Brrrrr! and cupcakes

My trip to New York City last week was filled with contrasts- attending a professional conference by day, hanging out with friends by night. Hearing talks on art history and browsing museums while also indulging my vegan and foodie interests. And most of all, dealing with bone-chilling cold and slushy snow outside while finding all kinds of coziness indoors. The following photos will give some sense of my experiences...

On Tuesday night, all was well. As this dragon danced his way up to Times Square to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year, there was no hint of...

The blizzard that would hit the city the next day. (Above you see the New York City Public Library) I had never seen such miserable conditions, and I'm sure a lot of people all accross the country feel the same way. The city of New York, in its infinite wisdom, decided not to plow or shovel the snow. As I commuted from the Bronx to midtown Manhattan every day, I slushed through brownish snow sludge. Guess what? My boots were not waterproof!

On a cold Saturday, I slushed my way to MooShoes to meet Sarah Kramer and have her sign a book for my cousin. Sarah was such a sweetie!

Here are the cupcakes, cookies, and brownies that accompanied Sarah's appearance.

After grabbing my autograph and a ginormous cupcake, (and browsing fab vegan shoes) I headed next door to one of my all-time favorite bookstores, Bluestockings. It is a "radical bookstore, fair-trade cafe, and activist center", owned and run by some awesome people, with a great selection of books and journals. I grabbed a coffee to go with my peanut butter cupcake, grabbed some books on state repression and whatnot, and relaxed in the warm and cozy cafe.

With the bookstore mascot curled up next to me. She is possibly the cutest puppy in the world.

With these opportunities for nourishing the mind, soul, and tummy, a little bone-chilling below-freezing face-numbing cold is o.k., right?

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! I will post a bit more about New York City this week, including a restaurant review or two...

Store Information:

MooShoes (vegan shoestore)
152 Allen Street
NYC | 10002 | USA

Directions:
Take the F train to 2nd Avenue

Bluestockings Books
172 Allen Street
New York, New York 10002

Brrrrr! and cupcakes

"Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder"

Vegetable Love

I was so glad that Susan came up with this idea to showcase lovely, healthy, vegetable-filled goodies for Valentine's day. This gave me a chance to come up with some recipes that Daiku and I could enjoy tonight, since we will be apart on the actual holiday! (I have to go to a conference in New York City this week. Booo) Click on Susan's blog, Fatfree Vegan Kitchen, to see other bloggers' contributions to this event.

I decided to play on the theme of "hearts" and "absence"--i.e. vegetables that we don't get to enjoy that often, and came up with these 2 dishes.

Vegan Ceviche

Pre-vegan, one of my all-time favorite meals was ceviche, a Latin American dish made of fish or seafood "cooked" using acid such as citrus juice. I noticed that hearts of palm, when sliced, bear a striking visual and textural resemblance to calamari! Try this refreshing and heart-healthy ceviche for a taste and texture experience.

ingredients:

1 avocado, roughly chopped
juice of 1 lime
3-4 stalks canned hearts of palm, sliced
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
large handful cilantro, chopped
1 TB dulse, finely chopped (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

instructions:

Toss all ingredients together and marinate for a few hours. Serve cold, garnished with slices of lime and cilantro leaves.

* * *

Heart of palm and artichoke heart salad with blackberry balsamic syrup

So many hearts! Add to that the red of the lettuce and blood orange, and the heart-healthy boost from blackberries, and you have got one lovely salad!

ingredients:

5-6 large red lettuce leaves
4-5 canned artichoke hearts, cut in half
2-3 stalks canned hearts of palm, sliced
1 blood orange, peeled and sectioned, juice reserved

dressing:

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup frozen blackberries, thawed
reserved juice of blood orange
honey or agave nectar to taste

instructions:

To make dressing, heat balsamic vinegar over low heat until reduced by half. Different vinegars will vary in how long they take, but your final result should coat your spoon. Stir constantly, be careful not to let the vinegar burn. Take off heat.

Puree blackberries in a blender, and strain juice into vinegar.

Add reserved orange juice and stir. Turn heat back on low, and stir ingredients until combined. If it is too tart for your taste, add a little honey or agave nectar to taste.

Arrange lettuce leaves, add hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, blood orange segments, and drizzle with dressing.

These two dishes, along with some potato salad, comprise our dinner tonight. Tomorrow, I'm off to New York for a week. I will be back to blogging by this weekend.

Enjoy! Have a great V-day, everyone.

"Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder"

vegan potluck and Sarah Kramer

Tonight, we walked to a vegan potluck sponsored by SARO (Syracuse Animal Rights Organization). This was a fun, cozy way to spend a chilly evening.

Some highlights:

• Meeting lots of cool people, laughing, and having great conversation
• 2 of the people I met, finally! Trac and Bridget, fellow Syracuse bloggers
• Great food! I only got a few dark blurry shots, but here are some of the highlights:
  

Marble cupcakes by Trac-these disappeared in a flash

A fantastic pasta with beans and sausage

Borscht with sour cream- mmmm!

Simple sauteed bok choi- super mmmm.

We took the pumpkin-oatmeal cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance. These are great for potlucks, because you can make them in advance and they only improve with time.

Some other food I wish I'd photographed:

• peanut butter cookies
• fruit salad
• banana bread
• "chicken" patties
• vegetable soup
• breads of all kinds
• angel hair pasta with garlic and olive oil
• salads galore
• stuffed grape leaves with yogurt sauce
• fantastic homemade hummus
• cherry pineapple cake
• chocolate Tofutti Cuties
• a lot more!

It was cool that so many people showed up. Thank you Andy and everyone who threw this potluck- we hope to participate in this and more SARO events in the future!

Speaking of cool vegan events...

SARAH KRAMER FANS: You have 2 chances to meet Sarah Kramer, vegan chef extraordinaire (author of La Dolce Vegan and other cookbooks)

In New York City:

Saturday, February 17
3pm, MooShoes, 152 Allen Street
Take the F train to 2nd Avenue

Click here for more information

Call 866-59-VEGAN (Toll Free) for more information.

In Syracuse:

Tues Feb 20th
Syracuse University Hall of Languages
Room 500 for
The Committee on Women and Art and SARO. The demo starts at 7pm sharp so don't be late.

vegan potluck and Sarah Kramer

food round-up

This is our first post-detox food round-up. (For those keeping track, we went about 4 or 5 weeks). Lately, I have been thinking about these food round-ups, and have decided to take them in a new direction rather than have them become repetitive or boring. Because of our detox, I've been thinking a lot--I think too much-- about limits and what I "can't" or "shouldn't" have. But that's not really my style. While I found the detox to be beneficial and enlightening, I'm ready to get back to the mode of celebrating food. No more forbidden foods or obsessing about ingredients, calories, or categories.

So, what's a vegan foodie to do instead? Something I've been promising you for a long time. For the next weeks and months, I'm going to devote myself to veganizing Iranian recipes. It will be a good way to get out of my normal kitchen habits, and to celebrate both veganism and my heritage. Starting with next week, each friday in addition to other note-worthy foods from the week, I will bring you at least one Iranian dish.

Winter is half-way done, people! Let's celebrate...

Last weekend, we had dinner at our friends' house. As always, they were beyond accomodating and cooked us this vegan feast, courtesy of a Moosewood restaurant cookbook: rice with black beans, topped with a mango salsa, with a coconut curry corn side dish. This dinner made us forget the freezing temperatures for a while!

As a thank you, we took dessert. This was my first cupcake baking expedition in a long time. These were heavenly chocolate mint cupcakes with a chocolate mint ganache from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World." We could not get enough.

This has become a regular in our house: a hearty vegetable soup with miso broth, served over udon noodles. I think potatoes and miso are a match made in heaven.

I had a sweet potato, some black beans, and not much more in the house. So this recipe from Albion Cooks was perfect. I modified it a bit, and finished it off in the oven, but the basic combination of sweet potatoes, potatoes, black beans, greens, olives and salsa is difficult to beat.

Dinner at King David's restaurant, a Middle Eastern/Green place we like to hit after working out. We usually split the mezze platter, which is beyond enough food for 2 people. Here you see hummus, baba ganouj (theirs is smoky and heavenly), a bowl of feta cheese and olives...

some stuffed grape leaves (we make sure to specify vegetarian), falafel patties with tahini/cucumber sauce, and fresh pita bread.

Nothing is more satisfying than tearing off a piece of hot fluffy bread and dipping away.

Breakfast tofu scramble- I really don't make this often enough! The scramble had tofu, onions, garlic, and capers and was colored by a bit of turmeric. It was topped with avocados, scallions, and lime juice, and served with toast and salsa.

Some Indian-style skillet potatoes and peas. A simple and satisfying dinner. Can you tell I'm on a potato kick lately?

Finally, a gratuitous kitty shot. Here are Marble and Bijou, chillaxing on the sofa. Can you believe that they are sisters and the same age? Marble looks so much smaller than Bijou! It boggles the mind.

Hope your weekends are warm and happy!

Restaurant Info:

King David's
129 Marshall St.
Syracuse, NY
315-471-5000

King David's
317 Towne Dr.
Fayetteville , NY
315-637-0485

food round-up

3 years ago this month...

Thanks to this post by Theresa, I remembered that I went vegan in February 2004, and so this month is my "veganniversary." I thought I would commemorate that by writing a little bit about how I got where I am today. My journey has certainly been a circuitous one, and along the way I've learned to appreciate that things don't always go as planned.

Growing up in California, I had always had a vague familiarity with vegetarianism and healthy eating. However, the first personal encounter I had with a vegetarian was when I met my friend Kerry in high school. Later on, both she and I ended up in New York for college, and in our freshman year, we decided to go vegan together. By this time, I too was a vegetarian. This happened quite suddenly one night as I was eating some chicken, and I remember looking down at the it, with all the bumps on its skin and thinking to myself, "why am I eating this?" I remember when I first went veg., I had told myself that Fridays would be my "free" days where I could eat anything that I wanted, but I never once actually ate a piece of meat on Fridays. Kerry and I set our V-date for my 18th birthday and in the weeks leading up to that day, I prepared by eating a lifetime supply of goat cheese and ice cream.

image courtesy of mikescandywrappers.com

The day came, and we became vegans. Back in those days (the mid-90's) there were not as many vegan resources as there are today, and every time we found something vegan (who remembers Goldenberg's Peanut Chews??) it seemed like a great triumph. My first cookbook was Eva Batt's "Vegan Cooking" and I remember feeling slightly panicked at all the exotic and unfamiliar things I read about (tvp?? what is that?!). I still lived at home at the time, and my mother was good about cooking me a smaller meat-free version of whatever the family was eating that night. Health, nutrition, and cooking were far from my mind.

At the same time, I was getting into the swing of college, and not a single one of my new friends was a vegetarian. In fact, I remember getting teased and challenged on a daily basis. Without a thorough knowledge of facts and arguments, I couldn't really defend myself very well, and my veganism began seeming a bit unfounded, even to me. In less than 2 years, I gave up veganism. I remember the day exactly- the French club was on a field trip to New York City, and we stopped at a French restaurant in midtown. There were huge stacks of vegetables and charcuterie (cold cuts) on the tables and you were supposed to cut chunks for yourself, rustic style. I munched on some veggies as my friends went crazy over the meat. By the time our food was served, something inside me had switched off. As my friends sang their encouragement, I took a bite of duck. I thought it was delicious. I didn't give it a second thought, at least that I was aware of.

Fast forward 6 years. I had graduated college, worked in New York City, and moved to California to begin graduate school. This time, I had contact with many more vegetarians, I was much more aware of the issues of health and nutrition, I was more independent, and most importantly, I had access to much more information. (Thank you, Internet). In February of 2004, I decided to see if I could be vegan for one month. The timing was ideal- I was living away from Daiku and my family, and I had just started exercising and becoming aware of the effects of my choices on my body. Since I had been vegan previously, a lot of things, such as reading labels and recognizing ingredients, came back to me very easily. I was surprised at how much better many things tasted. (I think the soymilk industry has progressed by leaps and bounds in the last 10-15 years, for example). And the options! The first time I bought Soy Delicious Purely Decadent (*click on the link for coupons*)ice cream (chocolate brownie almond),I swooned with delight. I thought, "if I can have things like this, this is not going to be very hard." February went by in a flash, and I knew in my heart that this is what I wanted to be doing. I no longer wanted to put my sympathy for animals and the horrors that they live through in factory farms in the back of my mind.

Then, it was time to tell Daiku. At first, he was apprehensive. Our relationship was founded on a mutual love of food, cooking, and eating. (I had stopped being vegan shortly after we met.) We were true foodies who had fond memories of extraordinary dining experiences. We had gone to restaurants such as Jean Georges and the Gramercy Tavern. We had dined at some fantastic sushi restaurants on the West Coast, and dreamed of one day doing the same in Japan. We had eaten fresh seafood cocktails on the beach in Mexico and foot-long sausages in small towns in Germany. We had fantasized about one day traveling (Daiku's first choice: Vietnam and southeast Asia in general, Bazu's first choice, Sénégal and West Africa in general) to different countries, tasting our way through the authentic foods of each one. Would this all come to a halt?

Neither of us knew the answers, but we both knew that we were willing to adapt and compromise for each other. When we once again began to live together, we agreed that we wouldn't have meat in the house, but that I wouldn't pressure Daiku when we were out. I can't say that it has always been smooth sailing (I can't help but get angry sometimes when he eats meat, and he can't help feeling betrayed and defensive) but we have both grown from the experience. So far, since going vegan, I have managed to successfully eat vegetarian in Montréal and Rio de Janeiro, but I'm not sure what I'd do in other countries. There is a fine line between respecting your ethical boundaries and closing yourself off to new experiences. I will just have to negotiate that line anew with each coming experience.

How am I different now than when when I was first an (unsuccessful) vegan? I know how to cook, and thanks to the Internet and especially all of your wonderful blogs, I have more choices about what to eat than ever. I know much more about the factory farming system, which has strengthened my resolve to resist it and what it stands for. I have realized that, in a lot of ways, egg and dairy production involves much more suffering than that of meat. I have learned to not strive for perfection (as you know, I do consume honey and occasionally things with small amounts of dairy in the ingredients list) and instead strive to always learn more. I have 2 cats that remind me every day that animals have souls. I am much more concerned about food and agriculture, and the influences of capitalism and special interests on what we eat. I am convinced that eating an animal-free diet is a sure way to combat environmental degradation. And darn it, companies like MooShoes just make is so easy to buy cruelty-free!

So that's my long-winded way of recognizing this month as the month where I decided, once and for all, that I want to live a life of compassion, as free of cruelty, dominance, and suffering as I can make it. I am not done learning and expanding my knowledge, and I thank all of you who have taught me so much and been a part of my journey.

3 years ago this month...

A walk through the snow

My house is about a 15-minute walk from Syracuse University, which is ideal since I have to go and use their library for research pretty frequently. Being a semi-newbie to Syracuse weather, I sometimes let the cold and snow keep me from doing what I have to do. But last week, I decided to ignore the fact that there was over a foot of snow on the ground, it was snowing, and the temperature was below freezing and head out to the library.

I'm so glad I did! There was something so exhilirating about the brightness and the brisk cold, and even about the snow falling on my face. I've heard that the best way to keep yourself from being depressed in the winter is to go out there and engage with the elements, and now I know that this is true- my excursion certainly put a bounce in my step! It must have also been some workout to trek through deep snow- the next day, my muscles were aching. Bonus!

I will share some photos with you of that day. **CAUTION** if you are already freezing, you might need to skip this post!

Icicles on a neighbor's house

Where's the sidewalk?

The beautiful Hall of Languages building at Syracuse University

My idyllic view through the library window as I worked

Leaving the library- the paved sidewalk shows how much snow there was

On the way back home-cold crisp air and the moon

Me trudging through our front yard-those boots come up to my knees, so you can get a sense of the height of the snow. This is so unlike the snow I was used to when I lived in New York City, which had a way of immediately turning brownish-gray, slushy, and funny-smelling.

Brrrr!

A walk through the snow

friday food round-up

Another week, another couple of feet of snow, another round of food! Is it a little too early to say I'm ready for Spring already?? Looking over my food for this week, there's a little bit of a split personality between hearty, warming dishes and cool, crunchy food more reminiscent of warm weather.

Last Saturday was the anniversary of our first date, and Daiku baked his famous moussaka for the occasion. This time, we decided to bake it more as an eggplant/mushroom casserole, leaving out the bread crumbs. For another photo of the moussaka and the recipe, click here.

A simple salad made by marinating beets and red onions in tarragon vinegar for a few hours.

Ouch! Can you feel that? It's Candi and Gaia poking me--they found out my shameful secret that I've never made the Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan With a Vengeance, and said I must do it a.s.a.p. And I am so glad they poked me, because this gravy truly rocked! (We altered it by using lime juice instead of lemon juice, because that was what we had on hand). I had made the chickpeas at home instead of getting them from a can, so they were a bit harder to mash. Next time, I might consider pureeing them.

These were our yummy little biscuits. I got them from this recipe on Vegweb, since I needed a recipe that used oil instead of margarine or shortening. I increased the whole wheat flour to 1/2 instead of 1/4, and they came out just fine. Daiku loved this meal--and having lived in the south, he knows from biscuits and gravy! (Tempeh sausage recipe here)

Of course, you can't let a meal be all beige like that, so we had a side of steamed broccoli with an avocado sauce (avocado, garlic, soymilk, vinegar). The sauce was a revelation! We bought more broccoli just so we could eat more of this sauce.

A couple of smoothies--the little one, made "ice cream" style for Bazu, the big one, made smoothie style for Daiku. We both used frozen bananas, berries, and soymilk, but Daiku added wheat germ and spirulina to his.

One of my favorite breakfasts this week: plain oatmeal mixed with warm rice milk, topped with chopped date. SO simple yet soothing and satisfying.

Another breakfast: sliced organic Fuji apple, and a slice of Ezekiel toast with almond butter divided into 4 parts, one each with apricot/orange spread, peach butter, raspberry spread, and my favorite Polish plum jam. This stuff is so tart and true to the flavor of plums- mmmm. On the side, a mug of herbal tea. Do you see the almond floating on top of the tea? That's my favorite little treat-- I put almonds in hot beverages when I make them, and by the time I'm done drinking, I have soft, sweet, easily peeled almonds. They taste so good!

Have I mentioned I've been on a chickpea kick this week? I found this intriguing recipe for chickpeas and barley in eggplant and red lentil sauce on the Fatfree Vegan blog. Susan had tinkered with the original Madhur Jaffrey recipe and I ended up tinkering with it some more. In the end, we loved this dish, mint is an herb I love but don't cook with often enough. I agree with Susan though, it could use a little more of a kick- I squeezed lime juice on it. This is something I'd make again.

A salad with mesclun greens, red onions, and more of those raspberry oranges, which turned out to be regular Moro or blood oranges-I'd been deluded into thinking these were something new this whole time! I made the dressing with: orange juice, flax oil, raspberry preserves, and rice vinegar. The sweetness perfectly complemented the tart oranges.

We love buying our spices in bulk. This way, we can buy smaller amounts to use before they lose their flavor, and get higher quality, organic spices at a better price than buying them pre-packaged.

In this photo you see our latest haul from one of our favorite health food stores, Natur-Tyme: chili powder, sassafras root, black peppercorns, thyme, cinnamon, rosemary, bay leaves, nettle, and burdock root. Total: under $10. (In comparison, if I wanted to buy a box of nettle or burdock root teabags, I would have spent $5 or more)

My kind of salad: spinach, mixed greens, mushrooms, avocado, carrots, apples, beans, sprouts, tomatoes, and scallions.

This turned out to be my favorite dinner this week. A simple soup made of potatoes, carrots and cabbage in a miso broth, served over some udon noodles and sprinkled with dulse seaweed. It was so simple, and I can not describe exactly how or why it hit the spot, but boy, did it! Today, I had the leftovers with soba noodles instead of udon, and they were just as good.

With the soup we ate this magical avocado. Why magical? Well, it was like sushi in a neat little package. Daiku learned this from a Japanese friend of his: cut an avocado in half, fill with tamari, sprinkle with wasabi powder, and furikake (ours has sesame seeds, nori flakes, salt, and sugar). Take a bite. Be transported to happy land.

Have a great weekend, and keep warm, everybody!

friday food round-up