celebrate tweakin'

When I first started cooking from cookbooks, I was strict to the letter.  As time went by, I found I had to tweak things a little, either because they contained onions (which make my breath sad) or eggplant or mushrooms (which make Mister sad).  The more I cooked, the more comfortable I became with tweaking, so that now I can even mix together two recipes the way an artist my blend a few paints on her pallet (though I'm usually surprised when they come out this well)...

Last night's dinner was Easy Manicotti Alla Romana from The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook.  In case you were wondering, there is actually a way to further simplify a recipe with "easy" in the title.  Ironically, but maybe not unexpectedly, the shortcut came from another recipe for Cheese Manicotti on the back of the pasta box.

Just as I was gearing up to be annoyed by the extra step (and extra time) of having to boil the manicottis first, then stuff them with the awesome filling (verrrrry carefully so they don't break apart) before covering them with marinara sauce and baking them for 45 minutes, I saw my little miracle: according to the manicotti box, I could stuff the nice, dry, rigid pasta with the stuffing without boiling it first, and all I had to do to ensure they were not still rock hard when they came out of the oven was add a cup of water to the marinara sauce!

It's so exciting when that nonsense is true.  The spinach and "cheese" filling was also quite flavorful and good.  The cookbook almost had it right without my help, but they wrote for me to add a 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese to the tofu "ricotta" so I substituted the same amount of nooch.  The final tweak involved spinach.  For reasons I will probably never know, the author of the recipe felt like it needed a ratio of 48oz of frozen spinach to 10oz of tofu.  Mister's eyes almost popped out of his head when I shared that and he was quick to agree with me that two 10oz blocks of spinach were far more fitting to the 14oz block of tofu.

Yesterday afternoon, I spent a lot of time flipping through pages and furrowing my brow and then thinking I had everything figured out until I consulted with Mister and found that I was doing it wrong.  Well, maybe not all of "it" but certainly some of it.  I figure that there will probably be plenty of people grabbing last minute Thanksgiving things on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, and I don't want to be one of them, so I wanted to plot out my Thanksgiving menu along with the regular week's menu and shop for the whole lot over the weekend.  Now seems an opportune time to share the "normal" part of the upcoming menu, since dinner came from it...

1. Cottage Pie because I still haven't made the seitan and at this point, I may just buy it.

2. Farfalle with Shallots and Chard from Celebrate Vegan, because I have been waiting to remake this for nearly a year and now I have my new cookbook.  By the way, the rest of this week's abbreviated menu comes from Celebrate Vegan so I'm not going to bother writing it again.

3. Pasta with Red Peppers and Basil because this is also a super recipe that makes Mister happy.

4. Jambalaya, because I need another jambalaya recipe like I need another beans-n-rice recipe or another pasta e fagioli recipe, but the ingredients were just so intriguing and this was a recipe I did not have the opportunity to test.

Why not, you ask?

When Dynise communicated her desires and expectations to the whole group of us testers, she requested that we make the recipe exactly as written and then make it a second time if we felt the need to tweak it.  I completely respect that, since she won't know how a recipe she wrote came out for someone else if they don't use the recipe she wrote, ya know?

As a result, I did a lot more cooking with onions than I was used to, or comfortable with, but in the course of doing so, found that it's not always a terrible thing.  In fact, being "forced" to follow her recipes without what had become a natural inclination to tweaking was delightfully education and helped me to expand my repertoire further because I used ingredients I would never choose on my own.

Nevertheless, there were many recipes I could not test because they contained an ingredient to which Mister was allergic or had an aversion.  Now that I have the cookbook in its completed form, I can find substitutes for tempeh and mushrooms so Mister doesn't end up in the emergency room or wake me from a sound sleep with his moaning and wincing.  I can sleep through a police raid outside our window but I can't sleep through the aftermath of feeding Mister tempeh.

Fortunately, my tweak-creative mind was able to find an adequate substitute for the tempeh bacon I was supposed to use in Dynise's delightful Jambalaya in the form of Hickory-Smoked Tofurky deli slices.  I just unwrapped the whole stack and "diced" the slices - it was possibly even easier than if I had used tempeh bacon with the added benefit that tonight won't be the night I'm widowed.

I got some lucky charms

When I was a kid, my mother and I had a continual struggle over one particular breakfast cereal.  My sister was frequently my accomplice and when we teamed up, we frequently won.  We wanted Lucky Charms - what kid wouldn't?  First of all, when we were children, they had a great marketing campaign, complete with animated leprechauns and colorful marshmallows.

this is the actual 1980 box design

Second of all, the cereal was almost half marshmallows!  Granted, the other half was flavorless, grainy, mushy-in-milk cereal shaped to imitate those colorful, sugary, artificially flavored nuggets of heaven, but there were ways of getting around that.

And that, friends, is why the struggle occurred.

My mother made the mistake of giving in and buying it for us once.  In days were were finished with the cereal, and what I mean by that is that we had plucked out all of the marshmallows and had no special interest in eating what was left.  Mom saw this as a colossal waste of our hard-working father's money, so she swore she'd never buy it again.

When your eyes are as big and blue as mine and your hair as pale and angelic as my sister's, you just know that isn't going to last.  Throughout my childhood and youth, the scenario repeated itself over and over - mom bought the cereal after securing promises from her two little gremlins angels that we would eat ALL the contents of the box, not just the marshmallows.  We found newer and more inventive ways of not eating the gross, grey, real cereal in the box, or eating as little of it as we could get away with.

Once, as an adult, I bought myself the much-fought-over and much-sought-after cereal and discovered two things.  First, I don't know if they improved the flavor of the NotMarshmallowBits, but it really wasn't all that bad to eat bites that contained equal amounts of cereal and marshmallows.  Second, I don't know if they changed the "recipe" for the marshmallows, but they really weren't worth all the begging.

Anyway, this post isn't about those lucky charms (believe it or not).

I got lucky tonight with the last recipe of the menu: Tanya's Asian Creation from The Garden of Vegan.  Honestly, I made this out of a stubborn desire to use the second most underused cookbook in my collection.  I sat down with the book while making last week's menu and said, "I will find one good recipe in this book so I can justify having it for a better reason than that it completes the Sarah Kramer Trilogy."

In the book, the recipe looked promising, but I'll admit, it was at this point in preparing it that I finally became convinced it might taste good.  I realized that is one of the reasons I don't cook frequently from this book - there are a lot of freaky little Asian-inspired dishes by Tanya Barnard, Sarah's writing-mate, and I just can't get into a lot of the strange ingredients she uses.  I confirmed my suspicions during dinner that Mister might leave me if I try to feed him seaweed.

Fortunately, we both got lucky because this has no seaweed or other bizarre ingredients and actually tasted pretty good.  It must have been sufficiently filling, too, because it took Mister hours to need his nightly sandwich(es).

So, the old menu done and the new menu was constructed over the course of today (yes, it took all day - I was interrupted several times by a hyper Mister who concluded that he is better off as an insomniac because when he sleeps too much [= enough], he has all kinds of energy and won't leave me alone).  Lucky for Mister, I love him and I constructed almost the whole menu with his recent requests/feedback/pleas in mind.

1. Cottage Pie - I've mentioned a couple of times now that Mister mourns the loss of classic UK pub food (which is amusing, since I'm the Greek's little Irish wife), so I've set out to try veganizing a couple of classics.  This one looked relatively do-able, so while the name of the recipe links to the original recipe, I will probably post my own version once I've determined it's worth feeding to other people.

2. Bangers and Mash - which was the original reason this began.  Mister really wants vegan Bangers and Mash and said "it's just sausage and mashed potatoes, so it shouldn't be that difficult, but there's something about it that's just so....amazing."  From the recipe I'll be loosely following, it looks like that "something special" is the gravy.  Interestingly enough, I found a recipe for Bangers and Mash in one of the cookbooks I went through tonight for the rest of the menu, but since the recipe I'm borrowing from (click the title) is composed by a true Brit, I'm going to stick with that.

3. Easy Manicotti Alla Romana from The Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook because Mister also requested more food you need to cut with a knife and can be served on a plate.  Go figure.  Anyway, I figure this combines everything that is great in MisterWorld: Italian food, food you can cut, and food you eat on a plate.

4. Sloppy Joes from The Urban Vegan, which also requires a plate, also makes Mister (and Angst, and me) happy, and cooks up super fast and easy, which is all I want in the world some nights.

5. Granada Paella, also from The Urban Vegan, even though it burns my face off the first night (the leftovers hurt less, probably because I don't heat them up) because it really does taste incredible and I've made it so many times I barely have to think about it anymore, which is another thing that's important some nights.

6. Farfalle with White Beans and Cabbage from Vegan on the Cheap because I have half a head of red cabbage hanging out in my crisper drawer and because the grocery list was getting a little long for the second week of the paycheck.

At least half of the recipes take a decent time commitment.  I wanted to take advantage of the time before Black Friday to make some longer-cooking meals because I have an idea that I will want low-effort meals for the month and a half that follows.  Someday I'll work in a position that doesn't mean December = Insanity.  This year is not that time.

cold and sleeping beauty

It almost seems inevitable that I would take a few days off after MoFo.  I love MoFo, but there is something about "obligatory" blogging that wears me out a bit.  Obviously, I chose the obligation, and there weren't really any rules about blogging every single day, but when there's such a good chance new eyes will find your posts, you don't really want to skip a night.  So anyway, sorry about all that.  I'm back!

Fortunately, some fun and exciting things (as well as self-deprecating moments of wallowing in near existential crisis) have been happening in my absence.  Why don't we pick up where I left off - Wednesday.

Wednesday, if I recall, became quite cold by the lightless hours.  This only helped me appreciate more the lovely present awaiting me on the kitchen table when I returned home from work that night: my brand new, 3rd of the limited run, Audrey coat from Vaute Couture!  I don't know if I ever mentioned that I ordered it (back in August, which got me the coat at a 45% discount), but I have been anxiously awaiting it, especially as October drew to a close and I began to anticipate and experience the bone-chilling winds of November.

This picture actually shows the Hepburn coat (big difference, I know).  The huge difference between the two is probably about 6 inches.  While the Hepburn is more similar to the coat I replaced - a wool pea-coat that stopped just above my knees - the Audrey travels to mid-calf.  This will result in an increase of warmth I probably can't even fully recognize just yet.

I haven't worn my new coat out yet because it's been quite temperate since it arrived (go figure), but it has some serious lining, so I'm sure it will live up to the claims of being wind-proof.  This was one of the deciding factors - I think the coats are gorgeous, and it's almost a rite of passage for the underground diva in me to own a couture coat, but truly, I'm just tired of shivering through a wool coat in a Philadelphia winter.

I was supposed to attend a Dia de los Muertos party Wednesday night and I spent a decent bit of time preparing for it by daydreaming about the sugar skull make-up I wanted to try for it.  Unfortunately, I forgot I was old until after I'd made, eaten, and cleaned up dinner.  By then it was 10pm, it was cold, and I had grown just enough common sense to recognize that it was too late to safely ride the El to West Philly and back.  I think the only reason Mister did not expressly forbid me to go was that he isn't my father.

Because I am a nice person, to use the words of a new boss, I agreed to work the later shift at work last night so another colleague could work early and attend an event after work last night.  As such, there were no fun dinner stories, aside from Mister and I taking turns heating up leftovers.  We ended up sitting at the table together, though, and discussing Occupy Philly, theology, and race relations until almost midnight.  He drank coffee, I drank champagne, and together we put a small dent in the bag of Halloween candy my father gave me on my way to work.

Today, after sleeping past noon and taking our time waking up, Mister and I were happily ensconced in our Day Off Routine of drinking coffee and playing on the internet when there were two short buzzes from the "doorbell."  Ordinarily, we ignore the doorbell since it's right on the street and sometimes hoodlums walking down the street think it's funny to ring a doorbell as they walk past.  Today, though, I yelled to Mister (who was fully dressed already), "Hurry, it's my present!"

Mister jumped up and ran out the door - Philly mailmen don't leave packages and don't wait more than a few seconds before deciding you aren't there even though they know full well you probably have to unlock two locks, run down two flights of stairs to unlock two more locks and run down the small alley to the street...  Regardless, because my former athlete still has it, he returned a few moments later (albeit a bit winded), smiling and holding a perfect white box with my name on it.

I hope I'm not the only woman who buys herself presents.  Maybe I should start following my dad's lead and saying they're from Santa to me.

"Santa" sent me an early Christmas gift (because I'm a really good girl) - a shipment of e.l.f. cosmetics:

• a palette of 100 shades of eyeshadow
• 12 cosmetic brushes
• eyelid primer (just in case these colors don't have the pigment or staying power to match MAC)
• "porcelain" foundation
• a 4-shade "shimmer" palette
• two eyeliner pencils and a pen (Mister said I should save money and just use a Sharpie - he doesn't realize it costs less than a Sharpie)
• make-up remover wipes (we'll see how they stand up to my Neutrogena wipes)

That was all the provocation I needed to finally get in the shower and start my day - I couldn't wait to paint my face up with all that PETA-approved, cruelty-free makeup.

this is kinda what Heaven looks like to me

I hardly knew where to begin.  Look at all those gorgeous colors!  I watched a couple online makeup tutorials for color inspiration and got to work.  I started with some black, mainly to test the intensity of pigment I was working with and I was absolutely astonished at how dark it went on with only a little dab on my new brush.  Oh, that's another thing - I have been working with the same 3-4 shapes of MAC brushes for the last 10 years (and also, all the make-up I got today costed the same as one blush brush from MAC).  It amazed me what a difference some of these new brushes made.

In the end, I was feeling like a pretty, pretty princess, so I went with a violet-fuschia shade with carbon black in the crease and some silvery-white highlighting just beneath the eyebrows.  I had a bit more trouble than I anticipated filling in my eyebrows, which made me wish I had gone ahead and included the brow pencil in my order.  There's always next time.

You can believe there will be a "next time."  Probably a lot of them.  I'll be honest - I was not expecting the quality I've seen so far.  Do me a favor - head back up to that first shot of all the items I got.  You back?   Good - now, all that stuff?  It was $36.  Last time I went to MAC I spent a little more than twice that amount and came away with 2 eyeshadows, blush, lipstick and liner.  If I had replaced my blush brush like I needed to, I would have taken that total over $100, which is actually all too standard for me.

Totally worth it.  I can barely wait to wake up tomorrow and do it all over again.

You may be thinking, "Um, yeah, so this is great, but what about the food?"  Patience, dearies - here we go!

 

After discovering that it was quite cold and windy outside during our trip to Whole Foods, I couldn't think of a better way to warm our innards than with a big pot of slow-simmer stew.  Good thing the last item left of the menu was Vegetable Lentil Stew from Vegan on the Cheap!

It was every bit as savory as I remembered it and it went well with the rustic, sour Pain de Campagne from Whole Foods I served alongside. 

Wednesday night's dinner was fun and special, but this nonsense has gone on long enough, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for that.  Let's look at what's coming up this week!

1. Pasta E Fagioli from Veganomicon, AKA My Favorite Pasta e Fagioli recipe so far.

2. Savoury Shepherd's Pie from How It All Vegan, AKA Mister's Favorite Winter Dinner.  It has been far too long since I've made this and Mister was mourning that there are no good vegan imitations of Pub Food when we were looking at a menu at an Irish Pub/Restaurant the other day.  Eventually, this will result in me trying to make a vegan version of Bangers and Mash, because that is what he truly wanted, but when I told him I put this on the menu, he was pretty darn excited.

3. Pasta Con Broccoli from Appetite for Reduction, because apparently I want to use all my cookbooks in this week's menu.  Also, because broccoli is awesome.

4. Moroccan Chickpeas and Zucchini, also from Appetite for Reduction.

5. Mediterranean Bowl from the Construct Your Own Bowl chapter of Appetite for Reduction.  As we know, I love bowls, so it was only a matter of time before I decided to try one of these.  Since they're so simple (not really a structured recipe), I have skipped these and the Sammiches/Wraps section, but we're gonna give it a go (and now you have Lady Marmalade stuck in your head.  You're welcome.).

6. Tanya's Asian Delight from The Garden of Vegan.  I feel sorry for this cookbook.  I never use it.  It looks brand new.  I just can't get into a lot of the recipes these two crazy Canadians come up with in it (really, WHY would you put diced pickles - AKA relish - in Sloppy Joes?  WHY???).  One thing that I find completely charming in that "not gonna serve it to anyone I want to impress" kind of way is how quirky and down-homey the names of most of their recipes are.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to YouTube - magical videos of makeup applications and Evanescence/P!nk are calling me.

bottom of a bottomless pit

I may have mentioned this before, but in my world, certain things simply exist infinitely, without any risk that they'll run out.  These things include dried herbs, spices, and various grains.  I know the frozen veggies run out, I know the oils run out, and believe me, I'm aware of coffee's continual escape from our cupboard. In my brain, however, there will always be cumin, marjoram, and bulgur, and in the needed quantities.

Well, there was... until tonight.

I had only one meal left on last week's menu: Curried Bulgur with Chickpeas and Vegetables from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.  It was only after I'd poured enough water to cook a cup and a half of bulgur that I realized I had barely one full cup...  I considered trying to draw out some of the water to make less bulgur, but then I realized the spice ratio would be off.  This resulted in a swap for brown rice that didn't suck but probably won't happen again.

First, though, check out how perfectly julienned these carrots are!

No, they did not come pre-cut from a bag.  Lest you think I'm bragging, though, I want to be clear that I was only able to pull off that level of perfection because of that still-super-awesome julienne peeler my mom gave me last winter.  That is truly one of my favorite prep toys.

Anyway, it all came out perfectly edible, but the rice blows up bigger than bulgur, resulting in a wider distribution of the curry spices, resulting in a slightly more bland dish.  I resisted the urge (several times) to add salt at table, instead resorting to stabbing an oil-cured olive and combining that with a mouthful of curried rice to take advantage of its almost painfully salty qualities.  Without a word, Mister was doing the same.

So with that, we'll move on to the new menu.  Welcome, new menu!

1. Vegetable Lentil Stew from Vegan on the Cheap because I saw one of my old posts highlighting this (when we'd just moved into our new home and I was sick as a dog) and I want to eat it again.  I picked up a huge corner of what must have been a monstrously large loaf of Irish soda bread at Whole Foods tonight, which I intend to cut into chunks for Mister's and my dipping pleasure.  Hopefully, he'll leave it alone until that happens.

2. Tofu Rancheros for the same reason (except for the part about bread).

3. Five-Spice Seitan and Noodles from my own twisted mind... I can't remember if I've shared the recipe previously, so I will likely include it on this making.

So, that's it - a short menu because I really wasn't all that into making a menu last night and I only need to get to Friday anyway.  And another "That's it," goes out to MoFo 2011!  If you found me this year, I'm so glad and I hope I've convinced you to stick around a bit longer.  Here's me and Angst, signing off for October and my third MoFo:

slimy noodles

Ordinarily, when I make Better-Than-Takeout Tofu Stir-fry from Vegan on the Cheap, I serve it over rice.  "Ordinarily," I say, as though I make this all the time and not just twice before.  Anyway, it's a pretty saucy "stirfry" and I'm not talking about its demeanor.  As such, when I put it on the menu, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be fun to see how this works as a noodle dish?"

I'll admit, it's because I like to eat Asian-inspired food with chopsticks and in my opinion, noodles are far more fun and far easier to eat with chopsticks than rice dishes.

Anyway, as I was cooking the tofu and veggies, I boiled half a box of linguini and once it was finished, added it to the nice, thick, goopy sauce.

It came out great!  A little messy, I'll grant you, but very tasty and I am pretty sure I will make it like this again... possibly always.  The sauce made the noodles a bit slippery, which made my eating a bit slurpy and napkin-intensive.  Mister was eating with such gusto that I asked him if he had eaten anything today.  He explained that he had, but that he had to eat the noodles quickly because they were "slimy" and wanted to fall out of his chopstick grip.  He has such a way with words.

Today was a gorgeous fall day, part of which I spent on a coffee-date with an old friend and part of which I spent shopping for the following menu:

1. Penne with Spinach and Chickpeas in Garlic Sauce from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.  I used to make this all the time so I hope my memories haven't built it up too much - I hate being disappointed!

2. Curried Bulghur with Chickpeas and Vegetables, also from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.  I really find the name of that book rather amusing.  This is another dish I made so much that I took a long break from it and the last time I came back to it, I couldn't believe it was so tasty.  Then again, I suppose there was probably a reason I used to make it so much!

3. Spicy Ragout of Vegetables and Tofu, also from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.

4. Rice Island Casserole from Vegan on the Cheap.  This recipe specifically names dark red kidney beans in the ingredients, but at least once I've substituted light-colored beans because SuperFresh is doing this weird thing where the dark kidney beans cost almost twice as much as the light ones.  Can anyone provide insight, like dark kidney beans are very rare and only grow from one bean plant located on top of a craggy mountain in Turkmenistan?  No?  What then?  The point, though, is that dark kidney beans were on sale this week (maybe they found a second bush somewhere) so I'll be true to the recipe.

5. Black Bean Soup with Kale and Rice from the Slow-Cooker chapter of Vegan on the Cheap.  I've made this once before, though, so I know the secret way to make it without a slow-cooker (hint: it involves your stovetop and a soup pot).

day dates and lazy nights

Since I'm such a sweetheart (except when I eat Mister's soup), I woke up on the first day of my serendipitous three day weekend this morning.  As usually happens on days I can sleep in a bit, I woke up an hour before I needed to in a complete panic that I was going to be late if I didn't get up right now.  Fortunately, I remembered quickly that I was off today and didn't have anywhere to be until I went to see the magnificent and persevering Philadelphia Orchestra play the first concert in their opening series.

Please forgive the blurry picture, but you can see the important bits.  The pouty young man in the lower right corner is Julian Rachlin, the violin soloist for today's (and tomorrow's and Sunday's) performance.  He is quite a performer!  He is actually only a few years older than Mister and I and I laughed a little to myself when he took the stage - I had no idea they could make nice expensive suits to imitate the growing (and somewhat disturbing) trend of skinny jeans on boys.  I discussed this with a colleague 12 years my junior - she sees no problem with boys wearing girlpants.  Call me old-fashioned, but men's and women's pants are designed differently because, frankly, men and women have different spacial needs in certain areas....

Anyway, back to the performance.  Julian was totally a rockstar - he was a pleasure to watch as he nearly danced along with the more lively parts of the music he played and had some of the most charmingly pretentious facial expressions and theatrical, dance-like movements while he was waiting for the orchestra to let him play again.

Ordinarily, when I see the orchestra (not that it's a common occurrence, though I'm trying to weasel my way into the Lang Lang concert next Saturday, what would have been Franz Lizst's 200th birthday), I prefer to sit in the balcony so I can see all of the instrumentalists, not just the ones closest to the stage front.  The seats Mister and I occupied today were the closest I have ever sat to the Orchestra and it was amazing to be able to see the faces of the performers.  In a time when the arts in Philadelphia are encumbered at best and more realistically, endangered, and in the first few days of a new contract negotiation for the players which results in "downsizing" their salaries and benefits (the Orchestra declared bankruptcy earlier in the year and is trying to keep one of the world's best orchestras afloat), it was heart-warming to see how genuinely they enjoy playing their instruments.

For any arts lovers out there, here is the concert I had the privilege of seeing this afternoon:
Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Opus 25 ("Classical)
Sibelius's Violin Concerto in D minor, Opus 47 which was magnificent
Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Opus 92 (which was featured in the movie Mr. Holland's Opus if anyone is familiar)

I loved every minute, but classical music is not really Mister's thing.  To reward him for accompanying me, we visited a new restaurant for a late lunch (resulting in no fun dinner stories, unless you want to hear about the PB&J I'm about to eat).  Zavino is a pizza and wine bar, part of the 13th Street Renaissance owed to a pair of visionary female entrepreneurs.  Despite the threatening sky, we elected to sit outside.  There was an awning to protect us when it did start to pour but we felt badly for the waitresses who brought our food (shielded by a tray over top).  We started with a tray of marinated olives and an apple and candied walnut salad, then each of us got our own pizza.  They had a Garden Pizza on the menu and when the waitress told me what was on it, there was no question what I would order: house-made marinara (spectacular) with large, thin slices of garlic, sauteed spinach and thin spirals of fennel.  It was amazing.  Even better, my evil plan worked - it started raining once we were seated and stopped when we paid the bill, allowing us to stroll home without getting wet.  Timing is everything folks.

Speaking of timing, this seems a good time to share the new menu!

1. Monk Bowl from The 30 Minute Vegan because it's been a really, really long time since I've cooked from this book and I missed a couple of the recipes.  Those follow:

2. Pasta Florentine, which, to be honest, was the whole reason I was looking through the book to begin with.

3. Put the Tex in Your Mex Chili.  I'll be honest (again).  I hate the name of this meal, as well as a lot of others in the book.  There is no need to be this cheesy - it's a vegan cookbook!  :)

4. Homey Vegetable Stew with Dumplings requires a little extra effort but is so worth it.

5. Farfalle with White Beans and Cabbage from Vegan on the Cheap.  It's a 7-meal menu and the week before payday, so I figured I should probably complete the menu with some favorites from this book.

6. Mexican Rice and Bean Bake


7. Better-Than-Takeout Tofu Stir-fry

biryani improv

It all started last night, coincidentally while I was cooking dinner.  My cell phone rang, and although I usually ignore it, I decided to see who it was.

"Hey Natalie, I'm sorry to disturb you on a Sunday night, but blah-blah-blah-building-up-to Can you work tomorrow even though you're scheduled off?"

"Uh...yeah.  Can I be off on Friday in exchange?"

"Uh.... I can probably make that work.  Does this throw a huge wrench in the works for you?"

"No, not really, but it would be great to have Friday off."

"What about an allen wrench?"

"Yes.  It throws an allen wrench in the works.  Can I have off Friday if I come in tomorrow?"

"Yes.  Thank you so much.  I owe you. At least a caffeinated beverage."

"Friday off will do just fine.  I'll see you tomorrow."

And that's the story of why I was working today, instead of sleeping in and drinking coffee and eventually going food shopping, but mostly, having enough energy to properly prepare the Vegetable Biryani from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant.

I didn't get a very good picture, but rest assured, it tasted much better than it looks.  Authentic?  Probably not - I skipped a few steps and improvised a few others (ghee is not exactly vegan), but it came out just fine and finished cooking much sooner than it wanted to.

I made an excessive amount of rice because I was supposed to layer it with a veggie filling before baking it for a half hour.  I'm sure it would have been even more mouth-wateringly delicious if I had done that, as I have in the past, but tonight, after working due to a big street festival right outside our store encouraging higher-than-average foot traffic, I just didn't have the energy to go through the entire process, so instead, I just heaped the rich veggie curry on top of brown basmati rice.

It was delicious and  hit the hungry spot just fine.

I did construct the "rest" of my incomplete menu last night.  Mind you, the only reason it was incomplete is because I meant to be off today and then not again for a week.  Now I'm just trying to make it through Wednesday (I work later on Thursday, so Mister's on his own).

1. Pineapple Curry Tofu from the most recent issue of Clean Eating magazine.  I used to buy these every time they hit the newsstand, then contemplate whether to subscribe, then end up not subscribing because of how meat-centric most recipes are and how illogically protein-focused the magazine can be sometimes.  Nevertheless, I agree with its most basic tenets so I always end up buying it again.  It's probably been about a year, though, so I figured I'd look again and this issue had a decent number of "safe" recipes.

2.  Southwest Meatballs with Warm Corn-Black Bean Salsa, also from Clean Eating.  The recipe in the magazine includes instructions on constructing the ground turkey-based meatballs, but I'm just going to buy some Nate's at Whole Foods tomorrow.

3. Vegetable Chili Bowl from The Low GI Cookbook, contributed by one of Australia's National Treasures.  I've made this once before and remember being pretty impressed with how it came out.

a [sur]prize in every box!

I had a revelation this morning as I was getting out of the shower.

Angst always sits in the bathroom to keep me company while I shower in the morning (or afternoon, on days off sometimes).  As I was stepping out of the shower, I asked him if it was bad that I was already actively anticipating the end of the work day I had not yet begun, purely because I have tomorrow off?  See, I just started my job a month ago and I am very happy there.  However, here is the discovery Angst and I made this morning:

No matter how much you enjoy your job, you still prefer your days off.


I could be wrong.  Some people find their jobs positively completing and I know there are folks the uninitiated refer to as "workaholics" who find their job so fulfilling (or inescapable) that they would be perfectly happy to just take a dinner break and keep working into the night.  I enjoy my job enough to work on things far into the night, but I prefer to do so in the comfort of my own home, until Mister tears me away from my computer and reminds me we have a bed, too.  Nevertheless, I was very happy to finish up this evening a little after 6 and once again, magically get home before the sun fully set.

I love how much time my new schedule/shorter commute allows Mister and I to spend lingering over dinner or hanging out before I even start heating a pot.  I love that even though we had a nice little conversation and then I talked to my sister for about 20 minutes while emptying the dishwasher and putting various other things where they belong, I could still take my time and make dinner at my pace - no need to rush.  After dinner, Mister made decaf coffee and we sat and talked about my sister's new boyfriend and people getting pregnant and trapping themselves in a situation that looks like "mandatory marriage" - and by the way, those two things are unrelated - Breathe, Mom!  Anyway, we just kind of babbled at each other about the obscure things we find interesting and when we excused ourselves, it wasn't even 10!

We had the last meal on the last menu, Warm Chickpea Ragout with Swiss Chard, Carrots and Harissa from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy.

We've had this several times before, but Mister had absolutely no recollection of it.  It did taste a little different - a little more savory, which added the benefit of controlling Harissa's heat.  The only thing I could think of that I did differently was that I used a half cup of the leftover garlic broth, which is pretty pungent.  I also added a generous amount of salt and I can't remember if I've done that in the past, since I usually only mess with things that have a specified quantity, rather than the disgruntling "to taste."

It was very tasty and I love how harissa allows me to eat spicy things without my entire face burning off in the process.

Anyway, completely by coincidence, my menu ran out the night before my day off (I wasn't originally supposed to be off tomorrow), so let me share a short menu with you - a mini-menu, if you will.  Full-sized version will be introduced over the weekend.  A recent comment reminded me just how well loved my Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant cookbook has been over the years - in fact, I'm pretty sure that was a primary guide for me as I learned how to cook.  Pages are dog-eared and stained, some stick together a little at the yellowing edges, and favorites have been marked along with "someday I have to try this" recipes.  I've been neglecting the book for years, so I decided to pull it out for this week's menu. I had thought that I'd been neglecting it because a lot of the recipes take a while to cook, but I discovered two other things that have probably been deterring me unconsciously.

First, the recipes are built for a restaurant, and are therefore, huge.  I don't need that much food and I don't feel like figuring out how to divide everything to only make enough for me and Mister and Leftover Lunch.  Second, and probably more importantly, there are very few vegan recipes and the tweaks required would probably strip away the charm of the original recipe.

"Hey! I veganized a recipe that someone converted from a meal full of meat into a vegetarian recipe."  Wow.  That's great.  That sounds like cousins who can legally marry, barely, to me.  So, with all that in mind, I chose the following three irresistible recipes, all from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant.

1. Vegetable Biryani - I have not had many moments in my culinary "career" as proud as the moment I made this the first time.  After years of spaghetti and veggie burgers, this was a gourmet achievement of the highest order.  It's actually really easy, but I haven't made it in a while because I have an even easier recipe with fewer steps (and fewer pots).

2. Pasta e Fagioli because hey, what's one more Pasta e Fagioli recipe when you're keeping a secret tally of how many Pasta e Fagioli recipes you have to how many Beans 'n' Rice recipes you have?

3. Harira, which is a huge pot of African soup which Muslims traditionally eat to break the fast of Ramadan.  We are neither African nor Muslim and if we were fasting, Mister would need a lot more than soup to break the fast, but this was one of the first soups I ever made that did not involve a can-opener, so you can consider this a little prideful trip down Memory Lane.

My fingers are cold.  I think it's time for a Cosmo.  See you tomorrow!

bring on October!

October is my favorite month for so many reasons.  I think it may also be Amy Lee's favorite month, because she released the second Evanescence album in October 2006 and now, after an agonizing 5-year hiatus, she is releasing a new Evanescence album with an almost completely new line-up on October 11, and yes, I have it pre-ordered through iTunes.

That's only part of the reason I can't wait for October to start.  Yes, I've been eagerly awaiting this album while covering my ears with my hands and singing "LA LA LA LA LA" any time someone gossiped about the band breaking up for the last 5 years or so, and the rumors were not helped by the fact that we actually know one of the former band members and were aware that he had moved on to another band.  However, I refused to believe a talent like Amy Lee's could be squandered, so I'm glad I was right.

There are a few other reasons I'm psyched for October - two can be found on amazon.com, one will remain a surprise a little longer.  I mentioned before that Isa has a new book, Vegan Pie in the Sky, and I couldn't be more on the edge of my seat waiting for Dynise's book, tested in part by yours truly, Celebrate Vegan.  It was due to come out the week after the new Evanescence album, but when I visited Amazon, they're saying it isn't being released until November now and that makes me a little sad.

The point of all that really is this: tonight we ate the last meal on the menu, which meant I had to construct the new menu tonight.  Did you catch that?  I had to construct the menu?  Isn't this something I have raved about in the past as one of my favorite parts of each week?  Haven't I reveled in flipping through pages of countless cookbooks to find the perfect combination of meals to get through this next week?  Had to?


I realized after dinner that I was not at all excited about menu-planning this week and wasn't terribly psyched for it last week either.  It shouldn't take a brain surgeon to figure out why - I'm bored of my current cookbook collection.  To my credit, I've been a very good (=frugal = freakishly cheap) girl this year and I haven't bought a new cookbook all year.  Considering we're nearing the tenth month of the year, I'd say I'm doing pretty good.  Yet, it couldn't last forever.  I had a little help with variety in the beginning of the year, when I had just gotten Appetite for Reduction and had a constantly renewing source of recipes I actually had to cook for recipe-testing for Dynise.  I've been slowly stagnating since then, and just recently I've realized that I've been through my cookbooks so many times, I can't even look at them with fresh eyes anymore.

Lucky for all of us, there's a surprise ending, but let's talk about dinner first:

I will probably always think it's funny to call this "Hooker Dinner," but that doesn't change my love for the sweet-salty blend of flavors and textures that makes up Pasta Puttanesca from Vegan Express.  I served it with garlic bread so we could scoop up the leftover tomatoes and olives from our bowls after the pasta was in our bellies.

Mister has been kindly picking up the Superfresh leg of my usual shopping adventures ever since I've been hitting up Trader Joe's on the way home from work.  As you can imagine, some interesting things have been finding their way into our home.  He's been shopping with me enough times to know that the goal is almost always to find the lowest price on a product, unless to do so would compromise its quality.  I can only imagine that some kind of pang of pride for his adolescent home, New Jersey, pulled the jar of New Jersey tomato sauce into the basket by his heart strings.

It wasn't very good.  I shouldn't say that.  It was clearly very fresh and made from real ingredients.  I would liken it to making a batch of homemade tomato sauce, from the dicing of the tomatoes...to the part where you make a kind of weak, watery gazpacho with them, rather than a thick, chunky sauce.  I had to let the sauce simmer a little more lively and longer than the recipe said to allow it to reduce acceptably, and I also felt inclined to add some savory flavors to complement the olives.

It worked out well enough - both our bowls went into the sink pretty clean.

Now for the happy part of menu planning.  When I went over to my bookshelf, half-heartedly looking to see if there was a book from which I haven't cooked in a while and which interested my palate, I noticed something I've been keeping in the corner of my eye for months:

When Mister and I moved in February, we got rid of a ton of stuff - we moved just as much to have a good reason to purge as to get away from that apartment.  We ended up taking a bunch of books to a used book dealer who was happy to write up a credit slip for us to use to buy "new" books from them.  We started out with nearly $100 worth of credit (which means we gave them a lot of books and that they are generous with their appraisals).  One afternoon I went browsing in there and found the gem pictured above.

I already had two Moosewood cookbooks and one of the things I like to make the most from them are the slow-cooking stews and soups, so I scooped this up.  Unfortunately, it was not soup weather, so I just put it aside on the shelf to wait for cooler times.  Well, Saturday greets October with a chilly, chilly day and even the rest of this week isn't supposed to see temperatures out of the low to mid 70s, so I think I'm safe to start investigating that new treasure.  And so, my first adventures will be....

1. Autumn Minestrone from Moosewood Restaurant Soups & Stews Deck.  I plan to serve it with a long, crusty loaf of Italian bread and a bowl of olives.  (Would anyone have found it completely offensive had I written "a long, hard loaf" of bread?  Sorry, too much Anne Rice - she gets a little carried away sometimes.)

2. Mediterranean Stew, also from the card deck.  This chunky pottage will be accompanied by Roasted Cauliflower and Olives from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy, because I figure Mister will respond better to the first week with not just one but two soup dinners on the menu if cauliflower is involved.

3. Warm Chickpea Ragout with Swiss Chard, Carrots and Harissa, also from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy because hey, I had the book open!

4. Hoisin-Braised Tempeh Tofu and Chinese Vegetables, also from VTF&E, but the twist here is that I've never actually made this one before.  The reason is because I usually employ this book when I'm either anticipating being brain-dead or already am brain-dead.  As such, I've managed to complete avoid the logic that would make a person say, "well, yes, my husband is deathly allergic to tempeh, but I can substitute tofu."  I'm kind of excited about this one so I'll let you know how it turns out.

5. Vegetable and "Sausage" Skillet from an old issue of Eating Well magazine.

6. Seitan and Broccoli with Pantry BBQ Sauce from theppk.com.  I had an incredible experience with the recipe here, so I thought it was worth another go.

monday =/= spanakopita

I don't know what made me think Spanakopita on a Monday night was a good idea, but last night before I went to sleep, I pulled the phyllo sheets and frozen spinach out of the freezer and let them sit in the fridge to "warm up" while I was at work today.

I'm still getting used to my new job and its different patterns, so I guess I just had no idea how busy a Monday could be until I was halfway through it.  It was a relatively stimulating kind of busy, the kind that involves you in enough projects and interactions that before you know it, it's nearly closing time.  Still thinking I was hot stuff, even though I nearly fell asleep at least three times on the short bus ride home, I pulled the thawed phyllo and spinach out of the fridge and put them on the counter while I opened up The Accidental Vegan to find the recipe.

After reading through the recipe twice, I took a long and meaningful look at my unfrozen prey... and put them back in the fridge.  The recipe is probably very simple, but it just had entirely too many steps and too many warnings for a Monday night.

Thinking fast and presenting myself with a mini-basket challenge, I surveyed the miserable, TimeToGoShopping contents of my fridge and freezer, then pulled out La Dolce Vegan, grateful that I picked up some potatoes to roast with the spanakopita I didn't make tonight and made Aloo Mattar for what I believe is the first time.  I was missing a tomato, but I couldn't see how it would make a big difference.

Savory, squishy potatoes with little sweet green peas, bursting with a sweet flavor made for a fun combination.  I can't see this becoming one of the "regular" curries I make from this book, but we'll certainly add it to the Perfect Portions series and I'm sure it will find its way onto our table again.

Speaking of things finding their way onto our table...

1. Chana Masala from Vegan Express, accompanied by a roasted green thing (probably asparagus, possibly broccoli) because I can't deal with the idea of just eating chickpeas and tomatoes for dinner.

2. Pasta Jambalaya, also from Vegan Express, because this is fun and we haven't had it in a while.

3. Pasta Twists with Cauliflower and Spinach, also from Vegan Express (can you tell I feel the need to make and eat dinner in a short amount of time?  Just because I'm getting home from work earlier doesn't mean I'm not starving after an active day...)  Anyway, I'm pretty sure we haven't had this before and I can't imagine why, since cauliflower and spinach are happy things.

4. Pasta Puttanesca, also from Vegan Express, because I absolutely can't recall the last time I made this.  Okay...now that we've got all the pasta covered...

5. Sloppy Joes from The Urban Vegan.  There are two reasons I chose this - first, it's so easy and so tasty and cooks up so fast.  Well, I guess that's kind of three reasons, but we'll say one because the second reason is that I am super stoked for Celebrate Vegan to arrive in bookstores and online retailers everywhere on October 18th!  So, I'm ramping up my palate for more tasty recipes from Dynise, in other words.

6. Granada Paella, also from The Urban Vegan to revisit an old favorite.  I was actually torn between this and the Tunisian Soup, but since it's just beginning to be soup weather and everything is still unpredictable, I decided to go with BurnMyFaceOff Paella instead of trying to serve Mister soup on some surprise 80-degree day...

Anyway, we may try again for the Spanakopita tomorrow, or it may wait until Thursday, but either way we'll  have a fun recap of that adventure in the near future!

I hurt all over

When I started working at the place I just left, about four and a half years ago, the hardest thing for me to get used to was sitting.  I just sat, tethered to a phone, all day.  Yes, I had a couple of breaks, and believe me, I used that time to move around as much as possible, but for the most part I just sat.  The reason this was so difficult for me was because I had been unemployed for nine months, during which time I got into wandering around the city when I wasn't begging people to hire me.  Before I was laid off, I had a pretty physical job - moving at least every hour to go from this room to that or this house to that school.

Conversely, I got a little too good at sitting over the last four years, and my 3 hours daily of commuting did not help.  I got comfortable and besides, sitting so much allowed me to pull off dangerously high heels (which I have consequently forgone in my new position...at least for now).  Now?  Well, my whole body hurts.  I have not had to stand up for 8 hours in a row for....well, probably 15 years, actually.  15 years ago, I worked retail between Black Friday and mid-January, but my body was 15 years younger and able to handle the stress - in heels!  Right now, I would love a good massage and a bottle of aspirin.

My new job had a Grand Opening celebration this weekend with all hands on deck from Friday until tonight.  Everyone was working the floor, including the President, Marketing Director, and a bunch of other people who usually spend a decent bit of time sitting at their desks.  I'm sure at least some of them are hurting, too.

Anyway, I don't have a whole lot to say about food.  I'm hoping to have some good stories next week so I can convince myself to write more.  I'm kind of in this place where I'm re-evaluating Angst Loves Spinach and trying to see what's important and where we're going here.  I started the blog in the hopes of developing myself as a creative chef and as an outlet for my love of writing.  I do love to write and I have had a ball the last two years doing so, but I've definitely gotten away from the original intention - to create recipes, not just babble about the recipes other people made up and I cooked.

I'd like to flatter myself into believing that at least a few people are reading these words in something akin to horror and thinking, "gee, I hope she's not ending the blog..."  If that is going through anyone's mind, let me give a word of comfort - that is not really my intention.  Here is what I am hoping for: I am currently adjusting to my new job and my new schedule.  Once I am adjusted, once my body finds a new strength so I'm not bone-tired when I get home from work, I will find that I have a ton more time.  My goal is to use at least some of that time to become more creative - set goals for myself, force myself to create something at least once a week.

I haven't heard anything (yet) about this year's VeganMoFo (and I truly hope it will occur again this year, but I certainly do not have the time or energy to be one of the initiators/organizers).  The last two years, this event has had a considerable influence on my posting and I'm hoping it will re-ignite the fire in my kitchen again this year.  I'm fairly certain that I will be up to speed and as comfortable as I'll ever be with my new job by the time it starts, so I want to make a schedule of goals to meet that month, culinarily speaking, so that I can spread my wings and stretch again.  I always feel such a sense of accomplishment when I come up with my own recipes, but lately I've been way to tired to do anything but follow someone else's [fabulous] recipe like a little KitchenZombie.

Nevertheless, I will, as I do every week, share the coming week's menu with you (as well as my joy that my new job is only a few short blocks from Trader Joe's, so I'll be stopping there after work tomorrow to pick up supplies):

1. Spanakopita from The Accidental Vegan with roasted fingerling potatoes.  I have never made this recipe.  I will admit, I'm a little nervous about making this recipe, the way I am always nervous when I try to make something Mister knows from his childhood of good eats made with love by a Greek father or a half-Sicilian mother.  My mother-in-law is getting awfully good at making Spanakopita from YiaYia's recipe, under her tutelage, so to go it alone like this is both invigorating and terrifying.  You can bet there will be a post the night I make this!

2. Seitan Pepper Steak, also from The Accidental Vegan.

3. Cajun Red Beans and Rice, also from The Accidental Vegan, because I used all of my self-control last week when I made the menu to not include this, since I had another beans-n-rice recipe on there, but this week, This is the beans-n-rice recipe.

4. Coconut Curry Rice from Vegan on the Cheap.

5. Baked Ziti, also from Vegan on the Cheap with sauteed cauliflower and broccoli.  This is also a new recipe (I believe - sometimes I space makings so far apart I forgot I made something before!), but when I was looking over the menu, I realized we had a lot of cuisines represented (Greek, Japanese, Cajun/Latina, Indian), but no Italian.  If I hadn't come upon this when I did, and if it hadn't looked as easy as it does, we'd have been reprising Isa's Pasta e Fagioli for the 100th time this year.

what I hate

Hate is kind of a strong word, but honestly, there is one cooking "chore" I despise above all else.  I've mentioned this in passing a long time ago, but there is no prep step I hate more than pressing water out of spinach.

Hate it.

Unfortunately, there are at least a few recipes in this world [and my recipe repertoire] which require this soul-smothering step.  Tofu-Spinach Lasagna from The Vegan Table is one of them.  Fortunately for me, the effort is eventually worth it, since this is a flavorful, aromatic, and actually quite simple dinner to prepare.  Due to extensive prep, you definitely can't make this on a rushed night, but I'm sure you could prepare it and then pull it out of the fridge or freezer for a quick, easy meal another night.

Back to how much I hate pressing excess water out of spinach, though, because that's the point.  I've done all kinds of things to avoid this step in the past, one of my favorites (though not terribly efficient) is "dry frying" the spinach until all the water evaporates.  Tonight, though, there was no getting around the need to do it "right."  So there I was, standing over my kitchen sink with the spinach in a colander, pressing the back of my wooden spoon against it to get the ever-so-slightly satisfying sloop of water being squeezed out.  I was contemplating how much I hate doing this and a brilliant thought popped into my head.

I didn't have my Tofu Xpress the last time I had to "press" the water out of my spinach, but when I got this bugger for Christmas, I remember the little instruction manual (yes, I do read them) made an off-handed comment about also pressing water out of spinach.

I guess other people hate doing that as much as I do.  So I gave it a shot.  It was so efficient, and the best part was, I didn't have to do anything!  So, while that was pressing, I crumbled the tofu and sprinkled the soymilk, lemon juice, basil, salt, and garlic in the food processor and made "ricotta," to be combined with the waterless spinach.

After baking a little more that 40 minutes, my lasagna looked delicious and my kitchen smelled delicious.  Mister and I put away about half that pan.

MMmmmm.....

So, I start my new job on Tuesday, and I have some shopping to do before then.  My purse is starting to show its age, as are a great many of my clothes.  I hate shopping.  I do.  I'm sorry - I know I sound dreadful, but I just can't stand shopping.  I want to like it, really I do, and maybe this weekend I'll finally have some Estrogen Awakening and find that I could go shopping every day.  That would really help me get a new purse, a few new items of clothing, and a pair of shoes in which I won't break my ankles walking from the bus to the door of my new job.  That would be a little embarrassing, and my healthcare doesn't kick in for three months, so the 4.5-inch Carlos Santanas have to go.

I also have to go food shopping.  That is generally far less traumatic.  How's about a menu?

1. Rotini with Spicy Vegetable Ragu from Vegan on the Cheap.  It's been a while since I consulted this cookbook, but I figured it might be a wise choice since I'm between an old paycheck and a new one...

2. Savory Sausage and Pepper, also from VotC.

3. Better-Than-Takeout Tofu Stir-Fry, also from VotC.  I needed to get a different flavor profile in there - this should do it!

4. Salsa Rice and Red Beans also from VotC.

5. Yakisoba from The Accidental Vegan because I also haven't played with this book in a while and in case you didn't notice, I'm sticking to familiar stuff this week.

6. Kedgeree also from The Accidental Vegan.

rock you like a hurricane

So, hopefully, I can write this post and put it live before we lose power.  Although it doesn't seem that bad, the lights have flickered and everyone else I know seems to be losing power, except for two insane friends who went out to dinner in a hurricane warning.

You're welcome.

Anyway, it's been a soggy, drippy, noisy day so far and the fun is just beginning - apparently the real good stuff is coming in about an hour or so.  I had a glorious day of being trapped in my apartment (which, after spending 13 hours a day outside of it for the last 4 and a half years is actually quite okay), drinking cups (yes, multiple!) of New England Chocolate Cappuccino coffee and eating Pretz-a-bagels, which Mister and I spied at Superfresh last night and could not resist bringing home.  I'm also 100 pages into the second reading of an Anne Rice novel old enough to be of drinking age if it was a person.  We also got a call from Mister's sister with fabulous news.  I won't tell you what it is, but here is Mister's stunning response:  "Do you know what flavor?"

Since I do anticipate losing power, I'm going to fill you in on our incredibly tasty dinner, the new menu, and then I'm going to pour some champagne and return to the Mayfair family for some good old-fashioned, time-traveling, imagery-overload fun.

I was planning to make the longest-cooking Jambalaya recipe I have, but then I realized that without the need for work-lunches this week, I didn't want that many leftovers while we were still working through the ones in the fridge.  So, instead, I pulled out The Urban Vegan to make the Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Spinach curry.  I had some doubts about this recipe primarily because I was already pretty happy with the Isa-recipe I have from VwaV for pretty much the same meal.  I also was a little leery of her description, in which she really plays up what she claimed was a "creamy" character of this curry.

Honestly, the only curry I have ever eaten that I would call creamy involves coconut milk or yogurt (real or soy, depending on when I made it).

Mister and I unanimously agree (which is, of course, quite a challenge...) that I stand delightfully wrong. This curry is incredible and it is creamy for no good reason.  It might possibly be because I couldn't find a 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes so I just used a 15 oz can of tomato sauce, but it's not like I used prepared sauce or anything.  It truly seemed attributable to the silky spinach and creamy chickpeas.  Additionally, this recipe used a fresh chopped tomato, which I think cut down on the acidity usually unavoidable in canned tomatoes.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, this is one more reason everyone should own The Urban Vegan.  And hey, as long as you're on Amazon ordering that, you may as well see if you can qualify for free shipping by adding Mama Pea's book.  Then, after that transaction is complete, you can pre-order Celebrate Vegan and Vegan Pie in the Sky - I figure that since they're both due out in October, within a week of each other, maybe they'll ship together and you can get the supersaver free shipping on them, too.... but even if you don't, if you follow all of my instructions you'll at least end up with four killer cookbooks that didn't kill anything....

On to the menu!

1. Orecchiette with Cherry Tomatoes and Kalamata Tapenade from VWaV - I'm pretty sure that will be tomorrow's dinner since it's been hanging in since last week and the cherry tomatoes and fresh parsley might band together for a mutiny soon.

2. Chickpea Cutlets from Veganomicon with Mashed Potatoes.  I figured I can do some slower cooked meals this week since I don't have to worry about starting at 9PM or later.

3. Seitanic Red and White Bean Jambalaya, also from Veganomicon and also awesome and slow-cooking.  I'm just going to let this one stew for hours, literally.  It's going to be incredible.

4. Pasta Della California, also from Veganomicon.  This one will wait until my rock-hard avocado ripens a little more.

5. Tofu Spinach Lasagna from The Vegan Table.  Truth be told, I've wanted to make this for quite a while, but it requires a bit more energy that I feel like exerting at 9pm and on the weekends, no matter how grand my aspirations may be, I get lazy and want nothing to do with that kind of project.  Normal people can just stir up a tub of ricotta....I have to turn a block of tofu into "ricotta."  Fortunately, the results are so worth it.


6. Penne Arrabbiata, also from The Vegan Table.  This was dinner last night and a few bites in, I determined it will also be Mister's lunch this weekend.  I had the good judgement not to add all the red pepper flakes prescribed in the recipe, but I still added too many for my tender Irish tongue.  Mister, on the other hand, loved it and dutifully had two bowls last night and one for lunch today.  I swilled the last of my Malbec to quell the pain.

Alright, I got through the post without losing electricity, so mission accomplished.  As a reward, I'm going to eat a few squares of dark chocolate, drink rose champagne, and read my book.  Enjoy your evening and if you're on the East Coast, stay safe!