Daily Loaf

Every year, families gather to celebrate the season, renew connections and berate each other’s life choices. For decades, the traditional feast was a fairly simple and predictable custom.

Then someone went and invented tofurkey.

Now older folks all over the country are confused by gluten-free grandchildren, nephews’ embarrassing body piercings and daughters who no longer celebrate “oppressive” holidays.

Never fear, there is a way to get through these modern meals without disowning anyone.

Here’s how.

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(Check out Vegan Thanksgiving part 1 and part 2.)

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Best. Cookies. Ever.

We need to talk about vegan almond-raspberry thumbprint cookies.

This is an amazing recipe. I found it two Thanksgivings ago, the first time I had to cook for myself as a vegan. I loved it so much, I decided to experiment with all kinds of vegan pastries and then give them out as Christmas presents (more about that next month, when I share some of my Starving Artist Tricks with you). Read the rest of this entry »

Check out Vegan Thanksgiving part 1 and part 3.)

Vegan desserts are perhaps the most daunting undertaking of any new- or non-vegan, inspiring such questions as…

What should I use to replace eggs/milk/butter?

Can I bake for the same amount of time?

How do I make cookies that don’t taste like cardboard?

How do I know if my sugar is vegan?

I hear that some flour has bone in it. Truth or fiction?

Well, dearies, I don’t presume to have all the answers, but as both the maker and eater of countless vegan treats, I do know that there are ways to get around many of these questions. Read the rest of this entry »

(Check out the Vegan Thanksgiving part 2 and part 3.)

I spent three Thanksgivings poring over homemade dishes at my Jewish grandma’s house, wondering if she understood entirely what I meant when I told her I was  vegan.

“Sarah, honey, you’ll eat the turkey, won’t you?” she would ask me.

“No, grandma, vegans don’t eat turkey.”

“But you’ll eat the green bean casserole.”

“No, grandma. It has milk in it. I don’t eat milk.”

“You’ll eat the sweet potatoes, then.”

“They’ve got marshmallows, grandma. I don’t eat marshmallows.”

This is where she became concerned. Because, you see, my grandma is old. She turned ninety this year. Thanksgiving is already tough for a woman her age. She’s got all this mixing and stirring and lifting to do—she doesn’t want any extra work, and to her, dreaming up vegan dishes is a challenge.

But it doesn’t have to be. Vegan Thanksgiving is no harder than carnivore Thanksgiving. You don’t even have to hunt down a Tofurky (even though they’re not that hard to find these days). You know what? I’ll be honest. Tofurky is kind of gross, anyway. And it’s a cop-out. Don’t buy a Tofurky.

“So, what should I do, then?” you ask. “My crazy vegan sister-in-law is coming over. I never know what to make for her!”

Shhhh, calm down. There’s no need to fret. Just make shish kebabs.

Shish kebabs? For Thanksgiving?

Oh, yeah. Shish kebabs have everything a good Thanksgiving meal needs. They have: Read the rest of this entry »

As we saw in last week’s episode of Top Chef Las Vegas, the stakes and drama are getting higher and it’s getting harder to predict who will be going home next (with the majority of the weak links now gone). We’ve seen some of the heavy-hitters, like Ceveech (Jen), slipping up and some of the underdogs, like Robin, excel. I’m just excited that we’re finally getting to the meat of this competition, after cutting away the fat like Phranc (Preeti), Mary Kay Letourneau (Eve), and cleaner of Picasso’s paintbrushes, Ash.

Tonight’s episode looks entertaining because the cheftestants are getting all kinds of curve balls thrown at them. Their Quickfire Challenge is to cook a TV dinner (complete with plastic tray) inspired by a classic television show, i.e.: M*A*S*H, Gilligan’s Island, etc.

After viewing the preview video below, it looks as if some of the chefs are out of their element, like Eli who claims to have never eaten a TV dinner. And why would he when he lives at home with his mother who probably waits on him hand and foot? Our one-time favorite, whom some of us had in their top three, Ceveech, looks like she’s drowning in self-doubt again this week as well. Will this affect her power ranking or even her spot in the finale? (I know I’m changing my bet on the finale trifecta.)
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If you don’t understand the definitions of each of the terms, you may not end up buying what you are looking for!

Here’s what you need to know…

The USDA enforces proper organic production and categorizes the terms in the following manner:

-Products with the “100% Organic” seal include products with 100% organically produced (raw and processed) ingredients.

-Products with the “USDA Certified Organics” seal are made with 95% or more organic ingredients. Read the rest of this entry »

Wanderer of ages.

There was a time when I dragged my car across the country, life in back pocket, convinced the next great thing lay under one of those rocks out there.

My adventures took me far and wide, hemmed in only by this country’s borders and the limits of my own imagination.

At the ripe old age of twenty-two, I ended up in Berkeley, CA, home of everything both weird and ridiculously normal at the same time. Buddhism, yoga, homeless people having acid flashbacks in the now-decrepit and dangerous People’s Park, the crown jewels of San Francisco Bay Area wealth glittering with haunting illusion high in the Berkeley hills. The Ashby Flea Market, a hodge-podge of booths with knick-knacks for sale, set up every weekend at the local BART (or subway) station.

I looked forward to Sundays, when I’d get off work from my collectivist restaurant job in time to enjoy a delicious cassava pone sweet treat in the just setting sun.

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Polenta. Peasant food of Gods. “Grits with a college education,” as one wise customer put it.

Thickly ground cornmeal, originating in husk of sweet yellow or white corn, dried, grounded, pounded, whisked and cooked, preferrably over a double boiler, 5 parts to 1, water to cornmeal.

PHASE 1:

A porridge like pot of mush appears. There is no better way to state it. Polenta, in this state, is soft, warm, nourishing, and good. Add butter, olive oil, grated parmiggiano-reggiano (perhaps a pecorino romano instead) heck, you can use the powder-fine grated parm in the green grocery store bottle; it will taste good. Serve in bowls as appetizer, side dish, minced parsley on top. This soft polenta is easy on the eyes on a cold, winter day.

PHASE 2:

Instead of eating your mush, Read the rest of this entry »

I get paid to decorate cakes. Or, rather, I get paid to teach other people how to decorate cakes.

A sweet deal, no pun intended. Helping others do what I love is a real hoot, and this summer’s class really churned out some nice ones.

Cake decorating is simple:

You need desire. You need drive. You must be able to focus. And your short term memory must be somewhat intact.

If you have all of the above, you’re good to go. Find yourself a book, a teacher, the necessary equipment, and get started. What you don’t already know, you’ll learn along the way.

You can start with this, the basic white cake recipe for the cakes we decorate in my class. Read the rest of this entry »

(This is the first in a series of posts where we look behind the curtain at how omnivores, vegetarians, vegans and raw-foodists justify what they eat. No value judgments, just information.)

If you chose a vegetarian lifestyle to avoid playing a part in the millions of animal deaths necessary for meat production, you’d better put down that hard-boiled egg. If you eat mass-market, free-range, organic or local eggs — or even raise some chickens in your backyard — you are contributing to the slaughter of potentially hundreds of millions of chickens every year.

Eggs only come from hens — female chickens. Seems obvious, but have you stopped to think what happens to all the roosters born in hatcheries? Read the rest of this entry »

Enter the Dragon.

So you want to be a culinary ninja? Ah, little-san, then you must learn “The Art of the Appetizer.”

Garlic? Yes.

Olive Oil? Ah… now you are learning…

Artichoke Hearts? “Wa-sah!”

Clearly, my white crane cooking is no longer a match for your stand-up game.

You have learned well. Now, you are ready to defend yourself, feed others, and present at the table in the Most High Hall at the Temple Palace. You prepare a rich appetizer dip with skill, and well-synched voice-over. There is nothing more I can teach you. Except maybe for this: Read the rest of this entry »

The Raw/Living Food Diet is not some new-fangled crash diet trend. It’s been on the organic food scene for awhile and seems to be growing in popularity. So what exactly is it, you ask? It doesn’t just mean eating raw veggies all day, there are some stipulations.

First of all, yes, the food is raw. The practice is very close to veganism, except that everything is uncooked or barely cooked: food cannot be heated above a certain temperature, generally between 92-118 F, or 33-48 C., thus keeping its “raw” state. Raw foodists believe this also keeps all those nutrients and enzymes in the food, enzymes that our bodies need to aid in digestion and metabolic processes. According to this article from Life Extenstion Magazine, “Cooking of food, particularly if heat is prolonged and over 118 degrees Fahrenheit, destroys enzymes in that food, leaving what is commonly consumed by the modern person – an “enzymeless” diet.” “Eating food without enzymes makes digestion more difficult, deprives the body of enzymes, and leads to toxicity in the body, and to excess consumption of food, which leads to obesity and to chronic disease.” (Green Living Ideas) Raw foodists believe that those extra nutrients and enzymes will also naturally detoxify your body, leaving you with clearer skin, lots of energy, and can even help you lose weight. Read the rest of this entry »

The next time you have the insatiable craving for delicious, salty bacon, look no further than your kitchen cabinet: Bacon Salt! It’s salt infused with the wonderful flavor of bacon that you can use on just about everything (edible)!

This condiment comes in eight flavors: Original (”Like a straight bacon punch in the mouth!”), Hickory, Peppered, Applewood, Jalapeno, Mesquite, Cheddar, Maple, and Natural (which is also gluten-free). And there’s no greasy bacon guilt with this product: it’s fat free, calorie free, and low in sodium. Can’t eat bacon for lifestyle or religious reasons? Don’t fret- Bacon Salt is vegetarian and Kosher!

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As the temperature starts to rise (at least in this part of the country), its time for some refreshing and simple dishes for those hotter days, like my Asian-inspired cold soba noodle salad. Soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour and have a heartier, more substantial texture than regular pasta noodles. In Japan, they’re used in a variety of ways throughout the year: cold in the summer in a salad (like this one) or hot in a soup or broth in the winter months, and in a multitude of variations. Surprisingly enough, soba noodles are now more widely available now bring in the ethnic aisle many grocery stores. Or you could take a culinary adventure to your local Asian market and pick up other interesting ingredients to play with.

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