When is no choice the perfect choice? Sutra

In what seems like another lifetime, my husband and I spent three weeks camping in Italy, Austria and the country formerly known as Yugoslavia. It was kind of our honeymoon. The reason we were in "Yugoslavia" was because we were sometimes traveling with another couple, the husband of which was a draft-card burning, rabble-rousing, SDS member who was researching the working conditions of factory workers in Eastern Europe, and was hoping to visit factories there. (Did he visit factories? I don't think so.) Whatever the reason we ended up there, it was beautiful and fascinating, and we loved our travels in that country. Anyway, we met up with our friends in Dubrovnik, and, taking a break from the tenting life, were eating out in a fairly fancy restaurant — cloth tablecloths and all. I was the first to order from the very extensive menu, and as I started naming my choices, each one was met with a statement from the waiter proclaiming, "sorry, we don't have that today." After three or four failed options, I finally said nicely, "Why don't you just tell us what you do have." Pointing to the menu he said, "we have this, this and this." It certainly made our selection process easier. (We weren't yet vegetarian on this trip or our choices would probably have been limited to bottled water.)

Now that we've been vegan for such a long time, I'm used to limited menu choices — grateful for ANY choices, sometimes. But we recently had dinner at a restaurant where we had NO choices (they will accommodate allergies, special diets), and it was heaven. It was perfection. We had dinner at Sutra in Seattle. Sutra is a tiny box of a restaurant with simple furnishings and bare-bones but cheerful atmosphere that serves a four-course, prix- fixe menu of exquisite, vegan food of the highest standards. Every presentation was gorgeous, and every bite blissful. The menu changes often, and reflects the seasonal availability of organic, local ingredients, with utmost respect paid to issues of sustainability and eco-responsibility. A prix-fixe menu is offered because it "respects food of the moment, [and] eliminates the need to stock, and most likely waste, food that may not be ordered." The food was prepared and served with love and grace, and we enjoyed every morsel.

Unfortunately, even with my fastest lens on the camera, it was too dark to photograph the food in the manner it deserved, and I was forced to use a flash, which isn't the most flattering way to photograph food. Next time I will sit at the bar where the light is much better.



We started the evening with roasted sunchoke kaffir lime and toasted pecan soup, with a pickled rhubarb, navel-blood orange and radish salad. I'm having trouble coming up with words to describe the mellow yet complex flavor of the perfectly creamy soup so let's just leave it to your imagination. I pine for all the sunchokes I didn't roast and make into soup instead of adding them to the compost.



The second course was miner's lettuce, Asian pear, tri-colored carrots and fried fiddlehead ferns served with wild-foraged blackberry habanero vinaigrette, and finished with toasted black sesame seeds. Oh my.



Course number three was cashew cheese, carnival squash and luna pumpkin stuffed into nettle mung bean crepes with smoked morel-sage demi-glaze served with wild-foraged wood sorrel, and finished with a balsamic reduction. I can only sigh at the memory.



For the fourth course, dessert, we enjoyed chocolate-(made with Theo's Madagascar chocolate), coconut-rose ice cream and raw cacao nib brittle. Rich and creamy — a perfect finale.

As they say on Lost, "we've got to go back."

Sage Café | Bamboo Garden

Louisiana style seitan steak and greens over grits, with southern style biscuits

Driving is not my thing; I just don't enjoy it, and it's especially upsetting when I don't know my surroundings well. Navigation has been a sore point ever since we arrived in Seattle six months ago, and I've been getting around mainly by walking or depending on others. But lately I've started trying harder to learn my way around by car. I find mastering directions especially unnerving here because:

a. Streets stop and start with no warning, and no logic that I can detect. A street will appear to end, then two miles away, it will appear again, stop, and then appear again in another few miles. This is ridiculous. There can be three incarnations of 100th St., none of them connected.

b. Numbered streets cross other numbered streets. I find myself cruising down 65th St. looking for 25th St, which intersects 65th. I turn onto 25th St. which soon turns into 24th, then becomes 23rd. Why?

c. It's pretty typical to have intersections with five or six streets radiating out in all directions and crazy angles but no clear signage indicating which way to go.

d. It's usually not possible to return the same way you went, necessitating learning two sets of directions for each trip.

e. The street signs are practically impossible to read, especially at night.

f. Parking can be a nightmare, not to mention expensive.

These are just some of the things I find confusing, and it probably doesn't help that we're living in a neighborhood known as Tangletown because of the crazy street patterns. Also, coming from a small, fairly contained city to a larger, more spread out one feels overwhelming to a directionally challenged person like me. Yes I have maps, and yes we have a GPS, but even the GPS gets confused and takes us to the wrong 100th St. so I don't trust it.

My husband went out of town for four days, and just before he left, I learned how to get to Capital Hill so I could meet my son and his girlfriend at their apartment on Sunday, and take them out for brunch. I drove my youngest son and myself there and back without getting lost. We went to Sage Café, which used to be Hillside Quickies — it's 100% vegan and the food is great, the service less so. It's been remodeled, and looks very different from the last time we were there.


Spicy Cajun mac & yease, southern fried seitan and gravy with grits

Let's talk about the food, first. In my past experiences with Hillside Quickies, the food was always slow to arrive, greasy, salty and so good that I decided not to worry about the other stuff. At Sage, the food arrived fairly quickly, didn't seem excessively greasy or salty and tasted great. Everyone was very happy with their selection. In fact, I'm thinking about mine right now and wishing I could have another plateful. I had the seitan steak and greens pictured at the top of the post and it was delectable. I'm a sucker for anything on the menu with greens, and this dish made me very happy. The seitan texture was excellent, the greens well-seasoned — even the cranberry preserves were great with just the right mix of sweet and tart. It was too much food for me but my youngest son took care of the leftovers.


Fall harvest French toast with squash scramble and pear pomegranate sauce

I heard rave reviews from my son about his squash scramble and French toast. The scramble had squash and tofu and was melt-in-your-mouth good. Everyone else seemed quite content with their food but there were concerns about what I'll describe as "feeling unwelcome."


French toast with caramelized bananas and walnuts, topped with maple syrup and walnuts

When we first walked into the café, one couple was finishing their meal, and there were three empty tables. No one greeted us. The new tables are very small, round and high with two high stools each. We put two tables next to each other for the four of us but seating was a little awkward, and there was no place to put coats since the stools had no backs. Although it was 11 a.m. Sunday, no one else came in the whole time we were there.

We ordered at the counter and sat down. Our food was brought to us without comment or even a smile, and no one ever came back to our table to see if everything was OK or if we needed anything else. The one coffee drinker wasn't offered a refill. When we were finally ready to leave, I had to go to the counter to ask if I could pay. When I handed over the cash ($51) it was accepted without a thank-you or even a smile, and when I put $10 into the tip jar it was not acknowledged. No one said, "good-bye, come again." It was weird and uncomfortable. Even "have a nice day" would have helped. I don't think we're a particularly needy group — probably the opposite —but the lack of hospitality was glaring. Will I go back? Probably. Because the food is vegan and so good I'll give it another shot hoping that our experience was exceptional, but I can see people getting turned off by the unfriendly atmosphere. Is that why it was so empty? How important is a friendly dining atmosphere to you?

.....................................................................

Bamboo Garden vegan Chinese restaurant



We recently had the pleasure of taking our 2-year-old granddaughter out to lunch at Bamboo Garden after spending the morning together at the Seattle Science Center. Bamboo Garden is an all-vegan Chinese restaurant with an extensive menu. This is where I get Golden Petals on Jade Platter - a dish of fried yuba and Chinese greens that I sometimes get cravings for. But since this was lunch, and Miss E was with us, we opted for the lunch specials. We had thick corn soup and combo-plates. My plate, above, had fried rice, green beans and broccoli, sweet and sour tofu and a spring roll, and my dining companions had similar plates but with "chicken" instead of tofu, and potstickers instead of a spring roll. I enthusiastically enjoyed my lunch.



Miss E enjoyed hers, too, but I held my breath as I watched spoonfuls of the thick yellow corn chowder disappear — and I don't mean into someone's mouth. But in spite of some spoon-related mechanical difficulties, a large amount of soup did make it into Miss E's mouth. And she didn't want me cutting small pieces of broccoli for her. "Want big one," she said, as she picked up a broccoli tree in her fist and gnawed it down to the stalk. Handfuls of rice went into her mouth as she made a substantial dent in her lunch portion and some of mine. The friendly waitress brought me a stack of napkins, and it took several to restore Miss E and her surroundings to their pre-lunch state.

The food was tasty and substantial, though not as interesting as some of the regular menu items. I like Bamboo Garden even though I think the food can be a little greasy and salty, and the sauces a little too thick. I don't go there expecting gourmet health food. The staff is very friendly and welcoming, the food usually tastes pretty good and the entire menu except for the fortune cookies, is vegan.

.....................................................................

Recipe testing (cont.)



Here is the latest recipe I tested for Celine and Joni's upcoming cookbook. It's linguine with green beans and walnut spinach pesto.



This is my assistant tester.

Weather-weary | raw dinner x 2

On Friday evening I was having a severe "allergic" reaction to the weather. Specifically, that would be a reaction to the unrelenting rain, and the accompanying dark and damp. Day after day after day of RAIN. In an unrelated but strangely ironic connection, even the pipes under the bathroom sink had begun to leak, requiring a visit from a plumber. (A tall, cute plumber with an earring, but that's irrelevant.) My "allergy" took the form of intense agitation. I was irritable, crabby, in a bad mood, and ready to scream. It occurred to me that when we lived in Wisconsin, surrounded by mountains of snow, and freezing cold, I seldom had a problem with the weather. I only seemed to remember the good weather, and dismissed the bad. My family from Philadelphia and Florida would ask me how I could stand so much cold and snow, and I'd reply that it wasn't as bad as it sounded. And it wasn't. At least there was SUN! And it was mostly dry so the snow was powdery. Honestly, I hardly ever minded. But lately I find that I can only remember the bad weather. I can't remember the sun. I'm feeling hostile and irritated. What is happening?



Anyway, Friday night I was too pissed to cook (or be nice to anyone else who might cook) so we went out to dinner. We had a gift card to Chaco Canyon, a restaurant we really like, that we decided to cash in. I needed a large quantity of vegetables, and this seemed like the place to get them. You can eat raw at Chaco, and that's what I decided to do. I had green coconut curry — a large bowl of raw veggies with a Thai influence. It was a lot of green! After I finished, I needed something a little more lighthearted so I had a raw brownie. Okay then. I wished I'd brought the camera — should have but was in too bad a mood when we left the house.



The problem I have with raw food in the winter is it leaves me feeling chilly. As we walked out of the restaurant, my husband was nice and warm and I was still cold — though slightly less angry. I decided that what I needed was some nice warm, freshly popped corn, so we headed home so I could try out a corn-popping method I'd seen in a podcast earlier in the day. We didn't bring our air-popper to Seattle, and I've been unhappy with the microwave experiments I've tried. I popped the corn on the stove in a large stainless mixing bowl, like this. It worked great but I thought it was too oily (it would have been too salty, too, but I only used a scant 1/4 teaspoon), and I felt bad about using all that foil. I think I'm off to Goodwill soon to look for an abandoned air popper.

So how, you're wondering, did I get the photos without the camera? Did I steal them off the Internet? I considered it but no, I wouldn't do that. The truth is we went back to Chaco last night and used the rest of the gift certificate just so I could illustrate this post. Told you I was losing it. I ordered exactly the same thing figuring that two days of raw food would probably do me good. The coconut curry was actually better the second night but the brownie not so much. The first night the brownie was creamy and delicious but the second night it was hard, and made me think I was eating chocolate-flavored coconut butter. Not good. It makes me shudder when I think about it.

I made the popcorn again, too, using one tablespoon of oil instead of three, and less than 1/4 teaspoon of salt. I think with less oil you have to pay closer attention so the kernels don't burn, but I liked the result much better. Try it both ways.
(Thank you M.C.!)

................................................................

Please help
I can't write a post without encouraging all the generous bloggers out there to make a contribution to help the people of Haiti recover from the horrendous earthquake. Here's a list of trusted places that will put your money to good use. Even a small donation will help.

The American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) announces its top-rated list of charities involved in Haitian earthquake relief efforts. AIP, a leading charity watchdog that issues letter grade (A+ to F) ratings of nonprofit groups, identifies the following charities, which are providing aid to the victims that receive an “A” or “B” grade based on the portion of their budget going to program services and their fundraising efficiency. Contact the organizations below for information of specific relief operations now underway.

• Action Against Hunger (A)

• American Jewish World Service (A)

• American Red Cross (A-)

• American Refugee Committee (A)

• AmeriCares (A)

• CARE (A)

• Catholic Relief Services (A)

• Church World Service (A)

• Doctors Without Borders – USA (A)

• Habitat for Humanity International – N.O.

• International Medical Corps (A+)

• International Rescue Committee (A+)

• Lutheran World Relief (A)

• Medical Teams International (B+)

• Mennonite Central Committee (A)

• Mercy Corps (A-)

• Operation USA (A)

• Oxfam-America (A-)

• Partners in Health (A+)

• Project Concern International (A)

• Save the Children (A)

• Salvation Army (A)

• UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) (A+)

• World Concern (Program of Crista Ministries) (A)
  

• World Vision (B+)

Turnpike Pizza/daiya cheese/tester recipes/frito misto

Turnpike Pizza with a homemade side of broccolini and seitan.

Sometimes things just don't turn out the way you expect. I had good intentions of making frito misto for the second time last night to try to improve my results so I could post a recipe, but I waited too late to start cooking, and lack of sleep caught up with me. "Can't we just get a pizza or something," I moaned, as I tried to picture myself washing, cutting , mixing and cooking. Now, how many times has that happened to you? Be honest.

We could have gotten pizza from Pizza Pi, a known source of vegan-only pizzas, but I wanted to see if the pizza place down the street could actually come through with the vegan pizza they promised when they first opened. He ordered. We waited. He went to pick up the pie.

I took one look at the pizza, covered with a thick layer of melted cheese, and groaned, "This can't be vegan. I'm not eating it."

"But they said it was 100% vegan. They swore it was," said my husband. Then I noticed a spot of flattened, crispy cheese, and remembered Daiya cheese gets like that if over-heated. (The pizza really is made with Daiya.) So I took a bite. This is the pizza that floated before my eyes the day I decided to be vegan — back in the days when I used to order EXTRA cheese. But that was then and this is now. Now, this thick melted layer of cheesy, stretchy richness was just too much ... too much ... too much like CHEESE. It made me feel a little sick. I realized I'd come to prefer my pizza covered in VEGGIES with just a smidgen of "cheese." This pizza had too few veggies and too much cheese. (My son, who got the cold leftovers when he got home from work, thought it was really good.)

And then there was the crust. Turnpike Pizza is promoted as "real New York-style pizza" or at least "real East Coast pizza." It's been an awfully long time since I've had any such thing but the crust brought back memories not of pizza, but of Philadelphia soft pretzels! In fact, it tasted just like a soft pretzel. It was very white and very smooth. Maybe smooth is the wrong word but it wasn't the bubbly, scorched and chewy brick-oven crust of my dreams.

Okay, I realize I may have just described what you consider a fantastic pizza, and if you live in Seattle you might want to rush over to Turnpike Pizza in Green Lake and order one. What do I know.

....................................................................

Testing recipes for Celine and Joni



We've been testing some really delicious recipes lately. Above you see BBQ beans that my son and I loved. My husband liked them but was, in my opinion, unaccountably less enthusiastic than I. Believe me, they were great.



Everyone, including unsuspecting company, loved these. They look like ordinary potato wedges but they're not. They're special and addictive. Amazing and fabulous.



Above you see the BBQ beans, the wedgies and a side of kale. Ever since I read about beans on toast at Haiku Tofu I'd been wanting some, and the BBQ beans were just perfect atop a slice of toasted sourdough. I think I'll keep to myself the number of times I enjoyed this combo.



This is an excellent lentil and quinoa salad. It surprised me by being much more delicious than I imagined.



Oh my. I love kale and eat it a lot, but this was amazing. Buy the cookbook when it comes out just for this smoky dish!



These muffins had both carrots and sweet potato. My granddaughter gobbled hers up.

....................................................................

New version of an old favorite



We love the sweet chili lime tofu with collards recipe from "Vegan Yum Yum" but when my husband proposed making it the other night I said I'd had tofu for lunch, and didn't want to eat soy again. He was disappointed until I suggested making it with chickpeas, instead. It was just as great with the beans, and served over rice.



Here's my first frito misto effort - not quite good enough to post the recipe. The cauliflower crust was a little too grainy, and the sauce too tomato-y. When I added the sauce to the cauliflower, the grainy quality disappeared and the the cauliflower tasted really good - but not good enough. I'll try again tonight.

....................................................................

Spam attack (the electronic variety)

I've decided to add a word recognition step to leaving comments because I recently encountered some objectionable spam. Someone using the name Disa left a large number of links to porn sites on a number of my posts. The links were in Chinese characters so I used Google translator to translate the phrases. I apologize to anyone who may have followed the links to pornographic pages before I saw and removed them. I hope this won't discourage anyone from leaving comments - I love reading your thoughts.

....................................................................

You can enter a comment to win a copy of "Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World" at Vegan Family Style.

What we did (and ate) on our winter vacation ... part 2 / apple cake

Whenever we're in the Fort Lauderdale area, we always dine at the internationally known vegan restaurant, Sublime. In the past I've noted that Sublime tries very hard to appeal to non-vegetarians by simulating familiar meat-and-chicken-based dishes instead of focusing on the creative use of fresh vegetables, but as the only veg restaurant for miles around, I can understand their position. They've managed to be successful as a vegan restaurant in a steak and seafood world. And I really liked their new menu, which seemed to have more veggie-centered choices.

Sublime is a beautiful and calming space with very good food, and the waitstaff is friendly and helpful. Dining there is always enjoyable, and our latest visit was no exception, though we started the evening with a slight mishap. My sister-in-law had postcards (which were expiring the next day) offering $10 off two entrées, and we planned to use them to defray the high cost of eating at Sublime. As we arrived, my brother realized that he'd forgotten to bring the coupons. We went back and forth about whether to mention this to our server, but when the restaurant owner came to our table to greet us, we told her about the oversight. At first she seemed very pleased that her postcard had pulled us into the restaurant, and appeared to be considering what to do. Then she chirped, "I guess you'll just have to come back again tomorrow," and quickly took off. Oh well. It wouldn't have cost her very much to create a little seasonal good will but I guess we all make our choices.

For starters we shared an order of frito misto, shown at the top of the page. This is crispy cauliflower with sweet chili sauce, and it's addictively good. I've tried to duplicate this at home in the past and was very successful, but unfortunately I didn't write down the recipe so I'll have to try again.



For my entrée I chose the portobella stack with sautéed greens and mashed cauliflower. I'm a sucker for portobella dishes and, besides, this entrée came with the most vegetables. The smallish mushroom came layered with spinach, tomato, thinly sliced potato and a brown sauce. It was really good.



My husband chose a salad and the "four sides" entrée option, and he picked barbecued tofu, asparagus, coleslaw and mashed cauliflower. He enjoyed his dinner.



My brother and s-i-l shared a caesar salad and a "steak" sandwich with oven sweet potato fries. The salad came with several small pieces of fried artichoke hearts, which I thought was very clever. I think all four of us enjoyed this year's visit to Sublime (except for the coupon mishap) and will return again when we're back in the area. The food is organic and vegan, and all profits go towards animal welfare.



After dinner, we visited a street in Pompano Beach where every house on both sides of the street participates in extreme Christmas decorating excess. The pictures really don't do justice to the mind-boggling display of light and color.









All vacations must come to an end, so on New Year's Eve we left for the airport at 7:30 a.m. We were conscious of potentially increased security measures following the underwear-explosives incident on the airliner from Amsterdam. I packed very carefully, trying to minimize the chances of having myself or my luggage searched. Security was surprisingly fast and easy in spite of the fact I totally forgot to remove and display my one quart plastic zip-bag of personal explosives. No one called me out or even removed my empty stainless steel water bottle from my backpack pocket to shake it. This seemed rather slack considering the scrutiny I've encountered in the past.



Anyway, we got home in time to have a New Year's Eve dinner with our son, d-i-l, granddaughter and their friends. My daughter-in-law cooked a meal entirely from The Urban Vegan cookbook and it was delicious. Above you can see my plate with chickpea paprikash and spaetzle, snap peas in garlic and olive oil, and salad greens with croutons.



For a brunch at our kids' house on Sunday I made black-eyed-pea salsa (Texas caviar) from this recipe except I cooked the beans from scratch, and used parsley instead of cilantro to accommodate my favorite cilantro-hater.


No slivered almonds on or in my cake (cake #2)

I also made an apple cake from Bryanna Clark Grogan's blog but with several alterations. I'll give you the excellent original recipe (with permission), and then a second recipe with my changes. I ran out of sugar when I made it the first time so used cinnamon and a little agave for the topping, but that results in a pale-looking (but still delicious) cake. Sugar works much better. I also added dried cranberries with the apples, and no almonds on top due to my dislike for nuts in cake. The cake was delicious but tasted too sweet for my warped taste buds so I revised it a bit when I made it the second time. It still tastes sweet to me but everyone else loves it so I think I'll leave it alone for now.

Original recipe:
BRYANNA’S RUSTIC APPLE-ALMOND CAKE
makes 1/ 9x13" cake

Dry mix

• 1 and 3/4 cups wholewheat pastry flour PLUS 1/4 c. oat bran
• OR 2 cups wholewheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 cups chopped apples (I don't peel them if they are organic)
  

Wet mix

• 1/3 cup smooth unsweetened applesauce
• 3 Tbs. oil
• 1 cup unbleached organic granulated sugar
• 7/8 cup nondairy milk

Topping

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 cup slivered, blanched almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13" cake pan.

1. Whisk together the dry mix ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.
2. Stir in the apples.
3. In a blender, blend the wet mix ingredients until smooth.
4. Mix the Wet Mix into dry mix, stirring as briefly as possible.
5. Spread into prepared pan.
6. Mix the topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the cake. Bake 35 minutes. Test for doneness.
7. Cool on a rack and serve right out of the pan, cut into squares.

..................................................................




Apple-cranberry cake (adapted from Bryanna's rustic apple-almond cake)
This cake is so easy and delicious — wonderfully soft and moist — it's destined to become a new favorite at our house!

Dry mix

• 2 cups white wholewheat flour
  
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp spice mix* (or cinnamon) see note below
  
• 2+ cups apple, chopped into 1/2" pieces (Don't peel if organic) (I used two med.-lg. apples)
• 1 cup whole cranberries (mine were frozen), each berry cut in half or 1/2 cup dried
  

Wet mix

• 1/3 cup smooth unsweetened applesauce
• 3 Tbs. oil
• 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup unbleached organic granulated sugar (evaporated cane juice) If using dried cranberries, the cake is very sweet. If you like cake less sweet, use 1/2 cup.
  
• 7/8 cup nondairy milk or amazake (Amazake gives great texture.)
  

Topping

• 1/4 cup evaporated cane juice
  
• 1 tsp. spice mix* (or cinnamon) see note below
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13" cake pan.

1. Whisk together the dry mix ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.
2. Stir in the apples and cranberries.
3. In a blender, blend the wet mix ingredients until smooth. (I just beat them with a spoon.)
   
4. Fold the wet mix into dry mix, stirring as briefly as possible. The batter will be very thick.
   
5. Spread evenly into prepared pan.
6. Mix the topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Sprinkle half the topping evenly over the cake. Swirl in gently with a knife. (Don't knock yourself out with the swirling; the batter is too thick for real swirling.)
7. Sprinkle on the rest of the topping.
   
8. Bake 35 minutes. Test for doneness.
9. Cool on a rack and serve from the pan, cut into squares.

Note: *I used speculoos spice mix from Seitan is my motor (except mine has allspice instead of cloves, and extra coriander) to flavor the cake. (to make a batch: 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ground allspice, 1/4 tsp. ground cardamom, 1/4 tsp. ground coriander, 1/8 tsp. ground ginger, 1/4 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg) Follow this link to find out more. I had previously mixed a lot to keep handy with my other spices so it was right there waiting for me when I made the cake.

What we did (and ate) on our winter vacation ... part 1

We're finally back in rainy Seattle after a wonderful week in warm, sunny — SUNNY — Florida. We were gone for eight days, returning New Year's Eve. I really hate being confined to a mini airplane seat for hours so was reluctant to go so far away, but am so glad I did. (The plane ride from here to Atlanta took 5-1/2 hours, then it was another 2 hours from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale. Ugh.) We spent a whole day getting there and another whole day returning.




The view from our room

We stayed in Delray Beach for the first five nights at a wonderful hotel called Crane's Beach House. It's very "Key West" I'm told. It's like escaping to a private island; once you enter the hotel grounds, the sights and sounds of the city disappear, and you're surrounded by palm trees and waterfalls. We had a one-bedroom suite furnished in white wicker and red clay tiles with a living room, full kitchen, bedroom, and dining area. (Tourism is down this year making for much better room rates so we upgraded from our efficiency after the first night. We didn't arrive until after 1 a.m. so the first night wasn't worth the added cost.) For the last two nights we stayed in Pompano Beach with my brother and sister-in-law.

We visited with my 92-year-old aunt and 95-year-old uncle, my late-father's dear friend, Rose and my brother and s-i-l. We also got to spend time with vacationing friends from Madison. In between, and mixed into the socializing, there were beach walks, swimming, eating, movie watching, treadmill walking, after-Christmas bargain shopping and just plain relaxing. On our last day, I even fit in an appointment for acupuncture and full-body massage with my sister-in-law's practitioner.

The Inter Coastal as seen from the bridge

Our hotel was a block from the beach, and a short walk to downtown Delray Beach. To get downtown, we had to cross over the Intercoastal Waterway on a draw bridge — very scenic.


The Colony Hotel

Above you can see a wonderful renovated hotel on the main drag. It has a large front porch where people gather to have drinks or just to relax, and a fabulous lobby filled with inviting furniture and an atmosphere that makes me think of The Great Gatsby. We've never stayed there but we always stop in to gawk.

While not the most vegan-friendly place in the world, Delray Beach and the surrounding towns did provide us with a week's worth of reasonable eating. On our first and last nights we had dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's condo. They always go out of their way to make sure there is plenty of delicious food for us to eat.



Here's a somewhat demolished spread of hors d'oeuvres that we dove into before I remembered the camera. It was a collection of dips, spreads, salsa, olives, raw veggies and chips.



My s-i-l was feeling her "Martha" vibe when she set the table. Her settings are always elegant.



My plate holds tofu and rice, kale-sesame salad, broccoli and brussels sprouts.



On our last night we had pasta with mushrooms, and green beans.



We found a vegetarian falafel stand in a high-end shopping mall (Town Center in Boca Raton) that was amazing. It's called Maoz Vegetarian and is part of a chain. The first time we were there I didn't have my camera so I can only describe my lunch. I had a falafel with broccoli and cauliflower, chopped tomato and cucumbers, and tahini sauce on whole wheat pita. The pita was almost fluffy - the best I've ever tasted - and the veggie combination, though it sounds weird, was great. You can choose from a large assortment of unusual toppings for your sandwich. You can also just choose the salad bar. The sandwich above was from our second visit when they were out of whole wheat pita.



We discovered a cool pizza place in Delray Beach, Mellow Mushroom, that we could walk to, and we went there for dinner the evening we spent with our friends from Madison. It was packed and crazy noisy so we ordered pizza and salad to go, and took it back to our hotel where we could relax and have a conversation without shouting. Our pizza didn't have cheese but it had everything else — sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, peppers, mushrooms, onions, olives, tomatoes, broccoli, artichoke hearts and tofu. The sun-dried tomatoes gave the pizza a rich depth that completely erased the need for a cheesy topping. (If you prefer not to use cheese substitutes when making pizza at home, you might want to try adding sun-dried tomatoes to your pie.) The real surprise was the memorable whole wheat crust — perfectly bubbly, charred and chewy.


Sweet Tomatoes


Sweet Tomatoes

One evening we went to Sweet Tomatoes all-you-can-eat buffet in Boca Raton for soup and humongous make-your-own salads. In addition to all the usual salad ingredients, they always have interesting things like raw, shredded butternut squash. Sweet Tomatoes requires a bit of patience if the line is long, but it's inexpensive, filling and vegan-friendly.



I was excited to discover a Chinese restaurant in Boca with a separate vegetarian menu, but we were all disappointed with our food. It doesn't look bad in the photo, but it wasn't too great. The front page of the veg menu had a whole discourse about the benefits of miso soup, and a long statement about how they catered to vegetarians. I ordered seaweed soup and it didn't taste like it had any miso in it. It had that fake-stock taste, if you know what I mean. The seaweed was delicious but every mouthful included a small dose of sand, so I gave up on eating it. Bleh. My spring roll was so greasy I peeled the outer skin off so I could eat the yummy cabbage filling. The main dish was okay but not something I'd look forward to eating again, but I doubt we'll ever go back to this restaurant.

This is getting too long, and I've got a bunch more photos to post so I'll call this part 1, and get the rest done asap. Coming up in part 2 will be our evening at Sublime Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, and lots more. But first I leave you with a little warning for the new year. Always check your back.



Above is an unnamed mystery guest who had just given himself an unfortunate d-i-y haircut before coming to the party. I photographed the back of his head so he could see why everyone was laughing. It was a good thing he was among friends, and hadn't gone out in public before corrections could be made. : )