They're so good, but is there anything in those rice sticks?

Yesterday I posted photos of the fast dinners I enjoyed the two previous evenings, and here is last night's variation. This one-bowl meal contained tempeh, cauliflower, carrots, peas, and dried shiitake mushrooms, with a black sesame seed garnish. I used the broth from soaking the mushrooms to make a miso-mustard sauce,* and once again, served the tempeh and veggies over rice stick noodles. This dish took a little longer to make than the other two — probably because the carrot needed peeling and grating, the mushrooms needed soaking, and, even though it was a long time ago, I'm still not fully recovered from the black worm incident. I know, I'm unreasonably squeamish, but I spent a long time inspecting every little black thing before I could slice the mushrooms.



I do love Asian rice noodles, but yesterday's post got me thinking about the nutritional value of my quick dinners, specifically, whether or not the rice noodles were more than just filling — I know the veggies I top them with are nutritious, but what about the noodles? So I did a little nutrition panel comparison with four different starchy foods — three kinds of noodles, and brown rice. I looked at my beloved rice sticks, buckwheat pasta, a more traditional brown rice elbow pasta and actual brown rice. Because I'm comparing foods that are relatively quick to make, I chose Trader Joe's frozen brown rice, which is surprisingly good, reasonably economical, and very fast and convenient. (The rice comes in a cardboard box with three 10 ounce packets, and each packet serves two. We keep it around for "emergencies.")






All four foods are low in salt, fat and sugar, similar in total carbohydrates, and gluten-free (though the brown rice and rice sticks don't state that on the label). None are particularly high sources of protein by themselves, but with added protein such as tofu, tempeh, beans, nuts or seeds, would be fine. I don't really worry about protein anyway. The fiber ranges from zero in the rice noodles to 3g in the soba. The calories range from 160 for the brown rice to 210 for the Tinkyada — not a big enough difference to sway my choice.

Now that I've done my homework, will I change my choices? The total lack of fiber in the rice sticks concerns me a little, but probably not, though maybe I should opt for the buckwheat soba or the brown rice more often than the rice sticks — variety is probably the key. What do you think?

(The Tinyada elbows also noted daily values of Thiamin/B1 15%, Riboflavin/B2 0%, Niacin/B3 15%, Folic acid 0%. The Eden buckwheat soba label further broke down the fats as Omega 3, 26mg, Omega 6, 390mg, omega 9, 411mg, and included Potassium, 200mg or 6%, Phosphorus 20%, zinc 6%. Since these values were not listed on all labels, it's hard to use them to compare the four products.)

Note: *When I looked at my comments this morning, I saw that blessedmama had left a note that when she gets to the "nothing to eat" stage she's usually looking at mustard and miso. That gave me a laugh, since it's exactly what I used for last night's sauce!

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My theme this week is supposed to be videos depicting the sensitivities of animals, and the relationships we humans have with them. Here's a video of a rescued cow being reunited with her baby. The humans aid in the reunion, but not as companions to the cow and her babe.

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You may have noticed the Rabbit Food Cookbook blog tour happening this week on a blog near you. The "tour" officially started Monday, and will hit this blog on Oct. 30, with a review of The Rabbit Food Cookbook, and a giveaway. Here is a schedule so you can follow along during the week—hopefully discovering some great new blogs, and entering giveaways to win a copy of the book!

October 24—Cake Maker to the Stars

October 25—Cook Vegan Lover

October 26—Bake and Destroy

October 27—Carrie on Vegan

October 28—Vegancraftastic

October 29—Manifest Vegan

October 30—Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking

October 31—Vegansaurus

Quick polenta, spiders and smoke alarms, dog on the couch

Here we are in the final week of mofo, and so far I've managed to stick to a weekly theme, and post every weekday. My theme this week, should I choose to follow it, is stories and videos about animal-human interactions. And I will get to that, in a way, before I finish today's post, but not in the way I originally planned. So what, right? Sometime things don't go as planned.

Until two years ago, I never lived in a house with a microwave — by choice. There was one at work that I sometimes used, but my cooking was basically done on a stove or in an oven. I was a little afraid of the effect of microwaves on food energy — and on me. When we moved to Seattle, the rental house had a microwave, and I used it sometimes to reheat food, but I rarely cooked anything in it. Occasionally I'd experiment with potatoes or cupcakes, but not very often. The house we bought has a microwave, too, and I find myself using it more often because it does things like cook a potato in five minutes so I can use it in a recipe, or make oatmeal in a bowl — no pot needed. Recently I discovered I can cook polenta in five minutes and have it for breakfast.

I use 1/4 cup of coarse polenta, some nooch, a few grains of kosher pink salt and 1 cup of water. Put the ingredients into an over-sized bowl, stir, and cook for five minutes for a soft, creamy breakfast cereal. After it's cooked, I embellish it with raw pumpkin seeds, and maybe dried fruit, or as I did today, raw cashews, pumpkin seeds and calamata olives. (I use an over-sized bowl so the cereal won't splatter the oven.) Do you have any qualms about microwave cooking?

Spiders and smoke alarms


Photographed next to the front door. The round body part is about 1/2" in diameter.

I'm not sure this qualifies as a heartwarming animal story, but I'm about to give you some very useful information. Did you know a spider can set off a smoke alarm? Neither did I until the wee hours of Sunday morning when our piercingly loud alarms went off. There was no smoke and no sign of fire anywhere.


Outside the dining room window.

When the alarm was removed from the ceiling, a small spider fell out, and subsequent searching on the Internet revealed that smoke alarms should be cleaned regularly with compressed air to remove dust and spiders, because, duh, they can cause the alarms to malfunction. Why a smoke alarm will mistake a spider or dust for smoke is confusing to me, but trust me, it can.

It worries me a little that my first reaction to the smoke alarm isn't to vacate the premises, it's to make it stop. I suppose if we smelled smoke or felt any danger we'd get out and call 911 — at least I hope so.

Dog on the couch

In lieu of a heartwarming animal story, I leave you with this, though I'm sure all of your dogs and kitties are allowed on the couch.

Lunch at Kisaku, dessert at Mighty-O

Bethany's vegetable sushi and eggplant sushi, hold the egg.

The first time I ate at Kisaku, in Seattle's Tangletown neighborhood, I carefully ordered vegan sushi, and was surprised when the waitress brought me miso soup too, because it doesn't say anything about soup on the menu. The soup smelled like bonito flakes, and when I inquired, I was told that, yes, it contained the fish flakes. When I asked if I could have soup without fish, I was told no, so I politely declined the soup, and decided not to go back there again. Everyone around me was enjoying soup, and it didn't seem fair to pay the same price but not get soup. Not fair. Not fair. I was annoyed that they couldn't make miso soup without fish flakes.

The thing is, Kisaku is walking distance to my house, and such a beautiful place to eat, that I recently gave it another chance. YES! This time I could order the soup without fish. Yay. And there was also an excellent salad that I didn't remember. The soup and salad come with anything you order.



I ordered vegetable curry, which according to the menu, is flash fried assorted vegetables in curry sauce on a bed of rice, and contains no animals, so they say. Granted, it's the only vegan listing on the menu, but it's so delicious, with the creamy eggplant, crispy broccoli and other perfectly cooked veggies in a rich, fragrant curry sauce, I'm happy to keep ordering it. And I have — at least three times. Plus it comes on a fabulous handmade plate that I want very badly, almost as badly as I want more curry. The plates came from LA a very long time ago, and I've searched for something similar to no avail. So the only thing I can do is to keep going back to Kisaku.



Wouldn't you know it, Kisaku is right across the street from Mighty-O doughnuts, Seattle's premier vegan doughnut shop. The day these pictures were taken, I was with Bethany, and she needed a mighty-O fix. I was too stuffed with curry to have more than a tiny little mini-doughnut — not very photogenic — but I was happy to photograph her plate.

Update, March 2012: On my last return trip to Kisaku, I was told that all soup stock is prepared in advance and contains bonito flakes (fish), and it's not possible to order a vegan version. Interesting ...  

Full disclosure: I purchased lunch on my own. Any restaurant reviews are totally independent and not at the request of the restaurant. All opinions are my own.

Holiday feast cooking class

Two years ago around this time we attended a vegan holiday cooking class at PCC Natural Markets, and this year we did the same. It actually wasn't our first choice, but was the only class with openings. I like to discover new dishes for our holiday table, but I've learned that some of my guests are disappointed if the foods they expect to see are altered or replaced. For example, after the last holiday class, I made a new version of cranberry sauce that I thought was amazing, and was told that my usual sauce is better. So much for upping the holiday dinner stakes, and making changes to the traditional menu. We enjoyed all the food we had in class, but I'll have to think twice about whether or not it will appear at our Thanksgiving table.

We started with a fiery pear salad with caramelized spiced nuts (photo above). Something like this would be no problem introducing to my guests, but the dressing was way too much trouble to make, in my opinion, and too oily. The salad mix, though, with its mix of various greens, pears and pomegranate seeds, would be a perfect starter. I doubt I'd hear any complaints, and I could concoct my own dressing.



We had a wild mushroom and hazelnut paté which was very tasty, and which I might use on another occasion, or perhaps as an hors d'oeuvres for Thanksgiving.



The paté was accompanied by wilted seasonal greens with roasted beets, and I can definitely see using this as our vegetable — if I can get past the roasted veggies we normally serve — and I doubt that I can. But I may incorporate some of the ingredients, like dried cranberries, apples and pumpkin seeds into our usual veggie mix.



The dessert, gingered and cider-caramelized apple pie was a big hit with my husband, who admired the very flaky crust. The crust was made with spelt flour and a lot of coconut oil, and though it was indeed flaky, I felt like I was too aware of the fat content as I ate it. I don't mean the idea of too much fat, I mean the sensation I get when I eat a high fat food — I don't like the taste.

All of the food was very beautiful and would make a lovely meal, but there's something about tradition that makes holidays special. Do you serve new foods at holiday dinners, or are you steeped in the tradition of what your family usually expects on special occasions?

Eating out in Philadelphia

Plantain fritters

We just spent a long weekend traveling to Pennsylvania to visit relatives and friends. I only had Internet on my phone, and I hate reading and responding to blogs on the small phone screen, especially during mofo when there are so many posts it's hard to keep up anyway, so I took a little break from the blog world to concentrate on people I don't get to see very often. It was an intense few days of conversations, food and traveling — and worrying about our dog, which I'll tell you about later.

This week my theme is reviews of books and restaurants, and although I thought I'd have a book review today, something happened over the weekend that still has me distracted, and I didn't get around to it. So instead, here's a little review of two restaurants we visited in the Philadelphia area.



Blue Sage Vegetarian Grille is located at 772 Second Street Pike, Southampton PA. It's an charming, intimate restaurant that is very popular. So popular, in fact, that although we had a reservation for 8:00 p.m., we didn't get seated until almost 9. The people seated at the table we were scheduled to occupy, chose to linger and converse after their meal. Fine. I felt bad that they wouldn't have a chance to stay as long as they wished, but it wasn't so great standing in the crowded entryway, either, and we were wishing they would leave. About a half hour after paying their bill, the hostess told them there were people waiting for the table, and very miffed indeed, they vacated the premises.



My husband started his meal with a house salad, and I don't think he expected a salad the size of the one he received. It was full of all sorts of goodies like spring mix, sweet balsamic or chile lime, pepitas, sunflower seeds and sun-dried berries. It was very fresh and delicious.



This was followed by an Indian-inspired khorma of red lentils, butternut squash and leeks in a mild house curry. The korma was accompanied by bowls containing plantain fritters & fresh mango-papaya relish. There was a third bowl as well but I don't remember what was in it. My husband was thrilled with the korma, and there was so much that he had half of it left over. He never has leftovers. You can see the fritters and salsa at the top of the page.



I can't remember the name or description of what I, and two other diners had, and it's not listed on the Web menu, so I'll try my best to describe it. There was a generous bowl of flash-cooked vegetables that were just wonderful. They were in a balsamic sauce and were beautifully crisp-tender.



On the plate next to the vegetables were three large balls made of chopped celariac and other stuff, including Old Bay seasoning. I believe they were (cough, cough) deep fried. While I, myself never deep fry anything, I will eat such food if I'm served it, though not very often. I guess I didn't realize they were deep fried until I saw them. They were good but not great. The next day though, the leftovers tasted wonderful — much better than at the restaurant.

Blue Sage is a vegetarian restaurant with a large selection of vegan options. Some offerings are always vegan, and some things can be made vegan. The food presentation is lovely and the food well prepared and interesting. It's a little pricy, but not outrageous considering the quality and quantity. Never go there without a reservation as it's a wildly popular place.



The next night we went to Wild Ginger, an Asian restaurant with a vegan menu located at 1928 County Line Rd (at Davisville Rd in Justa Farm Shopping Ctr) Huntingdon Valley, PA. They have Chinese, Thai and Japanese food, and although they bill themselves as a vegetarian restaurant, they seem to have non-vegetarian food as well. It was pretty dark in there and I only photographed some of the dishes. Above you see my fresh broccoli and tofu with ginger, which I very much enjoyed.



My sister-in-law ordered fried rice, and she said it was really great. Another popular dish at our table was Buddha's delight, but my photos were too grainy and dark. It looked really good in person, though!


Looks so real ...

That sums up our dining while in Philadelphia, but we had some interesting food experiences while traveling, too. On the way there, we had tight connections and barely enough time to make our connecting flight, but on the way home we had a lot of time to hang out at the Detroit airport, so we went to the Delta Club, which my frequent-traveler husband belongs to. The club is a great alternative to the airport waiting areas as it has much more comfortable and private seating, nice bathrooms and free food. Usually, the food isn't much of a draw since there's so little we want to eat, but this time things were different. There were little packets of hummus, a huge bowl filled with olives, artichoke hearts and peppers, and a big platter of celery and carrot sticks. They must have heard we were coming.

The rooms were decorated with pots of what looked like grass (see above) and I wondered if they were expecting a lot of traveling cats, but when I went up close to one of the pots, I discovered the grass was plastic! After our tea and hors d'oeuvres at the club, we went to the Japanese restaurant in the terminal and had edamame and sushi for dinner.

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The sad dog news
We left our elderly dog at the home of someone who does dog care. She's been there before and seemed to like it. We left her Thursday night and called Friday night to check on her, and all was not well. Our poor little dog, minding her own business, was attacked by one of the other dogs, who gave her several puncture wounds. She was rushed to the emergency clinic where they said one of the punctures near her shoulder had penetrated her muscle, and she required a lot of stitches. The wound impacted her ability to walk, and when we picked her up Monday night, she was still stumbling. It was heart-breaking to see how sad she was. She's 19, and was previously doing really well for her age, but we'll have to see if she can recover from this. She's doing better today, so I'm hopeful she'll continue to improve. We'll see.

In other news, today is my birthday!

Meet me in Sioux Falls next summer for Ethiopian food

On our multiple treks from Washington State to Wisconsin, and back, we spend the night in a number of small towns and cities, usually chosen for the dual reasons of timing, and access to restaurants that might provide a vegan dinner for our road-weary selves. We've made the trip so many times, first to visit our kids, and now because we live in Seattle most of the year, that I pretty much know at which restaurants we've eaten in every town on our route. Except for Sioux Falls. Although we've stopped there often, I can't remember a single place we've eaten — sorry Sioux Falls — except for one. Last summer we pulled into Sioux Falls rather late, and exhausted. I was scouring a restaurant guide for possibilities when I came upon an Ethiopian place we'd never noticed before. We needed takeout because we were traveling with our elderly dog, and couldn't leave her alone in the hotel. It was nearly 8:30 p.m. when my husband called to see if they were open and if they had anything vegan. Be here in 20 minutes he was told. OK. He did as he was told. He returned with two large containers of the best Ethiopian food I've ever had. We were grinning from ear to ear as we stuffed ourselves with spicy veggies, and lentils, wrapped in injera. There was so much food, including extra injera, we had lots left over to store in the fridge and warm up for breakfast.

Lalibella is owned by a young Ethiopian family, and the night my husband stopped in, the entire family, including the young kids, was there. The cook/owner/husband said he didn't think the people in Sioux Falls understood Ethiopian food, but he was hoping to spread the word and teach people about his cuisine. If you happen to find yourself in Sioux Falls, or if you live there, give Lalibella a try. (1001 West 11th Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57104-3556(605) 331-4595. They are closed on Mondays.)

Best reason ever to be vegan

Now calm down vegans, vegetarians and squeamish omnivores. According to snopes.com, a product such as this may have been available from around 1900 to 1920, but there's no substantial proof that the product actually contained tapeworms. It may have been just another fraudulent product marketed to susceptible people as a scam. It's not certain if anyone has ever tried to lose weight by swallowing a tapeworm. The person most associated with the possibility was opera singer Maria Callas, who was known to suffer from tapeworm, and also to struggle with weight issues. However, it's generally believed she acquired her tapeworm from her habit of eating raw meat.

Aren't you glad you're vegan?

Thus ends week 2 of VeganMoFo 2011. Next week I'll be seriously reviewing cookbooks and restaurants. Have a great weekend! I'm on my way to the East Coast.

A beer a day keeps the blues away

Why didn't anyone tell me about this when I was nursing my babies? I can't believe I missed out on all the "nourishing qualities" of this "appetizing, stimulating tonic." I guess My kids and I were born too late to reap the benefits of this advertising advice. Just as well, I guess, since most advertisers don't really have your good health in mind, even as they suggest health benefits related to their advertised products.



As we can see here. I wonder how the health-conscious ads of today will hold up to future scrutiny.

Real Chinese food part 2

On Monday I posted about an amazing dining experience at a Chinese restaurant in Butte Montana, and a wonderful dinner cooked by a Chinese friend in Madison Wisconsin. Today I'm posting pictures from a memorable dinner cooked for us last spring by one of my husband's doctoral students, who also happens to be Chinese. A couple of the dishes were Western in nature, but with a Chinese twist, except maybe for the elegant dessert. But never having been to China, what do I know.



We started with an outrageously colorful salad. Then came a stunning assortment of vegetable dishes, all of which were vegan.



There was tofu in a fragrant and delicious sauce.



Delicate snow peas.



Fresh asparagus.



Yuba with wood ear, (also known as black fungus or tree ear), mushrooms and peanuts. And maybe other things that I'm not remembering.



A giant bowl of oyster mushrooms, which I loved, and a bowl of okra, which you can see peeking from behind the mushroom dish. Apparently it didn't get its own photo.



And a most elegant poached pear with blueberries and raspberries for dessert. I didn't bring my camera, because although I've become somewhat accustomed to feeling a little odd taking food photos in restaurants, I still feel way too weird showing up at the home of someone I don't know, and proceeding to photograph all the food on the table. It turned out I needn't have worried in this case. The hostess already knew about the blog and was perfectly happy to have me take photos. Too bad I had to take them with my phone, but you get the picture, so to speak.

Do you want cake?

Lovely lemon pound cake with blueberry topping

My daughter-in-law is not a vegetarian, but she goes out of her way to find delicious vegan recipes to serve to her veg family members. And that includes cake. She used to claim that she wasn't a good baker, but I don't think anyone who has tried her confections would believe that. Her vegan cakes are amazing.


Dad is Great chocolate cake

She found a copy of Kris Holechek's baking book, "Have Your Cake and Vegan Too" at the library, and created fabulous cakes, two of which I've pictured here.



I think you should go buy this book, but if you want a little taste first, you can go to Amazon and take a peek inside the book. There are quite a few recipes you can look at — or try — to get a feel for the book. (I get nothing for sending you there. I'm just providing a convenient link.) Happy baking!

Thai cooking with Pranee Halvorson

My husband and I recently took our second Thai cooking class at PCC Natural Markets with Pranee Halvorson. (A description of the first class, including a recipe for coconut-ginger vegetable soup, appears here.) We love Pranee's classes because not only are her cooking creations delicious, they are easy to make and clearly explained, so we can go home and create fabulous tasting Thai food in our own kitchen. Pranee isn't a vegetarian, but is well versed in vegetarian cooking. She's originally from Phuket, Thailand, which celebrates the annual vegetarian week in Thailand in a big way; she has no problem translating Thai flavors into vegan recipes. Pranee says she experiments over and over again with her vegan recipes to make sure that even though they are plant-based, the results are the same as the non-veg versions. And she frequently passes along preparation and cooking tips that aren't always apparent when reading a recipe on your own.



The first thing she made was Tom Yum Hed, sweet and sour soup with mushrooms, lemongrass and cilantro. This soup had a prep time of 15 minutes and a cooking time of five minutes, and the taste was amazing. Pranee showed us the proper way to prepare lemongrass for soup, and although I've posted this video before, I think it's worth posting again because it makes such a difference in the final product when you extract all the flavor from the lemongrass.





Next she made Gaeng Keow Wan Ja, green curry with bamboo shoots, eggplant and basil. You can make your own green curry paste, or use a brand like Thai Kitchen or Thai and True. (Make sure to read the labels of any jarred curry sauce to be sure it doesn't contain fish products.) This was spicy hot and delicious.



The next dish on the menu was Tow Hue Med Mamueng, stir-fried tofu, cashews, sweet peppers, young corn and onions with spicy-sweet sauce with basil. In this dish, Pranee substituted Judy Fu's black bean sauce for the oyster sauce. (You could also try miso.) Although the sauce is pricy, it's amazing, and a little goes a long way. Judy Fu is a local Seattle chef, and I don't know if her sauce is available everywhere, but black bean sauce is always available in Asian markets.



Dessert was interesting. Pranee made Namtao Buod Chee, kabocha squash in warm, sweet coconut milk. Because kabocha wasn't yet in season here at the time of the class, Pranee subbed a buttercup squash. This was something I would never think to make for dessert, but it was the perfect ending to the dinner — a warm, sweet comforting finale to a great meal. I could hear a chorus of "mmmmmmmms" as each person tasted the dish. The whole meal, for 25 people, was prepared and consumed in about 1-1/2 hours!



OK, so now you may be wondering, did we successfully make any of these dishes at home? Well, as a matter of fact, my husband has made the soup several times with amazing results. His soup may not look as elegant as Pranee's version, but it tasted fabulous, and the one you see here, stuffed with mushrooms and broccoli, made a perfect light supper, and several lunches.



He also tried his hand at a stir-fry, also with stellar results. We're finding the soups and sauces to be very versatile and easy to vary by using different vegetables. Pranee's blog isn't vegetarian by any means, but she includes a number of vegan/adaptable recipes that I'm providing links to. I think you'll be pleased with the results if you try them.

Stir-fried mung bean sprouts and tofu with garlic chives

Phuket red curry paste

Thai mixed vegetable stir-fry (use black bean sauce instead of oyster sauce)

Stir-fried cabbage with garlic and ginger (use tofu instead of turkey. use black bean sauce or veg oyster sauce instead of oyster sauce)

Pranee has a youtube channel with lots of cooking demos and other interesting information.