Maria will be receiving an e-mail to alert her that she has won and so I can get her mailing address. Shortly, she'll be receiving Everyday Happy Herbivore in the mail! Her name was chosen randomly by using www.random.org.
Thank you so much to all who participated in the giveaway. What fun! Many thanks to the author for generously giving her time to the interview, and to BenBella Books publishing house for providing the giveaway book and review copy.
Our next giveaway will be appearing shortly ... and I can hardly wait, because it's something beautiful that I know you will love!
Thanks for reading this post, I'm so excited to visit with you!
After you've gleaned all the good information you need, visit our new blog platform at www.farmandhearth.com to read even more fascinating tidbits from the kitchen and the fields.
Dear industrious and learned readers,
Last year I posted about doing the "Twelve New Things" challenge. This is an idea I gleaned from another blogger, who found it on another blog, for expanding your repertoire and keeping things fresh all the time!
The concept is that you pick twelve new things to learn this year, and every month you tackle one. In the original plan, you assign each project to a month, but I think I'll leave mine flexible because there will be a great deal of traveling and moving happening this year, and I am not sure exactly when all of it will be taking place.
Last year I did not complete everything on my list, so I'll carry a few items forward to this year and polish them off with my usual zeal! 2011 did turn out a little unexpected, as I spent from mid-May to December on the road and traveling ... so I didn't really have all the time I thought I would to burn through home-making projects!
No worries, though - there is always another day to learn!
Now, at first whiff it may seem that twelve new things is not very much, and you could very easily tackle six in a month if you so wished. And that is true. But the idea here is to be somewhat underwhelming, and allow for all sorts of real-life interruptions and excitement. We can add more projects later if we really want to. I can live with that!
I'll list my twelve new things in no particular order ... they'll have to flex with the seasons as necessary!
Twelve New Things: 2012 The first four projects are carried over from last year's list!
I was sifting through some old computer documents (and by old, I mean when I was in my early teens) and I found a one-page manifesto that made me chuckle.
Back in the day, we had an old refrigerator in our garage. I'm sure many of you do, too, especially if you have large families! However, the fact that it was in the garage meant that sometimes things could be shoved in there and then forgotten - out of sight, out of mind - for months on end.
Gross.
The worst was when somebody would take a pot of leftover soup. Instead of going to the labor to redistribute it into a few microwave-safe bowls that could fit in the upstairs fridge and be easily seen and consumed, the person tasked with cleaning up after dinner might just slap a lid on the soup pot and run it downstairs. Cram it in, close the door, and done - hardly any time, and the washing of the large, ungainly pot handily passed on to whoever else might be so unlucky as to finish off the soup.
Once, I recall we had half of a huge wedding cake in there, leftover from a friend's wedding. It was a delicious cake but unfortunately, everybody enjoyed it by just reaching in the fridge and grabbing a hunk. Crumbs and cream filling littered the shelves, and floor around the fridge.
I cleaned out the fridge more than once, sometimes by order of the Master Housekeeper, and sometimes just due to my own serious problems with obsessive organizing. It was a nasty job, and after slopping out buckets of wasted food and gagging through wads of furry mold, I developed the opinion that it should be used for things like extra butter, big watermelons, water jugs, packaged and neat food items that needed to be stored in cold places. Food projects or crates of apples. For instance, once somebody gave us a 20-lb bar of milk chocolate. That treasure lasted in the fridge for quite a while!
One day the fridge was so gross that of my own volition, I gutted it and cleaned it. Back when I was a kid, cleaning things without being told to do so was a pretty heroic effort! I was so disgusted by the perpetual problems that I decided to make a poster to hang on the fridge to try to minimize future problems; and so evolved the hideous print-out that I have provided for your viewing pleasure below! (These early-childhood traumas may have also inspired my current passion for completely emptying and washing out my fridge at least monthly at home!)
Why can't I put this in the storage fridge? FAQs Answered with Un-retouched Photos
1. Why no leaking items? This is the bottom of the refrigerator
This is the bottom of the refrigerator
2. Why no loose or unpackaged items? This is the control section of the refrigerator
3. Why no leftovers?
Perfectly good yams go to waste and smell up the fridge
4. What happens if I violate these laws?
You will be subjected to cleaning out the fridge
If this tickles your funny bone, or maybe you suffer from the same pet peeves, you can download the cheesy little PDF here and hang it on your garage or basement fridge. Or create your own frame-worthy masterpiece and e-mail it to me - I'll share it with our readers!
Do you have similar refrigerator horror stories? I bet you do ... what is the worst thing you've ever found in the fridge?
When Mr H and I were driving through the grand state of Texas (all 890 miles it took us to get across that Lone Star State), we stopped in a tiny little one-horse town with a population of just a few to get some grub.
There was one eatin' place in town, and that was the Branding Iron - a large, plank-sided, weather-beaten building with no marked front door. Was it even open? Hard to say. We parked in the dusty lot out front. There was only one truck already in the parking lot, and as we were getting out of the Kia another truck pulled up.
A tall man in a hunting-camo sweatshirt got out, and we watched to see where he went. Various windows appeared to be somewhat covered with boards, and through one we could mustily see curtains. The tall man nodded to us as he passed, and opened a green door on the front of the building and went inside.
We followed.
Inside smelled of cigarette smoke, and the large room was partitioned in half with a make-shift board wall. On the left, we could see a dark, vacant bar with a TV, and a man sitting and smoking while drinking coffee. To the right, we saw a few tables scattered around the room, some miscellaneous furniture and karaoke equipment stacked and shoved to the sides. One other couple was already seated, and their eyes followed us as we walked in.
The tall man had sat down at his table of choice, and he saw us standing in the middle of the room. "Take any table y'like," he said with a drawl.
We sat down at a table in the middle of the room. The tall man turned towards us. "Where ya'll from?"
Mr H said we were from Washington State, heading to Florida.
"Ya'll took a wrong turn somewhere!" the man chuckled.
Mr H started to explain that he was in the Navy and had to stop in Southern California on his way, but before the words were barely out of his mouth the man was on his feet marching towards us, hand extended. "Thank you for your service, son," he said passionately, pumping Mr H's arm firmly.
He returned to his seat, and the conversation continued. We learned he had served in Vietnam during the war. He owned a cow-hide shop "up the hill" and sold tanned hides. Our food arrived shortly and we enjoyed a small bowl of curly fries (twice the size of a large bowl in any other state), sandwiches, pickles, and ice-water.
While we were eating and enjoying the fact that we were not in a moving vehicle, two more women and another man came in and joined the tall man at his table. They all engaged in lively conversation and one lady took a phone call about a dog she was selling. "Just come up to the gate, I'll be there," she said to the person on the other line. "Or I kin bring it out to ya. She's about two years old."
After we finished our lunch, we made our way through the maze of tables and abandoned furniture to what seemed to be a sort of a front counter. Before we even got there, the lady who had been selling the dog over the phone pushed back her chair and half-stood, reaching for Mr H's hand as we passed. "Thank you for your service, son" she said, vigorously shaking his hand.
At the counter, Mr H asked for the final bill. The waitress shrugged as she told Mr H, "I was just told no charge. They'll take care of it."
We turned towards the table where the four Texans were calmly munching on their sandwiches. Mr H headed over.
"Did you buy our lunch -? Thank you, thank you sir."
The tall man didn't look up from his plate. "You kids just stay safe," he said quietly.
Dear anxious readers, concerned for my well-being,
As I am sure you all are ...
On our trip across the US, Mr H and I passed through a few state border checkpoints. A year ago when we were driving down the California coast for a Thanksgiving vacation, we had to stop at the checkpoint because we had three avocados in our car. The guard said we could not bring them through "because of the peel," so I asked if I could peel them. (Organic avocados are expensive!) She said yes; it started to hail and rain.
Mr H and I stood in the hailing rain and peeled the avocados and put them in a ziplock bag, and I walked gooey-handed into the office to report that I had completed my task and could I wash my hands? Nobody knew what I was talking about and the original guard was not to be seen, but they handed me a paper towel and I dried my hands, concluding that I could have not peeled them at all and nobody would have cared less.
On this most recent trip, however, the search got a little more in depth. We'd passed through checkpoints with sniffer dogs before (dogs trained to sniff out drugs), but at this particular one the dog started barking at our vehicle.
The guard said, "Sir, the dog has been alerted to your vehicle, so I'm going to need to ask you to pull over to the side here so we can search the car."
They were very polite and friendly, inquiring about guns and knives (we had neither), our point of origin, our purpose and destination.
"I know you're in the military and you're a citizen and all," a guard said to Mr H, "but Washington is a pretty free-spirited state ...?"
"No," Mr H responded, "I do not smoke weed."
The guard looked at me and I laughed. "No," I said, "and I'm pregnant on top of that!"
The guard shrugged. "You'd be surprised what we see come through here!" he said.
Meanwhile, three other guards were systematically emptying the vehicle, carefully stacking things on the pavement. I was surprised at how respectful they were of our possessions. The dog lunged into the car, sniffing around in a business-like manner. He turned his attention to the trunk, and when they pulled out a bucket of Mr H's scuba-diving equipment, he got very interested and ignored everything else.
"Sorry about the interruption!" the guards apologized, and began returning everything to the car with Mr H's help. I picked up a bag and they hurried to stop me. "No, no!" one of them said, "you shouldn't lift anything heavy! Just sit in the car and relax!"
This isn't, I imagine, altogether unusual; a recent study showed that as much as 80% of the time, the sniffer (or "detection") dogs can be incorrect in their alerts. Mr H and I wondered if it was because so many interesting smells from the ocean were all over his equipment - who even knew what was in the water off the California coast! I found that the eager dog had chewed through my trash bag, rendering it fairly useless, but there was no other damage done and it only took fifteen minutes out of our time. And no, I did not consider it a wild violation of my privacy.
Dearest readers, and if you are reading this you are truly among the dearest of readers,
Let's talk about traveling for a minute.
I've had a lot of questions in the last few months such as - where are you now? Where are you going next? When are you going? Why are you going? ... It's hard to answer those questions because I've done a lot of traveling in the last nine months, and 99% of the trips happened on the spur-of-the-moment, not knowing if or when I would be moving again. It's hard to answer questions when I myself don't know the answers! I sat down and tried to sum up the major trips the other day.
In 2011, I flew from Washington to Chicago for Mr H's graduation, and flew back home a few weeks after. I then made the drive with Chester from Washington back to Chicago, and - including the inconvenient detour through Wyoming due to flooding in Montana - racked up about 2,300 miles on the road. I had a class in Seattle a month later, so I flew from Chicago to Seattle, and then once again from Seattle ... back to Chicago. While I was in Chicago, I drove with Mrs P to her home in Iowa to pick
up some items she needed, and this added another thousand miles to my road-trip roster.
The drive from Chicago back to my Washington home was with Seafoam, and we tacked on another 2,000 or so miles there. After a few days in Washington recuperating and packing, Seafoam and I drove down to California to be with our husbands, accruing another 1,300 miles on the road. For the entire month of September, Seafoam and I lived in Los Angeles and commuted to see our husbands at their Navy base, which was almost one hundred miles away. Tacking on those trips, I stacked up an additional 700+ miles on the road.
In December, Mr H's training was ended and we received leave to go home for Christmas. We sold everything we didn't want to haul home, stuffed the rest into the Kia, and drove the 1,300 miles back up to Washington to visit family for the holidays.
After Christmas, Mr H and I packed up his military paraphernalia, the Christmas candies and goodies we'd received, and my overnight bag. We threw it all in the car and left to drive back down to the military base in California, where he needed to fill out some paperwork. This was an additional 1,300 miles. From there, we drove across the country, stopping in Texas to visit with gracious hosts for a night, and then completing the trip to Florida - topping it all off with 2,200 miles!
Now we've been in Florida for a few days, and shortly I'll be flying back up to Washington while he completes some training in the Sunshine State. As the plan sits, we'll be moving to the east coast in the spring - of course, that could always change!
But by the time I finish this flight home, I'll have racked up well over 25,000 miles criss-crossing the United States in the last ten months ... and a little over 12,100 of those miles were in a little car! During the most recent few thousand miles, I've purposely restricted my fluid intake because otherwise I would have Mr H stopping at a gas station every hour... During one of our many stops, however, I wondered if - for our own safety - I should put a sign on our bumper that says, "Caution! This vehicle makes frequent stops!"
Even though growing up we did a lot of traveling, and twice did month-long road trips around the United States, and I visited all 48 contiguous states by 2007 and Hawai'i by 2008 ... I think this knocks all my other US travel years clean out of the park! (International years can't count, because it's too easy to get thousands of miles in one 13-hour flight!)
But I love to travel, and I am always thirsty for more! I just need a few weeks to pack the house up, get things in order, and then ...
This giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who participated!
Of course, you may continue to enjoy Lindsay's interview below ...
Dear cooks, readers, and those who enjoy eating food,
Whether you made a New Year's resolution to eat better, or you just enjoy eating nutritious meals, or meat is too expensive, or you want to eat vegan once a week, or you have Lindsay's first book and now you want her second book ... this is the place for you!
Lindsay S. Nixon is a vegan chef and author who was so gracious as to give an interview for all of you to enjoy (and I fielded some questions from the mysterious Mrs S, over at Plentiful Thoughts!) and Ms Nixon's publisher was so gracious as to provide me two copies of the cookbook - one for me to enjoy, and one to give away to a fabulous lucky reader!
And as an added bonus for every reader, Lindsay has provided a recipe from her new book for me to publish here for your sampling delight. You don't have to be vegan or vegetarian to enjoy her recipes - you just have to love good food!
Skillet Refried Beans
Introducing Lindsay: A Short Bio
Lindsay
S. Nixon is a rising star in the culinary world, praised for her
ability to use everyday ingredients to create healthy, low-fat recipes
that taste just as delicious as they are nutritious. Lindsay's recipes
have been featured in Vegetarian Times, Women's Health Magazine and on
The Huffington Post. Lindsay is also a consulting chef at La Samanna, a
luxury resort and four-star restaurant in the French West Indies. You
can learn more about Lindsay and sample some of her recipes at happyherbivore.com.
The Book: Everyday Happy Herbivore
After vegan chef Lindsay S. Nixon wrapped up her popular cookbook The Happy Herbivore Cookbooklast year, she went back to her kitchen in her new home of St. Maarten. Island living encouraged Nixon to come up with simpler fare, which led to a follow-up cookbook focusing on recipes that bring tasty back to quick-and-easy.
Now, in Nixon's much-anticipated follow-up cookbook, Everyday Happy Herbivore, readers will see, once again, that just because plant-based eating is optimal for health, it doesn't have to be expensive or time-consuming.
Everyday Happy Herbivore includes more than 175 doable recipes - recipes that are so quick and easy, you could cook three healthy meals from scratch every day like Nixon does.
Each of Nixon's recipes are made with wholesome, easy-to-find, fresh ingredients and include no added fats. With additional notes indicating recipes that are ideal for preparing ahead of time and those you can whip up with just a few dollars, Everyday Happy Herbivore will be the must-have cookbook for anyone desiring a healthier, happier menu!
Lindsay's Profiles
The Interview: Ask Lindsay!
Mrs H: Thank you for answering some questions today! First off, you're quite a legend in your field - how long have you been cooking and eating vegetarian? Ms Nixon: I eat a plant-based diet; this is different than vegetarian, which tends to still include some animal products like dairy or eggs. I've been vegetarian on and off for most of my life, and strictly plant-based (vegan) for over 5 years.
Apple Fritters
Mrs H: Many of my readers enjoy meat and other animal products; in what ways does your book still appeal to omnivores? Ms Nixon: Most of my fans and supporters are actually omnivores. There's a good bit of vegetarians and vegans too, but most of my fans are not ... my fans are omni's that are looking to eat healthy, eat less meat, follow meatless Monday, etc. [They want to] get in more grains and beans and vegetables. I even have omni's within my pool of recipe testers. If they don't approve of a recipe, it doesn't make it into my books. My cookbooks are really for everyone.
Mrs H:Instead of focusing on meat replacements, your recipes feature the bounty and freshness of the herbivore diet. How do you come up with so many creative and innovative meals? Ms Nixon: It's a good mix of trying to replicate recipes that I used to eat that were either not vegan or not healthy; I'll create something on the fly or I'll be inspired by an ingredient. For example I saw a beautiful bunch of chard I couldn't pass up, so I took it home and created a recipe for it.
Mrs H:What are some of your favorite recipes for everyday use, and some of your favorite special-occasion delicacies? Ms Nixon: All of my recipes are designed for everyday use - I don't have the time, or energy, (or desire!) to fuss over a hot stove all day, so most every recipe comes together easily, in 30 minutes or less. We pretty much cook through my first book, then cook through the second, and then start over because every recipe is that easy and weeknight friendly. When it comes to Holidays and special occasions, I pick family or guest favorites, or something that's seasonal and theme appropriate. For example, I made the Thanksgiving Gravy on Thanksgiving.
Mrs H: You have a lot of inspiration - how do you decide which recipes to include in each book? Ms Nixon: I have a huge team of testers and I decide what goes in, and what doesn't, based on their feedback.
Mrs H: Every cook has had a few flops, and we're dying to know - have you had any spectacular failures? Ms Nixon: Absolutely. Recently I turned the blender on - full speed - with the top off. My ceiling will never be the same.
Sage Gravy
Mrs H: Some of my readers are considering moving towards a vegetarian or vegan diet - but we're all curious: was it difficult to adjust to eating an herbivore diet? Did you do it gradually, or all at once? And did you face skepticism or opposition from friends and family? Ms Nixon: It was really easy for me. I have so many compelling motivations for eating this way that there isn't any other option for me. I'm motivated by my health, the plight of farm animals, the environmental benefits and humanitarian concerns. I don't see animal products as food any more, I see them as poison. Once I knew what eating animal products, particularly dairy and meat, did to my body, and what it did to the earth, and how the animals were treated ... it was effortless to get rid of them. I think the most compelling thing I read was the statistic about how you could feed 12 or more starving children with the grain it takes to make one burger.
As for family and friends, most of them have always been supportive, [and] those who were skeptical initially have, for the most part, come around. Almost all of my close friends and family members are vegan or vegetarian now. Wow, what a difference five years makes!
That said, I did lose a few "friends" but I feel in my heart they must not have been true friends anyway if what I put on my plate could unravel our friendship so easily. I've also learned that when someone is mean to me because of my diet, it's because my mere existence makes them reflect back on themselves, and they don't like what they see - so they attack me to make themselves feel better. If someone was really secure with their choices, mine wouldn't phase them at all, let alone make them angry or hostile or pick on me or stop being my friend. Isn't there more to friendship than what we eat?
Mrs H: Share with us a little on what your blog is about! Ms Nixon: Happyherbivore.com is a
website committed to showing eating healthy, plant-based meals are
easy, affordable, delicious and realistic for everyday life.
The Recipe: Quick Burgers
Makes 4 Dear patriotic followers - does something sound vaguely familiar here? Enjoy! Ms Nixon: I developed these burgers in a hotel room: they're quick, easy and require very few ingredients. (In fact, except for the beans and a seasoning packet, I sourced all the ingredients from the complimentary "breakfast bar.") I make these burgers any time I need a super fast meal or I'm really low on ingredients.
Quick Burgers
15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp yellow mustard
1 tsp onion powder (granulated)
1 tsp garlic powder (granulated)
1/3 cup instant oats
Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper and set aside. In a mixing bowl, mash black beans with a fork until mostly pureed but still some half-beans and bean parts are left. Stir in condiments and spices until well combined; then mix in oats. Divide into 4 equal portions and shape into thin patties with your hands. Bake for 7 minutes, carefully flip over and bake for another 7 minutes, or until crusty on the outside. Slap into a bun with more condiments and eat!
Chef's note: If you only have rolled oats, chop them up in a food processor or blender so they are smaller and more like instant oats. Rolled oats left whole tend to make the burgers fall apart. (Read Mrs H's previous post on making quick-oats from rolled oats.)
Per Burger: 109 Calories, 0.5g Fat, 17.6g Carbohydrates, 3g Fiber, 2.2g Sugars, 5g Protein
Spicy Orange Greens
Sweet Potato Dal
Check out Lindsay's new book, Everyday Happy Herbivore, for more recipes like Skillet Refried Beans, Sweet Potato Dal, Spicy Orange Greens, Sage Gravy, Apple Fritter Cups, P. Chocolate Smoothie, and Chocolate Mug Cake! Go to her website to preview a few sample recipes!
The Giveaway
Enter the giveaway now to win the cookbook, Everyday Happy Herbivore! 1.Enter once: Post a note below and tell us - are you vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, or something in between? 2.Enter twice! Share this interview with a friend on Facebook, and post again to let us know you did so!
The winner will be contacted by e-mail. Contest ends January 22nd, 2012 at midnight Eastern Standard Time!
The Mysterious Mrs S of Illinois legend, my fellow Navy wife and expectant-first-time mama, has started writing down her pithy thoughts in blogomatic form.
I've always enjoyed her witty repartee and the depth of thought she puts into our conversations; her blogs are equally enjoyable and unfortunately leave me hungry for sweet-n-sour tofu and other delectable vegetarian delights. Because, did I mention - ? - Mrs S is a fabulous cook and food critic. She is also a reviewer and copy editor for 1776 Productions, the producers of the heralded San Francisco Book Review, and hones her literary skill by reading thousands of pages and delivering shrewd commentary to benefit judicious readers like you.
Happy New Year! Ever Since Christmas, it's been a busy few weeks! Mr H and I planned a surprise visit home to see our families for Christmas.
My mom knew - she planned a casual family game night the day we were due to get back in town so everybody would be there. Mr H's parents couldn't be there, so we drove up to their house first. After creeping stealthily across a frosty field in pitch black night, we knocked on the front door and greeted his surprised parents!
After visiting and taking some pictures, we headed up to my folks' house where the party of unsuspecting family members was in full swing. Mr H was, of course, wearing his Navy dress blues, and two friends who had helped us put together the plot were with us. We parked off to the side of the house and snuck up to the front door. My mom had ensured that it was slightly ajar so it wouldn't be locked, and we marched inside and straight into the arms of a screaming, shocked family!
I could barely catch a breath as I was overwhelmed with people flying at me, bowling me over with hugs, my little sister clinging to my legs! There's nothing quite so fun as coming home, and it's only made more exciting by coming home on a surprise visit!
A friend took a picture of my parents and my siblings and I, to record the moment. Mr H stepped out of the picture so my Dad could send it to some friends on the missionary field who were curious to see how many kids this American family had.
Back row: Jess-Bess, Mrs H, Kejmo (in pink), Nate the Great, Mandatory,
Reb the Rebel. Front row: Mel-Bel, Ryan, Mom, Dad
Mr H and I had one more special surprise up our sleeves, and Mr H thought up a creative way to show the family. He got everybody to sit down and stop chattering for a moment, and then presented me with a shiny Christmas-wrapped box. I opened it while everybody wondered aloud what was going on, and pulled out a little bitty shirt.
Within seconds, the noise that had died down had re-scaled to a full-blazing uproar! My brother said later that he was sitting on the couch thinking, Don't jump to conclusions, don't jump to conclusions ... and then he noticed that I seemed completely unperturbed by the fact that everybody else was jumping to conclusions!
Chester (behind me in the picture above) said later that she looked over at Mr H as I was pulling the small shirt out of the box. He looked, she said, the same way he looked when I came down the aisle on our wedding day.
After a family lunch - from left: Mr H Sr, my mom, Mrs H, Mr H, my dad.
The original Mrs H is sadly not pictured because she was behind the lens!
And so begins the next wonderful adventure of our lives, and a new entertaining topic for the blog - pregnancy!
I will briefly answer the two most common questions I am currently receiving!
1. We have not settled on a name, and will not reveal it before the birth anyway! And we do not know if it is a girl or a boy and don't plan to find out.
2. I do not have any particular cravings, but I would agree with the Mysterious Mrs S that if I were to say I crave anything, it is probably water! I still desire the same foods I always want, and I am slightly suspicious that most 'pregnancy cravings' are just an excuse to eat whatever we women want! (And that sentence was just an excuse to alliterate W.) [Don't hang me, fellow-preggies - I did say most, not all!]
