What a great show that could be! It would take the concept of showing that “anyone can cook” to a new level. In her video, Celia says she talks to a lot of people (sighted and non-sighted) who think they can’t cook. Celia’s a great example of overcoming whatever barriers (real or imagined) stand between a person and learning to cook.

It’s made me think about what the challenges would be in cooking without sight.  Dropping things would be hard – I would make a big mess. You’d need to be extremely organized, not to mention disciplined about using what you buy and cleaning out the fridge (lest you discover something really nasty hiding in the back). I’m sure there are many challenges I haven’t thought of. But the most important sense in cooking, I think, is the sense of smell.  Smell and taste – not appearance – is what really tells you if fruit is ripe, or if the cookies are done, or if you’ve got the balance of spices right. I bet Celia uses her sense of smell much better than I do.

If you’d like to see this show become a reality, please go vote for Celia!

So I understand why folks are excited that Mario Batali is instituting Meatless Mondays at all of his restaurants – but I’m extremely skeptical of the way he’s doing it:

So how’s Mario going to do it? Every Monday every one of his 14 restaurants will serve at least two vegetarian options, whether entrees or pastas or pizzas. [...] With this simple gesture, Mario will send a powerful message to other chefs and restauranteurs that we can all start the week right by eating our veggies.

Two vegetarian options? One day a week? That’s hardly a radical statement for a chef who claims he’s “a big believer in the Meatless Mondays movement.”  If that means that most of his restaurants don’t have at least two vegetarian options on other days of the week, that’s awfully disappointing to me.  Plenty of restaurants – even ones that don’t claim an environmentally friendly focus – have a whole section of the menu that’s vegetarian. The Meatless Mondays movement is aimed at educating the home cook. Restaurants should be able to do better.

Since I’m a vegetarian, I have to be selective about what restaurants I go to, and unless I’m with meat-eating friends, a place with only two veggie options doesn’t usually make the cut. And I know plenty of meat-eaters who like to eat meatless dishes on a regular basis.

So what is Mario Batali really trying to do?  Is there some reason he won’t make a stronger stance on providing meatless options?  Forget Meatless Mondays – I’d like to see every restaurant have meatless options every day. That would be a real “powerful message”!

What do you think?  Has Batali gone far enough? Or is this more of a publicity stunt than a substantive change?

Recently, Peggy Orenstein wrote an editorial arguing almost the opposite: that growing one’s own food (and, in her examples, raising chickens and bees) could be fulfilling and empowering to women who chose not to work, but wanted something more meaningful than housework to fill their days.  She calls it femivorism.

I’m intrigued, and I can see the appeal of staying home and spending time working the land.  At the same time, it’s again framing “putting dinner on the table” as the woman’s responsibility – this time, with a much higher bar for what “dinner” should be.

What do you think?  Can cooking and gardening be empowering for women?  Or does the local food movement need equal participation by men and women to avoid leaving women with an unfair share of the burden?

I say: all the more reason to cook a real dinner!

Allow me to explain.  Working is often stressful.  It wears you out.  You work hard, think hard, and try to get things done as fast as possible.  When you’re cooking, none of that matters.  You can lay out your ingredients, chop them one at a time, as fast or slow as you want.  You can stir pasta into boiling water, or saute an onion, and your brain can take a break.  There is nothing in the world more meditative than sauteing an onion.  If you find something better, just let me know.

Better yet, it’s a visceral experience.  It’s real.  It engages all your senses.  If you work in front of a computer all day, you may find yourself missing the experience of working with your hands – I often do.  When you cook, you can feel the texture of a firm tomato or the heat of a ready frying pan, smell the intoxicating aroma of garlic in olive oil, taste… well, if you’re alone in the kitchen, taste whatever you want.

Sure, cooking can be stressful, too.  You can spill things, burn things, rush to get everything assembled.  But not tonight.  When you’ve had a long day, you’re going to cook things you love, and they’re going to be easy and fun, because you know them inside and out.  No stress – just good food.

After all that, you get to eat, and I don’t even need to tell you how much better your dinner will be than whatever you were going to microwave.  At the end of a long day, you have all the more need of a meal that’s actually healthy and satisfying.

If you get the impression that I’ve been working a lot lately, you’re right.  And it might have something to do with my lack of recent blogging, too.  But for all that, I’ve been cooking dinner on a fairly regular basis, sometimes throwing together a quick and easy meal (pasta with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella is my summertime standby, and I could eat it every day if I had to), sometimes doing something a little more elaborate.  The other night I made salsa, roasted some peppers, and made quesadillas, which made me really happy.  And while I’m not always in the mood for cooking after a long day, sometimes it’s just what I need.  I hope it helps you out, too, when you need it.

It helps that the two main characters are both adorable, endearing, and played as human with all their strengths and flaws.

Of course, I can’t help but compare myself with Julie, the intrepid young writer who decides to blog her way through Julia Child’s cookbook.  Here I am, writing a food blog (albeit one with an entirely different angle and aim), and hoping to change the world in some small way.  I, too, struggle with finding the discipline to cook and blog after a long day at work.  Where Julie blogs to escape from her job, I’m fortunate to like mine and find it challenging – which means I have a balancing act of finding time, energy, and creativity for both.  On the other hand, I don’t have anything like Julie’s dedication or work ethic – I’m happy if I can crank out a couple interesting posts a week, while she averaged better than a recipe a day.  I honestly can’t imagine that kind of achievement – a masterpiece in its own way.  But I certainly relate to the excitement and frustration of sharing your thoughts, sending them out into the void, and hoping that they give someone a little meaning.

So I left the movie feeling a little shabby, but also deeply inspired – to blog, and to cook.  Tonight, I did both (and some work around the house, to boot) and that’s a nice feeling.  Tomorrow I’ll share what I cooked.  It’s not French; I’d have loved to cook something French after that, but somehow French cooking doesn’t really lend itself to a vegetarian diet.  (Or does it?  Would it be blasphemy to vegify Julia Child’s recipes?)  But I did cook something delicious, and slightly ambitious!  You’ll have to wait and see what…

If you’ve seen Julie & Julia, comment and tell me what you thought!

I’m a little baffled.  I can see how the flavors of ginger and green tea would go well together (ginger green tea is delightful, I think).  And if ginger ale usually tastes more like high fructose corn syrup than ginger (there is in fact no ginger listed in the ingredients), it’s still an interesting thought, an intriguing combination of flavors…

…except that this new product sounds suspiciously like a marketing invention to me.  The ad I heard wasn’t talking about the great taste.  It was talking about the health benefits, all those great antioxidants and the other legendary properties of tea.

So ginger ale is now… a health food?  It’s good for you?

Really?

Ginger ale is still full of sugar (high fructose corn syrup, in this case).  It’s still soda.  It will still rot your teeth and make you fat, just like other sodas.  Only in the marketing world can you take something really bad for you, add a bit of something good for you, and think that the result will be good for you overall.  That sounds suspiciously like the apparently widespread belief that organic cookies are healthy.  Wishing doesn’t make it so.

So if you want green tea in your ginger ale, go for it, but don’t delude yourself. My advice: if you want the health benefits of green tea, go drink some green tea!

It’s a no-brainer if you really think about it: how can organic cookies, made with real sugar and butter by a company that can afford an expensive government certification, be healthier than a tomato grown without pesticides by a small farmer who can’t afford a certification, or even a conventional (non-organic) tomato grown with pesticides?  But the word “organic” has come to signify health in our minds, even as it’s being diluted by companies that practice the letter of the organic certification without the spirit, which would involve a more holistic view of creating healthy food.

I agree with Bittman on the best way to improve your health and the environment: cook more.  Use fresh, unprocessed ingredients.  Get more fruits and vegetables into your diet.  If cooking seems too hard or time-consuming, check out the posts below for some quick and easy, relatively healthy meals.

But the turkey is problematic.  It’s the centerpiece at most Thanksgiving dinners, it’s what everyone oohs and aahs over, and it’s the focus of the meal.  If you’re vegetarian, you’re left out.  It can be sad not to eat turkey, especially if you substitute something mediocre in its place.  I’ve tried Quorn roast, and it was unsatisfying.  I’m not excited by Tofurkey, either.  These are kind of pale substitutes that don’t really taste like the real thing.  They don’t fool you.

So the trick for a vegetarian Thanksgiving (as with so many vegetarian adaptations) is to prepare something so great in its own right that you don’t miss the turkey.  Don’t fake it; just choose something that fills the same role: hearty, moist, delicious, pretty.  In a perfect world, for someone who likes to cook, the veggie alternative should be a complex preparation, something mirroring the effort that goes into roasting a turkey.  It’s not always possible, though – this year, we’re traveling to visit Nathan’s family for Thanksgiving, and with the number of people and kitchen constraints, we can’t do much more than heat up our vegetarian dish when we get there.

That’s not a problem, though.  There are many good veggie options that can be prepared ahead of time without too much effort, and reheated after the turkey comes out of the oven.  I’ve assembled this list in my own search for this year’s turkey alternative.  Hopefully it’ll help you if you’re in a similar situation.  (Warning: some of these may be so good, you’ll have to fend off meat-eaters to get your fair share!  Also, these are just ideas – I haven’t personally vetted these recipes unless otherwise indicated.)

• Stuffed squash, filled with well-seasoned rice and veggies, is both filling and seasonal.  You could bake the squash half-way and prepare the stuffing at home, then assemble and finish baking just before dinner.
• Spanikopita is rich and festive, and complicated enough to feel special.
• Lasagna is a classic vegetarian entree, with lots of room for variation.  I like these suggestions for something more interesting than your standard tomato-ricotta-mozzarella lasagna.  (Mushroom goat cheese lasagna?  Yum!)  This is also easy to prepare ahead and bake at the last minute.
• This sweet potato gratin sounds delicious and healthy to boot.  It’s also appropriately seasonal.
• If you do go for a simple tofu or seitan main dish, serve it with a good gravy.  I made this mushroom gravy a couple years ago and loved it.  I substituted veggie stock for the water, and added a few tablespoons of cooking wine.
• Baked “veggie loaf” is an easy and semi-traditional option, though your mileage may vary depending on your recipe.  I’ve done this on past Thanksgivings with mediocre results.  Then again, I may just not be a “loaf” person.  I never liked meatloaf very much, so the veggie equivalent isn’t stirring any nostalgia for me.
• This article on Chow has ten tasty-sounding suggestions, complete with make-ahead tips.  (Apparently this concern is not unique to us!)
• You don’t have to go traditional or seasonal, either.  I know one vegetarian who likes Indian cuisine a lot, so her Thanksgiving dinners have a lot of curry and rice.  Try something a little different – you could start a new tradition!

One year, I hope to host my own all-vegetarian Thanksgiving, with no turkey in sight.  On that day, I’ll prepare something exciting and involved, like Hezbollah Tofu’s Roulade of Wild Seitan.  (Doesn’t it look gorgeous?)  It would be great fun, I think, to plan a less traditional Thanksgiving dinner with a full spread of festive vegetarian/vegan dishes.  But for now, I feel good that there will be something delicious to eat this year, and good company to share it with.

Are your Thanksgivings vegetarian?  What do you eat in place of turkey?

I’ll admit, I’m a northern girl through and through.  I haven’t spent much time in the South, and I’m not sure I’ve ever had properly prepared Southern-style collards, so I don’t have a basis of comparison for this dish.  Really traditional collards involve cooking them in bacon fat, which is obviously a no-go for vegetarians. I’ve always heard people rave about collards, or talk about them with great nostalgia, so I was eager to try something close enough to give me an idea of why everyone was so excited.

I adapted this recipe from the braised collards recipe in Deborah Madison’s “Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone” (my standard for vegetarian recipes – highly recommended), with some significant changes: I add seitan to fill up the void left by bacon, and instead of brown butter (which I think involves cooking butter very slowly for a very long time) I just used plain old butter.  How can you go wrong when you cook things in butter?  Whether or not it tastes like the real thing, I thought it was delicious.  I served it with corn bread.

I’d love feedback: if you make this, do you think it’s a fair approximation?  What, short of animal fat, would bring it closer?

Collards and Seitan, Southern Style

• 8 oz. seitan, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 – 3/4 lb fresh collard greens
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tb butter
• salt

1. Wash greens and cut or tear into pieces, removing the tough stems and ribs.
2. Put greens and seitan into a pot of boiling water, and boil for about 10 minutes.  Drain off most of the liquid, leaving 1/2 cup or less, and remove from heat.
3. Slice the garlic, and saute in melted butter until soft and the butter starts to brown.
4. Add greens and seitan.  Simmer for about 15 minutes to let the flavors meld.
5. Enjoy!

Not only is it an excellent movie in its own right, but it incorporates some impressive themes.  For one, it recognizes that it’s possible for humans to wreck the Earth to the point where it’s uninhabitable.  Trash is the environmental issue of note in the movie, but there are climate change messages in there too if you look for them.  It’s not every day that you see that in a kids’ movie.

Just as cool (at least to me) is that plants play a central role in the movie – not as singing, dancing characters, as one might expect in a Pixar movie, but as a measure of Earth’s livability.  It’s plants, not beef or oil or twinkies, that make it possible for Earth to sustain human life.  And it acknowledges that eating real food grown from the earth is worth some sweat and hard work.  If the ending was a little too optimistic for my taste, well, so be it.  They got some important messages across in the meantime.

Good job, Pixar!