I have a very tasty recipe for noodle kugel, one of my favorite dishes around this time of year. It’s full of carbs and fat and sugar, which is why I only make it as a seasonal dish, because eating it year-round would be deadly. Today I made some for a holiday potluck party.

The recipe I use calls for cream cheese, eggs, and milk. It specifies full-fat cream cheese, but says that any kind of milk may be used, even soy milk. We didn’t have enough dairy milk on hand for the whole thing, but I did have a package of Vitasoy Holly Nog soy milk. Though it may seem a bit odd to mix soy milk and eggs and dairy — and egg nog-flavored soy milk at that — it really worked. In fact, it might have been the best noodle kugel yet!

I brought it to the party tonight and many people enjoyed it heartily. My favorite comment: “It’s Jewish Christmas on a plate!” I just might make it this way every time.

Attention veg*ns and veg-friendly folks: the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival is two days this year instead of one!

Saturday, October 31, 2009, 10 AM - 6 PM
Sunday, November 1, 2009, 10 AM - 4 PM

As ever, it’s held in the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center at 1350 Tremont Street in Boston.

Bring your reusable shopping bags, some money, and your appetite for free samples!

I was in Porter Square Books yesterday; I never buy anything, but I like to pretend I might. I was looking at Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious, which had made it to the discount section. Most of the recipes seemed to be ‘puree something that’s close in colour and blend it in; using pureed carrots as the moistener in meatballs, for example, one that kept on my mind was her original ‘recipe’, a couple spoonfuls of butternut squash in some macaroni and cheese. It just stuck in my brain, so I decided to try something similar.

I am not a child, and I am actually very fond of roasted squash, so in this case, I wasn’t trying her method (which was, basically, to mix in very small amounts of squash so that kids wouldn’t taste it. I went all out; the mac and cheese sauce started with a dark roux (non-traditional, but I really like the nuttiness that it brings over a light roux). I made it with bread flour instead of regular flour, and it was great; the finer texture made it much smoother much faster. Then I melted half a block of cream cheese into it, and added maybe half a cup of roasted, pureed acorn squash (butternut squash, while delicious, and technically cheaper than acorn, all weighed at least 4lbs, while the acorn was under 1lb. I like squash, certainly. But I’d be eating it for 4 days if I’d gone for that).

That got whisked until smooth (I added a small bit of pasta water when it seemed it needed it), and then I added about a cup of sharp cheddar, and a few sprinkles of ground cayenne (my paprika is missing).

I reflect that when I was a child, I thought that recipes were astonishing, and I remember, being 9 or 10, and thinking to myself that I hoped when I grew up, I’d be able to write just one recipe. I didn’t even think of the idea of making more than that - recipes were obviously *hard*, and I just wanted to create *one*. Now that I can create recipes, including pastries and such, from my head, I never measure anything. It’s *awful*. People ask me for my recipes for things, and I haven’t the foggiest (I can’t give you the recipe for my baitcon frozen custard- it all just got made up on the fly). I’m also terrible at how I measure; the only reason I know the cheddar amount is because I put it into a 2 cup measuring cup while it was waiting. I shredded it ‘until I have about a fist sized lump.

This is totally useless as a measurement to anyone who doesn’t have access to my fist at time of shredding.

anyway, it was AMAZINGLY good. Probably the best mac and cheese I’ve made. Eben had a bowl and said it was quite good, so I’m definitely going to do it again.

I always do two rounds of menu-checking when Restaurant Week comes around, first to see what has vegetarian options for the first two courses, and second to see what actually looks imaginative. This time around I opted for Aquitaine and Harvest, as I’d never seen either offer both vegetarian appetizer and main dish options (as far as I’ve noticed), and both looked worth trying.

Our first excursion was to Aquitaine:

• South End Manhattan (Jim Beam Black, quince & tangerine, cardamon, vanilla bean, egg white)
• A glass of some kind of organic sauvignon blanc (label and vintage sadly forgotten)
• Roasted tomato bisque en croute with herbed chevre and extra virgin olive oil
• Tagliatelle with mushrooms, baby spinach, shallot, thyme, and madeira cream
• Spiced rum, banana, and brioche bread pudding with dark rum caramel

Our table was not quite ready upon our arrival, so Santiago bought me a cocktail, the South End Manhattan. This was amazing, with the fruit juices and spices enhancing the fruitiness of the bourbon. I’d been skeptical of egg whites in cocktails, too, but the vigorous shaking built up a nice, frothy body. I’ll order that one again for sure. Maybe I’ll even try replicating it at home.

My meal was not necessarily adventurous, but it was classically well-prepared and delicious. I very much enjoyed the rich, fresh flavor of the roasted tomatoes — to think that I was once afraid of tomato soup! — and the earthy mushrooms paired with the slightly sweet madeira cream sauce. The real standout for something interesting and different was the dessert, though. My two dinner companions ordered the other two dessert options between them, but the dense, moist banana brioche pudding with deep, rummy caramel sauce definitely made my tongue happiest.

The savory courses at Harvest were a little more unusual (I got the half-glass wine pairing, too):

• Market green panzanella, mozzarella di bufala, crispy artichokes, and aged balsamic vinegar (wine pairing: Burgáns, Albariño, Rias Baixas, Spain 2007)
• Forbidden black rice tart with baby carrots, baby turnips, bok choy and hen of the woods mushrooms (wine pairing: First Drop Wines, First Love, Shiraz Blend, South Eastern Australia 2006)
• Roasted apple pain de gênes with vanilla ice cream, apple compote, and apple chip (wine pairing: the online menu I just found listed it as La Face Cachée de la Pomme, Neige, Apple Ice Wine, Québec, Canada 2006, but was actually a semi-sweet Riesling on the day I went there)

The market green panzanella was quite good (I especially enjoyed the tangy-sweet balsamic vinegar dressing it). However, my favorite part of the meal was the forbidden black rice tart, garnished with a bit of slightly spicy, slightly cuminy oil; I found this dish lovely and savory and a little different from the other offerings I’d seen for this season. The apple pain de gênes was not as fabulous a dessert as the banana brioche pudding — it seemed a bit like a moister, glorified muffin — but the accompanying apple compote was rich and sweet, and the paper-thin, freeze-dried apple chip garnish fairly burst with apple flavor.

Forbidden black rice tart

Apple pain de gênes

All in all, a great experience this time around. I just wish I could have afforded to try another one or two new restaurants. Next time I may want to try T.W. Food, Clink, Asana, and/or Rocca.

Anyone who’s attended the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival in recent years knows how Insanely! Crowded! it gets, often to the point of barely being able to move around the room. It’s not for the agoraphobic or faint of heart. The overcrowding had gotten so severe that some people had recommended either moving to a different venue or charging admission, each of which presented some serious issues.

Well, I just received some excellent news in email. This year the BVFF is going to be TWO days instead of just one! So, not only will there be twice the opportunity to check out this great festival, but the whole thing remains completely free to attend.

Good on ya, BVFF! Looking forward to showing up later this year…with my omnivorous husband, who has come to enjoy it as much as I do.