Kobie's expressive eyes

We went to Cafe Flora again last weekend. This time the service was not very good. They forgot to bring the soup, but we didn't get charged for it which was good. I guess it worked out because we were stuffed with all of the other stuff we ordered.

Fried Avocado. with a cornmeal crust and some yummy dipping sauces. Very very delicious.

Caesar's Salad. This is consistently good though they put too many burnt seedy things on top. Don't get me wrong, they are good.
Farro, veggies and some ranting. This was annoying. I had ordered the pizza, but didn't want the oyster mushrooms because I think they are gross. I asked her to sub in some other mushrooms, but they couldn't because the curry was premade. So I got the Farro instead without reading closely enough. A good server would say, hey the new dish that you ordered has tons of oyster mushrooms in it. But she didn't, and I pushed them to the side. She didn't even say anything about the big pile of mushrooms when she cleared our plates. The farro dish was ok, nothing special.
Split pea croquettes. This dish was a sort of misleading because they said it came with yukon frites. I'm thinking, cool! french fries. I think not. The "frites" were just mini shredded ultra greasy almost burnt yukon potatoes. The croquettes were bland. They should go to SusanV's blog and get some tasty croquette recipes :)

I must have forgotten to take a pic of the chocolate bread pudding. It was a dense hockey puck with way too much chocolate. I like a looser moister bread pudding. I think I've said before that their desserts aren't that great.

I think I'll only go to brunch at Cafe Flora from now on. That way I'll at least get some cinnamon rolls. Sorry about the crabby post, but this meal was not that great after the salad.

~~~~~

It's cold up here in western WA. Maybe not as cold as Wingraclaire and Tara have it, but cold enough for some snuggly blanket action. I'm sort of exaggerating because The Judge doesn't need cold weather to worm his way under a blanket.
Kobie is sort of pissed at me in this pic because he came inside and was really cold so I forced him to lay under the blanket until he got warm. I think he muttered "@#$@$@#@$@#WTF@#$@#$" under his breath.

More snow!!!!!

I can't believe how messed up the weather is in the Pacific NW this year. Yeah, I know some of you love snow, so do I maybe once per year for a day or two. It's just not natural for my area to get so much. Global warming suxor!

While I'm not loving it, there are 2 residents that do.

This was Sable's first day in the snow.

Sable inspecting Kobie while he is busy. Somebody needs to learn some manners.

She is finally starting to run in the backyard. The point and shoot camera doesn't take very happy pictures in that part of the yard. Either that or we have a secret doorway to a planet that has a weak sun. The first picture was taken w/ the SLR in manual mode.

~~~~~

Looks can be deceiving. I'm not eating a stack of jumbo pancakes, Andy just really loves to make stacks of small pancakes. I do love a river of syrup, though... More fun from the Candle Cafe cookbook.

~~~~~

Last week I made one of my favorite yet simple meals, Enchilda Pie. It's comprised of layers of tortillas, black beans, Follow Your Heart mozzerlla cheeZe (optional), diced green chiles, and a ton of enchilada sauce. Then I put some salsa on top. I can't seem to find the right size tortilla for my round casserole dish (and I'm too lazy to make them). I guess it all works out because it allows the sauce to flow freely in the pan.

Chocolicious

I'm continuing my trend of being a slacker blogger. What can I say. I have been buzy. For example, I spent 5 hours playing Age of Empires on Friday.

~~~~~

mmmmm..... chocolates. My friend, Suzanne, gave me some delicious chocolates and chocolate covered caramels from Sweet Earth Chocolates. The caramels (hazelnut, chocolate, regular) were soooo good and my favorites because I'm a caramel hound. The filled cups (pb, cranberry ginger, turtle, peppermint, coconut, almont) were a very close second. Thanks again, Suzanne!~~~~~

I recently made some peanut butter cookies from the Joy of Vegan Baking. I'm not a huge fan of pb cookies in general, but these were pretty good. nice and crunchy. soft cookies = bleah!
~~~~~

The worms have to work at keeping warm. Peepa demonstrates the "sit on the computer's power supply" technique. I'm not sure it's a healthy thing to do, but there isn't really any stopping them. I swear Peepa is just a hairy tapeworm masquerading as a cat.

My new foster dog is here

I've been a total slacker w/ the blog lately. For some reason, I have lost my motivation to do anything.

I haven't tried that many new recipes that were worth blogging about, so you're not missing much. I've been sticking some of my favorites.

• oatmeal cookies from the Joy of Vegan Baking - they make about 3 dozen, delicious cookies.
• enchilada bake/stack up/lasagna. exactly the same as the enchiladas I have posted about before, but you just stack them up like lasagna.
• pancakes galore from candle cafe. Andy is really into making giant stacks of mini pancakes.
• white bean boursin from the ultimate uncheese cookbook
• The first of the 2 chickpea salad recipes on susanv's blog. this is the best sandwich spread. A good way to use up leftover celery. I just love it.
• frozen stuff that I made in December (empanadas, ravioli, stuffed shells). The stuffing in the shells held up well in the freezer, but the pasta part was not quite right. I think the trick is to not cook them all the way. Next time I'll just make eggplant parm and freeze that. or better yet, make pesto ravioli. the other 2 things were great.

Towards the end of this month a new round of cooking classes will start up, so you'll hear all about them.


~~~~~


Last weekend, we went out to Bamboo Garden, a vegan Chinese restaurant in Seattle.


Corn Chowder. They have 2 kinds on the menu. This is the super thick kind. Yum. You can't go wrong w/ their soup.

General Tso's "Chicken". Delicious fake chicken battered, deep fried and covered w/ a spicy sauce. We almost always get this or the almond "chicken".

Szechuan Fake Chicken over Noodles. I forget the real name, but this was pretty good. Blurriness is due to relentless steam action.

~~~~~

Yesterday. I brought home the new dog I'm fostering. Her name is Sable. So far she seems afraid of the cats. They tried hard to ger her to like them by warming up some of her beds.

And here she is... Hanging out in the yard w/ her sexy coat.

Cafe Flora Brunch

I like comfort, so when I'm at the computer, I'm lounging in a lazy boy. Obviously Tubs agrees, because he joined me today while I was hanging out for just a second at the computer.

Since Tubs doesn't play lap cat too much, I decided stay put and use the time to to catch up on reading blogs and to write a post. Here he is snuggling up in the blanket. Maybe someday I'll be that flexible.

~~~~~

You gotta check out this link about this dog that loves all other animals. It's soooo cute!

~~~~~

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Cafe Flora's brunch with some friends. YUM!

The cinnamon rolls were awesome. I have to get up my nerve and try making them again. For some reason, I now have cinnamoroll in my head.
Mushroom scramble. Very good. It had big chunks of tofu that I think had been frozen to give them a nice texture. It also had a slightly miso taste to it. The potatoes were perfectly browned and crunchy.
Spinach scramble. mmmmm...
Apple sage waffle. yuck. hey, it can't all be perfect! A little yuck makes the good stuff taste even better.
~~~~~

Lisa (Cravin' Veggies), Peepa and The Judge do have tails! They are long and thin and are typically coiled up and tucked in near the tummy. I tried to find a pic of when the tail is coiled and on the outside, but couldn't. I have a TON of cat pics, ya know...

Tails come out when it's sunny.
Or when it's cleaning time. It's sort of hard to see, but the tail is coiled.

Mom, what are all these cars doing in my house?!?

I made Sweet Chickpea Curry Casserole from Vive Le Vegan that Joanna had blogged about. Very very delicious and really easy. Thanks, Joanna, for blogging about it.


Just chop stuff up, dump some cans of stuff in and toss it in the oven. I'm sure you're wondering how such a lazy dish could ever be good. Well, it is more than good. It's amazing. Bow down to the kitchen queen that is Dreena.

Here is what I did differently:

1. If you use full fat coconut milk, only use 1/2 can + water.
2. I added in about a cup of leftover mashed squash, it made it really creamy and thick.
3. you gotta add some hot sauce or jalapenos unless you like 0 stars.


I also made some brown basmati rice that I cooked with some cardamom pods (about 3 of them for 4 people's worth of rice). When it was almost done, I added in some frozen peas.


Now you have 2 bloggers that give this the thumbs up, so get out there and make some.

~~~~~

Just a smiley gingerbread cupcake from where else, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Do I have to mention that it was really good or have we all figured out that cupcakes from this book are always yummy?


~~~~~

My mother sent me a ton of these wind up toys in my xmas box. The cats really don't know what to think.

It's party time when we wind them up. Even the sleepiest cat will get up to join in.

Peepa is contemplating a smack down. This car goes in circles and apparently it deserves extra smacks when it goes around something, like this tripod leg.

Faline is ready to spring into action.

And here is her big move -- sniff the boat that goes around in circles.