Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A new home and another year

I know it's been nearly a week since I posted, but I've just been incredibly busy--I'm sure you can imagine. I am becoming more and more excited by our new place every day, though, and it's really beginning to feel like home now. Here are a couple of shots of the dining room and the kitchen--which are finally in order.




The kitchen seemed so small at first, but with a little creativity and some thrift store shopping, we've got it up and running comfortably. I'm excited to have a gas stove instead of the electric one at our old place--I've always liked cooking with gas.


Since we were just about out of food, one of the first things I did when we got here was make a trip to Trader Joe's. There is a TJ's that just opened five miles from our apartment. I picked up this frozen entrée, which was very handy when we still had our kitchen packed up in boxes.


Here it is all cooked up--not too bad for a frozen meal.

I didn't do much cooking until yesterday. July 23, 2007, marked our two-year wedding anniversary! Instead of going out, we opted to cook up some special meals.


These are the Banana Bliss Pancakes from Vive! Always a favorite, and topped with blueberry sauce makes them really special.


Also from Vive! this is the Quinoa Spring Salad, which is also a favorite. As usual, I added about 1 1/2 cups of cooked chickpeas and made this a meal on its own.


Dinner, actually, was mostly Bob's doing--not from Vive! but still a Dreena recipe, we decided to try the Ginger Hoisin Rice Noodles from TEV. Simply delicious! In lieu of lemons I used lime wedges to finish, and it was just perfect.

We had hoped to go camping or take a road trip or something like that to celebrate our anniversary, but it kind of fell at an awkward time this year, what with moving (and the final Harry Potter book coming out--hee hee). So we settled on going for a nice, long walk and stopping at a local tavern for drinks. It made a lovely evening, and we'll have plenty more anniversaries to celebrate however we want!


I made these grasshopper cupcakes for Bob (though I did sneak a little taste). I used the Basic Chocolate Cupcake recipe from VCTOTW, and I made a simple crème de menthe buttercream frosting. Very fun and satisfying.

I'm having a difficult time finding places to go online, but now that most of the hard part of moving is over, I hope to have more time to get out and check out the town. Until next time!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on your new place--your kitchen looks lovely! How exciting!

Happy Anniversary too!

Courtney

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

great pictures of your new home, and of all the food as well - and happy anniversary :0)

Anonymous said...

Congrats on your new home and happy anniversary! Glad to hear you're getting settled in nicely. You are so lucky to live that close to a TJ's. I've eaten that potato medley many times and always enjoyed it for it's great taste and simplicity to prepare.

Anonymous said...

great pictures of your new home, congratulations in your anniversary, the food looks great!

vko said...

Happy Anniversary & Congratulations on you settling into your new home! Your kitchen looks like it's ready to turn out all those yummy meals that you make.

I adore those grasshopper cakes- simply brilliant & I love mint & chocolate.

Have fun discovering your new town. Can't wait to hear about your new vegan discoveries!

aTxVegn said...

I'm so happy to see your new place getting all fixed up and that you can start cooking again! The stove looks wonderful.

Happy Anniversary!

Teresa said...

Congrats on the new home! A busy and exhausting task, but so exciting in the end. I think that your kitchen is cute and I'm sure you're going to love it.

Oh you just can't go wrong with the Quinoa Spring Salad. I usually always change up the recipe depending on my mood- and it's great every time! THe hoisin rice noodles have been bookmarked for quite some time in my cookbook. I think it's about time that I make them. And I only have limes (no lemons) right now, so I might be stealing that idea of yours.

Once again, congrats on completing the move!

Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan! said...

Settling into a new place is so exciting (and unpacking is always sooo much better than packing, isn't it? ;)

Congrats on both the new place and the anniversary!

bazu said...

YAY! Happy new home and happy anniversary! Wishing you and Bob many more happy years to come. Those cupcakes are so so cute. And I'm so jealous of you living near a Trader Joe's! You must try the Sharon's Cocount Sorbet that they sell there. Mmmmm.

Amey said...

Laura!
Congratulations on your new apartment. What a fun transition for you two...

I love what you said about you two having many more anniversaries to celebrate. Just this morning Musty suggested that we go to Disneyland for our anniversary. This is almost entirely out of character for either of us, but he was quite excited about the idea. "sure," I decided, "after all we'll have many more years of anniversaries to celebrate in other ways!"

It's a fun thing to think about!
:)

urban vegan said...

Gorgeous new home! Congrats!

Please check you email--I have a question about my contest prize for you...

Kati said...

Hey Laura - congrats on getting settled into your new place and on your second wedding anniversary! I love the high ceilings in your dining room. Your kitchen looks about the size of the one I have here - it's really not so bad once you get used to it. Can't wait to see what other goodies you start cooking up on your gas stove!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the new home!! It looks lovely. Happy Anniversary, too!

I love how you and your hubby decided to make a meal at home, instead of going out for dinner. So much more romantic that way, isn't it?!

KleoPatra said...

YAY LAURA!!

First of all, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to you and Bob! May you have many, many, many more happy and healthy years together. May the bliss (and not just in those delish banana pancakes w/the blueb sauce!!) be with you two always.

Love the new digs. So far so fabulous... Love the wooden floor in the dining area as well as the little cubbyhole for storage above your sink. And a GAS RANGE. Oh, what i wouldn't do...

i get that Po Medley a lot at TJ's, and how nice that there's one near you!! YAY!

The quinoa spring salad looks yummy as does your dinner of the rice noodle dish! The grasshopper cupcakes are so cute. Love the crème de menthe buttercream frosting bits atop. So totally cute!!

Glad you were able to post... hope to see more from you soon!!!

Anonymous said...

what a nice pad you have, and your photos look even more beautiful than ever! mmm!

MeloMeals said...

Congrats on your new home! I am so jealous of your gas stove..

The chocolate mint cuppers look amazing, as does everything else.

Candi said...

Happy Anniversary!!

Your new place is adorable! What's funny is that your new kitchen looks so similar to the one I am moving into in September! I will be watching carefully how you organize it, since mine is smallish and I want to steal your ideas on making it comfortable!! :) :)

Congrats on the new place!!

Vegan_Noodle said...

How great that you're settled into your new place! It's always nice to finish up moving. Those cupcakes look awesome, I love mint with chocolate. Happy anniversary to the two of you! :-)