A Seamless Tradition (Transition)

The last few weeks of winter are passing us by. It's currently snowing and it looks beautifully white one last time until some warm weather washes it all away. Spring will be welcomed by all, especially by New Yorkers, who have the innate need to complain about the weather. I am very obviously a transplant. Anyhow, I have not had a huge appetite (weird!) so I haven't been super inspired in the kitchen and have resorted to either old favorites or takeout. Here's a pic of some Indian takeout from a place down the block with a vegan menu:

Aloo Gobi and Veggie Samosas

We have been making the smokehouse chickpea salad from Salad Samurai over and over and over again lately. I usually make a sweet potato "on the side" but it always turns out to be a second dinner. This one is doused in "authentic guacamole" because I roasted chiles and chopped tomatoes to fold into this guac. Also, I didn't mash it as fine as usual. See? Authenticity.

A quinoa and tofu caesar salad is always a go-to for us. I have eaten this salad four thousand times. It is still good. My carnivorous friend asked me for my tofu recipe and I was shocked and my little vegan heart returned from stone to it's warm and beating state.

Every year I ask for chocolates from Lagusta's Luscious for valentines day and I finally got them!! I got the "box of hearts" which contains three types of caramels and 2 types of cream-filled hearts. The top row is my fave, which are chocolate caramels with some chocolate salt. Next row is a pear cream-filled heart, my favorite of the two hearts. Next row has violet caramels, more flowery than your average, then rosewater cream-filled hearts, a bit perfumey but it is Valentines day, after all, and the last row are cinnamon caramels which were great and literally exactly that. I ate them all. Within a week. They were for me, so...

For dinner, we opted not to go out, but stay in and cook. I made a "seitan au vin" with mushrooms, red wine and seitan, some gnocchi with rosemary and garlicky green beans. It was fancy. Observe:

We hadn't been to Champs in weeks (gasp) so last weekend we trecked out and got lucky because there was no wait. This breakfast burrito always takes me when I go. I think I'm going to order something new but nope. I get this almost always. If it's dinner time I get the awesome bowl and add guac. Sometimes I get mozzarella sticks. Don't judge.

Since Champs moved, we make a habit to stop by Dunwell Doughnuts on the way home. This time we were feeling particularly sugar-starved and got 3 each. My picks were berry french toast, Maple caramel pecan, and raspberry cheesecake. Alex got all the boring flavors. All six were eaten by the night's end.

My Ethiopian spices came! I invited some friends over for dinner and made a ton of stuff from

Teff Love. Here are all my spices stacked up in the big box I was sent:

Aerial view of the excitement

I also ordered my injera online too. For this big dinner I wish I would have steamed it, but didn't figure out that the steaming method is the way to go until the next day. Also, this injera got moldy by day 3. Sad.

Here is my plate:

Top right clockwise: Fasolia (green beans and carrots), yellow split peas, misir wat (spicy lentils), ingudai awaze tibs (spicy mushrooms) Shiro (spicy ground chickpeas), Center: Avocado and kale salad, and top left is butecha, but I used the recipe from Vegan Eats World, because I love it.

A few days later I made the lentil Sambusas with chickpea crust. The lentil filling was nice, but I didn't care for the flavor of the dough. I feel like a sambusa is supposed to be ultra crispy and these just weren't like a sambusa for me. There is a recipe in the book that uses rice paper, but I think I will just use filo dough next time. I think they would be more like a sambusa that way! They looked really pretty anyway so I took a bunch of pics.

I have many recipes left to cook from Teff Love and I may even try making injera again -- even after the last time during which I had an epic fail. Perseverance, pride, and peanut butter. That's what makes a strong vegan.

kzcakes

Hi, I'm KZ. I live, cook, and chow down on vegan food in NYC.

3 comments

Abby BeanMarch 9, 2015 at 5:10 PM
Information overload! You pack a lot into one post, lady. That breakfast burrito always gets me too, although I get the royal...or whatever the one with added kale is called. Because, um, kale.
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