Since Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

This is my roof garden:



Isn't it just the loveliest? Doesn't it make you want to squeal with glee? Isn't almost impossible to NOT rip your clothes off while basking on it's beautiful gloriousness?

Perv.

This is Franny running across my roof in front of the garden, most likely to attack a bug. Or also, a leaf. Both are apparently her arch-enemy:



And THIS is my roof garden with Zooey in the right-hand upper corner, thinking that she will FINALLY figure out how to leap from the roof and be united with one of her many cat boyfriends. She's kind of a slut:



When people post pics of their individual plants on their blogs, I'm always kind of like, "Wow, dude. Your tomato plant is SOOOO much more interesting than ANY OTHER TOMATO PLANT I've ever seen. NOT!"

But I am conceited and also hypocritical, so today I am posting my own. And also because MY TOMATO PLANTS KICK YOUR TOMATO PLANTS' ASSES!

This is what I'm growing in my roof garden...



Tomatoes--roma and big boy. If you can tell me which is which just from the pics, I will send you $1.*







Flowers whose names I cannot remember:





Basil:





Your mom:





Green peppers:






Soybeans:





Don Knotts:





And then, I labeled all these plants, but the labels blew away. So these are some sort of lettuce that I cannot remember, peas, Moon flowers, and snake squash in no particular order. I STILL am not quite sure which is which, so it'll be like having my own garden surprise party once something finally appears other than leaves!










See. What did I say? MY boring pictures of plants are WAY more interesting than yours, my friends.

So don't even post yours.

It'll just make your plants feel inadequate.


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*$5 shipping and handling charges may apply.

Asparagus and Sun-dried Tomato Frittata

                          from Vegan with a Vengeance

N/A raved about this frittata so strongly (he said it was up there as one of the best things I've ever made) that I actually was a bit concerned that he was going to shit rainbows. Then again, part of me thinks that he may have just been trying to suck up to make up for a douchey comment he made to me right before we ate dinner. So really: it's hard to say.

But I guess that just means you should probably go ahead and make it yourself and be the judge.

Me, I thought it WAS quite good as well. But I also easily ate half of this and could've eaten more, so take that into consideration if you decide to cook this for company.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb. extra-firm tofu, drained


• 1 T. soy sauce


• 1 t. mustard


• 1/4 c. nutritional yeast


• 2 t. olive oil


• 1 onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice [I omitted cuz N/A hates onions]


• 5 stalks asparagus, trimmed and cut into one inch pieces


• 1/4 c. sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped


• 3 cloves garlic, minced


• 1 t. dried thyme


• 1/4 t. turmeric


• Juice of 1/2 lemon


• 1/4 c. fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400-F.

Using your fingers, crumble and squeeze tofu into a bowl until it resembles ricotta cheese. Stir in soy sauce and mustard. Add nutritional yeast and mix well.

In an 8-inch oven-proof skillet, saute onions in olive oil until soft about 2 minutes. Add asparagus and tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, and turmeric, saute for one minute. Add lemon juice to deglaze pan and remove from heat. Add contents to tofu mixture and stir to blend. Fold in basil leaves.

Transfer combined mixture to skillet and press firmly into pan. Place skillet in oven and cook for 20 minutes. Transfer to broiler to brown top, about 2 minutes. Watch it closely! You don't want it to burn.

Let frittata sit for 10 minutes prior to serving.

Serves 2-4.


(Recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, reposted at Pink Stripes with a few alterations)

My Weiner is Coming Straight at Your Face!

DUCK!

Phew.

That baby almost just poked your eye out!

Anywho, these are the things I ate for Memorial Day weekend.

A weiner (this one is a safer shot!):



More technically, a Tofurky Beer Brat. I'm a fan of all Tofurky's weiners. They are plump and spicy and exploding with flavor. I barbecued it on my mini grill (thank you, ex-boyfriend, for kindly leaving me this as I love it), and my only suggestion is, if you do the same, don't overcook. These things need maybe two minutes on the grill with frequent rotation and they're good to go. Cook them too long and they dry out.

As I was being a lazy cook this weekend, I also decided to try out the Morningstar riblets this year instead of making my own:


And what a disappointment. These are the reason people mistakenly think veganism is for yuppies with money. $4.50 splurge, and I could've eaten the whole box of ribs in one sitting. There are two "racks" of ribs, all about as long as your pinky finger, and as wide as your hand from wrist to fingertip. WHAT?!? I could almost squeeze a whole portion of them in my mouth at one time! And for that price, I expected them to taste startlingly like ribs. I mean, I've made homemade vegan ribs, and while they're delish, they admittedly aren't remotely close to normal rib consistency. But for $4.50, you expect them to be surprisingly realistic. But these weren't even close. The consistency reminded me of some food from my youth that I still haven't put my finger on, but definitely not ribs. And they were just ok in flavor. But definitely not worth the money. Thumbs down to Morningstar riblets! If you want good vegan ribs, just make your own. Here are two great recipes: FatFree Vegan's Ribz & VegFamily.com's.

And finally, I made the Veganomicon Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango:

                                    from Veganomicon

Sadly, I was only able to use about 1/3 of the meat from my mango because most of it was bruised and brownish. And also sadly, I've been shitting undigested black quinoa for days after eating this. Nonetheless, my mom loved this quite a bit, despite the fact that I was fairly indifferent towards it. But as it's super-simple and a good introduction to quinoa, why the hell not try it out sometime?



Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 mango, peeled and cut into small dice


• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced as small as you can get it


• 1 c. chopped scallions


• 1 c. chopped fresh cilantro


• 2 T. grapeseed oil (I used olive oil)


• 2 T. of red wine vinegar


• 1/4 t. salt


• 2 c. cooked quinoa, cooled


• 1 (15-oz) can of black beans, drained and rinsed

DIRECTIONS

Combine the mango, red bell pepper, scallions, and cilantro in a mixing bowl. Add the red wine (or balsamic) vinegar, grapeseed oil, and salt and stir to combine. Add the quinoa and stir until everything is well incorporated. Fold in the black beans. You can serve it immediately, or let it sit for a bit for the flavors to meld. It tastes great chilled or even better at room temperature.

(Recipe from Veganomicon, reposted at Happy Healthy Long Life)