cardboard cask...classy

Due to several factors, I was actually off from work today. The first part of the day (after the coffee and strawberry/yogurt oatmeal part) was quite full of angst and Angst. It involved him hiding from me and me banging on things to try to get him to stop hiding - probably not the most effective strategy in hindsight. Anyway, after I gave up on trying to "unhide" the cat, I went on my food shopping adventures.

And so, faithful readers, in this post we will:
1. see this week's menu
2. see tonight's dinner
3. babble about wine (2 glasses in)
4. discuss neighborly behavior

Starting from the bottom up (no pun intended), I will now tell you the previously alluded to story of what it means to be a good neighbor. When I had my hair done last week, it took three hours to put two colors in and cut it. That's a lot of time to talk to the person slopping your head up with colored goo. In our conversation, Candi related a tale of not-so-neighborly conduct by some girls who work at a salon across the street, located in a gym, strangely enough. We shared our ridiculously out-of-fashion ideas of how new neighbors were greeted to the neighborhood "back in the day." I can remember being a child and accompanying my mother with a plate of brownies or chocolate chip cookies to the still-disheveled home of a new neighbor just moving in. Anyway, today I made 2 dozen ginger-coconut-carrot muffins and packed half of them up in a shiny gold shoebox, then marched them across the street to "welcome" Candi to the neighborhood. So, I'm feeling like a good neighbor right about now.

I bought wine today. I'm very amused that I can't say "I bought a bottle of wine" and the reason is that I bought a cask of wine. Or at least, that's what the manufacturers decided to call the cardboard box that houses the bag that holds my wine. Either way, it's 3 liters of delicious Pinot Noir - as summer ends, so does my affair with Riesling. I have had this wine before - it marks a brilliant crossroads between dry and fruity and the fruitiness is primarily a darker variety - cherry and blackberry - so it fits well with the drier qualities. Nevertheless, the whole reason I ever tried this wine was its name: Pinot Evil (see no evil, ha ha ha). It even has the three monkeys.
According to the box...er...cask of wine, those 3 liters represent 4 bottles of wine, so hopefully it will last me a while!

Tonight I made Polenta & Vegetable Bake for dinner.
It was wonderful - good enough for Mister to have thirds. It was perfectly hearty and very rich without being overly so. It was also extraordinarily easy to make and came together much more quickly than I thought it would. Mister doesn't like eggplant, so I just diced two zucchini. I also added two cloves of garlic because I just felt like it needed it. It was a little watery and was difficult to transport from the baking dish to our eating dishes, but it tasted amazing. I will definitely make this again. As a side note (hearkening back to that wretched Cavit Pinot Noir), my pretty glass of Pinot Evil was the perfect match to dinner's flavors.
Now for this week's menu (my refrigerator and cupboards are full of fun ingredients!):
1. Stewed Lentils with Soy Sausage; with Fingerling Fries (both from Vegan Express by Nava Atlas - I just can't get away from this book!)
2. Pasta Jambalaya (also from Vegan Express)
3. Pasta with Beans and Chard (also from Vegan Express)
4. Double Pea Soup with Roasted Red Peppers (from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero)
5. Roasted Yellow Pepper and Corn Bisque (also from Veganomicon)
6. French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme (also from Veganomicon)
7. Tuscan Vegetable Ragout (from Vegetarian Times Fast & Easy) This is another one of those old favorites you can lean on when you want something savory and simple. The whole book is great, but a little tofu-heavy. I like tofu now, but when I first got the book, I really wasn't a fan.

You'll notice I've cited sources for all recipes on this week's menu, which means they aren't mine. Now that the weather is cooling down (to my ineffable delight), I want to make soups and baked dishes. The same way that I learned to create skillet suppers and sautes over the summer, I will learn to create savory baked dishes and soul-warming soups: by recreating other people's for a few weeks. I figure I'll spend September, maybe the first part of October "researching," and then I'll get another creative streak like I did in early August and pump out a bunch of casserole and soup recipes. So, for now, I will make what has been made before and I will focus every last tastebud on the purpose of discerning what makes this dish or that dish taste so good. And then I'll let you know!

One last thing: I have added a poll on the right side of this page because I want your opinion. If you think the name I've quasi-settled on is stupid, please leave me a comment and either tell me why you think it's stupid and/or what better name you would suggest. Thank you!!!

bring on baking season!

The perfect way to welcome September - with Apple Pie! Okay, it was just a larabar, but it was delightful!

This was a dense and very sweet bar. I was initially inclined to think it was too nutty, but after a few more bites I realized that the nuts helped to calm the flavor some. It reminded me a bit of the Apple Cinnamon Nectar bars (which also have gorgeous packaging), but easier to eat, due to the nuts - the Nectar bar is just too sweet.

The first thing I noticed when I unceremoniously ripped open the wrapper was the wonderful smell of apple and cinnamon...absolutely one of my favorite scent combinations. It was like tearing open the wrapping paper on Autumn (my favorite season).

Now, when I say "baking season," I am primarily thinking about tasty little treasures made up of warm syrupy fruit, smothered with an oaty, streusal topping, or maybe the melt-in-your-mouth crumbs of a coffee cake, or these fantastic little cookies baked with freshly cut apple chunks. However, I also love baked dinners. They provide warmth from the inside out in a way only slowly cooked foods can...the rich scent of lasagna or pastitsio, the tenderness of stuffed peppers baked in the oven, rather than on a skillet, and the inherent sweetness roasting brings out in vegetables. Also, baked dinners allow me a little bit more time to relax in the evening, as opposed to the whirlwind of perpetual motion that leaves me dancing around my small kitchen, tending to three pots at once and hoping I don't burn the garlic.

My inaugural baked meal (welcome, dear September!) was Isa's BBQ Pomegranate Tofu, served on a bed of coconut rice (with real toasted - and almost burnt - shredded coconut). I love this tofu - I keep saying "this is my favorite," but seriously - this is my favorite tofu. It's baked to perfection, then smothered in the best BBQ sauce ever and baked some more. We ate every last morsel!

vegan not-even-close-to-express

After two weeks of relatively quickly prepared meals, I got spoiled and kind of lost my patience with dinner... Granted, dinner still took only a little longer than an hour, all said, but it just felt like it took so much longer. Jambalaya night should be fun...I know from my other recipe to not expect to eat that for an hour and a half after the cookbook opens.

Tonight's dinner was Baked Tofu with Coconut-Lime Sauce accompanied by a simple soy-sauce stirfry of yellow and orange bell pepper strips with chopped bok choy (thanks for the tip, Vegan Express!) It was very pretty, if not time consuming. It wasn't really labor intensive, though - the tofu baked for an hour and only needed attending once every 15 minutes; the sauce simmered nicely without my constant guidance, and once the vegetables were chopped it only took a few minutes to cook them. Perhaps it was the lack of activity that made it feel long. Perhaps I should have used my downtime to call my mother and apologize for being an ingrate (if you don't get that, go back and read my review of Veganomicon again).

Anyway, eventually it was done and pretty and garnered compliments from Mister, which was especially important, since this is another one of my own creations. So I present to you,

Baked Tofu with Coconut-Lime Sauce

Ingredients:
14 oz firm tofu
2 Tbsp peanut oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp apple cider or rice wine vinegar
15 oz lite coconut milk
4 oz apple juice
1/2 Tbsp sugar
zest of one lime
pinch of salt
2 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in a little warm water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spray a baking pan with cooking spray. Slice tofu crosswise into 8 slices and pat dry with towels. Lay tofu slices in baking dish. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combing peanut oil, soy sauce, and vinegar with a whisk, then drizzle evenly over the tofu slices in the baking dish.
Bake, uncovered, for one hour, flipping the tofu every 15 minutes and tipping the baking dish to redistribute the juices.
Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine coconut milk, apple juice, lime zest, sugar, and salt and bring to a simmer, not a boil. Simmer about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has reduced by about half its volume. Combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl and stir until smooth, then add to sauce and stir until thickened. Continue to cook, stirring more frequently, for about 10 minutes more.
By now the tofu should be finished cooking. Remove sauce from heat, arrange tofu slices on a plate or serving platter and ladle sauce down the center of the slices to serve.

Enjoy! Mister said it tasted exotic - the lime is delightfully noticeable without being overpowering. I was originally planning on squeezing the lime juice in as well, but it was quite strong without it, so I think that would have been a bit much. I also wish the sauce had thickened and reduced a little bit more, but like I said, I lost my patience with it and called a draw.