Blood, Sweat and Tears Food for Thought Life in the Country
by Alice
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A VERY Good Day
Every road is uphill when you're a runner
Yesterday was a fantastic day. I wish we could know ahead of time when one is coming so that I could savor the anticipation. It wasn’t that we had tons of fun. We didn’t go anywhere or do anything special. But my writing came out in torrents. I had volumes to say and the words went together without requiring me to construct each sentence from scratch. I didn’t struggle to find information. I didn’t crumple under deadlines. I did two difficult rewrites, three new articles and got the content down for two dating articles. I even got to a couple of household chores I dread.
Among all of this, we went running and I achieved my fastest mile yet–10:30. I didn’t feel like I was running as fast as before, yet I was faster. I made the full course with none of that lower leg issue that usually plagues my runs. I am adapting to the sandals. My pace was too fast to sustain, but even having to stop a bit counts as intervals.
We had an incredible dinner. J roasted vegetables to go with leftover rice we had from the night before. He made me a new kind of tofu that practically caused me to drool. I couldn’t even make it to the sweet potato or leftovers as I was full from my half of the squash and the tofu. Later in the evening, I ate enough ice cream (gluten free vegan Cookie Dough flavor). That is the amount just before you get sick and yet where you feel like you got to eat as much as you could want.
One of our visitors--a little ringreck snake
Coconut Curry Tofu recipe:
Lay out a block of firm tofu. Turn your knife blade flat, parallel to the counter, and make two evenly spaced cuts through the center to create three layers. Make three cuts across the center (between the narrowest points), separating the block into four sections. Then cut lengthwise about half an inch per cut from one side to the other.
Peel, smash and mince five cloves of garlic.
Heat the pan, add corn oil, then add tofu when the oil is hot. Brown on each side. Add freshly ground pepper, lightly covering each piece. Add the garlic when the second side of the tofu is about half done. Cook over medium heat until you add the garlic, then reduce to medium low. Be sure to adjust the heat because burned garlic is not good.
Add Aji-Mirin, about 2T or slightly more, then stir. Let it boil off. Crush a vegan not-chicken bouillon cube into half a can of coconut milk and add 1/2 tsp of red curry. Mix thoroughly, then pour into the pan. Stir, coat the tofu, simmer over low heat to reduce.
The result is oily, sweet, salty, savory goodness.
Roasted Sweet Dumpling Acorn Squash
Wash the squash rind. Cut the squash in half (top to bottom). Place the halves face up on a cookie sheet or aluminum foil (or both) as it will ooze. Bake on 375 for an hour. Eat! Add salt, pepper or butter to taste. This is a very sweet and palatable squash. This is a far better cooking method than the half boiled water bath that many people use. I didn’t like winter squash before I got J to try this way of preparing it.
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