Quick and Dirty Vegetarian Poutine

I... have been a terrible blogger lately, haven't I?

It's not that I haven't been doing anything. I've done quite a lot since my last blog entry. My mom even came to visit, and we did lots of fun things, such as seeing Billy Joel in concert and going to the restaurants of three chefs who have been judges on "Chopped". I've also gone to multiple museums with my friends, the Museum Girls, from the Louis Armstrong House Museum to the Whitney.

I've just had a lot on my mind lately, and it makes it difficult to sit down and focus on drafting a blog entry. I know that's no excuse, of course, but it's the truth. I just couldn't make myself sit down and type anything out. I've been too busy planning.

Planning what, exactly? Wellll... I suppose I can reveal the secret.

Sarah and I are planning a vacation to Canada!

It won't be for awhile (we need to get through tax season and save up first) but I'm very excited - we both are. And one of the things we're most excited for is trying Canada's most disgusting delicacy - poutine! In fact, I was so excited to try this Canadian favourite, I didn't want to wait the months and months until our vacation to roll around. So, of course, I decided I'd have to make it myself.

Unhealthy? Yes. Delicious? OH yes.

Now, I am not gonna call this a recipe. If you want a meatless poutine recipe where you make the fries and the gravy yourself, there are tons and tons of actual recipes on the internet. No, this is more like a... tutorial. For those of us who are lazy and don't want to spend the time cooking, or for those of us who are doing this after a long day at work and don't have the time to spend doing all that from scratch.

You will need...

• French fries (You can either use the freezer variety that you bake in the oven, or if you're super lazy, you can order fries from a local restaurant on Grubhub or Doordash or something)
• Cheese curds, or if you can't find curds, then fresh mozzarella cheese broken up into small chunks
• Campbell's mushroom gravy in a can
• Vinegar (I used white vinegar because I keep a lot of it around for cleaning, but apple cider vinegar would likely work as well)

Here's what you do:

1. If you're using freezer fries, bake them in the oven to your desired degree of crispiness. I would recommend making them crispy because you don't want them getting too soggy under all the gravy.

2. Mix a splash of vinegar into the gravy and heat it, either on the stove or in the microwave, depending on how lazy you're feeling. The vinegar is optional, but after much experimenting, I've found that it adds some much-needed acidity to the heavy mushroom gravy, which makes the dish taste better and feel less heavy in my sensitive stomach.

3. Assemble it on a plate! Fries first, then cheese, then gravy. OPTIONAL - plate your poutine on a red and white plate, the colours of the Canadian flag, and listen to "Canadian, Please" while you chow down!

And that's it! It's quick, it's easy, and it's delicious!

I hope you enjoy, and I promise I'll try my best to do a more substantial blog entry soon!
-Nym