Seitan and Tempeh Tacos, Roasted Potatoes

My wife is back from her trip! She had a very long journey from her hometown, taking about 2 days, and returned around 10p tonight. It's great to have her back.

I was amazed at the store yesterday to find large artichoke hearts on clearance for 50 cents each, when they're normally $2.50-3.50 each - and nothing appeared wrong with them. I was going to make a squash and artichoke dinner for her homecoming, but she called from a connecting airport to say that she feels like something very light like my Mom's homemade dhal (lentil soup); as my Mom had some ready and could easily make plain, white rice, that was my wife's dinner!

For my dinner, I chopped two medium Yukon Gold potatoes into bite-sized chunks and mixed in a small shallot that I had cut into 1/4" slivers running the length of the bulb, as well as a little olive oil, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. I put it in a 400°F oven for about a half hour; the potatoes were just beginning to brown, and I turned the oven off and headed for the airport to get my wife.

Once we were happily home, I completed roasting the potatoes at 400° for 10 more minutes or so. I took advantage of her not eating my dinner to use up and grill in my cast iron pan some open tempeh and seitan, and make tacos with them - she doesn't particularly like tacos.

I didn't make dinner yesterday but thought that I would visit with my parents and enjoy my Mom's cooking after my photography class (the last of a series of six). She made delicious thin-crust pizza, and also had some tasty leftover Spanish rice - particularly good given that she didn't use onions (which she doesn't eat), and it still had a rich flavor with a lot of dried oregano.