Monday, November 09, 2009

A Feast to be Thankful For

The Triangle Vegetarian Society is now taking reservations for its 2009 Thanksgiving feast, with seatings from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Cafe Parizade in Durham. Also, for the first time this year, there will be a 6 p.m. seating at Spice Street restaurant in Chapel Hill.

The society believes that this is the largest vegatarian Thanksgiving celebration in the country. After attending last year, I can certainly believe that! It was crowded—but a friendly, enjoyable crowd. And the food was delicious—and all vegan. It is certainly worth the cost ($26.50 for adults who aren’t members of the Triangle Vegetarian Society) and the drive. In fact, people from as far away as Illinois have already made their reservations for this year. If you go, be sure to try the lime-marinated seared seitan!

Monday, October 05, 2009

Vegan at the fair

Yes, it’s actually possible to get something vegan and relatively healthy at the Dixie Classic Fair! (Besides the spiral-cut apples near Yesterday Village, that is.)

I was thrilled to find out that there is a new booth this year, Island Noodles, which serves soba noodles (no egg) stir-fried with 21 different kinds of vegetables. It’s $6, and they dish it up in a large paper cup, which makes it possible to eat as you’re walking. They offer the choice of a fork or chopsticks, as well as hot sauce and soy sauce to add if you wish (IMO, they needed neither). Vegetables I identified: carrots, sugar snap peas, snow peas, edamame, cabbage, celery, red pepper, baby corn, onion, bok choy and spinach. Not only was it very filling, it tasted great—I would be happy to have it at a sit-down restaurant, let alone the fair.

The small booth is at the intersection of two rows of food nearest Yesterday Village, across from the decidedly nonvegan Mr. K’s Chuckwagon and the story tent. If you’re at the fair, I heartily encourage you to get some of the noodles, to support a vegan option at the fair!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Autumn bounty

Tuesday marked the offical start of autumn, which fills me with ambivalence. I hate that the days are shorter and that it’s now dark when I leave work. The shivering specter of winter lurks on the horizon, a scourge to my cold-natured constitution.

And yet I love the vibrant colors of fall leaves, and I’m excited at the prospect of the holidays (Halloween is my favorite). I love so many of the foods of autumn. Pumpkins, winter squash, apples, pears and cranberries are some of my favorite foods and ingredients to cook with. They’re tasty, warming and comforting. I recently bought a collection of autumn recipes, and I’m looking forward to trying out a lot of them.

To get you ready for the flavors of fall, here are a few vegetarian autumn-foods collections online:

The Vegetarian Society, heavy on potatoes and mushrooms.
The Veggie Table, with a wide variety of dishes and ingredients.
About.com, lots of strictly pumpkin-related recipes.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Hatchery horrors

The group Mercy for Animals has posted the results of its new undercover investigation of a huge hatchery for egg-laying hens, where about 300,000 chicks hatch each day. At every step of the way, these babies are treated like unfeeling things, or like trash. They are roughly, mechanically separated from their eggshells, then sorted by sex. The females have parts of their beaks cut off; and the males—useless from the egg industry’s point of view—are tossed into machines that grind them up alive.

These horrors are only the start of a lifetime of suffering for egg-laying hens. An MFA investigation earlier this year captured evidence of abuses of hens at an egg farm.

These are shocking videos—wrenching and unbearable. And they should be required viewing for anyone who eats eggs.

Friday, August 28, 2009

A worthwhile read

Time magazine’s Aug. 31 cover story, “Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food,” details the consequences of conventional agriculture on the environment, farmed animals, and human health. As it says:

“The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans. Those hidden prices are the creeping erosion of our fertile farmland, cages for egg-laying chickens so packed that the birds can’t even raise their wings and the scary rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among farm animals. Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming—our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy.
“And perhaps worst of all, our food is increasingly bad for us, even dangerous.”

Clearly an effective way to help mitigate these problems would be for Americans to eat fewer animal products, but the article barely mentions that. Still, it is heartening to see a mainstream magazine take a serious look at the issue. The article can be read online here.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Raw Deal

Judging by the number of books on raw foods showing up in local stores recently, the trend has arrived in our area. And the timing is good: Summer is an ideal season to experiment with raw food. Fresh vegetables and fruits abound, plus it’s a treat to eat without using heat. So recently the Big M and I have been trying a lot of raw recipes.

I almost wrote “cookbooks on raw foods” in the first sentence of this post, until I realized that sounds like a contradiction in terms. But raw-food recipes, like all recipes, can range from the simple to the elaborate. We’ve been relying heavily on Jennifer Cornbleet’s Raw Food Made Simple for 1 or 2 People. It finds a happy medium, with attractive and tasty recipes that call for easy-to-find ingredients and common kitchen equipment, and don’t take too much time to prepare.

The fruit desserts are special treats. I’ve often thought it a shame to cook fresh fruit, even to make a pie out of it. Raw desserts sidestep that problem. Cornbleet’s tropical fruit tart is possibly the best thing I’ve ever put into my mouth. This one has a coconut crust, with pineapple filling, topped with raspberries and blueberries …

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The icy hand of fate

First a friend gave me some black-raspberry ice cream she had made from berries that we picked during a trip to the mountains. It was delicious, and she said she has been having a lot of fun making ice cream.

Next, I came across Wheeler del Torro’s new book, The Vegan Scoop, chock-full of recipes for non-dairy ice creams in flavors ranging from vanilla to wasabi. Tempting … but I resisted, since I lacked an ice-cream maker.

Then I came across a used ice-cream maker – a Cusinart, no less - for $10. Clearly fate was pointing me toward homemade ice cream. And when fate points to something so pleasant, who am I to resist? I bought the maker, dashed over to the bookstore to get The Vegan Scoop, and finally to the store for the soy milk, soy creamer and arrowroot powder that form the base of most of the recipes in the book.

It was so easy to make a batch of Cherries Jubilee (fresh cherries and almonds in a vanilla base) - and it was so enjoyable - that I’m already thinking about the possibilities of an H.P. Lovecraft ice cream social. The old gentleman loved ice cream, as the story of him and two friends sampling all 28 flavors available at a parlor one afternoon in 1927 attests.

In addition to the fun of making the vegan ice cream, it will be interesting to experiment with such possibilities as making low-sugar ice cream, using stevia or artificial sweeteners; or making raw-foods ice cream….

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

It’s that time of year when Southern gardens put forth their bounty of tomotoes, and gardeners press the extras onto their friends, neighbors, co-workers and anyone who happens to be passing by. I can’t seem to grow much of anything else in my small garden, but tomatoes—now those I can do! Last year was a bit of a down year for my tomatoes, but they’re going great guns this year. I made a point to do a variety of kinds this year: one each of Early Girl, Lemon Boy, Sweet Tangerine and Jet Star of the bigger size, and of the smaller size, my standby Juliet grape tomatoes (they approach small Roma size and always do well for me) and, new this year, yellow pear tomatoes that hang from the branches like Christmas lights, to steal my co-blogger Julie’s description.

I’ve had many of that Southern summer staple, the tomato sandwich. I’ve tossed them into big green salads. I’ve made salsa and tomato sauce. But my favorite way to use up the bounty is with a salad of tomato and fresh mozzarella, sprinkled with chiffonaded basil also from my garden. This year I got the brainstorm to add some avocado to the mix, and I think that’s a fine addition. Here’s my simple recipe (I never measure, just throw what amount of the ingredients looks right in a bowl):

Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Salad
Grape tomatoes, cut into halves or thirds, depending on the size
Fresh mozzarella balls, cut into roughly the same size at the tomatoes
Firm, ripe avocado, cut into bite size
Good-quality olive oil
Red-wine vinegar (you could use balsamic, but I prefer red-wine for this)
Chiffonaded basil (cut into strips)
Freshly ground black pepper

I’m always looking for new ideas to use up my tomatoes, so I’d love some suggestions from readers!

Friday, July 10, 2009

New vegetarian restaurant

I just discovered that a new vegetarian restaurant, Butternut Squash, has recently opened at University Square in Chapel Hill. I’m so jealous of towns that have not one, but two, vegetarian restaurants! Not to mention the copious vegetarian-friendly restaurants. I loved Sage Vegetarian Cafe when I ate there and have been yearning to go back. But now I’ll have to check out the new place next time I visit. Oh, to have choices! I may just have to stay long enough for lunch AND dinner….

Check out Butternut Squash’s Web site here.

If any readers have visited, give us a report!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

A toast to the Fourth

The annual July 4 cookout is right around the corner; and vegetarians need not fear. Cookouts can be suitable for vegetarians of all tastes, from those interested in creating fabulous feasts like the spread described by Vegetarians in Paradise to the lazy veggies like me, who go the veggie-dog and chips-n-dip route.

The most labor-intensive part of my contributions to the cookout will be the onion dip, which will involve making a double-batch of Jo Stepaniak’s vegan sour cream and stirring in an envelope of Lipton onion soup mix. Stepaniak’s recipes in such books as Vegan Vittles and The Uncheese Cookbook include many outstandingly satisfying replacements for dairy products, such as:

VEGAN SOUR CREAM (recipe from Vegan Vittles)
1. 10.5 oz box firm silken tofu
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sweetener
1/2 tsp salt
Blend in a blender till very smooth.

This July 4 will bring a nifty new taste to test: vegan marshmallows to toast over the grill. They’re called Dandies, from the Chicago Soy Dairy. The French Broad Co-op in Asheville was my source for these, and so far is the only store I’ve found that carries them. They are tasty little morsels straight from the bag, so it’ll be nice to see how they do toasted. I’ll let you know—

What kind of veggie treats are you planning for the Fourth?