Dinner 11/30

BBQ Tofu w/ Onions

French Fries w/ Garlic Salt *

Spinach Salad
(w/ red wine vinaigrette)



* We picked up one of those french fry cutter gadgets this afternoon and decided to give it a try tonight -- our only complaint is that it could be slightly larger to fit some bigger potatoes, but it worked well, and the fries turned out great. And yes, I liked to play with Lincoln Logs as a child ;)

Obviously, Raw Food Wednesday didn't happen tonight ;) the black beans we were sprouting need an extra day, so we pushed it back a day.

Dinner 11/29

Seitan and Lentil Stew
(seitan, carrots, onion, french lentils, veg stock, herbes de provence, salt, pepper)

Braised Leeks

Boiled Fingerling Potatoes

Ciabatta

Dinner 11/28

Fusilli Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Mushrooms

Braised Fennel

Ciabatta




yep, it's Monday night ;)

Dinner 11/27

Spanakopita
(phyllo, spinach, tofu, lemon)

Loubeh
(slow braised green beans, onions, tomato)

White Bean Soup with Greens
(onion, carrot, celery, tomato, cannellini beans, arugula, oregano, cinnamon, lemon juice, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, veg stock)

Spinach and Arugula Salad
(w/ fig vinaigrette)

Dinner 11/26

Stir-Fry
(tofu, baby corn, carrot, garlic, ginger, tamari, pepper)

Jasmine Rice

Braised Brussel Sprouts
(stock, sake, tamari, star anise)

Garlic Soup with Tofu

Dinner 11/25

Salsa with chips (as pre-dinner appetizer)
(tomato, onion, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, salt, pepper, chile powder)

Tomato and Jalapeno Enchiladas
(stuffed with chipotle, cranberry, orange and agave glazed seitan, wilted chard, onions and soy cheese -- adapted from Rick Bayless' "Mexican Everyday" p.220)

Avocado Mango Salad with Pumpkin Seeds
(adapted from Rick Bayless' "Mexican Everyday" p.96)

Dessert

Pineapple Skillet Upside-Down Cake (additional pic)
(adapted from Rick Bayless' "Mexican Everyday" p.301)*


* guess which book we got from the library this week ;)

and, yes, we do love the enchiladas ;) The leftover reduction sauce from Thanksgiving with the addition of chipotle, becomes a smoky spicy seitan glaze. It added just the right touch to the enchiladas...

also, this concludes the tomato portion of the menu...

Dinner 11/24

Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner

Pan-Fried Tofu Cutlets glazed with Cranberry, Cherry, Orange and Agave Sauce, topped with Wild Mushroom Duxelle and baked, wrapped in Phyllo then finished with Mushroom Gravy served over French Lentils.

Roasted Root Vegetables
(potato, turnip, parsnip, carrots, garlic)

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Smoked Paprika

Braised Brussel Sprouts with Chestnuts

Barley and Mushroom Soup

Wild Rice Salad served in Boston Lettuce Leaves with a Blood Orange Vinaigrette
(wild rice, dried cranberries and cherries, celery, pecans)

Homemade Ciabatta Bread

Pumpkin Cheesecake



OK, so now that you know what we had -- let's hear from you -- what vegan things did you have for Thanksgiving? Leave your menu in the comments...

btw, if you're reading this via a RSS reader or on LJ -- we added comments to the blog finally again. ;)

Also, if you haven't visited in a while, we also added "where the hell does a vegan live anyway?" via Frappr, so stop by and add a shout-out...

Dinner 11/23

Stir-Fry
(tofu, red bell pepper, onion, baby corn, garlic, ginger, tamari)

Jasmine Rice




no Raw Food Wednesday, no Tomatoes, just Thanksgiving food prep day, baby ;)

Dinner 11/22

Tomato and Jalapeno Enchilladas
(sauce: tomato, onion, garlic, jalapeno, cumin, smoked paprika, mexican oregano. enchilada: stuffed with onion, soy cheese, cilantro)

Arroz Verde
(poblano chile, cilantro, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, mexican oregano, basmati rice)



the enchiladas are a modification on those found in the new Rick Bayless book -- yes, still working through the tomatoes -- one flat is now finished ;)

Dinner 11/21

Chiocciole Pasta with Tomato Sauce*
(tomato, onion, garlic, celery, carrot, oregano, salt, pepper, parsley)

Green Beans

Bistro Salad

Baguette


* we did our Thanksgiving dinner shopping this morning and -- Orphan Food Score! -- Three flats of organic tomatoes (about 36 tomatoes total) for $4.47 -- normally the same price of about three organic tomatoes. They were in really good condition... hence, tomato sauce for pasta -- lots and lots of tomato sauce. ;)

Dinner 11/20

Roasted Tofu with Jerusalem Artichokes
(tofu, jerusalem artichokes, olive oil, shallot, garlic, green olives, lemon juice, lemon peel, salt, pepper, thyme)

Chilled Avocado Soup



* well, the soup looked good -- but even with the tiny amount called for, the mace still overwhelmed the soup -- not bad, but could have been better...

Lunch 11/20

Black Bean Burger
(black beans, jalapeno, red bell pepper, carrot, chickpea flour, salt, pepper, smoked paprika)

Guacamole
(avocado, red onion, garlic salt, lemon juice, pepper, cumin, chile powder)



from the "Candle Cafe" cookbook pg. 101 -- yummy ;)

Dinner 11/19

Savory Crepes stuffed with White Bean Cassoulet

Arugula Salad
(with mustard vinagrette)

The savory crepes were a bit of a revelation (chickpea flour is our new best friend -- thanks Isa Chandra ). Liz made them in our flat-bottomed wok (having tossed all of our non-stick pans) -- and we're already envisioning how to tweak the flavorings in the crepe batter ;)

Dinner 11/18

Seitan Stroganoff over Chiocciole Pasta
(seitan, onion, garlic, roux, mustard, soy sour cream)

Baked Russet Potato

Seared/Steamed Green Beans

Roasted Broccoli

Bistro Salad



why yes, the tablecloth and place settings makes my eyes vibrate too! ;)

Dinner 11/17

Cannellini Bean Soup
(carrot, onion, garlic, celery, tomato, cannellini beans, veg stock, salt, pepper)

Braised Leeks

Boiled Potatoes

Ciabatta

Bistro Salad

Dinner 11/16

Falafel
(sprouted garbanzo beans, lemon, garlic, raw tahini, parsley, salt)

Hummus
(sprouted garbanzo beans, lemon, garlic, raw tahini, parsley, olive oil, salt)

Flax Seed Crackers and Cashew Cheese

Salad w/ Mint Pesto Dressing
(red cabbage, carrot, jalapeno, mixed greens, raisins; mint, lemon, garlic, olive oil, sea salt)



Raw Food Wednesday continues with a nod to sprouted garbanzos ;)

The falafel and hummus have very similar ingredients, just prepared in a different style. The falafel was more chunky with less tahini and less lemon and then dehydrated for 10 hours. The hummus was about half tahini, half garbanzo and lots of lemon -- and of course the olive oil smoothed it out as I let the vita-mix do its magic for a longer period of time.

The mint was dug out of the garden by Liz at lunch, just before the snow came. The pesto was a nice change of pace for the salad dressing, and a nice stylistic match.

Dinner 11/15

Stir-Fry
(tofu, carrot, red bell pepper, baby corn, onion, garlic, ginger, tamari)

Spicy Garlic Eggplant
(eggplant, veg stock, hoisin sauce, rooster sauce, garlic, scallions)

Jasmine Rice

Lunch 11/15

Stir-Fried Tempeh over Red Cabbage, Carrot and Endive Salad
(with spicy sesame peanut dressing)




this is one of our favorite "er, there's no leftovers for lunch" salad ;)

also, we had a visitor running around the backyard today as well...

Dinner 11/14

Chiocciole Pasta with Tomato and Cream Sauce
(olive oil, onion, garlic, red pepper flake, roasted tomato, soy sour cream, parsley)

Steamed Broccoli

Homemade Ciabatta



after all the fun and games of the weekend -- it's back to a basic Monday night dinner ;)

Dinner 11/13

Orange, Cranberry, Agave and Chipotle Glazed Tofu (additional pic)

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Smoked Paprika
(ring mold warning!)

Sauteed Mushrooms in Red Wine

Butternut Squash Soup with Sage

Mache Salad
(w/ fig vinaigrette)

Dessert

White Chocolate Cheesecake



OK, I know the tofu glaze sounds way over the top, but the reality is that it rocked -- the whole dinner rocked. Almost to the point of "considering this for Thanksgiving dinner" kind of rocked. ;)

The combo of the chipotle in the sauce and the smoked papkrika in the sweet potatoes was a perfect match for each other. The cranberries and orange added the right balance of sweet and tart along with the heat from the chipotle.

The white chocolate cheesecake was requested by our son -- personally, I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate in general, but this cheesecake just changed my opinion. None of that waxy taste, just creamy tofu goodness...

Mushrooms

We don't get much of a chance to play around in the kitchen to try some new things without there being some kind of a deadline (catering or meal time). We didn't have anywhere to be today, and we had picked up some "orphan" mushrooms from the local supermarket yesterday, so...

("Orphan" foods are those repackaged vegetables that the produce staff at your local giant grocery store doesn't want to throw in the dumpster just yet. They slap a reduced sticker on it, trying to salvage some money on it. Last week, it was green onions, before that, cucumbers -- you get the idea. We'd much rather have the organic stuff, but that's not always available.)

Today's experiment involved white mushrooms -- two giant containers for a total of $2.00. As you can see from the picture, stuffed mushrooms was one of the results. We had wanted to find a new stuffing for our annual holiday party in December, and today's attempt was garlic, salt, pepper, soy parmesan, herbes de provence, fennel seed, oregano, bread crumbs and olive oil. The fennel seed turned out to be the surprise -- it immediately had that vibe that was missing from previous attempts. Funny how one little ingredient can do that...

Next was the Mushroom Pate from the "Millennium" cookbook -- we've made these before, but we wanted to tweak some of the proportions to see how much agar agar was needed for smaller sized ramekins. They might be giants something for the wine bar menu in the future.

Last batch was sauteed, then deglazed with some Coturri Charbono wine for tonight's dinner.

We also made veg stock this morning -- the good thing about the catering gigs is there's always enough scraps to make a good batch of stock. We do ours in the pressure cooker -- small amount of oil, peppercorn, bay leaves -- add the veggies (carrot peels and tops, onion and skins, leek tops, etc.) -- and begin to saute until they start to caramelize, deglaze the fond with a small amount of water, then add about eight more cups of water and pressure cook for about an hour (we've done it the old-school Escoffier way in the past, but the pressure cooker is faster and yields good results in a fraction of the time)

Speaking of old-school -- a brief side note -- if you get a chance to pick-up the biography on chef Alexis Soyer "The People's Chef : The Culinary Revolution of Alexis Soyer" by Ruth Brandon, it's worth a read. You get a glimpse of large scale Gentleman's Club cooking and kitchen design of 1830's England -- and the flip side of the coin -- Soyer's attempt at building a soup kitchen for the Irish during the Potato Famine. I could have done without the the book's structure -- Brandon's attempt at recreating some of Soyer's recipes in a modern context (and of course, the huge meat consumption). But, as a culinary history, it's not a bad read...

Dinner 11/12

Pizza
(shiitake mushroom, onion, kalamata olives, soy cheese)

Bistro Salad


* Liz made the pizza dough in the morning -- we went out shopping in the afternoon, came home and made this, before collapsing in front of "Atom Age Vampire" ;)

Dinner 11/11

Baked Chiles Rellenos
(poblano stuffed with potato and soyrizo, with a tomato, onion, garlic and smoked papkrika sauce topped with monterrey jack soy cheese)

Black Bean Soup
(onion, garlic, red bell pepper, carrot, black beans, smoked paprika)

Salsa
(tomato, onion, cilantro, jalapeno, salt, pepper, lime juice, smoked paprika)



Three guesses as to which new product we picked up the week ;)

Dinner 11/10

Garlic Soup with Tofu (additional pic)

Gyoza
(napa cabbage and shiitake mushroom)

Refried Jasmine Rice with Tofu
(sesame oil and tamari)


* what?! the gyoza are not on a red plate? shocking! ;)

Dinner 11/09

Almond Burger topped with Avocado and Cucumber Relish on Red Lettuce Leaf
(almond, scallions, carrot, cilantro, white miso, pepper, dehydrated for 10 hours)

Carrot and Corriander Soup
(carrot, corriander seed, ginger, avocado, parsley, cilantro, olive oil and salt)

Endive and Grape Salad
(endive, corriander seed, cilantro, parsley, agave syrup, grapes, olive oil, apple cider vinegar and umeboshi plum)

Flax Seed Crackers and Cashew Cheese



Raw Food Wednesday returns with a new recipe, this one from Renee Underkoffler for a Almond Burger -- and yes, we used a ring mold. ;) The Red Leaf Lettuce "bun" was purely an Atkins joke. We made the mixture in the morning and put in the dehydrator for 10 hours and they turned out firm and with a nice concentrated flavor and chewy texture.

The salad was interesting -- a sweet and sour dressing on the sometimes bitter endive hit the spot.

We keep making carrot soup, hoping to find a good one, and this may be the winner -- a creamy texture without the (usual) overwhelming carrot/ginger flavor.

Also, we made enough flax seed crackers for the rest of the year (and into 2006) ;)

Dinner 11/08

Stir-Fry
(tofu, red bell pepper, carrot, jalapeno, ginger, garlic, pepper, tamari, scallion)

Jasmine Rice

Gyoza (additional pic)
(napa cabbage, shiitake mushroom)

Dinner 11/07

Cabonnades a la Flamande
(Seitan and Onion Stew)

Russian Banana Potatoes w/ Parsley

Onion Soup (additional pic)

Bistro Salad


Continuing on our tour through "Mastering The Art of French Cooking Vol. 1" -- oh wait, this isn't "Julie and Julia" is it?

...never mind ;)

Tony Coturri Wine Dinner 11/06

Here's the menu we prepared for the Tony Coturri Wine Dinner held by Riverside Wine and Imports in Kent, Ohio November 6, 2005.

Tapenade

Rice Paper Salad Rolls with Hoisin Tofu

Sushi (Inside Out California Roll) (additional pic)

Sushi (Deep-Fried Tempeh Roll) (additional pic)

Five-Spice Roasted Almonds

Truffle Oil Popcorn

Curried Quinoa with Mango on Endive Leaves (additional pic)

Seitan Bourguignon (additional pic)

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake


as always, Tony's wines were incredible -- the highlight this year was the Chauvet Zinfandel...

Dinner 11/05

Tofu Piccata
(from the Candle Cafe cookbook)

Grilled Asparagus

Risotto Cake
(fried patty pan risotto -- ring mold alert!)

Verdure al Forno
(recipe from Giada De Laurentiis -- for the heavy cream we used a combo of soft tofu and soy milk, and subbed "follow your heart" mozzarella)

Biscotti alla Parmigiana
(another Giada recipe )

Dessert

Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes (additional pic)
(we made a half recipe -- and subbed flax seed "eggs" -- ground flax seed mixed with water -- in place of the eggs, and used Rapadura sugar, which made them slightly more brown, but no less tasty)


You can tell that Liz was watching Giada's show this morning ;)

The last two items can been seen in the wide shot -- we cut the recipe in half and subbed unsalted soy margarine and vegan parmesan (Pamazano) for the wonderfully delicate biscotti.

as for dessert... <homer>drooool.. cuuuupcakes</homer> ;)

Dinner 11/04

Patty Pan Squash Risotto

Roasted Broccoli with Hollandaise Sauce and Bread Crumbs

Romanesco Broccoflower Soup w/ Pesto * (additional pic)
(here's the before picture)

Wilted Mustard Greens with Garlic

Braised Brussel Sprouts

Ciabatta Bread



Today's theme: green food ;)

We're catering an organic/biodynamic wine tasting this weekend, and had to clear out the fridge to make room for the new groceries...

We had some of the Romanesco Broccoflower raw, as sort of a crudite, and even the kids liked it ;)

also, jumping on the Frappr bandwagon, we present "where the hell _does_ a vegan live anyway?". Stop by and show us where you live...

Dinner 11/03

Pumpkin Seed Encrusted Tofu with Orange and Agave Sauce

Roasted Butternut Squash with Orange and Agave Sauce

Steamed Artichokes

Braised Fennel

Ciabatta Bread


We had to go back and see the last time we made the pumpkin seed tofu -- it was May of 2002, which is far too long... we didn't have any pictures at the time, so at least that's been remedied ;)

also, a totally gratutious shot of the dining table -- Liz brought all the plants in off the deck last week, so it made for a nice backdrop...

Dinner 11/02

Eggplant Ravioli
(marinated eggplant stuffed with cashew "cheese", then dehydrated for 6 hours)

Butternut Pasta
(mixed with olive oil, parsley, oregano and rosemary, then dehydrated for 6 hours)

Marinara Puttanesca Sauce*
(sun-dried tomato, tomato, kalamata olive, olive oil, onion, garlic, parsley, orgeano, thyme, sun-dried sea salt, pepper)

Fennel Salad in Bibb Lettuce Wrap (additional pic)
(fennel, yellow bell pepper, walnut "cheese")

Raw Food Wednesday is back on schedule this week with a new eggplant dish as well as the butternut "pasta" that we love. The salad wraps were part Juliano, part "hey we have Bibb Lettuce that we need to use!" ;)

* upon further review -- it was more of a puttanesca than marinara ;)

Dinner 11/01

Seitan and Mushroom Stew
(seitan, crimini mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, onion, carrot, garlic, white beans, rice, tamari, pepper, veg stock)

Ciabatta Bread

Bistro Salad