Sara's Vegan Kitchen of Wonder and Discovery (and Parethetical Afterthoughts)

this is for real

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:27:43 GMT

PBu

1 Part peanut butter
2 Parts almond milk (or soy milk or any other non-dairy milk)

Tasty and filling and lighter than nut butter. Also, not full of scary ingredients and creepy texture like some nut butter alternatives I've seen.

I want to try this with the Nutty Vermonter's Cinnamon triple nut butter* and rice milk.

*Eventually, everyone I know will get a jar of this for their very own.

I don't remember that last time I had chocolate under my nails

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:04:16 GMT

I've not been baking as much. I wonder if it's to do with the lack of counter space. More likely, it's due to wanting to lose weight. Whatever.

It's strawberry season. Woot! I love strawberry season. It's late spring, so there's just NO winter left and plants are growing almost aggressively. The days start to feel hot but the temperature still drops at night. Lightning bugs and farms shares!

This weekend we wound up with lots of strawberries. At least three quarts, probably between 4 and 5. This evening I divided them into 4 types: cobbler now, eat soon, eat this week, and dip in chocolate for the neighbors.

cold-brewed coffee, 2009 edition

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:01:37 GMT

I made cold-brewed coffee last summer and love it. I also made a royal mess every time. By the end of the summer, the Toddy was looking mighty attractive. It's a uni-tasker, though, so I won;t make room for it in the kitchen.

This year's first batch of cold-brew was far less messy. I used the extra-extra-large ball jar for steeping, and bought a metal colander. In all I used two large glass bowls, a colander and fine mesh handheld strainer, large metal serving spoon, a canning funnel, a pair of long chopsticks, and two glass jars. Thankfully, this production generates enough coffee for at least two weeks. Mess was minimal. I'd like to streamline the process somehow, though.

Sunday Morning's cold coffee

1/4 C cold-brew
1/4 C Mimicreme
1/4 C water

blend for 30 seconds
serve over small ice cubes.

love and strawberries

Wed, 27 May 2009 17:38:55 GMT

Last night Becky and I got to talking about local food and love. Fresh
local strawberries became a metaphor.

Strawberries are available year-round. You can have strawberries any
time you like. They're good sometimes, too, but sometimes they are
tart, bland, or too crisp, hard.

On the other hand, if you've ever had strawberries from a local field
when they are perfectly ripe, you know what strawberries are supposed
to be. Sun-warmed and deep red all the way through, they just about
fall into your fingers when you pull them from the vine. A
freshly-picked strawberry just about melts as you bite into it and
your mouth fairly aches from how sweet it is. It's worth it to wait
all year if you have to before having them again. It's just that good.

Loving someone who loves you back is like that. It's fresh warm
strawberries instead of off-the-shelf pretenders. We're human, though,
and a year is a long time.

I'll stop before I take this way too far.

well, one last bit: the first time I had the real thing I thought, "Oh
my goodness. This is what I've been missing. This is the real deal."

hummadammas

Wed, 27 May 2009 04:07:25 GMT

I had garbanzoes left over fro ma patch of cutlets. I had favas for the same reason. I didn't have enough to do much with either, so I threw them together and made hummus and ful mudammas. It's good on carrots, celery, bagels, and so on.

HUMMADAMMAS
a hybrid bean puree*

3 C beans (50/50 favas and chick peas)
3-4 T tahini
1 t garlic powder
1 t tamari
1 lemon, zested and juiced**

combine it all in a food processor.

blend until smoooooth.
I enjoyed writing all of those "m"s.

*"bean puree" sounds just about as nasty as it gets. So much for accuracy.
**if you use a microplane to zest, flip it over and use it to strain the juice for seeds.

baked tofu !!!

Wed, 20 May 2009 16:24:02 GMT

Baked tofu has always kind of mystified me. I enjoy it. Baked tofu is
firmer, browned, and always super-tasty on a sandwich. I wished I
could make it at home. I've tried. It never really worked. Until now.
It is, of course, just about the easiest thing in the kitchen. As
usual, a few minutes on the internet was all it took to figure this
out. Why did it take me years to figure this out?

Baked Tofu

1 # tofu
2 T soy sauce (or Braggs or Tamari)

Cut the tofu into 1/2" slabs.
Pour the soy sauce into a baking dish (9" square should do) at one end
of the dish
Lay each tofu slab in the sauce, flip it over in the sauce, then move
it into place at the other end of the dish
When all the slabs are dipped, flipped, and positioned, your baking
dish should be pretty full.

Let it sit for 10 minutes or until the oven heats to 375F.

Bake tofu for 15 minutes.
Flip the tofu over.
Bake for another 15 or 20 minutes.
Voila!

This would work with any sauce or marinade. I'm thinking about
teriyaki sauce, an orange juice-sesame-ginger combination, lemon juice
and basil, garlic with diluted balsamic vinegar and sea salt... The
possibilities just go on and on.

Dinner last night was baked tofu with peanut sauce over steamed
spinach. Adam made the sauce.
Lunch right now is leftover baked tofu with peanut sauce over mesclun greens.

cooking together

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:59:19 GMT

Adam and I have cooked meals ahead for the past two weeks. We got
through all of last week and through Wednesday this week on what we
made on the weekend. I've enjoyed it, but probably more than Adam has.
We pick out recipes and go shopping together. It's nearly heaven to
me.

We've made Indian Pulao two weeks in a row (because it's yummy),
spiced lentils with green apples (lasted for-damn-ever. Note: always,
ALWAYS, halve a lentil recipe), quinoa three-bean salad (protein
wa-pow!), an experiment with vermicelli that we called Vegan Splat
(not giving that recipe out, but thanks for asking), and curry noodles
with veggies.

We also decided to try to duplicate a garlic-kale-feta roll Adam got
at the farmers' market a few weeks ago. I made Betta Feta from the UnCheese Cookbook, a book I forget about and am
always thrilled with the recipes from. To save hassle and/or tears, I
bought a store-made pizza dough. To simplify things even more for this
test run and to maximize filling, I made one large thing instead of
little rolls. Next time I'll make hand-pies and my own dough. Well, at
least hand-pies. This might also make a good pizza.

Sara and Adam's Garlic-Kale-Betta-Feta Roll.

1 onion, chopped
1 bunch kale, chopped sort of fine
6 cloves garlic (more if you like, or add powdered garlic to required intensity)
1/2 recipe of Betta Feta from above book. break the chunks into little pieces
1 pizza dough

preheat oven to 400F.
like a cookie sheet with parchment paper
Saute onion until brown.
add garlic and mix it all up.
add kale and water as needed.
stir to combine.
cover to steam kale.

roll the while the kale is cooking, roll out pizza dough out as thin
as you can or like.
if rolling out the dough takes more than a few minutes, turn off the
heat under the kale and remove it from the burner, leaving it covered.
pile the filling onto the dough either:
(1) all over leaving a 1/2" margin on one edge and a 1" margin on the
others for a stromboli OR
(2) on half of it with a 1/2" margin
Close it up
(1) roll it up starting at the 1/2" edge. pinch the edges together as
you go and seal it with a little water when you get to the end. the
extra space is for the inevitable squishing of filling all over the
place. what I call the sleeping bag effect.
(2) fold it in half and pinch the edges shut
Transfer it to the parchment paper.
Prick it on top with a fork a few times.
Bake 25-40 minutes, depending on how thick it is and how tight you rolled it.

This was delicious. It makes amazing leftovers. I want this every day forever.

six onion later...

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:53:26 GMT

I'm a little tired of eating out. I have much affection for my local
restaurants. It's actually difficult to put into words how excited I
got when I learned I could get Vegan Hot-n-Sour soup (2 different
types, no less) 4 blocks from home. And Pad Ki Maow! There are
sandwich shops, noodle shops, coffee shops that roast their own, a
falafel place, pan-Asian, Thia, Vietnamese, Indian, Mexican, sushi,
home-style and so on restaurants and pubs within a mile of where I
live. I love my city and its capacity to make my butt bigger. I have a
deep affection for my city and want to support her locally-owned
eateries.

But I also like to cook, and eat home-cooked meals. They are cheaper
and typically better for you. Also, we had pizza twice last week. How
lazy can you get? When I don;t make dinner, that means I don't have
leftovers for lunch. That gets expensive quickly.

For reasons I haven't figured out yet, I had a huge amount of energy
on Monday. Maybe it's the exercise I've been getting. Whatever. I
carpe'd the diem and made dinner (and therefore lunch) for the whole
dang week. I felt really proud of myself. Adam has since pointed out
that the three entrees I made are all bean-y somehow. I don't see this
as a problem, but it could be for some people I guess.

I made

Curry Yellow Split Yellow Pea Soup with Sweet Potatoes
and Collard Greens
Muhjadarrah (lentils and rice with caramelized
onions
something that might be chili, which I
improvised too much to cite a recipe for

.

I started the soup first. Onions 1 and 2 sauteed while I chopped
everything else.

While it was coming to pressure, I started onions 3 and 4 for the
Muhjadarrah. While the onions were caramelizing I started the lentils.
Once the onions were done, I added the lentils and rice and pepper. By
then the Soup was ready to come off the heat and settle down.

While the rice and lentils simmered, I got the chili going (onions 5
and 6). Two cans of red bean, whatever frozen corn I had, a 28oz can
of crushed roasted tomatoes (note to self, grow a lot of tomatoes and
start canning! Greg Brown is right.*), fat load of spices, some frozen
peas, 2 carrots. and whatever else I threw in there.

I got home at 6 and had three entrees done by 8:15. Score!

There are pictures of the thing on my camera. I'll hopefully remember
to post them.

* There's only to thing that money can't buy...True Love and
home-grown tomatoes.

cake that crunches

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:38:22 GMT

The first trial was a failure. I threw out chocolate. That's how bad it was.

Kittee to the rescue! I used her peanut butter rice crispy treat
recipe and made a crunchy base for the cake. I made VCTOTW ganache for
on top. It was excellent. THe crunchy base was a little too thick and
not quite gooey enough, but this is certainly the combination to use.

Here's the recipe I made last night. It was really quick and easy.
Next week for the birthday I'll double the recipe and make it a 4 layer thing.

A Cake that Crunches, by request

Crispy base

Ingredients:

* ½ C corn syrup
* ½ C sugar
* ½ C peanut butter
* ~~3 ½ C crispy rice cereal~~ 2 C crispy rice cereal

Preparation:

Grease the pan you will bake the cake in.
In a small saucepan, heat the corn syrup and the sugar until the sugar
melts and the liquid barely boils.
Remove sugar mixture from heat.
Add peanut butter and mix until smooth.
Mix the cereal in, adding more if it's too gooey.
Press the mixture into the cake pan and allow to cool. Try to make the
top flat, but don't knock yourself out.
Once cooled, remove it from the pan and set aside.
(to be done in two cake pans, to make a couple of thin slightly gooey layers)

Ganache topping

Ingredients:

* 4 oz dark chocolate
* ¼ C soy milk
* 2 T maple syrup

Preparation:

In a small saucepan, heat the soy milk until it barely boils
Working quickly, add the chocolate and maple syrup and mix until smooth
Allow to reach room temperature before spreading over the top of the cake.
(I'll make a triple batch for frosting the cake next week)

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
* 1 C sugar
* 6 T unsweetened cocoa
* 1/2 t baking soda
* 1/2 t baking powder
* 1/2 t salt
* 1 t vanilla
* 1 T vinegar
* 5 T vegetable oil
* 1 C cold water

Preparation:

Preheat oven at 350F.
In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, soda and salt.
Make three wells in the flour mixture.
In one put vanilla; in another the vinegar, and in the third the oil.
Pour the cold water over the mixture and stir until moistened.
Pour into an 8" x 8"-inch pan or a 9" circular pan.
Bake at 350°F. oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it springs back
when touched lightly.
Allow the cake to cook completely, then remove it from the pan, place
it on the crispy, and top with ganache.
(I'll double this recipe and make two cakes next week)

cake trials

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:44:26 GMT

The first experiments with crunchy fillings went poorly.Let's call
them informative and move on.

It looks like I'll make Kittee's peanut butter (cashew butter?) rice
crispy treats as a layer or two in a tall cake.
Cake:cricpy:cake:frosting:repeat. I'll post pictures later.

I take requests

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 02:36:20 GMT

Adam has requested a "cake that crunches" for his birthday in < 3 weeks. I'm up to the challenge. Restrictions: no caramel or toffee. Ideally it'll be a chocolate cake.

Here's what I'm considering so far

a chocolate or banana (banana-walnut?) cake with chocolate or peanut butter crisped-up frosting (additions of crispy cereal of appropriate flavor to frosting) between the layers.
chocolate cake with a flat single layer of popcorn ball or crispy cereal treat type stuff between the layers (4 layers, in most cases)
variation on the above, cake pyramids molded around a nugget of popcorn or crispy cereal treats and enrobed in chocolate.
a no-bake fudge adapted from a concoction of dark chocolate, butter, silk creamer and broken up arrowroot cookies as filling for a yellow cake
something involving home-made crunch bars

Challenges include

cutting a cake into two layers without things going very wrong
folding crispies into frosting and maintaining the crunch
making a single layer of popcorn or cereal treat
getting a single layer of treat onto a cake without tears
avoiding a sugar-induced coma during the testing, which I only have a few weeks to do
getting it all figured out in just a few weeks.

I'm excited about this. Maybe I'll start blogging food again. I certainly want to document this process of testing and discovery (hey woo for spontaneous blog name shout-out!)

I've actually been good about cooking lately. just not much new. Lots of split pea soup, lots of baked sprouts with tofu or seitan and potatoes (DISAPPEARS), cutlets with I think of it (try-them-with-applesauce-oh-my-god), and muffins.

Muffins have been a bit dry or heavy lately. I'm not sure why. They are getting plenty of lift, so it's not the leavening. Maybe it's the applesauce. They are completely fat-free, which means no shortening, which means bready, I guess.

But starting tomorrow it's all about the birthday cake trials. This is gonna be fun!

muffins

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:11:08 GMT

Cherry Almond Muffins
makes 10 muffins

2 C flour
1/4 C sucanat
1 1/2 t maple sugar (optional)
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
a few grates of nutmeg
1 C applesauce
1/2 C soy milk
1/4 C maple syrup
1 1/2 t canola oil
1 t almond extract

handful almonds, chopped
3/4 C dried cherries, soaked in hot water (NEXT TIME: use frozen
cherries. they are cheaper, tastier in baked goods, and available
organic)

preheat oven to 375F
mix dry
mix wet
add bits to dry
add wet to dry

bake 19-24 minutes

next muffins: Maple Walnut/Pecan Oat
variations on the above to include:

maple extract instead of almond

walnuts or pecans (whichever I have in the house) instead of almonds

oats instead of cherries

yogurt instead of soy milk and oil

sprinkle maple sugar on top instead of in the batter?

updating

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:36:48 GMT

I just learned that most of my recent posts didn't get up. I e-mailed
them incorrectly. I did write the required # of Mofo Posts, but they
didn't get posted. Bummer. I just reposted the missing
Mofo-through-December posts, including sweet potato pie with a pecan
crust and east,tasty brussel sprouts + tofu dinner.

Winter is having its way with my food cravings. If you could cover
those noodles in warm chocolate, that'd just about take care of it.
Thanks. What, no peanut butter sauce? Damn you! Actually, I'm
resisting better than I expected this year. I remember one winter
that--between the cold and our restricted budget--we ate 2# of pasta
each week between the two of us. We're nowhere near that now, thank
goodness, but ooooh, it's tempting.

The winter is doing a number on sleep patterns, too. Normally I'm a
morning person, looking forward to getting up in the morning as much I
do to getting into bed at night, and I really like my sleep. Lots of
folks I know have mentioned having trouble getting out of bed on-time.
Just about the only thing that gets me excited about getting out of
bed on these cold mornings is really fresh orange juice. I've lucked
out and found some good deals on juice oranges at the co-op recently.
When I can get organic juice oranges for less than $2/pound, I look
forward to getting out of bed. Next month I think my mom is sending me
some grapefruit. Even better!

I got kittee's papatofu 'zine and I'm loving it so far. I also bought
one for Allison. I hope she's loving it, too.

was going to be soup AKA too much pasta

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:02:40 GMT

Adam loved this.

32 oz veggie broth
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1 bag frozen spinach
4 cloves roasted garlic
1 t ground pepper
2 t salt
1 block tofu, broken into pieces
8 oz whole wheat elbow pasta

Dump it all into the pot
Bring it to a boil
Simmer 5 minutes
Turn off the heat
Eat it when it's cooled off enough to enjoy.

I really wanted rich broth-y soup with lots of spinach and some tofu,
perhaps featuring pasta.
This was a pasta dish.
Next time I'll out in 4 oz pasta and give myself the extra broth, or
cook the pasta separately.

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:02:58 GMT

There's sweet and sour cabbage in the oven and the house smells AMAZING.

3# red cabbage
1/4 C vegetable oil
1/3 C cider vinegar
1/3 C tamari
3 T maple syrup
1.5 t garlic powder
1 t ginger powder
1/2 t white pepper
2 medium or 1 large sweet potato

preheat oven to 350F
chop or shred the cabbage.
toss to coat with liquids and seasonings
put it in a large baking pan
cut the sweet potatoes into large dice and cover the top.
bake 40-60 minutes

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:28:37 GMT

Lots of cooking this weekend. I made ful mudammas...

FUL MUDAMMAS

2 C cooked fava beans
one onion, chopped
3-5 cloves garlic
a couple pinches salt
2 T olive oil
1-2 T lemon juice (optional)

While the beans cook (or before you open the can), saute the onions until the caramelize. Add the garlic and saute for another minute.
When the beans are done and still hot or warm, mash them with a fork until there are no whole beans left. If you use canned beans, warm them in the pan with onions and garlic before mashing.
Mix in the rest of the ingredients and serve warm with carrots, pita, celery. bulb fennel, sliced raw sweet potato...you get the idea. Also tasty on sandwiches.

...Happy Fun Bread, and purple breakfast for three days...

Purple Breakfast for Three Days

1 C purple sticky rice cooked.
1/4 C chopped strawberries
1/2 C raspberries
1/3 C blueberries
2 bananas
probiotic soymilk or yogurt.

Prepare the rice well in advance.
Mix the fruit and berries with the soy milk and chill.
When the rice is at room temperature, separate it into 3 or 4 servings, depending on how much you like to eat in the morning. Refrigerate the individual servings.
In the morning, combine the yogurt mix and the rice. Ta-da! Purple breakfast!

I got a pint of strawberries for cheap because most of them were going off, ditto for the 1/2 of raspberries. I still got my money's worth from them. I suppose this would also work with whole frozen berries, which I have a bit of.

...roasted a couple of sweet peppers, and cooked collard greens for snacking on.

I cooked the greens for 10 minutes (unheard of! more than blanched?!) because I thought I'd be stuffing them a la grape leaves. I ran out of momentum and started snacking on them instead. YUM! They got kind of sweet. Lovely snack. Then I wrapped a slab of roasted pepper in a great big collard leaf. Even better! Adam had one like that and said "Now, you put some cream cheeze in there and you've really got something." I'l do without for now, but maybe the next time I make yogurt cheese I'll try it.

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:46:11 GMT

made pumpkin fava stew and pumpkin brownies. The stew could feed us lunch all week. The brownies probably won't last that long. Between the stew and brownies I used a 5-pound pumpkin. Poof! all gone. it's a Halloween miracle.

Last night I made fava cutlets and oven fries and garlicky collards. There are collards left. Roasted red peppers and cutlets are fabulous together.

We are getting down to the last of the farm share. Just in time, too. I still have carrots and beets like crazy (need a new juicer and to make hummus), but there's room in the fridge for the first time in a week and a half. In order to avoid overlap with this week's farm share we'll have to eat spinach at least one more meal (two if it's raw) and delicata squash something. Maybe just rosemary roasted roots. ...with collards.

eggplant, picture heavy

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:18:14 GMT

I've talked before about roasting eggplant. That this is the summer I figured out how to cook eggplant. I am working on taking pictures when I cook, building it as a habit into my cooking, so I took pictures of roasting an eggplant at each stage. Also, the new camera.

big gorgeous organic eggplants from the past-date bin.

They are still perfect eggplants, if you use them NOW. Which I will...
I forget where I learned this now, but you slice into it and put slivered garlic in there.

Then you roast it at 400F until it gets black and withered-looking.

I puree the whole roa`sted thing (minus the spiky top) with tahini and eat it on toast, or with carrot or celery sticks. Yum.

vegans are people just like you...

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:44:13 GMT

We're working on redesigning our kitchen. It's not big, but it's big enough and fairly smart. It could be smarter, though. So I'm wrestling with the same things non-vegan cooks wrestle with. How can I get the most useful storage out of the space I have while keeping the space inviting, attractive, and practical.

So far, two challenges are proving most stubborn. First, the shortage of wallspace. There are only two places I can wall-mount an exhaust fan. I know where I'd like the cooktop. I'd like it in the middle of the room, one step away from the sink, the fridge, the counters, and (unfortunately) the trash can. And the Nice People at IKEA would be more than happy to sell me one, but as far as I know, I have to have a hood, an exhaust fan. I don;t know how to get an exhaust fan in the middle of the room without it dominating the room. If I didn't need one, things would be far easier.

The other challenge is the corner. There's one half-corner. ...sawed-off corner? ...bunted corner? Whatever you call it, there're two 135-degree angles where there should be one 90-degree angle. It does all kinds of weird things to counter planning. We're considering a corner sink, but that eliminates one of the two places the cooktop can go and we're back to Thing 1. 'round and 'round we go...

So, you see, vegan cooks wrestle with the same things non-vegan cooks wrestle with. Where will I get the perfect spice rack (The Traveler's Lunchbox has a great idea)? Where will I find time to cook dinner on a Tuesday night? If we renovate, will we actually be eating out for 3 weeks? We're just like you, only different.

Mofo on the Road!

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:15:18 GMT

We're having a lovely time on the road. On Saturday we were in Queens, Sunday in Philadelphia, and tonight we're back in New York at my uncle's house. We made dinner tonight and it was very satisfying. We got Brussels sprouts and tofu at the green grocer. My uncle had some walnuts in the freezer. When we got home, we set up hte tofu to press between the plates with a dutch oven on top.

A few hours later, after we all woke up from our naps because we are old, I tossed the sprouts with about 2 T olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. While I was cleaning the sprouts, my uncle cooked some jasmine rice and sautéed onions until they got all caramelized. Then I cut the tofu into cubes and did the same. We roasted the sprouts and tofu for 15 minutes, then added a handful of walnuts and roasted for another 5 minutes. We mixed the onions with the rice and served the sprouts over it. Yum.

THe best part is that the three of us came up with dinner together. I knew I wanted something not as heavy as the Indian we had for lunch or the Chinese we had on Friday night. I decided sprouts were the way to go. Adam said walnuts would be a good contribution, and my uncle came with the rice combination. I think I have food on my mind more than usual thanks to Vegan Mofo. It seems to be rubbing off.

We all ate well and feel full without feeling heavy. It was also my uncle's first tofu. He commented that dinner was tasty and filling, which surprised him. Way to go Vegan Mofo!

just when you think it can't get better

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:12:44 GMT

Veganomicon chickpea cutlets are a perfect food. It is undeniable. I bet everyone has their own way of making them.

I bake mine. Very tasty.
I sometimes like to make them with fava beans instead of chickpeas. Very tasty.
I tried tofu once. Not very tasty.
Tonight, I did something that was transcendent.

I adapted it from Knits with Carrots, who wrote how to make perfect tofu.

I had some leftover seasoned corn meal from when I made okra. I mixed that in euqla amounts with nutritional yeast and dredged the raw cutlets in the crumbs, flipping them a few times to get maximum coating. Then I baked them according to the recipe: 375F for 20 minutes, flip, then 10-12 more minutes.

The smell that filled the house was AMAZING. They tasted as good as they smelled. WOW.

dinner by Adam

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:28:33 GMT

Adam made bagel pizzas. I came home and the yummy toasty smell was coming from my house! So exciting!

vegan cheese with roasted red peppers and garlic-stuff olives and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast. Is it still pizza without tomato sauce? I say YES!

The picture was taken with my new camera. You can actually see detail in the nooch flakes. Adam got the camera for me for my birthday. ...AND he made dinner! He's the best.

stuffed squash

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:58:44 GMT

This is super easy and looks all fancy, even if it does use lots of pans.

STUFFED KABOCHA SQUASH

One kabocha squash, smaller than a volleyball
1 C quinoa (I used red)
1/4 C currants
one onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 bunch collards, chopped
applesauce (for on top)

Preheat the oven to 375
Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
Oil the non-skin surface and place it cut side down in a covered baking dish
1/4 full with water.
Bake for 20-40 minutes, depending on your squash (mine was ready in 20
minutes: fastest squash ever!)

While the squash is going, start the quinoa (rinse it out, put it in a pot
with 2x water and bring to a boil, then simmer covered for 18 minutes)
In a large pan, saute the onion and garlic.
When the onion is translucent, add the currants to the quinoa (don't mix,
just dump it in and cover the pot again.)

This was about when my squash was done.
Pull the squash out of the oven, cut the halves in half (quarters now), and
put then on the plates you'll be serving on.

Throw the collards in with the onions and toss to coat. Turn the heat to
medium and cover until the quinoa is done.
When the quinoa is done, add it to the onions and greens and stir it up.
When the collards are tender (5 minutes should do), portion the quinoa
mixture onto/into the squash 1/4s.
Top with applesauce if you like. We did.

NOTE: Kabocha squash skin is completely edible.

apples!

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:16:53 GMT

We went apple-picking. I have apples in the crockpot to be spiced apple butter or ginger-y apple butter (I haven't decided yet). I have fresh raw applesauce in the fridge. I have apples on my dining table in what I hope is an appetizing arrangement. I have apples in the oven becoming a Betty-esque Crisp.

Betty-esque Crisp

4 # apples (about 10), cut into chunks (large dice)
1-2 C sucanat
1-2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg

1 bag vanilla cookies of your choice (I used Mi Del (always makes me think of Rydell) snaps)
1/3 C oil or 1/2 C melted Earth Balance
maybe a little more cinnamon. Your choice.

Toss the apples with the sugar and spices. Get everything really coated. Fruit that site in sucanat goes to a magical place. A place we can follow and then eat it. It's amazing. So let that sit while you...

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Grind the cookies to coarse crumbs.
Drizzle the oil into the crumbs.
Mix the oil into the crumbs to make it all kind of hold together.

Pour the apples into a 9x13 baking pan.
Get all of the juice in the bottom into the pan. Remember: magic.
Spread the topping on top.

Cover the whole pan with foil.
Bake for 20-45 minutes, depending on how done the apples get.
Remove the foil and bake another 10-20 minutes to get the top brown and crispy.
Voila!

Serve with ice cream, yogurt, or eat it out of the pan one bite at a time every time you walk through the kitchen. Again, it's your choice.

Here's a picture of the apples I haven't used yet:

Here is what's left of the apples I did use:

crunchy vegan sadness

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:36:40 GMT

My juicer is not working. The disk/wheel that spins the cruel blades has cracked clean through. I bought this three years ago. It should lasts longer, but I bought it at Target. Can I expect better from a discount chain?