Here you have it, the last of the pictures from my visit with family in North Carolina. (Actually, I have a pic of the deer on my sister’s doorstep in this month’s newsletter). These are of the dishes we had at a small, fairly new, vegetarian restaurant in Chapel Hill’s University Square called Butternut Squash.
Front and side approaches
I had the VEGAN CLUB:
The description, “Baked tofu and smokey tempeh bacon with lettuce, tomato, red onion, stone ground mustard and vegan aioli” was definitely accurate, as it was a very smokey sandwich.
My Dad had the BLACK BEAN HEMP-NUT BURGER, “served with avocado, goat cheese, mustard, basil, aioli and sprouts.”
OK, so that one’s not vegan, with the goat cheese, but at least I’m not showing you my sister’s choice, the pasta primavera (hello cheese!).
The chocolate cake, however, was vegan (and the ice cream too).
The latter, that small scoop of ice cream, was a separate dessert dish on its own, and, to put it mildly, something of a disappointment in its size to price ratio. Other than that, a good and filling meal.
What a crazy, but ultimately fun, weekend. It all started Thursday night as New Hampshire was hit by a powerful wind storm which prompted Governor Lynch to declare a state of emergency. It was a scary and sleepless one to be sure — no power and every renewed gust had me convinced I’d be ducking trees as they crashed through the roof from any side. I stood at the ready (as much as you can be ready for such a thing) in the doorway to leap in either direction.
Having made it through the night, the damage was clear as more than a quarter million PSNH (Public Service of NH) customers were left without power. The rain of the preceding weeks had left the ground weak and unable to secure the roots of many an old tree. Others simply broke and toppled, onto lines and houses. At some point during the day, my phone joined the power outage. Luckily, I had my new cellphone which I’d procured for the trip to NC. Alas, the hotels and motels were either also without power or full. I roughed it in the car for a while that night, turning on the heat every couple hours, before eventually heading inside where I actually slept well in my old sleeping bag from the scouts. It had seen many a winter camping excursion in its day, including a couple times in an igloo, and while not quite as effective as it used to be, it nevertheless was up to the task of the mild (30-40°F) temperatures.
Saturday night, my good friend Scott and his wife took me in. We’d planned to meet up on Sunday for brunch anyway, so it worked out well though we were all exhausted and called it an early night. The next day, we were in for a lavish treat: one of the twice monthly buffet brunches at Cafe Indigo, the vegan bakery in Concord. The food was amazing, and the chocolate cupcakes were soooo moist! We all walked out of there twenty pounds heavier, $20 lighter. (Next time, I’ll bring the camera). And, I was in for another treat upon returning home to find the power had just been restored, as evidenced by the heater still struggling to bring the house back up to temp and my electric toothbrush’s flashing blue light.
Other notables of the weekend include the one-year anniversary on Friday, the 26th, of my last day at work, and my birthday… today, March 1st.
Another dish my sister made for me while I was down in North Carolina is a Lebanese staple. We first had it at her place and then again while dining out at Neomonde in Raleigh (along with a ton of other Mediterranean food by way of their pick-your-own sample plates).
I’ll let her describe it, since — as was often the case — I was playing the role of sous chef that night.
The lentils, rice, and caramelized onion dish is a Lebanese dish called mjaddarah (Erin: also see mejadra or mujadara). The basic recipe is to cook equal portions of brown rice and lentils, then caramelize some onions (yellow onions are best since they tend to have the highest natural sugar content and are therefore good for caramelizing). Mix the rice, lentils and half the onions together and put in a baking dish. Top with remaining half of onions and bake to warm ingredients together and if you want to brown up the onions on the top. I used a 1 pound bag of lentils and 3 cups of brown rice (which obviously cooks to be more than 3 cups). I used 3 large yellow onions, but could have easily used 4 or 5 since they cook down quite a bit (and the onions add all the flavor to the dish). I cooked the lentils for about 40 minutes (you still want them to have some structure so they don’t smoosh when you mix up the ingredients). The onions take the longest…about 1 hour to caramelize the onions. I cut the onions in half rings and separated them into a pan, added less than 1 tbsp of olive oil, then let them cook on medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Towards the end of cooking, after they are very soft and starting to caramelize on their own, I added 1 tsp of brown sugar (could do it without this, but this helps to finish the caramelizing process). Continue to cook, stirring frequently until a nice brown color (need to be very careful not to burn the onions at any point during the hour of cooking or the flavor will be ruined).
simple salad of cilantro, tomatoes, green onions, and balsamic vinegar
Another tip from my sis:
Caramelized onions could make many dishes taste terrific. I read a suggestion on the web one day to caramelize a bunch of onions and freeze them in small portions to grab and thaw out for quicker use of caramelized onions on many different dishes. I haven’t tried this yet, but it is a good suggestion since it takes a long time to caramelize onions. This way you could just have them at the ready whenever you wanted to use them.
Thanks Amera, for keeping me well-fed while I was down there (both at home and while showing me around), for allowing me to share your words on the blog, for introducing yourself on the forums, etc..
I’m back from my visit with family in North Carolina. Lots more pictures to show you, and even another recipe, but first a glimpse into the drive home.
I left at 5:30 AM and, according to my new GPS, I was due to arrive around 6:40 PM. Alas, with the recent snow storm in DC and Baltimore, the actual time was more like 9 PM.
Washington, DC
It wasn’t just the single lane, 25 MPH traffic that caused delays; there were also a few clean-up crews along the route, shutting down two out of three lanes in places and bringing things to a complete standstill.
Things eventually cleared up though, and it was smooth sailing from there on out…
George Washington Bridge?
And, it was sunny too, unlike on the way down, so I got some nice views of the skyline and river. (This picture doesn’t do it justice.)
The skyline from the bridge
What amazes me is all these photos were taken at speed, often just haphazardly pointing and clicking without looking through the finder! I’m pleasantly surprised.
A grueling 15+ hours on the body, but well worth it for the couple of weeks spent with family.
As it turns out, I enjoyed the car rides more than I thought I would too. I packed a bunch of raw veggies and hummus both ways and discovered some good radio stations along the way. Lastly, the TomTom was a life saver, taking away ALL the stress of navigation.
George Washington Bridge?
The skyline from the bridge
