Put on your loose pants!

I’ve been gathering some recipes that I want to try over the next few weeks.

Vegan Puppy Chow!

Sweet and Spicy Nuts!

Chocolate Walnut Fudge! {minus the nuts}

What are you making this year?

Homemade Vegan Carnival Squash and Cashew Cheese Tortelloni !

I was inspired by a post over at Luminous Vegans to make my own stuffed pasta!

I roasted some Carnival Squash to make my filling for the pasta.

I made a quick cashew cheese to mix in with the roasted squash. I used two cups of soak cashews, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, about 4 tablespoons soy milk and 2 diced jalapenos. I used my blender to mix that together. Then I used one cup of the cashew mixture and combined it with two cups of the roasted squash. And there’s your filling!

For my pasta dough I used two cups unbleached flour, one teaspoon salt and about 1/3 cup water. The jalapenos weren’t as hot as I was hoping so I added two teaspoons cayenne powder to my dough. I must be immune to heat because I couldn’t taste the cayenne at all! Next time I will used habaneros!

My original plan was to make ravioli. They aren’t very pretty so I then started to make tortellini. These are technically TORTELLONI since they are bigger than the traditional sized tortellini. I looked that up…I’m Polish and German…I don’t know THAT much about pasta  🙂

The tortelloni is much prettier than the ravioli!

I gave the finished pasta a quick 3 minute boil.

And then I pan fried them in a little butter to give them a bit of a crunch. Overall this recipe was a success! The filling could use a little more salt and more spicy heat too! Happy pasta making!

Starting the week off right!

I found this recipe yesterday and I thought it looked delightful!

Like most recipes I really don’t follow them. I added soy curls, corn and a heaping tablespoon of cayenne powder to the original recipe.  I also used white beans instead of lentils.  And I didn’t add the onions, garlic, mushrooms or salt. The recipe called for soy sauce, which I used tamari, and that’s salty enough without adding more salt. I let the chunks of fresh pineapple marinate with the soy curls and they were delightful!

This mix is intended to be put on wheat buns, but I’m not a huge fan of bread. I’ve really only been eating it if we go to Wayward for if I’m in the mood for some toast. I made a nice bed of brown basmati rice for my sloppy joe concoction. The sweet corn and pineapple smelled awesome together! This was a success in the Smartz kitchen!

My cute pen pal from Finland, Mari, sent me some glass beads in her last letter. I put some on a simple chain yesterday! Cute! I don’t really tan during the summer. I’m pasty white and I have freckles.

Food and a park.

We spent a few hours in Seattle after work today. Teahouse Kuan Yin in Wallingford has some great vegan options and tea. I had some tomato mushroom soup.

Eric has some Chana Masala.

We also had a few spicy samosas. These are some of the best samosas I’ve ever had!

A few storefronts down from Kuan Yin is Fainting Goat. They sell gelato, which is made with goat milk, and sorbet. The sorbet is deliciously vegan!

Since it was sunny we decided to go to one of the beach parks. Carkeek Park is our favorite park so Carkeek is was!

Even though it was sunny, it was a little chilly with the wind blowing by Puget Sound.

There were quite a few people out wind surfing (did I name the correct water-based activity?) too.

You can usually find some seashells along the beach. Nothing super exciting, but they’re always beautiful to look at.

It was low tide when we were at the beach so we spotted some hidden wonders we can’t normally see. Barnacles matey!

I spotted sea anemones! There were geoducks too. Geoducks are fun because if you watch them for a few minutes you can see them squirt water in the air.  I’m not exactly sure what they’re doing when they do that, but it’s fun to see.  I dare you to find a picture of a geoduck…you will regret it!!

More fun.

Eric went in search of a place to take decent photos of trains and I laid down on a rock. Jeans and jacket in May, but I was working on my tan!

I also found this guy! A sea slug! I never saw one of these fine fellows before.

Thanks for a fun night Seattle!  I miss you.

We took advantage of the warm sun today!

Today is was sunny AND warm. I was in short sleeves all day today!

After a quick stop at the record store we went to Bamboo Gardens for some vegan noms! My bowl was literally bubbling when they brought it out to me.

We had to purchase a few goods from Uwajimaya, a fantastic store, in the International District. This sign was in my way so I just decided to include it. Get out of my way sign!

These dragons keep watch over the International District.

From Uwajimaya we walked to the King Street Station to watch for trains.

No train things yet.

We waited and waited.

Hurry up train!

Goodness! Adorable.

We were about to give up on the train watching.

There we are!

But then!!

She's coming round the bend.

Hopper.

Boxcar.

Coils.

It was a short train, but it was a train.

Byee!

We had a mini photo shoot when we came home. It's kitten love!...too bad the photo was so washed out.

Love.

I was feeling a little bit like Lori from The Walking Dead today.

See Lori here!

Juniper loves coming outside with us.

Sleepy baby.

Until next time!

Fremont Friday!

After work today we drove down to Seattle for some food and shopping! I wore my new shoes!

I had some Thai iced tea. And I think Eric was saying a prayer in the background.

Spring rolls too!

I ate red curry with bean composition.

We stopped at Sidecar for some cat food and tofu. I also found this.

This was inside!

I found these two horses at a vintage store in Fremont. My aunt Betty has the horse on the right. She has 3 or 4 of them actually. I have one similar to that, but it has brown and white stripes. Exciting, no?

It’s November AND sunny in Seattle.

Eric and I went down to Seattle today. We like to go there at least once a week. We need to leave the weirdness of Everett and eat fun vegan food!

Such blue blue sky for a November day!

After record store browsing we stopped by Bamboo Garden for vegan Chinese food. I had a cup of corn chowder.

Bamboo Garden is serving Thanksgiving dinner. It's tempting to go there for it because their food is amazing, but I do love to make Thanksgiving dinner at home.

Eric wasn't thrilled that the record store didn't have the record he was looking for. Just you wait for Tuesday dear Eric.

Eric had the Szechuan tofu hot pot. It lived up to its name. See the bubbles and the steam!?

And I had the Shanghai style rice pasta. Those circular objects are actually thick rice noodles. So so good!

After the week I just had at work…this was needed.

Last night we went out to eat at Araya's! They have the best vegan Thai food ever!

 

I had a Thai iced tea with coconut milk. It's huge!

 

Spring rolls.

Eric had spicy noodle with wide noodles and no onions. Three out of five on the spicy chart.

 

Red curry with veggie meat and brown rice. Four out of five stars on the spicy scale. It was hot. My face was warm to the touch and pink. It also felt like I had a fire in my tummy. That was the hottest thing I've had in a super long time!