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jennconspiracy's Profile

Website: http://www.jennconspiracy.com/

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

About: Aspiring gourmet vegan/organic chef & baker.

Favorite foods: peanut butter cups, green papaya salad, lemon bars, fried oyster mushrooms, golden chanterelle and escarole ravioli, corn chowder with seitan & tofu, Thai pumpkin curry, fried tofu with peanut sauce, crispy fried potatoes, grapefruit margaritas

Last bite on earth: candy cap mushroom infused liqueur & prosecco cocktail

The Ten Most Recent Comments By jennconspiracy

From Recipes

Dinner Tonight: Pesto Trapanese

Arugula or rocket pesto is a traditional Italian pesto - you can even buy it in a jar (no cheese) in most grocery stores in Italy. People adore arugula there (and so do I!).

I have used pumpkin seeds, almonds, cashews as well as arugula, basil, oregano and spinach for pestos. I don't use cheese because I'm allergic to dairy but raw cashews (soaked, first) make a nice cheesy texture.

Does anyone else freeze up their pesto in ice cube trays for later use? I just throw a few cubes into a pot with plain tomato sauce from a can for a delicious marinara (way cheaper than the pre-seasoned stuff).

jennconspiracy at 11:51PM on 04/17/08

From Talk

I love you but you love meat

Oh - I adore hijiki. I never can make it properly. My boyfriend will eat meat from time to time, but he doesn't have to think too hard about preparing a homestyle vegan Japanese feast for me. He likes all the food I make -- and doesn't miss the dairy or meat. He's vegetarian probably 90% of the time.

I find that people are generally sympathetic if I explain that I am very allergic to dairy -- cutting it out has eliminated all the chronic, daily arthritis pain I have suffered since I was a small child. There will be a few hardcore hedonists who swear they would never do it and try to get me to eat something cheesy or creamy (tempting but I prefer to not be in pain, thanks), but overall people are ok.

Restaurants are especially good if you tell them that you are actually allergic (rather than averse) to something.

That said - I have dated people who were phenomenally picky eaters. I don't like celery but I won't spit out soup if there's some floating in it. I have gone out with a guy who would order pork-fried-rice and pick out all the peas, carrots, celery and onions, eating only the pork, egg and rice. Seriously. He was so intent on eating only meat most of the time that it was really a turn-off.

Another friend is so "ethically carnivore" that he wouldn't eat a bite of food at a big party I had at my house. Most of the dishes were vegan and all were vegetarian (not by request - I ask meat eaters to bring food to share with others, sometimes it just turns out all veg). This friend actuall ended up leaving early to go get a steak burrito -- he wouldn't touch a single thing on a huge, creaking table full of food! He claimed later that it's not different from me going to a place where all the dishes are meat and walking away -- to which I responded that it would be the same if he had eliminated all vegetables and non-meat from his diet.

jennconspiracy at 3:00PM on 03/13/08