lucky duck

I've been having a very lucky few months, at least in terms of small raffles and door prizes. It's never happened to me before. In fact, I used to be one of those people who complain about never winning anything, ever. But in the past few months, I've won raffles for: 1) a donation to my organization, 2) a purse-hanging clip thing for tables (do you know what I mean?), 3) a leather portfolio, 4) free yoga classes and a 5) free lunch for my entire office. I was recently at an event where you could drop your business card in to win a free indoor golf extravaganza and I joked to my colleague that I wasn't going to enter because I would obviously win and I didn't want to steal that away from someone who would really love an indoor golf extravaganza.

Last week, I was handed a raffle ticket at an event and I snickered to myself and thought, "Here we go." I was so cocky! Which is insane, because it's not like I've won everything I've entered in the past few months. But I was feeling lucky that day. It was forecast to be an oddly balmy March day and I had a new dress on. Things were going good.

The raffle was for a lovely dinner & storytelling event package at a local fancy restaurant. As they started reading the numbers, I read them along in my mind and! Lo and behold, I won. Again. #6.

Later that day, upon hearing of yet another lucky win, my office immediately pooled together to buy a bunch of Quick Picks for last week's Mega Millions. I actually had a mini panic attack the night before the drawing because I worried that winning all of that money would ruin my life and even if we all donated millions to our organization we would then have trouble encouraging others to invest in our mission and oh my, I'll need a lawyer to help me manage all of the money. (It should be obvious now that I'm a high-anxiety person.)

Well, we did not win the $290 million.

But! Just last night, I won another raffle! #7. Seriously. I now have four complimentary tickets to the Albany Institute of History & Art. I've still got game, folks. It appears my powers do not work for Mega Millions, but I'm a force to be reckoned with at door prize drawings.

fsc in the news!

Congratulations to From Scratch Club for a great article in the Times Union yesterday! Right on the front page of the Food section. Special congrats to Christina Davis for leading the way in building community around food, right here in our region. The blog, the community outreach tables, the food swaps... it's all bringing people together and making food matter. I'm happy to be a part of it.

Click the following photos to enlarge & read.

For the record, that now-infamous Topsy Turvy planter never actually yielded tomatoes. That detail doesn't translate to print well, does it? :) Anyhow, have a great weekend everyone. Sorry the posting has been so light here... but, well that's the way it is. I'm surprised I even got this one up today after last night's killer All Over Albany's 4th Birthday Party. Drinks, snacks, cupcakes & a beautiful-if-a-bit-freakish warm evening with friends and strangers, followed by a nice walk home.

a tip for homemade veggie stock

Yum, frozen vegetable scraps!

Click over to my post today on From Scratch Club for an easy kitchen tip for making your own vegetable stock from a stockpile of frozen scraps you collect throughout the week. I've included my standby basic veggie stock recipe too, a must for your Sunday Soup traditions. Head over here to read more!

our neighborhood

Our neighborhood is pretty great. This past Sunday, while Chris was running, I walked around the corner to our local tea shop & vegan cafe to read a bit while sipping on an iced organic peach white tea.

 
On my two-minute walk back, I spotted the flower market and decided to get myself a pretty bouquet for our apartment. The sun was shining, the breeze was unseasonably warm and it was just enough to shake me out of my winter blues for the day.

Later on, we opted against creating a bunch of dirty dishes for ourselves and made the familiar trek to one of our most favorite restaurants, the Mexican joint just a few blocks away. We feasted and, on the walk home, wondered how many times we had made that exact trip. How many times we had walked through our neighborhood with bellies full of enchiladas and tortilla chips. We calculated... many times.

Whenever we move out of this 'hood, I'll surely miss it like crazy. 

On the other hand, it will be nice to not start every morning in a panic because I've forgotten where I parked my car last night. Really, every morning I stand on my stoop and feverishly try to remember where I parked that thing. A driveway would be a really good thing for someone like me. Less room in which to lose a car.

Updated: A few more photos of our 'hood here.

carrot & raisin whole grain muffins

Wander on over to the Potluck blog for a Carrot & Raisin Whole Grain Muffin recipe, adapted from a rad Good Housekeeping cookbook. I changed around some proportions and steps and added in a bit of ground flaxseed and some chopped walnuts. Get the recipe here.

cheese-free mac & cheese?

I tried my hand at a vegan mac & cheese recipe a little while ago. That's right, a cheese-free mac & cheese. We're still eating dairy, big time, but we no longer regularly buy cow's milk or even cream for our coffee. We do, however, eat a bit of cheese. And yogurt. And we eat eggs. So I've been experimenting with using a bit less cheese in my diet-- having completely dairy-free meals and also just scaling back in certain recipes. I found this recipe in a Whole Living daily challenge email and was curious.

I've found plenty of promising dairy-free mac & cheese recipes. What I liked about this particular recipe was that it didn't call for Daiya soy cheese. I should admit that I've only tried Daiya once, but I found it woefully lacking in all areas. The recipe I followed used cashews for creaminess and nutritional yeast and tahini for flavor. I also added in a bit of mustard and paprika to spice it up.

The verdict? Pretty damn good. It's not going to fool anyone into believing that it is real mac & cheese, but I found it to be a nice creamy, thick, comfort food substitute. The tahini and lemon juice give it a tangy bite, the cashews impart a perfect creaminess and the nutritional yeast adds in its nutty, almost-cheesy flavor. (Not familiar nutritional yeast? Learn more about it in the inaugural episode of the From Scratch Club podcast! Subscribe via iTunes here.)

Cheese-less mac & cheese. It's possible. It's not that bad. It's a fine vegan comfort food. It certainly doesn't taste like your mama's delicious homemade mac & cheese casserole, but it will do in a dairy-free pinch. Non-vegans... don't burn me at the stake for attempting a cheese-free mac & cheese recipe. Vegans or dairy-free folks, send me your tips! (I should note that last night, we made a very cheesy lasagna and, together, ate almost half of it in one sitting. Sigh.)