this is just to say

i failed the Mole Skillet with Greens pie from Veganomicon. It was my own fault, I'm sure of it, since the beloved Isa & Terry can do no wrong; for the Chili-Chocolate mole sauce I used grain sweetened dark chocolate chips from the bulk bin. that simply has to be it.

well, at least i liked the biscuit top

i actually cooked today!

or baked, rather. i finally roasted the plump li'l butternut squash that's been hanging out on our counter for three weeks. i quartered it with all my might, spent a hairy five minutes scooping the seeds (out of the potted plants too!), and dotted my quarters with beloved Earth Balance and two with some garam masala. they were placed on an aluminum lined cookie sheet, baked at 375 for 20 minutes, still super hard, so i put another aluminum foil tent over them and popped them back in for sixteen minutes on that side. then i flipped them over, and baked for another half an hour.

they were sooo delicious looking...the skin had roastedness to it, and i was so suddenly famished that i ate an entire quarter standing up.

indeed delish.

Let's Talk Cookbooks

The first vegan cookbook I knew was 'How It all Vegan' (http://www.powells.com/biblio/6-9781551520674-6 ). My BFF in Fall of my senior year at college bought it when she became vegan (I was veg at the time and thought she was crazy because our cafeteria was barely tolerable for veg). We spent $40 on lentil soup ingredients. It was good, but not that good.

Z, my first honest-to-goodness longterm vegan friend, didn't cook from books. He did make fabulous roasted chickpeas though...

When I chose to be vegan a year and a half later, the first book I bought was 'How it all Vegan'. I strongly believe in cookbooks. As a girl I read 'The Joy of Cooking' and 'Fannie Farmer' voraciously; experience has shown that approximations and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants cooking result in gloppy messes.

HIAV was a great start. The Curried Veg were fabulous, the pancakes scrumptious and I used the recipe for years, Benny's Breakfast an unusual success, the chocolate pudding a favorite of my folks, the tofu lasagna satisfaction, the chocolate pudding cake treaty goodness (after adjustments to the baking powder)...next I bought, with an Easter gift card from my beloved Auntie, 'Vegan Planet' by Robin Robertson...the African Sweet Potato stew was good, except it took my dear cousin E and I two hours to prepare, the breakfast casserole a good idea except missing something in execution...the baba ganoush was excellent, yet i found that the recipes relied on too many expensive, packaged faux products, weren't consistent, and lacked oomph and satisfaction.

Several specialty cookbooks followed 'The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook' by Joanne Stepaniak (noteable for its Gooey Grilled Cheese) and her sauce book (which I've only used twice).

I went through a long period where I didn't cook for myself. I was grumpy, cranky. It wasn't till I bought Vegan with a Vengeance by the beloved Isa that I began cooking again, and loving it. My beloved sausage and biscuits with gravy were back, and I adored the Tempeh-Mango salad sandwiches.

The gold standard, which I bought last year, while omni, is Veganomicon. I've made over 20 recipes from VWAV and well over that from Veganomicon. As for cupcakes, VCTOTW has that covered.

I've lost steam. Perhaps I'll edit this tomorrow

Rasoi Review

I've been to http://www.rasoi-restaurant.com/ plenty of times and in honor of Vegan MoFo, I'm gonna break down the sure-hit Saturday vegan gluten free brunch.

We were there for my aunt's birthday, and I totally blanked on a camera. One day...

The best part about the brunch is usually the masala dosa, a wafer thin super crispy crepe with golden buttery masala potatoes with wee bits of fennel seeds. Today, the dosas came to our table before we had gotten up to get our first plate, and so it took a few minutes before I cracked into it...unfortunately for me. Dosas (and potatoes in general) are at their best when they are hot off the pan, and this one had just passed its peak, so for the first time in history, I actually left half my dosa on the plate.

Lentil donuts (wadi) are usually my second love. More like fritters and less like lentils than a specialty of Rhode Island, clamcakes (joy oh joys, minus clam, natch). I slather them with a thick tomato red pepper sauce and coconut chutney. Strike number two, the donuts were cold. Much like dosas, they are not at their best when cold. So I left some on my plate (gasp!).

They usually have a salad, for some completely baffling reason. I never eat it.

Going down the line was sambar (thin, vinegary lentil soup), brown or white rice with peas, plaintain and okra curry in a tomato sauce, corn methi (in a green fenugreek sauce), roasted veg, and sweet potato kheer (puddin!).

I always try the sambar every time I go. My aunt adores it, and I keep thinking that I'll like it, but...this was no exception. It's just not my flavor profile.

The plaintain and okra curry was great. Thick matchsticks of starchy plantain in a nicely fiery tomato sauce. The okra...umm...not so much...when I split it open, I nearly gagged on the goopy seeds. Next.

Wow...the methi was phenomenal. It tasted just like spinach saag, but it was much thinner and slightly more savory. I had seconds so large that I couldn't finish it.

The roasted veg were the surprise of the meal. Steaming hot potatoes that tasted like they'd been bathing in a secret spice concoction for days, delightfuly surprising chunks of tofu, sweet potato, squash...yum. seconds on that one too

And then, sweet potato kheer (cold) which I ate waaay too much of (seconds and a half on that one). Very finely chopped sweet potato, just cooked through with some kind of non-dairy milk, coconut, almonds, and raisin. Divine.

If you're in Rhode Island, Rasoi is an absolute vegan must do. Do it!!

Hummus!

I confess that I hated hummus when I first tried it in college. I knew it was one of those foods that I should like (like Indian food, which I'd successfully weaned myself onto at the age of 11), and so, I persisted. The cool kids ate hummus, okay. The veg kids. The kids I wanted to be like. So I ate hummus.

(But, to be honest, food service hummus is really bad. I don't need to tell you that.)

We all know that hummus is the workhorse of the veg*n on the go. We search restaurant appetizer menus for hummus & pita, we are consoled by the presence of hummus in chain restaurant salad bars, and, in a good independent sandwich shop or sometimes, blessedly, a mass market one, we are drawn back from the edge of tears (due to no falafel) by hummus.

The best hummus I have ever had was made by the Israeli mom of a staffperson on our literary magazine. Six of us carpooled to New York City for a retreat, and, when we got to J's house, late and famished, two enormous bowls of hummus, dusted with paprika, awaited us. Oh my. Oh my. wow. She made other Israeli specialties too, but that thick creaminess clung to me, like the comfort food she intended it to be.

My favourite brand of packaged hummus (if I must eat packaged) is Sabra. Hands down, it is the best (though I was a Tribe of Two Shieks girl until S came on the scene). It's creamy, not vinegary tasting and it doesn't taste fake. I once bought a tub of hummus made with canola oil straight, instead of tahini. That was a huge mistake, so consider this my PSA. It was bland, unbearable to choke down, basically something that a '50s mom might make. ok, '70s.

Tonight, I corralled three cups (or so) of chickpeas (from dried) and coaxed my blender into making Isa and Terry's recipe from Veganomicon. (Not surprisingly, like most things Isa and Terry make, it is the best recipe of its kind).

After patting it into an old frozen dinner tray for keeps (the only 'tupperware' in the house at the mo'), I scraped out the leftover creaminess with celery sticks.

Yum.

Veganized

The facts: TP, a tantalizing taqueria, with the tastiest, most succulent burritos around, closed as of today.

The story: TP was the defacto lunch spot--a mere seven minute walk from my work, an affordable $7-$8 (sans limeade), with the best perfectly fresh, locally sourced, and impeccably grilled and spiced burrito this side of SoCal. veganized. in a town where vegan options in the bustling Worker Bee district were (until the new crepe place with vegan crepes and a tofu, peanut sauce, basil, bean sprout and mint filling to die for): veggie salad, veggie sub, salted to the point of submarine death soup (if it was the right day of the week). not even hummus--and that's a really low blow. no protein!

my order was the same even if my company wasn't. for nearly a year, i dined every week with my QC/BFF, and then a new dining partner stepped in, and that lasted for nearly six months. i've taken my mother, my brother, my roommate, my interns, and organized brunches for my crew after sampling the farmer's market next door. i was guaranteed to run into at least two people i knew every time, including my yoga teacher.

and by my order being the same i mean, usually. usually it was a half black beans, half pinto, no rice veggie burrito,veganized (which meant cilantro lime sour cream, no cheese) grilled and doused liberally with red Sauce of Doom. or, if the veg was sweet potatoes, all of the above, sans wrap and in a bowl.

and, over the past few years, as i flirted with different -vores, i tried most everything, but always kept coming back to that burrito.

i hadn't been to TP in a few months, and the memories were so good, i wasn't sure i was going to go last night. but...

last night's veggie burrito (with 1/2 summer squash and 1/2 sweet potato) was just as succulent and delectable, just as toothsome, savory, and back-of-the-book spicy, as the first.

RIP, TP.