Your Vegan Mom

Here's a Sundae for Your Monday

1. Toast pecans.
2. Make chocolate sauce:
- Chop about 6 oz. chocolate.
- Heat 1 cup soy milk until it's just boiling (that's 2 minutes in my microwave).
- In a bowl, pour hot soy milk over chocolate. Let it sit a minute, then whisk together until you have a
smooth sauce. While you're stirring that together, you might want to add a teaspoon of vanilla, or another
extract or liqueur if you want to jazz it up in some other way.
3. Scoop ice cream into bowl and assemble sundaes.

(P.S. The chocolate sauce will keep in the fridge for about a week. It will firm up, but you can microwave it briefly to make it saucy. Mmm, a week of sundaes.)

Roasted Asparagus

I know that this may make me sound a bit unstable, but...good land, did I have a nice day! I love the ladies' locker room at the YMCA. It's filled with all these gossipy old gals that sometimes tell you things that you don't want to know, like the one about the facility's hot tub, for example. But today there was no stomach-turning news, just a nice lady with a big brown grocery bag of lemons off her tree. I know, enough with the lemons, but I just had to tell you that all's right with the world before moving on to what you should make for dinner.

So just push those clothes aside and sit down (I'm sorry about the photo). For dinner tonight we have fried tofu, spicy braised potatoes, and asparagus, but let's just talk about the asparagus. When I bought it the other day, I was worried. It didn't look like much, and it seemed awfully early in the season, but I needn't have feared. Drizzled with a bit of sesame oil and a pinch of sea salt, roasted in a pretty hot oven (say 400) until just beginning to shrivel (say 8 minutes, but these were quite skinny), and then tossed with a few quick dashes of rice vinegar, they were perfect. Or if you'd prefer, toss them with olive oil and finish with a big old squeeze of lemon. Man, I love a change in seasons - asparagus AND meyer lemons. It is a magical time in Los Angeles.

Home Again, with Bread, and Not Much Else

I had a bad day. Desmond woke up early and crabby, then fell asleep in the car on the way to the farmers' market, meaning that I did not get my midday me time to do things like eat lunch, and cook and write and fold laundry. And I left my lemons and oranges and avocados at the market.

Yeah, I know, no one died. Nothing really terrible happened, but I'm tired and cranky and I don't have my lemons. Fortunately I had a really good sandwich at the end of the day to almost make up for it.

When he was out of the sourdough that I had come for, the man at the Manhattan Bread Company (as in Manhattan Beach to any of you that aren't from round these parts) gave me a big fat focaccia roll to take home and try instead. And it was just what my marinated grilled tofu and pesto needed.

The Pesto
1 large handful (about a cup) fresh basil
1 large handful (about a cup) fresh spinach
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
a small handful (a scant quarter cup) of pistachios (or whatever nuts you have on hand)
a few generous shakes (a tablespoon or two) of soymage
about 1/4 c. olive oil

Whir all that in the food processor until it's a consistency that pleases you. I like it pretty creamy.

Good night.

10 More Hot Vegan Dates (for cool winter nights or brisk mornings and the occasional chilly afternoon)

I want to make one thing clear. This has nothing to do with Valentine's Day. The timing is purely coincidental. I've been meaning to write this up since November and it just so happens that I'm getting around to it now. If you choose a romantic night out on the town on February 14th, that's just your own lack of imagination. I think it's a terrible idea - nothing worse than a bunch of saps walking around with expensive roses. Now don't get me wrong, I am seriously pro-Valentine's Day - just in an elementary school fashion. I love the inclusive, you-better-make-a-valentine-for-everybody sort of observation of the holiday. I highly recommend that you invite everyone you love over for this sort of celebration. Make valentines, eat party snacks, enjoy each other's company. But if you're looking for something to do on some other night, well then you might:

1. Meet at the Bonaventure Hotel in the late afternoon and enjoy a cocktail in the rotating lounge on the top floor. Sip your silly drink in its commemorative ceramic vessel and watch the city go by. If you're not the outdoorsy type, but still appreciate some beautiful scenery, this is the perfect place to spend one of those sparkly after-a-storm L.A. afternoons. And if the date is going really well, then go rent Midnight Madness and snuggle up on the couch at home.

2. There's a vegan potluck happy hour at the Short Stop in Echo Park. You could do that.

3. Or meet at the Hollywood Farmers' Market. Stroll the aisles shopping for organic produce, debate the merits of russian kale versus cavalo nero, listen to some music, watch a drum circle of toddlers, eat korean pancakes, or vegan soul food. Does it get any better? Only if you take the metro, and then go see a movie afterwards in the Cinerama Dome.

4. If I had a few hundred dollars to spend on a date to end all dates (but I guess that's a bit self-defeating, perhaps a date to remember?), I would book a Japanese-style room at the Kyoto Grand Hotel (formerly the New Otani) in Little Tokyo and spend the weekend pretending to be in Japan. Go have dinner at the soon to be opened vegan restaurant Shojin, visit MOCA at the Geffen Contemporary. If you go this weekend, you can still catch the Murakami exhibit before it closes on the 11th. If you're not quite ready to commit to an overnight - go to the museum, have dinner, and wander around the hotel garden.

5. Did you read the restaurant review in Wednesday's food section? Apparently if you call a day or two ahead the chef will prepare a vegan tasting menu for you at the new and surprisingly not that Japanese Omakase in Riverside. Alas I can't tell you about this from personal experience because I cannot currently afford vegan tasting menus. But you can let S. Irene Virbila tell you all about it here.

6. And on the topic of restaurants that I haven't actually been to and are a bit far afield, Au Lac in Fountain Valley is at the top of my own date night wish list.

7. On one of those nights when the Natural History Museum is open late, go pick up takeout from Vegisoul. Have a picnic in the rose garden, look at dinosaurs, and listen to music.

8. Meet at Flore for breakfast. Walk to the Vista for a movie.

9. Pure Luck and Scoops. You need no other entertainment.

10. This one's all you. What is there to do in your part of town?

(I'm popping back into this entry to add a link to the summer edition, 10 Hot Vegan Dates. I imagine some of those suggestions are probably still good too, except Good Karma was scheduled to move, does anyone have any news on that?)

(Oh, and by the way, all the images in this post came from the L.A. Library photo database. I could pretty much pass an evening perusing this collection on-line. I shouldn't... tell you that though... should I? Now who would possibly take my entertainment advice?)

School Night Cuisine: not-quite-out-of-a-box, but just-about-as-easy mac and cheese

In general I think it's best to redirect one's nostalgic desire for things like mac and cheese towards delicious semi-equivalents like peanut noodles or a simple polish dish of cabbage and pasta rather than a vegan recreation that will fall short of your expectations. But noble intentions aside, I still find myself making this simple, cheesy, creamy, endlessly versatile macaroni dish a couple times a week. I blame the boy. When he is ready to eat, this can be on the table in the time it takes to boil macaroni. And with the addition of some spinach or peas, this mac and cheese just makes such a simple balanced meal. Plus, I figure it's just the sort of recipe that every vegan mom should have in her pocket. So here's mine:

1 1/2 c. dry elbow macaroni

1 c. soy milk
scant 1/4 c. nutritional yeast*
scant 1/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper
1 tsp. marge (a small pat)
1/2 tsp. dijon mustard

While the water is boiling for the macaroni, pour the soy milk into a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk the dry ingredients into the milk. Continue to whisk periodically as the milk mixture heats and thickens. When it has the consistency of a thick cheese sauce remove from the heat and stir in the pat of butter and the dijon mustard. When the macaroni is done toss the drained pasta with the cheese sauce and serve. Or try one of these variations:

- Desmond-Style: Place 1/4 c. frozen spinach or peas in a bowl and microwave briefly. Add a serving of mac and cheese and stir.

- Trina-Style: If you happen to have a can of chipotle in adobo sauce open in your fridge (but stored in a small glass jar, of course) like I generally do, then mix in about a teaspoon of the adobo sauce to your serving.

- Paul-Style: Put your serving in an oven-proof dish, top with cracker crumbs and put under the broiler until browned.

What's your macaroni style?

*In a nutritional aside, I must add that little ones shouldn't be eating a ton of this dish because it has quite a bit of nutritional yeast in it which is often fortified with a pretty high concentration of certain vitamins, so in heaping or too often helpings those high doses could become a problem in the same way that taking one multi-vitamin is good, but two isn't better. Just something to keep in mind. Though if you're a grown-up sized person, well then, eat away.