I know that lately I have focused more on food stuff than knitting stuff. I am still doing some knitting, though not much because I don’t have that much time for it.
Basically I am spending a lot of my free time cooking, especially getting recipe ideas with ingredients that won’t cause an allergic reaction.
For my two readers’ information, I am allergic to the milk protein… no, it’s not lactose intolerance, I cannot take a pill for it. It is an allergy. Health Canada cites milk as one of the most common food allergens, but it is usually misrepresented. If I had a nickel for every time someone has asked “why don’t you just take a pill for that?”.
It is very difficult to buy prepared food because there is cheese or butter or cream or all of the above on most prepared items. So I normally get home from work and spend a whole chunk of my evening preparing my dinner, which usually has leftovers, so I take them for lunch the next day. It has also been a problem since when people invite me to their house I have to warn them about my allergies and it incoveniences everyone… you know how everyone wants to have veggie lasagna or something, but I can’t have it with the cheese. Same when people order pizza, more than once people have made a “yuck” face or sound about me eating cheeseless pizza (there’s nothing yucky about it, it just has no cheese).
I miss a lot of the stuff, especially the cheesy stuff, but it has made such a difference, I used to be sick all the time. The difference is like night and day. I rarely get sick anymore. I have also reduced my meat intake to a minimum. I totally cut off chicken since I saw a movie about how they raise chicken for mass consumption, it is horrible… let’s say I never ever eaten it again, and it also bothers me that it’s chicken here, chicken this, chicken everywhere, chicken chicken chicken. You get me, right? I know I used to love chicken wings, and I still crave the flavour (it’s the sauce that makes them so good), but I just can’t bear the idea of eating chicken anymore. Sorry about that, you guys.

Now back to the apology, I have been knitting but not in huge quantities. During the winter I knitted a hat and a pair of mittens that I designed myself and one half each of two different sleeveless tops (of course!). But it has been nothing worthy of posting. When I do have a real good finished object ready I will post about it. Right now all I can think of is how tired I am every single day and how little time I have for everything I need to do. I think eating takes presedence over knitting, right? after all you don’t die if you don’t knit, but you die if you don’t eat (ok, some of my fellow knitters may disagree with this, and I understand their point of view, but I’m talking about the real thing, you may feel like you’re dying if you don’t knit, but it doesn’t mean you’re ACTUALLY dying, right? right?)

I’ll keep you guys posted and I’m here to answer any questions about my recipes, the foods I can eat and the nutrition I’m getting… ask away!!

Cross-posted with Garlicster.
Since I don’t eat any dairy products or milk ingredients at all, I have been a bit concerned about my calcium intake. What else can I do to consume more calcium. I did some research and it happens that spinach is a really good source of calcium, so I decided to try new spinach recipes, containing garlic, of course. I made up this recipe today. The recipe is vegan.

Chop one whole onion and three cloves of garlic and sautee them in two teaspoons vegetable oil.

When onion is transparent, add three teaspoons of soy sauce, three teaspoons curry powder, the juice of half a lemon and one tablespoon chopped ginger (I used the one that you buy in a jar and is already chopped). Stir well and cook for about five more minutes.

Add one can of chickpeas semi-drained, and one can chopped tomatoes. Let cook for about 10 minutes to absorb all the flavours.

Finally add one bag baby spinach and stir just until wilted (not more than 2 minutes).

Serve with rice, I used basmati and it was delicious!

Even if it was the first day of spring, it was a dark and cloudy Monday in Toronto. Not much going on at the construction site. Our hero the construction worker, let’s call him Jose, was feeling an urge to use the toilet. But what could he do about it? Not much except wait for an opportunity to go down to the ground floor and use the facilities. He did not notice that a porta-potty was flying in the middle of the street.

Jose kept himself busy by sweeping the top floor of the construction site.

The porta-potty almost hit him in the head but he still didn’t notice it. He was too busy performing his sweeping duties and trying to think of something else other than the washroom.

Finally, Jose noticed the porta-potty arriving right behind his back. “What?” said Jose. “What is this? Have the gods been hearing my pleas? this is exactly what I needed.”

“The facility deities have heard my prayers” said Jose. “Thank you, I can now use the porta-potty”.

Cross-posted with Garlicster.

This recipe is vegetarian and vegan.

As many of my readers know, I am allergic to all dairy ingredients. This time I decided to make my own pasta with white sauce, taking special care of not adding any dairy (most people will use cream for a mushroom white sauce), and of course, very garlicky!

Ingredients for 3-4 servings:
Olive oil
One cup shallots, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Crushed red pepper, if desired
All the sherry left in the bottle (OK, I used all the sherry left in the bottle because I didn’t have much left, I suggest about 1/2 a cup)
4 to 5 cups chopped mix mushrooms, I used cremini, oyster, shiitake and portobello
Cooked pasta (enough for the number of persons), I used multi-coloured fussilli

Sautee shallots and garlic in the olive oil until brown, be careful not to burn them.

Add the mushrooms and sautee until cooked (about 4 minutes).

Add all the sherry left in the bottle (OK, about 1/2 a cup). Add a teaspoon white flour for thickening the sauce. Also, add salt and pepper to taste and crushed red pepper, if desired. Stir until flour is disolved. Simmer for about 4 minutes making sure it does not dry out.

Serve over cooked pasta.

Delicious!

Yesterday I waited for the streetcar for 1 hour on the corner of Queen and Sherbourne, it never came and there is no one to inform what’s going on. I didn’t know if it wasn’t running, I didn’t know if there was a delay. At the end I came back home and could not meet my friends.
Today there was a similar situation but this time I was on the streetcar and could see what was going on (sadly the people waiting a few blocks from us were probably fuming, not knowing what was going on and waiting for the streetcar for one hour).

Everything was going fine on the eastbound Queen streetcar just before 7:00 PM, I caught it just on the corner of Queen and Roncesvalles.

Just east of Niagara, the streetcar could not go past this car for fear of scratching and crashing it. Notice how there is about a metre between the car and the curb. It did not need to be parked that far out, but it was.
We waited for one whole hour. The parking authority was there, the TTC called a tow trock which apparently was going to be there in 40 minutes.

There was a lineup of 7 streetcars waiting for the guy to moved his precious silver Volvo in the middle of Queen Street just in front of Seoul City. The car owner finally came back an hour later. Inconvenience for about 100 people because of one selfish guy (and his girlfriend). One hour lost in our day, the streetcars just couldn’t go through and the drivers were not allowed to even touch the silver Volvo. Apparently these jerks decide to sue the TTC if their precious cars are touched. The tow truck was on its way just as the guy came back and missed it. The guy got away with just a $60 ticket.

Cross-posted with Garlicster.

This dish is so garlicky it’s dangerous! This is the authentic pasta primavera from Italy. There’s a huge snowstorm in Toronto, so I decided to channel spring by making spaghettini primavera, primavera means spring in Italian and in Spanish. And you don’t have to cook anything (except the pasta, raw pasta is not good to eat, you guys!) There’s a bit of chopping involved, though.

Ingredients per person:
One cup fresh tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup fresh basil
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
One portion of spaghettini (I used about one inch roundful per person).

Cook the pasta in boiling water, but make sure it’s al dente. You don’t want soft spaghettini for this. I used Catelli Bistro Sundried Tomato and Basil spaghettini. But you can use just regular pasta. Spaghettini is recommended because it is thin. Capelli D’Angelo also works really good with this recipe.

Finely chop the tomatoes, garlic cloves and basil.

When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain and immediately (don’t let the pasta cool), toss with the olive oil and the chopped tomatoes, basil and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately. I did not sprinkle with parmesan because, as my regular readers know, I’m allergic to milk products, but everyone else can do this to enjoy this delicious spaghettini primavera.