local food pot-luck

One of the biggest skills I have to develop as an art historian is the power to describe what I see. Countless teachers have instilled in me the importance of being able to 'draw a picture' for someone, to make them see what I'm seeing, and how I'm seeing it. Well, those skills are going to come in handy for tonight's blog entry, because I'm going to try to describe an awesome dinner that Daiku and I went to last night, without any photos! Yes, the dreaded photo-less blog post!

As I'm sure many of you would agree, meeting new and interesting people is one of the coolest fringe benefits of blogging. One fellow Syracuse food blogger that I have had the pleasure of running into a few times over the last couple of times is Jennifer of Cookin' in the 'Cuse. Long before I even started blogging, Daiku and I were familiar with her blog, which we found when trying to answer the question "can you eat locally and seasonally in Syracuse, even in the Winter?" (the answer is yes, by the way)

Last night, we attended our first "local pot-luck" - an monthly event that we finally got to go to for the first time. It was unbelievable to see how much local food can be had, even though we are approaching the dead of winter. We got to meet so many people in addition to Jennifer and her husband- members of the community, both newcomers and old-timers, farmers, bakers, teachers, people involved with the food co-op. And we got to have a long conversation, where I mostly just listened, learning new things and getting new perspectives along the way. As is usually the case when the conversation turns to issues of food and health, food and justice, local, sustainable, organic food, food and community, etc., there were a lot more questions than answers. So I figure I want to keep the conversation going on this blog, especially because so many of us have been thinking of food because of VeganMoFo. What do you, dear awesome readers, think of the following issues?

• how can we shed local, sustainable food (and the wider issues of environmentalism and social justice) of their "elitist" associations? Why do so many people think that this type of food is rarefied, and the sole occupation of wealthy, liberal people? ("NPR listener issues" in the words of one guest)
• along those lines, how do we bring this kind of food to a wider audience? Is it possible, for example, to re-train palates trained to love the artificial, salty/sweet/fatty tastes of fast food and junk food?
  
• how do we get people to try new ingredients? to connect with where their food comes from?
  
• how can we really address the issue of farm subsidies, when so much of our nation's economy is built on them, even if they represent a very skewed view and practice of farming? For example, if all farm subsidies were taken away tomorrow, how many people would be out of jobs? how many communities would suffer? where would our food supply come from?
• are major supermarkets (Wegmans for us upstate New Yorkers, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, etc. for other places) good, evil, or somewhere in-between? Is there anything to be gained by local foods (or organics, gourmet, specialty foods) becoming "trendy"?

Of course, as a vegan, and someone concerned with local and sustainable food, my takes on many of these questions are colored by my consideration of animal rights and the belief that veganism is a huge step in the right direction. But there are so many other aspects of food that need to be examined, what are your thoughts on any or all of these?

P.S. What local food did we take for the pot-luck? Why, an apple-raspberry crisp made with Jonagold, Empire, and Macintosh apples from Beak and Skiff orchards, and raspberries from Henkel's berry patch (picked in August and frozen).

The dish wass based on this Whole Foods Market recipe for apple-cherry crisp, we replaced the cherries with raspberries (in the past we've also made this with blueberries, with wonderful results) which colored the apples a gorgeous pink color. This recipe has never failed for us, so if you want to make a fruit crisp, using the best local ingredients at your fingertips, give it a try:

Apple-Cherry Crisp

Low-Sodium

Serves 6–8

Fruit

• 6 cups peeled, sliced tart apples such as Granny Smith (2 pounds total or about 5 to 6 apples) we used a variety of tart apples
  
• 2 cups pitted cherries (either fresh or 1 bag (10 ounce) frozen) we used frozen raspberries
  
• 1 cup frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed apple cider would also work wonderfully here
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon orange zest, chopped we used 1/2 fresh orange zest, 1/2 dried
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger


Topping

• 1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour we usually increase the whole wheat flour a bit and decrease the white flour a bit, with perfectly fine results
  
• 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/3–1/2 cup natural sugar such as maple sugar, Sucanat, or evaporated cane juice we used a mixture of local maple sugar and brown sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) organic butter, softened good old Earth Balace vegan non-hydrogenated margarine came to the rescue here!
  

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place apples and cherries in a 7x11-inch baking dish or other pretty dessert dish of similar size. In a small bowl, stir together apple juice concentrate, lemon juice, cornstarch, cinnamon and ginger; pour over the fruit and toss gently to mix. Set aside.

To make topping and bake cobbler: Stir together the oats, pastry and white flour, sugar, nutmeg and salt. Using a pastry blender cut the butter into the flour and oat mixture until completely blended. Evenly spread the topping over the fruit, pressing down slightly with fingers.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until top is golden brown and the fruit is tender and bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes and serve warm.

local food pot-luck

fighting the sniffles: elderberries

We just got home from a very enjoyable local food potluck (more about that later!) but all I could think about was that I had to get home and VeganMoFo! Tonight, I want to blog about one of my favorite discoveries from the last few years- elderberries! When I first moved to Syracuse, there was a magazine article about the power of elderberries and elderberry extract to treat the flu and the common cold. Well, we bought some in bulk from our local health food store in the form of dried berries. We made a simple tea with them- and guess what? They totally work! If you drink elderberry tea within the first day or so of sensing a cold coming on - you know, scratchy or sore throat, heavy head, headache, etc. - it lessens the impact of the disease, or eliminates it all together! We gave it to my aunt one day when she was visiting our house and had a cold- she drank a cup in the evening, and by the next day was markedly less miserable. Our whole family witnessed this, and now can't get enough of the stuff!

In addition to making the tea from the dried berries, you can also find elderberry extract at health food stores (although it's substantially more expensive.) Daiku and I try to remind ourselves to drink a cup of the stuff as frequently as possible, to boost our immune system. It's natural, it's inexpensive, and it's more effective than any other cold remedy that I have ever come across, so I recommend it to everybody! How does the tea taste? To me, it has a kind of prune/raisin taste, although it is not sweet like those fruits. It just has a very mellow, dried fruit kind of flavor.

Here are two articles that go into more precise detail about the nutritional benefits of elderberries:

From Article #1: "The edible berries are rich in vitamin C and get their dark color form their high anthocyanin and bioflavonoid content. They are primarily used to treat flu symptoms and as an immunostimulant."

"Acting as an antioxidant, elder may protect the body against damage from free radicals. Flavonoids, including quercetin, are believed to account for the therapeutic actions of the elderberry flowers and berries. Anthocyanins are special class of bioflavonoids, which offer powerful antioxidant protection against cellular aging. Elderberry extract reduces the damaging effects of LDL, or bad cholesterol, and serves as an antioxidant for the body."


From Article #2: " Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) has been used in folk medicine for centuries to treat influenza, colds, and sinusitis. Elderberry extracts have been found to have anti-viral activity in preliminary laboratory studies. A Norwegian double-blind, placebo controlled study found that elderberry syrup (15 milliliters four times a day for 5 days) was more effective than placebo at relieving symptoms and decreased the use of rescue medication."

**Warning- you should only buy commercially prepared elderberry products, since the berries, when unripe and/or raw, and much of the plant (leaves, etc.) can be poisonous.**

So go out and find some elderberries today! (Or elderberry jam, wine, syrup, candies, etc. Did you know that Sambuca is made with them...?)

And with that, yet another VeganMoFo post right under the wire- woo!

fighting the sniffles: elderberries

and now, some recipes

Thank you guys so much for your kind words about our Thanksgiving meal! As promised, here are some of the recipes that we used:

Daiku is known for his pecan pies. (Funny story: the first Thanksgiving he ever spent at my parents' house, he brought over two pecan pies. My mom, who had never had any before, fell in love with them, and spent the next week happily eating a slice with her afternoon coffee). So he was a bit leery of veganizing it, but we both agree that this pie kicked some major ass! It had all the flavor of a regular pecan pie, without that unpleasant "scrambled egg" aftertaste. And, it set up really well. If you miss this dessert, I encourage you to give this recipe a try. And after we made it, we noted how totally healthy it is- no processed sugar or flour, a reasonable amount of fat and sweetener, chock full of fresh nuts- it's a winner!

Vegan Pecan Pie (Recipe from: http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1781)

From Lorna Sass's Complete Vegetarian Kitchen

Oatmeal Pie Pastry
1 c. rolled oats
1 c. whole-wheat pastry flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon or allspice
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 c. canola oil
2 T. maple syrup (here is the only change we made to this recipe: Daiku used Steen's dark syrup instead of maple syrup, to give the pie an even more traditional southern flavor - you can take the boy out of Louisiana...)
2-3 T. apple juice or water

image courtesy of: http://shop.chefpaul.com/

Mix oatmeal, flour, spice, and salt together in a bowl.

In a measuring cup, whisk together the oil, syrup, and juice or water. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and stir.

With moist hands, press the dough into an oiled 9-inch pie plate or 10-inch tart tin, put in beans or pie weight, and bake for 15 min. in a preheated 375-degree F oven.

Pecan Pie
1 1/2 c. brown rice syrup
1 1/2 c. water
1/4 c. agar flakes
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 T. arrowroot or kuzu (we used arrowroot)
water to cover arrowroot or kuzu
2 c. toasted pecans
1 tsp. vanilla

In a heave saucepan, prepare the filling. Whisk together the rice syrup, water, agar flakes, cinnamon, and salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer over low heat until the agar dissolves completely, stirring occasionally, about 5 min.

In a small bowl (or coffee cup ), dissolve the arrowroot in water to barely cover and add to the agar-rice syrup mixture. While cooking the mixture at a low simmer, whisk it until the chalky color becomes clear.

Let the mixture cool for 15 min. Stir in the pecans and vanilla and pour into the prepared pie crust, distributing the pecans evenly.

Let the pie cool to room temperature and set, about 2 hours (or refrigerate for 1 hour).

Next up, we have the Sicilian Crostata recipe from the Silk Road Cooking book. We were both instantly attracted to this dish because it looked so good, and featured two of my favorite things, lima beans and dill. That is one fabulous flavor combination, if you ask me. The recipe for the crust was easy to veganize- we simply omitted the egg. The filling, however, was a bit more challenging, because it called for several eggs and parmesan cheese. We played with that a bit, and were really happy with the results- and it set really well, too, so take that, eggs.

Vegan Sicilian-style lima bean and dill crostata filling (to pour into a pre-baked crust and bake for 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees)

1 1/4 C. unsweetened soymilk
1/4 C. vegan sour cream
1 - 2 TB nutritional yeast
1/2 C. fresh (refrigerated) silken tofu
1 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer (we put this in as security because we were replacing eggs, it may or may not be crucial!)

mix the above in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer at medium-high speed for at least 2-3 minutes, until well-incorporated.

Meanwhile, sauté the following with some oil in a wok, until onions are translucent and just beginning to caramelize:

1 small onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, crushed
a handful of fresh and 2 TB dried dill
1 lb. lima beans (we used frozen Fordhook lima beans- they were huge!)
salt and pepper to taste

Add the liquid mixture to the veggie mixture and heat through. Add a slurry made up of 1 TB cornstarch and water and stir through. (Again, we did this as egg replacement insurance- it may not be crucial!)

Pour the mixture into your prepared and pre-baked pie crust (we used a 7" X 10" rectangular dish, but I imagine a 9 or 10-inch pie dish would have been good too) and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes, until golden.

The results were awesome! It might have resembled a quiche more than a crostata, but I'm not complaining! We will be making this again.

Finally, we have the jerusalem artichoke soup. (Jenna, we loved them!) Never having tasted jerusalem artichokes (or sunchokes, as they're alternately known), I was surprised by the flavor- so light, so sweet, so creamy- a perfect ingredient for this type of soup. Daiku and I came up with funny ways to try to describe the flavor- my favorite was "a mixture of blond wood and ice cream" - somehow, this soup struck us as the Ikea furniture of the food world (don't ask!) - don't let the crazy description stop you, though, this is a definite must-try.

1 - 2 TB extra virgin olive oil
3 shallots
1 small onion
2 TB sherry
1 pound jerusalem artichokes, sliced, peels intact
1 cube veggie bouillon (we used Rapunzel brand), dissolved in 3 1/2 C. warm water
1 C. unsweetened soymilk
1 TB vegan sour cream

Sauté the shallots and onion in the olive oil for 5-6 minutes, until they are beginning to turn a golden color. Pour the sherry into the mixture, to deglaze. Add the 'chokes and bouillon/water mixture and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a rapid simmer, and cook for 20 minutes.

Pour the soymilk and sour cream into a blender, then add the soup. (This is where I really wish I had an immersion blender!) Blend on high, for at least a few minutes. This is important to ensure that everything is uniform, the peels of the 'chokes disappear, and the soup achieves a frothy, ethereal texture.

Serve warm, topped with caramelized shallots and some truffle oil. (Note: after blending this soup, we kept it on low heat for almost an hour, and it held up just fine)

Looking back, our Thanksgiving meal turned out to have been a fairly healthy one. We didn't plan it that way, but most of the dishes are free of processed sugar, we only used white flour and margarine in a couple of them, and they were chock full of fruits and veggies, so I consider the meal a success. I hope you try some of these recipes- perfect cozy, Autumnal food for cold, brisk days.

and now, some recipes

a very vegan thanksgiving

Here I am again, posting just a few minutes before midnight... Like many people in the U.S. right now, I'm exhausted from a day of marathon cooking! I will post photos from tonight's Thanksgiving meal, which will correspond directly with the menu I posted last night. I hope everyone had a wonderful day, I know I did!

Before I let the pictures speak for themselves, I just want to take a moment to get all mushy and sentimental. I am thankful for my family, my friends, and all the wonderful people who make up our blogging community! It can't be said enough- being vegan would not be nearly as fun without all of you, so thank you! xoxoxo

I will try to recover enough to post some recipes tomorrow- good night!

a very vegan thanksgiving

Thanksgiving menu: an exercise in fancypantsery

As promised, I am going to post my Thanksgiving menu here tonight. I'm sorry that I didn't have a chance to blog about it any earlier, but Daiku and I are both procrastinators when it comes to menu planning, and we didn't want to make any final decisions until we saw what looked good at the market today, so this is the best I could do.

I have to admit, before I go any further, that much of this menu is a shameless rip-off an homage to Millenium restaurant. Daiku and I have always wanted to eat there, we've even walked right by, but we've never actually done it. However, when I saw their Thanksgiving menu for this year, I was inspired by it, and I'm sure you'll see the echoes between the two.

Another thing about this menu is that Daiku and I had a great deal of fun "fancypantsing" the menu. Fancypants is a game we play, where we mockingly try and see who can come up with the best "gourmet" version of a regular dish's name. We started playing this many years ago, when we noticed that things like "balsamic reduction" and "molten lava cake" suddenly started showing up everywhere. In this game, simple breakfast oatmeal can become multi-grain porridge with seasonal dried fruit and maple-date glaze. This is our reaction to snooty and played-out food descriptions, but it's also a really fun way to organize a menu- how fancypants can you make your humble food sound? So here, I've given you our Thanksgiving menu, both the normal and fancypants versions. See which ones you like better!

Vegan Thanksgiving Menu 2007

With help from:

Millenium Restaurant
Veganomicon
Silk-Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey
Papa Tofu 'zine
And countless blogs and websites, especially B36 Kitchen, because Jenna convinced me to finally try Jerusalem Artichokes, already!

Starter:

Sunchoke soup / Jerusalem Artichoke and Roasted Garlic Bisque with caramelized shallots, heavy cream, and an Amontillado Sherry reduction

Salad:

Veganomicon Caesar Salad, with a few substitutions, since there was no good romaine lettuce in the market today / Medley of Organic Baby Greens with an Almond-Caesar dressing

Entrée:

baked acorn squash stuffed with rice (from the Silk-Road Cooking book) / Roasted Golden Acorn Squash filled with a Middle-Eastern fruited wild rice pilaf

ETA 11/23: I can't believe I totally forgot to include one of my favorite parts of the menu- a Sicilian-style lima bean-dill crostata from the "Silk Road Cooking" book!

Sides:

cranberry sauce / spiced cranberry quince compote

Ethiopian Collard Greens, from Papa Tofu / Gomen with Nitter Kibbeh

Smashed potatoes, parsnips, and sweet potatoes / Seasonal root vegetable mash with black truffle oil

Sourdough bread / Artisanal Sourdough Batard

Dessert:

Pecan Pie / Toasted Pecan Caramel Tart with a whole wheat-oatmeal crust

Some fruit that we don't usually treat ourselves to, like pomegranates and persimmons, with Soyatoo / Assorted Seasonal Fruits with a light soy whipped cream

Drinks:

Water / still and sparking mineral waters
Vegan Red Wine / Organic Sulfite-free Red Wine
Wild Turkey / Oak Barrel Aged Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey (more for sprinkling on some of the food we'll be making than drinking!)

puttin' the Turkey back into Thanksgiving!
(image thanks to http://www.wildturkeybourbon.com/)

So that's what we hope to eat tomorrow. It seems like quite a bit of food for two people, but both Daiku and I will make sure that none of it goes to waste- we love leftovers! We don't feast like this very often, but that's the fun of the holiday, right? I hope you got a giggle or two out of the fancypants names for these dishes- I know we did!

Thanksgiving menu: an exercise in fancypantsery

Buy Nothing Day!

I have always liked Thanksgiving, ever since I was a kid. When we first moved to the U.S. and I got a 4-day weekend for the holiday, I thought that was the best thing. I distinctly remember thinking to myself, on that Saturday night, "wow! I've been out of school for three days already and there is a whole other day off left- this holiday rules!" I have a lot of traditions that I maintain for Thanksgiving, some old, and some new. In this post, I want to share some of these traditions with you.

The first is Buy Nothing Day, brought to you by the fine folks at Adbusters. Basically, this event, now in its 15th year, is a way to give the tradition of "Black Friday" a big fat finger. I don't know about you, but the increasing media attention paid every year to throngs of people rushing to the shops the day after Thanksgiving gives me the serious creeps. When did we become lemmings, completely internalizing the idea that we have to wake up early and hit the shops on this day?

And when you think about it, one of the biggest aspects of veganism is a rejection of overconsumption. It's not good to eat without a thought to the impact of your food on the environment, just like it's not good to buy, without a thought to the impact of commercialization and just plain stuff on our mental and physical environment.

What if the corporations threw this pathetic party and nobody went? What if we all decided that the Friday after Thanksgiving was a day for relaxing? exercising? spending time with friends or loved ones? volunteering? doing schoolwork? meditating? participating in activism? making art? knitting? organizing? grooming our pets? making out? raking leaves? sleeping? fixing our bikes? winter-proofing our homes? backing up our files? mending our socks? planting bulbs? writing letters? calling old friends? giving someone a hand? cutting up credit cards?

Daiku and I have been participating in Buy Nothing Day for longer than I can remember- at least 6 or 7 years. I can honestly say that I haven't bought anything on the Friday after Thanksgiving - not a pack of gum, not a piece of fruit, not a used book on Amazon.com - nor have I gone window-shopping - physically or on-line - in all this time, and it rocks! When you don't participate in an event, you get a really good vantage point from which to observe it, and frankly see the insanity in the whole thing. So, check out the BND and Adbusters websites, see if there's an organized event taking place near you to celebrate this event. Find something fun to do this Friday, something that doesn't involve consumption - of anything except Thanksgiving leftovers.

Ahem. So allow me to climb onto my soapbox for just a moment... Brothers and sisters unite! You have nothing to lose but your tired feet from rushing mall-goers stepping on your toes, and your credit card debts! Are you with me?? Buy nothing this Friday!

Whisper as a baby (top left) and all grown-up at Farm Sanctuary in July 2007

The second tradition is the idea of adopting a turkey from Farm Sanctuary instead of eating one. As many of you know, we adopted Whisper last Thanksgiving (we got word the day before the holiday that the adoption had gone through!), and were lucky enough to get to visit her this past summer. She is gorgeous, and our dinner table on Thursday won't be complete without her photo. You can go to http://www.adoptaturkey.org/adopt.htm to find out more about adopting a turkey yourself - it only costs $20! It is such a life-affirming, satisfying thing to do, and much like Buy Nothing Day, it is a great way to just say no to an unappealing aspect of the holiday. (By the way, you can adopt animals all year along, costs vary from $10/month for chickens and $15/month for turkeys, all the way up to over $100/month for a larger animal like a sheep or a cow - look into it if you have been looking for a good charitable cause!)

The final tradition, one that we started seriously paying attention to last year, was the idea of a local Thanksgiving Feast. As some of you might remember, I participated in Treehugger.com's 100-mile Thanksgiving Contest - and won! How cool that a vegan meal placed first, right? But even better was learning how easy it is to discover wonderful sources of food right in my own backyard- I still get food from some of the same producers and farmers that I discovered in designing a 100-mile Thanksgiving meal last year. This year, as you plan your meal, pay close attention to where your ingredients are coming from, and try to be as local and seasonal as you can- your food will taste more delicious that way, anyway!

Here's our local Thanksgiving entry to Treehugger.com last year
Here's last year's Thanksgiving meal post
And here's our other Thanksgiving meal from last year
Here's the post about adopting Whisper
Here's last year's Buy Nothing Day post

I'll post our Thanksgiving Menu tomorrow. Wow- we're VeganMoFo-ing right along! I've never posted this many times in a month- and there's a way to go! I don't even know if anyone will be reading blogs on Thanksgiving, but I will post and we will see!

Buy Nothing Day!

what do you do for a gorgeous vegan on her birthday?

You make cupcakes, of course! In this case, fluffy peanut butter cupcakes with a chocolate ganache topping...

...and a few butterscotch chips on top!

Today was Bridget's birthday, and luckily she works near me so I got to take some treats from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" over for her! Bridget's greyhound, Sally, has been having some medical difficulties lately, but fortunately today she seems to be feeling a tiny bit better. That's the best birthday gift, isn't it?

Today's VeganMoFo was brought to you by the letters B (birthdays), C (cupcakes), and D (doggies). Happy birthday, Bridge!
.

what do you do for a gorgeous vegan on her birthday?