I work in a wonderful albeit tiny restaurant in my remote mountain town. I work part-time, five days/week. Three of those days I’m a secondary worker and someone else is lead worker. But on Saturday and Sunday, I’m the lead worker and another person takes the secondary job.
Today, Sunday, I was working with a young woman, about age 23… let’s call her Chelsea (NOT her real name). On weekends I have to chop all the vegetables and cook the sausage, and whatever else needs to be done along that line. This keeps me very busy and the other person is supposed to come in and put the ice in the salad bar, prepare the salad bar, fill the soda machine with ice, and do whatever else needs to be done to get the restaurant ready to open.
Well today Chelsea came in an hour early. Then she did everything she possibly could, including things that didn’t need to be done that early in the day, except she wouldn’t touch the dishes or the ice and salad bar. I waited for well over an hour before finally telling her that I needed her to do the ice and salad bar because I was too busy to do them.
Okay, she did that, then said, “That’s it - I’m finished.” As if there was nothing else to do. She went and folded boxes, filled sauce cups, and other things that didn’t need to be done. Finally I said, “You know, if you don’t have anything else to do, you could do those dishes.”
She did something else, then finally relented and did a few dishes, enough to barely cover the bottom of the dish drain. There were more dishes left over in the sink than were in the dish drain when she quit to go start fixing food for the day. I was still chopping vegetables at this time. So I finally got fed up and asked her if she had a problem with doing the dishes. In return she told me how “busy” she had been all morning since she got there.
I informed her that she shouldn’t always leave the dishes for the other person. She didn’t take this well and reacted in anger, professing her total innocence, but I informed her I’ve seen her avoid these jobs on many other occasions, and let her know I don’t appreciate it.
Yikes.
Well, here’s what I do. I always try to do the dishes for other people. Why? Because I know they’ll appreciate it. But when I see someone shirking responsibility and letting less-loved jobs go undone so others will have to do them, I get upset. I don’t like being dumped on any more than anyone else.
And who did 90% of the dishes for the rest of the day? - Me.
So here’s why I’m mentioning it here in my home and hearth journal. I’d just like to say - if you work with someone and there are certain tasks that nobody really likes to do, why not do those things? It will make your co-workers have warm, happy feelings toward you, plus will increase your sense of happiness as you help out others by making their loads lighter.
It is my honor to introduce some of the finest new blog posts about vegetarian eating and cooking. The dedicated vegetarian bloggers who contributed to this carnival look forward to your comments about living life, vegetarian style.
Lucynda, blogger at Quietly Into The Night, has been harvesting her Roma tomatoes and setting them out to dry. Her post on Making Sun Dried Tomatoes tells the story of how she makes and uses them.
The Conscious Mom, Shrijnana, plans to share her kid-friendly Sunday brunch menus with us regularly. This time she gives us the recipe for a vegan form of quiche and Garlic-Thyme Home Fries in Vegan Sunday Brunch 8/5/2007.
Gillian Polack is a Food History expert who offers two classic Australian recipes for biscuits in Biscuits from the Barossa. Very helpful and intriguing.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this carnival. I am inspired by your cooking and menu ideas and amazed by the vegetarian food blogging talent out there.
The home page for the Vegetarian Blog Carnival is found at Veggie Chic’s Blog and the next carnival will be hosted there on August 27. You can participate! Submit a vegetarian post at the carnival submission form by August 26. See you then!
I’ve been making variations of this for over thirty years - since the time I lived in San Francisco and was eating fanatically well in order to nurture my first pregnancy.
Two cups of short-grain brown rice
Four cups of water
1 tablespoon salt
Heat the above ingredients until boiling, then stir once with a wooden spoon and cover. Turn the heat down very low. Continue to let this cook for twenty-five or thirty minutes then turn it off but keep it covered so it can steam. Don’t be tempted to look inside for at least ten or fifteen minutes.
While that’s cooking heat a bit of vegetable oil in a skillet and add spices. Typically I’ll add any spices I can find in my cupboard that look like they’ll fit. I smell them to decide if I want them. I always use salt and pepper.
Then chop some onion and garlic and toss that into the pan. Chop some fresh vegetables and toss them in too. I like to use carrots and celery, and whatever else I have on hand that looks good.
Keep stirring and warming these gently on a low to medium heat. If you get impatient like I usually do, add 1/4 cup water and cover the skillet to let the vegetables steam a while. Stir often.
When the vegetables are tender and the rice is cooked, serve by putting the rice on the plate, then veggies on top. If you like cheese, put grated cheddar or monterey jack on top.
This recipe feeds my soul.
Brown Rice Burritos
A way to use leftovers from the recipe above.
Warm up a big flour tortilla. If you have a gas stove just turn on the burner and toss the tortilla onto it… no pan needed. Wait until it wilts a bit then turn it over. Repeat until little air pockets start to rise inside the tortilla.
On the tortilla place some brown rice with your cooked veggies. Add spices, jalapenos, or whatever makes you happy, along with a lot of cheddar cheese. Then wrap it up.
Since I usually get cold rice leftovers out of the fridge I then put this burrito in the microwave and warm it up… or at least I would if it were not for the fact that my microwave broke and my dear boyfriend won’t agree to buying another one - he points out the certain dangers - so now I’m warming these in my cast iron skillet.
My favorite taco sauce is La Victoria Salsa Brava, HOT.
This makes a quick, easy but filling snack so I can get right back into my writing without losing my train of thought too much.
I’ve noticed several different brands of hummus in stores recently, and tried a few. This inspired me to pull out my old Hummus recipe. Making it is very easy, and I think it is more flavorful, being as it’s fresh.
Hummus is made from garbanzo beans, which are also known as chick peas. You can buy them in a bag and cook them, or buy two 16 ounce cans, which is what I usually do.
Drain the beans but keep about 1/2 cup of the liquid. Put the beans in a blender and add the 1/2 cup liquid. It will become a smooth paste soon enough. Add 1/2 cup tahini paste, the juice of one lemon, and two cloves of garlic. Blend well, then put in a bowl. On top drizzle a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.
I like to spread this on bread but the traditional way to eat it is to dip pieces of bread into it, or vegetables of various types. Last week I got some spicy black bean chips from the natural foods section of our local grocery store, and ate those with hummus as a dip. That’s what I call good food.
My introduction to halva came in the seventies while I was living in San Francisco. One great thing about living in a big city is access to wonderful international treats. San Francisco provided the opportunity to find and enjoy excellent halva.
Halva is a middle eastern treat that can be made with many different flavors, depending on what you put in it. Cardamom, coffee, saffron, and vanilla are popular additives as well as nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruit. The halva that I’ve tried most often was dry and crumbly - this type is called ’sesame halva’. There’s another type that is gelatinous, called ’semolina halva’.
Here’s a simple recipe for semolina halva:
Combine two cups of sugar, eight cups of water, and a teaspoon full of saffron. Leave this sitting, uncooked, for half an hour. Put 12 ounces of unsalted butter in a large pot and melt on very low heat. Slowly add 2 cups of wheat flour, stirring constantly. Continue until the color of the flour is caramel colored.
Then slowly pour the water/sugar/saffron mixture into the pot, stirring constantly until the entire mixture is like a sauce, then add a tablespoon of rose water and stir again. (If you have no rose water, try vanilla.)
Pour the mixture into a flat serving dish and let it cool. When cool, you can sprinkle cinnamon on top.
And now for a recipe for sesame halva:
Boil one and one-half cups of sugar with one-half cup of water, and the juice of half a lemon. Add flavoring which could be saffron, chocolate, vanilla, or whatever you like. When the mixture gets to the ’soft ball’ stage, let the syrup cool for a few minutes. Do not stir; instead, warm the tahini to about 120 degrees fahrenheit, stir it well, then add it to the sugar syrup, stirring vigorously. Next knead the concoction until it begins to set to help form sugar crystals. Then place it in an oiled rectangular baking pan, and cool. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
Hi, my name is Linda. This is my personal home and hearth journal.
I am a self-trained herbal practitioner. I became a vegetarian when I was a teenager in the 1960s. I was a San Francisco Bay Area hippie in the 60s and early 70s. Then I became a mom - the most important job I've ever had.
Now I live in a very small mountain community. The nearest fast food restaurant is more than forty miles during summer, and more than seventy miles in winter when the pass is snowed under. I've never owned a cell phone, but I talked on one once.
I've started using FriendFeed to keep in touch with people. It is a wonderful site where you can combine all your feeds and connect with friends. You're invited to join me there. For more information - see How To Use FriendFeed.
