December: Month of Pantry Cooking

I must admit: I have not made anything particularly interesting recently except for my first attempt at CTate’s queso. (It really tastes like that cheesy Velveeta-filled dip of years past–but no dairy!  The Mister and Rug Rat gobbled it down with tortilla chips during the big Alabama-Florida game last weekend.)

It turns out that we’ll not be moving to New England as originally planned.  we received some [good] news that The Mister’s job in an undesirable overseas location was canceled (hooray!); so we’ll be relocating somewhere else after the first of the year.  I have a pretty good idea as to where that will be, but I don’t want to hold my breath until we have an actual firm directive for the transfer.  I will certainly let you all know.

Because of the impending move, I’ve been trying to clean out my somewhat embarrassedly-overstocked pantry.  Two reasons for this: I want to cut back on my grocery budget this month because of Christmas and the move; and I don’t want to waste the food. And really, my pantry was really–really–overstocked.

So the food. We’ve been eating a lot of lentil dishes–soup and middle Eastern dishes mostly. Lots of rice and quinoa… Some stir-fries… Just nothing too interesting.  I’ve gotten fresh veggies and some fruit for the past couple of weeks, but have effectively cut my grocery expenditures in half. (Hooray!)

Incidentally, I recently tried out a fantastic recipe from Robin Robertson’s new book (1000 Vegan Recipes)–the maple-mustard-balsamic tempeh.  I made two changes: I doubled the amounts for the sauce so that I could have a good reduction for serving; and I marinated the tempeh in the mixture for about an hour before cooking.  The flavors were fantastic.  Serve it with some roasted sweet potatoes and a simple spinach salad.  Another bonus: I had everything in the pantry (or refrigerator) already!

The only real drawback to my pantry-cleaning adventure is that I can’t run out and buy fancy ingredients.  See, I worked out my grocery budget so that I wouldn’t be tempted to go to Central Market on a whim. Ugh. Oh well–I should be pretty much done right before Christmas so that I can make a fancy holiday meal!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know, I know… I’ve been pretty absent these past couple of weeks. But, to all you my readers:

Happy Thanksgiving!

We’ll be hosting a lovely brunch in the morning, complete with seitan sausages, muffins, potatoes, greens, satsumas, and perhaps waffles (pumpkin, of course). Oh right. And mimosas. (What is brunch without mimosas, hmmm?)

After brunch we’re off to Seattle to my family’s Thanksgiving meal, to which I’ll be bringing a roasted pumpkin stuffed with all kinds of seasonal goodies. Luckily my grandma cooks all her veggies with olive oil, so I will be eating well!

I’ll try to take pictures of the spread, but if not I should be back to regular posting soon. If nothing else, Food Network Friday is next week! Check out Tami’s blog (www.veganappetite.com) for more info.

Food Network Friday: Loaded Mashed Potatoes

When I was thinking about making loaded mashed potatoes for this week’s Food Network Friday (hosted by Tami of Vegan Appetite) I was a little bummed.  I love mashed potatoes, but after just having gone through a 10 lb bag of potatoes from Costco I really wasn’t feeling creamy “bacon”-y mash… so I pulled out some sweet potatoes instead.  My contribution is simple–no recipe needed.  You’ll need a  few sweet potatoes or yams; some coconut milk for creaminess; chopped cilantro and scallions; and tamarind paste to taste for a little bite.  Roast the sweet potatoes at 400 degrees for about an hour. Then scoop out the flesh and mash with the remaining ingredients, garnish with a little cilantro, and go to town.  (Okay, I suppose that was a bit of recipe, but I really didn’t use any set amounts.)  Enjoy!

Tiramisu!

Seriously, people.  My Urban Vegan purchase was worth it just for this recipe.

The Blahs

You ever just get into a rut with cooking?  After Vegan MoFo ended last week I just kind of collapsed in a food- and blogging-induced stupor. I believe I got twenty-eight posts in over the course of October; and while admittedly some of them were fillers I think I did pretty well.  Now that it’s November, however, I’m just kind of… having a case of the blahs.  Looking forward to cooking for the holidays always excites me, of course.  But I have to get there–and soon.  After all, Thanksgiving is only a couple of weeks away.

I will say this: I have a couple of new cookbooks that should help me get motivated to cook again.  First, I picked up the long-awaited Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar (Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero).  Purchasing VCTOYCJ was kind of a obvious choice.  I get good use out of the cupcake book, and since holiday baking is about to start I had been looking forward to the release date.  So far, I haven’t been disappointed. I made the Linzertorte Thumbprint Cookies to take over to my grandmother’s house last week.  Hazelnut and raspberry jam? So good.  I have also been eyeing the chocolate crinkle recipe and will probably be making it next week.

My other cookbook purchases were The Vegan Table (Colleen Patrick Goudreau) and 1000 Vegan Recipes (Robin Robertson).  I haven’t made anything from The Vegan Table yet, but it’s given me some great ideas for entertaining.  I also like the way that Goudreau’s book is organized–by theme and then by season.  For instance, one section is all about romantic dinners for two; within that chapter are a couple of menus each for Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. I’m really excited to cook from the book, but I first need to finally decide what to make!  (I’m leaning toward cooking a meal romantic meal for my husband some night before the holiday rush starts.)

1000 Vegan Recipes is a monster of a book.  I quite enjoy Robertson’s other books, even though I find I usually need to add a little more oomph to some of the recipes.  The ingredients are relatively simple and easy to find; and Robertson’s instructions are easy to follow.  I appreciate that there is a huge section for main dishes, and that there are plenty of mains not based on tofu, tempeh, or seitan.  Don’t get me wrong–I love all three and cook with them all the time. It is nice, though, to see a ton of grain- and veggie-based mains as well.  I made the Coconut Jasmine Rice and Edamame the other day for lunch.  I didn’t have any cilantro for the garnish, so I used chopped scallions instead. Simple, economical, and super-tasty.

Food Network Friday: Smoked Sausage, Butternut Squash, and Wild Rice Soup

When I picked the recipe for this week’s Food Network Friday I hadn’t known what the weather was going to be like. Turns out, this hearty soup was the perfect choice for a cold, blustery autumn week. I made the recipe close to the original, so I’m only going to highlight my modifications.

First: I only made half the recipe for Emeril’s Smoked Sausage, Butternut Squash, and Wild Rice Soup.  (This recipe makes a LOT of soup.)





For the sausage: I used the basic recipe for seitan sausages in Vegan Brunch, but changed the seasonings to reflect the flavors needed for this dish.  I used the seasonings for Polish kielbasa in this PPK thread (great resource, by the way) and added a teaspoon of liquid smoke.  I reduced the caraway to 1 tsp as per the comments; that worked quite well if you wish to try it for yourself.

Instead of chicken stock I [rather obviously] used vegetable broth; instead of half and half, I just added more broth. I just wasn’t feeling a creamy soup.  (Full disclosure: I also forgot to get Mimicreme at the store and didn’t want to drive twenty minutes.)  Besides, the butternut squash puree is creamy enough on its own.  I did find the soup to be lacking a little bit of a certain je ne sais quoi, so I added a tablespoon of smoked paprika and a hefty pinch of cayenne.

Coffee, Chocolate, and Veganism

I decided to become vegan for many reasons; though the majority of my reasoning has to do with my health, the environment, and (of course) non-human animals there is another important issue that’s at least on the surface unrelated to the consumption of animal products–human rights and welfare. I tried to be a conscious consumer of goods like chocolate and coffee even before I went veg, but now I believe it’s even more important for me to carefully choose which products I purchase. As much as I am against the exploitation of [non-human] animals, I am more concerned about human welfare. Sure, I am guilty of being annoyed at humanity in general for various reasons, but ultimately I am human too; I should probably concerned for my own species as much as any other.

So why coffee and chocolate? Well, for one–they’re edible commodities, and as such are apropos to a blog discussion during the Vegan Month of Food. Both the coffee and chocolate industries are notorious for their labor conditions and environmental costs. For a long time I was only really aware of the labor conditions of “sweat shops” in the textile industry, but that was really a myopic approach to how international trade works. I knew there had to be some reason I was only paying $8 a pound for decent coffee, but I really didn’t want to think about it–much like I chose not to think about the implications of eating chicken or cheese for most of my life. Sadly, though, thinking this way doesn’t make the issues go away. The truth is that children are being used for labor–and in horrible conditions; farmers are being paid very little for their product; large amounts of chemicals are ruining the natural ecosystems of the land on and around these farms–all so that we can pay less for a mass-produced product.

While I can’t say for sure that “fair trade” coffee and chocolate are a lot better, I feel as though I should do what I can to buy edibles (and non-edibles) that are more ethically grown and produced.  Certainly the absence of pesticides makes me feel better–even from a health standpoint (both mine and the workers’).  Not all chocolate and coffee not certified organic is grown with pesticides; sometimes it’s just too expensive for small farms to obtain these certifications.  As far as I’m concerned, I’d rather purchase ethically-traded versions rather than organic if I could only pick one or the other.

I don’t mean to sound self-righteous; I make many, many mistakes and don’t always care as much as I should. (For instance, I still purchase clothing that, while technically vegan–no wool, leather, silk, etc.–was still probably made in poorer conditions than I’d like.)  But veganism, I believe, should not be limited to abstaining from products that exploit non-human animals. Instead, we should all work toward the betterment of everyone’s (and everything’s) standard of life.

The ABC’s of Great [Vegan] Food

Sometimes when I get bored with my food I try to find ways to stimulate my creativity in the kitchen. I think it’s fun to go through the alphabet and pick foods that correspond to letters because usually by the time I’ve thought of twenty-six foods I’m ready to get back into the kitchen and cook.   (I cannot claim originality here, as there was a thread on the PPK forums a while back that involved alphabets of foods.) This is an especially fun exercise when you have little kids; my daughter and I play this game in the car every once in a while.  I’d love to see what some of you have to come up with, so feel free to copy/paste onto your own blogs, pick your favorite foods, and link me to your posts!  Here’s my current food alphabet:

Avocado
Berries
Chocolate!
Dates
Elephant garlic
Fennel
Ginger
Hazelnuts
Iced tea
Jalapeños
Kale
Lentils
Mushrooms
Nutritional yeast (“nooch”)
Onions
Pomegranates
Quinoa
Raspberries
Satsumas
Tempeh
Ugli fruit
Vanilla
Watermelon
Xanthan gum
Yams
Zucchini

More Stuffed Acorn Squash

For all the acorn squash I’ve been making, it feels like I’ve hardly made a dent in the stash from my CSA share. Acorn squash are great for stuffing, though–just the right size for a good serving of soup–so I’m not too upset that I will be eating these things until Christmas. Today I tried out a recipe from Epicurious for Beet Soup in Roasted Acorn Squash. I used vegetable broth and canola oil, but those were the only replacements. The soup is both tasty and festive, so it may come in handy if we have people over during the holiday season.

PPK Care Package Swap, Part II: International!

Hurray for more mail today!  I received a great parcel from Saskatchewan courtesy lobsterrific.  She sent me a couple of local jams, some antipasto, curry paste, teas, and chocolate–including a marzipan Ritter Sport that sadly does not show up in my little photo.  (Dark chocolate does not last long around here.)  I’m currently enjoying some chocolate mint tea–I know, right?–and contemplating a move to Canada.