An Homage to Root Vegetables.

 Ok, so I clearly sucked at Mofo. I lost my steam, got busy, got sick and just got lazy. Next year I will definitely be more prepared. And motivated. I still have TONS of back reading to do on the MOFO blogs. The short time I did participate was really great though, I got to read a million new blogs, chat with some really amazing and talented bloggers, got some new readers and bookmarked some really great recipe ideas that I am excited to try out in the weeks and months to come.

I really am going to make more of an effort to keep up with consistently blogging because it is my baby. I love it, but I have definitely been neglecting it. Instead of feeling guilty and not doing anything about it, here I am. I'm back and I'm not going away again!

Moving on...

I love the Boston Vegetarian Society. This is not my first blog post about an event I've attended and it will certainly not be the last! It really is a great group aiming to promote a vegetarian way of life(all of the events I have been to have been all vegan.) They organize tons of events at local vegetarian and vegan restaurants, have monthly speakers, cooking classes, holiday outings and more. They are also the group that organizes the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. It's really great to see such a diverse community of vegetarians and vegans gathering to enjoy one of the things we are most passionate about, food.

Last night's dinner was being held at Veggie Planet, a really great veg restaurant in Harvard Square. I met up with my lovely mother and brother's girlfriend(both vegetarians, yay! Gillian is part of the reason I ended up going veg myself. More on that in another post.) and took the subway to Harvard Square. When we walked up the steps to the street and I felt the first snow flakes of the season gently falling down I experienced the same excitement that kids do when they wake up to so much snow that school gets canceled. I love snow but I can't remember ever feeling like I did tonight. In the crowd of bustling people I enthusiastically exclaimed, "It's snowing!" to which a random person with equal enthusiasm replied, "It is!" I literally did a little jump, threw my arms up in the air and shouted "It's Christmas time!!" Ha. There is something about being in Boston during a light, beautiful snowfall that I can't explain, but love. Sadly the snow stopped during dinner and there was no evidence of it ever occurring as we walked back to the train.

On to the food...

They weren't serving their normal menu(which I love), instead it was an all vegan Homage to Root Vegetables. It was a 4 course prixe-fixe menu all featuring a root vegetable as the main ingredient. The first course was Four Onion Soup with Olive Compote Crostini. I don't know how to describe the soup without sounding confusing but it was a very light soup with very few ingredients yet very hearty, if that's possible? It also had a slight tang to it that I can't figure out but it was a great flavor. On top of the soup was the crostini. It was perfectly toasted and piled with the olive compote with almonds. The mixture of the soft, salty olives with the crunchy almonds was amazing. After sitting on top of the steaming soup for a few minutes the crostini went from perfectly toasted to perfectly chewy, they way a good piece of bread should be in soup. I could have had have definitely had another bowl or two...

The second course was Roasted Fennel and Golden Beets with Roasted Garlic Dressing and Mixed Greens. Wow. I love beets so much but have never had golden ones, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't know if they would taste the exactly like red beets or something completely different. I am very happy to say that they taste just like the red ones, but without all the red staining! Fennel on the other hand, until this plate, I could have gone the rest of my life without having it ever again and been happy. I hate licorice and everything that has even the slightest licorice taste to it but the fennel in this dish was great. It didn't have the flavor I was expecting, and that is a good thing. I am going to give fennel another chance. They were both roasted perfectly and slightly warm on a bed of mixed greens.
 

 The third course was supposed to be Baked Potato Gnocchi with Cashew Sour Cream Sauce, Chives and Fried Crimini Mushrooms. I say 'supposed to be' because the chef had come out to announce there was a problem with the gnocchi when they dropped it in the water, it was falling apart so they had to toss it out. Luckily they did have whole wheat macaroni elbows so they cooked those up and tossed them with the cashew sauce, chives and topped with the mushrooms. The sauce was nice and thick, it clung perfectly to each elbow. It also had this citrus-y background flavor and while we couldn't figure out what it was(I'm assuming lemon) it added the perfect amount of zest to the sauce and made it feel a little lighter. We all agreed that even though it was delicious, and quite possibly one of my personal favorites of the night, we were glad it was only a small serving. Otherwise, we could have, and probably would have eaten mountains of it.

 

 The last course was Sweet Potato Pie with Brown Sugar Ice Cream. I've never been a fan of sweet potato pie but this was pretty good. The best part was the ice cream, especially when I mixed it all up with the walnut crumble on top of the pie. I can't remember but I am pretty sure it was a rice milk ice cream.

 

All in all it was another successful BVS event and I am really looking forward to the next one!

Vegan MoFo - BBQ Seitan and Ice Cream Sandwiches

I've been going nonstop all day it feels good to finally sit down and blog! My day started an hour earlier than I would have liked it to thanks to the Daylight Savings Time stuff. I thought clocks switched tonight but apparently it was last night. I had my alarm clock set for 8 so when it went off and I started getting out of bed I looked at my cell phone and realized it was really only 7. I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn't. Usually if I wake up earlier than I need to, or just don't feel like getting up, I can stay in bed and Gizmo will stay sleeping. The second I lift my head, sit up or make any noise she is wide awake and in my face ready to go. That's what happened this morning. I'll just go to bed a little earlier than normal tonight to make up for it.

Even though I've been going going going all day, I've been home and in my sweats so that was a plus. And I got to spend a lot of time with my dogs, even bigger plus. I started my day with a few small buckwheat pancakes that my mom made. I was a little hesitant because I always imagined buckwheat as a bland starchy thing but I was wrong. These little pancakes she made were great. Even just plain, which is how I had my first two. My third had a little smear of Earth Balance and a drizzle of agave nectar. I am definitely going to be looking more into using buckwheat now!

After breakfast I decided to make use of the new running gear I got so I leashed up my 12 year old bloodhound and went for an hour long walk/jog/run. It was really cold out, he's old and I'm out of shape so we alternated. Hopefully if I/we keep up with it, it will be more running than walking!

I spent the rest of my day cooking, doing dishes, making Gizmo's food for the next month and stoking the fire for Gizmo and Dain to lay in front of it all afternoon.

While Gimli followed me everywhere I went, ALL day.

Today was the day I decided I was going to face my seitan fears and just make it. I didn't want to do anything too complicated with it since it was my first time so I went with the Simple Seitan recipe in Veganomicon. After I mixed everything together I started getting a little discouraged because it didn't look appetizing, at all, but I was determined to see this through.

After I got it boiled, simmered, strained and cooled I took a cutlet out of the fridge and sliced it up

While I had the seitan simmering, I was also making the Backyard BBQ Sauce from Veganomicon. It has been years since I have made homemade BBQ sauce so I was really excited about this. I did make a few changes though. I used shallots instead of onion, I added wayyyyy more garlic than the original 4 cloves, I used brown sugar instead of white, apple cider vinegar instead of white, no liquid smoke, can of diced tomatoes with zesty jalapenos, and a healthy squirt of ketchup. I let that simmer for the entire hour the seitan was cooking and when it was done I threw it in the Vitamix to smooth it out. This is a really versatile sauce that can be changed however you like, mine came out more of a sweet and spicy version which is just fine with me.

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I wasn't really hungry for a meal but I was really anxious to try the seitan so I took my slices and lightly fried them in a skillet. When they were heated through I gave them a coating of the BBQ sauce and cooked for another minute or two. While that was cooking I grated some Follow Your Heart Monterey Jack and warmed a pocketless pita in the microwave. It made the perfect little snack wrap. The seitan was perfectly firm but still tender. And also slightly chewy and meaty. I will definitely make it a few more times exactly as the recipe is to make sure I have the hang of it before I start changing and adding things. All in all my first time seitan was a sucess. I don't what I've been so afraid of!

Prior to eating my snack wrap, while the the BBQ sauce and seitan were still cooling in the fridge I decided to make some ice cream sandwiches. I started out with the basic chocolate chip cookie recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar but added a little dash of cinnamon to the dough. Usually when I make these cookies I am able to roll them into little balls in my hand so I figured these would be perfect because I'd be able to control the size and shape better than a regular drop cookie. For some reason todays batch did not want to be rolled at all. It was a gooey mess when I tried. I quickly gave up and grabbed and ice cream scoop. I did my best to make sure they were all the same size and shape even though I knew they were going to spread alot more than normal due to the wetter than usual dough. They still came out great, albeit a little thinner than usual due to the spreading. After the cookies cooled I pulled a pint of my favorite coconut ice cream out of the freezer and went to work scooping the ice cream and pressing the cookies together. Once they were pressed together I rolled them in flaked coconut, wrapped them up and tossed them in the freezer. I just had one and it was the perfect little dessert. Two cookies and a small serving of ice cream all together in a sandwich? Yes, please.

That, my friends, was the perfect end to a long day in the kitchen.