Peer Pressure

By Monica on November 16th, 2007

1. Favorite non-dairy milk? Rice milk, preferably Trader Joe’s original flavor. I don’t like the taste soymilk can leave in certain dishes, and this way I can make horcahata anytime the urge strikes.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook? Shamefully, I still have not made V-con chickpea cutlets. And with Christmas coming, I am looking forward to veganizing my beloved kolach recipe and a vánocka.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn? I intensely dislike popcorn. Not as much as I dislike mushrooms, but I will only eat popcorn about once a year and then only because there is no food in the house and I am faced with imminent starvation.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure? I have only made one meal which was so bad no one would eat it, and that was my first attempt at sauerbraten. Making gingersnaps and vinegar into something edible is not an easy task.

5. Favorite pickled item? Pickled beets, although sauerkraut is a contender as well. My dining room is filled with antiques, and on a shelf is a 1/2 gallon blue mason jar filled with pickled beets. My great-aunt canned them in the 60’s and while I wouldn’t eat them for obvious reasons, they are still gorgeous.

6. How do you organize your recipes? I have a 3 ring binder that holds all my print-out recipes from other bloggers and internet sites. I am failing desperately at keeping it organized though! I’m embarrassed to say that all my cookbooks are in a state of disarray too, spread out between kitchen cabinets wherever there is a free spot.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? There should be a 4th option for chickens! The chickens get all of our food scraps, the rest is trash. I really wish we had recycling where we live but we don’t. The closest center for me to drop off recycling is 75 miles away and I’m not sure the recycling benefit would offset the fuel burned.

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)? My seitan kabob, Hot Tamales (the candy), and maybe avocados.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? [edit] just realized this said fondest FOOD memory, der. I’m gonna go with the copper penny salad my grandmother would make just for me on holidays. While others were feasting on ham and roast pork, I was eating copious amounts of carrots and green peppers!

10. Favorite vegan ice cream? Purely Decadent Turtle Trails. I have to find this ‘Black Label’ stuff the rest of you are talking about!

11. Most loved kitchen appliance? Heini. That’s right, I named my Kitchenaid stand mixer I love it so much. It is named after strongwoman Heini Koivuniemi, after watching her kick everyone’s butt in one of those Strongman competitions on TV.

12. Spice/herb you would die without? Caraway seeds, dill, and garlic. Not necessarily together!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? Well I have a lot of family heirloom cookbooks from the 1920’s and a few even earlier. But I think the first cookbook I ever bought was The Best of Czech Cooking, which IMO is anything but.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? Raspberry Rhubarb, homemade of course.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? Everyone is amazed with dumplings, for some reason. I make enough to feed an army and it still isn’t enough. And I actually had people willing to pay me for kolach last year. I think that’s a good mark of success!

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh? I really can’t imagine living without any one of them, but I’m going to say tofu. I’m convinced it’s magical.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? I’ve always hated breakfast and most all breakfast foods, and I never have time to eat lunch. I’m not terribly fond of sweets, so that means I have one meal a day to make really snazzy. Dinner it is!

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator? Cookbooks held up by two black bear bookends, a crock containing bay leaves, and an antique egg carrier.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking. Veggie remains for stock, Morningstar Vegan Grillers, asparagus.

20. What’s on your grocery list? A lot right now, I’m way overdue! Rice milk, silken tofu, seitan, Tofutti cream cheese, Trader Joe’s Italian salad dressing, pita bread, spaghetti sauce, I could keep going…

21. Favorite grocery store? Trader Joe’s. I lurve them. Last time I was there a cashier spotted my Vegan Freak hoodie and told me how much she loved it. Then she saw the Shac7 button on my purse and really got excited. It’s so fun to accidentally meet another vegan.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet. My Babi’s recipe for “Beef & Dill Gravy”. I’m quite sure seitan would work just fine, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3? Oh boy. I can’t say there’s a top 3, but I use a lot of recipes from SusanV at Fat Free Vegan. Bazu’s posts are always entertaining and educational. And Lindy Loo is the vegan comedian extraordinaire.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate? Hot Tamales. Oh how I love them.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? I’d say a tiny package of agar agar that was $8.99, or another big tub of nutritional yeast at $14.99.

26. Veganaise or Nayonaise? Is this a serious question? Veganaise, of course!

27. What is one recipe or ingredient or cooking technique that you’ve become familiar within the last year that you can’t imagine you ever lived without?
I’m going to say ’seitan’. It looked so disgusting in the package at Whole Foods, like a box of brains floating around in cerebrospinal fluid, that I refused to try it until about a year ago.

28. When you are sick, what is your comfort food of choice? Grilled Cheez and tomato soup. It has stuck ever since I was a kid and now I have it in my head that I cannot get well without it.