Vegan on the Go: Eating Vegan at the Cleveland Airport

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

Hi, all! I returned to Madison bright (seriously – it was sunny!) and early (got up at 4:30 AM; landed at 9:00 AM!) this morning after a lovely Christmas with my family in Rhode Island. I’ll talk all about that soon, but first – something else.

One of my most popular posts is the one where I talk about vegan options at O’Hare. That post gets hits every week, if not every day. All y’all folks with smartphones like to search for eating options while you’re on the go! So let me help you out with some more info about how to eat vegan in airports. This time, I’m talking about vegan options at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in Ohio.

I had a two hour layover in Cleveland last weekend, so I spent a decent amount of time wandering the terminals and seeing what I could see. And here’s what I saw:

  • Paciugo Gelato and Caffe (C terminal). If you’re in the mood for gelato/sorbet, there are clearly labelled vegan options at this location. They’re marked as dairy-free, and according to their website, Paciugo also offers soy-based gelato. I’m not sure if they ever have the soy options available at the small airport stand, but there were at least two vegan sorbet choices when I stopped by. (For the record, I didn’t eat any – I was hungry for real food!) A kind reader informed me that Paciugo is closed as of 2/15/16.
  • Currito: Burritos Without Borders (main food court): I love the concept of this place. They make burritos with an international flair. I had the Bangkok burrito, which features peanut sauce, Asian slaw, cucumbers, rice, and organic tofu. It was spicy and delicious – the perfect lunch. I really like that you can substitute organic tofu for the meat in any burrito. If you don’t feel like choosing from the burrito options they’ve created, you can do a make-your-own burrito and choose exactly what goes in. They also offer smoothies, many of which can be made vegan (or are already vegan). I didn’t get one, but they looked quite tasty!
  • Subway (D terminal). Not much to say about this one – this is pretty much a given at any airport!

There are surely more vegan choices at this airport (there’s a salad place, for example), but those the most obvious ones I noticed in my walk around the terminals. I hope this helps some hungry vegan who finds herself with some time to spare in Cleveland one day!

From the People Who Brought You Harvest Party…

/ Kelly / 1 Comment

My blog always tends to get quiet around the holidays. I suppose I should just accept it and stop apologizing; it’s just the way things shake out! This time around, hosting a winter/holiday-themed party has kept me busy. Riding on the smashing success of our Harvest Party, S and I hosted a Winter Party last weekend (“to celebrate the season that global warming will soon destroy,” as S put it in the invitation). Our spread was just as magnificent this time around.

Table covered with platters, plates, and bowls of food.

Holiday foodz!

Like last time, we made sure to offer a good balance of savory and sweet snacks. Here’s what was on offer:

All of our savory items (sans the pretzels) were gluten-free, as was the cheesecake, because we were hosting two GF folks – one of whom is also vegan! I love being able to tell another vegan that, yes, you can eat everything! (Well, technically not everything as she’s GF, but… still.) Even the non-vegans loved our offerings; one guest said he was wary of the onion-bacon dip but was pleasantly surprised. We should’ve doubled that recipe – it went fast!

Alongside the food, we served a variety of beverages, including a bit pot o’ glogg (which I didn’t even get to try – boo!). We also made Ginger Snap Cocktails and Hot Toddies to order. A rousing game of Cards Against Humanity (with bonus holiday cards!) rounded out the evening for us and our guests, and everyone left full of holiday cheer and good spirits.*

And now we’re preparing for our first blizzard of the season. I’m glad it’ll end before I fly back to RI on Sunday – I wouldn’t want to deal with that nightmare! I’m excited to head home and see my family, especially because I haven’t seen my little sister’s baby bump (!) in person yet. The only thing that’s stressing me out is that my little pup has a bladder infection caused by a bladder stone, and I’m a little nervous about boarding her while she’s sick. The folks at her kennel (I don’t like that word!) are very nice and will gladly give her all her meds and watch out for her, but I hate leaving a sick pup. Not that she acts sick – she’s as playful as ever, just with 95% more accidents! I won’t miss cleaning those. ;) I will, however, miss this face.

Close-up of a scruffy grey dog face!

That face.

D’aww. Too cute.

What are your holiday plans? Hosted any fun parties lately?

*I mean, I hope they did. I can’t say for sure.

Good Things Start with S: Satsumas!

/ Kelly / Leave a comment

I’m always surprised that winter – the season of dull, monotonous grey tones and all things drab – produces some of the most vibrant, boldly flavored fruit out there. It’s a good thing, too – if winter were all dirty slush and frozen nose hairs, I don’t know that I’d be able to stand it. But thankfully we have the wonder that is citrus fruit to keep us going.

And, dear readers, I am indeed kept going, because there’s a new S in my life: satsuma.

Small orange satsuma on a white plate.

So bright!

I’ve already mentioned how much I enjoy my co-op’s monthly reader, and now I’m even more convinced that it’s always worth a thorough scouring. Last month featured an article about winter fruits wherein the author exuberantly and unabashedly sung the praises of the satsuma, citing it as her all-time favorite small winter citrus fruit. I initially wrote it off as hyperbole, but I gamely picked up a few satsumas when I saw them at Whole Foods.

The rest, as they say, is scurvy-fightin’ history.

S and I devoured the fruit, and I immediately high-tailed it to the co-op to invest in a five-pound crate of the organic orange orbs. They’re just so perfect! The rind is extremely easy to peel (unless you’re S, who always asks me to make the first incision because he’s a nail-biter and lacks piercing abilities) and comes off with minimal effort. Inside are juicy orange slices just bursting with the flavor I’ve always craved from a clementine but never seemed to find – bold and sweet with a much-appreciated tart bite, not enough to scare off grapefruit-haters but just enough to create a more complex eating experience. Clementines are often one-note fruits, with a slightly-too-sweet flavor that quickly becomes distasteful as soon as they start to get a little past their prime. Not so with satsumas. They’re more robust and hearty; my literarily-bent mind can’t help but think of them as the hale Jo March to the Beth March that is a clementine – sweet, but a little sickly.

We’re nearly through our five-pound crate, and I’m crossing my fingers and toes that the co-op hasn’t sold out of them yet. You can bet we’ll stop by the co-op tonight to pick some up – that is, as long as we’re not too exhausted from seeing a midnight showing of The Hobbit last night! (I write this on Thursday evening, counting down the hours till we leave.)

Have you tried satsumas? If not, what’s your favorite winter fruit?

Cake and Crafting, Christmas-style

/ Kelly / 1 Comment

Holy holly – we’re already one week into December! A quarter done with perhaps my favorite month of the year. I can’t help it – I am a sucker for the holiday season. Pretty twinkling lights, an abundant supply of vegan nog (seriously, my fridge overfloweth), and pine-scented things? Sold! My parents created many holiday traditions when my siblings and I were young, and we still carry many of them out to this day, even though my siblings and I aren’t exactly children anymore. But those memories – and the new ones we make every year – always make the holiday season special for me. It certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s the one time every year where I’m guaranteed to see most of my closest friends from high school – I always look forward to our annual post-Christmas get-together.

And despite my distaste for consumerism, I just love giving and receiving thoughtful gifts. I typically try to give at least a few handmade gifts every year, but even when I don’t, the gifts I purchase are carefully selected for the intended recipient. It makes me happy to see other people happy! It’s a circle of happiness!

Last weekend, I prepared for the holiday season by working on S’s and my Christmas stockings. For sustenance during my sewing spree, I snacked on yet another piece of cake from the Chicago Diner – this was an amazing layer cake with crunchy toffee bits, whipped “cream,” and a thin chocolate ganache-like layer on top. So good. Nothing like sugar and sewing to make for an exciting Saturday night!

Plaid fabric with scissors and pins in the background, along with a sewn letter K. In the foreground is a container with a half-eaten piece of cake.

Yes, I Instagrammed this.

I didn’t get the stockings quite finished last weekend, so our apartment was not the most festive of flats. But then S surprised me on Tuesday night by decorating while I was out! I came home to find a wreath, garlands, bows, lovely twinkly white lights, cinnamon-scented pinecones, and the little fake tree I inherited from my ex-roomie. S had lit some candles and was playing Christmas music – it was perfect. Isn’t he amazing?

Since then, we’ve also picked up a poinsettia and added even more lights. I just need to finish gluing the loops on our stockings (and whip one up for Moria!) and we’ll be ready for the holidays!

How do you feel about the holidays? Do you decorate?

Meals I Didn’t Make: S Does Dinner!

/ Kelly / 3 Comments

S and I maintain a very fair relationship. We share our household duties, with the general principle that whoever likes a particular task more (or dislikes it less!) does it. He sweeps the stray hairs off the bathroom floor; I clean Moria-pee* from the carpet (shh, don’t tell my landlord!). When it comes to cooking, we try to take turns, but I often end up cooking more frequently for a few reasons – I enjoy it more, I’m more comfortable in the kitchen, and I’m usually better able to whip up a quick meal than S is (he’s fine following recipes but doesn’t quite yet have the kitchen confidence or experience that I have). However, dinnertime often devolves into the two of us standing in front of the fridge or the pantry, poking at things, shooting down each other’s ideas (or, um, that might just be me) and getting increasingly irritated as our stomachs start rumbling. It’s no good.

So, last week, we finally implemented meal planning, something I’d wanted to do for a while. On Saturday or Sunday, we each choose two recipes to make for the week. We write down ingredients we need, do a grocery store run, and then take turns cooking throughout the week. We’re only on week two, but it’s already made a world of difference. Dinnertime is less stressful, and the meals we’ve cooked so far have been much better than the “Well, I guess we could do pasta and a cheezy sauce…” meals we might’ve resorted to in the past.

In celebration of our newfound – and oh-so-simple – solution to the mealtime quandary, here are some shots of a couple delicious meals S has cooked up lately!

Small white plate with a six-inch long baguette sliced nearly in half and stuffed with veggies, seitan, and a paté.

Sandwich heaven!

We had these delicious bánh mì sandwiches on Friday. S made some lightly pickled carrot strips, sliced up some daikon and cucumbers, and whipped up the Walnut-Mushroom Pâté from Veganomicon. We spread a bit of Vegenaise on a fresh baguette; added the pâté, veggies, and some seitan strips (err, chunks…); and topped it all with a sprinkling of cilantro. So yummy and fresh-tasting!

Nonstick pan filled with a dark sauce that features mushrooms, seitan, and peas.

Stroganoff.

This pan is full of the Seitan-Portobello Stroganoff from Vegan with a Vengeance. Although I’ve made a whole lot of recipes from VwaV, this was a first for me! S did most of the work on this one, but I did some chopping sous-chef style to speed along the process. I also made a big batch of seitan ahead of time using the PPK recipe; I couldn’t bring myself to shell out nearly $10 for 3.5 cups of seitan when I could make it myself for a fraction of the cost! It worked perfectly in this recipe, and we served it up with whole-wheat linguine.

Bowl full of linguine and stroganoff sauce.

Saucy!

This whole meal-planning thing? Yep, I’m a fan. It reduces stress and results in extra-delicious dinners. Everybody wins!

Do you do meal-planning?

* No joke – Moria peed on the carpet as I was drafting this post! I don’t know what gets into her, but every so often she goes through a period of floor-peeing. Then it stops. Daft doggy!

A Very Laid-Back Thanksgiving

/ Kelly / 10 Comments

This Thanksgiving could not have been more different than last year’s (short of not celebrating at all, I suppose). Last year, S and I didn’t live together, but we invited our immediate families to join us in Madison. They flew in from all over the country and helped me prepare dinner. My first-ever hosted holiday was a grand success, and I thoroughly enjoyed crafting the menu and preparing the meal.  It was so gratifying to see my loved ones sit down to a filling, healthy, animal-friendly meal on a day that typically centers around a dead bird.

This year, our families stayed in their respective homes, so it was just S and I. Sure, we could’ve made a feast for two or invited friends to join, but we didn’t. Instead, we had another Thanksgiving first – dining in a restaurant. The Green Owl hosted their first-ever vegan Thanksgiving, and I just couldn’t resist going. The meal was only $30, and it included three courses, dessert, and passionfruit iced tea. Plus, a portion of their profits benefited a local animal-rights group. Sold!

Dinner began at 1:00. S and I arrived a few minutes early and loitered outside with a quickly growing crowd waiting for the doors to open. We were surprised that many of the other guests were older, ranging from the high end of middle age to bona-fide elderly. How exciting to see older folks, who you’d probably expect to be more traditional, taking part in a vegan feast! The crowd didn’t have to wait too long until the doors opened and a cheerful server wished us a “Happy Thanksgiving!” and welcomed us inside.

S and I were seated at our own table, and we eagerly perused the menu (which we’d already seen online) and ordered drinks. S got a brandy-spiked hot apple cider and I ordered a tart, berry-infused vodka cocktail.

Top-down view of a small white laminated piece of paper with the Thanksgiving menu on it.

Looks promising!

It took a little longer than expected for our first course to arrive, no doubt because there were only a few actual Green Owl waitresses on hand. Instead, three volunteers helped bus tables and serve food, all for the promise of a free meal after the paying patrons were served. The volunteers were, um, older, and were a little slow on their feet. The seasoned servers were admirably patient, though, even when their helpers got in the way or swung open the kitchen door without a warning. (S and I were seated right in front of said door, so we got to witness a bit of the behind-the-scenes madness.) We didn’t mind waiting, though – it only made us hungrier and readier to devour our meal! Soon, the first course arrived. They’d opted to serve the salad first, not the soup, but we didn’t mind.

Bed of baby spinach leaves with a quinoa salad studded with dried cranberries.

Fresh.

Truth be told, I was a little worried about this dish. I’m no fan of balsamic vinegar (or vinegar of any variety, really), and salads I’ve gotten here in the past often have a rather heavy-handed application of vinaigrette. I needn’t have worried – everything was just right with this dish. The spinach was lightly dressed, and the pomegranate portion of the vinaigrette masked any unpleasant vinegar aromas. I really loved the cranberry-quinoa salad, too. Even S, who is no fan of quinoa, enjoyed it. The lightly caramelized pepitas were a perfect touch on top.

Next up was the soup course. There was a bit of a delay between salad and soup, but nobody seemed to mind.

Small white bowl of a translucent orange soup topped with chives.

Cheeky shiitakes, peeking up!

This was one of the best butternut squash bisques I’ve had in a while, probably because it was a bit non-traditional. I’m not a huge bisque enthusiast (see: texture issues), so I really appreciated the diced chives and lovely slices of shiitake in this one. And the truffle oil added a wonderful nuanced flavor. I only wished the portion had been a bit larger! It’s probably for the best that it wasn’t, though, or else I wouldn’t have had room for the main course.

Round white plate filled with green beans, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, tofu turkey, and cranberry sauce.

Thanksgiving!

Frisbee-shaped plate aside, ain’t this just a beautiful sight to see? It was the quintessential traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The mashed potatoes, tofu turkey, and cranberry-pear (!) sauce were my favorite elements – the potatoes were wonderfully fluffy (and totally lump free!) the tofu turkey was surprisingly un-tofu-like, and the sauce was a perfect mix of whole berries, pear pieces, and more liquidy portions for smearing on potatoes. ;) The the sweet potatoes with candied pecans were also a stand-out element, and the green beans almondine were a refreshingly simple side. I didn’t really notice much about the stuffing, and the Brussels sprouts were a bit of a disappointment – I couldn’t discern maple or mustard, and they were a little mushy for my taste (S remarked that my sprouts are better – win!). All in all, it was a wonderfully satisfying meal, and I made sure to save about 1/3 of my plate for leftovers… and so that I’d be able to eat my dessert.

Small sliver of a light orange cheesecake on a white plate, sprinkled with cinnamon.

Time fo’ sweets!

The Green Owl is well-known for its creative, decadent, vegan (and often raw) desserts, and this pumpkin cheesecake did not disappoint. It was spicy, sweet, and the perfect end to our meal. The portion size was a bit small, but I’m not sure I could’ve eaten much more!

S and I rolled out of the Green Owl nearly two hours after our arrival, stuffed to the gills with all the flavors of Thanksgiving. When we got home, there were no dishes, pots, or pans waiting to be cleaned up, and we spent the rest of our day off relaxing – a perfect way to celebrate a low-key holiday. :)

How did you celebrate Thanksgiving (if at all)? Have you ever gone out to eat on a holiday?

The Chicago Diner, Except in Madison

/ Kelly / 5 Comments

Somehow, despite my shameful silence, my blog is getting a consistently decent number of hits every day. Thank you! And I’m sorry for the quietness. I don’t exactly feel burnt out from VeganMoFo, but I do feel… well, distracted. There are lots of other exciting things happening in my life and my friends’ and family’s lives, and blogging has fallen by the wayside. But! Eating, of course, is still very much center stage (if you’ll pardon my mixed metaphors).

Recently I’ve realized that despite living in Madison for just about three years, I still don’t know all of its veg-friendly secrets. And to think I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to finding vegan eats! But I didn’t know about Bloom till I moved to Middleton this summer, and S and I just made our first trip to the Asian grocery store and discovered its hidden treasures (fresh tofu! rice noodles galore! those black sesame seeds that are inexplicably absent from every other grocery around here!).

And I only recently discovered that our Whole Foods carries pre-made sandwiches and sliced desserts from the Chicago Diner. Desserts like this amazing mixed-berry cheesecake:

Three-quarter view of a rich purple cheesecake topped with blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries.

The Chicago Diner by way of Madison.

We’ve also tried two chocolate layer cake slices, one layered with peanut butter cream and the other with a rich, fudgy ganache-like frosting. Delicious, but a little too heavy for me, which prompted my choosing the cheesecake this weekend. That was perfection – creamy, fresh, and just light enough to keep me from feeling queasy. The perfect accompaniment to an episode of Star Trek. ;)

What fun discoveries have you made yesterday?

A Post About Pie

/ Kelly / 4 Comments

Saturday was an odd day. It was unseasonably warm, but that didn’t stop S and I from going through with our Saturday-morning plans – seeing a matinee of Skyfall (solid Bond movie – I really enjoyed it). Afterwards, we went home and had a late, snacky lunch, then headed out to a local park with Moria to enjoy the warmth and read our books. Shortly after we arrived, however, the clouds came out, the sun hid, and we got a bit chilly. We packed up and started heading back just as it started to drizzle.

After we got home, S left to get a haircut while I started a baking project. Just a few moments later he returned; the barbershop was closing soon and wasn’t taking anyone else. Things started to go downhill at that point – I got cranky because the kitchen was a mess and there were dishes to put away, S didn’t like my crankiness, I got even crankier… it was Not Good. S left again, this time to pick up some panko for dinner, and I continued my baking project. He returned. He apologized. I ignored him. (Yes, sometimes I’m a child.) I continued my baking project. S disappeared into the other room to put away laundry. As I worked, enjoying the thrill of trying a new-to-me technique, my crankiness slowly dissipated. I apologized, and then I showed off my creation:

Top-down view of an apple pie with a lattice-work crust. It's sitting on a plaid tablecloth.

Pie!

Yes, that is my first-ever lattice-crust pie! I know the edges need work; I didn’t leave enough overhang. But! The lattice isn’t half-bad, right? I was so proud as I eagerly checked the oven during baking and saw the pastry crust getting all flaky and puffy and beautiful! The funny thing is, though, that I actually don’t care much for pie crust in general – it doesn’t taste very good to me, and I just find it overwhelmingly rich. As a kid, the uber-fat-laden crust gave me a stomachache, so I often left large crust portions uneaten. Nowadays I can handle it a little better, but not by much – I still sometimes leave bits uneaten. For this particular crust, I followed Vegan Dad’s recipe, and as far as crusts go, it tasted just fine. ;)

In keeping with the season (nominally, if not actual-weatherly), I made an apple pie. Why not start the Thanksgiving season a little early, right? I used a mish-mash recipe for the filling, but next time I’ll be sure to cut my apples much, much thinner; I got a bit lazy with this batch and some of them were a little large. I was pleased that the pie wasn’t gooey or liquidy at all – there’s nothing quite as disappointing as a runny pie, y’know? I even had a little extra crust after applying the lattice – enough to make a mini-pie in my super adorable mini casserole dish:

Small oval-shaped casserole dish with apple filling and messy lattice crust.

Baby pie.

Both pies baked up beautifully (and I got to cross off one of my 25 for 25 goals!). As I topped S’s piece with some Soyatoo I’d picked up a few weeks back, I felt a little less guilty for snapping at him earlier – nothing like making dessert to prove your love and sincere regret for bad behavior, right? ;) Not that S needed it – he is insanely patient with me. Even while I was being mean to him, he’d been putting away my laundry for me. What a guy.

And what a pie.

Top-down view of a single piece of pie on a while plate. The tip is eaten and a fork is stuck into the top.

Ah, the wonders of natural light.

What’s your pie crust style of choice?

Home Cookin’ and Recipe Testin’, Fusion-Style

/ Kelly / 6 Comments

Hello, friends! I’ve now been blog-silent for a week. I might say I’ve been recovering from VeganMoFo, but… nah. I’ve just been lazy. Not too lazy to cook, though! I’ve just started testing recipes for another fabulous cookbook from Joni Marie Newman, and I’m very excited about this one. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will tell you that this book focuses on cooking everything from scratch to create flavorful, whole-foods-based fusion dishes. Intrigued? You should be! These are the types of recipes that require you to make your own sauces, marinades, and toppings ahead of time, but you don’t even care because they’re so damn yummy and versatile, and you use them in delicious, flavorful dishes like this one:

White plate with short-grain brown rice topped with a mystery dish!

What could it be?!

Not the greatest picture, I know, but the recent time change leaves me with no post-work natural light. Thankfully, you don’t need beautiful lighting to enjoy tasty food! I can’t tell you exactly what’s in this dish, but it’s got a fusion BBQ sauce that marries some wonderfully complementary flavors.

If this next dish looks familiar, you’re right – both dishes do share a couple of ingredients, but this is a chili:

Small white bowl of a chunky, bean-less chili.

Sekrit!chili.

What, a bean-less chili?! Yes! And it totally works, because there’s a stand-in meaty element that makes it perfectly filling and toothsome.

So – are you intrigued yet? Any guesses about the less-than-common shared ingredient? 

More importantly… happy Friday!

Butternut Alfredo, for Real This Time

/ Kelly / 1 Comment

Orange rectangle with the white fist-shaped Vegan MoFo logo and the text "Vegan Month of Food 2012."
Last night we finally made the Roasted Butternut Alfredo that we so wholly failed to make on Sunday night. However, our dinner was not void of forgetful failures – I totally forgot to roast the Brussels sprouts I’d intended to make as a side. D’oh. Ah well – the pasta was quite filling, so we didn’t really notice the absence of a side.

Top-down view of a white bowl filled with whole-wheat fusilli drenched in an orangey-yellow sauce and topped with black pepper and roasted pumpkin seeds.

Saucy!

Alas, my alfredo wasn’t nearly as pretty as Isa’s. Of course, that might’ve had more to do with my hasty attempt to capture the last remaining bit of sunlight as I shivered on the balcony while photographing my meal at 6:00 PM than any fault of the recipe! That said, while this sauce was quite tasty and rich, there was something about it that wasn’t quite right to me. I think that the inclusion of miso and nutritional yeast and lemon made the flavors a little crowded – they weren’t quite cohesive. Next time I’ll likely cut the nutritional yeast. And I’m pretty sure there will be a next time – I can imagine a dish like this fitting quite well into my winter meal rotation. It’s warming and rich and filling – everything you could want in a winter dinner.

So I just realized that this is my final VeganMoFo post because I’m writing it on the 30th and it’ll go up on the 31st, which is (obviously!) the last day of October. Egads! Happy Halloween and all that. And happy end of MoFo. It’s been a mostly successful month for me if my metric is quantity of posts. As far as quality… well, I wish I’d done another Recipe Showdown, and I’m disappointed in myself for not sharing more original recipes. But that’s okay. I mostly satisfied with my participation this month. And more importantly, I don’t feel burned out, which means I’ll have no trouble keeping up with steady posting in the busy months to come. Small victories! Anyway, thanks for reading this month, and I do hope you’ll stay around. I’ve got some exciting things coming your way! I’m testing for a fabulous new cookbook by a talented author, and I can’t wait to show you what I’ll be whipping up. :)

What, if anything, are you doing for Halloween?