Fall in a Bowl, Pt. 2

Salad, risotto, and wine: a well-balanced birthday din-din.

For his birthday, I granted my dad a coupon for a special home-cooked meal as soon as I got the chance, and tonight happened to be it. I swooped down on Whole Foods to gather my ingredients, then set to work putting his surprise dinner together. This process was observed from a comfortable distance - the menu wasn't revealed until the moment it hit the plates.

This was my first time taking the care and indulgence necessary to carry off risotto and, uh, it was way worth it. It absolutely melts in your mouth. Devote an evening to making this and I solemnly swear you will not be disappointed.

Butternut Squash Risotto
adapted from the Barefoot Contessa, serves 6

1 medium butternut squash
5 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons margarine
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
4 cups no-chicken stock
2 cups water

Preheat the oven to 400. Halve the squash, de-seed it, and place cut-side down on a cookie sheet greased with two tablespoons of olive oil. Place the squash in the oven for 45 minutes.

Pour the stock and water into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. In the meantime, saute the shallots in the remaining three tablespoons of olive oil and three of margarine until translucent. Stir in the rice, coating thoroughly with butter and oil. Add the wine, simmering for about two minutes. Add two ladlefuls of the warmed broth, plus the salt, white pepper and turmeric. Allow the broth to be absorbed, stirring every coupla minutes. Once it starts to seem a little dry, add another two ladles of stock. Continue this routine for about 30 minutes, until all the broth is used.

Once the squash is cooked through, peel off the skin and cube with a knife. Stir into risotto.

Fall in a Bowl

For a gluten free, yet highly nourishing breakfast on chilly mornings like those of the past week, I always go for Cream of Buckwheat. I have a friend who really digs 'em as a grit-replacer, with just salt and nutritional yeast mixed in, but my favorite preparation is slightly sweet with lots of mix-ins. Today, my buckwheat was flavored in the spirit of fall:

Butternut Buckwheat
serves 1

1/4 cup Cream of Buckwheat
1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup mashed butternut squash (I had some roasted leftover in the fridge)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
10-20 drops liquid stevia (or your preferred sweetener)
a dollop of cranberry sauce
a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds

Bring the almond milk to a boil, add the buckwheat, and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes, until it has thickened up to a grit-like consistency. Mix in squash, cinnamon and stevia, then transfer to a bowl. Top with cranberry sauce and pumpkin seeds and enjoy.

Vegan MoFo

Did y'all know that November in the food blogosphere is Vegan MoFo, or Vegan Month of Food? Well, I remembered a little too late to officially register Soul Food for the challenge of posting every weekday with some recipe or tip or tidbit about vegan food and how much I love it, but I'm observing this holiday anyway, along with all the others that seem to pop up this time of year.

As a matter of fact, a dear friend's birthday was yesterday, so to celebrate, she hosted what is known as a food orgy. (Here I go again with the suggestive party names!) There's lots of food to eat, BUT you cannot feed yourself - you must have someone else feed you! It was really a lot of fun. Seeing as it was potluck-style, I made these roasted veggies and a big pot of yummy cranberry sauce, which I paired with some Dr. Cow's Tree Nut cheese in Macadamia and Cashew-Brazil Nut I got on sale over at Vegan Essentials.



Today, I was brainstorming ways to try my cheezes in other gustatory contexts, and landed on a salad. So I roasted a big, beautiful chioggia beet, crumbled some of the macademia over a bed of spinach, and topped it all off with a Dijon mustard viniagrette. Looks tasty, eh?!

Anyhow, if you're in need of a sugar-free, yet uber-delicious cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving this year, I'd recommend giving this one a try.

Spiced Cranberry Sauce
makes a lottt

12 oz. fresh cranberries
1 lemon's zest and juice
30 drops liquid stevia
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon xantham gum

Combine all ingredients except xantham gum in a saucepan. Add just enough water to cover the fruit, then heat over medium-high until boiling. Lower the heat slightly and simmer until the fresh berries start to pop. At this point, get out your potato masher and start smushin'. After about 5 minutes, most berries should be crushed and the mixture beginning to gel a bit. Stir in the xantham gum, turn off the heat, and BAM! Done.

Everyday Soul

For your supply of soul this week, three tantalizing treats and one perfect party idea from around the blogosphere:


• Food & Style's Shoestring Okra Fries (Baked them, spiced them, loved them.)


• Manifest Vegan's Chocolate Acorn Squash Baked Custard (Sooo making these for Thanksgiving!)


• Vegan Dad's Zucchini Pancakes (De-glutenized and served last night at my very own version of...)

• Rachel Red Lips' Naked Lady Party! Otherwise known as an all-girl clothing swap, this simultaneously frugal and fun party idea inspired me immediately to arrange one, which went off without a hitch last night. Traded some darling fall clothes with my stylish friends and fed them lots of zucchini pancakes with homemade tzatziki sauce. I highly recommend the experience.

Photos borrowed from the respective bloggers!

Keepin' It Spicy

I must tell you, by the third week of this Detox for Women, it has gotten harder to stay inspired in the kitchen. The detox, lasting 30 days, bars gluten and sugar in all forms, all processed foods and even nuts and beans! So my cooking palette has been comprised solely of vegetables and a couple approved grains.

Especially in the last week, since the weather got colder, I've really been missing some of my favorite fall dishes: chili, shepard's pie (or as we call it around here, gardener's pie!), and...well, burritos. Recreating the flavors of your favorites with spices and other detox-approved ingredients is one of Natalia Rose's suggestions for keeping us cleansers from getting bored, so that's what I set out to do for good old burritos with these very, very flavorful stuffed peppers.

Mexican Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers
serves 4

4 green or red bell peppers, cored
1 cup quinoa
1 3/4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 large white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large ripe tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon Ancho chili powder
1/2 cup pepitos
1/2 avocado, sliced

Preheat the oven to 350. Bring quinoa and vegetable broth to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until quinoa is fully cooked - around 15 minutes. In the meantime, saute the onions, garlic and tomatoes in a little bit of olive oil. Once they start to soften, mix in the spices. After it starts to get nice and fragrant, mix the sofrito-ish thing into the quinoa with the pepitos, or pumpkin seeds. Stuff a quarter of the mixture into each pepper, place them in a circular baking dish with a 1/4-inch of water in the bottom, cover with foil and place in the oven for one hour.

Garnish with sliced avocado and a sprinkle of paprika. I recommend serving it with some squash soup. Makes for a super-nommy Tex Mex dinner.

Falling for Fall

If I'm being honest, my favorite season has always been autumn. Where I grew up, in South Florida, the leaves didn't actually turn pretty colors, and the temperature never really started to drop until the rest of the country had already made the transition.

Here in Northern Florida, well, not much has changed! But I like to think I'm far enough north now to enjoy some of the natural joys of the season. Here's what's been getting me jazzed for the next couple months.



Clockwise from top left: Peacekeeper Natural Lip Paint, an organic line of lipsticks with some really choice shades (top-rated for its low impact and absence of toxic substances on goodguide.com); Howl and Other Poems, a representative collection of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg's incredible work; a proliferation of butterbeer recipes with the grand opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - boy, I could really see myself kickin' back by a roaring fire with a frothy glass of this stuff; Jules and Jim, French actress Jeanne Moreau at her finest; butternut squash bread pudding (to be veganized immediately!); meringue "bones" (with my recent meringue experimentation, how could I help myself?); The FEST 9!!! (I'm fortunate enough to be performing at this glorious annual Gainesville festival on All Hallow's Eve - couldn't be more excited); and finally, a charming Sartorialist photo of a young lady dining al fresco at a Parisian cafe - how chic...I love her hat and her pattern-mixing. :)

Slow Oats

This morning was UF Slow Food's first breakfast potluck, conveniently also commemorating the first day of fall! A few members put together some beautiful breakfast treats and met up outside one of the dining halls on campus to tempt the morning rush of students away from fast food and toward us slow pokes. It was rather nice rising a little earlier than usual, enjoying the sun and breeze in a patch of grass before moseying on over to my first class. Taking one's time to enjoy such small moments, I think, is what Slow Food is all about.

Anyway, back to the food! Here's my recipe for, owing to their prep time, what simply must be called...

Slow Oats
serves 1, but easy to double or triple

1 cup gluten free rolled oats
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup unsulphured apricots, chopped
1 1/2-1 3/4 cup almond milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1-2 tablespoons agave nectar

Combine the first four ingredients in a bowl, mix well, then pour the almond milk over top. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, stir in the cinnamon and agave and enjoy. So easy to prep, but every ingredient is thoroughly wholesome. It's actually almost like having rice pudding for breakfast. Who doesn't want that?!?!

Thanks to Nick for posing with the yummies!