Tempeh!

My post on Friday alluded to our dinner Friday night, Tempeh au Vin. Well, the outcome was excellent. Granted I can't compare it to Coq a Vin since I doubt I've ever had it (although The Pedant can address it; his comments about the time he had it in France always include the words "so tasty," "really great," "amazing") but this was good. I mean, how could it not be?! The recipe was pretty simple:

Saute 3 leeks and 2 onions chunked in some EVOO. Let them get brown and delicious looking. Add in 1 lb. mushrooms halved, let them get tasty looking. Add in carrot slices, some flour, 4 smokey tempeh strips (we used Light Life Bacon which didn't add as much as it could have - next time we may just use liquid smoke) and 8 oz cubed tempeh. Then pour in some water and a bottle of beaujolais (good thing we can get some for under $10 at costco!) and let it cook for a while getting yummy. The recipe calls for spelt berries (since it's a hippie mag) but we substituted egg noodles. It was just wonderful. Also, I felt justified using our (expensive, but worth it) french oven.

Yet another winner from the Vegetarian Times!

Return to the House of Orzo!

Just sprayed vegetable broth all over the kitchen, but it was worth it for Orzo Night, part II.

Part I was a recipe from the British food blog "Eat Like a Girl," which described orzo with spinach, butternut squash, and ricotta. We left out the pancetta, but it was tasty anyway.

Part II was from a Weight Watchers cookbook that does that annoying thing where the top, middle and bottom of the page all turn separately for a "mix and match" effect. Since the Sherbs and I so rarely prepare three meals at home (bowl of cereal for breakfast, leftovers for lunch), much less three meals from a Weight Watchers cookbook (as opposed to our stanbys Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian) the mix and match is wasted on us.

Regardless, it was an orzo recipe with broccoli, carrot, and lots of vegetable broth, which is ladled in slowly during the cooking process. There is a technical term for this, but other than "causing the Pedant motor difficulties while ladeling with his left hand and stirring with his right," I don't know what it is. It seems to have come out tasty, but we haven't had dinner yet - I'm waiting for the Sherbs to get back.

Dinner Possible!

After finally getting back into the swing of things (but missing Spain oh-so-much!) The Pedant and I have begun cooking again.

salad. The Sunday we had an excellent dinner. It was a really simple and tasty light dinner: a tortellini salad. The recipe came from a low-fat vegetarian cook book. Basically, cook refrigerated tortellini. Make a salad with mixed greens, a pepper and some mushrooms. Make a dressing out of white wine vinegar, sugar, EVOO and water. Put some crutons in (which TP made himself from a mini baguette). Toss. Enjoy.

And we did.

Last night for dinner we made a chick pea tagine from this months' Vegetarian Times. It came out well. Although we didn't realize it until today's lunch since our sink was leaking. In order to avoid a large smelly pile of dishes, we went out to the local Greek place. Only problem: the food was sooooo tasty (not the problem) I ate it all and got a belly ache in the middle of the night (problem). Oh well.

This morning, after a night of bad sleep for me and The Pedant, we went to the gym and then had some extra time so made ourselves a tasty breakfast of champions. TP concocted a tasty egg scramble (I toasted our bread!) consisting of store-brand egg whites, some fake ham sliced up, sauteed chopped ren onion, and a small handful of light cheddar cheese. The outcome: delicious. Really, very good. Mmmm... I think this type of scramble (or maybe when we have more time, individual omelettes) will be in our regular rotation. While I am a big fan of the turkey and bologna slices, I don't really love the ham. I think becasue pre-vegetarian days bacon was my treif of choice. But in eggs, this ham was good.

Tonight for dinner we're looking forward to a Vegetarian Times double whammy: Cold Tofu Salad with Asparagus and an Edamame Succotash.

In other cooking news (related), I made a cold strawberry soup last night for dinner. I made 2 servings, but TP doesn't love cold fruit soups. I do. It was tasty. And Kirkland brand white wine (well under $10) is tasty.

Brownish Food is Goodish Food

So, yet another good recipe has come out of Vegetarian Times . This month, they did a "spring cleaning" pantry recipe series, which is where we got the Chickpea Stew recipe from (since every good veggie has cans and cans of chickpeas and some (not me!) have cartons on butternut squash soup). They did a Baked Beans Huevos Rancheros as a recipe. It intrigued The Pedant so last night I made it for dinner. Here's the recipe basically:

6 oz. soy "churizo" (used soy sausage instead)
1 cup salsa
1 diced chipolte in adobe sauce (used 3)
30 oz baked beans, drained
6 eggs
6 tortillas.

Cook ingredients together until warm, place in baking dish, crack eggs, bake 13-15 minutes (really 20 if you like your eggs better done). Serve with tortillas.

Honestly, I was worried. Baked beans!? Really? While cooking I remained wary - it was all a brownish color with no life to it.

The prognosis: AMAZING. Like, oh my God, may we lick the pan and risk the burning of our tongues amazing! It was the perfect comfort food: easy, filling, tasty, aromatic, warm, proteined, and delicious. If you ever come to a brunch hosted by me and TP you may expect this.

Now, on another topic - Diet Coke. I wanted to buy Diet Coke for work toady (since I was working 1-9, I knew I needed a pick me up). I went to the store near the metro and paid - get this - $1.39 BEFORE tax. WTF?! It's diet friggin coke!

The Pedant and I have not been neglecting our blog but we have been preoccupied (basically, we added a third queue to our netflix subscription). Dinners haven't been extraordinary recently, tasty, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Monday, after TP had a run to a local Asian Grocery, we made Vegetarian Monte Cristos which were interesting. It was slices of tofu (cut horizontally) with a Dijon-thyme spread, cheddar cheese and crumbled soy bacon (it also called for tomato slices but I didn't put it on mine because tomatoes are icky). After you assemble the sandwich you brush the top with water and drizzle bread crumbs. Broil for 2 minutes, flip drizzle bread crumbs, broil for 2 minutes, eat. It was an interesting taste - the tofu worked well and the soy bacon was, as usual, amazing. We did notice that the tops of the bread crumbs were burning before the cheese melted, but that's probably our broiler. Next time we've vowed to make them in the toaster oven.

Tonight is bok choy (from the Asian grocery) with tofu. Not sure how we'll do it yet. My new favorite go-to book, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman had many good suggestions (as did The Best Vegetable Recipes).

The Battle Began

Friday evening for a special event, The Pedant and I reveled in our food network nerdiness and went out to a lovely restaurant run by a loser of an Iron Chef and cast member of the Next Iron Chef. (He didn't make it to the final 4 because he "plated everything the same." It's true.) Well, we wanted to go anyway and got all gussied up and had a late reservation (which was nice since we got to loiter) and got a tasting menu - 7 courses. They even had a 7 course vegetarian menu! Yay! (Although, I will say, 7 courses is A LOT of food. All tasty, but I had trouble finishing them and woke up the next morning very full.)

I will describe my dishes and let TP tell you his world of meats later.

PRE COURSE A: Amuse

Porcini mushroom flan with pesto and a micro green (yes, one single micro green). It was a great start to the meal - very small and creative.

PRE COURSE B: Bread

Slices of French bread, and French bread with cranberries, with an assortment of spreads: a pesto, a orange butter, a sun-dried tomato, and a cheese curd with horseradish (didn't try the last one, looked too much like cottage cheese).

WINE: I got a glass of merlot and it was perfect. All warm, and berry-ey and smooth.

COURSE 1: Mixed Green Salad with Crispy Shallots and Vinaigrette

A simple salad with a few pieces of fried shallots and in a fried filo dough "bowl" (think Taco Bell's taco salad but classier to the factor of 10). The only problem I had with it was the salad was too difficult to eat gracefully and the dressing all pooled in the bottom of the shell. But still amazing.

COURSE 2: Painted Soup - Gingered Squash and Beet Cider

They say presentation is everything and here it was. The soup was well cooked - gingered squash done to perfection - with a small swirl of the beets. Sadly, the beet didn't add much, but it looked very elegant.

COURSE 3: Crispy Grits

I wanted to take a bath in this dish. The grits were well fried and the sauce was decedent.

(NOTE: By this time I was full)

COURSE 4: Black Eyed Pea Risotto

Again, amazing. The black eyed peas gave it a warm flavor and it was all creamy and great. There was a giant tomato in the center (and I don't like tomatoes) but it didn't hurt the dish at all.

COURSE 5: Porcini Gnudi

The Gnudi were similar to gnocchi but with a bit more bite. There were porcini mushrooms in the sauce, and a truffle foam on top. My first experience with foam, and it wasn't worth it. It tasted like air and was just fair. The dish was super good though.

COURSE 6: Mushroom Pot-Pie

Although it was amazing and delicious (a pot pie of porcini mushrooms [ED NOTE: I'm sensing a sale on porcini...] and root vegetables with the pie being a layer of puff pastry over the top (and it looked like a mushroom! clever!). I was only able to take 2 bites of this cause I was about to burst, but it was very good. It wasn't like a chicken pot pie of my youth, or the variants TP and I have been trying lately, but it was very good. What's even better is the waiter packed it up for me! Hooray! I had it for lunch on Saturday and it was still good.

COURSE 7: Dessert: Apple Crisp

Although sadly I was stuffed like a goose on a foie grais farm, I had a few bites of the apple crisp. The filo dough was excellent and I so badly wanted it all.

POST COURSE: Mini Desserts

As a "thank you for blowing a sizable portion of your paycheck on our trendy, tasty food" with the check comes several little desserts: a fantastic chocolate truffle with cocoa powder (I was only able to enjoy half, but it was perfect), a little mango fruit gel (to put Sunkits' Fruit Gems to shame), and a tiny cookie.

A worthy experience. I enjoyed it tremendously.

"Rarebit"

While I'm thinking about it, tonight's meal, which I'm really looking forward to, is a rarebit from the Moosewood Cookbook. Wikipedia tells me that rarebit has never had meat in it, so calling it a "vegetarian rarebit" would be redundant.

Regardless, the plan for tonight's version is to have roasted potatoes, a sauce starting with a roux, and some actual green veggies.

Not for the Faint of Fart

We all know February is Black History Month, March is Women's History Month, but what is April?

I have renamed it: Fart History Month.

Well, at least it is Fart Week this week.

You see, I am a vegetarian, and since I don't eat anything with a face, I need to look for sources of protein outside the faced kingdom. Therefore, I eat lots of eggs, tofu and tofu products, beans and, my favorite, cheese. Since cheese is unhealthy in the amounts I would choose to eat it in and I always forget about eggs, I focus mainly of the bean family products. However, beans are commonly known as the "Musical Fruit" and the more I eat, the more I toot.

Last night, I cooked a bit of food for the week. I made a delicious fake eggplant Parmesan (baked eggplant, tomato seduce, and ricotta cheese), and a fantastic black bean soup (I have been trying to get it right for months - the secret: cumin! and pureeing most of it). And, if you intend to see me in the next 2 weeks, be prepared for the gas. But, you may join me for some of the BBS (eggplant is all mine!) and toot along with me!

Happy Farting!

Holy Cows!

It is known that I like Indian food. So this Saturday instead of drinking beer and eating bland Irish food, I had an Indian food extravaganza!

The night started with a loooong line to see a fantastic movie based on a fantastic book. It was very good, and although my supervisor at work didn't love it, I enjoyed it thoroughly. So good! In preparation for the night, C-Berts , Her Wife and I decided that we'd want to enjoy a feast of Indian food post a movie about Indian cultural identity. Boy, were we right. There was a part during the movie where they were frying samosas and my mouth watered. So C-Berts recommended a tasty spot, and we dined on delicious food. We did have samosas and other goodies. I ate roasted eggplant with onions and peas and it was quite tasty. Mmm....

I don't know why I adore Indian food food as the "ethnic" food of choice. (Granted, we ate Italian as well, until of course the Atkins fad hit my dad.) But I think because I am a so much. I grew up (like so many Jews) eating Chinesevegetarian I enjoy Indian food so much now--so many options! Not just a "pasta and cream sauce [probably made from chicken stock] and a few frozen veggies" but REAL OPTIONS. Hooray! And it's spicy. Mmmmm...

And now for something completely different...

A few months ago I bought white corduroy pants. I am not trendy, don't purport to be trendy, or care about trends even remotely. However, they were on super sale and fit well, so I bought them. I'm wearing said pants, and now feel like a sailor.

Mmm...Feat...

When I was 11 going on 12, I became a vegetarian. (I still am, in fact, with a short interlude when I ate chicken and turkey in college.) My parents thought this was ok, but my mother, in classic my mother, said: "Do what you want Sherbs, but I'm not cooking a special dinner for you. You'll eat what I make." So I learned to become a non-crazy vegetarian. That is the kind that "real" vegetarians cringe at: I eat things cooked in meat, soups with a meat stock, things that are touching meat, etc. As a kid, my mom basically stuck a veggie burger in the same pan of chicken. And I ate it. And enjoyed it.

Although, when I became a vegetarian, my family was opened up to the world of textured vegetable protein. Now, since my ancestral home is kosher, we could have cheese on taco night! And peperoni pizza! And bacon cheeseburgers! And turkey and cheese sandwiches! (My father always likes to say that he's treifing it up. I always make fun of him for saying that every time.) I then, in my infinite punniness, labeled these delicacies "Feat" from "fake meat." (See what I did--I took the F from fake and the Eat from meat and...oh never mind, it's cute!)

All this talk about TSP brings me to my lunch: (fake) Beef and Broccoli. And although I haven't eaten real beef and broccoli in at least a decade, it was quite tasty. I dredged the feat in corn starch, soy sauce and hot and spicy Szechuan and sauce, browned them, and then sauteed onionsbroccoli (duh) and cooked it all together. Mmmmm...