omg, cake!

I made a layer cake!  My first ever!  Ok, Michael helped me with some of it too.  But still!  Cake!  When I saw Hannah's recipe for a Citrus Sunshine cake on her wonderful Bittersweet blog, I knew I had to make it.  Not only because it sounded awesome, but because I love lemon in baked goods and because I knew I had the ingredients at home.  Or at least, I thought I did.  

Of course, I knew I didn't have any Meyer lemons (and neither did any grocery store in a 50 mile radius), so I substituted 2 smallish regular lemons for the zest and juice in the recipe.  But then I realized that I didn't have anywhere near enough agave nectar for the cake!  Oops!  I had to do some off hand subbing, but luckily all turned out well.  In the cake batter, I used 1/2 cup of agave nectar and then 3/4 cup of sweetened applesauce to not only make up the rest of the sugar, but also to make up the liquid content I'd be losing.  Oh, and I didn't have a bundt pan, but Hannah oh-so-nicely replied to an email I sent asking about using two 9 inch round pans instead (a new purchase, yay!).  Here they are right out of the oven.

sleep lines

Yeah, so when I popped them out of the pans onto my cooling rack, they got a little indented.  No biggie.  That's what frosting's for.  Also, my oven is totally crooked and the cakes came out lopsided (which Michael nicely trimmed so that I could stack them).  He also whipped up a basic vanilla buttercream for the filling and outer layer of frosting, from VCTOTW.  Meanwhile, I whizzed up the icing from Hannah's recipe, substituting light corn syrup (guh, I know, I know) for the agave and adding another half a lemon's worth of zest, because I was afraid I was losing lemon flavor with all that buttercream.

yay!

It turned out beautifully!  I asked my dear food assistant (Michael) to slice up a strawberry for garnish since otherwise it would have just been kind of ugly.  Holy crap though!  Look!  My first layer cake!

and it tasted good, too

With all the icing, it is a very sweet cake...  But still so wonderful!  Just enough hint of lemon to tang it up, and the cake is so moist and delicate.  

would you like a slice?

We still have so much cake left.  How am I supposed to use all of it?  So.  Much.  Cake.  I think that's really a small problem, if you think about it.

For dinner we made some homemade veggie/grain burgers!  I made these buns for them using my bread machine to knead the dough for me.  I added in a cup of whole wheat flour to give them a little more tooth than the rolls I did last week.

do you like my buns?

Michael got this recipe from the Food Network website.  It was something Alton Brown was making.  Pea Burgers!

so they don't photograph well

Despite their non photogenic-ness, these burgers were really yummy!  Here's the recipe:

Pea Burgers

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus 1 to 2 additional tablespoons for sauteing

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped bell pepper*

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons minced garlic

4 ounces mushrooms, sliced

3 cups vegetable broth

1 cup dry split peas, picked and rinsed

1/2 cup dry brown rice

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

3/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs, plus 1/4 cup for coating

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large (4 to 6-quart) saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper* along with a generous pinch of salt. Sweat for 5 minutes or until the onions are soft. Add the garlic and mushrooms and continue to cook for another 4 minutes.

Add the broth, peas, rice, coriander and cumin. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Decrease heat to low, cover and cook at a simmer for 1 hour or until the rice and peas are tender.

Remove from the heat and gently pour the mixture into the bowl of a food processor and process until just combined.** Do not puree. Pour this mixture into a bowl and stir in the 3/4 cup of bread crumbs. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground pepper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Shape the mixture into patties and dredge on each side in the remaining 1/4 cup of bread crumbs. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat.*** Add 2 burgers at a time and saute until brown on each side, approximately 3 to 4 minutes per side. To grill, cook on high for 3 to 4 minutes per side as well. Serve immediately.

* We had no bell peppers, so subbed in 1 diced jalepeno and frozen corn to make up 1/2 cup

** You might need to do the food processing in 2 batches.  That's ok.

*** Instead of sauteing the burgers, we used out Foreman grill, in order to cut down on the fat.

The burgers were very tender, but still stayed together well, and had a touch of an Indian taste from the coriander and cumin.  So, so good.  Thanks, Alton!  We also roasted up some beets, carrots, onions, and garlic with rosemary for the side.  Yum!

In other dinner adventures, we had jumbalaya!

jumbalawesome!

This is the recipe from ED&BV, and it was a huge success, of course.  I've never made a recipe from that book that failed.  Not a single one.  That woman is a genius.  Anyway, I made the tempeh crumbles from VWAV to go on top, for an added bonus.

i want some of this right now!

I kept the crumbles more like chunks so they're be more like...well, chunky.  Man.  This was so great together.

A slightly trashier dinner adventure can be seen here:

return of the croissant dogs

But...  you know...  to make it healthier, I made some sauteed kale to go with them.  That totally makes up for it, right?  Anyway, these were really great with some mustard (we've gotten a couple new varieties as of late...) and the relishes from Zukay Live Foods.  Yurm.

Michael has class during my lunch hour 2 days a week, so I'm on my own for them.  I've started making something on the first day, eating half, then eating the leftovers on the other day.  This week, I made some couscous with spinach, chickpeas, capers, lemon juice, and red wine vineger.  It was much better the first day than the other...but still a yummy lunch!

i will try any excuse to use capers when michael's not here

And to close...cake!

still so excited!

Oh, I got some new dishes that are totally rad, so start looking for prettier photographs.  My next goal is clamp lights.  And I almost bought a new camera last night, but it turned out to be a shitty camera, so I didn't.  I just know I can do so much better than the photos I've had here (I have a masters degree in photography for goodness sakes!) and am finally motivated enough to make it happen.  You see, I only ever used to take photos outdoor and always with film, so I'm still learning here (without lights, it's pretty hard...plus I still can't find my tripod).  Oh, and if you want to see some examples of my art, you can see some here (I'm still in the process of uploading them...there are so many!).

One last thing!  Ckwebgrrl, please contact me!  If I don't hear from you in the next couple of days, I'm going to have to pick a new winner.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

journeys and adventures!

That is, a journey to my health food store and adventures in new recipes.

On Saturday, after blogging and watching it snow and generally laying about, I made a trek to the Healthy Life Market.  Healthy Life Market is code for overpriced stuff that's good for you.  Seriously, I only go here once every month or so, for two reasons:  it takes 20 minutes to get there and it's fucking expensive.  Sometimes, though, a girl needs to splurge on stuff that she can only find at the health food store.  And don't think those jerks don't know that they have a monopoly on the local healthy person market.  Jeez.  Sorry, but the prices really are ludicrous at this place.  I'm getting all worked up just thinking about it again.  Now it's time for you to tell me that what I got was worth the price and the drive.  No, I'm not going to tell you how much I spent.  Suffice to say that it's probably more than you think it is.

chickn nuggets, tofutti pizza, FYH mozzarella, organic tofu, ezekial bread, EB sticks, and some fake pepperoni

ww pastry flour, beet sugar, ww couscous, nutritional yeast*, green lentils, cumin, chile powder, cayenne

coconut milk, almond butter, d-mannose, wild rice blend, nature burger mix, quinoa pasta

So I guess I had a decent haul.  The nuggets and pizza and part of the pepperoni are already gone (also, the most expensive food things, of course...one does pay for convenience).  This morning I had that sprouted bread as toast with some almond butter.  I've never had either of these before, and must say that they're pretty good.  The bread is very earthy with all the seeds and sprouts in it and the almond butter is...well, it's good, ok, but not nearly worth the price.  Seriously, that tiny jar was $5.  What?  Why?  I mean, I get that almonds are more expensive than peanuts...  but I think...  I might...  like peanut butter better.  I'm sure some of you are gasping in horror right about now, but, eh!  Call me crazy if you must.

I also made good use of the tofu and whole wheat couscous last night.  Ahem.  Look:

you know you're intrigued

That is pesto hummus stuffed tofu.  I got the idea here, but honestly did not even read through the recipe once before making it.  In fact, I saw the title over a week ago and it just popped into my head, and I thought, 'I do not need a recipe for this.  I can make it up as I go.'  And I was right.  I'll post my recipe below.  It may or may not be close to my muse, but again...no clue here.  I suppose I could glance at it before I link it, haha...  But I probably won't.**

Anyway, I used the last of the pesto I had sitting around.  Half of it on the tofu, half of it mixed into my couscous.  I had a couscous overload last night.  It was a bit ridiculous.  You can see this from my picture:

that isn't even half of the couscous i made

Those are turnip greens and sugar snap peas with a nice tahini sauce in the background.  They were good, but I dumbly forgot to wash my greens before steaming them.  There may or may not have been alcohol involved in this silly omission.  The flavor was good though.  That tahini sauce is:  tahini, lemon juice, scallions.  And it was tangy and wonderful.

Here's the recipe for the tofu.  I must warn you, I cut some corners with it, but this dish was really delicious, despite my laziness.

Pesto-Hummus Stuffed Tofu

1 block extra firm tofu (not silken), pressed and cut into 4 large chunks

1/2 cup hummus

2-3 Tbsp basil pesto

a bottle of italian dressing (sigh, yes, i marinated it in italian dressing from a bottle)

Ok, so once you have your four chunks of tofu, slice a slit into one side.  This slit should make a little pocket inside and not go through any of the other sides of the chunk.  I hope that makes sense.  Marinate them in the Italian dressing for about an hour, turning them fairly regularly so that all sides get nice and soaked.  

Preheat your oven to 375F once the hour's up.  Place tofu and marinade in a small glass baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.  Then take it out.  Mix up the hummus (mine was already prepared by my local deli) and the pesto (guh, it came from a tube, honestly).  Then spoon it into a plastic bag, cutting off one corner of the bag to form a makeshift piping instrument.  Pipe a generous amount of the hummus mixture into the slits you cut earlier.  Pop the dish back into the oven for another 30 minutes.  

That's it.  It was embarassingly easy.  And it was delicious.  Make sure you use a tofu that you like the flavor of, since the marinade doesn't really penetrate all the way to the middle in that hour.  I'm sure it would be even better with homemade hummus and pesto.  But isn't it nice to know that it was good with storebought stuff as well?  I think so.

Oh, I was going to do a review of those holiday soy drinks.  Well...  How about, instead:

This stuff:

Tastes infinitely better than this stuff:

I didn't take those photos.  Silk doesn't even have a picture of that pumpkin spice crud on their website.  Even they know it's not good.  As for the Vitasoy?  I can't wait to get back to the store to stock up.  Anything chocolate and mint is basically a no-brainer for me.  It all stems back to the days when my dad would surprise me with a treat of peppermint patties on the occasion that he might pick me up from school.  Oh, how I rued the day that I found out they weren't vegan.  Sad.

*Mom and Dad, if you're reading this, yes I know I just asked you for nutritional yeast from Elkins when you go and then went and bought my own the next day.  Please, still get me some if you go.  I only got that bag because I'm addicted to the stuff and it's only a pound and it costs 9 fricking dollars a pound here, which makes me insane.  I'm sure I'll need/want more by the time I see you in a couple weeks.  (a big huge bag, please!)

**I did look at that recipe and mine is so much easier.  Granted, they made a sauce to put the tofu in, but they didn't think of the idea of making a piping thingamabob instead of somehow trying to put it in with...a knife?  huh?

Vegan Mofo day 7: a pretty yummy dinner...and COOKIES!

Last night was a bit of a hodge podge that ended up coming together rather nicely.  And it looked like this:

minted couscous, mashed sweet potatoes w/kale, cajun spiced tofu

The tofu recipe came from Yellow Rose Recipes. It was pretty good...  Not as flavorful as I would have liked, but the texture was lovely.  I think my new favorite way to make tofu is to broil it.  It comes out all chewy and lovely, but in so much less time than baking!  But you really need a flavortastic coating for it to chill in because the less time it cooks, the less time it has to soak up yumminess.  I guess I could marinade things.  But I didn't think of it last night.

it almost looks like breaded fish here...weird!

The minted couscous was based off a recipe from my new Linda McCartney cookbook.  I changed it though, for ingredient availability and the fact that couscous does not need 2/3 cup of olive oil..  EVAR!  I'll put in my revised recipe for this at the bottom of this post.  It was pretty tasty.  I had the leftovers for breakfast and lunch today...   mostly because I'm lazy, but also because it was good.

there is just something about couscous...  maybe it's the way it gets stuck in my throat when i eat it too fast, or maybe it's the delightfully flufftastic texture.  tossup.

I had some kale in my fridge and a big bunch of sweet potatoes from the farmers market, so I whipped up another batch of Mashed Sweet Potatoes w/Kale.  I know I posted a recipe for this once before, but I don't feel like looking for it, mostly because the recipe pretty much IS the title, except for the addition of some garlic, shallots, and a little margarine.

best way to trick myself to eat kale

Finally, I stumbled across a recipe for Cashew Butter Cookies on Cupcake Punk's blog last week.  I had recently bought some cashew butter and loathed it in sammiches (it was just...wrong for some reason) and this seemed the perfect use for at least part of my jar.  That crap is too expensive not to use!

these adorable cookies are a big hit with omnis too!

That's right, I took some to work today.  They gobbled them up and were practically begging for more.  Unfortunately, the recipe only makes about a dozen cookies, so I had only brought in enough for 1 each.  I'm going to make these again soon, though, because they were ultra easy to make, taste fabulous (so much more...sophisticated than peanut butter...not to knock the ol' PB...but sometimes you want a grownup cookie, and this is it), and is a good way to use up the remainder of that cashew butter just hanging out in my cupboard.  Go make some!

And now, for my recipe:

Minted Couscous

1 cup couscous

2.5 cups water

drizzle of olive oil

juice and zest of 1 lemon

1/2 cup diced sweet pepper (bell or otherwise, preferrably not green..go red, yellow, or orange)*

4 scallions, finely chopped

4-6 Tbsp chopped fresh mint

2-3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Boil the water, then add the couscous.  Remove from heat, cover, and let sit until water has absorbed (about 8-10 minutes).  Add olive oil, zest and lemon juice; stir.  Stir in peppers, mint, and parsley, then add salt and pepper to taste.  I like mine salty.

* i used 2 sweet fresh banana peppers (red and orange), but 1 bell pepper would be about 1/2 cup

Simple!  Delicious!  You have no excuse not to make it!

My apologies to Linda McCartney for not wanting to be a fat fuck and add almost a cup of expensive ass olive oil to my side dish.  what!

Oh, and finally, as promised, the ingredients on the pumpkin butter: Pumpkin.  Brown Sugar.  White Sugar.  Lemon.  Water.  Spices.  'spices?'  yes, 'spices'.  So I guess you're on your own for that one!  

Oh, wait again.  Someone in my comments asked what cheese sauce I use on my nachos...  I start with this recipe, then add lots of cumin and chili powder to make it mexistyle.  It's even better if you blend in some diced tomatoes!  Oh, and you'll have to cook that on the stove to thicken it up.

That is all for now.  No dinner plans tonight, but I'm sure we'll think of something.

mexi night and farmers market

Last night, Michael was in the mood for a meximeal. However, we didn't have the ingredients on hand for our usual quickfix of nachos... So we got creative! A lot of chilies were involved in the making of this nicely spicy meal.

stoplight chilies

Since we didn't have any 'meat' crumbles or tvp on hand, we gave some tofu a quick marinade of hot sauce, lemon juice, rice vinegar, cumin, and smoked paprika. It was then pan seared on the lovely cast iron skillet. The tofu we used was different from our usual brand, and it was delicious! The tofu only sat in the marinade for about 5 minutes, so the flavors were very light, but spicy, but the tofu itself had a really nice, smooth flavor unlike any tofu I'd had before, so it turned out very nice.

sizzle sizzle

I made a mexi-style couscous with a can of diced tomatoes, chilies, scallions, chili pepper and cumin. Again, the flavors were subtle, but very fresh.

lovely fluffy couscous

For a nice edible garnish, I whipped up a quick and inauthentic pico de gallo. I cubed up some red and yellow tomatoes, added some chilies, sliced scallions, and parsley, then finished with a squeeze or two of lime and a pinch of salt.

yummy fresh delicious

All this came together with some toasted whole wheat tortillas and some clover sprouts for a nice, earthy crunch. Hot sauce for added awesomeness points.

michael's plate... he's so good at presentation :)

This morning we went to the dwindling farmers market. There are less and less vendors and the veggies get less and less interesting... But we still managed to get a good haul!

like 5 different types of peppers, october beans, yellow cherry tomatoes

Teehee...Michael went a little nuts with the hot and sweet peppers while I was off searching for sweet potatoes. I think we might have to eat chili for the rest of the month to use all these up!

cabbage, sunflower head, new potatoes, turnips, sweet potatoes, apples, sweet potato squash, and an apple gourd

Right now, we are a tad obsessed with silly looking gourds. They're so funny looking and fun... Michael saw this apple gourd and couldn't resist, and I have to agree that it was too silly to pass up. I'm not sure about that sweet potato squash, I've never heard of that before, but... We'll cook it up and see what happens. I'm into new stuff. I've never cooked turnips before, either, but there ya go.

After a nap, we woke up and had some more apple pancakes. Those farmers market apples are so good as a warm, sweet topping for pancakes.

yumtastic fall breakfast

Off now to do laundry. Big Saturday cleaning fest today, wooo...

special casserole and salisbury 'steaks'

This is my special Sunday Night Tofu Noodle Casserole. Which sounds totally gross, but is anything but gross. The original recipe came from the Whole Soy Cookbook, and I really only changed it by adding some garlic and increasing the peppers and onions. The cookbook is.... ok. But it emphasizes using a lot of meat analogs and a LOT of soy cheese. Which I generally think is nasty. There are a few good ones in there though, and this is one of them. I'll go ahead and give it to you, since it's really not worth buying the whole book just for this one delicious recipe. Copyright, be damned! Plus, I changed it.

Sunday Night Tofu Noodle Casserole

Generally, I only make this in the winter/fall/spring (i.e. not when it's blazing hot outside), but Michael requested it the Monday night. I've never made it on any day but a Sunday either. What the hell though, live dangerously.

1 package of short, chunky noodles (whatever you like)

1 green pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 big jar of spaghetti sauce

1 can diced tomatoes, drained (optional)

12-14 oz ground beef style soy stuff (I use Morningstar Meal Starter Crumblers)

1 package of firm tofu (not silken, not pressed)

a little less than a full package of soy cream cheese (about 3/4 cup)

about half a package of soy sour cream (about 1/2 cup)

1 bunch of chives, chopped (you can use scallions if you want here)

1/2-1 tsp salt

Ok. First off, start boiling your water for the pasta and preheat your oven to 350F. Cook and drain the pasta according to instructions on the package.

While that's going on, heat up a little bit of EVOO in a pan with somewhat tall sides. You end up with a lot of sauce, here. Throw in your pepper, onion, garlic, and ground beef and saute until the onions get somewhat translucent and the beef starts to brown. At this point, add the diced tomatoes, if using, and the pasta sauce. Turn your heat to low and allow it to simmer until you're ready for it.

While the sauce is simmering away, get out a med-large bowl for the tofu mixture. Into this add your sour cream, cream cheese, chives, salt and tofu. When you add the tofu, squish it between your fingers so that it has a ricotta cheese-like consistency. Using a fork, MIX WELL. If you don't, the flavors won't mesh and it will taste strange.

Ok, here's the fun part: layering. In a 9x13 casserole dish add a little less than half of the sauce and spread it evenly. Then add half the noodles. On top of the noodles, spread the entire tofu mixture. Top this with the rest of the noodles, and finish by pouring the rest of the sauce over the top. Cover with tinfoil and pop that baby in the oven for about an hour. The last 20 minutes or so, uncover it so that the top gets nice and brown.

This dish is seriously addicting. They need to think up a new name for it so that it sounds more appetizing.

Yum!

Next is our actual Sunday night dinner. Salisbury Steaks from Vegan Dad. I'm always looking for new ways to try out seitan, and this one was .....nomnomnomnomnom! The one thing I did differently was add thyme instead of dill (didn't have any dill). Oh and I also messed up by not really 'grating' the tempeh. I thought mushing it up with a fork would work ok. I was wrong. It didn't really incorporate into the wheat gluten, so there were little chunks of tempeh and not all of them made it into my final 'steaks' because they kept falling out. So make sure you grate it, if possible.

Anyway, I served this up with some kale (cooked with garlic and lemon zest) and Mediterranean Couscous. Both were...ok. The couscous was very olive-y. Which normally I like, but I think my olives might be bad. I dunno, it just didn't taste right. The kale was fine, but no matter how much I try, I just can't seem to get into kale. I always think, ooooh kale, this will be awesome! But it never turns out right. This was downright bitter. I know there are different types of kale and some are sweet, but our grocery store does not carry it, apparently. So... yeah. I wish I could learn to like kale better, because I know it super healthy for you and supposedly yummy.

Salisbury Steaks w/Kale and Couscous

Mediterranean Couscous (pretty, but not so palatable)

To finish off, I will leave you with a picture of some scones I made a couple weeks ago that disappeared within 24 hours because they were just.that.good.

Incredible Disappearing Scones Act!