canadians love veganism

Adrian and I finally made it to Montreal after a bit of a hang up involving us being poor students and a rental car company wanting money. We didn't end up leaving until saturday, but we made the best of our last day in Providence. We went to this awesome vegan friendly restaurant, Julian's on the west side where I had orange vanilla French toast and eggs benedict, we went ice skating, and we got to dress up all fancy like for a fun new years eve party with our friends. So then on Saturday we finally left the smallest state in the Union, and here we are! I've been eating incredible vegan food since getting here: Adrian's Grandmother made me delicious vegan dinner on Saturday, yesterday for lunch we went to an amazing raw vegan spot called Crudessence, and then last night we went to delicious indian food. Crudessence was so cool. We started with fiesta nachos with guacamole and house made cashew sour cream, Adrian had a juice with beats, ginger, and carrots and I had a house made kombucha with hibiscus which was fantastic. For the main, Adrian had a crepe with pistachio pesto, capers, tomatoes and spinach and I had the pesto sandwich with sprouts, avocado and apple. The bread was amazing. It was just a bunch of grains and seeds all pressed together basically. it was mind blowing. And we ended with chais and chocolate. amazing. amazing. amazing.
We then went to the art museum to see the Otto Dix show, for which Adrian's awesome grandma had gotten us tickets. She also gave us a tour because she's a docent. In the contemporary section, there was a really awesome acrilc painting of a baroque hall that was the coolest. I wanted to steel it. (The photo is of me just after this really adorable little girl came up to me looking at this painting and said "THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE!!!!!!" it was super cute.)
Finally, we had great indian for dinner with Adrian's friend Tyler and his boyfriend, Drew, and after we went for good local beers at a spot called Else's.
Great weekend!

joys and concerns

This week went much better than last week. I've reminded myself that I'm capable of breathing and I was sooo busy that I didn't have time to fret. It was pretty crazy. Needless to say, I got it all done cause as all Smithies know 'done is better than good'. So Friday evening Meg came to visit from Northampton, which I am sooo happy about. We had Thai for dinner, went to the GCB then went to Steve's house. Saturday morning was a hard morning, but to help us get through it I made pancakes and vegan scramble. We went shopping and Meg found more j-brands for me at TJ Maxx, which was awesome. For dinner, we made soft tacos with homemade tortillas.

Pancakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cardamom or cinnamon
1 cup soy milk
2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix together the dry then add the wet. Pour onto preheated skillet. Serve with Earth Balance and maple syrup.

Vegan Scramble
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion (1/2 of a white onion or 1 smallish yellow onion)
1/2 package of tofu (drained, pressed and chopped into small cubes)
1/2 tsp tumeric
chopped veggies- bell peppers, mushrooms, eggplant(must be sweated first)
salt and pepper to taste
red chili flakes (optional)

Heat oil over medium heat and saute onions. Add tofu, tumeric and eggplant, if using. Cook for ~20 min. Add chopped peppers, mushrooms, salt, pepper and chili flakes, if using. Cook until mushrooms and peppers are fully cooked ~10 min).


Soft Tacos (enough food for 3 people)

Tortillas (makes 12)
2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
5 tbsp vegetable shortening
3/4 cup warm water with 3/4 tsp salt

With your hands, incorporate the vegetable shortening into the flour until it looks a bit like corn meal. Add 1/2 cup of warm water and mix. Add more water as needed until dough contains most of the flour. The dough should not be sticky wet. kneed the mixture. Split into 12 portions making 12 balls. Cover and let sit for ~30 min. Roll out each ball with a rolling pin, stack them, putting a little bit of flour on each one so they don't stick together. Heat ungreased skillet. Cook each tortilla on both sides (they should bubble a little)

Beans
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cans of black beans, drained
1 tbsp spicy taco seasoning mix (from whole foods)
1/2 tsp salt
water

Heat olive oil in a skillet, add black beans. Mash the black beans to a consistency that you like. I like them a bit more mashy because they don't fall out of your taco/burrito, while Meg enjoys more whole beans for textural reasons. Add the seasoning mix and maybe a little water depending on how dense it is.

Putting the Tacos Together
Tortillas
Beans
2 tomatoes chopped
2 avocados sliced
1 diced onion
arugula or other lettuce like green
salsa
salt

On an open tortilla put beans down the middle, add tomatoes, avocados, onion, arugula and salsa as desired. Add salt if needed. Fold end of tortilla up over beans, then fold sides to each other. Enjoy!