Smoky Refried Bean Stoup

Day 2 of the MoFo Challenge! Well, yesterday really was a roaring success, I think, and I am so thrilled at the comments I have received here regarding my post! Equally, I was pretty happy that two of my coworkers asked me for the recipes, which shows a little more on their part than simple polite interest. I even managed to have a great conversation with one of them regarding flax seeds as an alternative for chickens' eggs in baking.

Result!

Now, for today's offering, we have smoky refried bean stoup - a cross between a stew and a hearty soup. It comes from Susan over there in the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen and I have to admit it smells divine.

My Beloved went out to our favourite bakery Hungry Ghost Bread at lunchtime and bartered some freshly minted Greenbacks for a loaf of their spectacular 'Country Wheat', a veritable feast of a loaf and just one of the multitude of reasons why I could not, would not, go raw!

*******Food Porn Alert!!*******

Look at that crust:




And here's the final dish:



Thickened by the refried beans, packed with home-cooked black beans, redolent with chipotle chili, Hungarian smoked paprika and roasted garlic and topped with a sprig of fresh Thai Basil.....Yum!

OK, am off to eat it now while watching the VP debacle...oops..sorry...debate!

Stay Vegan, Friends!

Happy World Vegetarian Day, 2008!

I am off to a blazing start on this MoFo Challenge! Today, dear reader, as you probably know is World Vegetarian Day and, in anticipation thereof, I devised a cunning plan. It was breath-taking in its simplicity: offer great vegan baked goods and they will come!

Yeah, and when they showed up, I also had available some brochures from Vegan Outreach and some podcast sampler CDs from Compassionate Cooks. Let me explain....

Last night I spent most of the evening baking. I made scores of mini chocolate-orange cupcakes, battalions of carrot cake mini cupcakes, great troughs of chocolate-raspberry chewie cookies and hods of ginger sparkle cookies. The overall haul looked like this:



and these were my supplemental materials:



and



Devious, no?

So, I arrived super-early at work to set it all up. We have a central cafeteria where everyone comes to swipe in, so that seemed like a logical place to host this 'event'. 07:40 in the AM (yeah, I said 'super early!) saw me spreading leaflets and CDs on the table, uncovering cakes, pinning flyers to notice boards and generally having a great time. As you can see, this whole event was carefully orchestrated. I took these pix and stole quietly away.

The general scene:



...and a close up or two:







Anyways, it was not long before folks were happily tucking into the food and by mid morning there was - by all accounts - only a single, solitary choc-orange mini cupcake left. People were obviously too polite to take the last one, methinks! At lunchtime, however, I peeped into the cafeteria to take stock and beheld a scene of utter devastation. Not a single crumb remained!

But even better than that, approx. two thirds of the outreach materials had been picked up and 24 out of 30 podcast sampler CDs had also been accepted. Which means, I hope, that the whole experience provided not only a mid-week morale boost and a tempting, semi-healthy snack but also great Food for Thought.

Which is, of course, what it's all about.

A great day to be vegan, friends!
:)

Not Your Momma's Cupcakes...

After something of a lull, I am back to blogging and hope that the upcoming MoFo challenge will reinvigorate me for two of the things I love best in the world: cooking great vegan goodies and boasting about them! I think I must already be feeling the effects because, at lunchtime today, I took a deep breath and signed up to become an Iron Cupcake.

Yes, you *did *read that correctly: an Iron Cupcake!

The website happily proclaims:

This is the central hub for the ultimate world-wide cupcake competition. A monthly ingredient, a monthly challenge, fabulous prizes, new ways to find other cupcake fanatics just like yourself.

And, as far as I can see, the idea is that each month a new ingredient is proposed for inclusion within those little packets of fun we call cupcakes. From the IC site, the challenge:

is a way for bakers from anywhere, all over the world, to take place in the ultimate flavor challenge and promote world peace, one cupcake at a time.

Last month's challenge was basil - a herb more commonly considered in connection with stewed tomatoes and with pesto than with cupcakes, I suspect. However, I learned of it through Vegan_Noodle and was inspired both by her creative use of this wonderful leaf and her subverse thumbing-of-the-nose at Hurricane Ike. So, now I want in! I have emailed the IC folks and begged to be included on their blogroll so hopefully we will soon see Cackleberry listed there too.

Bring on the next challenge: I am ready!

Oh, and Stay Vegan, Friends!

MoFo!

MoFo? Nah, not what you're thinking! In fact, this refers to the 'Vegan Month of Food' - for October this year! The idea is that we vegan bloggers completely inundate and overwhelm the blogosphere with accounts of deliriously delicious, fantastically fabulous, exquisitely edible vegan food....and I am in! I pledge to blog about food - specifically - every weekday for the month of October. For those of us who are 'math-challenged', that's 20 times within 31 days! But, you know what? I will do it.

Today, in preparation, I baked. Lots. And took pix to document this endeavor. On the menu were cranberry orange scones, low-fat banana and chocolate chip bread and vegan sausage and peanut butter biscotti - the latter for my precious pooches, Darwin the Dog and Sir Humphrey Hound. Facing the scones and banana/choc chip bread, My Beloved is speechless and managed to snivel only the following:

I want one. I want it NOW! And it's not fair, because I haven't had my dinner so I can't have my dessert!

There will be pix and recipes available during the month of MoFo...so check back frequently.

I am so excited I can barely speak - let alone type!

Stay Vegan, Friends!

Today is my Vegan-versary!

Today is my Vegan-versary!

My Vegan Birthday!

I am one year old today!!

Yes folks it is exactly *a year* since I first stumbled across the truth about how we treat the animals that wind up on our dinner plates. Then it was shocking....and it still is. Over the course of the year, I have learned more, cried more, raged more, become stronger, and consolidated my understanding of the issues. I have learned to cook in a new, fresh, exciting ways that have reinvigorated my diet and passion for food. I have dropped a few pounds, although not nearly as many as I would have liked! (Perhaps in this way I have contributed to debunking the myth that all vegans are sickly and thin? I certainly am not!)

I have made new friends, read new books, brought my values to a new workplace and have volunteered my time and skills in new endeavours. I have come to see the world and my place in it through a different lens: one that highlights the connections between all living things and the contradictions of our all too human behaviour; one that rejects the selective compassion of cuddling pet dogs while eating hot dogs; one that understands the social crutches of 'tradition' and 'habit' as excuses for selfish taste preferences and elitism.

And so, with a nod to that once ubiquitous Mastercard ad....

Number of days since going vegan: 365
Number of new cookbooks gleefully purchased: 17
Number of factory-farmed land animals not eaten by me: 35.7

Living in harmony with my conscience: Priceless

Stay Vegan, Friends!

"The Face on Your Plate"

One of my favourite authors, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, is at it again. Not content with tempting me from afar with exotic visions of the Antipodes (New Zealand specifically), now he's written a new book that I can barely wait to get my sticky paws on!



From his website, I learned the following:

I have finished The Face on Your Plate, The Truth About Food, a book about vegetarianism and veganism, which will be published in March 2009 by W.W. Norton. Here is the table of contents:

Introduction: The Gold Standard is Green
1: The Only World We Have
2: The Lives They Lead
3: The Fishy Business of Aquaculture
4: Denial
5: A Day in the Life of a Vegan

Given the quality of Masson's previous research and writing, and his commitment to veganism, this is sure to be an outstanding work to add to the compassionate cannon!

Stay Vegan, Friends!

Is raw where it's at for you?

I'm a big fan of Happy Cow - no, not Happy Meat - Happy Cow, the online resource for locating vegetarian and vegan restaurants and stores worldwide. I have used it several times to find somewhere to eat and have resolved always to post reviews of culinary experiences to help build out their database.

So, with that in mind, I've just submitted my review of Grezzo, a raw vegan restaurant in Boston that I visited last weekend with My Beloved and our good friends C and D. This is what I had to say:

Last weekend, I visited Grezzo with friends from out of town. This was my intro to raw food and it was great in many ways. We mainly opted for the sampler menu - many courses, small portions - and were delighted by how much food apppeared. The quality seemed excellent (although, ofc ourse, I have nothing to guage it against!) and the staff were superbly knowledgable, friendly and helpful. The plates looked like mini works of art and often it seemed a shame to eat them.

On this occasion, the chef's taster menu included soups - Mushroom Tea, Thai Hot and Spicy Coconut - appetizers - Grezzo Sliders, Pickled Asparagus Salad, Gnocchi carbonara - salads, and entrees - Tomato Ravioli, Land and Sea, and Lobster Mushroom Fettucini.

The ravioli was nice but way too simple to be a good menu choice. The Land and Sea was a complex dish, artfully presented and delicious, and my husband - initially the most skeptical of our group - particularly liked his entree: the lobster mushroom fettucini which was finished with a saffron 'cream' sauce.

The desserts were wonderful and really, if we have the chance to go again, I think I'll be tempted to skip straight to them! I had the choc brownie sundae with home-made gelato and ultimately had to share with everyone - it was soooo good! The rest of the party opted for the Mexican Chocolate Torte which was good, but heavy on the hot pepper!

Of the experience in general, my husband made an intriguing observation: with raw food, there is little smell. Since smelling the food is part and parcel of enjoying its taste, I guess this was the only thing that counted against it. Of course that's not a critique of Grezzo as much as of the genre of food.

The venue itself is ridiculously small: 'cozy' is an desperate understatement. The few tables really are crowded together and the plush overstuffed dining chairs are a luxury the space cannot really afford.

Overall, it was an excellent intro to raw food and, if you are interesting in dipping your toes in that particular pond, Grezzo is a great place to do it!

Although we definitely all enjoyed the food, the chance to meet with our friends and spend a chunk of time catching up was certainly the best part! Given the circumstances, I think I would have enjoyed a veggie burger and fries on Boston Common just as much, as long as the company was the same! And I am relieved that I have not developed a sudden urge to 'go raw' in the same way as I was overcome with the need to go vegan almost a year ago. My Beloved, too, is breathing a hefty sign of relief, especially as we have just purchased that 'sales-tax free stove'.....

Raw food is fine - delicious, nutritious and all that jazz. Don't let anyone kid you that it's all grated carrots and sprouts - that is a tremendous dis-service to the whole ethic. But I do think that it's also somewhat contrived - 'ravioli' and 'fettucini' dishes without pasta? Hmmm...I know that raw foodists will disagree and that the same skeptical criticism is levelled against faux meats/meat analogs/mock meats/whatever you want to call them. And I eat those things happily, given the chance! But I remain unpersuaded by the whole raw deal. Perhaps it is because the basis of my veganism is ethical and springs from a horror of the atrocities committed against farmed animals and a refusal to partake in or support the industry. It does not spring from health concerns and so the additional nutrition benefits derived from raw veganism just don't cause too big a blip on my radar.

But if raw is where it's at for you, more power to you. And if so, visit Grezzo - the staff really is wonderful and you will be very well looked after.

Main thing is - whether cooked or uncooked - stay vegan, friends!

Because we obviously have the monopoly in emotions....

Featured in today's Telegraph...

'Astonishing video footage from a zoo in Germany of a female gorilla grieving for her dead baby.'

Click here for video.

Why is this 'astonishing'???

A Squandered Opportunity....

OK, so I fluffed it.

As readers of earlier posts will perhaps know, I was contacted by the Technology and Business Reporter, Curt Nickisch, of WBUR Boston's NPR station. He was preparing a short piece on the (then) upcoming sales tax holiday (last weekend) and had spotted my blog reference to the planned purchase of a new stove ('Rhubarb Rhubarb').

I was awash with excitement but in classic Amanda-style, I managed to allow my nerves to overwhelm me to the point that I utterly forgot the useful things I had lined up to say. Part of the problem was that he called me at work where the atmosphere is not exactly conducive to quiet chats recorded for the radio - what with the inane pager going off at all times. So conscious that this could occur at any moment, and painfully aware of my (wonderful) colleagues sitting having to listen to my every oven-related comment, I was stumped for what to say.

Yes, I had this marvelous opportunity to tell the dear gentleman all about how **since becoming vegan** I have a renewed interest in and passion for food and cooking. How crowding out (as Erik Marcus says) the animal bodies from my diet has allowed me to learn new techniques, develop new tastes and to savour new pleasures. How much of a shame it is that he lives in Boston because **Western Massachusetts** is where it's at for awesome vegan baking - especially once we get this dang stove hooked up!

But did I say that?
Any of it?

No.

But lesson learned. Having spent all evening rueing my missed opportunity I resolved to let it go. But next time - and there will be a next time - I will be more prepared, more empowered and I will speak my truth.

To hear what I did manage to blurt out, click here and follow the link....

http://www.wbur.org/news/2008/79433_20080815.asp

And, whether in Radioland or elsewhere, Stay Vegan, Friends!
:)

Wha Guru for me!

I wish, I wish I had a photo of the actual chewie bar I discovered yesterday at my local coop, but sadly it was gone in an instant. So here's the manufacturer's official image of this heavenly little treat:



With several varieties in the line and an excellent price point (I think I paid 89cents), Wha Guru Chews are my new favourite snacky friend! Although they don't have a 'certified vegan' stamp, the one I tried (Almond and Ginger) containes only Brown Rice Syrup, Evaporated Cane Juice, Almonds, Sunflower Seeds, High Oleic Safflower Oil, Crystallized Ginger Pieces, Almond Butter, Wheat Germ, Ginger Root Powder, Sea Salt, Soy Lecithin, Natural Lemon Flavor.

But I tell ya - I was blown away by how wonderful it was. I just wish the 1.13oz bars were bigger!

Try them!

Amd stay vegan, friends!