Last Weekend

My mom came over to babysit the boys so the wife and I could go to Symphony Parnassus. They performed Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending, and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1 in D "Titan." I didn't care overly much for the Barber piece. The Lark Ascending was just beautiful, and the violin playing by Dawn Harris was astounding; I would now like to own a recording of it. And the Mahler was not at all what I expected; it was the kind of work that the phrase tour de force might have been coined for. By the way, our friend, Frank Davis, is the principal trumpeter.

I made the Faux Beef from La Dolce Vegan! by Sarah Kramer, then used it instead of the tempeh in the Teriyaki-Glazed Tempeh from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. I made a double batch of the teriyaki, steamed some broccoli, without cooking it all the way through, then added the broccoli to the seitan and teriyaki. Of course, I also cooked some brown basmati rice on which to serve the teriyaki seitan and broccoli.

For dessert I made the Banana Hazelnut Cream Pie from Vive le Vegan! by Dreena Burton, which managed to be both light and rich simultaneously.

I made the Basic Yogurt Pancakes for breakfast on Sunday from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas. I used soy yogurt, of course, and added blueberries to them as well. I also baked the Raspberry Fig Breakfast Bars from The Garden of Vegan, but used fresh strawberries instead of the figs and raspberry jam.

For us to eat during the coming week, I made the Meat-Free Meat Loaf with Good Gravy from The Vegetarian Meat & Potatoes Cookbook by Robin Robertson. This is the best vegan "meat" loaf I've had and definitively replaces the recipe I used to use.

On Tuesday, I also made the Great Stuffed Mushrooms from The Vegetarian Meat & Potatoes Cookbook. It was a bit much to eat these with the "meat" loaf because they are really entrees all on their own. They were, however, delicious stuffed portobellos, and went really well with the Good Gravy.