choices, choices...

I've had a frustrating couple of days.  Not all day each day, but there has been at least a few frustrating hours between the two of them where I've been trying to find somewhere new and exciting to have dinner tomorrow night to celebrate Mister's birthday.  Philadelphia is really starting to be known as a foodie town, thanks in no small part to the innovative and contrary efforts of Jose Garces and Stephen Starr (who is preparing to open his 19th restaurant shortly).  I would like to write Mr. Starr a letter, though, and it would go something like this:

Dear Mr. Starr, I think you have a lot of neat ideas and your restaurants are masterpieces of design and creative cuisine.  However, I am only able to dine at two of them.  Would you please open a vegetarian restaurant for #20?  Thanks!

In case you're curious, those two restaurants are Pizzeria Stella and The Continental.  One of his restaurants, The Dandelion, has a head chef who is on record stating that "Vegetarianism is a disease."  Obviously, we won't be dining there.  There are a couple of others that have enough "small plates" (AKA appetizers and salads) that we could piece together a light meal, but it really turns me off when I get past the appetizers and salads to find that a restaurant does not offer a single entree my husband or I could eat.

Unfortunately, Philadelphia is a town of carni-foodies.  Every menu carries the coveted foie gras and most offer really ethical main courses like veal with an appetizer of bone marrow... Heavens, do people even think about that when they order it?  You have bone marrow, too, did you know?

Anyway, after hours of poring over websites and even directing a snippy tweet at OpenTable about the dearth of vegetarian restaurants (there is one on their site) available for reservations, I broke the news to Mister that there are absolutely no new restaurants in Philly worthy of my hard-earned dollars right now. We are both actively anticipating the opening of Vedge - it cannot come soon enough.  The closing of Horizons left a huge hole in the Philadelphia fine dining scene, especially for people like us who would prefer to have choices on a menu, rather than ordering the one entree offered that we can consume and trying to add creativity through appetizers.

Anyway, although it was Mister's request that we look around for new restaurants, I keep forgetting how much he loves pizza more than anything but me.  So we'll be dining at Stella tomorrow night.  I'm pretty happy about that, actually, because I've been wanting to go there for weeks.

In the course of our conversation about which Italian, Pizza-Serving restaurant we would dine at (Stella, Pietro's, or La Fourno), Mister got confused and thought we were eating out tonight.  I said I thought we would go out tomorrow, since that's his actual birthday and I did take the day off from work and everything.  He agreed, so then we had to decide what was for dinner tonight.  I consulted the menu and asked him if he wanted an Italian noodle dish or an Asian noodle dish.  Not surprisingly, as my husband seems to be seeking balance in his old age, he said we should have the Asian dish since we would have Italian tomorrow night.  As I walked back to the kitchen he was solving the philosophical conundrum of whether pizza is inherently Italian since all cultures seem to have embraced it.  I pointed out that okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza) is not even remotely similar to "Italian" pizza.

With that brilliant contribution, I got to chopping up my bok choy napa cabbage for Ginger Bok Choy and Soba from Appetite for Reduction, with napa cabbage subbing for the bok choy, which has successfully hidden from me two weeks in a row, reinforcing my belief that bok choy is only available at Whole Foods.  Which sucks, since I've committed to avoiding WF for August.  Still saving money, by the way!

It came out so well, I'm not sure if I would have liked it as much with bok choy anyway!  To be completely honest, as I was slicing the napa cabbage, I nearly put the book away and grabbed The Accidental Vegan to just go ahead and make Yakisoba, but I wanted to give Isa a chance and I was not disappointed.

Since the fine edge I walk with Yakisoba is that the recipe calls for "too much ginger," I found that this recipe had it just right with 1 tablespoon of minced ginger.  I will definitely make this in the future because

1. I want to try it with real bok choy (so we'll at least have to wait until September, it seems).
2. Mister did not eat around or complain about the soba noodles - in fact, he had two big bowls!
3. It came together so quickly Mister thought I was kidding when I told him dinner was ready.  This is a very helpful quality during busy times at work or when I just don't feel like cooking (I know, it's crazy, but sometimes, I don't feel like making dinner from scratch after working all day and spending 3 hours commuting there and back).

Oh, hey - speaking of choices, there's a new post up at Pretty Woman in an Ugly World.  Go ahead and check out the epic battle between Sephora and MAC for my consumer vote and see how the winner won!

SIN & my BIG FAT Greek Easter

Do they still have the Seven Deadly Sins?  If so, I fear I'm going straight to Hell - do not pass go and do not collect $200.  How else can it go when my entire celebration of Jesus's act of reconciliation involved gluttony?  Well, okay, maybe not the whole celebration, but the part that occurred outside of the church.

After church, we dined with my in-laws (17 of us total) at Estia on Broad and Locust.  It was an extravagant affair to say the least.  Honestly, I would be lying (another sin, surely) if I didn't admit that my favorite part of lunch was seeing all of our family again - it doesn't happen frequently enough.  I'm pretty sure (unfortunately) that the last time I saw my parents-in-law was Christmas - and if that's not a sin, I don't know what is.  Mister and I had a little gift for our nephews, as well, and there is something priceless about watching children take turns pulling off the wrapping paper so they can share every part of the gift - they're good at being brothers.  So my true delight was in the people; my beautiful SIL, a cousin who brought his new lady friend, my little angel baby.  Of course, another priceless moment was when my father-in-law parked himself across from me, attentive waiter behind him, and asked if I would like some "voov," while making a drinking motion with his hand.  In my momentary ignorance, I thought he had learned a new Greek word for "drink," possibly "wine," but once the waiter nodded, noted, and walked away with my FIL, I realized he had just enlisted my assistance in drinking a bottle of Veuve Clicquot!  It helped wash down the huge amount of food that covered every square inch of the table (and some of the round ones) - fried zucchini, various spreads (baba ghanoush, muhammara, hummus, tzatziki) with bread, pita, and crudites, as well as amazing marinated peasant salads of red and orange tomatoes, red and green peppers, and cucumbers.  I barely had space for my entree and resolved, next time my entree will merely be a salad.  There were also three decadent, huge Greek desserts and Greek coffee.  I love Greek stuff - I'm so lucky to be married into this family!

After 15 hugs and kisses, we excused ourselves to run (in heels) to the train station.  We hopped on the train just as it was about to leave us, and 45 minutes later found ourselves in my dad's car.  Once we arrived at the house, I could finally relieve my purse of the jar full of rice, spices, and cashews that I'd carried to church and lunch.  Mom and a cousin were industriously chopping tomatoes for bruschetta while the littlest cousin hunted for plastic candy-filled eggs in my parents' verdant backyard.  While Mom and I started cooking, my dad showed everyone photos and video of me as an infant and toddler, then took the whole merry party down to the basement to play with his bordering-on-obsession trainset.  It takes up the entire basement.  He cut holes in the walls to let the trains go through "tunnels."  I told Dad he has to take this stuff down before he gets decrepit because I don't want to deal with it.  We all figured, though, that the littlest cousin, presently 2 years old, should at least be a teenager before this becomes an issue, so we'll just hire him and some friends for pizza.

Once the Black Bottom Pineapple Tofu on Coconut Cashew Rice (from Vegetarian Times: Fast and Easy) was done cooking, Mom and I set up the table and called everyone away from the fun to eat dinner.  My plate was delightfully colorful!

Taking up the majority of the plate was the tofu dish, accompanied (counter-clockwise) by a delightful strawberry-walnut salad my mom made, as well as an apple-sweet potato roast.  What a lovely springtime meal, don't you think?

So tonight is the first night of the new menu.  What menu?  Glad you asked:

1. Chili and Polenta Casserole also from Vegetarian Times: Fast and Easy, and hopefully, it comes together as quickly as they say it does, because this is going to be a busy week, methinks.

2. Pasta Marinara with Kale and Beans - although this will be accompanied by a new recipe for you (yay!), don't get too excited - it's going to be a cheater recipe (with a rockstar name).

3. Spring Vegetable Curry from The Accidental Vegan - why not?  It's spring and Mister Loves Asparagus.

4. Cajun Red Beans and Rice, also from The Accidental Vegan, because it's my fav-fav-favorite rice-n-beans recipe. 

5. Yakisoba, also from The Accidental Vegan, which was dinner tonight.

It's a little bit bland, but there is a subtle aftertaste of ginger and not quite enough garlic.  Of course, I wanted to use my new toy - a ginger grater, so I grated the garlic and I don't think I got as much out of each clove as I do when I press it.  It did a fantastic job on the ginger, though, so well done, Essene!  Best $5 I ever spent (especially after flirting with the $20 Microplane Special People Grater/Zester at Williams-Sonoma when I picked up the gifts for the nephews).  That $15 will go toward the Buy-Natalie-a-4qt-Saute-Pan fund.  Attempting to "toss" a pound of noodles with the veggies and sauce tonight in my 3-qt pan was quite an adventure and pushed me over the Suck-It-Up-and-Spend-the-$$$ edge.  After the rent gets paid :)

lucky number 4

Do you have a lucky number?  Yes, I know that's kind of BS, but bear with me.  Although I know most things are purely chance, it does seem like 4 has done me well over the years.  It could be that I prefer the number 4 because everyone in my immediate family has a 4 in their birthday.  Mom's 4, I'm 14, Dad and Sis are 24 (of different months)...that's kind of cool, if you think about it - what are the chances?  Also, these four birthdays occur over the course of four months.

So, that's my excuse for favoring four.  Does anyone know Isa's?

One of the fun things about constructing a menu completely from one cookbook, or even from multiple cookbooks by the same author, is that you start to pick out patterns.  Now that I am....well...more than four meals into Appetite for Reduction, It seems like Isa's magic number for garlic is 4 cloves.

That was kind of a tangent that has nothing at all to do with dinner, but it was on my mind, so I thought I'd share.  Besides, it's better than the story of how Blogger wouldn't let me post anything last night, so now you get a two-fer.

Last night, I made Braised Cabbage with Seitan and finally, Jerk Asparagus.  It was fantastic.  It may or may not look like much, but it tasted heavenly.  Once again, even though I work for the #1 home-delivery weight loss program in the country, I was astounded that "diet food" could taste this downright decadent.  Granted, I probably violated the portion a little bit, but how can you really go wrong with cabbage?  Again, I was very pleased with the flavor and texture of the homemade seitan - it has the savory-spicy flavor of a Tofurky sausage and is nice and chewy.

Something I noticed while browning the seitan before adding the cabbage: since I just re-wrapped the seitan in the tin foil and stuck it in the fridge, it was quite thirsty and willing to rapidly soak up the broth I added to prevent it from sticking to my non-stick saute pan.  Perhaps next time I will experiment with a simmered seitan and store leftovers in leftover broth.  That will probably more closely mimic my dearly loved Ray's Seitan.

Because I used green cabbage and because I braised it in a relatively rich stock with a generous helping of thyme, the cabbage was surprisingly savory.  Normally, when I cook cabbage, it's red and retains some sweetness, regardless of the way I prepare it.  The flavors and textures of this dish complemented one another perfectly and it was a pretty easy dish to prepare, so I'm sure it will find its way into some kind of rotation.  The 15 minutes of braising on the stovetop gave me time to cook the Jerk Asparagus.

It was a different taste for me.  Ordinarily, I roast asparagus because ordinarily, I buy the thick stems.  These were not pencil-thin, but they only look so substantial in the picture because they are perched upon a 1940s bread and butter plate (did you know our dinner plates have increased in diameter by as many as 3 inches since the 1950s?).  The asparagus might have been a little cinnamon-heavy...I didn't add more than a dash, but it has such a pungent scent, I might do better in the future to either leave it out or counter it with a little more thyme.  It was good and Mister was thrilled, though.

Tonight, I made Ginger Bok Choy and Soba, which allowed me my treasured privilege of finding a rose at the bottom of one stalk:

I absolutely love how it does that, and the Evil Martha Stewart lurking within me will eventually collect a bunch of bok choy butts and spray-paint them gold for a centerpiece someday.

The finished product was not terribly attractive and upon first bite, not terribly exciting.  I added a little more tamari to mine and felt it was substantially improved.  Mister happily wolfed down two bowls before I was halfway through mine without additional seasoning, so it could be personal preference.  I don't enjoy ginger quite as much as Mister - I'm more of a tamari/umami kind of gal.

If I could end on a tangent, the gorgeous, slimy bowl of noodles you see above almost didn't make its way onto the table tonight.  I know you're going to get tired of reading this because I know my car-less butt is going to be complaining about it all winter, but here it goes:  It was SO COLD when I was walking home from the train tonight.  As I got closer to home, I tried to take my mind off the dreadfulness nipping at my nose by plotting dinner.  As I drew nearer to Superfresh (if I detour a block I'll pass it), it occurred to me that I did not want noodles for dinner, I wanted something hearty and innard-warming.  I thought of creating a casserole, but didn't want to invest the time.  Suddenly, I remembered one of my favorite, fast-cooking slow-food recipes (figure that one out) and nearly ran to SF for supplies for Chickpea Stew with Fried Polenta, but in the end, decided I had such good momentum going that I didn't want to screw it up by taking a detour...  I wonder, though, if I'll make it home without a pit stop tomorrow, because it's still on my brain!

it's right around the corner

"It" could be any variety of things.

It is currently approaching Midnight, which means it's almost Friday.
When I wake up, it will be Friday, which means all I need to do is survive the day and get home to begin my weekend (aside from that pesky working-on-Saturday thing).

Two weeks from today will find Mister and I settled into our hotel room in sunny San Clemente, looking forward to a well-deserved vacation and fun with our distant, beloved family.  The day after we return home will be our anniversary, so our next romantic dinner at Horizons is right around the corner.

Something struck me a couple of days ago.  It's October (if I haven't made that clear by my obnoxious imaginary jumping around for joy) and I hadn't heard a thing about VeganMoFo!  I enjoyed it so thoroughly last year and have been looking forward to it this year, but a week into the month it occupied last year and not a peep from any of the blogs I followed as a result of last year.  Then, finally, Jess from Get Sconed wrote the post I've been waiting for:

VeganMoFo IV is right around the corner!  This year, it will be during the month of November, which will provide a literary cornucopia of awesome vegan Thanksgiving celebrations from which I can steal ideas for next year to read about and enjoy!  I signed up as soon as the form was available on the Official Home of VeganMoFo and I'm already thinking of things more entertaining/insightful than "here's what I had for dinner tonight" to convince a whole new set of strangers that they want to read my nonsense.

Is that a great segue or what?  Here's what I had for dinner tonight:

Udon Bowl from The 30 Minute Vegan - descriptive name, don't you think?  Regardless of the unremarkable name, this dish was delightful.  I had a realization while I was sitting at the table waiting for Mister to wash his hands as the steam and scent wafted up my nostrils: I absolutely love tamari and ginger as a base.  The olfactory satisfaction I gleaned from just sniffing at my dinner was astonishing.  Fortunately for my other senses, it tasted just like it smelled: a charming combination of sweet and salty.  The recipe doesn't make a whole lot, but it is listed under the lunches so that makes sense, I guess.

Anyway, back to VeganMoFo, last year I solicited topics from my readers, so if anyone would like to leave me a comment with a suggestion for something you'd like me to write about next month for VeganMoFo, I'd be happy to hear from you.  Round-ups? Restaurant, book, or product reviews? Why Angst won't stop his relentless pleading for a piece of my Sweetzels?

ginger: it's not just for soda anymore

When I was a kid, ginger ale was more or less a staple in our home, if I recall correctly.  It was always available to soothe my savage belly or quench my father's summertime thirst (I think there might have been something sharing the glass with the ginger ale, though).  I can remember my mother having me sip flat ginger ale one teaspoon at a time when I was sick to my stomach, and though it seemed like the Chicken Soup/sugar pill of the nausea realm, apparently ginger really does have the ability to calm an unsettled stomach.

I find myself craving ginger ale sometimes, as a kind of creature comfort.  That was not the case tonight, however.  Tonight, my husband specifically requested a quick-cooking dinner, so I selected the quicker of my two Vegan Express recipes, Quick Green Veggie Soup with Couscous.

When I was perusing my books, I rolled the flavors of this soup over my tongue as best I could without actually tasting it.  It seemed like a risk worth taking and I am so glad I went with it.  The base is a pungent combination of vegetable broth, tamari, and ginger.  It smelled a little bizarre, but I played that off as my additions of freeze-dried chives and dried dill - that stuff (dill) really smells awful but it somehow managed to play a helpful role in the overall flavor of the broth.  I added to this a surprising party of green foods: zucchini, spinach, and broccoli and was treated to the beauty of a same-toned soup.  I normally prefer to eat the rainbow, so a meal that is primarily one color does not normally find a place on my table.  You'll notice I spiced things up a little by including a red chili wrap, but we'll talk about that in a moment.  I realized a couple of hours days too late that I didn't actually have any couscous, so I broke up some cappellini noodles and they worked just fine.  I think I would like to make it "correctly" someday, though, so this isn't the last you'll see of this tasty soup.

One of the first things I recognized in Vegan Express was Nava's willingness to prevent me from thinking too much.  I've mentioned before that although I am trying to branch out and present more "balanced" meals, complete with salads and side dishes, I really don't enjoy the extra effort required to fill out our dinners.  Since Mister wanted a fast dinner and because Mister generally does not consider soup to be a complete dinner, I was planning to construct a relatively masterful (but still fairly simple) salad to accompany the soup.  While the soup was doing its thing, though, I happened to glance down at Nava's serving suggestions and it couldn't have been more perfect.  She suggested simple veggie wraps - what's easier than using up what's left of the hummus, the last couple of red chili tortillas, and some of the mixed greens I had planned to turn into a salad?  So, for the five minutes the soup needed to simmer, I busied myself making salad wraps and pinning them closed with toothpicks.

The two flavors really didn't go together, but were each tasty in their own separate way.  The red chili tortillas are actually a little hot which is always a surprising quality in a bread product.  I needed to cleanse my palate a bit before enjoying my soup but a swig of water was quite enough to do the trick.  The soup has a distinctly Asian flair to it, which should not be a surprise due to the prevalence of fresh ginger and tamari.  I was supposed to swirl in a Tbsp of oil but the soup was not lacking in flavor or texture when I neglected to do so.  From the first slice of zucchini to the last steaming simmer before serving took roughly 30 minutes - this is a great soup for when you crave something comforting but don't have an hour and a half to three hours to make a soup from Veganomicon or any of Sarah Kramer's books.  It's too brothy to serve alone, but a simple wrap, salad, or sandwich would fill it out nicely.  I can also imagine this being a delightful rainy day lunch, finished off with a single freshly baked brownie.

miso dressed up

I tried really hard not to do something goofy with the title, but my father's nature won out over my desire not to be so cheesy - oh dear, "be so" rhymes with "miso." I'm done for.


Anyway, tonight I made Pan-Crisped Tofu with Greens and Peanut Dressing. To say it was a different kind of dinner would be an understatement. It was good, don't get me wrong, but I think it would be better suited as a creative first course for a dinner party. The tofu was a little tough to fork-knife your way through, but the presentation probably would not be as dramatic if I had cubed it first. It probably also would not have been as easy to cook and flip if I had to turn over dozens of little squares, rather than 8 rectangles.
Very attractive plating, don't you think? I'm inclined to think mine is actually more enticing than the recipe picture. I used a serious mix of lettuces - I can't even remember everything, but there are beet greens and mustard greens, arugula, baby spinach, radicchio, frisee, red and green romaine, mizuna and a few other things.

The dressing was fascinating to say the least, and the kind of thing where your tastebuds need to do a double-take. It definitely took a few bites to get used to the intensity of the flavors and I'm pretty sure it wasn 't supposed to be quite like that. The dressing was made up of equal parts of mirin, rice vinegar, and white miso, as well as some minced ginger (thanks again, WF, for that handy little jar) and chopped peanuts. As you can probably tell from the picture, though, I didn't bother diversifying my miso collection and just used my terrifying brown miso. I think it would have made a substantial difference in the dressing's flavor as well as its intensity if I had used the correct miso, so next time, I'll make that investment.

Considering "dinner" was just raw mixed greens, tofu, and some funky dressing, I felt like we needed a starch of some kind. Maybe I'm Donna Reed in disguise (a very, very good one), but I felt like we needed that to balance out the meal. I decided that roasted potatoes would fit the bill, but I thought it kind of broke with the fun Asian theme, so I "spiced" things up a bit by tossing the potatoes with about a teaspoon of Five Spice Powder and a generous sprinkling of sea salt. I think it really added something, particularly an amazing scent (now that I'm starting to get at least half of my smellbuds back). Also, the sweet blandness of the squishy centers was a good complement to the dressing, of which I sopped up the last traces with the potatoes.

Mister loves roasted potatoes.

The whole package!

neither before nor after

On the ride home from work tonight, I spent some time thinking about which of the three dinners left on my menu I would make. I knew I really ought to make the Chickpea-Chard-Harissa dish since I don't know how much longer the chard will hang on, but unfortunately, none of the four stores I visited on my last day off had harissa in stock - in fact one of the smaller-but-fruitier stores didn't even know what I was talking about! I figure it's probably important to include that ingredient since it's part of the title, so I decided to refrain from making it until I can get my hands on some harissa.

I decided to make Potato and Cauliflower Curry (aka Aloo Gobi) because it's one of Mister's favorites and because I was just telling a new employee at work how I don't think I could live without curries. This was in the context of trying to prevent a new customer from getting lamb or curry spice in her order, since she was apparently severely allergic.

Anyway, I have never made this particular Aloo Gobi recipe because I think I might have at least half a dozen other recipes for it that work just fine. However, I was too lazy to cook from more than one book this week, so I decided to give this never-before-tried recipe a try. If I had read the recipe a little closer, I might have used my big, deep pot rather than overflowing my saute pan. By the way - I am definitely going to have to replace/augment the saute pan situation. Must have 5 quarts in a future life. It made a lot.

I really can't tell how I feel about the combination of fresh ginger and a tomato sauce/broth. On the one hand, it had the most fascinating aroma, but on the other hand, the antiseptic qualities of ginger really brought out the acidity of the tomatoes and not in a good way. Since I was a child, my way to make things taste better has been to add salt, but I don't think that would have helped. It wasn't bad - don't get me wrong - but I don't think I will make this particular recipe again, when I have so many other recipes that I adore. It looked nice, though:
It is so cold in Philadelphia. I think soup is inevitable on next week's menu.

he's like the wind

There is no logical reason that I should be sad about Patrick Swayze's passing. I didn't know him personally and his death will have pretty much no effect on my life going forward. And yet, I feel very sad that he is gone. I guess he just seemed like a good person...I mean, really, think about it - have you ever heard someone say something bad about him?

Moving on to happier things before I jump into the pit of depression that has been singing its siren song lately... It turns out my cupcake-muffins have healing abilities! I have received a report of using the ginger-coconut-carrot muffins to cure (or at least distract from) a headache. I know ginger is used for detox and other holistic healing, so I decided to check my brand spankin' new Vegetarian Bible and surely enough, in addition to thinning the blood and stimulating circulation, or perhaps because of it, ginger can relieve headaches! Here are some more fun facts about ginger that may come in handy someday:

1. Ground ginger can calm morning and motion sickness, prevent nausea following chemotherapy, and prevent vomiting. I guess that's why my mom always fed me flat ginger ale when I was sick to my stomach as a kid.

2. Because it stimulates blood flow to the digestive system, ginger enhances the body's ability to absorb nutrients from food/fuel, meanwhile removing toxins to protect the liver and prevent ulcers.

3. Cook with fresh or ground ginger to take advantage of its preventative AND therapeutic qualities in warding off colds and flu. It can also provide relief for those suffering migraines, rheumatoid arthritis and joint stiffness, or if you want to lose weight.

I swear by Yogi Detox Tea throughout cold & flu season. It may be my own little sugar pill, but I have beaten 102 degree fever flus in only three days with its help, and I have managed to build a collaborative fan base. My husband introduced it to me, after his former roommates introduced it to him, and I've passed the love and lore along to colleagues and friends alike. No one has disagreed yet! Warning: the taste is REALLY strong until you get used to it and it'll probably make your tongue numb, too. It's totally worth it, though.

Tonight I made Tuscan Vegetable Ragout for dinner (and had a magical, cure-all cupcake for dessert!). As I mentioned before, this is such a great go-to recipe. Tonight I added smoked tofu (because I love it!) for the first time and I think the next time I make it, I will toss in a couple of cups (cooked) of pasta shells, just for fun and texture. The recipe is great on its own, but invites variation, so I'll be happy to oblige. I've made it a dozen times before so I can't think of anything terribly interesting to say about it, so I'll just show you a picture and move on to my finale:

mmm...big sauteed pile of tomatoes, zucchini, cannellini beans, artichoke hearts, and tofu...mmm...

Before I went to sleep last night, I read through the [very well-written and conversational] introduction to The Accidental Vegan. For reasons I don't think I completely understand, a lot of people seem to be offended by vegetarians/vegans. I can understand the wariness that I might try to preach the Evangelical Gospel of Herbivorism, but since I don't tell other people what to eat, I can't understand why they feel the need to tell me what to eat. At any rate, I have had people demand that I explain to them exactly why I would make such a radical choice regarding my diet, and in moments that confrontational, I tend to freeze up and forget everything I know and everything that helped me make my decision.

In a moment of voluntary self-expression, then, I would like to leave you with the author's summary of some of the things I learned 7 years ago that helped me make the choice I did:

Rising food costs all over the globe can be traced in part to rising standards of living in formerly poor countries, increasing the demand for meat, which exacts a heavy toll on the planet's resources in comparison to plant-based foods. Too much land is being used to grow feed for livestock rather than food for humans, and as a result, there isn't enough food to go around.

dessert before dinner

It's been a delightful long weekend...I hate to think about going back to work tomorrow, so I'm going to share my tasty food stories (and pictures) with you instead.

Last night the baking bug bit me, so I pulled out Vegan with a Vengeance and set to work making Ginger-Macadamia-Coconut-Carrot Cake, except I substituted pecans for the macadamia nuts and I made cupcakes because it is so much more convenient to have the servings already portioned out! As the name suggests, this is no ordinary carrot cake. There is pineapple juice sweetening the batter and chunks of crystallized ginger throughout the cakes. In addition to the the coconut flakes baked into the cakes, I cut off the tops and made them into little baby layer cakes and frosted them with Isa's Coconut Heaven Frosting. I actually don't like icing/frosting on cakes because they tend to be too sweet, as was the case with this one, but despite the prettiness of his Birthday Coffeecake, Mister has impressed upon me the importance of birthday cakes having icing, so I made these to make up for his frostingless birthday cake.
Despite the frosting melting quite quickly and being sweet enough to give you a cavity just by looking at it, we each had two of these delightful and quirky cupcakes.

Unfortunately, that adventure only increased the hold Baking had over me, so today I set about to bake something that had formed in my head overnight. I can't say I dream of cupcakes, but I did wake up with this idea. A short segue: most of my favorite treats involve some kind of fruit being coated in chocolate. A tasty treat I haven't enjoyed in years (for no good reason) is a frozen chocolate covered banana. Mmmm...so good. So, to capture all the tastiness without all the cold (I believe I mentioned we're having a bit of a cool-snap), I made Chocolate-Covered Banana Cupcakes.

Chocolate-Covered Banana Cupcakes
makes 12

Ingredients:
2 cups flour, lightly spooned and leveled with a knife
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup honey (to make vegan, substitute 1/2 cup sugar)
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 bananas
1/4 cup dark chocolate peanut butter* or Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place liners in cupcake pan.
Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon with a whisk in a large bowl.
In a food processor, combine peeled bananas, broken in half, with honey, water, oil, and vanilla. Process until smooth, about 15-20 seconds.
Pour banana mixture into flour mixture and mix until combined - this will go faster with the help of a hand-held electric mixer.
Scoop batter into lined cupcake pan, dividing evenly and filling each cup almost to the top.
Bake 25-27 minutes, until a toothpick (tester) inserted into the center of a centrally located cupcake comes out clean.
Cool in pan 5-10 minutes, then remove cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack.
Put chocolate peanut butter/Nutella in a small, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high 15-20 seconds. Spread on cooled cupcakes.

**Note: I used "Dark Chocolate Dreams" by Peanut Butter & Co.
It's actually Chocolate Covered Katie's fault - I would never have known it even existed if it weren't for her. Actually, she can share the blame with an old friend of mine who recently undertook what he named "The Nutella Experiment." It made me remember how much I loved Nutella when I was in high school, so when I was at the grocery store, I decided to either pick some up or read the label until I remembered why I don't eat it anymore. Then, magically, I saw this out of the corner of my eye, hanging out just above the big, shiny SALE sign. So there you have it. Moving on...

I thought up a second fun, nostalgic cupcake recipe and stood in my kitchen for about 5 minutes, trying to decide whether to keep going after the Chocolate-Covered Banana cupcakes or save some for later. In the interest of being a good neighbor (I'll explain when we get there) I've decided to refrain from baking the other cupcakes until Friday.

Dinner tonight was Roasted Heirlooms on Orecchiette, although I had to substitute medium shells for the orecchiette because I couldn't find any. I refuse to believe that only Walmart carries this pasta. Anyway, I had been wanting to use heirloom tomatoes for something ever since they made their first appearance in Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago. This is a really simple recipe, but it's soooo good (and extremely garlicky - not for the faint of heart or nose).

Roasted Heirlooms on Orecchiette
6 servings

Ingredients:
4-5 large mixed heirloom tomatoes
8-10 cloves of garlic, pressed/minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
13 oz orecchiette pasta (or shells)
10 oz jar of pesto

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Core, seed, and chop the tomatoes. Press garlic cloves over the tomatoes in a non-reactive roasting dish, then drizzle the olive oil over top. Toss well with your hands.
Roast for 30 minutes, stirring twice (at 10 and 20 minutes in).
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, return to pot and toss with pesto. Add roasted tomatoes and toss well.
Serve immediately, with olives and Parmesan, if so inclined.

I'll leave you with a shot of my gorgeous heirloom tomatoes:

bitter, like me

I cannot remember which holiday it was, though I'm thinking Christmas, that my father-in-law sent us home with some terrific leftovers, including rapini/broccoli raab/whatever you call it. I had never had it before, but it looked fun and tasty with a verdant green coloring. Besides, I love broccoli, so how different could it be? Pretty different, actually, but I was right about it being tasty.

Quite by accident, I incorporated it into dinner tonight and had forgotten that it is infamous for being bitter and an "acquired taste." Forgotten, that is, until we started eating and Mister asked what the greens were, specifically, what was so bitter. Admittedly, it is a bitter vegetable, but in kind of a latent way. You don't taste the bitterness until the second time you bite down to chew it, and by the time you've chewed 3-4 times, you realize it's actually a delightful bitterness that brings out all of the flavors around it.

If you haven't guessed yet, tonight's dinner was Curried Tofu with Mixed Baby Greens. First some action shots, then the recipe:

(precooking)
I was so impressed by my thorny pile of rapini I had to take a picture
(post-cooking)
Here is a much-wilted bowl full of rapini, bok choy, and spinach.
After cooking, all 3 greens took up less room than the rapini did before cooking!
currying the tofus!
Dinner (recipe now...)

Curried Tofu with Mixed Baby Greens
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz extra firm silken tofu (Mori-Nu)
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2 Tbsp oil
3 large cloves of garlic, pressed/minced
1" of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 Tbsp soy sauce mixed with 2 Tbsp water
1 bunch of rapini, chopped (also known as broccoli raab)
2 heads of baby bok choy, chopped
5 oz baby spinach
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1 cup jasmine rice
scant 2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1/8-1/4 tsp white pepper

Bring 2 cups water to a boil. Stir in rice, cover and simmer on lowest heat 20-25 minutes, until all water is absorbed.
Combine curry spices and salt in a small bowl. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a saute pan or large skillet. Sprinkle in the spice mixture and stir until smooth and fragrant. Add tofu and stir gently to coat, then cook over medium-low heat 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, in a deep pot, heat 2 Tbsp oil on medium. Add garlic and ginger and saute on low heat 2-3 minutes, until tender. Add rapini and cover - cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add bok choy and cook until wilter. Sprinkle in water and soy sauce, then pile spinach on top and cover to steam 2-3 minutes; stir in to greens to wilt. Remove from heat and cover.
Stir salt and white pepper into rice just before serving.
To serve, lay a bed of rice, then a layer of greens (using tongs) and top with curried tofu.
serves about 4 generously.

what makes a curry famous, anyway?

Today was very food-centered. I started the day with a tasty and very clean-feeling breakfast. I would almost say "pure" but I'm not sure how that can be applied when a butter substitute is involved. It was quite simple, really - I had run out of blueberries, but still wanted fruit in my first meal of the day. I remembered I had pluots, a hybrid of a plum and apricot, and I just couldn't see how my Stonyfield yogurt would fit, so I left it out in favor of two slices of my favorite multigrain bread (Whole Foods store brand) with just a little bit of Earth Balance spread on top for some fat. So my carbalicious breakfast was: two breads and a pluot (Mister is insisting on calling them plumpricots and I think I like that better - it's much more fun to say!). The reason I got the plumpricots to begin with was that I thought they had a fun shape - when you cut them open and pit them, they kind of look like hearts:

A few hours (and cups of coffee) after breakfast, I ate the last Tomato Rosemary Scone and headed out to buy the week's groceries. I confess, I was influenced in my decisions today...you could almost call it peer pressure, but the pressure was self-inflicted after looking at product reviews on a couple of my new favorite blogs: Chocolate Covered Katie and Vegan Eats & Treats. If you go to those blogs, it probably will not come as a surprise to you that my off-the-beaten-path additions to my grocery basket were:
Larabar Coconut Cream Bar
Larabar Banana Bread Bar
Larabar Jocalat Chocolate Mint Bar
Think Fruit Chocolate Pomegranate Bar
Clif Nectar Vanilla, Lemon, Cashew Bar
I have been known to get the Nectar bars in the past - in fact, that one is my favorite flavor...subtly sweet with the most sublime aftertaste of vanilla. What I love about the Larabars and the Nectar bar is that they each have between 3 and 5 ingredients. That's it! I'm not of the opinion that the fewer ingredients a meal has, the healthier it is, but when it comes to prepackaged "processed" foods, it's nice to see not everything has to have unpronouceable ingredients that sound more like chemicals than food. There's something beautifully ironic about turning over a Banana Bread bar and seeing these ingredients: almonds, dates, and bananas. Seriously. No (added) sugar, no flour, no corn syrup, rice syrup, etc....just fruit and nuts. I'm totally psyched. The Think Fruit bar had the most ingredients, tipping the scales at a mighty TEN. Anyway, I'll let you know what I think of the bars as I eat them.

Upon returning from grocery shopping, I ate the other plumpricot as a snack to hold me over until dinner. Just as I was getting ready to start dinner, my phone rang - because my mother has had and still has amazing timing for calling me. For Christmas last year, I had compiled some of my favorite recipes from my ever-growing collection of cookbooks and recipe websites in a small splatter-proof book for her. Tomorrow night she plans to make this amazing recipe for plum tomatoes with fresh basil and garlic over pasta and wanted to ask me a few prep questions. We talked about other stuff, too, but it just amuses the heck out of me that when people in my family have cooking questions, they come to me - 5 years ago I could barely boil water. Now my sister-in-law calls me for a zucchini recipe, my sister calls me about pomegranate molasses, and my mother wants to know if I really slice the garlic or if she can just press it.

So anyway, when I finally got to cooking, I made Satyamma's Famous Cauliflower Curry. It was very good and I got to make a crazy paste/sauce in my food processor, but it really wasn't anything all that special...so it makes me wonder what makes a curry famous? Is it one of those things where you and all your friends are planning a potluck and someone says, "Hey, Satyamma, can you make that famous curry of yours?" because you've made it so damn many times that people know you as "Satyamma with the curry?"

Anyway, the curry comes from The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. It's a charming book, written in the author's own penmanship and illustrated throughout with funny little ink sketches of food. There's even a picture of a pear with angel wings! I don't like to share other people's recipes (I hope I do a good enough job plugging for their books that you go and buy a copy to support their hard and hungry work!), but I want to give you a basic idea of what was in this nutty sauce I made in the food processor, so here are the ingredients without quantities:
shredded coconut
roasted peanuts
mustard seeds
garlic
ginger
turmeric
toasted cumin seeds
ground cloves/allspice
toasted sesame seeds
cayenne
water

Anyway, it was a good little curry, though surprisingly bland for everything that went into the sauce! Mister actually added salt to his food...we never have a salt shaker at the table.

angst hates thunder

He loves spinach, pizza, arugula, habanero doritos, hummus, and the cereal-sweetened milk left after you've eaten the Honey Bunches of Oats, but he hates thunderstorms. My poor kitty had such a traumatic day, even with Mister here to comfort and protect him, that when I returned from work he stuck his head out the door to greet me before letting me come in! He then proceeded to follow me around as I prepared dinner and stayed close to us while we ate, without begging, because Angst also does not like ginger and tonight we had Ginger Cakes with Garlic Vegetables.
It was so pretty and it tasted really good (which is kind of important). It came together pretty easily, but it's a multi-pot job, so I think it will prove easier to juggle after one makes it a few times and gets a rhythm down. Tonight was more of a scramble, but it all worked out. I had some leftover Coconut-Lime Sauce I thought about heating up to drizzle decoratively over the little ginger cakes, but I'm thinking the very pronounced lime flavor lends itself better to "carribean-style" food, rather than Asian-style fare. I may try to refine the sauce recipe in the future to make it work in a Thai kind of way, but tonight I really just didn't want to dirty one more pan and take up that fourth and final available burner on the stove.

Anyway, if you feel like getting Chinese take-out/delivery but don't feel like paying for it with your wallet or your waistline, here's the recipe (much faster, by the way, than Jambalaya or Baked Tofu):

Ginger Cakes with Garlic Vegetables (serves 4)
Ingredients:
1 box of Morningstar Farms Ginger Teriyaki Veggie Patties or Thai style burgers
3/4 cup Jasmine rice
1 1/2 cups water
1 generous Tbsp soy sauce
1 scant Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp red wine/grape juice* (see note at end of recipe)
2 Tbsp peanut oil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
cooking spray
6-8 cloves garlic, pressed/minced
2 Tbsp dark miso dissolved in an equal amount of warm water
head of broccoli, cut into florets
1 large red bell pepper, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 medium carrots, julienned

Boil the water, then add the rice and stir to distribute evenly. Cover pan and lower heat to slowest possible simmer and allow rice to steam for 20-25 minutes undisturbed.

Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables and the garlic, then heat the oils on high heat in a wok. While oil is heating, press all garlic into a small dish by itself (to think about what it's done!) and combine the soy sauce, vinegar, and wine/juice in a small jar with a lid. Add the garlic to the wok all at once and stir constantly for 30 seconds to prevent it from burning or sticking. Add the carrots, peppers, and broccoli and stirfry for about 5 minutes. Add a splash of water to prevent sticking if necessary. Shake jar and add sauce to the stirfry, cooking for another 2 minutes, then turn off heat. Allow vegetables to sit for a moment, then transfer to a serving bowl.

Spray a skillet and heat on medium-high for a minute or so. Add veggie patties to skillet - cook 5 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, rinse out the jar and put the miso and water in it and shake to dissolve. Once the miso is completely dissolved, pour into the rice and stir to coat evenly.

To serve, put a mound of rice on each plate and pat it down with the back of the spoon into a disk about an inch thick and 5 inches in diameter. Place one ginger cake atop the rice bed, then surround with the vegetables.

recipe note: I used Merlot juice by First Blush which is 100% grape juice made with the grapes grown for different wine varietals. While it is definitely sweeter than the wine it would have become, it maintains some of the characteristic dryness of the red wine so its sweetness is not overbearing. I do not know how widely available First Blush juices are - I got mine at Whole Foods and it was about $3.50 for an 11.5 oz bottle. You could use regular purple grape juice, but you might want to use less as it will be sweeter. Similarly, you could use red wine, but you might want to add a touch of sugar to sweeten the mixture.