Finally, putting the emo in this blog...

A quick post before I depart on my Epic Summer Vacation 2008 --part of which will involve camping in Portland, OR with beautiful PPKers like Isa, Walrus, Jess (of Get Sconed), and many other awesome people whose blogs I am too lazy to provide links for. So hopefully I will return with photos of awesome vegan meals in Portland and elsewhere. In the meantime, I here are some things I made quite awhile ago, but never got around to posting about.


A very satisfying summer meal: grilled Portabello "Burger" on Ezekiel sprouted grain roll, with Vegenaise, lettuce, and avocado, plus a side of this long lost Green Bean Salad that I tested for a certain cookbook that never got published.


What I did with the leftover pizza dough from my Green Goddess Pizza: Massive Calzone!


This is only about 1/2 of the whole thing. The filling is VwaV Tofu Ricotta, roasted peppers, and broccoli. Eaten with Roasted Red Pepper Marinara.

For now I'll just leave you with Emo Kids Doing Emo Things. This video brings back memories.

Not an "Unhappy Birthday"

I can't help myself with The Smiths/Morrissey references. You've been duly warned.

I've been busy busy, but am finally getting around to posting. As of Wednesday, I'm another year older. Woo! 23! Or...something. I guess the seminal birthdays are over until I turn 25 and can rent a car or something.

We had a late night feast to celebrate. My mom wanted to make me a birthday cake, and in the end (and after some guidance from the PPK) it was a beautiful collaboration resulting in The Definitive Birthday Cake: Strawberry Mousse and sliced fresh strawberries sandwiched between three layers of Golden Vanilla Cake, frosted with VCTOtW Rich Chocolate Ganache Topping. My mom made the cake layers (doubling the Golden Vanilla Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and dividing it between three cake pans). I made the Strawberry Mousse--a modification of the Not-Too-Sweet Blueberry Mousse, also from VCTOtW. And because, my mom feels insecure about her ganache-making abilities, I did the ganache frosting and fun decorating. We also did some chocolate-covered strawberries for pretty decorating and extra-deliciousness.


...with some Fruit-Sweetened Vanilla Soy Delicious. Do I sound like a fussy old lady if I say this was "heavenly"? Whatever, it was.

Oh, yeah...there was also real food!


Sorry for the underwhelming photo-quality. We were eating at 9 pm on our backporch in candlelight, so it was a bit tricky. However, rarely do I get to eat vegan Indian food--especially a whole spread of vegan Indian food--and this was a real treat: (from left) Onion Bhajis (Healthy South Indian Cooking), Red Lentil Dhal, Mint Chutney (Healthy South Indian Cooking), white basmati rice, Aloo Gobi, Fresh Cucumber Salad (Dakshin), Spinach Kootu (Healthy South Indian Cooking).


Ah, the last of the onion bhajis! I hadn't had a bhaji since studying in London during my lacto-ovo days (3+ years ago), and I'm glad I got over my fear of frying to make these. It was so worth it for a special occasion.

More recently, one of my dearest friends, B., who I hadn't seen in far too long took the train in from Pittsburgh to visit me this weekend, and we had a good time in and out of the kitchen. No photos were taken, but we concocted some fun meals just rummaging around my fridge and cupboards. One of which was pizza made with Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough that I'd had in the freezer, an improvised Caramelized Onion Tomato Sauce, some leftover VwaV Tofu-Ricotta, baby bella mushrooms, roasted garlic, and thin slices of the first zucchini from the garden. Another foraged meal included Chipotle Black Beans from Veganomicon, brown jasmine rice, fried zucchini (again, from the garden) seasoned with a dash of Tabasco Chipotle Sauce (in the soymilk) and breaded in panko, and a salad of fresh-picked garden mesclun, grape tomatoes, and avocado with balsamic vinaigrette. Can I say how awesome all this was splitting 6-pack of Sam Adams Summer Ale and eating on my back porch? Typically I tend to get cranky and frustrated in shared cooking endeavors, but this was definitely not the case at all, and I feel lucky to have an omni friend who is enthusiatic about vegan food and with whom it is a pleasure to coexist in the kitchen. (Then again, we did have years of practice at this as college roomies, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.) Conclusion: It was a lot of fun.

ETA: If anyone knows, can you confirm whether Sam Adams Summer Ale is vegan? We were at the li'l 6-Pack N Sub in my town and I always steer clear of Belgian beers knowing most aren't vegan, but I had a hazy recollection of Sam Adams having several suitable vegan options. Hopefully the vegan police won't come and arrest me!

Garden Goddess

My dad has been working to grow all kinds of awesome in his garden this year. I've been trying to utilize it in the most interesting and delicious ways.

One of which is apparently threatening unseen enemies. En garde! In a duel our garden asparagus would trounce your average grocery store spear every time.

Asparagus season is now over; we picked our last harvest about a week and a half ago. However, since May we've been enjoying beautiful freshly-picked asparagus.

One fateful day many years ago (back in my high-school-omni-cooking days), I made roasted asparagus for the first time, and my dad has never looked back. (Or forward for that matter, I grilled some awhile ago, and he still adamantly maintains that roasted is best.) And since I have to keep my produce-supplier placated, a lot of it I've simply been roasting.

However, I have managed to find some more creative dishes incorporating our asparagus, roasted or otherwise....


Inspired by Celine's recipe, I eschewed the glazed brussel sprouts in her version, in my own take: Quinoa with Parsley Pesto and Roasted Asparagus. This was pretty tasty. And it effectively used up some parsley I have lying around as well has helped me further clear out my pantry by finishing off my stash of quinoa.


One of the most involved and labor-intensive recipes I've made in a long time, Green Goddess Garlic Pizza from Vegan with a Vengeance. I used our asparagus in the Green Garden Puree along with some frozen green beans and frozen peas we conveniently had in the fridge. I have loads of extra puree that I'm planning to experiment with, yet.

Sliced and served up with a side of...roasted asparagus (shocking, I know). This was an delicious sort-of-pre-Father's Day meal last Friday night, eaten al fresco, like it should be.

With a meal that awesome, we had to have dessert.

And Kittee's Strawberry Pie had been calling my name for quite awhile. So as soon as we got our first real harvest of strawberries, I knew I'd be making it. It's really easy to make, although the pie crust was a bit finicky to work with, albiet quite tasty--I think in the future incarnations of this pie I'll be going back to a tried-and-true recipe like a veganized version of Martha Stewart's Pate Brisee or the Oil Pie Crust in The Voluptuous Vegan. That's mere quibbling, though, 'cause this is ONE OF THE BEST PIES EVAR. Seriously. Probably not worth making when you don't have in-season homegrown strawberries. But when you do? Make it. My mom was just down in the garden picking some more of strawberries today, and I'll be making another pie tonight, for sure.

Inside shot of luscious deep-red strawberries.


And finally, penne pasta with an improvised Parsley-Mint Pesto. Spurred by the overabundance of mint in our little herb plot (seriously it has crowded every other poor herb out), I threw together this pesto. It was a successful experimentation, but no recipe for now. A nice, simple dinner though.

I'm a cooking-blogging machine these days. The truth is, I'm not only trying to effectively keep up with garden offerings, but also clearing out my pantry. I'm moving to NYC at the end of August, and, much like a department store clearance sale, everything must go. And without knowing what my kitchen situation is going to be like in the near future (not to mention resources like time and money--I'll be in grad school) I'm really savouring being in the kitchen, and having fun cooking while I can.

Giant Salads, Mini Cupcakes

Starting things off with the cupcakes, of course! ^_^ Even though I'm working through the end of the month, Wednesday was my (+3 other co-workers') going-away party at work, so I baked some cupcakes to share with everyone. I got teased for bringing something to my own party (but, hey, it was for other people, too!--it's a mass exodus...maybe 'cause most of us have college degrees and the pay is minimum wage, perhaps?); however, the cupcakes were a big hit. These little Coconut-Lime Cupcakes got some oohs and aahs.


To round things out, Cookies N Cream Cupcakes. Both cupcake recipes are from the ubiquitous Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I halved each recipe and then baked them in mini-muffin tins for 10 minutes, getting between 16-18 cupcakes in each batch. I also halved the frosting recipes. And for the Cookies N Cream cupcakes I used mini classic creme sandwich cookies crushed up in the batter and frosting and to decorate for optimal cuteness factor.


Last night's dinner: Portobello Salad with Spicy Mustard Dressing from Veganomicon. In the midst of stuffing our faces, my mom and I paused to rave about how great this salad is.

That's it for this post, but I'm still needing to catch up with stuff I've made over the last two weeks, so more to come shortly.

French Potato Salad with Grilled Asparagus

For the past few weeks, I've been revisiting some of the more neglected volumes in my cookbook collection. One such rediscovery is the classic Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home by Jacques Pepin and Julia Child. As you might suspect, the recipes are pretty meat-egg-dairy-heavy; however, there are a few surprises. Furthermore, looking at recipes that aren't already vegan often inspires me to not only veganize the recipe, but further adapt to suit my taste and purposes. The following is one such successful experiment.


French Potato Salad with Grilled Asparagus
(adapted from Jacque's French Potato Salad, Jacques and Julia Cooking at Home)

1/2 lb. asparagus, trimmed
1/3 cup white wine
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp + a dash dried tarragon
2 tsp tarragon white wine vinegar
1 tbsp dijon mustard
salt, to taste (about 1 tsp)
freshly ground pepper (generous)
2 lbs. fingerling potatoes, or red potatoes, well-scrubbed
3 scallions, sliced
1/2 cup diced onion
3 cloves garlic
handful fresh parsley, chopped

Whisk together 1 tbsp olive oil, white wine, tarragon vinegar, dijon mustard, dried tarragon, and season with salt and pepper. Pour over asparagus and marinate until ready to grill.

Put potatoes, whole, into a saucepan and cover with 1/2 inch water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, and cook potatoes gently until just tender.



While potatoes cook, use the time to grill the asparagus. Skewering the spears makes it easier to flip. Grill asparagus over high heat (I used a gas grill--you could also probably use a grill pan, but I don't have one), for about 3 minutes on each side, or until asparagus has some light grill marks and is fairly soft. Baste once or twice with marinade while grilling. When done, remove to plate and set aside.

When potatoes are done (test by piercing with a knife), drain and let cool slightly.

While waiting for potatoes to cool, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat, and saute scallions and onions for about a minute. Then add garlic and cook for just a few seconds more. Remove pan from heat.

Cut your slightly-cooled potatoes into larger bite-size pieces. Place in a large mixing bowl.

Cut grilled asparagus into approximately 2-inch pieces, and add to potatoes. Pour over olive oil-onion-scallion mixture, salt, pepper, a dash of dried tarragon, chopped parsley, and remaining marinade (yes, it will be--just a little--boozy, due to the uncooked wine. Yay?!). Toss gently to combine. And eat, warm, or no cooler than room temperature.

I have a backlog of other stuff to post, but that's it for now, 'cause I gotta wake up early tomorrow to walk with my mom to raise cancer awareness (aka Relay for Life), and I need to get my pretty period film fix before going to sleep.

Strawberries Strawberries Strawberries = Recipes Recipes Recipes

With a gift certificate burning a whole in my pocket, I went to the HFS last week before my trip. I couldn't resist buying a container of lovely-looking organic strawberries. So when I got home I concocted this creamy chocolatey dipping sauce inspired by the $10+ jar of chocolate sauce that had been sitting by the strawberries at the HFS. I have no idea what was in the jarred sauce other than chocolate. But here's my take:

Chocolatey Fruit-Dipping Sauce

1 tbsp dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 tbsp almond butter
1 tbsp agave nectar
3-5 tbsp lite coconut milk
stevia to taste

Combine all ingredients including 3 tbsp coconut milk and stir well (a fork works nicely) until very smooth and creamy. Add extra tbsp coconut milk until sauce reaches desired consistency. Use to smother fresh strawberries, or other fruit.


A pretty great dinner.


So I mentioned in my Memorial Day post that in addition what I posted about, I'd also made Strawberry-Hibiscus Arnold Palmers and Strawberry-Almond-Rosewater Muffins. Well, I'm finally getting around to posting the recipes.



Strawberry-Hibiscus Arnold Palmers (adapted from a recipe in the June 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Living)

6 cups water
6 hibiscus rooibos tea bags (I used Tazo tea, you could also experiment with a hibiscus-scented other than rooibos)
36 oz. frozen sweetened strawberries, partially thawed
1/3 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
1/4 cup agave nectar
ice cubes

Bring water to a low boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add tea bags; steep for 30 minutes. Then remove tea bags, pour tea into pitcher. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, heat strawberries over medium heat, until they are completely thawed and have released all their juices, about 5-10 minutes.

Proceed to strain strawberries through a sieve, into a separate bowl or directly into the pitcher. Do not press strawberries, to avoid juice becoming cloudy.

Reserve remaining strawberries for another use. (Say... muffins, perhaps?)

In pitcher, combine strawberry juice with cooled tea. Stir in lemon juice and agave nectar. Add ice cubes, and lemon slices, if desired. Serve.


I wanted to use up the strained strawberries, leftover from making Arnold Palmers, so I improvised a batch of muffins, by heavily modifying an old omni muffin recipe I had floating around on a sheet of notebook paper. They turned out pretty great, I think. Light but moist from the berries with the slightly-crunchy streusel topping--kind of like mini strawberry buckles.



Strawberry-Almond-Rosewater Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I acutally used 1 cup all-purpose flour, 3/4 cups whole-wheat pastry flour)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup canola oil
2/3 cup evaporated cane juice (or granulated sugar)
1-2 tbsp rosewater (I used 1 tbsp, but I think I'll use 2 tbsp next time)
1/4 tsp almond extract
2/3 cup almond milk or soymilk
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 - 1 1/4 cups strawberries, sliced

for almond streusel topping:
3 tbsp vegan margarine
3 tbsp evaporated cane juice (or sugar)
5 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 tbsp sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin tin of choice with cupcake liners of choice. (I used both a 6-muffin jumbo tin, and part of a regular-sized muffin tin--and Spiderman or stripey liners, of course.)

Make the streusel topping: stir together sugar and flour. Cut in margarine, and mix with fingers until you have large-ish clumpy crumbs. Work in sliced almonds, but try not to crush them up too much. Set aside in refridgerator, until your muffins are reading to be streusel-topped.

Make the muffin batter: In a large bowl stir together ground flaxseed and almond milk. Set aside for a few minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl sift (or whisk) together flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk canola oil, sugar, and extracts into flax-milk mixture until emulsified. Fold in dry ingredients. When just combined, fold in strawberries. Fill muffin tins almost to the top. Sprinkle generously with streusel topping. Bake at 350 F for 20 - 28 minutes, depending on size of muffin tin used--until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.



When I got home Sunday evening from my weekend of travel, I got a fun surprise. The first strawberry of the year from our tiny patch in the flowerbed. It's always a revelation how much better homegrown strawberries are than even relatively good organic grocery store berries. Two different things entirely. Unfortunately, the next few ripe ones were pounced upon by a perverse chipmunk who has made it his business to take a single bite out of each ripened strawberry and leave the rest on the stem.

I've been making quite a bit of garden-inspired food these days, so more posts (and probably recipes) to come.

Weekend Away: Vegan Treats (!)

I journeyed east this weekend to visit with friends in the Philly 'burbz. And I ate lots of awesome food.


Before leaving, I baked a batch of Veganomicon Almond-Quinoa Muffins (with zante currants). I sampled two for breakfast before hitting the road, and then took the rest to share with my friends, on whom I had kind of invited myself :-). They came out kind of short in stature (the muffins, that is), but we all enjoyed them and liked how healthy--I made them with all whole-wheat pastry flour--and low-sugar they are. They were especially excellent with some loose-leaf Almond Black Tea. In the future I might try baking them as mini-muffins to get a greater muffin top ratio.

I made a detour along the way to meet up with some people from the PPK boards at awe-inspiring and super-cute vegan sweets mecca, Vegan Treats in Bethlehem, PA. Oh. My. Goodness. Whoa.


There was too much in this case to even focus on. I kept badgering the guy at counter with queries of "so, what's in that? and that..?"


However, I ended up settling on what I think is called a Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bomb Cake, a mini chocolate bundt cake dolloped with a generous mound of peanut butter mousse, and then covered in chocolate. Yeah, sugar shock.

Intense!

Thankfully my friends had an awesome dinner of some tasty quinoa dish and salad waiting for me when I finally (after getting lost more than once) arrived; otherwise, I think I would have gone into a sugar coma.

Saturday night they took me into Philadelphia to roam South St. and get the requisite vegan cheezesteaks from the very awesome Govinda's, where I'd eaten only once before. Oh, and they, since they also have Vegan Treats desserts, my friend and I split a piece of what I think was Turtle Cheezecake. Sorry, no photos of that, because the restaurant was so dark and I also feel dorkier than usual taking pictures of food at restaurants. However, it was the perfect precursor to getting mildly crunk'd on fancy rum drinks (mojitos!). And--so bars in Philadelphia are non-smoking?! That was something I'd never experienced, and I got to say as a non-smoker, it was kind of pleasant. Luckily, I'd had the foresight to get an assortment of Vegan Treats to-go, when I was in Bethlehem, so I had a glazed chocolate doughnut waiting for me as a nice post-drinking 2 am snack.


A lovely, and crazy huge, Triple Chocolate Cookie (my first encounter with vegan white chocolate), the last remnant of my Vegan Treats stash.

Fun times. I will be posting the Strawberry-Almond-Rosewater Muffin recipe, along with a bunch of others, shortly.