What's Been Going On Lately

A few random, fun happenings in my life lately:

I got to meet a blogger friend! Heather from Where's the Beach? and I had lunch together (the Friday before last). She blogged about it here. Since we live near one another, we had been talking for many months about getting together, and I'm glad we finally got the chance. She's fun, and I enjoyed our lunch (although it was much too short!).

This was my first time to eat at the relatively new 4 Square Gifts, which is a gift shop plus vegetarian deli (including vegan and gluten-free options) in Downtown Little Rock. I ordered the Hummus & Tofu Wrap, which was tasty, especially due to the lemon garlic hummus and kalamata olives.

We traveled up to Missouri that weekend to watch my niece in the Branson Community Theater production of Oliver! So cute and fun!

It usually only snows once or twice a year here, but it feels like it has been snowing every week.

where we live

The kids love the snow, obviously. And I love getting a call while still in bed that says, "The Public School System is closed today due to weather...". I bet my parents wish they had automated announcements when we were growing up. Of course, they didn't have cell phones or even phones on their nightstands, so I guess it wouldn't have made a difference.

We celebrated Ryan's birthday Friday night. (Unfortunately, he was out of town on business all week, including on his actual birthdate.) I asked him to choose anything he wanted for supper. I thought he might say a big Mexican meal or mashed potatoes and "meat"loaf, etc., but instead he picked Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with homemade cheese sauce. Normally, I use the grilled cheese recipe out of Ultimate Uncheese. I used Veganomicon's cheese sauce recipe this time, since I was out of tahini. On dark, seedy French Meadow Bakery Hemp Bread.

I also made Butternut Squash Soup. From scratch. Not really. I used Pacific's Organic Creamy Butternut Squash Soup.

He also requested a Delicious Choices Cheesecake. Delicious Choices was a company that would ship vegan cheesecakes to your door. Did anyone ever buy one? We bought several back in the day (always the sampler - every gigantic piece was a different flavor), and when they stopped selling them, they sold the recipes (that apparently can be found here).

I usually make the crust from scratch, but for sake of time, I just crumbled up two Wholly Wholesome Graham Cracker Crusts mixed with just enough melted Earth Balance.

I used a mixture of organic frozen strawberries, organic strawberry fruit spread, lemon juice, and a tiny bit of sugar for the topping.

Happy birthday, Ryan! Please don't go away on week-long business trips anymore!

This isn't the healthiest cheesecake recipe, but they are as delicious as their name indicates.