VeganMoFo: Meme Time

You know I don't do a lot of memes around here, but I don't have a ton of time this weekend (wedding to go to, etc). So here's a fun little vegan meme that I got from Jessy at happyveganface, who got it from Liz at Food Snobbery is My Hobbery.

1. name a song that involves food in some way.
I like to eat, eat, eat Apples and Bananas! (can you tell I have a 2 year old!?)

2. what criteria do you use when choosing a new cookbook to buy?
It has to have some goddamn photos. I’ve let perfectly good cookbooks fester because of bad layout, bad quality paper or no photos (Vegan Mediterranean Kitchen comes to mind – checked it out of the library and never used it because I couldn’t get beyond this issue).

I’ve been more interested in buying really great, test of time cookbooks to veganize lately (just checked out The Gift of Southern Cooking). If it’s a vegan cookbook, then there better be some major innovation or something specific I want to learn – like specific cuisines, etc.

3. what did you eat today?
Homemade biscuits and jam for breakfast, then Burgerville for lunch – this is what happens when we are with the In-Laws. We're going to scare up some good vegan yummies for dinner in portland before the wedding - probably at Proper Eats.

4. name a vegan food that you know exists but you have never tried.
I have soy curls in my cupboard that I’ve never used. I’ve also never tried cheezly or sheese.

5. the Food Network just called and needs you to start your new show tomorrow. what will the title of the show be?
Vegan Comforts – veganizing everything your grandma used to make! Yum.

6. favorite hot sauce or other spicy condiment?
I like anything with chipotle flavor, so Chipotle Tabasco or some kind of homemade chipotle mayo (YUM!)

7. how old were you when you became vegetarian/vegan?
I went vegetarian for the first time around age 13 or 14, then vegan for a while at age 17-19 (dorm living made vegan reallllly hard for me and no vegan friends made it harder). Back to veg for ages 19-27, fell off the veg wagon during pregnancy around month 4, back to veg 5 months post-partum, vegan again at 29, or February of 2008. I’ve been all over really. I am almost certain that were I to get pregnant again I could remain vegan. I just wasn’t finding the information I needed and my providers, though not unsupportive, were not particularly helpful either.

8. favorite vegan cheeze?
I’m still waiting to find a great commercial vegan cheese, they all just creep me out a little. Right now I’m in love with the VegNews cheesy sauce for their veganized mac and cheese.

9. cutest baby animal?
sea otters!


10. favorite type of jam/jelly/marmalade/preserves?
apricot

11. do you take any vitamins/supplements?
yeah, at the direction of my naturopath and some pretty detailed blood work I take 10,000 units of vitamin D a day (for 3 months, then down to 2-5,000/day), evening primrose oil (protects against breast cancer - my mom's had it twice), iron+B12 supplement, vegan DHA, and a vegan multiple.

12. what food/dish most embodies the Fall season?
Hot apple cider and vegan pumpkin donuts!

13. what food would you have a hard time living without?
I guess it would realllly suck to have nut allergies – I would hate to live without almond milk, peanut butter, cashew cheese, pine nut cream sauce, etc.

14. coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?
Ohgoodlord, give me coffee.

15. it's 10PM and you're starving. what do you eat?
Probably some organic but still not good for me commercial cookies like newman ginger-os or trader joe’s joe joes. Or there’s always the chocolate coconut ice cream calling my name…

16. if you have an animal companion, what is his/her favorite food?
no more kitty. But she loved the tuna. And human earwax. Go figure.

17. worst injury you've gotten in the kitchen?
probably a burn, but nothing really ever very serious.

18. when you have a food-related question, who do you call?
Depends on the question. If it’s vegan related, I usually go to the internets, either MDC Vegetarian and Vegan Living Forum or The PPK forums. I’m trained as a librarian, so I’m also all about doing the research myself.

19. summer is ending- what food will you miss most?
Raspberries! Tomatoes! God, it felt like here in the PNW we never really had that glut of tomatoes that I usually associate with summer. Blueberries, too.

20. what snacks do you keep in your purse/backpack/desk at work?
Larabars, fruit leather, Tofurkey Jerky, granola bars (these also double as Silas Snacks)

21. favorite soup to make on a rainy day?
I’m a big fan of mushroom barley, UnChicken Noodle, or Split Pea.

22. what's your favorite combination of fresh vegetable and/or fruit juices?
Carrot Ginger is always zingy!

23. favorite brand of root beer?
Hmmm, Thomas Kemper? I also love when brew pubs brew their own!

24. make you your own question: What’s your favorite vegan breakfast, whether you make it or not?
I LOOOOVE biscuits and gravy. I think I could eat vegan sausage gravy every dang day!

So, go on! MEME IT UP!

VEGANMOFO: Why Jessy Is My Hero!

So we're down in Portland visiting my parents (and for those of you in Portland, we're actually in a teeny tiny town called Warren, in between Scappoose and St. Helens on Hwy 30 - it's about 35 miles West of Portland, way past Sauvie Island). And I was hungry. And in this tiny outlying area of Portland there are still a few vegan options - a mexican place that does a pretty good job with the no cheese and lots of veggies, Burgerville, the best fast food in the nation, and well, that's about it. But we're figuring we're going to be eating out a lot over the next few days just because of the schedule (relative's wedding, random relatives, blah blah blah) so I wasn't inclined to go out for lunch and even declined the lure of the aforementioned delicious Burgerville.

So my parents are not vegetarians but my mom is good about trying to keep a pretty well stocked pantry for us, which is nice. So I started snooping around in there, trying to see what was on hand, what she had going in the land of vegetables (bag of lettuce, some onions, shallots, garlic, carrots, a stick of celery), scoped out the fake meat options, and finally decided that it was going to be a mexican fiesta.

Black Beans
+
Can of Ro-tel Mexican (lime and cilantro tomatoes)
+
Some Canned Green Chiles
+
Cooked Brown Rice
+
Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas (!!)
+
Cheesy Sauce from VegNews Mac and Cheese
=
WICKED AWESOME!!!


I recently wrote about the awesomeness that was the nooch-free, salty mashed-potato-like cheesy sauce from the VegNews mac and cheese recipe and I really really wanted that cheese, but not necessarily mac and cheese. So I started my brown rice cooking, and peeled and chopped my onion, carrot, shallot and potatoes for the cheesy goodness. Opened the cans of beans, rotel and chiles and dumped them in a frying pan to heat through. After blending up the cheesy sauce I moved onto the freakishly simple task of making my own galldanged homemade tortillas (!!). So. Freaking. Easy. And delicious!!!!

And Jessy told me how. Which is one of the reasons she is my hero. She is also my hero for making so many other things on her own that I would never try my hand at - such as these amazing potstickers! OMGWTFBBQ!!! Amazing. I want those potstickers, NOW!

But anyway, back to MY lunch - it was really freaking super fantastic. Lunch construction went:

Slather a fresh tortilla with cheesy sauce, spread on some brown rice, top with chili-bean-tomato mix, and dab on some more salty cheesy goodness.

Life would have been even more perfect with an avocado, but we were working with pantry supplies, so you know.

My mom was really impressed with the food (she's a good sport) and ate her whole tostada-like pile of food, while exclaiming, "This is so good! And I never eat this much for lunch!!!" Silas sat still long enough for like 4 bites, and Chad was a huuuuuge fan and even said that this combo might just replace his usual gruel-like go-to meal (which is too disgusting to even describe, but this is a huge concession on his part, so yay!).

We will definitely be making cheesy bean tortilla madness again so. And you should try it too. Go pantry challenge! And go Jessy for being an inspiration!!! superw00t!

VeganMoFo: Tempeh boring, Tempeh BLAM!

Talk about a weird progression.

So this afternoon I was all chicken-fried steak-y inspired by Jessy's comfort food spread from the other night. So I decided to fry up some tempeh (dredged in flour, dipoed in almond milk-cornstarch slurry, dipped in coating). I used the Jay-Lo's breading recipe from La Dolce Vegan, but added about 1/4 cup of panko. Then I fried it up in olive oil this afternoon and set it aside. I was dreaming of mashed potatoes and fried tempeh...then I tasted the tempeh. It was good, but NOT chicken-fried anything. It was kind of...well...bland. NOTE: this was NOT Jessy's tempeh recipe! I'm sure hers is superwickedawesome! I went out on a limb here and fell flat on my face.

What to do?!?

And then it hit me: PICCATA!!! Of course. If they made piccata-flavored lollipops, I would buy them. The Veganomicon recipe for piccata might just be worth the price of the book. It's salty and lemony and winey and savory and olive-y and OMGYUM. It was the perfect thing to save my drib drab tempeh.

All over fingerling potatoes we dug ourselves at the farm. Wicked fun! And I meant to make carrots but instead I found myself fending off a feral two-year-old from my olives - that kid could eat a whole jar of kalamatas in about 5 minutes if I let him. But I don't. Cause I want to eat them, too! I'm a really bad mom. Plus, he's still in diapers. I'll just leave you there.

More MoFo-in'

Curried Tofu Sandwiches on Homemade (!) Bread, Cheezy Gingered Apple Gratin and Coconut Chard



So I have been meaning to try the curried tofu from Vcon for a while now, so I did. I even pressed the dang tofu, which I often skip - I'm still not convinced it makes a difference with extra firm tofu, but whatevs. I baked that stuff up and threw it between some really good homemade Dave's Killer Bread, whipped up some curried mayo and slapped some lettuce on those bad boys for sammiches. YUM. The tofu was good, not my absolute fave tofu of all time, and another bummer - the little dude did not care for it at all. So it probably won't be making another appearance for a while, because little dude is usually a tofu hound.

The gratin did pretty well reheating, and was a nice combo of flavors with the curry. Chad and I both decided that it might be better next time if it were in some kind of pie shell, for added texture. But really, isn't everything better in pie shell? Right.

The chard was kind of a weird substitution for a spinach dish I make out of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian - it was ok. A little overcooked.

Overall - not my best effort. And the kitchen is still TRASHED. I should be washing dishes RIGHT NOW!!!!

About the Dave's Killer Bread - this was a pretty easy recipe, and it's great that it's 100% whole wheat. I think I might have yeast issues, because it didn't rise nearly as much as it did in the video - but then again, I don't have a stand mixer, so I subbed by food processor and a dough blade. I also don't have two loaf pans, so I have no idea why I made two loaves of bread at once. I was just following the recipe, I guess. Moral of the story: Halve the recipe next time, and get some new yeast, you cheapskate.

Although I have to admit that this is the next bread recipe I'm trying!

And finally, a question for you, dear reader: What the hell should I do with my head of napa cabbage that the CSA gave me? I'm pretty much a cabbage novice. Help a vegan out.

Last Night Photo Catch-Up

White Bean and Rosemary Soup

Skillet Cornbread

VeganMoFo: Weekend Roundup

A cooking class! Mac and Cheese! Gardening class! Such weekend!

Hot Sauce Glazed Tempeh, Take Two

This time I used something labled "hot sauce." Much deliciousness ensued, much less hotness than last time. Still a weensy bit hot for the toddler, but I LOVED it. The moral of the story is to never substitute any ingredients in Veganomicon. Ever.

Grilled corn on the cob was awesome, again.

Cooking Class: Southern Vegan Comfort

So I took this class at our local co-op natural food store, PCC. It was awesome! This was only the second (vegan) cooking class I've ever been to, but I just love them. It wasn't like I'd never made biscuits or vegan sausage gravy or collards before - I had, and I love them. But it's just so great to learn from other cooks. Because I don't get a chance to cook with a lot of people. My mom, my husband, occasionally a grandmother maybe. But you really can learn a lot by just cooking with other people, and in this case, we were watching an actual chef who had a lot of experience, both vegetarian/vegan and omni. Little tips I picked up that were new to me:

• In the summer when you have bunches of fresh herbs, save the bunch of stems and use it as a pastry brush to baste stuff on the grill or to get oil into a pan. Yummy herby goodness!
• Save woody stems from thyme or other herbs in a ziploc in the freezer for stock
• Our instructor also saves scraps from onions, carrots and celery together in a freezer bag, and in a separate bag she saves mushroom stems. Because sometimes she wants all-around veggie stock, but sometimes she just wants a mushroom stock
• A touch of blackstrap molasses can take collards from good to OMGWOW!
• Thinly slicing garlic instead of mincing can provide a delicious shake-up to meals and gives more of a surface are to get that delicious bite to garlic in your mouth

One of the best things I came away with from this class was the idea of NOTHING GOING TO WASTE in her kitchen. She really did save everything for another use. She also talked about how she likes to make big batches of food but hates leftovers - and I can so relate. So in her case, she transforms them into something different everytime. So a big batch of collards will get eaten in soups or stews, or thrown in wraps, etc.

Another great thing I came away with from this class? Confidence. I have a tendency to over-rely on recipes, and sometimes you just don't have a recipe for making over the leftovers in your fridge. That's where creativity - and some confidence - come into play. And I put them to play the next morning!

Leftovers + Biscuits = Biscuits and Gravy!

So here we have some leftover hot-sauce glazed tempeh crumbled up and fried in some EVOO, then some rustic white beans with mushrooms thrown in there, and some leftover mushroom gravy from a few nights ago. I thinned it out with a little almond milk and added some fennel for that sausage-y flavor. And you know what? It was freaking awesome. Seriously, some of the best vegan sausage gravy I've ever had. Over really freaking fantastic biscuits (used Yellow Rose Recipes for that one).

VegNews Mac and Cheese: OMGYUM!

So The PPK boards had been all a-chatter a while ago about this recipe, and I LOVE me some mac and cheese, so I had to give it a whirl. Verdict: AWESOME. I can't believe I finally found a nooch-free mac and cheese!!! (I like nooch and all, but come on. Not every single time). The combo of cashews, lemon juice and the cooked veggies was amazing. I tasted it pre-baked and after baking, and I have to say that Chad and I both really liked it better pre-baking. The breadcrumbs were a little much and somehow there was a weird fishy aftertaste post-baking. But I will most certainly be making this recipe again, soon. I might cook just a bit more pasta, because it was pretty saucy pre-baked - maybe bump it up from 8 oz to 10 oz. If you love mac and cheese, try this recipe!!!

Oh you wanted to take a picture of that? Uhhh....

The reason I don't have a pic of the mac and cheese in the baking dish. Thanks, dear.

Rustic White Bean Soup with Rosemary + Southern Lovin' Cornbread

So some more leftovers were magically transformed into something new and delectable last night for dinner after gardening class (which is so awesome! I heart Seattle Tilth!) So I took the remaining Rustic White Beans and Mushrooms, threw it in a pot and put it on low while I cooked me up some fantastic southern style cornbread (veganized the Sour Milk Cornbread recipe from The Gift of Southern Cooking). I used a mix of white cornmeal and yellow (I LOVE real southern style - read: NOT SWEETENED - cornbread, and they tend to be made with white cornmeal). It was sooooooo good! And had so few ingredients. I need to get some more white cornmeal because I want to eat it everyday.

So back to the beans - I pureed them with my immersion blender, added some fresh chopped rosemary and a splash or two of lemon juice and then when it was served I drizzled some olive oil in each bowl. It was SOOOOO GOOOOOD!!! Sorry no pic, I can't find my camera cord and I'm not making too much noise looking for it cuz the dude is sleeping. Thank dog.

VEGANMoFo: Iron Chef Challenge!

What the heck is that up there? Well I'll tell you. In a minute. (Ha! I'm so like crappy network news!)

So fellow vegan blogger Katie (aka mrsbadmouth) from Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk came up with the brilliant idea of doing an Iron Chef-style challenge for this weekend. Read about in detail here. But anyway, she picked 2 ingredients that we have to cook with this weekend and post our results (by Sunday noon). No prizes, just good ol' blogger glory.

What are the two ingredients? I'll tell you - right now!

Apples and Ginger! What an awesome autumn choice, right?

So of course like 9 gabillion sweet ideas come to mind: muffins, scones, pancakes, pies, whathaveyou. But I was like No Way, Man! I'm going against the grain, cuz I'm a Vegan and that's how we ROLL!! So what did I make?

Cheezy Apple Gratin with Gingered Cream Sauce

Yep. So here's what's in this thang:

• 1 lb(ish) of apples - I think I used 5-6 medium sized (that we picked ourselves at Fall City Farm!)
• 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs (mine were mixed with some EB - leftover from Mac and Cheese topping)
• 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts
• 11/2 C plain soymilk creamer
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 - 1 inch of grated ginger (mine was frozen)
• s&p
• 1 C of Swiss Melty Cheez from The Uncheese Cookbook (or your own fave cheezy sauce)

What I did:

Preheat the oven to 375F. Put the soymilk creamer and almond milk in a saucepan over lowish heat. With a microplane or very small-holed grater, grate the ginger straight into the pan, stir and fagettaboutit.

Core and slice your apples (peel if you want, but seriously who wants to peel?!). Mine were medium-thin slices, I was kind of in a hurry.

Combine your breadcrumbs and walnuts in a small bowl. In a casserole dish (I used enamled cast iron) layer about half the apples, sprinkle with salt and pepper, follow with half the nut-crumb mixture, the rest of the apples, s&p, and the rest of the nut-crumb mix. Finally, pour the warmed ginger cream over the whole shebang (it should cover the apples about 3/4 of the way up the dish).

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until very soft. About 10-20 minutes before it's done, remove the dish and pour on (or sprinkle on you grated) cheesy sauce. Return to oven for remaining 10-20 minutes, or at least until the cheesy sauce is bubbling and has baked in.

Commentary 'Bout It
At first I wasn't planning on the cheezy sauce. Then I tasted the gratin 10 minutes before it was done and I was like, "Hm...this tastes like an apple crisp that got all mixed together." And I really wanted savory! What to do?!? Cheesy sauce, of course. And it really made the difference!

The first taste is POW! Noochy cheese. Followed by sweet, mellow, soft apples. Than finished up with POW! Garlicky-onion nooch cheese. It's a pretty good combination of tastes. I think it would be great on the side of any dinner plate, especially chickpea cutlets or oooh! curry baked tofu.

I think I would grate more ginger in next time, just for fun. So increase if you want!

For full disclosure's sake, I got the idea for this gratin from my main man Mark Bittman, in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Because I love it. I whisper sweet nothings in its invisible ears.

VEGANMOFO: Day 3

Rustic White Beans and Mushrooms
from Veganomicon


Was wicked. We picked up a TON of 1 lb bags of local beans when we went on Farm Tour 2.0 last weekend and I thought it was a great time to break out the white beans for some beans and mushrooms and Vcon. And since there was no hot sauce called for in the dish, I felt it would be a relatively humiliation-free dish. Yay!

We used up our whole share of CSA Mushrooms for the week on the dish, and it was a worthy use indeed. We really loved the huge hunks of veggies throughout the dish, carrot in particular. I think next time I would double or even triple the amount of carrots, just we are really big cooked carrot dorks. So soft and orange and delicious! This made a TON of food, which is nice for lunches and whatnot. I think I may reheat the leftovers with the sage breadcrumbs from the pumpkin ziti recipe for lunch tomorrow.

We had these beans over very last minute "Oh crap what should we eat with these beans?" couscous cooked in veggie broth. Oh and some lemony broiled green beans, because seriously, we like to load up on all types of beans possible. And salad with sesame dressing from Vcon, which was also really good and easy to make.


Apple Caramel Peanut Butter Bars
From Veganomicon (name of dessert approximate, I am beyond lazy)

Ok I realize this looks like your dog had a potty emergency all over something in a 9x13 pan. I'm not sure why my peanut butter caramel came out so gloppy (and I even added more maple syrup to make it more liquid) but it sure tastes good anyway!

Here's the profile view, kind of weird, I know. Layers of graham cracker crust, apples, crumb topping and peanut butter caramel! YUMMMMM!

Check back tomorrow for a review of a vegan cooking class that I just took on Southern Vegan Comfort Foods! Woo-hoo!

Eggplant Parmesan Supremo

Welcome back to day 2 of VEGANMOFO!

So we had this eggplant and I was all "maybe I'll just make ratatouille" and then I was like "But that doesn't have pine nut cream and I WANT IT." So, eggplant parmesan it was. And boy did it FREAKING ROCK!

Eggplant Paremsan Supremo
aka, Eggplant Farmesan (according to Silas)
Here's what I did:

1 Medium eggplant*, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 Breading recipe from Everyday Dish's seitan cutlets - but you'll need a LOT of panko, just an FYI (1-2 cups, maybe?)
Some Mushroom Marinara(my recipe below)
1 batch of Pine Nut Cream (from Vcon)

Lobster Mushroom Marinara:
1-2 T olive oil
1/2 medium onion*, chopped fine
1 crazy freaking lobster mushroom,* thinly sliced (This was from our Mushroom CSA - replace with whatever mushroom you want, about 1 cup thinly sliced)

1 28 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 tsp garlic powder (OMG I was out of fresh garlic! Half of an entire bulb was moldy, and I had already shopped. Rawr).
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2-1 tsp salt
pinch sugar
1 glug (2-4 T) red wine*

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sautee until translucent. Add the mushroom (if you're using the lobster mushroom - start to freak out how much like seafood it smells as it cooks! Seriously!) Sautee until soft.

Take your immersion blender to the opened can of tomatoes and puree. Alternatively, throw it in the blender or food processor until smooth. Add the onion-mushroom mixture, tomatoes and everything else to a saucepan and heat through. Taste, adjust the seasonings.

Fry up the eggplant over medium heat until brown and crispy on both sides. Put one layer of eggplant down in a 9x13 dish. Cover with Marinara. Carefully spoon on and spread out the pine nut cream (we had a little leftover, but more will definitely not hurt!). Bake at 350F for 30-45 minutes, or until the pine nut cream looks set and starts to form little cracks, like this:

We served this alongside some brown rice linguine. It was so good! Silas, the vegan toddler wonder, couldn't get enough. Let's just say that between the three of us, it is now completely gone, between dinner and today's lunch. Yeah, like that.

* = local organic

Amaranth Porridge = Notsomuch, thx.

So I checked out Lorna Sass's Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way from the library and was flipping through it last night. First of all the book totally rocks, it has cooking info and instructions for all those obscure grains you want to try at the health food stores (kamut, millet, funky colored rices, wheat berries, groats, etc). It has substituting instructions and she's all about having you cook extra to freeze so you have some wicked fast recipes on your hands for later.

But back to amaranth. So I was reading about how it's like quinoa, in that it has the complete amino acid chain and is a good source of protein, blah blah blah. I also just saw a gorgeous amaranth plant at my garndening class last weekend, so I was reinspired to give it a go. We had some on hand, and I'm not even sure I had ever tried it. So I soaked it overnight and cooked it up for breakfast this morning.

Erg. I'm not usually a texture-phobe, but I just couldn't get into this one. No matter how much agave, cinnamon or coconut oil I added, the runny texture just creeped my gullet out. It reminded me of that glop they have to eat on The Matrix, you know the one I'm talking about? The whole tastee-wheat-chicken conversation? Right, like that. Silas inspired me to try to just drink it like a soup, and that almost caused some hurling on my part.

So I don't think we'll be having that again. Which is too bad, because Chad and Silas both kind of liked it. I'm going to have to try a savory recipe for amaranth; I'm determined to like it, kind of like how I feel about beets (how can they be so pretty and yet taste so much like dirt?!). I'm willing to give it another go. Stay tuned for the Amaranth Chronicles.

VEGANMOFO! It's here!

That's right, I've been having anxiety nightmares about this day, and here it is despite it all! It's VEGANMOFO, the VEGAN MOnth of FOod, where I swear on my firstborn that I will post at least 5 times a week in an attempt to share some more of the vegan food love. I'm excited! I'm scared! Help/Squee!

I'm not really sure what you can expect from me. Maybe some talk about why I am vegan. Maybe about how I first went vegan at 17. Maybe some food writing review. Maybe some stuff about this awesome gardening class I'm taking, which of course relates to the awesome food I will grow to eat. Maybe some restaurant reviews. Maybe about being a vegan mom to a mostly vegan toddler. But definitely a lot of food. That much I know.

I'm going to ease into this by just talking a little bit about what we've been eating lately. This week over at The Post Punk Kitchen Forums, the cookbook challenge is to utilize Veganomicon. The idea is to focus on new-t0-you recipes, which can be hard for me because that book has so many tried and true faves! So we're splitting the difference here.

Hot-Glazed Tempeh
This was a new to me recipe. First of all, I'm an idiot, let's just get that right out there. We don't keep hot sauce in the house - we just don't. For one thing, we have like 5 kinds of hot things that I typically sub for hot sauce, like chiptole tabasco, chili-garlic sambal, pickapeppa sauce, siracha, chipotle in adobo and a variety of hot spices. Second, I was kind of under the impression that hot sauce was less like ketchup (which always tastes pretty much the same no matter what kind you buy) and a lot more like snowflakes - each one is it's own flava/experience. Apparently, this is not so. After reviewing that this recipe was really hot (and we love the spice) - keeping in mind I DID NOT USE HOT SAUCE, but rather a combo of the tabasco, sambal and pickapeppa - I got about 10 comments on the boards that it's not hot at all you idiot, use real hot sauce (including one from Isa herself! I am forever shamed!). So, now I know. Use something that comes out of a bottle labled "hot sauce," you asshole.

So? So. My bastardization of this recipe yielded supa-spicy tempeh, but I have since begun the mending of my ways and have indeed purchased a bottle of "hot sauce" which I am now to understand isn't at all hot, it's just a clever name. Do I have that right? Good. I will be retrying this recipe sometime soon, as it appears to be a fave of the folks on the PPK boards, and I love a good tempeh recipe. Sheesh. I feel like I just came out of confession.


As an aside, we served this wicked hot tempeh with some really freaking awesome grilled corn on the cob and a green salad with leftover tahini garlic dressing (from VWaV). I lubed the corn up with some olive oil and sprinkled on some chili powder pre-grilling, and then after it came off added just a bit of earth balance and a sprinkle of sumac - YUM! Silas, the 2-year-old, was an especially huge fan of the corn, which I don't think he had ever had in cob form before. Now we know. Handles = fun food for toddlers. Duh.

Chickpea Cutlets, Mushroom Gravy and Rutabega Puree

So we are longtime fans of the chickpea cutlets. I love anything salty and savory and chewy and filled with dense protein-substances. I love how quick they come together. And I love the baking option, which requires very little of my attention.

The Mushroom Gravy was good - I think I would add a little more saltiness next time, because my broth powder (Bill's Chick'nish) is very low in salty flavor. I used a bunch of mystery mushrooms from our Mushroom CSA (how wicked is a mushroom csa? very!), I think they might have been baby shiitakes, but seriously, not sure. It came out great, I would definitely make this again. Who doesn't love gravy?!?

The Rutabaga Puree - ok. It was fine. I don't know, it was a little...rutabaga-y. Duh. I guess the thing is, it looks a lot like mashed potatoes, which are like one of my top 5 favorite foods, but they don't taste like mashed potatoes and the mouth feel is different. And with that cutlet and gravy, I guess my palette was kind of like "give me the mashers, you freaking idiot!" and instead I provided a completely non-sequitor, thai-inspired rutabaga puree. Another operator error. I might try it again if I get another rutabaga in my CSA box, but I can't see seeking out another rutabaga just to make this. But it's really fine, and seriously, anything with coconut milk automatically gets 5 extra points. As you can see, I added the cilantro.

Oh and those green beans in the background? Those are the Lemony-Broiled Green Beans from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. Practically instant and delicious, yay!

Ok, off to prepare the eggplant for some parmesan tonight. I think we're going to use some fabulous pine-nut creme to top that off with, yay! Until tomorrow then.

The Week of Eat, Drink and Be Vegan!

So last time I posted about how I was participating in ThePPK forum's cookbook challenge of the week, which was to show some love to Dreena Burton's Eat, Drink and Be Vegan! Well, I can honestly say that it was a week of awesome eats!


Pumpkin-Cheese Pie

Well, let's start off with dessert, shall we? Yes, let's shall. Pumpkin cheese pie was a huge success. The only caveat being that I couldn't find a premade graham cracker crust, so I decided to be all DIY and make one from graham crackers. I looooosely followed the recipe in The Joy of Vegan Baking but I think my ratios were off, because the crust was reallllllly crumbly and crumb-like - it just basically fell apart upon slicing. Next time I'll either use a tried and true recipe for graham cracker crust (measuring my ingredients, what a pain!) or buy a pre-made regular old pie crust. Those I can find. But the filling was super delicious and wicked easy to make!

Blackened Tofu, Potato Smashers and Sauteed Spinach

Ooooh, love love love! Yay for Blackened tofu! So super easy and tasty. It was a hit all around. The Potato Smashers were super delicious and easy too, a nice change from just roasted in olive oil (and I'm guessing considerably lower in fat). The spinach was actually a curried coconut-milk creamed spinach from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Super big thumbs up to that! It's basically just some garlic and a few dried chilis sauteed briefly in peanut oil, then the spinach is added along with about 1 cup of coconut milk and a teaspoon (or more or less) of curry powder. Fabulous!

Autumn Roasted Squash Rings with Enchilada Tofu and Rice
Just the Squash recipe is from ED&BV, and it was AWESOME! Pretty easy (once you get the squash peeled - dang!) I used a local delicata squash, which I think is my favorite squash of all time. The recipe utilizes lemon juice and rosemary, not things I usually associate with winter squash - but it was delicious!!

The enchilada tofu is my fave recipe from Tofu Cookery and the rice was just some leftover mixed rice pilaf reheated with a little tomato paste. The tofu was delicious as always, but the rice - not all that inspired, really. You can't win every time I guess.

Teriyaki Quinoa, Pan-Fried Tempt-eh, and Sauteed Wild Mushrooms
Teriyaki Quinoa = awesome, easy and FAST! This is probably my favorite quinoa recipe of all time. It somehow manages to cover that weird bitter quinoa taste I shy away from. Perfect in every way!
The tempt-eh was also super awesome! Chad was a huge fan, and he's usually not all super excited about the tempeh (I on the other hand would eat it every damn day). It had a great texture and was free of tempeh bitterness that I think Chad shies away from. Woo-hoo!

How can you not love sauteed mushrooms?!? Olive oil, garlic, wine, a little soy sauce...seriously, is this not food of the gods? We have a mushroom CSA, so we are always so excited to see what kind of crazy mushrooms we have the privilege to try this week. :)

Rice and Beans with Two Tomatillo Salsas, Guac and Salad
We had like 4 lbs of tomatillos to deal with, so it was salsa time! I made one raw salsa and one cooked version, and a quick guac over leftover rice and beans. The cooked salsa definitely wins this contest. Raw tomatillos kind of squeege me out.

I'm getting so nervous for VEGANMOFO!!!! I need to sketch out a bunch of posts so that I don't fall ridiculously behind. I'm scared!

Also this week, ThePPK forums are featuring Veganomicon as the cookbook of the week to use, so stay tuned for some new-to-me awesomeness from the vegan bible!

Roasting Vegetables and Some Savory Lentils

Last week as I was having that panic stricken moment of "OMG there are too many vegetables in my fridge what do I do, let's just go out to eat instead." I talked myself off of that ledge with the foolproof idea of just throwing them all in a pan with olive oil and salt, roasting them at 400F for about an hour or so, and reaping the deliciousness afterward.

This incarnation of OMGVeggies includes:
Cauliflower*
Yellow Onion*
Sungold Cherry Tomatoes*
Golden Beets*
Carrots*
Mushrooms*
Chives*
Garlic*
Cubed Herb Tofu**
Olive Oil
Smoked Paprika
Salt and Pepper

I also made some roasted yukon gold potatoes*** with rosemary* and garlic* and some Garlicky Kale (Farmers Market) with Tahini Dressing (from VWaV). Yum! The cherry tomatoes burst during the roasting and mixed with the olive oil for this sweet tomato-y fantasticness. All of the veggies turn into golden love nibbles. Seriously, I'm not really a huge fan of beets or cauliflower, but roasted like this, everything just tastes luscious and juicy. Mmmm.

This week I'm participating in a "Giving Our Cookbooks Some Use" challenge over at The PPK Forums - this week the cookbook in question is Eat, Drink and Be Vegan by Dreena Burton. I have this cookbook, and I've made several recipes, but I love a challenge and I don't use this book as much as I should. So I'm challenging myself to make:

• Lemon-broiled green beans
• Blackened Tofu
• Savory French Lentils
• Roasted Winter Squash Rings
• Pan-Fried Temp-teh
• Teriyaki Quinoa
• Pumpkin Cheese Pie

Seems kind of psychotic, but I have all this stuff in the house already, so it's just a matter of making the time.


I started off the week right by making the Savory French (Puy) Lentils and Lemon Broiled Green Beans last night. YUM! Both were super easy and very tasty, and I would recommend them to all. I will definitley be making both again. I freaking love lentils, don't you? They're just so dang good.

To round out the meal I made a (huge) batch of this rice mix I bought at Trader Joe's - I think it has red, wild and brown rices mixed together, and I cooked it with some garlic powder, oregano, evoo and salt, so it had some flava on it's own. It went great with the lentils. I also made some quick pickles with our gabillion cucumbers and some radishes, red wine vinegar, sugar and salt. The rest are actually pickling in the fridge in jars, woo-hoo! Oh and we had an arugula salad topped with sungold cherry tomatoes and some of the tahini dressing leftover from the kale the other night. It was like a feast, I tell ya! I love fall, so many good things to eat.

* = CSA, Organic!
** = NW/Local Product
*** = Picked it ourselves! Organic.

We went apple and potato picking this past weekend, and also picked up some winter squash. I'm feeling a combo soup coming on...stay tuned.

Mini Meatloaves, Wicked Good

So tonight we had Vegan Dad's Best Ever Vegan Mini-Meatloaf. It's pretty much the best ever, it's no lie. I don't know why this time, though, the bottoms of the loaves were burnt to a crisp! Luckily the burny part peeled off pretty easily, but strange. I think my oven racks are all whacked out and that the rack was too close to the heating element. That's what I'm going with anyway.

We also had some delicious Smoky Kale & Chard (Vcon Collard recipe; both were local!) and some fabulous mashed taters that We! Picked! At! The! Farm! this past weekend. So fun!

I just realized that all the major parts of this meal were local - even the tempeh is a NW product. Yay!

I also just want to give myself a green pat on the back for two things.

1. Silas and I rode the bus to Pike Place Market today. I love the bus! Every time we ride it, I'm put in a good mood. It's so mellow to be able to just sit back and relax, look out the window and be right next to Silas instead of feeling so far away in the car. Yay public transportation! And we purchased local produce at the market to boot (kale, blueberries). We saw fun musicians and danced. A great outing.

2. I remembered to bring containers to the store today for bulk!!!! Yay! I've been meaning to do this and kept forgetting. But today I brought plastic and glass containers for my bulk dishwasher detergent, oatmeal and peanut butter. Super stoked to remember.

Photos galore

I am so hopelessly behind on the blog, that I've decided to just do an uber-photo post. So here it is: what we've been eating at home the past month or so.


Vcon's Seitan Picatta!
So freaking delicious. I actually used the seitan recipe from Yellow Rose Recipes, which might just be my favorite. But mmm, what's not to love about lemony-white-winey-capers-and-olive sauce?! OMG, I want it every day. Served over a bed of mashed taters.

Down Home Summer Supper

This meal was actually kind of disappointing. No matter what I do to BBQ tofu, it's just always bland. And it's not the BBQ sauce, because this was awesome (jarred, but we LOVE it). I even froze the tofu first this time, but still, just not very BBQ-y. Anyway, also featured is smoky-garlicky kale (Vcon collards recipe) and a tomato cobbler - kind of a flop. Wedged tomatoes topped with a cornmeal-biscuit type cobbler crust. Just no there there. At least the kale was great!


BBQ Pizza

Kind of another flop! The crust was frozen, from our natural foods co-op. Not sure why, just wasn't lovin' it. Too wheat-y. The other problem is that I made the sauce in the crockpot, but when I was ready for pizza the sauce hadn't reduced enough and was too watery*. This made for very dry, wheat-y pizza. Topped with sauteed mushrooms, patty-pan squash and basil.

*Just wanted to note that after cooking in the crockpot all night with the lid off, the sauce was reduced and perfect! We froze almost four quarts of sauce. Yay, local food for winter!

Tofu Tostadas
This we made so long ago that I'm a little sketchy on the details. But I think it was the enchilada tofu from Louise Hagler's Tofu Cookery (best! tofu! ever!) on a corn tortilla with some sauteed garlic, mushrooms and squash, topped with chopped butter lettuce and guac. YUM!

Lentil Pancakes of Joy!
This was a hit! Have you ever made lentil pancakes? No, me either. But it's easy! This recipe was from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, one of my faves. It's brown lentils soaked for a while then food processed with some other spices (and water) to pancake consistency. The ultimate glory of this meal was the FABULOUS pear onion chutney that our friends and former neighbors, Rick and Mary, gifted to us on our way out of town. It is SO GOOD I want to eat it on everything. We're currently rationing it. I need to get the recipe and then finally conquer my fear of actually canning something! Oh, and those are some steamed roma beans on the side. YUM.

Ratatouille + Pesto = Bliss
Ratatouille is the answer when you have so many vegetables in your fridge that you would rather go out to eat than deal with them all. It's easy - just slice, toss with copious amounts of olive oil, garlic and salt and roast for an hour and a half or so, stirring every half hour. Pesto on top is seriously the bomb, but it's not strictly necessary. This incarnation we had over brown rice pasta.

More ratatatouille, this time on it's own with a salad. It's versatile, in my opinion.


Olive Oil Veggie PastaThis was a stovetop pasta aglio olio, with sprouted whole wheat noodles. Nothing fancy, just veggies, evoo, garlic and some Parma!

Curried Tofu and Nuts Over Noodles
This was AWESOME! From Tofu Cookery, one of my new favorites! It's reignited my love of the 'fu. I've sort of been a tempeh girl, but this book may just change all that. I'm loving the previously frozen tofu lately, it's just so chewy and fabulous! The tofu is marinated in a combo of peanut butter, agave nectar, curry powder, soy sauce and some other good stuff and served over noodles with almonds and in this case, broccoli. So GOOD!

Blueberry Plum Crisp
With plums from our backyard tree. Delicious! Incidentally, our plum tree didn't produce nearly as much as I thought it would. I think it's missed several years of good pruning and doesn't get enough sun. We were just happy we got any at all! :)


TLCCT
That's tempeh bacon, letuce, cashew cheese and tomato for y'all who didn't know. Some rice pilaf and carrot sticks on the side.

The Ubiquitous CSA Stir Fry
With tofu. Need I really say more?

Chili Mac
Courtesy of Susan V. I liked this recipe, but I wanted it to be something more...not sure what. More pungeant, more intense, something. It was good and saucy, but kind of forgettable. I didn't want to eat the leftovers, ykwim?

Polenta Pancakes
From Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. These were just ok. Polenta (preprepared) sliced, dipped in cinnamon and sugar and fried up quick. Eh. Just not enough something. Just ok. I prefer the regular pancake. Oh, and that's an apricot up there on the plate. For, you know, garnish. :/

Chickpea cutlets?
I swear I can't remember what this is. I think it's chickpea cutlets, not sure. With Good Gravy from Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. Oh, and sungold cherry tomatoes. ;)

Dal over Indian Spiced Potatoes and Cauliflower

This I know, because we ate it tonight. :) The Dal recipe was from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison - it was good, but I like my dal a little spicier. This one did utilize coconut cream, though, and how can you go wrong with that?! We had it over Indian Spiced Potatoes and Cauliflower, a recipe from The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook by Robin Robertson. Realllllly good. I was a little freaked, because I can count on one hand how many times I've cooked cauliflower, but this was delicious. The cauliflower kind of mushed into the potatoes and you almost didn't know it was there. I used the potatoes we dug ourselves (!!!) at the farm this past weekend - it was so fun. If you get a chance to pick your own potatoes (especially with a toddler) - do it. It's just fun. You get to use a pitchfork!

Ok, y'all. I've signed up for VEGANMOFO, which starts Oct. 1. I'm dedicating to blog every freaking weekday for the month of October. I'm nervous. I really hope I can do it! Wish me luck!

I'm Famous!

photo by heisler, via flickr

Ha ha, just kidding. But I was interviewed recently for local radio when I took a (free!) canning class in town. It was a great class! Took the fear and uncertainty out of the process for me.

Check out my freaking awesome 10 seconds right here. Oh, and I'm Chessa Hickox, in case you were wondering. ;)

I swear to dog I have like 5 gabillion food photos and meals to post. It's just been so _____ around here lately. I promise to be back soon with mucho fabulous food posts.