No eggplant, but still really tasty.

Okay, I totally didn’t make some awesome thing with eggplant for our picnic dinner tonight at Rosebriar.  I got lazy.  I admit it.

Instead, we stopped off at Fresh Market on Henderson Road to pick up some picnic-friendly goodies.  Dinner for kidlets was PB&J on ciabatta rolls; the adults had the same rolls, but with sliced organic tomatoes, bean sprouts, and fresh baby spinach.  Of course, since Sean showed the kids about grinding peanuts to make fresh peanut butter, I had to taste it.  The PB was excellent, and the J—a concord grape jelly, all natural, vegan, and organic—is way better than anything Smuckers ever put in a jar.  I have to admit that I was somewhat saddened with Fresh Market’s total lack of cheese analogs; they had a paltry tofu section and not much else in the soybean family besides soy milk.  Oh, well.  We don’t shop on that side of town very often anyway.  What they lacked in cheese they definitely made up for in produce, though:  the veggies for our sandwiches were fantastic, the kids loved the black grapes, and the melon pre-pack was fabulous—perfect honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon chunks combined in a marriage of the quintessential tastes and smells of summer.

I’ve already written my review for Theatre Vault and I’m just about to call it a night.  The kids enjoyed A Midsummer Night’s Dream so much more than I could have hoped.  Daniel’s favorite part was when Bottom (playing Pyramus in the play-within-a-play) throws himself on his sword and dies.  And dies.  And dies some more.  He also liked Puck, because Puck was played by a green furry puppet.  And green is, after all, his favorite color.  ☺  I think Sylvie’s favorite part was the half bag of grapes she ate during the second act.

You know you want to pet me... Look at that ear flippage--how can you resist?!?!

To make up for my lack of cooking initiative this evening, I’m including a pic of our famous (infamous?  She really could be either…) dog, Lucy.  When you look at this puppy face, can you really yell at me for not cooking tonight?  This is what I had staring at me all day, just begging for some couch cuddle time.  And she totally got it.  ☺

Sean gets creative with leftovers--and totally steals the lemon out of my water without warning. Good thing I love him...

I had a play to review tonight for Theatre Vault, and it was over an hour away from home.  Even though I have some portabella mushrooms in the fridge that really need to be cooked, I just couldn’t be bothered.  I wanted to make tonight a special “night out” for my sweetie and me before the kidlets descend tomorrow.  So I offered to treat Sean to dinner at a vegan/vegetarian friendly restaurant of his choice before we set off for beautiful downtown Newark, Ohio.  After a bit of debate, we chose Whole World Natural Bakery and Restaurant.

So garlicy that I'm pretty sure I'm still not kissable several hours later. Totally worth it, though!

I checked out their daily specials, and when we got there I knew exactly what I wanted:  Black Bean Hummus on Pita Bread.  It had some nice crisp veggies, lots of garlic, and I stole a few of Sean’s black corn chips for a side dish.  Yum!

I promise--it tastes even better than it looks!

Sean’s choice was the Bombay Burger—a chickpea-based veggie burger with Indian spices, lettuce, tomato, onion, soy cheese, Vegenaise, and mustard (in a star shape—I love that!!) on a whole wheat bun.  He was kind enough to let me sample it, and it took everything in my power not to steal it from him.  I really was pretty happy with my Black Bean Hummus, though.  I think I’m going to try to make my own version of it at some point in the near future…

We grabbed some yummy vegan desserts there, too.  No pictures of those—sorry!  There was a raspberry bar that was pretty good (although I like the idea of raspberries, I still hate the stupid seeds that get stuck in my teeth) and a roasted almond bar that was orgasmic.  Really.  It’s not an exaggeration.  Ah-mazing.  I would have eaten the entire thing myself if it hadn’t been for the fact that I knew Sean would pout if I did.

While we were getting totally turned around on High Street, we stumbled across vegan Nirvana in the Columbus metro area:  Pattycake Vegan Bakery.  This is the place to go when you’re vegan in Central Ohio, or so I’ve been told.  Yes, we had a whole bag full of vegan desserts already.  But Pattycake was right there, in front of us! How could we let those poor defenseless baked goods go another moment without a loving home?  We totally caved.  I limited myself to three selections: peanut butter chocolate chip cookie heaven (because I wanted something similar from Whole World, but their version wasn’t vegan), a slice of raspberry lemon chiffon cake (for Sean—what’s up with the raspberry trend today?), and—on the advice of one of the girls behind the counter—the pumpkin spice Whoopie Pie.  We ate the cookie after the play, and we discussed the various high and low points of the production as we munched.  The slice of cake is half-devoured, waiting for whoever is least comatose from sugar overload to finish it, and I have a feeling the Whoopie Pie is going to be my breakfast tomorrow morning with a cup of coffee and a marathon review-writing session.

Tomorrow night, we’re taking the kids down to Groveport to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and there will be a vegan picnic involved.  I need to figure out what I want to do for that.  Luckily, I have all day tomorrow to cook and shop for what I need, but I still need to figure out what I feel like making.  I might do something with eggplant—I currently have 4 sitting in my produce drawer as we speak—and the kids didn’t seem to hate it too much when I made it before.  Maybe a different recipe with less oil is in order this time…  Oh!  I could make an eggplant lasagna…thing…and just serve it cold!  Hmm…  This may take some thinking and planning…  Horray ideas out of the blue!  (Of course, you realize that since it’s almost 2:00 a.m. now, I’m probably going to sleep late, completely forget about this wonderful idea, and make PB&J for the kids instead, right?  Right…  It sure sounds good now, though.  *grin*)

Best. Pizza. Ever!!

Okay, I’ve made pizza a few times since going vegan, but I believe that this particular one is my crowning glory.  All veggie toppings (red peppers, broccoli, and onions), a crust made with whole wheat flour and a hefty amount of vital wheat gluten, some leftover spaghetti sauce, and—wait for it—no cheese!  Or even a cheese alternative!  I sprinkled a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast over the whole thing, added an assortment of spices, and it was really, really good!  I honestly believe it was one of the best pizzas I ever made.  And it looks pretty, too.  ☺

Not much left over--and the cupcake stayed there just long enough for the picture!

Saturday was the vegan/vegetarian meet-up at the Whetstone Park of Roses.  We had such a good time, and the food was awesome.  We met a bunch of cool people, and we added some Facebook friends because of it.  I also signed us up for another meet-up group that does hiking meet-ups in the area, thanks to a lady we met at the picnic; we really can use some regular exercise again.  The weather was terrible—huge thunderstorm started the second we got out of the car, and it rained pretty much the whole time we were at the park—but that didn’t stop us from having a good time.  And everybody liked my cupcakes!  There were only 4 tiny ones left by the end of the picnic.  That alone says a lot!  Sean and I also got to reacquaint ourselves with the animal activist who got us started down this particular path.  I saw her at the food table shortly after she arrived, and we ended up talking for the next couple of hours about how she changed our lives.  Thanks again, Eriyah!

We have been so incredibly lazy all day Sunday.  We slept in, at when we felt like it, tried to focus mainly on Vita Mix concoctions, and just generally took it easy.  It’s been fun, but I’m hoping to do something a little more active tomorrow.  I told Sean that I really want to get up early and take a nice long walk before it gets too hot.  Then I have a facial scheduled at the Origins shop at Macy’s at noon.  I know he has a photo shoot that needs to happen tomorrow if it’s going to happen at all, and I’m still trying to decide if I’m coming along or not.

First up on the theatrical scene...

Followed by Shakespeare and a vegan picnic!

Even though it’s vacation week, we’re still going to be busy.  I have two plays to review this week (back to Newark to see Weathervane’s production of The Secret Garden on Thursday, and then Rosebriar’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Friday down in Groveport), and I still want—nay, demand!—to see Harry Potter, probably on Tuesday or Wednesday.  So, in a nutshell, Sean is probably going to kill me for booking our social calendar so full when he’s trying to relax…  Oh, well.  It’s not like we usually have lives or anything any other time. 

Must. See. This. Movie!!!!

Another version of chickpea curry, but with cashews added for a little extra sweetness and a surprising crunch.

After more than two years of doing the whole Weight Watchers thing, I came to rely heavily on stir fry.  I stir fried just about everything.  It was quick, easy, and took relatively little planning.  Just cut up some defrosted chicken breast, throw in some broccoli, serve over rice and you’re done.  Since making the switch to veganism, though, I’ve discovered a new passion for curries.

Granted, the preparation is pretty much the same, but I’ve noticed that I’m more willing to experiment with curries than I ever was with stir fry.  Tonight’s curry has a base of chickpeas with some green pepper, onions, minced garlic, carrots, frozen peas and a handful of roasted cashews for a little different texture.  I added ground cumin, curry powder, five spice, garlic powder, and turmeric.  Then I added two teaspoons of the chunky Sriracha sauce (my favorite for cooking; the one in the squirt bottle is much better for a garnish).

Fluffy pillows of whole wheaty goodness!

This is the coup de grace for tonight’s dinner, though—I must say I’m really proud of these.  Since I knew I was making a curry tonight, I thought that fresh baked na’an bread would be a perfect accompaniment—plus, Sean has been begging me to try this recipe for ages.  I used a mixture of whole wheat and all-purpose flour, so it’s a little denser than typical na’an.  The soy yogurt worked just fine.  I still need to work on my rolling technique a little.  These were a lot more like pita than na’an.  Just takes a little more practice, I’m sure.  They turned out really pretty, though.

Chickpea and Cashew Curry with brown rice and whole wheat na'an. Tasty!

Here’s a picture of the whole dinner, complete with brown rice on the side.  Yum!

"Sloppy Janes" and a homemade bagel.

Sean took leftovers with him for lunch today and sent me a picture of what it looked like after he got it all ready.  It’s vegan sloppy joes (which he decided to rename “Sloppy Janes”—not sure why, exactly), vegan cheese, and one of the bagels he made last night.  I have to admit, I got hungry just looking at it, and I was the one who made it!  The bagels came out nice and savory—lots of flaxseed, caraway seed, garlic powder, and some other spices—and the texture was pleasantly chewy.  It’s nice to know I’m not the only one in the house who can make bagels now!

After dinner we both wanted something sweet, so I made Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownies, but I made them healthier (and vegan!) by substituting all of the recommended ingredients with a can of black beans.  To do this, just empty the can with the liquid into the blender and let ‘er rip.  I did add a little bit of water to them—maybe a tablespoon or so—because the puree seemed a little thicker than I wanted it to be. After that, just mix the pureed beans with the brownie mix and bake as directed.  You can also do the same thing with pureed pumpkin, though I like the black beans better with brownies.  It works with cake mixes, too.  Just one more tip I picked up from Weight Watchers.  ☺

Ah... Vegan comfort food!

I have been so incredibly lazy today.  I did spend about half an hour cleaning up the kitchen (kind of…), and I started a load of laundry (at 5:00), but other than that I haven’t really done much of anything today except up my post number on PPK’s forums.  Shameful…

In an effort to redeem myself, I decided to make a nice dinner for Sean and me, since the kidlets are with their dad this week.  I really wanted mashed potatoes, and I knew I had a few left that needed to be used pretty soon before they started sprouting.  I made them with some soy milk, Earth Balance margarine, and about a clove or so of minced garlic.  I made the basic broiled tofu recipe from Veganomicon.  Then I steamed some broccoli and cauliflower.  I put fresh garlic pepper over everything and sprinkled some crushed red pepper over the tofu.  Simple flavors, easy preparation, and delicious to boot.  And lots of leftovers!  All those things make me happy.  ☺

Creamy and delicious!

Sean put himself in charge of dessert.  He really wanted to try the whole Vita Mix ice cream thing again.  This time, we left the lid on.  *grin*  Yay no more broken tampers!  He was going to make strawberry, but we didn’t have quite enough strawberries for what the recipe called for.  So he added some peaches and a frozen banana to get the fruit weight up to where it needed to be.  Then he added some coconut extract.  I think that almond would have been nice, too.  He used what was left of the vanilla soymilk we made yesterday.  Despite running the blender just a bit too long (it shut itself off—yay overheating!), it ended up perfect as soft-serve ice cream.  The coconut extract was a little stronger than I would have liked—maybe we should scale it back a little bit next time.  But it was creamy and light without being overly sugary sweet.

I have decided that in the name of keeping myself sane, I’m going to start making a monthly meal plan.  I’ve had to throw away so much stuff that I bought and never used because I either forgot about it or changed my mind, and it’s just sickening to me.  I’m still going to try to incorporate at least one or two new recipes a week since we’re embarking on this vegan journey, though.  After all, when you eat the same stuff for 36 years, a drastic change like going vegan means you have to experiment to find what you like and what you don’t.  Without some wiggle room for experimentation, this new lifestyle could get really boring really fast.  And it requires more than just veganizing old recipes.  Doing this is going to make grocery shopping a lot easier, too, which will hopefully save us some money in the long run.

I’m not expecting myself to turn into June Cleaver overnight, but I am hoping that I’ll have made a decent dent in my new stay-at-home-mom persona by the end of the year.  So now I’m armed with a master shopping list, a 30-day meal planning calendar, and a dream…  Wish me luck!

No salt, little bit of melted "butter", hot out of the oven--just the way I like 'em.

Sean was begging for pretzels today.  I have one of the Top Secret Recipes books by Todd Wilbur that has a recipe for Auntie Anne’s pretzels.  I’ve made them several times before, but I think I got them almost perfect this time.  Yay!  They’re best when they’re fresh out of the oven, but they’re still pretty good if you put them in a Ziploc bag and eat them within the next day or so.

I’ve taken a few days off from blogging because for some reason, I have been inexplicably exhausted since about Thursday.  It’s kind of annoying, really—I have stuff to do!  Namely, baking and cooking more new vegan recipes.  And I have a brand-new brunch cookbook that I haven’t really even sampled yet.  So stop being tired and dumb, body!  I have plans!

For him

For her

It has been quite the movie week here, though, even with my being so tired recently.  We took the kidlets to gender-appropriate movies on Friday night:  Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen for Daniel and Ice Age:  Dawn of the Dinosaurs for Sylvia.  I’m not sure how it’s happened, but I haven’t seen the new Harry Potter movie yet.  What’s up with that?!?!  Though I was talking to the kids’ swim instructor yesterday, and she told me about a few things that are in the movie that never happened in the books.  *sigh*  I hate it when they do stuff like that…

For the grownups

On the vegan front, Sean and I went to see Food, Inc., last night.  Very informative.  The production value of this film is definitely better than Earthlings, but I’m afraid that I wasn’t quite as moved to action with this one.  I am convinced, though, that I’m going to try to do as much cooking and preparing of my own food as I possibly can and try to stay away from overly-processed stuff.  I can almost hear the arguments starting that “cooking is processing,” and all that.  But I think even the argumentative ones know the difference between making your own tomato sauce from scratch using fresh ingredients and opening a jar of Prego.  There really is a difference.

Once again, I’m feeling that sense of tiredness sweeping over me.  At least I’ve had an easier time waking up in the morning than I usually did.  Maybe this is just my body’s way of telling me that I really do need some rest, despite all the “stuff” I feel I need to accomplish.  Besides, the puppies are sleeping, and they just look too darned cute not to join them.  ☺

Presentation is everything.

When we picked up our produce from the CSA farmer last week, there was a lone, teeny eggplant included in the mix.  I had actually been craving eggplant for a couple of weeks, but I never bothered to buy one because it’s not one of Sean’s favorite vegetables.  And as much as I wanted some, I just couldn’t fathom eating an entire eggplant by myself.  So this tiny one was a perfect opportunity to get my fix and to give just a little sampling to everyone else.

After perusing my favorite VegWeb site for a while, I really wasn’t finding anything that jumped out at me.  I finally adapted one recipe to fit what I had and what I felt like doing.  Since the eggplant was really small (think large banana-sized, maybe), I sliced it into rounds.  I dipped the rounds into some soymilk and then dredged them in whole wheat breadcrumbs that I seasoned with Italian seasoning, ground black pepper, and a little chili powder.  The breadcrumbs really didn’t stick very well, but I kept going anyway.  I heated up some safflower oil and fried the eggplant.  It really soaked up the oil, so now I’m wishing I had used olive oil instead of safflower just because I think it would have tasted better.

To accompany my eggplant, I made a homemade spaghetti sauce with fresh tomatoes, oregano, parsley, minced onion, garlic, olive oil, about a tablespoon of sugar (to cut through the acidity) and more Italian seasoning.  I put about 4 or 5 quartered tomatoes in the blender until they were pulverized; then I added two more, but I just pulsed it a little bit so there would be some tomato chunks, too.  I put everything in a skillet and heated it up to boiling, then let it simmer for about 20 minutes to give the flavors time to blend and to cook down a bit.

Just to make sure that the kids ate more veggies than the two eggplant rounds I was planning to give them, I also steamed some fresh asparagus.  To serve, I made whole wheat spaghetti, topped it with the sauce, arrange the eggplant along the edge of the pasta, and the filled in the extra space with the asparagus.  This is probably the prettiest dinner I’ve given them in a long while.

The verdict:  Sylvie finished her eggplant before she started on anything else and said she liked it a lot.  Daniel took some coaxing, but he finally gulped it down—chased with plenty of water.  Sean got 5 rounds because he is, after all, a grownup.  He delayed a bit, but finally finished them all.  I think he’s hoping for a different recipe for the next time, though; they were really oily this time around.  Surprisingly enough, Sylvie didn’t want to finish her asparagus, even though she usually loves it.  I think she may have just been full.

In an effort to get the kids more involved with meal planning, we gave Sylvie a stack of cookbooks from the library and told her that she could help choose what we’re having for dinner tomorrow night.  Unfortunately, there weren’t a whole lot of pictures in the books that I picked out, so now she’s determined that there aren’t any recipes to be found in the 7 or 8 cookbooks I gave her to look through.  Silly girl…  ☺

I think that I may make some brownies tomorrow.  I got Ghiradelli double chocolate brownie mix (it’s vegan!!!), and I think I may make them with a can of pureed black beans to help keep the fat and calorie count down while increasing the protein and fiber.  Thank you Weight Watchers for that little trick!

It may not look that appetizing, but at least it knows how to keep a smile on its face!

I had a sweet potato that really needed to be used before it started sprouting in my cabinet.  Since the Indian dish I made on Saturday went over so well with the kids, I thought I would try a recipe for Sweet Potato Dahl that I’ve wanted to try for a few weeks now.

I kept the spices dialed back for the kids since they still don’t really do spicy stuff, and I added Sriracha to the adults’ portions.  Since it looked kind of, well, unappetizing (to say the least…), I tried to keep things whimsical and made a smiley face on Sean’s.  It actually tasted okay, but I’m still trying to figure out why it is that every time I make a recipe with red lentils, they turn to mush.  I only have this problem with red lentils; never with green or any other color.  It’s weird.  And frustrating.  And the end result made my dinner look like someone else had already eaten it and barfed it back up.  Not the best choice for a transition food for the oh-so-particular kidlets.  They ate it—albeit begrudgingly and on pain of dessert withholding.

I’m planning to submit a slightly different picture to Post Punk Kitchen’s “food porn” thread.  I’m pretty sure it will qualify…  ☺

I did get the kids out of the house and we spent an hour or so at the pool.  I got my daily dose of Vitamin D and an opportunity to start reading a new book, and they got some much-needed exercise.  Despite the barf-dinner tonight, they’ve been pretty good all evening—probably because they’re tuckered out.  Yay tired kidlets!

Ahhh... Healthy chips that don't *taste* healthy!

I found a new favorite junk food today:  RiceWorks Rice Chips.  The Sea Salt and Sweet Chili are both available at my local Giant Eagle, are super tasty, and vegan!  The kids even liked them.

Spicy, super creamy black bean dip--excellent with RiceWorks chips!

Sean whipped up a batch of black bean dip and the four of us finished off a bag of the Sweet Chili ones with dinner tonight.  I think that’s the only thing that kept Daniel going through his Sweet Potato Dahl.  They remind me a lot of Doritos, but they’re way healthier and—best of all—no dairy, no hydrogenated oils, and no icky bad stuff I can’t pronounce in the ingredients!  They totally satisfy my craving for a salty, savory snack.  We’re definitely going to have to keep these around!

Tonight for dessert, we’re having tofu chocolate pudding with the Nasoya chocolate-flavored tofu I found over the weekend.  I’m really excited about it.  We made it in the Vita Mix with a slightly tweaked version of their recipe.  Since we had chocolate tofu and chocolate soymilk already, we left out the 2 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate and the 5 tablespoons of margarine the recipe called for.  We also added some crushed Newman’s Own chocolate crème cookies to the blender during the last couple of seconds for an extra dose of yumminess.  We also added a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch, since I really wasn’t seeing anything in the recipe that was going to make pudding set up after being blended with just milk and sugar.  We’ll see what happens with that; it’s in the fridge as we speak.

I thought that we were going to have a grown-up movie tonight, but it’s starting to look like that isn’t going to happen since it’s after 9:30 and I haven’t seen Sean in over half an hour.  We’ll see, though.  Maybe it’ll just be a late-night showing.  ☺

UPDATE:  Even after sitting in the fridge for a full 24 hours, the chocolate tofu pudding never did set.  *sigh*  Oh, well.  It made a really tasty chocolate soup!

Awesome tofu scramble for a lazy Sunday brunch.

Yet another big cooking day today.  I’m starting to feel like I’m living in my kitchen lately.  At least the blender kind of took a break today—just one juice drink this morning for breakfast, and then it was eerily silent for the rest of the afternoon.

We all slept late this morning, so breakfast was more like brunch.  I found an awesome tofu scramble recipe a few weeks ago, and that was what I used to make the concoction pictured above for the adults.  The kids wanted cereal, so everyone was happy.

On Saturday, Sean found a picture of vegan cheezy fries somewhere and insisted that he wanted to make them for himself.  I was sent out on a quest to track down The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak since apparently the “cheeze” recipes in there are awesome.  I have to admit, the one we tried tonight turned out pretty good:

Yummmmm....

It was particularly awesome over the fries:

Double yummmm....

After dinner, we took the kids and the dogs for a nice long walk—exactly what all of us needed after such a filling dinner.

I watched “The Meatrix” animated series of shorts tonight.  Very informative without being too in-your-face, and keeping a sense of humor.  I think that’s part of the problem that most vegans run into in daily life:  too many crazies out there who give us all a bad name.  I’ve been at this for about a month now, and even though it’s starting to get easier, I still don’t know if I actually feel vegan yet.  Of course, I can’t even explain exactly what that means or how a vegan should feel on a day-to-day basis, but still, I keep thinking that there’s supposed to be something else, something life-altering that hasn’t happened yet.  Maybe it will eventually, or maybe it won’t.  For right now, though, I can find comfort in the knowledge that I’m doing my part to try to stop the suffering of those who cannot speak for themselves.  I may not be sneaking into livestock auction houses or slaughterhouses or puppy mills with a video camera to expose the wrongdoing that’s going on there; but I can stop adding to the consumption that creates the supposed need for factory farms and mass-market killing.

I am glad that I made the switch, and I’m glad that Sean made the switch with me.  Even the kids have gotten involved, and they’re interested in the new things I’m making for dinner every night instead of the ongoing cycle of mac and cheese or spaghetti.  I’m still floored that they liked the Indian food I made on Saturday.  That reaction just opened a whole new realm of possibilities for dining experiences at home.  I think tomorrow’s dinner might be something involving sweet potatoes and some naan bread perhaps?

Chana Masala--the gateway Indian food.

This is what I made for dinner tonight—a rip off of the Chana Masala recipe on VegWeb.  I made it fully expecting a fight from the children.  After all, it looks a little weird, especially for kids who have grown up with the whole meat-and-potatoes mentality (ideally, chicken nuggets and French fries).  I dished it up over whole wheat couscous, gave them each a big glass of water (for the subsequent gagging that I fully expected), and settled myself in at the dining room table for the fight to ensue.

Daniel got to the table first.  He sat down, asked what was in his bowl, took a deep breath, and lifted the first forkful.  Sylvie plowed through it after she asked what was in it—tomatoes, carrots, onions, and chickpeas with some Indian spices.  Not one complaint.  Not a word was spoken to the tune of, “I don’t like it…”  They both finished their dinners, and I wondered if I should have given them more since I only gave them about a quarter of a serving each in the interest of cutting down on the food waste.  I’m totally going to make that again for them sometime soon.  It’s one of my favorite dishes, and now that I know that they’ll eat it, I might start to branch out with some other Indian food.  Victory is mine!  Hah!!

On a sad note, though, I broke the tamper for the Vita Mix tonight.  Only had the thing for two days, and I broke it already.  ☹  From what I read when I was looking on Amazon for replacements, though, it’s a pretty common occurrence.  The review that made me feel the best about my stupidity was this one:

“So you dropped your Vitamix tamper into the blender?” February 2, 2009
By Jeff A. Stucker “Jeff A. Stucker” (Eagle, ID United States)
Well, join the club. This is the replacement for that chewed up part. Next time, let’s make sure the lid is on when we use the tamper, okay? (Doh!)”

Thanks, Jeff—I’ll definitely remember this little piece of advice!

The disaster happened when I was trying to make ice cream, which looks incredibly easy on the videos.  Either I did something wrong, or I’m just too impatient for my own good, but I messed up.  I pulled the lid off while it was doing its thing to check on it, and then tried to use the tamper to mix things up a bit more.  Sean told me afterward that he tried to say something to me like, “Hey, maybe you shouldn’t do that…”, but I couldn’t hear him over the noise of the blender.  And then the tamper ended up hitting the blades—not good.  This is what happens when the tamper hits the blades:

There's a reason they tell you not to use the tamper with the lid off...

The good news was twofold:  Amazon offers a replacement tamper for about $11 plus shipping, so we should have one here before the end of next week.  Sean also read somewhere about a guy who used a carrot in place of his tamper when he was in a similar situation, so at least we have a back up method while we’re waiting for the new one.  The other good news was that the ice cream actually came out okay (once I dug the bits of plastic out of it, of course):

I promise that any black flecks you may see are actually Newman's Own cookie pieces, not broken tamper bits.

And somehow, after this Adventure in Kitchen-Land, Sean convinced me to make a pizza.  At first, I thought he wanted to bake it at 10:00 at night, which I thought was completely insane.  Then he mentioned something about Alton Brown’s suggestion to freeze a pizza crust overnight and then bake it the next day.  Ah.  Well, fine.  But I still ended up with dough all over my hands and much more mess than I had really wanted to deal with after everything else today.  And now that I actually read his suggestions, I see that AB actually said to refrigerate the dough overnight, not freeze it.  And to refrigerate it in ball, not spread out on a pan like I have mine right now.  Darn.  Oh, well.  It’s Sean’s baby tomorrow, I think. 

I’ll be sure to post pictures of that monstrosity masterpiece—right after I get back from a Whole Foods run for more vegan mozzarella.