Asian Broccoli Noodles and Smothered Tofu

I'd mentioned in a previous post that I found some good-looking recipes on vegweb. The last two evenings, I've used recipes that I found there. Tuesday evening, I made smothered tofu with mashed potatoes. I was impressed. It was very good. I did make a few slight changes, though. Instead of frying the tofu, I baked it. Just 'cause it's easier. After pressing it for an hour and slicing it, I baked it in a little peanut oil and shoyu for 40 minutes at 350 degrees, turning it after 20 minutes. For the sauce, I subbed shoyu for half of the balsamic vinegar. I also doubled the entire sauce recipe because I wanted to have plenty to go over the potatoes. When the sauce was thickened to the consistency I wanted, I added the baked tofu and let it barely simmer for about 15 minutes. It was so good, I can't believe that anyone would ever want a meat-based gravy after eating this.

Tonight I went with Asian broccoli noodles. It's a really easy recipe, and comes together really fast. For the noodles, I used a whole-wheat blend thin spaghetti. I followed the recipe exactly, and the noodles were very tasty. I think I like my tahini noodles better, though. I had some carrots and shallots in the fridge, and they weren't going to make it much longer. I decided to chop them up and roast them. I tossed them in a little canola oil and sprinkled with kosher salt. I roasted them at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. I took them out, and drizzled with some balsamic vinegar and a good sprinkling of black pepper. I put them back in for about 3 more minutes. When they were finished, the balsamic was nice and glazy. They were so good I couldn't even believe it! It's always nice when you just wing it with something like that and it turns out to be amazing. I love it.



While I was in the kitchen today, I listened to one of my recent faves--Beirut's The Flying Club Cup. After that, I played Weezer's Blue Album. I enjoyed it so much that I played one more time. I almost never listen to an album twice in a row, but I think I realized just how much I love that one.

Yesterday, Sleek sent me a link to a really cool article about Jeff Magnum. I know I've mentioned a band called Neutral Milk Hotel (Please click on the previous link and listen to Holland 1945. It's one of my absolute favorite songs ever.) here before, and their album The Aeroplane Over the Sea. It is one of my all-time favorites. It is truly amazing. Anyway, they kind of just did that album, and then disappeared. The article talks about how Anne Frank was the inspiration for the album. Sleek and I knew that Anne Frank was definitely a theme in that album, but I had never heard Jeff Magnum talk about how that all came about. That was very interesting to me since that album is one of the reasons my daughter is named Annelies. Most people don't know that "Annelies" was Anne Frank's name. We wouldn't have either, but we bought a biography when we visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. (Just two months before I got pregnant with her!) We saw the name "Annelies" in that book, and we knew that our little girl (Sleek knew we were having a girl from the moment of conception.) would be Annelies.