Rustic Winter Stew Over Polenta, and Meet Curly the Pekin Duck!

Here we go again! It's time to blog like there's no tomorrow and gain a couple of pounds in the process. Vegan MoFo is here and it waits for nobody, so let's get started! This year I'm writing three-part MoFo posts:

Part 1- The food. Recipes that I've found around the interwebz. Not my recipes. There will be the a Halloweegan post every now and then!

Part 2- The entertainment. A brief movie or TV show review about my latest Netflix finds. Mostly streaming. More than reviews they will be recommendations.

Part 3- The ducks! We moved to a house where our neighbors are ducks. There are also human neighbors, but I guess you can't have it all.

My first recipe comes via the PPK, and it's a Rustic Winter Stew Over Polenta. Some of the ingredients this recipe calls for are lentils, potatoes, leeks, and thyme - these are some of my favorite ingredients, so choosing this recipe was a no-brainer! This hearty dish will warm your belly without breaking the bank, and the ingredients are easy to find even if you don't have a health food store nearby. Score! You don't have to use polenta if you would rather enjoy this stew over mashed potatoes or rice, but I'm a polenta girl so I stuck with the original. I did throw a couple of uninvited mushrooms in there because they needed to be used up before they grew a fuzzy beard.


I suck at photographing soups and stews, so I stole the styling idea and angle from the PPK. Copycat!


My first TV Show recommendation of Vegan MoFo 2012 is Rosemary and Thyme, a charming British show with two of the most endearing characters I've ever met: Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme. These lovely ladies start a gardening business together, and mysterious murders follow them everywhere they go. Here's a tip: don't hire these women to do any gardening work for you or people will start dropping like flies! This is a slow-moving show, but I wasn't expecting high-speed car chases or badass fight scenes from a show about two ladies who work with plants. The scenery is always beautiful, and it makes me want to create a fabulous garden. If only I wasn't so lazy and really bad at gardening.

And now comes the third part of my first Vegan MoFo post of the year... meet Curly!


Hello, Curly!
Say cheeze!

This guy is one of our duck-neighbors that live in a pond near our new place. Curly is the only Pekin duck of the bunch, but he seems to get along with all the mallards. Because he's the only white-feathered dude and he sticks out like sore thumb, I take more pictures of Curly than all the other ducks. Why do we call him Curly? I'll let his tail feathers explain that:

Curly's curly tail
Curly tail!

That's it! A bit discombobulated, maybe, but the first post is done. Phew! Tomorrow's recipe is going to blow your mind - I'm still recovering from the shock! See you tomorrow! :)

Comments

  1. yay! I love white ducks so much... and I love his curly little tail. How fun to have neighbor ducks. :)

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    1. It is fun indeed! We don't have as many squirrelly friends as we used to have before we moved (only one now!) but the ducks are filling that void nicely :)

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  2. duck butt! no better way to start of mofo. so glad to see yo're back river!

    xo
    kittee

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    1. I love animal butts, and Curly's is as cute as it gets! Did you see that Cute Overload is doing 24 hours of animal buttocks? So funny!

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  3. The stew looks fantastic! Polenta all the way. Great shots of the duck as well :)

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    1. Thanks! The stew really is awesome! Go Team Polenta! :D

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  4. No duck neighbors, here, but we do have a cat neighbor who comes to call. The stew and polenta looks great, but Curly has stolen the show.

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    1. I wish we had a cat neighbor! Wanna trade a duck for a cat? Anyone but Curly... or Gimpy... or Jumpy... or Nippy... or Charlie... or Scoopy... OK, I'm gonna have to think about this trade! :D

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  5. I like your format. Definitely keeps the post entertaining! Plus, ducks! Eep! Looking forward to the rest of the month.

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    1. Thanks, Cindy! I will definitely do my best to keep things entertaining during the whole MoFo! :)

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  6. Curly duck tail = so cute! We have brush turkeys living in the bush near our place, they are not so cute but fun to watch :)

    And yummo, stew! It's getting a bit warm for stew here but I can still enjoy it via your pic!

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    1. We've been waiting to see some turkeys around here but so far we haven't seen any. There's a nice big field, a large pond, and some nice woods around - what more do they need?! :)

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  7. You are back! With your neighbors' ducks in tow! You've been missed.

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    1. Thanks, Celine! I hope I can stick with MoFo all the way. Curly can always take over if I get a bit lazy! :)

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  8. Hello friend! It has been a long time. I am happy to see you back. :)
    And very happy to meet Curly and his cutie patootie butt!

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    1. Hi Susan! It's good to be back! I'll tell Curly that you think he has a cutie patootie butt. I'm sure he'll be very flattered! :D

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  9. that stew looks perfect and curly is cuuuute!

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    1. It's an awesome stew! I think you would like it, Sal!

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  10. I am so exited to see you taking part in Vegan MoFo again!

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  11. Love having you back! And, helloooo, duck neighbors?! Best news ever! Can't wait to see more pictures of them!

    As for the stew--I could use a bowl right now, pass one please? Our rainy/cold weather is just not the most fun, but that stew would do the trick.

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    1. Beware what you wish for - I have a million pictures of the ducks! :P

      Of course you can have a bowl! One scoop of stew or two?

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  12. Rivvvvvvveeeerrrrr! I've missed you, lady! 1) That stew looks fantastic (anything with leeks is delicious!), 2) the show sounds adorbs.....as soon as I finish Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and the United States of Tara, I should check it out, and 3) CURLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!

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    1. Hell yeah leeks! Definitely check out the show, it's quite adorbs! :)

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  13. LOVING your blog! I'm now a follower

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