Between that and a few other things that are irrelevant to a food blog, I've been a little distracted lately...pondering the meaning of life (why did I marry a philosopher?), what I am doing with mine (why am I so introspective?), and ultimately, how to be happy. I do want to share some fun food stories, so here's a random selection from the last couple of days.
Last night, since the Spinach Drought finally ended, I finally made Chickpea and Spinach Curry from Vegan With a Vengeance.
I was going to write last night, but I got distracted by the pure incompetence of someone from whom I've been waiting to hear news for at least a week. I was too pissed off to focus on the relatively calm post I had in my brain - I thought a fun title would be Calming Colors: Chickpea Beige.
I love the color combination of this flavorful curry: bright red tomatoes, emerald green spinach, and golden-beige chickpeas. Although I appreciate the bold colors of crimson and hunter, it is the subtle, creamy taupe of the garbanzos that pull everything together and make this dish a thing of beauty. This is no testament to my still-developing photography skills, but if I saw the picture above in a cookbook, I would want to make that dish purely because it is attractive (and appears to be made of food I like).
Even though the Great Spinach Famine of 2011 is coming to an end, we're not back in business quite yet, so I was only able to get half of what I needed. As a result of forgetting that while mixing the curry spices, the result was a little more intense than it usually is, but it was still very tasty, even if it took Mister three breads to get through his servings.
Tonight, I made Barbecued Black Bean and Tofu Burritos, also from Vegan on the Cheap, which I've made once before. Although I went back and read that post, in which I commented on wanting to marinate the tofu, here's what I did instead:
I sliced it as thin as I could without tearing it, then laid it on some towels to drain a bit. After spraying and heating my skillet, I arranged the slices and let them cook a few minutes while I seasoned the "up side" with sea salt and chili powder, then sprayed them with olive oil. Once the tofu was popping enough to nearly flip itself over, I turned each piece and seasoned the half-cooked sides. One more flip and I turned off the burner while the tofu finished cooking on the cooling-down skillet.
I will always do it that way - it came out so well. Also, as the black beans were simmering in my home-made barbecue sauce, it seemed like there was too much liquid, so I looked in the fridge and found what I was looking for: leftover cooked rice. I tossed that in, stirred it up and let it heat through, then lined each tortilla with 3-4 tofu slices and dumped a healthy bit of beans-n-rice on the tofu and rolled it all up.
Sooo tasty... Speaking of tasty things, do you know what time of year it is?
That's right, kids - it's Girl Scout Cookie time. One of my most recently hired and trained employees brought some in to sell for her daughter, but she just straight up gave me these: Shout Outs are brand new to the line up. Round wafer cookies, embossed with one inspiring word (3 of the 4 I've already eaten said "Lead" and I wonder if I should be taking that as a message), and aside from an undefined "Sugar" in the ingredients, these sweet treats appear to be vegan - no milk, eggs, or other recognizable animal bits to be found in the nutritional label. Also, I'm a pretty big fan of serving sizes like this: 4 cookies = 130 calories.
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