Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts

Friday, November 12, 2010

The End!

Good morning, my Field Roasts of doom.

I briefly dreamed of writing a cookbook the way I speak. There would be instructions like "Add wet ingredients to dry and knead the shit out of it for 3-5 minutes" and descriptions like "Makes one metric assload." We should all be thankful Warren Ellis beat me to it. Sort of. Mr. Ellis doesn't write cook books. He writes comics. And novels. And essays. And a webcomic. And Tweets. And a blog. And all sorts of entertaining and educational (depending on your definition of education) things. However, a recent edition of his novel, Crooked Little Vein, contained recipes, a playlist and an interview with Warren Ellis. I decided to use that as the inspiration for today's post.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Bubbles Don't Squeak


This post is kind of meta-MoFo: a VeganMoFo post inspired by another VeganMoFo post.

A couple of weeks ago, Heathen Vegan posted instructions for making Bubble and Squeak, which sounded really good to me. Just coming off a detox, I didn't want to stuff my face with fried potatoes, so I attempted a baked, parsnip-based patty that I'm going to call Bubbles Don't squeak.




Thursday, October 1, 2009

Hot MoFos



Yes, ladies and gentlemen, to paraphrase The Zombies, it's the time of the season for MoFo.

If you're new to this blog, vegan talk, or the Internet, you may ask yourself "Where does that highway go?" "What is VeganMoFo?" So I'll tell you:

VeganMoFo (formally known as the Vegan Month of Food) is a play on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writer's Month), except all non-fiction. For the month of October, about 360 denizens of the Internet (including me) will try to post about food daily, with the intention of showing off the wide and varied world of vegan eats.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Music for Animals

This isn't a food post, but it's for the animals, so I think it's still safe for a veganism-related blog. Yes? Yes.

Taken from BrooklynVegan:

Today, we are especially happy to bring you "People Got A Lotta Nerve," the first single from Neko Case's forthcoming album Middle Cyclone (out March 3), because for every blog that reposts the song and/or iLike user who adds it to their profile, Neko Case and ANTI- will make a cash donation to Best Friends Animal Society.

The promotion will run from January 13 to February 3, 2009. Five dollars will be donated for every blog post and one dollar for every user of iLike that adds the song to his/her profile.


Everyone and their grandmama has a blog these days, so repost this and let the good people over at newmedia @ epitaph . com know you did, and the animals get $5. I admit I haven't done any research on Best Friends Animal Society, but this is kind of a no-brainer to me; after all, Neko Case kind of rules anyway.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD! WOOHA!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Passover, Post the First

According to Gothamist, hospitals see "an uptick in total patient volume during Passover...[largely due to] Dizziness from [cleaning] fumes, slips from highly buffed floors or wet bathroom tiles...knife wounds from cutting food, burns from stovetops, and even fingers chopped up in blenders." I only have two cuts and a burn, so I consider myself lucky. Doubly lucky since I did most of my cooking while half asleep.

I'm a sabbath observer, so I had to make sure most of my Passover food was ready by Friday night. I took Friday off from work and started my food prep Wednesday night. And, like all responsible people would, went to see Colin Meloy Thursday night at Music Hall of Williamsburg (side note: he is the cutest thing on two feet. I stood there the whole time wishing I'd baked him cookies). Due to transport issues and my inability to shut up and leave when I'm hanging out with friends, I got home at 2 AM. In case that wasn't bad enough, my mother was still in the kitchen, so I wasn't able to get to work until 3. I ended up not sleeping at all until after dinner Friday night. Oy vey!



Almost every recipe I picked for the holiday used vegetable broth or stock, so the first thing I had to do was make the vegetable broth. Naturally, I made the one from Vegan With a Vengeance. It's such a staple in our house that even my mother made a double batch of it to feed the family and to use in all her cooking (Wednesday night was dedicated to chopping vegetables for all the broth). You'd think after making the broth over a dozen times, I'd be able to make it without screwing it up, right? Wrong. Somehow, I'm unable to tell the difference between parsley and cilantro and ended up accidentally substituting the latter for the former. I didn't even realize it until it was time to use the cilantro in another dish and I didn't have any. D'oh! Thankfully, I like cilantro, and I was just using the broth as an ingredient, not eating it straight, so it didn't make a huge difference when combined with the other ingredients in my dishes.

While that was simmering for 90 minutes, I grabbed Tofu Mom's recipe and made matzo balls. Lots of lots of matzo balls.



And started the crust and the filling for my Raw Apple Pie. I don't have a Passover blender or food processor, just a Smart Chopper, and trying to do all those dates in there nearly made me want to stick my head in next. I hate that thing. Definitely getting something better for next year. But I got it done and had plenty of time to let the filling soak and the crust firm up in the fridge. I tried to get all decorative with a flower in the middle and some golden raisins to garnish, but I don't think it worked so well. It didn't really matter since it completely fell apart when we cut into it, but it was still tasty, which is the most important part.



And I prepped my portobello mushrooms, prepared my marinade and put everything together for Yellow Rose Recipes' grilled portobellos. It was so easy to put together that I forgot I don't have a grill pan for Passover. I decided to roast them instead, after they marinated for 24 hours.



While I'm on the subject of Yellow Rose Recipes, I need to talk about the Braised Cauliflower. I know I say this about everything, but it's really the easiest recipe ever. The aroma when the cauliflower was cooking in the margarine was amazing. My mother kept asking what was in the pan and refused to believe it was just cauliflower and margarine. I was almost disappointed when I added the broth and everything started smelling like it instead of yummy, popcorny, cauliflower. As the broth cooked off, the fragrance came back, better than ever, and joy was had. My family really enjoyed this. It's a side dish that's so simple it compliments everything. Even my grandmother ate one floret and deemed it good. She never eats vegetables, so that's high praise indeed.



I wanted to make the Indian variation of the Yellow Rose Recipes Green-Wa, but couldn't find kosher for Passover curry powder. Instead, I found this handy guide to making your own spice blend that could be deemed "close enough" by some people. Those people don't include me. Not because I'm so discerning, but because I only had red pepper flakes and no matter how much grinding I did with my new mortar and pestle, I just couldn't powder them.



I used that "curry powder", substituted the coconut milk for the soy yogurt and was about to start chopping my herbs for the Green-Wa, when lo and behold! I didn't have any cilantro! Oh yeah, it was all in the soup. So I chopped up the parsley and stuck that in the quinoa instead. And I completely forgot to even add the curry powder until the very last step. I made numerous mistakes with this recipe, but it's very forgiving. The current dish is somehow almost bland, in a good way, but still burns my tongue. My brother ate loads of it; he especially liked putting it on chicken. I can't say I love the recipe as I made it, but it gave me an idea of how it would taste if I didn't completely screw it up. Will definitely try again when I'm not completely out of it.



The last thing I made before the sun set on me was Herb Roasted Potatoes from Vegan With a Vengeance. Holy crap, those are good! I took the time to chop my herbs up nice and fine and got them really well done and my family went crazy for them. Even my grandmother ate a significant portion of them, and usually just looking at spices gives her "agita", and my brother didn't even pick out the onions. Victory!



A couple more pictures from Day One:






Stay tuned for Passover Cooking: Day Two!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

How the Blog Saved Passover

Passover, the traditional holiday for matzo balls, is next week. Unfortunately, it's traditional to make matzo balls with eggs. Also unfortunately, it's traditional for vegans to replace the eggs with tofu (e.g.: the Vegan With a Vengeance recipe), one of the many foods forbidden on Passover (according to my family's tradition). I was ready to spend my first matzo ball free Passover when someone showed me Tofu Mom's recipe. I just tried it tonight and I think it made the best vegan matzo balls I've had yet.



As I'm sure I've mentioned in all my other matzo ball related posts, my family likes their matzo balls very firm and we've always found the vegan tofu-based ones to be softer than our preference, but good enough. They don't turn into a huge glob of mush in the soup (the first batch I made did!), but they don't really have any bite to them either.

Until now. This whole baking soda/potato starch thing is brilliant. As you can see in the picture above, the balls can actually be picked up and held between the fingers without oozing or denting or falling apart. Amazing. My family is thrilled. We're so pleased with the consistency, I think we may stick with these even when it's not Passover. Wooha!

Speaking of Passover, I don't know how much activity this blog will see over the next couple of weeks. I've cleaned out the fridge and probably won't be cooking again until the holiday. I've already got my menu planned and will be cooking up a storm (think roasted portobellos, stuffed eggplant, matzo ball soup, braised cauliflower, green-wa, diner home fries, broccoli potato soup, herb-roasted potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts with toasted garlic, roasted garlic artichoke spread, beginners curry, broccoli vinaigrette, baked apples, tea-poached pears in chocolate sauce, and raw apple pie), but photography will be limited since I'm not allowed to use a camera (or a computer) for about half the holiday. I'll be sure to review all the recipes when I'm done, though (and since most are from Veganomicon and Yellow Rose Recipes, I'm prepared for loads of positive reviews).

Monday, January 21, 2008

Three-Day Weekend

I'd like to thank Martin Luther King, Jr. for the current three-day weekend. And for all that civil rights stuff. That stuff rocks. We've still got work to do, though.

I think we should work it out so I have a three-day weekend following Giftmas every year so I have time to break in my new cookbooks. For instance, my friend Sarah sent me The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook and I made the Traditional Macaroni and Cheez last night. I also made the Frittata di zucchine e pinoli al forno (baked zucchini and pine nut frittata?) from BioVegan.



I have to be honest: I don't love nutritional yeast. I know it's good for me and I think it tastes OK, but I don't want to marry it. When I'm using it without a recipe, I always add just enough to add texture, but no flavor. When I was making this, all I could smell was olive oil and nutritional yeast. It didn't smell like macaroni and cheese to me at all. Then my brother came downstairs and asked "Who's making macaroni and cheese?" It took me a second to realize the correct answer was "Me."

The recipe says "The sauce should continue to bubble as you add the milk; if it doesn't, you are adding the milk too quickly." My sauce bubbled very rarely and spent quite a bit of time looking like cheez dough, not cheez sauce. It wasn't until I added about half the milk that it started to loosen up. And I certainly didn't have to heat it longer to thicken it up. If anything, adding the hot macaroni helped get the sauce off my whisk.

When it was all done, the consistency was near perfect and the taste was pretty good too, but I certainly haven't found my go-to mac 'n cheese yet. There's another recipe in the same book that uses slightly less nutritional yeast that I think I'll try next. There's also the Mac Daddy in Veganomicon, one the same Sarah sent me, and a multitude from the Internet. It seems like everyone wants to recommend the best vegan macaroni and cheese EVAR, making it even harder to figure out which one actually deserves that title.





I was intrigued by this frittata because unlike most recipes, it used a mix of flours for its "eggy" base instead of tofu. I think I need to mess with the cook time a bit more, but it's really tasty. I'm going to try it again for sure. I don't know Italian, so thanks to my friend Shawn for the translation.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Mini Cranberry Apple Crumb Pie

I'm skipping ahead to my submission for The Mini Pie Revolution because the deadline is nearly upon us.

For this, I borrowed my mother's "Cranapple Crunch" recipe and adapted it until it was pretty much unrecognizable. I made a dozen pies and when my mother told me she'd eaten three in one day, I knew it was time to get them out of the house and distribute them among my friends and coworkers.



When I made this, I prepared WAY too much filling, a bit too much topping and not enough crust, so I adjusted the measurements but haven't gotten to re-test it. If you decide to follow this recipe, expect it to be tasty but messy. Or just use your judgement and change things accordingly, since if you're reading this, you're probably a food blogger too and have far more experience than I (this is my first original recipe).

Mini Cranberry Apple Crumb Pies

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 bag fresh cranberries
2 cups flour (divided)
2 tsp cinnamon (divided)
1 cup margarine (divided)*
4 Tablespoons
3 apples (my mother uses Granny Smiths, I used organic Braeburns. Both tasted quite nice)
1 cup quick oats
2/3 cup brown sugar

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 and grease your muffin pan.

2. Bring water and sugar to boil in medium, non-porous saucepan. Add cranberries and return to boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Refrigerate until cool. If you do not have a non-porous saucepan, you definitely want to transfer the cranberries to a bowl before refrigerating. As the berries cool, a film will form over the top. Stir occasionally to break up the film and allow the heat to escape or your berries will never cool.

3. Mix 1 1/3 cup flour, and 1 tsp cinnamon in medium bowl. Cut in 5.5 tablespoons margarine, using pastry blender, 2 knives or your fingers, until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl.

5. Gather pastry into a ball. Shape into flattened round on lightly floured surface. Wrap flattened round of pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 45 minutes or until dough is firm and cold, yet pliable.

6. While waiting for your cranberries and crust dough to cool, wash, peel and chop your apples.

7. Melt remaining margarine. To it, add 2/3 cup brown sugar, 1 cup quick oats, 2/3 cup flour and 1 tsp cinnamon. Mix well with fork, until crumbs form.

8. When your dough is ready, roll it into an log and cut it into 12 even pieces. Roll those pieces into balls and flatten them into thin rounds that will fit your muffin tins. Since they're so small, a rolling pin isn't really necessary but you're welcome to use one if you're really particular. Press each crust into a greased cup of the muffin tin and prick it a few times with a fork.

9. Mix your cranberries with your chopped apples. Fill each crust about 2/3 full with the fruit filling.

10. Finish each pie off with crumb topping.

11. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until crumbs brown slightly.

12. Allow pies to cool before attempting to remove them from their tins.

This is why I specified the use of non-porous pots and bowls:



Bottom crusts:



Filled:



Topped:



Baked:



The mini pie stands alone:



I still can't believe it didn't fall apart as soon as it was removed from the pan:



The crumb didn't hold up to cutting too well. This pie is meant to be eaten with the hands:



I may have snuck one while they were still hot...and it may have been bliss:



I don't know what this is or where it came from but I found it in the silverware drawer and it's a perfect Mini Pie Popper Outer. If you're going to make a habit of mini pie making, invest in one:




* I tried to cut back on the amount of margarine used, so I didn't get much of a crumb going. For a bigger, crumbier, crumb, add a couple of extra tablespoons of margarine to the crust dough.



I still have so much food to blog about, and I need to fix up this layout sooner or later. I never realized this would be so time consuming!

Monday, December 3, 2007

The Mini Pie Revolution

Check it.

Like pies? Like cupcakes? They're two tastes that go great together and now they're a December challenge. Vegan cupcakes may be taking over the world, but mini pies can certainly have this month. I'm definitely going to participate and I think my submission will have cranberries in it. That's all I'm going to say for now.

And I kind of like this monthly challenge thing. November: VeganMofo. December: mini pies. Let's hope January is something like Low Fat Dishes That Take Ten Minutes to Cook and Taste Like Sunshine.

Friday, November 30, 2007

The End

Today is the last day of VeganMoFo. I only missed two days all month (of blogging, not veganning) and I think that's pretty respectable since I'm so new to it. I was going to make my last VeganMoFo post all about the things I've learned and how I've changed in the past month, but I'm no good at being poignant and shit (and really, the only change that will happen now that VeganMoFo is over is I won't post as frequently - especially on weekends - and probably won't include posts that aren't about food I've cooked, unless I eat someplace historically good or my friends cook), so instead I'll just follow up on my Misc. list.

1. I left the tofu to soak for four days before moving it to the dehydrator. I tasted one piece after it'd been drying for about a day. The outside had really firmed up and darkened in color, but inside was still softer and whiter, so I left it on. Will check it again when I get home. It's REALLY tasty, but the spicy pickle flavor comes out more the longer you chew it.

2. Got my groceries from peapod.com. Everything was...adequate. For produce, I had ordered Fuji apples, lemons, garlic, carrots, green grapes and Brussels sprouts. They were out of the apples (which was just as well since I just bought them to push my order over $50. Since it was their fault, I got away with placing a $47.50 order). The lemons, garlic and carrots look good. The Brussels sprouts are in those little cardboard containers, so it's possible that all the sprouts under the first layer are spoiled, but the tops look fine. The grapes aren't as pretty as the ones I try to pick myself, but I've seen and eaten worse. Overall, I'd give them 4/5 for produce.

Also, my mother was supposed to be home to take delivery of the groceries. My father's car broke down, so she had to go get him, so naturally the delivery came while she was away. The driver was very nice and came back to our house as his last stop of the evening, after my mother came home, without charging the extra delivery fee. Rock.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Seitan Said Survey

Thanksgiving may be over, but I'm still cooking more than ever before. I have a mteric assload of vegetables to shred without a food processor tonight (I'm making the Autumn Latkes from Veganomicon), so instead of taking time to upload pictures and write real things, I give you the Food Snobbery survey (and apologies for not writing anything yesterday; when the sun sets early and I'm cooking all day, there's no time to blog before the sabbath!).

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?

I never drank milk, so I haven't really tried many non-dairy milks. Most recipes I make call for soy milk and Silk is the easiest to find, so I usually get that, so I guess that's my answer.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?

a - Autumn Latkes

b - Mac Daddy, also from Veganomicon

c - I think it's time for jerky, AKA left over tofu + an experimental marinade + my dehydrator = an accident waiting to happen.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?

I like it plain.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

I haven't had any serious disasters yet, unless you count things that are ready about six hours after I expect them to be. The thing that's come out the worst so far would probably be the VWAV matzo balls, though.

5. Favorite pickled item?

Cucumbers! (Yes, I'm boring)

6. How do you organize your recipes?

An email draft full of links.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

Trash.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?

Jerquee, bread and....something sweet. Cupcakes? Cupcakes.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?

Finally getting to order food for myself at a fancy restaurant. I wanted fettucini alfredo and asked for "fettucini al-scaredo" (alfredo sounds like afraido in Brooklynese).

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?

I've only had Tofutti. It's OK.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?

Blender. Makes me think I maybe don't need a food processor.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?

Garlic.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

Jewish Vegetarian Cooking by Rose Friedman. Have never used it.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?

Strawberry, I think.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?

Tofu Pumpkin Pie.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?

Tofu. I still haven't tried to cook seitan (which is stupid since it's in my blog name, I know. Sorry).

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?

Brunch.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?

Asparagus and onions.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

A tofurkey, leftover VWAV vegetable broth and leftover Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and Navy Beans from Veganomicon.

20. What’s on your grocery list?

Tumeric, black cocoa powder, soy milk powder and golden raisins.

21. Favorite grocery store?

Sunac in Williamsburg.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.

After reading this, egg rolls.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?

I kind of go with ones with easy to remember names, so I check Fat Free Vegan, Vegan Chicks Rock and VeganYumYum nearly (and sometimes more than) daily.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

Any!

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?

McClure's pickles. $12 for a jar of pickles! I will use everything in that jar (and the jar itself), I swears it!

26. How did you get so pretty?

That's how my mommy and daddy made me! (Note: that's the actual answer I used to give when I was little and people asked me how I got so smart).

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Condiments

I bought a 29-ounce can of pureed pumpkin to make Sunday's Tofu Pumpkin Pie. I only needed 16. I woke up Monday wondering "What the hell am I going to do with the other 13 ounces of pumpkin? It's not enough for another pie and probably won't last until Thanksgiving anyway, even in the fridge in a tightly sealed container. What a waste!" I pondered my leftover pumpkin through the morning, until I had some free time at work and was able to hit the blogs. My first two are always BrooklynVegan and The PPK. After that, I hit up Fat Free Vegan and low and behold, their fat free recipe of the week was Pumpkin-Apple Butter. Turns out they had leftovers too.

And while we all loved the pie, pumpkin pie without whipped cream is almost criminal in some parts, so I attempted a Bryanna's Best Tofu Whipped Creme on Monday night too.



Pumpkin-Apple Butter: I basically followed the recipe as is, skipping the nutmeg because I don't have any. Yes, I will be rectifying that soon. FFV used a hand blender to puree the raisins, then returned them to the pan. I'm totally lazy and used the hand blender in the pan. Is that terrible? After a while, I got even lazier and left a few raisins only semi-pureed. Chunks add character, right?

Much like the polenta, the butter thickened as it heated and bubbled and glooped along as I watched it. It didn't need nearly as frequent stirring as the polenta, though. I ended up bringing my knitting into the kitchen and giving the butter a quick stir every time I finished a round.

The butter tastes and smells very much like really good pumpkin pie, but lighter (I guess because of the apples). FFV recommends putting it on toast. I ate it with melba toast and though I enjoyed it immensely, my mouth kept thinking "This needs rice cakes!" so I've picked up two packages and am ready to rock them with pumpkinny apply goodness.

Here's the recipe as I did it:

Pumpkin-Apple Butter

1/2 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup apple juice
2 cups pureed pumpkin
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 cup natural apple sauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup sugar

Put the raisins in a medium-sized saucepan, and pour the apple juice over them. Heat on low until raisins plump up, adding water when they get dry. When they are plump, puree the raisins in the juice. (I used a hand blender in the pan.)

Add all remaining ingredients to the pan. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about an hour. Makes about 3 cups.

Bryanna's Best Tofu Whipped Creme: Meh. I definitely wouldn't bring it to a party and think my pie is better off without it. Maybe we'll just get a vegan whipped topping from the store. I have so much to do this week, I just don't have the time to hang out in the kitchen perfecting my whipped topping. Alas!

Instead of coming out like whipped cream, as I made it, the topping has the consistency of cupcake batter, but without all the tasty goodness my cupcakes usually have. It even leaves my mouth feeling kind of dry, like after I eat tahini. Bizarre.

If you look at the recipe on the site, it's full of "or"s. Here's how I made it, so you know what not to do. One of the other variations may work better.

Bryanna's Best Tofu Whipped Creme
Makes about 1 and 3/4 cups

1 and 1/3 c. soft tub tofu [water-packed in plastic tub]
1/4 c. raw cashews, ground very fine in a food processor or coffee grinder
3 T. very light granulated unbleached sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon juice

Place all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend for several minutes, or until very smooth and fluffy. Scrape into a small bowl, cover tightly and refrigerate for at least four hours before serving. This will keep for several days refrigerated.

Extreme closeup of the butter, for texture:



The elusive raisin:



The pie with the whipped topping:



I was actually considering not even posting that picture because it looks so unappetizing. At the risk of being dirty and taking "food porn" to a new level, this picture looks too much like a money shot for me to be comfortable serving it to others. Especially my grandmother and her contemporaries on Thanksgiving.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Why Am I Here?

I'm starting this blog with entries about what led up to me wanting to keep it. This post is backdated to approximately the date it happened.

No, this isn't one of those philosophical posts about the meaning of life, but with the ridiculous number of food blogs, message boards and websites around, I thought I should explain why I thought the Internet needed another one.

I didn't. I thought I needed another one. One of the many things I learned about myself from doing the Master Cleanse is that my chances for success increase when other people know what I'm doing. This may partially be because my friends are all awesome, supportive and inquired about every step of it (some of them even did it for a few days themselves), but I think it's more because if people know what I'm doing, I feel stupid wussing out of it publicly and there's nothing I hate more than feeling stupid.

As I think I may have mentioned, now that I'm done with the Cleanse, I'm starting with a clean slate, nutritionally. Making the most of that will take the kind of vigilance that comes from not wanting to look like an ass in public, so I'll be using this space to post recipes, pictures, food links etc. that I'll be using to keep myself healthy. Since I'm mostly cooking food that'll be packed up into single-portion containers and brought to work, my photos won't be all pretty like the ones you see on the PPK flickr. They'll just be good enough to see how mine turned out, so if you try the recipes and they look completely different, you know one of us goofed (probably me).

If I don't update for a while, please send someone to find me. I'll probably be trapped in an avalanche of pizza, macaroni and cheese and General Tso's "chicken".