Thanksgiving Quickie

Dirty implications? Or possibly my mind goes irreversabily to the perverse all willy nilly.

T-minus I hit “publish” on this post, I shall begin Thanksgiving cooking like practically every other person in the vegan blogosphere. I’ve never planned to make so much for any one family gathering and I hope I don’t crap out. Here’s the goods: chickpea cutlets (already made chyah!), post-punk chickpea gravy, roasted broccoli, roasted garlic brussels sprout, (the oblig) mashed taters, and a gingerbread apple pie for extra caloric yumz. Mmmm I like feasting.

Last night I dined at OneSpeed in East Sac with my dad, brother, and (just-arrived-from-SLO) sister. I’m (wo)man enough to admit I was Mr. Krabs the whole night and the 30+ minute wait for a table plus the menu with sparse vegan options did little to improve my glorious mood. I must have asked at least 3 different people about the v-word before they gave me any real entree choices. To their credit,  they all seemed to recognize the word vegan (it’s a start!), disregarding the annoying “do you eat fish?” question from our waitress.

I decided upon the Napoletana pizza–creamy eggplant, marinated olives, capers, and tomato sauce on an artisan crispy crust– minus anchovies and mozz. It was quite delectable, albeit liberally doused with oil, and I nearly finished the whole thing. That’s saying something because it’s one of those annoying “single serving” entrees that you just know is meant to be shared. Don’t these people understand my inherent glutttony? My pizza, MINE.

A note on the picture: moody lighting does no favors for food photography. Nor does three other diners sneering at you food porn endeavors while you try not to convince yourself you are not a complete vegan weirdo. The half-eaten piece adds a nice (gross) does of honesty to the pictorial.

Anway, Happy Thanksgiving to all you Yanks and best wishes as you try to enjoy a hearty helping of *beloved* family time. I love this holiday muchly, but one more crack about tofurkey/protein/veganism and I might have to choke a bitch. Toodles.

Pizza & a Winner

But with pizza involved everyone is a winner, right? I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to try Daiya on a pizza, but suffice it to say my bout of negligence is officially over. I haven’t had a truly decadent pizza experience in many moons, but Daiya has filled that gaping chasm in my foodie soul forever. It was melty and rich and fatty with only a slight touch of ”commercial vegan product aftertaste”. In my defense to the ubiquitous vegan police, I do NOT miss cheese in the slightest but sometimes find pizza a bit monotonous without it. Don’t get me wrong, I love a nice cheese-less veggie pizza but, as the cliché goes, variety is the spice of life. Ugg, how I despise clichés.

Making the dough was… well… an experience. I’ve never worked with yeasted bread before and now I know why. Oh the heart ache, the worry, the apprehension and that was just waiting for my yeast to proof! My first batch of dough was too dry and then the second was a bit more kneadable, but far from perfect. To make matters worse, I waited in vain for my first batch to rise to no avail. Feeling defeated and inadequate, I started a second batch and that one rose fine, of course. Murphy, you are illogical and a coup d’état to upheave your unjust system of law is in the works. Pitchforks will be involved and it’s gonna be ugly.

Anyway, you don’t care. Long story short: the dough rose (sort of) and made an “ehh” pizza crust. I’m definitely not on the path to open a pizzeria anytime soon, but it works for now.

I had none of the usual pizza toppings, so I chose my two favorite veggies instead: broccoli and carrots. The pizza sauce I got at the gluten-free store down the street was just as amazing as the owner said it would be. As Lorelai Gilmore would say, I want to take a bath in that sauce.

In case you’re wondering, I ate the whole thing. Gluttony is one of my best attributes, thank you thank you…

Finally, a meek call of thanks to all those who entered the muffin giveaway after my pathetic “pay attention to me” pity post. Each entry made me smile, so thank you again! And the lucky winner chosen by Random.org is…. Poopiebitch as comment #3! I will get in touch with you so I can send those pumpkin muffins ASAP aka as soon as I get my lazy ass to the grocery store to buy canned pumpkin. Ta!