A Pleasant Surprise

Just recently, my wife & I attended an event held at a renovated estate that is hosts many formal events.

We knew that the menu was most likely “fixed” and, assuming that, would almost certainly be animal-based.

We, being vegan, were perplexed at first. Do we attend and eat whatever we could deem as suitable (for us)? Do we eat “our” meal before hand? What to do, what to do?

Fortunately, my wife took the initiative and called the business, explained our food related concerns and, after a few emails, we were told that we could easily be accommodated and were instructed to contact a certain person upon arrival.

I should back up and say that my wife also made it clear that were in no way demanding that we be treated special. Also, we did not want to be the reason that the host & hostess accrued any extra cost due to use. Likewise, we knew that they would be charged for “a” meal for us and it would be money lost if it was not eaten.

So, instead of an “attitude” from the caterer, we were pleasantly surprised with a seemingly joy to be able to this for us. They went above and beyond to make sure that we were provided with not only a vegan meal but delicious vegan appetizers during the cocktail hour.

The wait staff continually checked in with us asking how the dishes were and we more than eager to tell them and anyone who had a hand in the dishes just how amazing they were. We actually felt a tinge bit of guilt as our dishes were much tastier than what the rest of guests had.

Actually, I paid little attention to what everyone else ate, but I did see the standard bacon-wrapped scallops and meat kabobs. What we had the pleasures of eating were dishes such as:

Cocktail Hour
Marinated tofu kabobs,
Spicy portabella mushroom burgers,
Grilled & chilled vegetables (asparagus, orange peppers & eggplant) &
Bruschetta

Dinner
Spinach salad with toasted walnuts and balsamic dressing
Vegetable lasagna (a lasagna like I’ve never had before…with no pasta!)

What was also amazing was that the wait staff presented each dish to us with intimate knowledge of the contents. It seemed like they actually knew what vegan was (they took great pleasure in pointing out that the breads were dairy-free).

We made sure that everyone there knew just how much we appreciated the service and we even asked (if the Chef would oblige) for recipes of all of the outstand dishes.
A gracious thank note is on the way!

The Simple Beauty (and Therapeutic Value) of an English Muffin

I became more and more discouraged as I was browsing the aisles of our local supermarket in search of “suitable” English muffins.

The selection was slim and the ingredient lists read like a college chemistry text book (a class I disliked both times I took it). It then hit me…"Make them yourself, idiot!" (my inner-self can be rude sometimes).

I ceased my shopping banking on the dimmer of a hope that I had all of the ingredients necessary in my pantry. This time, luck was on my side. I flipped to the required page in Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s “Vegan Brunch" and found that it called for only 6 ingredients (not counting the one flowing from my kitchen sink tap).

I almost stopped as I “felt” I didn’t have the time to assemble the dough and then (gasp) wait for it to rise, let alone all of the other steps (2 more after the dough was ready).

It was at this time that my inner-self made his presence known again…this time he used an explicative that I choose not to repeat. “I” decided it wasn’t really that much time so I soldiered on.

The dough came together quickly and I spent the next 6-10 minutes kneading it. It’s funny how words can tell you more than what you assume. Only a minute into this process I realized just how much I “kneaded” this.

I wouldn’t say that I had a particularly bad day but I felt this day just wore on me a little more than others. As I was working the dough I felt a sense of calm come over me. It felt good…in a lot of ways. I was focused on the dough, yet my mind was a million miles away. I thought about calling my sister up and sharing with her that I finally did what she’s been doing for years.

I was actually proud of the finished product and could not wait to make some more (which I plan on doing tonight).

When it was all said and done I had an English muffin tastier and “prettier” far beyond what I could have purchased in the store. I also felt that I had shed most of the day’s worries away as well.

Before I thought I didn’t have the time. After, I felt that the time had sped past me in a blur.

Through the Twitter-sphere (not quite sure if that's a word...yet) I heard that Dr. Colin Campbell was going to be on Larry King Monday night so I set up the DVR. It wasn't until last night that my wife & I sat down to watch it. Actually, my wife watched a little bit Monday night and was anxious for my reaction to some of the comments.

The show was based on the "need" to eat meat (ground beef morely) in light of recent (and not-so-recent) deaths caused by e. coli. Larry had a panel conisting of two mothers, a grandmother and a lawyer (for one of the mothers). They were urging for more public awareness about what (harm) e. coli can do and how some producers of ground beef contribute to e coli becoming present in peoples' "food".

I had no real problems with what these people shared and feel bad for their loses.
What drew my interest was the dialog provided by the additional guests: Dr. Colin Campbell, Dr. Nancy Rodriguez, Chef Anthony Bourdain and Jonathan Safran Foer.

Now I know that these people are restricted in the time in which they can answer questions, but out of the 4 I'd have to say that Dr. Campbell provided the clearest, most rational statements (and yes, I am biased...so what?).

Dr. Rodriguez appeared to be reading the same teleprompter over and over and over offering the public not much in information...just possibly causing some people to speculate who exactly funds her research.

Chef Bourdain, on the other hand very clearly spoke from his heart and offered nuggets of wisdom such as these:

BOURDAIN: I think we're -- if you look at our basic design, we are designed -- our design features are we have eyes in the front of our head. We have fingernails. We have eye, teeth and long legs. We were designed from the get-go, we have evolved, so that we could chase down smaller, stupider creatures, kill them and eat them.

BOURDAIN: Well, first, it's a silly argument. Cargill is America's largest single company, I believe. To blithely talk about, well, we can replace it with lettuce growing I think is a little ridiculous.

BOURDAIN: That said, I would counter Jonathan's argument just with one word: bacon. It's so delicious.

There's nothing I could possibly add to his argument...

I wasn't really that surprised that the ethical reasons for not eating meat weren't touched upon. I find that the mainstream media is real hesitant to even broach this subject. What does amaze me is that with all of the evidence that not only supports a plant-based diet being healthier for you and but clearly indicates that a diet "enriched" with animals leads to many types of disease, that people still just...don't...get it.

Tuesday night in the kitchen

We found a recipe in the Farm & Garden section of Saturday's newspaper for Zucchini Casserole. It was a fairly easy recipe to follow. Basically it was 4 slices of cubed bread covered in 2 tbsp of butter (I used Earth Balance). I then added sliced & chopped zucchini, onion, green pepper, red pepper and tomatoes. I then covered all of that with some sliced Cheezly mozzarella.

1 hour and 350 degrees later, voila!

While that was baking I thought I would tackle a recipe I received via my VegNews newsletter. It was Pasta e Fagioli and looked waaay too good to pass up. Another simple yet tasty recipe.

Vegan TV?

I watch a fair amount of TV.

For the past 6 months or so my favorites are (in no particular order):

Good Eats
The Next Food Network Star
Top Chef (& Top Chef Masters)
Chopped
Iron Chef America (& The Next Iron Chef)
Jamie at Home
Hell’s Kitchen

After not too long, I noticed a trend…practically no meal was without a dead animal. Oh, sure a couple of the challenges were vegetarian and one was even vegan (gasp!) but a majority of the chefs went right to the old eggplant lasagna…oh my, how creative. It also seemed that the vegetarian challenges were framed as "a pain in the ass" or "tasteless".

It’s just amazing that the professionals get to this point in their careers and can’t figure out for the life of them how to prepare a tasty meal without any animal products.

I’ve daydreamed that I get on one of these shows (not that I’m even close to being that good…the light from the village of good chefs takes 1.5 million years to reach me) and “amaze” them when I make a cream sauce from cashews, water, lemon, olive oil & garlic or a cheese cake with tofu. But then I realize that I wouldn’t last one elimination round as I would not use the mandatory “proteins”.

I used to wonder why there weren’t more vegetarian based cooking shows (I know, a vegan cooking show is a long shot) but then you look at the sponsors for most of the shows and you find your answer.

It’s definitely not that vegan or vegetarian cooking lacks flavor as I’ve even managed to wow the omnivores that I work with, hang out with or are related to with the dishes I’ve prepared.

It’s also not for a lack of talent that these shows aren’t being produced…just look at Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Sarah Kramer (just to name a few).

Maybe it’s just not meant to be.

There’s always other ways to spread the word…

Chapter 1

I've had this dream lately of opening a restaurant and calling it "Veganomenon". It would be through this restaurant that I would share all of the amazing tastes that I have discovered since I've decided to become more aligned with a vegan lifestyle.

While this dream will maintain its status (as a dream) for most likely quite a few years, I have decided to do the next best thing and start this blog. This will still allow me to share everything I have learned and yet to learn.