Recently the NY Times published an Op-ed by Gary Steiner from a truly vegan point of view, not the sort of half-assery usually published by folks like Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman.
Check out my personal blog where I did a very comprehensive review of Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet and a mini-review of Tal Ronnen's The Conscious Cook.
Sigh.
No, not yesterday's Thanksgiving meal, but some great vegan meals I've had lately, sometimes in unexpected places.
For one night anyway.
First
Potato and Eggplant Salad
White House Arugula with Onion Seed Vinaigrette
Red Lentil Soup with Fresh Cheese
Entree
Roasted Potato Dumplings with Tomato Chutney, Chick Peas and Okra
or
Green Curry Prawns, Caramelized Salsify with smoked Collard Greens and Coconut Aged Basmati
Dessert
Pumpkin Pie Tart
Pear Tatin
Whipped Cream and Caramel Sauce
Petis Fours and Coffee
Cashew Brittle
Pecan Pralines
Passion Fruit and Vanilla Glaces
Chocolate-Dipped Fruit
BlogHer contributing editor Alanna Kellogg has posted about making gravy this Thanksgiving, and asked for recipes. This finally motivated me to post my favorite gravy recipe...vegan of course...so I could link to it in the comments of Alanna's post.
Ingredients:
¼ c. flour (I use soy flour typically)
½ c. nutritional yeast flakes (Available at Whole Foods. Make sure to use nutritional yeast, not brewer's yeast)
1/3 c. oil or margarine (Oil works better.)
1 ½ c. water (You can use vegetable stock for part of this, but I find it gets too savory for my taste)
2 to 3 TB soy sauce or tamari
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Toast the flour and nutritional yeast flakes in a pan, until the mixture gives off a nutty aroma.
- Add oil and stir until bubbly.
- Add water and cook until mixture begins to thicken, stirring constantly.
- Add soy sauce, salt and pepper. Makes approx. 2 c. of gravy.
And my hometown stadium, Candlestick Park, is 2nd on the list. I've had a veggie dog or two at Candlestick myself, back when following the Niners wasn't an exercise in frustration and futility!
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
Cross-posted to SF Bay Style
Friday night, after what can only be called an arduous drive into San Francisco, I landed gratefully at a small table at Kokkari Estiatorio. A Hellenic restaurant, and sister to one of my favorite places on the Peninsula, Evvia, Kokkari is dark and intimate, the kind of ambiance that gives you a warm glow, especially after you've spent 40 minutes battling the last five miles to get to valet parking attendants you have never been so grateful to see before.
Kokkari is also extremely veg-friendly, as are most Mediterranean-based restaurants.
As I typically recommend, I called out to our waiter right at the start that I was a vegan, and luckily this was a waiter who not only reacted to my questions, but proactively pointed out various things on the menu and how, even if they were not vegan as typically served, they could be prepared vegan for me. This is always so helpful, because it eliminates that slightly forlorn feeling of having such limited choices from a menu, compared to your non-veg friends.
I've been at this long enough, that I often do that kind of proactive probing of the menu myself, but it's always nice to have the waiter do so...signaling the kitchen's willingness to be flexible.
So what did I have?
Well, we started, as every table does with a plate of marinated olives. I love olives, so I loved this little perk. I moved on to have a most intriguing-sounding Persimmon Salad, one of the night's specials. It included cucumbers, Belgian endive and nuts, with a light lemon-based dressing. It was a visually attractive dish, with a good and subtle mix of flavors. The persimmons were a bit harder than I've usually had them, but on the other hand, I wouldn't call myself a regular and experienced persimmon-eater, so not sure what that means!
For an entree I combined two small plates, both from the wood-fire roasting oven. Another special was a small plate of various mushrooms, fire-roasted and with just a hint of olive oil and parsley. My dining companion ordered this too, and with the haloumi cheese that was part of the dish's default preparation. I, o course, got it sans cheese. Lest you worry that without cheese the dish would be bland, the combination of mushrooms were sufficient on their own to create a dish of varying flavors and textures. These were mouthwatering morsels of earthy, rich delight! Seriously a piece of mushroom heaven.
Mushroom heaven (my new name for the dish, seriously @Kokkari, you're welcome!) was joined by another plate of grilled vegetables, this time mostly artichokes and eggplant on skewers. This also came with a light lemon and olive oil dressing. I can run hot and cold on eggplant, but the roasted skins/edges and soft interiors hit just the right texture combination to win me over.
Finally, despite a lack of any vegan desserts on the menu, they brought me a little bowl of fruit granita (intended as a side accompaniment to another dessert on the menu). It was pomegranate-flavored, which provided the kind of tart dessert I tend to prefer. A nice, fresh, clean way to end the meal.
I heartily recommend Kokkari to any vegan looking for a place to go with your carnivorous friends. There is something for everyone, including vegans. And nothing beats a wood oven!
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