A Slight Change of Plans...

Well, a great deal has happened in the past few months. I will not even try to catch you up on the news. Quick summary: first I was very busy, then I was very sick, and am now not so very busy. I was forced to take a semester off, a medical leave of absence to recover. This has been a trying period, not only the whole getting better bit, but the absence of academia and friends (proximity-wise) has been rather difficult for me.

So. What have I been doing with all this free time? Well, not too much as of yet, but I have been crafting some great plans for the next few months. All shall be revealed in good time.

In the meantime, here are some photos of what I have been "cooking up" literally. It should be noted, that while I was enduring the "very sick" part of my recent past I was on a clear liquid diet. I was also taking medication that made me excruciatingly hungry. I began watching the Food Network religiously as well as reading as many cooking magazines as I could lay my hands on. When I finally was released from the hospital, I began to cook. Here, for your perusal, are some of my recent culinary creations.



This is a chickpea salad with a homemade white wine citrus dressing.



This is my version of vegetarian "ribs" with sage risotto (Mom's creation) and some honey-balsamic roasted root vegetables. The "ribs" are made with seitan, marinated with my own special recipe of marinade and then simmered in a pot and served with some of the marinade on top. The root vegetables were really fun to make; the sweetness of the honey contrasted nicely with the balsamic vinegar. This was also my first time preparing, cooking, and eating parsnips -- quite an enjoyable experience.



This is the infamous Angel Food cake I attempted to make. My mom, sister, and I all took turns beating that batter for an hour and an half until it finally whipped into peaks. I ended up killing our little hand-held beater (it had lived a good long life of over twenty years). Thus, this cake was very precious as a beater had sacrificed its life to give birth this dessert.