epic proportions

Last night I made an epic bagelburger at 3 am and my roomie demanded that I blog about it. He is not vegan, nor does he even read my blog...so it seems as if this is more of a 'people must know about your awesomeness' type thing, to which I am rarely opposed. I only allowed him one bite, but he immediately said that I must take a picture of it and write about it...to let the world know. However, I was not in a state to be taking pictures of my food. I was in a state to be devouring my food. That just meant that I got to recreate it today.

huh.

My first thought upon recreation was that it was not nearly as lovely as I remembered it from the night before. In fact, it's downright ugly and not that easy to eat (the insides kept squishing out the sides of the bagel). Whatever though, because it's definitely as delicious as I remembered. Ok.

Explanation #1: I've been on a mega bagel kick lately.

Explanation #2: I've been on a mega hummus kick lately.

Explanation #3: I much prefer putting hummus on my bagels than fake cream cheese or jam.

Explanation #4: I've been a bit lazy in my cooking and when I run out of leftovers...I eat bagels with hummus quite a bit.

Explanation #5: As my most devoted readers must know, I am a mustard fanatic. This is a case where the mustard absolutely makes the sammich.

I recently acquired a new type of mustard: dill mustard. It is, in a word, fabulous. It's all the awesomeness of having pickles on your sammich without that gross, rubbery, sometimes just nasty pickle actually being on your sammich. It reminds me of...ok, to be quite honest, what I remember McDonald's cheeseburgers tasting like. Granted, I haven't had a McDonald's cheeseburger in around 12 years (seriously, gross), but those darned things were a pivotal part of my youth. It was, once upon a time in young Jessica's life, quite a treat to go to McD's to get a cheeseburger and, if the season was right, a shamrock shake. Admittedly, I would not touch one of those things with a ten foot pole now, nor would I ever encourage anyone to actually eat one. But forgive me for having a taste memory that reminds me of my childhood and getting a little treat and hanging out with my fam. It happens.

So. That being said, you're gonna have to get some dill mustard, especially if you would like to create my epic bagelburger. It's pretty simple. The ingredients list is almost laughable:

1 Boca burger (original vegan...for that smoky, fast-food type taste)

3-4 giant spoonfuls of hummus (just regular old hummus, nothing fancy)

some lettuce (i've been buying this artisan lettuce stuff, another post on that situation at a possible later date)

1 bagel, toasted (i used whole wheat [it makes me feel less guilty]...and another rant on the complete and utter uselessness of an untoasted bagel at yet another possible later date)

1 squirt of DILL MUSTARD (no alternatives, i'm sorry, it's just not a possibility)

uh, yeah. Assemble. I put hummus on both the top and bottom of my bagel, because I'm decadent like that.

Lets have an admission of guilt here: it's drunk food. It's 'I've been drinking since I got off work and I want fast food in the middle of the night but should definitely not drive and I don't want Taco Bell and none of the fast food places have a vegan burger' food. It's fast. It's messy. It's ugly.

It's perfection.

what to do with all those veggies?

First off, I would like to say that I am so excited, because I've fallen in love with a new apartment.  It is consuming all of my waking (and sleeping) thoughts.  Michael and I are going to look at it today, as he hasn't seen it yet...and everyone should cross their fingers for us that we decide to get it and are able to move into it in 2 weeks time.  Because it would be so awesome.  Even though the kitchen is rather small.  I don't know where on earth I would put things like this rad farmers market haul:

beets, tomatoes, potatoes, summer squash, purple peppers, spring onions, and cabbage

more tomatoes, including adorably colored little ones, new potatoes, more purple peppers, green peppers, white cucumbers, and a ginormous zucchini

There is barely enough space in our kitchen for it all.  That's our haul from Saturday...we spent $30.  Which isn't too bad, considering how many tomatoes and peppers we got.  I already started freezing some peppers (this new place, should we choose to get it [hope!], is only 2 blocks from our current apartment, so transporting food and frozen stuff won't be a problem, thankfully) so that we'll have plenty when it's after their season and they get all crazy expensive in the grocery store again.  

Anyway, you might wonder what we do with all these veggies during the weeks, that we have to buy so many every Saturday.  Well, like I said, we freeze some (cabbage, besides the peppers).  And we eat a lot of them (um, tomatoes) on sandwiches.  But sometimes it's nice to do something a bit fancier.

scalloped pofabutatoes

Michael loves potatoes.  And I love noochy cheeze sauces.  Other scalloped potato recipes we've tried have really fallen short of both our expectations, but I found this one at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.  Anything that Susan stamps with her little girl's approval...yeah, we'll love it.  And this was certainly a hit.  We totally finished that whole pan in one night. 

soup?  in the summer?

Hey, guess what?  Soup is easy.  We ate this summer squash soup, also from fatfreevegan.com, along with the potatoes.  I made mine a little differently...leaving out the celery (didn't have any), adding some zucchini and more broth.  Then I stupidly added a bunch of cayenne to it (I honestly don't know what possessed me) and some garlic powder (which got a little pervasive).  Still, the soup was awesome.  It was so creamy...velvety, almost.  I never thought that summer squash would make a good soup, but there you go.  It does.

cheezy potatoes of awesomeness

You can seriously count on Susan to make a ridiculously fabulous, failproof recipe.  I don't think I've ever tried anything of hers that I didn't like.  The woman should write a cookbook.

But honestly, all I've really wanted to eat since July started is stuff like this:

raw, honest veggies

Michael and I both work a lot of evenings now, which means that one or both of us don't get home until after 9, which in turn means that we are tired.  One night I got off work at 11:30 to fine this lovely raw and fresh plate of awesomeness.  On top are zucchini shreds, something I've fallen in love with recently.  Super thinly sliced (you'll need a mandoline) raw zucchini and summer squash make a lovely little salad with a little olive oil, vinegar, and thinly sliced basil.  Don't get me wrong, those tomatoes were rad, too, but I am a tad bit obsessed with that salad for now.  

You can even see it here, blurred in the foreground:

another very late night dinner

You'll have to pardon the crappiness of this one...it was seriously like 2 in the morning when I took that photo.  But yeah, you see?  If I'd been taking photos of everything we eat recently, you'd be seeing it a lot more (but we've been doing reruns, like ruebens and such).  Anyway, this scramble was super tasty.  It had been awhile since we had one...but the real star of this meal was those potatoes.  Yeah, they're roasted, but we microwaved them first so they only took like 10 minutes to roast in the oven.  Smart, eh?  Anyway, they only have some seasoned salt, pepper, and paprika on them, but they are so, so good.  

Next up is yet another Michael dinner (he's been terribly helpful lately with me working evening shifts).

cabbage rolls!

Apparently, these were a pain in the ass to make because they have a lot of preparation, but all I had to do was enjoy them, so...  Anyway, they're stuffed with some sort of tempeh/tahini mixture and they were a totally rad use of a giant head of cabbage we had from another market haul.  So yummy!

fake meat - the ultimate in laziness

I ventured to the grocery store last week to pick up fruit and some veggies we can't get at the market, and got some sweet stuff on sale.  Like those fancypants carrots and fresh brussels sprouts, and uh...  some fake chicken breasts.  They have Gardein stuff in our Kroger now, which is highly exciting, but then also bittersweet, because it's madly expensive.  There was a dollar off coupon on this package I got (2 chicken patties in a Tuscan sauce) and I was mega tired, so I splurged the $4 on them.  And they're really good!  The texture is a little too meaty for us (checked and then rechecked the package after cutting into them...but they're vegan for sure), but the flavor was nice and the sauce they came in was seriously delicious.  It reminded me a little of a Lean Cuisine sauce...which for most of you probably sounds totally gross, but I lived off those things for about a year before I met Michael, so it was sort of a fond memory.  I mean...sort of.  Anyway, I also made the mustard sauce from Veganomicon (my favorite sauce, ever) to go with the steamed carrots and veggies.  All of it mixed together was pretty damned phenomenal.

openfaced sammies are sammiches too.

I'm going to finish up with a couple of lunches.  I've been trying to do hearty, but not weigh-me-down lunches recently, as Michael's been working doubles and then I go in to work in the evenings and need to be filled up without feeling like taking a nap afterwards.  I made this openfaced sammich twice this past week.  We had some leftover rye bread from ruebens.  Topped with some red pepper and green olive hummus that I'd made, fresh red tomatoes, and fresh basil, it hits the spot, fills me up, but leaves me ready to go for the rest of the day.  

more lunch options

I made this curried chickpea salad a couple weeks ago, and it was awesome.  I never ate it on bread, just like this, in big clumps, and I was happy as a clam about it.  I honestly don't remember what all is in there...chickpeas, onions, celery, carrots, vegenaise, leftover fake cheese that we'd made, lemon juice...and lots and lots and lots of curry powder.  And some cayenne, for a kick.  Paired with some fresh veggies, like this white cucumber (green on the inside!), it's terribly tasty.  Nom.

So don't forget to eat lunch.  And be creative with your veggies.  And...wish us luck on the apartment again!

you call that a bar-be-cue?

i do.

Indeed.  After we grilled out on Friday (our first really nice day here...followed by almost a straight week of rain/cold/wind/lame), I mentioned to Michael that, though we BBQ'd, nothing we actually ate was...BBQ flavor.  He informed me that BBQ is also a verb, so we're good.

Anyway, our friend Jared, who is a culinary student here in town and is straight up awesome about eating food we make and making food we can eat, asked Michael and I over to grill out in honor of the beautiful spring day.  How could we refuse?  At first, he was going to grill some meat for himself, but once we got to the grocery store, he decided that he just wanted to make a bunch of stuff we all could eat, and I couldn't have been happier!  

Here's a crappy flash shot of some stuff on the grill.

yeah, we grilled bread.  wanna make something of it?

Man, that grilled bread was good.  It was a rosemary focaccia to begin with, then we brushed it with olive oil and a balsamic reduction.  It made a perfect vehicle for this amazing stuff:

avocado relishhhhh

This was Jared's doing.  He makes this avocado relish that's crazy delicious (avocado, red onion, habenero and jalepeno peppers, roma tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice...).  Well, the avocado we got at the store was beyond hard.  They all were.  I had the brilliant idea to throw them (peeled) on the grill for a few, to see if they softened up.  I mean, it's not like we had anything to lose.  But everything to gain!  Because grilled avocado is freaking fabulous!  It got all black on the outside because I wasn't paying attention, but that just added some great smokey flavor.  

We also grilled up loads of veggies, some marinated tofu, and some veggie italian sausages.

feast your eyes on that

It all came together beautifully to become this:

best. bbq. ever.

So all in all we had: skewers of green and yellow bell peppers, yellow squash, zuchinni, and marinated tofu; sliced portobellas, veggie sausages, corn (on the cob), grilled bread, and that knock your socks off relish.  Jared said he didn't miss there being meat at all, that the tofu was awesome, and that even his culinary professor wouldn't be able to tell the sausages weren't real meat (which is awesome, but also kind of gross, if you think about it).  We were all stuffed to the max, but there was just enough room for this little fella:

amuse bouche!

In classic Top Chef style, Jared created the perfect bite.  I was so jealous.

Oh, I got a request to show a pic of my new haircut...  I don't really have any of the full on haircut because I've taken them all myself, but here's one, sort of (it used to be down to my chin, with no bangs):

old favorites...they live!

Sometimes a girl just wants spaghetti and meatballs (without the meat).  It's hard though, isn't it, to find a decent vegan meatball?  Store bought ones are...ok, but they lack oomph, plus they're full of stuff I can't pronounce.  A lot of the ones I've made at home either fall apart or are incredibly mushy (sorry, Vcon), or just don't have a good flavor.  However, I've finally come across an incredible vegan meatball, by way of our buddy Jessy over at Happy Veganface.  Actually, her hubby Dan created these balls of awesomeness.  I give you...  Dan's tempeh meatless balls!

little beauties

And seriously?  So easy to make.  And they didn't fall apart, once they were browned.  They have the best flavor of any meatball I've had, ever actually.  I can see why Jessy and Dan chose to eat theirs over some rice, as the flavor would really shine that way.  Still, our goal was spaghetti and meatballs, so I just paired them with a plain, but tasty, sauce and some angel hair.

could not stop eating this.

We decided not to simmer the meatlessballs in the sauce for fear that they would fall apart with all that liquid, but I don't think we needed to worry, as they held up really well, even once I mixed all that spaghetti together.  Oh, yes, and that is garlic bread you spy perched atop my plate.  Michael made the most crazydelicious garlic bread on the planet.  It's rosemary ciabatta bread that he spread with melted butter (vegan of course), loads of garlic powder, and parsley.  Possibly other things.  I wasn't in the kitchen when he made it.  But hot damn, this was the best garlic bread I've had in a very, very long time.  I highly reccommend that you go make some rockin' spaghetti with these amazing meatlessballs, though.  You will not regret it!

Yesterday I told Michael that I would make him whatever he wanted for dinner and dessert, as he was a sweetie to me when I felt like shit on Friday (tummy bug, blegh).  He opted for biscuits and gravy, with toaster hash browns and greens.

nothin' like some soysage gravy, now is there?

First off, I used my mom's whole wheat biscuit recipe (scroll down for the recipe).  Then I crumbled up some GimmeLean sausage in the cast iron skillet to brown.  Then in went some flour and butter.  Then soymilk, and seasonings.  The only problem with making gravy from storebought soymilk is all the freaking sugar they put in that stuff.  I never notice it (and hence, forget) until I try to make something savory like gravy with the stuff.  Still, with the help of poultry seasoning and loads of salt, we counteracted the sweet.  Next time, I'll remember, and start off with veggie broth, and add soymilk at the end for a little creaminess.  Anyway, it was still totally rad.

The greens are collards, which I have not had success with before last night.  These turned out really great though!  I sauteed some garlic and an onion, then added the chopped greens and some apple cider vinegar and let them steam, covered, for about 15 minutes.  I finally learned that the longer they cook, the less bitter they are (but I feel like they lose some nutritional value when I cook them that long...oh well, I guess).  Anyway, once they were nicely soft, I added a few dashes of liquid smoke, some more vinegar, salt, and a pinch or two of cayenne.  They were so yummy!  I'm not scared of collard greens anymore.  Now I just have to master turnip and mustard greens.  Le sigh.  

Michael opted for toaster hash browns from our friendly neighborhood freezer section, as they're his favorite anyway, and I'm not really to be trusted when it comes to making something like that from scratch.  All in all, it was a hit!

As for his cookies, Michael asked for "chocolate macadamia cashew cookies" to which I added white chocolate chips.  Voila!

omg.

I adapted this recipe from Dreena Burton's Double Carob Cashew Cookies in Eat, Drink and be Vegan.  I've never actually made this recipe as it's stated, as I have no need for carob anything when I can have chocolate, plus they call for spelt flour, which I've never seen anywhere here.  Still, the recipe lends very well to adaptation, which just goes to show you what a genius she is.  Here's my version of her cookies.

Chocolate Macadamia Cashew Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

1 cup AP flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup unrefined sugar (I used sucanat)

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup white chocolate chips (or regular would be good too, if you don't have white)

1/8 cup chopped macadamia nuts

1/8 cup chopped cashews (both nuts should be unsalted)

6 Tbsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp almond butter

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup + 1 tsp canola oil

Preheat over to 350F.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and powder, and cocoa powder; mix well.  Add in cinnamon, sugar, and salt; mix again, then stir in chocolate chips and nuts.  In a smaller bowl, combine the maple syrup, almond butter, and vanilla and stir until well combined.  Stir in the oil, then add the wet mixture to the dry mixture.  Mix until just combined.  If needed, add a splash of soymilk for added moisture, if it doesn't come together quickly (we had to do this).  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, then form 12 cookies out of your dough, flattening each one (they'll be about 1.5 inches across this way).  Pop in the oven for exactly 11 minutes.  Take them out and leave them on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

These cookies are not for the faint of heart, by the way.  They are fudgey and moist and incredibly rich.  The nuts add just enough crunch to mix things up a bit.  However, they are ridiculously easy to make for such a dangerous cookie.  From mixing to baking, they're done in about 20 minutes.  Bake with care.  We finished the entire dozen in about 15 minutes (with the help of a friend).  By the way, omni approved.  As were the collard greens.  Go me.

So yeah, it's been a pretty decadent weekend so far.  Hope yours has been just as lovely.

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!