Solid Potato Salad

I'm coming down to the final moments of October 5th (was watching the last eighth of the Vikings-Packers game--WHOO Vikes!), and the batteries in my camera (which are five years old) have decided to die. So, while I charge them, here's a little song I have had in my head since this morning, when I made this dish.



The game goes like this. Go to epicurious.com and type in the name of the state you are in. For non-USers use the country you're in (any more specific and it might not work.)

After you search, the page that comes up will have a box to refine your search. It says "refine this search by..." Pick an item by doing an eeny-meeny-miney-mo with the hour of the day. So if it's around 6, count each item (there are only 8) until you reach 6. That is the category you'll be cooking in. Click it.

You'll get a little pop up that says "Select from the following." Do an eeny-meeny-miney-mo with your age. This might take a long time if you're old.

When you click that, you might have only one recipe, so that is your recipe to veganize (unless it's already vegan!) But if you have another list, then spell the day of the week out to get your recipe. So if it's Friday, you go F-R-I-D-A-Y, pointing at a recipe with each letter, and the one you land on with "Y" is yours.

And that's how I wound up with Jamaican Jerk Potato Salad. I changed a lot of it. For instance, I cut up the potatoes pre-boiling, and didn't peel them. I like my red-skinned potatoes to have skins. I used Smart Bacon, and a lot more than four strips. Vegenaise and a few sweet gherkins later, I came up with a vegan version. I didn't bother to replace the eggs. Never liked eggs in my potato salad.



Ended up very spicy, sweet, and delicious. I think it would be a great picnic side, and would rule with some grilled seitan or tofu, and grilled pineapple. Yum. And some baked beans.

A little MoFo filler

I was going to make something tonight for a meme (I'll do it tomorrow before work), but in all honesty, I'm just not in the mood to make that particular dish. I'm sure it's lovely (or, I'll make it lovely), but right now I want nothing more than some linguine with Newman's Own marinara sauce and Morningstar Farms crumbles. With a generous sprinkling of walnut-esan cheese. What's that, you say? It's a handful of walnuts, some dried basil, sea salt, and a little nooch all ground up in the coffee grinder. TRY IT.

So, instead of boring you all with pictures of um...me pouring jars of sauce and heating it up...here's a survey for you to ignore. Or copy to your own blogs, because I know how much you like to talk about yourselves.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk? Go ahead and hate, but Silk Very Vanilla. It's so creamy!

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook? I'm kind of playing it by ear, but definitely something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn? Caramel. Need to work on that.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure? Nothing springs to mind except for many attempts at making non-brainy seitan.

5. Favorite pickled item? Pickles, duh.

6. How do you organize your recipes? Jeez, bookmark them? I don't really use recipes in the traditional sense. I look things up to get ideas, and then make it my own way from there.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? Freeze, make stock with, then garbage.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)? French bread, chocolate, and peanut butter.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? Making Christmas cookies with my mama.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream? So Delicious Dulce de Leche.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance? Vita Mix.

12. Spice/herb you would die without? Garlic.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? My mother's incredibly musty old copy of Cooking of the Maharajas.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? Strawberry.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? Eggplant Moussaka from Veganomicon. I don't like to do anything with meat analogs when cooking for omnis, and just stick to making things with lots of delicious colors and flavors from veggies only.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh? Tofu.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? Dinner, if I didn't work that night. I like to make a fuss and be creative, and that's just not possible at 11:00pm.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator? Cat food, paper towels, and empty ice cube trays because I am an eco-jerk and buy ice in a bag because it tastes better.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking. Huge bag of frozen vegetable ends, peels, and cores. So Delicious Mocha Fudge. Bag of ice.

20. What's on your grocery list? Jalapenos, bananas, mirin, iceberg lettuce, peanut butter.

21. Favorite grocery store? Trader Joe's.

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet. Lemon meringue pie!

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Vegan Crunk, Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk, and Cakemaker to the Stars.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate? Lately, Jokerz by Go Max Go.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? I bought a bag of Sunspire M&M's at the Seward because the posted ingredients in the bulk section indicated that they were safe, but the intertubes later told me there's milk in them. Those bitches were $17! I'm returning them when I get a chance.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with? Anything I haven't worked with before. But I get over it.

27. Favorite food cart? Henh? I don't think we have those, here. We have the Farmer's Markets, though. They rule.

Vegan Drinks!

Last night I made it down to Animal Rights Coalition for my third Vegan Drinks night. I met Dallas and the gang on my first Vegan Drinks visit, and that was the night I joined. I also met Meagan Holtgrewe, who has a super cool site called Rhymes With Vegan. Here she is (on the left):



I am hoping she'll see this and jump on the MoFo train.

Here is what she created for the event. Teeny tiny "chicken" pot pies and shepherd's pies. Nom nom.



Seriously. I ate like, five.



Mmmm. Vegans drinking.



And some of the wares available at Animal Rights Coalition. I got a beautful scarf (100% silk-free!) for a measly ten bucks last night. You Twin Cities vegans need to pop in.



There on the left? Vegan Twinkies.



See you tomorrow for more rambling and yummy food!

Fall.

Autumn is the best time of year. In Minnesota, the summers are too hot and humid, the springs are filthy and cold, winters are unbearable, and the falls are beautiful. Notice how when you go outside in the fall, it smells like a campfire? What's that about? I love it, though. I also dig wearing jeans, sweaters, and my corduroy jacket. I love Halloween and Thanksgiving (although a fall harvest holiday, it's usually very much winter when it comes), and the chilly apartment feels perfect with a cuddly blanket and cats that cuddle; if not with me, then with each other (aw!).

My other favorite thing about Fall is soup. Hearty, warm, and comforting, soup is just the perfect meal for a lazy, chilly day. I planned to hit Whole Foods today, but it's been drizzly all day and my couch is just so comfy. I don't work until 1pm tomorrow, so I'll go before work. That means I have to cut myself off after two at Vegan Drinks tonight.

This soup is going to be in the new book by Isa. I am so behind on testing, it's sad. I really want a job that's 8-5 with weekends and holidays off, so I can be a worthy tester.

And without further ado, Lotsa Veggie Lentil Soup.



About 45 minutes later.



And with a slice of freshly baked sesame flax bread.

MOFO!!!

I swore I was going to do exactly what I did last year; make something and blog about it every single day in October. Yeah, here it is...day one and I suck. I had an appointment this morning which required walking across a muddy embankment in pissing rain without an umbrella, followed by sitting in my doctor's waiting room for twenty-five goddamn minutes which ruined any chance of hitting Trader Joe's on the way to work, then back across the mud to my bus, then missing my connection, then spending eight-plus hours at my job steeling myself for a "discussion" that never happened, and then finally walking home. In the rain.

So, what I will talk about is what I plan to do. A meme or two, an Iron Chef challenge, a week of representing every color of the rainbow, and a whole lot of testing. Yep.

Going shopping tomorrow. Will photojournal it.

Curry Laksa

A delicious little Malaysian-inspired noodle soup full of bok choy, red peppers, and tofu. Very light and fresh, and incredibly easy to make (if you microplane your ginger, which is the only way to mince it without wanting to kill it).

Break's over.

Isa is back to posting recipes for us to test, and it's time for me to get up off my lazy arse and get in the kitchen. Since VeganMoFo is coming up in October, I really should start working out my skills. That means more cooking and more blogging.

She posted a slew of stuff, but this is what I had all the ingredients and patience for this evening.



Open Faced Portobello Reuben with Thousand Island White Bean Spread.

I wish diets were always this delicious.