Vegetarian to Vegan

At the ripe old age of 11, I came to the realization that I could no longer eat animals. I simply could not, and would not do it any more. My poor Nonna (Italian grandmother) thought I'd truly lost my mind. She was the same woman who raised rabbits “for eat” in her back yard, and she kept egg-laying hens. Her homemade pasta, ravioli, frittata... it was all such amazing, utterly perfect food. My dear Nonna was the best cook on earth! I enjoyed every single morsel of the food she prepared.
In 1977, my grandfather Pietro died and Nonna became a widow. It was also during this time that my mother went back to school to finish her nursing degree. Nonna lived alone and needed the company. I wasn't yet 4 yrs. old and I needed someone to look after me while my mom was at school. We were a match made in heaven, and Nonna and I became inseparable. Like all Italian grandmothers, Nonna loved feeding me. There was sweet caffe latte or hot chocolate in the morning (made with whole cow's milk.) There was fresh egg pasta or breaded veal cutlets for lunch (with plenty of fresh buttered vegetables and a garden salad on the side), and during the Summer months, Nonna might even help me chase down the ice cream truck for ice cream sandwiches! We always had such fun together.

Polenta for dinner would have been delicious on its own, but it was always layered with cheese and meat sauce, and it was topped with sausages. Nonna's food was prepared with such love, but in retrospect I realize that many of the very foods my family enjoyed were setting us up for a lifetime of obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. (In my immediate family alone, we've suffered from every single one of these diseases.) 
Just like everyone else I knew, we sometimes supplemented our Italian-American diet with fast food and convenience foods. And every holiday or family gathering was an occasion for either a BBQ, or a roast of some kind. Cake and ice cream always followed dinner.

As you can imagine, when I stopped eating animals my Nonna initially freaked. 
I can still hear her asking me: “You crazy, o what? Why you wanna do dis kinda ting?” 
Her attitude soon shifted though, as it was most important to her that she be able to continue to feed me. Meatless sauces were made “speciale” for me, and there were lots of additional vegetable dishes on the table. The veggies were delicious (and they were often cooked in butter and olive oil and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.) I consumed countless frittatas that were incredibly delicious. She would prepare them, telling us “Cheese iza di main ting” while grating cups of fresh parmesan into the eggs. Everything she prepared for me was vegetarian. My special food contained no meat, but it was often full of dairy products, and I happily consumed them. 

I was a vegetarian and I thought I was healthy. And by avoiding meat, I was helping animals, right? 
I didn't want to have a heart attack in my early 40's, like my dad. 
I didn't want to develop Type II diabetes, in my 30's, like my mom. 
I didn't want to have my breast bone sawed in half for a bypass surgery, like my maternal grandfather (and later, my own father.) 
I wanted to be different!

How healthy was I as a vegetarian?

I was in the 5th grade. I began menstruating a month before my 11th birthday. I was overweight from about age 4, when I began spending more and more time with my sweet Nonna. By age 11 and a half  and standing a bit more than 5 ft. tall I weighed 120 lbs. I was “a big girl”. I was proudly the tallest girl in the class, but I was way too chubby. Throughout my entire childhood, I was told that I was too fat. My pediatrician put me on the airline stewardess diet. He told me to “Lose it!” as he swatted my rear end with my chart. That didn't work. When I was 13, the doctor suggested I join Weight Watchers, which didn't help much either. At age 14 when I graduated from the 8th grade I weighed 160 lbs.! A boy in my class told me that I was built like a line-backer, and I was crushed. (He was right.) 

High school only made things worse for my health, as I now had a steady income from babysitting. I could afford all the grilled cheese sandwiches, veggie burgers with cheese, french fries, pizza, frozen yogurt and soda I could consume. I graduated from college at age 21 and at 5' 2” I weighed more than 190 lbs.! My highest weight, in my early 30's, was approximately 210 lbs.! (My top weight may very well have been more than that, but I didn't own a scale. Not stepping on a scale helped me to successfully keep my mind on other things. At the doctor's office, I'd simply step on the scale backwards so I wouldn't see the numbers, or I would firmly refuse to be weighed. They couldn't force me to stand on that scale!)

Yes, I was a vegetarian. Yes, I exercised regularly. And yes, I was obese and I was in serious denial. 

I had back problems, hip problems, sore feet and acne. I avoided visits to the doctor's office. I refused to have blood tests performed, using my needle phobia as an excuse to avoid having a lipid panel ordered. I had a bad feeling about the numbers... 
I wore oversized clothing. If I gained a few pounds, my clothing wouldn't be tight at all. I had it all figured out! Avoidance served me quite well, to the detriment of my overall health.

I wasn't the only one who was worried about the weight taking its toll on my health.
Five years ago, as my father Nick was dying from pancreatic cancer, he took a serious interest in my health. Two months before he died, I sustained a serious industrial injury to my thumb. As I recovered from hand surgery I was unable to drive to his house to visit him. I couldn't go a day without seeing him, so I walked there every day, with my arm in a sling. I quickly dropped about 10 lbs. and it made Nick incredibly happy. He kept telling me “You're in your prime, Anna. Keep goin' the way you're goin'...” It felt wonderful to be able to put a smile on his face.
My father was an incredible man and I loved him dearly. There was such urgency in his message. He was at the end of his life, and he desperately needed to get through to me. I still had a lot of life ahead of me! Throughout Nick's life, he abused his poor body, and he blamed himself for his health problems. He suffered from a heart attack, abdominal aortic aneurysms, sepsis, a quadruple bypass, and finally pancreatic cancer. He was tough alright, but he wasn't tough enough to beat that fucking cancer. It had metasticized to his liver and bones and no chemotherapy or radiation could stop it. 
My dad suffered immensely and he could not bear the idea of his children following in his footsteps.

Fortunately, my story takes a positive turn. Three years ago, I went 100% vegan, cold turkey! It was the easiest and best decision I have ever made in my life. I had watched the film Forks Over Knives and the science behind The China Study opened my eyes. But, I still wasn't quite ready to commit. I was full of the usual excuses. Shortly thereafter I watched the documentary Earthlings, and it was a done deal. In our culture, we have normalized the consumption of animals and animal products. We seldom think about where our food comes from. When our food comes from animals people don't ever want to know the details. That is a fact that I have always understood. Our culture has normalized the use and abuse of animals. That has never made sense to me. Three years ago, I finally came across the information I needed to make the most logical, healthiest and most compassionate decision of my life. I'm happier than I have ever been and I'm eager to share all that I've learned.

These days, I welcome blood tests. After all, the results have been awesome! (So much for that pesky family history of mine.) My decision to go vegan has made all the difference in the world. I have never felt physically or mentally stronger, and this is only the beginning. Now, I'm working on recruiting more people to ditch the meat and dairy and take control of their health!

So far, it's working, too...

Not long before I began following a plant-based diet my longtime vegetarian partner Mike, was diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. He also had dangerously high cholesterol. He was tired and grumpy and lacked the energy to really enjoy his life. Like me, he ate his fair share of veggie burritos topped with sour cream and cheese. Like me, he loved cheesy pizza, ice cream and eggs. He watched both Forks Over Knives and Earthlings and went cold-turkey vegan too! His liver numbers are completely normal now, his cholesterol is perfect and he has so much new-found energy that he joins me in lifting weights and exercising at the gym several days a week. 

My mother, a 69 year old Type II diabetic who was insulin-dependent for many years, no longer needs insulin!!! She is mostly-vegan, most of the time. The shift in her diet has been enough to help her lose a considerable amount of weight and she is slowly coming off her meds. Her cholesterol has been reduced and her energy level is through the roof! 

If only my dad were here to see us transform into our healthier selves, he would have been so proud. Who knows? He may even have joined us. He was so desperate to continue to live his life, and he would have tried anything to simply have more time. I'm taking better care of myself, in part, to honor my father's memory. He wanted me to live my life. 

Going vegan has completely changed my life for the better! I'm so much happier now. I'm nourished, inside and out. I've lost more than 65 lbs. (most of which has fallen off with very little effort) & I'm physically stronger and faster than I have ever been in my life. I have greater endurance than ever before. I run miles without back, foot or knee pain. I lift weights frequently and I frankly run circles around a lot of folks who are half my age. I want to make it clear that I did NOT go on a diet. I didn't wake up one morning and decide that it was time to lose weight. I simply altered my lifestyle so that it would better reflect the person I am. 

If only I had known life could be this good! I look back at my chubby childhood and my “life before vegan” and I want to educate and liberate the trapped person I used to be. Like so many others, it was easier for me to live in denial about how overweight I was. It was easier for me to turn a blind eye to the horrors of factory farming than to find an alternative to dairy products. I was overwhelmed. I was stuck. I was programmed into thinking that it wouldn't be possible for me to live without the very disease-causing animal protein and fat that tasted good to me.

Food was killing me. Now, food is fuel. I'm enjoying an active, happy life fueled by a 100% vegan, plant-based diet.

I have such passion for veganism and I have no reason to keep quiet about it. I certainly do not want to contribute to the unnecessary suffering of animals. I don't want to stand by silently as I see the people I care about suffer from largely preventable diseases. If sharing my story can help other people live more compassionately and gain more control of their health, I'll feel that I have truly made a contribution.

Just like Nonna, I love to cook and I love to feed people.
Veganizing family recipes like pasta al pesto and even creating desserts to bring to my meat-loving co-workers has been much easier than I ever could have imagined. 

All I had to do was seek out the information. 
You can do the same. 
I have absolute confidence in you!
Do something truly good for yourself, the animals and the planet and join me! 
You'll wish you had done it sooner! 

Original Recipe Fried Tofu! (In solidarity with our LGBT Brothers & Sisters)

Here's a fun recipe for those of you who like the idea of finger lickin' good comfort food that hits the spot without the salmonella, suffering or slaughter associated with good ole KFC. If the Colonel could see me now, who knows what he'd think. He might have put fried tofu on the menu for the growing number of Americans who have transitioned to a plant-based diet but still need an occasional fix of something fried, flavorful & crispy! This recipe was inspired by a coppity co-worker of mine whose excitement over the cracking of the Colonel's coveted Original Recipe (the 11 herbs & spices) brought back memories of greasy buckets of birds' body parts & less creepy sides of potatoes, corn, biscuits & coleslaw, & it is sure to please you. I'll be the first to admit that I ate lots of that creepy KFC stuff until age 11 when I gave up meat entirely. KFC was good times, for the most part... until I'd get a mouthful of disgusting gristle or bite into someone's tendon (barf!) --- or even worse, when the skin would just peel off. And it often resulted in a tummy ache. You shouldn't have to worry about any of that with this recipe.

Ingredients:

1# firm or extra-firm organic tofu, cut into nuggety chunks (or you can use 2#, since you'll have more than enough spicy flour left over)
2 c. unsweetened plain soymilk
2 t. apple cider vinegar
Canola or other light oil for frying
11 herbs & spices (below)
2 c. flour

First, add 2 t. apple cider vinegar to 2 c. soymilk. Let it curdle for at least a couple minutes.
Voila! You now have vegan buttermilk:)


Now, combine dry ingredients:
2 c. flour
2 T. salt
2 T. pepper
4 T. paprika
1 t. garlic salt
1 T. dry mustard
1 T. ground thyme
1 T. dried ground basil
1 t. ground oregano
1 T. ground ginger

Heat oil in pan until HOT. I used less than 1/4 " of oil & it worked fine.
Dunk nugget-sized chunks of tofu in buttermilk.
With your other (dry) hand, dust/coat each piece with spicy flour mixture.
Fry on each side until crispy.
Drain on newspaper (or paper towels if you read your news online.)

Enjoy!

Farinata without a Wood-burning Oven

Certain things about me are just a result of how I was raised. There's no sense running from it.

I read the newspaper (an actual newspaper) every morning before work, just like my father did. 

I find enormous fulfillment in cooking delicious (& sometimes very healthy) food, just like my Nonna did. And I really like researching things, just like my mother always has. 

When I first heard about farinata (or faina in my father's Genovese dialect) I knew there was something pretty special about it. My Nonna would carry on about how delicious it was (back in Italy) but how it never quite turned out right when she tried to make it here. My father would join in and tell us all about how his mother "used to make it pretty good" and how "she'd use those big focaccia pans of hers to cook it in" but that you needed a wood-burning oven to really get it right. Hearing tales of fresh, hot farinata being sold to folks in Genova and Savona on their way to work in the early morning (at shops that made nothing but this mysterious chickpea bread) really fired up my curiosity. But when I tried a time or two to make it for my parents, it wasn't right at all.  Although my too-soggy or too-crispy farinata attempts didn't quite cut it, a little flame kept burning inside me. Maybe it was a deeply rooted memory from another life. Maybe it was in my DNA. But it was all there, just behind that somehow Medieval taste of the ceci flour & the rosemary. (Yes! It was another awesome food memory from my childhood!) It all came back to me, with the huge metal roasting pans and the smell of the herbs. It was something very special that would carry me to that precise moment yesterday afternoon in my very own kitchen, as I picked up my iPhone and googled: farinata. I had finally hit the jack pot!

The best basic farinata recipe I've yet to come across (that's written in English) and appropriated for those of us without wood-burning ovens can be found here:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/farinata

It's very easy to follow, but it does require some advanced preparation. Believe me, it is well worth the time and you'll be in a blissful olfactory and salivary state after eating it, especially if you make a second faina in the style of the magical ladies of Stella San Martino, where I left my heart. Here's a picture of the farinata I made tonight, using Michela Larson's recipe:

That handsome pepper mill is over 100 years old.

The basic farinata is at the front of the frame, and the San Martino version is behind Nonna's antique pepper mill. (It sat in her kitchen my entire life, but no one used it. Works like a charm!)

After having tried several other farinata recipes without perfect results, this is the one for me, since 

I don't yet have an outdoor wood-burning oven, like the famigia in S. Martin'. The reason this recipe works so well is that it calls for a very hot oven and two preheated cast iron skillets. They really do the trick! And if you're a food geek like me, you get a real kick out of things like well-seasoned cast iron.

I should also mention that farinata just so happens to be perfectly vegan!

Here's a photo of cousins Biancangela and Maria Teresa, workin' their magic:     

                    

And here's cousin Elena, tending to the wood-burning oven in her kitchen:

Believe me, this girl can cook!

When it comes to the ingredients, you'll find chickpea or garbanzo flour in the bulk bins of your local natural foods store. Bob's Red Mill also packages it in small bags. Or you can look for it at Middle Eastern markets or pretty much any market that has "Halal" in the name. Folks in many parts of the world have had the culinary smarts to make excellent use of this golden flour since, oh, just about the beginning of time. 

Here's a bit more history...

Known as la socca in Nice, farinata is eaten just as it is in Genoa. The pancake-like bread is usually torn from its pizza shape, but is sometimes cut into wedges. In her cookbook  World Vegetarian Madhur Jaffrey shares that other versions of farinata, called Poora/Pudla are eaten in India, particularly in the Western state of Gujarat. They are served with relishes and chutneys and are stuffed with "just about anything that can be wrapped inside them" like cauliflower or even leftover lightly crushed green peas. Sounds tasty!

My Egyptian friend Samir swears that his mother prepared something similar to farinata when he was little, but that he hasn't eaten it since he was, at most, seven years old. (I'd say a farinata party is in order.) 

In David Downie's gorgeous book Enchanted Liguria: A Celebration of the Culture, Lifestyle and Food of the Italian Riviera the author has this to offer about the prized food:

"In the pantheon of regional foods it rivals pesto in stature. There are associations to promote and protect it (since 1984 Genoa's chamber of commerce has awarded the honorary title of Maestro to traditional farinata makers). Festivals in various villages and towns scattered across the region celebrate it. It has become a cause célèbre: militants fear that farinata is losing the battle against pizza in the same way that Genoese dialect has been swamped by Italian. Professor David Bixio, a regional delegate of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina and a founding member of the Tigullio area's Association for the Protection and Promotion of Farinata, claims that the dish is mentioned in The Odyssey. It is surely a very ancient food. Like focaccia, it is not unique to Liguria, but farinata reaches the state-of-the-art only here. Pisans call it cecina, Piedmontese calda-calda or bella-calda, and Tuscans farinata or torta di ceci..."


To create your own farinata or faina, in the glorious Stella San Martino style, add a good amount of chopped onion to the batter. What I did was prepare one skillet just as the recipe suggested and I added about 1/2 a large white onion, chopped into small pieces, to the remaining batter, just before pouring it in to the second preheated skillet. Tradition says that you are to stir it with a wooden spoon, counter-clockwise, but I didn't. I used a wire whisk, let it sit for about 4 hours, skimmed the foam off the top and baked it for about 25 min.


Your batter should look like this:

And it should have the approximate consistency of runny pancake batter.

(Use fresh rosemary, straight from the garden. If you don't yet have any growing, plant some! 

It thrives best in the ground in full sun. If you must grow it in a container, don't let it dry out.)

The result will be something like this:

Farinata is a gluten-free food and is high in protein. If you're afraid of carbs, well... get over it.

I guarantee that you'll be so satisfied after eating farinata that you'll forget all about that low-carb crapola.

Please let me know what you think of it! I welcome your comments, photos and emails.

Buon appetito!

Veganized Italian Fritters

Having had the good fortune of growing up Italian American, I learned how to cook from my Nonna. Many of my earliest memories of absolute happiness involve working with her to produce delicious, nourishing food. We picked fava beans in her garden and I helped her water the tomato plants that towered over me like giants. I'll never forget how proud I was when I was finally tall enough to turn the crank handle of her manual pasta machine without standing on a crate. Her El Cerrito basement was a veritable pasta and ravioli-making factory. Those were the happiest days of my life.

At the age of 11, I came to the realization that I could no longer eat animals. I simply could not, and would not do it any more. Poor Nonna thought I'd lost my mind. Regarding my sudden dietary overhaul, she asked: "Ma, you crazy o what??!!" She was, after all, the same woman who raised rabbits in her back yard "for eat". They were beautiful, furry white creatures with reddish-pink eyes. And they were so soft! (I can recall how delicious they were too... with fresh egg noodles and tomato sauce from the garden... Maybe somewhere around dinner time when my older brother teased: "Anna, please pass the bunny" I stopped caring about how good they tasted.)

After more than 26 years as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, I went VEGAN, cold-turkey, about 3 months ago. (I'd tried once and failed when I was 18. Then again, when I was around 23.) Somewhere between then and now, I'd slipped back into sweet denial. But then I watched Shaun Monson's documentary Earthlings, and it was a done deal. Fortunately, I'd been eating very little dairy anyway, since my partner Mike had learned he had high cholesterol and a fatty liver. (Foie gras anyone???) He'd been indulging in butter-laden bear claws and cheezy, sour cream-filled vegetarian burritos and it finally caught up with him. He watched Earthlings just last week, and now he's on board the Vegan Train too! (Where's Don Cornelius when you need him?)

Let's be honest though, really.
When you grow up in a culture where bacon&eggs = a normal American breakfast, you're gonna run in to some challenges. Since I've been cooking my entire life, I feel that I have a leg up on a lot of people whose families didn't prepare fresh food every day. So now, I'm loving every bit of the newness of veganizing every food I can. Pancakes and waffles? Easy! Cakes and pies? Done! Cream sauces? Gravy? Fried rice? Breakfast scrambles? It's all so much fun! I feel so completely inspired since since becoming vegan that all I want to do is cook!!! But for those of you who might need a bit of inspiration, I cannot recommend the following cookbooks highly enough: 1.) Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero and 2.) The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Both of these cookbooks have proven to be invaluable.

When I'm not trying out new recipes, I'm veganizing trusted old family ones.
This one, for fritelli or in Nonna's genovese dialect frisceu, is easy and delicious.
Ligurian women can whip these suckers up in no time, and that comes in handy when the men in the family are drinking a bit too much vino and need to be quickly sobered-up.

These tasty fritters are traditionally made with borage leaves, but unless you're of Ligurian or French descent, you probably don't grow borage or have access to it. Green onion will suffice. Just remember to be generous with the greens of the onions as well as the whites.

Green Onion Frisceu

"Freeshoo"

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup unbleached white flour

1 cup unsweetened plain soymilk

2 Tbs. ground flaxseed (I use golden flax seeds)

6 Tbs. water

2 tsp. vinegar

1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced (including lots of greens!)

Fresh ground black pepper

Kosher salt

Olive oil for frying

Soy sauce or Bragg's Liquid Amino Acids for dipping (optional)

Directions:

In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the flax seeds and water. Mix with an electric hand mixer until bubbly, about one minute. Add the soymilk and the vinegar. Slowly, stir in the flour. It will start to resemble pancake batter. Add the onions. Stir just to combine. Grind in some fresh black pepper and 2 or 3 good pinches of Kosher salt. Do not over-mix. Let the batter sit for 5 minutes or so, while you heat about 1/2 an inch of olive oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot and ready, spoon about a heaping tablespoon at a time around the perimeter of the pan. You might have room for one more in the center. Let them sizzle, over medium-high heat and occasionally escort them either clockwise or counterclockwise with a fork. Don't turn them over until they're a warm, golden brown. Repeat on the second side. Place the hot fritters on newspaper, to sop up any extra oil. Dust with a little more salt and serve hot. They're delicious at room temperature too, and they make for a tasty addition to a brown bag lunch. (They're very good dipped in a bit of Bragg's Liquid Amino Acids or soy sauce. Just don't tell Nonna!)

With a simple green salad and a glass of red wine, there's nothing more you'll need to fill your happy, vegan belly.