Now available: free Veg Blog stickers!

I picked up my special-ordered Tofurky roast from Healthy by Nature. Unfortuantely, I wasn’t very specific when ordering and only got the roast rather than the whole Vegetarian Feast (with drumsticks and Tofurky Jerky wishbones). Healthy by Nature, as I’ve mentioned before, is my favorite health food store in the area. Others I’ve been to have placed special orders and never gotten them in. HbN has a number of friendly employees and is always well-stocked with vegetarian/vegan items as well as organic fruits and vegetables. Plus they’re the only place in the area that carries the mint Tofutti Cuties. :)

It should be an interesting Thanksgiving: this will be our first family Thanksgiving that we’re hosting. I’m the only vegetarian in the bunch, though, so there will still be a turkey on our table, unfortunately.

I also picked up some gravy as well, which I tried last year and really enjoyed.

I was happy to realize this weekend that Regina’s Vegetarian Table is back on PBS on Sundays. It’s the only vegetarian cooking show on television, as far as I know, and after watching an episode, I’m always inspired to head to the kitchen and try something new.

Question: how come the Food Network doesn’t have a strictly vegetarian cooking show? Let’s get awful shows like Emeril to lower rotation and bring in a good vegetarian show for the millions of vegetarians in this country alone.

VegTV has a one-hour streaming program available. I watched the first 10 minutes, and while it had some good information, it was unbelievably cheesy and amateur. Kind of a shame really.

Perhaps what put me over the top was referring to soy as a “miracle food.” Yes—soy is pretty damn healthy and versatile, but the notion of a “miracle food” is absurd (as is “supergrain,” something I’ve seen quinoa referred to as). Overstating the benefits or versatility of soy (or any other product) will really do nothing more than to make vegetarianism look like a fad diet.

For an amusing take on genetically engineered foods, check out episode six of Cooking with Bigfoot. Funny stuff.

A definite thumbs up for “Tofu in Simmered Leeks and Tomatoes” from Vegetariana. I served it over organic whole wheat spaghetti and the result was a bright tasting dish seemingly made for autumn nights.

I just finished baking some almost-just-about-vegan brownies from Vegan Vittles (the first recipe I’ve tried since I got the book several weeks ago). It looks good, smells good, and tastes pretty darn fine, too. Nice and rich and only a tad dry.

Oh, why is it “almost-just-about” vegan? Because I used regular white sugar rather than unbleached cane sugar or organic sugar. Regular white sugar may or may not be run through animal bone char during processing.

Though I’ve been quite pleased with all the dishes I’ve tried from Nava Atlas’ Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet, I finally hit one that I didn’t care for: curried red lentil and spinach soup. Perhaps it’s because I’m not a huge fan of spinach. Or maybe it was that I didn’t have red lentils so I substituted organic green lentils. Whatever the case, the end result wasn’t pleasing to my palate, but at least I can know that it was mighty healthy.

Though the only companies that manufactured vegan marshmallows have stopped doing so, VegSource now has a relatively easy recipe.

Mad cow tests botched in ‘disastrous error’

“Scientists trying to find out whether the national sheep flock is infected with mad cow disease have spent the past four years testing the brains of cows instead of sheep.” D’oh…

This weekend, my family was in town. This, of course, meant that I’d be cooking for them and that they’d be treated to a new vegetarian dish of some sort. Last week I made soy sloppy joes and though my sister initially turned her nose up at it, she decided to give it a shot (she was pretty hungry, I guess). Not one to easily admit defeat, she actually said, “This… is really pretty good!” That’s like a five-star review in Zagats, folks.

Saturday night I cooked up some Veat, sliced and served on spaghetti with a garlic sauce (a serving suggestion from the box itself). While the Veat smelled like chicken right out of the package, it wasn’t terribly appealing in appearance until after it was cooked and sliced. The taste was also good, enough to impress my very-not-vegetarian grandmother.

As a side dish, I made up a very tasty fennel, orange, and pomegranate salad recipe from The Voluptuous Vegan (thanks, Alex!). I had never had fennel in anything other than seed form before, and it was quite good, especially combined with the very sweet flavor of pomegranate seeds (take note: pomegranates are in season now). The book seems to have a bunch of tasty sounding recipes, including an eggless potato latke recipe and a chocolate-peanut butter cake that sounds interesting.