I realized when I posted the quinoa salad recipe that it's been far, far too long since I posted here (must be a malady peculiar to bloggers, postus interruptus). It's not as if I haven't been cooking, either! In fact I've made 4 batches of bread from the book I mentioned below, Artisan breads in 5 minutes a day, but for the most part I seem to have found a number of favorites for when I'm super-busy. I managed to use the aforementioned bread recipe to make some wonderful hamburger buns for broiled tofu with backyard bbq sauce (from Veganomicon); just tried crispy sweet and sour tofu (verdict: General Tao's Tofu is miles better for our tastebuds! but it is super easy to make, which is nice. not enough spice, too sweet). And pizzas, cutlets, awesome gravy (love the bechamel!) etc etc etc - a good groove, accompanied by absolute truckloads of kale and collards, as well as buckets of beans.

I am anxiously awaiting delivery of a Soyabella soy milk maker! We appear to go through lots of soy milk, about 2 gallons per week, so this struck me as a good idea on several levels. First is cost, though with the machine racking up over $100, it will take a while to pay for itself (1/2 gal. soy milk = around $3 X 4 = $12 per week, or nearly $50 per month, versus $100 for the machine, 1/4 c soybeans per quart (5lb bag of these cost $6 - I'm too tired to do that particular math!) As well, apparently you can make your own tofu (I'd love to try this) and a byproduct of soy milk prep is okara, which from all reports is a super healthy add to various recipes, having even more nutritional wallop than the soymilk.

So there you go. All that and I haven't even talked about the new grant project, my lit review, or - so much else. Well, hey. This is a vegan food blog, eh? Still, it's been pretty wild. I work part time in Second Life, a virtual community whose participants include thousands of researchers, educators and others (and more than 700 librarians!) - as a consumer health librarian, funded by grants from the National Library of Medicine. One project has just ended, and another began directly on its virtual heels - this one, to mentor people with disabilities and chronic illnesses into Second Life. Along with this I'm mid-lit review, and have been struggling - repeatedly - with issues of self-confidence and motivation, something I think must be quite common. Cooking is a relief from this. Or maybe we can file it under procrastination.