Don’t get me wrong, I adore tofu. Really, I do. I like it in stir-frys. I like it crispy and pan-fried in olive oil. I like it instead of ricotta in my lasagna recipe. And I like it - um, wait. Those are all of the things I ever do with tofu. For someone who was vegan for over a year, my lack of tofumagination is kind of depressing. So today, I did something I sort of rarely do for a regular weeknight dinner - I actually sought out a recipe! I landed on Katie and Leeanne Chin’s Braised Stuffed Tofu, which looked perfect except for the fact that I A) didn’t have Sichuan cabbage, mushrooms, cornstarch, bok choy, or oyster sauce and B) was totally skeptical of the proposition that I could panfry a delicate stuffing-filled tofu square on both sides without it sticking to the pan, imploding into a goopy mess, or setting off my fire alarm (or all of the above). So I improvised. 

Stuffed tofu squares:

• 1 block firm tofu
• 2 frozen veggie burgers of your choice (or half a baked potato and some curry powder, or whatever you think will be yummy)
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup frozen spinach
• about 4 tbsp olive oil
• about 4 tbsp soy sauce, tamari or namashoyu

1. Cut the tofu into twelve equal-sized squares and dry them as best you can with a cloth (don’t use paper towels, you’ll go through a whole roll).
2. Carefully scoop out a small spoonful of tofu from the middle of each square - don’t scoop all the way through to the other side, and leave enough of a border that the squares remain sturdy. Douse the empty squares with soy sauce.
3. Cook the veggie burgers, frozen vegetables and scooped-out tofu innards in a saucepan until cooked through. Fill each tofu square with a spoonful of the mixture.
4. Heat the olive oil in a large wok or skillet. Place the squares in the wok and cook until at least the bottoms are panfried. If you’re brave, try flipping them. If you’re me, cover with a lid to steam the tops.

Oven fries:

• 1 large russet potato
• about 4 tbsp olive oil
• salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne
• KETCHUP

1. Wash the potato and slice it up into equal-sized slivers. Toss them in a bowl with salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne (as much as you’re into). Place fries in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet or dish and bake at 400 degrees for about an hour, depending on how crispy you like them.
2. Serve with SO MUCH KETCHUP. MORE. MORE THAN THAT.

I wasn’t planning for this to be the recipe that broke the blogging dry spell, but after tasting the bite of the leftovers this morning I found I’d stumbled upon something. I’ve actually been cooking quite a bit lately, out of necessity and economy, fashioning meals that could’ve come straight out of the Trader Joe’s cookbook and might have been hard to defend in recipe form, like fish-stick tacos with homemade salsa, or turkey burgers with a secret ingredient (crushed pistachios) and pesto tortellini. Last night, after dropping over a grand on new apartment furniture (everything in our apartment except the bed is sourced from either Craigslist or the street, including a barely-used Ikea kitchen block, a cheerfully painted blue bookshelf that a nearby elementary school threw out, and two bar schools discarded by the Shake Shack downstairs), we had a cheap date that mostly consisted of spending five hours in the Museum of Natural History across the street and watching a terrible Robin Williams movie on Netflix Instant. In between, I made some nachos for dinner, bound by the constraints of the ingredients already in the fridge: a bag of frozen chopped spinach, a can of refried beans, an onion, a tomato, tortilla chips and good olive oil. 

The vegetable mixture that came out of this under-$5 experiment is good enough to serve for entertaining, the beans giving it a creaminess reminiscent of those vaguely-disgusting vaguely-delicious dairy-based dips that tempt and horrify me. 

Vegan spinach dip:

• 1 cup frozen chopped spinach
• 2 tbsp good extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 can refried beans
• 3/4 cup diced yellow onion
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute the onion in a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, stirring frequently.
2. Meanwhile, defrost the spinach with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a small covered saucepan. Once cooked through, add refried beans and stir until mixed well.
3. When onions are golden and translucent, add to bean mixture and stir well. If you like, melt a little cheddar on top. Serve with tortilla chips. 

Our not-cooking streak was finally broken, and I can’t take any credit. My boyfriend made soup twice this week. I tend to stop making soup when the weather gets warm, but both of these meals made me rethink that stance. My boyfriend, who reads a lot of Mark Bittman, cooks with a sort of austerity and simplicity that I really admire. Here is his soup recipe: ”Cut everything up, put it in a pot with some water, boil it, turn it down, cover it, and wait.”

chicken soup (beginning from a whole boiled chicken) with carrots, onions, potatoes and rice.

vegetable soup with asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, green beans, garlic, mushrooms, spinach, summer squash, tomatoes, and zucchini. 

When I was five I wrote a poem about soup that I can only remember some of, including the line, “the children are slipping on their slip-on shoes,” which leads me to believe I must have always imagined soup as also a summertime food. My writing has only gone downhill since then.

It’s my grandpa’s birthday weekend, so most of my family was in New York to celebrate, which mostly meant a whole lot of celebratory eating (we also went to see The Book of Mormon, which lived up to its reviews). Friday night was dinner at Rosa Mexicano (the 1st Ave location), which despite being derided for having turned into a high-end chain restaurant with very strong margaritas is, I think, still reliable for quality and atmosphere. They were doing a whole lot of press for their upcoming Mexican Passover menu, which was kind of curious. I had short ribs with mole on my step-grandmother’s recommendation: they were tender and flavorful and shared pretty much in half between my boyfriend and my mom. I had quite a bit of his chicken tortilla pie, which was floating in some verdantly green poblano cream sauce (it was very cheesy and very weird-looking: definitely what I’d recommend ordering for the under-thirteen crowd).

My mom valiantly ordered a salad, and ended up eating it for breakfast the next morning after polishing off an entire short rib for dinner. Also, I’m just this moment remembering that we’d been set on trying the sweet potato fries and completely forgot to order them (it’s true, the margaritas here are very strong).

Shared dessert was a sort of strange caramelized banana chocolate chip cake. It wasn’t really up my alley, but I ate most of it anyway. 

I woke up on Saturday morning still uncomfortable full from dinner, which meant figuring out a way to get through day two of celebrations while doing a little bit of detox. That goal was made infinitely easier by lunch at Quintessence in the East Village with my mom and our friend Stacy, where we had some miso vegetable stew with hijiki and burdock root and a raw vegan caesar salad to share. Quintessence was a raw food restaurant until quite recently, when they integrated some organic cooked vegan options into their menu as a response to the popularized idea among raw foodists that introducing small and nutritious amounts of cooked vegan or even animal-based foods into a mostly raw diet can result in benefits that outweigh the risks. 

Saturday night was birthday cake & presents.

The obligatory Harry & David. I’m shocked that my family hasn’t singlehandedly kept them from going bankrupt. 

We went to Frankie & Johnnie’s before the show, where I completely couldn’t bro up and order an enormous steak. I had oysters instead, since they’re pretty much my latest obsession and have a very detox-friendly nutritional profile: very low-calorie and low-fat, they have large amounts of protein, vitamins and minerals including zinc, magnesium and calcium. Of course, I took home plenty of steak and chocolate cake leftovers to eat for breakfast today.