Anna Karina.

Ok, well you know that I never reveal my Halloween costume until the day of so here it is:

Anna Karina in Une Femme est Une Femme! 

Since I knew October was going to be a busy month for me, I found my dress on easy about two months ago and never even tried it on until Friday night. It was a little too big so I just took it in, cut the sleeves (since they were long sleeves) and attached the white fur trim. The hair bow was made out of felt and attached to a clip. All in all, I am really pleased at how it turned out, but I wish I could say the same for our Halloween night. 

You've probably heard that we got a snowstorm here on Saturday. I started to snow around 11 am and didn't stop ALL DAY! So by the time we made our way out to some festivities the ground was covered with slush and it was absolutely freezing! 

I think next year, I'm either going to stay in and do a scary movie night, or possibly arrange for an out of town trip with some friends. Lesson learned...

Oh and to check out the last few years costumes, you can go here, and here.

Book Worm.

I had the day off this past Friday so I took the opportunity to take some outfit pics! I had to get a few things for my first volunteer meeting the next day so we headed over to the art supply store in our neighborhood. On the way back, we passed the little library that is usually closed since I have a full work schedule and never seem to get there on time. It was a perfect opportunity for some photos as I was sportingly new vintage glasses. The frames for these were passed down to me from my aunt.

details: dress via Modcloth| cardigan & belt via Value Village| tights via HUE| shoes c/o Seychelles

Park Slope.

If things were quiet here over the weekend it's because Soner & I were over in Park Slope, dog sitting for some friends. Since Friday, we traded our hipster clad neighbors for a family of four, our rowdy bars, for Prospect Park, and our quiet time alone was shared with a 100 pound dog. For those who know me, they'll say that this is a ridiculous idea considering I don't even like dogs! But you know, it wasn't so bad and I even found myself snuggling up to this adorable well behaved pooch.

The nice thing about being in a new neighborhood was being able to explore the new sites. And for us, that means a new farmer's market! We found a supplier of tempeh that is made right here in Brooklyn! We were able to sample it with Barry's homemade barbecue sauce (he told us the ingredients) and now we're hooked. We also tasted some yummy virgin chocolate, nut butters and filled our bags with some produce to take back to the apartment where we were staying. 

If you are ever in Brooklyn, I highly recommend you check out Prospect Park. It was such a beautiful Sunday that we couldn't help but take a walk around the whole park and just enjoy one of the last nice days of warm weather. 

Now I am back at home, starting to put together one of my many Halloween costumes for all of the festivities this weekend! Ooohhhh, I'm excited. 

* First picture is S'Nice. A great lunch spot!

Cover Bands.

This Thursday! Make your way over to Death by Audio for a fun night of covers all done by lady -fronted bands! It's going to be rad. You can read more about it here.

We're going to had a merch table selling our re-worked vintage tees where part of the proceeds will go to Permanent Wave! Come by say hi, and stay for the show!

Pumpkin Patch.

Yesterday, a group of friends and I made our way up from Brooklyn, to the Queens County Farm. The intention was to go to their pumpkin patch but it turned out to be so much more than just pumpkins. We checked out the petting zoo, ate some snacks, and even enjoyed a hayride. It was such a gorgeous day that we ended up sticking around way longer than expected. Now to find the time to carve out our pumpkins! Is anyone see getting excited for Halloween? 

India Part 4.

Well, we're almost on the last leg of the trip, thank you so much for reading this far and I truly hope you've enjoyed it. We tended to not take too many pictures in our last month in India so the ones I've included are a little bit of everywhere.

 

 We took a train {by now we're pros at this} all the way back up to Rajasthan, this time stopping in Jaipur. This is where it all kind of gets a little blurry for me as these eastern cities all have one thing in common, lots of sand. Were just on the cusp of the desert so that would make perfect sense.  Here, we visited temples, and discovered grand old forts. We've even gotten used to seeing camels just roaming around on the street.

 

 I do remember arriving in this one smaller city and meeting a few other travelers in our guesthouse. We all stepped out and wandered the busy streets. The one thing I want to point out is that the smaller the city, the more attention you'll receive. At times, this can get extremely overwhelming and I know a few people that let it get the best of them and spoil their trip. So in order for us to be able to go about exploring the city that just so happens to have had a parade that night, we had to pair up, boy/girl/boy/girl....this way, they wouldn't come up to us as they thought that we were each married to each other!! Hahaha.

 

 We also visited Jodhpur & Jaisalmur further getting into the desert cities. I remember in one of these cities, we were shopping around for some authentic Indian music. So we hopped from store to store, checking out their selection. While doing this, we noticed a small crowd of ladies, colorfully dressed from head to toe in traditional Rajasthani garb take a seat right in the middle of the road. Granted this wasn't a busy road but it still was a main walkway for most pedestrians and few scooters. Intrigued, we observed these ladies a little longer and noticed something different about them. For one, they were loud which was different than the typical Indian woman, second, they were smoking (!) and third, they might have even been drunk. Gypsies! We were witnessing a small group of gypsies right in front of us. They proceeded to unload their babies that were wrapped up in shawls, tied to their waists and start whatever craft they were working on. Some of them had hand crafted wooden combs, others, some multicolored woven bracelets, and some just sat there smoking away. That night we stumbled upon this garden party in back of a restaurant and spent the night dancing away with these gypsy ladies and fellow travelers. Seriously one of the best nights.

 

Once we've had enough of the camels, the sand and the forts, we made our way up to Delhi. This being the last leg of the trip, I will keep for next week!

Vegan Bobotie

I've had this recipe tucked away on a sad scrap of paper for about 5 years now and keep forgetting about it. From time to time, especially when it gets chilly out and I'm tempted to make yet another lentil soup, I'm reminded of this amazing lentil dish recipe that was passed down to me from one of my roommates back in Vancouver.
Now, the only name I have for it is a vegan version of Bobotie, but if you look it up, this is far from the minced meat & egg dish that it tradition in South Africa. But whatever you want to call it, it's delicious none the less!

 

Vegan Bobotie with a side of kale

What you need: 

2 chopped onions
1 1/4 cups cooked lentils (you can use canned to save time)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup quinoa
4/3 cups almonds, slivered
3 tbsp chutney
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tbsp turmeric
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
juice and grated rind of 1/2 lemon
4 bay leaves

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Cook lentils in medium stock pot, along with the onions and garlic. If you are using canned lentils, sauté the onion and garlic in small pan.

3. While lentils are cooking, mix raisins, almonds, chutney, curry powder, salt, pepper, turmeric, lemon rind & juice, in medium glass dish.

4. Add cooked lentils and stir until all is mixed.

5.Add the quinoa (rinsed, uncooked) and stir in. If mixture is a little dry, add about 1/4 cup of water. Add bay leaves by sticking them halfway through the mixture so that they'll be easy to take out once finished.

5. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove bay leaves, and serve.

Hope you enjoy!

New York.

Over the weekend I did a lot of touring of New York City, seeing sights that were new to me in my 3 years of living here. That's the great thing about New York. No matter how long you've lived here, there will always be some nook or cranny left to be discovered.

1. Lady Liberty
2. Cab city
3. Sis & Hubs
4. Flat Iron building
5. Me & sis at Spring St Market
6. Double Decker tour headgear
7. All Saints windows full of old Singers
8. Occupy Wall Street protest
9. Hole in the wall bar, I love Little Rascals!
10 & 11. Beautiful architecture
12. Guggenheim
13. Apollo Theatre, Harlem

These were just a few of the pictures from this weekend. We took the All around Town tour from City Sights Tours and definitely got our fill. In two days, we did the Uptown, Downtown, Harbor Cruise, and Downtown tours, all for $46. I know that some people might find it too geeky to do tours, but they are honestly the best way to cover a whole city in a short amount of time. It got me excited to try and get out a little more into the city as I tend to stay in {comfortable} Brooklyn on my days off. I'm especially excited to check out Spanky & Darla's that we rode by!

Cook books.

A few of you asked what are my favorite cookbooks. Here are the ones that I use on a regular basis and highly recommend.

The Garden of Vegan was my first ever vegan cookbook purchase {8 years ago} & I still use it for fun meal ideas. All of the recipes are form reader submissions but have all been tested out by the authors, Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer.

The book includes a detailed ingredients glossary in case you find yourself confused with something, as well as a list of vegan no-nos from a to z. I found this really helpful when I first turned vegan. It also includes fun party ideas at the end complete with some go to snacks and party prop ideas.

My favorite recipe: Maureen's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies.

 

Oh Veganomicon. Also known as my vegan bible. I swear these ladies can do no wrong! Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero {same ladies behind PPK, below} know how to whip up pretty much any vegan version of your favorite meal. I've tried several recipes in this book and each and every one has always come out amazing.

The book goes into details about what to stock in your pantry, fridge, cupboards. They also cover all of the basic cooking methods for any type of food {grains, vegetables, tofu...}. I like the fact that they tell you if a recipe is soy free/ gluten free/ low fat/ under 45 minutes/ supermarket friendly. They also include full menu pairings from appetizers to desserts for you which comes in handy if you're having company over.

My favorite recipe: Chickpea Cutlets


I also browse the following sites to get meal ideas and recipes:

The Kind life

The Post Punk Kitchen

 

Whole Foods