Oh For the Love of Carrots!

The title of this post can be spoken with different inflections and the meaning will change. My son will say it with an exasperated surly tween voice, or just sigh and roll his eyes. Carrots are the only vegetable I can get him to eat on a regular basis without him gagging. It's a constant struggle to get him to eat anything remotely healthy. Carrots, for the moment, are it.

My husband will eat them if they are there. He finally admitted, after about 10 years of marriage, that he does not like cooked carrots. Glad I knew that...

My daughter and I on the other hand, LOVE carrots. She will eat them cooked, but prefers them raw. I will eat them cooked or raw, but there is one way I will not eat them;
CANDIED.

Candied carrots are just wrong. In my opinion, carrots need to be raw, steamed, saute'd, sometimes in a cake, or nothing at all.

I find that most people either love them or abhor them, but the first vegan recipe I decided to try/make up while lying awake in the middle of the night, is...Curry Roasted Carrot Soup.

Now there may be something like this already out there, but I honestly did not look this up online.

Here's what I bought;

A bundle of whole carrots
Fresh Garlic
White Onion
Veggie Stock

Things I had:

Curry powder (the yellow kind found in every grocery, though I think any kind will work)
Kosher salt
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

What I did:

Chop the veggies roughly into same size pieces (4 big carrots, 2 large cloves of garlic, 1 small onion)
Roast said veggies with EVOO, 1 t curry powder, and salt in a 400 degree oven (my fav. temp) turning every so often to even the color.
Puree the veggies (add 1C veg stock to help with this process)
Press the puree through a sieve to remove any chunks though it will still have texture after you do
Stir the veggie stock (additional 1C) into the puree until you get the consistency you like (I also added 1C of water)

I served this warmed with a side of mashed avocado with salt and lime on Triscuit crackers.


Today was cold and rainy and this was the perfect lunch to warm me up. The curry compliments the carrots perfectly and the color is nice and sunny, especially on a gloomy day like today.

Give this a try, tweak it to your liking and let me know what you think.

Danna

"Vegan hotel breakfast in Prague"

(A post from Kristy all the way from Prague!)

(Vltava River via Paddle Boat)

I'm lucky enough to be visiting Prague this first week of October, and extra lucky that the friends I am traveling with "know somebody" with a connection to the Marriott, and secured a fancy suite for each of us.  The hotel does a really nice breakfast spread which is mostly continental.  It includes juices and teas, one steam tray with hard boiled eggs staying warm while resting on a bed of salt, and a pile of tight little sausages, which even the omnivores in my midst are pointedly ignoring.  Aside from that, they have a load of breads and fruit, a cheese-and-cold-cuts tray, pickled onion and gherkins, cereal bar and a schmantsy automated coffee maker.

My beautiful vegan breakfast today is: dried apricots, fresh fruit salad, cherry tomato, mixed nuts, caraway roll, baby gherkin pickles, and a banana, with a cup of espresso. I should think about trying to eat so well at home.



This is not the first trip to Prague for any of us. (I visited the city briefly in the late '90s, and my boyfriend and our friends lived here for several years in the early/mid 90s.) So it has been interesting to start the MoFo in this beautiful city whose strongest culinary impression on me, as a vegetarian, was previously the entree "smažený sýr" (fried cheese).  It's a treat to get to fill up at breakfast with such a colorful and nutrient packed plate before heading out to a more traditional Czech world where I anticipate mostly potato and cabbage. Truth be told, I am finding the food here much improved since I was here a decade or so ago.  The variety is impressive, and veggie options much more plentiful than before.  All but the most traditional smoky pubs have a really good salad or two, and some veg items on the sides menu. There is still a heck of a lot of cheese going on here.   -KK

Lists

I won't be able to do any major vegan menu overhauls until Friday. I'm all "groceried up" for the rest of the week and pay day is not until Friday. I have however, been making a list, rather obsessively I might add, of all the things I want to try this month. In fact, I now fill my insomniac nights with ideas for vegan food.

I think I've come up with a few good ones and from what I've been reading of vegan food, the trick seems to be filling the dish with flavor using herbs and spices. So I am focusing on what will bring a basic veggie dish to the next level and leave me full and satisfied. (Luckily with vegan food, I won't feel guilty going for seconds)

Here's a peek at my shopping list;

Large Portobello caps
Onion, shallot, garlic
Spinach (fresh)
Brussels Sprouts
Veg stock
White Beans
Chick Peas
Black Beans
Zucchini
Carrots
Tomato (fresh and canned)
Fresh Ginger
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Tofu-firm (This is a big leap for me)
Sesame seeds
Peppers
Avocados
Lime
Jicama
Radishes
Green Onions
Cilantro
Red Wine
(Look into different grains)

So, I think there's some potential there. I already use brown rice often and I want to try some different grains. I'll have to see what the local store has and give it a go. There's no Trader Joe's or Whole Foods out in the "boonies" where I live so I have to deal with what I've got.

The Tofu will be a challenge for me because the last time I made a dish with it, it did not impress. I will eat Tofu at restaurants, but I have not been able to make it appetizing myself. I'm going to try again though.

I am also going to try to make some egg free pasta. I could eat pasta every day for every meal and be happy, but I've never made it. We'll see how that goes.

Just today I realized that I will have to say goodbye to my favorite breakfast, Greek yogurt with honey and berries. (Le Sigh) I won't cry though...I can do this and am excited for the prospects.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments.

Danna

Different Directions

A few weeks ago my very best friend and co-author here, Kristy, sent me an email. In it she merely posted a link to a blog and said..."We can totally do this!" Like a good friend, I said "Sure, why not?" though I had no idea how to approach the subject of said blog.

The blog was VeganMoFo, a virtual library of blogs that all have to do with vegan food. Every year they collect a blog roll and the subject is Vegan Food. This year, Kristy talked me into joining and here we are.

Now let me start by saying that I am not vegan. I'm not even vegetarian, though I was for about a year in high school, if that counts. My friend Kristy is a vegetarian and has been for a long time. So she can speak to this subject more fluently than I, but I thought I'd give it a go. Who knows, maybe I can learn to live without sustenance from animals...ie CHEESE...at least for a while.

I suppose I will also have to set aside my Burt's Bees for a while, which is quite a sacrifice for me. I do love my Burt's.

I actually love vegetables, of all kinds and have no problem eating a meal consisting entirely of them, but what else is there? What is it that sets vegan food apart health and taste wise and what benefit can I gain from such a diet? That's what I hope to learn from doing this. Truth be told, I most likely won't go "full vegan" for this month, but I promise to try and I promise to write about all the amazing recipes I experiment with.

I hope you will join us and check in every so often, and leave lots of comments as we embark on the "vegan journey" for the month of October. Also, please check out the amazing list of other blogs on VeganMoFo. It's truly an astounding list. Hopefully I can keep up.

Thanks and please enjoy the rest of my crafty posts in the archives if you feel like it. :)

Now, let the vegan posts begin!!!

Danna

P.S. Just FYI... I am still writing, and editing, and querying. Have a look at an excerpt of my first finished novel and info about its sequel on my author blog.
Also, I currently do not have any jewelry listed on Etsy, so if you are interested in seeing any, visit Create on Facebook.

Thanks again!

Wife, Mother, Author...

I've mentioned it here before, but I will say it again in case the right agent is looking, I am trying to become a published author. I have finished one novel in a series I am working on and have already sent queries out to several agents. Unfortunately, I haven't had any bites yet, but I have a long list of agents to go.

It's been quite a daunting process actually. Last year about this time, I decided I want to write a novel. The story just popped into my head and I started typing. A year later, the first draft became many drafts and I feel it's ready for the world. I scoured the internet for agents and began querying them.

For those who don't know, most publishers will not even look at a manuscript unless you have an agent. Most agents will not even look at your manuscript unless you query them first. That means you write a short business letter telling them you have the greatest book ever and they should read it, without actually saying that of course because a line like that will get you an automatic rejection letter.

The hardest part about this whole process has been the query letter. Every agent wants something different, but all want to be "hooked" so they will request to see my manuscript. That has yet to happen, but I still have hope. Some days are more hopeful than others, but I am plugging away which is all I can really do.

So here is the link to my author blog. http://authordannasnider.blogspot.com/

Have a look if you are interested and I'd love some feedback.

Thanks!

Quick Craft

Happy New Year!

After we drank the champagne, I looked at the cork and had an idea. I'm sure someone has done this before, but I still wanted to post it.

Here is a cute way to recycle your leftover champagne cork.

First I put a bamboo skewer into the bottom to make it easier to paint.

Then I painted three coats of white all over the cork.

I painted 4 coats of red on the top, letting each coat dry completely before I added the next.

The dots were next to go on.

And lastly, I added a clear coat over the whole thing.

My daughter has been eyeing this since I started so I will probably let her use it with her dolls. This would also make a cute ornament for your tree next year.

Enjoy!

My First Sale!

Well I finally did it. I made my first sale on Etsy. It was a little nerve wracking because the person who bought the fabric wrap bracelet had never been a member of Etsy before and they had so history there. They did have Paypal so that was a plus, but I kept expecting things the fall apart. That's the pessimist in me.

Thankfully everything has gone smoothly, though I haven't heard anything from the person since she got the bracelet. Oh well.

Anyway, I am still working on my book/books. I am currently working on my third draft of the first part of the story, or first book. I have given myself the goal of finishing it completely and having it ready to send to agents and publishers by the end of the year. Actually, there is a contest I thought about trying to enter that has the deadline of Dec. 15. It would be great to win some awards for the book and give it some "street cred" before it goes out. We'll see, but I won't hate myself if I don't make that deadline.

I am still loving the story and have even added a few characters since I started. They just seem to appear in the story at the right time, which is cool. I do need to get an editor though. My best friend has been helping me. She has an English degree which helps and she isn't afraid to tell me the truth, which also helps. I take what she says seriously and most of the changes she suggested really do work out better. She is a very busy lady though and doesn't have tons of time to read my excerpts.

We are also preparing for Thanksgiving around here. I am planning on cooking this year, which I have only done one other time. Things turned out well though and I'm not worried. Usually we go to family dinners at other people's houses. Actually, we are doing that this year also, but I am cooking another meal on Friday for when my Mom comes up. So that should be fun.....

I am trying not to think about Christmas yet, but I guess I need to start saving up for gifts for the kiddos. Not sure what I am making this year, but I have already had one request for a hat. So I guess I'll get going on that too.

Thanks for reading!

PS I love comments!!