awww

First of all, welcome to anyone here who's just found me via jen or meg, those ladies are two of my most favorite recent discoveries, and I'm so honored that they feel the same way about me. I gotta say, I'm really feeling the blogland and flickr love these days (I almost said cyber love and then I realized the unintended implications of that term...glad I caught myself on that one!). I realized that my one year blogaversary is coming up next Friday (I know, how did that happen?). I really want to do something special for you all, but I'm at a loss at the moment. Rest assured, there will be something exciting, but we'll just have to wait and see what it ends up being.

Jared and I had an absolutely delicious dinner last night. It was actually the first Valentine's Day that we spent together and celebrated, and it was lovely. We cooked together for a few hours and then just enjoyed the deliciousness of it all.

We had broccoli polenta, sauteed seitan with mushrooms and spinach, and a fancy dessert of tea-poached pears with chocolate sauce. Every recipe was from my current bible-Veganomicon. I gotta get off this book. But why? It's so good (I think I'm officially eight for eight right now). Of course I want to share all the recipes with you, but I think I'll stick with (guess which one?) the dessert. It was so perfect--not too difficult to make and just the right combination of fruityness and chocolatey goodness. I'm afraid I'm pretty far down the path of just publishing this whole book right here on this blog, hmmm.

Well, I've got a three day weekend, and it's the first weekend since December that Jared will be home for! We'll be helping out a friend who's shooting a movie (I'll be appearing as girl #2) and just generally enjoying the weekend-ness. Hope you all have lovely ones.

Tea Poached Pears with Chocolate Sauce (from Veganomicon)

3 cups water
4 tea bags black tea
1/4 cup sugar
4 firm Bosc pears, peeled, sliced in half lengthwise, and cored (I forgot to peel them and I thought it was good with the skin on)
zest from 1/2 a navel orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 oz bitter or semisweet vegan chocolate

Boil the water in a medium saucepan. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat and add the tea bags and sugar. Steep for 15 minutes. Remove the tea bags and stir, making sure the sugar is dissolved. Bring the tea to a boil, and add the pears, orange zest and vanilla (note: I was worried because there wasn't enough liquid for the pears to be submerged- they don't need to be, and it's okay if they overlap in the pan). Turn down the heat to simmer and cover. Let simmer and remove the orange peel after about 15 minutes (it will get bitter if you leave it in for too long). Simmer for another 20 minutes until the pears are tender.

Transfer the pears and liquid to a large bowl to cool. Remove a cup of the liquid from the bowl and place it back in the pot (note: there was only about half the liquid I needed, so I just took it all out and added some water). Bring liquid to a simmer, then turn off the heat and add the chocolate. Whisk until completely dissolved. Let the sauce and pears cool for about an hour, it tastes really good at room temperature.

Ladle a good amount of chocolate sauce into a bowl and place two pear halves on top. Add a scoop of vegan ice cream or a sprig of mint if desired. Yum!