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Before that, I took Sprocket to the vet through the rain ….
and had an awesome early morning walkabout myself.
And then we went to Koven on Murray for an amazing lunch:
How was your Wednesday?
All posts by Tracey Vibert
Stepping aside a little bit more…
I started teaching belly dance in January 1998.
There was an ice storm. Some folks might remember that.
The roads were slippery, but my classes began a few days after things were starting to recover, so while it was a small private class, it was fun and it happened.
Many classes, class parties, Bazaars and Dancers’ Newsletters later, and I’m ready to step aside.
As with everything, there is a season. There also should be a passion. And it has been fun.
Bellydance For Fun has been a part of my world for 20 years.
And the passion has burnt down to a gentle ember that, while generating a gentle glow, no longer flames a strong energy that drives me to take self- improvement dance workshops, to push my students, to give huge amounts of time to a community that is deserving of new life and fresh energy to keep it alive.
So, as with all things, my teaching life is beginning to a transition to whatever I feel like doing next.
Bottom line: I’ll be phasing out of teaching community classes after this spring session < perhaps during the spring session, that is being determined and you’ll know as soon as I do.>
Random kitchen time on a Sunday afternoon
Well, it began in the morning with the sautéing of an onion in butter ( can you smell that?) and splitting it into two as my starters for first my lentils, tomatoes and corn in the slow cooker. Added some Garand masala, coriander, and chilli powder for fun-it’s pretty tasty!
Once it was cooked and transferred into jars, I used the remaining 
sautéed onions with the navy beans that had soaked all day and some brown sugar, mustard,soya sauce and water to get the baked beans going- oh, with some pre cooked bacon. No pics yet as it’s still cooking.
On to random ginger cookies -when you have been baking cookies since childhood-thanks Mom-you realize that once you get a basic foundation going for your dough – you can play.
And if you have seen any of my previous baking experiments, you know I do this all the time.
This wasn’t complicated playing but I did use coconut oil for the fat, and grated fresh ginger for the flavouring along with some cinnamon. They are whole wheat and have egg and brown sugar, so a pretty standard journey in the baking realm.
And they be crunchy-so hubby likes em!
Ok-back to your regular day!
(Vegan and Gluten-Free) Jamaican Sweet Potato Pone (or Pudding)
I’m reflagging this so I can find it easily and while I have not tried authentic Pone, I think this looks like it will be amazing! Will try it soon and post any variations I do! Thanks Simone for sharing it!
ICYMI- The Dancers' News is under new management….
After beginning the email and online newsletter back in June of 1999, I have decided to let it go and grow under new hands.
Be sure to check out what Eurika will bring to the news by visiting her site and checking out the various information she has online!
eurikadance.ca is the new home of the Ottawa Dancers’ News.
Improv dancing with some lovely ladies!
So first – here’s the video – in case you don’t feel like reading my rambling thoughts!
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Thanks to Sarah Leigh Anne and Yvonne for being willing to suddenly, unexpectedly, and totally spontaneously joining me on the stage!
Now the rambling…
As I get older – and maybe wiser, but I don’t want that kind of pressure, I am embracing those moments when my life is a full on spiral. Finding myself coming back to revisit experiences from my youth, but with new perspective and some joyful abandon, it’s very freeing, and enlightening.
People who have had actual children, please do not be offended by the following – it’s an analogy, a metaphor, a perspective…
I realized today that I have been having the wonderful experiences of my kids growing up, moving out, finding new relationships and moving on. Without the loss, without the empty-nest feelings, without rancorous feelings about whoever they are choosing to hang out with/ get involved with/ move in with… it’s fine. It’s great in fact!
Years back, I retired from hosting the Dancers’ Bazaar, and it went off into a polyamorous relationship with two lovely organizers, tried being monogamous with one of them and has moved on to another poly situation. It’s awesome.
Last December, I hosted my last Big End of Season Student party. I had already kicked that kid out in the spring of 2016 and it also immediately sought out a couple of lovely young ladies with which to spend it’s time. It had to come home for the holidays, though, and I announced that night that I was done – fly, be free, leave the nest! And it has gone one to party with a new tribe < see what I did there?>, but with many or it’s usual friends still coming out to play.
And it’s also awesome.
So, back to the point of the video and my spiralling back upon things I did in my “youth”. While I still get to engage audience members when we perform with Bollywood For Fun and have an interactive finale, I had stopped doing that spontaneous, “I want to get others up with me”, stuff years ago as I was trying to be a better technical dancers, challenge myself with new costumes, props, artistic approaches.
So, this past week, I went back. Did I know my music – yeah…sort of… I had listened to it a couple of times when I took it from my students’ potential songs, Thanks Veronique!. And I listened to it maybe 2-3 times on Wednesday before performing. Yeah, I’m busy, I’ve done a lot with pushing myself over the years, but I always had the most fun when I could just dance.
No pressure, no choreography, no stress – yeah – I don’t get nervous if I am improvising. I get nervous if I am doing a routine with other dancers where it will show when my brain leaves the stage.
Anyway.
That’s the rambling.
Super awesome time with SLA and Y – you ladies were so gracious to get up and join me!
Naughty Baking day… yeah, that's weird…
So, I care a lot about what foods I offer to my friends and family. And I care what I offer to my husband too.
And so, I send a lot of time researching and trying out/ creating/ experimenting with a variety of recipes that are:
- Nut free
- Dairy free
- Sugar free
- Gluten free
- Egg free
- general vegan
And then sometimes I just need to pull out my old cookbook from before I met all of these amazing people who have food restrictions and bake.
I won’t bother with posting recipes because you can just do a search on standard recipes from Betty Crocker, Joy of Cooking, or one of those women’s Community group cook books that are full of crazy classic recipes!
Today I used BUTTER! EGGS! WHITE FLOUR! PEANUT BUTTER! BROWN SUGAR! ICING SUGAR! GROUND ALMONDS!!
And as soon as I’m done putting everything away, I’ll be doing a full cleaning of all surfaces and tools and utensils to make sure they are all cleaned up before I start my batches of Conscientious Baking for our annual gathering this coming weekend.
I’ll still label things as I cannot limit everything, but I can make things clear and safe!
Cabbage roll casserole…rolls right off the tongue!
Party-time!
”Tis the season for potlucks and I’m trying to find simple and healthy ideas and this one is a variation on one of my go-to slow cooker recipes.
Cabbage “roll” casserole
In the bottom of a slow cooker, layer:
¾ cup quinoa
¾ cup dry lentils ( rinsed-I used red)
1.5 bags of pre-grated coleslaw mix or about 4 cups
1 large can stewed tomatoes
In a fry pan, sauté
one chopped onion and
4-5 mushrooms in
butter/oil of your choice.
Flavour with oregano and basil -to taste-I used 1 tsp each, dry.
Add that to the slow cooker, mixing with the tomatoes a bit but don’t fuss.
Add enough water to full halfway and turn on low.
Cook for 6 ish hours.
Scoop out and enjoy/ transfer to a serving tray that can be reheated or take your slow cooker to the party!
What? More kitchen time?!?
Heading out tonight for a rum tasting party and wanted to contribute something subtle to counter the amount of rum I’ll be ingesting 🤗
Off I went to the grocery store…
So a bag of chicago mix popcorn will start, but I then found some pumpernickel, yum! But I’m not in the mood for the standard spinach dipping sauce tonight.
Veggie pate experiment time!
IT is chilling now in the fridge, but I think it’s gentle flavour will work tonight!
I divided it into two blocks, so I’ll have more for other gatherings in the near future!
Lentil vegetable spread/pate
1 cup lentils, rinse and sort. Let drain.
Into a sauce pan:
1 onion chopped finely
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
Sauté on medium low heat until onions are translucent. Add lentils and enough water to cover by 2cm or so. Simmer on medium -low heat until lentils are pretty much cooked-about 20 minutes.
Add:
2 carrots grated
½ cup grated cabbage
Continue to cook until everything is tender. Another 10-15 minutes.
Purée. You can use an immersion blender or food processor-it’s hot so be careful!
Add:
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1tsp maple syrup
Salt and pepper to taste-any other spices that inspire you!
Pour into a tray/pan lined with wax paper and chill.
And that’s that!
Crazy vegan baking experiments Day 2
yesterday’s marshmallow fluff was intended to be more like fudge. I think I would need to either use more maple syrup or cook it to a higher temp to achieve that – future experimentation !
I had dropped out about 24 blobs of the fluffy onto wax paper hoping it would possibly harder if I put it into the freezer…
Looks great but is still sticky to touch.
Today, I melted some organic bittersweet chocolate chips in hopes of maybe creating a chocolate – but the fluff is too soft.
So now I have decided to try to create a cookie base to maybe slide the blobs onto and maybe get a bit more chocolate on them, or just enjoy a great tasting but sticky mess!
Chick pea orange spice cookies
¾ cup chick pea flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger powder
mix dry ingredients then add:
2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 tablespoons orange juice
Mix and roll into a log about 3 cm in diameter and chill for at least 15 minutes.
Slice into 24 discs and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet.
bake 6-8 minutes at 325 degrees F.
Let cool on rack and flip over to place the fluffy blobs onto the bottom of each cookie.
Final look is super cute, but they will stay frozen until I serve them and they will be slightly messy.
So whoever is coming to my place in the next few weeks will get a chance to try these!