The Mini-6th edition of "The Most Bizarre Google Searches By Which People Stumble Across This Blog"

Random introductory sidenote of random introductoriness unrelated to anything google-ish:

Fritos are like the seed of the devil. I am so addicted to them. I eat them, and then I loathe myself for doing so, as they are the greasy, slippery-shit-inducing, corn-lubed chips of Satan himself.

Damn you, Fritos.

/Random introductory sidenote of random introductoriness unrelated to anything google-ish

Anyways, I haven't tossed out a google-search update lately, in all it's feces-related glory, but that's mostly just because I haven't been paying much attention to them as of late, due to lack of time and energy. But I *have* hung on to a few poo-loving gems to share with you today nonetheless. I don't know exactly why, but I feel very flattered that someone apparently couldn't remember my blog's name, and so they googled this first search in order to track it down.

Oily orange feces--you do me proud!

Anyways, enjoy them, in all their stinkalicious glory.

(MAKING UP WORDS IS FUN!)

• oily orange poo blog


• brown red blue shit


• shit lovers


• what is the gassiest bean


• bat poo in mascara


• gassy vegan recipes


• gross shit


• candle flame to nipple pics


• eating uncooked yeast sick

(Check out earlier editions HERE)

Spinach-Quinoa Salad with Cherries and Almonds

My pic is a little bit lackluster,
so I include the recipe-pic from the
Vegetarian Times as well:



This is a good salad recipe, particularly so for picnics. I brought some in to work for a friend of mine, and she whipped up a batch of it for herself just a few days later, she liked it that much. I would've liked to try this with fresh cherries, but I had no desire to spend money on a cherry-pitter that I'd only ever use once. And ye old method of biting and spitting out the seeds seemed somehow... unsanitary... for a salad that I was sharing with others. But I bet this would be a damn foxy salad with some fresh cherries.

Mmmm. Cherries.

INGREDIENTS:

Salad

• 1/4 c. sliced almonds, toasted


• 1.5 c. quinoa, rinsed and drained


• 2 c. spinach leaves, cut into thin slivers


• 2 c. fresh cherries, pitted and halved, or 1 c. dried cherries, chopped (I used the latter)


• 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/3-inch dice (about 1 1/2 cups)


• 1 15-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained


• 1 small red onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)

Dressing

• 1/4 c. plain soy yogurt


• 3 T. olive oil


• 2 T. fresh lemon juice


• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions

Prepare quinoa according to your liking (I cook mine in my rice-cooker, with a 2:1 ration of water to quinoa). Allow to cool.

Toss together all salad ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Pour over salad, and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Chill 30 minutes to allow flavors to develop, then serve.

(Original recipe from the Vegetarian Times)

Some Small Things and Then Maybe a Recipe Sometime This Week

So Tremont Scoops outdid itself recently by offering up vegan mini-oreo-pies in its homemade freezer-case. Look out how goddamn sexy they are! And holy crap of all things holy and craplike--these mini pies are DECADENT and SEXY and BLISSFULLY SUGARY and maybe even... FUCKABLE. They are rich vegan chocolate mousse with some oreo cookies thrown in (and maybe some fudge--I was eating it in the dark (where all good things take place*) so it was hard to tell), cupped in the hand of a delightfully flaky pie crust and topped with vegan whipped cream and half of a luxuriously chocolate-dipped oreo cookie. Can you say "heaven?"




E has been in the hospital since Friday, so needless to say, not much cooking has taken place in my apartment--he had to get his appendix removed but is doing much better and will hopefully be getting out today. Anyone got any good appendix-recipes? I figured we could whip that tiny organ up into something delicious if we just tried hard enough! Waste not want not!

And finally, my Northern Ohio Live article is all done and submitted. (I even get my pic in the mag with a little bio--tee hee. I'm all growned up, Ma!) Just waiting to hear back on edits, but if all goes well, it should be showing up in the August issue. *Fingers crossed* So keep your eyes out!



----------
*I.e. Fireworks, and laserlight shows, and meteor-showers, perverts.

Nanners Banannerston Peanut-Sauce

One of my very worst food habits is buying bananas and not eating them before they get nastily ripe. Which was why I was so nerded up by the frozen bananas idea that I stumbled across in the Vegetarian Times, and which I've sinced started using to make popsicles (check these babies out!):



Well, earlier this week was another such example of my complete and utter failure in the world of banana-consumption. And the problem is, once the bananas get past a certain ripeness-point, I can't eat them without gagging. So lately, I've been trying to mush them up and use them in other foods, that way they don't go to waste. With this logic in mind, and with a hearkening back to my childhood when my absolute favorite lunch was a nice scrumptious peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich, I thought: why the hell not whip up some sort of Thai-ish stir-fry sauce with one of my uber-ripe bananas?

The end result was quite yummy--I poured it over a stirfry that consisted of rice-noodles, grilled tofu, spinach, and peanuts. I wasn't quite so pleased with the stirfry itself, but the sauce is quite good. Next time I'll probably incorporate some sweet veggies since I think they'd work well with this mildly-sweet and tropical-tasting sauce: perhaps some peapods and/or sweet peppers.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 very ripe banana, mashed


• 2 T. soy sauce


• 3 T. natural peanut butter


• 1 T. hot water


• Juice from 1/2 a lemon (or lime)


• 1 T. brown sugar


• 2 scallions, thinly sliced


• A dash or two of cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS

Whisk all of the above ingredients together in a bowl. Pour over stirfry or use as a peanutty salad-dressing. Definitely nice with some spinach-greens. Makes enough for about 2-4 servings of stirfry.


Oh, and this sauce is named after my lovely cat Franny who has somehow developed the nickname Nanners Banannerston. (And it also gives me an excuse to post a few gratuitous pics of her. Enjoy.)

E's Mom's "Goulash-That-Isn't-Really-Goulash"

I was gonna be lazy and just post some things that I've eaten but you haven't. But then I said: No. Post a motherf-ing recipe already. You didn't post one yesterday. You have several just sitting there, moping around, waiting for you to post them so they can get some attention. So post a motherfucker.

E cooked this for us this weekend. He said his mom used to make it for them when they were little (though not veganized) and he used to love it. It is a good and quick meal to whip up and one that I'm guessing would please kids (though I can't say for sure, since there ARE some Damiens out there and whatnot). Either which way: try it sometime. Or don't. I don't really care.

But remember: one day I may post the greatest recipe the universe has ever seen, one that is the equivalent of a decade-long orgasm, and if you are "too busy" to try these out, while everyone else's eyes are dilated, toes are clenched, mouths are trapped in an ecstatic gaping o, you'll just be sitting there, farting around, missing out.

And it'd serve you right.*

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb. elbow mac


• 1 bag morningstar veggie crumbles


• 1 large can crushed tomato


• 2 T. fresh chopped parsley


• 2 T. fresh chopped basil


• 3/4 t. crushed dried rosemary


• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

cook pasta al dente.

drain pasta, do not rinse.

cook veggie crumbles in frying pan until slightly browned.

in large pot, combine entire can (tomatoes and sauce) of crushed tomatoes, pasta, veggie crumbles, basil, parsley, rosemary, salt, pepper.

heat through over med flame, stirring often.

once heated, serve.

yum.

----------
*E's goulash is *not*, in fact, the Giant Universe-Orgazmo Recipe, though it *is* good. Just wanted to clarify so that I don't get accusatory responses about being misleading when all you orgasm-junkies run out and try it.


* * * * * *

Oh yeah! And he made us salads. I feature it mostly because sometimes fresh vegetables are pretty enough to pass as modern art:

Quinoa, Corn, and Zucchini Medley

This week has been long. Incredibly long. Gut-wrenchingly, testicle-piercingly, nipple-pinchingly long.

What this has to do with this salad, I'm not sure. But I'm tired, and it felt somehow necessary to mention it.

I'll make it relevant though by stating that if you whip up this salad, your guts will *NOT* wrench, your testicles will *NOT* pierce, and your nipples will *NOT* pinch. How's that for a recommendation?

See, in THIS picture, it's NOT pinching your nipples:



And in this one, it's not piercing your testes:



INGREDIENTS:

Salad

• 1 c. quinoa


• 1 c. canned corn, drained*


• 1 med. zucchini. diced


• 4 green onions, thinly sliced


• 1/4 c. chopped cilantro


• 2 T. chopped fresh mint


• 1/4 c. pine nuts

Dressing

• 3 T. olive oil


• 2 T. orange juice


• 1 T. lemon juice


• 1/4 t. grated lemon zest


• Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Cook your quinoa in whatever way you choose, with a 2:1 water-to-quinoa ratio (I used my rice cooker).

Make your dressing by whisking all your dressing-ingredients together.

Once your quinoa is cool, mix in all your salad ingredients and drizzle the dressing over the top.

(Make 4-6 servings)

PS. You ever notice how some of these cooking magazines take ridiculously long to explain a rather simple set of directions? This recipe was one such example. I just included my Occam's Razor, Cliff's Notes set above to spare you.

PPS. This is actually quite a good recipe--I usually get sick of my lunches by the end of the week, but I looked forward to this one. I particularly enjoyed how the mint kinda counter-balanced the green onions. It made my palate feel all well-rounded and shit.

(My modifications are asterisked. Original recipe from the Vegetarian Times, May/June 2007, p.40)

Cooking Out and Erin McKeown

This past Saturday, my friend Peppermint came over to go with us to see the very awesome and delectable Erin McKeown play at a nearby venue, but not before all three of us decided that we were gonna cook-out, despite the foreboding weather reports of massive thunderstorms (which never really graced my area, thankfully). Peppermint brought me boobs and Trader Joe's Roasted Red Pepper dip and pita chips to share. E made some black-bean concoction from Vegan Family Favorites (whose name I am not quite sure of), and I made veggie-burgers and fruit salad.

The veggie burgers were some extremely protein-rich, hearty ones from Vegan Ventures, and man were they good. I followed her directions to a t, except to substitute in fresh parsley and fresh oregano. As Kate said, they hold together really well on the grill, which is always a perk for veggie burgers. The only thing that threw me a bit was the amount of veggie-burgers it was supposed to yield: I followed the directions accurately, and yet I only had enough for 3 large patties and one slightly less buxom one. But then again: maybe I just suck.

I definitely recommend these though. They're not too complicated or involved to whip up, they are packed with protein, and they are really damn flavorful. So check them out.

KATE'S NEW AND IMPROVED BLACK BEAN BURGERS


(BEFORE)

(AFTER)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 c. grated onion (I used red)*


• 1/4 c. grated red pepper


• 3 garlic cloves, minced


• 1/4 t. each of dried red pepper, cumin and chili powder


• 1 t. each of oregano and basil (or 1 T. each, fresh)*


• 1 T. parsley


• 1/2 c. coarsely chopped almonds


• 1/2 c. coarsely chopped sunflower seeds


• 1 t. sesame oil


• 1 15.5 oz. can black beans


• 2 tablespoons of water


• 3/4 c. of wheat germ

DIRECTIONS

After grating the red pepper and onion set them aside in a medium bowl. Combine the garlic, spices, almonds, sunflower seeds, and oil in a food processor and pulse until texture resembles bread crumbs. Transfer mixture to the bowl. Put the black beans and water in the food processor and process until smooth. Add this mixture to the bowl along with the wheat germ. Mix (preferably with your hands) completely. Separate into five balls and shape into patties. Make sure the patties are not too thin or they will fall apart. Grill for 8 minutes on each side, or until slightly browned. Enjoy with your favorite burger fixings.

Serves: 4-5

(Original recipe HERE)

* * * * * * *

On the side, I whipped up a very basic and simple berry-salad since raspberries and strawberries were dirt-cheap at the market and kept batting their big fat eyelashes at me all seductively every time I walked by. Fruit salads are always just, well, sorta fruit salads. But I'll share my recipe anyways--the mint made a nice addition, so if nothing else, at least you can take that idea with you.

BERRY NIPPULAR BERRY SALAD



INGREDIENTS:

• 1 sm. container strawberries, rinsed and sliced


• 1 sm. container raspberries, rinsed


• Juice from 1/2 an orange


• About 1 T. or so of mint, slivered

DIRECTIONS

Toss all your berries in a bowl. Drizzle the orange juice over them. Sprinkle with mint. Serve.

Until I Have Time to Post Later Today...

I thought I'd share this picture with you--Franny with the new set o' jugs I got this weekend (and no, they ain't silicon).

Ain't it grand to have a delightfully sweet friend who sees a pair of very large crocheted breasts on the internet and immediately thinks of you?

(I was gonna caption this, but then I figured, the punchline of the pic's pretty damn obvious, so it'd probably just insult your intelligence to spell it out for you. That being said: lemme know if you need me to spell it out for you.)

(Saw this on my friend dorkle's livejournal.
It made me giggle...)

Two-Bean Salad with Tarragon Dressing

Ah, what to say about this salad other than that it was good? Not tons, other than to express my appreciation for the various salad-recipes that have been in the past couple issues of the Vegetarian Times--as much as they piss me off sometimes, they do come up with some DAMN good salad recipes (I'll be posting yet another one later this week as well).

This one is particularly nice because it strikes me as particularly healthy, mostly because it's very dynamic in its list of ingredients: everything from chickpeas to green beans to artichoke hearts to olives.

The only two warnings I offer you:

It is very acidic (between the vinegar and the tomatoes), so be forewarned and perhaps avoid chowing down on it with a very empty and very hungry stomach--I made that mistake one afternoon, and it left me with a few hours of really intense stomach pain, from what I can only assume was the very potent vinegar content.

And although it makes for good leftovers, if you want it to look pretty, aim to serve it within a few hours of making it, otherwise the green beans start to look like pasty-ass white-boys out at the beach after a long winter.

Other than that, have ye at it.

(The changes I made from the original are asterisked.)

INGREDIENTS:

The Two-Bean Salad

• 1 lb. green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces*


• One 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed


• 1 c. cherry tomatoes, halved (I used grape toms, don't know if there's a difference)


• One 12 or 15 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped* (I spanked them a little and said dirty things to them while chopping them)


• 1/2 c. pitted kalamata olives, halved


• 1/4 c. thinly-sliced red onion


• 1/4 c. finely chopped Italian parsley

The Tarragon Dressing

• 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar


• 2 t. Dijon mustard


• 1 t. agave nectar* (or maple syrup)


• 1 clove garlic


• 1/4 t. salt


• 1/4 t. black pepper


• 1/4 c. olive oil


• 1 T. fresh tarragon

DIRECTIONS

Steam green beans until just tender but still crispy. Let cool.
In the meantime, place all your Tarragon Dressing ingredients (except for the last two) in a blender and whip the shit out of them (*growr*). While processor is still running, slowly add your final two ingredients. Blend until completely smooth.
Toss green beans in with all other salad ingredients in a large bowl. Pour dressing over the top and mix.
Serve at room temperature.

(adapted from The Vegetarian Times, April 2007, p. 76)

Grilled Ratatouille Salad

This weekend I whipped up the Grilled Ratatouille Salad which was featured on the cover of the current issue of the Vegetarian Times. On the cover, the salad looks bright and perky, a bit summery and flouncy, like a teenage cheerleader headed off to summer-camp, soon to be deflowered:


But holy shit was this meal misrepresented by this picture. After grilling this salad up on E's hubcap, tasting it, and taking pics, I realized how goddamn sexy this salad actually is. It looks like something out of a Edvard Munch painting, dark, a bit spooky, sultry, and erotic. And it tastes much of the same, so simple and yet so rich with flavor from the balsamic reduction and the grilled veggies.

If lust had a flavor, this would be it.

Needless to say, this would make the perfect summer-seduction meal: it won't leave you sweating and stinky from having the oven on (you can save that for the bedroom), and yet it'll offer a rich variety of seductive flavors for the palate of that stone-cold fox that you've been trying to get in the sack for weeks now.

It looks like sin. Hot hot dirty sexy sin. And it tastes pretty close too.

Now I'm all tingly and shit.

The things I do for food.





(All ingredient-changes I made from the original are asterisked.)

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 c. balsamic vinegar


• 1 medium eggplant, cubed into 1/2 to 1" cubes


• 2 large red peppers, diced*


• 3 medium-sized zucchini, diced into 1/2 to 1" cubes


• 1 medium onion, sliced into thin rings


• 1/4 c. parsley, chopped


• 1/4 c. basil, chopped


• 1/2 c. pine nuts*

DIRECTIONS

Put vinegar in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce heat to medium, and cook 12 minutes or until vinegar becomes syrup-like and reduces to 1/4 cup. Set aside.

Place eggplant, peppers, zucchini, and onions into a large bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper. Let stand 30 minutes at room temperature (or refrigerate overnight). Pour off any liquid.

Spritz a stove-top grill hubcappy thingie with some non-stick spray and heat it up on your stove (if you want to grill this outside, you'll want to follow the original direction and not cube your veggies, otherwise they'll just fall through--the cubed veggies work on the hubcap grill though, so these directions are specified to that). Grill the vegetables until nicely roasted (but not soggy). You will probably have to do this in batches (I think it took me about 3 or 4 batches). In a big-ass bowl (it makes a lot), toss with parsley, basil, pine nuts and balsamic vinegar. Serve warm or chilled (I ate mine over quinoa, and it was delectable).

(Recipe adapted from the Vegetarian Times, May/June 2007, p. 76.)

A Few More Things I Ate and You Didn't

• E made chili dogs for us on the weekend since I've never had one (veggie or not) before. I'd post a recipe, but basically it goes something like this: cook dog, insert into bun, slather in chili. The end.




• I've mentioned several times about how geeked up I am that Tremont Scoops, the ice cream parlour just a few minutes walking-distance from my house, now serves vegan options, and yet somehow I've never remembered to post a pic (presumably because I can't control myself long enough to take a pic before devouring the chocolatey goodness). So here's their homemade vegan chocolate-chip ice cream sandwich in all its luxuriant glory. Word on the street (ok, word from Marianne) is that they now have mini vegan oreo-pies that I am *SO* hoping to snag sometime this week. Oh yes.




• Apparently the Vegetarian Times is psychically in-tune with the fruits in my apartment that are about to go bad. Case in point: last week, I had three very very very ripe bananas. And it was so stinking hot that I had absolutely no urge to bake them into something useful. What to do? I happened to be flipping through VT, and they had freezer lunch-suggestions, one of which was to take three bananas and 3 T. orange juice (I also had a really old orange), toss it all into a food processor, and process. Pour into 2-4 containers, sprinkle some cinnamon on top, and freeze. I thought, hey, there we go! A simple use for my almost-over-the-hill bananas. And holy crap--it sounds so simple, but boy oh boy was it tasty. All you have to do is take one of the cups out of the freezer in the morning and take it to work with you. By lunch, it's thawed just enough to make a slushy, icy-cold banana delicacy. And seriously--they are surprisingly good. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since it's nothing all that original--sort of just a frozen smoothy in a cup. But I surely am gonna keep more of these around this summer--perhaps I'll even cave and buy those $2.50 containers to make your own freezer pops and freeze them in there. They soothe the cranky heat, they're a nice natural boost of sugars, and they're damn tasty. Try 'em.

Savory Asparagus Mushroom Bread Pudding

Oh, man. It's been quite crazy on this end lately, which has led to quite the backlog in recipes. Mea culpa.

I tried this recipe out LOOOOONG LOOOONG ago (after veganizing the original, of course), and I had slightly mixed feelings about the results.

The mixed feelings, however, were not from the fact that the original recipe is a lousy suckfest (I'd bet my left nipple that it's not). Neither were they from the fact that veganizing it made it suck pootie (because it didn't). I think it mostly was because *couIUSEDVANILLASOYYOGURTINSTEADOFPLAINBECAUSEIAMADUMBSHITLIKETHATSOMETIMESgh*.
Laugh if you will. But I'm sure most of you out there have found yourself at the grocery store thinking "Should I spend money on this very LARGE tub of [insert accurate ingredient here] or should I buy this smaller, less expensive [insert slightly INaccurate ingredient here] since all I really need is, like, 2 T. and I don't typically EAT [insert accurate ingredient here], so the rest will just end up sitting in my refrigerator for like 2 months until I finally give in to the fact that it's turned into something resembling purple mold."

Don't deny it.

*Clearing throat*

I also had a bit of a mishap (as I do about once a month or so) with measuring. This time it was with egg-replacer. For some reason all of the sudden I thought 2 t. was 2 T., and I was like, Damn, I don't remember ever having made ANYTHING that requires *this* much egg-replacer. Unfortunately I realized the mistake RIGHT AS the water was poised mid-air in its downward fall towards the egg-replacer, and since I am not Superman and do not have the ability to make time stand still by flying around the earth really fast (he DID do that at some point or another, right?) splat. I salvaged a little, but nonetheless: suckfestery.

But anyways. The *only* other thing I did to fuck with (and thankfully not fuck *up*) this dish was to leave out the dill. Ever since I threw up swedish meatballs down the carpeted stairs of my house when I was in 6th-grade, we've not been real big fans of one another ('cept in pickles). So. Yes. No dill.

Despite all that, it *still* was pretty good. Which I think says something about the recipe, seeing as it still tasted okay despite being slightly vanilla-flavored.

Next time, however: PLAIN yogurt. (I'm not vouching for this recipe until I know for certain that it doesn't taste weirdly sweet with the PLAIN yogurt as well. So if you try it, and it doesn't taste weirdly-vanilla-ish, please do let me know.) And next time, I will definitely use more 'shrooms and asparagus. Oh, and for the record, you can use ANY type of vegan cheez, but I recommend cheddar (mostly because I used mozzarella myself and the whole time kept fantasizing about how I wished I'd had the foresight to have thought of cheddar as it would've been so much beddar... GET IT!
But seriously: cheddar).

INGREDIENTS:

• One 1-pound loaf sourdough or other crusty bread


• 2 1/4 c. soy milk


• 3/4 c. soy yogurt (PLAIN!!!!)


• 1 c. vegetable broth


• Egg substitute for 3 large eggs


• 1 t. salt


• 1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper


• 1/2 tsp dried dill (optional)


• 1/2 t. fresh thyme


• 1/2 t. fresh oregano


• 1 lb. asparagus


• 3 - 4 oz. mushrooms (I used baby 'bellas)


• 1 c. shredded vegan cheez (I used mozzarella, but next time it's TOTALLY gonna be cheddar--I think it'll improve the dish by leaps and bounds)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9x13-inch baking pan or casserole with nonstick cooking spray.
Using a serrated knife, cut the bread into 3/4-inch slices, then stack 4 or 5 slices of bread. Cut them into 3/4-inch cubes. Repeat with the remaining bread and put all of the cubes in a large bowl.

In medium bowl, whish together the soy milk, broth, egg-substitute, salt, pepper, dill (if you're using it), thyme, and oregano until combined. Pour the mixture over the bread (in the bowl).

Snap off the tough ends of the asparagus and cut the spears into 1-inch pieces. Add them to the bread along with the mushrooms. Fold everything together well to combine the ingredients. Spoon them into the prepared pan and pat down the top to compact the ingredients. Sprinkle the cheese evenly ever the top.

Bake the pudding for 45 to 80 minutes (I think mine was closer towards the 80-minute mark--it had too much liquid still in the middle, and it made me unhappy--but judge for yourself), or until the top is browned and crisp and there is no liquid in the center. Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting into portions.

(Original recipe at Cupcake Punk)

What's in *YOUR* Fridge?

Yesterday, I got to thinking about the sometimes disgusting, always interesting, weird-variety of shit in my fridge, and I thought to myself: Self, you need a new question of the month (because it's technically been the Question of 3.25 Months at this point). So my question is this:

What's in *YOUR* fridge?

Particularly, what's in your meat-drawer?

I thought this question might be particularly fascinating since many of us HAVE a meat-drawer, but I'm sure we keep a strange variety of other-worldly things in there. For example, I have stale bread that I feed to the birds, tofu, cornmeal, and spicy-peppers.

So that's my question of the month.

I shall answer it below, and then I leave you to your own wits.

I know it is near impossible to leave pics in the comments, so I encourage everyone who reads this and has an interest to run home, take a pic of your fridge and its contents, and post it on your blog. Then post your link here.

We will have a crazy-fridge-fest like NO OTHER CRAZY FRIDGE-FEST THAT'S EVER BEEN HAD BEFORE!

*MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA*

* * * * *

Welcome to my fridge. May you make it out alive.



Freezer:

• Coffee (3 different ones)


• 3 freezer-burnt veggie burgers


• Frozen blueberries


• 2 Boca Spicy "Chicken" Patties


• Nasi Goreng Rice


• Frozen Pesto


• Greenbeans


• Veg duck


• Biryani Rice


• Chopped Spinach


• Corn


• Old bread


• Peas


• Broccoli


• Sorbet


• Margarita Mix

Top Shelf:

• 4 bottles Rolling Rock


• Smart Balance margarine


• Baby 'Bella Mushrooms


• O'Soy Yogurt


• 7-Grain bread


• Shortening


• Old tomato paste


• Quinoa


• Kalamata olives


• Old black beans (pitched)


• Old sweet and sour


• Gypsy soup


• 2 jars Newman's salsa


• Kidney beans

Second shelf:

• Yellowtail Shiraz (which isn't supposed to be served cold, but the thought of warm wine in the 87+ heat we were having there for a while did NOT sound appealing)


• 2 plain soymilks


• Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade


• Pepsi


• Vinegar


• Earth Balance margarine


• Nutritional yeast


• Fresh tarragon


• Maple syrup


• Old bread


• Grilled Ratatouille Salad (recipe sometime this week)


• Green-bean salad (recipe also sometime this week)

Bottom shelf:

• Diet Pepsi


• Brown sugar


• Old bread


• Grilled Ratatouille Salad


• Green-bean salad


• Mozzarella "cheez"

First crisper:


(Can you tell that I'm lazy and never remove anything from bags?)

• Rotty basil (composted)


• Spinach


• Onions


• Rotty lettuce (composted)


• Old slivered-carrots


• Old coleslaw mix


• Parsley


• Red onion


• Potatoes

Second crisper:

• Lettuce


• Old celery (composted)


• Lemons


• Rotten tomatoes (they were starting to MOLD! *BLORF*) (composted)


• Carrots


• Potatoes


• Garlic


• Rotten cilantro (composted)

Meat drawer:

• Tofu


• Corn meal


• Stale bread for the birds


• Spicy-peppers

Door:

• Whole ginger


• Ketchup packets


• Expired yeast-packets


• Vegan bouillon cubes


• Flaxseed meal


• Tahini


• Mrs. Renfro raspberry salsa


• Jam packets


• 2 vegan parmesan-cheez containers


• More expired yeast


• Chiles in adobo


• Raspberry preserves


• Wheat germ


• Baking soda


• Mustard


• Vegan mayo


• Alien in a pickle jar


• PB (2 jars)


• Hickory-smoke flavoring


• Agave nectar


• Strawberry preserves


• Molasses


• Raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing


• Really old grenadine


• Brown rice syrup


• Shitty maple syrup


• Dijon mustard


• Brown mustard


• Soy sauce


• Applesauce


• Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce


• Heinz ketchup

Oh, and this is Alien in a Pickle-Jar that's lived in my fridge for about... 3 or 4 years. Always fun to watch people's reactions when they stumble upon him.

(Will link this in the sidebar as Question of the Month later today.)

Red Bamboo and Pukk

So back to the NYC food-grubbery. It's been busy, so I got sidetracked.

The other two main places we ate at (but which I didn't take pics of) were Red Bamboo and Pukk.


I'd been to Red Bamboo on my first trip to NYC back in the day (that was probably at least 6 years ago or so)--I remembered it being hip and posh and kinda snazzy on the inside. I was wowed by the food, and I was wowed by the decor. Going back again, I was a tad bit underwhelmed. It wasn't quite so cute and posh as I remembered it--it was a bit more well-worn and not quite so sophisticated-looking. I was a little bit disappointed as it was E's first NYC-restaurant experience, and it wasn't quite what I remembered it. But he liked it quite a bit nonetheless.

For an appetizer, we got something that I'm not currently seeing on their on-line menu. It was faux-chicken-related, and it was rather tasty. Vaguery, yes--my apologies.

E's entree didn't blow me away at all--he liked it much more than I did: Creole Soul Chicken Panko breaded seasoned soy chicken served with sweet corn mashed potatoes, steamed baby carrots, zucchini and their classic mushroom gravy.

I got the BBQ ribs (which for some reason is ALSO not on their on-line menu) with a side of veggies and corn mashed-potatoes with mushroom gravy. The ribs were quite delish, but I found myself thinking I could probably come close to duplicating them at home. The best part of the meal was the mashed potatoes and gravy. Damn damn damn that was good and unexpected. I can't even pin down precisely what was tasty about them, but they were awesome.

Despite being not quite as impressed as my first time there, I must say, their vegan Peanut-Butter Cup Cheesecake though--holy mother of god. I've never tasted anything like it. It was rich and sexy, gloriously gloriously peanut-buttery, and decadent like you would not believe. Best vegan cheesecake I've tasted, no contest. And one of the best desserts I've had, vegan or otherwise. If you're there, and it's on special, you MUST order it. In fact, it'd be worth making a trip over there just to get your hands on some.

But alas--except for the cheesecake, I didn't get my socks knocked off like the first time around. Don't get me wrong, the food was very good. But it wasn't anything more extravagant or special than what I can get at Cleveland's Web of Life. Damn fine vegan-cooking, but nothing to make your toes curl with its NYC-awesomeness.

RED BAMBOO
140 W 4th St, New York 10012
Btwn 6th Ave & MacDougal St
Phone: 212-260-7049
Menu: HERE

Pukk on the other hand was the restaurant that I wasn't quite expecting to blow me away--it has kind of a standard veggie Thai-fare on their menu, though I was excited to find out that apparently everything was vegan. But lo and behold, they of course completely knocked my socks off (there was a lot of sock-knocking going on that weekend), perhaps because I wasn't expecting it at all. It's a very tiny (but cute space) with one of the cooler bathrooms I've ever been in (and I usually don't note the coolness of bathrooms). And its food was awesome awesome awesome.

We shared an appetizer (Stuffed Tofu--stuffed with cucumber, onion and carrot w. peanut chutney) which was delicate and yummy and just the right amount, and we each got a bowl of their Tom Yum Spicy Tofu (w. lemongrass, tofu and mushroom) soup which was the perfect level of spiciness that makes my nose starts to run and I *almost* can't handle it but can.

For my entree, I got the Steak Tofu (pan seared tofu w. peanut sauce) (I'd been debating, but then a woman sitting next to me got HER tofu-steak and it looked SO fricking good that I couldn't've picked anything else) and man was it impressive. The tofu was delicate, stacked on a bed of rice and veggies, with a rich and creamy peanut-sauce drizzled all over it. It seriously was one of the best things I'd eaten in quite a long time.

PUKK
75 1st Ave, New York 10003
Btwn 4th & 5th St
Phone: 212-253-2741
Menu: HERE

All in all, if (and when) I go back again, I'm gonna be ALL OVER Pukk. Really really good food that won't leave your wallet limp. Red Bamboo, on the other hand, would probably be my NYC-Web of Life if I lived there--some place that I go when I'm in the mood for some vegan homecooking, but not something I'd hold off on just for special occasions.