I have to have this cookbook!

Well, you know the web. I stumbled upon this cookbook, and I’m sending for it, next paycheck. You can find some sample recipes here:

Veganomicon

I’ll let you know when I get it, and meanwhile, check it out yourself!

“Recipes you wish you’d grown up with.”

Rough Night, but Good Soup!

Dinner Tonight

I toss and turn a lot at night usually, pain from a variety of arthritic things and fibromyalgia, which actually is also an arthritic thing. And that’s not a complaint, just my life, and I manage it. But last night was a cold night, and Bella kitty curled up on my shoulder and side as soon as I slid into bed. And she started purring. She’s so skittish and soft and adorable, I didn’t have the heart to move her. Every time I tried to stretch a bit and move around a little, she’d blink at me and start purring again.

So, I stayed in basically the same position for almost six hours. Something I actively encourage other people not to do. I came to at 8am and took a pain pill, TURNED OVER, and then slept until 11. When I woke up again, everything hurt from my waist to the bottoms of my feet, AND felt like it was on fire.

So, I whined a bit, and my brother and mother let me, and then he helped by peeling the potatoes while she did the dishes. I found the miraculous bread recipe partway through the soup, and got it going. And now everything is a bit calmed down, the temperature is dropping (it’s almost 6pm and heading for the mid-20’s) and I’m eating wonderful hot soup while the bread bakes!

Made a big pot of Potato Corn Chowduh, 3 ribs of celery, 1 onion, about a dozen peeled chunked-up potatoes, 1/4 cup margarine to wilt the celery and onion, enough water to float everything well. A tiny bit of salt, and some coarsely ground mixed pepper. Half a bag of frozen baby white corn. A cup of flour and a cup of plain soy milk mixed to a smooth paste added as a thickener towards the end. Thinned out with enough more water and soymilk to give the consistency you want. I used a potato masher to mash everything, but that was because I was too lazy to get out the immersion blender, which is a really lovely tool. Actually, it depends how chunky you want your soup, for us the masher worked fine.

We’re all adding our own salt, pepper and whatever. I added another spoon of margarine to my bowl, along with a sprinkle of coarse kosher salt, some dried dill, more pepper. Hmm…should have added a teensy bit of nutmeg. I’d love to make the soup again, but add spinach, then definitely the nutmeg.

My mom would have loved bacon in it, but she could have made that on the side and added it. Or we could have used vegie bacon or sausage of some sort. It’s not really an exact or exacting recipe, after all. Some form of cheese for those who will would work well, too.

There would have been fresh bread with it, but I didn’t have rapid rise yeast, so the bread just now started baking. There were still a couple of thick heels of sourdough left, so that will do until this loaf comes out of the oven. And I’ll make more tomorrow.

This is a one-loaf bread recipe, using the food processor. That will get us through, and last night was a rough night. I wasn’t really in a mood or condition to fight with a big ball of dough and the KitchenAid.

Life should always be this difficult! I’m going to check the bread and grab another bowl of soup.