Thanksgiving Trial Run: "Impossible" Pumpkin Pie

Susan from the FatFreeVegan blog created a crustless, "impossible" pumpkin pie that is totally fat free and easy.  All you need is a blender and a pie pan and you are good to go.  For this, I was able to use my sweet rice flour from my pantry, which has made a long-time home in my baking drawer.

Doing the impossible. 

It is custardy with an Asian dessert taste (from the rice flour).  I served it with Soyatoo whipped cream.

All in all, it was good, but sort of tasted too much like the filling of an Asian bakery good and not enough like a pie for me. I used arrowroot, though and didn't reduce the quantity.  Next time I would reduce it to 2 tsps rather than the tablespoon, it is a stronger binder than cornstarch and the full tablespoon affected the consistency.  I also used canned pumpkin, which I'm sure affected the consistency also.  

Give Susan's impossible pie a try! It is really fun to make (and so easy!).  Don't use too much arrowroot and you should be fine :-)

What recipes are you guys thinking about making for the holidays? What's on your "to try" list?

Two Year Old Peaches

Tonight, I made the ever-popular breakfast for dinner substitution:

Spiced Sour Cream Waffles from Tami Noyes's American Vegan Kitchen with my Apple Topping, Tofutti Sour Cream and Maple Syrup. 

The idea came from a pantry item that I have literally had for two years, and this lovely machine:

When I opened the spiced peaches, I didn't hear the tell-tale vacuum seal release noise, so was a little nervous. The peaches had not oxidized or discolored and I ate a few (they were quite good) but I didn't serve them because, well, I didn't want to risk poisoning anyone besides myself :-) So, I went with my leftover Apfel Filling from the Knodels (which I knew would be lovely) and it worked wonders.  Pick up Tami's book if you don't already own it.  

And, for lunch, we had Tamarind Lentils from Isa & Terry's classic, Veganomicon over my Coconut Lime Infused Brown Rice:

This idea came from a half package of lentils that I found in the bean section of my pantry.  Also, since the Go For Launch Soup, I now have an opened tamarind concentrate in my fridge and am trying to use it up!  Chipping away, chipping away...

That was my day, folks. 

Does anyone know how long tamarind concentrate lasts in the fridge?? Seriously, I have no clue.

Twelfth Night: Reader's Choice!

OK, guys, let me know which one of these you'd like to see me do a recipe post for by leaving a comment below!  Each recipe uses something that was hanging around forever in my fridge, freezer or basement pantries :-)

 #1:  Simple Fried Tofu.  This was SOOOOOOOOO good and so easy!

#2: Sweet Potato Latkes. This was also easy and very delicious! 

 #3: Pumpkin Cowboy Cookies, YUM.

 #4: End of Season Garden Pesto.  YUM. Oh, and easy.

 #5: A 1-4 Exacta Box.  

#6: Swiss Chard Chips! Also super easy and way tasty.

Let the voting begin! 

Lentil Soup, Not!

Can you catch a cold online? I feel like I read a lot of MoFo posts where the blogger was sick, and I’m feeling a little off, myself.  I am definitely fighting something, but intend to rest enough and drink enough (no, not whiskey) to fend it off successfully.  I also have a lot of issues with my back and with sitting for any significant period of time, so MoFoing can be a slow going, piecemeal process.  Anyway, when I asked my son what he would like me to make today, this was the answer:

By which he meant that he just wanted to eat some raw choco chips right from the bag. And, can you blame him? That is a bag of chocolate chips that he pilfered from my baking drawer. 

The pilfering made me look into that drawer...not only do I have a problem in my basement pantry and in my freezer, but in all my drawers and shelves as well.  Oh, and in the fridge. Damn.

Here is my “baking” drawer (I have another baking shelf, too, btw):

Luckily while looking through my baking drawer, I found some new checks! There they are, lurking in the back of the drawer under some shredded coconut: 

I was just about to order new checks, too, so this works out well.

Question: does anyone have particular systems for keeping their pantry well stocked but not over full?  I find that balance is hard to strike, I either have too much or not enough (usually too much, but in the winter, I tend to grocery shop less, and then I make a lot of pantry-based meals, and my pantry actually gets pretty low).

It’s funny because when I started this blog, the first series I did was called “Stock Your Pantry.” J I guess I have a thing with the pantry. 

Is anyone else doing a pantry theme or a planning or grocery shopping theme? Let me know.  Let’s share our dirty pantry stories.

Gotta take some vitamins or something now.

Love to all my fellow ‘Foers,

Dawn

Pumpkin Biscotti

Party in the Pantry, Recipe #1: Pumpkin Biscotti

It's not usually hard for me to use up canned pumpkin, I LOVE it and I use it pretty often.  But, what to do with the rest of a can, about 2/3 of a cup of canned pumpkin, leftover after making Isa's pumpkin cupcakes?  I also had use for some raw, organic walnuts in my freezer, as well as an amount of flour bordering on oversupply (I have three, five pound bags) and two bags of Trader Joe's Organic Brown Sugar.

Then it struck me: Pumpkin Biscotti! Here they are:

I arrived at my recipe thanks to the wisdom of  my Italian Nonna, Bryanna Clark Grogan, whose recipe for almond biscotti served as my guide in this undertaking.  Grazie, nonna!

Pumpkin Biscotti   
Makes about 20 cookies

2/3 c. white organic sugar (organic sugars are vegan)

1/3 c. organic brown sugar (I use Trader Joe’s)

2/3 c. organic canned pumpkin

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp almond extract

2 tablespoons organic sunflower oil (or canola, peanut, any other non-olive oil that you like)

2 c. whole wheat white flour (I use King Arthur’s, but it’s not organic)

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon (I lost my Vietnamese cinnamon from Penzey’s during the hurricane!)

1/3 c. organic, raw walnuts (Trader Joe’s again for me)

1/3 c. chocolate chips (Wegmans or any other non-dairy brand)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a shiny cookie sheet or jelly roll sheet, or cover a dark one with greased aluminum foil.  You can also use a Silpat on your baking sheet as I did.  I just about fit everything on one 9 x13 sheet, but I could have used the room of two sheets, really.  It's up to you if you want to do one or two sheets!  

In a large bowl, stir the wet ingredients (sugar through sunflower oil) together until well combined.  Place a sifter over the bowl, and add the dry ingredients (flour through cinnamon) and sift them into the bowl.  Stir together with a wooden spoon until a dough forms.  You can use your hands to knead in the walnuts and chocolate chips.  Or, separate the dough into two bowls and make one small batch of pumpkin chocolate chip and one of pumpkin walnut biscotti as I did.  Flour your hands (the dough is a little sticky) and form the dough into a log with squared-off ends, about three inches wide by about six inches long or so.  Here is my pumpkin chocolate chip dough log:

Bake your logs in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until they are firm-ish to the touch and look dry on top.  The baking time really depends on your oven, your baking sheets, etc.  Here are my baked biscotti logs:

See, they barely fit on the one baking sheet! Anyway, they aren't quite done here (I was using a lower temp oven and it wasn't cutting it, probably because of the pumpkin, which is why I recommend you use a 350 degree oven for the whole time), you can see they are still a little wet in the cracks, so I had put them back in the oven for a few minutes. 

Carefully transfer them (I use two large spatulas to pick the log up) to a cooling rack and let them cool for about 15 minutes.  

 You can see they look cooked enough here.

Then carefully transfer them to a cutting board (not the one you use for onion and garlic!) and slice them carefully across the width into biscotti!  Put cookies cut side down (they will be laying on their "sides") onto your baking sheet and bake 10 to 15 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom.  Take them out and flip them onto the other side and bake about 10 more minutes.  Let cookies cool on your rack and enjoy! They keep well packed in an airtight container for a few days, or wrap tightly in foil and freeze them if you made too many :-) 

We already ate half of them! Enjoy! 

Is there a Party in Your Pantry?

With Hurricane Irene's approach at the end of August, I had to get everything off of my basement floor and actually ON the pantry shelves. I had bags and bags of delicious, vegan pantry goodies all over the place.  Once I got them onto the shelves, I realized that I have a bit of a problem: a pantry problem.

Since we were very lucky and somehow managed to keep our power on and our large, old trees from falling on our house, I had no occasion to dwindle my pantry supplies in honor of Irene.  Also, there is another ongoing problem I have, further compounded by Irene:

My freezer is stuffed to capacity.  My pantry is stuffed to capacity.  I can't go to Trader Joe's because I have no room to put anything away. What to do? Enter...

Got me a theme for Vegan MoFo!  If you aren't familiar with MoFo, it is really fun. Here's what happens: vegan bloggers sign up and try to blog every weekday about anything related to vegan food, for the entire month of October (last year MoFo was in November).  Some bloggers have themes, some don't, but TONS of great recipes, information and fun stuff is shared during the MoFo.  I followed along last year and posted my recipes and pics to Facebook, but I didn't have a blog yet.  By following Vegan MoFo, I found a lot of the blogs I follow now, which is cool, and I was inspired to get my own blog up in December of last year, right after MoFo ended! It's a good time 'fo all.

So, I vow to (attempt to) get my pantries down to a more manageable size by making awesome vegan eats and maybe making sculptures.  Anyhoo, I will be blogging my pantry adventures during MoFo.

Looking forward to partying in the pantry with you guys.

<3 Dawn