Rabbit Food

Stay Cozy

Just wanted to quickly share an amazing recipe for Spicy Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup.  I think the combination of sweet potatoes, coconut milk, and sesame oil is out of this world.  The spicy goodness is sure to keep you warm and snuggle-y as the temperatures drop (I'm looking out my window right now at our first flurries falling.)

Spicy Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, rinsed
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 2-inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 Tbsp red curry paste
1 15-oz can unsweetened coconut milk
3 cups vegetable broth
3 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup fresh cilantro sprigs

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put the sweet potatoes in (right on the rack) and bake for about 45 minutes, or until tender. Remove from oven and let cool.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onion and ginger for about 5 minutes, or until the onion softens. Stir in the curry paste and cook for 1 minute. Add the coconut milk and broth (this is where I found the whisk came in handy) and gently bring to a boil. Reduce the heat so that it's just simmering, cover partially, and cook for 5 minutes.

Skin the sweet potatoes and cut into 1-inch chunks. Add them to the soup and cook for 5 more minutes.

Stir in the lemon juice and the salt. Put the soup into some bowls, drizzle with the sesame oil and throw a bit of cilantro on top.

Sushi is Sexy

I think sushi has to be the world's sexiest food.  Why?

• It's really light.   Have you ever tried to get down with your special somebody after several helpings of stroganoff?  Yeah...  Sushi is tasty and satisfying, yet not too filling, leaving you limber and ready fo' action.
• It's easy to eat.  Have you ever been on a first date and not been able to maneuver a single strand of  fettuccine into your mouth?  Yeah...Even with a tummy full of butterflies, sushi just pops right in.
• It's so darn pretty.  I don't know, something about sushi just makes ya want to take your clothes off.

 

Here's how the foreplay went down:

I must say, sushi is quite prudish and it took me quite awhile to get her ready to go.   Really, the prep work sucked!  As a first time sushi maker, it took me ages to cut the vegetables correctly.  They need to be nice and thin for easy rolling and my knife skills are less than Iron Chef worthy.  (Tip:  For nice long, thin carrot shreds, just use a carrot peeler and a steady hand.)  It was also tricky to get the special rice vinegar-ed sushi rice just so.  These are the sort of rookie errors that will be easy to bypass next time.  I just had to feel things out (te he.)

Rolling the sushi in nori (the seaweed sheets)-the part I was actually concerned about- came really naturally and was so much fun to do.  I even mastered the "inside out roll," with the rice rolled outside the nori sheets.

I filled the inside with various combinations of avocado, carrot, cucumber, shallots, and a spicy tempeh concoction I found on an episode of The PPK.  You can watch the very instructive and helpful episode here and find the step-by-step recipe here.  The tempeh, which is kind of a vegan-version of spicy-tuna-roll tuna, was really delicious and a breeze to make.

The results:  after all that nasty prep work, the rolling went by quickly and I was very pleased with the results.  So yummy, specialized to my tastes, and much, much, cheaper than store-bough sushi.  No really, I'm guessing a serving was made for under a dollar.  I'll never pay six bucks for a vegetable roll again!

 

Things I learned that I think are worth sharing with anyone that wants to get hot and heavy:

• You don't need all those vegetables.  Cut up maybe half of what you think you'll need.
• Many instructions I found suggested a half sheet of nori (cut length-wise) for smaller-size sushi.  I think 3/4 of a sheet works way better.
• Smash the rice as flat as you can before you start rolling.  A spatula works nicely for this.
• Don't try to refrigerate leftovers.  The rice gets really dry and gross and you lose a lot of flavor.  I think you could store the leftovers covered on a counter for half a day, tops.

 

• And, of course, make sure not to sneak out on the sushi early the next morning or avoid speaking to her when encountering her in public.  This is so very, very un-sushi.

Fall, Curiously Colored

Hello friends!

Hooray for us, for Thanksgiving is so near.  El dia del Tofurky has really snuck up on me this go around, and I gotta get cookin.   I was thinking back to this time last year and remembering how I spent the day.  While I enjoyed stuffing, cranberries, and pumpkin pie aplenty, I also dug into to some rather odd holiday fare-leaves.  Last Thanksgiving, rather than snoozing on the couch like any proper, tryptophan-filled American, I was up to my ankles and elbows in piles of paint in a basement full of leaves. ..and I'd like to tell you about it.

No, I had not gone completely mad, I was art-ing, gosh darnit!  You see, I was up against a deadline for a public art class I took that semester.  Our assignment was to create a piece of art for the Lawrence community in a public space, and my large-scale idea was an around-the-clock ordeal.

My project broke down like this:  I started by thinking about what the purpose of public art is. I think two really important parts of this type of art are accessibility and easy exposure.  Most people tend to shy away from art with a capital A, and I can't say I blame them.  Galleries can be uncomfortable.  Artists can be uncomfortable.  We are competitive and moody and  all about our brilliant selves and work (or maybe that's just how I feel sometimes.)  I wanted a piece that was really accessible to a certain public; one that was impossible for them not to interact with, but was humble and non-threatening at the same time.

That's where leaves came in.  Leaves are everywhere, of course!  They may be perfectly astounding while ablaze in fall spectaculareum, but they soon dull and become part of the background fuzz. I was also thinking about an easy way to get everyone's attention, and leaves became a nature-made flyer of sorts (as if we needed anymore flyers on campus, I know.)  So, that was the recipe.  Add some curious colors to the surface of those many, many leaves and you have my project: Leaflets.  (The cheese-factor, so necessary.)  

I used expensive! all-natural, organic, biodegradable, (insert breath) non-toxic paint that actually neutralized carbon emissions on campus. Pretty and good fo' mother earth.  You can read more about the project in an article for KU's newspaper here.

This image shows the leaves spread out to dry in my attic.  Jordan didn't let the intrusion stop her from a little movie watching.  I kind of wanted to leave them up there for always.

And post-Thanksgiving day and beyond painted leaves of the bright blue variety:

 

   
 The bad news:  Painted leaves get really crumbly really fast.  While they looked good  in my attic, outside they quickly crushed under everyone's foot steps and became little pieces of painted confetti.  Ah well.  Humility, I guess, was part of the piece.  It was quick and ephemeral but hopefully noticed by many.  So very Christo and Jeanne-Claude. (R.I.P. Jeanne-Claude. She died recently.)

Anyway, that's my story.  I hope everyone has a warm and lovely Thanksgiving!  Mine will be much lazier, eh-hum, peaceful this year.

The Last of Portland

I'm dwindling down to the last of  my Portland food photos, but I'd like to start off by sharing some of my favorite things we saw while strolling around the city.  We spent a lot of time simply moseying, and for this I'm quite thankful considering all the eating I've been speaking of lately.   With my tendency to halt every other block to snap a photo, we were out of doors much of the day, and I must say, I was really impressed with Portland's weather.  Even the rain seemed pleasant, misty and light, but perhaps I'm just in love with Portland and everything she does is graced with baby's breath and sunshine.

 

Robert makes a fine Dostoevsky .

 

 

So jealous of Portland's abundant moss coverings.  We don't get much of dem der in Kansas.

 

 

I refused to accept this sight as a bad omen (it was almost my bday when this photo was taken.)

Okay, and now, of course, the food!  I've saved the best for last, as these two places were my favorites of the trip.  The first place is called Paradox Cafe, a cute little breakfast place near our hotel.  It was sort of a greasy spoon, but an organic, environmentally friendly, kind-to-vegans greasy spoon.

Robert had the Seasonal Benedict with fresh spinach, tomato, tofu, artichoke hearts and pesto-uncheese hollandaise sauce on thick sourdough bread served with seasoned red potatoes.  It tasted as good as it looks.

I had this hot mess, the Number Two.  Seasoned potatoes, seasonal vegetables, and tempeh prepared "curry style" with Asian curry sauce, raisins and nuts makes for one tasty breakfast.  Paradox also had an amazing selection of desserts which were vegan, (I think?)  

 

Now, the best of the best, a restaurant so good we went there twice!  Hungry Tiger Too, I love you.  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Bar, The best Bloody Mary ever, Amazing, Amazing, Oh my god.  We had dinner there Saturday night, drinks and pinball until the wee hours, and breakfast the next morning.  They have a separate vegan menu spanning two pages, tasty food at a kind dollar, really friendly staff, a cozy back porch, and let me say that again, pinball!

 

Robert's Temptress Reuben consisting of peppered tofurky grilled with sauerkraut and 1000-island on marble rye.  

My sloppy joe something with tasty sloppy joe stuff.  I don't really remember, and the ingredients in this sandwich aren't listed on the internet.  I see some lettuce in there.

Robert's Montecore Burger: grilled onion and mushroom with jalapeno on a boca patty and garlic aioli.

My Portland Scramble:  tofu, veggie sausage, onions, green & red pepper mix, and nutritional yeast, drizzled with vegan cheese sauce.  Such a good last meal in such a good city.

Oh Portland.  We will miss you.

Portland is for (Art, Food, Book, Beer) Lovers --Part 2--

Good day!  I'm back with more photos of our trip.  Just uploading these photos is making my heart hurt a little.  I miss you Portland!

I especially miss the spectacular, gargantuan bookstore, Powell's Books.  Powell's takes up a whole city block and is made up of several stories of new and used books.  They had a whole room of art books that completely blew my mind.  I'm use to the one tiny, pathetic corner of art and design books that Border's offers, so needless to say, I was in heaven.  Robert and I spent several hours perusing the many stacks of bound treasure before convincing ourselves that we should probably see the rest of Portland. 

We eventually headed down to Hawthorne Street for some vintage shopping and lunch (although we did end up in the baby Powell's located on Hawthorne as well.)  When our tummies started to rumble, we decided to try out Vege Thai.

I'll just start this review by admitting that I'm fairly bias in the Thai food department.  Here in Lawrence we are blessed with the amazing Zen Zero, an Asian fusion restaurant that has spoiled most of my experiences in Thai dining.  While I tried to give Vege Thai a fair shot, it did fall a little short on my measure-everything-against-Zen scale.  The flavors in our dishes were quite good, but fairly standard and not as dazzling as I wanted them to be.  One thing Vege Thai did have going for it was its variety of vegan proteins, with a choice of tofu, tempeh, soy chicken, soy pepper steak, and soy shrimp.  Soy shrimp, you say!  We were both curious so Robert tried his in a vegetable soup while I opted for the massamun curry.

I liked the imitation.  The shrimp was flavorful and visually appealing without tasting too much like the real deal. 

 

We spent a lot of time walking around Portland and checking out the neighborhoods.  Here is a great example of the great ways Portland uses its space and keeps things really down to earth, pun intended.

A sweet little produce market with a bounty of fall goodies.

After trotting around town, our next top was dinner.   As fiscally responsible as Robert is, his achilles' heel is fine dining.  The one thing he requested on our trip was to take me out to a schmany dinner.   So difficult, that one.  ;)

Robert picked a Peruvian restaurant called Andina.  It was hip and upscale without being stuffy or uncomfortable.  It even offered several vegan, and easily-made-vegan options!    The drink selection was also something to brag about.  They had quite a few quirky little cocktails made with exotic ingredients such as hibiscus nectar, roasted pineapple infused amber rum, pink guava nectar, acai, and passion fruit.  I ordered the ron-yki-on, roasted ginger-infused silver rum, grapefruit juice, lime juice, and cane sugar with a cardamom sugar rim.  Yum!  Our starter was warm, fresh bread served with delectable sauces including mint jalapeño, mango and habanero with cracker crumbs, and a peanut and cheese sauce.

I ordered the causa solterito as my appetizer, a cake of mashed potatoes infused with lime juice and served with avocado.  It's topped off with fresh veggies and a cheese salad, but I had them leave the queso off. 

  

 My main course was called hongos saltados which included wok-fried wild mountain mushrooms, tomatoes, and onions.  The mushrooms were out of this world, seasoned with garlic, soy sauce, and ají pepper.  The garlic rice and yukon potato french fries side dishes were just kinda...ehh.   Overall the meal was amazing and very filling;

about half of those twenty dollar mushrooms feed a homeless man dinner.

 

So I still have quite a bit of food left to talk about, and I don't like the idea of having a ridiculously long post.  Stay tuned for part three of pretty Portland.

 

Portland is for (Art, Food, Book, Beer) Lovers --Part 1--

Robert and I are back from our trip to the City of Roses.

Our trip was a pretty relaxed one as neither of us had much of an agenda in mind.  My birthday was on Tuesday, so I used the holiday as an excuse to get outta town and visit a city I've wanted to check out for a long time. Portland has definitely gained a reputation as a Vegan Mecca, as well as a city with super sustainable practices, plenty of local microbreweries, and supportive of a pretty happening art scene.  Believe you me, it didn't disappoint.  

I feel like there has been some sort of diaspora of Lawrencians relocating to Portland (one time I even googled everyone is moving to portland! and had pretty impressive results) and after this trip, I might just have to add my name to that list.  I was completely enamored with the city; it was the perfect mix of big city entertainment/culture and sweet home-town, neighborhood-y comfort.    

We spent the trip visiting small galleries, book reading and coffee shoppe-ing, bar hopping, and of course dining at Portland's abundance of vegan-friendly restaurants.  Thanks to Jess (no really, thank, thank, thank you!) from Get Sconed! and Stumptown Vegans, we were able to get the inside scoop on the best vegan eats and explore the city with full and happy bellies. 

We stayed at The Jupiter Hotel in southeast Portland, and if you ever decide to visit Stumptown, I highly recommend staying there.  It's sort of like a Motel Six dressed to the nines, with a cheesy but awesome glam rock meets IKEA feel; think glass taxidermy dear heads, bamboo gardens, and low lighting.  There is also a pretty swank restaurant/bar/venue called The Doug Fir Lounge attached to The Jupiter, as well as a salon and even a tattoo parlor.   The lounge can get pretty rowdy after hours, so I may redirect my recommendation to those that like that sort of scene or are just champion sleepers.

Here's our room:

The complimentary condom that was left to greet us:

and the sweet chalkboard door we used to leave each other messages/ draw inappropriate cartoons:

After checking in we headed over to the Pearl District for First Thursdays to check out a few art galleries and grab dinner.  I'm always really hesitant to take photos at foreign-to-me galleries, so I don't have many images to show you. I did ask the gallery representing the artist of one of my favorite exhibits,  Jim Riswold, if I could snatch up a few photos.  Here's my favorite piece entitled Damien Hirst Makes A Rug.

 

So good!

Taking photos at restaurants is a little awkward as well, but I did manage to document the heck out of our food.  Our first stop was Blossoming Lotus,  a COMPLETELY vegan cafe located inside a yoga studio.  Many of their dishes are of the raw food camp, and I was excited to give the place a try as I have not experimented much with raw entrees.

While I was intrigued, Robert was pretty hesitant, " You want to eat vegetables in some gym's cafeteria?"  I could understand his doubt as the place was uber quiet and yes, it was hard to tell our raw pizza from its accompanying side salad.  BUT.  UH.  WOW.  All questions were shushed as our mouths devoured our really tasty raw pizza with basil and hempseed pesto, cashew cheese, and an explosion of veggies a top a spiced tomato and walnut crust.  The salad was also delicious, with a really unique dressing I'm guessing had some of the same basil and hempseed pesto in it.

(F.Y.I.  This photo was taken after most of the pizza was gone.  I was so into eating up the pie that I forgot to take a photo until most of it was gone.)

I finished off meal with some awesome raw fudge.  It was really rich and melted in my mouth.  Well done Blossoming Lotus.  You are kinda strange, but I liked you a lot!

That night we visited The Tube, a bar that looked like the inside of a double-wide trailer, with a chill, friendly crowd and awesome happy hour specials.  

The next morning we walked a couple blocks down to Portland's ultra-awesome "vegan strip-mall" including Sweetpea Baking Company, Herbivore clothing store, Food Fight! vegan grocery, and Scapegoat Tattooing.  

We nestled into Sweetpea for some yummy coffee and breakfast.  While it may have been a cardinal sin to neglect to order any of their delectable-looking baked goods (check out their website, their cakes are incredibly beautiful!), I was really hungry and wanted some proper nourishment.  I ordered a simple sandwich, a un-tuna on white bread.  This may seem like a kinda lame choice, but the thing I don't think most people realize about vegans is that sometimes a cruelty-free recreation of a childhood comfort food-like tuna sandwiches on white bread- is the best thing ever.  Most white bread isn't vegan, but since Sweetpea is 100% vegan, I knew I could trust 'em.  I washed down the sammich with a spicy dirty chai with almond milk.  Let me say that again.  Almond milk.  I love almond milk, and Sweetpea spoils us with a selection of hemp, almond, rice, and soy milk.  Be still my heart.

So many pretty little cupcakes!

Okay.  I'm gonna cut myself off here before this ode to Portland gets out of hand.  I'll return soon with the rest of the tale of books, and bars, and soy-shrimp, oh my!

TTFN!

Winter Squash Apple Risotto

A few nights ago, Jordan and I decided to have a hot-night-in and celebrate ourselves with a decadent dinner-date for two.  We had both been ogling the risotto recipe in the most recent issue of Bust, so we decided to give it a go.  The recipe is, once again, by the fabulous Isa Chandra Moskowitz of The PPK.

As seems to be the trend of the most recent dishes I've made, the cooking time was really, really long.  There were about akabagillion steps to follow and a lot of slow simmering.  We may not have actually eaten the food until 11:30 p.m., but hey, it was well worth it.

 

The recipe allowed for any winter squash, so we just used what we had on hand: acorn, delicata, and pattypan.  Add some crisp, green apples, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and garlic and you have some mighty fine risoto.  Some alterations we made to the recipe was uping the ante on all of the spices and adding some brown sugar and salt right before serving.  The additions seemed to bring out the rest of the flavors and made everything just a bit more balanced.

Yum! 

P.S.  I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Portland!!!  Robert and I are going for my birthday for a couple of days to chillax and eat a ton of amazing vegan food. 

I shall return with food porn aplenty.

More from Spooksville

I know it may be a tad late for posting about All Hallows' Eve, but more Hallowiener times were had that I think are worth sharing.  Halloween was sort of a split for me this year; I went sorta cray-cray channeling the spirit of Ms. Bouvier Beale and her love of gin (at least I imagine she loved her gin), then spent the remainder of the holiday weekend cozy-ing up/recovering with my sisters at home.  Here's a photo of all of us gals taken a couple of years ago, (what?!) doing what we do best:

And this is their incredible pumpkin from this year inspired by our crush on Mr. Jack Skellington from The Nightmare before Christmas.

I would simply call this one teenage angst.

 

In other news, our doggy Eleanor Rigby had six puppies on Halloween.  Let me lay this out there:  I DO NOT condone breeding animals.  In fact, I'm really against it.  There are too many beautiful pets out there that don't have homes, are abandoned, neglected, and put to sleep for people to pay to have their pets bread.  On the other hand, no matter how much I preach,  I can't tell my parents what to do with their animals.

...and the puppies are awfully cute.

Fianlly, we chowed on the three different kinds of amazing chili my stepdad made:  one regular, one without any beans (my mom's allergic to pretty much everything,) and one vegan version for me.  It's quite comical when I try to cook with my mom.  She is allergic to soybeans-which means no tofu, soymilk, or about half the products I consume-so we have to be really, really inventive.

I can't vouch for the other versions, but my chili was incredible!

Glimpses From Halloween

This Halloween I was Little Edie Beale from Grey Gardens.

This has to be my favorite clip from the movie.  I memorized it and was able to recite it to the one person on the street who knew who I was.  Thank you kind soul.

Jordan was Cry Baby Walker.  Lookin' so fine, she had the look down from head to toe.

Hail Seitan

Last week I had a really great dinner with a few of my favorite grrrls.  We feasted on Seitan Portobella Stroganoff from The Post Punk Kitchen.  Per usual, Isa proved herself to be the queen-bee of all things scrumptulescent.  

I made my own seitan as recommended by the PPK.  It's really simple to whip up, but it takes quite awhile to cook, so make sure you have a book, movie, or chore to do while it's simmering. 

Here's the wheat gluten goop pre-transformation into the tastiest seitan you've ever had.  So much better (and cheaper!) than store-bought brands.

Don't forget the lemon zest!

Hail seitan!  I grilled up a bunch before cooking the stroganoff which was excellent for munching on before the dish was complete.

Here is the stroganoff in all her glory.  To be honest, I was never really a big fan of stroganoff in my pre-vegan days, but once again, this recipe was da bomb shit.  As delicious and filling as it was, I may make a few alterations in future.   Next time I plan on throwing in some red pepper flakes or a chilli pepper-or two (I'm learning that I like things a scoutch spicier than Ms. Moskowitz.)

After our feasting was over, we headed to Free State for some cheap beers followed by a trot down to the river for some photo taking and general shenanigans.  Here we are reenacting the sleep pile from Where the Wild Things Are.

And here we are just being cute.

The last four images are by the lovely MMF.  Who is also da bomb shit.

Sorry, that song is terrible and kind of amazing and totally stuck in my head right now.