Summer of Juvenile Fiction

Welcome, welcome, so good to see you back...

Oh no, wait, that's me!

Ah well, today I bring you the best of July-August for your viewing pleasure...



A while back I read about caramelizing onions in a slow cooker somewhere on Metafilter and I just had to give it a whirl (see here for more tips)... and yay, it worked! Whee! So I turned them into soup, which you see above and is totally anticlimactic. But I WILL be using them on my next pizza (more on that later).


Here is a blueberry grunt which photographed terribly but was pretty good. It was a little tart, as I recall, but I think that was the berries we used which were from last summer, really late season blueberries (think apple picking time) so they, as a berry, were just tart. I followed the recipe here and veganized it, of course omitting the whipping cream at the end.


And here is my new favorite thing! Whee! I used follow your heart vegan cheeze, mozzarella flavour, and my new favorite pizza dough. Yummy! I made it again recently, and just used 1/3 of the block of cheeze so now I can eek out three pizzas from one block of (fairly expensive) vegan cheeze! Yay! And in all truth, the pizza using the third of a block of cheeze was better anyway, used some fresh veggies from the farmer's market that I sauteed up and nom, nom, nom!

Pizza Dough

1 C warm water
2 T yeast
3 1/2 C flour
1/4 C vital wheat gluten
1 t ginger
1/4 C oil
2 t salt
2 T sugar (or honey if you're a beegan)

Mix water and yeast and let sit 5m until dissolved.
Mix in olive oil, flour, salt and sugar.
Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, approx. 10m.
Place in oil coated bowl and turn and flip dough so it is coated.
Cover with plastic wrap or a wet towel and allow to rise until doubled, around 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Punch down dough, divide in half and let sit 10m (you could freeze one half here if you don't want to make 2 pizzas- that's what I did and I made breadsticks with it for spaghetti another day).
Place pizza stone on rack in lower third of oven. Preheat to 450 degrees for 30m to 1 hour (I scoffed at this initially, but the second time when I made it, I let the oven preheat for more like an hour and the crust came out crisper!).
Flatten dough to 1/2" thick and 10 - 12 " wide. Go easy, if it starts to get wierd, let it rest (and you, too) for 5m. Then start again, patting and stretching.
Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal and put pizza crust on it.
Make dents using your knuckles, then brush with oil and let rest 5m.
Top with toppings and slide pizza onto baking stone (if it doesn't slide, add more cornmeal).
Bake 10 - 15m.


And here is what we had for supper last night-

Chickpea and Broccoli Macaroni

I must have been channeling my winter self or something, because this is a *gasp* casserole (yes, I turned on the oven, I am a masochist) and *gasp* it uses frozen broccoli. I should have gone to the farmer's market and bought fresh broccoli (wears hairshirt).
Anyway, this was good! Yay! I will make it again, fo' sure.

I made it just like the recipe, except I was all like, what's up with the 3/4 t ?!?! So I bumped the salt, garlic powder and paprika up to 1 t. Talk about taking a walk on the wild side, baby! Also, I used pasta water for the sauce, because my husband was not home yet with the soymilk. It turned out fine. Really good, folks. Definitely put this in your 'to make' pile. I can't wait to make it again, this time with soymilk and maybe even frying up the chickpeas with some garlic and onion. Yuuuum!


So, this has been the summer of juvenile fantasy fiction. I read "A Wizard of Earthsea" which was really good, read the next two after that.

I also read Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonsinger" or whichever one is the first in the series. Dragonsinger, dragondrums, dragonmaster, dragonrider... eventually the series will reveal 'Dragonaccountant' or 'Dragonhairdresser'. I have read the 'harper's hall' trilogy. The first was pretty good, then they were okay.

When I've run out of library books, I've been slowly working through LOTR. So good.

Next up, I am thinking about tackling the Harry Potter series. Yes, I am that crazy. Don't you think that would be a good way to end the "Summer of Juvenile Fiction"?

I Despair!

Heya peeps! Long time no blog!

Well, maybe it's best this way... you are spared the innumerable combinations of rice/pasta with a bit of tofu/fake ground meat/tvp and a somekindof sauce made usually with nutritional yeast.

I bring to you my 'best hits' of the summer, thus far!


First up, the magnificent breadstick! Ooooh, ahhh!

Marvel at it's uniform brownness and the sparkly bits of salt atop it's crest.

Truly, it is a wonder.

Ahem. No, really, though. It was good! Yay! I think I just googled 'olive garden breadstick' and this is what I came up with (after wading past all the nutritional info sites, oh, yeah, and all the sites telling me how to make breadsticks using a frozen bag of bread dough- d'oh! yah, right.). So anyhow, I really liked these and the baking time is less 'cause you've cut up the dough and stuff and I added my seekrit ingredients the second time around (pic above) and got even better results! Hoorah!

Breadsticks

4 C flour
2 T sugar
2 t salt
2 t yeast
1 1/3 C water
1/2 C vital wheat gluten (opt- seekrit ingredient)
1 t powdered ginger (again, optional, secret ingredient)

1 T melted Earth Balance
1 t salt
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t oregano

Oil 2 baking sheets.
Mix first group of ingredients in mixer, then knead for a few minutes.
Divide dough into 16 (I use my digital scale for this, because I am a nerd) and roll into breadsticks, placing them on the baking sheet once you've rolled them out.
Cover with a damp teatowel and let rise 45m.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Melt butter and brush onto breadsticks.
Mix the salt, garlic powder and oregano and sprinkle the tops of the breadsticks.
Bake 15m.

See? Easy! You can make these if you have maybe an hour before supper and then all you have to do is make spaghetti, but you've really fancied it up here with the breadsticks and everyone will be like, wow.

Next up is a few pictures of my new favorite 'spice blend' for 'Indian' food. See how I used those little quotes there? That's because spice blend sounds so fancy, yes? And quotes make anything better. Also around the word, Indian? That's because I'm sure an real Indian cook would scoff. But hey, me likey. Scroll down for the recipe. Below you see fried chickpeas and tofu with tomatoes and below that you see fried chickpeas and silken tofu with tomatoes and freshly wilted, or is that wilted fresh, spinach. It was fresh spinach, freshly wilted, anyhow. Sooo good.


This 'spice blend' originates from this recipe... the only thing I changed was to drop the chili garlic paste and replace it with paprika, 'cuz my family are wusses.

2 cans garbanzo beans, drained
1/2 can diced tomatoes
2 T oil
1 T fresh grated ginger
1 t onion powder, cumin, garam masala, salt
1/2 t coriander, tumeric, garlic granules
1/4 t paprika

Fry the garbanzos in oil until browning. Add ginger and spices. Add the tomatoes and spinach if you've got it, mix until well heated. Serve over rice. Tada!


And finally, here is the piece de la resistance (that is wholly incorrect, I'm sure)- strawberry shortcake!! I found the recipe on the intarweb and now alas, I cannot find it again. Ah well, besides, I changed it up some, so there. Soooo goooood! Go, pick some strawberries, now! Make this tonight!!



Strawberry Shortcake

2 C sliced strawberries/1 quart strawberries
2 T sugar

2 C flour
2 T sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t cream of tartar
1/4 t baking soda
3/4 C soymilk
1 1/2 t apple cider vinegar
1/4 C canola oil

Oil two baking sheets.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Slice strawberries, sprinkle with sugar, mash up a little with a fork and set aside to allow juices to release.
Add apple cider vinegar to soymilk, whisk a little and set aside to sour.
Mix dry ingredients well.
Add soymillk and oil and gently mix.
Spoon 6 mounds onto baking sheets.
Bake 15m until golden.
Remove to racks and cool.
Top with berries and serve.


Well, so now for the reading...
I finally got my hands on a copy of "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" and it was a really good read! Lots of engaging stuff in there about culture and aging and love. I couldn't put it down! I was so tickled because I hadn't been able to get it from the library (not in the system) and so I had just relegated it to the 'books I can't get ahold of but have come highly recommended'- thanks Mallika!. This category also contains "The Mysterious Benedict Society" btw. ANYWAY I was making my semi-frequent stop at my local bookstore to see what they had on the free to members prerelease shelf and there it was!! Whee!

Again, you are treated with my 'best of' reads here, suffice it to say I would give myself a headache if I tried to remember and list all the books I've been reading, but one that stands out, dun, dun, DUN! is "Treasure Island". Yes, that great classic of old. Aaaaand, get this. I read it online!

Here's the story- I checked it out from my library, from the children's literature section, mind you, and it was some terrible bastardized version! Ptoooey! Oh, it was awful. I cannot even say how awful it was. They gutted out all the interesting asides that make the characters spring to life and I couldn't even bear to read past a few pages when I threw it down in disgust. Yes, folks, it was that bad. OMG, srsly, if this pap is what they are giving our children to help smooth it down their throats, I despair. End rant.

Okay, that's it for today. Have a lovely day!

Kind of Drippy.

hey, yo.

wow, lots of foodstuffs for you today!

first up (above) we have some yummy pasta with sauce.

do you ever do this? where you mix it all up together and let it cook up hot? kinda reminds me of a cafeteria...

i used some fancy pants spaghetti sauce from the coop (no corn syrup) and doctored it to my taste. turned out pretty good!

2 T oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 t oregano
1 t salt
1 t italian seasoning (remember to crush those spices up between your fingers, folks)
splash balsamic vinegar
1/4 t ancho chile powder

Saute onion, then garlic in oil. Add spices, vinegar and salt. Add sauce. Simmer for a bit while your pasta boils.
Mix up with your pasta and serve hot.

oh, man, this was good! of course, everything was fried, so what do you expect?

1 can garbanzos, drained
1 1/2 carrots shredded
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 T oil
1 pkg water pack extra firm tofu
1 t cumin
1 t salt
1/2 t ancho chile powder

Heat your oil in a large cast iron skillet over med high heat. Add your garbanzos (watch out, those garbanzos can spit!). Stir around and add salt and cumin and ancho chile powder. Add the garlic in there and then the carrots. Keep stirring on high heat.
Lower heat and add the tofu- I boiled the tofu for ten minutes, as is my standard operating procedure these days (I think it makes it firmer), then cut it into cubes- stir around until tofu is hot and spicy too and then serve over rice! So good!


I made bagels again, this time with 3/4 C whole wheat flour replacing one of the cups of flour. I also added 1 t of cinnamon, just to mix it up a little. They turned out good (a little chewy, but good).
Here is an old favorite- Taco Ring! I think I got this originally from Fairly Odd Tofu Mom... I used the reduced fat crescent rolls and they weren't as insanely addictive tasting, but still good.

2 cans reduced fat crescent rolls
1 package Boca 'ground beef'
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 C minute rice, uncooked
1/2 C frozen corn
1/2 C salsa
1/2 C bulk dry uncheeze mix
1 T oil
1 small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced

Take yer crescent rolls out of the frig.
Let 'em sit.
Meanwhile, boil up 2 C of water in your microwave safe dish in the microwave and then, slowly (I mean, add a few grains rice, first, to make sure it's not superheated) add rice. Let that sit.
Heat oil in a large pot, saute onion, then garlic.
Add Boca.
Add uncheeze, salsa, pinto beans and corn. Add rice. Mix well and heat on medium heat, covered.
Meanwhile, take a baking sheet and oil it well.
Lay out your crescent roll triangles with the points facing outwards. You will overlap the wider ends on the baking sheet, leaving a circle approximately 6" in diameter in the center.
Put 1/4 C of the bean mixture in the center of the base of every two triangles. Wrap the two triangle ends over the mixture and press them together with the dough in the center.
Bake at 375 degrees for 20m.
Cut into 8 wedges and serve with salsa, vegan sour cream and sliced black olives.

This was just some hot buttered pasta with tofu and fingerling potatoes. Sounds just like what it is- made the pasta, boiled the fingerlings right along with the pasta, boiled up some silken tofu, then cubed it then sauteed it with garlic and Earth Balance and added the pasta and potatoes in there too. Served with a side of green beans (from a can!) seasoned with sumac and salt. Nice and filling.
And here is the ubiquitous spicy peanut sauce spaghetti. It was pretty bland as I didn't add any ginger or basil or even cumin, oh well.

1/2 C peanut butter
1/4 C soysauce
1 t salt
1/4 C brown sugar
splash rice wine vinegar
1 clove garlic

Blend. Thicken on stove (you can see I didn't thicken mine enough or drain my pasta enough- the sauce is kind of drippy). Mix with spaghetti. Yum, supper.


So, I finished The Stand with a side detour into "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies".
Okay, first off, don't read the unabridged version of "The Stand". I mean no disrespect to the King, but whoah. That was long.
SPOILER America sure loves it's sacrificial heroes, doesn't it?
Long on dread and short on action, NOTHING HAPPENED until way into the book, and then it was sadly disappointing when the bad guy turned out to be a straw man- or was he? Dun, dun, dun. I may try to read "It" some day, but I think after that, I'll be done with Stephen King.

The P & P & Zombies was fun! Don't go into it expecting a super ton of zombie action- I mean, it was there and all, but it sort of strangely ended up as an accompaniment to everything else. Funny, yes. A whole new thing, no. But that's not what it's meant to be.

I got "American Psycho" from the library. Hm. I have a hard time reading books where the goal is so obviously to make me ?hate? the protagonist... we'll see.

That Would Be Awesome.

Do you know that they make CHOCOLATE Pez candies?!? What is the world coming to, I tellz ya!

Oh well. Here we have a few of our more recent suppers...

After my recent success with tortillas, I was excited to make these again (yes I did use Crisco)! I decided to use one of my favorite crock pot recipes as the filler. Conveniently it is actually taco/burrito filling. I've changed it a little from the original so that it works for our family, the greatest change being the change from barley to bulgur.

Aaaaaaand I finally remembered to pick up an avacado at the coop this week! Hoorah!

And I got to try out a sour cream recipe, too, so that was fun as well.

So here's how I made the fillin's this time...

Bulgur Burrito Filling

1 25oz can black beans, undrained
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 T oil
2 t cumin
1 t onion gran, garlic gran, salt, ancho chile powder
1 C your favorite salsa
1 C bulgur
2 T chopped cilantro (I had some in the freezer)
2-3 C water (I added some as I went along)

Mix it all up in the crockpot, set on high and cook until tender 4-5 hours.

Meanwhile get your tortillas mixed up and risin'.

At the end, make yer 'sour cream'.

Tofu Sour Cream

1 12.3oz pkg silken extra firm tofu
1 T oil
1/4 C water
1 t sugar
1 t apple cider vinegar
1/2 t salt
1/8 t citric acid

Of course if you don't have citric acid around the house (I mean, who doesn't?) you should just take a peek at the original recipe. Other places I've seen it on the intarweb suggest using only 2 t lemon juice. We left off one of the t's of apple cider vinegar because we don't really like tart things here at chez centrepullball. Voila!

Well, I am still working through "Rides A Dread Legion" by Feist. No, not that Feist. That would be awesome.

No, no. First of all, the title. Rides a dread legion.

Okay, now, there is a lot going on so far in this book, lots of introducing characters, backstory, history etc. etc. and I guess if I had the other two books already and loads of time, I'd keep going. As it is, I may bail. This would make great light reading for a long winter, but it's spring and I'm in the mood for some post-apocalyptic reads...

Actually Crispy.

OOooooh! Lovelies! Here we have SUCH a yummy dinner!! I got the idea from blah blah blah-ler, she made it sound so easy and good, and it was! Also, now I will always think of Doritos when I eat this dahl...

I made it in the crockpot, 'cuz that's how I roll... Um, actually I made it in the crockpot because it seemed like a good idea to let all that spicy goodness simmer away all day.

I probably should have dragged out the 'ol trusty skillet and really browned/fried those chickpeas up- I will try this sometime (and then of course skip the crockpot). That would definately up the Doritos effect.

2 15oz cans garbanzos, drained and 1 undrained
1/2 can diced tomatoes, drained
2 T oil
1 T freshly grated ginger*
1/4 t chili garlic paste (you know, the kind with the rooster on the front?)
1 t onion powder, cumin, garam masala, salt
1/2 t coriander, turmeric, garlic granules

Put the oil, ginger and salt and spices in the crockpot on high, and mix around until fragrant. Dump in the rest of the stuff, mix well and let it cook on high for a few hours, however long until supper. Make rice and serve. MMMmmmm.


*I've been scraping all the skin off the ginger with a spoon, then freezing it in a little ziplock in the freezer, then taking it out and grating it on my box grater and it works great! Yay, no more shriveled, sad mistakes of ginger left to moulder on the counter!

Here is a fairly uneventful supper. The most exciting thing was that I made crackers and doubled the recipe and they were more like soft crackers, if that makes any sense. Still good, though. I will go back to the original half amount, though, and make actually crispy crackers.

I finished "Smilla's Sense of Snow" and I don't know if I was just distracted toward the end or what, but I just could not stay interested. Isn't that wierd? It was, like, the culmination of all this stuff and ?dare I say it? it was sort of anticlimactic? I am so Western I suppose all with my need for dramatic endings and resolution. That was sort of the point of the author- no resolution, so I guess I'll just have to take my lumps, or however the saying goes... Really cool book, though. Pretty cool heroine! I wonder what the movie's like?

Jessica Seinfeldy

Hello. Here is some soup. It was good.

Split Pea Spinach Stew

Note that my stew looks nothing like the picture in that post...

1 T oil
1 onion, chopped
1/4 pkg frozen spinach
1 C split peas
1 t salt
1 t cumin
1/8 t cumin
1/8 t chili paste
4 C water (I also added 2 more cups at the end after I blended it)

Soak yer peas.
Saute yer onion.
add yer spices and salt and water, bring to boil and simmer until tender.
Blend.
Add more water.
Serve.

This was pretty good- the spinach lightened it up and I felt all ?Jessica Seinfeldy? (that woman who put out the 'hidden vegetables' book or whatever). Yum.

But, the big deal of this meal was as follows...

Maple Beer Bread

from Cottage Living (a great Canadian magazine)

3 C AP flour
1 T baking powder
1 1/2 t salt
1 1/4 C stout
3/4 C maple syrup

Grease a 9x5" loaf pan.
Mix dry ingredients.
Add syrup and stout.
Mix well (but don't go crazy or anything).
Pour into pan and let rest at room temperature for 20m.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375.
Bake 40-45 (mine took a lot longer) or until it tests done (stick a toothpick in there and if it comes out all gooey, stick 'er back in that oven!)
Cool in pan, then remove and cool on wire rach 10m.

Oooh, oooh! I have to say this turned out supergood! I have made beer breads before (with ww flour) and they were not as good. This rose up so nicely and was tender and sweet!!! Make it, make it, make it!!!! I think the 20m resting time was pivotal. Pivotal, I say.


I made a pot pie. We will not speak of this.

Still reading "Smilla's Sense of Snow" gosh, I really like this. She is the most awesome heroine. It's like turning into this crazy adventure. I rarely think about books when I'm not reading them, but lately I've been thinking things like, "Gosh, I wonder if Smilla will figure it all out?!?". Seriously.

Blank Blank with Blank.

Greetings, fellow peoples...

Here is an eclectic supper from a while back. It contains said predicted crescent roll samosas, some scrambled tofu, take II and some leftover baked lentils. Mmmm.

I tried the scrambled tofu with the silken soft tofu and it was a little more breaky and stuff, but still fine. The thing to do is to make sure you serve it hot, hot, hot!

I seasoned it with some garlic granules, salt and pepper and a pinch (tiny!) of turmeric. I had been getting freaked out by the turmeric I had in the cabinet since I've had it a looooong time, so I was happy to use the recently purchased at the coop turmeric. Apparently turmeric is a wonder spice, but I could not find much info on it's shelf life (some say it lasts a long time and can even extend the shelf life of other things, others not so much). Our coop has actual turmeric root, but I have not been brave enough to purchase said item, also, we do not use that much turmeric.

Here are some wonderful I-Don't-Have-Time-For-a-Yeast-Dough Whole Wheat English Muffin-ish Stove Top Buns. These were good! Thanks, River!

I think I added 3/4 C ap flour because my dough came out too wet, but that was the only change I made. These are great for a semi-quick weekend morning breakfast! So yummy! And I love me some whole wheat and flax action!


And here is what I did with the second half of my fake chicken flesh. I made some Saffron Chicken with Parsley. Oh, no, wait! No I didn't! I WAS going to make that, but then I couldn't find the parsley* so I made it without the saffron or parsley. For that matter, I made it without chicken, really. So I guess I made Blank Blank with Blank. Ha ha. No, I guess it was Fake Chick'n with Italian Seasoning.

Fake Chick'n with Italian Seasoning

1/2 pkg Morningstar Farms fake chicken
1/2 onion, chopped
1 T olive oil
1 T fake chicken powder dissolved in 1/2 C hot water
pinch citic acid (or if you are a normal person, 1 T lemon juice)
1 t Italian herbs (don't forget to pulverize this by rubbing it between your fingers)

In a heavy pot, saute the onion, then the fake chick'n. Add spices and fake chicken stock. Simmer, covered for 10m or so and uncovered for a bit, too. Sorry to be so vague, but it's not really chicken, so you don't really need to simmer it that long. Just let it go until the rice is ready.

Serve with brown rice.

*of course, mere minutes after commiting to the change in plans and having started everything going, I found the parsley. Maybe next time I'll make it with the saffron and parsley.

Hmph.

Hello, everybodeeee (said in best Grover voice)!!!!!!

Here (above) is some lovely Itiakiet Stew and Cornmeal Griddlecakes.

The stew came out pretty salty. Like, that is not a euphemism. And I only used 1 t salt, geez! If I make it again, I would probably double this and stuff.

Here's what I did;

1 can kidney beans
1 T canola oil
2 cloves garlic
tidge chili garlic paste
2 t cumin
1 T tomato paste
1/8 t cayenne
pinch citric acid
2 T peanut butter
1 t salt
2 C water

Blend ever thing. Cook. Bam.

As for the griddlecakes, well, I can't seem to find where I got the original recipe from, but the above link takes you to virtually the same recipe if you just leave off the fake ham thankyouverymuch. And, I was like, 1/4 C soft silken tofu?!? What? I should have just used egg replacer of skipped it altogether. I'm keeping the rest of the soft silken tofu to make scrambled tofu again. I'm hoping that as some of the liquid leeches off in the refrigerator it will miraculously become more like extra firm silken tofu. TMI?

Anyway the griddlecakes were good, but holy fried! Next time I think I will try baking them in the skillet as per so many cornbread recipes (ooh, remind me to make that second one sometime!)... so much easier.
And here is ol' standby, Baked Lentils. I think that by doubling it, I screwed up the lentil-to-liquid ratios or something- it came out half baked. Now, I may be half baked, but my lentils should not. Perhaps I will halve it next time, cook it longer or try a different pot or more water. Gosh, it used to come out just fine! Maybe next time I will just use red lentils!!! Oh, Serina recommends soaking the mixture overnight- good idea! For the record, I use brown lentils and maple syrup instead of honey. MMMMmmmm...

So, I read "The Thirteenth Tale" and loved it. So engrossing. Read it now. Also, I started "The Gun Seller" which is cracking me up. Great witty dialouge is keeping me interested. He toes the line between overdone and perfect and comes out on the perfect side, IMO. Both of these were sort of mystery-ish books and I am so totally not a mystery novel reader. Hmph. But so far so good. As you can see, I finally made it to the library. Happy me.

Pasta Water

Well, well, welcome.

Last night I made samosas. Mushy samosas. I cooked the potatoes too long... still good, though. Used up all those potatoes and now we have yummy samosa leftovers!

"Samosas" it's fun to type and if you look at it long enough it starts to look strange. The word, that is. The pic above might look strange, too, I haven't looked at it that long.

You will be seeing these again, wrapped in delicious crescent roll goodness...


And lo! Here is some pasta. I always hesitate to post these 'chick'ny' pics because when I look at them they look so flesh-tastic, but ah well... again, a good dinner. And quick!

I tried this newfangled 'use less water + start from cold' way of making pasta and it was fine. And yes, the pasta water is good! I feel like I should save it for making soup or something!

1/2 box 8 oz pasta
2 T oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 pkt morningstar chick'n
1 t herbes de provence/your fave herb
1/4 t citric acid/some lemon juice
1/2 t salt
few leaves kale/some spinach/broccoli

Boil up your pasta. Stir often to prevent sticking.

Meanwhile, in a large cast iron skillet, saute your onion. Add chick'n and herbes and citric acid and salt and chopped up veg. Saute until chick'n is brown, adding pasta water everytime it starts to stick. When pasta is done, add it to the skillet and mix well. Serve hot!




And finally, my most exciting thing!! Are you excited?!? I made tortillas.

A long time ago I made tortillas, and they were breaky and stiff. Like, not wrappable. What's up with that?

So I was bound and determined to find a good recipe, and I think I have.

Of course, then I read a bunch of scary stuff about Crisco, so now I'm all freaked out about using it.

Next time maybe I will sub in Earth Balance... we'll see.

I did like them enough to use Crisco again. They were soooo good and fun to make. I used my cast iron skillet (suprise) and heated it up real high and then counted 'one, two, three' flip, 'one, two, three' flip and 'one, two, three' off onto a plate. Actually, I had a friend help and that made it even more fun!

I also tried a new way of making tofu! Pretty exciting, huh? Scrambled Tofu.

I liked it becuase it did make softer, golden tofu. I could definately see this in a regular tofu scrambler. I just mixed it in with some spiced up black beans and it made a good burrito filling.

And topped it all off with cheeze sauce*.

1/3 C nutritional yeast
1/4 C flour
2 T oil
1 C water
1 T cornstarch
pinch citric acid
2 garlic cloves
1/2 t onion powder

Blend, heat and serve.

*This is a variation of Vegan Explosion's queso, which is gone for now... aww! So yummy!

Finished Brisingr. It got better at the end. Must. get. more. books!

Watery Glue.

Here they are again- soft pretzels!! Made these again, so good. I made up a batch of Bulk Dry Uncheeze Mix (note, don't make this in the blender unless you want cashew butter) and turned some of that into soup and then had good reason to make pretzels again. Is is so weird that I think pretzels and cheeze soup go together?!? I think not.

This time there was a sort of inadvertent 2nd rise due to baby sleeping issues and I think that this made these even better, so fluffy chewy and crispy on the outside. Also, I was out of baking powder for when you drop them in the boiling water and so I subbed 1 t baking powder = 1/2 t baking soda and 1/4 t cream of tartar... worked juuust fine.



And here was another sucessful supper- another repeat. Spicy TVP and black beans. This time I used 1 t ancho chile powder instead of the regular chili powder and whoa was that good! This supper was sort of strange in that I served it over rice and really, it should have been served with tortillas or something, but we shall ignore that and just call it 'dirty rice' or summat.

I am becoming entirely too dependent on my blender. I whizzed up the can of tomatoes (much to the happiness of the tomato hatah in residence) along with half of a super big can of black beans plus everything else, here, let me write it up for you...

1 large can of black beans, undrained, divided
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
4 cloves garlic
1 T oil
1 t ancho chile powder
1 t cumin
1 t onion powder
1 t oregano
1 t salt
***
1/2 C TVP

Blend everything in the first bunch - only dump in half of the can of beans. Reconstitute the TVP in 2 C boiling water (I nuke it for 5 m in the microwave in my handy dandy Pyrex 2 Cup measuring cup). Careful adding the TVP so it doesn't bubble over... add some salt in there...

Pour all the blended stuff into a big pot. Add the second half of the beans and the TVP. Simmer until thick.

Eat. Yum.
Okay, so the book gods answered my cries for rescue from Brisingr and I got an email from my library saying that "The Graveyard Book" was on hold for me! Oh, goodie!

I had seriously thought that I would not see this book until September or something... I was 47 on the hold list, I believe. Hm. Some peoples read fast or lots of people failed to get this or I don't know what happened, but WHO CARES! I got it!

I had started listening to the book here, which was wonderful. I highly recommend it. In fact, while reading the book I realized that I had enjoyed it much, much more listening to it. I just did not have the time... ah well. The reading went so much more quickly and this is a book you should linger over if at all possible. I cried at the end. Wow.

So now back to Brisingr. I am dogged, if nothing else. I realized what is so strange about this book is that the glue that holds the narrative together is very, very watery glue. It's like the author just thought up all the coolest scenarios/happenings/incidents and plopped them one after another, like beads on a string. I mean SPOILER the war I guess is the thing that "holds" (and I use that term v. loosely) it all together, but sheesh. Anyway, that's what is so strange about this book. I could put it down at any time and never return to it again and it wouldn't really bother me. Entertaining while you're reading it, but not gripping.

I Will, I Will!

Hello fellow people!

It seems I cannot post without a greeting....

Well, continuing my exploration of baked goods, I recently made crackers!! The soup we were having for dinner was fairly uninspired, so I felt an exciting inclusion of homemade crackers would make up for any lack, and I was right!

These crackers were a cinch, and really quite good! You will never buy a cracker again! Oh well, perhaps you will, I know I still will, but I will also have to hand a great recipe for homemade crackers should I ever desire, and I know I will! Holy 'will's' in that last sentence!

Crackers

1 C flour
1/3 C Silk vanilla soymilk
1 T Earth Balance
1/2 t salt
1/2 t garlic granules
dash pepper

Preheat oven to 450.

Process everything except the soymilk. Add soymilk in a stream.
Roll out on parchment paper to desired thinness. Prick all over with a fork*.
Bake for 5m* or until lightly browned.

*see notes

Notes;

I rolled it out on parchment paper (remember to sprinkle a little water over your work surface and put the parchment paper on there- it anchors the paper) and baked it en masse on the parchment paper for a lot less than 20 m- should have kept track of the time!!! It was getting pretty brown on top. I also forgot to use a fork to pinprick the cracker all over so it got these huge enormous bubbles in it, but that was fun, too. Tasted juuuuust fine. Ripped it into chunks and served with soup, so yummy!




And here is the humble oat cake. These are really good with a hot cup of coffee! It's like shortbread, but with oats. They are sweet, like a cookie. Gee, I couldn't find my source for these online again, this was the closest I could find- d'oh!

Oat Cakes

2 C oats
1/2 C flour
1/4 C sugar
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1 stick Earth Balance
1/4 C cold water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Process dry ingredients. Cut in Earth Balance. Process until mixed and add water.
Scrape out onto floured surface, cover with flour (this is a sticky dough) and roll out thinly.
Use a biscuit cutter to cut circles, place on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 15 - 20m until browned.

Reading "Brisingr" just because it was in the house. Yes, I am just that desperate.

Way Strong!

Hello again!

Well, it has been tres busy here at chez centrepullball... but I am back at last!

I was in a terribly uninspired mood a few days back and decided to make... a casserole! Yes, folks, that Midwestern fave, the casserole!

I thought that if I doubled Esme's sauce and put a little more water in there to help the Minute Rice cook up, I'd have a fine dish. What I forgot to realize was that Esme's sauce is pretty solid as it stands and will cover a vast amount of rice/pasta/whatever so doubling it made it waaaaaay strong! Next time, back down to 2 T of everything!

1 3/4 C Minute Rice (you could up this to 2 C, I just ran out)
1 10 oz pkg frozen vegetables
4 cloves garlic
2 C water
1/4 C tahini
" miso
" soysauce
" olive oil
" nutritional yeast
" mustard

Blend everything except the rice and frozen veggies in a blender until smooth.
Pour over rice and veg in a bowl and mix well.
Pour into a greased 9 x 9" casserole or equivalent and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.


Here we have a wonderful lunch. I got a great tip from Margaret for smoother hummus! Just whip it up in the blender!! Whee! So I did and it was great! I used the big can of garbanzos I can buy at my coop (equals roughly 2 cans regular size) and added about 1/2 C of the 'juice' from the can plus the olive oil. Then, when that (plus the cloves of garlic, cumin and a tiny pinch of citric acid) were all blended, I added the tahini and it was all done! Smooooth!

I also decided that I wanted some flatbread to go along with it, something quick, and I found just such a thing in this recipe! Also, fried! I fried them for one minute on one side, then 2 on the other. Aghlaghlahgllll....

And so we had flatbread for supper to go with our Lentils with Bulgur Wheat and Caramelized Onions. This time when I made it, I made the lentils first, got the bulgur in there and then, while that was 'cooking' I caramelized the onions and then added the spices. Then I just mixed all the onions into the bulgur/lentil mix. It just keeps getting easier and easier and I can't say it makes a jot of difference as to the taste!

So I started reading "The Name of the Wind". Yay! It's good! No, for reals! If you like fantasy books with maps in the front of the book, you will like this, ah gah-rahn-tee!! I will cry when it is done and anxiously await the next book. Hooray for Wisconsin peeps!

Also I picked up the next book in that series I am sort of skipping along through, the Corvallis post apocolyptic what have you. We'll see how far I can make it through this one! "Scourge of God" or somesuch. I ?don't think? I've read it yet...

Rise up, pretzel!

Continuing the 'Tour of Dough Winter 2009" here we have pretzels which turned out to be more like 'knots'. Because I was too lazy to Google "How to Make the Pretzel Shape.", I just sort of winged it. Did not matter. They turned out so nicely! Perhaps on my next go. Served with some 'cheezy soup', (sorry no recipe).

I would not try making these pretzels without a nice, strong mixer, though. They dough is pretty stiff...

Just like the bagels, you boil these puppies, but, unlike the bagels, you don't have a specific amount of time that you boil them for- you just slide them in, they sink, and then you wait for them to rise up!! It's like magic, people! Oh, also adding the baking powder to the water is fun, too! It fizzes and bubbles like crazy. I am easily entertained, I guess!

Ooohh! And I got to use my new scale to divide the dough out so I'd have matchy pretzels instead of a hodge podge! Verrrrry nice!

Because the dough is sort of dry I had a hard time at first making the 'snakes' but I channeled my inner child and took myself back to my old PlayDoh days and it was fine. It also helped to take a break and lightly oil the baking sheets and preheat the oven while the dough rested under a damp tea towel. When I tried again the second time it was fine!

Soft Pretzels

I veganized the recipe by subbing Earth Balance for the butter and Silk vanilla soymilk for the milk. Also, I just baked these without any added salt and of course without the egg wash. They were still momentous.

I let them rise for an hour in a oven heated to 170 degrees, turned off, with a damp teatowel over the top of the bowl. Oh, and I didn't really let them rise a second time in their pretzel-shaped form.

Still reading "The Pacific" and started some non-fiction.

Seitan, you dissapoint me.

Okay, so I made seitan again... this time I used the recipe for Breakfast Sausages.
See, I had this idea to use my clay pot to make some potatoes and I wanted to try sort of steaming my 'log' of seitan in there as I do not have a steamer and I thought this might be a nice alternative. If you are not aware, steaming your seitan is the new phenomenon. First it was baking, now it's steaming. Now I declare it's clay potting... it's like baking AND steaming! No, actually, I got the idea from Bryanna.

I made it pretty much as the recipe called for, tossed my potatoes with 1 T olive oil and rock salt right there in the clay pot, wrapped up the seitan in tinfoil, set it on top and BAM! there was supper. No, actually, I poured in 1/2 C beer, put it into a cold oven turned to 400 degrees and waited 1 hour and then BAM! had supper. Next time I would add more salt to the seitan dough. I was hoping for a markedly different texture using the clay pot cooker, but no such luck. I am always slightly disappointed with seitan. Seitan, you disappoint me.

Here is some red lentil soup and Moroccan bread. Can't find the link, it was a pdf...

The bread I baked on parchment paper on my pizza stone and it came out pretty crispy, not exactly what I was imagining (I was imagining a wonderful bread from a local restaurant Babani's- we actually had them cater our wedding and one sharp memory I still retain is of the waiters/caterers bringing out these large round loaves carried on their shoulders- sooo goood!).

Well anyway, it was still good, just not what I was expecting. Perhaps next time I will bake it on a baking sheet and for less time?

2 1/2 C semolina flour (I subbed in 1 C AP flour)
1 scant T yeast dissolved in 1/4 C warm water
1 C warm water

toppings;
1 T olive oil
1 T kosher salt
1 T sesame seeds

Mix the dry and wet. Knead until smooth. Let rest 15m then flatten into a 3/4" round on parchment paper.
Cover with an inverted bowl and let rise 1 hour or until doubled.
20m before rising time is over, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Bake 35-40m.

Still working through "Embrace Me"- kinda dragging right now, but that may be because my brain feels like cotton balls right now. Or is that bowling balls?

The Carb Edition

So, I made bread. My standard recipe, but of course, I couldn't just MAKE it again, I had to fiddle. So I added 2 things. First, a baby food jar of carrots. Yes, you read that right. It does not change the flavor, just makes the bread a golden color. Woo. If you are really wedded to the idea of golden loaves of bread you should do this.

Secondly, I added 1/8th teaspoon of powdered ginger. I did this because I read somewhere that it is a dough enhancer. I was skeptical, but you know what? It really worked!! I really think it made a difference, especially because I used both vital wheat gluten and potato flakes (okay, so I added THREE things 1/2 C potato flakes if you are interested) in this loaf and that usually makes for a super dense loaf, but this time it wasn't as dense. Finally, a use for my powdered ginger!

Oho! Aaaaaaand, I also made English muffins Saturday morning and they were splendiferous!!! I got a recipe from my friend Maggie (Hi, Maggie!) and it. turned. out. wonderfully. So happy!

Maggie's English Muffins

4 C AP flour
1 1/2 t salt
1 1/2- 1 2/3 C lukewarm soymilk
1/2 t sugar
1 T yeast
1 T oil
cornmeal for dusting

Mix flour and salt. Start yeast in a bowl with soymilk (I use vanilla soymilk in all my cooking and baking -gasp-and never really notice any vanilla taste) and sugar. Stir in oil. Mix dry and wet, beat until soft and just holds it's shape. Add a little flour if needed.
Cover and let rise 1 hour or overnight in the refridgerator (this is what I did) until doubled.
Roll out to 1/2" thickness.
Cut out circles, dust with cornmeal and place on baking sheet, cornmeal side down to rise, covered with a damp cloth for 20-30m.
Cook on a medium hot ungreased skillet for 3-4m on each side until golden brown and cooked through.
Can be frozen.
Do this now.

And what we had for dinner last night. Kind of a strange supper, but it was so nice yesterday it was sort of a reminiscent move because we always have hummus and pita on our summer picnics. I've posted my pita recipe before, this time I added a pinch of powdered ginger, just for kicks. Some of the pitas made lovely pockets, so we'll call this a win.

And my hummus recipe is also up, this time I used 1 t sumac, so now you know my secret hummus ingredient. It is quite tasty.

Read "Everything Is Illuminated" and enjoyed it, just confused as to what exactly went on. I am dense. Netflixed (yes, I just used that as a verb) the movie, maybe this will help clear things up.

Finished "Eat, Pray, Love", as I told a friend of mine, made me want to run off to India. Husband says no. Awwww! Good book, loved her honesty. V. inspiring.

Started knitting a sweater. Cannot say more for fear I will jinx myself.

Am now reading "Embrace Me" and finding it very emotionally draining or something? Have to stop and put it down every once in a while, which I hardly ever do with books (see: incredibly fast reading pace).

Reduce them to crumbs.

Ahoy there! Long post ahead!!

Whoah, guess I got away from myself there... I'll plunge right in!

So, here (that is to say, in the above picture) we have a dish based on Pineapple Coconut Chicken and Rice Casserole. I ?guess? I had saved this recipe to sort of veganize? And then when I went to make it, what was it, last Friday? I decided that I didn't want to mix everything together into a casserole but make it all separately. So I suprised myself, because usually I like casseroles, right?

But it sure was fun and even if it didn't turn out how I'd planned it (not as fancy looking as I had hoped) it was still good.

For example, I had never grilled pineapple rings. Now that is cool stuff. They turned this gorgeous brown (I think some of the leftover soysauce on the pan helped with that).

And, I accidentally discovered that you can sort of make sticky rice from plain old white rice if you rinse the rice really well and then let it sit in the rice cooker in the water for a while.

Sauce;

juice from a 20 oz can of pineapple rings
Thai peanut sauce (you can make your own)(I used the whole can of coconut milk)

1/4 C raw cashews
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T oil
1 pkg Morningstar Farms chick'n strips
a few pieces of red pepper from a jar, chopped (real red pepper would be better, obvs)

Make your rice.
Heat up your sauce.
Toast your cashews and set aside (I threw some soy sauce in there)
Saute onion, garlic, chicken, adding red peppers at end.
Scoot that all over to one side of your skillet.
Place as many rings as you can fit in the remaining space and caramelize them.

Serve over rice.

Here is a different version of baked veggie stew with dumplings (but not that different).
I used Malt 'o Meal in the dumplings and I used a little bit different gravy recipe. Oh, and when I reconstituted the TVP I added some soy sauce and kitchen bouquet, but that was fairly unnecessary, actually (since it all gets mixed together).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

bag of frozen mixed veggies
1/2 C TVP reconstitued in 2 C water with a dash of kitchen bouquet and soy sauce, drained

gravy;
1/3 C flour
2 T nutritional yeast
2 C water
1 T oil
dash kitchen bouquet
2 T soy sauce
1/2 t garlic granules
1/2 t dijon mustard
pinch savory herbs (I used herbes de provence 'cause I had 'em and it sounded fancy)

Brown your flour and nutritional yeast.
Toss everything in the blender and blend.
Heat on stove (boil it)('till it's really thick)(I think next time I'll just use less water- mine always turns out too watery)

Nuke your veg, tossing in some paprika and pepper if so desired.

Nuke 2 C water (it takes about 5m in my microwave) and dump in your kitchen bouquet and soysauce if desired, then TVP.

dumplings;

1/4 C malt o meal
3/4 C flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
2 T Earth Balance
1/4-1/2 C water

In your food processor, put in the malt o meal, flour, baking powder, salt and Earth Balance. Run it until the mixture looks like coarse meal.
Down the chute, slooooowly add the water until the dough forms a ball and clears the sides.
Take dough out, and set aside.

Oil a 9" casserole with a lid.
Mix the veg, TVP and gravy.
Pour it in.
Top with dumplings.
Bake at 400 15m uncovered, 15m covered.

Here is a shot of Butter Bean Burgers. I stumbled across this recipe and was like, wow! I have 2 cans of butter beans! I think I'll make them! These made a great, hearty burger that fried up great (no crumbling, yay!).

I did make a few changes-

2 cans butter beans, drained
1/2 onion, chopped
30 club crackers
1/4 C nutritional yeast
1 clove garlic
1/4 C cornmeal
1 t salt
1/2 t onion and garlic granules

Put club crackers in food processor and reduce them to crumbs.
Add beans, onion, nutritional yeast, garlic, cornmeal, salt and onion and garlic granules. Pulse until well mixed (I did this earlier in the day and then put it in the fridge until suppertime).

Make 6 patties and fry in 1 T oil. Yum! Thank you for this recipe!

Bagels again, you say? Why, yes.
This time I rolled them like in this video, well, more like this one- you can see the cracks I ended up with. It was sort of more fun to roll them than do the thumb thing.

And, after making my favorite muffin, the pumpkin chip muffin, I had pumpkin puree left, so I make pumpkin butter!!! That was fun, and it was good. I only had 3/4 C pumpkin left, so I reduced the recipe- here is roughly what I did...

3/4 C canned pumpkin puree
1/4 C + 2 T apple sauce (didn't have apple juice)
1/2 C sugar
1 t molasses (forgot to use brown sugar)
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t allspice
1/4 t nutmeg

Mix in a saucepan, simmer until thick, stirring v. frequently.

And last, but not least, I made Moujadara!! ZOMG! So good! Rilly! Go make this now!!!

I want to marry my cast iron skillet because it made these onions caramelize so nicely!

I made mujadara once a long time ago, using brown lentils, rice, onions, olive oil and nothing else. It was meh. But THIS, this was good- other people even said so! people not in my family!!

The only think I did differently was to use onion granules in the pot with the lentils and bulgur, thereby skipping the second paragraph of above recipe and not sauteeing the chopped onion. So then I added the garlic, cumin, cinnamon et al. to the caramelized onions and then put the some of this mixture right into the bulgur and lentils and reserved some for a topping. Clear as mud? I thought so.

Served with pitas, it was carb-a-licious!!!