Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Spicy celebration

About a week and a half ago, I submitted my thesis. This is very, very exciting, a seriously major milestone.  But it's not quite right to refer to it as a one-day event, because it stretched over a few days (even weeks, maybe).  I finished a draft before Christmas last year.  I finished revising in April or so of this year.  I made my final edits a few weeks ago.  I waited around while we sorted out examiners (still waiting on that one, actually).  Then my supervisor said "submit anyways".  That was a Friday.  I had to come in on Saturday to print out the required four, single-sided copies of my thesis for examination, because it took about an hour and stealing the work printer for that long would make me very unpopular in my new, upstairs, staff office.
About 1300 pages total.

That night, Andy and I had a mini-celebration for the submission which was due to happen on Monday morning.  We opened the bottle of Ginger Wine that we purchased from Shannonvale Winery the week before our wedding.

This wine is seriously yummy.  And vegan.  And it's made where the ingredients are grown, on a farm which uses no sprays or other yucky things.

The winery owner suggested that ginger wine is perfectly suited to spicy foods, because it has its own kick.

So we crafted a spicy dinner to go along with it.

First up, spring rolls.  These are storebought, frozen spring rolls (Woolworth's homebrand, I think), with cabbage, noodles, and little TVP chunks inside.  With these, Andy made a very spicy dip (and had a plate of cucumber on the side, in case things got a bit too hot).

After that it was time for a stir fry, made with chillis, chilli bean sauce, homemade tofu, reduced-to-clear bean sprouts, and a few other veggies, all served over jasmine rice.

This was a yummy way to celebrate, and a good excuse to drink that wine.

11 comments:

Cindy said...

Woooooooooo! Congratulations - this is indeed a seriously major milestone, one worthy of spring rolls. :-D

Susan said...

Congratulations. :) Definitely worth celebrating.

Hannah said...

Congratulations (again)!!! I also love how casually you drop in "home-made tofu", you clever minx you ;)

And for realz, Woolworths homebrand spring rolls have TVP? Are they kidna cheap-ish? Want!

Serena Lewis said...

Congratulations! Your feast looked delicious!

Morgan@LittleHouseofVeggies said...

I looooooove crispy spring rolls! So good!

Dee said...

I always say that submission of a thesis is a really big deal, and we don't do enough to celebrate it. Well done, I suspect the edits will me minor. Great looking feast. Why isn't grape wine vegan?

Toby said...

Congratulations!!!!!!!
Ginger wine sound interesting. :-)

radioactivegan said...

AWESOME! Great job! I hope all goes well from here on out

Theresa said...

Thanks everyone :)

Hannah - they are cheap-ish, otherwise we wouldn't buy them. And they are good.

Dee - grape wine can be vegan, but it isn't often. Any wine (tropical fruit wine included) can be refined with dairy or egg products, or isinglass which is from the swim bladders of fishes. Wine bottles used to have to say on the label if they were processed with those ingredients, but recent changes in the Aus & NZ laws means they don't any more. But I emailed this winery before heading up!

Carissa said...

Congrats! Yummy stirfry! Looks like pad thai :)

Vaala ◪ said...

Congratulations!! That's so awesome!! Ginger wine sounds delicious too. I want some!