Ode To Yoda (Hallelujah!)

There it is again -- That luscious, decadent, mouthwatering concoction whose appearance only a mother could love -- The Radicchio Pizza. Here I've created two small pizzas from an Eziekiel English Muffin, split, spread with a lazy tofu cream I whipped up from tofutti cream cheese and a few drops of Ume vinegar, and topped with fresh, mild radicchio marinated in truffle oil and broiled. Sublime -- I'm not kidding.

The marinated radicchio I was unable to fit upon the muffins was placed atop a pile of arugula for a fresh salad. No additional dressing was needed.

Regular readers of AMV+ may recall my disappointment earlier in the year with radicchio pizzas, which I had heretofore adored. Yes, there was the pizza I'd burned that I unwisely made from an Eziekiel tortilla (don't do that -- a tortilla has no chance under the broiler), but in early summer I just could not turn out an edible radicchio pizza. I blamed my tastebuds, surmising my system was out of whack. How disappointing it was to me -- I gave up on my most favorite food for half a year.

Now, after admiring some lovely radicchio at the market and bravely giving my prize another try, I get it. Duh -- radicchio's back in season again! I'm smart enough to know that in 90 degree temps my bitter greens in the garden become too bitter to enjoy. I don't know why I didn't make the connection with the radicchio. It truly tasted awful in the summertime. Now it's again amazing, with the bitterness only a recessive note, rounding out a more complex flavor.

You're wondering why this is an "ode to Yoda" -- well, it's because my son, Hans, calls this "Yoda food" when I make it. He says it looks exactly like what Yoda would scoop up out of his swamp to consume. I'm not offended. Any little thing I can do to entertain my progeny is a win. Incidentally, I've recently enjoyed seeing my two, ages almost-18 and 14, begin to bond over the Star Wars movies. When Wynne, my daughter, first saw Yoda, she flipped out, saying she loved him and wanted to marry him! The fact that Yoda is attractive to a 14 year old girl may be surprising to you, but you don't know my Wynne. She's also crazy about Uncle Iero (sp?) on Avatar (not the blue-people one, the animated one with Aang as protagonist). Old, wise and animatronic seems to be Wynne's thing. Fine with me.

I was tempted today to share my wonderful Thanksgiving spread, but there is so much of that on the blogosphere right now I'll give it a few more days. It's not too different from what you've seen here before, but the holiday was truly a magical, sustaining experience, thanks in large part to my AMAZING parents, about whom I cannot say enough good things. After a little while I'll share and if you see anything you like, maybe you could employ it for Christmas or your next holiday of choice.

I Win Some, I Lose Some

Lately I've noticed there are some benefits to being the only specimen of one's kind, i.e. a midlife vegan in the deep south. I'm exaggerating, of course. There must be others in similar circumstances, but I've not yet met them.

The other day I was shopping at Kroger for a few items that cannot be found at Walmart, and I got a couple of freebies. I like to check myself out since I have a lovely reusable shopping bag the check out clerks tend to struggle with. I can more expeditiously do it all myself.  With produce, there is a procedure for typing in the name of the item while weighing it. The last time I did this, I found no radicchio (!) and no watercress. The attendant had to come over to assist me in finding the codes.

"Well, I guess we haven't gotten around to coding these yet, so just take 'em," she said.

This didn't feel right, so I suggested she just assign a fair price.

"No, that would mess with the system too much."

Okay. I left with my free leafy veggies. Still, there was an uneasiness in the back of my mind . . .

Do you believe in karma? I find that, whenever I receive something seemingly unfairly, an unsavory result will surely follow. On a couple of occasions in my life I have found $20 bills lying on the ground, unclaimed.  When I have kept them, both times the following days were pretty rough. It could be my imagination, but the result is the same. The photo above is what happened to my free radicchio. Isn't this sad? It's supposed to look like this:

You remember my "Yoda-food" as my son calls it. It has been the stuff I dream about -- so delicious with the mild, wilted radicchio, tofu cream cheese and truffle oil. Eye-rolling good. But the free radicchio was different. I recognize there is an element here of human error. Yes, I burned the pizza. It's the occasional collateral damage of a vegan cooking for herself and also a pack of carnivores. I've sometimes got too much going on in the kitchen. But here, after I trimmed and discarded the charcoal-encrusted portions, the radicchio was bad too. I had worried as I was removing the first few slimy leaves from the little head, and rightly so. I think it was just old. Radicchio is a bitter "green" (really purple) but shouldn't be this bitter. It was thoroughly unpalatable. I am sad it has quelled my craving for Yoda-food for the time being.

Sometimes we really do get what we pay for. But other times:

Here's my free watercress. Yes, you have seen this photo before. It is what became of the other free greens, and it was lovely and delicious. I am grateful for this portion of my free bounty.

To continue to wind down this post in a more positive vein, here are some recent yummy sandwiches:

This is marinated, baked tofu from the Natural Foods Warehouse, on eziekiel toast with vegenaise, avocado and a pile of arugula. Sublime.

And here is more of the aforementioned tofu, this time in a multigrain wrap with hummus, black olives and arugula. Delish.

There, see? There's always plenty for which to be grateful.  Mistakes are bound to happen (or karma) so gather ye watercress while ye may!

Beefless Stroganoff!

I adapted this from the Beef Stroganoff recipe in The Joy of Cooking. Here's the recipe:

Beefless Stroganoff
Ingredients:
a package of Gardein "Beefless Tips" 9 oz. ("Joy" calls for 1 1/2 lb. of beef!)
2-3 Tbsp. Earth Balance butter
1 large diced onion ("Joy" only calls for 3/4 Tbsp. of onion!)
3/4 lb. of sliced mushrooms, or as much as you want
salt, pepper, fresh nutmeg
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 c. dry white wine
1 c. tofutti sour cream


In the butter, saute the onion and mushrooms until onion is transluscent, about 5 minutes, stirring periodically. Add "beef" and wine and saute another 5 minutes or so over medium-high heat, stirring so it won't stick. Season with salt, pepper a generous grind of nutmeg and basil. Add sour cream, warm through and serve over noodles or potatoes, whatever you like.
Serves 2 


This recipe was very easy and quick. The Joy of Cooking version serves 4, and you could double the "beef tips" to achieve that amount, but I didn't, since I wasn't even sure if my carnivore would go for it, "fake meat" and all.  Guess what?  He DID! He even ate seconds and called it delicious! I'm so excited!!

We had the stroganoff over whole wheat linguine. I really wanted brown rice fusilli, but didn't want to overload my good-sport carnivore with new experiences!

Another meal that I wasn't going to feature since it is only a different combo of lots of the same leftovers I've been eating lately is this:

See those big bite marks all along the front edge? I was well into the nirvana that is assorted-vegan-leftovers-on-a-flatbread when my son walked in and said, "Wow."

"What? It's good!" I responded.

"Yeah, I think if I were vegan that would be good to me too. It just looks really healthy." he said.

"That's part of what makes it so good!" I continued.

"Seriously, it looks like you just scooped that out of a really healthy jungle," he added, diplomatically.

I started to giggle.

"That looks better than that Yoda-food you were eating the other day!" He continued.

He meant this:

One of my radicchio pizzas extraordinaire -- my very most favorite thing to eat of late. It looks even more like Yoda-food after it's been under the broiler for a couple of minutes.  I'm not offended.  Very wise, Yoda is. Honored to dine with him, I would be!  I'm just glad my son is noticing.