Saturday

Farmers' Market this morning:

Sweet potatoes

Crimini mushrooms

Red beans

Sweet onions

Red, orange and white carrots

Collard greens

Lettuce from York County, where it snowed last night

Breakfast this morning:

Sesame seed bagel with hummus, and coffee from Green Line Cafe across the street from the farmers' market, where I watched dogs walk by with their people and people shop at the market and street canvassers canvass.

Pictured above: Take-Out from Desi Village. I don't remember what the main dish there is called but it was basically mixed vegetables over rice. Also in the picture are vegetable pakora (veggies battered and fried) and vegetable samosas (peas and potatoes with cumin in a pastry shell). The green sauce is hot and the red sauce is sweet and smoky.

Co-op later for: bananas, raisins, English muffins, soy milk, nuts, and tea

Here's what's been happening in food.

Been living on snacks: figs, tomatoes, bean sprouts, carrots, sunflower seeds, dried red sea vegetable, nuts, grapes. What I can grab from my kitchen when I am not, by any reasonable definition, awake. I've actually taken for lunch what was left of a box of cherry tomatoes and what was left of a bag of mixed nuts from yesterday. I have a working lunch from 11:50 - 12:34.

And here's what else: Oversized baked sweets. Big, thick, pillowy chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies with fork-criss-crosses on top, brownies, cinnamon rolls with icing, brownies with peanut-butter-fudge and chocolate coating on top. I have to stop. You get these things at coffee shops. They add up. I have to stop. But I'm not gonna. Cause I have a working lunch from 11:50 - 12:34. And I like to have sweets during that time period.

Bagels from the coffee shop on weekends.

Tonight, we ordered Chinese food from China Inn at 44th & Locust. It wasn't that good. Ordered through Eat24Hours.com which is good because they also have service for Desi Village and Tandoor India, and I will order from those places in the future.

Farmers' Market tomorrow? We'll see. Sleep first.

More hits from the road, and shopping back at the ranch

Returned home to Philly on Wednesday. On Tuesday, enjoyed Lewisburg, WV. Visited the Wild Bean and the Bookstore and Edith's Store. The Wild Bean has a very nice menu.

I had the Healthy Wrap, which has greens, avocado, red onion, seeds, not sure what all else. Also had some of the chili you're seeing to the left. This was delicious. Sweet and hot and tomatoey. I was impressed that on the menu, in the description of the "Fakin' BLT," they note that their mayo is vegan. I didn't try the BLT, so I guess I have to go back someday. Oh, darn.

the "Healthy Wrap"

At Edith's Store, I bought a 2-oz. package of the sea vegetable Dulse, which I had never had before. It is red, and much softer and less chewy than the green varieties of seaweed I have tried. It tastes like bacon and sharp cheddar cheese. It has a sharp bite to it, and on the package they actually recommend crisping it in a pan in oil and using it to replace bacon on a BLT. It was so good as a raw snack that I ate most of it on the train the next day. The brand I bought is the same brand they carry at Weavers' Way Co-Op, but I don't remember if they had this variety or not. The brand is Maine Coast. Also bought some Celtic Sea Salt, some tea, and a mesh tea ball.


From a vegan-food-blogging perspective, my trip to W.Va. was a smashing success. It's so fun to go someplace I'm not usually and see what there is to eat. I can't believe I ever thought being vegan would be hard. Food is everywhere once you know what you're looking for. The Wild Bean and Edith's Store are not everywhere, but you remember my vegan Wal-Mart grocery list from the other day, right? The idea behind that was not to encourage vegans to shop at Wal-Mart (I don't recommend that to anyone); the idea was to show people who already shop at Wal-Mart that you can buy vegan foods in almost every aisle. Yeah, it's easier than you think. And remember, I also ate at a Mexican restaurant in Summersville in the same strip mall as Wal-Mart. Easy. Like fallin' off a log.

Got home Wednesday night and went to the farmers' market on Thursday to stock up. (I have no idea what Mark ate while I was gone. I'm not going to ask.) Went to the market this morning for a few more things.

Thursday Shopping List

1 bunch kale
1 bunch mustard greens
1 quart green beans
6 plum tomatoes
4 (bigger) red tomatoes
6 (big) yellow potatoes
1 pint blackberries
1 pint raspberries
(and at Milk & Honey Market)
1 avocado
1 loaf multigrain bread

Saturday Shopping List

1 quart okra
1 head red leaf lettuce
4 red shallots
1 golden zucchini
10 ears white sweet corn
2 portobello mushroom caps
1 oz. peppermint
1 oz. chamomile flowers
1/2 oz. lemon verbena
1 oz. sage
(and at Milk & Honey Market)
1 lb. unbleached wheat and barley flour
vanilla extract
1 lb. organic cane sugar

The chamomile flowers, peppermint, and lemon verbena are for tea, now that we have that mesh tea ball. Can't wait. Need to get cinnamon.

Oh, remember the vegan burger from the Amtrak train? On the way back, I got another one. It's actually not bad at all. You wouldn't want to eat it every day, but it's pretty tasty with ketchup and mustard. The bun is a Kaiser roll, and they microwave the whole thing in the package, but it doesn't get soggy somehow. A little chewy or stretchy, maybe, but tolerable.

After returning home from mom and dad's I am now inspired to make biscuits, hence the flour. And pancakes, hence the vanilla extract. Things we had to eat at mom and dad's included fried potatoes with peppers and onions, homemade biscuits with molasses, kale crisps (which I made and they loved), tomato-rice-bean soup, hummus & avocado sandwiches (both grilled and not grilled), fire-roasted corn on the cob, fire-baked potatoes, baked apples with walnuts and cinnamon crumbles, sweet potato fries, oatmeal, berry smoothies, and pancakes.



It was good to be home while I was there and good to be home now that I'm back. Wherever I go, some things don't change. More scenes from the Wild Bean....

Stocking the new kitchen!

First farmers' market from the new apartment. It was a nice little walk (about the same distance, but a different direction). I cleaned the new (to us) refrigerator to within an inch of its life before heading out this afternoon (yes, it was afternoon before I was done). That took about an hour and a half. I took out all the trays from the door and all the shelves and washed them in the sink with baking soda and hot water. Scrubbed out the inside of the fridge with baking soda as well. Dried and reassembled everything. It is sparkling. Then went nuts at the market.

Saturday Shopping List

1 lb. small red beans
1 lb. green beans
1 pint shiitake mushrooms
2 heads red leaf lettuce
6 ears bi-color sweet corn
10 red potatoes
10 sweet onions
a dozen carrots (smallish, with the greens still on)
3 summer squash
2 golden zucchini
2 green zucchini
4 small cucumbers
2 purple peppers
1 green pepper
6 heirloom tomatoes
2 giant red tomatoes
6 peaches
1 pint blueberries
12-oz jar of strawberry jam
1 lb. granola
1 loaf country white bread
1 oz. fennel seeds
2 oz. black pepper

Total: about $50


Came home and had raw green beans and carrots dipped in hummus for brunch. Haven't had coffee yet, so I'm venturing out in the heat for an iced coffee. Later, it's off to the old apartment to gather up dishes and cooking utensils.

We've been living large these past couple days, picnicking on gourmet food from the local restaurants. Gourmet veggie burgers and salads last night from Dock Street Brewery. Night before last, chickpea-tabouli salad, guacamole and hummus with pita and black olives, with orange-chocolate-chip cake for dessert, from the Gold Standard Cafe. Tofu scramble from Gold Standard for breakfast yesterday. But at some point, we have to actually settle down and start cooking again. Clean fridge, check. Groceries, check. Clean stove, clean cupboards, clean dishes next.

Boxing Day Comfort Food

After a decadent two-day winter feast, today is a noodle soup, fried potato, onion sandwich kind of day.

I need groceries.

No farmers' market Saturday for the holiday weekend. No farmers' market last Saturday because of the blizzard. Six days, and then I can buy brussels sprouts and celery root and kale and apples and potatoes and mushrooms and leeks and lentils and other good things.

But the winter hibernation has been good.
We went out for a Christmas Day feast at Su Xing House, and yesterday, feasted on leftovers.

We got two big platters to share. The first features a sweet, smoky sauce that you have to try to believe.

Crispy Soybean Steak with Chef's Special Sauce

See that sexy green vegetable there? I'm not sure what that is. I kind of think it's baby bok choy, but it doesn't say that on the menu. (Update: No. I Googled it and looked more closely - that's not baby bok choy, but I don't know what it is.) The menu calls it "sanhai green." I Googled that. No such mention. Is it a typo? Did they mean Shanghai? Is that bok choy? If you know, let me know. Whatever it was, it was full of flavor.

Chef's Specialty #10, "As You Wish" (bean curd wraps stuffed with braised mushrooms, with asparagus on the side)

The flavor of these wraps was delicious, but I wasn't wild about the chewy texture. Too much mushroom in one bite? That's hard for me to imagine, as one of my favorite dishes at Su Xing is the Mushroom Delight, but maybe the mushrooms combined with that bean curd wrap was too much for me. If you're not that influenced by texture, or if you don't mind foods with a springy, spongy, chewy texture, then I would recommend this. In fact, I can imagine myself having this again someday; that's just how good the flavor is. My other complaint, though, is that I need a sauce with it. No problem in this case, because we combined all the foods together and ate it with the unbelievably sweet, smoky, delicious sauce from the soybean steaks. The Soybean Steak Platter was a clear favorite at our table.


All of this was served with miso soup (shown above), plenty of brown rice, a plate of honeydew melon and pineapple, and of course hot tea.

Our bill came to $37.15 ($45 with tip), and we had enough leftovers for a whole meal the next day. Nothing like Chinese leftovers on Boxing Day.

Ready to go into the oven

Ready to eat

Happy hibernation, happy solstice, happy holidays. At a time of year when people tend to think of giving, sharing, refocusing, and changing, all more pointedly than usual, I encourage you to ask yourself if you can do something for the animals (including humans) and enjoy your future feasts with harm to none.

Chinese food and winter vegetables

Mark and I went out for lunch yesterday at Su Xing House, one of our favorite restaurants.

My fortune said: Good news will come to you in the mail.

Mark's fortune said: The night life is for you.

Once, at Kingdom of Vegetarians, a less upscale but still yummy place in Chinatown, where we had our first date, Mark got a fortune that said: A nice cake is waiting for you. Actually, I believe that happened on our first date. Come to think of it, I'll take that as a compliment.

Not long before that, I was at a coffee shop on South Street that gives fortune cookies with your check, and I got the fortune: It tastes sweet. I still have this in my wallet.

Yesterday at Su Xing House, we ordered two lunch specials and split the main courses: Sesame Seitan and Mushroom Delight. We always have the Sesame Seitan; this was our first time ordering the Mushroom Delight. Three different kinds of mushrooms, snow peas, and a delicious brown sauce that has a "comfort-food" taste. On the side were brown rice, miso soup, and spring rolls. This place is amazing. It's fairly cheap, delicious, and it doesn't look cheap. The decor makes you feel like you probably shouldn't be there, but the food assures you that you should.

And from Huffington Post, here is a good, quick guide to winter vegetables available year-round at farmers' markets. Complete with beautiful photos and links to recipes.

I love winter vegetables: roots and cabbage and cauliflower, red beets, yellow and orange and dark green squash, many colors of potato, and of course deep dark sweet soft mushrooms for rich, protein-heavy, comforting goodness. Add to that chestnuts, beans, and lentils, and I am learning that there's no need to change my shopping habits in wintertime. Nature provides.

Squash, potatoes, apples, leeks, and a long walk to the park.

Another rainy market day, but this time cold as well. And our trip to the farmers market (four blocks from our home) took two and a half hours.

That's the fault of Philadelphia Federal Credit Union. That is due to the check-cashing policies of Philadelphia Federal Credit Union, especially those policies involving payroll checks, which do not seem like good policies to me. They can't cash payroll checks. I opened a checking account with them back in May, and I have yet to begin successfully using them as my primary banking institution. I'm trying to leave Wachovia and stay with something locally owned and more secure that doesn't keep getting sold. Unfortunately, PFCU, in my five months with them, has done things like: giving the wrong digits to the company that printed my checks, causing a loan payment to bounce and throwing off my finances for the better part of a month; failing to issue a debit card for my new account until after two phone calls, a branch visit, and an email; and now they tell me they can't cash my payroll check and would have to hold it for two business days before I could access the funds, even though I have an account there and it is a payroll check. So after standing in line at PFCU for a long time, we were given the above news, which caused us to walk to 36th & Chestnut (about 15 blocks), me in uncomfortable rubber boots, hungry, to stand in line at Wachovia and cash the check, then walk back to the farmers market and shop, before dragging ourselves home.

We were met at the door by hungry cats. We should have been to Center City and back with their food by now. It's after 2 p.m. Usually, we're home from the market before 11 a.m. Today, we left after 11, because of the downpour this morning, but we should have been home well before noon and then back out to run our errands after a quick meal. This whole day is off.

Anyway, here's the grocery list:

2 butternut squash
1 acorn squash
12 apples - Autumn Crisp and Empire
1 head of cauliflower
about 3 lbs of blue and red small potatoes
a big basket of yellow potatoes for soup
4 sweet potatoes
3 huge "candy" onions
2 huge leeks (huge... one leek will make a whole pot of soup)
4 ears of sweet corn
4 big tomatoes
1 portabella cap
1 loaf sourdough bread
1 loaf multi-grain bread

Total: $44.36

Less than $50! Less than $45, even! We were still good on greens and carrots (we didn't juice, all week, I just snacked on the carrots, and the cooler bag in the fridge keeps them crisp and perfect). The people with the fresh Lima beans weren't there. The lady with the spices wasn't there, which is too bad, because we need some spices. (Maybe these folks were there this morning... who can say? We weren't there. We were in line.) We still have plenty of dry beans, which we stocked up on some time ago.

I got those dozen apples so that I can make lots of the delicious fried apple pies I 've been making. I bake the apples in the oven with oil, molasses, cinnamon, and brown sugar, and then fill pastry wraps with them and fry them. I can make up a bunch of apples and keep them in the fridge, then fry up the pies for a perfect, quick breakfast on work mornings. The next step will be actually to bake a pie. A real, whole pie. I think it will happen sometime before this winter is over.

Have you ever seen one of those annoying commercials where the voice-over tells you what you'll be able to do "with all the money you'll save" by buying their product or using their service? I always hated those, because the point of something being cheap is that you don't have any more money than that. You don't have stores of extra money that you'll now be able to use for a cruise to Costa Rica if you just order from the dollar menu or rent a cheaper carpet cleaner.

You know what, though? That line of faulty reasoning makes a great excuse.

With the money we saved by only spending $44 on groceries for the week, we called in an order to Lee's Deli, the greasy spoon/corner store at 47th & Baltimore. We both had greasy veggie burgers and fries for breakfast. Ew. Mmm. I think we earned it.

lunch spot

I've gotten in the habit of occasionally going to Mama's Vegetarian restaurant on 20th Street for lunch and having a small falafel (in a whole-wheat pita with tahini and slaw and awesome, slightly tangy, cucumberish sauce), for three dollars and fifty cents.



They're not a vegetarian restaurant; they serve fish, but there's no dairy on the premises, the falafel is amazing, and you can get a side of roasted eggplant for 75 cents.

I'm keeping tabs on a flock of pigeons. They landed on the dome of the building outside my window at work at around 9:10 this morning. It's now 10:30 and they are still out there but they're fluttering around a little bit. I counted 22 birds. We used to tell time by the movement of the cows in the neighbor's pasture.

Probably going to Mama's for lunch again today. It's payday.