Robin Hood and the merry first day

Finally.

Here is Matt's costume from the renaissance fair last weekend. He has been eyeing a big long cloak on e-bay that he thinks he would like to add if he ever desires a more "royal" presentation, $180 (dori gulps). He discovered that there was a Tuesday night sword practice two months prior to the fair for any volunteers that wanted to come each weekend for various performances, if they did they were admitted free. He desires to try this next year and hopes to stay in the area where he is attending school now.

The first day of school is a favorite time to take pictures. Dave snapped one of me before I left last Monday. It seems like the living room door is the best place to snap pictures, any place else in our house causes light glares in the pictures due to the placement of our windows plus I like the greenery to be a part of the background. My first week went well, despite the unexpected I enjoyed it. Of course every teacher needs a bag with a packed lunch inside. Onto a little of the food we ate last week. ...

I tried Dreena's Coconut Creme Pie, page 193 in Everyday Vegan. I subbed stevia for sugar and the family enjoyed the pieces of pie that I didn't eat... :) This pie reminded me of a Mounds candy bar, so i sprinkled some toasted coconut on top of it and drizzled it with a little melted dark chocolate.

I also enjoyed a tofutti cream cheese and craisin sandwich that I took for lunch one day, different but good for a change. I had it packed with a romaine lettuce, roasted beet, and shredded carrot salad with a small container of balsamic vinaigrette.

PROSTITUTE'S STEW
From page 155 in Bryanna's Nonna's Italian Kitchen Cookbook. She says, "Don't ask - it's delicious anyways, sort of an Italian ratatouille with potatoes added. Can be served hot or cold. Maybe you still have fresh garden produce in your area that you can make it. Last week our gardening season ended with a hard frost, you'd never know considering the very nice weather we've been having yesterday and today. The picture is of the stew before being cooked in my crock pot. I served this with some fresh baked bread.... but I used Vivacious Vegan's idea and baked them in muffin tins.

I give you my variation of this recipe. Place all of the following into the crock pot.
1 lb eggplant cut into small cubes
1 large potato
1 carrot, cut into fingers
1 stick celery, diced
1 large zucchini, sliced and quartered
1 large green pepper, seeded and cut into squares
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 vegetable broth cube (I use Knorr Vegetarian Vegetable)
2 pounds fresh ripe tomatoes (

• I cleaned mine in the sink and took off the stem, then gave them a whirl in my blender. My family doesn't mind the skins on them when I do this)

a small handful of fresh rosemary and Italian parsley, chopped
1 tsp salt
a little fresh ground black pepper

Another last week lunch......
This LRM (Romaine lettuce, red pepper and sweet mustard) Wrap was delish along side of Dreena's Chickpea Mash Stew from Everyday Vegan page 84... the picture of the stew behind the wrap is to dark to see, but I liked it. Dave is not a chickpea fan, so he opened a jar of white chili that I pressure canned awhile ago instead. The soup is handy right now. I will be endeavoring to use my slow cooker more over the next several weeks so that dinner can be ready as soon as or shortly after I get home.

Last lunchbox idea from last week...
My favorite chili sin carne( I use TVP), a couple of "muffin" rolls , slices of cucumber and some fruit . The fruit was actually for morning break, I have a late lunch time, 12:28.

I wish you all a wonderful week. I am looking forward to homecoming week.... they have spirit days planned, I'm not sure that I will participate except maybe superhero day I could wear Melissa's shirt (no cape and no teensy red shorts). I do intend to buy the school's sweatshirt so I can show a little team pride.

A road tripping picnic

We road tripped yesterday. Isn't driving Iowa interstate beautiful. Several years ago I drove my sister to Amarillo Texas... rolling tumbleweed is a good way to describe what I saw. That and the radio station we listened to had an advertisement for the city bus every five minutes. I remember it vividly because my cousin and I drove her 16 hours there, stayed 10 hours and drove 16 hours back.

Back to the road trip. At the beginning of summer I had visions of weekend hiking trails and Sunday after church picnics dancing through my head, so one day when I happened to be strolling through a kitchen store at a shopping mall a clearanced picnicing backpack called out my name. It was regularly $42.95 and I got it 80 % off. Isn't it great how I save money. Unfortunately, Dave always just spends it.

Great picnicing backpack, eh?! I searched cookbooks several hours trying to find the perfect picnicing meal to take with us. I wanted it to be special. My virgin backback was out and about for the first time... it had to be special.

The winning recipes came from Dreena Burtons, The Everyday Vegan. I made the Lentil Veggie Wraps (p. 101) and the Cool Cucumber Toss (p. 94). These were great picks and I enjoyed both of them very much, so much that I am going to have them again today when the kids and I go out and about some birthday and back to school shopping. I couldn't seem to get enough of the cool cuke toss... the fresh picked basil from my garden took it over the top.

In packing the bag I froze our drinks in plastic bottles the night before (lid slightly loose, tightened upon packing). I packed veggies in a separate baggie, lentil spread in a lidded container, chutney in a small serving cup. Dave had potato chips on the side and his favorite sweet coated peanuts. When it was time to eat we found a good shady place to sit. I put the cool cuke salad in an old soy yogurt carton, but also wrapped itin saran wrap to protect from potential leaks.

Here's my lentil veggie wrap. I used nappa cabbage, red pepper slices, carrot shreds and black olives sliced.


Later for a snack we purchased a slice of apple pietza. This road trip was made to the Iowa State Fair by the way. While I was there I of course looked at every new kitchen gadget I could find. My favorite find was a pressure cooker. There were several sizes and they were all "precious" .... in the Lord of the Rings kind of meaning. I could probably give you the sales demo, because I watched it three times before Dave convinced me that I was being hypnotized and would soon be pulling out the plastic if I didn't come with him right that moment.Isn't apple pietza beautiful. The apples were shredded into very thin ribbons and it was topped with almonds. Of course the veg stand we bought it from that was also selling veg corn dogs and deep fried veggies wanted to ruin it with a caramel sauce, I would have none of that.

We had a wonderful day AND we only got suckered $22 on two awesome bottles of cleaner / wax. Once bottle is enough to wax a car 6 times, a three year supply, but it also can clean the bottems of your stainless steel kitchen pans, sink, aluminum, etc, etc. I passed up the amazing mops and squeegie rags, but the pampered chef booth sure was pretty. Dave, usually such a sweetie, kept wanting to take up my limited fair time with drill bits, and saws and bendable ladders ... he was even drooling on the sun room display, but I wiped his chin and quickly found a kitchen utensil booth while he regained his composure.

We both agreed that the best stop we made was at the cell phone booth. It was time to renew our contract so we did a little shopping to compare plans. Our current plan provider shot us the best family plan deal (four phones for the price of one), unlimited talking to family members or each other, the ability to check e-mail via our phone as well as take pictures and send them to each others phones. He shot us a heck of a deal and that could have only happened only at the fair. Someday I will figure out how to take a picture via my phone and upload it to my blog, the sales guy told me it was possible. He was is also an ISU student who checks his e-bay accounts during class and his girlfriend bought some software for her phone and got the college fight song via mp3 download to be her ringer. I love technology.

And before I finish, Happy 18th Birthday to Matt who is officially 18 at 3:16 pm this afternoon.