A couple of months ago, we received an invitation to two industry events on the same evening.
One was for the Lightlife brand of vegan “meat” products. The other was to the opening of celebrity chef Todd English’s new restaurant.
We made plans to stop by and taste Lightlife, a product line we’d never tried, and then head to Todd English’s restaurant. Here’s how the evening turned out:
We liked the Lightlife foods so much, we stayed the entire evening, happily tasting everything. We never made it to the restaurant. Could there be a better endorsement of how good the Lightlife “vegan meat” products are?
We are neither vegetarian nor vegan. We eat everything that’s delicious, and nothing that isn’t.
Eating more vegan foods (products without any animal-based ingredients) supports our personal commitment to eating more sustainably. As much a we love meat, cheese and dairy foods, producing them takes a big toll on the planet.
Lightlife’s vegan Chick’n Corn Chowder is enhanced with “bacon.” Both meats are made from tempeh, a soy-based protein, and are delicious. Photo courtesy Lightlife Foods.
“Supermarket” honey is blended to achieve a generic sameness. This very distinctive black sage honey is from Savannah Bee Company.
If you like honey as a sweetener, have you ventured beyond “generic” supermarket honey to fine varietal honeys?
As with wine, it’s the difference between a bland jug wine and a varietal wine, which has the distinctly delightful characteristics of its particular grape.
And as with wine, different honeys pair better with certain foods. See this comparison of nine top varietal honeys and the foods they complement.
There are many different kinds of honey—300 varietals in the U.S. alone. While some people might make it a life’s work to try all of them, start small. In fact, start with the pairings we’ve just mentioned.
Cake lovers can be despondent if the doctor advises them to lay off the refined sugar.
But thanks to Pillsbury, there’s no reason to go without delicious cakes and brownies.
Delivering all of the flavor without the sugar, Pillsbury Sugar Free brownies, cakes and frostings can delight anyone. The treats include:
Brownies in Chocolate Fudge and Milk Chocolate
Cakes in Classic Yellow and Devil’s Food
Frosting in Chocolate Fudge and Vanilla
We tried everything. Actually, we did more than “try”: We consumed every last crumb.
The products taste like they’re made with sugar—but, surprise—they’re sweetened with Splenda (sucralose) and sugar alcohols (isomalt, maltitol and sorbitol).
Even if you can’t have sugar, you can have a delicious brownie or piece of cake. Photo courtesy Pillsbury.
These are not low-calorie or low-carb foods. Cake still has flour and fat; a serving of frosting, which is 100 calories, comprises 60 calories of fat. A brownie has 150 calories, 70 from fat. But everything is cholesterol-free.
As a surprise, bake a batch for a friend on a sugar-free diet. Just resist the temptation to devour it yourself.
It doesn’t take much to make something plain look special. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.
You know that great gift wrap makes a gift more exciting. It’s the same with food, but the “wrapping” is the dish and the garnish. The finest restaurants match the plate to the food being served.
Buy dinner plates in solid colors or versatile patterns and find smaller plates in rectangular and square shapes for first courses and desserts. (We look for closeouts.)
Find an artistic garnish for each plate—a few strands of chive, a squash blossom, even a bright red chili pepper (with an announcement that it’s just there for design).
If you’re artistic, there are books on vegetable garniture where you can indulge your talent for carving to create edible masterpieces for each plate:
If you tried the caramelized onions in the recipe below, you may already be hooked.
If you want to make large quantities of caramelized onions, you can use a slow cooker. It spares you from having to constantly stir the onions. However, the onions don’t get browned as they do in a skillet. You can try browning them in a hot skillet before serving.
Watch how in this video, which combines the caramelized onions with mashed potatoes (so delicious!). While the video doesn’t add salt or pepper to the slow cooker, add some; then taste and adjust the seasonings at the end of cooking.
