Foodie Stuff!
In November I’ll be participating in Vegan MoFo (Vegan Month of Food), a blogging challenge to post something related to awesome vegan food every weekday of the month. It’s like NaNoWriMo, except I get to make lots of great food instead of attempting to write a novel. I did it last year and it was fun, although I did kind of burn out towards the end of the month. I’ve made a special food-category specific feed for MoFo, so people don’t have to suffer through all my art-related posts if they don’t want to. I thought about starting an entirely separate food blog, but I’m lazy, so here’s the food feed: http://jenmccleary.com/category/blog/food/
This year I have a few ideas for things I want to focus on, including picking one recipe I haven’t tried yet from each of my cookbooks. Also, trying some new recipes with the latest addition to my kitchen gadgetry, a VitaMix blender! This thing was freaking expensive, so I’ve been putting of buying it for a long time. But I’ve heard nothing but good things about them and had some fantastic pureed soup and sauces in Costa Rica made with one, so I finally decided to just go for it. I’ve come to believe that it’s best to just buy the best-quality thing that you can afford instead of buying two or three crappy ones over the course of several years that just break and end up in the landfill. I haven’t even had a proper blender for years after my last one broke. I have a little Magic Bullet, which is great for individual servings of smoothies and grinding spices. And I have an immersion blender which works well for soups, but still leaves lots of chunks. I have a food processor which works great for some things, and I’ve basically been using it when I should be using a blender instead. Yes, they both have spinning blades, but they’re designed to do different things.
Of course I couldn’t wait to try it out, so I made a butternut-lemongrass-coconut soup. The blender actually heats up the soup in about 6-7 minutes! It came out super smooth and tasted great. It was a bit thinner than I would have liked, but that’s because I didn’t really follow a recipe and also I ended up boiling the squash instead of roasting it because the last time I made roasted garlic in the oven there was a hole in the foil and all the olive oil leaked out and burned to the bottom of the oven. Which of course I haven’t cleaned yet, and now whenever I turn the oven on it gets a bit smoky and the smoke detector way back in the bedroom goes off.
I like pureed soups, but I always want something for a little texture to avoid feeling like I’m eating a big bowl of baby food. I added some thinly-sliced carrots that I marinated in mirin, rice vinegar, and agave nectar. Also some chopped spinach and a few drops of siracha, and a sprinkle of gomashio.
As if the arrival of the Vita-Mix wasn’t enough, yesterday also brought the first installment of deliciousness from Lagusta’s Luscious Chocolate of the Month Club! It took every ounce of willpower I possess to keep myself from opening the box before I even got home. This month’s chocolate is a “Maple Bourbon Bonbon,” with maple, squash, bourbon, and chestnut. It also took every ounce of willpower I possess to eat only one piece, because it was absolutely delicious, and perfect for October! It reminded me a little bit of the maple sugar candy I had as a kid on a family vacation to New England, except way more complex. I can’t wait to see what arrives each month and how the flavors change with the seasons.
