Roasted Yellow Cauliflower, Buttercup Squash

Happy New Year! May 2008 be a good year for all, with more positives than negatives.

My wife has been asking about cauliflower, a vegetable I haven't cooked much with. Today, I picked up a head of a neat yellow variety (Brassica x oleracea L. 'Cheddar' ?) and made a simple dish that came out, we both felt, excellent. I simply cut off most of the florets, reserving a very few for eating raw in the coming days. I tossed with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, a little salt, and one medium red Italian cipollini onion, then spread the cauliflower into a single layer on a baking sheet and baked in a preheated 375°F oven for just over a half hour. I had put a teaspoon and a half or so of cumin seeds in a dry pan and quickly heated, for about a minute and a half while frequently tossing, the seeds over medium heat; I mixed them in to the finished cauliflower. The dish turned out amazingly flavorful and pleasingly soft.

I also baked an organic buttercup squash for about 40 minutes. Not shown, we also had a little lemon-rosemary sourdough bread with hummus. It was a good dinner!

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As I had guessed in my last post on Friday the 28th, I didn't prepare any further dinners till tonight. On the 29th, I helped a fellow photographer with several photo sessions of his clients and my wife helped with child care for their adorable 5-year-old. They all kindly made a nice dinner for us of a variety of items, including shredded squash with oil, vinegar, and seasonings I believe; raw vegetables; grilled vegetables; two kinds of rice; and more.

My wife arranged a nice surprise for my birthday at a nice nearby Indian restaurant, Sitar. They had nice dosas, cut into quarters or so, as well as idlis, sambar, and pakoras. Then they brought out rice and two vegetable dishes for main courses, as well as a semolina dessert and vegan chocolate cake from Weaver Street Market. So that my parents could also enjoy, all the food was not only vegan, but also free of onion or garlic - and tasted great!

Yesterday, we enjoyed very nice pizza kindly donated by Lilly's Pizza to the vegetarian society for our New Year's Eve party. The pizza was good, and I especially liked the cheddar VeganRella on a few pizzas; we had six large 16" pizza pies, most with VeganRella Mozzarella style vegan cheese, and cut into 16 slices each to encourage sampling. Here are the pizzas that we enjoyed:

• artichoke hearts, basil, pine nuts, and tomato slices [half no cheese]
• eggplant, sundried tomatoes, red bell peppers, and pistachio nuts
• the Buddha with oil, garlic, spinach, zucchini, and olives [no cheese]
• the Queen of Hearts with porcini mushroom oil, organic button mushrooms, artichoke hearts, yellow onion, and pine nuts
• onions, banana peppers, green olives, and red pepper [cheddar VeganRella]
• plain [cheddar VeganRella]

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It amazes me how little publicity plant-based diets get for being probably the best way to go for the environment and our health, nevermind treatment of animals. After dinner, I got a chance to see the newly released 1-hour documentary DVD that the Jewish Vegetarians of North America have released called A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values To Help Heal The World (you can request your own free copy). It is a well-made film with many environmental and Judaic experts interviewed. We already have scheduled for later this year a Triangle vegetarian society event on Judaism and vegetarianism; I will see if I, possibly with help from Jewish members of the group, can help get the word out and make this a resource available to area Jewish synagogues.