Cupcake Punk

New Address!

2008-09-23T21:35:00.003-04:00

As much as I've loved using Blogger (and it has been a good year and a half), I've decided that this blog needs a both a face lift and a new host. I look forward to seeing you all there!

New address:
http://cupcakepunk.wordpress.com

Dead Computer

2008-08-29T11:17:00.003-04:00

So. My computer's dead. I'm typing this from my work laptop, but I can't import any pictures, so the blog's on hiatus until I can figure out a better situation.

When it rains, it pours.

But then it's time to bake!

::edit:: Still waiting for insurance to figure things out with the computer. BUT, on the bright side, when things do get worked out, I have tons of pictures and recipes to post. Give me another week, two at the latest!

::edit edit:: September, 20: Looks like it's just going to be one more week until I have a working computer! By October and VeganMoFo, I should be up and running. I'm also working on switching over to WordPress, so I'll let you know when that's done. Thanks for waiting!

I Can Flip, Yes I Can

2008-08-24T12:37:00.005-04:00

We all have our cooking hang-ups. You know, those techniques we can't master, those ingredients that we just can't figure out how to cook right (eggplant--do I leave the skin on or off? Seriously.), that vocabulary that all runs together (it's not like we went to cooking school; why aren't definitions attached to every French word??). These hang-ups dictate what we cook or don't cook, what we're willing to bake and what we shy away from. I'm not saying we don't try and try and try again to figure out how to master whatever the bane of the kitchen is, but it's frustrating and, personally, I feel like I fail every time.

Now, brunch/breakfast is my favorite meal. It's also the poet's. So I feel like I need to come up with something tasty and innovative every now and then. And who doesn't love a good pancake?! They're carby and filling and can be made with lots of different twists. So here's where the hang-up comes in: I can't flip a pancake if my life depends on it. Remember that crepe cake? (I can't post a link, it was deleted with my first blog.) I think I had 20something crepes in it. You know how long that took me?? FIVE hours. FIVE HOURS for TWENTYsomething crepes. And that was all because I couldn't flip them. Fail.

Kitten Approved

Well, I'd like to announce that thanks to the twenty-step pancake flipping anxiety program, I think I've mastered my hang-up. I can now flip with confidence! No, really, I just figured out how to flip pancakes. I've been trying for...oh...ten years or so now. Practice makes perfect, I guess. Look at that stack!

So, whatever your food hang-up is, don't give up. Keep flipping. Or grilling. Or sauteeing. Or using that damned eggplant.

VwaV Banana Pancakes

Changes I made:
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/8 tsp cloves
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Chinese Orange Tofu & Vegetables

2008-08-20T14:15:00.002-04:00

You can probably tell by now (if you check my blog on any kind of semi-regular basis) that I love to stir fry. All of the world's evils can be corrected with a wok, tofu, vegetables, and some rip-off Chinese sauce. I'm normally pretty boring and make the garlic sauce 5 out of 6 times (it's just that good! and easy!), but I decided to splurge and cook the poet something different for a celebratory "you just got through your first day back to teaching" meal.

Since I'd been grocery shopping at the Dekalb Farmer's Market fairly recently, I had a lovely head of organic bok choi on hand, as well as several blocks of tofu, and mushrooms. I thought about the sauces I love at Green Sprout (can anyone say garlic broccoli?!?! It's so addicting) and remembered a tangy orange sauce they serve on certain dishes. The sauce I made isn't exactly like the one at Green Sprout, but it's pretty heavenly. I'm heavy on the spices, so if you don't like spicy food, I'd definitely cut the crushed red pepper down to 1 tsp or less.

Chinese Orange Tofu & Vegetables

For the sauce:
2/3 cup orange juice
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tbsp agave nectar
1 1/2 tsp crushed red chili peppers
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp powdered ginger

For the stir-fry:
1 16 oz block of extra-firm organic tofu, cut into thin 1x1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, diced
1 head of organic bok choi, chopped into 1 inch pieces
8 oz button mushrooms, halved and quartered (depending on size)
vegetable oil for cooking

Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.

Dry fry the tofu. I divide to tofu into 2 batches to do this. Once cooked to the way you like it, set aside on a plate to add to the stir-fry later.

In a wok, heat up 1-2 tbsp of vegetable oil on medium heat. Add the onion, cook for 6-7 minutes or until the onion turns clear and soft. Add the mushrooms and previously cooked tofu. After 3-4 minutes, add the bok choi. Cook everything until tender.

Add the sauce to the wok and cook everything for 1-2 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Avocado Burgers, Or Why Jes Needs a George Foreman Grill

2008-08-18T17:14:00.005-04:00

Sheba & Mistoffelees

Sheba and Mistoffelees didn't want to be outdone in cuteness by the kitten. I found them curled up like an old married couple this afternoon (and by "curled," I mean the man is stretched out doing his thing and the lady is tucked in the nook of his stomach--so domestic!).

On to the recipe. Well, the recipe below deserves a better photograph. Like, a good slider would have condiments of sorts, a tomato slice, maybe lettuce--something tasty--but I ate it this way, plain with a crack biscuit. The crack biscuit obviously made up for any lack of anything but burger and biscuit, not gonna lie.

Anarchy Burgers, 2007

I've been toying with this recipe for over a year. Above a picture of the last blog post I made about them on the now erased original Cupcake Punk. (sigh) Last summer I was fortunate enough to have a roommate who owned a George Foreman Grill that she used specifically for veggie burgers and the grill was perfect for my avocado burgers. No matter how juicy and not uberly firm the patty was it would still grill like a nasty Boca Burger. Now I have to fry them, which is insanely less healthy, but still delicious. Maybe more falafelish. I've been thinking about baking them, but haven't gotten to that yet.

For this batch I used chipotles instead of jalepenos. I like the smoky flavor, although the jalepenos* give more a kick to the burgers. You can throw in whatever ingredients you think will shine. The real beauty of these is the ease and the freeze. They take ~10 minutes to make and then you can make individual patties, saranwrap them, throw them in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and then pull one out to cook whenever you're hungry. This is my secret for staying alive in college, actually. One batch makes up to 20 burgers, so that's a steal for the ~ $10 in ingredients or so.

*The Firefox spell check for "jalepenos" results in a first option of "Pentecostals." **giggle**

Avocado Burgers

4 ripe avocados
2 medium on the vine tomatoes, diced
1 can black beans
1 medium onion, minced
2 cups frozen corn (or fresh corn off of the cob)
4-5 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped finely
2 cups bread crumbs
olive oil/vegetable oil for sauteing

In a frying pan, sauté the onion on medium heat for 6-7 minutes until clear and tender. Add the corn and chipotles, sauté until the corn slightly browns on the edges. Take off the heat and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the avocado, black beans, and tomatoes. Mash slightly, but you want to leave most of the black beans and tomato dice whole--just make sure the avocado is mashed to a smooth consistency. You're going for a smooth guacamole texture.

Add the corn mixture to the avocado mixture bowl, combine. Add the bread crumbs (you may need less or more depending on how moist the mixture is) and mix with a spoon. You may want to use your hands to combine everything together.

Form into individual patties and grill/sauté/freeze them. Serve on buns, biscuits, naan with hummus (my favorite!), however you like!

Crack Biscuits

2008-08-15T11:10:00.003-04:00

Miss Dorian Gray on my couch

First off, do I not have the cutest kitten ever? Ever ever?

Now for the best biscuit recipe EVER. I'm going to warn you right now: don't read this post any further unless you're willing to make a commitment. A serious commitment. A commitment to carbs. If you're low-carb, no-carb, anti-everything-that's-good-in-this-world-carb, then stop. (Anyways, I don't know why you'd be reading my blog if you hate carbs...) Just don't say I didn't warn you.

These, these are crack biscuits. I swear there's got to be MSG or crack slipped in them somehow while I'm not looking. Maybe there's some major chemical change while they bake. Maybe, just maybe, the southerners did something right.

The problem is, I can't stop making them. This is my...7th? batch or so in two weeks. Seriously. At first I didn't have self-rising flour, and even though they were super dense and tiny and probably not that good, I kept making them will all-purpose flour until I went to the grocery store to buy flour specifically for these biscuits. I've also used up an entire jar and a half of veganaise on them too.

And why are they so good? Baked in a muffin tin, they get more crispy on more area, leaving a golden satisfying hardness with each bite of the bottom. But on top and in the middle they are so light and so fluffy and so buttery and so satisfying. I'm eating my 3rd one of the morning as I speak. And did I mention they only need three, THREE!, ingredients?

Southern Mayo Biscuits

2 cups self-rising flour
3 tbsp veganaise
1 cup soy milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Spray a muffin tin with oil. Spoon the biscuit batter into the muffin tin so that each cup is half-full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bottoms of the biscuits are golden-brown.

2008-08-14T11:01:00.002-04:00

VwaV Scrambled Tofu & Baking Powder Biscuits

No time for a real post. But coming up, the world's best biscuits EVER. Even better the ones above. If you want the recipes and don't own Vegan with a Vengeance...then you should really buy it. Seriously. That and Veganomicon. Oh, and while you're at it, go vote for Terry & Isa in the VegNews Awards.

Happy Thursday, all!

Hoisin Green Beans

2008-08-11T14:51:00.003-04:00

The other week when I was out of money and food with only $4 to my name, I popped into the farmer's market that convenes every Tuesday on Emory's campus to see what I could grab for a few bucks. For $3 I grabbed a bunch of green beans from one of the farms, walked home, and then tried to figure out what I could make with green beans and one onion and the staples in my pantry. A stir-fry made sense, so I boiled some rice, sauteed the onion with garlic, added the beans, and then topped with Hoisin sauce mix. It was pretty tasty, and somehow even better the longer it sat in my fridge.

The sauce was pretty good. A bit too salty for my taste, but maybe that's just how hoisin is? I had a bottle in my pantry that I'd picked up from the market a few months ago and this was the first time I used it.

So if you have a few veggies sitting around in your fridge that you need to use up, I would recommend this recipe. It's simple, tasty, and would work with any summer squash, green beans, tofu, broccoli, etc.

Hoisin Green Beans

1 bunch of green beans, cleaned and halved
1 onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
vegetable oil
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp Chinese rice wine
1 Tbsp Oriental sesame oil
1 Tbsp tamari soy sauce

Saute the onion for seven minutes (or until soft) in a large wok with 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add the garlic, saute for one or two more minutes. Add the green beans, saute till tender, approx. 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the hoisin sauce, rice wine, seaseme oil, and tamari in a bowl.

When the beans are soft, pour the sauce on top. Saute for one minute.

Serve over rice.

Broccoli Pesto

2008-08-05T14:59:00.003-04:00

Sorry it's taken so long! My money situation is finally worked out, which means that I can afford groceries to make tasty things with, which means that I could renew my flickr, which means that I can get back in the swing of things, etc!

Since coming back from vacation in New York, I've been completely broke and living off whatever was left in my fridge and pantry--i.e. lots of pasta with tomato sauce and biscuits. Last week I did manage to buy a bunch of green beans and a giant zucchini at the local farmers market for $4, so I got a little green back into my diet. On the whole though, I've been eating terribly. Pasta, biscuits, and coffee. Not good for 50+ hour work weeks on top of class and homework.

I have to admit, as I was making the blog rounds today, I just realized that my favorite Canadian vegan nominated me for the Brilliante Weblog Premio 2008 award. (smile) In the interest of passing it along, I'd like to give it to Hannah at Bittersweet, Celine at Have Cake Will Travel, Shelly from Musings from the Fishbowl, Lori at Pleasantly Plump Vegan, Leigh at Raspberry Swirl (even though she already has it--double the love!), the vegan world's fave VeggieGirl, and Ashley Nicole at Vegan Invasion. You all inspire me in your cooking and baking!

I'm still working 50 hour weeks, so I'm going to leave you with a super fast and easy broccoli pesto recipe from Heidi over at 101 Cookbooks.

Broccoli Pesto

1 medium head of broccoli (about 3 cups), cut into very small florets
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
1 clove of garlic
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 teaspoon + fine grain sea salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

To cook the broccoli, salt the boiling water and add the broccoli. Cook for just twelve seconds. Drain immediately and run cold water over the broccoli to stop the cooking. Reserve a few of the small broccoli trees and puree the rest in a food processor along with the walnuts, garlic, lemon juice and salt. Drizzle in the olive oil while still blending. Taste, adjust with more salt or lemon juice if needed.

Serve over pasta!

Daring Bakers

2008-07-30T09:02:00.005-04:00

Strawberry Mirror Cake--July 2007

So it's time I do this for good--I need to resign from the group. I haven't been the best of posters, constantly too busy, too many emergencies, not enough money, and this month is a testament to that. I literally don't have the money to make the cake this month--I spent my last $4 on a big bunch of beans a giant zucchini at the Farmer's Market--I'm working a 50 hour week while still in class (which is creative writing, so there's a lot outside of class to do in addition to the 7 hours every week I have to be outside of my apartment). Anyway, all excuses aside, I need to quit.

Cheesecake Pops--April 2008

It's been a lovely year (this would have been my 1st Daring Bakeversery) and I've truly enjoyed the challenges. The sticky buns were out of this world! The crepe cake was fucking fantastic! The cheesecake pops were uber yum! But sometimes I just need to let something go.

Sticky Buns--September 2007

Don't forget to check out the blogroll to read all about this month's challenge. The Filbert Gateaus with Praline Buttercream look amazing. Everyone rose to the recipe. And I'm going back to working and writing and cooking (and playing with my cats!). Have a beautiful Wednesday and I'll be back Friday with a real recipe!

The Carbon-Free Home

2008-07-27T17:22:00.005-04:00

I work for an independent book store, A Cappella Books, in Atlanta and, in addition to working in the store, I plan and execute book readings. Today I had the pleasure of finally meeting Stephen & Rebekah Hren, authors of The Carbon-Free Home: 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil-Fuel Habit. Generally I'm not too psyched about the "green" books out on the market. "Being green" has reached fad magnitude, and even though I appreciate folks wanting to live more sustainably, some of the ideas and projects out there aren't cost-efficient or energy-efficient.

Stephen & Rebekah are two of the most down-to-earth super-friendly people I've met in awhile. I loved chatting with them about projects and how to keep my extremely hot apartment cool in the summer. One idea is to plant a deciduous vine like a grape vine in window boxes on my East-West windows. Using bamboo poles to form a trellis up the window, the vine will block out summer sun and then let in winter sun because the leaves will have fallen. Not only is it a cute idea, it's a cool one! (Pun sooo intended.)

I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in cost and energy efficient DIY earth-friendly retrofitting of their house or apartment. Tons of the ideas are renter-friendly, and I'm totally enamored with the grow your own mushroom or potato barrel ideas. Seriously, in the food section, they tell you how to grow tasty mushrooms (Rebekah said they just harvested shitake mushrooms!), and plant a bucket with potatoes. I'm definitely going to try out the potato bucket idea, since 2nd harvest plants in mid-late August.

If you're interested in buying the book, you can get copies off Amazon or signed copies through A Cappella (scroll down the schedule list and "add to cart;" then specify in an e-mail that you want a signed copy).

Chocolate Chip Carrot Sunrise Muffins

2008-07-25T16:09:00.004-04:00

Chocolate belongs in everything. That's why mole was invented. And in baked goods, it's even more of an "of course" type of thing. I had some carrots sitting around in my fridge that I needed to use up before they rotted and for some reason I really wanted a muffin with chocolate in it. Thus the Chocolate Chip Carrot Sunrise Muffins were invented. The recipe probably isn't unique. But it tastes good. And the orange color is so happy!

Nutritional Facts: Carrots are good for you. Chocolate is tasty and has caffeine. Spices are the bomb.

I riffed the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. Changed a few things, kept a few things. It was a good base.

Chocolate Chip Carrot Sunrise Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated carrot (I made my pieces super small and juicy so they incorporated into the mix better)
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin tin with papers.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the carrots, oil, soy milk, vanilla, and sugar. Add the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda and chocolate chips. Mix well.

Pour into the muffin papers and bake for 20 minutes until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

NYC Recap & Dorian Gray

2008-07-23T19:28:00.002-04:00

I'm back! Miss me? So down to the nitty gritty. New York was tasty as ever (as if it couldn't be). I didn't take pictures of what I ate because, well, I just don't do that in restaurants. But here's a list of all the vegan meals I had and where I had them at (minus a Thai place in Park Slope & a place I ate a veggie burger at...can't remember the name either).

Curly's Vegetarian Lunch: Blue Plate Special Vegan Corn Dogs with French Fries, Vegan Sangria Milkshake. I ate the corn dogs last summer with Kyle and have been dreaming of them ever since. Totally worth the trek over the bridge to Manhattan. The sangria milkshake was decidedly pleasant too. Who knew that sangria would work well in a milkshake?! It reminded me of a lassi (the South Indian yogurt drink), but alcoholic. All the better!

Second Helpings: Just a snake of a Mushroom Spring Roll. Very delicious. The cafe isn't vegetarian, but most everything they serve is, and they have vegan baked goods. What's not to like?

The V-Spot: BRUNCH! (my favorite for this trip): Vegan Breakfast Burrito w/ side salad, a side of a Vegan Pancake, and a Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip Milkshake. The breakfast burrito was OUT OF THIS WORLD. As was the pancake. David said it was more like a crepe than a pancake. But the cinnamon and other sundry spices in the batter were delish. And the milkshake was amazing too. Noticing a trend yet? David ordered the steak and tofu and that was rockin' as well. I tried it, of course, and the seitan was seasoned perfectly. Plus their coffee has a hint of cinnamon. Yum!

Pizza Plus: Best vegan pizza I've ever had. We ordered a large wheat crust pie with mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes. The vegan cheese actually melted AND tasted cheesy. Even David, a die-hard cheese-eater thought it was delicious. Plus they have $3 Brooklyn Lagers. Who can resist? I reheated the pizza in the oven for lunch the next day and it tasted just as good. Leftover seal of approval.

Red Bamboo: This was my last vegan meal in NYC. I had the lunch special of Vegan Chicken Parmesean with a side of Collard Green Spring Roll. The chicken's texture was right-on and the diced tomatoes on top made the meal shine. The parmesean was ok, I guess, I mean, it didn't taste like anything special, but I loved it. I finished off the lunch with a Vegan Chocolate Milkshake.

We drank quite a bit, as can be imagined, and drink prices weren't as scary as I expected. $2 PBRs in Williamsburg, $3 Brooklyn Lagers, $6 Hefeweizen, $3 Stella Artois, etc.

Ok, so in other news, meet Miss Dorian Gray! She's 7 weeks old (I think) and is going to grow into the worlds largest kitty. Ok, maybe not world's largest, but she's got seriously huge back feet and I think she's got maine coon in her. So really, she's going to be big. She never stops purring, is unfazed by the fact that my cats hate her, and she's obsessed with batting my eye lashes (which is a little uncomfortable for me). Basically, she's the bomb.

New York! and Chocolate Pistachio Cream Cheese Danish Bread

2008-07-16T12:57:00.003-04:00

Sorry for not posting in awhile. School. That's all I have to say about that.

However! I'm off to NYC for a week to visit friends, eat tasty vegan food, and pine over the fact that I couldn't fly my bike up with me this time. Sigh. At least I'll be hitting up the Siren Festival on Saturday (with the possibility of press/backstage passes...!) If you have any suggestions for food places or things to do, let me know. I've been to New York quite a few times, but always on my bike and with races and such going on, so this trip is really different for me.

I'll leave you for the week with my 2nd Danish Braid. This one I filled with vegan cream cheese, chocolate chips, and pistachios. My mom makes a danish bread type thing with chocolate chips and cream cheese every Christmas, so I thought I'd play around with that. Can anyone say instant amazing? You should. You should also make it. (smile)

I hope you all have a good week! Be back next Wednesday!

Cream Cheese Chocolate Pistachio Danish Braid

1 recipe Danish Bread

1 8 oz Tofutti Cream Cheese
3 tbsp sugar
1 cup vegan chocolate chips
1/2 cup pistachios, chopped

Prepare Danish Bread per linked recipe.

In a bowl, whip the cream cheese and sugar together. Add more sugar if desired. Add chocolate chips and pistachios. Mix.

Fill Danish Braid recipe and bake as instructed.

Veganersary!

2008-07-07T11:01:00.004-04:00

It's my first veganersary! Granted, I was not necessarily (ok, at all) completely vegan (for full story see my meme post) last July 7, and I get drunk and eat cheesy food (pun intended), and I love to eat Taria's pastry creations (she's fruitarian but the best pastry chef in Atlanta, so again, humor me), but it's been a good year. I wish I still had my old blog and could trace what I posted a year ago, but I can't. Sad.

I'm forever grateful to Rachael and Kyle and Taria for convincing me through their eating habits that veganism is totally possible--even when one is a pastry chef--and also to you guys, the blog community, for giving me hundreds of new recipes to try out and friendly support over much trial and error.

So, as a thanks and to celebrate, I'll leave you with a tasty breakfast. I know you all know how to make vegan french toast. And I usually make it with applesauce or smooshed bananas. Or sometimes super fancy with challah and vegan ricotta (smile). But with the usual recipe, the bread gets too much liquid in it and stays soggy, even if you fry it till it burns. So I experimented with a bit of vegan yogurt, added spices, fried it, and oh-my-goodness it was just like regular french toast! Crispy fried on the outside, not soggy on the inside, spicy-sweet...yeah, a pretty damn good simple veganersary breakfast.

Much love to you all, you're the best! Here's to another wonderful vegan food-filled year!

Vegan French Toast

1/2 cup vegan vanilla yogurt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp ginger

Mix together the yogurt and spices in a shallow, wide dish.

Dip the bread slices into the yogurt and cover both sides with the mixture.

Fry the bread over medium head with a dash of olive oil until brown on both sides.

Serve with maple syrup, powdered sugar, nuts, berries--whatever you feel like!

Chocolate Chip Pistachio Cookies

2008-07-03T12:34:00.005-04:00

OH the things you can do with pistachios. Lemee tell ya...

So a couple of weeks ago I was in a pretty major funk. Things on the school front were not looking well (my funding was pulled over an administrative mistake--it's back, thank god), the poet was out of town and we'd had a tiff before he left, and I was not in the mood to face life. So I reverted to my old funk tactics. I checked three 200+ page books out of the library and vowed to stay in bed (it's 90+ degrees outside, ewww) until I read them all. A book a day. But one needs sustenance when huddled in bed with the A/C on high, cats cuddled around legs. You need chocolate chip cookies. It's the only funk food that will suffice.

I riffed off the recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking, which, honestly, I'm not too fond of. But it could remind me of the correct flour and sugar measurements and such. And with pitachios sitting around in my cupboard, well, you can imagine how this recipe turned out. DELICIOUS. It satisfied my craving almost as well as the original eggy chocolate chip cookie recipe I made for years. I've yet to find a vegan chocolate chip cookie that passes muster, but this wasn't too bad.

As a note, I might suggest lessening the sugar to 1/2 and 1/2 with a pinch thrown in or something like that if you use vanilla yogurt like I did. I might also lessened the vanilla a bit. I don't like my cookies super sweet, and these were a bit on the edge of too sweet for me. Other than that, I like using the yogurt as an egg replacer.

Chocolate Chip Pistachio Cookies

1 cup Earth Balance
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli semi-sweet--vegan!)
1 cup chopped pistachios

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugars, and vanilla. Add the soy yogurt and mix well.

Beat in the flour, baking soda, and salt in small batches until it forms a dough. You might need to add more flour.

When it is thoroughly combined, add the chocolate chips and pistachios.

Form small balls of dough and place on a non-stick cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the golden brown you want.

Let them cool as long as you can wait--I suggest not waiting so as to get the perfect combo of hot dough and gooey chocolate chips.

Pistachio Crusted Tofu

2008-07-01T12:09:00.002-04:00

Remember Shake n' Bake? That glorious mix of bread crumbs and parmesean and god-knows-what-else-but-it-was-tasty? Yeah, I miss it sometimes. Who knows, maybe there's a by-accident vegan Shake n' Bake out there, but it wouldn't be right without the chicken. Do I miss chicken? No. I just miss the baked crusty deliciousness of what's put on chicken sometimes.

Thank God there's Susan and her blog. If I hadn't stupidly deleted all my original posts on here, you'd realize that I got into blogging (in part) because of her and her recipes. She definitely helped me go vegan. The Pistachio Crusted Tofu is her recipe and it's damn tasty. It's Shake n' Bake meets tofu. It's everything I crave of the good ol' midwestern meat and potatoes that I grew up on. I can't stop raving about it. Plus it was so so so easy. I tweaked the sweet and sour dipping sauce a bit, but other than that, all the praise goes out to Susan.

Pistachio Crusted Tofu (a la SusanV)

14 ounces tofu
2 tablespoons soy sauce, low sodium

1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1/2 cup pistachio nuts
ground pepper -- to taste
2 tablespoons spicy mustard
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce, low sodium
1 tablespoon tofu mayonnaise

Preheat oven to 400F; prepare a baking sheet by either oiling it lightly.

Cut the tofu into 8 1/2-inch slices and dry them lightly with paper towels. Brush both sides of the tofu with the 2 tablespoons soy sauce and set aside to marinate for at least 10 minutes.

While the tofu is marinating, measure out 1 cup of crumbs into a wide, shallow bowl. Pulse the pistachios in a food processor until they are reduced to fine crumbs. Add them to the bread crumbs along with a generous grating of black pepper, and mix well.

In another shallow bowl, combine the mustard, syrup, soy sauce, and mayo.

Dip a slice of tofu into the mustard mixture, lightly coating all sides; then place it into the bread crumbs, sprinkle crumbs over the top and sides, and lightly press them into the tofu. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with all slices of tofu.

Put the tofu into the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until bread crumbs are golden brown.

Serve with the sauce of your choice, such as the Easy Sweet and Sour Sauce below.

Sweet and Sour Sauce (riffed from SusanV)

3 tablespoons apple butter
1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce, low sodium
1/2 teaspoon chili paste

Mix all ingredients together well. Serve over tofu.

Daring Bakers Danish Braid Bread

2008-06-29T13:39:00.002-04:00

So.... it's been one month since I posted... I needed (kneaded?) the month off. My uber intense French translation class just ended (god knows how the final grade will turn out--but it's over, that's what counts!), I'm finally 100% healthy, and I'm back in the cooking/baking realm again.

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was picked by Kelly of Sass & Veracity and Ben of What's Cookin'? and they picked a decently easy Danish Braid recipe. The only catch is that it takes either one entire day or two days to complete. But the hands-on time was not long at all and the whole recipe was wonderfully simple. And easy to veganize. (smile) It's always a plus when the DB challenge doesn't call for one dozen eggs.

For the dough, I substituted vegan yogurt for the eggs, Earth Balance for the butter, and soymilk for the whole milk. I think my kneading/rolling technique was a bit too intense because the bread isn't as flaky as I'd like, but it's still damn delicious. Kyle, the friend who turned me vegan (in the nicest way possible) is back from Thailand and living on my couch, and he gave the bread 2 thumbs up.

The butter block and the apple filling just needed an Earth Balance for butter substitute.

All in all, a fun, easy challenge and a great way to get back into the kitchen and the blog world. I promise to not disappear again for a month!

Danish Braid

Danish Dough

Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup soy milk
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) Earth Balance
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Dough
Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk. Add sugar, cardamom, vanilla extract, yogurt, and orange juice and mix well.

Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain. Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges.

When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.

Butter Block
Combine Earth Balance and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.

After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Apple Filling

4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons Earth Balance

Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl.

Melt the Earth Balance in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes.

Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes.

Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet.

After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries.

Danish Braid

1/2 recipe Danish Dough
2 cups apple filling

Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.

Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.

Spoon the filling to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.
Proofing and Baking

Spray cooking oil onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.

Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.

Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

May Daring Bakers Challenge

2008-05-29T11:42:00.002-04:00

Mono + Daring Bakers Challenge = oops. I forgot. And I don't have the ingredients in my house. And I'm posting this a day late anyway. I'll have it by the weekend--promise!

Doughnut-Cake-Coffee Cake-Awesomeness

2008-05-20T14:53:00.006-04:00

Classes just finished, right? I mean, did I miss something? Oh... yeah... the part about me adding French to my course load so I can get enough semesters in to hopefully get into a good Comparative Literature PhD program next year. Sigh.

And you know what class means? Coffee. Actually, French isn't too bad. I took it back in high school and I'm more interested in translation than conversation, so I'm not stressed at all about it. It should be an easy GPA boost. HOWEVER, my schedule is a bit wonky with scholarship apps (ahhh Fulbright, Marshall, Mitchell, and Bobby Jones... four apps.... ugh...), studying for the GRE, pulling together enough poetry for a good portfolio for MFA programs, reading Deleuze and Beckett for my thesis, and hopefully cracking Being and Time. Did I mention that I'm working part time for two different jobs too?

This. This is why I need coffee. And coffee cake!

I'm in love with Vegan Visitor. It's true. I like the layout, the photography is gorgeous, and the recipes are tasty as hell. If hell were tasty--which I'm not sure it is... Anyways. After reading the post and recipe for the Also Goes With Tea Coffee Cake, I knew I needed to make it. Need is a rather open term for me, but it applies. I swear.

After substituting pecans for walnuts, adding a bit of chocolate, baking in a bundt pan, dusting with powdered sugar--oh my gosh fingerlicking good. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good shot of the layering of the coffee cake. It was eaten a bit too quickly. Oops! The Poet gave it two thumbs, two big toes, and a happy belly up. Personally, I think it tastes like a doughnut, and then a cake, and then coffee cake--all at the same time. It goes great with coffee, tea, soy milk, after dinner, before dinner, whenever. I had to give half of it away. Otherwise I'd eat it all. In a period of two days. Summer--the perfect season for baking induced weight! Right?

Doughnut-Cake-Coffee Cake-Awesomeness

1 c Granulated Sugar
1/2 c Earth Balance Margarine, softened
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 c Soy Vanilla Yogurt
1/2 c Plain Soy Milk
1 tsp baking soda
1 c All Purpose Flour
1/2 c Whole Wheat Flour

For the Topping:
1 c Pecans broken
1 c Vegan Chocolate Chips
1/3 c Brown Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Toss the pecans, chocolate chips, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

Cream the sugar with the margarine, then add the baking powder and continue to mix until fluffy.

In a measuring cup, combine the yogurt, soy milk and baking soda.

Add half of the yogurt mixture to the creamed sugar, then half of the flour, mixing until each is combined, repeating with the remainder.

Lightly spray and dust a bundt pan with flour.

Add half of the cake batter to the pan. Add half of the walnut topping. Finish with the remaining batter, then evenly sprinkle over the last of the topping.

Bake in the center of the oven for 45 - 50 minutes.

Cool completely in the pan before turning it out to a serving plate.

Long Bean & Grape Tomato Salad--for David

2008-05-18T17:20:00.004-04:00

I'm back! The beach was good (well, as good as it could get for me). Being bedridden with a view of the Atlantic tide rising and falling every day isn't too bad. Watching flocks of pelicans congregate, honk their voices out, and skim for fish isn't too bad. Having six good friends rally for your health isn't too bad either. And thankfully I am feeling a lot better. My posts should be a bit more regular now that my appetite is back and my throat doesn't object to solid food!

I actually made this recipe awhile ago, but it's never too late to post. I'm blessed with the Your Dekalb Farmers Market which flies in goodies from all across the globe, so Chinese long beans are usually at my disposal. When I saw Smitten Kitchen's Green Bean & Cherry Tomato Salad, I knew I had to make it. Besides, it's so much fun when non-vegan bloggers make delicious vegan food. Of course I didn't have all the right ingredients, but basalmic vinegar is delish (as I'm sure red wine vinegar is). Instead of regular green beans, I used the long beans, but cut them in half in order to fit them in my pot. I also used grape tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes--again, this doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

My friend David was wigging out over finals a few weeks ago (he graduated this semester) and scared to death that he wouldn't pass a class and actually graduate, so he practically locked himself in the library for a week to study for finals and write papers. While I was supposed to be writing papers, feeding poor freaking out college students is way more fun. In order to make a meal out of the salad, I heated up some left over couscous, layered the green bean salad on top, added some fried tofu, and drizzled the extra vinaigrette on top. He thought it was so good that he told me to teach him how to make it before he moved to New York City.

Unfortunately, David is en route to the city right now to start his new life as a paralegal at the District Attorney's Family Violence Unit (sounds like a cheery job, right?), and I never taught him how to make it. At least I can send him the link, right? So here you go David--make this with the fresh veggies I know you'll buy at the Union Square Green Market. And yes, I'm living vicariously through you.

Long Bean and Grape Tomato Salad

1 pound long beans
1 pound grape tomatoes
1 large shallot
2 tablespoons basalmic vinegar
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Cut off the tips of the beans, cut in half, and parboil them in salted water until tender (4-5 minutes). Drain and immediately spread them out on a towel to cool.

Cut the tomatoes in half.

For the vinaigrette, peel and dice the shallot fine and put it in a bowl with the vinegar and salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil. Taste and adjust the balance with more vinegar, oil, or slat, as needed.

Toss the cherry tomatoes in with the vinaigrette; this can sit for a while. Do not add the green beans until just before serving or they will discolor from the acid in the vinaigrette.

Serve!

Recuperation!

2008-05-11T00:52:00.002-04:00

Remember this?
Well, I'm off to the beach to recuperate for a few days. I'll let you know how the virgin margaritas and Bloody Mary's go. Actually, I don't think I could sip a Bloody Mary sans vodka...it's worth a shot (badumdum--pun intended). But hey, it should be fun anyway!

Be back later this week!

Sick!

2008-05-10T00:12:00.003-04:00

Yours truly managed to get Mono during finals! Woohoo!

Ok, really, it's not exciting. But it does explain why I kept passing out on my couch when I tried to write papers or study for my one final exam. It also explains why I haven't posted anything on here for awhile. I've hardly been cooking. Let alone writing blog posts about it.

So the first day or two that I was sick (last Friday maybe?) I rummaged around my pantry looking for anything edible. I really wanted to make soup, but I didn't have any soupy items besides lentils, so, even though it's totally off-season, I decided to try another lentil soup recipe. Luckily I had most of the ingredients that the PPK called for, minus the crusty bread, so I mixed up some biscuits to serve it with.

Overall impressions? Not bad--for a winter stew. I mean, it just felt weird eating lentil soup when it was 80 degrees outside. But it helped my throat for a little while, so that's good and all. I have a lot of leftovers, so I might do that pie thing again to get rid of them. Don't get me wrong, I love lentils, but this just isn't my favourite all-time way to eat them in the summer.

French Lentil Soup w/ Tarragon and Thyme

2 cups french lentils
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 large white onion, diced medium
1 32 oz can crushed tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried tarragon
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
A couple of generous dashes fresh black pepper
6 cups veggie broth

Heat olive oil in the soup pot. Add onions and cook about 10 minutes over med-high heat, until onions are browning and even a little burnt. Add the garlic , herbs and spices, saute 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and a little splash of water if necessary and stir to deglaze the pot. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Add salt, 4 cups of veg broth and cover to bring to a boil. Add the lentils and bay leaves and cover again. Simmer about 45 minutes until lentils are almost totally tender. Add 2 more cups of broth, cover and bring to a boil again, about 15 more minutes. If it looks to thin, uncover and simmer for a couple of minutes. If it looks too thick, add a little more water.

Serve over biscuits.

Vegan Crab Cakes & Chipotle Tartar Sauce

2008-04-29T22:47:00.005-04:00

One of the things I love about finals is procrastination. It normally bites me in the ass, but seriously, it tastes really good. Tonight I should have written a paper on the political animal. Instead I made vegan crab cakes. So worth it.

Jhenn over at Vegan Ronin posted a good looking recipe for crab cakes, and since I had tofu sitting around in my fridge and not much else (I need to go grocery shopping like I need to not bake more stuff), I decided to go for it. But the crab cakes needed something to go with. I picked up my Food & Wine Magazine 2001 Cookbook, flipped through the pages, found a lima bean and mint salad, decided to modify it, and serve both on a toasted baguette slice with tartar sauce (also modified from Food & Wine). Several mods later, I plated a damn tasty meal.

Vegan Crab Cakes & Chipotle Tartar Sauce

For the Crab Cakes:
2 slices of bread (any type)
2 Tbsp soy milk
1 Tbsp vegan mayo
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp parsley flakes
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning (copy-cat recipe)
1 lb firm tofu, drained & pressed
salt to taste (no more than 1/4 tsp)

**notes: I did not have any parsley, so I chopped up ~1 tbsp fresh chives. I also didn't have Old Bay, so I used a pinch of everything noted in the copy-cat recipe that I had (again, I left several spices out). The mix and pinch method worked well for me though.

In a mixing bowl, tear up the bread into small pieces. Add the milk to moisten the bread. It will be a little sticky.

Except for the salt, add & mix the remaining ingredients, crumbling the tofu. Now add the salt to taste.

Mix with your hands to make sure the tofu is really crumbled up and everything is all stuck together.

Heat a frying pan on medium heat, with just a little bit of oil.

Form the mix into (about) 10 patties. Pat them with pressure to make sure the air is out, and that they will stick together.

Fry until golden brown (just a few minutes). Be gentle when flipping the patties.

**Notes: I cooked up one or two cakes at a time and saved the remaining mixture in an airtight container. It kept well for the three or four days I had it sitting in my fridge.

For the Lima Bean Salad:
1 10-oz package frozen lima beans
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
**Notes: I used 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar because I didn't have white wine vinegar. It tasted fine.

Cook the beans in a medium saucepan of boiling water until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain.

Transfer to a bowl and let cool slightly. Stir in vinegar and oil. Season with salt and pepper.

For the Chipotle Tartar Sauce:
1 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
1 tbsp chipotle pepper
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp tarragon, finely chopped
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning (again, I did the pinch method of the copy-cat recipe)
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Keep refrigerated.

Daring Bakers Cheesecake Bites

2008-04-27T21:32:00.005-04:00

It's been awhile since I managed to successfully complete a Daring Bakers challenge. I tried the yule log back in December, but my gluten-free, vegan version fell apart and I just didn't have the heart to post my mess. But I'm back!

This month's challenge was posed by Elle of Feeding my Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell. They found a cute concept recipe based on turning cheesecake into bite-sized pops on a stick (or something like that).

I originally planned on making the recipe as written (all dairy/egg ingredients included), but decided at the last minute to veganize it, because, really, I wanted to eat it too. This might have been a mistake though...I ate waaay more of the cute, little, enticing cheesecake bites than I should have.

Unfortunately I had a few time constraints (I started making the pops on Sunday afternoon for a Sunday night potluck) and couldn't find any lollipop stick things, but the end product (post-multiple-freezes) was delicious, apparently non-vegan tasting, and quickly eaten by my potlucking friends.

As always, go check out the now-plethora of Daring Bakers to see what everyone came up with!

Vegan Cheesecake Bites

For the cheesecake:
2 14 oz package firm silken tofu (NoriMu)
2 8 oz package Tofutti cream cheese
1 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
4 tbsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350F.

Place silken tofu and vegan cream cheese in the food processor. Process for 1 minute, then add sugar. Process until smooth and no sugar granules remain, 3-5 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch into the soy milk and vanilla and almond extracts. Pour mixture into the food processor and process until very smooth. Pour into a foil lined 9" springform pan and bake for an hour and a half.

Allow to cool at room temperature for 2 hours, then refrigerate overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours. (I sliced the cheesecake into squares instead of scooping balls.)

For the chocolate coat:
8 oz vegan chocolate (I use Baker's semi-sweet baking squares)
2-4 Tbsp Earth Balance

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the Earth Balance, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and butter are combined. Stir until completely smooth. (Add more Earth Balance if needed to get a more viscous consistency. I ended up adding a few tablespoons of soymilk because my bites weren't frozen and collapsed in the heat of the chocolate.) Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Assembly:
Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

I can't believe people eat such cute crabs!

2008-04-25T22:48:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posts--I was tromping around Jekyll Island this past weekend and have been catching up on school work ever since. Let me tell you, eating vegan on a barrier island in south Georgia is hell. If I never eat another mediocre iceberg lettuce salad, I'll be really happy. Really happy.

I'm going on a picnic-hike tomorrow with the poet and I made a slurpable feast (he had mouth surgery last week...can't chew anything; now that's a challenge...). Pictures and recipes will, of course, be posted when I return.

Until then, enjoy the beach photos!

Lazy Never Tasted So Good

2008-04-15T16:44:00.006-04:00

Thanks for the comments on the flower picture. I'm rarely given flowers and the few times that I have been, the guys have been off the mark (sorry, I'm just not a roses or daisies kind of girl). Happily, this time, he was right on.

The poet brought me this sprig of fresia before we went to see big at the Atlanta Ballet. The evening was marvelous (seriously the best dance performance I've ever seen and probably ever will see), followed by a late dinner at Top Flr (my favourite restraunt in Atlanta, co-owned by my friend Jeff Myers, and the current home of the pastry chef I apprenticed under, Taria Camerino), and a glass or two of a nice shiraz I picked up at the Dekalb Farmers Market (note: cheapest place to buy imported wine and beer in Atlanta). All in all, a rad evening and I thought I'd share the flower with you.

On a different note, who doesn't love stir fry? I mean, seriously, can you admit to not liking it? As you can tell from almost everything I make, if I can cook it in a wok, then I will. So today, with my one day off of class and work, with 800 million papers to write (oh, the end of the semester is so much fun, let me tell you), I needed to eat something that was quick and easy to cook with minimal clean up. I had almost succumbed to pita and hummus...but I figured something with color might be a better option.

Thus, without further ado, I give you sweet and sour stir fry a la Cupcake Punk. And I'm back to my papers pronto.

Sweet & Sour Stir-Fry

2 cups cooked brown rice

olive oil (I mixed olive oil and peanut oil)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1/2 package extra firm organic tofu, cubed
1 large head of broccoli, chopped into florets
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into small strips

1/3 cup brown rice vinegar
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1/3 cup water

Saute the onions and garlic in oil until slightly translucent. Add the tofu and saute it for 2-3 minutes. Be careful not to burn the onions and garlic. Add the broccoli and bell pepper and cook until slightly al dente (this took approx. 10 minutes for me).

Meanwhile, combine the rice vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, and soy sauce in a pan over medium heat. Add the cornstarch-water mixture and stir/whisk until smooth and slightly thickened. Add more water if necessary.

Pour the sauce over the veggies and tofu, cook for one minute until everything is covered. Serve over rice.

Romantic Gestures 101

2008-04-13T14:59:00.001-04:00

Sometimes flowers take the cake.

Spicy Peanut Noodles

2008-04-11T13:25:00.005-04:00

I try really hard to be healthy, I really do, and you'd think eating vegan would make that easier. Oh well. Nature over nurture? (smile).

Heidi over at 101 Cookbooks is one of my blog loves. She cooks some of the most delicious and healthy (and mostly vegetarian) fare I've seen in a long time. It's comfort food, but good for you, and with unexpected twists. And while a noodle salad isn't a real salad (in the green sense of the word), I figured it was time to bite the bullet and make a salad.

I tried, I really did. But there's something about warm noodles, sauteed tofu, and veggies in a peanut sauce that takes me back to happy memories of fake Thai food. If only I had a take-out box to serve it to myself in... gotta work on that.

So below is my take on Heidi's Lazy Day Peanut Noodle Salad. I'm sure the original recipe is tasty, but I'm a fan of mine too.

Spicy Peanut Noodles
riffed from Heidi

1 8 ounce package soba noodles
1 bunch asparagus spears, ends trimmed then cut into 1/2-inch segments
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into short strips
12 ounces extra-firm (organic) tofu, cut into small cubes
1 small bunch of spring onions or scallions, thinly sliced
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup (brown) rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
drizzle of toasted sesame oil
big pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/4-1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup peanuts

Big a large pot of water to a boil. Boil the soba noodles per package instructions.In the last minute or so of cooking toss in the asparagus. Drain noodles and asparagus, run under cold water for about a minute to stop cooking, and set aside.

Saute the cubed tofu in a pan until lightly brown. I like the slight crunch and solidity of the tofu this way, although Heidi prefers it cold and cubed (no cooking involved).

Make the peanut sauce by combining the peanut butter, rice vinegar, garlic, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, and a big pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Thin with hot water - the amount you'll need depends on the original consistency of your peanut butter.

Gently toss the noodles, asparagus, red bell pepper, spring onions, peanuts, and tofu with the sauce. Serve!

Curry Pie

2008-04-07T14:14:00.004-04:00

I have a problem. I love curry. I love my wok. I have no idea how to cook for one person.

Before I moved, I had a bunch of mushrooms that were about to go bad. I also had a bag of frozen peas. And, per usual, tons of spices and curry pastes and coconut milk and the like. Logical conclusion--make curry. It was a great idea until I added too much curry paste, setting my mouth on fire (and mind you, I adore super hot and spicy food), attempted to fix the heat with extra coconut milk (a dash of lemon juice did the trick somehow...I've no idea how the chemistry behind that works or if it were a fluke), added chickpeas and some other random odds and ends, and then added cornstarch to thicken it because I had an entire wok full of curry soup. Delicious curry soup, but I wasn't going for soup at this point. And I had an entire wok full of it.

I ate some, pawned some off on friends (not like I was twisting anyone's arm or anything), ate some more, ate some more. Almost a week later--sick of curry. Sick of curry with two tupperware dishes left of it. Crap.

Solution? Let them eat pie. Curry pie. I whipped up some whole wheat vegan puff pastry, rolled it out, lined a pie dish with it, filled it with curry, topped it with puff pastry, and baked it for over an hour. The pastry was thick, so it took forever, but Holy Mary Oh My God the end result was orgasmic. And maybe it was that good simply because I'm a carb fiend and anything in bread is delicious, but damn, I did good.

Moral of the story: whenever you have leftovers that you're sick of, make it into a pie. A pot pie. A shepherd's pie. A puff pastry pie. A whatever pie. It's like a caserole, only classier. Or something. Or maybe just more delicious. (smile)

Below is the original recipe I used for the curry. I added much more curry paste than it called for. You can adjust the amount to taste.

Oh, and let me tell you, taking a good picture of this thing was not easy. Just trust me: it tastes 800x better than it looks.

Curry Pie

For the Curry:
1-2 tbsp oil (I use a mixture of olive oil and vegetable oil)
1 onion, diced
4-5 garlic cloves, crushed
1-2 lb button mushrooms
1-2 cups frozen green peas
1 cup chickpeas
2 green chiles, seeded (I use Thai chiles)
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp curry paste (I used red, and much more than 1 tbsp: adjust to taste)
1 cup coconut milk
salt to taste
cornstarch, as needed

Clean the mushrooms and remove stalks. Depending on the size, halve or quarter them. Slice the chiles in half, and de-seed them with a spoon. Dice the chiles into small pieces. Dice the onion.

Add 1-2 tbsp oil to the pan, add the onion, chiles, and garlic and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the onion is clear. Add the mushrooms and cook 3 to 4 minutes until golden brown.

Add the spices, peas, chickpeas, coconut milk, and curry paste, and reduce the heat. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes, or until mushrooms are tender.

If there is too much liquid, add cornstarch a teaspoon at a time, stir the mixture, and allow it to thicken until you reach the desired consistency.

For the Puff Pastry (from dr. stonielove's bewildered beast):
Note: I doubled the recipe for the top and the bottom, but I did have leftover dough
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup soy margarine
2 cups cold water
2 tsp salt

Mix the flour and salt with cubed margarine to create cornmeal like texture. Create a well in the middle and slowly incorporate to form a dough.

Rest the dough for 30 minutes in the fridge (DO NOT KNEAD!). After 30 minutes, take out the dough from the fridge.

Flour the surface of a board, a roller, and the dough. Seperate teh dough into two balls. Roll the each ball into a rectangular with a ratio of 1x3. Fold the it twice to make a square. Repeat it at least 5 times with each ball of dough.

Final Assembly:
Preheat the oven to 350.

Roll out each portion of dough into a layer for the crust bottom and top. My thickness was about 1/8". Line a pie pan with the dough and fill to brim with curry. Place the other rolled out portion of dough on top to form a top crust. Poke holes or a design in the crust to allow for expansion (you don't really want the pie to explode, trust me).

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the crust is light brown.

I'm not dead...

2008-04-03T11:52:00.001-04:00

... but you have to wait for more posts until I have internet at my new place. That's right...I moved, again. I need to stop doing this. Long story not worth typing, but I'll be back sometime this weekend hopefully! And I have recipes waiting for you too! Hurrah!

See you in a few days!

21 & 5

2008-03-19T00:02:00.000-04:00

So it's my birthday today. It's also the anniversary of the "War on Terror." Almost one quarter of my life aligns with this "war." Whatever your political persuasion may be, it's definitely worth thinking about peace. And check out all the bloggers on the March 19 Blogswarm while you're at it.

It's hard to claim chocolate as anti-war; thousands gallons of oil are used to produce and ship it around the world and it's such a bourgeois item. BUT food is community. Food brings people together. Food defines relationships. Food brings peace. Imagine Iraqis and Americans and Africans and Europeans sitting down to a meal together. Somewhere, in between the shared culture of nourishment, positive conversation occurs, opinions are challenged, expanded.

I made this cake last Thursday for my family's get-together dinner for my birthday. My family is composed of die-hard omnivores (heavy on the meat & potatoes) and conservative political philosophy. The act of us sitting down to a vegan meal and talking peaceably amongst ourselves is almost unheard of. We do not agree about food, politics, religion...pretty much everything. But I would like to think that the cake contributed to an enjoyable night over all.

And yes, I made my own birthday cake. But really, I got to make what I wanted! Chocolate cookie crust with a mocha cheesecake layer, topped with super dark chocolate mousse, piped with cream cheese frosting. All vegan. I don't have any cross section pictures because I ate it too fast. It was that good. And easy, all things considered.

Eat peace--try a vegan diet for a day, if you aren't a vegan, eat locally grown produce or meat so that you don't waste oil in the shipping process. Dine for peace--engage the ones you eat with in meaningful, constructive conversation. Create peace--think about the energy you are pouring into the food you cook or bake. It's feeding others or yourself; be positive, reap the peaceful results!

And goddamnit George Bush, fuck your war.

Ridiculous Uber Chocolate Thing
each recipe modified or taken from different sources including but not limited to Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and the internet

For the Chocolate Crumb Crust:
12 chocolate graham crackers, crumbled
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3-4 tbsp chocolate soy milk

Crumbled the graham crackers into a bowl. Drizzle the vegetable oil on top, stir to cover cracker crumbs. Drizzle the soy milk into the crumb mixture and combine with your hands. Pat the mixture into an 8" springform pan.

For the Mocha Cheesecake:
2 ounces unsweetened baker's chocolate
12 oz soy cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 12 oz package cups silken tofu (Mori-Nu)
1/2 cup chocolate soy milk
1/3 cup double-strength coffee
2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt the chocolate in the top part of a double boiler.

Meanwhile, in a blender or food processor, beat together the cream cheese and the sugar until light. Add 1 cup of the tofu, beating thoroughly.

Add the remaining tofu and the soy milk to cheese, sugar and tofu mixture. Pour the melted chocolate slowly into the cheese mixture and add the coffee and vanilla. Mix to blend ingredients thoroughly.

Pour the mixture into the prepared crust and bake for about 45 minutes, or until edges of the cake are puffed up slightly. Cool in the oven with the door cracked open, then cool to room temperature.

Chill.

For the Chocolate Mousse:
1 12 oz package extra-fim silken tofu (Mori-Nu)
1/2 cup chocolate soy milk
2 tbsp agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla extract
12 oz semisweet chocolate (I combined 4 oz unsweet with 8 oz semisweet)

Crumble the tofu into a blender. Add the soy milk, agave, and vanilla. Puree until completely smooth.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips. Once melted, remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the chocolate to the tofu and blend until combined.

Pour the mousse on top of the chilled cheesecake. Chill for one hour (or until the mousse sets/hardens) before decorating or serving.

For the Cream Cheese Icing:
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
1/4 cup Earth Balance
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Cream the cream cheese and Earth Balance with a mixer. Slowly add the powdered sugar until the frosting is the consistency you want. Add the vanilla.

Hostel Bread

2008-03-16T16:51:00.000-04:00

Everyone is ok--some friends ended up with trees on their houses, one lost all her trees in her yard, one is banned from his loft until the insurance company decides what to do, but everyone is alive and well. It stormed again yesterday afternoon, but no tornadoes (just hail and too much rain), and now it's sunny and 64 degrees. Go figure.

But sometimes you just need bread to make the storms go away. That's my philosophy at least.

Hostel Bread

from The Hostel in the Forest

1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2.25 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup wheat flour
1-3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon Sweet Basil
1 tablespoon Oregano
1 teaspoon Sage

Put warm water in a large bowl, and add sugar, stir until dissolved. Add the yeast next, and wait a few minutes for the yeast to dissolve. (The yeast feeds on the sugar, thus the bread must be made in this order.

Next, stir in one cup of wheat flour and one cup of bread flour. The wheat adds the nutrition to your bread, the bread flour makes it easier to knead. Add your butter at this time as well, and all the spices. Mix all this together, adding more flour as needed. The mixture should be somewhat stretchy, and not stick to your hands.

Transfer the bread dough to a greased, covered bowl, and put in a warm place. We usually use the same bowl as was used to mix the bread, just removing the dough, greasing the bowl, and returning its contents. Let rise for one hour, then punch down and transfer to a greased bread pan. Let rise for another hour, and put in an oven preheated to 450. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for another 30 minutes, remove from the oven, and let sit for 20 minutes before cutting to serve.

Pi Day Tornado

2008-03-15T15:44:00.001-04:00

The following narrative was written in my journal by the light of a candle between 3:36 am and 4:45 am. The pictures were taken on March 15 around noon.

So that thunder...was a tornado. A tornado that pancaked a loft 1/4 mile from where I live. A tornado that hit around 9:30 p.m. It's now 3:36 a.m. and I still don't have power. It looks like Kosovo. And the sirens won't stop.

To back up the story.

I'm sitting at home writing in my journal, trying to write a paper, and I hear thunder int eh distance. And it makes me happy. I forget that March is tornado season. The thunder gets louder, my internet cuts out, the rain starts, my power flickers. I decide to get a snack in case the power goes out completely and I'm in the middle of slicing bread when my power goes out all the way. Good thing my candles were already lit.
I sit down and try to type out more of the paper before my laptop batter dies. Hard to pick out passages in Derrida's Of Grammatology by candle light. Seriously, I'm blessed to have not lived in the 17th century. Or before they had candles. Reading by candlelight is ridiculously hard. I'm writing by it right now and it's not much better. Marginally so. I'm not trying to interpret anything at least.

I call my mom and we chat about how annoying this is. Eventually she realizes that I don't have power AT ALL whereas hers just flickered on and off. We hang up. Oh, during our conversation I asked if a tornado were heading my way. She didn't know. We hang up.
I sit in the dark. I contemplate the fact that I live in a studio apartment with a window in every room. I am fucked if a tornado blows through here. The rain gets worse. The wind gets worse. It dies down. I hear a shit ton of sirens go up and down my street. The weather seems better. I had talked to D. at some point during the storm and asked if he had power. He seemed confused that I should ask and replied that he was in Midtown at L.'s apartment for a Pi Day Party, they had power, I should come. Ok. I try to work some more, but really, trying to read by candlelight sucks.

So I decide to go to Midtown. L.'s place is only 1.5, maybe 2 miles from my house. I contemplate how dangerous it is to ride in my part of town on a bike, at night, when the power is off. No intersection lights, no street lights, etc. At this point i figured it was just a bad storm and the sirens were in response to auto accidents or something. I'm worried that I might become one of those accidents--Atlantan drivers aren't known for their four-way-stop skills at major roads like Ponce de Leon--but I throw my fender on my back wheel, grab my helmet, and leave the apartment.
Now, I live on a fairly populated street. There's an apartment complex across the street from me, restaurants next door, houses all around, street lamps, etc.--all blacked out. DARK. People milled around because it was so weird, but I've never seen this part of town so dark, ever. The only light glowed from the second floor balcony across the street: two men smoking cigarettes in the surreal night.

I rode towards midtown and, I kid you not, one block from my house towards downtown, the power was on. Go figure. The entire skyline of downtown is lit too. Only later would I discover via 3rd or 4th person on the phone that the Georgia Dome lost part of its roof and the CNN building lost eithe rpart of the building or had a bunch of windows smashed in by the wind. At this point though, I knew nothing. Just that, annoyingly, the power was out.
It's raining again as I near Midtown and i eventually reach my friends. Only 30-45 minutes later do we find out that there was a tornado. D., N., and B. live in the Mattress Factory Lofts. D. was in Midtown during the storm. N. and B. were at home. They called D. to say that they were on their way, and, oh yeah, by the way, a tornado just ripped through. Their loft was ok, but the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts got hit hard.

Apparently they heard a terrifying noise, ran into the hall, the tornado passed, some metal and glass broken, but nothing major. And apparently the time between the noise and the actual tornado was 20-30 seconds max. Not enough time to truly flee the area. One or two more people trickled in, each with stories about missing porches, people wandeirng around like zombies, and lofts with entire top floors obliterated. More info came in on the phone all night. No tv was at the apartment, so it was all 2nd, 3rd, 4th hand info. Which, in itself, is terrifying enough. What really happened? Are our friends ok?
We hung out, made some random music--I played the spoons!--cause L.'s upstairs neighbors to get really mad and bang on the floor, and I left around 3. I decided to ride up Boulevard because, as sketch as it is to ride on it with the projects and the junkies and the prostitutes and gangs etc., it doesn't have a hill and the other was one big hill with fewer lights and it's own brand of sketch. Boulevard had power at least, so I rode up towards Highland, pedaling as fast as I could. So far no evidence of the storm. I get to my intersection and I'm about to turn left when I decide that i might as well ride to where the tornado hit, since I'm on on my bike and all.

I get to Edgewood and Boulevard and a police car is blocking the intersection. No one can go past that point towards Dekalb Ave. I ride up to the officer and say that i live at the Mattress Factory Lofts, it wasn't hit, can I go there? They wave me through and right as I get to Lenny's Bar, I see it. The damage. A tree branch here, there. And then. The apartments across the street from Lenny's. Their balconies? Well. A bunch were lying on the street. No power or electricity at this point. There were also enough branches and debris to make riding a bike stupid. But I kept going.
I turned right onto Dekalb Ave and it felt like I turned right into Kosovo. Shadows and outlines of mangled fences, buildings, trees lined the street, sidewalk next to the parked freight trains; lumps against the grey unilt sky. Shredded plywood and maples lay flung across the pavement. My bike bumped along. Every now and then, a homeless man would call out a greeting, but other than that, silence. So I rode. No cars. No lights (other than my comparatively weak blinkies). Debris, twisted fences lining the road, separating it from the tracks. Buildings missing corners, missing signs. Police baracading the MARTA station. Ironically, electricity on at the Mattress Factory Lofts.

I turned left onto Memorial to circle home via Cabbagetown and the Cotton Mill. Was a building really "flattened like a pancake," according to CNN? Still no lights, still silence as I was waved through by a policeman onto Boulevard. Turn right onto Carroll Street (emergency vehicles all over all this point0 and try to ride up the narrow technically two-way but really just one car width street. The businesses' glass all shattered, tree branches in the middle of the road, blinds hanging out of window frames on the outside of buildings. And then, to the left, the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts. One building, two building, no building, four building. Oh. My. God. The building is there, technically, but three or four floors are gone. "Stacked." Kind of funny given the lofts' new name: The Stacks.
For a brief moment, however so tiny, I knew what it was like to be a New yorker and look out the window and see the buildings gone. But there were cars behind me, so I pedaled on. Weirder still was the Krog Tunnel. completely dark to the extent that I with my light on I still couldn't see in front of me more than two feet. And the tunnel is long enough to make that scary. So dark.

Made it home. Power still off. Though it's on one block over. Riding home I felt like I was in a war zone. one block was fine, the next obliterated, the next fine. The darkness, the shadows, made it all the more surreal. And as i approached Dekalb Ave, where it grew apparent for the first time that nature had her way, wreaked some havoc, the mockingbirds snag out clear against the murky night. Beauty in the midst of war.
I was lucky. So lucky. No damage here at my house. I can't help but think of friends at the Cotton Mill, near Carroll St, that may have been hit. I've heard there are no deaths. But no one counts the homeless. The tornado hit downtown, then ran up Dekalb Ave, and out across Boulevard, hit the Cotton mill, then lifted. The Cotton Mill didn't collapse for another hour or so, so hopefully everyone got out. But their lives are gone. Who knows how much art, how many projects, pets, collections, family heirlooms were lost. Who knows, maybe lives.

Fucking Kosovo.
War Zone.
And the birds
sing.

Meme Time! Seven Random Things...

2008-03-12T01:48:00.000-04:00

I totally forgot that Bake My Day! tagged me for a meme last month. Since I don't haven't any food to post for you and it's 2 a.m. and I'm not sleepy thanks to last weekend's wonky time change, I'll take a stab at it. I don't feel like tagging anyone, but if you want to do this, go ahead!!

Without further ado, seven random things you never knew you wanted to know about me (and if anything is offensive, I apologize in advance...I'm not very diplomatic sometimes):

1. Lapsed Agnostic. I was raised in a conservative Christian household--you know, the kind where the earth was created in six days six thousand years ago, the kind where you memorize the ten commandments and go to church at least twice a week, the kind where you go to Christian camps and Christian school, and read stories about martyrs to your kids at the dinner table. I remember being terrified that the rapture would happen and my cats would die because no one would be around to feed them; they would starve to death because Jesus came back. And I remember wondering what kind of God would do that. I think I had a weird imagination when I was little... Anyways. I never really made it all the way to being an atheist, and frankly, I don't see that happening because you have to care enough to consider yourself one, but I'm a total lapsed agnostic. Every few months or so I feel the need to slink back into a congregation, sing some songs, feel guilty about what my life is like, and extend some good ol' fake cheer around. After a week or two, I wonder what got into me and I resume life as usual. It's a funny habit. Maybe not so funny to some readers...but bear with me, I went to protestant Christian school in the South for nine years!!

2. Ecology and Literature. I'm currently in school earning a B.S. in Ecology and a B.A. in English. Next year I'll be researching austral migrants (birds that migrate from North to South America and back) in a patch of forest in Georgia. I'm also interested in philosophy and literary theory and am immersed in trauma theory and becoming-animal. Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, and Martin Heidegger are my heroes.

3. Bicycles. I ride a purple fixed gear bicycle everywhere! Yup, one of those hipster bikes without gears. I do have a brake, however...there's hills in Georgia and mad traffic--I'd like to keep my body intact, thanks. I used to have a purple road bike until I was hit by an SUV in an alley cat (yes, one of those illegal races that made the news thanks to the guy who was killed by an SUV in Chicago a few weeks ago). Luckily I survived ok, but my bike didn't, so I replaced here with the fixed gear. Originally silver, I repainted her to a matte purple, added a "Veganism is for Lovers" sticker to the top tube, and stuck my spoke cards in the wheel. She's pretty great and way better than any car I've owned.

4. Veganism. Ok, so that doesn't seem like a random thing. Yes, Jes is a vegan. Of course. BUT what you don't know is the story about the first day I was a vegan. Ironically, I ate meat that day. Figure that one out. On July 7, 2007 I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and declare myself a vegan. I'd been eating as a vegan for months--minus the baked good thing...I mean, heck, I worked at a bakery at 4 in the morning, it was hard to not eat a muffin here and there--and decided that it was time because my forray into eating what I made at the bakery was making me gain a lot of weight and if I were truly vegan, I wouldn't eat it. Extra guilt incentive or something. Now 07-07-07 was also the Lucky Sevens alley cat. I bounced up to my best friend Kyle and yelled, "I'm a vegan!" right before the race started and we shared a happy vegan moment. He'd been waiting for me to say that for awhile. Hooray! So we race off to the first checkpoint and he gets there slightly before me. Food checkpoint. Oh no. Kyle rolls the die to see what numbered can he has to eat from and gets Spam. He turns away, forsaking any points, and says "no way." He pedals off. My turn comes. I roll the die. Number Three. Dog food. DOG FOOD. ughhhhhh noooooo. I look at the guy running the checkpoint, say "I decided to be a vegan today," grab the spoon, take a chunk of mushy dog food, stick in my mouth, swallow, grab my bike, and pedal off as fast as I can. Three shots of vodka, twelve miles, and one tattoo later, I win the first place female. I suppose that was worth it. But man oh man is dog good + vodka + bike a bad combo. shudder.

5. Rats & Cats. I'm owned by two rats, Rad & Merckx, who have been featured on the blog AND two cats, Sheba & Mistoffelees. We all live in a tiny studio apartment. The great thing is that the cats are scared of the rats and whenever I have the rats out, the cats run under the bed and hiss. It's a great symbiotic relationship or something.

6. Southern. So I'm technically Southern. Technically. But I hate sweet tea. And collard greens. And unsweetened cornbread. And Coca-Cola. Basically, I'm the biggest blasphemer in Atlanta, Georgia EVER.

7. Magic. I believe in magic. No, not the pulling a rabbit out of a hat or cutting some poor woman in two magic, but everyday magic. The every day magic of kneading positive energy into dough, letting it rise, and watching people experience truly loved bread. The magic of holding a yellow-rumped warbler in your hand and feeling its tiny heartbeat against your palm. The magic of reading a good book in front of a fire or hiking in the woods or riding a bike into the sunrise. Life is magic, and it's everywhere.

Hash Browns Make My World Go 'Round

2008-03-08T18:18:00.000-05:00

I'm not a health nut. I'm not a "good" vegan either. When given the chance at a fancy enough place, I will break my veganism. Does that make me a bad person? Nah. Just realistic. And addicted to chocolate. Don't tell anyone that I ate that flourless chocolate cake at Carrol St. Cafe last night. It paired oh so well with the house Merlot though!
So I'm from the South, and being from the South means that you grow up with Waffle House EVERYWHERE. Somehow I managed to avoid it until I started leading backpacking trips in college. There's something amazing about walking into a Waffle House after being in the woods for days and days and days, smelling like a dead skunk, and looking like a beaver who just fought a mountain lion and somehow survived, and being served a cup of black coffee and a plate of hash browns. It is heaven. And the Waffle House ladies don't bat an eye. In the city I get my fix at the Majestic Diner whenever I'm out dancing or drinking or meandering around town at three in the morning. Hash browns are my intellectual soul food. Some of the best conversations I've had occurred over a plate of hash browns and a mug of coffee. Hash browns make my world go 'round.
I love hash browns. I think potatoes are God's gift to mankind (along with chocolate, Beligian beer, and everything bagels), and skillet cooked potatoes with onions and ketchup is even better. This is my comfort food. And my poor student food. Some people have Ramen; I have hashbrowns.
All that said, there's no real recipe to an amazing plate of spuds. Take an onion and a couple of potatoes. Slice them up. Throw them in a pan with several tablespoons of oil (amount depends on how much you're making), cook for 20-25 minutes. Serve with ketchup. If you want to mix in meat, cheese, mushrooms, peppers, etc., add it at the end with five minutes or so to go.

All you have to do now is eat them. Relish the potatoes, sauteed to a tender yet crisp skinned perfection. Drink a cup of black coffee, smoke a cigarette, talk about Martin Heidegger. You won't regret it.

But Everyone's Doing It!

2008-03-06T22:38:00.000-05:00

Julie Hasson's steamed sausages are taking over the internet. No joke. Who around here hasn't already made them??? Really??? You should be ashamed of yourself! Go make some!

I have to admit, vital wheat gluten has always mystified me a bit. I'm not talented at making seitan. It always ends up lumpy and pretty looking. I guess it tastes ok...but it's not like the store bought stuff or Soul Veg's kalebone. So the thought of something thrown into tin foil, wrapped, steamed, cooled, etc. with no kneading and shaping made me really excited. And hungry.

Half way into the recipe I realized I had very few of the spices called for. So the following recipe is a twist on Julie's. These are so simple easy and tasty. Go make them, seriously!

I ate the first one sauted with onions, green bell pepper, and mushrooms wrapped in naan with veganaise and gravy. It was so not healthy...but hello delicious.

Super Easy Steamed Sausages

2 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 cup soy flour
2 tbsp Veg Base broth seasoning stuff
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp sage
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried chili flakes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 roasted red pepper, minced
2 1/4 cups cool water
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp soy sauce

In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients. Whisk together the water, roasted red peppers, olive oil and soy sauce and using a fork, gently stir into the dry ingredients. Stir just until ingredients are mixed. If dough mixture is too dry, you can add another tablespoon of water or as needed.

Scoop 1/2 cup dough mixture at a time and shape into logs. Place logs on piece of aluminum foil and roll up, twisting ends. Place sausages in steamer and steam for 30 minutes. Once sausages have cooled, remove from foil and refrigerate until ready to eat.

Makes 8 sausages.

Peace Offering

2008-03-02T23:59:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I posted... I'm alive, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet (although I feel like I have sometimes)... I'm just in a strange transitional state. I don't cook much (or anything worth posting) these days, and I haven't baked in ages. I was on a liquid diet of sorts over winter break (haha) and haven't recovered the culinary bite since then. So today, Sunday, after a long weekend of sorts (all day philosophy conference, heavy drinking following) I decided to reorganize my life (in addition to doing the dishes, which I'd managed to put off for a week) and I cooked! Well... sort of. My peace offering to the blogging community is in the form of "I don't have time to cook but I want something tasty" form. This could be a three ingredient dish, although I threw in some extras. It works with whatever you've got in your fridge and is a total last minute dish prep-wise. Do keep in mind that it takes an hour or so to bake. Without further ado, my Italian polenta bake.

Italian Polenta Bake

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

1 tube of polenta, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced into rounds
1 yellow squash, sliced into rounds
handful of mushrooms, halved or quartered
handful of sun-dried tomatoes, cut into small strips or diced
1 jar of tomato/spaghetti sauce

Place the polenta rounds in a small-medium sized caserole dish. Cover with a layer of spaghetti/tomato sauce. Layer the zucchini, squash, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes. Cover with sauce. Bake for one hour or until the vegetables are tender.

Vegan Eggnog Cupcakes

2007-12-20T23:43:00.000-05:00

I'm finally done with the semester! Whoever decided that exams could run until the 19th and then slated my last boring general education requirement class on the last exam period of the last day, 4:30 pm on the 19th, is evil. But now I have time to do more things like baking! Ok, or, if I were honest with myself and you all, go dancing, stay up the whole night, and then sleep the day away. I'm loving life.

On Monday, while writing my last paper of the semester (it's amazing how 10 pages seems so short now--I started the paper on Monday and finished it by 9 pm) I decided to play around with the vegan eggnog some more. My general love of cupcakes prevailed and since cookies don't really call for milk, I could only use the eggnog in a more cake-like substance anyway.

Two of my good friends served as taste testers and the review was positive. I think they really taste like eggnog and I love the spiciness coupled with the chocolate ganche. I think they'd pair well with dark chocolate stout cupcakes with peppermint frosting.

Vegan Eggnog Cupcakes

1 cup vegan eggnog
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a small bowl, whisk the apple cider vinegar into the vegan eggnog. Set aside to curdle for 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the oil, vanilla, almond extract, and sugar together until combined. Add the vegan eggnog mixture, combine. Add all dry ingredients. Mix until smooth--you don't want lumps.

Pour batter into oiled or lined cupcake tins. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

Makes 6 large cupcakes and 12 mini cupcakes or 9 large cupcakes.

Ginger Miso Soup

2007-12-17T18:50:00.000-05:00

Baby, it's cold outside!

I knew that the 75 degree sunny gorgeous weather wouldn't last, but did it really have to drop from 70 to 20 degrees in one day? My body isn't a fan of that! I don't have central heat in my apartment either, so my cats and I feel the impact even more. Let me tell you, those cats didn't leave my side all night. It was one cozy cuddle party in my bed. (smile)

Last week I made this recipe for Ginger Miso Soup from Kitchen Caravan and fell in love with it. Who doesn't love gingery, noodley, kaley, brothy soup? Exactly. They suggest 2 inches of ginger, but my personal suggestion is 2+ inches of ginger. I can't get enough of the rhizome. Note: ginger is not a root.

I also discovered that this soup made me feel 800 times better while I was sick. Cha-ching! So last night I made it again, because really, it's too cold and I want to be a lot warmer than I am. The recipe is super easy, I didn't even need the recipe the second time, and I'd recommend making this to anyone who is sick, is cold, or wants a soup that feels like chicken noodle but is definitely not chickeny (but is noodley!).

Ginger Miso Soup
from Kitchen Caravan

1 2-inch knob of ginger
6 cups water
2 cups loose shitake mushrooms, cleaned and chopped in half [cp note: I left mine whole]
1 cup kale (about 3 leaves) [cp note: I used green kale]
2 heaping tablespoons white miso paste
1 handful soba noodles (sometimes they come segmented into bunches, you need about one bunch)
½ large carrot, peeled (optional) [cp note: I didn't use this]
1 scallion (optional) [cp note: I didn't use this]

Make the ginger broth by grating the knob of ginger with a cheese grater, and then putting it into a pot with the 6 cups of water. You should have about 2 tablespoons of grated ginger to infuse. [cp note: I used a vegetable peeler to "grate" the ginger since I don't have a grater anymore. It seemed to work just fine.]

Bring the water to a boil and simmer slightly for about 15 minutes. Let it sit for another 15 minutes if you can, but you are welcome to go along at this point.

Bring another pot of water to a boil. Cook the soba noodles for about 6 minutes in the boiling water, drain, and rinse them with cold water. Set the cooked noodles aside.

Drain the infused ginger broth of the grated ginger and bring the liquid to a boil.

Add in the shitake mushrooms and simmer until soft, and then add in the kale and simmer until cooked through. Turn off the heat.

Now, place the miso into a small bowl. Pour in some of the soup water, and soften the miso. Pour everything back into the pot and stir until the miso is well integrated into the soup.

*I suggest letting the soup sit for at least 15 minutes before serving. Honestly, it tastes the best the day after. I'm not sure why, but the ginger flavor seems stronger after sitting.

Eggnog Chocolate Chunk Scones

2007-12-16T00:38:00.000-05:00

When it rains, it pours. I wish that statement were in reference to the weather (Georgia desperately needs water), but it's more ab0ut life right now. Needless to say, I wish I hadn't eaten/shared all of these scones by today--I could have used a pick-me-up!

Being the holiday season and all (Christmas for me), I have a carton of Silk Nog in my fridge and I'd eyed a vegan eggnog muffin recipe, but I didn't really want to make muffins. Since I'd made date scones before (at the bakery), I figured I could substitute the eggnog for the soy milk, add a few extra spices, and have tasty eggnog chocolate chunk scones.

Vegan Eggnog Chocolate Chunk Scones

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup Earth Balance
3-4 oz baking chocolate, chunked
2/3 cup vegan eggnog

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the the flour, baking powder, sugar and spices in a mixing bowl. Cut the Earth Balance into the dry mix until a coarse crumb forms. Stir in the chocolate chunks. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the vegan eggnog. Mix in, then work together with well-floured hands to make a soft dough, then form into a ball. If the dough is too sticky, work in a little more flour.

On a well-floured board, roll the dough out into a 1/2-inch thick round. Place on a floured baking sheet and with a sharp knife, cut into 8 wedges halfway through the dough.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden on top.

Recipe To Come

2007-12-12T21:54:00.001-05:00

Rad and Merckx will now model elements of Ginger Miso Soup.

That Time of the Year Again

2007-12-08T19:10:00.001-05:00

It's that time of the year again. Time for parties for hosting, marshmallows for roasting (toasting? Can you roast a marshmallow???), and caroling out in the snow...

...um, no. It's finals week(andahalf). It's time for stress, no sleep, too much coffee (way too much coffee, I'm getting sick of drinking it), too much typing, and the messiest house ever. It's time to eat veggie burgers and chips and salsa and peanut butter on granny smith apples (my favorite snack EVER at the moment). It's time for me to disappear from the blogging world, which I would, except it's such a wonderful place to procrastinate in--goddamnit, I'm tired of wrting about Samuel Beckett and Deleuze and Guattari and becoming-animal.

So what do I make when I have to study, when I have to maintain a high level of caffeine in my body, when I don't have time to make anything? This blog ain't called Cupcake Punk for nothing.

Technically, I made these for my friend who moved back North to Philly today. I've driven the stretch between Atlanta and Philly several times this year and I know how long and boring and trafficy it can be. So I made here a sweet little caffeinated treat to keep her awake and happy. Luckily for me, it does the same thing for studying.

So whether you're driving or studying this holiday season, do yourself a favor. Take a little time, make a little treat, drive safe, study well, and eat chocolate!

Midnight Cakes

For the cupcakes:
1 c soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 c cold strong coffee (I let mine sit for several days in the fridge)
1/3 c vegetable oil
3/4 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c cocoa
1 3/4 c flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp instant coffee

For the icing:
1/2 c Earth Balance margarine
3-4 c powdered sugar (more or less, I never measure, just mix till I have the consistency I want)
1/4 c cold strong coffee
2 tsp instant coffee

For the cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350.

Mix the apple cider vinegar into the soy milk with a whisk. Set aside to curdle for ~10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, mix the oil, sugar, coffee, and vanilla together until combined. Add the soy milk mixture. Mix well.

Add dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until smooth--no lumps.

Pour batter into a lined or oiled cupcake tin (muffin tin, whatever tin you have). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm to the touch and an inserted knife comes out clean.

For the icing:

With an electric mixer, mix the margarine until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar until the margarine/sugar clumps together. Slowly add the liquid coffee until the mixture is smooth. Add more sugar to the mix if needed until the consistency is what you want. Add the instant coffee at the end.

Decorate!

Tofu & Broccoli in Garlic Sauce

2007-12-07T01:05:00.001-05:00

Remember when you first became a vegetarian or vegan? Or, if you aren't either, just imagine that you are one for a second. You go to a restaurant, order a vegetable infused meal--no meat, eggs, butter, whatever in sight, and you're proud of yourself for finding an acceptable dish on the menu.

Now, imagine that you're at a take-out Chinese place. Your favourite Chinese take-out place where no one speaks English...well, very little at least. You order your favourite dish--garlic broccoli. You eat this dish for almost a year believing that it's vegetarian. Then, months and months later after your initial order of the supposedly vegetarian dish, you walk home from campus, are famished and sick of leftovers, have a crown of broccoli and a thing of tofu and cupboards full of spices and sauces and you go to the internet to pull up a Chinese garlic sauce recipe and--

Surprise!--

Garlic sauce isn't vegan. Or vegetarian. It calls for oyster sauce. Now, do you think that you're local Chinese take-out place doesn't use oyster sauce in their garlic sauce? Probably not. Why not? It's cheap, easy, and what every normal recipe calls for. So what the hell am I supposed to eat at a Chinese restaurant now???

Tofu & Broccoli in Garlic Sauce

1 pound of extra-firm tofu
1 crown of broccoli
1 c brown rice
1/4 vegetable oil (I used a combination of peanut and sesame oils)
2 c vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c soy sauce
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 c sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch

For the rice:
Bring 1 cup of brown rice and 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. Add water as needed until the rice is well cooked. Be careful not to burn (i.e. add water when necessary until rice is cooked).

For the sauce:
Bring the vegeble broth to a boil. Add the garlic, soy sauce, ginger, red pepper and sugar, stirring to combine well.

For the stir-fry:
Slice the tofu length-wise. Press dry between paper towels. This may take 15-30 minutes. Cut the broccoli into florets.

Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet.

Add the tofu to the wok first, allow to brown on both sides. (Be sure to not let the oil get too hot or else it will pop up into your face and burn you--not a pleasant experience, trust me.) Add the broccoli, cooking just long enough until the florets are tender.

Turn down the heat. Add the sauce. Mix in the cornstarch, constantly stirring until the sauce thickens (5-8 minutes).

Serve over rice.

Southern Biscuits & Gravy

2007-12-03T22:55:00.000-05:00

I'm taking a Southern literature class right now--"The Rough South"--and last night while reading my last novel for the course, My Drowning by Jim Gimsley, I began to crave biscuits and gravy. This isn't the first time. Over the course of this semester, thanks to all of the lovely biscuit filled southern lit I've been reading, I've made approximately 10 different biscuit or gravy recipes. I have a serious problem. But after the word biscuit is used twenty times in two chapters, one has to make biscuits--even if it's 11 pm. Even if one should be sleeping. Even if one hates Southern food. My god, this is a comfort food thing...well, even though my family never made biscuits and gravy.

I was hungry, watching the fire, wishing for something to eat. We would have biscuits soon, I could smell them, but I never ate fast enough to fill my stomach, and afterward there was never anything left over. So I huddled in Mama's lap and watched the fire and felt the hollow fist in my belly.

The smell of biscuits filled the house, drawing my brothers, Carl Jr., Otis, and Joe Robbie, slouched like dogs along the walls. The smell awakened Daddy, who shuffled from teh bedroom pulling a flannel shirt over his thin shoulders.

He spooned sugar into his coffee and said nothing. When nothing but biscuit appeared to eat, he stared into the top of the table. He chewed the biscuit as if he were grazing in a pasture.

I got half a biscuit. The sensation of warm bread in the stomach made me happy, and I was allowed to eat in Mama's lap. We were eating, all of us. We crowded near the fireplace. No one talked.
-My Drowning, Jim Grimsley

Biscuits & Gravy

For the biscuits:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons margarine
1/2 cup soy milk
1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

For the gravy:
1/4 of an onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used a mix of olive and canola oil)
1 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 tsp sage
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
5 or 6 white mushrooms

Preheat oven to 450.

To make the biscuits, mix the soy milk and vinegar in a seperate bowl and allow it to sit for 10 minutes until fermented. Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut the margarine into pea sized pieces (in the flour) with a pastry cutter or fork. Add liquid ingredients and mix with a fork until it just starts to come together.

Push the dough into a ball, knead just once or twice and roll out to 1/2 thick slab. Cut into circles or squares, place on cookie sheet and bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes. (note: instead of rolling out the biscuits and cutting them, I used a spoon to drop irregular balls of dough onto the cookie sheet and then baked the free-form biscuits.)

To make the gravy, saute the onions and garlic in the vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes. Add the flour and stir until a paste forms. Slowly incorporate the water, constantly stirring, until a thick but liquid gravy is formed. Add the salt, pepper, and sage. Allow the liquid to boil for 3 or 4 minutes.

While the liquid is thickening, saute the mushrooms in 1 Tbsp of olive oil until slightly cooked. Add the mushrooms to the gravy as soon as the gravy has thickened.

Home Is Where the Whisk Is

2007-11-29T23:33:00.000-05:00

Dear world, meet my new kitchen, soup pot and all:

Yes, the place is small--I don't even have a silverware drawer--but it's my own. My own dear kitchen. My own dear kitchen with a nice tile counter, a gas stove, a teeny tiny oven, and a refrigerator that is all my own!!! I feel like I've dropped into heaven!

Oh, and meet Brautigan:

He's the kitty I adopted that, unfortunately no longer lives with me. He was only 8 or 9 months old, a growing cat who needs lots of space to run and play and bounce around it. My 250 sq ft apartment didn't cut it. So I did a cat switch with my mom. I got the two siamese cats in exchange--Sheba, a bitchy 11 year old lass who hides under the bed and hisses, and Mistoffelees, a 4 year old who used to be really playful until he went through rounds and rounds of urinary tract infections and is now just fat. I mean, they're sweet cats, dont' get me wrong, but I miss Brautigan already, and it's only been a few hours. He was my dream cat. But I just couldn't give him what he needed.

And, just to top it off, a few glamour shots of Rad and Merckx at the new place:

Catching Up

2007-11-28T13:22:00.000-05:00

I guess it's time to catch up on my long delayed (ok, less than a week still) Thanksgiving post. My family came to my house for the meal because I had the most space--a real dining room, the largest kitchen of them all--and because, frankly, I wanted to control the side dishes. My mother did threaten at one point to throw butter in the beans and mashed potatoes...thanks mom. Mind you, my family isn't huge by any sense of the imagination. The guests were my mother, my brother and his wife, and two of my friends who wanted to have a bigger dinner than one or two dishes shared between themselves.

We had quite a spread, and I would have taken more pictures but I was tired of being ridiculed, so I don't have more. My mother brought the turkey for her and my brother and his wife (somehow a 12 pound whole turkey was cheaper than a turkey breast...I bet they're still eating turkey today, actually), stuffing (vegan and non) and a pumpkin pie. Josh and Amy brought Quorn Chickn reubens (which I did eat, swiss cheese and all--yes, I'm a bad bad vegan) and a bean and nut salad. I provided the rolls, carmelized onions and green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, millet pumpkin casserole, and a shmlove pie.

So. Much. Food.

Shmlove Pie

I'm not going to give you the Shmlove Pie recipe--go buy Veganomicon for that. It's worth the whole book. I've made it twice and it gets better every time. Seriously, go buy the book, even if you love meat and can't abide the thought of cooking vegan food. It's seriously the only recipe source I'm using right now and I couldn't possibly be happier with any other book.

But here's the recipe for my take on Mark Bittman's Autumn Millet Bake Recipe which I found on Heidi's site, 101 Cookbooks. Forgive the photo. The lighting in my dining room was horrid and I had to take the picture without any styling.

Autumn Millet Bake

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus oil for the dish
1 1/2 cup millet
1 small pumpkin, cut into 1-inch cubes (I used half of a medium sized pumpkin)
1 cup fresh cranberries
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon minced sage leaves or 1 teaspoon dried
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
1 cup vegetable stock or water, warmed
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds or coarsely chopped hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 375F and grease a 2-quart casserole, a large gratin dish, or a 9x13-inch baking dish with olive oil.

Put 2 tablespoons of the oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add the millet and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant and golden, about 3 minutes (hs note: don't overdo it). Spread in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.

Scatter the pumpkin cubes and the cranberries on top of the millet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and the sage and drizzle with syrup. Carefully pour the warmed stock over all (cp note: I did about 1 cup stock & 1/2 cup soy milk ). Cover tightly with foil and bake without disturbing, for 45 minutes.

Carefully uncover and turn the oven to 400F. As discreetly as possible, sneak a taste and adjust the seasoning. If it looks too dry, add a spoonful or two of water or stock. (hs note: This is key! The millet should be close to being cooked through at this point, if not you need to add liquid and keep it moist and cooking ). Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds on top, and return the dish to the oven. Bake until the mixture bubbles and the top is browned (hs note: and the millet is cooked through), another 10 minutes or so. Serve piping hot or at room temperature.

Serves 4 to 6.

Daring Bakers Potato Bread

2007-11-26T21:45:00.000-05:00

I moved the day after Thanksgiving and I don't have internet yet, so my post is a bit on the late (but still on time!) end this month.

This month Tanna of My Kitchen In Half Cups chose "Tender Potato Bread" as the November Daring Bakers challenge. I love bread! And it's automatically vegan. From the get-go I was excited about the recipe. In the spirit of an already DB vegan recipe I decided to follow it to the letter of the law. So on Thanksgiving morning (mind you, I'm hosting Thanksgiving at my house this year--for the first time ever...) I woke up and started on the delicious carbohydrate goodness.

Following the recipe EXACTLY was a bad bad bad idea. DO NOT add in all of the water first. I used, I swear to god, 8-10 cups of flour and the dough was still hell to work with. Sticky, soppy, sad sad mess. Luckily my mom was at my house by the time I tried to shape the rolls and she gave me a helping hand. It was a two person job. Seriously, the dough was ridiculous.

The rolls, however, were taaaasty. Mmm mmm good. They were soft and sourdoughy and perfect for a mixed vegan-meaty Thanksgiving dinner. Because the dough was so hard to work with, the rolls didn't turn our nearly as pretty as I was hoping. They were huge and moundish...but the taste is what matters.

I would totally make this recipe again (I'm still eating off of it now!), but I would recommend adding HALF of the water and at the end, when you're kneading, probably, add more water or flour as needed. Adding all of the water and then trying to add enough flour was a mess and a pain in the ass (pardon my french, I'm young, it comes second nature to me) and got flour all over the kitchen--my clothes were thrown into the hamper as soon as I was done attempting to knead the stickyness.

Anyways, here's the recipe. Bake if you dare!

Potato Rolls

4 medium to large floury (baking) potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks variety of potatoes you might want to use would include Idaho, Russet & Yukon gold
4 cups water
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
6 ½ cups to 8 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 cup whole wheat flour

Put the potatoes and 4 cups water in a sauce pan and bring to boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt and cook, half covered, until the potatoes are very tender.

Drain the potatoes, SAVE THE POTATO WATER, and mash the potatoes well.

Measure out 3 cups of the reserved potato water (add extra water if needed to make 3 cups). Place the water and mashed potatoes in the bowl you plan to mix the bread in – directions will be for by hand. Let cool to lukewarm – stir well before testing the temperature – it should feel barely warm to your hand. You should be able to submerge you hand in the mix and not be uncomfortable.

Mix & stir yeast into cooled water and mashed potatoes & water and let stand 5 minutes.

Then mix in 2 cups of all-purpose flour and mix. Allow to rest several minutes.

Sprinkle on the remaining 1 tablespoon salt and the softened butter; mix well. Add the 1 cup whole wheat flour, stir briefly.

Add 2 cups of the unbleached all-purpose flour and stir until all the flour has been incorporated.

At this point you have used 4 cups of the possible 8 ½ cups suggested by the recipe.

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, incorporating flour as needed to prevent sticking. The dough will be very sticky to begin with, but as it takes up more flour from the kneading surface, it will become easier to handle; use a dough scraper to keep your surface clean. The kneaded dough will still be very soft.

Place the dough in a large clean bowl or your rising container of choice, cover with plastic wrap or lid, and let rise about 2 hours or until doubled in volume.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead gently several minutes. It will be moist and a little sticky.

Divide the dough into 2 unequal pieces in a proportion of one-third and two-thirds (one will be twice as large as the other). Place the smaller piece to one side and cover loosely.

Butter a 13 x 9 inch sheet cake pan or a shallow cake pan. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces. Shape each into a ball under the palm of your floured hand and place on the baking sheet, leaving 1/2 inch between the balls. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 35 minutes, until puffy and almost doubled.

Dust risen rolls with a little all-purpose flour or lightly brush the tops with a little melted butter or olive oil (the butter will give a golden/browned crust). Slash crosswise two or three times with a razor blade or very sharp knife and immediately place on the stone, tiles or baking sheet in the oven.

Bake rolls until golden, about 30 minutes.

I had to buy it...

2007-11-21T23:48:00.001-05:00

My family is coming to my house tomorrow and they threatened to boycott if a Tofurkey showed up. But I've never eaten one and I really wanted to and I live next door to the vegan store and it'd been a long day--I just had to. So maybe I should revise that survey and state that my most extravagant food purchase was the tofurkey for tonight. I had no idea that it would take 3 hours to cook frozen, so I thawed it in the microwave, popped it in the oven while I was working on a pie for tomorrow's feast, slopped some frozen snow peas in 15 minutes before it was done, pulled the tofu football out, and sliced it up.

You know what? It tastes kinda turkeyish. I mean, the texture is way off--it's too dense--but the flavor wasn't too bad. Not turkey, but not tofu. Or seitan. Or TVP or whatever that thing is made out of--don't tell me, I really don't want to know. And now I'm stuffed. I feel like I ate too much turkey like my mom and brother and his wife will tomorrow, tryptophan and all.

Tomorrow I'll be cooking more legitimate food, never fear, so those pictures and recipes will be up soon. But for now I'm going to laze around in the delicious fake meat-ness that is the all-American, all-processed, all-salty Tofurkey.

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Survey Time!

2007-11-20T13:15:00.000-05:00

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
Plain soymilk...I don't really have a favorite brand, just whatever is on sale.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
I'm going to be remaking the Shmlove pie for Thanksgiving and I totally love that, I'm baking my secret weapon, the vegan crepe cake, for a bake-off on Dec. 1, and I really want to go to town this December with vegan Christmas cookies.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Nutritional yeast with a bit of Earth Balance!

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
That strawberry mirror cake that was a Daring Baker's challenge this summer. It used two huge double quarts of strawberries and didn't taste like strawberries, the texture was disgusting, and I had to use gelatin which made my heart die a bit inside.

5. Favorite pickled item?
None, ew.

6. How do you organize your recipes?
I don't. I used to have a fairly comprehensive blog, but since I rashly deleted it, that's not a method anymore. I use cookbooks with post-it notes on the pages for upcoming recipes and log specific recipes from blogs in a Google Doc.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
I wish I could compost. But I can't, so I have to trash. Or my rats eat the food scraps. :)

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
Broccoli, chocolate, and chickpeas. I'd have to make hummus somehow!

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
Jesus' birthday cake. Two dark chocolate cake layers with an amaretto or chocolate chip cheesecake in between and frosted with dark chocolate butter cream frosting. Jesus knew how to order the holiday cake, let me tell you.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Temptation. They don't sell it in Georgia anymore. I'm really pissed off.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
If I had it, a kitchenaid mixer. Since I don't...my hand mixer.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Cinnamon! I over spice everything (baked good-like that is) with cinnamon.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
I don't have any old cookbooks anymore...There's a Food & Wine cookbook I've had for a few years. I rarely use it though--too many fancy ingredients.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Can vegan nutella count? I don't eat jam or jelly.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Some sort of vegetable pot-pie dish with vegan biscuits on top. Mmm comfort food.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Tofu. Not a big fan of any of them though.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Dinner. I often cook late at night after writing papers or reading boring lit. theory books as a way to destress.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Bread, potholders, our lease.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Vegan ice cream, frozen pizza sauce, frozen split pea soup.

20. What’s on your grocery list?
Baking chocolate, silken tofu.

21. Favorite grocery store?
Sevananda. It's the grocery coop in Atlanta and out of my price range most of the time, but I love their emphasis on local/organic produce and tasty vegan ingredients.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
Angel Food Cake. It was given to me as a challenge back in May, I tried, I failed, it's been bugging me ever since. I just can't afford that much agar agar!

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, 101 Cookbooks, Smitten Kitchen.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Dagoba!

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
Erm. I don't make extravagant food purchases since my student budget is kinda slim. I do buy coffee and vegan ice cream more than I'd want to admit.

26. What was your favorite food BEFORE becoming veg*n?
Everything chocolate and tasty. Or cheesecake. Or pastries. Oh my god chocolate cream cheese filled croissants, croissants in general, cream puffs, everything. I can make these all myself, but I miss being able to go to restaurants and coffee shops and being able to order whatever looks good.

Split Pea Soup and Double Cornbread

2007-11-19T09:17:00.000-05:00

I believe in comfort food. I believe that it can cure all ills, warm the heart and stomach, and woo lovers. I believe in warm soups and stews in the winter (even though God knows it's ain't winter in Georgia yet...schizophrenic weather). And most of all, I believe in my mother's split pea and ham soup.

Crap. Ham in soup. That's not very vegan. Or vegan at all.

So I made Veganomicon's split pea soup with roasted red peppers. The red pepper idea is genius. Unfortunately, red peppers, although tasty, don't add the same effect as ham to a split pea soup. Don't get me wrong, the soup is good. It's just not comfort food good. So I'm going to steal my mother's recipe this week and try this again at a later date. I can almost guarantee that the roasted red peppers will show up again, but I just need more flavor than the recipe gave me.

The rats were a fan. They might not be the best taste testers ever, but their positive attitude towards everything I make is quite humoring.

The cornbread, however, worked really well with the soup. After reading Heidi's yeast raised cornbread muffin recipe, I really wish I would have made that recipe instead, time consuming as it is, but Isa and Terry's recipe from Veganomicon is quite tasty in a more traditional way.

Vegan Double Cornbread

2 c soy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 c cornmeal
1 c all-purpose flour
1/4 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c oil
1 c frozen and partially thawed corn kernels

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a skillet over medium heat, saute the corn kernels in oil for approx. 7 minutes, or until the corn is slightly browned.

Combine the soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside to curdle for 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Create a well in the center and add the soy milk mixture and oil. Mix together with a spoon until just combined. Fold in the corn kernels.

Pour the batter into a 9x13 baking pan. Bake for appox. 30 minutes, until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Pumpkin Crumb Cake

2007-11-17T17:18:00.001-05:00

Remember how I said I made pumpkin squares for the Monday Night Vegan Potluck? Well, here's the recipe (finally!).

The recipe is from Veganomicon (I'm in a rut, a happy tasty Veganomicon rut!) and everyone loved them. I talked to my friend Stuart yesterday and when I mentioned I still had a few left over he immediately asked if I happened to have any in my messenger bag because, really, that would make his day.

I must admit that I've breakfasted on these this week and eaten slivers all throughout the day. They remind me a lot of banana bread...except pumpkin, and the pecan streusel is uber tasty (even though I bought the salted pecans instead of plain roasted pecans by accident).

Pumpkin Crumb Cake with Pecan Streusel

Pecan Streusel:
1/4 c all purpose flour
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 c coarsely chopped pecans

Cake:
1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin puree
3/4 c soy milk
1/4 c canola oil
1.5 c granulated sugar
3 Tbsp molasses
2 tsp vanilla
2 2/3 c all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cloves

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.

For the streusel:
In a small bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, and spices. Drizzle in the canola oil and mix with your fingertips until crumbs form. Add the chopped pecans.

For the cake:
Combine the pumpkin, soy milk, oil, granulated sugar, molasses, and vanilla. Mix well. Add half the flour, the baking powder, salt, and the spices. Use a fork to fold everything together. Add the remaining flour and mix gently until combined.

Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and spread evenly. Scatter the streusel on top as evenly as possible.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until an inserted knife comes out clean.

Pumpkin Ricotta Pasta

2007-11-12T18:32:00.000-05:00

Our Monday Night Vegan Potlucks disappeared for a month or so due to me being out of town and everyone being busy. Last night we brought it back!

I'd planned on making pumpkin squares (from Veganomicon), but I realized that the savory food might be a bit lacking (like it usually is), so I threw together a creamy pumpkin sauce from leftovers in my fridge.

It's a lazy lady's sauce--required very little work, just add to a sauce pan and warm until creamy. If I had been feeling more creative, I'd have made a pasta bake out of it, layering pasta, sauce, diced tomatoes, mushrooms, and red and green peppers. However, I'm lazy and the dish had to fit in my messenger bag anyway.

The dish was a hit, even though the picture is not so swell--the tupperware was wiped clean with Phil's delicious bread. The creamy ricotta part mixed with the spicy pumpkin part was perfect. I still have some ricotta and pumpkin in my fridge--I think I'm going to have to make myself a batch!

Vegan Pumpkin Ricotta Pasta

1/2 c pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/2 c vegan ricotta
1 c soy milk
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp basil
1/2 tsp salt

Simmer the soy milk, pumpkin, and ricotta at medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Add spices.

Serve over pasta.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2007-11-12T18:16:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I just want a chocolate chip cookie. I used to make the best cookies before I was vegan. My recipe was infallible. It was better than my mother's--who was a professional baker for 20 years. And then I became a vegan. I've yet to find a recipe I like. Half of the reason is because buying vegan chocolate chips is so expensive. And the eggs really added something to the recipe, I guess.

So here's one of my experiments--with egg replacer. I don't like egg replacer, but I was out of bananas. So, well, the recipe is good, but it's not perfect. I also used 3 oz of semi-sweet baker's chocolate instead of chocolate chips because that's what I had.

Needless to say though, these cookies made my paper writing and novel reading afternoon a-ok!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c Earth Balance, at room temp.
3/4 c brown sugar
3/4 c granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs' worth of egg replacer
3 oz chopped semi-sweet baker's chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350.

Mix the Earth Balance, sugars, vanilla, and egg replacer.

Add the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Add the chocolate chips or baker's chocolate.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

Ricotta Stuffed Challah French Toast

2007-11-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning--a day I don't have class, a day I don't have to be up at a certain time, my day. Well, almost. My room is next to the back door of the house, so I'm always jolted awake my roommates' or their significant others' early morning tendencies. After lying in bed awake for a bit I decided to make some breakfast and do my favorite weekend morning thing--check up on all of the blogs! You may remember my vegan french toast recipe from this summer (which I can't link to because I deleted my blog...stupid stupid), but today I decided to do a pumped up version of it.

I remembered reading the two different ricotta recipes in Veganomicon last night and I've also really missed being able to order ricotta stuffed french toast at Sun in my Belly--absolutely nothing there is vegan, which is a shame because their coffee is amazing and utterly addicting. Well, hello, I have one and a half loaves of vegan challa sitting on my counter and the ingredients for the ricotta. Brunch time!

I omitted the garlic and basil since I was using the ricotta for breakfast, but the recipe made up tons more than I needed for just myself. So it will probably pop up in some savory dish in the near future with added seasoning. Next time I'm going to play with it more--the lemon was a bit strong, so maybe add a bit less and add in vanilla or something to make it sweeter and richer. The texture, however, is right on. I really think I'm eating ricotta.

As for the french toast recipe, I make mine up a bit differently every time. The measurements are in no way exact--I have no idea how much soy milk I used, for example--and this is one of those times you have to mix by feel.

The end result is quite tasty. Not exactly Sun in my Belly style, but not far off. Fresh berries would have been uber helpful, but I made do with dried cranberries and pecans. Over all, I'm happy with it!

Ricotta Stuffed Challah French Toast

1/2 loaf of Vegan Challah

For the Ricotta:
1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 pound firm tofu, drained and crumbled
(I also added in a handful of chopped pecans and dried cranberries at the end.)

For the French Toast Batter:
1 banana, mashed
1/2-3/4 cup soy milk
1 Tbsp soy flour
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp vanilla

In a food processor, blend together the cashews, lemon juice, and olive oil until a thick creamy paste forms. Add the crumbled tofu to the food processor until the mixture is thick and well blended.

In a pie tin or other shallow dish, mix mashed banana, soy milk, soy flour, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla until a slightly thick liquid forms.

Heat up a frying pan on medium heat on the stove, add 1 tsp olive oil to warm.

Dip challah pieces in the french toast mixture so that one side of each is coated--leave one side of each slice uncoated. Slather the ricotta mixture on the uncoated side of one of the slices, place the other challah slice on top with the coated side facing outward. Fry until golden brown.

Repeat and serve!

Vegan Challah

2007-11-09T22:51:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't love bread? Who doesn't love a heaping, unhealthy dose of carbohydrates?

Exactly.

I'd been eyeing the PPK's recipe database recipe for Vegan Challah for some time now. With three overripe banana's sitting on the counter, begging to be used in something sinfully wheaty, I spent this afternoon kneading and mixing and kneading and waiting and waiting and baking. Honestly, it's a lot of work--I guess not more than usual for bread, but I never bake bread--but totally worth it.

I took a couple hours break while it was rising to go grocery shopping at the Dekalb Farmer's Market and put the dough in the fridge to chill until I got back home, and I don't think that affected the bread. My braiding technique could use a bit of work, but the bread is just so tasty.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, it doesn't taste like bananas at all!

::edit:: I just noticed that I forgot to use 1 cup of soy flour. Huh. Oh well...I wonder what the difference is... oops!

Vegan Challah

2 1/2 Tbsp dry active yeast
1/3 cup warm water
6 cups flour (white:whole wheat ratio of 4:2)
1 cup soy flour
1 Tbsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar or dry sweetner
1/2 cup vegetable oil (canola ok, too)
2 overripe (mostly black) bananas
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
another half cup of boiling water for brushing braids
sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or sea salt to top

In one small bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water, put to the side to stand for 5-10 minutes.

Mash bananas in other small bowl.

In large bowl mix: oil, sugar, salt, and boiling water, stirring so it's all mostly dissolved.

Add the cold water to the large bowl (the mix should be warmish now but not hot). Stir in yeast mix.

Add bananas.

Add flour, one cup at a time. (Don't forget the soy flour!)

Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead for 5-10 min, dough should be smooth, not too stiff or too runny.

Lightly coat the large mixing bowl in oil, turn the dough in it to just coat it with oil, place a towel over the dough in the bowl and let it rise for about 1 hr, till double in volume.

Punch dough down, turn out and knead again 2-3 min. Divide dough into 2 balls, divide each ball into 3 sections, roll each section into long ropes and make 2 braids. Preheat the oven to 350.

Let the braids rise 45 min. Boil a little more water. Just before putting braids in the oven, brush them with boiling water, then sprinkle with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or sea salt.

Bake 30 min. You'll know they're done when you tap them on the bottom and they sound hollow. Let cool on a drying rack for 10 min before slicing. Enjoy!

Apple Galette

2007-11-08T00:25:00.000-05:00

We're having a pie fest next weekend. I suck at making pies. Or, rather, I suck at making pretty pies. But for Pie Fest 2007 I want to have a pretty pie that tastes better than everyone else's pie. AND I want to impress some vegan boys I'm inviting (food is always the way to a man's heart, right?). So Cupcake Punk is turning into Pie Punk. Too bad that doesn't sound better.

Pie Experiment #1: Apple Pie, no, Apple Tart, no, Apple Galette

Wikipedia Definition
Galette: a general term used in French to designate different types of round and flat crusty cakes.

Cupcake Punk Definition
Galette: a poor woman's tart; to be made when rolling a crust is apparently impossible and one doesn't even own a tart pan thing.

I had a bag of apples in my fridge--granny smith, the kind I like to slather natural peanut butter on and make a tasty snack of. My mother said granny smith apples wouldn't make a tasty apple pie. With her dissent, I forged ahead. Anyways, whenever she says it can't be good I normally make it better than what should be good--it's that rebellious daughter in me (I wasn't raised a baker's daughter for nothing!).

I fidgeted around with the idea of an apple pie...but I wanted something lighter, more autumnal. And autumn in Georgia isn't freezing, it's light and breezy (and, well, today 30 something degrees...the weather is rather schizophrenic actually. It'll be 70 tomorrow). Luckily, Smitten Kitchen posted this delicious looking tart--so simple, so few ingredients, so easy to make vegan!

Well, except for the tart pan thing. I don't have one. I should, they only cost $2 or so at Ross...but I don't have one. Good thing I like artistic free form shapes. Especially since I can't roll out a round pie crust for the life of me. I always end up with something oblong. But maybe that's also because I don't have wax paper. I should really go shopping, no?

Anyways, it's a simple recipe and hard to mess up. After I pulled the pie from the oven and let it cool, I slipped it into a tupperware box, dropped it into my messenger bag, hopped on my bike, and rode three miles over to my friend Deck's house for movie and pie night. Served with vanilla soy cream, this pie is irresistible. We ate the entire thing. The two of us. An entire pie.

Alice Waters’s Apple Tart (Veganized!)
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

For dough:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 stick Earth Balance, just softened, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
3½ tablespoons chilled water

For filling:
2 pounds apples (Granny Smith or other tart variety), peeled, cored (save peels and cores), and sliced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar

For glaze:
½ cup sugar

MIX flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl; add 2 tablespoons of the EarthBalance. Blend in a mixer until dough resembles coarse cornmeal. Add remaining butter; mix until biggest pieces look like large peas.

DRIBBLE in water, stir, then dribble in more, until dough just holds together. Toss with hands until you can roll dough into a ball. Flatten into a 4-inch-thick disk; refrigerate. After at least 30 minutes, remove; let soften so it’s malleable but still cold. Smooth cracks at edges. On a lightly floured surface, roll into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Dust excess flour from both sides with a dry pastry brush. *Note: If you have issues getting the right roundness or thickness, just play with it. Make a square galette, make a triangle, make whatever works. Don't force the dough to do something it doesn't want to do.

PLACE dough on a baking sheet. Heat oven to 400°F.

OVERLAP apples on dough in a ring 2 inches from edge. Continue inward until you reach the center. Fold any dough hanging over pan back onto itself; crimp edges at 1-inch intervals.

BRUSH melted EarthBalance over apples and onto dough edge. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar over dough edge and the other 1 tablespoon over apples.

BAKE in center of oven until apples are soft, with browned edges, and crust has caramelized to a dark golden brown (about 45 minutes), making sure to rotate tart every 15 minutes.

MAKE glaze: Put reserved peels and cores in a large saucepan, along with sugar. Pour in just enough water to cover; simmer for 25 minutes. Strain syrup through cheesecloth.

REMOVE tart from oven, and slide off parchment onto cooling rack. Let cool at least 15 minutes.

BRUSH glaze over tart, slice, and serve

Lazy Dinner

2007-11-06T20:12:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I just don't feel like cooking. And when that happens I walk next door to Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe (it's literally two doors down from me) and browse the freezer case for something tasty--well, something besides soy ice cream, that is. I had a head of broccoli I needed to use, as well as two potatoes, so I figured a fake meat was in order--you know, a traditional meat and potatoes kind of affair.

The end result?

Garlic Sun Dried Tomato Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli, and Vegan Citrus Sparerib Cutlets.

Creamy Thai Butternut Squash Soup

2007-11-05T18:15:00.001-05:00

I go grocery shopping only every two to three weeks. Cooking for one can be a blessing sometimes. And I always try to cook things that can be frozen or saved in the fridge for a long time because frankly, when I make a big pot of lentils, I can eat it for a week, but then I'm tired of it and I still have half a recipe left. Luckily, fall and winter are soup seasons! And today is my first soup of the season--creamy "thai" butternut squash.

I bought a butternut squash and a head of cauliflower so that I could repeat this recipe. (Interestingly enough, that's the first recipe I made when I started this food blog.) But today I ran across Heidi's take on pumpkin soup. The result is a mix of the two, and oh my word, it's delicious. Naturally, it's hard to photograph, so bear with me. (smile)

Creamy Thai Butternut Squash Soup

1 butternut squash
1 head of cauliflower
olive oil
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 teaspoon (or more) red Thai curry paste
water or soy milk
2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Cut the butternut in half lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds. Drench the squash in oil (I'm on no diet!) and salt generously. Place outside up on a baking tray and bake for 45-1 hour, or until the squash is soft.

Meanwhile, put the cauliflower florets into a small, oiled baking dish of their own. After the squash has cooked for 15 minutes, put the cauliflower in with it. Bake, stirring every 10 minutes, until the cauliflower is beginning to brown and the squash can be pierced easily with a fork. (They will probably be finished at different times.) Remove from the oven and set the cauliflower aside.

Allow the squash to cool until it's easy to handle, and scrape the flesh out of the skin and into a bowl. Use a fork or masher to mash it a little.

Scoop the squash into a large pot over medium high heat. Add the coconut milk and curry paste (I used 1.5 tablespoons, but it depends on how hot you want it and what brand you're using) and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and puree with a hand blender, you should have a very thick base at this point. Add water or soymilk one cup at a time until you reach the consistency you want.

Add the cauliflower and serve!

Guilt Trip

2007-11-04T22:33:00.000-05:00

I deleted the blog last night because I hadn't updated in month and I didn't know when that would change...but now I feel bad about that and I miss the old thing. Unfortunately...well, all of my posts are gone. I still have pictures from most of the posts so I could scrounge back up the recipes, but we could just call this a new go.

I'll try to reconstruct what I can, but I had almost a year of posts. HOWEVER! It's the holiday season which means I'm going to be cooking/baking like mad, so there should be tons of new recipes and food porn.

So, a word to the wise, don't rashly delete your blog--you'll regret it.