Food!

Too much of it.

This weekend has been a gastromarathon. Three thanksgiving dinners to be exact. But more on that later. Lettuce start from the beginning.

Firstly. Welcome to my new blog. For my program (Global Resource Systems) in Uni (UBC) I am required to keep a blog. I’m sure they did not realize what they were getting themselves into when they encouraged me to unleash my ranting onto the internet. Oh dear. Here I go.

I’m not sure what this space will look like, but for now I will talk, and you will read, and maybe, MAYBE, be interested. I’d like to talk about the awkward conundrum of living sustainably in a modern world. Mostly I’ll talk about food.

yum.

This week was particularly exciting because I received my first Sprouts box. Sprouts is a super rad volunteer nonprofit food co-op cafe thang at UBC that I am involved with (making food.) A Sprouts box is basically a CSA box program, but from no one farm in particular, just whatever is local/organic/in season.

If y’all aren’t signed up for a CSA box yet. Stop reading! Head on down to your local farmer! Seriously. It’s like a weekly lottery, that you always win! You never know what you’re going to get, but that’s half the fun! What does one do with 3 rutabagas? Jerusalem artichoke?

So on Monday I packed a butt tonne of fruit/veg into my bike basket and cycled on home feeling all fancy and european.

Local organic bounty=yum

Horray for purple carrots!

The problem however, was that on the weekend before said Monday I had galavanted home and thought it a good idea to bring an ENTIRE SUITCASE full of fruit and kale back from the family farm. Why wouldn’t that be a brilliant idea? Well, dear reader, because I share a refrigerator and, much to my chagrin, my roommate also needs to eat.

But no matter! What else is Thanksgiving weekend for if not to eat yourself sick? (And giving thanks and all that jazz etc.)

Since my parental unit is currently sipping champagne on a boat somewhere in the Mediterranean (I know, right?) it was up to me and my gentleman caller to whip up a masterpiece.

Some field trips were made to the UBC farm market (pumpkin! squash, herbs, beets, yums) as well as whole foods (boy insisted it would not be a proper vegan thanksgiving without a store bought tofurkey.)

I would have liked to have kept the whole thing local, but alas I am unaware of a local quinoa grower and I make a MEAN quinoa lentil loaf. I discovered.

I was very proud of myself for making pumpkin pie from a pumpkin grown literally a stones throw (assuming someone besides myself is doing the throwing) from my apartment. The pie was delicious. It looked like butt. No pictures will be posted. But take my word for it.

And almond coconut ice “cream”!

A lot of wine was drank. A BIG mess was made. It’s a good thing my mother is on another continent. She would have had a heart attack.

Mushroom gravy looks like poop, but MAN was it good. Who says vegans only eat salad? Actually I would have appreciated a salad. Too much comfort food. We had to lay on the floor in between courses. True story.

We forgot to eat the tofurkey.

The good news was we only had to wait 24 hours to do it all again at a delightful potluck with friends, and then again tonight! I can’t thank enough the lovely people who invited me into their homes. In my program (and life) we talk a lot about community, sometimes it’s tougher to find in the city, but if you look a little harder it’s there.

So I guess I’m thankful for the bounty, whether it came from my garden or someone else’s. Taking the time to cook, eat and appreciate our food together is truly… [insert something heartwarming here.]