Right now I’m sitting on my couch enjoying the aroma of onions and garlic cooking in olive oil. On another burner is a giant pot full of vegetables. Next to it is a skillet with roasting eggplants. To the side of the stove is a cutting board with even more chopped vegetables. What’s going on?
Preparation.
On Friday I’m heading up to Massachusetts to be with my family for Christmas. I go every six months and see my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. The one problem is that it’s very difficult to eat healthy while traveling, especially during the season of many fine home cooked meals. My family is Italian, and thus most meals are a healthy salad coupled with an unhealthy pasta dish.
Luckily for me, I am BFFFFs with Evan, and it just so happens that she is the right combination of ruthlessly sweet and culinarily gifted. The result is that any night I’m not at Casa de Luz, it’s likely that she’s either cooking for me, or that I’m eating leftovers that she froze for me.
Evan likes to tell people about how one of the first times we hung out she ordered vegan food and I made fun of her for it. The direct quote that she likes to remember is me saying, “Why would you eat vegan? That’s so stupid.” Purposefully or not, she played a part in me turning vegan.
Some of the more delicious things she can cook are a curry that tastes like it must be unhealthy (it’s not), poblano pepper corn chowder, apple pancakes, and tempeh enchiladas. At the moment she’s molding 20 pounds of vegetables, beans, and other healthy vittles into enough vegan food for me to eat for a week in Boston.
We went to Wal Mart where I bought tupperware and a neat collapsible cooler (and a shredder, candles, kitchen towels, etc., since that’s what happens in Wal-Mart), which I intend to pack on the plane. Hopefully it will all stay frozen and delicious for when I get there.
The good news for you, dear reader, is that I will soon be building a Playboy-esque empire here in Austin with the help of Evan and some other friends. If you wrangle your way on to my supple yet exclusive guest list, you will be able to watch classic movies at our monthly movie night or play boardgames at our monthly boardgame night, all the while eating vegan (and probably some non-vegan) snacks!
Chapter 2
I thought I was done with this post, but Evan has wanted a post for a while and is working really hard to make me delicious food, so I will share some juicy facts about her.
- First of all, she believes in ghosts. Seriously. She thinks that the school her sister teaches at is haunted. That’s ridiculous. I already know ONE of you who is totally going to agree with her and write about it in the comments.
- She was one of the first two Tynan’s Angels. She almost didn’t go because she thought it sounded sketchy. She was right.
- Evan is really good at setting people up. She set up one of my friends with one of her friends, and now they are happily married (basically)
- She’s an excellent singer, which you would know if you came to my Karaoke nights every Wednesday.
- The only person I know who isn’t in my family who doesn’t like my hat is Evan. Thus, we can deduce that she has poor taste.
- She likes Jay-Z almost as much as I do, which speaks volumes about her character
Turn to page 125 to slay the dragon,
OR Turn to page 140 to eat your grandmother.
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