Meatless March

I'm drinking coffee this morning, and caffeine is clearly behind the amazingly good idea I just had to start learning French. That way, I can pronounce dishes like " Mushroom Bourguignon " (Smitten Kitchen), and when it is someday safe to go back to restaurants, I can stop avoiding the French restaurants whose names I can't pronounce. Yes, I really do this. Imagine if I had been able to speak French when I encountered this intriguing ad in a Paris subway station in my college years! I thought this recipe turned out well, but I actually made it with beef broth rather than vegetable broth. I found the can of beef broth when I recently cleaned out my cupboards, looking for foods close to their expiration dates. I probably purchased it at least a couple years ago, before I went mostly vegetarian for the sake of fighting climate change . Food waste is also a climate change contributor , so the broth went into the dish. It almost certainly made it taste better than if I...

It is mid-winter and I have had cabin fever for ten months so forgive my crankiness, but the teaser text for " Hot Honey Brussels & Ricotta Flatbreads " (HelloFresh) is - let's not mince words here - stupid: "In our humble opinion, flatbreads > pizza, any day! We know that may sound blasphemous, but stick with us. First of all, the golden, crispy crust is a veritable blank canvas. It’s not beholden to simply marinara and mozz! In fact, ours is topped with herby lemony ricotta, tender shredded Brussels sprouts, Italian cheese, Parmesan, lemon zest, and a drizzle of hot honey. Can your ’za do that?! Yeah, we didn’t think so." That is stupid because a pizza is a flatbread and you can put whatever the sam hell you want on it. But that criticism aside, this was a good recipe. I am not a HelloFresh subscriber so for my "flatbreads," I used a favorite recipe for - guess what? - pizza dough , which I grilled on our grill machine with the lid open. Grill...

In the Before Times, I observed Vegan Vednesdays to give an extra push to decreasing my animal product consumption, for the sake of the planet. Even though I don't mind skipping meat too much, Vegan Vednesdays were never easy for me. But you know what, I'm prepared to increasingly lay off dairy to do my part to avoid "a ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health, and climate-disruption upheavals (including looming massive migrations) and resource conflicts this century," as described in a seriously depressing new report . The "massive migrations" warning chokes me a little after I read this horrific NYT piece about migrants in Bosnia. I cannot stop thinking about it, and pondering how ridiculously fortunate a life I lead. Yes, I can forego animal products once a week.  To dive into Vegan Vednesdays, you could try " Creamy Coconut Polenta " (The Colorful Kitchen). Make sure to let your polenta sit before serving, or it'll be soupy (but...

I've been at loose ends this week, feeling a little lost, waiting around, cold, fearful.  Cookies help, but only so much. For the past ten months I have been planning out meals a week in advance so we can get all groceries delivered, and that means that while " Healthy One-Pot Enchilada Pasta " (Peas and Crayons) sounded like a good idea the week prior, it did not sound like a good idea this past week, so I kept moving it into the future on my calendar, one day at a time. I had a hard time visualizing the making of it, plus I knew I was going to have to make my own enchilada sauce because FreshDirect doesn't sell any. I was unmotivated. Finally, yesterday, I told myself it would be done in an hour and I just had to do it, and how it turned out is a perfect metaphor for my waste of a week. The enchilada sauce (Cookie + Kate) was actually easy and good. I can recommend that. But it turns out I somehow had no refried beans (I used extra sauce instead) or black beans (su...

What's one more voice condemning the violence and lunacy at the U.S. Capitol yesterday? But we can't not talk about it, even if we just came here for a review of a vegetarian recipe as a way of addressing climate change. So this is my voice, condemning this place that America has become, where there is hatred, sociopathy, racism, denial of science, sedition, delusion, deadly political charade. It sickens and depresses me. And while we are all reeling from that, our other problems aren't going away. I guess that is why I talked myself into writing a post today about a darned farro salad.  Climate change is real . Climate change is caused by people . Climate change is already changing some of our lives for the worse, and far worse still is coming . It is within our power to address climate change, as a civilization and as individuals. One way that you can address climate change as an individual is to reduce your consumption of animal products . " Best-Ever Farro Salad ...

 Happy new year! Have you made a "green" New Year's resolution for 2021? You could resolve to: Make a "Leftovers Day" once a week, to reduce food waste.  Learn to repair a broken item (toy, clock, clothes, iron, jewelry, etc) - Repair Cafe has some tips, just search by your item!  Walk, bike, or scoot* rather than take a car to a nearby place you visit frequently (park, library, store). Hang a clothesline, inside or out, or set up a clothes rack, and air-dry at least one load of laundry each week. Never drink another single-use bottle of water. Find new owners for 10 things you don't want or need anymore. And of course, you could resolve to eat less meat and dairy , because animal-based foods contribute more to climate change than plant-based foods. "Meatless Mondays" and "Vegan Vednesdays" make excellent starting points. We tried " Portobello Philly Cheesesteaks " (The Nut-Free Vegan) last week, and they were decent. The reci...