Orzo Salad with Sundried Tomatoes

I've been trying meal prepping and it's working quite well. It's time consuming the first day (because not only am I meal-prepping for me, but also for Mr. Boyfriend) but in the end you're saving a lot of time. And it forces me to only eat what's in my pot rather than having multiple servings... Ah, self-control!

Through Google researches, I found a recipe for pasta salad that was different from the usual mayonnaise-based tomato salad. I adapted it (because I can't follow instructions) and that's what I came up with.

Edit: Apparently, the recipe I saw was also adapted from Ina Garten. I just found out!

Ingredients:

15 sun dried tomatoes in oil
4 table spoons of red wine vinegar
10-ish table spoons of olive oil (I mostly used the oil from the sun dried tomatoes)
2 cloves of garlic
2 table spoons of capers
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
500 g of orzo, dried
1 package of cherry tomatoes
Half a package of vegan shredded cheese
4 tablespoons (or more) of vegan parmesan cheese
20 fresh basil leaves
1 average size jar of sliced black olives

Instructions:

1) Cooking the orzo in boiling water. Drain and reserve.
2) Meanwhile, make the "vinaigrette" by putting 10 of the sundried tomatoes in a blender along with vinegar, oil, garlic, half of the capers, salt and pepper. Whizz until relatively smooth.
3) Halve the cherry tomatoes and slice basil in chiffonade
4) To help the orzo to cool off, rince it off under cold water. Transfer to a bowl and poor in vinaigrette, cherry tomatoes, basil, drained black olives, cheese and parmesan.
5) Mix until well combined and verify seasoning.

Enjoy!

P.S. I am terrible at remembering to take pictures. I'll update this next time I make the recipe.

Schnitzel, pizza and ribollita

Again, long time no see.

My dad came to visit me in Germany for two weeks. Then I went to Italy with my cousin.

Culinary-wise, I've tried mushroom schnitzels from a Schnizelerei near from the Airbnb room in Berlin. Schnizels are typical for meat-loving (and asparagus-loving) Germany--I just didn't get the chance to try it yet because...well... you know... meat.

The mushroom schnizels were delicious, and served with lemon wedges and a warm potato salad, and beer (which is also normally vegan-friendly here).

By the way, my dad says Germany has the best beer he's ever tasted!

Now, for Italy, my cousin and I went to Florence first. I fell in love with the ribollita and kept ordering it in every restaurants we were. A soup thick enough to be eaten with a fork (although they still serve it with a spoon).

My cousin didn't enjoy the food there, though. Saying that she's had better carbonara in Canada.

We also tried pizza and that was all very disappointing. In Brazil, I've had much better pizza than in Italy. They are quite skimpy topping-wise. And that's even worst for me because I was also asking without cheese.

The best pizza I ate was in Rome. In a pizza kebab. They had these squares of pizza with only tomato sauce on it. Then, I asked them to add eggplants from their salad bar on it. The eggplant had been marinating in a oil and spices mixture, so it gave the pizza some kick. Delicious!

We also tried gelatto, but I was again disappointed. Only two vegan options in a store that found pride in having vegan options. Hazelnut and chocolate. It was good, but I was hoping for something fruity.

Tomato in Rice Cooker Hack (from Strictly Dumpling/repopularized by Cheap Lazy Vegan)

This might go against the idea of the blog. I wanted to test out recipe books. But who does watch recipes on YouTube nowadays? Also, tons of vegan food vlogers have recipe books (Hot for Food or The Edgy Veg, for example).

I was learning Chinese last year (I stopped learning since then... unfortunately) and developped a vivid interest in anything asian. I was watching a lot of YouTube videos, including Strictly dumpling. I find Mike has a magnetic personality... although he is normally not really open about veganism as a whole... sigh...

Anyway, I had seen his video about cooking a tomato in a rice cooker, and I've also wanted to try it out. In a way, it is similar to a variant of fried tomato rice and cheese recipe I used to make all the time; but my version was--obviously--cooked in a pan, in a little bit of oil, and rich in cheese.

When I switched to veganism, and since vegan cheese was not yet available in Brazil (it is slightly more popular now that Superbom launched a vegan cheese substitute two years ago), I stopped making it. With all the cheese, it wasn't good for me.

Imagine: I had a blood test, something that was required of me before I could start a Krav Maga course I had just registered to, and...

Doctor: "You have high cholesterol. You should cut down on red meat..."
Me: "But doctor, I don't eat meat since I am 13..."

That left the doctor perplex. I was just as shocked because I had always heard that cholesterol was for people who were overweight, or who were older. I was skinny and in my early 20s.

I was eating TOO MUCH cheese.

Anyway. I digress. Back to the tomato in a rice cooker recipe.

So, I saw Mike Chen do it a while ago. Probably last year. And last week, the Cheap Lazy Vegan tried it too. She forgot to take out the core though, so I swore I wouldn't make the same mistake :)

I never have white rice at home (but thinking about it now, I do have sushi rice; I could have used that, damn it!). I have basmati or brown. I felt that basmati was better. Otherwise, the ingredient list is rather short and simple: rice, water, ripe tomato, oil, salt and pepper.

This is what it looked like in the cooker:

And on my plate (I added a little bit of grated vegan cheese, and basil leaves):

My opinion? A little dry. I added some vegan sour cream I had on hand (I know processed...sigh...) and it made it taste better. I don't feel it's a full meal, contrary to what Mike said. I think it could be ok as a side dish if you have a meal that is potentially more juicy.

It's an alternative to white rice.

NOTE: Something I noted uploading the pictures. Is it me or was a few of the basil leaves I have a little too "dark". Were they rotten? Well, too late. I ate it...

Potato and Pumpkin Curry with Basmati Rice (From Skinny Bitch in the Kitch)

Day Two. Lunch time. I am a big fan of Indian or Indian-inspired food, so today I tried the curry recipe from the book Skinny Bitch in the Kitch.

Do they really mean pumpkin? I've only seen people eating pumkin for pumpkin pies. Maybe they mean squash? Like the red kuri squash?

In any case, I had no pumpkin or kuri squash. The recipe said I could substitute the pumpkin with butternut squash. That's what I did. Butternut squash from my freezer, y'all!

First, I prepared the onion and garlic and added it to a pan. The recipe said to use coconut oil, but I rarely use oil when cooking onions and garlic--I just add a little bit of water.

I cooked it a little but because my squash was frozen, I decided to add it there instead of later and specified in the recipe. Turns out, maybe I should have added it later because my squash became very (understand "too") mushy.

Then, I added the stock, can of diced tomatoes, diced potatoes (not of the red variety as asked in the recipe but rather a more common kind), and spices.

Adding the spices so late surprised me. Normally, in Indian cooking, they cook the spices at the beginning in a little bit of oil to release the aroma...

Talking about spices, I had pretty much all the spices on hand apart from the cloves. I used powdered anis instead.

I tasted the sauce a little and it tasted quite good. It was not spicy at all --I suspect the book was written for palates not accustomed to Indian dishes--but it was not bland either.

At that point, I realized I forgot to prepare the rice. Dang! Well, it's basmati rice and it doesn't take super long to cook anyhow. Especially in my rice cooker.

The recipe talks about brown basmati rice. Does that even exist? I know brown rice, and basmati rice... but I never saw brown basmati!

Anyhow.

It took much longer than 15 min for my potatoes to cook. Probably because my stove was on low heat (I was trying to avoid splashes!)

In any case, I think my potatoes absorbed some of the flavor while cooking because when I tasted the mixture again, it was bland. I had to double the spices.

Finally, the recipe said to garnish with parsley or cilantro. Well I had none of that so I used arugula.

Here is the final result:

What did I think of it? Definitely for people not used to cooking for themselves and who are still shy about using spices.

Would I do this again? Maybe a variant with more spices and where my squash wouldn't be so mushy.

Farfalle with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (From Forks Over Knives: The Cookbook)

Although I've had the idea of testing out recipes from cookbooks for a while, I didn't plan on starting today. It was a little bit of a challenge to decide what to cook based on what I have in my fridge/pantry.

Still, checking only my newest aquisition, Forks Over Knives: The Cookbook, I managed to find something I was willing to try. I had already had soup for lunch, with vegan grilled cheese, so I decided to have something a little more consistent. For vegans, that usually means either a rice dish or pasta.

I flipped the pages to the pasta section. Ignored the few tomato based pasta, in fear of yet another tomato dish (my lunch soup was tomato soup).

Note that the exact measurements of the recipes will be omitted here because of copyrights. If you're interested, please get the book. Another thing you have to note is that I mess up recipes all the time. I suffer from a self-diagnosed attention deficit disorder, and that often comes in the way of many things I do.

I put a pot of water to boil, for my pasta. The recipe called for penne, but I didn't have any. I used farfalle instead. Whole wheat. Then, I realized the recipe was for four people so I'll have to size it down by half. I am alone but I eat a lot, so... I used half an onion, and a few broccoli florets. The book probably meant for me to use fresh broccoli, but I only had frozen ones on hand. My florets were big so, when they were done cooking in the little bit of water I kept to cook the onions and broccoli, I cut them in half. Then two cloves of garlic. The recipe asked for three but I am supposed to down size it, remember? Well, I had forgotten. I remembered just in time, before cutting my third clove.

My veggies were done before everything else. Even before my water started boiling because I forgot to turn on the stove high enough. I put them aside and made my sauce while my pasta was finally cooking.

The sauce is from another recipe the book is sending us to. It says to use two roasted red bell pepper. It also refers us to another recipe that tells us how to roast peppers but I wonder if that works on a ceramic stove top. In Brazil, I was doing it on my gas stove, because it had real flames. I used to love doing it. It might not be the same here... 

Anyway. I used jarred roasted bell pepper because I had some on hand. I was quite shocked that my brand new jar only contained two roasted peppers. Seemed like too little.

The recipe also called for soft tofu. I didn't have any so I used half a firm tofu instead. And a little bit of non-sweeted soy milk. I also used salt and a little lemon juice rather than lemon zest because I had no fresh lemon. And three more cloves of garlic.

I am surprised it's supposed to be raw. But I'll cook the pasta, veggies and the sauce together, so that should be fine... At least, that's what I thought.

No dill like specified in the book, but I have frozen herbs. I used that instead. 

A little bit of a whizz in the blender. Until my sauce became very liquid. Kept my sauce aside in my blender until later.

While my pasta were still cooking, I had a quick chat with my dad on Skype. It's his birthday next Tuesday and he's coming to visit in Germany. My "new sister" and her wife bought him a plane ticket to come and see me. Really happy about that.

OK. Pasta cooked and drained. I mixed everything together, and let the sauce reduce a little. Sweet Baby Jesus (I can say that, I am not religious)! So much garlic. It's definitely not a meal for a vampire. Or human. Good thing I am spending the night alone with my cats, and they don't care if I have a nasty smelling breath.

I added stuff that was not part of the recipe to try and correct the taste. First, soy cream. Almost all a little packet. The bell pepper sauce was also too sweet, because of the peppers. I added some salt, and pepper, and curry powder, and a little bit of powder bouillon to give it some extra taste.

I didn't have any basil to make a chiffonade. I used to have a basil plant up to a few weeks ago, but my cats were showing it too much love. So to keep the plant away from them, I forgot it outside in the cold. My basil plant didn't survive.

I didn't add any herbs to the final plate because I was remembering Gordon Ramsay's nervousness in front of a plate covered with parsley.

Overall, the dish was eatable, but still too much garlic. I still taste the garlic in my mouth while typing this.

I will probably not make the same recipe again. I have already a red pepper sauce made with cashew nuts and tofu that is much richer and savoury. I'd use that instead. 

Also, it was visually not worth to take a picture of the meal. Just a big mess in a bowl. Instead, here's a picture of my cat Astor.

Ah screw it...

My last blog post was from years ago. We can't say I am a dedicated blogger...

The need to reach out to strangers, to put one's voice out there, is still there, though. So will this time be different? Will I write more?

Maybe my error before was that I was writing for others rather than for me. I was writing with the hope of being read. Turns out, if I write for others, I find myself paralyzed. I am scared. Of trolls, of people not liking me, of misexpressing myself, of writing badly...

Talking about writing badly, I wrote a new books two years ago. I finished it and sent it to five editors. Why five? Because I am a little excessive and thought this was going to waranty my success... So far, no success. It's more, I was rejected by all literary agents I submitted my manuscript to. That is, despite all editors telling me my book was great.

So, right now, my moral is on the low. The only thing that makes me feel better is eating good food.
Which brings me here. I have so many barely used cooking books; it seems a waste not to try their recipes out.

I will test out the recipes and comment on them. I am not a professional chef, just someone who believes eating healthy doesn't mean the food has to be bland.

So there you have it. I'll try that. Once in a while. No pressure. And if no one reads, that's ok. I'm doing this for me.

It's been a while

It's been a while, but I plan on starting to post more regularly again. These days, I think I need to. For my own peace of mind.

I wrote a book, spent a lot of money with editors to help me with both the manuscript, synopsis and query letter. But I have yet to find someone interested in the manuscript. So far, only refusal. Which breaks my heart, because I love my story.

I am not giving up on it yet, and even started working on two new projects. One is the continuation of that book, another is a memoir.

But that worries me, too, you see. Because, although I have lived a great deal of things in my life, I don't think what I have lived is so amazing. So is it worth writing about it or will I get a lot of rejections, again?

I am writing about how, in my 20s, I searched for love. And instead, came face to face with questions about rape, my sexual orientation, my sexual preferences, open relationships, 'closed' relationships, porn, prostitution, etc. Those are all questions I think many people are asking themselves.

I am poorly discussing this, but that's because I don't want to give too much details just yet. This was just a bridge to the thing that bothers me most right now: my sister.

My sister doesn't bother me. That's not it. It's what she's been saying lately.

My sister has been having a hard time with dating lately. I understand that. I have, too. That's what I'm talking about in my book.

She meets guys online on dating website, and meets them. And well, most of the times it's a total disaster. Lately, she met with a guy and the guy was insisting a lot to have sex with her. He started touching her in an inappropriate manner.

So she went to the police (it's not the first time something like this happens, and in the past I had told her to go to the police). The police registered her complaint and that was it. But she is very distraught by it.

So she told me about it. And having gone through sexual abuse myself, I didn't want her to go through the spiral of dark thoughts I went through. The first time I was raped, I didn't know what had happened to me. I wasn't sure it was raped, because the guy said he loved me, and so I wasn't sure how someone who said loved me could do me wrong -- it was all very confusing. I cried all the time, and stopped eating.

It took me a year before I finally managed to talk about it to someone, my aunt, and then I told my mom (although I waited until she was drunk and wouldn't remember it, just because it was easier for me). I even told my sister, but she told me: "a rape, but you wanted it", which hurt me a lot. She was referring to me starting to wear different kind of clothing when I started to hang out with that guy. Even my mom had told me then: "Don't tempt the devil," meaning that if I dressed in a provocative manner, I was tempting guys to do things with me, things I didn't want.

So basically, it was my fault. And for a long time, I thought it was. So obviously, I didn't want my sister to go through the same feelings of guilt. I told her, "yes, you're a victim, but don't let it affect you -- don't let it bring you down."

I was saying that because she started having very dark thoughts, about men and life in general, and I found it dangerous that she was generalising. I said it extensively and never meant to say that she wasn't a victim and that she shouldn't talk about it....which apparently she understood as such.

That hurts me. How can she think I would tell her she is not a victim? All I wanted to say is that I wanted her to stay positive, to stay strong.

It's really hard to talk to her, because lately she seems to think everybody is against her. She wants to talk to people about what happened to her, and I understand that. If she can talk about it, it can only do her good. But she feels the family shuts her down when she talks about it.

I tell her it's not because the family is against her; it's because sexual aggression in general is a difficult topic and it leaves people uncomfortable, so they might not want to talk about it. I suggested she finds someone to talk to, a shrink maybe, or if she needs to talk to the family about it, then tell the family that this is important for her to talk about it as it makes her feel better.

She understood it as me telling her not to talk about it, and resents me for that. What???

I know she is emotionally unstable now. Because of the shock she went through. And she has some sort of paranoia that makes her twists my words around.

I really don't know how to deal with her anyway. How to help her. Suggestions?

"Better Than Chicken Nuggets" Nuggets

I have made that recipe twice for meat lovers, and they absolutely loved it. Plus, they are much healthier, and cruelty-free (obviously)!

"BETTER THAN CHICKEN NUGGETS" NUGGETS

Ingredients

Olive oil (just enough to cook the mushrooms and onions)
1 onion, diced
3 artichoke hearts, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 cups of mushrooms, minced (it can be white mushrooms or a mixture of white and shimeji or others)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 1/4 cup of oats (not the fast cooking kind!)
Water
White flour
Vegetable oil to fry

Directions

Cook the onions in a little bit of olive oil until they are translucent. Add the mushrooms, artichokes and then the garlic. Salt. Cook the mushroom until they shrink in size and lose a lot of their water. Add the oats to the mushroom mixture. The oat will cook with the liquid from the mushroom first. Once the liquid as completely absorbed, add water to cover the mushroom and oat mixture completely and let it cook again until the water is all evaporated/absorbed. You will have a mushy mixture.

Let it cool down a little before making the balls, otherwise you will burn yourself!

Prepare a bowl with with flour in it. Once the mixture is cool enough for you to touch it, form nuggets with the dough and coat them with white flour with the flour bowl. Put aside. Repeat until you have no more dough left.

Fry the nuggets in hot vegetable oil until brown on all sides. Place on a plate with paper towel to get rid of the excess oil.

Enjoy!

Side Dish: Deluxe Green Salad with Pears, Tomatoes, Artichokes and Pesto Dressing

How about a Deluxe Green Salad to serve with your main course?

DELUXE GREEN SALAD WITH PEARS, TOMATOES, ARTICHOKES AND PESTO DRESSING

Ingredients

2 pears, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

1 can of artichoke hearts

Pesto sauce 

Flax seeds

Salad leaves

If you don't have pesto at hand, you can make it using the recipe found at the end of that post.

Directions

It's simple. Mix all the ingredients until the flax seeds and serve it on a bed of salad leaves.

Side Dish: Zucchini with a Cashew and Pesto Sauce

You don't know what to make as a side dish? Try these: Zucchini served with a cashew and pesto sauce. Super simple, yet so tasty!

ZUCCHINI IN A CASHEW CREAM AND PESTO SAUCE

Ingredients:

1 sliced zucchini
Pesto sauce (vegan please)
Cashew cream
Olive oil to fry the zucchini
Salt to taste

Directions:

Cook the zucchini in a frying pan in a little bit of olive oil. Add salt when they start to be translucent. The salt with help the water to come out and leave them soft (that's how I like my zucchini). Once they are well cooked, you can make the sauce by mixing the cashew cream and pesto together. Poor the sauce over the zucchini.

If you don't know how to make cashew cream, it's quite easy:

CASHEW CREAM

Ingredients:

1 cup of raw cashew nuts
1/4 to 1/2 cup of filtered water (depending on the thickness you want)
A pinch of sea salt

Directions:

Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor until smooth. You can soak the cashew nuts in water for 2 hours before if you feel your blender would work too hard, but it's optional.

PESTO

Ingredients:

2 cups of fresh basil leaves
1/2 of nuts (of your choice, it can be pine nuts, cashew nuts or walnuts)
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 cup of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.

Add a little bit of water if you find the mixture too thick and your blender can't blend the mixture well.

Super Easy Tofu Eggless Salad Sandwich

I used to love egg salad sandwiches! Whenever there was a cold buffet, that was the only sandwiches I would eat. I always had an aversion for tuna or chicken sandwiches, bleh. Now I am also grossed out by eggs.

So this recipe is much better, for the environment, the health, and your taste buds!

The sandwiches are not soggy either so you can put them in a Tupperware and eat them at work for lunch, like I did.

SUPER EASY TOFU EGGLESS SALAD SANDWICH

Ingredients

1 pack of firm tofu
1/3 cup of vegan mayo
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
1 avocado
Salad leaves
1 tomato, sliced
8 slices of 12 grain bread

Directions

To make the salad: Blot the tofu so that it loses most of its liquid. Put it in a mixing bowl along with the mayo, mustard and salt and pepper. Mash and mix it well until you get a mixture that looks a little like an egg salad. Put aside.

To make the sandwich: Mash the avocado and spread it on one slice of bread. Add two thin slices of tomatoes on top. Spoon the tofu mixture on the tomatoes and top with a little bit of salad. Close the sandwich with another slice of bread. Repeat the process three other times. You will  have a total of four sandwiches.

Chocolate Rocher Bars

When I was a kid, my parents took us (my brother, sister and I) to the North of Quebec.

Back then, my family was really religious, and we were part of a cult. The cult was fairly small. There were I think a total of 5 churches all over Quebec (and it only exists in Quebec). Now, I know at least two of those churches became independent. And in the North, there was only a family. Not sure how they came to know of the existence of our church, but the church members regularly went to visit them during their summer vacation. I don't know if they are still part of the church or not.

Anyway, although I think that cult messed up my mind for a long time, there was at least one good thing I got out of it (because you always have too look at the bright side of things, right?) And I got it from that trip. That lady in the North of Quebec, she made awesome chocolate rocher cookies!

Seeing we liked the cookies so much, my mom asked for the recipe, and we have been making them at home regularly.

I decided to shape them into chocolate bars instead of cookies. They are super easy to make, and delicious. Ah, and I veganized the recipe too, obviously.

CHOCOLATE ROCHER BARS

Ingredients

1/2 cup of almond milk
1/2 cup of vegan margarine
2 cups of vegan sugar
6 table spoons of cacao powder
3/4 cup of peanut butter
1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups of oats (not quick cooking oats)

Instead of the peanut butter, you can also use chopped walnuts.


Directions

Mix the first three ingredients in a pot and heat it over medium heat until the margarine is melted. Bring to a boil and stir well until smooth. Lower the heat and add the cacao powder. Remove from the heat and pour in the rest of the ingredients (peanut butter, vanilla, and oats). Pour the mixture in a rectangular Pyrex plate. Flatten the mixture out with a spoon and put in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

It should be kept cold in the fridge after that. If you keep it at room temperature, it will become too gooey and sticky.

Enjoy!

Vegan General Tao Tofu

Today is a beautiful day: nor cold, nor hot, nor too sunny nor too cloudy. I even get to spend some alone time at home, relaxing (writing). It's really the perfect day, so I decided to treat myself to my favourite tofu recipe: Vegan General Tao Tofu!

GENERAL TAO TOFU

Ingredients

1 block of extra firm tofu
1/2 cup flour (or cornstarch if you prefer)
Vegetable oil to fry
1 table spoon of vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 table spoon of freshly grated ginger (or in powder, like me, since I didn't have any fresh one on hand)
1/4 cup of water
Half a cube of low-sodium vegetable broth
4 table spoons of sugar
2 table spoons of vinegar
2 table spoons of low sodium soy sauce
1 tea spoon of corn starch
Green onions to garnish

Preparation

Cut the tofu into bit size cubes, place in a bowl and coat them generously with flour. In a sauce pan, heat the frying oil and fry the tofu cubes once the oil is hot enough. Fry them on all sides until they are golden brown. Set the tofu aside on a plate cover with paper towels to get rid of the excess oil. In another sauce pan (or the same if you get rid of the frying oil), cook the garlic and ginger in a little bit of oil. Add the water, the vegetable broth, the sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and starch. Mix until the sauce thickens. Place the tofu again in the sauce and mix to cover it with sauce.

Serve the tofu with rice and sprinkle with green onions.

P.S. It's one of my boyfriend's favourite food too! But I was naughty and ate everything all by myself. No worries, I will probably make it again this weekend for him to eat too.

One More Story About Victim Blaming...When Will It End?

This post is not about food. Although maybe food would comfort me in such times. Something happened recently, to someone I know, and it has been quite shocking to me. I thought the people around me were different. I thought they were not the bad guys. Or at least, not the ones to perpetuate victim blaming... I needed to share the story.

I will use false names, and since I have no imagination right now, I will be using a name generator!

A friend of mine, Sandra, came to me recently for advice. She told me her brother, Matthew, recently started dating this girl, Karen. Sandra liked Karen at first. She was saying she was open-minded. She could tell her anything. She would not judge. So far so good.

Karen has a baby from some other guy, let's call him Bobby. And Bobby's job in life is to fix computers. Karen and Bobby are still in good terms, for the baby's sake it seems. So, when Sandra had a problem with her computer, she brought it over to Bobby's house for him to fix it.

Now, Karen and Matthew were at Bobby's house and saw that Bobby downloaded dirty pictures of Sandra from her computer. She had them there for her boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend, since she now is single. Doesn't matter.

So Karen and Matthew deleted the pictures from Bobby's computer and told Sandra about it. Sandra feels awful. She is embarrassed. She feels violated. She is scared of what Bobby could do with those pictures. What does he plan to do with them? Put them on the Internet? Keep them for his own pleasure? Even this makes Sandra feel uncomfortable, she does not want him to have her pictures, she does not want him to do anything with them either.

She told Karen she wants to talk to Bobby, to tell him how she felt. Karen told her not to, that she would handle it. Bobby comes at Sandra's house (she lives with Karen, Matthew, her Father and another brother...oh and the baby, Bobby's daughter) to babysit the baby. Sandra says she does not feel comfortable to be around Bobby any more, and that she wishes he was not babysitting the baby in the house.

Karen told Sandra to tell it go already, to move on, to stop talking about it. But Sandra still doesn't feel comfortable. She started asking herself if she should go to the police. I adviced her to. For me, this kind of thing is not to be taken slightly. She talked with other people. Her father. But he only agree that what Bobby did was wrong. He didn't seem to want to tell Bobby not to come back. He doesn't seem to understand how Sandra does not feel comfortable with him around. She talked to her mom. Her mom told her: "What were you doing with those kind of pictures anyway?"

People seem not to understand how she really feels. And it seems like an opinion shared by many people.

(I don't really think Ricky Gervais is saying it's the celebrities' fault here. Although I am sure some people could understand it that way.)

I asked Sandra if she wanted me to try to talk with her dad about it. I did. He told me he would see what Sandra wants to do.

Finally, she went to the police with one of her aunts. Because she needed the moral support to go there. To go to the police is a scary thing. The police listened to her story, and they took her side (At least one good thing! Some victims are also blamed or not taken seriously when they go to the police...I am glad this story is not one of those!). They wanted to meet with Bobby. They went to Sandra's house, because this was where Bobby was, again. With the baby.

The police got Bobby into their car. They interrogated him, and recorded the conversation. They then went to ask Matthew and Karen about their version of the story.

"Sandra exaggerates a lot," Matthew said. "Bobby didn't do anything with the pictures, he just saved them."

"It's her fault anyway", said Karen. "She is the one who told us there were dirty pictures of her in her computer. So it's her fault."

The police went back to talk to Sandra and made her listen to a part of what Bobby said. He basically said that he downloaded the pictures, yes, but he did not do anything with them. He wasn't going to either. He wasn't going to post them online!

So basically, in his head, he was innocent. He confessed to doing something illegal (downloading the pictures) without thinking it was really bad. For him the real crime was uploading them. Certainly, it would have been much worst if he did in fact upload the pictures to the Internet.

But just saving the pictures without her permission is illegal. And immoral. I know morals are not universal and all, but to me, using somebody's body, or the images of it, without the person's content, for your own pleasure, it is at least objectification. And that's just wrong. It should be like a basic human right.

Anyway, the police asked Sandra if she wanted to press charges. And I guess she felt scared, like so many people do. The burden of bringing someone in court, of getting a lawyer, of fighting... She decided not to press charges and thought that maybe now Bobby would understand what he did was wrong and wouldn't do it again. Because, imagine, if his job is to fix computers, and many people have dirty pictures of themselves, of their partners or exes on there...how many computers or sexy pictures could come into his hands?

So the police let him go, and Sandra's father told him not to come back in the house.

I thought the story would end there, but there are other consequences. Karen and Matthew are very angry against Sandra. They say she is just a liar or she seriously misunderstood what they said.

I asked Sandra, because it seemed weird to me, why is it she thinks Karen told her about that story in the first place? She thinks Karen told her to vent about Bobby. Because when they were together, Bobby and her used to fight about him having a collection of dirty pictures (now, I am supposing that those were acquired legally). So she was just complaining how much a bad guy Bobby actually is. But then I asked again, if she wants him to pass off as a bad guy, what is she trying to protect him now, and says Sandra is lying? According to Sandra, it's because she needs a babysitter for her daughter; and Bobby is always available. So she is choosing convenience over what is right.

These are just assumptions, but I cannot think of why else Karen would do that... Or maybe it's the idea of having a sexual offender as an ex that is not fun for her. Maybe. I remember when my mother's ex-boyfriend (she was still dating him at the time) was arrested for sexually abusing 5 under-aged girls, my mom took it hard too. She didn't want to believe it. Instead, she bailed him out to give him the chance to hire a better lawyer, something that got her the disapproval of many of her co-workers. So maybe it's just hard to admit. Maybe Karen just wants to convince herself that what Bobby did is nothing serious, and that Sandra really is exaggerating. But if that is the case, that is also problematic. This is just wrong.

I talked with Matthew on Facebook, and he told me again that Sandra is exaggerating.

"He was fixing her computer and saw her pictures. To get revenge because Karen left him for me, he saved them. But he never intimidated her," he said.

"But you understand that just saving the pictures is illegal?" I asked him.

Here is the original conversation in French, for those of you who can understand.

Then he changed his story.

"He didn't saved the pictures. He just looked at them. I asked him and when he lies, his lip trembles."

"But how is "just" looking at the pictures a revenge?" I asked again.

He stopped answering.

(Why is this screen shot grey? Hum...Never mind.)

It's also weird that in Sandra's version (or the version they supposedly told Sandra first), Karen and Matthew were the ones erasing the pictures from the computer. Now, they did not delete anything but they were there when Bobby looked at the pictures? Or how would they know? 

A few days later, Sandra came back to talk to me and told me that her father has allowed Bobby back in the house. What?

Bobby swore he won't do it again, and to her dad, that was enough. I guess her father just feels that he does not want to fight over all of this. Sandra tells him how uncomfortable she feels with him around. But she is being told (by Matthew and Sandra, the father keeps quiet) to stop being so dramatic about it.

Now Sandra is thinking about moving out from her father's house. She feels everybody is against her there.

End of the story.

So what do you think? Have you ever experienced something similar? I have to say I am quite shocked about all of this. I knew victim blaming existed. I knew they blame the victims of rape for being raped because of what they wear, because of where they were, with who they were, etc. I knew some families turn a blind eye because the aggressor is a family member. What I don't understand is how can her own family turn on her like this? I am shocked. It really proves just how much rape culture is present in our society. Horrible. Just horrible.

Vegan Poutine

I haven't had a lot of time to cook lately. I have been running after some papers for the wedding, and facing the chaotic Brazilian bureaucracy. I am getting married next month actually. It happened all quite fast. In my last post, I was saying how I thought my boyfriend's family did not approve of me because I am not Jewish. Well, his parents seemed to have gotten used to the idea now, and they approve of it, although they'd wish I were Jewish. His other relatives (like his paternal grandmother and uncle) say I look like a nice girl, but that it is too bad I am not Jewish. So this is where it stands. But we are getting married anyway.

I thought it would happen later during the year, but my boyfriend wants it to happen as soon as possible. Hurry much? Well, I think he is more worried about my status in Brazil and wants to regularize everything. It's true that it would be better for me. I would be more independent, financially and all.

Anyway.

I have been incredibly busy and have not had the time to cook, as I said. Still, on Wednesday night, I got home early and was able to cook a little. I made this vegan poutine.

For those of you who don't know what poutine is, it's a French Canadian speciality, fast food. It typically consists of French fries, curd cheese and beef gravy. My version was slightly healthier: roasted fries, home-made vegan cheese and home-made vegan gravy.

CHEESE

Ingredients

1/2 cup of raw cashews soaked over night

1 cup of hot water

1/4 cup of agar-agar powder

3 table spoons of tapioca powder

1 clove of garlic, crushed

Half a bell pepper (I chose a yellow one for the colour)

A pinch of sea salt

Juice from half a lemon

I wish I had nutritional yeast powder to add to the recipe, to give it a slightly cheesier flavour, but it's been impossible to find in Brazil. Also, instead of water, you could use some vegan milk of your choice (preferably unsweetened), but I ran out.

Preparation

Mix everything into the blender until smooth and transfer to a sauce pan. Heat everything on high heat until it simmers and lower the heat to medium low. Keep stirring. The mixture will get very thing, very fast. Keep mixing until it can form a ball. Transfer the mixture into a pot and let it cool to use later. 

I let mine sit in the fridge for about 2 hours before using it. I cut it into bite size pieces and added them to the fries.

General comment: It doesn't quite taste like cheese, so don't be fooled. I love cheese and it has been what is the most difficult for me to stay away from as a vegan, but this cashew cheese goes a long way. It's versatile. I can mix in more herbs, and truffle oil, or maybe a jalapeño pepper for some Mexican flavour The possibilities are endless.

FRIES

Ingredients

3 average size potatoes

Oil to coat the potatoes

Sea salt

Thyme

Preparation

Wash the potatoes well and leave the skin on for extra vitamins. Cut them into French fries size strips. Let them soak in water for about an hour, that is to lose some of their starch and get them crunchier. Drain their soaking water and rinse them. Put them in a dish and coat them with oil, season with salt and thyme. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes or until crispy.

GRAVY

Ingredients

1 table spoon of olive oil

1/3 cup of all-purpose flour (whole wheat could have worked too)

1 table spoon tomato paste

3 cups of vegetable broth

1 clove garlic

1/2 tea spoon of each, paprika, oregano, black pepper, hot sauce

Preparation

Over medium heat, make a roux with the olive oil and the flour. Add the tomato paste and garlic. Once well combined, add a little of the vegetable broth. Enough to dilute the roux a little. Whisk until smooth. Add the rest of the broth. Continue whisking until the sauce thickens. Add the spices.

Pour the gravy over the fries and the cheese. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Gosh, I have been craving for poutine for so long. It totally satisfied my need!

Heart Warming Hot Cocoa

Yesterday evening, I talked with my dad on the webcam and told him I was engaged. My dad is quite easy-going, so he did not say much about it. He just said: "That's a good news." He didn't ask questions, he just accepted the fact.

My boyfriend and I then went to have dinner at my in-laws. It's quite usual for us to have dinner there on Fridays, for the Sabbath. Anyway, my boyfriend told them he had news.

"What is it?" his father and mother asked.
"Myriam and I will get married," boyfriend said.

His parents went silent. His brother screamed his joy. The grandmas became teary, although not with joy. Well, they probably would have preferred it if I were Jewish. My boyfriend is not religious, so for him it does not matter. He actually prefers that I am not Jewish. But maybe his family were still hopeful he would "come back to the righteous path"?

I am not sure what the parents thought. I guess they like me, but liking me and wanting me as a wife for their son, are two different things. They said they were just shocked, and they told me "welcome to the family," but what else could they say? They wouldn't make a scene in front of me.

Anyway, I am not sure how I am feeling right now. I am not sure what I was expecting anyway. I am a little confused. I slept over it and, when I woke up this morning, I felt the need to have something sweet so I made myself a cup of cocoa.

HEART WARMING HOT COCOA

Ingredients

2 cups of oat milk
3 1/2 ounces vegan dark chocolate
1 tea spoon cinnamon powder
3 table spoons of maple syrup

I was going to put a dash of rum in it too, but I wasn't able to open the bottle... Anyway, it's probably better to avoid the alcohol in the morning, right? :)

Directions

I poured the milk in a saucepan and broke the chocolate into squares before adding it to the milk. I heated the milk on low heat and added the maple syrup and cinnamon powder. I stirred everything until the chocolate was all melted and it started to boil. I took it off from the heat and served it into cups. One for me, one for boyfriend.

Vegan Palak Paneer and Flat Bread

One of my favourite Indian meals is palak paneer. I just love how it feels to have pieces of cheese inside a thick and creamy spinach sauce. I didn't grow up eating Indian food, I was first exposed to it when I moved to Toronto to study; but I cannot remember when was the first time I tried palak paneer, in which context, or how I reacted to its taste. I find it frustrating. Food memories are among my favourite memories.

Well, I will associate palak paneer to a new memory from now on. I will always remember that this is what I made the day my boyfriend proposed to me. Yes, it seems I am engaged. He popped the question and I said yes. We will get married. We are not sure when yet though, and if it will happen in Brazil or in Canada, or both. We are not sure of anything. We will talk about it all on Sunday afternoon, he says. He wants to make a "plan". That's how he calls it. Right now, we only know we love each other enough to fully commit to each other.^^

Here is what I made last night for dinner: vegan palak paneer, rice (still finishing off the free rice my ex-roomate gave me), hashbrown potatoes and home made flat bread. The picture below was taken today for lunch, though. I ate the same thing again, because I wanted to take a better picture, with better lighting. I am still learning how to take pictures of food. Lighting makes a big difference.

VEGAN PALAK PANEER

Ingredients

1 large chopped onion
2 table spoons minced ginger
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 table spoons tomato paste
2 diced tomatoes
2 cups of frozen spinach
1 pack firm tofu cut into cubes
2 cups of thick oat milk (thick)
1 tea spoon sea salt
1 table spoon mustard seeds
1 table spoon coriander
3 cardamom pods
1 table spoon ground cumin
2 teaspoon curry powder
Chili flakes to taste

Directions

I started off by cooking the onions, garlic and salt in a big pot with a little bit of olive oil over medium low it. I then added the ginger and stirred occasionally. While it cooked, I crushed and mixed the spices in a mortar. Already, the smell of the spices was dreamy. I could not wait to try how it would taste at the end. I added the spices to the veggies and added the tomato paste. I cooked it until everything was cooked through then added the tomatoes, the spinach and the milk. I let it simmer for a while until the spinach were unfrozen and the sauce had thickened. I poured the mixture into the blender, whizzed it until smooth and returned the mixture to the pot. I added the tofu, stirred and let it simmer a little bit more for the tofu to get some taste.

I am not sure how palak paneer tastes in India, but I loved this one. The original recipe called for garam masala, but I couldn't find it in Sao Paulo. If I am not mistaken, I think garam masala means a mixture of spices? I vaguely remember learning that, maybe watching a cooking show some time? I would only need to know which kinds of spices to put in the mix, and how much; but the various recipes I found on the internet for garam masala differ and I am not verse enough in India cooking to use my gut.

Even for this recipe, I replaced some spices for others and changed the quantities to make it to my liking. I followed my nose. So you will have to excuse me for not being authentic. :)

FLAT BREAD

I remember in restaurant, palak paneer is always served with a sort of flat bread. I decided to make some, to dip into the spinach sauce. I crushed cardamom pods and took only the little seeds inside to put into the recipe to give it a subtle Indian flavour. The salt also didn't dissolve entirely when I cooked the breads, so at some point we had bites slightly saltier than others, but I liked it. My boyfriend too.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 pinch of sea salt
2 cardamom pods
1 table spoon baking powder
2/3 cup water

Directions

I mixed all the ingredients together and formed a well in the middle. I poured the water in the well and started incorporating it slowly until I got most of the flour and made a dough. I kneaded the dough until it was firm enough to be rolled. I floured the counter, separated the dough into five small parts and rolled them out into circles. I fried them one by one in a slightly oiled frying pan.

Vegan raw brownies

Again for yesterday's lunch, I made raw vegan brownies for my guests. It uses no processed sugar, just the natural sweetness of dates, which is better for you since it has vitamins and fibers than the usual white sugar.

RAW VEGAN BROWNIES

Ingredients

3/4 cup walnuts
3/4 cup coconut flakes
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup coconut milk
10 pitted dates
coconut flakes to garnish

Preparation

Put all the ingredients (minus the coconut flakes) into a mixer and mix until you get a smooth dough. Press the dough into a pan and sprinkle with coconut flakes. You should leave it in the fridge for over 2 hours. The longer the better.


I loved how naturally sweet it was, and the chocolaty and nutty flavour reminded me of the brownies. It also has the consistency of a chocolate mousse cake (my absolute favourite dessert). So I loved it!

Vegan greek salad

I made this greek salad to go with the gnocchi. It has lettuce, cherry tomatoes, black olives, cucumbers, a vinaigrette and marinated tofu in lieu of feta cheese.

GREEK MARINATED TOFU

Ingredients

1 lb extra firm tofu

2 tb spoons olive oil

2 tb spoons balsamic vinegar

2 tb spoons soy sauce

2 tb spoons fresh lime juice

2 cloves garlic

A pinch of dried basil and a pinch of thyme

GREEK VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients

2 tb spoons olive oil

2 tb spoons red wine vinegar

Juice of 1 lime

1 tb spoon spices for salad

salt and pepper

I found it quite satisfying and it satisfied my cravings for feta cheese, although, it is true it does not taste like feta cheese! My boyfriend liked the salad but wasn't a fan of the tofu. The guests, I guess, were too polite to say anything else but "It's very good!". Never trust what guests say... or my dad xD

Easy creamy tomato risotto

I am still not finished with the white rice that was given to me, so I decided to try to make a risotto out of it. Usually, to make risotto, you use arborio rice, which liberates more starch while cooking and gives it its creaminess, but I was quite happy with the creaminess of this white rice risotto.

EASY CREAMY TOMATO RISOTTO

Ingredients

2 tb spoon canola oil
1 cup white rice
2 cups water
1 cube low sodium veggie broth
2 tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
A handful of cashew nuts
A handful of basil leaves
Salt and pepper

Directions

I first started frying the rice in 1tb spoon of canola oil for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. I then added 1 3/4 cup of water. It's a little bit more water than requested on the package, but I think it's important for the creaminess of the rice. I added the broth cube, stirred until it was dissolved and covered the rice to let it simmer on medium-low heat.

While the rice cooked, I chopped the tomatoes and garlic and friend them in the remaining oil. I did not want the tomatoes to be too soft. I wanted to have tomato bites in the risotto, so I just cooked them enough to cook them through. I put the tomatoes aside.

When the rice was almost cooked, I uncovered it and lowered the heat and stirred it a little. I quickly made a cream with the cashews and what was left of the water. I added it to the rice and added the tomatoes as well. I mixed it all well, seasoned with salt and pepper and served it on plates, garnished with fresh basil leaves.

We watched it in front of the TV watching Better Call Saul on Netflix. My boyfriend loved it. He was saying it looked so professional. That I was getting better and better with my cooking (did that mean that my cooking before sucked? hehe)