today (which is normally my day off), only to find that by midday there was nothing further I could do for the day. Colour me gone!
I’d never had a lot of luck browning tofu…or tempeh or burgers. I usually seemed to leave half the tofu stuck to my ‘non-stick’ pan when I flipped it over with my thick plastic spatula – so when I got Isa Does It, and read that Isa recommends a cast iron pan for frying tofu, I was itching to give it a try.
Last week, temperatures in Melbourne crept up 44° Celsius (about 111°F for those who measure temperature in Fahrenheit) during a heatwave that lasted for 4 days, but seemed much longer!
It’s always tricky to cook and eat when your head is foggy, you’re dripping with sweat and can barely move, but we had further complications – H, my 17-year-old daughter, had mouth surgery, including wisdom teeth extractions, so anything crunchy was definitely out.
I thought Veganomicon was supposed to be the ‘ultimate vegan cookbook’, but I think it may have been deposed.
I know I was probably the last vegan in the world to get my copy, but I’m absolutely loving Isa Does It! Before it arrived last month, I’d been imagining it to be a soft-covered book of about 100 pages – one of those cookbooks that are a bit like a thick magazine. It was such a lovely surprise to rip the package open and find a beautiful, big, hard-cover book with gorgeous colours and photos and illustrations.
Melbourne really turned it on for Christmas this year. After a miserable week, we finally got some amazing weather.
Now Christmas is over, and I’m chillin’ on the verandah with a soda water. The dog is roaming around the sunny garden, and I thought this would be a good time to catch up on a bit of blogging. Christmas didn’t turn out exactly as I’d planned, but it was very relaxing, a lot of fun, and way too much great food was devoured by all.
The Lentil Institution 