Candelit (Potato-less) Stew, Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cippolini Onion

Today was quite interesting; my slow cooker saved the day! When I was preparing my dish for the dinner at our friends' last night (I made a Thai noodle dish with tempeh and vegetables), I went ahead and chopped into large chunks ingredients for a stew - seitan, okra, carrot, spring onion, yellow and red bell pepper - and put it all, plus water and some salt and pepper, into the slow cooker container, which went into the refrigerator. Then at 9a this morning, I took the container and put it into the slow cooker, cooking on low heat all day for a projected 8p dinner. Normally, I also include potato chunks, but I ran out of space in the slow cooker! Maybe I've already graduated to using a normal sized slow cooker instead of a 1.5 quart one.

Well, when we came home at close to 8p after being out since a little after noon, the whole neighborhood had lost power (around 7p I heard), which almost never happens. We came home, of course, to the smells of hot stew, waiting for us! I hastily worked by candelight to make a mashed potato "bowl" to hold the stew (which still didn't compensate for not having potatoes in the stew, which I'll have to make again - it was reasonably good but could have been better). I also put very little oil in my cast iron pan and roasted Brussels sprouts and Italian Cippolini onions, and served Suzie's brand spelt multiseed breadsticks. Around 9p as I was finishing cooking, the power came back on!

As I mentioned on Wednesday, we had dinner out as planned the last two days. Yesterday we had a nice visit with some friends who made side dishes and dessert; I brought over a rice noodle dish with tempeh and vegetables. On Friday, we went to Winston-Salem to attend the funeral of a friend (Anne Weaver, founder with her husband Wes of the Very Vegetarian Society); as we expected, we ended up at California Fresh Buffet, a place with good, well-labeled food that Anne had introduced us, remarkably almost exclusively run by volunteers with all profits going to charities.