Entry Mainly to Share a Seitan Recipe

A few friends came over to my house for a potluck on Sunday.  I committed to making a ton of food, despite also committing to attend the Positive Force Book Club.  In the morning, I multi-tasked, peeling and chopping potatoes while watching "House of Cards."  (Good show.)  I got to the book club ten minutes late.  There, we all agreed that people have other motivations beyond financial gain.  Then, I sped home.

I made chicken-style seitan the day before to use in Vegan Chicken Marsala.  I also made shepherd's pie using a recipe from "Moosewood Restaurant's Low-Fat Favorites."

Chicken Seitan:
Dough
       * 1 cup Vital Wheat Gluten
       * 1 cup Imagine "No-Chicken" Broth
       * 1 1/2 Tbsp Soy or Almond Cream
Broth
       * 1 carton Imagine "No-Chicken" Broth
       * 1 cup Soy or Almond Cream
       * 6 ounces of mushrooms (shiitake and white button)
       * 1 2/3 tsp Onion Powder
       * 1 tsp Garlic Powder
       * 2 Bay Leaves
       * 1/2 tsp Cayenne
       *  Pinch of pepper        

Combine the broth ingredients in a large pot and place on the stove.  While the broth is heating up, combine the dough ingredients.  Knead.  Form the mixture into a ball and squeeze out the excess liquid.  Flatten the ball on a cutting board and cut into 6 pieces.  Drop each piece into the pot of boiling broth.  Simmer for an hour.  RESERVE THE COOKING LIQUID.  After letting the broth and the chicken cutlets cool, it's great idea to return the cutlets to the broth until you fry them up.

My knife was flying as I chopped vegetables for the shepherd's pie and the Seitan Marsala after book club.  I bought a ton of portobella mushrooms, which I used in the gravy for the pie and the sauce for the chicken.
Everything came together, though.  

Throughout the day, an evolving number of people planned to attend.  Up and down.   Everything came together, though.  Highlights, in my opinion.  My friend Gray made an incredible glass noodle dish with an assortment of toppings.  My friend Jill made a perfect cabbage salad.  My friend Marike made an authentic semolina cake, which she iced with a nougat topping that she got from Germany.  My friend Laura made incredible spring rolls.  Pat's almond-milk lattes were so popular that he basically served as an ad in the kitchen for a Nespresso Aeroccino Frother.  So many dishes, only so much room in my stomach... 

Brunch and Stephen King

My friend Laura moved to DC from North Carolina in October.  Some of her friends came to visit her this last weekend and, so that they could meet her DC friends, she hosted a vegan brunch.  Tofu scramble, roasted veggies, muffins and cinnamon rolls from Sticky Fingers, lemon-blueberry muffins made by Fran, two kinds of empanadas made by Frank (using his grandfather's recipe for the dough), chocolate brownies with walnuts made by me and an untouched bag of hot chocolate brought by me...  (I offered to make the hot chocolate, but couldn't even convince a single person to mix the hot chocolate into their coffee. The cocoa powder just sat in the bag, unappreciated and neglected.)
Anyway, I saw a post today about how Bill Murray performs acts of random friendliness.  He apparently has crashed parties before in order to clean the dirty dishes.  He joins into fun activities with people he doesn't know.  He's so recognizable...  People love him.  I brought up another mysterious, recognizable guy during brunch yesterday: Stephen King.  Unlike with Bill Murray, I bet an average person would be spooked if Stephen King appeared in their house and headed toward a stack of dirty dishes in their kitchen.  I'm listening to the audio book "Doctor Sleep," which is a sequel to "The Shining."  So, the first shock of the book is that almost 40 years after the original, the sequel is published.  King has written something like 55 books.  And most of them are lengthy.   Still, what did happen to Danny Torrance?  Why not follow up on him as he becomes a middle-aged man?  Who didn't feel sorry for that little boy being stalked by ghosts and almost killed by his drunken dad?   "The Shining" is packed with crescendos and gruesome images that are guaranteed to haunt your dreams.   Meanwhile, "Doctor Sleep" is more laid back, offering an adagio tempo of little incident building upon little incident.

Danny Torrance tries to forget the trauma of the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel by drinking alcohol, which blurs his identity, talents, and passion.  He recovers and joins AA.  He's left with the frailties of an addict and the power of a psychic.  He was mentored as a child and now he's trying to mentor a young girl.  Ghosts wanted to use him as a child; now, some e.s.p.-sucking, soul-draining creatures want to use the young girl.  Danny and the girl aren't in direct contact, though, for the majority of the book.  The plot drifts just like a book review that provides an overview of potluck contributions and Bill Murray rumors instead of just sticking to impressions of a book.  "Doctor Sleep" reminds the reader of chilling moments from "The Shining," literally:  “The Overlook was still not done with him. Written on the mirror, not in lipstick but in blood, was a single word:  REDRUM.”   The villains in "Doctor Sleep" seem too petty, too average, and too weak.  Still, I liked the nostalgia to a certain extent and King is good at writing about psychics and power-hungry, supernatural conspirators.  I've always like Danny Torrance.
The color is off in this brunch picture, but it's the only one that I took.