:Kalliope Lane

So even though I don’t have all of my school work done from the semester and I’m supposed to be punishing myself for that, I’ve signed up for a free class on Forward Motion. It’s the 2YN class, or Two Year Novel class, in which you walk through the process of planning, outlining, writing, editing, and then sending out a novel. Having deadlines helps me, as does having small assignments.
I’m so excited about the class and about my project! I’ve chosen a young adult story that doesn’t have any fantasy elements, which is new for me. I really love the idea and care about it, but it’s not The Pet Project that I’ve had simmering in my brain for several years. I need to save that for when I have more experience. Plus, I don’t have some major plot points figured out for that one yet.

Yay for new fun things in life!

Now on to the New Year’s menu. We made fun mushroom pate-filled potstickers as our first course. The wrappers in the regular grocery store aren’t vegan, but there are many vegan wonton and gyoza wrappers at a well-stocked Asian grocery. They were served on a bed of carmelized fennel and red onion that had been cooked in a beer reduction. We added dollops of wasabi “sour cream”. Very good!

These ended up being our main course as well because the quiche, which I mentioned in an earlier post, turned out to be a bit of a dud. First we had trouble with the pie crust. (We did not use the recipe from the quiche for the crust.) Once we got that fixed and baked it, we discovered that it didn’t have a quiche-like texture. There would be no slices cut from the thing because it was instead like a warm, gooey artichoke dip. It seemed like a lot of liquid while I was mixing it up, but being the poor chef that I am, I assumed that the liquid would magically cook off and it would transform itself into a vegan quiche. Not so. We scooped it out of the pie shell the next night and ate it as a warm artichoke dip w/ bread & crackers, and it was very tasty that way.

For dessert we had awesome brownies from The Chicago Diner Cookbook — my first truly great vegan brownies. Lots of egg replacer, but great fudgey, gooey texture. We served it with our Raspberry Vice Cream. (Note on the vice cream: we will use raw cashews next time to reduce the roasted nut flavor, but it was very rich and good.)

I read online that one of the traditional New Year’s dinners for good luck includes black-eyed peas for luck and cabbage for wealth. I was excited about this because I’d only known about pot roast, and that obviously wasn’t an option.

We made a delicious vegan version of the traditional Southern New Year’s dish, Hoppin’ John. It’s basically a rice pilaf w/ black-eyed peas. We added some chipotles for smokiness instead of ham and bacon. We added some Yves Veggie Canadian Bacon the second night to add more smoky bacony flavor. Tom liked it even better this way. I thought it was overwhelmingly smoky–my preference would have been for about 1/4 the amount, minced rather than diced, so as not to overshadow the rice and beans. We used brown rice, and cooked the black-eyed peas in the pressure cooker with a few cloves of garlic and a couple of sage leaves.

We sauteed up some cabbage sprouts as if they were collard greens, and had them on the side and mixed in with the dish. (Vegetarian Worchestershire Sauce, salt, garlic) This meal was so delicious! I want to make it all the time!

Ah, the holidays are over.
Tom lost two days off his trip home to his family due to the airline fiascos and the winter weather. It nearly ruined his trip and I felt so bad for him. On my end, I spent my last Christmas in the house I grew up in. My parents have sold it and will move into the new one in a few months. The new house is nice, but won’t be old, unique, and on the cliff of the lake. I’ll miss it terribly and I don’t even live there anymore. I can’t blame my mother for being devastated.

My big fun Christmas gift was a ridiculously expensive blender thing I’ve been eyeing for a while: the K-Tec Champ HP3, which is like the Vitamix, but better and usually cheaper. Mega horsepower, digital readout, programmable buttons. I like to say it can pulverize concrete. I’ve been making killer smoothies and turned cashews into whipped cream to make a frozen dessert (Vice Cream). It will blend apples and veggies into perfect smoothness, make nut butters, and will grind whole wheat berries into pastry flour like a grain mill. So much fun!

I got the extended version of The Return of the King, but Tom has to return/exchange it because it had two disc Fours and zero disc Threes. Bummer.

There were many, many other great gifts, too.