lemon pepper tofu*

This recipe is from The Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moscowitz. As she says in the book it is ridiculously easy. It has only 5 ingredients and is delicious. I serve it alongside mashed potatoes and broccoli for dinner and also in salads and sandwiches. If you have never made tofu before this recipe is the perfect one to try. You will love it.

1 pound extra firm tofu

2 t olive oil

1 t soy sauce or Bragg Liquid Aminos

2 garlic cloves minced or microplaned

2 T lemon pepper w/salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray baking sheet lightly w/cooking spray. Slice tofu into about 8 slices and prick each slice with a fork 3 or 4 times. Combine first 4 ingredients on a plate and dredge tofu pieces in mixture. Place tofu onto baking sheet and sprinkle lemon pepper on top, flip over slices and sprinkle more pepper. Bake for 20 minutes on one side, flip over and bake another 10 minutes.

Notes: This is how the recipe appears in the book. I don't prick the tofu and I pretty much double the marinade ingredients for the amount of tofu used I also slice the tofu thinner, so I have more pieces. I use Trader Joes lemon pepper. It comes in a grinder and is delicious.

No animals were harmed while making this dish.

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my next door neighbor

I'm what you call a little fish in a big pond. My house is really small in a neighborhood of really big estates. It can be somewhat intimidating. The house below is my next door neighbor. It's called Kimberly Crest Mansion, of the Kimberly Clark Corporation. You know, Kleenex. The french chateau styled home was built in 1899. It is 7k sq. ft and sits on a little over 6 acres. It was built by Cornelia Hill a widow from New York. In 1905 the house was purchased by J. Alfred Kimberly (co-founder of the Kimberly Clark Corporation) and his wife. Their widowed daughter, Mary Kimberly Shirk lived there from 1920 until her death in 1979.

In 1963 the community raised enough money to purchase Prospect Park (a 39 acre botanical park adjacent to Kimberly Crest) for the city of Redlands. To motivate this effort Mrs. Shirk promised to give her house to the people of Redlands, if the needed funds were raised. The city acquired the park in 1968 and in her will Mrs. Shirk left her home to the people of Redlands.

The Italian terraced gardens were designed by G. Edwin Bergstrom, a son-in-law of the Kimberlys. The beautiful house and gardens provide the perfect place for weddings and special events. Throughout the spring and summer I garden to beautiful music wafting through the air from these special events.

This concludes today's local history lesson. I hope you enjoy these pictures I took while the house was decorated for Christmas.

(above) A huge Sago Palm. Disneyland wanted to purchase it.

(above) The newly restored carriage house that today serves as a gift boutique. My house sits right behind it.

(above) They have a clothes-line just like me!

(above) In the spring this Wisteria is gorgeous.

http://www.kimberlycrest.org/

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january in the garden

Below are random shots throughout the garden. Note the first picture that is my header. What a difference a few months make! Everything is sorta brown around here. There are a few things that still look good. Ferns and geraniums to name a couple.

Spring will be here before we know it.

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paint it black

Since I just finished painting the whole house in BM Simply White, I guess the next logical thing for me to do would be to paint the last unpainted room, black, right? You all know that my favorite colors are black and white so this made perfect sense to me. This is the only room that cannot be seen when entering the front door (except bathrooms.) I thought it would be a nice surprise and add a little drama. I will tell you that this has been the hardest room to photograph. It's tiny and now it's dark. The color reads gray in the photos but it is definitely black in person. I chose RL Mercer and had an ounce of black added. So what do you think?

We found the above old, enlarged aerial photo of Prospect Park, the area of Redlands that we live in, next to a dumpster on Christmas morning. Our small cottage is in the center of the photo!

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