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!).

there was a little girl

There was a little girl,

Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,

She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

That poem, composed by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow while trying to quiet a daughter for sleep, is a perfect narrative for my relationship with Trader Joe's.  Well, the Trader Joe's in Philadelphia, anyway.

I love Trader Joe's for a few reasons.  First (and possibly most importantly), they have an amazing 10-grain bread that makes amazing toast (it gets all crispy and chewy in the best possible way) and even Mister likes it.  I bought the multigrain bread at Whole Foods for years before he told me he didn't like it.  Second, and also important, is that I usually save a ton of money buying produce there, rather than Whole Foods.  Let's compare: $0.69 for a red bell pepper (when they're in season) versus $4.99/lb (meaning the average pepper is over $2).  $0.39 for a potato versus the seeming bargain of $1.99/lb.  You get the idea.  Finally, they have the most palatably store-brand soymilk.

So what's horrid?  Ever trying to shop quickly.  Which can be important to me.  Also, ever trying to shop between 5 and 6 pm.  It doesn't matter if it's a weekday or a weekend - trying to shop at that hour is maddening.  The lines literally run halfway down every aisle and I'll be in line longer than it takes to shop.  Also, since their low prices do rely on seasonal produce, they don't always have stock of what I want, where I know Whole Foods almost always will (even if it's $8 asparagus).  This is not a bad thing, per se, but when it's already inconvenient to go there (on the other side of town completely), I want to get as much as I can to make it worth the effort.

One thing they're hit and miss on is arugula.  This week, it was a miss, so I ended up with fresh baby spinach, even though I have two bags of frozen spinach in my freezer.  Why the hunt for arugula?

Pasta Della California from Veganomicon had cried out to be made one last time before I do a snow dance and hunker down with a wintery menu of stews and chilis and other impossibly hearty things to be cooked slowly and to warm my innards from head to toe (or... at least my belly).

When Mister and I were shopping at Superfresh last week, I saw a surprising thing for December - a sale on Haas Avocados!  So I gently poked a few, trying to find a ripe one.... then took one that looked a good size and let it ripen on my counter the last few days.  It is so rare to find avocados for less than a dollar here in Philadelphia (not exactly prime avocado-growing climate), I couldn't resist the urge for a flavor and texture that always brings me happy memories.

Failing to find arugula, I opted for a slightly easier-to-eat green and honestly, I may always make it this way now - it was really good with the baby spinach and its silkier texture.  It seemed a better match for the nice squishy, creamy avocado.  The arugula provides a bitter foil for that creaminess and it works, but this was so good even Mister commented on the flavor.

So, with this last delightful dish (before I continue pressuring my friend to go to El Vez for their unbelievable guacamole and delicious margaritas via facebook chat), I bid farewell to the last gasp of warm days in December and look forward to some snowy weather....

sausage in my pocket

Well, it's a new year so I get to start my HolyCowIt'sSoCold posts all over again with a brand new quotient of times to bitch about the weather.  Keep in mind - I love Philadelphia, I love Philadelphia in the wintertime, and I love the cooler times of the year.  Still, there is no reason that I should be outside when the wind chill factors the temperature into the single digits.

Nevertheless, this morning I put on two layers of clothing, wrapped my puppy-scarf snugly around my neck, zipped my coat up to my nose, pulled on my gloves and hat and headed out the door looking very much like a ninja.

A cold ninja.

There's always something that astonishes me the first time each year that I look at the weather and see that not only is it 14 degrees right now, but it feels like it's 2 degrees and today's high doesn't break the freezing mark.  It's as though that's never happened before, even though it did, in fact, happen just last year and the year before that, too.  To anyone reading in Wisconsin or any of its neighboring states, and of course Canada, feel free to have a good laugh at my expense.  I am grateful that I've never seen the temperatures you deal with all winter long.  But for a relatively temperate area like Philadelphia, sub-freezing is our sub-zero.

When I got home, my first impulse was to make soup dinner despite Mister's inevitable protests.  I did not for two reasons (one of which became null): first, we didn't have any sandwich fixin's and I feel bad [now] serving Mister just soup.  Second, I was already thinking ahead to tomorrow's work lunch.  Granted, there are a ton of fabulous eating options within a one-block radius of the store I'm in tomorrow, but I haven't been keen on spending money going outside unnecessarily lately.  I don't want to test the strength of my "tupperware" by toting soup in my purse for a mile, so I wanted to make something a little more leftover-travel-friendly.

Enter Charro Beans with Chipotle Sausage from Vegetarian Times.  I've made this before, so why bother posting about it again?

That's why ^.  I've been meaning to try Field Roast sausages pretty much as long as they've been on the market, but they are about $1 more than Tofurky sausages and, being somewhat impoverished, that $1 has disproportionate value.  Regardless, since the recipe called for chipotle sausages and since Field Roast makes them (and Tofurky does not), it seemed the perfect excuse to splurge.

Unlike Tofurky, which is packaged similarly to hot dogs, the Field Roast sausages were actually packed as individually-wrapped links.  This made for quite the adventure trying to free them from their casings.  It resulted in my hands and cutting board looking like someone had just killed him- or herself in my kitchen - I'll spare you the picture I took of my "bloody" hand.

Once I'd coerced the little buggers out of their plastic casing, I cut two sausages in half (anticipating they would pack too much heat to stay in whole rounds like the recipe instructed) and then sliced them to add to my sauteing peppers.

After letting them cook a little by themselves, I added the beans and tomatoes, but I left out the chili powder because I was getting the distinct impression the sausages might end up being more than I'd bargained for.

Fortunately, I did have the foresight to serve them on a fluffy, bland cloud of mashed potatoes.

That may very well have been the only reason I could finish my first...and only...serving.  It was far more outstanding this time than the first time I'd made this dish, and that is owed completely to the brand of sausage, I believe.  Okay, that mashed potatoes are awesome doesn't hurt.

In any case, two things resulted from this dinner: first, Mister ended up with a generous portion of leftovers [read: all of them] for his lunch tomorrow and I ended up with a new strategy to beat the frigid temperatures outside: sausage.  By the time I finished my meal, I was nearly sweating, even though I'd turned down the heat while I was at work (Mister's fine - he's Greek so he radiates heat).  So, I told Mister I was going to carry the leftover sausages with me to warm me up like the brandy in a St. Bernard's barrel - just keep my sausage in my pocket until I need to go out into the cold.

Insert reallllllly immature joke here.

On a final and unrelated note, my healthcare for my new job is about to kick in, which is perfectly timed since one of my contacts decided to rip in my eye today.  All day I was walking around work squinting and blinking and putting drops in my eyes and complaining to my colleagues about my eyes bothering me.  I was counting the minutes until I could come home and take them out.  Upon doing so was when I discovered the damage, so I was reminded of yet another thing I love about Philadelphia and Winter.

In Philadelphia, especially Center City, but even on the residential streets where the homes are three stories tall, there is a natural darkness.  This is both beneficial and detrimental, depending on your point of view.  On the one hand, it might not be so darn cold if the sun could touch you and warm you up a little.  On the other hand, I can get away with not wearing sunglasses most of the time.  When it's winter, there's even less sunshine because the days are shorter and the sun never actually makes it to the "top" of the sky, so it's possible to stay out of direct sunlight pretty much all day.

Before you think I'm a vampire, let me just point out how difficult it is to wear sunglasses with seeing glasses - it doesn't work.  Since my new contacts are at least a week away from being in my eyeballs, looks like I'll be rocking my glasses, so I'm glad I don't have to worry about sun.

That's all.

sweet and spice-y takes the cake

As I type this, my kitchen smells increasingly delightful - the way you might imagine December would smell, if it had a designated scent.  I have muffins in the oven, so I'll be excusing myself shortly to retrieve them (but you'll never know, will you?).  One thing I love about Sundays, besides having plenty of time to make dinner, is that if dinner doesn't take too long and we eat early, there's time to bake.

The beginning of a new menu is always a little difficult for me.  There are so many choices!  Last night, the toe-numbing, foot-freezing, face-hurting cold made my decision for me, as did a helpful husband who didn't mind leaving home for the first time all [horrendously cold] day to get me a huge can of chickpeas.  That meant that the first time I really had to choose what to make was tonight, since I have a stocked fridge and cupboard.  I chose more or less by process of elimination... no to the Corn Chowder, since I made the Chickpea-Cabbage soup last night.  No to the Chickpea-Spinach Curry because it comes together very fast, making it a more appropriate choice for a work night when I don't feel like spending a lot of time on dinner.  Also, we are still in the midst of the Great Spinach Famine of 2011.

My eyes fell upon Tropic of Tempeh Tofu (Vegan on the Cheap) and I remembered that we didn't have leftovers last time I made it.  Since we're still eating our way through the leftovers from my week off, I didn't think we needed a meal that would contribute to the Kingdom of Tupperware currently set up in our fridge, and I knew the other two options would most certainly do just that.

Since I'm using tofu instead of tempeh, I saute it for about 10 minutes, maybe more, to create that crispy outer "shell."  I might have overdone it a little, because it seems like the tofu was a little tough...chewy.  The rest was wonderful - you can definitely taste how the rice wine vinegar draws out the sweet-tartness of the pineapple, and I took my own advice this time, adding an extra Tbsp of tamari to the sauce to tone it down a little.  It changed the color of the sauce significantly; its effect on the sauce was minimal, but helpful in toning down what might otherwise be a sauce that is too sweet for dinner.

What a great way to transition to the sweet conclusion to tonight's meal.  See, you didn't even miss me while I was pulling these beauties out of the oven:

They don't look quite like the pictures on the recipe, but the Gingerbread-Nut Muffins taste so good it wouldn't matter if they were green and oozing something.  Well.  Okay.  Maybe the visual would interfere with the overall experience, but what I'm trying to say is this: they are really good.

kind of looks like a gingerbread rock, doesn't it?

They are super spice-y, thanks to the total two teaspoons of strong spices in them.  I have very little doubt that the scant bit of vanilla and the generous helping of molasses contribute to the dark and complex flavor of these little nuggets.  The best part, though?  I just realized they're fat free.  Here's a cute cat to entertain you while I sneak off for another.

creature comforts

In case I've failed to mention it so far today, it is SO COLD in Philadelphia.  We're headed into our second major cold snap - as in, today was the warmest weather we'll see this week and after only five minutes outside my face was in pain from the cold.  Add to all the freezing-to-death the fact that another chaotic and stressful week has only just begun at work and I'm already exhausted and you can probably imagine I was in a "let's be comfy and eat ourselves into hibernation" mood tonight.

While I prepared our Cajun Rice and Beans from The Accidental Vegan, Mister and I discussed how ravenous we've both been lately and how it can only be attributed to our bodies' natural survival instincts trying to fatten us up for the winter.

Mister and I have some odd conversations, but him blowing my mind with existential philosophy while we ate water ice beside a small stream in Manayunk one Spring day was one of the things that won my heart to him.  The fact that he's the handsomest man I've had the pleasure to call mine doesn't hurt.

Anyway, after all the cold, you would think I would have made the thick, hearty potato chowder...and I almost did.  But then I remembered looking at the weather forecast this morning and seeing that the warmest it will be tomorrow is 27 degrees, I figured the soup dinner is probably better suited to tomorrow.  Besides, along with the bone-chilling cold I brought home from the train station, I couldn't shake my desire to make my favorite rice-n-beans recipe.

I used a yellow pepper instead of green and pink beans instead of red.  I did this because there were two green peppers at the store and one was gross and because I couldn't find small red beans.  A happy side effect was how different it looked from the last time I made it - I figure, if I'm going to repeat a dish this frequently, I should at least make an effort to have it look different.

To proceed with our eating-our-way-into-hibernation trend, I couldn't escape the desire for dessert.  Alas, there was no chocolate hiding in my cupboards and I finished the last Sweetzels a couple of weeks ago.  No sweet treats were anywhere...until I pulled my long-patient can of pumpkin puree from the cupboard and grabbed VCTOTW from my cookbook shelf.

I made the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cupcakes before and I neglected to add the cinnamon piping then as well.  Does it enhance their deliciousness?  Possibly - someday I'll find out.  Are they still amazing without it?  Absolutely!  I think it's time for another...

One final note, in case I forget by tomorrow night: when I had carefully scooped one cup of pumpkin out of the 15 oz can, there was still some squishy bright orange glop still in there (I'm sure you can imagine).  I want to have pumpkin oatmeal tomorrow, but I knew I would be super sad in the morning if I just stirred in the leftover pumpkin without enhancing it in some way...it doesn't taste like much on its own.  I transferred what was left from the can into a small tupperware container, then sprinkled on some cinnamon and probably about a heaping Tbsp of brown sugar, poured on a dash of vanilla extract and whisked it all together.  Hopefully, it will make for a fun, bright orange breakfast!