Felt Like Knitting

Book Giveaway and My Famous Husband

Hey everyone!  I hope you've been having a good week.  It was one of those weeks where things kept me busy, but at the end of each day I felt like I had accomplished nothing.  But today I will post and cross that off my "to do" list.  That should make me feel better.

First, thanks to everyone who left a comment on the book review post.  Using a random number generator, the winner is.......

 The first comment was left by Carole!  Congratulations!  Carole, let me know which email address you'd like me to give to the author.  You'll receive several updates through May 31, 2013.  I hope you enjoy the cookbook!

 

I had intended to do a complete Dragon*Con post showing all of the costumes that Steve and Emma wore.  But instead I'll just leave you with a video in which Steve is interviewed. (He's at 0:17 so you won't have to watch much of it.)  The question was "How do you avoid cosplay drama?" and he didn't know what the interviewer was talking about.  (Warning: not all the language is family friendly.)

 

(Apparently cosplay (costume play) drama is like any other drama, but it happens with the people dressing up at conventions.) 

Steve's outfit is the cabbage merchant from Avatar:  The Last Airbender TV series.  Apparently he was popular and had many people asking for his photo.  In the series, the merchant's cabbages always get ruined and he yells "My cabbages!"  People at Dragon*Con kept wanting to hear him say that.  Funny!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

Ten on Tuesday - Ten Favorite Sunday Dinners

Not really Sunday dinner, but I needed a photo!  :)

 
I have some good childhood memories about meals shared with my family on Sundays.  Things have changed now though and we usually eat out after church.  

1.  "Birthday dinner" - Whenever we met at my grandma's to celebrate my dad's and uncle's birthdays, we would have the same meal and it was dee-lish-ous!  We always had Swiss steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, baked apples and German Chocolate cake for dessert.

2.  Roast beef - I remember my mom making a roast many Sundays.  Roast beef, mashed potatoes, vegetables... yum!

3.  Pizza - I'm Italian on my mom's side and when we got together my grandpa would make the best pizza.

4.  Chicken - I also think that roasted chicken with mashed potatoes (are you seeing a theme here?) and corn is really yummy.

5.  Shish kabob - We often grill out on Sunday evenings and when we do, Emma likes to have shish kabob.  To make it easier to cook, we combine like things on the same skewers then get what we want after it's cooked.

6.  Rhea's special - This is our current tradition.  There is a great hamburger place near us and I usually get the Rhea's special and we share fries.  The special is a hamburger on Texas Toast.  I get it with everything on it.  So good but not so good for me. 

I'll stop here.  It's not quite ten items.  Maybe I need to bring back Sunday dinner and I'll use ideas I get from Carole and her Ten on Tuesday friends!

Don't forget about the cookbook giveaway!

Details on my cookbook review post.

 

Book Review and Giveaway: The Market Vegan

I currently eat meat, but I've been a vegetarian a few times in my life.  Once I tried eating a vegan diet, but I didn't eat the right things and I quickly felt yucky.  There was more I needed to know to keep myself healthy.

Lately I've become more interested in eating vegan meals.  I already make some vegan-friendly things like vegetable chili, but I would love to make desserts and casseroles that don't contain dairy products.  That would make me very happy.  And it would make me happy if my family would eat the same foods I want to eat.

Enter Laura Gesin and her e-cookbook called The Market Vegan:  A Collection of Vegan Home Tested Recipes.  I discovered Laura through her podcast, Apocalyptic Diner.  Her cookbook contains 33 recipes and includes recipes for creamy soups, baked goods and desserts and even quiche!  After trying several recipes, I know I'll be making more vegan meals from this great cookbook.

Stir fry made with tofu and vegetables 

I decided to first make a tofu stir fry using the Asian Style Tofu Marinade.  What a great idea to marinate the tofu before cooking with it!  Usually when I throw tofu into a stir fry, it doesn't take on much of the flavor of the sauce I add at the end.  Not so with this recipe.  The tofu had a great flavor.  I used some of the marinade to flavor the vegetables, too.  Served over Barilla PLUS pasta, this was a pretty healthy meal.  The only modification I will make next time is to use a little less vinegar.  It didn't taste bad, I just don't use a lot of vinegar in my cooking so the flavor was a bit strong for me.

Red Lentil Curry with Vegan "Naan"

Next up was Red Lentil Curry with Vegan "Naan."  I love lentils and pita bread, but I'm not a fan of dishes using curry powder so I wasn't sure if I'd like it.  The same is true of cilantro - a little goes a long way with me.  But I loved this dish!  The flavor was really good.  This was a quick cooking meal and I can see myself making it often.  

About using lentils:  I found out that not all lentils are created equal.  I shopped at my local grocery store instead of the natural foods store and my grocery store didn't stock red lentils.  The lentils I bought required a longer cooking time.  I definitely want to try red lentils the next time I cook this.

To fulfill my desire to make non-dairy dishes my family will eat, I made the Vegetable Casserole.  This dish combines potatoes and several other vegetables with a creamy sauce.  Another win!  This was very tasty and I can see my family eating this as a side dish.  It would be easy to experiment with other vegetables or maybe even use the sauce recipe in scalloped potatoes.  

Another thing I learned:  do not use whole wheat flour to thicken sauces.  If you are out of white flour, opt for cornstarch instead! 

Peanut Butter Pie

The dish I was most looking forward to making was the Peanut Butter Pie.  Since I'm lactose intolerant and most desserts include dairy products, I usually end up taking an enzyme when I eat dessert.  That is handy, but it can get expensive.  Problem solved!  This pie is delicious!  It has a nice texture and a great flavor.  

This pie sets up in the freezer.  I was so looking forward to trying it that I cut into it too early and it was more like pudding pie.  Steve thought it was okay, but he didn't like the texture.  The next night he had another piece and said it was really good!  And I shared it with a vegan friend at church.  He loved it and has asked for information on how to get the cookbook.

There are many more recipes I look forward to making from this book like Eggplant & Italian Bread "Lasagna," Vegetable Lo Mein, and Pumpkin Scones.  And it will be easy to make them.  The recipes don't take much time to make and they call for common ingredients found in most stores.  The vegan products like cream cheese, cheddar cheese and almond milk were easy to find at my local grocery store.

This is my first time using an e-cookbook and I have to admit that I printed it out before I even thought about putting it on my Kindle Touch.  So much for trying to be "with it"...  Even though it's designed for the Kindle Fire (and Nook, iPad, PC and Mac), I found that it was pretty easy to see in landscape mode once I finally put it on the Touch.  I found the type to be a little small in portrait mode, but that could just be my eyes or the fact that the Touch is smaller than the Fire.

Another great thing about this book is that purchasers will get three updates between now and May 31, 2013.  How cool is that?  I can't wait to see what else Laura creates!  She plans to revamp the table of contents to include sections for recipe types and she may be including page numbers for people like me who may want to print it.  

I totally recommend this cookbook!  To get your copy, go to Laura's website, VoxPopNJ.com, and you will see the cookbook on the right sidebar.  Laura was kind enough to give me a free review copy and since I loved the cookbook, I want to pass on a free electronic copy of this cookbook to one lucky reader.  

Please leave a comment on this blog post about why you want to try vegan recipes,  a favorite vegan dish you have already tried or even just "I'd love to try this cookbook!"  Comments will remain open until Friday, September 14, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern when I will use a random number generator to select a winner.  I will announce the winner here on that day.  Good luck!  And happy cooking!

Exercise motivation: Podcasts!

I think you know that I herniated a disc in March.  Since then I've been doing back stretches and exercises that my physical therapist taught me.  They've become boring, but I still have to make myself do them twice a day.  So I've developed a routine that keeps me motivated:

Warm up:  Lie on my stomach with the heating pad on my back.  I use this time to read.  In the morning I do my Bible study and in the afternoon I read the latest book club selection.

Exercises:  Podcast time!

Ice (if needed):  Knitting

I wanted to listen to some new (to me) podcasts, specifically those which include more of my interests, and I've been enjoying the following:

iMake (multi-craft, some tech, recorded in Guernsey)

Apocalyptic Diner (knitting, vegan, tech)

CraftLife (knitting, cooking, music)

Shinybees (knitting, South African travel and culture)

Twin Needle (knitting, sewing, Denmark, Germany)

2 Knit Lit Chicks (knitting, reading)

These podcasters mention other podcasts I want to try, so soon I will have so much to listen to that I may end up exercising 24/7.  :)

Which podcasts do you enjoy (knitting or other)?

Please come back tomorrow for a book review and giveaway!

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Things I Love About September

September leaf

1.  It's Steve's birthday month!

2.  The weather begins to be cooler and less humid.

3.  I can start getting fall decorations out!

4.  And soon we can start eating more "fall food" - more soup, stew, etc.

5.  School starts... for some people.  Some schools here have already been in for a month.  But I still think of September as the month to go back to school.

6.  The leaves are beginning to change.

7.  The knitting gets even better!

8.  It's okay to pull out my fall scented candles now.  I have a hard time finding summer candles that aren't too flowery.  There is never a problem with fall candles!

9.  That football feeling...  After I was out of college, I would get this "football feeling" on crisp Saturday mornings.  It made me want to be back at the stadium at school, watching the game.  (Speaking of football, did you watch the VT /GT game last night?  The Jackets were sooo close to winning!  It was definitely an exciting game.)

10.  I can start to wear my fall/winter wardrobe again.  It's much better than my spring/summer wardrobe because it includes shawls and scarves!  :)

To share your thoughts, join the fun over at Carole's blog!

 

New knit!

Kureyon Sock in S236

Tosh Merino Light in Badlands

is becoming

 Spectra!

I'm a little concerned about the Kureyon Sock.  

1 - There isn't a lot of contrast yet.  I think I'll have the scarf 1/3 of the way done before I get to the bright colors, so I won't be sure for awhile.  That's a lot of knitting before I decide if I'm happy or not.

2 - The Kureyon is a little lighter than the Silk Garden Sock called for in the pattern and it's knitting up a little loosely.  When I block it, you'll really be able to tell.  (I just started grabbing Noro at the store and didn't pay attention to what I was buying.  I think I was mesmerized by the colors!)  My gauge on the Tosh is a little tight but I can't go up a needle size because of the Kureyon.  The fabric looks good and feels good, but I'm not at the recommended gauge.

So what do you think?  Keep going or wait until the store opens back up on Tuesday and check out the Silk Garden Sock (if they have it!)?

Please excuse the photos.  The camera is at Dragon*Con with Steve and Emma.  More about that later!