Where Has the Time Gone?

If I were a teacher (oh, I actually am) and had to grade myself on blogging, I suspect that my grade would be less than a C for consistency or lack thereof. Each blog post might be an A or B but the lack of frequency would drag the grade down. With that said, and the self-flagellation out of the way, I can now tell you what I've been doing that's prevented me from blogging more often. (Listen for the excuses, if you read them, call me on them.)

As much as I'd like to say that I NEVER get ill, that's just not the case. I live in the world and sometimes those nasty germs and viruses get me, just like they do you. I take as many precautions as possibly but short of going the Howard Hughes route, I live in the world and as they say things happen.

In early March, I got hit with some stomach bug (from the one time that I ate outside the home) that I thought that I shook off through eating fermented foods, especially miso (South River is my favorite) and kombucha, rice and baked potatoes for the better part of a week. I was feeling better for a few days, and once again I ate at some potluck meals and wham -- I got knocked down again for close to another week. Back to rice, baked potato, miso, kombucha and home-fermented sauerkraut as tolerated. Finally started feeling better but a bit weak after the bodily assault. Throughout all of this I was writing and planning future classes. Luckily when I was teaching, I was feeling just fine. (Thank my lucky stars for that because teaching cooking when you feel lousy is just NO fun.)

I then went to Anaheim for the Natural Products Expo for just one day where I sampled my way through many products that I wouldn't necessarily consider "natural" but many that were. If you have any questions about the show, just ask me.

My favorite quinoa people from La Yapa quinoa from Bolivia where there. They call theirs, "Quinoa with a Cause", as they support education in Bolivia. I am pictured here with Tania, who is Bolivian. Check out their website. And while you're there, you can see my video on cooking quinoa in a pressure cooker.

Then I went to Oaxaca, Mexico for 6 days and all was well with the world. Saw some ruins, checked out Zapotec weavers, saw the Big Tree (any photos don't do it justice -- you have to just see it), went to markets, ate great food (stay tuned for posts and photos of the food) and then visited some friends of friends of friends and did what you shouldn't do - I drank the water because I saw it come out of a 5 gallon bottle. Trouble was that I didn't know where that bottle was filled, and with what. So, guess what? Traveling home the next day and wham -- sucker punched in the gut again, and there goes the eating for a number of days. Back to my regimen, which by then I had down pretty well.

Finally, I am feeling better and ready to get to work on food. I have a jar of cabbage, golden beets, green garlic, daikon radish tops, ginger, garlic and Oaxacan chipotle pepper fermenting on my counter top, inspired by the sprouting and fermenting class that I taught earlier this week. Once fermented (which will hopefully happen by mid-week next week) I plan to eat this regularly to help keep my gut healthy and resistant.

I have about a week to go and then I leave town again for Portland, Oregon and then Seattle. I am quite hopeful that I'll be able to drink the water and get back to blogging.

If you've got any wonderful stomach bug remedies, please share them in the comments below.

The Veggie Queen is Baaaack...From Denver and Elsewhere

I know that I have been remiss in writing here. I have been really busy for the past 6 weeks, teaching and traveling and have lots of excuses. But when I get notes from people asking if I am OK? I realize that I must take at least a few minutes to write.

I just returned from attending the American Dietetic Association (ADA) conference in Denver, referred to as FNCE (Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo). I hadn't attended in 15 years. But I am now the secretary of the Vegetarian Practice Group of the ADA, and that means that I take minutes at board meetings, in person and on the phone. The funniest part is that sometimes I have a hard time reading my own notes. But it all works out.

The highlight of the conference was hearing and meeting Dr. Michael Roizen, who has co-authored the YOU books with Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Oprah doctor. I am not someone awed by celebrity, it doesn't do much for me and I've met enough of them to realize that they are "real" people, just like we are. But I am wowed by brilliance. And I rate Dr. Roizen near the top of my list (which includes Paul Stamets and Paul Simon among others) as a particularly brilliant guy.

His talk was brought to us by the Walnut people and I thank them, not only because I like walnuts but because Dr. Roizen was inspiring and believes with all his heart and mind that changing your eating can change your life. Amen. (Featured in this photo with me is Martha DeCampos, of the Vegetarian Practice Group, and lots of onlookers.)

Additionally, in the 15 years since I last attended this conference, a number of organic companies have begun attending including Amy's Kitchen, Numi Tea, Alvarado Street Bakery, Sunshine Burger, Mary's Gone Crackers, Dr. Kracker and more. I applaud them all for showing up and sharing what they do to educate dietitians. (If you're reading this and your company attended please let me know.)

I also went to a great talk on why the Registered Dietitian (RD) ought to be promoting organic foods. WOW. It's about time.

My previous trips included a jaunt to San Diego where I did cooking demonstrations for 2 different WIC (Women, Infants and Children) offices about eating deliciously by cooking whole foods in a pressure cooker.

And right before that, I was in San Francisco attending BlogHer Food with 300 other food bloggers, too many to mention here, except for my wonderful roommate Cheryl Sternman Rule of 5 Second Rule. who is an all around top-notch person and great writer. Read one of her recent posts, Regret ,and you'll see why I love her writing, wit, humor and photography skills. She bakes a bit too much for me but thankfully I live far enough away that I am not taunted and tormented by her baking projects. She also includes some healthier recipes for balance. Thanks Cheryl.

Watch for an upcoming post on making tofu at home with Rachael of La Fuji Mama. I have already started so you'll see it sometime soon, as well as an update and highlights of my travels.

My travels are over, unless, of course, you invite me to come visit you somewhere, although I much prefer the time and space of writing at home. But if you've got an empty beach house in Mexico with an internet connection, let's talk.

And for those of you wondering, I am obviously alive and doing well. I always love to hear your comments.

Where Have I Been? Let's See...

I have been busy. Took 2 trips to New York to see my Dad who isn't doing well at all. He was incredibly productive until a few months ago and then things started to go wrong -- very wrong. I won't go into details but suffice it to say that I will repeat what my mom says, "We are often kinder to our animals at the end of life, than we are to people." So, while we are living, let's live well. That means staying healthy. And the best way to do that is to eat your vegetables -- lots of them everyday.

I'll take this post to report about some interesting eating spots while away. Next post will be about this weekend and my farmer's market trips so stay tuned for that. (I assure you that it won't take as long to appear as this one did.)

Traveling is always interesting for me because I never know what's going to happen in terms of eating. As you know, I often bring my own food (read my earlier blog post), but sometimes life is too busy to arrange much of anything. That happened this most recent trip. And much to my surprise and delight, at the international terminal of SFO there are 17 Bay Area restaurants, that were chosen from more than 200, that offer their food at their restaurant (versus inflated airport) prices. And at least 3 of them have healthier vegan fare: Harbor Village (Chinese) and Osho (Japanese) which are before you go through security and another one whose name I have forgotten but that has Middle Eastern fare including hummus and dolmas. I'd already eaten my seaweed salad and miso soup from Osho by then so I wasn't interested in more food.

When we arrived on Long Island, after our trip from JFK, we headed straight to Bagelmaster bagels in Syosset, which has been there for longer than I can remember (which means a long time). It's changed hands over the years but still has great NY bagels.

Most of you probably know that I rarely eat white flour products but I am sure that a bagel now and then won't kill me, even if they are twice the size that they were when I was growing up. But now they have something better than a bagel -- it's called something like a Flatzl -- a whole wheat or maybe multigrain flat bagel with sunflower seeds on it or with everything on it. Yummy and delicious eaten plain. Unfortunately, I did not get to go back to take some home with me.

Luckily, while we were in Woodbury, we got to stop by Gabby's Bagelatessen and meet owner Larry Ross. Either he was bored or we were very different from his regular customers because he engaged with us right away and made me an incredible chopped salad from his salad bar. You choose your ingredients and Larry chops it and mixes it up for you with your choice of dressing. The small salad he made for me was actually too much for me to eat in one sitting -- now, that is amazing. as I can really pack away the salad. The place is a typical NY bagel deli, with good coffee, according to my husband, and Larry has quite the story -- self-made man who started out as a butcher while a teen. He now owns the shopping center in Woodbury, NY. Amazing. He seemed like a super nice guy.

From the days of my youth, is On Parade diner where we had a completely unnecessary dessert one night as something to do to get out of the house. My husband said that he had the worse ice cream sundae ever. Everything seemed pricey and not especially great. I don't recommend it. It may be nostalgic for me but not enough to make it worth going.

My husband is a pizza lover and I think that maybe he had his fill but I'm not sure. He had pizza from Umberto's in Huntington and from Frank's in Woodbury. I liked Frank's because they had a deep dish roasted vegetable pizza without cheese, in slices and ready to go. Vegans, don't you wish that your local pizza place had this? I certainly do. And to sweeten the deal, the slice cost about $2.50. Where I live, this same slice would have been $4. The only thing that could have made it better would have been a light, not too doughy, whole grain crust. But it was more than satisfactory.

The best meal of all was for my mother's BD. I'd post photos but I forgot my camera and one of my sisters didn't bother to take hers out of her purse. We should have at least photographed the food at Honu Kitchen in Huntington. It is an eclectic and nice decorated, small plate restaurant but I have to say that their small plates aren't that small. We were a party of 7 and they recommend that you order 3 plates per person. We tried but couldn't achieve that.

There were enough vegetarian and vegan dishes on the menu to satisfy everyone. The ones that I liked best were the mostly the sides: artichokes with garlic and garlic edamame (the waiter described them as taking a healthy food and making it not-so-good for you, and he was correct but OMG, so tasty). the salad with candied walnuts and goat cheese, I just tasted the salad part, was wonderful. My salad with greens, asparagus and sunflower seeds left me cold. The wild mushroom gnocchi didn't thrill me nor did the creamed spinach. But sipping on my Besito Margarita made everything look rosier.

The upholstered black and white curved banquette, brick walls, crystal chandeliers and large art on the bar walls which accounts for one-third of the restaurant space made it feel upscale but comfortable. The seating allowed us all to see and speak to one another. We went early so it wasn't crowded but I imagine that it can get crowded and potentially noisy.

I would go back there anytime for a plate of edamame, a cocktail and another side or two, such as sweet potato hash or fire roasted corn, and I'd be happy as a clam, well make that a carrot.

I am thrilled to be back in California where it's spring and with it are all the spring vegetables that I so enjoy: asparagus, artichokes, peas of all types and more types of tender lettuce than I can list here. My favorite cooking is often my own.

Denver Update While Back in Santa Rosa

To encapsulate my trip to Denver in a short blog post would not do the trip justice but I want to share a few of the highlights.


Off the bat, I got to go to Boulder with my friend Jules and eat at Leaf restaurant which has great small plates and main course dishes, most more than passable such as the spring rolls, Asian seaweed salad (don't let the seaweed in the title scare you) and the chopped salad. The blackened tofu was disappointing in both amount of tofu and technique but was the only flaw of the evening. The roasted beet ravioli was beautiful and also quite tasty. Dessert was good but made the after-dinner walk essential as I was pretty stuffed. I really enjoyed the walk down the Pearl Street Mall and think that Boulder has a Santa Cruz feel and liken it to a number of other cities such as Ocean Beach (San Diego), Austin, TX and Madison, WI to name a few.


Another highlight was meeting Mary of Mary's Gone Crackers which is part of my travel pack that I wrote about yesterday. I was thrilled that Mary came to see what the culinary people were up to, and cared enough to provide some delicious gluten-free education.


The conference topic was sustainability and there were lots of opinions. I have to say that I was no wallflower when it came to mine, and many heard about it. I am happy that I had a chance at the microphone more than once. I got to address the 600+ in attendace to bring up my issues with eating local, and how people aren't willing to give up their coffee, tea, chocolate or sugar. Chef Michel Nischan said that we need to value what we trade and it must be efficient. Flooding Texas to grow rice instead of importing it from India (or other places in the far east) is not sustainable.

Fred Kirschenmann also commented but Nischan found that Fred's comment didn't really address the issue. I just wanted people to realize that trade has always been important in eating.

Another big highlight was eating at Root Down, located in a converted 1950s gas station. My friend Katie Alvord said that she's thinks that it's a great reuse for such a place. Considering the funky and recycled way that they upgraded it to a classy place, she is right. It appeared to be a local hot spot, despite not being on the lips of many IACP members (probably because they've only been open 3 months). Many members flocked to toney places such as Rioja, Bones and Frasca which meant that we didn't have IACP competitors and enjoyed the meal immensely. Great for all eaters with amazing cocktails containing herbs and other botanicals.

The best part of the conference revolves around all the incredible colleagues that I meet. Some are known such as John Ash, Peter Reinhart, Joanne Weir, David Joachim and Andrew Schloss (just a small smattering), and others are less well known but equally as much fun to hang around, and these include my good friend Fran Costigan, Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo, Rebecca of the blog From Argentina with Love , Ragavan Iyer and far too many other people to list. We share a bond but we also share that with you, for we all eat every day. Most of us, though, are privileged that we have enough food on our plates every day.

I often,think of others who need more, here in the US and abroad. I am working on ways to teach them to eat better with food abundance or not. I hope that you will do the same.

Eating Elite or Making Choices

I am about to take off on a flight to Denver to go to the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference, so perhaps it is fitting that I have a bag of food with me. Truth is that I would have a bag of food on any flight of more than 2 hours.

Here's what I have with me today:

• hummus, store bought
• Mary's Gone crackers
• dried silky sea palm
• dried fruit
• an apple
• cooked quinoa
• cooked broccoli
• toasted Judy's breadstick with avocado and my homegrown sprouts

Now, I have no fear of not having enough to eat. Since I left at 6 a.m. and had to skip breakfast, which for me is a big deal, I wanted to be sure that I had both my breakfast and lunch. I will also use some of this food to keep me feeling good during the conference.

I don't know about you and traveling but generally I don't get enough fluid or fiber. The dried fruit will take care of that. It's up to me to stay hydrated.

Do I consider the food that I packed to be elitist? NO. I consider my food, good choices, especially compared to most airport fare.

So, go for real food. Do a little planning and don't give up your regular eating routine unless you must or choose to do so. Healthier eating is not elitist, it's wise.

My plane just arrived at the gate, which means I'm going to eat something before boarding.

The Veggie Queen's Last Minute Great Gifts To Buy and Give

If you've waited too long to go shopping, or got stuck somewhere in a snow storm, then I have some wonderful gift recommendations.

Check out the Da Vero website and look at their Club Nuovo. It's best for those who live in Sonoma County because they have events at the farm, but maybe it will give you a good reason to come visit my scenic part of the world. I would love for someone to buy this gift for me. You get 5 shipments of the artisan Da Vero products for $175. It's a deal. And Colleen and Ridgely are really nice people. It makes me happy to support my local peeps.

Notet: McDougall followers, please ignore the one that follows.

Another great Sonoma County product that just entered the marketplace is Smoked Olive Oil. It has to be one of the most unique products that I've seen in a long time. I am not suggesting that you just dump olive oil on your food, and it's unlikely that you could afford to with this product, but if you want to flavor your food in a very different way, this does it. Use it sparingly, for cost and waistline savings.

Finally, although it is too late to order my book, The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment, or DVD, Pressure Cooking: A Fresh Look, Delicious Dishes in Minutes, you can still place an order and I will send an email card to your recipient, and get your book and/or DVD in the mail right away. I also still have some Garlic Twists available.

Or just sign your friends and family up for my free email newsletter. No cost to you and plenty of benefit for them -- better health, more recipes and good information (or at least that's what I've been told).

Happy winter solstice and other holidays.

Trip to Cafe Gratitude and Thumbprint Cellars Tasting Lounge: Healdsburg, California

Last week I met my friend and Colleague, Kathy Nichols of http://healthyhabitscoach.com/, for lunch at Cafe Gratitude. Those of you who aren't all cheery and upbeat all the time might find the place a bit too much. For instance, your server will ask you to think about the question for the day. Ours, I believe, was, "what are you most grateful for today?" While I certainly didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it, I did notice that our server didn't check back to find out our answers. (Be aware that sometimes they do, so you might want to ponder a bit and have a snappy retort.)

When you order your food, you ask for dishes with names such as I am Cheerful, I am Celebrating or I am Elated. I got the latter which was the enchilada del dia. Kathy ordered the I am Whole macro bowl but she got a half so I'm not sure if that made her I am Half or was she Half Whole?

And when you order the server often repeats, You are Elated or whatever the upbeat name of your item is. When your item comes from the kitchen, they call out, You are Elated. After hearing a few minutes of this, it was too much for me. And if you happen to have someone celebrating a birthday in your vicinity, you will hear the Beatles song, They Say It's Your Birthday and lots of clapping.

Kathy said that she ate at the Berkeley location once and there were many birthdays, which bordered on annoying or even obnoxious (those are my words, not exactly what Kathy said).

I truly enjoyed eating I am Elated. The enchilada wrapper is dehydrated spinach and the filling was sunflower seeds spiced with chipotle and jalapeno, along with kale and olives. It was savory and smooth and mouth-tingling, in a good way. It came with large mound of perfectly cooked quinoa and less-than-interesting cabbage which might have been slaw but not the kind that I like.

Kathy enjoyed her half whole. And we split dessert, which was somewhat unnecessary but delicious. It was raw tiramisu, the name of which is forgotten. It may be Bliss. And if it was, that is a good description (except for the $8 price tag).

As I said to Kathy, you have to be able to afford to eat at Cafe Gratitude and get all that upbeat goodness. It's a novelty and something very Californian that you ought to check out at least once, if you get a chance.

You can buy Cafe Gratitude cookbooks, either the regular or strictly desserts, and make your own raw gratitudinous food. It will still take a couple of days to not-cook most items but you'll save a lot of green (as in money) by doing so. (I am mostly of the notion that eating salad as raw food is about all the non-cooking that I care to do.)

Last time I ate at Cafe Gratitude, I met my friends Erica and Scott Lindstrom-Dake for lunch. I actually was meeting Erica but she invited Scott which was just fine. I like both of them. They are wonderful people and have the most marvelous (and maybe only) tasting lounge in Healdsburg. You can check it out http://www.thumbprintcellars.com/lounge/ online or in person if you find yourself in Healdsburg.

Did I tell you that they sell my book The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment at the lounge? I feel honored as they sell only a small assortment of items other than their own cute as can be Thumbprint items. Oh, and did I mention that their wines are wonderful? Their viognier won a Gold Medal at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair. And I must admit that I've had my fair share of their dry rose. But I am a bit of a rose nut. (That is not rose but I can't figure out how to get that accent mark in there.)

If you want to take a trip to Healdsburg, feel free to email me at jill@theveggiequeen.com and I will give you some other great tips for where to go. I hope that you have as much fun there as I did and do.

The Veggie Queen Comes Out of the Woods

Back to civilization today and the "real" world where I had to drive, shop and interact with people outside of camp. The good news is that there was a new farmer at the market in Sebastopol. The farm is called Three Ox Farm. Nice looking stuff. The woman of the couple, Bernadette, introduced herself and said that she met me years ago. That's easy to believe. The odd thing though was the prices that were listed ended in 99 cents which is what you generally see at the store, not at the farmer's market. Also, the price for kohlrabi was way too high. If I wasn't using it for show and tell later in the week, I wouldn't have bought it as $2 for a small one is beyond the acceptable price point for me.

They did have a specialty garlic called Music which once inspired a Greek moussaka take-off for me that I called Musica. I bought two heads and those were only $5 per pound, or something like that. I try not to pay too much attention to the prices and just buy what looks yummy but occasionally the price gets in the way.

I had a good time at camp, even though I worked in the kitchen 2 1/2 days out of 6. I still managed to get down time and do some crafts and reading. I planned to write more than I did, which was not much at all.

The best part of being away was the dark and quiet, and my little screened-in cabin by the creek. When I awoke during the night, I could hear the creek burbling and it was wonderful for lulling me back to sleep.

Now it will be back to work for me. I guess that I've already done that, shopping for classes this week. It's getting to be the time of year when everything exists locally -- eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, summer squash, tomatillos, snow peas and more. Gotta go cook now that I've made myself hungry.

You can find The Veggie Queen's cookbook The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment on her website at http://www.theveggiequeen.com.

Sign up for Jill's newsletter there, too.

Registered Dietitian Jill Nussinow blogs about pressure cooking at http://pressurecooking.blogspot.com.

Vegetarian Adventure Travel

I think that anytime you travel, it's likely to be an adventure -- there's always the possibility for something to happen. And this week with all the American Airlines flight cancellations, there are probably more adventures than usual.


It didn't affect me in my travels but I've had other things. I arrived at the airport for a 6 a.m. flight at 5:28 and they closed the baggage check-in. Granted the airport has 1 ticket counter and only 1 flight at that time but I had the issue of liquids in my bag. Luckily the guy behind me said that he'd carry my extra bag through security.


Then it turned out that he didn't have his correct boarding pass so he had to get out of line, with my liquids, in hand and get the pass. I knew he'd come back because his wife had already gone through and they were on their way to Oaxaca, Mexico. And he did return.


Other than two women sitting behind me drinking beer at 6 in the morning and talking and laughing raucously, the flight was uneventful. And that's a good thing.


And most of my day went the same way until I realized that I couldn't sleep in the afternoon although I needed a nap. (It didn't feel that way as my head bobbed during a dietitian's talk with the lights dimmed.) So I went for a walk.


As I headed out the door so did a tall man. We walked together and he introduced himself as Keith but with an awfully strong Aussie accent. He said that he was going to go for a walk, and I said that I was, too. So we walked down Century Blvd. in Los Angeles. Ugly area right near a strip club and nondescript fast food joints and office buildings. This was his only time in LA. Ugh.


I told him that he needed to get a cab and go to the beach-- Marina del Rey, Venice or Santa Monica. Keith was in LA just overnight because his American Airlines flight had been cancelled. He is in the Australian military and on his way to Virginia.


We had a good chat and he explained the economic state of affairs in Australia. We talked about fast food, and there's plenty there, along with kids who aren't so active. So be on the lookout for obesity in Australia.


At the very first light we came to Keith was confused about whether or not he could cross the street. It was green our way, so I said that it was fine. As I stepped into the street, a young man driving a BMW, busy on his cell phone, almost hit me -- as close a call as I've ever had. But we kept on walking, and I guess being tired made the incident not so big for me.


Keith asked if I'd like to take he and his buddies on a taxi tour of LA. And believe me, I wanted to but I am going out to eat at House of Vege in Lomita for dinner with others who want to eat vegetarian. If I hadn't helped set up the dinner, I would have gone with Keith and his friends -- as a friendly American thing to do. I am sure that he understood.


As for the vegetarian adventure travel -- anytime I go, it's an adventure but I am actually taking a small group to Umbria, Italy in September. If you'd like to check it out, take a look at http://www,bluone.com/. You can bet that it will truly be an adventure, because I know that every trip is.

The Veggie Queen on the Subway

I am no stranger to New York City (Manhattan) as I grew up in New York, on Long Island. "The City" as we called it, was a big part of my teen years. I missed some school because the lure of it and riding the train was too strong, and classes were too boring to waste my time. As I was mostly an A student, I figured that I'd learn more from the adventure of NY than I would in a classroom.

One thing that I didn't do much of was ride the subway. It was pretty grimy then and you never knew what danger lurked. Besides, I love to walk so I did that as much as possible. Also, the subway can be very confusing to figure out, so why bother?

Well, on my most recent trip to "The City", I was instructed by my friend Fran to take the express train out of Penn Station. It was only 2 stops to go meet her. That was very easy. Buying the ticket to get on the subway proved to be a bit more difficult.

I learned that a one pass card is only good for 2 hours. So when I returned to the subway after meeting with Fran, with my pass in hand, it had expired. Then I tried to buy another pass (while I was in a hurry) and the machine didn't work. So I asked the woman in the glassed-in booth about it and she sent me to a different machine. I bought the pass and it didn't work. So that very nice woman let me through a special gate that was being blocked by a homeless guy's stuff. He got angry and called me names as I rushed to get on the subway.

In my haste, I forgot to notice if I was getting on the express train. And I did not. So, a number of stops later I arrived at Penn Station, a bit anxious, only to find out that I had to exit the station and go across the street and back in to catch my train to Long Island.

It was all an adventure, and I must admit that it was not nearly as much fun as it was when I was a teenager. But then again, the only way to pay at that time was with money or tokens. Now you need to "dip your card" which is a strange way of saying, "swipe your card". But maybe in New York, swipe is not a nice thing to say. In California, it's just fine. And we don't have a subway, so it seems that I am safe.