crack the plates

The most marvellous thing happened last Wednesday: my Vegetable Husband arrived!

No, I didn’t tie the knot – especially not to a turnip! (Though let’s be real, I’m over the moon for the brassicas.) I signed up for a weekly produce delivery service! Margie Thorpe’s Vegetable Husband is a kind of CSA for CSAs. Instead of buying a share of a particular farm before the growing season and paying up front for regular deliveries over a period of time  (i.e., traditional Community Supported Agriculture), Margie scouts a bunch of great local farms for her own selection of goodies, collects them for her subscribers, and has local deliverers truck ‘em to your front door in precious little baskets. If I understand correctly, it’s kind of like she buys a giant CSA share for all of her fans and then parcels out the gems. Even if I’m totally confused, it’s clear that she maintains great relationships with a variety of farms and gets some truly beautiful food as a result.

These pictures are all of my first (unofficial) basket, a discount-rate “tester” that arrived last Wednesday afternoon. From delivery to use, I’ve been totally delighted with everything. Especially since I am paying the same amount that I spend at grocery stores on organic items trucked in from California and heavens-knows-where-else. No joke! Just $35/week buys enough local, organic produce for two folks to last until the next delivery.

Left to right: arugula, (duh), lettuce, flat-leaf parsley poking out.

Japanese turnips, Red Russian kale.

Close-up of the turnips, a rainbow of bound chard stems.

Perhaps my favorite part of getting a surprise basket of vegetables is just that – the surprise! Like an actor thrown into improvisation, I’m forced to get creative and go with whatever’s tossed my way. This week? Kohlrabi.

Pictures above and below: different varieties of the same vegetable, the so-called “German turnip”!

Kohlrabi’s made it onto my plate before, but never as a result of my own effort. When a new vegetable shows up on my cutting board, I pull out a particularly heavy book: Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini.

I’ve owned it for the better part of a decade and, at almost 800 pages, it has served me well! The entries are well-organized and clearly written, a nice balance of anecdotes with chef’s notes and general curiosities.

The second volume I consult is The Flavor Bible. As with so many other awesome things, the lovely Lagusta of Resistance is Fertile (personal blog) and Bluestocking Bonbons (world’s best chocolates) turned me on to this one. As you can see, it’s a book of flavor affinities. Look up any whole food, cuisine type, or sometimes, even concept (like, “slow-cooked”, or “luxurious”) and find a list of ingredients that pair well.

So I sought kohlrabi, and what did I see?

Well, ingredients in bold are said to go especially well. So what have we here? Unsalted butter, cream… hold it right there! Apparently a classic pairing/preparation has a lot to do with the milk “products” of another species? Not exactly down with that, I wondered… what’s something super rich, fatty, and flavorful that might work instead? Hmmm… it’s stretching the boundaries of my little vegan brain… but oh… I think… I’m… on to something…!

Kohlrabi three ways

• Simply shredded and sauteed with shallots
• In cream sauce
• Sweet and sour greens

For the first two ways, you’ll need

• At least four small-to-medium-sized kohlrabi
• Two or three shallots
• Coconut fat/oil
• Good-quality organic dried ginger
• Coconut cream
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper

Peel the kohlrabi and shred it in the food processor (or with an old-timey grater, if you’ve got some time on your hands).

Mince two or three shallots.

Heat some coconut fat over medium in a cast-iron skillet, like so:

Add kohlrabi shreds and shallots; sauté four minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently.

I think it’s a good idea to taste new foods in relatively un-fussed-with states, so that you know how to build on their strengths and downplay potential weaknesses. That’s why before even shredding the kohlrabi I reserved a few thinly sliced pieces raw. The idea behind this first preparation is to taste kohlrabi lightly cooked with only two other influences, so you can really taste it.

preparation one: sauté shreds four minutes in coconut oil with shallots. Serve.

preparation two: to sautéed shreds, add a pinch of organic dried ginger and a couple tablespoons of coconut cream:

Mix thoroughly while cooking two minutes more. Season with sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper. Serve. (Psst: I’m super-proud of this recipe because I googled after I made it and couldn’t find anything like it anywhere! Maybe it’s because it’s so simple, but I’d like to think it’s cuz I’m just a clever gal!)

preparation three: sweet and sour greens, adapted from a recipe by Andrew Weil

You’ll need

• Greens from four kohlrabi, stems removed, rinsed and chopped
• red pepper flakes
• three or four cloves of garlic, minced
• apple cider or brown rice vinegar
• brown sugar
• tamari or soy sauce
• dried ground mustard, preferably organic

pre-step: thoroughly combine about two tablespoons of the vinegar with about two teaspoons of the brown sugar and a teaspoon or so of the tamari. (sorry for the “abouts” – I’m not trying to be vague. It’s really to your taste!)

Greens rinsing/soaking in purified water.

Chopped. I kind of roll the greens together in little stacks and then cut them width-wise. Can you tell?

step one: add coconut fat/oil to a pan over medium-high. add minced garlic + red pepper flakes to taste.

step two: cook one minute, stirring. please *don’t* allow your pot to get so hot the garlic burns. that just makes everyone sad.

step three: add the shredded greens and a generous pinch of dry mustard; mix thoroughly.

step four: pour in the vinegar/brown sugar/tamari mixture. mix thoroughly. a “pot liquor” or brown cooking liquid should start to form from the wilting greens.

step five: reduce heat to low and cover. depending on how thick the greens are, steam. kale likes less than five minutes; collards? at least fifteen, unless they’re really young and tender. kohlrabi greens seem to be somewhere in the middle.

and now, the fun part – serve!

Try it raw first. Raw kohlrabi tastes to me like a radish without the bite. So what’s that? Cool, creamy, sweet. Refreshing. Crunchy!

Next, lightly cooked. Try the steam-sauteed kohlrabi with coconut fat and shallots but no other seasonings. Yummy:

Your patience is a virtue. Now, an entire plate of tender kohlrabi cooked with aromatics and seasoned with cream, salt and pepper! A comfort food explosion – totally rich and creamy but absolutely different from anything you’ve ever had before. Eat it all! You’ve totally earned it, and it’s not like you’re gonna be able to stop anyway. It’s just that good!

The tangy greens are a lovely foil. Don’t forget to lick all the pot likker off your plate!

A new vegetable three ways, and in way less time than it took to write this blog post! Mmm. Thanks, Vegetable Husband!

These days, Scoutmob is the only reason I need to try something new. Not only is the write-up always entertaining and alluring, but just about every restaurant featured comes with a 50% off coupon! Such a deep discount emboldens me to be spontaneous – with such low barrier to entry, I don’t feel like I have much to lose. And their selections seem pretty well curated to begin with!

Friday night Nate & I were on our way to Harmony Vegetarian to celebrate a week of hard work and job applications when I asked him to use the “nearby” feature on Scoutmob to see what was close by. I seemed to recall an Ethiopian restaurant coming up in recent weeks, so he did some quick sleuthing. Indeed! Pardon the pun, but a wonderful little Ethiopian Kitchen became our Desta-nation! (Sorry, Harmony.)

At first we wanted to sit in the swingin’ “tree house” outdoors, but our hunger overruled any desire to wait in line for a coveted seat. Dinner – the vegetarian combo for $10 – came within minutes. Here’s what we’ve got on the plate:

Or,

Some definitions:

• injera: sour, flat, spongy bread made out of teff flour
• shiro: Ground chickpeas simmered in a rich house sauce spiced with olive oil
• tomato fit fit: finely diced tomatoes, onion, pepper and garlic mixed with house dressing and bits of injera
• split pea stew: yellow split peas with onion, garlic, ginger, spices
• cold lentil salad: green lentils, onion, pepper, ginger, garlic
• red lentil stew: lentils stewed in a rich berbere (mild blend of dried chillies) sauce, onion, garlic and ginger
• collard greens: aw, y’all know what those are!

We needed to kill a little time between dinner and the gallery opening, so we decided to stop in at Nakato for a little “Man Mountain” sake, wakame salad, and my favorite, nasu dengaku : primo Japanese eggplant flash fried and glazed with sweet miso.

In through the out door… most folks take advantage of the free and fast valet parking at Nakato, but it’s really worth it to park yourself round back and take a stroll through the carefully maintained back garden. The restaurant’s founding patriarch and all-things-green enthusiast still tends it.

And then on to MINT Gallery for Aubrey’s opening! Ok, ok, it wasn’t all about Aubs… but clearly, I’m biased. I think he worked on one of the pieces on our couch with a lamp attached to his head. Or maybe that was a Cloud Castle? At any rate, brilliance:

Can you tell which one I halped with? (Hint: read that again.) Check out Nate’s Lovecraftian impossible geometry at the bottom.

Saturday mornings are made for calls to Grandma and traipsing in the garden. Right, Unix? Now, if only she’ll stop eating the snapdragons and focus on her catnip.

$6 worth of organic in-shell English peas from the farmer’s market. How could I resist?!

I mean, come on.

Oh wait, you’re reading this post for a recipe? Here it is! One of my very own, creamy pea pasta stelline.

ingredients

• coconut fat/oil
• two shallots, minced
• good-quality organic dried thyme
• fresh peas, shelled, steamed, and set aside
• coconut cream, at least a quarter cup
• pasta stelline, boiled, rinsed, drained and set aside
• fresh mint, plucked, rinsed, and chopped
• organic lemon zest, grated – about two tablespoons; reserve lemon for squeezing
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

directions

• Pour a little liquid coconut fat (or place a tablespoon sized knob of solid fat) into a cast-iron skillet on medium.
• Add minced shallots and a little dried thyme (rubbed between your fingers) to the pan; sauté 5 minutes
• Add steamed peas to the mixture, sauté 2 minutes
• Add about a quarter cup of coconut cream to the mixture; combine thoroughly and season with salt, pepper, and half a lemon, squeezed:

• Add the cooked pasta to this mixture:

• Check for consistency and seasonings. Add more salt and pepper if needed. If dry, add more coconut cream, or coconut water if you’ve skimmed off all the cream. Or just add a little water! When everything tastes right, incorporate the lemon zest and fresh mint.

Voilà!:

We also had a little salad made with local lettuce and arugula, mint from my back porch garden, chopped shallots, pumpkin seeds and a super-aged organic red balsamic dressing.

The spread! For the first time in our entire relationship, we shared an entire bottle of sweet white wine over a meal. Thanks, Richmond friends who gave it to us 2+ years ago! We finally drank your precious gift. Please, give us another bottle for 2014.

A perfect bite.

For dessert, we broke into Lagusta’s Bluestocking Bonbons Chocolate of the Month –  vegan strawberries and cream bark! Since she says it better than I ever could, an excerpt from the website: “this sweet, easygoing bark is a swirl of (Non-waxy! Totally vegan! Not gross or bland in any way!), delicious housemade white chocolate paired with bittersweet 60% dark chocolate, studded with crunchy bits of freeze-dried organic strawberries.”

“Just a bit more complex, but just as tasty, is Fig and Caramelized Fennel Bark. Bittersweet chocolate packed with rich organic Calimyrna figs with sparkling little sugary diamonds of caramelized toasty fennel seeds. If you’re not a fan of savory flavors in your sweets, you might want to give this one a try anyway—the fennel isn’t overwhelming, and the lovely figs really round it all out.”

Why are you still reading this blog entry? GO BUY SOME RIGHT NOW.

Nate + Perl = perfect.

Nope, this picture is not a mistake! It’s the best evidence I can think of that Scoutmob works! To wit: we loved Desta SO MUCH our first visit, we actually went back the VERY NEXT NIGHT to have dinner again! And thanks to the ‘mob, we were able to use a second 25% off coupon as a return perk! Amazing, eh? Go sign up now, if you haven’t already! We spent $41 including generous tips for two nights of memorable dining.

I’m embarrassed to admit that on my first night I reflexively reached for non-existent silverware, like the Ugly American I Truly Am. (j/k, j/k!) At Desta, your silverware is your yummy soury spongy bread, inerja:

We loved “the potato thing” (not on the menu) so much we ordered it as a side.

Fun’s fun, but even with Scoutmob discounts, somebody’s gotta pay the check. And sometimes that somebody isn’t Nate! (Ha!) I was so pumped to make a special order on Sunday I went way above and beyond with candied pecans, reconstructed strawberries, and made some of the best dang chocolate frosting ever.

So pleased with these!

And all our cats did all weekend? Sleep. And occasionally wake up from sleeping to gripe.

Seriously, ma? That was a good ‘nip hangover I was sleepin’ off.

Sigh.

I finally took my pal Jeffrey’s advice and ordered the Tuesday vegan wings special at the Graveyard.  Beware: the friendly vegan bartender let me know that only two of the sauces are vegan, so do ask. Also, unlike the conventional chicken wings, there is no special Tuesday pricing. It’s around $9 for five wings and fries. Why no love, Graveyard?

Anyway, they were delicious and totally worth it. Our 20-lb baby girl Perl couldn’t get enough!

Go get ‘em!

I turn 27 on Thursday.

My sweetheart & I have a thing for birthday parties – specifically, for throwing each other surprise themed parties with costumes, hand-made (or thrifted) decorations and treats, games and prizes. I caught the birthday bug from my best friend Jina and her birthday twin Rahul, who always threw fantastic fêtes before they moved away to Ann Arbor and San Francisco, respectively. The first party I threw for Nate was Hobbit themed, featuring Gandalf’s fireworks, awesome ales, themed food (lembas bread) and a fully-dressed Witch King of Angmar; more recently, he got a Mario party with live-action Kart races (on bikes, with banana peels, water balloons, and attackers), an underground level, and a Yoshi’s (vegan) egg hunt. My party last year was Wonka themed; this year… Alice in Wonderland.

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped in the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’

So she was considering, in her own mind… whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think is so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself , ‘O dear! O dear! I shall be too late!’; but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and hurried on, Alice started to her feet…

…burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

Either the well was very deep, or she fell slowly…

“Well!” thought Alice to herself. “After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of falling down stairs!”

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: ‘No room! No room!’ they cried out when they saw Alice coming. ‘There’s plenty of room!’ said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.

…round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words ‘DRINK ME‘ beautifully printed on it in large letters.

It was all very well to say ‘Drink me,’ but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. ‘No, I’ll look first,’ she said, ‘and see whether it’s marked “poison” or not’; for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.

However, this bottle was not marked ‘poison,’ so Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast tofurkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.

Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words ‘EAT ME‘ were beautifully marked in currants. ‘Well, I’ll eat it,’ said Alice, ‘and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I’ll get into the garden, and I don’t care which happens!’

‘And ever since that,’ the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, ‘he won’t do a thing I ask! It’s always six o’clock now.’

   'You are old, Father William,' the young man said,
    'And your hair has become very white;
   And yet you incessantly stand on your head--
    Do you think, at your age, it is right?'

   'In my youth,' Father William replied to his son,
    'I feared it might injure the brain;
   But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
    Why, I do it again and again.'

   'You are old,' said the youth, 'as I mentioned before,
    And have grown most uncommonly fat;
   Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door--
    Pray, what is the reason of that?'

 'Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,
   Waiting in a hot tureen!
   Who for such dainties would not stoop?
   Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
   Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
     Beau--ootiful Soo--oop!
     Beau--ootiful Soo--oop!
   Soo--oop of the e--e--evening,
     Beautiful, beautiful Soup!

…she was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off. The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

‘Cheshire Puss,’ she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. ‘Come, it’s pleased so far,’ thought Alice, and she went on. ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

However, there was the hill full in sight, so there was nothing to be done but start again. This time she came upon a large flower-bed, with a border of daisies, and a willow-tree growing in the middle.

‘O Tiger-lily,’ said Alice, addressing herself to one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, ‘I wish you could talk!’

‘We can talk,’ said the Tiger-lily: ‘when there’s anybody worth talking to.’

…Alice didn’t like being criticised, so she began asking questions. ‘Aren’t you sometimes frightened at being planted out here, with nobody to take care of you?’

‘There’s the tree in the middle,’ said the Rose: ‘what else is it good for?’

‘But what could it do, if any danger came?’ Alice asked.

‘It says “Bough-wough!”‘ cried a Daisy: ‘that’s why its branches are called boughs!’

‘Didn’t you know that?’ cried another Daisy, and here they all began shouting together, till the air seemed quite full of little shrill voices.

‘Get to your places!’ shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other; however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game began.

Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
      Long time the manxome foe he sought--
     So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
      And stood awhile in thought.

thanks, friends, for making this the best birthday ever! Miss Yuki, I am still living for your teapot flowerpots!

especially great gratitude to the two folks who pulled it all together:

Jacquie & Nate.

I hope you two enjoyed every ridiculously well-deserved bite.

Below you’ll find the text of a note I sent out Tuesday. Since then, Sarah & I have heard from at least sixteen friends – and of the nine who reported, we learned of at least $270 in monetary donations! More was given in the form of food, clothes, water, and blankets, not to mention the critical awareness of the task force that was also raised. Friends, your generosity is truly inspiring.

Dear friends far and wide,

Greetings from Atlanta! I hate to start my first update off on such a low note, but things are looking grim here, weather-wise! We got a bunch of snow and ice Sunday night, but since GA doesn’t have the implements to deal with it, most of us have been home-bound since! Aid trucks as far away as Wisconsin and Illinois have come to help, but as of this morning, the ice on the interstate was so thick that the salt wasn’t making much of impact, and trucks were slipping and sliding. Our businesses, colleges and universities, and of course governmental offices and schools have been shut down since yesterday, and will continue to be closed through tomorrow, if not the weekend! The Governor issued a “state of emergency” Sunday night.

I’m writing with two aims – first, to let you know that Nate & I are doing just fine, and second, to see if you might be able to help out. Our warm apartment is just the right size, in a great location close to public transit and with good windows for the cats to enjoy their new view. Especially as we prepare to tuck into a hearty, warm dinner of vegan macaroni & cheeze, butterbeans, and biscuits (see below), I’m considering how this weather situation impacts some of the most vulnerable in our society, the homeless. No matter what your faith or philosophical background, we can all rally around a desire to help those suffering in freak storms. We’ve given to disaster relief far and near – and while this isn’t quite on scale with earthquakes or tsunamis – might you consider helping Atlanta’s poor?

I have in mind the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. My college friend Sarah called them this morning only to learn that while there are tons of people in need–the shelter serves 1,000/day normally, way more in crisis–there’s currently “nobody & nothin’”. Anita, the Executive Director, said that the church groups who usually bring prepared foods (the shelter does not have a kitchen) have not been able to reach the shelter because of the ice. The men who have money walked to Public and bought white bread and bologna to share with the people there. While the shelter had some food on reserve for this kind of emergency, NO shelter is equipped with all of the materials and resources they need on a daily basis, much less in a state of emergency. This much is clear: the LARGEST shelter in the Southeast is currently very low on basic supplies.

Priority items for the shelter right now are food, toilet paper, and bottled water. Sarah is doing on-the-ground work now to gather these supplies from Atlanta-area sources and deliver them as soon as possible. While it’s not feasible for you to donate those items directly, you can donate money. At the website you’ll find a Paypal link to easily give: http://www.homelesstaskforce.org/donation&ourneeds.html

Your city has plenty of its own issues and good causes, I know, so I don’t want to ask for much. Even $5 would go a long way in helping the shelter. (Go here for a clever break-down of what $5 can mean: http://www.homelesstaskforce.org/fivedollars.htm) And of course, (if you do this), pray, pray, pray!

I’ll send another, cheerier update soon – for now, know that you are loved and appreciated!

In peace, and with great gratitude,

Adrienne

The first big meal in my new kitchen!

All vegan, all yumyum – mac & cheeze, biscuits, and a mixture of slow-cooked fordhook and speckled butterbeans.

So it turns out that those pesky little stomach cramps I mentioned in my last post developed into something way more awful—full-blown flu! I’ll spare you further yucchy details; just know that I’ve been stuck in bed, drinking gallons of tea and catching up on all my New Yorkers (when I’ve not been simply asleep). As I’m finally—if just barely—to the point where I can sit up long enough to write emails, I figured I might as well give a quick blog post a try. (I’m also just really lonely…being sick stinks.) HOWEVER, I make no promises as to the coherence, focus or readability of this post!

Getting the flu has really derailed the No More Costly Food (NoMoCoFo) blogging project I started this month, as I’ve had to rely on a lot of (expensive!) pre-packaged stuff for sustenance. Bless my sweetie’s heart—he tries, but he’s just not a very seasoned cook. Besides, he’s had his hands plenty full just making me dozens of cups of tea a day.

On that note, I know you’ve probably heard this a million times, but seriously–the best thing you can do for yourself when sick is drink an insane amount of fluids. Tea, water, soymilk, juices, veggie broth…you name it, you drink it. I honestly believe I have skimmed at least a day off my illness just by staying laughably hydrated. (Laughably? Bathroom every half hour.) Mainly I’ve been drinking Traditional Medicinals and Celestial Seasonings bagged teas. When in good health, Nate and I drink loose-leaf tea (from Adagio.com) pretty much exclusively. But when you’re drinking as much tea as an illness requires, and you want the convenience of drinking different things without a lot of effort, bagged teas are worth the expense. (Thankfully, we had all but one of these already in stock.) My favorites have been:

From Traditional Medicinals:

• Organic Throat Coat: So deliciously licoricey in a way even licorice despisers can love.
• Herba Tussin
• Gypsy Cold Care
• Organic, Fair-Trade Sourced Nighty Night: Because when you’re sick, you sleep better with some herbal depressants on your side.

From Celestial Seasonings:

• Candy Cane Lane One of my favorite bagged teas ever, I stock up around the holidays so that I can enjoy it year-round. It was recently called “transcendent” by some first-timers.
• Chocolate Caramel Enchantment Chai
• County Peach Passion
• Honey Vanilla Chamomile Tastes remarkably like a Thai jasmine-infused tea I purchased once but was never able to find again. (Yaaaaaay, B&D!)
• Echinacea “Koala Bear” Complete Care Everybody loves this one; I’m sure the adorable koala bear on the front has something to do with it. Too bad Celestial Seasonings is changing the freaking cover art! *scowl*

Apart from the fact that the flu often acts as an appetite suppressant, it also often comes with a sore, scratchy throat that further discourages you from wanting to put anything down it. Yet the warmth or coolness of soft foods has helped my aching throat. I’ve tried to keep my diet pretty diverse to help the healing process, making sure not to drop the ball on protein, fiber, or B-vitamins in favor of just eating lots and lots of Vitamin C (a common route for sick people). Since Friday, I’ve been eating:

• chilled organic applesauce
• grits prepared with nutritional yeast (for B vitamins, yeah!)
• watermelon (more Vitamin C per serving than citrus, and non-acidic!)
• kiwifruits
• vegan pudding or Nasoya chocolate silken tofu (for protein and smiles)
• chocolate soymilk (again, protein & giggles)
• Annie Chun’s Udon Noodle bowl Fried tofu, green onions, bok choy and big ol soft udon noodles
• vegetable potstickers with tofu: In Atlanta, I’d totally go for Chef Liu’s on Buford Highway, but here I make due with the Ling-Ling brand found in the freezer case of the natural foods section at Kroger.
• Imagine Organic tetra-pak Soups: I’ve got the corn (not very nutritionally-dense, but tasty) and the sweet potato (TBD, but it has almost 200%-DV Vitamin A per serving!

So there you have it, some ideas as to how this vegan’s getting by with the flu. That said–sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Too little time + not much of a taste for anything made lunch look anything but promising today. Until, that is, I happened upon an 8 oz container of Tofutti creme cheeze in our totally underused dairy drawer. Set to expire at the end of this month, I started to brainstorm…& recalled a lovely sandwich I used to eat on lunchbreaks & special occasions while working at Alon’s: “the Tuscany.” To make it, the line-cook slathers about three ounces of high-quality herbed goat cheese on either side of a ciabatta mini loaf, alternates layers of marinated roasted eggplant with sun-dried tomatoes, and tops it with fistfuls of arugula. Pretty charming, eh? So so unvegan.

My answer was an herbed creme cheeze of my own made of Tofutti and generous piches of ground garlic, organic basil, marjoram, & thyme from Frontier, a splash of Santa Cruz organic lemon juice and a little salt and white pepper. Whip this briefly with your hand mixer and then slather it on some delicious hearth-made bread (in our case, the last of Zingerman’s farm). Add some reconstituted sun-dried tomato pieces a dear friend kindly brought you back from Atlanta, where they’re available at a reasonable price, and then stuff some organic arugula on that mess. Ta-da, ta-die-for:

For dinner I made a simple take on a pad thai, based off of Isa’s recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance. As with the kale and tofu I made yesterday, the idea is basically to balance the flavor–here, you’ve got some tamarind concentrate (sweet, bitter), tamari (salty, pungent), unrefined sugar (sweet), and sambal oelek (spicy!). I sauteed the tofu with a lot of garlic, onion, and red peppers and japanese eggplant from the Saturday morning farmer’s market, see?:

And as a bonus, here’s a picture of the wickida Unixera protesting our closed-door policy:

Seriously, she just got a fleabath.

Love!