Happy Monday!

I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for all the lovely comments and emails and tweets regarding my last pot, on my Tuesday Night Yoga resolution.   I really appreciated everything you said.  I know I have been pretty quiet here lately, but today I wanted to show you a few bits of my weekend:

First, aren’t these flowers gorgeous:

 

Another picture of pretty flowers:

I saw those at the Dupont Market, my standard Sunday 9am appointment. A couple of Sundays ago my friend Christina came along to the market with me – we had such fun, and I was grateful she was ok with me being still half asleep at 9am (just because I go to the market every Sunday at 9am does not mean I am totally awake).  After shopping at the market, we went to Teaism, where I enjoyed this scrummy tofu scramble:

Teaism has always been one of my favorite restaurants, and fortunately, they have a fair amount of gluten-free and vegan selections. When I make tofu scrambles, I use firm tofu, so Teaism’s tofu scramble made with silken tofu was a new concept to me. It was full of cilantro and chilies, making it super satisfying (though be sure to ask for it to be vegan when you order it, as Analiese notes below, it can sometimes be deveganized). If you have no dietary restrictions, I also highly recommend the Ginger Scones and the Chocolate Salty Oats cookie, two of my former staples.

But back to this weekend. I saw the first local strawberries of the season:

I can’t believe it’s been a year since the strawberry lane picture.  These strawberries yesterday smelled delicious and sun-ripened, though they were not as sweet as I expected them.

And since this was the last weekend for ramps, I also bought some to make one last batch of ramp pesto.

 

While I wish ramp season were longer, basil is starting to appear at the market.  This is the second weekend I have bought a tiny little bunch of basil. As small as it is it still fills the kitchen with its lovely fresh fragrance.

I have a whole post coming up on new recipes I have been trying out with basil.  But in the meantime, remember when I spotted macarons at Trader Joe’s and said macarons were truly everywhere.  They really are. I saw some at Whole Foods yesterday:

Above is strawberry and pistachio, and below are chocolate and lemon (or maybe it was vanilla):

 

I am hoping the ubiquitization of macarons means that a vegan version arrives soon too! I love that macarons are usually naturally gluten-free and not always that that sugary. Part of me wants to take on the challenge, but honestly, right now I am all about smoothies and soft-serve, because look what arrived this week:

 

That’s right, the much-debated-agonized-over-should-I-really-purchase-this Vita-Mix. And honestly, I should have bought it a year ago when I first started thinking about it.  It really does make smoothies in under 1 minute, though I think the key to it working is to follow the order the recipes suggest when piling the ingredients in.  Several of you asked me if the Vita-Mix is loud, and it is, but it only has to be loud for 30-60 seconds, as opposed to my old blender, which was loud for much longer as it struggled to make my green smoothies.  And thank you to everyone who answered my many, many questions on the Vita-Mix versus the Blendtec. 

I hope everyone has a great start to the week!