The Last Supper

Paul and I are moving and so is Beth, which makes this incarnation of the Veggie Dinner Club defunct. But, not before we had one last dinner together. We took many photos to document the occasion.

Thank you to all the members of the Club. It has been great sharing so many tasty meals and getting to know each of you.

From L to R: Paul, Miriam, Beth, Trinity, Fanny (cat), Sylvie, Lee, Ann

The Mordo-Kardo Krew

I am a week late in posting this, but still want to get it out there since it was a special one. Last week we had our first veggie dinner club guest (with the exception of Beth's roommates).

Ann's sister Nikki was in town from Ohio. We very much enjoyed having her at dinner. I hope we didn't scare her too badly! We weren't very good at censoring our conversation to the PG-13 level. I believe "assless chaps" may have been mentioned at one point during the meal.

Dinner consisted of a plethora of grilled pizzas, fruit salad and .....drum roll please..... homemade blueberry cheesecake. Can you tell I am a dessert girl?

You'll have to ask them what was so funny about the slow cooker book. I am not so sure, myself.

Ann and Lee recently returned from a trip to Japan. We got to see their photos, many of which were arm's length photos. We were all impressed with Long-Armed Lee's ability to capture so much in his photos. There were pictures with the two of them plus a bunch of scenery in the background. We decided to test his skills and see if we could get a group shot with his reach. We managed to get a photo with the whole group (except Paul who wasn't able to make it to the dinner this month).

Cupcake Delivery

Following a hiatus during the last month of the semester, our Veggie Dinner Club is back in session. On Monday we were hosted by Miriam and Sylvie. As usual, we feasted on a variety of tasty vegetarian goods.

Sylvie is modeling her platter of broiled veggies. They are beautiful and good for you.

It was at veggie dinner that we heard about this awesome cupcake delivery service. Lee rides around on his moped delivering Ann's homemade cupcakes. I signed up for a Tuesday evening delivery.

Lee is still perfecting the details, like how to not have the cupcakes topple over en route. They were delicious just the same. You should contact him to schedule a delivery.

Just kidding. They were graduation party leftovers. But, wouldn't it be awesome if it WAS true!

Veggie Bday with Beets

After a Friday afternoon snowstorm (work closed early!) and an unexpected evening of hibernation, we had to venture out on Saturday to procure Veggie Dinner ingredients. Hosting the dinner helped me meet my 3-new-recipes resolution as we tried 2 new recipes: Mushroom Noodle Goulash and Composed Beet Salad from Moosewood's Daily Specials cookbook.

This week is Sylvie's birthday so we turned our non-marshmallow Rice Krispy bar dessert into a birthday cake. A birthday cake isn't quite complete without the little candy letters on top. So, when the first store didn't have any candy letters (I didn't trust myself to use the colorful tubes of icing to create the happy birthday message) I had to trudge through the snow to a second grocery store. I was determined to make the dream happen.

Sylvie's cake read "Happy 67th Birthday Sylvie." Paul added the numbers after we finished placing the "Happy Birthday Sylvie" letters and noticed how many leftover letters and empty space we had.

This dinner marked the completion of our 3rd round of hosting, which means this was roughly the 1 year anniversary of the Veggie Dinner Club. That was a year of good eating!

Cupcakes Take Over Veggie Dinner Club

It's about that time again: Veggie Dinner Club time. It has actually been quite a while since our last meeting. The holiday season necessitated an early December meeting and here it is almost the end of January. I am not sure how that happened so fast. Anyway, it was Ann and Lee's turn to host us.

Lee held his own in the hosting arena despite a cast on his foot. He made sweet potato gnocchi from scratch. That is territory I have never set foot in ...maybe something to think about for February's new recipes. (Did ya catch that pun?)

Ann once again amazed us with her vegan cupcakes. This time we devoured Vegan Tiramisu Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

We were satisfied veggie diners. But we did have to skip playing games since it was a school night. I'll have to find another opportunity to play Lee's "architect" games. I was intrigued.

Frazzled and Frizzles

It's crunch time. Paul and I had to scrap our plans to go to a comedy show on Friday night because of my recent realization that Christmas is reallyreallyreally close and I had yet to finish making some of the gifts. Not to mention, I need to account for shipping time to get most of these gifts to Minnesota on time. By skipping the show, I gained enough time to get the gifts made and by waking up early on Saturday, I was able to get them wrapped and packaged up for shipping before Abby arrived from New Hampshire. Luckily Paul was willing to lug it all to the post office for shipping while Abby and I went on with our day.

Part of the reason Abby came to my neck of the woods was the Harvard Ceramic sale. I have never left the sale empty handed and this time was no exception. Due to the crazy weather on Thursday and the crazy weather today (Sunday), people who would have normally gone on other days were all there when we went on Saturday. It was a mad house but still well worth elbowing past people. I got a few things for me and finished the last of my Christmas shopping. Abby was equally tempted into buying for people on her Christmas list and for herself. We practiced fairness in the form of "one for them, one for me, one for them, one for me." OK, maybe I was more like "one for them, two for me" but who's counting.

After the sale, we headed back to my house so that Abby could learn how to make felted soaps. She has a knack for it. By the end of the day she had beautifully wrapped and felted all 7 bars of soap that she brought with her.

After Abby headed home to get all dolled up for a fancy, schmancy Christmas party, Paul and I headed over to Sylvie and Miriam's for our Veggie Dinner Club. The meal was delicious. My favorite dish was the roasted root vegetables with turnip frizzles. Although, the vegan chocolate cake with raspberry sauce was also a top competitor. When talking last night we realized that our group is almost upon it's one year anniversary. I have really enjoyed being a part of it and have eaten well this past year. Big thanks to Beth for creating the club.

I think I remembered to photograph everything before sending it away yesterday so after Christmas I can post what I have been working on for the last month or so. Today will be spent knitting for ME! I am nearly done with my Roman Earflap Hat and have a small amount left to finish on my Sienna Cardigan so hopefully I can get those both done today. It is the perfect day to be a shut-in. The weather here is N-A-S-T-Y. It snowed all last night and when I took the dogs for a walk this morning, the snow had turned to sleet (small ice balls...why the weather people aren't calling them hail, I am not sure) and it was so windy that the sleet was hitting me in the face with significant gusto. I am loving the fact that I have no good reason at all to go back outside today.

Chickpeas vs. Garbanzo Beans

Super Chef Paul and I hosted this month's Veggie Dinner Club last Sunday night. We tried some new recipes from one of our Moosewood Restaurant cookbooks. The entree was Middle Eastern Chickpeas with Spinach over Orzo with a side of Moroccan Carrots. Both recipes turned out well and made for great leftovers, too.

Ann and Lee

Love that full-on Beth Laugh!

Dessert was a Caribbean Pie also from a Moosewood recipe.

Miriam and Beth

(notice Paul in the back desperately searching for the pie server we don't own!)

The only unfortunate part of the evening is that we were missing Sylvie. She was at home sleeping off a migraine. Hopefully she enjoyed the leftovers we sent home with Miriam.

Veggie Dinner Club

As if baking and walking touring wasn't enough, I also got to have a veggie dinner night on Sunday! Ann and Lee (and their cat Sid) were our hosts. As always, the company and the food was good stuff.

From top to bottom: Lee, Ann and Miriam

From left to right: Paul, Beth and Sylvie

This is Sid. He is pretty dang pretty.

Lee is showing off his chocolate drizzling skills.

Party, Eat, Eat

My friend Abby is getting married and, as tradition would dictate, Abby had a party to celebrate. I went to the beach to celebrate with her. She, Jill and I all used to work together so we got used to seeing each other every day. Since we have all gone our own ways, we only get to see each other once and a while. It was a good day to sit on the beach getting sand blasted and catching up with the girls.

Jill, Abby and me

The next evening our veggie dinner club reassembled for the first veggie dinner of the summer. We feasted on vegan goodness prepared by Miriam and Sylvie and played Apples to Apples.

Stop making that face, Paul!!

There was some wine, too. Some of us really like wine with our veggie dinners.

This morning Paul and I finally got around to eating at a local breakfast place we have been eyeing for months. It is the sort of place that tends to have a line of people waiting outside of it so we expected it to be good eats. This place is aptly named The Neighborhood Restaurant.

They have indoor and outdoor seating but it seemed like on nice days they only serve the outdoor tables. The tables all have umbrellas and are set up under a canopy of grapevines.

The meals are really well priced when you take into account that each breakfast comes with unlimited coffee or tea, a small fresh squeezed orange juice, fresh fruit, homefries and whatever else you ordered. In our case, french toast and eggs for me and steak and eggs for Paul.

We did find it humorous that the "fresh fruit" of the day was a baked apple. Humorous but tasty. I also got to watch little kids at a nearby table try to figure out how to eat one. They wanted to pick it up but that didn't work. They tried a fork. Nope. That didn't work either. Then they tried a spoon. Nope. Not working. Finally, their dad saved the day by cutting it into more manageable chunks.

So, come and visit us and we'll go to our Neighborhood Restaurant. You have to check out their bathroom. I have never experienced a bathroom like theirs.

Veggie Dinner with a side of Cheap Ass

Weekends are glorious, yes they are. This weekend started with our turn as hosts of the Veggie Dinner Club. The Veggie Dinner Club consists of these wonderful folks:

Sylvie, Miriam, Me, Paul, Ann and Lee

And from the other side of the room: Paul, Ann, Lee, Beth, Sylvie and Miriam

Each of the households takes a turn cooking a fabulous vegetarian feast for the group. We rotate the duty and meet once a month to partake and imbibe. When Beth moved to town she brought this tradition with her from Chicago and set up shop. Thanks to her we have gotten to know all of these fabulous people.

After our dinner of Tropical Gazpacho and Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos, we proceeded to the Cheap Ass portion of the evening in which we were Bitin' Off Hedz. I, the pretty, pretty princess, did not win. That honor went to the Stegosaurus. Although, the Homie and the Drunken Santa held their own.

It was a fantastic Friday evening.