Your Vegan Mom

Salsa and Margaritas

You don't have to be in California to have margaritas and guacamole for dinner.  I discovered last Saturday that, in the absence of bountiful organic limes and lemons, a highly passable cocktail can be produced from bottled citrus juice.

We're Not in California Anymore Margaritas

2 oz. tequila

2 oz. sour mix

splash of triple sec

Shake with ice and serve on the rocks.  That's one serving by the way, but it would be much better to just use those proportions and pour a whole bunch in a pitcher with some ice.  It's nice to share.

Sour Mix:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Put that in a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved and let simmer for about 1 minute.  Set that aside to cool for a moment.

3/4 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup lime juice

Stir the juice together.  Stir in the simple syrup.  Your sour mix is ready to be turned into margaritas.

With your margaritas you will have some kind of chips and salsa.  It is a moral imperative.  I am certain that you have something in your fridge or pantry that can be turned into salsa.  

One Particularly Delicious Salsa, or Guacamole Depending On Your Perspective :

(I had envisioned the avocado staying in contrasting chunks with the mango, but of course, when you stir up a ripe avocado it mushes up into its own special fiesta bowl and that's just fine, so call it what you will.)

1 avocado, diced

1 mango, diced

1/2 a medium red onion, finely diced

1 jalapeno, finely diced

lime juice (I used 3/4 of a lime's worth.)

about 1 Tbsp. minced cilantro

salt to taste

Chop the onion first and let it soak in cold water while you do the rest of the chopping.  This will mitigate its sharpness.  Drain your onion, and mix all that together.  The lime juice and salt should be added to taste.  Use a spicier chile if you want to.  I bought serranos for this purpose, but they disappeared, so jalapenos were used instead.  

In my inauthentic opinion, it's the lime juice, onion, chile, and cilantro that make this particular style of salsa, so you can substitute the other parts with whatever you have on hand.  Of course, tomatoes are traditional here.    

The boy had a black bean tamale along with his quacamole since he wasn't getting the all important margarita nutrients. I bought the tamales frozen at the Whole Foods when we were in Dallas last weekend.  What a great instant meal!  The boy loved it.  

Happy Weekend Y'all!  (The farmers market opens tomorrow!)

Spiral DIner, Dallas, TX

So we went to Dallas last weekend and got the boy's sleep schedule all jacked up.  The happy result being that it's 7:45 AM, I'm on my second cup of coffee, and the boy's still sleeping.  We'll see how long this lasts, but it's pretty lovely at the moment.  

Even though we were there for a very important graduation, we made time for lunch at Spiral Diner, a trip to the Dallas Farmers Market, and a whirlwind shopping spree through Whole Foods.

Spiral Diner was good.  Apart from the sheer radicalness of being a haven of veganess in the eastern half of Texas, what I appreciated most about the place was the thoughtful kids menu and the brownie.  

Lunch was pretty crazy.  As the boy and his parents were already fairly sleep deprived by this point in the weekend, the meal was more of a frantic juggling act to keep the kid entertained than a leisurely, savor-our- food-and-then-write-about-it kind of repast.  We had a couple good sandwiches, some potato salad that was too heavy on the dill, and brought home a smorgasbord of desserts.  

They were delicious.  By the time we got home, the blueberry pie and strawberry cupcake weren't much to look at, and the chocolate mint cookie milk shake was gone, but the brownie was perfect.  This is the fudgie brownie that I have been trying to make my entire vegan life.  To be honest, I didn't think it was possible.  But the brilliant bakers at Spiral Diner have proved me wrong.  Oh, thank you.

And they're willing to share their secrets with you on June 16th from 7 to 9!  If you're going to be anywhere near Dallas, sign up for their baking class right now because that's really soon.  It's 40 bucks.  They need your money to hold your spot.  I for one, am never putting a toddler in a car again, not even for the perfect brownie, so I won't be there, but maybe you can hook a girl up with a recipe. 

Southern Seitan Cutlets

So, the buttermilk fried chicken went pretty well though I under-seasoned the flour.  I'll go fix that in the recipe right now.  Ack!  I'm thematically appropriate!  You should fry yourself up some this weekend and report back!  That never happens.  I haven't even posted the easter candy yet.  But fried chicken and Memorial Day?  It's like I planned this.  Er...I planned this.    

And here is the seitan recipe that we have been using lately.  As I mentioned before, it's a great way to finish off a pot of beans that just won't quit.  It's super-easy, incredibly versatile, and makes excellent fried chicken.   

Southern Seitan Cutlets

1/2 c. mashed beans

1/2 c. bean broth

1 c. vital wheat gluten

1 tsp. Tony Chachere's or any salted seasoning mix you're partial to

2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast

Stir it together.  Knead a bit until you have a cohesive mass.  Shape into cutlets.  Steam for 30 minutes.  Now the cutlets are ready to use in whatever way you see fit. 

  

Show and Tell: the high chair

I miss my kitchen.  Sure, I brought the essentials with me, but I'm missing that indistinct home quality it has.  I think it's the light.  On his blog, Michael Ruhlman recently wrote about what he considers to be essential in the kitchen, and it's a good list.  Did you see it?  It would be really helpful for anyone setting up a home or trying to decide what to shove in the suitcase and bring with them to... oh, say, Shreveport.  Unfortunately this article came too late for me, but it mostly jives with what I decided to take.

One huge item that I did wind up cramming in the suitcase that, not surprisingly, didn't make Ruhlman's list is really more a piece of furniture than an essential kitchen tool - the high chair.  That's right.  The flippin' high chair fit in my flippin' suitcase.  Yes, it's a pretty big suitcase, but standard big, not steamer trunk big, so this is obviously one radical high chair.  

It came from Ikea.  It cost like 20 bucks.  It has minimal nooks and crannies where gunk can lurk, and it's not bad to look at.  I love it.  

Now, is it wrong that reading Ruhlman's article kind of makes me pine a little bit for a pie maker?  Just a little bit, and I don't need a fish spatula, so there's that.  And, do you see the light in this kitchen?  Doesn't

 it make you sad?  

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We are so lucky to live in a world that has Dreena Burton's home-style chocolate chip cookie recipe. It is so simple and straight forward, and most importantly, produces perfectly chewy chocolate chip cookies. I have made them several times now, once with all-purpose flour, twice with spelt flour, in the name of science, not more cookies, really, that was why. The second time I cut the salt almost in half, increased the molasses by a teaspoon, and went with 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. I have found my cookie.