Popcorn Cookies, Pasta and Preparation
Hi guys!
It’s Friday! Yay!
What Friday means for me is NOT the end of the work week, looking forward to the weekend and possibly happy hour, but a late-night closing shift at the BrewPub. I love my job, and Fridays keep me extra busy on the floor at work, so it’s a fun shift.
The restaurant industry operates on a different timeline than traditional 9-5’ers. I work 8-10 hours a day, and my shifts start anywhere between 1030am and 4pm. I get out as late at 130 or 2am on Friday nights. I’ve been in the restaurant industry for so long I don’t know what I’d do with normal work hours during daylight, sitting at a cubical and working for the weekend. It’s possible I’d go stir-crazy.
Anyway, I like Fridays because I have all day to get stuff done.
Stuff like………….
POPCORN COOKIES.
I adapted the recipe from this source, but modified it quite a bit. (It was so liquidy I felt like I had to keep adding thickener/binder, but I still managed to keep them completely gluten-free.)
They turned out pretty well. And by pretty well I mean delicious. I will definitely be making these again, because like I said on Facebook, the only thing better than popcorn and cookies is POPCORN COOKIES.
….Stuff like re-heating last night’s Lemon Dill Orecchiette Pasta with Kale, Spinach and Green Peas for lunch today.
Last night this was waaaay too lemon-y and the pasta still tasted kind of chewy (am I selling you on it yet?) but today when I reheated it and added a touch of almond milk, daiya mozzarella, and more nutritional yeast and dill, it was splendid. Splendid.
Trivia of the day: orecchiette means ‘little ear’ in Italian and is so named because of its indented shape.
……….And stuff like doing laundry, listening to The Traveling Wilburys and researching South Korea.
source
I’m headed to Seoul on Monday for a week. I will be spending about 26 hours on a plane and in airports to get there, but baby, when I get there, it will be non-stop norebonging, hiking, and eating kimchi. (Just kidding about the last part, I’m not super wild about kimchi, though I’ve heard kimchi doughnuts exist. What the heck?) I’m visiting my brother who’s lived there for what feels like eons teaching English (He and his girlfriend write a great blog about traveling and their experience there called Are We There Yeti).
Guys, I thought Chicago was huge—at 2.7 million people, it’s the third largest city in the US (source: talking to locals and vague internet research). But Seoul, at over 10 million people, is beyond my comprehension of how large a city can be.
From Wikitravel:
With over 10 million people, a figure that doubles if you include neighboring cities and suburbs, Seoul is the largest city in South Korea and unquestionably the economic, political and cultural hub of the country. By some measures it is the second largest urban agglomeration on the planet, after Greater Tokyo. Situated between Shanghai and Tokyo and bordered by the impenetrable Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north, the South Korean capital is sometimes overlooked by travelers. However, Seoul is an exciting location in its own right, not to mention cheaper than its rivals and incredibly safe. With beautiful palaces, great food and a shopping nightlife, Seoul is a frenetic way to experience the Asia of old and new.
I am so excited! I have been traveling a lot (to LA for Veggie Grill and to Chicago for Vida Vegan Con), and my trips have been great. I feel grateful for the amount of travel I am doing in this first part of 2012. This trip is extra-special though; I’m seeing my stupid brother who I miss a lot and exploring a whole new city/country/continent. Whoa. This is pure pleasure. And lots of walking.
I’m flying on Continental/United and it turns out they’re an extremely frustrating airline to fly on and communicate with. One of them is buying the other one out; so my information their representatives have access to is divided arbitrarily—one of them can see my seat number but not change it, the other one can’t look up the meal plan for me… I spent two hours (I’m exaggerating, it was only just over an hour but it felt like HOURS) on the phone with them and still am not sure about my meal or seat assignment.
I’m preparing for my flight with loads of granola bars (don’t know if my request for a vegan meal got through), comfy clothes and gratitude for my short legs for my middle seat, and a few new books on my Kindle.
Watoosie!
While I’m there, we may even film an episode of Man Vs Tofood. When my brother and his girlfriend Rachel lived here in Portland for a year, we went around town filming ridiculous versions of a web vegan version of Man vs Food. (You can see the episodes we filmed here.) He even filmed a special episode where I baked something for him to conquer. (Even though I look victorious at the end, I was secretly disappointed that I won.)
So, Friday. A day filled with cookies, pasta, laundry (blech) and research on my upcoming international trip followed by a sure-to-busy night at work. Fantastic! Oh. I just remembered I need to find my passport still. Hurm. Good thing I’ve got three days left.
Chicago VVC Research Trip
Last week, Jess, Michele and I woke up bright and early and headed to the PDX Airport.
Destination: Chicago!
In January!
Our four goals were simple:
1. Eat Chicago Pizza and Chicago-style Hot Dogs.
Chicago unfortunately has a severe shortage of deep dish vegan pizza (Really, Chicago? Not one place?) but luckily for us, our friend The Snarky Vegan put out a call for best vegan pizza place and we all decided on The Boiler Room. Ian’s, the other options that came up, didn’t carry Daiya, and that’s what we were jonesing for.
The Boiler Room has the coolest bathrooms on the planet (see Get Sconed’s Facebook page for a little video tour), a rad cocktail list and Upton Natural’s bacon. None of us had tried bacon on pizza before, so we had to check it out. This pizza is basic—red sauce with mozzarella Daiya, Upton’s bacon and basil. Yurm.
Could have used more basil, but I’m a basil fiend and could always eat more basil.
The Whole Foods in Lincoln Park has two unique distinctions:
1. It is the best place in the world and one can drink bubbles while grocery shopping and I want to live in the aisles forever.
2. There’s a little diner called River View that offers vegan Chicago-style hot dogs for $3.50.
Michele stuck with the classic hot dog. I opted for one with sauerkraut and mozzarella Daiya.
It looks gross, I know. When I saw the picture, I seriously questioned myself as to why I would eat that. But guys, it was really good. I ate about half the kraut/cheese topping, and a few of the fries. YURM!
Oh, and we had milkshakes in Chicago, too!
Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Milkshake at The Chicago Diner.
Jess and I split the small one, and between the two of us, we almost finished it.
Jess ordered a cookies and cream milkshake at the fine River View café in Whole Foods.
This is Michele, with her glass of bubbly and Jess’ milkshake in the background.
We came, we ate, we conquered.
2. Meet up with awesome Chicago vegan peeps.
Dan and Nicole from Upton’s spent a few hours with us on Saturday. They’re the nicest people. They picked us up at our Travelodge and drove us through Boystown to The Chicago Diner. We had a fun chat over lunch.
Nicole, me and Jess outside the Chicago Diner
After lunch, we checked out a few other places on the (un)official Upton’s Driving Tour. Dan and Nicole were the perfect welcoming wagon to us VVC ladies in Chicago. Thanks, guys!
The magnificent Kelly Peloza (who is my younger doppelganger.) came up for dinner and shenanigans with us on Saturday night. She’s so talented and peaceful and fun. I love her.
Kelly and Jess at Native Foods.
On Sunday, we had a small meet up at the Boiler Room. Marla from Chicago Vegan Mania, Julia from The Snarky Vegan and Michelle (Jess’ friend—not sure if she has a blog?) got together for pizza and talks about Chicago locations and probability of a future event here.
This is what we did all weekend. Bloggers gotta blog.
3. Research potential venues for
Vida Vegan Con 2013.
We saw several spots—ranging from UIC which would be big enough to host everything except the Galarama, to Loft on Lake (perfect for Galarama??) to Pulaski Park to Roosevelt University. We loved all we saw. While some locations had drawbacks, they each had a lot of singular benefits. We will be weighing out the pros and cons this weekend.
Decisions, decisions!
4. Get familiar with the feel of Chicago, the public
transportation, and the vegan food options.
This is the view from our hotel room. Chicago is a pretty city.
The public transportation was ridiculously easy to understand, navigate and afford.
Jess and Michele will probably kill me for posting this blue-light bus picture. But I love it.
I’m not sure why, but I really like this picture.
We had coffee at Intelligentsia, Chicago’s famous coffee shop.
My soy cappuccino was alright. It looked beautiful, but (*puts on coffee snob hipster glasses*) notes of banana overwhelmed the flavor of the cup for me.
:
I call this “The Jess Collection”.
<3 <3 <3
We ate lunch at Quesadilla La Reyna del Sur, an all-vegan soy-saturated taco place.
I loved it. I tried three different tacos and a bite of Jess’ Cuban Torta. I wish there was a Quesadilla location in Portland, but failing that, I am just getting more and more excited for El Nutri to open its Brick and Mortar location (Anyone know when that will be?)
Walking around in the cold. Brrrrrrr. I loved the weather. I don’t know how I’d feel after five solid months of bone-seeping cold, but four days wasn’t so bad. Plus, it was snowy. <3
Fresh warm bread. Never say no to fresh warm bread.
I enjoyed this Ebel’s Weiss. It tasted like a floral Hefeweizen.