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Vegan Staples: Rice & Beans, Lazy Burrito Bowl Style

/ Kelly / 1 Comment

Bright orange banner with the VeganMoFo fist logo and the text: "Vegan Staples: rice & beans"

When I introduced my Pantry Staples series, I joked about rice and beans being so much more than just “dumping plain white rice and canned black beans into a bowl and calling it dinner.” Cough. Well. Um. I can’t lie – what I’m about to share with you is really little more than that. But hear me out; I promise it’s justified.

It’s justified because sometimes you just can’t find it in you to do much more than heat up canned foods. Sometimes the thought of breaking out a knife and chopping veggies is just too much to handle. Maybe you worked late and came home and are really hungry and also exhausted and you have a headache and it’s already seven thirty and you’re angry and tired. Maybe you had a really exhausting day of truly back-breaking labor. Or maybe you’re just lazy. That’s okay. I won’t judge. It happens to the best of us. Whatever your reasons, here’s one way to use little more than pantry staples to create an easy, tasty, and filling dinner.

Red-orange plate with a bed of white rice topped with refried beans, pico de gallo, avocado slices, and cilantro.

An uninspiring photo, I know.

In all honesty, this is really your basic burrito bowl… on a plate. It’s just rice, canned refried beans (go for the low-sodium option!), store-bought pico de gallo, fresh cilantro, and sliced avocado. It’s simple, easy, and tasty. It’s not gourmet, but let’s get real – even those of us who could happily talk for hours about complex, multi-step meals sometimes resort to white rice and canned refried beans for dinner. And you can too. It’s okay. Avocado makes anything 35% more delicious (it’s Science!), and pico de gallo adds a pleasant, cool freshness to an otherwise warm meal.

A note on rice – I am a believer in brown rice. I love its complex, nutty flavor and its elevated nutritional profile. But S and I are working through a giant Costco-sized burlap sack of white basmati rice that S had before we moved in together, so we often resort to relatively quick-cooking white rice for dinner. You do what you can.

Because, really, that’s what being vegan is all about – doing what you can. We know that we can’t save every single animal, but by eschewing animal products and pushing corporations to provide us with cruelty-free options, we do make a difference and we do save some animals. And some is a better amount than none.

So do what you can, and when you can’t, don’t worry about it. Don’t try to craft three-layer vegan lasagnas with homemade tofu ricotta and pine nut crema for every single meal. Instead, when you’re feeling beat, enjoy a lazy meal while watching 30 Rock on Netflix and cuddling with your loved ones. You’ll be happier for it. I promise.

What’s your lazy meal of choice?

Recipe Showdown: Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls!

/ Kelly / 12 Comments

Orange rectangle with the white MoFo fist logo. Text to the right says: "Recipe Showdown: pumpkin cinnamon rolls."

Welcome to the the first Recipe Showdown of VeganMoFo 2012! In my Recipe Showdowns, I pit three recipes for one food item against each other to see which recipe reigns supreme. For this challenge, I put three recipes for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls in the ring and let them fight it out for eternal glory and a special spot in my stomach. ;)

Before we get to the contestants (and the results!), let’s talk about pumpkin cinnamon rolls. More specifically, let’s talk about what makes an excellent pumpkin cinnamon roll. I went into this showdown with virgin taste buds – I’d never actually eaten a pumpkin cinnamon roll! I had some simple criteria for what I expected. I decided that a stellar pumpkin cinnamon roll should be:

  • Tender and fluffy. This goes for all cinnamon rolls, really. They should be light and airy, not heavy and dense.
  • Rich, but not sickeningly so. This is a tricky line to toe – I want my rolls to have a rich, gooey filling in their centers, but I don’t want to feel sick after eating a single roll.
  • Pumpkin-flavored! This is a no-brainer, but I want to taste the pumpkin! A healthy dose of pumpkin pie spice to round out the flavor profile is also a must.

All pretty reasonable, right? Of course, to make pumpkin cinnamon rolls, one needs pumpkin. After I used freshly roasted pumpkin puree for my first batch, I knew that I had to continue using it for consistency’s sake. My pumpkin puree was nowhere near as dark orange as the stuff you find in cans:

Clear Tupperware container of a bright orange pumpkin puree.

Bright!

I love how vibrant homemade puree is, but it doesn’t make for noticeably orange baked goods. So if my pumpkin cinnamon rolls don’t look as orange as you’d expect, that’s why. I should also note that I don’t have a stand mixer, so I kneaded the dough for all my rolls by hand, even when the instructions said to use a mixer with a dough hook.

Now that we’ve got the technical details out of the way, on to the recipes! First, I tried a recipe from a chef who only occasionally cooks vegan.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls from Eat, Live, Run

Intrigued by Jenna’s use of chia seeds and entranced by the beautiful, deep orange hue of the rolls, I eagerly put together the dough for these rolls one Sunday morning. As it completed its first rise, I realized that I’d totally forgotten to add the sugar. After much swearing and despairing, I made the sugarless dough into savory biscuits and forged ahead with a second batch of the now properly sugared dough. Here’s what these rolls looked like just before heading into the oven:

Glass baking pan with unbaked rolls. They're not very orange; they're more of a light brown.

Can you spot the chia seeds?

And here they are all baked up and drizzled with icing:

Closer shot of baked cinnamon buns in a glass pan. They're set against a bright blue napkin and they're drizzled with thick white icing.

Just a hint of orange…

I love how uniformly rolled these are – the dough was very easy to work with, so I had no problems rolling it out and slicing it. But how did they taste? Let’s look at the pros and cons.

PROS:

  • Not terribly unhealthy – just four TBSP of Earth Balance in the entire recipe!
  • Recipe was really easy to follow (as long as you don’t forget a key ingredient!)
  • S described them as “Really good!”

CONS:

  • S said, “This doesn’t taste overwhelmingly pumpkin-y… there’s definitely a spicy tinge to it, but I expected it to be more pumpkin-y.”
  • Texture was just the slightest bit chewy – I blame the chia seeds.
  • Boring, overly sweet glaze – it’s just confectioner’s sugar, almond milk, and vanilla.

Spoiler – this isn’t the only time you’ll hear about a lack of an overwhelming pumpkin flavor! Overall, S and I enjoyed these rolls. They were easy to make and were not overly sweet or fatty – I never felt remotely sick after eating them. Still, I was disappointed that they only used 1/3 cup of pumpkin and that the filling had no traditional pumpkin pie spice – just cinnamon. Adding more of those spices would’ve helped differentiate these rolls from regular ol’ cinnamon rolls.

OVERALL GRADE: B

Next, I tried a recipe that’s been on my To Make list for ages, one that was debuted during a VeganMoFo of yore to the delight of pumpkin-lovers everywhere.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls from Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk

The recipe for these rolls is prefaced with the warning, “I hope you have your fat pants ready.” Sounds promising, right? These rolls were fluffy, puffy dreams before baking:

Pillows of pumpkin-y delight!

Just look at that gorgeous filling! These rolls were equally attractive after a brief stay in the oven:

In the foreground is a small white plate with a tall cinnamon roll dripping with white icing. In the middle background is a small glass jar filled with cinnamon sticks, and in the far background is another plate with another roll on it.

Fat pants = ready.

If the tops of these rolls look a little bit brown to you, you’re not seeing things. I accidentally broke my golden rule of baking and set my kitchen timer for the recommended minimum baking time of 20 minutes. Usually, I set the timer for at least three minutes before the minimum time to make sure I don’t overcook them. Alas, I broke my own rule and suffered the consequences. User error aside, how did these come out?

PROS:

  • Absolutely perfect texture – fluffy and tender.
  • Yummy sweet filling.
  • Definitely a rich treat.

CONS:

  • No real noticeable pumpkin flavor.
  • Dough itself wasn’t very sweet – could’ve used just a bit more sugar.
  • Same boring glaze as the ELR rolls.

These rolls are more in line with a traditional cinnamon roll than the ELR rolls, which means that they’re richer and more filling. I found the dough a little difficult to work with – it was very soft and droopy. But that definitely made for a truly perfect texture – I was delighted with the tender, fluffy crumb.

Overall grade: B+

The final contestant was from another baker who isn’t always vegan, but when I saw this recipe come up in my MoFo feed last week, I knew it was the perfect recipe to round out the trio.

Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Rolls and Maple Cream Cheese Icing from Baker Bettie

Let me tell you a little something about myself – I am a sucker for anything maple. I think that maple is the absolute most perfect flavor in existence. Those maple sugar candies? Heaven on earth. Maple syrup? Makes me weak in the knees. I had no power to resist this recipe.

The rolls were adorably soft and fluffy before baking:

Top-down view of a metal baking pan with uncooked cinnamon rolls.

Raw rolls.

When they were done, they got a drizzle of warm maple-Tofutti icing:

Top-down view of a single cinnamon roll. It's definitely orange and it's drizzled with a thick, light brown icing with noticeable flecks of spice.

Hey! It’s orange!

Look! Finally, a roll with a noticeably orange hue! So – how’d this recipe stack up?

PROS:

  • Great texture in the sections that were fully baked.
  • Very prevalent pumpkin pie spice flavors – “the spiciest of the bunch,” according to S.
  • Yummy icing!

CONS:

  • No noticeable pumpkin flavor.
  • Icing was nowhere near as thin as in the original recipe’s photos – it was chunky, thick, and a bit difficult to spread.
  • Rolls did not bake evenly – some were severely under-done in the centers.

What a mixed bag of responses for this one! Here’s the deal – I took the rolls out after about 16 minutes in the oven. Their tops were already golden brown and a bit hard; all my instincts told me that the rolls were done. Later, when I started cutting into them, I realized that they were still very doughy in places. But it was way too late to put them back in the oven (and I have a not-so-secret love of raw dough), so S and I just ate them as-is, doughy bits and all.

Beyond the dough issue, the icing was a bit of a nightmare. It looks okay in that photo, but the rest of the rolls didn’t get as much care from me and basically received large globs of thick, slightly chunky icing. I’m really not sure how Kristin (the recipe’s author) managed to get her icing so uniform in texture – all the whisking in the world wouldn’t have made mine as thin and glob-free as hers.

This is a tough recipe to grade. If they’d cooked through, these would’ve been amazing – the rolls that were fully cooked had a wonderful texture and flavor. If I’d let myself fiddle with the icing, I could’ve gotten it to a better state. But the integrity of a Recipe Showdown relies on me following recipes exactly, so I couldn’t do that. Therefore, I can’t grade these as highly as they probably deserve.

Overall grade: B

So, by a hair, the recipe from Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk takes the day!

Here’s what I think – pumpkin cinnamon rolls are all about the pumpkin-related spices, because you can’t really taste much actual pumpkin in them. Maybe canned pumpkin would add a more noticeable flavor, but I’m not so sure. So it’s all down to a judicious sprinkling of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspice to trick our easily-hoodwinked tongues into thinking we’re tasting pumpkin.

I think that my perfect pumpkin cinnamon rolls are a mix of the Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk rolls and the Baker Bettie rolls, with a modified version of the maple-cream cheese icing. S and I are hosting a harvest-themed party in a couple weeks, so who knows – you might just see my own pumpkin cinnamon roll recipe up here soon. ;)

What’s your favorite pumpkin cinnamon roll (or regular cinnamon roll!) recipe? What vegan food would you like to see in a Recipe Showdown!

Friday is Pizza Day: Vegan Thai Pie Pizza

/ Kelly / 3 Comments

Orange rectangle with the white fist-shaped Vegan MoFo logo and the text "Vegan Month of Food 2012."

By the time I left work yesterday, I knew three things for certain: I was tired and a bit headachy, I didn’t feel like cooking, and I wanted a very particular take-out pizza for dinner. As S and I drove home, I broached the topic:

Me: So, are you hungry now?

S: Um… not really. You?

Me: No. But when I am, I won’t feel like cooking… and I bet you won’t either…

S: You know what our option is.

Me: What? What is our option?

S: Vegan Thai Pie.

Me: Yesss, I was hoping you’d say that! I’ve been dreaming of it for the past two hours!

S: Really?! I thought you’d reject it outright!

Me: Nope!

Normally, S would’ve been right – I’m nearly always the one who balks at eating out. But I’d already dropped a fair chunk of change yesterday day to pay off one of my [admittedly smaller] student loans, and spending a couple more dollars on dinner seemed like a good way to celebrate.

S called in our order to Glass Nickel Pizza Co. and agreed, darling that he is, to pick up the pizza while I got a workout in. What a champ. So while he drove out to get our dinner, I spent some QT at our complex’s fitness center (read: room with some rickety old exercise machines from the eighties, a rack of free weights, and a single all-purpose weight machine).. Not long after I returned, S and our pizza arrived.

White plate with two slices of fully loaded pizza.

That’s the pizza, not S.

To my knowledge, Glass Nickel was the first local pizzeria to offer Daiya – I blogged about it earlier this year. Since then, they’ve also introduced the vegan version of their popular Thai pie.  The Vegan Thai Pie features cilantro, Daiya, tofu, broccoli, carrots, red pepper, and yellow onion. It’s topped with chopped peanuts and features a spicy peanut sauce in lieu of a tomato-based sauce.

It’s amazing. It’s a perfect pizzafication of pad thai. I love it.

Seriously, it’s one of the best pizza-joint pizzas I’ve ever eaten. I love that Glass Nickel offers such a creative vegan option! Honestly, though, the Daiya is a bit extraneous – the rest of the pie’s flavors are more than robust enough to keep it interesting, and Daiya just gets in the way. My only other nit-picky issue is with the tofu – it’s pretty plain; if Glass Nickel marinated it and chopped it into smaller cubes, the pizza would be out-of-this-world delicious. But those are minor quibbles – I might submit my suggestions to Glass Nickel, but if I do, I’ll be sure to thank them more than profusely for even offering the Thai Pie. Gotta encourage the vegan friendliness!

What’s the most creative pizza combo you’ve eaten? Do any of your local pizza places offer creative vegan options like this one?

Peruvian Not-so-Purple Potato Soup

/ Kelly / 3 Comments

When I asked for suggestions of what to make with my CSA haul from last week, reader Emma responded with a great idea for using my pretty purple potatoes: the Peruvian Purple Potato Soup from Appetite for Reduction. With the temperatures dropping and autumn approaching, soup sounded mighty fine to me. I was excited to see how gorgeous my pretty purple potatoes were on the inside. They certainly were striking on the outside:

Close-up of a hand holding out a unpeeled potato with a deep purple skin.

S is taking up hand modeling.

I’ve eaten bona-fide blue-slash-purple potatoes before, so I know what they should look like on the inside. And, friends, it ain’t this:

Two peeled potatoes with normal, potato-colored flesh.

Pale potatoes.

Quelle surprise! My purple potatoes weren’t purple at all! Alas – they were just regular ol’ taters masquerading in more appealing skins. However, I did not let their [admittedly disappointing] pale innards sway me from my desire for soup; I soldiered on with the recipe as written. And even though the results were nowhere near as striking as they would’ve been otherwise, this soup was still a flavorful, filling delight.

Top-down image of a bowl of pale soup, a spoon, and a spice jar of dried cilantro.

100% not purple.

Don’t let its rather lackluster appearance fool you – this is a truly tasty soup. The lime, chili peppers, and cilantro (even though I had to use dried!) made for more vibrant flavors than one typically finds with potato-based soups. I made sure to puree about half of it, so that there were still some potato chunks to contrast with the otherwise smooth texture. S and I were both pleasantly surprised with our meal, and it’s definitely going on my make-again list.

Next time, though, I’ll use truly purple potatoes.

Scotland: Once More, with Scenery

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

In my last Edinburgh post, I got a little verbose about the Nut Roll. I shared a few photos of yummies from Henderson’s, but that was it – I didn’t show you any more photos of the gorgeousness that is Scotland, and I certainly didn’t mention any of the other places we ate. Let me remedy that by sharing a few choice pictures and a few paragraphs of accompanying explanations.

First up, how about something that every American clamors to see when going abroad?

Front angle view of a castle with a few round turrets and a British flag.

Oooh.

The first real stop during our coach tour of the highlands was at Stirling Castle, where we paid a rather large amount of money to spend barely an hour walking around inside the castle grounds. But it was a lovely day, we got to see one of Scotland’s largest and most historic castles, and we were on vacation – the most appropriate time to spend more than you usually would, right? Anyway, do you see that bit of yellow-gold peeking over the frontmost turret? That color is called King’s Gold, and much of the castle’s exterior would’ve been painted that color in the castle’s heyday. Much cheerier than grey stone!

After leaving the castle, our gregarious tour guide, Rob, narrated many harrowing tales of Scottish history while navigating the equally harrowing roads in the highlands. He took us on a quick detour “to see his cousin Hamish,” who, as it turns out, is a Highland Cow. Oh, Rob, you so silly. Hamish was pretty silly-looking too.

Close-up of a Highland Cow - a large, shaggy creature with long, curved horns.

My, what a drippy mouth you have!

Hamish has gained fame for being the oldest Highland Cow (‘scuse me, Highland Coo) in Scotland – he is, allegedly, nineteen years old and is basically a tourist attraction. The inherent tackiness of exploiting an animal so tourists can ooh and ahh and purchase Hamish-emblazoned sweaters and keychains and Christmas ornaments aside, Hamish does seem to have a pretty sweet life – he has a decent amount of land to traverse, he gets lots of (hopefully healthy) food from tourists who can buy it from little machines, and he has a live-in girlfriend. He even has his own children’s book. Hamish is something of a national treasure, which made Rob’s easy transition from showing off Hamish to talking about the deliciousness of Highland Cow meat rather jarring and disappointing.

We didn’t spend too much time with our shaggy friend, however; we had a lunch reservation to catch. Gulp. Vegans in the house, do you, too, get that sinking sense of dread any time you’re told that someone has “thoughtfully” made a meal reservation at an unknown restaurant? S and I were very wary indeed, imagining that our only option would be a wilted iceberg salad and that we’d have to watch our fellow travellers chow down on Hamish’s less fortunate cousins. But! What luck! Rob had booked us at the Oak Tree Inn, a feted establishment on the shores of Loch Lomond. Among the meat and fish and cheese on the menu lurked a – wait for it – vegan pizza! Yes, it was vegan as offered – cheeseless and veggie-laden, if a bit bland.* Vegan food in the highlands; hallelujah! S and I felt very American indeed as we munched pizza and chips (that’s French fries to you) while our less dietarily restricted traveling companions tried the more traditionally Scottish Cullen skink soup and “locally caught” (ahem!) haggis. Ah well – we all got to enjoy the same beautiful views after our meals, skink or no.

The shores of a lake. In the distance are sailboats and another far shore.

What can you seeee… on the horiiizon?

Ah, Loch Lomond – its banks are, indeed, bonnie. After a small failure at finding the path to the lake (really; I don’t know how we missed it, it was a stone’s throw from the Inn!) S and I meandered along the bonnie banks for a good 45 minute, taking photos and enjoying the view. Then we hightailed it back to the bus so Rob could ferry us to our next stop – a bona fide Scottish whisky distillery. I don’t have any particularly grand photos from Glengoyne because we were too sloshed on free samples to focus the camera.

Not really; we just didn’t take many photos because we were quite engrossed in the truly interesting and in-depth tour. I was also trying valiantly not to freak out after a fleck of our tour guide’s spittle landed on my face as he explained the intricacies of the single malt process; that distracted me from taking too many photos. Suffice it to say that we left the distillery with a few photos, a taste for single-malt, and a gift of whisky for our host. We also brought back a small ceramic water jug that came free with our purchase – it is emblazoned with the distillery’s logo and is our most treasured souvenir. ;)

Then it was back to the bus for the thrilling conclusion of both our tour and Rob’s narration of the various battles in Scottish history, which included Rob playing a rather melancholic version of the aforementioned Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond that left Rob choked up and S with an obsession to find that very version of the somber song so he could own it for his very own. (Spoiler: He did; it’s a version by The Corries, if you’re similarly masochistic.)

And thus ended our day-long whirlwind tour of the highlands. If you’ve been following along, this was the point when we returned to Edinburgh in the rain and hightailed it to Henderson’s for our second meal there. Full circle, y’all.

Whew – I wrote far more than intended (what else is new?). Apologies, and thanks for slogging through my wordiness. You’re chums, you know that?

How do you feel about using animals as roadside attractions? Have you ever been pleasantly surprised to find a vegan option in a less-than-promising locations?

* Editor’s note, 1/23/18: As of today, the Vegano Pizza is still on the Oak Tree Inn’s menu! There’s also a chickpea and sweet potato curry that might be vegan — it’s marked with a (V) for vegetarian, but does come with (presumably non-vegan) naan and could contain cream or yogurt.

What’s in the Box? Summer 2012 CSA Week Eight (+ Vegan MoFo on the Horizon!)

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

As I write this, I’m wearing sweatpants and drinking an Octoberfest seasonal release beer. I’m munching a cookie made with (freshly roasted!) pumpkin, and I wore a coat to work today. The signs are all there – summer is clearly on its way out the door. Sigh. At least I have two more weeks of CSA goodness after this one, though, and I do love me some cool-weather produce.

But I’m getting ahead of myself – this week’s box still featured a decent amount of summery produce. Check it out:

Basket full o' produce, featuring carrots, peppers, spinach, and more!

Also some wintery things…

We already gobbled up that bok choi and at least one of those peppers – S made a yummy tofu stir fry while I was at the gym yesterday evening. Delightful.

Did you notice that bag of intriguingly colored lumpy things to the left of the basket? Kinda weird looking, eh?

Plastic bag with dark purple potatoes.

Taters!

They’re brightly colored purple potatoes! Not quite as brightly colored as these late-summer tomatoes, though:

Bright red tomatoes in a plastic bag.

Toh-mah-toez.

That top tomato is a little iffy… still, not bad for a mid-September basket, eh? No, precious, not bad at all. Here’s what we got:

  • Anaheim peppers
  • Bok choi
  • Carmen sweet peppers
  • Carrots
  • Garlic
  • Jalapeno
  • Leeks
  • Purple potatoes
  • Red bell pepper
  • Spinach
  • Tomatoes (assorted heirlooms & slicers)

So, here’s the usual question – what should I make with my stash?!

And finally, a quick word on things to come in October. As I have for the past two years, this year I’ll be participating in… Vegan MoFo! It’s the vegan month of food, where bloggers commit to posting about vegan food at least 20 days out of the month. For the past three years, I’ve posted every single day during MoFo month, and I think I’m going to try to keep my streak going. But I want to know what you want to see! Last year I did a couple of recipe showdowns that were really well-received, and I also posted a new muffin recipe every Monday. Should I do more of the same this year? Come up with a new theme entirely? What do you want to see for Vegan MoFo?!

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!

Henderson’s: A Love Story

/ Kelly / 6 Comments

Quick – what’s the best meal you’ve ever eaten? Do you have an answer? I don’t know about you, but I’m really bad at coming up with answers point-blank when people ask questions like that, which makes for very awkward ice-breakers at work meetings and the like. However… I think I’ve got a passable answer for the best-meal question next time someone asks: the Nut Roll. After you finish rolling your eyes at its hippie-tastic name, feast your eyes on its glorious visage:

A tall phyllo crust stuffed with ground nuts and lentils sitting on a sweet potato mash and surrounded by a pool of dark brown gravy.

Well, hello there!

That, friends, is best described as Thanksgiving in a phyllo crust, and it really, really deserves a better name than “Nut Roll.” Luckily, S and I took a chance on the less-than-promising name; we both chose this as our entree the first time we dined at Henderson’s in Edinburgh. A quick word on Henderson’s – if you’re ever in Edinburgh, you must stop by. Henderson’s is actually the collective name for a couple of places – a shop, a deli, and a restaurant. Henderson’s was founded nearly fifty (!) years ago and was one of the first vegetarian restaurants in Scotland. S and I dined in the restaurant twice during our four days in Edinburgh, but we easily could’ve eaten there again and again and again. Like many veg establishments we visited in Ireland and Scotland, the food is served cafeteria style. You select and pay for it at a front bar area; some of it is ready to go and can be taken right to your seat, but some of the hot items (like the Nut Roll!) are made to order and are brought to your table.

So, back to the Nut Roll. Imagine all your favorite savory Thanksgiving spices and flavors distilled into a stuffing-like blend of nuts, veggies, and (maybe) lentils. Now imagine that whole mess surrounded by a flaky, buttery pastry pouch. Now place that packet on a slightly sweet parsnip and yam mash, and surround the whole shebang in a moat of simple, perfect brown gravy. Add a plump stewed tomato and a few sprigs of arugula and parsley, and you’ve got the Nut Roll. It’s an umami dream, and if you ever find yourself at Henderson’s when it’s on the menu, do yourself a favor and order it. Don’t make the mistake that S and I did, though, and also order a couple of small side salads – when your stomach’s getting full, those side salads are going to get the shaft as you try to cram the last savory crumb of gravy-soaked pastry crust into your piehole. Even ordering a glass of wine is not advised – I regretted mine the instant I realized I wanted to devote all my stomach-space to this mountainous meal. Sigh… memories.

The Nut Roll was not the only dish we tried at Henderson’s, however. Our second dining experience was on a rainy evening just after we returned from a coach tour in the Highlands. We were planning on trying somewhere new, but after exiting our coach and realizing that we’d get soaked if we tried to walk too far, we quickly decided we had to return to Henderson’s. ;) On that particular occasion, my stomach was feeling a bit unsettled, so I chose a simple meal of Spanish-spiced veggies and rice:

Plate of rice and veggies in a bit of sauce.

Simple(ish) fare…

This mix of veggies and beans was lovely, with warm spices and an infused olive oil. The rice, however, wasn’t cooked terribly well – it tasted the slightest bit crunchy to me. But it all sat well in my tummy, and that was really all that mattered. S’s meal was another culinary delight:

Plate of risotto.

Moar rice!

Neither S nor I can recall what type of risotto that was, but S confirms that whatever it was, it was yummy. (Side note – isn’t my dear S so patient, just sitting there waiting to eat while I snap photos of his meal? He is a marvel.) The only downside to our second experience at Henderson’s was the lively crowd of teens jam-packed into the table behind ours – maybe I’m just getting old, but their loud laughter and yells grated on my nerves. It was especially irritating because the atmosphere at Henderson’s is otherwise very relaxed and chill; the lighting is low and there’s live music a couple nights a week. But I suppose I can’t blame the kids – they were down from London for the Fringe Festival, and were clearly off to take in some music or comedy after filling their bellies with a scrumptious veg meal.

And that’s what S and I did, too – during our four days in Edinburgh, we made it to three comedy shows and two plays, and we thoroughly enjoyed the lively Fringe-induced atmosphere in the city. My slightly agorophobic self balked at the giant crowds that filled the Royal Mile to bursting during the day, but otherwise it was a perfect time to visit the city and I’d gladly return, crowds and all. After all… the Nut Roll is waiting. ;)

What’s the best meal you’ve ever eaten? Have you been to any Edinburgh Fringe events?

25 for 25: Half-Birthday Update!

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

Today is my half birthday, which means I have now completed twenty-five years and six months on this here planet (I won’t count the nine months I spent hanging out in my mama’s womb). I’m not particularly sentimental about half birthdays, but because I spent some time ruminating on my twenty-fifth birthday and setting a list of things to accomplish back in March, I figured I ought to report back on my progress. After all, I shared my list in the interest of accountability, so I owe it to all my oh-so-interested readers to share what I’ve done so far. ;) So – let’s take a look!

 

  • Pay off a loan. Completed 3/15!
  • Sew myself a dress.
  • Blog at least five times a month. On track as of September 15th!
  • Drive in a big city.
  • Send people birthday cards and gifts on time. On track as of September 15th!
  • Work out weekly. On track as of September 15th!
  • Learn how to use InDesign. Sorta-kinda in progress…
  • Knit myself a sweater.
  • Do more creative writing. On track as of September 15th!
  • Start making Christmas gifts during the summer. Completed as of September!
  • Make a pie with a lattice crust.
  • Re-learn how to crochet.
  • Get another tattoo.
  • Read more poetry. On track as of September 15th!
  • Take the GRE.
  • Try hot yoga.
  • Start and maintain an Etsy shop.
  • Consistently make some of Moria’s food. On track as of September 15th!
  • Knit a pair of socks.
  • Call (or write to) far-away family and friends more frequently. On track as of September 15th!
  • Visit a new country. Completed 8/13!
  • Do more hands-on volunteering. Completed! (And I’ll continue to do more.)
  • Super-secret private goal! Completed 4/12!
  • Super-secret private goal! Workin’ on this one…
  • Super-secret private goal!

I’ve fully completed five goals and am on track with eight others. Silly me for making a bunch of long-term goals that can really only be evaluated at the end of the year! I do have a fair number of discrete ones though, and I’ve gotta get started on those. Looks like I’ve got a lot of crafting to do in the next six months… and a tattoo to get. If only I weren’t so terrible at making decisions. I have lots of nebulous tattoo ideas, but nothing concrete yet. Yeesh.

I’m pretty happy with my progress. I’ll definitely accomplish a majority of my goals by the time I hit 26, and if I don’t make some of them, they won’t be the really important ones. So that’s something!

Anyway – that’s enough self-indulgence for a Saturday. I promise I’ll return with more Edinburgh yumminess soon. I meant to post earlier, but’s be a busy, busy week. I had to wear actual business clothes this week, and wearing heels always tires me out. Just kidding. Sorta. :)

To thank you for reading this, have a picture of Moria enjoying her (vegan!) adoptiversary cake!

Small dog licking a muffin-like cake topped with peanut butter and puffed millet.

Carrot-peanut butter cake with peanut butter frosting and puffed millet “sprinkles”!

Yeah, my pup’s a little spoiled. ;)

Edinburgh: Vegan Haggis and Chocolate Galore

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

As much as I love Ireland, I was a little more excited about the four days S and I planned to spend in Edinburgh. Scotland was a new-to-me country, and visiting new-to-me countries makes this wanderlustin’ gal happy. And when I caught my first view of Edinburgh Castle as we rode the bus into the city from the airport, I felt very happy indeed. Just look at this view:

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Edinburgh!

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I just love how the castle dominates Edinburgh’s skyline, in part because the city is so hilly. Edinburgh as a whole just has a much older feel than Dublin, making it feel a little more foreign and, dare I say, exotic. After a single day in the city, it became quite obvious to me that J.K. Rowling’s imagination was clearly fueled by the streets and sights of Edinburgh. ;)

My imagination, however, requires more than just pretty sights – it requires food. (Did ya like that transition? Heh heh.) Luckily Edinburgh did not disappoint in the realm of vegan food! On our first day in the city, we enlisted the help of our city-savvy host, S’s friend, to find the Baked Potato Shop. The shop is truly a hole-in-the-wall just off bustling Cockburn Street (that’s pronounced “co-burn” – stop giggling!), with a single booth inside and a line out the door. On this first visit, we were lucky enough to snag a booth in the steamy interior – apparently, bakin’ up potatoes all day long lets off  a lot of heat!

Although baked potato joints are quite common in Edinburgh, this particular one is notable for its vegan friendliness. Its menu clearly lists which topping are vegetarian and which are vegan – very helpful, as long as you can actually see the menu over the heads of hungry folks waiting in line!

Interior of a small building - to the right is a sign with lists of baked potato toppings; to the left is the counter and a waitress, along with some toaster ovens in the background. In the foreground are lots of people waiting!

Busy!

Giant, hot baked potatoes are totally worth the wait, however. S and I both ordered mediums on this first visit, only to discover that a medium is really two respectably sized taters crammed into a single basket – so much food! I recommend getting the small – it’s only one potato, but it’s more than enough. On this occasion, we’d also ordered a vegan haggis samosa (!) so we had lots of eats to go around. My potato[es] with haggis and a bit of non-dairy butter were enormous:

Baked potato stuffed with vegan haggis - crumbly bits of nuts and other things that look a bit like stuffing.

No interior organs in this haggis…!

I was very excited to try vegan haggis… not that I’d ever had real haggis. I didn’t know what to expect, but this stuff was delicious. I believe it was a blend of ground nuts and grains with lots and lots of savory spices, and it made the perfect counterpart to the more neutral potato flavor. Yum. My only complaint about my Baked Potato Shop dining experience is that they really should offer sturdier silverware for anyone who’s dining in – that little plastic fork could not hold up to a thick-skinned, fully loaded potato!

With vegan haggis checked off on my bucket list, I was happy to enjoy less traditionally Scottish eats. Serendipitously, our host’s flat was just a couple minutes’ walk from the Chocolate Tree, a coffee shop and chocolate café. Yes, chocolate café. The shop is just bursting with chocolate-y goodness, from freshly made cakes and tarts to truffles, chocolate bars, and gelato. Oh yeah – a fair amount of it is vegan. For example, this chocolate berry tart was calling our name the first time S and stopped in:

Close-up of a fudgy chocolate tart on a plate. It's covered with strawberries and cherries.

Pretty much fudge on a plate.

That tart was every bit as rich and fudgy as it looks. Thank goodness for those berries – I’m not sure even I could handle so much unadulterated chocolate! We enjoyed our tart and espressos outside, thankful for the easily accessible jars of lemon water to help us wash down all that chocolate and coffee.

Top-down view of a café table with a cup of espresso and a piece of rich, dark chocolate tart covered with strawberries and cherries.

Perfection.

The next time S and I visited, we didn’t have room in our tummies for cake. S ordered a soy latte and I tried the vegan Mayan hot chocolate. The Chocolate Tree is serious about its hot chocolate – just take a look at my drink:

A teacup full of thick hot chocolate.

Hmm…

Oh yes. That is basically melted chocolate – so, so rich. It was delicious, even if I had to enlist S’s help in finishing it. (He was happy to help – his soy latte was disappointingly weak.) If I could change one thing, though, I’d have added more spice to it – I couldn’t really taste whatever spices were in it.

On that trip to the shop, S and I also picked up a few dark chocolate bars to add to my snack stash. The Winter Spice bar, featuring “a cozy blend of organic gingerbread spices and organic dark chocolate,” was particularly droolworthy.

With all that chocolate as fuel, S and I conquered the climb up to Arthur’s Seat with our host as a tour guide, taking us up a few rather less-than-beaten paths. But the view was totally worth scrabbling up rocks and scraping our palms.

Spectacular view of Edinburgh - green hills in the foreground, the city in the mid-ground, and the water in the background.

Those colors!

The way back down had its fair share of fantastic views, too.

A couple walls of a ruined stone building.

Abbey that was.

So… Scotland? Yeah, I liked it. I liked it very much. And the good eats didn’t end with chocolate and haggis – I haven’t even talked about our favorite find yet! ;)

Have you tried vegan haggis? Or… real haggis?!

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

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

You know summer’s on its way out when the sweet corn stops coming… sigh. I do love autumn, but I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to wearing sundresses and not needing a jacket when I take my pup outside. Luckily for me, it’s still quite hot in Madison, so I can ignore the dearth of sweet corn and carry on in blissful ignorance, pretending that my favorite season will never end.

It doesn’t hurt that I’ve got lots of delicious produce, either. This week’s box contained two giant bags of tomatoes, and tomatoes are nothing if not summery! S and I received our CSA box last night and have already gobbled up three of those tomatoes, just sliced up and eaten in their juicy, naked goodness.

Two bags of tomatoes, some red and some green.

Two bags full!

Friends, what on earth should I do with green tomatoes?! I know that fried green tomatoes are a thing (and a movie?) but I don’t really want to fry up my fresh little lovelies. How else should I enjoy them?

If it helps, here are some of the other pieces o’ produce I’m working with:

A basket full of produce - broccoli, peppers, eggplant, various herbs, carrots, onions, and more.

My pretties.

Not that broccoli, though – that went into the Broccoli Pesto from Everyday Happy Herbivore. The pesto was creamy and green and very, very pungent. Even after using a single clove of garlic in place of the recommended three, my breath was redolent of garlic for the rest of the night. Anyway, aside from the broccoli, all of those veggies are available for your cooking suggestions. As are these:

Plastic bag with long green peppers and large, dark purple beets.

Hmm, what’s in here?

That’s perhaps not the best photograph, but in that bag are some big ol’ beets and a couple of peppers. And next to them is a big bunch of beans. And what beans they are!

Close-up of long, light yellow beans streaked with dark purple.

Bag o’ beans.

Have you ever encountered dragon tongue beans before? I haven’t! Such a pretty, striking pattern – the purple streaks are so similar to those of the eggplant I talked about on Labor Day.

Not a bad selection for the end(ish) of summer, eh? All told, our box contained:

  • Anaheim peppers
  • Basil
  • Beets
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Carmen sweet peppers
  • Cucumbers
  • Dragon tongue beans
  • Eggplant
  • Garlic
  • Parsley
  • Red bell pepper
  • Red potatoes
  • Tomatoes (assorted heirlooms, slicers, salad)
  • Yellow bell peppers
  • Yellow onions

I am going to be so sad when my CSA ends and I stop receiving giant boxes of veggies. The farm does offer a winter share, but it’s a bit pricy – $230 for four boxes or $125 for two. I’ll just stick with mostly local produce from my beloved co-op during the winter months.

But enough about the winter – blech! Back to summer. Tell me – what should I make with my veggies? How should I use those gorgeous beans?

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!