Don't you Pho get about me!

Hello!

I will be gone for a few weeks, enjoying the culinary delights of Vietnam and Cambodia. Please come back to read all about it in March!

-The Housewife

Time to make the [vegan] donuts!

I'm having an off week with food (ate potato chips and too much sugar this week) and I'm trying to get a grip. So, when I saw the vegan donuts at Whole Foods I thought, "now that's a step in the right direction!" Then, I laughed.

















We tried the vegan blueberry and vegan chocolate donuts from Whole Foods and let me tell you, I'm not a fan of donuts, but I really loved these donuts! I think it's the missing oil taste that made me not want to share these little morsels, but I did anyway. Really, was I going to eat TWO donuts (getting a grip)? The icing was also not terribly sweet - it was more of a honey sweetness than a white sugar sweetness.

I like to experiment with vegan baking because I love the idea of using fruit and veggie purees in place of animal fats and proteins and, I find the science that is leavening really interesting. Vegan baking is a good alternative to those with restricted diets, especially those who need to watch cholesterol closely.

Here are links to a few Web sites for vegan baking recipes, tips, and tricks:

Vegan Baking, a general site for just what it says, vegan baking
Parsnip Parsimony, a vegan blog that has been neglected since May 2008 but explains a lot about the science behind the food

Trying new lettuce - Mâche

We eat a lot of lettuce at our house and we like to try some of the uncommon varieties that show up this time of year.

This week I got a bag of organic mâche, also known as lambs lettuce. The sign at the market said that it's a "foraged" lettuce variety which means that it's picked in the woods, not in a farm field. I did a little research and after reading about it, I doubt that at $3.99 a pound that my mâche was foraged for in the woods of Europe but, I bought into the hype anyway.

Each piece of mâche is made up of a small 1/2" stem - some of mine still had small roots - with small rounded leaves attached. It looked more like a small green flower than a traditional "lettuce" leaf. The stem is delicious and has a young just picked pea pod flavor.

each piece of mâche has a short stem with several round leaves attached













I was pleasantly surprised at the bitterness of the mâche - it wasn't bitter like radicchio bitterness (can't stand it!), but more like sweet chocolate bitterness. I coupled the mâche with shelled edamame, carrot for sweetness, and sesame ginger dressing. I threw in a handful of red leaf lettuce that I had around as well and, the note at the market said that mâche goes well with avocado so, I chopped one up and added that too. I think I found my new favorite salad. By the way, California grown Haas avocados are starting to show up in the stores. Does anyone else thing the Chilean ones are water logged?



















I'm eager to try some heirloom and rare varieties of lettuce in my garden next year. A few that I've come across that interest me are Amish Deer Tongue, Tango, and Bunte Forellenschuss. Has anyone tried any varieties that interest them?

Housewife Tip: Trader Joe's has bagged mâche but it's not organic. I think it was $2.99 for an 8 oz bag when I saw it.