If the shoe fits ...

Two shallow vegan bloggers (that's Bethany and me), hit the streets for a day of eating and shopping. We had to pull the car over twice, discussing where to go for lunch, but Bethany is addicted to Wayward Café, and her addiction runs deep, so of course she won. (Bethany isn't blogging or reading blogs right now, she says, so I can say anything I want. You aren't reading this, are you Bethany?) I like Wayward, too, so I don't mind going there. It's a vegan greasy spoon that piles the plates high with yummy comfort food. So, we headed in and B picked a table under the skylight so I'd be able to get good photos, though you know, this is November in Seattle, and there's not much light coming from the sky. Just keeping it real.


Sad little leftover nutlet cutlet, minus kale.

B ordered a Seitan Philly sub with fries, and I ordered a hot nutlet which is an almond-walnut cutlet (a nutlet cutlet, so to speak) served on toasted French bread, covered with mushroom gravy with a huge side of steamed kale dusted with sesame seeds. When it finally came, I was starved, and dug right in, after adding hot sauce and Bragg's. All that was left on my plate was a small section of nutlet, when I let out a anguished shriek. There we were under the skylight, camera sitting on the table beside me, and I hadn't taken a single photo. Of course I blamed Bethany. She should have reminded me. All that gorgeous kale would have made such a nice picture.



Wayward is one corner of the vegan triangle* on the Ave, and after lunch we headed across the street and down a few paces to vegan corner number two, Sidecar Vegan Store. Sidecar is owned by Pig's Peace Animal Sanctuary, and all profits from sales go to supporting the sanctuary, so shopping there is a good deed in addition to a handy spot for finding all things vegan. When you first walk in, there's a great shelf of purses, wallets, belts and such. We fingered the goods, then headed to the food shelves.



All kinds of vegan grocery products are available, but the Soy Curls shelf was bare. No Soy Curls for me.



However, something did catch my eye, and I popped two varieties of Thai True curry paste into my basket. I also got one of those little spray bottles of Braggs, that I'd played with at Wayward. I thought it would come in handy to spray just the right amount of flavor onto tofu cubes as they browned in my wok.



I pondered changing my dog's diet back to vegan, but once again, Bethany convinced me that 17 is too old for a dog to start changing her diet.



Sidecar also has a good selection of wines so you don't have to worry about whether the wine you are buying is vegan. In addition to everything I've shown you, there's also a selection of personal care items, and two large refrigerated sections as well as a cooler with frozen food. What the store lacks in size, it makes up for in variety. You can find things like marshmallows, candies and many kinds of imported and domestic vegan cheeses. I bought three Sjaaks organic almond butter cups for dessert. Then we headed to the DSW shoe store in pursuit of vegan boots.



If you've read this far, here's your reward. Bethany found the perfect pair of sexy shoes. Don't they go well with her cat socks? In her own words, "Those are sexy shoes that just crackle w/ pain. Sexy pain. i should run back there and get them." You all know we're kidding, right? Maybe you can tell from the socks that these are not exactly our style. Bethany insisted I try them on (so I could experience the pain she was feeling after removing them from her cranky feet?) but I had to be helped to my feet. I would only be able to wear such shoes sitting down.

After hours in the shoe store, we left empty handed. No shoes for us. We're both into comfort, and though there were vegan shoes and boots to be had, none were comfortable enough.

I just want to mention that we have a store in Seattle, The Chocolate Shoebox, that sells vegan shoes and chocolate. It's a great store and I've been there in my quest for boots, but nothing felt right to my hard-to-fit feet. I'm on a quest for boots that are made for walking. Do you have comfortable vegan boots? Suitable for winter? My old ones fell apart.



I was pretty tired after a hard day of shopping, but my youngest son, who recently returned from Europe and is living with us while looking for a job and an apartment, made dinner. He made a most delicious stir-fry. He has been reading and cooking from The Breath of a Wok, a Chinese cookbook that I'll write more about later.

*The third corner of the vegan triangle, across the street from Sidecar, is Pizza Pi, a vegan pizza place. Pizza and much more.

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U.S. pushes cheese sales AND warns about eating too much fat. Go figure.
All joking aside for a moment, this article about the USDA helping Domino's Pizza add more cheese to pizza, is seriously disturbing. Rather than me rewording it here, just go read the article. It's frightening.

Here's a very good response to and summary of the article by Radioactive Vegan.

Monkey see monkey do

young ginger

My husband has been shopping at a Japanese food booth at our local farmers market. I call it Japanese because it's run by a Japanese couple, and they grow and sell mostly Japanese and other Asian vegetables. At this stand we get our kabocha pumpkin as well as other Japanese squashes whose names I can't remember, and Japanese greens such as mizuna, plus roots like daikon. Recently, my husband came home with young ginger. The vendors explained that the ginger root we buy at the store is last year's, while young ginger is this year's crop. It has a thin skin that doesn't need peeling, and is sweeter and more moist. Young ginger has a full ginger flavor but is not astringent or spicy. You can really use a lot without turning the dish harsh. And it's so plump and pretty with small areas of deep purplish color. Zoa has been trying new things every day for veganmofo, and here I am copying her good idea by telling you about a new thing of my own.



Now you might think I'm still copying her because she loves to make hotpots, but really, so do I. I was kind of copying myself by making Japanese stewed vegetables, then changing it up by adding yuba, mizuna and rice noodles, along with tons of young ginger. The yuba sticks were soaked, cut, and stir-fried with a spicy mixture of chili paste, tamari, sweetener and peanut butter, and added to the soup just before serving. I could eat this every night, it was so good.



When I saw Kiersten's recent mofo post about curried fried rice with tofu, I knew just what to do with the leftover rice in my refrigerator. I couldn't find any frozen peas but edamame worked just fine. She didn't print a recipe, but the inspiration of her beautiful photo was all I needed.



This last dish was my husband's doing. It's a stir-fry made with pea vines, zucchini, tofu, pepper and young ginger, and he found the recipe here. Don't ask me how he happened to find pea vines this time of year. That's a mystery.

Mofo is driving me a little crazy with all the wonderful things everyone is making and sharing. I want to make nearly everything I see, and keep getting distracted from the task of making my own things to share.

Happy cooking. See you again on Monday!

Object of lust finally acquired

I just can't understand what took me so long to do this post. After all, I acquired something I'd been wanting, dreaming about, lusting after, for such a long time, and when I finally got it ... no mention. I've been holding out, keeping it to myself, enjoying it day after day without sharing. But now I confess, I just couldn't wait any longer, I got myself a Vitamix. OK, it's a reconditioned one, but sooooooo? I finally gave in to the "lowest price ever" and ordered it in August. My plan was to order and have it sent to me while we were in Wisconsin this past summer, to avoid the ridiculous and regressive 10% sales tax in Seattle. I thought it would be great to be able to make myself smoothies and fruit ice cream all summer. But I waffled and worried over the cost, and whether I "really needed it" so long, that in the end it was too late to get it before we left Madison, so I ordered it and had it sent to Seattle as something to look forward to on our return.

Do I like it? Oh Yes. But it took a few tries before I got the hang of using it, and I made a couple of compost-worthy bloopers before settling in to enjoy a new level of creamy deliciousness. I was fascinated with the idea of making soup in the Vitamix like the happy cooks do in the demo videos, so I assembled a bunch of veggies to test it out. Let me tell you, never put a piece of lime rind, no matter how small, into a blender. The result will be so disgustingly bitter and vile you will have to discard the soup. No amount of guilt over wasted food will get you to eat it. No.

Next I tried to make ice cream. "So easy," gushed the woman in the video. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but but it may have had something to do with ice cubes. I didn't end up with ice cream, but that's all you need to know about that. The good news is that my Vitamix and I have reached an understanding, and now I love it.



The smoothies I used to make with the Kitchenaid were good, but I could always tell they were made with frozen fruit. With the Vitamix, the smoothies are so creamy and smooth, no matter what I put into them, they're more like a milkshake. I put it to the test with some blackberries I had picked and frozen. With the regular blender, the smoothies were seedy, but in the Vitamix, they were smooth.



I made all-fruit ice cream using a banana, frozen blueberries, frozen mango, non-dairy milk, and vanilla. Yes, it was very, very good. Then I made it for company using banana, frozen blueberries and frozen peaches. I made so much that after we stuffed ourselves, there was still some left, so I put it into a covered dish and stored it in the refrigerator. When I found it two days later, it had turned to pudding, and still tasted creamy and great. I've also made cashew cheese that was perfect.



I decided to try making soup again for this post. I started with carrots, celery, garlic, and water in the Vitamix. It takes about seven minutes at high speed to purée and cook soup, but after about three minutes I blended some tahini into the soup and put it into a pot to finish cooking.



I seasoned it with salt, pepper, dill weed, crushed red pepper, coriander, balsamic chili vinegar, and truffle oil.



It was wonderful but I think I prefer my pressure cooker and immersion blender for making soup. It's quieter.



To go with the soup we made pasta with a sauce of Field Roast Mexican sausage, crushed tomatoes and broccoli. Yum.