Cookies!

December 22nd, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

I am posting this from my new iPhone that I had to get after I dropped my old iPhone on the concrete floor at work and the screen smashed into a frillion pieces. If this works there will be less excuses for ignoring the blog. Birthing an enormous baby will probably still be valid.

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Here are some gingerbread cookies I made for work. I used ikea forest creatures cookie cutters and the vegan lunchbox gingerbread recipe. I did not start having a christmas rage until the lumps in the icing kept clogging the piping tip but I kept having it until I put the remaining icing through a sieve. Next time I would double all the spices.

fake ricotta, hot tofuturkey sandwich, gingerbrownies

November 23rd, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Did you know, Tofutti makes fake ricotta now.

lasagna with vegan industrial complex cheese products

If you taste this product directly from the container, you will surely be sorry. It tastes like dry pastey congealed chemicals. However, it melts quite nicely into a lasagna and makes it super creamy. Also the weird taste becomes much more subtle. I put a little daiya in too so it was a creaminess explosion. In the world of aftertastes, I am more used to tofu ricotta and since that is healthier anyway, I would probably not get this again unless I was in a mood where I was too lazy to make tofu ricotta but not too lazy to make a lasagna.

I made my fake turkey yesterday. All went smoothly except the bottom edges got a little spongey, but I think that will cure itself when it gets its second baking with its bean curd skin. I stole some bits off the ends to make hot turkey sandwiches for dinner last night.

hot seitofuturkey sandwiches, canned organic cranberry sauce, KALE

It tends to hold together better after it has an overnight chilling but it was quite delicious. That gravy (Imagine vegetarian wild mushroom) is kind of blah but the fake turkey made it more delicious. I would only get it in a gravymergency. Or, it could be that it just needed salt.

I also made the Ginger Spice Brownies from 1000 Vegan Recipes. This cookbook is growing on me but from what I have read, the baked goods recipes are not entirely trustworthy and generally require some modifications. Ginger Spice Brownies were not an exception. I made them for the first time over the weekend and was not superpleased. It was basically just gingerbread with chocolate chips and it was very dry. But, it could be my fault because I ran out of molasses and substituted half honey (from my pet bees, silence the vegan alarums) and used whole wheat flour as is my wont when destroying the pleasantness of baked goods. So then I obtained more molasses and made them again with the following changes and now they are delicious, although they are still a bit too crumbley (maybe add prunes, or ener-g?).

- halve the baking powder and soda
- double the cocoa powder
- whole wheat pastry flour
- double the cinnamon
- reduce the allspice and add cloves instead
- bake in an 8×10 pan for 22 minutes or less

tasty yet crumbley Ginger Spice Brownies

Now I shall bake an elaborate cake before joining the rest of humanity on the festive highways. Happy thanksgiving!

pre-thanksgiving

November 19th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Oh my, two posts in one day (containing enough content for half of a real post)? It is feast or famine around here.

Did you know, it is almost thanksgiving? I am going to my aunt’s house in Pennsylvania for a vegan-besides-the-turkey thanksgiving. I am in charge of:

the tofuturkey
a cake

I might also make Mama Pea’s cornbread stuffing with tempeh bacon and portabellas and cherries. I made it a couple weeks ago as a test and it was quite good, although would have been better with gravy. I will add chestnuts and celery if I make it for real. Also I will shell out the $1.50 extra for the Lightlife tempeh bacon strips instead of torturing myself making my own. But there will already be vegan regular-bread dressing so it might be too much dressings. I used the basic cornbread recipe from 1000 Vegan Recipes, which is good with white whole wheat flour and is now my go-to cornbread recipe.

tester stuffing, B-sprouts, sweet taters

My tofuturkey of choice is Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Soy and Seitan Turkey. I have made it four times, and it is great. It does take a lot of baking, but it is like a tenderer, moister, less rubbery tofurkey. This time I am going to try putting the skin on it, which I have never done before.

beancurd sheets

Basically you soften these beancurd sheets, which are the dry skin peeled off the top of soymilk vats or something, and wrap them around the tofuturkey and if you soak them too long they dissolve. Sounds head-explosion-inducing. I noticed when I got home that my package of beancurd skins expired in August of 2010. I’m just going to assume that doesn’t matter.

The cake I plan to make is also from Bryanna Clark Grogan: Pumpkin Tunnel Cake with Lemon-Ginger Cream-Cheeze Filling, Caramel Sauce & Toasted Pecans. I have not tested this due to laziness / desire not to eat a whole tester cake and become enormously fat right before Thanksgiving. I plan to make it Wednesday morning right before leaving town so that should be a fun head explosion too!

japanese winter stew

November 19th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

In honor of my final CSA box for the year, I decided to purposely use the daikon instead of letting it rot and throwing it out like every other week. I do not know why they insist on giving me so much daikon. It is like a giant radish that smells slightly like feet. I am NOT into it.

So I made Japanese Winter Stew from the taste space, which is a lovely blog which has many delicious-looking recipes and recently posted a recipe for braised daikon that I will no doubt forget about completely by the time I am getting a million daikons again next year.

Wegmans did not have enoki mushrooms so I just bought the cutest mushrooms they had. How cute are these mushrooms. It’s like a little city of mushrooms.

white beech mushrooms

I also did not have kombu which I cannot seem to ever find at the asian grocery stores but this was a very nice stew and the daikon was thoroughly unoffensive, even sort of goodish. It has also a turnip, sweet potatoes, spinach, and tofu in a miso broth. Here is a terrible picture.

how not to photograph food

We could get into how I can’t find my flash right now but next time we shall perhaps remember to hold the bowl level when photographing stew.

These leftovers made a fine lunch also. I am bringing my lunch to work now because I need a break from the cafeteria crowd, particularly this one girl who is “morally opposed” to vegan foods and needs to bring it up all the time. I don’t know if she thinks it is cute/sassy/attractive to men to constantly say how she hates “healthy food” or she is just very stupid, but she has a huge lardy blubbery gut and restraining myself from pointing out that she is not exactly a poster child for healthy living is giving me an ulcer so I am just going to pack my lunch for a while, I think.

halloweekend

November 1st, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

It snowed all day on Saturday but it didn’t really build up and it is already gone. Luckily we did not lose power so we could make full use of our new heated mattress pad.

For breakfast we had apple cinnamon pancakes from 1000 Vegan Recipes. I think I have found the optimal healthifying flour mixture which is 1:1:1 all purpose : white whole wheat : whole wheat pastry. Healthier but still fluffy and not like chewing wet cardboard.

spiced apple pancakes, 100 Vegan Recipes

Later we had some more things from 1000 Vegan Recipes, apparently I was too lazy to get out another book. Basic cornbread and Baked Beans and Apple Crisp, sugar reduced in all, and all very good. Also some sauteed collards.

100 Vegan Recipestravaganza

I made some chocolate chip cookies also, to take to a party even though Chris made some comment about how it was a party and not a bake sale. I used “Enjoy Life” mini chocolate chips because apparently they don’t have Ghiradelli at Target but they were pretty good. The chips were. The recipe was not so great though. It is the one from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar which uses a crap ton of canola oil instead of fake butter. The dough was oozing oil the whole time, it was so disgusting, then the cookies were little grease bombs. They were tasty, like cookies from a supermarket bakery or something as opposed to toll house style, but the oiliness was icky. Luckily I got rid of them all in about 5 minutes at the party and it was probably too dark for everyone to notice their greasy fingers afterwards.

a bad picture of the last 3 cookies

But I did make a good thing, which was Mama Pea’s Pumpkin Latte. I didn’t realize the starbucks one wasn’t vegan until last year but nonetheless it is much too sweet. If not for that I would probably rather pay $4 than wash the vitamix. But still.

pumpkin spice latte in twee anthropologie cup

In other news, I picked up my CSA yesterday and the plague of cabbages continues.

brief history of past week

October 28th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

O what an unfortunate dearth of blogging! I blame my laptop, whose keyboard broke on the way home from Costa Rica, who now must be accessed via a full size keyboard plugged into the USB, which is extremely unergonomic. Also Kate Middleton must be removed from the vicinity every 45 seconds which slows things down.

Last week I braved my crummy farmers market but there was nary a pumpkin to be had. I did buy a million dollars worth of apples and dahlias and a giant kale and what I thought was a neck pumpkin. Also I had to stand in line for ten minutes next to a stall selling an enormous pile of sheepskins, so disgusting. I can almost overlook how fully half the market is always selling meat in coolers because I guess that’s sort of better than factory farming but just WHY with the sheepskins especially accompanied by a truck with a sign picturing an idyllic field full of happy sheep. What a bunch of creeps. BUT I DIGRESS.

How nice is that giant kale. It is Russian. It came with a free seasonal halloween spider.

Anyways, look at my CSA.

Potomac Vegetable Farms CSA week 5A

SO MANY GREENS. Mustard, cabbage, collards, kale, and mei qing choi, which as far as I can tell is baby bok choi. It is totally stressing me out trying to eat all these greens.

Well the first priority was to use the cabbage from last week so I made galumpkis. These are stuffed cabbage rolls. Normally they have ground beef and white rice inside. I think when my dad makes them he uses soy crumbles. I put tempeh, brown rice, onion, celery, a bit of caraway, and fresh dill. It was ok. I didn’t want to put too many weird things in there but next time I would.

galumpkis and charming mashed potato presentation

I cooked all those little eggplants in the style of Imam Bayildi. I say “in the style” because my understanding is that the point of imam bayildi is to contain a ridiculously enormous amount of olive oil. I used a cast iron skillet and greatly reduced the oil and it still resulted in delicious eggplants.

kale, braised eggplants, pita, hummus and olives


The neck pumpkin from the farmers market turned out to just be a squash inside, so I really do not understand this neck pumpkin thing because the first one I had was definitely pumpkiny inside. Anyway then I had 7 cups of roasted squash, which luckily the dog goes crazy for so at least someone will eat it. I used 3 cups for the pumpkin pie from Vegan Pie in the Sky. I think the filling is a bit soft for my liking but the spice and sweetness levels are quite nice. It might not be as soft with canned pumpkin but I did drain my squash thoroughly. Plus it would be better with an actual pumpkin.

pie.

Coming up:
cabbage science project, potentially disgusting.
a use is found for a million expensive apples.
we drown in greens.
 

 

taters casseroles: joining hearts across the usa

October 21st, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink

I forced Jennifer to make the Scalloped Potatoes and Eggplant Bacon with me so I am quite pleased that it was so delectable. It is kind of laborious but I bet it is still delicious without the eggplant bacon and that would make it easier. In mine the eggplant kind of melted away into the casserole anyway so I bet you could add some smoked paprika and skip it. I’m going to try tempeh bacon next time.

The only changes I made were that I forgot to add the breadcrumbs/cornstarch to thicken the sauce, but it thickened after the lemon juice was added and I didn’t even realize until I saw the breadcrumbs still in the Wegmans bag the next morning. My casserole was still super creamy the next day, while there are some comments on the recipe page about it getting dry, so I suspect that was fortuitous. I think the lemon juice becomes essential for thickening in this case though so don’t skip both, that is my vague notion. Or, maybe it has to do with using the Vitamix vs a food processor for the cashews. Anyway, it was quite thick. Also I had to bake my casserole for much longer than 45 minutes before the potatoes were done, maybe I cut them too thick or my oven sucks.

In order to make this more attractive next time, I’m going to try putting all the onions and celery globs from the sauce into the pan in the first sauce-adding-step,  so that when you pour the rest of the sauce over the potatoes, you can still see the slices and they are not all glommed up with onions. I think it would be much prettier then.

Anyway it was super delicious and I’m going to force everyone to eat it at Christmas dinner this year.

This weekend:

- I will make galumpkis without a recipe using my giant CSA cabbage

- if I can find a pumpkin at my lousy meat-centric more-expensive-than-the-supermarket farmers market, I will make a pie

- if I can fine 2 pumpkins or a very large pumpkin, I will make a milky polish pumpkin soup with drop noodles that I remember only vaguely and can only extract vague instructions out of my mother about

- I will follow Jennifer’s directive and make Color Me Vegan drunken beans

drunken beans and a delicious casserole

October 20th, 2011 § 3 comments § permalink

My new favorite recipe from the last few months is the drunken beans from Color Me Vegan. They do have a bit of brown sugar in them, but it’s not much. Next time I make them I’ll cut it by half and see if we can notice a difference. This recipe inspired me to start cooking my own beans instead of using canned, it’s not even that hard! I was pleasantly surprised. I make 1.5 times the recipe, since all the Mexican beer I can find comes in 12 oz bottles, not 8 oz. And also then we have 1.5 times as much. Make these! I made them on Tuesday along with some tacos.

a taco and drunken beans

A highlight of my week so far has been getting 5 giant organic red peppers at safeway for $1.25 each. I am so rich in red peppers!

organic red peppers that didn't cost a million dollars!

Our latest coordinated cooking across the country was this scalloped potato and eggplant bacon casserole. I made this very early yesterday morning, as I am slowly becoming a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed morning person. My only 2 complaints about this dish is that it doesn’t photograph very well and it doesn’t make as big of a casserole as I usually make. It was very, very good. The sauce is great, it takes just like whatever evil condensed cream of whatever soup my  mom used to put in crock-pot stews when I was little. I mean that in a good way. I actually think that this might work being cooked in a crockpot on low all day, I’m going to try that next time I make it.

does not look as good as it tastes

west coast pot pies, breakfasts

October 18th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

I made the Candle Cafe pot pies on Friday night when my mom was visiting. I usually use all the ingredients in the recipe but don’t measure the amounts and then add a little more liquid to all the veggies. My favorite way to make this recipe is in individual servings and the biscuit dough recipe from the Vegan Table on top. I make tiny little ones for Alice and put an “A” on top, she likes that. She also likes when they are accompanied by gobs of cranberry sauce, but sadly we didn’t have any.

pot pie, west coast style

I also made nice breakfasts for my mom when she was here, peanut butter waffles on Friday and cornbread waffles on Sunday, both from Vegan Brunch. The peanut butter waffle recipe is my favorite waffle recipe, they are very dense and delicious. The cornbread ones are usually light and fluffy, but for some reason half the times I make them they get all stuck to my waffle iron. Poor mangled waffles. I finally gave up and made some pancakes with the rest of the batter.

peanut butter waffles

sad mangled cornbread waffle and a cornbread pancake

misbehaving waffle iron

east coast pot pie

October 18th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Last night I made a pot pie, from the excellent Candle Cafe cookbook recipe, as pioneered by Jennifer. The west coast way is to make this with a biscuity crust but I did a regular pie crust this time, the olive oil crust from Vegan Pie in the Sky, but I mixed in the herbs recommended in the recipe. I used white whole wheat flour though, which made it really bad to roll out. There was too much oil, too, but that might be the flour’s fault too. I just artfully arranged the slabs on top of the pie which was fine since I was only planning to do a top crust anyway, for health and laziness purposes. I also didn’t measure any of the filling vegetables, added a giant kohlrabi and some turnips that I needed to use from last week’s CSA, and didn’t peel the zucchini(!). Also I added the frozen peas at the very end of cooking the filling to avoid boiling them for 20 minutes. Anyway it is a great recipe. We only ate a little because it was a million o’clock at night by the time it was done.

Pies: Pot, Pot, Pumpkin

I also took out a bit of crust before adding the herbs to make a little pumpkin pie from the roasted neck pumpkin that I had in the fridge from last week. I used the Pie in the Sky recipe, divided by 3 since I only had a cup of pumpkin. It is very tasty although I think I didn’t bake it long enough for it to set up all the way. It has agar powder so you know how that is. And it is sweetened only with maple syrup so that makes it appropriate to eat for breakfast.

Potomac Vegetable Farms CSA week 4A

My CSA for this week. The only thing I didn’t use last week were the giant radishes, and look, more giant radishes, godDAMN, what is a person supposed to do with these. Also mustard greens, kale, cabbage, taters (sweet and regular), peppers, and garlic. I can tell the problem vegetable for this week is going to be that giant cabbage…

Pestilent Kitten

This post is brought to you by Kate Middleton the Cat, who is going through an in-your-face, grabbing-your-neck-with-her-arms, patting-your-face-with-her-dirty-litterbox-paws, biting-your-typing-fingers phase…

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