tonight's winners: Angst and Chorizo

At work, we frequently run little daily contests to inspire our sales agents to do their very best (Silly me, I usually regard that as "work ethic," but what do I know?).  Since our sales department is open from 7am until Midnight, there are a number of shifts that spread across the day, so normally, we'll have a "day shift" winner and and "evening shift" winner.

Angst is our Morning Winner.  I guess.  Remember the struggle of skill and wit that has been playing itself out in our kitchen?  Last night, the score was stuck at Mouse 2, Me 'n' Mister 0.  This morning, the score changed a little... as of this morning, the score was Mouse 2, Me 'n' Mister 0, and Angst Won.  In case I needed a reminder that Angst is neither vegan nor buddhist, stumbling out of the bedroom to find him batting a dead mouse around the kitchen is a great way to remember.  By great I actually mean nauseating and not the best way to wake up.  I was simultaneously proud of him for behaving like a cat and so, so sorry the little mousey wouldn't let Mister and I catch him and release him into a nice, grassy, cat-free area.

Mister was proud of me for disposing of the mouse without waking him up, even though he told me I could have.

Evening Winner

I had intended to make Mama Pea's Chickpeas and Dumplings tonight, but for inexplicable reasons, I walked into a home that was in no way as chilly as I needed it to be to want to make a homey, hearty stew with dumplings.  Mister decided it wasn't hot enough to have the A/C on, which I appreciate as our financial situation could almost always be better, but I have to admit - I disagreed.  Nevertheless, my desire to make the stew was gone with the air, so I opted to make the Chorizo Veggie Wrap from Katie Briggs at Philly Broadcaster.

Freeing the vegan chorizo from the "casing" came the closest I've been to feeling completely disgusted toward meat since...well, since this morning.  I did my best to banish thoughts of dead mice from my visual memory as I squished the bloody red faux sausage out of its plastic tube and into the sizzling skillet.  It immediately smelled the way I thought it should, which was delicious, by the way.  It smelled very similar to the chorizo they use at Farmicia, but as I ate my dinner I became convinced that it is most certainly not the same, since my face has never actually caught fire at Farmicia.

Fortunately, I was generous in my slathering of guacamole.   I didn't realize at the time that it would save my face from falling off; I just really like this guacamole.  It's the best guacamole ever.  It's so good that I have absolutely no problem sneaking up on strangers at Whole Foods and telling them they should buy it because they'll never eat better guacamole.  It's so good I can ignore the frugal side of me nagging about how there's no good reason it should be that darn expensive.  No reason except that it's the best guacamole ever.  So, since I had applied about a half-inch layer of guacamole, I was able to at least partially battle the chorizo for the ethical treatment of my tongue.

The arugula added a fun crunch and a bit of cool, crispness amidst a very spicy dinner.  Unfortunately, it had the tendency to grab hold of something slimy of either the guac or chorizo persuasion and attach that thing to my lips when it slurped past.  In the future, I'll probably chop up the arugula so it just sits there like it's supposed to with its little green hands folded in its little green lap.

Seriously, though, these wraps are phenomenal.  The chorizo was quite a bit spicier than I expected it to be (for no good reason, other than the less spicy nature of the chorizo at Farmicia).  In fact, it was so spicy that I went through two large glasses of water and a small cup of almond milk and Mister laughed at my red nose and sweaty brow.  But, it was so tasty that I still had a second [smaller] wrap [loaded high with mouth-saving guac], even though I knew it would burn my lips.

But hey, that's what chocolate's for, right?

I've found that spicy things make me crave chocolate.  I'm sure there's a scientific reason, but I'm not terribly interested in that right now.  What I am interested in is how Trader Joe's packs so much amazing taste into these little dark chocolate bars?  What's even better?  They sell these 1.65 oz Belgian chocolate bars in three-packs at the cash registers for about half of what I normally pay for one Endangered Species bar.

Good thing I plan to go back for more chorizo....

ginger: it's not just for soda anymore

When I was a kid, ginger ale was more or less a staple in our home, if I recall correctly.  It was always available to soothe my savage belly or quench my father's summertime thirst (I think there might have been something sharing the glass with the ginger ale, though).  I can remember my mother having me sip flat ginger ale one teaspoon at a time when I was sick to my stomach, and though it seemed like the Chicken Soup/sugar pill of the nausea realm, apparently ginger really does have the ability to calm an unsettled stomach.

I find myself craving ginger ale sometimes, as a kind of creature comfort.  That was not the case tonight, however.  Tonight, my husband specifically requested a quick-cooking dinner, so I selected the quicker of my two Vegan Express recipes, Quick Green Veggie Soup with Couscous.

When I was perusing my books, I rolled the flavors of this soup over my tongue as best I could without actually tasting it.  It seemed like a risk worth taking and I am so glad I went with it.  The base is a pungent combination of vegetable broth, tamari, and ginger.  It smelled a little bizarre, but I played that off as my additions of freeze-dried chives and dried dill - that stuff (dill) really smells awful but it somehow managed to play a helpful role in the overall flavor of the broth.  I added to this a surprising party of green foods: zucchini, spinach, and broccoli and was treated to the beauty of a same-toned soup.  I normally prefer to eat the rainbow, so a meal that is primarily one color does not normally find a place on my table.  You'll notice I spiced things up a little by including a red chili wrap, but we'll talk about that in a moment.  I realized a couple of hours days too late that I didn't actually have any couscous, so I broke up some cappellini noodles and they worked just fine.  I think I would like to make it "correctly" someday, though, so this isn't the last you'll see of this tasty soup.

One of the first things I recognized in Vegan Express was Nava's willingness to prevent me from thinking too much.  I've mentioned before that although I am trying to branch out and present more "balanced" meals, complete with salads and side dishes, I really don't enjoy the extra effort required to fill out our dinners.  Since Mister wanted a fast dinner and because Mister generally does not consider soup to be a complete dinner, I was planning to construct a relatively masterful (but still fairly simple) salad to accompany the soup.  While the soup was doing its thing, though, I happened to glance down at Nava's serving suggestions and it couldn't have been more perfect.  She suggested simple veggie wraps - what's easier than using up what's left of the hummus, the last couple of red chili tortillas, and some of the mixed greens I had planned to turn into a salad?  So, for the five minutes the soup needed to simmer, I busied myself making salad wraps and pinning them closed with toothpicks.

The two flavors really didn't go together, but were each tasty in their own separate way.  The red chili tortillas are actually a little hot which is always a surprising quality in a bread product.  I needed to cleanse my palate a bit before enjoying my soup but a swig of water was quite enough to do the trick.  The soup has a distinctly Asian flair to it, which should not be a surprise due to the prevalence of fresh ginger and tamari.  I was supposed to swirl in a Tbsp of oil but the soup was not lacking in flavor or texture when I neglected to do so.  From the first slice of zucchini to the last steaming simmer before serving took roughly 30 minutes - this is a great soup for when you crave something comforting but don't have an hour and a half to three hours to make a soup from Veganomicon or any of Sarah Kramer's books.  It's too brothy to serve alone, but a simple wrap, salad, or sandwich would fill it out nicely.  I can also imagine this being a delightful rainy day lunch, finished off with a single freshly baked brownie.

fast food - have it your way

So, apparently I've been too busy to bother posting here, so the very first thing I want to do is plug for The 30 Minute Vegan again. Without that book, dinner this week would not have been possible. At the very least, it wouldn't have been healthy. I've mentioned before that Mister would be happy to eat pizza for dinner every night, and he almost got his wish, so maybe he's not as big a fan of this book as I am. In any case, my time continues to be limited, so on with the parade of fast food.

First up, Sunday's dinner - Easy as Pie Stirfry. It was absolutely easy, though there was a great deal of chopping involved. It probably would be easy-as-pie if I would just invest the $20 in a mandoline. I'm getting faster at my prep, especially thanks to my new "chop & scoop" cutting board that funnels my newly chopped bits into whatever vessel they need to occupy, but I'm starting to think I'll never be Food Network fast. I guess I'll never be a celebrity chef, unless America's lazy rise up and demand a narcoleptic hostess.

On Monday, I made the super-duper-fast Mediterranean Hummus Wraps.


They were far tastier than I expected them to be and I had pretty high hopes for these babies to begin with, so let me make a recommendation - get this book and make these wraps. Next on my list of food-blog-feats-to-accomplish is to learn how to take a better picture of wraps, burritos, fajitas, and quesadillas. In other words, I want to figure out how to take attractive photos of enclosed dinner - I'm sure the answer lies in cutting said dinner item in half and propping one end up on the other, but I was afraid they would fall apart if I did anything other than wrap them as well as I could and then push them, seam-side down, onto the plates and hope they made it through our dinner prayers. By the way - if you want to see some amazing pictures of food, check out Another One Bites the Crust - you can also link to it on the right side of the page.

Tonight's dinner, then, was the last dinner on my humble (and fast) menu this week: Seitan Curry Bowl. By the way - this one and the wrap were part of the Lunch section of the book - I figured those meals would probably be even faster to make and I was more or less correct. This one comes together so quickly you almost run out of time to gather the spices. It's perfectly flavorful and not as overwhelming as I thought it would be considering how much curry powder, cumin, and soy sauce is in there. Also, it allowed Mister and I to take advantage of the amazing depth of flavor present in in-season asparagus. I anticipate a decent amount of asparagus recipes for the next couple of weeks, since the season is so tender and short and as tonight's experience proved, there is a remarkable difference in taste when [Mister's favorite] veggies are in season.

I'm off for now - one more day of work before my one-day weekend, so you can count on a new menu either tomorrow night or Thursday, if I get to it in the midst of re-planning my mini-vacation to Arizona and baking Irish Soda Bread :)