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?

Blank Blank with Blank.

Greetings, fellow peoples...

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

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

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

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

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


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

Fake Chick'n with Italian Seasoning

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

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

Serve with brown rice.

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

Hmph.

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

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

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

Here's what I did;

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

Blend ever thing. Cook. Bam.

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

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

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

Pasta Water

Well, well, welcome.

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

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

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


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

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

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

Boil up your pasta. Stir often to prevent sticking.

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And topped it all off with cheeze sauce*.

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

Blend, heat and serve.

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

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

Watery Glue.

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

I Will, I Will!

Hello fellow people!

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

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

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

Crackers

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

Preheat oven to 450.

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

*see notes

Notes;

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




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

Oat Cakes

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

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

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

Way Strong!

Hello again!

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Rise up, pretzel!

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

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

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

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

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

Soft Pretzels

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

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

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

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.