In honor of Chanukah, and the first day of winter, Jane made the matzoh ball soup recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. This is the second time she's made this recipe. The first time, the matzoh balls disintegrated.  The recipe suggests refrigerating the matzoh ball mixture one hour to overnight.  We were both excited about the soup and so, after the hour was up, Jane made the balls and then the soup.  What we got was not-so ball soup, or rather a gelatinous mess at the bottom of the soup bowl.  That was very disheartening as we both loved matzoh ball soup in our pre-vegan life.  We'd been rather hopeful about this recipe since many people have expressed real enthusiasm over this recipe.

Fast forward to yesterday in the grocery store.  Jane grabbed a box of matzoh meal.  I asked what she was planning on making with it.  She replied, "I think it's time to try the matzoh ball soup again."  This time she used extra firm tofu and refrigerated the mixture over 24 hours.  (We decided the previous failure was due to the 1 hour refrigeration.)  As they were cooking the matzoh balls floated; they sank when we removed the lid from the stock pot... as expected.  But even though the matzoh balls held together, we were both unimpressed with the taste.

Over time, I've learned there are just some things you can't veganize.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining... perhaps that would have been a complaint last year when I was trying to acclimate to my new way of eating.  But over this last year and a half, Jane and I have discovered some really wonderful dishes we might never have tried otherwise.  I'm just not sure we'll be trying to veganize matzoh ball soup any time in the near future.

Anyway, we wish a happy Chanukah to all of our readers who are celebrating tonight.

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Smokey Grilled Tempeh and Cheater Baked Beans. The tempeh and baked beans were okay, but we both decided there was no need to make the tempeh again. The beans were tasty, and worthy of a second try (and very easy to boot).

There's so much positive buzz about this cookbook that we figured we'd do well with one of the more popular recipes. Unfortunately, we're now one for three here. The mac 'n cheese just didn't work for us. Though I thought it was alright, I wouldn't ask Jane to make this again. She actually disliked it, so much so that she said she won't eat the leftovers. To put that in perspective for you, we don't typically throw food away in this house. I didn't have that strong an aversion to the dish, but something didn't work for us, perhaps it was the large quantity of nutritional yeast.

I hate to take such a contrarian stance, but so far this cookbook isn't living up to it's hype, for us at least. Last time we posted about the tempeh, everyone who commented said they loved it. So we're left to wonder if our taste buds are out of sync with the rest of the world, or perhaps Jane's having trouble following recipes lately? So far, we're much happier with Vegan Planet and the Real Food Daily cookbooks.

We're not ready to give up on this book just yet. It's a great big cookbook, and you all seem to love it so much. Next, Jane's going to try the Chickpea Cutlets which the authors state is their signature dish. If we dip below the Mendoza Line (one for six), we'll have to hang up our Veganomicon cleats.

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It was lentil loaf for dinner again tonight. As I mentioned in last night's post, not my favorite meal. However, it was better tonight. Jane made my favorite iteration of brussel sprouts to accompany the loaf. This is the same recipe for brussel sprouts that we use at Thanksgiving. When I tucked into my plate, I knew that at least one portion of my meal would be worth eating.

But as much as I hate to admit it, the loaf was somewhat tasty. Still, I've asked Jane not to make it again. And I'm not the terrible husband that request makes me out to be... Jane didn't care for it either. Since it's not inedible, we will finish it off tomorrow night. You all should be thrilled too. An uninspired meal makes for an uninspired post.

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For dinner tonight, Jane tried a new recipe. She made us a lentil loaf. It started out as lentil stew, which was quite tasty, so we both had high expectations.

The loaf wound up reminding me of my early experiences with vegetarianism back in the eighties. It seemed like everywhere I turned the only vegetarian option was a pepper stuffed with rice. In case you can't tell from the tone of my writing, I abhor stuffed peppers. That meal is one of the reasons I re-introduced meat into my diet.

When we were talking about going vegan I revisited my previous vegetarian experiences with Jane. She commiserated with me, but we both knew that things would be better this time around. We knew that there would be commercial products readily available in our local grocery stores. I would never have to resort to the ubiquitous stuffed pepper. So when I took my first bite of this Lentil Loaf, visions of stuffed peppers were unhappily dancing in my head. Needless to say, it wasn't wonderful. But it's far from the worst thing I've ever eaten.

Jane made the full recipe so there's still plenty of loaf left. Yay?

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