Lasagna, coca-cola and pig tails. These were three of my favorite things as a little one. Luckily for this little Italian girl, Easter time meant all three of these things-- and a bunny head-shaped pink cake with jelly bean eyes (as seen in the distance of this picture). I often winced at a baked noodle dish, kid-fixating on the top layer of noodle hardening with the heat. But unlike my mom's "tuna noodle", what was lying beneath the lasagna's armor was well worth it. With a whole batch of cashew-tofu ricotta leftover from my omelets a few days back, I bought the bright blue box to layer up my leftovers. Lasagna it would be... and in July.
Spinach sauteed with garlic. Simple perfection.
Leftover roasted tomatoes on top the first layer of ricotta.
The spinach stretched like drum skin, silky and strong.
Uh-oh, running low on layerings, I have to make a shallow lasagna.
And viola! A simple lasagna that isn't too heavy and filled with deliciousness. Finisci di mangiare! 
A goldmine of huge decorative frames, pictured here are my scores. More to store for when I finally have a real home.
Also scored this morning, 3 garbage bags full of sample placemats. You can never have enough fabric scraps to craft with!
Call me a hippie, but I'd love to drive this thing cross-country. I assume this bus was in town for the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island.
When I was a tween watching Headbangers Ball, I internalized the possibility that long-haired metal guys could infiltrate my daily life and save me from the tedium, save me from, say, school, or an arguing father. It seemed completely rational to me that Twisted Sister might show up to help convince my folks to let me go to the metal show at Nassau Coliseum or that Suicidal Tendencies may tie a rope to my window to liberate me when I was grounded. Metal videos of the 80's were very much like fairy tales, where the misunderstood and alienated prevailed against the oppressive forces of the uptight and uncool. The videos often had morals, elements of magic and single-faceted archetypes. Of course these elements, in story and in music, grossly simplified the complex reality said tween was eventually to enter. And I ushered a host of puerile misconceptions into pre-adolescence and regular ol' adolescence. Some even made it to my adulthood. Misconceptions about what it meant to be pretty, what it meant to be different, what it meant to be me and, of course, what it meant to love and be loved. Now, I am not saying that my musical taste was partly responsible for stunting my development. But I am saying that finding myself within the rigid parameters they helped create was more of an obstacle. Of course, as I grew older, my penchant for hard hair-band rock evolved as did my quest for quality and a more accurate soundtrack to my innards.
Chipping off pieces of this sparkling salt to fit in my grinder I realized why a sprinkling of this stuff is a necessity. This savory salt is super sulfuric and super powerful. Its "egg-like" odor filled my entire kitchen. I couldn't wait to incorporate this into my omelet! Could it be that my early days as an ovo-vegetarian were a failed attempt at finding this kind of savory salt? That I don't make tofu omelets because I miss eggs but that I missed kala namak? This makes more sense to me as it baffles me that I every thought this was food.
Tofu-cashew ricotta... mmm. I ended up with a whole bunch leftover so I may make a mini-lasagna.
Fresh basil. Isn't it just so good?
Here is the tofu omelet batter: silken tofu, garlic, nutritional yeast, olive oil, turmeric, that special black salt, chickpea flour and arrowroot.
Here we go! The batter firms up very quickly but be patient. This is no pancake. I found I needed to cook each side several minutes.
Gosh, look at that color, the texture. This could be one of the best omelets ever!
And there is the real deal... golden and fluffy tofu omelet stuffed with cashew ricotta, fresh basil and roasted plum tomatoes. This recipe is sure to become one of my all-time favorites.
This is your brain on diced red peppers.
Crab cakes ready to be fried up. Everybody wants some!
Remoulade getting a stir. This sauce has some punch. I prefer a thicker sauce and would mix in some Veganaise next time.
All fried and dressed to kill. These hit the spot. Though I thought they rocked, Wok Man loved them a whole bunch more. Tempeh crab cakes: perfect for the bearded burly guy.
Puree of Organic Sweet Potato & Yellow Curry Soup. Perfect. In the background, CandyPenny's Golden Beet and Walnut salad.
The not-so photogenic House-made Seiten Cutlets, Smoked Black Pepper & Roasted Tomatoes with organic rice medley and local organic veggies. Cutlets had a great texture, veggies were deliciously fresh..
Dessert! Cooked banana in pure maple syrup and cinnamon. Yum! A scoop of Soy Delicious is a must and pricey at $2.50.
I hate to say that their seitan is a bit chewy, undermarinated and a bit too White Wave the dishs' price tags. After tasting Blossom's port wine seitan, I am a bit more critical of wheat gluten slabs. And I must mention FoodSparrow's passionate plea for us to get over to Candle Cafe for their Porcini Crusted Seitan, her seitan fave.
Dear Blogger, Sometimes when I upload a landscape picture it rotates into portrait format. The deliciousness of this strawberry shortcake cannot be adequately conveyed in this way. But trust me, the messy pile of strawberries, cream and cake was so, so good. (Unless super sweetness is in your daily regiment, I would opt to share this... or suffer embarassing sugar high behaviors.)
In fact, all of our desserts were so good! We stayed out in the garden amidst heavy downpours in order to finish them.
Until next time, Garden Cafe!
One of my favorite things to stumble upon while roadtripping, besides a thrift store or a muffler man, is a carnival.
Yes, we have tons of bananas! And this morning was devoted to putting them to use before the pesky fruit flies started making love to them. And what better an opportunity to get to know Isa's Vegan Bunch cookbook? So these fermenting ripe ovaries of the Musaceae will be mashed into banana-walnut flapjacks (page 80) and East coast banana-blackberry coffee cake (page 172), which I'll bring along to tomorrow's Vegan Drinks at Angels & Kings.
Stats:
Oatmeal raisin cookies from my vegan kitchen.
Sura Thai Kitchen's pad see ew and virgin rolls. This place replaced Ayurveda Cafe as my in-between work and class dinner spot.
Pagoda Thai Restaurant is a recent Graham Avenue addition in my neighborhood. Though I was disappointed with their pad see ew, their mango and sticky rice was fargin' delicious. Lily Thai is where my heart is, however, with the best dumplings in Brooklyn.
Can someone tell Organic Grill to upgrade their Follow Your Heart cheese to Teese? They used to have a really awesome vegan cheddar that was kinda liquidy but perfect in their tofu omelet but then they made the switch to Follow Your Heart. Teese, please?
Pardon my excessive superlatives but Boneshakers makes the best vegan sandwiches in New York City. There, I said it. They also make their own baked goods. Pictured here is the Hill Bomber burger with Teese. Not pictured here is my drool, which coats their menu chalk boards.
Posts
All Comments
