Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Learning Slugs

I have a confession to make. I don't have cable which is probably real, real good. Because if I did I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to get anything else done outside of watching shows about food. 

Fortunately, we only have Netflix which is dangerous enough. 

Our usual nightly routine is Rob and I winding down our day watching something together. By watching I sometimes mean bingeing on old series. The more intense the more likely we are to extend beddie-bye time. Our current series is Kitchen Nightmares. Okay, it was. We watched the last episode last week. I can't really recommend it because it's A) offensive. B) nauseating. C) highly dramatic. However, there is a sense of escapism and the whole check-out-that-accident,-don't-look,-don't-look,-whoa!!!! syndrome.  My favorite episode included the owner of a reformed and fixed up restaurant that Gordon Ramsey revisited tricking him with a vegan chicken salad! Yes!

Since we watched our last episode we searched Netflix for more cooking/chef shows. We found one that's a PBS show called The Mind of a Chef Sunday around dinner time while I was continuing to convalesce. (Who slices an eye, has random rounds of gastrointestinal distress, a cough, random headaches, a raging sore throat, and intermittent blasts of fever?) (No change of life jokes allowed!) In The Mind of a Chef a different dish or topic is covered by a chef and a scientist. I got mini lessons on making gnocchi out of ramen noodles and good bacteria in food. Short episodes might be dangerous, easy to justify just one more bite.  

On another note. Since I'm randomly nauseated I have not cooked a blasted thing all week. Seriously. I'm living on dry toast or cereal and tea with a random attempt at something else every once in awhile. And oddly, chocolate soy milk. Good times. At least I washed and folded laundry. Now to put it away.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Wonky Eye Argh!

 So. On Monday my eye started feeling irritated. On Tuesday it was raging, like I couldn't open it very far wonky, and I ended up losing two days of work. Thursday I went into my job and took advantage of one of my benefits, doctors and a PA who can listen, look and prescribe. One of the docs likes "toys" black lights and numbing and cutting and freezing. He was only too happy to numb my eyeball, drop in some dye and take a peek with his black light. I had been concerned a couple of sore spots on my forehead and cheek with a icky eye might mean shingles. 

Fortunately, not shingles. unfortunately a scratched cornea. He sent me to the eye doctor for treatment. In the meantime one of my coworkers really wanted me to patch my eye. So I found a black spoon and struck a pose. 

Then I went to the eye doctor. Fortunately, she found out how I irritated and scratched my eyeball. Unfortunately. it required her to numb my eye again and bring out some very horrifying tools which she used to slice a tiny growth off the inside of my eyelid. Tools? Super pointy tweezers and either a scalpel of some sore or a razor blade. I saw it coming at me and held my breath. UGH. Don't want to see that again anytime soon. (My doc employer will be bummed he doesn't have that set up.) Seriously, the growth was literally like a grain of sand, sharp, hard, tiny. Fortunately I only have to use lubricating eye drops til my eye feels better and it was the quickest trip I've ever had at any clinic. 

Unfortunately. No patch required. Argh! 

Playing With Memories

A blogger I enjoy reading has a blog hop I thought I'd join. She has a young child and has been pondering what images, snippets of memories and impressions she will retain. She suggested readers post early memories. Here are mine. I think you will find some telling and bizarre things there. Just sayin.

Oddly, my earliest memories include dogs. 

As a child we didn't have dogs. 

Well. We did have a Bassett Hound named Bowser for a very short period of time. My memory is iffy on the amount of time but I do remember howling, which is why he didn't live with us long which my mom confirmed at one point. 

In between, or around the doggie memories is a shadowy night that included noise and the discovery that someone had broken into our garage or shed. 

Then, the most vivid memory of all. My folks had people over for a picnic or barbecue and a teenage boy or two were there. For some reason, my wee child crush on the handsome boy manifested itself in me hopping around the grass on all fours and yipping. Also I believe I licked his arm a few times. If I recall...and I really hope it was some bizarre dream actually, he patted me on the head several times and I sat and panted. 

Yeah. I guess it's no wonder I'm a little wonky. Clearly I was born that way. 

I can promise you that I don't lick anyone anymore unless I know them very well and want to annoy them. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Cafe Gratitude Kansas City Reviewed

Strangers on a subway pose?
We Iowa and Nebraska vegans certainly enjoyed our trip to Cafe Gratitude.

Love that their dishes ask what we are grateful for and
the water bottles are etched with uplifting words.
What was I grateful for? The delicious vegan food. 

A lemon almond cake that was my least favorite menu item. 

I am Extrordinary

Our big vegan restaurant blast included dinner at Cafe Gratitude. All but one of us had been there before and it's earned a stop every time we even get near Kansas City. 

Favorite items we've found items that we love. Their milkshakes for starters. Named, I am Beautiful, I am Cool and I am Eternally Blessed. Crazy good. A dreamsicle orange, a fresh mint and cocoa nib, and a coffee. 

We shared and were glad the portion sizes left us with room for dessert, however, we would have ordered it anyway. As it was we took portions back to our airbnb. 

A figgy nutty cheesecake. Good. But neither of these desserts
touched the unpictured orange chocolate mousse cake..

The starter potatoes were delicious. Heck, do I need to break it down. They were all delicious. The I am Terrific was probably the least favorite of the group and the I am Sensational was just that. Spaghetti squash, alfredo sauce with nut parm. Amazing. The green salads included on most of the entrees are light and delicious as well. 

The prices for organic and vegan with the care going into the preparation are definitely reasonable. 

I have to give Cafe Gratitude thumbs up and I totally recommend it to anyone looking for fresh and delicious. I also think omnivores should check out how delicious vegan eats can be. I honestly don't think anyone eating there could walk away disappointed. 

I am Terrific

I am Sensational

I am Grounded

So. Smarties being disobedient to the sign.
However, we were obedient to the hugging, smiling and warm fuzzy feeling part.
So much so I was afraid we'd be kicked out! 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Mud Pie Bakery, Kansas City, Reviewed

I love coffee. Since going vegan I've learned to love good coffee black. But when I go somewhere that has non-dairy milks (and an assortment at that) I always go for the unflavored, unsweetened latte. The best of both worlds, rich, creamy coffee deliciousness. Mud Pie Bakery makes a mean cashew milk latte. Mean. As in excellent, should you need clarification. :  ) 

A few friends and I traveled to Kansas City for a vegan food frenzy that lasted just about 24 hours. I had been to Mud Pie on a previous trip and was excited to go back. 

One of the gals got a box of goodies to take home. Two of us ordered a vegan sausage, cheese scone, one got a lemon blueberry muffin and I ordered this lemon baby bundt cake. 

We all shared bites and sips and nearly licked plates. Seriously. Everything was delicious. Tender, tasty, perfectly textured. The lemon blueberry was declared "best muffin ever" and the rest of us had to agree that it was top notch. 

In addition we each ordered a couple extra treats to share when we got home or eat on the car trip. 

I ordered a peanut butter cookie and a 7 layer type bar. They sat in a brown paper sack wrapped in bakery paper for 30 hours. Generally, baked goods treated like that get stale, or certainly lose a large chunk of quality. Right? 

These didn't. They were both delicious. I was a little sad I had to share with Rob. 

Bottom line. If you are going to KC and are vegan or not, give them a shot. Two thumbs up and I'll throw in both big toes, too. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Fud Kansas City Restaurant Review

 A couple vegan friends joined me for a whirlwind tour of Kansas City area vegan restaurant fun. That's right. We drove three ish hours to eat copious quantities of vegan grub and do a bit of shopping. An overnight stay via Airbnb helped us sleep off Friday night's food coma and prep for the Saturday's eating adventures. 

My first restaurant review is Fud. This was my second visit to Fud. We bought a sundae there a year of so ago and devoured it and felt the need to repeat that yummy experience. We entered the small restaurant with the groovy atmosphere and quickly ordered our treat. 

The Sweet stack is a huge sundae made with cashew based ice cream and covered with all the toppings they have on their menu. The four of us split one delicious sundae and ordered some mac and cheese on the side. 

The mac and cheese was a delicate, subtle bowl of deliciousness. Creamy, comfort food and mildly tangy. 

While enjoying our snack we discovered that Fud offers brunch on Saturday from 11 to 3. We returned and ordered three entrees to split four ways. 

They had a reuben tempeh "corned beef" hash. Purple cabbage and jackfruit provided the corned beef pink, A side of sour kraut added the perfect additional tang, fried potatoes rounded it out and it was truly amazing. 

Blueberry pancakes were our nod to traditional breakfast foods. And we weren't sorry. The others poured maple syrup on theirs but I stuck to the way it was prepared, blueberries, a little powdered sugar and a drizzle of blueberry syrup poured over the stack. The two plate sized pancakes had a hint of savory and we decided there might have been some cornmeal in the recipe. 

The last dish was a tofu open faced sandwich. Two thin slices of tofu, one smoky the other eggy stacked with greens, tomato and a delicious drizzle. The eggy tofu was amazingly eggy. I think it was a sulfurous salt that I'm going to have to add to my pantry. 

If you find yourself in the Kansas City area I definitely recommend Fud. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Steamed Brocc/Cauliflower w/ Vegan Parm and Review of Trader Joe's Mandarin Chickenless Morsels

I got home from violin and the grocery store right at dinner time, hungry and without planning ahead. 

Trader Joe's Mandarin Chickenless Morsels and fresh organic cauliflower and broccoli to the rescue. Yum. 

Vegan Parmesan

3 TBSP pulverized pecans (I've used almonds before, equally tasty)
4 TBSP nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2 TBSP sesame seeds

Mix well. This makes several servings. It keeps for a decent time. 

I preheated the oven to 425 and got my steamer water going. When the oven was ready I popped the chickenless tenders on the pan and slide them into the oven. 

I chopped the broccoli and cauliflower and tossed them into the steamer basket (just enough for dinner so about a 1/3 of each bunch.) 

I put together the parmesan and kept an eye on the steamer. It took about 12 minutes to hit the tenderness we like. 

I flipped the chickenless tenders and in twenty minutes we had a delicious dinner.  

My Review of Trader Joe's Mandarin Chickenless Morsels: 

I love these little suckers. Granted, they aren't whole food based and glowing with health and all those amazing benefits of something like quinoa and kale. However, there are meals that need to be plates of delicious greens and chockfull of veggie deliciousness and some that require speed and taste. 

I've used these chickenless morsels with omnivores and threw together an asian mandarin chickenless salad and not one eyebrow was raised or one snarky comment made. I honestly don't know that a meat lover could tell the difference. The texture and taste are spot on, even without the sauce. The sauce is perfectly tangy/sweet. And the price is right. 

Two thumbs up. If you are looking for a meat substitute that reminds you of chicken nuggets, or satisfies with minimal work or preparation give these a shot.