Cover your head and watch for falling debris! Unless you want your skull cracked open by awesomeness.

First up, SemiCircular Vegan. Paula Gross, internet personality and food expert, cooks Made For TV food.

Next up, Saturday December 8th, the Moo Shoes grand opening party. I’ve seen the new store and it is Gor. Geous. It’s all airy and lofty and exposed brick and stuff.

And because I told them to, Herbivore Magazine is going back to print. Subscribe! Subscribe! Or Renew!

Last but not least, and I am only announcing this so that we actually do it, Josh “The Hooten” Hooten and I are doing a podcast. The premise of it is to make “jokes” that only we think are funny and to alienate as many people as we can. We’re bridging the gap between vegans and total jerks, and it’s about time someone did.

*Unslaught is a vegan onslaught.

Here are my answers to the survey that everyone is taking from Liz at Food Snobbery. And also, a photo of our improvised long handle potato masher (patent pending.)

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?

Vitasoy Creamy Original. It’s the soymilk that made me like soymilk. And although I still have a place in my heart the size of an 80s healthfood store for Edensoy Carob, I usually have some Zen Soy chocolate around.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?

a - Golbki (polish cabbage rolls) for Ryan MacMichael

b - Polenta Rancheros, which I’ve made before I just have to write the recipe down because I lost it. I have to stop losing recipes.

c - Super fluffy pancakes. I love my basic pancakes but I’ve been craving super fluffy ones so I’m working that out. It’s tough to make them not mushy in the middle.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?

Nooch and chili powder. Is there any other topping?

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

I don’t know how to qualify most disastrous because there have been so many disasters. The most painful thing was being pissed at someone while chopping red peppers with a hatchet (!) and slicing off a finger tip. The most inedible was when I was 16 and tried to make this wheat gluten stuff from my favorite Chinese place without a recipe or any knowledge of cooking, really. It was basically vital wheat gluten and soy sauce with garlic powder that I fried. It was as nasty as it sounds. I’m surprised I ever cooked again.

5. Favorite pickled item?

Can I be a loser and just say dill pickles?

6. How do you organize your recipes?

In cookbooks. Ha!

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

If it doesn’t go to my veggie broth stash it goes in the trash. I didn’t rhyme on purpose.

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)?

Olives, tofu and escarole but that’s just how I’m feeling right now.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?

Not the time I got a perm and ate Steak-umz.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?

The Black Label stuff.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?

Tongs aren’t an appliance.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?

So many, but thyme if I had to choose one.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

Tofu Cookery by Louise Hagler.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?

Blueberry at the moment.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?

Pesto is always a delicious safe bet.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?

Tempeh - the odd man out.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?

Brunch.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?

Where to begin? What isn’t?

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

Lima beans, peas, sorbet from a hundred years ago.

20. What’s on your grocery list?

Nothing! I did all my shopping yesterday.

21. Favorite grocery store?

This is the wrong answer because they sell foie gras, but I really love the Fairway in Red Hook. The right answer would be the Park Slope Food Co-op. I also love the Union Square Farmer’s Market.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.

Meringue. Not because I miss it or anything but because I’m sick of people asking how to veganize it. I don’t get it. Is anyone seriously missing meringue?

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?

No one checks my blog, actually. Right now I’ve been liking Vegan Dad (even though he kinda disses me), Get Sconed (as usual), and Cafe Veg News. I also check Fat Free Vegan and What The Hell religiously. Oh, and my bff’s blog A Stranger In The Alps, but I just linked to it yesterday so I don’t wanna’ go overboard. Plus all the others I link to right there—->

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

That rice milk chocolate. Dagoba, is it? Terra Nostra.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?

My olive oil is really expensive. Oh, smoked pistachios.

26. How did you get so pretty?

I am really sick of this question! It’s genetic!

I was pretty much thanksed out from cooking at Woodstock Sanctuary last weekend. I ended up at my mom’s, where she cooked up two of my Veganomicon favorites, Cholent and Pumpkin Ziti with Sage Breadcrumbs. They don’t officially go together, but off the record - who cares? The best part about writing cookbooks is that you can be sure that you’ll like the food your mom makes. Unless your mom is a jerk and doesn’t cook from your books.

But it looks like everyone else did a metric buttload of cooking and baking!

Susie’s Turkey Loaf

It’s not on her blog yet, only on the PPK forums. It’s a sculpted loaf of bread filled with a savory stuffing.

Amy’s Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

Actually, it’s Susan’s from FatFreeVegan, but Amy at Stranger in the Alps vouches for its deliciousness in 4,000 words.

Mike and Liz’s Thanksgiving Plate con Ravioli

You know the food is slammin when I start to wonder if maybe I should move to Ohio. Those lollipops are cider and maple syrup glazed tofu smoked with hickory wood. What The Hell Does a Vegan Eat always goes the extra mile or 600.

Michelle’s Bryanna’s Soy and Seitan Roast

I always want to try this and I’m always too lazy. Michelle at My Zoetrope isn’t!

Abby’s Stuffed Breast Of Tofu

Originally a blog post from 2005, which is like 500 internet years ago, SweetlyVegan rocks the Tofu Roast With Cornbread Dressing from What Do I Know? on the PPK forums. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this may have been a Sarah Kramer recipe originally.

And people wonder why vegans think they’re better than everyone else.

Never say that you will do something tomorrow. It may work on your mom, your boyfriend or your boss, but it will never work on the internet.

Listen, just look at these goats and forget all about anything I have ever said.

I mean, seriously. Can you even?

I’m still recovering from the weekend. I’ll give a full report tomorrow, but I just wanted to get a quick baby lamb in. Would you have been able to cook with all this cuteness in plain sight? The lambs were being temporarily housed in the kitchen entranceway. Just…I can’t. Aren’t they so…..? Argh!

Oh, in case you have no idea what I’m talking about (and you don’t), the cooking was for the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary Thanksliving. 

My name gets pronounced correctly and then incorrectly, but, whatever it isn’t about me. (Oh wait, yes it is.)

Listen to The Post Punk Kitchen on Splendid Table. It was actually recorded last year, but better late than never! I am writing from Woodstock where we just did the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary Thanksliving where there were baby lambs in the kitchen with us! I almost ate them because they were so cute and then I remembered that I was vegan. Anyway, listen to this NPR thingy and I’ll update on the dinner and also post some Thanksgiving recipes when I get home tomorrow.

Scroll down to Post Punk Kitchen Thanksgiving or just cut to the chase and listen to our segment here.

The first time I had pasta puttanesca I was waitressing at a restaurant in Park Slope. A fellow waitress told me that it was the pasta that Italian whores ate. She was always saying things like, “I spilled ketchup all over my tits,” and pronouncing “mimosa” in a really suggestive way. I just figured she was telling me that so she could say the word “whore” while slurping down linguine, but it is actually true, pasta putanesca is the pasta of whores. And I can see why.

If you’re anything like me you always have a gigantic thing of capers and olives in your fridge (not to mention great bone structure and an impressive unicorn collection.) Puttanesca is a really quick way to put together a complex tasting - passionate even - dish with pantry staples. Succulent, salty and a little spicy, the ingredients and method are simple enough that you can prep it, cook it and clean up after yourself in a leisurely 30 minutes, and then get back to the matter at hand, whether that be sex with strangers for money or updating your blog.

I’m always on the look out for ways to incorporate quinoa and other grains into my lunches, so it’s pretty brainless to just make a traditional pasta sauce and toss it on a grain instead. I like to make a big batch of quinoa at the beginning of the week and store it for a few days. If you don’t have a few cups of cooked quinoa around then see directions below* and start your quinoa before starting your sauce.

Quinoa Puttanesca - The Quinoa of Whores

Serves 4

2 to 3 cups cooked quinoa

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

generous pinch each tarragon and marjoram

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 cup kalamata olives, roughly chopped (sliced in half is great)

1/2 cup capers

20 ounce can crushed tomatoes

fresh black pepper

Preheat a sauce pot over medium heat. Add the oil and garlic and stir for about a minute, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add herbs, spices and wine; cook for about a minute.

Add olives, capers and tomatoes. Cook for about 15 minutes. You can serve either by scooping quinoa into individual bowls and pouring the sauce over it, but my way is to just mix everything into a bowl together and reserve a little sauce to pour over my serving, because I like it extra whore-y. There is no rosemary in the recipe, but my food porn was looking a little naked so I garnished it with some.

For some reason, Jason Das named all the capers in the photo on my FlickR, so if that thought entertains you then you can go check that out.

*Mix one cup dry quinoa with 2 cups water, bring to a boil then lower heat and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until grain is tender and water has been absorbed.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter if your stove is on a slant, but for things like pancakes and pan frying it really affects the outcomes. This is my most important asset. A bowl that perfectly levels my cast iron pan on my lopsided stove. I hate being a renter.

PS I just realized that Terry, I and Richard Dean Anderson all use our first, last and middle names professionally.

My leveler bowl in action

I don’t mind losing to Nigella, it is an honor to even be in the running (plus I saw her make something vegan once.) But I have to say that it feels really really really really good to be a step above RayRay. I’m sure it won’t last and I’m sure I’m being really petty but our mission statement does say that we intend to bring the Food Network to its knees. Surely this is the beginning of it.

This is the Amazon list for overall cookbooks.

Edited to add: I jinxed myself and now we’re #9. It was good while it lasted!

By popular request, I’ve created a bloglines feed for all VeganMoFo participants, and those that just like to watch. I think that since it’s an rss feed you can do other cool stuff with it, if you happen to know, please fill us in!

While putting this together (click. click. click. click.) I was able to see what everyone is up to and, I’m not sure if it’s because I have my period and I was listening to Simon Garfunkel*, I felt a burst of love that started in my heart, traveled to my shoulders and then funneled itself directly into the internet. So if you felt something awkward and uncomfortable about half an hour ago, that was my love.

I love reading about food, everything about it. I love to read what kind of food people hate, I love to read about emotional attachments to it, I love to read about the history of it, and of course I love to read about cooking and eating. I mostly have to get my fix from non-vegan sources, because even though there are lots of vegan blogs and lots of food porn, people don’t write about food enough to keep up with my demand. So that’s what VegaMoFo has given me so far, and it’s only 1/3 over.

I want to suggest to those of you that are having problems with the writing, instead of writing about the problems you’re having, how about link to a fellow MoFoer’s blog entry with just a few words about what you like about it. You can also stumble entries or add them to delicious or whatever people are doing these days. VeganMoFo is the vegan month of food, let’s force it on everyone else.

Here are a few must-reads I enjoyed this morning:

Vegan Chicks Rock writes about Mighty-O Donuts. Because I never tire of reading about donuts, especially Mighty-Os. Donut porn included.

Sarchan talks about being fearless in the kitchen. She also shares a recipe from her 7 year old self (so cute!) and a picture of my favorite pumpkin pie of all time, Myra Kornfeld’s from Voluptuous Vegan. I leave off the pecans, though. I like my pumpkin pie pure.

Bottle And Ball hates on celery. I hate celery, too, but she is much more thorough about it.

Vegan Dad grills polenta. To be honest, I just love this blog so you can pick any post and read it. Possibly because of my father issues, the very words “vegan dad” make me instantly happy. But his food always looks good and his writing is always honest. Plus, for everyone that thinks that veganism is too difficult, I would direct them to the description in his header:

“When you have kids, supper has to be on the table every night. And when you are a vegan, the drive-thru, the deli counter, and TV dinners/frozen convenience foods are not an option. So, you do the best you can. This blog is a record of what my family eats. It’s not always a totally complete meal, not always photogenic, and sometimes it’s leftovers. But, it is a realistic look at a vegan family in a northern Ontario city that is not always vegan-friendly.”

Makes your heart go pitter-patter, don’t it?

Vegan Hodge Podge teaches us a little bit of Korean. And a little bit about Korean vegan food.

Tips for eating on the cheap, from Pickled Treats. She’s actually been dishing out a lot of great advice on going vegan. I haven’t missed a day of this blog since MoFo began.

Amy discusses the intersection of mathematics and dinner with some romanesco broccoli. Also, this is my friend’s blog and my way of reminding her to update it. 3 days does not a month of food make!

*Does it go without saying that if you have your period you are also listening to Simon And Garfunkel? Sorry for the redundancy.