Your Vegan Mom

Natalie Slater's Cujo Chow

Keep reading. I'll get to the part why this snack bowl looks nothing like one of Celine Steene's (always) gorgeous photos.

In her adorable, well-crafted, thoughtful, delicious, personal and fun new cookbook, Bake and Destroy: Good Food for Bad Vegans, Natalie Slater describes this recipe: 

Rabid Puppy Chow fans might recognize some of these ingredients. (Heh, get it? Rabid.) “Puppy Chow,” for the rest of you, is the somewhat unappetizing name for the traditional mix of chocolate, peanut butter, and rice cereal that showed up most often at sleepovers and school parties. In this version I’ve added some tasty new elements and even a superfood or two for good measure. 

Mandy Ingber's Banana Coco Cookies

At the beginning of the summer I did yoga everyday.  The publisher had sent a book called Yogalosophy: 28 Days to the Ultimate Mind-Body Makeover and despite my extreme skepticism of self help and made up words and glowingly fit women in very small pants, I read the book and I liked it.  

Heirloom Tomato Salsa and Whole Foods Giveaway

It started with tomatoes.  Whole Foods sent me on an heirloom tomato shopping spree (the best kind of shopping spree?).  At home, standing over my yellow and red and stripey green and deep purple and blush pink bounty, I thought about beautiful tarts and sandwiches and simple salads, but what I really saw in those tomatoes was a deceptively simple bowl of pico de gallo.  

Heirloom tomatoes in salsa are a beguiling revelation because when you first dip into that seemingly mundane bowl, you know what it's going to taste like, but then it's different.  It's sweeter, and at the same time a little more tart.  It's hard to put your finger on the difference except that you didn't know salsa could be this good.  It's round with lusty tomato flavor. 

I put that heaping bowl in the middle of the table, and then nestled fresh baked chips, and slices of cucumber, and creamy warm beans, and a pitcher of margaritas all around it and called it dinner.  

Salsa this good deserves to be the main course.  

Now it's your turn.  Tell me about your favorite way to eat beautiful summer tomatoes in the comments below, and I'll enter you in a drawing to win your own tomato shopping spree with a $50 Whole Foods gift card.   Contest closes Thursday, September 5, at 12AM PST.  I'll announce the winner that morning.  

Heirloom Tomato Pico de Gallo
Choose a variety of heirlooms to make this beautiful and sweet, but if you need to stretch your tomato dollar, you could totally opt for one big gloriously fat pineapple tomato and flesh it out with some usually cheaper romas.
makes: about 4 cups salsa
takes: about 30 minutes 

• 1 white onion, finely diced
• 2 pounds heirloom tomatoes
• 1 - 2 small chiles 
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, or 1/2 cup finely chopped
• 1 - 2 tablespoons lime juice, to taste
• 1 - 2 teaspoons salt, to taste

Rinse the chopped onion, and then cover it with cool water and let it soak while you chop up the rest of the ingredients.  You can skip this step if you have a fresh sweet onion.  In the meantime, chop up the tomatoes, and mince the chiles and cilantro.  In a large mixing bowl, gently fold them together along with a squeeze of lime and a few good pinches of salt.  Drain the onion, shaking or patting it dry, and add it to the salsa.  Stir to combine the flavors.  Taste with a chip.  Adjust lime juice, salt, and chile to your liking.  

Baked Tortilla Chips
makes: 96 chips
takes: about 20 minutes, 2 active 

• 1 dozen corn tortillas
• 1 - 2 tablespoons oil
• salt

Heat the oven to 350.  Stack your tortillas on a cutting board, and then cut the stack into eighths.  In a large bowl, toss the tortilla wedges with a good drizzle of oil and a few big pinches of salt.  When they're well coated, spread them out on a baking sheet.  Or if you want more uniformally crunchy chips, arrange them in a single layer on two sheets.  I prefer both less fuss and a variety of textures in my chips - the crisp brown edges and occasional chewy bites let you know that these totally didn't come out of a bag.  Bake for 15 - 18 minutes, with a flip half-way through.  (More like 12 if you're going the single layer route.)  Keep a close eye on them towards the end of baking.  If any chips are looking really brown before the rest, pull them off and put the tray back in.    Those are taster chips for the cook.  When the rest are golden and crisp, whisk them to the table to enjoy warm with your heaping bowl of fresh salsa. 

Tangerine Macerated Strawberries

"We're not really good sharers," says the three-year-old, earnestly protecting his bowl of vanilla soy yogurt topped with straberries, "that's why we have our own."  

I put a dollop of yogurt on top of the last few juicy berries in the blue mixing bowl, and I totally understand the boy's concern.  It's hard, but I hand Paul a bite.  

Tangerine Macerated Strawberries

makes: 4 dainty servings or enough for my two children, with a tiny taste left for Paul and me
takes: less than a minute, plus 10 for sitting 

• 1 pint strawberries, sliced
• 1 heaping tablespoon raw sugar
• juice of half a big tangerine or a fat wedge of orange

Sprinkle the sliced strawberries with sugar and citrus juice and stir it up.  Let sit for about 10 minutes for the strawberries to soften and release their juices and the sugar to disolve.  Serve over vanilla yogurt or ice cream.  

Our Favorite November Snack

Slice a fuyu persimmon into thin rounds.  (The firm kind with the flat bottom - as opposed to the pointy bottomed hachiyas that are meant to be eaten soft.)  Squeeze a bit of lime over it - just enough to slick it with a shimmer of juice and floral tang to offset the (slightly dull) sweetness of the persimmon.  I find half of a juicy lime to be just right for three nice fuyus and two hungry boys.  

Also, I imagine if I spent less time at the park and the preschool and more time sitting around the table with grown-ups at impromptu dinner parties, a platter of persimmons tossed with lime juice would be the perfect end to a rich winter meal, don't you think?