I emerge from silence with this message:

90% of the time being a vegetarian is a non-issue. I go to restaurants and they usually have at least one veggie thing. In fact, going to a restaurant where I have more than one choice is pretty overwhelming; I'm not used to having any selection.

In restaurants where there are no veggie choices I can usually ask them if they can combine two veggie items that I see on the menu. For example: sub the chicken with pan-fried mushrooms with the pasta alfredo.

Some weeks I have to eat an awful lot of grilled cheese. Unfortunately it's usually American Cheeze, but at least it's veggie. I never make grilled cheese at home anymore to offset the imbalance.

So that's okay.

None of this is true in Big Rapids. Or, so it seems, in highway rest stops. The one nice restaurant in Big Rapids doesn't have a single vegetarian item on their lunch menus. They will sub tofu for meat on some of their pasta dishes.... but the price doesn't change when you loose the meat. The last time I went there with my coworkers I paid $16 for a small plate of spaghetti and tofu (it didn't come with any salad or bread). I tried to eat only half of it because it was so expensive, and ended up starving an hour later. I really enjoy networking with my coworkers over lunch, but not at that price.

My other recent example is the Panda Express at some rest stop in Wisconsin. I used to eat at the PE in college and they had several vegetarian items. Not this place. They literally had chicken in every single dish.
Chicken Lo Mein
Chicken Fried Rice
General Tso's Chicken
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Chicken and Potato
etc etc ad nauseum.


Let's leave off this whole bit where I get on my high horse about animal cruelty and mass food production in the US. Being a vegetarian is my thoughtful choice, being a meat eater might be yours. I hope it's thoughtful.

My point? It is TERRIBLY unhealthy to eat meat at every meal of the day. It is godawful for people's cholesterol, blood pressure, vitamin intake (or lack thereof), fat intake. In short, it will kill you.

And yes, you can get protein and iron from other sources.

The inimitable Michael Pollan said, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants."

What the fuck is wrong with this country? Jeebus.

Make yourself a Mediterranean THING.

Sometimes I just have a hankering for hummus. Or maybe it's my extreme and slightly unreasonable love of pickles (LOVE PICKLES). Either way I make this once in awhile as a non-cooked dish and I mix in whatever's around. It generally includes (but is not limited) to the following:







Mediterran Wrap THING
- Tomatoes either raw diced or roasted.
- Chopped hot banana peppers
- Diced cucumber
- Beans or diced tofu, seitan, or chik patties
- minced cilantro, basil, scallions, parsley WHATEVER
- drizzle of olive oil
- vinegar to taste
- salt to taste
- crushed red pepper or hot sauce to taste
- black pepper to taste
- cumin to taste
- whatever the heck else is in the fridge. Olives are good. Roasted red peppers are good. Raw red peppers are good. Roasted eggplant is my very favorite. Rice, couscous, quinoa. ETC.


Directions
Mix it together and the longer it sits the better it tastes.

Notes
This kind of dish epitomizes my ideas of a healthy meal. A carb (but not too much), raw veggies, vinegar (cause I love it), and a protein of some sort. Utilizes leftovers.



I'm not really sure how people other than myself learn about classic spice and flavor combinations. I know that I read a lot of cookbooks and watched a lot of Food Network (though several years after I stopped cooking). The internet is a big help; you can read about tons of ethnic cooking. Now there's a new book called The Flavor Bible but I found it to be so huge it was hard to read much less cross reference anything.

So per usual, I think the solution is to experiment.

Hail Seitan! All praise Seitan!

Picture 007
Originally uploaded by violi

This was my second attempt at making my own seitan. I tried the boiled method first and it was a disaster... to put it mildly. Soggy sponge disintegrating and dripping soy sauce all over the kitchen. Tried to strain it with cheese cloth to no avail. In truth I suspect the problem is that I've moved a bunch of ingredients 4 times now and that the container I thought was wheat gluten was probably a different flour entirely. As in, who knows?


This time I bought new gluten and tried the baked Seitan o' Greatness recipe from the PPK. I think I baked it at too high a temperature since it was pretty dry to start out with. First I ate it straight. Then I experimented on poor P. and soaked the remaining chunks in BBQ sauce before putting them on my Foreman. To my surprise the chunks soaked up ALL the sauce and then caramelized dramatically. I let them go too long and the sides got very black and hard. Flavor was good but it was rather like trying to eat fiberglass. They're better after rehydrating and chilling in the fridge for a few days.

The thing is that it doesn't matter one that they weren't perfect. As far as I'm concerned I finally got the chemistry to perform as it should and I'll get better with practice.

Seen here: BBQ Seitan w/ Asiago Grits and White-Grrl Southern-Style Garlicky Greens.


Now I'm hardly the first vegetarian blogger to try this experiment. Satisfying regardless.

Hail Seitan!

Last weekend I went crazy and decided that I needed this new book immediately:

So I went out on Friday and without thinking too hard bought a blender, the book, a pint of vanilla ice cream, and a pineapple.

The plan: Pineapples Foster Milkshake STAT.












If you're ever going to spend any significant time with pineapples you really need one of these tools: VacuVin Corer Slicer. I make pineapple salsa sometimes, and drinks. It comes with 3 sizes of blades and if you use a small pineapple you can even serve a drink out of it.










You pretty much screw the tool right into the pineapple and pull! Voila out come your rings!

I used to spend almost an hour dismembering a pineapple by hand. Now, 10min at most.





















Following the book's directions you fry the pineapple slices in butter and brown sugar.

















When they get very brown you add some rum and ignite it. It burned too fast for me to get a picture. But check out the yum.


When it's done burning you add cinnamon and allow it to cool.

Then you puree everything in a blender as finely as possible. It's a delicious sauce as is.

Then you add the ice cream and milk and some more rum.


Black Seal is dark rum that's aged like whiskey in oak barrels. Absolutely the best.

















I drank some, froze more of it into popsicle molds, and froze the rest with extra rum in a cup. Let's just say that I haven't finished any of it yet. Apparently I need friends if I'm going to make milkshakes.

GAH

Today is a red-letter day because I discovered that one of the restaurants in Big Rapids was willing to make a NON-GARDENBURGER vegetarian sandwich for me. Courtney has this fantastic sandwich she orders in diners: a reuben with avocado subbed for the corned beef. They're amazing and usually a great choice to order for some variety and I thank her heartily for introducing me to it. Only problem? Here in rural Michigan you can buy avocados at the grocery store, but none of the restaurants have them.

Except today when I got sick and tired of not talking to anyone outside of work for the past 5days I took myself out to lunch alone at the local non-chain bar and grill. Was just going to get grilled cheese (sick of Gardenburgers) and then noticed that they had avocado add-in and a reuben on the menu. The waitress was super super nice and kept suggesting other things to add to it (presumably an all veggie sandwich couldn't possibly be enough food). Apparently the kitchen staff thought this was an absolutely crazy request.

Which brings me to my last thought here. I am sick to death of everyone thinking that vegetarians are crazy. I JUST DON'T EAT MEAT. That's it. THAT'S ALL. You don't have to cook anything weird for me, like the dreaded oh-so-scary tofu, or try and fail to make seitan. Just something without meat on it. Why is that so hard? Why is it crazy?

GAH GAH GAH.

On the other hand there are frakking Ranier cherries raining from the sky around here. Can't go anywhere without another tempting roadside fruit stand. I'll probably be a little sick tomorrow. Yes, I can eat a whole container by myself while driving home. 3x this week.

Real Sour

Before there was the insidious sour mix you find at every bar there was lemon juice and there was simple syrup. I never buy any of these premade mixes, I just make my own.

Recently I found some Meyer Lemons at a local grocery store, a rare find! Meyer lemons are a cross between a regular lemon and a mandarin orange. They're very fragrant and slightly sweet. If you see them just buy them, very worth it. I also have a bottle of agave nectar on hand that I use sometimes as a liquid sweetener; it has it's own interesting flavor (from the cactus) and it falls lower on the glycemic index. Which means that it's better for you than sugar. Not that I'd go crazy for with it, but it's a nice liquid sweetener (or simple syrup) substitute. I also think it causes less of a hangover. In fact I've had a martini at a very fancy restauraunt that was specifically made with agave nectar.

So here's my drink recipe:

Meyer Lemon Whiskey Sour
1/3 cup meyer lemon juice (squeezed from real lemons)
1/3 cup good whiskey (but not great. I just use JD)
3 Tbsp agave nectar (sub honey or maple syrup if you want)

Directions
1) In a lowball glass (or whatever) add lemon juice and agave nectar and stir till nectar is completely dissolved.
2) Add whiskey
3) Fill with ice, and stir.

Notes
If you can't find Meyer Lemons (and you probably won't since they're already out of season) add 1-2 Tbsp of tangerine, tangelo, or mandarin orange juice.


I'm not sure I can truly describe how delicious this is. I can, however, promise that you'll never buy sour mix again. Yuck!