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"?

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.

Graaaaiiiiinnnns.

Hey.

I made this, and it came out brown.

That's what I get for using pinto beans instead of Northern. My Target does not have northern beans, however. AND it tasted great!!

I also added too much water (I used 1 C soymilk and 1/2 C pasta water) and even though I simmered it on the stove for what seemed like forever, it still was a little soupy. My bad. I got a little ahead of myself, there.

Maybe next time I'll make it and add some browning sauce and call it pasta and gravy. Haha.

Or maybe next time I should just make it with white beans (gotta get me that pressure cooker) and add the water/milk a little at a time as I should have done!

Anyhow, my family loved it and ate and ate and ate it all up! I think this one will become a repeater!

1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 t salt
1 t garlic granules
1 t parsley
1/4 t pepper
1 C soymilk

1/4 C Earth Balance
1 C frozen peas
1/2 box pasta

Boil up your pasta.
Toward the end, dump in the frozen peas, let them simmer and then turn off the heat and cover until you're ready to drain the pasta and peas.
Blend up your beans, soymilk, garlic gran/powder, salt, pepper and parsley.
Pour into a saucepan, add the Earth Balance and heat until thick.

Oh, and I finally got my hands on "World War Z". Yay- a zombie book!! Zombie fans, unite! Do you know what the vegan zombie said? Huh, huh? Do ya? 'Graaaaaiiiiinns.'. Oh, ho, ho, I crack myself up!

Anyway, I was completely engrossed with this book and could not tear myself away. So fun to read!!!! Really, I think anyone would appreciate this book. For example, I would recommend it to my father-in-law, and I really don't think he has much interest in zombies. He's more of a civil war guy. But he would totally appreciate it!

It is also broken up into little sections, so if you have more self-control than I do, you could theoretically put it down and pick it up fairly easily. Thought provoking but not dense, it is a great read.

Blend Everything After The Stars

Hello, friends.

Here we have a favorite supper here at chez centrepullball. Camel Pockets. Oh, my. So good.
This time I divided the dough into 8ths instead of 16ths for EVEN BIGGER Camel Pockets! Yowza! Also, I used less pepper. Next time, I'm going back to 16ths. Much more manageable. Also, I am going to try and cut the oil down in both the dough and the filling. But really, you should try these. So supergood.

The giant Camel Pocket.

And another nice, quick supper. I can't believe it's taken me this long to sort of come up with a favorite mac and cheeze supper, I mean, mac and cheeze, so basic! But this is it. It's pretty much the New Farm Macaroni and Cheeze recipe, not baked. I just whizzed all the sauce ingredients in the blender with a Tablespoon of cornstarch, heated it (carefully!) over the stove and dumped it over the pasta when it was ready.

16oz uncooked elbows
***
3 T oil
1/4 C flour
1 1/2 C really hot water
1 t salt
1 t garlic powder
pinch turmeric
1/2 C nutritional yeast
1/2 t paprika
1 T cornstarch

Blend everything after the stars. Heat on stove, stirring often to prevent lumps. Meanwhile boil yer pasta. Drain pasta, mix with sauce and serve. Yuuuum.

Do you know how excited I will be to serve supper with fresh, local produce instead of canned or frozen, huh? huh?

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!

Strategy Strains.

Barley Stew

This was the stew that ate Manhattan! Or Cleveland! Or something! It was massive.

It also burned the bottom of my enameled cast iron pot (which is no biggie, has happened before). You can see a bit of the burney in the pic.

So, next time I would probably just use 1 C of pearled barley instead of 2.

But it was still good!

I kind of winged it based off of a few other recipes...

2 C pearled barley
1 T oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T chick'n powder
6 C water
***
2 large potatoes, chopped small
2 large carrots, chopped small
4 C water
1 can butternut squash puree
1 t oregano
1 t salt
1/2 t basil
1/4 t thyme
1/4 t rosemary
2 bay leaves

In a large soup pot, saute your onion and garlic in the oil, then add the barley and chick'n powder, mix well and add water. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer 30m.

Meanwhile, chop your potatoes and carrots.

After half an hour, add the potatoes, carrots, water, squash, salt and spices. Mix well, cover, bring up to a boil again and then lower heat and simmer another half hour or until tender.

Serve with fresh bread. Yum!


And here is a leetle experiment I did when I was searching for a quick supper.
I took a packet of onion soup mix (vegan, please!) and whizzed it up with 2 T oil, a package of soft silken tofu, a clove of garlic and a little water (maybe 1/4 C?). Tada! Sauce!

I had some bean balls (recipe in Veganomicon) in the freezer that I nuked and tossed in there with the peas and pasta too. It was pretty good!

So I finished "Scourge of God" by Stirling and I finally figured out what it is about these books that make my eyes glaze over- the battle descriptions!! Dude is into the strategy thing, like, a lot. For a person who is unable to AT ALL understand the lure of, say a game of Risk, (read: not a strategy bone in my body), I am unable to groove on Stirling's detailed descriptions of the war. I think I should recommend this to my father-in-law, however.

Anyway, that said, I did enjoy this last book in the series, but I'm thinking the strategy strains are what held me up in some of the other books...

Still reading "Brisingr" what can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment. Also, I have not been to the library.

Browning Sauce and Liquid Smoke.

Hello! Well, here are a few dinners for you...
It has been a long tail end of winter here but we have been gloriously rewarded with some nice days, such a respite! I seriously cannot wait for Farmer's Market weather to begin once again! Begone canned/frozen goods!

Above is a pretty basic dish, but the TVP I made turned out pretty well and I like to think it would make a good Boca burger crumbles replacement. I usually boil up 2 C water in my Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave (takes about 5m) and then just dump in 1/2 C of TVP and let it set while I fry up some onions. Then I drain it in my trusty mesh drainer and dump it into the pan with the onions. Add some browning sauce, a few drops of liquid smoke, some paprika, pepper and cayenne and voila! Boca like substance. Oh yeah, and some salt.

I dumped some 'cheez' sauce atop that over pasta and dinner is born.

TVP ala Boca

1/2 C TVP reconstituted in boiling water
1 T oil
1/2 onion, chopped
dashes pepper, paprika, cayenne, browning sauce and liquid smoke
salt to taste

Cheez sauce

1 can pinto beans
1/4 C nutritional yeast
1/4 C pimento pieces or red pepper
1 t onion powder
pinch citric acid/1 t lemon juice/1/2 t prepared mustard
1/2 t salt

Blend. Heat. Serve.

And this, the piece de la resistance (um, I don't think I got that right)!

"Chicken" nuggets

firm tofu- I've been really liking the westsoy we find at our coop
shake and bake (see below)
egg replacer

Shake and bake

1 C flour
1 C cracker crumbs/bread crumbs
1 1/2 t sugar
1 T salt
1 t poultry seasoning
1 t Italian seasoning or your herb of choice (rosemary, sage, oregano etc.)
1 T oil
1 heaping t of chick'n powder

Whizz it all up in your food processor and pour it into a bowl. You can keep what's left in the refrigerator for another time.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and oil a couple of baking pans.

Cut up your tofu into 1" pieces. I cut mine longways into thirds, short ways into 1/4ths and then cut those pieces in half.

Mix your egg replacer with a little water until it's thick and drippy.
Dredge your tofu in this, then put it in the bowl with the shake and bake and get it all covered in that shake and bake goodness.

Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 350 for 15m, flip and bake 5m more.

So. seriously. good.

Good gravy!

2 C water
1/2 C flour
1 T chick'n powder
2 t nutritional yeast
1 t salt
1 T Earth Balance
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t dijon mustard
1/2 t balsamic vinegar
1/4 t garlic powder
pinch sage
dash browning sauce
drops liquid smoke

Blend it all up in blender, pour into pot and heat on the stove until thick. Boom. Gravy.

So I see here I have been on a browning sauce and liquid smoke kick. Crazy.

No reading- been knitting. No, really. Knitting is back, with a vengeance. They should make a movie.

Lovely.

Hokay, lets start at the top, shall we?

Here is Arroz non Pollo from "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker" which is a very good cookbook, btw.

It was a good thing for me to try because it did things I would never do and it uses saffron, which I have but never know how to use! Okay, on the 'did things I would never do' front- well, let's just say it's busy. I mean, green olives, green beans, peas and chickpeas I would never put together in one dish. And to top it all off, some salsa in there too! But it was really good and simple and hearty. Win.

Wheat Berry Stew. This one turned out kinda weird. I was all excited to use my wheat berries, and I had some dried cannellini beans I used as well, so win there, but really, it was just odd. I added some stuff.

1 jar marinara sauce
1 jar's worth of water
1 1/2 C dried cannellini beans
1 C wheat berries
6 small potatoes, cubed
1/4 C nutritional yeast (just 'cuz)
1 T olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 T cumin
2 T soy sauce
1 T brown sugar
1 t onion powder (I was out of onions)
1 t turmeric
1 t paprika (a desperate bid to make it taste better)
1 t salt
dash pepper

The original instructions say to mix together and cook on high 8 - 10 hours. Mine was done sooner and took a LOT more water.

Cupcakes! Using vegweb's super moist chocolate cake recipe, which is my 'go to' recipe for cake. Hard to get out of the muffin tin, but oooh, so worth it! Plus simple chocolate espresso frosting. I just used fine ground coffee and some cocoa our friends brought back from the carribean. Wow.


Manwich using Boca crumbles. Used "Manwich BOLD" it was so exciting. Perhaps a bit more tomatoey. I could not fathom what made them bolder really.

Gnocci from Target. Made a cheez sauce using the cashew butter I got at the coop on sale. Your basic cheez sauce; cashew butter, nutritional yeast, onion and garlic powder, water, salt. I added a bit of citric acid and that tarted it up good! Pretty fun. Going to add citric acid to my cheez sauces from now on. Can't remember why I purchased citric acid- I know I had to go to some special ?brewer's? store and it was ?for a craft project? Hmmmm....

And finally, Cashew Garlic Alfredo Sauce which is so nummy. I upped the olive oil and the nutritional yeast to 1/4 c each and downed the water to just one cup. Also added citric acid, just a wee pinch (in lieu of the lemon juice).

Not much reading, really. Remember when I was all excited about having all these good books to read? Somehow they all evaporated. Like, one I hadn't remembered that I'd already read "The Pacific" by Mark Helprin who I really love. And "No one belongs here more than you" which went really fast and I liked it a lot. And "Everything Is Illuminated" - did I mention that one? Oh yeah, that I was sorta dense abuot what really happened. Watched the movie, which was fine, sorta have an inkling about what happened, but who can tell? The movie was supposed to have been different anyway.

So.

Enjoy the new digs, they are courtesy of my husband's tinkering- it was a lovely 'happy birthday' surprise!

Sorely Needed Green.

Good evening!
Here we have an repeat. You know, I think I got that recipe from Fairly Odd Tofu Mom, actually. I changed it up a little...

1/2 C raw cashews
1 clove garlic
2 T nutritional yeast
1 T cornstarch
1 t garlic granules
1 generous t salt
1 1/2 C water

1 can peas/1 C frozen peas
1/2 box pasta (8 oz)

Get your water on to boil.
Blend sauce ingredients.
Pour sauce into a large pot and bring to a simmer.
When the water is boiling, throw in a fair amount of salt and your pasta.
When the pasta's almost done, toss in your (if using frozen) peas.
Drain.
Pour pasta and peas into large pot, coat in sauce and serve. Voila!


Here is one of my favorite soups, French Lentil Soup. Oooh, la la! I've skipped the tomatoes in the past due to a tomato hatah in the house, but this time I used 1/4 C tomato paste and upped the paprika to 1 T and no complaints.

Okay, and that bread there? Check this out, it is the same as Grandma's Cornbread Made Vegan, except I used Cream of Wheat!!! Can you stand it? It was a little too sweet for my tastes to go with this soup, so next time I'd probably leave out the sugar or at least reduce it to 1 or 2 T, but it was very good, do not scoff at Cream of Wheat Bread. Yeeeeaaah, baby!

Oh, and last but not least, here's to you, Mr. Subjunctive!

Many moons ago, I mentioned that I had finally found and purchased a ZZ plant, and linked to this post about ZZ plants. Well, Mr. Subjunctive was kind enough to quell my concerns re: the use of leaf polish spray in his comment on my post and I thought I'd give an update on the dear thing... convoluted enough for ya? Suffice it to say, my ZZ is doing well, even adding a little sorely needed springy green to this looooong Minnesota winter! I love it! Did I mention that he is working on a post about which plants are not okay for housepets? V. cool.

The end.

Sand + Kitchen

Hello my lovelies!! Here is what we had for breakfast yesterday morn! 'Twas quite yummy and made even more so with some homemade apple butter schmeared across the tops! MMMmmmm... so glad I made a ton of apple butter and then froze some! Just the thing for a bleak February morning!

It's this recipe, but I just used some random fancy white flour I had plus regular white flour instead of the whole wheat pastry flour....

They turned out pretty good, and it was a nice change from our usual weekend breakfast pancakes/muffins/Dutch baby routine...

I'll probably try some other recipes, but this one won because you started the starter the night before and so once you mixed everything up in the morning you only !only! had to wait 90m. The other recipe had a 2 HOUR rise! That's why I've never made english muffins for breakfast, no way am I getting up that early!


Next up is a nice, healthy meal we had the other night, was it Friday?

I don't know what it is (perhaps conditioning from early childhood) but I always feel soooo healthy when I make and serve brown rice! I used my favorite recipe for making brown rice, Foolproof Oven Baked Brown Rice. Sooo easy and good! I love how, if you use long grain rice, the rice comes out all aligned the same way (it's the simple things...).

So, over the rice we have Tempeh with Curried Cashew Sauce. I did not cube the tempeh (rebel!) I just crumbled it. Aaaaand I sort of winged it with the sauce a leeeetle bit. I just used a splash of rice wine vinegar and 1 T sugar instead of the honey and probably more soy sauce than they asked for.

Hey, here's something cool I learned recently- when you buy ginger, scrape all the skin off with the edge of a spoon and freeze it. That way it keeps longer and doesn't get all wrinkly and dried out, which is what always happened to me, at least. So I tried this with this recipe and it worked, although you need a hella sharp knife to mince the ginger up (I did try grating it, but then most of the ginger ended up on the grater). I've also read somewhere that you can put the cut ginger in !sand! and it will keep growing, but this seemed a little urban legendy to me! Plus, sand + kitchen = nogood.

Oh yeah, and I didn't chop the cashews, I blended them in the blender with the other sauce ingredients.

We definately liked this and I'll probably use it again. Tempeh has been my bane and so it's nice to find a recipe we all like the taste of!


Finally, it's spaghetti, my daughter's 'favorite' meal... there's some GimmeLean 'meat' balls on there. I finally figured out how to handle GimmeLean (duh!) USE LOTS OF FLOUR (geez that stuff is sticky!)! Used some fancy organic ?Muir Glen? sauce in a jar, added some onions and garlic to it, simmered it down a little thicker and then kept it in the oven for a bit all mixed up (that's why the noodles are all spaghetti sauce soaked). Yummmm. Comfort food at it's best.

Oh, and I can't forget- I read "Into The Forest" and loved it. If you like post-apocolyptic fiction (and who doesn't?!?), you might like this.
Also finished "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" and started "The Yiddish Policemen's Union"- liking this second one better.
Also started "Persepolis" which is pretty interesting, now v. interested in the movie. Have the second one, as well.
Three books at once! Aiyiyiiii! Can you tell I went to the library?

Bring On The Golem!

WWHFDLN

Well, this was okay. Kinda meh. But the oldest liked it and it was filling etc. blah blah.

2 C elbow pasta, uncooked
1 can cannellini beans, undrained
1 T nutritional yeast
1 t salt
1 t onion granules
1/2 t garlic granules
1/4 t turmeric
1/4 t paprika
1/2 C water
1 T oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 pkg Gimme Lean 'beef' product
dash salt, pepper, paprika and chili powder

Blend beans, nutr yeast, salt, onion and garlic granules, tumeric, paprika and water.

Boil up yer pasta.

Saute onion and garlic, break up and brown the 'beef', add spices and mix.

Drain pasta, mix with sauce from blender and pour into a greased 9 x 13" casserole dish. Top with the onion/'beef' mixture. Bake at 350 for 30m.

Am about halfway through "The Adventures...", gee it's kind of draggy, now I think on it. Bring on the golem I say!!!

An Crane.

WWHFDLN

Aaaaaaaahh! Don't hit! Don't hit! It's not chicken!!!!!
It's that Morningstar Farms stuff.

Okay, now that we've got that out of the way...

May I present to you, Lemony "Chick'n" and Pasta

This is a repeat. It's kind of what I do when I've got a bag of those strips in the freezer.

2 C pasta, uncooked
1/2 bag frozen broccoli
1 pkg Morningstar Farms chickn strips
1 T soy sauce
1 T lemon juice
2 t cornstarch
1 t lemon herb seasoning
1 T olive oil
1/4 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced

Start your water boiling.
In a nukeable dish, whisk together the soy sauce, lemon juice, cornstarch and lemon herb seasoning. Throw in the chickn strips.
Nuke 1m, shake and nuke 1m more.

Saute onion and garlic in oil in a large pot. Add the chikn and sauce (I scrape out as much of the sauce from the dish as I can, adding a little water to get most of it out). Brown the chickn. Cover and remove from heat.

When the pasta is almost done, toss in the broccoli, turn off the heat and cover. Let sit for a few minutes to thaw the broccoli, then drain.

Mix it all up and serve.

Still working through Infinite Jest, can't believe I'm on month three of reading this tome. Jeez, I thought I read fast!! Not an easy book to read, either, large chunks of time are preferable (that''s not happening) and arm strength required to flip to and fro to read the sometimes extensive endnotes.

Two things I will remember fondly about this book;

1) When writing dialogue one can use "..." to designate silence/consternation from one of the characters. For example,

"Milo, I have an crane stuck up mine arse."

"..."

2) You can just have a number designating an endnote stand alone. Now THAT was teh awesome (see p. 787).

Go Forth And Pasta

Woo! I made pasta, people!!!

I was looking for tofu balls recipes yesterday and somehow stumbled upon this... I guess I've been inspired!

Oh, truly, truly I say unto you that lo, it was good! How fun to make pasta, and seriously, it was not really that hard.

I had bought some semolina flour a while ago from the coop, it was on sale, I guess because ?they are discontinuing it?!? Figures, once I get my pasta groove on, my source dries up!

And the tofu balls were really good! I've made tofu balls before, one recipe used peanut butter, but these were quite good, held together well and taste great! It was so serendipitous (or was it ordained?) that I had wheat germ and everything to make these. Gotta be careful, sooooo tempting to just pop one in my mouth as I pass by the refrigerator! Nom, nom, nom.

My best advice for both the tofu balls and the pasta is- really coat them with flour before frying/boiling.

Other than that, go forth and pasta!

In other news, my husband desired that I set the record straight and desmirch his name re: he does not go around quoting "Silence of the lambs". So, for your reading pleasure, I give you the Space Ghost episode in which Zorak tells Branford Marsalis that he "will eat your liver, with some fava beans and a fine Chianti. (sup sup sup sup sup) Oh, and some gum.". By the way, do NOT go to youtube and type in gum, disease. Trust me.

Bother.

Cashew Alfredo Sauce

So, another quick supper...

Tried this sauce and it was goooood...
V. nice.
This was just roughly half a box of pasta, the sauce and a can of peas.

Here's how I made it;

1/2 C raw cashews
1 clove garlic
1 T olive oil
1 T Earth Balance
2 T nutritional yeast
1 t salt

1 1/2 C pasta water

Boil up your pasta.
In a blender, blend the cashews, garlic, nutritional yeast and salt.
Scrape down sides and blend again until all cashew pieces are roughly uniform.

Take 1 1/2 C of your pasta water (you can even let a few of those noodles 'accidentally' slip in there- the starch is what thickens the sauce) and pour it into the blender and the blend! blend! blend!

Drain pasta, return pot to stove, toss in your Tablespoon of Earth Balance and your T of olive oil, toss in the pasta and peas and dump the sauce over all that. Mix well and serve hot.

Gah, no progress on the reading, I know, I know. Those Chabon books are taunting me from the bookshelf- 'read us, read us, elizabeth, we're so entertaiiiiining'...
Hey, I read somewhere that he never even ties up the loose ends at the end and there's no closure, surely that's excuse enough to stop, right?!?
Bother.

If Someone Has Requested It

Hello! Happy New Year! I'm excited about this year... so many possibilities!

Here (above) is What We Had For Dinner Last Night (WWHFDLN). It was pretty good, almost like creamed spinach, although I haven't had anything 'creamed' in a while so I really don't know. It was tasty, anyhow.

I had 2/3 of a extra firm silken tofu left from the cabbage dinner (I used 1/3 of the tofu for a 'sour cream') so I decided to make Esme's Special Sauce (a staple in our house), and add the tofu to that. I blended it all up and then put it over the noodles and spinach.

Of course then I added too much of the pasta water to the sauce when I dumped in the pasta, so then it was like all soupy. So then I put it back in the pot, back on the pot, and stirred in 1 T of cornstarch mixed with 1 T hot water and stirred and stirred until it got thicker. Hoo boy!

So finally dinner was served.

Here is a rough approximation of the sauce;

3 T tahini
2 T miso
2 T soysauce
2 T olive oil
2 T Dijon mustard
2 T nutritional yeast
1 t salt
plus the silken tofu

Boil up your pasta, steam/defrost your spinach, and mix it all together, hey!

I liked the sauce, I'll probably try it with something else, perhaps one of my beloved casseroles...

And here is the Earthy Lentil Soup from "Vive Le Vegan". It was good! It's nice to have another lentil soup in addition to my other favorite lentil soup...

No news on the reading front, I'm kinda nervous because it's due in a few days and I'm only halfway through and if someone requests it then I'm doomed, DOOMED! I tell you! because then I can't renew it (if someone has requested it). You understand. Feel my pain.

There Was An Endnote to the Endnote

Good Evening (said in a voice like that Masterpiece Theater guy), no actually, it's morning, but I just wanted to imagine saying "Good Eee-ven-ing" with a deep voice, stuffy English accent and especially with that three syllabic stretch on evening, emphasis on 'Eee'.

Hey, what did you get for Christmas? I got a soapstone deep dish pizza pan (woo!), a clay baker (to make fake turkey in), some Chabon books, a gift certificate for our local kitchen shoppe (again with the woo! I'm torn over 1)many little things or 2)a pressure cooker), a book called "Curly Girl" so I can start to get a handle on the girls curls and Bryanna Clark Grogan's "20 Minutes to Dinner".

So I made a recipe last night from it- cabbage and noodles which is just as it sounds! It was good, although we are not huge cabbage fans. The cookbook has many great recipes and ideas in it, I'm glad to have it for inspiration.

I am of course still reading "Infinite Jest". It's gotten more interesting to me as more characters are added and it's not quite so masculine as the beginning was when it was super focused in on the main character. I will be interested to see if these different plots are ever woven together? And I also must amend a statement I made earlier about footnotes having footnotes- my good husband reminded me that the notes at the end of the book are called ENDnotes and the notes at the bottom of the page, you know, with the asterisk, are footnotes. My apologies. So I was reading an endnote when I discovered there was an endnote to the endnote. Whatever.

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".

So Fun!

What We Had For Dinner the Other Night

Again with the chili topped sweet potato! Yes, but it's so good! I must have a vitamin A deficiency or something...

this time with black beans, added some cocoa to the mix...

and served with Grandma's Cornbread Made Vegan. Oh, and I've made that cornbread quite a few times, never with the energ egg replacer and it's been juuuuust fine. Make it in a skillet, make it now.


And hey, I tried Vegan Mom's Vegan Cheese Sauce Mix, and lo, it was good.

I did not have raw sunflower seeds on hand, so I used 3/4 C rolled oats and it was fine.

Boiled up half a box of elbow mac (2 C worth), mixed it all up, topped with 10 crumbled Ritz crackers (yes, Virginia, they are vegan). Baked at 350 for 30m or so. Verrry nice. Even better the next day, reheated with a little added oil and some broccoli... for lunch, of course!

That's all I gotz for ya today, have given up on "The Name of the Rose" or whatever it's called. Reading another Aubrey-Maturin O'Brien novel, this one's not as good! Boo! It starts out on land, or as seagoing folk say, shore. Booo-ring.

Christmas presents are rrrrrrollin' in!!!! So exciting. Frigid cold here, snowing. Ahh, Winter.

Oooh, oooh! Not least but last, here's my presents for various and sundry people (neighbor who we hope to have watch cats, daughter E.'s teachers).


So fun!!