Holy Crap I'm Going to Boston THIS WEEK!

So Zips and I are off to the great Northeast this week for a conference. I've never been to Beantown, and am researching what it's like and where we might eat. I'm a little anxious and a little excited. I'll update as soon as I have some concrete ideas and plans hammered out!

Chickpea Croquette? Hummus Fritter? Whatever. Delicious.

We got our new Vegetarian Times today and coupled with some mild food-blahs and no plans for lunch, we decided to get creative and try something new. Armed with some dry garbanzo beans, we happened to have nearly everything we needed for their recipe for Chickpea Croquettes with Greek Salad Topping (with some Zipper modifications). Given the challenge of making chickpea flour (see below), I actually halved the recipe-- but it gave us plenty for lunch for two.

the Greek Salad topping is very similar to our Arabic Salad (sans mint). Veg Times uses cherry tomatoes and low-fat vegan feta, which we omitted, and no parsley, which we added. :

1 cucumber diced

2 tomatoes diced

1/4 c. parsley chopped

2 green onions chopped

juice of 1 lemon

1 Tb. olive oil

Toss everything together and season with a little salt and black pepper

The Croquettes

1/2 c. chickpea flour (see below)

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. salt

Chickpea flour is basically made with dry chickpeas, your food processor, and a high tolerance for noisy grinding. It took me nearly 20 minutes to pulverize the beans and sift through a sieve what turns out to be about half a cup of very flour-like chickpeas, indeed. I had to work in small batches, and initially, the huge, hard beans made a TERRIBLE noise-- like gravel stuck in a blender. Just keep pulsing. Eventually it'll break down, and down some more, and if you're impatient like me, you'll take every opportunity to process, dump the crushed mixture out, sift it, dump it back into the processor and repeat. Once you have about 1/2 c., whisk or sift in the spices until well blended, then mix in about 1/3 c. hot water (to get the exact measurement, fill up a half cup measuring cup 3/4 of the way). Once you have a delightful smelling paste, add:

1/2 can of garbanzo beans

3 green onions chopped

1/4 c. tomato diced

1/4 c. parsley chopped

1 clove of garlic minced

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 Tb. olive oil

If it looks and smells like chunky hummus, you're on the right track! Spoon out 1/4 c. "croquettes" in a lightly oiled, heated non-stick pan,and lightly fry over medium heat 3-4 minutes on each side until golden.

BUT WAIT! There's More!

As we were prepping this, Zips started wondering what else might go with these-- so I whipped up a nice vegan tzatziki sauce with our homemade soy yogurt. We didn't have a ton of the right ingredients, but enough to figure something out. When I nail down this recipe, I'll be sure to feature it here, but this worked out just fine, and was a delicious addition:

Vegan Tzatziki Sauce

6 oz. plain soy yogurt

1 clove garlic minced

1/2 cucumber peeled and seeded

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/4 c. parsley

dash of salt

Whiz the garlic and the cucumber up in your food processor (If I had some, I would have added more cucumber, and maybe some fresh mint.). Strain the yogurt (I didn't and had a soupy, liquid sauce) and add it, along with everything else in your processor. You're done!

We ended up pouring the tzatziki sauce over the croquettes-- they were a great cool, creamy addition that prevented them from being too dry. Now I can't imagine eating them without the sauce.

Long Weekend Cookout & Lavender Blueberry Ice Cream

This was, of course, our last long weekend before autumn holiday season (halloween not withstanding). Since the weather is finally starting to ease up, not scorching the earth in every waking minute, we decided to have a cookout. We made a foil packet with red potatoes and diced new mexico green chile (it was actually Zipper's grandma-in-law-- notoriously new-food-phobic-picky-eater-- who thought up this one. Genius!), veggie hot dogs and burgers, a purple cabbage and apple slaw (yum!), and corn on the cob. We didn't have any buns in the house, so I thought I'd try my all-purpose shortcake recipe-- and simply bake it in the shape of a bun. Althought it turned out a bit dense, and even though everyone agreed it was a bit like cornbread, it sure worked well as a dog-conveyance-device:

But the real winner today comes from Cathe Olson's vegan ice cream recipe book, Lick It! I have kept some lavender buds that I bought in the bulk section of some co-op with my crafting supplies for quite a while--- great for making scented sachets as gifts. Zips was reminded of this when flipping through the cookbook for something special for today's dessert, and landed on the page for Lavender Blueberry Ice Cream. After ransacking my sewing boxes, craft baggies, and desk, I finally found my ziploc bag of purple-y goodness and the game was on.
It turned out such a lovely color. The darker pieces are actually blueberry skin (not lavender buds, those gets strained out). It's heavenly. We all agreed we'd like to take a bath in it. It's a little tart, mildly sweet, smooth and floral. You have to try it!

Lavender Blueberry Ice Cream

1/2 c. plain soy milk

2 Tb. lavender buds

2 c. blueberries

1 (14 oz.) can coconut milk

1/2 c. sugar or agave syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat the soy milk until it boils. Remove from heat, stir in the lavender buds, cover and steep for 20 min.

Strain the milk (now purple) into a blender jar. Add remaining ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours (we poured it into a plastic quart container). Throw it in your ice cream maker and freeze away!

We served ours with a tofu 'whipped cream" topping from the same book (but it was just okay) and a sprig of mint. This has made Zips completely obsess over what else we can put lavender in to eat! Hopefully we'll try something soon. Happy Last Long Weekend!

Cookin' like it's Winter, part 1

Tried out a new recipe for dinner. I'm really surprised by how delicious this turned out. It didn't sound like something I'd love so much! Zips has recently learned of all the health benefits of sauerkraut (!). So she's been looking for something to make to encourage our eating of the stuff and found this recipe for us. Initially beer-braised seitan with sauerkraut didn't pique my curiosity, but in the spirit of trying new things, I flung myself into the endeavor. The result: absolutely delicious! Even though I had to substitute dark beer for what we had: corona light (I know, I know. Beer drinkers and foodies may cringe over this substitution. We're just not beer people. I may just go out and find something nice and dark to keep in the pantry for the next time I make this. Okay?)

in case you're too lazy to click the hyperlink:

Beer-Braised Seitan (or as Zips has discovered: Vegan Carbonnade a la Flamande)

1/4 c. olive oil (sounds like a lot, but it isn't)

1 onion (diced)

2 tsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat your oven to 300.

Heat the oil and saute the onions with the brown sugar and salt for 10 minutes.

3 c. sauerkraut (this is 1 1/2 cans)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

black pepper

2 bay leaves

1 lb. seitan (diced) (I used 2 8 oz. packages of Trader Joe's Meatless Beef strips)

4 potatoes (diced in large chunks)

2 carrots cut into 1/2" rounds (I used 4. They were skinny)

12 oz. dark beer (or..er.. corona light)

After sauteing the onions, add the sauerkraut, garlic, black pepper, bay leaves, seitan, potato, carrot, and beer. Bring everything to a boil. Remove it from heat and throw it all into a casserole dish to bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until your veggies are tender.

As you can see, Zips approves. This will be even better when it's a little chilly out, and maybe we have some crusty french bread. and some dark beer.

Tofu Scramble, Homemade Pancakes and Blackberry Sauce from Scratch

I'll say it. I'm a zombie in the morning. Can't think. Can't wake up. Can barely open a can of cat food. And can barely figure out how to feed the kitties without dumping the can onto their little furry heads. Last semester we relied a lot on quiche (egg/feta/spinach and egg/broccoli/cheddar) to get us out the door with little thought or effort. Now that we've been moving away from eggs, and breakfasts involving mostly frying, it's been really exciting (and, yes, challenging) trying out new hearty breakfasts. That's what led us to breakfast quinoa. And has inspired the creation of my tofu scramble:

I really really despise tofu scrambles at most restaurants. Anything that "scrambles" tofu to the texture of mushy cottage cheese and then tries to "trick" you into thinking they're eggs by dying them yellow with turmeric *shudder*. From awful places we've eaten at (Annapurna's in ABQ) and beloved places (Flying Star), a good tofu scramble seems like the vegetarian holy grail. (Here's the key: it's NOT EGGS! It's not going to taste like eggs! So it doesn't have to look even remotely like eggs!) So I've taken matters into my own hands.

I happen to really like tofu. The way it tastes "raw," its texture, the way it sautes, the way it takes on flavors. So I dice up an onion and brown it in a little veggie butter, then add tofu that I've squeezed the moisture from, and break it apart with my fingers. I guess this is the "scrambling" part. I don't mush it up. I don't break it all down. I haven't tried whizzing it in a blender with some soy milk and mustard (as Post Punk Kitchen has you try). I just leave it in fork-worthy chunks and let it brown in the pan with the diced onion. The fun bit is adding sazon. This is the secret ingredient to my mom's fried rice recipe. We get the culantro con achiote flavor of sazon. This is what turns it orange and delicious. I use about half a packet. And a little black pepper. When it's all browned (and orange-ed) evenly, it's ready to go. I add some fresh cilantro (and maybe some green onion) at the end. and NO turmeric.

Okay, and the promised pancakes from scratch are the Perfect Pancakes from Vegan Brunch. They're delicious. Rich, flavorful. Hearty enough to carry a couple slices of bananas in the batter. (There's also a recipe for Pumpkin Pancakes. Zips is waiting until it's properly fall before we crack into those!) So we made 'em and drizzled maple syrup along with a Blackberry Sauce I Macguyvered in the moment. (Maple syrup is sweet and rich. Blackberry sauce is tart and rich. Knock yerself out!)

Blackberry Sauce (perfect for pancakes, ice cream, cheesecake, whatever!)


2 c. blackberries (I used ones I had frozen)
2 Tb. water
1 Tb. sugar
1/4 c. apple (peeled, diced finely)


Put everything in a pot together and bring to a simmer. Mash the apple against the side of the pan as it cooks. The apple works as a natural sweetener (less sugar added), and the fruit pectin in it helps thicken the sauce (no extra thickeners to add). Once everything has simmered and broken down, puree everything (I used my hand blender). Then strain out the wicked blackberry seeds so your loved ones won't walk around all day trying to get them out of their teeth.
Zips liked it all. Especially the maple syrup. Couldn't keep her face out of the pancakes!

More Beans n' Rice: Gallo Pinto

We plowed through the Lovely Lentils and Brown Rice, so there's not enough for our power lunch tomorrow. Having spent 2 weeks in Nicaragua long long ago, I have fond memories of my favorite part of nearly every meal, gallo pinto. Apparently also popular in Costa Rica, where it's made with black beans instead of red, gallo pinto is like the national dish (I guess Costa Ricans like it with a fried egg). And it's usually totally vegetarian, despite the fact that it's named after a chicken (it means speckled rooster-- because of how it looks). So tonight I made up a big batch of this and can't wait until I can eat it tomorrow!!!
Gallo Pinto

1 c. uncooked rice
1/2 c. onion minced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 ts. cumin
1 ts. coriander
1/2 ts. ground ginger
Saute these together in 2 Tb. veg oil until the rice is translucent. Then add 2 c. water, cover, and simmer until rice is cooked.

At this point, I dumped the rice into a big bowl, heated 1 Tb. veg oil and sauteed some diced hot/sweet pepper
*among the recipes I found, this was a bit vague, so I ended up using 1/2 a serrano diced finely for heat and about 1/2 a green bell pepper for flavor)
then I dumped the rice back in and added 2 c. cooked black or red beans and 2 Tb. vegetarian worcestershire sauce (this approximates some kind of sauce that can only be found in Nicaragua or Costa Rica). Heat through and finish with 2 stalks of green onion finely chopped and 1/4 c. chopped cilantro.

I'm gonna garnish it with some sliced avocado. I can't wait.

Veg Broth from Scratch and Perfect Protein Lunches

Because school is back in, and Fall is my favorite season, and I am very fond of soup, Zips decided we ought to try our hand/paw at making our own veggie broth from scratch. I am delighted at how delicious and rewarding it was. We looked at many recipes online, and decided we were just going to take a whack at it and use whatever we had. So we chopped a whole onion, several carrots, some celery, 2 zucchini, a leftover sliver of cabbage, 3 or 4 parsnips, 3 mushrooms, a sweet potato, a couple of yukon gold potatoes, a couple spears of asparagus, and a bay leaf. Well, we heated these in a little olive oil at the beginning, and just piled in veggies as we chopped them up. Then we added about 16 cups of water. (That's right! Clear water!) and boiled it all for about 2 hours. I found some whole peppercorns and added them about an hour in.


Here it is at the beginning, and a little later once everything starts to jive a little:

After the first hour, it starts smelling maddeningly delicious. It is no longer water with veggies in it, but magical homemade elixer! It could probably have continued boiling, but I couldn't take the sweet torture for long. So I scooped out all the veggies after it cooled, and poured the broth into some freezable containers. We are thrilled! This has totally inspired me to make a vegetarian french onion soup from scratch. I can even make my own bread!
And in our continued search for perfect foods for our busy school days, we needed to concoct something for Thursday Lunches. Thursday is our killer day this semester, as we have to be on campus, essentially, from 11:30am to 8:30pm, (with a break between 1 and 3) We HAVE to bring us some vittles that will keep the candle burning. So I looked up a bean and rice dish, since they offer a complete protein. Now, lots of folks have a recipe for Lentil and Brown Rice Soup/ Stew/ Cassarole/ Salad. I don't know what I was looking for, so I kind of cobbled together several things that looked good to me. The result: delicious!

Lovely Lentils and Brown Rice:

1/2 onion. diced
1 clove garlic minced
2 Tb. olive oil
1 carrot finely diced
2 celery ribs finely diced
3/4 c. uncooked brown rice
3/4 c. dry lentils
3 c. veggie broth (even better if made from scratch!)
1/4 c. roasted pine nuts
2 Tb. fresh cilantro chopped
2 Tb. fresh mint chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
sprinkle of ground coriander and black pepper

Heat up the oil and add things in the order listed. Give the veggies and aromatics a little saute before adding the rice and lentils. After adding the lentils, thrown in the broth and bring to a simmer. Cover it and give it a stir once in a while until the liquid is absorbed (about 30-40min.) Stir in the pine nuts and the fresh herbs. Season to taste, and squeeze the lemon in at the end. Zips liked with a diced fresh tomato mixed in. I'm thinking I would like it with something like raisins or dried cranberry cooked in... I'll keep you posted.

Good for complete protein, good for fiber, and good for Zips.

Pesto Pizza and Oven Fried Green Tomatoes (but not together)

Today's big adventure was some homemade pizza made with some pizza dough from Trader Joe's. (I've never bought a plastic bag of dough that I can stretch out and toss up in the air. How fun!) I know it's practically un-american for me to be a little ambivalent about pizza. I'm just not a rabid fan. As a teenager, my parents always encouraged me to have pizza parties (feed friends cheap), but I was not and still am not that excited about pizza.

But PESTO pizza is a whole other story! The short version: I made a pizza for everyone in the family. Green chiles, bell pepper, onion, mushrooms, and less cheese on one. No mushrooms and more cheese on another. And green chiles, onion, bell pepper, and tomato on my homemade pesto version. *drool* I can't WAIT to make pizza again!

I know all the components of Pesto, but didn't measure anything out, so here's my guess-timated recipe:

I Love PESTO

2 cloves garlic
1 packed c. basil (washed)
1/4 c. pine nuts
1 Tb. olive oil
1/4 c. parmesan cheese (I didn't have the fancy grated kind, so I used the kind that comes in a green plastic can from Target. It worked just fine)

I just put everything into my mini-food processor that I've had since undergrad and whizzed away. I processed everything in the order listed. Once I put some olive oil in, everything incorporated really well.

Now that school has started again, we're trying to prep a lot of our meals so everything is a healthy, hearty no-brainer when we get up... when we get home... when we get munchie. (While my goal is for these to be healthy, it is absolutely essential they be no-brainers, since I'm a complete zombie when I wake up and also when I get tired!) This weekend we're excited to pretend summer isn't over yet, so we made the pizzas, tonight I'm making soy yogurt for next week's breakfast smoothies. And we're going to try making veggie broth from scratch. Zips just discovered the blog Vegan Yum Yum who has a link to this Fat Free Vegan blog ("sinlessly delicious" I love it), both of which I have bookmarked. So we're going to try Yum Yum's vegetable broth. I'll post more when we have more to show for it.

AND I'm so excited to try baked green tomatoes! I'm thrilled. And perhaps tomorrow, after we go to the local grower's market, we'll have some green tomatoes to bread and bake. Zips is over my shoulder finding recipes for vegan quiche, tempeh potato breakfast patties, vegan paella, seitan stir fry, chickpea spinach soup... we already have designs to make a blackened cajun chik'n dinner tomorrow. SO I have a feeling I'll be posting again real soon.

How Feist made dancers disappear...

While sprucing up my blog, I clicked on the Feist video for 1234 and am still in love with both the song and the seemingly improvised, endearingly kooky (intentionally graceless) choreography (gives me hope that I could appear in a music video). I love that it's one amazing continuous single shot. I love how flawless the timing is, and I still wondered how they did the trick at the end where all the dancers disappear (and I always imagined a director with a megaphone shouting "Purples! Go! Now reds and yellows! Go! Now everyone! Fall down!"). After a little searching, I found this making-of video. Scoot the slider to about 2:10 and you'll get to see the whole thing:


via videosift.com

Local Veggies for the Broken-Hearted

This week marks the end of summer "vacation" and the beginning of fall semester. Before it gets too crazy again, Zips and I darted out of town for one last weekend adventure, and ended up in Albuquerque for their downtown farmer's market, and up to Santa Fe for a sweet vegetarian restaurant and a delightful French documentary.

We stayed the night at a hotel in downtown ABQ that I wouldn't recommend-- to anyone. ever. unless you want insomnia and a broken spine-- but the only perk is that when we stepped out of our door Saturday morning, the Albuquerque Farmer's Market was literally across the street! It was so lovely to see piles of produce in addition to local crafty stuff. There were apples, grapes, peaches, eggplants, onions, bell peppers, garlic, carrots, potatoes, O MY!

My heart breaks that our garden won't yield a tomato larger than a ping pong, and that our only thriving investment is a sweet basil plant that heroically refuses to die. How magical that these things grow. How tragic that they won't grow in our backyard! In any event, we splurged on peaches, some grapes(!), a bunch of purple carrots (purple!), some crispy, tart apples (that look like they actually grew on a tree, not in some lab somewhere), and a lovely bag of yukon gold potatoes. I am so jealous of the potato lady. Growing potatoes was my favorite!

The traffic at the farmer's market seemed to come to a dead standstill at the tent belonging to Blk Bird Pies-- an adorable couple who were selling all manner of tiny pies, and also servings of Watermelon Papaya juice, and lemonade with purple basil (the third was hibiscus-something or other, we'll try it next time!). We saw everyone carrying around and sipping these juices, so we had to come back and try them. They were so delicious, and I'm now utterly obsessed with the idea of infusing some thai basil or lavender or something the next time I make a lemon shake-up!

The other happy discoveries for the weekend were, in addition to the fact that The Screen at the College of Santa Fe was playing the enchanting documentary, The Beaches of Agnes, we ate at the equally enchanting Tree House Pastry Shop / Cafe.

It is an all-organic, entirely vegetarian, local food restaurant. Like D'Lish in Sedona, it was such a luxury to look at their menu board and know I could order anything!

For whatever reason, I played it safe and ordered the Black Bean Quesadilla-- I've never dreamed of putting black beans inside a quesadilla-- but it was really good!

But Zips won hands-down for this tempeh-lentil-hummus wrap and salad. After a weekend of sketchy dining out, this was the real winner. She was generous enough to share it with me, and neither of us was hungry for the rest of the night!

We're going to try to duplicate it in our future lunching endeavors! The Tree House is also a full bakery that does wedding cakes and the like, so we had to splurge for cupcakes: chocolate and caramel with pink sea salt (in the cutest little boxes ever).

We packed them up and had dessert at a picnic table in the railyard arts district, where an artist's market was packing up for the day. Hopefully this marks a sweet beginning to our new school semester.

Breakfast of Champions

In more concerted efforts to have more healthful breakfasts, especially with school starting again next week, we discovered the joys of eating quinoa in the mornings. Zips found a fantastic recipe for Quinoa Porridge (sounds so English, I know..) Ours involves plain cooked quinoa soaked in an equal amount of soy milk (1 1/2 cups feeds both of us) overnight and heated in the morning with a drizzle of honey, a sprinkle of orange zest, some dried cranberries, and some chopped walnuts. It's like oats or grits and a complete protein to boot!

Baked Tortilla Chips from Scratch!

(Okay, okay, it's more like Baked Tortilla Chips from Tortillas!) One of our greatest vices in the summer is chips n' salsa-- especially fresh, spicy homemade pico de gallo or a batch of salsa from a local restaurant (that I can buy by the quart in their shop!) with fresh tortilla chips from another local restaurant. We've discovered how shockingly easy it is to bake these at home, and they absolutely fulfill my crunchy chip jones.

Baked Tortilla Chips:

Lightly brush or spray veg oil onto 6" corn tortillas (I'm sure you can use flour, I'll take photos if I do that too)
Sprinkle a tiny amount of fine salt onto tortillas (optional--I used fine popcorn salt)
Stack tortillas and cut into quarters.
Lay these out on a baking sheet & bake @ 350 for 10 minutes, flip them over and give them about 5 more minutes. Watch them carefully, as they burn easily. Then indulge. *crunch*

Making Indian from scratch

Zips and I have a been watching BBC America during the mid-mornings because How Clean is Your House and You Are What You Eat are a couple of our favorite shows-- certainly the most motivating to both do chores around the house and eat well and exercise. In fact, we just bought Gillian McKeith's books You Are What You Eat and the Food Bible. This morning, nearly a week into trying to follow a more Gillian McKeith-like food lifestyle, we hit a food lull (no idea what to fix today), and in the meantime, Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares came on with an episode of Ramsey fixing up an Indian restaurant in Nottingham called The Curry Lounge. Lamenting our current promise not to eat things like ghee (mmmmmm) and naan (ooooooooh), we wondered if we could scrape together enough change to hit the local organic-friendly Indian buffet, and then I said, why don't I make us something? SO I hit up a couple of recipes online for a good Chana Masala (this is adapted largely from a recipe purportedly taken from a cookbook called Heart Healthy Indian), and when I couldn't find my garam masala anywhere, I also found a recipe for that made up of spices I already have! I think a real version of this would involve whole spice pods dry roasted together and ground, but I'll wait until I have a spare coffee grinder to use as a spice grinder. Until then:

Easy Garam Masala:

1 Tb. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1 1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

I measured everything out and then poured it into an empty spice jar and shook it until a uniform color. Smells like HEAVEN!

The Chana Masala recipe is a little more fast and loose, I cobbled together two recipes (so I could use just one can of garbanzos), then tweaked them so I'd have more sauce, and added a small potato and a carrot.

So I chopped 1/2 an onion and put it into a food processor with
2 tomatoes from a can of whole tomatoes + 1/4 c. of its juice
1/2 serrano chile (use the whole thing if you think you can take it!)
1 inch ginger peeled and chopped
3-4 garlic cloves peeled

Process these together until a nice tomatoey liquid paste forms.

Then in a large saucepan, I put the other 1/2 onion (diced) with
1 small potato diced
1 carrot peeled & diced
2-3 bay leaves
saute until onion is translucent then add the tomato/onion/ginger/garlic/chile mixture & stir. (**note: Because Zips and I like plenty of saucey gravy to eat with the rice, at this point I actually went back and doubled the tomato/onion/ginger/garlic/chile mixture and added it to the veggies). Then add:

1 tsp. red chili powder
1 tsp. coriander
2 tsp. garam masala
1 15oz. can of garbanzo beans.

Heat together (I put the lid on) 7-10 minutes, or until your basmati rice finishes cooking! Garnish with cilantro leaves. We ate it with brown basmati rice (which I had never tried or cooked before)-- and it was hearty and fine. It smells SO GOOD in here! This has given me a boost of confidence in other Indian cuisine favorites that I have never attempted. Something with lentils next time, I think.

Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries (bonus!)

The Chicago Diner, which Zips and I only visited once (alas!), has a fully vegetarian menu which prompted both of us to try things we'd never think of making at home. Having devoured their amazing black bean burger with sweet potato fries, we're both obsessed with the idea of flying out there to eat it again. In lieu of a pair of plane tickets, we went looking for recipes to test drive, and landed on these. The fries were AWESOME (even if we didn't get them quite crispy), and the burger was DELICIOUS (but a tad wet-- I used a little store-bought breadcrumbs to even out the texture). We loved them both:

Black Bean Burgers:

1 slice whole wheat bread -- torn into pieces and pulsed a couple times in food processor. Then add:
1 grated carrot
1/4 c. cilantro leaves
1/3 chopped onion
1 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. salt

Pulse these together in the processor a until combined (but not mush!) Then add:
1 15oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed

Pulse with other ingredients until combined and the beans are chopped up (but not mush!). Of course, you want to shoot for a burger-y texture. Scoop out into a mixing bowl and add

1/4 c. prepared chunky salsa (I used some from our favorite local mexican restaurant. caliente!)

Mix into beans with your hands. If it seems too wet (as mine did-- the first burgers fell apart), at this point, add a little bread crumbs. I think I added about 1/4 c. This didn't seem to throw off the flavors at all.

The recipe I found divided the mixture into 4 burgers of equal size. This seemed too big for me, and so I divided it into 6. Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a large pan and fry about 3 minutes on both sides until browned. We served them in pita pockets with garlic aioli (see below), onions, lettuce, tomato, and avocado slices.

Sweet Potato Fries with Garlic Aioli

Okay, the garlic aioli is embarassingly easy-- just 2 garlic cloves grated into 1/2 c. veganaise.

The sweet potato fries involve just a large or 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into fries, then place into a mixing bowl and drizzle

2 Tb. olive oil
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried parsley
and some pepper.

I combined all the spices together and then tossed them into the fries until evenly coated. Lay the fries out in one layer on a baking sheet and bake at 425 for 15 minutes, flip, and give them 20 more minutes.

Zipper approves!

Altered T's

Zips has bestowed upon me a task to spruce up some t-shirts with spiffy vintage iron-on decals for the new academic year. Namely to turn throat-clutching crew necks into more shapely v-necks. Given this daunting undertaking, and my own marginal sewing skills, I thought it really necessary to figure out how. SO, to practice:

I've got this unglamorous, boxy speed racer t-shirt that I bought on a whim in the men's graphic t-shirt section at a target some years ago (before that appalling live-action movie). I wore it a couple of times, but mostly relegated it to sleepwear because I was always swimming in it, although the ringer neck always choked me no matter how much I tried to stretch it. SO, I found a couple of lovely specific tutorials on altering tees (hilarious, short video) and converting them to v-neck (scroll down a little, lots of photos). I have a couple of american apparel tees whose fit I love, so I traced the cut onto the big tee with a sharpie and went at it with a pair of scissors, lugged out my handy dandy Singer, and VOILA!

I'm not sure the v is quite centered, but at least I'll be able to wear it out of the house without being mistaken for a 9 year old boy! It didn't take long either. I'm going to go rummaging for more oversized tees that I can fix up. In the meantime, Zips is well pleased. I'm going to need a couple more practice tees to build up my confidence before I lay hands on one of her Fleetwood Mac and Purple Rain t-shirts!

Back from California...and I already want to go back!

The Great California Adventure of 2009 was a resounding success. Having never particularly desired to visit Los Angeles or Hollywood or all the other crowded, sweaty tourist-y things evoked with the words Southern California, I can now admit to what an idiot I've been. Our week in L.A. was such an oasis from the heat here and, despite the notorious traffic, it was nice to be in a big city. We also found lovely places to go that totally by-passed a lot of touristy crowds. Aside from the theme park and one of the concerts being unfortunately during the opening weekend of the Orange County Super Fair (worst. parking situation. ever.), we really felt like we just lived there.

From our limited experiences, and despite my web research, Zips and I didn't find it to be much of an eatin' place for us. Although I did find this parking spot:
outside of a vegan Vietnamese joint called Au Lac. It was exciting to go to a Vietnamese restaurant where I could order anything at all, but I found it all a bit daunting. The place was fancier than I expected (it looks unassuming and strip mall-ish on the outside)-- everything was a tiny decorative serving on oversized and weirdly-shaped white dishes (the kind Cat Cora uses to plate stuff on Iron Chef America), and the items that won the most rave internet reviews were from the exorbitantly priced Raw section of the menu-- so I didn't try them. Overall the place made me miss my own Pho Chay and Cha Gio Chay (so I made them both on our second night home).

We also tried two vegan Thai places in West Hollywood. They were both fine, but nothing to write home about, although one of them boasted being a regular spot for the cast of Grey's Anatomy (flyers stuck under the glass on each table gush: "Sandra Oh is a regular and McDreamy Patrick Dempsy just loves our vegan chocolate cake!"). The most successful meal we had was a sandwich I made at a picnic bench in Griffith Park just before an Andrew Bird concert. I used hummus acquired at a Trader Joe's along with some microgreens and sprouts, avocado slices, lettuce and tomato. We had Coke from the cooler, sunchips and rice pudding from Trader Joe's. We were famished, and this was perfect.
We did, in fact, overplan for our five day vacation-- with two concerts, two screenings and a panel at a film festival, and a two day pass at Universal Studios Hollywood (oddly, Monday was far more crowded than Friday) (there is, incidently, NOTHING for vegetarians to eat here. Just a tiny cucumber roll at Panda Express, a tiny cheese pizza at Pizza Hut, or a tiny salad.-- or leave the park and try one of the many pricey restaurants at CityWalk). But we waded in the Pacific Ocean, collected sand and seashells, marinated in one of the hearts of American popular culture, drove over 2000 miles, and recharged our batteries a little. We can't wait to go back.

This week: Our first real vacation.

Before summer is over and we head back to the classrooms (and glue ourselves back in front of our computers), Zips and I decided to have a Great California Adventure ('09). We've had one Great California Adventure ('06), but it involved getting stuck in an airplane in Phoenix for several hours in 106 degree weather, a case of pink-eye, a hotel with no a/c, and too many hard-boiled eggs. We did enjoy the great rolling hills of San Francisco, and made the most of the pink eye situation, but Zips is ready to give the Golden State a second go-round. You can see from our map that we're risking a little over-planning, but I think it's good to have lots of options to pick from. Most likely, we'll go to the things we have tickets to, and spend the rest of the time on a beach!

There are a lot of lovely sounding veg-friendly restaurants (of course), so I look forward to whipping out my camera at the table to post here.

And yes, if you look closely, you'll see that I've located all three of the Ikeas in the LA area. I don't know if we'll go to all of them, but better to be safe than sorry. curse you, excellent and affordable swedish home designs!

Vegan Italian Sausage and Tempeh Bacon!

As a vegetarian convert, I can confess that I used to love bacon and sausage. I am happy to have given them up and don't miss them, but am always on the lookout for new delicious things to incorporate into my veggie lexicon. In a desire to work more with a new food and in an effort to re-create my delicious BLT from last week, I've been trying to approximate tempeh bacon. Zips recently gave me Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch, and there are so many yummy things to try, including Tempeh Bacon! Unfortunately, though, after two approaches (one involved steaming the tempeh strips, then marinating, then frying; the other just marinate, then fry) I've decided to press on with my quest for a satisfactory recipe. There's nothing wrong with the flavor here, it's just that the texture wasn't crispy, just a little dry and crumbly.

But as I said, the flavor was just fine, very near to what D'Lish served. If you wanna give it a whack, I only modified Vegan Brunch's in a couple ways:

Marinade:

3 Tb soy sauce
2 Tb maple syrup (VB calls for 1)
1 Tb liquid smoke
1 Tb apple cider vinegar
1 Tb olive oil
1 Tb tomato paste (I didn't have any, so used *gasp* ketchup. I think it worked totally fine, though. Really.)
Whisk them all together (I omitted VB's 3/4 c. vegetable broth and 2 garlic cloves)

I used an 8 oz. package of tempeh, cut into about 16 thin slices. I laid them in a baking dish and marinated for about two hours. Then fried in a small amount of veg. oil.

I liked it, but didn't love it. The search continues. I hear light life has a nice "smoky tempeh strips" product, but can't find it 'round here. I'll have to use the rest of my tempeh for some other test kitchen adventure.

The BIG TRIUMPH of the day, though, was a happy coincidence of a recipe for Italian Sausages directly across the page from the bacon recipe. It looked weird (navy beans?!), but turned out amazingly! I can't wait to eat them the next time we make spaghetti!

Here's her recipe:

Before mixing everything up, get a steamer basket going over a pot of boiling water. I used a metal colander and lid over a kettle.

Also, get out four pieces of foil. These will be for shaping and cooking the sausage.

1/2 c. cooked navy beans, rinsed and drained (I used a can of Bush's)
1 c. vegetable broth
1 Tb. olive oil
2 Tb. soy sauce
1 garlic clove (or 2 if you like garlic) finely minced with a microplane grater
1 1/4 c. vital wheat gluten
1/4 c. nutritional yeast (I utterly forgot this, and will have to include it next time!)
2 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed (I couldn't find mine, but would have included it!)
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. sweet paprika
1 tsp. dried oregano
Several dashes fresh black pepper

Mash the beans in a large mixing bowl until every bean is completely obliterated. Add the broth, oil, soy sauce, garlic, and all the spices. (Here's where I depart from VB. She has you add the ingredients in the order listed, but once I added the vital wheat gluten, it was difficult to incorporate the spices into the dense dough that had formed.)

Pull dough into four equal portions, put them on the foil, and roll into 5" logs. Wrap in the foil (I used it to shape the dough more evenly) and twist the ends shut. Don't worry about how it looks, as she says, it will snap into shape while it steams, thanks to the magical vital wheat gluten. Place wrapped sausages into your steamer and steam for 40 minutes. You can use them immediately or saute in olive oil.

I was thriled with the results-- the texture, the spices, everything. I may even use the remaining 3/4 of the can of beans to make more on backup!

VB also has a recipe for chorizo, so maybe I'll try that too (once I have some pinto beans and some proper tomato paste!)

Quinoa Black Bean Salad

So here's an easy new salad I cooked up today. I've been wanting to find a good recipe with quinoa for a little while now, a challenge since Zips is entirely ambivalent to the wonder grain. We were planning on having a taco night tonight, so I modified this black bean ensemble (originally called "Bean-Wah Salad" like Quinoa: "Keen-Wah." Get it?) The original recipe called for a lemon instead of a lime, and only 1/4 c. of quinoa, which I doubled, then quadrupled since it didn't seem very quinoa-y, and was also too mushy with dressing. So here's my adapted version:

1 c. quinoa
2 c. vegetable broth
Simmer the quinoa in the broth until tender, and most of the broth has been absorbed. I had to add a little water at the end.

While that's simmerin', combine:
1 c. corn
1 can black beans
1 diced tomato
2 green onions, chopped
2 Tb. cilantro, chopped

In a separate bowl, combine:
juice of 1 lime
2 Tb. extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
pinch of salt

Once the quinoa cools off a bit, throw them all together and mix well. Despite her ambivalence toward the mother of all grains, since Zips' favorite spices are cumin and chili powder, she proclaimed this "freakin' delicious." I am well pleased.

We had it as a side to the tacos. In the future, we decided it could totally stand alone in a soft corn tortilla with a little lettuce (top photo). And since quinoa and the black beans are both good protein sources, it'd make a great lunch option. MMmmmmm.

Great Vegan Eats in Sedona

So we're back from a short vacation in beautiful Sedona, AZ, where Zips happily discovered a lovely vegan restaurant, D'Lish Very Vegetarian. Since Sedona seems such a hippie, yuppie, tourist-y little town, we weren't surprised to find there were several places to choose from (including a raw cuisine joint called Bliss Cafe that we'll have to find next time), but loved D'Lish so much the evening we arrived, we ate there again the next day!

The first time, I ordered and greatly enjoyed a Retro sandwich (avocado, sprouts, lettuce, tomato, etc) until I tasted Zips' choice, the BLT. Their tempeh bacon was INCREDIBLE, and made me rethink my entire relationship with tempeh. I mean I've tried making breakfast sausage patties with it, found a great recipe for tempeh bourguignon, but rarely fix it-- especially now that we live in a hot climate. Now I can't wait to purchase some again. I can't wait to test a couple of tempeh "bacon" recipes myself. So the next night I got the BLT with an avocado added (best of both sandwiches, too much of a good thing is even better!). Everything seems to come with blue corn chips and a little house salad whose dressing is also DELISH!

And for dessert, we shared a "young Thai coconut"-- which a guy simply whacked at with a large knife to open the top, and offered us straws. The fresh coconut water was excellent, and when we had emptied it, we fought over scraping out and eating the insides. Zips said it is among the most decadent thing we've ever done.

More Crazy Signs

So we just got back from our great Grand Canyon adventure, and I have more less-sane signage from the road. The above is from a rest stop somewhere along I-40 in the eastern part of AZ. I saw a great deal of lizards. I hope they weren't poisonous.

The buffalo stands in front of a gas station in either Valle or Tusayan, AZ, not far from the Grand Canyon.

And this seemed a hilariously explicit warning posted both at the Grand Canyon, and at a scenic point along 89A between Sedona and Flagstaff.

Craft News, Finally

Oh yeah! As a promise to myself and to my blog, I finally have some crafting/sewing news to post. I've finally cranked out a couple of cat toys and created myself an ETSY store! All I have right now is my own modified catnip-filled "kitten nunchuck" to sell, but I'm working our a couple of project in my test (craft) kitchen. Here's the first snazzy pair of nunchucks (wind up two cats at once!)

I've got another one listed, but plan to make more catnip-stuffed doodads soon! I'm a little intimidated, though. There are catnip tacos! Catnip fortune cookies! Catnip cupcakes! Catnip pizza! Where can I fit in?

The other project I completed is a new pillowcase for our body pillow. Not that I have anything against it... It just looks like it belongs in a dorm room (picture: red, white, blue, and black graphics with the Union Jack and handwritten font words like Girl! Love! Friends! Rock! Angel! with hearts instead of o's. Zips insists it's a riot grrrl pillow. I think it's more like a No Doubt knock off-- ANYWAY, I have a collection of flannel remnants that have a similar color scheme, and although it's summer and flannel seems too hot, they were really light, not to mention soft, so I quilted together a new pillowcase. Now we have dreamy clouds and pj pinstripes and a little dinosaur block here and there.

It was a much bigger job than anticipated! That pillow is 42" long! I ended up quilting blocks 8"in width (random lengths), into a 44"long strip, then stitching 5 of these strips together. This is only half of it-- hung over a clothesline.
Zips' favorite parts are the dinosaurs.