Lia_Bia's Profile

I love my cast iron, and it's worth it for the benefits of cast iron (low cleaning, bonus iron in my food etc) but I feel this way about a friend of mine's full set of all clad stove top items. They're not that much better and they're SO heavy it's hard to combine things from two or more pots/pans or dish out food when it's done without making a mess or burning myself trying to use both hands to hold a handle.

All this bickering aside, as someone who is not accustomed to cooking vegan, it does make it hard to try it, if the recipes themselves aren't actually vegan. Substituting ingredients is, I'm sure, always an option, but unless someone tells me what will be a good substitute, I have no idea. A good cook, I am. A magician with tempeh and nutritional yeast and soy cheese... uh... no. Finding where to buy 1/2 these ingredients is work enough - I'd prefer to at least have a direct recipe to work from.

i'm a big fan of 2 pot/pan meals of pasta (whole wheat preferably) and sauteed veggies/spices and toss them together. If you mix up the veggies you use and spices you can do 4 or 5 nights a week like this. it's carb heavy, but easy on dishes too (no salad plates or bread plates/knives. this is how I survived grad school.

String cheese is just boiled/steamed mozzarella ... so... not really fake. FYI, those 'rolls of cookie dough' are referred to as 'chubs' within the food industry (just cracks me up). And though I don't plan to buy this cooking creme, because i already cook with cream cheese sometimes when i don't' have cream but want to make something creamy, I agree with some of the later posters who thought most of the reactions here were over the top. Sure it's easy to judge... it's harder to let people be. What people consume is very personal and it doesn't do a dammed thing to sit on a high horse and wag your fingers at people eating things you disapprove of. Come on - can't we all just get along? We can have a pot luck. i'll bring a dip... which may or may not have cooking creme in it... and I won't tell you.

Whose landlord is ok that that they painted the cabinets red? My landlord won't even let us put nails in the wall, none the less paint cabinets supermodel lipstick red and glue up a back splash! Amazed by that alone.

Can we talk about this pie chain thing? I've made pies all my life and i'm not even sure what ti does. It looks like the pull on the basement light fixture... can someone help me out? I'm already convinced I don't need it... but what does it do?

mint tea + hot chocolate is also delicious. homemade peppermint cocoa - saves you $3.50 at starbucks.

I'll have to try the cider w/ tea asap.

Love this! W/o being too self promoting of my own sarcastic blogging, I JUST wrote a little snarky note to recipe makers everywhere about recipes that include processed packages (you know... 'recipes' for cake that include a box of jello instant pudding etc) on www.lettersfromlia.com. Though I don't think I could go totally unprocessed, as I do still love to bake with flour and sugar like grandma did, I think for my main meals this is close to possible. (I may have to keep my whole wheat pasta despite it being from a box and processed... sorry) But, I'll aim for it every day, and make a more concerted effort for these 30 days. Thanks for the inspiration. I'd love to hear from people what is most hard not to 'fall' for on those tough days.

I agree that the dual function of the USDA is ridiculous (how can you promote and represent ag. groups AND nutrition without biases) but to ignore dairy visually only serves to make more average Americans think that educated elites are all weird Vegans who don't eat like they do. Even if it's true, the way the message is conveyed is nearly as important as the actual message.

I've had this happen as well (thanks for the dead duck honey... but what do I DO with it?) Or goose, or whatever. We've been creative with the small/odd parts and usually it's pretty good. We've done good bbq duck, kind of like pulled pork, in a crock pot - a decent sandwich, and I second the duck stirfry (good with just a touch of teriyaki type sauce)... or what we call 'duck tips'. Marinate large pieces in olive oil, garlic, rosemary (those types of spice blends) and sear them up in a pan. So good with wild rice & veggies.