well, i'm already missing summer. don't get me wrong, december is one of my favorite months of the year...starting with my birthday on the first and going straight through to new years eve, it's a busy but joy-filled time of year...however, after all of the great, fresh produce i got from the farmer's market this summer, i'm getting pretty sick of frozen veggies. i miss big, beautiful salads like this [which was made from ingredients shown above]:


however, this autumn i made a lot of great food using the produce i DO have access too. i made a few different lentil loaves, starting with this one:

[messy and kind of unattractive...just like meatloaf! haha.]

i served it beside some mashed up baked squash with a potato to which i added some Earth Balance, garlic, parsley, and black pepper...it was delicious! the lentil loaf itself sort of crumbled apart, but the flavors were all great.

For dessert, my friend helped me put together a vegan chocolate pie. it turned out really tasty...very rich and creamy:

I have more autumnal food pictures [and they're much prettier than these] that i'll post another time. for now, i'm just excited about the delicious wintery/comfort food we eat on christmas eve eve every year: baked vegan macaroni and cheese anyone?

i've had many a blog in the past, but let's give this one a shot.

this past week was a hard one -- finishing up my work as an undergrad, lots of "lasts", and it feels like i haven't had a free moment in quite some time. i think i might be able to sleep again sometime after christmas. there were some definite highlights despite all of the running around, though:

-wednesday night after work, the other supervisors and i headed off to our former-coworker's apartment in Uptown for margaritas and bruschetta. her apartment was absolutely lovely and it was a fun night.

-friday over the lunch hour, we had our annual Tacky Sweater contest and End of the Sem- ester/Holiday party at one of my jobs. fun was had by all, and i got an awesome tea-set from my secret-gift-giving coworker.

-after the work day, we all headed over to Conga Latin Bistro where we were joined by friends and family to celebrate my cousin and my graduation. i'd been up all night thursday typing up my last really big assignment of the semester so it was nice to finally feel rewarded for all of the hard work...and it was the first time that graduating really started to sink in.

-last night after a final exam, my friends and i headed to my mom's friend's house for our 2nd Annual Lefse party...it was so much fun and my friends raved on and on about the wonderful time they had after we left.

-this evening i helped my mom volunteer at ASI and it was my first time there -- i can honestly say it's the kind of place i'd love to continue volunteering at, especially now that i'm done with school and should hopefully have a little more time to do so!

now i've got another busy but fun week to look forward to...i haven't wrapped a single christmas present yet and am headed to Target shortly for some things needed to make my ginger chex mix...hopefully by wednesday, everything will come together!