TracyFood

Vegan MoFo Survey! 12 December 2007 9:05 am

Posted by Tracy in : chocolate, cooking, eating, eggs, food snobbery, friends, fun, kitchen gear, kitchen mishaps, nepal, pictures, vegan, whoops , trackback

I learned about this game from Penny, who learned about it from the Post-Punk Kitchen blog (see Isa’s answers here) but the original blog post that got this game started is here. Long story short, it’s a fun list of questions for participants in Isa Chandra’s Vegan MoFo project, a delicious answer to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, for those of you who have never succumbed to its temptations). I think the object of the game was for everybody playing along to write a lot about delicious vegan food, but I sort of missed it because I was fresh back from Nepal and there was way too much internet-based excitement to catch up on. Also I’m not vegan. But I still thought this survey was fun. These are my answers from Tuesday evening at around 6 PM, but I’m not posting them until Wednesday morning because I’m a fickle beast like that.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?

Depends what I’m doing with it, but Pacific’s multigrain (a blend of soy, rice, and I think oat) was the first I ever liked enough to straight-up drink a glass, so that earns it a fond place in my heart. On the other hand, I like Pacific’s hazelnut milk well enough to have ordered a case of it back in the day when I couldn’t find it in any of the local stores and I could use my Sundance employee discount.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?

-Latkes, because it’s the last night of (C)Han(n)uk(k)a(h). Also applesauce for putting on the latkes (and no I do not think that should be a separate item).
-whole wheat no knead bread, because I just made the dough and it’s sitting on top of the fridge waiting for me and tomorrow
-Aunt Gladys’ rice and bean stew, because it is delicious comfort food goodness.

Hey, they’re even vegan for two out of the three (or three out of the four, depending on if you’re being picky about the applesauce).

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?

Salt and black pepper, with optional but very delicious nutritional yeast. Sometimes cumin and chili powder are a nice change of pace, though. Also please note that all of these assume delicious homemade popcorn from real kernels, none of the terrifying microwave crap, which I actually can’t eat anymore, it’s so freaking gross.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

Oh man, I dunno. I really screwed up a roasted onion soup one time at Sundance, but then I cleverly covered up the nasty burned taste with mustardy tofu-nutritional yeast “uncheese” and it was actually sort of a hit. But I still cringe when I think about it.

5. Favorite pickled item?

Claussen’s kosher dill pickles. Mmm.

6. How do you organize your recipes?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! That’s what this website is supposed to be for! In real life, I have a spiral notebook and several file folders. The Sundance stuff is relatively organized, but then there’s a much bigger mess called “recipes to try” and oh lady do I have my work cut out for me.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

Depends what I’m throwing out, but I really don’t use the disposal very much.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?

I am going to pretend that it is an island where some sort of edible leafy green things grow, because otherwise my choices guarantee I will die of scurvy… garlic, flour, and yeast. (For some reason I am also assuming that it is an island in the ocean, so I can get sea salt, but also that there is potable water on the island, or I’d be in dehydration trouble well before the scurvy set in.)

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?

There are many, but here’s what leapt to mind first (photo courtesy of Peter’s Flickr pages, but I think I took this one):

That’s not a childhood picture, but the food it depicts is a childhood favorite: een krentebol (roll with raisins). My Oma used to bring them to the airport to welcome us on trips to the Netherlands, and to me they will always taste like pure love. (Come to think of it, a lot of my favorite foods taste like pure love.)

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?

I actually don’t have a lot of experience with the rice and soy kinds beyond the ice cream sandwiches, some of which are pretty great. On the other hand, I loooove sorbet and that’s always vegan. The best sorbet in the world was The LocoMotive Restaurant’s Oregon Snow coconut-lime deliciousness, and that reminds me: I should get back on my experiments in recreating it.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?

That would be my 14-cup food processor of doom, but only because I broke the mini food processor and whisk attachments for my stick blender.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?

Does garlic count? Otherwise, I’m increasingly in love with coriander in all its forms, and still can’t believe it comes from the same perfect plant as cilantro. Awesome!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

Does my handwritten spiral notebook count? Otherwise, I think Moosewood Restaurant New Classics is the big winner (and no one is surprised).

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?

Whatever kind isn’t too freaking sweet. Fruit is delicious and does not need to be overpowered by sugar.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?

Delicious soups are always good.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?

Depends on the application, but I think tempeh may have a slight advantage for reasons of texture.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?

Um, it’s not vegan-friendly, but anything with eggs. If I gotta keep it vegan, I’m gonna go with soup. Mmmm, soup.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?

Without looking: A microwave topped with a half-eaten giant bag of salt and pepper Kettle chips and a bowl of no-knead bread dough. Behind that, a cocktail shaker, the discs and blades for my beloved food processor, and probably a secret stash of salt and vinegar potato chips.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

Vegetable stock, tempeh marinara, blueberries. I could go on: peas, corn, spinach, acorn squash, pesto, tempeh, homegrown tomatoes (raw and cooked), random leftover bread…

20. What’s on your grocery list?

Fresh ginger, frozen juice.

21. Favorite grocery store?

Oh man. I am a fickle beast. If winter didn’t make me angry at them for getting a variance around the city’s requirement for covered bike parking, I might say Market of Choice at 29th and Willamette. But really I’d never shop anywhere but the Kiva if only they would stock Iggy and Otis’ brands of cat food.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.

Shit, I dunno. I’m still excited whenever I run into awesome recipes that just happen to be vegan, instead of veganized. Dal bhaat forever!

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?

Google Reader tells me I most frequent Casing the Joint, my own blog, and Marion Nestle’s What To Eat. Those last two are in my “Essential” folder of items I do my very best not to skip. According to the data from which I drew the previous conclusions, I am way behind on Culinate and wish I weren’t. Of course, Culiblog doesn’t update very often or it would totally be in my top three most read. Finally, I recently discovered Tasting Menu (because going to Nepal was a lot like being in a cave on Mars, which is more or less what my brain was up to before the big trip), Wandering Spoon, and Herbivoraceous. Good stuff!

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

There’s no room for milk in my favorite chocolates, but I don’t know if they’re strictly vegan because sugar can be processed in scary ways and I mostly don’t want to know. But I looove the Black Panther rainforest bar. 88% cacao and still silky-smooth, aw yeah.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?

Um, I’ve sort of been in thrift mode lately. But to make Marcy’s pumpkin bread french toast, I bought a teeny bottle of fancy-schmancy fair trade vanilla at the Olympia Food Co-op (west side!), and I’m not sorry. It was worth it!

26. Make up your own question to put here (and answer it).

Why am I writing this instead of working on my graduate school application? Because I worked on it until 3:30 in the morning, and it’s good to take a little break, even if at the very least there are typos that need correcting.