Vegetarian/Vegan Chili

Before the word vegan scares you away, let me explain.  This is only vegan because chili generally never has dairy in it to begin with.  All I did was leave meat out of this chili, therefore bypassing the vegetarian label and moving into vegan territory. However, I served mine with cheese and sour cream.  To make this vegan, it'd be great with sliced avocado and red onion on top (or cilantro, if that's your thing. Ew).  This would be great with black beans, but I used kidney and pinto because they're all I had. Whatever type of beans you use, try two different varietals for texture and flavor complexity. The use of mushrooms add a meaty texture to chili, and my secret ingredient, soy chorizo, puts it over-the-top. Don't leave out the soy chorizo! It's incredibly flavorful. I get it from Trader Joe's.

Serves 6-ish. The leftovers are just as tasty, too!

Vegan Chili
1.5 lb mushrooms (use cheap ones, like cremini or button mushrooms. They're there for texture more than flavor, so don't waste your money on expensive 'shrooms)
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 large zucchini, diced
1/2 large onion, diced
1 large jalapeno, finely diced (or use two small ones. Remove the seeds if you want it less spicy)
1 Tbs minced garlic
1/2 cup corn
2 Tbs tomato paste
2.5 cups crushed whole tomatoes, with their juice (canned are easiest)
1 package soy chorizo (from Trader Joe's. In the refridgerated section)
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tsp each cumin, chili powder, cayanne. Or just eyeball it. Not sure how much I actually used.
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Dice up mushrooms finely. Sautee over medium heat until all water has evaporated from the 'shrooms, about 20 minutes.
2. Throw all ingredients plus mushrooms into a large crock pot (or large dutch oven over low heat on the stove, or 200 degree oven). Stir. Cover, heat over low for 8 hours.
3. For texture, I like to take an immersion blender and blend a little bit of the mixture.  Alternatively, you could remove about two cups of the chili, blend in a blender, then add back to the pot. I like a thick chili, so removed the lid for the last hour or so to let some of the liquid evaporate.

Macadamia nut crusted halibut with tropical salsa

I think I've been ignoring my blog lately because it takes me forever to write recipes. What takes me 20 minutes to cook might take two hours to put into words on my blog. I love reading recipes for inspiration, but will rarely follow them. Below is how I'll compose writing recipes going forward, simple, to the point, and written in a way that yields as many servings as you want it to. Like spicy? Use the whole habanero! Cooking for kids? Omit it all together. Trial and error is how I learned to cook, and the best way to take your training wheels off is to forget about measuring ingredients and get a feel for how much to use from past experience.

Can we talk about asparagus for a minute? Yum. I don't think there is anything vegetable that comes close to the deliciousness of asparagus in springtime. Asparagus season is short and sweet, so I'm trying to cook with it multiple times a week until the reserves run out at my farmers market. So so delish.
Note that if the halibut you find is too expensive (which it can be), salmon, mahi mahi, or tuna would work beautifully here.

The Fish:
Combine macadamia nuts in a food processor with cayenne, salt, and pepper. Pulse.
Salt and pepper each side of the fish.  Brush egg white on top of fish, and press macadamia nut mixture into fish.
Sear each side for about 2-3 minutes over medium-high heat (cast iron works best here). Move to 400 degree oven for about 7 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fillet.

The Salsa:
Mix together diced habanero pepper (or jalapeno) with red onion, pineapple, mango, lime juice, salt, pepper.

The Asparagus:
Coat with salt, pepper, olive oil. This will cook about 7 minutes in the oven at the same time the fish goes in.

The Rice:
Cook in broth, water, or maybe even coconut milk! Next time I'm going to try mixing the rice with chive pesto.

Top each plate with fluffy brown rice, then the salsa, fish, and lastly the asparagus. Prepare to be transported to a tropical paradise.  Best to serve this with a homemade mai tai, or crisp sauvignon blanc!

Vegetarianism is not AA

I started out 2013 with the intention of doing a week long vegan cleanse. The gluttony that is November and December was catching up with me, and I wanted to hit the reset button.  The vegan thing lasted about 3 days. There is no way I can live without cheese. That soy-almond crap does not do the trick.  However, I found some pretty tasty alternatives to diary.  For example, there is a cream cheese substitute called Tofutti that tastes EXACTLY like cream cheese.  I felt like I was doing a good thing by choosing tofutti over cream cheese, until I compared the ingredients labels.

     Organic cream cheese: Organic pasteurized milk and cream, cheese culture, salt

     Tofutti vegan cream cheese substitute:  Water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, isolated soy protein, maltodextrin, tofu, nondairy lactic acid, sugar, locust bean, guar and carrageenan gums, sugar, salt, veg. mono and diglycerides, potassium sorbate (added as a preservative).

REALLY? You vegans are telling me that partially hydrogenated soybean oil (read: trans fat) is better for me than organic milk and cream? Go home, you’re drunk. It's hypocritical to push a vegan "healthy" lifestyle when half of vegan alternatives to dairy are full of chemical additives. Oh, and vegans can go ahead and eat all the sugar and white flour they want since it's not made of animals? Enjoy your diabetes.

So, I was caught in a dilemma: do I eat based on what’s better for the environment, or what’s better for my body? The answer for me has been a little bit of both.  I’ve not eaten meat, save for two lapses of willpower, since January first. I do still eat fish though, because, hello, sushi. Yum.

I’ve come to a conclusion about not eating meat- It’s not all or nothing.  This isn’t AA, just because I had a lapse of willpower and ate meat in February doesn’t mean I can’t say “My name is Andrea, and I’ve been vegetarian for 98 days.” There are no vegetarian police who are going to come after me with “WAIT, SHE’S LYING- SHE ATE HOT ITALIAN SAUSAGE ON FEBRUARY 15^TH!!!” Depriving yourself can lead to an all-or-nothing attitude, and that’s dangerous.

I’m not saying I won’t have a giant bloody rare steak ever again.  I’m not saying I’m going to starve if a friend had me over for dinner and used chicken broth in her soup. I’m not going to be rude about it.  In fact, I'll definitely eat meat on Sunday for Zeph's birthday (this was literally a birthday request of his). Meat doesn’t gross me out, it is delicious and if I didn’t have a moral dilemma over eating it, I would.  I challenge you this- eat LESS meat and LESS diary.  If you’re going to eat meat, eat REAL meat. Eat wild game, or grass-fed organic beef, or vegetarian-fed free range chicken. Almond milk is a perfectly suitable alternative to dairy milk, and it's damn delicious, too. As for cheese, I would never suggest you start eating a cheese alternative, #SorryImNotSorry

Like I said, I’m not perfect and never will be.  I love barbacoa Chipotle burritos as much as the next gal (ok I lied, I love them much, much more than that).  I just need to learn how to love me some Chipotle less. 

Viewcrest Drive

Today my parents are moving from the house they’ve lived in for the past 19 years in Fairfax Station, Virginia. The empty-nesters have bought a row house in an exciting hip neighborhood in D.C. My mom, a city girl, was never really suited for suburban life, but the schools were better and neighborhoods safer just outside the city in Fairfax County. I called Viewcrest Drive my home from age seven through the day I left for college in California. 

   I was trying to explain to my boyfriend how significant this move is. “It’s the end of an era”, I said.  He grew up with divorced parents seemingly always on the move from house to house in the San Francisco Bay area.  He’d live one year with his dad, another couple with his mom, and never lived in a single house for longer than a couple years.  He couldn’t understand how I could be getting so sentimental about a silly house.  Miranda Lambert has song where she talks about leaving her childhood home called "The House that Built Me".  I explained to him that our Viewcrest Drive home is the house that built me, my sister Steph, and my brother Geoff. 

I’m going to miss the squeakiest front door in the world. The kind that you’d most certainly get caught seeking out of in the middle of the night at age 16. One wall in the laundry room is completed marked up with lines and numbers, my dad’s record-keeping of our heights as we grew inches (and feet, in Geoff’s case) through the years. I remember when I was so small I could hide inside the cupboard under the bathroom counter while playing hide-and-seek with the babysitter during my parent’s weekly Saturday date night. I loved how my dad always had to get the biggest Christmas tree on the lot, sometimes so big that the angel on top stuck up into the skylight. I remember gathering on my parent's bed as they excitingly told us that we were allowed to get a puppy. A few years later we gathered on the same bed as they told us dad had cancer, but that it would probably be ok (which it was, and is). I remember helping to teach my little brother how to ride a bike in the driveway. I remember Easter egg hunts at home, and the annual family photos that accompanied them

I remember signing our initials in the wet concrete on the sidewalk outside that remains in place today.

I remember birthday party sleepovers where we stayed up all night playing on my Ouija board, and then slept through the afternoon strewn across sofas.

 I remember fashion shows in the foyer with our neighbors, the Scharls

I remember that party I had in high school while my parents were out of town, and desperately trying to clean up all the beer stains the morning after.

I remember sobbing on my bed after my first heartbreak, and falling apart in my mom’s arms as she lovingly reassured me it would all be okay. And it was.  

I remember graduation and the homesickness I felt on the first day of college, knowing that “home” was so far away. 

Today is the day we say goodbye to Viewcrest Drive.  When I fly back to D.C. next, all of the furniture my Gramps hand-painted will now be housed in a new home. My old yearbooks will no longer be on the bookshelf of my childhood room, but in a box for me to take back to Portland.  And this is okay, because we have new memories to make in this new home.  After all, home should be a feeling. So maybe I am getting a little too sentimental after all. 

“In life, a person will come and go from many homes. We may leave a house, a town, a room, but that does not mean those places leave us. Once entered, we never entirely depart the homes we make for ourselves in the world.”- Ari Berk