Veggie Obsessed

Vest

2012-01-27T16:16:00.000-08:00

Look! Another successful knitting project. This one only took me two days to knit. It has a nice, rustic look to it, but unfortunately I don't have anything at all to wear with it, so it has to languish away in the closet for now.The girl modeling the vest in Classic Knits is wearing a cap-sleeved, flowery blouse on underneath, so that may be the route to go. I'm pretty crappy when it comes to outfit planning and accessorizing.

Knitterly Specs:

Project: Tank Top from Erika Knight's Classic Knits

Yarn: Knit Picks Cadena

Needle: 15

The Cadena yarn is a bulky yarn, whereas the pattern calls for super bulky. Otherwise, I didn't make any changes or alterations.

My latest project is ... another vest! This one is in a DK yarn with a much smaller gauge. I'm using Schulana Sierra yarn, which has been taunting me from my stash ever since I bought it five months ago.

My only concern is that this will be way too bright and colorful a vest for me to wear out in public. Hopefully that's not the case.

Cassandra Cain and B.P.R.D.

2012-01-26T19:13:00.000-08:00

I'm having a hard time tracking down some of Cass Cain's Batgirl titles. Most of them are out of print. My library has a few titles available, but I'm going to have to request them from different branches. I did get my eager little hands on a copy of Batgirl: Death Wish by Kelley Puckett and Chuck Dixon.

I'm not in love with the art in this one, but the story remains very solid. We learn more about Cass' unsavory upbringing and the guilt she carries from her past. Oracle is still a major player (yay!), and there is a charming mini-adventure involving Spoiler, the girl who will eventually take Cass' place as Batgirl. Cass also has a "death match" with Lady Shiva, fulfilling her promise from the last book (one death match, in exchange for Shiva's help in repairing Cass' preternatural sensory/empathic skills). Great stuff.

In addition to the Batgirl/Batfamily world, I'm starting to delve into Hellboy country. I enjoyed the Hellboy movies, and kept hearing great things about Mike Mignola's Hellboy/B.P.R.D books. To date I've read two of the B.P.R.D books, Being Human and Hell on Earth: New World.

Being Human is a stand-alone collection, so this was a good place to start. It didn't hurt that one of the stories featured Liz Sherman, a pyrokinetic agent and my favorite character from the films. After accidentally killing her family, Liz was sent to the B.P.R.D headquarters for monitoring, and the scientists/agents there eventually help her to control her powers. In "The Dead Remembered," Liz goes on her first adventure, one involving a malevolent spirit from the Salem Witch trial. She also begins to come to terms with her past, and her role in B.P.R.D.

In Hell on Earth: New World, Liz is reported as missing, and I slowly realize that the reason why there is a #1 on the spine is not because it's #1 in the B.P.R.D. adventures, but #1 in the Hell on Earth sequence of events. Which apparently means that I've skipped, oh, about 15 trade paperbacks worth of character development, missions, and plot lines. Sigh.

This is not to say that Hell on Earth: New World wasn't a compelling read. There's events of apocalyptic proportions happening all over the world, and Houston has apparently been wiped off the map. The B.P.R.D team is splintered, weary from damage control. But I'm sure it would have been a much better read if I had known which #1 to pick up first. Met all the characters properly, witnessed what caused these massive catastrophes. You know, good stuff like that.

That's my biggest complaint about the comic book world. It's so hard to figure out where to start. Hellboy and B.P.R.D. are pretty self-contained, but even then a girl can get confused if there are two #1's in the B.P.R.D books, but only one (the wrong one!) on the local comic book shelves. It gets even harder to wade through the superhero worlds of DC and Marvel. Say I really do want to read all about Barbara Gordon's adventures as Batgirl and Oracle? Where do I start? Where is the beginning? Oracle is in Birds of Prey, but she's in Cass Cain's Batgirl books too. What about Stephanie Brown's run? What about the regular Batman books? Which Batman books? They appear to be a hundred million, and there are more than one Batman.

Wikipedia has been of some help, but even that can get confusing. Here's the entry on Barbara Gordon. See what I mean?

And Yet More Soup

2012-01-24T17:13:00.000-08:00

I wasn't kidding when I wrote earlier that I am in major SOUP mode. J and I have had soup for the past two nights now. Last night was celery and red potato soup.

I improvised this soup, using my go-to cream of potato soup recipe for a starting point. I halved the amount of potatoes I'd normally use, and added five stalks of celery. I think I overcooked the celery a little, but otherwise it tasted great. Oh, and I've been using rice milk lately in cream soups. I think it has a more "milky" hue than soy milk does, though I honestly can't taste a difference between the two.

J and I didn't cook anything tonight. Instead we went to Salem's Market and Grill and brought home an enormous container of lentil soup. I love Salem's. Everything I've ever tried there has been fresh and delicious, and the lentil soup is no exception. It has a lovely spicy aftertaste. Yum!

In comic book news, I have started my foray into the Batgirl universe by reading Kelley Puckett's Batgirl: A Knight Alone. According to Wikipedia, this is actually the second trade paperback in Cassandra Cain's legacy as Batgirl. I couldn't find the first book, A Silent Running, so just crossed my fingers and hoped that not knowing what the hell was going on wouldn't lessen my reading enjoyment.

It really didn't. Cassandra Cain is not much of a talker, and apparently spent most of her childhood training to be an assassin. I don't know if she was kidnapped from her family at a young age or not, but there's definitely something off about her upbringing (you know, besides the obvious). And she kicks ass so hard. Like Barbara Gordon in the new rebooted Batgirl series, Cass Cain is a teenager, but she isn't the giggling, whining sort. She definitely has a few issues to work through, but what makes her so compelling is a stoicism mixed in with fleeting moments of vulnerability.

Oh, and she's Asian! Yay for Asian superheroes!

And for most of the book, she was staying with Oracle!!! Yes, this is my first introduction to Oracle, aka Barbara Gordon, the Barbara Gordon who existed before the New 52 reboot. She doesn't do much in this arc except express concern for Cass' wellbeing, but I still felt happy every time she appeared in the panels.

One thing I am still trying to figure out. Maybe this is an extremely naive question, but why is it so important that superheroes keep their identities secret? There is a storyline in A Knight Alone when Cass' identity is potentially compromised. It was also a major theme in the Gotham City Sirens book I read. I just don't understand why this is such a big deal. If you know, leave me a comment.

Yummy Fun!

2012-01-22T17:42:00.000-08:00

Hello! Remember when I posted about winning a copy of Amey (from Vegan Eat & Treats)'s cookbooklette? Well, it arrived a few weeks ago.

Isn't the cover adorable? There are cute illustrations on almost every page.

All the recipes sound scrumptious, but I decided to try the Quinoa-Corn Chowder with Limas.

This is such a great stew! I love quinoa, but I've only ever had it/served it as a side dish. Its light texture is a nice alternative from rice. Besides the lima beans and corn, there's red potatoes, plum tomatoes, and sriracha. Yes, sriracha as a main ingredient! It gave the chowder a bright, slightly spicy taste. It wasn't too spicy for J, who thought this was one of the best things I've made recently. So I'm sure this chowder will be popping up on the blog again. :)

For dessert, J and I had the Vanilla Chia Tapioca Pudding from Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet. I bought a copy of CSD at least six months ago. I've been wanting to do the 21 Adventure Cleanse, but frankly, am intimidated. You drink a lot of green juices (which I'm still not that comfortable with), an optional day of fasting, and basically 21 days of whole foods with an emphasis on raw. It's the raw part that gets me. To be honest, I prefer most vegetables cooked than raw. I don't even really like raw cauliflower or broccoli, the stuff most people happily gobble up with dip.

I think I'll try the Cleanse sometime in the near future. In the meantime, I'm trying to cozy up to the idea by trying some of the recipes included in the book. Dessert sounded like a great way to start.

Here's a picture of the chia tapioca. It's not that great of a picture, but it's delicious!! The chia seeds replace the tapioca pearls, and cinnamon, vanilla extract, and agave nectar give it a mildly sweet taste. The recipe called for hemp seed or brazil nut milk, but umm, I just used rice milk. It's so nice to have a healthful, guilt-free dessert.

Snow Days, Gray Sweaters

2012-01-21T15:36:00.000-08:00

Remember that boring gray sweater I mentioned a few posts ago? Well, I finally finished it last night. I decided to add a stripe of variegated color (from yarn I hand-dyed) on each sleeve to break up the monotony. :) Here's all the knitterly information

Project: Go-To Pullover from Get Started Knitting. It looks like this book is out of print, but Amazon has a few used copies.

Needle Size: US 8

Yarn: Cascade 220, colorway 880, and Cascade 220 in cream which I overdyed in variegated colors.

This was supposed to be a turtleneck, but I decided to make it a crewneck instead. Oh, and my gauge was all whacked-out on this one. I had to frog and re-knit a smaller size, because the sweater I was originally knitting would have easily fit two of me. Maybe even three.

J's sick, which meant we stayed in last night. Then today it snowed and the roads were unplowed and icy for most of the day, so I skipped my spinning class and decided to use my leftover sweater yarn to knit a sweater for the dog. Her first handknit sweater!

Project: Little Penny Sweater from Doggie Knits by Corinne Niessner.

Needles: US 5 and 6 circular

Yarn: See my gray sweater info :)

See the matching stripe?

J couldn't resist taking a picture of both of us, wearing our matching sweaters.

And now for a trade comic book review. Gotham City Sirens: Strange Fruit by Peter Calloway and Tony Bedard. I borrowed this from the library because it features Poison Ivy, Catwoman, and Harley Quinn living in one apartment, and fighting crime together. It seemed like a fun title about women superheroes kicking butt. Unfortunately, not so much. The arcs collected in this trade were lackluster, and the characters not very well-developed. Each of these female characters are interesting in their own right, but portrayed here, they seem like watered down versions of themselves. I won't be picking up the other trades.

Aw Yeah Tiny Titans!

2012-01-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

I took half a day from work because of a nail-biting specialist's appointment, which luckily turned out well. I was also in and out of the doctors' office in 45 minutes -- and that's having undergone two procedures! Anyway, it was quite clear that celebration was in order, so I headed to Phantom of the Attic. None of this week's comics appealed to me except this gem:

Tiny Titans! I heard that this children's comic book was fantastic from numerous sources, but wasn't sure if it would be too babyish of a read. Of course, I did read Chi's Sweet Home ... so yeah, that was a dumb concern. This issue is charming and cute and certain panels made me laugh out loud. Sadly, DC has announced that they're cancelling this title after #50, which is just two issues away! Sigh.

I've read the first eight trade paperbacks of Fables, but then lost interest. Honestly, I can't pinpoint a reason why. But I saw the ninth trade at the comic book store a few weeks back, and bought a copy. And it was really good! The Homelanders are preparing for war against the Fables and all of Mundy (i.e. human). Snow and Bigby's wolf-children are getting older and developing interesting personalities of their own. Oh, and the artwork is great, with a noir flair. My only complaint about this volume, and of what I've read before, is that the female characters aren't very memorable. You could argue that either Snow or Rose Red are the strongest female characters, but in this arc they are confined to supporting roles. To his credit, Bill Willingham has announced a spin-off series called Fairest, debuting in March, which will feature the women of Fables. Very exciting!

One more graphic novel to review: Lynda Barry's lovely One Hundred Demons! God, I loved this book. It's funny, heartbreaking, insightful, and true. Each section is a "demon" Barry tackles, based on an ancient Zen practice. These includes Barry's Filipino heritage, her painful descent into teenagehood, and quirky thoughts on hate and what it means to hate another person. The art is beautiful. I highly recommend this book!

Now onto the vegan food. J and I are just to going to have leftovers tonight, but the other day we had Tapas Night!

This basically meant that I got really hyper and cooked a whole bunch of different dishes. From the top left hand corner: Polish Neighborhood Soup (leftover from the previous day), Warm Spinach and Mushroom Salad from Ripe From Around Here, polenta mishmash, and an adapted version of Southern Bowl: Chipotle Black-Eyed Peas (regular mashed potatoes without maple syrup, and no collard greens).

Here's a closer view:

Earlier this week, I made Pasta Puttanesca from Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations by Alicia C. Simpson. Quick and easy are the key words here. This tasty linguine dish required the chopping of garlic, and then the ability to stir. Really. It took less than twenty minutes to make.

It's All About the Soup

2012-01-15T18:27:00.000-08:00

When winter rolls around, I kick into super-hyper soup mode. I make at least one soup per week. Tonight I found myself with a craving for cabbage, plus leftover red potatoes from the corn chowder last week. I looked through the cookbooks I borrowed from the library and decided on Polish Neighborhood (Cabbage Potato) Soup from Jae Steele's Ripe From Around Here.

This soup has Tofurkey Beer Brats in it! I'd never tried the beer brats before, and they're really good. J described them as tasting like "real bratwurst, but without the grainy bits." Here here to no grainy bits!

Apple cider vinegar and caraway seeds give this soup a tangy aftertaste. With a nice loaf of Italian bread, this made a hearty, warming dinner.

Okay ... you know how I wrote that I was committed to reading the new Batgirl series? Well, #5 came out this week. I read it as soon as I got home from the comic book store. And, well, it was kind of lacking. In just about everything. I've read other bloggers' complaints about Barbara's constant narration. It didn't bother me until this issue. At first, I thought the narration was charming because it showcased all of Barbara's insecurities. But now it seems like more of a cop-out. Instead of artwork that really shows us her anxieties about being a superheroine again, or a compelling plot line, we get what is basically a tepid voice-over.

I was thinking about putting together an official pull list (comics my local store will reserve for me on a weekly basis), and Batgirl will not be on it. I'll pick up #6 from the shelves next month, just to give it one final chance.

What will be on my impending pull list? Batwoman, Animal Man, Rachel Rising, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm still interested reading in Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, and Swamp Thing. Oh, and I will pick up a copy of Dial H when it comes out. DC recently announced the cancellation of six titles, and six new ones. Dial H is one of these new titles, with China Mieville at the helm. Here's an interview with Mieville. The premise sounds pretty interesting.

Despite my excitement about Dial H, the cancellations seem a bit premature to me. As Sue from DC Women Kicking Ass points out here, several of these titles feature men of color, which is troubling. It also makes me feel guilty that I wasn't picking up issues of O.M.A.C or Static Shock.

Okay, time to eat half a gigantic piece of chocolate "cheesecake" from Good Foods Co-op. Here is the cheesecake in question.

Corn Chowder and Animal Man!

2012-01-11T18:33:00.000-08:00

I've finally been doing some slightly innovative (i.e. not taco night, spaghetti, salad, or our weekly intake of Indian food) cooking. Corn chowder from the wonderful Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook and Southern Bowl: Chipotle Black-Eyed Peas with Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Collard Greens from Jae Steele's Get it Ripe.

Mmm. Corn chowder with red potatoes. Is there anything better than red potatoes? With a little bit of celery to liven things up. All the recipes in Skinny Bitch are consistently excellent. I can't wait to try more. :)

I subbed kale for collard greens in the Southern Bowl. So good. I'm happy I finally picked up a copy of Get it Ripe. I borrowed this cookbook multiple times from the library, and found it at an amazingly low price at Half Price Books this weekend.

And now, on to..... (drum roll!)

Animal Man #1, 2, 3, and 4 by Jeff Lemire! I mentioned I picked up #1 and 2 at the Monroeville Phantom of the Attic last weekend. I liked those issues so much I swung by the Oakland PoA and got #3 and #4. #5 just came out last week, but sadly was sold out.

This is such a weird, amazing, fascinating book. Buddy Baker is Animal Man, a semi-retired superhero with a wife and two kids. His four-year daughter begins to show signs of having terrific powers of her own, starting off by re-animating all the dead pets in the neighborhood when her father tells her she can't have a dog. There is a creepily endearing scene where she's attempting to feed milk to a skeleton cat.

Anyway. They journey off into a mystical zone called the Red, while Baker's wife and older son are fighting for their lives against a grotesque skin-stealing entity. Oh, and there's a talking cat that comes to Baker and his daughter's aid! Not the cat I mentioned earlier, this one comes from the Red and has all its furry parts.

As the cover of the first issue attests, some of the art in Animal Man is disturbing. This is actually the reason I put off buying an issue for so long. I kept staring at the covers at the comic book store and thinking to myself, Ewww. But it's a great story. Jeff Lemire's writing makes you care intensely about the fate of this family, and the implications of the Red and the Rot for the world at large. I can't wait to read #5.

Thoughts on the New 52, Plus Adventures in Vodka Infusion!

2012-01-08T14:01:00.000-08:00

So. DC's New 52 are on their fifth issues (or will be in the next few weeks). This massive reboot was intended to draw new readers into the DC universe, making the comics accessible. I am one of those new readers -- I never picked up a DC comic book before the relaunch. It was through comic book podcasts that I became interested in the New 52, so I ended up picking quite a few of the #1 issues.

I started out with Justice League Dark, All-Star Western, Batgirl, and Batwoman. Of these original four titles, I dropped two of them after reading the third issue. Justice League Dark has a great premise behind it: apocalyptic events are occurring due to the machinations of the Enchantress, and the traditional superheroes (Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman) are unable to save the world. Enter a hodge podge of occult-based superheroes (and possibly villains?), who must assemble themselves and take charge. In this case, I feel that there just wasn't enough of an introduction to Madame Xanadu, Zatanna, and company, especially for someone with a zero superhero comic book background. There are too many characters, and while the art is nice and the plot interesting, I feel like I'd have to read some kind of back story for each member of JLD to truly understand what's going on and why it's so significant that this particular cast of characters are being put together on one team. Honestly, I don't care enough to do the extra work. I decided not to pick up the fourth issue of this one.

All-Star Western was a title I was initially very excited about. I saw the Jonah Hex movie and thought he was interesting enough to follow in a comic book. I also liked the idea of a western set in early Gotham City. Oh yeah, and there's a Jack-the-Ripperesque serial killer on the loose. What could be better than that premise? Sadly, I didn't like this one. Jonah Hex is actually not that compelling of a character. More disturbingly, there are no memorable female characters anywhere in the first three issues. They are either prostitutes who are then immediately murdered, or timid, nameless shopgirls. I realize that this is the Old West, and women aren't running around emancipated, but surely they could have more a personality or function! At the end of the third issue, a young woman who has been abducted by a group of renegades is summarily killed in the street. This signified the end of All-Star Western for me.

For many DC readers, the first issue of Batgirl was a source of controversy. Barbara Gordon was the second Batgirl, but was shot and paralyzed by Joker in 1988. She was then replaced by a succession of two new Batgirls, while forging ahead to create her new persona, Oracle. Oracle became a beloved superheroine and the founder of Birds of Prey. She was also the only disabled superhero in the DC universe. I found this wonderful essay on Barbara Gordon here. I didn't know any of this when I first read Batgirl #1, of course. I didn't understand how offensive it might be for DC to erase Barbara Gordon's past as Oracle (which it appears they have essentially done), opting instead for a miraculous cure that allowed her to regain use of her legs.

So now I know. And still, it will not deter me from picking up issue 5 when it comes out. Barbara Gordon is charming in this new series, a bit awkward and unsure of herself, still traumatized by her past. Gail Simone writes Batgirl as a three-dimensional person, and I'm interested in her ongoing adventures.

At the same time, I plan on picking up the graphic novels of Barbara Gordon's previous incarnation as both Batgirl and Oracle. I'm also going to read about the other two prominent Batgirls, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown.

I cheated a little when it came to Batwoman. I heard through the podcast/blog grapevine about Batwoman: Elegy, which is the graphic novel about the events preceding the first issue of the 52. There was nothing but wonderful reviews about Elegy, so I read it before picking up #1. And indeed, it was lovely. So is this new Batwoman series. Kate Kane is an assertive, brave woman who stands up for her ideals. She is also a formidable superhero. And wow, the art in this is freaking gorgeous. I'm so excited about issue #5.

I picked up the first two issues of Animal Man at the comic book store yesterday. I haven't had the time to read it yet, but I have a lot of respect for writer Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth is brilliant!), so I expect to add this to my New 52 pull list.

I'm also hearing good things about Birds of Prey (despite the absence of Oracle), Wonder Woman, and Swamp Thing. I might wait until these come out in trades to pick them up, however.

In non-comic book news, I'm catching up on Doctor Who, Season Six, Part Two. I love Doctor Who, and it's even more enjoyable on the new blu-ray player I got for Christmas! I'm thinking about picking up the blu-ray copies of David Tennant's run as Doctor Who, just so I see the episodes in HD. Tennant is my favorite Doctor, hands down.

I've been kind of slacking off in the kitchen, but I did manage to make a nice batch of tofu scramble this morning. J reminded me that we had flour tortillas in the fridge, so we made insanely huge breakfast burritos.

I also made a small jar of Lifesaver candy cane-infused vodka. For some reason, J got a crapload of vodka for Christmas this year. I'm not much of a drinker, but I had a tiny amount of green apple vodka over the holidays, and liked it enough to try my own experiment using Lifesaver flavored candy canes.

Here it is, after I added the vodka to the candy canes.

And here it is, a few hours later. Look how pretty it is!

2012 = Gluttony?

2012-01-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve started out with truffles. I planned on making the Decadent Chocolate Truffles from The Vegan Table for Christmas, but an unexpected trip to the emergency room made that kinda impossible. So my mother and I made a batch of them for New Year's Eve instead.

I rolled them in walnuts pieces, crushed graham crackers, and crystalline candy sprinkles. The candy sprinkled truffles were seriously sweet (really, what did I expect?), but the other two varieties were the perfect balance of salty and sweet. Here's a close-up picture:

I ended up munching on the leftovers for almost a week. Delicious, but definitely indulgent. I probably shouldn't eat any more desserts for a month and a half!

Speaking of indulgence, my Christmas comic book/graphic novel haul was pretty impressive.

Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth! I've been dying to read this for months now.

And the complete edition of Terry Moore's Echo! Love, love, love.

My brother also lent me his copy of Planetary volume one, by Warren Ellis and John Cassady, and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.

Oh yeah, and I'm going to the local comic book tomorrow!!!

So lots of indulgence going on in all areas except yarn. I've accumulated quite a stash over the past year, and am now trying to "knit it down." Here's the first project of 2012, made with a skein of yarn my brother gave me last Christmas.

For all you yarnies out there, it's a lovely skein of Noro Silk Garden. And yup, so not vegan. I have a soft spot when it comes to non-vegan yarn.

I'm currently working on a slouchy gray turtleneck pullover, made with Cascade 220 yarn. The biggest challenge so far is the color. I typically knit with bright, vibrant yarn, but sometimes you really don't want to wear a bright pink or sparkling blue sweater. But gray can an be awfully boring color to knit with.

I wanted to share my thoughts on DC's new 52, but since this is a pretty long post, I think I'll save it for next time.

The Great Chestnut Experiment

2011-12-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

I was so excited to roast our bulging stash of chestnuts tonight. Unfortunately, it turns out that I have no idea how to tell a fresh chestnut from a half rotten one, because these were the only edible survivors.

Instead of the recipe I linked to in an earlier post, I used this one instead (veganized, of course). I thought the cinnamon would give it a nice little kick. I'm sure it would have, except I accidentally sprinkled cayenne on the chestnuts instead! The spice bottles are virtually identical, and I didn't bother to read the label first. Oops. Despite this, the chestnuts turned out to be meaty and exceptionally tasty. Spicy too. J could only eat a couple.

And what goes really nicely with roasted chestnuts? Soy nog, of course. I've tried different brands in the past, but I really like Earth Balance's nog.

I swung by the comic book store tonight and picked up Batgirl #3 and #4, as well as the trade of Unwritten volume #2, so expect reviews in the near future!

Nuts, Comic Books, What Else Do You Need?

2011-12-27T19:33:00.000-08:00

Look, it's yummy roasted pecans! Our friends veganized this batch just for us. They're so addictive, I had to stop myself from eating them.

Speaking of nuts, J and I still have half of pound of chestnuts to roast. I'm thinking we might have time to tackle this little project tomorrow night! Eee!

Oh, and I just wanted to note my parting impressions about The Unwritten, volume one. The main arc ended on a super-creepy note, and then there was a bit involving Mark Twain and Kipling that gives you an entirely different perspective on what's going on. Love it! I plan to pick up the second trade at my local comic book store this weekend.

On an entirely different note, I don't generally like mangas. I never have, really. It seems like the sort of thing I should like, but I've never found a series that really called out to me.

Every once in a while, however, I browse through the collections at the library and read one or two. This is how I came across Chi's Sweet Home, volume one.

So okay, this is totally geared towards young children. Chi's Sweet Home is the adventures of a kitten rescued by a well-meaning family. And by "adventures," I don't mean anything remotely super-heroish. I mean potty-training. A first trip to the vet.

Sounds pretty dull, eh? But it's not! It's so damned cute. Chi is drawn with dead-on cat expressions and mannerisms, and the developing friendship between her and the toddler of the family is so charming. I can't wait to read volume two!

Unwritten #1 and Field Roast

2011-12-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

J and I were at the in-laws for Christmas, and just got back a few hours ago, long enough for me to heat up some leftover celebration field roast, stuffing, and roasted asparagus. No pictures of my own, unfortunately (we were too hungry for that), but here is a link to a field roast website in case you're interested.

We also went to the grocery store and came back with a bag of chestnuts. Neither of us have ever had roasted chestnuts before, but it seems like a festive thing to do. I found this recipe, which seems pretty straight forward. Anyway, I will share pictures of the finished result!

In comic book news, I am halfway through the trade of Unwritten Vol 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity, by Mike Carey and illustrated by Peter Gross.

Here, verbatim, is the synopsis on the back of the trade:

Tommy Taylor's the main character in a series of fantasy novels

that have become a cultural phenomenon. Fans gather on websites

and at conventions to celebrate his magical stories and hope that

his missing creator, Wilson Taylor, will someday resurface to write

one last adventure.

But there's one dangling plot thread: the real Tom Taylor, the son

Wilson abandoned. The inspiration for the magical boy wizard,

Tom is now worshipped worldwide as a literary legend made flesh.

As Tom's life begins to take on eerie and deadly parallels with

Tommy's, he's drawn into a strange literary underworld where the

power of storytelling is a strong as any spell.

So far this is a fun read. Tom has witnessed his first strange event, but is still unable to believe that his father's stories were anything but fiction. It's a great premise for a comic book series. Peter Gross' illustrations are wonderful too. Unless something goes horribly awry plot-wise at the end of this volume, I will definitely be picking up the next trade.

After The Unwritten, I'll be reading One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry. I mentioned my graphic novel obsession to a friend, and she lent me her copy of this book. I can't wait to read it!

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some random pictures of cakes and cats:

So Much to Blog About

2011-12-22T19:36:00.000-08:00

Eek! It's been a long time. And there's so much to write about. First off, I'm going to expand this blog beyond vegan food and cooking. I get crazy obsessed about different things, at the moment knitting and comic book/graphic novels. Of course I'm still cooking. I'm always cooking. So don't worry, there will still be lots of food related posts.

For example -- homemade mushroom burgers! These were my first attempt at making my own veggie burgers, and they were so unbelievably easy. The recipe came from The Happy Herbivore, and the burgers included pinto beans and vital wheat gluten. Here's a picture of the burger, sans condiments.

And one with all the fixings.

The only thing I would do differently next time is to fry the burgers instead of baking them. They came apart a little on the baking sheet (even with the recommended parchment paper). But these burgers were so good. I'll definitely make them again.

In other news, I am one of the winners of a holiday cookbooklette from Vegan Eat & Treats. I'm so excited! Vegan Eat & Treats' blog is amazing, and I'm sure her cookbooklette will be too. Of course I'll post pictures of the amazing dishes I make.

Here is the comic book I'm reading.

Yup, it's Batgirl #2 from the DC relaunch (aka the New 52). I still prefer trades to single issue comic books, just because it's a pain in the butt to sort through them all once you've accumulated a few dozen. But I've been listening to a lot of comic book podcasts lately (namely 3 Chicks, Awesomed by Comics, and The Two-Headed Nerd Comicast), and everyone advocates that you buy the singles, because singles are what drives sales and keeps the comics you're reading from getting discontinued.

So. This is my first foray into the world of superhero comics. For years I've been a sporadic comic book/graphic novel reader, but my tastes run towards the literary, the eclectic, and the downright girly. I loved Neil Gaiman's Sandman and am almost all the way through Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra's Y the Last Man. I'm plodding along with The Walking Dead as well. The only things I know about Batman, Superman, and the X-men are either from the movies or second-hand knowledge from my younger brother, mostly from when he was a kid and would read Batman/Joker comics. I didn't even know a Batgirl existed. Much less a rich history of Batgirls. And when I found out, the first thought I had was: what a joke! She must be some kind of Batman underling, some stock sidekick figure.

Joke's on me.

I've heard some criticism about this new series, but I've never read any of the old Batgirl stuff, and I like what I'm reading now quite a bit. Batgirl seems like a fully realized young woman traumatized by her past (which includes a grisly run in with the Joker), trying to make her own way in the world of superherodom. It's well written, and the drawing is really, really pretty.

Two of the comic book podcasts I subscribe to have women hostesses. It's really nice to get a female perspective on what can be an extremely male-dominated pastime. Anyway, it's getting late. I'll post more of what's happening here in the land of Veggie Obsessed soon.

Dinners and Desserts

2011-11-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

Things have been cranking up in the Veggie Obsessed kitchen lately. It started with some cream of potato soup, veganized from an old family recipe ...

Next was the Spicy Veggie Curry from, you guessed it, Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cooking. I love this cookbook so much, and unfortunately had to return my copy to the library this afternoon. Luckily I happen to know that I'll be getting a copy for Christmas! Anyway, the curry was amazing, filled with okra, eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms. I served it with some white rice.

I also dusted my crockpot off and made Slow Cooker Pumpkin Chick'n Chowder from the Fatfree Vegan Recipes website. The recipe is here.

Lazy Saturday Dinner and Extravagant Sunday Brunch

2011-11-06T08:18:00.000-08:00

I'm still sick. Sad but true. This meant I skipped my spin class on Saturday morning and went to the Monroeville Mall instead to buy a few sweaters. I don't get out to the Mall very often, so I forgot how tiring that can be! So by the time dinner rolled around on Saturday night, I didn't feel like cooking much of anything.

Here's what I slapped together:

A simple salad with a green salsa/Nacho Mom's ultimate vegan queso dressing. After almost six months of pining for a bottle of Nacho Mom's queso sauce and not being able to find it in three states, I finally caved in and bought a jar online at Pangea. I'm so glad I did! Pre-vegan, I used to be obsessed with the Tostitos brand of queso. Nacho Mom's vegan queso tastes even better and is only 10 calories per serving.

Here's a picture of the Vegan Mom's vegan queso, along with another vegan queso I purchased for test-tasting purposes, Food for Lovers vegan queso. Oh, and you can also see the soy curls I also got in my order in the left-hand corner. Not sure what I'll make with these yet.

What goes well with a salad? A deli-meat style sandwich, of course. I took my first foray into vegan deli "meat" with Tofurky peppered slices. I added a tomato and a little bit of Vegenaise and whole grain dijon mustard. Alright, the sandwich looks a bit plain, but it was amazing. I can't wait to eat this again.

I made up for my culinary laziness this morning with a no-holds barred brunch. I almost always include a tofu scramble (using the recipe from Vegan Brunch), this time with asparagus instead of my usual mushrooms. I also made a batch of Biscuits and Creamy Sage Gravy from Vegan Diner.

Everything turned out great. The biscuits didn't rise as much as I wanted them to, but that's my fault, not the recipe's -- apparently I need to get some new baking powder. They were still exceptionally flaky. The sage gravy was wonderful as well. I love brunch!

Alma Pan-Latin Kitchen

2011-11-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

So I've been sick with the flu for about a week now, way too sick to cook much of anything. Luckily J took over and made a few dishes so we didn't have to survive on veggie burgers and salad all week. Today I had more energy than I've had in a while, so we decided to go, with a friend, to Alma Pan-Latin Kitchen for dinner.

I really appreciated the menu, as all the vegan items were carefully denoted with a 'V' and printed in a different colored font. Great for the lazy vegan -- which admittedly, I sometimes am. Anyway, there were a number of wonderful dishes to choose from. After much discussion, J and I decided to split the Yuca frita con salsitas de Alma for an appetizer. Yuca fries! Sorry, no picture, but they were pleasingly crisp on the outside, tender on the inside, and came with two semi-spicy sauces. I thought they were better than potato french fries.

Our omnivore friend ordered the empanadas, which were adorably petite and looked scrumptious, but unfortunately filled with cheese. Sigh. So I didn't get to taste an empanada, but was assured that they were quite good.

J was feeling a vegan vibe tonight, so we both ordered the same entree: Arepa de vegetales con platanos maduros.

Look at all the gorgeous food! Roasted asparagus, beets, and sugared fried plaintain smothered the arepa. Everything tasted so vivid and fresh.

We were very impressed with Alma Pan-Latin Kitchen. I hope to go back soon, to try one of the other vegan entrees!

Cleveland Eats and Cornbread

2011-10-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

J and I, plus one adventurous pup, went to Cleveland this weekend. We were only there overnight, just long enough to go to the kitschy and wonderful Christmas Story house/museum and the Rock and Roll Hall of Museum. I knew we'd have the opportunity to try out at least one Cleveland vegan/vegetarian restaurant, so I consulted VegGuide.org and found out all about Flaming Ice Cube, a cute little vegan restaurant located in downtown Cleveland.

J and I were both famished when we got to the Flaming Ice Cube, and briefly considered getting everything! Instead we restrained ourselves and ordered two entrees and an appetizer to share. Our choice of appetizer was the summer rolls, which came with a fantastic peanut dipping sauce. We ate the summer rolls before I even thought about taking pictures!

I remembered the camera for our entrees, however. J ordered the Mediterranean Hummus Wrap, which came with a side order of couscous. I didn't try the wrap, but J assured me it was delicious. I did steal a spoonful of couscous, which was savory goodness.

Look at that wrap! It is actually half a wrap, which is crazy.

I was tempted by the flatbread pizzas featuring Daiya (yay Daiya!) or the vast selection of veggie burgers. In the end, I chose the Mmmushroom Burger with a side order of pesto pasta.

This was the best veggie burger I have ever had. Seriously. And the pesto salad was pretty great too.

We were too stuffed to order one of the amazing desserts, but I couldn't go completely without. So we got some chocolate chip cookies to go. I waited until we got back to Pittsburgh before I had mine. There is apparently nothing that Flaming Ice Cube doesn't do fantastically well, and the cookies were no exception. Yum!

After such a wonderful lunch on Saturday, I decided to make a veganlicious spread for Sunday dinner. I made the Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki and a pan of Cornbread, both from Happy Herbivore. I also sauteed some kale with garlic and olive oil.

All in all, this was an excellent food weekend. :)

Slow Cooker Oatmeal

2011-10-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

Today is one of the very few days of the year where I have to work a different, later shift. I don't look forward to these days, so last night I decided to make a slow cooker oatmeal for a treat in the morning. Carrot Cardamom Oatmeal, to be precise! I've never made oatmeal in my crock pot before, but I loved the idea of an Indian-inspired breakfast.

And believe me, this was so simple to make. I threw all the ingredients in the slow cooker at 10:00, and this morning at 7:30 there was delicious oatmeal! I didn't have pistachios to sprinkle over the top, so I subbed a few tablespoons of crushed roasted almonds.

Look at the end result!

Oh, I also wanted to give another shout-out to Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. Last night I made the Roasted Curried Cauliflower. Now, I don't really care for cauliflower, and neither does J. We buy a head of cauliflower maybe twice a year. But I was making my weekly quota of chana masala, and thought roasted cauliflower with Indian spices might be a nice side dish.

Can you tell there is a theme to what I've been cooking lately? Yup, lots and lots of Indian and Indian-inspired dishes.

Anyway, I roasted the cauliflower using all the ingredients except for the fresh parsley -- I only had dried. This was a very easy side dish to make, and we loved it! J and I ate almost the whole thing. We ate it so quickly, in fact, that I didn't have time to snap a picture.

So another big recommendation for Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook!

Hello Again

2011-10-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

I'm back! I know it's been a very long time since I blogged here last. Fortunately, I have lots of great new discoveries to share today.

I borrowed a great cookbook from the library this afternoon, Kim Barnouin's Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. I loved Barnouin and Freedman's cheeky first book, Skinny Bitch, but found their Skinny Bitch in the Kitch kind of disappointing. Okay, I admit it -- I didn't give it a chance because there were zero pictures of any of the food. Zilch. I hate cookbooks without pictures!!

Anyway, after flipping through Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook, I was transfixed. Everything sounds so wonderful, and one of every three recipes come with an accompanying picture. Yay! I had a package of pre-cut butternut squash cubes from Trader Joes in the fridge, so it was only logical for me to whip up a pot of Butternut Squash Soup with Poppy Seeds.

Poppy seeds were the only ingredient I did not have, but I'm not a big fan of them anyway, so assumed I wouldn't miss them. The soup was delicious.

Next week I'm going to make either the Asian Macaroni and Cheese or the Spicy Vegetable Curry (with okra!!!!) I am so buying this cookbook!

J was jonesing for poblano peppers, so he stuffed two with portabello mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic and thyme and then roasted it for twenty five minutes. Yum! Next time we're thinking about adding some daiya or a nice creamy sauce.

Last weekend J and I went apple-picking with friends, and after making a nice batch of applesauce, I still found myself with yet more apples. So I decided to make these:

Okay, so they're not the prettiest muffins in the world, but they sure were tasty. These are the Apple Crisp Muffins from The Happy Herbivore. They're sweet without being cloying, hearty (thanks to the oats) and best of all, only 124 calories per muffin. I will definitely make more of these in the near future.

Tofu Mania

2011-05-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

What's better than tofu? Tofu Marsala, of course. Served with a generous portion of Sesame Garlic Wilted Kale. Both recipes come from good ole 500 Vegan Recipes, of which, after more than a year of vegan cooking, I have still barely scraped the surface.

On the junk food front, I've picked up a few goodies over the past couple of months, including a carton of Amande almond milk yogurt. Well, I guess you could argue that yogurt isn't junk food. Anyway, I tried the cherry flavor, which was delicious. It tastes nothing like traditional milk-based yogurt, which suits me fine, as I never really liked actual yogurt anyway. J had a bite and thought it was more of a dessert than a breakfast-type food, and I have to agree.

Oh, and I made this:

My mother brought me her old bread maker. This loaf is just a non-fussy white bread, but I hope to branch out soon!

A Week's Worth of Good Eating

2011-02-28T18:35:00.000-08:00

As I wrote in an earlier post, I'm a creature of habit. I tend to find a handful of recipes I like, and then rotate through them on a regular basis. But every time I sit in my living room, I stare at my stack of vegan cookbooks on the book shelf, and feel a little guilty. After all, I enjoy cooking, I really do. There's no reason not to try at least two new recipes every week. So I made a resolution with myself to do just that.

I was on vacation last week, and was able to test out three new recipes, woo hoo!! First up was Spicy Udon Noodles from The Urban Vegan. This was super easy to prepare, and extremely tasty. The udon noodles were tossed in a peanut butter/satay sauce, and edamame, ginger and garlic gave the dish a robust flavor.

Sorry for the blurry picture, sometimes my camera just does not want to cooperate. J had leftovers for lunch, and said that the noodles were just as good cold as they were hot.

I've made quite a few things from 500 Vegan Recipes, but really I'm just barely skimming the surface. There's so much left to explore, like the Veggie Tofu Bake I made this weekend. This recipe is touted as being excellent for tofu virgins. J and I eat tofu every week without fail, so we didn't really need an introduction. Still, this casserole was nice. The crumbled tofu and nutritional yeast mixture did taste remarkably cheesy-ish. And the water chestnuts and carrots gave this otherwise soft veggie casserole a nice crunch.

My only hesitation was with the 1/2 cup of olive oil used to prepare this dish. I love olive oil as much as the next person, but it gave the vegetables a slightly greasy aftertaste. I will definitely cut down on the oil when I make this next time.

I keep forgetting about the wonderful blog, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I've made a couple of excellent dishes from this website in the past, but that was back in the summertime. It was definitely time to try another offering from Susan V. Last night, I made a gigantic pot of Sweet Potato, Okra, and Chickpea Gumbo.

I subbed yams for sweet potatoes, but otherwise stuck very closely to the recipe. Wow! I love gumbo so much, and this particular gumbo was a perfect blend of spicy smokiness, yet not too spicy that J couldn't eat it. Susan V, you're a genius!

I had a few leftover yams, so boiled and mashed them, adding just a tablespoon of Earth Balance and a little nutmeg and cinnamon. Mmm. Delicious.

I picked up the latest copy of Veg News yesterday at the grocery store. They have a fantastic "Vegan Bucket List," 99 things all vegans should do/see/taste/experience before they, you know, kick the bucket. Some are on the pricier side (like going on one of their Veg News vacations), but I am definitely going to try #35, Make the VegNews Mac & Cheese. I'm also not opposed to #25, which involves ordering a Peanut Butter bomb cake from Vegan Treats. You don't have to twist my arm when it comes to peanut butter desserts!

But I wanted to add a few of my own ideas here. It's dawned on me that, despite having branched out tremendously since going vegan, there are still a godly amount of vegetables I've either never tried before, or never tried since growing out of the yuck, vegetables! phase of childhood. So I'm adding these veggies to my bucket list:

* celeriac root

* rutabaga

* parsnips

* broccolini

* brussel sprouts

I've already scouted out a lovely-sounding recipe for parsnip soup, and will report my adventures soon!

Penne Vodka and Other Goodies

2011-02-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

J had a hankering for pasta tonight, so I whipped open Veganomicon and found the recipe for Penne Vodka. It was very simple, the whole process didn't take more than 35 minutes, and it was very good.

Blended almonds gave this pasta just the right amount of creamy consistency. We also added a few tablespoons of capers to spice things up a little, and finely chopped carrot for a bit of sweetness. So good! This is definitely something we'll make again.

I must confess, I get into the habit of making the same tried-and-true dishes. I find something I like, and I tend to make it a lot. Earlier this week, however, I tried a few new recipes. One was the Soba Noodle Soup from The Vegan Table.

I didn't really alter anything with this recipe, other than opting out of slicing the shiitake mushrooms. Creamy cubes of tofu, mushrooms, kale, and soba noodles in a miso-based broth. What's not to like? Next time, I'll cook the kale a little more, however -- I like my kale more wilted than crunchy, especially in a soup.

J bought me a copy of The Indian Vegan Kitchen as a late Christmas present. Everything sounds great, but I was drawn to The Curried Potato Soup. This was an incredibly simple recipe, with garam masala and ginger providing much of the flavor. Instead of tomato sauce, I added some diced tomatoes, and it ended up being quite good.

And a few junk food recommendations!!! I recently tried an Alternative Baking Company cookie. I've been eyeing these cookies for almost a year now, but was (and frankly, still am) intimidated by the caloric amount listed on the back of the package. I ate one half of this peanut butter for dessert one night, and the rest for the second night. And wow! It was so good. Scarily good.

I was pleased to find that a local grocery store, Right By Nature, is carrying Primal Strips faux jerky. I tried the hot and spicy blend, made out of shiitake mushrooms.

This jerky has an uncannily similar texture to beef jerky. I've tasted a few other brands of vegan jerky before and have been disappointed by the greasy, chemical-ish concoctions. Primal Strips are just the opposite, bursting with flavor with absolutely no greasy aftertaste. I can't wait to try all the other flavors.

Updates

2011-02-13T14:16:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a long time since I've last blogged. It doesn't mean that I haven't been having great vegan food adventures -- I've just been (frankly) too lazy to write about them.

But I made a dish last night that was so amazing I had to share. It was the Seitan Piccata with Olives and Green Beans from the ever-incredible Veganomicon cookbook.

In the mix: fried breaded seitan, a glorious sauce composed of white wine, shallots, capers, and kalamata olives, on a bed of green beans and mashed potatoes. Call it the ultimate comfort food. I've never had piccata anything before, but this was amazing, and something I'll definitely make again.

In other news, J and I made it to Loving Hut! It is located in a suburb outside of Pittsburgh, in a small strip mall next to the Army Recruitment Center.

It felt so amazing, to be able to choose anything from the menu. We went a little overboard, starting with Jumbo Drumsticks for appetizers.

These drumsticks were stuffed with three different types of mushrooms. They were a little dry by themselves, but great when dipped into the ginger sauce.

J ordered the BBQ Noodles. You can't actually see the noodles in the picture; they're hidden behind the bed of greens. He said it was good, especially with the sweet sour sauce mixed in.

I had the Spicy Cha Cha because I couldn't resist having mock shrimp! This really tasted like shrimp, with a great peppery seasoning.

We were too stuffed to have dessert at the restaurant, but I ordered a slice of cheesecake to go. I love cheesecake and haven't had any since becoming a vegan. This tasted like real cheesecake, so delicious! Wow!

Veg News gave the Loving Hut franchise a bad rap in their September/October issue as a cult so I was a bit afraid that the restaurant might be propaganda-heavy, but there was just one demure corner of merchandise, books and DVDs about Supreme Master Ching Hai and her following. All in all, it was a very pleasant restaurant, and J and I look forward to going back.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-24T07:30:00.001-08:00

Christmas Cookies

2010-12-20T16:27:00.000-08:00

It's time for Christmas office parties. It didn't take me long to figure out what I wanted to bring in -- cookies. Cookies were a big part of our Christmas tradition when I was growing up. Every year my family (including my grandfather) spent a whole day making mountains of cookies to give to friends and relatives. We always made two kinds -- a butter cookie and an oatmeal chocolate chip. My parents mixed the batters and manned the oven, while my brother, my grandfather and I dropped spoonfuls of cookie mix onto the trays.

I haven't had these cookies in years, not since my father passed away, but it felt right to make a few batches of them this year. I veganized the butter cookie recipe for the party tomorrow, and will make the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for Christmas Eve.

Here's a picture of the butter (or non-butter!) cookies. They were always my favorite -- not too sweet, with a nice crunch to them.

Non-Butter Cookies

4-5 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 lb Earth Balance, softened

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat the Earth Balance in a large bowl until creamy. Add sugar and flour, one cup at a time, until you have a crumbly cookie consistency. Roll batter into balls and flatten onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 9-10 minutes. The tops of these cookies will not brown.

Make 3 dozen small cookies.

Loving Hut

2010-12-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

Loving Hut is coming to Pittsburgh!! The website is here. I've wanted to go to this restaurant since reading about it on other vegan blogs, but thought I'd have to wait for another visit to Hawaii to try it. According to the City Paper, the grand opening is December 19th. I'm so excited!

Scotch Broth and the Dilemma

2010-12-08T06:02:00.000-08:00

It's winter. I'm not really for winter yet, so I'm trying to prepare for the bracing cold with some nice hearty winterish meals. Scotch Broth from The Vegan Table is a new favorite. It's got split peas, red lentils, barley, and potato chunks in it, so it's very hearty.Other highlights of the week have been J's perfected vegan chili and borscht. All served with slices of rye bread.

So I've been a vegan for nine months now. My vegan diet has definitely made me healthier, helped me shed some pounds and maintain my weight, and made me a better, more adventurous cook. Pre-vegan, I'd cook the same six or seven things, over and over again, and almost all of them contained hamburger. Now, I try at least one new recipe every week. Cooking is fun rather than a chore.

But I've come to a dilemma in my vegan lifestyle. Which is this. I knit, but I stopped for about a year. I'm back with a vengeance, just in time for the holiday gift-making season, but remembered something about myself: I'm a tactile knitter. I can't bring myself to knit with a yarn that isn't completely wonderful and soft. I'm inexplicably drawn to merino wool, mohair, cashmere (not that I've ever been able to afford cashmere) ... well, you get the picture.

I also have a stash of woolly/mohairy yarn goodness. In fact, there is nothing in my stash that isn't animal-based except for these babies:

It's a sock yarn made out of corn fiber and elastic nylon. It's neat to think of a pair of socks made out of corn fiber, isn't it? And the yarn is soft, so it gives me some hope.

I also know there's yarn out there made out of soy and bamboo, though it's tricky to find these without a blend of wool added in. Acrylic is out, pretty much. I hate the feel of acrylic. And cotton? I went to my LYS (local yarn store) earlier this week, to scope out their cotton yarn. Maybe I haven't found the right brand yet, but every single ball of yarn felt unpleasant to touch. I did find a super-soft skein and got really excited, until I looked at the label and realized it was wool yarn that had accidentally gotten misplaced. Oops.

So this is a real challenge for me. I'm content without hamburgers, leather, and chicken nuggets. I understand and accept why supporting the silk industry is wrong. But a good skein of wool yarn is very hard for me to put down.

I've decided to use my stash up -- I think it would be silly of me to throw or give it all away, and I don't know enough knitters to arrange a yarn swap. Anyway, it's the perfect time to knit woolly presents. I already finished a sweater for my mother, and am 50% done with a pair of superwash wool socks. After the New Year, I'll cast on the Maizy yarn for a pair of socks for myself. I'll let you know how the journey goes.

Cupcakes!

2010-11-14T08:20:00.000-08:00

Hello again! I haven't been posting much lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking lots of great vegan food.

Here's a sampling of what's been simmering (or baking!) in my kitchen: (oh, and just to let you know, I'm not in Pittsburgh right now with my cookbook stash, so the recipe names might not exactly be accurate. But rest assured, I'll come back and make corrections!)

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday. I decided to make cupcakes for her instead of a big ole cake. Cream cookie cupcakes from 500 Vegan Recipes with an agave chocolate frosting. This is a very moist, delicious cupcake. Definitely chocolate overload.

Here's a picture of the cupcakes, pre-frosting.

And a picture of my mother-in-law with a frosted cupcake and her birthday candle!

Now, I don't want to mislead you into thinking that I just make desserts 24/7. There's also breakfast food ...

Like the tofu scramble I made the other day (I used the recipe from Vegan Brunch) with Perfect Pumpkin muffins (Vegan with a Vengeance) and diner potatoes (Vegan Brunch).

I've also been delving a bit into macrobiotics, like the Nishime recipe from The Kind Diet.

And a polenta seitan casserole, also from The Kind Diet!

Finally, the tortilla poblano casserole from Viva Vegan! Can I just say again that I love this cookbook?

I'm actually planning a Tex-Mex/Latin American vegan Thanksgiving dinner, so stay tuned for pictures from that!

Asheville!

2010-10-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! We were on vacation last week, visiting family in Kentucky and then travelling on to Asheville, North Carolina. I had some good vegan food in Kentucky, but took no pictures, as most of the places we went to were chain restaurants.

Not only Asheville is a lovely city, but it also has a buttload of amazing choices when it comes to vegan food! I did some research beforehand, writing down a list of restaurants and cafes with vegan choices, but I really didn't need it. Great vegan food was literally everywhere.

Our first stop was at Rosetta's Kitchen, a cute, laid-back cafe. Everything on the menu is vegetarian or vegan, which meant there was an incredible amount of choices. J decided on the cornbread and greens. I sneaked a few bites and can vouch that it was yummy, but the picture I took was way too blurry, so you'll have to use your imagination!

I ordered the tacos, filled to the brim with vegan chorizo, and a side order of mashed potatoes with amazing gravy.

Really, the potatoes were kind of overkill, but I ate almost everything. Rosetta's Kitchen also had some tempting looking vegan desserts, but I managed to restrain myself!

We visited Biltmore, which is the Vanderbilt family's mansion and grounds. The mansion itself was crazy opulent, but I preferred the gardens, which were so infinite and vast we didn't even get to see everything.

The Biltmore had extremely limited dining choices for vegans, and everything seemed very expensive, so we waited to have lunch in downtown Asheville. We went to the Jerusalem Garden Cafe. I had a falafel sandwiches with fries, which was good but not very exciting.

J, on the other hand, had the Moroccan Couscous, which was so pretty. The tomato sauce was amazing!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around downtown Asheville, stopping for a drink at a bar (for J) and frequent shopping excursions (for me). We passed an impressive looking Mellow Mushroom, and I remembered hearing from different blogs that they had started carrying vegan cheese.

Inside, the place was merrily decorated. I particularly liked the bear statue with a pizza box in its mouth.

And the pizza was great. I ordered mine with artichokes and black olives, yum! So good. I wish we had a Mellow Mushroom in Pittsburgh ...

The next day, we decided to try a Mexican place called Salsa's we had walked past the night before. It had been packed (always a good sign), and we glimpsed lots of delicious-looking food through the window. Like all the other restaurants in Asheville we'd tried, there were tons of vegan options.

I had the 2010 Nachos, pictured below.

Look at those lovely chunks of squash and zucchini! And the homemade refried beans were delicious. Really, everything was fresh and amazing, down to the salsas.

We have a vegetarian friend in Asheville who recommended we try Sunny Point Cafe in West Asheville, a neighborhood we hadn't yet explored. So for our last morning in town, we had an amazing breakfast! I had vegan hot cakes. But not just any hot cakes. No, these were Orange Scented Gluten Free Cornmeal Hot Cakes! They were light and deliciously orange flavored. I wish I could have these every week for brunch. Thanks for the recommendation, Kathleen!

What impressed me so much about Asheville, besides its super-fresh and delicious food, was the city's emphasis on buying local, and supporting local businesses. Almost every restaurant we went to had a list of the local produce or products used to create their dishes. And most businesses had 'buy local' (or maybe it was 'buy Asheville,' I don't remember) stickers in their window.

And I believe it would be really easy to buy local in Asheville. There are so many cute boutiques and independent bookstores, reminiscent of New York City. It made me think about how many of my own dollars are spent on big box stores or clothing chains in Pittsburgh, all because I was too lazy to seek out local and independent businesses. Granted, I don't have as easy in Pittsburgh, where there aren't entire city streets lined with independent stores. But I could definitely make more of an effort.

So I came back to Pittsburgh with a personal challenge. From now until the beginning on January, I will only buy from local businesses, second-hand stores, or independent businesses online (like Etsy!). This doesn't include food, although I'm going to make an attempt to go to the Farmer's Market more often, or holiday presents (mostly because of my brother, who heard of my challenge and made me promise not to buy his gifts from little boutiques). I know this is a food blog, but I thought it might be fun to make occasional updates on my progress.

Anyway J and I were very sad to leave Asheville, so we consoled ourselves by going to the Quiet Storm Coffeehouse for breakfast. I also made the Sweet Potato Pie with Three-Nut Topping from Vegan with a Vengeance as a special treat.

I was feeling out of sorts when I made the sweet potato pie, and accidentally used a cake pan instead of a pie pan! And okay, I don't actually have a pie pan -- I usually buy the disposable ones from the grocery store. So maybe it's time to invest in a glass pie pan.

I also forgot to add 1) brown sugar to the graham cracker crust and 2) silken tofu to the sweeet potato filling. Despite this, the sweet potato pie (or in this case, sweet potato cake) turned out really well. The hazelnut, almond and walnut topping was especially decadent.

Here's another picture.

I bought a copy of Vegan Soul Kitchen at a secondhand bookstore in Kentucky, so expect some soul food pictures soon!

Comfort Foods

2010-09-25T17:08:00.000-07:00

I must be insane. This is the only excuse I can come up with for why I haven't tried more of the recipes from Viva Vegan! Everything I've made from this cookbook has been ridiculously good. This includes the latest foray, Sweet Potato-Chipotle Bisque. Look at how beautiful this soup is!

The coconut creamer I chose to use gave the soup a great creamy taste, which went very well with the smokiness of the chipotles. I made a quick batch of Rustic Olive Rolls from Students Go Vegan. Kalamata olives and chipotles might sound like a strange combination, but they actually went very well together.

For tonight's meal, I turned back to Veganomicon. Chili sounded good, but I didn't want a garden-variety type of chili. Manzana Chili Verde was definitely what I was looking for.

Here, green tomatillos and granny smith apples are the star in the show. And for an added bonus, there are white beans in this chili too! It tasted a lot like a green salsa with lots of yummy goodness added to give it a stew-like consistency. And really, what's not to love about that?

Both of these meals were fantastic, and something that will definitely end up on our table again.

Veganomicon Extravaganza

2010-09-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

I've been making a lot of meals from Veganomicon lately. I can't help it, it's such a great cookbook!

I try to make at least one soup every week. This time around I decided on Veganomicon's French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme. Unfortunately, there was an apparent shortage of french lentils in the Pittsburgh region, so I subbed green lentils instead. I don't think it mattered. It was delicious!

Honestly, there's nothing better than a good lentil soup. Please ignore my garish nail polish color in the picture! Some things look better in the bottle ...

Anyway, I'm always up for white beans and mushrooms, so it was inevitable that I'd eventually try Rustic White Beans and Mushrooms (from Veganomicon, of course). This recipe made an enormous amount of beans. It was a very meaty dish (partially because of the beans, but also because of the spices), with the smoky taste of mushrooms. A little less flavorful than some of the other dishes in Veganomicon, perhaps, but still a hearty and comforting meal.

Okay, and sometimes I pick up pre-packaged stuff. I used to have an obsession with the chicken salad from the Giant Eagle Market District. Even now I still sometimes get a craving for chicken salad. I know there are great faux chicken salad recipes out there, but I get lazy. Luckily, I found a great faux chicken salad at Whole Foods. It tastes yummy with a slice of tomato and lettuce, and a little salt and pepper.

They have a faux tuna salad as well, but I was never much of a tuna salad sandwich person.

Tomorrow I'm making something from Viva Vegan, and will definitely post pictures.

Catching Up

2010-09-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

Hello again! I had to post a new entry in celebration of all the great new dishes I've been cooking (and eating) lately. There hasn't been a lot of adventurous cooking, as I haven't been in the mood to make homemade pasta noodles or elaborate desserts. But easy-to-prepare food doesn't have to mean boring food.

I continue to be amazed with 500 Vegan Recipes. I've tried half a dozen recipes already, and not one of them has disappointed me. The lemon thyme quickbread recipe is worth the price of the cookbook alone. So, needless to say, I had very high expectations for the Red Jambalaya.

I haven't had jambalaya since becoming a vegan, and I was a little concerned about the lack of sausage or shrimp. I considered adding a link or two of fauxsage, but it turned out that this dish didn't need it. It was perfect all alone, with okra as the shining star ingredient. To make the jambalaya a bit healthier, I used brown rice instead of the suggested long white rice. It was very, very spicy the first day, a little less so the next. This is definitely something I'll make again!

I love white beans. Cannellinis, navy beans, it doesn't matter. I try to make something with white beans at least once a week. This time I tried the White Bean Aioli from Veganomicon. Here's a picture of it spread on French bread.

This dip was very strong, so a little went a long way. It was maybe even (dare I say) a little too strong for my taste, but J loved it.

I celebrated my birthday last week, which meant receving several great presents, including my very own copy of The Urban Vegan. Thank you, Reg!! The funny thing is, I bought this cookbook just the week before for Nina's bridal shower present. I was kind of sad at the time that I didn't have my own copy ... and now I do!

I had to make something from this cookbook right away. I chose Modular Pakistani Kima, which sounds quite exotic but is basically a curry. And wow, what a curry!!! Dynise gives you a few options when making this dish: I chose to add mustard greens for the green vegetable, and a can of garbanzo beans for the protein.There was also a few potatoes, carrots, peas, and an ungodly amount of curry powder.

I can always tell when J loves a dish, because he exclaims, "Mmm!" This kima rated several "Mmm"s. I agree wholeheartedly.

My mother and brother came to Pittsburgh for my birthday weekend, and Mom tried her hand at vegan baking with the Peanut Butter Pie recipe from The Kind Diet. I love peanut butter pies, and this one was exceptionally sweet with a melted chocolate base. Unfortunately, the pie had been prepared the night before and then refrigerated, solidifying the chocolate into a hefty chunk. This made it pretty hard to cut the pie into slices. It was still very good, though.

More Food!

2010-08-19T15:51:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking off with blog entries lately, for two good reasons. One was that our friend Dan came to visit for a week.

And the second is that I'm finally buckling down and writing my novel. I have a MFA in Writing, so it's not like I have an excuse for not doing it ... I'm just a slacker. With that in mind, I'm making myself write a least an hour every day. No breaks, no exceptions.

This means there's less time to cook. We don't want to resort to take-out food, so J has picked up the slack and cooked a few meals this week. Both of them turned out great!

Okay, here's a breakdown of the new dishes we tried:

Enchilada Casserole from 500 Vegan Recipes. This one was nice and spicy, with the faux chorizo and the green salsa I added to the mix.

J made Black Soybean and Kabocha Squash Stew from The Kind Diet. This was delicious!! Even with the substitution of butternut squash for kabocha, it was amazing.

J also made the Veggie Mash-up Casserole from Manifest:Vegan. You can get the recipe here. It's been awhile since we've had mashed potatoes, so the casserole was a nice treat. Love that Daiya!

Baked Goods Galore

2010-08-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

Having a guest at our apartment for a week has compelled me to bake. A lot. Which, granted, doesn't make a lot of sense when our kitchen is about 90 degrees these days without the oven turned on. But I wanted to bake some cookies for our friend Dan, and chose the Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies from 500 Vegan Recipes. The recipe clearly mentions that they are not too sweet, but I was still surprised when they turned out less of a cookie and more of a healthful snack (at least, it tastes like one).

Which ain't bad, right? And I have a deep love for oatmeal cookies anyway, so I'll make these again. No doubt about it.

A month or so ago I made a ginger quick bread and really liked how it turned out, so I went back to 500 Vegan Recipes and browsed through their chapter on Sweet and Savory Quick Breads. It's a very comprehensive cookbook! Anyway, I chose to bake a loaf of Lemon Thyme Quick Bread and was so glad that I did! This was amazing!

It was moist, sweet and lemon-y, and the thyme didn't taste obtrusive at all. Everything melded together quite nicely. Wow!! And the best thing about quick breads is that they're so easy to make. Just mix everything together and spoon it into a loaf pan. The only real "work" (if you can call it that) I had to do was zesting the lemon. That's it.

The lemon thyme quick bread went really fast, so I pulled out my recipes and looked for something else to bake. I was aiming for another quick bread, preferably a sweet one, but it turned out that the only thing I had all the ingredients for was the Country Corn Muffins in How it All Vegan.

I guess what makes this 'country' is the addition of corn kernels. Anyway, I have a pretty big bag of cornmeal that I never to seem to find a use for, so this muffin worked nicely. Sweet, but not too sweet. Yes, it would have been great to have with a nice bowl of chili on a cold winter day, but it's a good summer breakfast food too.

More Curry and Orecchiette

2010-08-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

I made a couple of new meals this week. I felt we didn't have nearly enough curry in our diets (ha ha!), so I made Creamy Curried Vegetables from How it All Vegan. It's got cauliflowers, peas, and carrots in it, and the creaminess comes from coconut milk. I added a few more tablespoons of curry powder than the recipe called for, and because the curry still tasted pretty mild, added some sriracha to my serving. Very yummy with brown rice.

Tonight we had Orecchiette with Cherry Tomatoes and Kalamata Tapenade, from Vegan with a Vengeance. I love olives, especially kalamata olives, and this recipe does not disappoint. I did use grape tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes, but I don't think it made that much of a difference.

And look at all those red onions! Another great meal.

We're going to have a friend stay with us next week, which of course calls for a lot of cooking. So look forward to a lot of fancy schmancy dishes soon!

Brunch at Zenith

2010-08-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

Zenith is a quirky antique store that also doubles as a vegetarian restaurant on the weekends.

Here's a picture of the entrance to the store.

I've been to Zenith for lunch once before, which was great. But it was nothing compared to their Sunday brunch extravaganza.

Ten bucks gets you an entree, tea or coffee, and access to the buffet. I ordered the vegan apple and walnut pancakes for my entree, which was fantastic. It was served with a side of garlic rice, also tasty.

And the buffet! Let's just say, there was an entire table devoted to homemade cakes and pies. I had a small slice of root beer cake with vanilla icing. The cake was moist and the icing sweet but not too sweet.

Other highlights of the buffet incuded noodle salad, grape leaves, green beans, and a pesto potato salad. I didn't even get a chance to try everything, because I had so much to eat.

After that crazy, gut-busting brunch, J and I weren't extremely hungry when dinner rolled around, so I made a pot of Creamy Zucchini and Basil Soup from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. My friend Nina highly recommended this soup, and I'm so glad I tried it. You should definitely try it too. It tastes like perfect summer goodness. I wish I had a garden full of zucchini, because I'd made a gigantic pot of this soup and eat it for days.

One of my co-workers is celebrating a birthday tomorrow, so I made a batch of Chocolate Chip Bars from How it All Vegan. I was a little alarmed by the whole cup of oil called for in this recipe, and I suppose I could have added less oil, but I didn't want to mess things up and have to make another pan. Here's a couple of picture of the bars.

I wanted to try a small piece, but am trying to figure out how much of a pain it will be to transfer everything to another pan. It's probably too much trouble, so I won't get to try one until tomorrow. It looks good though.

Indian Food!

2010-07-31T06:42:00.000-07:00

When we used to live in NYC, J and I had a favorite place on Houston Street for Indian food. It was called Punjabi, a little hole-in-the wall that catered mostly to cab drivers. It was dirt cheap and everything served was vegetarian.

Since moving to Pittsburgh, we've gone to quite a few Indian restaurants, some of them good, some of them just okay. But there was nothing that could compare to Punjabi. Until we tried Sree's. This is another little hole in the wall, and like Punjabi, the portions are big and shockingly cheap. It's $6 for the vegetarian/vegan special, which includes rice, four dal or curry dishes, and half a pita bread (also vegan). The portions are enough for both dinner and lunch, at least for me.

Here's a picture. I ate quite a bit before I remembered to snap the shot, so this isn't an accurate indication of how much food they actually give you. There was a chickpea curry, a tomato dal, and a black-eyed pea and spinach dish.

So good! If you're ever in the Pittsburgh area, you must try Sree's.

Zuccanoes

2010-07-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

We had zuccanoes from The New Moosewood Cookbook tonight. Zucchinis stuffed with mushrooms, brown rice, onion, garlic, and minced almonds, and topped with daiya "cheese." It was relatively easy to make, and has a nice retro vibe going on.

I made a side dish of mushrooms, snap peas, and ginger sauteed in Trader Joe's black pepper sauce. I love the stuff! I strongly encourage everyone to go out and get a bottle.

What We Eat on a Typical Weeknight

2010-07-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't posted a lot lately because I've been doing quite a few "repeat" meals. When I like a particular entree, I tend to make it pretty frequently. But I did take pictures of what we have to eat on a typical night.

I've been brewing up the Nabeyaki Udon from The Kind Diet every other week or so. It's a great, fast meal, and really healthy as well. Also, this may sound strange, but preparing the udon is a very calming activity for me. There is something peaceful about watching the vegetables simmer in the shiitake mushroom broth. It's an equally peaceful meal to eat -- all subtle, earthy, warming flavors, even with the soy sauce mixed in. The Kind Diet features a lot of macrobiotic dishes, the nabeyaki udon being one, and from what little I've read, macrobiotic food is supposed to make you feel more balanced.

I don't normally take pictures of what we eat with our entrees, which is normally a salad or some kind of vegetable dish side dish. On this particular night, I was feeling the need for some kale. I have a kale chip recipe from the June 2010 issue of Veg News that I make a lot.

I also filled a couple of soy sauce dishes with the great cabbage kimchi I made from Ani's Essential Raw Food Essentials. J told me that this is now his favorite pickle of all time. I love it too. So much that I went out and bought Korean red pepper seasoning (instead of the red pepper flakes used for pizza and pasta) for a more authentic taste the next time I make kimchi.

But that doesn't mean I have to stop making other pickles. There's a great recipe for Radish Umeboshi Pickles in The Kind Diet. I have no great love for radishes, but this pickle is pretty amazing. Here it is, pickling away in the umeboshi vinegar.

And sometimes, we have to have our cake and eat it too. Or in this instance, cupcakes. I haven't had a cupcake since becoming a vegan, which is kind of odd, because I have always been a certifiable cupcake fiend. I borrowed a copy of Isa and Terry's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World from the library and thought about making a batch, but it never happened. But yesterday, I decided: it was time to have a cupcake. I knew our local Dozen Bake Shop had a different vegan offering every day, so J and I stopped there on the way home. I was so excited to see that the flavor (written on a cute little blackboard) was red velvet! But there was a line drawn it -- they had run out!

J could tell by the look on my face that I was determined to have a cupcake. We drove to a cupcake shop in Shadyside called CoCo's that also sold vegan cupcakes, but it looked like the place had shut down. Instead of driving around to another place that might disappoint me, I dialed 411 and called the Lawrenceville branch of Dozen Bake Shop. They have five locations, because that's how good their pastries are! Anyway, I'd never been to the Lawrenceville store, but knew that it was the most-expanded of the stores, selling sandwiches and even offering brunch on the weekends.

Did they have any vegan cupcakes left? Yes, they did! The guy on the phone actually counted them out for me. They had 14 vegan cupcakes. 14!!! I bought two, one for me and one for J, for driving us around for an hour on a mad vegan cupcake hunt.

Here's the cute bag they were bundled in, featuring Dozen's logo.

And here it is, the prettiest cupcake ever.

Here's a closer view.

It was a great cupcake. I'd had the non-vegan cupcakes from Dozen before, and the vegan red velvet did not disappoint. I could have eaten the frosting alone with a spoon, it was that good.

Happy Birthday J!

2010-07-19T16:10:00.000-07:00

We were in upstate New York this weekend, celebrating J's birthday with his relatives. Of course I made a special birthday spread -- Arroz Con Seitan from Viva Vegan!, which is one of J's favorites dishes, and a Strawberry Bundt Cake from 500 Vegan Recipes.

I bought a bundt cake pan specifically for this recipe, and was concerned about flipping it out of the mold, but it went very smoothly. The cake itself had a very subtle strawberry taste that mingled nicely with the cardamom. But it was nowhere near as sweet as I like my desserts! Maybe I should have sprinkled it with powdered sugar and sliced strawberries as the cookbook suggested. Anyway, J, his mom, aunt and uncle all seemed to enjoy it, so that's all that matters.

Here's a picture of everyone having drinks and chips before the cake was served.

On Sunday we had lunch at my father-in-law's house. He's been very supportive of my switch to veganism, and made a huge vegan lunch for us: steamed carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower, red and green peppers cooked with onions and garlic, a big bowl of cherry tomatoes, and a navy bean and onion salad. Everything was great!

Other highlights included a big pot of borscht I made for J and his mother, but the camera's been acting up again and every picture I took was blurry. Believe me, the next big purchase I plan on making is a new camera.

Before we left Pittsburgh for the weekend, I did manage to prepare some Napa Cabbage Kimchi from Ani's Raw Food Essentials. Kimchi is a traditional Korean pickle, usually made from cabbage or cucumber. Growing up in Hawaii, kimchi was practically a staple for most local famililes I knew -- mine included. I rarely buy kimchi anymore, especially after I discovered that some kimchi contain brined seafood, but I am always up to the challenge of making my own!

It takes 2-3 days for the cabbage to properly ferment, which meant we were able to try some of it tonight. Wow, this is good! Salty, spicy, and tangy, everything kimchi should be. I imagine it'll be even better tomorrow.

I'm interested in trying a few raw food recipes, especially now that it's so hot out, and Ani's Raw Food Essentials looks like the perfect place to start. Of course I'll take lots of pictures of what I make.

I'll end with a picture of my great husband, enjoying a beer at a restaurant patio on the lake. Happy birthday, J!

Quesadillas and Doctor Appointments

2010-07-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

Here's what we had for dinner tonight: Tuscan-Style White Bean Quesadillas with Artichokes and Sun-Dried Tomatoes. This was from Supermarket Vegan, and it was a great, quick week day meal. I added a handful of baby bella mushrooms to the quesadilla filling, and topped the quesadillas with our homemade salsa instead of the suggested spaghetti or pizza sauce.

And now, a tiny rant. I went to the doctor last night for my three month check-up. My blood sugar level went down a whopping 22 points, which was fantastic. But it dawned on me that I basically go to the doctor to have him read out the results of the blood test. The rest of the visit was spent with him trying to find things that might possibly be wrong with me. This time it was a referral to a nutritionist, despite the fact that I am still losing weight and am eating more fruits and vegetables than I have in years. And then a referral to a endocrinologist so he/she can stick a needle in my throat to determine if I have a goiter! Um, no thanks. I have never had anything wrong with my throat, and don't feel the need to pay a costly co-pay and whatever my insurance doesn't cover just to have a procedure done that frankly isn't necessary.

I very clearly told the doctor that I felt "great," but I suspect that he doesn't feel an appointment is complete unless he hands his patients at least two or three referrals. Maybe there are kick-backs involved? I don't know. But I left the office feeling very disillusioned. There's something wrong with a medical system that encourages doctors to rush in and out of rooms, barely reading patient charts, and writing up a storm of prescriptions and referrals. There is so little emphasis on preventive medicine, and such an eagerness to prescribe bottles and bottles of medication, many of which have alarming side effects that need to be treated by more medication.

The American people (myself included) would like to believe that our country, in the form of both private corporations and government-run safeguards like the FDA, ultimately wants what is best for us. The medicine on the market is supposed to heal us, the food (even the heavily processed stuff) is supposed to nourish us. It took me a long time to realize that things like soda and candy are not only not innocuous, but the corporations that manufacture them and the administrations that regulate them are fully aware of how dangerous they are. These entities just don't care, not when there is an ungodly profit to turn.

In the meantime, there is skyrocketing levels of child obesity, type II diabetes, and heart disease. We go to our doctor, and instead of suggesting we stop eating the chips or lunch meats or soda, we are given bottles of medication. Medication that in turn, (like Avandia is suspected of doing) expose us to even more health risks.

Oops. I guess this wasn't exactly a "tiny" rant after all. Sorry, guys. I promise my next blog post will be about the yummy vegan food again, no soap-boxing!

Summer's Bounty

2010-07-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

I've been addicted to fruit lately. There's strawberries, black cherries, raspberries, and blueberries in my refrigerator as I write this. I slice some of the fruit to eat with toasted buckwheat groat or oatmeal in the mornings, and eat handfuls as a snack, but that still leaves quite a bit of fruit just lying around. And as J has pointed out, the refrigerator is pretty much stuffed to capacity.

With that in mind, I decided to use up the blueberries for our Sunday brunch: Blueberry Breakfast Polenta from Get it Ripe. This took 30 minutes of diligent stirring, most of it done by J, the best husband in the world. The polenta tasted great with a little maple syrup drizzled over it.

Remember how I mentioned in a previous post that I've been obsessed with canning and preserving lately? Well, that wasn't an exaggeration. I've already canned salsa and pickles this summer, so decided to switch things up a little and try jams and preserves. J and I both love marmalade, so I was really excited to make the "Down South" Orange Marmalade from Lip Smackin' Jams & Jellies.

This involved two lemons, two valencia oranges, and a dubious amount of sugar. Also, an insane amount of time spent soaking and boiling fruit (lots of stirring happened in our kitchen today). Now, I've never tried a southern-style marmalade before, so I have no point of reference. But the marmalade I made turned out to be bitter instead of sweet. Also, I couldn't get the right jelly consistency. There's a spoon test to see if the jelly is done, but no matter how long I boiled the marmalade, I couldn't get it to do anything other than fall off the spoon in clumps. Sigh. I think I must have done something wrong, but I'm not sure what it was.

Here's a picture of it in the glass jar. It's pretty, but I'm reluctant to eat it if it has a ton of white sugar and doesn't taste great. J claims to really like the marmalade, however, and has taken full responsibility for making sure it doesn't go to waste.

I felt really discouraged by the whole marmalade experience. This made me more determined than ever to make a successful fruit spread. And hmm, I had both cherries and strawberries in surplus, so I made a batch of strawberry and cherry preserves from Lip Smackin' Jams & Jellies.

Isn't it beautiful? And it tastes delicious, the kind of delicious that makes you say "mmm" out loud. I definitely want to make this recipe a few more times before cherries go out of season, just so we'll be able to have sweet cherry and strawberry goodness in January and February.

Okay, enough with the fruit already!! Yesterday I had a bowl of groats (with a dollop of peanut butter) for dinner, but tonight I decided to cook a proper meal.

It has occured to me that my cooking habits are very odd. In the winter I use my slow cooker all the time, and now that it's summer, I'm either simmering a soup or two, or baking a casserole. And our kitchen gets very hot in the summertime. So after the long hours of boiling fruit and stirring polenta, I thought: why not break out the slow cooker?

I made the Braised Seitan with Red Wine and Mushrooms from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. When I was an omnivore, I used to make beef burgundy a lot, and this is a tasty, healthier vegan substitute. The wine, thyme and a bit of Gravy Master gave the stew a nice depth of flavor. I served it over brown rice, with kale chips and a tossed salad.

Cassoulet!

2010-07-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

Last night I made the Leek and Bean Cassoulet with Biscuits from Veganomicon. I'd never even had a cassoulet before in my life, but it is pure deliciousness. Perhaps a little more suited for the winter than the 90+ degree temperatures we've been having lately ... but delicious just the same. The biscuits alone are gold-star worthy.

Here's a picture of the cassoulet, just out of the oven:

And here's a picture of the cassoulet served up.

Making Bread in the Middle of the Night

2010-07-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky and usually don't have any trouble sleeping, but last night I just couldn't fall asleep. I lay awake for hours before finally deciding to get up and do something useful ... I baked.

After looking through my cookbook collection, I found a recipe for Ginger Bread in How It All Vegan. It was perfect, as I always have a stash of fresh ginger, and even had a little container of crystallized ginger. The only ingredient I didn't have was molasses, but figured it would be okay to use brown rice syrup instead.

I haven't baked anything for a long time (trying to limit my intake of white flour and sugar), but reasoned with myself that brown rice syrup made this a healthy-ish baked good. Still lots of white flour, but oh well. At three o'clock in the morning, it seems almost obscene to cook a pasta dish or make a big pot of soup, but baking felt right somehow. And the ginger bread is seriously good. It's moist and mildly sweet. I might add another 1/4 cup of crystallized ginger next time I make this, but otherwise I think this recipe was perfect.

On a side note, I am now completely obsessed with canning. I want to go to an U-pick berry farm sometime very soon and try making preserves or jelly. I envision a pantry filled with homemade jars of fruit and veggies -- seriously, how wonderful would that be??

Anyway, I'll probably post again tonight, as I'm about to go into the kitchen to make some cassoulet for dinner!

Soup for the Fourth of July

2010-07-04T17:27:00.000-07:00

No grilling out for us today. We decided to do things a little differently, and made a batch of Roasted Yellow Pepper and Corn Bisque from Veganomicon instead.

Now, here is soup done right. The sweetness of the bell peppers, corn, coconut milk, and maple syrup is a wonderful contrast against the hot peppers and limes. The maple syrup and lime combo worried me a little, but I knew from past experience that Isa and Terry (the Veganomicon authors) would never leave a vegan cook astray. How right I was.

I've been going through phases with cookbooks lately -- maybe you noticed my recent infatuation with The Vegan Table? Anyway, this week will be very Veganomicon-centric. Just to let you know.

The Week in Review

2010-07-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

Because it's been so long since my last post, I have a smorgasboard of food pics to share!

First off is Zesty Za'atar Pan Pizzas from the June 2010 issue of Veg News (and contributed by the super-fantastic Terry Hope Romero). J and I used to have za'atar bread at Zaytoons, this great Middle Eastern restaurant around the corner from my Brooklyn apartment. It was one of the foods I missed the most when we moved to Pittsburgh. So when I found za'atar spice at Whole Foods, I was so excited. And let me tell you, these za'atar pizzas did not disappoint.

I don't have a cast-iron skillet, so could not make cute little personal pan pizzas, just one large sheet of pizza. The pizza crust tasted great, and the kalamata olives, red olives made for very vibrant toppings. Yum! And it tasted even better the next day.

Needless to say, I will make these again.

Chili-Oil-Infused Soba Noodles from The Vegan Table was my next culinary challenge of the week. I loved how easy it was to throw the ingredients together, marinate the noodles (I substituted the soba noodles for mung bean noodles, which worked great) overnight, and toss in some grated carrots, sliced bell peppers, and scallions.

Sesame oil and chili oil make a wonderful combination. The noodles looked simple, but tasted so flavorful. J and I both agreed that this dish was another keeper.

I get kinda ambitious over the weekends. Last Sunday I got it into my head to make homemade pickles. I bought a little baggie of spice mix from the store, but decided to leave it in the cabinet for now and made Dutch Lunch Spears from The Joy of Pickling.

I purchased two and a half pounds of cucumbers from the Farmer's Market, which made two quarts of pickles. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how these taste yet, because they need to sit for at least two more DAYS!!! So in the meantime, we can admire how pretty the cucumbers, sliced onions, garlic cloves, and dill sprigs look floating about in the vinegar mixture.

UPDATE: These pickles are great! They taste slightly sweet and crisp, in no way resembling the sickly sweet stuff you can get at the grocery stores. My copy of The Joy of Pickling belongs to the library and is due back soon, so I need to get my own copy ASAP for more pickling adventures!

I'm really into quick and easy summertime meals, and Orzo Salad with Lemon, Corn, Olives, and Basil fit into this category nicely. This recipe is from Supermarket Vegan, the cookbook I decided to get after making a great strawberry cobbler (and blogged about in an earlier post). I'm so glad I did. The orzo salad had a perfect summery taste, not too heavy, the corn adding a surprisingly complimentary sweetness to the olives.

There is some talk about having a pot luck at work, and if there is one, this is the pasta salad I'll bring in. It's perfect for vegans and non-vegans alike.

And now ... what happens when you don't carefully read through a recipe. I wasn't feeling very well a few days but was intent on having homemade soup. Specifically, the Rustic Tomato Lentil Soup from How it All Vegan. I love any soup made of fresh tomatoes, and was way too excited about the box of alphabet noodles I bought from the store. So anyway -- J and I did the veggie prep together, and then, because I was going to go lie down, I gave him the recipe and told him how long the soup should simmer, when to throw in the noodles, that kind of thing. Only -- I told him to use the whole box of alphabet noodles instead of the one cup the recipe specified. And what happens when you add too many noodles to a soup?

It ceases to be soup! I heard J shouting, "All the liquid disappeared!" from the kitchen. Ack! Poor J, this was his first attempt at making soup. I hope I haven't scared him away from a second try. Not that it didn't taste good. It did, but frankly, our version was pasta with a bit of soup added to it.

And now, for an endorsement: seaweed is good for you. Everyone should eat a lot more of it. Especially when it's mixed into a great side dish like Gingered Green Beans with Hijiki, from The Kind Diet. At this point, I think I've tried half of the recipes from the KD. I loved every single one of them.

Anyway, back to the green beans. This was so good, I ate the leftovers for breakfast this morning. And I'm pretty traditional about my breakfast foods, so that tells you something.

Here's a picture of it, served with a nicely grilled soy cheese sandwich. Unfortunately, the cheese didn't melt, but it still tasted pretty good. And hey, who needs melted cheese when you have hijiki?

Onions and Garlic

2010-06-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

This week we had a lot of (you guessed it) onion and garlic-based meals. I made the French Onion Pie from The Vegan Table, or to be more precise, french onion pies, because it actually made two pies. The filling was a yummy combination of caramelized onions, tofu, soy milk, nutritional yeast, and spices. I bought frozen pie crusts instead of making them myself, which were not only organic, but also tasted almost-homemade! Unfortunately, I don't remember the brand name, just that I found them at Whole Foods.

Anyway, the french onion pies were a great contrast of creamy, cheezy filling and tender pie crust. I served them with the Marinated Lemon Zucchini from Vegan Italiano. I marinated the zucchini overnight in an olive oil, lemon, and spice blend, and then broiled the veggies for just a few minutes. Perfection!

I've been really into making soups lately, and had a crazy amount of garlic bulbs lying around. It was the perfect excuse for making Glorious Roasted Garlic Soup from The Garden of Vegan. I must warn you that this packs a serious garlic taste. Wow! I love roasted garlic anyway, but paired with shallots, onions, and potato, it's amazing.

The rest of the week has been rather hectic, so I've made quite a few "repeat" dishes, ones that that are both simple to prepare and super yummy. Unfortunately, that means I don't have a lot of food pictures to show off this week.

Last night J and I went to WYEP's Summer Music Festival, a great free music festival we've never been able to make it to in the past. Happily, the line-up included Sarah Harmer, whose music I love! Here's a picture of her and her band onstage. I was so happy because they performed "Basement Apartment" and "Uniform Grey," my favorite songs from her first album!

The stupid camera ran out of batteries before Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea took the stage, so no more pictures. But let me assure you, they were very, very good. I'd never heard Nicole Atkins' music before and was very impressed. J, who played guitar for years, was particularly impressed with the female guitarist (whose name I don't remember), who shredded it up. I don't know a thing about guitar playing, but even I could tell that she was good. All in all, it was a great music festival, and the perfect way to end a particularly grueling work week.

I know Saturday is typically the start of my cooking-frenzy-madness, but it started out early in the morning with a blood test (successful this time, I'm always grateful when they can actually find my tiny veins!), and by the time we got home from running various errands, I felt way too exhausted to try a new recipe. The Nabeyaki Udon from The Kind Diet is incredibly soothing to both cook (something about adding all the brightly colored vegetables, one at a time, to simmer in a simple shiitake mushroom broth) and eat. It's also one of my new favorite comfort foods, so I made a big pot of it, and we mellowed out in front of the TV.

Tomorrow I should be back to my cooking-like-a-maniac self, so expect more pictures very soon.

Sometimes Cooking is a Family Affair

2010-06-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend my entire family got into a crazy cooking spree. It started with salsa. Two types of salsa, the tomatillo green salsa I've blogged about in the past from Viva Vegan!, and a red salsa (from a mix). We had to buy seven pounds of tomatoes.

My mother, hard at work boiling tomatoes and tomatillos.

J, chopping massive amounts of cilantro.

My brother, checking out the onions (a very serious duty).

A sampling of the finished product. The salsa was a bit salty, but had a mildly spicy taste from the banana peppers we added.

The green tomatillo salsa was really spicy this time, especially on Saturday. I remembered too late that I had seeded the jalapenos when I made this salsa before. It mellowed a little by today, however, and the flavor evened out to resemble the deliciousness I remembered last time. Here it is, in my cat-shaped shoyu bowl.

Another big project this weekend was making peanut butter mochi. I found the recipe here, from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin website. Last time I went to Hawaii, I had the most delicious peanut butter mochi, and wanted to try making my own ever since. I was a little apprehensive because I'd only made one variety of mochi before, a butter mochi that contained large amounts of (you guessed it) butter and was molded into a cake pan. But with a lot of family assistance (my Mom and brother basically assembled these on their own while J and I were making dinner), we produced a bounty of peanut butter mochi. We used Peanut Butter & Co's white chocolate peanut butter for the filling instead of plain peanut butter, and it turned out to be a wise choice. This is beyond amazing. You must, must, must, try this recipe.

A close-up of the mochi.

And since this post is so photo-crazy, who not add a few more? Here's one of our happy kitties.

And here's one of J and I, taking a break after an intense Strip District shopping marathon.

Oh Yeah!

2010-06-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

To celebrate my mother and brother coming to Pittsburgh for a visit, we went to Oh Yeah! Ice Cream & Coffee Co. J and I recently discovered that they have vegan ice cream options (thanks Nina and Jeff!), and were completely blown away by the delicious soy ice cream.

Last time I had the soy vanilla bean. This time I tried the soy chocolate with two mix-ins, peanut butter and Newman-O's. With a waffle cone, of course. Their swirl machine does a magical job of blending the mix-ins in completely, so that you feel that you're inventing your own flavor of ice cream.

Here's a picture of my brother, holding my waffle cone and his concoction of Big Lebowski ice cream with a brownie mix-in.

Needless to say, I'm really hyped up about Oh Yeah! Ice Cream & Coffee. They offer 100 varieties of mix-ins, and I want to eventually try all of them (well, not the bacon, so almost all).

Stuffed Bell Peppers

2010-06-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

This will have to be the shortest blog entry yet. I made the Elegantly Simple Stuffed Bell Peppers from The Vegan Table (yes, that cookbook again).

Let me just say, this was both elegant and simple, and very pretty as well. I did omit the raisins and sub short-grain brown rice for long-grain. The ground almonds were especially nice mixed into the filling. Another summer hit, even though I did have to use the oven.

No-Queso Quesadilla and the Tempeh Dilemma

2010-06-16T16:40:00.000-07:00

So far this week, we had one amazing meal and one that was mediocre.

No-Queso Quesadilla is another recipe from The Vegan Table. It's simplicity at its best -- quesadillas with a filling of homemade hummus and a bit of salsa. I'd never made homemade hummus before (I know, shocking), and found it difficult to get the right creamy consistency. I looked up the hummus recipe in 500 Vegan Recipes, and increased the amount of olive oil and tahini accordingly.

Don't let the picture fool you. This may look like a plain old quesadilla, but it's not! Hummus is the perfect filling for quesadillas. We'll definitely make this again, especially when it gets really hot outside and I don't feel like turning on the stove.

Next up was Hoisin-Glazed Tempeh with Green Beans and Cashews, from the March issue of Vegetarian Times. The hoisin, rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic seemed as if it would be a flavorful combination, but I found it rather plain. Maybe some of my ambivalence is due to the fact that I like tempeh the least of the vegan proteins/meat substitutes, the other two being tofu and seitan. I'm still getting used to the nutty, sometimes bitter taste.

I also served this dish over soba noodles, and maybe brown rice would have been a better choice. At any rate, I will be adding a lot of sriracha to the leftovers to liven things up.

Mini-Post #2

2010-06-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

For dinner tonight, I made Falafel Burgers from The Vegan Table. I was supposed to make a cucumber dipping sauce for the falafels, but couldn't find a container of plain soy yogurt at Giant Eagle, and was too lazy to backtrack to either Whole Foods or the Co-op. So instead we dipped the falafels into Trader Joe's cilantro and jalapeno hummus.

J used the cucumber to make a light summer salad. Mmmm. Cucumbers sprinkled with salt is pretty divine.

The falafels were really good. Next time, I'll use a little less bread crumbs, as my patties ended up a bit dry and crumbly, and rather difficult to flip with the spatula.

The Vegan Table, by the way, is a beautiful cookbook. It is reminiscent of something Martha Stewart might put together, if she was a vegan. There are very lovely pictures of almost every recipe (I'm a big advocate of pictures in cookbooks, the more the better), and tasteful menu plans. I think everything looks great, so expect to see at least two more offerings from The Vegan Table this week.

Mini-Post #1

2010-06-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

J and I go to the library at least once a week. It is my main source of great vegan cookbooks, after all! It's really tough to find parking on Sundays, probably due to the fact that all meter parking is free. It isn't unheard of to drive around for ten or fifteen minutes before we find a spot, and J isn't the most patient driver in the world.

So this Sunday, I came up with a plan. We would get to the library at 11:30, half an hour before it opens, and go have lunch across the street at Schenley Plaza, which in addition to an extremely green field and old-fashioned carousel, has a few food kiosks and a nice tented space with little tables and chairs. One of the kiosks is run by The Milky Way, a restaurant in Squirrel Hill that is both kosher and has vegetarian/vegan options.

I ordered the veggie burger, partly because it was advertised as being their most famous item.

This had a surprisingly meat-like texture. I had J take a bite to verify that it wasn't actually a meat product. The patty was a little dry (a problem I eradicated with lots of ketchup), but otherwise very tasty. I will definitely have this again if I have a craving for a hamburger.

Once at home, I made a batch of Quick Corn Relish from The Joy of Pickling . I've become a bit obsessed with the idea of pickling, preserving, and canning after reading Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally. When I was a teenager I helped my mother cook and can a few things over the years -- salsa, and once a surprisingly sublime dandelion jelly. It was fun, and frankly kinda thrilling to open the cupboard and see rows and rows of bottled goodness that we had made ourselves.

I also like the idea of knowing exactly where my food comes from. Unlike the brand name jar of salsa in the grocery store, we picked our own tomatoes and jalapenos. There was no long list of unpronounceable and questionable ingredients. Tomato, jalapenos, onions, vinegar, salt. That was it.

So I have a lot of elaborate plans involving pickling and preserving, but decided to start with an easy, quick-pickling project. The recipe called for raw sweet corn kernels, sweet or mildly hot peppers, an onion, a variety of spicing, and apple cider vinegar.

Here it is, in a recycled Mrs. Renfro's jar. It will be pickled in two days, can't wait! Oh, and yes, that is a Shrek toy posed next to the jar. This is J's artistic input. He got (momentarily) very excited about having Shrek in the picture. And no, I'm not secretly hitting the McDonald's drive-thru in the middle of the night (or at any other time, for that matter). The Shrek toy was a gift from my mother-in-law.

I used to think toys included with fast food meals was a great idea. Sometimes I would specifically buy a Happy Meal to get a movie franchise toy from McDonald's. Now: not so great. At least not for the kids ordering and eating the food in order to get the toy. My generation, and every generation after mine, was brought up on fast food and convenience food like frozen dinners and sugary boxes of cereal. Is it a concidence that heart disease and type two diabetes is inflicting a large percentage of the population? I don't think so.

I haven't had a fast food meal since January, and I'm so thankful J and I don't eat at those places anymore. It was too salty, too sugary, and too processed, and frankly, we can do a lot better at home. We enjoy and thrive on our home-cooked meals. I can't exactly say that about the fast food hamburgers and fries we used to eat two or three times a week.

And speaking of the relationship between health and diet, here is the website for Forks over Knives, a documentary coming out this fall. Looks really good, and I like the catchy yet thought-provoking title.

Mexiquinoa and Sauteed Jalapeno Corn

2010-06-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

This week we've been eating a lot of quick and easy dishes. Mexiquinoa from 500 Vegan Recipes is a good example. All I had to do was cook the quinoa (I picked red over white), and then stir it into a mixture of salsa, jalapenos, black beans, and corn.

Here it is, pictured with a couple of sweet potato pierogi.

I guess I was really in the mood for corn and jalapenos this week, because I also made Sauteed Jalapeno Corn from Vegan Soul Kitchen. This was wonderful with sweet fresh corn, and spicier than I expected. I didn't seed the jalapenos though, which may have had something to do with it.

There are actually eight more ears of corn in the refrigerator, waiting to be shucked, so expect to see a few more corn-based meals!

A Multitude of Breakfasts, Lemon Chickpea Lentil Soup, and Risotto

2010-06-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

J and I had the buckwheat groats for breakfast, and they were excellent. J ate them with sliced banana and strawberries, and I just had strawberries (I can't eat bananas raw, only in baked goods). The groats are so much better than cereal. I think we'll be making a lot of this in the future.

On Sunday morning I realized I only had a tablespoon or so of dark chocolate peanut butter left. Bianca of Vegan Crunk had a recent post about oats in a jar, so I knew exactly what to do.

Here's the almost empty jar.

I cooked half a cup of oatmeal, and added it to the peanut butter jar with a drizzle of sugar-free syrup.

It might not look like much (sorry for yet another blurry picture), but it was a mac-daddy of a breakfast. Yum. I can't wait until we use almost all of the white chocolate peanut butter ...

I made a big pot of Lemon Chickpea Lentil Soup from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. After months of crazy cooking adventures, a soup like this seems like the easiest thing in the world. Just throw everything in a pot, let it simmer, and then blend it to creamy consistency. I made it on Sunday morning, and we took some of it to the park for lunch. It has a taste reminiscent of warm hummus, and was great with tortilla chips.

For dinner, I made the Risotto with Oyster Mushrooms, Leeks, and Peas from The Kind Diet. Or to be slightly more accurate, I used a mixture of button and baby bella mushrooms, not oyster mushrooms. I'd never tasted risotto before, much less made it. It reminded me of that cliche about watching paint dry. That's how I felt, patiently pouring ladle after ladle of heated water into the pan, stirring constantly, waiting for the water to absorb before adding more. Yawn. Halfway through, I picked up a book and starting reading while stirring (the book is Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally. I'm enjoying it, despite the fact that the authors, both vegetarians, decided to start eating seafood because they felt a balanced vegetarian diet wasn't possible within the parameters of their 100-mile diet).

The drudgery was worth it in the end. The risotto was creamy and wonderful, with a tart sweetness from the added mirin. Here it is, with some chilpotle mashed yams. I love the contrast of colors.

I have another comp day tomorrow (yay!), so expect more food pictures very soon.

Blue Grape and Buckwheat Groats

2010-06-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

I found this picture on our camera. It's taken at Fallingwater, but as you can't tell FW trees from other random trees, I decided it was safe to share the pic with you. Beautiful, huh? We had a great time there.

Okay, okay. Back to the food. I borrowed my first raw cookbook from the library, Raw Food/Real World. I was kind of disappointed, because a lot of the recipes called for the use of a dehydrator, which I don't have. But everything looked really yummy and I was determined to try something, even if just a drink. Which is exactly what I made this morning.

This is the Blue Grape.

This great colored, summer-yummy drink is actually made out of grapefruit, not grapes. It also has some agave nectar and blue-green algae in it to give it the pretty hue. J and I were both a little apprehensive about the blue-green algae powder, because it smelled really ... well, algae-like. We both like seaweed and sea vegetables, but I wasn't convinced algae and grapefruit belonged together. Luckily, you couldn't taste anything but grapefruit and sweetness. Plus, you get the added benefit of the algae, which, according to Raw Food/Real World, is a great source of protein and B12.

I confess, it was a little weird to drink something other than water. Since embarking on this journey away from meat and processed foods, I've made a conscious effort to drink nothing but water and the very occasional diet soda. In the past I used to drink a LOT of soda. I'd even drink it for breakfast. And when I wasn't drinking soda, I was drinking "juice" -- you know, the kind with very little fruit juice in it, but a lot of high fructose corn syrup. So at this point, even healthful juices like this one seems kind of naughty. Tasty, but naughty.

I've been enjoying oatmeal (the quick cooking variety) for breakfast lately, which definitely is an improvement over the boxed cereal I was eating for months on end. But I wanted to try some groats, the hulled (unprocessed) version of a grain. In this case, of buckwheat. I found the recipe for Crunchy Buckwheat Cereal here.

Here are the groats, pre-oven.

And here they are, nicely toasted and tossed with maple syrup and natural peanut butter.

I tried a few spoonfuls after it came out of the oven. It has a nutty taste, with just a slight sweetness. I will have some of this tomorrow morning with sliced strawberries!

OMG It's Pizza!!!!!

2010-06-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

So, the last time I had pizza (not made by either my husband or myself, that is) was January. I expected to have pizza again, but a cheese-less version that I would probably have to doctor up at home with a handful of Daiya. Then the other day I was googling vegan food in Pittsburgh, and found out about Spak Brothers. Take a look at their menu. It's amazing, with so many veg pizza, hoagie, and even appetizer choices. With much anticipation, J picked up two small pizzas. His was feta, tomato, and kalamata olive. Mine was soy cheese, fake pepperoni, and mushrooms! This is the sort of pizza combination I would eat pre-vegan!

And look how beautiful it is.

It tasted just as wonderful as it looks! The crust was amazing, and the soy cheese was perfectly melty. And because there was so much of it, I have leftover pizza for lunch (or breakfast!) tomorrow. Spak Brothers, I love you!

I guess indulgence was the theme for tonight. I had some strawberries and rhubarb from the Farmer's Market this week, so I made a pan of strawberry cobbler from the May/June issue of Vegetarian Times. I improvised and added the rhubarb (just a few thin stalks).

Here's a picture of what I spooned into my bowl.

Wow, this is good. The recipe is from Donna Klein's Supermarket Vegan (VT actually showcased five different recipes from the cookbook. There's a Jamaican-style Black Bean and Coconut Cornbread Bake that sounds great too). It was quick and easy to whip up, and yes, I could have gotten all the ingredients from my local Giant Eagle. If this is any indication of the quality of recipes in Supermarket Vegan, I want a copy!

To look forward to this weekend: my first adventure with buckwheat groats. Also, risotto! Of course, there will be lots of pictures.

Soba Noodles and Kale Chips

2010-06-02T18:28:00.000-07:00

J was all for grilling a couple of veggie burgers for dinner tonight and calling it a day, but I had a crazy craving for noodles. But not starchy Italian noodles. Soba noodles! I found this recipe from The Ordinary Vegetarian. Look at all the soba goodness!

It was absolutely delicious. I urge everyone to try this. If you triple the recipe, like I did, you'll have plenty left over for lunch.

I bought another bunch of kale from the Farmer's Market the other day. Luckily I have the latest issue of Veg News, complete with a recipe for kale chips. I'd never had kale chips before. They were really good, and quite addictive, like chips of all kinds. Crispy and salty, yum.

Being a vegan is amazing. I'd never even had kale before a few weeks ago. Here is a list of some other things I'd either never liked or never tried before going veg:

1) Beans (kidney, cannelinni)

2) Grapefruit

3) Tempeh and seitan

4) Oatmeal (I am now an official oatmeal addict)

5) Agave nectar

6) Nutritional yeast

7) Brown rice (love it!!! Just the short grain, though. I don't care for the long grain version)

8) Leeks

9) Kabocha squash

10) Bulgur, millet, and quinoa

In short, the stuff we're cooking now is so much more exciting than the hamburger and mushroom-soup based food I used to make. I actually look forward to brown-bagging lunch to work. And I feel so revitalized. My skin is clearer, my body feels lighter, and I have so much more energy. It's amazing, how much power food has. I used to think food was just something to shovel in my mouth, without benefit or consequence. I don't think that anymore.

Chili

2010-06-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

Pre-vegan days, we would make chili almost every week. Now that we have so many great new vegan recipes to choose from, it's been a long time since that last pot of chili. But chili is good comfort food, and I missed it. Of course, I never want to eat chili with hamburger again. Our chili has mushrooms, onions, peppers (both hot and sweet), corn chickpeas, kidney beans, and heirloom tomato in it. I also made some brown rice in the rice cooker. One word: yum.

Memorial Day

2010-05-31T15:08:00.000-07:00

Here's what a vegan eats on Memorial Day:

Veggie hot dog with sauerkraut and jalapenoes, a lentil dal patty from Whole Foods (with chopped hot pepper on the top), and watermelon! I had to work today, but fortunately was able to leave a little early. J put the patties and hot dogs on the grill pan (we don't have a real grill, much less the outdoor space to grill in), and we had a great and relatively painless dinner.

My grandfather always went to the cemetery on Memorial Day to visit his parents' graves. Unfortunately, I'm not in Honolulu, where both sets of grandparents and my father are buried, but I like to spend some quiet time on Memorial Day in remembrance of them.

Have a good one, everyone.

No Rest for the Wicked

2010-05-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

Today was really hot in Pittsburgh, almost too hot for cooking. I didn't let that stop me, although I might be experimenting with raw foods in August, if the temperatures get much higher. Anyone out there have any favorite raw food dishes? I'm partial to cooked food, but admit I'm curious about the raw food movement.

Anyway, this morning I woke up late and immediately went to the kitchen. I can't let my sleeping in interfere with our tradition of a semi-lavish Sunday morning breakfast. There's something really soothing about sitting down to a plate of warm goodies and watching public television with the husband!

I had an extra container of firm tofu in the refrigerator, so decided to make a nice tofu scramble.. I always follow the recipe in Vegan Brunch pretty closely, because I think the spice combination is perfection. Today I added a cup of sliced white mushrooms, a handful of kalamata olives, and half a diced onion. I also toasted a few pieces of rye bread.

I had every intention of making the Pumpkin Spinach Ravioli from 500 Vegan Recipes, but couldn't find any pumpkin puree. Silly me for wanting pumpkin in the summertime! I decided to improvise with a spinach, mushroom, and butternut squash mixture.

Working with semolina flour was pretty challenging. I'd never made any pasta from scratch before, and had the hardest time with the sticky quality of the semolina flour. It kept sticking to the rolling pin, and I ended up adding a crapload of additional flour just to be able to roll it out into a semi-circle. I also think I need more practice with rolling dough out, because I couldn't get it anywhere near as thin as it should be. I've since found these instructions, which I will follow the next time I make homemade ravioli. I also found this recipe, which calls for a mixture of either wheat flour or white flour, and chickpea flour. I'm guessing this might make the dough less sticky. Oh, and this recipe, for heart-shaped ravioli. Super cute.

So my ravioli was a little thicker than they should have been (okay, a lot thicker), which meant there was less room for the filling, but I thought they had a lot of promise. J thought so too.

Here's a pic of the ravioli, nekkid.

And here they are, mixed up with some of the extra filling and a few spoonfuls of extra marinara sauce we had lying around (Nana's Heirloom Roasted Red Pepper). By the way, I think the tomato sauce from Veganomicon's Pasta E Fagioli would be awesome on ravioli. Next time.

J is a pasta purist, so ate his with a drizzle of olive oil and Italian seasoning.

I was exhausted after the semolina challenge, so didn't do my normal manic cooking-for-the-week routine. I did make a pot of vegetable stock, but that's it.

Falling Water, Ohiopyle and Basil Eggplant

2010-05-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

Today we took a road trip to see Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural wonder. It was a beautiful day for travelling, and Falling Water, which was originally built as a summer home for the Kaufmanns, was amazing. There were a few strict rules in the visitor's guide about not posting pictures of Falling Water on websites without permission, so sadly I can't share any of the great pictures we took.

For lunch, we stopped in Ohiopyle to eat at the Firefly Grill. I'd like to say that we just happened to stumble upon this great little place, but I found the menu on the website. When you're a vegan, you have to do a bit of planning beforehand. The Firefly Grill has so many vegetarian/easily veganized choices, it was almost overwhelming. But it's the season to start grilling hamburgers and hot dogs, so I ordered a veggie burger with french fries.

I always feel kind of weird about taking pictures of my food in restaurants. I know I have to get over this! So, no picture of the veggie burger, but it was thick and substantial (very hamburger-ish) and delicious. The fries were great too. J had a grilled cheese sandwich, which he said was also very good.

An extra bonus was the restaurant is next-door neighbor to the Methodist Church, so I got to look at the pretty stained glass windows while eating my lunch.

Ohiopyle looked like a great little town. There was rafting and bicycling activities going on everywhere, and little cafes and hippie-ish stands. We stopped in at a store that sold local food stuffs, mostly condiments. Luckily there were samples. I tried a little of these and just had to buy them. The ingredients for the apple butter was especially impressive: cider, apples, and spices. That's it! Amazing. And I can't wait to use the habanero pepper mustard on pretty much everything.

Tonight I made the Basil Eggplant from The Vegan Table. I improvised a bit by adding asparagus and broccoli florets, and then doubling the sauce ingredients to make up for the extra vegetables. This is what happens when you buy too much produce and don't feel like cooking a bunch of side dishes. I also decided not to seed the red chili peppers, because I like my food really spicy.

Also, sorry for the blurry picture. I took twenty of them, and this was the most focused of the bunch. My camera doesn't like to work at night!

This was great! Next time I'll follow the recipe so I can try it with just eggplant, and double everything to make sure there are lots of leftovers.

A Hodgepodge of Food

2010-05-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

I've been heating things up in the kitchen ... again!

First, a picture of what I ate for lunch the other day. Just a salad with green leaf lettuce, half a tomato, olives, beets, wasabi peas, and spicy tortilla won ton strips, but isn't it pretty? I thought it was.

Last night was another Viva Vegan! extravaganza. Every once in a while I'm nice and let J choose what we'll have to eat. Here's what he decided on.

Arroz con seitan ...

And tomatillo salsa with freshly made corn tortillas and storebought tortilla chips (we like Frontera's blue corn version).

The tomatillo salsa was absolutely the best salsa I've ever had. I wanted to eat it with a spoon. And it made a great amount too, which means at least a few more days of chip and salsa. :) The arroz con seitan was also wonderful and flavorful. The long grain white rice, seitan, carrots, green peppers and green olives make a tasty combination. There is a recipe (actually, two recipes) in Viva Vegan! to make your own homemade seitan, but as this was my first venture with seitan in the kitchen, I decided to play it safe and bought a packet of it from Whole Foods. I did use my homemade veggie broth, however!

I'm really impressed with Viva Vegan! I've been eyeing the recipe for black bean pupusas, so maybe you'll see a photo of it soon!

Tonight we stopped at the Farmer's Market on the way home from work. There were so many lovely vendors, with a great assortment of baked goods, fruits and veggies, flowers and plants. I wanted to buy pretty much everything, but settled on this:

Strawberries, kale, and pear jam (but not the black pepper grinder that somehow snuck its way into this picture).

No way was I going to let the kale languish in the fridge. I made a side dish of Ginger Sesame Greens from Clean Food, served with Mushroom Bulgur Pilaf from Quick-Fix Vegetarian.

It was a nice, simple meal. We aren't used to Tuesday nights without Lost, so soothed ourselves with an episode from Season One.

There was an abundance of beautiful-looking rhubarb at the Farmer's Market. I think Clean Food has a recipe for a strawberry rhubarb crumble ... hmm. Yum ... I've never cooked with rhubarb before, but each week brings new culinary adventures (seitan and bulgur, for example). Why not rhubarb?

Saying Goodbye to Lost

2010-05-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not posting in quite some time. This past week has been very busy and stressful. J was in the hospital for a couple of days, and then we went to upstate New York to visit his mother for the weekend. I was too stressed out to cook while J was sick, subsisting on the hospital salad bar and leftovers. But once Friday night rolled around, I was cooking like a maniac.

J, his mother, and I are all big fans of Lost. Last night was the big series finale, so I threw a Lost party on Saturday night for the three of us. Of course, a party ain't a party without dessert.

This is the peanut butter blondie from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I think I may have to buy a copy of this cookbook someday, despite it being full of wicked temptations (ha ha!). The blondies were AMAZING. My mother-in-law loved them too.

The rest of our dinner had an Italian vibe going on. I made the pasta e fagioli from Veganomicon. This was quite easy to throw together, and I loved the tomato-based sauce. Tomatoes smell so wonderful when they're simmering down to a sauce. I'd never had pasta e fagioli before, but apparently other people make the dish with peas instead of tomatoes. Next time I think I'll throw in a cup of peas, but I won't forgo the tomatoes.

I also made a batch of Rustic Olive Rolls from Students Go Vegan. I made these rolls once before, and then realized that my baking powder had expired, umm, approximately a year ago. Amazing what a difference fresh baking powder makes. Here's a picture of a roll, with the heel of a store-brought loaf of French bread.

They're actually more scone-like than roll-like, which is completely alright with me. I love the kalamata olives and onions, and the fact that you just mix up the ingredients and then bake. No waiting for any yeast to rise.

Here are a few pictures of our festive table.

I also made us iron-on transfer shirts with the Dharma Initiative logo on them.

The Lost series finale was amazing. I cried for an hour afterwards, not only because the television show ended (I've decided that it's my favorite series of all time, tied with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It definitely had a much better ending than Buffy), but because the series finale was profoundly sad and beautiful.

Osekihan!

2010-05-17T17:16:00.000-07:00

This is what we brought for lunch today. Osekihan is a traditional Japanese dish composed of sticky rice and adzuki beans. I got the recipe here. It is simple but filling, with only gomashio (sea salt and sesame seeds) used as a seasoning. I also made a pot of Quick Boiled Broccoli and Stems with Toasted Sesame Seeds from Clean Food. This was an equally simple, yet tasty, dish. I always shyed away from eating broccoli stems in the past, but no more. Now I know the secret of preparing broccoli stems correctly: trim the skin off. Believe me, it makes all the difference in the world.

Tomorrow is the Farmer's Market on the South Side, yay!!! I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it's better than the one in Strip District. I'd like a nice bunch of kale or maybe some ramps ... has anyone tried ramps before? There were some at the Co-op this weekend, and they were streaked through with a lovely violet hue. I hesitated about buying them without knowing exactly what to do with them ... but have since found a couple of recipes that actually call for ramps. So hopefully I'll get to try them before they're out of season.

And now for an obligatory kitty picture. This is what happens to the paper bags I bring home from Whole Foods: impromptu cat tent madness!

Another Crazy Sunday Post

2010-05-16T19:33:00.000-07:00

I always do the majority of my cooking on Sundays. Today was not an exception. It started at eight o'clock, which is very early for me on a Sunday morning! But J was going to the local soup kitchen to help prepare and serve lunch there, and I wanted to make a nice breakfast before he left.

I also wanted to make use of my new pancake animal pan. Who doesn't want monkey or giraffe mini-pancakes?

Here is a picture of the pancakes. I used the Perfect Pancake recipe from Vegan Brunch, and true to its name, it was indeed perfect. I served the pancakes with Yves meatless breakfast patties. This is the first time I tried any of the Yves products, and J and I liked the patties a lot. They had the perfect "meaty" consistency.

I had to take a close-up picture of the monkey pancake, which was way too cute.

After that, I decided to relax ... so I did a little more cooking. It always bothers me to throw away wilted veggies, and I need a cup or two of vegetable broth to cook with, without fail, every week. So I decided to whip up a batch of homemade vegetable stock. I used the Busy Cook's Leek Broth recipe from The New Vegan Cookbook and the Homemade Vegetable Stock recipe from The Vegan Table as points of reference, because I've never made vegetable stock before.

Into my stock pot went: leek greens, an onion, garlic cloves, baby bella mushrooms, carrots, three stalks of seriously wilted celery, sea salt, parsley, thyme, and bay leaves.

I sauteed the vegetables in a little olive oil for a few minutes, then added some water and simmered everything for about half an hour or so. I took a picture of the simmering action, but for some reason cannot add it to the blog!

The vegetable stock has a nice, delicate taste. I reserved a few cups for a bulgur dish I'll be making later this week, and froze the rest for future use.

Next up was a bit o baking. I borrowed a vegan cookie cookbook from the library ... and not just any cookie cookbook, but the infamous Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I made a batch of Banana Everything Cookies.

I've never had banana cookies before, so I was really excited to try this. In addition to banana, the mix contained oats, chocolate chips, and chopped walnuts. It was a pretty sticky mess to shape these cookies into the recommended "smaller than a golf ball" size, but they all turned out looking really cute.

Banana is really great in a cookie, by the way! I ate a couple more of these than I intended (because they were so good), J ate his share of cookie goodness, and the rest he will take to work with him tomorrow. No way are they are going to stay in our house -- too much temptation for me!

After so many sweet goodies this weekend, I'm looking forward to a week's worth of calmer, digestion-friendly meals. With a lot more vegetables too -- I didn't really eat that many this weekend.

Mochi Dumplings and Stuffed Peppers

2010-05-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday night, so of course I have plenty of new food pictures. :) I first read about the mochi dumplings I made tonight on Vegan Crunk. This comes from Clean Food, but as Bianca mentions in her post, it is not labelled a vegan cookbook, despite the fact that all of the recipes are vegan. Huh. Maybe Walters (the author) feels that the term "vegan" is too polarizing, too political?

Anyway, after reading Bianca's rave review of the dumplings, I immediately went to my trusty local library and borrowed Clean Food. I think I already mentioned this, but the Pittsburgh library system is incredible. There has not been a vegan cookbook yet that I haven't been able to either locate on the shelves or reserve. And believe me, I've checked out a lot of them. Great armfuls of them. Sometimes the librarians look at me like I've gone crazy.

But I digress. Clean Food is a very lovely-looking cookbook with the recipes divided by season. This way, you're eating fruits and vegetables when they're actually the freshest.

This was my first adventure with mochi-on-a-sheet (I used the Grainaissance brand, which Whole Foods carries). I know this is the only form of mochi many people are acquainted with, but I've never seen anything like it before. The mochi I know best is the sweet dessert variety, usually stuffed with something like red bean paste or peanut butter (mmm, peanut butter mochi is the greatest). There is also a local-style Hawaiian mochi that is made with ghastly amounts of butter. It's very delicious, and I will veganize it sooner or later.

Anyway, this was a relatively easy recipe. Just bake the mochi pieces, and then stuff them with sauteed cabbage, mushrooms, onion, ginger, and carrots. Serve with a simple dipping sauce on the side. I liked the contrast of the chewy mochi with the flavorful vegetables.

J and I also bought a couple of hot peppers at Giant Eagle today. After some discussion, we decided to improvise and stuff them with chilpotle mashed potatoes!

These turned out really well. Here is a picture of the creamy spicy chilpotle filling.

Hot Peppers Stuffed with Chilpotle Mashed Potatoes

Makes two stuffed peppers

Ingredients:

2 large green hot peppers (you can use poblanos for a milder taste)

2 medium red potatoes

3 T chilpotle sauce (we used San Marcos' brand of chilpotle "salsa") or 2-3 canned chilpotles mashed into a fine paste

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 T diced onions

3 baby bella mushrooms, finely chopped

1/2 scallion, finely chopped

1 T extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium saucepan filled with water, add the potatoes and garlic, boil until potatoes are very tender.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a small skillet over medium heat, then add the onion. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook until vegetables are cooked and onion is translucent. Set aside.

Cut the tops off the peppers and discard. Scrape out and discard the seeds inside as well. Set aside.

Drain the water from the saucepan, and mash potatoes and garlic. Add the chilpotle sauce, scallions, and salt and pepper to taste. Try some of the mashed potato mixture -- if you desire a spicier filling, add a little more chilpotle sauce.

Spoon mashed potato filling into peppers. Wrap each in tinfoil, and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.

Let cool for a few minutes, then unwrap from tinfoil and serve warm. Bon apetit!

Recipe Alert!

2010-05-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

My mom is really excited about this blog. She's been telling all kinds of folks to check it out, which is great. The only problem is, she wants me to start posting recipes. Every time I speak to her on the phone, she mentions the lack of recipes on the blog.

So here is my veganized/slightly altered version of the pear muffin recipe I found on the internet. I apologize for not giving credit where it is due, I can't remember what website it was on! I have pictures of the pear muffins in an earlier post (scroll down!). As soon as I make a new batch and take more pictures, I will add them here.

Pear Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup turbinado sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 cup rice milk or unflavored soy milk

1 egg replacement equaling 1 large egg (I use EnerG)

2 tablespoon canola oil

1 large ripe pear, peeled, cored, and choppped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with paper muffin cups.

Combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and spices) in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, combine milk, egg replacement, and canola oil. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add milk mixture. Stir just until all ingredients are combined and moist. Fold in chopped pear. Spoon batter into muffin cups, about 2/3rds full. Bake for 20 minutes.

These muffins freeze very well. I wrap each muffin in tin foil and then put them in freezer bags. Wait until muffins have completely cooled before freezing, though.

Curried Couscous and Vegetables

2010-05-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

Curried Couscous and Vegetables from Quick-Fix Vegetarian. This is not actually what we had to eat tonight for dinner -- I've been a little behind with my posting. We did have the leftovers for lunch, though.

I stuck pretty closely to the recipe this time, except for adding some fresh fava beans. I'd never tried fava beans before, and have come to the realization that I really don't like them. So I picked them out of my couscous. Jason liked his though. This is a great dish to make on weeknights, as it came together so quickly! Just chop up a zucchini or two, add some green onions, baby peas, and chickpeas with vegetable broth and curry powder, and then mix in some quick-cooking couscous. Done!

This is actually the sort of meal that tastes even better the next day, which is great for leftover lunches. Just wanted to mention I borrowed Quick-Fix Vegetarian from my amazing library, as I have with a lot of the cookbooks I've mentioned in other posts. It's great to give a cookbook a trial-run before putting down the twenty or so dollars for one. I look forward to trying another recipe or two before I have to return the book.

So: what did we have for dinner? We went to dinner with a friend we hadn't seen for a long time. I chose Pacific Ring because it's not far from where we live, and because I had a coupon from the Pennysaver. I also liked the shrimp dishes I'd ordered there in the past, but unfortunately, shrimp dishes and vegan dishes don't seem to be on quite the same level. I ordered the Buddha's Delight, which was ... lackluster. The vegetables were a bit limp and tasteless, as was the watery brown sauce. Maybe the short conversation I had with the waiter should have served as a warning:

Me: Can you tell me what's in the Buddha's Delight?

Waiter: (shrugging) Mixed vegetables.

Oh well. They did have a pretty large selection of veg dishes, which is nice. And maybe they were just having an off day. It happens.

Guacamole Bean Dip

2010-05-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you gotta have comfort food. I've never been a very big fan of macaroni and cheese (or uncheese, as the case would be) or potpie. This is my go-to comfort food.

Guacamole bean dip. To be precise, Cheesy, Oozy Guacamole Bean Dip from The Kind Diet. As you can probably tell from the picture, J is still leery of vegan cheese, so half of the bean dip has real cheese on it.

Here's a close-up of my half. There's layers of refried beans, mashed avocado and lime juice, black olives, Tofutti sour cream substitute, green chiles, and tomatoes. I ate my dip on a bed of red leaf lettuce with tortilla chips and, of course, more homemade corn tortillas.

It made an enormous amount, so we will have guacamole bean dip for several more meals. :)