Jump - And The Net Will Appear.

I walk around these days in a daze of gratitude and amazement at where my life has taken me in the past few months. To find out that I actually love what I do, now that I do it for myself, and on my own terms, has been the greatest gift. Slowly, but surely, my business is growing, and I've had the time and space I've needed to really articulate my vision for where I'm going in life. And time to be an artist, time to be a friend...it's too good to be true, really.

But it is true, and that's what's been so hard to wrap my head around. I think I'm a naturally pessimistic person, inclined to believe that good things are fleeting. And this is wrong. This is the wrong way to look at the world. And so I wake up every day focused on enjoying the day, on working hard, but not forgetting to be grateful for enjoying where I am and where I'm going. I find that I live more in the present than I ever have, maybe out of that sense of fear that it's all going to go away, or maybe because I've learned that today is really all we ever have.

A few months ago I found the John Burroughs quote, "Jump, and the net will appear." I must say it to myself at least four times a day. It gives me comfort, and it energizes me. And it makes me feel so grateful every time I do jump.

It's true, good things happen. And the net does appear. And that's what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving - I'm thankful for the net the universe continues to put under me with every leap of faith I take.

La Dolce Vegan Challenge: Apple Raspberry Crisp

Crisp is traditional Sunday night dessert in my family - and now Monday night dessert (and let's be honest, Tuesday morning breakast). I threw this together this afternoon before heading to dress rehearsal, and it was a great dessert to come home to. Raspberries are one of my favourite berries, and I loved the tart combination of green apples I used with the raspberries. Yummy yummy.

La Dolce Vegan Challenge: This "catching up" business has got to stop.

Another crazy week of rehearsals before opening, another week of leaving all of the recipes to the last minute (!). Yesterday (Saturday) I made a marathon 5 recipes. It's 10:21 p.m., I just got home from rehearsal, and the cat chewed through yet another one of my power cords for my laptop and I'm on 46% battery, so this will be short and sweet - I didn't even have time to Instagram all the pretty pictures! At least I know I will have food to eat during the frantic period between now and when the show opens on Thursday! So here goes:

Wolffie's Delicious Salad Dressing. A little too cumin-y for me.

Kalamata Olive and Sundried Tomato Soda Bread. A surprise winner. I added the sunflower seeds, and I used a food processor to chop the tomatoes and olives very finely. Delicious!

Sloppy Janes. I didn't have a green pepper so I used celery, and I only had half a can of tomato sauce so I used fresh tomatoes from my weekly vegetable delivery as well. Made 'em extra sloppy!

Marianne's Goulash. I used rice noodles. The "oomph" spice mix was great - very spicy!

Chunky corn chowder. Used fresh Chilliwack corn from my vegetable delivery.

Mixed Berry Puddin'. The idea of berry pudding was absolutely abhorrent to me, but actually, it was great. I would definitely make this again. I used up some frozen berries I had kicking around, and they worked just fine.

How Thoughtful!

The lovely Duncan Gidney just dropped off a belated birthday present for me:

For those who don't know, I live in the Woodwards complex, which was a re-development of the iconic flagship location of Canadian department store, Woodwards. These beautiful tumblers have the logo of the old Woodwards store on them. Just gorgeous! And he lugged them all the way over from Victoria for me! Thanks Duncan! I heart these, and you.

La Dolce Vegan Challenge: Catching Up Again

Life is very busy at the moment. Work is picking up (yay) and we're into the thick of rehearsals for "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum," which is opening at the Jericho Arts Centre on October 4th. I'm playing super-bitch Domina. So, although I started this week with the best of intentions to keep up with the cooking challenge, alas, by Saturday I was woefully behind again and was in for a marathon day of cooking, drafting documents for work, doing legal research at the Courthouse Library, and re-introducing myself to Currie Cat, who has forgotten what I look like.

Saturday breakfast was Raspberry Walnut Pancakes (p.38). I substituted Red Mill Gluten Free Hearty Baking and Biscuit flour, which is recommended for pancakes. They tasted fine but they were a horrible gloppy mess - the minute I tried to flip them, no matter how small I made them, they disintegrated. So - gluten-free pancake fail.

Gloopy Mess.

After I spent the afternoon working, I came home to make on marathon 4 recipe meal: Salad with Creamy Caesar Dressing and Pan-Fried Croutons (pp. 93 & 298), Melissa's Stuffed Mushrooms (p. 58), Quick Miso Soup for One (p.103) and Kim's Peach-zza (p.232). I am becoming a master of multi-tasking, and so I was able to get all of this done within about an hour, having made the Basic Vegan Crust for the Peach-zza before I left for the Courthouse Library.

I made a few substitutions: I used whole almonds in the Creamy Caesar dressing instead of blanched, which resulted in a darker brown dressing, but it tasted absolutely fine, and I didn't have enough peaches for the Peach-zza so I added a few Gala apples. The Easy Miso soup, full of ginger, garlic and kale, was a great thing, as I'm starting to get run-down and cold-y/flu-y, and the hot ginger brother was great for my sinuses. I was dreading making the stuffed mushrooms, thinking it would be a finicky business, but they were super-easy, but un-leftover-able as they became a little bit soggy during the baking process and weren't worth saving.

And now I'm behind again! I'm in the middle of a marathon 8 hour rehearsal for Forum, and woke up too late to make today's entry, Sundried Tomato and Kalamata Soda Bread. Oh well, I guess there's always midnight tonight...

Melissa's Stuffed Mushroom Caps.

Salad with Pan-Fried Croutons.

Creamy Caesar Dressing

Easy Miso Soup for One.

Kim's Peach-zza. Before Dani.

Kim's Peach-zza. After Dani.

La Dolce Vegan Challenge: Sara's Tangy Black Bean Salad

So tonight, after I got home from ukelele class (yes, I said ukelele class), I found out that a client I'd been gunning for had elected not to go with me. I was disappointed but had given them my best offer and couldn't possibly go lower in my bid for their work. I knew that was the right decision, but it was weighing heavily on my mind when I went downstairs to the grocery store to pick up a few things I needed to make Sara's Tangy Black Bean Salad (p.76), because I loaded up my shopping basket, and walked right out of the store without paying, lost in thought. I didn't realize I had done anything wrong until I noticed people looking at me funnily in the elevator. I looked down and realized I was still carrying the black plastic shopping basket from the store and was mortified. Of course I went right back to the store and paid them, apologizing profusely. They all know me at my local store, and they laughed it off, but it was embarrassing nonetheless.

Anyway, this salad was easy (less than 15 minutes to make) and terrific. Tonight I paired it with some unsalted Que Pasa tortilla chips, and ate it as an entree, but I'm sure it would be delicious in a wrap with some "sour cream", lettuce and salsa, too. This one's a yes for me.

La Dolce Vegan Challenge: Cool Cucumber Salad

I'm not a huge fan of cucumbers, but this Cool Cucumber Salad (p.83) seemed close enough to raita that I was optimistic - I love Indian anything. And actually, it was delicious, and much more flavourful than raita - so good, in fact, that I found myself actually licking the lid of the jar I used to shake up the dressing. Really nice salad. I used the mint I had in my cupboard instead of fresh mint, to save myself a trip to the grocery store, and it was okaaaa-y, but I can see how this salad would be absolutely dynamite with the fresh stuff. Next time, next time.

La Dolce Vegan Challenge: Clobber!

In my family we've always called fruit cobbler clobber. Clobbers and crisps were always a part of Sunday dinner at our house growing up, and so I was happy to see that Cherry Cobbler (p.230) was on the recipe roster for this weekend. I didn't use cherries, because (a) there were no frozen cherries at Nesters'; and (b) I was not about to pit all the fresh cherries needed for the cobbler. So this became a mixed berry cobbler, using strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries that I had in the house. I also substituted Splenda for sugar, and used Red Mill Gluten-Free flour (biscuit and breads mix) for the topping, which is sprinkled with Splenda's Brown Sugar blend. This was delightful and I think it will definitely be going on my favourites list. The way I dropped the dough, the top sort of looked like a flower, and you could definitely get creative with the way you shape the dough on top if you were having company over. Me, I plan to eat this in secret, in the dark, with the door locked and the curtains drawn, so I don't have to share.

La Dolce Vegan Challenge: Simple Leek and Potato Soup

This recipe, for Simple Leek and Potato Soup (p.109) was ridiculously easy. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish, and gave me an awesome excuse to use my new fancy handblender that my parents bought me for my birthday. Got a potato and an onion or a leek? Great, then you've got this soup. This is a great, quick dinner when you've got nothing in the cupboard but an ol' potato and an onion.

Here I am feeding the soup to my Momma in Victoria (who is in the bath, yes), courtesy of Facetime:

La Dolce Vegan Challenge: Stephanie's Asteroids

Stephanie's Asteroids (p. 209) are little balls of coconut, rolled oats and peanut butter, and the entire time I was making them, all I could think about was Alec Baldwin's hilarious sketch on Saturday Night Live as Pete Schweddy, who makes...schweddy balls:

These, um, asteroids aren't to my liking, but they were easy and I can see how it would be a good kitchen project for kids.

La Dolce Vegan Challenge: Soba Noodle Miso Soup

I have a confession to make: I am anti-soup.

It pains me to say this, as my dad - well, he loves soup. A lot. And I've had vigorous arguments with various friends over my distaste for the liquid meal. Also? Not a fan of miso. So, as you can imagine I was delighted to find out that Thursday's recipe was Soba Noodle Miso Soup (p. 103) with gomashio garnish (p.305). However, this challenge is about trying new things, so I went boldly onward to Nesters', the grocery store downstairs from my apartment to pick up the ingredients I needed.

Now, living right downtown in a relatively new neighbourhood always makes it challenging from an everyday shopping perspective. I have my pick of bars, tattoo shops, and hot restaurants, but sometimes when you just want to buy, you know, toothpaste. It's getting better, at least we have a grocery store (we didn't for the first few months I lived in Woodwards) and Nesters' tries to stock a diverse range of products. Sometimes, however, they let you down. And Thursday was one of those days. Yes, they had nori, no they didn't have soba noodles. Yes, they had miso, but no, they didn't have bok choy.

I know we're not supposed to make substitutions, but look. This week was nuts, and it was soup, for crying out loud. I was not going to trounce around downtown Vancouver looking for soba noodles and bok choy. So I decided to substitute for the rice stick noodles that I had leftover from a previous nights' entry, the Asian Noodle Salad, and used some leftover organic cabbage that I had in my fridge instead of bok choy. I was sure this was going to turn out horribly wrong:

It don't look half bad, eh? And guess what? It was actually delicious! Seriously! The gomashio was amazing (who knew toasted sesame seeds, salt and nori tasted so good?), and added a nuttiness to the soup that I loved. The cabbage was crunchy, there was enough noodle to give me something to gnaw on - it's a winner! Soup 1, Dani 0.

La Dolce Vegan Challenge: Cumin Spiced Brown Rice

I'm glad tonight's recipe was an easy one, Cumin Spiced Brown Rice (p. 190), because I've had a doozy of a day. Work to do, meetings to attend, rehearsal, and I taped an interview with Dotto Tech about some current copyright lawsuits in the news. When I finally walked in the door, it was 8:30 and the last thing I felt like doing was cooking. But, here I am - challenge complete for the day. I threw a zucchini and some carrots from my weekly veggie box in a frying pan along with some Bragg's 24-spice mix while the rice was cooking, reheated some refried beans, and that's dinner. Oh, and there are fresh blackberries for dessert. Beats take-away by a mile.