"Fruit is a Gamble" (Tales from the Coop)

So I'm not naive enough to think I'm the only one who quotes
Seinfeld on her blog, but I did find myself thinking about his "fruit is a gamble" quote at the Coop yesterday. I always think it's funny when I think of him here because watching him while living in New York just made so much more sense, though of course people all over were watching him.

Anyway...

One interesting thing that happens at the Coop is that people ask my recommendation for the best pear, avocado, orange, whatever, and then I'm given the task of finding the "best" of what is essentially a personal judgment call each time. I hate bosc pears, so I point people in the direction of cascades and bartletts. I prefer the really soft ones, but the soft ones might have brown spots, and there's your gamble. Avocados are the hardest. Well, the softest are the hardest. Soft can mean delicious or it can mean blackened or going bad. Watch out for the empty pockets, but those often are the ones with the softest insides, so like the man says, it's a gamble. I find myself making disclaimers like "well, this looks like as good a tomato as we're going to get at this time of year" or things to that effect. I feel pretty silly about it each time, but it might be stranger to have someone return a fruit or vegetable I recommended. Would I lose my produce street cred?

Many Thais

The predominant cuisine in our neighborhood is thai. I think there are at least four within a super-quick walk to my house, and a bunch more just a little further. Most people I know have only gone to the popular one at the end of the block, but our favorite is the one mid-way down the block with very few people in it and 4 neon open signs called One Thai, and we've never been disappointed. We got the lunch special even though the lunch special is only M-F, and we both loved our curries, made extra special with the trio of spicy sauces brought to our table. Our waiter was very happy, too. I really like happy people.

Two days in a row of not feeling like making food is making this sound like a restaurant review site (not really). Make it stop! There's a potluck/house show happening later, but I'm not even making anything for the potluck, opting to arrive much later! Well, I'll be putting on a pot of tea for Sara. That's something, right?

Mezze for a million

I met AA after work at Nicholas, a super yummy and super cheap middle-eastern restaurant in SE (though not too far SE). I really like it there, and my walk there from my bus through industrial SE was fun, but many times when I go there, I wonder why we didn't just walk to Aladdin's. But every middle eastern restaurant we've been to in Portland has had huge mezze platters, so we are always satisfied and filled up with deliciousness no matter what, which is good because middle eastern is THE food of choice to eat when you're really hungry (well, my choice).

Anyway, it's always crazy busy there, but they seated us really fast and got our food to us really fast, too. An omni couple spied our food, saying they never ate there before and would love to get what we got. We pointed them in the direction of the vegan mezze, and we were quite pleased with ourselves, until something with a lot of sour cream or something white and creamy on top of a salad that looked really wack came onto their table. They should really come up with a code word for "vegan" to not scare the omnis. Errr. Their kid was cute but really really whiny and defiant with them, and that's all I'm going to say about them.

When you go, you really don't need to order "for 2" cause "for 1" is plenty food, but if you're going with AA, prepare to order for two and prepare to take most of it home! Leftovers!

World Jenniferian

I didn't get pictures of the lovely group at Jennifer's Bon Voyage Potluck, but it was a really sweet set of people with sweet food to match. The picture content of this blog has been sorely lacking lately as I try to negotiate a new plan for my new-to-me-but-actually-old camera. AA, the sweetest boy ever, bought me a camera on auction to replace my old one, and it worked great for two weeks, until it started draining the battery. If I can come up a plan to keep the battery out and switch it in, it could work, but I've been feeling a little bummed about it, and sometimes bummed makes me lazy.

Anyway, I'm going to miss Jennifer, but I'm excited that she's getting to do all this world traveling (Jordan, Syria, Denmark, Hungary, and Sweden) over the next few months. And I'm glad I got to meet some of her housemates through her, cause they are awesome and my friends now, too.

Even though I explained why I've been taking less pictures above, I still can't believe I didn't get a shot of my reunion with World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey, a book I cooked a ton out of when I lived in NYC and took it out of the library for weeks on end. I was looking through Eric's copy a lot when I up in Olympia for thanksgiving, and my mom took note and sent me a copy! I made Black-Eyed Peas with Herbs, a Syrian dish for Jennifer's Syrian adventures!

Stunt Meat

I, like most other vegans I know, have a love/hate relationship with fake meats. When I first became vegan, I was eating veggieburgers, but I wanted nothing to do with fake hot dogs, deli slices, faux sausage, and other things I didn't eat as a non-vegan in the first place. I never ate more than half a hotdog, a bite of ham from someone else's sandwich, and I have no idea what real sausage tastes like.

But then, as those kinds of fake products started to get better at what they do, I started to slowly allow them. Some, like Tofurky Slices, are regulars in our household for a quick lunch sandwich (that's AA, mostly, but still, you get the idea).

All of this consumption of new fake meat products is nothing compared to the increased consumption that resulted from meeting all the fake meats that Food Fight! and Uwajimaya and other Asian stores have to offer around here. A trip to Food Fight! often involves stocking up on ham tube (now ham brick!), fake steaks and shrimp, etc.

On my last trip, I picked up veggie crab meat (it looked like the shrimp!) and veggie steak, and for whatever reason, I ate a lot of both tonight, and while I'm feeling better after our nice walk around the neighborhood, I still feel like one giant ball of fakey fake.

Assel Sprouts and Chopped Liver Lentils

(These are not assel sprouts nor chopped liver lentils, of course!)

Brussel Sprouts and Lentils are two things I hated hated before becoming vegan. My mom would rarely cook brussels herself, but she would often get them already cooked and prepared at the store, drenched in vinegar and still crunchy.

And lentils are one of my favorite things in the world, but you can really ruin a good lentil by overcooking it to death, leaving out herbs and spices to allow the lentils' bitter, chopped-livah qualities to overtake.
((shudder))

Tonight's meal included two of my favorite ways to eat these foods: Indian-style lentils and melty-roasted, crunchy brussel sprouts. Though I've made variations on these types of dishes numerous times, these are both 'nomicon recipes (Tamarind Lentils and Cornmeal-Masala Roasted Brussel Sprouts). Made from Pardina Lentils and "Troutdale Sprouts" from the farmers market -- hooray! I served these with parathas! From the Food Fight! freezer case! See above!

I love tamarind so I was excited to see it used this way, but I think my lentils would have turned out better had I soaked the tamarind in water or broth the way I usually do: the tamarind wouldn't really melt in the short time it had with the lentils, so some bites were full of tamarind which is like a nice, surprising and lemony KA-POW!!! in the mouth. But these lentils were smoky and sophisticated and dry (in that good way) and not at all mushy.

Second time on this brussel sprouts recipe, and I'm even more in love! I've got lots of sprouts for leftovers tomorrow!

Hawt Saauuce Glazed Tempeh and Messsy Riiice

For those of you who don't know (and most of you do know since there isn't a sizeable "those of you" to speak of), I am a reading teacher. I'm also a New Yorker, and you know what they say about taking the girl out of New York, right?

So I realized that I've been teaching the "au/aw" sound with a really strong accent, even though I don't have a strong accent myself (well, usually). Of course a New York accent isn't very useful to any of these Portland kids, so I have been trying to think of how to teach the "au/aw" as something different than "o" (ah) but not quite "awwww."

"Sauce" is one of the words that I say with my parents' accent, and I don't know if it's cause of all the Saucy Susan I ate as a kid or what. I also can't help thinking of G. Love's "My baby's got sauuuuce" when I think about sauce for a long stretch.

I made the 'nomicon Hot Sauce Glazed Tempeh with the Surata Mexican Spice Tempeh that's been sitting in my freezer for a bit. This package comes with 12 oz. of tempeh, though the recipe calls for 8 oz., so I decided to do a little bit of kitchen math (hardly ever!) to get it right. Woo! I was really good and let it all marinade for a good solid hour before proceeding. Well, I was good to my food, though marinading the tempeh made me an hour late to the coop!


Anyway, sauce is good. Hawt Sauce is better. The 'nomicon Hawt Sauce Glazed Tempeh is a head explosion. This tempeh was so satisfying with the Messy Rice but with one bite of the rice, I knew the rice wasn't nearly "messy" enough. Crunchy coriander seeds in my food is as common to me as salt and pepper to the next guy (cumin seeds, too! and cardamom pods!), so I had to up the mess and add a lot more coriander seeds. Now THAT is some Messsy Riiice!

French Toast Mornings

Two days without cold cereal, two days of French Toast. The oil haze in my house is so heavy, you can take a picture of it. We did. Of course.

I don't follow a recipe for french toast anymore, choosing just to eyeball it, including my favorite spices and elements from other recipes I used to follow (like the one from Vegan Vittles).

I first start with my pie plate (though any kind of pyrex dish will do), and I make a shallow pool of soymilk (or oat milk, or whatever else we have). Then I take a small handful of flour (whole wheat pastry, brown rice, chickpea/fava, besan, etc.) and a small handful of nutritional yeast (and I'll often add more yeast later). Then I add sprinkles of cinammon, nutmeg, sometimes ginger, and a little bit of sugar. Pick slices of bread you'd like to eat no matter what you did with it (like Dave's Killer!) and heat up the cast iron, add a little oil, dip the slices in the soymilk batter, and french it up on both sides. I like mine gooey, AA likes his a little firmer/borderline burnt. It's not an exact science, so I give him whichever slices I think he'll like better.

It was the beginning of a perfectly lazy french toast morning, and then we spied the snow coming down outside! I threw on my clothes and we headed out, taking a walk to the park, the market, and then even checking out an open house on the way home! Woo, whirlwind!

(If you look at the picture in BIG, you'll see the little bits of snow just barely sticking to my cap!)

By all that we were super hungry, and we chowed down on the last of the leftover Mac Daddy. Who knows how the rest of the day was spent cause it was fast and hazy (oil hazy!) and we walked to our neighborhood place for dinner, sitting at the same table as last time! We split biscuits and gravy and soup and sandwich -- oh my full. When we left, I turned the wrong way, as if I was returning to that house we looked at today. Ha! ha Ha!

Thanksgiving Forever

It feels like Thanksgiving began for me on November 18 with our potluck and still continues on today, almost a month later, with another, post-thanksgiving potluck! I have pumpkin coming out of my ears!

I made the Pumpkin Baked Ziti from 'nomicon, but I used rigatoni cause I like pasta with ridges best so I didn't plan to buy ziti anyway, but besides the coop didn't have it. It took one hour to prepare and a half hour to cook, but I had to keep it on "warm" for an hour while my landlord pretended to fix some things about the house.

I was getting anxious to eat it and anxious to get to the potluck, but it ended up being the kind of potluck where most everyone showed up around the time I did (a couple hours late -- it was an all day thing, though), and the pasta was so well received, my friend announcing to everyone: "Michelle is an amazing cook, so you have to try whatever it is she brought!" !!! And people didn't hesitate to dig in, even though its description certainly was a crazy one, and people loved the creamy - savory - sweet deliciousness of it. I left the potluck with just one piece of pasta that I shared with my friend who didn't get to go. She loved it, too! Then we went out for tea and I tried my new favorite: Red Groats! I bought 2 oz. to bring home to my mom, but I'm going to need to go back to get some for me! This Day! Oh my god!

Daddy Pasta and Mommy Cookies

"The Mac Dad will make you JUMP JUMP
The Daddy Mac will make you JUMP JUMP
Kris Kross will make you JUMP JUMP..."

Get this song out of my head, please.

Oy, I made the 'nomicon Mac Daddy. It was god. It was good. It was go-ood. I'm running out of things to say about food already.

I used conchiglie pasta by Montebello because I don't eat pasta too often, so when I do, I'm not wasting it on whatever elbows. It's my favorite pasta shape by my favorite brand. Does anyone make mac and cheese with actual macaroni anymore, anyway? The mac at Vita is "rotelle" and the mac I've eaten at most friends' houses is penne. But conchiglie is my thing.

My cheezy sauce took a really long time to firm out, and it firmed up the most when I finally turned the burner off and left it alone. So now I know. Or I could have just added less liquid when making it in the first place . . .

And there's nothing to make you feel all geared up for the In Other Words bookstore's "sex party" benefit than a big plate of pasta, no? I ended up feeling a little like a blob, which was fine, cause I was mostly there to suppport my friend who volunteers at the store. She made cookies for the occasion: Vagina Cookies! They were a basic sugar cookie with frosting, but I couldn't keep away from these. Er. Um.


And speaking of Mac Daddys and Vaginas, guess who just became parents? Joanna and Matt! Baby before Book! Milo Bear!

Next up tomorrow, cause I'm liking the idea of a pasta bender: Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Caramelized Onions and a Sage Crumb Topping for a vegan holiday potluck! Life is good.

Chew The Right Thing

I was going to write that I wonder who will be reading this now that Jess is back east and Kittee is in South India, but then I got a lovely comment from Kamutflake girl yesterday! My little, almost-one-year-old niece's favorite food right now is puffed Kamut! Well, before she tried some veggie booty!

Yesterday AA and I were invited to a house dinner at our friends' Jennifer, Mark, and Margarita's house. Their house currently has 8 people living in it, and they have it set up where each mate cooks dinner one night a week so that all housemates can eat a communal dinner every day! I would like to come to Mark's Monday one night soon, but for now I have only been to Jennifer's Thursday.

She made a curry -- which was perfect because she and curries hold a lot of mystery for me. Whenever she says that she is making a "curry," it can mean so many different things, so I was excited to watch. We helped her peel and chop ginger, those pink mountain rose apples I mentioned a few posts ago, and a bunch of other stuff, and I watched in awe as she added her different ingredients to the wok. I love to watch other people cook: the techinques we use seem natural to us, but when you watch someone else cook, you see how highly personalized the act of cooking is. Very nice.

It's serve yourself there, and I was first to fill my bowl as I was right in the kitchen when the announcement was made. I put a thin layer of perfectly cooked brown rice at the bottom of my bowl and piled the curry inside, topping with some seasoned cashew nuts. I took a seat at the table and started muching down, chewing and chewing to curry nirvana.

It was only when I was 1/3 through my bowl that I realized no one else, save M & M's young son, had started eating yet, waiting to say a quick note of thanks for the food and for everyone coming. No one said anything to me about it or made me feel uncomfortable at all, but it made me wonder how I could allow my excitement over the curry to so overtake me to not notice. And it made me think that if I can't take a moment to think about the food before I eat and to take stock of my surroundings, then I am either too focused on the food and not the company or I have allowed myself to get too hungry. These are just some preliminary thoughts from a tired brain.

After eating and hanging around talking for a while, some of use headed down to First Thursday to see our friend Sarah's prints at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. We missed Sarah by a few minutes, but we got to see one of her prints, some paintings, plush, and some book art. But then we walked into an adjoining room and checked out the Gingerbread houses that were entered in the Rip City Gingerblaze of 2007. One of the organizers was there, talking to Jennifer about the winners of the contest, pointing to one that was "the only one created by a real artist . . . the rest are amateurs," a mushroom house that neither of us especially liked. My favorite didn't win any prizes except the one in my heart: Radio Raheem's gingerbread jukebox (pictured above). It was called "Chew The Right Thing."

Latkeys

In a sidebar of the 'nomicon latke recipes, Isa and Terry write that in Brooklyn, they call them "lat-kuhs," but in "other parts of the country" they call them "lat-keys." My mom and dad pronounce it that way and they're from the Bronx!

I was invited to a channukah party by my friend Sara, who is not jewish but teaches at a jewish school and seemingly collects a lot of jewish friends, which is certainly a feat when you're living in the state of Oregon. I've never made latkes from scratch personally (though that's the way my family always did it), opting for the easy way and using a mix, though I always knew that freshly grated tubers was the way to go. But I've often been intrigued by sweet potato latkes and other variations on the regular ol' potato latke, and I thought this party was as good an opportunity as any to try my hand at making my own.

For those who don't have Veganomicon right in front of you (huh?), the "Autumn Latkes" recipe foregoes the regular for sweet potatoes, carrot, and beet! The recipe suggested using a food processor to grate all the vegetables, but I couldn't find my grating attachment. And besides, it felt all nice and traditional to grate them by hand. They make quite a stunning (and staining) combination. You should see my hands!


The party ended up being pretty fun. It was neato to light candles with so many people, even though I rarely light candles anymore. I didn't get to eat beforehand so I ended up eating quite a nice portion of the latkes I brought, plus the vegan ones someone in an herbivore sweatshirt brought later! With applesauce and "better than sourcream," too! And cookies! What a dinner!! I feel like a giant potato right now. And of course I'll be pooping pink tomorrow.

Hail Caesar! (A Tale of Triumph over Anchovies, Eggs, and the Suburbs)

First, the triumph:


So yeah, I know. Caesar Salad doesn't get its name from Julius Caesar, which is fine with me cause it's not like I'm some kind of Julius Caesar fan. But I am a fan of Caesar Salad. I remember when I first tried it: Picture it. I'm with my dad, in a suburban Jersey mall. We're hungry after looking at junior ball dress after junior ball dress. He orders a Caesar Salad in the Food Court and offers me a taste. It's delicious! I order it myself the next time I am at the Food Court, this time in New York's northern suburbs. I take a bite -- ewwww! I would discover that what I bit into was an anchovy! This was not in that first Caesar Salad! I learned to ask to hold the anchovies, and later, I learned to ask to hold the egg-laden Caesar Salad dressing all together. And that was that.

Until my friend Tricia gave me a copy of the cookbook "It's Only Natural," from a cafe in suburban Connecticut. And I brought it home to my Harlem apartment, and I whipped up the Caesar of my life. Or so I thought -- until Jess made me the Caesar Salad from the testing of Veganomicon in her Portland apartment. It was tangy and creamy and wonderful in every way. I looked forward to the moment that I would make it myself, and that day was today.

The Coop

I volunteer at my coop in the produce section, and I hesitate to tell you how lovely it is because it is the secret treasure of my Monday. But I trust you, so I will proceed.

People think (well, I guess I think that people think -- I cannot really be sure what people think) that all the best produce is in the spring and summertime, but I definitely think the fall wins. At least here. You've got the bell peppers and berries and basil of summer with the hardier brussel sprouts and roots and squash of the later season. Delicious.

But now that "winter" is starting to settle in here (read: coldish, rainy season. We don't really have the kinds of winters I grew up with), there's still lots of local food, but more and more is coming from other places. That's why I'm really trying to eat as much local as I can while I can (though I guess that's always what I'm trying to do). I'm really uninspired by tomatoes right now, and I spent a good portion of my shift culling and stocking red, but I'm sure not so tasty slicers and more pink-than-red romas. From Mexico. I think that tomato that I put in my lentil salad (the farmers market hydroponic one) will be my last tomato for a while. Who needs a mealy tomato from Mexico (no offense to Mexico, but it sure as heck ain't local to me) when I could eat fresh greens from right around the corner? Going to farmers markets and working at the coop has helped tune me into the seasons just all the more.

Avocados are one of those foods I don't eat too often, more for the price and indulgence factor than their locality, but I sometimes wonder what life would be like with local avocados and what they would taste like. AA sprouted an avocado pit, and we have a lovely and lush, albeit small, avocado plant growing. If you're local and want to run to the coop, I reduced a lot of mushy avocados tonight. Just slice off the bad spot, and you're in creamy heaven.

There are so many varieties of pears and apples. I love the cascade pears and the concords right now, though there are many many that I like. AA's new favorite apple is the Ambrosia. My favorite of the apples? Mountain Rose! They are PINK inside!

So, I spend my Monday night with Jamilah, culling and stocking and reducing to make the produce look as pretty and bountiful as it can be, grooving to Michael Jackson and whatever else she puts on while we work.

Post-Thanksgiving Tofurky and 'Nomicon Dinner

I can only imagine how much Isa and Terry loathe the Tofurky Feast, but I must admit there is a place in my heart (and my tummy) for it. I was thinking that I remember it since vegan day one (well my first vegan thanksgiving, which by the way, was the first time I brought AA home to meet my parents!) but then I started to doubt my memory so I looked it up and found out from their website that they've been making the feast since 1995! So we've got some history!

Ok, truth be told, I prefer the Unturkey. And as soon as we learned about that one, it replaced the Tofurky almost entirely (except for when other families served it to us) and that's the one my mom and AA's mom always picked up for us or we brought over. We didn't have one for '06 thanksgiving cause we didn't go home, opting to stay in Portland where we hopped to a number of thanksgivings, either eschewing the meat or chowing down on homemade seitan roasts! Wait, I forgot that our friends who invited us for Tofurky this year also invited us last year, pre-thanksgiving. And since they were only friends of a few months, I didn't know how to bring up the awesome superiority that is the Unturkey. Was the Unturkey. Apparently, as Jess emailed me recently, last year they closed up shop!

Now those of you following all the latest in faux meat all probably already know about the wonder that is Field Roast's Celebration Roast, but if you don't, go check it out! Or eat tons of free samples at your next vegan holiday festival. Yeah, I know, everyone doesn't have a vegan holiday festival in their town. Suckas!

Ok, so this totally got away from me. Anyway, our friends really like the Tofurky and have eaten it every year since going vegan. And they invited us to break tofurky with them for the second year in a row. Who am I to mess with tradition? So we made it a date, and I agreed to round out the meal with some soup, a vegetable dish, and dessert -- all from 'nomicon!

But to my surprise, the Tofurky Feast, with stuffing, dumplings, gravy, etc. was totally delicious! Huh? It was much more flavorful and juicy than either of us remembered. Seriously, AA and I went back for seconds! Also in attendance was cranberry relish, a delicious green bean casserole, and stuff that we brought from the mighty tome: leftover Acorn Squash Soup (but I forgot to heat it at home! or to saute extra shiitakes!), Baby Bok Choy with Crispy Shallots and Sesame Seeds (yum!) and Apple Peanut-Butter Caramel Bars (AA says: "They were dynamite!")



So it looks like this thanksgiving might never end!

Three of My Favorite Things*

1. The farmers market when it's just opening up and mostly empty.


Look! It's my squash man and the garlic/potatoes guy! Talking before the market opens. Together!


2. Jess getting excited about the snow. Now this is love!



3. Beans and Salads

I made one salad for lunch and one for dinner, both from 'nomicon, cause as Aaron said "It's like you're a tester, but after the book already came out!"

For lunch: Lentil Salad


I love lentils and I love salad, so of course I love lentil salad, but this one was a little different than the ones I'm used to making. I think it was the hint of mustard and the tarragon and fresh thyme, but anyway, it was really satisfying and both AA and I felt really energized and light after eating it. I was gonna use the lentils I picked up at the market, but then I saw it called for french lentils, which I have and don't use as much, so those lentils will have to get some play later in the week. But the thyme, french radishes, carrot, and tomato I used were all from the market! I wasn't particularly jazzed by the tomato, though (a hydroponic one from some not overly-friendly guy at the market, but hey, it's snowing in Portland, I'm lucky to have any stinking tomato!)

Then, for dinner: Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango


It's true, I like millet better than quinoa, and in fact, I like most grains better than quinoa. But this black quinoa I have is a fancy time. And it takes well to whatever I dress it with, so I guess I just have to dress it real nice! The addition of black beans and mango and red pepper reminded me of a salad my sister taught me before I was a seasoned potluck go-er that we both often still bring to the potlucks (but minus quinoa and plus avocado and lime), so when I got around to serving it, I searched out an avocado in my fridge (score!) and some leftover lime juice from last night's soup (double score!) and it was goooo-oood. Very.

Tomorrow: My friend Megan's Pumpkin Muffins for a monthly brunch (though we missed the last two!) and a report back on the Apple Peanut Butter Bars, Tofurky, and another dish I plan to bring along: Baby Bok Choy with Crispy Shallots and Sesame Seeds!



*From Jess: "Do you know that snow is one of my three favorite things?" (The other two are cats and mushrooms!)