Reubens and Some Future Bad News

Vegetarian Times has been very good to us.

Last night, the Sherbs and I made a vegetarian reuben sandwich from the vegan reuben recipe in the July/August issue (we like real cheese, thank you very much). What one does is take seitan, the Asian wheat gluten meat substitute (available only at Whole Foods or through a bread-making process involving a huge amount of wheat flour) and let it soak in a mixture of corned beef spices and beet juice (for color) for a while. Then you toast cheese over top, add thousand island dressing (which we made because Vegetarian Times told us to, expecting us to use vegan mayo) and sauerkraut, and eat.

It was very tasty.

I also managed to nearly duplicate the salad dressing used at almost every Japanese restaurant with oil, rice wine vinegar, white miso, and ginger. I just need to get the proportions right and use a more neutral oil, not sesame oil, next time.

Finally, we've learned that the lease on the Costco across the street from us will not be renewed. Instead, we'll get some huge multi-use building. Which won't have a Costco. As my sister says, "lame."