Into the woods... for dessert!
Tonight we had a friend of ours over for dinner. With it being our first dinner that we've hosted since we got here, I really wanted to go all out.
First thing on the agenda: if you have not gotten the Real Food Daily cookbook GO GET IT! It has the most insane seitan recipe I've ever seen, very unconventional, and it makes a load of it. It requires no kneading, is baked and involves beans. Intrigued? It's very good and I made it this morning for our dinner tonight.
But first a recap of dinner last night:
We had a simple salad with fresh greens from Josh and Michelle's garden. I just chopped up a tomato and sprinkled a little goddess dressing on them. The greens were only a few hours old and tasted wonderful. I cooked up two faux chicken patties from Food Fight with buns that I picked up from Bob's Red Mill bakery. Fast and simple and it hit the spot after a long day.
Now, on to tonight's feast:
Seitan cutlets and garlic mashed red potatoes. We also had steamed asparagus, mushroom gravy, more homemade strawberry lemonade and a mini baguette recipe-in-progress for the book. I've been making these cutlets for years, they are really simple. All you do is thinly slice the seitan and coat it with a thin layer of dijon mustard, roll it in bread crumbs and fry lightly in a bit of oil. Mmmm, delicious. The seitan recipe from the Real Food Daily book worked wonderfully. In the background you can sneak a peak at dessert...
Black Forest Cake. This will also be in the book. I'm not a huge cake person, but I really like this cake. I fear that I will be gaining much weight between now and the book coming out, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!
11 comments:
Great to have you back. How are the cats settling in?
Is it just me, or are the latest pics hard to see...
yummmm...cake!
Everything looks fantastic, as usual! BTW, does anybody know what happened to the Vegan Lunchcast?
okay. I"m coming to portland in 2 weeks. I grew up in Tigard, but it's all so different now. Tell me the top 5 places you'd go. (if you could only choose 5) besides food fight and the downtown famers market. Thanks.
I don't know if I commented before (maybe a long while back) but I just re-found your blog and it's great. First off, I am completely jealous of your move and all the wonderful veg places you are going to and picking up slices of cake and doughnuts and wonderfulness and in Portland! I am saying this because I'm in Tempe really would like to move either there or somewhere in the NW.
I am looking forward to your posts on the city and the food and can you please tell me how you moved with all those kitties? I am hesitant towards moving in the car with one fatty cat.
Thanks to all for your comments!
The cats are doing really well. There is so much for them to see here, they are fully entertained, which has cut down on my mom guilt when we're gone most of the day. Ravi tends to go through this cycle when we move where he hides under the covers when it's light out, but comes out and acts completely naturally when it's night time. It usually lasts a few weeks and he's already getting better, he came out to greet me when I got home from work today.
Nightowl, I emailed Ken the other day and I didn't get a response from it. I'm really concerned about him and I'll let you all know if I hear anything.
Ok, my top 5 places? Is this in general or as a vegan? my top 5 in general, while I'm still learning the city, would be Powell's books downtown, Washington or Forest Park (just north of downtown, it's the largest urban forest, with an amazing view of the city and rose gardens too!) Veganopolis (but don't go to brunch, it's really blah and very expensive), VooDoo doughnuts, The Daily Grind (a huge vegetarian co-op in SE on Hawthorne, amazing stuff). This is not including Food Fight, which is small, but it's a serious stop. And the farmer's markets! There's one going on almost every day somewhere in the city. I still haven't even begun to explore the city, aside from food :), so I haven't been to any museums yet, but I've been to some concerts at The Aladdin and Mississippi Studios. You could hit up a lot of things in downtown all within walking distance because of their proximity. Vegetarian House, a vegetarian Chinese restaurant, has tons of vegan food and they are in Chinatown, just 2 blocks from VooDoo Doughnuts (which keeps weird hours). You could then walk off your newly gained weight going the 6 short city blocks over to Powell's, the largest independant bookstore in the country. From there Veganopolis is nearby. The first 3 places are all on Burnside, which if you hop on it again and head north, will put you in the mouth of Forest Park, just a few minutes up the road. If you go to Food Fight and they have any cheesecake from Sweet Pea bakery in their case eat it! You'll be very glad you did. Man, my life is ruled by food!
Eatpeaceplease, thanks for stopping by. I've read your blog too, I need to catch up since I got settled. Portland is a great city, as is Seattle and much else of the NW. I love it here and I'm very gald that we took the plunge.
I have done 2 cross-country moves with these cats. The first was from Minneapolis to Phoenix with Ravi and Linus. Ravi was petrified and stayed buried in the back of his carrier under his blanket, while Linus, cool as a cucumber, hung out and lounged around. Ravi has very feral tendencies in general, where Linus is really relaxed, so their behavior was what we expected. This time we added Bindhi to the mix, who tends to be a screamer, so I wasn't really sure how it would go. Now, what I'm about to say is sure to raise some eyebrows and get some people upset, but this is how it works for us: once we get going and we're on low traffic stretches of highway we let them out of their carriers. Even with Ravi, who was shockingly calm on this move, it calms them down much more to not be confined. Bindhi, who would flip out in her carrier, would immediately shut up once the door was opened, even though she wouldn't neccesarily get out of it. I think it's the psychology of feeling afraid and feeling trapped. If they don't feel trapped they can deal with the scared part a little better. This being said, in thicker traffic or in stop and go traffic, they were in their carriers. This worked well for us for long trips. Short trips, just a few hours long, we make them stay in the carriers, but one leg of our trip, after leaving Palm Springs, had us on the road for almost 20 hours. We stopped to rest a few times, but I couldn't bear to leave them cooped up in their carriers for that long of a stretch. So, that's what we did. Everyone was good, no bathroom accidents. It seemed that after a day of being on the road rather than feeling betrayed by us they felt more bonded in a way. Okay, enough rambling about that!
Thanks to everyone for your comments and thoughts!
Thanks for the advice with the kitties. It freaks me out even with one. What about the litter box? How do you handle that in the car (or don't you?!).
I would let Killian out of his carrier in the car but knowing him he'd be like your kitty and just stay in the carrier, but not confined. I wouldn't want him freaking out and jumping on my head in the car while I'm driving though.
I haven't been up there yet but I feel it is a place for me. And like you, I'd discover the food part of town first, then the rest.
nightowl: Sadly, Jennifershmoo's awesome little boy is done w/ school for the summer and she won't be returning in the fall with regular posts.
Meg, I do the same thing, keeping a litterbox on the floor of below the seat. They usually are too upset to use it, but occaisionally they do. I also keep small containers of food and water to offer them when we stop. Even with A/C long haired kitties like Linus get awfully hot, he drank a lot of water on our trip.
Welcome back!!! I agree that the Real Food Daily cookbook rocks - we have made a few things out of that recently - the phyllo rolls with butternut squash...so yummy!
I heard a little shout-out to Minneapolis - woo hoo! Did you live there for long? That's were I'm born and raised (well, traveled away for a bit, but came back and am here to stay).
-Crystal
Hi Crystal, sorry for the late response!
I lived in Minneapolis for 11 years. My family still lives there. I love it there very much, it's a great city with a lot to offer in the arts. I grew up in the NW suburbs, mostly in New Hope, then moved to Duluth for awhile and then to NE Mpls. Do you ever eat at Pizza Luce? I went back to visit for my birthday last year and had my b-day dinner there, it's my favorite restaurant there. I hear there's a vegan store in St. Paul, I wish I would have known about it when I came to visit... next time I guess!
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