Pizza Patate by Jim Lahey (Vegan Style)

Super thinly sliced Yukon Gold Potatoes, diced red onion, fresh rosemary, oregano and vegan mozzarella cheese top this perfect slice of heaven! The potatoes are tossed in olive oil and serve as the topping on their own--no red sauce at all--and you won't miss it! My husband thought he'd kick it up a notch and slathered one slice with vegan sour cream handing it to me saying, "It's like a baked potato with sour cream now!"

It was, in a word: delish!

A larger snap shot of the pie--before we dug in and ate the entire thing!

Once the dough finishes rising, it's very thin--but it will stretch over the entire cookie sheet--you have to work with it. I made sure I lightly oiled the dough all over before I put the potato mixture over it--bringing the oil to the edges.

This is how the potatoes will look spread out over the dough. You can see there are several layers--again, very thinly sliced--use a mandolin. I did. I used about five potatoes.

A snowy day--beautiful!

There's a fresh layer of snow this morning--just beautiful! About two inches fell. Waking up on a Saturday morning in the middle of winter to this--it's perfect. I have whole wheat cinnamon rolls on their second rise, just about ready for the oven as I am still madly in pursuit of "All Things Dough" (a new label for VT).

Still also in pursuit of the perfect pizza dough--one that fits both our criteria: thin, chewy inside, crisp bottom crust--our dinner last night was sublime and dough-wise, we hit the mark. The recipe for Pizza Patate (potato pizza) is a traditional style pizza served quite often in Italy, but not as often here--a darn shame! It's the melding of several delectable foods: homemade pizza dough, olive oil, and Yukon Gold potatoes. Last week on thefreshloaf.com--Sam Fromartz shared his version of this pizza which he posted on his website: ChewsWise. I could not take my eyes off this--I had to try it! (My potato cravings do me in every time.) The original recipe comes from Jim Lahey and his new cookbook, "My Bread". If your goal is to have a great pizza--and a homemade dough ready in about two hours--try this. I flavored mine up a bit with oregano, in addition to fresh rosemary and topped it during the last five minutes of baking with some shredded vegan mozzarella. I think the pictures say all there needs to be said.

Vegan Italian Meatball Sammich on Peter Reinhart's Ciabatta Bread

My homemade ciabatta bread stuffed just enough (but not too much--you want the bread to stand out) with the vegan Italian meatballs I made, topped with a good ladle or two of homemade marinara and you have nothing short of a perfect Michelin-quality dinner. You will not find bread like this in any store, trust me!

In reading the Bread Baker's Apprentice, I soon discovered that my scoop and sweep method of flour measuring was not to be (though Julia approves of this for the home baker)--I had to buy a scale. Laugh if you will--saying, Why not a digital scale?--I can at least see the numbers on it and this only set me back twenty bucks. So there!

Oh, the poolish. So mysterious. So very important. Yeast. Flour. Water. Overnight. 

My poolish mixed with more flour, salt, yeast and water on day two. I kneaded it per Chef Reinhart's directions. I kept my hand in the bowl, turning the bowl and mixing the dough for about 7 minutes. I don't own a Kitchen Aid stand mixer--even if I did, I don't think I'd use it to make any of the breads in this book--I am strictly a hand-mixer/kneader. (Well that and I do not have the space!) I want to learn how to feel the difference in the bread doughs (he suggests this, too). The consistency is to be one which is not too dry, pulls from the side of the bowl, but still sticks to the bottom of the bowl.

After the mixing, there is folding and stretching and allowing the full dough to rest. Then you fold and stretch some more--allowing to rest again. Then you divide the dough into roughly three equal slippers (as shown above)--setting up a couche. This means dividing and shaping the dough in its final preparation--and laying it on a cloth (not terry cloth, but you could us an old table cloth)--or my method, which the chef says is fine, too. So for my couche, I placed the shaped loaves on top of an upside down cookie tray topped with parchment paper then dusted with semolina flour. The dough will rest in this stage twice, then be prepared for baking--being careful to not degas (push the gas out of the dough by strong-arming it--it's a fine, delicate process--the final stages).

While the dough rests, it gets puffy, but doesn't necessarily double in size. Then a final, very careful stretch and shaping--shown with the two loaves on the right.

My babies! Look at the beautiful results! I had to follow chef's directions for "creating a hearth-like oven" by injecting steam into my Maytag while it preheated at 500 degrees. Doing so requires careful attention, timing, patience and a spray bottle.

Another close up shot--so very pretty and well worth every last minute of pre-work involved!

I found bread baking--or I should say, it found me. (And I'm not talking the pumpkin quick bread kind--though it still ranks high in my book)--I'm talking rustic, fermented yeast bread baking. Enter: The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. I am officially a student of the art of bread. This book is a game changer. (Okay, it was published in 2001--and yes, there is a pantheon of devotees of this much loved teacher and his text--see thefreshloaf.comor check out the BBA baking challenge on the blog Pinch My Salt)--I'm just fashionably late is all--I can still love it. I owe this all to my first bread book I purchased last year: The Bread Bible by Beth Hensperger and those incredible homemade dinner rolls I made--swearing off the Dough Boy forever.

My first challenge: Ciabatta Bread (or "slipper" as it is known). The ciabatta loaf is not the first loaf taught in the BBA. I cared not. I wanted ciabatta bread. Why? Because I had a sammich I craved just as much: an Italian meatball sammich! My ciabatta made last night's very simple, but over-the-top-good vegan meatball sammich one of the best forty-five minutes of eating pleasure I've had in a long time. When I was devouring the last morsel of my dinner, Mr. Thyme looked at me and said, "You're still eating?"--we were half way through American Idol, and, yes, I was still eating! (We're not always plucked in front of the tube while eating, lest you think we are heathens, but it's Idol, I love the show!) His sammich was long gone, and he looked on bewildered--he swears I am the slowest eater on the planet.

$1.00 Vegan Black Bean Soup w/Sweet Potato Latkes (Fun in The Sun!)

Slow cooked and well-seasoned black bean soup dressed up with some avacados, vegan sour cream mixed with lime and a shake of paprika--delicious!

These sweet potato latkes were the perfect side with the soup--cooked to perfection and served with a drizzle of vegan sour cream and lime with scallions on top: Yum!

My posse--the minute the chopping board comes out--they show in seconds--ready for pieces of carrot and pepper and other dog-friendly veggie snacks (and an opportunistic chance at any other morsel that falls to the ground!).

"Hey, mom, look! I tried to become a Dalmation for a day!" Covered head-to-toe! How did she get those dots of mud on top of her head--and her back is completely covered in mud! I nearly fell over, I laughed so hard--but you have to know her. It was a stitch!

Yesterday the sun came out for the first time in thirteen days! A person could go crazy living without sun (or so the news reporters covering the phenomenon stated last night). I didn't need them to tell me this--you could feel the pull of humanity being drug along a dark path as we endured two weeks of, first fog, then rain, then more clouds, then cold and clouds--no one was safe. I drove across bridges alert, ready to help anyone in need. But yesterday, I felt a whole two week's worth of angst begin to lift as I watched the morning sun peek through the clouds. I planned menus for the upcoming week, I made lists, went shopping, I even began reading The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart (oh, we will be talking some bread smack in this blog--just wait) and started my first poolish last night for ciabatta bread today, plus found the time to fit in a speed workout on the treadmill. Whew! Today, it is cloudy again.

Vegan Morning Sun Muffins (Half-Marathon Training)

I love a good muffin with a cup of hot coffee (or tea, depends on my jitter tolerance) in the morning. I love them even more when I'm up early enough to scrap the ingredients together to get the house off to a healthy, smell-good start (not that a banana slathered in peanut butter isn't healthy)--the change is nice. I have so many recipes for "morning" muffins that it's easy to cull ingredients together to create a "my own" type of muffin. I don't think I've made a single muffin the same way twice. I either try this flour, this seasoning or add this or that dried fruit. One thing for sure is I always check the amount of fiber added--and check the protein levels to ensure the benefits of eating two will carry me through my morning.

I'm considering a half-marathon in April. (Oh-oh, now that I have that "out there" I better do it, huh?) Then a 5k race later in the month. For any other races between now and then, I will wait and see which way the wind is blowing on the morning of said races. I took three days off from running last week--felt I needed a break--also, my energy level was really low. (I believe in listening to your body.) We've had no sunshine for the past nine days. Icky Midwest winter. It can wear on the soul. As I sat grumbling over something on Saturday (the weather, the news, my knitting, my hormones--whatever), my husband said, "What is wrong with you?" That's pretty much my cue--he sort acts as a barometer for me like that--it's helpful. I needed a run.

Vegan Country Fried Steak (And Almost Fifty: The New Forty!)

A perfect plate of vegan comfort food: country fried steak with very roasted carrots and a side of garlic mashed potatoes and good, down-home vegan gravy.

My Match Meats patties ready for their double dipping and frying. See my nice little assembly line set up there--it makes it so much easier to manage if you cook this way!

Today I launch a new label for my musings entitled: Almost Fifty. Why? I was jolted awake at three a.m. by a hot flash that was nothing short of placing myself inside a 450 degree oven! I love these things--it's a complete and utter loss of your own body's ability to control itself--turning you into a live furnace (a very humbling experience, but when the dogs move away from you because you make them too hot, it might be time to see about something to adjust the severity of moments like these). Yeah, so three in the morning I am wide awake and helpless. And, because according to some, my age (and I'm not yet) lends itself to being referred to as: You're almost fifty!--I thought I'd offer insights on this complete body transformation. Why the Almost Fifty? This comes from the art of "rounding up" numerically. (Clearly a male mathmetician thought this up.) If it were a woman, we'd still round down after the eights if we could.  After turning thirty-five, for five years I kept saying, I'm almost forty! It actually buffered me from the shock of forty when it finally arrived--though turning forty was hard on its own. Upon turning any age after thirty, most women are "on alert"--that is:  Oh, Oh, here we go. After forty, it's: Oh, Oh, there I went (and honestly, it shouldn't be--we are just beginning!). I used to watch a show called Thirtysomething--loved that show--loved the people and all their really young and professional lives. It's out on DVD now. I am not ready to relive that show yet like I am, say, Maude. I have seen plenty of women age gracefully. Unfortunately I have seen plenty not.

The Vegan Iowa Skinny Sammich with Agave Dijon Mustard Sauce (More Kaiser Chronicles)

You can whip this delicious vegan sammich up in less than half an hour. Cornmeal dusted seitan (lightly fried) with yummy Agave/Dijon suace on a good Kaiser (day two)--pure heaven!

It was a good mail day yesterday--my new Martha arrived (if that cover doesn't make you feel all good inside, then get your eyes checked!) along with GH and on the cover, one of my fave singers of all time: Vince Gill--huge Vince fan. . . seriously! Can't wait to peek at what's shakin'! Oh, and the New Yorker--a mostly good reading rag, but sometimes, can push my buttons.

I was running late on dinner plans last night because I attended a "meeting" for a charity 5k/10k run that takes place Thanksgiving Day here in our community. I know, if you are a regular reader, you already know how much VT loves to be her introvert self, living in her by-herself-world. And I do. I summon a lot to get through the door of most "meetings." I am usually trembling by the time I step into a room with more than say, two people. Yesterday there were four and one seemingly surly person. Not to mention, the rest of us gathered were strictly volunteering, he is paid. So this made no sense to me--why be so surly--plus he's from the running community--chill out!? Smile for crying out loud. Nope. All serious and stuff. I may tremble, but I don't scare--so a person like me who is trying to survive a meeting--I will just turn my full attention to matters at hand, then be sure to give great, penetrating eye contact to perhaps encourage said individual(s) to lighten UP and not take themselves so friggin seriously! Perhaps he was having a bad day--either way, it added to my trembly-ness. I am sure that there are pills for this.

Vegan Homemade Kaiser Rolls with Po' Boy Tempeh Sammich

A vegan Po' Boy tempeh sammich on homemade Kaiser rolls--nothing short of incredible and delish!

A great shot of the inside to show how much stuffin' the sammie can take--not too much, but just enough!

After the Kaiser dough goes through a two hour rise, you will then have a few more "shaping" steps--this shows how big my circles were in comparison to the cookie sheets they were on.

Then the old Kaiser fold happens (see my link below for further detail). I gave an extra finger punch for effect.

Turning the rolls upside down during their final 1 hour rise before baking helps them maintain their Kaiser shape--plus keeps the seeds on them.

Just about ready for their baking--though I did poke my finger one more time into the middle of the rolls trying to keep the fold from baking itself out of the roll.

What can I say? Just beautiful and the smell--amazing!

This is my tempeh mixture cooking.

Having a good sandwich now and then makes life worth living. I know that's how Mr. Thyme feels--anything for dinner that can be held with two hands and we have a "ten" rating for the night's meal. I could serve a lettuce wedge in between two pieces of bread and call it Mr. Greensleeves--as long as it sits between two slices of bread--it's all good (I think it's in the male genes--I also think it's a fast food conspiracy, too--but more on that during another post). When I began the "blog lurking" yesterday morning, I had no idea where I'd land. That is what I love about the foodies in the blogosphere--so much amazing talent, so much to see and read! One of my first stops is usually on http://wwwfoodbuzz.com/. Not nearly enough time in a day for me to view all I'd like to. But as the network goes, there are some fabulous cooks out there (not all vegan, of course, but many inspirational dishes that can easily be made vegan). A few of my new cyber world friends have come from this site.

Vegan Winter Minestrone and Fresh Swiss Chard (Picked in November!)

A vegan-delicious minestrone, lots of fresh chard from the garden, seasoned with lots of good spices and served with a side of homemade bread: the perfect meal!

Unbelievably fresh chard I picked from the garden in November! (The key to keeping your greens fresh is to make absolutely sure they are dry--very dry, prior to storage.)

I was shocked to see the date and then see how brilliant green my chard had kept!

Another meal centered around bread. This being the second half of the bread from last night--the other half we kept in the fridge. I will say that this bread was even better the second day. I didn't think it was possible.

A warm soup in the middle of winter is the staff of life in times like these. I (like many others I'm sure) crave comfort foods right now. Drawn to the the simple and sublime, trying to make vegan food out of basic staples kept in the pantry, whipping together a heart healthy and nutritional meal with a ton of flavor makes the evening meal a very gracious event. It's a wonder we don't make a call for there to be a National Soup Month. Well I'll be darned, I just Googled that and discovered January IS National Soup Month--who knew? Seems perfect if you ask me. I began my soup eating like most from my "presevative-laden-tv-dinner- generation" with the canned kind--with a red label mostly. Ick.

Easy Fire Roasted Tomato Pasta with Fresh Roasted Garlic And Potato Herb Bread

Homemade fire roasted tomato sauce and caramelized red onions with homemade pasta and lots of herbs were nothing short of spectacular!

This bread was amazing! Roasting the garlic first filled the house with a smell that was enough to set the stage for some great eating later on.

The Healthy Bread Book was an inspiration for my pasta--so I created my meal around my desire for a loaf of bread!

This is how the dough will look after you mix it by hand. You will not knead the dough with this bread baking method.

After a two hour rise, I removed enough dough to make a 1 lb. loaf and placed it on my cookie sheet (spreading corn meal first to keep the bread from skicking). I really want a bread peel! The aroma of this bread baking was incredible, just incredible!

I hit the kitchen yesterday afternoon with a fury that can only be described as a "healing, cleansing, nursing" force. I needed to touch my food, to really work with my hands, to create our entire meal with wholesome, satisfying ingredients and lots of carbs. I found two cookbooks to be catalysts for my compulsion. I am a cookbook collector and also a cookbook sharer (my local library being my book recylcing center--I love my library). First, let me tell you about one of my newest cookbooks--a vegan bread-baker's dream cookbook: Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., and Zoe Francois. If you are up on your new bread trends, you will know that the same authors penned Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The idea being that you can make a batch of bread dough in about five minutes sans the kneading (say what?!) with enough dough for four loaves in most instances--tear off just enough dough from this first main batch for one loaf,  then place the remaining dough in the fridge for use in making more fresh loaves over the next ten days. Last Christmas when I thumbed through the "Artisan" bread book, I was not convinced I would be able to adapt many of the recipes to vegan breads. (Okay, and it intimidated me a bit, I'll admit.) Plus, many of the breads used white flour. I prefer whole grain flours whenever possible--and am willing to make substitutions usually without worry, but with bread, I want to stick to the main ideas as much as possible--the yeast thing and all. I dove into Healthy Bread, thumbed through it and landed on the recipe for "Herb Potato and Roasted Garlic Bread." Yum. Double yum for the garlic, triple yum for potato! I will not be sharing this recipe, however, you can visit their website to hear more about bread baking experiences at:  http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/. I stuck to the book's ingredients, only adding my own seasoning twists. What I can say is that the texture and flavor of this bread was heaven, pure heaven. I tend to go nuts over a good bread, very nuts over a "healthy" loaf of bread. This recipe worked so well, I can hardly wait for my next fresh loaf tonight! (We ate nearly all of the first loaf last night).

Sharing, Seeing, Hoping

A view of the back yard today.

I pause today (and have given pause every day since the earth quake) to bring a reality from our world that is much more important than vegan food and my blog. The disaster hit me hardest last night as I watched PBS's News Hour and saw a report from the BBC--it was probably one of the most emotional Haiti disaster stories I have witnessed thus far. As we are now watching the fourth day of the relief effort, I cannot help but reflect on the despair I have felt over this crisis. (As I am sure others feel as well.) I am only one person. What can I do?

Yesterday I finally made it out to do some shopping after spending a week at home. It was a hard to get myself out the door, I really had to work at it. My first stop was Whole Foods. As I was checking out, the woman asked: Whole Foods is donating to the Haiti Relief Fund--100% will go to the recovery program--would you like to donate $1? I looked down to save myself from completely losing it as here I was going through my daily "errands" while millions suffer--and this question was put before me--I said most certainly and gave another amount instead. Thank you John Mackey and Whole Foods for allowing me to do something.

Vegan Moroccan Crab-less Curry Couscous (My Finished Cowl!)

This vegan dinner hosted a lightly curry-seasoned sauce atop a lovely whole wheat couscous, topped with two yummy Match Meats Crab croquettes!

A view from the top!

My lovely new Cathy Carron cowl--finished last night! Warm, fashionable and functional!

What is even better about wearing a knitted cowl is that you won't have to endure "hat hair"!

After last night's pantry raid, I was still unwilling, nor ready to hit the store. I like being at home. I am a "home body" in this later part of my life (I spent too many years on airplanes, in meetings and in hotels) which may explain my tendencies. I wouldn't go so far as to say agoraphobia, but I'm pretty close. Which is why this blog is a perfect way for me to at least reach some facet of the public at large, yet feel safe at home while doing so. I've had friends in the past say things like: You need to get out more. You need to interact. I disagree every time citing that my previous engagements left me prone to anxiety attacks, stressed out and completely uncomfortable in groups larger than, say, two. In my new life, I have been a fundraiser for several causes--the caveat is: I don't do meetings. Rather outline my strategy, submit, get feedback, then put a plan into action. Simple. Lucky for me, for those places where I feel I can lend a hand, this has been a fine arrangement. As the old adage states: With age comes wisdom.

Vegan Wellingtons (Starring Match Meats and Puff Pastry)

The vegan Wellington made of Match Meats Beef that is a perfect little package of comfort yum surrounded by a golden, light and flaky Puff Pastry, covered in mushroom gravy. (We served garlic mashed potatoes and green beans on the side, but felt the photo on its own spoke to the goodness of the vegan Wellington--just so you know.)

On its own, this invokes all kind of great warm vegan dinner goodness.

My morning. No blogging. Nothing would work. So, a phone call to the cable provider was placed. (After I had my coffee and banana and did a few yoga stretches.) I waited, was prompted, turned off, unplugged and spent an entire fifteen minutes doing what a computer program told me to do. Then a real person. She took me through my "on screen" identification verfication process and began her own diagnosis of the problem. "Oh, it looks like your area is having intermittent service disruption because of work being done on the lines." Really? No! I asked might they have been working on this same problem yesterday about this time? "Yes." Okay, so I said I would be heading out for yet another run this morning and may pay them a visit and asked her, Do you think they'd mind? She giggled and said, "No, I think that sounds fine." I won't name the provider here so she can keep her job. She was very kind, and I made her laugh with my, I knew it, I just knew it! So out the door I went, another run, only this time, I really got some miles in. Instead of making a right and heading home for a slow and steady four-miler, I kept going straight picking up a longer route, I hit six miles.

Vegan Calzone with Spinach And Tofu Herb Ricotta (or: Vegan in A Blanket)

Vegan Calzone: A big, stuffed perfect pouch of vegan goodness! The Tofu Ricotta mix was easy to whip up mixed with sauteed spinach, onions and garlic and your favorite Italian seasonings. So easy and very yummy!

You can kind of see the vegan mozzarella here on top--melty just like the non-vegan calzone cheese (only this one is better!).

I'm still spinning, but taking it slower and smaller. I plan to dye this yarn. I have a great new love of spinning.

First of all, one of my big loves returns tonight: Idol. Huge fan. Huge. Don't ask. I can only explain this by saying I really, really wanted to be a singer--still sing: at home, in the car, in the shower. I love music--ask my husband. Might be talking Idol a bit on this blog. Just an fyi.

I knew I was in for a rough blogging morning when, as I logged on, the "creepy, crawly" speed was engaged, and my patience for waiting for a cable person to free me from getting my ire up was to no avail. My ire was up and my recipe and post would have to wait. So, I went for a five mile run. I knew I'd find the culprit out on a telephone line with his cable truck parked near by. I just knew it. Sure enough--not one cable truck, but two. I also knew that come around three in the afternoon (when the shift ends), I'd then be able to get my blog mojo going. Yes, it is still cold (around 20 degrees when I headed out), yes, there are still mounds of snow here and there. Yes, I wanted to rap on their cable truck doors and thank them for getting me off my behind and out in the sun for a relaxing run (and maybe share some of my "ire" with them--but I withheld my urge to do so--it would have affected my pace). As far as the snow and cold, I rather like it this way--keeps us in check. Reminds us to rest up, store fuel for later, take our time, prepare for spring.

Vegan Chimis (And . . . Potatoes Not Prozac)

The perfect easy meal: spicy stuffed and lightly fried in olive oil, a chimi with onion, garlic, pinto beans, vegan monterey jack cheese and vegan chicken strips all rolled up and served on a bed of lettuce topped with guacamole and your own fixins.

A perfect wake-up kind of drink: vegan hot chocolate, mixed with some coffee and topped with vegan marshmallows: Yum!

This is Elroy, our neighborhood pileated woodpecker taking in some suet chow this morning--he's just beautiful and such an incredible bird to watch.

So have spun my second roving of wool--a bit thinner this time as I split my roving in quarters, then eighths to get a slimmer strand. Now, the white roving is going to be fun--I'll use food coloring to dye this after it's spun!

I'm half way finished with my Cathy Carron (Vogue Kntting Fall 2009) cowl number two--I just love this cowl--it will be fun to wear and the pastel colors of pinks, purples, and teal are faintly showing as I combined a verigated mohair yarn (from my stash) with a strand of Caron Simply Soft in gray. I like the results!

I ran outside yesterday in twelve degrees with a windchill of minus three, in the snow, on the back streets and in the middle of a sunny afternoon that was both quiet and sublime (it was the warmest time of day). *Please do not attempt this if you are not a runner, nor a fit person--maybe start out walking to the mail box. Call me crazy, but this is what I call a perfect run. Mind you, I was layered with three tops, a windbreaker, my hat, my scarf and ski mittens that I know would protect my hands even if they were submerged in liquid nitrogen. I didn't care about speed (well, I sort of had to care about speed owing to that body heat thing and not collapsing from exposure), or distance or any of the normal running obsessions, I just wanted to be outside, with the warm sun, cool (okay, cold) hitting my face and my feet to carry me along. It took me forty or so minutes to get my three miles in--I didn't care, I felt energized and great afterward. In my headphones I listened to Science Friday (one of my fave shows) with Ira discussing our country's obesity epidemic with other healthy folks. Sort of a strange coincidence, don't you think?

Vegan Hermits (of the cookie persuasion, not crab)

These baked up with a wonderful spicey, chocolate-chippy-chewy-on-the-inside and slightly crunchy on the outside pizazz--in a word: delish!

Okay, I'll admit, I did not wait for these to "cool" to try one--they are too tempting to wait for!

An overwhelming urge took over yesterday to bake. I try to balance out my vegan posts with sweet and savory. I think if I reviewed this matter, my sweets would edge out my savory. It's the dead of winter, so I suspect I might lean more toward sweets. Not that we aren't eating some great vegan chow for dinner--it's just that the past few evenings have been sort of slap-dash and then there was that night I was too upset to cook and Mr. Thyme had to have a can of soup. I had nothing. And yesterday, I ate very little as well. I was not hungry is all. Emotional drama can have a detrimental impact in the creative vegan cooking department. I just wanted something sweet is all. And, I have a new creative pursuit--spinning wool into yarn.