Victor’s Falafel Recipe

Victor’s Traditional Fried Falafel

Falafel & relish

1 cup of garbanzo bean flour (often found at Indian food stores)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp minced onion
1 tsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp chopped cilantro
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup of hot water

Combine all ingredients except lemon and water, mix well then add lemon and water. Stir until blended, let stand for 15 minutes.

Scoop by tablespoon sized balls and deep fry til toasted color.

Victor likes to make a relish of chopped cucumber, red onion, hot chilis (to taste) cilantro, tomatoes and fresh lime juice to put on top of the pita pockets with shredded lettuce. Many folks like a tahini dressing with their falafels.

This recipe holds together well, there are options that use the whole garbanzos and some that bake instead of fry, play around with whichever works best for you. Some additional ideas might come from food.com. Also do a google search for falafel, then click images and you will find hundreds of variations on serving.

Some days it seems we might be the only vegans in Vilas County. I will have to make ti a goal to find all the Vilas Vegans. I think we would make a good club.

 

Ice Cave Caper! St. Germain to Bayfield, Caves & Madeline Island

I am inside an icicle!

This weekend I took a road trip with my cousin, Goldie, from Madison to the Apostle Island Ice Caves. It was as simple as tagging her in a reply post on the Bayfield Chamber of Commerce Facebook page and a plan was born.

Brilliantly, once we set the dates, she did all the hard word of picking and reserving a hotel. Much to my surprise, on Madeline Island; a half hour drive from the caves and across the lake…. She thought the caves were off Madeline Island and that this was just the right course of action. And while at first it didn’t seem all that logical, our timing fell perfectly into place and I would not have a thing about our trip changed. Perfect!

I thought we would have to leave at the crack of dawn to allow enough time, but a call to the information hot line had both the Iced Cave and the Ice Road closed from the huge storm the day before. Goldie had an inside tip on parking and let me know that arriving in the afternoon was the better plan anywa and maybe by then the caves would be open. So, we slept in on Saturday, not hitting the highway until after 10 am, Bayfield for lunch at a crazy famingoed restaurant (bravo on the vegan pizza!) around 1 and the cave parking lot by 2:30.

TIP #1: Everyone goes early for parking… they are also done early afternoon, wait to go and park at the trail head. Works also if you are going for sunset photo. It is only in the morning that the parking fills up.

Not only did we park at the trail head, we were the in the first position behind the porta-potties and could not have been any closer to the start of the trail. The folks that did not know this added at least an extra 2 miles to their hike.

TIP#2: There are no potties on the ice. DON’T drink fluids for the hours before you go, wait until you are off the ice. A beer at lunch is NOT a good idea.

TIP#3: The 4th porta-potty on both sides is heated.  Kidding… but just by saying that I started a line at the portables for potty #4. That was fun.

We were both wearing red and thought that would make us easy to find if we were to fall through, but once on the ice there was really no fear of that.

The first cliff you come to is very impressive and sets the tone for the rest of the shoreline walk. Here there were dozens of kids climbing on and around the ice and sliding down where possible. It was quite a bit further before we found a go-into cave, and go in we did. belly wiggling our way through. Once in, there was plenty of room to sit-up and enough light through the ice to see the wonder we were surrounded by. Goldie took a narrated video of this section, if she publishes it, I will link to it here.

We walked further on and found more and more curves, cliffs and  iced embankments. Kids were tucked into every nook and cranny. It was great fun.

But… The fun ended when we had to come back. It was a wind-in-your face-like-a-brick-wall return trip. Winds were screaming at us at over 20 mph and we had to walk a mile + back to parking in the soft, unpacked, newly fallen snow. That was hard. Not impossible. But really hard. And my head gear wouldn’t stay on with the winds. But there were folks much worse off on the return than us, the mom with two kids she was pulling in a sled. I wanted to cry for her. And the dogs. Goodness there were a lot of dogs on the trail. They were not a problem in anyway, but I don’t think any of them liked it as much as their owners might have thought them too. It was cold and difficult and they were all on short leashes, not dog fun.

TIP #5: We saw many people with snowshoes and on the soft snow, that was probably a good idea. Cross country skis too. But, I think most of the time the “trail” is hard packed and then the snow shoes would be more hindering. If you have a choice and it has just snowed, wait a day or two or three. It will get hard packed again.

Bravo! We made it! More to follow in another post….

Special Menu Dining Around the Area

Humus makes a perfect base for a dressing or sauce

Yep, its a big area and I am only going to scratch the surface with this post. First let’s talk about my dining style. I have been vegan for a bit over a year. That means I don’t eat meat or dairy, but I love to eat and I love good food and it isn’t that hard to make happen. My first 6 months or so I was a shy vegan, best  handled by not going out or taking my special menu with me when I had to travel. I am far more confident now in my ability to find something on any menu with a few notes:

If you are vegan or vegetarian, do NOT choose Friday nights for your going out night. This night is typically Fish Fry nights and places where you have already found a favorite menu item or two could well not have anything but the special menu, which you can’t eat any thing from. Wait until any other day of the week

Anywhere that sells pizza can give you a great meal, order the vegetable pizza without cheese. We have trained quite a few pizza places in this style, you will not likely be the first.

Wisconsin leans heavily towards the meat & potato style of meals. As a special menu person, we like some nontraditional choices.  Look at Tapas. Our favorite place is The Vine in Minocqua. They not only have a good wine list, but have several vegetarian, vegan and easily converted choices. It also has a great ambiance. You can find them at: thevineminocqua.com.

I would be remiss not to mention some of our successes in St. Germain:
The Bear’s Den at Black Bear Lodge. They make a fantastic vegan pizza and are very skilled when asked ahead of time to prepare special menu items.

The Wolf’s Den in downtown St. Germain where much as I would have loved bacon and eggs, I stuck with the vegan choices. They did a wonderful pancakes, oatmeal and a fresh fruit that had lots of great fruit, not just melon.

Riverstone Restaurant in Eagle River has a bunch of good vegetarian/vegan or easily adapted choices, some well hidden in the menu text. Look at the mexican dishes, pizza and risotto. They can be found at: riverstonerestaurant.com

Norwood Pines is another fine restaurant with a few well prepared menu items specifically for vegetarian/vegan diners. norwoodpines.com

Pitlik’s Resort has a really good vegetarian wrap. 

Not being mentioned here doesn’t mean anything much and could be just fine with their offerings for vegan/vegetarian. These few noted here are the rare highlights of my first vegan year dining around.

I will note that not enough restaurants realize that what is today an irritating special request is going to be a growing and important aspect of their business. The restaurant that can please the vegan will win in the long run because we are the folks that decide where our meat eating group dines. It is always the special menu diners that choose the restaurant and there are more of us every day.

Oh, and if you are a restaurant owner, chef, cook, server…. salad is not a main course. Even for us it tends to be a starter, just like meat menu folks. Except maybe for lunch. Think outside the box! It’s really not that hard and we will be ever so grateful!