Vermont! The New Place!

The post you all have been waiting for I'm sure! :-) I've been crazy busy with the photo stuff, but figured I'd take a little break today to give you a peek into our new space up in the north country! We finally have mostly settled in and gotten most of the art up on the walls and such. There's still a few things left and the back bedroom still needs to be settled, but for the most part, it's pretty set up!

First off, I knew I was missing having space in Brooklyn, but holy moly I can't even begin to explain how nice it is to just have ROOM again. To have THREE closets! To not be a cluttered mess even when everything is clean is awesome. Also, since I'm working from home now most of the time, it's been wonderful to have such a sunny apartment to be in!



We're living on a nice little street just two blocks from downtown. It's been great as Alex takes the car most days, but I can still easily walk anywhere I need to go. The coop, grocery store, gym, library, stores, post office, whatever. They're all about a 10 minute walk at most.

Alex said one day that Montpelier is kind of like a cute little hippy Brooklyn neighborhood that got dropped in the middle of the forest. And I think that's about the best description ever.  The stores are all independent, lots of thrift shops and little boutiques, the restaurants are amazingly delicious, and there's a wonderful farmer's market on the weekends! All surrounded by amazing mountain scenery. It's seriously idyllic. Are you coming to visit yet?? :-)

Bedroom:



I LOVE how sunny our bedroom is. It's so great to work in during the day.


Seriously ginormous compared to our bedroom in Brooklyn.





Living Room:



I'd like a little coffee table, but Alex has been anti the idea for the time being. So for now, we have storage ottomans from amazon that have actually been pretty nice. 



I want to print some canvases to hang behind the couch!



Kitchen:


Sorry, the light is funky.


Electric stove, boo. But I'm making it work!



Bathroom:



Our bathroom is kind of silly big, but has the tiniest pedestal sink. I don't really get it, but whatever. I'm happy for the room!

Second Bedroom!!



Still not finished as you can see, and it's teeny. But hopefully maybe we can squeeze an air mattress or something in here if anyone stops over. For now it's mainly for drying laundry and storage. But it's great to have.



Next up I promise to have more recipes and a tour of the neighborhood and pretty photos. For now, stop over at the photo blog for views of my latest hike up a mountain!


 

Fun Times in The City!

So as our time in NYC is winding down, I have been on a quest to get as much city fun as I can before we head out to the Vermont countryside. We actually made a list of things to do in NYC before we moved here, and I have to say, we've done a very good job at knocking off most of them.

This past June in particular was pretty amazing in terms of awesome NYC things. I got to eat at two absolutely amazing restaurants, Momofuku Ko AND Brooklyn Fare. Seriously, these were two of the most awesome culinary experiences ever. If you have the chance, GO. Now.

Additionally, we had loads of fun with some sailing and trapezing! For Alex's birthday this year, I was at a loss for what to do. Then I saw a post on Cup of Jo on sailing, one of my favorite NY blogs, and knew I had found the event! Alex and I don't often exchange gifts, especially for birthdays, we're more "do cool things" over "get more stuff" sort of folks, so a sunset sail on the Hudson was perfect.



I had gone on a Circle Line boat cruise before around the harbor, but this was SO much cooler. I'm fairly certain it's one of my favorite things we've done in the city. I met Alex on 22nd street and 10th as a surprise and then we walked out to Chelsea piers. You can bring along a picnic, which I highly recommend doing. I stopped at Num Pang in Union Square (best sandwiches in NYC, no question) and also picked up dessert at Chelsea Market.



For the cruise they take you out on a gorgeous sail boat, one of the old school beautiful schooners. Our group was fairly small, maybe 12-15 of us on the boat, and our evening was perfect! It was a clear night, there was lots of wind for sailing, and there were even points where we were nearly at a 45 degree angle going around a curve. Super fun! Along with the picnic, they also serve unlimited drinks on board. Wine, champagne, and beers. While they say it's not meant to be a booze cruise, we never had an empty glass the whole 2 hours. :-)



I didn't bring my DSLR, but did manage to snap a few photos with my cell phone and with our little point and shoot camera. The views were gorgeous!






I love this one. The boat in this photo is just like the one we were on. 

Our second fun adventure was trapeze! Again at the suggestion of Cup of Jo, as soon as I saw it, I knew this was something I needed to do. SO MUCH FUN! I pretty much wanted to immediately join the circus. It was a deathly hot day when we went, but being on the water there was a decent breeze. And when you're flying through the air, we barely noticed it.









We learned a basic knee hang, a flip off the bar to dismount, and got to try a few catches. The instructors here were fantastic teachers and incredibly friendly. I would completely recommend this place to anyone coming to the city! I know I'll be back!

 



So hard to believe we only have about 3 weeks left! Get ready for loads of post from green mountains, as I'm hoping my free time will actually start to exist! Hurray! :-) 

Tempeh Sloppy Joes

Oh HEY blog. How's it going?

So when we were in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, ( yes, I know, I'm awful at giving you travel photos. I will do it sometime this year. PROMISE.) Alex and I went to this really cool cafe by our hotel for lunch and Alex had this fantastic sandwich. Afterwards I promised to give it a shot at home, and here's what I came up with! Alex devoured two of them, and the one I had was mighty tasty, so I'd say that was a success! Take that making up recipes!

Tempeh Sloppy Joes!

Ingredients:
 1 onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
approximately 1/4 cup grated carrot (I didn't actually measure, this is a guess)
5 garlic cloves chopped
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 TBS red wine vinegar (plus an extra splash)
1 TBS soy sauce (plus an extra splash or so)
1 TBS Worcestershire 
dash of red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp oregano
dash of paprika (a bit less then 1/4 tsp)
dash of cayene pepper
1 tsp brown sugar 
sea salt and a few grinds black pepper
1 tempeh cake
olive oil
Burger buns for serving, toasted
avocado and bell pepper, shredded cheese for topping

Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic to a frying pan with a bit of olive oil. Saute until softened. Add in the tomato sauce, vinegar and sauces and spices and sugar. Stir until well mixed. Cover and simmer over low heat 5-10 minutes.

While this sauce is cooking, chop up the tempeh and fry with a bit of olive oil in a separate pan about 5 minutes or until browned. Let cool until you can handle it. Then crumble into small pieces. Add the tempeh to the sauce mixture. Let simmer about 5 minutes.

Serve over toasted bread with toppings as desired. Enjoy!

Channa Masala

So, blog? How's it going?

I have been up to my ears this spring in photo editing and such, so this blog has sadly fallen by the wayside. However, soon enough, especially later this summer, I have high hopes to get on the more regular blog train! (This may or may not have to do with exciting announcements that involve states called Vermont.)

On to the food. Alex and I have pretty much given up cooking meat for most meals during the week. A. We've decided we're only consuming sustainably raised stuff. and B. it's turned out quite a bit cheaper to eat mostly veggie, which is lovely. and C. These veggie dishes are super quick and easy, and flavorful, which is awesome for a weeknight meal.


As if to prove how lazy I was feeling last night. I didn't want to grab my actual camera. Sorry for the cell phone photo!

I was in the mood for something Indian flavored last night, and remembered starring Smitten Kitchen's recipe awhile ago, so figured I'd give it a try.

I made this in like 25 minutes, which is great for any night of the week I think! It was fairly spicy, but pretty tasty! I'm betting on it tasting even better as leftovers, as I don't think it had quite enough to cook and let the flavors meld as we were mighty hungry! I was tempted to add some potato as well, which I might do next time.

Chana Masala
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

A bit of olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 hot green chili pepper, minced (we used jalapeno, as that's what we had)
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (I used more a heaping 1/4)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes, (smaller diced is better)
1 bell pepper, diced
2/3 cup water
4 cups cooked chickpeas or 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon salt
juice of 1 lemon

Add onion, garlic, ginger and pepper and sauté over medium heat with oil until browned, about 5 minutes. Turn heat down to medium-low and add the coriander, cumin, cayenne, turmeric, paprika and garam masala. Cook with spices for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes with their juice and the bell pepper. Add the water and chickpeas. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, then stir in salt and lemon juice.

Enjoy!


We had ours over a bed of quinoa, but rice would be tasty as well!

Gado Gado

Remember when I had a blog? Sorry for the hiatus! Things were little crazy over here in December, and then we went to Argentina! Hurray! Photos and stories to come soon, I promise.

I haven't cooked a new recipe in awhile, a fault of the crazy schedule the end of the year held for us. However, this weekend I finally got to the library and picked up some fun new cookbooks. Alex has the tradition of often picking the strangest sounding thing possible from any menu (unless something has the word chiptole in it) and thus he instantly was drawn to this recipe for Gado Gado from a Moosewood cookbook. It's apparently Indonesian specialty and turned out really tasty!

It was pretty easy to make, you could totally alter it to suit whatever veggies you have in the house, and, most importantly, it was delicious. Clearly evidenced by Alex having THREE full plates. (Ah, the joys of keeping a hungry husband full. Someday I'll have leftovers again. :-) )

Gado Gado
Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special

I halved the recipe that was originally in the book for the sauce, and mixed up the veggie portion a bit to suit our tastes and what we had in stock. The original recipe also calls for 2 TBS of lime juice in the sauce, which I completely forgot!

The recipe calls for this to be served on a bed of spinach or rice, we went for quinoa. I think cous cous would also be good!

Sauce:

Canola Oil (a few tsp)
1 onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/2 jalepeno or other chile, finely chopped
1 TBS ginger root, peeled and grated
1 cup natural peanut butter (the stuff that JUST has peanuts!)
1.5 cups water or veggie stock (I used half and half)
1/8 cup cider vinegar
1.5 tsp soy sauce
pinch salt
1.5 tsp brown sugar

Saute up the onions and garlic in a sauce pan with a bit of oil until softened. Add in the spicy pepper and cayenne and ginger. Cook for a few more minutes.

In a bowl, combine the peanut butter with about .5 cup of stock until blended, then slowly add the rest of the liquid. Once it's smoothly combined, add to the onion mixture. Stir in the vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and brown sugar. Cover and simmer over low heat, stirring now and then for about 10-15 minutes. If your sauce gets too thick, add a bit more stock until it's the consistency you'd like.

Veggies

2 small sweet potatoes, peeled, cut in small slices
1 small red potato, cut in small slices
1/3 cup diced carrots
1 cup bite size broccoli florets
1/2 cup cauliflower, bite size pieces
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
handful snap peas

I steamed all the vegetables in one big pot over a metal steamer. First, add the potatoes, steam about 7 minutes. Add the carrots on top and steam about 3 minutes more. Then add the broccoli and cauliflower and steam another 5 minutes. Add the pepper and snap peas and steam for a final 3 minutes or so.

Serve the veggies over a plate of quinoa, then top with the peanut sauce!

Enjoy!


(It's not the prettiest dish, but it's TASTY! I promise!)

Savory Herb Bread

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We hosted a couple friends again this year, though it was a lot tighter fit then in our previous apartment in Bushwick! I made a pretty good spread, including turkey and gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, corn bread stuffing, some other assorted veggies and a salad, and a pumpkin pie. I think this may be the first year I've managed everything without stressing out and getting everything done at the same time on schedule! So for that, I was proud. 4 times is the charm apparently. And considering the size of my tiny Brooklyn kitchen now, that is no small feat! :-)

In any case, the new thing I added to the menu this year was bread from scratch! I've been wanting to make homemade yeasted bread for awhile now, but have never gotten around to it. I've done pita bread and pizza dough, but not actual loaves of bread. I spotted this recipe in my Cafe Brenda cookbook and it sounded lovely for a Thanksgiving meal, so I went for it. This was probably the last time of the season to get fresh herbs at the farmers market, so it was especially great for that!

Though bread making takes awhile, it's not active cooking for the whole time, mostly you just have to wait for things to rise. So, for a Thanksgiving cooking day, this was perfect to throw together, leave it alone for a few hours, and then pop in the oven.

And, it was DELICIOUS!



Savory Herb Bread
Cafe Brenda Cookbook

Makes two loaves

1.5 Cups warm water
1.5 TBS active dry yeast (about 1.5 packets)
1/4 cup honey
4 - 4.5 cups flour
2 tsp chopped fresh chives
2 tsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
up to 2 TBS other chopped herbs such as marjoram, basil, or oregano (or slightly less dried)
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBS oil

Add the warm water and yeast to a large bowl and mix together until the yeast dissolves. Add in the honey and stir well. Add in 2 cups of flour and mix together. Set aside the mixture while you chop all the herbs. Then add in herbs, salt and oil and stir. Then add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time. Once the dough has come together, turn onto a floured work surface and knead well for a few minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and cover. Let rise in a warm place for an hour. Punch the dough down and knead a couple times for air bubbles, then separate into two loaves. I did one circle flat loaf and one regular bread loaf, as we only have one rather decrepit loaf pan. (Santa! Hint: we could use a new loaf pan! :-) ) Place the loaves either on a buttered cookie sheet or in a loaf pan. Cover and let rise for another 45 minutes to an hour.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. (Note: Our oven runs quite hot, and I peeked in at about 20 minutes and the dough was already starting to brown. I turned the heat down to about 325-300 and it turned out well. So be sure to keep an eye on things once you start to bake.)

Curried Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

So the past two days were pretty grey and drizzly here in the city so I figured it'd be the perfect excuse to make some warm, delicious soup. I positively love soup on a cold day, and this hit the spot. This soup also makes a TON! So, lots of leftovers for lunch! Alex said this is one of his new favorite soups ever. (And since we now both work right next to the most awesome soup place ever, that's a mighty big compliment!)

Curried Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup
Cafe Brenda Cookbook

1 large onion, diced
6-7 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup peeled and finely minced ginger root
olive oil
1.5 TBS curry powder
1 chile pepper (or jalapeno) minced
1 cup diced carrots (which I think I forgot, opps!)
1 bell pepper, diced
5 cups (about 3-4) sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 14oz can coconut milk
2 cup dried lentils
8 cups veggie stock
juice of 1 lime
1 bunch cilantro, minced

Add onion, garlic and ginger to a large pot with a bit of oil. Saute until softened. Add the sweet potato, peppers, carrots, and curry powder. Saute about 5-10 minutes. Add lentils, coconut milk, and stock. Simmer covered about 30-40 minutes until lentils and potatoes are cooked. Add lime juice and cilantro just before serving.

Enjoy!