Pecans! Oh the Pecans!

I've been spending reading week down in Ramer, Alabama this year. It's a tiny town south of the tiny city of Montgomery. People here are real friendly and have no inhibitions about shamelessly gawking. Yesterday I left my laptop on the deck all day and no one stole it, no one steals our bikes from the unlocked shed and no one steals stuff from the unlocked house. I am in Ramer to ride my bike every day to get in close to 1000 base miles in. When you are burning somewhere between 2000-3500 extra calories a day food is important! We are voracious, bottomless pits.

Today we rode about 120km and did about 3000ft of climbing all together. At about 70 km in we stopped at Priesters Pecans. Oh the pecans! Pecans upon pecans! And free samples everywhere! I think I ate about 6 pecans covered in various sugary coatings and I felt a sugar high like I have never felt before in my life. There was honey coated, cinnanon, peach, caramel-chocolate covered, dark chocolate smothered, pralined, rummed, key-limed and more. We marched in dressed to the nines in sexy sexy sweat soaked lyrca and helmets descended like vultures on the free samples. My favourite were the praline, the cinnamon and the honey coated. It's too bad I could only fit two packages in my jersey pocket (honey and praline).

Cilantro-less Chili

Is no longer just for people who are terribly allergic to cilantro slash have that weird genetic thing where cilantro tastes like soap!


It's also for people too forgetful to buy cilantro while they're out in the market. Oops. On the upside, chili with corn in it makes my heart sing. SING!

P.S. Emily, you are a way better photog than I am. Probably because halfway through snapping the picture I get distracted and start shoving food in my face. And also because I suck.

Dreamin' of Saigon Givral

I've had this giant craving for those delicious vegetarian Vietnamese subs from Saigon Givral in Edmonton. Sooooo good but so far away, sigh.
So today I attempted to satisfy that craving. Really the only vaguely similar things about my sub and the Saigon Givral subs is fried onions. That doesn't mean what I made wasn't incredibly delicious! Observe:

How did I make this most delicious looking food of the gods, you might ask?
crusty white Vietnamese style sub bun
pan-fried up onion with a bit of pepper
cilantro
tahini (I bet vegan/regular mayo would have been better but I have neither).

And here is the recipe for the tofu part:
sauce (guessing at measurements, use your own taste/judgement):
1-2 tbsp hot sauce (the thick, less vinegary kind),
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup veggie broth
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp cumin
2 cloves garlic-crushed
2 tsp flour
liquid smoke (about 2 drops)
soy sauce or temari are also good, I just didn't add them this time.

Mix sauce together. Cook pressed tofu sliced in to strips on both sides in a bit of oil in a pan until golden brown and a little crispy. Dump sauce over and let it simmer while stirring tofu around to let it get all coated in sauce as it thickens until you have sauce-glazed tofu that you can dump pipin' hot unto your bun and add the rest o' your ingredients.
I bought cucumber tonight and I have an avocado about to ripen up so I think I will throw both of those things on the sammich I make tomorrow the leftover tofu and onion from today.

What happens when you forget to saute the onions and garlic before adding rice?

... make a hole, bitchez!


Mmmm. Risotto.

Loaf

I'm not sure why I had the desire to bake bread when I feel too sick to eat much of anything. Yesterday I think I was awake for all of about an hour and a half, today I am a little more awake. I managed to shuffle to the store to buy some missing ingredients and then threw this delicious loaf of "whole wheat soda bread with millet and currants" together from a recipe in the Veganomicon.
This is one of those recipes where you knead the dough as little as possible, which I always find difficult. It's a soda bread so if you handle the dough too much it loses its fluffy-ness. I think I got it right this time though.
I downed a piece slathered in soy margarine while watching the heavy snow fall. You know what makes my apartment the best ever? The bench on top of the rad in front of the giant living room window. ftw!
The millet gives this bread a lovely crunch and the currants impart a luxurious sweetness to the bread. Or something... Anyway, tasty and it didn't make my insides hurt too much. Yay!