Meatless March

Yesterday was Vegan Vednesday, and I tried a new recipe: " Vegan Bolognese With Mushrooms and Walnuts " (NYT Cooking; subscription required). We all decided the result was "fine," and given that it was a lot of work to produce something "fine," I cannot recommend this. I made two ingredient substitutes, but even had I followed the ingredient list precisely, I predict the results would still have been "fine." The first substitution was nutritional yeast flakes for Marmite. The second was white wine for red. I can sense some of you oenophiles freaking out about the wine. OF COURSE reds and whites aren't interchangeable, you're thinking, as tannin-scented steam comes out of your ears. But is that really true? IS IT??  I offer you this humorous 19-year-old piece from The New Yorker that I loved and have never forgotten. It is by Calvin Trillin, one of my favorite New Yorker writers. The article revolves around a blind taste test that is the ...

There you are, innocently going about your day and clicking on a link to my blog post, with no idea that your world is about to be TURNED UPSIDE DOWN because I have something RADICALLY DIFFERENT for you today. I present to you: our first ever Guest Blog Post! Our inaugural guest blogger, Liz, has been a friend for a long time. She reminded me how long, and I am discreetly omitting that information here. I did, however, dig up a photo from Ye Olde Times. Liz is looking radiant, second from the right, and I'm strangely miniature in the middle. The man who would become Liz's husband, by the way, is the guy with the glasses next to me! Please enjoy Liz's review of " Cabbage Minestrone with Chick Peas " (NYT Cooking; subscription required). Thank you, Liz! In case Jennie’s wondering if anything she writes sticks [Editor’s note: heck yes I am!] , I’ll have her know her unwavering dedication to reducing our impact on the planet via food choices follows me like an invis...

My exploration of pastas with chickpeas continued last night with " Fried Tagliatelle With Chickpeas and Smoky Tomatoes " (NYT Cooking; subscription required). We liked it, but I have several thoughts on ingredients. First, this is how my tagliatelle came out of the box - broken into bits, and not in nice "nests." I think fresh tagliatelle would be so much nicer here. Also, note that the box was 9oz of pasta, which was a good amount - the recipe only states, vaguely, "eight nests." Because of all the broken bits, it was really hard to evenly toast the noodles, but I did my best and it was fine. The toasted noodles weren't all covered with liquid when I "nestled" them into the pan with chickpeas. I worried they wouldn't cook on top, but they did; it was fine. You could certainly use less oil for the sauce. I would try 1/3 cup next time. And go ahead and use more than 8oz of tomatoes. I had 10 oz.; I bet a whole pound would be wonderful. A...

I recently made two different vegetarian pasta dishes with chickpeas. One was better than the other. The better-tasting version was " Creamy Chickpea Pasta With Spinach and Rosemary " (NYT Cooking; subscription required). Why was it better? Well for starters, it has a cup of heavy cream. Creammmmmmmm! But also, a crisped chickpea is the best kind of chickpea (see also this stew ). I substituted Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced in the food processor, for spinach. It worked fine, but I think spinach would be better. Compare that dish above with the undistinguished " One-Pan Orecchiette with Chickpeas and Olives " (Martha Stewart), below. I like olives a lot, and one-pot meals are a dream come true, but this just wasn't very good, we thought. You know what might be great? Adding olives to the NYT Cooking version! I have been feeling disheartened lately at hearing policy solutions to address climate change described as politically motivated (see, for example, the re...

My small backup dancer had a birthday this week. Battling boredom and a growing sense of pointlessness, I committed to making it a ridiculous, over-the-top spectacle - an epic party that would be attended by zero guests. Was the excessive effort I poured into this for her, or for me? Does it matter? The elaborate costumes and decorations I made honored the theme of her choice: Harry Potter. Introducing Lucius Malfoy, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter: We started the day with some lightning bolt pancakes. These floating "candles" took ages to make, but I am pleased with how they turned out. Lest you are wondering, that fourth setting at the table was just for symmetry! (Alas.) This blog is about my efforts to support the environment with my food choices, but I made some eco-friendly decorating and costuming choices. The floating candles are made of toilet paper and paper towel rolls, with "wax" drips created with a glue gun, and then painted white. I acquired the st...

My backup dancers and I adore biscuits. I usually make them with butter and plain Greek yogurt . But in the name of taking whatever actions I can to fight climate change, I'm looking for ways to reduce my dairy consumption (meat, too, of course) - hence "Vegan Vednesdays."  I procured some vegan butter, and dove into " Vegan Quick Biscuits " (NYT Cooking; subscription required). How much do we love biscuits? So much that I used a cookie cutter and shaped them like hearts, and it wasn't even Valentine's Day! Raw dough Baked I used oat milk for the liquid. I wish I could say that they turned out as good as my usual biscuits, but their texture wasn't as good - it was less flakey. Still, it was not a bad texture. Really not bad at all. And they tasted delicious. (I skipped the maple butter topping, but that sounds amazing, doesn't it?) I served them with NYT Cooking's " Tomato and White Bean Soup With Lots of Garlic ." That was too inte...

"This is really good," my backup dancers said of Yotam Ottolenghi's Cauliflower Cake , which I found on Serious Eats. Was it just me, or did they sound a little surprised? It IS really good and entirely straightforward - none of the "but how long should I let it simmer" or "should it be mixed smooth" or similar questions that a person often has when attempting a recipe. Add it to your repertoire of dishes in support of your goal to eat less meat for the sake of slowing climate change. I made that a couple nights ago, but of course we also went vegetarian for Valentine's Day last night, sending our love to Planet Earth. We had mushroom ravioli and heart-shaped spinach pasta and tomato sauce from Nicola's Pasta Fresca . I am in love with the ravioli and sauce on Feb. 14 and every day of the year. Naturally, we dressed for the occasion. We decorated the living room, and made heart-shaped sugar cookies, too. I am afraid that after basking in the lo...

I was thinking today about all the realms in which I used to have some level of expertise.  For example, I started taking violin lessons in 4th grade, and learned to read music, a skill that I have lost. I studied German in high school and college, and while I could still get by in a basic conversation, that's about the extent of it now. I have had jobs that gave me expertise on subjects ranging from the defense industry to federal energy policy to Pakistan, but I have not stayed up to date on any of those things. My college honors thesis was on French nuclear weapon testing. Possibly the only thing left in my brain on that topic is an ongoing fear that nuclear war is still a possibility, and that is why I still read with interest each year about the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ action on their Doomsday Clock. This year, the Bulletin warned that we are ever closer to a global catastrophe of one sort or another - the closest we have been since 1947. Damn. Climate change is a ...

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...