Braving a cold winter's night with soup + classy impromptu salad dressing #2

Last Christmas day my family and I trekked over to Lake Tahoe for our first time to experience snow (!!!!). My dad rented a cabin "that could comfortably fit 10-12 people" but in reality could've fit 20. Seriously, there are residential cabins out there that could house 20 people. Anyway all ten of us plus my three cousins made the trip at around 4pm on December 25 and arrived there at around 9:30. It was EXTREMELY cold but we enjoyed every moment of it, especially because we got to snowboard!

What we did NOT enjoy was our first night. So arriving at the driveway we had to shovel the snow off the garage door. Then we entered a 49 degree F / 9 degree C (if I can recall correctly) house, tired, hungry, cold, and cranky. The heater was broken. We literally could see the fog coming out of our mouths when we breathed. We had to wear our winter clothes inside the house.

My mom cooking in her parka. Nice.

While some of the boys tried to figure out the heater issue my mom and I decided to cook some dinner. We didn't have much supplies... To be frank I wasn't in the mood to open a can of beans and chop onions. Everyone was cold and the only thing that could've helped us was soup. We didn't have any soup supplies except for...

Excuse the ugliness and the extremely not vegan taxedermied snake in the background. The snake came with the house.

Behold the V8 vegetable juice. We bought this because my American cousins don't eat enough vegetables (sorry guys, potatoes aren't really vegetables) and American restaurants don't serve 'em. During my stay in the US I drank this everyday so I could get a dose of veggies and vitamins. Anyway we ended up making fake soup: V8 juice gently simmered with Italian spices, chili pepper, salt and pepper. I think I may have added powdered garlic (too cold to peel and chop fresh). All the spices were found in the kitchen cupboard.









Too simple to make, it shouldn't even be blog-worthy. But it had a cold-winter's-night story so I thought I'd share. Moral of the story: always make sure you have V8 juice on you in case you're stranded in a freezing cabin.

We brought some Boy Bawang (extremely garlicky deep fried corn kernels) from home which made an excellent crouton-like topping. Yum with the ever dependable white rice.

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The next night after a full day of snowboarding I had to make salad dressing. We were in the middle of winter and all my mom got for veggies were salad greens. With no dressing.

Something good always comes out of a salad dressing dilemma, I always say.

This time the only acid on hand was bottled orange juice and the sweetener, strawberry jam. Orange juice isn't as tart as kalamansi juice so we had to add a good dose of salt. It was a good "gourmet-tasting" dressing.

Strawberry Citrus Salad Dressing
1/4 cup orange juice
1 heaping tablespoon of strawberry jam
1-2 cloves of garlic, grated
1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil, to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Add the juice, jam, and garlic in a small bowl and whisk together -- try to break up the clumps of strawberry with the whisk. Slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking the whole mixture together. Add salt and pepper to taste. If still too sweet, add more oil or splashes of water.

Me making the dressing with Pop, my oil pourer. I had to keep on wearing a beanie to hide my Medusa hat hair.

Hmmm I think this is my last Christmas entry! Finally. Now I can get on with more current stuff.

Bro #6 enjoying the sun and cool air on our way back to the Bay area.

Oishi: the brand you love to hate. You know the world is screwed...: Vegan MoFo #10

... when junk food companies such as Oishi start diversifying into breakfast cereals!!!

(stolen pictures from oishi.com.ph)

Cereously --- I mean seriously folks. Who buys these guys? Why do corporations have to take. over. everything? Why can't junk food companies stick to what they do best -- that is, MSG, hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, white flour laden crap (I hesitate to use the word food as these do not provide sustenance whatsoever) that we all love and know as junk? Why confuse the consumer with this cereal hullaballoo? Is it junk? is it cereal? Well, it's cereal but in a junk food-like foil bag, not in those cereal boxes. Hmmm, must be both, because it's made by Oishi.

Oh yeah, way to go with creativity, guys. Fruity loops? Choco flakes? Kellogg and Nestle should be banging on your door any minute now...

One small step for man to grow obese, one giant leap for the end of mankind.

By the way, I saw these Godforsaken packages at Robinsons Pioneer Supermarket yesterday, and I literally wanted to gag. I'd've taken a photo myself but feared the Oishi police. I think it's against the rules to take photos on supermarket premises. Fear of Shopwise sending spies to steal shelving ideas, or something.

(stolen from their website too)

I know I just ranted about Oishi, but I have to admit I do like their Pods junk food. They market it as "vegetarian", it's msg-free and artificial-color free. I know it's junk, but it has fiber AND protein. The stuff is made from peas and is pretty darn tasty. I've been known to stuff free samples in my bag like a mad woman (just last Friday, in fact, after the Rice&Oats fiasco). I've had 3 small bags for dinner too -- I shared with a friend, and I know that it's bad to eat junk for dinner, but there wasn't anything that was decent and vegan. I had it once for breakfast as well... Sheesh, no wonder I've lost my perfect glowing skin. Gotta stop eating junk!

Finding out something wasn't vegan the hard way: Vegan MoFo #8 1/2

(photo stolen from the Rice&Oats website)

I'm not counting this as Vegan MoFo#9 only because it's a rant about food.

So I watched West Side Story at the Meralco Theater (loved it, in case you were wondering; Joanna Ampil is an awesome actor and singer) a few hours ago. During intermission out in the lobby, a bunch of concessionaires was selling food and giving out free samples. One of them was Rice&Oats, a "junk food" company that sells rice crackers in two flavors: lightly sugared cinnamon and veggie asparagus (I know, they need someone to come up with better names!). I've tried the cinnamon and it's not so bad. It's cinnamon Rice&Oats, Holy Kettle Corn, and Oishi's Pods that are the only "healthful" junk food that vegans here can eat that are not potato chips.

But wait! So the other flavor is called "veggie asparagus". For one thing, it sounds totally lame. As a vegan I wouldn't want my junk food to have the word "veggie" on it, unless it's a little note saying it's suitable for vegetarians. For another, I wasn't really thinking that it wouldn't be vegetarian since its name was, "veggie asparagus". After I popped the free sample in my mouth, I picked up the display box and, HORROR OF HORRORS. It had chicken flavor. WTF??! I know, it was stupid of me not to check the ingredients. It was 9pm and I didn't have any dinner. I knew that the next time I'd eat would be midnight-ish, and my grumbling stomach made me forget to check. I felt sick to my stomach after eating that shit.

Seriously folks. Why the hell would you name the flavor "veggie asparagus" when you put chicken flavor???! Might as well call it chicken for crying out loud! I know salt and vinegar chips have milk ingredients even though salt and vinegar's supposed to be salt and vinegar. But why veggie asparagus!?!! Why do bad things happen to good people?

What a disappointment. I think I heard myself chastising the promo girl. She didn't even know it had chicken in it. And I proudly told her I was vegetarian and that I was offended by the product she was selling.

Rice&Oats, if you read this, please seriously rethink the name of your snack. It's very misleading. It would be nice if you added a box saying, "not suitable for vegetarians and vegans". Or, make your veggie asparagus snack vegan. Since you're trying to sell healthy guiltless snacks, why not make it cruelty-free? Cruelty-free = guiltless. Sheesh.