Subtle, he is not.

Greetings, fellow earthlings.

Oooooooh man has it been a while.

Let us begin.

First up, last night we had chickpea cutlets.

My husband is not a great fan of these (I know!) (it's the vital wheat gluten chewiness) but since they are so easy and I like them, we have them every once in a while.

I stayed with the recipe, except that I didn't have enough vital wheat gluten, so then I added more bread crumbs, but then when I added the water it wasn't like a dough any more so I added more flour, and more, and more... well, you get the picture. Still good. And, oh yeah, I used parsley instead of thyme and sage. And added some garlic granules as well as fresh garlic (double garlic!!!).

The sauce I used is from another quick and easy garbanzo based meal "Quick Saucy Garbanzos". It's good! This time I remembered to add more water after it cooked down too thick so that it was actually pourable (it's something I'm working on).

It was kind of strange to eat rice as a side. Do people normally do this?

sauce;
2 cloves garlic
2 T oil
1 C soymilk
2 generous T flour
1/2 t salt
dash pepper
1/4 C nutritional yeast

Blend. Heat. Serve.

And here is a casserole!

Actually, it's not REALLY a casserole- I made up all the ingredients, put them in a casserole dish and let them sit in the (now turned off from making tater tots) oven until my family was home to eat it all up!

So. Tater tots, ground 'beef' with seasoning (I think I used some ancho chile powder, some chili powder, garlic and onion gran and salt and pepper thankyouverymuch), 1 C mixed vegetables and sauce (Dragonfly's bulk dry uncheeze). Aaghl aghl aaaaa... it was good.

And here I continue my quest to perfect the sloppy joe. This time I used 1 C red lentils and 1/2 C TVP. I was out of tomato paste so I used ketchup (ouch, that makes me cringe- trying to avoid that, you know- ketchup in cooking). I think the TVP helped with the consistency. And I like the spicing on this one- molasses it is! If I make it again, I may double the spices or something. And next time I'm going to use tomato paste and 1/2-1/2 C brown sugar instead of the ketchup. Sugar is bad, but not as bad as corn syrup, right?

1 C red lentils, rinsed
1/2 C TVP reconstituted in 2 C boiling water, undrained
1 T oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 C ketchup
1 T italian seasoning
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T molasses
1 t onion and garlic powder
1/2 t mustard powder

Saute yer onion, then garlic. Add spices, mix well. Add ketchup, molasses and apple cider vinegar and mix well. Add lentils and TVP (including the water you reconstituted it in) and another cup of water. Cover, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer, stirring often, until thick.

This one counts as a fail. Except the cornbread. For some reason (and I have made this chili before) I thought pineapple was a good thing to add to chili. It was a phase. If I'm going to stick anything in my chili, it's going to be chocolate from now on.

Actually, later when I made it again as a lunch, I added some chili powder and it was good then (duh).

1 25 oz can black beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
1 can tomato paste
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T oil
1 T brown sugar
2 t cumin
1 t oregano, ancho chile powder, cocoa, salt
1/2 t cinnamon
2 C water

Saute onion, garlic. Add spices and seasonings, tomato paste, beans and finally water. Cover, bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, until thick.

And finally we have a tasty dish that looks strange- dumplings with veg and chickpea gravy.

Oh how I love to make dumplings. Boiling dough. How fun is that! Make some today.

And the sauce was good, too!

dumplings
2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
4 T Earth Balance margarine
1/4 - 1/2 C water

Put a BIG pot of water on to boil.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in food processor. Add EB until it looks like a coarse meal. Sloooowly add water until the dough pulls away from the bowl and sticks to itself.

Roll out into a 'snake' and divide into 16. Roll each of these in flour and place on plate.

When the water is boiling, lower the heat to a rolling boil and tip the dumplings in. Cover and DO NOT PEEK for 10m. Remove with slotted spoon.

sauce;

1 can garbanzos, undrained
1/4 C nutritional yeast (I forgot to add this in the original post- bad blogger)
1 t onion powder, parsley and salt
1/2 t garlic granules
2 T veg broth (powdered)

Blend. Heat. Serve. Serve over dumplings, if you're smart.


Okay, now that we're all caught up on food, I'll catch you up on my reading.

Still reading "The Stand". There.
No really, I must say that I am getting a wee bit tired of King's having all his characters have a sudden gust of certainty that "it will all end in a bloodbath". Subtle, he is not.

A Footnote to the Footnote!

Well, it's snowing here- slated to storm, actually. I just got a good night's sleep in who knows how long, we've got most of our Christmas stuff done (did all the cards last night- phew!) and so now we have just a few trips planned today to run errands to the COOP, the library and the Bikery, our local coffeeshop. I hope you and yours have a great Holiday season and get to spend lots of time with loved ones!

Here is some spaghetti with bottled peanut sauce and some of that fake chicken stuff and a bag of frozen vegetables. Yes, we like to live it up here...

But, even better yet, here are Snickerdoodles!!! Whee! I got to use my whisk attachment for my mixer which I hardly ever get to use. Oh, baby, were these good, it was a good thing my husband took them to work and I only got to eat a half of one! Next time I will roll them in the cinnamon sugar, roll them in between my palms to soften them a little and reroll them. Yes, I am AR, thank you very much. Isn't the cracking bee-yoo-ti- ful? I guess that's from the chilling of the dough. What a great thing to know. Go, make these now. They are really simple and really good.
And lastly, inspired by Guava's Shepherd's Pie, I made this! Man, I didn't even get you guys the money shot it was just so good. Imagine some peas and corn and carrots floating around in the gravy. I used some red wine in the gravy and the mashed potatoes mixing with the gravy... mmmmmm... heaven! I used my favorite Baked Veggie Stew with Biscuits on Top recipe. Maybe I'll have to try Vegan Dad's version next...

Still reading "Infinite Jest"- I got to the part where I quit last time, you wanna know how I knew it? I was filled with the same bafflement, that's how. I was reading a footnote and THERE WAS A FOOTNOTE TO THE FOOTNOTE!!!!! Srsly, folks, this book truly takes a commitment to read, not to mention that it's sort of hard to read in bed when you have to hold up this thing that weighs like a ton. Really, I can read a big book, I'm a big girl now, but when I have to keep flipping to the back to read footnotes, it gets exhausting. I should skip the footnotes, but I'm paranoid I'll miss something crucial and you really can't let things go with this story. Well, anyhow, I'm commited. We'll see if it's fate is better than that of "In the Name of the Rose".

Pay More Attention

Ohhh the excitement!
Well, it was good, if not real pretty...

I used Your Vegan Mom's Vegan Cheese Sauce Mix (thanks to her handy dandy widget search box I found that so quickly!). Thanks, Vegan Mom!

Cheesy Vegan Rice and Broccoli Casserole

2 C rice, uncooked
1 C Vegan Cheese Sauce Mix
1/2 bag frozen broccoli

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Oil your 9 x 13" casserole.
Nuke your broccoli and chop into smaller pieces.
Get your rice started.
Mix 1 C Vegan Cheese Sauce Mix with 2 C water over med high heat, stirring until thick. Remove from heat and mix together with broccoli and rice in a big bowl.
Pour into casserole, cover with foil and bake 30m, last 10 uncovered.

So, nothing fancy, but it was good hot food on a cold, cold night. Plus I have a cold, so, blah. Not much energy for inspiring foods.

Started "Infinite Jest" which I requested from the library...
Okay, I have started this before, I don't know when or how or why, but everything I'm reading is familiar. This time, however, I have a lot more patience and interest. So we'll see how far I get. It is a huge tome. I've told myself that if I bail, I will at least write the page number down somewhere so I can pick it up again later. Now I'm faced with either re-reading what I already read, or trying to skim ahead to find where I left off. I think I'm just going to reread and pay more attention this time.

A Doughy Coupla Days

First up, Coconut Curry Tofu Bake with Mushrooms and Chickpeas, sans mushrooms.
This came from one of my favorite sites, Just the Food.
This was very good, especially with the sauce. The base of the casserole was a dough and tofu mixture and mine came out a little gooey... perhaps next time I'd prebake the bottom a little to crispen it up and then put the toppings on. Another fun idea would be to combine the sauce with the chickpeas right in the casserole. Holy cow this was rich and good, though.
Thanks Joni!!

And next up is Beans 'n' dumplings (scroll down)
This was a good supper, but next time I'll just make my dumplings the way I always do- separately and without the tofu in there.
I think I mismeasured the amount of silken tofu to make the dough for the dumplings (I used 2/3 of a package silken tofu)- I had to add quite a bit of flour (more like 2 C instead of the 1 C called for in the recipe) to get a dough. And then these were chewy, not fluffy. Now, I'm not saying they weren't good, but they were doughy. It's been a doughy coupla days.

Well, I feel like I'm living in a fable or something... you've heard of nursemaid's elbow? well I've got washerwoman's wrist (really it's washerwoman's sprain, but I like the alliteration). Yes, Flylady gave me washerwoman's wrist. Why oh why can I never do things moderately??!?

So of course, now all of a sudden I've got a million knitting projects I want to be working on, plus I still would like to clean my house, plus writing and so forth... but I have to rest my wrist. I'm trying to take the long view, like, not damaging myself and stuff, so moderation here I come.

Finished Good Omens, a lovely book. Really enjoyed it and so, so much fun. Glad I own it, to boot! If you like Ray Bradbury crossed with Douglas Adams, you're in business (just kidding, I hate it when people compare authors to other authors, but there you go).

Not going to finish "Twilight of the Superheroes", could just not figure out where she was going and it was a little too introspective or something...

Started "I Sailed with Magellan" reminds me of "Middlesex" for some reason, maybe it's this plunge into another persons worldview that's so strong. Interesting so far. Characters that are larger than life.

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.

No Loafing!

Here are a couple of dinners for you...

The first is Loaf, made using The Magical Loaf Studio! I named mine "In All It's Awesome Glory". It was good! No, really, it was actually good! No, for serious, it was good!
I had all this wheat germ, see, from making the granola bars for our camping trip, and so I went to vegblogsearch.com and typed in wheat germ, and one of the results that came up was loaf!
Here is mine...

1/2 C walnuts
2 T canola oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 carrot, grated
1 C TVP reconstituted in 1 C boiling water
1 C wheat germ
1/4 C tapioca pearls
1 t dried basil, crumbled between your fingers
1 t dried parsley, crumbled between your fingers
1/4 t oregano, crumbled between your fingers
2 T HP sauce/ketchup
1 t salt
pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan.
Boil your cup of water and add TVP, set aside.
In the small bowl of your food processor, process walnuts into meal. Pour into bowl and set aside.
In the small bowl of your food processor, process the onion, garlic and carrot.
In a large pot, saute veg in oil.
Add everything else and mix well.
Pour into loaf pan, press into pan and bake 1 hour.
Let cool 10-15m and turn out and slice into 8.
Approximately 3 points per slice.

Here is a recipe that I got from our CSA, was it ever good! I think this is how I will prepare chard from now on...

African Pineapple Peanut Stew

1 C chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T canola oil
1 bunch Swiss chard/kale, chopped (about 4 C)
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple
1/2 C peanut butter
1 T Tabasco sauce (or to taste)(or whatever you use for 'heat')
1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro
salt to taste

Saute onions, then garlic.
Add pineapple, simmer and add chard. Simmer until chard is wilted.
Mix in peanut butter, Tabasco sauce and cilantro.
Simmer for 5 more minutes and serve over rice.
4 points per half cup.

Two potlucks this weekend!! One at the Harvest Festival at the farm and one for our church.
I brought Pineapple Upside Down Cake to the farm and it was good! I used 1/4 C Earth Balance instead of 1/3 C oil and it was fine. I beat the sugar and the margarine together, then added the pineapple juice and vinegar and then the dry ingredients. Oh, and I used rings instead of crushed pineapple.
It was the first time I've used my springform pan and I was so pleased that it worked. A little was leaking into the oven, so I just stuck a baking sheet under it to catch the drips and it was fine. Also, the inside did not get cooked, so when I flipped it out onto the plate, it was all raw, so I stuck it back into the oven and crossed my fingers that the glass plate wouldn't crack and it didn't- phew!
Didn't get a picture of the loveliness, so I guess I'll have to make it again. Definately a keeper.

For our church party, I brought a dish based off of Urban Vegan's Curry Cashew Casserole and it turned out great! I kind of diverged from the recipe a lot, but not really. Well, yes I did. But not in spirit. You decide.

3/4 C cashews
3 small eggplants, chopped
3 red or green peppers, chopped
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 can coconut milk
2 T brown sugar
1 T curry powder
1 t salt
1 t onion granules
1 t dried basil, crumbled between your fingers
1/2 t garlic granules



Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Oil a 9 x 13" casserole dish.
In a food processor, process your cashews into meal.
Pour into a large bowl and add garbanzo beans, coconut milk, brown sugar, curry powder, salt, onion granules, basil and garlic granules. Mix well. Add eggplant and peppers, mix well.
Pour into casserole and bake 40m covered , 20m uncovered.
Serve over rice, yum!

Enjoying "The Sunrise Lands"- Stirling is a good storyteller- not afraid to pull out all the stops when it comes to plot development.

Yummeh.

CSA veg!!! Turnips! Aren't they pretty? And you can eat the greens, too. I feel like this may become a slow cooker soup with the cranberry beans...
Beautiful carrots...
Some heirloom tomatoes and zebra stripe tomatoes. We also got dill, cilantro, peppers, eggplant, garlic, shallots (whoops, forgot to take pics of those, they were huge!), lettuce, white potatoes, and radishes.

Yesterday was our work day at the farm! It was so nice to be out there and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Boy, fall is just beginning, the fields were golden, a few trees are turning, the growing season is slowing down... oh, summer, how I miss you!! But it's all good. This weekend should be perfect.
We got to see the horses in action at the farm, how cool is that?!? Zephyr and Queen were all harnessed up when we got there, and they turned the potato rows so that we could find the potatoes. It was very cool to see them working and they were very intelligent, well-trained creatures. So sorry I did not get a picture. Really, though, it's the first time I've seen horses in action like that, and I was so impressed (city kid!).
Probably the last of the squash I cooked up for supper last night.
Gallo Pinto, round two! Using up more of the cilantro!
The bulghur and cabbage casserole I made for our CSA workday potluck.

Bulgur and Cabbage Casserole

1 small head of cabbage, finely chopped
2 C water
1/2 C bulgur, reconstitued in 1 C boiling water
1/4 C olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 T paprika
1 t caraway seeds
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Finely chop cabbage in food processor using the disk with the holes in it.
Saute onion, add spices and seasonings, bulgur and cabbage. Mix well. Add water. Pour into oven safe casserole and bake 30m, covered, 10m uncovered.

A nice side.

And finally, Garbanzo Bean Paprikash with Dumplings. This was yummeh! I sort of mixed two recipes together, Paprikash with Dumplings, Tofu Paprikash and a dumpling recipe from another recipe.

Garbanzo Paprikash with Dumplings

2 T oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T paprika
2 T sugar
1/4 C nutritional yeast
1/4 C ketchup
1 t salt
1 can garbanzos, undrained

dumplings;

2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
4 T Earth Balance (1/2 stick)
1/4 - 1/2 C soymilk/water
1 1/2 t celery seed powder

For the garbanzos and sauce,
saute onions and garlic, add all ingredients up to garbanzos, mix well, add garbanzos, mix well, bring to a boil and lower heat and simmer.

For the dumplings

Bring a large pot of water to boil.
Sift the dry ingredients, mix well. Cut in the Earth Balance until mixture resembles meal, slowly add soymilk, should make a fairly dry dough. Roll out into a snake and cut into smaller pieces (I like big dumplings, so I get about 16). Pour into boiling water and cover, lower heat and cook at a low boil for 10m. Remove with slotted spoon, add to garbanzos and sauce and gently mix. Serve right away.

notes;
I may try experimenting with adding more baking powder.
The celery seed powder was a good addition (even if it did turn the dumplings green!).
The sauce is richer with the ketchup and nutritional yeast.

All of a sudden my book ("The Doomsday Book") got super exciting. Everything happened at once. I could barely put it down last night. Woo! Death! Disease! Near Escapes! Can't wait to see how it turns out...

Damning Faint Praise

Mmmm, 'Cheesy' Zucchini and Corn Casserole... turned out great and used lots of zucchini!! We'll be making this again, I can tell you!

5 8" zucchini or the equivalent therof, chopped
1 large onion, chopped (we had walla walla's- sweet!)
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 T olive oil (4)
1 can corn, undrained (3)
1 T 'chicken' flavor buillion
1 t oregano, crushed
dash chili garlic sauce or chili powder or cayenne for heat

2 T cornstarch mixed in 1/4 C cold water
1/2 C nutritional yeast
1 t Dijon mustard
1/2 t onion granules
dash salt, pepper to taste
dash turmeric for color

1/2 C breadcrumbs (4) or crushed Ritz

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9" casserole.
Saute onion, garlic, then add zucchini and corn. Stir in oregano and buillion. Cover and simmer until tender, about 20m.
Drain zucchini in a mesh strainer over a bowl, pressing out as much of the liquid as you can. Pour liquid into 2 C measuring cup and top up to make 2 C water (I did not have to add any water).
Set aside drained zucchini in a large bowl.
Pour liquid into a medium sized pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and add cornstarch, whisking all the while. Let sauce simmer and thicken until it is very thick, about 10m.
Add nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard, onion powder and salt and pepper to taste.
Pour over zucchini and mix well.
Pour into greased casserole, top with bread crumbs and bake 20-30m until bubbling and browned.
Here is some Thai basil, we are going to grandpa and grandmas for the weekend, so I should have painstakingly removed each leaf into a ziploc or something, but I just cut the stems, set them in a glass of water and topped it with a ziploc 'dome' over all. This seems to work well for all my herbs and I'm so glad I found this tip! Otherwise all my herbs just wilted away...
Here are some rutabegas, what to do? Our CSA newsletter had a recipe for rutabega pudding, but of course it had eggs in it. We'll see. They keep, so I'll have plenty of time to ponder this.
And we got another salsa pack which I disassembled (what to do with those tomatillos?). Corn! Kale (I will cook it right away this time)! More zucchini! More cucumbers! More green peppers! More paprika peppers! Garlic and onions (which I can never have too many of)! A giant eggplant! More dragon tongue beans!

Still reading Eragon. I'm going to do my review before I finish because I don't think there will be any suprises and I know that this is a series and it always irritates me when the book doesn't wrap up. So I'll do this now. Here is what I truly think. I could not write a book like this. No, wait, that didn't come out like I wanted. I certainly couldn't write a novel, and Christopher Paolini did. I will accept the parts that smack of LOTR as tributes to the master, Tolkein. And I was engaged enough with the protagonist to keep reading, which was enough. So there you have it.

No knitting. Brainstorming about the big red blanket.

Undulating Waves

Lentil Casserole

This was a melding of Lachesis' Alfredo Stroganoff sauce (scroll down and down for recipe) and Honey Baked Lentils (of course, veganized with maple syrup in place of honey- yum!). I once had some leftover Baked Lentils and some leftover Alfredo sauce and I mixed them together and lo! it was good. So I thought I'd do it on purpose. Things were a bit hectic so it got left in the oven a little too long, so it was dry, and I'm not convinced that just making each component on it's own wouldn't be better, but you can't beat it for easy. And it was tasty. Much better than some bland rice and lentil dishes I've made.

1 C moong dal (or other lentil), rinsed (12)
1 C rice, rinsed (12)
1/4 C Earth Balance margarine, softened (12)
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
3 C water
1/2 pkg soft silken tofu (2)
1/4 C soysauce
1/4 C maple syrup (4)
1 T cornstarch
1 T onion powder
2 t garlic powder
2 t white cooking wine
1 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1/2 t ginger paste or powder
pinch nutmeg

Blend everything except the rice, lentils, onion and garlic.
Saute the onion and garlic, rinse the lentils and add them to the pot, then add the blender mixture and mix well, then pour into your 5qt casserole/ 9x9" casserole (enough to hold 6 C).
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 45m (or until rice is tender), stirring once.
7 points per cup.

No reading.

I did knit, though! I hacked away at my lace blanket pattern. Okay, reversing the pattern stopped the biasing and started the pattern undulating- yay! But now the sides are too wavy, so I'm going to try and add a half repeat of the pattern to the beginning of the row and subtract one from the end and vice versa on the next four rows (I'm reversing every four rows) and see if that takes care of it. If not, I'll just slap a garter stitch border on there and call it good. Can't wait to see if it works!

Potluck, ho!

This past weekend I had two potlucks to attend and one 'bring a treat'.
The potluck is a curious creature, much dependent upon the canniness of the attendee.
Her outward appearance is ever changing, but her soul remains the same...
Huh? (wipes drool from mouth) Oh, what was I saying?
Yes, so I brought casseroles! My favorite!!
One was based on Lachesis' Alfredo Stroganoff sauce, I've blogged it before, (no pic), I used CSA broccoli (I kinda felt bad smothering them in this casserole, but it was for the greater good). Everyone said they liked it (for goodness sake- a whole stick of Earth Balance!).

Then I made the baked lentils doubled everything, with maple syrup this time for the sweetener and 1 T onion soup mix, no other spices. Served over rice. That was pretty good too, just a tidge sweet, though, so I thought it was kinda strange. Next attempt, molasses.

And I made this go anywhere rhubarb bars recipe which was ok, but nothing too fantastic. Dropped out the eggs (in the filling- gack!) of course, but when I was pressing the crust into the pan I was thinking, "Shouldn't there be some, say, soymilk, in here? This is pretty strange.". I 'prebaked' the bottom crust, but didn't really need to because in an attempt to get the top to brown, the bottom got a leeetle burned. I thought about blanching the rhubarb, but I just sliced them really thin (like wooden yardstick thin) and woo! it worked.

Going camping, prepping food.

No reading, no knitting.

Great Caper Bake

This, I thought, was reaally good!! It's Isa's Cesar Salad Dressing from Veganomicon, baked.

I have these capers I bought a long time ago for some reason I can't quite remember (pizza was involved somehow?) and so I've been wanting to use them in something. Well, I looked and looked and found cesar salad dressing recipes. But I didn't have any tofu. So I made this and it was great!!

This is Isa's recipe halved without the tofu. Am I weird that I just took dressing and made it a sauce? And I find it humorous that I look for a recipe to 'use up my capers' but it really only uses 1 t of capers. Next time I'll double it and make a 9 x 13" casserole, plus it was so good, I'm glad I've got lots of capers now!

Great Caper Bake

2T whole, slivered or sliced almonds or 1 T almond butter
2 cloves garlic
2 T olive oil
1 t capers
1 T caper brine
1/2 t sugar
1/2 t prepared dijon
1/4 t pepper
1/2 t salt
1/2 C water

1/2 pkg. Morningstar Farms chick'n strips
1/2 16 oz box or 3 C uncooked pasta

Blend sauce ingredients. Place chick'n strips in a large bowl and pour sauce over to marinate while you prepare the pasta.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Boil water and then pasta.
Drain pasta and add to sauce and chick'n, mixing well.
Pour into oiled 9 x 9" casserole.
Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 30-35m (sauce should be thick on the bottom or mostly absorbed).
Enjoy! (8 points per fourth).

SOON! Soon! we will have our CSA delivery!!!! I cannot wait! Veggies, ho!

Minimal knitting. A few 'wedges'. No reading, sorry folks.

I was recently introduced to the work of Swedish artist, Carl Larsson, and I particularly liked this picture- it looks like someone has just left their knitting.

I Can Has Drape?

Well, last night we had casserole. Yes, my favorite thing to do with leftover sauce is make casserole, you got a problem with that?
I had made Lentil Walnut Dip, which, by the way, was great, it just made a lot, so...

















Lentil Walnut Broccoli Casserole

11/2 C lentil walnut dip
1 C plain soymilk
2 C rice, uncooked
1 T oil
1 onion, diced
1 t salt
1 package frozen broccoli, thawed and stems removed
1/2 package fake chicken, cut into small pieces

Saute onion, chicken. Cook rice. Mix dip with milk, salt, onions and broccoli. Mix rice in when done. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30m and 10m uncovered.

This was kind of bland. Hearty, yes. Filling, yes. Wholesome, yes, pretty much. But bland. So next time I'd add !more oil!, more salt?, garlic and some spices. Now, what spices go with lentils and walnut? I imagine things like sage and thyme. But really, this was mostly a way to use up that dip and get a supper out of it- mission accomplished.

I stopped reading Distraction with much excitement when SPOILER the author let slip that the protagonist was going to screw over his love interest.

In the world of short row scarves there is excitement! I finally have knit enough to determine that the scarf will have nice drape!!!! Isn't that cool?!? And the prognosis for "Does she have enough yarn to actually pull this off?" looks good.

See ya!

Ribz Redux

Okay, I changed my mind... writing and saying, especially, ribz, with that zzzzzzzzz at the end, is just too fun!

Let's see, what else did I make this weekend? We went to the farm and I made a Baked Lentil casserole, but doubled it and added some other stuff to jazz it up, like onion powder, garlic powder, onion soup mix, grape jelly!, and veggie broth. Much better. Put that over rice and shazzam! it's an easy, good casserole. At least I think so. Next time I make it maybe I'll make it with molasses for the honey, or maple syrup!

I also used the rest of the pumpkin almond sauce mixed with some spaghetti, put it in a casserole, put some bread crumbs on top mixed with sage and paprika, drizzled it with some olive oil and had a nice spaghetti bake. Also easy.

I might give up on the fire book, because it's so boring to read about these characters that I've already met. Their backstory is just not that gripping when you're like "Oh, yeah, I knew that about Juney." or "Oh wow, so that's how Mike and Signe hooked up.". It sort of loses the romance when you already know the outcome. Perhaps I will start yet another book.

I have been knitting, and ripping, and knitting and ripping the short row scarf and think I finally have something I like, but talk to me tomorrow. Not too many stitches, nice shaping, complicated yet mindless in it's own way. Oh, plus I thought up a baby cardigan that might be fun. I know, how is this a knitting blog with no actual things to show, right? Sorry peeps. So far I'm keeping everything under wraps. You'll just have to come here for the food.

aaaand...casserole!

So last night I did what I said I'd do with the rest of Lachesis' Alfredo Sauce and made a casserole. I was so pleased when it turned out!! It was a rainy, stormy night and a casserole pulled out of the oven seemed just right.

Green Bean Casserole

sauce;
1/2 C Earth Balance
2 C soymilk
1 pkg extra firm silken tofu
2 T white cooking wine
2 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
2 t salt
1 t pepper
pinch nutmeg
2 T cornstarch

Mushrooms, 5-6, diced
1 can green beans
1/2 onion, diced
1 T oil
2 C minute rice
1 pkt Boca ground beef
1 1/2 C water

Blend all ingredients in blender except cornstarch. Make a slurry of the cornstarch with a little water. Pour blended ingredients into medium size pot on stove. Heat. Add cornstarch and bring up heat, stirring constantly until thick and just bubbly.

Use 2 C of the sauce and reserve the rest for yummy, yummy pasta.

Mix 2 C sauce and sauteed onions, Boca and mushrooms, a can of green beans, and 2 C minute rice. Add 1 1/2 C water and mix well. Pour into oiled 9 x 13" pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes covered, then 20 minutes uncovered or until browned.


Tried again to work the short rows scarf with larger needles using garter ridge, just could not make it work. Even though garter uses more yarn than stockinette, I'm sticking with it. Trying a new way to proportion the stitches over the needle, back to garter. We'll see how this works out.

No reading yesterday.

bringing you the strange

Mmmmm...
Last night we had Cheeseburger Macaroni.
Aghghlaghl...

Here's what I did;
1 16oz box farfalle (bows, you know)
6 T Earth Balance
1/2 C flour
2 C water
1 1/2 t salt
2 T soy sauce
1 1/2 t garlic granules
pinch tumeric
1/4 C oil
1 C nutritional yeast
1 pkt. Boca ground beef

Cook pasta.
Get the rest of the ingredients ready and at hand.
Mix the 2 C water, salt, soy sauce and pinch tumeric, and nuke in a microwave safe thing- uhh, I use my Pyrex 2 C measuring cup. Nuke for 2-3m; do not let boil over.
Melt the Earth Balance over low heat. Wait and wait and wait for that butter to melt.
Mix in the flour a little at a time, whisking constantly.
Slowly add hot water a little at a time, whisking* constantly. Cook until it thickens and bubbles. Add the oil, nutritional yeast and Boca. Add one cup of the pasta water if it's too thick.
Drain the pasta (don't drain real thoroughly) and dump everything together into a large bowl and mix well.
Oil a 9 x 13" casserole and pour in the stuff.
Bake, covered at 350 degrees for 15-30m. Leave uncovered for 10.
1/8th = 8 points.

*A good whisk is essential, people. I had this rubber coated monstrosity that we'd gotten in an effort to save our teflon pans and last night I just bailed and used the metal attachment one from our mixer. Smaller, better.

Gimme Mah Corn Syrup

Yesterday I met my friend at the library and she gave me a recipe for Honey Baked Lentils, and I tried it last night! It was good! I served it with my flatbread that is an amalgam of a few different recipes...

Baked Lentils
1 C lentils
2 C water
2 T corn syrup
2 T soy sauce
2 T olive oil
1/2 t grated ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, roughly chopped


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix everything together except the water, then add water, then dump into an ovensafe dish and bake 90m.

Easy flatbread

1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 T brown sugar
1/4 C + 2 T oil
1 t salt

Mix all ingredients in mixer, then add up to 1 C of water slowly, 1 T at a time until a ball forms.
Roll out into a 'snake' and divide into 12. Roll each out into roughly 4" diameter.
Heat skillet and cook first side until bubbles begin to form (up to 2m), then flip and cook other side 1m (should take less time than the first side did).

This is tedious- multiply 12 by roughly 3 minutes= half an hour of flatbread making- just the cooking part. But it works well for a recipe like the lentils because you're not working on anything else.

The book is going good- I teared up at a part of it yesterday, so I guess that's good...

I sent off my mitt pattern to be tested, and then last night started knitting the right hand mitt again and realized I was doing it wrong 2 ways. Blah. I think I've figured it out. Emailed friend to ask her to start with the LH mitt. Bah. Will triumph.