Dining Out "Vegan-Style" Just Got Easier, and More Baking

From entertaining out-of-town guests to creating more (and new!) baked goods in the kitchen, this past weekend was quite busy for me. On Saturday night, a large group of us (namely, my parents, grandfather, aunt, and our two visiting friends) had reservations for dinner at Giovanni's, which is an upscale (though, thankfully not overly pretentious), fine-dining Italian restaurant. Aside from the restaurant's elegant atmosphere and decor, their menu boasts an array of fresh, handmade pastas, meat and seafood dishes, traditional Italian pastries and cakes for dessert, as well as many other classic Italian fare. In other words, the menu doesn't exactly give a warm-welcome to vegan diners (since all of the aforementioned dishes contain animal products - the delicious-sounding handmade pastas? well those are made with eggs).

Since I didn't want to have to forgo attending dinner out with family and friends due to a limited menu, my dad informed the restaurant, when he called to make reservations, that one guest is a vegan. The voice on the other end of the phone said that they have prepared "vay-gan" (typical mispronunciation of the word "vegan," haha) dishes before, and that it would be no problem. When my dad forwarded this information to me, I was relieved, but still a bit weary as to what this "vay-gan" dish would be. Before arriving at the restaurant, I just kept repeating to myself, "PLEASE let this dish be substantial, and not just a pile of limp iceberg lettuce on a plate."

After everyone else at the table ordered their dinner entrèes, it was The Vegan's turn to order (dun dun dun). The waiter smiled, and immediately suggested their angel hair pasta with marinara sauce, and could include any vegetables that I would care to add to my dish. He also added that their angel hair pasta is in fact a dry-pasta (no eggs in the dough! score!), so this certainly would be a vegan-friendly dish; and, just in case, I mentioned that I can't have dairy, butter, honey, meat, seafood, etcetera, etcetera (luckily he didn't ask me at this point, "well then what DO you eat?" haha). I thanked him for the wonderful meal suggestion and for accommodating me, and went ahead with ordering this dish (since, as I've mentioned before, I absolutely LOVE pasta).



So here it is, my "vay-gun dish" at Giovanni's: angel hair pasta with marinara sauce, garlic, portobello mushrooms, broccoli, and spinach. This dish was exquisite (and far from just a plate of limp iceberg lettuce!), which wasn't totally surprising to me, considering the reputation of this restaurant. However, I was impressed by how accommodating the chefs and waiters were (especially since a lot of chefs and waiters tend to get extremely irritated with "difficult diners.") - not only did they make sure that my meal was in fact vegan, but they did so without any eye-rolling, sighing, or smirking. I really appreciated this, and makes me hopeful that other restaurants will soon follow suit and learn to appeal to a wider variety of palates and dietary lifestyles with their menus. So not only did I get to enjoy the company of my family and friends at dinner, but I got to enjoy the cuisine as well. Giovanni's deserves five stars - which, if I am not mistaken, is their ranking by several restaurant critics anyway :0)

In addition to spending quality-time with family and friends, I was able to do a little more baking this weekend as well - and, as promised to all of you, I did NOT bake muffins. That's right, I ventured away from only baking muffins, and decided to bake some cookies instead.



Using a recipe created by one of my dear friends (http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2006/10/01/home-sweet-home), I was able to make perhaps the most delectable oatmeal-raisin cookies that I have EVER tasted (and my family and friends agree). From the chewy texture of the oats to the sweet flavor and aroma of the raisins and cinnamon, these little gems will definitely be a repeat recipe. The only changes that I made to the recipe were adding more soymilk (since I found the batter to be a little too thick to make cookie rounds, in the beginning), and omitting salt - otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.





For a snack, I enjoyed two of these scrumptious cookies with a nice, cold glass of hempmilk (hempmilk is INCREDIBLY delicious - you must try it. I buy the Living Harvest® brand: www.livingharvest.com). Such a delightful treat! I'm so glad I had an opportunity to make this cookie recipe this past weekend, and I will certainly be trying more very soon!! It was a refreshing change to just baking muffins - but later today I WILL be making more Banana-Date-NO-Walnut muffins, so I can't say that my muffin-baking days are over :0)

Although I had a full schedule this past weekend, every moment was fun and exciting - there's nothing like spending time with those who you care about the most. In addition, I also enjoyed discovering the fact that dining out "vegan-style" really isn't that hard when you choose the right restaurant, and that I can bake cookies as well, haha. I hope you had an exceptional weekend as well!