a happy holiday

this year for Christmas, Emily and I went down to NC, where we hadn’t been in two years.  last year, we stayed in New England and had Christmas with her family and didn’t travel to NC because we had just seen everyone at our wedding.  we figured that if there were a year to skip, that would be a good one (not that it’s ever good, really).  anyway, I was very excited to go back this year, especially since it was a giant Sullivan family reunion again!  the sadder flipside of that, of course, is that we couldn’t spend Christmas with Emily’s family in MA.  I think her mom is pretty bummed about it, since it was Emily’s first actual Christmas away.  but that’s how it goes.  I had my first a few years ago in order to spend it in MA.  I do wish we all lived closer.  and that we had affordable, high-speed trains!

anyway, overall it was a great trip.  everyone got along (not that I expected otherwise — but there are some areas of conversation best side-stepped); moreover, everyone seemed to have a really good time!  it was great to have some quality time with everyone, especially new baby Kingston, as well as some one-on-one conversations.

my mom & Myers now have a pool table in the house, and Tim purchased them a dart board as well, so there was a lot of communal play and hangout time.

perhaps against everyone else’s will, Emily and I sort of pushed a vegan-themed holiday, at least for our part.  that meant giving some books and cookbooks as gifts, but also cooking a few times.  along with making a pesto pizza one night, we made a big meal of vegan moussaka (from the Veganomicon).

the potatoes were a bit undercooked, but overall it seemed OK. and people seemed to enjoy it enough.  we also (of course) made vegan cupcakes, this time chocolate mint.

and yes, I do coordinate my outfits with the flavor of our cupcakes (we didn’t have any food coloring, though, or else perhaps they, too, would have been as verdant).

it was also great to see our friends Mikey & Shannon, along with their two adorable and incredibly grown-up children.  we also were able to see other members of his family and another friend from high school.  there’s never enough time to see everyone, and the time we do have for some is not nearly enough.  I do wish we could visit more often.  (can we please have those trains?)

after less than 24 hours back in Portland (filled with grocery shopping, cleaning, and de-reeking the apartment of the smell of litter and litter overflow), we headed down to Newburyport to have a second Christmas with Emily’s family, which was also very nice.  we cooked again, this time making a spicy pasta dish with tempeh and (you guessed it!) cupcakes for dessert, this time carrot cake.  and daaaaaamn were they good.

then we stayed up late with Dave & Jess playing Band Hero.  I even had enough wine to be willing to lay down some vocals on a few songs.  we ended up having to leave earlier than planned (and hoped) the following day, though, due to snow, but I’m sure we’ll be down there again soon enough to make up for the time.

overall, a very happy holiday, and looking forward to more.

broccoconutofu

Emily and I love Thai food, but the best take-out place in the land closed down indefinitely and we haven’t found a replacement.  plus we don’t really want to be paying for it every other week (well, it was more like once a week), so we’ve tried on several occasions to make some.  most of those attempts didn’t go so well.  maybe it was because we used green curry paste instead of red or yellow, or maybe it was the recipe.  either way, we stopped trying for a while.

but the other night, I think we took a step in the right direction.  I made this gingery lime sweet chili coconut milk curry, with tofu, broccoli and red peppers.  it turned out pretty tasty.

I started with a “Thai-inspired” Chinese-ish dish, but thought that since it has a nice Thai flavor, I’d double the marinade and sauce so that it would be more Thai-y.  well, I ended up quadrupling the amount of coconut milk, which maybe was a bit too much, because it detracted from the sweet chili and lemon flavors.  and maybe I should halve the amount of tofu.  oh well, maybe next time I’ll get it juuust right.

Montréal, la troisième partie

this past weekend, Emily and I made our third mini-trip to Montreal.  we swore off NYC after the last Christmastime visit, so this year, we thought that since we love Montreal, and had never previously seen it at Christmas, why not venture farther north this time?

overall, it was a very good trip.  the drive up was interrupted by a pretty fierce snowstorm in Vermont, but fortunately it only lasted a short while (not before taking out a few cars, though).  oh, and the traffic outside of Montreal before the bridge.  grr.

anyway, for the first evening, we made our way to an area we hadn’t previously visited, namely, Plateau Mont-Royal.  turns out it’s a pretty cool area, with lots of interesting shops, used books stores (I purchased La peste, L’élégance du hérisson, and En attendant Godot) and a couple vegan restaurants.  we had dinner at Aux Vivres, which was excellent.

I had never been to an entirely vegan restaurant before, so it was exciting to be able to eat anything on the menu, especially when there were lots of vegan replacements for things like mayo or cheese.  typically when we eat out (including at the one most vegan place we’ve gone to), we eat Asian-inspired food, but here they had lots of “soul food,” chilis, burgers, sandwiches, etc.  they also have a hugesmoothie bar with tons of fresh fruit waiting to be freshly squeezed.

but perhaps the best part was the desert: vegan carrot cake!  that was our first time having carrot cake since going vegan, so it was exciting.  they had a bunch more options we wanted to try, but no regrets here.

after that, we had an unfortunate experience of hoping to walk down the length of St. Catherine’s to find a great place to have a drink.  turns out it’s mostly shops and strip clubs — which we know — but only sports bars beyond that.  and it was freeeezing, so our poor toesies nearly broke off.  oh well.  after that, it was back to the hotel with a few snacks and a bottle of cheap wine.  classy.

the next morning we set out to check out some of the sales, but we were a bit early and so stopped in to get a delicious (regrettably not vegan) crepe.  but mmm.

after that, it was a succession of stores, cold weather, overheating in underground malls, and so on.  we eventually found the photoboth where we had one of those four-picture strips taken on our first trip (not sure why) but which has since become a tradition.  so far we have three.  and I am visibly aging.  yikes.

after too much Thai food, we walked around the old part of town, dodging falling icicles and keeping warm (embarrassingly stumbling through your erstwhile decent French helps).

eventually we made it back to the Plateau Mont-Royal area in order to check out some more used book stores (OK, that was my idea) and to do some more window browsing and exploring.  after getting some tasty Indian food, our plan to go find some trendy bars and get slightly drunk was foiled again by a lack of easy to find, cool bars, but oh well.  we went back to the (sub-par) hotel and stayed (mostly) warm, cuddled up watching TV (kind of a luxury, as we don’t have one).

anyway, on the ride home, the GPS decided to take us on a new route, which was slightly annoying but OK in the long run because it took us through some more mountains than the other route, so the scenery was much improved.  like so:

we even had a beautiful deer come say hello by jumping out ahead of the car (fortunately far enough ahead to be seen and avoided without swerving or skidding).  all in all, a nice weekend away, although not the kindest weekend to our back account.  oh well.  next time we travel north, we hope to finally make it all the way to Quebec City.

the monster of all roasted veggie pizzas

last night Emily and I made a new pizza recipe pulled from Vegetarian Times, which we finally started receiving (subscribed a few months ago).  it was a shame it took so long, as there was a special holiday issue that had some really good Thanksgiving ideas.  oh well.  next year?

so this recipe was a roasted ratatouille pizza, featuring (as the main term demands) eggplant, squash, zucchini, peeled tomatoes, red onion, olives, tossed with oil and Italian seasoning and (also in keeping with the title) roasted.  no peppers, but maybe next time…and Emily was thinking artichokes, as if it weren’t overburdened enough already.

I think we met (and are meeting again tonight, as there are leftovers) our monthly quotas in all sorts of vitamins.

for the sauce, we followed their suggestion and whipped one together (instead of buying one) from tomato paste, minced onion, minced garlic, red wine, and oil.  not bad, though I think we could use some more spices, or perhaps use red wine vinegar instead of red wine.

in the end, this is a snap of what came out of the oven: a pizza nearly collapsing under the weight of all of the veggies…

oh well, grab a fork and spoon (I managed without, though) and dig in!  serve with an entire bottle of red wine (preferably our favorite, Red Truck — although if you do, be warned: you may end up stumbling out into the snow to go to Whole Foods to buy a vegan cupcake and some soy nog).

toe-tapping in absentia

so sometimes I blog a ton, and then I blog a’none.  I guess sometimes I have more important things to do, such as dream up all the tattoos I can’t afford to get.  in the meantime, here’s a video of Blind Pilot, another folksy band that Emily and I have been listening to lately.  it’s catchy and sure to make you happy.

also, Emily “accidentally” made about three dozen amazingly delicious chocolate chocolate-chip cookies yesterday, so I may be swinging to the higher end of my weight range these days.  oh well — at least they’re vegan, so they could be worse for us.

book review: The Way We Eat

very good, accessible book overall, though with some unfortunate typos.  but that’s just the bored copyeditor in me.

anyway, as this book has reaffirmed for me, eating meat “fails” on a number of fronts concerning the head & heart, but eating meat produced through industrialized farming — which in this country unfortunately makes up 90-98% of the meat available, depending on which meat (or eggs) — fails on every imaginable front: health; ethical for the animals (living conditions, selective breeding, slaughter, etc.); ethical for humans (wages, conditions, environmental concerns, health risks to humans in terms of viruses and chemicals, etc.); and environment (pollution, inefficient use of food/energy used in industrialized farming, etc.).

of course, it is possible to eat meat that avoids most of these ethical concerns, but it takes some effort to certify that the meat and eggs are genuinely coming from a responsible, sustainable, humane farm.  there are still health questions, however, as well as concerns about energy uses to produce and transport the food (vs. more efficient options), but those can be addressed on a more personal basis.  the other ethical concerns, however, should genuinely trouble all persons with consciences and challenge them to re-consider what, and the ways in which, they eat.

I feel a bit of disclosure is necessary so as to not appear to be taking the moral higher ground.  Emily and I are already vegan, but we made that decision while only being marginally informed on ethical questions such as these.  so that removes me from having to really engage in and struggle with most of these issues.  it would be easy, then, to pump a fist in hearty agreement, forgetting the fact that I lived 27+ years (even having briefly dated someone who was hardcore vegan in the past) without engaging in these concerns, even though I generally knew about them.  the truth is, even when I thought about reading Peter Singer’s more famous Animal Liberation (which I still haven’t read), I put it off, knowing (but not admitting) that I wasn’t ready to make radical changes.  and informing myself would only make it harder to make excuses.  I do think, however, that a book like this, focused on more ethical concerns overall, not just on animal welfare, would have had a greater impact on me.  but that’s only conjecture.

that being said, however, I don’t think these issues are any less of a concern just because we’re already vegan, and I do think that everyone (or as many people as willing) should give this a fair shot in order to see where they stand and what changes (if any) they are willing to make.  but I understand (as do the authors) that it’s not easy, and sometimes it takes time to change.  but I do hope we can find ways; we certainly need it.  and I hope I can find ways to talk to friends and families without coming off as pushy or judgmental …

but rest assured: this book is not a blatant case for veganism, and I’m not suggesting that vegans can read it with little to no ethical stirrings.  there are a still a host of ethical issues relating to fruits, veggies, rice, coffee, etc., particularly when it comes to concerns about the environmental impact of buying organic and/or buying local — this is an issue that Emily and I have wondered about, and this book was helpful in addressing some of the ethical concerns in, for instance, buying more locally grown but not organic fruit vs. organic fruit imported from another country.  also, is it always better to buy local when the money can go further and do more good in developing countries?  actually, this book has only further complicated the picture for me — but that’s because the issues are so darn complex, not because of any fault of the writers.  most helpful has been the prod to think and research, and the sources they provide to help are a great start.

so now Emily and I (well more me right now, as I’m the one who has just read it) have to wrestle with taking measure to find out (or pay more attention to) where the food we buy comes from and whether we can learn anything about the means of its production.  we need to pay more attention to “fair trade” and “organic” certification standards.  and we also need to start thinking about eating more seasonally — if not ruling out certain foods that don’t grow locally (or even regionally) without a significant energy output, at least reducing them.  we’ve already started some new discussions and hopefully we will follow through with what we decide.

after reading this book, I am even more eager for the time when Emily and I will have a yard (whether at a rented place or our own place) where we can start a garden.  I would love it if we could produce the great majority of vegetables we eat for the entire year in our own garden, and simply freeze, pickle, or can the leftovers for the winter haul.

break out the elastic pants

’cause we done found a new way to make us some delicious vegan pizza, y’all.

we used the recipe for “basil tofu ricotta” in Veganomicon for the “cheesy” part, and then just threw on some veggies (along with the sauce from Whole Foods).  so far we’d been making pizza with a basil-walnut pesto as the base sauce, which is super delish, but this is a great new addition.  in fact, it’s sooo good and so much closer to what I would traditionally have as a pizza (yet still much better for you than having it covered in cheese, I must point out) that my extra stomach opened up and I ate my entire half, whereas I’d been much better about only eating two slices (or maybe three…).

I want pie

yesterday, Emily and I went with Lauren and Nick to pick apples and buy a pumpkin at a not-too-distant apple farm in ME.  we’re making an effort to cook and behave more seasonally this year, which in this case means picking apples and doing lots of baking!

it turned out to be a pretty decent day for it, though it could have been slightly warmer (or we could have been slightly more insulated).  the sun was out for most of it, though occasionally hiding behind some clouds, but the main problem was the wind.  but all in all it was fine.

the greatest part of the orchard and experience was the absence of people, overall.  the parking lot was full (but small, which was key), and we occasionally were in the same area as other people, but never jostling for space or fighting for apples.  and even more important: no lines when we were buying everything!  the two orchards we’ve been to (one last year in ME, another a few weeks ago in NH) were crawling with families, and you had to wait almost an hour if you wanted to buy some fresh goodies (not sure about just purchasing the apples, though).  we’d never picked them ourselves before, as we usually just went for cider or a caramel apple or doughnuts or whatever.  but here we bought everything quickly then went back for some tiny apple-cider doughnuts (not vegan, alas) and some hot cider.

in accordance with the wishes of Emily and her cute new lumberjack coat, we also got a pumpkin and a giant butternut squash.  hoping to make a soup with the latter and eventually carve the former, when we get closer to Halloween.  what should we carve into our pumpkin?!

tonight after dinner we’re attempting to make a caramel apple pie of some sort (vegan, of course).  this will be our first foray into pie baking, individually and as a couple.  wish us luck.

update: pie!

a tasy birthday extravamaganza

today is my Emmie’s birthday, so naturally we are eating ourselves to death.  I made some french toast with brown sugar apples on top this morning for breakfast, and tonight we’re heading back to The Green Elephant for dinner.  I vowed last time (when we went for my bday) that I wouldn’t get the same thing twice, and I plan on sticking to that.  but maybe, just maybe, we’ll get those crispy wantons again.  (mmmmmmMMM!!!!!!!!!!!)

and yesterday, incapable of waiting another day and mindful of all that we’d have to eat today, I made her bday cupcakes early.

these are cookies & cream vegan cupcakes, taken straight from this wonderful little book called Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which I also gave Em as one of her presents.  they are so delicious — way better than any vegan treats we’d had before.  so if you invite us to any event calling for snacks, plan on us bringing a batch of cupcakes along with us.  one recipe down, seventy-five more to go!

twenty-eight and a day

another big change in my life: got tired of twenty-seven and decided to give twenty-eight a try.  so far, so good!  Emily and I had a day full of some tasty food, some tastier than others … (I’m not looking at you, vegan cream cheese, but I’m stealing glances your way, Little Lad’s non-dairy ice cream.)  but Em made me a cookie cake, which can be seen here, and it was very rich and tasty!  it was a thoughtful throwback to a Sullivan family tradition, so it was much appreciated.

we also went out — Em in her new boots, me in my new kicks:

– and had a really delicious dinner at The Green Elephant, a mostly vegan restaurant in Portland.  Em had the “Siamese Dream Curry Noodle,” while I had the “Peanut Curry.”  we will be going back for Em’s birfday in ten days! after that, some wine at the Wine Bar (fittingly enough), and then it was back home and in bed at a decent hour — ’cause when we party, we party hard.

overall, a casual, cozy, tasty birthday — just how I like ‘em. so thanks to family for the birthday wishes and gifts, which will all go to good causes, I assure you.

and today it’s off to Newburyport for my birthday pt. 2 and Em’s birthday pt. 1!