Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking

San Francisco highlights: day 2 | Burma Superstar | Gracias Madre

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:41:00 +0000

We started our second day in San Francisco with a hike at Lands End in the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. According to the park's Web site, "Lands End is San Francisco’s wildest and rockiest coast. Trails at Lands End offer a cliff-top walk through shadowy cypress, with scenic overlooks, 30-mile views of the coast, and foot access to several shoreline pocket beaches."

I'd say that's a good description. It doesn't mention the hundreds of steps built into the trail, but the description of the scenery is accurate. It was another beautiful day, and a perfect opportunity to enjoy gorgeous surroundings and fresh air.

Above you see my husband and me sitting on a rock near the start of the trail, where we could see the Golden Gate bridge in the distance.

After spending the morning hiking we were hungry and ready for lunch at our chosen restaurant, Burma Superstar. The restaurant was on the shady side of the street where it was a tad chilly, and we had a bit of a wait, so I was impressed to see a big pot of hot tea outside for waiting customers to enjoy.

Samusa soup

Burma Superstar isn't a vegetarian restaurant, which always leaves me a little on edge, but it has vegetarian offerings on the menu. However, although I haven't been mentioning this on my blog, I've been avoiding gluten for the last few months, and the items being ordered by my family to share were not ones I would have chosen. Since they were favorites of my son, and everyone else wanted them, I ordered a broccoli dish rather than sharing the other choices. The first item to arrive at the table was samusa soup, which I passed on.

Tea leaf salad and Rainbow salad (no shrimp)

We also had tea leaf salad and a noodle salad. Everyone loved these dishes though I can't offer personal comments since I didn't eat them.

Wok tossed broccoli

My broccoli was well-cooked and tasty, but surprisingly oily. I was hungry and wanted to eat it but there was only so much I could consume because of the greasiness. Would I go back to Burma Superstar? Probably not, though I might not be the best person to review the restaurant. Everyone else at my table and in the packed restaurant was enthusiastic.

It was pretty late in the afternoon when we finished lunch but we went back to our son's apartment and did a walking tour of the neighborhood where he and Alison live, plus the Mission district. Then, even though I really didn't think I could walk one more step, my husband and I walked back to our apartment to rest a little before dinner at Gracias Madre.

Enchiladas con Mole (I think)

Gracias Madre was a restaurant I really wanted to experience, and I loved it. I had the enchiladas con mole — spicy mole enchiladas topped with mushrooms and cashew cheese, served with sautéed greens and beans, and it was just delicious. It was so dark in the restaurant that photography was impossible without a flash, and difficult with one, so you'll have to use your imagination. The food was impressive.

Quesadillas de Calabaza (maybe)

Alison got what she thought was going to be a smaller dish, but it was large and gorgeous. The menu describes it as butternut squash and caramelized onions folded into tortillas with cashew nacho cheese and pumpkin seed salsa. She was quite pleased with her choice, and I think the rest of us were a little jealous.

Tacos

My husband ordered tacos — three corn tortillas topped with a choice of seasonal vegetables and cashew cheese, served with beans. My son had Chilaquiles — handmade corn tortillas quartered and sauteed in a spicy salsa roja, topped with avocado, cilantro, cashew crema and onions, and served with black beans. I believe everyone was very pleased with their choices.

It's sad to think that Gracia Madre may be closed the next time we visit SF. I've heard rumors that it's possible not all of the Café Gratitude-connected restaurants will close, though it sure sounds like they are being sold. Anyone know anything about this?

Warning: do not delete

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:00:00 +0000

I'm going to digress from my usual blog posts to tell you what happened to my blog on Saturday, and hopefully prevent something similar from happening to you. I don't know if anyone has noticed the message that now appears on the top right sidebar of the blog, but it says that on Saturday, I accidentally deleted every image from my blog — the header, all images from the sidebars, pages and from every one of the 386 posts I've written over the last five years. Gone, gone, gone.

How did I do so much damage, you might be wondering. It has to do with Google+ and Picasa. I was not a Google+ user. Though I've gotten lots of emails telling me that this person and that has added me to Google Circles, I haven't paid much attention to it. I don't have the time or desire to use more social networking sites than I already use. I barely use twitter — mostly it's Facebook and blogging where I spend my Internet time. But I had a bunch of San Francisco photos that I wanted my son and his girlfriend to see, and they use Google+, so I went to the site and posted the photos. While I was there, I noticed that a bunch of my blog photos were there, and I didn't want them to be. I should have stopped to figure out why, but I was annoyed that Google had preempted my choices, and I deleted the photos I didn't want to share. Big mistake.

What I didn't know was that Picasa and Google+ are now connected, and what you delete from Google+ is also deleted from Picasa. Since Picasa hosts all of my blog images, and the images disappeared from my Picasa account, they also disappeared from my blog. I didn't realize at first what had happened, but then, as black squares began to replace the blog images, I knew something had gone horribly wrong. I searched frantically for a remedy, but none could be found. I've read through the help sections and searched the forums, only to find other stories exactly like mine, and a response from Google that nothing could be done. There was a suggestion that deleted files could be found in the trash folder on my computer but this didn't seem to be the case.

I considered deleting the blog and calling it quits, but couldn't bring myself to do it. Fortunately, I still have all the images on my hard drive. Except for the first year, they are organized and findable, but it's still an excruciating process to put them all back again. I've started reassembling the blog from the present, going backwards towards the beginning, though I don't always put every image back. And I don't know if I'll get the whole thing done. Also, for some reason I don't understand, images I've put back keep disappearing.

What would you do if this happened to you? Would you delete your blog? Start over? Any suggestions or words of comfort will be appreciated. And I'll try to answer any questions you may have.

Update: I forgot to mention that if you do find yourself looking at black squares on your blog instead of photos, don't just delete them. If you look at the HTML code, you'll see that the black squares still contain data as if they were actual photos. You'll be able to find out what photos were there, and what size they were. But, I hope you never have to see anything like this on your blog!

San Francisco: day 1 highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:30:00 +0000

The Painted Ladies seen from Alamo Square. We stayed in the far left green one.

Interesting week. After four beautiful days (Fri. thru Mon.) in San Francisco, we returned Monday night to a snow-covered city. Tuesday was not too bad, but still bad enough that the ancient history class I'm taking was cancelled. Then things began to escalate, and the rest of the week turned into a snow-ice-slush-power outage-weather-wreckage. Three more days of exciting weather have closed public schools and Universities, as the slippery, ice-covered hills we call streets in Seattle, have become slick and dangerous. The heavy snow and ice has been toppling trees and branches and snapping power lines, causing roughly 300,000 people in neighboring communities to be without power, some for days. It's supposed to start warming up and melting, but the new worry then becomes flooding. So far today, Friday, no newspapers and no trash trucks, so navigating outdoors is still uncertain.

Enough about the weather; what I really want to talk about is our trip to San Francisco to visit our son and his girlfriend. Last Friday morning we boarded our Alaskan Airways flight and headed to a much sunnier and warmer climate. The first thing my husband noticed was that right there on the seat-pocket airplane menu, was a vegan, gluten-free option! This was something I'd never seen before and, although we had no need of food, it was still exciting to see the word, "vegan" on an airplane fast-food menu. Yikes.

One of at least 20 cafeterias at Google.

Our son picked us up at the airport, and we drove to the Google campus in Mountain View to join his girlfriend Alison and her uncle, as Alison's guests, for lunch. Alison works at Google, and by the look of things, Google employees are treated well. Ahem. I want to work at Google. The gorgeous campus is filled with gardens, sculpture, recreational opportunities, cafeterias. Did I mention cafeterias? There are cuisine-and diet-specific cafeterias, including a vegan one, but we went to a non-specific one. My son says, "the chef is from the south, and also spent time in SE Asia, so he cooks a lot of southern comfort food and SE asian influenced food."
There was a terrific salad bar with all sorts of fresh and interesting ingredients, including tofu and exotic olives.

My salad and roasted brussels sprouts.

There was also a hot bar where I found a large casserole of roasted brussels sprouts. Can you believe it? Later, when I went back for seconds, the sprouts had been replaced with a casserole of roasted broccolini — perfectly cooked and delicious.

My husband's pho

Also, a pho bar with everything needed to make pho, including vegan soup stock. At Google, all the foods have a list of ingredients and cooking methods displayed, so you know what you're getting.

My husband's salad

My pho.

After lunch, we stopped at the smoothie shop and had smoothies. Seriously. Google provides just about any healthy food you can imagine. And by provides, I mean you don't pay for the food. You just eat it.

We took a stroll around the main campus after lunch — it was 71 degrees in Mountain View, and a gorgeous day for a walk. The campus is large, and Googlers need a way to get around, so Google provides bikes for that purpose, and they are so cool they are a theft temptation for the townies. As I eyed the bikes, I could see why.

Our host, our son, my husband on the Google campus.

After lunch, it was time to head back to San Francisco so we could check into our airbnb. We stayed in one of the Victorian Painted Ladies on Alamo Square. Our apartment was in the green building on the left — around the back on the ground level. It was old but pleasant, and the location was great.

Across the street on a high hill was Alamo Square, where you could find great views of the city. The houses are kind of a tourist attraction, and one evening when we came home we found a bus load of said tourists, having a look.

A closer look at one of the houses.

Thanks to all of you, I had a long list of restaurant possibilities in my bag, and for our first dinner, we chose Cha-Ya Vegetarian Japanese.

Taku-Sui (Gyoza And Veggies Pot)

Looking at the photos now, the food looks amazing, but at the time, we were just OK with it. We liked it, but it wasn't our favorite place by any means, and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe they were having an off night.

ha-Ya Delight (Seasoned Brown Rice)

Normally, I like simple, plain food, but for some reason, my dish wasn't quite as wonderful as I'd hoped it would be. It seemed expensive, and the vegetables were unevenly seasoned. Some were really salty, and some, flavorless. The rice was completely plain without even a simple sauce.

Sushi Combo Dinner

My son's sushi was the best dish of the night, and if I were to give Cha-Ya another go, and I probably would, that's what I would order.

Cha-Ya Nabe (Vegan Sukiyaki)

So ends our first day in San Francisco. I didn't tell you about all the walking we did as we explored Jordan and Alison's neighborhood, but I can tell you that after a day of traveling, walking and eating, we slept well.6

New year, new rut | San Francisco question | I won!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:25:00 +0000

Ah, breakfast ruts ... I've written about my breakfast rut problem in the past. My last rut, which involved polenta and olives, or occasionally polenta and fruit, was a very satisfying one, and lasted quite a long time, but now I have a new one. It started when I walked into Whole Foods one day and saw a large bag of pink grapefruit from Texas on sale for the irresistible price of $3.99. While I stood admiring the bag of fruit, I remembered reading about a study that showed that red grapefruit slowed down bone loss, and the combination of the possibility of added health benefits plus the remarkable price, was more than I could resist. I bought the bag, and thus started my latest breakfast craze.

Every morning I have a red grapefruit, a handful of organic dried figs from Costco and a handfull of roasted, unsalted pistachios. Then I'm good until lunch. The rut has been maintained by a second bag from WF at the inflated price of $5.99, an unexpected gift box of fabulous Florida oranges and grapefruit sent by a friend, and a bunch of fruit picked by our kids and brought back from a trip to Arizona. I'm so entrenched in my rut that I will now have to purchase more grapefruit, and head back to Costco for another giant bag of figs (at Costco, all bags are giant) because I'm too entrenched in my rut at the moment to make a graceful move to a new one.

But hey, there are worse ruts. Pistachios and figs are loaded with health benefits, and according to the Website livestrong.com, pink (also known as red) grapefruit provides a lot of nutritional benefits.

Nutritional Content
The pink grapefruit provides significant nutritional content. A serving of one grapefruit provides 3.7 g of dietary fiber, 310 mg of potassium, 72 mg of vitamin C, 30 mcg of folate and 2645 IU of vitamin A. Pink grapefruit provides 120 percent of this recommended Daily Value of Vitamin C.
Antioxidants
Grapefruit contains the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene, known for their ability to protect the body's cells and organs from free-radical damage. Free radicals are the byproducts of normal metabolic processes and environmental toxins that alter DNA and cause damage to healthy cells, contributing to disease and premature aging. The lycopene and beta-carotene carotenoids also protect the skin from UV rays and stimulate the immune response.
Cholesterol
Pink grapefruit may help lower blood triglycerides, a type of cholesterol known to significantly contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease, according to a 2006 study by researchers at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The results showed the pink grapefruit lowered cholesterol levels more than white grapefruit. The researchers said either the fruit's antioxidants cause the beneficial effect or pink grapefruit may contain a chemical yet undiscovered.

(Grapefruit and grapefruit juice should be avoided by those taking certain heart medications or statin cholesterol lowering drugs.)

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San Francisco Question
I have a question for anyone reading this who lives in or visits the Bay Area. We're heading to San Francisco for a few days, and want some suggestions about where to eat.

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I won something!

Way back in November, I entered a giveaway on Kathy Hester's blog, Healthy Slow Cooking, and I won a swag bag of samples and coupons! It's always fun to win a giveaway and get a bunch of stuff in the mail. Kathy is the author of the cookbook, "The Vegan Slow Cooker," and I suggest you check out her blog and book. The book is on my wish list.

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Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who wrote comforting words on my last post or sent emails of condolence. Although every one made me cry, you can't imagine how much I appreciated each and every thought. Thank you.

I've been a slacker in my blog commenting but I promise to try to do better.

Saying Goodbye

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:07:00 +0000

Buffy looking spiffy after a morning at the spa

On Wednesday, December 14, I took my beloved dog, Buffy, to the veterinarian for the last time. I knew the day was coming, and in theory I was prepared, but still, my heart was broken, and I could barely see, as I drove home alone. Buff was 19, and had been a member of our family since we adopted her from the Humane Society when she was three.

The Humane Society was on my daily route, and I stopped there once or twice a week to see the dogs. I was looking for a second dog to add to our family, and be a companion to our dog, Starr, so he wouldn't have to spend his days alone. I saw Buffy shortly after she was brought in, and it was love at first sight. She was small, cute and friendly, and I put my name on her card and started making arrangements for the rest of the family to come meet her, as per the HS rules for adoption. Of course everyone, including Starr, agreed she was adorable, and we set about becoming her third home in three years — her forever home. (Her first family gave her away when they moved. Her second family decided they had too many pets and dropped her off at the HS.)

Buffy preferred not to have her photo taken.

She walked into our home like she'd lived there all her life — no fear, no confusion, no hesitation. She was sweet, loving, confident and well-trained, and she gave our feisty Starr something to think about. Although her papers said she was a miniature poodle, she was so overgrown and matted I believed she was a mixed-breed of some sort. Also, because I'd never had a dog that needed more than baths and brushing, I didn't quite understand the concept of hair verses fur, and the need for haircuts every eight weeks. I learned fast. The first groomer I took her to told me she was so matted she might need to be stripped, or closely cropped. I vaguely agreed, but when I went to collect her, my adorable little dog had been turned into a giant hairless rat, and I was horrified. She was so hideous no one in the family wanted to walk her, but her daddy came through for her, and walked her until she looked normal again, and the rest of us could take over.

When we moved to Seattle, of course the now 17-year-old Buffy made the cross-country trip with us. She loved to ride in the car, though the length of the trip may have exceeded her expectations. She seemed to enjoy it, though, since every two hours or so we'd all get out, go for a walk and have a few snacks. She made the trip five times, and was a real travel-pro.

She wasn't fazed in the least by the move, settling in to her new home just as she had the last time, so many years ago. She made herself right at home, finding a comfy spot to nap. She took down the comforter, snuggled between the pillow and covers, and settled in. She wasn't too pleased when I ran for the camera after discovering her in the guest bed, but she didn't didn't move from her spot — just opened her eyes slightly to give me a "look" before shutting them and continuing with her snooze.

Lest you think she was a passive dog, she was not. It's true she was loving and gentle, but she also was smart and a little sneaky, making it impossible for me to ever place hors d'oeuvres artfully on the coffee table. She was also an escape artist who could find her way out of any fenced space, and the lower 12 inches of the fence around our large yard was covered with chicken wire.

Sept. 2011, 19 years old.

When we bought a house and moved again this past fall into what would be her last home, she was just as calm and unperturbed as ever about the change. Sweet little Buffy, I still keep seeing her everywhere, and when I'm away from the house, I suddenly think I have to get home to check on her or take her outside. Then I remember. I miss her so much.

What? Are you taking my picture AGAIN???

Up until the end, Buffy always wanted to be in the room where the action was. If we had company, she was there. Although she, herself, wasn't so active anymore, she liked to watch. One person she was particularly interested in was Miss E, and she was always right by her side as Miss E played. I'll leave you with a video taken one year ago of Miss E taking Buffy for a walk — a favorite pastime for both of them.

We have a winner

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:36:00 +0000

The cookbook giveaway has ended, and the random number generator has chosen a winner. The winner of Celebrate Vegan is Ashley, a vegan from Texas, and this was her first blog-contest win. Thank you all for entering — I wish I could send cookbooks to everyone!

Sunday brunch for 10 | Spicy cashews

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:44:00 +0000

We recently had the pleasure of hosting a brunch for 10 guests. Because the rest of the weekend had involved a lot of cooking, and also considering the early start to the meal, I wanted to keep the menu simple. That doesn't mean I wanted to skimp on flavor, of course, just on preparation time.

The decision was made to serve a soup, salad and muffin brunch. Way back in September 2009, I reviewed a cookbook devoted entirely to soups, Love Soup, by Anna Thomas, and I decided to make one of the memorable soups from that book.

Rich and creamy spicy Indonesian yam and peanut soup with its fragrant ginger-infused base, is entirely worthy of company meals, in my opinion. Yams, carrots and parsnips mingle beautifully with herbs and spices to compose a soup that's perfect for warming guests on a chilly morning. To accompany the soup we had a large salad based on baby greens, dressed with piquant creamy miso salad dressing from The Vegan Table by Colleen Partick-Goudreau, and low-fat chocolate zucchini muffins form The Happy Herbivore Cookbook (reviewed here). To perfectly round out the meal, one of the guests brought a toothsome loaf of homemade whole grain bread.

To finish our little brunch with a sweet flourish, we had yummy Lazy Samoas from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and monkey bread, baked by another guest.

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Spicy cashews

This is a snack I found at Manjula's Kitchen that I thought would be a nice thing to add to our usual appetizer tray of olives and artichoke hearts at the brunch described above. It sounded just like the spicy cashews I once bought at an Indian deli in Milwaukee. They tasted like they had been made with eggs, even though I'd been assured they were not. Now, of course, I know it was the Indian black salt, kala namak, that gave the cashews their characteristic sulfur (eggy) taste. The cashews I made with Manjula's recipe tasted exactly the same. I recommend trying the recipe yourself — it's delectably spiced. But I warn you, they have a distinctly eggy flavor.

I used half the oil called for in the recipe, but had a little trouble with the spice mixture coating the nuts, so ended up adding a little more oil to the warm, roasted cashews, and shaking them in a jar with the spice mix, which worked perfectly. Next time I make these I'm going to try something different. I'll oven-roast the cashews without oil, then drizzle a small amount of unheated oil onto the warm nuts and shake them with the spices. I'm trying to use less oil, and am hoping that by not letting the roasting cashews absorb oil in the pan, I can get more mileage from less oil by adding it after they are roasted. What do you think?

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There's still time to leave a comment and win a copy of Dynise Balcavage's new cookbook, Celebrate Vegan. Enter here. (Update: the contest has ended.)

Celebrate Vegan — Book review and giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:47:00 +0000

If you follow the Urban Vegan blog (and you do, right?), you know that Dynise Balcavage provides her readers with clever, beautiful and delicious recipes that are usually surprisingly easy to prepare. You can cook the recipes for every day meals, but feel perfectly comfortable serving them to dinner guests. In her second cookbook, Celebrate Vegan: 200 Life-Affirming Recipes for Occasions Big and Small, Dynise shares her collection of elegant but (mostly) easy, vegan, seasonal recipes, for celebrating special events from around the world. She's covered everything from the most typical U.S. celebrations to holidays like Timkat, the Ethiopian Epiphany, for which she provides recipes for Ethiopian collards, mini injeras and spiced lentils. Accompanying each recipe or group of recipes, is a short, informative discussion about the holiday, as well as chatty, personal anecdotes that weave Dynise's vibrant personality into the menus.

I was one of the lucky recipe testers for Celebrate Vegan, so I can tell you first hand how good the recipes are. I made the three Ethiopian dishes mentioned above, and they were great. Here are photos of some of the dishes I've tried, and the holidays associated with them.

Cinnamon-date scones - Snow Day (Hey, why not treat a snow day as a holiday?)

Paté aux champignons éxotiques - Bastille Day

Cecina - World Vegetarian Day

Mushy peas (OK. This one wasn't my favorite, but my husband liked it.)

Hot and sour carrots and lentils - New Year's Day

Tofu with broccoli and black bean sauce - Chinese New Year

Mega-Israeli salad - Hanukkah

Spicy tomato-lemon dressing - Girls' Night In

(You can find recipes for the hot and sour carrots and lentils, and the tofu with broccoli and black bean sauce in the sneak peek feature for Celebrate Vegan on Amazon.)

To make your recipe choices especially relevant to your needs, Dynise has coded the recipes as fast, frugal, kid-friendly, make ahead or omnivore-friendly, and marked them with icons for easy identification.

If you'd like to win a copy of Celebrate Vegan, leave a comment on this post, and I'll randomly choose a winner Dec. 11.

UPDATE: This contest has ended and a winner has been selected.

Full disclosure: I received two free copies of the cookbook from the publisher, and I'm giving one away. I earned my copy by participating in the recipe testing. I was not required to write a review.

Late, as usual ... | Featured

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:38:00 +0000

It seems I'm always the last one to post about holiday events — everyone has long since moved on, and here I go sharing our Thanksgiving meal — with photos taken in a rush under the worst lighting possible. Even color correction couldn't make the tart look like a normal shade of blueberry. But without further apology, here's what we ate. Above is a glamor shot of the tofu turkey, described in more detail, here.

This is the brown basmati, wild rice, toasted walnut and mushroom stuffing that went inside the tofu turkey, and also into a casserole dish. It's pretty much the same stuffing I always make but this year I didn't include bread cubes. I also made a mushroom gravy with ingredients as varied as the liquid left from cooking the wild rice, and the remains of a bottle of leftover beer, kept in the fridge for just such a purpose — simmered with a cinnamon stick and seasoned with fresh sage. Best gravy ever! (But maybe not gluten-free because of the beer?)

Here is the scrumptious potato-buckwheat stuffing (kugel) made by our oldest son. It's from a recipe handed down from several generations of my family, and a holiday wouldn't seem complete without it. My mother used to stuff the turkey with it, but there was always a great quantity packed into casseroles as well. The original recipe used bread rather than buckwheat, but we were going for gluten-free this year. Actually, I started making the stuffing with buckwheat years ago when I was cooking macrobiotic. Potatoes are very yin, and the buckwheat helps to balance them a bit (take that as you wish). I actually prefer the buckwheat, so usually prepare the dish with buckwheat now.

As a side note, I'll mention the original recipe also contained egg, which the buckwheat nicely compensates for. I still remember the year my mother accidentally dropped an eggshell into the blender as she ground up the potatoes. It was immediately pulverized, so my mother hoped it wouldn't be detected in the cooked stuffing. It was. And it was horrible. That wouldn't have happened during all the years she grated those potatoes by hand! Or if she were vegan.

My husband was in charge of the salad and dressing.

Our daughter-in-law brought a big pan of delicious rutabaga fries. The rutabaga was from her garden, making these especially cool. I've never been a big fan of rutabaga, but these were sensational.

Our middle son prepared roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots — one of my favorite veggie treats. Roasted Brussels sprouts have become a standard at our holiday table, and these were especially delicious.

Naturally we had pleasingly tart cranberry-apple sauce. I never get tired of cranberry sauce.

For dessert we had Happy Herbivore's no-fat pumpkin pie. This year's pie came out a little too firm, and slightly weird. Maybe it was because I used spelt flour instead of wheat, but maybe it wasn't. I have to say, though, that the pie improved over time, and last night it tasted quite good, but I think I'm returning to my old p-pie recipe, if I can find it.

The blueberry-pineapple tart didn't photograph well, but it sure looked good in person. This was my first attempt at a gluten-free crust, and I thought it was a big success. It had both pleasing taste and texture, despite the fact I didn't follow an actual recipe. I have a question, though, for experienced xgfx bakers. Although the tart was great when I served it, the leftover crust got kind of mushy the next day. Is that typical or was it because of my ingredients? (brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, coconut flour, walnuts, Earth Balance, maple syrup.)

Oh yes, we also had pre-dinner tidbits, but they didn't get well-photographed, unfortunately. I made baba ghannouj, a tray of calamata olives, stuffed green olives and marinated artichoke hearts, accompanied by a bowl of Food Should Taste Good tortilla chips. The eggplant for the baba ghannouj was roasted over our gas stove burner so it would taste smoky, like the grilled eggplant traditionally used for this dish, but the eggplant was so huge, that I got discouraged about halfway though the roasting, and finished baking it in the oven. The time spent toasting on the stove-top was enough to impart a smoky flavor, so now I know I can partially roast in the oven if necessary. Or maybe I can just use liquid smoke next time. :)

The mystery cat (I call her Tinkerbelle) showed up to join the family for our Thanksgiving celebration, and made herself right at home.

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This blog was featured

Lorilee Lippincott, who writes the blog Loving Simple Living (lovingsimpleliving.com) featured this blog on her site yesterday. She has geared her blog toward embracing a simple lifestyle, and I think you might enjoy visiting her site.

Pre-Thanksgiving: tofu turkey or TG part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:29:00 +0000

I altered our family tradition this year and made a tofu turkey instead of a stuffed seitan, and I thought I'd do a little step-by-step photo story as I made the dish. I really love when bloggers show the progress of a complex creation. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people, though I seriously tried. The camera was in the kitchen, but my mind was preoccupied, and I only got so far. The recipe on which I based my tofu turkey is here. (I made my own version of stuffing.)

Before getting to the tofu, I started the day with a nod to the season and made a cranberry smoothie. It also had banana, frozen blueberries, frozen mango, a tablespoon of frozen OJ concentrate, lucuma powder (thanks, Ricki!) and almond milk. It was so pretty and delicious that I think frozen cranberries may become a regular smoothie ingredient. Suitably fortified, I moved on to the tofu business.

The following takes place the day before Thanksgiving.

Since pressing the tofu seemed key to getting the texture right, I first pressed my tofu for a few hours in my Japanese pickle press. The tofu was the fresh stuff from a Vietnamese tofu shop, and seemed quite firm, but I was amazed to see how much water came out of it, so I'm glad I took this extra step. Fresh tofu is much more flavorful than the supermarket variety, and I wanted my concoction to taste really good, but any extra-firm water-pack tofu would be fine.

After pressing, the tofu got puréed in a food processor. (I tried the VitaMix first, but that was too gross, and removing the tofu from the blender jar was horrible.) Next the seasonings were added. I used hickory smoked salt in the seasoning mix, not broth powder. In addition to the herbs in the recipe, I added some light yeast flavoring that I'd previously made from this recipe from Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner.* (She used to make and sell the Now and Zen Unturkey, which I've never actually tried, but the light yeast seasoning is very handy, and you might want to make some!)

The next step was to line a colander with cheesecloth, and pack the tofu into the colander, covering the top with the overhanging cheesecloth. A plate got placed on top of the cheesecloth and a weight was placed on the plate; in this case two boxes of veggie stock were placed on their sides atop the plate. This is where the communications between my brain and the camera broke down, and no further illustrative photos were taken. The tofu-packed colander was placed on a plate and went into the fridge overnight.

The following takes place on Thanksgiving day.
I made a stuffing with wild rice, brown basmati rice, toasted walnuts, onions, garlic, ginger, fresh sage and lots of baby bella mushrooms, all cooked to perfection in my trusty wok. Once the stuffing was made and cooled, the cheesecloth over the top of the tofu was pulled aside, and tofu was scooped out, leaving a rim of 1 to 2 inches. The resulting hole was filled with stuffing, and the tofu I had removed was smoothed over the top, forming a solid covering. (Still in the colander.) The next part was a little scary, but it worked perfectly.

To cook, the stuffed tofu was inverted onto a baking pan, and the cheesecloth-covered blob miraculously fell out without breaking. I carefully removed the cheesecloth and basted the mound, placed it into the oven, and removed and basted many times until it was done. In the end, I had to turn the oven up to 450˚F for about 20 minutes to crisp it up.

Voila! It emerged looking quite nice. I had planned to surround it with roasted veggies but miscalculated the amount of space it would take up on the serving platter, so settled for some parsley and a few tomatoes.

Here's a view of the inside. The recipe said it served six, but I knew that couldn't be right since five pieces of tofu were involved. In fact, we had lots of leftovers to send home with guests, and even though we ate it again last night, we STILL have leftovers. Next year: smaller tofu turkey or more guests!

In my next post, I'll show you what we actually had for our meal. Hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving, had a lovely time.

*Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner is the author of Japanese Cooking: Contemporary and Traditional, which I reviewed here. She is also the author of The New Now and Zen Epicure: Gourmet Vegan Recipes for the Enlightened Palate, and she writes a cooking blog called, The Vegan Manifesto.

Sour cereal: a rich, spicy soup made from millet and coconut

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:44:00 +0000

In my last post, about the vegan blogger potluck held at my house, I mentioned that one of the guests brought a delicious, coconut-y soup made from millet. Natalie, the person who prepared the excellent dish, agreed to let me share the recipe. She said her mother got the recipe years ago from a Siddha Yoga ashram in Hawaii, and even though I can't know for sure they would be willing to share it, I'm going to take a chance that it would be OK. I'm printing the recipe as it was given to me, but feel free to change ingredient quantities to suit your taste. I plan to make some changes next time I make this, but it's really great as written, so you might want to try it before changing it. Thank you Natalie!

Sour cereal (2 to 4 servings)

3-2/3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste. This was too salty for me.)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon cumin
pinch fenugreek
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne

masala

1/4 cup shredded dried coconut
1/2 tomato (I used one roma tomato)
2 to 3 pitted dates, optional (I used 2)
2 fresh green chilies (I used 1 jalapeno), seeded
1 inch ginger root, peeled
1/3 cup millet, washed
1/4 cup chopped onion

Add salt, oil, cumin, fenugreek, cayenne to the water and bring to a boil.
Add millet and onion, stir, and return to a boil.
Turn heat to low and cook five minutes, uncovered.
Make the masala. Add coconut, tomato, dates, pepper, and ginger root to a blender jar and blend until well-combined.
Add the masala to the millet mixture, cover and cook on low for 45 minutes.
Add additional water as needed to maintain a soupy consistency. Taste for seasonings.

We had the soup with steamed baby bok choy and deep-fried onion tofu from the tofu shop. Completely wrong accompaniment, I know, but so good.

Slow Cooker recipe testing

We loved the stuffed collard leaves that I tested for Robin Robertson's upcoming slow cooker book. Believe it or not, I've never stuffed collards, only cabbage, and I was amazed how much easier it was to work with collards. From now on, it's collards for me!

Wisconsin has changed ...

My husband snapped this photo on his recent visit to our former home of Madison, Wis. It was tacked to the front door of the Green Owl vegetarian and vegan restaurant, because Wisconsin now has concealed carry. You can pack heat in any place that hasn't posted a warning, such as restaurants, shops — even the Capitol building. As an ironic side note, people were recently prohibited from bringing cameras into the capitol during a protest, but not concealed weapons. We've only been gone two years, but so much has changed ...

Seattle vegan blogger meetup

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:04:00 +0000

Yesterday I had the pleasure of hosting a Seattle vegan blogger potluck at my little house. There were five of us enjoying delicious food and good conversation. Attendees included Bethany from Spotted Devil Cat and his Vegan Asst., Rose, from Dandelion Blog, Samantha, from Novel Eats, and Natalie, who is still planning her blog. Calling in sick at the last minute were Sonnet from For the Love of Food, and Helen, from Vegtastic.

So what did five plant-based bloggers bring to the table?

Rose brought a large platter of delicious kabobs and spring rolls with two dipping sauces. (You can see the rolls at the top of the post.)

Natalie arrived with an amazing millet dish she called sour cereal. It was flavored with a masala.

Bethany shared a yummy cheesy casserole filled with veggies and topped with mochi.

I made Thai coconut corn soup, based on a recipe by Nava Atlas.

And Samantha brought not one ...

but two gorgeous platefuls of cookies — chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.

What can I say?

Are you a Seattle area vegan blogger who would like to be notified of future events? Find us on Meetup.com

Sunbreaks, parsnips and celery root; Cookbook winner

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:16:00 +0000

Parsnips and celery root

There is a weather phenomenon here called a "sunbreak." Deep down in my heart, I'm pretty convinced you can't really, truly understand what a Seattle sunbreak is unless you live here. I can try to explain, but you won't really get it; I never did on the multiple times I visited. I thought I understood, but it's so peculiar that it's unlike anything one would normally think of as a sunbreak, and only after living here do I now see the light, so to speak.

For much, (most?), of the year, the weather is gloomy, drippy, damp, dark, overcast, or just plain raining. The forecast might say "cloudy with rain," or "cloudy with increasing rain," or maybe on good days "cloudy with decreasing rain." On the best days, the forecast might say "cloudy with sunbreaks." I will try to explain. Picture a gloomy, totally overcast sky. You can't see clouds, you can't see the sun, it's grey and damp and the ground is wet. It looks like it will surely rain, though I've learned that a grey sky doesn't necessarily mean rain. Sometimes there's a faint drizzle that's kind of like a mist that can't be felt but makes everything wet.

parsnips

Then, suddenly, the sky clears and turns blue, The sun emerges and shines warm and bright, and though the ground may stay wet, it appears to be a perfectly beautiful, sunny day. This may last one minute, or five, or maybe even an hour. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the lovely weather is gone, and the day returns to its previous grey and glum condition. This may happen once, or several times during the day, without warning, and if you're not quick, you may miss it. That's a sunbreak.

coriander

During the winter, I think soup is kind of like a sunbreak. It's warm and bright, and for a short period of time, it fills the air with fragrance, and makes you smile. And you can make it happen whenever you want, unlike an atmospheric sunbreak! Last year around this time, I recreated a soup I'd enjoyed at a local restaurant, and I've been meaning to embellish that soup ever since.

Now that parsnips and celeriac are in season at the farmers market, I created a little sunbreak in my kitchen with a steaming bowl of parsnip soup. This time I've added celery root for depth, and a carrot for a tint of color. Red pepper and fresh ground black pepper are the topping. Sriracha also pairs beautifully with this soup.

The soup is thick, velvety and comforting, and when made in a pressure cooker, is very quick to make. I used three or four parsnips, two carrots, a large potato and a small celery root. Celery root, or celariac, is one of the most unpretty vegetables around. It's beige, bulbous, weird and delicious, with a pronounced celery flavor. It can be eaten raw or cooked, and my favorite way to enjoy it is sliced and roasted, though it's also great in soups and stews. It's too tough to peel, so I use a sharp knife to slice off the outer part and the gnarly bottom before cutting it into the shapes I need for cooking. Celeriac is a good source of vitamin K, a very good source of fiber, a good source of Vitamin C and phosphorus, and a fair source of potassium. It is low in starch.

Here's the approximate recipe:

Mellow parsnip and celery root soup (serves four generously)

1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander
1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons coarse salt (or more to taste)
3 to 4 (or so) parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium organic potato, scrubbed and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 celery root about 3 to 4 inches in diameter, cubed same as potato
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 to 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half
4 cups water
2 tablespoons tahini
about 2 cups low sodium vegetable broth (more for thinner soup)
fresh ground pepper
garnish (red pepper flakes, cracked black pepper, sriracha, chopped green onion — your choice

In a five quart pressure cooker, warm the oil a little and add the cumin seeds. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the seeds become fragrant and start to sizzle, about four minutes.Be careful not to burn them.
Add the coriander and salt and stir.
Quickly add the parsnips, potatoes, celery and garlic, and carrot, and stir to coat the vegetables.
Add the water and bring to pressure. Cook five minutes at pressure. Bring the pressure down and open the pot. (In a conventional pot, cut the veggies into small pieces and cook in the water until tender.)
Add the tahini. With an immersion blender, blend until completely smooth and creamy, adding vegetable broth as needed to achieve your preferred texture. The soup should be pretty thick and creamy. (To use a regular blender, blend a small amount at a time, until all the soup is blended.)
Taste for seasonings.
Place in bowls and add a garnish of your choice.

This recipe is entered in the Sweet or Savory Kitchen Challenge.

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Rabbit Food Cookbook winner

I said I'd use the random number generator to pick a winner of the Rabbit Food Cookbook last Friday, and I did. Though it's taken me until today to announce it, I did inform the winner, Radioactive vegan, over the weekend. She's accepted the prize and the book is on it's way to her. Thanks to everyone who entered and left a comment.

Eat Vegan on $4 a Day; beans-and-greens stir-fry

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:55:00 +0000

How many times have you read or heard that eating a healthy, plant-based diet may be ideal, but it's too expensive and time consuming for the average person to handle, and eating a fast-food diet is the inferior but more economical choice. It's too complicated, too much trouble, too expensive to buy all those healthful fruits and vegetables. Ellen Jaffe Jones has made it her mission to teach people "how easy it is to prepare delicious, healthful, inexpensive meals at home."

With a long family history of health problems, as well as personal health issues, Jones chose a plant-based diet to improve her health, and her quest to make a plant-based diet affordable, healthy and delicious for anyone, has led to her to write Eat Vegan on $4 a Day. She says it was press references to Twinkies and boxed mac and cheese as being the only things some people could afford, that finally pushed her over the edge and made her do it; she wants to show people that they can make six servings of delicious, high quality plant-based protein for the cost of just one Twinkie. To accomplish her goal of helping people to eat better while spending less, Jones includes chapters on Financial Planning for Food Shopping, and Plant-Based Nutrition and Cooking 101. She also offers advice on stocking the pantry, and provides daily and weekly menus and costs.

I didn't actually try to replicate any of her meals to see if I could match her costs, but I did try one of the recipes to see if it tasted good — the recipes are very simple and contain common pantry ingredients. I handed the book to my husband and asked him to choose and prepare one dish, and he picked greens-and-beans stir-fry. He used kale instead of collards and broccoli because that's what we had, but otherwise he followed the recipe exactly. It was delicious — the kind of healthy, simple but satisfying food I crave for everyday meals. Not only was it great tasting, it took almost no time to prepare. If you are trying to cook more economically, or more healthfully, you may want to pick up a copy of Ellen Jaffe Jones' book for inspiration and guidance. I'm looking forward to trying more of her delicious, quick-to-prepare, recipes.

For more ideas on how to eat beautifully, healthfully and happily on a strict budget, check out Melody Polakow's blog Melomeals.

Printed with permission.

Full disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided to me free of charge by Book Publishing Company. I was not paid to write a review, nor was I required to do so.

Happy Halloween; Your treat: Gorilla Reunion

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:08:00 +0000

I once heard one child say to another, as they passed my house on Halloween, "don't go there, they always give out raisins." Ouch. I LIKE raisins, but I guess I'm living in an alternate universe, and Halloween requires better treats. So for a couple of years I gave in and just bought bags of "regular" candy. But I couldn't keep up that kind of nonsense. Then I found treat bags of pretzels and the kids seemed pleased with those, but the cute bags of pretzels are hard to come by, so here's what we're offering tonight to the trick-or-treaters, should any appear. There are Endangered Species Chocolates, Clif Kids Fruit Ropes and Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops. All of which will be welcome at our house should there be any leftovers!

For your treat, I'm giving you this video. It's pretty remarkable, and I hope you like it.

This is my final mofo post for 2011, one of 22. Don't forget to enter to win the Rabbit Food Cookbook on post 21! And to also check the other blogs on the Rabbit Food Cookbook virtual book tour.

October 24—Cake Maker to the Stars

October 25—Cook Vegan Lover

October 26—Bake and Destroy

October 27—Carrie on Vegan

October 28—Vegancraftastic

October 29—Manifest Vegan

October 30—This blog

October 31—Vegansaurus

Rabbit Food Cookbook virtual tour and giveaway; Curry tofu & Peas

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000

When I was asked if I'd like to participate in a virtual book tour for Beth Barnett's Rabbit Food Cookbook, of course I said yes. Although I don't consider myself a rabbit, I do have a cookbook collection that requires frequent feeding, and seems to multiply like rabbits. In exchange for my review, I got another cookbook to add to my collection, and a deadline of today, which is good, because although I'm mildly addicted to acquiring cookbooks, I'm not particularly compelled to use them. If you know what I mean. If you've been following the tour, you probably already know all about the cookbook and wish you could have one, too. Well, maybe you can, if you live in the U.S. or Canada. After reading the review, leave a comment mentioning what most attracts you to the book, or just leave a comment about anything, if you prefer. On Friday, Nov. 4, I'll randomly select a cookbook winner from all the commentators, and it may be you! Be sure your comment links back to an email address where you can be reached.

The book's handy size (5-1/2 by 7-1/2) and spiral binding, make it a pleasure to use, and the winsome illustrations add to the fun, but there's serious information inside the 223 page volume. Barnett provides excellent background information on why choosing a plant-based diet may be optimal for both us, and the planet. From The Food Supply in Perspective, to Health and Nutrition Considerations, to The Industrialization of Food in America, she's got it covered. There's even a section on how to prepare and maintain a garden, as well as instructions for making shopping and produce bags. Add Ingredient Tips, Essential Equipment and Measurements, and you've got plenty of useful advice to help you make the most of the recipes. Most of the recipes seem like the kind of tasty, everyday dishes that can be whipped up pretty easily without a lot of time or exotic ingredients. You'll find recipes for every meal — Waffles, Crumbly Coffee Cake, Crunchy Broccoli Salad, Balsamic Veggies and Potatoes, Seitan Walnut Quinoa, Tofu Knishes, Pasta With White Beans and Special Chocolate Cake — to name just a few of the 90 choices.

I chose to taste test Curry Tofu & Peas, because I happened to have all the ingredients on hand, and because another reviewer beat me to making Chickpea Masala. I added the optional coconut milk but was sorry — the flavors were more intense before I added it, and it didn't seem to add anything to the dish. I'd definitely leave it out next time. I added the cashews, too, but left them whole.

Posted with permission.

If you've somehow missed the rest of the tour, you can catch up here:

October 24—Cake Maker to the Stars

October 25—Cook Vegan Lover

October 26—Bake and Destroy

October 27—Carrie on Vegan

October 28—Vegancraftastic

October 29—Manifest Vegan

October 30—You are here.

October 31—Vegansaurus

Full disclosure: A review copy of Rabbit Food Cookbook was provided to me free of charge by Sasquatch Books, Seattle. I was not paid to write a review, nor was I threatened with bodily harm if I didn't write one.

They're so good, but is there anything in those rice sticks?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:14:00 +0000

Yesterday I posted photos of the fast dinners I enjoyed the two previous evenings, and here is last night's variation. This one-bowl meal contained tempeh, cauliflower, carrots, peas, and dried shiitake mushrooms, with a black sesame seed garnish. I used the broth from soaking the mushrooms to make a miso-mustard sauce,* and once again, served the tempeh and veggies over rice stick noodles. This dish took a little longer to make than the other two — probably because the carrot needed peeling and grating, the mushrooms needed soaking, and, even though it was a long time ago, I'm still not fully recovered from the black worm incident. I know, I'm unreasonably squeamish, but I spent a long time inspecting every little black thing before I could slice the mushrooms.

I do love Asian rice noodles, but yesterday's post got me thinking about the nutritional value of my quick dinners, specifically, whether or not the rice noodles were more than just filling — I know the veggies I top them with are nutritious, but what about the noodles? So I did a little nutrition panel comparison with four different starchy foods — three kinds of noodles, and brown rice. I looked at my beloved rice sticks, buckwheat pasta, a more traditional brown rice elbow pasta and actual brown rice. Because I'm comparing foods that are relatively quick to make, I chose Trader Joe's frozen brown rice, which is surprisingly good, reasonably economical, and very fast and convenient. (The rice comes in a cardboard box with three 10 ounce packets, and each packet serves two. We keep it around for "emergencies.")

All four foods are low in salt, fat and sugar, similar in total carbohydrates, and gluten-free (though the brown rice and rice sticks don't state that on the label). None are particularly high sources of protein by themselves, but with added protein such as tofu, tempeh, beans, nuts or seeds, would be fine. I don't really worry about protein anyway. The fiber ranges from zero in the rice noodles to 3g in the soba. The calories range from 160 for the brown rice to 210 for the Tinkyada — not a big enough difference to sway my choice.

Now that I've done my homework, will I change my choices? The total lack of fiber in the rice sticks concerns me a little, but probably not, though maybe I should opt for the buckwheat soba or the brown rice more often than the rice sticks — variety is probably the key. What do you think?

(The Tinyada elbows also noted daily values of Thiamin/B1 15%, Riboflavin/B2 0%, Niacin/B3 15%, Folic acid 0%. The Eden buckwheat soba label further broke down the fats as Omega 3, 26mg, Omega 6, 390mg, omega 9, 411mg, and included Potassium, 200mg or 6%, Phosphorus 20%, zinc 6%. Since these values were not listed on all labels, it's hard to use them to compare the four products.)

Note: *When I looked at my comments this morning, I saw that blessedmama had left a note that when she gets to the "nothing to eat" stage she's usually looking at mustard and miso. That gave me a laugh, since it's exactly what I used for last night's sauce!

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My theme this week is supposed to be videos depicting the sensitivities of animals, and the relationships we humans have with them. Here's a video of a rescued cow being reunited with her baby. The humans aid in the reunion, but not as companions to the cow and her babe.

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You may have noticed the Rabbit Food Cookbook blog tour happening this week on a blog near you. The "tour" officially started Monday, and will hit this blog on Oct. 30, with a review of The Rabbit Food Cookbook, and a giveaway. Here is a schedule so you can follow along during the week—hopefully discovering some great new blogs, and entering giveaways to win a copy of the book!

October 24—Cake Maker to the Stars

October 25—Cook Vegan Lover

October 26—Bake and Destroy

October 27—Carrie on Vegan

October 28—Vegancraftastic

October 29—Manifest Vegan

October 30—Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking

October 31—Vegansaurus

What to eat when there's "nothing" to eat; My cat friend; A boy and his dog

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:10:00 +0000

I haven't been cooking a lot lately — or maybe I should say I haven't been cooking carefully followed recipes or composed dishes. It's been more "get-'er done" cooking, which isn't to say it hasn't been relatively healthy or tasty — just fast, and without much pre-planning. Someone once told me I should post these dinners, so here are images from the last two nights. Above is one of my favorite fast meals. It basically consists of Asian rice noodles, which I love for their taste, texture and speed of cooking, tofu, and whatever veggies I have on hand — in this case, broccoli, bok choy and mushrooms. The topping is black sesame seeds and shriacha. (I used Shark brand sriracha, which I've heard is most like the traditional sriracha used in Thailand, and unlike Rooster brand, it contains no preservatives. It's a little sweet for my taste but I use it anyway.) This meal in a bowl made me very full and happy.

Last night's dinner was a soft corn tortilla warmed in the wok, and filled with kidney beans and lightly sautéed cabbage. The beans were from a can, and chipotle in adobo and frozen corn were added to the pot as they heated. Also added were oregano and chili powder. And jarred Food for Lovers vegan queso. This turned out to be really good, and I overate. Tsk.

I have a cat friend. She (I assume she's a she) comes to visit occasionally, and if I happen to be home and see her sitting outside the glass door from the deck to the kitchen, I invite her in for a snack and a cuddle. I have no idea who she is or where she lives, but she seems healthy, well-fed and in good condition. She doesn't have a collar with ID. Personally, for many reasons I won't go into here, I believe that city cats should be house cats. I don't buy into the "cats should be free to roam" theory. All of my cats, even the one I rescued, covered in ice on a winter day, became contented house cats. I've known too many cats, both city and country cats, who died under the wheels of a car, disappeared, or became ill while they were "free." And there are birds to consider.

I'm a sucker for tender portrayals of people and animals — especially kids and loving, devoted dogs. Can you watch this and not shed a tear?

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You may have noticed the Rabbit Food Cookbook blog tour happening this week on a blog near you. The "tour" officially started Monday, and will hit this blog on Oct. 30, with a review of The Rabbit Food Cookbook, and a giveaway. Here is a schedule so you can follow along during the week—hopefully discovering some great new blogs, and entering giveaways to win a copy of the book!

October 24—Cake Maker to the Stars

October 25—Cook Vegan Lover

October 26—Bake and Destroy

October 27—Carrie on Vegan

October 28—Vegancraftastic

October 29—Manifest Vegan

October 30—Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking

October 31—Vegansaurus

Betty White tries to enter her dog in the Orvis Dog-Cover Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:30:00 +0000

Who can resist Betty White looking for "ways" to increase her pooch's chances of winning a contest? This is a real contest, by the way, that anyone can enter to have their dog on the cover of an Orvis catalog. The prize also includes a $500 gift certificate to Orvis. In conjunction with the contest, Orvis is donating funds to the Morris Animal Foundation's efforts to fight, treat and cure canine cancer. Betty White is a trustee of the organization. I think she is a vegetarian, and might possibly be a vegan.

You can enter the contest here, but even if you don't want to enter, or don't have a dog, you should watch the hilarious Betty White do her thing.

Buffy is shocked that I'd consider entering her in her scruffy Buffy condition. I even photoshopped fur onto the shaved part of her leg. (From where she was recently attacked by another dog and required stitches.)

I can't groom her until all her wounds are healed and the stitches are out, and the last time I tried to brush her ears, she cried, so of course I stopped right away.

Maybe sweet little Buffy can win the judges hearts with her sad story of being attacked by another dog while staying at a dog-care home.

She's thinking about it.

"Do what you want," says Buffy. "I'm tired."

Quick polenta, spiders and smoke alarms, dog on the couch

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:59:00 +0000

Here we are in the final week of mofo, and so far I've managed to stick to a weekly theme, and post every weekday. My theme this week, should I choose to follow it, is stories and videos about animal-human interactions. And I will get to that, in a way, before I finish today's post, but not in the way I originally planned. So what, right? Sometime things don't as planned.

Until two years ago, I never lived in a house with a microwave — by choice. There was one at work that I sometimes used, but my cooking was basically done on a stove or in an oven. I was a little afraid of the effect of microwaves on food energy — and on me. When we moved to Seattle, the rental house had a microwave, and I used it sometimes to reheat food, but I rarely cooked anything in it. Occasionally I'd experiment with potatoes or cupcakes, but not very often. The house we bought has a microwave, too, and I find myself using it more often because it does things like cook a potato in five minutes so I can use it in a recipe, or make oatmeal in a bowl — no pot needed. Recently I discovered I can cook polenta in five minutes and have it for breakfast.

I use 1/4 cup of coarse polenta, some nooch, a few grains of kosher pink salt and 1 cup of water. Put the ingredients into an over-sized bowl, stir, and cook for five minutes for a soft, creamy breakfast cereal. After it's cooked, I embellish it with raw pumpkin seeds, and maybe dried fruit, or as I did today, raw cashews, pumpkin seeds and calamata olives. (I use an over-sized bowl so the cereal won't splatter the oven.) Do you have any qualms about microwave cooking?

Spiders and smoke alarms

Photographed next to the front door. The round body part is about 1/2" in diameter.

I'm not sure this qualifies as a heartwarming animal story, but I'm about to give you some very useful information. Did you know a spider can set off a smoke alarm? Neither did I until the wee hours of Sunday morning when our piercingly loud alarms went off. There was no smoke and no sign of fire anywhere.

Outside the dining room window.

When the alarm was removed from the ceiling, a small spider fell out, and subsequent searching on the Internet revealed that smoke alarms should be cleaned regularly with compressed air to remove dust and spiders, because, duh, they can cause the alarms to malfunction. Why a smoke alarm will mistake a spider or dust for smoke is confusing to me, but trust me, it can.

It worries me a little that my first reaction to the smoke alarm isn't to vacate the premises, it's to make it stop. I suppose if we smelled smoke or felt any danger we'd get out and call 911 — at least I hope so.

Dog on the couch

In lieu of a heartwarming animal story, I leave you with this, though I'm sure all of your dogs and kitties are allowed on the couch.

Lunch at Kisaku, dessert at Mighty-O

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 03:48:00 +0000

Bethany's vegetable sushi and eggplant sushi, hold the egg.

The first time I ate at Kisaku, in Seattle's Tangletown neighborhood, I carefully ordered vegan sushi, and was surprised when the waitress brought me miso soup too, because it doesn't say anything about soup on the menu. The soup smelled like bonito flakes, and when I inquired, I was told that, yes, it contained the fish flakes. When I asked if I could have soup without fish, I was told no, so I politely declined the soup, and decided not to go back there again. Everyone around me was enjoying soup, and it didn't seem fair to pay the same price but not get soup. Not fair. Not fair. I was annoyed that they couldn't make miso soup without fish flakes.

The thing is, Kisaku is walking distance to my house, and such a beautiful place to eat, that I recently gave it another chance. YES! This time I could order the soup without fish. Yay. And there was also an excellent salad that I didn't remember. The soup and salad come with anything you order.

I ordered vegetable curry, which according to the menu, is flash fried assorted vegetables in curry sauce on a bed of rice, and contains no animals, so they say. Granted, it's the only vegan listing on the menu, but it's so delicious, with the creamy eggplant, crispy broccoli and other perfectly cooked veggies in a rich, fragrant curry sauce, I'm happy to keep ordering it. And I have — at least three times. Plus it comes on a fabulous handmade plate that I want very badly, almost as badly as I want more curry. The plates came from LA a very long time ago, and I've searched for something similar to no avail. So the only thing I can do is to keep going back to Kisaku.

Wouldn't you know it, Kisaku is right across the street from Mighty-O doughnuts, Seattle's premier vegan doughnut shop. The day these pictures were taken, I was with Bethany, and she needed a mighty-O fix. I was too stuffed with curry to have more than a tiny little mini-doughnut — not very photogenic — but I was happy to photograph her plate.

Holiday feast cooking class

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 03:08:00 +0000

Two years ago around this time we attended a vegan holiday cooking class at PCC Natural Markets, and this year we did the same. It actually wasn't our first choice, but was the only class with openings. I like to discover new dishes for our holiday table, but I've learned that some of my guests are disappointed if the foods they expect to see are altered or replaced. For example, after the last holiday class, I made a new version of cranberry sauce that I thought was amazing, and was told that my usual sauce is better. So much for upping the holiday dinner stakes, and making changes to the traditional menu. We enjoyed all the food we had in class, but I'll have to think twice about whether or not it will appear at our Thanksgiving table.

We started with a fiery pear salad with caramelized spiced nuts (photo above). Something like this would be no problem introducing to my guests, but the dressing was way too much trouble to make, in my opinion, and too oily. The salad mix, though, with its mix of various greens, pears and pomegranate seeds, would be a perfect starter. I doubt I'd hear any complaints, and I could concoct my own dressing.

We had a wild mushroom and hazelnut paté which was very tasty, and which I might use on another occasion, or perhaps as an hors d'oeuvres for Thanksgiving.

The paté was accompanied by wilted seasonal greens with roasted beets, and I can definitely see using this as our vegetable — if I can get past the roasted veggies we normally serve — and I doubt that I can. But I may incorporate some of the ingredients, like dried cranberries, apples and pumpkin seeds into our usual veggie mix.

The dessert, gingered and cider-caramelized apple pie was a big hit with my husband, who admired the very flaky crust. The crust was made with spelt flour and a lot of coconut oil, and though it was indeed flaky, I felt like I was too aware of the fat content as I ate it. I don't mean the idea of too much fat, I mean the sensation I get when I eat a high fat food — I don't like the taste.

All of the food was very beautiful and would make a lovely meal, but there's something about tradition that makes holidays special. Do you serve new foods at holiday dinners, or are you steeped in the tradition of what your family usually expects on special occasions?

Eating out in Philadelphia

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:34:00 +0000

Plantain fritters

We just spent a long weekend traveling to Pennsylvania to visit relatives and friends. I only had Internet on my phone, and I hate reading and responding to blogs on the small phone screen, especially during mofo when there are so many posts it's hard to keep up anyway, so I took a little break from the blog world to concentrate on people I don't get to see very often. It was an intense few days of conversations, food and traveling — and worrying about our dog, which I'll tell you about later.

This week my theme is reviews of books and restaurants, and although I thought I'd have a book review today, something happened over the weekend that still has me distracted, and I didn't get around to it. So instead, here's a little review of two restaurants we visited in the Philadelphia area.

Blue Sage Vegetarian Grille is located at 772 Second Street Pike, Southampton PA. It's an charming, intimate restaurant that is very popular. So popular, in fact, that although we had a reservation for 8:00 p.m., we didn't get seated until almost 9. The people seated at the table we were scheduled to occupy, chose to linger and converse after their meal. Fine. I felt bad that they wouldn't have a chance to stay as long as they wished, but it wasn't so great standing in the crowded entryway, either, and we were wishing they would leave. About a half hour after paying their bill, the hostess told them there were people waiting for the table, and very miffed indeed, they vacated the premises.

My husband started his meal with a house salad, and I don't think he expected a salad the size of the one he received. It was full of all sorts of goodies like spring mix, sweet balsamic or chile lime, pepitas, sunflower seeds and sun-dried berries. It was very fresh and delicious.

This was followed by an Indian-inspired khorma of red lentils, butternut squash and leeks in a mild house curry. The korma was accompanied by bowls containing plantain fritters & fresh mango-papaya relish. There was a third bowl as well but I don't remember what was in it. My husband was thrilled with the korma, and there was so much that he had half of it left over. He never has leftovers. You can see the fritters and salsa at the top of the page.

I can't remember the name or description of what I, and two other diners had, and it's not listed on the Web menu, so I'll try my best to describe it. There was a generous bowl of flash-cooked vegetables that were just wonderful. They were in a balsamic sauce and were beautifully crisp-tender.

On the plate next to the vegetables were three large balls made of chopped celariac and other stuff, including Old Bay seasoning. I believe they were (cough, cough) deep fried. While I, myself never deep fry anything, I will eat such food if I'm served it, though not very often. I guess I didn't realize they were deep fried until I saw them. They were good but not great. The next day though, the leftovers tasted wonderful — much better than at the restaurant.

Blue Sage is a vegetarian restaurant with a large selection of vegan options. Some offerings are always vegan, and some things can be made vegan. The food presentation is lovely and the food well prepared and interesting. It's a little pricy, but not outrageous considering the quality and quantity. Never go there without a reservation as it's a wildly popular place.

The next night we went to Wild Ginger, an Asian restaurant with a vegan menu located at 1928 County Line Rd (at Davisville Rd in Justa Farm Shopping Ctr) Huntingdon Valley, PA. They have Chinese, Thai and Japanese food, and although they bill themselves as a vegetarian restaurant, they seem to have non-vegetarian food as well. It was pretty dark in there and I only photographed some of the dishes. Above you see my fresh broccoli and tofu with ginger, which I very much enjoyed.

My sister-in-law ordered fried rice, and she said it was really great. Another popular dish at our table was Buddha's delight, but my photos were too grainy and dark. It looked really good in person, though!

Looks so real ...

That sums up our dining while in Philadelphia, but we had some interesting food experiences while traveling, too. On the way there, we had tight connections and barely enough time to make our connecting flight, but on the way home we had a lot of time to hang out at the Detroit airport, so we went to the Delta Club, which my frequent-traveler husband belongs to. The club is a great alternative to the airport waiting areas as it has much more comfortable and private seating, nice bathrooms and free food. Usually, the food isn't much of a draw since there's so little we want to eat, but this time things were different. There were little packets of hummus, a huge bowl filled with olives, artichoke hearts and peppers, and a big platter of celery and carrot sticks. They must have heard we were coming.

The rooms were decorated with pots of what looked like grass (see above) and I wondered if they were expecting a lot of traveling cats, but when I went up close to one of the pots, I discovered the grass was plastic! After our tea and hors d'oeuvres at the club, we went to the Japanese restaurant in the terminal and had edamame and sushi for dinner.

................................................................................

The sad dog news
We left our elderly dog at the home of someone who does dog care. She's been there before and seemed to like it. We left her Thursday night and called Friday night to check on her, and all was not well. Our poor little dog, minding her own business, was attacked by one of the other dogs, who gave her several puncture wounds. She was rushed to the emergency clinic where they said one of the punctures near her shoulder had penetrated her muscle, and she required a lot of stitches. The wound impacted her ability to walk, and when we picked her up Monday night, she was still stumbling. It was heart-breaking to see how sad she was. She's 19, and was previously doing really well for her age, but we'll have to see if she can recover from this. She's doing better today, so I'm hopeful she'll continue to improve. We'll see.

In other news, today is my birthday!

Meet me in Sioux Falls next summer for Ethiopian food

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:36:00 +0000

On our multiple treks from Washington State to Wisconsin, and back, we spend the night in a number of small towns and cities, usually chosen for the dual reasons of timing, and access to restaurants that might provide a vegan dinner for our road-weary selves. We've made the trip so many times, first to visit our kids, and now because we live in Seattle most of the year, that I pretty much know at which restaurants we've eaten in every town on our route. Except for Sioux Falls. Although we've stopped there often, I can't remember a single place we've eaten — sorry Sioux Falls — except for one. Last summer we pulled into Sioux Falls rather late, and exhausted. I was scouring a restaurant guide for possibilities when I came upon an Ethiopian place we'd never noticed before. We needed takeout because we were traveling with our elderly dog, and couldn't leave her alone in the hotel. It was nearly 8:30 p.m. when my husband called to see if they were open and if they had anything vegan. Be here in 20 minutes he was told. OK. He did as he was told. He returned with two large containers of the best Ethiopian food I've ever had. We were grinning from ear to ear as we stuffed ourselves with spicy veggies, and lentils, wrapped in injera. There was so much food, including extra injera, we had lots left over to store in the fridge and warm up for breakfast.

Lalibella is owned by a young Ethiopian family, and the night my husband stopped in, the entire family, including the young kids, was there. The cook/owner/husband said he didn't think the people in Sioux Falls understood Ethiopian food, but he was hoping to spread the word and teach people about his cuisine. If you happen to find yourself in Sioux Falls, or if you live there, give Lalibella a try. (1001 West 11th Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57104-3556(605) 331-4595. They are closed on Mondays.)

Antonio Bandaras and The Happy Herbivore Cookbook

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:00:00 +0000

I had kind of a strange dream the other night. I had just been hired to work in a sort of daycare center where parents left their kids while they worked or shopped at the mall. The odd thing was the kids were high school-aged students, not pre-schoolers. The students were well dressed and attractive, and were from various expensive prep schools, and they were not very amenable to following directions from the teachers. At one point I noticed the students going to the school kitchen and getting food, though a scheduled meal was not being served. I went to ask the other teacher, who happened to be Antonio Banderas, if that was OK, and saw that he seemed kind of harassed, and was rolling beans into tortillas, making burritos to serve the students.

I couldn't help but notice that the beans he was using were from the same chili recipe my husband and I had just made from The Happy Herbivore cookbook. It was awkward asking him stupid procedural questions because, um, he was Antonio Bandaras. He LOOKED like Antonio Bandaras, and SOUNDED like Antonio Bandaras so, as you can imagine, it was quite distracting. He was very nice, but so busy rolling the burritos he didn't really have time to chat, and seeing as I was pretty flustered anyway, I didn't try to make conversation. That's all I remember about the dream. So let's talk about the cookbook.

To be honest, I've had a hard time writing a review of this cookbook because when I first received it from the publisher, we tried several recipes and didn't like them. Go figure. I know there will always be recipes in a cookbook that don't appeal to me, so after taking a little break from the cookbook, we tried again. So many bloggers are cooking from The Happy Herbivore and loving it, I had to give it another shot. We made the Chili sans Carne and it was delicious. (And as you can see, it might inspire great dreams!) The chili seems pretty typical of the kind of recipes you'll find in the book — familiar, easy-to-prepare vegan comfort food — but without added fat, except for the fat that may be contained in prepared ingredients like Thai chili sauce or ... chocolate chips. Lindsay Nixon aims to provide delicious, healthy, low-fat foods that don't remind you with every bite that your dinner is healthy and low in fat.

When I made the chocolate zucchini muffins, I was really worried about how they would turn out, with no added fat except for a few chocolate chips. They were excellent — moist and tender. I served them for dessert, and everyone who ate one loved it. Although I don't cook fat-free, I generally cook relatively low-fat, low-sugar and low-salt foods, and though the muffins had no added fat, they did call for a range of 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar. While I usually use 1/4 cup of sugar for muffins, for these I used 1/2 cup, to stay true to the recipe. (Sometimes no-fat recipes tend to have more sugar and salt to compensate for the flavor fat usually adds, but in general, this doesn't seem to be the case with The Happy Herbivore.) Because the muffins were so low in fat, I decided to continue the healthy theme and frost them with a version of sweet potato frosting, that I originally found on Diet Dessert and Dogs. Trust me, you can't tell this fudge-y frosting is sweet potato-based, and it makes me feel a little healthier knowing I'm not eating big mouthfuls of margarine and powdered sugar. The other little change I made was to use whole spelt flour instead of wheat.

The last recipe I tried was a pumpkin pie that makes its own crust. I love pumpkin pie a lot, and I still like my version better, but this one was good, and some of my guests really loved it. I sprinkled it with chocolate chips for a little extra pizazz. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, this might be a recipe to keep in mind. It's a much lower-fat interpretation of pumpkin pie that the usual crusted version. I'll probably make it again for Thanksgiving.

In addition to low-fat renditions of all your favorite dishes, Lindsay offers a whole selection of interesting condiments and spice mixes (Berberé, Cajun essence, vegan Worcestershire sauce, etc.) to add flavor and excitement to food. Anyone wishing to reduce their fat consumption might enjoy this cookbook, but I think it would be an especially good resource for new vegans looking to create healthier meals while still enjoying old favorites.

I tend to cook with very little fat, and sometimes cook with no added fat, but I'm not by any means fat-free. We're bombarded with so much information, research, and expert opinions about what we should or shouldn't eat, it can get truly confusing. Is coconut oil a panacea or a highly saturated fat to avoid? Is olive oil a health-giving fat or just an unnecessary fat? Should we avoid sunflower oil, safflower oil, grapeseed oil? What about margarine like Earth Balance? Should we be cooking fat-free or is it OK to sauté veggies in 2 teaspoons of oil? What do you think?

Disclaimer: The book was sent to me free of charge by the publisher. I was under no obligation to review it, or to write a favorable review. For reasons unknown to me, I was not offered payment in exchange for writing a review.