VegInDC

  In honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day, we had a delicious meal using foods from the Americas. We made the meal with ingredients we already had in the house, but next time we will be more mindful to have succotash and maybe something including pumpkin! We also realize that the finished picture should have had some tomatoes from our garden on top for color. Everything is a work in progress. Three bean chili (with peppers, pinto, kidney and black beans.) Yellow grits with vegan butter and skillet cornbread. The skillet cornbread recipe is below, it's my new favorite way to make cornbread. 

Our local Senoia Farmer's Market had a vendor this summer who was practically giving away cucumbers. I got a whole giant box for $20. I needed to figure out what to do with all of these cukes! I pickled some using my own recipe here . But I wanted to try something different. Since it was the summer, it was the perfect time for a cold noodle dish with tofu. This is really easy to come together and make with pantry staples. The noodles are gluten free and low cost from Costco.

Tonight my wife and I attended a Zoom lecture for Tu B'Shvat by Jewish Veg ( Jewishveg.org ) on "Modern Eco-Kashrut:Ethical Eating for Today's World". It was informative both historically and interesting to hear people's questions about veganism. Anne became vegan in 2005 and I became vegan in 2013, our dogs eat a vegan diet and we love sharing vegan cooking and illuminating kind choices for animals whenever we have the opportunity. While on the Zoom call, we realized how we need to update this space more! So, thank you to Jewish Veg, our friend, Sibyl Kleiner for hosting, and to our new blog friends - we will be updating things more here with not only traditional Jewish recipes, but things that are working their way into our rotation. Meanwhile - new favourite cookie to try: Siete Mexican Wedding Cookies - both gluten free and vegan ... but addictive!

We are in the throes of that time of year: When it's cold outside, dark, and everyone seems to be sick with something. I recently was fighting a sore throat and had a hankering for my mom's chicken soup (but, with no animal bodies in it.) So I found a bunch of recipes and combined a few that seemed to really hit the sweet spot. Also, Anne has had COVID for over a week and this is the only thing she will eat. 

Last year I started growing plants inside using an Aerogarden . It was a lot of fun! But all of a sudden I had an unwieldy crop of Thai basil on my hands, and I didn't exactly know what to do with it. I knew it is often added to Thai stir fry dishes, so I did some searching and found a few that I liked and it morphed into this dish, which Anne has told me is her new favorite. Helpful hint: you can switch out the vegetables and try different combinations. To date I have tried, green beans, red bell peppers, broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts. Without the rice, this takes less than 30 minutes from prep to done, so it is easy to put into the weekly rotation!  Throw some pineapple on the side or on top for fun.

I love delicious bread. The problem is, because I am the only gluten eater in the house, if I buy or bake a loaf, I end up eating all of it myself! Time to share with friends who can tolerate their gluten. I adapted a few recipes I found online to make this loaf just the way I like it.  It is easy, doesn't require any expertise and most of the time is spent letting the dough rise on its own.

For every Jewish Holiday there is at least one (or maybe two!) good kugels (casseroles). For Passover, I like to make spinach kugel and potato kugel. For Rosh Hashanah, a sweet kugel is definitely called for to ring in a sweet new year! This recipe is adapted from a few different online sources and reminds me of the kugel my mom would make for Rosh Hashanah lunch. It is sweet, crunchy, and even more flavorful warmed up the next day. The hardest thing for me to find every year are appropriate noodles that are both gluten free and vegan. The easiest thing to use are lasagna noodles by Tinkyada broken up into pieces. I have also found gluten free Manischewitz egg-less noodles made from potato starch. In a pinch any noodle will do!