Kamutflake Girl

KG is moving!

2010-02-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone - just a quick announcement, that - just as in real life - I'm moving!

I'm over at Wordpress now, at http://kamutflakegirl.wordpress.com , hope to see you there. :)

(and as soon as I can figure out how to redirect RSS feeds, hopefully you won't have to do that manually, either)

cornmeal cooking

2010-02-21T08:19:00.000-08:00

Ah, remember the hearts? (now why can I never seem to keep from smiling at the thought of little cookie cutters?)

I made them to adorn a roasted eggplant & chestnut bisque (with blood orange and mint), but the trick is that I made them spicy! It's pretty simple to do, and I learned a new method for making polenta thanks to Mark Bittman - instead of boiling the water and then adding the cornmeal, you first whisk the cold water with the grain so there's no lumps at all. Granted, I've never had huge lump problems with polenta, but I do think this was easier. It even accommodated my using a hand mixer attachment instead of a real whisk because, uh.... it was closer! It's SO almost the same thing.

Spicy Ras-el-Hanout Polenta Croutons

1 cup coarse cornmeal

3 cups water

1 tsp salt

2 tsp Ras el Hanout spice

1 tbsp olive oil

- In a medium saucepan, whisk together the cornmeal, salt, spices and water completely. Then, jack up the heat to boil and as soon as it does boil, reduce the heat to a very low bubble and stir every minute or so until the grain is completely cooked through and the porridge is thick. It'll be about 12-15 minutes.

- Then, whisk in the oil and spread the polenta on a baking sheet lined with greased plastic wrap and refridgerate for at least 2 hours to firm everything up.

- When it's firm - cut it up! Cookie cutterized, or into little crouton-cubes, either way.

- Heat a heavy skillet over medium high heat and coat the bottom in olive oil. Fry them up, about 5 minutes a side, until they're nicely browned and slightly firm when you poke them. Top onto salads or soups or just snack on them, they're really nice.

Mmmm, speaking of cornmeal and how utterly delicious it is, I made some mini fluffy cornbreads from the Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. I've had this book since I was a little girl, or at least my mother always kept it's dry-bound oft-used pages up on the bookshelf for as long as I can remember. Granted it's chock full of dairy and eggs, but what is viable for a vegan is really lovely, and the cornbread is no exception.

I replaced the egg with some flaxseed and added chopped thai chili and diced red onions, and they came out just barely sweet and nutty tasting! This isn't a big-ol sopping up chili with a hunk of hefty corncake kinda cornbread, but light and refined kind of puff of mais-muffin that' got a crisp crust and is pretty low fat too. Almost alarmingly charming. ^.^

200th post -- KG cookzine vers. 1, heart-shapes, unicorns and brownies

2010-02-20T12:52:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Midget Cake with Tiny Ganache (pg. 24)

Happy birthday to KG! It's a 200th poststravaganza of um... well...

... that I finally made that cookzine! Actually, a while back, I made this in the space of one week, entirely handwritten (legibly) and full of the same recipes I've used since high school to absolutely perfect results, plus some extra new concoctions and no shortage of adorable drawings of FOODS all over thar place! I'm gonna put it up on my Etsy sometime tonight, so if you want a copy, it'll be real easy.

There's some from the blog, and some new inventions, as well as some from my friends. Some are veganized versions of comfort food I grew up with (Coconut Peanut Noodles - although growing up we had it on oh-so N. American tri-coloured rotini). There's the Raw Rosewater Cheesecake in all it's dreamy creamy glory! My sister added in this amazing Quinoa Salad that relies on copious, copious amount of poppyseeds, and it totally transcends anything I thought it could be.

Hi Satchmo. =^-^=

(maybe next zine I'll make-a-up some kitty treats? Catnip nori bites?)

I could also totally get behind a totally-soup zine. But anyway, the ones in here are good.

Oh yeah! Speaking of soup, I made a whole million of polenta croutons in twee shapes for a soup yesterday!

But that's next post. :D

Like a ghost cookie from the land that posting forgot, K IS BACK!

2010-02-17T14:41:00.000-08:00

*crunch munch crisp lunch.... *

A-so... it appears.....

Pomme's homestyle totally awesome-for-you date-sweetened rice-flour cocoa-banana-kamut crispies, just TRY and eat just one, it's impossible

Hiatus finito! K is back on the keyboard! And in the meantime, some things have, of course, changed.

I moved, finally, back in with my best soul-mate P (or Pomme, for those who remember), which has been a wonderful and learning and growing experience like it always is. I always think it's the path of challenge that is the one worth taking, and the challenge of love is really no arduous thing, especially when it means I can come home and breathe a sigh of relief for being around people who, perhaps more than most, understand me. It's no small treasure, and I count my lucky stars daily.

It also means that I'm privy to her baking skills again, and since her cookies, bars, scones, and cakes are so different from mine I really really pounce on them. It's funny how one's own cooking can never surprise and so is somehow less enticing. She's all about the whole-grain, natural sugars, low-gluten and high-end organic ingredients, always done without a recipe and always tasting very massive and wholesome in the best possible way. Think... deep cocoa and heavy vanilla use, too. Anyway, it's been nice to trade off baking again, and though neither of us are very rich right now and have been rationing sugar and oil with a careful eye, it hasn't taken much to feel rich in other respects. Like getting valuable practice filling the table with a peasant's panache - the kind that gets one to make homemade momo dumplings for a special chinese dinner without spending more than enough to get a set of sparklers. (... because you need sparklers ! )

On that note - we're looking into starting a small personal chef endeavour. It's a lot simpler than I realized at first, and fate (among other things - um, the recommendation of countless friends) has steered my excitement in this direction nonstop for the past week or so. I'll update with any progress on that, of course, and in the meantime, there is finally access to a camera in the house! With any luck, P herself may even start posting some of her own food thoughts, and there may be her own or a joint recipe blog coming up in the future.

And with that - happy camera having! And happy reading week to all y'all in university (my heart and blurry textbook-ridden eyes are totally, totally with you). Namaste. ~_~

Hiatus, or "How I learned to miss the vegan universe"

2009-11-17T20:34:00.000-08:00

It's been forever, huh.

I have to admit that I was testing my reaction to not blogging for a while. After losing the camera of course my zest/zingawow kinda faded, one can only do so much with a webcam when every casserole looks about the same as your sock pile. And you do never know how much you love something until you lose it, right? So I intentionally lost it (the blog), or intentionally got lost. Whichever way... but it's not right, something's been missing and I miss all of you. Where else can I get so irretrievably excited over how a zucchini curl twists like it's come from a painting, and where else can I gnash and skip over what everyone's been deep frying or dipping in chocolate or turning from trash to ten-star cuisine?

I've even been questioning my muffin skills. For shame. They're as fabulous as ever, and a number of cakes have gone by, like a towering raspberry maple ice sculpture and a straight up "vanilla with gobs of chocolate frosting and sprinkles" that made me sooooo happy to floof together I can't even tell you. I even put a cookzine together last week (in the space of a week), for a zine fair last weekend, and it's got most of my best recipes in there. A lot of mostly cute things, but also the rosewater cheesecake and my sister's opium test-failing Quinoa Poppyseed Salad of unexpected addictiveness. As soon as I get a camera I'll have it on my Etsy...

Which brings me to the camera issue, and the reason for a hiatus and not an immediate return. It's pretty simple, it's been officially deemed life-affirming enough for me to drop 150$ on a new one, but I'll have to wait til I go home for christmas to use some fortunately stashed gift certificates to a mall in Ottawa. So until then, I miss you, I miss this, I'm glad I got to at least go crazy for the Veganmofo, I'm SO disappointed that I won't be able to take a picture of my next cake which is a carrot cake actually shaped like the birthday boy with a little 3d head poking out, hahaha.

So I leave you with this video, which is amusing anyway for having plenty of Data in it, but also 2:27 seconds in you'll see the kinda cake I'll be going for. Yes it's creepy! But that's why it's worth doing. ^_^b

VeMoFo#29: Picking Pecks of Pink Papples

2009-10-29T15:15:00.000-07:00

There's a texture and a difference to an apple who's home you've seen. Who's home you've even twisted it off from, that is to say - an apple plucked and fallen into your own basket! I worked at an orchard out in Ormstown (about an hour out of montreal) at the end of August this summer, just for a few days, but enough time to sufficiently drink in enough of the heavy silence and dusky richness in the air, completely devoid of cell phone crackle, car exhaust, cable hum and well... the city in general.

double stem

I took a certain liking to these pink ones especially. They're not even eating apples, normally, but used for wine, and they grew all clustered like burnished billiard balls exactly even in size and ridiculously easy to pick, plus fuschia seeds. The other main kinds we picked were Jersey Macintosh and Jona Golds (crisp as ice!!)

I only just ate the last of these a few days ago... yay for hardy fruit

We also stayed in a trailer!! So exciting, I love small spaces, and living as MacGuyver-y as possible. We rotated every precious dish, washed with a teensy cloth (no soap or running water), ate out of tahini jars, and everything was sumptuous to eat because A: we were exhausted, B: communal food obviously tastes best, C: half of it came wild from the land!

Dinner on our last night was a chickpea & wakame & brown rice pilaf, curried coconut vegetable stew, green beans & wild dandelion greens picked just outside, and a stovetop apple pie made with our own apples, on a strawberry granola crust! Oh, and topped with wild blackberries, and sweetened with dates luckily left over from snacking, of course.

Can I even tell you how overjoyed I was to "bake" in the wilderness?

Zoop's Zon!

I also saw the most amazing tree, curled in and over itself like a snake or a spirit! I have 4 or 5 pictures of this creature, and in each one it looks entirely different, and exquisite.

It was in a very long and flat expanse of shale (weak sedimentary river rock) that ran with a shallow crystal brook for kilometres and kilometres up, full of tiny fishes, some fossils, seaweed that looked like mermaid hair, and when you jumped up and down on certain parts of the rock it kind of shattered just a little bit, like jumping on ice in November. And everything was copper-coloured.

yeah, you can pay me to do this...

VeMoFo#26: Happy black&white camper

2009-10-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Guess what came in the mail todaaaaayyyyy!

Thusly, a half hour later, my very own, first ever NYC black and whites, with extra lime zest, making me feel better about having no vegan bakery in this city. Something to remedy someday, but for to-day... I couldn't be happier! I'd seriously run out of cookie recipes in the books I had already, which you might believe at the rate that I make them, and that was stumping me all over the place.

I'm thinking PB blondies and Irish Whiskey Cremes next. Somebody hide the sugar from me!

Super Closeup Time ::: one of my favourite buttons, it says Fruit Spirit, kawaii kawaii. :O

VeMoFo#16: Pixie scones

2009-10-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

These are the best scones in existence. Or they were, at least, while they still existed. Seriously, mega delicate fairy eats, full of spices and almond, not sweet but buttery. I used strawberries and plums and lemon juice instead of blackberries and orange and it was perfection, Emilie is a total genius with this kind of stuff, which I hardly need to say, but it's true.

I curled up with them listening to Joanna Newsom on vinyl. My roommate is so smart, she set up her record player behind the fridge, so we can listen to crackling guitars and also 80's everything while we work! I like nestling myself against the oven waiting for the timer to go off, and now it's even better cause I can sing along to Bowie.

That's her making pizza. I love this photo. :)

VeMoFo#15: Plate painting

2009-10-15T07:19:00.000-07:00

I cook to plate you know. It can't be that surprising or secret. If I didn't have a blog I would still plate, but I certainly wouldn't be grating up beets for no reason other than to burst crimson next to my jalapeno corn gravy and thus discover yet one more thing that tastes surprising and experimental next to eachother, expanding my culinary horizons in just one more left field direction, hurray!

Anyway, it's fairly easy.... and I'm no expert or teacher, but some things I've noticed are...

* Put the most attractive food in the front, or the most substantial food in the middle. Spiral outwards from that in any direction that makes sense to your eye. Or build a fort. Or write your name.

* Big White Plates! Or at least keep an eye on complimentary colours. Blue is usually an unappetizing no-no for dishes.

* Heavy sauces are best on top of food, while thin sauces are better underneath. Then again, break that rule, too.

* Garnish sparingly, and only with stuff that tastes good, of course. Of course.

* Get inspired by your favourite abstract art, or any art at all.

* Mix up the textures, too! And keep things clean - if things spill, wipe it up with a damp cloth all pro-like. Oh, and nuking things in the microwave tends to bubble over like a cauldron of mess-messy-mess, so you might want to transfer your reheated black bean soup to a new posh bowl after it's long-awaited (6 minutes?!) warmup.

* If you're serving lots of people, I'm not really one for plating in that case, BUT it's definitely nice, and I'll go as far as to say mandatory to have multiple bowls of kaleidoscopic garnishes and sprinklins for the adding at the table. [toasted seeds, pomegranate arils, fresh herbs, salsas, extra sauces, ground up nuts, fake parm, sliced fruit, sprouts, chutneys, plastic figurines, rainbow sprinkles, avocado, olives, fancy salts, etc, etc.... ]. Guests will be flabbergasted and amused, and later if you break out the fingerpaints they won't be side-winded by the progression.

Some excellent tips about regular plates, and trays, too.

Startcooking.com recommends being odd.

So does CHOW, but they're both talking about numbers. ;)

VeMoFo#14: Maple > Vegetables

2009-10-14T12:52:00.000-07:00

Moving along, and making banana nut waffles a la Vcon, with no berries, but no one's ever complained about excess banana around here, nor a waffle method that involves a nicely greased grill pan and some patience (and low standards for crispiness). This is pre-waffle iron era, which HAS been christened with Apple-waffs + raspberries + maple soy cream since, but that's a topic to be addressed under the next photo.

No, not an Applewaff here, but the mango-pear pandowdy which is all KINDS of amazing. I'm going out on a limb here and saying it might be the best pie I've ever made, or at the very least it's in the top 5. Which wouldn't be complete at all without a big swodge of maple Natur-a Soy Glace Dessert -- my new obsession. I've been swirling it into coffee for an occasional treat, eating it on raisin-toast, waffles, certainly on pie, where it melts into that lovely fruity cinnamon cornstarch goo we all make pie for, or at least I know I do.

<------ this stuff! Probably only available in Canada, but if you find it, grab it. The strawberry flavour of the same brand is passable, but this stuff is brilliant! It's not a super decadent thing, and the soy flavour is there, but I'm kinda old-school like that, I guess, and it's cheap and not crazy fattening, which are admittedly minor priorities if I'm being honest and everything. A+ to my taste!

VeMoFo#13: Muffin ESP

2009-10-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

Do you see the riotous waft of steam 'ploding off of the succulence?

Veganomicon: Mediterranean Style Lima Beans

Ahhhh, finally! I'd had a container of giant limas in my pantry that my sister gave me for christmas from - oh, I dunno - years ago, waiting for this recipe specifically, so at last and hurray to myself for making it. Perfectly delicious! Like grandma never made, but I always wanted my kitchen to smell like she did it just like this.

Shyly not mentioned is soft braised carrots and tofu... I've been a braising queen this fall

Also, before I forget, there was some crazy synchronicity happening in the blog-air when I made these muffins! I mentally bookmarked and triple-underlined these miso pumpkin muffins when I saw them on the Just Bento site (another of my favourite internet places) and only just got around to making them - BUT - what did I discover but that another Mofo-er Cuny Queen had the exact same idea on that exact night. Amazing!

Verdict? Texture is a bit gummy but the flavour makes me want to dance like this kid.

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VeMoFo#12: How to Improve your Chocolate Skillz

2009-10-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

My single origin Republica del Cacao bars (freaking buttery-floral-complex and fantastic, btw), came with a little slip of paper detailing how to taste chocolate like a pro, all tips that I immediately sat down with a zen-like determination to follow through to the exact letter*

(as written).....

Appearance: Observe its colour, remember that colour is not equal to dark chocolate flavor. Observe its glow, bloom, an ashy coating on the surface, is due to changes in the crystal structure of fat. This coating is easily removed by wiping it.

Aroma: Break a small piece of chocolate with one hand [eds note: whaaat? that's hard!], rub the sample with your fingertip and with your other hand cup the sample over your mouth and nose, then smell the surrounding air space. Take a few short breaths to allow sufficient residence time of the volatiles in the nasal cavity where sensory receptors are located. To clear residuals or fatigue, take in neutral air.

Taste: Break a small piece of chocolate with your front teeth (feel its texture). Allow the sample to sit on your tongue and let it melt as flavours develop and merge. You will taste the flavours as the chocolate sample melts down. Note the evolution of flavour upon impact, notice flavours that increase or diminish. "End of mouth": a lingering flavour in your mouth after swallowing indicating wether the chocolate has a long or short ending.

Touch: Does it cool or warm your mouth as it melts? Rub the melting sample against your palate to feels its smoothness. Does the melted sample have body; Does it leave an oily feeling?

Listen: A clear and dry "snap" sound means the chocolate has been through a correct and careful process.

- Notes on Tasting, Adapted from "The Chocolatier" Chloe Doutre-Roussel

* instructions that I followed to the exact letter up until the point came to type them all out - at which time I added a whole bunch of letter U's to all the misspelled occurrences of "color". (grin grin)

VeMoFo#11: Gold Nuggets

2009-10-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

This is one of those I can't beLIEVE I didn't write down what was inside these, mostly because I want to share it, not because I can't probably make them again because I can, but they won't be exactly the same and gosh knows I can't recall the exact spices but I think there was cloves in there kind of dishes. Yummy little nubbins!

Probably...

+ leftover rice

+ tahini

+ tamari

+ chopped apricots

+ ground almonds

+ ras el hanout

+ tomato paste

+ bread crumbs to roll in

but beyond that I haven't a clue, oh well. The sauce they're sitting in is required, too, in this imaginary recipe, but thankfully is probably just your favourite blended roasted yellow pepper sauce with a lot of cracked toasted coriander added into it.

VeMoFo#10: Selling Out

2009-10-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

I had a bake sale a few weeks back, for no charity other than myself, which is good, because I made what I spent on flour back, plus a little bit and not more. But if I do feel so inclined to do it again, I might, because things sold, and it was kind of fun to sit out there reading bad science fiction and selling chocolate chip cookies on a sunday montreal morn, gettin' friendly with the neighbours and some raving repeat customers, even. ^.^

I mades.... (real simple menu)

* chocolate chip cookies

* banana bread

* brownies

* crunchy PB cookies

* sparkled ginger cookies

* VAMPIRE CUPCAKES

I also sold all of my movies to a dental hygienist for $10 dollars, which made us both pretty happy.

(I am the queen of aimless career plans right now, can you tell? *grin*)

VeMoFo#9: Winter pie + sauerkrautrock

2009-10-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

Veganomicon entry # who knows!

Astonishing pie, you guys! It needed twice the sauerkraut maybe, but earthy-licious concoction, all told. Which one? The Kasha Phyllo pie! Aside which I braised some rapini in a thin version of the mustard sauce, which was strong, but good.

And for practically no reason other than it's insanely amusing, a deep fried maple leaf, as per Japanese fall custom, from one of my favourite blogs. Oh Canada and all that fried jazz.

VeMoFo#8: I'm not cheating! I'm eating! Soba!

2009-10-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

146 recipes down, only 104 left to go...

Yes I'm still on this Veganomicon quest, why do you ask?

Of course I started before that Julie & Julia movie. Way before!

(psst, the Curried Udon Stir Fry is mouth-crack, couldn't believe it took me that long to make it)

(pssssst, of course this post was posted on the 8th. Why... do you ask? ^_^;)

VeMoFo#7: Jujubes

2009-10-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

Really really really short post today. (One can only ignore essays for so long).

I bought some fresh jujube dates yesterday. Not like the little shrivelly things that come in the medicinal chinese soup packets (which are awesome, but different), no... more like crisp quince/apple-texture and date-flavour. With a little olive-stone inside. PLUS, resemblance to dinosaur eggs! Neat.

That's all.

Oh, except that I bought more nut butter. mmmmmmmmmmmmm nuttery buttery. It's gonna be spice cake icing for this weekend, Thanksgiving.

VeMoFo#6: Pirateships with grease inside! Vancouver nostalgia massive.

2009-10-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

It's funny how cardboard folded to look like a pirate ship can make an ordinary grilled sandwich turn into a crazy adventure of proportions large enough to convince any red-blooded child that a bit of cajoling to go the White Spot restaurant is a good idea.

This place is not vegan. We're in memory lane right now.

See, they had this ship, right? It had little holes for a drink and an ice cream, and your burger and fries came in the hold. Perhaps most importantly - your straw was the freaking masthead! Shiver me timbers, that's amazing. When you're a kid.

They called it a Pirate Pak and I obviously took it home a few times to play with, the same way I kept those little plastic swords that came with the fruit salad when we went out to chinese buffet restaurants with the odd jello desserts and the deep-fried everything. They changed up the design of this thing a few times. I remember running across it a few years ago with a sheet of stickers included so you could add characters and windows on top. !

See the bliss? The feeling of specialhood? I'm completely serious here, those fries were absolutely epicly delicious, because they came in a boat.

So here's my thought... I know some of you are in B.C., and have a White Spot nearby. I'm not advocating you buy anything there, but if anyone wants to go on a Mischievous Mission™ to obtain just the ship itself and then send it to me, I will fill it with my own, painstakingly authentic vegan version of the classic Pirate Pak meal.

New Vegan Menu:

~ Burger with secret O Sauce and cheese

~ Deep-fried french fries

~ a soft drink (organic root beer!)

~ soft serve vanilla ice cream

and I almost forgot --

~ a chocolate gold dubloon !

(I will also obviously send back your way a special east coast/montreal specialty, if you can think of something specific, or I'll just send something cool ;)

VeMoFo#5: An ode to picnics

2009-10-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

I like to watch the old men slow motion martial art with eachother.

I like big hunks of juicy hacked-at tropical fruit packed in a dish.

I like lemonade with a twist of lime.

A blanket that was once my curtain that was once my door, origins: a mystery!

2 new library books on esoteric art, published at the turn of the century, full of poetry.

Fall leaves clicking down, yellow and brown.

Lima beans! Cooked in silky mediterranean sauce, and parsley-pesto stuffed heirloom tomatoes, with couscous inside and olives.

Kids splashing in fountains, parents in varying degrees of patience and exasperation, couples on benches, Hasidic Jewish families, hipsters, dogs, bikers, more leaves, breezes on warm-tingle-just-now-needing-gloves temperature settings.

Soundtrack to supper!

So much better than my own kitchen. ;)

~~ How to have a Romantic Picnic ~~

(don't mind the first 15 seconds of ads - afterwards it's quite funny!)

Also, also! I bought my first Maranatha peanut butter.... it's just like Skippy! Nobody told me that, haha. Well, it's like Skippy if it was organic and luscious and silky, which it isn't, but this stuff is. Aaaaaaand a Mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodle, which I burnt, but will still probably eat because I love the taste of char (really) and with a 1/2 tsp of cayenne in these, HOOOO they were designed to be my favourites. They're not wimpy! Go go go make them! Pretty faboo.

Also, I got my first bike since I was fifteen years old! This is actually related, because it means I can have way more picnics, and way way further out in the city than ever before.

I call her Moony because there's a little moon-shaped tear in the seat. !

Her soundtrack goes to this, but with "moony" instead of "money"

VeMoFo#4: The entire contents of my candy box in silent presentation

2009-10-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

VeMoFo#3: Tragedy strikes the picture-taker

2009-10-03T11:26:00.001-07:00

Second day of the Mofo, I'm at the Botanical Gardens here in Montreal for the Lantern Festival, taking pictures of the big pavilion in the Chinese garden transformed into a temple of tofu (they had displays everywhere, and soybean plants, and yuba and a girl playing the Erhu, it was great). Upon getting home though........ absence. BIG AWFUL GAP WHERE MY CAMERA SHOULD BE. I think I even know when I lost it and that means somewhere in a field. And it was raining. This is so lame, second day of VeganMoFo, too....

I have a good number of backed up photos so I have a few posts worth of attractive things to show. But for the sake of bringing home the tragedy (*sniff*), here's my lunch, as seen through the crystalline and gorgeous eye of the macbook camera. Okay, that's sarcasm. Actually, it still looks pretty good, but that's because I can still smell it. I was mashing up cuisines and put the sweet potato & pear Vcon tzimmes with the chinese-ish sesame spinach soup from Martha Rose Shulman's Vegetarian Table book (with tahini instead of whole sesames). Ringing in fall! I loved it.

....

Ehhhnnnn who am I kidding, I'm gonna go buy a new one this afternoon. *forehead smack*

VeMoFo#2: What actually happens when I say I'll "eat out"...

2009-10-02T01:03:00.000-07:00

Step 1: get distracted by one big surreal display of plastic crepes. Can I eat them? Oh absolutely not... but they sure are shiny. It totally appeals on that japanese-restaurant-display level. Incidentally I was with someone named "the Crepe" at the time... !

Some flavours are normal. Banana Tiramisu, Mango Royale, Mango Supreme, okay, I get that.

Spicy Beef Rolitos and Cheeseburger though... I dunno man... I guess it's good there are no animal products in there, ultimately. And I seriously want to know who crafts these things, can you imagine that job?

Then I went to a deli and ordered a boiled potato. (delicious!)

This city needs a 2 AM vegan reuben like nobody's business....

VeMoFo#1: legomen and faulty wiring has EVERYTHING to do with food, probably

2009-10-01T00:40:00.000-07:00

It's here, it's here, its finally here! I should have been there at the crack of midnight to herald in the spooky awesome best-month-ever, Octember! I mean, October! Yes!

There was a blackout a few days ago, and the only thing running was some moody candles and yeah, enough dwindling battery power for me to sort through my old food photos. Which isn't so terribly important to mention I guess, except for how perfectly it sums up my feelings about the mofo! Blog to the end! Wow, I'm really into this this year. I don't even have time!! But I feel like having fun, I guess. Tell some stories. Stretch my abilities a bit, maybe even go out for dinner or try vegan cheese, actually photograph some of my favourite veggie haunts, make an instructional post, make some food art, etc, it's all good.

Oh yeah, and after a photo like that I just have to use the alterna-Mofo-banner, letting one's inner freak fly..

Maybe I'll have a movie themed dinner!

Or finish this post with a picture of lego vikings as a really really incredibly roundabout way of celebrating the fact that THERE IS NOW A WAFFLE IRON IN THE HOUSE!

is good times ya ?

Orange food! Marigold, amber, sunset, mango, emberblush, citrus, tigerstripe, glow!

2009-09-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

Oh, I am so procrastinating right now. And isn't that *totally* the best time to blog, when it feels like a sneaky indulgent privilege to be able to write about all this stuff? Hurray! Southeast asian art, Foucault, and russian neoromantics be damned, all of them (at least for the time it takes me to write this, and then it's back to dandelion tea and the books. which isn't so bad, nah....)

I didn't plan the colour scheme at all, but there it is. Orange is a lovely colour to eat, cheery and usually sweet. I may have mentioned the acquisition of my very first copy of Vegetarian Times in a past post - well, I made more than donuts. The edamame and sweet potato collard wraps jumped WAY out at me when I saw them, basically 'cause I don't think I'd ever put those ingredients together in quite that way before. There's even firm-soft tofu in here, and the only spice is cayenne. In the end... they were good. I enjoyed them a lot. There was something odd about the texture I wondered about, but I think I was just getting used to edamame, which are way richer than frozen peas. (I was an edamame virgin before this recipe you see - another reason to try them out!). Ultimately I recommend it, although I liked the filling best of all over crunchy romaine leaves for added texture. It froze really well, too.

Then I saw Smitten Kitchen's recent cornbread salad and deeply swooned over the concept of it all. I think I saw it early in the afternoon and was eating it a few hours later for dinner, I was so jazzed about the thought. So amazing this was!! The tangy dressing soaks into some of the cornbread bites to make UbertasterBomsOfWow, and the rest stay crunchy and toasty and awesomely contrasty.

Can we pause a moment to lament the atrocious photograph that I took of this salad?

** moment of silence , snicker snicker **

delicious though.

I am a bit of urban harvester. Just a bit, just here and there. Kind of like Benjamin Bunny, and I spotted a green tomato peaking out from a trendy bar's front garden one Friday night while I was walking home and slightly drunk and I didn't figure it so bad to pop it off and dream of frying it up for dinner. I see it as being a natural part of the city's ecology, you know. And I plant things around. Anyway, I fried it southern style and it was delicious! Tangy and juicy and zestier than a red one. Really good with egg salad beside it, too (ppk recipe, of course. probably with extra mustard, if I was being myself that day).

Also from the Isa salad files, a very loose translation of the Prospect Park potato salad from the Vcon. Loose, as in I had about 10 baby red potatoes and no desire to do any specific divisions of a recipe, so I just looked at the ingredients list and threw all of those things into the same bowl until it tasted good. It tasted good!

These tasted okay. I mean, the chocolate filling was the most intensely luscious sticky fudge sauce in the whole world and I was scraping it out of the pot like crazy to get the last smidge - THAT was amazing. The cookies were only mehn, though. Not so surprisingly, since they're just really fatty shortbreads that I didn't veganize well enough I guess, but anyway - Gale Gand's Orange Sandwich Cookies from Butter Sugar Flour Eggs if anyone's curious. (Make that filling sauce, omg.). And they sure are pretty looking.

And I tried to recreate one of the super hippy chunky crunchy veggie restaurant style cookie recipes. You know the ones that are full of flax oil and/or spelt chunks and/or seeds and yet somehow are just incredible? I kind of succeeded, kind of... okay, not really. But I learned a lot about baking soda versus powder, and I have the beginnings of a fantastic sesame seed crust in my freezer right now... ha. If anyone knows of a recipe that makes a big crunchy, browned around the edges cookie that tastes like a cross between a sesame snap and and oatmeal chocolate chip, do DO let me know. I'll send Peppermint Ritter Sports, I promise. :P

Liz cookified, plus family feasting (Greek, Brunch)

2009-09-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, check it out - ancient cookbook envelopes! You know the kind of cookbook that has the index with the illustrated alfalfa leaf and the recipes for brown rice pudding with apricot and kale and buckwheat egg-mash? Yeah, the kind that wouldn't suffer much from being folded into something beautiful and useful, I think.

I've been really into making envelopes the past day or two, it's pretty easy - just take an envelope you like, unfold it flat, trace the outline onto another paper and glue it up the same way - brilliant! I'm going to use these for my Etsy orders from now on.

Hmm, yes, speaking of crafts, I may have mentioned an art show I had a table at last weekend? It went pretty well for a first time at active capitalism - I made 5$ (after table cost), got some buttons, met great people, and probably most importantly of all - got A LOT of insider information on how to make laser cutters, business cards, japanese sculpture-cards, postcards, felted fabric, etc. That and............ a custom cookie portrait on a vegan cookie no less! Yumm-me! haha. The woman next to me was also friends with Jae Steele and we went on about Get it Ripe and co-ops for a while and I got to try her awesome spelted blueberry muffins and banana-chocolate breads!

Yum, corn salad! I have no idea what made this one so special, but it's what I brought for lunch with me to the sale. I remember it was very acidic, with fresh dill, mayonnaise, perfect tomatoes, a bit of sugar (shhh don't tell), cayenne, cumin maybe?... whatever, it was creamy and really good when the ubiquitous wasps weren't attracted by the sweet smell of it.

I also brought these, and I can't even tell you how much of a wasp-attractor they were, but omg were they worth it in every way. Donuts! Like I hadn't tasted in years! The chocolate-y ones I was especially pining for, and Lolo's donuts (via Vegetarian Times) are just the texture and richness I remember. So fudgey, so so so very good. The apple ones had about 3 different dimensions of apple in them, too, spicy and perfect for fall!

It was good to have a box like this to pass around to fellow crafters when the rain started coming down.

smile and the cashew cucumber dip will smile with you ;)

In other news, my mom and brother came up for a few days last week, and we had a really lovely time, during which it became obvious to me where I learned to sup and savour food like a real hedonist. My family gets it!

I'd had some cabbage rolls stuffed with cinnamon-tomato-lemon-millet left over from a previous lunch, so I decided to expand on that Greek-style and with my bro's help it was really fast and easy. We ended up with the tomato & zucchini tofu fritters from Veganomicon, with the accompanying cashew cucumber dip, as well as some lime-broiled green beans, some artichokes, and olives. We briefly bemoaned the lack of good thick greek pita to eat with all this, but then remembered there was a bottle of Riesling to be had (a good dry German one, haha) and anyway, that's all *I* needed.

Hi mom! This is my second favourite park, but my #1 choice for picnics.

In the morning with a sleepy brother! I couldn't really leave well enough alone when he said he wanted oatmeal. If he really wanted oatmeal I would have made some afterwards, but I was so geared for brunch. (I didn't hear any complaints in the end). Just enough food for three people, it was Isa's basic fluffy pancakes, potato & sausage fry, steamed broccoli with cheesy sauce, and um... because I'm me, a firecracker-hot thai cucumber salad that I ended up just eating myself. I'm probably weird (no, I'm definitely weird), but I think eating a whole thai chili along with breakfast is a pretty good idea. Kinda like coffee, but more burninating.

Yummmmmm. Those pancakes are so perfect. Need I say more?

Oh, okay, just one more thing. A quick bottomless apple pie made with the crust from Fran Costigan's More Great Good Desserts. Amazing! It's made with frozen oil and it's the flakiest darned thing I've ever managed to top a pie with! Really easy, too, and stood up to my adaptations (mostly spelt flour, some whiskey added). Makes me think I might master pies someday. I'm still no expert, but this one was getting close... the apples were just kissed with 5-spice powder, ooh. We drizzled it with coconut cream and it was very good.

My sister, meanwhile, is at Burning Man. :O

Vegan Vanilla Waffle Cones, finally in my belly

2009-08-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

It's a thing of beauty, isn't it? The "ice cream" is not the central player here, it is just frozen creamed banana with some almond butter. No, no, the best part is the homemade waffle cone bowl. Yes! Homemade and still warm and about as thick as a crepe and snapping off into big crunchy pieces I could dip in the cold banana, dripping with bits of chocolate cherry sauce and toasted flaky almonds.... I love dinners like this (dinner indeed) and whatever inspires me to make them.

I'm trying to remember what inspired me to make this....

Oh right! It was watching Hubert Keller make a waffle cone something-or-other on Top Chef Masters (I think it was Keller, don't quote me on that). And the fact that every time I pass an ice cream shop I basically just stop and drool at the buttery cone smell. Thankfully Gale Gand had a recipe that's essentially vegan, so I whipped it up with a kind of MacGuyver-esque method of squishing the batter between a liberally lubed-up saucepan and a frypan. 'Cause I don't have a waffle iron (yet).

Check it out! Method of champions! Ha ha, well, its an interesting progression nonetheless. The first one was floppy-doppy, not hard or thin enough at all. The second was after I broke out the second pan for squishing, and it was much better, much more crisp. Things just improved down the line... none of them were quite as thin as I'd like (I might make a slightly thinner batter next time), and they were lacking the little waffle pattern that I bet contributes to a high shatter-factor, but they were otherwise the real deal!

Leading ultimately to this glorious bowl of sweet sweet goo............ gone in 5 minutes, probably. :)

I'd like to try the others with a real ice cream, though, and I have a few cups of slightly-sweetened coconut milk in my freezer waiting for just a purpose such as this... does anyone have a favourite recipe? It doesn't necessarily have to be coconut flavoured, but coconut-rum would be pretty cool.

Vegan Vanilla Waffle Cones

(adapted from Gale Gand)

1 cup heavy soy cream

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

1 tbsp cornstarch

oil for the iron

In a bowl, briskly whip together the cream with the vanilla. Sift together the dry ingredients, then add them to the wet and stir just to mix smooth the biggest lumps. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.

Heat up a waffle cone iron (I don't know! Maybe waffle irons come with attachments!) and brush with a little oil. Pour in some batter and close to lid to bake and brown. Open the iron and remove the browned batter and shape it while it's still warm. You can wrap it around a cone shape to make a classic cone, fold it over a ramekin to make a deep bowl, turn it into a taco - whatever possibility you like, as long as you're fast and use oven mitts to protect your hands from burning!

Let them cool, devour with ice cream.

Eating the last of the perfume'd tomatoes, and other summer habits

2009-08-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Mmm... it's one of those mornings I grab a sweater and a coffee and just start working on stuff, in this case blogging. To me that's so evocative of autumn, which has begun to be noticed in the air. I'm supposed to be selling postcards at an outdoor craft show/sidewalk sale today and the sky is a dark dark grey, with a snappy chill and a risk of rain... So I'm enjoying the indoor lamplight while I can, and getting the most out of every second I can hang out in my plushy pajama pants. (pajama pants being the best invention ever, probably).

It seems appropriate to blog about the last of the summer meals, in this case. Cold refreshing food I might not be as interested in in just a few days... zarusoba being an iconic example. Despite owning a package of soba noodles the size of my head, I only just recently made up the appropriate dipping sauce to go with it so I could eat it summer style, cold with nori shavings on top. If it's still warm where you are, I recommend it so much! And I insist that you slurp it, sucking up air in a perfect satisfying hoover as you eat, because it really does improve the flavour about 50% - I think it has to do with almost smelling it as you eat.

Perfect technique, so demure, and yet loads of delicious delicious air in every bite! Now I kinda want fat soft udon, yumm......

This is a vegetable curry Pomme and I made using a lot of inspiration from this book, a seafood curry to be exact. So it was a mix of turmeric, basil, mint, cayenne, paprika, pepper and lemon, which I thought was really novel (and very delicious). Eaten with wheat berries for carbohydrates (defrosted from the freezer because you can do that), and a cucumber salad I made with chunks of ruby red cactus pear. The seeds of cactus pears are hard like little BBs, but the melon taste and beautiful colour is worth it, like a poor man's watermelon maybe.

Of those occasional small-batch cookies I make sometimes after meal, these mint chocolate brownie bites were knee-meltingly good!! I wish I'd written things down, but there's ground almonds in there, plus vanilla, mint, pockets of chocolate chips, and the texture was like 2-bite brownies, amazing. Biting into them was a world-stopping experience, which probably means I added enough cocoa powder to the mix. ;P

Sometimes hash, just straight up hash is perfect. Smoky sausages, in season tomatoes, little baby basil leaves, and enough salt and pepper to tie it together = wish I had more sausages so I could make this for lunch right now!

Finally, I'd had a tomato tart on the brain all summer. Every week went by and I wondered when I would do it, if I would remember, if all the ambrosial blushing tomatoes would disappear from the markets en masse before I got the chance to make that pie. But I did remember! Luck would have it that I came upon a huge package of gorgeous organic tomatoes for a steal, and I hopped on the chance to bake them oh-so briefly in hardly more than their own juices.

I used a cornmeal pizza crust recipe from here, replaced most of the cornmeal with masa harina, spread the bottom with grainy mustard, thyme leaves, and drizzled it with olive oil before baking.

And while I folded up the edges to make it more like a tart, I quickly found out that hand-to-mouth was the ideal method of eating this - it was a pizza at heart, and a robust and juicy one, too. I still can't think of any way I'd rather eat tomatoes right now!

Oh right! That wasn't the last thing, this is ^ Celine's peanut butter granola! oooooooooooh!

I replaced the PB with a Peanut-hazelnut blend, used hazelnut oil instead of canola, and left out the chocolate and it's absolutely fantastic. I hardly need to rave about how it melts away on the tongue and is just kissed with sweet and is full of toasty flax and is easy to make... because most of you have made this I'm sure, or at least if you haven't you should and you can have a batch of oven-fresh granola in less time than it takes to run out and buy some.

Kind of makes me wish I had some milk or yogurt around ever, but a jar of this in the fridge will disappear from nibbling fingers soon enough anyway, I assure you. ;)

Next post: an adventure in ninja-vegan waffle cones!

Urban gardening for the extremely lazy...

2009-08-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

I found a growing kernel of corn peeking up from the moldy dishcloth that holds my drying rack in place. A perfectly healthy and strong shoot hiding out just behind the glasses and bowls... I seriously thought I'd just dropped a scallion back there and for a few days I didn't look twice at it. A scallion! Even though last time I checked scallions didn't grow straight up and greener every day, 8, 9, 10 inches higher......... I hope it transplants to a real planter okay.

Why is mold so awesome to me? It's so unpredictable and almost never makes me sick. In the beginning stages it can just indicate pretty accurately how your produce is doing, or your planting soil, or your pita bread, or your... dishcloth. So alive, and a little bit fuzzy, much like tarantulas!

Maybe it's because looking at a patch of rot makes it easy to imagine the micro universe in a real way. It's like a magnifying glass on what's really no worse for being visible, all these microbes and cultures and things. Something vital... something just a little bit gross. And real! Pineapples taste best of all when they're starting to ferment and the flesh tickles the tongue with a bit of carbonation.... there wouldn't be mushrooms without fungi. Kimchee and kombucha and natto and beer!

I'm allergic to penicillin.

Maybe... the ability to placidly accept the appearance of white fuzz on your food supply will be a deciding factor in determining who survives longest when the world changes forever. :O

Black Sesame Cake!! (I've only wanted to do this forever)

2009-08-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

My room-mate's birthday came up unexpectedly! I had to innovate... it helped that I could peek into her side of the pantry and note the favoured ingredients... and remember that she has a yen for spicy food and japanese (similar taste much!)

I essentially made her the cake I secretly hoped someone would make for me someday (but shh, it works here, too).

I made a half recipe of a cake I found online here, sliced it into 4 rectangles and sandwiched them with a full recipe of the Vegan Cupcakes take over the World chocolate mousse recipe, but with a bunch of wasabi and ginger added, yes!

Top it with some pretty kiwis and champagne grapes and white pearls and call it an ideal job. Just about exactly what I was aiming for - it's elegant and spicy and rich. If I did it again I might add some cashew cream layers, or some strawberry jam, but really it's perfect just the way it is right here. Roomie even professed to get a wasabi high off the mousse! Ha ha, couldn't ask for more.

Black Sesame Cake

(from Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert (veganized), via Dessert First)

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup soy yogurt

3 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup canola oil*

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup soymilk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup toasted black sesame seeds

- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a cake tin and dust flour inside it. Set aside.

- Add the vinegar to the soymilk and set aside to curdle.

- Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.

- In a large bowl, beat together the soygurt, sesame oil, vanilla, canola oil, and sugar until it's smooth and caramell-y, about 2-3 minutes with a whisk.

- Add 1/3 of the flour to the liquid ingredients and stir to combine. Add half the curdled soymilk and stir. Add another 1/3 of the flour (stir), then the rest of the milk (stir), then the last of the flour (stir). Make sure not to overwork the batter, but it should be smooth and pourable.

- Pour into the greased cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is glossy, firm and golden, and a toothpick/knife inserted comes out clean. Let it cool for about 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack, then let it cool completely before frosting.

* the original recipe called for butter, and you would probably get spectacular results with Earth Balance, I just didn't have enough this time. Follow the recipe the same, but cream the margarine with the sugar with an electric mixer until it's really white and fluffy, before adding the other liquid ingredients.

Wasabi Ginger Chocolate Mousse

(adapted from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World)

12 oz. package of medium firm tofu, drained

1/4 cup soy milk

2 tbsp maple syrup (optional)

1 tbsp wasabi paste (or more ;)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp ginger powder

8 oz. chocolate chips (or higher quality chocolate if you'd like)

pinch of salt

- Bring a pot of water to a boil, then gently add your tofu, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 4-5 minutes. Drain carefully and let it cool.

- Once cooled, put the tofu, syrup, wasabi, vanilla and ginger in a blender and blend it until it's completely smooth.

- Melt the chocolate carefully in the microwave then add it to the blender and whip everything together. Add salt if you like salt (I do), then stash it in the fridge for at least an hour to become firm enough to work with. Ice your cake!

Japanese food, AVOCADO <3, and a wack of lightning fast lunchies!

2009-08-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

Well, Liz has broken out the nerdy google-searched JPEGS of sci-fi references again - and that means of course that it's time to go back in time! Woooo-eeeee-oooooooooh.

Back to a time way yonder... the wee beginning of August when I was just as likely to accidentally eat a blob of quinacridone pink as I was to absent-mindedly get soy sauce on my paintings. Ie; (in simple terms) I was busy! Meals had to be almost cute in their ease of preparation, with the notable exception of some bento experiments, but I'll get to those later on....

Avocado kinda saved my life, the patron saint of summer classes, I think. And while these look humble, and I'm a pure sucker for anything wrapped in a warm corn tortilla (and I mean just about anything) - this was a good and special combo. Guacamole, corn, & chicken-baked white beans, with big chunks of onion 'cause I roll like that but you could leave them off I'm sure. Addictive but satisfying.

And then avocado with fritterFAIL (it's now hash!)

Even better than the tacos? It has sweet potato this time.

I got a huge bag of white pitas for free because there was a big nasty fly paper stuck to the side and the store couldn't sell it, so I tasted white flatbread for the first time in forever. Can I confess that it's kind of particularly delicious? At least if you haven't had it in a while. Way sweeter than whole wheat, and makes excellent sausage, pepper and onion pizzas. With big chunks of onion. Because I roll like that!

Believe it or not, dorayaki are a quick lunch, too! You just have to really cheat with the anko paste. And cheater anko paste can be way healthier, too, because you can pull the sugar WAY back. Basically just mash up some hot cooked adzukis with just enough sugar to make them lip-smacking, and just enough salt to make them more-ish, then make two fairly rich pancakes to sandwich it with. And put loads of vegetables on the side so you can pretend it's a sort of balanced meal. (which okay it probably is, just sucrose heavy. MMMMMM sucrose. MMMM dorayaki).

MMMMM CHOCOLATE PANCAKES DORAYAKI

I am feeling the Japanese, can you tell? This lunch took forever. Like, all morning to make, no joke. Worth it in every way, though! My first onigiri, everybody, and let nobody tell you that it's just rice in a ball shape, it is so much more than that. Even if you've made them yourself, they still taste all full of the love it took to construct them (the reddened burned hands, the totally occupied stovetop, the swearing at nori seaweed as it refuses to cover them completely).

The first day I made 3 -

1 triangle filled with avocado (yes again!), tiny cubed cucumber, wasabi, green onion and salt.

The 2nd triangle was filled with tiny cubes of braised sweet potato and shitake mushrooms done in kombu no tsukudani style except without sugar 'cause they're sweet already. (SO umami)

And the 3rd piece was mixed up with red beans, sesame seeds and umeboshi vinegar. yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum !

(rounding out my oh-so stylish tupperware is some lightly steamed broccoli sprinkled with shoyu, an Nin Jiom herbal candy, a strawberry lollipop, and some yellow baby carrot pickles I made myself and have been eating like candy from the back of the fridge.).

It was a terrible blustery sweater-weather day when I took this downtown to eat it before putting in a long night at the studio, but after I got my green tea and an interesting seat to watch people from, and I took the first bite of my first pointy rice-ball.... I couldn't help but smile like a tyke. Really! It's all worth the effort for that first nori-wrapped bite.

oh yeah, Mr. Wasp thinks rice balls are delicious too. I have mixed feelings about this one. Shooo off my meticulous lunch there, little guy, sheesh!

Back on the fast track - the quickest cookies to make are shortbreads, of course. And an herbal-loving friend had a recent crisis requiring me to spend at least a bit of time baking. Basic basic shortbread, but with rose oil and black tea leaves. The tea didn't impart any flavour I don't think, but it added a really pleasant crispy texture!

And finally, my favourite - muffins! Featuring (do you see this coming?).... avocado! Yep, avocado replacing almost all the oil, date syrup replacing all the sugar, 50/50 whole wheat & oat flour, with orange juice, cloves, and a scattering of chocolate chips to seal up the deal. 100% eyeballed recipe, but it's really hard to screw up a muffin, which is why I secretly adore them more than cake maybe. These ones were surprisingly decadent with their buttery nuggets of green dotted throughout. Totally a win.

And then I finished my last studio class ever! Hurray!

No more turpentine, no more (mounting) hooks, no more security guards' dirty looks, la la la la la :)

the Mocha Cherry Zebra Experiment

2009-08-20T14:15:00.000-07:00

(the laboratory mid-zebrification)

Step 1: Get enthralled by this and this and this and this and this and this!

I *had* to make it. Not only was it zoologically named but it meant I could hide a secret surprise under the frosting (always good). And given that I had an mocha-loving friend who very very kindly drove these paintings home from the studio for me through notoriously terrible montreal traffic, I knew it was the ripe time to start dolloping. CHerry ripe time! haha, okay I shut up now.

I started from the recipe at Caffeine Heartbeats, but added instant coffee to the mocha side and almond to the vanilla for extra je ne sais quoi, and a bit less vinegar for less risk of crumbling. (Oh, and no orange, just vanilla this time). And I had to tweak the viscosity on both ends with a bit of flour and water respectively, but not too much and then I could dollop away. 3 tbsps of each batter, thin little lines, up and up and up until....

Step 2: Bake it up in the oven for about 45-50 minutes and go ooooooooooooh zeh-braw...

Step 3: Flip it over to cool and notice another heart-shaped thing in your food, like they're conspiring to surround you or something. My word!

Step 4: Acknowledge the fact that it's a sweltering August evening but ignore good reasoning and ice it super-generously in mounding swirls of fluffiffffy cherry frosting buttercream anyway. (be so very happy you did that as you're eating the veritable angel crack later on, a little bit melty regardless.)

Step 5: Keep it in the fridge as best as possible in this heat, then break it out and serve in big cool stylish overly delicious wedges. One of the best I've ever made, and I mean that flavour-wise, too! I was pretty glad to come by said friend's house later the next day to help her eat it for breakfast, like that was such a painful thing to do (it wasn't).

Meanwhile, I've spent a few days picking apples at an orchard, so I'll have some posting about that pretty soon, I think!

Raw Week, RawR!

2009-07-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Ani Phyo-style goji coconut almond cookies

I'm almost done my raw week. It's been easy in a lot of ways (the food is just as delicious as any "normal" food), and in other ways a bit of a challenge (detox symptoms, having to throw out lots of food that spoiled unexpectedly fast, the whole nut soaking thing, the whole raw food extremism thing)...

It's actually going to be bittersweet easing back into regular food, I think. I don't feel any huge inclination towards it at the moment, even though I know that someone as flighty and spacey as me really does flourish better on the standard vegan fare. But that said... I should get onto the food of this week, more or less a meal by meal replay of all the lego-bright dishes I got to have the time of my life constructing.

Okay, so this is technically a pre-raw warm-up (haha, warm up, is that a pun?). I made a carrot/tomato/miso soup to see how I'd feel about it all, thick with pumpkin seeds and bowl-licking good, and so....

I jumped in headfirst. Would you look at that? It looks like a deep-sea fish it's so pretty. A lot of green, but worth it. The sprouted chickpea hummous in those wraps kept me going for snack times for the first few days, and the minty cucumber dressing from Vegan World Fusion doubled as a salad topper and a soup, before spoiling way too fast as these enzymic dishes are wont to do. Alas, alas!

Avocado was also a life-saver, as I never felt warmer or more satisfied than after a meal that incorporated it. I mashed this one up with rice vinegar, soy sauce and ginger, and made showy crunchy (astoundingly good) sushi rolls. And a fruit salad with loquat and date syrup beside it.

Breakfast of day 2: the incarnation of my oatmeal habit!

Raw oats ground up in a spice grinder, with a heavy pinch of ground flaxseed, half a mashed banana, berries and lots of salt and cinnamon, left to soak overnight. I'm keeping this one! I'd been getting tired of regular oatmeal and this is perfect for summer and very laid back. You have to choose fairly soft fruit for best results, but again - peaches, berries, tropical things - all available right now! It's very nutty and satisfying to have for breakfast.

Lunch day 2: Zucchini bites with spicy hummous, a salad of shredded carrot, red pepper, soaked walnuts and red wine vinegar (yum!!), and broccoli tossed with cucumber dressing.

Dinner that night was my first green smoothie. I will admit I thought it the concept very strange at first, at least before I took my first sip. Is it totally an unabashedly weird that I love the taste of green things in my smoothie now? It adds a neat texture and a resonant kind of garden note that makes it more of a meal to me. Especially wonderful with banana and pomegranate juice, I might add.

I'm skipping breakfast reports because they're all variations on the raw oat groat thing, but...

Lunch day 3: A curried miso carrot dressing on spinach with avocado chunks and dried pineapple pieces - ZOMG. Genius. And some cucumber dressing in a bowl trying to be soup as I attempt to slurp it all up before it goes bad.

Dinner 3: My attempt at flatbread without a dehydrator resulted in (of course) a lot of prematurely fuzzy food, but there was a small grace period where it was semi-firm enough to eat as bread and I made little sandwiches with homemade sumac tahini cheese, and some green beans tossed with organic stone-ground mustard and lemon.

Dinner day 4: pizza!

(lunch seems to be missing from the record)

The pizza is topped with sage-y sundried tomato marinara, green pepper, onions, pineapple, almond cheese, and artichoke hearts.

Lunch day 5: Possibly in the top 5 sandwiches I've ever eaten, is this Haiku Wrap from Juliano's contribution to The Complete Book of Raw Food. It has avocado mashed with garlic, ginger and lemon topped with wakame, mustard, pickle, burdock, bell pepper, onion, corn and shoyu - and it's a magical, magical combination. (carrot slaw with sprouted peanuts keeping the sammiches upright on either side).

Dinner 5: Another one of those raw standbys I never understood (like the green smoothie), was the zucchini pasta thing, but you know what? It's pasta-like, and not salad-like as I thought it would be! Really good, actually, enough to repeat it later. And the things that look like eggs are crunchy turnip slices topped with nut cheese.

Lunch 6: Cabbage burrito-wraps with cumin and chili sunflower pate inside (along with corn and tomatoes and green onions and things). With a side of Pringle lookalikes (but really it's delicious turnip) and nut cheese again for my new favourite take on nachos. Soaking the slices in cold water gives them the perfect chip shape and makes them sweeter, too!

And that's not to say there were no sweets! I made some tahini-geranium cookies, that I could upload but they look pretty much like little brown discs. The brownies are gorgeous, though! I ground up some sprouted and dried buckwheat into flour and combined it with dates, ground almonds, walnuts, carob powder, salt and vanilla and proceeded to nom NOM NOM them up because they were so amazing!! I highly recommend the buckwheat flour thing, I have a container of the sprouts in my freezer right now and it gives things a more cake-like texture than the usual wodgy raw dessert texture.

And here's a plate full of desserts I took to a raw potluck last night. Clockwise from the top left are salty sunflower seed cookies, then those buckwheat brownies with a banana-fudge frosting, then coconut-cashew-agave crusted pear tarts with gojis on top, and finally like orange & clove oatmeal raisin cookies! So much fun, and so easy to just make a few servings of anything, and experiment all over the place! I definitely got into the habit of whizzing up just a single cookie for after lunch sometimes when I needed something for my sweet tooth.

Potluck food itself was possibly the BEST vegan thing any non-vegan has ever made for when I came to dinner. It was a sundried tomato-cashew romesco sauce over marinated eggplant and it was mindblowingly good. I think it was from a book by the same people who did Raw Food/Real World, if you wanted to try it, and you might want to add extra orange juice like my friend did and eat every indulgence-soaked aubergine triangle with additional gusto for having done so. :)

Day 7....

.... it's day 7? It's the end of the week?

Do you realize I didn't realize that until about halfway through writing this post and counting up the dates? Oh my goodness, I suppose that means I'm done and I should ground myself now. Part of me wants to keep going, and in fact... *goes off to buy bananas for a few minutes*

* a few minutes later *

Well... on the way down the stairs to the market, oh what do I smell but buttery wafts of rice and faint hints of curry? and whoa-p, there goes MY 100% raw convinction! That, and charred hot dogs on the street as I walked... and I'd like to feel like myself again, I think. :D

A few things I noticed, though, to sum up the week...

* it doesn't necessarily have to be expensive at all to eat raw. I stuck mostly to almonds and sunflower seeds for nut protein, which can be relatively cheap. And I didn't indulge in the condiments like nama shoyu and special apple cider vinegar or anything. If anything it might have been cheaper due to me not buying coffee all the time. OH YEAH I QUIT COFFEE FOR A WEEK. ! Craziness.

* nut soaking liquid is super mucilagous and gross, and I'll probably soak most things now if I think of it beforehand.

* white wine was okay to drink, as was whiskey (although I'm pretty used to whiskey). Red wine on the other hand, made me terribly achey for a whole day after drinking it, and then the ache turned into a kinda "detox ache" that I've still got in my calves when I bend over too far.

* a couple drying racks set in front of a sunny window was my dehydrator, and it worked pretty well for cookies and buckwheat sprouts. Terrible for bread though, and I wouldn't even try crackers. Oh yeah, and sun tea! Tasty stuff! And not even that long to make, maybe a few hours in the sun for amber-steeped liquid.

* I caved once, for a bunch of artichokes I got for free, but wouldn't you? All succulent and dipped in lime & olive oil??? I'd never tried artichokes before and it was my chance right there, so I don't feel bad. And they are, by the way, not nearly as hard to make and eat as advertised and mysteriously sweet and I ate the stems too, YUM.

* Guess that's it! And I'm so making pizza, man, like, soon.

Brunching, making chutney, crispy cookies, and fudge-hearts!

2009-07-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

I've been raw for 5 days now!! I'll save writing about that for the next post, but in the meantime here's a whole bunch of photos from the past few weeks I never got around to posting but are kinda making me hungry right now...

Allright, we've got up there... chili cashew dosas (my favourite recipe so far from Vegan Brunch), with a notably amazing chutney I made from the back of Indian Cookery, ie: this book ------>

Which is basically my favourite indian cookbook ever, even for the chutney chapter alone, which covers pretty much anything you'd want to stew and preserve in a super authentic, full of interesting tidbits kind of way. Like, that peach chutney I ate with the dosas had paprika, poppy seeds, cloves, green chiles and cashews, oh my! Totally easy to make, too.

Another perk of making chutney is that you get to re-use little jars and give them away after they've sat for a month on the shelf looking very pretty. On the right is the peach, and in the middle is a pineapple chutney with about a ton of ginger and garlic in it, yay!

Okay, what else - this was astoundingly good. It looks kind of grey, I'll admit, but so so so good. Velvety corn creamy chinese wedding soup, or something like that, with bits of savoury tofu floating in it and fresh peas. It's Bryanna's recipe, and incidentally my introduction to creamed corn (I'm a fan, it turns out).

Oh, and Singapore green beans from Tropical Vegan Kitchen in the background. Once that stuff marinates it's addictive!

East Coast Coffeecake for an omni BBQ! Plus adorable sign. :)

I loved how I could even make this in my dad's kitchen - it's the sign of a perfectly adaptable baked good. (flour, sugar, oil, check!)

My favourite PB cookies ever, are the Crispy PB Cookies from Extraveganza with the cereal flakes inside. They crackle like pop rocks and have that perfect dense chew, and are so easy to make. I usually quarter the recipe and make them into the size of quarters, and have them as little pick me ups throughout the day.

Polenta Rancheros from V.Brunch, with noticeable flecks of toasted coriander that perfume the whole thing, it's really nice, especially when made with fresh tomatoes cause that's all I had. Surprisingly light for a bean dish!

White bean, mango and rosemary tacos!!! My surprising invention that worked, plus some leftover Tempeh Wingz made with tofu, cold and chewy out of the fridge. (That red sauce is illegally finger-licking.... wow.)

Fresh organic vegetable pasta spirals with a sauce made from tomatoes, raisin-sage sausages, capers, zucchini & basil, NOM.

Banana Rabanada!!! Not only is this delicious but no refined sugar, either, so it's perfectly viable to eat for lunch! Isa was spot on about the syrup & cinnamon-mopping, too.

(Heart-shaped) Fudge-pops from How It All Vegan, since I found my ancient copy in my mom's garage a few months ago and figured I'd give it a whirl again. These were sooooo good, and almost exactly like fudgesicles, which is no mean feat!

Sausage and eggplant quiche from V.Brunch with a homemade crust I put too much EB in but was still okay. And I think that's about it for cooked stuff! Phew, sorry for the cursory writing about it all, too. Somehow I think the pictures speak loud enough that it's okay I don't remember the details, plus this raw food thing is making me spacey... zomg. It's great, but I'll be glad to bring it down to maybe 60% raw after the next few days. Can't wait to show you what that's been like, though!

Blueberry bliss, pea pancakes, and mousse.

2009-07-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

(ps. sorry about the font in some parts of this post. not sure why it went so wonky)

So if my blog tags are any indication at all (and amusingly, they often are), I'm more than a little mad for blueberries. Dunno why exactly... it could be the bursting qualities... or the way they're so purple and freeze perfectly and are also called starberries? And when you stick them in things people go "oooooooh" without fail, it's kind of funny!

When I saw this recipe for pea pancakes with blueberry basil dressing I knew knew KNEW I had to try it, it sounded the thing little fresh-showered elves would eat over tea and the latest forest news. Lo and behold, it even looks like that sort of food, too! Call me bowled over with technicolour, batman. I wanna cook chromatically so much now!

Here's the veganization of it all. The pea pancakes are almost perfect (I'd consider leaving out the cornstarch to keep the flavour brighter perhaps?). The blueberry dressing is also pretty good, but I could do better probably and another kind of vinegar would probably work nicer, I just haven't figured out which one. Still really good though! (If you wanted lemon I'd never stop you, I just wanted to see if I could use something besides citrus. Balsamic would probably be nice, too, come to think of it).

Blueberry Basil Sauce

2/3 cup blueberries

1/4 cup water + 1 tbsp

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar

1 tbsp fresh minced basil

cracked black pepper

- In a small bowl, whisk together 1 tbsp of water with the cornstarch, set aside.

- In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the blueberries, 1/4 cup of water, sugar and salt to a low boil until the berries start to pop and bleed their juice. Remove from heat and stir in the cornstarch mixture, oil, vinegar, basil, and pepper. Taste for salt and cover to keep warm.

Green Pea Pancakes (serves 2-3 as a snack or side)

4 oz. snap peas, strings removed

1/2 cup green peas

1/2 cup milk or cream

1 tsp melted buttery spread

1/2 tsp cornstarch

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

- Bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil. Blanche the snap peas for 30 seconds, then rinse in cold water. Do the same with the green peas, until they're tender (2-3 minutes maybe).

- In a blender, combine the cooled peas with the milk, butter, and cornstarch, and blend until pretty smooth. Move to a mixing bowl.

- Sift in the dry ingredients and gently fold until totally incorporated (shouldn't take much effort)

- Melt a bit of buttery spread in a nonstick and fry thin little 2" pancakes until golden brown on both sides. Serve warm with a bit of blueberry sauce and some basil leaves on top.

Right. And.

AND.

It was Pomme's birthday time this weekend, and that meant I was required to out-do myself again, inspired by love to fling culinary handrail-holding out the window and concoct some sort of artistic masterpiece that'll never have a recipe written down (but I'll always remember how to do). In this case - a 2-layer Morrocan Mint cake with generous inches of Blueberry Mousse and a Pomegranate Glaze, topped with sugared pine nuts and mint leaves. !!!! For the record, I did a billion new things in the kitchen for this (well okay, I played with agar), and it turned out like some patisserie's jazzed star, in shades of aubergine, gold and lavender, and I *wish* I had a slice shot, but it was enjoyed by candlelight in the company of lots of vegan restaurant coworkers, so I'll just have to make another layer cake soon to make up for that! :p

Officially, the entire thing doesn't have a recipe, but I'll post the adaption I made to the matcha cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes because it made a damned fine joconde and the vegan world can always use another attempt at that, I think. Pretty simple, actually... (it was the simple part)

Vegan Morrocan Mint Joconde

1/2 cup soygurt

2/3 cup strongly brewed green tea with 10-12 fresh mint leaves in it (strained, of course)

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 tsp almond extract

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

3 tsp matcha soymilk powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

- Preheat oven to 350 and line an 8" cake tin with nonstick spray and parchment paper.

- In a large mixing bowl combine the soygurt, tea, extracts, and oil

- Sift together the dry ingredients, then slowly add it to the wet bowl in installments, gently folding with a whisk until it's smooth.

- Pour into cake pan and bake for 35-42 minutes (my oven is really slow, so take these times as approximations). A toothpick should come out clean, and the top should be glossy and flat.

- Let it cool almost completely before turning it onto a parchment lined cooling rack. Once cool, cut it carefully into 2 layers, and soak each layer (as you construct your moussey cake) with Mint Syrup.

Mint Syrup

2/3 cups strong Morrocan mint tea (made the same as before)

1/3 cup sugar

some extra mint leaves if you want

- Bring everything to a boil in a tiny saucepan over medium heat and let it bubble until it's reduced slightly and thicked. Cool completely before spooning over your cake layers.

(it all tastes of exotic and meltaway sweet sand and herbs..... very very very - needless to say - delicious)

chromatic sausages for Canada!

2009-07-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

red white and umami all over

Happy July 1rst, that is to say - Canada Day! It's the nation's birthday and I'm celebrating in Quebec, which means a certain amount of gusto is required to make any noise at all, what with everyone tired from St Jean Baptis te Day just about a week before. It's not quite the party that it is in Ontario, but by golly if I can't make my lunch about as patriotic as a waving flag, at least in colour scheme anyway (and association to good old BBQ food... yes I SO do love the taste of char).

For lady Canuck's 142nd, I dived into the sausage section of Vegan Brunch and couldn't even approach deciding one recipe over another, so I made 2 batches at once - the Italian Feast and the Cherry Sage, done up into smaller links so they were hot dog sized. And after discovering that the grocery store had no (NO) hot dog buns (and even if they did, they would probably be terrible because they usually are), I just had to make a little batch of my own. Which I TOTALLY recommend, it makes a huge world of difference. So much so that I'm gonna post the recipeeeee, taken from this blog, taken from King Arthur flour......

Hot Dog Buns

(chewy, wheaty, soft, dense in a good way, stands up to condiments - ie; perfect)

(makes 8)

1 tbsp sugar

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup warm milk

2 tsp vegetable oil

2 tsp salt

3 - 3 1/2 cups flour (I used 50% whole wheat, still came out fluffy and soft)

Directions:

- In a large bowl, combine water and sugar and let it sit for 5 minutes so the yeast gets foamy.

- Mix in the milk, oil, and salt, then add 3 cups of the flour and knead until it comes together into a dough ball.

- Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 6-8 minutes, until it becomes a bit like plasticine. The dough isn't as soft as in some recipes, and it shouldn't be sticky (add up to 1/2 cup more flour as needed). Move to an oiled bowl, cover and let it rise in a warm spot for 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.

I'm just building anticipation for chewy perfect grilled bun-bite here :)

- Once it's risen, turn onto a lightly floured surface and cut into 8 equal pieces. To shape a bun, make a piece into a rectangle, then starting at the end closest to you, roll it up tightly like you would roll a cigarette, folding in the ends on each side as you go. Pinch the seam when you finish, then place it seam side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the rest, then cover with a piece of plastic wrap sprayed with nonstick spray and let them rise for 30 minutes.

- Preheat the oven to 400F

- Bake for 20 minutes, then move to a rack to cool

INNARDS !!!!

Unrelated to photo above, but that's what scrolling is for ------------ the beautiful red and white salad next to it all was from the Tropical Vegan Kitchen and ab-solutely scrumptious. I'm going to post the recipe, too, because I just saw a great video concerning appropriation and culture (and breakbeats) and I figured heck why not, share the love, share the coconut dressing ---

Thai-Style Romaine Salad with Creamy Coconut Tamari Dressing

(serves 4)

10 oz. of romaine leaves

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced and soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, drained well

1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced

2 tbsp basil, rolled up and thinly sliced

Coconut Tamari Dressing:

6 tbsp coconut milk (full fat works best here)

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

2 tbsp tamari

2 large cloves of garlic, minced fine

2 tsp palm sugar, or brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp red thai chile, seeded and minced superfine

Directions:

- Whisk, let it sit for at least 10 minutes.

- Toss 1/2 the dressing with the salad components, arrange prettily onto plates, then drizzle with the remaining dressing.

So patriotic! (if a little Thai ;)

Part 3! blueberry velvet, minty eggplant, and VEGAN BRUNCH !

2009-06-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

So we're finally in the present, now! That was so weird, being back in time for so long... well, status quo and time re-adjustment has been achieved (thank you Doc!) and I'm the proud owner of not only Vegan Brunch but the Tropical Vegan Kitchen, now, too! More on those at the end of the post, because I'm such a stickler for temporal integrity... although you'd never never never know it. So I have to begin with rice. Oh, but not just any rice...

It was sumptuous, luscious purple rice (yeah, I'm a fan), which I made with a big heaping spoonful of souvlaki spice blend that's been sitting on my spice rack since last summer going "oh oh, make me with tofu, you LOVE greek food, get around to it, with those Vcon lemony potatoes, yeah!"

Which of course I did not do.

Nah, no, I made this rice instead and actually swished it around in my salad, turning it all warm and tomatoe-y and olive-y, it was really awesome. I never (never never?) mix my plate up, or at least not that often, so bear with my enthusiasm, haha.

Enthusiasm wanes for this, though! Too bad... it's from Vegan Fire & Spice and it was only okay... cold soba something or other. I could have just messed up rinsing it properly, because it was mostly a case of the the noodle liquid rinsing all the nice dressing off. And I put way too many veggie in, who needs veggies man, not me (at least not when "slurpy bowl of noodle" is the simplicity required at the moment). Does anyone have any cold noodle tricks? I bought a pack of soba the size of my head and I was pretty up for doing it cold, japanese-style over the rest of the summer.

Also good cold: eggplant! Amazing cold! I faked up this most excellent wheat berry salad with morrocan spices, creamy eggplant, fresh mint... so good. Especially in crisp summer lettuce wraps with black bean hummous dolloped on, which needless to say, was my consumption method of choice here. (I'm especially enamoured of the strange little ears on the hummous blob in the picture there, too :P)

Oooh, and unfortunately there's no slice picture, but I made a red velvet cake!! It was a bit of a talent exchange and I got a professional (shi-shi, layered and subtle!) haircut from a friend of mine who adores southern stuff. I even put mint on it, a la Paula Deen. Oh, and the recipe was of course from Vegan Cupcakes and OMG this frosting if you haven't made it yet MAKE IT it's all whippy like creamy and dangerously low-sweet and HIDE THE SPOONS. O_O!

*cough*

Right. Well. Grounding... let's be sensible here. There is nothing more sensible than rice salad, not one thing, nope. (the New Zealand Rice Salad on page 70, to be really specific. tee hee kiwis). What else can be eaten right out of the fridge like a miniature complete meal at the end of your snacking fork? (And that can be hard to remember to eat sometimes!) Also, what else can incorporate fruit into dinner without seeming weird? Well, I guess I'm going to find out what else, because the Tropical Vegan Kitchen is full of fruit, it's everywhere. Which is why I bought it! That and to figure out how to use up a crate of kiwis I got... I'm looking to adapt the toasted coconut mango muffin recipe in Vegan Brunch too maybe... which finally brings me to -----

Omelet!

La la la, nothing can be said about this I'm sure that hasn't been said before, it is perfect and you want to eat this and your omni uncle wants to eat this (well, maybe), and I ate it with the V.Brunch sesame scrambled tofu with greens and yams ( - tofu, + dandelion greens). I don't know how she actually managed to do this, but not only does it actually taste like something good (as opposed to Vegan-Omelet-As-Novelty), but the structural integrity is a wonder to behold. The thing spread perfectly, browned perfectly, held together like a champ... you can even stack them. Now try that with an egg omelet!

(also, I offically think these taste way better than those egg things. viva la revolution!)

part 2 of Eats Gone By ~ crepage, whizzed up avocado, and unseasonably warm pie

2009-06-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

Wee! So - I'm here drinking my mint & mushroom tea with large slices of ginger dropped into it because I was a little too brave this afternoon and added some (a lot of) questionable sauerkraut to my hummous wrap. It was worth it at the time... but now I need the tea. Yeah, white stuff in a sauerkraut jar is no good...

Anyway. More old pictures (I swear I'm getting through them, I do!) I made crepes! I made buckwheat versions of Veganomicon crepes, and stuffed them full of Columbian red beans with plantain (from Terry's Vegan Latina), some broccoli too, and an avocado-corn-cream sauce that is essentially this recipe that I'd had mentally bookmarked since I went vegan in high school. Seriously that long ago. (*oouuuuuurrrrrgh.... waveof nauseau happening......RIGHT NOWurg*) XPPP

cough. ok better.

Anyway. avocado cream sauce! I ate in on pasta first, but it's way more economical to show it here, even if it does look a little like ralf. tee hee. I swear it was tasty.

And then I had leftover crepes with sauteed peaches, coarse raw sugar, cranberry jam, and some malted soy drink mixed with enough water to make a sweet cream. Oh, frugal AND delicious, and even maybe healthy, how 'bout that? I love dinners that revolve around fructose.

Speaking of which, I made a tiny sweet potato cashew cream pie with a lone spud, because it's just been so damned cold it seems not very weird to make food like this. Plus, it has a pumpkin seed crust a la Extraveganza, which in my weird mind makes it kinda summery. And when you pop it in the freezer and eat slices of it cold like spiced ice cream...... *drooooolz*. Also gives me a chance to use the tiniest fork ever imaginable that I picked up at a garage sale for specific things just like this. Fairy pie technique!

From now on I make my own thai green curry paste. Has anyone tried the yellow variety? I almost did but then I chickened out and returned it for a jar of the classic green, and while it resulted in a slurpily good skillet of hyper-spice, well... I'm still curious about the other variety. Maybe next time I'll get the yellow (which boasts coriander and white pepper, yum) and just grind up lots of green chiles into it myself. I ended up throwing like, 3-4 extra thai peppers into this one anyway, cause I kind of like my thai curries to practically send off sparks into the atmosphere. Anything less and why bother, I say!

Speaking of skillets -- I made the Vcon leek & bean cassoulet finally. That's how cold it's been around here! It's mid-June and I'm still checking my bag for extra gloves, just in case... ack. So on a particularly blustery and charcoal-grey day I decided snap it I'm just gonna make a big old comforting stew and I am SOOOOO glad I did. It was the perfect antidote to my standard rut of cooking with loads of citrus & spice --- the cassoulet is all.... comfy like a big herbal pillow. And far too easy to pleasantly spoon down while cuddled up in a blanket reading school work things. Very very nice...

(oh, and peas/leeks/white beans were replaced with corn/extra onion/black&red beans to good effect)

Enough for now? Probably... there's red velvet, kittee muffins, cold soba, successful souvlaki rice to come, though. *phew*

Oh, what the heck, one more -- I made Scotter Muffins, yay! I don't remember what variety at all, probably apple and banana and cinnamon swirl. Gosh, I love muffins, don't you? They're so balanced, like the medium spectrum between the best of all baked goods. Or maybe I'm just a fan. ^_^b

But that's life, and this is tofu

2009-06-10T23:35:00.000-07:00

Summertime and some are slacking! That is to say --- oh oh I'm sorry I dropped off the face of the blog-Earth! I've been pretty busy, writing papers, painting spiders and lettuce leaves, taking t'ai chi, dating someone (yey), still cooking up a storm, and just not really feeling like there's been a good time to blog about it. But really, it's getting ridiculous... I've lost count of how many photos I have. Stacks. And they're getting outdated, I'm forgetting if I used olives or capers in these stuffed tofus for example... at any rate I used Kittee's Method of the Stars to stuff them full of olive-oily spinach, red peppers, and raisins (I think). Other good things, then breaded them in cornflakes, baked, and ate most of them all chewy-cold out of the fridge - like moment's notice hunger-killers, basically.

Sushi! But with black rice this time, which is really more of a purple, and taste-wise isn't quite sushi bliss... but it sure is pretty. I kinda feel like this is sushi with a silk tie on, or something.

And speaking of oceanic treats, my sister and I discovered some fantastic package of salty fried nori in her cupboards. This stuff is gooooood. For my money, beats the pants off of potato chips.

Sis thinks so too!

Then for a while I was all in love with med-firm tofu and it's magical ability to become some luxurious (yet low guilt) salad dressing at a moment's notice. I played around with a few varieties - I tried the Vegan World Fusion Caesar (yum!), I made a kind of ranch, and my favourite was a curried apricot dressing that was very inspired by something from the Millenium cookbook, although I changed it entirely... I even found the notepad file I wrote the recipe on! So here it is ----

1/4 lb. med-firm tofu

1-2 dried apricots, soaked well and chopped

1 tsp rice vinegar

1/2 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp garam masala

1/8 tsp cardamom

pinch of cayenne

1 tsp almond butter

1 tsp canola oil

enough water to thin

Blend! Blend like yo salad depends on it!

My favourite part of tofu dressings is putting on so much that you can eat the extra at the bottom with a spoon. :)

Isa's perfect chocolate chip cookies are, by the way, and if you hadn't heard - perfect. Utterly perfect. Me and this cookie had a bit of a moment... time stopped outside my window, cars drove softly past and I felt like all the sweet chewy vanill-y mass was just going straight into my heart (forget stomachs). Good times. Oh! And this is only from batch number two. I made them before, maybe not creaming quite enough so they spread a bit, but obviously still amazing enough to convince me to try again.

Not having ever tried a Madhur Jaffrey recipe I figured I would give it a go, finally. Her dhal intrigued me in how it has a whole lemon sliced right into it, and it really works! Totally makes it a different sort of creature than your regular lentil-mash. I ate it up with --- oh oh oh oh!! guess what!!! I got a food processor! Or at least, an attachment for my new stick blender that my mom got me (love moms!). I turned veggies into confetti in like, 10 seconds, wow. Anyway, yeah, I stuffed said veggies (sauted with garlic, mustard seeds, cider vinegar, bit of braggs, maybe a bit of tahini? possibly caraway seeds, too) into a paratha, and then ate the mountain of leftovers too, because it was pretty delicious stuff.

I also think I'm finally getting the hang of cakes. Getting the right ratio of textures, flavours, sizes, richnesses, bursts of things, etc. This was so well-balanced, one of my favourites in recent memory! It's a chocolate mint cake with minty vanilla buttercream sandwiched between, whipped ganache on top, and loads of little violets, to celebrate spring or some such twee sentiment that surprised me in actually tasting good as well as looking way pretty. I ended up dipping the extra violet stems in the leftover ganache! And the cake... was this joyous kind of refreshing melt-in-your-mouth confection that I had (Mwahahaha!) MOSTLY to myself. Usually I'm the one giving away desserts too soon, but this one was totally mine. Yum!

*ackdroolzzz* don't you wish there was taste-o-vision?

R-r-r-r-r-r-andom. All out of order!

2009-05-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

I don't particularly feel like sorting my pictures right now, there is just TOO MANY of them. So, yes, here is the first, what a delight of puffy strawberry muffs in a basket! Hannah's recipe is perfect for basic muffins, in fact I memorized it and freestyled a batch of chocolate-raspberry versions later while I was groggy and in my dad's kitchen at some ungodly hour of the night after breaking in un-announced and he didn't even know I was in town! I raided the cupboards (after cleaning the place spotless, of course) and managed to at least find enough basic baking supplies to make them, lurvly brunette muffins, which will have a photo later in this post, because (of course) as I said - completely out of order. Why not, right?

This is a banana-date scone from Veganomicon. Somehow I thought it would be more decadent, being from the Vcon, but granted the whole introduction does mention it's healthy qualities explicitly, so I should have been duly warned. Don't you love the background? This was to fuel some tarot play time with a teatime friend who lets me bake for her (very nice of her).

I love Nigella, it's no secret to anyone who's met me (or at least heard her show playing from my bedroom whenever I need some serious calming and indulgence for the soul). But strangely I've made .. well, none of her recipes so far. That needed to be remedied, which I did with her moroccan-ish eggplant rolls with cinnamon, capers and bulgur ... YUM!! Like what I imagine most of her food to taste like, it is soft, nuanced, silky and doesn't hit you over the head with electric or sour notes, so ultimately delicious, but I added more lemon. ;)

Pretty grill marks. :)

Ancient photo !!!!!

I made nachos with no nooch in the house. I canvased the city (briefly) looking for a single serving of nacho chips just so I could have this to satisfy an immediate post-school craving. It was everything awesome and more. I made the cheese with cashews, oats, miso and hot chiles and it served the purpose mightily.

This is a pancake I made at my sister's house, using her mystery bag of mystery organic flour (we believe it was likely spelt), as well as some honey-like natural sugar, lots of coconut, some cashews wedged in there... maple syrup. Other things. It was so very very punk, as their larder was BARE and we still managed to have a sizzling merry breakfast on the hob in time for a decent 11 am-ish kind of hour. I'd just read this book --

Which was a very anarchic ancient kind of (NON vegetarian) underground poetry/cookbook/highly vague anti-establishment montage of stuff, with many chapters waxing poetic about misty green mornings cooking rashers of bacon and potatoes and I was inspired at least to follow that part of the sentiment. Much of this book was a little too dated and silly for me, but I liked the non-political jumbo.

As promised, a chocolate-raspberry mini-muff in a cup with Hagan-Daaz raspberry sherbert I found like a special present in my dad's deep freeze. Hurray! Went together like a dream, and though that iced stuff is sweeet, it is definitely top quality and I was definitely proud to call this lunch.

Like cocoa soldiers. Did you know it took me about 27 minutes and the help of a disgruntled 13-year old to help me find where they had counter-intuitively stashed all their muffin cups? (for the record: in the highest right invisible spot in the kitchen, behind the curry powder, above the plastic bags).

There's more photo backlog, but this is probably browser-crashing enough with all the stuff in this post already, plus this random plate is a nice thematic end to a r-r-r-r-r-andom post. This was my favourite dinner by SO much last week. Probably the large luscious chunks of drippy tropical fruit had something to do with it, plus the arcade-style cacaphony of flavours all sharing one oddly harmonious restaurant-square plate. There's papaya salsa, asian-dressed cabbage, an eggplant roll that didn't fit in the container I put in the freezer, and the BEST ASPECT OF ALL --- peanut butter and jam on rusks. Perfection.

ps. I swear I'm not on drugs or even feeling all that strange. I just rode a mechanical bull, though, (seriously!) and I'm mighty jazzed about that!

The 9 Days of Bagelry

2009-05-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

It's kind of torturous, living precisely between the two most famous bagel shops in Canada, the smell just doughy, sweet, redolent down the avenues whenever I go shopping... I grew up on these things, fresh montreal-style bagels (chewier than most) hot out of paper bags at a moment's whim. They're cheap and carby and never need much more than a bit of buttery spread or cream cheese to achieve bread nirvana and OH how I've missed them. So... I thought it about time to take matters into my own hands and just make some! I guess I figured it would be difficult, but this is actually one of the easiest bread recipes I've made in some time. I also couldn't leave well enough alone in the creative noodling department (of course!) and made 9 individual flavours, kneading in little special things into each little dough blob. I ran out of blobs before I ran out of ideas, but these were so easy to make that when I'm not sick of bagels anymore I can make some again super quick. ;)

I also found it pretty necessary to make some sort of cream cheese to go with them -- it's almost half the deal, at least for my own nostalgia. The slightly sour tang and creaminess on sweet and seedy bread.... zomg. Thankfully I remembered about Bryanna Clark Grogan's Boursin-style spread, because it hit the spot really perfectly, AND it didn't call for nutritional yeast at all which I think would have messed with what should be a mild-flavoured thing. It's just cashews and EB and miso rocking this out, and soooooo yummy.

haha, oh CURRY BAGEL. You were variant no. 2 and I was still such a novice at the "rise & boil" method that I forgot to oil the baking sheet you rose on! Sooooo wonky looking and the crumb was kinda off since I had to scrap you all out of symmetrical wack, BUT still really good. Curry powder and cumin seeds in this one.

Sunflower seed and golden B.C. syrup (to kind of take the place of honey). Expectedly so crisp and fluffy inside, I ate it with loads of Boursin and extra syrup. Oh, and I packed it for lunch to eat after a 2-hour lecture class and it was still crunchy-fresh even by then!

Garlic, olive oil, herbs. Too much salt, but still pretty nice. Oh! And I should take a moment to mention that I boiled these in water with a bit of sugar to approximate the honey water that the real bagelries use. I stopped doing that to the last few because I found it too sweet... but it's worth experimenting with, as a method.

Green chile chopped up inside, on a sandwich with VeganDad's lunch slices (A++ on this flavour). Subtle fruity heat!

Onion, with herbs on top, on another sandwich because I pretty much died and went to lunch heaven with the first one and had to repeat it.

Another A++ flavour -- Sundried tomato and red chile flakes! Here you can see it bathing in (sugar-free) water this time.

And I'm impatient, I really am. If I were different I may have waited until I actually baked the last two flavours to make this post. But I figured that Isa's Brunch Book bagels would be taking the blogs by storm pretty soon and I should post now while I can! Plus, seeing them in fossil-form is pretty important to the whole process. I didn't mention, but I froze them just after the second rise, right before they were to be boiled. Then all I had to do was pull one out 45 minutes before I wanted to make it, let it defrost and puff a bit, then boil and bake and eat! I'm glad my oven is so small or I'd feel bad about gas, but it really is small, and I'd have no idea what to do with more than one at a time, really. Anyway... It's also really nice to know I have a few stored away. I saved the weirdest one and the best one for last -- 1 goji matcha, and 1 cinnamon raisin, and I'm gonna have that cinnamon raisin drowned in EB and it will be glorious, I just know it, with hot hot hot tea on the side and a crossword if I can get my hands on it and one more long-time craving finally sated at the hands of homemade how-to-do. :)

Seriously. !!

(some thoughts for later: chocolate chunk, lavender, zaa'tar spiced, mixed olive, walnut and spice, annatto-yellow, green peppercorn, corn & coriander, cranberry & pepper, flax!)

Nuggets! Golden nuggets!

2009-05-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post and a recipe -- I made the CUTEST little nuggets ever maybe a week ago, 'cause everything's somehow tastier in nugget form. It's the option of dipping sauce, I think, and the wee little crunchy size, not to mention the childhood regression factor and how darned snacky they are. But anyway, not to wax poetic about nuggs for too long... here's the recipe. It's pretty straightforward (although I'm probably just saying that because I think my cooking is basic and it's not, no not really), mostly an adaption of the Spicoli Burgers from ED&BV except with tahini because I was craving it mad-like at the time and I really wanted to know if tahini and ketchup and mustard could ever possibly navigate the same food-form and still be edible (they can). And also it's a half/half mixture of millet and brown rice because that's what I had, but also because millet makes perfect nugget mash (turns into a binder!), and I changed the spices, yeah. AND these taste really good and you should make them and plum sauce up there was not necessary, but the Maple-Balsamic-Mustard Coleslaw c/o Sarchan at Emo Potato was.

/long snackrant

Golden Snack Nuggets

makes about 17

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced fine

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup shredded zucchini

2 cups cooked brown rice/millet mixture

1 1/2 tbsp ketchup

1 tsp dijon mustard

2 tbsp tamari

3 tbsp tahini

1 tsp dried dill

1/2 tsp basil

1 tsp lemon zest

handful of toasted sunflower seeds

salt & fresh black pepper to taste

breadcrumbs

Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat and cook the onion a few minutes, until slightly soft. Add the garlic and zucchini, sprinkle a touch of salt and cook another 3-4 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the cooked vegetables with the rest of the ingredients (except the breadcrumbs) and mix well. With your hands! (That's important so the millet gets mushed). Cover and chill for at least an hour, then take it out and make 2 tbsp-sized balls with it, gently squish into shape then roll in the bread bits.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, flipping once, until both sides are golden and the texture is firm.

OR these freeze like a dream!!! I ate 4 right away and stashed the rest for later.

Pre-hot box. Pretty adorable!

Chocolate being a subtle theme...

2009-05-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

Liz Holding Food Gallery: entry #27 - BROWNIE-STYLE

I tried T'ai Chi today for the first time! That's got nothing to do with chocolate, sure, but I feel really good right now! Like a natural chocolate high. Or a, uh... non-sugar induced high, yes. Seriously though, I feel like a dancer, I bounced all the way home in my high tops, and then threw together the roasted vegetables I'd made that morning into some whole wheat penne and home-soaked chickpeas for a really attractive dinner. It needed something parmesan-y, but I have leftovers to subject to ground almond & lemon zest, there is always tomorrow.

So back to cupcakes!

I made the Brooklyn Brownie cupcakes for a friend's 25th birthday in the park. We played duck duck goose, Stella Ella Ola, a fun game called Sheep... I love being a nonkid, it's so natural to be. And the cuppers were a big hit! These are dense dark weighty cakes with a huge woodsy whiskeyness that probably needs refreshing milk around for maximum enjoyment, but definitely brownie-ish and definitely good. Super moist, too. I think I like the regular chocolate VCtotW recipe better, but hey, I got to bake with whiskey, and I've been wanting to do that for, like, ever!

Then something a little more virtuous... I made the Mole Roasted Cauliflower from the Swell cookzine that involved - of course! - cocoa powder. REALLY good preparation for cauliflower, I had to resist buying another whole head and roasting it up the exact same way, which says something, that I would repeat a recipe so soon. Not that it was hard to eat a whole giant head of this, it's pretty addictive like better than popcorn good. It was the star of the plate next to the mango slices, and some creamy mint & basil polenta I made, but actually the whole combo worked really well and I recommend it - mango with dinner I mean. (what? mango with everything!! of course!)

Oh yes yes, I made some luncheon meat, via Vegan Dad's recipe. It is a bit dry as he says, but the flavour and texture is eerily spot on and I made some really satisfying sandwiches and I froze most of it into little single-servings for later. Next time I thaw out a packet I'll be sure to have some cheap yellow mustard around, because it would just work with this stuff, mmmm yeah.

What else? Tofu nuggets! I saw the Tofu Skewers with Espresso BBQ Sauce on Vegan Appetite and knew exactly what to do with the half pound of tofu I had in the fridge. I'd not skewered food before, and you know, it actually does make a difference to the flavour! The leftover tofu-bobs I cooked sans-impalement were less succulent and fun. Like, you couldn't gnaw on them at all, boo, I like skewers now. Oh, and the sauce was great! I added cayenne cause I can't leave well enough alone and insist on mouth burning when it comes to anything BBQ.

Right, and finally, this is definitely the result of my new love affair with my wonderful freezer. Never could have concocted something so specific without being able to freeze tiny bits of things throughout my cooking. The whole door is filled with single cookies, 1/4 cups of icing, cake shavings, and other fun detritous I collect, mwahaha. For this little cake that I made for a dinner on friday, I started with a disc of leftover Brooklyn Brownie cupcake (the recipe really does make a LOT of extra batter). Then I made a base cheesecake cream in the blender, divided that into two and stuffed one with melted chocolate and the other with peanut butter. I layered and baked that at 350 for 45 minutes, then I made a quick chocolate agar-gel for the top and was really really pleased with myself for rocking agar finally. And then! Crushed-up peanut butter cookies for the sides. You know the awesome kind that are essentially just peanut butter and sugar? Yeah, those kind. And I almost forgot - star dollops of leftover chocolate cupcake frosting! PIMPED. OUT.

Now I just need to get myself a cheesecake tin that's bigger than 5" across. ^_^;

Corn-of-the-Sea Chowder

2009-05-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

This might be the most delicious soup I've ever made. I don't even usually like creamy soups, but this one has ocean in every bite, and the tofu bits get all soaked with the richness and get buttery, and the veggies are... in giant chunks! Which is fun! I have to thank the Sexy Vegan in huge part for a lot of the tasty tricks involved (nori seaweed! cashew cream!), but here's my specific take on the method. So so so so good.

Cashew Cream

1/3 cup cashews

1 cup water

- blend together in a blender until very very smooth and liquid-y creamy

Chowder!

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, diced

1 large carrot, in 1/2" pieces

1 large stalk celery, 1/2" pieces

1 medium red potato, chunks

1/4 lb. extra-firm tofu, cut into 1/2" cubes

2 bay leaves

1 tsp dried thyme

fresh black pepper

enough water/broth to cover (4-5 cups?)

1/4 cup white wine

**Cashew Cream

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp margarine

1/2 cup corn niblets

1 sheet nori seaweed

dash of liquid smoke (optional but approximates bacon)

salt to taste

- okay! Saute the onions over medium heat in a large soup pot until starting to soften, then add the carrot, celery and potato and cook another 5 minutes or so, just til things look golden. Add the tofu, spices, broth, white wine and cashew cream and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer about 15-20 minutes, or until potatoes are soft and beginning to break down, then add the vinegar, margarine, corn, nori seaweed, smoke flavour (if using), and adjust seasonings to taste. Eat while hot, sprinkled with bacon bits and with crackers or biscuits on the side. Magnifique!

For a technicolour moving-pictures version, with drunkennesss and tempeh and fancy mushrooms and robot voices------->

Phun with Phyllo (and a blog makeover)

2009-04-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

I imagine most people out there have a ever-growing mental list of recipes to try someday. I used to bookmark every delicious thing that crossed my path while I read blogs, the collection getting to the hundreds and only barely did I look at it when it came time to actually satisfy hunger. After a recent browser crash and wipe of everything I'd saved, I decided to keep the ideas in my head, with the reasoning that it's those things that I really wanted to eat anyway! So right now, that list involves things like homemade bagels, tibetan yak dumplings, mole sauce, and anything ethiopian... and until very recently - anything with phyllo pastry! I finally tried using it, not without trepidation, in a recipe I've been itching to make since the moment I saw it (and did not forget it) - Jenny Wren's fennel corn phyllo pockets of awesome! (name-change mine)

It took me a couple tries to get the hang of it, I will not lie. But by the end I was folding up neat little dignified triangles with the best of them! I ate the wonky first ones for lunch today with a tomato compote from the Artful Vegan, and felt pretty durn special, I can say that. I'm pretty much on vacation for one whole week (wow) before I start summer classes again, so I'm up for any opportunity to get all indulgent in simple things, like tuesday's mid-day meal. Not that I wouldn't anyway, but I broke out the giant white restaurant plate for this one.

Hmm... and could not possibly resist making an apple-blackberry tart with local yellow delicious apples and BC golden syrup, nooooo.... not while the phyllo is just sitting there all defrosted and feathery and waiting for my apple-craving fingers to mash it into a crispy sugared square of fantastic with toasted walnuts on the bottom even ! It had to happen. You know it did. I'm glad it did. I would have given my eye-teeth for ice cream or even soy milk alongside of this, but regardless it was light and perfect.

Oh yeah - does anyone have experience with either/both of The Artful Vegan and Millenium cookbooks? I'd like to get one, I think, but I'm not sure which!

raw! mocha chia pudding, green soup, and tahini

2009-04-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

It's taken me enough time, but I think I might pursue some serious explorations into raw food this summer. It's probably because of this festival in the woods that my friends organize each year... this year I'm a part of the kitchen crew, and that means providing raw options on top of the fully vegan menu. Which I'm actually pretty excited about! The way it's set up we each get about one full day of leading the kitchen, and I have no clue what I'm going to make... but I am collecting ideas, and I figure I should start practicing my skills now.

I took out a book from the library - Nettie Cronish's New Vegetarian Basics - and figured I would actually cook something from it instead of just flip pages. Well... it's a mint and tahini sauce up there and it seems like it would be great on paper (and I'm not exactly sure how one messes up tahini sauce!) but there was like, no flavour in it whatsoever, so I had to double the tahini and add some ume vinegar and then it was pretty good. (I should mention that I like how she uses a lot of pumpkin seeds and seaweeds in creative ways in her book, though!)

To ease into Rawville I approached my blender with a lot of vigor and an open mind (and about 3 open recipe books!). I think I did okay for a try... I would never ever EVER call those thin bits of celery "pasta", but the tomato sauce was a sort of marinara and actually quite delicious! I used both red wine and balsamic vinegar with some fresh basil and it definitely wasn't salad-y, in fact surprisingly sweet and piquant and actually went pretty well with crispy celery. The soup was hella fun!! It involved.... (I wrote this down).....

a full stalk of broccoli

3" of zucchini

1/2 cup of corn

1 kale leaf ---- THE CULPRIT!!

knob of ginger

3 cloves garlic

lemon juice

apple c vinegar

olive oil

flax oil

juice of 2 grapes

tamari

regular soy sauce

sunflower seeds

1/2 a green apple

cumin, coriander, cayenne, paprika, salt, pepper

whole corn niblets

Good and good for you... but I read only afterwards that adding leafy greens to raw soups make them characteristically bitter, and this definitely needed those two grapes to balance things out. I felt really energized afterwards, but next time I think I'll keep my kale on the side. I do love making food like this, though - I feel like a scientist, cutting off bits and bobs of things to create a harmonious liquid whole.

Last and the sweetest! Mocha chia pudding, as per Swell Vegan's recipe, made with some probably unraw ingredients (cocoa, instant coffee certainly isn't), but in principle sure. Really quite good! Like tapioca pudding with the texture of strawberry seeds and the flavour of chocolate, and intriguingly... gloopy. In a good way! Like you can stir it up and much as you like and it will reconstitute back together immediately, which I think is a huge bonus, not liking runny pudding all that much. Plus this fills you up, so I hear, being hydroscopic and thus able to soak up all your drinking water... so it's the dessert that could save your life in a desert, aha!

swell cookzine est arrive!

2009-04-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

apple sprout!

Every so often (in fact, very often), on those days I have left my apartment with a slog in my step or even just no specific inspiration for the day to come except possibly another coffee and another ride on the bus... I will check my little metal mailbox and see personal mail inside. And instantly I'm five and it's my birthday and I'm grinning cheekily and cracking open a pretty envelope and the day is, so to speak, saved. Needless to say I was happy to see my copy of Swell Vegan's cookzine last week! It's beautiful, first of all - the covers are home-silkscreened in a burnished gold on creamy green card - and inside are 15 absolutely enticing recipes. I've already tested a spare few (the Maple Mustard Chili Tofu, Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers, and OH the Sweet Potato-Cranberry Scones with that gooey maple glaze!) and been really impressed each time. The recipes are easy and vibrant, definitely on the healthy side and did I mention delicious? The only thing I've made since getting my copy is Sarah's Savory Baked Tofu, but of course that was perfect too, even when I just eyeballed the measurements to make a 1/3 recipe. I actually really like the way A-K's food tastes, there's something really great about it.

some past swell food...

Sweet Potato-Cranberry Scones - as WannabeVegan mentioned, these are worth the price of admission, I'm 100% serious about this. Consider the price of a huge batch of the best scones you've ever eaten, then factor in being able to make them again and again each fall (or anytime), plus a few tempeh recipes and that just makes sense, doesn't it?

Maple-Mustard-Chili Tofu - this recipe keeps wanting to be made and then I remember I don't have maple syrup and then I am sad, because the maple flavour is vital and really delicious. The salad underneath it was weird (artichokes and grapes, huh past self? WEIRD!!) but that tofu was addictive.

And the first thing I tested were the Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers, which are a combination of some of my favourite things ever (almond butter, leeks, millet and sweet patats), in a more-ish kind of spicy burger. You gotta eat these fresh, they crumble in the freezer (unless the recipe has changed, and A-K you can correct me if I'm steering anyone wrong here?), but they then turn into taco salad crumbles. So not bad!

The latest dish! Sarah's Baked Tofu on some rice & millet, steamed vegetables, and a lemon-y sesame-thai dressing from the Millenium Cookbook that livened up broccoli like crazy. (It's the dressing from the Chilled Soba Salad if anyone's wondering). Straightforward looking, but take a bite from this and it's got zingy depth. Serve it to omnis. Mention whole grains and steamed veg and lean protein and then let them try it and giggle when they go all "ohhhh. Wait, this is good!" At least, that's my secret plan. Swell will be my secret recipe weapon, I've got the Mole Roasted Cauliflower on the mind to make next.

Oh, and I made the Lemon Zucchini Bread and the batter was great and then the most disastrous thing happened ever. My oven had the audacity that afternoon to turn into a dehydrator, resulting in the most depressing baked thing I've ever had the misfortune of creating. It turned this beautiful lemony-sweet cake batter into a block of chewy (albeit tasty) crust with raw lukewarm uncooked battergoo inside. I weep tears. No, actually, I threw it out. And I NEVER do that. So um... word to the wise, before risking a lemon zucchini bread make sure your oven works, or else microwave yourself an end piece and put enough Earth Balance on it so you don't notice you're eating liquid cake... errr. yeah.

That's a horrible way to end a supportive post! But it happened. It's my funny story. :)

PS: A-K you rock!

glutenless (almost), zuke-filled and springish

2009-04-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

So I've been busy! I have photos going back so far I don't even remember the niceties of what went into the food! Could be better this way, though... do a nice skim over with some sexy photoage and then I get to go RUN OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!! Because it's so nice out. It's been hard to want to do anything else, besides run around the city on luscious errands ("Ummmm... I need a light bulb. Let's go on a 3-hour sun-drenched walk!"). The markets nearby have been getting more fragrant by the day. Mangoes are getting delicious again. I'm listening to some pastoral Vashti Bunyan I picked up at a thrift store today and I'm having a hard time remembering the kind of cold that prompts lentil loaf, such as the one pictured above, but hey, it was needed at the time, and it WAS nostalgically yummy. I'm not sure about the whole vegan Loaf Craze, I think it might be my second one ever, but this one turned out remarkably well. It was even gluten-free, adapted from this recipe with some amaranth and rosemary added and some other changes I really don't remember right now. And it's an excuse to eat ketchup, as if I wouldn't eat it off a spoon, anyway. :)

I usually feel funny posting about salads, since it's like, well, vegetables. With oil and salt and things. But this one was like a bomb of happy went off in my mouth, so here it is. I think there was berries, daikon, carrot, goji, ume vinegar and mirin involved, maybe some tamari. Good stuff!! I think this is when I began to taste spring, a little bit.

And if I wasn't careful, Satchmo was gonna taste my peanut butter banana oat muffins!! These are soooo perfect if you don't want anything even remotely evil in a baked good, and I really didn't at the time. It's just every ingredient listed in the title, plus some baking powder, cinnamon, and raisins for sweetness and that's it. I mean, admittedly I added some salt and allspice, but that's still earnest. And they made perfect desserts for anything, since I made them mini I could celebrate putting my clothes in the dryer with a muffin if I wanted. Oh yeah! And gluten free, too! Like the loaf, completely subconscious on my part, but neat. Oh, and recipe is from aTxVegan!

Later I made some split pea soup because it's probably my favourite, this time heavy on red peppers and with quinoa in it as well, which made it a lot lighter and smoother, and better for warmer times. With my first sundried tomato pesto on rusks beside it.

And I ought to open Vegan Fire & Spice WAY more often, because it's just crammed full of launching-pads for creative dinners. I was way too lazy to cook up brown rice one night, so I riffed off the Persian Orange Rice with Pistachios, using couscous and walnuts instead. Really good!!! Totally orangey and warmly spiced and great with zataar-spiced vegetables to mix into it (especially zucchinis!)

CHOCOLATE !!

The best dark chocolate I've ever had? Possibly... quite possibly. My sister got it almost cheap because it broke into two pieces, thus affected the taste irrevocably and rendering it only fit for ruffians such as us to consume. Ahhhhh broken chocolate... also calorie-free I hear! And isn't that aztec-y wheel printed on the back gorgeous? The coffee beans in it are roasted near to a meltaway powder, and there's tons of them, and you should go to the Chocomotive site and order some of this and maybe send some to me, or just definitely pick some up if you ever see it broken in a store near you.

Yay! I am predictable like this, in that it's a wrap sandwich, but check it out, this one's special. I had the stroke of genius to mix in a whole buttload of fine-chopped scallion into my usual roti and it worked. SO. Well. The tofu mix wasn't half-bad besides, and maybe I've just been craving dijon really madly lately, but this was really good. If you haven't tried green beans in a sandwich before, you're missing out, too! Lightly steamed, rinsed cold, loaded along with zukes, sweet pickled onions, more dijon and grated carrot = win! I even remember what I did with this one ...

French-ish Tofu Salad

makes enough for 2 generous sammiches

1/2 lb. firm tofu - herbed is nice

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

3-4 tbsp mayo

1 tsp coarse ground dijon mustard

1 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp sweet paprika

1/4 tsp tarragon

salt and fresh black pepper to taste

- in a bowl, mush up the tofu with your hands (squish squish) until it's mushy like ricotta. Mix in the remaining ingredients, adjusting to your own taste, then stuff into breadish things and nom.

Scallion Flatbread

makes two 10" breads

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 all-purpose flour

2 tsp hazelnut oil

a good pinch of salt

1/4 cup fine-chopped scallion

6-8 tbsp warm water (it will really depend)

- In a large bowl mix together the flours, oil, salt, and scallion. Slowly splash in the water and mix until a dough is formed. Knead it for a minute or two - it should be a wet dough, but if it gets too wet (and it might due to onion moisture), just add a bit more flour and keep going. When it's slightly elastic, pop it back into the bowl and cover it with a towel. Let that sit for a few minutes while you heat up a heavy iron skillet over medium heat. Take out the dough and divide in two balls, dip them in flour and roll them flat (I usually get a 10" circle), then cook in the dry skillet about 2 minutes each side, until brown spots appear and it smells toasty. Instant lunch!

zombie jesus probably wanted mango, not braiiinnnnssss....

2009-04-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

It was an unexpected surprise, to hear my mom suggest driving up for the weekend along with my sister, carrying pantry reinforcements of cocoa powder, vanilla extract, organic beer, sprinkles, and BC golden syrup! Easter obviously isn't an epic day on my calendar, but it is gorgeous to celebrate anything with family, and so I made a ton of fresh summer rolls with two kinds of dipping sauce to remedy whatever fast food travesty they'd had to eat on the drive to my place. Which totally worked! And I made lime & poppyseed cupcakes, filled and topped with mango compote and swirled with vanilla frosting, and star sprinkles on top, because hey, it's the time of year for excess sugar and pastel colours, I think. So yummy! I think they're actually improving with age, too, flavours melding... I had one for breakfast today, shhhh! :D

We also hit that store with the crazy sales, whereupon we filled our recyclable plastic bags full of fresh udon packets and coconut cream powder and nori seaweed AND these beautiful little herbal tangerine candies I found. All for a dollar! I like the tin especially.

Brunch at Aux Vivres, which makes maybe only my third time there, ever. The hot spot vegan spot of hot vegan dining, and I've barely gone -- I know! Anyway, I got to see their take on a vegan brunch plate, which my sister ordered, piled high with melt-in-your-mouth tofu scramble (they use medium firm and load it with nooch), maple-y tempeh bacon strips, sweet potato fries, an excellent salad with dressing I forgot to identify, and cornbread with jalapeno in it. Yum! Not to mention pretty as a painting if anyone ever wanted their breakfast to cheer them up with sheer resemblance to flowers alone.

Mom ordered the chickpea masala on fresh chapati with apple chutney inside - this one I've had before and it is sweet slurpy savoury delicious, as well as MORE than enough food for two people, with a salad alongside. If you're ever so devoid of protein that only a total refuel will do, order this thing and you'll be set like superman!

And I? I was the lucky one. At the bottom of the menu I spotted a new item, something special... a Montreal smoked meat seitan sandwich, piled all high up with mustard, mayo, pickles and creamy coleslaw on the side... OMG. It was *crazily* like the roast beef sandwiches I used to eat sometimes, *utterly* delicious, *such* a treat. The bread was soft and awesome, too. I think the neatest thing was pulling the second half out of the fridge the next day and almost feeling like I was in my teens again, just eating any old thing I found around. :p

Witness the lovvvvve!!! They done seitan right, they did.... really soft and spiced perfectly.

cake! only slightly dented after a trip in a to-go tray

And! Should I mention some huge news? If anyone remembers my old roommate and vegan chef extraordinaire P, well... she's moved back to the city and become... the primary baker at Aux Vivres! The whole pastry counter - that's her! So I had to sample a massive decadent slice of chocolate apple cake. Don't let the apple thing steer you wrong on this cake, either, it is dense and rich and iced with an epic ganache, studded with just enough apple to make the flavour nuanced, with a raspberry sauce served on the side... you should go for this. Or for any of the desserts! I am certainly going back to sample other things, I consider it my duty as a friend. To eat... sugar and chocolate. My duty!! As a friend!! WEll, it is. :D

east meets my belly

2009-04-04T16:00:00.001-07:00

This is just the shot of the leftovers - stuff put into tupperware doesn't win any beauty points. But the point of this lunch was that it was a bento-ish kind of meal that randomly came together after I poo-pooed the idea of a peanut butter sandwich and started to boil potatoes. Which I never do, and made me feel festive enough to remember the wasabi tube I had in the fridge, thus wasabi mashed potatoes. So obviously then I had to try those panko & daikon stuffed mushrooms from the Veganomicon. Except... I didn't feel like firing up the oven for 6 mushrooms so I made them raw and used bulgur wheat instead of bread crumbs, and added some sweet peppers and Sambal Olek for fun.

Clearly the asian tofu from Vcon was the third logical step! Grill pans are great stuff.

It was special because I was taking it to an all-day drawing performance with rather zen-like properties, so it felt very appropriate (albeit not-even-slightly-traditional) to have a cute little themed lunch like this.

I even had one matcha & goji berry scone leftover from the night before! Double cute. Not to mention how it looks amazingly like an anatomical heart, which I only noticed after I uploaded the photo!

See? Awwww.

holy crap! treasure!

2009-03-31T16:48:00.001-07:00

Wooooaaahhh !!! I just lucked out, it's the sale of the century and I had enough toonies in my pocket to come home with the goooooold! I don't know why they were selling all these fantastic teas for $1 a box (haunted? peed on by raccoons? somehow decades old?) but I'm going back tomorrow regardless, because apparently they have MORE. *faints*

(clockwise from center)

japanese flower mushroom tea

mint with chrysanthemum and honeysuckle

60 spirulina capsules !!!!!!

organic ceylon lemon

relasin (for nerves, insomnia and eyesight, perfect!)

yunnan tuocha green (for digestion and... hee hee, lowering cholesterol)

soolim (didn't realize it was one of those slimming teas, oh well)

organic meadowsweet with devil's claw

I'm drinking the mushroom tea right now and it's so awesome. I would never ever ever serve it to company, ever, but it's deeply awesome and strange and OMG probably amazing with pizza !!

Terry Testers!

2009-03-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

Testing for Terry's latin cookbook has been loads of fun so far! Everything is so much in line with what I like to eat anyway - whole foods, simple but interesting preparation, loads of lime and cilantro, and all the recipes mix and match very well, so every meal is a new surprise.

Yellow Rice with Garlic ~ Columbian Style Red Beans

I had this for lunch today and it's probably my favourite thing so far! They both take the exact same amount of time to cook, the prep is maybe 10 minutes, and ohhhhhhhhh it's good. There's annatto and plantain in it and it manages to taste light and warm and sweet and earthy all at once.

Pickled Red Onions

These take possibly no time at all to make and they are delicious on sammies! And burritos, tacos, the end of your fork, eaten right out of the jar, draped across the side of a heavier bean-y or fried dish... ultimately, they are good, and a welcome addition to the pickle collection my fridge has got going. They are without doubt the prettiest member at the moment, too.

Mango Jicama Chopped Salad

I'm pretty sure that jicama is my new favourite vegetable, and this salad may be my favourite way to eat it... loads of lime, sweet mango, fresh herbage... mmmmm yes.

So Good, So Green Dipping Sauce

See, I told you jicama was my new favourite vegetable! I broke out my mandolin to do it up right. I'll spill that there's lettuce in this sauce (among a myriad of other wonderful things), so it's kind of funny to think that this lettuce is dressed with itself but it works. Oh, it works. This sauce is pretty magical: zesty, creamy, spicy, cooling, and obviously an incredible shade of emerald.

Cilantro Lime Rice ~ Tofu Chicharrones ~ So Good, So Green Dipping Sauce

Ultra-fried smoky chewy chunks of porky tofu? YES. YES IT IS. And you waaaaaant it. Also, that rice has addictive properties. All the rices so far have been hard to stop eating, actually.

Simple Sofrito

The basis for a few other dishes, it's super slow-cooked sweet browned onions + other things, and I am so glad I know the secret of this sofrito thing now. It made a quick after-school meal taste like it had been cooked by experts all afternoon, just by me scooping some of this out of the container in the fridge and adding it to the pot. Instant awesome! Neat trick.

Next up I'll be trying some Pumpkin Soup and maybe the Mashed Potato Pancakes with Peanut Sauce (!)

lemons & the first day of spring!

2009-03-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

I'm inspired again!! It happened very suddenly, I think a warm breeze passed through my kitchen and the walls turned sunny-orange in a way I hadn't seen in months, prompting a small whirlwind of culinary tinkering, and I haven't stopped since. I made raviolis, even, which I've always wanted to do! They're roasted beet with rosemary and toasted walnuts, made with wonton skins, so they're not pasta exactly, but I prefer the chewy dumplingness of the skins, actually. Because that way I'm allowed to eat them with my hands. They also coincided with a small disaster that resulted in something wonderful .......

-- my fridge has sucked for years. It's been replaced 3 or 4 times since I've lived here, and each one has been more small, old, fragile and smelly than the last. Have you ever seen a fridge where the freezer was INSIDE the box, and there was only one door? That was mine, until last week when it started to leak freon and smell rather horrifyingly chemical. I tried eating an apple from the crisper and my mouth started to tingle... I didn't repeat that. O_o

The building quickly replaced it, as usual, except that this time - it's a real fridge, white and sizeable, with a real freezer door! It makes a very satisfying sound, and my smoothies taste like ice cream now because the ice is so cold. Amazing! Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because while I rescuing things from the old icebox I pulled out a huge bag of peas and was like, "uh... I should eat these somehow", which led to a most delicious puree to go with my raviolis. I just threw the peas in a blender with some garlic, basil, mint, balsamic, oil, tamari and pepper and it was shmancy-perfect-face-stuffingly-delicious. woo!

I also made some sandwich bread last week, to celebrate the white flour purchase. I'd never made sandwich bread before! It's so useful, and tasty. This one was whole wheat rye, made with a bit of molasses and caraway and I had no trouble eating it up, especially shmeared with spicy homemade apple butter, yum! It inspired me to make a real salad. And it inspired me to have reubens for lunch all last week - holy batman that's a good sammich!

For the 'meat' part I made lentil patties with pickle juice and gluten flour, breaded them in breadcrumbs and baked for 30 minutes, flipping once. Then loaded on the sauerkraut and homemade 1000-island and munched happily away!

These are testers for Terry's new Vegan Latina book: black bean and plantain pupusas with a latin tomato sauce and a Salvadorean slaw, all delicioso.

And a great chard recipe with capers and raisins that's a new favourite around here. Sweet and salty and complex!

Finally - to celebrate the spring equinox, and in anticipation of finding good things in life, I baked a lemon poppy seed bread yesterday, studded with little treasures. Rings, crystals, little coins, it was so much fun to bring this to a potluck, cover it with fresh berries, and slice off little hunks with surprises inside! The bread itself is moist and more-ish, too - super citrusy, with a sparkly sugary crust, and soaked in a lemon syrup = win!

Springtime Lemon Poppyseed Bread

1 tablespoon lemon zest
juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons poppy seeds
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water (could use milk)
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

3 tablespoons raw sugar (for sprinkling on top)

optional: little metal trinkets

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 and grease a loaf pan.
2. Combine the wet ingredients in a large bowl, lemon zest through water.
3. Sift together the dry ingredients, then add that to the wet and stir just until combined.
4. Pour half the batter in the pan, dot the batter with metal trinkets (if using), then add the rest of the batter, sprinkle the top with raw sugar and bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Don't take it out of the pan yet though! While it's still warm, make....

Lemon Syrup

3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar

1. Mix lemon juice and sugar together in a bowl, microwave on high for about 45 seconds, stir to dissolve into a syrup.
2. Poke a bunch of holes in your lemon bread with a skewer or a toothpick, then pour the syrup over top and let it soak in for about 20 minutes. Then take it out of the pan and let it cool. Slice, warn people not to break their teeth on anything, and bask in the party game + dessert combined. :)

3 ways to get protein in your system, and 1 way to make a day sweeter

2009-03-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge advocate of switching around protein in any given recipe. As (I believe) most Canadians can tell you, tempeh is a little bit dear up here in the north, so I almost always substitute tofu and that usually works just fine. A little less... fermenty, but more sproingy*. In this case of the VwaV Sausage Crumbles I think it may have needed that extra bit of tempeh pungency, but anyway it was nice in a pita for lunch. Fennel is win, all the time.

(*look up "sproingy" in the dictionary and I guarantee there will be a nice block of tofu pictured there!)

Second favorite is for sure chickpeas, and I've even started to eat them out of cans, I love them so much. I should probably start soaking some now, actually... anyway, I was sick and in dire need of vegetables and honest food, and Dreena's Sweet Potato, Tomato & Chickpea Curry (real name?) was soooo tailor-made for the job. I added a dried chili for heat, replaced the zucchini with loads of kale, and sopped it up with some only slightly burnt brown rice. (my nose wasn't working very well and anyway, I like it crunchy! :P). I actually felt at least 63% healthier after eating this.

Leftover rice became little baked rice balls, from Extraveganza. They have tahini, ground almonds and dill, and I messed up by stirring the almonds right in instead of coating the balls, but fixed that with bread crumbs. Mmmm delicious breadcrumbs...

I had a hard time keeping these shaped - the mixture was very very sticky and err... ricey, but the flavour was really nice, and went super well with Tangerine Chipotle-Basil Hummus (my own special favorite concoction these days, and inspired by Mel, for sure).

I promised sweet, aaaand ---- here's the white flour I bought! Say "Hi," White Flour! ("Hi White Flour"). SO YUMMY. Dreena is cookie queen, they always come out with that great chewy bakery texture, and Anise Almond 5-Spice really *was* a nice break from chocolate, which was her selling point in the book. I think she needs to write a cookie book, because they're not giant fussy affairs to make, usually healthier than most, and always taste like something a bit more special than a mound of sugary dough. Mmm, I wish I had another one right now...

lazy lazy february...

2009-03-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

OR: "Long Ago Foods I Happened to Push Around in a Bowl For a Few Minutes In A Manner That Kind Of Resembles Cooking But Is Lacking Any Real Inspiration" :)

Hee, these blondies kind of look like those tile puzzles where you push around the little flat plastic squares to make a picture of... a tiger. Or a monarch. Or a guy with a lasso. I wasn't really caring about putting the pieces back in order after the food-porn was taken, and delicious things can be all rearrangey, sure.

I took the basic standard (awesome) blondie recipe from the ppk and made it all fiesta with lime juice and coconut. This was the first damned thing I'd baked in weeks!! No joke! And then they came out of the oven and I remembered why vegans have to bake - that is, to eat baked goods with melty buttery qualities. I distinctly recall deciding to gain a pound or two in honour of these things.

But really no cooking was I doing. Don't believe me, here's the proooooooof:::::

RICE FOR BREAKFAST! I ran out of oatmeal (and a small island in the pacific winked out of existence due to the illogical tanglement surrounding THAT). So I had to make do, and given I have patience in the morning to stir things and not do much else, I made some brown rice pud, with raisins, whole cloves, and cinnamon and it was... actually pretty great. Not oats, but every few years I'll shake up the morning routine a little. Oh, and I put brown sugar in it! Speshul.

Next evidence of no cooking: SLAW. Wooo! Blog-worthy mostly because it's a gorgeous shade of crimson and I happened to grate up a pear inside of it. I recommend the pear thing. (look close and you'll spot the fourth time I've made the World Fusion cauliflower soup. Fourth time!)

Last, last... I give thanks to the wonders that is the VwaV fronch toast *guideline* and how it enables me to eyeball the various flours involved. And it still results in this, which is way more carby-sugary than I usually like for lunch, but I had to use up old bread and um... Caramel Sauce. Kisses Everything! With Gold. squee.

In better news, the weather has gotten downright inspiring the past few days and my eyes are lighting up at the sight of spring markets and my poor little brain is starting to tinker with foods that make moods and involve wonderful, premeditated things like capers. I believe I'll be making seitan tomorrow. (!!!!) I see reubens and latin food.....

back and aged like a fine fine corner-store wine

2009-03-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

(psst the hottie ain't me, it's my sis)

(I am kicked out of veganism for this decorating job. of pure awesome.)

I'm still alive, I swear! I blame a flu for holding me hostage and making me kind of hate my own kitchen - a flu that has lasted for a month and is STILL CAUSING WHEEZY DEPTHFUL COUGHINGS IN THE NIGHT. Argh I say. I'm only sort of (maybe) remembering what an appetite feels like.

Chocolate PB banana smoothies + popcorn for dinner much? Anyway.

I turned 25 recently! And this year I insisted that a cake be made for me, because ha ha I was hating the sight of baking tins. Me mum made an amazing spice cake that I really want the recipe for - it was like eating a ginger cookie, except in cake form, and with plum frosting (and the best decoration job this side of my sister's taste level). Amazing, and I polished a good chunk of it off with actual soy ice cream, which I haven't had since high school. Happy birthday to me!

Later at home in montreal I had a wee shindig on my actual birthday, and flexed my rusty pastry muscles to pull off... the mushiest cake EVAH. Haha, it was good, but completely not cooked in the middle. (my oven is also teh sux, but we take responsibility for our disasters, yes?). I used the banana split cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and probably trying to make a full cake out of it accounted for the mush (also I only had whole wheat pastry flour, which is good, but not THAT good, you know what I mean? Forgive me but I like 50% white flour in cakestuffs).

At any rate the company was the greatest in the world, and I got a japanese unicorn mug, a pineapple, a decoupage candle-glass, a drawing of fish, some chamomile and ylang-ylang oils, and uhhh... my own tupperware back! Huzzah.

I also treated myself to a 10 kg bag of good old emptily nutritive white flour this afternoon. Aw yeah. :)

(^ psst that hottie is me)

happy heart day. post heart day.

2009-02-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

You know what? I like when muffins sink in the middle. It kinda makes you want to lean your head in right up to the pan and wonder... is it berry? Is it chocolate? Some other wondrous dark goo from the deep of the muffin? Okay, in this case I'll fess that it's blueberry, and I think you can even see the lavender flowers under it's chewy crust. I totally bombed making these muffins correctly; they had sunken middles, gooey middles, "over-done" edges, and the aforementioned mysterious depths - BUT I called them blondies and just let the yummy work itself out. Actually these are fantastic, my baking skills notwithstanding. (lemon blueberry lavender muffins from Extraveganza, for the record)

I've also been greatly enjoying an open can of coconut milk. Why didn't anyone tell me coconut milk was made of bliss? Man... it made teaching my little brother how to make tofu very very easy. And honestly, I think he may be better at it than I am! Those tofus in that thai coconut curry are succulent tofus - properly breaded and evenly browned. And I know that I'm not alone in considering the ability to make bean curd taste awesome is a necessary life skill to anyone, vegan or otherwise. I kinda felt like I had the 'good sister' hat firmly on.

Sorry I have to interrupt with an entry into the Liz Holding Food gallery.

MUFFIN VISION! SEE THROUGH!

I am horribly amused. :)

Entry number #2 in the gallery: Vietnamese spring rolls, which I've decided to live off of from now on.

Mostly because I can't imagine anything that sits better in my stomach. I haven't figured out why a handful of lettuce and noodles is so gosh darned filling, but there you go. It also could be that they're a thinly veiled excuse to eat loads of peanut sauce, which might be indeed why they are so filling. But seriously... favourite food ever? Rolls are close.

Reality though? This is what I eat every day. Practically these days. Hummus and salad, basically. And can you even believe I'd never made tabouli before, ever? I'm a VEGAN, I'm not sure how that's at all possible, but I managed to make it taste right, or better than right, because I put raisins and toasted walnuts on top and bulgur > couscous in my mind.

All right. I am obviously scattered today! I could blame the light food! I could blame Valentine's day! I might be in love. But that's another story! :D

Pseudo-Jamaican Stew for hungry bellies

2009-02-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

I have to mention this specially. I can't not mention it. It's a service to tongues everywhere to spread the word that Jamaican Stew is where it's at!! I didn't really plan it but it came together so magically, and I'm really happy at how my first "giant pot of something that should ideally feed me through the week" turned out. I even did up the last handful of my jasmine rice in celebration.

Incidentally I'm running out of pantry supplies like there's no tomorrow and I'm only replacing the basics because I want to buy paintbrushes and hang out with a certain valentine. And that's okay! I'm still cooking, it's just adding a different spin on it.

Anyway, seriously seriously make this, it is really comforting yet sprightly (and delicious!)

Pseudo-Jamaican Stew

1 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, diced
1 turnip (baseball-sized), peeled and diced
1 large carrot, sliced
2 cups cauliflower florets
1 bell pepper, diced (I used yellow)
2 whole red dried chiles (or fresh scotch bonnet if you have it!)
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp ground allspice
loads of fresh ground black pepper
1/2 - 1 tsp salt (check and add more if needed)
2 cups water (or broth)
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes
1 16 oz. can red kidney beans
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
a few generous shots of tabasco

jasmine rice (for under!)
green onions (for over!)

1. Soften the onion and garlic in a large pot over medium heat (with the oil of course), until they're translucent and aromatic.
2. Add the turnip, carrot and cauliflower and cook until things look slightly tanned.
3. Add the bell pepper, all the spices, and cook another minute.
4. Add the water and canned things. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer, partially covered for at least half an hour, or until the turnip basically is cooked through and the liquid looks broth-like.
5. Stir in the vinegar, tabasco. Check for salt and pepper. Serve over rice with lots of finely chopped green onion on top.

(I'll be licking the tupperware when that moment comes!)

january meets the colours of the rainbow

2009-01-30T14:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese new year everyone! For once I actually got to celebrate it, in a way - and on the correct day as well! At least, this was my lunch on the 26th. What tickles me more than anything is that I was able to make vegan tofu potstickers with an empty fridge boasting only carrots, cabbage and tofu. Because that's all you really need! Admittedly they were wanting for some sprightly green onion inside, but otherwise they were purrrrrrfect. Chewy gyoza can be for lunch anytime it wants at my house. Oh, and the star of the meal was actually the Hot Mustard Dipping Sauce from Vegan Fire & Spice. Two minutes to make and so flavourful!

As for the year of the Ox:

"This year will no doubt bear fruit, but the motto is: "No work, no pay!" Time waits for no man; if we are too lazy to sow then we can blame no one if we have nothing to reap. We will find a great many things requiring our attention, and the list of what needs to be done will seem endless. The Spartan influence of the Ox will be a constantly cracking whip over our heads. Better to apply oneself diligently than waste time arguing with the authorities. They will prevail, as the year of the Ox favors discipline."
- Feng Shui index

You know what? I can get behind that. I've been drawing temples and mandalas lately and I will be completely honest - it is tedious as all get-out. But I really do feel it will pay off later on. And I don't mind working hard in other areas of life too right now, perhaps with no evident reward. It's almost... liberating. I forget myself a bit.

But that's enough about life! Onto the good stuff, the foodstuff! ----------->

Okay, so I couldn't even believe I was eating this soup while I was eating it. It was lavender, and it tasted cheesy. I mean, it was magical princess soup or something. I'd made the cauliflower bisque from Vegan World Fusion before (it is SO good and easy, it's in my permanent repertoire), but never with a purple cauliflower. I also added delicious chunkies to it this time, like corn niblets and extra bits of cauliflower and ate it with a tiny little henge of caraway & raisin whole wheat soda bread.

And would you believe I didn't plan the symmetrical photo-op? Or even the symmetrical dinner? I guess it's not surprising that I was going for blended soups and little toasted starchy things though, it's been a flurried-snow january and I've been nursing a flu for a while. This one is the mellow lentil sniffle soup from Eat Drink & Be Vegan and I think it's actually my favourite lentil soup ever so far. There's something just so... right about it. It doesn't try to be anything but nicely balanced and nutritious and slurpy, and with some squash biscuits alongside I couldn't ask for a better snowy day dinner.

Oh, do you remember when I asked if anyone had any advice for non-sugary cranberry recipes? I think someone mentioned a cranberry dhal, which totally piqued my interest and that inspiration led to this creamy sweet potato & romano bean concoction, served with lemon rice cooked with a whole lemon. I was really wanting sour that day, and this was perfection.

Just the other day I made vegan*core's snickerdoodles because I'd never had one before and it was on the mental list of cookies to try someday (and also I had a tarot party to go to and cinnamon-sugar just seemed like a good idea to bring with me). The photo is terrible, but the cookies are fantastic. They're a white flour and sugar-fest (I only bake like this when I know I can give them away!), with a perfect slight-chew texture and crispy edges, and oh, they're gorgeous too. Like shimmery brown stars.... mmmm.

Another bad photo of something very yummy - I made essentially a flatbread pizza the other day on a homemade chapati with basil chipotle hummous on the bottom and tomatoes and peppers on top. But the real special part was what I managed to make out of leftover pureed squash. I only added nutritional yeast, lemon, olive oil, garlic powder, salt & pepper, but once it was baked up it tasted so much like a cheezy thing. Something gooey to sink the teeth into! I was pleasantly surprised!

Finally - possibly my favourite chinatown find of late - Hopia Baboy. It's a Filipino wintermelon pastry flavoured with green onion!! Astoundingly good. You just pop it into a very hot oven for 5 minutes or so to get toasty and flaky and then oh my goodness, it's like an instant sugar pie with sesames and a haunting bit of onion that totally works. I think some of the time they're flavoured with pork fat, which is slightly horrifying, but these ones were clean and clear. And they last forever. I bought a little blue package of them months ago and I just pull one out of the fridge and bake it whenever I want something aromatic and sticky to nosh. Sooooo good!

Love Pancakes!

2009-01-30T00:38:00.001-08:00

I'm sorry, I'll make a real post tomorrow (pink soup!), but for now this is the awesomest thing ever:

ultra health, for the ultra in all of us

2009-01-16T16:45:00.000-08:00

I don't remember what prompted the lasagna. Something prompted it... oh yeah! Friends came over eating giant gloppy plates of cheesy tvp-veggie lasagna last saturday and it stuck in my mind. Then I woke up on sunday slightly hungover and thinking that making lasagna would be a kind of ideal and relaxing way to spend the afternoon. I was right, too... so laid back this was. I made some tofu ricotto with fresh basil and a roasted red pepper sauce with nutmeg, then layered with whole wheat noodles, sliced mushrooms, zucchini, loads of swiss chard, and some ground up almonds, sesames and lemon zest on top. It turned out so exactly like I wanted - fresh and vegetabley and clean, and hearty too! I ended up eating most of it cold, too, like the risotto.

Later on... I haven't actually been baking all that much lately, but I figured maybe trying to make a single cookie might amuse me and get some chocolate into my system, so last night I tried. Here's the measurements, in case you're curious...

dry ingredients:
1 tbsp ground up oats (I used my fingers to grind)
1 tbsp flour
2 tsp unsweetened coconut
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of baking soda
pinch of chinese 5-spice powder
wet ingredients:
2" of banana, mushed to a pulp
1/2 tsp canola oil
splash of vanilla soymilk (if needed)

12 chocolate chips

** Add wet to dry, bake @ 350 for 12-15 minutes, until it's glossy and browned. Would be mad good with tea and apple juice methinks.

It's more like a chewy muffin top than a cookie per se (doubling the sugar might get you a cookier cookie), but I loved it as a near-guiltless snack. My next single cookie experiment will probably run along the lines of lemon-cranberry-almond. Come to think of it, does anyone have any delicious recipes for cranberries that aren't too indulgent dessert-like? For some amazing reason they're on for $1 a bag at my favourite grocery store and I can't think of a darned thing I want to do with them besides eat them out of the freezer and add them to oatmeal. Maybe cranberry bars? I just don't want to make them into something too sugary...

Oh yeah, speaking of good deals... I found 72% organic non-animal tested moisturizer and actual Scharffen Berger chocolate at the dollar store! The labels are ever-so-slightly off center and the bars are maybe 1 degree convex, like they'd been warm for a second, and I am a happy girl to take the misfit chocolate under my wing. Er, teeth. Yummy. (actually, verdict is I like Lindt better, but it's nice and fruity with a bit of pepper and I'd like to make a sauce with it maybe)

Yesterday I made some of Melanie's wonderful hummus, quinoa and broccoli soup. That particular combination got stuck in my head the moment I saw it, and I thought adding 2 cups of hummus to a soup pot was pretty novel. I added tomatoes to it today and loved it even more, but I could probably add tomatoes to ice cream and I would think it improved. :P
I also feel like mentioning that after finishing this bowl I felt just inexplicably amazing. Really, really good and energized, like my belly was a rotating rose. Wish I'd made more!

when the weather looks like this...

2009-01-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

I came home to this sight the other day. It was kind of funny, actually - I'd just trudged home through a blizzard with visions of hot stew in my head and what do I find but the storm decided to join me in my kitchen!

Ha, it was okay. I managed not to step in any of the puddles and was very very thankful for the crockpot stew I had put on the night before. Yeah, I actually used my crockpot! *shock* my mom would be proud. I had actually been so busy that I acted the great cliche and took it down off the highest shelf I have to put some veganomicon cholent-style ingredients together the night before.

I'm actually not sure if I'm sold on the tarragon + caraway thing... but it was warm and hearty and perfect at the time. (ie: full of potatoes). I added tabasco and corn, too.

Earlier than that (or later? oh I don't remember. sometime!) I made vcon lemon & pea risotto with roasted red peppers.

I don't know why people complain about leftover risotto! I actually thought this was tastiest cold out of the fridge, slurped up like cold lemony pudding. I'm weird, yes. I tried Risotto al Salto too, to try it (basically fried up like a fritter), which was fine. But nothing on the ice-cold stuff!

I posted about hoecakes before, so there isn't much to say about the big yellow thing on the plate - except maybe to amend my recipe to stress than fine cornmeal should be used in a hoecake. This one was coarse which did NOT work anywhere near as well, but ah you learn. The interesting bit, at least to me, is that grayish dip-like blob in the corner. It was very tasty! It's black bean & orange dip from ED&BV, and it's a little sweeter than a regular b.bean dip and really great on wraps and things.

In the midst of being busy I made some muffins to take to school. I wonder why I decided to make jammy muffins to put in my bag? Ha ha, anyway, they're hearty jam-dot muffins from Fran Costigan's second book. They're okay... I like that there's lots of toasted oats and sesame in them, and my mom's homemade plum jelly. A wee bit heavy, but I subbed some stuff so it could have been my bad.

Over christmas my dad bought me some veggie burgers for christmas eve Burger Night (woohoo!), which happened to be Amy's California Burgers. They're soooooo good! They don't taste a blessed thing like fakey meatstuff, but they DO taste like toasted bulger and mushrooms and loads of other great all-natural things. I had some on buns, and some on salad with tahini dressing and both ways were awesome. I had the last one today though, and I don't know what to do because I never buy pre-packaged food for myself but I think I've fallen in love!

And finally... we call this an economic birthday, or a belated one, or whatever. It's a full moon tonight and though it's neither of these boys' birthdays (although it's close), it's definitely always a good time for a chocolate jalapeno cake with ganache topping and strawberries inside. Yeah, I know!! It's another Extraveganza cake recipe and holy schlamoli, it's SO tender and delicious and soft peppery perfect, I tried a whole bunch of it that stuck to the cake tin. ^_^;

Word to the wise: the recipe mentions nothing about de-panning this cake, and in fact implies that it shouldn't be, I think, at least when you read the icing recipe along with it. I did anyway and it was a total headache cause it was so fluffy and sticky (and criminally delicious. did I mention that?), but I think it came through the operation 97% intact. Minus the chunks I ate. (I'm starting to think that being able to fix cake disasters is as useful as baking one that tastes good... :P)

Anyone else notice how the stuff on top kinda looks like a crab? Not planned! But I like it.

a fresh start involving beans

2009-01-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everyone! Did you get kissed last night? I got a hug! :)

Maybe it was due to eating those lucky black eyed peas everyone goes on about. I've got no problem with an excuse to them, though, being all mushy and sweet and darned adorable with that little black spot. I found out later that the collards they're traditionally eaten with in the south symbolize paper money, so I missed out on that part, but do you see those basil leaves? Looks leafy and green to me! I even ate this all on lettuce, I'm probably set on the symbolic moolah front. Oh, and the beans themselves were a vegan version of Jukut Murab - a Balinese salad with coconut, tamarind, chile and lime and very very delicious - it's going into bean salad rotation and will definitely be gracing the table of a potluck sometime in the future. It's exotic and wonderful on the tongue and easy and healthy and cheap = win!

And speaking of inconceivably delicious food being actually very healthy - stuffed zucchini globes, Isa-style definitely qualify. How had I not made these yet? The millet here is basically a delivery device for tomato-y, olive-y, caper-y superflavour, which doesn't get any further up my alley. I ate the leftover millet rolled up in steamed red cabbage with a squish of lemon, which forgive me, may have been even tastier than the squash, and um... I even put this stuff on crackers. Recommended!

Oh Extraveganza, shall you be in all my posts and will I never mind? Yes. :)
Especially when you offer recipes like pear and cardamom pudding, zomg. I doubled the cardamom and I shouldn't have done that, because it became somewhat impossible to NOT have perfumed vanilla sweetness for dinner two night in a row. I am considering making more...

Finally, eek, I made saucy asian takeout style food! I can see why people do this now... It's kind of a Gyudon (japanese beef and rice bowl) made with eggplant, as per Vegan Ronin's excellent adaptation, and somewhere between adding a splash of requisite sriracha and licking my bowl clean this was dreamy good eating. Even the rice happened to be purple in aubergine agreement! Goodness, I think now I'm gonna have to make General Tao's tofu and cross that dish off my lifetime list now that I'm all hooked on sweet thickened sauces. YUM!

Bonus picture >>>>>>>>>>>>>
My favourite salad these days involves green apple and crushed up organic Wheat Thins, which was inspired by fatoush, if you can believe it. The crackers are sweeter than the apples, and with a noochy citrus dressing it's a perfect snack.

(can you believe I got organic crackers at the dollar store? madness! I'm not complaining though)