you can't always get what you want

subtitle: How Bed, Bath, and Beyond failed me today.

There used to be a Linens 'n' Things very near my home.  It was a convenient alternative to BBB, since Mister officially declared his hatred for that store the night we became engaged.  It's a long story, but let's just say we ended up registering for our wedding at LnT (and Macy's) instead.  Anyway, since October 2008 led to the death of many of my favorite (but possibly second-rate) stores, my only option for convenience and price is the Triple B.  There happens to be one right around the corner from my Saturday job.

I went on their website this afternoon and was absolutely ecstatic to see they have the knife I've been looking for and which I am too lazy busy to walk up to Williams Sonoma to purchase:

Unfortunately, in the ten minutes I had to run into the store, grab coffeemaker water filters and find the knife, I was informed by a helpful and apologetic employee that they do not stock those knives, but they are available on the website.  I smiled, thanked her, and waited in line behind a woman with two very badly behaved children to pay for my coffee machine filters.  Nevermind that those knives were the only reason I set foot in that store.

Anyway, I was miraculously able to prepare dinner tonight without the help of the very sharp, nonstick, carbon fiber blade.  I can't remark about last night's dinner, since the only sharp utensil necessary was a pair of scissors to open the bag of frozen broccoli...

Okay, you got me, I did have to chop some olives and one-third of a yellow bell pepper for the salads.  I made Penne with Broccoli and Creamy Tomato Sauce last night.  Since we didn't have occasion to drop the cat again, I decided to make it fun by using gemelli pasta instead of plain ol' penne.  I also tried a different prepared pasta sauce: Ragu Robusto 7-Herb Tomato Sauce.  It was really good and vegan.  Omnivores everywhere are wondering right now (well, at least the ones who read my humble blog), "What wouldn't be vegan about pasta sauce?"  In a word: cheese. They sneak it into simple marinaras and think you won't notice.  I was completely surprised by how many prepared pasta sauces have cheese in them.

Tonight was a little more cutting intensive, but since I could cube tofu with a dinner knife, the intensity of the Kuhn Rikon knife I didn't buy today wasn't really missing.

I love Black Bottom Pineapple Tofu with Coconut Cashew Rice.  It tastes so good and it gets easier to make every time I make it.  A couple of changes: the recipe calls for 2 Tbsp of unsweetened coconut, but I use 3 Tbsp of sweetened coconut.  I think it's better that way.  Also, tonight I subbed chopped hazelnuts for the cashews because I want to use them before they go bad.  The cashews definitely complement the flavors of the dish better - they are more mild, while the hazelnuts have a more pronounced flavor.  I did enjoy the extra crunch provided by these sturdy little nuts, though.

We were "eating the rainbow" again tonight with a vividly colorful salad of mixed greens, grape tomatoes (I don't think they're quite ripe), yellow pepper, shredded carrots, and kalamata olives:

It was too pretty to not be showcased in its own beauty shot.

I got some other little presents for myself today, in between fulfilling a mean Starbucks craving (it happens to the best of us) and buying coffee maker water filters (are we sensing a pattern?), but I'll fill you in on that tomorrow.   In the meantime, feel free to check out two new blogs I've added to the side of my [revamped] page:

The Cutie Tip of the Day from Make-up artists, Touch of Blush

Chic Vegan - What I like about this blog is how it incorporates everything, just like living a vegan lifestyle encompasses not only what we eat, but how we dress, what we put on our feet and how we paint our faces (should we choose to, and you can probably guess my choice, based on the first link).  I love all the vegan and raw blogs out there, but I can't focus on food all the time or I'll never stop eating!  Enjoy!

eating (and drinking) the rainbow

I haven't forgotten you, National Nutrition Month!

Years ago, when I worked in social services, I worked with a small woman who could most kindly be described as eccentric. She was deeply involved with yoga and meditation, had converted from Christian Science to Reformed Judaism, followed a macrobiotic diet in her recovery from cancer, and exercised harder than her 70-year-old body wanted to most of the time. Although she and I frequently argued about whether or not you could call yourself a vegetarian when you consumed fish on an almost daily basis (she did), she admired that I was a vegetarian and that I had a similar interest in caring for my body. I think she thought she had found a kindred soul because our colleagues had anything but healthy eating behavior - three of them were dangerously obese.

I was still relatively new to vegetarianism at this point and was rather proud of the spinach-n-sprouts sandwich that I frequently brought for lunch. I was even more pleased when I had the opportunity to share food with my colleagues on a two-day work retreat. I made a pasta salad with all manner of tasty veggies - it was beautiful. I had never heard the expression "eat the rainbow" until that day, when my crazy, er, eccentric colleague complimented me on doing so.

We have been following that sage advice ever since, and it was more evident than ever in our dinners the past couple of nights.

Last night, I made Pasta Jambalaya from Vegan Express. Usually, I use cavatappi pasta, but the tri-colored rotini just looked so cute on the grocery store shelf (and so on sale, too!). It really changed the look! I accompanied our jambalayas with a healthy-sized salad of organic mixed greens, shredded carrots, quartered kalamata olives, and dried cranberries. As Mister approached the table, he couldn't disguise his happiness when he said "Ooh! Dinner's so pretty!" I'm going to add this dish to my list of Great Foods for Large Gatherings, because I had forgotten how much it makes - we have a ton of leftovers.

Tonight, we had Sweet and Sour Tofu with Dark Leafy Greens with Sesame Miso Dressing from The Vegan Table. While not as colorful as last night's dinner, it was still bright and colorful. The recipe originally calls for tempeh, but since Mister's belly hates tempeh, I decided to freeze and thaw a block of tofu and then I roasted it. The roasting dried it out a little, but did accomplish the crispy outside I was hoping for. Next time I will marinate the tofu before roasting to see what that does. The dressing on the greens was a little much for my little bundle of chard. "Bunch" is such an arbitrary measurement - what if her market is more generous than mine? I think it is, because there was a little pool of very intense dressing at the bottom of our little bowls. It was very good, but we couldn't finish even the 1/2 cup we each got because of the intensity of the dressing.

The sweet-n-sour sauce (homemade, thank you very much) was far more mild than I expected - it was perfect, if you ask me. Although the recipe called for apricot preserves, Superfresh was having a sale on Polaner All-Fruit, and I find Smuckers and their store brand revolting, so all that was left (and acceptable, AKA not sweetened artificially) were Pineapple preserves - I think that made a big difference.

The final "rainbow" I tasted was another color in the Yellow Tail rainbow: Riesling. It is very easy to drink. It's nothing special, honestly. It would be a good wine to drink for the sake of getting drunk because it goes down very smoothly, but one of the things I cherish in Riesling is the crisp "bite" a good one delivers - this one, like Polka Dot, has no such bite. It's really nearly a Pinot Grigio, which kind of enhances my curiosity to try the Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio, one of the few "colors" left. I was up in the air as to whether I wanted a red or a Riesling, and I almost shelled out for an Eiswein (Ice Wine, from grapes harvested after the first frost). I ended up with a bottle of Black Tower Riesling when I saw the Yellow Tail display and thought, "Well, I already know YT is vegan, while I know nothing about Black Tower other than that it has a cool bottle." Click on the link for Polka Dot (above) if you want to know how effective that method of choosing wines is. In the end, I wanted to try the YT Riesling anyway, so I chose that one. It will do, but I won't buy it again. I think this is the first color to fail and that doesn't really surprise me since I'm ultra-finicky about whites.

cruel to be kind

Not too long ago, I wrote about how every month seems to be designated to bringing awareness to some very important cause. Even within these months are specific weeks or even days set aside to recognize a cause that may not be important enough to warrant a whole month but has just enough advocates to lobby for a special day. You know, like Mother's Day or something. Just kidding. Anyway, I think this is an ongoing process and the calendar-makers can't keep up with it, so it falls to the proponents of said causes to bring awareness to their special month, week, or day.

I've been meaning to post about National Nutrition Month for a few days now, but it keeps getting away from me. It's ironic - there is finally a month devoted to something I actually care about, but I can't find the energy to promote it!


There is a ton of helpful information for the observance and promotion of March as National Nutrition Month at eatright.org, the American Dietetic Association's (ADA) website. To give a quick synopsis, NNM has been going on longer than I've been alive, starting as a week of observance and finally being raised to a cause worthy of a full 31-day month. I think it's great that NNM coincides with the mayor of Philadelphia proposing a tax on sugar-sweetened soda - I can't think of a better time to introduce such ingenious legislation. I hear people moaning and complaining about this, and I'll grant you that I'm not a big soda fan, so it wouldn't strike me as tragic even if I didn't think it was one of the best ideas our mayor has ever had. This delightful double-edged sword would not only raise money for our apparently impoverished city government, but it might actually reduce the demand for these SatanSugarDrinks. Newsflash, people of Philadelphia: Soda is BAD for you! If we can get the city out of a budget crisis AND reduce the number of sodas purchased and consumed in this city, I don't see how this can be a bad thing.

In open antithesis to NNM, the month of March also contains National Banana Cream Pie Day (3/2), National Potato Chip Day (3/14), and National Lemon Chiffon Cake Day (3/29). Of course, you could point out that the origin of each of those foods is a fruit or vegetable...

kind of makes you hungry, doesn't it?

Speaking of kind, I just finished reading an illuminating and surprisingly inspiring article in VegNews - an interview with Alicia Silverstone. I have to be honest, if someone told me ten years ago that I would use the words "illuminating" and "inspiring" to describe this actress-turned-PETA-spokesmodel...
...I would have laughed without shame. However, separating the woman from the character, it turns out Alicia herself has a great deal of depth and a heart of gold.

I was a little suspicious of The Kind Diet when it was initially released, because all I knew of Alicia's change of heart was her willingness to let PETA use her image in their campaigns. I think PETA's heart is in the right place, but as I've mentioned before, I can't get on board with them completely, due to the overly severe nature of their propaganda. Pictures of slaughtered pigs and beakless chickens appeal only to the hearts and tears of adolescent girls...they make the rest of us mad. Although, in its own way, I guess that works, too.

Anyway, the interview has piqued my curiosity and willingness to support her in this. She certainly doesn't need my money, but it's my way of using my consumer-power to build up the things that matter to me. Once I find a minute to buy and actually read the book, you can count on another book review. Yes, I will keep finding reasons for you to come back and read my blog - is it working?

Finally, last night's dinner: White Bean-Tarragon Soup with a couple mega-salads.

Normally, we're not big on brothy soups, but this one is not only attractive but extremely flavorful. There is a load of herbs in there, primarily floating on top in a very enticing manner. The white beans (I used Great Northern beans in the absence of canned Navy beans) are hiding under the carrots and celery. For the very few ingredients in this soup, I have to say that I was completely impressed with how good it was - if it didn't smell so good while it was simmering (thanks to the tablespoon of ginger and 4 large cloves of garlic in there) I would have been even more worried about it. The salad complemented it nicely, as well as bulking up our dinner a little - enough that Mister didn't even ask about bread (a fact that escaped me until this very moment)!