You say it's November? | What? Vegan food at the mall?

What? You think Halloween is so October? You think it's too late to post a Halloween wrap-up? Well, I'm usually much more behind than this, so this post is early by my standards, and how can anyone be tired of Halloween; it's only Nov. 3.


Miss E, the panda, with two uncles.

I couldn't attend any of my usual Halloween parties since I'm not in Madison anymore, and we didn't have any to go to here, so we had a family Halloween dinner. I didn't even dress up — all my wigs and costume-y things are packed in boxes back in Wisconsin; no yellow dotted-Swiss debutante dress, no poodle skirt, no marathon runner outfit (most comfortable costume ever — I know some of you are real marathon runners and are probably raising your eyebrows, but for me it's just a costume), no outfit that caused my son to say I looked like the old ladies down in Florida where my parents lived (my hair was teased and sprayed into bigness instead of its usual limp state, for that costume, and one of the guys at the party quite seriously told me it looked really nice, and I should always wear it that way ... eeewww). Just a nice family dinner at home for us this year. But a FUN dinner, thanks to Jenny.



I copied Jenny's idea for a salad bar supper and accompanied it with a vegetable soup made from the leftovers of Saturday night's Portobello Feijoada. Above you can see some of a selection of salad bar ingredients which included carrots, golden beets, cucumbers, roasted peppers, scallions, kohlrabi, pickles, green and black olives, salad greens, garbanzo beans, black bean soup, baked potatoes as big as your head, and chips and salsa.



We simmered carrots and cauliflower in a little water, then added the portobello feijoada, leftover orange rice, leftover kale, additional spices and stock to create a wonderful soup to go with the salad. I also made baked potatoes. I'd found some organic monster potatoes at the store, and although they were bigger than I wanted, I bought them. I swear they weighed about one pound each. It's lucky our guests were late because those suckers baked for nearly two hours before they softened. After one hour was up with no discernible cooking progress, I put them on my hot baking stone and they finally got the message. They tasted great after they finally cooked. I wish I'd photographed the table and my plate but I was so busy I forgot.



Last night, the leftover potatoes made a great stir-fry side dish cooked with onions, garlic and lightly steamed broccoli, and seasoned with smoked paprika, coarse sea salt, cumin and fresh ground pepper.

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VEGAN food at the mall? In the food court?
The other day, we were at the Verizon store, which is located outside Northgate mall, to get my husband's phone fixed, and because we had several more errands to run and I needed a pit stop, we went into the mall and through the food court to find the restrooms. When I came back into the court, ready to head to the next location, I found my husband all excited. "Look at this," he said. "There's a Greek restaurant in the food court that has a list of vegan sandwiches. Look, it even has the word "VEGAN." And so it did. Really big, too — a separate list just like the other categories.

"Well, they should be rewarded for this," I said. "I think we should buy one of those vegan sandwiches so they know they're appreciated." We got a falafel and vegetable (i.e. lettuce and tomato) sandwich to share, since it was lunchtime anyway, and the sandwich, in a large, chewy pita, wasn't bad. Not as great as Maoz ... but not bad. I really should carry my camera at all times, darn it.

Viva Vegan

At the end of yesterday's post I indicated we'd purchased a new cookbook after hearing Madhur Jaffrey speak on her book tour. Did we buy an Indian cookbook? Nope. We bought Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero.

I've been eyeing this book for a while — ever since tester recipes started appearing on blogs, long before the book was published. The evening after acquiring the cookbook, my husband prepared two dishes from the book, and they were both fantastic, so I have high hopes for some tasty meals ahead.



He made Portobello Feijoada which is a rich and savory black bean and portobello stew, with his own personal addition of roasted red peppers. He served this, as recommended by Terry, with Savory Orange Rice Brazilian Style, and steamed kale. It was a stunning meal. When my husband cooks something, and it comes out as great as this, I know we've found a terrific cookbook. (My photo sucks, I know, but the food was fabulous!) I can't wait to try another recipe.

Want to know what we did with the leftovers? Come back tomorrow!


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VeganMofo 2010 day 1 | Mark Bittman | Madhur Jaffrey

Well here it is, day one of veganmofo 2010. I toyed with various one-week plans like a week of raw foods, a week of book reviews, or a week of macrobiotic dishes, as well as month-long alphabetical plans and color-themed plans. In the end, I couldn't come to a decision, so I decided for now on a "surprise" plan. In other words ... no plan. Perhaps an organized plan will still surface, but for now it's more or less the great "random plan." It starts with two well-known authors on tour to promote their new cookbooks.



Last Thursday evening we heard the New York Times food writer Mark Bittman speak as part of a book tour promoting his latest cookbook. It's not just a book about how to cook, it's a book about how to eat. Ten years ago I wouldn't have gone to hear him, but his ideas about eating have changed so much in the past few years, I was curious about what he would say, and I wasn't disappointed. He gave quite an impassioned talk about the necessity of moving towards a plant-based (vegan) diet. As you probably know, Bittman eats a vegan diet until 5 p.m. and then he eats animal products if he wants to. But even his consumption after 5 p.m. has changed to using animal foods as a seasoning rather than as the main course. For example, he makes mushroom stew with a little meat instead of beef stew with mushrooms. He believes that we will all be vegan in 50 years because the planet cannot sustain an animal-based diet.



He also believes we must abandon junk foods, including soda, if we are to regain and maintain our health. He thinks animal foods, and junk foods should be so expensive that they will be consumed rarely. Although not a vegan, he was quite militant about the need to move in that direction, and he encouraged the audience to take baby steps, if necessary, until they were eating a mostly, or totally, plant-based diet. Most of his talk centered around health (his health has improved dramatically since he altered his diet) and the environment, rather than animal rights issues, though he touched briefly on the cruelty inherent in the animal-based foods industry. He bashed big business, and the tremendous power it has in influencing what we eat.

Although he's not a vegetarian or vegan, he is an influential, well-known, mainstream media personality exposing people to positive ideas about eating a plant-based diet, and he seems to be moving closer and closer to becoming a vegan himself. Go hear him if his book tour brings him to your city.



The next evening, we went to hear renowned cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey speak about her newest cookbook. I didn't realize she had published 31 books, and was also an actress. The two cookbooks I'm familiar with are both vegetarian, though Jaffrey's latest book is not. We loved hearing her speak about her childhood in India and how she developed her palate. She also spoke about her love of cooking, and how she has tried to simplify traditional Indian recipes to make them accessible to the modern cook.



I knew there were going to be food samples so I assumed Jaffrey was going to do a cooking demonstration, but what actually occurred was that several store employees decided it would be fun to prepare a meal from the cookbook to serve after the talk. So, when the talk ended and Jaffrey headed off to the airport, a complete meal of Indian food appeared on the counter and we all had dinner! Several of the dishes were vegan — I think there was one chicken curry — and we had mushroom and pea curry, cucumber salad, rice and the most delicious raw cauliflower salad.

This experience took place at Third Place Books, an independent book store in the Seattle area. My husband was so impressed by what the store had provided by way of the speaker and dinner, he decided he had to purchase a book. He bought a cookbook (not the Madhur Jaffrey book) and made several dishes from it. Stay tuned!