How Red It Is

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Bread and Soup!

I got this Shepherd's Bread recipe off of a Ravelry forum and in my quest to try lots of different white bread recipes, gave it a shot!

It is very similar to other bread recipes I have tried, just without the butter (read; Earth Balance).

So I mixed it up yesterday and it made a quite nice loaf, very serviceable for a soup supper. Then, because the loaf baked for 45m and I didn't have enough space on my stone for both loaves, I punched and kneaded down the second loaf, shaped it and put it in a loaf pan to rise for a second rise during that 45 m. Woo! A loaf of sandwich bread which we had for breakfast this morning with almond butter and homemade jam. Nice. This was fun and useful and I may just do it again! Perhaps I will even monkey with it and add margarine and potato flakes and vital wheat gluten...

Then, to go with it, I made Split Pea Soup from the awesome 101 Cookbooks site. Yes, you can see that I made this exactly as she did, even down to the garnish (okay, I did use 1 C yellow split peas for one of the 2 C)!!

I must admit, this recipe inaugurated me into the world of using freshly squeezed lemon. Usually I sort of think it's a bit pretentious to use freshly squeezed lemon but that's a hangup I'm going to hang up. Now to see if I can actually have them at hand when I need them.

This was another quick supper (like the Pasta Alfako dinner) that turned out well. Everyone ate it, even the baby! I was sort of weirded out at how red it was, guess I haven't had Manwich in a while...

1 can Manwich (yes, it is vegan- yay!)
1/2 C TVP
1 C elbow macaroni
1/4 C ketchup (you could use tomato paste if you do not consider ketchup an ingredient as opposed to it's just being a condiment)
2 T HP sauce
2 T oil
1 onion, chopped

Put on your water to boil up the pasta and boil it up when the water boils. Drain. Set aside.
Nuke a 2 C Pyrex measuring cup of water in the microwave for 5m until it boils. Add the 1/2 C TVP and let it hydrate while you saute the onion. Drain.
In a large pot, saute the onions in the oil. Add the drained TVP and macaroni and mix well. Add the Manwich, ketchup and HP sauce. Simmer until thick.

Not much reading.
Left my knitting at a friend's house, d'oh! Finally got the gumption to get out some yarn and needles and then I go and leave it somewhere! Heavens!

Looking Forward to Leftovers

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

I have had this recipe for Rotini Alfako by the fabulous VeganYumYum for what seems like forever, let's see, posted Dec. 11th 2006- not sure if I got it then or shortly thereafter, but anyway, SERIOUSLY it's been a long time coming. I know I've pulled it out to make and then put it back without having made it. Finally I mentally designated one of our cans of coconut milk for this and this week it finally got made! I am so glad I finally did!!! People, this is good! A quick, rich pasta sauce? Sign me up! I can guarantee that we'll be having this again.

I made it just as written, except I used soy sauce instead of tamari, used ground pepper instead of fresh cracked (I'm so unfancy), and 1 T cornstarch.
Oh, and I also blended everything together instead of just stirring it together in the sauce pan- I'm crazy like that.

Boiled up my spaghetti, tossed in some frozen peas (right into the spaghetti pot! with the spaghetti!), drained it all and slathered with the sauce! Boom! So good!

This makes a fair amount of sauce, I used it over a whole 16 oz box of spaghetti. So it makes a lot, but I'm really looking forward to leftovers!

No reading. Hope you have a great weekend.

'Kay, So Why Did I Blend the Tomatoes?

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Nacho Chips!!

Finding this queso recipe (love that Pyrex, btw!)
+ some roasted chilis from our CSA that needed to be used up
+ nacho chips on sale at the coop
+ Boca ground 'beef' in the house
+ a can of black olives
= Nacho Chip Dinner!

Here's how I made my queso, it's mostly the same...

Whizz up your roasted chilis (I think they were jalapeno?) with some water, then decide you're going to add this to the queso.
For some reason add the tomatoes plus everything else excepting the paprika, plus a few cloves of garlic (like, many). Use oil instead of Earth Balance margarine (I'm cheap these days!). Oh heck, I'll just type it out for you...

Queso Why Did I Blend the Tomatoes? (Get it, 'kay, so?, ha ha maybe not)

1/3 C nutritional yeast
1/4 C flour
1 t salt
bunch of chiles, roasted
1 t cumin
4 mild cloves garlic (this is stuff from the grocery store, not the CSA)
1 C water
can diced tomatoes
2 T oil
2 t prepared mustard

Blend all in blender. Cook on stove until thick. Add 1 T cornstarch mixed with 1 T water if you're impatient like me...
Makes a full 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup full.

Brown your Boca in a Tablespoon of oil and add taco seasoning;

Homemade Taco Seasoning (couldn't find the original recipe to cite, but there are many)

2 T dried minced onion
1 T chili powder
1 t cumin
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
1/2 t oregano
salt to taste
1 C water

I didn't have chili powder (what's wrong with me?!?) so I subbed some cayenne powder and ancho chile powder and WHOO! was that hot!!!

Then slice up your can of black olives and serve.

Next time, use RoTel tomatoes with chiles, and don't add the tomatoes, or maybe I will...


Then, the other night we had soup. I am on a soup kick, hey?

This made a lot of soup, like, 14 C. The original recipe calls for a 4 quart soup pot, but, ah, I used my giant soup pot when it didn't all fit into my 6 qt. slow cooker.

Cranberry Bean and Root Vegetable Soup
loosely based off of Cranberry bean, lacinato kale and pasta soup

13 C turnips, parsnips and rutabegas, chopped into 1/2" dice (this was about 2 large rutabegas, 6 parsnips and 5 turnips, your mileage may vary)
3 C dried cranberry beans
14 C water
1/4 C oil
4 T paprika paste
6 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 T parsley
1 t sage
salt to taste

Saute the garlic, then add the paprika and spices. Stir in the cranberry beans, then the root vegetables and then add the water. Simmer all afternoon until the beans are tender and the veggies are mushy. Add salt to taste. The end.

Still reading "The Steppe" by Chekov. Verrrry interesting. Stopped at the bookstore to look at "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day" to see how many of the recipes are vegan to decide if I should get it, will put it on my wishlist.

Stunt.

Good evening!

So here is a good soup we had last night. I was pretty impressed.
I had some wild rice that needed to be used up and all I could think of was cream of wild rice soup or whatever that's called. Well, poof! into my brain came Lachesis' Alfredo Stroganoff sauce, begging to be made into the base for this soup... who was I to argue? And, boy, was that a good call!! If you are a fan of the cream based wild rice soup, do give this a try.

Vegan Wild Rice Soup

2 C cooked wild rice
1/2 pkg soft silken tofu
4 C water
4 cloves garlic
2 T Earth Balance
2 T oil
1 C soymilk
splash white wine
1 T onion powder
2 t garlic powder
2 t salt
dash pepper
pinch nutmeg

Place into the blender everything except the wild rice.
Pour sauce into soup pot, add wild rice and bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer until it's thick how you like it.
If it's taking to long to thicken, add 1 T cornstarch mixed with 1 T water to simmering soup and mix well, bring up heat a little and stir until thickened.

And here is a tamale pie type thing. I was so excited to make this!!! Finally, a way to use up my masa flour! Whee! Well, I must admit, I do believe this casserole should be baked COVERED because my tamale pie came out all dry! Boo hoo!
Also, I would double the filling next time by adding another can of black beans and another can of pinto beans and maybe even another can of tomatoes.

Tamale Pie, recipe based off of this.

For the dough;
1/2 C vegetable shortening
3 C masa harina
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 C water

Filling;
2 T oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 t salt
1 t cumin
1 t ancho chile powder reserved to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9 x 13" casserole.
Beat shortening in mixer, add masa, baking powder, salt and water gradually until like a paste (when I added the 1 C water it just got where it was little pea sized balls so I added about another 1/2 C water to get the 'paste' consistency).
Press half into the bottom of the casserole and set aside the other half.

In your big pot, saute the onion and garlic, add the cumin and salt and beans and tomatoes and simmer until most of the liquid is gone (again, my tamale pie turned out really dry, so next time I might leave some of that liquid). Pour on top of the masa in the casserole and top with the other half of the dough (again, I might add more liquid to the second half of the masa dough to make it 1) more spreadable and 2) again with the not dry thing.

Bake 1 hour, covered.
Boy howdy there are a lot of tamale pie recipes out there! Some have pimentos, some have olives, some have corn, some have paprika, some have peppers... whoa! Pick yer poison!

On the reading front, instead of edumacating myself with Proust (ha! I lied, I set it aside and did nary pick it up again!), I will now proceed to tell the internets how I am frittering my time away... with THIS! Ha-hah! It's the first 12 chapters of Midnight Sun, the story of "Twilight" told from the vampire's point of view. Okay, I just had to know what all the hubbub was about these books. So I thought that the first 12 chapters of Midnight Sun were great fun. Fast driving, clumsy girl, vegetarian vampires, near death escapes, first love... lots of fun. Maybe a little patriarchal, a little contrived, but I thought it was a great story. Here's a little history on why you can read this online. I must say that I smell a publicity stunt. That is all.

Okay, I did start reading some Chekov, short stories, so good so far.

Steam Leavened

What We Had Last Night

Baked Veggie Stew with Biscuits on top

Yum! This was good! Nice and easy and quick and and and... you'll just have to try it yourself. Have a mournful can of mixed veggies stuck back in your pantry somewhere? Got flour? Soy sauce? Then you're in bizness. Add some Boca 'ground beef' and it's even better (actual preference may vary)!

So I did try to find this online, but couldn't. Innernet, you have failed me. But I did have some info on my printout, so... thanks Jan Tz! Is the vegsource.com website down or something? I think that's where I got it from...

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Oil a 9" round, covered casserole dish (I used a 9" square baking dish, but then I didn't have a cover and so I used tinfoil, but something with a cover would have been better). I digress.
Nuke a bag/open a can of mixed veg- I used a 16oz bag of frozen veggies (you can also nuke the packet of Boca in the same dish at the same time).
Oil your casserole dish.
Pour the veg and Boca into the casserole dish.

Prepare the gravy;
2 C water
1/4 C flour
1 T + 1 t soy sauce

Find an old spaghetti jar with a lid and put everything in there and shake, shake, shake. Or, just add a little liquid at a time and whisk it together so there's no lumps. Put on high heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper and spices (I used a tee-tiny pinch of every single savory spice I could find- sage, thyme, mustard, oregano, Italian seasoning, basil, rosemary etc., also onion and garlic granules).

Pour the gravy over the vegetables.

Now at this point on my printout, the author says 'this recipe is from Bryanna Clark Grogan's book, "The Almost No-Fat Cookbook" p75'. But the 'this' is unclear... is it the gravy or the biscuit recipe to follow? Anyway, the biscuits or the gravy are from Bryanna, I'm hazarding a guess here and saying it's the gravy. If you go to her page here and scroll down, you'll find a more highly evolved version of this recipe, Bryanna's Rich Brown (fat free) Yeast Gravy (note to self; use this next time).

Prepare your biscuits

Featherlight Dumplings

1 C flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 C plain soymilk or water

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add water/soymilk until a stiff dough forms.

Drop dumplings by the spoonful on top of the gravy soaked vegetables.

Bake uncovered 15m, then covered another 15m.

Whee!

Reading "Swann's Way" by Proust. Man alive, I'm in X pages and really, not much has happened. I sure know a lot about the town he grew up in, though. Honestly it's not too bad, because I can put this down and pick it up at will and it's not too hard to get back into the swing of things. Unlike some other long-winded books, I'm still interested and I'm enjoying the ride.

I found some funny threads when I was trying to locate the above recipe online. I somehow stumbled across this. Hilarious! My favorite line was "It tastes a little like strawberries, and a little like failure.". Also the people at MetaFilter tried the microwave cake, with mixed results. I learned that said microwave cake is 'steam leavened'. Cool.

I Forsee Soup

WWHFDLN

Lentil soup with cabbage and kielbasa

Man, I had a craving for lentil soup yesterday! I was planning on making soup with the rest of my wild rice and the sauce from this recipe (scroll down) but then I just kept wanting lentils! How weird is that? Lentils must have iron in them or something I need.

Anyway, this soup wasn't as good as the other lentil soup* I've been making lately, but it was pretty good. And it satisfied my lentil soup craving.

I was going to be awesome and serve it with 5 Minute Artisan Bread, but then that took too long so we just had it with Triscuits. I forsee other soups in our future with this bread.

On to the recipe;

2 C lentils
8 C water
1 small cabbage, sliced thin (about 2 C)
1 Tofurky kielbasa sausage, sliced in half longways and then into rounds
2 T oil
2 T vegetable broth powder
1 t thyme
1 t salt or to taste
1 t onion granules (I used this because I was out of onions, can you imagine?)
1/2 t garlic granules (ditto on the using it because I was out of garlic)
pepper to taste
2 bay leaves
few drops liquid smoke

Maybe the reason it wasn't so great was because I used onion and garlic granules as well as vegetable broth POWDER as opposed to using let's say, real things. Hmmm.

*hey guys, give me a break about the soup, yes? it's Fall. Of course now that snow is falling outside my window I'll be all like, 'hey, it's Winter, time for soup!'

Okay, confession time.
The reasons I'm not knitting are;
1. I'm pretty sure that as a vegan, I need to at least make sure that the wool I'm working with comes from a humane farm. And I have a lot of stash that isn't.
2. I had moths and used moth balls to ensure there wouldn't be any in my stash and now my stash reeks of chemicals and it's kind of freaking me out.
3. I was rejected from Knitty.

We'll see what transpires. Maybe I just need a break.

So I went to the library to find some Proust, Henry Green and Chekov. Found the first and last aaaaand picked up one of Francine Prose's fiction novels. Now, I don't think Francine is this tricky, but I did think it was an interesting coincidence that when I went to look for Proust, RIGHT THERE was Prose. I'm just sayin'.

I kind of blew through "A Changed Man" but it was really interesing and fun. I had a big chunk of time to myself to read and I was so glad I had a good novel to spend, as it were.

I thought the book did a good job exploring the somewhat banality of evil and human nature. I appreciated that the author did not decide to rub it in your face how awful people are but rather gave us a gripping, good story that had a nice ending.

Heavens they're tasty!

WWHFDLN

Acorn Squash with wild rice and cranberry sauce

This turned out nicely! What a great Fall dinner... and the squash, wild rice, cranberries and maple syrup were local!

Ingredients

2 acorn squash

Cut in half and scoop out seeds and pulp. Place in 6 qt. slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours.

Cranberry Relish based off of the recipe in Vegan With A Vengeance

2 C fresh cranberries
1/2 C maple syrup
1/2 C water
1/4 C apple juice

In the small bowl of your food processor, pulse the cranberries until chopped but not pureed.
Mix all ingredients in small saucepan and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer until liquid is almost gone and relish is thick.

Dressing

1/4 C apple juice
1/4 C canola oil
1 T brown sugar
1/2 t ground ginger
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t cardamom

Whisk together well.

Stuffing

2 C white rice, cooked
2 C broken wild rice, cooked
1 T canola oil
1 t salt
1 t onion granules
1/2 t garlic granules
2 C fresh cranberries

Mix all ingredients well.

Plate up by placing the squash half on the plate, then filling to overflowing with the rice mixture, then a spoonful of cranberry relish and then drizzle some of the sauce over the top of that.

This recipe has a lot going on, but really all of it is pretty easy and the end result is so good and filling that it's worth it! Maybe next time I'll try a different squash and mix the dressing with the cranberry relish.

Found Proust and Chekov online at Project Gutenberg, but I think I'll see what the library has 'cause reading online is not always convenient.

I Liked It So Much, I Made It Twice

WWHFDLN (What We Had For Dinner Last Night)

Middle Eastern Lentil Soup

Just like we had the other night, except with Moong Dal and I 'smoked' the paprika (read: it burned a little before I could swoop in and add some water). Still, very good and I used up the last of our parsley. I liked it so much, I made it twice.

WWHFDTON (What We Had For Dinner The Other Night)

This was borne out of desperation and fortunately, everyone liked it! Yea!

Beany Pasta with Kielbasa

1 Tofurkey Kielbasa cut in half long wise and sliced
1 can cannellini beans
1/2 pkg soft silken tofu
1/2 16oz pkg pasta
2 T nutritional yeast
1 T oil
fresh oregano to taste or 1 t dried, crumbled
1 t salt

Boil your pasta.
Dump half of the beans in your blender or food processor and add the tofu, salt, oregano and nutritional yeast. Blend.
Drain and rinse the other half of the can of cannellini beans and set aside.
In a large cast iron skillet, brown your sausage in 1 T of oil. Add the beans and sauce and mix well. When pasta is done, add the pasta and mix well. Serve.

Finally, this curry. I made it a little different but not much.

1/2 block firm tofu, pressed and cubed
1/2 C maple roasted cashews
1 C pineapple chunks
1/2 pkg frozen broccoli
1 shallot, sliced thin
2 T curry paste
1 can coconut milk
1 T brown sugar

Toast your cashews; in a large cast iron skillet, toast the raw cashews on high, stirring constantly, until browned (skip this step if your cashews are already roasted). Stir in 1 T maple syrup and stir and stir until the cashews are mostly dry and before all the maple coating clumps off. Remove from pan and set aside.

In a large pot on med high heat, mix the shallot with the curry paste and cook until shallot is tender. Add the brown sugar and mix well. Add the tofu and stir until tofu is well coated and hot. Add the coconut milk and mix well. Gently mix in the pineapple and broccoli and heat through. Simmer until desired thickness (now that I think about it I think I stirred in a T of cornstarch) and serve over rice.

Finished the Francine Prose book (Reading Like A Writer). Thought it was really meaty and great. Lots to sink your proverbial teeth into. Would like to own it. Am interested in reading Chekov now. And this Green guy. And Proust?

Started Monster Island, but the gore got to me. I am a wuss.

Suuuper crispy!

WWHFDLN*

Chili Topped Sweet Potatoes based off of this recipe.

Oh, aghlaghlaghl...
this is a favorite recipe in our family!! When I see those sweet potatoes at the store I am so excited I just snap them up!

4 large sweet potatoes, washed well (do not dry!- you'll see why)
2 T oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can black beans, undrained
1 C your favorite salsa (I used some apple salsa!)
1 t cumin
salt to taste

Wash and do not dry the sweet potatoes, placing them in a 6 qt slow cooker on low for 4 - 6 hours (honestly, once you try this you will never make them any other way- they are so tender and good).
Or wash and pierce them and place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 60 - 75m.
Or nuke 'em (pierce first!) 6-8m.

In a medium saucepan, saute the onion, then the garlic. Add the beans, salsa and cumin. Simmer for 10m, taste and adjust for seasoning. Serve over split open sweet potatoes.

Tortilla chips

Well, I had some corn tortillas left from when I made that bean and potato skillet and I thought, hmmm, I wonder... so I googled it and found a recipe and there you have it! Gosh was it fun to make my own chips! And they were good! Suuuper crispy. Just right to go with this dish.

*What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Still reading "Reading Like A Writer" still so good. Man, I'm going to have a lot of new books to read once I'm done with this one. Here's an interesting interview with the author.

Better Soup With Mine Friends Than A Banquet With Mine Enemy

So we had some friends in from out of town and I thought I'd turn out some aebleskiver. Actually, D. did most of the turning- thanks D.! Mmmm so good! If you ever have the chance to pick up one of these pans, do so!

Then, what was it, Saturday night? I tried this recipe for Skillet Black Beans with Potatoes and Tortillas. It was hearty, if not pretty, and hot and filling and good.

And finally, Sunday night we had this soup, based off of this recipe for Middle Eastern Lentil Paprika Soup. It was mmm-mmmmm good.

1 C brown lentils
1/2 C garbanzo beans
2 T canola oil
1-2 shallots, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 C fresh parsley, chopped and packed tightly
1/4 C ketchup
2 T HP sauce
2 T vegetable broth powder
1 T paprika*
2 t salt
1 t curry paste (I use Patak's, be sure to cook it oh my!)
8 C water

Saute shallot and garlic, add paprika and cook for a few minutes, then add lentils and everything else (water last) and bring to a simmer. Simmer 30m or until the lentils are tender.

Yum. Perhaps it was the great company, but I was so pleased with how this turned out!! Hooray for lentil soup!

*did you know that you must heat paprika in order for it to release it's flavor? Wow.

Reading "Reading Like A Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want To Write Them" - another really good book!! A wealth of information not limited to !words! !sentences! and !paragraphs!. She gives great examples of how authors use these and more to make great stories. Super enthralling. And enriching.

Hope all is well with you.

Even Better

WWHFDLN*

Delicata Casserole

1/2 16 oz box pasta
2 delicata squash, cut up into 1/2" pieces
1 C pumpkin from in a can
1 C raw cashews
1 clove garlic
1 C soymilk
1 C water
1 t salt
pinch nutmeg
20 Ritz crackers

Start your water for the pasta.
Oil a 9 x 13" casserole.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
In a blender, blend the cashews, pumpkin, garlic, soymilk, water, salt and nutmeg.
Chop up your squash and when the pasta is done, mix everything together in a big bowl. Pour it into the casserole and bake for an hour at 400 degrees.
Top with Ritz crushed in a bag or whizzed in a food processor and brown under broiler for 10m or until brown.

I thought this was great, the sauce complemented the sweetness of the delicata nicely. I think it would be good for sweet potatoes as well. I'm going to try that next time.

*What We Had For Dinner Last Night

And, to use up the rest of the pumpkin, I made Vegan With A Vengeance's The Best Pumpkin Muffins. Mmmm good. Not exactly healthful, but deeeelicious. I recommend. Added 1/2 C chocolate chips. Even better.

Justify My Soup

What We Had For Dinner The Other Night

Garbanzo Paprikash and Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I used this recipe for the garbanzos and left off the dumplings and added another can of garbanzos, drained. Isn't it odd what recipes we latch onto? For some reason this recipe has become one of our favorites (maybe it's all the ketchup and sugar, eh?).


I decided to swank it up with some fancy paprika (see pic above). Don't you just love that packaging?!? "Pride of Szeged" it states so proudly. Also "Exquisite 100% Sweet Delicacy". And of course the border with the hearts and flowers.

So, did it live up to the hype? Well, maybe I've just been boondoggled by my own desire, but I thought it tasted better. Really, the sauce turned out a darker browner red than the other paprika I've used before, so there was at least some difference.

Okay, so back to the food. I served the Garbanzos Paprikash over my bread. Which turned out so nicely, by the way, but which of course I can never replicate because I just used the last of my all purpose flour, then what vital wheat gluten was left in the bag, then some brown rice flour I had and some Giusto's white pastry flour (which I had originally gotten to make some baguette). Jeepers, bread baking can be mysterious but thankfully also forgiving. I mean, you're not even supposed to use pastry flour for bread, really!!!


Finally, the brussels sprouts. Well, I was inspired by these, but didn't want to do 4 T of Earth Balance, so I just tossed the brussels sprouts with some olive oil, salt, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and maybe a fourth of a teaspoon of garlic powder. Yum! Baked in the oven at 350 for 30m and boom! Straight into my mouth.


What We Had For Dinner Last Night (WWHFDLN)

Crock A Leekie soup! I was inspired by Heathen Vegan's Mock a Leekie soup.
I tossed maybe 4 or 5 leeks, 6 potatoes, 2 T oil and 4 C of water along with some salt and pepper into the crockpot. Then I cooked it on high for 4-5 hours. Then I remembered I still had some of my potato soup from before and dumped that in and blended it some and then cooked it uncovered for the last few hours to thicken it up. All very fly by the seat of your pants, but I do hope it just inspires you to chuck a bunch of veggies into the crockpot and cook 'em up!

Again with the bread. Mentally, I can justify serving any kind of soup as long as there's homemade bread alongside it.

Reading "Writing Down The Bones" (can you sense a theme here). It's not as good as "Take Joy"- much less no nonsense and much more woo woo therapy primal scream type of thing. I'm not really into 'just write whatever comes into your head first thoughts', but I guess if I got stuck I could do that. But there are some good ideas in there and as long as I don't get sucked into thinking that I have to do it her way, I am fine with most of what this author says. I apprecieate all her advice about not listening to that inner critic voice. So much of life is like that, isn't it? Just doing what has to be done instead of listening to that voice.

That's about it, folks.

Feeling V. Virtuous

What We Had For Dinner The Other Night

Potato-Green Pea Samosa Filling

I skipped the lemon, used cumin instead of cumin seeds and no cayenne pepper powder. Yum! Served over rice as you can see.


What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Easy Yummy Lasagna Recipe

I need to work on perfecting my lasagna. I used uncooked noodles and they came out crispy/crunchy and rubbery- both at the same time!! Maybe next time I will just boil the lasagna noodles first. Sometimes you just can't cut corners.

I was pleased with the tofu basil sauce (much like Tofu Basil Ricotta except with soft silken tofu) and would definitely use it again in a lasagna. I know that my husband and daughter did not love the eggplant and spinach, though. Maybe zucchini and tomatoes or some other vegetable I'm not thinking of right now.
And last but not least, Chocolate Pudding In a Mug.

Oh bliss!

Last night I was just craving some chocolate and wishing I had some kind of ice cream bar, but alas, there was nothing to be had. So I hopped online, remembering something about chocolate cake in a mug... Well, I didn't find a recipe for cake, but I did find something chocolatey and good!! This recipe came through for me! Thanks, internet!

I especially appreciated the ease of making it, the not high calorie content (Holy heart attack, have you seen this recipe?!?) and the specific instructions about how to make it. Oh, the only thing I added was a pinch of salt and I upped the vanilla to 1/2 t.

1 T cornstarch
2 T cocoa powder
2 T sugar
3/4 C soymilk
1/2 t vanilla
pinch salt

Combine all ingredients except soymilk and vanilla in a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup. Use a fork to make sure there are no lumps (you could also sift the ingredients together if you were feeling really anal). Slowly add the milk and then the vanilla- add just a little and mix, then a little more and so on.

Nuke for 1m. Stir. Nuke for 33 seconds, stopping when it starts to rise to the tippy top of the cup. Stir. Do this in 15s increments (or however long it takes to boil up again) until it's 'boiled' for approximately one minute.

Eat. Do not burn mouth. Yum.

Finished "Take Joy" by Jane Yolen, a really excellent book. Very encouraging and smart.

Bailing on "The Children of God" because it's dragging and I find it sort of voyeristic. Now that I sort of understand why what happened in the first book happened, I've lost interest. Boo.
All I have left are boring books, I think. Must go look through pile.

Started another Short Row Scarf with some crazy acrylic. Need to go up in needle size. Frustrated that I can't find my favorite size 10 1/2 circular needles. Stalled.

Started Flylady- go ahead, laugh! Go ahead! Anyway, don't have much clutter, but patiently submitting to the slow ramping up while waiting for more info on cleaning. Have polished my sink. Did "Swish and a Swipe" of bathroom this morning. Feeling v. virtuous.

Even Better Than The Real Thing

What We Didn't Have For Dinner Last Night

Banana Bread!

Yup! Followed the recipe as written. Didn't reduce the sugar, nor the Earth Balance Margarine. Nope. And boy is it good. We'll see if we can even get my banana-hating husband to try a piece. I think it's that good!

I was inspired when I was cataloging my freezer contents to make banana bread. I found 3 frozen bananas in there (frozen for smoothie making).

Oh, and the homemade ice cream made with Hazelnut Soy Creamer was based off of "How It All Vegan"'s recipe. I think it's even better than store bought.

2/3 of a box soft silken tofu
1 container Silk Hazelnut creamer (btw, do not look at the nutritional info ha ha)
dash salt

Blend/food process.
Pour into shallow container and freeze until solid.
Thaw (this takes about half an hour), spoon into blender/food processor and process 'til smooth.
Freeze again.
Remove from freezer 5m before serving.
Yum.

The Elbows Speak For Themselves

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Elbows with Golden Cheaze Sauce and
Kale sauteed with garlic, garlic granules, salt and a leetle Dijon mustard.

I have made a vow to myself to always make the kale the same day we get it from our CSA (it was our last week this week! so sad!) and so here we have the sauteed kale.

The Elbows speak for themselves.

Well, I've been tagged! For the Love of Guava has tagged me with "What's In Your Vegan Freezer?". So here goes...

What’s in your (vegan) Freezer? Started by Billy.:

• Take a picture of the items in your freezer
• Post the picture to your blog and give a summary of the items
• Tag 5 vegan bloggers.

Here we can see on the top shelf, left to right;
ice,
in the middle on top,
some buns,
below that, some tomatoes I froze from our plethora of tomatoes this year,
a box of strawberry ice bars,
my apple butter and
behind that some frozen blueberries for future blueberry muffin making.
On the bottom shelf;
half a bag of broccoli,
an Amy's burrito,
below that some frozen Morning Glory bread (in the foil),
to the right of that some adzuki beans in the Ziploc container with the blue lid and
beneath that some ice cream I made with Hazelnut Soy Creamer I got when it was on sale- yum yum!
Then in the Ziploc are some rice/carrot/cashew/cilantro patties I made,
behind that you can barely see some edamame peeking out and next to that some frozen green beans also from our CSA and finally
to the right some mystery stew I froze perched on top of some freezies for my daughter.
Hidden out of sight is half a bag of frozen peas- I aim for full disclosure (grin).

And here we have the other part of my freezer, do I get extra credit for this?!?
Up top is a bunch of frozen fruit we got when we were on a smoothie making kick oh and also some coffee...
and below left to right are some frozen not-meat balls,
then some small containers of basil pureed with oil for future Winter pesto making,
then some breadcrumbs hiding behind a box of frozen spinach,
then more coffee and finally on the very right some flax meal. Yum yum.

So, I tag

Addicted to Olives
Vegan Appetite
Legally Vegan
Pamela Cooks!
and
Your Vegan Mom

Reading "Take Joy" by Jane Yolen, very good nonfiction about writing.

Oh, and also I got a ZZ plant yesterday, so excited!! I've been wanting one for a long time and was even coveting a neighbors plant (asked for a cutting but never got one and didn't want to obsessively pester her about it). Of course, I ambitiously polished some of it's leaves with leaf polish and then read the above post to find you are NEVER to do that! Sigh. Please don't die, lovely ZZ plant.

Also got a huge spider plant and repotted it (the bottom was a MASS of white roots, no dirt to be seen anywhere). Gosh it makes me happy to play with my plants. Had a little one I was trying to patiently satisfy myself with, and it's not dead, but I just had to get this one especially as it was 50% off.

That is all.

Spicy Chickpea Stew

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Spicy Chickpea Stew

Well, I made bread yesterday, think I came up with 'my' recipe that I'll use from now on (of course I'll tweak it some, can't leave well enough alone) and I was trying to think of something I could make with chickpeas (my fallback when I can't think of anything else for supper, plus I was craving them). Something soupy that I could use the bread to sop up...

So I Googled chickpea sauce and was inspired with cumin and coriander and came up with this stew... it would be good without the TVP, I just put that in there because the ancho chile turned out to be too spicy for our tastes (wimps!) and to make it bigger. If you leave out the TVP, use less salt and leave out the cup of water.

2 C boiling water in which you dump
1 C TVP

1 T olive oil
1 T Earth Balance margarine
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 t salt
2 t cumin
1 t coriander
1 ancho chile or ancho chile powder to taste
1 can garbanzo beans, undrained
1 C water
1/2 22oz bag frozen broccoli
2 T chickpea flour mixed with 2 T water

In a large pot over high heat, saute the shallots, then garlic in the Earth Balance and oil. Add the spices, the ancho chile and salt and mix well, stirring constantly for a few minutes. Dump in the garbanzo beans and cover and simmer on low for a few minutes.
Remove as much of the liquid as you can to a blender (or use an immersion blender), add the 1 C water and blend. Return to the pot and stir in the chickpea flour. Simmer until thick. Add the broccoli and TVP to the pot and mix well. Cover and cook until the broccoli isn't frozen, stirring every once in a while to make sure the TVP isn't sticking.

This would be yummy over rice!

My Bread

4 heaping cups flour
1/4 C vital wheat gluten
1 heaping T sugar
1 scant T salt
1 scant T yeast
2 T Earth Balance margarine
2 C hot water

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans.
Mix one heaping cup flour with vital wheat gluten, sugar, salt and yeast.
Add butter, then water and beat on high 'till smooth.
Add 3 heaping cups flour, switch to hook and knead 3m.
Take out dough, oil bowl, return dough to bowl and flip over so the top is oiled and cover with a wet tea towel.
Turn off oven and place bowl with dough inside. Let rise 45m, plus or minus 20m (check on it after 25m).
If dough has doubled and a finger stuck in leaves an indent, take the dough out, cut it in half, knead each a little and cover with the wet towel on your counter while you preheat the oven to 170 again.
Roll out each half into a 12 x 9" rectangle, roll up, tuck ends under and place in loaf pan.
Cover with wet towel, turn off oven and let rise in oven 45m.
REMOVE WET TOWEL, leaving bread in the oven and bake at 400 degrees 40m or until well browned. Cool one hour.
This made a nice, dense loaf that slices easily without breaking and tastes good.


Ahhh, and here is the apple butter!! Whee, I was so excited to eat this yesterday, wow.
As it was cooking down last night there on the counter, my husband and I got to wondering what is the difference between apple butter and apple sauce? And all we could come up with is that apple butter is smoother, thicker and spicier than apple sauce. Well, whatever the case may be, it sure turned out goo-oood!

So I have a 6 qt cooker (recipe calls for 5) and I used only 3 cups of sugar instead of the 4. Otherwise I just followed the recipe.

We used the wild apples from Port Wing and as you saw a few posts ago, the flesh of the apples was pinkish. Perhaps the correct term would be blush. Is there an official apple grower term for this? I'm sure there is (and it's not blush). So anyway, the apple butter turned out red! How gorgeous. It's sweet and tart and perfect. I think that this will become a Fall tradition. It was worth the time it took and now I've got a big batch frozen in the freezer for the depths of Winter.

P.S. I cannot take credit for this idea entirely, when we were up there, my friend M. mentioned a slow cooker apple butter recipe she found and I was just too impatient to email and get it so I just Googled it (again with the Google). So thanks, M., for the inspiration!

Hey, I did some actual knitting and discovered that my pattern biases. So I think I'll try knitting it Ostrich Plumes stylee and offset the design to ?mitigate? the biasing action. Or something. I tire of this pattern.

Sometimes Simple Is Best

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Potato Soup and some broccoli you can't see in this picture

I kinda followed this recipe, did what a lot of the commenters did and roasted the garlic with the potatoes. The garlic roasted quicker than the potatoes, so I took it out sooner.

Also, when I blended up the potatoes, I really had to keep stopping and scraping so that it would all blend- it got really thick, like mashed potatoes! That's because I didn't follow the directions and do the blending in half batches. Also, I added LOTS of water. Man oh man. Next time I'd leave it a little thicker, but still it was a lot of water. Sorry I lost count, I just kept pouring it in.

8 mediumish potatoes
6 C water (at least)
3 big cloves garlic
2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
2 T olive oil
2 T Earth Balance margarine

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Oil a couple of baking sheets.
Peel and chop your potatoes.
Peel your garlic.
Place potatoes and garlic on baking sheets and toss with a little oil to cover.
Bake 20m, remove garlic, bake potatoes 10m more until brown.
Put garlic and potatoes into a large soup pot and add water.
Boil 20m.
Remove in half batches to blender, blend, adding water as necessary.
Return to pot, add oil and Earth Balance and season to taste.
Heat through and serve.

All in all, for something so simple, I thought it was good. I was tempted to add stuff to it (onion powder, Bac Uns, onion soup mix) and I'm glad I didn't. Sometimes simple is best.

Started reading "Children of God" by Mary Doria Russell. This is the follow up to "The Sparrow" so it's interesting in that I'm interested in the characters already. So far so good.

Curse you agar agar!!!

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Well, I got a cookbook this weekend at this art gallery (cookbooks!, pottery! yarn! whee!). I got Vive le Vegan! by Dreena Burton. I've heard good things about this book, mainly that the recipes are pretty quick and easy and that appeals to me!

So I tried the Broccoli-Mushroom-Walnut Phyllo Pie! And it was quick and good!
I didn't have any onion (boo) so I used garlic, D. hates mushrooms, so I skipped that step, oh, I made the pasta version, no vinegar and I guess that's about it! D. said he usually likes his broccoli just by itself, not pureed into a sauce, so maybe next time I might try this as a sauce over the pasta and broccoli.

Notes;
Next time, boil the pasta water, and just before it's done, toss in the broccoli to cook!
Toast the walnuts in the bottom of the pot before sauteing the onion!

On to the weekend! Whee! It was apple picking weekend, a weekend each fall when a group of us get together and go up to Port Wing, WI to pick apples (wild apples! just there on the tree!) on our friends C. and D.s land!! Man, Port Wing is like a hidden treasure, I tell you! Right on Lake Superior and so much beauty! We stayed at the Stone Haus again this year and really enjoyed it!

Check out that view!!
And here are the apples. I spent a significant amount of time yesterday (read: hours) coring, peeling and cutting up all the apples into slices to go into my crockpot to make apple butter.
I'm trying out this recipe, using only 3 C sugar (we'll see). I plan on freezing most of it so we can enjoy the fruits (ha!) of our labor this winter. I kinda wish I could come up with some more awesome way to use these, but I'm always a procrastinator when it comes to apples and it just never seems to get done, so it was good to just plow through them all yesterday and git 'er done! I feel very happy that none will go to waste!

And I also have to share what I got here!

It's done by Melis Pottery and I think it's just perfect!

Oh, and for Veganmofo, I want to say that I now have the ability to recognize spices by sight. Unlabeled.

Vegans use lots of spices (vast generalization).

So anyway- I buy my spices at my coop, and they come in little clear bags (man, that bulk section used to intimidate me!) and I have all these little bags crammed into a big Ziploc. So today when I loaded up my crockpot, I grabbed for a brown bag of spice and !bingo! it was cinnamon! Woo!

Of course, there's always the agar agar. Curse you agar agar! How you mock me!! I shove you down to the bottom of the bag and there you malinger, waiting for me to grab you when I'm trying to find the onion powder...

Stuff Stuffed Delicata Squash

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Well, this one was a bit of an adventure, but one that turned out well, I think...

First off, I was going to use our acorn squash we got from our CSA, and so I looked up a few recipes, but then I couldn't cut the squash open!!! Can you believe it?!? Oh, man, I felt like such a dork (my husband will smile slightly in a vindicated way because he's always saying how we need to have our knives sharpened). But anyway, then I remembered the delicata squash we had and decided to use those instead.

And then I decided that my just-having-worked-out husband might need just a leeeetle bit more substance in his stuffing (no offense meant, apples), so I thought and thought what else I could add and here's what I came up with!

I haven't really stuffed many squash, but it was really easy and a great way to make a meal!

Stuff Stuffed Delicata Squash

3 small delicata squash*
1/2 C adzuki beans
1/4 C TVP
1/4 C golden raisins
1/2 apple, sliced thin and chopped
1 T almond butter
3 T maple syrup
2 T oil
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt

Boil 1/2 C water, pour in the TVP and let sit while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and oil a baking sheet.
Slice your delicata lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.
Place delicata cut side down onto the sheet and bake 20m.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the almond butter, maple syrup, oil, cinnamon and salt. Gently stir in adzuki beans, raisins and apples. Pour in TVP, do not drain, and mix well.
When squash are ready, flip them up, and place 1-2 T of stuffing in each. Return to oven and bake until bubbling and tender (approx 15m).

*did you know you can eat the skin? Coooool.

And I have to say, you can't really see it in the picture above, but we got some kickin' spinach yesterday from our CSA! I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be so excited about spinach, but here we are. Soooo goood! I must have an iron deficiency or something...

Sorry no pics of the CSA veg, I just sort of lost steam on that somehow. But we still have a few weeks left! Yesterday we got some beets I can't wait to use! And of course a whole mess of other stuff as well...

No reading lately, have to run to the library today, I'm OUT OF BOOKS, not to mention, getting new books for E. 'cause we going up to Port Wing for Apple Picking Weekend!! So we need books to look at in the van.

Last night I made pitas, like at 9pm, ending at 11pm. And hummus, and I prepped my red lentil curry. I think we should have enough food. We will be staying at this cute little house up there you can rent, we loved it last year, and this year it's so nice to have again because our friend M. is bringing up her 6 week old baby!!! Saturday night will be our big supper together up there, plus we will go to the local cafe for awesome pancakes, go and see the Big Lake and pick wild apples! Not to mention climbing the big maple and maybe visiting a few pottery/jewelry shops. I can't wait.

For veganmofo I got nothin'- see this post for some awesome motivation!

In A Fresh Way

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Pesto!! I didn't look up measurements, so I used 1/4 C for everything!! 1/4 C olive oil, 1/4 C nutritional yeast, 1/4 C walnuts...

Veganmofo, what can I say for you today? I would like to speak about my perception that the vegan movement today is not rigid and sanctimonious. Everyone does their best and no one is 100% perfect. That is a very risky statement, because it almost seems to invite less than a full adherence to the vegan lifestyle. But, it's a great statement- many, many religions and branches of religions have failed, failed, failed at this (not that I'm saying veganism is a religion, I'm just talking from personal experience about trying to live a perfect lifestlye). The feeling I get from vegans is that of encouragement!!! And I can't say how glad that makes me. Instead of coming down on a person (no one likes to feel like a failure), vegans encourage each other to do their best. They share resources and information. That is great. The end.

Whoah, Terry Pratchett fans! Gee, I checked my analytics and the day after I posted about reading "The Wee Free Men" my numbers spiked!! I think it was 'cause of this site.

I did kind of mis-speak and say that I couldn't get into the Discworld series, but the books I read are actually part of Discworld- a parralell storyline, I believe.

Gosh, I feel like I should say something of more importance... like, um, the main character is a witch, and there's this one spot where they talk about why it's important to take care of the less fortunate and I liked the themes about doing what's right and being a good person. I really liked the cool female protagonist and I can't wait until my girls are old enough to read these. That's high praise. I do love me a fairy tale and it's nice to see someone doing them in a fresh way.

I read these in a little cabin on the shores of Lake Superior, mostly by candlelight, an ideal setting. I think there's another one in this series coming out. Can't wait.