Beyond Willpower

So, I'm having a holiday party this coming Saturday. I have a bunch of friends who all have different dietary restrictions/choices. I'm trying to cater to my vegan and dairy free friends as well as my high protein diet friends who are trying to cut out carbs! I have decided to make two different types of cookies, Lazy Samoas and mint chip and I'm making peanut butter blondies and also buckeyes. I'm super excited. All of these recipes will be coming from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar Food wise, I'll be making vegan chili, and roasted ham to be sliced for sammiches. I have a cocktail style dip and vegan buffalo chicken dip. I've made the vegan buffalo chicken dip twice, once with seitain (this did not turn out well, sorry T.J) and once with smart strips 'chicken'. That came out FANTASTIC! We did buy some groceries for the house today as well, and we are making veg choices when eating out, and then eating the left over meat that's in t...

So, there has been some ruckus around here lately. I was cooking for a friend recently and the carbon monoxide detector went off a bit after our meal. It was a reading of 77 in the hallway and 256 in the kitchen. (It should be 0 at all times.) So, I called the fire department. They said it was coming from the kitchen and might be the stove. I was told to open all the windows and that the gas man would be coming. Let me just say, I rent. I've lived in this place, with this stove from surely 1970 (it was that awful goldenrod color) for 13 years. The gas man said it wasn't the stove, but that the gas line needed to be replaced anyhow. It may have been the carbon build up on my pots and pans burning. The landlord's son in law came to replace it and saw what awful shape the stove was in. It's always been crooked and the oil in a pan will all fall to one side, and the feet on it were so rusted there was nothing that could be done to even it out. The oven never worked righ...