Thanksgiving is Over

I know, it's been a while, but I haven't done much cooking for the past few days. I spent Thanksgiving with my boyfriend and his mom, who flew into town. The local vegetarian society has a Thanksgiving Celebration at a local hotel, and instead of cooking, we decided to attend this event instead. There was a salad, some steamed baby veggies, rice, stuffing, tofu, mushroom ravioli, gravy, rolls, and pumpkin pie. I was underwhelmed, but then, I can be a fussy eater, and hotel food is rarely spectacular, especially hotel buffet food. Okay, the pie was good, but I've always had a sweet tooth.

I have made it a point to avoid retail shops on Black Friday if at all possible. However, I probably violate the letter, although not the spirit, of Buy Nothing Day when I do grocery shopping. I would have done an anti-fur vigil, but I put in a couple of hours at the office (long story, that) before picking up groceries. I spent much of the rest of the weekend fighting a migraine, the sort of thing that shows up every month or so...

The brightest spot in my weekend was brunch at a local vegetarian restaurant called Vegetate. I had dinner there about two weeks after they opened, and felt they had some kinks to work out. Brunch, on the other hand, was fabulous. I had the first blintzes I've had in years. Mmm, vegan blintzes with tofu cream and blueberries. My boyfriend got the tofu scramble, and it was very good. Either I've found a couple of places that do a rockin' tofu scramble (Java Green is the other), or it's an acquired taste, and I'm learning to love it.

So I finally cooked tonight (last night went to a concert in Baltimore), just dipped tofu slices in lemon juice, then in a mixture of flour, nutritional yeast, dried garlic, sage, and oregano and sauteed them. While that was cooking, I nuked a potato. It's a lazy girl's dinner, and very comforting food. I normally keep my tofu in the freezer, but I pull it out to defrost, and figure I've got four or five days to cook it. If I were in the mood to do prep work, I would do that while pressing my tofu, but I just relaxed while I pressed it.

The key to nonmushy tofu:

1) Buy firm or extra-firm.
2) When you get it home, cut open and drain out the water.
3) Wrap in plastic and stick in the freezer for at leat 24 hours.
4) Defrost. You can do a quickie defrost with hot water and a micro, but unlike flesh, tofu doesn't really go bad in the fridge.
5) Press. Line a plate with paper towels. Plonk tofu on top. Top with more paper towels. Put another plate on top (optional). Put a heavy weight, like a soup can or 32-ounce aseptic box of juice/soup/soy milk on top. Leave for about half an hour while you do prep work.
6) Cook.
7) EAT!