crack the plates

As you probably already know, I hosted a successful free sale about a month ago. (For more details and DIY suggestions, check out my earlier write-up). Over thirty “shopped” and about half of the attendees also brought items for sharing. While this was a wonderful surprise, it also meant that at the end of the day, we had much, much more than what we’d started with. Oh, what to do?

The natural response was to take everything to a local thrift store (or two, to spread the love). But as I sorted through the items to be donated, I noticed that many of them could–should–be put to use immediately. Like the 20 or so jackets that didn’t get taken, or the half-dozen good-quality men’s sweaters. I didn’t feel comfortable taking these kinds of items to the thrift stores where employees & volunteers readily share the fact that it often takes months for clothes to get on the racks. (I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen the gigantic intake rooms of the local Goodwill and Salvation Army–not pretty.) What good does it do to donate high-demand, seasonal warm clothes in January if they may not make it out til June?

Also: the focus was on free. Goodwill & Salvation Army are certainly cheap–but they’re not free. I hosted a free “sale” to move myself & others towards an anti-consumer vision of simple abundance & sharing. How to continue in that spirit?

I decided to contact local community centers & direct aid organizations. I first called GENESIS of the YWCA, our overburdened & perennially underfunded domestic violence, sexual assault, & homeless agency serving women in Wayne & four other area counties. I was sadly informed that they could not accept further material donations because they’ve dwindled down to one volunteer who, alone, is slowly chipping away at the mountain of donations from times past. In short, the receptionist explained, GENESIS is not able to reach women in need with some of these items because they simply don’t have the people-power to organize & distribute what is already there. Because this need made my own desire to donate impossible, I placed an announcement soliciting volunteers in our church bulletin &  received a great response. (If you’re in the 47374-area and want to volunteer, just let me know–I’m coordinating volunteer orientation in early March. And if you can’t donate you’re time, they’re still accepting donations of money, food, and cleaning products. More info here.)

Rebuffed by GENESIS, I next tried AMIGOS, Richmond’s Latino/a Center. I explained my situation; amazingly, the person who answered had tried a kind of free sale of her own at AMIGOS just a month prior! She breezily recounted how she had to strongly encourage the suspicious young moms & other community members to take advantage of the items that had been laid out for free. “Our friends are not used to getting things for free. Here, they work hard for what little they have and don’t expect anything else. They have a hard time accepting these valuable items as no-strings-attached gifts.” She also provided some insight into the cultural differences of the US and Mexico (where she lived for a while & where many of AMIGOS’ clients call home): in the US, she explained, you can be wealthy, your brother dirt-poor, & nobody questions your character. The poor brother is blamed for his personal moral/etc failings. In Mexico, that isn’t okay. If your sister or brother is hungry or homeless, you do whatever you can to help.” After a great in-person conversation we set a date for the big AMIGOS free sale!

I admit, the desire to reach out in this particular way didn’t just pop into my mind–my mom inspired it. For most of my childhood she worked in the grounds (landscaping) department of an elite private Atlanta country club (golf course); she was the only Bobcat-driving woman in that hardscrabble department & most of her colleagues were undocumented immigrants, many doing unskilled manual labor. Every year or so she’d round up our family’s ill-fitting clothes & take them to Atlanta for distribution among the friends with whom she regularly shared lunch, cracked jokes, & picked up new delightfully dirty words. It was a profoundly meaningful act of giving, even at a young age.

I support donating to thrift stores; after all, that’s where I get the majority of my clothes and household items! But I don’t think any of us ought to underestimate the impact of giving directly in our communities. We can seek out opportunities to improve the quality of life for others by giving our time & material resources to organizations doing local good. Next time you have a pile of clothes, useful household items, or the like, check locally for women’s shelters/centers, substance-abuse recovery homes, tutoring programs–whichever you think might be in a good position to receive whatever you have to give.

I learned that people are ready to respond with generous hearts–they just might need the opportunity! In the days leading up to the AMIGOS event I solicited donations at church & encouraged my friends to ask their friends for donations. In addition to offering some of her own daughter’s former items, one friend connected me with a mom who literally filled our car with boxes and bags of toys, baby clothes, children’s books, and similar in-demand items. jackpot, I thought, as I made a housecall to pick up the abundance. Other friends donated a dresser that was quickly scooped up by a local family at the event.

The most memorable moment of the event was, for me, when I noticed a young boy, about seven, flipping through some of the donated books. He’d taken a fancy to a few but wasn’t quite sold on James and the Giant Peach, one of my childhood favorites, til I started excitedly telling him the story of the little boy with the horrible aunts who climbs up into a magic giant peach, meets some crazy new friends, and travels all the way to New York City! He hung on to my every word, eyes widening, mouth slowly gaping, til finally I finished & he asked softly–”Do you mind if I take that one home?”

Open yourself to such moments! Host, or facilitate, a free sale today! Some inspirational photos from the event:

After a week or so of mild temperatures, Richmond is once again covered in a thin blanket of snow. Looking through some old pictures today I happened upon a few from this time 2009–and a day, in particular, when I introduced my northeastern-Pennsylvania-housemate and my upstate-New-York-bred-boyfriend to a recipe direct from some of my fondest childhood memories: snowcreme. A cotton-candy-sweet mixture of fresh snow, (soy)milk, a little sugar, and a pinch of vanilla extract, all whipped up in a stainless steel bowl, snowcreme is the finest confection old man winter can offer. Behold!:

I emphasize my friends’ places-of-origin because I was so baffled by their lack of awareness of something I, a Southerner with extremely limited snow experience, so delightfully cherished. For truly, my familiarity with the stuff only extended so far as the infamous Blizzard of 1993 (which has its own wikipedia page) and fewer than a handful of other pathetic dustings. My ever-clever momma taught me about snowcreme when the blizzard hit, seeking, as she might have been, a way to distract the six restless nine-year-old girls who’d just been snowed in at my birthday party. (Yeah, the biggest meteorological event of the decade happened a day after my ninth birthday.) How could two people who grew up with seasons of snow year after year never think to whip it up in a big bowl with some cold milk, sugar, and vanilla? Heavens to betsy! I exclaimed, in my mom’s accent, I’ve got to teach these boys something!

Ever the inappropriately under-dressed, over-confident belle, I trotted out to the back porch in one of my more laughable get-ups: thin pink nightgown over pumpkin-print pajama pants, protected by a red WECI hoodie. I harvested the primo first layer of fluffy snowdust from the back-porch railing, even as new snow continued to come down. (Protip: There’s a narrow window between when the snow falls and when it gets soggy, hardened, and yucchy–so time your collection well.) Befuddled onlookers snapped shots of my work from behind the screen door:

harvesting snow

at work

As you can see in the picture, I did some of the work with the snowcreme on the back porch, feverishly whisking the snow into a sweet soymilk and vanilla base. By the time I got back in the house it was ready to be served.

I can’t quite remember how my housemate & boyfriend described their first experience, but I’m pretty sure the words “transcedent” “miraculous” “glorious” and others from their heavenly ilk flowed like honey in the kitchen conversation that day. And it didn’t hurt that I’d just made some of Isa’s pumpkin oatmeal cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance, either…

Zoomie (my housemate) delighting in cookies

…or that I decided to make a chocolate-mint version of snowcreme with Vitasoy’s Chocolate Peppermint holiday soymilk:

Lucky housemates. The feast:

Snowcreme recipe, veganized:

• Whisk some soymilk (vanilla, chocolate, or peppermint!) in the bottom of a large stainless steel bowl with a little organic vegan sugar and a dash of vanilla extract
• Go get some snow. Preferably light, fluffy, and fresh. Scrape it off into the bowl. Whisk til the mixture thickens. Grab a stainless steel spoon and start to do more stirring, less whisking. Add a bit more milk as necessary. Eat!!

A little over two weeks ago I purchased four eggplants at the Saturday morning farmer’s market here in Richmond. The noblest of the eggplants travelled with high hopes to Ann Arbor but made its way back; the other three have just been lolling about in the bottom of a veg drawer since purchase. I’ve been putting off doing anything with them because my favorite thing to do with eggplant is make baigan bharta, a roasted and smashed Indian eggplant delight. But with the hour required to roast the eggplants + 35 minutes for everything else, it is a dish that takes some time…time I just haven’t really had.

But oh, I am loathe to throw away food. Side note: I haven’t always been this way. I remember my mom fussing at me frequently for purchasing vegetables and then letting them go to waste. I tell you this now, Meesar: those days are past.

Tonight was the night that I decided I absolutely had (time?) to do something with the four mostly spoiled eggplants languishing in the crisper. Ever hopefully, I speared them, brushed them with olive oil, and roasted them in a 415 degree oven for a little over an hour. When they came out, the skins were black–to be expected–but, upon prodding, so were the insides–unquestionably not to be expected.

Fresh eggplant, when roasted properly, should give way easily to gentle poking. The skin should strip away effortlessly, leaving the creamy-beige flesh to kind of sigh out. Once cut in to, the whole thing should just sort of collapse, its structural integrity destroyed by roasting. It will often be creamy enough to skip a trip to the food processor.

Let me just put it this way: all of the eggplants save one exhibited none of these characteristics. They were tough, held their form past roasting, and definitely needed to be run through the food processor!

Nevertheless, I was able to make one of my best baigan bhartas ever. Not only that, but because I had four eggplants to get rid of and I usually employ only one while making this recipe, I QUADRUPLED the recipe with devastatingly delicious results.

(Something of a) Recipe: Three huge onions chopped & browned in olive oil + 8 tsp coriander, 4 tsp cumin, 2 tsp paprika, 2 tsp garam masala, 2 tsp chili powder, a few pinches of turmeric + four pureed eggplants + tons and tons of garlic (uhm, about 10 cloves) + two chopped jalepenos + a cup of chopped cilantro + half a bag of frozen peas + 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes (I usually use fresh) + a homemade vegan creme = 16 servings of super tasty deliciousness or meals for the next three days. Good to know it can be done!

Though it is a tremendous understatement to say that baigan bharta isn’t much to look at, here’s a picture:

Since I didn’t attempt anything awesome in the kitchen today, I’m cheating and doing Whoa Wren’s VeganMoFo2009 survey.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?

N & I drink Kroger’s Naturally Preferred Organic Red Box Plain soymilk pretty much exclusively. It’s organic, tastes great, and costs $5.00 a gallon (regular price $2.50/half gallon). With Silk climbing as high as $3.89/half gallon in this area, it’s the most economical.

NOTE: We love soymilk so much that, upon being asked at a job interview what he’d do with two million dollars, N said he’d secure a lifetime supply of the stuff for us. (To be fair, that was the “selfish answer”; he also answered magnanimously.)

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?

Kale creations, bhindi masala, baked winter squash (or spaghetti squash concoctions).

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?

The master recipe is thus: stove-top-popped corn with about a tablespoon of melted earth balance drizzled over it, then tossed, then drenched in Bragg’s aminos from the spray bottle, then tossed, then tossed with white pepper, then tossed with about a third a cup of nutritional yeast. It is so good, sometimes we eat this as a meal…because just thinking about it makes us crave it unbearably…okay, I’m pretty sure that I’ll soon be typing with nutritional yeast breath.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

Devastatingly, I recently F-ed up two desserts in one night. Sigh.

5. Favorite pickled item?

Okra! And, you know, boring old cucumbers.

6. How do you organize your recipes?

The cookbooks are on shelves under the microwave. The printed-out collection resides messily in a structurally-unsound plastic folder-type thing. I also love to tape recipes to cabinets so that I can read them easily while working.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

Compost. Thanks to our landlords, we have a super composter.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?

1) Stevia, because I’m addicted to it, but since it probably doesn’t count as a food per se I’ll name three more 2) Onions 3) Mushrooms 4) Watermelon

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?

My mom’s cabbage; my dad’s everything-in-the-cupboards vegan vegetable soups; any of the insane birthday cakes mom designed and ordered for me. She did not mess around with the cake.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?

(guest written by N): Purely Decadent COOKIE AVALANCHE by SO DELICIOUS/Turtle Mountain

One cannot understand the Avalanche of Cookies without appreciating the taxonomy and characteristics of the manner of things one can find in such an Avalanche.

Surely, one does best when one encounters a veritable King Cookie (gendered bias intentional) in the course of Avalanche consumption. To qualify as Kingly, this nugget of wonder must be of sufficient size; say, approaching roughly half the size of a double stuffed oreo. Such a joyous event happens only about once per carton (so buy several cartons at once).

Princely cookies, thus, are chunks of delicious that are only about a quarter the size of a double stuffed oreo. These are still noble finds and a lucky consumer should enjoy three or four of them per carton.

We suggest giving your Avalanche lots of attention; excavate it carefully by digging in your spoon and flipping over big hunks to seek Kings and Princes jutting out. Then gently carve out the findings and enjoy.

Truly, you will discover that the thrill of cookie archaeology makes the Avalanche the most compelling and fabulous of all vegan ice cream delights.

–N

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?

this one bowl that is perfect for containing things made with the hand mixer. Okay, not actually an appliance, but it facilitates an appliance!

12. Spice/herb you would die without?

I use a lot of salt, thyme, tumeric, coriander and cumin.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

I grew up with my mom’s Southern Living Annuals. Of my own, probably Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider. I wish everyone could have a copy of this insanely expensive but gorgeous book.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?

Black raspberry from the Amish

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?

The GRIT’s vegan chicken salad (featuring GRIT yeast gravy & GRIT viniagrette)…it went over tremendously at a fourth of july get-together. Or anything smothered in GRIT gravy.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?

I love seitan (especially Isa’s recipes!!) when I can get it, but I mostly cook with TVP from dixie diner and tofu.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?

time: when I’m not hungry.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?

10 boxes of Kashi cereal (Richmond Kroger is closing ‘em out at $2 a BOX!!); two bicycle helmets; a pair of bicycle gloves; two rolls of unbleached recycled paper towels; dust bunnies

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

Uhm, not to brag, but I can name basically every item in my freezer without looking. There’s a pound of quinoa, two pounds of Bob’s Red Mill vital wheat gluten, wheat flour, six quart freezer bags of whole raspberries from Michigan, several pounds of butter beans, a bag of Recipe Beginnings peppers, lots of dried Frontier herbs, a 6-lb block of SoyBoy tofu, two loaves of banana nut bread, blueberries from Monica’s great-grandparents’ house in PA, two boxes of Boca burgers, some homemade veggie burgers, bread flour, sesame seeds, frozen peas…the list goes on. Hm, now that I think about it, it’s actually kind of embarrassing to have all that food stored up. Good thing I’ve planned November’s blogging project to be eat-from-the-cupboards!

20. What’s on your grocery list?

I went shopping yesterday and today; yield: Mori-Nu tofu, granola bars, organic olive oil, organic water-packed extra-firm tofu, cereal, soymilk, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, pickles, veggie burgers, and mustards.

21. Favorite grocery store?

Not too many alternative choices in Richmond. I love our Co-op, but it’s currently in transition and closed. Nature’s Nook is good for hard-to-find ingredients, but not really food. Meijer has a great fresh organic section but it also uses old-fashioned open freezer cases and for that reason I routinely boycott them. Embarrasingly, Kroger is really my BFF. Cheap soymilk, tofu, a decent natural foods section and tons of good manager’s specials.

In Atlanta: Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market & the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market!

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.

ANGEL FOOD CAKE. I purchased Bryanna Clark Grogan’s recipe but I haven’t taken the time to make it yet. Maybe this month…?!?!

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?

Probably Kittee’s because she encouraged me in this whole VeganMoFo thing. And Bryanna’s Vegan Feast Kitchen. To be honest, I’m still finding my way in the vegan blogging community.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

Catbar by Endangered Species chocolates; coconut marshmallows by Sweet & Sara. Ritter Sport marzipan.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?

The aforementioned 6 freezer bags of Michigan raspberries I brought back from the visit with Jiji.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?

xantham gum, especially after Kittee’s post about it.

THE END