I'm back

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!!

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!

Mmm, tempeh

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!

Quick and Easy

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.