what's the buzz

soup and not-soup, celebration pizza, and collective carrot cake

Thanksgiving’s snuck up on me again, as it always seems to. (American Thanksgiving is too late, but ours is almost too early— we should split the difference and just combine it into a big long weekend along with Halloween). But it’s like I’ve blinked and then opened my eyes to find all the leaves orange and yellow, the days too cold to leave the house without a jacket (soon, I’ll need the constant companion of a toque as well). The heavier blanket’s been put back on the bed, though we still keep the windows open at night. Some mornings I wake up and watch the blanket of fog that’s settled over the inlet melting away as the sun gets higher. Some afternoons the weather changes rapidly, the light turning strangely orange as a rainstorm rolls in, leaving everything glowing and gleaming in its wake as the sun begins to set in the west. The dark arrives a little earlier every day, and yet I never stop being surprised by it.

I’ve started a new job. In fact I already had the offer at the time of writing my last newsletter, but I was afraid to jinx it somehow by talking about it. Although I do not dream of labour, it is a relief to know that I’ll have a steady income again soon. It’s not a full five-day week, and only one day is in person, which I think is about as good as I can hope for while still making enough to support myself.

Jeff and I went out to Farina a Legna to celebrate, and also because I was poking around their menu and saw they have a squid ink pasta on there. We shared that and the verdure pizza— pesto, roasted garlic, mushrooms, kale, olives, and peppadews with ricotta. We’ve tried the cipolla before, their vegan pizza, and agreed that the vegetables were very good but it was lacking the fatty element that makes pizza feel really satisfying. So this was a nice alternative for something with a lot of vegetables and not a lot (but still some!) cheese. The tables were all booked so they offered us a seat at the pizza bar, which to me feels like a feature, not a bug. Who wouldn’t want to watch the pizzas as they’re being made?

We also went back to Deepwater Micro Eatery in Deep Cove, because we still have money left on the gift card we got from our realtor. Jeff and I agreed that it feels homier there than our other nearby pub, Goodco (a modern sports bar which therefore comes with a certain level of corporate blandness to its interior), but that the burgers and fries are better at the latter. I’ve ordered fish and chips both time at Deepwater and wasn’t disappointed, though. And we forgot to use the gift card, so we know we’ll be going back there at least once more. It’s a nice excuse to walk down to the harbour afterwards.

In my first full week of employment, I ordered some new yarn— something I absolutely do not need— as a frivolous treat of the kind I’ve had to deny myself for months while watching my savings get smaller and smaller. Hopefully it’ll inspire me to work through some of the projects in my knitting queue, which I always feel more drive to do in the cooler months when I’m more likely to be cozied up at home in front of the television. If I’m really motivated, maybe I’ll even finish a gift or two for Christmas like I always mean to and rarely manage to do in time.

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With some of the peppers I’d grilled recently, and a bunch of tomatoes that were getting old, I made a pan of shakshuka, which always hits as a slightly elevated breakfast-for-dinner. I generally wing it with this nowadays, just using whatever amount of tomatoes and peppers I happen to have, some coriander and cumin and paprika (maybe smoked), and then any combo of herbs like parsley, mint, and cilantro. Sometimes I crumble some feta on top to melt while the eggs cook. Flatbread is my favourite, but a crusty sourdough is also nice! See below for proof that this time I managed not to overcook the yolks like I usually do.

With the last remaining grilled pepper, I made the sauce for the pizza bowl from Isa Does It, another staple weeknight dinner in my house. The sauce is a cashew cream made with the pepper and some tomato paste and garlic to approximate the cheese and sauce, and then the bulk of the bowl is made up of vegan sausage, brown rice, kale, crispy fried garlic slices, and olives. I often use the Trader Joe’s soy chorizo here, which is a crumble rather than a sausage link you can slice up, but I also like the Gusta Italian style. The sausage filling for the pizza bowl made way more than was needed, so I used some of it to make tacos the next day, with a little green cabbage slaw and sour cream.

took this photo at the windowsill because our dining table was occupied by a 1000-piece Dracula puzzle, sorry

A while back I posted about a green curry noodle soup I made after being inspired by an instagram reel (which, as discussed, is not my favourite recipe medium), and recently I was thinking about it again. I’d remembered the original had spinach blended into the broth, so I’d bought a bunch when I went shopping, not worrying too much about the other specifics— I mostly just wanted to use up some things in the fridge and eat a nice, filling bowl of noodles.

I set about thinly slicing and frying tofu to put on top, warming up some leftover corn, cutting carrots into matchsticks. Only after I blended up the whole bunch of spinach into my mix of coconut milk, broth, peanut butter, and curry paste it seemed a bit smoothie-like did I go back and look at the video to see that it actually only called for a couple of handfuls of spinach. So it was definitely more of a noodles-in-sauce situation than it was a soup, nothing at all like the original, but no regrets. Though I did add extra broth when we heated up the leftovers the next day so that it could be more soup-like.

A conversation in one of the Star Trek-related Discord servers I’m in on Sunday resulted in a bunch of us wanting to make carrot cake, and several of us (including me) actually did! It had to be a small cake, because I had only one carrot, so I used the cupcake recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I adapted it for a square 8” cake since they’re essentially the same volume but may require slightly different baking times. The party cake builder section of Deb Perelman’s book Smitten Kitchen Every Day is a wonderful resource that I use often for this type of thing, especially as someone often making cake because I want cake and not because I have guests who will be helping me polish off a 9x13” sheet cake or something with multiple layers.

Anyway, of course cream cheese icing is the preferred choice for carrot cake of any kind, but I didn’t have any cream cheese, so I made a quick lemon glaze— just icing sugar and lemon juice— which worked great in a pinch. Yes, this cake had raisins, because raisins are great. Sorry to the haters. You’re missing out.

yes I’m binge watching The X-Files, leave me be

A good indicator that fall has truly begun is my desire to make this Hungarian mushroom soup. This has some of the elements of a satisfying cream of mushroom combined with some of the elements of a good borscht— a lightly creamy broth with lots of paprika and some dill and sour cream. You can do coconut milk here to make this vegan; it’s excellent. I’ve used all kinds of mushrooms too, usually a mix of brown or white because they’re cheap, and a bit of something a little fancier like chanterelles if they’re in season and aren’t going to cost a fortune. Someone in my neighbourhood said they picked a bunch of them in the forest recently and I was jealous they got there first (though I suppose I’d have to actually leave my house if I wanted to find wild mushrooms myself). I used a mix of white mushrooms and lion’s mane this time, and although I like the flavour of the lion’s mane I think I prefer something a little chewier.

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Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so any donations are greatly appreciated. I’ve got a busy couple of weeks coming up but I will attempt to send at least one more newsletter before my trip to Seattle at the end of the month. Finally, I strongly feel that merely being in the same room as this sandwich would automatically make your life worse.