i live, kind of.

So, I got the flu.  It knocked me on my ass.  'Nuff said.  

As a form of apology, please accept these delicious meals, in electronic form:

all kinds of rad

These are the Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes from Isa's blog.  They are pretty much the bee's knees.  Wait, is that vegan?  Regardless, is it too 1925?  Oh well.  You should make them.  As you can see, I burned mine slightly, but all in all, I'm pretty damned proud of my frying skills.  Cause I made this all by my lonesome one night.  I substituted tahini everywhere that the recipe called for Veganaise because I was all out of my trusty Nayonaise.  Still was totally awesome.  That remoulade on top is key, as well.  Make it all together when (not if) you do.  That soup in the background is the asparagus and spinach soup from Nava Atlas' Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for all Seasons (here on out called 'the soup book' because I gaurantee I will not want to type all that out every time I use the book).  It was a nice and simple soup, very fresh tasting and mighty easy to pull together.  I'm pretty smitten with this soup book.  You'll see.

giada pasta

Giada basically makes me want to vomit.  I hate most things about her.  She's too gorgeous and skinny to be this chef who makes all this fattening food.  She smiles too much and her teeth are too white.  Her shirts are too low cut.  And tight.  Which is probably why Michael was watching her show one day and got the idea for this pasta she was making (jk, but seriously).  It's cherry tomatoes roasted with garlic and capers and lemon juice (um, hello) and breadcrumbs on top of all that.  Then you mix it in with some pasta that you coated with parmesan (we've got a stockpile of vegan parmesan, it rules).  I got to pick out that fun pasta...I think it was called 'Wacky Mac'.  I could not resist.  Could you resist wagon wheels in your pasta?  Really though, this pasta was amazing.  So rich and creamy, somehow.  It had a lot of oil in it.  And it was wonderful.  Before the pasta, we ate this:

ceasar spectacular

As always, dressing recipe from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook.  It's so fabulous.  I keep wanting to make the ceasar dressing from Veganomicon, but...I never have silken tofu.  Ever.  I kind of loathe it.  Plus, what is up with it needing to be fresh and not vacuum packed?  Really?  I love that cookbook, but so many ingredients just will not ever be found in West Virginia.  Ever.  Not to say I don't sub stuff in all the time.  It's just kind of a pain when I'm hungry and grouchy.  Anyway, that's all fine and well because the uncheese recipe is a favorite.  We added red bell peppers to our salad for some color and sweetness.  It ruled.

black bean quinoa mango etc

Ah...speaking of Veganomicon...  I made these two salads from it for a book club meeting I had a while back.  This one was a hit, but thank goodness the girls like cilantro.  A cup of cilantro?  Are you freaking kidding me?  I didn't add that much.  I mean, it tasted good.  I liked it.  But I think I just have a moral dillemna about adding that much cilantro to anything.  

This one was good too:

brooklyn deli pasta salad

I've never had pasta salad from a Brooklyn deli.  I get it though.  It's simple.  It doesn't need to have all kinds of complicated ingredients because the beauty is in the simple flavors shining through.  It was yummy.  I did think it was a little bland though, and added about a tablespoon of some mustard that Michael had made (I know!) to spice it up and add another dimension.  Because, no matter how important simplicity is, I am always up for fucking it up haha...  Oh well.

While we're on the subject of cold salads...

lunch perfection

I made a big pot of quinoa when I made that salad for the book club so I could have a base for some lunches the following week.  So on Monday when I came home for lunch hungry and in a hurry, this came together fairly quickly.  It's diced mango, sliced radishes, the quinoa, and green onions in my favorite poppyseed dressing.  It was light, but filling and darn tasty.  

On Cinco de Mayo, I went to a party and needed to bring food.  My taste buds had not yet bounced back from the flu (I feel like I missed a lot of good food during this time)...  So Michael made the food for it!  Coconut black beans with mango and avocado.

not really that mexican, but whatever

People went apeshit over this stuff.  It is good, though, I've had it many times before.  The beans get so creamy when you cook them with coconut milk, and the avocado only adds to that effect.  Then the mangos add the perfect amount of sweet...  Add some cayenne, cumin, and salt (and maybe some lime juice) and you're in business.  It's seriously the easiest and tastiest little meal to make.  I like to just eat it with a spoon, but it would be good wrapped in tortillas or eaten as a dip with chips, even.  And evidently, it is good party food.

So I don't know about where you live, but it's been raining pretty much nonstop here for the past 10 days.  Well, as I write that, the sun is shining, but it did rain earlier today, I swear.  Rain's cool and all, but sometimes you just get sick of it.  And what better way to chase away the rainy day blues than with a giant bowl of soup and some fresh bread?

bread-like, anyway

Those up there are the Onion-Rye Scones from the soup book.  It was serendipitous because Michael and I had just broken our pantry challenge (finally) and had bought some rye flour on a whim.  This was perfect also because you don't have to wait for it to rise.  That's another thing I like about that book, the breads are all quick breads that can be made in the time it takes to make the soup you're making to go with it.  Nifty!  These came together sort of quickly (it took the longest to saute the onions) and ended up being quite delicious.  My taste buds were in and out during this meal, but they were sort of sweet and salty and generally awesome.  I thought they'd rise more... and I would not really call these 'scones' per se, but... whatever.  Call 'em what you like, I just call them tasty.  And good for dipping into soup.

rainy meals are the best

mock clam chowder

We ate the 'scones' with the clam chowder recipe from the same book.  Now, I must tell you that I used to be quite the eater of clam chowder.  Creamy, salty, sweet, chewy...  I couldn't get enough.  We're talking New England here, not Manhattan.  Don't you dare put tomatoes in my clam chowder.  Or mock clam chowder, that is.  It's just wrong.  Anyway, if you didn't know it already, oyster mushrooms are the best substitute for clams out there.  The recipe calls for baked tofu, but we had oyster mushrooms in the fridge and used those instead.  And it was good.  Michael also added some dried veggie flakes to the soup for some color.  My only complaint is that there was way too much frigging corn in this soup.  It calls for 3 cups.  Next time I'd only put in 2 or 1 1/2 cups, because by the time you got to the bottom of your bowl, it was like you were forcing yourself to eat all this damned corn and it got kind of more filling than I would have liked.  Regardless, this is the best mock clam chowder I've had since becoming vegan.  Highly reccommended.

When you're on a pantry challenge, you find yourself making some interesting stuff.  Flavor combinations that never occured to you before suddenly sound like the most genius ideas ever.  Mostly because you're starving and detoxing from having your regular ingredients on hand.  What?  I'm out of turmeric?  I'm sure mustard powder will be fine in this, then.  At least it'll be yellow.  Huh?  No more nayonaise?  Well, tahini's creamy.  I'm sure that'll be great.  And in this case, no frozen blueberries for those muffins you are craving?  Who needs 'em when you've got strawberry jam?

aren't they purty?

This is a creation that apparently tasted amazing, but I didn't really taste much of it...  Stupid taste buds, and all.  But I was hungry on a weekend morning and we had no oatmeal or cereal or fruit.  Muffins are a generally good catch-all for random ingredients.  And I had strawberry jam and lemons.  The general idea (i.e., the measurements for flour/liquid/baking soda and powder) came from the Blueberry Lemon Muffins from The Joy of Vegan Baking.  They would probably be great with blueberries.  But they were damned fine with strawberry jam, too.  I also added some fresh minced basil to the batter, but no one could taste it.  Next time I'd add more, because I bet it would add an awesome flavor dimension.  Anyway, basically I just made the recipe without the blueberries and put them in the muffin cups, then went back and put a teaspoon of straberry jam on the top and swirled it around with a toothpick.  I thought this would fully integrate the jam, but as you will notice, it did not.

lovely little things though

It all stayed on the tops of the muffins, so there was this division of rich, lemony bottom half and sweet, sticky strawberry tops.  What I'm saying here is that these were awesome.  Michael ate like 8 of them in one afternoon.  And my friend Becca ate one when we went to the movies and said they ruled.  So.  Even without properly working tastebuds or a pantry stocked to the brim with fabulous ingredients, I (and you) can make stuff work that will blow people away.  Skip your next grocery trip and get creative.  

I have more to show you from the pantry challenge and all that, but I'm kind of tired from all this thinking and typing and remembering.  Plus, I don't want to spoil you with too much awesomeness at once.

busy week!

This has been an awesomely busy week, and am I ever glad to see the weekend!  Between friendly hang-out times, work, and new haircuts (for Michael and me both), it's been a whirlwind.  I don't have a lot, foodwise, to show for myself right now, but I do want to show what I ate at my parents' house for Easter and a couple lovely meals in between then and now.

Once I got back to the old home on Saturday, I learned that my parents had a fun and easy meal planned out - burgers!

i know i'm not the only one eating veggie burgers on easter.

Mom and Dad got me the original vegan Boca burgers (yum!) and I whipped up fries for all of us.  Three kinds: regular potato for my dad, sweet potato with bread crumbs and parmesan cheese for my mom, and sweet potato with cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, salt and pepper for me.  I don't know about the other two, but mine were awesome and went perfectly with my burger.  I could definitely just eat veggie burgers and sweet potato fries for just about every meal...  But that wouldn't be very interesting, would it?

In the morning, my brother and his family came over and we all had a nice brunch together.  The only thing I couldn't (and obviously didn't want to) eat was the turkey.  Long live my awesome family for being so darned accomodating!  My mom made some asparagus with olive oil and lemon and Dad made mashed potatoes with soymilk and no butter, which I mushed up with an avocado for me (so, so good).

asparagus heap

I made a tofu scramble that everyone seemed to like, and these freaking amazing pancakes from Veganomicon:

could eat one million of these, please

They're the blueberry corn pancakes, and if you haven't made them yet, please.  Please.  Do it.  Everyone in my family thought they were fantastic, and really, they were.  The only thing is that I found I needed to add an extra 1/4 cup of flour to the batter because it was really watery.  I don't know if this was a typo in the book (like it should've called for 1 cup flour instead of 3/4 cup) or if I messed up, but I was being pretty careful, so I don't think it was me.  But you never know.  Anyway, if your batter seems too watery, don't be afraid to add in that extra bit of flour.  They were perfect.

As if that wasn't enough - my lovely Mom and Dad made an Easter basket for Michael and I to share that was full of vegan candy and other awesome stuff!

jealous much?

They printed the candy list off Peta and were able to find such radness as: twizzlers, jolly ranchers, ring pops, cracker jacks (omg omg omg!), and these little sour bunnies that are like sour patch kids, but way better.  They also got me these little prep bowls that RULE.  They have measurements on the insides of the bowls so I don't even need to use my measuring cups (if they're dirty and in the sink, which is often the case).  Those are all the food/cooking related gifties, but you can see if you look close that they extended their radness into gaming territory.  Plus some stuff for my skin that's great, too.

Soooo that was Easter.  All in all, it was filled with fun, food, and hilarious children hopped up on so much sugar that I definitely did not envy my brother's drive back home.  2 hours of pure insanity, I'm sure!

So this week, we've extended our pantry challenge, but I did break and go buy some vegetables after I realized one day that all I had eaten the day before was basically bread.  And now I'm trying to not eat so much bread in order to detox from it (though I broke on that last night as well, but not too bad).  Therefore when I got soydogs on sale to surprise Michael with, I needed to figure out what to eat mine with, since I didn't want a bun.  I came up with this:

sauteed veggies and brown rice

I cooked a giant mass of brown rice to eat with dinner and as leftovers throughout the week with various things.  The veggies are some yellow squash, zucchini (both on sale really cheap, yay!), onions, garlic, and cherry tomatoes, plus a bunch of dried dill.  They made a perfectly filling side next to a couple bunless soydogs.  

Then I used the leftovers the next day to made these bad boys:

collard wraps, what what!

I got this totally rad idea from our good buddy Melomeals over at her blog which showcases her and her family eating for $3.33 a day.  She's doing something really great over there, by the way, so you really need to check it out.  Her food is amazing, it's super inexpensive, and you have to admire her for making the best out of tough times.  As far as I can tell, there is not a specific post about her using collard green leaves for wraps instead of bread, but she does it quite often for her lunches.  It's such an awesome idea!  And delicious, I might add.  The bitterness of the collards is cut by all the fillings you put inside.  I did blanch my leaves for about 30 seconds to make them more bendy, but I guess you don't really need to do that.  Try it out!  

Also at the grocery store, I found some pasta shells on the super cheap since their box was dented (um...who cares?!  but thanks for the discount, Kroger).  I made a nice little mac n cheeze with them, plus frozen brussels (thank goodness for Kroger card savings, seriously).

yurm yurm yurm

I based my sauce off the nacho sauce recipe from Yellow Rose Recipes...  except for some changes.  I subbed in unsweetened soymilk for the water, took out the jalepenos, realized I didn't have any turmeric so added paprika and mustard powder instead, then decided that it wasn't sweet enough so I added about a teaspoon of agave nectar.  It was kind of haphazard, but turned out pretty great.  We were watching LOST anyway, so it's not like we were paying too much attention to our plates.  

This next one was from before the grocery shopping this week, and is pretty impressive as such, I think.  Sesame baked tofu from Accidental Vegan with peas 'n' corn (woo frozen veggies last forever), and some couscous that Michael had made over the weekend while I was gone.  

unfortunately, that tofu looked better than it tasted

Well, let me correct that...it tasted fine - it was just way, way too salty.  The recipe calls for 1/2 cup soy sauce, and next time I make it, I will absolutely sub in water for half of that.  Or use reduced sodium soy sauce or something.  The flavor was really great though...  lots of tahini and nutritional yeast.  But we ended up scraping off the outside crust and just eating the baked tofu goodness inside, because we simply could not handle all that salt (and I'm usually a salt-lover...it much have been unbearable then).  Still, the veggies and the couscous were yummy.  All in all, it was a decent, and very quick, meal.

Last night, Michael got a sweets craving.

and made these

'These' being the white chocolate macadamia cookies from Eat, Drink & be Vegan...  except with cashews and peanut butter instead of macadamias and macadamia butter.  They're really great!  And apparently, fast and easy, because he basically had them in the oven before I even realized he was making them.  Treats and surprises!  What more could you ask for?

we have a winner! + some foodz

So I don't know how to copy the random number generator thingie into my blog, so you're just going to have to trust me on this one.  Our winner is commentor #66 who just happens to be:

ckwebgrrl    

who also just happens to be new to veganism, so this is a deserving winner indeed.  I certainly hope that this makes your transition to veganism slightly easier (not that it's THAT hard).  I need you to email me asap with your first name, last name, and email address so that I can forward it on to the peeps at Onlineshoes.com and they can get you your gift certificate!  (find a link to my email addy on my profile page, buddy, and step to it, because I'm not sure if there's a time limit on this.)

.....lag time.....

Sorry, took a break there to shoot a couple emails, haha...  Easily distracted, I suppose.  Anywho, with all the sadness of my contest being over, allow me to cheer you up with some food.

This is what I had for dinner last night!

rotelle w/spicy tempeh and broccoli rabe* from Vcon

*Except I used rotini because I got the wrong box and regular broccoli because broccoli rabe does not exist in the minds of the people of Huntington, WV.  So sad.  Still, this was mighty tasty!  And with Michael's help, it came together quickly.  My only complaint is that it's dry.  I thought I used enough oil, but since I'm still slowly getting over my oil phobia, this might not be the case.  Who knows.  Anyway, the flavor was awesome.  I love tempeh more and more.  And I'm always looking for an excuse to put broccoli in stuff.  I wish I just liked it steamed as a side veggie...  But alas, it is destined only to be incorporated into things here.

I served this with these bad boys:

the best bread product i have ever produced

Michael's grandparents gifted us their breadmaker because his grandma prefers to just bake bread.  Or so she told me!  I think the honest to goodness truth is that the breadmaker is crazy!  See, while it was kneading my dough (just plain old white bread as a test batch - but done with bread flour), it kept shaking and shimmying all over the counter.  Which didn't seem quite right, but...who knows.  So at one point it had shimmied itself sideways so Michael moved it back and the damned thing shut itself off.  Jerk machine!  It wouldn't just start again where it was.  And I didn't want it to just start over, for fear of overkneading.  After much huffiness on my part (I do mope at times, I swear I can't help it), I let the stupid dough rise in the oven and made rolls out of it, not having much hope for any success. 

Wrong!  They turned out beautifully.  So...um...bread flour must make a difference?  The question is this:  is it worth it to spend $4 on bread flour when I can get regular flour (but shitty bread) with $1 flour?  I'm not sure yet.  The other problem is this:  my store does not have any whole wheat bread flour.  Only white.  And I've been trying to eliminate as much white flour from my diet as possible.  Does anyone know if I add wheat gluten to my dough, will it help?  Because I bought a freaking oven thermometer thinking that my oven was screwy, but it's spot on.  It has to be a flour problem.  

Whatever, until I find the answers to these mystical questions, let us revel in the happiness that is this:

fluffy, fantastic bread

I was in a cooking mood yesterday.  Before I attempted the bread, I made this stuff for lunch:

that's buckwheat!

My last trip to the health food store, I bought buckwheat accidentally instead of barley.  Hey, same first letter, gimme a break.  Anyway, I had no idea what to do with the stuff.  But I was in the mood for a grain/pilaf type lunch yesterday, so I tried it out (lunches can fail with less disappointment than dinners, imho).  It's awesome!  Very creamy and tender and totally easy to cook.  I cooked it with some fire roasted tomatoes, black olives, and lime juice, then added cumin, smoked paprika, garlic & onion powder, more lime juice, salt & pepper when it was done.  And Michael added in some tamari, which somehow made it just perfect.  Topped with cool and creamy avocado, this lunch was smooth on the palate and kept me full for hours and hours.  Seriously, I ate this around noon and wasn't hungry again until after 7, which is unheard of for me.

And finally, upon my request, Michael made this for my lunch today:

chickn parmesan openfaced sammie

This is basically exactly the same as our vday pizza, but on a much smaller scale.  It was the perfect lunch today.  Savory and slightly sweet, filling, but not so huge that I felt all bloated and sleepy when I got back to work.  Which to me is the perfect lunch.  And aren't we all just living our lives to find the perfect lunch?

good to be back, plus a hotdog rant

I have had more internet woes.  Nuff said.  Anyway, here's I be.  Superbowl Sunday!  I have a lot of work to do today.  I haven't watched much football this season, but I am sort of excited to see Pittsburgh in the bowl.  And that requires much food to be made...and a lot of cleaning to do before I start cooking!  It's been kind of a weird week, a lazy one, which I don't always like, but maybe I needed a week of lazy.  I've been kind of tired.  Anyway, I have my first bit of news to reveal!  If you noticed in the sidebar, I have a new little icon that means I am now a featured blogger on Wellsphere in the vegan community!  This is a site dedicated to healthy living, and yeah, I was probably as surprised as you are that they contacted me to be a part of their community.  Still, I must remind myself that I do try to live a healthy lifestyle and that if anyone can learn anything from my ramblings about how awesome vegan food is, then I'm happy to be a participant!  Head on over to their site and check out other vegan bloggers.  Most of them seem to be doctors and experts, so I feel priveleged to be considered among them.

Food time.  I have a lot of catching up to do here!  We haven't cooked anything groundbreaking this week, but there have been some interesting meals.

teese quesadilla

So maybe quesadillas aren't really that interesting, but they are when you have Teese!  This was my first teese encounter, and it's pretty good.  That's the newish cheddar flavor, and I found the flavor itself to be better than FYR cheddar.  The texture is still a little weird, but at least it melts!  You see, I used to be quite the quesadilla addict back in my vegetarian/omni days.  It's a super quick lunch and it's gooey and comforting.  This pretty much hit the nail on the head under those criteria.  Still, I honestly think I like the flavor of my own cheeze sauce better, but it's a helluva lot less work to use teese.   Anyway, I had this for lunch twice this week, so it couldn't have been too terrible, right?

soycurl fajitas

Can you tell I recently  made an order from Vegan Essentials?  This was my first soycurl experience as well, and I have to say that I love them.  I was a bit suspicious of their crusty appearance at first, but they really soak up a load of flavor and have a great texture!  Plus, they cost waaaaaay less than Morningstar chickn strips and don't have a 'flavor' to begin with.  These fajitas (made by Michael) are made with peppers and a red onion.  Michael read somewhere that traditional garnishes to Mexican burritos/fajitas/etc are radishes and green cabbage.  I have never heard this ever in my entire life, but it was delicious!  I was worried that they would taste too...  well, radish-y and cabbage-y, but somehow they flavors complemented the fajitas really amazingly well.  They add just the perfect amount of crunch without getting soggy, like regular lettuce does.  If you would like to attempt this, make sure you drizzle the radishes and cabbage with some lime juice and then salt & pepper them.  That makes them extra yummy.

roasted tempeh with veggies

Ok, I have to admit that all of the dishes you've seen so far were made by Michael, including this one.  I was in a bit of a cooking slump this week for various reasons, but I think I'm out of it now.  I hope.  Thank goodness I have him to help me out when I feel that way.  Still, a schedule change happened this week that put me a little out of whack, so I had to get used to it.  Next week will be better.  Anyway, this is some marinated tempeh roasted up with red potatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, red onions, and garlic.  It was so good!  I don't know what was in the marinade, I'm sorry.  But it was salty and kind of soy-y and altogether very good.

tempeh with bulgur pilaf

I did contribute something to this meal, however.  That's a bulgur pilaf with leeks, and it was amazing.  We haven't had much bulgur lately, mostly because we ate it so much this summer that I think we got burned out, but I had a hankering for a healthy grain, so this emerged!  I even have a recipe for you.

Bulgur Pilaf w/Leeks

1:2 parts dry bulgur: water (i used a coffee mug to measure, so mine was probably 1.5 cups bulgur to 3 cups water)

2 small leeks, thinly sliced (ALL of them, even the dark green parts)

1 shallot, thinly sliced

1 Tbsp EVOO

3-4 Tbsp red wine vinegar

juice of one small lemon

1/4 cup chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

This was so simple, guys.  First heat up your oil in a large skillet.  Saute leeks first for about 2-3 minutes, then add shallots and continue to saute until soft.  Add bulgur, water, and red wine vinegar.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 12-15 minutes.  Uncover, add lemon juice and parsley, then taste and add salt and pepper until you think it's right.  That's it!  Especially good served with roasty toasty tempeh.

pizza...?

Oh, this was just to prove that we did have pizza again Monday night.  And it was even better this time.  We also had mac n cheeze, but I didn't take a photo.  Just imagine pasta shells covered in yellow.  Yay!  Mac n Cheeze!

buddha chocolate

I just thought this was cute...  It's a buddha shaped chocolate (also from Vegan Essentials) that has hazelnut bits in his belly.  I got this for Michael when I did the order (in addition to other yummy chocolates for us to share...we don't get chocolate much here) because he's very interested in Eastern religions, Buddhism in particular.  So adorable!

skallops

Watching Jamie make scallops all the time on Top Chef and hearing Fabio saying stuff about 'This isn't Top Scallop!' in his crazyawesome accent finally got to me.  I ordered a can of veggie skallops.  We sauteed them with some sesame oil, tamari, sriracha and sesame seeds...  and then...  (I'm almost too ashamed to admit this...)  ....

...   added them to Chinese food that we ordered.  Ok, ok, that is so lazy, I know, but it was really pretty good!  The skallops themselves were mostly just ok (the flavor was great, but the texture was a little strange).  They were just like chunks of seitan, really.  Still, worth the experience, I guess.  And I got some greasy lo mein out of it.  Worth it!

agave spiced cornbread w/beanie weenies

This cornbread is from the testing of recipes for the Cookin with my Craw-Daddy zine.  For some reason, mine didn't rise up and get fluffy, but the flavor of it was amazing!  Slightly sweet and spicy from chilis.  I found it to taste a little like hush puppies, which cannot be a bad thing.  And then, those are beanie weenies.  I've posted about them before...  But I have to say:  vegan hotdogs rule.  They are the one fake meat item that we buy regularly, and I was trying to figure out why that was...  First off, they only have like 45 calories per dog, which is ridiculously awesome because you can eat like 3 of them without even feeling the least bit guilty.  Also, I think it's because hot dogs themselves (omni ones) are such bullshit that they're really easy to recreate.  There must just be some universal 'hot dog flavor' that they add to all hot dogs, be it a cow, pig, turkey, or soy dog.  Granted, the texture of soydogs aren't the same, but..uh...thank goodness!  Regular hot dogs are standardly horrendous in all ways.  I do not understand why omnis the world over don't just switch to soydogs.  I mean, they don't know what's in their hotdogs anyway (nor do they wish to, I'd imagine...blegh!), so why not at least eat one that's good for you?  

In conlusion, soydogs rule.  Except LightLife soydogs, those suck really bad (weird flavor).

Ok, it's noon.  Time to wake up my Michael and start cleaning so that I can start cooking!