hey, good lookin'...what you been cookin'?

Yes, I've been gone for a long while. Yes, I do have a legitimate reason or two. You will most likely figure out this reason within the next two sentences, but I'd rather not go into detail just now.

Ok, so as most of you probably know, going from cooking for two or more to cooking for just yourself can be difficult. At first it's all like, 'Why bother? It's just me. I can live off Taco Bell burritos for a period of time.' But then you get tired of eating crap and you start cooking again. Still, cooking for one kind of blows. I'm still in the mode where I cook for an army, only to find myself with leftovers for at least 3 days afterward. Solution to depressing problem? Cook with friends! Recently, I have been cooking with my lovely and talented friend Becca about once a week or so. It's an excuse to get out of the house and socialize, yes, but it's also a reason to bring some joy back to the cooking process. We started off simple for our first kitchenventure: Indian food.

ladies in action

Becca whipped up an exquisite chana masala whilst I slopped together the curry potatoes from the 500 Vegan Recipes cookbook (which is amazing, by the way). I added about twice as much garlic as it called for and used red curry paste since I didn't have any green.

my girl stirrin' it up

lots of stirring action

The potatoes didn't require nearly as much stirring. (Above photos are courtesy of Becca's manfriend, Max, since I forgot my camera.)

end result

Paired with some fluffy basmati rice (and some whiskey), it was a deliciously awesome meal. And I only had to take home one little container of leftovers. Not to say it wasn't yummy enough to take home more, but I probably had like 3 tupperwares of pasta in my fridge already.

This next kitchenventure occurred last night...and I remembered my camera, so there's loads more photos. Also, I broke my ankle last week so I had pretty much nothing better to do but mince the garlic and onions and take an annoying amount of pictures. We decided to make a risotto...lemon brussels sprout risotto, to be exact. It started out with lots of garlic and onions (yeah, we doubled [or tripled] the amount of garlic...we love the garlic).

the woman knows how to pick out a good head of garlic

which turned into this

mincing queen

I told you, that was all I was good for. The rest is the work of the wonderful Becca. She blanched some brussels sprouts:

And then she sauteed them:

And then she cut them in half:

Waiting for the rice to 'separate and crackle' (much confusion ensued):

And this is about when Becca realized that risotto is really frustrating to make:

The lady owns the most awesome kitchen crap I've ever seen, but she does not have a ladle (we superwomen know how to improvise, however):

"I strongly suggest that you take a picture of this right now":

if only i could have taken a video so you could see it bubbling away

If you clicked on the link for this recipe, you'll see that Becca has the same lemon juicer thingamabob as the one in the picture (she's my real life Betty Crocker):

And, at long last, this:

tasted way prettier than it looked, i promise you

We both agreed that the risotto was heavenly. We added an extra squirt of lemon juice on our individual portions, which contributed a lovely tang. The brussels sprouts were sweet and tender and paired nicely with the creaminess of the rice. Upon asking Becca if it was worth all the effort, she replied, 'Yes...but I'll never make risotto again.' I warned ya, girlfran.

So, the moral of the story is this: If you're feeling a little down in the dumps or your cooking has gone into a rut, I recommend that you cook with a friend once in awhile. You're more likely to try challenging recipes that you wouldn't bother to make just for yourself, and it's just plain refreshing. (Next up, I think we might try seitan en croute...which I would never attempt on my own, but with my ladyfriend there for moral support might just be achievable.)

insert clever title here

We eat good at our house.  Although the meals you are about to witness were mostly simple fare, damn, were they delicious.

Behind door number one, I give you...    Chinese night!

teryaki udon noodles w/veggies, spicy broccoli, sesame kale, baked tofu

This was all crazy awesome, but a tad salty for my taste (which is another way of saying that it was waaaaay too salty, because...  me like-a the salt).  Still, loads of veggies, noodles, and tofu that you get to eat with chopsticks?  I'm in!

Michael made this vegetable soup a few days ago that tasted exactly like Campbell's alphabet veggie soup.  Except way better.  It was eerie.

mmm mmm better

I'm not totally sure what he did, but I do know that the base is water, tomato paste, and 'beef' bouillon.  That way, it's not too tomato-y, but just tomato-y enough.  Veggies included carrots, red bell peppers, corn, peas, potatoes, spinach, onions, and napa cabbage.  Even better the next day, by the way.  Tres bien, mon amor!  Hey, is that French?  Did I just speak French?  Since I don't speak French, I have no idea.  (Shelly?)

Next up is a wrap that was Michael's idea, but my own doing.  Jamaican jerk tofu wrap!

many 'jerk' jokes thus ensued

I found a Jamaican spice rub recipe somewhere (thought I saved it, but alas...) that I used to marinate tofu strips in (along with some water to make it more...liquid), then baked those.  All nestled snugly against carrots, cabbage, and tomatoes...heavenly.  And spicy!  Wowza.  

By the way, I have declared this week that cabbage is the new lettuce.  Namely, napa cabbage.  It's always crunchy, it's light and lovely, and you can cook it, so it's versatile.  Lettuce, move over!  Cabbage is movin' to town.

Oh, we ate those wraps with some of my signature MexiRice (tm).

love in a bowl

Except I made way too much, so I'm still up to my ears in MexiRice (tm).  By the way, MexiRice (tm) just consists of brown rice, canned tomatoes, garlic powder, cumin, and cayenne.  Oh, and water and a bouillon.  The key, my friends, is the ratio.  But since I never measure, I couldn't really tell you what that ratio is.  Experiment!  Try it out!  It's so fricking good.

We made this lovely piece of radness for lunch on Saturday:

chickpea salad of the ...gods?

We were starving.  We found half a baguette in the fridge.  And a can of chickpeas.  The result is almost too predictable.  Goodness was it good though!  Nom.  No recipe used, just tossing things in.  Things tossed in may include the following:

chickpeas

garlic dill relish

garlic powder

mustard

nayonaise

parsley

green onions

celery

salt

pepper

And finally!  Another test recipe from the Cookin' with my Craw-Daddy zine!  This one was to die for.  I almost died.  It was that good.

roasted jalepeno cornbread pancakes w/fresh salsa

My friends, I would not lie to you.  These were light, fluffy, flavorful, and omni approved.  They even had cilantro in them (in both the pancakes and the salsa), and Michael and I both were left wanting more.  Seriously.  Once this zine comes out, you should get it if only for this recipe.  Amazing.  A perfect way to celebrate national pancake day and Mardi Gras combined.

I do not kid.

Anywho, I have dishes to do and it's LOST night (and Top Chef!) and dinner needs made before we dissolve our brains in front of the television.  Have a lovely rest of your week, everone!

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!

pizza mania

Yeah, that's right.  But first, let me show you some other meals.

broiled tofu, rice w/peas, mint & dill, turnip greens

This meal was a labor of love.  By labor, I mean that I not only burned my arm on a hot pan, but I also cut the shit out of my thumb while chopping herbs.  By love, I mean that, in theory, I really love this meal.  In actuality, it was just ok.  I have a confession to make:  I don't know how to cook rice.  I mean...I get how to do it.  But for some reason, my rice never works.  It doesn't matter if I do it on the stovetop or in my rice cooker.  The stuff sticks to the bottom and burns.  This rice wasn't even done all the way.  Al dente rice is not that great.  However, it was saved by the amazing flavor combo of mint and dill.  I've blogged about this before, but seriously, if you haven't made anything with these two herbs yet, you're doing yourself a disservice.  Anyway, that's broiled tofu with some sauce Michael brought home from Hibachi, but it was reaaaallly salty.  And turnip greens are gross.  Sorry!  Anyway, it was ok.  I didn't starve that night, in other words.

shredded seitan w/shallots and 'green beans'

I could have sworn we had green beans in the freezer.  Apparently not, haha...  I've found, though, that brussels sprouts sub in nicely for any vegetable.  Because they rule.  This was a recipe from Vegan Planet, and it was just ok.  Not overly flavorful.  But not bad.  In fact, this is my general experience so far with this book.  So many of the recipes look amazing!  But then...  they're just ok.  But not bad.  I mad the manhattan 'clam' chowder too, but it's not even worth blogging about, really.  It was so-so.

grilled cheeze w/tomato soup

Now this was good.  This is the gooey grilled cheeze recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook.  I was skeptical.  But it was amazing!  It tasted a lot like the grilled cheeses of my youth.  Creamy.  Salty.  Yummy.  I did add in about 1/4 cup of cashew cream (cashews blended with veggie broth) and then added a slice of tomato when I grilled them.  Seriously, they were so, so good.  And easy peasy to make.  That tomato soup is a hodgepodge of canned soup, diced tomatoes, soymilk, and nutritional yeast.  It was ok, but a little sweet.  I like a salty tomato soup more.

And now, on to the main event.  Pizza.

simple pizza, italian style

So, last night we made pizza.  I read the pizza novel in VWAV and decided that it needed to be done.  The dough turned out amazing.  I finally got some yeast that works (this strangely [ha] makes a big difference in whether or not dough rises...who knew).  This first one was a skimped version of what we originally meant to make, just because we really needed pizza immediately and couldn't wait to put on the rest of the ingredients.  And yeah, you might say that all pizza is 'Italian style', but you're wrong.  I've been to Italy.  They don't put a whole lot of shit on their pizza there.  The pizza I got in Italy had:  like 3 slices of tomato (thin slices), a sprinkle of basil, garlic, and a teeeeny tiny sprinkle of mozzarella.  Well, we didn't do mozzarella, but we did add marinated artichoke hearts.  This was freaking amazing.  Simple, but delicious.  

Granted, this is what I usually want my pizzas to look like:

loaded

But simple is good too.  This one had all that other stuff (minus artichokes), plus onions, spinach, broccoli, red bell peppers, and FYH mozzarella.  It was yummy, as well.  But strangely, not as much so as the former.

And, because these pizzas were SO good...  yeah, we're having pizza again tonight.  The dough is rising right now.  Gimme a break, it's Monday and I'm not motivated to do much else.

Oh, and Michael also wants Mac n Cheeze, so we're having that too.  Nothin' wrong with that, my friends.  Once in awhile, anyway.

Jessica tested, Michael approved

So, for whatever reason, the internet is working.  I'm actually stealing someone else's right now, which hasn't worked all through the previous week, but right now, is.  I'm taking advantage and posting; hopefully it won't die on me halfway through, right?  First off, I know I said I had recipes for you, but upon retesting one of them, I realized that the first time was a fluke.  It was a seitan recipe that was defreakinglicious.  I tried to recreate it last night, from memory (but now taking notes) and it didn't taste the same.  Therefore, I have more testing to do.  The other recipe was for a butternut squash and leek risotto.  That's pretty self explanatory though, and again, I didn't write down what I did specifically, so I forget.  I am completely lame, I know.  I do have some scraps of paper with notes on them, however, and really do plan to make these happen again so that you can have the recipes, because they are the ultimate in yum  Want to see how yummy?

i admit to my use of flash

I was so hungry by the time I churned this out that I almost forgot to take a picture.  This plate was actually sitting on my lap at the time of said picture taking, and no flash just wasn't cutting it.  And I also want to point out that I spent over an hour yesterday looking for my tripod and can't find the damned thing.  I really do want to take better pictures of my food.  There is no reason for me not to.  Well, now there is, because apparently my tripod has gone the way of the buffalo.  

At any rate, that's the seitan cutlet that I'm talking up, and dude, seriously, it was amazing.  Denser than the usual recipe, which I like.  I'm not a fan of 'fluffy' seitan.  This one is not.  Fluffy, that is.  On top is a gravy Michael mixed up that had orange zest in it and it was the yum.  In the back you see my risotto which was creamy and savory/sweet.  And it had leeks, with which you cannot go wrong.  

tempeh blt

This is a sammie that had all odds against it, and still turned out delicious.  We wanted BLTs, but had no fakin bacun, but there was a package of tempeh in the fridge.  However, we didn't have, like, any of the ingredients for the marinade in VWAV, so we winged it.  And hello buddy did it turn out wonderful.  I do remember the recipe for this one, but not the specific measurements.  I was going to go figure it out real quick when I transfered the pictures from my computer to Michael's desktop for uploading, but then the internet started working and I don't want to jinx myself by moving one inch.  This one I will have for you, tomorrow probably, since I'll be doing W.I.P. Wednesday.  

Our friend Chase, who was here on New Years and loved our food was here for both of the above  meals and loved all of it.  I don't think he finished his risotto, but he only left like 2 bites, so it couldn't have been that bad.  I figure if something is omni-approved, it must be fairly decent.  Well, unless that person has terrible taste.  So I guess the jury is still out.

Anyway, on to more exciting things:  I am testing recipes for a future vegan cajun cookzine by Sarah (she doesn't have a regular blog up yet, so I can't link to anything for you) called Cookin' with my Craw-Daddy.  Here are my first two attempts!

Creole Stuffed Mushrooms

Or, Muffuletta Mushrooms, she hasn't decided on the title.  I like muffuletta better, personally.  Anyway, these were really good!  Very spicy and sausage-y (but using TVP, nothing 'fake') with a fabulous taste of olives.  I was highly impressed with this one.  I'm no expert on cajun cooking, but if spiciness and tastiness are key, then...there ya go!  And for those of you (coughmecough) that don't really love mushrooms, Michael and I decided that the mixture would be completely wonderful stuffed into red bell peppers as well.  Michael did love the mushrooms though, and ate them all up with no hesitation.  Success!

Smothered Potatoes

This is another spicy, spicy creation.  The method for cooking the potatoes is pretty genius and they are perfectly tender, with just the right amount of kick.  I'd say these would be rockin' with a tofu scramble.  They weren't at all bad with the mushrooms, either!  Anyway, you should definitely look forward to getting this zine, and keep checking back here because more recipes are being posted for me to try out regularly.  I'm so happy to be a tester for something, especially something as yummy and awesome as this!

Just for kicks, here's my plate:

messy at best

You can see that I put a bunch of nutritional yeast on my tatoes and used a lot of the leftover mushroom stuffing to top one of my seitan cutlets (that the recipe isn't ready for yet).  

soup 4eva

Since it's so freaking cold here, and also since Michael and I both have been a little sickly, we've been eating a lot of soup.  In fact, I'm making more tonight.  The above specimen is something Michael whipped up for our lunch this past week.  It's a carrot soup, but not like a creamy one.  It's brothy (which I love), but still has carrots pureed up in it.  Just the perfect amount of spice and hotness and wonderfulness inside.  He also made some couscous that was bangin'.  His goal was to make everything in the same color family (warm toned oranges).  Totally worked.

And just to prove to you how cold it is here:

kitchen window frostastic

Guys, that is not the type of frosting that yours truly gets excited about.  In fact, quite the opposite is true.  Stay warm, everyone!  

I still have other news that I am bursting at the seams to tell you about, but...  I can't yet.  What!  hahaha...  

p.s. happy inauguration day!