Last night’s dinner, a panini featuring hickory smoked tofurkey, red peper miso mayo, sauteed shallots, sliced avocado and heirloom tomato on french bread. With a side of daikon-carrot slaw.

Summer is here, and it’s a great time for food. Fresh fruit! Iced tea! I’ve got so many things I want to cook.

I like tofu. I like it marinated in red wine, and grilled.

I like it grilled with pesto.

I like tofu.

I’ve been getting into hockey this past season. I grew up in Texas, a place where ice is located only in glasses of tea, so it wasn’t a sport of note unlike football. I never was much of a sports fan, though as a member of the marching band I dutifully cheered the Fighting Rams on, win or lose.

So I admit it comes to me as a surprise that I’ve gotten “in” to a sport. But there you go; there’s something about the speed of the game and its geometry that gets to me.

Going to Bruins games is also mighty fun. There’s a sense of ritual about the whole thing, a three-hour liturgy. But, as you would expect, the food is not all that inspired. I dream of vegan snacks – vegan hot dogs, vegan nachos, vegan super pretzels. These things would only be available if Portland had its own NHL team (The Portland Indies?), but alas this is Boston. Sitting in the plebian seats my options are popcorn, peanuts, or fries (if you’re freaky about sharing your fry oil with chicken tenders, nix the fries).

But! I got some discounted tickets to the fancy aristocratic section (The Club), with its own entrance and fancy padded seats and waiters who bring beer right to your seat and people who apparently pay huge amounts to come to a hockey game and then do everything but watch it. And they had a hummus wrap! That’s right, I found a non-fried, vegan meal. I can’t say it was the best $10.75 I ever spent, but I was so happy to find it I bought it and ate it with gusto.

I doubt I’ll be back to The Club anytime soon, but when I’m old and wrinkly, I can tell the tale that once I was there, and I had a wrap. And it was vegan. And it was full of zucchini.

It has come to my attention that, for some people, Vegan Man has been filtered as too sexy to read at work.* Is it the food porn? The too hot to eat (wait until it cools down) noodle soup? Does the single picture of me without a shirt drive the censors wild?

I’m not exactly sure, but I don’t intend to stop the sexiness, such as it is.

Lunch today was a ridiculously good vegan meatball sub. And yes, that’s Teese underneath the meatballs.

Friday is a good reason for biscuits, right?

Continuing with the 660 Curries book, tonight brought us a black chickpea curry, kala chana masala. Black chickpeas are a lot tougher than yellow ones, and require around an hour in the pressure cooker after soaking! Combined with coconut, chilis, mustard, curry leaves and other spices, the result was an amazing chewy, spicy, dish. I had three bowls.

Dr Apricot and I took a trip to the Super 88 in Dorchester today, and returned with many delicious things. With some of the haul, we made a huge batch of dumplings, which we served up for dinner alongside some almost-pho. I am incredibly full at the moment, and supremely contented.

Yesterday’s breakfast was flaxseed waffles (modified Waffles I from The Joy of Vegan Baking) topped with caramelized nectarines. I made some homefries filled with onion, spring onions and carrots as a side dish. And there was much happiness.

Boston is in the early stages of a serious snowstorm right now. There’s a lot of snow on the ground already, and it’s going to snow like crazy for the next 8 hours or so if the reports are right. It’s the perfect day to stay in, work from home – this is easy for me since I always work from home – and make a giant pot of chili, one of my great comfort foods.