pepperpot weather

The weather forecast said there was a chance for snow on Christmas Eve.  The weather map showed a contradicting and disheartening green over Philadelphia, indicating that we would have to make due with rain for Christmas.  I still spend every December hoping for a white Christmas, even though I can count the number we've had on one hand, so imagine my delight when I looked outside around 5pm on Christmas Eve and saw fluffy white flakes of real snow falling steadily from the sky!

It snowed but didn't stick, which was fine.  I was happy to see some snow on the actual ground when we made our journey an hour outside of the city to spend Christmas Day at my parents' house.

Today it was dark and gloomy and freezing cold with a bit of happy white snow in the morning that lasted about 10 minutes before turning into big globs of miserable cold rain.  In my little isolated world that unemployment creates, this was the perfect way to spend the day after Christmas, but I'm sure everyone who had to travel to work disagreed with me.  Mister and I drank plenty of warm coffee and stayed cozy while trying to be at least somewhat productive, but eventually, the chill invaded our home and my bones.

I hid in the bed for about 15 minutes before Mister found me... and decided to hide with me.  We enjoyed our warm little cave a little longer than we intended because warm + cozy = accidental nap.  Once we forced each other out of that dangerous nest, I decided dinner was probably a good idea.  I was totally fixated on making a pepperpot.

I wanted something rich and hearty, something that needed time to cook, because it was just a slow-cooking kind of day.  I have a recipe for a pepperpot stew, but I wanted something with texture, something that we could really sink our teeth into, something that felt warm and nourishing.  Coincidentally, it turns out pepperpot is a Christmas food, entirely because it does require a good amount of time to cook correctly.

Post-Christmas PepperPot
about 5 servings

2 Tbsp olive oil
14 oz extra-firm tofu, cubed
1 tsp salt + a sprinkle
1 tsp smoked paprika + a sprinkle
black pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp vegan worcestershire sauce
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
15 oz petite diced tomatoes, undrained
cooked rice to serve (I used Basmati)

First, drain the tofu and gently squeeze out as much water as you can with your hands.  Don't worry - you won't get it all, you just don't want it dripping all over your cutting board.  Once you've squeezed "enough" water from the tofu, cube it and lay it over 3-4 paper towels to drain a bit while you wash your veggies and peel your garlic.

Make no mistake, I very specifically had my mind set on making something with tofu tonight.  As a quick aside, for the past year that I've been enjoying my All-Clad cookware, one thing only has marred my delight; trying to cook tofu in stainless cookware is kind of like supergluing a little green army figurine to your bathtub and then trying to push him loose with your Daisy razor... not happening.  So I've been cooking my tofu in my old Cuisinart nonstick saute pan and transferring it to the other food once there's enough liquid in the pan to prevent an adhesive reaction.  Not the end of the world, but it's just another [unnecessary] pan to wash.  Enter my Christmas present: a nonstick 4-qt All-Clad saute pan.

Anyway, once all your veggies are ready to be chopped, heat the oil in whatever pan makes you happy (but it should hold at least 4 quarts) on medium-low heat.  It's ready when you plop a cube of tofu into the oil and it sizzles.  Add all the tofu and make sure it is in one layer, give the pan a little shake to make sure the oil is evenly distributed, then cover and cook undisturbed for about 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, stir the tofu so the cooked side is showing (which means an uncooked side is now facing down in the pan), give it a minute, then sprinkle a little bit of salt and a little bit of paprika over the tofu and mix well, until evenly coated with seasoning.

Stir in the celery and garlic, cover and cook for another 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid burning.

Stir in carrots and both bell peppers, cover and cook for 3-5 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes, teaspoons of salt and paprika, as well as your preference of black pepper, and the worcestershire sauce. Stir very well to ensure the seasonings have coated everything in the pot.

Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low.  Set your kitchen timer (or whatever far more technologically advanced device you may have) for 25 minutes.  If you're using white Basmati or Jasmine rice, now is the perfect time to cook it.  This way your pepperpot and your rice will be ready simultaneously.

It was so good.  It was exactly what I wanted it to taste like.  Honestly, I could have happily just eaten the tofu and given Mister the veggies (though they were also very good) because the seasoned juices from the peppers and tomatoes perfectly braised the tofu to exactly the flavor and texture I was craving. This is a great wintertime meal and I hope you make it and enjoy it and remind yourself that you can always go back and have more later (no need to continue the holiday habit of stuffing oneself until bursting!).

partners in crime

Once upon a time, long ago and far away, I could burn water if I tried to cook.  My mother tried to explain to me that cooking is as easy as following a recipe, but I couldn't be bothered to read and prepare food simultaneously.  When I moved into my first apartment, I was somewhat skilled at Minute Rice, frozen chicken nuggets, and stovetop mac & cheese (involving packets of impossibly orange "cheese product").  I was also pretty skilled at ordering take-out and delivery.

Oh yeah, ramen noodles - I was a champ with those.

Anyway, when I met Mister, we usually went out for food, occasionally got a pizza after work, and once in a while, he'd cook something up.  Once I got this romantic notion that I would make him dinner.  I set the table with my parents' special china, crystal glasses, and lit some candles, then served the most impressive meal I could make at that time: chicken nuggets, Minute Rice, and Campbell's chunky soup in the Potato Cheese variety.

I look at that "menu" now and understand why Mister didn't let me cook again for at least two more years.  I usually credit two things with me learning how to become the gourmet chef I pretend to be today: losing my job and therefore having all day to prepare dinner, and several great cookbooks gifted to me by my husband's mother, specifically Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant.  Let's put a little timeline together, though:

Summer 2001 - Mister and I share our first kiss, become generally inseparable.
Winter 2002 - Mister becomes a vegetarian, forsaking meat and confusing the heck out of me
Summer 2002 - I join Mister in ceasing animal consumption
October 2002 - move out of my parents' house and into my ghetto apartment.  No takeout worth risking my life for, so I learn to cook...kind of.  General rotation at this point: pasta with red sauce, veggie lo mein, veggie burgers with fries, mixed veggies on rice.  Just mix and repeat.
blahblahblah
June 2006 - get laid off, have tons of time to cook, suddenly grow my gourmet wings.

Do you see that huge gap?  Do you really think we lived on a diet of mixed veggies with rice, pasta and sauce, pizza and veggie burgers for four years?  No, we didn't.  Somewhere in there, Mister taught me some tricks and helped me figure out this crazy cooking thing.

See, I don't work all day and then come home and cook us dinner because Mister can't or is unwilling to.  I come home and cook dinner because I enjoy cooking and it helps me unwind.  Mister has offered many times to make dinner, but he knows I enjoy it.  He does offer his assistance from time to time - especially where mexican/southwestern cuisine is concerned.  I never would have known that you can't eat chili without tortilla chips and that using a fork is a sin but a spoon?  Well, that's straight-up sacrilegious.

Tonight, as I was dicing a pepper for Tofu Rancheros, Mister came sniffing his way into the kitchen to see what was going on (the tasty aroma of the pan-seared tofu drew him in...no, really, it did).  He asked what I was making, I told him.  He asked how exactly that was going to work, so I told him the recipe.  He stood, looking a little perplexed, then said,

"Shouldn't there be refried beans?"
Um....
"I thought that's what made them 'Rancheros,' right?"
Um.... I thought it was the tortilla.
"I don't know..."
Okay, well, do you want there to be refried beans?
thinkthinkthink "Yes."
short staring contest commences, and then,
"So I'll go get them.  Do we need anything else?"

So that's the story of how Mister made my old recipe for Tofu Rancheros a little bit better.

Although, I have to say, letting the congealed mass of mashed beans sluuuurrrp! into my food is never something that makes me drool with anticipation.  When I was younger, we had a poodle and when she got older we had to feed her a special diet which involved phenomenally stinky canned dog food.

I don't want to say that this reminds me of that... but why would I have told you that story if it didn't?

It always works out, though, once the heat has some time to work it into a malleable goop.

So, for your viewing and tasting pleasure, here is a recipe to celebrate World Vegan Day:

Tofu Rancheros
6 servings (or 8 skimpy ones)

Ingredients:
6 small to medium tortillas (I used Whole Foods 365 brand Red Chili tortillas)
14 oz firm or extra firm tofu
cooking spray
3 Tbsp tamari/soy sauce
2 Tbsp oil
1 large red bell pepper, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
14 oz can of petite diced tomatoes, drained with liquid reserved
1 cup finely chopped kale (or green thing of your preference)
a generous tsp of chili powder
a generous tsp of dried cilantro
a scant tsp of kosher salt
1/2 tsp cumin


Coat a square skillet with cooking spray.
Slice tofu through the middle lengthwise, then into 8ths crosswise.  Heat the skillet while the tofu drains on a towel, then lay the tofu on the hot skillet and sprinkle with tamari.  Flip tofu immediately to allow tamari to penetrate both sides of the tofu, and cook on medium-high for about 10 minutes, flipping two or three times (about every 3 minutes), until browned and a little crisp on both sides.  Remove from heat and roughly chop with your spatula.

I'm actually not very good at "roughly."  I prefer perfect triangles, cutting each square piece of tofu from corner to corner and then the other way, too.  But it doesn't have to look this OCD precise.

While the tofu is cooking, heat the oil in a saute pan and saute the peppers and garlic in oil 3-5 minutes over a medium-low flame.  Add drained tomatoes, chili powder, cilantro, salt, and cumin and stir well to combine.  Cook for 5 more minutes, adding reserved tomato juice if the mixture seems to dry out, then add kale and stir to wilt.

Add refried bean and cut up the congealed, can-shaped mass until it can mix in with the other ingredients.  Stir everything together until it is smooth and looks more like food or vomit than a can-shaped, pink cylinder of dog food.

Add tofu and mix well - feel free to break up the tofu a little more with the spoon as you mix.

Cook for a minute or two more, then remove from heat.  Divide mixture among warmed tortillas, then tuck the bottom and roll like a burrito and enjoy!

It must have come out alright - Mister had four.  That might be a record number of servings involving tofu for him.  He was so busy enjoying his "fun dinner" that he didn't notice how much he'd eaten until I pointed it out, which then veered off into a conversation about Del Taco and him ordering the family value meals when he goes there because everything is so cheap and small.

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).

peanut-scented zen

I think the whole "bowl" idea is more of a West Coast phenomenon.  Maybe I'm wrong.  I'd like to be, actually, because I love bowls - I love the way they look, I like how much easier it is to eat most things from a bowl, rather than chasing things like cabbage, cannellini beans, and rotini around a plate.  Let's have a short flashback parade:

Waaaaaayyyyy back in February 2010, my parents gave me The 30 Minute Vegan for my birthday.  I've mentioned in the past how fruity and flowery the book is, written by a hippie couple blessed to live in Hawaii where it's warm enough all year to consider a 50% raw diet do-able.  Raw.  I can deal with raw.  When we start talking about "living" soup, I get a little creeped out, to be completely honest.

Anyway, although I'm sure I had some other "bowl" recipes (Isa also favors them, which might put a bullet in my West Coast Bowl theory), it was this cookbook that introduced me to the Monk Bowl.

Later that same year, Mister and I took a trip out to LA for Blizzcon and some QT with his sister, her husband, and their adorable little boy.  While out there, we visited Native Foods, which as you can probably imagine, is a whole restaurant whose menu consists almost exclusively of bowls.  To back up just a second, here is the basic make-up of the ubiquitous "Bowl."

• rice, quinoa, bulgur, or some other kind of grain; occasionally noodles, depending on cuisine.
• veggies - usually steamed, occasionally lightly sauteed or raw.
• protein source: tofu, tempeh, possibly seitan, commonly beans
• topping: a dressing of some sort, maybe two - BBQ sauce, ranch dressing, tahini-mustard dressing, etc - normally a "creamy" or opaque sauce, rather than a vinaigrette - "bowls" should not be confused with salads.

So anyway, my whole point is - I heart Bowls.  Mister could probably do without them, but he's never complained really... he just tends to set the table with plates when he has a chance.

Tonight, I made Monk Bowls again (you might have seen this coming).  This time I was not overly concerned with perfecting the symphony in my kitchen or creating peaceful zen through multi-tasked cooking.  No, this time, I was focused on a change I've made from the last few times I made this.  I did not feel like making a dressing, even though it takes about 5 minutes if I'm really clumsy.  I also did not feel like steaming the vegetables, because as I learned a little bit ago, I really don't like the water-logged flavor/texture of steamed veggies.  I combined my solution for those two "problems" in one action.

The book even mentioned this, but I hadn't bothered reading the variations until last time I went through the menu.  I sauteed them instead.  In order to provide the flavor that would be missing from the dressing I did not intend to make, I made it a two-step process.

First, I poured a generous amount of olive oil into a pan and let it heat up a bit.  I added about 2 tsp of za'atar, scant 1 tsp of sea salt, and about 1/3 tsp garlic powder.  I let them warm in the oil, then stirred everything together.  When the sesame seeds in the za'atar started to pop, I added the bowlful of chopped veggies (a red pepper, three carrots, and a head of broccoli) and stirred everything really well to coat the veggies with oil and za'atar.  Then I covered everything up and let it steam-saute while I tended to my roasting tofu and simmering brown rice.  All said, I let it simmer like that, stirring now and then, for nearly 15 minutes, which turned out perfectly, flavor- and texture-wise.

Angst was pretty sure he liked the smells in the kitchen and waited patiently in front of the dinner table.

He begged, noisily, throughout the entire meal, too, even though we insisted there was nothing he wanted.  Mister even put his bowl on the floor so Angst could inspect it.  Upon determining Mister wasn't eating real food, he turned his big sad eyes on me since apparently, I had what he really wanted.

I know I had what I really wanted!  It turned out really well.  The tofu was sublime.  I pressed it in my handy Tofu Xpress before a brief marinating time in soy sauce, peanut oil, and water (okay, maybe there was a little drop of toasted dark sesame oil, too).  It had a great texture after roasting 15 minutes and I don't remember the flavor pervading the tofu as much as it did this time, so I will continue to press the tofu for this recipe, even though it's not called for.

The sauteed veggies came out great, with a good yet subtle flavor from the za'atar.  I will probably make some dressing next time, purely because dressing is fun.  I just didn't want to deal with it tonight, and I had gotten the idea in my head to use some of the za'atar I got in San Francisco.

I wouldn't say it was a zen ballet, but then again, I'm not sure I would use that language to describe anything.  Why don't we just leave it at: it was easy, it was tasty, and I'll do it again.

best frenemies

There are a few super-smart folks in the world who excel at every academic subject from math to french with a little creative writing and chemistry thrown in for extra flavor.  I am not one of those people.  I got by for a while, but by high school I needed a tutor to pass math and managed to pass chemistry by one percentage point.  I'm definitely a liberal arts kinda gal.

The laws in Pennsylvania say that I had to take science and math until the end of my junior year.  You can bet my senior year of high school including such challenging math courses as British Literature and Creative Writing, while I struggled through my science course, also known as French.

What I'm trying to say is, me and math?  We don't get along.

Nevertheless, we're going to start today's post with a little math - everyone's favorite, word problems.  Ready?  Here we go!

Coconut Milk + Lime = BFFs times infinity

Coconut Milk + Tomatoes and their juices = relatively tolerable

Coconut Milk + Tomatoes + Lime = this will never happen again

In case you couldn't put 2+2 together, tonight's dinner was Pineapple Curry Tofu from the new Clean Eating magazine.  In theory, it sounded at least a little daring, but I figured I like tofu, we like pineapple, and Mister loves curry, so this should work, right?

Not so much.

It wasn't awful - I shouldn't let you think that.  There was just something about it that didn't work.  I'm pretty sure it was the final addition of 2 Tbsp lime juice.  Tomatoes are relatively acidic, and when you add harissa in place of asian chili sauce, they get hot and acidic.  The perfect foil seems quite obviously to be the thick, creamy, cooling (heat-distributing) coconut milk and I think it could have been, if only I hadn't actually followed the recipe.  I think the sneaky frenemy was the lime juice.  It seemed like such an innocent invitation, but what happened was that it enhanced the tartness and acidity of the tomatoes to such a point that the harissa made the whole thing hotter than it needed to be and a little unpleasant.  Although there was nice bland tofu and delicious chunks of pineapple and red pepper, all I could taste was tomato.

By the way - me and flour-coated tofu?  Also best frenemies.  I really want it to work - I want my tofu to look like the tofu in the magazine, all crispy and evenly coated.  My problem is that the minute I stir the tofu, all the "breading" adheres to the spatula, turning its back on the tofu like a 7th grade girl.

green goodness! it's special sauce!

I'm a little slow to jump on the Green Juice Train and I'm not ashamed to admit it's partially because I don't have any unquenchable desire to drink algae.

I think my mom might need a moment.

Anyway, I'm sure it would be more enticing and rewarding if I made my own green juice like this superstar, but I do not have:

• the time
• the desire
• the juicer

So instead, every once in a while, when I feel like I need an extra kick of Healthy, I'll buy some.  I've found that I quite enjoy Naked's Green Machine - enough that I can ignore the algae as long as I shake it before every sip.

Tonight, I stopped into Whole Foods to grab a couple of items I had intended to get at Trader Joe's before remembering I wouldn't be able to get there until Sunday and I didn't have the ingredients for enough complete meals without those things to get to Sunday, so it was all a moot point.  Anyway, I had picked up everything I went in for (except cauliflower, which was either hiding or absent, but I didn't see it) and I'm not even sure how I was in a position for this to catch my eye, but I did see Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness and decided to give myself a little punch since my chest is still tight and I keep hacking up a lung if I breathe too many times in a row and I make too much noise at night trying to breathe for poor mister to sleep and it's probably bad form to cough on customers.... enough reasons?

Good, because truth be told, once I got it home, my courage and drive somewhat evaporated.  I mean, really - you cannot look at this and tell me it screams, "Ooooh ooh, ME!  I'm tasty!"

Not exactly irresistible.  Nevertheless, I hate being sick and I like taking care of my body and if "8 delicious juices" delivering "14 powerful nutrients" including iron, vitamins B6, B12, A, and C has to be green....well....I guess it has to be green.  I have nothing against green, by the way, but that "juice" is what we call in my world murky.

Fortunately, it is quite delicious.  I think it might be slightly less sweet than Naked's Green Machine and I'm okay with that, though I think Naked will still be my favored green smoothie.  I almost bought R.W. Knudsen's Mega-Green juice when I was there yesterday, but I just cannot do it.  There's something about the way it's marketed that makes it look as though there's no way it will be anything but straight-up nasty.  Maybe someday I'll be adventurous enough to find out, but this week was not that Someday.

In other news, Mister and I have an astonishing talent for being at our most OughtToSeeADoctorness during the three months out of the last 5 years that we haven't had health insurance but I still don't regret not devoting an entire paycheck to COBRA coverage between now and when my coverage at work kicks in.

Dinner was chock full of veggie goodness, though (by the way, is everyone else aware of how awful Chock Full O' Nuts coffee is?  Well, now you are).  With the snow peas I picked up at Whole Foods, I was able to make the Hoisin-Braised Tempeh Tofu with Chinese Vegetables from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy that I was daydreaming about all day.  Everyone at work was female today, so instead of music, we had the Food Network on and watched way too much Rachael Ray, who I have deemed The Anti-Vegan.  I swear, I've never seen anyone include that many animal products in their recipes. 

Back to dinner.

It was good and the tofu worked so well I can't really imagine tempeh being better, but I'll probably never know since Mister dies if I even say the cursed word out loud.  Dinner is always fun when it involves snow peas and hoisin sauce amuses me because it kind of looks like Chinese BBQ sauce.

It was good, but not outstanding.  There were two weak points - one the fault of the book and one was my poor choice of accompaniment.  I served it over brown rice, expecting the braising sauce to be more potent.  It wasn't dreadful, but I can almost taste how much better it would have been with rice noodles instead of rice, so I may try that in the future.

In the book, it doesn't actually tell you when to add the hoisin sauce, so I added it just before the 15 minute simmering time.  I figured this was probably right since it was meant to braise the "tempeh" and wouldn't do a very good job of that if I didn't add it before the braising time.  I tasted the sauce when I added the snow peas for the last few minutes of cooking and it barely had any flavor since it was diluted with nearly the same amount of water, so I added more.  The recipe calls for 1/3 cup, but next time I make this, I will probably go with a half cup from the start and possibly less water, since the bok choy seemed to still have some clinging to its leaves, which added to what I had poured in.

Despite the slightly frightful tightness in my chest, I am still looking forward to the first truly cool day of autumn this Saturday.  Since I'm teaching, I can even dress appropriately for the cold, thereby decreasing my chances of catching tuberculosis!

photo credit

sometimes, you need to squish

Angst does this thing we call "squishing."  It involves him poking, kneading, and otherwise massaging something soft and puffy until it seems comfy to him... at which point he usually walks away, abandoning all his hard work.  It's always fun to see him really working something, though, even if it boggles my mind that he doesn't do the obvious thing and lie down on the thing he just squished to oblivion.

He's got something, though - squishing is fun!  It feels neat and benignly destructive.  A human example might be something like a stress ball or the ghetto equivalent - an uninflated balloon filled with flour and tied off.... or tofu.

I wish I'd gotten a picture of my tofu-cotta tonight but my hands were a little bit covered in tofu to operate a camera.  Tonight's scrumptious meal was Baked Ziti from Vegan on the Cheap.

We actually have a few contributing factors for how this became the dinner of choice.  First, I got home from work a little bit earlier than usual (= more time), and Second, I have tomorrow off (= more time to stay up).  Third, and possibly most important - it was really darn cold by the time I tested how fast I could walk in my new boots.  Hey!  That reminds me - I never talked about my boots in the last post!

No time like the present...

Aren't they adorable?  I'm spending a bit too much time on my feet to continue wearing 3-4.5" heels, but I just cannot get into the flats trend.  It is my opinion that they spread out your feet and make the whole picture less attractive... or maybe I'm just not willing to pay $60 for shoes that don't have a heel and don't make my legs look longer or my stature taller.  I won't lie - high heels are a woman's Power Suit.

Anyway, I went to Macy's - twice, actually, and the first time almost made me swear off the store and did make me write a long and detailed (and unanswered) email to the company's customer service department.  Regardless of my growing disdain for the store, I had spotted a few pairs of boots when I was wandering around the shoe department unattended for 40 minutes the week before, so I figured I would give them one last chance.  I'm glad I did, because I ended up with these adorable, non-leather American Rag cowgirl boots that show the rockstar side of me without breaking my ankles or helping my outermost toes bind to one another.

By the way - when it's in the upper 50s with a strong "breeze" and I'm wearing nothing but an above-the-knee skirt, mid-calf boots, and a short-sleeved polo shirt, I can walk pretty fast in them.

So, now that that's out of the way - back to dinner.

I felt like the Baked Ziti needed a companion of the greenish nature, so when I was at Trader Joe's after work on Monday, I picked up a bag of broccoli and cauliflower.  I used about half the bag and steam-sauteed the veggies with some olive oil, garlic, my Tuscan herb mix from California, and some salt with just a few spritzes of water to keep everything steamy.  It came out sooooo well.

It tasted just like the baked ziti I remember my mom making (well, her's probably had melted mozzarella,  but beside that, it was pretty close) and it was actually pretty simple.  One of the reasons I made it tonight was because I thought it would be really time consuming, due to the need to cook the pasta and make the "ricotta," but it really did not take as long as I thought it would.  In fact, if I had been prepared (and didn't kind of want it to take a while), I probably could have made the whole thing, start to finish, in a little more than an hour.

That being said, this most likely would not be a dinner I would make after a particularly tiring day or on a normal work day in the middle of a normal work week, unless I had thought ahead and already boiled the pasta and prepared the tofu-cotta so all I had to do was combine everything.  The tofu-cotta was convincing enough that I am pretty sure you could feed this to a bunch of omnis and no one would know it wasn't "real" ricotta.

To be completely honest, though, here is the order of dinner's awesomeness:

2nd runner up - the baked ziti itself

1st runner up - the surprisingly tasty (and simple) side dish

Winner - squishing the tofu through my fingers until it was all coarsely crumbled.  That was really way more fun than I thought it would be and I probably enjoyed it a bit more than I should have.  Cheers!

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.

these are some of my favorite things

Laughing 'til it pisses everybody off,
Pulling up my dress at a dinner meeting,
Kissing 'til my lips are ready to fall off,
Screaming all night, then just say I'm singing,
These are some of my favorite things.
 - Beth Hart - "Favorite Things"


It's a fabulous song, really - I earnestly encourage you to click the link and have a listen.

Anyway, sorry about the absence - things have been a little crazy here: upcoming life changes leading to deep, long, slightly tear-soaked conversations about the future and goals, getting trapped in a flood plain and taking 2 hours to get home from work, too much thinking, not enough writing.  Here's a quick synopsis:

Right before a long and somewhat stressful conversation about some changes coming up in the foreseeable future, Mister and I had a tasty dinner of Blessed Broccoli and Tofu StirFry from La Dolce Vegan.  It was so good, and the leftovers I had for lunch the next day, once resolutions had been reached and I was done freaking out, were even better.

Friday was a Bizarro Day but also exciting and stimulating.  Nevertheless, the end of the day couldn't come fast enough and I was more than happy to get out of work.  Unfortunately, this weird thing has been happening over the past few weeks - it waits until I'm about 10 minutes from leaving work and then the skies open up and pour rain.  That is what happened last night.  Fortunately, the nice young man who was trying to drive me to the train station also lives in Philadelphia and volunteered to take me to my actual home.  This was nice, since every single road we tried to take to the train station was flooded and emergency personnel wouldn't actually let us pass.  There were a few terrifying, fingers-crossed moments when we drove his tiny, low-to-the-ground Chrysler Crossfire through some pretty deep "puddles."

Adorable, sporty little car and if he ever gets tired of it (while it still works), I wouldn't mind taking it off his hands, but they are not built for inclement weather, much less the Apocalypse.  I haven't seen flooding that bad in years....since the last time it took me three and a half hours to get home from work.  Sorry to anyone who lives in PA and is reading this, but I have a deep-seated hatred for Montgomery County.  It loves to flood there.  I don't appreciate it.

Anyway, two and a half hours after leaving the building, I arrived safely home in Philadelphia with no desire to cook but very hungry.  Mister suggested Maoz for dinner and I was absolutely on board with a falafel salad.

Tonight, then, after successfully making it to and from lessons without washing away in the effusive sunlight, I came home and slow-cooked a nice hearty dinner: Tasty Tempeh TVP Chili, also from La Dolce Vegan.

If you don't think that looks hearty and savory and chewy and all the things a good chili should be.... check for a pulse, please.

We love Sarah Kramer's chili, but I haven't made this recipe in a while because Mister is allergic to tempeh and did not at all appreciate the time I made this with barley substituting for the tempeh.  This time around I used TVP and it made an incredible difference.  This may very well be our new favorite chili recipe and we ate every last morsel with the help of our Tostitos "spoons."  We also love (at least, our sometimes over-packed fridge loves) how all the recipes in La Dolce Vegan are the right size for our two-human-one-kitty family and there are rarely leftovers.  That was certainly the case tonight!

After dinner and dishes, I got down to my favorite part of the week - menu planning!  I might have a different favorite part of the upcoming week, but we'll get to that when it's time. For now, feast your eyes on this week's list of...well, feasts.

1. Pasta e Fagioli with Spinach from Appetite for Reduction.  Actually, although Maoz (and our 1-block proximity to it) is one favorite thing and the chili recipe is another favorite thing, I came up with the title of the post because this week's menu is a throw-back to a lot of my favorite recipes that I haven't made in a while.  Normally, when I plan my menu, I pull out a book or two and force myself to pick recipes from those two.  Tonight, I allowed myself the luxury of hopping throughout my cookbook collection if one recipe reminded me of another I'd rather make.  This is how this recipe came to be part of the menu - I was looking in The Urban Vegan and came upon her Pasta e Fagioli recipe, but I wanted to make this one instead.  So there you go.

2. Modular Pakistani Kima from The Urban Vegan.  This is a great recipe because I can pick a different combination of ingredients from her provided lists each time I make it.  I've made it a few times, but this time I'm using yet another configuration of ingredients - kale + TVP + peas + all the standard stuff.   This is a very pantry-friendly dish.

3. Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Spinach, also from The Urban Vegan.  That's all I have to say about that for the moment.

4. Spicy Ragout of Vegetables and Tofu from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures.

5. Jerk Seitan on Coconut Rice, both from Vegan with a Vengeance, and a recipe that I specifically sought out after something else reminded me of its amazingness.

6. Orecchiette with Cherry Tomatoes and Kalamata Tapenade, also from VwaV.  I had actually forgotten about this recipe (which seems like a statement that should get me hung) and only "rediscovered" it because I was flipping through the book looking for the Jerk Seitan recipe as well as the recipe for Sunny Blueberry-Corn Muffins, which I will be baking tomorrow to share with the nice young man who went way out of his way to get me home when SEPTA didn't feel like doing so (probably because their tracks were underwater, the trains are electric-powered, and the busses could cross the moat that was developing around my business center).

Anyway, I'm off to start writing a long-overdue letter....stay tuned for more fun and the revelation of Secret #2 shortly...

try new meals, but keep the old

One is silver and the other, gold.


Oh, no, wait a second - that's friends.  Make new friends, but keep the old... Was anyone else a Girl Scout? In case you can't tell, I was.  I did the cute little Brownies thing and then felt very mature when I progressed to a green uniform...until I realized two things:

1. The only thing you need to do to enhance your "rank" in Girl Scouts is get older.  Not die.  That may help some people achieve great things, but I need a little more incentive.
2. Only dorks are Girl Scouts after Elementary School.  Sorry if I just offended any life-long Woman Scouts out there (I guess that's the rank we'd be at by now, right?), but that's how it was where I grew up.  It might be different elsewhere.

Anyway, the point of using that little ditty is that I didn't make the new meal on the old menu for dinner tonight.  I made the old meal on the new menu.  Follow?  No?  Okay, I'll break it down - The only thing left on my old menu was Ginger Bok Choy and Soba, which is a new recipe, since I don't think I've made it before (to my elderly recollection).  I'm having a little trouble rounding up the enthusiasm to make it, though, especially since napa cabbage will be subbing for the ever-elusive bok choy.  So, instead, I made an old favorite from my new menu, Punjabi Peppers and Tofu.

I've made this at least a dozen times before, so I'm not going to rave about how easy it is to make or how incredibly tasty the tofu is, but I'll show you...

After the tofu had a little quality time with the oil and skillet, I piled in the chopped red and green peppers for a short saute while I chopped the tomato and assembled the spices.

Does it get easier than this?  Yes.  I needed exactly one teaspoon of each of those things.  One measuring spoon makes everything easier.

Here it is, coated with that delightful spice mixture and sauteed to juicy perfection.  Mister and I noticed, between this and whatever thing I made with tofu last week that Trader Joe's tofu is much sturdier than Whole Foods.  It's denser and therefore chewier, which makes Mister happy since he could still probably live his life happily without his crazy wife making tofu a part of his regular diet.

I guess I could fill you in on the rest of the new menu, couldn't I?

1. Ginger Bok Choy and Soba from Appetite for Reduction.  Yes...it's still on the menu.  Honestly, I would have made it tonight, but Mister said "no pasta" because he had leftover Broccoli con Pasta (from last night) for lunch today and felt that would be overkill, and I really want him to perceive soba noodles as pasta.

2. Garlicky Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes and Basil.  I have no idea where I got this recipe but it's killer and it's tomato season here in Pennsylvania.  Also, I'm amazed I haven't yet killed the hydroponic basil plant my mom gave me a couple of months ago, but it's really not looking that great, so I plan to use up the healthy-looking leaves that are left on it and then try again with a new plant.  I think soil might be important next time.

3. Blessed Broccoli and Tofu Stir-Fry from La Dolce Vegan, as are the rest of these recipes.  It's been a little while since I've gone into this book and I do enjoy cooking from just one cookbook sometimes, since I can just leave it there on the counter until tomorrow night.

4. Vegetable Biryani because I recommended this to a friend via Twitter and now I want some.  And because it is super-simple and extremely tasty for how little effort goes into it.  If I have some downtime coming, maybe I'll go back to the original and spend a few hours making an "authentic" biryani.  We'll see.

5. Tasty Tempeh TVP Chili, even though this is usually a cold-weather food, I found myself craving a nice, hearty chili.  It could be because Percy Street BBQ, owned by one of our celeb chefs, just won "Best Pie" in the Best of Philly issue of Philadelphia magazine and in addition to all the grilled animal bits, they also have a vegan chili.  In any case, hold the alarms - I got the chips.

secret special sauce

Maybe it's just me and maybe I've just heard one too many nasty rumors about the "cooks" in fast food restaurants, but does anyone else get skeeved out when they see "Chef So-and-So's Special Sauce" listed on a menu?  My brain just goes right to, "No, thank you!"  Yes, even in fancy restaurants with real chefs.

Anyway, I'm going to share tonight's dinner tale first, since it's relevant to the title, then we'll backtrack to last night's meal and activities.  My goal, both when I bought my groceries and even as I set out to start my chopping and cooking and whatnot tonight was to make Panang Cucumber Curry from the hallowed pages of the September Vegetarian Times magazine.  As I was going along, though, I realized that I made so many tweaks that what I made didn't actually resemble the recipe at all, aside from that they both involved cucumbers and the end result was a delicious curry.

Since I departed so far from the original recipe that I didn't actually consult the magazine at all once I started cooking, I feel completely clear to give you my easier, pared down recipe:

Tofu-Veggie Curry with Special Sauce
makes 4-6 servings (4, if you're piggy like me and Mister)

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
1 3/4 cups water


14 oz extra firm tofu, cubed and drained
1 large hothouse cucumber, cubed
1 medium red bell pepper, sliced thinly lengthwise
1 Tbsp peanut oil
2 Tbsp tamari, divided
15 oz jar of prepared curry cooking sauce*


Boil water in a 2.5-qt saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.  Stir in basmati rice and cover, reducing heat to its lowest setting.  Steam for 20-25 minutes then turn off heat and allow to sit for at least 5 minutes, preferably 10.

Meanwhile, cube the tofu into 1" pieces and allow to drain on a towel.  [Alternately, you could press it for an hour, but my main goal here was a quick and easy meal.]  Heat the peanut oil and 1 Tbsp tamari in a saute pan or large, deep skillet until the tamari starts to bubble a bit.  Add the tofu and stir, gently but thoroughly, to coat all tofu with the tamari-oil mixture.  Cover and saute on medium heat 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, while you prep the pepper and cucumber.

About 5 minutes into the tofu sauteing time, lay bell pepper slices over top of the tofu and replace cover. Dice your cucumber, then stir the cucumber in with the pepper slices and tofu; at the same time, stir in the prepared curry sauce and the remaining 1 Tbsp tamari.  Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer gently 3-5 minutes, just until the sauce and cucumber are warmed through.

To serve, plate a bed of basmati and then spoon the curry over top of it.  You could garnish with a thai basil leaf if you want to be fancy.  I didn't.

* I used Patak's Original Jalfrezi Curry Cooking Sauce for our dinner and I quite liked how it came out.  It was not terribly spicy at all, so if you're looking for that aspect, you may want to also stir in any spare harissa or sambal oelek you have lying around.  Patak's has a whole line of curry cooking sauces, but be sure to check the ingredients - this one is vegan, but others use real cream.

Anyway, when I got home from work last night, my home was dark.  How many times have I started a Leftovers story like that?  Does anyone have the next line memorized?  I'll give you one hint.

So, since Mister was unconscious and slightly delirious and taking up the whole bed, I decided to try to "enhance" what was left of our totally anticlimactic Orecchiette con Broccoli.

I started out by heating some olive oil and white wine together in a skillet.  I added the last of the leftovers and sprinkled everything generously with my Mediterranean sea salt, but then I decided to also add some tamari.  There are very few things in the realm of stove-top cooking that I don't think would be improved by the addition of tamari.

Fortunately for me, this was definitely one of those things!  It was so tasty I was disappointed there was so little left!  In the end, though, it left more room for dessert: Soy Delicious Fruit-sweetened Chocolate Almond "ice cream."

My internet connection crapped out before I could come on here and babble, but that gave me a great excuse to do two things I'd been meaning to do for a while: I mended a hole in my bathrobe and a whole mess of socks while watching "Pretty Woman" for the first time in at least a year (that's a long time for me to go without!).

Did someone say Pretty Woman?


Purely by coincidence, there just happens to be a new post up on Pretty Woman in an Ugly World.  It's not about the Whole Foods experience, rather, I take on an even bigger giant - the Starpower of Starbucks.  Check it out if you have a chance!

bonus round: VIP BBQ dinner

I know I only posted a little more than 5 hours ago, but I wanted to devote the whole post to the farewell to Horizons and not spread it out into a mega-post also detailing last night's dinner adventures and the super-awesome BBQ skillet I threw together to celebrate our country's independence.  Aside from obvious cultural norms, I don't know why July 4th food needs to be slathered in BBQ sauce, but I figured it was as good an excuse as any to use more of my gourmet VIP BBQ sauce.

Let's take a step or two back, though.  I thought about posting earlier yesterday afternoon about our fabulous finale at Horizons, but I got distracted by iTunes being a pain in my butt about importing the new Symphony X CD and then my computer promptly crashed. Horribly.  So much so that Mister and I were not completely certain it was going to come back to us.  Fortunately, my little Mac paramedic spent several hours last night in emergency surgery while I played solitaire on my old laptop and drank the last of the Riesling so now we're back in business.  Also while Mister was administering some form of human-machine CPR and the equivalent of a brain transplant (probably a little prayer and voodoo mixed in for good measure), I cooked up a long lost favorite for dinner.

The last time I made Bulgur and Red Lentil Pilaf with Kale and Olives from The Complete Vegan Cookbook I was trying to remember where I had a similar recipe.  I knew there were some subtle differences, such as the actual presence of kalamata olives in one recipe and the imagined/substituted presence of them in the other.  I found that other recipe when I was poking through The Accidental Vegan while creating our menu on Saturday afternoon, so I made Kedgeree for dinner last night.

Instead of chopping the carrots, I thought it might be more fun to julienne them (especially since I have that neat toy to help) and in place of the mushrooms Mister can't stand (and I don't exactly have a taste for either), I chopped up some kalamata olives.  The kedgeree itself was made up of brown rice and lentils, which I cooked together to save space (three pots on this smaller stove was not in the cards), resulting in a creamier dish, spiked with cumin and mustard, dotted with the charmingly contrasted colors of green (kale), orange (carrot), and purple (kalamata).

Angst was not at all impressed, electing to take a nap on the bathroom floor (a nice, cool, summertime nap spot) rather than watch his favorite food show, "the Mommy show."  I think he was just mad at me for changing my mind last minute about making the Jerk Seitan from VwaV.  By changing my mind, what I really mean is that I picked up the seitan at Whole Foods, put it down to pick up Tofurky sausages and smoked tofu and completely forgot to pick it back up and deposit in my cart.  Missing a vital ingredient (you know, the one in the recipe title?), I thought I should probably make something else.

Speaking of making something else, I had that same inclination after I finished the last little droplets of Riesling (insert sad face here) and Mister was still poking away at my computer on life-support.  I have had a recent hankering for tropical cocktails, and I figured a bottle of rum, which which I would mix things, will probably last a little longer in this house that a bottle of wine (which I feel compelled to drink quickly so it doesn't spoil), thereby stretching our budget a little until I get some figuring done.

I love this picture because it looks like my little baby Murloc is either trying to steal it or guard it.  That pretty little glass contains about one ounce of Malibu Pineapple Rum and a few more ounces of Santa Cruz organic Cherry Lemonade - delightful combination, by the way.  It made Solitaire a little more fun than usual.

So, tonight with dinner, I decided to make another little cocktail, this time using the last pouch of Honest Kids Berry Lemonade.  I'll admit, there's something a little twisted about using a children-oriented juice pouch product as a mixer, but we don't have kids, so someone's got to drink it.

Epic Cocktail

So, tropical drink prepared, I set to work on our BBQ dinner to celebrate the nation's birthday.

BBQ Tofu-Veggie Skillet
serves 4-6 (depending on portion size)


Ingredients:
14 oz extra-firm tofu, pressed and cubed
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 cup frozen/fresh corn
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup BBQ sauce


white basmati rice to serve over (1 cup rice to 2 cups water)
broccoli slaw, optional garnish


Heat the oil in a deep-sided skillet/sauteuse.  Add tofu and toss gently to coat with oil, then cover and cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tofu is golden-brown on most sides.  Remove lid and add celery and peppers; saute 2-3 minutes.

Add zucchini, corn, and salt; mix well and cover.

Saute 3-5 more minutes, then stir in BBQ sauce.  Cook, uncovered, until heated through and mixture is evenly coated with BBQ sauce.

To serve, lay a bed of rice on the bottom of a bowl or plate, sprinkle with broccoli slaw, if using, then cover with a few spoonfuls of the tofu-veggie BBQ mixture.

It was very good - every component played well with the others - the sweetness of the corn and peppers stood out within the pungent BBQ sauce, which the tofu and zucchini readily absorbed.  The lightness of the basmati rice provided a gentle foil to the intense flavors represented in the tofu-veggie mixture, calming the fire of the Ancho Chili BBQ sauce just enough but not too much.

Happy July 4th all!  I'm going to watch a movie with my mister to finish off a lovely long weekend of time spent together.