three swings and a hit

Tonight is actually the first time I've cooked anything since the last time I posted.  While it was slightly less messy to have other people preparing my food, it was only marginally more relaxing this time around.

On Thursday, we had another management dinner.  We were so rowdy, the VP ended up buying a bottle of wine for the neighboring table as an apology for our behavior.  Don't let his contrite behavior fool you, though - he was complicit in his own (quieter) way.  Eschewing the Brazilian steakhouse this time in favor of Redstone Grill, dinner involved less meat only in a way that involved each person getting their own plate, rather than servers continually presenting a "parade of meats" on skewers, even if your little placard says NO.  There were exactly two items on the menu that I could eat, which is still two more than there were at the last dinner.  I spent more time than was probably necessary trying to decide between a pesto and tomato flatbread or a fairly generic salad.  I went with the flatbread.  Aside from the [male] colleague seated across from me challenging me to a pickled ginger eating contest, nothing blog-worthy happened.  After a while, you can't really put a comical twist on the same tired remarks about what the crazy vegetarian is going to eat in these delightful veg-unfriendly suburbs.

Friday night's dinner was far more enjoyable, both for the culinary and the company.  I met up with a dear old friend for dinner at Cedars.  It has been far too long since I've seen her, which probably helped me in my adventurous menu choices.  Mister and I have a fairly standard order when we go:

• an appetizer of falafel, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), hummus, and baba ghanoush
• fries with grilled peppers and onions
• Mister gets a falafel sandwich or spanakopita
• I get Imam Baldi

Following Dear Friend's lead, I started my meal with the Tabbouli salad, which was surprisingly parsley-heavy.  The tomatoes were uniform in dice and marinated to perfection, and there was just barely enough bulghur to hold everything together.  I would definitely recommend this and will get it again in the future.  At my urging, Dear Friend ordered the Imam Baldi and I ordered the Vegetable Sayadia.  It was very tasty, kind of like a Lebanese risotto, though there were far more mushrooms involved than I would have liked.  In the most ladylike way possible, I shifted them, one by one, to the side of my plate and happily shoveled the rest into my mouth.  It was a delightful dinner, complete with fun and intimate conversation.

I finally got to make Fusion Enchiladas and Mango & Black Bean Salad for tonight's dinner.  The enchiladas are from the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of Clean Eating magazine.  I have been holding on to the salad recipe from the March 2008 issue of Cooking Light magazine.  I made the Fusion Enchiladas immediately after purchasing that issue of Clean Eating, noting at that time that I would have to make them again, substituting seitan for the recipe-prescribed sirloin.  I did just that tonight and it came out much better.

I marinated the seitan briefly with a crushed [huge] clove of garlic and a tsp of cumin, then browned it as much as you can brown fake meat in a nonstick saute pan.  I stirred in a diced red pepper, a cup of frozen corn, and two cups of baby spinach, and while that cooked I pureed the "refried" edamame with its various components (click the link above for the recipe).  It occurred to me while I was cooking just how miserably displayed my growing photography skills were when I made this in September, so I decided to get some action shots, rather than just an ugly and concealing whole wheat tortilla lump.

a thin layer of pureed "refried" edamame, topped with the seitan filling

all my ducks (enchiladas) in a row, ready for their brief baking time

I believe I pulled the salad recipe out of a special feature Cooking Light was doing about 6 essential foods to eat each day - the ingredient highlighted in this recipe was the black beans, but I was thoroughly impressed with all the ingredients and how they played so well together.

I did learn a fairly valuable lesson while preparing the salad: ripe mango is really slippery.  I don't know what, if anything, can be done about that for future preps (and they will happen!), but I nearly lost that little sucker right off of my cutting board a few times!

mango belongs in soup

I would like to start by thanking the two ladies who left me feedback on my honey post. I will revisit that subject, as well as some other related topics, over the weekend when I have more time to put forth the thought and effort it deserves.

I don't have a whole lot to say (I'm saving it up, maybe), except that we had the Brazilian Black Bean Stew for dinner tonight and it was a lot better than my last Brazilian meal...
Yes, those are chunks of perfectly ripe mango you see atop that bed of black beans and veggies. What a genius idea! Another favorite soup recipe involving fruit comes from How it All Vegan - Curried Apple Soup. Oh, and dear Martha has a brilliant Chickpea-Apple Curry and I always forget how easily apples absorb cayenne until I've added too much and have to sweat through dinner. But then she makes up for it with the Strawberry Gazpacho (which I suddenly feel compelled to make again before all the tomatoes and strawberries are gone or twice as expensive for half the quality).

What I'm trying to say is: I think putting fruit in soup is awesome.

Anyway, this delightful melange of flavors was inspired by feijoada, the Brazilian national dish. After doing a little digging, it appears that the mango and veggies are replacing a huge quantity of pork and sausage. I'm not sure how they figured that exchange, but I think mangos, carrots, bell peppers, and tomatoes taste better than all manner of dead pig. A recipe I found lists pork sausage, bacon, and pork tenderloin as the main ingredients besides black beans. Pounds of these things. It also mentions that those pig bits are for cheaters who don't have time to cook it properly, by stewing ears, tails, and feet. Sounds great. I'll take mangos and peppers.