Peas in a pod

Good luck for the new year! Is it black eyed peas or lentils? I always thought it was black eyed peas that brought good luck. You were supposed to eat them on new years day, in my family usually in a stew. I hated them as a child and only recently have been brave enough to try them out again. Dandelion the Bitter Green heard from his mother that it was lentils, which others have collaborated as a European tradition. I'm sure I ate enough lentils last year and will again this year to bring me the good luck.

I tried on New Years Eve to make black eyed pea croquettes. I was following a recipe and everything but it totally failed. They stuck together well (which is the common croquette problem) but didn't cook all the way through. Not the end of the world as everything inside was either cooked or edible raw but I'm not a big fan of raw onions and garlic and flour. The failed croquettes were served with roasted vegetables (brussel sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, rutabagas) and brown rice.



As proof that I refuse to give up on something (or throw anything out) I decided to try again the next night with the extra croquette ingredients. This time I made what I fondly call "hash," a mix of beans and rice with lots of onions and garlic fried in oil. That was the stuffing ingredient for a stuffed acorn squash which was then topped with the leftover roasted veggies and a nice tahini-miso sauce. (Note: the very awesome new display bowl, a Christmas present from the Cheerful Baker. Much thanks!)



Saturday night I made a simple meal of seitan and chard with some caramelized onions. We ate this with more brown rice. The seitan was some of the batch I made before Christmas. I was concerned about it going bad so I've frozen the rest. I'll report back later on how that turns out.



Sunday night we had such a big pancake brunch that we didn't eat again until the next morning.

Monday night I made a barley and white bean stew. I am so happy to have a pressure cooker because all of the root vegetables I used in the stew (celery root, rutabagas, parsnips, and carrots) were perfectly cooked by the pressure cooker. And the barley too, all in 22 minutes. Amazing!



Tuesday night was another rice and lentils night. Roasted veggies, sweet potato chips and the silly movie Julie & Julia. I had read the book. I like food. I thought I would like the movie. But I discovered that while I liked Julia Child for having a fabulous life and living it with zest, I was annoyed at Julie Powell for whining and complaining about her life. Plus in the book she actually does get fat from all the butter she uses. The thing that I remember the most from the book were the times she had to make aspics, essentially meat Jell-O (blech!) Not only does it not sound good but she had to make gelatin from a calf hoof. Another reminder that being vegan is actually much more pleasant. Not that I mind other people dealing with calf hooves, but I'm glad I don't have to.



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This week's recipe: Sweet Potato Chips

This is super easy and can hardly be called a recipe but here it is.
Heat oven to 450.
Cut a sweet potato into thin rounds. I like to use Japanese sweet potatoes because they're not as sweet as yams or traditional sweet potatoes but you can use whatever kind you want. Japanese ones are more purplish on the outside and have white insides.
Put a little olive oil on a cookie sheet and spread it around so that it's coated.
Place the sweet potato chips on the sheet in one layer. It's ok if they're touching but if you have so many that they are all on top of each other spread them out onto two sheets.
Drizzle with more oil and put in the oven.
Check them every 5 minutes or so until they are starting to brown.
Flip them over. Drizzle a little bit of soy sauce or tamari on them.
Cook for another 5-10 minutes until they are at your level of crunchiness/ burntness.
Take them off the sheet and let them sit on a paper towel to absorb some of the oil.
Try not to eat them all at once or as the only thing you eat for dinner.