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REAL Founders are back to tune in love on Valentine’s Day! They share their favorite Valentine’s Day recipes and share food stories while traveling in Northern California.
Transcription:
Caryn Hartglass: Hi everybody! I’m Caryn Hartglass and you’re listening to It’s All About Food and you know what we like to do on It’s All About Food, we tune in love. Right now we are tuning in live but we’re tuning in love and today is a great day to tune in love because it’s Valentine’s Day and on this Valentine’s Day I’m bringing on my Valentine, Gary De Mattei. Hi Gary How are you doing today?
Gary De Mattei: Happy Valentine’s Day Caryn or as I like to say here at Responsible Eating and Living, Happy Vegantine’s Day!
Caryn Hartglass: Happy Vegantine’s Day everybody!
Gary De Mattei: Yay, because being vegan is all about love.
Caryn Hartglass: It is, it is.
Gary De Mattei: Right, it’ love for all living creatures.
Caryn Hartglass: It is and so let’s make Valentine’s Day Vegantine’s day. Let’s make everyday Vegantine’s day.
Gary De Mattei: I think we do that especially here at Responsible Eating and Living because we are (in case you are tuning in for the very first time and don’t know this) an organization that promotes a plant based diet which is a vegan diet. Right? Because we just eat plants.
Caryn Hartglass: Right, of course right.
Gary De Mattei: And that reminds me of something else we’re doing here in the Silicon Valley which is where we are this happy Valentine’s Day 2017. We’re in Monte Sereno, California, which is not far from Mountain View, California, which is not far from Google.
Caryn Hartglass: Google!
Gary De Mattei: And we were at Google today.
Caryn Hartglass: We spent a Googlely day, Googley.
Gary De Mattei: We did, we got to go to Google and take a tour and ride the Google bikes.
Caryn Hartglass: But the reason why we can bring Google up today is because it was a food day at Google. We were invited to lunch and they had many cafeterias at Google because their campus just gets bigger and bigger.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, it is very big and really such a positive energy there.
Caryn Hartglass: It is and it felt; well it is very whimsical.
Gary De Mattei: Yes!
Caryn Hartglass: You see primary and secondary colors that are in the Google logo but you see them highlighted everywhere and it gives it almost like a preschool, kindergarten feeling to it.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, it was really cool and we rode bikes, which had primary colors; they were all in different colors. It was really a lot of fun.
Caryn Hartglass: It was fun.
Gary De Mattei: We went to a restaurant called; now are you ready for this, the Kitchen “Sink” and “Sink” was spelled S-Y-N-C.
Caryn Hartglass: That’s right, Kitchen Sync.
Gary De Mattei: I thought that was really…
Caryn Hartglass: Clever!
Gary De Mattei: Very clever, yes.
Caryn Hartglass: What a beautiful place and I kept thinking why can’t all workspaces be like this.
Gary De Mattei: Yes it was so cool and it was well very cool!
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: Google is cool, and my niece works there which was really neat because I got to see her and she popped in but the reason we were there was to visit with a friend of yours Caryn.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, an old friend Susan that I’ve known since junior high school but I want to talk a little about Kitchen Sync, so when we walked in there were a number of different stations where chefs and food workers were putting together some really beautiful dishes and you could see through the glass counters or the glass; what do you call them…
Gary De Mattei: Sneeze-guards!
Caryn Hartglass: What was available and then it looked like it was decoration but they had these beautiful combinations of root vegetables on display and lettuces.
Gary De Mattei: Sweet potatoes.
Caryn Hartglass: Just stunning!
Gary De Mattei: Yes, it was great. Well that is a root vegetable isn’t it?
Caryn Hartglass: Yes it is on most days. So we ended up having a beautiful salad and I didn’t tell you this Gary but that salad we had had beets in it and I’ve been thinking about red beets a lot that I bought them. Actually we have them in the refrigerator here.
Gary De Mattei: Right I saw that we bought some.
Caryn Hartglass: I was just feeling the need for beets and they had this nice green salad with beets.
Gary De Mattei: And hey you can’t “beet” them.
Caryn Hartglass: Ba-da-bump! And then of course when you never know if there will be food to eat, you know that there will always be hummus right?
Gary De Mattei: Right! So another vegan option that they had at the Kitchen Sync was hummus.
Caryn Hartglass: Hummus!
Gary De Mattei: Pronounce it Caryn because you pronounce it…
Caryn Hartglass: HUMMUS! Hummus is hummus.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Cary Hartglass: It was served with an interesting kind of tabbouleh. Do you know what the grain was in that tabbouleh?
Gary De Mattei: To me it tasted like quinoa.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, I’m not sure what it was.
Gary De Mattei: But it could have been something little and small. Very tiny. I don’t think it was pasta though.
Caryn Hartglass: No, no, no, it was a whole grain. I just wasn’t sure what it was.
Gary De Mattei: But it was delicious.
Caryn Hartglass: But it was very nice.
Gary De Mattei: Lots of mint and they served it with some crudité and some “hi-hi-hicama”.
Caryn Hartglass: Jicama! Who knows what jicama is? Raise your hand!
Gary De Mattei: I do I do!
Caryn Hartglass: Very good, why don’t you tell us?
Gary De Mattei: I don’t really know. What is it Caryn?
Caryn Hartglass: It’s a root vegetable Gary.
Gary De Mattei: Like a sweet potato.
Caryn Hartglass: But the nice thing about jicama…
Gary De Mattei: hi-hi-hicama!
Caryn Hartglass: You find it all the time out here in California but you really have to look for it if you want to find in other places.
Gary De Mattei: Right, there is a lot of jicama out here in California.
Caryn Hartglass: It’s a little bit bigger than an apple and it has a dry tan light brown skin. When you peel it inside, it is off-white. It’s like a radish kind of color inside; white. But you eat it raw and it’s crunchy. You can slice it into sticks or I think they are great sliced into circles. Instead of eating chips you can eat jicama and use it for dips and things. It has a really nice crunch and it’s juicy.
Gary De Mattei: And if you have a dehydrator you can slice them real thin and dehydrate them like you would other vegetable chips. Have you ever tried that?
Caryn Hartglass: I haven’t, have you?
Gary De Mattei: Oh, it’s terrific yes I have.
Caryn Hartglass: Dehydrated jicama!
Gary De Mattei: Yes, it’s actually one of the chips in the very popular brand of vegetable chips that are out.
Caryn Hartglass: Oh right, in the different colors.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: With the different root vegetables.
Gary De Mattei: Right, we won’t plug anybody’s product but I think everybody out there knows what I’m talking about.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: And all of the different root vegetables including sweet potatoes.
Caryn Hartglass: Hahira, well another thing I like was they had these big canisters of water at Kitchen Sync in the cafeteria we went to and one of them was filled with lime slices and mint and they called it spa water.
Gary De Mattei: Right and cucumber slices too.
Caryn Hartglass: Oh right.
Gary De Mattei: There was cucumber slices in there as well.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, it’s very delicately flavored and how simple.
Gary De Mattei: It was and the plates that everything was served on were very very nice and it was just really, I mean I couldn’t imagine working at a better place. I’m happy for Susan’s husband…
Caryn Hartglass: Demyn.
Gary De Mattei: Demyn, who worked there and gave us the tour today.
Caryn Hartglass: He gave us a tour where we’re walking around inside and there were these stations I think he said there had to be one of these snack stations every…
Gary De Mattei: …So many feet.
Caryn Hartglass: So many feet or so many people, so if the lunch wasn’t enough, which is free for Google employees. There are snacks where they have fresh fruit and some healthy snacks like nuts and seeds and some not so healthy snacks. They had a coffee tea bar.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: And I didn’t see it but somebody was drinking a green smoothie.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: And Demyn said that in the morning they have them too.
Gary De Mattei: Right and they have all sorts of non-dairy milks for your teas and coffees and they had Odwalla Juice in the cold cases and it was just really; they really went out of their way to make sure everybody; all dietary restrictions had something to eat.
Caryn Hartglass: What I liked about it was it’s almost like a vision for the future, which is happening now in the present.
Gary De Mattei: Right the future is now Caryn.
Caryn Hartglass: The f-u-t-u-r-e is now. Yes, but it’s a great example of what could be for all.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, yes and as I said we just had a very positive feeling as soon as we stepped out of the car and walked on campus. It was a very positive, very energetic.
Caryn Hartglass: Of course not everybody who works at Google.
Gary De Mattei: No.
Caryn Hartglass: But I hope that more companies catch on and realize when they offer their employees certain benefits the employees are going to be happier working there and those benefits include healthy food and then excellent health care probably good maternity leave, paternity leave childcare. All those benefits that get rid of the stress that’s in your life so that you can focus on your job when you are paid to be working.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: And then go home and relax.
Gary De Mattei: I thought it was interesting too because we knew sort of where we are going but we had to pull up Google maps to find Google. I thought that was and ironic situation. Let me read you a Valentine, I’ve been periodically reading some of my Valentines. Here’s one from Ernest Hemingway.
Caryn Hartglass: We like Ernie.
Gary De Mattei: “If my Valentine you won’t be I’ll hang myself on your Christmas tree.” I thought that was very romantic.
Caryn Hartglass: It’s funny because I was just reading my Facebook page and somebody just posted a photograph of some home she was peering into where the Christmas tree was still there with the lights on. Maybe they are waiting to hang themselves.
Gary De Mattei: I think that’s the joke, yes.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: I think the joke is that start thinking about taking your Christmas decorations down on Valentine’s Day. Or just leave them up or your Menorah.
Caryn Hartglass: Okay, well thank you for that.
Gary De Mattei: Oh I got several others that I’ll surprise you with.
Caryn Hartglass: Oh I got another one. Thank you.
Gary De Mattei: Well you are my Valentine.
Caryn Hartglass: Can we talk about Valentine’s Day on Valentine’s Day my Valentine.
Gary De Mattei: Absolutely! Let’s talk about it!
Caryn Hartglass: So you’ve heard me say this before, I love holidays and I really don’t get into the real meaning of any of them.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: I just like celebrating different foods and just having another excuse to make a party. Make a party!
Gary De Mattei: Make a party! Well let’s say why that’s funny to us; make a party because on the west coast I was raised by saying you throw a party for someone or you do a party and on the east coast you were raised with…
Caryn Hartglass: We make a party!
Gary De Mattei: Make a party!
Caryn Hartglass: What do you say everybody? Do you make a party or do you throw a party or do you even not bother and just go out?
Gary De Mattei: Right and speaking of going out a lot of you will be going out to dinner tonight because it’s a Tuesday and who wants to cook on a workday night right and its Valentine’s Day. You are probably going to want to go to a restaurant and if you don’t have reservations by now at your favorite restaurant it might be tough to get it in. So if you’re faced with having to make your own romantic dinner for 2 try a vegan romantic dinner for two. We have lots of terrific recipes at www.responsibleeatingandliving.com for you to choose from and one of them. One of my favorites is last year we had some friends over and we didn’t quite know what to do so we didn’t want to get to fancy because again I think it was a Monday night last year right it felt like a work night but maybe it wasn’t. Anyway, we roasted some garlic and Caryn made some fresh baguettes.
Caryn Hartglass: Mm, I remember.
Gary De Mattei: And we made some wonderful; cut up some fruits and vegetables and did a chocolate fondue. We just had a great time very causal. Opened a nice bottle of wine, we opened some Querciabella Batar.
Caryn Harglass: Batar! Did we have the Batar?
Gary De Mattei: I don’t know if it was the Batar or the Mongrana.
Caryn Hartglass: I don’t know.
Gary De Mattei: Anyway.
Caryn Hartglass: But we had this chocolate fondue recipe. I haven’t talked about it on a while but it’s the simplest thing. It’s made from cocoa power; unsweetened cocoa powder. We always have some of that in the cupboard. Actually we keep in the refrigerator.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: And unrefined organic coconut oil.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: And your favorite sugar sweetener that could be evaporated cane juice it could be date sugar it could be anything you like to sweeten and if you don’t even like sugar you could probably just use dates and end up blending them in there.
Gary De Mattei: Exactly.
Caryn Hartglass: But you just mix the cocoa with the coconut oil and a little water in a saucepan.
Gary De Mattei: So simple!
Caryn Hartglass: That’s it! And it makes this terrific, rich, wonderful chocolate sauce. It thickens if you cool it and you just dip anything in there any you have a party.
Gary De Mattei: It was, it’s fabulous and we also made your carrot lentil pate and we put out some olives and just had a wonderful, wonderful time with really some very basic ingredients. Again roasted garlic is so amazing spread on a fresh baguette.
Caryn Hartglass: Can you just briefly describe how you make it?
Gary De Mattei: Yes, so you get a bulb of garlic and you slice it down about a; a little more than a; I would say about a third of the way through the bulb on the pointed side of the bulb not the on the stem side. You know if you hold the bulb of garlic in your hand and turn it over you see the bottom that’s been cut from the stem you want to make that your base and you want to cut about oh I’d say about what is that 3 ¼ of an inch.
Caryn Hartglass: Maybe ¼ inch, you just want to get the sharp tips off of each garlic clove.
Gary De Mattei: And expose the little garlic there and then get a garlic baker; if you don’t have a garlic baker which is a pottery dish with a lid on it that you can bake in your oven, you can just simple put the garlic in a baking dish with a cover on it or if you don’t have that you can cover it with some parchment paper and then cover that with foil and you want to use parchment paper before the foil because you don’t want the foil touching the food and make sure it’s an unbleached parchment paper. They sell unbleached parchment paper in some of the higher end grocery stores.
Caryn Hartglass: Or you can get it online too.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, get it online.
Caryn Hartglass: I get it online. I get everything online like that. I wanted to mention the ceramic garlic roaster that you were talking about. Now we don’t have a lot of extra kitchen gadgets and pots and pans. We’ve got the basics and we were given this particular thing, this garlic roaster from our friend Linda Long who was kind of purging her apartment of stuff.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, she was.
Caryn Hartglass: And I didn’t even know we needed it but we have used it so much and not just for garlic.
Gary De Mattei: No.
Caryn Hartglass: You’ve been so clever with it you’ve warmed up tortillas in there.
Gary De Mattei: I use it for everything. I actually use it for sweet potatoes too.
Caryn Hartglass: No you don’t!
Gary De Mattei: I do! No I’m not kidding. I put a sweet potato and cover it up and I actually put a sweet potato or a Yukon gold potato, a couple of them in there and cover it up with a bulb of garlic and it’s unbelievable. It cooks together and it’s fantastic. I recommend doing that when you roast your garlic is add a potato in the baker and it’s really good to dip a roasted potato in with roasted garlic. Now we’re talking about food in a very sensual way here because food is very sensual and can be so much fun especially on Valentine’s Day.
Caryn Hatglass: Now back to Valentine’s Day…
Gary De Mattei: Okay, anyway you wanted me to finish the recipe; the garlic recipe. So, cover it up pre-heat your oven to about 385oF or 400oF around there and bake it for about 30 minutes. Pull it out of the oven and be careful taking the lid off because there is going to be some steam and if it looks nice and caramelized if the garlic looks caramelized it’s ready and you should just be able to press on the sides and it’s soft and just comes popping out and it’s delicious.
Caryn Hartglass: Mm.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, so that’s the recipe.
Caryn Hartglass: So good, so gooey. Just spread it.
Gary De Mattei: If you want to drizzle a little olive oil on it once you slice off the top of your bulb of garlic; if you want to drizzle a little olive oil on top you may but you don’t even need to do that because for us it replaces oil.
Caryn Hartglass: I wanted to say that when you squeeze out all of those soften cloves it’s like buttah.
Gary De Mattei: It is like butter.
Caryn Hartglass: And you just spread it on anything.
Gary De Mattei: It’s actually an amazing butter replacement.
Caryn Hartglass: Oh my goodness it’s so good!
Gary De Mattei: It is so good for you.
Caryn Hartglass: Just garlic.
Gary De Mattei: And now a lot of people think well no I shouldn’t have it because you know my breath with smell and it’s Valentine’s Day. That’s the catch. If you roast it, all of that offensive odor goes away. Only the good, beautiful…
Caryn Hartglass: If everybody is having garlic well then you all taste and smell the same.
Gary De Mattei: If everybody is having garlic and red wine we’ll just end with a little bread.
Caryn Hartglass: Nobody cares.
Gary De Mattei: It’s great.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, I just want to finish about Valentine’s Day. So we were talking about Valentine’s Day what it means and celebrating and I want to celebrate love every day.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: And Valentine’s Day, it’s just one of those made up Hallmark card kind of holidays.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, it’s very true and it’s funny that you should say that because one of the other things we’re doing here is we’re visiting my Dad who is 91 years old and he wanted to buy a Valentine card for a friend tonight so we walked into a Walgreen’s drugstore and it was packed with people buying valentine cards and valentine hearts and stuffed animals and all of these really; they were just extravagant boxes of candy that they had on display and I just thought how sad it was. It felt really sad that they are all there the night before Valentine’s Day with this desperate look on their faces.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, oh my god it’s the last minute and I better get something otherwise I’ll be in the doghouse or something.
Gary De Mattei: That’s what I was going to say. Oddly enough 90% of the people at Walgreen’s were middle-aged men with their kids.
Caryn Hartglass: Ah.
Gary De Mattei: Bringing their kids along to buy these last minute gifts for obviously for mom.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: And it was kind of sad.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: It was almost a…I got this very negative energy feeling.
Caryn Hartglass: You know it’s okay if you want to celebrate Valentine’s Day and buy something special for the one that you love but I hope that you’re doing it regularly and not just once a year on Valentine’s Day.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: It should come when you are moved to do it.
Gary De Mattei: It was kind of depressing.
Caryn Hartglass: But speaking of boxes of chocolate.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: I happen to have gotten a box of chocolates a couple of days ago from my Valentine.
Gary De Mattei: Yes you did and it’s a great chocolate too. Isn’t it?
Caryn Hartglass: Yes so we were at our favorite restaurant here in San Jose. I call it our home away from home; The Vegetarian House.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, it’s such a great restaurant.
Caryn Hartglass: If you’ve read our blog What Vegans Eat you’ll see how often we go there when we are in California and we always get the same 2 dishes and sometimes we will be a little adventurous and order something different but after we had had our dinner. You surprised me and you said you were going to the bathroom and you came back with a box of chocolates because they sell Sjaak’s chocolate, I don’t know if I’m pronouncing it right but it’s spelled S-J-A-A-K and they are actually manufactured not far from here. They are in Petaluma, California and they make organic chocolates. I first discovered them around Easter time when I wanted to get Gary some Easter candy. There’s another holiday…
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: That means absolutely nothing to me.
Gary De Mattei: Or to me.
Caryn Hartglass: But I just thought it would just be fun and they had some great vegan organic chocolate selections and now they’ve got their chocolate boxes wrapped in shiny red foil with a bow.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: And they are really yummy and they’re organic!
Gary De Mattei: Yes and life is not like a box of chocolates if you buy Sjaak’s because you know exactly what you are going to get when you buy it. You’re not going to get poisoned chocolate. You’re going to get organic chocolate. You’re going to get vegan chocolate. I’m certain that it’s also fair trade but let’s see; our cocoa ingredients are from rainforest alliance certified farms, is grown in ways that benefit farm families, wildlife and the environment, To learn more about rainforest alliance visit www.rainforestalliance.org. That’s the other thing that’s really important when you are making your purchases. I don’t think anyone was aware tonight when I was at Walgreen’s buying my dad’s Valentine card for his friend was that I don’t think anybody cared where the stuff came from or what they are putting into their bodies and that’s very alarming.
Caryn Hartglass: The sad thing about chocolate and we’ve talked about this a number of times is how many of the conventional brands of chocolate use cocoa beans that are harvested by child slaves.
Gary De Mattei: Yes and we did a wonderful program, Caryn’s in depth report on chocolate called; what did you call it?
Caryn Hartglass: The Chocolate Report.
Gary De Mattei: The Chocolate Report, right.
Caryn Hartglass: Yup.
Gary De Mattei: And it’s at www.responsibleeatingandliving.com and just put in the search bar “The Chocolate Report” and check it out.
Caryn Hartglass: It’s way down at the bottom of the homepage. It’s pretty easy to find.
Gary De Mattei: It’s very easy to find, yes, so go to the homepage and scroll down to the bottom to the chocolate report and give it a look.
Caryn Hartglass: So it just seems sad and ironic…
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: That we’re giving someone that we love. We are expressing our love our compassion and our kindness with a box of chocolates and when you find out where they come from, all of the pain and suffering and agony and cruelty that’s underneath them.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, people really need to start connecting the dots more especially now. Start now, start on Valentine’s Day. Understand where this stuff comes from and you’re putting it in your body or you’re putting it into a loved one. You’re giving it to a loved one for them to put into their bodies. Make sure that they know what the long-term effect is going to be or the short-term effect.
Caryn Hartglass: Ok, while we are on the subject of chocolate.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: I want to talk about another chocolate product.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: I don’t know if this particular product is available around the country in grocery stores or not but I think you can get it online. It’s called Cacao, Cacao; C-A-C-O-C-O, it’s a drinking chocolate and it comes in four flavors. They actually make it out here in Santa Cruz, California.
Gary De Mattei: Yay! Santa Cruz!
Caryn Hartglass: Yay!
Gary De Mattei: Keep Santa Cruz weird please!
Caryn Hartglass: And it’s a hot chocolate drink and what I love about it is. It’s not very sweet. It’s not sweet at all it has a little bit of coconut sugar in it but let me read you the ingredients of this particular one. We were just given this box by one of the co-producers of The Fiddler production that we are involved with.
Gary De Mattei: Katie Darcy, thank you!
Caryn Hartglass: Thank you! It’s made from unroasted cacao, coconut crystal sugar; both of these are organic, organic cacao butter, macuna seed organic, Himalayan salt, rhodiola root organic, reishi extract organic, habanero organic and it’s so good.
Gary De Mattei: Delicious!
Caryn Hartglass: All of these foods, macuna seed, so good for you, reishi extract.
Gary De Mattei: Do you know what reishi is? What is reishi?
Caryn Hartglass: It’s a mushroom.
Gary De Mattei: Is it really!
Caryn Hartglass: Yup.
Gary De Mattei: I’m drinking mushrooms?
Caryn Hartglass: Don’t let him know there are mushrooms in this cocoa powder!
Gary De Mattei: That’s the second time this has happened to me. Maybe something is going on here, maybe I’m changing finally.
Caryn Hartglass: Oops! I wasn’t going to tell.
Gary De Mattei: Keep going and then I’ll tell you my other mushroom story for the week.
Caryn Hartglass: Gary doesn’t like mushrooms.
Gary De Mattei: It’s about food; I’m going to tell you about my other mushroom story but finish with this Cacoco because this Cacoco drinking chocolate it’s amazing.
Caryn Hartglass: Well, it’s another sensual product. It has habanero in it. It’s not really spicy and hot but what happens is you sip this chocolate and you get the chocolate flavor and then the flavor kind of moves along to the back of your tongue and you feel the heat of the habanero.
Gary De Mattei: So good, it reminds me of that movie if you’ve seen it, Chocolat with Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche and so many other great actors are in that film. It reminds me of what that chocolate that she makes everybody tastes like. She puts a touch of chili in it.
Caryn Hartglass: Oh yes.
Gary De Mattei: Yes very sexy! Very sexy and we’re talking about Valentine’s Day so make sure the food that you’re eating is very sexy!
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, so I’m thinking a lot of people like coffee.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: And they drink coffee to wake them up. When we tried this Cacoco the other day, we had it in the afternoon and then we went off to rehearsal and WOW!
Gary De Mattei: Yes, we were fine.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, it was a major energy boost.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, right we were a little tired before we had the Cacoco. Then we got cukooco.
Caryn Hartglass: I think part of it was there are some things in here that have some good nutrition.
Gary De Mattei: I think so. I didn’t feel; you know how sometimes after you drink hot chocolate you feel kind of crummy afterwards.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: I felt great afterwards.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, anyway.
Gary De Mattei: It all went to the right place. Okay, my other mushroom story. Unbeknownst to me, if you read our blog; Caryn’s blog you know that sometimes we go to a place when we are in California and it’s called the Veggie Grill and it’s a vegan fast food place. It’s a step up from fast food actually.
Caryn Hartglass: I’ve been kind of disappointed with it for a while until this last week.
Gary De Mattei: Right and sometimes we splurge and we go to the Veggie Grill and get a burger. I usually get the B-wing salad which is an imitation chicken that’s been run through buffalo sauce and put on a bed of lettuce and if you ever have a hankering for buffalo wings and you’re a vegan try the B-wing salad or it’s another one they have called the Bomber burger. It’s like a meat analog chicken breast with buffalo wing sauce on it.
Caryn Hartglass: It’s like Gardein.
Gary De Mattei: Gardein, yes, something like that.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: Anyway so Caryn had tried this what was the name of the burger?
Caryn Hartglass: Quinoa and veg burger and I got the bad boy style, which meant it came with vegan mayo and the spicy Chao cheese.
Gary De Mattei: I mean it’s just this burger that looks like…
Caryn Hartglass: Like a burger with a lot of sloppy goo over it.
Gary De Mattei: A burger and I took a bite and I loved it and we went the next night after rehearsals as well and so I got it and I really enjoyed it. Well I come to find out and I ask Caryn today well what are the ingredients for this burger. Now for those of you who’ve listened to the show before when I’ve been on you might or might not know since birth I do not like mushrooms. Well this burger has mushrooms in it and I didn’t even know.
Caryn Hartglass: There you go.
Gary De Mattei: What was in this burger? What was in this quinoa burger?
Caryn Hartglass: Well let’s see if we go to What Vegans Eat (the blog).
Gary De Mattei: Let’s go to What Vegans Eat. Day, there it is.
Caryn Hartglass: And let’s see day 729 and 730 I put the ingredients in here.
Gary De Mattei: You also put the Chao up.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, it’s scratch made of organic quinoa and kale and mushrooms.
Gary De Mattei: Mushrooms I did not know that.
Caryn Hartglass: And then it comes with spicy tomato Chao cheese that’s C-H-A-O made by the field roast company. We like that. For store bought vegan cheese it’s pretty good. House pickled onions, arugula, veg mayo, cilantro pesto, caramelized onions, pickled jalapenos, and sriracha sauce.
Gary De Mattei: If you’re near a Veggie Grill and can’t get reservations to your favorite restaurant go to Veggie Grill for Valentine’s Day. Like I said it’s got that kind of upscale fast food environment. You walk up to the counter and give your order. They give you a number and they serve you your food. It could be really kind of a romantic evening.
Caryn Hartglass. Yes we had a romantic evening there the other day.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, it was great, 2 nights in a row.
Caryn Hartglass: I got the Fork and Knife barbeque mushroom sandwich…
Gary De Mattei: Oh that was amazing!
Caryn Hartglass: With the cremini mushrooms, house-made barbeque sauce, kale cabbage slaw, crispy onion rings. I’m underlining onion rings; how often as vegans do we get to eat onion rings not very often and they have them at the Veggie Grill and they were good!
Gary De Mattei: Yes, so if you were to go out to your favorite vegan restaurant anywhere in the world for Valentine’s Day and you were going to invite me to come along where would you go?
Caryn Hartglass: Oh my goodness! Well you know if we have the time we’re going to be going to the new Millennium.
Gary De Mattel: The new Millennium here on the west coast.
Caryn Hartglass: I think it’s still called the Millennium not the “new” Millennium…
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: But it moved from San Francisco to Oakland and we’re supposed to be going there in a couple weeks. That might be where I would go.
Gary De Mattei: If you are on the west coast?
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: Okay.
Caryn Hartglass: You said anywhere in the world.
Gary De Mattei: Anywhere in the world. You’ve been to a lot of vegan restaurants; all over the world.
Caryn Hartglass: There’s so many I haven’t been to now because it’s exploding.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, there are so many.
Caryn Hartglass: There’s that one in Philadelphia that we haven’t been to.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, right.
Caryn Hartglass: That’s hard to say, well of course there is always any of the Candle’s. We’re always happy there.
Gary De Mattei: Definitely. I just go to Candle’s 79. If you’re in Manhattan go to Candle’s 79 for Valentine’s Day, That’s where I would go.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: That’s my favorite spot to go for fine dining vegan style but I haven’t tried Dirt Candy and some of these other spots but I think it’s the atmosphere, it’s really a beautiful place and I like it.
Caryn Hartglass: Well while we’ve been here in California we’ve been preparing food as much as we can in the space that we have. We have this little efficiency kitchen. We’re staying in a pool house and it gets kind of challenging.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: But we’re making the most of it.
Gary De Mattei: We don’t use the microwave. We don’t own a microwave but we have a microwave here at the pool house so it’s been interesting to flex that muscle that we haven’t used in a long time.
Caryn Hartglass: That’s right; we don’t use it very often.
Gary De Mattei: No.
Caryn Hartglass: Because we only have a few pots it comes in handy.
Gary De Mattei: Right, it is a challenge that we could go up to the main house and bring more pots. My sister-in-law and brother don’t mind what we do. We could actually cook in the big kitchen. I think we keep trying to challenge ourselves… To see what amazing dishes we can come up with in this little efficiency kitchen.
Caryn Hartglass: And we have!
Gary De Mattei: Yes, we’ve come up with some great.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes we have, so on the subject of Valentine’s Day because it is Valentine’s Day. One of the things that people like is a special breakfast.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: And it’s usually classic “brunchy” sort of items. We have a recipe for an egg-less benedict Arnold, you like to call it.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, No Eggs Benedict Arnold. Yes and we have a vegan hollandaise; go to www.responsibleeatingandliving.com and put in the search bar “hollandaise” and you’ll come up with a transition kitchen episode that has yours truly showing you how to make probably the quickest and tastiest hollandaise you’ll ever make.
Caryn Hartglass: It’s very rich.
Gary De Mattei: In a blender and it’s vegan and you could pour that over your favorite grilled veggie meats or grilled tofu and put it on an English muffin or some of your favorite. We used an English muffin and it was a gluten free English muffin. It’s made by the same folks that make the tortillas that we use.
Caryn Hartglass: Ezekiel?
Gary De Mattei: Ezekiel, yes they have an Ezekiel English muffin and it’s a sprouted grain English muffin and delicious. I just grilled a little tofu now if you are afraid of tofu don’t be there is also another great report on www.responsibleeatingandliving.com called the “Soy Story.” There are a lot of myths about soy. You just want to de-spell all those myths and watch this in-depth reporting by Caryn Hartglass on soy where she busts the myths about soy.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: So I grill a little tofu and put it on a toasted sprouted grain English muffin and I pour some of this vegan hollandaise over it and I even marinate a couple of sundried tomatoes. I pound them like you would put them between a couple of pieces of a paper and pound it paper thin so that instead of using another veggie meat I actually use a pounded paper thin; it almost comes out like a piece of prosciutto.
Caryn Hartglass: Oh it’s good.
Gary De Mattei: I lay that on the English muffin before I put the grilled tofu and then I smother with a little of this vegan hollandaise and it’s great but again it’s a workday and I’m sure many of you have to go to work tomorrow.
Caryn Hartglass: I came up with a recipe just the other day here in this tiny little space that we are in. It’s a simple tofu scramble with a light Dijon cream.
Gary De Mattei: It was very good!
Caryn Hartglass: And I think it’s simple but it has a richness to it.
Gary De Mattei: It was delicious! Yes, you used tofu again and you used the red onion some kale stalks. Sometimes you strip the kale off of the stalk and you’ve got the stalk and you are wondering what you can juice that but what Caryn likes to do is chop it really finely and sauté it a little bit with some kale leaves and it was really good Caryn.
Caryn Hartglass: But the secret was the sauce. There was nothing to it; just Dijon mustard a couple of teaspoons, some nutritional yeast I think I used 2 or 3 tablespoons, 2 tablespoons of mustard sorry about that and a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast. Put it together in a little bowl with a cup of non-dairy milk and beat it together and there it was.
Gary De Mattei: It was delicious.
Caryn Hartglass: This Dijon cream sauce and I mixed it in with the scramble.
Gary De Mattei: Really really good, okay I have another quote here.
Caryn Hartglass: Oh quote time! It’s quote time. Valentine’s Day quote time.
Gary De Mattei: This is kind of a fun one so this is 2 people talking and this is a quote by Adam Young and he says; “Whale you be my Valentine.”
Caryn Hartglass: And she says; “Dolphin-it-ley!”
Gary De Mattei: Whale and dolphin. That’s Adam Young.
Caryn Hartglass: Do you have another one Gary?
Gary De Mattei: Oh, I’ve got a million of them Caryn. Okay, let’s see well here is one that I think is pretty neat. Laurence Durrell, “And I saw her as a sad 30th child of Valentine that fell not as Lucifer rebelling against God but because she to passionately wanted to be united with him, all things in excess becomes sin.”
Caryn Hartglass: Ooohh.
Gary De Mattei: That’s kind of dark; you guys mull that over out there in podcast land.
Caryn Hartglass Yes dark.
Gary De Mattei: Let us know what you think.
Caryn Hartglass: Very dark.
Gary De Mattei: Yes and if you have your favorite quotes sometimes it’s fun to write it on a piece of paper and give it to that someone special instead of a card. You know make your own card.
Caryn Hartglass: Speaking of cards and making cards. I remember probably back in second or third grade. Where we all made our own cards and we gave them to other people in the class and everybody got cards and here it is like 40, 50 years later and I still remember it. It was such a special thing.
Gary De Mattei: Really?
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: How wonderful!
Caryn Hartglass: It was wonderful.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: Making cards.
Gary De Mattei: Yes I remember we used to have to do that in elementary school. Give everybody a Valentine.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: It was torture. It was like one of those stressful times of my life. I can remember just having this horrible feeling in my stomach not only having to give people cards but then in those days you didn’t get a card from everyone. It wasn’t like you know…
Caryn Hartglass: It’s politically correct.
Gary De Mattei: Now it’s politically correct but then it’s like you only gave a card to someone that you liked. So you were always there having that pressure thinking am I going to get any Valentines in my envelope.
Caryn Hartglass: Aw.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, I won’t say whether or not I did but because I’m sitting next to the greatest Valentine in the world.
Caryn Hartglass: Thank you Gary!
Gary De Mattei: Suffice it to say I didn’t get that many.
Caryn Hartglass: And you remember.
Gary De Mattei: Yes and it was a long time ago. Yes torture but I guess it’s better now that everybody gets one. Well I mean who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow but so far it’s politically correct. It may not be in the next couple of months.
Caryn Hartglass: You know for the last 2 months I’ve gotten a little bit political on this program.
Gary De Mattei: Yes let’s talk about that even though It’s All About Food.
Caryn Hartglass: It’s all about food and it’s all about love but it’s important to keep abreast about what’s going on and what’s going on right now with United States Federal Government is I think is scarier than it’s ever been in my lifetime.
Gary De Mattei: Right. It’s very scary. I agree with you. I’m right there with you.
Caryn Hartglass: And when we’re talking about tuning in love and focusing on love and being kind to the people we care about and then you hear about a mom who’s deported because she is not a citizen and she’s separated from her children who are born in this country who are citizens.
Gary De Mattei: It’s a catastrophe.
Caryn Hartglass: It is and we have to talk about it even on programs that are about food because it’s related to food.
Gary De Mattei: Right, yes.
Caryn Hartglass: Is it not Gary De Mattei?
Gary De Mattei: It is, well the there’s a story in the New York Times about the fear that’s going on now in all walks of life and the farming community is no exception and people are leaving and there’s no one left to work on the farms in many places.
Caryn Hartglass: Well many of the people who harvest the food on our farms here in the United States are migrant workers.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: Who come up from Mexico and other Latin American countries during the harvest period to make some money.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: And they harvest the food and some go back. Some stay here illegally but they are doing the work and without them there aren’t many people willing to do this work. It’s hard, it’s back-breaking work.
Gary De Mattei: Well my father, I grew up on a cherry orchard here in California and my father was a farmer before they started selling off the farms to make way for urban sprawl and it’s back-breaking work. He worked with his back his whole life on the farm and after that hauling furniture and not a whole lot of people want to do that anymore. They want to do other things like work for Google or ride a Google bike.
Caryn Hartglass, Yes and so unfortunately the things we’re seeing with this government are having an impact, an immediate impact and none of it is really being thought through. So if you want to remove people who aren’t here legally.
Gary De Mattei: Some say that’s part of the plan though Caryn that they’re not thinking it through.
Caryn Hartglass: Intentional?
Gary De Mattei: They are just intentionally creating chaos because chaos is how they’re going to get their bigger agenda that they have that no one seems to be paying attention to through without anyone knowing it. That question remains well what is that? Again I mean this is all about food and not about politics.
Caryn Hartglass: So back to the farms. There were one or a few farms being reported on where it was time to harvest tomatoes I think.
Gary De Mattei: It was down south. Was it Alabama?
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: Alabama yes.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, and so many of the people that do the harvesting are not citizens and they were afraid and they just disappeared. They didn’t have anybody harvest the food and so it’s rotting, the farmers are losing money and our food prices as a result are going to go up.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, skyrocket.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes if there will even be enough.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, so what does that mean, big farms the food will rot in the fields so that means that the small independent farmers will be relied on more heavily to service all of us with fruits and vegetables.
Caryn Hartglass: Which is why if you have any land at all even if it’s small; growing food having a garden is a good idea; now more than ever.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, and putting it up. Canning; there’s a big upswing in the home canning world where you can can all of the…
Caryn Hartglass: Can-can!
Gary De Mattei: Yes, you can can, well I mean we’ve been here for about a few weeks now. How many?
Caryn Hartglass: 4 weeks, 5 weeks.
Gary De Mattei: 4 weeks and oranges grow here all year long. And so we’ve been getting big giant bags of oranges. Now that’s just one tree that produces so many oranges. What do you do with all of those oranges, you give them to friends, you give them to family but then what? Can them, peel them put them in some sort of brine of some sort. Oranges I don’t know how you’d make it.
Caryn Hartglass: Make marmalade.
Gary De Mattei: You would make marmalade. Or you would section off the oranges and remember we had the grapefruit segments.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, sitting in the water.
Gary De Mattei: Sitting in the water yes so anyway you should look into canning. Growing your own food and canning if you can.
Caryn Hartglass: Canning if you can can.
Gary De Mattei: Canning if you can can.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, but it’s hard.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: In this world where everybody is wrapped with their jobs and their families there never seems to be enough time and we talk about finding your kitchen and making more food at home and then growing your food. Who’s got the time to do all of it?
Gary De Mattei: No! Make the time you’re worth it as Caryn Hartglass would say! Here are some great ideas on Valentine’s Day. Are you ready? Go to www.responsibleeattingandliving.com and click on Valentine’s Day.
Caryn Hartglass: Oh look at that! We have a category Valentine’s Day with recipes for Valentine’s Day. I didn’t even know that.
Gary De Mattei: The carrot lentil paté that we made last year. It’s fabulous and it’s very simple.
Caryn Hartglass: Oh my god! It’s so simple. It’s just made from just regular ingredients; lentils, carrots what else is in there?
Gary De Mattei: Tapioca flour, onion-grated, a couple cloves of garlic, herb de province.
Caryn Hartglass: Sunflower seeds. You know how I created that recipe, I was making carrot lentil soup which is one of my favorite soups because it’s so fast and so easy and then I thought maybe I can take these same ingredients and use less water and make a pate out of them instead of a soup. Et voila! There is the pate.
Gary De Mattei: It was great. The other pate; vegetable pates that we’ve done that you’ve heard about I’m sure countless times on this program is the string bean, walnut and onion pate that you call…
Caryn Hartglass: Vegan chopped liver.
Gary De Mattei: You call it your mom’s chopped liver.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: Another great recipe for Valentine’s Day. Dessert is just the simple poached pear that you do with the raspberry coulis. Tell us how you do that Caryn? It’s really simple and delicious.
Caryn Hartglass: I do it the simplest, simplest, simplest way. There are recipes out there for poached pears and mine is the easiest. Start with organic pears that way you don’t have to peel them. Now some French chef’s may sniff and snort at not peeling the pear but if it’s organic the skin is very nutritious and when you cook it the skin becomes soft and buttery just like the inside. You don’t even really realize it’s there. So I just core the bottom. I scoop the bottom out and get the seeds and then I typically take four of them and put them in a medium sized saucepan. I fill it with about an inch of water and cover it and turn the heat up let it boil and then turn it down simmer covered for about 20 minutes-25 minutes.
Gary De Mattei: Not even.
Caryn Hartglass: It goes really fast.
Gary De Mattei: It’s about 15 minutes.
Caryn Hartglass: 15 minutes and then I’ll make a coulis either out of raspberries or strawberries. I take a bag of frozen berries put it in a saucepan, turn the heat up and I don’t even like to add water. I just stir them until they dissolve themselves.
Gary De Mattei: They defrost yes, right in the pan.
Caryn Hartglass: And you can smash them in the saucepan or you could put them in a blender to make it even smoother and you pour that on top of your pear and it’s elegant delicious. It’s just pears and berries.
Gary De Mattei: And if you want you can drizzle a little of the chocolate sauce on it.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes that’s good.
Gary De Mattei: There’s a great chocolate sauce recipe that we also have. I don’t know; is it the same sauce as the chocolate fondue?
Caryn Hartglass: Yes, that’s it.
Gary De Mattei: Is that it?
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, so the chocolate sauce, icing/fondue.
Caryn Hartglass: It’s just cocoa.
Gary De Mattei: ¾ cup cocoa, 6 tablespoons to 12 tablespoons of sugar depending on how sweet you like it, 3 tablespoons coconut oil, ¾ cup water, and in a medium saucepan you take it away. There’s even a video an instructional video with Caryn showing you how to make it so no excuses this Valentine’s Day you can do some very decedent things.
Caryn Hartglass: With simple ingredients.
Gary De Mattei: With simple ingredients in no time at all when you get home from work. We have a homemade tofu and chocolate mousse that’s very simple. Flourless chocolate cake is a little more involved.
Caryn Hartglass: Not really.
Gary De Mattei: It’s delicious.
Caryn Hartglass: It is good.
Gary De Mattei: Of course there is our favorite Valentine’s Day pancakes.
Caryn Hartglass: You just make them in the shape of a heart and there’s 2 ways to do that. We’ve got lots of pancake recipes and they’re all gluten free and they’re all good. But you can use a heart shaped mold where you oil the outside of the mold. A lot of these are Teflon coated so they are not the most environmentally or healthfully friendly.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: But they do make a nice heart shape but I think it’s easy just to spoon the batter out on the frying pan in 2 spoonful’s…
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: Up against each other and you make a heart that way.
Gary De Mattei: Right.
Caryn Hartglass: Without a mold and it’s just fun.
Gary De Mattei: Yes it’s really fun.
Caryn Hartglass: It’s just fun.
Gary De Mattei: And what if you are alone on Valentine’s Day and you don’t really know what to do and you say yes, this is all great but I’m by myself. Well this is the best time for you to fall in love with yourself and really treat yourself to some of these great recipes that are not going to harm you, that are going to take care of you, that are going to nourish you, that are going to nourish your body and your cells and going vegan is one of the greatest gifts you can every give yourself.
Caryn Hartglass: That’s a very sweet thought Gary. Thank you.
Gary De Mattei: Oh it is.
Caryn Hartglass: So whether you are making dinner for someone else or for yourself.
Gary De Mattei: Yes, it’s such a great way to celebrate the great you, celebrate your life and how the life around you is also very precious and you’re not only loving yourself but your loving every living thing on the planet and just by what you put in your mouth.
Caryn Hartglass: Beautiful! So we’re sending out love right know to all of you. We’re tuning in love and we’re sending it out and wishing you a very Happy Valentine’s Day.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: And that’s all we have time for Gary.
Gary De Mattei: Yes.
Caryn Hartglass: Yes.
Gary De Mattei: So another quote.
Caryn Hartglass: Another quote.
Gary De Mattei: “I’m so excited for Valentine’s Day all the chocolate is going to be on sale.”
Caryn Hartglass: Right so buy your chocolate tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in everybody! This is Caryn Hartglass with Gary De Mattei. Remember have a very delicious week!
Transcribed by M. Eng. 3/1/2017