thanksgiving

let's just cut to the chase--

thanksgiving came and it was fast and furious. maybe because it followed one of the busiest weeks ever or maybe because my plans were up in the air until the last minute, but this year i didn't have a menu all planned out like past years. i kept waiting for inspiration to strike, but there just wasn't time..i bought my tofurkey a week in advance because that is what i have eaten on thanksgiving every year since...ever since i knew there was such a thing as a tofurkey. and because i love it. so don't make fun of me.

but the sides...what to make? i stopped by whole foods on thanksgiving day, because what better time to start thinking about that evening's meal and it was like everything just fell into place. stuffed  mushrooms--yes! huge gorgeous sweet potatoes-of course! i already had some baby brussel sprouts at home and a bag of mixed root veggies from trader joe's, so i knew i was in business. and of course, pumpkin pie. so without further ado, my thanksgiving dinner menu:

STUFFED CRIMINI AND BUTTON MUSHROOMS:

preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1/2 lb crimini mushrooms (as big as you can find)

1/2 lb white button mushrooms "                    "

2 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp good balsamic vinegar  

   

rinse well and using your fingers, carefully pull off the stems leaving a hole in the underside of the cap.

saute mushrooms in 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar and 1 tsp of olive oil until they are tender.

filling:

2/3 cup chopped portobella mushrooms

1/2 cup chopped leeks

1/4 chopped cippiolini or vidalia onions

1 tsp of olive oil

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 dried cranberries

1 tbsp fresh chopped sage

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

5-10 crushed whole wheat or plain crackers

saute portobellas, leeks, and onions in a tsp of olive oil until they are soft.

transfer above ingredients into a blender or mixer and add cranberries, walnuts, sage, salt & pepper. add 1 tsp of olive oil and blend until smooth (chunks of cranberry are fine).

with a spoon, fill holes in the mushroom caps with filling and top with crushed crackers.

back in oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

TWICE BAKED SWEET POTATOES

preheat oven to 350 degrees

2 large sweet potatoes

3 tbsp maple syrup

2 tsps butter or butter substitute

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp sea salt

soft goat cheese (to taste)

cook sweet potatoes in oven for 40 minutes, or until soft. (you can also cheat and microwave for 30 min if your oven is occupied with a pie and a tofurkey like mine was.)

using a spoon, scoop out the insides of the potatoes into a bowl, leaving the skins intact.

to the bowl add maple syrup, butter, spices, and sea salt. stir until smooth.

add the filling back into the shells. top with goat cheese (or stir goat cheese into the filling mix if you prefer a subtler goat cheese flavor).

bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

serves 2 hungry people with lots of left-overs. increase the recipe exponentially to the # of potatoes.

BRUSSEL SPROUTS WITH BALSAMIC & NUTRITIONAL YEAST

2 cups of brussel sprouts (i found mini ones that were adorable, but any size works)

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tsp olive oil

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tsp of salt

1 tsp of pepper

1/2 tsp of chipotle (optional)

2 tbsp pomegranate seeds

in a bowl, mix all of the ingredients except the sprouts and pomegranate seeds. trim brussel sprouts and start cooking them on low heat with olive oil in a pan. add sauce and make sure sprouts are evenly coated. cook approx 10 minutes or until sprouts are tender. place in a bowl and add pomegranate seeds. mix so they are evenly distributed.

MIXED ROOT VEGETABLES WITH ROSEMARY

ok, i cheated on this one.

trader joe's sells a bag of sliced and cubed butternut squash, yams, and turnips that you can cook in the microwave. so i did. it took 10 minutes.

after cooking them (for 10 minutes) i put them in a dish with 1 tsp of olive oil and mixed a dash of sea salt, pepper, and fresh sprigs of rosemary and tossed.

it was delicious. feel free to copy if you can get to tj's or do it the hard way.

TOFURKEY ROAST  WITH ACCOMPANYING GRAVY

what can i say...it is my favorite but i would never dream of taking any credit for such an ingenious vegetarian product. but i will give thanks it exists and pray it has spared many a turkey's life.

and dinner was served. and it was good. and it filled us for many days to follow.

thanksgiving eve OR where is my mind?

when i was in high school i was a hippie--not the protesting, fighting for what what you believe in, burning your bra kind of hippie--no, i was the 90's version, which meant i had an inexplicable affinity for all things corduroy, wore my birkenstocks a few too many weeks past summer, and really loved the band phish. i went to several of their concerts between the years 1994-1998 and have pretty good memories of dancing with friends on grassy concert lawns and munching on "phatty" burritos in parking lots afterwards. (i'm pretty sure burritos were the actual currency used by the people following phish on tour.)  one thing i remember well about those shows was entering the gates of any of the concerts and passing by a group of (far dirtier than i) hippies begging you to "miracle" them. "getting miracled" was a term invented by phish fans used to describe the experience of getting a free ticket to one of their shows. it was a rare occurrence, but a mutual moment of ecstatic giving and receiving that would stay etched into the few remaining brain cells that hippie would have forever and ever.

fortunately, my days of jam bands and edible hemp clothing are long gone, but on thanksgiving eve a turn of events occurred that i can only describe as getting "double miracled."

the evening started off with comp tickets to after miss julie on broadway (miracle #1).  my boyfriend and i have a friend who is understudying sienna miller, so we were lucky enough to see this interpretation of strindberg's classic on the great white way. i had heard some poor reviews so i didn't have high expectations, but was happily surprised. i didn't find huge differences in the script other than this version is set in 1945 london and the text is much more contemporary than strindberg's swedish play written in 1888. miss julie remained impossibly neurotic as ever, her implied suicide (i know, spoiler) at the end was still baffling to me, and that part where they kill the bird was just as disturbing. you think your relationship is dysfunctional--read miss julie or go see this play and you'll be feeling as wholesome as the brady's in no time. still, there is undeniable chemistry and sexual tension between sienna miller's julie and jonny lee miller's john that is as engrossing as it uncomfortable to watch. i thought all the actors did an excellent job crafting their equally schizophrenic characters and the 90 minute version makes for a tightly wound extended vignette of pure calamity.

after the show we went to a nearby bar for drinks with friends to discuss the play and enjoy the fact we didn't have to wake up for work the next morning because of thanksgiving. after being there for a little while we noticed that the bar had filled up with a group of cool looking, well-dressed, middle-aged folks.  someone in our circle got wind that the party was actually legendary rock band, the pixies and their entourage. i had spent many a night in college rocking out to surfer rosa, and my boyfriend, mark, is a super-fan. somehow the two of us found ourselves excitedly chatting with the pixies manager and for some reason (possibly to end the conversation with two very wide-eyed youngsters or maybe just moved by the spirit of the holidays) he pulled out a stack of tickets to their 1 am show and handed us two. for free. he totally miracled us.

a few hours later mark and i found ourselves in the side box of the hammerstein ballroom looking down on hundred of fans pushing to get closer while we enjoyed the comfort of actual seats and the space to stretch out. the concert was fantastic. the pixies were celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their album doolittle, and they played the whole album in full, in order. frank black, who is no longer a young man, has managed to preserve one of the most musically flexible voices i have ever heard and remains remarkably on key even when he is delivering one of his trademark wails. kim deal, who i worshipped in the breeders even before i knew the pixies were a band, grounded the show with her husky back-up vocals and signature bass lines. the pixies, who are far more energetic than i am at 3 am, played several encores but finished the show with my one of my personal college anthems, where is my mind, which was the best concert finale ever.

exhausted but giddy, mark and i wandered towards the subway on sixth avenue and found ourselves face to face with one of the marching bands rehearsing for that morning's macy's parade. as we stood in the center of herald square and watched, i think we were both thinking how lucky we are to live in this city. i have to say it was a perfect night. happy thanksgiving--we give thanks for you, new york.

slowing down

this past week was so busy i didn't have time to write or cook or clean my little apt..it was a blur of late hours spent working and several days straight of pizza and leftover indian food. yuck.

what a relief it was to wake up yesterday to a beautiful sunny day and the luxury to finally SLOW DOWN.

i'm making some big changes because i've realized how important it is to me to find happiness in all aspects of my life. i came to the realization that the 40 + hours a week  i spend working at my job are not making me happy, so it's time to move on.

i get so much joy from spending time with my friends, making things, cooking, taking pictures, writing this blog..there must be a way to take the things i love doing or find something else that makes me equally happy and incorporate it into my work life. time to find out...wish me luck.

on another note, this weekend everyone was talking about their thanksgiving plans and looking ahead to winter holidays. it really is a wonderful time of year. soon there will be beautiful white lights at night and colorful window displays. every year i promise myself i won't go crazy shopping for gifts, but like clockwork my inner pavlovian consumer kicks in the second i see those holiday lights go up and i start lusting after the perfect...everything.

one of my favorite things about december in new york are the holiday markets that go up in union square, columbus circle, and bryant park. these markets offer hundreds of vendors with gift options for everyone you've ever known and then some. if you have the shopping stamina, you can go spend a few hours there and get all of your gifts in one shot...i'll admit i have never been able to resist treating myself to a new necklace or pair of earrings there--they have the best jewelry and great deals.

i was happy to find out yesterday at the brooklyn flea market in ft greene that despite this past weekend being their last in brooklyn, they will be packing it up and migrating to an indoor space on the island of manhattan for the winter with their own holiday market called gifted. it's going to be on 4th & lafayette, and it will feature all of the same wonderful vendors that have been spending their summer and fall weekends in ft greene and dumbo. i love this market and have spent many a saturday afternoon grazing through their selection of vintage clothes and one-of-a kind antiques and sampling many of the delicious local treats they offer. one of my favorite foodie vendors is local pickle hero purveyor, rick's picks, who fearlessly add unconventional ingredients to their brine, like wasabi to green beans, smoked paprika to okra, and pink peppercorns to asparagus. so addictive...

i'm also a fan of amazing vegan chocolate company fine & raw, who get bonus points for their injection of silliness into the ingredient list (and also for being on a mission to save the world one cocoa bean at a time).

i think my favorite thing  i saw at the flea on saturday was this vintage blue prom dress that looked like it was hanging from the sky.

as long as we're on the subject of gifts, i am going to take this opportunity to start my wish list. this list will probably continue for the next several weeks, but let's kick it off with this water tower humidifier from annie's blue ribbon general store, one my favorite shops ever and always my go-to for fun gifts. while i was there, i also decided i wanted one of these fish clocks, because...because i just do.

i am also lusting after this camera with instant film back for polaroid style pictures from urbanoutfitters.com

and anything from this store in brooklyn (whose website does not do it justice so if you are in carroll gardens, check it out).

happy almost tofurky day!

considering food

this past week i felt like every time i picked up a magazine or a newspaper, someone was writing about food. there are many different reasons to write about food, just as there are many different ways to think about it.  the more i read, the more i began to consider this.  i was struck by the paradox of two articles in this week's new yorker. first was an article profiling legendary los angeles food critic jonathan gold, who with an almost obsessive fervor and a sixth sense has a talent for revealing the most authentic dishes in the most innocuous places. he is revered for his writing style as much as he is for his pious dedication to his quest for the next delicious discovery. his writing is so witty and colorful that reading one his reviews can be more satisfying than tasting the food itself. in fact he is so good at what he does that he received the pulitzer prize in 2007 for criticism, making him the first food critic to ever win this award. i found it utterly compelling to read about his conquest of pig's ear, followed by noodles, dumplings, wontons, pork and fish at a mini-mall sichuan restaurant, only to be followed by more noodles from a different establishment. i could never endure such epic eating, but there is something fascinating about his itinerant lifestyle and relentless tasting.

as soon as i finished the article about jonathan gold, i flipped a few pages and read a review of jonathan safran foer's latest book, eating animals, which unlike his other books is non-fiction. safran contemplates the cognitive dissonance between loving one's pet and consuming an animal for dinner. he concedes that there is truly no simple explanation for why humans can become so attached to their animals as to consider them part of their one family, and not have any moral pangs about eating meat. previous to writing the book, foer dug deep into his own conflicted relationship with eating animals, and after careful examination, came out convinced that it is not justifiable. after reading a few paragraphs about foer's voyage into the underbelly of livestock farms and slaughterhouses, i found myself guilt ridden for having enjoyed the jonathan gold article so much. why, i wondered, did i just take so much pleasure in the description of gold's mass consumption of animals? i have made my own decisions based on my  conclusions about what i deem to be senseless cruelty, and yet somehow i forgot my own scruples the minute i picked up a well written food article. my own hypocrisy became startling to me in that moment. why do i enjoy shows like no reservations so much but would rather eat dirt than a hamburger? i used to be a vegan but now i occasionally eat fish, and yet i would look down on someone who might refer to themselves as a vegetarian because they "only eat red meat." i find the word 'pescatarian" abhorrent, but it probably has more to do with the shame of my own hypocrisy than the obnoxiousness factor of the word itself. i don't think i need to become enraged every time i see or hear about someone eating meat, but it did seem odd in that moment to come to the realization that my own values did not  trump the vicarious pleasure i was taking in reading about someone else's carnivorous adventure.

the undeniable correlations between  livestock production and the destruction of the environment, the danger of consuming hormone-riddled animals and the senseless suffering of so many creatures are certainly strong arguments for giving up meat, but they are by no means new revelations. why, with so much strong documentation out there explaining in detail what actually happens to the animals, to the planet, and to our own bodies is it so easy for most people to eat without consideration of what it is they are actually consuming?

this same week i read an article in the new york times eating & drinking section about sam kass, chef to the obama's and advocate for  locally grown nutritious food. like mrs. obama, sam is an advocate for eating healthy, sustainable food and believes an education about nutrition should extend into the school cafeteria menu. unlike previous chefs in the white house, kass is more than a cook; he is a nutritional advisor to the obamas and acts as a liason between the white house and non-profit organizations that could potentially engage in government food initiatives. kass works actively on behalf  of the white house agenda to spread a message of eating sustainable and organic foods (we all know how much attention the white house garden received) and his endeavors are as blue hill chef dan barber put it, helping us "think about food in a different way." i can only hope that with this pursuit coming from such a conspicuous place, some of the efforts the white house are making will actually trickle down into the collective psyche of the american people and cause us to consider where our food has come from. in michael pollan's the omnivore's dilemma, he talks about the origin of food such as corn, which started out simply as a staple for so many cultures, but has now been processed into unrecognizable forms in countless ingredients with hard to pronounce names like maltodextrin and xantham.

everyone has their own philosophies about what they decide to put in their mouths, but i think if we can try to spend a little more time thinking about what it is we eat, we can learn a lot about ourselves and our food.

*the photo at the top of the page is from here

home sweet home

i had one of those warm and fuzzy brooklyn weekends. actually, it happens a lot. i love it here, and those days when i have no other obligations but to enjoy my neighborhood at my leisure, it makes me really happy. is there any place more inviting, more quirky, more stylish, more cozy, more sure of itself than brooklyn? maybe, but i haven't found it yet.

here's a few pics i took on sat near my apt. it was a perfect fall day.

i took my sister to the farmers market at grand army plaza. we snacked on foccacia with watermelon radishes and artichokes and drank fresh raspberry apple cider.

we walked from prospect hts. back to cobble hill, admiring the sights and flavors of the neighborhoods.

we made out pretty well with free thanksgiving menu samples from here

  eating locally is responsible and delicious!

i love atlantic avenue for it's mix of old and new...antique shops interspersed with high end boutiques like recent arrival, jonathan adler.

sunday started with delicious coffee from naidre's, an amazing little coffee shop that is a block away from me but i hadn't ventured into until today! i can't believe i have been living so close to a place that sells tofu cream cheese and pumpkin spice coffee for almost three months and didn't know it. i have a feeling i'm going to be spending a lot of time here.

mark and i took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather at the brooklyn botanical gardens. if it's global warming, we might as well enjoy it while we can.

and then sometimes you have one of those moments where you feel so lucky to be standing where you are it takes your breath away...