Sorry. My brain is apparently too fried to come up with a catchy title for this post. "Uhhh..." just describes how I feel today. But anyway.
I forgot to tell you about the pizza I made a couple weeks ago. I'll get to it eventually, but last night I made something that kicked that pizza's ass!
From Nava Atlas's "Vegan Express," which has suddenly become my favorite cookbook, Szechuan-Style Tofu with Eggplant: tofu and eggplant (duh) cooked in hoisin sauce, white wine, and red curry paste, with a little bok choy thrown in at the last minute. On the side is quinoa with just a touch of tamari sprinkled on top.
What I love about Nava's books (and I have several!) is her affinity for Asian flavors. She's a big fan of hoisin sauce, and has turned me into one, too! I, of course, will make a few changes to this recipe the next time I make it (and there will definitely be a next time!): more garlic, more ginger, more curry paste. I wanted it to be a little hotter than it was. I will also probably, for nutrition's sake, use less eggplant and more bok choy. I love my eggplant, but it just doesn't have a lot of nutritional value. Bok choy, on the other hand, is one of the few leafy greens I actually like, and is packed with power!
Don't get me wrong -- I love the way this dish turned out! It has such a variety of textures, and many layers of flavors. I just want a little more kick next time. =)
The moral of the story? Buy this book. And some quinoa. And a little extra ginger. And write better than I am writing today.
So I just switched over to the Olympics Closing Ceremony. It's like Cirque du Soleil starring the entire population of China. And there are a bunch of men riding Mr. Garrison's "Its."
... because I've decided that when our nearly-ancient microwave oven dies (which I'm not entirely sure it ever will!), I'm not going to replace it because microwaves are evil. As are their ovens. In fact, I'm not even sure that microwave ovens should qualify as ovens.
Now, hear me out -- I try very hard to put very high-quality food into my body. Do I really want to molecularly rearrange that food before I eat it? I don't really even use the microwave very often anymore. I might boil water for tea in it once in a while, and I've been known to eat an Amy's frozen dinner here and there, but I can just as easily use my electric tea kettle and toaster oven, respectively. Those appliances actually cook food. With real heat! I know -- it just may be crazy enough to work.
I've decided that the only thing a microwave is good for is turning innocent little bars of soap (this chunk is a little smaller than a domino):
Into foamy piles of ooze:
(I know... the exposure levels aren't even close... it's late... I really don't care that much.)
It was considerably more dramatic on TV with a big bar of evil over-the-counter soap, but this was pretty entertaining, too. =)
1) How can a show that is so obviously ripping off two of the best shows on television be so excruciatingly awful?!?
2) I went a litle crazy at Ann Taylor Loft today. But everything in the store was 25% off!!! How could I help myself?!? 3) I finally tried the coconut milk-based ice cream that everyone in vegan blogland has been raving about as of late. I wasn't so thrilled (sound familiar?). It's oversweetened to the point of tasting artificially sweetened (which it isn't!), and has a hint of something that tastes suspiciously like almond extract, which I cannot stand. Plus, for something that seems a little thin and watery, and not so rich and thick, it has a lot of fat. I'll stick to my rice milk-based ice cream, thankyouverymuch.
4) Michael Symon is so badass and so cute, even though he has that goofy Midwestern accent. 5) Due to circumstances far, far beyond my control, we have no peanut butter in the house. That makes me extremely uncomfortable.
6) I keep talking myself into and out of getting a juicer. There are juice bars everywhere in The Very Big City (except for at my store, dammit! but that's probably for the best), and I'm a sucker for anything with ginger juiced into it. So every time I go out for juice, I decide I want a juicer, but within a few hours I talk myself out of it. I can't help but think how much better it must be to eat whole fruits (and veggies) rather than to just drink their juices. Think how much fiber I'd be missing out on! And how many extra calories I could conceivably consume in a day! Healthy calories, yes, with lots of nutrients, but still. Or would all the yummy delicious juice I could make fill me up enough so that I wouldn't want so much food? And it probably would be a good way to sneak in the greens that I don't eat so many of. Pineapple and ginger and kale, oh my! I just don't know what to do. Help! Does anyone have any insight on this subject?
7) We've had DVR for our cable for almost two years, and Kevin just learned how to use the picture-in-picture function two minutes ago. Really. He's very smart, very well educated, and even cuter than Michael Symon, but he's just not so technologically advanced.
8) I bought ketchup today. I detest ketchup. But Nava Atlas uses it in a lot of her Asian-inspired sauces, so I figured I'd try jumping on the bandwagon. 9)My life really doesn't suck nearly as much as yesterday's entry implied. Yes, the past few days sucked, but in general, life is pretty good. All that sure made for a good story, though, didn't it? =)
