Foods of the day

I wanted to get a second helping of pumpkin soup from Whole Foods today, but this lady laid a fury on the pot. You shoulda seen her! Pumpkin soup splatters, ladle throwing, the whole shabang. Needless to say, I did not get my pumpkin soup. Instead, I went to Vegi Food, the Chinese vegetarian restaurant on Vine/Shattuck.

This is their "Gluten puff with mushroom" dish. Um. Not good. I like plain things, but you really couldn't get more plain than this.

Is this really what a gluten puff is? Maybe I'm ignorant to the world of gluten, but this doesn't really look puffed now, does it?
To get passed this awful order, I decided to use the leftover pumpkin puree in the fridge and make anything. A little bit of milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg made this liquefied pumpkin pie thing. Tina said she liked it.. poor thing, always the guinea Tina...
So then I decided to take a crack at that almond milk. I bought a pound of raw almonds from Whole Foods and used about a cup for the milk. After two or three minutes of blanching, I peeled each one with apprehension.

Check out the almonds!

With some water, brown sugar, and cinnamon, I blended the almonds into something that surprisingly does look like cow's milk! It was mighty pulpy, so I strained out the almond shtuff and put the remaining liquid into a nifty mason jar.An evening with no work, and this is what I do.