Favorite Bars

I'm currently in Sarasota, Florida, my home town. The time here is 4:30am, but that's 1:30am Portland time and I'm still on Portland time...I just got here this morning (Friday morning) and I took a nap after arriving here on a red eye flight. But, yeah, kind of wide awake.

Note: LAX is one of the worst airports I've been to. I expected more since celebrities use it quite a bit. It's dumpy looking (ok, it's under construction, I think, so hopefully improvements are on their way) and the food choices suck. My sister and I shared a cheeseless veggie pizza at a California Pizza Kitchen Express. It was so blah. 

Today I have eaten: hashbrowns with green peppers and onions, french fries, more french fries (mmm...Chick-Fil-A waffle fries), some white rice w/veggies that my mom got at a mall food place, pretzels, mom's homemade handheld cherry pies, Tempt ice cream, a piece of mom's cinnamon bread....and some Dr. Pepper and beer. Yeah, a real good healthy day...

Only 9 days left...

But back to the subject, me and Jess planned on doing this post during Vegan MoFo, but never finished it before the end of October. Well, correction, I finished it, someone else didn't finish it. ahem. Well, she posted it on her page, so I'm just going to link it. Please let us know what your favorite bars are and what's vegan there that you like! (this includes out-of-Portlanders!)

More Waffles...and some sausage

This morning I was perplexed at what I would eat for breakfast. I was out of my English muffins that I normally eat, toasted with peanut butter and jelly. Then I remembered that I had bought these new waffles, Nature's Path's Flax Plus with Figs. I think they were on sale, I definitely bought them spur of the moment style. The inclusion of figs just sounded so delicious. 

I haven't been in much of a waffle mood so I had forgotten about them. So when I remembered them this morning, I decided to give them a go. I also had Gardenburger's faux sausage patties in the freezer. I had gotten them a long time ago and hadn't been mad impressed with the two I had eaten so I hadn't finished the box. I really miss Morningstar brand sausages. Those are the best faux sausages! Unfortunately, they have egg in them so I had to stop buying them. I think I heard they are working on making more of their products vegan, so I look forward to see if that is one of things they are changing. 

Anyways, I put two of the waffles in the toaster oven and then heated two of the sausage patties on the stove top. I topped the waffles with a little bit of maple syrup and had some ketchup and Chalula mixed up to dip the sausage in. I really liked the waffles! It was a lot like the other waffles I get from them, but with the addition of tasty fig bits. Frozen waffles are one of my main convenience foods. I do have a waffle maker but I used it only once, a couple weeks ago. My sister is the one that actually used it, I watched. It's a Hello Kitty one that I got from her a couple years ago (it was a presentfor her brother-in-law and he didn't want it, "too girly"). The waffles were tough to get out and....yeah, work....frozen waffles are cheap. Granted, they don't come in cute Hello Kitty shapes....

And the sausages. Well, they came out better than I remember! Not sure if I'll buy them again, but good to know they don't suck as much as I thought.

One of them Shout Out things

Beauty in Everything

If you aren't already looking at Are You My Ghost's Tumblr, you should. Renai picks out the best things to look out. It makes me happy when I see the close up of kitten paws, cute kittens, many lovely pictures, -oh, did i mention kitty pictures? For reals, it makes me almost want a cat. She gets alot of her images from SkyInMyPocket, so thanks, Alethea for your lovely posts!

The annual New Years Meal

I have posted my New Years Meal previously. I look forward to making it with my sister each January 1st. This year was no exception. We had it at me and missy's place and had some other guests as well. Instead of our normal Tofurkey beer brats, Kim made Isa's Hot Sauce Glazed Tempeh. It was good, but I kinda miss the beer brats and think I'll bring 'em back next time (or at least make some of my own steamed sausages). 

When I was at Grocery Outlet that day I spied the Kuhne brand Rotkraut (translated: Red Kraut). It's sauerkraut made with red/purple cabbage and there's a sweetness to it. I ate it alot when I was in Germany. I would say it was more prominent there then the sauerkraut that most people think of when they think 'Germany'. It got a warm welcome at our meal and I was excited to introduce something to my friends that they hadn't had before. 

We bought Bubbies jar of sauerkraut and finished the whole thing! I like non-refrigerated a little better because of the softer kraut, but I'll take whatever I can get!

My sister Kim also made a batch of black eyed peas. I think she said she got the recipe from Kittee. They reminded me a lot of the ones from Bye & Bye, but better. I don't like the Bye & Bye's recipe. It's spicy and tastes weird. (Yeah, there's something I don't like at the B&B, crazy, right?)

I made Nava Atlas' Greens w/Black Eyed Peas recipe, as always, and then we had some mashed potatoes. 

I have started making this meal during the year after realizing that I shouldn't be denying myself so horribly and only eating this meal once a year. 

Do you have an "lucky" New Years meal each year? What's your favorite thing to do with sauerkraut?