I love the flavours of Indian cooking, but I cannot handle the heat of the spices. After researching different types of mild curry, I decided to try my hand at cooking a vegetarian korma. I combined a couple of different recipes for a more UK-style korma. It turned out really well and was delicious. I served it with brown rice but it would be equally tasty without rice.

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 large potatoes, cut in 1/2-inch chunks
• 4 bulk carrots, cut in 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

Spices:

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
• 2 teaspoons curry powder (most curry is a blend of coriander, cumin and turmeric)
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more if you want it spicy)

Directions:

1. In the slow cooker, add potatoes, carrots, onions, chickpeas and peas.
2. Pour in tomatoes, coconut milk, garlic, ginger and all the spices.
3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
4. Approximately 1 hour before serving, add the bell peppers (optional)
5. Serve with rice, naan bread, pita, or tortillas.

I cannot believe it’s already the second week of July! It feels like time is flying by fast. I’ve been up to nothing much, but at the same time a lot. Do you ever get the feeling you’re accomplishing nothing, but are constantly busy? I’ve been feeling like that lately even though I’m moving in the right direction.

But, I’ve got some big news! I am going back to school full-time in September. I will be doing a bachelor’s degree in Communications at Simon Fraser University. I am very excited because the degree sounds perfect for my career goals. I will miss working on awesome events full time, but I think this is the right step for me. I registered for classes this morning!

Other than that, I’ve just got some summer plans and camping trips in the works. I don’t know if I’ll get to do any travelling (I had wanted to drive around BC and Alberta) due to saving money for university.

I’ve been knitting:

The pattern is Gaenor and the yarn is Unwind Yarns: Throwing Sheep into Rainbows which I bought at Gibsons last summer. This photo was taken at wenchlette’s Wedding Send-off party and I was just beginning the decrease rows. Therefore: it is halfway done!

I have some other secret things on the needles and I’ve been test knitting for my friend Carmen, so personal knitting is on the back burner. Speaking of Carmen, I went to go visit her studio (she is MelonHead KnitWear) a couple weeks ago and brought cookies:

Yarn Cookies!!

I’ve got several books I haven’t reviewed—including Up Up Up by Julie Booker—so stay tuned for those. I’m already on book 3 in A Song of Ice & Fire series (Game of Thrones) and recently received an ARC for Marina Endicott’s new book, The Little Shadows.

Also speaking about books, I’ve been using GoodReads more and LibraryThing less. I am finding more people on GoodReads that I know and hence gravitating towards it so that I can see what they’re reading. Find me on GoodReads if you’d like.

Anyway, I must be off to bed. My car is in the shop (because it failed AirCare) and I need to make sure I’m up if the mechanic calls. P.S. Sorry for the downtime on the website. My blog was migrated to a new server so I could upgrade to WP 3.2.

P.P.S. Circle me if you’re on Google+, or let me know if you want an invite.

I’ve been craving carrot-orange muffins since I saw them at Tim Horton’s a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, everything at Tim Horton’s seems to be loaded with sugar, so I decided to make my own.

These carrot-orange muffins are made with bran and are low-sugar to boot. If you want them celiac-friendly you can use gluten-free flour.

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The thing that makes this cookbook, Canadian Living: The Vegetarian Collection, so accessible for non-vegetarians, is that (I believe) these are all recipes originally published in Canadian Living magazine, which is not a strictly vegetarian audience. I am no master chef; I am willing to take chances and try new things in the kitchen, but I’m also lazy and don’t want to have to hunt for obscure — and expensive— ingredients.

I think Canadian Living was very smart (marketing-wise) to compile a bunch of magazine recipes into a book. While you may clip something out of a magazine if you really like it, most periodicals have a high turn-over rate. Or perhaps you read a magazine waiting in a doctor’s office, but the copy was at least four months old and you didn’t bring it home. This type of collection is so smart, and I am speaking as a reader/consumer and as a person in the publishing industry.

The Vegetarian Collection is the tenth compilation that Canadian Living has published with Random House of Canada since 1999. They have a variety of cookbooks such as The Slow Cooker, Complete Baking Collection, BBQ Collection, Complete Christmas Book, and (to be reviewed soon) Create, Update, Remake full of DIY articles.

When I saw this book in Random House’s fall catalogue I immediately requested a copy for review. Two reasons: I love magazine-compilation-books. I have a huge stack of magazines that I keep meaning to cut an article or two out of to keep, but never get around to it so I love book collections. Second, I’m a vegetarian (with a number of dietary issues) so I am always eager to see new recipes.

Now, you’re sitting there, tapping your foot, scrolling down, thinking, “When is she going to get to the food? Show us the yummy pictures!” Okay! Okay! I will.

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I’ve made substantial progress on my shawl! I am quite impressed with Argante and may even knit Gaenor. It would look quite gorgeous with my new Unwind Yarns. Unfortunately, today I have totally lost my crafty mojo. It’s not the inspiration, it’s the actual talent. So now I am avoiding my shawl for fear of killing it. I tried to wind two skeins of yarn today and look what happened to the second:

That’s my poor Unwind Yarns skein of lovelyness. *sigh* I may have to bring it to knitting night on Monday to get some assistance. I really need to figure out how to use my swift properly. It just keeps flying off the ends and getting tangled.

So instead, I decided to sew my new pillow cases… and I realized I hadn’t pre-washed my fabric. So first of all I had to do a load of laundry to pre-shrink my fabric. Look at this lovely fabric I bought:

Unfortunately, as I was trying to figure the second step (and thinking that the fabric looked too square and not rectangular)… I realized that I miscalculated my yardage and didn’t buy enough at Dressew. *sigh*

Now my apartment is a disaster, covered in fabric scraps, yarn bits, and chunks of chewed paper (from the bunny). I quit the living room and went to the kitchen to make pasta salad. Fortunately that turned out well and it was quite tasty.