Hello Blog.

I've missed you so. I miss documenting the recipes I make (although new recipes are fewer these days). I miss having the time to take pictures of the final result. I miss having a "food diary" to flip through when I'm needing inspiration.

I told myself that this was the year I'd get back into blogging. Doesn't seem to be going so well, does it? My little veggie boy has gotten so big these days - and he's always on the move. We spend our days at playgrounds, playdates and on the go. Cooking has slipped to the side, and I find I use my slow cooker more then any other appliance in the kitchen these days. Occasional bouts of necessitated dairy-freeness (if that's even a word) have encouraged me to head for vegan recipes much more then in the past. And leaving New York City and moving upstate has changed life even more.

Yes, big changes have been afoot in the Veggie Kitchen since last summer. I haven't forgotten about my little blog, and I do hope to come back to blogging regularly soon. Perhaps even this week....

Crickets chirping.....

Hello anyone still out there!!!  I'm sorry it's been so long.  Here we are looking at the holidays with Christmas quickly looming.  My plans to spend the fall busily baking and cooking while awaiting the arrival of my son didn't quite work out.  The pregnancy wiped me out more then I expected, and I spent little time in the kitchen.  Still, baby boy arrived on November 30th, and M. and I are delighted to be spending lots of time getting to know him.  So far Q seems to be a happy little baby, and we both melt at his little smiles.  

I hope to get into the kitchen more in the months ahead.  Right now I'm being spoiled by both M. and my mom cooking for me (and even more importantly doing laundry!) as I recover and begin to figure out my new routines.  We've made some delicious cookie recipes recently, so hopefully those will be a good jumping off point for posting in the future.  

So, once again, please check back.  I do hope to get back into the swing of posting again soon! 

Happy Holidays! 

I know... I've gone missing again.

It's amazing how that happens.  Four months ago I was busily preparing a cake for the Easter celebration with my in-laws. And then, I found out that the Veggie Kitchen will have a new little veggie arriving in late November.  

Almost overnight, my interest in the kitchen faded, my interest in napping increased and M. has resumed primary food preparation duties.  Living life without my typical love of cooking and food has been interesting.  The cooking magazines are piling up with their recipes untried.  The cookbooks live mournfully on the shelf waiting to be taken down and used again.  I've even stopped buying new ones - a day M. never thought he'd see!  

But rest assured, all is well.  As the summer wears on and my workload decreases, I hope to get back into the kitchen more.  After all, I will want to try my hand at homemade baby food when that time comes!  So, keep checking back.  I do hope to return to regular posting one day soon.  

Feeling Lazy These August Days....

The Veggie Kitchen has actually been producing some yummy things these days, and not by my hands. M. was inspired in the kitchen this past weekend. On Friday he created his own risotto, including creating a broth from garden picked oven roasted grape tomatoes. On Saturday he made butternut squash ravioli using a butternut squash from our garden, and making his own sheets of pasta. I sat back and revelled in not having to cook, and quite happily consumed his delicious results. But like a bad blogger, I neglected to take any pictures.

Scandalous, I know.

The other project that has kept me hopping these days is our current "Rescue the Stray Kittens Living in Our Yard" enterprise we've embarked on. When we moved to the apartment in May, we quickly learned that there were two stray cats who happen about the neighborhood. We've nicknamed them "Stripey" and "Orange", which were our very original attempts at naming them based on their appearances. In late May, we learned that Stripey had a litter of kittens in the yard next door. We were concerned for them, but since it was not our yard we couldn't get to the kittens.

Fast forward to August. All five kittens began hanging out in our yard. We actually think some of them were living in our garden, having gotten in but being too small to climb the wall to get back out. M. has taken up kitten catching, and has successfully captured 4 of the 5 kittens through a variety of means including dumb luck in grabbing one as it ran by, cartoonish traps involving laundry baskets and other creative kitten catching methods.

We have decided to keep one kitten as a companion for Helios (the one pictured at the left and below). They remain unintroduced as the kitten we've chosen had an upper respiratory infection and is currently on antibiotics. Once the antibiotics course is completed, then he can do all the feline leukemia testing necessary to make sure he's safe to introduce to Helios. He's also unnamed at the present. Artemis was a strong contender (until it was realized that the mythological character was female). I am partial to Ezra, but M. prefers Soma. Meanwhile - he remains kitten. He's absolutely adorable, but with him sequestered upstairs, his three siblings sequestered downstairs and Helios running around in between - it's been a little crazy here in Brooklyn. Three litter boxes, five cats needing feeding, one kitten needing twice daily antibiotics .... blogging time has been limited.

Hang in there though - we've decided we MUST give the three siblings to a shelter this weekend if we can't find a home for them. So, hopefully (although we will be sad to say good-bye to the cute little kittens) life will become a bit more normal next week.

How cute am I?

Changes afoot...

I love having a blog. But sometimes life gets in the way! Sometimes there isn't enough time to cook, bake, photograph and type up the way I'd like to. And then weeks go by, and the catching up seems to become a bigger and bigger task, and it's just easier to keep putting it off.

And here we are almost a month after my last post.

School ended. M. and I went to England for a week, and I've started a new job. Three great reasons for being busy, and they are all true. But the kitchen has been working overtime lately, but that will be its own post. Hopefully tomorrow.

But I'm here... cooking away, if not always photographing and posting away, and enjoying a blisteringly hot NYC day. It's been so hot that I'm almost starting to miss those rainy England days (see picture). Almost. :)

The New Digs

We are so excited about our new apartment that I can't resist posting a couple peeks. And I also know my mom is dying to see some pictures. So, two birds with one stone yada yada ... Feel free to skip this post if it doesn't interest you - I would totally understand although I do love looking at pictures of bloggers' homes myself.


This is one view of the living room. I took it crouched from one corner, so that's why the angle is a touch off. It's a hard room to photograph, since it is open along one side.


Here's a view from a more central position.













Two views of the kitchen/dining room. One came out a bit blurry - sorry about that!






























A couple pictures of the space fast becoming one of our favorites. M. has done all the work on making this a garden. We arrived to one Japanese maple tree and a few planted bulbs, he's done the rest. The large metal ladder is an old-school clothes line tower. A rope would run from the building out to the ladder, but since each apartment needed their own line it had to be tall enough to accommodate the three floors of the building. All the buildings have them, I don't know if they are a Brooklyn thing or common to many cities, but it was a new concept to us.































And, finally perhaps the room most important to those of us who love food but aren't gifted with high speed metabolisms - the home gym. There was a point in time I made it to the gym quite frequently, however in the past couple years my schedule has made that very difficult. As a result, I'm excited to have a means to get moving right here at home. And I'm proud to say I've used the elliptical a fair amount since it arrived, and plan on using it more and more as my schedule eases this summer.











Hope you enjoyed the peek into our new space. Now my kitchen is set up, there will be many cooking and more traditional posts to come. And, with our new grill, the world of outdoor vegetarian grilling is now beckoning. So, make sure to come back and see what's cooking! :)

A Sleepy Sunday Morning...

Hello internet folks!

I'm back, and as determined to get back into the blogging world as ever! It has been a very long month. While I "know" moving is hard, it really is amazing how long it takes to get life back into order. And we're still not all the way there - we ran out of steam for one last room. Isn't that always the way?

Anyways, there wouldn't have been much to report in the past month. Not too much cooking happened around the move - although we did discover an amazing pizza at our new local delivery restaurant. :)

To celebrate my return to civilization, I treated myself to an indulgent Sunday brunch. I included an order of parbaked frozen croissants in my latest online grocer order, and tried the first one today. It bakes for about 7-10 minutes, and contained every bit of the buttery deliciousness I wanted. The jam is a new favorite of mine. How can you go wrong with Raspberry Peach Champagne Jam - there's a hint of a special occasion in the name alone!

I enjoyed this treat outside on our new patio with a fresh latte by my side. This experience gave me the strength and motivation to update my blog with the several new posts I have waiting in the wings so stay tuned . . .

Superwoman I am not.

Welcome to our home. Wouldn't you like to stay a while?

Yep, us neither. We move on May 4th, have a busy four day weekend of unpacking planned and then hopefully life will return to normal.

Just a few short weeks ago, I approached the task of moving, working full-time, tutoring multiple children and keeping my blog updated with the utmost confidence. "I am SUPERWOMAN!" I thought. I was positive that I could do all of those things, and keep cooking interesting meals, all while writing interesting and witty blog posts.

You can see how well that turned out.

Yep, we're living in boxes. In the morning, we hop out of bed and scoot around boxes. In the kitchen, I half-heartedly attempt to use up random food as I dodge boxes. The only one happy is Helios. He is a cardboard-loving cat, and there is plenty of cardboard for him to love these days.

So that's my story... I'm looking forward to the summer when I can devote more time to my neglected blog. I hope you'll hang in there with me!