christmastime is here

(Christmas Time Is Here by Sarah McLachlan)

For the first time in three years, my dad and I got to go to Macy's for their holiday light show.  This was a tradition from my childhood that we revived when my dad started working in the city and I was laid off from my job in 2006.  The light show features the world's largest and oldest pipe organ (in continual use), is narrated by Julie Andrews (obviously not in person), and has been a Philadelphia holiday tradition since my father was a child in 1956.  Honestly, it's nothing spectacular compared to the visual stimulus offered these days, but the nostalgia can't be beat.

After breaking our necks to watch the show (we were on the ground floor - the show takes up a vertical stage from the 2nd through 4th floors), dad and I ambled through the City Hall quad to the west side of Broad Street to wander through the Christmas Village.  After seeing our share of Bratwurst and Schnitzel shops and glancing over the various wares of the jewelry and pretty scarf persuasion, we dodged several groups of oblivious school children to head into the underground "streets" of Philadelphia.

Neil Gaiman's first attempt at a literary novel (with actual words!) was the stunning Neverwhere, a dark mix of sci-fi and fantasy.  In the novel, we follow the hero through an alternate City he never knew existed until a random act of compassion pulled him underground and into another world.  I don't want to spoil anything by summing it up, but if you like to look at things from a different point of view, I can't recommend this book (or ANY of his others) enough.

Our jaunt through Philadelphia's belly was not nearly as interesting as the hero of the novel, but we weren't looking for adventure, we were trying to walk without having to constantly interrupt our conversation to dodge an unruly crowd of Charter school kids.  Nevertheless, there was something creepy-cool about walking relatively silently beneath a city that was presently teeming with life and activity.  As we walked and talked, Dad shared about an event at his church tomorrow - an event where less-advantaged neighbors are provided with gifts to give their families and a basket of food to make a nice holiday dinner.  As long as they're in the nice cozy warm church, they'll also be treated to a somewhat lavish dinner.  Dad chuckled a bit, telling me one of the dinner options is Shepherd's Pie, which is not standard fare in those parts of town - I didn't even know what it was until I found Sarah Kramer's recipe in How It All Vegan and discovered it to be one of Mister's favorite things!

So of course, that got me somewhat fixated on making this hearty, warm Favorite Dinner tonight.  I can't even remember the last time I made it, since it's fairly time-consuming and not really a warm-weather food.  Well, the temperature dropped about 30 degrees over the last couple of days, so I figured tonight was as good a time as any.  I have made this enough times to have a mental inventory of its ingredients, so after Dad and I said farewell, I headed home by way of SuperFresh, where I picked up some mashing potatoes and a few other essentials.

After we put up our little Charlie Brown Tree and some scant decorations throughout the apartment, I'd worked up enough of a hunger to think it was time to make dinner.  Oh no!  I remembered that I'd given my copy of HIAV to a friend at work because her son was having some dietary issues and she wanted to try a vegan diet for him (there is an entire section in HIAV devoted to child vegans).  I have no doubt I'll get it back when I see her again, but I didn't have it tonight.  What to do??

The interwebs never let me down....  so with the help of this vegan-celiac website, I made Mister one of his favorites and we all munched happily ever after.

pub fare, take one

Exactly two weeks ago was Mister's and my 4th wedding anniversary.  It was also one of the nights I worked until close (9pm) so we just ate leftovers and sniffed pretty roses and gave each other some kisses.  We actually had our anniversary dinner the following night.  In the absence of our dear departed (and ardently missed!) Horizons, the only place in center city Philadelphia (or anywhere within decent driving distance to my knowledge) for vegan fine dining, we made some calls, reviewed some restaurants' menus online, and eventually settled on this plan: we'd start at Front and South Streets and just walk until we found somewhere we wanted to eat.

I hate South Street.  This was Mister's brilliant idea, because he seemed to think we had heard of a bunch of restaurants about to open on South Street.  I think we might have been thinking ahead on that one because what was on South Street was a lot of recently closed restaurants, as the Street continues its slow decline.  Regardless, we started our menu-gazing at Downey's, an Irish bar & restaurant.  We ultimately decided it probably wasn't the best bet for a "quiet" romantic anniversary dinner, so we kept going, but not before Mister whined a little about why no one has yet undertaken to veganize Irish/UK pub food and mourned that he hasn't had Bangers and Mash in about 9 years.

So, for my mister, tonight I made Savoury Shepherd's Pie from How It All Vegan.

First, I took my time slow-sauteing carrots, celery, tomato, and some garlic standing in for onion, then added in the lentils.  The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of mashed lentils, but that's no fun, so I cooked 1/2 cup of French de puy lentils and didn't bother mashing them.  It came out just right, and far more attractive than it would have been (and has been) with mashed Goya lentils.

In my pretty Martha Stewart Blue bowl, I mashed together 3 Yukon Gold potatoes with a generous tablespoon of Earth Balance, a quarter-cup of Earth Balance soymilk (we're all about product placement tonight, folks!), and a generous sprinkling of salt.  It is such a simple recipe, yet it's one of the tastiest recipes I have for mashed potatoes.

While the pie went into the oven, I opened my Happy Weekend bottle of 2009 Beaujolais-Villages because I'm ramping up for next Thursday, which is the third Thursday of November.  To celebrate the introduction of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau, there will be a street festival right outside where I work next Thursday, complete with complimentary tastings, sales at the retail establishments, and two things that I feel utterly compelled to try: Beaujolais jell-o shots because I cannot figure out how that works, and Beaujolais lip balm, because that's freaking awesome.

Once I had smoothed on a thick coating of mashed potatoes to top the pie, I was a little disappointed in how bland it looked, so I sprinkled some Mediterranean Sea Salt blend on that puppy and it was absolutely the right choice.  It added just a little....je ne sais quoi (someone take my French away!)

Stay tuned for tomorrow's menu, which should include at least one other attempt at making Mister some pub fare and other recent requests.  We might end up with A Menu For Mister, part two...

on a lighter note...

Why don't we talk about food tonight?  Food so good that it can't possibly stir up controversy since it can be unanimously agreed upon that good food can also be tasty food (and pretty food - let's not neglect the food porn).  Why don't we do it like this: first we'll have a picture parade (to make up for last night's dearth), then we'll talk about the new menu.  Ready?  Let's go.

Last night, before I got all caught up in reading Mama Pea's post and answering some of the commenters with my own thoughts, leading to my novel-post because I had to get all those thoughts swimming around my head out in some kind of semi-coherent way, I made Rice Island Casserole from Vegan on the Cheap.  This is another one of those "baked" recipes that I have turned into a stovetop simmer recipe, because brown rice and my baking skills just do not get along.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but in my world, rice does not cook in the oven but rather on top of it.

It's such a good dinner - I never have trouble clearing my plate.

Or bowl.  Whatever.  The one thing I'm a little sad about is purely aesthetic - the kidney beans are pale.  Mister was kind enough to accompany me to both stores last weekend, enabling me to shop faster (he was just following me around with the baskets) and buy a little more (since he was there to help carry - he's such a handsome little pack-mule).  When we were at Superfresh, he made a comment on the absurdly high price of beans.

Beans are supposed to be cheap, right?  I mean, isn't that the punchline - "we were so poor growing up that mom ate beans because there was only enough 'real food' for us kids" right?  Actually, I know someone who did eat beans so her children could have more substantial food.  Anyway, I haven't been paying attention really, because beans are just one of those "essential" items that I pick up every single time I'm at the store.  It wouldn't really matter if they had tripled in price - I would still buy them and just be surprised at my higher bill.  His initial impetus to exclaiming his disbelief was that he wanted to pick up a can or two of refried beans but they were "way too expensive."  We happened to be having this conversation as I was picking out the whole beans and I noticed a huge difference in price between the dark and light kidney beans.  I don't actually know, besides color, what the difference is between them (logic would dictate the darker beans would be higher in antioxidants, but that's just a guess), so I decided we didn't need the more-expensive dark kidney beans.

They are much prettier, though.

Speaking of pretty (I'm getting so good at these segues), how about these cherries?

Every week, Whole Foods reduces the price by $1, but I really don't think they'll go much lower than $5/lb, so I decided this was the magical week we could have some.  If I'm wrong, well, I guess we'll have to get some more when they're a lower price, won't we?  I wouldn't mind - they were as sweet, juicy, and ripe as they are beautiful.  Cherry red is one of my very favorite colors (you might have guessed that from the placemats).

I actually got up early enough today to go to the Headhouse Farmers Market.  Well, to be honest, I frequently get up early enough to go to the farmers market but end up missing it because I'd rather spend the time waking up slowly and watching Evanescence or P!nk videos on YouTube.  Today I actually went...and was disappointed.  I guess it would have been okay if I didn't have a specific list of items in mind and if I was willing to pay more to support local agriculture that may or may not use genetically modified seeds.  I will probably return in the future, because there were a lot of fun booths that had stuff I would buy if I weren't on a budget, but I tried really hard to be frugal this week since there are a lot of beginning-of-the-month expenses to wipe out the paycheck I just got. 

After playing at the farmers market, Mister and I met up with my parents for a little brunch at Farmicia in Olde City.  We went there almost exactly 2 months ago with them and they enjoyed it so much they specifically requested returning there, so I made the reservations and off we went.  There was a deflating baby and a squeaking fan, but as always the food was delicious and the cocktails inventive.

I had the same thing I had last time, but this time I actually remembered my camera.  This is the Scrambled Tofu with Vegan Chorizo.  Obviously, that's on the right.  In the back were sopapillas (kind of like Mexican pita) to scoop up various parts of the meal.  On the left is a crisp tortilla with a generous lump of avocado-tomato salsa.  The tofu could have had a little more flavor, but its relative blandness helped to even out the spicy kick of the chorizo.  The sopapillas are pillow-soft and delightfully chewy and did a great job delivering the big chunks of avocado, dotted with crisp tomatoes, to my mouth.  In the back right, you may observe a slightly cloudy-looking drink.  That was my Little Miss Sunshine.  I ordered it because the name is hilarious and because it sounded fun - strawberry-flavored vodka with fresh lemonade.  It was very easy to drink and if I didn't keep reminding myself it had alcohol in it, I probably could have knocked back two with minimal effort.

Before they left, my mother gave me a delightfully fragrant, hydroponic basil plant.

Let's see how long it takes either for me to kill it or Angst to eat it.  Mister and I are fairly confident that he would be repulsed into stopping his nibbles after only one bite (which would confirm that it is most definitely not spinach), but I'm hoping that he can smell that it's not spinach and just stays away from it.  It looks so pretty in its Classico jar (bonus: if Angst does decide to eat it and knocks over the jar, at least I won't have lost another vase).

Since I had all day, pretty much, to prep for dinner, I saved the most time-consuming recipe on the menu for last - Orzo Pilaf from Vegan on the Cheap with Tofeta from How It All Vegan.  As I mentioned in the menu, VotC has its own tofeta recipe, but I like the one in HIAV better.

I needed a new dress for Cousin's wedding this weekend.  Okay.  I didn't need one, but I can only wear the same dresses so many times before people start wondering if I do laundry.  Besides, the last time I bought a dress, it was for my wedding, so I think it's okay to get another one after 4 years.  Anyway, before I headed out to Greene Street Consignment, I put the tofu in my handy-dandy Tofu Xpress to press while I shopped.  When I returned, with a dress, I diced it and put it back in the box along with the marinade to which I accidentally added twice as much basil as the recipe prescribed, then let it marinate for an hour in the fridge while I did other stuff.

building a base of greens

mmm....so tasty

I really like the crunch and varied texture provided by the lettuce leaves.  I've made this before and did not serve it as a salad and it was just fine, but I think this is a better way for the future.

Finally, the new menu.  More than half of it comes from a cookbook I have pretty well neglected since we moved: The Complete Vegan Cookbook.  That's a shame - it has a lot of good recipes.  So I started my recipe search there and nearly concluded it there as well, except that I had at least one recipe I knew I wanted to make from Vegan on the Cheap (will I ever get tired of this cookbook?).

1. Curried Cauliflower, Garbanzo, and Tomato Salad from CVC because cauliflower is awesome, but curried cauliflower = Mister in heaven.

2. Pasta Puttanesca with Artichokes, also from CVC.  I really like puttanesca sauces - they are so flavorful as to be nearly overwhelming.  I am curious about the combination of what I consider two fairly different tastes (and I might be doing it wrong, so I guess we'll see).  Puttanesca sauce is salty and kind of dark tasting, whereas I consider artichokes a little tangy from the brine they usually soak in during storage.  I'm supposed to be using frozen artichokes, though, but I couldn't find any.

3. Bulgur and Red Lentil Pilaf with Kale and Olives, also from CVC.  I love this dish.  That's all.

4. Provencal Black-Eyed Peas with Asparagus, also from CVC.  When we were first dating, Mister and I worked very close to one another, so we would sometimes take a short break for ice cream or other little treats.  A few times, I stopped at Baskin-Robbins on the way to meet him and I would call and ask what he wanted - his answer was normally, "whatever's weird."  In the spirit of that, I chose this dish - it's definitely weird: Black-Eyed Peas definitely have their place in Cajun/Creole cooking, and that cuisine is certainly influenced by Provence, but I think we're taking a mighty big leap here.  And then there's the asparagus.  That just doesn't make any sense to me.

5. Farfalle with White Beans and Cabbage from VotC.  I bought a big head of red cabbage for one of last week's salads and only used a very small amount.  The recipe calls for green cabbage, but we're just going to improvise a little.

6. Coconut Curry Rice also from VotC, except I forgot to pick up more curry powder.  Looks like a mid-week trip to Whole Foods is in my future...

Livin' La Dolce Vegan

Let me tell you a story - the story of how it all vegan. A long time ago, in the Garden of Vegan, a young woman named Sarah became well acquainted with fruits and vegetables, as well as fuzzy little companions (and tattoos - lots of tattoos). She evaluated her relationship with food and decided to live la dolce vegan, and fortunately for you and me, she decided to share some of her favorite recipes from the journey.

The thing I love about Sarah Kramer (and BFF Tanya Barnard) is that each book in their cookbook trilogy tells the tale of a different part of her journey. In HIAV, she is learning who she is as a vegan and how to live in a world that isn't always friendly to such peculiar dietary choices. In addition to some great soup recipes and completely bizarre entrees, primarily borrowed from others who are aiding her in the transition, there is a section on vegan DIY and do's and don'ts. There's even a glossary! In The Garden of Vegan, she and Tanya get a little more adventurous, including entertainment ideas and hygiene tips. Sarah authored La Dolce Vegan all by herself, and she focuses a lot on meals that are appropriately portioned for herself and her husband to share, as well as more comfort food and fast-n-easy recipes. Because of that, La Dolce Vegan is definitely my favorite of the three.

Last night's dinner was Peanut Butter Pasta from The Garden of Vegan. It came together extremely quickly - I would say no more than 15 minutes once the pasta water boils. The sauce was outstanding. I chose this recipe specifically because she mentions in the introduction how revolting she thought it would be and how pleasantly surprised she was to find it [more than] edible. I figured it would fill my "weird" quota and help me use up some of the vegan worcestershire sauce I bought last week for some other recipe.
It didn't take very good pictures - this was the best one and it sucks, but trust me - it tasted great!

Tonight, I made Veggie Goulash from La Dolce Vegan. Every time I make this, I say "I forgot how good this is!" I swear - the name makes it sound less appealing than it is, despite the very humorous introduction, remarking on fun synonyms for goulash (hodge-podge) and how they make Sarah laugh. Anyway, this one took much better pictures and made me use up all of my Hungarian paprika, so it looks like I'll have to make a trip to the Spice Corner again. I know, they'll have to drag me by my hair, kicking and screaming all the way.
I was struck by the pretty still-life I accidentally created on my cutting board while assembling the vegetables to be scrubbed, so I wanted to share. By the way, regardless of how ripe that tomato looks, I'm going back to my mantra of "no fresh tomatoes in winter."
Also, I have gotten spoiled by the delightful scents of Basmati and Jasmine rice. Brown rice smells just awful, doesn't it?

Update on Mister's piggy, if anyone is interested: it doesn't seem to be broken after all, but he can't stand on it and Angst might lose one of his lives if he gets too close to kissing it. Mister will be home from work for a few days, so hopefully the swelling will go down and the bruise will stop being so painful for him - love, prayers, and general good thoughts are always welcome.

Dr. Atkins' worst nightmare

That's me! I know I'm not alone, but sometimes I look at what I'm eating/cooking and think that Dr. Fadkins would have a heart attack (ironically, he did). Today was Carb Day in my home.

Breakfast: oatmeal
snack: slice of bread with Earth Balance
Lunch: PB sandwich
snack: pan-seared apple
Dinner: carbs cooked with carbs and covered in carbs (more details in a moment)

I remember, at the height of the Carbs-Are-Evil Craze, being in the middle of a grocery store and just getting all the things I normally got and suddenly noticing all of the absolutely horrified looks I was getting. Women were literally stopping in their tracks to stare at me. Naturally, I became a little nervous and self-conscious, but then I laughed inside my head when I realized the source of their horror. Inside my cart I had:
a few different kinds of pasta
a loaf of bread
burger buns
a bag of rice
a box of cereal
fruit

Obviously, there were various vegetables and other things, but those were the things my fellow shoppers were staring at in awe. They were then looking at me as if to say, "How can you eat carbs and still be thin? Don't you know carbs make you fat??" Of course, what seemed to escape the attention of all these carb-starved dieters was what was NOT in my cart: chips, cookies, ice cream, candy, and other crap. Newsflash! Those things are what really make you fat.

So, now that I have absolutely blown your mind, let's talk about my carbalicious dinner. Tonight, I subjected my husband to a feminist version of his favorite dinner: Shepherdess Pie from Veganomicon. I made a couple of substitutions, due to my husband's trouble with tempeh and distaste for mushrooms. I've mentioned "pet ingredients" before - Nava's is sundried tomatoes, Robin's is soy "meat" crumbles, and it seems to me that Isa's are mushrooms and tempeh - Mister's mortal enemies.
It was very tasty and extremely photo-friendly. I think one of the things I was happiest about was the mashed potato topping - it blows my mind that the creamiest, most spreadable mashed potatoes I have ever made from scratch are vegan. I think it was my secret ingredient.

You want to know what it is, don't you?
If I told you, it wouldn't be my secret ingredient.
Anyway, Mister compared it to a potpie but with a mashed potato topping. He stated quite bluntly that he prefers Sarah's Savoury Shepherd's Pie. I liked it, but I could think of a couple of variations I'd like to try, which would probably bring it more in line with Mister's preferences. He did agree that the mashed potatoes were awesome and he's a big mashed potato fan. We actually ate a tub of mashed potatoes for dinner one night of our honeymoon. Why not? It was our honeymoon.

So, 3 lbs of potatoes, 1 cup of peas (high starch vegetable), 1 cup of corn (same thing), and flour to thicken the gravy equals Atkins Apocalypse. You can keep your fatty corpses, sir. I still remember when a friend of mine fell victim to the hype. I watched him eat a combo plate of filet mignon and tilapia, nestled on a bed of really tasty looking risotto...which he scraped into the garbage.

I am firmly convinced that the reason the Atkins thing took off is because carbohydrate is an essential macronutrient and if you do not get enough of it, your brain does not function correctly.

Now we push the negativity into the corner and take a moment to be thankful:
1. I am thankful for this "3-day weekend" to spend time with my husband before my schedule turns upside down.

2. I'm grateful for the four walls that keep the sub-freezing cold out of my home (for the most part).

3. I am grateful the wind hasn't blown out the pilot on the heater or the oven. Yet.

4. I am grateful that my sister will be home in Pennsylvania for two weeks in ten days!

omni-vegan feast

Where to begin? Thanksgiving was really an adventure, challenge, and delight. As it turns out, my mom and I were almost matched dish for dish on the dinner table. Representing the Omnivores, she had prepared a hunk of turkey, our family tradition - pineapple casserole, a sweet potato casserole, and a salad with some biscuits. On the Vegan team, I brought my tofu turkeys (absolute triumph), spiced potatoes and green beans, and chai applesauce. Mom also had pumpkin pie and chocolate ganache sandwich cookies for dessert. Buckle your seatbelts, folks, I think this is going to be a long, picture-filled post.

here's the dinner table, all decked out for the holiday and covered with more food than I think any of the four of us had anticipated.
here's the Chunky Chai Applesauce, looking quite regal in gold and ivory
Tofu Turkeys keeping the Sweet Potato Casserole company
Spiced Potatoes and Green Beans in front of Mom's traditional Pineapple Casserole
my happy little plate, with my tofu turkeys bathed in just a bit of the gravy I made from the leftover marinade...which my father liked so much he wanted to keep it to use on his turkey leftovers this week!
And here's Dad, showing the whole world that he DID eat a tofu turkey. He also liked it so much that he had a second turkey with no prompting! I'm so proud.

Speaking of tofu turkeys, I ended up with a bunch of tofu leftover after I cut out the cute little turkeys, so I packed all the pieces into tupperware, covered with water, and sealed those suckers in there. Today, around brunch-time, I thought, "What a perfect day to make scrambled tofu!" I have never actually made scrambled tofu, but the idea has been growing on me for a couple of months at least, but probably more like since I got my copy of Vegan Brunch. I didn't have any nutritional yeast, so I consulted How It All Vegan because I seemed to remember Sarah Kramer also having a love of scrambled tofu. Sorry, Isa, but hers is much easier... So I heated some oil in a fry pan, blotted some of the leftover tofu on a paper towel and then "crumbled" it into the fry pan. I let it sizzle for a little while, then I sprinkled it with some turmeric, cumin, and garlic powder. I stirred it for a good while (at least a minute), then I sprinkled in some tamari and let it soak in for a bit. I think the whole process took a little more than 5 minutes and the effort was so worth it that I'm kicking myself for not doing this sooner...not that I frequently have scraps of leftover tofu lying around.

seriously - who needs eggs?

Tonight, then, we had the last thing on last week's menu - Beef and Cabbage Stir-Fry with Peanut Sauce. It didn't come together quite as smoothly as I would have liked, but I think I could have been a little more organized. I was rushing myself because I got a late start and because it is my opinion that stir-fries should be fast, adrenaline-pumping experiences. I got to use my new juicer to get the 1/3 cup orange juice I needed (2 oranges, if you care) for the sauce. It came out very delicious and looking much like its picture, which always thrills me.

Now, on to this week's menu:

1. Saffron-Spiked Moroccan Stew on couscous, from The Vegan Table. I have stayed away from things that call for saffron, since it is excessively expensive, or I just substitute turmeric if it's not a main ingredient. I have decided, upon reading this recipe, that it is worth the cost of the saffron to try it out.

2. Orzo Pilaf with Roasted Red Peppers & Peas, also from The Vegan Table. This looks like a fun and savory pasta risotto kind of dish.

3. Cuban Black Bean Soup, also from The Vegan Table. I read this recipe three times, mulling the ingredients over in my head before deciding I want to make it. It is really a weird soup if ever I've made one, which both intrigues me and worries me. I have little doubt that I will think it's fabulous, but I never know how Mister will react to some of my more adventurous dinners.

4. Hearty Stew, also from The Vegan Table. I have made this before, but I want to make it again now that I have discovered the amazingness of Ray's Seitan. Yes, I know amazingness is not a word - spell check told me so, but I don't care - it's the best way I can think to describe this stuff. If you've ever been to Horizons, you'll understand.

5. Chickpea Stew with Fried Polenta from Vegetarian Times Complete Cookbook. I love this enough to have made it a few times in recent history, and it'll make a fast, easy dinner on one of my insanely busy nights next week (which one? pick one).

6. Thai Pineapple Stir-Fried Rice from Vegan Express. I would be lost without this book. What amazes me is that I have been relying very heavily on his book since I got it and I still find new things to make every time I go in there! This looks fun. It looks like it may be a lot of work, but her recipes really never seem to take longer than a half an hour, so I think I can make it happen.

7. Pasta with Beans & Chard also from Vegan Express. Okay, so I've made this one before... I didn't say I never repeat a dish.

I didn't forget! Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I should have started then, but I was too fat to type. Today, then, is day one of Operation Gratitude Attitude. Remember our deal? I'll start with my four things:

1. I am grateful that I have enough money to keep my home as warm as I want it to be.

2. I am grateful my parents love me and support my crazy aspirations and experiments.

3. I am grateful that I have over 145,000 miles on my car and it hasn't given me any real trouble yet.

4. I am grateful to be able-bodied enough to walk to the grocery stores tomorrow.

Your turn! What one thing are you grateful for today?

a bun in the oven

Did I give you a heart attack, Mom?

No buns in my figurative "oven" - let me get that out of the way immediately.

I made my first ever vegan biscuits and I'm still high off of how well they came out. I ended up doing a kind of hybrid between Isa's Herbed Whole Wheat Biscuits from Vegan Brunch and Sarah's Easy Biscuits from How It All Vegan. By the way, I still think that is one of the most clever names for a book ever. There were three things about this recipe that amazed me:

1. watching the cider vinegar turn soymilk into buttermilk was simultaneously awesome and stomach-turning.

2. with just the right amount of ingredients, a dough formed and separated itself from the bowl, as well as the spatula, quite easily!

3. they really, really tasted like (whole wheat) buttermilk biscuits! It blew my mind. They were fun looking, don't get me wrong, but I really did not expect them to be this good - perfectly crisp and crunchy on the outside and light, puffy, and soft inside.
They kind of look like rocks, since they were drop biscuits, not cut. When I broke my first one open, there was a fabulous little puff of steam...mmm....so good. Another neat thing was that it seemed like the whole wheat flour made the biscuits a little sweeter, even though there was no sweetener - just thyme. By the way - I don't know if I just got lucky with my whole wheat flour, but it's very hard to sift because flakes of wheat stay on top of the little grindy-wheels. Irritating, but wholesome, I guess.

Anyway, I served my happy little biscuits with chunky, steamy, savory bowls of French Lentil Soup with Thyme and Tarragon from Veganomicon.
I still love this soup! It smells so good while it's simmering, and the length of time it takes to simmer is about the length of time it takes me to babble about some mundane but amusing parts of my day to Mister, make biscuits, and clean up. If you'd like to read more of my raving about just how good this soup is, and how you should make it and eat it and never eat anything else ever again because there's just no need click here or here.

There was one thing that was different and special about tonight's making of this heavenly soup: I used up a sprig of genuine home-grown lemon thyme, given to me by my previously mentioned generous colleague. It added a neat flavor to the soup, though I must admit it didn't really stand out against the generous helping of tarragon (my new favorite herb) and the savory smokiness of Hungarian paprika. I could definitely taste the difference, though. Surprisingly, this was also my first time cooking with fresh thyme.

In case you were wondering, once I got absorbed in my chopping and sauteing and sifting and plopping, I was able to ignore the utter disaster that someone else might refer to as my living room. Hopefully, this will get fixed tomorrow, because I won't be able to live like this for very long...

vegan cupcakes take over my brain

Chocolate and pumpkin and chai, oh my! I'm done for, seriously - this almost-winter-winter-still-winter baking season is going to be deadly for my figure. I blame Isa and Terry and most of all, my new colleague who kindly let me borrow her copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World to look over this weekend. On the back of the book there is a warning: "prepare for Total Cupcake Domination" and it's true - my life will never be the same.

I flipped through the book, just checking things out and I started marking off a few I wanted to try this weekend (tomorrow) and soon came to the realization that although I have been saying for years that I don't like cake...I can't live without this cookbook. I need to make:
Pineapple Right-Side-Up Cupcakes
Chocolate Mint Cupcakes
Banana Split Cupcakes
Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting
Chai Latte Cupcakes
Tiramisu Cupcakes
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing (cinnamon??? mmmm....)
Apple Cider Cupcakes
Cappuccino Cupcakes with Espresso Creme

I would say that those nine alone are reason enough to hunt down and make this book mine.

And of course, the book is sprinkled throughout with cunning and sarcastic commentary. For example, at the beginning of the book, Isa and Terry provide an A to Z list of reasons to have a cupcake cookbook, including these two gems:
LOVE: Nothing says love like a cupcake does. If you don't bake someone a cupcake then you don't really care about them.
VOLUPTUOUS: Doesn't your butt need a little extra padding? Sure it does.

I will leave it at that. And one last thing: buy this book.

In other news, I put together my menu for the upcoming week so I can shop for it tomorrow before going to another fantastic event in the evening (what a fun weekend!).

1. Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic & Navy Beans (from Veganomicon) I have looked at the recipe a few times, but it looked like a lot of work. Then I saw it on a blog I visit and it just looked too good to not make. So I'm making it this week.

2. French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme (also from Veganomicon) Yes, it's the same one I made just a few weeks ago, but it's really that good. I tried to resist. I failed. I'm sure other people repeat recipes more frequently than monthly.

3. Pasta Della California (also from Veganomicon). It looked fun and I can't have soup for dinner every night.

4. Seitan Chow Fun (from Vegan Express) You didn't think I was leaving poor Nava behind in my Isa-worship, did you?

5. Ginger Cakes with Garlic Vegetables

Tonight we had Savoury Shepherd's Pie from How It All Vegan. It's one of Mister's favorite dinners. More or less anything involving potatoes, especially mashed, will make my husband happy. I guess he's a seitan-and-potatoes kind of guy after all. I made my mashed potatoes in my food processor and it was definitely an interesting experience. I don't know if it was the Yukon Gold potatoes (usually I get red potatoes) or the soymilk or the Earth Balance, or possibly just the food processor, but they were much glue-ier than normal. Or perhaps I've just gotten too used to prepackaged, microwaveable mashed potatoes. They still tasted good and I didn't get any complaints, and there were a few absolutely perfectly creamy and buttery bites.
Other fun bits about dinner: I used up the last of my French green lentils instead of my SuperFresh generic lentils and I believe I could taste a difference. As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of onions. I just hate their texture and despise the way they stay on your breath for what feels like a week. Then there's the whole dehydration thing. Anyway, most of the time, when a recipe calls for onions, I just ignore it. In fact, I've gotten so good at ignoring the word "onion" that I don't even see it in recipes anymore. When I looked closely at this recipe that I've made dozens of times, I saw that it called for an onion (like damn near every vegan/vegetarian recipe seems to) and a little lightbulb ignited over my head.

The same great colleague who brought me a big bag of chocolate mint a few weeks ago brought me a bag of bounty from his garden the other day. It contained:
lemon thyme
spearmint
a wine red hot pepper, and...
chives!

So I grabbed the bag, pulled out some very long chives and (after washing them, of course) chopped them up nice and small and added them to the sauteing veggies. It brought a fun and unique taste to a dish I've made so many times before and with NO aftertaste. Color me happy.

she's as sweet as tupelo honey

It never occurred to me, until a few years ago, that honey wouldn't be considered vegan. I guess it was part of my exploration of my first vegan (cook)book ever - How It All Vegan, ironically. I noticed that instead of using honey as a sweetener in some baked goods, like my fruity, hippie, all-natural cookbooks, there was a lot of maple syrup or "dry sweetener of your choice" going on. Don't get me wrong - I like maple syrup, but it has a very distinct flavor that kind of stands out.

I'm not gonna lie: I like honey.
I like it in herbal tea. I like to cream it with non-dairy butter as the first step to making the best oatmeal cookies I've ever had. I like to drizzle it over chunky peanut butter spread on a tortilla and then roll the whole thing up and eat it like candy. Now and then, I've been known to stir it into oatmeal or coffee. I like how much easier honey mixes up in a cookie/cake/muffin/bread recipe than granulated sugar.

Furthermore, when I really get to thinking about whether or not honey is vegan, I really go for it. For example - is yeast vegan? What about soy yogurt with live cultures? Those are living micro-organisms, so I guess what I want to know is: where is the line? When does PETA stop caring?

So, I've done a little homework to help myself figure out the honey conundrum.
Checking back with HIAV, the appendix, "Vegan No-Nos A to Z" gives a very simple reason why people/vegans should not eat honey. "Food for bees, made by bees." Fair enough - that has been my anti-dairy argument for years: cow's milk is meant to be consumed by baby cows to help them grown into big cows. If humans were supposed to drink cow's milk, human mothers wouldn't lactate...makes sense to me. Also, as a side note - are you aware that human beings are the only species that drinks another species' milk AND drinks milk after infancy? The dreaded curse of lactose intolerance that so many unfortunate adults seem to suffer is actually the body's natural way of weaning - it's supposed to happen.

Okay, so chalk one up for the argument against honey.

I've seen PETA's argument against honey before, but I thought I'd check it out again to see if it made more sense. The crux of their argument is that honeybees are unnatural and exploited. The honey that lines your supermarket shelves is the product of factory-farmed bees, therefore putting it on the same level as boxed cows, caged footless chickens, and udder-infected milk cows. Quick disclaimer: these are PETA's thoughts, not necessarily mine. Honeybees are born, live, and die (or are killed) in an artificial environment and therefore do not contribute to the beneficial pollination of plants that "natural" bees enact. Their entire lives are controlled and manipulated by beekeepers that I have to believe are a little smarter than PETA is willing to admit. Ultimately, PETA's stand is that because bees have exhibited intelligence by recognizing home and "family," the exploitation of their labor is on par with the abuse and misery felt by veal calves, milk cows, egg-laying hens, foie gras-growing ducks, and bacon pigs.

They make a thought-provoking argument, but I'm not sure I'm buying it. What it comes down to (for me) is this: bees are insects, not animals. Granted, that opens up a whole can of silkworms, but we'll get to that, plus wool and leather, later.

According to vegan.org, a vegan is someone who eschews not only the flesh of animals, but also anything else that comes from them, such as dairy, eggs, wool, leather, etc. On their FAQ page, they classify insects as animals, but state that not all vegans "believe insects are conscious of pain. Moreover, even if insects were conscious of pain, it's not clear that the production of honey involves any more pain for insects than the production of most vegetables, since the harvesting and transportation of all vegetables involves many 'collateral' insect deaths."

If that means we have to give up vegetables, I'm in trouble.

Wikipedia, in a very well researched article, similarly defines a vegan as someone who not only restricts his/her diet to refrain from animal products/flesh, but also lives a lifestyle which seeks to avoid the exploitation or unethical use of animals. The article primarily refers to The Vegan Society, founded in the mid-1940s, but PETA protests are in line with forsaking cosmetics tested on animals, animals in entertainment, animals used for clothing, and so on.

On veganism.com, the homepage features a happy little pig in a field with this quote underneath the picture:

Veganism may be defined as a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom for food, clothing, or any other purpose. In dietary terms it refers to the practice of dispensing with all animal produce - including flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, (non-human) animal milks, and their derivatives, with the taking of honey left to individual conscience.

I feel like that last phrase (regarding honey) is kind of an underhanded guilt trip, but whatever. Even PETA manages to have a succinct and direct mission statement on their website:

PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs.

Just to dig a little deeper, because I'm kind of a perfectionist like that and because I figure the best decision can be made with the most information available, I checked out how close to the colloquial meaning of "animal" bees are. Science really isn't my thing, but here's a quick 7th grade science lesson to wrap things up:
Scientific classification separates everything possible into a hierarchy which begins with the broad category of "Life" and whittles it down through Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. Kingdom, third from the top and among the broadest classifications are what lump bees into the animal category. Because I actually love studying how we got the words we use, I could launch into a big discussion of the root of the word "Animal," but I won't because I've already been working on this post for an hour and a half and I want to go to bed soon. Suffice it to say, though, that anything which is self-animated (can move of its own free will) is considered an animal.

By this line of thought, a vegan cannot smush the spider creeping along the wall, even if it's a black widow and could do serious harm to her, her companion animal, or her child. A vegan cannot exterminate for a cockroach problem that is invading his food supply and causing his child to have asthma attacks. A vegan cannot slap the mosquito that just gave her West Nile virus.

This may be the most thoroughly researched and thought out justification for the continued use of honey in the history of people trying to justify their love for this sweet substance, but I've done my homework and come to my own educated conclusions.

I don't see anything wrong with using honey. The case is not necessarily closed, though. If you can make an equally compelling argument against my current point of view, I will certainly consider it thoughtfully and allow it to help me more fully develop my opinion on this blurry issue.

a perfect tofucotta

What a wonderful day! I was off from work, which I never take for granted, it was a perfect temperature, and I got to watch some people remove a couch from a 2nd floor balcony by hoisting it over the railing and down to two men poised to catch it on top of a U-Haul box truck! You can't beat that with a stick.

Or maybe you can, with a delightful and rustic lunch. I reheated the beans & kale soup from Friday's dinner and made tomato toasts.
I think the soup was actually better today than it was when it was freshly made on Friday. There was something distinctly buttery tasting about it that I can only guess was the cannellini beans.

Anyway, after much plotting about "work" Mister and I plan on doing to our home over the next two weeks in order to make it less disastrous and more pleasant (home should relax a person, not stress her out more), I ventured out into the sun and breeze to pay a visit (and a good chunk of my paycheck) to Whole Foods. Before I go any further, let me share this week's menu with you:

1. Potato Leek Soup and Sauteed Broccoli Rabe with Olives & Toasted Pine Nuts
2. Arborio Rice with Roasted Red Peppers, Pine Nuts & Basil
3. Tofu Spinach Lasagna (no pine nuts in this one - you thought there was a trend, didn't you?)
4. Hearty Stew
5. Savoury Shepherd's Pie

Numbers 1-4 all come from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. I'm especially excited about #4 because it proves she is indeed able to create a recipe name that does not include all of the ingredients in the title (see 1 and 2 and this).

The shepherd's pie recipe comes from How It All Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard. As I mentioned in a previous post, I fell in love with this book because of the soup recipes. In fact, for at least the first year or two that I had this book, there were only two non-soup recipes in the book that I ever used - this is one of them. Normally, I cheat and buy pre-made, refrigerated mashed potatoes for the topping, but it occurred to me as I was beginning to write "mashed potatoes" on my grocery list that most people include milk and butter when they make mashed potatoes. So, for the sake of being true to VeganMoFo 2009, I will sacrifice convenience and use my nifty food processor OR my very fun Oxo potato masher to make the mashed potatoes myself with soymilk and Earth Balance.

Anyway, we're going to swap out #3 from this week with #5 from last week, because it just wasn't soup weather tonight. Also, Tofu Spinach Lasagna requires a bit more time and effort that I am usually willing to put out on a work night. As long as I live, I will hate squishing the water out of frozen chopped spinach. I wish I could train the cat to do it for me, but he's a lazy little guy...and we don't want his fuzz in the spinach either. I have at least half a dozen vegetarian lasagna recipes (including a surprisingly good - but hardly vegan - one from Martha Stewart), but tonight I was astonished by two things:

1. how good vegan lasagna can be
2. how realistic my tofu ricotta was

see? you can't tell me that doesn't look just like real ricotta would after it was beaten with an egg and some water to make it spreadable
Here it is after I mixed in the chopped spinach. By the way, Angst knows the difference between fresh and frozen spinach and did not even bother with me tonight.
mine

mister's

Chai is the Hindi word for Tea

That's my fun fact for the evening - because it cracks me up! From now on, every time I hear someone say "Chai Tea" I'm going to laugh inside my head. I wanted to share that so you can laugh inside your head, too, or if we're together we can laugh out loud and give the person who said "chai tea" a complex.

I saw that in a little color patch in The Vegan Table, which is funny since dinner came from a different cookbook. I can't remember why I had that one open, but let me move on. Dinner tonight came from La Dolce Vegan and it's one of my favorite recipes. It is extremely simple to make, comes together quickly, smells fabulous, and tastes even better. I think this dish was the first time Mister realized he could actually like tofu.

*Gasp* A vegetarian who doesn't like tofu??? It happens.

Anyway, I'll share the recipe at the end of this post because it doesn't actually belong to the author so I don't feel bad reposting it. Hopefully, too, it will encourage you to buy this wonderful book. There are three:
How It All Vegan
The Garden of Vegan
La Dolce Vegan <-- my favorite

I actually stumbled upon Sarah Kramer and her BFF Tanya Barnard and their amazing trilogy of cookbooks as the result of my wonderful mother trying to accommodate my crazy new lifestyle and make a vegan recipe for some holiday dinner (Christmas, I think), but it didn't quite work out for her, so she gave me the cookbook (HiaV). It had some of the best soup recipes in my collection so it won a fast place in my heart and I got the other two over the years.

Anyway, today I had my Chocolate Cherry Jocalat bar, finally.
I think my favorite thing about this bar is that the cocoa is Fair Trade Certified, which is important to me. To be honest, much like the Chocolate Mint Jocalat bar, the first bite was absolutely horrific. However, considering how well the Mint bar worked out by halfway through, I gave this one another chance and had the same result. Dried cherries are a little more tart than I would like, and these were unsweetened (unlike my craisinets), but it gave a good finish to the bar and I would probably get this one again...but it will never stand up to my Nectar cacao bars.

Now, as promised, I'll share the recipe for tonight's delightful dinner. I love this recipe so much! I chose it because we don't have any more room in the fridge for leftovers and there are never leftovers when I make this. That's another "favorite" thing about this cookbook - Sarah is just cooking for herself and her husband, so her recipes are usually the right size for me and my husband! The recipe was submitted to Sarah from Inder and Vandna Bedi from ViaVegan.com:

Punjabi Peppers & Tofu

Ingredients:
brown rice (or grain of your choice), enough for two people*
1/2 lb firm tofu, cubed**
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp hot chili powder
1 large tomato, finely chopped

In a medium pot, cook the rice accordingly. While rice is cooking, in a wok or large saucepan on medium-high heat, saute the tofu and onions in oil until onions are translucent and tofu starts to brown. Add the green and red peppers, salt, chili powder, garam masala, and tomatoes. Reduce heat and cover with lid. Simmer for 4-6 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Serve over rice. Makes 2 large or 4 small servings.

Notes:
* I used 3/4 cup brown rice in 1.5 cups water.
** I used a whole 14 oz container of tofu. I have no idea how much a 1/2 lb would be and I don't really care - the point was not to have leftovers, so I didn't want whatever was left of the tofu after I skillfully carved away exactly half a pound to sit in some far corner of my fridge awaiting the opportunity to become a science project.

By the way, I don't know what "tea" is in Punjabi and Google won't help me.