Meatless March

I went through a seaweed phase a few years ago and while I no longer add it to everything, I do still enjoy it as an Earth-friendly, tasty ingredient. So it was disappointing when " Creamy Asparagus Pasta " (NYT Cooking; subscription required) did not have a distinctly seaweed flavor, despite the claim in the recipe description that "umami-rich seaweed stars twice". The dish (which I made with gluten-free elbow pasta) tasted fine, but I don't really need to be consuming all that fattening cream from greenhouse-gas-producing cows, especially when I could add seaweed to a similar yet vegan recipe, as I suggested back in 2020 . And that vegan recipe requires no subscription, so check that out. Off you pop, as my fellow Brits might say. In cleaning up my email inbox recently, an exercise in futility that I do from time to time, I came across a 2022 edition of The Guardian's "Down To Earth" newsletter with some great and still-relevant stats about why ...

Happy Earth Day! This tulip was planted in our yard before we bought our house, 8+ years ago.  It almost never blooms, but this year it did! When you have a blog devoted to cooking, people think you love cooking. I do not love cooking .  Most days around 5:00 I drag myself toward the kitchen with the feeling that I'd rather go anywhere else. I find meal planning to be a chore, and I hate grocery shopping.  Cooking is a means to an end for me, more healthy and economical than eating out or ordering in all the time. The point of this blog is eating (and therefore cooking) in ways that don't exacerbate global warming: I minimize meat and dairy, and I avoid food waste, and I urge others to do the same. So what I do love? I love fashion. I love looking at clothes, and touching clothes, and imagining exciting ways to wear clothes. I love dressing up and getting compliments on an outfit. I love costumes .  As with my approach to eating/cooking, my approach to fashion is to ...

Happy Vegan Vednesday! Choosing plant-based foods at least once a week is a great pro-environment choice for an individual, but I was heartened to read that New York's mayor recognizes the potential huge impact of city-wide policies that reduce meat procurement. This week, the mayor " vowed to reduce emissions tied to city food procurements by 33 percent by 2030 ," up from his predecessor's goal of 25 percent, according to the New York Times. The Big Apple, where the mayor responds to climate change and cats hitch rides on motorbikes The Times quoted Mayor Adams saying: "It is easy to talk about emissions that are coming from vehicles and how it impacts our carbon footprint, it is easy to talk about the emissions that’s coming from buildings and how it impacts our environment. But we now have to talk about beef. And I don’t know if people are really ready for this conversation."  I hear you, Mayor. A person I know reminded me recently that she had given up m...

Since I recovered from COVID last month , I have been pleased to think of myself as temporarily immune to reinfection, to some degree. Boy, does it feel good! But why stop there? Like I always say, if something's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. It didn't take long before I concluded that I am not merely immune, but in fact immortal. Accordingly, I've been doing things that I haven't done in two and a half years. I went to a movie! I was so excited that I accidentally arrived half an hour early, which is why the theater was empty.  I rode NJ Transit into the city! I saw "Wicked" on Broadway! Stay tuned for more of my newly immortal adventures, but one thing that hasn't changed is minimizing my animal-based food consumption, for environmental reasons.  Tonight I made " Green Curry Glazed Tofu " (NYT Cooking; subscription required), which is vegan and gluten-free. "Why not cube the tofu instead of slicing it?" I wondered, and since ...

If you had told my two-years-ago self that COVID would still be a thing prompting angst today, I'd probably have wilted and become catatonic, so thanks for not telling me.  Remember April 2020, when even the trees wore masks? Rest assured I'm shortly going to tell you about a vegetarian recipe--presumably that's why you're here--but I thought it would be interesting to record the peculiarities of my 2022 COVID angst, perhaps for the amusement of my two-years-from-now self.  For me, the 2022 angst comes from two concerns: The optimal window for getting COVID : I haven't had COVID, as far as I know. But it is everywhere right now. I know several people who currently have it or are recovering, and cases are ticking upward in our school district. Careful though I still am (I was literally the only person wearing a mask at a dance party last weekend, for example), I am sure I won't dodge it forever, and I am counting on my vaccination and booster to help me make a s...

When I was a long-ago  exchange student in Austria , I was still staunchly anti-vegetable, and I was not tempted to participate in Salzburg's "Spargelfest." The people of Salzburg had (and presumably still have) a formal celebration of asparagus in the spring. I found this charming, but odd. I have since come to see the glorification of asparagus as justified, and in any case, "never say no to a party" has become one of my mottos. If you're with me, you could give " Super Asparagus-y Risotto " (Alexandra's Kitchen) a try. I used vegetable stock, and arborio rice.  It was delicious, but I was reminded of how darned long it takes to make risotto. If you want a shortcut recipe that is no less delicious, try " Baked Risotto with Greens and Peas " instead, and you could certainly put asparagus in that. Do you have one of these handy strainers? It sits in the pot while you cook, then you just pull it out to let the food drain. And then it f...

As we are all now advised by CDC to wear masks in places where we might encounter other people, I have been sewing them for my family. I am super-slow at this endeavor but have finished two of three. It is a little ironic because as of this coming Sunday, it will be a WHOLE MONTH since I have entered any building other than my own home. But we'll be ready if/when the time comes. Meanwhile, we stay home and cook. In making " Sheet-Pan Sausage Parmesan With Garlicky Broccoli " (NYT Cooking) last night, I deviated from the recipe list out of both necessity and choice. That's the quarantine spirit, peeps. Interestingly, by the way, there is apparently no actual shortage of food items (yet?), though we're all stymied by what we can't find in our stores. Read the expert answers to POLITICO Nightly's question, "How can the country redirect food supplies from closed bulk buyers like restaurants, schools and stadiums to individual consumers who sho...

March is perhaps not the ideal month to be meatless in the northern hemisphere, because you're stuck with winter produce - greenhouse-grown or well-traveled or cold-friendly. But here we are in May! Which means things like asparagus and fava beans! That was what inspired me to make " Asparagus empanadas with fava beans, peas and goat cheese ," from the Laylita's Recipes website. Well, never again, Laylita, never again. Why not? Because it takes an eternity to peel fava beans. Why? Because you have to peel them TWICE. Yeah that's right! Twice! And even when you start out with an entire pound of these crazy bean pods, you only get about 3/4 of a cup of beans! It is hard to know whether to laugh or cry. However, you can fill empanadas with anything. I have made them a few times before, and I use a pastry recipe from NYT Cooking (subscription required). It is easy, but you will want to cook them at a higher temperature than recommended in t...

" Roasted Butternut Squash Bread Salad " from NYT Cooking (subscription required) was last night's vegan dinner (tonight was leftovers). I am not wild about squash but this was a good way to make it appealing. I recommend doubling the sauce, and using slightly more bread than called for. Most of what I have been eating this week, it seems, is Easter chocolate. Damn, there is a lot of chocolate in the house. Or rather there WAS a lot, on Sunday, and now there is considerably less, and I feel sort of icky. But what I still feel truly icky about is plastic, so I raised the concerns from my last blog post to a couple of the people working on the proposed reuseable bag ordinance for my town. One of them pointed me to this piece, " Plastic bag bans can misfire if consumers just use other bags instead ," by Rebecca Taylor. He noted that even though her piece covers the unintended problems with bag bans, it actually provides support for them if you look ...

I have successfully made " Barley Gratin with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes " (from Food & Wine) previously, and somehow this time it made about 2 cups too much for my pan. I used 1 cup of farro instead of 1 cup of the barley because I didn't have enough barley, so maybe that made the difference. Or maybe SOMETHING has to go wrong every time I tie on an apron, metaphorically of course, since I almost never cook with an apron, because I like to live on the edge. I went to the store to buy caraway seeds for this recipe. What was the ONE SPICE that was not in stock?? Ughhh. But fear not, I found them elsewhere. I saved those 2 cups of the barley-mushroom-etc mix for some other purpose and soldiered on, and it turned out well, as it had last time. It's good comfort food. Stirring the barley mix and the onion-mushroom mix into the cheese mix Emma and I decided to bake a dessert tonight to go with dinner. We made "Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars," ...