crack the plates

Where do you stand on no-fat-added cooking? If you’re a vegan who reads cookbooks and keeps up with blogs, you’re likely familiar with the concept of “steam-frying” in particular. I first became acquainted with it years ago, via Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Almost-No-Fat Cookbooks and Vegan Feast blog. Isa covered it in Appetite for Reduction, released December 2010. The vegan cook who seems to be getting the most attention for no-fat-added cooking lately is Lindsay, of Happy Herbivore, with her eponymous cookbooks – but the methods are nothing new.

Basically, steam-frying proponents say that instead of starting with a little oil in your pan (and then adding the onion or other vegetables or proteins), you should save yourself the fat and use a little water for “frying”. (It’s not “frying”, at all, of course – frying by definition means using fat.) The water sizzles and steams the food. Over high heat, it will evaporate quickly, but you just need to add a splash of water to keep it going. (And be sure to work that thin spatula, ‘cuz stuff sticks!)

Can you guess my position on steam-frying?

Probably: I have long been a staunch opponent. ”I will use less fat”, I concede, “perhaps one tablespoon instead of three. And I’ll even measure it so I know I’m not cheating. But I will not “steam-fry” my food!” As a classically-inclined cook, I took the idea of doing without a little oil in the pan as an almost personal affront. Oil is necessary for caramelization, even cooking, and crispiness… AKA, deliciousness! I love fat, flavor, richness, lusciousness – and I love my big fat body, too!

But here’s the thing: I had never actually tried true steam-frying before today. And when I did, I made something truly tasty.

My first steam-fried red curry with onions, garlic, bell pepper, tempeh, potato, and spinach.

I was shocked. Dumbfounded. Speechless. How does this taste good? It’s wrong! After all, one of my culinary adages has long been the following: everything good starts with a fried onion.

Now I’m eating my hat and admitting the truth: I managed to make something delicious with no added oil.

I should point out, however, that this dish was by no means fat-free: it contained a scant half-cup of coconut milk, which contains 17 grams of fat. The tempeh has 11 grams per serving. Put these together in the amount that I ate, and I got 14 grams before we even started thinking about added oil (which would contribute another 7 grams if I stuck to one tablespoon).

(HEY! MAYBE THAT’S WHY IT TASTED SO GOOD! The tempeh and the little bit of coconut milk saved the day! I shall have to try this steam-frying business with a lower-fat dish.)

Still, I’m glad I saved myself the 7 grams and attendant calories. I love fat, but honestly, I didn’t miss it. And that’s the point, right?

Here’s what I did:

• In a large skillet I heated about 1/3 cup water on high.
• Once it was simmering, I added onion: I started with half a small organic red onion, diced, and half a small organic white onion, diced.
• Then a large organic garlic clove, thinly sliced, and half a large organic red bell pepper, chopped.
• Stir-fried these in the water til the water evaporated, then added a little more water, then permitted to evaporate again.
• In the meanwhile, mixed about 1.5 tablespoons of red curry paste in some hot water, added 1.5 tbsp organic, fair-trade sugar, 2 tbsp organic lime juice, 1.5 tbsp organic tamari, and about 1/2 cup organic coconut milk.
• Poured over the onion sauce and let it simmer violently.
• Crumbled a block of organic tempeh over, heated through, folding with my spatula often.
• Added slices of cooked organic potato, mixed and heated through.
• Added handfuls of organic spinach and steamed gently.
• Served!

In conclusion: steam-frying may be an awesome power to wield, but it must be employed thoughtfully. At best, it will save you some fat/calories without detracting from the overall finished flavor, but it won’t give you the crispy/caramelly flavor and texture you expect on onions/veg/proteins. Use in moderation. :-)

Happy Chinese New Year! ‘Tis the year of the Dragon, and it just so happens that I live with one. Yup, it’s Nate’s time to shine! And why not? I read yesterday that “dragons…tend to be brave, innovative and highly driven, regularly making it to the top of their profession.” Now, I don’t put much stock into anything that purports to define 6.8 billion individuals according to a handful of categories, but that sounds a lot like Nate to me. He was recently promoted to Lead Developer at his company (there are only two!) and just yesterday he gave a big scary 1.5 hour talk to all of technology (around 60 people) about one of his (incredibly important game-changing) projects. He’s always thinking, dreaming, creating… and while he may be gentle and soft-spoken in general, at work he’s confident, assertive, and usually right. He inspires me!

Papacat and babycat... taken this morning!

I decided to do a special dinner to celebrate yesterday’s big accomplishment. Neither of us have been all that tempted by comfort food lately, but last night he requested an old favorite: smothered-bbq-baked tofu. Dinner was great but didn’t seem enough of a tribute to his awesomeness, so I made cupcakes, too. I served them on the little dish he gave me at Christmas: a customized cupcake stand by Jeanette Zeis Ceramics. Jeanette is an Atlanta-based artist and vegan, known throughout the country for her careful, detailed work. Why, just recently her work popped up on theppk.com’s recipe for caramelized beets!

***

It says “Your Smile Makes Me Smile”, which is one of our little sayings. :-) You can order your own customized cake stand from Jeanette at her Etsy shop. Sure would make a sweet little Valentine’s present, especially when topped with a home-baked vegan treat!

what up, internet pals. There’s a bonsai tree at the entrance of my new neighborhood. Every time I see it I imagine it saying, “what up. welcome back. You live here now.” It helps the sting of a thrown-together, last-minute, surprise move to a new neighborhood with new lifeways and new opportunities.

Honestly, though, I’m liking it. At first the noise was ***overwhelming*** – big blended multi-generational family to one side, always comin’ and goin’, lots of kids under ten (once even playing in OUR front yard) screamin’ they little heads off, uncles (there are six) washing & fixin’ cars with the doors open and the music blasting; work-from-home carpenter to the other side – but in the past days (rain) things have gotten a little quieter. The house is absolutely gorgeous and I adore the owners so I hope the noise doesn’t become an issue. Y’all know I’m sensitive – especially to high-pitched kiddo voices. We shall see.

Right now it feels like a blessing to be in a stable place with stable allies. I want to grab all of it up in my arms – the gas range, the arch between the dining room and the living, the kitchen nook window seats, the running hot water – and hug it. The beginning of this month hurt so much that I am grateful just to not be hurting anymore. Bonus that it’s so beautiful. I need to motivate myself to unpack the rest of these boxes so I can have housewarming/RuPaul parties.

Crack the Plates update: where is Crack the Plates? Had we not been forced to move, Crack the Plates would have had a first delivery two days ago on the 17th. But we did, of course – and I am still adjusting to the new space. So the first Crack the Plates delivery will be Tuesday January 31. Two weeks later than I had hoped to resume, yes, but this way I’ll be able to do it right. I’m excited. More in the upcoming weekly e-mail.

RuPaul’s Drag Race is starting back up on the 30th, which means we’ll have to have our very first Ru-ha on Wednesday February 1. Mark those calendars, y’all!

what I ate: It’s true that I haven’t been updating the main page of the blog since the move, but I have been trying to keep up here with a daily food log. I’m doing my best. I don’t expect many people will be interested in what I’m eating, but if you’re cravin’ content, feel free to visit. I’ve got a small number of folks keeping an eye on it regularly to help me with accountability, but I’d love comments from anyone. Just don’t be mean.

spencer’s market: this week my new favorite thing is spencer’s market, a weekly vegan deals site. I like them because so far they’ve actually featured interesting things. So much of deal sites – Groupon, Scoutmob – is crap, just crap. Especially Scoutmob, as they move ever further past the perimeter and feature junk like “free cheese pizza” and every meaty-meat-meat entree under the sun. (Seriously, EAT VEGETABLES AND WRITE ABOUT THEM.) If you’re vegan, vegetarian, or interested in vegan/vegetarian foods or yummy stuff in general, you should probably sign up for Spencer’s Market. BONUS: They do not e-mail you. So far they haven’t sent me a single e-mail except to confirm orders I’ve placed. They don’t even pester you with announcements about that week’s deal. Is there a downside? Doesn’t look like it. So sign up here!

finally, THIS: A CROW SLEDDING.

Today I went to market and purchased

• a case (12 blocks) of firm, locally-made tofu, $10.50
• ten pounds of Himalayan basmati rice, $10
• 2.5 lbs of organic young spinach, cleaned, $8
• three pounds of organic yellow onions, $2.50
• five pounds of organic tiny yukon gold potatoes, $3.70
• just over four pounds of organic bananas, $2.44
• a bunch of organic curly red kale, $2
• five pounds of organic carrots, $4.50
• a loaf of organic sourdough, $4
• just under a pound of australian chia seeds, $5
• organic celery, $2.50
• three organic lemons, $1
• three boxes of organic vegan broth cubes, for ease of soup-making, $8
• half pound of organic ginger, $2.11
• half pound of organic shallots, $1.40
• half pound of organic garlic, $2.31
• half pound of organic red pepper, $2.23
• a pound of organic, fair-trade coffee, $12

Tab: just under $90.

I should be feeling okay about this, right? Food enough for two weeks easy for under a hundred. But… I’m not. This is the first week I’ve purchased all of my produce at the “farmer’s market” rather than from local organic Georgia farmers. (And it’s not even a farmer’s market – it’s a giant food warehouse of stalls stocked with insanely cheap produce sourced from all over the world. Organic prices are so low I don’t know why people even bother with the “conventional” stuff.) January in Georgia is tough, because even though our growing season is much longer than most, it isn’t this long. We finally got a hard frost last night that killed everything… won’t be til April til we can start harvesting young greens again.

I’ve been thinking about this article from the nytimes: Organic Agriculture May Be Outgrowing Its Ideals. I wonder how much of what I picked up today came from a monocrop or one that’s taxing the watershed. Maybe I got lucky and it was only that red pepper, the first I’ve bought since late summer. But the truth is, I don’t know.

One thing I can do is to continue focussing on seasonality. Bell peppers and tomatoes aren’t being grown anywhere nearby, but there’s a good chance that organic collards, kale, and root vegetables are. I can craft my meal delivery menus around these items, just as I do when summertime offers an abundance of tomatoes, okra, green beans, and tender squash. Other ideas?

Happy new year, folks. Hope day three is pleasant for you. Here in Atlanta it began with surprisingly low temperatures, even a little snow! (Nothing stuck.) I’m sitting at my new desk with a cup of dancong aria, belly full of oatmeal, happy to be inside. Soon I’ll write about my unofficial new year’s resolutions, but I need to start by covering that other major holiday – Christmas.

My Christmas was crummy. I travelled 936 miles by car (one way) from Atlanta to Poughkeepsie, NY, only to arrive with a fever, chills, and what would develop into a painful chest cold. I spent the first two days confined to bed, taking lots of tea and alternating between chills & a burning fever. (From Friday night til early Monday it stayed in the 101 range.) It was the worst and I cried some. As a friend said, it’s hard to be sick – it’s even harder to be sick away from home.

And I was mad about it, since I’m so wary of germs. No, I don’t keep hand sanitizer in my purse or wash with toxic triclosan (Ever – I believe in good germs, and that stuff’s just all kinds of messed-up), but I’m careful about avoiding sick people, taking care of myself when I start to feel down, not touching just anything (especially in public), and washing my hands thoroughly and often with real, normal, totally adequate soap. When they finally win I question my strategy/integrity/sanity.

Thankfully Nate took expert care of me. I know it wasn’t easy for him and I really appreciate all he did. And there were a handful of outings: Monday night to Karma Road in New Paltz for a ginger-juice and a giant salad; Tuesday’s bright spot was lunch with Mark at Gomen Kudasai. Wednesday: back in the car for the 936 mile trip back.

Since the most recent holidays left much to be desired, I’m going way back in this post to post-Thanksgiving, or my three-year anniversary with Nate. It’s holiday themed since we went to Rock City for the Enchanted Garden of Lights. I’ll also share some pictures from later in December when we went to the light show at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. And finally, I can’t resist telling you about Gomen Kudasai. What a wonder!

Anytime we head towards north Georgia we stop in Kennesaw at Loving Hut for their burgers. Neither of us are into veggie burgers – we probably eat a half dozen per year, or less – but there’s just something about these Loving Hut burgers. Anticipation provokes an illness we call Burger Madness, which is usually accompanied by screeching, moaning, clutching our sides in agony, rolling of the eyes, tearing at our hair… you know, apocalyptic stuff. Thankfully, just one bite heals Burger Madness:

Burger Madness sated.

Vacations are about eating, so a few hours later, once landed in Chattanooga, we headed over to Sluggo’s Vegetarian Cafe. This is the “north” location – the “south” is in Pensacola, Florida. Friend Hillary told me about this place (and all the other wonders of vegan Chattanooga). We couldn’t have done it without her!

Cozy, tree-house for grown-ups interior.

The attitude is casual and service, pretty laissez-faire. Order at the counter, serve yourself drinks, grab a board game or book from the rolling cart to the right. Bus your table if you want (or move some former patron’s stuff for a better seat).

Our first night there I was feeling a little down from the holidays (SEE ABOVE!) so I ordered a big salad. I’m pretty sure this is just the chef: romaine, lots of veggies, shredded house cashew cheese, shredded house seitan, tahini dressing.

Oh, and a side of one of the “vegetables” of the day – mac and cheeze.

Nate was feeling more extravagant and had the panhandle tofu: very thin slices of pressed, seasoned tofu wrapped in nori and topped with dill sauce and capers. Served with a lovely little coleslaw, cheezy grits, salad, and unsweetened cornbread.

I’m only a little ashamed to admit that we ate at Sluggo’s all weekend. There are several places in Chattanooga that offer vegan choices, even full vegan menus, but Sluggo’s is the only vegan cafe. And heck, the food was so good that we didn’t feel the need to go elsewhere. The “spicy cheeky ‘wings’” pictured above is something we ordered every time.

Nate has this thing about seitan wings. Whenever we end up at a vegetarian place that serves a version of “wings” (which when you think about it, is so totally freaking disgusting – who eats a bird’s wings?! Seriously, a BIRD’S WINGS? Horrifying) he has to order them. Up til recently the front runner has been Chicago Diner, but a year or two ago they changed the formula and they’re not even as good as they used to be. Sluggo’s blows Chicago Diner out of the water, crafting a vegan wing that even I find delicious. The texture is perfect, the buffalo sauce is ideal, the house ranch concoction the perfect accompaniment. Every single other vegetarian restaurant making wings should just give up and make a pilgrimage to Sluggo’s to learn from the masters.

Another saladish-type thing for me. Spinach, rice, a contemptibly-small amount of breaded-and-fried-tofu, peanut sauce. Nothing special but very tasty.

Nate’s lunchtime “Berliner” – seitan on rye with kraut, russian dressing, onions, you know, that sort of thing. Very sweet baked beans. Standard yummy salad. He wasn’t digging the sandwich so we traded and I lost my mind. It transported me back to a sunny summer day outside a little hole sandwich shop I went to possibly once with my mom, where she ordered “philly” “cheesesteak”-style sandwiches. Sluggo’s was better, of course, not least because it’s cruelty-free, but I just like I love catching a whiff of a scent that takes me back to a particular place in a particular time with certain individuals doing certain things, so I enjoy food’s evocative abilities.

The menu:

The Pecan Dusted Seitan was also a tastebud wayback machine, but as this post is getting long already I’ll spare you the narrative. Just order it when you go to Sluggo’s, okay? If you get nothing else, get the seitan.

Ok, so why love Sluggo’s so much? I have eaten at places like this all over the country, from San Francisco to Chicago to New York and yes, even here in beloved Atlanta. Let’s face it: in search of flavors of a bygone era, vegans eat a lot of junk. Heartburn-inducing wings, crap May-Wah meat analogs, Daiya on everything, giant grinders, milkshakes, disco fries, etc. It’s the kind of gross activity you might feel free to indulge on vacation but pretty much no other time. And let’s be real here, it doesn’t make you feel great.

Sluggo’s wins because they do absolutely everything on their simple little menu right. The dishes harmonize and leave you feeling happy and light. Everything tastes fresh and made-on-the-spot: they didn’t mix gallons of the noodle sauce that morning, they made it just now. The nut cheese, the seitan, the sauces, the dressings – all of it is homemade. It takes time, but when a plate is presented at your table you feel like you’re in someone’s home. If Isa Moskowitz opened a restaurant (which she is doing!), I expect she’d serve food like Sluggo’s.

After lunch, Ruby Falls. Ruby Falls is a 145-foot underground waterfall located within Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga.

A surprisingly decent picture for a cell-phone camera:

I dunno, do you see Cthulhu?

After Ruby Falls, some caffeine at the totally lovely Pasha Tea & Coffee house at the base of Lookout Mountain. If I lived in Chattanooga this would be my hangout. CASE IN POINT: only place I’ve ever been with agave in a syrup dispenser AND stevia (!!) in the sugar jar.

Next, Rock City for the Enchanted Garden of Lights. Derisively, wikipedia calls Rock City a “roadside attraction” – but it’s just a park, really. A park you have to pay to get into. It’s at the top of Lookout Mountain and it’s basically this meandering path through a bunch of natural (natural!) rock formations and gardens. In wintertime the ownership transforms it into a little lit paradise.

Call me corny/stupid/whateverthehellyoulike, but I’m really into this sort of thing. If you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of a big kid in a grown-up body, and anytime I’m able to unabashedly run around acting silly, I’m in my element.

Nate looking handsome near the entrance.

You know, an elf. Some mushrooms.

Stuff like this: giant, house-sized light displays.

Nate became inordinately irritated with these footmen and American flags at the entrance of the Fairyland Caverns. What the hell does America have to do with Fairyland Caverns, he huffed: “the statues are from Germany.”

Fairyland Caverns and Mother Goose Village are caves with German sculptures enhanced by blacklight. Creepy.

A sweet shot of the demons.

Another.

A couple weeks later we went to ANOTHER garden light show, this one at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Same deal, a lot smaller, entirely illuminated by LEDs. Here’s Nate posing with Santa Mantis (my insistence).

Some creatures with santa shoes and hats.

Magical.

And now, New York! On my first day out I immediately noticed a little flock of white geese. For better or worse I am attuned to auspiciousness and definitely considered this little scene lucky. We headed towards New Paltz where we met Mark and Maresa at Lagusta’s shop. Sadly (not for her!), Lagusta was in Hawaii. Grabbing the last haselnusse bar and a Maresa cupcake eased the sting a bit. :-)

Lunch at Gomen Kudasai with Nate and Mark. Here, goma onigiri (brown rice ball).

Ume onigiri, with umeboshi plum paste.

Our sweet little table.

Our fascinating lunch partner.

Nate’s chilled natto udon. I was so proud of him. Few vegans have eaten, much less enjoyed natto. I’ve got a good one. :-)

My kitsune udon. Very sweet, I mixed in a bit of kimchee. My only complaint with Japanese food is that I am a heat hound and there’s not much of a place for it. Lagusta, correct me?

Absolutely perfect little kabocha yokan. I tried to ascertain if it was made with agar-agar but the person who brought out it out wouldn’t say, just insisting it was vegan. :-) So is agar.

Dining at Gomen Kudasai was a great help to my spirits. Mark always provokes such thoughtful conversation and the food was tops. It seemed as good as anything we could have gotten in New York City, yet in the pleasant pastoral town of New Paltz. Owner Youko was especially kind to us – she referred to us as “special guests from Georgia” and served every course even though lunch is typically casual. She even presented us with small pottery vessels made by her father (“they lack lids!”) as going-away gifts. Y’all got a good thing, New Paltzers. Keep ‘em in business.

The final weeks of 2011 were good ones for the meal delivery. I aimed to show my enthusiasm and gratitude for my loyal clientele by putting together some prettier-than-usual food. Serenbe Farms made this easier by providing a complimentary share of produce for the first delivery.

Note: authors’ names are included because I value giving credit. I didn’t go to culinary school; everything I know about cooking I learned from others (mostly their cookbooks). As a creative and competent cook I rarely follow a recipe to the letter, but the hard work of the individuals listed form the foundation of & inspiration for “my” variations.

Tuesday 6 December – primarily local, almost totally organic, & completely vegan

Mains

• pumpkin cream farfalle with double “peas” (chickpeas and petits pois), a variation on EA’s recipe
• red beans and seitan bourguignonne (Robin Robertson, variation)
• Serenbe sweet potato stew
• crimson cabbage borscht (Myra Kornfeld)
• sweet chili lime tofu over lime-scented collards and cardamom quinoa (VeganYumYum)

Sides

• shaved local fennel, organic satsuma, and pomegranate salad (Myra Kornfeld)
• maple-braised carrots with sea salt and maple sugar
• string beans and pickled onions in agave-lemon-dijon vinaigrette (Peter Berley)
• creamy kenyan curried cabbage with peas
• Hungarian cabbage with noodles (Robin Robertson)

Other

• roasted delicata squash chowder “three sisters”-style with organic corn and pintos
• sanctuary dressing, from Appetite for Reduction by Isa Moskowitz
• Cowboy Cookies, from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa & Terry

Serenbe sweet potato stew

seitan and red beans bourguignonne

sweet chili lime tofu with lime-scented collards and cardamom quinoa

fennel, satsuma, pomegranate salad dressed with five-year-aged balsamic

string beans with pickled onions

crimson cabbage borscht featuring local beets & their greens

cowboy cookies

Tuesday 13 December – locally-sourced vegetables, 85%+ organic ingredients, totally vegan

Mains

• seitan pot roast with local vegetables (Robin Robertson, variation)
• red thai tofu with bok choy
• shepherd’s pie with tofu
• ye’miser w’et – red lentils in a spicy gravy (Kittee Berns)
• tempeh & locally, hardwood-grown shiitake stew (Bryant Terry)

Sides

• roasted delicata squash
• nepalese green beans with coconut and mustard seeds (Bryanna Clark Grogan, World Vegan Feast)
• Christmas couscous: with dried cranberries and pepitas
• ethiopian cabbage, featuring handmade berbere and nitter kibbeh
• local beets with their greens in a five-year-aged balsamic reduction (Peter Berley)

Other

• chick’n noodle soup
• balsamic dressing
• chocolate chip cookies

locally log-grown shiitakes from organic Love is Love Farm; organic shallots, organic leeks

tempeh shiitake stew, a modification of Bryant Terry's recipe from Vegan Soul Kitchen

another view of this sumptuous stew.

ye-miser w'et: Kittee Berns' ethiopian lentils in a spicy red gravy. made with homemade nitter kibbeh (seasoned "butter") and berbere (wet spice mix)

red thai tofu with local bok choi

parting with these four bowls was slightly difficult, as the recipe was one of the best I've made all year.

prep for the beets: red onions, beets, beet greens; tarragon.

vegan pot roast, or, one of the most delicious things ever.

four sides: nepalese green beans, aged balsamic beets, nitter kibbeh cabbage, christmas couscous with pepitas "presents".

I’m looking forward to resuming cooking-for-my-friends again soon. Crack the Plates is a deeply fulfilling exercise, one that gives me purpose and the ability to work with some of the finest ingredients in Atlanta, in the service of truly delightful people. The last four months of 2011 were an experiment: a gamble on something new and wild and exciting. Pushing through made me a stronger, more creative cook and a more organized person. With this teaspoon of experience I welcome the challenges and joys of 2012.

hello friends, another general living update. This has been a great week. Chattanooga treated us exceptionally well – Rock City was gorgeous and we had no problem finding tons of delicious vegan food (AKA Sluggo’s). Even the coffee shop had soymilk and stevia. But that’s all for another post. On Wednesday we celebrated our actual three year anniversary by trading homemade gifts, dining at Harmony Vegetarian for lunch, and putting up our Christmas tree in the evening.

I haven’t been collecting ornaments for too many years, but here are some I have/like:

glass cupcake, part of a set of four (also in white)

Little owls made of straw and wood.

A goomba, of course.

A peace dove picked up at my free sale.

A gourd owl from Nate last year.

A mushroom that clips to the branch.

Cheeky bumble tree topper.

Nate’s beer, a glass ornament found at a thrift store.

Owlie.

The most recent addition, from Nataleigh.

I wanted to get my tree up in time for the first dinner co-op of December. Every first and third Thursday I get together with a group of pals to have dinner at someone’s house. December 1 was my night. I made salad dressing (creamy Sea Czar from Professional Vegetarian (actually vegan) Cooking), chick’n noodle soup, roasted vegetables, crispy battered deep-fried tofu smothered in shiitake & portabella gravy, and baked apples with a poured-over homemade caramel sauce.

It’s just a soup and salad.

I love this soup! So easy! So warming! Onions, shallots, celery; carrots; broth; marjoram, thyme, sage, rosemary, a little shaved nutmeg; Soy Curls reconstituted, drained, and sauteed in a cast iron skillet with aromatics, shoyu, nutritional yeast. Combine. Simmer. Add noodles. Eat four bowls without blinking.

Roasted vegetables and smothered tofu.

Easy apple dessert: cored, stuffed with a brown sugar/flour/oil/spices/oats/nuts combo, baked in a pan of water infused with vanilla and cinnamon for 45 min; covered with a homemade caramel sauce. Recipe in the Modern Vegetarian (mostly vegan) Kitchen by Peter Berley.

Sarah & Nate

Elizabeth, Jacquie, and Aden

I love having friends over.

Today I met my new farmer-friend from Serenbe to pick up the beautiful order of vegetables they donated to this week’s meal delivery in return, basically, for mentioning that they have a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and refers to the system wherein subscribers pay farmers in advance for a share of the next year’s harvest, which is then delivered to a central pick-up point on a weekly basis. Serenbe in particular is worried that folks in our parts (AKA L5P, Candler Park, Inman Park, Reynoldstown, etc) don’t know that they offer a CSA. Well, folks – be aware! Serenbe offers a gorgeous CSA!

Subscribers have three options: the full season share, the Spring/Summer share, and the fall share. The full season share runs 30 weeks from late April to late November. It’s $770, or almost $26 per week. A week looks basically like what’s above. The Spring/Summer share is twenty weeks from late April til September. It’s $600. Finally, the fall share runs 10 weeks from mid-September til late November at a cost of $300.

You might feel a sense of sticker shock if you’ve never seen CSA prices before. It seems like a lot up front, but consider how much you put in the mega-corp pockets of Wal-Mart/Kroger/Publix/etc getting produce shipped from Mexico, California, or god-knows-where? $26 per week for gorgeous, locally-grown, responsible vegetables is a bargain. Further, Serenbe’s prices are competitive. Vegetable Husband, another CSA I like, is $35 per week for approximately the same amount of food. They’re the high-end luxury CSA in my opinion because they include delivery To Your Residence. In contrast, Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture offers another similar program for about $17 per week. So Serenbe is a mid-range choice. I am looking forward to trying everything – look for another update with recipes next week!

The fun continued today with a visit to Criminal Records to help my lovely friend Lillian cozy up the store with Christmas decor. Apparently I can’t take a fuzz-free picture to save my life these days, but here’s what we finished:

Unpacking, assembling, fluffing, and decorating two artificial Christmas trees; wrapping a lot of boxes; making it look festive. We focussed on the back stage area since that’s where A**hole Santa will be on Sunday.

While decorating, an Ars Gratis secret agent came in to drop off a piece for Free Art for Free Art Friday Atlanta. From the official site: “Free Art Friday is an art scavenger hunt that happens on the first Friday of every month. Participants make art and place it around town for others to find and take home.” Plus, it’s totally ‘organized’ (to the extent that it is organized) by an awesome vegan artist, Kenn Twofour.

A handmade George bill with an ancient White Christmas album.

I helped him nestle it in the tree. Within minutes of texting the clues to Twitter with the appropriate Free Art Friday hashtag etc, someone had come to claim it.

I guess I was maybe a teensy bit disappointed that I was in Criminal to decorate and not to get free art, but that’s how it goes sometimes. I totally would have snagged the Ars Gratis piece. But I got over myself… and wouldn’t you know, just an hour or so later I was walking into my favorite vegan barbeque joint, Burnt Fork… and as I approached, I noticed and casually grabbed an Evereman zombie sitting in the window!

It was like the most natural thing in the world to do. Ambling up to my favorite restaurant – oh, there’s an Evereman. Free Art Friday. Yoink.

Such is the beauty of Free Art Friday. Anyone inclined to make something and share it with the world is welcome to do so. If you’re famous (ahem, Catlanta), people will refresh your Twitter feed and hunt ravenously. But even if you’re less so, whoever comes across your art is totally delighted to take it home. Evereman is definitely one of the more famous street artists, and while I’m not too into zombies, I’m really thrilled to have a piece.

If you’d like to keep up with Free Art Friday, you should totally follow them on Twitter and like them on facebook. Here’s the full run-down if you’re still not totally sure what FAFATL is all about.

Now, if you’ll excuse me… I need to go rescue my baby girl Unix.

hey folks! Nate & I are celebrating our three year anniversary with a little getaway, but before I tell you all about that I want to share the Thanksgiving magic!

You probably already know that instead of offering a meal delivery Thanksgiving week, I made up a special a la carte casserole menu. I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday prepping and cooking orders. Here are a few shots of some of the food that went out:

Cutting and dusting marshmallows for sweet potato souffles. They were created with Angel Food Alice’s marshmallow mix. It’s the least-tricky way to make marshmallows that still requires a fair amount of care, and I recommend you buy several packs immediately.

Emanuella’s nut-free souffle.

My first attempt at a seitan-based tofurkey came out looking beautiful but with the texture of an old shoe. Dousing cut pieces with a little water and reheating in the microwave under a damp paper towel restored some moisture – steaming would have worked, too. Unwilling to serve this to paying company, I tried another recipe with resounding success. Behold, the log:

Stuffed with fat-free stuffing (per Brett’s family request), steamed and baked, VeganDad’s recipe is a solid one. If you try it, though, be sure to modify the seasonings – his recipe is very mild. I modified the recipe to become no-added-fat by substituting two tablespoons of mushroom stock for the oil.

Local pot-roasted vegetables for Lillian.

Fancy-schmancy “goat”-style log for ever-classy Brett’s family. Would you believe this little fella took over 24 hours? I wrapped it up in parchment and secured it with pretty brown ribbon, repurposed from a delicious box of Lagusta’s Luscious bonbons.

A yukon-gold-topped shepherd’s pie for Shannon.

and desserts: sweet potato cake studded and topped with roasted chestnut and miso caramel; “sweet potato souffle” – sweet potato cake with chestnut pieces and topped with homemade marshmallow. I also made several dozen mini chocolate kandaicakes.

Pecan-topped sweet potato souffle, with some of my kitchen staff looking on.

Lillian was thrilled to pick up her giant order! I love cooking for Lillian because she adores even my mistakes. Case in point: I had to ditch a pan of sweet potato cakes when they wouldn’t release. I mashed ‘em up, layered ‘em with miso caramel, called it a trifle, and gave it to Lillian. She was so pleased!

I am so grateful to everyone who picked up Thanksgiving food this year. Not only did the sales make my three-year anniversary trip with Nate possible, but it was just such an honor to be invited into your homes at such an important meal and special time of year. Seriously, I still get goosebumps thinking about how awesome that is. I hope it lived up to your expectations!

After a few extra-long days, Nate and I were happy to sit down to our own Thanksgiving eve feast.

The seitan shoe with creamy mashed potatoes.

Carr’s wheat crackers with spreadable “brie” in the background.

My momma’s (and Nate’s) favorite butterbeans.

Our gorgeous sweet potato souffle.

Closer, m’dear…

Our green bean casserole. Thanks, Trader Joe’s, for frying the onions so that I didn’t have to saturate every inch of fabric in my apartment with the smell of fried onions.

Nate’s abundant plate! From the top: Carr’s crackers with brie, mashed potatoes, sweet poatto souffle, cranberry hunk, butterbeans, green bean casserole, dressing, and the seitan shoe.

One of the best parts of Thanksgiving day was finally getting to meet my little niece Bear. I like this picture because it looks like Nate & Bear are sharing a laugh.

Little Bear puppy face.

A fun picture of my brother, Bear, and me.

Y’all know I’m a crazy cat lady, but Thanksgiving turned out to be a puppy day. Later, at my Uncle Reuben’s, I held his partner’s little chihuahua. Until then, I had never so much as touched such a small dog… hence the face.

She was fun to cuddle.

How you know it’s love: after a long day of cookin’, cleanin’, and family visitin’, I returned to Atlanta to make Nate’s childhood favorite, creamed onions. Y’all: creamed onions is not a southern thing. We do not boil pearl onions, smother them in gravy, and then serve them as a holiday side. Twas a mystery to me when Nate mentioned them. So I did a little internet searchin’ and decided on an amalgam of a few recipes. The cream sauce is just a gravy made with earth balance, flour, and a whole lot of mimiccreme – then thinned out and seasoned with salt, pepper, and a bit of freshly-shaved nutmeg. Not bad for a first try!

more...

hey folks, another personal update. I apologize for the long absence… mostly I’ve been sick and not cooking much, but I’m doing well enough now. Thanks to friend Vic for encouraging me to write. :)

This week I’m looking forward to the Crack the Plates Thanksgiving pick-up orders. The menu was pretty extensive but owing to varied travel plans not too many folks took me up on the offer. I’m incredibly thankful for those who did, since they’re making my three-year anniversary trip with Nate this weekend possible. Popular dishes this year are the fried onion haricots verts casserole with mushroom gravy, seitan roasts, and the sweet potato souffle w/ homemade marshmallows. (Pictures to come!) Pick-ups happen tomorrow night and Wednesday, giving me just enough time to make a few things for lunch at my gramma’s on Thursday.

Yep, we’re celebrating three years. Three years ago we shared a then-not-impossibly-small twin bed and a yellow house in Indiana with one freshly-caught tortoiseshell cat and an affable roommate. Since then… so much. I fell in love with Nate in November 2008 when he went away for a conference in Texas and I realized with a jolt how attached I’d become. It was attachment that I had been denying in the wake of a tumultuous summer, attachment I indulged and delighted in once he returned. And since then I’ve become even more in love with him, as he’s proven his devotion, steadfastness, and quite frankly, continued to shape me into a gentler and better person. He’s my darling.

This weekend we’ll be heading to Chattanooga, Tennessee for Rock City and Ruby Falls, two of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures. Rock City is this crazy rock garden with attractions like the Fat Man’s Squeeze, Seven States lookout, and the Fairyland Caverns. It’s pretty much what that rock dude from Neverending Story would put together if entrusted with a plot of land. Ruby Falls is basically a journey through a cave to an underground waterfall backlit by a light show. Everything will be “holiday” themed because of the time of the year. A “rocky” weekend for a “rock-solid” relationship… c’mon, groan with me now!

But that’s forthcoming. Here’s what we’ve been up to lately.

On the subject of guilty pleasures: tofurkey. No, I am not one of those vegans who thinks it tastes like 1) nothing or 2) something awful. I love tofurkey as a holiday food. As soon as I saw it at Trader Joe’s I snapped it up and put it in the oven with local organic vegetables. Nate loves it too, so I made it the evening he left on a twenty-hour Amtrak ride towards New York for his grandfather’s funeral a week or so ago.

Obviously, he would have liked to return to New York under happier circumstances, but at least while there he was able to spend a decent amount of time with his delightful family, biking, catching up, hanging with old friends, and visiting my hero Lagusta in New Paltz for chocolates. His amazing grandfather will be dearly missed, but his spirit lives on in a couple of fellas who think it’s awesome to wake up early and bike twenty six miles:

Post-ride. A short one for his dad, actually… but not so much for Nate. :)

While he was gone I busied myself with the meal delivery. I made the best-ever curried pumpkin soup. So simple: just three small pumpkins roasted then blended with an onion that had been sauteed with ginger, garlic, and curry powder, as well as a can of coconut milk, some maple syrup, and a little cayenne.

A fussy little lunch: ginger-baked tofu over Korean somyeon (somen) noodles and a freshly-pureed ginger-garlic-tahini sauce.

While doing prep work over the weekend, the power went out. While cooking on Monday, a pipe exploded. It was a tough week. An electrician was able to get things squared away quickly, but I still haven’t heard back from the landlord RE: the pipe. Yet another reason why I am ready to move!

On the upside, Nate returned the next day. I stuffed him with a very curry brunch:

curried sweet potatoes and cauliflower in a coconut cream sauce; sweet potato biscuits covered in curry gravy…

and Bryant Terry‘s tempeh, shiitake, and cornmeal dumplings stew:

It was his first ever chick’n-n-dumplings-type recipe, and he mightily approved.

Meanwhile, Unix was a jerk. She totally laid on her back for several minutes, beckoning us to do something about it – and when we finally did, she clamped on us like the jaws of life. And then she rabbit-kicked and bit the hell out of me, which honestly was great. I love rabbit-kicks! They’re so adorable!

Jacquie, Nate & I (and a host of others) celebrated our pal Christin’s birthday with karaoke on Buford Highway. I love this shot of Jacquie. Our twisted duet of Ursula’s “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from the Little Mermaid was the best.

A hangover brunch post-karaoke… buttery fluffy vegan biscuits, muscadine and organic grape jams…

And the richest-ever tempeh sage gravy.

That night we went to everyone’s favorite independent theatre, the Plaza, with friends Zack and Tony to see John Waters’ divine dark comedy FEMALE TROUBLE. Hosted by Blast-Off Burlesque, there was plenty of pre-show fun and banter, including a gross-out fashion contest. Contestants, including Atlanta’s favorite Dax ExclamationPoint, above.

Standout performance.

It was thrilling to see my favorite John Waters on a big screen; especially my favorite scene, above.

True to his “nature”, Gator totally came after me in the lobby, to Aunt Ida’s great dismay.

One of the best parts of the night was getting a little extra fancy for the show. I managed to apply false eyelashes without the help of a trained professional for the first time in my life, and didn’t do too bad of a job!

I didn’t really wanna take ‘em off.

But there was sleepin’ to be had, and both my sweetie and my kitty were ready for bed. So alas, I relented. Next time I won’t wait three years to don falsies again!

Yesterday Aubrey came over for some nerdity – Lord of the Rings trivia and a round of Cthulhu Munchkin afterwards, how much worse can it get – and I made a taco bar afterwards. I think this is the first time I made tacos in 2011. I really ought to take the easy route more often…

(I should mention that Aubrey and Jared’s Might and Magic Opening was Friday night at Octane and it was AMAZING! I finally picked up a few new pieces for Nate’s BIG Christmas present [one, two, three, four; set] and we made a great new friend, local artist Ashley Anderson of Press Start to Begin. You should check out his stuff and buy it all!)

Unix startled us with her contortions.

I leave you with the surest sign of the (Thanksgiving) season here in Georgia, taken today at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market: collards, so popular that not only are they stacked six feet high in a display, but they’re dispatched so ravenously that they need to be re-stocked by the pallet.

Collards by the pallet, y’all. Welcome to Georgia.

exciting things are happening! Metro-Atlanta counties will be getting 3.2 billion for schools, Sunday liquor sales for the first time in over a century (except in Forest Park), Ohio voters ‘emphatically’ reject Kasich’s anti-union law, and the crazies in Mississippi won’t get their way.

Meanwhile, Nate and I spend the evening doing crafty things: making video game/8-bit Perler art, or “sprites“. We wanted to DO something – not just sit around and worry. Create, not imbibe. And time really flies when you’re making sprites, all the better for those of us keeping an eye on returns.

First, I cooked a mostly from-scratch meal for the first time in possibly two weeks? Intense emergency dentalwork + the worst cold in years put me out of commission… but I’ll be back in time for Crack the Plates deliveries on Tuesday, hooray! Tonight, just a simple homemade tomato sauce with sauteed seasoned soy curls over tortiglioni – easy, but still with a sense of accomplishment. Mostly, though, we made things:

Nate finishing a project.

My Mario garden. Interested in perler crafts? Learn more here.

Perl lookin’ pretty.

Taking note of her father perilously balancing a netbook, Unix decided she just had to join him. He was not so pleased.

“What, papa? Dis are problem?” “Ok, I are guess not Unix.”

And that’s how we spent election night 2011.