A Farro Story

I'm sorry that I haven't had much to say over the past week or so. The reason why is very simple: I haven't had much to eat over the past week or so! I've been eating light, basically in preparation for my upcoming trip to NJ, where I know I will be doing nothing much besides eating giant plates of pasta and drinking cocktails. Remember what happened to me the last time I visited NJ?!?

In case you forgot....

So, I've been eating a diet very high in veggies, and very low in processed foods and alcohol. Good for me, but bad for the purposes of this blog. But I'm still going to continue on... I'm not finished yet, and I haven't lost interest! I already have some things planned for the weekend.

I do have a few things to report. Nothing monumental, but just to prove that I've still been working on this project. The most exciting update is that I ate something I have never eaten before! It was farro, a whole grain which is similar to barley, and seems to be most popular in Italy. I didn't have any reason to think I wouldn't like farro, but before this project, I wouldn't have seen any reason to bother trying it. But this is about embracing new and exciting foods, so I made a Basil and Corn Farro Salad tonight. It was good! Admittedly, farro was a little high maintenance to prepare.... I had to soak it overnight, then boil it for 30 minutes, then I let the salad chill all day... I now understand why the recipe called for "precooked farro"... my farro had a reign that was a good deal longer than average!

It is not often I get to make a bad pun which would simultaneously make all of my Art History Professors *and* my Women's Studies Professors proud of me!*

Let's see..... I drank an entire bottle of mineral water. It's growing on me! Maybe 2 more bottles, and I'll be fine with the stuff. I've been working away on that chipotle flavored chocolate bar. I still haven't lost the sadness I feel from having the taste of chocolate in my mouth turn into an unsettling spicy aftertaste. And I haven't tried another seaweed snack, but I will force myself to eat another one soon. And as I said, I have planned one spectacularly nasty meal for myself this weekend!

* Besides, bringing Hatshepsut into this scenario kept my Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat references to a bare minimum, something for which you should all be thankful!

I Ate Another Seaweed Snack!

And while it was friggin' AWFUL, at least I didn't literally gag this time!!!! PROGRESS!

Progress Report #3

It's that time again! Here's where I stand, 3 months in.... this is what I have been considering my halfway mark... in my mind, this project was going to take about 6 months... we'll see....

Conquered!

* Raw Onions
* Tonic Water
* Tabbouleh
* White Wine
* Endive
* Parsnips
* Kohlrabi
* Lamb's Quarters
* Root Beer
* Sauerkraut
* Mustard
* Baba Ghanoush
* Taro Chips
* Daikon
* Radishes
* Earl Grey Tea
* Pickled Ginger
* Broccoli Rabe
* Onion Rings
* Poutine
* "Everything" Pretzel Slims
* Beer, dark
* Grapefruit Juice, when served in a cocktail that includes sweet ingredients
* Radicchio
* Bloody Mary
* Sparkling Water
* Dark 'n Stormy
* Lemongrass
* Reuben Sandwich
* Chai
* Kimchi

Works in Progress...

* Grapefruit
* Seaweed Snacks
* Beer, light
* Mole
* Cranberry Juice
* Champagne
* Turnips
* Mineral Water
* Kombucha Disqualified from the competition for being health food!
* Sea vegetables
* Ginger Beer
* Baklava
* Herbal Tea
* Chocolate with Spicy stuff in it
* Floral Flavored Foods
* Flavored Water

Haven't Gotten Around To.... Yet.

* Green Tea Flavored Treats
* Tiramisu
* Spaghetti Squash
* Brazilian Food
* Raw Foods
* "Jerk" style food
* "Blackened" style food

My goal for the next month is to really concentrate on those "works in progress," especially the ones that have been in progress for almost the whole 3 months. I'm looking at you, Cranberry Juice and Grapefruit....

This is gonna be me eating grapefruit.

And no, I didn't open the seaweed snacks yet. It's a holiday! ;-)

Some Don't Like It Hot

I love chocolate. I eat at least a little bit of it almost every day. I always feel a bit stunned when people assume that being vegan means I can't eat chocolate, as if dairy were inherently a part of chocolate! And as if I would have ever become vegan in the first place if it meant I could never have chocolate again! I pretty much like chocolate in every form... however, there is at least one thing you can do to chocolate that will ruin it for me.

You put your chocolate in my chipotle! You put your chipotle in my chocolate! Two great tastes that taste bad together.

I've had tastes of various types of chocolate bars that wrongly include some kind of  pepper over the years, and I was never a fan. Obviously, this food issue is cut from the exact same cloth as my issues with mole. I just can't get my head (or my taste buds) around the concept of chocolate being combined with spicy foods. I get chocolate + salty, I get chocolate + fruity, I get chocolate + almost anything on God's Green Earth, aside from insects or hot peppers! And no matter how many times my husband tries to assert that cacao grows in the same climates as jalapenos, hence, this somehow means they belong together, I disagree!

Anyway, my husband had acquired one of those Vosges bars, pictured above. He didn't want to share much of it with me, since it was a gift for him, and he knew I wouldn't appreciate it, but he did let me have a square of it. It was basically a mole flavored chocolate bar. He was right. I couldn't appreciate that!

So, I picked up my own spicy chocolate bar the other day.... one that doesn't cost it's weight in gold, the way the Vosges bars do. I got this one:

I'm not going to say I liked it, because I didn't. But I didn't dislike it as much as the Vosges bar. Frankly, the Vosges is a much higher quality product..... hence, it is more flavorful. So, while taking a bite of that Vosges bar was like a mouthful of mole, the Theo bar didn't have a strong mole flavor at all. It tastes almost normal while you eat it, but then you are left with an unsettlingly spicy after taste.

I'm only about 30% done with my spicy Theo bar. I'm eating a piece of it once a day. We'll see if I manage to adjust. If I feel any improvement, I'll go ahead and buy one of those million dollar Vosges bars for myself, to see if I can deem myself worthy of appreciating the "good" stuff!

Chocolate bars with spicy pepper in them are a drag.

So far, I haven't dare to open the package of those seaweed snacks... maybe tomorrow?

Greatfruit?!?

I'd been thrown a bit off schedule by having to work last Saturday, so it had been a few weeks since we went to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market. Not to disappoint you, but I didn't have big plans to buy too many weird things there. However, I did buy ingredients for the Mixed Citrus Green Salad I made for dinner tonight. (Side note: The main course was Roasty Soba Bowl with Miso Tahini, which I have to say, was pretty good! Very basic ingredients and super easy to make, but tasty and interesting!) Anyway, one of the mixed citrus that it wanted was grapefruit. Last time I bought a grapefruit at the Farmer's Market, I got it from Lie Lie Lying Farmers, who tricked me with their tales of a sweet grapefruit. So, I went to a different farmer this time, in search of a more perfect grapefruit! After all, not all grapefruits are created equal.

Here I am, inquiring about a grapefruit. This farmer seemed much more honest than the last ones!

My husband noticed a basket of grapefruits at the stand where I usually buy my limes, lemons and oranges. We were told it was "Very sweet, very juicy, but full of seeds." And this was an Honest Man! When I cut into that grapefruit, it sure had a lot of seeds in it! As I was doing my best to pick them out, I took a bite of that naked grapefruit, just to see how truthful that farmer really was. To my shock, it was sweet! Just a teeny tad of a bitter aftertaste, but really, it was fine. My husband also tried a naked piece of it, and declared it, "The Most Edible Grapefruit Ever." For the greens in the salad, I bought a Spicy Mix, and I tell ya, the radicchio (my new friend!) in the salad was the only bitter component. The grapefruit was actually good!

Now, I'm not going to jump the gun and say I am over grapefruit. But I can say, for the first time ever, I ate a grapefruit and actually liked it! Granted, this was a Very Special Grapefruit, but at least this is a step in the right direction!

I have a few other little announcements! Last night, my husband wanted me to make him a cocktail using the Canton Ginger I got him for his birthday. I ended up kinda winging it, and making him a concoction of Canton Ginger, Vodka (*shrug* he likes it), a squeeze of lemon and some Ginger Beer. He reports it was good! However, the whole bottle of Ginger Beer wouldn't fit into his glass. There was enough to fit into one of my generously sized shot glasses, so I took a shot of pure Ginger Beer, neat! Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I can tell you it gave me the same experience that most people have upon taking their first shot of whiskey... It was very intense, I made an awful face, and I was left with a bad taste in my mouth and a burn in my throat! BUT I DID IT! Soon, I'm gonna try and drink a whole glass of the stuff! Ginger Beer, not Whiskey! I am already capable of drinking a whole glass of whiskey, thank you very much!

Here I am after drinking that shot of Ginger Beer. I later ended up doing a Carmen Miranda impression with a potted plant on my head.

Finally, I have avoided it long enough..... the thing I most fear.... but I must be brave.... I bought another package of seaweed snacks today.... heaven help me!

Tiny Bubbles

Last night, we went to a 25th Wedding Anniversary Party. Our friends had rented out an entire restaurant, and very generously treated their friends to a celebratory feast. It was at The Gorbals, a restaurant in downtown LA that is probably a pretty hip place, but I had never heard of it. It's not the sort of place that would be on my vegan radar. It's one of those places that REALLY likes cooking up pigs and lambs! I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous about what my evening was going to be like. As a vegan, I pretty much dread any event with some kind of sit down, planned meal. Because no matter what, it's awkward, and even though I swear I'm not obnoxious and demanding, it stresses carnivores out to have a vegan in their midst. I was told in advance that the restaurant had been warned about me (as well as some other vegan in attendance and a couple of vegetarians) and were prepared. I was still skeptical, especially after I saw a copy of their "vegetarian" menu, which proudly featured an item with "anchovy butter." In my book, this means that you have no idea what vegetarian means, let alone, vegan. So, I was prepared to end up sitting there, nibbling on crudite and making everyone around me uncomfortable. ;-)

Well, I have to say The Gorbals knocked it out of the park! The servers were very aware of what I could eat, and always told me whether a dish was vegan or not, without me having to be an Annoying Asker. There were at least 7 or 8 of the various dishes I could eat, and they were all really great! They even brought me a special dipping sauce to use on my potatoes, when everyone else got aioli. Aside from the fact that I had to build a barrier of glasses and bottles to block my view of a troubling plate of prawns, all of which were fully intact, including their little eyes, I think I made it through the evening without having to be That Pansy Vegan.

This meal reminded me of why I am exactly doing this whole process of liking everything vegan. Last night, I actually liked everything that was vegan (there were dishes with broccoli, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, cucumbers, chickpeas, avocados, etc.). But I watched other people turn their noses up at many of the offerings, both of the meat and of the veggie persuasion. And I was SO GLAD I didn't have to be one of those people! Can you image me sitting there, being offered a vegan selection, and refusing it because "I don't like that"?!?! That would be exhausting for everybody involved! I was glad I could eat everything vegan with pride and gusto. THAT is what this whole adventure is all about!

But that is not what this whole blog entry is about! I ended up having a rather effervescent evening! Since this was an anniversary party, obviously, there was a champagne toast. I drank the whole glass of champagne without any objection! I won't say it tasted good, but it didn't taste bad either. I think I'm on my way to finally winning my champagne battle.

And I had another chance to ingest even more bubbly beverage last night. On the tables, there were bottles of both still and sparking water. I must have drank about 5 glasses of the sparkling water. I'm over it, it's not a problem any more. If I go to Germany again and they insist on giving me their bubbly water, I can now handle it. I'm not quite over mineral water yet, but regular old sparkling water doesn't pose a threat to me any more!

Unfortunately, this was one Bubbles I didn't encounter last night. I guess he was locked in his sister's basement and couldn't make it.

 In closing, I have big news! I'm done! That is, I'm done entering all of the recipes I have collected into my recipe app!* And I have gotten rid of the ones I don't think I will use. The entire shelf that used to house all of my binders and folders full of paper recipes has now been repurposed. OK, so it has been repurposed to hold the cookbooks that used to not be able to fit in the kitchen, but still! Progress, people!

* I still have about 100 paper recipes I want to enter, but they are all from Vegetarian Times, and I've been having some issues using their website. Over the past month, they have added some banner ads that always crash my recipe app.... and for some reason, they have neglected adding ALL of the recipes from their magazine to their web archive. I hope they will resolve these issues soon, so I can finally get these recipes into my nifty app!

Back in the USSR

I've been working on a triad of troublesome drinks over the past three days!

1) As you probably guessed from the blog title, I had another Moscow Mule. I admit that when I took my first sip, I made a face that one would make upon French kissing an actual mule. However, I got through this Mule more easily than the first one. I still think that ginger beer tastes pretty bad when combined with stupid vodka, as opposed to when it includes black rum, which makes the Dark and Stormy at least tolerable. I am still afraid to try plain ginger beer, with no alcohol in it to help dilute its icky flavor.

In Russia, Moscow Mule drink YOU! What a country!

2) I am back on the 100% Cranberry Juice. Ah, the refreshing flavor of a UTI! :-/  I guess it's not as horrible as it was at first? Still, it's pretty tough.

3) Last night, I dug into my stash of Decaffeinated Tea For Old People, and I found a bag of "Thirty Herbs" tea. Well, I guess it was ok tasting. However, my herbal tea experience was sullied by my husband, who chose the very moment I was drinking my unsweetened, herbal tea, to sit next to me and eat a pile of nachos with real cheese sauce (part of his birthday present). It smelled SO GOOD, I was filled with longing, and I felt pretty unsatisfied sitting there drinking a mug of warm herbs. :-( However, this did inspire me to find an exciting recipe for vegan nacho cheese sauce, which I will make for myself as soon as I am not "eating light". 

Currently, there aren't many things I would rather eat that this.

 Nothing else to report today! Ciao!