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.

No knittin', no readin'.

Muffins!

We got this recipe from a co-worker of my husbands (I did veganize the butter and milk), so we'll call it 'Lowell's Bran Muffins'.

2 C bran flakes
2 C flour
1 T baking powder
1/4 C Earth Balance
1/4 C molasses
1/4 t salt
1 3/4 C soymilk

Mix it all up, pour into greased muffin tin and bake at 350 for 25m.

Next time I may experiment with either
a) using 1 1/2 C milk and 1/2 C molasses or
b) adding 1/4 C sugar.

They were good, but I like my muffins sweeter.

This recipe can be doubled.

My washerwoman's sprain has not gotten any better so on Friday I got a cortico-steroid shot in the 'ol wrist. Almost passed out afterward. Fun. The doctor said that ?this is a common reaction?

So no knitting, I am bereft. It's like this whole knitter's high from finishing my first sweater is going nowhere!! I had even started another sweater, but of course now I have stopped because I do not want to exacerbate things.

No reading, well, actually, some- rereading "The Pacific" by Mark Helprin. That's some good writin'. Nice short stories, mmmmm.

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!

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?

Taunted.

Taunted (taunted, I tell you!) by visions of vegan ribz (don't click on that link if you've ever dreamed of vegan gyro, either!!!) denied to me on my recent trip to Milwaukee (but hopefully not next time) I decided to make my own! Of course, mine were not deep fried and accompanied by any vegan chive mayo alas, but they were still good.

Just like other times, I started out the same, but this time I added;
-HP sauce
-a little pepper
-more salt
-some Kitchen Bouquet
-used half tahini and half peanut butter
-added 1 T of toasted sesame oil to the dough/mix
and when I basted them with BBQ sauce I coated them in oil first.

I also baked them covered for 30m, covered them with oil and sauce, flipped them and then baked them uncovered for 10m. This resulted in a tastier, not as tough rib.

Still reading "Embrace Me"- as I get to know the characters more, it's easier to read. Great characters. Can't wait to see how she ties it all up.

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).

The Simple Things

Hullo peoples!

Well, I had a whirlwind of a time down in Milwaukee, WI visiting old friends the last few days but we all came back with a cold. Boo.

So for dinner last night we had something I'd been planning to serve over the last of our homemade white bread before we left. Well, that didn't happen, so we had it when we got back! Ta da!

Garbanzo Beans and Gravy Recipe (which is oddly enough listed on something called 'calorie count'- but did you catch that in the ingredients? 1/2 C butter!!!)

so of course I did not make this just like the recipe.

1/2 C flour
1/2 C nutritional yeast
1 generous t salt
1/2 t garlic granules
1 C chick'n broth
1/2 C soymilk
1 big *ss can garbanzos, undrained
1/2 C Earth Balance (that's ONE STICK folks!)
1 T soy sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
dash pepper

In a separate skillet from what you're going to use to make this in, brown the flour and nutritional yeast.
Dump that into your pot, scootch it over to one side and proceed to melt your Earth Balance on the other side. Saute your onion and garlic in there and then start to, using a whisk, incorporate the flour into the butter and onions and garlic. Toss in your soy sauce, salt, pepper and garlic granules in there too. Mix, mix, mix. Try not to let it get lumpy.
Then sloowly add your chick'n stock and then the garbanzo beans and then the soymilk.
Serve over rice.
Makes 5 C.
It was pretty good, I have to say.

Oh and I am so excited. After "Infinite Jest" and "Little, Big" I was feeling a little bereft. You know, awash on the seas of not having a good book queued up. But now I am like a kid in a candy store, check this out- I requested Johnathan Safran Foer's "Everything Is Illuminated" (which, btw, is so far quite entertaining) and that came in, and then my friend KT in Milwaukee lent me "Eat, Pray, Love" which I was interested in especially after seeing Elizabeth Gilbert give this talk (thanks, Devi!), as well as another book that she said was good, so now I'm set. Nothing makes me happier than having a bunch of good books to read. Well, almost nothing. It's the simple things.

Were I Ever To.

WWHFDLN

Another iteration of sloppy joes...
This time I used the fake meat (as we like to call it around these parts) from Morningstar.
Found the recipe by googling sloppy joe recipe vegetarian or somesuch. It was a combo of this recipe and this one.
I think that if I make this again (and oh, I will) I'll use red lentils and probably double the spices or something. And maybe try using tomato paste instead of ketchup. Maybe if I deconstructed ketchup to it's parts then I could just add said parts to the recipe. Anyways. Really, it's kind of silly to make sloppy joes from scratch and then use the packaged fake meat, ketchup and BBQ sauce. Ah well.

Sloppy Joes

1 pkg Morningstar Farms ground 'beef'/2pkts Boca ground 'beef' (next time try TVP or red lentils)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 C green or red pepper, chopped (again, bad me, I used red peppers from a jar)
1 T oil
1 T brown sugar (yes Virginia, 3 t = 1 T)
1 T prepared yellow mustard
1 T soy sauce
3/4 C ketchup
1/4 C BBQ sauce
1 t apple cider vinegar
1/2 t garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste (I just used a dash of pepper)

Saute onion, then garlic, then the ground 'beef'.
Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until thick.


And here is some risotto I made... wait for it... in the crockpot! Wow! I know you're just blown away. I've had this arborio rice like, forever, and I kept not having time to stir a pot for 17m straight or whatever and then I came across this recipe at A Year of CrockPotting.
Of course I veganized it. It was really good, sort of a light main dish.

Crockpot Corn Risotto

1 T oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 C arborio rice
4 C water, divided
1/4 C vegan chick'n flavor broth powder
1 can corn, undrained
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t garlic powder
1 T Earth Balance
1 t salt

Saute onion and garlic in oil.
Scrape into crockpot, stir and rice and mix to coat in oil.
Boil 2 C water, carefully stirring in the 1/4 C chick'n powder (mine started boiling over).
Add corn, broth water, 2 C water, salt and Earth Balance.
Mix well and cook on high for 2 hours.

Finished "Lord Byron's Novel"- not as good as "Little, Big". It started out reminding me of that Patrick O'Brian stuff, but the switcharoos between the modern story and the older one just got tedious and there was a red herring. Boo.

Reading a few non fiction books, plus a collection of short stories by Angela Carter called "Burning Your Boats" which I am enjoying greatly and which are the kind of short stories I would love to write were I ever to do such a thing.

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!!!

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.

Very Engaging

WWHFDLN

Chili, based off of Vegetable Chocolate Chili Mole (scroll down). I found this page yesterday from a link off of The Pink Apron.

We had chips and the idea of chili had been percolating and when I saw that recipe I thought, "Well, my favorite chili recipe already has chocolate chips in it, and this recipe has MORE!, so I have to try it!!!".

At first I was like, thyme?, basil?, bay leaves? rilly?!? But, it turned out great! Not weird at all! Surprise! The only thing I did differently was to have the pineapple in there. And I didn't have any celery, or red, green and yellow peppers.

1 big can black beans, drained
1 can pinto beans, drained
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
1/4 C tomato paste
1 T oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 C chocolate chips (wow!)
1 C frozen corn
2 carrots, cut into rounds
2 t salt
1 t cumin
1 t thyme
1 t basil
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t chili powder
1/4 t ancho chile powder
1/8 t allspice
2 bay leaves

Saute onion, garlic. Add all other ingredients, bring up to a boil, lower heat and simmer until the carrots are tender. Serve with chips. The end.

Did I tell you I finished "Little, Big"? Started reading "Lord Byron's Novel" also by John Crowley. Got a thrill when I realized it's got some sci fi aspects going on... seems quite different from "Little, Big" so far, but I've only just begun. Very engaging right from the get go.

Tong.

Hello! And welcome back from the weekend...
Here is some food for you!
Matthew's Delicious Tofu. Served over brown rice.
This was pretty good, pretty simple and very nice. I added some carrot in there...
On Saturday morning I made bagels again!!! The only thing I changed (well, one of two things) was that I added BROWN sugar to the boiling water. I also used a flat flipper/turner to flip the bagels over when they were in the water so as to avoid tong marks on the bagels (if you look at my last set of pictures of the bagels, you can see the tong imprints). Is that how you spell tong? Whoah, weird. Tong it is not. Okay, I totally cannot think of the word I want- pincers? grabby thingy? C'mon brain! Must be monday...

See how brown and deeelicious they are? They turned out more brown, I think because of the brown sugar. Ideally, you're to add malt powder or malt syrup to the water, but I didn't have those things...

And of course I made Paprikash Dumplings for Valentine's Day dinner... not 'cause it's red (although that was pretty serendipitous) but because WE LOVE IT! I have since dropped the celery powder from the dumplings (green dumplings!?!?) and upped the baking powder to 1 T. I also dropped the nutritional yeast to 2 T and added 1 T tomato paste. Oh heck, I'll just write it out again...

Paprikash Dumplings

1 big can garbanzo beans or 2 regular ones, drained
1 T oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T paprika
2 T brown sugar
1 T salt
2 T nutritional yeast
1/4 C ketchup
1 T tomato paste*

dumplings;

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

Get your big 'ol pot of water on to boil.

In a food processor, blend flour, baking powder, salt and Earth Balance until like a coarse meal. With processor running, slowly add water until the dough forms a ball and cleans the sides. Remove, knead a little and set aside.

Saute onion and garlic, stir in the rest of the ingredients and lower heat.

Roll the dumpling dough out into a corncob thick snake and divide it into 16. Roll each of these slices into a ball and coat them in flour. Dump them into the gently boiling water and cover. Gently boil for 10m.

Remove with slotted spoon and put into pot with paprika garbanzo mixture. Gently mix and serve.

Next time I make this I'll probably halve the dumpling recipe and make smaller dumplings.

*do you know what crazy thing I did the other day? I opened a can of tomato paste, measured out Tablespoonfuls of paste onto little pieces of saran wrap, individually wrapped them up and froze them! Now you know how crazy I am.


So, I forgot to mention that I read the ?graphic novels? Persepolis and Persepolis 2 and enjoyed them very much, a good peek into what it might be to live another life. I especially liked Persepolis 2.

I also finished "Little, Big". Man, that book is D.E.N.S.E. I think there are many levels there that I am not cottoning on to. Not to mention that it is 500 or so pages. But, I burned through it because it's that good. Really reminded me of "Winter's Tale" which if I remember correctly I read in the blurb on "Little, Big" that Helprin was influenced by Crowley or somesuch. Heck, I dogeared pages in a !library copy! because they just resonated with me so much!!! Would like to own this one, plus "Winter's Tale". I loved that it was classified as a 'Romance' by the library system. I went to the library and got another of his books, "Lord Byron's somethingorother" so I'll probably start that soon.

Also started reading "The Artist's Way" just because I've heard so much about it over the years. Very interesting. A lot of it is really meshing with other stuff that is going on with me, and I didn't really expect it to, so that was a suprise...

Happy Monday!

Bung It.

Zounds! I made bagels!! I feel like it's the pasta post all over again! Woo! I made bagels, people!!!

I have had this recipe for ages, in my folder of printed out recipes that I want to try and for some reason, yesterday morning I decided to make them for lunch!
The recipe itself went a long way to encourage me to try this... v. simple and non-threatening. No 'only use high gluten flour' or 'insert thermometer into boiling water to ensure proper temperature' or 'use special magik baking powder to get that glossy glow- if you use sugar it won't be as glossy, no, really, just don't'. Yes, you can make super awesome bagels with just three cups of all purpose flour, some sugar, yeast and flour!!


Ahghl agl aaaggghhhlllll... they were soooo good fresh out of the oven, and really didn't take that long to make! Also, they were quite fun to make- poking the holes through with your thumb, putting them in the boiling water and then seeing them all puffy when they came out, taking them out of the oven all golden and shiny! And tearing into them, chewy outside, soft inside! Yumm! I'm going to make these Saturday morning, can't wait!

So we had them for dinner, with soup, too. This was just a basic vegetable soup.

1 can garbanzos, undrained
8 small purple potatoes, chopped into little pieces
1 carrot, chopped into little pieces
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 C small pasta
1 T oil
3 T 'chickn' broth
1/4 t mustard powder
1/4 t celery powder
1 t parsley, crushed
1 t oregano, crushed
dash paprika and pepper
1 t salt
4 - 6 C water

Bung it all into a pot (actually, saute the onion, garlic and carrot first) bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender and pasta is cooked.

Super enjoying "Little, Big". Great February reading.

Sloppy, they are.

WWHFDLN

'Sloppy Joes' based off of Snobby Joes from "Veganomicon".

I had made sloppy joes once before using red lentils (can't remember what recipe I used) and was like 'meh', but for some reason I liked these!! Pretty basic, folks. What can I say? Well, considering a bag of Morningstar Farms fake 'ground beef' is like, $3.oo or something, it may just replace our Saturday night Manwich nights. It just takes a little longer to make, is all. Pretty sloppy, they are.

1 C red lentils, rinsed
4 C water
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T oil
1/4 C ketchup
2 T HP sauce
2 t oregano, crumbled
1 t chili powder
1 t salt
1/4 t mustard (the dry kind)

Saute onion, then garlic*. Add lentils and all ingredients except water and mix well. Add water and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered 20m or so until lentils are tender. Simmer, uncovered, until thick enough to sort of be piled onto a bun.

So, I bailed on "Victoria"- man alive, I mean, I'll read lots of innocuous crap, really, as long as it's mildly entertaining, but this was so. hard. to. read. Pretensious much?

So, so glad I had "Little, Big" waiting in the wings. I am a grumpy person if the book I'm reading turns out to be bad and I don't have anything else to fall back on. Hooray for InterLibrary Loan and my perspicaciously going and picking it up right away! Just barely into it and enjoying the juxtaposition of language and scenario- old and new, fantastic and mundane.

*do you know, once I did one of those word cloud thingys on my blog and the biggest words were like, garlic and onion? Ha ha haaaa...

Don't Look Down

WWHFDLN

Bulghur Burritos Crockpot

a highly variated version of this recipe which was given to me with all the fixin's when my second was born as a 'help mom out' gift. And we have enjoyed it ever since!!

1 can black beans, undrained
1 can corn, undrained
1-2 C salsa
2 T oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t cumin
1/2 t onion granules
1/2 t garlic granules
1 C bulghur, uncooked
2-4 C water
2 T veg broth powder

Saute the onion, then garlic in the oil. Dump that into the crockpot, along with all the other ingredients and cook on low for 4-5 hours. I've also cooked it on high for a little less than that, but you have to keep and eye on the water!

I served this with some (prepackaged) corn tortillas that I cooked up on the skillet. Yum!

And here is another go round of the Baked Veggie Stew with Biscuits on top (woo, do I get a prize for referencing my own blog twice in a row? whaa... you say I'm just repetitive, that's all?).

I had high hopes of making this, doubling the gravy, using tofu instead of Boca 'ground beef', and using my dumplings from my paprikash recipe instead of baking them on top, but alas, the fates conspired against me, and so here you see it, as it's written, except I used 1/2 C TVP instead of the Boca. The gravy was not as tasty as I am used to... a fluke? or was it because I didn't add the wine?!? I'd better go run to the liquor store, then.

So I finished "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" and enjoyed it- some interesting stuff about faith (either you have it or you don't) and marriage ('don't look down' being the main maxim) in there. I can't quite put my finger on why I liked it more than kav and clay... kav and clay was all over the place as it followed it's main character, but I felt like there were ?too many stories in there? and I had my hopes set on really knowing the journey of the golem, which, alas, did not happen.

Started "Veronica" which is kind of crazy so far.

Got "Little, Big" which comes highly recommended and I'm excited for, looking at a few reviews...

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!!!

So Incumbent Upon

Good morning to you, hope yours is going well...

I have been craving pea soup lately and last night I decided to make some!
My most recent attempts have involved a sort of "throw every pea-soup compatible spice you own into a pot and cook" and this time I decided to make it a little more pea-centric and less spice-centric. And I was so pleased with the results. Sometimes it's just better not to muck things up, isn't it? I even resisted the temptation to add liquid smoke and I'm glad I didn't.

Pea Soup

2 C dried split peas, rinsed and picked over
1 T olive oil
1 T Earth Balance 'butter'
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t salt
1 t onion granules
1/2 t garlic granules
1/4 t pepper
6-8 C water

Saute the onion, then garlic in the oil and EB.
Add the onion and garlic granules, salt and pepper and mix well.
Add the peas and mix well.
Add the water and bring the temperature up, cover and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat a little and let the soup simmer until the peas are tender (maybe half an hour?).
Blend depending on your preference for smooth soup and serve.

So nice on a cold Winter's evening.


Here is something of a mixture of success and fail. Well, it didn't really materialize like I had planned, or something. It tasted great, though.

Basically, I sauteed some onions and garlic, added salt and cumin, a can of black beans rinsed and drained and a can of sweet potato puree. Oh, and maybe 1 1/2 t cocoa. It was meant to be a cross between chili topped sweet potatoes and skillet black beans with potatoes and tortillas. Sans tortillas. What it was was something tasty, but mushy... like a stew, but not.

Okay, the potatoes, now, the potatoes were excellent!
I washed some of the purple potatoes we still have left from our CSA and then nuked them (don't forget to prick them) for 6 minutes or so and left them to cool down while I did the bean stuff. Then I sliced them into rounds, heated up some (2 T veg) oil in my handy dandy skillet, sprinkled salt all over the oil, tossed those puppies in and fried them!

I guess that since I really didn't learn how to cook until we became vegan, I didn't have any frying experience, and I've generally looked upon it as 'from the Devil' fat wise... well, I've only just started frying things up in a skillet and boy is it fun and yummy! You can only have a few though, and not that often, I must remind myself.

Well, I finished reading Infinite Jest. No, he didn't wrap up all the loose ends, but I was really suprised at how un-irritated I was by this. It is sort of a pet peeve of mine when authors fail to bring it all together at the end, but for Infinite Jest, it was fine. I enjoyed the ride, it was great writing, and somehow it wasn't so incumbent upon him to tie everything up. Anyhow, I've been reading it for so long, hauling it around, flipping back and forth to read the endnotes, I sort of feel like I've lost a friend. But no worries, I'm reading "The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" and enjoying it. Onward!