My default pizza and calzone crust is based on a basic white bread recipe from instructables.com, except with extra olive oil and baked at around 475. Also, it doesn’t need to rise as long as a regular loaf, usually just sits while I prepare the fillings.
This one has tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, capers, and marinated artichoke hearts. Pickled capers, by the way, are one of the best things ever. Salty little flower buds of awesomeness.
I’ll spare you the details, but I’ve been on a steady diet of popsicles and clear liquids for the last couple days, and the idea of solid food still kinda skeeves me out. I do have a small backlog of meals and photos to upload before the month’s end, though, so I won’t flake entirely on the last week of mofo.
Sometimes your beer asks you questions, “If you could only listen to one album forever, what would it be?” For me, it would be Fugazi’s Repeater. I first heard it at one of those crucial crossroads of my adolescence, and it’s stuck with me ever since. Whenever I hear a song from that album, I remember being in a sweltering garage with my cheap guitar, a bunch of friends, and the scent of teenage sweat, feeling like I was part of something important, as trivial as it may seem in retrospect. Also, to tie this in with the whole MoFo thing, I once went to a Q&A with Ian MacKaye, and he said, as an aside (and I’m paraphrasing from memory), “I never appreciated food until I became vegetarian.” So there’s that. And I do appreciate the irony of responding to my beer’s question with a straight-edge band. So what’s your forever album?
I was still a little peckish the other night after my half dozen pupusas, so I made a late night snack of Kittee’s No-Queso Quesadillas. The “cheese” is basically flour and nutritional yeast, which sounds a bit disgusting, but it actually works. Granted, I first tried these when store-bought vegan cheese was almost impossible to find, and some blend of nutritional yeast was the only real option. So it tastes a little retro. But still a hell of a lot cheaper than a bag of daiya shreds.
I’ve been conflicted about honestly posting what I eat on a regular basis under normal, non-mofo circumstances and consequently ending up a month worth of dimly illuminated photos of potatoes in various poses. So instead, maybe I’ll showcase all the things I’ve spent weeks at a time eating nothing but until getting sick of the monotony and abandoning them for months.
Pupusas turn out to be really easy once you get the hang of ‘em. I started making the pupusas in Terry Romero’s Viva Vegan, and enjoyed them immensely, but promptly abandoned all that time-consuming preparation of seitan and vegetables and such, and ended up with these pale imitations as a staple: can of black beans heated up with a couple diced chipotles and some garlic.
When I was in my teens, I used to live on Burger King’s chicken tenders. And last night, I tried, for the first time, Gardein’s crispy tenders. Fortuitously, they required about the same temp and cooking time as the frozen curly fries I picked up on the same shopping trip. And, oh my god, if they didn’t smell just like the old BK chicken tenders. Awesome times.
Another original…
16oz can black beans
16oz can kidney beans
16oz can pinto beans
16oz can diced tomatoes
A splash of whatever beer you’re drinking
A smidgen of ground cumin
A shit-ton of chili powder
Salt to taste
Drain the cans of stuff, combine it in a pot with everything else. Heat.
You’re welcome.
I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t include at least one original recipe. So here you go, my tried-and-true, original recipe for Pasta with Things:
1/2 lb spaghetti
Olive oil
Salt to taste
Assorted things
Boil pasta according to package directions. Add olive oil, salt, and assorted things. You can mix it up by trying a different pasta, like linguine or fettucine if you’re feeling fancy. Also, it scales easily if you have company or, more likely, if you’re just feeling extra hungry.
Second night in a row. This is what my life has become. At least it was homemade. By necessity, though: I can’t even find proper pita bread in this town much less hummus…
So there’s that. And I bought myself flowers the other day just because. Another obligatory mofo post completed.
The photo’s from last week, but I made this again last night. Tofu marinaded in black bean sauce from a jar diluted with a little sesame oil and soy sauce. Stir fried with mushrooms and broccoli, served with chow mein noodles, garnished with sesame seeds. According to Moby, “you can have a big pile of garbage in front of you, and you sprinkle some sesame seeds and sea salt on it, and it tastes fantastic.” So there you go…
