denny's (MoFo 21)

Hard to believe that Denny's Restaurant started out as Danny's Donuts, a simple donuts and coffee shop open 24 hours a day. Once their customers began asking for other types of food besides sweet ones, Danny added sandwiches to the menu and changed the name to Danny's Coffee Shop. The joint went through one more name transformation to the now well known Denny's. Still open 24 hours a day and still selling coffee and sandwiches, among many other diner fare. It is hard to find a city without at least one Denny's.

I had my first taste of Denny's in college, working the graveyard. Lots of interesting characters visit the place once the regular folks call it a night. Lots. And not all of them were aware of the tipping system customary after being served.

I remember The Super Bird, a glorified grilled cheese with turkey, tomato and bacon, being very popular. The sandwich was cut into three parts, being so big. For the turkey I used Tofurkey slices. Any style of Tofurkey slices will do fine. For the bacon, I used my Tofu Bacon recipe, using three slices.  For the cheese, anything that melts well will be great - Daiya, Rice cheese, Follow Your Heart...

The second sandwich from America's Diner is Moons Over My Hammy. This sandwich has ham, scrambled eggs and cheese on a sourdough bread. Yves makes a great ham-alternative and the cheese choices are the same as above. As for the scrambled eggs, pressed tofu with black salt and a bit of vegenaise is all that is needed to make it just as creamy and delicious as the Denny's version.  

Grab a skillet, fry up some hash-browns, make some coffee, and enjoy a Denny's sandwich the vegan way.  

Super Bird

Moons Over My Hammy

 SUPER BIRD - VEGAN! PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

Moons Over My Hammy Recipe

PPK - american vegan kitchen III

Take Three.

PPK and AVK. Great pair!

Tonight's American Vegan Kitchen (by Tami Noyes) meal was the Southern Fried Seitan with Mashed Potatoes and Homestyle Gravy. It is so much fun to watch the kids' reactions when we are having something they love! And they loved this. I doubled the recipe (which calls for a measly 4 seitan cutlets) and doubled the mashed potatoes and gravy while I was at it. David had just enough to take to work the next day. It's like the kids fill up on the good stuff in anticipation of all the vegetables that will be coming their way sometime in the future. Like I said, so much fun to watch. 

There really is nothing much to report with this recipe. Awesome. That covers it. I made the seitan the day before and then the rest was easy to put together. Peeling the potatoes was the biggest pain. I did add more than twice the milk called for for the mashed potatoes, but I'm pretty sure that is a personal preference and is optional. The gravy kicked some potato rear - super tasty. 

I usually make the gravy last and then I am scrambling to put it all on the table before the food gets cold. This time I made the gravy while the potatoes were cooking and covered it with a plastic wrap to keep it from developing a 'skin.' Worked out very well. I just reheated it a bit when the seitan were nearing their final cooking. 

The only thing I forgot this time, and the kids cheered, was a vegetable dish. Potatoes count in some countries, right?

I did manage to get a dessert made, though! Priorities, folks. Cherry Turnovers. Tami's recipe uses a pie crust, but being lazy by this point, I used puff pastry. The store had it on sale and I wanted more of a turnover than a hand-pie. Not to mention I didn't have to make the crust. So good! And so quick to make. Get the filling made well ahead of time, though, since it needs to cool thoroughly.

We felt like we were celebrating something with this meal. Isn't Hug A Vegetarian Day coming up?