u s e y o u r h a n d s

Wheatberry Green Salad

1 cup uncooked wheatberries
1 cup rough-chopped grape tomatoes
2 huge handfuls of robust greens (kale, beet greens, etc.)
1/4 cup Annie’s Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette
1 to 1 1/2 cups of sauteed seitan, cubed

In a big bowl, prepare a big bowl of washed, uncooked greens. Cook up your friends the wheatberries. You’ll know they’re done when they are tender, but not mushy. Drain the wheatberries then toss them on top of your greens. Add in your diced toms. Pour over the vinaigrette. Do nothing for a little bit.

In the meantime, toss some (preferably fresh) seitan in a mix of flour with a generous dash of salt, pepper and some italian seasoning mix (with basil, marjoram, oregano, maybe some rosemary.) Saute them until brown and crispy (but not too crispy) in a bit of grapeseed or canola oil. Drain!

Then, add the seitan to the salad. Add a few twists of pepper and toss the whole thing up. Eat it! Enjoy!

And eat it tomorrow. It makes a good 4-6 portions.

My new thing is to ask both myself and others, “What’s the best thing that happened today?” I think it helps cease complaints and reframe your day. And it works, mostly. But of course there are the days that finding even one good thing is a struggle. And on those days, I reach into my desk for a fancy bag of fancy chocolate and break off a square. That bag, just its existence, makes me happy because I know that it’s a ready-made answer to my daily question.

That’s the Fiddlehead Cafe in Chicago’s Lincoln Square Neighborhood. That’s the FIDDLEHEAD CAFE. Let me say it again so it’s sure to get picked up on search engines. Fiddlehead Cafe.

It’s awful. Here’s why:

- There were no vegan options on the menu. And while I don’t expect much, I think it’s sort of stupid not to have something when you run a restaurant in a yuppie neighborhood. I’m sure it’s come up a few times before.

- Anyhoo. So I ask for a veggie frittata without the eggs or cheese. And the waittress says, “Um, how’s that going to happen?”

- After Miss Snottypants walks off wiht my order, she returns 90 seconds later and says, “Um yeah, the chef won’t make anything not on the menu.” Chef, you are a dick. It wasn’t that busy in there and I wasn’t asking for anything you wouldn’t have done in making the whole frittata anyway.

- So then I ask for a fruit bowl. “I know it’s not on the menu,” I say, “But can you see if the chef will acquiesce? Otherwise, I’m not eating here.”

- And then it took 20 minutes to get the check.

- I still tipped a decent tip. But I will never go back to the Fiddlehead Cafe. It was way, way better when it was Square Kitchen. Dear Fiddlehead, Suck It. Love, Me.