Bought, Paid for & Cooking…for Vegetarians!

I know I was supposed to write this a few months back, but considering I had to actually undertake the “date” before I could write about it, things got pushed back. I’ve been a busy little cook recently and unfortunately had to push the date back a couple times. Anyway, here we go…with a Quinoa Salad, to boot!
You know that scene at the end of Groundhog Day when Bill Murray rolls over and is surprised to see Andie McDowell lying in bed next to him…? And then he asks her why she’s there and she says, “I bought you, I own you.” That line always made me laugh, in an uncomfortable sort of way. My good buddy from Berkley and I used to joke about those words coming out of her mouth with her Southern accent and the strangely uncomfortable feeling it would give me. Anyway, I joined the overactive, overexcited digital high school that is Yelp a couple months back and have been writing reviews and attending their “parties” and defending myself against the many word twisting, antagonistic fussbudgets that seemingly spend the better part of their lives “helicoptering” the site. They're not all bad, and they do try to do some good; especially the people in charge. They hold little parties for their “Elite” members, which is basically a reason to get drunk and hook up and hold other events.

One such event was a Silent Date Auction for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of New York. Now, I’ve lost two grandparents to Lymphoma, so I thought that if nothing else it would be a nice gesture to help raise money for a good cause. Seeing as I’m more of a, “how can I help you with my time?” kind of guy, I decided to offer my services, via food. The bidding was going well, okay pretty well and I was excited that I might get a chance to cook for one of the people I actually knew. Then came the day of reckoning and the name I expected to see next to my name, in the “win column,” was different. So I reached out to her (or actually, she reached out to me…I was a busy boy) and congratulated her on her winnings and then asked if she had any food allergies or perhaps if there was anything she was unwilling to eat. And then it came, like a piano falling on Daffy Duck’s head…she was a vegetarian. Now, those of you that know me know I do not suffer vegetarians lightly, so I was in no mood to cook or assemble something that didn’t have parents. Hell, just the other day I walked past a guy who passed Maoz Vegetarian Café to hear him mutter, “commies.” Oh wait, that was me. Anyway, I was fresh off of cooking at a dinner party with a menu that included: Fried Chicken Breast Strips; Thai Beef Salad and a Corn Salad with Chicken Sausage. Not to mention, I had seriously pushed for making a bacon vinaigrette for the salad, but was vetoed.

So while I was cooking Friday night, I was mentally cheating on my dinner companions trying to figure out what the hell I was going to cook the following day. And it came to me quite easily. I set aside a small amount of the Corn Salad, sans the chicken sausage; as well as some of the Peach Crumble, then ate dinner, threw my orange clogs on and tried to figure out my next move.

When I woke up in the morning I found that the quinoa I had brought to my friends house had been cooked, drained and was sitting neatly in the refrigerator. I was working on borrowed time (probably because I made some questionable decisions with my orange clogs on and got to bed late), so I made my way to Whole Foods; with a Solo cup full of quinoa in tow to do my shopping. I decided on a different salad, but one with protein that most vegetarian meals lack or mask with things like beans and whatnot. Quinoa has got a little more than four grams of protein per ounce, which is pretty substantial for something that never had cute ears or a family. So like a tornado, I picked up a plum tomato, a cucumber, some black olives and a red onion; and knew I had mint and feta cheese at my friends place. Then I hightailed it back there, and got to mixing.
Then I put my vegetarian meal in some containers I “procured” from Whole Foods and was on my way to the Belvedere Castle.

Turns out, she was a fan of charity:water, the wonderful organization started by a good friend of mine and even had a charity tote bag; so she scored a few more points for vegetarians everywhere in my book.When it was all said and done, she professed the peach crumble delicious and the corn salad super tasty, but spent the majority of the time eating the Quinoa Salad.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

3 Cups, cooked Quinoa
1 small Cucumber, skin on small diced
½ Red Onion, small diced
1 Plum Tomato, small diced
1 Handful, Grape or Cherry Tomatoes
4 oz., Sliced Black Olives
4 oz., Feta Cheese, crumbled
20 Mint Leaves, chiffonade
2 oz., Red Wine Vinegar
2 oz., Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients except oil and vinegar and mix well. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, but more pepper; as the olives and feta will be salty. Then dress with the oil and vinegar and mix again.

Serves 4-to-6