Supper and the Single Girl

I'm back

2007-09-02T21:45:00.000-04:00

Iknow it's been a long time, and I will explain after I tell you about this new dish I discovered tonight. I saw a link for tofu recipes on my MSN homepage, clicked it, and found a recipe called Spice-Crusted Tofu. It's really simple--tofu dredged in coriander, cumin, and paprika, then sauteed, and then drizzled a sauce of boiling water, lemon juice, and honey. But since I don't use honey, I subbed agave nectar instead. Agave is a little thinner than honey, but just as sweet, and I think the next time I get a cold (right about when it starts getting cold), I might try agave nectar in my hot tea instead of brown rice syrup (which has the texture of honey but is not nearly as sweet). I also didn't have the pine nuts the recipe calls for, but I did have some slivered almonds, and I used those instead. I heated up some leftover pilaf (a box mix from Seeds of Change) and some frozen haricot verts, and as soon as I get done with this, there's a carton of Purely Decadent Pomagranate Chip calling my name.

I guess it's been mid-July since I posted. I turned 39, attended the Taking Action for Animals conference the next week, went out of town to visit my family where we celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday, what else? I've had a bit of a health crisis the past couple of weeks, and I have not felt like cooking anything blogworthy, much less actually blogging. It began with some mild chest pains, so I eventually went to the emergency room, had a bunch of tests, including two EKGs, which all came back normal (thank goodness). They took blood from me three times! They had to take it from my lower left arm after one vein on my outer elbow area did not cooperate, and the bruise has finally faded. Can I just say that being in the hospital sucks out loud and in stereo? After all my tests were done and the docs were saying I could probably go, I waited hours for them to spring me. A doctor had to take the IV needle (pro forma when someone's on a cardiac monitor) from my arm after it was clear I probably wouldn't need it.

A nurse friend says that when patients my age have chest pains, it's usually GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), and my internist, who I just started seeing before all this happened, also thinks it might be that. I'll know the results of the last test, an upper GI scan with barium (ick!), for sure on Tuesday. If it isn't, I don't know what I'm going to do.

But I figured it was time to start blogging again, even if what I cook isn't the most exciting stuff on the planet. Heck, I should write about this new line of analogues from Germany called Viana. It's truly awesome stuff. Both Vegan Essentials (www.veganessentials.com) and Pangea (www.veganstore.com) carry the six varieties: Chickin Fillets (delicious! My favorite!), Chickin Nuggets (they're decent--get them for kids), Cowgirl Veggie Steak (needs something with it for flavor), Spicy Veg Kabob, Cevapcici (Yugoslavian sausage), and Veggie Gyros, the latter three I haven't tried yet. They use mostly organic ingredients and ones you can pronounce, too! The stuff is pretty easy to cook; I just toss it in a frypan for about five minutes total, and it's done. It also looks very much like the image on the box, always a good thing.

So if you're looking for a new analogue, check out Viana. Yes, it's kind of expensive, but it's worth every penny.

Veganizing is so much fun!!

2007-07-17T20:50:00.000-04:00

Okay, I got a little overenthusiastic there. But I do love taking cruel recipes and making them animal friendly. If you make your own seitan--and as I've said before, I recommend that you do--you can adapt just about any recipe that calls for boneless pieces of meat by using seitan. So I dragged out my American Heart Association cookbook, found a recipe for rosemary turkey with mushrooms. The only changes I made? Instead of turkey, I used seitan. Instead of chicken broth, I used vegetable broth. And since I was out of the shallots the recipe called for, I used half an onion. Oh, and since I didn't have cornstarch, I used arrowroot instead. I made the Seeds of Nature Seven Grain Pilaf, heated up some frozen green beans and had myself a tasty little dinner. Depending on how the leftovers go (sorry to say, but sometimes it's best when it's freshly cooked), I may just make this again. It would go best with a grain pilaf instead of potatoes, so I'll have to make another make some more.

And if you don't subscribe to Ms. magazine, check out the latest issue. In the banging-my-own-drum category, I had my letter published. Their last issue, in the spring (it's a quarterly magazine), had an article on global warming. After reading the articles, I was chagrined to see there was no mention of how what we eat affects the state of the planet. I found several big stats that would hopefully make people think and fired off a letter. Sadly, most of those stats were excised, but I'd like to think my point will get across to the readers. When I checked the website early this week--it just came out on the newsstand Monday--the new issue hadn't yet been put up. But, really, buy the magazine. Better yet, consider subscribing!

And when you see an article in a magazine or newspaper that affects you, that angers you, or an issue comes up that you feel needs to be addressed, write a letter to the magazine/paper. If you don't feel confident about the letter, get a friend to review it before you send it off. And even if your letter doesn't get published--and many letters I've written haven't, although a handful have in various magazines on various issues--editors (hopefully) have taken your views into account. I have read that for every letter the newspaper or magazine receives, there are dozens of people who feel the way you do.

So get writing!

Miss me?

2007-07-15T20:20:00.000-04:00

I've been rather busy the past few weeks. I have started taking classes in American Sign Language at the local library, and I love it. It turns out a number of people I know have some knowledge of it, and almost eveyrone I know thinks it's pretty cool that I'm learning it. One of the women in the class pointed me to a website that has video of the signed word, which helps, but I would really love a site that not only had a person doing the signing, but an indication of what handshape, where you start, and the motion you use to make the sign. Sometimes the signer goes too fast, and I have to play the thing over and over. I keep a dictionary with me at all times and will look up random words while riding Metro. I don't know that I'll ever be good enough to be an interpreter, but if I can communicate with other deaf people--and there are a number of deaf and hard of hearing in DC--that will be a plus. I just wish I could get my boyfriend to learn, but oh, well.

This means I haven't had much time to cook, as the class is twice a week, and while it's supposed to be an hour, it frequently runs over. Not that I mind. I seriously want to learn. I will also be attending ASL Meetups if I can and trying to find fellow ASL newbies to practice with me to keep our knowledge and skills.

But never mind that--you probably miss my cooking, right? I recently discovered that there is a little farmer's market near my office building every Thursday. One day I saw a vendor with green tomatoes, and I knew I had to get some. However, I had plans for that evening and didn't think it would be practical, so I decided to wait. Last week, even though I had plans, I bought a bag of green tomatoes. I wanted to cook fried green tomatoes at some point! Warning: if you do buy green tomatoes, cook them the very same day. Even three days later, they've ripened quite a bit, much to my dismay. But I dipped them in soy milk, dredged them in a mix of flour, paprika, salt, and pepper, and then fried them up. I made a simple gravy from The Dirty South (which has another Southern-style vegan cookbook, Hot Damn and Hell Yeah on the other side), and then dredged some tofu in a mixture of flour, sage, pepper and powdered garlic. Mmmmm, gravy. The tomatoes were juicy, tart, and crisp, although I suspect a real Southern cook would disapprove of my cooking them in canola oil. Some recipes I looked up suggested using bacon drippings--ewwww. But mostly, you take some flour, toss in some seasonings, dip, dredge, fry. If you have ample space in your kitchen--which I certainly do not--it's easy, easy, easy. If you don't have ample space in your kitchen, trying to work around it can be challenging. But it was so worth it. The tomatoes really didn't need the gravy, but the tofu surely did. I've got a lot left over to try to use in a week (maybe I should halve the recipe next time), so I'm going to have to get creative here.

Mmm, tempeh

2007-06-04T20:45:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite foods to cook with is tempeh. It's got a nice nutty texture and is quite versatile. Whenever I make chili, I crumble a cake of tempeh in the pot for a "meaty" texture. Tonight I made Maple Walnut Tempeh (in Enemy of the Steak, it's Maple Pecan, but I prefer pecans), some balsamic rosemary yams from Garden of Vegan, and heated up some frozen green beans. I was a good girl; while my yams were cooking, I had a salad. I unfortunately ran out of the mustard used to coat the pieces of tempeh before I saute it--hmmph. I'll have to grab more at the store next time.

Now, those of you reading this probably know this, but in case you don't, always buy real maple syrup. Do NOT get the pancake Aunt Jemima/Mrs. Butterworths/whatever stuff--it's corn syrup with a little maple flavor. No, spend the extra money, get the real stuff, preferably organic. It's got better flavor, and if you want corn syrup, buy corn syrup, not the maple-flavored stuff.

I probably won't be cooking much in the next week--I cook in spurts anyway--but I have family visiting and will be spending time with them.

Happy eating!

Oh, what a beautiful day

2007-05-19T22:25:00.000-04:00

On the third Saturday of every month, a local restaurant Java Green has a funding day for a wonderful local organization, Compassion Over Killing. Basically, 10 percent of sales go to COK. Another local place, Vegetable Garden, has funding days on the first Thursday of every month. Recently, COK has started leafleting near well-trafficked areas before going to eat at the funding restaurant. I can't help them hand out Easy Vegan Recipe guides and veg-dining guides on Thursdays, but I can do it on Saturday, after which we go to eat at the supporting restaurant. So I met up with the woman running the leafleting, grabbed some stuff and went to the entrance of a Metro station a couple of blocks away. Almost everyone was polite, whether or not they accepted the guides I was handing out. One man said that his wife was vay-gun (this after I'd said "vegan"), and I said that the guide was a restaurant guide. He took it. I don't know if running to catch people counts as exercise--it should.

Afterwards, we all gathered to eat, and I had my usual "chicken" rice bowl (really chunks of soy protein in a delicious sauce) and Cricket Cola, a green tea cola I love. With us was someone new to activism, but apparently has been vegetarian for a few years, so the organizer and I explained the environmental damages wrought by the animal foods industries. I did a bit of research to send a letter to Ms. magazine in response to an article they did on global warming, plus I've read numerous books on the subject, so I felt I could talk with some authority. COK focuses primarily on the animal rights issues, but I like to touch on health, animals, and environment because you never know what may get through to a person.

The weather has been manic depressive this week, going as low as the 50s Thursday and Friday and up into the 80s today. It was beautiful today--the complete opposite of grey, chilly, rainy Friday--but if I was in the shade, I needed my hoodie, and when I was in the sun, it was too hot for my hoodie. I sat in the sun while we ate and basked in the warmth. I even splurged on a chocolate vegan milkshake (ohhhhhh) while my boyfriend got a create-your-own smoothie with banana, mango, and coconut milk. A few other friends showed up, and we chatted and just hung out.

After everything broke up, my boyfriend and I made our way to my place, where I collapsed in bed and napped for an hour. I don't know if it was the running around, sitting in the sun, or a combination of both, but I was sacked out. I think I recall having spent days at the beach as a kid, and being in the sun would just put me to sleep. I didn't want to nap too long--I do have to get to bed tonight so I can work Sunday--but I was very reluctant to drag myself out of bed, which my cat supported wholeheartedly.

But I did get up and do the laundry and eventually cook dinner, another recipe adapted from the Heart Association cookbook, this one a lemon seitan dish (the original dish called for lamb and chicken broth; I used seitan and vegetable broth). I veganized it, of course, and added capers to the sauce. I'm trying to decide if I like the mustard in the sauce, or if I should remove it and add more lemon juice or something else, maybe garlic or tamari. I think it's mostly good, but I will be tinkering with the recipe to try to perfect it.

And like a good girl, I did have a salad with it, although it isn't pictured here. I made the same type salad and the same Sesame Ginger dressing I did last time, but instead of olive oil, I used half flax oil and half sesame oil, and I think that enhanced the flavor. If you want a sesame or Asian flavor, get yourself some toasted sesame oil, and keep it in the fridge once opened. If you want to add omega-3 fatty acids, get some flax oil, and absolutely keep that refrigerated. I once read somewhere that all oils, except for olive, should be refrigerated once opened. Flax oil should be refrigerated always, although you can't really do that between the grocery store and your home. Don't buy flax products from a store that doesn't keep them in a refrigerated case, just to be on the safe side. Flax is very delicate and can go bad very easily. I actually freeze my flax seeds because they stay fresher longer. And because I have more than enough stuff in my fridge.

A plus and a minus

2007-05-15T21:45:00.000-04:00

I made a couple of recipes from Enemy of the Steak tonight: a luscious tempeh dish called Picadillo (tempeh, onions, garlic, bell peppers, tomato sauce, raisins, capers, and seasonings) and Glazed Plantains. I had a dab of the Saffron Rice left over (gotta buy that again) and heated it up. I guess you can tell which is the plus--it's the tempeh dish. The cinnamon gave it a nice kick, and lazy girl that I am, I used Whole Foods "Stoplight" (red, yellow, and green) peppers even though the recipe calls for one green pepper. It's something I do when I have dishes that call for chopped bell peppers. It adds a splash of color to my favorite tofu dish.

I don't know what went wrong with the plantains--maybe they weren't ripe enough, and time in the fridge didn't help. I'll have to keep an eye out for ripe plantains. Considering my neighborhood has a large Latino population, one of the stores must carry plantanos. I suspect this recipe will work better with soft, ripe plantains rather than unripe "tostones." I made a couple of other very minor changes, but it shouldn't have affected the flavor. It was the texture that was sort of problematic.

I've mentioned that I do not object to using frozen veggies. Unless you're doing a stuffed pepper, you can easily sub a few handfuls of the frozen bell peppers. I usually run warm water over them to get the ice off and start the defrost process. The upshot is my freezer is crowded with frozen fruits and veggies, plus some shortening, stick margarine, a few convenience foods, and soy ice cream. My small fridge is also crowded with tea pitchers, grains, nuts, stuff I've cooked, sauces, dressings, and a few cooking oils.

I need a larger fridge.

Pasta and Salad

2007-05-07T21:30:00.000-04:00

I did a bit of shopping today and then went set about cooking dinner. I love bagged salad mixes--they're prewashed, so all you need to do is dump them in a bowl and toss in the rest of your salad fixings. I grated a couple of carrots, cut up a couple of Roma tomatoes and a Gala apple, threw in some golden raisins and some peanuts, and made a lovely Sesame Ginger dressing from Garden of Vegan. I love these little condiment bottles I get at Bed, Bath & Beyond. They're the size of your average bottle of dressing, but you can use them over and over. The only thing I don't like about them is there is no removable tip, so I have to cut off the tip of the lid to squeeze. They also work well for frosting cupcakes if you aren't doing any fancy swirly stuff.

I found a couple of really neat recipes in last Wednesday's Washington Post Food section. This is a recipe for Udon Noodles with Baby Bok Choy. Wow--a vegan recipe from the Post. What a shocker. Well, I didn't have udon noodles (or the sub of linguini), so I used whole wheat fettuccine instead. It was pretty tasty, although I don't eat pasta enough that I have a handle on the taste and texture of whole wheat pasta. And since I had more pasta than the recipe called for, I could very well have used that third head of bok choy that was in the package I picked up at Trader Joe's last week. Still, with the salad, it was a very nice dinner. I topped that off with a bowl of Purely Decadent Pomegranate Chip "ice cream" (well, they call it non-dairy dessert, probably because they can't legally call it ice cream). This was some seriously good stuff. I typically put chocolate syrup on my ice cream, but when I discovered I was out of syrup, I ate it plain. This is some good stuff. You must get some NOW (oh, okay, if the store is closed, wait until it opens and get it then).

I have become a bit of a pomegranate freak since they became popular. I love pomegranate blueberry juice and pomegranate molasses flavoring. Clif Nectar bars, their almost raw division, has a new pomegranate cherry bar that rocks. I think I love it almost more than their dark chocolate and walnut flavor, which has served as my chocolate fix at work on a few occasions.

And I totally forgot to mention in my post of last week that if you're a guy, you should eat lots of cooked tomato products. Pasta with marinara sauce (and veggie meatballs), pizza with tons of veggies (no cheese), recipes with tomato sauce, tomato paste, or processed tomatoes--eat up. Tomatoes have lycopene, an antioxidant, and eating them helps prevent prostate cancer. It is most bioavailable when the tomatoes are cooked or processed, but it's still not a terrible idea to put some in your salad anyway. Even ketchup on your veggie burger will provide you lycopene.

I wonder what special benefits it has for women. Either way, I'll try to eat more of them.

Quick and Easy

2007-05-05T20:50:00.000-04:00

There are times you need a recipe that doesn't take more than a few minutes to throw together.

I found a simple recipe in the Amerian Heart Association cookbook and veganized it. I cut up a large hunk of seitan (if you're really lazy, I suppose you could get a couple of packages of the premade stuff, but I find making my own works better) into bite-size pieces and sauted it, tossed in some bottled teriyaki sauce, added some frozen peaches, pineapple, and mango, and threw in some almonds. Did I tell you that I think frozen fruit is awesome? If you can't get fresh organic fruit, you usually can get frozen organic fruit, and it works just fine in recipes. I also heated up some frozen green beans and used some leftover saffron rice from the other night, although I think brown rice would have worked much better. But I was feeling a little lazy and didn't really want to delay my dinner any longer.

I submitted my recipe for Puckery Pomegranate Seitan to the VegWeb site, and hopefully I'll see it up there soon. It's adapted from a fessenjen recipe, but I really didn't feel like calling it Seitan Fessenjen since I've never had the meat version and I never will. So I invented a new name for it with a made-up word (although Microsoft Word also redlines "seitan" and "tempeh"). I fixed the problem that made the recipe fail to show up legibly, so you should be able to make it yourself. Let me know what you serve it with--I wonder if a nice wheat berry pilaf would go with it or I should just prepare the brown-and-wild-rice pilaf I made last month. And maybe some roasted veggies like mushrooms, zucchini, onions, and bell peppers. I can eat zucchini if it's cooked right, but I just can't get into yellow squash. A lot of vegetables most people dislike they just haven't had cooked properly. When it comes to broccoli, though, it doesn't matter. I still hate the stuff.

Plantains, yay!

2007-04-30T21:30:00.001-04:00

When I was growing up in Florida a less enlightened person, I loved Cuban food and (blush) arroz con pollo. I especially loved the plantanos or plantains that came on the side. So when I saw a packet of three peeled plantains at Trader Joe's today, I had to get them. I had on hand a box mix of Casbah Saffron Rice, which can be Middle Eastern or Caribbean. Hey, it takes only 20 minutes to cook, including the time to heat the water to boiling. It's quick and easy--in fact, everything on my plate was quick and easy.

After pressing the tofu, I mixed up some garlic powder, Mexican seasoning mix, and oregano and dredged the tofu. I put it in a baking dish with a cut-up onion and a 14.5-ounce can of chopped tomatoes (note to self: next time, use more tomatoes) and baked it at 350 degrees for half an hour, turning the tofu slices midway through. The plantains, you just slice and saute, then drain on paper towels. The riper the plantain is, the sweeter, and these must not have been terribly ripe because it had the starchiness of tostones as opposed to the sweeter maduros. This is the only negative to buying plantains peeled.

I'm going to be tinkering with this recipe, I think, mostly with the amount of ingredients. I may try cutting the tofu differently to get more spicing as well. If I get this perfected, I'll let you know.

'Bobs on the Barbie

2007-04-23T22:15:00.000-04:00

Okay, so it's not really a barbecue, but "Grilling Kabobs" would have been a really dull title, don't you think? I bought a container of mixed up chopped onions and peppers (and a couple of mushrooms--what's up with that? I want more shrooms, dammit!), threaded them with some tempeh chunks on leftover skewers from the last kabobs I bought, brushed on some Annie's Naturals Paradise Marinade and grilled them in my lovely grill pan that I so adore. I had way more veggies than I had room for on the skewers, so after the skewers were done, I just tossed the unthreaded veggies in the grill pan and stirred them around for a bit until they had cooked up some. I also had some Lundberg's rice pilaf and cooked that up, for a nice, healthy (I hope) dinner. The rice could use a little more flavor--maybe next time I'll use half broth and half water to cook it or toss in some seasonings. But it's still pretty good, and I'd get it again.

Earth Day was yesterday, Sunday. And everyone talks about global warming and how to be environmentally friendly. The local paper was asking its readership for their tips, so of course, I wrote in. I said, go vegan and gave a few stats on just how wasteful the animal products industries are and how horribly they pollute the earth. And yes, I backtracked a bit; I realize not everyone can or will go vegan. But just sharply reducing your consumption of animal products will help. And to my suprise and delight, they published my letter, although a little hacked up. The EPA itself states that runoff from factory farms pollutes groundwater more than all other industrial sources combined, and the UN states that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Don't believe me? Know a skeptic? Have them Google "animal products global warming" and see how many hits you get that say, yes, meat production causes some serious environmental problems. And just because meat production is worse than SUVs, that doesn't give you a pass. If you must own a car, find a more fuel-efficient one. The supply of oil on the planet is finite, and your monstermobile isn't helping matters.

Pizzaaaaaa

2007-04-11T21:15:00.000-04:00

So I finally tried the newish vegan cheese called "Sheese", a European cheese substitute that has made its way onto our shores. I had the Mozzarella flavor hanging around my fridge, and I made a fabulous pizza with it. I used a recipe from Sarah Kramer's La Dolce Vegan, but needed to double the recipe to cover my nice large pizza pan. It also says to bake for 10 minutes before putting the toppings on, but it seemed crumbly, so I may not bake it before putting the toppings on and try it that way. I opened a can of tomato sauce, cut up some mushrooms and an onion, mashed a coupla cloves of garlic (needs more garlic), and grated the cheese under and over the toppings.

And maybe saute the onions before putting them on the pizza, I don't know.

As you can see, the cheese doesn't get very melty, but I kind of appreciate that, as I've had pizza with the Follow Your Heart cheese at a couple of local restaurants, and I don't know why, but the FYH comes out practially liquified--blech. I like it sort of chewy but melty.

It comes in rounds, sort of like a brie, and I have read that it's best to grate or melt it. At one point I just held the grater over the pizza and ran the piece of Sheese over it, which I should have done in the first place instead of using a prep bowl--save a dish to clean.

Sadly, the pizza totally fell apart while I was putting it away, but I'm sure it will still taste good. I also think the Sheese sort of an acquired taste, but many things worth eating are.

Anyway, we had a lovely taste of spring, and then it turned unpleasantly cold around the beginning of the month. We even had a dusting of snow last weekend--snow! in April!--that vanished by the end of the day. I have read that Washington in April is really weird weather-wise. It has gotten as low as 15 degrees and as warm as 95 degrees. I suppose one thing to be grateful for is it hasn't gotten to 95 (yet) because in my apartment building they don't turn off the heat until mid-April; if the temp climbs above 65, I'm almost too warm!

If you want to get some Sheese for yourself, both Vegan Essentials and Pangea carry eight or nine Sheese flavors, but they both say you don't want to get it too warm. I wonder if the hour-and-a-half Metro trip up to Rockville would be problematic...

Smokin'

2007-04-09T20:15:00.000-04:00

If you like smoked foods--and I guess I don't, or I didn't cook it correctly--check out Smoke & Fire Smoked Tofu. It was sitting around my fridge, so I decided I may as well heat it up (sauteed it in a pan) for dinner. I was at Whole Foods today and picked up a couple of vegetable skewers (and fruit because there are chunks of pineapple in there). I slathered them in Annie's Smokey Maple Bar-B-Q sauce (which I do like). There are two skewers per package, and I stored the second one in the container in which it came. And of course, I had my old standby, a baked potato with Earth Balance margarine.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with prepackaged, precut veggies. If it gets someone to eat more fruits and veggies, then precut, packaged fresh (or even frozen) veggies are fine by me. Just avoid most canned veggies as they are lacking in nutrients. Yes, I buy canned tomatoes and tomato sauce and paste, and I buy canned beans (such as black beans or kidney beans, always checking for a low sodium level), but I wouldn't touch canned green beans, carrots, peas or corn. And sure the precut veggies are a little more than whole veggies, but if you're unsure how to cut up a butternut squash, or you want to make sure you like it (I kinda do), consider it a savings of time instead.

That said, I still make my own seitan. It just tastes better and has a better texture when I do.

I feel like screaming

2007-03-31T11:59:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week, after my return from L.A., where I had a fabulous time, I tried to post some pictures. However, every single one posted at the beginning of the post, where I did not want it, instead of where the cursor was, which is where I DID want it. I got some gorgeous pictures, especially of Descanso Gardens, in La Canada Flintridge (near Pasadena). I created slideshows with my Photobucket account and sent them to some people, and they turned out beautifully. So now I'm trying to post the slideshow here, and I'll let you know if it works.

Does anyone know why Blogger does this, or did I do something wrong?

Descanso Gardens

2007-03-31T11:56:00.003-04:00

Descanso Gardens

2007-03-31T11:56:00.001-04:00

A simple entree

2007-03-14T20:55:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since I made this--my Puckery Pomegranate Seitan. I guess you could say it's like a vegan fessenjen--I adapted a meat recipe to seitan. Ever since it became popular, I've fallen in love with pomegranate flavoring. A bottle of pomegranate molasses lasts a good long time, but I used the last of mine tonight :(.

Anyway, here's the recipe--it's pretty simple:

2 tbsp oil

1 lb seitan, sliced

1 large onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

4 tbsp pomegranate molasses

2/3 C vegetable stock

dash of sugar

1/4 cup walnuts

Saute seitan in oil on both sides until it starts to brown. Remove from the pan and keep in a warm place. Add onions, garlic, pepper, and salt and saute until onion softens. Add pomegranatet molasses, stock, salt, pepper, sugar, and walnuts and bring to boil. Add seitan back to pan and coat with sauce. Simmer until sauce thickens then serve.

If there's a Middle Eastern store in your area, you can find pomegranate molasses there. My local Whole Foods also carries it. It's actually thickened pomegranate juice, so you could technically make your own, but it's cheaper and easier to buy a bottle of the stuff. Next time I go grocery shopping, I've got to get me another bottle of that stuff.

Portobella? Portabella? Portobello? Portabello?

2007-03-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

However you spell it, they're D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. After work today, I did a bit of shopping at Whole Foods--note to self: Never shop at Whole Foods on a Sunday again--and when I got home, it was rather late. So I grabbed a box of Seeds of Change Tomato Basil Quinoa Blend from the cabinet, a packet of portabella mushrooms from the fridge and got to making dinner. I brushed the mushrooms with Annie's Natural Shiitake Sesame Dressing and threw them in my grill pan. I had a big problem, as you can see, trying to remove the gills from the mushrooms, and two of the three fell apart before I tried using a fork instead of a knife to scrape out the gills, which worked a bit better, but some of the gills will remain. The mushrooms were juicy and tasty, and it was a quick, easy dinner.

I'm in a bit of a grumpy mood because someone stole my newspaper. Because of the switch to Daylight Saving Time (note there is no "s" at the end of "saving"), the paper delivery was a bit late. Most Sundays, I hear the delivery person drop my paper while I'm getting ready for work. But not today. In fact, I was walking through the apartment lobby when I saw the delivery person. Because the Sunday paper is thick, they just dump it outside my door (during the rest of the week, they slide it under my door, usually well before I even get up). When I got home, there was no paper waiting for me. So I had to buy one. Because I subscribe to the paper, I get some of the Sunday supplements with the Saturday paper, so I ended up having to ditch two sets because I don't bother with the stupid advertising inserts. Which I also hate, even though my building does have a recycling program. But all's well that ends well, and I did get to read my paper.

Stir it up!

2007-03-05T20:13:00.000-05:00

I have loved lotus root since I tried it at a local veggie joint a few years ago. So when I saw some at Whole Foods a few weeks ago, I had to get some. Yes, I know, it took a while to get around cooking it, but I was sick last month, and well, February was an otherwise bad month for me.

And I finally had to switch to the new blogger, and I'm going to see how it works for me--it's nice to see the picture instead of the code as I'm typing. I may play around with the theme as well.

Anyway, a couple of notes to myself about cooking lotus root: (1) cut the stuff thinner; (2) put it in the stir-fry pan first, even before the tempeh (or tofu or other protein). I used a mushroom mix I bought at Trader Joe's--oyster, cremini, and shiitake mushrooms--some onions, green onions, celery, and pea pods. I adapted a recipe for stir-fry sauce I got from Recipezaar.com, but next time I will use less arrowroot starch so the sauce isn't too thick. Lotus root is fairly rich in vitamin C and a decent source of iron. It's also very crunchy and crispy and while not extremely flavorful, it is tasty.

If you can find it wrapped at your local Whole Foods, take it home and give it a whirl!

By the power vested in me, it's SOUP!!!

2007-02-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, that's a line we used to shout when I was with the cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show 18 some-odd years ago.

I'm weird about soups. I'm not a huge fan of thick, creamy soups, preferring consomme-type broths with a few bits and pieces. Tonight, I did not feel like leftovers. I wanted soup. Something soothing and warm and savory. I also needed to use some mushrooms sitting in my fridge. So I found an onion soup recipe on Vegweb.com and changed it up a bit.

Here's my recipe:

1 onion, chopped
a handful of cremini (sometimes called Baby Bellas), sliced (I got a mushroom slicer at Bed Bath & Beyond that I adore beyond belief.)
1 tablespoon of flour
1 cup of water mixed with 1 tablespoon of Fantastics Onion Mushroom Soup Mix
8 oz of Pacific Vegetable broth. They have these little four-packs of eight-ounce containers of soup. (I hate the waste, but I'd rather do that than risk wasting stock. And I still do buy the larger containers for making bigger amounts of soup.)
1 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce

I started sauteeing the onion and mushrooms, added the flour and half the water and made a sort of paste. The I added the rest of the ingredients, brought it to a boil, and simmered for about five minutes. It's the easiest soup in the world.

While I was doing that, I fixed some very easy biscuits from How it All Vegan!, tossed a biscuit in a soup bowl and poured the soup over it. This is comfort food, folks, pure and simple. And it took me less than 45 minutes to fix both, start to finish. It is not the most nutritious dinner in the world (add a salad if you want something nutritious), but it is filling and satisfying, and that's what makes a good dinner on a miserably cold night when you're feeling out of sorts.

I will absolutely make this soup again, and if so, will have another recipe I have perfected. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture, but I wasn't sure if I was going to post this.

sniffle cough, cough

2007-02-17T21:55:00.000-05:00

Yes, 'tis the season for respiratory distress and the winter doldrums. We got a succession of snow dustings earlier this month, and much of it has hardened into ice, making it someone tricky to get around. But that is not why I did not leave my home for two days last week or cook. I caught a nasty cold. Some sort of virus or what-have-you is always going around, but there was a nasty bug going around my office, and I caught it last week. I don't know if many of my coworkers were out last week because of the snow or because they were sick or a combination of the two. Most of the sniffling and sneezing have gone, to be replaced by coughing. Ick. My boyfriend tries to shove all sorts of nasty zinc drops and medications at me, which I hate. Even before I was vegan, I HATED taking medicine. I did buy some Ricola drops, though, to try to soothe my cough.

I have gotten out. Last night, I met my boyfriend at the local Border's before we went to dinner. I found a cookbook called Enemy of the Steak by Nikki and David Goldbeck. Based on that name alone, I figured I had to have it. Most of the recipes are vegan or could probably be easily veganized(wonder if you can make yogurt cheese with soy yogurt) and appear fairly simple--one recipe for mushroom barley soup calls for dumping the ingredients in a pot and cooking it. So I made an easy Savory Baked Tofu and served it with leftover quinoa and the last of sauteed veggies:

Because it calls for more soy sauce than any other ingredient, it was a tad salty. I think I need to start getting the low-sodium tamari. Still, the crispy tofu made a nice textural counterpoint to the soft veggies and quinoa. I think it would be a really nice taste contrast paired with yams, which I still have left over from the last time I cooked. My appetite gets weird when I'm sick and I either have no desire to eat or want food that is not the healthiest. Like veggie chili fries. I'll eat really healthy and lots of green leafies when the weather gets warmer and they get back in season. Or at least I will try.

Chili on a chilly night

2007-02-05T23:00:00.000-05:00

So sorry. I was halfway through my bowl of chili fries when I realized I'd forgotten to take a picture. But it was freezing, and I thought chili would be nice for such a cold night. It got down into the 20s today, with serious wind gusts. I think NPR said we could get wind chills down near zero degrees--yikes! I ran to the Whole Foods to pick up a few things, and while waiting for the bus, my hands started hurting because of the cold and not because the bags were particularly heavy.

So on such an ugly cold night, what could be better than chili? Besides maybe a stew or hearty soup. I made tempeh chili again, but while the recipe calls for cubing the tempeh, I mash and crumble it as much as possible. It seems more "authentic" that way, although I never did have chili before I went vegan. I heated up some leftover fries and poured the chili over them. It's a very mild chili, and I am still debating how to spice it up just a bit. Maybe increase the chili powder a bit. And replace the cumin with something else.

I was a little freaked when I read about the tornadoes that tore through Central Florida last week. I was concerned because Seminole County, where I have family, was considered a state of emergency. But the storms affected the northern part of the county, while my family lives in the southern part. So I'm relieved that nobody I knew was harmed by the storm.

Speaking of storms, yesterday's Superbowl was the first one played in the rain. How a team that plays in a fershtinkiner dome beat a team who plays in all sorts of bad weather is beyond me; I watched for the commercials anyway, and they were all lame, lame, lame. Screw Superbowl commercials. Maybe next year I won't bother watching.

Quickie Dinner

2007-01-31T20:40:00.000-05:00

I love a dinner you can prepare in minutes. Okay, okay, the veggies were leftovers, but still. I found a really easy seitan recipe in Simply Vegan and adapted it slightly. Basically, I sliced up a blob of seitan and sauteed it in oil with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and salt, then added a cup of water, some flour and nutritional yeast and simmered it to thicken the gravy. It's sort of like a salisbury steak without the mushrooms (hmmm, add 'shrooms and onions next time?). I might use more seasoning next time, though, or change it up a bit. The noodles are from a packet of Thai Kitchen Garlic and Vegetable Rice noodles that cook in one minute! Woo-hoo! It's not the greatest, but for cheap and quick, it'll do. The packet says ready in three minutes, but that's because they're taking into account the time it takes for the water to come to a boil. It makes one large or two small servings. I've had it for a while, so I don't recall just how cheap it was, although it does cost more than most (nonveg) ramen noodle packets.

Why is it so hard to find recipes that make use of seitan? Someone tell me. Every time I want to cook seitan, I'm pawing through cookbooks and websites to find something unique to do with the seitan I make. I guess I'll just have to dig out my one nonvegetarian cookbook and have fun adapting the recipes again.

Tofu, Veggies, and Quinoa

2007-01-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

I had some tofu defrosting in my fridge, and realized I really need to cook it. I tend to do that--after freezing tofu, keeping a chunk in my fridge for when I want to cook it. So I found a recipe on RecipeZaar.com and basically tore it apart. I chopped an onion, some mushrooms, celery, scallions, and tossed in the rest of a bag of snow peas from Trader Joes for veggies. I puttered a bit online and by the time I started cooking, my veggies were nice and dry, making them a lot prettier than when I am impatient and get cooking quickly. I think they also tasted a bit better. I cooked my tofu first in toasted sesame oil (which is my preferred oil when I want a sort of Asian flavor), removed it from the pan and then started cooking my veggies in the same pan. I tossed in some almonds and a couple of capfuls of tamari toward the end and served it over a bed of quinoa.

I cooked my quinoa in my fabulous rice cooker, which shut does an automatic switch from cooking mode to keep-warm mode when it senses the food is done. There were a few places where it was scorched, but it was still wonderful. For some reason, today, I was serious about rinsing it (which you must do to get rid of the saponins and avoid a bitter taste), stirring it with my hand in the mesh strainer. As lazy as I am, if I just take a few seconds extra effort--okay, in some cases, half an hour--it's all well worth it in the end.

It's gotten bitterly cold here in DC, and I am debating making another chili recipe or find a good stew. Last night, I heard the wind just shrieking outside my window. The local weather on NPR said the wind chill was supposed to be 6 degrees! Yikes! While a part of me is glad winter is here--this is normal January weather--another part misses the 60-degree days and will be happy when things warm up in the spring. And it doesn't matter if the groundhog sees his shadow Friday; either way, we still have six more weeks of winter!

Sesame Tofu and Tofu Tips

2007-01-15T21:20:00.000-05:00

It's said that vegetarians typically have a repertoire of five or so recipes that they make over and over. I'm trying hard not to be that person, so every once in a while I will try something new, shake up the recipe to make it mine, and see if it works. I have a book called The Complete Vegetarian Handbook which has info on various veggie foods and a few recipes. I made a sesame tofu with vegetables, greatly increasing the amount of veggies--two of my favorite veggies are mushrooms and snow peas. It was a little awkward trying to pan-fry tofu slices coated in sesame seeds, and without the seeds, it didn't have much flavor, so I will have to do something about that (find a sesame-flavored sauce?). The veggies had a simple sauce of tamari sauce and toasted sesame oil with a bit of ginger. I think I'll add some garlic next time.

Over the weekend, a local TV station sponsored its annual Health and Fitness Expo. VSDC is there every year, amongst drug companies, the dairy industry, a local hospital, companies that sell health stuff, blah, blah. This year, we were near the "pavilion," so to speak, that the children's hospital had set up, a stone's throw from the FDA booth. My boyfriend and I spent a couple of hours tabling there, handing out information and answering questions. One question I got was about preparing tofu to avoid all the nasty silly stereotypes. When she said she didn't like tofu, I invoked Sarah Kramer's quote -- saying you don't like tofu is like saying you don't like cake flour -- and quickly wrote down steps to take to avoid mushy tofu syndrome. There were constantly people coming to our table, lured by other volunteers standing in the aisle handing out information. And if a kid came close enough and was the right age, I handed him or her a coloring book from Vegetarian Resource Group.

To me, this is a friendly way of getting out our message and one of the most effective. A lot of people are curious about eating less meat, and most of them wanted recipes -- and we had numerous magazines and brochures to give out with tons of recipes. While I would be happy if everyone went vegetarian -- or better yet, vegan -- anyone who strives to reduce consumption of animal products is taking a step in the right direction.

So here is how to have tofu without the dreaded stereotypical mushiness:

1) Make sure you have the right type of tofu. The stuff in the aseptic boxes on the shelf is for creamy sauces and soups, desserts, and smoothies. Unless you're making one of those, put it back on the shelf and head for the refrigerated section commonly called the dairy case. I get the Whole Foods Firm tofu because it's coagulated with calcium salts, so it has more calcium than the Extra Firm, but do feel free to experiment with what brands work best for you.

2) When you get your packages of tofu home, cut open the package and drain out as much water as possible. Wrap then in plastic freezer bags and toss in the freezer. You want to freeze them for at least 24 hours, but you can store tofu in the freezer for a few weeks. I usually have three or four packages in the freezer.

3) Defrost in the fridge. It takes a couple of days, unfortunately, but you can also leave it in the fridge for five or six days before using it. You probably could also do the hot-water method, but you're going to want to press out all that water later.

4) Press. Line a plate (or a flat-bottomed colander) with paper towels, plop your block of tofu on top (some people slice the tofu first) and put more paper towels on top. Put something heavy, like one of those aseptic quarts of soy milk or vegetable broth, on top of the paper towels to press the tofu. Leave it for about 1/2 hour.

5) This is time to do your prep work--cutting veggies, mixing the sauce ingredients, etc. You may want to change the paper towels during the pressing process.

6) After finishing the pressing process, it's cooking time! And then dinner time! And those should not need any further explanation.

Hats off to the incredible, edible tofu!

It's good to be back

2007-01-10T21:30:00.000-05:00

I have a good reason for not posting in a while. Something went wrong with my Blogger account, but the good folks there fixed up my problem (somehow, there was a typo in my e-mail address), and I can post again. Yay!

I've done some cooking, not a whole lot, in the past month, including a Christmas Eve chili. I was on my way home from work when I suddenly got a chili craving. I wasn't 100-percent sure Ben's Chili Bowl would be open (they have really good vegan chili fries), although they probably were, considering they're one of the few places open late at night (after a concert at the 9:30 Club, my boyfriend and I usually grab a bite there). So I went home, found a recipe for tempeh chili, cooked it up, heated up some fries, and chowed down.

Chili is one of several foods that I never ate before I went vegan. Now, I love the stuff and think nothing is better on a chilly night. Which is why I made a chili "casserole" with cornbread topping from La Dolce Vegan earlier this week that was fabulous (but I need to find a better way to drop the cornbread mix on the chili part). Yes, it has gotten cold. Saturday, the temperature got up to 70-plus degrees, and now it's in the 30s. Part of me is relieved--normal January weather--but another part of my kinda liked the warmer weather.

So tonight, I made a soup called On Golden Pond Mushroom Soup from La Dolce Vegan. Hey, I had a packet of mushrooms I needed to use, and this seemed the least time-consuming to make. I also like that it provides two Danielle-sized servings (or one hungry person serving). Normally, I don't care for creamy soups, but with some biscuits I baked up while prepping the soup, it was more like biscuits-and-mushroom gravy. I think next time I'll use a little more veggie stock and less soy milk so it's not as thick. I also don't care for the dill, so I also want to find a different herb. Maybe sage.

I'm looking at casserole recipes to make for next week--I downloaded and printed a tempeh nut casserole that looks good. And remember the Magical Loaf Studio from Vegan Lunch Box. There are thousands of possible combinations, and I won't even try to go through even half of them!

Lemony Liminy Goodness

2006-12-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

I am, I'm sure you know, a big seitan worshipper. Every few weeks, I make a batch, which is two one-pound portions, freeze one part, and keep the rest in the fridge for the next day or so. I never use my seitan in a recipe the day I make it; I've discovered it's best when I wait a day or so. I'm working on a repertoire of good seitan recipes, even if it's just a marinade/basting sauce, like the one I found from www.recipezaar.com for a Lemon Lime Marinade. It has brown sugar, mustard, lemon juice, lime juice, apple cider vinegar (bet it would be awesome with balsamic), and olive oil. I marinated for about an hour-and-a-half and broiled it on my broil pan. I adore my broiler pan. I really do.

As you can see, I have a side of balsamic roasted veggies--finishing off the leftovers--and some frozen haricot verts. This is the sort of dish where you can almost trick a meat-eater by looks--although once you start eating it, you can tell it's not flesh, but what is known as "meat of wheat."

If you have a favorite marinade, please pass it along, and I'll try it on my next seitan (or tempeh or tofu) dish. I also wonder if poking holes in the seitan slices will help distribute the marinade better...

Bringing back an old favorite and maybe a new one.

2006-11-27T22:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm cooking again. My boyfriend's mom came into town for Thanksgiving, and when she does, we tend to eat out. I'm usually along for the ride, so I don't get much cooking done.

My Thanksgiving was lovely. I went to VSDC's Life-Affirming Thanksgiving Celebration and had a really nice time. The food, for the most part, was really delicious -- the tofu with "spicy peanut sauce" was anything but and the pumpkin pie was a disappointment, but the stuffing and gravy were wonderful and there were lots of yummy veggies and butternut squash -- and it was a huge improvement over last year. I handed out the door prizes, as I did last year, and my boyfriend's mom won one, as did I. Someone else drew the surveys, so I wasn't fixing anything.

Saturday we went to see Cirque du Soleil's "Corteo." I have never seen Cirque, and I was mostly enthralled with the show. If you're going to a circus, make sure it's like Cirque, where every participant is there because they want to be and gets paid for their work. This means avoiding the animal circuses.

Anyway, onto my meal. I made the Tomato-Walnut Crusted Seitan from La Dolce Vegan I so love, adapted a dish of Balsamic Roasted Sweet Potatoes (from Garden of Vegan to include carrots and mushrooms (the recipe only calls for sweet potatoes, squash of your choice, balsamic vinegar, oil, and a few seasonings). And I heated up some haricot verts (a fancy way of saying green beans). Yes, I have discovered I love butternut squash--yay! I bought pre-cut squash for this time, next time, I buy the whole squash and figure out how to prepare it. I don't care for yellow squash, and I'm weird about zucchini (it has to be cooked properly for me to like it), but I want to learn to appreciate other types of squash.

The brighter and deeper the color of your fruits and vegetables, the better they are for you. The butternut was sort of pale, but it became a gorgeous yellowy-orange color after I cooked it. And I love the brilliant orange of yams, as well as the taste.

Stuff it!

2006-11-15T21:15:00.000-05:00

Carol J. Adams says she loves foods stuffed into others because it conveys a sense of richness, of luxury. I have to agree. There is something nice about the combination. But as of yet, I had never attempted to make anything stuffed. Until today. I had some mushrooms that I needed to use and a block of tofu, so I decided to use a recipe from Robin Robertson's Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. Don't look at me that way. I had a salad for lunch, okay?!

Anyway, this is tofu stuffed wtih mushrooms with hoisin sauce. I had a bottle of hoisin sauce that I'd gotten at Whole Foods and a few leftover scallions. The recipe also calls for garlic and ginger. Lazy woman that I am, I buy jars of minced ginger and if a recipe calls for, say, an inch of ginger, minced, I have to guesstimate. Luckily, this recipe called for a tablespoon.

It was quite tasty, even if the one of the other three portions (leftovers!!!) kind of collapsed. I wonder if I should either use less mushrooms or increase the tofu to really stuff it well. I would absolutely make this again.

Now, Thanksgiving is coming up. I have plans--the local vegetarian society has a Thanksgiving celebration at a hotel. There's a vegan buffet, entertainment, door prizes (which I am in my second year of coordinating), and an all-around relaxing time. I don't have to go nuts in the kitchen or worry about what to eat. Actually, since I went vegan, I've had an easy time. My boyfriend's mom always flies down for the holiday, and she's happy to have a vegan meal. In 2002, we cooked up a nice meal, and she said, almost awestruck, "My first vegan Thanksgiving." I said, "Hey, my first vegan Thanksgiving." There are plenty of rich foods to eat--I have a few fabulous stuffing recipes (or maybe they're really dressings, as they're not stuffed into anything) and a gravy recipe or two. I just couldn't find the right main dish recipe.

I have much to be thankful for this year, and I want to give the turkeys something to be grateful for as well, so I won't be contributing to their destruction. If you find a good main dish recipe, let me know. It might be a good Lonely Jew at Christmas dinner.

I live in Washington, DC

2006-11-07T23:18:00.000-05:00

I may not get a vote in Congress, and in my four times voting, I have yet to vote for more than city officials, our nonvoting delegate, and the president, but I am and always have been a political animal. And I would think that the city is very political. But I guess my neighborhood isn't. A friend of mine and I went out to try to find a place to watch the returns. Many places in our 'hood had their TVs on, but the sound was off and there was music playing. There were places that did have TV and the sound, but were very quiet, and we wanted a crowd to cheer with. Eventually, we headed to our separate homes.

In a few words: what the hell?! I know it's only a midterm. I know it's a rainy night, but for Gaia's sake, can a political feminist vegan please find a place in her neighborhood to watch the damn election returns and cheer as if she were watching a game at the sports bar.

Thank you.

Fun with leftovers

2006-10-24T20:55:00.000-04:00

Mondays are usually crazy at the office. It's when we get the most tapes in and the most handbacks to either correct or send to the recipient. By late afternoon, things have died down, but it's still a crazy day. And yesterday I somehow didn't get a chance to eat lunch, so by the time I left work, I was ravenous. So I stopped at Java Green and picked up a Tofu Green Salad, an order of soy "chicken" and an order of lotus root. I ate the salad and part of the "chicken" and lotus root yesterday, and kept the rest.

Today, I roasted made Balsamic and Rosemary Sweet Potatoes (okay, they're really yams) from a recipe in The Garden of Vegan. Yams are one of my favorite foods. They do really well when oven baked with seasonings, something cut-up Russet potatoes don't. I heated up the leftover "chicken" and lotus root to go with it. It's not the most colorful dinner, but it sure was tasty.

And today I did have lunch. I went to a local place called High Noon and had a custom salad made for me. While they have menu items, customers can also get pasta or salads with the ingredients of their choice. So I did. It was HUGE, and it was tasty. I have sent an e-mail asking about vegan options there (I'm concerned about the dressings), but as expensive as the place is, I will try to eat there semi-regularly just so I can get nice big salads.

You'll notice I go through phases--I'm sure lots of people do--where I feel like having something healthy a lot and then I just don't feel like eating what's good for me. And, no, they don't coincide with my monthly occurrence. It just happens.

Tempting

2006-10-18T23:10:00.000-04:00

One of the first products I really learned to cook after I went veg was tempeh. Tonight, I found a recipe from www.vegweb.com, a Pomegranate-Balsamic Tempeh. You marinate in soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, grill the tempeh, then make a sauce of pomegranate molasses and balsamic vinegar and drizzle over the tempeh sticks. Much to my consternation, I ran out of balsamic, so I adjusted the recipe a bit with extra tamari sauce and pomegranate molasses. It was delightfully tart and chewy. I also broke in my grill pan that I bought a few months ago with a gift cert I got for my birthday (thanks, Mom).

I cooked the veggies a week or so ago to go with some peanut tofu chunks (that I did not blog about when I made them) and I threw in my favorite accompaniment, a baked potato with Earth Balance margarine. I have a couple of garnet yams that are begging to be made into what I call sweet potato fries because it sounds better than yam fries.

And now a message for spammers of the world. I notice in my Outlook inbox at work a lot of spam, typically offering me Viagra and the like, often with extra characters thrown in so it looks something like "Vlkagra." Some of you send me what looks like stock or investment tips. Or I get stuff that guarantees I will please my wife. I must insist you stop. Number one, I am NOT going to buy drugs -- or anything else, for that matter -- based on an e-mail from a stranger, especially if you can't spell it right or format it right. Number two, women do use the Internet and e-mail and probably don't need Viagra or devices or drugs to help them enlarge a body part they don't have or increase the volume of a fluid their bodies don't produce. I'm not sure any woman cares how much a guy produces; I sure don't. And since I am a heterosexual female, I clearly DON'T have a wife. I don't know whether to be amused or annoyed that there aren't products promising women better bodies, the ability to really please their men or whatever.

Find another job, dear spammers, and keep your garbage out of my inbox. Please. Because every time I see an e-mail from you, it goes straight into the spam folder at the office. I just wish I could send something back to you telling you to get a damn life, but I don't want to take the risk.

I'm baaack

2006-10-17T21:45:00.000-04:00

I haven't felt like doing much cooking, not to mention my boyfriend has taken me out a few times. With my new job, I get home later in the evening, which means I eat later. But there are times when I absolutely have to cook.

Now, you have a bunch of ingredients, and you need a recipe for them. Or you feel like a veggie loaf, but the recipes you have call for ingredients you don't have in your house and you really don't want to go out grocery shopping, thus delaying the dinner bell even more. Well, Jennifer Shmoo, the Vegan Lunchbox genius, created the Magical Loaf Studio. You enter the ingredients you have (or want to use), click the button, and you get direction. Now, I don't know if I can skip a category -- I haven't tried -- but there are countless combinations one can come up with.

My loaf -- not a pretty concotion, but a tasty one -- had ground almonds, a shredded carrot, a chopped onion, some mushrooms, tofu, brown rice (I had some leftover), flaxseed meal, various spices and seasonings, and nutritional yeast. It was pretty good, but the loaves I make tend not to be very firm and sturdy, but this held together fairly well. I drizzled a little leftover barbecue sauce on it for flavor, and it really rocked.

So as it gets colder, check out the Magical Loaf Studio and make your own veggie loaf -- but don't blame her if it doesn't turn out. Like Flat Top Grill (or whatever your favorite Mongolian-grill type place is), you pick the ingredients yourself.

I don't always feel like cooking...

2006-09-20T22:15:00.000-04:00

But I absolutely had to use up some seitan sitting 'round my fridge. I found a recipe on VegWeb for sweet-and-sour seitan. And I did use up some tofu yesterday in a rerun favorite recipe.

Now, why am I posting so late? Well, as I tried to explain to my yowling cat (she gets very vocal if she thinks I've spent too much time away from home), with my new job, the commute is longer. I had to pick up a couple of things (well, more than a couple) at the Whole Foods. Then, I stopped by my boyfriend's place to pick up his mail, as he is still out of town. The elevators at his place are as slow as molasses (but not as bad as they used to be). I had to wait for a bus, which was very crowded and made numerous stops. So it was around 8:00 when I got home.

The food isn't very pretty, but it was tasty. I love sweet-and-sour dishes. I think I should have just used one onion instead of two, but I do love onions. The peppers I used really shrank in the cooking process. The canned pineapple chunks were nice and juicy. It's not often I buy canned fruit, but since the recipe called for it, that's what I did. I also cooked up some brown rice to go with it. Yummy.

But I can't leave you without pictures, so here are some of the view from the boat of Boston Harbor and the fluke of the whale. The other pictures I got, you really can't tell what it is. :(

It was a beautiful, warm day. The only time I needed my jacket was when we were approaching the area where the whales feed.

I hope I can go back to Boston again to take part in another whale watch. This was just amazing.

Naughty, naughty kitty

2006-09-11T20:30:00.000-04:00

Sorry, I haven't cooked for the past few days--just haven't felt like it. Maybe tomorrow while I watch the results of the D.C. primaries--whee.

I always keep a box of Back to Nature Classic Rounds
which I swear are vegan Ritz crackers. My boyfriend likes them for a snack, as do I (it's especially fun to tear Primal Strips and eat with the crackers (it used to be a typical breakfast before I decided to be a good girl and eat soy yogurt and granola). However, someone else really likes them too:

That's her stealing a cracker from the box and starting to eat from my boyfriend's lap. Maybe he doesn't feel he should scold my cat for sticking her face in his food--she is my cat and he's the visitor, as I remind him when he kvetches about her other misdeeds. Maybe he's only half annoyed and thinks it's kind of funny that she's such a feisty gal, I don't know. It is kind of funny to see just what she thinks of next. Even I can't bring myself to scold her too harshly (except when she scratches the sofa, and then I'll just remind her to use her scratchbox).

Does anyone else have furbabies who love to steal the humans' vegan food?

Now, I'm cooking!

2006-09-06T21:50:00.000-04:00

After an incredibly busy weekend, including a benefit at Java Green last night for Compassion Over Killing, sponsored by Satya Magazine, I am finally cooking again. I made Peanutty Tofu Chunks on Tagliatelle with Mushroom Topping. I didn't have the tagliatelle, so I used leftover rice noodles instead. The tofu chunks were deliciously nutty. I might increase the peanut butter mixture next time, it was that good. The mushrooms need something more, but next time, I think I'll stir fry veggies in a peanutty sauce to serve with the luscious baked tofu.

Anyway, the benefit: A whole bunch of people showed up, many of whom I knew and many who were at the conference. There was also a raffle with many prizes. My boyfriend bought a bunch of tickets, and we won a number of interesting books:

"How to Steal an Election" by David W. Moore
"Fighting Words" by Robin Morgan
"Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly" by Joseph Minton Amann and Tom Breuer
"Bush Versus the Environment" by Robert S. Devine
"How Much is Enough The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth" by Alan Durning
"One Makes the Difference" by Julia "Butterfly" Hill

He gave them to me, but if they're as good as they sound, I do hope he'll read them. My friend Steve can tease me all he wants, but I am a genuine vegan foodie. I am not alone in wishing there was a vegan version of Doritos. There is a vegan version of Cheetoes, however, called Tings. The company also makes Veggie Booty, which I think I prefer the texture of. I can also pretend it's good for me because it does have spinach, kale, cabbage, carrots, and broccoli. Then there's Super Veggie Tings that have both Tings and the Veggie Booty mixed. Yowza!
I'm truly a bad girl junk food junkie, I know. But let's face it, what we eat and especially what we don't is at the heart of what makes us vegan, so it stands to reason we are obsessed with food and obsessed with finding cruelty-free options for the stuff we ate before we were vegan. And more options are coming out every week it seems, so there's no reason not to go vegan!

What a weekend!

2006-09-04T20:00:00.000-04:00

Well, I had a great time at the conference. It was held in town, which was nice. We attended several sessions, although I always wonder if what I do is enough. One thing I'm determined to do is work with Compassion Over Killing to get foie gras banned in D.C. Chicago's done it. Philly's doing it. The state of California has done it (although it's taking eight years to phase out production?! Not until 2012?!). I'm sure the schmucko lobbyists will scream to Congress if this passes (a big if), but maybe we can get Humane USA, the Humane Society's Political Action Committee, to keep Congress from stomping on the District -- again.

We met the PETA chicken, their anti-KFC spokesbird:

I met Rory Friedman, coauthor of "Skinny Bitch," a pro-vegan book disguised as a diet book:

and I talked with tons of people (with whom I didn't get pics).

Sunday was the banquet, and it was not nearly as good as last year. We had a grainy thick lentil soup for our first course; thick hunks of poorly marinated, flavorless tempeh with a smattering of veggies for the main course; and a mediocre carrot cake for dessert. I am not the only person who was disappointed. When the servers were taking plates, there was a lot of tempeh left over. The entertainment however, was wonderful. Nellie McKay gave an excellent solo performance. In reponse to learning of how many Republicans had pro-animal votes (including one who won a Senate race versus a pro-cockfighting Democrat), she joked that she didn't know there were so many Republicans for animal rights and said it was as unexpected as angry lesbians for Buchanan. I'm surprised that Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania has such a good record because he's objectionable in every other way. She has one of the sweetest demeanors on stage I've ever seen.

Patrick McDonnell, who draws the comic strip "Mutts" went through a series of his favorite comic strips. My boyfriend brought a whole bunch of stuff to get signed, which he did earlier in the day. And it turns out that every single book is a gift from me. I now have to make sure I know which books he has when I get him more Mutts stuff.

On Monday, the talks were divided into four tracks, but we sort of bounced a bit, concentrating mostly on Animal Issues. In a panel on companion animals, one woman talked about hoarders, people who keep incredibly large amounts of animals, and invariably providing poor care. I pointed out during the comment period that many of the people who do this are mentally ill, and the woman who discussed it said it was true, but they were concerned more for the animals. Now, it's not like I don't care about the animals in such a situation, but I'd like to think there's room in our hearts for the people who engage in this behavior--let's try to get them help--and the poor animals caught in these situations. And yes, let's make sure the people are never allowed to assume guardianship of animals again.

I was frequently kicking myself for not having bothered to bring a notebook. Next year, I intend to.

During a break (there's no way I can sit through more than two or three hour-long sessions in a row, so I skipped some), I chatted a bit with Nellie McKay at the Satya table and got a picture, which will not post. Snarl! We chatted about veganism and feminism, issues dear to our heart. I've been involved in feminism probably since I was a teenager, but it took me until my 30s to become a vegan. But hey, better late than never.

We also met Jake, the spokesdog, so to speak, of www.stoppuppymills.org. Jake is a former "stud" dog for a puppy mill and was entered in an Ugliest Dog Contest to bring people's attention to the horrors behind that cute little puppy (or kitty) in the window of a pet store. Jake is missing one eye, as you can see, and is blind in the other.

I tried to pat him, but when I touched him, he literally hissed, the only time I've ever heard a dog do so. But apparently, only his mom can touch him. It's why I had to sit behind him to get a picture. It wasn't as noisy in the exhibit hall as it was the previous two days, but it was probably enough to make the poor guy nervous.
I suspect I'm preaching to the choir when I remind people NOT to buy animals at pet stores, but to go to a shelter if they want a companion animal.

We finished the conference on a fairly positive note, with Alka Chandna of PETA talking about Compassionate Cooking. There wasn't a lot I didn't know, but after all the heavy stuff, this was a good way to finish out the conference. I hope to see some of you all at the conference next year!

I will absolutely attend the conference next year, and I hope to see some of you there.

Happy Labor Day!

2006-08-31T21:20:00.000-04:00

No, I haven't been cooking this week, eating all my leftovers, and I'm probably not going to be cooking this weekend because I'm going to the Taking Action for Animals Conference, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States. My boyfriend got us tickets as a birthday gift--woot! The coolest thing is Nellie McKay will be performing Sunday night and Patrick McDonnell, who draws the "Mutts" comic strip will also be present. My boyfriend wants to get stuff autographed by McDonnell. Rory Freeman, who co-authored Skinny Bitch, a pro-vegan book disguised as a diet book. The language is occasionally salty, but they get the message across. If any of you all are going, I'll be the short, plump gal with the large black Matt & Nat purse.

I also am very happy because I got a new job. I will be working at a nonprofit in Arlington, Virginia, that engages in social entrepreneurship. I'll be part of the transcription department, typing letters and other documentation. When I first heard about the company two months ago, I knew it was an organization I'd love to work for. My new schedule will be Sunday through Thursday, which does have its advantages. I start on September 11th, and -- whoa! my primaries are the next day! I'll just have to vote after work.

That week, I'm also going to Albany and Boston. My boyfriend's mom lives in Albany, and we're going to drive to Boston for a festival and to go on a whale watch. I believe that it is perfectly acceptable, as it is a way of observing these magnificent creatures in their habitat. I absolutely refuse to go to marine parks where animals are confined in too-small spaces and forced to do idiotic tricks to amuse the patrons. I loathe circuses where animals are captured showing the lives of animals on film, provided the camera operators do not disturb the animals they are filming. It provides far more information than an animal in a cage at a zoo can.

To recap: whale watch, yes; documentary, yes; marine park, no; animal circus, no; zoos, no.

Lunch!

2006-08-27T14:40:00.001-04:00

The local Whole Foods offers several classes and demos a month, one of which is geared towards vegan food. The class is so popular that they have to offer it twice a month. Some people are vegans looking for new recipes, others are omnis interested in eating healthier. I go because I'm always looking for new recipes. Adn this week, I got several. One of my favorites was an Asian tofu salad. This is a pretty simple recipe that can be done partially cooked or not cooked at all, although I'm not keen on the idea of eating uncooked tofu.

Anyway, it's really, really simple. Take one block of firm or extra-firm tofu (I use firm because it has a higher percentage RDA of calcium) and 1/3 cup sliced mushrooms (the recipe called for shiitake, but all I had on hand were some creminis) and saute in sesame oil. For the dressing mix 1 large clove of garlic, chopped; 2 tablespoons of grated ginger; 1/2 teaspoon of chili paste (or to taste); 2 tablespoons of soy sauce; 2 tablespoons of rice vinegar; and half a tablespoon of sesame oil. When the tofu and mushrooms are done cooking, throw in 1 chopped bell pepper, 4 chopped scallions and fresh parsley. You can serve it over greens, with rice crackers or in a pita, but I decided to serve with rice noodles. It was almost as good as in the demo and a very simple and tasty lunch.

I get recipes from all over--VegWeb, RecipeZaar, demos like this, from fellow veg*ans, and one day, I'm going to have to compile them all into an easier format than random pieces of paper that get lost too easily. I also need to get a new timer as the one I've had just stopped working :(.

Secrets for perfect seitan

2006-08-20T13:00:00.000-04:00

When I was an omnivore, I was sort of a meat-and-potatoes gal. Now, I'm a tofu/tempeh/seitan-and-potatoes/grains gal. I'm trying, really trying, to eat more veggies. I swear.

However, I believe I have perfected a technique to making seitan. Oh. You're not still buying it are you? Unless a recipe calls for the "chicken style" wheat meat (which I haven't perfected), make your own. It's cheaper, and you can decide the shape in which you make it. If you want "chops" or "wings," you really can't do that with the $5-an-eight-ounce-package store-bought stuff. Plus, this will eliminate the spongy texture some people get wtih seitan.

First, you want to start off with Vital Wheat Gluten or high-gluten flour. You can make seitan from whole wheat flour, but that takes a lot of flour and a lot of water, and you may as well save yourself some time. I use the Arrowhead Mills brand, but if you find another brand, whatever works for you, use it:

First, mix all the ingredients for your broth in a sauce pan or large pot. I use a five-quart saucepan, which is a little small, but it works for me. You can use vegetable broth, a recipe in a cookbook, or make up your own, but do NOT use just plain water. Let your broth sit in the pot while you mix the ingredients for your gluten. Most recipe books or your package of gluten should have the right proportions for making the dough. Use those.

Once you have the flour and water in the bowl, turn on the burner to heat up your broth. Stir the flour and water until it makes a dough, then dump onto a cutting board. Knead the dough--and you don't have to do the typical kneading, you can punch and prod and squeeze--until the water is coming close to boiling. Now, I typically make a double batch, using the whole box of gluten flour, so I separate the blob into two pieces and sort of shape them.

Once the broth comes to a boil, gently lower the dough blobs into the pot, lower to a simmer, cover, and cook for 50 minutes. You can, if you like, check the seitan every few minutes, but I usually don't. As I have warned you previously, it will expand greatly, so do not freak out. I use a smaller pot to keep the expansion under control and because the broth is deeper when I use a smaller pot rather than my pasta-boiling pot.

After the seitan is done, gently remove it from the pot and place into storage containers. Store the seitan with the cooking liquid. I usually place one container in the freezer and the other in the fridge. I have discovered that seitan is best if you do not use it the same day you make it. The texture will be chewier and not spongy, the bane of any seitan cook. The seitan will last up to a week in your fridge and longer in your freezer.

Now, that you know how to make a great seitan, get cookin'!

Orange you glad you're vegan?

2006-08-16T21:15:00.000-04:00

I found a recipe for a sesame seitan on a Web site called Speed Vegan and made a couple minor changes. When I'm battering seitan for frying, I never mix the liquid and dry ingredients; I dip the seitan pieces in the liquid, then in the flour mixture. Her recipe called for agave nectar, but I used orange juice and tamari instead. I also left out the garlic--shocker, I know, considering I'm practically garlic queen. I also added sesame seeds to the flour mixture instead of just sprinkling them over the finished pieces of seitan. I'm thinking that I should make extra sauce to go with it to pour over the pieces when I'm done, but I'll let you all know (maybe) when I'm done.

I belong to the local Vegan Meetup, and this Saturday, we're meeting at someone's home to share cooking secrets. In discussions with the organizer, I decided to have a class on making rockin' seitan. The only thing that bothers me is I like to wait a few days before cooking my seitan, which just won't be an option here. And the organizer has never made seitan, and the recipe her S.O. uses relies on making raw seitan dough and cooking it. A local vegan soul food place makes them, so I know they're good, but most seitan recipes require simmering them. So everyone will be my taste testers for the pomegranate seitan recipe I'm working on. I haven't decided what I'll do with my recipes when I perfect them, but I'll let you know where you can see them when I do.

Here's a repeat

2006-08-15T21:15:00.000-04:00

I decided to make the pineapple tempeh again, only this time, I had more than enough frozen pineapple for the recipe. I like some of the recipes on VegWeb, but a lot of the recipes do not list the ingredients in the order used. It's weird to see pineapple listed first, but it's not added until the very end of the recipe. I made a very simple garlic quinoa recipe I found on Recipezaar.com. It's quinoa, onion, garlic, and carrot. I may add some seasoning next time--when a recipe calls for salt and pepper, I forget to add it half the time.

I also had a very simple salad with a bagged lettuce mix and the last of the cherry tomatoes. I love the convenience of bagged lettuce mixes. Open bag, pull out however much lettuce you want, dump in a bowl with other salad fixings (for me, it was a handful or so of cherry tomatoes), pour dressing over it, and eat. My favorite dressing, when I'm too lazy to make my own, is Annie's Natural's Shiitake and Sesame Vinaigrette.

A lot, but not all of Annie's Naturals products are vegan, so check the labels or check out the Web site.

A strange-ish think happened to me a couple of weeks ago. My boyfriend and I were eating at a local leftie restaurant/bookstore which has a pretty decent vegan menu, including desserts. Now, finding an omni restaurant that has vegan desserts beyond a fruit plate is awesome enough, but the fact that they have good vegan desserts is really cool. My boyfriend got a vegan brownie with ice cream, and I got a vegan parfait. The parfait was vegan yogurt (vanilla?) with granola. I loved both desserts--when we're out dining, we always try each other's meals--and decided that fruit yogurt with granola would be a good dessert. So last week, I went to a local natural foods store and got some Whole Soy & Company soy yogurts. I wasn't crazy about the raspberry, but the cherry and blueberry flavors blew me away. I stir in a little--well, maybe more than a little--Hemp Plus Granola because hemp (and flax and walnuts) is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. And I need the crunch.

When I went to Whole Foods earlier this week, I was blown away at the selection of mammal milk yogurts--cow, goat and sheep milk--and the mediocre selection of soy yogurts. Like, why can't I have lemon soy yogurt (well, Silk has key lime, so I'll try that). One company that does both cow and soy yogurts made a chocolate soy yogurt, but I figured that would not do for breakfast. I'll have to go back to the tiny natural foods store to see what other flavors of Whole Soy they have. The ingredients list the healthy bacteria that are in yogurt. And the Whole Soy label says they're vegan--woohoo!

One of my favorite dishes

2006-08-13T21:45:00.000-04:00

I decided to make my favorite tofu dish for dinner, as I've got the blahs today. This is the Lemon Tofu with Capers. I finished off my cooked bulgur and had a few mushrooms on the side. There are no words to describe just how delicious this tofu is. It's almost cool enough for me to turn on my oven, and if it stays below 85 (oh, please, oh, please), I may just make some veggie ribs or cookies.

My boyfriend and I went to AR 2006, the animal rights conference sponsored by FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement). We mostly checked out the exhibitors. A company called Roads End makes a product they call Chreese, a vegan cheesy sauce mix. They made these gooey grilled "cheese" sandwiches that were wonderful. Also there was a company called Temptation who makes soy ice cream. I got the vanilla, chocolate and strawberry (huge cones with three scoops were $4--what a deal!) and liked the chocolate best--a rich, definitive chocolatey flavor. I'm hoping that a Washington, DC, area retailer starts carrying them. Guess I'll have to beg and plead the local Whole Foods.

An online vegan retailer, Vegan Essentials, had new marshmallows from a company called Sweet & Sara. They were so delicious, I bought a small packet in chocolate, which were also delicious. They also had some new makeup from Beauty Without Cruelty and another line of cosmetics whose name I don't recall. I am a cosmetic junkie, but I decided not to go too bonkers. I also found a fantastic dark chocolate caramel bar, which I did get, as it's been way too long since I had good caramel. It's one of the few things I miss about being vegan.

After that, we ended up going to Pizzeria Paradiso in Dupont Circle with an acquaintance we ran into at the conference and another couple who'd been there. There are several places in the area that provide Follow Your Heart soy cheese as an option. Ella's Wood-Fired has good food, but their portions are very small. I appreciate that Ella's doesn't charge extra for soy cheese, as Pizzeria Paradiso does. However, PP's servings are much larger--they have two sizes--and they seem to be a little more veg-friendly. I was disappointed in the salad--for five bucks, give me more than some lettuce that had a passing acquaintance with the promised balsamic vinaigrette and olive oil dressing.

I have said in the past that I avoid reality shows like the plague. The closest thing to a reality show I watch is Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days," which airs on FX. I feel that this is more educational than entertainment, so it doesn't fall into the garbage reality that I so loathe. The premise of the show is a person tries on a different life for a month. The last episode featured an atheist woman who went to stay with a family of Christians. And perhaps the last acceptable group against whom it is acceptable to discriminate are atheists and agnostics. It seemed the Christian wife was trying to understand her guest, while the husband could not accept it. Finally, she pointed out that her belief, or lack thereof, felt right to her and that if she tried to be anything else, it would be dishonest, and the husband understood it. I identify as agnostic and get very nervous around the ultrareligious, perhaps because of I fear they are trying to strip away my rights. And of course, there will never be an atheist or agnostic president--much less politician--which has us behind Chile in that regard.

But the most disturbing feature on the show was a piece on a Christian theme park in Orlando. According to the show, they have stagings of the crucifixion every day. People were literally in tears as the actor playing Jesus was put up on the cross. And I have to wonder why they focus so much on his death and not so much on his life. I remembered Barbara Ehrenreich's tart observation in Nickel and Dimed, where she observed that they kill him over and over so they can shut him up and ignore what they said.

I grew up Jewish, so JC was never a part of my life, but from my limited understanding, he'd be a little freaked out, if not downright angry, at his so-called followers. I try to live a fairly good life because it's the right thing to do, and I don't need a higher power telling me that or fear of what will happen after I die forcing me to toe a very narrow line. And inherent in my religion is the notion that what you do is far more important than what you believe, making agnosticism and secular humanism very Jewish.

Tomatoes!

2006-08-09T21:55:00.000-04:00

One of my coworkers does a lot of homey stuff, including grow tomatoes. Last week, she gave me a little baggie of grape tomatoes (well, they're smaller than cherry, but plumper than grape). I threw together a salad with some lettuce mix and a handful of the tomatoes and some Annie's Shiitake & Sesame Vinaigrette, my favorite bottled dressing, and had the last of the leftover topping. The tomatoes were absolutely delicious! I didn't take any pictures because it wouldn't have made a nice picture--sorry. I've had a rough couple of weeks at work, and I haven't felt much like cooking either.

The weather, thank goodness, has cooled down considerably. It's amazing what even 5 degrees and slightly lower humidity can do. I can actually turn on my oven, if I am so inclined, without thinking I'm going to die. I think. The air quality has improved vastly as well.

As a resident of Washington, D.C., I don't have representation in Congress, but I do keep my eye on races around the country. So I was very happy when Ned Lamont beat Joe Lieberman. Senator Lieberman may have voted the Democratic position more often than not, but his hug-almost-smooch with Dubya and his pro-war stance hurt him greatly. Yes, he's admitted that the war has been bungled (ya think?), but there are people who now think the war was a mistake. Sadly, Lieberman has decided to run as an independent, while most incumbents kicked out in the primaries do support the party winner. What a spoilsport. What's more important, Senator: your career or the good of the party?

Ooh, puckery pomegranate

2006-08-04T20:30:00.000-04:00

So I was looking for a way to cook my seitan, and I also wanted to use some pomegranate molasses that's been sitting around my fridge for a while since I got it for a recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance. So I found a recipe for a dish called fessenjen (like many Middle Eastern dishes, it has a million spellings). This one called for waterfowl, but of course, I used seitan and adapted the instructions a bit. The recipe had ingredients in both Imperial and Metric measurements, driving me nuts because how do I measure 75 grams of walnuts? I just threw a couple handfuls in the pan. Foolishly, I did not add sugar, and boy, was it TART. In case nobody told you, or you've never drunk pomegranate juice, it is a tart fruit. And since pomegranate molasses is really concentrated pomegranate juice, the tartness is increased. But pomegranates are chock full of antioxidants, so buy the juice, but not by Pom Wonderful, since they test on animals.

Anyway, I served my tartalicious seitan with some leftover bulgur couscous and veggies that I made earlier this week, but left off the pesto, as it would have seriously clashed with the pommy flavor. It was a truly lovely Friday night dinner. Next time, I'm adding a pinch of sugar to the sauce when I cook it.

Now, if you're wondering where to pick up pomegranate molasses, I got mine at the local Whole Foods. I also found recipes for making your own, which amounts to simmering pomegranate juice to thicken it to a syrup, which is entirely up to you. Middle Eastern stores, I'm told, also sell it. I have to find ethnic grocers here in DC, hope there are labels in English and see if they have decent prices. Pomegranate molasses can be used, I've read, measure for measure in place of blackstrap. Hmmm....

Tofreaky

2006-08-03T20:45:00.000-04:00

Today it got up to 100 degrees. Excuse me while I scream. Luckily while I was cooking my dinner, I heard and felt the sort of wind that indicates a bit of rain is coming, and we did get some rain, although I was hoping for more. Tomorrow and the weekend are supposed to be about 10 degrees cooler than this week was, for which I am extremely grateful.

Tonight I found a recipe on Recipezaar for Orange Lacquered Tofu. It was pretty good, but what it is with tons of Braggs/tamari/soy sauce and only a small amount of the flavoring? Someone explain it to me. You use too much Braggs, and you get a very salty dish. The proportion was 1/4 C of braggs and 2 tablespoons of orange juice. Wha?? I added some ginger and bottled orange peel, which didn't help matters. I think next time, I'll use far more juice and far less Braggs and see how it turns out. My tofu was, however, nice and crispy -- almost too crispy. I had meant to cook it yesterday, but got a call from a friend while I was pressing it, so I put it in a container and let it sit in the fridge for a day. I'm not going to do that again, as I think it's the cooking method (just let it sit in the pan for 5 minutes on each side) and the sesame oil I used.

I've been avoiding saying anything about Mel Gibson, but the man needs help. He's sicker than Ann Coulter, and that's saying a lot. I can believe he was drunk when he spewed his sickness all over the LAPD, but that doesn't excuse anything. And all too frequently left out of most reports is that he called a female cop "sugar tits," which ought to add misogyny to the mix. His dad is even crazier--a Holocaust denier. And Gibson was likely stone cold sober when he said that his father never lied to him after someone asked him about it. And presumably he was also stone cold sober when he said his wife was going to hell because she belonged to a different sect than he. The guy needs two months of detox in Alaska in the winter and a Thorazine pump.

And here's a question. A lot of religious folk are upset about violence in modern movies. And I won't disagree that movies today are more violent than movies when I was a kid. But if violence bothers them, why were they all fired up to go see The Passion of the Christ, which I understand (I never saw it) was brutally violent? Is it okay because it's a biblical interpretation? Does one get carte blanche to do anything as long as it's under the guise of telling a biblical story? As an agnostic, I have to admit that I intensely dislike the hypocrisy I see in most religious practice, so I have no answers there.

Pesto!

2006-07-31T21:55:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you know that just about all of North America is sweltering in a heat wave. It's especially bad in California where people have died in 110-plus temperatures. And I have the desire to smack the snot out of anyone who dares to suggest that global warming is a hoax. And I hope that the heat will break soon and/or we get a nice, hard rainstorm.

Anyway, I did a little grocery shopping tonight to pick up a few things and made this:

It's Bulghur (or bulgur) Couscous with Veggies, a recipe from The Post Punk Kitchen, and a sun-dried tomato pesto from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance, the book inspired by the PPK. I had some leftover sundried tomatoes from my raw dish last week, and used those. The recipe suggests simmering and soaking, but lazy vegan that I am, I say buy the oil-packed ones instead and save some time. You can also reduce the oil in your recipe a tad. The pesto was creamy and just a bit garlicky. I probably did not have enough sun-dried tomatoes, but it did have a nice pale orangey color, as you can see. And it was quite, quite tasty. I'm hoping the tomatoes added enough vitamin C to help me absorb the iron in the spinach.

I didn't want to be boring and have just that, so I cut up a cake of tempeh and adapted Dreena Burton's Tofu Tidbits from The Everyday Vegan to make Tempeh Tidbits. Unless a dish calls for silken tofu or a creamy texture, you can adapt most tofu recipes for tempeh. Lightlife's Flax Tempeh is already fairly soft, so there's no need to steam it beforehand. Believe me, I appreciate that timesaver too. I liked the tofu tidbits when I made them, but I loved the tempeh tidbits and will probably make it this way from now on (hope you don't mind, Dreena). I didn't marinate, as the recipe suggests, but I will try next time.

And I'm so happy that I used most of my leftover spinach, the rest of my zucchini, and the rest of the tub of mushrooms--yay!

Whooo!

2006-07-26T20:55:00.000-04:00

I had some tofu defrosting in my fridge, so I decided I should cook it today. I made the sesame tofu from The Garden of Vegan, which calls for Asian chili sauce. I decided to buy some a few weeks ago since so many appealing recipes call for the stuff. So I got the sweet chili sauce. I doubled the recipe (it calls for half a package of tofu) and added additional seasonings as it was cooking. I also made, as you can see, my delightful millet, the recipe for which you can find on www.vegweb.com or on the Vegan Club blog. Also included are some lemon rosemary carrots, another recipe I created.

Maybe I used too much sauce, although I didn't quite double the chili sauce as I did the Braggs and nutrititonal yeast, but it was a bit spicy. I'll make it again, for sure because it's not so spicy that I feel I'm going to die like the Mexican tempeh I made with one teaspoon of chili powder. I always love the millet, because of the mix of seasonings and dried fruit.

On other topics, Bush, in his infinite lack of wisdom, vetoed federal funding for stem cell research. I'm actually surprised it got that far, what with our fetal-rights Congress clearly not caring about anyone who has actually been born, save for a woman in a persistant vegetative state. But some of them apparently realize that these embryos are going to be trashed. Bush, of course, managed to find a handful of families who had "adopted" embryos and had them implanted. Far more embryos die during the process of implantation, since doctors implant several embryos with the hope that one will "take," and far more embryos are destroyed when the couple who created them decide not to go through with in vitro anymore. Since these embryos are never going to be implanted in a uterus and never become human beings, why not see if they can possibly be used to save lives.

I also wonder why those who oppose stem cell research on the grounds that it "destroys human life" don't object to animal testing of medications and medical procedures. After all, animals are bred, raised, tortured and killed in the name of science. And these animals, unlike embryos, actually suffer. They feel pain. Thalidomide was proven safe in animal tests, but caused horrendous birth defects when given to humans. I wonder if other drugs that have been taken off the market were also proven safe in animal testing.

Now, we don't know how safe using embryos would be, but it's certainly worth a shot, is it not? Aren't the lives of people suffering from Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other debilitating diseases worth more than a cluster of cells about to be destroyed anyway?

RAW!!!

2006-07-25T21:30:00.000-04:00

My birthday was Friday, and one of the fabulous gifts my boyfriend got me was Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People by Jennifer Cornbleet. None of the recipes require a dehydrator, but some of them can be labor-intensive, as I found out. I made a raw "lasagna" with zucchini noodles and an nut cheese I found on www.alisacohen.com, as Cornbleet does recommend dairy items. The cookbook is not strictly raw, I'm sure--the recipes call for olive oil and other non-raw ingredients, but what I'm after is not purity, but being able to fix a meal without turning on a stove or oven

The lasagna was quite tasty, but it's just not very pretty, so no pictures. I also think I had too much sauce for the zucchini noodles, so maybe I'll cut the rest of the zucchini I got and toss it in the mix. I also made a dessert, a flourless chocolate "cake," and topped it with frozen cherries (I'll have to make a cashew creme sauce for next time). And this turned out much better appearance-wise:

Because the cake has no added sugar, it is a tad bitter, but it's still chocolatey goodness, I think, and I'll definitely make this again.

Proponents of raw food believe that cooking foods above a certain temperature (which varies) tends to kill all the enzymes and healthful properties. They refer to living foods, which means, of course, not cooked. While it's best to move away from processed foods, some foods are more easily digested when cooked, such as carrots. Tomatoes and mushrooms have more nutritive value when they are cooked. Grains, which are difficult to prepare raw (I have heard of sprouting, but in my tiny kitchen, I am not about to try it), have many healthful properties. And it's hard enough being vegan in this cruel world without further reducing what I can eat.

Still, eating more wholesome foods and a raw dish a few times a month is reasonable (at least during the summer), and I will try to create more foods, probably on the weekends, that don't make use of my oven. I also have tons of spinach, since I bought way too much thinking I'd need it for my lasagne, so if you have any ideas, let me know.

Mmm, yummy

2006-07-17T21:35:00.000-04:00

As I said, I did quite a bit of cooking last night. Crazy me, I even turned on my oven to make sweet potato fries. I adapted a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance and used ginger and paprika, instead of coriander and cumin, for a tasty difference. I also made the Moroccan Chickpea Patties from Vive Le Vegan! but they did not hold together in the pan. It didn't look like I would be able to get a good picture, so I didn't take one. Hey, I'm just a gal who likes to cook, not a caterer or food stylist. But it was certainly good. I used a dab of the gravy I made for yesterday's "chicken-fried seitan," but amazingly, it works, it works, so I will not only be sure to make all these recipes again, but make the gravy to go with it. The gravy is best for "Southern-style" cooking--mashed taters and biscuits and fried seitan or tofu. If the heat index goes below 100-degrees sometime this week, I may just make some "buttermilk" biscuits. You know how nonvegans can make buttermilk by adding a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of cows' milk? Well, it works the exact same way with soy milk.

I hope everyone can stay cool 'cause it's hot pretty much all over the US and probably Canada, too. Drink lots of water, stay indoors, and remember a tepid shower does wonders at cooling you off. In fact, I think I'll go have mine now.

I'm sorry, so sorry

2006-07-16T20:25:00.000-04:00

I has been too hot to cook. This is the sort of weather I dealt with when I grew up in Florida, where the temperature and the humidity are in the neighborhood of 90, and a rainstorm only makes the humidity worse. I also had a few projects at work that practically ate my brain.

My cat turned 15 a couple of weeks ago, and my boyfriend got her all sorts of neat stuff, like a window perch:

And he also got catnip bubbles and a "gun" to blow lots of them, driving her nuts (helped along by the catnip she ate):

And here is the dinner I cooked tonight.

I made a chicken-fried seitan recipe and some gravy from "The Dirty South/Hot Damn and Hell Yeah," a double-sided book I picked up when I was in NYC. If you like Southern-style cooking, you will probably like this. I never got around to trying the recipes until now, though. I also did some cooking for tomorrow night, and I'll feature that food then. The seitan had a peppery taste, probably because I put in a bit much pepper or it didn't get mixed quite right. Some of the recipes are imprecise, which I don't mind, as I'm the sort of person to fiddle around with recipes to make them my own. The corn salad was something I picked up at Whole Foods last week, and was still very tasty.

I finally got cable Internet--hooray, hooray. Now, it takes a lot less time for my photos to upload here and for me to download stuff. I ended up with an external modem, which I don't mind because I can turn it off when I'm done for the evening. My kitty is keeping me company--she likes to lie on the sofa while I putter about online. She's happy as long as I'm here. And she's getting to really like her new window perch, I think. She was a little nervous of it at first, but sprinkle catnip on it, and she learns to love it. Maybe I should try that with her prescription canned food...

Quinoa Rocks

2006-07-06T21:20:00.000-04:00

And I wish I could show you a picture, but my camera's batteries died as I was trying to take pictures of tonight's dinner. I found a recipe on The Vegan Club blog when there was a quinoa recipe contest. The woman who submitted the recipe has a blog of her own, Vegetarian Family. You can link to the recipe here. Now, I didn't have the fresh parsley the recipe called for, so I used a little dried and cut up a couple of scallions for color. I also used flaxseed oil instead of olive oil (since you mix it in after everything is cooked). And I got creative and used half original quinoa and half red quinoa to make the dish even prettier. I'm especially happy because I got to use the rest of a container of grape tomatoes that I had lying around my veggie drawer.

Quinoa, a South American grain, is an absolute superfood, with a full complement of amino acids and (who knew?) Omega-3 fatty acids. You want to rinse quinoa before you cook it to remove the bitter saponin coating, and it's also a good idea to toast it in the cooking pot before adding water to bring out the flavor.

I also tried to adapt a recipe to make rosemary tofu, but the amount of liquid was too small and boiled off as soon as I got it in the pan. Oh, well. I had mushrooms to coat my tofu, and I can figure out another sauce to add some flavor to what I have cooked. But I used up a bag of mushrooms that were lying around the veggie drawer, and I'm happy about that, too.

I have to do some more grocery shopping soon. There are lot of recipes I want to try, so I need to make a list, check it twice (ha!), and get cooking again.

working through my leftovers

2006-07-05T21:30:00.000-04:00

Well, if you've seen weather reports, you know that it has been rainy, then blazing hot here in Washington, DC. As I am living with just my cat, I end up having plenty of leftovers. I bring them for lunch, but still three entrees will last a while. Then my boyfriend's mom came into town, and I had a handful of meals in restaurants.

One of the newest museums in DC is the Museum of the American Indian. Like all museums, it has a cafe, but unlike most museum cafes, this has tons of options marked vegetarian, like black bean tamals (what they call a tamale), a quinoa salad, various veggies, a wild rice salad, and little fruit cups. Yes, they serve meats, but if you're veg*an, you can easily get a pretty tasty meal. Like most museum food, this was rather expensive. Unlike most museum food, it was quite tasty. And it seems I'm becoming quite a quinoa fan. But quinoa is an awesome grain, packed with nutrients and a good source of protein.

Our lunch on Tuesday was not so successful. One of our favorite places for Middle Eastern, Skewers, was closed on the 4th, so we went around the corner and found a place called Pasha Bistro. Now, I have issues with a place calling itself "Bistro" where you order your food at the counter and get your drinks from a cooler. I also have issues when a place advertises a special, but won't give it to you unless you ask. And I had serious issues with the food. The hummus was bitter and didn't have that smooth taste that hummus is supposed to have. The tabbouli was all parsley with a few specks of tomato and what was allegedly bulgur, but I'm not sure. The only things I did like were the falafel and the fries, but I can get better falafel and fries with better service only a few blocks away for less. Even my boyfriend hated it, and that is saying a lot because he's one of the easiest people to please when it comes to food.

Luckily, our dinner, at a Thai place near the Verizon (ne MCI) Center was much better. They seem to get vegetarian -- or at least point out on the menu to let your server know if you have allergies, and there are times when it's tempting to fake allergies, but I decided to play it straight. Next time I go, though, I'm going to have to ask if I can sub brown rice for white.

I've got tofu defrosting in my fridge for tomorrow, and I really have to make more seitan, but I've just felt too lazy lately to do it. But I so need to give myself a kick in the pants. I promise I'll have something good soon!

Another delicious seitan recipe

2006-06-28T21:30:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've made this, but this is a fabulous seitan recipe from La Dolce Vegan. It's Tomato-Walnut Crusted Mock Chicken, but I think you can use any type of seitan, really. You do have to let it marinate for about an hour in a tomato paste mix, but it is worth it. I put a potato in the micro for a few minutes with some leftover asparagus, brewed some Teavana Japanese Cherry Green tea, which I poured over ice, and had a wonderful dinner.

Teavana is a chain of tea shops that has various flavors and varieties of teas and tisanes (infusions). Green tea and rooibos (called red tea, but it's not really a tea) are loaded with antioxidants and have far less caffeine than coffee. In fact, Rooibos has zero caffeine, as do most non-tea infusions. The tea is loose, and while you can get a tea ball, Teavana makes these really cool brew cups where you put the tea/infusion in, pour the water in, let brew, and then place over a cup where it drains out. I also have Lemon Green Tea and Rooibos Lemon Twist, both of which are delicious. You can also mix flavors, but I have yet to try that. So kick the coffee habit and have a nice cuppa tea.

State of emergency?!

2006-06-27T23:25:00.000-04:00

According to the news, a state of emergency has been declared in Washington, DC, because of all the rain we've been getting. It's more for precautionary purposes than for anything else, in case things get worse, I suppose. In fact, it's been downright stormy here, with lightning and thunder a few nights, including an unnerving thunder-and-lightning show Sunday night. We got more rain in a few hours Sunday night than we did in the entire month of May. In fact, a couple of Metro stations have flooded, and somehow, that has totally screwed up traffic and my commute. I take a bus to work every day, and go nowhere near those stations. But getting on a bus lately has been difficult, as there are long waits for buses that end up packed with people. Tonight while trying to get home, I actually walked to the stop before mine after seeing two buses pass literally packed with people. A third passed by, and I finally got on the fourth--which promptly filled up at that stop.

I am okay, though. While some people have had to evacuate or endured flooded homes, I am high and dry (ha). Living at the top of a hill in a high-rise (well, sixth floor of nine) has its advantages. I stayed dry when Isabel came through in 2003. And for all the flaws and problems of my apartment building, I have never experienced a power outage except for a few blown fuses, most of them when my ancient electrical system decided to get cranky if I heat food in the micro while I have the TV on.

Another advantage of all the rain: the temperature is not 90 degrees, although the humidity is disgustingly high.

A beautiful dinner

2006-06-22T21:25:00.000-04:00

Don't ask me why I felt like cooking when it got up to 90-something degrees today and more humid than yesterday, too. Probably because I was out of leftovers. I found a lovely recipe called Pineapple Tempeh on VegWeb, but since I was very low on frozen pineapple, I tossed in some frozen mango. It has onions, scallions, carrots, orange juice, and soy sauce. To go with it, I made some fragrant rice from Garden of Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard. The rice is incredibly easy to make--just brown rice, five spice powder, turmeric (which I call poor girl's saffron), and soy sauce. I rounded it off with some sesame asparagus from Vegan with a Vengeance. Asparagus is one of the few items I've discovered that don't taste as good as leftovers. In fact, I've discovered a lot of vegan foods are better the next day, especially baked goods.

Remember the quinoa-millet pilaf I made with the fennel seed? I brought some for lunch with leftover molasses-marinated seitan, and it was better than when it was fresh. I'll probably use different seasonings next time, but that's also the fun of making pilafs. Most pilafs and rice dishes you can start and then have the grains cook while you prepare your entree. Sadly with my tiny kitchen, getting everything done at once is just NOT happening, but I pick the quickest thing last to toss on my plate after the rest of the food is finished cooking. And if you want to give sauteed veggies a bit of an Asian flavor, try cooking in toasted sesame oil. It's expensive, but it's worth it.

Happy (?) Summer Solstice

2006-06-21T22:50:00.000-04:00

Yes, at 8:26 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the sun hit its highest point at 23-1/2 degrees north latitude. Whee. I once read that if you stand anywhere on that imaginary line on June at noon, you will not see your shadow. Likewise, on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, if you stand on the equator at noon, the sun will not cast a shadow. I'm a little grumpy because it's supposed to be in the 90s for the next few days, and who wants to cook in such heat, especially in an un-air conditioned apartment? On the other hand, it'll be easy to find affordable organic berries. Nothing says summer like totally awesome organic fruit.

I bought tons of veggies at Whole Foods today, and I got a lovely berry mix that always hits the spot. I toss berries on my soy ice cream or eat them alone. I'm especially fond of blueberries, little purply globes of delight. I'm waiting for smaller containers of strawberries, as I can only eat so much at a time, but there were organic strawberries available. And maybe in a week or two, I'll get some peaches.

I got some corn and some grape tomatoes, perfect for making a raw salad. I've made it before, and it's pretty good, but I used too much onion (or not enough corn and tomato). All you need to do is scrape kernels of cobs of corn, cut up some tomatoes, toss in some chopped onions, some fresh basil, and some fresh mint, then let it sit for about an hour. Next week, I'm going to a raw foods demo at Whole Foods and will hopefully get a few easy recipes that don't need more than a knife and a food processor. I also heard of a raw foods "cookbook" that's supposed to be easy recipes for one or two, and I absolutely want that. It's on my Amazon wish list so if anyone wants to get it for my birthday next month...just kidding.

By the way, if you're concerned about pesticides--and you should be--the Environmental Working Group has compiled a list of which fruits and veggies have the most pesticide residue and which ones have the least. Unfortunatly, the link no longer works, but when my newspaper printed the information a couple of years ago, I clipped it and I carry it in my purse. Here's a list of which ones you absolutely should buy organic:

Apples
Bell peppers
Celery
Cherries
Imported grapes
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Potatoes
Red Raspberries
Spinach
Strawberries

These foods have the least residue:

Asparagus
Avocados
Bananas
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Sweet corn
Kiwi
Mangoes
Onions
Papaya
Pineapples
Sweet peas

But buy organic bananas anyway because the workers who pick nonorganic bananas have severe pesticide exposure. If it's not availble fresh (say five or six months from now), frozen is okay. Those luscious fruit bars I made a few weeks ago call for frozen fruit. And even if you do eat conventional produce from the first list, they still have far less pesticide residue than meat or dairy.

I'm such a slacker

2006-06-19T21:30:00.000-04:00

I just haven't felt like cooking, and I've been pretty busy lately, but I finally made some stuff tonight. Sadly, the pictures did not come out. But I made the molasses-marinated seitan (yum!), and the millet-quinoa pilaf from Dreena Burton's Vive Le Vegan. I'm always experimenting with recipes, and this time, I made the mistake of dashing a little dried fennel into the pilaf. It does not work in a grain pilaf. Next time use coriander or nutritional yeast or something savory. I chopped up 1/4 of a purple onion that I had left over from prior recipes, and some green onions. The green onions were an improvisation that's a maybe. I like mine a little crisper than in a pilaf.

Cooking is experimentation. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don't. Being vegan has sort of unleashed my creativity, and there's the serendipitous feeling of trying something that works--like adapting the molasses-marinated meat recipe for seitan--and the disappointment with things that flop--such as trying to bread tofu that isn't quite defrosted that happened last week. Hey, if everything you cook turns out, please tell me your secret.

It's gotten rather hot here lately. It was near 90 degrees over the weekend, and supposed to get near 90 today. But when I left work today, it was storming something fierce. Ever been out in one of those storms where the only thing that an umbrella keeps dry is your head and shoulders? This was one of those storms. I experienced storms like this growing up in Orlando, Florida, but it's advantage DC, as afternoon storms here actually help cool things off. In Orlando, the storms typically came mid-afternoon, and for the rest of the day, it felt like walking in a steamy soup. The humidity here is also a few percentage points lower, it seems, and that makes 90-degree days more bearable--not to mention we have fewer of them. I will take the once-every-few-years snowstorm and the bitter cold of winter if it means not living more than half the year in a giant steam room.

Next Thursday, the 29th, my local Whole Foods is having a class on raw foods, and I'm looking forward to it. If it's one less thing I have to turn on the stove for, that will certainly help over the summer.

My millet recipe has been perfected!

2006-06-08T22:00:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, I created a millet recipe with pine nuts, chopped dried apricots, dried cherries, coriander, and nutritional yeast. I think I got my inspiration from a Joanne Stepaniak recipe and just threw things into the millet until it seemed right. I made my favorite tofu recipe--I'm still looking for quick, easy tofu cutlet-type recipes, so if you have any or know where to find any, point me in that direction, please. I didn't have capers this time, and I added the green onions later than the recipe calls for--I am having fun playing with this recipe--and used balsamic vinegar instead of apple cider. Every time I've made this recipe, I've loved, loved, loved it.

But now, I'm feeling a little blue. I had to take my little kitty in to have her teeth cleaned. The vet recommended I take her in the night before her appointment to be put on fluids because her kidney values are not good. She's almost 15 years old, so I shouldn't be terribly surprised. I've started giving her better canned food than she had been getting before. She really loves the stinky canned stuff, but she always has her crunchies, too, for her teeth.

She's a gorgeous little tabby:

And a playful, too. When I got back from New York, after I had unpacked, I left my suitcase on my bed, and, well, she had to see where I had been and what I was doing while I was gone:

I get to pick her up tomorrow, and no doubt she'll be unhappy and feeling kind of crappy, but I'll give her lots of love. But it feels really strange to be sitting here at my computer, look over to my sofa, and not see my little kitty curled up there on her blanky. And it's going to be really weird when I go to bed and I don't have a kitty climbing up on my chest to cuddle me.

I'm really lucky to have such a lovely, affectionate kitty.

Pictures!

2006-06-07T22:07:00.000-04:00

The first thing I did Sunday was go to see the Liberty Bell. As a lifelong feminist, I felt I had to get a picture of the declaration for a Women's Liberty Bell, even though it's barely visible in the photo. A guard told me that I could take photos everywhere but the security room (which I assumed was where they scanned the bags and had you walk through a metal detector).

The Philly Phlash runs from the waterfront, through downtown, to the Museum of Art. On one of the trips I took, it had a layover at the waterfront, so I enjoyed the cool breeze. A fellow tourist kindly took my picture:

Sorry I didn't get that many pictures, but I was only there over the weekend.

It's been too darn hot to cook, and then I went to Philly

2006-06-04T23:30:00.000-04:00

Over the Memorial Day weekend, the temperature shot up ridiculously. I think it got into the 90s on Sunday and Monday, and it stayed in the upper 80s all week. I just couldn't bear to even think about cooking, so I ended up eating a lot of leftovers.

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I visited Philadelphia for the Wizard World convention. Now, I'm not much of a comic book fan, but Kevin Smith was appearing, and we had to get there early to get tickets for his appearance.

So we left on Friday evening, ate at Great Sage restaurant in Clarksville, Maryland, where there is a little shopping center called Conscious Corner. They have a natural pet foods store, where we picked up some canned food for my kitty, a natural foods grocery store, and a gift shop. It's a wonderful veg-friendly oasis in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, for much of our drive to Philly, it was incredibly stormy, which unnerved me, even though I was not the one driving.

We got to our hotel out by the airport fairly late. It's eight miles or so outside of town, but we did get a good rate. We had to get up early to get to the convention center early--as I said, for Kevin Smith's appearance, one needed one of 1,000 tickets to get in. After we got our tickets for that, my boyfriend wanted to get some books autographed by an artist he admires. We grabbed lunch at a local vegetarian restaurant called Singapore Vegetarian, then went back and wandered around the exhibit hall. There were other panels the boyfriend wanted to see, so I waited in line so we could be sure of getting a good seat for Kevin Smith and the clip from "Clerks II." I have never seen him speak publicly before, and he was absolutely vulgar and hilarious, as was the clip we saw.

After he spoke, we drove over to the Historical Waterfront and South Street area, struggled to find parking--and if you can avoid driving in that area, I suggest it, as the streets are incredibly narrow. Plus, parking is very difficult to find, but we found a lot near Horizons Cafe, where we had reservations that evening. However, we had time to kill before our reservation time, so we walked along South Street, which has an eclectic collection of little shops, some nice, some grungy.

About 15 minutes before our reservation, we headed over and were seated quickly. For appetizers, I had a Portabello Carpaccio and Boyfriend had an Exotic Olive Tasting. The "carpaccio" was not only beautiful, but delicious. I don't care for olives, but Boyfriend loved them. For dinner, I had the Pan-Seared Tofu, which was very yummy and filling, and Boyfriend had the Pecan and Sage Baked Seitan, which was nice. For dessert, I had the Saffron Creme Brulee (and "creme brulee" is French for flan, it seems), and Boyfriend had a deliciously rich Hot Chocolate Tart. Horizons is a cozy little restaurant, and even as late as 10:00, it was still crowded in the upstairs dining room. I absolutely recommend Horizons to anyone visiting Philly.

On Sunday, my boyfriend still had tickets to the convention. My pass was one-day only, so I was on my own. I went to the Liberty Bell Center first to catch a bit of history. Luckily, one can take pictures anywhere in the center except the security room, which I suppose is where they have you have your bags scanned and you walk through a scanner--sort of like going through airport security, except you don't hae to take off your shoes. I got some nice pictures of the exhibit area, but my photo posting thing is acting up again--snarl! And I got a really nice picture of the Bell.

After that, I found something called Philly Phlash, a circulator bus that goes through the downtown area, up to the Museum of Art (which I didn't get to see), and near the waterfront. It's $1 per ride or $4 per day unlimited rides, which if I have a whole day for sightseeing, I may just do. I remembered a place called Govinda's on South Street at Broad Street, but they have a very limited menu during the day. I had veggie nuggets, which were very tasty, but you can't serve sandwiches and nuggets without chips! And they do. Sob! I'd like to try them in the evening the next time I'm in Philly.

I hopped back on the Phlash, and rode it around. It stopped for a few minutes at the waterfront, so I had a picture taken of me and took some pictures of the Delaware River and some buildings in New Jersey. I did a little more shopping until Boyfriend decided it was time to meet for an early dinner at Cherry Street Chinese Vegetarian. It wasn't my favorite--I much preferred Singapore Vegetarian--but it was filling and reasonably priced.

After that, we walked back to our car near the convention center, and drove home. I promise, I will try to cook this week. And I will try to post some pictures from my trip.

Simple dinner

2006-05-24T20:25:00.000-04:00

Tonight I took one of the chunks of seitan I made over the weekend (the other is in the freezer) and made a recipe from The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook of seitan with mushrooms in a brandy reduction sauce. The recipe says to cut the stems off the mushrooms, but I use my handy dandy mushroom slicer and slice them instead. When I got my slicer, I paid a little extra for the slicer that is has a small container, so when I slice the mushrooms, they go into this little cup. The recipe took about 15 minutes to prepare from start to finish, so if you're hungry and have some seitan in the fridge, check the recipe out. I also had leftover pasta and asparagus, so I zapped those in the micro and layered the seitan on top of the pasta. Yum!

I totally forgot to mention--silly me--that I made some fabu desserts over the weekend. First I made Double Chocolate Almond Explosion Cookies from Vive Le Vegan! and while they are very tasty, I'm kicking myself for not having toasted the almonds per the recipe instructions. But I am lazy, and my kitchen is tiny, so whatcha want? Here they are:

I also made Fruity Fruit bars from La Dolce Vegan! with frozen pineapple and raspberries. Basically with this recipe, you use three cups of frozen fruit and mix and match to your little heart's content. I took the picture before I cut it into bars and I will say that they are a little tricky to eat--I need a plate and a fork because they fall apart--but they are totally delicious! I also think with the rolled oats in them, they have almost a breakfast bar sensibility. And bad girl that I am, I did indeed have some for breakfast this morning.

I am so looking forward to this weekend--three-day weekend. On Saturday, I'm hosting a restaurant visit at Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant in Vienna, Virginia. As restuarant visit coordinator for the local vegetarian society, every month I visit a different restaurant to show the veg options in the area and let non-veg places know that there is a demand for cruelty-free dining. I do fairly well at picking vegetarian restaurants, but there's just not enough in the area without getting boring. And one place that isn't vegetarian but veg-friendly is thrilled to death to have us, but unless a place is totally veg, I won't go there every year. Still, I have to give a shout out to Flat Top Grill.

On Sunday, I have to take my little furbaby to the vet for her annual visit and triannual rabies shot. I was surprised to hear that the clinic is open Sundays, but that makes my life easier. It's one of the few times I ever take a cab because getting to the clinic would be a pain on public transit. I have taken my cat in her carrier on the bus before, but it's just easiest to put my life into the hands of one of D.C.'s loony cabdrivers. She'll be mad at me for a few hours, but then decide her need for pats carries more weight than her irritation at getting shots.

If you've never made seitan before

2006-05-20T14:55:00.000-04:00

I make my own seitan. I figure it's cheaper than the premade stuff. Plus, the premade is all in small chunks, and there are many times when I want chops, such as my Molasses-Marinated Seitan. Furthermore, the packaged stuff is pre-marinated, and that just doesn't do, as it could clash with the flavoring of my recipe. Yes, it's time-consuming, but you can cook something else, play on the computer, read a book, or do whatever while the seitan is simmering. Heat the broth while you knead the seitan, and that saves even more time.

On a message board where I frequently post, someone was a bit freaked out about how seitan changes when it's simmered. A before picture:

And after it's done simmering, in the contaners for storage:

The stuff blows up quite a bit, you know.

I typically use an entire box of Arrowhead Vital Wheat Gluten and double the flavoring recipe from La Dolce Vegan!. I usually make the faux beef, as it's my favorite flavor, but I may try to faux turkey broth for simmering seitan next time. One box of vital wheat gluten makes about two one-pound or so hunks of seitan that you can use in almost any recipe. I freeze one hunk for later use and put the other in the refrigerator to use during the week. If I had more containers and more freezer storage space (I have lots of frozen fruit to make desserts and I usually have vegan ice cream), I would make even more seitan, but such is life in a tiny apartment with a tiny kitchen and what probably is a three-quarter-size fridge.

And remember to store your seitan with the cooking broth, but discard the broth before using the seitan in a recipe, as it will dilute the flavor. If you find a recipe that calls for boneless meat recipes, try it with seitan instead.

I'm not a food stylist

2006-05-19T22:30:00.000-04:00

But I had to do something because my Tofu Tidbits (from Dreena Burton's The Everyday Vegan), while tasty, were just not very pretty. I made the asparagus from a recipe on VegWeb (but I used walnuts instead of pecans), and the Sweet Potato Fries from Vegan With a Vengeance. I made the sweet potato fries once before when I had dinner with my boyfriend and that time, I tossed some leeks in for the last 15 minutes of baking (those were GOOD!), and they were just as nice the second time around. I like yams because they have a bit of sweetness, not to mention they're a bit more nutritious than plain old potatoes. I also leave the skins on because they're healthier that way.

I just don't know why it's easier to find a russet potato, even an organic one, that's easy to cut evenly, while yams are almost always lumpy and oddly shaped. If I'm chunking the potatoes for a roasted veggie dish, it's not a problem, but if I want to do yam fries, cutting them is a pain in the tuchus. And whether it's garnet or jewel yams, I see the same odd shape. I usually use the garnets though, because they're darker, which hopefully means better.

And I cannot rest without venting a bit of anger over the idiots in the Senate Judiciary Commitee for passing an amendment to ban same-sex marriage. So it will go to the full Senate, and I have to wonder how many of these guys are divorced and how many of them will vote for the amendment. What really has me frothing is that one senator opposes the amendment, but thinks it deserves a debate in the full Senate. Idiot!

I am grateful that the hate law in Georgia was overturned by a judge, even if it was only on a technicality. Sadly, I'm sure if they can't do it this year, they'll try it in '08.

I would like someone to explain to me how denying gay men and lesbians the same rights as hetrosexual couples "defends" or "affirms" marriage because to me, all it defends is patriarchy and all it affirms is bigotry. Whatever consenting adults do in the privacy of their homes is nobody's business except for the grownups involved. I also have to wonder how many of the proponents of these denial of marriage laws have ever been divorced, especially if they did the trophy-wife swap.

It's time to stand up and say that you oppose laws that strip citizens of their civil rights. Call your senators and let them know that the Constitution should not be used to deny rights. Fight hatred!

Caccia me if you can.

2006-05-16T22:00:00.000-04:00

I did a bit of grocery shopping tonight--had to pick up a few things--and after I got home, I used some tempeh I had in my fridge, some veggies, and some canned tomatoes to make the Tempeh Cacciatore in The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook, which I served with leftover pasta. I maybe should have cut the tempeh pieces smaller, but it was a nice, hearty, tomatoey dish. It's not my favorite dish, but it was tasty.

I had a lovely trip to Orlando, although I didn't get a chance to cook for anyone. We did, however, pick up some cookies at the local Publix, while my sister was buying soda. I bought some fruit juice since I try to avoid products with high fructose corn syrup, and I loathe diet drinks, whether it's sweetened with aspartame or sucralose. My mom picked up tons of Chinese food (with two vegetarian dishes for my boyfriend and me). I think the best part of the day was my grandmother's face when she saw me. She was so happy that I had made it. One of my cousins fibbed and said that I had come in just to see her. I think it was the first time I got through a family event without wanting to scream.

I did spend time with my dad in the evenings. It's been probably close to 20 years since I've been to that synagogue, and because there was a retreat, it was a very sparsely attended service. I did stand up to say the Mourner's Kaddish, as it has become acceptable to stand for one's grandparent. The rabbi, instead of a sermon, gave an informative talk in a series regarding 50 moments in Jewish history, the current one on Martin Luther, a talk I found fascinating.

If every visit home is this pleasant, I may be inclined to visit more often.

Oh, yummy

2006-05-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

Tonight, I made one of my favorite tofu recipes that I got from VegWeb before they changed their format and the recipe disappeared. Luckily, I printed it out. It's tofu, green onions, nutritional yeast, some flour, lemon juice, soy sauce, vinegar, bell peppers, and capers, all fried up in a pan. I had it with a baked potato and some of the leftover green bean-carrot mixture. The tofu is tangy, not sour, and I think my caper-loving boyfriend would like this.

I'm going to Florida over the weekend to see my dad. Since it's Mother's Day Sunday, I'm spending that day with that side of the family. I want to make some goodies for my grandmother. When I saw my grandmother in October, I mentioned a vegan pate I make with mushrooms, onions, and walnuts (I add some garlic for flavor) that I think she would like. I also want to make biscuits on which to smear the pate. I don't make the vegan pate often, only for special events, since one can only eat so much at a time. My family liked the texture, but not so much the flavor when I made it last, which is why I'm adding the garlic.

I'd also love to make some sweet treat, if possible, so maybe I'll make some cookies from my sister's copy of How it All Vegan!, which I got her as a gifta while back.

Cooking is therapeutic

2006-05-03T21:30:00.000-04:00

When I was younger, I used to believe in "shop therapy," but that can cause as many problems as it alleviates. Once I became vegan and started really cooking, I discovered there was comfort in cooking and in eating a meal I had just cooked. I also enjoy baking cookies and cupcakes, and it's not just eating them that provides comfort.

I received some devastating news on Monday evening. My paternal grandmother passed away at the age of 97. For most of my life, she lived in Tampa, but a few years ago, she moved to the Fort Lauderdale area where one of my uncles lives, and it wasn't easy for me to get down to that area when I did fly to Florida, so I didn't see her as much as I used to. But I remember she was always very sharp mentally, even as she grew frail physically (she was in her 90s, I recall, before she needed a walker). But oddly, the thing I remember most about my grandmother was that she loved to cook and bake. My dad was the same way. And I guess in my 30s, I've become the same great baker that my grandmother and father were.

Last night, I made Tomato-Soup Spice Cupcakes (it was originally a cake recipe that I adapted to cupcakes) with a sweet vanilla icing, recipes found in La Dolce Vegan! I also made another batch of the Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vive Le Vegan! Now, don't get freaked out about the name of tomato-soup cupcakes. Yes, it has tomato soup, but it is a delightful version of a spice cake, and the icing is delicious. The only change I would make is to use nuts instead of raisins and maybe use a little more cinnamon and clove.

Tonight, I made the salisbury tempeh with some pasta and dish of teriyaki green beans and carrots, the latter dish from the RecipeZaar Web site. It was pretty good, but I think the sauce was too thick. Still, I would make it again, but maybe with a different sauce, perhaps soy sauce/tamari or Bragg's aminos. I've made the salisbury tempeh before, and it was as good as I remember, although the sauce was thinner than last time. Unfortunately, all the pictures came out blurry, so I don't have a picture of tonight's dinner. Still, it was very delightful. Maybe I can get a picture of it as leftovers.

I love veganizing dishes

2006-04-27T20:20:00.000-04:00

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!

I heart New York

2006-04-22T21:50:00.000-04:00

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.

Okay, so it's lunch

2006-04-15T15:10:00.000-04:00

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.

More delicious food

2006-04-09T20:45:00.000-04:00

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.

I'll have mine with blackstrap molasses...

2006-04-07T21:15:00.000-04:00

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.

Going nuts in the kitchen

2006-04-02T21:40:00.000-04:00

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.

Gaaaahhhhh!!!

2006-03-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

So I made a recipe from VegWeb for a Mexican-style tempeh that called for a package of tempeh, onion, garlic, whatever veggies you want. I had leftover diced bell peppers (my boyfriend and I did a taco night Saturday) and some mushrooms. It also called for a teaspoon of chili powder and any other seasonings. Foolish girl that I am, I followed that direction, and added some Mexican seasoning and cinnamon. I heated up some leftover brown rice and served it up. Sadly, I could not take a bite without needing to flood my esophagus with water. Whoops! It is not easy to rectify a dish you've made too spicy except to maybe find someone who likes really spicy food and give it to him. I think next time, I'll just do a pinch of the chili powder and other seasonings. Whooo! And I'll see if I can't foist the leftovers on the boyfriend.

On a lighter note, spring is in the air. The weather today was just gorgeous, mild blue skies and while it was too warm for my coat, it wasn't quite warm enough to go without, especially because I was wearing a shirt with very short sleeves. Guess I'll break out the hoodie now for the mornings. I actually got out at lunch and ended up taking a short walk, which is something I should do every day, a walk around the block before I eat.

N.B. for the tacos, we used the Yves Mexican-style Ground Round that I sauteed in a pan with part of a chopped onion (the rest we threw on our tacos).

It's pastalicious

2006-03-22T21:01:00.000-05:00

I had a small container of cherry tomatoes sitting around and a recipe for roasted cherry tomato pasta from La Dolce Vegan, so I tried it out. I probably needed more cherry tomatoes for the eight ounces (dry)pasta I made, but I can always make another tomato part and toss it into the pasta. I also "steamed" some spinach. The easiest thing to do is chop up a couple cloves of garlic, saute them until they begin browning a bit, turn off the heat, toss in a few handfuls of baby spinach, stir to mix with the garlic, cover, and let sit for about two minutes. It goes really, really well with the tomatoey pasta. I didn't have the vegan "cheese" the recipe calls for, but I will just have to find some and add to the recipe.

The calendar says spring, but it's been pretty chilly the past few days. After a gorgeous spring-like day a week-and-a-half ago, the weather has been getting colder. Supposedly there was snow in the area yesterday, but for maybe five minutes out in Fairfax County. This pasta, I think, is perfect for spring, but spring weather, not spring-on-the-calendar. I've done some other cooking this week, making my veggie ribs, the lemon-caper tofu that I've made before, and I am perfecting my Delightful Millet recipe. There's something about grains, fruits, and nuts that seems to be a perfect dish.

Adaptation

2006-03-20T21:57:00.000-05:00

After I moved into my current apartment almost seven years ago, someone in my family sent me the American Heart Association cookbook. I never really used it for some reason--until I became vegan, I wasn't too keen on cooking for some reason. And once I did become vegan, I found numerous cookbooks and a Web site that provided me with tons of recipes. But today, I needed to use up some seitan, and the cookbooks didn't have a good recipe that clicked. So I decided to see what I could adapt from the AHA cookbook, which doesn't even have a tofu recipe, and if you say "seitan" to them, they'd probably respond, "Say what?" But the nice thing about cooking seitan (and tofu and tempeh) is that you don't have to worry about salmonella. I found a recipe for what they call coriander-coated chicken, cut my hunk of seitan into thin slices, and with a few tweaks here and there, and I had a nice dish. It's not my favorite thing I've made with seitan--that honor goes to the Tomato Walnut-Crusted Seitan--but any dish calling for boneless pieces of flesh I can likely sub with seitan. I have to wonder if pureeing silken tofu in a blender will make a good sub for cream. The next time I have a dish calling for it, I will give that a whirl (no pun intended)

I had a couple of leftover sides with it, and then cooked some new sides to eat for later in the week. I'm also wondering what to do with some leftover baby spinach in my fridge. I might lightly steam it with garlic. I'm weird about spinach. I don't want frozen, chopped-into-microscopic-bits spinach. I like my spinach lightly sauteed or steamed and still recognizable. I think I'm perfecting my millet recipe, but I want to give it a couple more tries before I share the recipe with anyone. Grains, nuts, and fruit--yummy!

Cooking again

2006-03-16T23:00:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I cooked for the first time in over a week. I didn't cook last week because I had leftovers to use up before going out of town. So tonight, I made a soba noodle dish from The Garden of Vegan and a tofu picatta from the Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. My food wasn't quite hot enough when I got it plated, so I stuck it in the micro for a couple minutes, which improved the taste dramatically. The noodle dish has spinach, an absolute power veggie, and miso, a fermented soy paste which is said to have amazing health benefits. While miso is unfortunately high in sodium, a little goes a long way. Just put it in your dish toward the end of cooking to avoid diminishing its healthful properties. I may try a different noodle next time, such as linguine, but it's still a good side dish. Before I went veg, I used to love chicken piccata--something about lemons and capers--so a tofu version with mushrooms truly appealed to me. I didn't have wine, so I used vegetable broth, which worked just as well.

Well, the vernal equinox (first day of spring) is coming up. Oddly, the weather here in DC was said to be lovely this weekend while I was in Florida--which also had delightful weather--and when I came back to Washington, DC, Monday, the temps were around 80 degrees, and it was sunny and breezy and almost perfect. It got cooler as the week went by, and I hear we may get a dusting of snow this weekend. Snow. Just before the beginning of spring. It seems winter does not want to give up its grip. Luckily, I haven't gotten my change-of-season cold (yet).

Every year in March, is Meatout, once called the Great American Meatout. It was modeled on the Great American Smokeout with the idea that you give up meat for one day (or do Meatout Mondays and avoid animal products every Monday). There are events nationwide, and even internationally, so check the site out and find an event near you. I hope to do tabling Sunday, and a restaurant visit I have coordinated for the local vegetarian society is listed as an event. The times I've done it, it's been bitterly cold.

Ironically, just before the Meatout events begin, dozens of Catholic bishops have given a special dispensation so Catholics can eat "traditional" food on St. Patrick's Day, such as corned beef and cabbage and briskets and all sort of other fatty, meaty foods--ick. Catholics who wish to eat meat are supposed to deny themselves something else instead for that Lenten Friday. I understand that one of the bishops who granted the dispensation is a vegan himself. I have to wonder why would he all but encourage consumption of meat. But then, how often do you see a vegan clergyman? I do know some vegans who practice the lifestyle because of their religion; one young woman I met said that because her religion required it roughly half the time, she may as well eat vegan the rest of the year. Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are prohibited from consuming meat and dairy products altogether during the Lenten period, which for them is 55 days before Easter.

I don't intend to wear green tomorrow either.

I'm baaack

2006-03-13T19:10:00.000-05:00

I didn't do a whole lot of cooking last week because I was spending the weekend out in Tampa, Florida. My first cousin once removed (but we just say cousin because it's easier), Heather, was a bat mitzvah. At the Saturday luncheon, I ran into a cousin on my father's side who had Heather (who is a cousin on my mother's side) babysit, and she thought the world of Heather. She said that whenever Heather came over, she would bring activities for the kids.

I always get nervous when spending time with my family because of the vegan thing, but my family made an effort to have food I could eat. One thing I do miss about Florida is the strawberries; they are much better there than here in DC, and you get them earlier in the year. It's the same with green grapes. Give me berries and grapes and oranges and watermelon, and I will stuff my face. After Friday night services, my mom needed to pick up a few things at the grocery store, so I grabbed some peanut butter and crackers, which ended up being my breakfast this weekend. The Saturday night party was a pasta buffet and salad (and some fish, blech). Pasta (just make sure it has no eggs) with marinara sauce is always good to give a vegan in a pinch. Spinach or romaine lettuce salads with tons of vegetables and a vegan dressing are also good.

As a gift, I made a pair of earrings and a bracelet and helped chaperone a hotel slumber party with my cuz and her friends. Eventually, we split into two rooms, and I stayed with my cousin, her friends, and another cousin of mine, who is a little younger while her mom stayed with the other kids. In some ways, things haven't changed much--the girls all giggle and make prank calls. In some ways, they have, as they made the calls to people they knew and on their cell phones. But so long as they kept it quiet, I really didn't care. Eventually I did have to call an end to the proceedings. I needed my sleep!

On Sunday, my aunt had a brunch at her house with tons of food. I ate lots of fruit and veggies, a bagel and some hummus (another good option when a vegan's in the house). One of my cousins found these veggie chips that I really scarfed down. I'm also glad my family pushed me into taking some with me, as they were a great snack on the plane ride today. They're sort of like the Terra Chips, but unlike Terra, they had these dehydrated green beans that were really delicious. I also love sweet potato chips more than regular potato chips.

There's an interesting fast food place in Tampa, a three-location chain, called Evos, which is trying to improve fast food. Yes, they serve meat, but they serve three smoothies, all vegan, and they have a vegan burger and vegan sides. What's really cool are the "air fries" which are baked, but don't taste it. And they still have potato skins on. I absolutely love it when places serve fries that have the skins on; it seems more real to me. My sister would love a location in Orlando. I'd love a location in DC.

Fruit, veggies, peanut butter, crackers, hummus, bagels, pasta, salad. It does a body good.

We're number 6! We're number 6!

2006-03-06T21:55:00.000-05:00

I just got a link that PETA considers Washington, DC, the sixth-most veg-friendly large city. Well, actually, it's the DC area, as they mention a couple of places in Maryland and one in Virginia. Someone should tell them, though, that The Vegetable Garden is in Rockville, not Bethesda. It's in an area some people call North Bethesda, but bite me, you're Rockville, a town sadly immortalized in an R.E.M. song. And I wonder if it's because "Germantown" wouldn't fit. Just kidding.

I'm very happy they gave props to my favorite lunch spot, Java Green, which is clearly a favorite of a lot of people because they're almost always crowded when I drop by. And thanks for mentioning Compassion Over Killing, a local vegan-advocacy group, also considered by VegNews magazine to be one of the worthiest places for your charity dollar.

Sometimes I need a little good news when life dole a whole bunch of bad...

"Chicken"-fried seitan.

2006-03-01T20:15:00.000-05:00

I have probably said umpteen times that I almost never make a recipe exactly as written. While I haven't created many recipes of my own, I adapt recipes enough to make them my own. Of course, it's easy to throw seasonings in flour, coat tofu or seitan, and fry it up, and that's what I did tonight. It takes less time if it's seitan because you don't have to press it the way you do tofu.

I just threw a bunch of seasonings into flour, dunked seitan slices in soy milk, then the flour mixture and fried it in a fry pan, simple as that. I am going to tinker around with the flavorings a bit to come up with the right flavor, but this is still quite tasty. Oh, yeah, I pretty much never make a recipe the same way twice either. I had my seitan with a nuked potato and some salad. I know, not exciting, but such is life. I'll have to make more seitan this weekend--this is the second part of the batch I made--to store in my freezer.

Little trick I use: if a recipe calls for bell peppers, and they are out of season and outrageously expensive, buy bags of frozen bells. They work almost as nicely in a recipe, and for the most part, the measurements don't really matter. Besides, little strips of red, yellow, and green bells are so much nicer than just plain old green. And unless it's beans, I avoid most canned vegetables like the plague; I buy canned beans because I just don't want to take the time to soak dried beans. But the only canned products I buy are beans, lentils, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes (for stews), water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, the latter two being my faves for a stir fry. If you're concerned about salt, check the sodium content and find the ones with the fewest ingredients and the lowest sodium count.

Another yummy tofu dish

2006-02-27T21:30:00.000-05:00

Tonight I made a tofu recipe I found on VegWeb for Lemon Tofu. I didn't have the capers the recipe calls for, but oh well. The nutritional yeast/lemon combo must have been upped the tangy factor. I can only say the flavor was very interesting and very good. With it, I had the last of my sauteed pea pods and a baked potato. I'm going to make another Portobello Pot Pie either tonight or tomorrow. I made the dough when I got home, and it's chilling in my fridge.

My boyfriend ate the last of my bulgur pilaf (sob), so I'm going to have to make more of that or another bulgur pilaf. He also liked the Lemon Gem cupcakes. I found a lemon-poppyseed cookie recipe that might be good for the rest of the lemon icing. Or I guess I can try to make the lemon cupcakes again. I absolutely have to do more baking, but the local indy grocery was practically out of bulk turbinado sugar. I'm going to have to go back tomorrow to see if they've restocked. I also found a supplier for black cocoa powder. I found a recipe that calls for it, and while it would probably work with ordinary cocoa powder, it can't hurt to have a richer, darker cocoa flavor.

Now, if you really like chocolate, you absolutely must try Clif Nectar Bar Dark Chocolate and Walnut flavor. It's pretty much dates, walnuts, and chocolate. I did not see any added sugar. It's rich and fudgy and it's a good thing I was sitting down when I was eating it; that's how good it was. I absolutely have to get more of their bars because they're a fabulous, tasty snack when I'm working. If you buy nutrition or food bars, make sure they have as many whole ingredients as possible and mininal artificial or junky ingredients. Bars such as Clif and Larabar are pretty much only fruit, nuts, and sometimes spices. Larabar is all raw; Clif Nectar are mostly raw, but some have roasted nuts. They don't replace a meal, but they do work as a snack or when you're in a place that doesn't get "vegan."

I have a confession

2006-02-22T20:15:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love kitchen and home supply stores like Linens N' Things and Bed Bath & Beyond. I avoid most department stores like the plague since so many sell fur in the form of coats, fur-trimmed clothing, and trinkets. I also toss conventional wisdom on its head in that I would love to receive kitchen gadgets as a gift. Well, I'd like a larger kitchen, but I make do with what I've got. There are days I feel really domestic (which is really a weird form of PMS kicking in and that feeling should end in a week or so) and I want to be a vegan Rachael Ray and feed people delicious cruelty-free food. On TV. I don't want to be Martha because I'm just not into the odd crafts for decorating. I mean, I make my own jewelry, but that's about it.

Anyway, in the Sunday paper, there was a coupon for a BB&B that just opened up in the Chinatown neighborhood, which is rapidly becoming a tourist trap of chain restaurants and stores mixed in with crummy little restaurants. After I got off the bus and was walking toward the store, the stench of bad Chinese food hung in the air. I had a bit of fun in the store, got a new 1-quart pot (for cooking sauces and melting chocolate), a bamboo cutting board for rolling out dough and maybe cutting veggies, and a few squirt bottles for when I make condiments. I figure it will also be good for icing cupcakes and cookies. I was all but itching to get another 9-inch cake pan and a springform pan, but that will have to wait. I store my baking pans in the oven when I'm not using it and put it on the bed when I am, but I still have room for more stuff. Hee hee.

Some people say get the stuff at thrift stores, but I would rather buy stuff that has never touched meat or dairy and never will. Granted, some of the stuff I had before has, but that's a sunk cost, and I'm not tossing my big knife because it was once used to cut flesh. I waited until my old cutting board shattered before getting a new one (a small plastic one). I use one or two old pans. But if I need something I don't have, I'd rather get something that will only touch plant products. I'm weird that way.

My mouth's all tingly

2006-02-20T20:55:00.000-05:00

It was an absolutely beautiful day today. It was a tad chilly, but there was no sign that a week ago, everything was softly coated with snow. The air was what is called "bracing" or "crisp" and it was wonderful being outside. I needed to get a few things from the grocery store, and since the local market only sells them in bulk, I ended up walking to the Whole Foods and added some more herbs and spices to my drawer, some yams to add to my dinner for tonight, and a few odds and ends.

The first thing I made were Lemon Gem Cupcakes from Vegan With a Vengeance. They didn't turn out so pretty, but they sure tasted good. I think I need to get new baking soda; that would have helped make the cupcakes fluffier. I have some leftover lemon icing, and I think I'll try to find a shortbread recipe and frost the cookies with the lemon icing.

For dinner, I made Jerk Seitan from VwaV (but the seitan recipe was from La Dolce Vegan!), Balsamic Yams adapted from The Garden of Vegan and a salad adapted from an issue of VegNews. I often buy precut, prewashed lettuce because even though it's expensive, it makes it easy to make a salad. The nice thing about the little plastic containers is I can keep the salad right in them. When I tested the jerk sauce, it wasn't terribly spicy, but as I ate it, I noticed the spiciness. Whoa! It made me glad I heated up the last of my leftover brown rice. I'm going to have to find a nice rice recipe to cut the seitan. I feel weird having rice and yams, but somehow it works.

I am debating mentioning a really ugly story I read in this morning in The Washington Post about how the FDA is trying to stop the meat industry from treating its product with carbon monoxide. It's a little scary because it hides what could be rotten meat from unwitting consumers. It's even scarier than a "Dateline" episode I saw a few years ago about grocery stores redating meat to keep in on the shelf longer.

And people think vegans are weird.

T-t-t-t-t-tofu.

2006-02-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

So I adapted a recipe from La Dolce Vegan! for what Sarah Kramer calls Shook N' Cook Tofu. I really should stop doing grocery shopping on a whim, but there were a few things I needed. Now I really need to get paprika, as it is showing up in a number of recipes.

Anyway, I had some leftover barbecue sauce (from a recipe in The Garden of Vegan, which I use when I make veggie ribs). So I made the coating mix, dipped the tofu squares in the sauce, then shook them in a container with the coating mix and fried them up. In adapting the recipe, I used some cayenne, and I must have used a bit much in some parts, but it was mighty tasty. With it were my standbys of the bulgur pilaf and lemon rosemary carrots from Tuesday. I don't think I've had a potato all week--shocker! I am a huge fan of potatoes.

And somehow I have resisted spouting off on Dick Cheney's hunting accident, but I will say this: only a coward partakes in canned hunts. Okay, maybe I'm making an assumption here, but he was on a ranch, which is owned by a supporter. Apparently they stocked quail on the ranch for good ol' boys to kill. And I have to wonder what kind of sicko stocks quail for "men" to shoot for what they call "sport"? I can't feel too sorry for the guy who got shot; he was killing birds whose only defense was the ability to fly. If you must shoot a living being, use a camera.

I'm cooking again

2006-02-15T21:36:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I made some goodies, some for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day--Cashew Nut Butter Chocolate treats--and some for myself, which in the cookbook was called "Cow Pies." The Nut Butter treats kinda fell apart, so I don't have a picture of those. The "cow pies" are basically melted chocolate chips with dried fruit and chopped nuts. I used dried cherries and chopped almonds.

Yesterday, I went all out for dinner and cooked the Tomato Walnut-Crusted Seitan, the Fruited Bulgur Pilaf, and Lemon Rosemary Carrots. My boyfriend absolutely loved everything, especially the seitan. He stopped at Sticky Fingers, a vegan bakery, and got even more treats. For Valentine's Day, they had these mini-cakes called tartlets that were layered with raspberry and covered in chocolate ganache. He also got peanut butter smackers, which are peanut butter balls drizzled with a bit of chocolate. I haven't eaten mine yet.

Tonight, I made a mushroom casserole from Vegan Cooking for One and the yam-quinoa patties from Conveniently Vegan. I had it with some leftover seitan. The mushroom bake definitely needs a little side, but otherwise was good. I added a little more seasoning to the yam patties and used red quinoa instead of the plain. They were very good, and it will be hard not eating them all before the weekend so I can serve some to my sweetie, who is a big fan of them. I do have an extra yam, but I have other plans for that. Well, I have plenty of leftovers...

I've been remiss, I know.

2006-02-10T23:10:00.000-05:00

An utterly beautiful, warmer-than-normal January became a frigid February. I can't think of anything else that would sap my desire to cook creatively. Well, I can, but I'm not going to moan about my job situation here.

But I did saute some tofu, adapting a recipe in Howard Lyman's new book "No More Bull!" which deals with all the diseases caused by animal confinement and has a whole bunch of recipes. I also made a standby stirfry with tempeh, a few mushrooms, canned water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, celery and some pea pods, and tossed some almonds at the very end of cooking. I used a bottled sauce, but clearly not enough, so I've had to drizzle some Bragg's Aminos over it. The great thing about stir-fries and rice is they make a great lunch the next day.

I also have planned a big dinner for Valentine's Day. I'm going to make the tomato walnut-crusted seitan, steam some baby carrots, throw together a simple salad, and drag out some leftover bulgur pilaf. I also need to make some treats for my boyfriend because he's always asking for treats when he comes over.

So we're supposed to get snow tomorrow, about 3 to 6 inches. We got some snow in December, but it was really a dusting. It was almost three years ago that the DC area got utterly hammered with about a foot-and-a-half of snow. I sent pics to my family, and my sister made a snarky remark about wearing shorts the previous weekend. My dad said it's why he lives in Florida. I pointed out that in DC we only have 2 or 3 months with 90 degree weather, as opposed to 6. And at least in DC, we don't have Jeb Bush. Hee hee.

But I bet that by a week from now, the snow will all be melted. It's kind of sad because everything looks pretty with a dusting of snow, but it's a pain to walk in.

Red Quinoa and Ranting

2006-01-31T22:00:00.000-05:00

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!!!

2006-01-29T20:40:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-23T22:30:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-18T20:23:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-17T21:00:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-01-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-15T22:25:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-12T21:15:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-08T21:25:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-02T21:20:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-01-01T12:50:00.000-05:00

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.

Bulgur!!!

2005-12-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

Last night, I began preparing a marinated tofu recipe I got from VegWeb and cooked it tonight. The author of the recipe recommended serving with rice, but that sounded blah. So I went to my cookbooks and found a recipe in Robin Robertson's The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook for a Bulgur Pilaf. Grains and fruit and veggies--mmm. Well, it does depend on the grain. I wouldn't serve barley with fruit, but with rich, hearty vegetables, especially mushrooms. Although I didn't have all the ingredients--and might I add that recipes that only list salt and pepper as seasonings drive me crazy, and I will absolutely improvise there--I did my usual improvisation, and not only was it pretty, it was yummy! Instead of salt and pepper, I dashed in some powdered ginger and coriander. I also steamed some carrots and drizzled them with a mixture of flax oil and lemon juice and sprinkled on some dried rosemary. I'm trying to create a recipe, and I've almost got it.

Now, it's rare for me to follow a recipe exactly as it was written. Even when I bake, I'm either changing the nuts from, say, pecans to walnuts, or not bothering to measure the chocolate chips all that carefully. If I don't have orange juice, I'll use Naked Food Juice Power-C, an orange juice mix. Last night, I didn't have the apple juice the recipe called for, so I used pomegranate juice. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't; you live, you learn.

The food was quite tasty, but the tofu was not all that photogenic. Plus, I've gotten a new computer, and I have to transfer stuff from my old computer to my new one (can't find the CD-ROM with the software, dammit) before I can post photos. Once I get my everything set up better, I'll try to dazzle with pictures of yummy food.

I am always on the hunt for fabulous tofu and tempeh main dish recipes, so if you have any ideas, send 'em along.

Veggie Ribs!

2005-12-20T02:00:00.000-05:00

I try not to eat too many packaged foods because it's cheaper and healthier to cook from scratch, but one thing I love is Harvest Direct's Veggie Ribs, made of wheat gluten. This is a powdered mix that you mix with water, then try to roll out (wheat gluten, I must say, is rather hard to work with), then mix in a nut butter-margarine mix before baking. Now, I can assure you that they do NOT turn out as pretty as they do on the box, but it still makes a nice dinner, and you can make them in maybe 30 to 45 minutes. You use your favorite barbecue sauce (bottled or homemade), and splash a little on the side, and it's yummy!

Another brand of veggie ribs is Gardenburger Riblets, which has both gluten and soy. However, the sauce is rather sweet and contains high fructose corn syrup, so I no longer eat them. They're also far more expensive, at least $4.75 a package, which contains two slabs that look frighteningly like the McRib sandwich that McDeathburger trots out every once in a blue moon. The Harvest Direct mix is less than $3.00 and makes, for me, three to four servings. I figure the nut butter and margarine add minimal cost. I also prefer the texture of the Harvest Direct.

Like I said, I'm trying to limit my consumption of packaged and processed foods, but there are days where I just don't feel like cooking or I just feel like veggie ribs or the soup bowl. If your local natural foods store doesn't carry them, there are numerous online retailers specializing in vegan products from food items to cosmetics to soaps and shower gels to skin care to hair care and so on and so forth. If I ever figure out how to make my own vegan riblets, though, I will rule the world!

Mmmm, pasta.

2005-12-15T01:30:00.000-05:00

I love pasta. I prefer short shapes, like ziti, penne, farfalle, fusilli to long endless strands of spaghetti or linguini. A few nights ago, I made some tomato sauce to go with the last of my lentil balls (my boyfriend this past weekend used up the last of the jarred sauce I had). I chopped an onion and sliced six mushrooms and diced two cloves of garlic. I sauteed those then dumped in some diced tomatoes and tomato paste, sprinkled in some basil, oregano, and marjoram, and let it simmer. I didn't eat it immediately, but when I did--mmmm. A very good basic, easy recipe I adapted from "La Dolce Vegan!" (it didn't call for the veggies or the seasonings). So tonight, I cooked up some pasta and served it with the sauce and Red Star Nutritional Yeast sprinkled on top.

Nutritional yeast is an inactive yeast that is rich in B-vitamins, especially B-12. People ask vegans all the time about protein, when they should ask us about B-12 (No, don't. Really. Please.). It imparts a cheesy (in a good way) flavor to sauces and is said to be good on popcorn (which I very rarely eat, so I don't know for sure). I have used it in gravies and in the breading for my tofu cutlets, and it has a very subtle flavor, but adds a nice touch to foods.

Anyway, I love the fact that pasta is comforting on a cold wintry night and not too heavy on a hot summer night. It fits firmly in the category of perfect all-year-round meals. The only food that is more comforting is a "baked" potato with Earth Balance margarine. Or slightly salty fries with lots of ketchup.

Comfort food

2005-12-07T00:55:00.000-05:00

I'm convinced that all comfort food is high in carbohydrates, which is just one of many reasons the Fatkins Diet so sucks. Pasta, potatoes, rice, chocolate, baked goods, chips, all are wonderful when you're feeling out of sorts (or premenstrual). I'm not in such a mood right now, despite the fact that the days are getting shorter, and we actually got a bit of snow yesterday. I know that come February, I'll be really glum, in spite of the fact that the days are actually getting longer.

Last night, I cooked some lentil-and-brown rice balls from a recipe sent to me from a fellow blogger. Tonight, I cooked some fusilli pasta (corkscrews) and heated up some Newman's Own marinara sauce to serve with the lentil balls. I think I overcooked the lentil balls a bit, but they were quite tasty and didn't need huge amounts of sauce to taste good,in spite of what the recipe's author says. I sprinkled some nutritional yeast over the top for a little extra flavor. I had a little cabbage slaw on the side, based on a VegWeb recipe, but that definitely needs more dressing, and the next time I make it, I will use my food processor to shred the cabbage rather than just cutting it up.

I don't use whole wheat pasta, even if it is better for you. I've found that it doesn't taste as good as regular pasta (although I've heard that longer pastas, such as linguine or angel hair are better than shorter shapes, like fusilli or penne). However, I always buy brown rice because it has the fiber that white rice lacks and I think it tastes better. I guess some would say it's an acquired taste and texture, and brown rice does take longer to cook, but it's well worth it. Lentils are also nutritional powerhouses, with protein, fiber, iron, and B vitamins, including the ever important folic acid. Vitamin C helps absorption of plant protein, and tomatoes, technically a fruit, contain plenty of vitamin C. So eat your pasta and marinara, everyone!

Supper and the Single Girl

I'm back

Veganizing is so much fun!!

Miss me?

Mmm, tempeh

Oh, what a beautiful day

A plus and a minus

Pasta and Salad

Quick and Easy

Plantains, yay!

'Bobs on the Barbie

Pizzaaaaaa

Smokin'

I feel like screaming

Descanso Gardens

Descanso Gardens

A simple entree

Portobella? Portabella? Portobello? Portabello?

Stir it up!

By the power vested in me, it's SOUP!!!

*sniffle* *cough, cough*

Chili on a chilly night

Quickie Dinner

Tofu, Veggies, and Quinoa

Sesame Tofu and Tofu Tips

It's good to be back

Lemony Liminy Goodness

Bringing back an old favorite and maybe a new one.

Stuff it!

I live in Washington, DC

Fun with leftovers

Tempting

I'm baaack

I don't always feel like cooking...

Naughty, naughty kitty

Now, I'm cooking!

What a weekend!

Happy Labor Day!

Lunch!

Secrets for perfect seitan

Orange you glad you're vegan?

Here's a repeat

One of my favorite dishes

Tomatoes!

Ooh, puckery pomegranate

Tofreaky

Pesto!

Whooo!

RAW!!!

Mmm, yummy

I'm sorry, so sorry

Quinoa Rocks

working through my leftovers

Another delicious seitan recipe

State of emergency?!

A beautiful dinner

Happy (?) Summer Solstice

I'm such a slacker

My millet recipe has been perfected!

Pictures!

It's been too darn hot to cook, and then I went to Philly

Simple dinner

If you've never made seitan before

I'm not a food stylist

Caccia me if you can.

Oh, yummy

Cooking is therapeutic

I love veganizing dishes

I *heart* New York

Okay, so it's lunch

More delicious food

I'll have mine with blackstrap molasses...

Going nuts in the kitchen

Gaaaahhhhh!!!

It's pastalicious

Adaptation

Cooking again

I'm baaack

We're number 6! We're number 6!

"Chicken"-fried seitan.

sniffle cough, cough

I heart New York