Hello!
Just finished watching Rachel Ray and before that it was Paula Dean. Did I spell her name right? I know her name but just didn't remember how she spells it. Interesting aside here, Paula Dean is reported to use this product on her hair that I used to sell when I was working in a beauty supply store. It's what keeps the pretty color even in her hair...and it comes in a purple bottle. :)
I'm not complaining, but today was a very long and full day at school. Had a meeting that went on until 4:30 and that may not sound late to a lot o' folks, but when you get up at 5, you probably want to go to bed fairly early and that doesn't leave much cooking time! :)
I came home and made a glorious salad of arugula, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, cashews, tomato, a dollop of hummus (the best ever) and made my own dressing. I'm going to try to bottle that stuff, I swear. I make a vegan dressing that is just delicious. I wonder if anyone else would think so. It's so simple it's crazy. Once I get the proportions down pat, I'll share...or get rich.
So check this out. Paula Dean made three desserts: a chocolate eclair cake, a raspberry trifle and peanut butter fudge that contains processed cheese! AHHHHHHHHH! Sad thing is, it's probably tasty...just deadly.
Rachel Ray made a flank steak with an Asian touch, wasabi mashed potatoes and green beans with bell peppers seasoned with sesame. Looked wonderful. I am going to go online and get those recipes and figure out what meat sub I can use for the steak...probably tempeh.
Meanwhile, what about Julie and Julia? I am convinced that they would both be horrified by Paula's desserts. Rachel's 30-minute meal, not so much. I'm going to do the asparagus and potatoes over the weekend. Hopefully it will be fabulous.
Until my next fun food rambling...
Peace and more peace...we need it.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Julie Definitely Had More Time!
She had more time than I do, that is, and of course Julia did too when she was in France with her working hubby. I just had my first full day of school and I have three lessons to plan and four sets of papers to grade. That is not going to be conducive to my getting any potatoes or asparagus done tonight, not even throwing them in the oven! :) In fact, after this workday, I reviewed my thoughts here, revamped my strategy and here is my new proposition:
I will attempt one cooking session per week and write about it, meanwhile I will blog about other veggie matters and ideas. I may discuss recipe ideas before I try them, considering what I may have to do in order to make vegan equivalents just as appealing and tasty.
Meanwhile, I had a great vegan experience yesterday afternoon. My friends Wayne and Larry took me to The Veggie Grille. It has two locations not far from me: one in El Segundo and the other in Irvine.
The food was delicious and everything on the menu is vegan...unbelievable. It's impossible to write enough about how good I thought it was, so I'm going to drop the website address for you here and hope you check it out. There are some reviews on http://www.yelp.com/. The site itself is http://www.veggiegrill.com/.
Veggie Grille has a casual atmosphere; it's a stand-in-line-to-order place, but the food is brought to your table. The presentation is lovely and the surroundings are clean and bright. You can see photos on the website.
I had the "carne asada" sandwich and the steamed kale. It was fresh, delicious and just spicy enough. My friend Wayne had the chopped salad (chop-chop) and Larry had the Chinese "chickin" salad. They are both carnivores, so when they really enjoyed the food I was jazzed. Larry commented that he felt full after his salad, but not as stuffed as he does when he eats a regular Chinese chicken salad.
There are gluten-free options on the menu which you have to request.
Veggie Grille offers three desserts and we wanted to try them, but we were too full. Guess that means we liked our food!
I will attempt one cooking session per week and write about it, meanwhile I will blog about other veggie matters and ideas. I may discuss recipe ideas before I try them, considering what I may have to do in order to make vegan equivalents just as appealing and tasty.
Meanwhile, I had a great vegan experience yesterday afternoon. My friends Wayne and Larry took me to The Veggie Grille. It has two locations not far from me: one in El Segundo and the other in Irvine.
The food was delicious and everything on the menu is vegan...unbelievable. It's impossible to write enough about how good I thought it was, so I'm going to drop the website address for you here and hope you check it out. There are some reviews on http://www.yelp.com/. The site itself is http://www.veggiegrill.com/.
Veggie Grille has a casual atmosphere; it's a stand-in-line-to-order place, but the food is brought to your table. The presentation is lovely and the surroundings are clean and bright. You can see photos on the website.
I had the "carne asada" sandwich and the steamed kale. It was fresh, delicious and just spicy enough. My friend Wayne had the chopped salad (chop-chop) and Larry had the Chinese "chickin" salad. They are both carnivores, so when they really enjoyed the food I was jazzed. Larry commented that he felt full after his salad, but not as stuffed as he does when he eats a regular Chinese chicken salad.
There are gluten-free options on the menu which you have to request.
Veggie Grille offers three desserts and we wanted to try them, but we were too full. Guess that means we liked our food!
My only 'complaint', if you want to call it that, is that it was a bit hard to find. It's in a sprawling mall.
Check it out and have a good night!
Peace,
Bev
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Plan for Today...for Julie and Julia
First, thanks to Bruce for his great ideas for a slogan to replace A1's "Sing for your Beef"! See them in yesterday's comment section!
I totally blew off my challenge for yesterday because something sneaked up on me and took up my whole day. So my challenge for today may be fixing two veggies instead of one. I'm thinking of adding potatoes to the asparagus experiment. (This doesn't mean I'll combine them!) :)
Potatoes are the food of heaven in my opinion. I've often said I could live on them, although I would tire of that amount of starch after a few months. These round or oval "tubers" are the most versatile vegetable on the planet in my humble, non-chef-like opinion, and I like them almost every way possible: baked, fried, mashed, boiled, broiled, roasted, whole, halved, sliced, fat, thin, soft, crisp, chopped, pureed into soup or folded into a delicious potato salad. I like them peeled or not, mostly not because the skins are heavenly and they contain vitamins. The only way I don't like potatoes is raw, but if I found the right recipe, that would change.
My favorite dishes, not in any particular order of preference are:
baked potatoes
twice-baked potatoes
potato skins
rosemary potatoes
thinly sliced and fried potatoes, just this side of crispy enough to be a chip
hash browns
scalloped potatoes
skinny French (not) fries
lattice potatoes,
French potato soup and
homemade potato salad
I'm learning my French cookery limits and boundaries, including the herbs (herbes!) that are used and not used in French recipes. If rosemary potatoes appear in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, that will be my recipe of choice for today. Rosemary goes with potatoes like brown goes with rice...just a natural, harmonious relationship.
When I became a vegetarian, suddenly my eyes opened to the many, many kinds of veggies that are often overlooked or dismissed because of all the focus on meat in this meat-centered culture. It's really sad! Some carnivores (not my foodie roommates) miss out on so much, and they ask me what I eat! HA! With regard to potatoes, I have been introduced to many different varieties and colors. Most recently I have focused on Yukon golds, purple potatoes and the little fingerlings that come in all different colors in their pretty mesh bags.
(I just realized that the above paragraph should have been put in another place in this entry, but the application won't allow me to cut and paste. :( I hope you understand! Maybe next time I can write my blog in my word processor and paste the whole corrected thing into this window later. That'll show 'em!)
Have a great Sunday and I'll post about my asparagus and potatoes after the experiment is completed. Any bets on whether or not I'll get them both done with a new sauce for asparagus? Hmmmm...that's a challenge, even with my school work done and out of the way.
Peace and Good Food,
Bev
I totally blew off my challenge for yesterday because something sneaked up on me and took up my whole day. So my challenge for today may be fixing two veggies instead of one. I'm thinking of adding potatoes to the asparagus experiment. (This doesn't mean I'll combine them!) :)
Potatoes are the food of heaven in my opinion. I've often said I could live on them, although I would tire of that amount of starch after a few months. These round or oval "tubers" are the most versatile vegetable on the planet in my humble, non-chef-like opinion, and I like them almost every way possible: baked, fried, mashed, boiled, broiled, roasted, whole, halved, sliced, fat, thin, soft, crisp, chopped, pureed into soup or folded into a delicious potato salad. I like them peeled or not, mostly not because the skins are heavenly and they contain vitamins. The only way I don't like potatoes is raw, but if I found the right recipe, that would change.
My favorite dishes, not in any particular order of preference are:
baked potatoes
twice-baked potatoes
potato skins
rosemary potatoes
thinly sliced and fried potatoes, just this side of crispy enough to be a chip
hash browns
scalloped potatoes
skinny French (not) fries
lattice potatoes,
French potato soup and
homemade potato salad
I'm learning my French cookery limits and boundaries, including the herbs (herbes!) that are used and not used in French recipes. If rosemary potatoes appear in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, that will be my recipe of choice for today. Rosemary goes with potatoes like brown goes with rice...just a natural, harmonious relationship.
When I became a vegetarian, suddenly my eyes opened to the many, many kinds of veggies that are often overlooked or dismissed because of all the focus on meat in this meat-centered culture. It's really sad! Some carnivores (not my foodie roommates) miss out on so much, and they ask me what I eat! HA! With regard to potatoes, I have been introduced to many different varieties and colors. Most recently I have focused on Yukon golds, purple potatoes and the little fingerlings that come in all different colors in their pretty mesh bags.
(I just realized that the above paragraph should have been put in another place in this entry, but the application won't allow me to cut and paste. :( I hope you understand! Maybe next time I can write my blog in my word processor and paste the whole corrected thing into this window later. That'll show 'em!)
Have a great Sunday and I'll post about my asparagus and potatoes after the experiment is completed. Any bets on whether or not I'll get them both done with a new sauce for asparagus? Hmmmm...that's a challenge, even with my school work done and out of the way.
Peace and Good Food,
Bev
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Would Julie or Julia Use A1? :)
I wonder.
Julia doesn't use anything pre-made. She has her own sauce recipes, at least in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie probably has some A1 in her kitchen somewhere, even though she wouldn't use it in these recipes.
So, since A1 is advertised here on my vegetarian/vegan blog site, let's have some fun. The slogan is "Sing for your Beef". Send me a veggie or cruelty-free slogan, something else to which we could add A1. Sing for your ______? (Keep it clean.) :)
Post your idea on the comment section.
Peace,
Bev
Julia doesn't use anything pre-made. She has her own sauce recipes, at least in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie probably has some A1 in her kitchen somewhere, even though she wouldn't use it in these recipes.
So, since A1 is advertised here on my vegetarian/vegan blog site, let's have some fun. The slogan is "Sing for your Beef". Send me a veggie or cruelty-free slogan, something else to which we could add A1. Sing for your ______? (Keep it clean.) :)
Post your idea on the comment section.
Peace,
Bev
A Note on Julie
The longer I work on this blog and my sporadic attempts at the veganization of selected Julie Child recipes, the bigger and bigger my respect grows for Julie. It's unfathomable that someone would undertake the duplication of 500 plus detailed Julia recipes in 365 days, when I can only average two or three a week!
Granted, Julie was already a wonderful cook, which I'm not. Also, Julie's job was truly a day job. Instead of staying after school, grading, planning and directing drama productions, she spent her after-work hours going to the store to buy her ingredients and getting home to the recipe. She had an amazing amount of emotional stress on her post 9/11-related day job, she set a huge goal for herself and met it with flying colors.
If I can create one or two fabulous vegan recipes per week this school year, I'll be happy!
It really bites that even after completing that monumental task, Julia misunderstood Julie's project and Julie never got to meet her. What a bummer.
Granted, Julie was already a wonderful cook, which I'm not. Also, Julie's job was truly a day job. Instead of staying after school, grading, planning and directing drama productions, she spent her after-work hours going to the store to buy her ingredients and getting home to the recipe. She had an amazing amount of emotional stress on her post 9/11-related day job, she set a huge goal for herself and met it with flying colors.
If I can create one or two fabulous vegan recipes per week this school year, I'll be happy!
It really bites that even after completing that monumental task, Julia misunderstood Julie's project and Julie never got to meet her. What a bummer.
Vegan Lemon Butter for Julie and Julia
Yesterday was the day to attempt the vegan dipping sauce for artichokes! I followed Julia's non-vegan recipe from my last post, but I used olive oil with a pinch of garlic in place of the butter.
It turned out very well. One challenge was that I didn't have quite enough lemon to fill the 1/4 cup, so I topped it off with fresh lime juice. It was good, but not the authentic taste of the pure lemon "butter".
BIG TIP: It's important not to let the lemon juice boil down to less than a tablespoon before adding the oil. I accidentally did that yesterday and it was SO POTENT that it nearly shriveled the entire lower portion of my face. Good flavor though! :) It's really important to keep an eye on the lemon juice as it's boiling down; I'm sure that is what made it so much stronger than before.
My Taurus cook/foodie/roomie, Dori suggested that this vegan sauce would be great for asparagus, so that is what I'm going to try later today. If I get ambitious, I'll try another of Julia's sauces also.
Asparagus is one of my very favorite veggies, so I'm really looking forward to it. Julia has a lot of suggestions for picking out the right bundle. There's nothing a whole lot sadder than biting into a beautiful piece of asparagus and getting a mouthful of tree bark instead.
Humor note: Notice how "adsense" chose to put A1 Steak Sauce under this blog! HA! "Sing for your beef"? :) What else could we sing for instead? Send me your ideas! :)
It turned out very well. One challenge was that I didn't have quite enough lemon to fill the 1/4 cup, so I topped it off with fresh lime juice. It was good, but not the authentic taste of the pure lemon "butter".
BIG TIP: It's important not to let the lemon juice boil down to less than a tablespoon before adding the oil. I accidentally did that yesterday and it was SO POTENT that it nearly shriveled the entire lower portion of my face. Good flavor though! :) It's really important to keep an eye on the lemon juice as it's boiling down; I'm sure that is what made it so much stronger than before.
My Taurus cook/foodie/roomie, Dori suggested that this vegan sauce would be great for asparagus, so that is what I'm going to try later today. If I get ambitious, I'll try another of Julia's sauces also.
Asparagus is one of my very favorite veggies, so I'm really looking forward to it. Julia has a lot of suggestions for picking out the right bundle. There's nothing a whole lot sadder than biting into a beautiful piece of asparagus and getting a mouthful of tree bark instead.
Humor note: Notice how "adsense" chose to put A1 Steak Sauce under this blog! HA! "Sing for your beef"? :) What else could we sing for instead? Send me your ideas! :)
Thursday, August 20, 2009
What Would Julie and Julia Do?
What would the two J's do if they had just taught all day and didn't have what they wanted to make for dinner? Probably not what I'm doing. :) Sitting here in a coffeehouse eating a bagel and drinking ice water. :)
So the artichoke experiment went really well as far as the cooking and the taste go. I chose against my own preferences, not to make the vegan dipping sauce, but I made the traditional one, the lemon butter, and my roommates loved it. They lapped it up like hungry puppies. It basically consists of exactly what Julia's recipe calls for: butter, salt, white pepper and lemon juice.
Ingredients:
1/4 of a cup of lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
dash of white pepper
1 stick of butter cut into 8 pieces.
-Boil the lemon juice, with salt and pepper down to only on tablespoon.
-Remove from heat.
-Add two pieces of butter and whisk until its all melted.
-Add the rest of the butter and whisk until it is all melted.
Use this as a dipping sauce for the artichokes.
In the next two days I'm going to make a vegan equivalent and tell you about it. I know it will be awesome!
Look for me to switch gears to raw in the near future!
Peace,
Bev
So the artichoke experiment went really well as far as the cooking and the taste go. I chose against my own preferences, not to make the vegan dipping sauce, but I made the traditional one, the lemon butter, and my roommates loved it. They lapped it up like hungry puppies. It basically consists of exactly what Julia's recipe calls for: butter, salt, white pepper and lemon juice.
Ingredients:
1/4 of a cup of lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
dash of white pepper
1 stick of butter cut into 8 pieces.
-Boil the lemon juice, with salt and pepper down to only on tablespoon.
-Remove from heat.
-Add two pieces of butter and whisk until its all melted.
-Add the rest of the butter and whisk until it is all melted.
Use this as a dipping sauce for the artichokes.
In the next two days I'm going to make a vegan equivalent and tell you about it. I know it will be awesome!
Look for me to switch gears to raw in the near future!
Peace,
Bev
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
