Look Upon My Cake, Ye Mighty...

...and despair.

How, you may be wondering, my friends and enemies, did I end up the Ozymandias of cake bakery?

Well, let me tell you.

I had just finished up a particularly strenuous mile-and-a-half swim in honor of the late, great Jack Lalanne and was feeling more than a bit knackered in that pleasantly worked-over way.

"Maybe," I thought to myself, "maybe I can grade papers while cuddled up on a Donkey couch instead of upright at a table."

*beep boop ding*

My phone gave a jingle, breaking my sofa-reverie. It was a text from NatureBoy.

"Yo Megan! Did you say that you're making a cake for this evening's birthday party?"

Um. Did I say that? Oh, shit maybe I did! I was drunk the last time I saw NB so it was a possibility...

"Sure! No problem! I have a great chocolate cake recipe I haven't made in forever!"

I suppose I could have said no, but my foray back into cooking last week had me itchin' to be in the kitchen. Plus I didn't actually have a present for MerMar's birthday so this seemed like a good idea. No sooner had I said yes, then visions of a decadently vegan birthday cake started dancing in my head....

...It will be chocolate....no! It will be several kinds of chocolate!! It will be moist...no! It will be ooey and gooey!! It will be two...no three...no FOUR layers!! And the very gods themselves will look down and tremble before my cake of cakes....

***

So here's the basic chocolate cake recipe that I used, an adaptation from The Vegan Handbook.

"There's Absolutely No Way This Is Vegan," Vegan Chocolate Cake

1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

1 cup unsweetened soy milk

1/2 cup soy margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup water

2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 2/3 cup white flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray two round cake pans (8-9 inches) with Pam or other aerosol oil.

Mix the vinegar and the soy milk and set aside.

Cream together the margarine, sugar, vanilla, water, and egg replacer. Whip with an electric beater until very smooth. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients and the soy milk mixture to the butter mixture in batches, beating until well-combined.

Pour the batter into the greased pans and bake for 25-35 minutes depending on how tempermental your oven is.

While the first two cake rounds were baking, I made the recipe again. This cake would be four layers or I'd know the reason why.

Then, while letting the cakes cool, I made the following frostings.

Ooey Deep Dark Chocolate Frosting

super ooey

1/2 cup vegan shortening

1 stick vegan margarine, softened

3/4 cup dark chocolate powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 - 1/2 cup soy milk

With a hand mixer, whisk together the shortening, margarine, and vanilla. Add the dark cocoa powder by 1/4 cups and mix well. Alternate adding the powdered sugar by cups and the soy milk by tablespoons until the frosting reaches desired consistency.

Gooey "Milk" Chocolate Frosting

super gooey

2 sticks vegan margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

4-6 cups powdered sugar

4-5 tablespoons cocoa powder

2/3ish cup soy milk

(note that the recipe above is doubled because I knew I'd have 4 layers of cake to frost)

With a hand mixer, beat the margarine and vanilla. Alternate adding the cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and milk until desired flavor/consistency is reached.

I let both frostings set up a bit while I took a shower.

Then, standing in my kitchen clad in a bra and matchstick jeans (what all the kings of kings are wearing this season), with a feather in my hair, I began to frost.

And frost.

And frost.

I had a brief moment of clarity wherein I considered the possible folly of stacking all four layers of cake, using only frosting for spackle. However, I ignored this moment, determined to create a glittering tower of a birthday cake, the likes of which MerMar had never seen in all her 26 years.

The top layer began to crack on both the X- and Y-axes as I was frosting the sides, so I quickly scrawled "Happy Birthday" across the cake in pink icing and snapped a picture of the finished product. Truly, I had produced the most epic of birthday cakes.

But the gods looked down upon the majesty that was my triple-chocolate, four-layer cake and were angered - nay, spurned to wrath!

And they smote my cake down upon the counter top. Upon a stack of graded papers. Upon a pile of clean dishes. My cake was well and truly smote.

All was not lost, friends and enemies. I simply loaded up the top layer of cake (now it's own free-standing layer) into an empty cake pan, and carried my two vast and trunkless piles of cake to the birthday party.

Thankfully, three kinds of chocolate in cake form taste delicious no matter how avant-grade, deconstructed, or colossal-wreck-like they may be.

***

And if I'm lucky, many years from now travelers from antique lands will find this recipe, look upon it and see the sneering, wrinkled visage of my might as a cake baker...

...and write a poem about it.

Stirsday

Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!

All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme "In Vegan Veritas," are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for "IVV" is now sitting.

That's right friends and enemies. I'm back.

And man, have I missed cooking and baking.

Two of my many New Year's Resolutions are to blog more regularly and to start streamlining my relationship with food. End result? More time in the kitchen with my partner-in-crime the HoneyBunny (HB, for short) and significant other, Kitten. And more delicious food blogs for your reading pleasure.

So. Moving right along. When the HB moved to Athens and into my apartment back in September, he kind of took over the cooking and cleaning until he could find a job. And I was more than happy to let him. I was teaching 4 classes and juggling a long-distance BFF-ship with Roomie (who moved to Miami FL in August), and a brand new relationship with Kitten. Having fresh curry and naan, turnip stew, deli bread, and all sorts of other deliciousness waiting for me when I came home from work was awesome.

But this quarter I've only got 1 class to teach; the HB works almost full-time at Casa; Roomie is settled in Miami; Kitten is more integrated into my everyday life. So I have lots of free time to spend cooking and baking.

And when Kroger had whole, fresh pineapples on sale '10 for $10' well, I just knew what had to be done.

Pineapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stir Fry

make this on a Stirsday, the day before Stirfriday

(adapted from a recipe in "Veganomicon")

for the quinoa

1 cup quinoa

1 cup pineapple juice

1 cup cold water

1/4 teaspoon soy sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a medium pot with lid. Bring to a boil. Stir, lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 14 or so minutes or until the quinoa has absorbed all the water. If possible make this the night before so it has time to cool fully. Otherwise, set this on your front porch in the middle of a blizzard (or in the fridge, I suppose) while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

for the stir fry

3 tablespoons grapeseed oil

2 green onions, white and green parts sliced thin

4 large cloves of garlic, minced

2 peppadews (or other hot red pepper), minced

1 inch of fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips

1 cup cooked edamame (we used the already-shelled frozen kind)

1 cup loosely-packed fresh basil, sliced thin

2-4 tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped

2-3 cups fresh pineapple, cut into bite-sized pieces

3 tablespoons soy sauce, tamari, or Bragg's (or a combination of all three)

3 tablespoons vegetable stock (water or more pineapple juice will work if you don't have stock)

1 tablespoon mirin

Raw cashews to taste

In a small Pyrex measuring cup, whisk together the soy sauce, stock, and mirin. Set aside.

In a large wok (or the largest frying pan you have), heat the oil, onions, and garlic until the garlic starts to sizzle. Add the peppadews and ginger. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until everything starts to get fragrant. Add the red peppers and edamame. Cook until the peppers are soft. Add the basil and mint, cooking until the greens are just wilted. Add the fully cooled quinoa and the pineapple. Stir until all the ingredients are well-mixed.

Pour the soy sauce mixture over the quinoa and stir to combine. Using two spoons or spatulas, stir-fry the mixture for another 15 minutes or so, until everything is very hot.

Serve in shallow bowls with a sprinkle of raw cashews on top and a squeeze from a fresh lime wedge. Pairs most excellently with any torrontes white wine.

***

This was a delicious reminder of how much fun it is to be chopping and frying and drinking with a friend in the kitchen. And how much I like home-cooked meals. And how much I missed them both.

It's good to be back.

The End?

Well hey there friends and enemies!

Bet you thought I fell of the face of the earth, huh?

Bet you thought I'd been having all sorts of magical adventures, exciting hijinks, and feats of derring-do.

Bet you haven't even given it a second thought.

I won't lie; I myself am firmly in that latter category. It's been an impossibly ridiculous busy 6 months since last I posted. I haven't thought that much at all about cooking or writing or any of you. Sorry.

To re-cap:

1. There was the normal amount of summer ephemera, i.e. laying out at the pool, spending time with the family, flirting on the patio at Jackie O's, Brew Week, films with The Movie Buff, bike rides and runs etc.

2. Almost all of my close friends moved away from Athens. It was a summer of lasts, of going away parties, of box packing and truck loading, of tearful goodbyes.

3. I helped Roomie move all the way down to Miami, Florida. It was 24 hours of driving, followed by a whirlwind week of cleaning, shopping, unpacking, organizing, more tearful goodbyes.

4. Then I drove the whole way back by myself.

5. I decided that it was about time to start thinking about going back for my PhD. Researching schools, picking schools, writing statements, requesting letters, paying for transcripts, realizing I have to take the GRE again. I'm exhausted just typing it all out.

6. I am teaching 2 sections of Freshman Comp, a section of Writing About Culture, and a Learning Community for English majors. All of these classes had to be planned from scratch. New books, new assignments, new lectures. I haven't read a narrative book since April.

7. HoneyBunny moved back from the wilds of ANC AK to live with me in Athens. There were freakouts, there was melty, bloody fish, more freakouts, cleaning with a heretofore unheard of amount of baking soda, bleach, vinegar, and Febreeze.

There was very little time (or drive, if I'm being honest) to do any novel cooking and baking. I mostly stuck to the tried and true, oldies-but-goodies, that are already recorded for posterity here at "IVV."

Additionally, amid all the busy (or perhaps because of all the hustle-bustle) I let some other parts of my life get a little out of control.

In an effort to start fixing/facing those problems (and because I'm an self-disclosure junkie at heart), I'm starting a new blog and putting "In Vegan, Veritas" on hiatus for a while.

But don't get to excited just yet fans and detractors. You're not getting rid of me just yet.

Thanks for all the comments and support over the past year and a half. It's been super real, kids, and I've had a great time.

Be back soon.

The Girl With The Most Cake

I walked into my office the other day at the tail end of a conversation between my friends JenC and Mrs. L. JenC was feeling guilty about having to tell the bosses of her various part-time jobs that she wouldn't be able to work any more than she already was.

"It is difficult being an artist with a part-time job," she explained. "Everyone seems to assume that since the artist's real work (writing/creating/composing) isn't a 9-to-5 thing, they will be available to work whenever and for however long." I was inclined to agree. When I worked at the liquor store, it seemed as though I was always the first one contacted when someone else called off or couldn't work.


"Still doesn't make it any easier to say no," replied Mrs. L.

"And speaking of guilt and saying no," I interjected, "the peices of cake currently sitting on your desks are the product of a particularly stressfull weekend, most of which could have been avoided had I just said no."


I won't bore you with the details, friends and enemies. Let's just say my cousin, The Wild Child, came to visit for the mud-soaked, drunken debacle that is 7fest; and instead of two teenaged girls spending the night in my apartment, I had five, all of whom were spoiled, entitled, loud-mouthed, well, for lack of a better word, bitches.


A direct quote from the morning after? "Sorry we f*cked your shit up last night." Oh, well, that completely makes up for the fact that I spent 6 hours Sunday scrubbing the muck and make-up residue from my bathroom, vacuuming up so much mud from the carpets Roomie had to take apart and clean the vacuum, emptying beer cans, and doing loads of muddy towels, sheets, and blankets.


To relieve the stress all this caused me, I baked the following cakes. According to JenC, the first one was more than enough to ease her guilt over not working overtime. The second one definitely helped me forget most of the weekend and my cousin's reprehensible behavior.

Banana Cake with Pineapple-Buttercream Frosting
“The Guilt-i-nator”

for the cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) vegan margarine
¼ cup vegan shortening
1 ½ cups sugar
3 very ripe bananas, smashed (about 1 cup)
½ cup unsweetened soy milk
2 eggs worth of Ener-G egg replacer
1 teaspoon vanilla

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2, 9-inch round cakes pans.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Using a mixer, cream the butter, shortening, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the bananas, egg replacer, milk, and vanilla. Beat at a medium speed until well-mixed and creamy.
With the mixer at low speed, add the dry ingredients to the wet in thirds, slowly increasing the mixer speed to high. Beat until very smooth and well-combined.
Divide the batter between the two greased pans. Give each one a few hard taps on the countertop to get rid of any bubbles.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack. Let cool completely before frosting

for the frosting
1 stick vegan margarine (1/2 cup)
4 cups powdered sugar
1/3ish cups of fresh pineapple, pureed until very liquidy
½ teaspoon vanilla
yellow food coloring (optional)

Using the whisk attachment of a hand mixer, cream together the butter, vanilla, and two cups of powdered sugar.
Alternate adding the pineapple puree in thirds and the remaining powdered sugar. Don’t add too much pineapple or the frosting will be too liquidy.
Whisk in drops of yellow food coloring until the frosting is bright and pineapple-colored.
When the cakes are completely cool, smear a thick layer of the frosting on top of one of the layers. Place the other layer on top, and frost completely with an off-set spatula or knife.

Double-Chocolate-Blueberry Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting
“The Guilt Killer”

for the cake
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
¾ cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
¼ cup soy yogurt
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh blueberry puree (from about 1 ½ cups blueberries)
1 cup vegan “buttermilk” (see note)

for ganache
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped
1/3 cup vegan “heavy cream” (see note)
½ tablespoon corn syrup
½ tablespoon vegan butter

Note: To make vegan buttermilk: Place 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in the bottom of a one-cup measuring cup. Fill the rest of the way with full-fat soy or almond milk (do not use rice milk or low-fat milks; neither curdle right). Let the milk sit while you prepare the rest of the recipe, then use as you would traditional buttermilk.To make vegan heavy cream: Combine plain soy yogurt and full-fat soy/almond milk (at about a 2 to 1 ratio) until the mixture reaches the consistency of heavy cream. Between the cake and the ganache, this recipe uses one small (6 ounce) container of soy yogurt.

to prepare the cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-cup Bundt pan with canola or vegetable oil spray and set aside.
In a small saucepan, melt the 2 ounces of chocolate over a larger pot of boiling water (or use a double boiler. Let cool slightly.
In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, yogurt, and flax seeds until smooth. Add the cooled chocolate and whisk well. Set aside.
In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Alternate adding the dry ingredients, the blueberry puree, and the prepared buttermilk to the chocolate mixture. Whisk until very smooth and combined.
Pour the cake batter into the Bundt pan and bake on the lower rack of the oven for about 40 minutes. A knife inserted in the center of the cake should come out clean but not dry. Don’t over cook or the cake will be too dry and burny.
Let the cake cook in the pan for about 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

to prepare the ganache
In a glass Pyrex cup (or other heat-proof dish) mix the chopped chocolate, corn syrup, and butter. Set aside.
In a small sauce pan bring the heavy cream to a boil (don’t let it boil too long or it will scorch).
Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate mixture. Cover with a dish towel or small plate and let sit for about 5-7 minutes or until all the chocolate has melted. Whisk briskly until smooth.
When the ganache has cooled slightly, pour over the cooled cake, using an offset spatula to help it drizzle down the sides. Let the frosted cake stand at least 30 minutes for the ganache to set before serving.

***

Neither of these cakes lasted long enough in my apartment to get photographed so you’ll just have to take my word that they were both as gorgeous as they were delicious.

And getting rid of the guilty feelings?

Piece of cake.

Oh Me, Oh (Cinco de) Mayo

One of my fondest Cinco de Mayo memories involves studying Classical Mythology over plates of fajitas on the patio of a busy Mexican restaraunt, dancing to Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" after leaving the fiesta, and watching The Raccoon take a test the next morning after puking in an OSUM bathroom.

This year the festivities were a bit more low key (and actually a bit lonely, if I'm being completely honest). Roomie was on his way to Philadelphia and the Dad Vail Regatta; it was mid-term week for my friends still in grad school; LitFest was kicking off; I'm likely getting passive-agressively phased out of certain folk's company...

But don't cry for me, friends & enemies. I still had a pretty good time in the kitchen. I just have way more leftovers than I usually do following a holiday-themed dinner party. Plus, there were less dishes to wash! Mira siempre el lado brillante de la vida.

First Course/Nibbles:

Por supuesto, I made guacamole and salsa. I don't really have a recipe for either of these things - I just keep adding ingredients until I like the way the dips taste. I like my guac kind of plain, just red onion, cilantro, a little garlic, a little cumin and/or chipotle powder. Since I'm not a big fan of onion chunks, I'll usually pulse everything but the avocado in the blender before fork-mashing everthing together. For salsa I like white onion and jalapenos and poblanos. Depending on how chunky I want the salsa, I'll puree a few tomatoes in the blender for the base before adding more chopped tomatoes and the minced onions and peppers. I made the salsa the day before so the flavors could settle together a bit. The guac I made just before I wanted to eat it with some cheap tortilla chips. Muy bien.

Main Course:

Both these dishes are spins off of recipes from the "Fast Easy Fresh" section of this month's Bon Appetit. I hadn't been sure what I was going to make for Cinco de Mayo and had picked up the magazine at Kroger on a whim (well, not so much "whim" as "I'm going to need something to distract me from the 60 midterms I have waiting for me to grade"). Neither are expectedly "Mexican" but since I was my only dinner guest I was pretty sure I wouldn't mind. (I did not).

Arco Iris Ensalta Arroz

1 cup long-grain white rice

1/4 cup lemon juice

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

2 ears-worth of fresh corn kernels

1 orange bell pepper, chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

3-4 peppadews, chopped (depending on how hot you'd like your salad, feel free to mix in some chiles or poblanos)

3 green onions, white and green parts, chopped

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 avocado, peeled and diced

Cook the rice for a few minutes less (or with 1/4 cup less water) then the package recommends to keep it from getting soggy (probably about 12 minutes). Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Set aside.

In a small bowl or Pyrex measuring cup (I seriously love those things when it comes to making dressings), whisk together the lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of the oil, and the black pepper. Set aside.

Heat the remaining oil in a large skillet. Add all the corn, orange pepper, peppadews (and spicier peppers, if using), and zucchini. Saute for about 7 minutes or until all the veggies are bright and just starting to soften.

Mix the veggies and rice into a large bowl. Add the onions and cilantro and toss. Here you can add the lemon-olive oil dressing to the entire bowl and toss to coat, or dress each serving individually. Either way, top with the chopped avocado and serve.

Garlic & Tarragon Pinto Frijoles

This was originally a chicken-with-cream-sauce dish that did not call for beans. Behold! The power of The Veganification!

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped well

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, minced

1/2 cup vegetable broth, plus more for thinning/mashing

2- 15 oz. cans of pinto beans, drained and rinsed

Heat the olive oil in a medium pot. Add the garlic and cook until just starting to get fragrant (about 3 minutes). Add the tarragon and cook until softening, another 3-5 minutes. Stir frequently so the garlic doesn't get too brown. Add the beans and broth. Using a wooden spoon, smash together with the garlic and herbs. Add more broth if necessary. You could also use a potato smasher but I didn't want my frijoles too liso.

I cooked up some green beans ($1.99 for 2 pounds pre-cleaned! Hooray for manager's specials at Kroger!) and asparagus to round out the meal.

To drink I just had some white wine. I'm not a huge fan of tequila (unless it's in shot-form with a cinnamon orange slice on the side) and since I was alone, I opted not to lug out the blender for margaritas.

***

There aren't many theme holidays left this quarter so I'll probably be making up a few of my own. "Finally Done Grading Day" and "Start of Summer Blockbuster Movie Season" both seem like as good a reason as any to celebrate with food and drink.

As always, fans and detractors, you're all cordially invited.

My Week In Film

So I'm over the hump; week 5 has come and gone. The birds are singing in the trees, I'm almost officially a lifeguard, there were several pedagogically successful days in a row. Yes, indeed. There's nothing but blue skies, warm weather, and promising student essays on the horizon.

And just what, you may be wondering, has got your favorite vegan in such an optimistic mood?

The Athens International Film+Video Festival, that's what. I just spent seven glorious days -- over 30 hours altogether! immersed in films, shorts, animation, documentaries, and (possibly most important of all) hot movie theater popcorn. The high from the latter alone is enough to make me forget about all the grading that goes along with student essays.

Here's how it went down:

Thursday:
"Das Weisse Band" (a creepy study on the nature of punishment set in pre-WWI Germany) with Roomie & "Sherlock Holmes" (starring the more-than-swoonworthy Robert Downey Jr.) over at Baker Center's Dollar Movie Night. Though neither were technically part of the film festival, both were quite good. For food I made a patent-pending Ginormous Salad. I take my jumbo-sized Tupperware bowl and fill it with every leafy green and fresh herb I've got in my fridge. Romaine, spinach, chard, watercress, lacinato kale, sprouts, diced radishes & their greens, shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms, green onions, marjoram, parsley, oregano, basil, mint, cilantro, thyme, and so on. It's usually enough salad to last for 3-4 days, depending on how hungry I am. I figured I'd be able to slack off on the cooking a bit if I made it on Day One of the Filmstravaganza.

Friday:
Due to the Icelandic volcano debacle, the first film I wanted to see was cancelled. I then proceeded to get laughed at for wanting to buy a single movie ticket. Not the most auspicious beginning but the free evening allowed me time to make the following salad/chunky dip. Serve it warm as a topping for rice or pasta, serve it cold with the raw veggies you've snuck into the theater in lieu of popcorn for an 11am screening.

Lights, Camera, Artichoke-Garbanzo Pate
adapted from the April 2010 issue of VegetarianTimes

2 artichoke hearts (I used the ones leftover from the ones I steamed a couple Sundays ago)
1 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 diced onions
1/4 cup diced pickles
1/4 cup diced green pepper
1/4 cup diced celery
1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon capers
1 teaspoon yellow mustard

Combine everything in a blender or food processor. Pulse until the consistency of chunky oatmeal. Season with 1/4 teaspoon each of sea salt and black pepper if desired. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight to set the flavors.

Saturday:
After the Gridiron Gallop 5K, I head up to the Athena for the competition screening, "Movies For Slightly Older Kids." My favorite of the bunch is either "Pigeon: Impossible" or "A Dog Goes From Here To There." Immediately following is another series of shorts, "Poetry, Music, and Film." I liked the films "An Eyeful of Sound" and "Elephant Medicine" best. After the shorts I meet up with my BFF JSK to see "The Secret of Kells," a gorgeously animated Irish film, during which I eat the salad I snuck in. After the movie, I take a 2 hour break to finally shower off the 5K grime and eat some dinner (warm artichoke-garbanzo dip over rice and raw veggies). Then it's back up to the theater for the competition screening "Do Ask, Do Tell." Good films there include "Gayby" and "Never Too Late." Some of my students from the horror class I'm teaching show up around 9 and we all go to the "Thrills and Chills" show. Though none of the shorts were as scary as I expected, showing a trend in horror towards moral outrage rather than monsters and ghosts (there was quite a bit of necrophilia and crime),"Copelia," "tyle wody kolo domu," and "Herbert White" were all wonderfully creepy. I'm actually hoping "Copelia" gets picked up by a larger studio and turned into a longer film. It has the potential for the same creepy futurism as "I, Robot" and "Minority Report."

Sunday:
I don't get to see as many films as I'd've liked today (Roomie needed help with a massive cram session) but I do get to the "Mythological Tales" competition screening and the full-length film "Eyes Wide Open," a moving (despite the slightly over-symbolic ending) story about a forbidden relationship between to orthodox Jewish men in Jerusalem. The best of the myths include "The Moon Bird" and "O Pintor de Ceos." I eat PB&J's for dinner while going over glycolysis and the Kreb's Cycle with Roomie.

Monday:
Week 5 starts and I encourage all my students to go to the Festival with the promise of extra credit. I do see many of them at the films which boosts my pedagogical ego. As for me, I see the shorts, "The Continuing and Lamentable Saga of the Suicide Brothers" and "kleine liebe," and the film "The Man Came and Took Her" in the afternoon. After teaching, I return for the "Animation" competition screening and a nice big bag of popcorn for dinner. Despite the fact that I was seated in a sea of pretentious art school kids, I managed to enjoy all of the cartoons. "Fuzzy Insides" and "Skylight" are my favorites.

Tuesday:
I have a freak-out moment today where I realize how much time I've spent indoors the past few days. So when I finish teaching, I opt for a really long bike ride and several glasses of wine. I don't think I even turned the TV on today, that's how visually over-stimulated I felt. Instead I treat my ears to the forthcoming The New Pornographers and Josh Ritter albums, both of which are streaming at NPR.com until they are officially released.

Wednesday:
Finally the ash has cleared from the European skies and I get to see "Nymph," a Thai re-imagining of the Daphne myth. It's a 90 minute movie with maybe 6 pages of dialogue so it was a little atmospheric. Still really good.
Later in the day, I show my favorite film of all time, Labyrinth, to my freshman comp class. I have been using it as a teaching tool for several quarters now with varying levels of success. I don't care how much the students may laugh, I will continue to show it. Show me someone who can't appreciate David Bowie in tights, singing & dancing with Muppets, and I'll show you a blind, tone-deaf liar.
Then it's back to the Athena for the 7:15 showing of "Fish Tank." Other than the mylar balloon at the end, it was a very good film. Once again, I'm too lazy to do anything but eat popcorn for dinner.

Thursday:
This morning I watch the 2003 version of "Willard" as a part of my own personal, quarter-long horror film marathon. In my horror class, I show the animated graphic novelization of the Stephen King short story, "N," which my students had read over the weekend. The last full-length film of the Festival for me is the simply great Greek movie, "Dogtooth." It's an absurd look at control and coming of age and the scene with the cat might be the highlight of the week for me. Then I meet up with The Raccoon and my friend The Film Buff to see the last screening of the week, "Best of the Fest." There were about 20 shorts and all were spectacular. "My Beast Friend," "Banana Bread," "Wonder Hospital," and "The Commoners" were my favorites from there.
To snack on in the theater, and to celebrate the end of a week well filmed, I made the following candied nuts. After my weight in salted popcorn, I was really in the mood for something sweet.

That's A Wrap Rosemary Candied Almonds
inspired by a recipe in Martha Stewart's Living, May 2010

2 cups raw almonds
2 tablespoons demerara sugar
2 tablespoons vegan margarine
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In a small bowl, combine 4 teaspoons with the sea salt and set aside. In a large skillet, combine the butter and honey until melted. Add the remaining sugar and cook until the mixture just starts to bubble. Lower the heat and stir in the almonds with a wooden spoon until well-coated. Remove from heat and stir in the rosemary. Spread the almonds onto the cookie sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle with the sugar-salt mixture and put in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. Let cool completely before eating. A bit of advice? Taking a small bag to the theater will keep you from eating the entire trayfull.

***

And so endeth AIF+V Festival 2010. Coming up? More movies (Nightmare on Elm Street remake!), a concert, Cinco de Mayo, 12+ hours of student conferences, the Lit Fest, and (hopefully) some cooking.

Definitely some cooking.

Aquaphiliac

I am currently training to be a lifeguard. It was about time really. I was in swimming lessons or on a swim team almost every summer for the first 13 years of my life. I currently swim laps 3 times a week, sometimes as much as 2.5 miles a day. I love the water. Under it, through it, laying out next to it; I don't think I could be happy if I didn't live near some kind of large body of water.

So when I came home from my first lifeguarding class Saturday night, hungry and tired from a 12 hour day of first-aid/CPR training and rescuing passive victims from the bottom of the deep end, I appropriately chose a seafood-based dish to veganize.

The original dish was sauteed octopus served with fermented black bean sauce and miso vinaigrette. Even if I wasn't a vegan I don't think I'd keep octopus on hand, nor do I live near enough to the creepy Chinese groceries with the skinned rabbits in the windows to acquire fermented black bean paste on a whim. But the flavor combinations in this recipe were just too good not to experiment with. And so, despite the fact it was 10 o'clock at night and I was covered in chlorine and bruised from being backboarded, I fired up the burners and whipped up this delicious meal.

Mocktopus Wild Rice Salad with Black Bean Pear Sauce and Miso Vinaigrette

from Food&Wine, January 2010

for the rice (note: cook each type of rice separately)

1 cup wild rice, cooked according to package directions

1 cup jasmine rice, cooked according to package directions

for the Black Bean Pear Sauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

2 shallots, chopped fine

1 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1/2 a jalapeno, seeded and minced

1 cup pears, peeled and chopped

the juice from 1 lemon

2 green onions, green parts only, minced

for the miso vinaigrette

1 tablespoon miso (I had mild red in the fridge; the original calls for white)

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons room temperature water

sea salt & fresh ground pepper (1/8 teaspoon-ish or to taste)

to prepare

In a medium sauce pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the beans and cook for about 3-4 minutes.

Add the garlic, ginger, and shallot and cook for another 5 minutes or until the shallots are soft and translucent. You may want to add a little water and/or oil here if the beans are starting to stick too much to the bottom of the pan.

Add the bell pepper and jalapeno and cook until just starting to soften.

Stir in the pear and give the whole thing a few really good, mashing stirs to break up the pears and the beans a bit. The sauce is going to be a bit pink-ish and about the consistency of guacamole.

Turn off the heat and squeeze in the lemon juice. Stir in the green onions and cover. Let sit while you make the vinaigrette.

to make the miso vinaigrette

In a small bowl combine all the ingredients except the salt and pepper and whisk with vigor. Taste and season appropriately. This could be made up to 3 days or so ahead of time; just be sure to bring it back to room temp before serving.

***

To serve this, I chopped fresh spinach into ribbons, mandolined a large carrot into discs, and striped them on a large dinner plate. Using an ice cream scoop, I placed the rice (two wild scoops, one jasmine) on the carrot stripe. I spooned the black bean sauce over the rice, then perpendicularly drizzled the miso over the spinach and rice.

The above recipe made about enough to plate like this 4 times (depending on the size of your scoop). Since I was only feeding myself (yes, I plate this extensively when I'm eating all alone in my apartment. It's better than 30 cats and stacks of newspapers), I had plenty of leftovers for the next week. Suggestion? Cut up a few plum tomatoes, mix with the cold, leftover bean sauce and serve with tortilla chips and a cold one.

The perfect short-cut dinner for that night when, even though Sex Week went so well and you were sure you'd turned a corner and connected with your students, even the usually-participatory students are sitting there with their arms crossed over their chests refusing to talk, and the others are practically glaring while theatrically checking the time on their ubiquitous cell phones.

Week 5 here I come.