I enjoy creative constraints.  I like keeping up with my daily personal challenge of making and eating vegetarian.  Healthy vegetarian.  Healthy, yummy, bodyandsoulfilledwithjoy vegetarian.  But every once and a while I encounter a challenge gets me all pumped up, stretched out, bracing myself at the starting line, the gun goes off and POW: my head whacks the track because my shoelaces were tied together.

My attempts of thinking up a good dish to bring to the NYC Food Bloggers Potluck this past Saturday were a relay of false starts - as if cooking for other foodies isn’t pressure enough!  There was preference noted by a guest for vegetarian food – hey, cool, me too.  Another guest didn’t eat cheese - vegan is cool too. And another didn’t eat nuts – no prob, that’s common enough.  No olives.  No eggplant.  Shoot, someone already had dibs on making a squash dish.  And, drats, soup and chili were already spoken for as well.

All I wanted was to present a hearty veggie dish that everyone could enjoy.  I wanted to inspire, impress, dazzle.  I wanted my fellow NYC Food Bloggers to think, “that Vanessa: not only does she have a wittily-named blog and great hair, she also cooks a delicious, homey, and equal opportunity casserole.”

Ah well. After thinking long and I hard I came up with this Chipotle Sweet Potato and Black Bean Casserole – none of the comprising ingredients were taboo and the result is tasty and even Fall-ish.

I even received compliments in the form of dirty empty tupperware from those hungry savages formerly known as my sisters.  They devoured the leftovers I brought home from the potluck even though they made me shop and pay for own groceries when it was not my turn.  And they didn’t leave any casserole for me.

Serves: 6 (or 2 savage sisters)
Time: 1 ¼ hours

Chipotle Sweet Potato and Black Bean Filling

1 large yellow onion, chopped
olive oil
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 ½ inch cubes
2 chipotle peppers plus 1 tsp of sauce (this makes it fairly spicy- add more or less to taste
2 (15 oz) cans of black beans, drained
1 (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp salt
2 bunches spinach

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Thanks to Danielle at Habeas Brulee for hosting this past Saturday’s first (to my knowledge) NYC Food Bloggers Potluck.  She was kind enough to overlook my eager early arrival and made some wow-looking French Onion Soup Dumplings:

I was thrilled to meet other bloggers in person and it was a real treat to talk with people who spoke foodeese more fluently than I (chocolate nibs? Thai rice steamer?)  The group greatly exceeded my expectation that people who appreciate food can never be all bad… they weren’t any bad. Not only were there excellent potluck dishes (my fav was the Squash and Roasted Banana Soup from Stephanie at Scrumptious Street - post the recipe soon, please!) there was great wine, chat, and bloggeriffic camaraderie.

I for one hope this turns into a regular event.  I didn’t get to pry into everyone’s blogging lives as much as I would have liked -  I’m curious!  I also have high hopes of kicking San Francisco off her high horse and becoming, as NYC is almost everything else, the food blogging capital of the world.

In this corner, representing New York:

Danielle and Dave from Habeas Brulee
Jessica from Su Good Eats
Julie from A Finger in Every Pie
Lisa from Homesick Texan
Nicole, who blogs about food on livejournal as nex0s
Stephanie from Scrumptious Street
Stephanie from Adventures of Pie Queen
Tse Wei from Off the Bone

I think SF has met it’s match.
Thanks to all and hope to do this again soon!

     

Upon my urging my mom gifted me a pressure cooker for Christmas last year. Since then, my pressure cooker (or, p.c., as I like to call it) has been lying around my cupboard, directions inside, collecting dust. The whole idea of cooking under pressure frightened me well away from p.c. for 10 1⁄2 months. It’s my pleasure to report that the two below items helped me reach a tipping point and I used my darling p.c. for the very first time for this recipe.

1. Li’l Sis used to be her dorm’s fire safety marshal
Since I’m living with a ex-fire marshal I figure however scary using a pressure cooker is for the first time the Li’l Sis can step in and save the day. The good news is: using a pressure cooker isn’t scary all, quite the contrary; it’s easy and letting the steam out when depressurizing is pretty darn fun. The bad news is: after witnessing the Li’l Sis toast a flatbread on the stove over the open flame I found out she was only her dorm’s fire safety marshal in order to claim one of those plastic red fireman’s hats, and probably shouldn’t be depended upon in issues of fire safety.

2. wheat berries
These little things are my new favorite food item. They are a whole grain, a good source of vegetarian protein, wonderfully chewy, and fun to eat. Wheat berries, despite their cute name, are just the whole wheat grain minus only the inedible outer hull. The only problem with wheat berries is that they usually take 1 1⁄2 hours to cook. Far too long for a busy girl. P.c. to the rescue – they only take 40 minutes in a pressure cooker.

Serves: 6
Time: 55 minutes with a pressure cooker

Warm Wheat Berry and Apple Salad

2 cups water (3 if not using a pressure cooker)
2 cups wheat berries
1 large or 2 small apples, cubed small
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup walnuts
2 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tbsp orange or apple juice
splash of olive oil
½ tsp salt

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I went apple picking last weekend. I did indeed pick apples. I did indeed go on a hayride. I did indeed pose with live goats and stick my head through one of those photo backgrounds so it appeared that I had the body of a wooly ewe. But because of a camera, ahem, malfunction, all I have to show for it pictorially is this watercolor:

As disappointed as I am to no longer have the photographed memories that could last a lifetime, I did have 25 pounds of apples to eat and therefore decided on this lovely autumnal menu of Mustard Braised Tempeh topping a Warm Wheat Berry and Apple Salad

Serves: 6
Time: 30 minutes

Mustard Braised Tempeh

(2) 8oz tempeh blocks
olive oil
2 tbsp orange or apple juice
2 tbsp Braggs, tamari, or soy sauce
2 tbsp grainy mustard
1 tbsp honey

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Hello everyone… I need a new camera and I’d love some advice. I’ve talked with pretty much anyone associated with photography, anyone I’ve seen with a camera, and gosh, anyone with eyes to wheedle advice on what kind of camera to get. This blogging thing has made me realize how much I LOVE taking pictures of small edible objects and I need to ameliorate feeding my hunger with a new set of dentures, or something metaphorical like that… I need a new camera!

Digital
$200 - $300
Good macro setting
Good action shots a plus (like Muybridge’s horses, I’m still trying to document that I run with both feet off the ground at some moments)

So here’s your small edible object of the day: roasted tomatoes. Simple. Yum. Yeah, I do like this photo, but it could be a lot nicer with a snappy new camera.

Thanks to Dad, a relatively new vegan and old vanesscipes fan, purchaser of my first digital camera, and partial financier of my second!

Serves: 3-4 as a side dish. They’re easy so double the recipe and toss them in whatever.
Time: 25 minutes – 2 hours

Roasted Tomatoes

12 medium-sized nice ripe tomatoes
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
dried herbs of your choice (thyme, basil, etc.)
salt and pepper

Oil a baking sheet lightly and preheat broiler. Half the tomatoes, lay them on the baking sheet cut side up, brush with olive oil and vinegar. Sprinkle with fresh herbs, salt and pepper.

Pop in the broiler for 20 minutes or until brown on top. Transfer to a 400 degree oven and keep baking until they reach your desired state of dryness.