Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking

Rise and shine smoothie | Home-made deodorant

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:51:00 +0000

Did you wake up on the funky side of the bed? Feeling a little blah or queasy? Not as voracious an appetite as usual? Maybe you need a dose of rise and shine smoothie to get you back on track. Worked for me. :)

Rise and shine smoothie

1 to 3 teaspoons fresh ginger root, washed, scraped, chopped (I used two.)
1-1/2 heaping cups frozen mango pieces (mine were from Trader Joe's)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional but good)
almond milk (about 1-1/2 cups)
water (about 1/2 cup)

Add the ginger root and mango to a VitaMix or other high-speed blender.
Add enough almond milk to process, and thin to your preferred consistency with additional milk or water. (I used about 1-1/2 cups of milk and 1/2 cup of water, but your blender may want less or more. You may prefer your smoothie thicker or thinner.) Blend until creamy-smooth.
You can add a few drops of liquid stevia or other sweetener of your choice if you prefer a sweeter smoothie, but I found it plenty sweet as is.

Read more about ginger, it's medicinal uses and contra-indications, here and here.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Home-made deodorant

I was reading a blog post about DYI deodorant and thinking I'd like to make some. Who wouldn't, right? It only had four ingredients, and the most expensive one (I thought) I already had. If you already have everything on hand, it would be economical to make, but if you have to buy everything, not so much. But I wasn't making it to be economical, I was making it to be "natural." And that it is. And, honestly, it works better than the natural deodorant I was buying and has better ingredients. It contains only coconut oil, corn starch (or arrowroot), essential oil, and baking soda.

One recipe makes enough for several months, but if you're like me and make it late at night when you're too tired to remember ingredient quantities, you can easily make enough for at least half a year, though I don't recommend this. The deodorant stays hard when the room temperature is cool, but softens a bit as it gets warmer. In hot weather you could keep it in the refrigerator. I now have mine in four 2-ounce amber glass jars, three of which are in the fridge.

I had no problems with clothing stains while the deodorant was hard, but when it softened, I may have used too much, and I found oil stains on my favorite tee. This only happened with a light-colored tee. (They came out with a lot of washing, but I mean a LOT of washing.) The stuff smells fantastic, and I really love it so I'm going to give it another shot and pay more attention to how much I apply. It only takes a little to do the trick.

You can find the recipe here. I used half tea tree oil in my batch. Also, I let it harden in the refrigerator, and kept taking it out to stir it while it cooled, because the ingredients tend to separate if you don't.

Unexpected surprise at a restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:07:00 +0000

My half-eaten plate of food.

Dave, the coordinator of the Madison vegetarian meetup group just can't seem to organize in only one city. He put me in contact with a former group member who had recently moved to Seattle. After exchanging messages on Facebook, we planned a quintessential "Sunday in Seattle" outing — a walk around Green Lake. The 2.8 mile Green Lake track is one of the most popular walking spots in the city, and we live a few blocks away, so it looked like a perfect way to meet up, get some fresh air and exercise all at the same time.

The walk to and from the lake plus the distance around the lake took about 1-1/2 hours, and it was close to 1 p.m. when we finished. We were all starving, so it seemed like the ideal time to introduce our new friend to Araya's, a nearby vegan Thai restaurant with an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. When we arrived, I asked what foods on the buffet were gluten-free (I already knew some of them were) and was given a rundown of the GF offerings. All the salads, pickled and fresh, one soup, the steamed veggies with peanut sauce on the side, and the coconut curry were all gluten-free, I was told. Even the spring rolls were OK as they were made with rice paper wrappers, though that seems too good to be true. The pad Thai, fried rice and veggie stir-fry all contained soy sauce. I don't know if I would feel comfortable with this if I had celiac, but I took my chances, and didn't experience stomach upset.

We were happily enjoying our meal when the manager appeared with a large plate of pad Thai. "The cooks made you some gluten-free pad Thai," she said. I was so surprised. I was pretty full by then but felt kind of obligated to eat as much as I could, after her kind gesture. Yikes. How nice was that?

In addition to gluten-free offerings on the menu and the lunch buffet, Araya's also has a case of gluten-free desserts near the cash register. I've never tried them but another customer told me they were very good. By the time I get to the register at Araya's, I'm usually too full to think about dessert!

Rich and spicy lima bean chowder

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:34:00 +0000

I was dining alone the other night which meant my motivation for cooking something interesting was lagging. But I was hungry for spicy and delicious sustenance — and I was craving lima beans. Lima beans are not usually on the "crave" list, but you gotta do what you gotta do. And I hankered for limas.

I wanted something easy to make (lazy), relatively fast (short attention span) that made use of what I had in the refrigerator and pantry. Lucky for me, dried lima beans cook really fast in a pressure cooker even without a pre-soak, so the "fast" part was within reach. I already had carrots, and kale in the fridge, potatoes in the potato drawer and a giant bag of organic, frozen Costco corn in the freezer. There was also a partially used jar of Trader Joe's no salt added tomato sauce that needed to be used up, in the fridge. The spices are ones that are always in my pantry.

When I'm trying to think of something to make, I imagine what I want it to taste like. I close my eyes and think about the flavor, texture and appearance, then set about making it happen. The chowder I ended up with exceeded my expectations. It really was great — thick, rich with flavor, satisfying. I ate my fill, then left it cooling on the stove while I went to catch up on the last episode of Mad Men, which I had missed. To make a long story short, when I woke up the next morning, I suddenly remembered the soup was still out. I had to ditch it, though it was painful. Lucky for you, I wanted the soup again so much, I remade it, measuring this time so I could save the recipe. The second incarnation was identical to the first, except it was shared with my husband, who agreed it was something special.

I'm submitting the recipe to Ricki's Wellness Weekend.

Rich and spicy lima bean chowder

1 cup dried lima beans, sorted and washed
6 cups water
4 medium carrots, washed, peeled, cut into a small dice
1 medium-to-large yellow potato, washed, unpeeled, cut into a small dice
2 tablespoons dehydrated chopped onion
3/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon dried chipotle powder
1/2 cup tomato sauce (I used Trader Joe's no salt added)
1 tablespoon Bragg's aminos (or wheat-free tamari)
2 cups frozen corn (I used organic to avoid gmo corn)
2 cups kale, finely shredded (I used org. red and green kale)

Wash the beans well to get all the dirt off (limas always seem so dirty compared to other dried beans) and place them in a pressure cooker with 6 cups of water. Bring to pressure and cook about 18 minutes. Bring the pressure down quickly.
Open the cooker and add the carrots and potato. Bring back up to pressure and cook 1-1/2 minutes. Bring pressure down quickly.
Add the onion, garlic, turmeric and chipotle powder. Stir.
Stir in the Bragg's and the tomato sauce.
Add the corn and kale and stir in. Reheat and simmer briefly until the corn is hot and the kale wilted. Taste for salt. (I didn't add additional salt to mine.)
If you are not avoiding oil, drizzle a small amount of olive oil over the soup before serving. Or, add some avocado slivers as a garnish.

Four servings. Can be made in less than an hour, start to finish.

Cooking and ingredient notes:

I find that if I soak the lima beans for an hour, the dirt is easier to get off. If I don't have time to soak them, I just rub them together between my hands and make sure all the dirt is removed. The cooking time is the same if you give them a short soak.
I cut up my veggies and combine the spices in a small dish while the beans are cooking. The timing seems about right.
Granulated garlic is not the same as garlic powder. I find it much easier to use and store the granulated stuff because it doesn't get hard. If you have powder, use about 1/2 teaspoon and taste to see if you need more. Or, use two large minced cloves of fresh garlic if you prefer fresh to dried.
Instead of Bragg's or tamari, you could use soy sauce (if you don't care about gluten-free) or just salt to taste, though the Bragg's or tamari add flavor.
I used 1 teaspoon of chipotle powder (not chipotle chili powder) for a moderately spicy flavor. Use 1/2 teaspoon for a less spicy soup. Use smoked Spanish paprika for even less spice.
I cooked the dried beans in a 6-quart pressure cooker, but you could probably use canned beans (2 cans, drained) instead of dried. If you do, use low-salt stock instead of water.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Have you had a look at the auction Richa from Hobby and More is holding to benefit VSPCA - Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals? Head over to Richa's auction page to see if there is something you'd like to bid on. You'll find books, jewelry, delicious baked goods and other items to choose from.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The photographer meets her match

Miss E practices her photography skills.

Bare Fruit giveaway — we have a winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:41:00 +0000

UPDATE: The winner of the giveaway is ufg8trj. The case of apple snacks is on its way to her as I type. Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter. For those who didn't win, look for discount coupons on the Bare Fruit Facebook page.

I recently posted a review of Bare Fruit Cinnamon Apple Chips, a deliciously crisp, organic dried snack that I love. The folks at Bare Fruit have agree to sponsor a giveaway of their product to a lucky reader of this blog. In fact, they are offering a case of Bare Fruit to one lucky person. (If you missed the review, you can read it here.)

All you have to do to be entered in the giveaway is leave a comment on this post (not the review post, though comments are welcome there, too.) saying you'd like to win, and "like" the Bare Fruit Facebook page. That's just one comment and one like, and you're entered to win a case of Bare Fruit! Here's a link to the Bare Fruit Facebook page.

I wouldn't sponsor a giveaway of a product I didn't like, and I think you'll like this, too. You have until midnight on May 15 to enter your comment. I'll use the random number generator to select a winner and announce the winner on this post. Don't put it off — enter now so you won't forget! Sorry, U.S. only.

Shower me with food instead of water

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:18:00 +0000

I wasn't planning to write a post just now, I was planning to take a shower, but my next door neighbor is getting a new roof. Usually, there is no direct sight-line into our bathroom window because it faces a ... roof. The window is covered with a thickly gathered gauzy curtain, which adds a nice ambiance to the room, and softens the view without totally blocking the light. I can barely see through the curtain unless I really focus, and today when I focused, I saw the roofer — close enough for a conversation if the window were open. In other words, too close for comfort. So here comes a post I've been meaning to write, cleanliness be damned.

I've been derelict in writing down recipes lately, which isn't to say I haven't been cooking new things. I've just been taking an extended break from the days when I recorded all my ingredients and wrote recipes for the blog. I've been reverting back to my add a little of this and a little of that days, which is why you haven't seen many recipes from me lately. However, I still use other people's recipes, and here's one you might like to try. In fact, you should try it. It's a recipe I found on Ricki's blog, Diet Dessert and Dogs, and as Ricki cooks it, it's appropriate for just about any dietary restriction you might encounter. I was mainly interested in the vegan and gluten-free aspects, so I took some liberties with the ingredients — not many, though.

Ricki calls the recipe Quizza because it's a little like quiche, and a little like pizza. It has the wonderful socca, which I love, as its inspiration. I pretty much followed the recipe except I added mushrooms, lemon juice and a bit of nutritional yeast. My green veggies were spinach and broccoli, and I used regular chickpea flour and reconstituted home-dried tomatoes, which I already had on hand. I may also have added dehydrated onions. The dish practically made itself, because I had a partial bag of frozen spinach and a bag of frozen broccoli that I wanted to use up, so I didn't even have to wash and chop veggies. I may have gotten carried away with the veggies, though, because I ended up with two casseroles — one 10-inch round glass quiche pan, and a 1-1/2 quart ceramic baker. (As a side note, the quiche came right out of the ceramic dish, but stuck to the glass.)

My husband and I both loved the quizza. It was delicious hot from the oven, and amazing cold the next day (and the next and the next ...). In fact, I couldn't stop eating it, and was quite stuffed for several days. I'm thinking of making it again tonight, with fresh veggies instead of frozen — maybe with asparagus and mushrooms along with the tomatoes and garlic.

UPDATE: MAY 19 — I made quizza again and put a layer of tomato sauce on top, which was delicious. I froze the leftovers, and last night I reheated some for dinner. It tasted great!

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The view through our dining room windows, which makes eating especially pleasant these days.

Fab dried cinnamon apple chips

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:23:00 +0000

Some time ago — longer ago than I'd like to admit — I was offered a sample pack of dried apples from the Bare Fruit snack company, and, if I liked the sample, the opportunity to offer my readers a special deal on ordering the fruit. I looked at their Web site and saw that the fruit was simply organic, dried fruit, so I said, "yes" to a sample. (They actually didn't even ask me to write a review, just to provide a special offer to my readers.)

I was expecting a small snack pack, but what I received was a giant, 14-ounce bag of really delicious, crispy apple chips made from 100% organic apples and 100% organic cinnamon.

Here's what the Web page says:

Made with organic cinnamon for that classic apple and cinnamon taste
Grown in Washington state
100 Percent organic and kosher
Fat and Gluten free
No added sugar, preservatives or additives
Available in 14 oz (397g), 2.6 oz (73g) and 0.64 oz (18g) sizes.

I've served them to my women's group, to my family, to a 4-year-old and, repeatedly, to myself. Everyone thought they were delicious. (The 4-year-old loved them until she noticed the skin, which she was unable to pick off. ) The crunchy texture is satisfying in the same way chips are, but minus all the fat and salt. I love them, and think they'd make a great party snack, addition to a packed lunch, or snack for anytime you need a quick, satisfying, crunchy and healthy bite to eat. They would be great to take along on a hike, and I plan to take them on our next long car trip.

What do you think? Have you tried these, yet? Would you like to? If I receive enough of a positive response, I'll contact the Bare Fruit company to see what sort of deal they had in mind. I think I need another bag!

Disclaimer: I received the apple chips free of charge. I was not asked to write a review. I received no money nor promise of monetary gain. I am not an affiliate of this company. All opinions are my own.

In love with a chocolate recipe | The darker side of chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:43:00 +0000

Oh, how I love these raw chocolate morsels. They contain basically walnuts, dates and cacao powder — no additional oils — and are so delicious, surely they are what is meant by the phrase, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." As I've previously mentioned, they come from the recipes of Jennifer Cornbleet. I found the recipe in Raw for Dessert, but it appears in different forms in her other books as well. I recommend buying this little cookbook (reviewed here), but in the meantime, I've found the recipe for you online. Jennifer makes the chocolate dessert as a cake, and as cupcakes, but my favorite way to use it is in small chocolate molds. I have two molds, each with 15 cups, each one-inch in diameter and one-half inch deep. Pressed firmly into each cup, the recipe makes exactly 30 morsels. You could also easily form it into balls. I added five to eight drops of liquid stevia to my mixture because I was afraid it might be too bitter for my guests, and I also upped the vanilla to one teaspoon. I didn't use frosting. To find the recipe, follow the link to the Chocolate cupcakes recipe page, and click on "chocolate cupcakes."

There are probably at least 100 similar recipes online for raw chocolate treats, but I love this one for its simplicity, amazing flavor, natural sweetener and lack of additional added fats. (There's already plenty of fat from the walnuts!)

And if that isn't enough, I'm including a video of Jennifer making a larger quantity (in her cookbook the ingredients are exactly doubled for a cake) and forming the mixture into a cake with raspberries on top.

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;jj&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A few words about the darker side of chocolate
(After reading through the lists, look for the update at the bottom of the page for another viewpoint.)

I used Dagoba fair trade certified cacao powder to make my chocolate. The growing, harvesting and manufacture of chocolate is fraught with corruption, slavery, and even murder. As a consumer, I want to make ethical choices to support companies that sustain, not damage and abuse their workers. But it's harder than I thought. If you read through the following information, you'll see that Dagoba is on the "not recommended" list because they source some of their chocolate from the Ivory Coast, the area most infested with abuses. In researching the chocolate issue, I've found other lists, and they don't all agree. It's complicated, but we can all make an effort to learn more about the food we eat, and try to make better choices, because our purchases have a global effect.

From: Care2 make a difference

- There are a number of fair trade companies that are serious about sourcing their chocolate ethically.
- The majority of organic chocolate is grown in Central and South America where slavery has not been an issue. Because of the limited supply of organic chocolate, most farmers receive a fair price.
- There are a select number of farms in West Africa who receive a fair price for their chocolate and are slave and child labor free.
If you’re confused now about which companies to trust you’re not alone. For some, refusing to buy chocolate from companies that source from the Ivory Coast – no matter their certifications or promise of due diligence – is the only option. Other consumers choose to buy chocolate from the select companies that are attempting to address the slave trade issue directly. These companies purchase their supplies from farmers or farming co-ops on the Ivory Coast who do not participate in the slave trade. Below you’ll find a list of companies in both categories, so the decision is up to you.

No matter what chocolate choices you make, remember that food is power. And as consumers our greatest weapon is what we “choose to consume.” Just because we’re used to grabbing items off the shelf without thinking doesn’t mean we should be. There is a story behind each item we purchase. From the underpaid migrant workers who picked the oranges piled high, to the children enslaved and maimed for each Hershey’s kiss. Do your research and take back your power to change these practices. (emphasis mine)

On the recommended list and fabulous.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/fair-trade-chocolate a-myth.html#ixzz1sPb2Q4UM

Understanding Food Empowerment Project's chocolate list

Chocolate we feel comfortable recommending
- 365 Dark Chocolate Bar (Whole Foods Market)
- Alce Nero's dark chocolate
- Alter Eco
- Allison’s Gourmet
- Amano
- Angell Chocolate Bars
- Askinoise
- Café Gratitude
- Chocolate Ibarra
- Chocolates El Rey
- Chocolatl
- Chuao Chocolatier
- Cocolo (Australia & New Zealand)
- Coconut Bliss (they were recently bought by a dairy company)
- Coco-Zen
- Cotton Tree Chocolate (70% bar - only in Belize)
- Crispy Cat
- Dandelion Chocolate
- Denman Island Chocolate
- Eat Pastry
- Edensoy
- Endangered Species (Organic dark chocolate only)
- Equal Exchange
- Essential Living Foods
- The Fearless Chocolate Company
- Frontier
- Gnosis
- Gone Pie Vegan Bakery
- Go Macro's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Crunch
- Goss Chocolate (dark and special dark chocolate, nibs and cocoa powder)
- Justin’s Nut Butter
- Kakaw Belizean Chocolate (Belize)
- Kallari Chocolate
- Kopali Organics
- La Siembra - Cocoa Camino
- Live Superfoods (their name brand only)
- Love Street Livin
- Loving Earth (New Zealand)
- Lulu's Chocolates
- Madécasse's Chocolate
- Madre Chocolate
- Mast Brothers Chocolate
- Michel Cluizel (Dark Chocolate, Single Estate)
- Mindo Chocolate
- Nada Moo
- Nature’s Path
- Navitas Naturals
- Newman’s Own
- New Tree
- Nutiva (hemp protein powder chocolate shake)
- The Oakland Chocolate Company
- Obsessive Confection Disorder
- Organica (Venture Foods)
- Organic Fair
- Plamil
- Rapunzel
-René Rey Chocolates
- República del Cacao
- Righteously Raw
- Sacred Chocolate
- Salazon Chocolate
- SaviSeed
- Scarborough Fair (New Zealand)
- Scream Sorbet
- Shaman Chocolates
- Sjaaks (Eli's Earth Bars)
- Sunflour Baking Company
- Sunfood's Chocolate
- Sunridge Farms
- Sweet Earth Chocolates
- Sweet & Sara
- Taza Chocolates
- Temptation
- Theo Chocolate
- Turtle Mountain (organic only)
- Ulimana
- Ultimate SuperFoods
- Veganica Pty Ltd (Rawganic Chocolate & CocoLuscious Coconut Ice Cream) Australia
- Vivani
- Whistler Chocolate
- Wild Boar’s Dark Chocolate (Hagensborg Chocolates)
- Zenergy Powerballs

Cannot recommend
- Scharffen Berger (owned by Hershey)

Cannot recommend but are working on the issues in various ways
- Bonvita
- Callebaut
- Chocolove
- Chocoveda
- Deliss Chocolate
- Divine
- Go Max Go
- Guittard Chocolate Company
- Lake Champlain Chocolates
- LEDA Chocolate (Australia & New Zealand)
- Liz Lovely Cookies
- Mariposa Baking Company
- NOW
- Pangea
- Rescue Chocolate
- Svelte
- Sweet William (New Zealand)
- TCHO
- TradeAid (New Zealand)
- Terra Nostra
- Whittaker's (Australia & New Zealand)
- Xan Confections

Cannot recommend but at least responded
- Dagoba (owned by Hershey)
- Dr. Fuhrman’s Cocoa Powder
- Earth Balance
- Enjoy Life Natural Brands
- Lindt
- Lucy's Cookies
- Maisie Jane’s California Sunshine
- Missionary Chocolates
- Olive & Sinclair's Chocolate
- Peter's Chocolate
- Poco Dolce
- Ritter
- Smith Organic Chocolates
- Theobroma Chocolat
- Tofutti
- Valrhona
- Whole Food Market Chocolate Chips
- Wilbur Chocolate
- YisRoYal (gourmet vegan cookie dough)

Cannot recommend: companies that would not disclose (no transparency for customers)
- Clif Bar
- Glutino
- Imagine Foods/Hain Pure Foods (Soy Dream, Rice Dream, SunSpire and Tropical Source)
- Indie Candy
- Kinnikinnick Foods
- Moonstruck Chocolatier
- NuGo - Nutrition to Go
- OCHO Candy
- O’Natra
- Q.bel Foods
- Recchiuti Confections
- Salish Sea Chocolate Company
- Trader Joe’s
- VEGA
- Vosges

Cannot recommend: companies that did not respond
- Agostoni
- Ah!Laska
- Alternative Baking Company
- Amy’s
- Betty Lou’s
- Blue Diamond
- Chocolate Decadence
- Chocolate Inspirations
- Double Rainbow Soy Cream
- Eskal Noble Choice (Australia/New Zealand)
- Gelateria Naia
- Global Organics
- Good Karma
- Green & Black's
- Halo (Pro Bar)
- Heaven Sent
- LÄRABAR
- NÓI SÍRÍUS's chocolate (dark)
- Premium Chocolatiers
- Rose City Chocolatier
- Sanitarium (Australia/New Zealand)
- Santa Cruz Organic
- Uncle Eddie's
- Wonderfully Raw
- ZenSoy

Note: Last Updated April 10th, 2012

Here's another list:
Directory of ethical chocolate companies
from: slavefreechocolate.org/directory-chocolate/
"Generally, if the chocolate is organic, has a fair trade label or the cocoa is listed as being sourced from anywhere other than Ghana or The Ivory Coast then it’s slave free."

Chuao
Denman Island Chocolate
Divine Chocolate Co
The Endangered Species Chocolate Company
Equal Exchange
Green and Black’s
Health by Chocolate
L.A. Burdick Chocolates
La Siembra Cooperative (Camino)
Max Havelaar
Mayordomo
Montezuma’s Chocolates
Newman’s Own Organics
Original Hawaiian Chocolate
Plamil Organic Chocolate
Rain Republic
Rapunzel Pure Organics
Seed & Bean Chocolate
Shaman Chocolates
Sweet Earth Chocolates
Terra Nostra Organic
Theo Chocolate
Tony Chocolonely
Trader Joe’s Organic Chocolate Bars

UPDATE 4-20-12
After expressing my chagrin and surprise at Rescue chocolate not being on the "recommended list," an equally surprised friend said this, "Anyway, I read about Rescue Chocolate's stance on fair trade and chocolate sourcing on their FAQ page, and then I read more on the Food Empowerment's web site about what it means to be on each list, and then I emailed Rescue Chocolate and told them I was confused and to please explain. We'll see what they say."

Here's an excerpt from what they said, "I'm not quite sure how the Food Empowerment Project decides to put companies in its various slots. They used to have us in the un-recommended slot. I contacted them and explained how we use couverture from Callebaut, which really is completely responsible in its production processes around the globe. That prompted the FEP to move Rescue Chocolate up a notch, but not any higher. I can only theorize it is because my labels do not carry a fair-trade logo (for the reasons you saw on my website).

I would stop producing Rescue Chocolate in a heartbeat if I thought there were human beings harmed or exploited because of it. Even though Rescue Chocolate's mission is to help animals, I happen to believe that we are all part of the same web of life."

If your favorite chocolate is on the "wrong" list, write to them for clarification. If they believe they are being misjudged, they may give you the information you need to make a decision to continue to support them. In any case, they will know that their customers care about the integrity of the companies that get their money.

Quinoa stuffed peppers | raw chocolate bites | Cute neighbor

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:03:00 +0000

At a recent family dinner, I served something I haven't made in years, and consider a little retro — stuffed peppers. Do people still make these? Maybe I'm just out of touch because I'm not that fond of peppers, and don't cook with them very often, but I have to admit, they were good.

The peppers were served at a holiday meal alongside potato kugel, cranberry-apple sauce and a large salad, and preceded by smoky cream of broccoli soup. I also made the delicious Silky Chickpea Gravy from Appetite for Reduction.

I can't give exact measurements for the quinoa filling but will tell you everything that was in it, and how it was made; there's lots of room for improvisation. The leftover filling, baked in a separate casserole dish alongside the peppers, was used as a side dish, and tasted great on its own, minus the pepper.

I started with 1-1/2 cups of raw quinoa which was cooked in three cups of low-sodium broth. Several chopped carrots, a few ribs of chopped celery, many sliced mushrooms, and a large chopped onion were stir-fried until nearly cooked, then pulsed in the food processor until they were finely chopped but NOT puréed. The vegetables were mixed into the quinoa along with 1/2 cup of shelled, roasted but unsalted pistachios, about 1/2 cup of chopped kalamata olives, salt and pepper. This should be enough for six large peppers.

The peppers were halved, seeded and gently steamed until they began to soften. The stuffing was pressed into the peppers, carefully filling all the cavities and mounding over the tops. The stuffed peppers were then loosely covered, and baked at 350˚F. They were garnished with a bit of ketchup because I hadn't gotten around to making the tomato sauce I'd thought about.

The quinoa tasted fabulous, and I will make it again as a side dish, or as a stuffing for collard leaves if I'm feeling more ambitious. I just don't like peppers that much.

For dessert we had fruit salad and raw chocolate morsels from a recipe in Raw for Dessert by Jennifer Cornbleet. (reviewed here) The recipe I used was for Chocolate Cupcakes, and it was wonderful. Ever since I got my candy moulds, I've been obsessed with using them and this was the perfect recipe for making small-sized treats. (The moulds are fantastic, and if you are thinking about purchasing moulds, I recommend these.) After filling the moulds, I placed them in the freezer until the "cupcakes" were firm, then popped them out and stored them in a tightly sealed container in the freezer until serving time. They don't actually freeze, and are just right for eating right from the freezer. (More about these later.)

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Cute neighbor

Here's a cute photo of our cute neighbor, Lucy, curled up on our bed. Did I say "cute" too many times? Lucy comes to visit often, and seems to think she lives here. What she doesn't know is if she lived here, she wouldn't be allowed to roam around outdoors. She's the nicest cat anyone could wish for — so loving and sweet. And very cute.

Chocolate chip scones, GF and delicious | The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Bread part two

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:08:00 +0000

After perusing all the tempting recipes in The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Bread, and having a tough time deciding what to make, I finally decided that since I had tried a yeasted pizza dough that served as the base for a savory taco pizza, I should also try something in the sweet treat category. The English muffins I was eying would have to wait until I made chocolate chip scones. I remembered fondly my pre-GF scones, and wondered how these would stack up.

I was pretty excited since I was still stoked by the success of my first recipe from the cookbook, but I'm still at an early stage of GF baking, and never sure how something I'm making will turn out. Will they taste like scones? Will the batter be hard to handle? Will it be gritty, sandy, gluey?

The scones exceeded my highest expectations and tasted exactly like ... scones. The crumb was delicate and, dare I say, almost flaky. They were lightly sweetened, exactly the way I like. My husband felt that something was lacking in the flavor, but I disagreed. It's possible that the little mistake I made while preparing the scones had a subtle effect on the taste, however, I think when I make them again, I'll add vanilla extract for a little added depth. We cut the scones in half because they were a little big for us, but if you want eight pieces instead of four, I suggest waiting until the scones are baked before making the extra cut. They will be a lot easier to handle.

Scones cooling on the rack.

Because there are more ingredients involved with GF baking, and because I can be a bit scatterbrained, I've devised a method to make sure I add all the ingredients to a recipe. I place every ingredient in the recipe on the counter, and as I measure and add each one to the bowl, I place it back into the baking cupboard, which happens to be right next to my work surface. Thus I was busily employed at the point where the dry and wet ingredients combine were about to combine, when my husband rushed into the kitchen all excited about something. I got distracted, and tried to answer his questions until finally, I placed my attention back on the bowls. I combined. I patted out the dough into a round shape. I admired my work. But something wasn't right, and I had an aaarrrgggh moment as I realized the chocolate chips still sat on the counter. A couple more aarrghs while I considered what to do, then I spread the chips over the top of the dough and gently but firmly pressed them in as best I could. I tried to keep the dough from flattening more but I'm sure my scones were patted down a bit more than required. Still, they came out great. I wonder though, if my husband would have liked the flavor better if the chocolate chips had been better integrated.

(Click on the recipe to see it larger. Recipe reprinted with permission.)

Notes: 1) Instead of using a pastry cutter or knives, I pulsed the fat into the grains with my food processor. 2) To make the buttermilk called for in the recipe, place two teaspoons of cider vinegar into a measuring cup and add five tablespoons of cold nut, seed or soy milk. Allow to stand for about 10 minutes. Use as little as you need to create a cohesive dough. I had to use it all. 3) You may want to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the wet ingredients. 4) The scones taste best after about five minutes of cooling. They aren't as good after they sit around for a while.

Thanks to Book Publishing Company for allowing me to publish the recipe.
Full disclosure: The cookbook was provided free to me by Book Publishing Company. I was under no obligation to write a favorable review, or any review. I received no money nor promise of monetary gain. I am not an affiliate of this company. All opinions are my own.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Bettah buttah

The recipe I printed above calls for vegan buttery spread, and I want to alert you to Bryanna Clark Grogan's new recipe for homemade buttah. It is both palm oil-and-coconut oil-free. She provides extensive information about not only how to make the butter substitute, but why she chose the specific ingredients she used, and why palm oil is having such a negative impact on orangutans. Buttah looks like a great alternative to the popular butter substitutes currently in use.

BTW, The photo is for illustration only. It is NOT buttah. I haven't made any yet but am intrigued.

Allergy-free baking-book review part one | Spicy taco pizza (GF)

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:22:00 +0000

When Mary Ellen from Book Publishing Company (The Farm, in Summertown, Tenn.) offered to send me a review copy of The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Bread, a gluten-free baking book, she caught me at exactly the right moment. (If you're not so interested in GF baking, read on for the taco pizza, which can be made with a crust of your choice.) I've been eating gluten-free for about six months, and although I didn't find the change particularly noticeable in my general diet, baking is a whole other issue. I'd had a gross brownie failure, a successful cookie/cake experience, and a barely-OK bread-baking try. I was ready for something better.

I don't bake often, and don't eat many sweets, but six months is a long time without baking something, even for me. Because my experience with gluten-free baking is so minimal, I read Laurie Sadowski's book like a novel, from cover-to-cover. I appreciated her comparisons of the many kinds of flours, starches and other ingredients, her helpful information on how to customize recipes, her lists of substitutions, and her tips and techniques not just for baking, but for storing baked goods. Not only are her recipes gluten-free and vegan, she has accommodated just about every sort of food allergy you, or the friends and family you are baking for, might have.

One of the things I like so much about the cookbook is the recipes don't seem to be as starch-heavy as many of the ones I've seen. Nor are they as dependent on large amounts of fat and sugar for their success.

By the time I was ready to hit the kitchen, I was feeling much more confident. The recipes include everything from cupcakes, biscuits, doughnuts and scones to yeasted rolls, French bread, New York bagels, English muffins and pizza dough. (No cookies, though.) It was hard picking recipes to try, and I kept changing my mind. Finally, after seeing a post on Cadry's Kitchen about taco pizza, I knew what to do. I had to make pizza dough — the Essential Pizza Crust, to be exact.

The raw dough patted into shape.

It wasn't as hard to make a good GF pizza crust as I expected it to be; Laurie's directions were so helpful. I knew exactly what to expect from the dough at each stage. I might even go so far as to say making the crust was easy. There was one big thing I didn't do according to the directions, and maybe the crust would have been even better if I'd been able to make it exactly as described. Laurie lists a heavy-duty stand mixer as a required piece of kitchen equipment, and I don't have one in my current kitchen, so I used my food processor instead. The other small change I made was to bake the pie for its second baking rather than use the broiler. And here's a tip from me: when patting out the dough, oil your hands and use your palms to gently pat the dough into shape. My fingers stuck to the dough regardless of the amount of oil on them, but once I developed a "palming technique," it was easy to shape the crust.

The dough after the pre-bake, just before I spread the sauce.

One pizza was enough for two eaters, and the recipe makes two. After baking and cooling, I placed the leftover pizza on a paper towel-covered plate and covered it with foil before storing it in the fridge. The next night I added more sauce, more tomatoes and a few extra chips, and baked it on my pizza stone during the last 10 minutes or so of our roasted vegetable bake-time, or until it was hot. The crust bottom was extra crispy and the pizza tasted great. Next time I may be brave enough to use the stone for the second baking, rather than the parchment-covered baking sheet. I was afraid the crust would stick, but I don't think that will be a problem.

The partially-baked pie before going into the oven for its second baking.

I mentioned earlier that I based my pizza on this one. Cadry was trying to replicate a beloved flavor from her pre-vegan days, but I had no such constraints. I'd never tasted a taco pizza, (and maybe I didn't even know there was such a thing!), so I was free to create my own flavors. I cooked a pot of black beans, and turned them over to my husband to make Cadry's spicy black beans while I turned my attention to the crust and the other toppings. I used Bionaturae jarred tomato paste to create a sauce like my father had taught me to do with water, granulated garlic, onion flakes, oregano and salt. To give it extra taco punch, I added chipotle chile powder and a bit of yeast flakes. It was thick, spicy and tasted great. For the chips, I used ones we already had — Food Should Taste Good multi-grain tortilla chips, though Cadry's choice of Picco de Gallo chips from Garden of Eatin' would be the way to go if authenticity is key. I layered on sauce, beans, chips, olives, tomatoes and onions. (Cilantro, if I'd had some, would also have been included.) My husband and I loved our first taco pizza!

(Click on the recipe to see it larger. Recipe reprinted with permission.)

Allergy-free baking-book review part 2 will be about delicious chocolate chip scones.

Thanks to Book Publishing Company for allowing me to publish the recipe. Full disclosure: The cookbook was provided free to me by Book Publishing Company. I was under no obligation to write a favorable review, or any review. I received no money nor promise of monetary gain. I am not an affiliate of this company. All opinions are my own.

Eating my way through Seattle Vegfest one sample at a time | Dr. Neal Barnard

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:32:00 +0000

Could barely keep up with demand.

I spent the better part of the weekend at Seattle Vegfest. Saturday we went to wander around and eat samples, and to hear Dr. Neal Barnard speak, and Sunday we had a volunteer shift. If you want to make four hours feel like four days, just stand behind a table and pour Silk beverages into tiny cups while hundreds of people snatch them away. I did manage to taste a couple of flavors because I got kind of hungry. The light chocolate soy milk — sweetened with stevia — is pretty good, as is the unsweetened, organic soy milk. I thought the Fruit&Protein drink was too sweet, with a bubblegum aftertaste. Everyone else seemed to love it, though, so don't listen to me. I didn't try the coconut milk.

I happen to be a fan of Mary's Gone Crackers

In years past, I pretty much tasted anything that was vegan and reasonably healthy. I gobbled Field Roast sliders and sun-dried tomato focaccia with abandon. I never could bring myself to sample vegan seafood, but everything else was fair game. This year, since I'm not eating gluten, I didn't expect to be able to taste much, but was I ever wrong. I'd never paid much attention to whether or not the proffered samples were GF, so I can't speak to past events, but this year's Vegfest was a vegan, gluten-free tasters paradise.

The first time I passed by the White Mountain tamales, I barely glanced at them, assuming they were glutenous, but as I was heading back from the Amy's table, the "gluten-free" label caught my eye, and I tried the spicy, chipotle-mushroom version. I thought they were really tasty, and a small chunk speared on a toothpick with a grape tomato might make a nice hors d'oevre. Speaking of the Amy's offerings, I didn't realize at first that they, too, were gluten-free.

I had lasagna followed by chocolate cake, and both were delicious. In reality, I don't buy very many prepared meals — just about none — but I'm offering my opinion in case anyone is looking for delicious meals to keep on hand in the freezer. No one would guess they were GF, either.

If you live in the Seattle area and like kosher pickles, you've got to track down some of Britt's naturally fermented sour and half-sour pickles, which come in a variety of flavors. I can personally testify that each variety is delicious. This is a new product that is gradually making its way into more and more local stores. It's not cheap, but it's excellent.

Another new, local product I tried was Búcha, a new kombucha that is supposed to appeal to everyone — even those who don't like kombucha. To me it seemed slightly bland, and not fizzy enough, but that may be exactly why kombucha haters will enjoy it. I would certainly drink it. It comes in seven interesting flavors like raspberry pomegranate, lemongrass ginger and blood orange, is organic, GF and vegan, with 48 calories per serving. If kombucha has always seemed too sharp or sour to you, this might be the one you like.

I'll never tell how many Coconut Bliss samples I tried, even if you torture me. In fact, I probably don't even know. But who can resist Coconut Bliss? And it had nothing to do with the British guy on the left. Nothing. Mostly nothing.

Food for Life had two gluten-free products available for tasting — bread and English muffins. I tried, and liked, both. I'm not a big consumer of bread, but every so often I get an urge for a piece of toast or a grilled sandwich. Now, if my future attempts at bread baking don't work out, I'll know what to do.

Popchips are pretty interesting — they're made from potato flakes and are kind of like potato chips, but are neither baked nor fried. They are popped. Go figure. Some of the flavors are vegan and all are certified gluten-free. They taste really good, and though they have half the fat of potato chips, they aren't something you'd eat to get your vitamins and minerals, just to satisfy a tasty, crunchy, salty snack attack. I love them!

One last product I'm going to share is Kallari chocolate, which I found to be most delicious. Not only is it delicious, it's fair trade, ethically produced, fantastic chocolate. Try some.

Bad phone-pic from the back of the room

I said at the beginning of the post that we attended a talk by Dr. Neal Barnard. Basically he spoke about the connections between diet and health, and laid out the benefits of a plant-based diet. He dispelled what he believes is misinformation about soy, and described what a healthy diet looks like. His approach to dietary change seemed reasonable and supportive, and he convinced me that if I weren't already a vegan, I should become one. His talk was informative and also entertaining, as he relayed personal anecdotes about his family's conversion to a vegan diet. He invited everyone to join his free 21-day vegan kickstart program, and I might, just to see what it's like. If you've been trying to change your diet to a plant-based eating style, you might want to consider the vegan kickstart.

After the talk, I went to ask him a question at the book-signing table. I even had a book. I asked him his opinion of coconut oil, because I really wanted to know what he thought. He said he'd always believed saturated fats were unhealthy, and he didn't know enough about coconut oil to change his mind, but that he was thinking of looking into it. My husband thought he was trying to get rid of me, though I was agreeing with him and not trying to challenge him in any way, but I think he was just being honest in his opinion. I'll be interested to see what he has to say on the subject in the future, because I respect his ideas.

The other speaker we heard was Ellen Jaffe Jones, whose first cookbook, Vegan on $4 a Day, I reviewed here.

Vegfest was its usual crazy, crowded smorgasbord of vegan and vegetarian product samples. The crowd was vast and varied, everyone interested in trying plant-based foods. I tried a few things I considered horrible, and many that were really great. I've only included a few examples here to give you an idea of what was available. Vegfest is much more than food samples; it includes an array of health practitioners, body-care purveyors, animal rights information, cooking demos, etc.

I leave you with an insider tip for Seattleites that I learned about near the close of Vegfest on Sunday. If you dine at Silence-Heart-Nest in Fremont, be sure to request the vegan, GF chocolate pudding. It's not on the menu but is usually available. I was offered some at Vegfest, and it's delish.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

As if this post weren't long enough, I want to add one more thing. One of my facebook friends posted about this, and I thought I'd share it here in case any of you are interested.

The Spring of Sustainability 2012 offers:

"Three Months of FREE Virtual and Live Events Empowering You to Connect, Collaborate and Create a Sustainable Community and World March 26 – June 22, 2012. Listen Live by Phone or Webcast or Access the Recorded Replays Featuring Jane Goodall, Bill McKibben, Vandana Shiva, Van Jones, John Robbins, Hazel Henderson, Frances Moore Lappe’, John Perkins, Thom Hartmann, Aqeela Sherrills, Julia Butterfly Hill and MANY other world-class sustainability pioneers."

"Real Tools and Insights So YOU Can Be Part of the Solution
Do you...

Care deeply about animals and nature?

Worry about the state of the planet for our children and grandchildren?

Want a world where everyone has their basic needs met?

Wish there was MORE you could do to have a sustainable lifestyle?

Then you’ll want to sign up for the Spring of Sustainability, a FREE series of live, online and teleseminar events where you can learn from and be inspired by more than 100 pioneers of sustainability.
This is a one-time chance to participate in an event of truly global proportions – with tens of thousands of people like you committed to bringing forth a thriving new world!"

I NEED that | Great cookie sheets | Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:40:00 +0000

Chocolate molds

There was an article in the Dining section of today's New York Times called, Must-Have Gadgets for the Kitchen? Think Again. As you'd expect, it was about all the "fabulous" kitchen items we think will make cooking more efficient or just more fun. We buy them, then rarely, if ever, use them. I agreed that most of the items described were not useful, but a couple, like a food processor and a pressure cooker, are necessities, not frivolous extras, to me. However, I am as guilty as anyone of being sucked into buying "things I need" for the kitchen, whether I need them or not.


Cashews and dried cranberries waiting for chocolate

My situation right now is a little odd, in that two years ago we moved from the Midwest to The Pacific Northwest on a trial basis. Because we didn't know what our future plans would be, we didn't sell our house, but rented it out fully furnished and equipped, to visiting faculty, and we rented a similarly equipped house in Seattle. The house we left behind was fairly large, and the big kitchen was well-supplied with ... everything. I took only a minimal amount of stuff with me — the food processor, the pressure cooker (ahem), a couple of favorite baking dishes and pots — leaving plenty behind for the renters. After we bought a small house in the PNW, I further divided the kitchen supplies in our former home, finally admitting that yes, I could easily supply two kitchens with my "stuff." I siphoned off more cookware, flatware, bakeware, etc, and no one would know that anything was missing from the rental. I left behind things like the pasta maker, waffle iron, dehydrator, mixer, etc., though I'm missing some of them and may grab a couple more items this summer. In the meantime, though I really, really am trying to stay minimalist in my new little kitchen, it's just not in my nature to turn my back on cool kitchen items that call out to me. Some, like new cookie sheets, I really needed, and others, not so much.

Take the Silikomart silicone chocolate moulds, for instance. They are so cool, and at 4-1/4" by 8-1/4" they don't take up much room in the cupboard. I can make 1" diameter chocolate morsels with swirled tops that pop right out after cooling in the fridge. My first attempt (using 1/2 of a version of this recipe-no apricots) was delicious but not perfect, but will I ever try again to make perfect chocolates or will my lovely chocolate moulds become mere space-takers? We'll see. (They actually looked pretty cute in person, but didn't photograph well.) (I also made the fudge in another shape not needing a mould, here.)

The other recent purchase I succumbed to was cookie sheets. In my defense, let me just say that in addition to neglecting to bring any to Seattle, I really needed new ones anyway. I've had all sorts of cookie sheets — non-stick, stainless steel, insulated — and they all have their good and bad points, but after much research, I bought two 14" x 17" 10-gauge aluminum Volrath cookie sheets, and they are the best I've ever tried. (If you're worried about having food in contact with aluminum, you can use parchment paper as a liner.) On these cookie sheets, my cookies baked perfectly and did not stick. And I'm talking about notoriously prone-to-stick gluten-free cookies. The pans are so thick and sturdy that I'm guessing they may be the last I ever buy. They were easy to clean, too.

And what is the cookie recipe? It's the same one I wrote about here — the GF chocolate chip cake recipe. I recommend using well-drained canned beans for the cookies. My home-cooked beans made a looser batter, while using the canned beans (I used Eden brand beans) resulted in a stiffer cookie dough. If your dough seems too soft for cookie dough, add a bit more sorghum flour, or some GF oat flour, if you can eat oats. If you like sweeter cookies, I recommend adding 7-10 drops of stevia to the bean mixture.

I made about 30-40 cookies, slightly flattening each mound of dough into about a 2" round. The cookies spread while baking, so give them some space. Bake at 350˚F for 18 to 20 minutes, depending on your oven and the type of pan you use. The bottoms and edges should be a nice golden brown. The cookies will get deliciously crispy if baked five minutes extra.

Although the cookies will keep for a couple of days on the counter, I think the leftovers taste much better if they are frozen. They defrost very quickly, though I usually just eat them right from the freezer. The chocolates freeze well, too, but they taste better defrosted, if you can wait.

Full disclosure: I purchased the cookie sheets on my own. I received no money for the mention of this product. I am not an affiliate of this company. All opinions are my own.

Fabulous, easy (GF) dinner | Animal rights stop sign

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 01:48:00 +0000

On Sunday night our middle son cooked us dinner. It was a simple but amazingly delicious meal that can be served to company with little stress, and much appreciation from the diners. The bowl you see above contained hot, freshly cooked quinoa topped with roasted vegetables, raw arugula, chickpeas and creamy tahini sauce. The vegetables were cauliflower, sliced carrots and onions, which were tossed with olive oil and roasted approximately 30 minutes at 450˚ F. The idea is to let the veggies get brown and tender but not let them burn. The sauce contained several tablespoons of tahini, thinned with fresh-squeezed lemon juice and water to make a thick but spoon-able sauce. My son used a food processor to get a creamy texture. The tahini sauce was seasoned with garlic, parsley, salt and pepper to taste. You might want to add a tiny bit of sweetener to the sauce, depending on your taste and the sweetness of the veggies. The carrots Aaron used were so sweet that I first mistook them for sweet potatoes, and I think the ultra sweet carrots played that role in Aaron's dish. The combination of quinoa, chickpeas, vegetables and tahini sauce made a very pretty and satisfying meal. I might just make it tonight with broccoli.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Animal rights on the corner — it's a sign

This is the stop sign on my corner. It really is. It was spotted by my friend Bethany the other day when we were coming back from a walk. For those who might not know what shark finning is, it's the despicable practice of cutting off living sharks' fins, usually at sea, and throwing the sharks back into the ocean. The mutilated sharks, who can no longer swim correctly, either slowly starve to death or are eaten by other fish. You can read more about shark finning here or here. Shark finning is a cruel but lucrative practice, and fins sell for shocking amounts of money.

The fins are a delicacy used for making shark fin soup, which is very popular in Asian countries, where it's believed to be health-enhancing. Its great cost also makes it a status symbol. However, shark fins contain high levels of toxic mercury, and soup made from them is not a healthy food. A new study has also found that shark fins contain a neurotoxin that has been linked with Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's disease.

If you can stand to watch the video, you'll see Chef Gordon Ramsey learning about the shark fin industry. He starts out eating a bowl of soup, but quickly becomes shocked and disgusted by what he uncovers about the process of obtaining the fins. Ramsey isn't the most compassionate person when it comes to eating animals, but he is appalled and sickened by his experience. He starts out saying he might be willing to accept shark finning if the fins tasted good, but I doubt he still held that opinion by the end of his experience. Watch if you want to learn more about shark finning, and why it should be banned.

Gluten-free chocolate chip cake

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 02:21:00 +0000

Remember when black bean brownies were sweeping the blogs, and every other type of bean was making it into one baked good or another? Well, you never saw beans in baked goods on this blog. Ever since a particularly unpleasant involvement with sweetened adzuki beans in a gelatinous Japanese sweet, just the thought of beans in a dessert was enough to cause me to experience a slight wave of nausea. I must have been especially desperate for a baked good of any kind when I came across a recipe for gluten-free deep dish cookie pie, made with a lot of white beans, and became obsessed with making my own version of it. (recipe below.)

You know, I haven't really been mentioning this, but I've been eating pretty much gluten-free since last August. It's been an experiment of sorts to see if eliminating gluten would affect the stomach pains I sometimes get after eating. And yes, it did — no gluten, no pains. Mostly, my cooking hasn't really changed much, since it turns out much of what we eat at home is already gluten-free. Even most (but not all) of the pasta we've eaten for years has been quinoa, corn, buckwheat or rice-based. We've always used wheat-free tamari, and even the miso in the fridge was wheat-free. But the seitan had to go. And the bread, as well as other things. And the rules for eating out had to change. I managed all that.

What I couldn't quite deal with was baking. I was scared off by the huge ingredient lists for gluten-free baked goods, and the multitude of odd flours and additives. Although I always have an assortment of interesting flours in my pantry, they don't all go into one dish! And I didn't want to eat things that seemed to have so little nutritive value (because they contained so much starch), even if they were desserts. Anyway, I tried to make gf brownies to take to a dinner party, and they were so awful my husband had to run out to Whole Foods to buy a bag of "normal" cookies to bring. The brownies were weirdly sandy, and they fell apart if I touched them. The taste, apart from the texture, wasn't horrible, but who, at a dinner party, wants to eat sandy brownies with a spoon? This failure was disconcerting, but I started reading everything I could find about gf baking, assembled a cupboard full of even more odd ingredients, and vowed to try again. I made a yeasted bread that wasn't awful. And then the cookie pie entered my dessert-starved brain, and I decided to give it a go, beans and all, with a few changes based on knowledge I had gleaned from Carrie Forbes, who writes the blog, Ginger Lemon Girl. (This is not blog that espouses a vegan lifestyle, but there's lots of gf baking info, and some vegan recipes.)

Chocolate "swirl" cookies (hahaha)

A few weeks ago I cooked some cannelini beans overnight in the slow cooker (because I really am trying to use more home-cooked beans), and let them cool. Then I carefully measured my ingredients and got to work. And guess what? The pie, which I think is more like a cake, was delicious in every way. My husband enthusiastically ate it, and claimed there was no way he would guess it was gluten-free. Miss E., who is used to eating "normal" baked goods, gave her complete approval, and devoured her share. I couldn't stop eating it, and when it was gone, I made it again. (I even made it into cookies with the addition of gf oat flour, but because I sadly neglected to cool the beans, and the chocolate chips melted, I'll have to try again before I share the recipe.)

I'm going to post my recipe for chocolate chip cake because although some of the ingredients are the same as the original, it's really quite different. The original called for oats, and some people who follow a gluten-free diet can't handle oats, even gluten-free oats. (Not to mention the fact that I didn't happen to have any on hand.) I think I used less starch than is found in most gf recipes, but it seemed to work.

I baked my cake in a 10-inch spring-form pan (thrifted from Goodwill on a lucky day) that I first coated with Earth Balance. I want to mention that the cake was hard to remove from the pan bottom (the side just pops off), so next time I'll try baking it on a round of parchment paper. I left the cooled cake on a plate on the counter, loosely covered with plastic wrap, and much to my surprise, it held up very well for several days.

Gluten-free chocolate chip cake

(check labels to make sure you are using gf ingredients)

1-1/2 cups of cooked, cooled and well-drained cannelini beans (or one can, rinsed and well-drained )
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup evaporated cane juice or organic sugar
1/2 cup almond flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/3 cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1 cup vegan chocolate chips

Blend the beans, applesauce, oil and vanilla in a food processor until smooth.
Place the baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, almond flour, sorghum flour, brown rice flour, and tapioca flour in a large bowl. Whisk the dry ingredients together until all lumps are removed and the flours are combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the food processor and buzz until the two mixes are well-integrated.
Stir in the chocolate chips or, add to the processor and buzz carefully a few times until the chips are mixed in but not broken.
Spread the batter (it will be fairly stiff) into the greased pan and smooth the top.
Bake in a pre-heated 350˚ oven for 40 to 50 minutes until a toothpick in the center comes out sort of dry. The edges of the cake will be drier than the center, which will stay a bit moist.
Cool on a rack for about 20 minutes before removing from the pan. If you haven't used a spring-form pan, good luck.

UPDATE: I placed a round of parchment paper on the pan bottom and greased it, before adding the batter and baking. After the cake had cooled about 20 minutes, I placed a plate over the top, flipped it over, peeled off the paper, placed a serving plate over the cake and flipped the cake right side up. It worked much better than trying to remove the cake from the pan bottom.

UPDATE II: You can find suggestions for turning the cake into cookies, here.

I now have a copy of The Allergy-Free Cook Bakes Bread waiting to be reviewed, so maybe there will be another baking post coming up soon, if I can stop myself from making more chocolate chip cake! Or these cookies!

Hosting a dinner party calmly

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:52:00 +0000

leftover polenta casserole with extra spinach

Does hosting dinner parties make you happy or a nervous wreck? For me, it's a little of both. I want to cook for a crowd, but the actual process often seems overwhelming, even when the recipes I'm considering aren't overly complex. First there's deciding what to serve, then the list-making and shopping for ingredients, and of course, more-careful-than-usual housecleaning. I'm always looking for ways to streamline the preparations and make the experience less stressful, but less-stressful doesn't necessarily translate into less time-consuming. I prefer to stretch out and slow down the preparations, if time permits.

Last weekend I hosted a dinner for nine that was relatively relaxing to prepare, and very satisfying to eat. I spread the cooking over two days — preparing some foods on Saturday to be reheated Sunday so I wouldn't feel rushed. My husband was out of town until Sunday, so I had the kitchen to myself, and no set meals to worry about. I accepted offers from guests to bring food, and I used some store-bought prepared foods to make the cooking a little easier. Chickpeas were soaked on Friday then cooked overnight in the slow cooker. Late Saturday afternoon I prepared chola tikki and soup. For the soup, I cooked and puréed the veggies but didn't add any seasonings, because seasonings can loose their spark in the fridge overnight. I spent about four hours, on and off, cutting and cooking.

Late Sunday morning, I made the cabbage slaw so it could marinate. Also, English cucumber quick pickles, and green onion salsa. After assorted chores and setting the table, my husband and I went for a one hour walk. When we got back about 4 p.m., I made guacamole, pine nut crema, and got the polenta baking. I cut carrot sticks, filled dishes with olives and tomatoes, and warmed up and seasoned the soup. One of the guests was bringing cookies, so my husband made a fruit salad to accompany them, and washed the mushrooms before I sliced them for the polenta casserole.

Just before the company arrived we set out h'ors d'oeuvres, and were able to relax with our guests until my last minute cooking of the mushroom and spinach topping for the casserole. I was so involved with the event that I completely forgot to take photos until one of the guests mentioned it, and I just managed to snap a few bad photos of the food as an afterthought. Too bad, because it was pretty. I made way too much as usual. Here's the menu and information about the recipes:

Appetizers
calamata olives (from my giant Costco jar), grape tomatoes in a bowl, carrot sticks, guacamole, crackers (Trader Joe's savory rice crackers), edamame hummus (Trader Joe's)

Soup
potato soup inspired by this one from oh ladycakes. My soup had yukon gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, celery, onion, carrots and cauliflower. I puréed it smooth and creamy and added lots of lemon juice. It was seasoned with hickory smoked salt and fresh-ground black pepper, and drizzled with sriracha. (I use Shark brand sriracha from Thailand. It's a little sweeter than Rooster brand, and doesn't contain preservatives.) The soup in the picture is actually from microwaved leftovers I ate the next day, and contained leftover crema as well as sriracha. (I added the crema before heating, the sriracha, after.) It was beyond amazing with the crema.

Main course
chola tikki from this recipe, made the day before the dinner. (I previously wrote about chola tikki, here.) I added coriander and turmeric to my chola tikki, and sautéed them on a cast iron griddle before refrigerating them. I made them about 2-inches in diameter and about 1/2-inch thick. The next day I heated them on a sheet pan in the oven for 15 minutes at 350˚F and they came out perfectly crisp and delicious. The tikki were served with the amazing green onion salsa from "Viva Vegan" by Terry Hope Romero. The salsa is very versatile and goes with many styles of food.

cabbage salad. A simple salad of shredded red and green cabbage, carrots, a bit of kale, and red onion mixed together with a unique dressing from the Gentrified Coleslaw recipe in "Celebrate Vegan" by Dynise Balcavage. There are a couple of unique, unexpected ingredients in the dressing that indeed elevate the salad to new heights. So good.

baked polenta casserole. The basic polenta is based on a recipe from "Passionate Vegetarian" by Crescent Dragonwagon. In this case I used 1 cup of coarse cornmeal, 4-1/2 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt. I baked this in a 10x13 ceramic casserole (measured on the bottom=9x11) that holds 2-3/4 quarts. I baked it 40 minutes at 350˚F, then removed it from the oven and gave it a stir, put it back and baked about 20 more minutes until it was thick and set. I removed it from the oven, spread a layer of Trader Joe's salt-free organic marinara sauce over the top, added a layer of pine nut crema*, and returned it to the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. Meantime, I used the recipe for Spinach With Pine Nuts and Raisins from "The Urban Vegan," except dried cranberries instead of raisins and a LOT of thickly sliced baby bella mushrooms. I cooked the mushrooms first, then added the spinach at the last minute to wilt it before topping the polenta with the spinach and mushrooms and serving the casserole. Even as leftovers, which you see at the top of the page, this casserole was great. I made two of these but one would have been enough. Now we have lots of frozen casserole in the freezer.

quick pickles from cukes and roots. Brought by a guest, and delicious.

quick cucumber and red onion pickles. Made by me and very plain.

Dessert
cookies from "Vegan Cookies Take Over the World," brought by a guest.
fruit salad.

*Pine Nut Crema is from Viva Vegan, and is amazing. I used a modified version that contained only pine nuts, almond milk, garlic, lime juice, oil, starch and salt, and is much thinner than the original, but I imagine the original version is fabulous. One of these days I'm going to make enchiladas with the real crema recipe.

Overall, I'd say the dinner turned out very well, and I wasn't stressed-out and exhausted. The cleanup was pretty easy since everything had been made in stages and dishes and pans cleaned as I went along. Managing the kitchen clutter goes a long way towards keeping things calm, and is especially helpful when kitchen space is limited. (It also helps a lot to have a kitchen slave who does your bidding.)

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Budding ballerina

photo by Kate

On Saturday afternoon, before I started cooking, I took my granddaughter to her first ballet class. She's a very outgoing child, but new situations can throw her, and it took all her courage to let go of me and join the class. But she did it, and had a great time. This weekend when her mom takes her to class, she'll have a leotard, tights and shoes just like everyone else. :)

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

February flowers

It may be February, cold, rainy and gloomy, but flowers are blooming in my backyard!

Sprouted beans

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:45:00 +0000

About two years ago I wrote a humorous post about going to Costco for the first time and spending $100 on crazily big sizes of foods we may or may not have needed — or been able to consume. Well, it seems especially appropriate for a food blogger to eat her words when she has a big change of heart about something, and I solemnly do eat my words about Costco. We joined. And now we routinely run out of things we buy there and go back. On purpose.

This won't be a post about all the stuff we get there (even things like organic hemp seeds!) but specifically about a three-pound bag of something called truRoots sprouted beans that I bought on a whim, and really like. Note the words in the top right hand corner. Yes, my friends, these dried, sprouted beans are supposed to cook in 15 minutes. And they taste good, too. Notice I didn't say they were cheap. On their Web page it says:

"TruRoots Organic Sprouted Bean Trio is a unique colorful and delicious blend of nutritious sprouted lentils, mung, and adzuki beans. Sprouting is a technique of traditional cultures that boosts the nutritional profile–increasing vitamins and micronutrients. The process results in pre-digestion of complex proteins, starches and lipids, converting them into simple and essential components that make these beans much easier to digest. We sprout and dehydrate the highest-quality beans and lentils, awakening their flavor and preserving healthful benefits. truRoots low-temperature drying keeps them packed with power. Lower in sodium and higher in nutrition than canned beans, truRoots Organic Sprouted Bean Trio is a healthy choice. Versatile, convenient, and quick, truRoots Organic Sprouted Bean Trio is ready in 15 minutes. Or slowly simmer in a soup or stew. Try it in salads, grain dishes, burritos, casseroles, stuffings or your favorite bean dish."

Are the beans really more nutritious and easier to digest? I don't know, but I do know I can cook these beans quickly, they taste great, and they don't come in a can. Here's what I did with them.

First, of course, I followed the directions on the bag and cooked them in a pot, adding a cube of Rapunzel no-salt-added bouillon to the cooking water. Then, when they were done, inspired by this post by Zoa, I put them into a casserole dish, and layered some red salsa on top. Next came lots of fresh spinach. Then I added a layer a homemade corn chips (Mine were seasoned with the leftover crumbs from a bag of kale chips.) and a coating of pine nut crema (without the tofu) loosely based on the one in Viva Vegan. The whole thing was then baked in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Out of the oven, all hot and gooey (kind of gooey, anyway), it was deliciously satisfying. (And gluten-free.) If this sort of layered casserole interests you, I highly recommend checking out Zoa's much more exciting version. And I can't recommend the pine nut crema highly enough — it was great! (And now I have something to make with the giant bag of pine nuts I got at Costco. Hohoho.)

All joking and word-eating aside, we do find a lot of good deals on staples (kalamata olives are staples, right?) and veggies at Costco. Here's a tasty something made from baby bok choy, grape tomatoes, baby bella mushrooms, olives and soy curls. The soy curls are the only food in the dish not from Costco. Mostly we shop at the co-op or Whole Foods, but about once every month or two, Costco beckons.

Lest you wonder if either Costco or truRoots had any monetary influence on my commentary, they did not. No samples or free memberships were exchanged in the writing of this post. Darn.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Top 31
Just in case you voted for me in the Circle of Mom's top 25, and are wondering how it all turned out, I didn't make it into the top 25, but I did manage the top 31! Thanks for your votes, and congratulations to the top 25 winners! They all deserved to have a top spot.

Hearts

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:47:00 +0000

Happy Valentine's Day!

Over the weekend I visited a magical place in Seattle called Bedrock. They manufacture artful objects from 100% recycled glass. In addition to garden art, window treatments and various items like coasters, jewelry, etc., they sell materials for glass artists, landscapers, and also teach classes. I was looking for a few touchable objects to display in a large black bowl that sits on our coffee table, and the small, polished glass hearts and round things, plus a string of beads I found in the outlet room for 25 cents, did the trick. The small, wrapped heart in the middle is a chocolate heart that will be given to my granddaughter this evening. Valentine's Day is also her birthday, and she'll get a birthday gift and a chocolate heart. I wonder which one will grab her attention the most.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Today is the last day to vote. I don't exactly fit the profile of a young mom raising kids, but hey, I AM a mom and I raised three vegan boys.

My rank is steadily slipping from a "high" of #23 to my current rank at #31. I'm OK with that, but it would be more fun to be in the top 25. I'd be honored to have your vote(s). You can vote once every 24 hours. :D

Black bean masquerade: glazed black soy beans

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:23:00 +0000

I really mean to switch back to cooking dried beans again, but it's so fast to open a can, that it's hard to return to an old, less-convenient habit. But with all the controversy about BPA leaching into canned goods, plus my dismay at seeing how much we recycle, using dried beans just makes more sense. The obstacle is that in the evening, when it's time to wash, sort and soak the beans, I'm done with food. I can't seem to motivate myself to go back to the kitchen and do one more thing. So, I worked out a deal with my husband — if he soaks the beans I will cook them. Read on to see how our first attempt at cooperation turned out. I wanted to make Zoa's Mexican-inspired casserole and needed black beans.

The next morning I glanced into the soaking bowl, and my brain said, "these aren't black beans." I let the thought slide as I rinsed and sorted the beans before putting them into the slow cooker with a piece of kombu. I remembered my husband asking if we needed dried black beans before a recent trip to the store. ~~Wouldn't~~ shouldn't he know if he'd bought them, and where he'd put them? You would think.

Several hours later I returned to the kitchen and my nose said, "these aren't black beans." I fished out a bean, but I already knew what my mouth would tell me. The beans were black soybeans, from way back when I was cooking macrobiotically. I still had those beans in the pantry.

What are black soybeans, you ask? They are a variety of soybean, but they don't look or taste like the more familiar yellow soybeans, and the texture of the cooked beans is firmer than dried beans like kidney and pinto. I want to say they have slight liver-overtones but I don't want to scare you off, so just ignore that. And no one has ever agreed with me about that, anyway. I've never had the canned variety, only the dried, and I think they are rich-tasting and delicious, but I couldn't see making them into a Mexican dish, so opted for a nontraditional version of a more traditional Japanese dish — kuromame. Kuromame is eaten in Japan during the New Year much the way black-eyed peas are enjoyed here, for good fortune.

The traditional recipes sounded much too sweet to me, so I dramatically reduced the sugar, adding a small amount of coconut palm sugar, tamari and sliced ginger to the cooking water after the beans were mostly cooked, letting the beans cook a couple more hours while the liquid thickened. The finished beans were slightly sweet and salty.

When the beans were ready to eat, my husband stir-fried some veggies in our gorgeous new wok while I took enough beans for supper from the slow cooker and placed them in a small pot. I used tapioca starch to thicken some of the cooking liquid, and added tomatoes, green onions, and Korean red pepper.

I have to tell ya, it was a very tasty meal.

The next night I took the leftover beans and liquid, and added them to a hotpot with stir-fried tofu, shredded cabbage, carrots and broccolini. I added some porcini powder to the stock for a little extra depth. (I wouldn't use broccolini again this way because the stems got unpleasantly mushy. I think cauliflower would have been a better choice.)

The hotpot with a garnish of green onions.

When the veggies were tender, I served the soup in bowls over 100% buckwheat noodles, for another delicious supper.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000

blahblahblah. I've been nominated for the Top 25 vegan bloggers in the Mom's circle of friends. I don't exactly fit the profile of a young mom raising kids, but hey, I AM a mom and I raised three vegan boys.

My rank is steadily slipping from a "high" of #23 to my current rank at #30. I'm OK with that, but it would be more fun to be in the top 25. I'd be honored to have your vote(s). You can vote once every 24 hours. :D

Chinatown: Lucky Creation / The Wok Shop, and how to season a wok | San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:17:00 +0000

While we were in San Francisco I was worried I wasn't taking enough photos — ha! Clearly that wasn't the case, as you can see from my collection of photos from our fourth and last day exploring the downtown and Chinatown.

Walking around a beautiful city for five hours with a camera around your neck is bound to result in a few pictures. So please bear with me. We checked out of our airbnb at 11 a.m. and hopped the light rail with Jordan and Alison for a short ride to San Francisco's downtown.

It was Martin Luther King Day, and a large human rights march was in progress.

Jordan pointed out the building where he works — the tan one you can see left of his head. We were headed to the Ferry Building. According to the Ferry Building Web site, "built in 1898, the Ferry Building and its 240-foot tall clock tower is the iconic landmark of the San Francisco waterfront. The dramatic heart of the building is a three-story tall, sky lit hall, known as the Nave. It runs the entire 660-foot length of the building. The ground floor of the Ferry Building is devoted to a 65,000 square foot public food market showcasing the very best of the Bay Area's world-renowned food community. The second and third floors of the building house 175,000 square feet of office space and the ceremonial hearing room of the San Francisco Port Commission."

A model of historic preservation, the building is a celebration of food — shops, restaurants, farmers market, kitchen and garden stores — fill the great hall. We tried various samples, and bought kale chips and a small bar of Scharffen Berger chocolate, but we were saving our appetites for chinatown. I snapped the above photo for two reasons — 1., it was adorable to see the two girls perched on the take-out counter eating Asian noodles, and 2., after four days in San Francisco, seeing children was beginning to seem like a novelty. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was starting to think no one older than 30 (maybe 35) lived in San Francisco, and there also seemed to be a dearth of children. In fact, the population of children under 17 in San Francisco has been steadily declining since 1970. San Francisco has one of the smallest percentages of children in the country, so if you don't like kids (and you're under 35 :D) you might consider moving there.

We headed towards Chinatown and lunch. I had a list of "hole-in-the-wall" restaurants, and the first one to turn up on our walk was Lucky Creation Vegetarian Restaurant.

There were so many choices I got confused and ended up ordering a combo-lunch plate. I gave away the noodles but consumed everything else and ended up stuffed, like the tofu on my plate. Yum.

My husband ordered a hot pot of some sort, and he loved it.

I must have been getting tired of taking pictures of food because I don't seem to have any of our dining companion's lunches.

Didn't notice the couple when I took the photo.

After lunch we wandered around Chinatown, heading in the general direction of our next destination, The Wok Shop.

I cook in a wok all the time — not just when I cook Asian food. I use it as my all-purpose cooking pan. Ever since Jordan ordered a hand-hammered wok from the Wok Shop (when he still lived in Seattle), I've been coveting one, and here I was in San Francisco's Chinatown just steps from The Wok Shop. I had to go and "just look." OK, I couldn't just look. I bought a wok and a couple of inexpensive bamboo things.

Here's my new flat-bottomed wok at home, after following the Wok Shop directions for seasoning it. Pretty, isn't it? I wanted a wok with two wooden handles, but the hand-hammered ones ones I saw only had one handle that looked like it wouldn't hold up. The shop clerk convinced me to get a wok with two metal handles. I don't necessarily recommend this version because I still think wood handles are easier to use, but I love the look of the hammered metal, and I'm not sorry to own this beautiful wok.

I'm including a video from the Wok Shop on how to season a wok, either carbon steel or cast iron. I followed the directions and my wok came out great.

We started the long walk back to Alison and Jordan's apartment, and honestly, there were moments when I just wanted to lay down on the sidewalk and not move. I think it took about two hours to walk back.

We trudged up the vertical hills on which the cable cars teeter, and it was with relief as much as interest, that we took a break to enter the cable car museum to view the actual cables in operation. Seriously, how do people think of these things — and get others to finance their plans.

We saw exotic blooming plants, like bird of paradise, and bottle brush, as we walked. I haven't seen a bottle brush since we lived in Australia.

I just want to thank Jordan and Alison for being such congenial hosts and giving us the grand tour of their city.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I've been nominated for the Top 25 vegan bloggers in the Mom's circle of friends. I know I've been adding this to every blog post, but I didn't truly realize I was in the running until two weeks had passed after I received an email saying I'd been nominated. I've been pretty obsessed with restoring the lost photos to the blog, and wasn't paying attention. I don't have a fb page for my blog, and am pretty bad at self-promotion, so I really need your votes! I don't exactly fit the profile of a young mom raising kids, but hey, I AM a mom and I raised three vegan boys. Now all I need are votes, and I'd be honored to have yours. Please take a minute to vote for me. You can vote once every 24 hours. Thanks! :D

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Seattle vegetarians: It looks like Seattle is getting another veg restaurant in May or June. The Veggie Grill, a chain of plant-based eateries, will be opening several locations in Seattle.

Full disclosure: I purchased the wok on my own. I received no money for the mention of this product. I am not an affiliate of this company. Any restaurant reviews are totally independent and not at the request of the restaurant. All opinions are my own.

San Francisco day 3 | Marin farmers market | Herbivore | Haight Ashbury | Dosa South Indian

noreply@blogger.com (Andrea) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:35:00 +0000

Day three was more blustery and less sunny than what we'd experienced so far, but still a far cry from the winter we left behind, so we weren't complaining as we started the day early and headed over the bridge to the Marin farmers market. We have all-year-round outdoor markets in Seattle, but the produce tends to be more of the stored root and squash variety, unlike at the Marin market, where fresh veggies were in abundance. My son was quick to point out (brag) that during the summer, the market is much larger, but to my eyes it looked pretty amazing.

One thing I noticed right away was the expanded variety of fruits and veggies from what I was used to. For example, there was a man selling (and sampling) dates, and he had at least six different varieties. I'd never even seen most of them before, and I couldn't resist buying some for Alison and Jordan.

The same was true for the citrus, and some of the oranges I saw were completely new to me. I couldn't resist picking up a couple of blood limes to take home, since the only kind of lime I've seen is a ... lime lime. It doesn't taste like a lime — more like a mandarin orange — and in fact is a cross between the red finger lime and the Ellendale Mandarin.

In addition to produce, there were all sorts of tasty offerings, like toasted lentil snacks being sold by one of the the venders. With so many varieties available it was a difficult choice, but we settled on red lentils.

Perhaps the most exciting find was the Scream ice cream booth. Scream is advertised as sorbet, but to me the consistency and taste is really more like gelato. The samples were flying from the vender to our mouths at lightening speed, one flavor more amazing then the next — pistachio, vanilla macadamia, hazelnut peanut butter, coffee almond. To me, the pistachio was irresistible, so I gave in to a small (very small) cup. So good, but only available in Oakland, at the Marin farmers market and one spot in SF.

We left the market to the lively tunes from a country western band, and did some car touring before heading back to SF.

There was a Packers playoff game that Jordan and Alison wanted to watch so Ken and I planned our own afternoon walking tour, starting with lunch at Herbivore, a vegan restaurant which was conveniently near our airbnb, and on the way to our afternoon destination. I had a cold Indonesian noodle (rice noodle) salad which was tasty, though not memorable.

Ken had lemongrass noodles — char-broiled veggies garnished with fresh cilantro and crushed peanuts in a lemongrass-ginger dressing over rice noodles. He said it was really good. I would probably return to Herbivore next time we're in town.

Our plan after lunch was to explore Upper Haight. Who hasn't heard of Haight-Ashbury, made famous in the 60s? Many of the the large, old Victorian homes along Ashbury have been restored to their former eye-popping glory, and we really enjoyed exploring the area.

I was especially taken with the cool-looking gates in front of each house's entry area.

Once we turned off Ashbury onto Haight, the flavor of the neighborhood took a distinct turn, and I thought maybe I'd entered a time machine and was back in the 60s. It was all head shops and tie dye, and people smoking pot on the street. We walked down Haight to Golden Gate Park, and were exploring the park when we realized it was getting colder, more windy, and late, and if we wanted to get back before dark, we'd have to begin our return walk.

We returned to the airbnb, and after a rest from all the walking, we headed out to dinner at Dosa South Indian restaurant on Fillmore, in Japantown. Dosa is not a vegetarian restaurant but has vegan and gluten-free offerings, and our waitress seemed very knowledgeable about the menu. The food choices were unlike any other Indian restaurant I've dined in, and I couldn't rely on my usual selections, like aloo gobi. Aloo gobi was nowhere to be seen, so I was forced to try something new. I had dosa (savory rice and lentil crepe) with a classic masala (spiced mashed potatoes, onions and cashews) filling. It came with fresh coconut and tomato chutneys, and sambar, a lentil dipping soup made with vegetables and spices. It was fabulous, and I'd love to have it again. Right now. The crispy dosa was delectable and the spicy accompaniments were delicious.

My husband had a seasonal vegetable curry with parsnip, potato, butternut squash, green beans and cauliflower, and he was well-pleased. We would definitely return to Dosa. You must make a reservation early because they get booked up.

Thus ends day three, and only one more to go, if anyone's still reading. :D

Full disclosure: I purchased the ice cream on my own. I received no money for the mention of this product. I am not an affiliate of this company. Any restaurant reviews are totally independent and not at the request of the restaurant. All opinions are my own.

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 thrilled with their choices. (Read a great review of Gracias Madre, here.)

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?

Full disclosure: Any restaurant reviews are totally independent and not at the request of the restaurant. All opinions are my own.

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!

I've been nominated for the Top 25 vegan bloggers in the Mom's circle of friends. I don't exactly fit the profile of a young mom raising kids, but hey, I AM a mom and I raised three vegan boys. Now all I need are votes, and I'd be honored to have yours. Please take a minute and vote for me. Thanks! :D

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.

I've been nominated for the Top 25 vegan bloggers in the Mom's circle of friends. I don't exactly fit the profile of a young mom raising kids, but hey, I AM a mom and I raised three vegan boys. Now all I need are votes, and I'd be honored to have yours. Please take a minute and vote for me. Thanks! :D

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.)

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

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.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

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.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

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.

I've been nominated for the Top 25. Now all I need are votes, and I'd be honored to have yours. :D

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.