i promise i'm not trying to turn this into a food blog. but when you are unemployed and at home most of the day, sometimes you just need to make something new to eat. so i made cupcakes.
actually, mini-cupcakes. these were alright, yep, just alright. something tasted off in the batter. oh well.
but i had HUGE success when i had my first go at making falafel the other night. i've gotten really into falafel lately, but i have yet to eat some that is amazing. so i took matters into my own hands, and made it myself. i followed this recipe , but instead of frying, i baked the falafel at 400 degrees until it started to brown. put it in some pita with hummus, lettuce, quinoa and pickles, and you have yourself a mighty fine sammich. or pitawhich. whatever, it was good.
besides baking and cooking a lot, my day usually consists of a pretty good workout. i've been waking up early and running 3-4 miles, then coming back and doing Jillian Michael's 30 day shred. I'm around day 15, and it's still kicking my butt. but the cats love when i put out the yoga mat.
last night eric and i had a FEAST for dinner. first up was the bok choy. we have tried bok choy one time, and really liked it, but had never prepared it ourselves. i prepped the bok choy by coating it in a mixture of oil, salt, pepper, soy sauce and some chili paste. then i put it back in the fridge for 15 or so minutes.
then we put it straight on the grill till the ends started to char some.
then i put it in some rice and added some more soy sauce. i felt like it definitely needed a little more soy sauce or salt, it was a little bland without it, but once i put some soy on the rice the bok choy became amazing. and i've been craving it since.
we also grilled some chinese sweet peppers.
and of course corn, and a mixture of potatoes, onion, peppers and jalapenos.
now i am going to go figure out some type of dessert to make. i'm thinking brownies...
this past weekend was a pretty big one in terms of firsts.
eric and i have been wanting to get a grill for a while, and we finally purchased one this weekend! we went with a really plain, charcoal one, nothing fancy here!
it was great to finally have a grill and to start cooking veggies.
we also moved our kitchen table out onto the deck so we could start eating out there. eventually we'll get a new kitchen table or a table for the deck, but for now we are just shuffling it in between.
another big first is we starting letting the cats outside! kitta marie is doing great, she loves being outside, and she wonders some, but usually just hangs out on the deck.
grissom is still a little timid, and really only likes being out there if eric or i are there.
and this is ms. white, a local stray. she doesn't bother kitta too much, but grissom doesn't like her being around.
and finally we went to the farmer's market for the first time. we picked up some great produce at really low prices.
this coffee cake is good. real good. so good, that this is the first dessert i have ever seen eric actively eat. and eat. and eat. i even caught him cutting off a large slice at 6:30 am tuesday morning.
well my mom wanted the recipe, and rachel wanted me to start posting recipes, so here goes!
cinnamon-walnut coffee cake from la dolce vegan topping: 1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tbsp vegan margarine 3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
cake: 1 1/2 cups flour 1/2 cup sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 3/4 cup faux sour cream (i used tofutti better than sour cream) 1/3 cup oil 1/2 cup soy milk (i used almond milk) 1 tsp vanilla extract
preheat over to 350 degrees. lightly oil an 8x8 inch baking pan and set aside. in a small bowl, stir together topping ingredients and set aside. in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. stir in the "sour cream", oil, "milk, and vanilla. pour evenly into baking pan then sprinkle topping evenly over the top. bake for 30-35 minutes.
eric and i have a fairly large closest, but we only have one closest. and it doesn't have a lot of hanging space. and i have a lot of clothes. we went to ikea last week to look at different options for more storage for our hanging clothes, specifically our jackets and hoodies since they are bulky. and we found a wardrobe that we both liked. eric assembled it last night. and for the record, i tried to help, but he sent me away.
taking it out of the box
almost finished putting it together
i was able to put all of our jackets and hoodies inside. grissom approves!
doors closed
and in other decorating news, i am starting to wonder what's the point of having a rug?
because without fail, this is what it looks like ALL the time. even if i lay it out, within a minute, this is happening.
we have internet! it took a while, and we still need to fix some things, but we actually have internet!
last thursday my mom and chase flew to philadelphia to visit the city and to bring my cats. i am so happy to have my cats back, and they are happy to be back with me. (HEAR THAT MOM, GRISSOM DOESN'T WANT TO LIVE WITH YOU)
i'd say their trip was a success and we did a lot of walking.
thursday: after they got in, we dropped the cats off and went to eat at honey's. it's a few blocks from my apartment, and i had been wanting to try it out. it's described as jewish/southern food. it was good!
after lunch we immediately started walking, and we headed to old city to see some historical stuff. i wanted mom and chase to get a feel for the city on this trip, so we didn't go to any of the museums, but just walked past them. i told them next time we can do more specific stuff.
then we walked to penn's landing so they could see new jersey.
that's new jersey across the bridge.
friday: friday morning we walked over to edgar allan poe's house. it's only a few blocks away, on a main street, and somehow i never even noticed it.
then we walked to chinatown.
and continued on into center city, where we saw city hall.
by this time we had covered some ground on our feet, so we stopped for lunch at marathon grill, for build your own salads!
but after lunch our walking continued. we walked over to love park, and for some reason my mom and never heard/seen it before.
i did get a picture of her with her favorite hobby.
we decided to continue walking over to art museum, and stopped at moore college of art and design, to see a bicycle exhibit they have right now.
and then we walked to the art museum.
the art museum also had a rocky statue.
i really wanted to make sure my mom was keeping up with her workouts. i wasn't sure if all the walking would be enough, so i made her run the rocky steps. and i videotaped it. chase is going to put music to it soon.
after all that walking, chase celebrated with a pretzel cone.
saturday: by this time we were all really tired of walking so much. so we decided to take the train. lucky for us, the station is only a block from my apartment.
and we walked down to rittenhouse.
and then we went to the punk rock flea market.
sorry for the large photo dump! now that i have internet i should be able to post more regularly. and i promise to take pictures of the apartment soon! it's a disaster right now because i've been cutting up magazines pages (to get my portfolio together, because someone has a second interview on monday!), and we just bought a wardrobe that we need to put together. but here is a photo of the back of our apartment, were you enter.
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