Happy Hallowiener!!!

Hamilton says... HAPPY HALLOWIENER EVERYONE!!!

Is that a tolerant mutt or what?? Hamilton won Funniest Costume at his Dachshund Halloween party last weekend! In case you can't tell - he's a caterpillar.

And now on to the food...

I'm ashamed to say that while laying in bed this weekend with the above featured dog (who really likes to sleep in snuggled under the blankets), I was watching Rachael Ray do halloween meals on TV, and she had an idea that didn't suck - pasta with roasted pumpkin and cabbage. Granted, she used chicken broth and dumped a bunch of cheese on top, but conceptually, it interested me. I ended up making pasta with butternut squash, broccoli rabe (aka rapini), and white beans, and it was delicious!! At least I thought so... the boy wasn't too into it, honestly. Having grown up in an Italian family, I'm pretty accustomed to eating broccoli rabe, and am not phased by the mild bitterness. My husband, on the other hand, found it too bitter and ate around the broccoli rabe. I don't see any reason the recipe couldn't be made with any dark green leafy of your choice, or, as Ms. Ray made it, with cabbage. Just the same, it was seasonally lovely and the white beans broke down some into the broth making it creamy and delicious. I would eat it again -- and I will because there's leftovers in the fridge and I don't think the boy will touch them :P

Pasta with Butternut Squash, White Beans, and Broccoli Rabe

3/4 lbs pasta-of-your-choice
1 bunch broccoli rabe, cut into bite sized pieces (I cut each stem into thirds)
1 small butternut squash (~1.5 lbs)
1.5 cups (or 1 can, drained, rinsed) cooked white beans
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

1. Peel the squash and cut it into cubes. Toss the cubes with about 1 tbsp of oil and spread on a baking sheet in one layer. Bake at 425 for 20-30 minutes (really depends on size!) until fork tender. Remove and set aside

2. Cook the pasta according to package directions. In the meantime, bring the 2 cups of broth to boil in a large pan, then add the broccoli rabe and garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes or until broccoli rabe reaches desired tenderness.

3. Toss the squash and beans in with the broccoli rabe and broth and to heat through.

4. Toss the veggies with the drained pasta. Enjoy!

Tofu McMegans

Happy Hurricane everyone! I hope everyone is safe and dry and has power and heat and water and all that jazz. We're in the north-east, but just got some wind and some rain, but we're all fine with no loss of any necessary services. Everyone was bracing for the worst, however, and the boy got released early from work yesterday, and did not have to be in until noon today. After a leisurely morning in bed, I asked if he'd like me to make breakfast, and he said "TOFU MCMEGANS?!", and we had the ingredients, so I obliged.

I have to laugh a little at the name Tofu McMegans, because our last name is actually a Mc, but it doesn't have the same ring to it. Maybe because it's the wrong number of syllables...

A Tofu McMegan is a piece of coated, fried tofu on an english muffin with Yves Veggie Canadian Bacon (or as we call it - canadian facon) and a slice of american-style cheese-style product. The tofu makes a remarkably good egg substitute, since at least in this application, it is all about the texture. I've found anything about a medium texture tofu and above works fine - any softer and it's hard to keep it together to pan fry it. The big brand English Muffin is not vegan, and I like the Ezekiel brand English muffins, but I've found many store brand English muffins are also vegan - so if you're looking for an e-muffin, check those out!

I only ever make two Tofu McMegans at a time, one for me and one for the boy, but it's easy to make more. The coating mixture would probably be enough that you don't need to double it if you're making an entire pound of tofu's worth.

Tofu McMegans

Coating mixture:
2 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp mustard powder
Salt & Pepper

Other stuff:
1/2 lbs of tofu, cut into english muffin-sized squares (two slices side by side work too!)
4 slices Canadian Facon
2 slices nondairy american cheese of choice (I like Rice Vegan)
2 english muffins, toasted
Canola oil

Assembly:
In a shallow dish, mix together the coating mixture. Take the cut tofu and press it into the mixture to coat it on all sides. (It will stick to the wet tofu)

In a cast iron skillet, add enough oil to just cover the bottom. Heat the pan, and add the tofu, cooking until lightly brown on both sides (usually about 5 minutes a side). At the same time, you can heat/brown up the canadian facon.

Mmm steamy! The top right tofu has been flipped and is beautiful! The top left is waiting for its turn. 

Once you've got your tofus browned up and crispy and your facon heated, then just assemble! 

Bottom Muffin

Facon

Tofu

Cheeze

Facon

Top Muffin 

Delicious!! We had ours with hot mulled cider this morning, but often enjoy them with fruit smoothies in the summer.


Aaaand here's the puppy hanging with his "friends" on the windowsill! Stay tuned tomorrow for Hamilton in his Prize Winning Halloween Costume!

The Brunch Routine

Sometimes, it's not about what you're eating, but who you're sharing it with.

During the week, the boy does Tai Kwon Do a few nights, and we have Dog School one night, and Dog Play Group one night, and then on the weekends the boy games with his friends, and I have my things, and although we live together being married and all, everything we have to do sometimes gets in the way of quality time together. To remedy this somewhat, we started a Sunday brunch routine.

First it was just I'd make us a nice late breakfast/brunchy thing on Sundays (I'll have to write down my recipe for Tofu McMegans before MoFo is done. It's killer), and sit and talk, and eat things with maple syrup, and then he'd go about his day, and I'd go about mine. Our routine is now extended to take the dog to the park to play with his friends for an hour or so, THEN come home and have brunch together. It's really nice, I highly recommend it.

This week we had french toast and soyboy sausages and fresh pineapple. I use the french toast recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, but I jazz it up by adding some brown sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon to the batter. It's great with locally made whole wheat bread, and fried up in a generous amount of earth balance, topped with some maple syrup. Deliciousness is evidenced below:

And if that isn't enough to give you the warm fuzzies, here's another picture of Hamilton. This was taken back in the spring, when he still had cankles. Man I miss those cankles.

MoFo!!! 2012 MoFo!!!

Hey Vegan MoFo'ers and welcome to the 2012 Megatarian version of Vegan MoFo! Last year, I really sucked at this, so this year, I'm going to try not to suck. That's my goal. I think I can achieve it for the following reasons:

1. I got laid off! I spend a lot of time cooking because I can, and because I don't have much else to do, and because it's more cost effective to make things from scratch than buy shortcuts. That said, if you have a job for me, let me know. The unemployment office said to tell everyone I need a job, so I NEED A JOB. If anyone is hiring a Researcher in the NY Capital Region, or anything in higher education administration, or if you need a PhD in Social Welfare, or a personal chef, pet sitter, something... drop me a line!

2. I got a puppy! This actually has nothing to do with completing MoFo. We got the puppy in February from the SPCA, but he actually prevented me from doing a lot of things for several months, because he was actually a Vampire Piranha Shark Puppy, who peed on things if you weren't staring at him... and sometimes when you did. Now he's a charming 9 month old housebroken puppy who loves the game "find it" (I dropped food! Come eat it!) while I cook. Meet Hamilton:

Don't be fooled, this puppy is PURE EVIL!!

 9 months old, so handsome and well-mannered!

And back to food! 

I categorized this blog as "comfort food" for MoFo, I think because it didn't fit anywhere else and I couldn't think of a good "other" at the time. Maybe I can stick to the theme too, who knows? Trying to at least start on the theme - I give you... soup! 

When I was an omni-kid, my dad would make homemade chicken soup with noodles and escarole. I loved that soup. Not the chicken so much, honestly, because my dad doesn't discriminate against gristle, but I loved loved the escarole and noodles in broth. 

Escarole is a leafy green that looks kind of like a bushy loose head of lettuce. It is part of the chicory family, like raddichio and endive, is slightly but not overly bitter, and can be eaten raw or cooked. It's somewhat difficult to find where I live, it appears at the co-op periodically, and sometimes they have it at the grocery store but it's often old and wilted there, so I was thrilled to get a giant head in my CSA box last week! I knew exactly what I was going to do with it -- make dad's soup!! I sub in vegetable broth for chicken broth, and white beans for chicken, and it is fantastic!! It makes approximately one giant vat of soup, but you could cut it in half or freeze some, just leave the pasta out until you are ready to serve it or it will suck up all the broth. 

The boy fancies himself a food stylist, so he stuck bread in it for the picture.

Escarole and White Bean Soup

1 quart vegetable broth
6 cups diced tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 carrots, cut into coins
2 stalks of celery, sliced into bits of equal thickness to the carrots
2 cups cooked white beans
1 head escarole, chopped
2 cups cooked pasta of your choice
salt & pepper to taste

1. Boil a giant pot of water and toss the escarole in to soften for about 5 minutes. (You could do this in the soup after adding the broth to the veggies, but I find you need a much bigger pot, and it's just easier this way.)

2. Puree together the vegetable broth and diced tomatoes to make a smooth tomatoey broth.

3. In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Sautee the carrots and celery in the oil until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sautee for another minute or two.

4. Add the broth, beans, and blanched escarole. Bring to a low boil, then turn the heat to low. Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes to let the flavors meld. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Add the cooked pasta immediately before serving. If you won't be eating all the soup right away, add the pasta to individual bowls and store separately so as not to have the noodles absorb all the broth.