super carrotcake

vegan brunch testers

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:13:44 GMT

sorry i don't keep on top of posting here.

in return, here are a lot of pics of food that's going to be in isa's brunch book. (she wanted to call it crack of noon, but the publishers were having none of that. too bad, i found it hilarious! i bet more people would have purchased a book with a funny title than boring generic "vegan brunch" oh well. at least she got "veganomicon" out of the deal. silly publishers.)

Cinnamon Roll (sans frosting)

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins (much MUCH better than the recipe in VWaV)

Zucchini Spelt Muffins

pumpkin bran muffin

blueberry ginger spelt muffins (this is an amazing recipe! you must try this as soon as you get the book)

Orange Pecan Crumbcake

Raised Waffles with Baked Cinnamon Apples

very tasty. (time consuming though) make sure to read the entire recipe prior to embarking.

PB waffles with maple PB sauce

i made a PB sauce in order to overload on PB.

i added 1/4 cup of maple syrup to a little less than 1/4 cup of PB. i think it'd be better with a little less PB. i was stupid and added the PB to all the syrup at once, and it was grainy, so i had to add more PB. so start with an oz of PB and an oz of maple, incorporate it and then you can dilute it.

classic broccoli quiche

isa posted the recipe on her blog
http://theppk.com/blog/2008/06/10/pot-luck-faux-pas-and-a-quiche/

"omelet" with caramelized onion

Grilled Asparagus Omelet with Miso Tahini Sauce

curried cauliflower fritatta

Beer Battered Tofu

(and with leftover batter, i made battered veggies)

and the piece d'resistance, Cherry Sage Sausages. (i know the picture sucks, but they were amazing.)

so goooood! no kneading necessary!

the one on the left was steamed in aluminum foil and the one on the right was steamed in parchment paper. the one in foil was quite a bit firmer. but both were very tasty.

stay tuned for cookie testing pics.

cherry cupcheezcakes

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:12:25 GMT

this is from the delicious choices cookbook. it's the "creamy cheesecake." the first recipe in the booklet.)
you can download the pdf here
the recipe makes 44 oz of batter, and that translates into appx. 24 regular cupcakes or 7 dozen mini cupcakes. (divide the recipe if need be. i'll definitely be doing that.)

when cutting graham crackers for the mini cupcakes, if you stagger them just right, you can get 5 crusts from one cracker. (for regular cupcake sized crusts, you can only get 2 from each cracker.)

i used the shorter/wider mini cupcake pans. (i think it's from chicago metallic) i found these papers that fit perfectly inside them at a kosher store, but the coloring comes off on the cakes :-/ i'm still on the lookout for plain white ones. let me know if you know a source.

if you are going to be using the narrower/taller mini cupcake pan(this is the more conventional size) then you might be able to get 8 crusts from each graham cracker!

fast forward to post-baking pics:
the water bath really does make a difference. my 10x10 cake pan could only accommodate 9 cups, so the other 3 were hanging over the side. (the 9x13 pan was just too small to accommodate the muffin pan) and for the mini cupcakes, my cookie sheet was perfect. it has just the right amount of a lip. however it was really dangerous getting the mini muffin pan out of the oven with all that water in the cookie sheet. some of it ended up sloshing into a well or two and drenching my cheezcake. aah well. you come across casualties in every war. (it went into my mouth anyway) the cakes on the right cooked too fast and rose too high and then sunk.)

these are the regular cupcake sized ones. i cut some crusts out of graham crackers and some from digestive biscuits for comparison. the biscuits are more brittle than the crackers, so are much more prone to breaking. they are about 2x thicker than the crackers, but also less dense. i think i liked the graham cracker ones better.

i can't copy text from the PDF to paste here, so be appreciative that i typed it all out for you. :-)

creamy cheesecake by s.f. sayood, delicious choices

heat oven to 300F
press 1/2 crust in 8" pan lined with parchment paper.
place 8" pan in 10" pan which will serve as water bath.

ingredients:
2-8 oz packages of tofutti cream cheese
2 cups sour cream (1 1/3 packages of 12 oz. sour supreme)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tablespoons egg replacer dissolved in 1/2 cup water

combine sour cream, cream cheese and sugar in a mixing bowl, beat at medium speed until creamy.
add vanilla extract, flour and egg replacer mixture, beating well after each addition.
pour into prepared 8" pan.
add hot water to the 10" pan so that half of the 8" pan is submerged in hot water. place pan in oven and bake until the cake rises slightly and starts pulling from the sides and sets in the middle. this should take about an hour to an hour and a half.
cool in pan on wire rack.
place the cooled pan in the refrigerator overnight.
do not unmold the cake before it rests in the refrigerator for at least 10 hours. the longer the better.
once the cake is rested, cover the pan with a plate, turn it upside down so the cake slides out. if it does not slide out right away, tap it a few times. peel off the lining.
place a serving plate over the cake and turn it back right side up.

the cake can be frozen at this time for later use (up to a month)
top with fruit sauce if desired.

tips for mini and cupcake-sized cheesecakes
the mini cakes are ready at half an hour, and the regular cupcake sized cakes will take 40 minutes. the mini cupcake pan can be placed on a cookie sheet with a lip, the regular sized ones will need a 10x14 pan, unless your cupcake tins are less widely spaced than usual. in that case, the more typical 9x13 pan will do just fine. (check the fit in the store if you can)

the fox run circle cookie cutters will cut circles perfect for the regular cupcakes and the shorter/wider minis. i'll update later if i find a source for a smaller circle that fits the conventonal minis.

leave enough space in the liners so there is room for a fruity topping. (also, it's more fancy if the fruit doesn't reach all the way to the liners. it's also much less messy to peel when the fruit doesn't stick to the paper)

weighted companion cube cake

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:56:25 GMT

i wanted to make this for valentines day, but didn't get around to it until today.

i used 2 layers of chocolate cake and 1 layer of peanut butter cake. i needed to make 1.5x the buttercream recipe, but i miscalculated how much i needed to make the pink. so nevertheless, i have a lot of pink frosting leftover.
i also trimmed off enough cake to fill an 8 cup capacity tupperware. haha!

(i used 8" round cake pans and trimmed the sides off to make a square. eventually i will purchase 5 or 6 inch square pans if i ever want to make a cube cake again. the loss of all that cake sucked. or i should have said, i didn't have to make 3 batches of batter. 2 might have been plenty.

nutty nut nut nut!

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:38:27 GMT

can't get enough of 'em
Almonds
Cashews
Pecans

like well enough
Pistachios
Walnuts
Macadamias

give or take
Hazelnuts, (Filberts)
Peanuts
Pine nuts

haven't had enough exposure to, so i can't honestly put it in a category.
Beech nuts
Chestnuts (my only exposure to had been a mealy soup.)

can't stand
Brazil nuts (with a passion)

thanksvegan 2007

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 04:30:52 GMT

didn't get around to making the vegan_cookoff pies, so hopefully i'll get around to those within the next week. (didn't have tofu nor apples on wednesday, so i said "fork it")

ok, so. we went to xsaltyx(nicole)'s place for thanksvegan, and we had a great time! mr. salty(shawn) unlocked all of the songs in rock band, and we got to play some of that for a while before we headed up to my parents' house for 2nd dessert.

i made toddx's pecan pie. it was really good. i never made a pecan pie before, in fact, i don't think i've ever really eaten pecan pie before so i didn't really have much to compare it to. shawn really wanted a pecan pie, so i stepped up to the challenge. he said it was good. that it "didn't hurt his teeth like other pecan pie" which makes sense since there's no sugar sugar in it. i might add a little bit of sugar. just for a bit of unhealthiness. and i kinda wanted it to be slightly more puddingy, so i think if i make it again, i'll mix up a quick tapioca to mix in with the filling.

the cinnamon rolls were really good. however, i wanted them to be slightly more cakey and have more pumpkin flavor, so i might put just a bit more pumpkin in it next time. also, i'll be putting more filling in them, cause i liked the ones that were more full of filling. :-) i put them in a 10x10 cake pan (16 rolls), and half of the batch fit perfectly in a big ziploc box.

i didn't think i had eaten too much salt/sugar, but i woke up on friday with puffy ankles, so, i must have. oops!

i got to use my cute "pyrex that matches my corelle plates" casserole dishes. :-) yay!

nicole & shawn provided the tofurky, smashed potatoes, corn, stuffing and canned cranberry sauce. (also gravy in a chicken pitcher. :-)

green bean casserole
2 bags of frozen green beans
a handful of mushrooms, sliced
a half cup of broth
a box of pacific mushroom soup
1/2 can of fried onions. (+ 1/4 can for topping after taking it out of the oven)

mix it all together in a casserole dish, bake in 350 degree oven for however long you deem necessary. a shallower dish might bake faster. i noticed that my beans were still cold after a half hour in a deep dish. so i transferred it to a shallow dish, and took 20 more minutes.

then top with 1/2 of what's left of the fried onions (1/4 of the can. it depends on your preference, really. if you want to use the whole can, go for it!)

i think it may have needed a little more flavor. if you have some stock powder, mix that into the soup before mixing it all into the green beans.

maple glazed sweet potatoes
cut a bunch of sweet potatoes into 1/4ths lengthwize and then slice into 1/4 to 1/2 inch chunks. throw into a casserole dish, squirt a bunch of maple syrup and agave on top and bake in oven at 350 (you can go higher, but i was also baking the pie, so that's the temp the rest got cooked at) for an hour or more. feel free to squir more stuff onto it to keep it basted if you like. or turn them over. they're good when they get a little caramelized.

orange cranberry sauce
the zest of an orange
the juice of same orange
10-12 oz of cranberries
generous squirts of agave nectar

throw it all together in a non-metal pot. cook stirring often til cranberries have popped and sauced up. (quick easy and delish)

toddx's pecan pie

(i used the pastry crust recipe in veganomicon. but i only had whole wheat pastry flour and i didn't have the hour to allow it to rest in the fridge and i didn't pre-bake it. i didn't have rice syrup, so i went with the agave and expired malt syrup, and i didn't have fresh ginger, so i used 1 tsp of powdered.)

http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=652
(copy-paste)
now i really don't follow much of a recipe, but this is pretty damn close to how i do it. I like a lot of ginger so i always put in more. everything else is just according to how much you plan on making. a little bit less or a little bit more.

this is the greatest pie ever. you got podagia's word on this.

1 oven pre-heated to 350 degrees

1 pre-baked pie crust
2 1/2 to 3 cups of lightly roasted pecans all chopped up (more or less depending on how you like the consistency)
1/3 to almost a 1/2 cup of rice syrup (though agave syrup and barley malt ain't to bad)
3/4 to 1 cup of Maple syrup (more less depending on the amount of pecans)
1 tbsp to 1 1/2 tbsp of alcohol free vanilla extract (just prefer the flavor)
Grated ginger to taste 1 tbsp to 2 tbsp
salt couple of pinches or so
1 1/2 to not quite 2 tsp of Arrowroot (tried using corn starch not so good)
3 to 3 1/2 tbsp of flax seeds ground up as best you can
1/3 to 1/2 cup of soy milk

put the syrups, salt, extract, and ginger into a sauce pan and simmer for about five minutes. put on the coutner and let it cool to room temp. mix the soy milk with the flax and arrowroot and then blend
that mixture with the syrups in a blender or food processor. put those pecans into a big mixing bowl and mix it up with the liquid. pour the filling into the pie crust and put into the preheated oven.

bake for about 30 to 45 minutes the filling should be thick and not very gelatinous. give it a little shake

http://donteatoffthesidewalk.com/?p=129

google trends and thanksgiving plans

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:45:13 GMT

so, i was checking out google trends, and i typed in "vegan" and the spikes were boring... so then i typed in "vegan recipe" and that was more like it. i think it's funny that there are spikes around thanksgiving and christmas. :-D

http://www.google.com/trends?q=vegan+recipe
(although now that i thought of it, i typed in just "recipe", and the spikes are still there. this is a lame VeganMoFo post. i'm sorry.)

in good news, i don't have to go to work today. i'll make bryanna's soy+seitan loaf and the pumpkin cinnamon rolls from don't eat off the sidewalk. since those are the most time-intensive things on my menu

i'm going up to xsaltyx's house tomorrow at 1:00 for dinner and rock band and then we're going to pop over to my mom and dad's house for dessert.

salty will be making:
Tofurky
Mashed 'taters
Stuffing
Tofurky gravy
Corn
Bread of some kind

i'll be making:
(2 super secret pies for vegan_cookoff)
green bean casserole
maple baked sweet potatoes
super secret dinner pie
cranberry sauce?

pumpkin cinnamon rolls
pecan pie
super secret apple pie

(i hope i didn't plan to make too much! i hope i get it all done by noon tomorrow. today is prep day. absolutely.)

using up stuff i have too much of.

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 04:49:01 GMT

i have 10 cans of diced pineapple that expire in february, so i'll be trying to use those up in interesting ways.

today i made the ancho lentil stew with grilled pineapple from v'con. (with a bunch of short cuts and lazinesses thrown in.)

didn't have whole ancho so i used ground (2 tbsp), and since i wasn't toasting the ancho, i used ground cumin instead of whole (1.5 tbsp) and since i wasn't going to be putting whole spices in a grinder, i then used 1 tsp of ground coriander. heh. it did save time, so no complaints here.

i used de puy lentils and grilled my diced pineapple in my toaster oven. (it needed at least 15 minutes, so i don't know if it was more energy efficient than broiling it in the big oven. maybe.)

anyway, it was very tasty. highly recommended. (i think this is one of the recipes i had wanted to make back when testing, but i was to lazy to find whole anchos. hahaha! i'm a jerk.)

so. 9 cans left. maybe i'll try to make some sort of pineapple bread pudding. but the eggs really were a huge part of the recipe. we'll see.

pumpkin spice soymilk

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:27:47 GMT

i finally got around to trying the silk pumpkin spice flavor. it's quite tasty. but! not tasty enough to shell out the moolah, besides i'm a little ooked at supporting philip morris so blatantly.

back in july, i contacted torani to ask which of their flavors were vegan, and i was presented with a pleasantly long list.
so i picked up a butterscotch one for mr carrot's butterbeers, and a pumpkin spice one for me.

i soon* learned that adding an oz to 10 or so oz of (kirkland brand [vanilla])** soymilk was quite tasty.

*within minutes
**because like i said, we're cheapskates, so we just get what's available at costco. i really wish they haven't discontinued the plain. i miss it so.

so. last night i mixed up a batch of the torani soymilk and poured a glass of silk's pumpkin spice, and because of the sweetness of the vanilla soymilk, i couldn't tweak my mixture to be more flavorful without it becoming much too sweet. so. i think i'll try it again with unsweetened soymilk. of course there are no cheap unsweetened soymilks out there, so doing this won't really save much more money than just buying silk's (but at least the money would be going to a different company)
anyway, the torani syrup is more "spice" than pumpkin. some folks have said that they wished silk's stuff was more pumpkiny. but in a side by side comparison, silk's was definitely pumpkiny. a flavor lacking in my DIY adventure.

hell, i might have to actually put in an order at natures flavors if only to get this.

survey says!

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:28:02 GMT

time for the veganMoFo survey.
(originally posted at: http://foodsnobberyhobbery.blogspot.com/2007/11/veganmofo-survey.html)

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
i'm still a fan of vitasoy unsweetened original, but haven't really bought it in a long time because of the insane price. so i buy the 10-pack of kirkland from costco. (and now they don't have plain in stock, so i have to use vanilla. it's so annoying. but it is 1 buck per quart, so i can't really complain. i also like to get pathmark's soymilk when it's on sale, cause it's a buck then too. and it's quite good. nearly as good as vitasoy.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
does it have to be meals?
chocolate peanut butter shells
pumpkin cinnamon rolls
and autumn's peanut butter cups

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
melted EB and nooch.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
my first attempt at funnel cake. most definitely.

5. Favorite pickled item?
olives are technically pickled, right? if not, plain old cukes.

6. How do you organize your recipes?
preferably on recipe cards, but it takes time to post it into my word template, and then each page of cards needs 4 recipes, so i'll usually just print them out if i'm in a hurry. for those recipes, i have a binder with plastic sleeves and tabs with categories. but i prefer the individual cards. that's for a lazy day and for recipes i really like, where i can slap multiples of 4 on the cards and git 'er dun.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
i refuse to get a garbage disposal since it takes more energy to then clean the dirty water than to just throw it into the trash in the first place. although i suppose if your municipality then composts the sludge. hmmm. anyway, unfortunately right now, it's trash. i have a roll of chicken wire hanging out in the back yard not really doing anything. we can't just throw it on the pile, cause we have a veggie lovin pittie that'll get into trouble. someday we'll have a great composting method. but right now we don't.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?
hmmmm. fruits would probably be in good supply on the island, so i think i'd want to bring something proteiny. like cashews, and chickpeas. and chocolate. heh.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
maybe "ambrosia" (mini chocolate chips, pistachio pudding, pineapple, marshmallows)
or pineapple bread pudding. (i'd like to veganize that, but it's got lots 'o eggs.)
or possibly apple or peach cake.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
probably PB zigzag from soy delicious.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
oh gosh. hard! i think i'll have to go with the kitchenaid stand mixer. (for 400, alex)

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
hmmmmm. possibly cumin.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
the art of tofu? i think.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
seedless raspberry probably.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
don't think i have one. i don't really cook for omnis. and if i do, they usually don't want to try it.
it'll probably be chili. but that's not because it's my favorite, it's because it's the least "weird" and is least likely to be rejected. i'd love to be able to serve chickpea cutlets or baked tofu, but they'd likely cringe and judge a book by it's cover.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
well, definitely not tempeh. but deciding between tofu and seitan is like deciding between PB + chocolate and mint + chocolate. they're both great in their own different ways. and you don't usually substitute one for the other. so i am not going to play favorites. i do however like byranna's soy+seitan loaf. hahaha!

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
as in ease? anything with canned beans. probably chana masala.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
dog toys and treats (as well as her vitamins)

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
frozen broccoli (from wholefoods) TJ's masala burgers, frozen peas.

20. What's on your grocery list?
bread, avalon organics vitamin c face wash, random veggies, hoisin sauce.

21. Favorite grocery store?
i suppose wholefoods. or pathmark (for the soymilk)

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet.
pineapple bread pudding, or that ambrosia. :-) and funnelcake.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?i don't play favorites. i read them all. (or whichever ones i know about)

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
possibly the raisin pecan bar from trader joes. (the bar itself says terra nostra)

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
hmm. probably 20+ lbs of various sugars on a wholefoods run. (in preparation for the testing of course) they now have 4 lb bags of vegan sugar. so that rocks. it's still in plastic, but at least with the larger bags, some plastic is being saved. i also got some powdered, and 2 kinds of brown sugar. it was great.

26. Make up your own question to put here (and answer it).
oh, come on now.
is your kitchen a complete mess?
why yes, yes it is. how did you know?

bakery truck

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:29:05 GMT

so, i had this crazy idea a few months ago. i'd renovate an old ice cream truck (diesel? biodiesel? vegan grease? maybe from donut making?) cut out the sides, add glass or plexiglas for a "window case" refrigerate this "window case" and use it to both sell and deliver my goods. i hope that wouldn't be against any laws. there are plenty of street vendors. would a moving street vendor really be all that different?

here's the large size with all the text and stuff. if i linked to a 600 pixel wide pic, it wouldn't have been very legible, and i sure as heck wasn't going to hotlink the original. yikes!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2131/2034840840_2f10bd9a00_o.jpg

so a few days ago, my husband had a great idea. he's going to be a full-fledged volunteer fireman (if all goes well, of course, but i have faith in him) mid december-ish. and his fire hall has a commercial kitchen. (the lack of which has been keeping me from starting my business. NJ, health code, blah blah blah. this health code benefits the larger businesses, by keeping the small businesses without a foothold. *sadness*) so. if i had a commercial kitchen at my disposal, things could theoretically go very well. here i was thinking i'd have to negotiate some sort of deal with a local bakery/coffee shop to use their kitchen on their off-time. which might have it's benefits, but i think having a kitchen all to myself, less people getting in my way, etc. would be better. i do think it would be better to have a partner, but if i had to go it alone, at least in the begining, i don't think i'd mind.

as for delivery options before being able to shell out all the moolah for my DIY delivery truck, that'd be a little dicey. see, we're a 1-car household. i sold my money-trap of a car over 3 years ago. mr carrot has flex time with his current job, and as of now he errs on the side of getting home after 7:00 pm. often after 8. heh. he does however have a possible option for telecommuting, so that'd be perfect. but! then what if i have the car when a call goes out? sure we live only half a mile from the fire house, on very level ground, so it'll take less than 5 minutes to bike there, but every minute counts and he really should keep his energy for the good fight. i suppose a <50 cc scooter would work. i don't think it'd waste much more time than a car would. especially considering it's 90% back roads to get to the fire house. i do have a moped from the 70's wasting away in the garage, but that wouldnt be suitable. it takes a really long time to pedal start. we'd need something with a key that'd start right away. oh, look at that. i've rambled. i've made it less suitable for veganMoFo. more like veganMoPed.

well, to bring it back to my business... if i clear $200 per week, i'll be better off than my current situation. (AND we'll always have muffins available. very much unlike our current situation.) and i suppose i could also leave some extra baked goods out for the guys. especially if they let me use the kitchen for free. that shouldn't be too hard to accomplish, would it? :-( if each muffin is 2 bucks, 150 muffins a week? oh boy. i'd have to get a lot of cafes on board. *crosses fingers* i suppose i could also contract out for "not-super-fancy birthday cakes" as well. i don't have much experience with decorating cakes.

my go-to meals

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:36:08 GMT

ok. on friday, misfit asked what my daily dinners were, and whether i cook during the week or more on weekends.

well here goes. i'm kinda embarrassed about this, cause our typical meals aren't very healthy. i would like very much to cook more on weekends, but more often than not, there'll be a family (or friend) obligation or something, and honestly, we're lazy, so if there isn't an obligation, we usually loaf. back when i was unemployed it was great! not so much financially, but we were eating better. also, we don't plan ahead very well. heh. actually not at all, really. so now that i've written the disclaimer, here goes.

* i always try to keep a bag of frozen broccoli in the house (and only wholefoods' 365 brand. all other brands have too many hard / stringy stem bits) so in a pinch, and if i feel i need something green, i'll throw that on to steam and use that as some sort of side dish. maybe like a burger or something. i also keep some of those fancy green beans in the freezer too. i'll throw them on to saute, and use those as a similar side dish.
* speaking of burgers, quite a few of our meals in the past few months had been trader joe's masala burgers topped with either their india relish or the peach chutney i had canned into perfectly sized 4 oz jars. (perfect for 2 burgers) with a side of broccoli or steamed edamame.
* chana masala. open 2 cans (yes, cans, we're talking convenience and no forethought here) of chickpeas, a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, some of patak's biryani paste (i use maybe a tsp. maybe more) and i almost never remember to put the rice on before starting on the chana. so sometimes all we eat is the chana itself. :-( good thing chana is tasty.
* meatball sammich or spaghetti and meatballs. sometimes i'll make my own sauce with a can of diced tomatoes and tomato paste and a shiitake-ton of oregano, some basil, ground fennel, marjoram, onion and garlic powder (i know, i know. i even have that garlic in a tube. so sorry to blaspheme) as well as some nooch and spike. if i have them in the house, and the time/energy to chop and saute, i'll throw in some chopped onion, red, orange or yellow pepper (no green. i hate green peppers) and mushrooms. maybe zucchini if it's there. then after they're sauteed, start in with the tomatoes etc.
but.... if it's in the house and i'm feeling extra super lazy, i'll open up a jar of classico pasta sauce (and keep the jar for canning soups and stuff) and throw the frozen meatballs in there (usually it's trader joe's meatballs. i think i like those the best) and if we're eating it with pasta, it'll either be regular spaghetti or rotini. i love rotini. how it's got all those folds to trap the sauce. mmm.
* black bean sausage soup. open a can or 2 of black beans, chop up a package of tofurky italian sausages into chunks (i slice them lengthways into quarters before chopping them across) toss them in there, and put some water or a can of diced tomatoes in, and it's done really quickly.
* nachos (and to a lesser extent, tacos) i have a jar of uncheese cookbook's nacho mix in my cupboard. i multiply the dry ingredients by 2 or 3. depending on how many nachos i see in the near future. (cause if i leave it too long, the flour would go rancid and ruin the mix) so all i have to do is scoop out 1/4 cup of the dry mix, add 1/2 c water, 1 tbsp oil, a squirt of mustard and a little scoop of miso, and get on with the recipe. i then mix up the toppings. whatever we have in the house. black beans, salsa, chopped tomatoes, lettuce. i really like old el paso's sauces. they have just the right flavor. and i like to keep fantastic foods' taco filling in the pantry for days like this. back when i was unemployed, we'd eat homemade burritos. those were so good. but they take so long to make.
* chili. every so often, i'll make chili, but it's not a go-to meal per-se. but i'll make it from time to time on a "go-to"esque meal night.
* breakfast for dinner. fry up some gimme lean and tempeh bacon make some toast or pancakes, and if there are potatoes in the house, we'll make some homefries.
* gimme lean sammiches. yep. just what it sounds like. sometimes we'll have bagels to put them on.
* when i have a bunch of veggies in the house, i'll make vegetable soup. i recently purchased a 24 qt stainless steel stockpot from a restaurant supply store, and 2 weeks ago, i made a ridiculous amount of vegetable soup. it was great!
* i'll also make stir frys (again, often forgetting to make rice) frozen broccoli, frozen fancy green beans, carrots if i feel like cutting them up. onions, peppers, and whatever sauce we feel like making. it usually involves sesame oil and hoisin sauce. but the other ingredients are up for grabs.

so there you go. my go-to meals. not very many fresh vegetable based meals. i guess that's a symptom of being a 1-car household. the grocery store is only a mile away, but like i said, i'm lazy. :-) i only ride my bike to get to the train station to get to work. and that's only really cause i'd rather take 7 minutes to get there instead of the 17 walking would provide. (my socks and heels thank me, that's for sure)

vegan friendly hosts are nifty

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:50:02 GMT

like i said in my last post, we went to pittsburgh over the weekend to visit some college buddies of mr. carrot's. they were so accommodating. they made a tofurky, some greenbean, carrot and onion thing, cranberry sauce, a sweet potato + squash bake, a pumpkin pie , "spikced" cider, and a totally rummy pumpkin based eggnog that they made the leftovers into ice cream the next day. mmmm.

on saturday, another group came bearing a wacky cake. mmmmmmm. (also doubling our numbers) then everyone decided to go to the zoo (i know, i know, i felt uncomfortable with the idea, but we honestly didn't want to be wet noodles, and one of the group has a membership at another zoo, so he was able to get 4 free tickets. so i went just imagining that i was one of those not supporting the zoo. but to my surprise, it was actually a positive experience. the snow leopard and the penguins had a really small space, and that made me sad, but there was signage all over the place noting that "because of humans... this and that are happening/happened" etc. and they had this petition space to vote for or against ANWR drilling, and this huge photo installment that pointed out rainforest devastation, and they were in the process of enlarging the elephant space, so i didn't feel as bad as i was expecting to feel.)

after the zoo, we went to abay for some ethiopian. which was really really good. not the best, but i wouldn't pass up ethiopian. mmmmm. and it was long overdue too. plus, some of the group had never had ethiopian before. so that was good.
scott and i had:
shorba - brothy soup with lentils, carrots, potatoes and onions.
sambussa - phyllo-y shells, stuffed with lentils, onions, peppers and herbs.
fosolia - string beans lightly spiced and sauteed with carrots onions and potatoes.
tikil gomen - lightly spiced cabbage, carrots and tomatoes stewed in a mild sauce
ye' abesha gomen - kale, peppers, ginger, garlic and onions slow cooked in a mild sauce.
shiro wat - finely ground split peas, lentils and chickpeas simmered in berbere and a combination of seasonings.

after the ethiopian, we went to an ice cream place that had an apple berry sorbet, it was really tasty. very apple pie-ish.

then next morning, we all made brunch. i had a loaf of bread that i didn't want to chance going bad, since i had almost a whole other loaf at home in the bread drawer. so i packed away some chickpea flour as a "just in case" and ended up using it. we made some fronch toast, but this time, i allowed the bread to dry out before fronching it. i don't think i will be doing that ever again. it was much too dry. and because the bread had dried not-flat, not all of the toast was fronched... that with gimme lean and some tater tots, and we were good to go.

so, umm. let's just call this a tuesday post, shall we? *feels sheepish for having neglected 2 days of posts where i could have realistically posted at least a little something*

rumnog pecan cookies

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:21:18 GMT

aaaaand this is where i revert to posting porn i've taken many months ago(back in december) but never posted here since i can't think of anything to really write about.
we're going to pittsburgh to hang out with mr. carrot's college buddies, so i may not post anything this weekend. but fear not, i will be back on monday. hopefully i can think of something to post about. heh. GIMME IDEAS! what do you want to know about my food life?

from veganomicon. naturally.
i had to drizzle my icing instead of spreading it. when i spread it, it'd pull the pecans away and it was much too sweet. the book probably says to spread it. the photo in the testing room had the icing look much more fluffy than mine was. dunno what i did wrong, but i like it drizzled. it looks fancy. :-)

keep your eyes out for more cookie porn in the future.
i'll be testing for 2 completely different cookie books. mmmmm.

foods i don't like

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:59:01 GMT

yes folks, you heard it right. foods... i DON'T like. what, vegans can't be picky? oh, i don't think so. contrary to popular belief, vegans tend to open up their options once meat and dairy is out of the picture. omnis fall back on meats and maybe a dozen or so veggies. vegans tend to try it all. so here we go.

fresh herbs. parsley and cilantro tie for first position, with basil following in a very close 2nd. however, once they're cooked, they're fine. it must just be some sort of volatile oils that i really can't stand. completely overpowers the rest of the flavors in the food it's supposed to be garnishing. no good.

quinoa, most carbonated sodas, black tea, and too much spinach in one sitting all tie for "makes my teeth feel gross." is it phosphorus eating at my enamel? dunno. just don't like it.

beets (bleh. too earthy.)

black olives. ew. ew-ew-ew. i suppose this applies to any of those "gourmet olives" too. gimme typical american salty olives with a pimiento and i am happy as a lamb.

papaya. ohgod! get it away! can't explain it. it never seems like it's supposed to be eaten. the flavor and texture are just wrong. wrong i say!

fresh bell peppers. volatile oils again? dunno. they're damn good after they're cooked though.

red delicious apples. seriously. they may be red, but they sure aren't delicious. they should change the name to red mealy apples. (i don't think i like macintosh apples either. can't remember.

brazil nuts. ugh! what the hell kind of "nut" is that anyway! dude! bleh! i can't explain it, cause i hadn't had one in a long time, but i think it also might be the texture. but maybe mostly the flavor.

and yes my friends. coffee. much too acidic for my tastes. i've made cakes and cookies with just a teensy bit in them, and it just never tasted good. in fact, i'd keep burping and tasting coffee, and feeling even more acidic. so no, coffee is not my friend. not at all. it does smell good though.

surely the list could go on and on. i haven't tried every fruit and veggie out there. but maybe some day. we'll see what the future holds.

my first experience with tofu.

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:48:21 GMT

hot and sour soup. from a restaurant. i liked it.
... umm. that's totally boring.

ok. now to make up for that totally lame excuse for a first experience... here goes my first experience with tofu prepared at "home"

tofu turkey (yes, from vegweb. i was obsessed with that website when i was a new vegan. it was really my only cookbook.) if you click the link and read the recipe, you will see that it calls for nothing but tofu as the turkey itself. no freezing, no marinating, no nothing to make the tofu seem less like tofu, and more like turkey. and to top it all off, i chose the crumble method. *shudder*

i was a new vegan. actually. if i remember correctly, that was my first day as an official vegan. i was living in a dorm room, freshman year of college. both of my suitemates had gone to spend thanksgiving with their family/friends. so i was left alone with my (illegal) toaster oven, ferris bueller's day off playing in the common room.... and a disgusting tofu turkey. i don't think i had very many spices, so i don't remember if i made the stuffing or not... i may have. but the awfulness of the turkey must have been so bad to overshadow whatever suitableness of the stuffing there was. i think that scarred me for quite a while.

so in closing, plain crumbled tofu pressed into a dome shape and then "heated up" should not be a substitute for a turkey. thank you.

my first vegan cookbook

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:14:03 GMT

my very first vegan cookbook was akasha richmond's "the art of tofu" (a morinaga publication, which means every recipe calls for mori-nu tofu. haha)

of course in true carrot fashion, i started off with the chocolate chip cookie recipe. it was good, but i couldn't help but tweak it. :-) i disliked the fact that it only took a few tablespoons of tofu. (seriously. why? although i suppose if you're cooking mor recipes out of the book, it won't go to waste) anyway, i doubled the recipe, to use up the entire box of tofu, and took 1/4 of the margarine away.

it was beautiful! everything i'd ever wanted in a cookie. my picky sister loved them and always requested them.
i loved them so much, i posted the recipe on vegweb and actually, it's my very first post on this blog. see?

that is!!! until that fateful day where i learned about hydrogenated oils. :-( up until that point i was using willow run margarine. i was soooooo happy with it. the cookies had that beautiful crispiness to them, what else could i ask for? i tried the recipe with earth balance (tub and sticks) and not only did they not have the flavor, but they were little dollops of cake. not cookie. not at all. my heart nearly broke that day.

i'm still on the lookout for the perfect crispy vegan chocolate chip cookie.
for vegstivus last year, gory brought his version of isa's choco chip cookies, and they were damn near perfect!

hmm. somehow this turned into a diatribe of vegan chocolate chip cookies and margarine instead of "my first vegan cookbook" well, anyway. i think the cookies were the only thing i've ever made from that book. heh. maybe i'll give it another looksee. maybe try something else for another VeganMoFo post. we'll see.

spices, and the vegans that love them.

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:27:36 GMT

i posted this in my regular journal a few months ago, just not here. apologies all around. i did however update the pictures, so there you go.

as you can see, the wall sans wallpaper and paint looks pretty terrible. some day, some day.

so, i suppose this isn't so much a "VeganMoFo post" as just a post in general. but i'm willing to bet your average vegan has many more spices than your average non-vegan. so, on with the post!

here's the view from the dining room. here you see just how little space i had to work with. eventually i'll hang my cooling racks and stuff up there too.

this wall used to be totally empty. and i had an entire cabinet to the left of the range overflowing with random bottles of spices. occasionally you'd see 2 or 3 of the same thing.

so back to the wall... i didn't think we could really use that wall for anything because there are archways on either side and steps to go downstairs on one of them. and only about 2 inches of space between the edge of the archway and the wall. we were going to build a few skinny shelves spanning the length of the wall to hold the random bottles of spices, but with my epiphany, we no longer need to do that. so. i purchased one of these beauties at kitchen kapers (for 40 bucks) brought it home, held it up to the archway/wall junction, and it was nearly perfect! of course it stuck out an inch, but it's better than nothing. i made a simple calculation, and 9 racks will fit along the length of the wall. found the kegworks website that has them for 30 bucks, ordered 8 of them.

here's an old photo from 2 months ago. the racks came with these relatively nice pre-printed labels, but not only was there not enough variety to sate my needs, the labels kept wanting to peel off, and i'm sure they would have just kept getting dirty, and then eventually shabby. so, i peeled them all off and wrote on all of them instead. it looks much nicer with the names looking all consistent and whatnot. i used a silver sharpie. works fantastically. highly recommended

here's my vast array of hot peppers.

it's already making a difference. it really was awful with everything being hard to find, and completely forgotten about.

my first vegan restaurant experience

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 17:13:02 GMT

i figured i'd go for one of the defined questions as my inaugural VeganMoFo entry.

i had gone to both 1010 cherry (before it closed) and harmony (before it changed hands and became new harmony. but i don't remember if it was a vegetarian place back then. this was back in 1993 or 1994, before i even became vegetarian, so forgive me if my memory is rusty.) although i don't remember which came first, so i'll just write about both.

in my freshman year of high school, i had become friends with an asian girl, and then in usual fashion i had become friends with her friends, so i would hang out in chinatown a lot. so here goes my memories of the restaurants. for harmony, we went only knowing it was a vietnamese place. no idea it was a vegetarian place and still, i don't remember if it was. i do remember eating bean sprouts though. and i remember the separated dining. one open space with tiles on the floor on the left, and another more "romantic" area on the right. new harmony seems to have kept the divisions, but both sides seem "romantic" now.

as for 1010 cherry, we had just happened upon it. (probably how many of their new customers found them)
i remember having this incredibly simple brothy tofu and spinach soup. it was soooo good. so good in fact, i went back in 2000 looking for it. but it wasn't on the menu. when i ordered stuff that time, it was no good. no good at all. a chestnut soup that was totally mealy, the "blintzes" were icky. the "sour cream" that accompanied the blintzes was brown and chunky and tasted like it had gone bad. and to top it off, there was a hair on the plate. sometimes it's better to hold on to a memory than to try to relive it.

(as for photos, i actually do have a picture of harmony. but it's totally on paper/negative. i had taken a photography course in my sophomore year, and i had taken a pic of the neon buddha in the window. i really liked the way it looked. especially in B&W. but alas, it's on paper, and i have no idea where my prints/negatives are. and even if i did know where they were, i'd then have to scan it, and you know as well as i do, that just ain't happening. and now that i remember that photo, i think it did say "vegetarian")

VeganMoFo

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:16:31 GMT

i figured since i've neglected this journal for far too long, that i'd participate in VeganMo(nth of) Fo(od)
<moody blues>so many entries i've been meaning to post</moody blues>
so this'll be the kick in the pants i need.

i will probably stray from the defined questions, as long as i'm making a post a day, and i won't rely on posting a pic. that's what's been keeping me from posting entries. i just spend too much time in photoshop. i gotta just get my words out there. i know i'm starting late, but i forgot it was supposed to be this month, and with the PPK forums being down, it wasn't in my face reminding me... (also, i kinda just decided to jump in)

p.s. corrie from http://whileyouwereinkenya.blogspot.com/ set up a google reader for all the participating blogs. so you can read them all on one page. so woot to her!

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/10401450510537964801/label/VeganMoFo

more chocolate methodology.

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:26:51 GMT

i'm so sorry i always have these long gaps in my posting. i wish i had more time for this stuff. it was great when i was unemployed. heh. well, maybe not financially, but definitely bloggingly.

but rest assured, i will not abandon this blog completely.

in my quest for the perfect method of making chocolate coated things, i think i have found my favorite method. sure they look a bit messier than the flat-topped counterparts, but i think they look charming. :-)

(one thing i didn't do this time around that i will hopefully remember to do in the future is to work in a smallish room with little to no circulation that is kinda warm to allow the chocolate to harden in it's own time. that's why i still have the greyish spottiness in my finished pics. i was in a wide open room with lots of cold air circulating.)

ok. first, acquire dipping utensils such as those below. i am a righty, so i use the pronged one to support the ball o'filling (which i had placed in the freezer to harden up) in my right hand, and the round one helps to push the chocolate coated filling off of the prongs onto your parchment/silicone sheet/mold/paper cups. if there are exposed filling spots, use the rounded one to plop extra chocolate on them.

here you can also see the size difference between regular mini cupcake papers and the "glassine candy cups". the only thing with using white liners is that it looks less nice since the oils seep in. the brown ones mask that. but otherwise, they work just as well.

i really like the cups. they're much easier to work with than the molds, and look more professional, and there's just something about peeling back the piece of paper to make it more fun.

if you're making multiple flavors, top them with distinguishing markings while the chocolate is still wet. (i found these jimmies at wegmans in their bulk bins. they didn't have confectioner's glaze on the ingredients label. i hope that's something that legally has to be disclosed.) if you have a chocolate mold, don't despair, you can still use them to hold the glassine cups in place.

here are the mini cupcake papers being used. and they're held in place in a mini cupcake pan. (you can see that i was using up some of the slightly larger papers that i bought thinking they were the right size. see how they fold in a little? the wilton brand doesn't do that. i'm sticking with wilton from now on for my cupcakes.) so... if using the cupcake papers, make your filling balls larger. (or flatter) so you can fill the entire bottom of the paper. it looks nicer that way. however it's a bit too much for one mouthful. that's why i like to use the glassine cups or petit-a-four cups. that's the right ratio of chocolate to filling.

packaged and ready to go. i love reusing those take-out containers for small cupcakes and candy. they even fit 6 unfrosted (or minimally frosted) regular sized cupcakes/muffins. nice!

and the money shot.

here's the recipe for the PB cups. as usual.
http://supercarrotcake.livejournal.com/4303.html

the coconut cream i totally forget what recipe i used. if it comes to me, i'll edit the post.

and not pictured here are the incredibly simple and incredibly tasty chocolate truffles. i thought i had taken pictures of them. but i can't seem to find them. they were soooooooo good. http://www.recipezaar.com/33995

vegan truffles from recipezaar
3/4 cup raw cashews
3/4 cup cold water
1 lb bittersweet chocolate
cocoa powder

1. Put cashews and cold water in a blender and blend at high speed for 1-2 minutes (yes a long time).
2. Scrape the sides down and blend again until the mixture is the consistency of heavy cream.
3. Meanwhile, in a double boiler heat the chocolate until it's all melted.
4. Cool the chocolate until it's comfortable to work with and fold in the cashew cream (making sure not to stir too fast or you'll create bubbles).
5. Cool in the fridge for 2 hours (to set).
6. Take out a small ball, roll in cocoa powder and store in fridge/freezer.
7. Repeat until done.

(of course instead of steps 5-7 i freeze them and dip in chocolate instead of the cocoa powder and store at room temp.)

next time around, hopefully the ambient room temp will make a difference in the appearance of the chocolate. if it is in fact the freezing that is affecting the appearance of the chocolate, then bummer. i've tried holding soft filling on the coating tools, and if it comes to dealing with the unwieldy filling for pretty chocolate vs easy to control solid filling for not completely appealing chocolate, then i suppose we'll deal with that road when we get there.

punkin cheezkakes

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:26:56 GMT

you can see that they sunk and pulled the sides of the paper with it. hehe.
it's even worse today.

(this recipe is from rachell: from the PPK forums. i didn't ask if it was from a cookbook, so if you recognize it, let me know what the source is. i'm thinking of tweaking it a little bit to keep it a little bit more solid if the extra baking time doesn't fix it. maybe a bit of agar or tapioca flour or just more AP flour. i blended it all in my vitamixer, so i think next time i will try only blending the tofu and then switching it to the kitchenaid mixer. i'm afraid i may have liquidised the tofu a little too much.)

punkin cheezkakes

1 package of mori-nu firm lite silken tofu (12 oz. firm silken tofu)
2 containers of Tofutti better then cream cheese
1 cup canned pumpkin pie filling
1 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
about, 1tsp cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice to taste (this step is a little vague, so i used 1 tsp of each, and i accidentally put some cloves in it too. but that worked well. but probably only because i used plain pumpkin instead of pie filling.)
1/4 tsp. baking soda
dash of salt
1 unbaked prepared graham cracker crust

- Purée all the ingredients in a food processor and pour into the graham cracker crust.
- Bake at 350F for 50 minutes. (the filling should be 'springy' when you press down on it lightly)
- Allow to cool fully, cover and refrigerate overnight before serving

here are the specific directions for the 3” cheesecakes.

i don't know what this size of cupcake paper is called, but they fit perfectly inside 6 oz ramekins. (i accidentally purchased 8 sleeves of 500 from an e-bay seller that advertized them as jumbo cupcake papers. now, they are jumbo cupcake papers. they hold the same amount of batter as the normal shaped jumbo cupcake papers, but they're too wide and shallow. i was afraid i wasted my money. until i realised they fit inside 6 oz ramekins. that was a happy day. i've been looking forward to an excuse to make a cheezcake, and the PPK's vegtoberfeast was the perfect excuse.)
well anyway, to finish my report, mcvitie's digestive biscuits fit perfectly inside those. and i discovered all this fittingness just by chance.

put the biscuit on the bottom, and fill with some of the filling (i used my #12 scoop/disher, and it made 15 cheezkakes from one batch of batter. i could have very easily stretched it to 16 cheezkakes if i needed to. especially if i was topping it with a fruity concoction. my disher was a little overflowing. if i would have leveled off the top, there would have definitely been enough for 16 cheezkakes. and then i could have completed the 12x12bakery box.) cook for 25-30 minutes (maybe 35 or even 40 would have been better? less sinkage?) let the ramekins and cheezkake cool a bit and then you can pick up the ramekin and turn it over to remove the cheezkake. i tried spoons but i ended up smushing my delicate cheezkake. ceramic ramekins seem to cool quicker than pyrex ones. i think i'll look around thrift stores and yard sales for more ramekins. that way i can have a second batch in the oven while i'm waiting for the first batch's ramekins to cool off. (we had gone to yard sales earlier in the day, and one woman said she had 8 that went very early and another had 12 that had been slowly trickling away and had none left by the time we got there. *harrumph* aah well. BB&B had them for 1.99 each. not an awful price, but i could have done much better with yard sales and thrift stores. i guess the early bird catches the worm. i did however get a nordicware "supremer ice creamer" for 2 bucks. i'll report on that at a later date.)

suthrncan's wedding cake

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 20:23:17 GMT

the rose bundt and the 10x10 inch square each took 2 batches of cupcake batter. in the oven for 50 minutes.

i should have taken the dough from the rose king cake to make the anniversary cake instead of taking it from the regular bundt. aah well.
i baked the rose for about 20 minutes with a corelle plate on top, and it made a nice flat surface. then i took it out and baked another 20 mins. (both cakes took 40 minutes in the oven. i forget how long the little cake was in. probably 40 minutes as well.)
and each cake took roughly one entire batch of kittee's king cake
http://pakupaku.info/sweets/kingcake.shtml

the 12 x 12 box fit 25 cupcakes perfectly.

the frosting was way too runny. :-( it might be the kind of powdered sugar i was using, or maybe i had too much earth balance in there or something. but the bride's daughter couldn't keep her fingers out of it, so at least it was tasty. :-) i also injected the cupcakes with the frosting from the bottom, and that worked really well. the design of the rose wasn't impaired by frosting on top, but it would have been missing something if it wasn't there.

i wanted the columns to have ivy on them. but they decided that they wanted to be shrubbery (and eventually groundcover) instead.

and kittee, i've said this before, i love the king cake. it's going to be my cinnamon roll base for ever and ever.

all in all, i definitely made too much cake, but it's always better to have too much than not enough. (12 batches of cupcake batter and 2 king cakes) i think the rundown is something like 3.5 lbs of earth balance, 1 gallon of soymilk, 2 things of tofutti kreamcheez, 14 cups of powdered sugar (4 lbs), 9 cups of sugar, 2 tbsp red food coloring, 3 tbsp of yeast, 8 tbsp vanilla extract, 2 boxes of mori-nu tofu and 26 cups of flour(just under 10 lbs).

cookies n cream ice cream

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 22:57:42 GMT

again, another adaptation of isa's vanilla ice cream, so no real recipe. but i will provide one of my observations.

here is the picture of the coconut cream i use. it has a less coconutty flavor than other coconut creams i've tried, and it has less water content, so it's much less icy, and nice and smooth when scooping out of the container. it's hard to find, so i purchased the 10 cans that i was able to find.

i froze about 10-14 oreos, took them out of the freezer and cut them into 1/4ths or 1/6ths. stuck them back in the freezer until the ice cream was just about as frozen as it can be, threw the cookies in the maker, let it go another minute or two, scoop into tupperware and let firm up before serving. incredible

p.s. you can get 4 batches of ice cream out of one can of the coconut cream

toona and dali

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 22:33:22 GMT

"toona" or "chickpea lentil nori mush"

1 can (1.5 cup) chickpeas
1 cup cooked lentils
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup vegenaise
1 - 1 1/2 tsp nori granules* (or more if you'd prefer)
1 tsp spike (or you can use a mixture of salt and nooch instead, but i like spike. very much.)
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp sesame seeds
2 celery stalks, chunked
1 small-med carrot, grated (i used my microplane. optional. i think i might like it better without.)
salt + pepper + vegenaise to taste

smash the chickpeas to smithereens with the oil, add the lentils and vegenaise and continue smashing. add the spices and seeds, mix through and add the celery and carrot and mix through again.

chill in the fridge, taste and add salt and pepper to taste. add vegenaise if it has become too dry.

* i used "sea seasonings" nori granules with ginger, but you can toast a sheet of nori and put it in the food processor instead. (and maybe add 1/8 tsp of ginger? it's got a barely recognizable ginger flavor)

servings. hmmm. it makes about 3 cups and each sandwich takes about 1/3 - 1/2 cup. (we had to eat open faced sandwiches because the bread was too hard, so we were able to eat about 2/3 cup total.)

so i'd say this makes 6 servings.

dali
the indian-mexican-ethiopian lovechild of a chili and a dal.

(i am so sorry, this is all estimation, i didn't think it'd be good enough to post while i was making it, but it turned out much better than i imagined. so here i am trying to remember what the hello i did.)
also, it wasn't very pretty, and all my pictures were blurry anyway.

1.5 cups dry lentils (cooked in a separate pot with a bunch of water til soft while getting the other stuff ready. appx 30 min.)
1 can of crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
1 can of chopped tomatoes (28 oz)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 red pepper chopped in large chunks
1 medium sweet onion chopped in large chunks
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp "chili powder"
1 tbsp berbere
2-3 tbsp "beef" broth powder
a few sprays of black pepper
onion powder, garlic powder, spike to taste (it was probably 1/2 tsp of onion and garlic and 1-2 tsp of the spike)
1/2 cup TVP
1-2 tsp pomegranite molasses (optional, but if you have it, use it)
(i also added 1/4 cup of ortega original taco sauce, cause i had it in there. it's also probably not neccesary. you could probably replace it with 1 tbsp of franks red hot sauce if you have it.)

(optional: i just had leftover tofu and niter kebbeh, and decided to use them here, it gives a really good flavor, but it's not needed in fact, i think next time i will replace all of the TVP with more of this tofu stuff. mmm.)
1 tbsp niter kebbeh
1 cup tofu frozen, thawed and broken into little pinky-nail sized pieces

(if using the tofu option, put it in a pan with the melted niter kebbeh. toss, and allow the tofu to absorb it, then put it over medium-low heat and allow to brown slowly.)
put the tomatoes in a large pot along with the onion and pepper. put lid on and let simmer. add spices, yeast and TVP. when lentils are done, strain (reserve some liquid for later) and add to the rest. if using the tofu, add it to the pot whenever it's browned. eventually, you might need to add a little bit of water or lentil broth to keep it from sticking. add the molasses and hot sauces near the end.

serve when you think it's done.

chickpea cutlets and samosa stuffed potatoes

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 16:25:56 GMT

both of these are so goooood! the cutlets are totally in permanent rotation in this house. that's how tasty they are. not to mention, they really don't take much time to throw together.

this version of the mango chutney was ruined by my incredibly pungent brand of asafoetida. :-( lovesprout would you want it? i think this is the kind i got. i don't think i'll ever use it. i went and bought the wholefoods brand and it doesn't smell nearly as awful. i'll make the mango chutney again in hopes that it's not just my personal dislike of asafoetida. it was really sour. bleh.