whataya want from me?

If I could start from a decidedly non-culinary direction, I don't think I've made any secret of my love of two female vocalists.

Amy Lee of Evanescence

the incomparable P!nk

I realized something sometime in the last 48ish hours - I love them completely, equally, and for totally disparate reasons.  They each represent something I love or want to love about myself - a glorified, famous part of me.  I love Amy Lee for the ethereal beauty that she is - she looks a lot like me :) and we are both classically trained musicians.  She is rumored to be a domineering perfectionist... no comment.  P!nk, on the other hand, is the badass I want to be.  I love how raw she is and how passionately she makes each poignant point, yet with enough fire that she doesn't normally allow for the same otherworldly wallowing I find so comforting in Evanescence's music.

It all made a lot more sense in my head, so let me wrap all that up by saying that Amy Lee speaks to the part of me that is aloof, mysterious, and all too in touch with the heartbreak of this world while P!nk pulls me up by my bootstraps, kicks me in the butt and reminds me that we can take this on, as long as it's worth fighting for.

Believe it or not, this really is leading up to dinner (kind of).

Tonight I made Rice Island Casserole from Vegan on the Cheap.  

This is definitely not the first time I've made this, but sometimes, I spread my repeats so far apart that Mister forgets we've had something before.  Also, I think he somewhat depends on me taking so darn long to remake a recipe so that he doesn't have to tell me when he doesn't like dinner.

Don't get me wrong - he went back for seconds.  It might have been the second bowl that reminded him this wasn't his "favorite dinner," which is his cute little euphemistic way of saying, "I'd rather you didn't make this again."  It's also possible that he ruined his own second bowl by thinking hot sauce would be a good addition.  Either way, he got halfway through his second bowl before giving up.

I can probably take a lesson from a Sweet-n-Sour dish I made a few months ago which he helped me choose and then forgot when I served it, making a comment that he would never eat something sweet-n-sour "on purpose."  I might have even caught on by his almost violent reaction to my suggestion that I might make pineapple cupcakes for his birthday and some derogatory comment about pineapple.  I didn't, though, or I ignored it because sometimes, dinner is about what I want to eat.

In case you didn't know, P!nk actually wrote Adam Lambert's hit single "Whataya Want From Me?" and this is an incredible mash-up of the two of them singing it.  It just seemed an appropriate song considering our dinner adventures...

pineapple adventures and my IKEA kitchen

I didn't get a chance to post anything last night due to the completely hands-on experience that was dinner...and dessert! By the way, they were both positively luscious.

For dinner, I decided to make Potato Leek Soup (because I can't get enough thick, creamy potato soups!) accompanied by Sauteed Baby Broccoli with Olives and Pine Nuts, both from The Vegan Table.
My mouth is watering just looking at it! I went a little crazy with my immersion blender - most people enjoy the velvety texture of a thick, blended soup. Not my husband - he needs chunkiness. I think there were about a dozen chunks of potatoes left in the whole pot...I forget how quickly that little bugger does its job! Anyway, the leftover soup will be my lunch tomorrow, but I will not have any broccolini to munch alongside, as we finished it all up. The presentation of the whole broccolini stem is grand, but unless you want to bring your paring knife to the dinner table, I would recommend cutting the broccolini into bite sized bits before you saute it. It made for an entertaining dinner, though!

Around 11 PM, I found myself standing in the middle of my kitchen with Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World in my hands, fumbling through the pages and looking back and forth between the time apparatus and the book. Finally, Mister took it upon himself to explain to me that it is never too late for cupcakes. Our conversation ended like this:

Me: So, you want cupcakes?
Mister: Yes.

So I strapped on the apron, preheated the oven, and got all my ingredients together and whipped up a batch of these tropical sweeties:
I love pineapple upside-down cake to begin with, so the Pineapple Right-Side-Up Cupcakes did not disappoint. There is a cup of crushed pineapple in the batter itself and then you take another cup to make into this wonderful gooey topping that actually stays put once you allow the cupcakes to set in the refrigerator for a half hour.

We each had two.

Today was incredible. Well, actually, it starts in yesterday, which was the only day off my husband and I share. We got to brainstorming and scheming a little late in the day, but the end result of our toils is that I have a semi-IKEA kitchen! There's more work to do, but it will have to wait until the weekend again. By the time we're finished (hopefully by the end of this month, if not sooner), our home will look nothing like it did when we started. I would love to say I wish I had "Before" pictures to post a before/after makeover kind of thing, but honestly, there is no part of me that ever wants to remember the chaos and disaster that existed before IKEA made everything right. I'm still impressed that we fit the following things into the backseat of my Chevy Prizm:
2 decorative shelving units (for my baking stuff)
1 industrial-strength wire shelving unit (from Lowe's, for all of Mister's miscellaneous crap)
1 kitchen trolley/island
1 TV stand
1 magnetic notice board

I'm even more impressed with how much of that I was able to assemble without Mister's help (about half). Anyway, we were hungry little hippos after putting everything together, cleaning things, restocking shelves. Oh, and did I mention that my husband is Superman? Here is another list, this time of all the pieces of furniture he has removed from our second floor apartment without anyone else's assistance (he only keeps me around because I cook):
our couch
an oversized chair (Angst's, by the way, and he didn't appreciate its disappearance)
an old, solid wood drysink (think buffet/cabinets)
an old round dining table

I'm most impressed by the couch, personally. I think the people at the thrift store are, too.

Anyway, back to the hungry, hungry hippos. Mister made lunch earlier: SmartDogs on whole wheat rolls. We assembled them, with fixin's, on my new kitchen trolley, to my great delight. After all the work was done and the sun was long set, I suggested we eat dinner and since he was such a great help today, I let Mister choose from the newly posted menu on the freezer door. He chose Pasta Della California from Veganomicon.
I had never cooked with avocado before. Actually, I had never purchased, cut open, pitted, and/or diced an avocado before. That is part of the reason I chose this recipe for this week's menu - a nagging little veggie voice in the back of my head, saying, "Try it; you might like it!" What I learned from this experience is this: No matter how busy the people stocking the bins at Whole Foods look, ask them to help you find a ripe avocado. I had no idea what I was looking for, so I'm pretty sure what I came home with was NOT a ripe avocado. First, it was nearly impossible to pit. My impression was that you just cut around the pit and gently twist the two sides so they pull away. Second, I got the impression from the way Isa wrote the recipe that the flesh of the avocado was supposed to be mushy. I have heard others refer to how delightfully creamy avocados are. My avocado was neither mushy nor creamy. Live and learn!

I can hear the pineapple cupcakes calling my name...gotta run!

and the winner is....tropical oatmeal!

I am so excited about today I can barely drink my coffee. It is a gorgeous day in Philadelphia, I am off of work for three whole days, and I already have a plan how I want to spend them. There is a delightful little farmers market down the street (I love the paradox of a farmer's market in the city, especially since there is nothing but bricks and cobblestone where they host it) and it's only open on the weekend and only from 10-2, so the timeframe certainly adds to my sense of urgency. After I hit that I will head down to the Italian Market (but I'll drop off my finds first, since I live halfway in between the two), an open-air market along the sides of 9th street. I've found some pretty incredible deals there and there is one vendor who can unfailingly complete my list after I've made my way up and down the street.

Other things on my list of "fun ways to pamper me" include my inaugural trip to Cafe Fulya which looks so cozy and has some incredible treats on their menu and offer organic soy milk with their coffee/espresso drinks. Also, having heard stories from my husband, I'm dying to try my tastebuds at Turkish coffee. At the moment, I'm thinking Apricot Walnut cake, but I may go for the apple and walnut filled (huge) cookie. I've come to realize that although I love chocolate, I am more inclined towards fruity sweets these days...more on that in a minute.

Finally, the ultimate in pampering - a new salon opened across the street from my house last night. First of all, I think it is beyond cool that a salon had its Grand Opening on a Friday night (and I do mean night - it was 8pm). When I left for work yesterday morning, I took a distant peek through the front windows of the salon and I love the way it's decorated...it's really hard to describe from that short peek, so I will give a more thorough description if I spend hours in there this afternoon as I intend to.

Now, about that oatmeal.... As I mentioned, I'm trying to be a little more creative with my oatmeal this fall/winter. Yesterday, as pondered, I cooked my oatmeal in soymilk and then stirred in two chocolate caramel truffles until the melted (which, by the way, was about 2-3 stirs). It was good, definitely chocolately, but I lost the darkness of the chocolate by mixing the truffles in with oatmeal cooked in soymilk. I'm considering trying again, this time cooking the oatmeal in plain old water, then stirring in the truffles.

Today, however, I cooked my oatmeal in a half and half mixture of water and pineapple juice, then stirred in about a tablespoon of coconut flakes at the end. It was sublime. It smelled like baked goods...bread or muffins or something that you just want to eat until there's none left. Which is exactly what I did with my oatmeal, and I savored every last bite. I will definitely do this again. I realized yesterday, contemplating why I was less than in love with my truffley oatmeal, that for breakfast at least, I prefer warm fruity sweet, not gooey chocolatey sweet. I also know I prefer baking fruit and vegetable based things. Don't get me wrong, I was completely and utterly infatuated with those chocolate cookies I made from Veganomicon, but my next baking conquest will be a carrot cake (also from Isa) and I'm already getting ready to dig out my pumpkin/zucchini/banana bread recipes and my mouth is watering thinking of my apple cobbler cookies with sweet-tart chunks of fresh apple and dried cranberries competing with smooth pecans. Mmmm...I love baking season.

Anyway, the time to venture out to the markets is drawing near and I haven't showered yet, so let me share with you my Saturday through Friday menu (I've given up on defining weeks - my schedule is too liquid):

1. Minty Moroccan Mishmash (from last week)
2. Red Rice and Beans, part II (also from last week)
3. P.B. Thai
4. Roasted Heirlooms on Orecchiette
5. Hearty Peasant Soup (from wholeliving.com)
6. Polenta & Vegetable Bake (from Eating Well magazine)
7. Fiesta-dillas, with Spiced Potatoes & Green Beans (from the September issue of Cooking Light magazine)

Jocalat on one shoulder, Seitan on the other...

I decided to start sampling my treasure trove of bars today. Ordinarily, this is how my day goes, eating-wise:
breakfast
morning snack
lunch
afternoon snack (sometimes)
dinner
The morning snack is usually a piece of fruit - grapes, an apple, a pear. However, I've found that they don't hold me over very long. Usually, I have my snack about two hours into my work day, but today I knew I was going to be too busy to eat something then, so I would have to go at 1 hour into work and make it last until a few hours later when I got lunchtime. I figured a 180 calorie fruit, nut, and chocolate bar would do a better job than my grapes, so I just grabbed the first one I could reach and it was my Larabar Jocalat Chocolate Mint bar.

I have to be honest: when I opened it up and smelled it, I thought, 'I don't know about this..." and when I took the first bite, every impulse in me wanted to be completely unladylike and spit it out in my trashcan. I fought the urge to be utterly uncouth and managed to chew it up and swallow. Upon doing so, there came this kind of nice aftertaste that made me pause and say, "let's try another bite." I realized about halfway through the bar that sometimes you just need to give your tastebuds a moment to shift their paradigm. If you are expecting something chocolatey the way that a Hershey's bar or (ooohh) a Dove bar is chocolatey, you will be sorely disappointed. Once I realized that something that had dates as a first ingredient wasn't going to be creamy, it was actually a delightfully dark and bitter chocolate taste on my tongue.

By the way, that little bar got me through four and a half hours of training before I could have my lunch (leftover "black bottom" tofu).

Tonight, I had more fun with gloppy sauces and once again marvelled that I can make them without gobs of some fatty substance. None at all, actually! I made Pineapple-Tamari Braised Seitan for dinner tonight. Tamari is a japanese version of soy sauce - a little sweeter, a little more piquant, if you will. If you cannot find it (though it is widely available where I live anyway), regular soy sauce will be an adequate substitute. It didn't turn out completely as I imagined, but it was really good, and could be a great noodle dish if I made 3 times as much sauce...and with the huge can of pineapple juice I got (because apparently they don't make single servings anymore), I very easily could have!

Pineapple-Tamari Braised Seitan with Vegetables

Ingredients
2 Tbsp peanut oil, divided
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
8 oz seitan
1 1/2 cups pineapple juice
3 Tbsp tamari/soy sauce
2 Tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in 2 Tbsp warm water
4 cloves garlic, pressed/minced
1 bunch of asparagus*, ends trimmed and bias-cut
2 medium carrots, bias-cut
1 large yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
cooked brown rice

Tear seitan into bite-sized chunks with your hands. Heat 1 Tbsp peanut oil in a large saute pan; add seitan and saute 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until edges start to brown. Combine pineapple juice and tamari, pour into seitan and stir to coat. Bring to simmer, then cover and reduce heat slightly. Braise, stirring once or twice, 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the garlic and vegetables by pressing all garlic into a small bowl and placing all cut vegetables in another bowl. Heat 1 Tbsp peanut oil and 1 tsp sesame oil on high heat in a large wok or a very large pan - it is ready when the oil shimmers. Add garlic all at once and stirfry rapidly for about 15 seconds. Add vegetables and stir constantly for the first minute, and very frequently for another 2-3 minutes.
Dissolve the cornstarch in water and add to seitan mixture, then pour seitan and sauce into wok to thicken with vegetables. Stirfry one more minute until sauce is thick and gloppy. Remove from heat and serve over rice.
* Note:
Asparagus has an early and short season - usually around early- to mid-springtime. I was absolutely astonished to find not-rotten/rotting asparagus at Whole Foods so I bought it because it competes only with cauliflower for Mister's affections.
Asparagus is "ripe" when it is colorful and closed up - the tips should be tight and pointy, nothing should be "blooming," so to speak. If the heads are opening, you're better off skipping it. Also, always eat asparagus as soon after you buy it as possible - it's a finicky little vegetable without a great deal of stamina.
If you cannot find an appetizing bunch of asparagus, broccoli would make a very close substitute - as far as the stems are concerned, I can't taste a big difference in flavor, only texture.
final note: bias-cut means to slice crosswise diagonally.