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Recipe: Quick Vegetable Stir-Fry with Peanut Sauce

Written by — Saturday, January 28, 2012

This is what I threw together for last night’s dinner and I think it turned out really well. Sort of a Thai curry for wusses. Recipes like this are proof that “vegan” and “healthy” don’t always have to overlap.

Stir-fry:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 package cubed super firm tofu, drained, or 8 oz. extra firm tofu cut into 1/2″ cubes
8 oz. fresh mushrooms
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 cup sugar snap peas
2 medium carrots, sliced

Sauce:
1 5.6-oz. can regular coconut milk, about 1/3 cup
1/2 cup coarse ground or “chunky” natural peanut butter*
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp maple syrup or sugar
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
1 inch piece fresh ginger, minced or grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp sesame oil

To make the sauce, combine all the ingredients and refrigerate. You may want to add more maple syrup or tamari if you prefer a sweeter or saltier flavor. The sauce will keep for at least a week in the fridge, so this can be done in advance.

Put prepared vegetables in a casserole dish with 2 tbsp water. Cover and microwave on high power for 5 minutes, then on 50% power for 5 minutes more. While the vegetables are cooking, heat vegetable oil and sesame oil in a pan and add the tofu cubes, stirring occasionally to brown them on all sides. When the vegetables are done, drain off any excess water and add them to the pan. Cook over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes, then add the prepared sauce and heat through. You can thin the sauce out with water in the pan if it seems too thick. Serve over rice.

If you like more heat, add cayenne pepper powder, sriracha, or Thai chili flakes.

One quarter of this recipe served over 1 cup of cooked rice contains a whopping 650 Calories.

* – Natural peanut butter is actually important because it is almost always ground more coarsely than regular peanut butter. If you don’t have natural peanut butter, you can grind roasted peanuts in a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder.

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Recipe: Vegan “Chicken” Noodle Soup

Written by — Sunday, January 8, 2012

Kara felt like chicken noodle soup, so I gave it a try. I think this turned out pretty darn well.

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp vegan margarine (or butter)
1 large onion, diced
4 small celery stalks, chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
8 cups water
2 tbsp Better Than Bouillon imitation chicken broth concentrate
2 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp salt
8 or 10 good twists of black pepper
1 8-ounce package Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Chik’n Strips
6 ounces flat whole wheat noodles (or flat egg noodles)

Saute the onion, celery and carrot in the olive oil and margarine. Add the water, Better Than Bouillon, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or so. Microwave the Chik’n Strips to thaw, then chop into chunks. Add the Chik’n Strips and noodles to the pot and simmer until the noodles are cooked. Serves 6-8.

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End of the Line?

Written by — Sunday, January 8, 2012

Readers of this blog may not be aware that 4d2.org is not just where I post my crappy personal screeds; it’s also a hosting provider. Last month I posted the message below on our front page, and I’d like to repost it here as the US Congress prepares to resume its legislative session for the new year.

An appeal to our visitors

For the past ten years, I have operated an independent website at this address. For the past six, the operations of 4d2 dot org have met the current legal definition of an Internet Service Provider. I am proud of the fact that we have provided hosting to a number of individuals and groups who might not otherwise have had a voice on the Internet.

Perhaps this “mission” of ours has become less important and less interesting as Internet presence has become cheap and ubiquitous; however we are still receiving requests every few weeks from people who are interested in joining us. Even though our members have often posted contentious material, we have never placed restrictions on the free speech of anyone we have hosted, thanks in large part to the freedom of speech enshrined in the constitution of the United States of America, from which we operate.

Today there is a distinct possibility that we will lose those freedoms. At this moment, the U.S. Congress is debating the “Stop Online Piracy Act” bill. Disguised as an effort to combat online piracy, this bill will in fact grant the government broad-reaching power to censor and control the Internet in unprecedented ways. It places onerous restrictions on small Internet Service Providers like us — restrictions with which we have no reasonable means of complying. This bill will require us to adhere to a government-mandated “blacklist” of forbidden websites, preventing our users from accessing these websites by any means within our control. Because we provide Internet access to our customers via shell sessions, virtual desktop sessions, proxy systems, DNS lookups and other means, we will be required to comply with these unreasonable restrictions if this bill becomes law. For our administrative staff of one, this is an unmanageable burden.

Every major Internet advocacy organization has spoken out against SOPA. The creators of the Internet have even expressed their categorical opposition. Yet, the future of the Internet — a revolutionary open forum which we have all helped shape into what it is today — is being decided even now by a group of politicians, most of whom do not know the difference between a website and an inbox. If government truly does derive from the consent of the governed, there is no evidence of it today. The future of a medium rests squarely in the hands of people who do not understand, do not care, and answer only to their corporate benefactors.

I am writing this note because I believe our online home is under genuine attack by my government. Although 4d2 dot org has been my project, I like to think that a piece of it belongs to all of us who have used it as a meeting place over the years. If SOPA is passed in its current form, the future of this project is deeply uncertain. As a U.S. citizen, I cannot legally fail to enforce the restrictions imposed by SOPA, but as a conscionable and reasonably intelligent denizen of the Internet I categorically refuse to enforce them. If this bill becomes law, I may be left with no reasonable option but to shut down 4d2 dot org, at least in its current form.

I would like to encourage all of you who are citizens of the United States of America to read more about this bill, and if you agree with me to write or call your Congresspeople and express your displeasure with this bill and for the appalingly broken process that has brought it to the floor of the House.

Sincerely Yours
Michael Proctor
December 15, 2011
michael@4d2.org

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The Saint Louis Symphony

Written by — Saturday, January 7, 2012

Michael and I have been in the general area of Saint Louis for over a year now. We’ve seen and done some really cool stuff, here.

When we first moved, I worried a lot. Would I be able to see concerts? Would I be able to go see indie movies? The truth is, Saint Louis  is one of the coolest cities I’ve visited, and without a doubt, the best place I’ve ever lived. Indie movie theaters, we got it. Live theatre, live music, awesome museums… we got it. You can go into the city and see almost any professional sport you want to. There’s some really high quality colleges around here. Business and industry still exist in Saint Louis.

But the absolute, without a doubt, best thing we’ve done in Saint Louis is subscribe to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. About once a month, we head down to Powell Hall and see the symphony.

When I was six or seven, my class took a trip to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to see the Nutcracker. I moved out of my mother’s house at twenty-two, and I found the ticket stub from that concert in a jewelry box still. I adored the experience – the beautiful concert hall, the glowing instruments, the glorious noise.

Michael and I have been to probably 4 or 5 concerts at Powell Hall since September. We’ve sat in some fantastic seats and some less fantastic seats, but there’s no bad seat in the place. Powell Hall is gorgeous, all red and velvet and gold painted crystal chandeliers. It’s been beautifully renovated and feels simply elegant. It’s a gem.

And the orchestra is ridiculously good. They’re a full-time orchestra, this is their only job. We’ve seen them play music from Looney Tunes, with the cartoons playing behind them, we’ve seen them play a show of only Mozart, we’ve watched them accompany vocalists and tap-dancers and Ben Folds kicking a piano’s ass. There’s a variety of talent.

The second concert we went to was an all Mozart program, including some more obscure pieces. Our seats looked right out over the entire orchestra, watching the bows rise and fall together, and the waxed shine of the stringed instruments contrasting with the bright, bright brass. The warmth and the power of the sound… I have never heard music sound so perfect. You can pick out the sound of a lone triangle as easily as the sound of a lone bassoon or violin.

After the first movement, I started to cry a little, very quietly. Michael looked at me quizzically and I just took his hand. It was maybe the most profoundly beautiful thing I’ve experienced. And it can be experienced by anyone. The cheapest seats are typically around $40 bucks a pop, usually it’s a bit cheaper for the family shows. The experience is astounding for the cost.

And the cost… it supports keeping something as magnificent as a symphony around. Because once the symphony and the hall fall into disrepair, no one is going to choose to spend the money to bring them back. In my mind, I get a mind-blowing experience and help to make sure that my children and grandchildren can have that exact same experience some time in the future. The kind of experience that reminds you of the power and beauty in a world that can be kind of deadening sometimes.

If you live in Saint Louis, or are just visiting, I urge you to take the time to see the Symphony. I’ll meet you there!

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The Decay of the Nuclear Family

Written by — Thursday, January 5, 2012

I’ve written about 25 blog entries over the past several years that I’ve never published because I didn’t think they were good enough. So, for New Year’s, I’m cleaning them up and clearing out my backlog of drafts.

Roger Ebert, who for some reason has one of the smartest and most consistently readable blogs on the Internet, wrote the other day about child-rearing. His basic argument is that kids today are crippled by the short leashes their fearful parents keep them on. I think he makes a lot of mistakes of the “my generation is better than yours” variety, but his core premise, that something is twisted and wrong in modern society, rings true to me.

One thing Kara and I have in common is that we were both given a lot of leeway by our parents, in comparison to our friends. I think she took advantage of that more than I did–I was always kind of an introvert–but that’s just who we were/are. Today we’re both of the general mindset that what really matters in life is going places, doing things and meeting people, and I think that has to do an awful lot with the environment we grew up in. Too much safety and stability really is debilitating.

About eight months ago, we moved from the suburban community where my immediate family lives to Frederick, MD, with the idea that a city would be a nicer environment to live in. Frederick is a small city, but we live right downtown and are–at least theoretically–constantly surrounded by opportunities for human contact.

My commute to work sucks pretty hard, but I really do like Frederick. It’s charming. What has surprised me, and I think Kara as well, is that we feel just as socially isolated as we did in the suburbs. I’ve tried to strike up conversations with some of our neighbors and it’s just been weird. People our age go to shops and bars and clubs to socialize with other members of their group and ignore the rest of the world. What I’m increasingly realizing is that there’s nothing wrong with our little city1; this is just the world we live in. Spontaneous face-to-face socialization has taken a back seat to adding people to your friend list and lurking moar.

People of our generation and the adjacent ones seem to be, broadly speaking, the product of parents who instilled a crippling fear of the post-1960s world in their children. A lot of them just don’t talk to each other. At the same time, people in their 40s and older are still gregarious.

It’s only gotten worse since we were kids, not very long ago. Check out the Parenting section on Yahoo! Answers sometime if you really want to be depressed. Like one of the commenters on Ebert’s blog entry said, every question that begins with “should I let my child…” is answered with “of course not, are you nuts?”. Everybody wants to know if their kid has ADHD2. Everybody’s kid has been diagnosed with some obscure personality or learning disorder from the DSM-IV. Lots of people want to know how to get their kids’ teachers and/or principals fired. One parent who asked how to deal with a neighbor kid bullying her son received three answers, all of them telling her she should press charges. Are these people for real? Wait, stop, I already know the answer to that question, and it’s freaking depressing.

You know what it really comes down to? Selfishness. People treat their kids like cherished possessions. There is a tiny chance, every time you let your kid out of your sight, that he or she is going to be injured or abducted or murdered or molested or something. Anybody who lets that happen to their kid is going to feel terrible. Most parents would apparently rather stifle their children than accept that risk. I’m just thankful that mine didn’t.

1. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with us, either. We’re mostly sane and we aren’t frightfully ugly or anything.
2. I have been diagnosed with ADD, or whatever the cool kids call it nowadays, so I am allowed to make fun of it with impunity.

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Recipes: Cuban black beans and rice, and Jamaican “beef” patties

Written by — Thursday, January 5, 2012

Ardent followers of this blog (all three of you) will remember that Kara and I used to live in Frederick, Maryland, just down 3rd Street from a great little local restaurant called That Cuban Place. Unfortunately, their landlord was a crappy absentee landlord like most of the landlords in Frederick, and allowed their building to fall into such disrepair that they were forced by the city to move out. So, the restaurant is no more, but their food was awesome enough that I remembered it vividly.

It’s too bad that here in Missouri, Cuban food is not exactly easy to find. When I had a hankering for it earlier this week, I decided to approximate it at home as best I could. More specifically, I tried to approximate 2 of the great dishes that TCP served in its heyday: Cuban black beans and rice (moros y cristianos) and Jamaican beef patties, which are like curry-flavored empanadas stuffed with spicy curried beef. Only the beans and rice are really Cuban.

I think they both turned out pretty well, so I’m going to share the recipes here. I made a few corrections based on some things I think I screwed up the first time, so you get the benefit of my mistakes. I did veganize the Jamaican beef patty recipe to better align with the way Kara and I are trying to eat, but nothing says you have to.

I also made way too much of the beans and rice, so reduce this recipe if you are feeding fewer than 12 people (or 2 people until they become totally sick of beans and rice):

CUBAN BLACK BEANS AND RICE (MOROS Y CRISTIANOS)
“Not as good as Narcisa and Alfredo’s, but it’ll do”

1 pound dry black beans
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp canola or soybean oil
1 large onion, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
4 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/3 cup crushed tomatoes
3 tbsp rice vinegar or white vinegar
1 tbsp sugar (or agave nectar, or whatever hippie sweetener you approve of)
2 bay leaves
6 cups vegetable or chicken stock
4 cups uncooked white rice
salt and pepper

Cook the beans however you like. My process is to add the beans to 6-8 cups of hot water, bring to a boil for 2 minutes, remove from the heat to soak an hour, drain and rinse, add 6-8 cups of fresh water, re-boil, and cook at a low simmer for 40 minutes. Drain the beans and set aside.

In a big-ass stock pot, maybe even the one you cooked the beans in, sauté the onion and garlic in the oil, adding the cumin and oregano about a minute before you’re done. Add the vinegar, sugar, tomatoes, bay leaves, and a little of the stock, and cook for a couple minutes more. Add the rest of the stock and bring to a boil. Add the rice and reduce heat to low. Let cook for 30 minutes or so, or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and is done, stirring a couple of times during the first few minutes to prevent sticking. Add salt and pepper to taste. Eat and eat and eat.

…and the second recipe:

JAMAICAN “BEEF” PATTIES

Filling:
2 tbsp canola or soybean oil
1 pound vegan mock ground beef crumbles, or 93% lean ground beef
1 large onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp prepared yellow curry powder
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder, more if you’re feeling lucky
3/4 cup vegetable or beef stock
3/4 cup plain bread crumbs

Crust:
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour + 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour, or just 3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp prepared yellow curry powder
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
4 tbsp shortening
4 tbsp margarine or butter
an indeterminate amount of very cold water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Make the filling first. Saute the onion, garlic, and meat/”meat” in the oil. Add the curry powder, thyme, cayenne, salt and pepper, and saute for a minute or two more. Add the stock to deglaze the pan, then add the bread crumbs to absorb the rest of the stock. Remove from the heat.

For the crust, mix the dry ingredients (flour, curry powder, turmeric, baking powder and salt) in a bowl and cut in the shortening and margarine, or just rub them in with your fingers if you like to get messy. Mix in water until the mixture forms a workable dough. Roll the dough out into circles that are both larger and thinner than would be appropriate for an empanada (1/8 inch thick at most, and maybe 5 or 6 inches across). Fill with the filling mixture, fold over and seal. Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until just beginning to brown on top.

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Why Do Nearly All Keyboards Suck?

Written by — Thursday, December 8, 2011

I am a geek, and this extends to my home environment. By this I mean that the number of DHCP leases in our household exceeds the number of humans by a factor of 7. I spend a lot of money on things with blinking lights, and at least a few of these things have keyboards.

I’ve been thinking recently about how consistently bad keyboards are. All of the improvements to consumer computers over the past couple of decades have marched to more or less the same beat — smaller, lighter, faster, more features — but this has been disastrous for keyboards. Virtually all keyboards available in the consumer marketplace, and certainly 100% of keyboards available at retail, are just terrible. Companies routinely sell kits that contain a sophisticated laser-tracking optical mouse, and a horrible keyboard. But it has lots of media buttons!

In my opinion there are really only two things that make a keyboard an ergonomic success. A keyboard should be heavy, so that it is more or less immobile on your desk. It should also provide tactile feedback to the user’s fingers that occurs at exactly the same moment that the keypresses register. That’s basically it. IBM figured both of these out with the buckling-spring Model M keyboard of the ’80s and ’90s, and it was very successful. However, a drive toward quieter keyboards in the workplace resulted in the replacement of the expensive and complicated buckling spring mechanism with a cheap membrane sheet akin to what you might find in a calculator. For some reason, keyboard manufacturers have been continuing to get away with foisting this crap on us for many years now.

Today’s cheap membrane keyboards fail both of my ergonomic tests. They weigh nothing, and all the little rubber feet in the world won’t prevent them from sliding around on your desk. They also provide no tactile feedback, and the keypress registers at an indeterminate point between when you first feel resistance from the key and when the key reaches the bottom of its travel. In my book, this means that they suck. I don’t understand why people who may spend $1500 or $2000 building a desktop PC from the best parts available will turn around and spend $75 on an expensive “gaming” keyboard that has lots of programmable buttons but is mechanically no more sophisticated than a calculator. Keyboards used to be inelegant mechanical things, and as long as human beings are made of meat, the inelegant mechanical keyboard will remain the superior device.

I’m a fast typist, so maybe this just matters less to other people. For me, the difference is huge: I top out at about 85 wpm on a membrane keyboard but can sustain 125 wpm on a Model M or comparable keyboard. That’s almost a 50% increase in speed. For someone who types 30 or 40 wpm, I can imagine this kind of improvement making a significant difference.

There is a fair variety of mechanical keyboards on the market these days, but many are aimed at the enthusiast market and I believe the majority of those are overpriced. I would like to put in a plug for the keyboards manufactured by Unicomp, who inherited IBM’s keyboard business via Lexmark. The Unicomp Customizer is virtually identical to the legendary Model M, metal backplate and all, with the exception of single-unit keycaps and a USB interface. You can buy one at Unicomp’s incredibly outdated website. They are $80, assembled pretty much entirely by hand, and worth every penny.

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Tortacos

Written by — Monday, November 28, 2011

Michael and I just got back from a trip to visit our families in the DC-area. I’ll probably devote an  entry to the train ride because Amtrak has made some fantastic changes to the Capitol Limited route and it excited me.

While we were in the area, I insisted on going to the National Zoo and Ikea. Then I looked up a restaurant, Tortacos in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

In the interest of full disclosure, I may know someone who is involved with Tortacos. But if I ate at a friend’s place and didn’t like it, I wouldn’t post about it on my mostly-unheard-of blog. I am only posting because Michael and me (and my brother and my food-scientist sister, and her boyfriend) really liked the place.

It was clean, it was bright, the menu was simple — in a good way. The guacamole was awesome and fresh. The salsas and taco toppings were awesome and fresh. The servings were generous. I ate the al pastor and carnitas tacos and both meats were fantastic and flavorful, although I preferred the carnitas.  The tortilla chips were made fresh, in-house. Super crispy and delicious. It would be easy to eat vegetarian (or vegan).

After we ate, we grabbed an extra serving of chips and guac to take back to our hotel since we were having visitors. They went over very well. One visitor even remarked, I don’t normally like guacamole but this is really good.

New businesses usually offer a cluttered vision but that was not the case with Tortacos. The simplicity of the menu and aesthetic really showcase the thoughtfulness put into all aspects of the venture.

I wish I were home more often, so I could eat there more often and drag more people there.  Also, I’d like to try the whole menu, especially the flan. But I’m not around very often. St. Louis is an interesting city food-wise but I’ve yet to find stellar (or even adequate)Mexican food. If you live close enough to drop into Tortacos, make sure and do so, if only because I can’t.

In conclusion: food tasty; plentiful; cheap. As Homer might say, the whole experience is “groin-grabbingly transcendent.”

Update: Here’s what Tom Sietsema, Washington Post food critic had to say.

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Roast Butternut Squash Pasta

Written by — Friday, November 11, 2011

Autumn. You have to enjoy it in Missouri, because you only get a week. Joking, joking. Still, is there anything more reminiscent of fall than squash? Probably. But this meal has been in our rotation for awhile. It’s vegan, it’s balanced, it’s just kind of warm, in a hard to explain way.

Michael and I bought an organic butternut squash. Normally, I couldn’t care less about organic but sometimes it makes a difference. For example, regular squash (not locally grown; not organic), never do this:

Dyed Hands

That’s Michael’s hand after slicing up butternut squash. It’s dyed orange.

Roast Squash Pasta

Roast Butternut Squash Pasta

Time: 30-60 minutes, including prep
Ease: Moderate (easy if you don’t chop up your own squash)
Cost: Cheap ($5 for four servings)

Recipe (from Michael):

This is very slightly modified from a post by a user on the Post Punk Kitchen website, that doesn’t seem to be there anymore.

1 lb pasta (we like whole wheat penne)
1 large butternut squash
2 or 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tbsp pine nuts
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
salt and black pepper

Cut the squash into 1/2-inch cubes and toss with oil, pine nuts, garlic, sage, and red pepper flakes. Roast in a roasting pan or foil-lined glass pan at 400°F for 30-40 minutes. Just before the squash is done roasting, cook the pasta. Mix the pasta and squash mixture, then apply salt and pepper liberally.

We use whole wheat pasta and we buy the squash and prepare it ourselves (probably takes 10-15 minutes). I don’t see a problem using squash pre-diced (often available in the produce aisle) or frozen — but it will cost more money that way.

Details: I put a green salad with this for dinner because a meal without green veggies doesn’t sit well with me. The pasta is great left over as it reheats extraordinarily well.

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Thanks

Written by — Thursday, November 10, 2011

The world is a storm.

We come in, screaming like waves shattering on a beach. We are battered by rain and by wind. Clouds and lightning keep us from seeing ourselves or our world clearly.

We are, essentially, alone. Our struggles are fought mostly alone, mostly internally. We can reach out and hold hands, but we came in alone and we leave alone.

This can be terribly depressing. But it isn’t – not necessarily. There is vitality and energy all around. We can feed off that electricity.

And there are always calm spots in storms.

I think Thanksgiving and winter holidays become important because the actual, physical world turns against us then. Not just our own mental world, not just the world we create. Nature itself turns against us.

Yesterday, the weather snapped here. It was sharp and windy and misting. The wind in the mid-west/ plains/ wherever we are is something else. It made me think about the holidays.

I think the holidays are about creating your own vitality in a dying world. I mean that literally – in Winter, your world has turned from the sun, and without the sun we start to die. So we make our own light – fires, candles, 3-d televisions.

And we create our own calm and peace, too. We do that by establishing rituals and traditions, by giving of ourselves to the needy around us and by thanking the people who have helped us and held our hands throughout the year and in years past.

As years go by, and as I stay many miles away from family and friends I care deeply for, the holidays make more sense. Giving makes more sense. Gratitude makes more sense. None of us live in an easy world.

The world is a storm.

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