Veg*n Cooking and Other Random Musings: Yummy Vegan Wedding Food, Another 5 Things About Me, and A Grocery Store/CSA Wrap Up

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Yummy Vegan Wedding Food, Another 5 Things About Me, and A Grocery Store/CSA Wrap Up

First off I'd like to give a big thanks to everyone who wished me well during my 'tooth ordeal', it means a lot! I'm happy to report that I'm back in action! I am able to eat solid food and have really been enjoying it. My first 'celebratory' meal was vegan sushi. I love sushi! We made avocado rolls, cucumber rolls, and avocado/cucumber rolls. We, as always, added pickled ginger directly to the roll.















Last night, we had the wonderful honor of watching some good friends of ours get married. The ceremony, with some glitches, but with a sense of humor about it, was wonderful and both the bride and groom looked amazing. Both so happy! Brett was able to get a picture of the vegan dish prepared especially for yours truly.















Not only was I honored that they made a special dish for me - it was unbelievable! And the guy who prepared the food had never cooked vegan before, all I can say is he seems to have a knack and perhaps should. He marinated portobello mushrooms in balsamic vinegar and then stuffed it with ratatouille. It was topped with a bit of faux cheese and he made a balsamic reduction to go on top. It was out of this world! Seriously it looked and tasted like something you'd get at a really fancy restaurant. After we got ours, the meat eaters got in on the action and cleared them out! The omni's even enjoyed them. I was told that he would give the recipe, so I'm going to make sure I get it, I'll make that whenever I want to wow someone with vegan food!

Romina tagged me to tell you all another five things about myself. This is the third time I've done this! I'm running out of interesting 'Jen Tid-bits' but here you go.

1. I have never wanted a wedding, nor to have children. I guess I'm just not a 'traditional' person. Brett and I will get 'married' eventually, but neither want the fuss and hassle nor are we religious, so will likely do so at a courthouse. We are already committed to each other, we've lived together for 5 years, we just want to legal recognition at this point.

2. I'm sure this comes as no surprise, but I'm not into fashion, I like to look presentable, but don't really put a whole lot of fuss into it - never have. I've learned what colors and fits of clothing work for me and stick with that. Unfortunately, the colors that look the best on me are my least favorite colors: orange, red, pink, mustard, etc. Basically shades of red. So most of my clothes are colors I don't actually like. My favorite color, oddly, is brown, and I happen to look alright in that too, so it's not all bad.

3. I'm a very 'serious' person, I suppose you could say. But I'm equally as silly as I am serious. I love crass, politically incorrect humor. I love to make fun of myself, others and uncomfortable situations, it helps me cope with the reality we currently live in. I think humor is essential to a full, healthy life, and can help make times of strife more bearable.

4. I value honesty above being 'right'. What I mean by that is, say you are a racist, sexist bigot, I would rather you be honest about it, even though most people wouldn't consider those feelings 'right', than put on some facade and poorly hide your obvious 'ism's'. We can't solve really hard problems unless we can face our own 'ism's', it's tough, uncomfortable, but we all have them.

5. If I met the person I used to be now, I would want to kick their ass :-) or at the very least I would have considered myself a 'douche'. I used to be a very close-minded, selfish individual who cared only for myself. I also made horrible decisions, which I think most young-ins have the propensity to do. However, as I've gotten older I've consciously tried to explore my own short comings and do what I can to actually be the person I'd like to be.

Now I have to 'tag' five people to tell us five things about themselves.

Let's see:

Jessy from Happy Vegan Face; Lisa - the Show Me Vegan; Kumquat Peekapoo from The Path of the Vegan; Callina from Epic Eclectic; and M from My Face Is On Fire.

And finally, I will end this post with a grocery store/CSA wrap up. Our CSA bag was much larger this week thanks to the weather starting to cooperate (aside from far more rain than usual and lots of wind!).

Here is our grocery store haul:















I never know where to start. I'm going to change it up this week. Starting from the back left: pickled ginger, organic Mexican style cheese (for Brett, he likes regular cheese on black bean quesadillas), organic veggie broth, organic plain rice milk, organic Fair Trade Sumatra coffee, sushi nori, whole wheat burger buns, Newman O's, organic strawberries (from California!), a Sweet and Sara Peanut Butter S'more, sea salt, an Alternative Baking Company vegan Espresso Chocolate Chip cookie, wasabi powder, 3 organic California avocados, 2 organic cucumber, 2 organic yams, vegan jack, quick oats, organic frozen sweet corn, and black peppercorns.















Here are the peppers and such: 2 organic red bell peppers, poblano pepper, organic garlic, habanero, jalapenos, and serrano peppers.

Here's our CSA bag for the week:















It's all organic. We've got leaf lettuce, spinach, green onions, spearmint, radishes, and asparagus. I can't wait to eat that asparagus, it's so good!

Well, I'll try to get back on later to post the weekly garden update and catch up on all your blogs!

'Til next time.

14 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Sooo glad that you can eat solid foods again!! :0)

Great 5 facts about yourself - I too value the truth (I hate fake people).

Delicious-looking grocery haul!!

Alicia said...

I love knowing more about you :-)

You're so lucky that the cooked something specially for you in the wedding! I have a wedding in august, and suspect I'm not going to eat well... They have something vegetarian for me, but not vegan...

I would love to cook homemade paella for you! Come visit to Germany!

Vegan_Noodle said...

I love reading more little tidbits about you!

Sorry to hear about your tooth!! (I know I"m late, still trying to catch up on blogs) Glad you got to enjoy the sushi.

And isn't it just wonderful when you get an unexpectedly fabulous meal?

Anonymous said...

Yay for sushi!! It's beautiful, come over and teach me!

I agree with your thoughts on marriage. If two people are genuinely happy, why ruin it? Although I do think it's a great idea if two people are sure and have experienced life together otherwise.

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

I can't imagine you being any other way than the caring, super-unselfish person you are today. If you WERE selfish growing up, you've certainly made up for it with how you're living now!

And yay for your tooth finally deciding to stop giving you grief!

Anonymous said...

It is so fun to learn about others! You and I are incredibly similar. I have been with my boyfriend for 12 years and we decided a long time ago not to marry or have children. This works perfectly for us. My favorite color is brown too! My work wardrobe consists of maybe five outfits. It doesn't help to have all these high-maintenance fashionable women in my office, but whatever!

Good to know you are eating solid foods again!

Bianca said...

How exciting about local asparagus! No one grows it around here :-( At least not in large-scale to sell at the market.

I totally feel ya on the wedding thing. I'm getting old enough that I feel like I should be married or something. But I don't necessarily want to be, and I'm not crazy about kids either. I always said I'd never have one, but I probably will end up having one at one point. But just one. No more. And if I don't, no biggie. I'm happy with my dog and cats.

Anonymous said...

It's good to hear you're feeling better & that sushi looks great! I love nori rolls!
Also cool to learn more about you!

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

Jennifer, your vegan sushi looks like so much fun! And I think you and I have a lot in common. Maybe we can arrange a Missouri meet-up one day. I guess I'm "it"! Hmmm... this might take me a while to come up with something.

J said...

Veggie Girl - I am too!

Thank you, I find it hard to think of interesting things about myself sometimes. Fake people suck, and unfortunately there are a lot of them out there now.

Thanks!

Alice - Aw. Well I'm glad you enjoyed it and I always enjoy learning more about you awesome bloggers as well.

I feel very honored that they went through the trouble to do that. I was just a guest, not even someone in the wedding.

Aw, hopefully they will have something there you can eat! Bring granola bars in your purse just in case. ;-)

I would LOVE for you to cook paella for me. Why is Germany so far away?!

Vegan_Noodle - Thanks about the tooth, no worries about being late.

It is wonderful! I was very pleasantly surprised.

Romina - Hahaha! Thank you. Sometimes I make the rolls a bit big, you can't really fit the piece in your mouth without choking!

I'm glad it resonates. Sometimes I think we do things for the sake of tradition that truly are a hassle, that most of us would rather avoid. So why not avoid it? Create a new, less rigid tradition!

Chocolate Covered - Well you are very sweet to say it. I don't say that with any ill will, I couldn't have been expected to be any other way. I was raised an only child and always got what I wanted, so it was pretty logical that I would be pretty selfish. I realized as I learned more about the world that it wasn't right for me to be that way and that it didn't make me happy.

Me too!

Vegan Addict - I agree. Hence my interest in psychology.

Very awesome what you and your partner are doing. Sounds like a great arrangement, and there is no stress since you are both on the same page, I think that is very important.

That is really cool, brown rocks! Haha, I just have a few pairs of pants, a few skirts, and shirts and I try to rotate them around. I don't really put too much thought into it.

I'm lucky I work at a University where fashion isn't really much of an issue. We Missourians aren't really known for our fashion sense anyways.

:-)

Bianca - Seriously? Wow, I can't believe that! You should tell them they should! I wish I could have had some of your farmer's market booty! Those peaches!

Isn't that weird that you feel like you should even though you don't want to? It's like society puts a stigma on us, 'Oh, you are over the age of 25 and not married/don't have children, there must be something wrong with you.' Aren't we past all this by now?

I love your attitude about children, if it happens, great, if not, great too. I think that's a good way to look at life in general. And fur kids are wonderful.

Shellyfish - Sushi rocks!

Lisa - Thank you, I'm still a beginner with chopsticks so eating sushi generally involves me dropping a few rolls into the shoyu.

Ooooh, a Missouri vegan meet-up sounds fun. Wouldn't be too hard since you hail from the land of my father. Hehehehe. My dad lives in St. Charles.

It did me too. This was the third time I have been tagged and had a hard enough time with the other two!

Anonymous said...

wow lucky girl! You have a nice friend! I've been to weddings where I've just sat there.

1. It's OK to not get married. I see marriage as a union of 2 people in any which way. If you two feel that you're already "married," I'd say that was enough.

2. Brown is a good color to like. I think anyone looks good in brown it's natural looking.

4. I couldn't agree more! I feel the exact same way. I have found that the majority of people are intimidated or too shy to do so also.

5. You're seem to be a great person Jennifer!

Erin said...

Yay for a healed mouth! Your sushi looks like a nice way to celebrate. And the vegan food at a wedding, very nice. I recently went to a wedding where they made something special for me, a portobello with asparagus and tomatoes. Isn't it nice to be treated sometimes?

J said...

Leng - I AM lucky. I was very honored that they went to the trouble to make sure I had something when it was THEIR special day. I kind of figured that's what I'd do, just sit there, sip some water and eat when I got home!

I like the way you view marriage, the piece of paper doesn't or shouldn't really change anything about one's relationship.

So true, natural colors look best on anyone!

It's hard, I'm not saying everyone should go around being racist because that's how they really feel, I think self-censorship to an extent is necessary, however, when talking about a controversial subject or problem, we have to be honest with ourselves and others if we hope to accomplish something.

Many people don't want conflict, and I don't blame them, but there are sometimes when people need to get over themselves and deal with some discomfort. How are we going to, say, solve the immigration issue if everyone walks around saying, on the one hand that they have no problem with immigrants, while on the other hand they support a border wall (I agree with the term 'Apartheid wall') and immigration raids.

I'm glad you think so Leng, back at you!

Erin - I know! Sushi was an excellent celebration.

Ooooh, your wedding meal sounds like it was excellent as well. It is really nice to be treated, I still feel honored!

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The food in those photos looks amazing, I am literally getting hungry right now.

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