#vgnmf18

I make a "special" breakfast most Saturdays. Sometimes it's waffles or pancakes, which only I like, but sometimes it's savory, which K will usually eat too. There's often toast, or roasted potatoes, but recently I made brunch with polenta.

Soooo this is just my lunch for work today... But it's also very similar to what I've actually made for road trips and picnic lunches many times over the years.

AKA basically every dinner I make is a TV dinner because I sit on my couch and watch TV while eating. Here's tonight's:

Technically, the hummus and tabbouli are leftovers, except I won’t post about them until tomorrow--isn’t time fun? To go with them (and use up some other stuff), I baked tofu with sliced red onion and red bell pepper, lemon zest and juice, oregano, olive oil, and soy sauce. Then I pan-fried some eggplant, zucchini, and broccoli florets. I also cut up some lavash bread to scoop things up with as needed.

See? Anything goes with TV.

I’ve hosted Thanksgiving dinner almost every year since moving to California in 2004. I love it--I seldom host anyone, much less a big group, and my mom and I (and sometimes other folks!) love cooking together. Over the years, we made it tradition to use the opportunity to explore different cuisines, cooking methods, ingredients, styles...we take inspiration from all over. Last year we tried some Mexican recipes that weren’t entirely Americanized. We’ve done Italian with fresh pasta and gnocchi. There’s been Indian, Mediterranean, Japanese, “small plates around the world”...

This year I wanted to try to make some Spanish food. I’ve got research to do (especially on paella; I have ideas but...), but even some cursory reading up on tapas showed me there is a surprising number of simple vegetable-based things that won’t require much or any veganizing, which is awesome.

Picture it: America, December 2016.

We'd just elected fucking Donald Trump. Everyone's skin was crawling. I'd lost my longtime job early in the year and hadn't found any prospects for a new one. My partner went through a stressful health crisis over the summer and I was really present for that. Then I broke my foot stepping out the front door and spent 6 weeks sleeping downstairs and giving myself sponge baths because I couldn't get to the shower.

So when I tell you I celebrated turning 35 by asking my partner to bake me a cake which I wanted to I've and decorate so it said "FUCK 2016," I feel like to bed to have that full context.

Anyway, this year, I don’t know. K’s gonna be out of town. I don’t really care. I got him to get us tickets to see Neko Case the week before because I fucking love Neko Case and it’s in Oakland so maybe we can actually eat at one of those fancy all-vegan joints y’all have up there that I only get to enjoy via Instagram. It’s my 37th this year, smack in the middle of my “late 30s,” which is weird as hell. Maybe I’ll just make myself a mug cake and indulge in some TV. Wait...that’s something I do all the time...fuck it.

When I was a kid, sometimes we’d have roast in a bag for dinner: a big slab o’ meat baked in a weird, oven-safe nylon bag (it’s a thing! albeit not a thing I would use now), surrounded by vegetables--potatoes, carrots, green beans. Yer basic meat and potatoes, all in one easy go.

To revisit this meal, I made a mushroom-y seitan roast--which does bake wrapped in foil, so it’s kinda-sorta like the oven bag?--and a porcini jus to help flavor and moisten a whole roast pan of seitan and veggies.

Since the protein itself was already cooked and wouldn’t need a long time in the oven, I par-cooked the potatoes and carrots. The seitan roast sat atop some of the potato wedges, then a medley was nestled on each side. On top of that, I poured some of the jus.

I didn’t have a recipe to go off of for the overall assembly, so I just guessed: 20 minutes covered, 15 uncovered at 375 F. Seemed to work all right.

I mean, look how fucking normal that shit is.

I made this on a weeknight, after work, and without much planning ahead. So it cost... whatever we had on hand, which seems reasonably frugal.

And what did we have on hand? The rest of the "discolored" trumpet mushrooms. Some plum tomatoes. And flour. So... Fresh pasta, anyone?

It's indulgent. It's special. And if you bought it in the store, it'd cost you. But a couple cups of flour and an excuse to dig into the Cupboard of Neglected and Forgotten Kitchen Gadgets? NBD.

Working off some Crossroads Cookbook recipe inspo (but like, not actually following it, because it is too much), I tossed my trumpet mushrooms with shallots, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt & pepper and roasted it. Later I added some whole cherry tomatoes, just because.

I made a quick sauce with more shallot and the rest of my saucing tomatoes and some fresh thyme. And nooch. Always nooch. The pasta came out really nice and tender -- probably won't impress any Italian grandmothers, but I'm the descendant of various northern Europeans and I'm perfectly happy with it -- and the roasted veggies had texture and punch.

It was cozy but special, you know? And what fancy food could beat that?

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