Limed Rice with Beans and Poblano Peppers, Golden Beets, Roasted Corn

It's been such a long time since I've had the pleasure of making a meal! We had a great time at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (you can read my descriptions of each of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Festival), watching probably 25-30 films. On Thursday, we ate at the opening night party - most of the items at the banquet were vegan, as it turns out! (The food was catered by Café Parizäde, who hosts our annual vegan Thanksgiving.) On Friday, we ate at Tosca Ristorante, where we had a few eggless vegan pastas to choose from, and enjoyed angel hair - my wife had a tomato-based one, and I had an oil and garlic one with artichoke hearts. On Saturday, we ate at the Festival (Café Parizäde was cooking outdoors and we had a salad and fruit), and yesterday we took three Basque filmmakers out and ate at Spotted Dog in Carrboro, where we had some salads, beer-battered fries, and a tempeh dish.

Today, I cooked, with a vegan bouillon cube, brown basmati and a little bit of red rice mixed in. When it was done, I mixed in vegetables that I had sauted - coarsely chopped onion, poblano pepper, and approximately 3/4" long sliced green beans. When the vegetables were almost done, I mixed in a bit of turmeric and cumin seed and then turned the heat off and added a few tablespoons of Baja Lime marinade, as well as a little bit of crushed red pepper (the poblano was quite mild) and salt. I also served some flame-roasted corn that had vegan margarine (our staple, trans-fat-free Earth Balance), lime juice, and salt mixed in. I had also steamed golden beets, and served them, sliced, with a little bit of salt.