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Chicagoin’ it Up

/ Kelly / 2 Comments

WHEW.

That was me giving a big huge sigh of relief. My move is complete! We are safely installed in our new place (thanks in part to some hastily hired movers who hauled our two sofas up to the third floor when we utterly failed to do so ourselves)! I can now settle in and enjoy living with two of my favorite people, S and Moria. Yes, Moria is people.

I’ll talk a bit more about that settling process eventually, but for now let me take you back in time. In the midst of our moving preparations, S and I escaped to Chicago for a weekend to visit some friends who moved there a couple months back. I really enjoy Chicago, especially when I’ve got a place to stay right in the city and I’m hanging out with folks who have done all the touristy things already. This trip was pretty relaxed – we saw a movie, went suit-shopping for our friend Aaron (and helped him select one snappy number!), waxed nostalgic at the American Girl Store (I had Addy and Molly, and I loved them both to bits), and just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company. We also ate food. Duh. Half the reason I travel is to try new vegan eats. ;)

First, we headed to Standard India Restaurant for a late dinner on Friday night. I didn’t take pictures (mostly because I wasn’t feeling well at that point), but let it be known that this restaurant is incredibly vegan friendly. The servers are courteous to a fault (seriously – the service was a hair overbearing) and know exactly what vegan means. They typically bring out a small starter soup before your meal, and our server exchanged the non-vegan soup for a delicious chana masala for S and I without our even prompting him. Then, when my pakoras took longer than the rest of the food to arrive, the server gave me a samosa on the house to tide me over.

We all ordered from the a la carte menu rather than do the buffet or thali meal, and I only had the pakoras because I’d actually already eaten dinner. S enjoyed samosas, while our dining companions had something meaty. :) I wish I’d been hungrier, though – the buffet had clearly labeled vegan options that looked fantastic. The food was delicious, perhaps even more so because the restaurant is BYOB and our server kept our wine glasses filled at all times. ;) The only slightly unpleasant aspect was the very irritated reaction a server had when we asked if he could prioritize running our credit cards because we were running late for a movie. I think it was because the restaurant is fairly traditional and prides itself on its slow, impeccable customer service, and he perhaps felt offended by our rush to leave. Still, his knee-jerk look of irritation was off-putting. Beyond that, though, it was a pleasant experience with good food and attentive service.

The next morning, we broke our fast at Handlebar, a vegetarian and very vegan-friendly hipster-tastic establishment with a great variety of sandwiches, breakfast foods, and traditional (and not so traditional) bar food (fried pickles?!?). I enjoyed a cup of coffee and these melt-in-your-mouth tender slices of French toast:

Toast-tastic.

This was remarkably filling, for being only two triangles of toast! It was actually a side order, and I complemented it with a side order of breakfast potatoes. They were perhaps the least memorable part of my meal, because the toast was just so delicious and the potatoes were pretty average. I love that the French toast came with pure maple syrup, too. So yummy. S also wholly enjoyed his breakfast – biscuits and gravy:

Vegan Bloody Mary in the background!

That seitan sausage gravy was a savory, meaty treat! I’ve never really encountered biscuits &andgravy before, but now I see why so many people love this meal – more on that later! S thoroughly appreciated the opportunity to consume a veganized version of this meal, and I felt the same way about my delicious French toast. If only Handlebar had a location in Madison – I’d be brunchin’ it up all the time!

Because we brunched around 11:00, we didn’t have a full lunch. Instead, we stopped at Big Bowl after finishing our suit shopping for some refreshing drinks and appetizers. A couple of them are vegan; S and I shared summer rolls and… something else I can’t remember. But we ate light because we were saving our appetites for dinner. We’d intended to head to Karyn’s on Green for a fancy-pants meal, but the timing didn’t work out so we decided to hit up Native Foods instead. I never say no to Native Foods!

My stomach wasn’t terribly happy by the time we got there, and I knew I needed something loaded with veggies. The Soul Bowl was the perfect choice. It’s a big gigantic bowl of brown rice, red beans, steamed broccoli & kale, ranch sauce, BBQ sauce, and a couple pieces of Native Chicken. And by “a couple pieces” I mean one normal piece lying atop the bed of veggies and one skewered, BBQ-slathered piece proudly standing tall like a fake-meat tower:

A majestic sight.

Insane, right? And a HUGE amount of food! I barely got through half this bowl, which meant I had lunch ready for work the next Monday. Win! It was just what my upset tummy ordered – veggie-rich and delicious. I could’ve done with a little less ranch sauce, but I’m a big weirdo who’s not actually very fond of ranch.

S and one of our dining companions ordered the Portobello and Sausage Burger, which happened to be the special, so S enjoyed a free side of sweet potato fries. We all shared the Native Nachos as an appetizer, and they were fantastic – the Native Chipotle Crema and Native Cheese made for an appropriately cheesy platter, and the entire dish was loaded with guac, veggies, black beans, and taco meat. Perfection.

S and I rounded out our meal with dessert to go – a Peanut Butter Parfait for S and a Double Delight Brownie for me. We saved them for later and enjoyed them while watching a movie. The brownie was nothing to write home about, but it was certainly worth $2.95. I very much appreciate the accessible prices at Native Foods – no $7.00 desserts there!

The next morning, we all brunched at The Chicago Diner before S and I headed back to Madison. I was extremely excited to finally eat there – it’s a veggie institution, but in all my visits to Chicago I’ve never made it there! (Although S did bring me back a treat that one time.) We all sat in their semi-outdoors back patio area, which is fully covered by a yellow tent. Hence the lack of pictures – the tent gave my pictures a hideous, radioactive mustardy glow that made all the food look very unappetizing. However, it was very appetizing indeed. I stuck with my brunchy theme of ordering sides and had a bowl of fruit and a small plate of biscuits and gravy. Y’all, I’m totally sold on this biscuits and gravy dish – it’s so perfect! It’s got a carby element that’s undeniably welcome at breakfast time, it’s savory and filling, and it’s incredibly satisfying to mop up that salty gravy with a flaky biscuit. S also had the biscuits and gravy, and rated them on par with those at Handlebar.

After our meal, S and I got two cinnamon buns to go, and we stickily devoured them on the drive back. They were melty, sweet, soft, and totally perfect. Chicago Diner, I think I like you.

For a two night, one point five day stay in Chicago, this trip was full of noteworthy eats. Our hosts were incredibly gracious in accommodating our veganism, never once complaining about being forced to eat mostly meat-free for a weekend. Our friend Aaron remarked a few times that the non-meat in his meals was good and not really noticeably fake, and I think both our hosts enjoyed all our meals. So hooray for Chicago and its omni-friendly veg eating establishments!

Where have you traveled lately? How do your omni friends react to eating at veg restaurants?

What’s in the Box? Summer 2012 CSA Week Two

/ Kelly / 6 Comments

Oh my – it’s already been two weeks since we received our first CSA share! This share is a little less bountiful than the previous one, but I’m not complaining – we’re moving tomorrow/Friday (!), and I’d rather not have to transport loads of produce to our new place. This week, everything fits in my basket:

A large basket filled with produce.

So green!

So… what’s in the box?

  • Arugula
  • Broccoli
  • Cabbage
  • Cucumbers
  • Head lettuce
  • Kohlrabi
  • Parsley
  • Pearl onions
  • Snow peas
  • Zucchini

I’m very excited about that cabbage – you can’t really see it in the picture, but it’s huge! I’m very fond of this humble vegetable, and I’m looking forward to using it in a big batch of Mexican Cabbage from the Happy Herbivore Cookbook. And last week S used our first kohlrabi in this surprisingly tasty kale and kohlrabi dish, so we might have to recreate it with this week’s kohlrabi.

What would you make with this haul?

Curious about what other folks are getting in their CSA boxes this time of year? Check out the What’s in the Box? link party for this week!

Quick Hit: Sweet Treats at the Green Owl

/ Kelly / 2 Comments

Yikes, y’all. I’m sorry for the silence – I started off strong this month, but then packing and planning and a month’s worth of deadlines at work got in the way. I’ve got a couple big posts up my sleeves, but in the meantime, allow me to rave about some delicious treats from the Green Owl.

I don’t talk about the Green Owl often enough – it’s Madison’s only vegetarian restaurant, and it’s extremely vegan friendly. It’s my go-to eatery when veg-curious friends and family visit, both for its tasty entrees and its consistently delicious desserts. The Green Owl always has droolworthy vegan sweets available, and although they’re a little pricy, they’re rich, decadent, and well worth the occasional indulgence.

This past Friday S and I enjoyed post-dinner snacks (kale crisps for me, a cup of chili for S) and dessert after a busy week. My mango cheesecake was perfect – creamy but not too sweet and topped with a mango puree that made my mango-lovin’ self go nuts. Even the crust was special, a ginger-coconut blend that hit all the right tropical notes.

A thin sliver, but oh-so-filling!

S enjoyed the coconut cream pie, a Green Owl staple that doesn’t skimp on the coconut and is, quite frankly, almost too rich for me. But I definitely swiped a few bites from his piece. ;)

Coconutty!

Do you have a go-to veg-friendly eatery, or is your town rife with vegan options?

What’s in the Box? Summer 2012 CSA Week One

/ Kelly / 6 Comments

CSA season has officially begun! Last night, S and I picked up the first of our boxes – we’ll get one every other week from now through mid October. We get our shares from Crossroads Community Farm; my ex-roommate and I bought the same option from them two summers ago, and it was fantastic. And the price is right. It’s $350 for an “everyother” share, but S and I both got a $100 refund from our health insurance company to put towards that purchase. So that brings it down to $150. Split between the two of us, that’s only $75 each for an entire summer’s worth of fresh, local, certified organic produce. Hellz to the yeah!

We were thrilled with the contents of our first box – check it out:

A big wicker basket filled with vegetables, along with a couple bags of leafy things and a bowl of snap peas.

So much green!

Yum yum yum. Let’s look a little closer at those gorgeous peas, shall we?

A bowl of plump sugar snap peas.

That garlic scape tendril is getting cheeky…!

We didn’t get solely vegetables, though…

A small container of bright red strawberries in the foreground with a larger container in the background.

FRUIT!

…we also received a whole lotta STRAWBERRIES! They’re small, sweet, and absolutely gorgeous. Two years ago when I did the CSA, it was a bad season for strawberries, so we only received one tiny bag of some sad berries throughout the whole summer. But this magnificent harvest bodes well for my fruit-loving self!

That’s a lot of produce! Here’s a list of everything the share contained:

  • Bok choy (This wasn’t included in the list on the farm’s website, but we definitely got some!)
  • Cilantro
  • Garlic scapes
  • Head lettuce
  • Kohlrabi
  • Radish
  • Russian kale
  • Salad mix
  • Salad turnips
  • Scallions
  • Spinach
  • Strawberries
  • Sugar snap peas (The farm’s website listed them as “snow peas,” but I don’t think they are!)

So, what did we do with our score? S and I lightly pan-friend some marinated tofu along with the sugar snap peas, bok choy, and garlic scapes. We cooked up a bundle of thick rice noodles, tossed them with the veggies, smothered the whole mess in a modified version of the Cheater Pad Thai sauce from The Happy Herbivore Cookbook, and topped it with some scallions. Delicious! I snapped a quick pic, but it’s not really blog-worthy so y’all can use your imaginations.

I also prepared some giant chopped salads for our lunches today. They feature salad mix, head lettuce, salad turnips, radishes, and a couple other things from the fridges. And of course we brought strawberries for dessert today. ;)

Have you participated in a CSA? What would you make with this week’s share?

Curious about what other folks are getting in their CSA boxes this time of year? Check out the What’s in the Box? link party for this week!

Moving Update and a Delicious Dessert

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

Hallelujah!

It appears that whining on one’s blog about moving can coerce The Universe into solving one’s moving problem. Or something like that.

S and I just discovered that the folks who lived in our new apartment before us actually moved out at the end of May, not the end of June like we assumed. So… we can move in early and avoid homelessness and a super short, super stressful moving period!

Can I get a HALLELUJAH?!

Our new apartment complex will kindly let us move in whenever we want and pro-rate our rent for those extra days. It costs less than $35 per day, and that’s a no-brainer to me – $33.50 is a pittance compared to the cost of my sanity. S and I are going to do our heavy liftin’ on Friday night and finish up on Saturday morning, giving us a whole day and a half to settle in and get things organized. Hallelujah.

I was so excited about this change in plans that I celebrated with this delicious morsel:

A to-go container holds a palm-sized peanut butter cake topped with a layer of peanut buttery frosting and chocolate ganache and sprinkled with peanuts.

Peanutty!

Okay, that’s a lie. I actually devoured this guy last Sunday. It’s a rich, decadent Peanut Butter Puck from the Chicago Diner; S brought it back for me after he spent the weekend in Chi-town with his mama. He also gave me a lovely necklace that I’m looking for an excuse to wear. Ain’t he the greatest?

What good news have you gotten this week?

Pantry Decimation Challenge 2012: Espresso-White Chocolate Chip Cookies

/ Kelly / 7 Comments

I’ve had the dregs of a bag of vegan white chocolate chips languishing in my pantry since Christmas, when I made S a big ol’ batch of chocolate peppermint bark. The thing is, I’m not really a fan of white chocolate. First of all, it’s terribly named – white chocolate contains no cocoa, therefore it is not chocolate. Second, it doesn’t taste like anything except generic sweetness. Do not want.

However, I will admit that white chocolate chips have their place…  and that place is in cookies where they can play second fiddle to their more legitimately named cousin – actual chocolate.

In the foreground, three chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. In the background, a container of instant espresso powder, a glass of soymilk, and a stack of more cookies.

They also offer a nice color contrast!

Okay, okay – I might be showing my bias by saying that they play second fiddle, because the white chocolate chips in these cookies are really a perfect complement to the other flavors going on here – namely, espresso and actual chocolate. The chips are a creamy, sweet – dare I say perfectly fitting? – addition to a complexly flavored cookie. I suppose that in this orchestra of ingredients, they can share the first fiddle seat with the cocoa powder in this recipe. Hmph.

Perhaps you, too, share my general distaste for white chocolate and find yourself with leftover white chocolate chips waiting for their chance to shine. If so, might I suggest making a batch of these cookies? They’re really tasty, despite the white chocolate. Okay, okay – because of the white chocolate. Hmph.

Espresso-White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes nine good-sized cookies

Ingredients

1 C spelt flour (all-purpose would work fine)
1/3 C high-quality cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt

1/3 C brown sugar
2 T vegan sugar
1/4 C vegetable oil
3 T nondairy milk
1 T instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp blackstrap or regular molasses (optional)
1/3 C white chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 350˚ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (spelt flour through sea salt) and stir them a couple of times. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, add the sugars, molasses, and oil and mix until the sugars are moistened. Add the remaining ingredients except for the white chocolate chips and mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and incorporate. The dough will be a bit sandy and might seem resistant to coming together, but work at it for a bit until you get a large ball. Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Form dough into balls of about two tablespoons and flatten them slightly when your hands. Keep them an inch or so apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, until they just yield to the touch. Remove from oven, let them cool for a minute or two, and then transfer to baking rack (or just slide the parchment paper onto the counter if you’re lazy like me!). Enjoy!

A stack of five chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips. In the background, a container of instant espresso powder and a glass of soymilk.

Helllooooo, cookies.

And with that photo, I’ll take my leave.

PANTRY DECIMATION TALLY:

  • Spelt flour: The majority of a bag (just a few tablespoons left!)
  • Cocoa: Finished a container (though I still have separate from the co-op…)
  • White chocolate chips: Finished the bag!
  • Frozen broccoli: Finished the bag (not in this recipe!)
  • Long-grain brown rice: Decimated my stash (same comment!)
  • Short-grain brown rice: Decimated my stash (same comment!)

Do you enjoy white chocolate? What’s your favorite cookie combination?

Pantry Decimation Challenge 2012: Commence!

/ Kelly / 9 Comments

In my opinion, moving is one of the most stressful situations we mature adults have to deal with (y’know, aside from things like illness and losing your job and, um, important stuff). First you need to shove everything you own into countless boxes, then you have to load all of those boxes into a truck or your car or lots of people’s cars, and then you have to remove all of those boxes that you JUST LOADED and put them in your new place. There’s lots of heavy lifting and strained arms and realizations of your sad state of strength. And when your finally get all those boxes into your new place, you’re exhausted and sweaty and sore and irritated and all you want to do is kick your feet up, mix yourself up a big-girl drink, and watch a stupid, mindless movie. BUT YOU CAN’T, because everything you own is IN THE DAMN BOXES, and you have to unpack them all first! It’s the worst. I hate it. It stresses me out.

…in case you’re abnormally slow to infer things, I’m moving.

I briefly mentioned my moving plans a few weeks ago, but now it’s a month away and I’m entering into moving!panic mode. See, I’ve moved before, but this is the first time I’m moving when I own real furniture, like a couch and a bed and crap like that. I’m only moving one town over, but it might as well be a state over – the amount of work involved is pretty much the same.

View into a small storage space, which is filled with boxes haphazardly thrown everywhere.

…at least I’ve got ample boxes for packing! Clearly I’ve been putting my storage space to good use. :-\

It doesn’t help that I will essentially be homeless for 24 hours during the move. I need to be out of my current place by noon on a Saturday, but I can’t move into my new place until noon Sunday. Our new place, I should say – S and I are becoming grown-ups and moving in together. Hooray! Not hooray that he’s in the exact same situation and will also be homeless for a day. Alas. At least we will be homeless together.

Two suitcases and three boxes, along with a small dog.

Yes, I have already started packing. Winter clothes and books are ready to go!

I think we’ve got our homeless plans mostly figured out (yay for friends), but I don’t have a good solution for storing our perishable foodstuffs during that homeless period, which means that I must use up all my frozen and refrigerated goods before we move. And that is why I am designating June as my official Pantry Decimation Month! I will attempt to use up as much food as possible, to reduce having to cart around boxes of 8,474 types of rice and also to avoid wasting refrigerated goods that I’d have to get rid of.

This weekend I kicked off my challenge by burning through some frozen veggies with Happy Herbivore’s Biscuit Pot Pie. I used frozen broccoli, frozen peas, and – most notably – some frozen green beans that are probably two years old. I am very wary of freezer burn (I have very finely tuned senses when it comes to that particular smell/taste), but by rinsing the beans in water to remove their thin coat of ice crystals, I somehow managed to avoid it. The pot pie was not as good as the last time I made it (when we used a bag of mixed frozen veggies), but it was still yummy. It was not, however, very pretty, so you don’t get a picture. Instead, how about a tally of my pantry decimation thus far?

PANTRY DECIMATION TALLY:

  • Frozen peas: Used half a bag.
  • Frozen green beans: Used half a bag.
  • Frozen broccoli: Used half a bag.
  • Frozen blueberries: Used a quarter of a bag (not in the pot pie, duh).
  • Frozen raspberries: Finished a bag (same comment)!

What’re your pantry-busting tips? How do you feel about moving?

Mango in May

/ Kelly / Leave a comment

I’m sneaking in under the wire with my fifth and final post during this month o’ May. (See: my goal to blog at least five times a month.) What can I say – I’ve been busy. Blech.

Aside from having minor work-related panics and eating cereal, I also enjoyed this delicious mango lassi-esque smoothie recently. It features the usual suspects – mango, vanilla soy yogurt, almond or soy milk – and a special secret ingredient: cardamom! Cardamom really gives this smoothie the true mango lassi taste.

Why yes, I meant to focus on the rim of the glass…

Yum yum! Moria definitely wanted a lick… but I didn’t share. ;)

Woof woof mango woof.

How was your May?!

Beefless and Broccoli

/ Kelly / Leave a comment

My meals last week were less than inspired. Things have been stressful at work, what with deadlines lurking around every corner, and as the produce in my refrigerator slowly dwindled, I didn’t have the energy to go grocery shopping to replace it. I ended up eating more “meals” that consisted of snack foods or cereal than I’d like to admit, due to the lack of fresh food and (admittedly) my own laziness. But inspiration struck late last week when the Random Thought Fairy struck and filled my head with one phrase: Beef and Broccoli.

I don’t think I’ve ever actually eaten beef and broccoli with real beef, but when the notion of it popped into my head, I had to have it. I serendipitously had Gardein beefless tips and broccoli in the freezer, and my pantry is always well-stocked with grains, so I knew I was set. I roughly followed this recipe and came up with a super simple, delicious meal.

Simple and delicious.

I don’t often use frozen broccoli, but I like to keep various frozen veggies on hand for moments of laziness like this one. And in this recipe, it worked perfectly – the star of the show was the simple, sweet sauce. Other than the 45 or so minutes it took to cook the brown rice, it came together pretty quickly, too. I’ll definitely be adding this recipe to my roster of quick, go-to meals!

Are there any foods you never had as an omnivore but now enjoy in their vegan versions?

Restaurant Review: Lazy Jane’s Café

/ Kelly / Leave a comment

Left to my own devices, I’d go out to eat very rarely. I’m frugal by nature, and I have a hard time justifying the hit to my bank account when I can make my own meals for so much less money. I want my restaurant excursions to be special! I think this is partly because my parents didn’t have a whole lot of money when I was a young kid, so any time we went out to eat, it was a memorable and notable experience, so I still have a lingering (if diminished) sense that going out to eat should be special.

When I started dating S, though, I found myself hitting up restaurants more often. Although we enjoyed making dinner together at one of our apartments, there’s also something uniquely enjoyable about sitting in a totally different place and focusing on one another, not on preparing your meal. Plus, it reduces the tension that often arises in the kitchen – I’m a bit of a control-freak when it comes to cooking (stop laughing, family and friends who might be reading this!), and have a hard time biting my tongue if someone’s doing something in what I consider a less than optimal manner. Although I’d never have called S out on a perceived inefficiency when we were first dating, we’ve been together for well over a year now, and all bets are off. :) But eating in restaurants precludes the temptation to criticize S for not putting water to boil while chopping veggies, which I’m sure we can all agree is a huge inefficiency. ;)

Anyway, a few months ago I decided we should further cut down our eating out, preferably to only once or twice (or thrice) a month, and that we should plan it and not use it as a fallback for lunch when we’re out running weekend errands or something. So, a few weeks ago, I told S we should go out for brunch at Lazy Jane’s Cafe on a Sunday. We’d been there once before, and I was pleased with my meal and wanted to return to try something else. S loves brunch, so he was more than amenable to the idea. Last time, I ordered a seitan hash, which usually comes with eggs. I replaced the eggs with more hash and received a giant plate of savory, tasty seitan and a side of potatoes. Yummy and incredibly filling.

This time, we both ended up ordering the Curry Tofu Scramble, which comes with a huge side of potatoes and toast. S recently decided to take the vegan plunge <insert fist pump here>, and the scramble is actually the only menu item that’s totally vegan without modifications.

Scramble, scramble scraaamble!

It was a quality scramble. The curry flavor was just spicy enough, with a complex blend of spices and complementary crisp, fresh, perfectly cooked veggies. The potatoes and toast were equally yummy. Lazy Jane’s uses bread from a local bakery, and even though S unknowingly chose a non-vegan bread for his toast, one of the cooks noted his vegan scramble order and kindly toasted up one of the vegan bread options just in case and then asked him which one he wanted – score one for customer service!

Despite its tastiness, I could barely eat a third of my scramble – we’d split a vegan Lemon Cream scone (!) while we waited for our meals, and between it and my delicious mug of coffee, my tummy was getting full when our order arrived. But it was totally worth it – the scone was a lemony dream, and I had scramble leftovers for lunch the next day.

All in all, this visit to Lazy Jane’s was a worthy use of one of our restaurant meals for May. It’s a cute, cozy fast-casual restaurant, so there’s no tip required, which saves a bit of cash. It is, however, always crowded and there’s always a line to order, but I don’t mind – it gives you time to drool over the pastry case, which allegedly always contains one vegan baked good. I do wish there were a few more vegan meals on the menu, though – it’s one of those places that advertises itself as being vegan-friendly, but having only one (and a half) vegan options really just makes you sort of vegan-semi-friendly, y’know?

How often do you go out to eat? What’s your favorite brunch food?