Vegan food always plays better in the mind than on the palate. While typically very beautiful and appetizing in appearance, it mystifies me that the sum of vegan food is always dramatically less than its' individual ingredients.
It is almost as if vegans are afraid of spice? Perhaps they think the grinding process is cruel. I love plain vegetables more than the average person but when you have a dish that is heavy on the rough rice how about a little something-something to make it dance. Those darn vegans are giving healthy food a bad reputation.
And why are all the employees at vegan restaurants smokers? Is smoking vegan? They should crush some of their clove cigarettes into my dinner next time to make it more interesting.
And lastly, one of the women working at this particular vegan restaurant had the smallest feet I have ever seen on an adult. I thought she might just tip over if someone held the door open too long and a breeze blew in. Oddly, I did find those tiny feet somewhat intriguing which makes me think the Chinese were on to something with that whole foot binding process. Maybe I'm just hoping to interbreed to spare my children of the inconvenience of the Fred Flintstone feet I've got.
..I've ever made. These are high protein, low fat, and absolutely delicious.
Ingredients-
14-15 large white mushrooms (or use five portobellos)
1 tbsp olive oil
8 oz (I packet) tempeh
* can be substituted with Indian cottage cheese/paneer, Mexican queso fresco, or even cooked beans.
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp pepper flakes
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp dry oregano
2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
2 tbsp lime juice
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley (about 1 bunch)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (or use your favorite cheese)
salt to taste
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop them up.
- Break the tempeh into pieces, cover with water in a microwave safe bowl and steam for 4-5 minutes, until most of the water is absorbed. Or steam conventionally for about ten minutes. Drain the water and crumble the tempeh.
- Heat oil in a saute pan. Add the chopped stems and saute until they release water.
- Add tempeh, spices, soy sauce, lime juice and saute for five minutes until browned.
- Turn off the heat and add the parsley and nutritional yeast. Mix well. Add salt if needed.
- Stuff the mushrooms with the mixture and place on a greased baking sheet.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Garnish with more parsley and serve.
Here are my favorites this week from my Twitter feed. I only have 140 characters for each one.
true love's shadow / a spark can not burst / to flame
but in the presence of the other
---
Found: on concrete city floor
iridescent
winged butterflies
huge shattered moths
four inch tiger-striped
wasps.
Beauty misdirected.
---
springtime -
motherhood awaits.
pen beckons. heed it -
and then you, my dear, will
blossom into flame
Show us your gorgeous eyes.
Submitted by [Susan].
I would be the gentleman at the three minute mark of the video.
If you need me this weekend, just...well actually...just don't need me.
I "finished" a muxtape today, just for the heck of it. No real thought went into the song selection, just kind of prowled around my music folder and added whatever grabbed my fancy (and was a <10mb MP3 song). Predominantly 80s New Wave music, turns out - not much of a surprise. But a few new things, two Swedish artists, and an instrumental. Give it a try and share one of your own!
Hieronymus' muxtape
12 songs, 51:26 minutes
Anna Ternheim - Girl Laying Down
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Brother, My Cup Is Empty
Juluka - Simple Things
Boys Don't Cry - I Wanna Be A Cowboy
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Shuffle Your Feet
Robyn - Konichiwa Bitches (alt version)
The The - Uncertain Smile
They Eat Their Own - Like A Drug
Massive Attack - Teardrop
Laura Veirs and Saltbreakers - To the Country
Fujiya And Miyagi - Ankle Injuries
The Clean - Chumpy
Show us your gorgeous eyes.
Submitted by [Susan].
I had a fun idea for Self Portrait Thursday, but just did not do it, so today I tried it. Kind of fun, kind of strange, but that defines me. Fun and strange. Haha.
Esquire magazine is possibly the greatest men's magazine in existence. In the USA, you can get a one year subscription for $8.00! Do you know how much entertainment per dollar that is? You obviously don't if you are not a subscriber or haven't given a gift subscription to all the good men in your life. With authors like Chris Jones, Chuck Klosterman and Tom Chiarella and A.J. Jacobs, pound for pound, it is the most entertainment a man could get from a magazine that is not purchased for the pictures.
I pay ¥1500 for an issue in Tokyo. That's just under US$15.00 per issue! For what I pay for one issue, you can have almost two years worth of entertainment! Those of you living in the USA consider yourselves lucky for this reason alone. Freedom? Bah! Ridiculously affordable periodicals is what our men and women in uniform have died for since 1898 in order to preserve. Now go pick up this month's edition and waste an afternoon at Starbuck's.
Two examples from this month's edition why Esquire is entertaining:
(1) Esquire defines the term Empirically Drunk as "inebriation due to a philosophical approach to drinking in which more is generally better than better".
(2) In a multiple choice quiz to determine if you will ever run for President of the United States of America, question 7 asks "How many skeletons are in your closet?" to which choice 'a' is "stabbed a whore in Brussels, but I did my time".
You may or may not find these quips as amusing as I do but you should find out why Chris Jones can make you care about a sensational 1st round NBA draft choice when you have never watched a regular NBA season game in your life. The writing is simply that good.
In addition to quality writing, there are very good book reviews as well as music reviews. Yes, you have to tolerate some questionable fashion nonsense and the Answer Fella and the Sex advice columnist Stacey Grenrock Woods are almost a complete waste of magazine space, but again, think about what you are spending for what you will get.
And this has nothing to do with the history of the magazine. With contributors like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Carver how much more tradition do you need to stand on? Raymond Carver for god's sake! Can you imagine subscribing to a magazine and opening it up to read a story of the caliber of Raymond Carver short story? Put your copy of Maxim in the trash and give walking upright a chance.
Has some faith. Drink the Kool-Aid. Leap in for a one year subscription and see if it isn't the best $8.00 you spend this year. (Subscribe with the link above and you are entered in a drawing for US$250,000 and winning that would definitely make it the best $8.00 you spent all year.)
