Seriously not wallowing (or how to bake bread)

I'm going to let you all (yes, all 4 of my readers!) in on a little secret.  Sometimes I use my general forgetfulness around photographing food as an excuse not to post.

"Boy was that dinner good... but aw shucks, I forgot to take a picture, so it doesn't make sense to spend 20 minutes typing up the recipe!"

Or sometimes I do take pictures, but I also worked 12 hours that day, or am desperately trying to read through my stack of library books, or just want to lay on the couch with a glass of wine and watch TV.

And worst of all, it's hard to get excited about food and cooking when my knee hurts.  It started right after my half marathon (you know, the one I was bragging about a few weeks back?) and has not let up much since.  I have backed off running and have been working on strengthening my quads and my hips (the two most likely culprits in "runner's knee" according to the internets).  It seems like my knee is gradually improving, but I'm feeling impatient and ready to get back to training for my marathon in May!

But instead of wallowing (seriously, I'm not wallowing!), thinking about how much I'd love to do the 15 mile run scheduled for today in my marathon training plan (not even joking!) I'm baking bread.   I started baking bread from a starter a little over a year ago, and rely heavily on the methods in Tartine Bread, because they work so darn well.

It's a time intensive, but not labor intensive process and I really enjoy it, not only for the delightful end result of beautiful, fresh bread, but also for the process.  From nurturing the sourdough starter, to coaxing the flour, water and salt through its fermentation process and into a baked loaf (or an AMAZING pizza dough), baking bread requires care and attention, but also flexibility.  And it gives me an excuse to spend a lazy Sunday at home.

I'm not going to type up the bread recipe I use, because it spans many pages, and has very helpful photographs, and really, just go buy the book.  It's worth it!  But I will tell you I make the basic country bread (which starts on page 45).

There are only a couple things you need that you may not have in your kitchen already: a kitchen scale (this comes in handy for me all over the place!) and a cast iron combo cooker (mine is a Lodge - also handy to have for other things)

The bread starts here, (oddly enough) with the starter:

Mix up flour, water, leaven and salt and let rise, for about 3 hours, turning the dough in its bowl every 30 mins:

Shape the dough on the counter:

Nestle the shaped loaf on a well-floured towel for the final (3-4 hour) rise:

Bake in a preheated combo cooker, and voila!  It takes most of the day, but you have warm bread with dinner.

I served today's loaf with sautéed greens and a delightful white bean and roasted garlic soup (from none other than my gal Isa's Vegan with a Vengeance

This soup was so tasty (and simple) that I'm even going to go to the trouble of typing the recipe.

White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup
Recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (I used half an onion and half a bulb of fennel)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed (have I told anyone besides Lisa how life-changing my spice grinder is?!?!)
4 cups veggie broth
3 cups cooked (or canned) white beans
3 fresh sage leaves, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
2 heads of garlic, roasted

To roast the garlic: heat the oven to 350 degrees, peel off the papery skin and roast the garlic for about 30-40 mins.  Remove from oven and, when cool, peel the skin away from each clove.

Meanwhile, in a stockpot over medium heat, saute the onions in the oil for 5-7 mins.   Add salt, pepper and fennel seed, saute for 1 minute.  Add broth, beans and sage, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.  Add the roasted garlic and puree. (Immersion blender FTW!!!)  Add lemon juice.  Serve garnished with fennel leaves and/or parsley.

Lori and Isa

I've joked that this blog could easily turn into a vegan version of "Julie and Julia" entitled "Lori and Isa (Chandra Moskovitz)".  My first vegan cookbook was a copy of Veganomicon I borrowed from a coworker late last year, which is now dogeared (don't worry, I bought her a shiny new copy). Since then I've bought Appetite for Reduction and Vegan with a Vengeance and made a couple recipes from both the Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (thanks SFPL!) and the Post Punk Kitchen website (www.theppk.com/).  I really enjoy her (and Terry Romero)'s tone (goofy, readable and fun) as well as their general approach to veganism (light on the preaching) and cooking (comforting and tasty, but not too heavy, and generally without many wacky or hard to find ingredients).

There have been a lot of "keeper" recipes, and I have a lot more flagged to try:

One of our favorites so far has been the "Leek and Bean Cassoulet" from Veganomicon.  It's really more of a pot pie, but it is a great way to combine veggies and protein in a satisfying and homey way. Potatoes!  Carrots!  Peas! Biscuits! Yum!!

Add a salad and you've got a nice, well rounded dinner.

This one is a little time consuming, so I'd definitely recommend it more for a weekend night or a day when you have a little extra time/energy for cooking.  Also, the recipe makes about 6 servings, which is a lot if you're cooking for two, but they actually reheat pretty well!

Leek and Bean Cassoulet
from Veganomicon
Makes about 6 servings

Stew:
2 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut in 1/2 inch dice
3 cups veggie broth
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, sliced thinly
1 small onion, diced
1.5 cups carrots, cut in 1/2 inch dice
1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 (15 oz) can white beans (I used great northern)

Biscuits:
3/4 cup plain soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup nonhydrogenated vegan shortening

Preheat the oven to 450.
Heat the potatoes in a pot of water until boiling.  Lower the heat and simmer the potatoes for about 8-10 minutes (until just tender). Drain immediately.
While the potatoes are boiling, prep your other veggies and get your biscuit ingredients together.  Add the vinegar to the soymilk in a measuring cup and set aside to curdle (I knew this trick worked to make "buttermilk" with regular milk, but I was still so amazed that it works with soymilk!) Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

Dissolve the cornstarch in the veggie broth and set aside.  Preheat an ovensafe skillet (cast iron is best) over medium heat.  Add the oil and saute the leeks, onions and carrots until softened and beginning to brown - about 10 mins.  Add the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and cook for another minute.  Add the cooked potatoes, frozen peas and broth mixture. Raise the heat a bit until the stew starts simmering.  Lower the heat and let simmer for about 7 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the beans.

While the stew is simmering, finish prepping the biscuits.  Add the shortening to the flour in small slivers and work it into the dough with a fork or your hands.  The mixture will be clumpy.  Drizzle in the soymilk and mix with a fork until the dough is moistened.  Knead the dough in the bowl about 10 times until it holds together.  If the dough is sticky add a bit more flour.

Pull off chunks of dough about the size of golf balls, roll them into balls and flatten them.  Add them to the top of the stew, about an inch apart. (Mine were a bit closer than that, and there were 8 biscuits, which seemed like a lot for 6 servings... not that I'm complaining about carbs!)  Transfer your skillet to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the biscuits are lightly browned and cooked through.

Spoon individual servings into bowls and enjoy!

Valentine's Day is hard y'all!

I arrived at work to a plethora of non-vegan temptations, ranging from well intentioned gifts:

To the gooey and nostalgic joy of rice krispie treats:

And most difficult of all to forgo (My masochistic Valentine's Day gift to Kevin):

But the hardest part of all was also the sweetest (both literally and figuratively).  One of my bosses brought in desserts to celebrate the folks on our team with winter birthdays and went out of her way to ensure vegan offerings. And she is not one to do things halfway:

Vegan apple pie, vegan blueberry bread and that empty plate there had 6 different varieties of vegan donuts, that I devoured with unladylike abandon.  Ooops!

I had to work late so we're grabbing take out tonight (a salad for me, thanks!) but when I recover from my sugar coma I'm totally making vegan rice krispie treats.

Where did my week go?

Well I colored my own hair :

 

And was photographed (by Jacques Cressaty):

So that I can be immortalized in statue form, like anyone who has worked at the Internet Archive for 3 years or more:

Photo by Michael Grecco

We also spent this past weekend in Napa, where I braved the bitter cold:

and dreary views:

to watch Kevin in an early morning bike race:

It was quite fun!  It was a criterium, so I got to see the pack go by a few times, and I cheered and tried to figure out which one was Kevin before they were out of sight again:

We also visited some wineries and spent a little time in downtown Napa, which is quite cute.

Oh, and I cooked a few yummy things that I did not photograph:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/health/stir-fried-cabbage-tofu-and-red-pepper-recipes-for-health.html
http://judicialpeach.com/2009/06/28/curried-couscous/

Dinner from a (CSA) box

Who'd have thunk a box full of vegetables could turn me into a kid on Christmas morning? But when Christmas comes to our doorstep every Tuesday, via our CSA delivery, I get downright giddy. 

To be fair some weeks are more exciting than others, or inspire more acts of culinary daring to incorporate all the veggies before they start to go bad (a challenge I find particularly satisfying).  And other weeks are more run of the mill: carrots, onions, celery, potatoes... just screaming to be made into a simple soup.

My go-to is minestrone, and I can't really say I use a recipe, although I do reference Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" from time to time.

Basically, you make a mirepoix (celery, carrots and onions cooked in oil/butter) and then add broth, tomatoes and whatever veggies you have on hand, being sure to strike a balance between "hard" (potatoes, turnips, parsnips, etc) and "soft" (greens, cabbage, green beans, etc).  I also tend to add fresh herbs like thyme and parsley, about a cup of beans (usually kidney or white beans) and a handful or two of uncooked macaroni.  It's pretty simple and takes maybe an hour with prep, and it's very flexible, which makes it a great way to use up those random CSA box ingredients, or the leftover veggies in your crisper drawer.

Today I used carrots, celery, fennel and leeks and garlic for my mirepoix, potatoes for my "hard" veggies and cabbage for my "soft" veggies:

Add some tasty sesame garlic sourdough from Boudin (I carefully photographed the side I had not been snacking from before Kevin got home):

And it made for a delicious, wholesome dinner from a box.

I can't believe it's not sausage!

I am not especially keen on fake meat products, or vegan recipes that require quotation marks (like mac and "cheez") because they usually involve some form of trickery to create a product that could never really taste like the food it's an imitation of.  Just let food be what it is!!

But let me tell you about tempeh with fennel seeds and tomato and a little spice.  It tastes just like italian sausage and it really works for me.

Add some pasta and some green veggies, and it is divine!

Spicy Tempeh and Broccoli Rabe with Rotelle
From Veganomicon

8oz whole wheat rotelle or other spiral pasta

Spicy Fennel Tempeh
1 (8oz) package tempeh, cubed
1/2 cup veggie broth
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar

Broccoli Rabe (or other green veggies):
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 bunch broccoli rabe, chopped coarsely (I couldn't find any broccoli rabe anywhere, so I got broccolini and watercress, but any number of veggies might work well here)
2-3 tbsp veggie broth
2 tsp red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper


Cook the pasta according to the package directions (about 10 mins) drain the pasta, and keep covered in a serving bowl.

Meanwhile, place the tempeh in a large nonstick skillet.  Whisk together remaining tempeh ingredients in a measuring cup.  Pour over tempeh, stir to coat and cook over med. heat until the liquid starts to simmer.  Cover and steam the tempeh, stirring occasionally until most of the liquid is absorbed and the tempeh is tender (about 8 mins).

Transfer the tempeh to a bowl and crumble about half the cubes with the back of a spoon.

Wipe down the skillet (as much as possible) and return the skillet to med. heat and add 1 tbsp of olive oil. Add the tempeh and stir fry for 4-5 minutes until it begins to brown.  Add to the pasta and keep covered.

Add 1 tbsp olive oil to the pan with the sliced garlic.  Sauté garlic for about a minute. Add the broccoli rabe (or other veggies) sprinkle with salt and cover the pan.  Cook for about 2 mins.  Add broth and steam for 8 mins, until the veggies are tender.

Pour the cooked veggies onto the pasta and sprinkle with red wine vinegar, season with salt and pepper and toss to mix.

Semper paratus

I like to be prepared.  When I have a big trip or event when I know I'll need certain clothes or shoes or other items, I make sure they're clean and take them out of circulation (or even pack them in my suitcase) well in advance, so that I don't have to do last minute laundry or other scrambling.  Case in point:

I laid out my clothes and shoes and race number for today's San Francisco half marathon days ago.  I also diligently ran (almost all) my scheduled training runs, starting back in November, in order to prepare for this race, the first one where I really had a time goal and was (cautiously) optimistic about what I might be able to accomplish.

The only problem with early preparation is that then all you have left to do is wait.  Which, if you've ever flown with certain of my German forebears, you know we're not genetically predisposed to doing patiently, or without worry.

So on Saturday, while I waited, I read some of the aforementioned cookbooks and made these caramel pecan bars (from "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar"):

By the time this morning rolled around, I was ready to get the show on the road:

Luckily, this half marathon involved very little travel.  Heck, I could have walked the mile-ish to the starting line, however, Kevin kindly offered his chauffeur services.  The race course runs primarily through Golden Gate Park, which is my home turf, and where I do pretty much all my training.

It was perfect running weather. About 55 degrees, partly cloudy with no wind. My goal was to run under 2 hours (about a 9 minute pace) and I was pretty sure I could accomplish that, but I wasn't sure I could do much better and I worried about how fast I could go early on without regretting it later. I started out fairly fast (for me) at an 8:30 pace and sped up a bit by mile 4 to settle in at an (approximately) 8 minute pace for the rest of the race.  I guess those tempo runs and 400 repeats really did help!

Because the course was close to home, Kevin was able to stop by to cheer at a couple different points.  At mile 5:

And mile 12, when I was really starting to feel tired (but what amazing scenery!):

After the finish, with my medal and t-shirt:

My official chip time was 1:47:17.  A more than 20 minute PR, and more than 10 minutes faster than my goal.  Plus, only 10 minutes slower than Kevin's PR... no wonder he was so impressed!

We planned ahead to have a celebration mimosa brunch at Park Chalet. A perfect end to a pretty great race!

I guess for me this drives home the idea that part of being prepared is trusting that preparation to get you where you want to go.  Sure, having low expectations does heighten the surprise of success, but a little faith helps get you through rough patches, knowing that you are, in fact, capable of great things.

Houston, I have a problem...

And it's cookbook related.  In the past 3 weeks I've bought this many:

And at this very moment, I have this many food-related books checked out from the library (aka my cookbook ownership feeder system):

That doesn't even take into account the 15 cookbooks I have on hold at the library.  It's possible I've gone a little bit overboard.

I'd like to be the kind of cook that whips together an interesting meal out of whatever is in the fridge/pantry, but in reality I depend on recipes for inspiration and guidance.  Not that I don't tweak them a bit here or there to match our preferences and whatever ingredients I have on hand, but I tend to get stuck in a rut if I don't get a regular dose of external inspiration.

I think that's a big reason why I've been so excited about this vegan experiment.  It's forced me out of my rut of cheesy pasta, fish, dinner out, repeat!  I had a steady repertoire of perhaps 15 meals that I rotated through, and I was starting to dread making the weekly menu because I was becoming underwhelmed by the options floating around in my head.  Somehow by limiting my ingredient options, I've really broadened my culinary horizons.  There's always the risk that a new recipe will flop, but luckily we've just had a couple "no need to try that one again" meals, and I've been trying at least two new dinner recipes a week for the past month.

This coming week will be my first real week with "repeats" or remaking what I assume will become "tried and true" vegan dinners, so I'll be sure to post some of those.  Just like I'll be sure to keep trying new recipes, as long as there are cookbooks at the library.