Chickpea Pot Pie at Maine Food & Lifestyle

Still looking for a hearty alternative to turkey? I've posted a recipe for Chickpea Pot Pie over at Maine Food & Lifestyle. Visit me there (and get a load of that gluten-free crust)!

When Life Literally Gives You Lemons...

...juice them and freeze the juice for later use (it's way too cold for lemonade this time of year).

Last weekend, I was strolling around Bar Harbor when I passed a large box of lemons marked "FREE" in the doorway of a gift shop. I crouched down and loaded up my bag until I had about a dozen and began to feel greedy. In retrospect, I should have just lifted the whole box and put it in the back of my car. I use a lot of lemon juice in baking, salad dressing, tahini sauce, and pasta dishes; I'm always running out of lemons.

I juiced these lemons using my trusty wooden reamer (good exercise!), strained out the seeds and pulp, and poured the juice into an ice cube tray (one cube = 2 tablespoons). Now I'm stocked for at least the next month. I can thaw the cubes for cooking, or toss them into hot tea or sparkling water.

I don't often get the chance to live out a folksy metaphor: I can't throw stones from the comfort of my own glass house, and if I called the kettle black it wouldn't acknowledge me. But thanks, life, for the lemons! I've put them to good use.

Wild Rice Stuffing at Maine Food & Lifestyle Blog

I'm working on a gluten-free vegan Thanksgiving menu. Here is my stuffing.

Happy Halloween!

I baked a dozen Chocolate Gluten Freedom Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and topped them with vanilla buttercream and grated chocolate. I used red and yellow India Tree Natural Decorating Colors to make the frosting orange. These dyes aren't as vibrant as the synthetic variety, but their plant-derived ingredients won't give you nightmares.

Happy Trick-or-Treating!

Because Apples Weren't Sweet Enough Already

Do you like your caramel salty?

Or sweet?

To make this mixed batch of caramel apples, I used this recipe from Chow, substituting soy cream and Earth Balance for the cream and butter, and brown rice syrup for corn syrup (I just couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle of liquid diabetes). With all those substitutions, I was worried they would taste like hippie caramel apples, but they're every bit as chewy and sweet as the classic. They came together more quickly than I expected, though my caramel took 20 minutes to reach 250 degrees instead of the 10 indicated in the recipe. I will definitely use this caramel in the future to smother otherwise healthy food.

The best part of eating caramel apples (besides the stick) is the meeting of super-sweet caramel and tart fruit. After the first bite, apple juice drips behind and begins to melt the caramel, creating a sweet, sour, sticky mess. If the caramel doesn't pull your teeth out, it will surely rot them away: this is the true spirit of Halloween.

I am Not a Rabbit

The Vegan Month of Food is drawing to a close. The purpose of this month of intensive blogging was to show the world how fun, easy, delicious (and normal) vegan food can be (I can't say the same for gluten-free food, but that's for another day). Vegan MoFo has also been about dispelling misconceptions. Sure, I eat tofu, I eat lentils, but I also enjoy a wide and colorful variety of plant-based food, some of it deliciously unhealthy. Cooking for myself, frequenting vegan-friendly restaurants, and trading ideas with other vegan food bloggers, I sometimes forget how baffling and restrictive a vegan diet can seem to people from outside my food community.

This week, we've got family from across the country staying with us, and trying to plan meals that will satisfy everyone has reminded me of the tension between veganism and the way most Americans eat. One dinner highlighted the common misconception that vegan food = rabbit food: monotonous, flavorless, and relentlessly healthy. The other night, through a series of compromises and circumstances beyond my control, we ended up at Chili's. Fortunately, I was able to print their allergy menu beforehand and study my options. Eliminate meat, eggs, dairy, and gluten from the Chili's menu, and you're left with a dinner salad, sans cheese and croutons. Iceberg lettuce and dry carrots that were shredded last week do not make an attractive or satisfying meal. I picked at my salad and waited until I could get home and eat real dinner: corn tortillas, leftover lentil salad, and blueberry pie a la mode.

I'm not complaining; I wasn't expecting anything better. Vegans, gourmands, and food allergy-sufferers have no business eating at Chili's. But I'm disappointed that a humane meal is still so hard to find outside my vegan bubble; I'm frustrated that to most people eating the Standard American Diet, veganism looks unattractive and unrealistic.

It's easy, really. And totally delicious.

Being vegan does not mean eating salad everyday; it does mean choosing better, more creative restaurants than the chains found next to shopping malls. Unless you live in one of a handful of vegan-friendly major cities, eating well as a vegan requires learning to cook well (from scratch). It means collecting cookbooks and gathering inspiration from other vegans online and in person. It may mean skipping the grocery store for a farmers' market or coop in order to find the freshest fruits and vegetables. To eat well as a vegan, you must love food: cooking it, eating it, shopping for it, and reading about it. Veganism is not deprivation; it is deepening your relationship with fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains.

And that, my friends, is what Vegan MoFo is all about.

How To Write a Recipe

I'm a little under the weather today, so I'm cashing in my last free post card and referring you to a short piece I wrote for the alumni advice column of my college magazine. I described the process I use to write recipes; you may find this helpful if you want to record old family favorites, submit recipes for publication, or incorporate more recipes into your own food blog. If you're already expert at writing recipes, what are your tricks, and what advice have I left out? The original piece is here (scroll down about halfway), but I've cut and pasted it below:

Writing Your Own Recipes
Share Your Kitchen Creativity with Confidence

With the growing popularity of food blogs and forums, opportunities abound for creative home cooks to share their recipes online. These steps will ensure that readers can reliably reproduce your signature dishes in their own kitchens:

Prepare the dish yourself. Keep a pencil handy to list ingredients, record procedures, and note cooking times. Number the steps and indicate any that occur simultaneously. Don’t overlook preparatory steps like greasing cookie sheets; jot down a reminder to include these at the beginning of the recipe or during a waiting period while vegetables marinate or dough chills.

Make writerly decisions early on. Will your tone will be chatty or matter-of-fact? Will you spell out or abbreviate words like teaspoon and tablespoon? Be consistent. Use frequent paragraph breaks and numbered lists to help readers orient themselves in the text.

Be precise. There’s a difference between “2 cups of walnuts, chopped” and “2 cups of chopped walnuts.” Use specific measures, rather than “a pinch” or “a dash.” If your recipe calls for chopped, sliced, or minced ingredients, list the size and number of items to be used, not just the measured amounts needed—for example, “1 cup sliced carrots (2 large)”— so readers will know how much to buy.

Describe how the food should look, smell, and feel. Don’t just say “saute the onions.” Instead, say “saute the onions for 3-4 minutes over medium heat, until they become fragrant and turn golden.”

Go easy on the dishwasher. If groups of ingredients are to be prepared separately and later combined, avoid dirtying extra bowls and pots. If dry ingredients should be mixed in a large, deep bowl to allow room for liquid ingredients later, say so.

Prepare the dish yourself—again. Follow your own recipe step by step, and make corrections as needed.