Here I am, with my trusty and understanding fiance, at Fenway Park the night after the bar ended. Can’t you tell how pleased I am?

Now I get to wait three months to find out whether or not I passed, during which time I plan to act as if the whole thing never happened.

Without wasting any time in working towards that lofty goal, I have spent the first two weeks of my summer (which began July 29th) doing little besides wedding planning and submitting the occasional job application.   Oh, and last night I went to my first boxing class and it was awesome!  I can barely move today from muscle soreness but it was totally worth it.  The best part is that  I have an unlimited month of classes ahead of me (thanks, Groupon!).  I’m hoping that it’ll help me shake the last couple of pounds before my dress fitting on September 24th.  Wish me luck!!

Also, I know I promised a post about the random crap I ate during the bar exam, and I even took the initiative to sort my pictures into a special Photobucket album for that very purpose, but…I can’t do it.  it’s just too soon.  The trauma of that dark period of my life is still too fresh and so I’m afraid I won’t get any joy out of sharing those pictures yet.

Instead, today I wanted to post about a couple of fun and joyful things, while the endorphins that follow an hour of punching things are still coursing through me.

Last week, I traveled down to good old NJ to see my family, with whom I had had little to no contact during the months of June and July, and to have some wedding-planning time with my mama and little sis/Maid of Honor.  And I got to see these cuties!

At the end of the week, H drove down to join us.  Once he arrived on Friday night, he told me he’d had an idea; why didn’t we go down to Asbury Park and eat at Twisted Tree Cafe the next day?  We hadn’t been there in ages.  I of course responded with a responding “HELL YES.”  I love Twisted Tree Cafe.  It is not a vegan restaurant but they have a phenomenal vegan selection and amazingly fresh food, plus all of their desserts are vegan, and their ginger cookies in particular are to die for.

Anyway, on Saturday morning, Dad came over to me and was all, “Hey, let’s go to brunch at your most favoritest veggie cafe in the worlddd!”  (Okay, he doesn’t talk like that and if he did I’d have some strong words for him.)  I thought it was such a fun and awesome coincidence that Dad and H both wanted to go to Twisted Tree!  I invited Mom and M to come along, but as M was getting ready to move back to college the next day, they were too busy and declined.

Over at Twisted Tree, Dad and H and I had a grand time.  I ordered their soup and half sandwich combo, with Tuscan White Bean Soup and the Focaccia Melt with vegan cheese.

Heaven.  The soup came in a giant mug, and was thick and filling and flavorful.  It was also super-garlicky, which is fine by me!  I gobbled the sandwich, too; the focaccia was buttery and chewy and just so good.  I also ate every last leaf of the salad.  Their ginger miso dressing is truly special.  I friggin love Twisted Tree.

Dad and H both ordered entrees with fish, but H had the vegan Thai coconut soup with his, so we snapped a picture.

Apparently he is alot better at holding a spoonful of yummy ingredients than I am.  Oh well.

Before leaving Twisted Tree, I picked up a container of their soy chicken salad to go.  The chicken salad was the first thing from Twisted Tree I ever had, about four years ago when they used to have a booth at the Sunday Farmers Market in Red Bank.  The best thing about the chicken salad is that Mom, who really isn’t into soy, loves it.  I figured I’d bring some to her at home so she could enjoy it for lunch.  I also got a ginger cookie to go.

I definitely ate a piece before taking this picture. Yup.

After lunch, Dad, H, and I did a mini-tour of the historic Asbury Park boardwalk and casino area.

Then, we headed home.  Holding a brown bag of vegan chicken salad, I marched up to the front door, opened it, and was confronted by a room FILLED with women.  Mom and M had planned a surprise bridal shower for me, and I’d had NO IDEA.

It was a really fantastic afternoon.  I won’t bore with details or too many pictures, as this is not a wedding blog, but needless to say, I felt extremely touched that they had gone through so much trouble to put this on for me, as well as impressed that they managed to hide it from me for a whole week while I was in the same house with them!

Mom never did get to eat the chicken salad, alas, and as she and Dad were departing for England within a few days, she insisted I take it back to Boston with me. She didn’t need to twist (pun intended) my arm too much…

Lunch!!!

On toast, with a slice of tomato and a pickle.  Friggin’ perfection.

And that, my dears, is a surprisingly long recap (sorry!) of the things that have made me happy since the misery of the bar exam was lifted.  I shall be back to blogging regularly from here on out, and am very excited about doing so!!

Have you ever been the recipient of a surprise party?  Were you actually surprised?

In case anyone is keeping track, day one of the bar exam is one week from today, and day two is one week from tomorrow.   That means: 1) I have been studying for this test to the exclusion of pretty much everything else for 50 days now, 2) at 4:30 p.m. on July 28 (193 hours from now), I will be freed from my misery, and 3) I will finally be ready to publish posts I have been compiling for the last two months regarding my eating habits during the period, which have been both erratic and ingenious at times.

It seems I am no longer capable of putting thoughts into words without using numbered lists.

Though it’s sort of hard to remember what my life was like before the bar, I have this dim recollection that I was a happy and social being.  In fact, sometimes I even bathed and left the house, occasionally to go to (gasp!) parties, and when I did, I used to like to bring vegan treats along to generously share with those present, as well as to selfishly ensure that I would have something to eat.

Way back in May I went to H’s sister’s confirmation party and made the Mediterranean Cashew Cucumber Dip from Veganomicon.

This stuff is so amazing.  It tastes just like tzatziki but has the texture of hummus, and is perfect for dipping veggies or pita chips in, or for spreading on crackers.  This container got totally eaten up.  Proud Cook.

More pictures from when I made the dip back in 2008.

In June, when I hadn’t yet metamorphosed from well-adjusted human to Gollum, I also went to H’s other sister’s high school graduation party and made a Chocolate Cream Pie.

This pie was super, super simple.  First, you make a graham cracker crust, from whatever recipe you like.  I used this one, because it’s foolproof, and subbed Smart Balance for the butter.

Then, I made the filling.  I used Dr. Oetker’s Organic Chocolate Pudding Mix (which I bought at Whole Foods). I cooked it on the stovetop according to the package directions, using vanilla soy milk.  Next, I poured it in the pie shell and let it chill.

After I took it out, I topped it with Soyatoo. I actually didn’t do the entire thing because I ran out! But I still think it looked kind of nice.

Finally, I dusted it with a little cocoa powder, and shaved part of a dark chocolate bar over it.

Everyone at the party knew me, that I’m vegan, and that I’d brought the pie.  Those who had sampled my cooking or baking before (and there were quite a few) were happy to try it, but the rest steered clear and went for more familiar fare.  Oh well.  You can’t force people to step out of their comfort zones, and on this particular occasion I didn’t try, because it meant there was more pie for me.  Win.

Since I just talked about the chocolate cream pie, I suppose this would be a good opportunity to post pictures of the Banana Cream Pie I made a few months back too.  It’s the same exact thing as above, except I used Dr. Oetker’s Organic Banana Pudding Mix and sliced fresh bananas on top. And photographed it at night in my dim kitchen, so the picture isn’t great.

I made it for dessert for H and me and we ate it for about a week.  It was good!  Next time I definitely want to add pieces of Mi Del Vanilla Snaps (in place of disgusting Nilla wafers) into the filling.

Overall, I recommend this pie method as an easy shortcut to a yummy and not horribly unhealthy dessert, whether you choose to share or not!

Alright, break time is up (and of course it took me 40 minutes instead of 15 to put this together)!  But the next time I post, I will be doing so as a free woman.  Perhaps it will even be coherent.  Stay tuned.

Fortunately, I am lucky enough to be surrounded by loving, caring individuals who help keep the wind in my sails.  Or at least a pleasant breeze.

Last weekend I went to New Jersey with the combined purpose of attending graduation parties, shopping for a wedding dress, and celebrating Father’s Day with my family.  It was nice to be with my loved ones, and to push my constant and extreme anxiety and exhaustion to the side to do “normal” things for a day or two.  Plus, I got to see this little bugaboo:

What I wouldn’t give to sleep on a sunny patch of carpet all day.

As a bonus, on the drive home on Sunday, H and I pulled off of Route 95 and followed signs to Georgie’s Diner in West Haven, CT.  They have billboards on the highway advertising the fact that they have vegan and gluten-free food, so of course every time we make the drive between Boston and NJ I think about eating there.  Well, I finally did it.  And it was awesome.  I got the Tempeh Reuben sandwich with a side of vegetarian chili:

Let me tell you, this place is a legit diner.

And yet, it has an explicitly vegan section of the menu!!! It makes me SO HAPPY that places like this exist and are starting to pop up more and more frequently.  H and I had a long discussion about it over our meal, contemplating how easy and enjoyable it would be for everyone if more restaurants would just step up and create vegan menu items.  It’s hard to imagine that an omnivore restaurant would lose customers simply because they kept all of their standard fare but added a vegan section, as Georgie’s has done.  However, it’s pretty easy to imagine how making such a move would actually garner anywhere from a modest to substantial increase in customers, depending of course on the restaurant’s location and extensiveness of veg selection.  I’m just saying, it’s time to get with the twenty-first century, restauranteurs!

After returning from my NJ trip though, I stumbled into a really rough week.  My travels caused me to fall a little behind on my bar review, and honestly, I struggled with it and got really stressed out.  But an incredible act of kindness undertaken by my soon-to-be mother-in-law (A) put the wind back in my sails.

On Thursday afternoon, I got a call from A saying she was outside my apartment building.  I came down, all gross and frazzled in sweatpants and glasses, to accept this delivery:

This was one hell of a care package.  Here it is unpacked:

The contents included Strangozzi pasta, farmstand strawberries, cherries (my FAVE!), a huge salad (mixed greens, craisins, apples, and pecans) complete with a (separately packed) delicious tangy vinaigrette, olive foccacia, a bottle of Sangiovese wine, three bell peppers, polenta, white bean and kale soup, a jar of A’s homemade strawberry jam, two containers of homemade ratatouille, a large container of amazing homemade marinara sauce, two fun girly movies, and cheerful flowers. And even a vase to put the flowers in!

AND she went out of her way to make sure all the food was vegan!  If something like this didn’t make me smile, nothing would.  Thanks again, A!!

Having healthy, delicious food readily available is such a blessing. I really did initially think that bar studying would be scheduled enough that I would have the chance to prep and cook food regularly. What I didn’t count on was that during the scarce time each day when I’m not studying, I do not want to do anything. So having this food around is huge. Thursday night I had some of the pasta with sauce and ratatouille (sorry, no pic), and a piggishly large hunk of this incredible concoction:

Drool.

For lunch both today and yesterday, I enjoyed a hearty helping of salad, a bowl of the white bean and kale soup, and a slice of olive foccacia.

Great-tasting, healthy, satiating food that helps me power through studying!

Starting to see how lucky I am? If not, then consider this: my beautiful fiance surprised me with something extremely thoughtful last night.  He is away for the weekend on the Cape having a grand old bachelor party time, while I am home studying for this miserable exam.  And yet, last night at 7 p.m., my phone rang, and it was the delivery man from my heartsong, Peace O’ Pie (which I’ve posted about before)!  H had ordered me a Buffalo Chik’n calzone to be delivered while I studied.

Holy doughy pocket of awesomeness.

I ate half of it last night, and half tonight.  Seriously delicious comfort food! It really is a good way to kick the blues.  And knowing that I have such wonderful, thoughtful people in my life really helps too.  One day, after this bar thing is over and done with, I will look back at this period of my life and have a recollection of general suckiness.  I will not remember what the abysmal problem set score was that sent me into tears, nor how many hours I studied each day.  I will, however, specifically remember the positive things–an unexpected care package or dinner delivery, a daily email of encouragement from my mom, a funny link from my sister–and that is what keeps me smoothly sailing.

Off now to relax with a chick flick and a glass of sangiovese!

I am nowhere near the first blogger to sing the praises of the Whole Foods salad and hot food bars, nor will I be the last.

I know, I know, it’s expensive. But since the closest grocery store to my home is Whole Foods, and since I am perpetually short on time, I take advantage of their prepared food offerings from time to time.  It’s never a challenge to find something tasty and vegan, which makes popping in there quite an anxiety-free experience for me.

First I would like to share some photos of the WF lunch I enjoyed today following a 3.5+ hour lecture on Federal Jurisdiction and Procedure.  I deserved it.

Purple Sweet Potato Tempura roll (it had yummy chopped peanuts all over it)

SO beautiful!

And a little Seaweed Salad for good measure

This was such a satisfying lunch–flavorful and full of many different flavors and textures.  I love their veggie sushi. I wish I could eat it every day but my wallet won’t allow that.  Also as a head’s up, they only provide enough soy sauce for maybe one piece, so make sure you grab extra packets or have a bottle in your fridge to tap.  Anyway, this was a very good bar review lunch–it picked up my mood and helped me power through a grueling afternoon.

I may or may not have mentioned this 948398 times before, but I love Indian food.  I wouldn’t call Whole Foods’ version “authentic”, but I do enjoy it, and I couldn’t resist when I spotted it on the hot bar one Friday at the Whole Foods near my internship. That location also has a huge and rockin’ salad bar. I went a little nuts:

Aloo Gobi, along with Chana Masala, a little bit of brown rice, and a giant mixed salad (spinach, grilled red onion, grilled zucchini and yellow squash, grape tomatos, sliced white mushrooms, toasted pumpkin seeds, a couple of cloves of roasted garlic, bacuns [textured soy protein crumbles], and a tiny drizzle of balsamic).

Chana masala is my all-time favorite Indian dish if I had to pick one, but actually that day I was loving every morsel of the Aloo Gobi.  It was so good.  You could actually see the whole cumin seeds in the sauce.  Delicious.  The salad was really good too.  I had never had Bacuns before but I must say, I’m a fan. And in case anyone was wondering, I did not eat that outrageously large mountain of food all in one sitting. Nope…lunch AND dinner, my friends. I’m thrifty like that.

Finally, one more picture of a salad bar encounter I had in the not-too-distant past:

This one contained tofu (teriyaki I think?), roasted beets and parsnips (my favorite part of the whole thing!), grape tomatoes, shredded zucchini and carrots, yellow pepper, artichokes, and chickpeas, on top of a base of mixed greens.

I threw this together in a serious hurry one night on my way to babysit.  It turned out to be awesome, despite the somewhat random mix of ingredients.  I’m pretty happy with what a beautiful rainbow those ingredients managed to create though!  This is why I love a WF salad…when all the ingredients are right there in front of me, I can eat the rainbow without having to think too much about it.

Alright, it’s bed time for real now. In the hope that my bar-induced psychosis is somehow amusing to anyone other than myself, I intend to devote my next post to some of the truly weird crap I have been cooking and eating at home on all those occasions (and they are many) when I don’t have the presence of mind to cross the street and go to Whole Foods.  Stay tuned.

I had several delicious things to write about, but then Photobucket decided not to work so now I can’t post pictures.  No one wants to read a food blog that doesn’t have pictures.  And I guess I could just go to another photo hosting site right now and create an account and upload my photos so that I could post, but who am I kidding, I’m way too tired for that.  So tired that I can’t even be pissed off about my blogging plans being stymied.  I’m just bummed out.  Sad and mad.  And tired.

Fingers are crossed that I can post tomorrow.

Right now, however, I am feeling quite calm and content.  I attribute this to two things: 1) I left today’s bar review class feeling for the first time like I actually know something that could potentially help me pass the exam, and 2) I just had lunch.  Weird, yes, but I’m finding that food preparation is a big comfort to me of late, because it is one of the few things over which I have total control, and that I can do confidently and free of judgment.

Plus, it gives me joy!  I mean, look at what I got today:

This, my friends, is a vegan za’atar challah from Blacker’s Bakery in Newton.  Blacker’s is a kosher, pareve bakery.  According to kashrut, “pareve” refers to a category of foods that are neither dairy nor meat.  Sounds like vegan food, except that in Judaism “pareve” also extends to eggs and fish.  So unfortunately, though pareve baked goods may be dairy-free, they are usually loaded up with eggs.  However, Blacker’s is kind enough to produce egg-free challahs alongside their traditional egg-washed counterparts, and when I found out they had an egg-free za’atar variety, I could think of little else until I procured one for myself.  Today was the day.  I bought this baby while it was still warm from the oven.  There are few things better in life than warm freshly-baked bread, says I.

Look at that gorgeous texture!  They do not skimp on the spices.

Inside, there are swirls of za’atar goodness.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with za’atar, it is a spice mixture, commonly used in the Middle East. I am personally a huge fan.  I know it contains thyme and sumac and sesame seeds, but that’s about it.  My brain is too full of garbage law to try to recall the other ingredients, and I am far too lazy my computer is too slow to look it up right now.  You are welcome to rock a Googs if you’re curious.  But do take my word that it is delicious.

My lunch was a couple of slices of this magical challah topped with Tribe Forty Spices hummus and some chopped manzanilla olives:

Salty, spicy, and satisfying.  And enough to make me not feel completely homicidal about the fact that I have to do a property problem set now.

Have a wonderful weekend!

I know I’ve mentioned before how much I love Russo’s, but…dear Lord, I do love Russo’s.  It is a sprawling paradise of incredibly fresh and varied produce (including some things I’ve never heard of), yet somehow every time I go to the cash register, I get reverse sticker shock–disbelief over how little it costs.  The only possible drawback is how nauseatingly crowded it can get on the weekends.  It’s totally worth it; I just always make sure to swallow a heaping tablespoonful of patience before heading in there.

Anyway, now that I have all of this wonderful food in my kitchen, and a Sunday afternoon to myself, I’m excited to do some food prep for the week ahead.  I plan to eat a wonderful salad every day with the head of romaine I bought, so I’m going to roast the beet and shell the fava beans to throw into that, along with avocado, chopped carrots, and cilantro.  A very exciting prospect indeed!

I’m super-excited to eat the fava beans in particular. They’re waiting to be parboiled at the moment:

Giant, perfect favas! I went for big, sturdy pods this time. Seriously, look at the size of this fava bean pod! (No, I didn’t take this picture just to show off my ring )

And check out the size of the flatbread.  This is it stretched over my stove:

I used a pizza cutter to slice it into portions, which I wrapped in cling wrap and put in the fridge for H and I to use this week.  But not before I had a flatbread “pizza” for lunch:

Spread with Tribe Forty Spices hummus and topped with artichokes, sundried tomatoes, and chili garlic sauce.  SO GOOD.

I’m also cooking tonight–yay!!!  Red Lentil and Cauliflower Curry from Veganomicon.  It’s going to make a giant vat of curry that H and I will be eating for days.  I’ll post the results later this week!

Finally, I want to briefly touch on something important that’s been on my mind.  I am approaching my three year blog anniversary (June 20th).  Though I have not always posted regularly since starting the blog (oh hay, 2010), it has always been important to me, and I love that it gives me a way to look back on so many great meals and memories.  And actually, the last time I went back to my 2008 posts, I started feeling really nostalgic, though it wasn’t clear why. Then, the other day, I read this post on Chocolate Covered Katie’s blog.  I realized that the thing I used to love the most about blogging, in fact the thing that made me want to start a blog in the first place, was my extreme newly-vegan enthusiasm for trying new foods and recipes from amazing cookbooks and blogs.  I don’t think the enthusiasm even went away, but I guess once law school started and my lifestyle changed so drastically, I just let it fall by the wayside.  When I picked up blogging again this past January, I thought that maybe changing the theme a little (to include restaurants and products I was trying) would help me regain my previous enthusiasm.  It did, to a certain extent, as my ensuing blogging regularity demonstrates.  However, from here on out, I want to place the ingredients and cooking, my true passions, at center-stage, and occasionally include the other stuff as extras.  Thanks, Katie, for helping me come to this realization–I had a lot of fun writing this post!

Bar review: the reason my summer is over before it even started.  For the next eight weeks, I will be spending about twelve hours a day doing nothing but enduring, to quote my friend K, “the most boring kind of hell imaginable.”  The downsides are numerous and obvious, but there are upsides too.  One of them is that I’ll actually have a real, predictable schedule for the first time in three years.  While stress-filled and tedious, it will allow me to fit in time to work out as well as to cook and eat great meals.  So, though I won’t be able to blog as often as I have done in the last couple of months, I will be posting.  In other words, I’m not going on hiatus, just blogging a little less until the bar is over.

After that, it’s time to plan a shotgun October wedding.  But that’s a story for another time…

The title of my post refers to some of the stuff I ate this past weekend while I was celebrating graduation, and not caring particularly about my waistline.

Thursday night, my brother J was in town, and H and I took him to one of our favorite bars to have a beer and play Big Buck Safari (not a very vegan game, I guess…but fun, and no real animals get hurt!).  After that, we headed down the block to Spike’s Junkyard Dogs for some late-night eats.  Oh, Spike’s.  What can I say?  It is a greasy spot that serves every kind of crap imaginable on top of a hot dog.  BUT…they do veggie dogs! Which makes me extremely happy!!!

This is what I got on Thursday:

The one on the right is their classic “Junkyard Dog”: mustard, tomato, pickle, hot pepper rings, and chopped scallions.  I can’t recall the name of the one on the left, and it’s not on their regular menu, but as you can see, it had mustard, BBQ sauce, and a pickle on it.   Delicious.  The options for vegan toppings at Spike’s are way more limited than the ones they have for omnivores, but it’s still a great spot to go with a mixed crowd (or even all vegetarians!) because they actually care enough to include options for non-meat eaters.  Thumbs up, Spike’s.

My second helping of veggie dogs occurred unexpectedly on Sunday.  H and I were out on the Cape, and we drove to the beach where we got engaged last August to show it to my parents.  After that, my parents left to head back to New Jersey, while H and I headed back into town.  We took a scenic route, hoping to find a spot to grab some lunch.  Along Route 28 in Dennisport, I suddenly spotted this sign from the car:

H said, “We’re going there!”

“There” ended up being a restaurant called Corinne’s Place.

Cute little restaurant all decorated with old-fashioned gas station memorabilia.  It sounds weird, I know, but I think the place used to be a gas station back in the day so it was actually very charming.  And, like Spike’s, they serve vegan hot dogs!!! Here is what I got:

One of them was just a veggie dog with veggie chili on top (their chili and baked beans are vegetarian!) and the other had onions, red relish, BBQ sauce, and sauerkraut, and I added a little bit of green relish after taking the picture.  DELICIOUS!  A little different from the texture I’m used to (i.e., Smart Dogs or Spike’s), but really good.  I’m definitely going back to this place.  There is not much in the way of vegan fare on the Cape, so I want to support a business that is branching out!

First step was to prep the red peppers. Look at these perfect little twins!

Pre-roasting (cut, seeded, and oiled):

Doesn’t the one on the top right look like a heart?

Split peas–measured, ready, and waiting:

Apparently one yellow pea got in there. Didn’t notice that until I just pulled up the picture. Nice.

I didn’t take pictures of the other steps. I think I just really liked the way the peppers and peas looked. Anyway, here is the final product (I think this is about as attractive as pea soup is ever going to look):

I liked this recipe.  It was a little bland for my taste; the addition of some salt and cayenne pepper helps.   Also, the flavor of the roasted red peppers is more apparent after the soup sits in the fridge for a day or two. It is very filling, which makes it a great lunch-time soup for those on-the-go.  The recipe also makes a LOT, so I froze some of the leftovers for later consumption. Really, that’s all there is to it!

The Restaurant
Saus is a Belgian-style pommes frites shop, wisely situated in between some of the most famous bars of Boston’s Faneuil Hall neighborhood and open late.  This type of restaurant is nothing new to me, being a long-time patron of the fabulous, if boringly-named, Pommes Frites of New York City’s Second Avenue (between 7th and St. Marks).  However, Saus is relatively new to Boston, and, as I discovered, many people are not yet of it.  So here’s the deal: you order a cone of greasy, salty, thick-cut fries, and choose one or more dipping sauces to accompany it.  In Belgium, as well as at Saus, the sauces are often mayonnaise-based; however, vegan options abound in the form of curry ketchup, truffle ketchup, balsamic ketchup, etc.  The fries at Saus are vegan (I contacted them to check)–they are fried in “a vegetable oil blend,” which includes soybean and safflower oil.

The Order

Petite Frites with Green Monster sauce (jalapenos, habaneros, fresh cilantro, and garlic)

Verdict
I enjoy Saus very occasionally and usually in the company of others.  Honestly, even the small size is too much for one person as far as the fries go.  They are extremely tasty but also extremely greasy and I always feel slightly nauseated after ingesting them.  In other words, they’re made for sharing.  Regardless, my craving was satisfied by the cone I purchased yesterday, and I think I convinced at least two other people (one who sampled a fry and another who just smelled them) to go and try Saus.

And…I am probably going to go to the Clover truck today to get rosemary fries anyway.  Wedding diet who?