Red Quinoa and Ranting

I was in the Whole Foods last night, stocking up, and I saw something called Red Quinoa. It looked intersting, so of course I got it instead of the plain quinoa. I then invented a pilaf with onions, mushrooms, and pea pods cooked in a rice cooker while I steamed my tempeh. I made this last night, but the leftover seitan was calling to me, so I had my Chili-Lime Tempeh and the Quinoa Pilaf tonight instead. I'm tinkering on both recipes, so once I feel I've perfected them, I'll happily share. I probably will want to cook my quinoa in vegetable broth, maybe mushroom broth, instead of water. But I thought I'd multitask by steaming the tempeh and cooking the quinoa at the same time. It takes up space when I use it, but I do love my rice cooker/steamer.

I've decided not to watch the State of the Union. And if I say anymore, the Homeland Security folks will come down on my ass because I'm a vegan feminist who opposes just about everything the bungler-in-chief stands for. Speaking of our friends at Homeland Security, I have to wonder why they aren't coming down on Ann Coulter's blonde butt. I've never advocated violence against anyone--not that I haven't been tempted--but she has suggested poisoning a Supreme Court justice! And she gets away with it by saying she's joking! Uh-huh. Riiight. And Brownie did a heckuva job.

Praise Seitan!!!

Seitan (pronounced say-tan--I've heard the emphasis on both syllables) is wheat gluten, and is sometimes called wheat meat. All the starch is washed from ordinary flour, and it is mixed with water to form a tough dough, then simmered. Seitan has a chewy, almost meaty texture if done right. You can buy seitan pre-made or make your own. I buy Instant Gluten Flour, which has directions right on the box, although some cookbooks have recipes for actually going through the process of washing out the starch. Forget that. Buy the instant gluten flour or a seitan quick mix and save yourself some time. I also recommend not cooking it in plain water, but flavor it up with vegetable broth or a add seasonings to the cooking water. Seitan can be kept refrigerated for about a week or frozen for several months, but unlike with tofu, freezing really doesn't change the texture of seitan. I usually cook my seitan in large lumps so I can decide when I'm making the recipe if I want to do chops, strips or nuggets.

Today, I made seitan and simmered it in a broth from La Dolce Vegan!. I also found a recipe for Tomato Walnut-Crusted Seitan in the book. I made a few changes--the book recommends using the "chicken" style, and I cooked my seitan "beef" style, and when it comes to seasonings, I play fast and loose with the measurements. The dish, crusted with ground walnuts and flour, was delicious! I noticed the lovely tomatoey flavor shining through every few bites. And the texture was almost perfect. As I was eating, I wondered why I hadn't made seitan in a while. Yeah, it's time-consuming to make, but that can be done on the weekends and then used later. I will definitely make this recipe again.

For my sides, I made another pot of the marvelous bulgur pilaf from The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook and heated up some leftover asparagus. Most vegan foods I've had heat up really nicely as leftovers, but asparagus is definitely an exception. I'm going to have dessert a little later on. When I was in my apartment building's little convenience store last night so my boyfriend could grab some seltzer water, I saw they had soy ice cream from a company called Double Rainbow. And the makers were very nice to label it vegan. Cherry chocolate vegan ice cream--mmmmm.

I love weekends

Every once in a while, my boyfriend and I like to do cooking nights, which usually means that I find a few recipes and do much of the cooking. That's primarily because of my aforementioned teeny tiny kitchen. Saturday evening, my boyfriend and I met at the local Whole Foods, did a bit of grocery shopping. I'm getting a little ticked off with them, ever since they started hanging cheese where they used to hang the tempeh, and put the tempeh on the shelf under where the cheese hangs now. It's also harder to find my favorite varieties, the Flax Tempeh and the plain Soy Tempeh. Luckily, I had a package at home. A local store has it for just 50 cents more a package, and they carry the varieties I like. If there were a good co-op closer to home, I'd be shopping there. But I found most of what I needed for Salisbury Tempeh (yes, the one my cat went bonkers for) and Quinoa/Sweet Potato patties from "Conveniently Vegan," a book of incredibly simple recipes published by the Vegetarian Resource Group

At home, I began cooking the yam (I have to remember not to call it a sweet potato as tempting as it is, as they are different) and the quinoa. Quinoa is a lovely little South American grain and is one of the few plant products that is considered a complete protein, although you really don't need to combine proteins at meals. According to Wikipedia, it also is a source of omega-3 fatty acids. Like many grains, use a 2:1 ratio of water to quinoa and cook for about 15 minutes. Because of the saponins on the surface of the quinoa grains, rinse your quinoa before cooking it. Just measure, pour into a strainer, and rinse well, and then dump into the pot for cooking.

While I began preparing the Salisbury Tempeh, I put Bryan to work forming patties of the quinoa and yams. After cooking up the tempeh, I fried the quinoa/yam patties and dinner was prepared! My boyfriend hadn't tried either recipe and while he's fairly easy to please when it comes to food, we both managed to polish off all the tempeh and all but one of the eight quinoa/yam patties. I ate that tonight with leftover stewed tofu and potatoes from "Vegan With A Vengeance."

Yesterday, we rented a car and drove out to Vienna, Virginia, to one of my favorite restaurants, Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant. As its name suggests, it has a charming, cheery, sunflower motif in a little cafe. Sunflower is basically pan-Asian vegetarian with beautifully named dishes, such as As-You-Like-Garden, which is pan-fried noodles with chunks of soy protein, carrots, and snow peas. I always tell people to get the appetizer called Fried Chicken, a mix of soy protein and mushrooms fried up and served with a spicy ketchup-like sauce. We rented the car because we were going to see Nellie McKay at the Birchmere Theatre, which is not very Metro-accessible.

It's hard to classify Nellie McKay's music. She has a sort of jazzy riff going on, but also does piano-laced rap. She is apparently not amused by comparisons to Norah Jones, but I am amused by one reviewer who said she was sort of like Doris Day crossed with Eminem (but without the violent misogyny). Something was clearly on her mind, as she kept slipping up--maybe she's not used to performing with a band, maybe she's upset about her contretemps with her (now former) record label which wanted her to severely shorten her second album "Pretty Little Head." She played stuff from that, which I hadn't been able to hear before. Before the show, while waiting in line to get a good number so we could get a good seat, we saw her in the parking lot walking her dog, a smallish mixed-breed. Before performing "The Dog Song," she talked about having adopted a dog who she called Georgia.

Now, I like both dogs and cats, but my life just doesn't permit me to live with a dog. For that matter, nor does my apartment management. When I'm out and about and see people walking their dogs, I almost always say hi. Sometimes, the dogs approach me, recognizing an animal lover. The good humans will let me pet their babies and talk to me about them. One of the greatest joys in the world is cuddling a huge bundle of fur. My cat likes to cuddle with me just after I've gone to bed or when I'm ready to get up (on weekends, she'll act almost as an alarm clock. Mom, it's 7:30. Don't you have to get up?). My alarm clock doesn't have a snooze feature, so I can't hit it and spend a few more minutes communing with the kitty, and she protests when I get up.

And unfortunately, that's just what I had to do this morning to get ready for work. Oh, well.

I've been going a little nuts in the kitchn

Yes, I have been very busy in my teeny-tiny kitchen. Today, I bought some asparagus and more carrots. I've been eating carrots quite a bit, so I suppose I will buy larger size bags at the grocery store. Tonight, I had the leftover tempeh (must remember to keep marinade on the side), a baked potato, my soon-to-be-famous Lemon Rosemary Carrots and an asparagus recipe I adapted from www.vegweb.com. I just sauteed the spears in sesame oil, tossed in some walnuts (the recipe called for pecans), and threw in some balsamic vinegar. It was very, very lovely, and I'M FUUUUUULLLLLL. Okay, I'm parodying that dumb fast food commercial. But fast food will never fill you up as well as a good meal full of lots of veggies.

Now, with asparagus, it's best to use it within a day or so of buying it. This makes things tough because you work all day, you have to do the shopping, and then get home late, cook a meal, and do all the other evening things you do. But it's worth it, it really is. I'm still learning to cook it without overcooking it, and it does take practice, but becoming a good cook does.

I first learned to love asparagus at a vegetarian restaurant in Rockville, Maryland, called The Vegetable Garden. They have a dish called Carved and Curled Shiitake Mushrooms that's basically the mushrooms and asparagus. Those mushrooms are little fried pieces of heaven, but I'm a good girl and eat the asparagus, too. It is quite possible to stuff yourself silly there for less than 20 bucks a person, and that's before you even get to dessert. Another restaurant, Java Green, in downtown DC, will give me asparagus in a dish that normally has broccoli because--shocker, I know--I don't like broccoli and never have. I've also developed a taste for asparagus there.

Now, you're supposed to have up to five servings of vegetables today, and most people don't come close. Today, I had a salad for lunch at Java Green that was just loaded with veggies and their "veggie chicken." I almost always get salads there; I'm trying to have them once or twice a week. If you eat lots of salads, do not get creamy dressings, as they are loaded with fat, fat, fat. Choose a simple vinaigrette dressing instead. Yes, it still has oil, but it's not as fatty or heavy as creamy dressings.

Tomorrow, I'll probably root in my fridge for leftovers, so nothing new.

Portabello pie

When I was an omnivore, I used to eat the frozen pot pies. They weren't that good, but they did provide a fairly quick easy meal. I've had maybe one pot pie since going vegan, from Amy's Kitchen. I was visiting family a few years ago, and veg options were limited in the grocery store, so I got the pie, and it was okay.

Tonight, I made a Portabello Pot Pie from La Dolce Vegan, but I altered the recipe a bit, doubling the crust recipe. I was hoping for a top and bottom crust (the recipe only calls for a top crust), but somehow, I only had enough for a bottom. No matter. The pie, with portabello mushrooms, cremini mushrooms, a chopped carrot, celery, and a potato, was delightful. And I think it's prettier with only the bottom crust instead of the top crust. It's probably also less likely to fall apart when you transfer from pan to plate, which is another plus. I'm going to have to look for more dinner pie recipes or maybe try to create my own because this has got to be the ultimate comfort food. In her survival guide, Living Among Meat-Eaters, Carol J. Adams opined that both mushrooms and cobblers gave her a feeling of abundance, and I can't agree more.

Here I will say that Living Among Meat-Eaters is part of the reason I'm vegan. It was a featured book for sale a few years ago in my Working Assets phone bill, and I got the book so I could be more supportive of my boyfriend, who is vegetarian and has been for well over a decade. Well, that, and being a tad grossed out by Fast Food Nation pushed me into being vegetarian. Reading about the dairy-veal connection and the way egg-laying hens are treated made me go vegan. My only regret is that I didn't kick the meat habit sooner. But it's never too late, and you're never too old to make a positive change in your life.

Anyway, I have plenty of pie left over, and if I don't polish it off over the rest of the week (along with the soup and the tempeh), I might share some with my boyfriend. Now I wonder what I should try next...

Is it soup yet?

To those of you who think it’s difficult to feed vegans, I roll my eyes. It just takes a little more effort and creativity than cooking what the English call "roast and two veg." I have found lots of new yummy foods since going veg. I never ate asparagus before going vegan, and now I do occasionally. I eat more beans than I used to, although they still aren’t my favorite unless I have something really crunchy with them to counteract the mushiness inherent to beans. And before I went veg, I never really ate lentils, little nutritional powerhouses that are yummy to boot. How could I have gone so long without eating the marvel that is the humble lentil?

Tonight, I made a Tomato-Based Lentil Soup from How it All Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard. If you do not have Sarah Kramer’s cookbooks (she also co-authored Garden of Vegan with Tanya Barnard and is the solo author of La Dolce Vegan), go out and get them NOW (unless it’s the middle of the night, in which case, as soon as your favorite bookstore opens). Ever since I went vegan, I enjoy cooking more, and I think Sarah and Tanya’s recipes and humor are partially responsible. Not only do the books have recipes for food, but stuff tht recipes geared toward kids, beauty products (I love the Lemon Toner in HIAV), party ideas, and most recently, all sorts of awesome crafty projects.

Now, I’m really weird when it comes to soup. I don’t like thick, creamy soups, and normally, the less stuff in it, the better, but this soup, in spite of the chunks of veggies and the pasta, is always good. I’m lazy, so I used canned lentils whenever a recipe calls for cooked. If you look, you can find canned beans and legumes that aren’t too high in sodium and will save lots of time if a recipe calls for the lentils to be already cooked when you use them. Some recipes call for lentils that aren't cooked, in which case, you would use dried.

Tomatoes are a good source of vitamin C, and vitamin C helps increase absorption of plant iron. While you don't have to combine plant proteins at the same meal, it is best to combine plant iron and vitamin C at one meal, whether it's a vitamin-C rich food with the iron source in the same dish or you eat or drink something with vitamin C with your iron source, such as eating fruit with lentils and rice. Here's to happy cooking!

Thank goodness for three-day weekends

I think I've got the January blues. January and February can be grim months--short days, frigid weather, and not much to look forward to except the faint promise of spring. It's especially cruel because we had some nice days during the work week--temps in the 60s, unusual for January in D.C., and I was chained to my desk, working--and then Saturday, the temperature dropped some 20 or 30 degrees, and when you factor in the wind chill, it was not fun to be outside. Part of me is hoping for a snowstorm a la February '03, but since I work less than two miles from my office, I'd probably be expected to slog my way in.

Much of my weekend was rather uneventful. Tonight, after failing to find a recipe for tempeh in any of my cookbooks that grabbed me, I went online and adapted a recipe. I made a sort of lime-tamari-chili marinade, marinated the tempeh for about 10 minutes, and then cooked it up on my George Forman grill. It turned out fairly well, but the original recipe recommended steaming the tempeh, and I agree that sometimes, it pays to do that. I wish more restauarants served tempeh. A lot of would-be vegetarians are tofu-phobes (I don't know why. It's not as if tofu will bite you), but tempeh has a nice hearty texture and more resistance when you bite into it.

I am off tomorrow, for which I'm grateful. I absolutely have to do some grocery shopping because I am scraping bottom. No matter how nasty the weather, I will drag myself out of the apartment.

I hope your weekend was a pleasant one.

Not a food post--in fact, it's kind of a downer

I sometimes think there's no justice in the world. If there were, George W. Bush would not be president, and 2,100-plus soldiers and countless Iraqi civilians would most likely still be alive. If there were justice, Pat Robertson would have been chased to satellite radio for the venom that spews from his mouth. I'm no Howard Stern fan, but I'm pretty sure that the crap that he peddles is more innocuous than the most of what Robertson (or Jerry Falwell) says. The Bush administration is trampling human rights in the name of security, heedless of Ben Franklin's admonition that those who would sacrifice a little liberty for security deserve neither. Their culture of life begins at conception and ends at birth. And most of them eat meat, an industry that causes the deaths of about 10 billion sentient beings every year in the U.S. alone. But then they're just animals, right?

But what has me frothing now is an article I read yesterday in The Washington Post. Last year, a Northern Virginia man stomped his then-girlfriend's 14-year-old declawed cat to death. He claimed the cat bit his ankle after he leaned down to pick up a sandwich he dropped. He claimed he was defending himself. But when my cat bites, it's a quick nip or snap, and then she runs away; she's not the type to latch on, and I've never met a cat that is. And the judge didn't exactly buy the "he latched on to my leg, Your Honor" line.

The man was convicted of maliciously murdering poor Luke the cat, and the judge sentenced him to three years in prison, all suspended. He will never be allowed to "own" any animals for the rest of his life. Luke's person, reached by phone, said that she was "pleased" the man would not be getting any jail time! PLEASED?! PLEASED?! If anyone killed my cat in such a fashion, I'd want this person to have the maximum time in prison. I'd want the harshest penalties. My cat is my baby, and many people I know who live with cats and dogs feel the same way.

Sadly, there will be no real justice for Luke the cat. You were a handsome boy, Luke. You deserved better.

Lots of good shtuff

This morning, my boyfriend and I attended the Vegan Meetup. Meetup, for those of you who don't know, is a worldwide program where you can meet people in your area with your common interests. I belong to the Northern Virginia/DC Meetup and manage to attend most of their events. Today, we went to a new place called Busboys and Poets, a coffeehouse/restaurant/bookstore in an up-and-coming neighborhood. The management seems very willing to accommodate vegans and had the chef create a vegan french toast for the handful of patrons who wanted some. The food was very good--I had a tempeh sandwich with a side of chips and my boyfriend had a veggie burger with a salad. I tried his salad and have vowed to get that next time I go there. The portions of the breakfast items are a tad small for the price, but I was told the food is quite good.

Tonight, I made a recipe of tofu cubes from Carol J. Adams' Living Among Meat Eaters, which is a guide for veg*ans dealing with a very hostile world and how to graciously deal with people who have trouble wrapping their heads around the notion that some people don't eat meat. She includes some recipes in the middle of the book after a chapter where she talks about showing, not telling, omnivores just how delicious vegan food can be. She calls it magic in the kitchen. Along with the lovely tofu cubes, I made my lemon-rosemary carrots, a recipe I have almost perfected, and adapted a balsamic-glazed mushroom recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan With a Vengeance. Isa had (has?) a Brooklyn public access show called The Post Punk Kitchen, and the cookbook is based on the recipes she used, along with her kitchen wisdom, and ruminations on her life growing up in New York (lucky ducky!). Since I didn't have the portabello mushrooms the recipe called for, I made creminis instead, and while the cooking time for creminis is far shorter than for portabellos, it still turned out to be tasty. I capped it off, as you can see, with a nice potato and Earth Balance margarine.

I don't know what change she's undergone, but my cat has taken to staring up at me while I eat dinner. She assumes the posture I used to see only when I had soy ice cream. Now she seems to think that if she sits next to my chair and looks up at me sweetly without meowing, she'll get a taste of what I'm having. And the answer is maybe, but probably not. My boyfriend likes tell her that we don't annoy her when she's eating. She's showing a greater and greater curiosity about my food, and she never was this curious when I was an omnivore. Maybe I'm a better cook, or maybe she's like, are you still a vegan, Mom?

Yes, I am, Miss Kitty, and I don't intend to change.

Rockin' Leftovers

Yesterday, I made scrambled tofu from a recipe in La Dolce Vegan, along with home fries from a recipe I made up on my own. I also heated up some Lightlife Smart Menu sausage patties. It was a lovely breakfast. My boyfriend is a huge fan of scrambled tofu, and I'm learning to like it. I've eaten tofu scrambles at different restaurants with varying results. The best tofu scrambles are ones where the cook doesn't crumble the tofu into practically miscroscopic particles, but soft pieces you can stick your fork into. Most tofu scrambles also have turmeric, a.k.a. poor girl's saffron, to give it a lovely yellow color and a bit of flavor.

Later in the day, we tucked into a Derby Pie, also from La Dolce Vegan!, that I made Christmas weekend. I also broke down and made a crust for the pie (in the past, I would buy a crust). The crust was flaky, and the pie was delightfully rich, almost sinfully rich. This is a pie best served warm, so the chocolate is all melty. My boyfriend is easy to please, but I know he really likes it if he wants to take some home. And this is one case where I will need help finishing the pie off, so I'm happy to let him take it home.

This morning, I finished off the tofu scramble and home fries with a couple more veggie sausage patties. And tonight, I had some leftover tofu, bulgur pilaf, and carrots with the pie as dessert. It was still good, especially the pilaf and the carrots. I think my recipe for the lemony carrots is coming together. I'm working on the proportions of the ingredients, but when I do get it worked out, I will surely find someone to send my recipe to.

And I guess I'm going to have to really stock up on the tofu, as I am really developing a taste for scrambles. Normally, I have about two containers in my freezer, but I'll just have to find room for more. Luckily, I can get three to four servings per recipe, so I have breakfasts for most of a week. The nice thing about leftovers is you can pop them in the micro and warm them up in a matter of minutes. With dinner-type leftovers, you can take them to work for lunch and save money.

Happy New Year!

Last night, I had what must be the best New Year's Eve ever. Well, the day wasn't so hot--I was helping the local vegetarian society move offices to a new building which doesn't have an elevator--but the evening rocked.

My boyfriend and I went to a new vegetarian restaurant called Vegetate, an upscale vegetarian restaurant. They had a special menu for NYE and a one-day liquor license (a local church has been opposing a permanent liquor license). We were given a window seat overlooking 9th Street. Our meal began with a chickpea flan with a spicy basil puree. Oooh, was it delicious! I'd love to see this on the regular menu. Our second course was a choice between a white bean soup and a radicchio salad with a s'formata of root vegetables. My boyfriend chose the soup. I'm not a creamy soup person, but it did taste nice. I had the salad--radicchio is rather bitter, so maybe it shouldn't be served on its lonesome, but the s'formata was quite tasty.

For our third course, we both chose the braised tofu tower with noodles in a miso broth. Now, I like tofu, but not when it's in a big, honking block. Cut it in cubes or in slices to ensure more flavor. I wish I'd chosen the other vegan entree option, the penne, but you live, you learn. There were only two dessert choices, one of which was vegan, which was bananas with a crispy cinnamon coating and chocolate-chipotle sauce. Ohhhh, heaven. The sweet chocolate and the kicky chipotle was incredible. I have always loved the combination of fruit and chocolate. One of my favorite junk food items when I was an omni was Cella's chocolate-covered cherries (although I have found a vegan version).

Afterwards, we went to see a group called BETTY at the JCC. I thought it was going to be a performance of their show "Betty Rules," but it ended up being a concert with music from their latest album "Snowbiz," which I bought after the show. And after the show, there was a party at which we counted down to midnight, and then danced. I'm a little amazed that after hauling stuff up the stairs for half the afternoon, I could still dance, but hey, good, clean vegan living must count for something.

Roughly four years ago, I made a decision to go vegetarian. Granted, it was a growing distaste for meat, but it sort of morphed in to a moral decision, as a few months later, I made a decision to go vegan. I hope in 2006, you will make positive decisions too.