Supper and the Single Girl

Vegan Meals and Random Thoughts

Thursday, April 27, 2006

I love veganizing dishes


So I made some seitan over the weekend, and today, I decided to create dinner with one part of it (a whole box of the Arrowhead Mills Vital Wheat Gluten makes about two pounds). So I used another recipe in the Heart Association cookbook for Mango Chicken and used frozen mango (and threw in some strawberries) and hoisin sauce with my seitan. I had a baked potato and some the last of the leftover pea pods. It was pretty good, not the best I've done, but it did work. I like dishes where I sear the seitan in a skillet pan. I'm reluctant to use oven-based recipes from the book because the cooking times for tofu, tempeh, and seitan are probably differnet from cooking times for flesh foods.

It's been a rough week back from work, so I'm not going to babble on much. But I finally got my pictures to post!

Saturday, April 22, 2006

I *heart* New York

New York City is a fab place if you're vegan--heck, it's a fab place, period. My boyfriend and I just got back last night from a lovely four days. We went because we got tickets to The Threepenny Opera, featuring Alan Cumming, Ana Gasteyer, Cyndi Lauper, and Nellie McKay. It was a translation by Wallace Shawn, and I haven't seen the original, but I did enjoy this version.

I also had several truly excellent meals.

Bonobo's, near Madison Square Park, is a raw counter-service restaurant. They're nothing fancy, but they are a good place for lunch. We went on Tuesday for a snack (because our hotel room wasn't ready when we wanted to check in) and shared a nutmeat patty platter, which is a bed of lettuce with five veggies of your choice, dressing, and a raw patty of nuts. We also went there Thursday afternoon before going on the Sex and the City tour--more on that later.

Tuesday, we went shopping in the Lower East Side and walked through the Village and Soho. There is a cool feminist bookstore called Bluestockings, where I found a cookbook called "Hot Damn and Hell Yeah!" which is a vegan Southern food cookbook. The author recommends against olive oil because of its strong flavor, but I've never had a problem with it. I say use what works for you. A block or so away is MooShoes, the mecca for stylish vegans. I desperately needed a purse, and after trying several out, kept coming back to a Matt & Nat style called Shashi, a large black bag with beige accents. I live in the city, I don't own a car, and I need something to haul my stuff around. I also bought an issue of Herbivore magazine, and a t-shirt from Herbivore that reads "Go Vegan or Die." Because there are five cats who work in the store, the shirt I purchased was covered in cat hair. I also communed with the cats, one of whom licked my finger, then nipped it (my cat does the same thing). It didn't hurt, but I was startled. Around the corner from MooShoes is Babeland, a woman-owned sex-toy shop.

While walking through the Soho and the Village on the way to dinner at Red Bamboo, we stumbled across a protest at Prada's store. Miuccia Prada is one of the all-too-many scumbag designers who has yet to exit the Stone Age and stop using fur. This particular protest was about how the company uses pelts from baby harp seals. If we weren't bogged down with bags, and my boyfriend weren't eager to eat, I would have asked to join. All I could really do was go up to one woman and thank her for their protest. I love walking through New York south of 14th Street because the area has character lacking in, say, Times Square. Plus, you don't have to fight other tourists for sidewalk space.

Dinner was Red Bamboo. We'd been there before and had a pleasant experience, but this time was not so good. I don't mind waiting for a table for good food. It's after we started ordering that the trouble started. They offer vegan shakes and sodas, but they were out of the vegan ice cream. So I had iced tea. Now, I must ask servers to bring goddam sweetener when a customer orders tea or coffee. It's not that difficult. We ordered an appetizer of seitan skewers and got two. For six bucks. It was tasty, but a horrible value. Bryan ordered a "cheesesteak," and I got a "half chicken" which looked and tasted amazing. My dinner came with fries. I politely asked the guy who brought our food for ketchup. No luck. I asked our server. No luck. I was getting up to get it myself when I ran into our server and said that I had asked several times for ketchup, and he said I hadn't, and my boyfriend snapped that I had. Here's something else for servers: when a dish includes fries, bring ketchup out!. There was a dessert special called a chocolate strawberry cake, but it was a yellow cake with a chocolate ganache and fruit. It was decent, but I was expecting chocolate cake. One more snarl: it's really cheap to charge for refills of tea. Don't do it. Thank you.

If you are in New York and need a good pre-theatre option, may I recommend Zen Palate on 9th Avenue at 46th Street? Since it was a beautiful day, we ate outside. The food is good, the service is polite, and it's decent prices for the area. I wish I could remember what I had, but I remember it was pecans, teeny-tiny bits of soy protein, pineapple, and a sweet-and-sour sauce.

Wednesday night, we had reservations at Candle 79, an upscale restaurant owned by the same people who run Candle Cafe. The restaurant is beautiful, the food is plentiful, and the service is excellent. I had seitan chimichurris for an appetizer, and my boyfriend had the guacamole timbale. For dinner, I had portabello mushrooms with polenta, while he had quinoa-crusted tempeh with mashed potatoes (when we go again, I'm getting that). For dessert, I had the molten chocolate cake, and he had banana-chocolate empanadas. I was feeling overstuffed by the time I left--I think next time we should share either an appetizer or dessert.

Thursday, we went back to Bonobo's, but before we went, Bryan wanted to check out a comic shop. Since I am not interested in this, and there was a bench in the entry, I sat down to wait. While I was waiting, a man came out with his dog who promptly leapt into my lap. Now, dogs like me, but most let me say hi before approaching me. From my brief glance at her, she looked like a pit bull. But her leap into my lap was a friendly one and makes me feel even more of a dog whisperer. Since Bonobo's opened later than we thought, we toured the Museum of Sex, then went to eat. After that, we headed back uptown to meet our group for the Sex and the City tour.

If you want to do something that's not too touristy, but still sightseeing, a TV show or movie tour is the best. Our tour took us around town to sites that figured in the HBO show. I even got my picture on the stoop that "played" Carrie's home (while her show home was in the Upper East Side, a lot of filming was done in the Village because the light is so much better). I would post pictures, but my blogger thing will not let me. Damn. We also got to see the bar that served as the location for Scout, Steve and Aidan's bar, and drink Cosmopolitans. While we were in the bar, the tour guide admired my purse and asked about the logo. I said it was Matt & Nat, and that I'd gotten it at MooShoes. I did not mention that it was a vegan store or a vegan purse (sneaky me).

Thursday night's dinner was at an upscale raw place called Pure Food and Wine. Yes, they serve alcohol and hot tisanes, but all the food is raw and vegan. We both went for the five-course tasting menu, and it was excellent. Unfortunately the restaurant is loud, so I had trouble hearing everything I was having. But oh, my, the food was delicious, including a raw lasagne made from thin slices of zucchini, nut "cheese," and tomato sauce. My boyfriend got for an appetizer a raw pad thai that was excellent. The tasting menu is chef's choice, and everyone at the table will get different foods, so of course, we shared each other's food. I think this is the one place you must try in New York, no matter what. It was certainly my favorite meal this week.

Friday morning, after we checked out, we headed back to the East Village and a neighborhood called Alphabet City to try a diner called Kate's Joint. It's sort of like stepping back in time with a simple setting and scarred vinyl chairs. Bryan ordered a veggie burger, and I got faux steak au poive (that's how they spelled it). The sauce was very intersting, but the texture of the tofu made me green with envy. I'd love to get it that thin. We also shared a dessert, a banana tiramisu, but I wasn't crazy about it. Still, it's a great place, only a few blocks from the subway.

Yes, my legs are tired. I usually don't do this much walking. The New York subway doesn't have escalators, like Metro in DC does, but then, New York's is far more extensive. On our last day there, there was the Green Apple environmental festival, and I grabbed a listing of bus routes in the event the subway doesn't take us where we need to go or it's just easier to ride the bus. The festival wasn't as extensive as the Green Festival here in DC, and it was far more crowded, but I still had a nice time. When we're in NY, it's usually up to me to figure out where we're going and how to get there, and I have yet to get us lost. Okay, I sometimes have to discreetly check the map--I kept a fold-out subway map in my purse--but I have yet to get us lost. And I have never gotten us on the train going the wrong way. I don't know if it's all my years riding public transit and figuring out how to get around or if I have a great sense of direction, but if he needed to know how many more stops or which stop, I could get us where we needed to go.

Now, the streets south of 14th are a little screwy, but I still love walking around there. I also love how so many parks have dog runs. One park had a separate run for smaller dogs. According to our tour guide for the SATC tour, many residents will pay and volunteer to set up and keep up these parks. It's a truly wonderful city, and I do wish I could spend more time there if I can't live there.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Okay, so it's lunch


I'm close to being out of leftovers, and I was kind of hungry, so I adapted a recipe from Carol J. Adams' Living Among Meat Eaters. Her recipe was for tofu cubes, I mixed a little nutritional yeast, flour, pepper, and paprika and used it as a coating for tempeh sticks, which I then sauteed. They are beautiful and yummy and perfect for a quick bite. I had leftover quinoa pilaf and leftover pea pods and carrots. I know, I know, it's Passover, but I haven't been observant for years. The only times I go to synagogue anymore is if a cousin is having a bat mitzvah. I can say, however, that I keep kosher. After all, since there are no animal products in my home (except for what I feed my kitty), I don't need to worry about mixing meat and dairy, so I only need one set of dishes. If I were observant, which I'm not.

Earlier this week, there were protests over the proposed immigration "reform." Now, I understand that people come to this country because they a better life. My great-grandparents were all immigrants. However, they followed the proper channels and came here legally. They worked hard, assimilated, and now, just about everyone in my family calls themselves Americans. I don't have a problem with immigration. I do have a problem with people who break the law. Now, some people will say that by working for low wages, they depress wages for others. Five bucks an hour in the U.S. is better than what these immigrants could make at home. Others point out that the minimum wage has remained stagnant for 10 years, because Congess has been pressured, no doubt, by businesses and their lobbyists to keep the minimum wage low. Of course, nobody can live on minimum wage, much less support a family. The argument that they do the jobs Americans won't doesn't hold a whole lot of water when you realize that people may well be willing to pick fruits and vegetables or clean toilets, but not for five bucks an hour.

Meanwhile, Delta Airlines is whining that it wants its employees to give concessions to save the company. Gee, when United Airlines employees took pay and benefit cuts to "save the company," I do believe the executives used that money to increase their compensation. The next time a business is in trouble, executives, you might want to try decreasing your own compensation and stop driving down the wages of workers who are trying to support and feed their families. There is something seriously freaking wrong with this country when an executive gets paid more on the last day of work, cleaning out his desk than the average employee earns over his entire career.

The Washington Post had a feature on a Los Angeles blogger who is, shall we say, opinionated and very left-of-center, and after poking around there, I had to do a little progessive ranting.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

More delicious food

It seems Sunday is my day for going nuts in the kitchen. Today, after grabbing a few things at Whole Foods, I made Chocolate Almond Butter Bars from Vive Le Vegan by Dreena Burton:


I then made Chocolate Chip Cookies, also from Vive:



And then I made the Lemon-Herb Tofu and the Mellow Millet-Quinoa Pilaf with Red Quinoa and toasted pine nuts in place of the hemp seed nuts (I saw hemp seeds--are those the same?), along with glazed carrots and snow peas:



I used the red quinoa for color contrast. I think it looks really pretty, and it was quite tasty with a few sprinkles of Herbamare. The tofu turned out to be really pretty and very tart. I always get worried when I'm baking tofu because until it's done, it just isn't pretty. I am also kicking myself for not following the instructions on the nut butter bars. I cut back on the puffed rice cereal because I didn't think the nut butter mixture was enough, and I was afraid they would fall apart as did another recipe I tried. Still, it's pretty tasty. I will do my best not to eat all the chocolate chip cookies, as deliciously chewy as they are, so as not to send my boyfriend into a major sulk. If I do, maybe the nut butter bars and "cow pies" will do.

I almost certainly won't be going nuts in the kitchen next Sunday because on Tuesday (nine days from now), my boyfriend and I are headed up to New York. We have tickets to see Threepenny Opera with Nellie McKay, Cyndi Lauper, and Alan Cumming. New York has more veg*an restaurants than I can shake a stick at, and even a few raw places, which I will absolutely want to try, as I've never really had a totally raw meal before. The raw lifestyle isn't for me--I like cooked food too much, and comfort food is cooked food--but I'm certainly interested in seeing what it's like. The last time I was in NYC, two years ago, we found a natural foods store a few blocks from our hotel that had products from a raw "bakery." The apple cake was absolutely to die for, and I hope I can find it again at another store.

Washington, DC, has one huge advantage over NYC, though: We have Sticky Fingers Bakery.

Friday, April 07, 2006

I'll have mine with blackstrap molasses...


I maybe shouldn't knock non-vegetarian cookbooks too much. After all, it's not too difficult to use seitan in place of cow, pig, or chicken in a recipe. I adapted another recipe from the Heart Association cookbook, a molasses-marinated dish. Let me tell you, measuring 1/3 cup of blackstrap molasses is no mean feat. I have to wonder if the recipe author had a thinner version in mind. It also called for balsamic vinegar and thyme and to marinate for several hours, as long as overnight. But the nice thing about seitan (and tofu for that matter) is that you don't have to marinate it for nearly as long. With leftover millet polenta and asparagus made from a recipe in Vegan With a Vengeance, I had a truly delightful dinner. The only thing I don't like asparagus is that it's not that good as leftovers.

I never really used any sort of molasses until I went vegan and discovered that blackstrap molasses is fab for cooking. Blackstrap molasses has a rich burnt-sugar taste to me, not bitter at all, and it is chock full of nutrients, especially iron and calcium. But it's very thick and is not only a pain to pour, but a pain to get out of the measuring spoon/cup and a pain to clean sometimes. Still, it is very much worth it, and I recommend using in cooking.

Pomegranate molasses, by the way, is just pomegranate juice boiled until it thickens into a syrup. I love the pomegranate-blueberry juice from Naked Food Juice, as both fruits are little antioxidant powerhouses. Granted, it's best to eat fruits rather than drink them, but I'm not about to wrestle with a pomegranate, and I'm waiting until I can get organic berries at the grocery store.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Going nuts in the kitchen


I did a lot of cooking today. First, I made the "cow pies" from La Dolce Vegan! and then I made cinnamon donut holes. The donut holes sort of collapsed while cooking, so they aren't very pretty, but they are really, really yummy. I wonder if it's because I couldn't fill the pan all the way or because I used Willow Run margarine instead of the shortening the recipe called for.

For dinner, I made BBQ pomegranate tofu and millet polenta from Vegan With a Vengeance. The barbecue sauce turned out nice and thick, but there wasn't much pomegranate flavor. I might use a little more pomegranate molasses next time. Still, it was very tasty. Pomegranate molasses, by the way, is just thickened pomegranate juice. I found a bottle at the local Whole Foods in the syrups/molasses/honey/baking stuff section. The millet polenta is supposed to be served with a sun-dried tomato pesto, but since I didn't have all the ingredients and it would have been very difficult in my tiny kitchen with everything else going on, I just drizzled a little BBQ sauce on it. I probably should have fried it up more, but it was still very tasty.

Earlier this morning, I did a little leafleting near the Verizon Center (formerly known as the MCI Center) because the circus is in town. Groan. There is something wrong about making wild animals do tricks for people's amusement. The animals are horribly abused and live in tiny, cramped cages. Sadly, many of the families passing by did not seem particularly receptive to our attempts to inform them of the slavery and brutality that is inherent in every animal circus. When elephants freak out and go on a rampage, it's indicative they've had enough of being someone's entertainment. Or perhaps this cartoon says it best. If you are going to go to a circus, go to one where all the performers are willing participants and are paid for their work.