pretend like it's the weekend

pancakes make me think of those beautiful two days in between friday and monday, when all your cares dissappear into the morning sunlit-streamed air and the hours pass by all too quickly in their wonderous no-work-or-school-ness.

of course, if you're a working musician like me (9 to 5 job? what's that?), every day is the weekend, practically. and that means that when you find yourself waking up in your childhood bed in your parents' house after a hometown show, you can have pancakes on a thursday morning.


easy pancakes
(4 servings)
2 1/2 C. flour
2 T sugar
2 T baking powder
1 T veg. oil
1 t salt
2 1/2 C. soymilk
(if batter is too thick, add a bit more)
dash cinnamon

- mix dry ingredients
- add wet and lightly mix until combined (don't over stir)
- let stand 2-3 minutes, then fold into itself 2-3 times
- cook on lightly greased skillet on medium to medium high heat until golden

i found this recipe over at vegan represent and i will never go back to another pancake recipe, EVER. these pancakes are so light and fluffy and delicious, and the thing i love most about them is how simple they are. no egg replacer, no flaxseed, no other "weird" vegan ingredients needed. if you're away from home and have got yourself a carton of soymilk and a *semi-proficiently stocked baker's cupboard, you're set...

AND:
- for extra awesomeness, add sliced bananas or blueberries or even (gasp!) chocolate chips on top of the pancakes as they're cooking
- for extra, EXTRA awesomeness, top with peanut butter.
(oh yes, you heard me. although, i decided to go "old school" with the vegan margarine and real maple syrup this morning)


(i don't mean *YOU, mom. you're more than a semi-proficient baker, of course.)

summa, summa, summa'time

a lovely dinner for the first day of summer! i accidentally put 1/2 teaspoon instead of a pinch of cayenne in this cold carrot curry soup recipe i got from the latest issue of herbivore magazine, so i was pretty much a mad scientist in the kitchen with my blender, a bunch of carrots, and other spices--scheming like mad to get it to make a soup that wasn't as hot as the depths of hell. in the end it worked out pretty well! a nice, cold soup for a nice, hot day.

















creamy curried carrot soup (raw)
3 large carrots, chopped
2 cups water
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 bunch fresh cilantro, cleaned and stems chopped off, save
2 T to garnish
1 t curry powder
1 t ground cumin
2 ripe avocados, seeded
2 t fresh ginger, minced
1 t lemon juice
pinch cayenne (um...yeah)
1 t salt
freshly ground pepper to taste

in a blender, place carrots and water and blend until smooth
add other ingredients (and more water if you want the soup to turn out a little less thick), process until creamy and all the spices are incorporated
chill or serve at room temperature, garnish with cilantro

to compliment our slightly spicy (oops) soup, we had a fresh salad






















and let's not forget dessert. i know i never do.

brown baggin' it

so i had another day of (cough-hellish-cough) substitute teaching. everytime i am sent into the firing squad (aka: 6th graders) i come out (barely alive) with a continually deepening respect for the crazy people (teachers) who dedicate thier lives to thankless rearing of other citizens' horribly-raised spawns. it's a tough life! no wonder the teachers i see never have super awesome brown bagged lunches like me. they should have a program: FEED THE TEACHERS! they seriously need better food for these noble public servants. corndogs in the cafeteria, are you kidding me?

anyway, yesterday i brought with me a little "mediterranean inspired" paper sack of lunchtime goodness: a pita filled with tabouli, hummus, and spinach leaves. some niblet carrots from my garden (the little ones that didn't grow long because they were so close together because i had no idea what i was doing and didn't respace them after they started growing. oops. )for dessert: three pitted dates and two juicy plums from the farmer's market (you can even see them glistening in thier ripened glory!)



yum.


i saw all the teacher's eyeing my majestic meal of hippie proportions. i wanted to offer them some but was afraid that if i said the word "tabouli" they would think i am a witch, like these people do.

lazy day lunch

a nice, easy lunch for a lazy sunday.

half a sandwich with whole wheat sprouted grain ezekiel bread, hummus, grated carrots (from my garden), and thinly sliced cucumbers.

those pale yellow little worm-shaped wonders you see on the side are tings, a vegan version of cheetos. i never was a kid who went super ape for those latter-mentioned neon orange fritters, but i've been won over by tings: light, salty, crunchy--everything a snack chip should be. (and good for you, too! or so says the product packaging, which always tells the truth, right?)

rounding out the meal there's a juicy nectarine i got at the hillcrest farmer's market, and some organic apple juice.