We Are Moving to Mount Kisco

I have been a bit crazy because we are moving to a condo in Mount Kisco. Why are we moving from a house to a condo? I don't really know - we were "just looking" at condos and Peter found one that he wanted to bid on.

What can I say?

Real estate makes us giddy.

Acquiring real estate is our aphrodisiac.

So now we have to move.

I Love Being Quoted in the Press

My friend Angela wrote an article about online dating for the New York Press.

This taste of fame is getting to my head.

Lentil-Walnut Burgers

I made these veggie burgers from the Everyday Food Magazine Show. They were sooooo good. Every time I took a bite, the burger tasted better and better. Peter said that this was the best veggie burger he ever had. When he found out that this recipe had been in my possession for several weeks, he said, "You've been holding out on me!"

I never really want to take the food processor out, and the recipe kind of looks complicated because of all the ingredients, but it was easier than I thought and completely worth it. I had some leftover lentils and made a lentil-walnut dip. I put a little bit of Brown Rice Syrup to their recipe to make it a little sweet.

Peter made sweet potato fries to go with the veggie burgers and they came out great.

Pizza with the Meatless Meatball Sauce

I made pizza using the sauce from the meatless meatballs. It was super-easy. I got the pizza dough from the Trader Joe's (whole wheat kind) and I put the sauce and cheese on top and baked it. Super-yum. And super-easy.

Spaghetti and Meatless Meatballs

We didn't grill anything for the 4th yesterday because we've let our grill go to pot and we haven't cleaned it up yet.

Therefore, I made:

Spaghetti and Meatless Meatballs (from Trader Joe's)

Ingredients:
Box of Spaghetti
2 cloves of garlic
half an onion - minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 can of crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons red wine
italian herbs

Start by heating up the olive oil (low heat) in a pot and putting in the garlic for two minutes. Then I throw in the onions and let them caramelize. When the kitchen gets to smelling really yummy, I open up the cans of tomatoes and pour them in the pot along with the wine. I let the tomatoes cook and soak up the wine. I put in few dashes of italian herbs and let things simmer for at least forty minutes with the top covered. Then when the tomatoes are nice and soft, mush everything up with a potato masher or hand blender.

When the sauce is about done, cook up a box of spaghetti and you're ready to eat!

This recipe is really easy and I use it all the time. It's always a hit. Although my sister thinks that the meatless meatballs should just be called Meatless Balls.

I've tried to share this recipe with a friend who only uses jarred sauce. I told her it was super easy, but when I started explaining what to do, her eyes glazed over like: "I am NEVER going to make this sauce WHY are you insisting on telling me about it?"

According to my mother, children who eat jarred sauce didn't have mothers who really loved them.

The Gazpacho Incident

Tonight we had a Gazpacho mishap. The recipe calls for crumbs made from French bread. In my house, we only have old hamburger buns that were in the freezer.

Unfortunately, the frozen hamburger buns bread crumbs congealed into pieces of glop in the Gazpacho. Peter was really upset. He kept saying things like, "Why would you do that?" and "You ruined it."

Of course, whenever I ruin food, I now get this terrible food guilt. I didn't used to, because in my family, we're like, "Ruined food? That's okay, you could stand to lose a few pounds anyways."

But Peter is Italian, and in his household, the 11th Commandment is "Thou Shalt Not Throw Away Food. Ever." 

So, in order to remedy the situation, Peter decided to blend the Gazpacho to make it more one-texture-like, sort of like the Gazpacho at Harry's Burrito in Larchmont (and in NYC).

Now the Gazpacho looks like Lobster Bisque. The tomatoes and green peppers have turned the soup into a puke-like, seafoodish color. Totally gross. And now I can say that HE ruined it more.

Sloppy Joe's and Gazpacho

Tonight I made Sloppy Joes using the Fantastic Foods mix I bought at the local supermarket. I wanted to make hummus, but couldn't find any tahini at the local Stop & Shop.

When I asked one of the supermarket ladies where I could find tahini, she looked at me like I was crazy and said, "I've NEVER heard of that."

"Have you ever had hummus?" I asked.

She said, "Yup, all the time!"

"Well, tahini is what makes hummus taste so good."

Anyway... Last week I picked up Lost Recipes : Meals to Share with Friends and Family by Marion Cunningham. It was brand-new and only $3 at the library book sale. I tried out the Gazpacho and Peter really liked it. I looked through the other recipes, and they seem like they would be good, but almost every recipe that is not a salad starts out with a stick of butter. It seems like these recipes might have gotten lost because everyone who used to make these recipes died of heart disease.

There was one section of the book called: "Yesterday's Side Dish - Today's Vegetarian Centerpiece." I thought that was great, because I like to buy regular cookbooks that contain vegetarian meals, but you always have to hunt around for the vegetarian options. Here, it was all nicely compiled in one section.

HOWEVER - the second vegetarian recipe, Pilaf, calls for beef broth. Go figure.

I guess Marion Cunningham is just like my grandmother. Whenever Peter comes over the house, she always says stuff like, "I know Peter's vegetarian, but he'll have chicken soup if I pick out all the chicken, right?"

I Married a Vegetarian

Yes, I married a vegetarian. And now I keep a mostly vegetarian kitchen and have had to make friends with beans, vegetables, soy products, and something called TVP. In case you don't know what TVP is, you've probably had it in your beef tacos at Taco Bell. I mean, c'mon, how do you think they make they're tacos so cheap? By putting real meat in it?