Like a room without a roof

Last weekend was exciting since we had my parents come up! Usually we'll try to find a cool place around town to go to dinner with them, but Jason had really wanted to cook instead. Jason is a really great cook - although most of the time it is me cooking the dinners. So when he said he would opt to cook, I knew it would be a good idea!

Over the summer he surprised me with the cookbook Vegan Cooking for Carnivores by Roberto Martin - aka Ellen & Portia's vegan chef.

The recipes all look amazing - perhaps some of them a bit time-consuming and good for a Sunday night meal. Jason had made the Shepherd's Pie for me in the past, so he wanted to make that again for when my parents came up.

Jason stirring the potatoes - with a knife no less. I don't judge how he cooks :)

I added my own contribution with my favorite salad recipe - Asparagus, Almond, and Tomato salad with Mustard-Dill Vinaigrette. It is from The Candle Café Cookbook and I've made it many times as a side for meals. The dressing and additions to the salad make it perfect - although we did not add the almonds this time.

The table was set and the shepherd's pie looked delicious! In my notes for this recipe, I put "Takes a while but well worth it!" Which is very true - definitely not a weeknight meal but so worth it for guests or if you have some time!


Asparagus, Almond, and Tomato Salad with Mustard-Dill Vinaigrette: (adapted from Candle Café Cookbook)
Serves 6
2 1/2 pounds asparagus
6 cups salad greens
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup sliced almonds (I've made this without and still good..but the almonds do add a nice crunch!)

Break off the tough woody ends of the asparagus stalks. In a large skillet, bring enough lightly salted water to cover the asparagus to a boil over high heat. Add asparagus, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 3-5 minutes, just until tender. Drain and chill asparagus while prepping the rest of the salad.
Make the vinaigrette:
1/4 c olive oil
3/4 cup water
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1/4 c fresh dill
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup red wine vinegar

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Toss the greens and tomatoes together with about 1/3 c of the dressing. Toss the asparagus in a separate bowl with about 2 Tablespoons of dressing, then place over salad greens. Sprinkle with almonds and add a bit more dressing if desired.

Shepherd's Pie: (from Vegan Cooking for Carnivores)
1 bag of boca meatless crumbles
2 pounds russet potatoes
4 Tablespoons of vegan butter (we use smart balance)
1/2 cup almond milk
1 Tablespoon of chopped chives
sprinkle of salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons of oil
1 white onion, diced small
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 large carrot, cut into small dice
1 tsp dried thyme
3 Tablespoons of flour
1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth
1/2 cup frozen peas

Preheat the oven to 420 degrees. Place boca crumbles in pot and warm over the stove top. Peel and rinse the potatoes and place them in a large pot. Fill the pot with water to at least 3 inches above the potatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the potatoes are soft.
Drain the potatoes and put them in an ovenproof baking dish or pan. Bake them for 5 minutes, to remove excess moisture and leave the oven on. Working quickly, mash the potatoes. Add the melted butter, warm milk, and chopped chives and stir well. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat a large sauté pan on medium heat, add the oil and let heat. Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes. Add garlic, celery, carrot, and thyme and cook for 3 minutes more.
Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir in.
Pour the broth into the pan and stir until incorporated. Stir in the boca and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the peas and season to taste.
 Spread mixture evenly into a casserole pan/baking dish. Top with mashed potatoes, starting around the edges to create a seal to prevent the mix from bubbling up. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and bake for 25 minutes.

So yes this dish takes a while, but so worth it! We've made a few other recipes from this book and have been very impressed.

no this is how it works, you peer inside yourself

For Valentine's day Jason & I stayed Saturday night in Philadelphia to have a close-by getaway.
The weather was not too cooperative, and it was freezing and snowing/raining during the day of walking around the city, but despite that we had a great time.

To keep out of the cold, we went to the Franklin Institute - which I had never been to before. It was really interesting and made me excited for potential future field trips when I become a teacher!

For dinner, we went to Farmicia. We had been there about a year or so ago while in the city for brunch - which did not disappoint! After reviewing their dinner menu online, I knew it was a great place to try for dinner as well.

 As you can see the bottom of the menu has the vegan friendly options. It was tough to pick between the choices, but since  I had already looked online earlier - I knew what I was most likely going to get.

Farmicia's dining room is very dimly-lit and cozy. When we were there for brunch, it was very bright and welcoming since the sun shines right through all of the windows.

To start, there was only one vegan appetizer listed on the menu. For some reason, reading it quickly - I thought it stated "Cannellini & Sautéed Tofu" - however it stated "Capellini & Sauteed Tofu" I was expecting white beans with tofu, not pasta! This was good none the less though - just kind of an awkward start to the meal.

This was roasted tomatoes, red chili, mint, and crushed pine nuts with the pasta and roasted tofu.

For my meal I chose the Butternut Squash Risotto croquets. This came with roasted cauliflower, sautéed spinach, and walnut-sage pesto. These were more like patties than croquets, but very delicious and I loved the pesto!

Valentine's dinner is not complete without dessert of course. We were thinking of going to Vedge that night to grab dessert, but Farmicia had a banana cupcake on their menu that sounded really good! It came with vegan caramel and banana ice cream. Perfect ending to the meal. :) 

FARMiCiA Restaurant
15 S 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA

Well we've got the land but they've got the view.

For Christmas I was hoping to get the new cookbook from Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Luckily - my husband is a great gift-giver and I received it! Between moving, I haven't gotten a chance to make as many recipes as I'd like - but the few that I have made so far from Isa Does It have been amazing. I didn't have any doubts that they would be.

I've been a huge fan of Isa since Veganomicon when I first went vegan in 2009 - Blast from the past when first cooking with Veganomicon. Since then I've fallen in love with her dessert books - Vegan Cupcakes take over the world, Vegan Cookies invade the cookie jar.. and my favorite for dinners that never disappoint - Appetite for Reduction.

You might say I have a #wcw on Isa...
Onto the recipes!

First up I wanted to try a simple and warm recipe. The Lentil-Quinoa Stew (with Lots of Kale) stuck out to me since it was ingredients I knew I had on hand and sounded very comforting. Although I am not a fan of kale (but sure have I tried to be!) I knew I could alter this recipe to be something that would be great for a weeknight meal.



I made a few alterations, which I've included in this recipe:

Lentil-Bulgar Stew (adapted from Isa Does It):
Serves 6
1 medium onion, diced
1 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1 tsp dried thyme
6 c vegetable broth
1 bay leaf
1 cup carrots, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
3/4 c dry lentils
1 c bulgar
1/2 t ground pepper
1 bag of spinach
1-2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

Preheat a 4-quart soup pot over medium-high heat and spray with cooking spray or use water to coat the pan for cooking. Saute the onion with a pinch of salt until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 15 seconds, then add the thyme and Italian seasoning. Add the broth, bay leaf, carrots, celery, lentils, bulgar, salt, and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to medium and cook for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender. Add the spinach and stir frequently until it is wilted. Add balsamic vinegar, taste for salt, and let the stew sit for 10 minutes or so off the heat. Thin with water/broth if necessary, and serve.

As per most of my dishes, hot sauce was already on the table and ready when this was finished - so add to your own liking.

As previous posts have shown, waffles are very common in our house. Usually on weekends we are home, Sundays = Waffles in the morning. Isa had a great recipe that I read reviews on stating they were the "best pancakes ever"....so I knew I had to disrupt our waffle theme.





Vegan Pancakes (adapted from Puffy Pillow Pancakes from Isa Does It):
Makes 6 pancakes
1 1/2 c white whole wheat flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 truvia packet
1 cup almond milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and truvia. Make a well in the center. measure the milk into a small bowl. Add the vinegar and Ener-G, use a fork to vigorously mix the ingredients until foamy. Pour the milk mix into the center of dry ingredients. Add the water, apple sauce, and vanilla and use a fork to mix until a thick, lumpy batter forms. It doesn't need to be smooth - just make sure all ingredients are mixed.
Preheat a pan or griddle over medium-low heat and let the batter rest for 10 minutes.
Lightly spray the pan with cooking spray. Add 1/3 cup of the batter to the pan and cook for 4 minutes until puffy. Flip the pancake, adding new spray if needed and cook another 3 minutes. Let them rest on a cooling rack with aluminum foil until ready to serve.

After making these, I remembered why I prefer waffles - SO much easier to cook. I was not gifted with the flipping of pancake talent, luckily Jason is better at it than I am so he took on that job. Waffles are way easier since they just sit in the iron and the light turns green when they are ready. :)

One final recipe to review from Isa Does It is her Tempeh Giardino. We are not tempeh fans - although my older posts may have said differently - so I knew I wanted to recreate this dish using tofu.




Tofu Giardino (adapted from Isa Does it):
Serves 4
1 block of tofu, pressed and then cut into smaller cubes
1/2 t salt
1 small red onion, diced
1 yellow squash, cut lengthwise and into 1/4" thick moons
1 zucchini squash, cut lengthwise and into 1/4" moons
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups chopped tomat
1/3 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves

Preheat large, heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat and spray with cooking spray. Saute the tofu with a pinch of salt. Cook for about 5 minutes until lightly browned, tossing frequently.
Add the onion and sauté for another 3 minutes - adding water if needed to prevent burning. After translucent, transfer tofu and onion to a large bowl.
Spray pan again and add zucchini and squash. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook for 5-7 minutes, tossing frequently until lightly browned. Move squash to one side and add more cooking spray along with minced garlic. Work quickly so garlic doesn't burn, add chopped tomato to garlic and salt and toss to coat. Cook for 1 minutes then toss the squash and add the tofu and onion back in pan. Mix everything, add the basil, and cook for another 2 minutes. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Although we made this recipe in January - it would definitely be perfect for a light spring/summer dish! I'm excited to try it again with more in season tomatoes and produce.

Other honorable mentions from Isa Does It that are not shown:
Pesto Soup, Baked Garlic Curry Fries, Sun-Dried Tomato Penne, Chana Masala, and Alphabet Soup.

I know my next go-to will be her Malai Kafta, which is Jason's favorite indian dish. I feel it will be a great weekend dinner that I know we will love. :)

New blog..seriously?

As much as I give the "It's a new year - I'm going to post every day!" speech... I do intend to blog :) However, things have been a bit crazy on our end with selling our house & buying a new one - however I am happy to say settlement is over and we are in our new home!

Thus I can start cooking more in our bigger kitchen and keep things interesting. The home we bought is great - however it was built in 1990 and no decorative touches to be found. So we need to make it into our home - which is a lot of DIY and fun :)

I started another blog to document the process - http://veganrosehome.blogspot.com

I'll still be updating both blogs, but wanted to have two for different creative outlets.

:)

NYC December 2013

Catching up on posts I've been meaning to post is one from our trip to NYC in December. We went a few weeks before Christmas to enjoy the lights and atmosphere of the city during the holidays. Jason & I have been to NYC many times, and I've done numerous posts of all the fabulous places we've been. New York is really a special place for us and the first place we ever traveled together to! We have many favorites and spots that we usually flock to, however each time we go we still try to visit somewhere new.

For new as far as museums go, we finally visited the Moma - museum of modern art. I've been wanting to visit this museum for years but the price just seemed too outrageous since there were so many other free museums to see in the city. However, Bank of America card holders are able to visit museums in many cities in the US for free the first weekend of each month - which included the MoMa when we were visiting! I was beyond excited. The art was fun to walk around and see and we spent a couple of hours wandering the many floors of the museum.

For dinner, we tried Johns on 12th. We had passed this restaurant during one of our previous trips and saw it was an Italian restaurant featuring an entire vegan menu. Jason loves Italian and I love vegan food, so we knew we had to try it!

The outside looks pretty small, as is the inside, and you definitely need a reservation - but it is all well worth it! Even with our reservation and arriving 15 minutes early, we were told to stand at the bar area until our table was ready. It was jam packed, which I took it as it must be good. We saw that Guy Fieri had visited and left his mark on the ceiling there as well. We were excited to finally be sat and look over the menu.

This was the vegan menu - so many options!

For an appetizer to share we chose the vegan Bruschetta - which was garlic-grilled bread with avocado, basil, and tomatoes. This was absolutely amazing - I'd go back just to eat this again. This can be super easy to recreate at home, which I have yet to do, but definitely see happening soon!

For my entrée - I chose the Seitan alla Rosa - with artichokes, fire-roasted peppers, in marsala wine mushroom sauce. I'm not a fan of mushrooms, at all, but I really wanted to try their seitan and the veggies that came with it sounded great. This dish did not disappoint - I loved everything even the sauce. However, I was so curious about the vegan alfredo sauce on the menu. I didn't want an entire meal of it - but wanted to give it a try. I asked our waiter if there was any way I could have a small side of it to add with my dish - and they did not disappoint!

I could have eaten this with a spoon. This was absolutely delicious, and way more than I expected! The wait staff at Johns were absolutely great and I loved our entire experience. We wanted to try their vegan cannnolis after - however we were both too full to have dessert. This will definitely be on our list to try next time!
Although we have many more places in NYC to try each time we visit, I know Johns of 12th Street will make it on our go-to list!

Johns of 12th Street
302 East 12th Street
NYC 10003