Nineteen! Nineteen Avocados! Ngahahahaha!

     I love avocados. A lot. So you need to understand, when I say "too many avocados," I really do mean too many freaking avocados. Nineteen, to be precise. Well, twenty-one, but we gave two away.

     My local supermarket does something great with their slightly damaged produce-- if it's still useable, they mark it down and sell it for a reduced price instead of chucking it. You can get a lot of great stuff this way: apples, oranges, onions and eggplant are all mainstays, and if you're lucky, you might find some avocados. That's how we wound up with so many. The catch is that stuff on reduced produce is, predictably, a little past its prime, and needs to be used up quickly. Three members of our household aren't avocado fans, either. Now, to be fair, a handful of the fruits were actually a little rotten and had to be chucked, but if you were ever wondering what to do with more than a dozen avocados in three days...

     A few batches of guacamole were in order, obviously.

     And avocado pie, which typically contains condensed milk and sometimes cream cheese. I kind of winged a recipe by condensing coconut milk on the stove with some sugar. It tasted great, but it wasn't quite sturdy enough, as you can see. I'm working on it!

     Chocolate pudding, which is every bit as rich and lovely as you'd expect. I cut down the almond milk on this recipe to just enough to make it smooth, and added a drop of almond extract.. Pictured here as part of a pretty extensive breakfast-for-dinner spread Stringbean and I put together at 10 o' clock the other night.

     And finally, one of my favorite combinations ever--broccoli and avocado, here with whole wheat pasta and some chickpeas. This is kind of a lazy version of Pasta Della California from Veganomicon.

We still have a few left in the fridge after all that! They're going into a giant bowl of guac tonight. I wasn't sure it was possible, but it seems that three young adults can go through well over a dozen avocados in a few days. Who knew?

Omni Night: Broccoli Chowder and Salade Nicoise

Probably the best part about not having built up readership on my blog is that I don't have to explain a months-long absence. Onward!

I've been doing this thing that I (secretly and with some embarrassment) call "Omni Night" in my head, which is the exact opposite of what it sounds like. The set up that makes this possible works like this: I live in a house with six people. This works out so each person can cook one night a week, with one night for leftovers or eating out or whatever else. We have a cute sign up sheet on the fridge and everything! (Not pictured, it's actually pretty boring.)

Like a lot of vegans, my house is full of not-vegan people. Often, this means that we eat separate meals, which is all well and good, but I like the chance to cook for a group once in a while. Lately I've been cooking for everyone once a week or so, and it's gone over pretty well. Avocado/roommate also cooks once a week, so between the two of us we manage to get two vegetarian/usually vegan meals on the table every week. My brother (known as Stringbean for blogging purposes) usually makes something with vegan components, too. It's nice! This week, I decided to go all out and made two dishes from Appetite for Reduction: Goddess Nicoise Salad and Bistro Broccoli Chowder, with some really good ciabatta.

'Twas a hit with the nonvegan folk (with the exception of as-yet un-nicknamed football-playing brother, who thinks "cold green beans are weird." Bah, say I!)

And yes, that is a Beatles mug full of soup that you spy.

Also, a note for the readers I don't have (yet!): we've signed up for a CSA share this summer, and Avocado and I planted a garden! We have no idea what we're doing yet so you don't get pictures until there's some indicator that at least some of our plants are going to thrive--it'd be no fun reading about my sad not-surviving garden, would it? Anyway, point is, blog is back, and with something interesting to blog about! Stay tuned, yo.