Bowls of warmth!

I live in an apartment that has a number of doors where typically there would be windows, leading out to a balcony that was oddly never built. This doesn't really bother me, and in general the arrangement provides a good amount of light. On the downside though, one of the doors in my room doesn't lock, and keeps swinging open in the middle of the night. So I wake up in the morning to a gust of icy-cold Columbia Heights air, and immediately start a tirade of curse-words as I rush over to close the door. Needless to say, this isn't my all-time favorite way to wake up. (No, my favorite way to wake up is to have a certain french film star whisper in my ear that if we want to make it to Morocco in time for cocktail hour we better catch the 2pm train...)

Anyways, I have a found a way to mitigate the situation. Oatmeal! Its no surprise that vegans love oatmeal, I see different yummy recipes all the time. But mine is the best, seriously. First, I stir in some peanut or cashew butter. Then, I throw in some sliced bananas, blackberries, and sliced almonds. Then I drizzle the whole thing in agave nectar. And then I proceed back to bed, in my room that is just starting to warm up, and curl in the covers and giggle to myself about how freaking amazing my little blackberry-banana-nut oatmeal is. By then I've totally forgotten about my ghost-door...

And speaking of things that might make one catch a cold, I'm now fully recovered from last week's onslaught of sniffles, so thanks for the kind words, kids! (And actually, now that I think about it VeggieGirl mentioned banana-nut butter oatmeal as one of her favorite home remedies!)

At any rate, while still recovering I attempted, once again, to re-create the world's most awesome soup that I had in a Cuban restaurant in New York right around this time last year. Its a lentil soup laced with bright ginger, butternut squash chunks, and kale.

Once again, this attempt was good, but I still didn't hit the nail on the head. I used a ginger broth that I made in advance for the congee, grated in extra ginger at the end, even put in a dash of mirin, but its not quite right! Its good, don't get me wrong, but its not super-amazing-magic soup. Maybe I need to get up to NYC and try it again.

At any rate, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone enjoys the yearly ritual of explaining to your relatives that gravy isn't vegan. :P Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with this year!

Song of the day: Matt and Kim- Daylight