Jack and Cris' wedding (food)

My brother-in-law and his new wife, Cristiana, got married the weekend before Thanksgiving at the Sweetbriar golf club in Avon Lake, OH. The food at the reception was exceptional. I wish I had a photo of Joe's Apple Pork Tenderloin entree. I've never sampled such tender meat before. Stephen also liked his kid's meal: apple sauce, french fries and a real breaded chicken breast. Usually, I can't get him to eat meat, but he ate quite a bit.

I was one of only two guests to order the "vegetarian" option at the reception. It was excellent! A big, flaky phyllo-wrapped packet with roasted tomato, portabella and pencil asparagus. Served over rice pilaf and sauteed veggies.

Black bean burgers

Words forthcoming!

Mount St. Where-is-it? and plates of what-is-it?

The Restoration House crew took an incredibly long van ride to Johnston's Ridge at Mount St. Helens on Sunday after visiting the Foursquare church in Portland. This photo captures the essence of that trip. The fog was so dense we couldn't see more than a few yards in front of us, let alone the infamous volcano that vaporized a University of Illinois geologist, David Johnston, in the 1980 blast.
I did however get a nice shot of this scruffy rodent :-) Thanks to Emaly B. for spotting him.


After five hours of driving, and about 1 hour of exploring, our final challenge was to find dinner. We returned to Portland, determined to stop at the first Italian restaurant we found. The first restaurant, unfortunately, was a little too foo-foo. SO we started to look for the second Italian restaurant... We spotted a pizza place, next door to a place called Vita, with fettuccine and meatballs as the daily special.

The prices at Vita seemed right, so we slid into a U-shaped booth.

"What's seitan?" "Or tempeh?"

Vita was a vegan restaurant... Something I was giddy about... but others were scared about. Half our crew politely slid out of the U-shaped booth and down the street to the pizza place. Joe, Brad, Jeremy and I stayed put. Joe and I often ate at the Red Herring in Urbana... so we were used to animal-free food. I was very proud of Brad and Jeremy for sticking it out. :-)
Enjoying some of Joe's Tomato Basil soup.
The basil flavor really came through. This wasn't Campbell's!
Brad and I both ordered the vegan lasagna with pesto sauce. It was packed with veggies and flavor (probably salt too). Joe had the fettuccine with "meat"balls. They reminded me a little of Taiwan-style fried shrimp balls... kind of crunchy on the outside and light and springy on the inside. Very tasty.
The four of us also shared a slice of vegan carrot cake with killer frosting and a nice dense crumb.

Sara, Shirley, Blake and Emaly enjoyed their pizza.

Enough nature. Let's talk food again.

It's getting to be the perfect weather for a veggie roast. And I really needed to make use of the veggies Mom and I bought from the Mennonites 2 weekends ago.
You can't make too many vegetables, in my opinion... but to fill a big double-thick cookie sheet try this:

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 large zuchinni, cubed
1 medium sweet onion, 1-inch chunks
3 small tomatoes, quarterd (I find canned stewed tomatoes work better than fresh, which will weld themselves to the pan if you're not careful)
1 cup frozen cruciferous vegetable of choice (broccoli, cauliflower, or halved brussels sprouts).

Cook your sweet potato chunks covered in the microwave for 3 minutes, until tender. (trust me on this one, crunchy sweet potatoes will ruin the whole thing)

Toss all the veggies in olive oil and lemon pepper until they seem well coated. Roast at 450 until edges are browned and the house smells good (about 30-45 minutes). Don't burn your tongue, and try to share with your loved ones!

Love my oven

Oven theater presents:
It's not a special oven, really. I mean it's just standard. But to me it's special. I never had such a nice oven in the five years I've been married. It's full size. I can fit 9x13s and muffin pans and cookie sheets in it. It works. BOTH heating elements get red hot. And it has a light and a little window.

For fun, I like to push back the dish rag curtains and watch the show of muffins rising. Joe laughs. But laughter quickly is silenced, muffled ... by one of the tasty muffins of my performance produces.

After making vegan (read: I ran out of eggs) zucchini muffins, I made a dozen banana chocolate chip muffins... Joe's request.

So you might have guessed I'm feeling human again. Though my sinuses are swelling intermittently as the battle grounds for my immune system and that nasty bug. My side is fighting the battle, like good little white blood cells should.

But I think I'll go help them along in the best way I know how. Good night!

Edited 8/31:
Rachel reminded me to put up the recipes. ;)
For "vegan" zucchini muffins:
Dry Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Wet Ingredients:
heaping cup of grated zucchini (I use a grater with really small holes)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil (or a little less)
a little vanilla extract

Pour one bowl into the other, stir til moistened. Spoon mixture into muffin cups and cook at 350 until tops turn golden brown. Because they don't have eggs, they don't really rise above the muffin cups. But they taste really good. You can also stir one egg into the wet ingredients and get regular muffins that are also tasty.