Grog and Vittles

Nacho Cheese Sauce

2008-01-10T15:48:00.000-05:00

3 Tbsp of Butter
2 Tbsp of Flour
1 Cup of Milk
2 Cups of Cheese
1/2 TBSP ground mustard
1/2 TGSP Chile Powder

Take the silly small saucepan. Melt the butter most of the way, stir in the flour. Cook on HI heat until the buttery balls of flour turn into something that looks like mash potatoes ( a couple minutes ). Slowly add milk while stirring. Stir in spices. Turn heat down to Low/Medium Low. Gently sit in handfuls of cheese until melted. Do not raise heat, cheese will get grainy. Pour over nachos, and enjoy!

--Michael

Must....Slather....On....Something.....

2007-07-17T13:23:00.000-05:00

This must be made immediately!

--Michael

Balsamic Strawberries, Barley "Risotto" with Shiitake Mushrooms, and Vegetable Spring Rolls

2007-05-13T10:16:00.000-05:00

On a non-food related note, does anyone else think it strange you have a choice of 7 musical selections to view when on the Taco Bell site (upper right hand corner)?

Balsamic Strawberries

7.5 cu sliced fresh strawberries (3 "baskets")
6 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

After slicing the strawberries, stir ingredients together gently. Let flavors meld in the refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving chilled. Will last several days. Is delicious over toast or ice cream, but tart enough to serve at a meal.

Barley "Risotto" with Shiitake Mushrooms

6 cups water
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Butter
2 cups rinsed pearl barley
6 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Large Onions (Diced)
12 Cloves Garlic (Minced)
4 Sticks of Celery (Diced)
1-2 lbs Shititake mushrooms
1/2 cup minced parsley
5 Cups veggie broth (or mushroom broth)
10 cups water
3/4 cup heavy cream
18 oz blue cheeseSpray Fat (aka PAM)

Boil water with butter and salt. Mix in barley. Lower to medium low heat and cook for 45 minutes covered. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Remove the stems of the mushrooms. Discard. Dice the caps of the shiitakes.

Panfry the onions to a nice golden brown using a litte spray fat. Add the olive oil to the pan when done. Add the garlic, celery, and mushroom bits, until all are tender. Fold in the barley (it will turn to glue if you are too agressive) in batches. Fold in the parsley. Stir gently, distributing the oil and vegetables throughout the barley well.

Add the broth, reduce heat to low/medium-low and simmmer for 10 minutes, until the broth is all absorbed.

Stir in cream and blue cheese and serve immediately.

Vegetable Spring Rolls

8" Round Rice Papers (20 or so)
6 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
6 teaspoons wasabi paste (make it from wasabi powder and water- it's much cheaper than way)
3 teaspoons lime juice
1 cup mayo<6 cups shredded broccoli
15 oz extra firm tofu
3/4 cup shredded coconut
Whole romaine lettuce leaves
3 tablespoons soy
3 tablespoons lime
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Prepare each rice paper in water then lay out to sit for 5 min on a towel or damp plate.

Combine the ginger, mayo, wasabi and lime juice.

Toss the shredded broccoli, tofu and coconut. Add the mayo sauce and toss.

To assemble:

Take one rice paper
Place a lettuce leaf on the rice paper
Spoon slaw onto lettuce leaf
Wrap rice paper up into a roll.

Let sit for 15 min. Refrigerate if it is going to be more.

To make dipping sauce:
Whip together soy, lime juice and crushed red pepper

--Michael

Russian Cabbage Rolls, Broccoli Cheese Soup & Corn-Spelt Quickbread

2007-05-06T08:35:00.000-05:00

Golubtsi (Russian Cabbage Rolls)

The wrap:

1 Head of Cabbage

The stuffing:

1 Tube "Ground Beef Style" Gimmie Lean
1 cu rice
2 med onions (diced)
2 carrots (shredded)
28 oz canned tomatoes
2 tsp salt
Black Pepper

The sauce:

2 tsp tomato paste
2 cu vegetable stock
1 bay leaf

The cooking fat:

1 stick butter

The topping:

Sour Cream

Wash and trim cabbage head to remove dirty leaves. Boil whole head for 15 minutes. Dunk into an ice water bath for 30 seconds. Slowly unwrap the leaves, treating them like delicate little flower . Then, lay them flat on the counter, again like delicate little petals, then pound them flat with the bottom of a glass. (God I love Russian cooking)

Cook the rice in 1.5 cups of water.

Grate the onions (or use a rotary grater attachment on your food processor). Put these and 1/4 the butter into the pan. Fry until browning.

Crumble the gimmie lean into the pan with the onion. Set pan aside, removing the onions and gimmie lean with a slotted spoon or tongs to leave the fat behind.

Grate the carrots (or use a rotary grater attachment on your food processor).

Mix the rice, gimmie lean, carrots and onions together. Salt and pepper to taste.

Take your pounded out cabbage leaves. Put about 1 tablespoon of the stuffing in each leaf. Fold up into an envelope shape, then tie off with butcher string or a thread.

After enveloping all the Golubtsi, set them aside, and melt the rest of the butter in the pan you browned the gimmie lean in. Once melted, put 4 or 5 golubtsis in the pan, and brown each side. Set aside afterwards.

Remove the string. I repeat, remove the string

Boil the vegetable stock with the tomato paste and bay. Simmer on med-low for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

Serve golubtsi with the sauce and sour cream on top.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

2-3 cups diced potatoes (pre-peeled)
2.5 cups broccoli florets
1 medium carrot
3 cloves garlic
1.5 cups chopped onion
1 tsp salt
3.5 cups water
3 cups (packed) grated cheddar
1 cup milk
1 tsp dill
black pepper to taste

Peel and slice the carrot. Boil all the veggies except the broccoli in the water until very tender. Puree.

Steam the broccoli. Combine with the puree and all the remaining ingredients except the cheese and bring to a fast simmer on medium heat. Turn down to low heat.

Slowly stir in the grated cheese by the half-handful, until it all melts. Serve immediately.

Corn-Spelt Quickbread

Dry:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup coarse corn meal
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

Wet:

3 tsp sulfur free molasses
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 375. Use spray fat (aka PAM), to coat a loaf pan. Stir together all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Stir together the wet ingredients in another big bowl (making sure to mix the eggs into the milk before combining with the melted butter). Pour the wet ingredients into the dry bowl. Stir together, pour into loaf pan, put in oven for 25 minutes or until a stick comes out of the middle of loaf clean.

Spinach-Mushroom Quiche with "Chicken" and Waffles

2007-04-29T11:29:00.000-05:00

This dish will be a little southern for many of you.

Chicken and waffles is a Georgia tradition. While some of you can't imagine putting the two together, until you've tried it, this is a case of something you can't deny.

Of course, we're not using real chicken, we're using the meat-substitute Quorn. As we've mentioned before, it is made from the roots of mushrooms.

If I'm a little inexact about the ingredients this week, my wife is trying out the Trader Joes that just opened up 2 blocks away, so I'm not sure what I'll be cooking with.

Spinach-Mushroom Quiche

For each quiche we need:

Frozen Pie Crust
3/4 cup half and half
2 eggs
1pkg defrosted frozen spinach (or cooked down fresh spinach)
1 can mushrooms (or 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms cooked)
1/2 lb shredded swiss cheese

First turn on the oven to 350F. Crack all the eggs and pour the half and half into a cup. Beat vigorously.

Stir up the spinach and mushrooms, and put into the pie crust. Sprinkle the cheese on, and then pour enough of the egg/dairy mixture to come somewhat short of the top of the quiche.

Bake for 45 minutes (will be slightly jiggly, but solid), then let the quiche set for 15-25 minutes before serving. (Unless you like volcanically hot scrambled eggs that are runny, in that case, serve immediately).

Fried "Chicken"

Bread according to the method mentioned in this post. I use a mixture of panko and normal bread crumbs this time. I make sure and put salt and pepper in the flour I use for this one. Then I pan fry these or deep fry them, depending on time and quantity, usually at 20 degrees below the smoke point of the oil I'm using, which is usually safflower or vegetable oil. If you do this recipe with *real* chicken, I recommend using a good chicken finger cook time/temperature, more like 5 minutes on each side at 340F, to make sure you don't die of undercooked chicken.

Waffles

Almost straight out of I'm Just Here for More Food, I use the buttermilk waffle recipe, however I use 50/50 whole/white flower.

Serve with the "chicken" on top of the waffle, drizzled in syrup. The quiche goes on the side.

--Michael

Calzones, Greek Salad, Grilled Zuchinni

2007-04-22T11:44:00.001-05:00

My April 1st post was a joke for those of you who didn't catch it....we're still vegetarians and have no plans to not be. The first half of April was quite busy so I slacked off on the blogging. Now that product #1 of Rowdy Labs is out the door, I can blog again.

Garlic Grilled Zucchini

Sliced into medallions, then drizzled with olive oil, these are then put into broil. Garlic is put is *separately* after the squash is done, as it burns easy, just to get a hint of roastedness.

After cooking, they are both tossed in a bowl, along with parmesean flakes, black pepper, kosher salt, and a little onion powder, then served.

Greek Salad

Romaine Hearts, black olives, pepperoncini, onions, feta, roma tomatoes, and greek salad dressing (we're using something from a jar this week). Slice everything into rings, hydrate the lettuce (we're using one of the 5 salad spinners we got from the wedding), then spin and toss and serve.

Olive and Veggy Sausage Calzone

These come in two parts: The Dough and the Filling

For the dough, we're going to use a variation of what we use to make the piroshki we really had on April 1st:

3 pkgs dry yeast
3 tsp honey
3 cu warm water
4.5 cu wheat flour
4.5 cu white flour
1 cu veg oil
3 tsp salt

Stir yeast and honey into warm water. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Combine 3 cups of each flour and the salt in a bowl then mix in the oil and yeast mixture. Stir this for 140 vigorous strokes. This is to produce a precise amount of gluten in the dough, which will give it a particular chewiness in the final product. Let this sit for 30 minutes or until it bubbles, whichever is longer.

Dump out onto a floured breadboard and knead in the other 3 cups of flour. Knead for 10 minutes, drop the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, then cover and leave for an hour.

We're stuffing them with olives, veggy sausage, and mozzerella. Some will be made with red sauce, others with pesto. We take the dough after punching it down and divide it up into individually sized calzone-sized balls that we roll out to 1/8th inch thick. How do I know how thick? I have rubber bands that go around my rolling pin and force me to go no flatter. These are great for making pastries of all sorts, not just calzones.

We crumble the Gimmie Lean veggy sausage into a skillet and brown it. Then we mix it and the sliced olives and cheese together, then mix each, along with each of the sauces.

After rolling out, I take a fork and poke the inside of the calzone to make holes for steam to escape (docking). I'm careful to not go through the outside, just a little bit.

We then use a disher to get a reasonable amount in each of the calzones. Judgment is only needed for the first calzone, then after than, its just an integer count of disher scoopfuls. After filling, we close then use a fork to make the edge thin and sealed. We brush with butter and a little Parmesan cheese to allow for browning.

The dough in question will require 30 minutes at 375 F to cook (per pan of 8). Everything inside is already cooked, so there is no worrying about that.

And this recipie gives dough amounts for 20-24 calzones. You probably are going to want to cut that in half, one third, or one sixth for your own purposes.

They keep for a week and a half or so, can be frozen with little loss, and are good when reheated in a microwave or oven.

--Michael

Dinner tonight after a suprising convesation.

2007-04-01T13:53:00.000-05:00

My wife and I had a strange conversation last night that I didn't expect to ever have. From the recipes given below, I am guessing you know what it was. I'm sorry if I'm brief today. I'll recap how dinner went later in the week as why I'm changing back to a more normal diet.

Fillet Mignon
Lemon Aperagus
Bacon with Macaroni and Cheese
Applesauce

I know what some of you are thinking: I owe him a steak dinner.

--Michael

Hot Hot Hashbrowns, Scrambled Eggs and Veggy Sausage

2007-03-25T12:09:00.000-05:00

Today we're serving breakfast at dinner, serving hashbrowns, scrambled eggs with cheese, veggy sausage links, and french toast.

We cook all the french toast per Alton Brown's method. We don't immediately cook the toast in the oven, instead waiting until right before dinner.

We're going to serve the french toast with Boysenberry jam and powdered sugar.

The sausage links have been covered before on this blog and are popular with meat eating and non-meat eating folk alike.

We're going to make the eggs in the electric fryer. This doesn't mean we're frying them, we're just using it because it is a nice, temperature controlled device that just happens to be nonstick (a must-have for egg dishes). We will put 1.5 eggs per person in here (right before dinner, rounding up) and stir in a tablespoon of milk (or leftover half and half) per person. I make this sound much more exact then it is in actuality, where I just pour some in. :o). First off, you turn the fryer on to 200 or so. You put the eggs in and let them start to cook onto the pan. Then you use a spatula to stir them off. As the eggs cook, they will solidify in the pan. Continue to stir intermittently. When the eggs look just a little saucey, take them off (they will continue to solidify and dry out after coming off the heat).

For the hashbrowns, we'll cook them in another pan. We're going to put some peppers from the "Chiles with Adobo Sauce" cans you see in the store to give the potatoes a little heat. Chopping up the peppers into little strips, we'll stir them in with the hashbrowns before cooking, letting them brown with the potatoes.

--Michael

Quickiefood: Park Picnic Pasta

2007-03-24T21:17:00.001-05:00

Elbow Noodles
Bag of Defrosted Quorn
Sun Dried Tomatoes (In oil)
Queen Anne (aka Green) olives
EVOO (aka pretentious green olive oil)
Gouda (aka Cheese given to us at Xmas)
Dried Thyme
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Salt
Garlic Powder
Flaky Parm (aka Cheese leftover from who knows what)

We used an electic water boiler to quickly get some water to 212. We used our big pot to hold 4 pitchers full of water, then threw enough pasta for two in. We dabbled a little EVOO in to stop foam ups. After the pasta was al dente (doesn't feel soft, yet isn't hard or bad tasting), we strained it in our colander.

While the water was cooking the pasta, we sliced up some sun dried tomatoes into raisin sized bits, threw in some sliced green olives. We shredded the gouda with a box grater. We pulled a bag of quorn tenders out of the fridge and microwaved them (quorn is a chickenish fake meat made out of mushroom roots).

We throw these items in with the pasta and drizzled EVOO over the pasta. We stirred, then mixed in spices, then put it into two plastic containers and put some of the cheeses (also grated while the water was cooking the pasta).

After uncorking a bottle of wine (Barefoot Merlot), we then stuck the stopper back in. We threw that recorked bottle and two solo cups into a Ikea bag with 2 plastic forks and a blanket to sit on. We threw a couple boxes of golden raisins in for desert, then walked over to the park for some time to enjoy our dinner with the puppy in the park.

Total Quickiefood Couch to Sidewalk time: 21 minutes

--Michael

Carefully Outfitting Your Kitchen (Part 1)

2007-03-21T08:57:00.000-05:00

The Simple Dollar recently published a list of pots, pans and knives for a beginner to get to start cooking

That blog is usually spot on with money advice, however I think this time people are being told they need to buy a lot more than they do to get started cooking. He preached restraint then told you to buy 10 pots. They said sets are silly then suggested you buy a set of knives. They were right you are going to ruin things but they didn't think about all the other parts of a beginner's mindset. A beginner will:

Ruin Food
Ruin Pots/Pans/Dishes
Misuse Knives
Possibly Give Up
Hate Doing Dishes
Will always want to use the dishwasher
Sometimes find they don't like cooking that much
Have have no frame of reference to pick out a knife/pot they like
Have a hard time justifying expensive dishes, and if they don't feel awful when they don't use them if they quit

I'm starting a three part series on how to outfit your kitchen, slowly and cheaply at first, then costing more money if and only if the new cook feels this is worth continuing. By the end, they'll be able to cook any amount of any kind of food for whomever they want. Even after the beginning, you'll be able to turn out edible and delicious meals for 1-5 people.

In this first portion, I'll get you started with what you could buy someone for "Their First Apartment" and yet not have a bunch of clutter that just confuses them and takes up space. The following list is skill-independent. It is enough to cook most things while not spending much money.

At this point you're just starting out and are possibly going to give up on this. This is a small investment that has a real chance of paying off for you, but at the same time, you won't feel like an idiot if you end up never using it like many Americans. (If I thought making you feel like an idiot would help make you keep cooking, I'd suggest more expensive stuff. I think you'll just not cook and feel like an idiot).

For a newbie, I suggest wooden spoons because:

Dishwasher Safe
They're cheap
Doesn't Hurt Teflon Coated Pans
No one ever got burnt grabbing a wooden spoon (that wasn't on fire)

You need only 1 knife and 1 cutting board. You're just starting. You really don't need more. For the "Big Pot" a huge aluminum one from a cooking supply store will be good enough. You can also buy them at places like Amazon and Bed, Bath and Beyond. For the other two pots, buy something cheap and coated with Teflon. These will probably be thrown away, although they may last a surprisingly long time (I finally threw out a pot I purchased in 2002 that was of this quality).

Here is a list of a reasonable amount of "gear" to get your kitchen able to cook enough variety you don't need to go out:

1 Microwave (I'm assuming this is already available)
1 Oven (I'm assuming this is already available)
1 Stove (I'm assuming this is already available)
1 Box (Cheese) Grater
3 Wooden Spoons
1 Big Pot (at least 4qts, preferably 6) and lid
1 Saucepan (Teflon coated 2 or 3 quart) and lid
1 Fry Pan (Teflon coated, at least 8 inches)
1 9x9 Glass Baking Dish
1 Cookie Sheet
1 set Dry Measuring Cups/Spoons
1 2-cup glass measuring Cup
1 slotted plastic scoop (like to scoop a casserole)
1 Silicone spatula
1 Plastic Colander
2 Metal Bowls
1 Plastic Cutting Board
1 Stamped Steel Chef's Knife (i.e. Crappy knife that doesn't stay sharp long but is cheap and will work for now)

Will allow cooking of:

Any boiled/poached food (e.g. Broccoli, Potatoes, Shrimp)
Any pan-fried food (e.g Panir, Sausage, Quesadillas)
Many roasted foods (e.g. Roasted Bell Peppers, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes)
Many seared foods ("Fried" Tofu/Steak falls in this category)
Salads (Mix them up in the bowl)
Nuts/Snack Mix
Biscuits
Pancakes
Gravy
Pastas
Rice Dishes
Most Sauces
Brownies
Cookies
Casseroles
Lasagnas
Sausage
Fried Hashbrown
Gellates (a pie wrapped up like a Crunchwrap(TM) then cooked on a cookie sheet)
Chili
Stew/Soup
Fried Eggs
Omelets
Poached Eggs
Scrambled Eggs
Stovetop Mac and Cheese (Homemade is easy, delicious and better for you)
Melted Chocolate Foods (the metal bowl on top of the big pot == double boiler)

On Amazon, I put all these into one place, and came out with a price of $194 before shipping. I'm going to be switching out comparable items over the next week or so (and as suggestions come in) to try to get the shipping cost down. Right now it's in the 40's, I hope to get that down into the 20's.

Amazon is not the best price for some of these items, but you'll *easily* save the $200 (or even $240) within 2 months of cooking for yourself rather than eating out for every meal. You have 27 kinds of things to make, that is more than enough dishes to hold you at home eating for two whole months. You'll get away with an even cheaper start bill of you go by a cooking supply warehouse. A word of warning: don't get fooled by kitchen specialty stores that try to look like supply warehouses. If you don't see restaurant gear there, it's not where you want to be (at least right now).

Subscribe to make sure you catch part 2 of the series. If you want recipes for "beginner" versions of any of the above, comment and I'll post all of them together.

--Michael

Cheese and Pepper Enchiladas, Fried Jalapeños, and Sauteed ZucchiniCorn

2007-03-18T11:45:00.000-05:00

Today we're making food from Mexico.

Main Dish: Cheese and Pepper Enchiladas

This is out of Sundays at the Moosewood Diner. We wanted something simple that dealt with the fact many fresh veggies are not yet available in stores. We use the fresh corn tortillas that are sold throughout the US. They come in a stack and cost about 2 cents each.

Inside they will be filled with chilies, bell peppers, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese and onions. They will be doused in a homemade enchilada sauce made from onions, coriander, cumin bell pepper and chilies.

We will serve them on a bed of rice (as suggested).

Fried Jalapeños

This is an amazingly simple dish stolen from Willy's Mexican Grill. They have something on their menu they called jalapeño poppers. This is a misnomer. A jalapeño popper is a stuffed jalapeño that is fried. What they serve at Willy's isn't stuffed (or even breaded).

They slice longitudinally through the jalapeño in two different directions, leaving parts all connected at the stem, dangling in 4 parts. You then take this and throw it in a fryer (stem and all). You then let it fry till soft, then remove, dry some residual oil off of it then salt and squirt lime juice over it. They're delicious and the frying lessens the heat of the jalapeño quite a bit. They are priced at 50 cents at Willy's, which is quite a bit of markup from my calculation.

Sauteed Zucchini Corn

After not finding something simple enough to complement this rather simple meal, we decided to take to the internets and look for something tasty or tasty enough once adapted. We found this misnamed dish. There is nothing slightly casserolish about this dish, but I think it can be turned into something tasty.

First off, while butter would be tasty and work well with the corn (evoking the "buttered corn on the cob" idea), I think the dish would be just as tasty if lighted up a bit. So we're going to substitute olive oil here for the butter.

As "fresh" tomatoes aren't ripe, we elect to used canned diced tomatoes (which are). As we're going to lighten up and simplify the dish, a little bit of acidity in the dish (from the tomatoes) isn't a bad thing, so we're going to half the sugar. In addition, we're going to serve it with ribbons of chopped cilantro on top.

--Michael

Feed Change

2007-03-13T07:55:00.000-05:00

My RSS/Atom feeds are now going to be through feedburner.
Simply subscribe to my feed at this url now:

Subscribe in a reader

The old feed will no longer function. Sorry for the inconvenience

--Michael

Eggplant Parm, Sauteed Lemon and Herb Musrooms, and Chopped Broccoli with Lemon

2007-03-11T09:47:00.000-05:00

Today, we're going to make a friend of ours cry. She's not coming tonight because she has family in town

We've got few enough people here to make eggplant parmesan. The reason this is a person limited dish is that you have to fry all the little bits of individually breaded eggplant, and that's after you've already individually breaded them. Breading and bit frying takes time.

We again steal Alton Brown's recipe for this dish. That's because its delicious, and has such a phenomenal texture, I've served this to about a dozen people who "hate eggplant" and all had a second helping. It comes out of his I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking.

To make this dish, you chunk up as much eggplant as you'd like to eat. I suggest more than you think. This is very tasty, and I always lament when we finish off the last microwave dish of it. Then you bread it in the following admixture:

Flour Coat: Flour + Fresh Ground Pepper
Egg Coat: Eggs + Water
Crumb Coat: Grated Parm+Panko Bread Crumbs

To Properly Bread Anything:

Take a Crayola washable marker. Write W on the back of one hand, and D on the back of the other. Pretend the wet hand (the one with a W), will be burnt by anything powdery (i.e. Any Flour or Breadcrumbs, or things coated with such). Pretend the dry hand will be melted off as if dipped in acid if it touches anything wet (i.e. eggs, things just coming out of the eggs batter, or the unfloured eggplant). You don't really need to write on your hands, or be so melodramatic, but you do need to be this careful, otherwise you're hands will become a pile of breaded glop that doesn't really work very well. I usually use my right hand as my W hand and my left as my D.

Setup your counter, left to right, in the following order:

Bowl of stuff to be breaded
Bowl of seasoned flour
Bowl of watery eggs
Bowl of "breading" (panko and parm for us)
Cookie drying rack as a catch tray

Take your wet hand. Pick up a piece of eggplant. Drop (from a short distance) into the flour.

Take your dry hand. Pick up a small amount of flour from the bowl. Drop it all over the piece like a TV chef or a character in a movie about the desert who's playing with sand to make a point about the endlessness of time. Using your dry hand, take the now (overly) coated piece and shake off and tap off on the side of the bowl as much flour as you can. Now drop (from a short distance) said piece of flour coated goodness into the egg mixture, being careful not to melt off your dry hand by touching it to the liquid.

Take your wet hand and fully coat the piece by moving the eggs over the piece (remember the still powdery parts will burn you). With your wet hand, now pick up the piece that is fully coated and drop it from a short distance into the bread crumbs.

Take your dry hand, and fully coat the piece with the breading mixture using the movie character dropping sand method. Once fully coated, move to the side of the breading bowl. Leave this here for a couple minutes. I usually move them out of this bowl (with my dry hand) right after I've just finished breading the piece after it. You're moving the freshly breaded piece from the breading bowl bowl to the cookie cooling rack.

To make the eggplant parm, we do the above with half moons of peeled eggplants that are all about the same size. We then deep fry all the little bits until golden brown. We then put a layer of them down into a casserole dish, along with some marinara sauce, then a layer of provolone slices, then another layer of tasty bits, then more marinara, then more provolone, then you get the picture, until the dish is full. We top it off with marinara and a little more grated (or shredded) parm on top.

Chopped Broc (From Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone)

Lemon(s)
Broccoli (or Broccoli Florets)
Salt and Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (should be green).

Turn broccoli into florets if it isn't already. Stick in one of those steamer things that cost $5 at the grocery store and look like UFOs. Put the steamer thing in a shallow pot of boiling water (as per steamer directions). Steam until it is what you'd call al dente if it was pasta. Without cooling it down, toss with olive oil and salt and pepper and fresh squeezed lemon juice.

Mushroom Magic (From Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone)

Mushrooms (Assorted types, mostly a common type)
Garlic
Flat Leaf Parsley
Butter
Lemon
Pepper
Salt

Put butter in pan. Melt. Put mushrooms in pan. Cook until liquid comes out then goes back in them, folding and stirring. Do the butter/mushroom thing in two batches if you have a lot of mushrooms. Put garlic in the pan, stir briefly, until garlic just starts to brown. Squeeze lemon into pan, mix with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Cover in bits of freshly chopped fresh parsley.

--Michael

Empanadas, Pinto Beans, and Tomato Lime Soup

2007-03-04T15:23:00.000-05:00

Today we're making something a little Mexican/Caribbean.

We're making empanada filled with what we call, "El Pollo Chicken". Yes, I know, El Pollo means "The Chicken". However, that what it ended up being called over time in the house I grew up in. My mother makes this out of real chicken. We, out of Quorn. It is inspired by the chicken they serve at El Pollo Loco, however, not exactly the same, being more Caribbeanesque with the pineapple juice.

Marinade For "Meat":
1/3 cup Lemon juice
1/3 cup Pineapple Juice
1/3 cup Lime juice
1/2 cup Oil
1 teaspoon Ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon Garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon Pepper

With it we're serving spicy beans in cumin, stock and love:

Canned Pinto Beans (Rinsed Extremely Well)
Cumin (1.5 tbsp per can of beans)
Jalapeno Peppers (1 per can of beans, sliced into rings)
Can of Veggie Stock (1 per 3 cans of beans)

And a soup from the Sundays At Moosewood Resturant Cookbook called Sopa de Lima. It is a tomato based soup with limes, garlic and chiles, we well as some monterey jack and cilantro.

In addition we are serving a delicious rum punch from that same cookbook. I must share the mix with you:
1 oz Pomegrante Syrup (Aka Grenedine)
1 oz Lime Juice
8 oz Orange Juice
8 oz Pineapple Juice
6 oz Rum (The Darker The Better)

It reminds me quite a bit of the drink served on the way back from our snorkeling expedition on St Thomas during our honeymoon. At the time of writing this post, I've tasted several glasses full of our Pitcher, and will need to make more.

--Michael

Stealing Meals from Other ATL Veggies

2007-02-25T10:52:00.000-05:00

Foodie Thievery.

Today we're going to steal from another pair of Atlanta vegetarians. I happen to read their eats blog via RSS. They recently made a vegetarian Shepard's pie and a walnut, avocado, Dijon honey mustard and butter lettuce salad.

Now I think these two make good stuff quite often. They cook a little too vegan for my taste, eschewing milk/egg products where I'd use them. This is a problem for me because cheese is the most important of the four food groups here (cheese, eggs, vegetables and hot peppers). However, her husband is a great food photographer as you'll see on their blog. In addition, she's usually dead on with her mix of veggies.

In her post, Sally says she'd like Vegetarian Times recipes to include more spices. She says she added some, but I don't think she added enough. (She added aromatics [garlic+onion], which is better than nothing, but don't fill the exact role as spices for me).

I think Sage will be a nice addition to this dish. It is something that is used with meats and any other fatty foods. It tastes like an astringent, extremely fresh black pepper. It was one of the herbs we saw growing wild (along with lemon grass) when on Antigua for our honeymoon.

In addition, I think some further bite is needed. So we'll throw some paprika (which is indeed only a little bite) and some dried thyme for a rounding out of flavor.

Also, I'm used to cheese in my Shepard's pie. Alexa thought the pretty orange mashed potatoes were cheese and isn't interested in the dish without it. So, time for a finely shredder cheddar to insinuate itself throughout the dish. I believe it will find itself mixed into the "meat" part rather than the potato part.

Also, Dan said that they thought tangerines would go well in the salad. So we're going to add those in too.

I think it is a *much* safer thing to cook three dishes rather than two. You're insured against one just being plain bad, one having something a guest can't eat [a problem with 4-14 guests], and one being burnt or undercooked. Alexa agrees, and so today, we're also going to make a third dish.

Lentils with Goat Cheese, Olives, and Fresh Thyme. This is out of Three Bowl Cookbook. It will lend a strong snap to the meal with the goat cheese and will round out a meal if the pie or salad proves unsuitable.

--Michael

India

2007-02-18T11:13:00.000-05:00

Tonight, we make Indian food.

A strange thing about ethnic Indian food: It is often quite a bit cheaper to make than most other ethnic foods, yet it costs more, without fail, when purchased from a restaurant. Weird.

Glossary:

Aloo - Potatoes
Chana - Chickpeas
Dahi - Yogurt, although less viscous and sweet than the stuff some Americans eat out of cups with fruit. Many "Lassi" drinks are smoothies made out of this and a fruit.
Garam Masala - A common Indian spice mix ("Chili powder" is a spice mix common to the US. [Chili powder is otherwise as unlike garam masala as it is unlike the hobby of cockfighting]). Garam masala has cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, black pepper, dried chilies, cardamom and/or mace. Others may be put in, and some may be left out. To me, I most noticeably smell the cinnamon and coriander when I sniff the mix I buy from Your Dekalb Farmers Market.
Lassi - To offend an entire subcontinent with a concise definition: A Smoothie made with Dahi
Masala - Literally, "Spice"
Naan - An elongated flatbread sometimes used to sop and eat foods without utensils. I doubt we'll have that much.
Panir - A fresh cheese, often served fried, but also useful in many other ways. Some people mistake it for "good fried tofu". It really is nothing like tofu except it is also white and compressed protien. Tastes quite different and has a different texture, especially when non-fried.
Tamatar - Tomato

Let's start off with one tried or true dish: Aloo Curry in Puff Pastry Hexes. I once wanted to cook with puff pastry sheets and made the mistake of buying these little hexes made of puff pastry (they were mixed in with the sheets). So add some spices (cumin, coriander and ground red pepper) and an herb (cilantro) and some diced potatoes, then finish with some green curry paste, stir then stuff into the puff pastries after they've been baked up into little towers with lids.

Now, lets get something with a little more fiber in it, Panir, Summer Squash, and Bell Peppers.This is basically, a large quantity of cubed squash with tomato and a slew of spices: Cumin, fennel, coriander, turmeric, garam masala, and a little coconut.

And to finish, one of my favorite indian dishes is Chana Batura. This is a bowl of chickpeas in a tomato based sauce served with a giant balloon shaped piece of bread. Now I don't have a pot big enough to fry a piece of bread like that, so I'll leave out the bread.

So instead, we'll serve this with the Naan and use what this here cookbook calls Tamatar Kabli Chana Usal. Its a similar red sauce and tastes quite close enough it will pass for me. I doubt anyone else eating tonight goes to Udipi Cafe enough to notice the similarity or difference. (You all should, especially on the weekend afternoons for the buffet). This dish is tomatoes, peppers, ginger, cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, more garam masala, and some turmeric too.

As I mentioned before, this will be served with naan. I hope this goes over well. I've had all of these before except for the squash dish.

I'm probably going to make some Dahi as well to cool peoples palates. If it turns out, we might dessert on Lassi. To make Dahi, you take some milk, and put some (active culture, preferably Dahi) yogurt in it and keep it as close to 115F as possible for 5-10 hours. Most people add some powdered milk to up the protein content (and I will too).

To make Lassi, you do the same thing you do to make all other smoothies: You put yougurt in a blender, with some honey or sugar, and a couple other spices and fruits, and blend. I'm angling for banana.

Time to go start the yogurt now.

--Michael

Ps: This is all from Lord Krishna's Cuisine.

Truffles, inspired by Vodka, Fucking and Television

2007-02-15T13:32:00.000-05:00

On V-Day, the missus and I went to Dad's Garage, and excellent Atlanta theater. We saw a Russian play by the name of "Vodka, Fucking and Television" (translated into English) .

There was a free Vodka drink by 3 Vodka (which is deliciously smooth, and I suggest using it when shooting if you do that sort of thing).

In addition, Jake's Ice Cream made truffles. I had thought Jake's had been bought out. Turns out I was wrong. But their truffles were pretty good, and make me want to make some.

What's a truffle? Its chocolate ganache covered in a chocolate coating, which is dusted with cocoa. They look vaguely like the sort of truffle that's found underground in certain parts of the world.

To make them, you first make a firm ganache. This would be 4 parts cream to 5 parts bittersweet chocolate if you were a French traditionalist. Most Americans require more sweetness, so use 3 parts baker's chocolate and 1 part semi-sweet chocolate if you're serving it on the left side of the Atlantic. Chop it up into lil' bits. I use a serrated bread knife and a rolling pin to chop it up using a jackhammering motion. Yes, chocolate chips do work too, but chocolate is a lot more expensive that way. Just like with decaf coffee, the price may not be that much higher for chips, but the quality is often lower.

Melt the chocolate. Repeated microwavings with stirrings every 15 seconds works just fine. Careful, you'll burn it if you go too long.

Warm the cream up as well. You can use the microwave or the stove. You're looking for bathwater warm here. Pour a small amount of corn syrup (for texture) into the cream and stir.

Mix the chocolate and cream together until you have a uniform mixture. Add 2 parts flavorful, 80 proof liquor. You can use a less alcoholic flavorful liquor if you mix with grain alcohol to bring up the proof. There are certain flavors in chocolate that only dissolve in alcohol. You won't taste them if you omit it. We often use Frangelico, although we've also used brandy, Armagnac, and almond liquor. Their flavoring is only slightly noticeable in the finished product.

Pour this mixture out into a shallow vessel, glass bottomed vessel.

Refrigerate for hours. It will harden. It's done when it's hard to the touch.

Use a mellon baller or disher to make little balls out of it. Or you can score it like mini brownies and ball them up. Set the truffles out on something large and flat, and put it back in the fridge.

Here is the annoying and hard part of truffle manufacture: Coating.

Pour out a pile of cocoa into a bowl.

Now, BARELY melt 4 parts of semi sweet chocolate into a barely melted gel. This gel must stay below 92 degrees F (otherwise you're going to have sticky candy). That means you have to keep the chocolate between 88 and 91 for about 20 minutes. Alton Brown says a heating pad works (it does, sorta). I've found success with a heating pad set too warm (where I take the pan off and off the pad) as well as an electric fryer set to really low where I keep turning it on and off.

However you create this coating gel, you next need to dip each ball in it, then roll the ball through the cocoa, then place it on wax/parchment paper. Do this with all the balls, and you'll have truffles.

I suggest mixing some crushed red pepper in any remaining chocolate, then making some popcorn and pouring the chocolate over the popcorn. Once it hardens, you'll be in heaven.

--Michael

PS: I'm probably making some soon, as the ones on Wednesday were inspiring, but not as good as home made ones.

Dinner proposal for Sunday 11 of Feb

2007-02-10T22:59:00.000-05:00

Barley....that's terrific sounding this week.

Ooh look. One Dish Vegetarian has a great barley, spinach & peas dish. I like using this book for dishes that have some heft. It's full of casseroles and such, but also use veggies in non-boring ways.

Let's find something with more veggies to complement this. A vegan cookbook we got for xmas will very likely have more than a "normal" share of veggies in it.

Green beans with sundried tomatoes/olive sauce! Nice and veggiful, yet not bland (important, as barley dishes rarely are called....overflavored).

As both are what I'd call "filling", two dishes will probably be enough this week. Perhaps this will free up time for a cookie or something to be baked.

--Michael

Sunday Recap

2007-02-05T01:29:00.001-05:00

The meal was created as listed. Every part of the meal was liked by at least 2 people, so I'm going to count that as a success. We decided that each dish could have been a meal in itself though (Chili, Sandwich, Quiche).

The mass bread toasting method worked out much better than I guessed it would of. It consisted of using the toaster convection oven 4 slices a time on it's "4" setting. These were then set aside until after the Quiche came out of the oven, then were put in the still warm oven to finish toasting.

No changes were made to the proposal (well, we did use dried lemongrass rather than fresh, but that's it).

--Michael

Proposal for Dinner on Sunday Feb 4th, 2007

2007-02-03T13:53:00.000-05:00

These things either come about quick, or take about an hour. This fits into the latter category.

When figuring out what I wanted to suggest to Alexa (my wife) for tomorrow, I got sidetracked for awhile in Herbs and Spices by Jill Norman. Its pages contain in depth info on a spice or herb, and wonderful photography of all of the forms of the spice. I was looking for some suggestions on what to use turmeric in beyond Indian food (my principle use of the spice).

Its a "Warm" spice. That means, well, it feels a little warm when eating it. Its yellow, and stains many things (hands and clothes included). Warm spices are excellent in spicy foods and in winter. I buy this spice already powdered. You don't use it by itself, but as something to make many flavors cooperate to make the dish good overall.

The H&S book says it combines well beans, eggplant, eggs, lentils, rice, root vegetables and spinach (some things omitted from this list). Other herbs and spices it handles that stick out to me are chili, cilantro, cumin, garlic, lemon grass, mustard seed, and pepper. These complements say to me as possibilities:

Veggie Fried Rice (eggs, lemon grass, rice)
Citrus Lentil Stew (lemon grass, lentils, root veggies)
Spinach and Swiss Quiche (eggs, spinach)

Of those, the last one screams to me because its easy (It could cook in the convection toaster oven)
The first one screams to me because I've not had it in awhile.

But what if I took the best of both worlds:
Fried Rice Quiche :o)

The Japanese regularly put rice in their omelets, so that should work out.

I source my quiches off the Refrigerator Pie recipe from Alton Brown's TV show, Good Eats, except I ditch the nutmeg

1 cup heavy cream or half-and-half
2 eggs
2 pinches kosher salt
Frozen 9-inch pie crust
Stuff

Time to be a dork here: How much fits inside a 9in pie pan? Well measuring an empty pie pan with water tells me about a quart (humans are horrible at guessing the volume of wide deep things so I don't try).

We have about 2.75 cups of "stuff" to fill this thing up with.

I'll use the recipe out of Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone to suggest a cheese to me (she uses Provolone on her Rice and Eggs recipe on pg 548). I'll use provolone for the dish. Quiche has cheese. This is a matter of common law. You will be put in gaol if you do not follow this law.

For the fried rice (which I don't think I've ever made before), I'll go a searching on the interweb:

I find this one

Our internet recipe search usually goes like this:
Check the internet
Check the food network site
Reject anything that just won't work, or is made by Emeril Lagasse (but I repeat myself)

Remember I wanted to add turmeric. And lemon grass. So we will. And we get:

3 cups cooked rice
2 Tbs oil
1 carrot, shredded or thinly sliced
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1 shaft lemon grass
salt and pepper to taste
Peas

I took out the eggs and meat because there will be plenty of eggs, and the meat is non-essential (I'd put in a fake meat if it was essential). Likewise, the "milk" is unneeded since all the half and half will be there.

We've got a main dish now.

For sides...... Chili always goes over really well at Superbowl parties, as do sandwiches. Avocado Sandwiches with 4 bean chili as the other two dishes. We can toast the toast whilst the quiches set. A high fat meal, but the large amount of polyunsaturated fat in the avocados will make this probably a good meal all in all in LDL vs HDL battle

I think we have a winner folks:
Fried Rice Quiche (with Shredded Provolone)
Avocado Sandwiches
4 Bean Chili

Let's see what the wife says....

--Michael

What's up with Sunday Dinner

2007-02-03T12:24:00.000-05:00

Every Sunday, my wife and I invite 6-18 people over for dinner and other social things. Here is how it happens:

Vegetarian cooking is *cheap*. I can feed all those people with much less than you'd spend on a restaurant for 4 meat eaters, and I cook better than most restaurants that would charge that much for those meals.

My wife and I, both being vegetarians, cook something vegetarian for everyone. We do strive for certain goals when doing so:

Make dishes from many unprocessed items
Make dishes that use an interesting veggie or two
Use spices and herbs in a traditional way
Make at least one dish that doesn't blow their "what the hell is this?" quota.

We often use cook books. More on this in another post

As this Sunday is the Superbowl in addition to our normal activity, I'll probably try to make something that doesn't require me to step into the kitchen too often to finish.

We're firm believers of mis en place, which is French for "cut everything up and put it into a bunch a bowls before you start cooking". It makes cooking a much more sensual experience to do it this way, as all you're doing at first is "cranking widgets". Your brain relaxes the way that it can on a long walk, as all you have to do is chop, measure, etc. Some would call this "Zen". I call it quite enjoyable. You can smell, feel, and taste the ingredients as you do this lite work. Sometimes we mis en place the whole meal, other times, we do it dish by dish. Sometimes we cheat, and don't do it (this happens most often with baked goods).

Mis en place is a fundamental step that saves time (even counting extra dish time), and reduces the stress of cooking. It clears the mind to do what is most important: Cook things well.

Timeline of Sunday:

Morning somtime: Wake up
Morning sometime: shower, etc
Morning-2pm: Goof off, work on business/websites/HOA/Possible shopping if not already done for the week
2pm-5pm: Cook as much as can be cooked, and clean up around the house
5pm-7pm: Play with friends
7pm-8pm: Finish cooking, set out utensils and dishes (This step is often "put X in oven, put Y in microwave, go play with friends")
8pm-12: Play with friends (Alexa sneaks off to throw stuff in the dishwasher many weeks here)

Before I go any further, I'm going to reveal something that some of you are going to stick your nose up at so far you smack the back of your head on the ground:

I regularly use a microwave in my cooking.

If you find yourself in this group, I apologize for your mis-education. The microwave is a valid cooking device, just like the stove and oven are. You usually don't want it to be the *only* way to impart heat when you cook a particular dish, but you do want it to be involved in the process for many foods.

The microwave doesn't:

Brown food [something you usually want to happen as it tastes delicious]
Allow you to use the metal pans [if it did, you could use fewer dishes]
Evenly heat all food [microwaves heat water in food, not the other stuff]
Heat the kitchen up a lot [a blessing in Atlanta]
Let the delicious smells out of the food into the house
Require oil/fat to transfer heat to the food [usually a good trait]

The microwave does:

Heats foods with even water distribution quite quickly [good trait]
Allow you to warm things without further browning [sometimes a good trait]
Work completely independent of the oven [good trait for cooking more than one thing]
Melt things better than any stove ever dreamed of. [great trait]
Get potatoes dry and hot enough they'll brown by another method sometime before the sun goes red giant. [great trait: potatoes are my nemesis]

So if you don't try to use it to cook everything, it makes *great* food.

So here is an example dish that uses the microwave (when prepared for these Sunday Dinners):

Veggie Sausages

We wash our hands
We buy 2-3 packs of Gimme Lean veggie sausage. We put it in a bowl, and sprinkle with kosher salt and cumin.
We form into links (aiming for a triangular prism shape rather than a cylinder)
We wash the gooey sausage off our hands
We melt a 1/3 of a stick of butter in the pan (we want the browning, otherwise we'd use the microwave)
When its almost melted, we put 5 links in to cook.

Aside: Why only 5? This is a secret many people don't get. The element or flame on your stove doesn't heat the food. The heating source heats the pan, which heats the food. Setting the (relatively) cool food onto the hot pan makes the heat transfer to the food (Think when someone puts their cold hands on your warm body in winter and holds them there. Same principle). It takes some time for that part of the pan to heat back up (just like you take some time to heat back up after the unwilling hand warming incident above). If you put too many bits in the pan, the pan won't reheat quickly, it will heat unevenly, and some parts might not get cooked (which is a huge problem if this was real meat). This principle is why most people who make fried food at home think fried food is oily: more on that another time.

We cook each of the 3 sides, letting it brown. We pull off and drop into a plastic container on the counter (favor small containers over large ones, even if you have to use more). We pour out then brown new butter if the old is looking burnt.

We do this for all the other bits, being careful to not leave the pan empty for long (the butter will burn).
We grind some fresh black pepper over the food.
We let the food rest in the little plastic containers for a few minutes
We put food away in fridge until just before dinner
We put food in microwave, then put on a serving plate and serve it.

Principles in action: We used spices to accent a dish. We browned food that needed browning, but did not fear to reheat via a non-browning method. We served something not too unhealthful.

Try this sausage yourself even if you are a carnivore. It is much lower calorie and fat than real sausage, and tastes delicious and well spiced.

--Michael

Blog about Veggie Tarian Ism

2007-02-02T13:39:00.000-05:00

(This post originally appeared in Get Rich Slowly's article on Vegetarianism as a cheap way to eat)

I've been an ovo-lacto vegetarian since 2000.

The tricks to becoming a vegetarian are not complex. Some *are* hard though.

When I became a vegetarian, I was living in a fraternity house at college. I didn't have much money, and there was a lot of pressure and teasing about doing this "unmanly" thing. The small amount of pressure you will get from your parents and friends will not be anything as bad as many of us went through.

Eating out vegetarian:
1. Learn to order ridiculous sounding things "I'll have the chicken pad thai without the chicken or shrimp"

2. Don't complain when you occasionally need to order a pile of a la carte items to eat at a restaurant with your friends. On average, you'll make up for those times with all the times there are normal plates for you

3. Create a short explanation of what you're doing and why. Say it 42 times one evening (to yourself or partner). Now when someone asks, you won't have any emotional reaction at all, and therefore won't dread eating with them.

4. Expect many people to think you're a PETA member. Find one thing to object to about them, and one thing to commend what they've they've done.

5. Learn the difference between vegan and vegetarian. You will have to explain it *many* times.

Eating with your vegetarian family
1. Buy at least 2 good cook books. I'll list a few at the end of this list that deal well with this.

2. Learn how to pick out a veggie/fruit that is ripe (I use the book listed at the end). Unripe veggies taste nasty to everyone. And no, tomatoes you buy at the supermarket aren't ripe. All of those are unripe, just like the green ones. They've just been turned red with a dose of ethylene gas

3. Learn to cook more complex dishes. Meat is a complex thing. It has a lot of flavors that stand out. Veggies aren't very complex things on their own. You need to learn about 6 spices and 4 herbs to really be able to keep your food from being overly bland. I suggest cumin, tumeric, ground red pepper, coriander, mustard seed and black pepper for the spices. For the herbs, learn cilantro, flat leaf parsely, oregeno (dried and fresh) and thyme( dried and fresh).

4. *SLOWLY* change your fat intake. Many people will drop to 1/9th or 1/10 their fat intake when they "go veg" or "go vegan". This does *not* make them feel good, and also can cause their skin to dry out. We cook in butter all the time (while saturated fat, the buteric acid makes it act more like unsaturated fat in the body). Vegetarians still fry things. My favorite foods are eggplant parmesan (which is fried) and friend zucchini. You will have a much lower *saturated* fat intake when you're a vegetarian, and you will have a lower overall fat intake (which is only important from a caloric standpoint).

5. Learn to make filling foods. You will eat less protein as a veg. This is not a bad thing from a nutritional standpoint, you need very little protein when not trying to add muscle mass. However, the lack of protein can make some omnivores and new vegetarians overeat (if you're making stuff that tastes good). I cook dinner for 6-18 friends of mine every Sunday night, and we quite often see them overeating (and borrowing some Rolaids afterwards) when we don't observe this rule. Learn how to cook things like barley, lentils, steel cut oats and really try to think of "fiber" as a food group.

Eating when visiting friends:
1. This is the hardest part about being a vegetarian. If its a dinner party, let your host know, offer to bring a dish or two.

2. If its an event like a wedding, eat beforehand, and pick around (your eating habits shouldn't be worth bringing up to your hosts, who honestly have more than enough to worry about). Keep a pack of nuts in your pocket if you can't eat beforehand, and sneak some to fill you up. If someone provides vegetarian meals, thank them profusely.

3. Some times you have to chose between what you eat and offending people some. You can lie and say you already ate at a catered work thing, etc, but sometimes, you gotta pick your battle. Its not easy, but this just happens sometimes.

--Michael

Good Cookbooks:
Three Bowl Cookbook - has whole meals planned out for you (honestly a hard part of vegetarianism)

Sundays at the Moosewood Restaurant - Dishes from all over the world (has some fish recipes, but plenty that aren't fish related).

Good veggie picking guide:
Field Guide to Produce