Tuesday 26 May 2015

Vegan Tex-Mex Pasta Salad!

I cooked! Amazing. Everyone thinks I love to cook cuz I have parties with lots of food, but the truth is, if it's just gonna be C and myself for a meal, I'm pretty lazy. I grew up cooking with my dad (an incredible cook) and volunteering on the La Cuisine "A Team" at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. So I learned to cook for huge crowds at a young age (we're talking eight years old.) Then I was the Hospitality Coordinator at The West End Cultural Centre, a popular music venue here in Winnipeg. It was well known for treating its musicians with love and care. 

My job as Hospitality Coordinator was mostly cooking for the bands and making sure they were taken care of. And no, I don't mean scoring them weed and dating them…because weed is ILLEGAL. But I digress. The point is, I'm better at cooking for a crowd. (I'm a Leo, the more praise I can get, the more likely it is that I'm gonna cook. Just how it is.) And while my husband knows that I'm only going to cook if he's SUPER complimentary, it just isn't the same…he has to praise me or he's gonna be stuck with bread sandwiches or pizza toast (his specialties. Ask me what a bread sandwich is. I bet you can't figure it out.)

But today, I freakin' cooked! And took a picture. (Mostly to show you the amazing Villeroy & Boch Acapulco bowl it's in.)

Hope this inspires you to make something delicious for dinner. Or just to praise me. Whatever works.
 
  

Gluten-Free-Vegan-Tex-Mex Pasta Salad!

Ingredients:

Your choice of pasta (I used a corn flour penne.)
1 bell pepper
1 tomato (I used a handful of baby toms)
1 can of black beans (or pinto, or kidney beans.)
2 cups spinach
1 avocado
s&p to taste

For dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil
juice from 2 limes
1 tsp. cumin (or just wing it.)
½ tsp minced garlic, or a tsp garlic powder
hot sauce of your choice
a pinch of raw sugar, if desired. (Honey would be nice if you’re not making a vegan dish)
s&p to taste


“Instructions” (Do whatever you want, I don’t care.)

I used corn flour pasta for this recipe, which I’d never had before. I thought it might be too corn-flavoured for a traditional Italian style dish, so I thought I’d try out something else with it first. (As it turns out, it’s not very corny –unlike myself- and could easily be used in any pasta dish.)

As I was boiling the water for the pasta, I filled a bowl with frozen corn kernels, (which is what I had on hand-fresh scraped would be excellent) an entire can of rinsed black beans, some sliced orange baby tomatoes and a red bell pepper. 

For the dressing I combined about 1/3 cup of olive oil with the juice of two small limes, a bit of finely minced garlic, pepper, sea salt, a couple of dashes of sriracha and about a teaspoon of cumin and a pinch of raw sugar. You could use honey, but I wanted to keep this meal vegan. If you didn’t want a vegan dish, some soft crumbled goat cheese or any Mexican cheese would be nice.  

When the pasta was cooked I left it to drain and threw the bean and veg mixture into the cooking pot on low. I wanted to let some of the natural sugars release from the veggies. Then I added half of the dressing, the pasta and some fresh spinach to the pot and let cook for a couple of minutes. (I like a slightly wilted spinach in pasta, but you may prefer to put it in after everything has cooled.) I refrigerated the whole shebang for an hour or so, then added salt and pepper to taste, a bit more dressing and added sliced avocado.

It was GOOD, y’all. And it took longer for me to write the instructions than it did to make the meal.



Provecho!

It's just not complete without my new Day of the Dead s&p shakers that J picked up for me in Austin

Wednesday 29 April 2015

Before and After: Living & Dining

Things have been happening over here! You may remember seeing photos of my living and dining rooms in the past. The dining room was at the back of the house and we used the attached living room as an art studio. Our living room was on the second floor, in what is now C's hang out/reading room. It made sense at the time. Kinda.

We bought this house about 8 years ago as a starter home. We planned to stay for 5 years then move to a bigger place in a nicer neighbourhood about a 20 minute walk away. But the neighbourhood started to grow on us and then more young couples and families started moving in, knowing they couldn't afford that nicer neighbourhood 20 minutes away. It was a sketchy neighbourhood when we moved here, but we've seen our street transformed in the last 8 years. The day we moved in a friend said "Well, it's not without its cars parked on front lawns, but it's a good start." Look, D! No more cars!

When we decided to stay in this house instead of "upgrading" to a larger one, we knew we'd only be able to stay comfortably if we renovated. Since the neighbourhood is still up and coming, we couldn't invest TOO much, since we'd never recoup the money. Also, we hardly HAVE any money, so that was a factor…

A light reno was in store, and at least half of it was spent waterproofing and insulating the basement, so that my studio and C's office could move down there, freeing up the rest of the house for living.

Here are the living room and dining room before and afters!




Former dining room.


The former dining room is now the living room.

Living room.

Living room looking toward the new dining room. (Formerly the art room. Are you confused yet?)

Former art room.

The former art studio is now the dining room/library. 

Dining room. 

We love the new spaces. They're still over the top and bold, but more coherent and a little more grown up. Which I guess is what happens over the course of eight years!

Stay tuned, there's more renovations to show you!






















Tuesday 28 April 2015

Home

There are certain things that make a house your home. And while I'm quite the maximalist and freely admit to loving (subjectively!) nice stuff, there's no item I couldn't live without, and I imagine that most of you feel the same way. When people are asked "What would you save if your house burned down?" everyone says their family and their pets (of course.) That's all that matters. I like lots of things about this old house, but what makes it a home is my husband and our cats; Bug, Squeak, Cobra, Noches and Gringo.

A month ago, my best cat friend passed away. Yukon was 17, and I'd had her since she was a baby (and so was I! I was 19 when I brought her to our first home together.) Yukie and I lived in six different apartments before my husband and I bought the home we live in now.  She was what made each place home. I always looked forward to walking in the front door and preferred her company over almost anyone's (sorry, humans!) She and I truly loved each other. This past month there have been days when it's hard to come home, knowing she's not going to be there. There have been other days when it's been hard to leave, since I have a warm and snuggly brood who hem me in under the bedcovers. AND they set a bad example with their lazing about.

Yukon was Queen of the Cats in this house and her presence is incredibly missed, but still keenly felt. 

I hope that your home is filled with all kinds of love, and that your pets are healthy, happy and know you love them.

Here's to them. 

And to Yukon.