Birthday Bonanza 2013!

I'm another year older as of yesterday, and that means it's time for my annual birthday post!

This year feels like a new beginning, a rebirth, winter melting into spring...

Sweet Potato Birthday Blondiefly with Vanilla Glaze 

Isn't she pretty? 

Blondie recipe was from Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar.

Store bought Chocolate Butterfly Cake.  So pretty!

 Birthday Eve Pizza.  All vegan, all organic, CSA and homemade!

Roasted CSA Peppers and Fennel with CSA Home Dried Herbs and CSA Marinara

Onto the birthday meal...

Birthday Beans!  

Organic Red Kidney Beans, Georgian Style with Walnut Cilantro Pesto and Jasmine Rice.

These are SO good.  

OK, on to the gifts!

I shopped at Wegmans for some cute kitchen gifts to myself...I love Wegmans!

 Cute kitchen towels (winter--citrus and spring--flowers themed!) and a bunch of winter/spring themed Ann Clark cookie cutters!

 

 The Dragonfly

 

 The Pineapple

A nice Mountain Bear waking from his winter hibernation, ready to emerge into a forest blush with green.

The King's Crown and the classic Butterfly.  Also, what I call "chef's socks," padded running socks that I layer over my regular socks to support my feet for longer hours in the kitchen (inside my Crocs, of course).

Raw Revolution...Rabbit Food? :-)  

The Vegan Easter Bunny probably gives them out!

JK.  I wanted to try these raw, vegan bars. They look great!

And I had to try Kettle's Spicy Thai chips.  OML.  They are fantastic. 

A lid from hubby for my biggest cast iron pan that he gave me for Xmas, an awesome loaf pan with a matching lid by Anchor (I really like this U.S. based company and their products) and my chef's socks again :-)

And what did Grandma Margie get me?

 Hmmm...Unopened padded envelope.

 Taped with some kind of rainbow, hippie, mail tape? :-)

 What could they be?

 Home drawn card :-) We all love Grandma Margie's cards!

Cute zip up, workout shirt, and, um, yup! More socks! Another kind I like to layer for working in the kitchen.

My mom is psychic that way.

At this point, Ollie could take it no longer...

She had to visit the gift table to see what was going on...

Yeah, she only looked when I called her :-)

Lastly, what did hubby get me?

This super cool bracelet! It's Rainbow Flourite and Amethyst (my birthstone).

It's from this cool shop a town over called The Crystal Tree.  Thanks, Michelle!

And a few more fun things from our local kitchen supply store: 

Syrup dispenser, squeeze bottles (for my sauces!) and a dough scraper!

And, drum roll, please...courtesy of Mom B...

Ta-dah! The Excalibur!

Huzzah!

Watch out, CSA! Here comes the Excalibur to dehydrate your behind!

A huge thanks and many hugs to Mom B.!  All my dehydrated happenings will be chronicled here soon...but, for now, what's next?

Well, how about re-hydrating something dried?

 XL Favas! Never made 'em before, but can't wait...

They are soaking right now.

Thinking I may make Fava Beans with Spiced Salt, a recipe from Mediterranean Street Food, my newest library procurement, a hubby's pick (great choice, hubby!).

Thank you to everyone who made my birthday special, it was a great one!

And, now, onto my birthday weekend!  

(Don't birthdays last at least a week? )

Sweet Potato Gruyere Pizza and Pizza Makin' Tips

Here is my "Thanksgiving Pizza," originally conceived by Sweet Potato Man, but modernized and executed by moi.

Sweet Potato Gruyere Pizza

Organic, Spiced Sweet Potato Puree, Caramelized Fennel, Shaved Garlic, Homemade Cashew Gruyere (Hard and Soft varieties), Basil Chiffonade, Chopped Hazelnuts, Home Dried Sage on a Rosemary White Whole Wheat Crust.

To make your own Thanksgiving Pizza, make your favorite pizza dough recipe and add 1 tsp of dried Rosemary.  You can add other spices or herbs to your dough as well (oregano, sage, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg) but I just wanted rosemary as some other spice elements were present in my other ingredients.  I also like using King Arthur's White Whole Wheat flour, it is a whole grain and tastes great as a pizza dough.  Turn your dough out into a well oiled bowl and let your dough rise (usually about 1.5 hours for me).

While your dough is rising, prepare your toppings.

Hard and Soft Gruyere Cashew Cheeses (lighter cheese is the soft gruyere, darker cheese is the hard), Sweet Potato Puree (with added Cinnamon--Penzeys Vietnamese, a very strong and spicy cinnamon, salt, pepper, olive oil and garlic powder), Caramelized Fennel, Shaved Garlic, Home Dried Sage, Basil Chiffonade, and Chopped Hazelnuts.

I like to have my toppings all ready to be placed on the dough.  There's a spoon already in the Sweet Potato Puree.  Each loose topping gets it's own  spice bowl.  The cheese has been sliced and set out ready to be placed.

Elements I chose not to add were nutmeg, thyme or oregano, hot pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, etc.  I didn't want the spice elements to overwhelm, but any of those flavors would be great depending on what type of pizza you are going for.

Get your pizza peel ready by dusting with cornmeal.  I just use a cookie sheet, this one has two raised sides (so you can pick it up off the counter and out of the oven) and is flat on the other two sides so you can slide the pizza onto the stone/griddle.

In the last forty minutes or so of your dough rising, turn your oven to 500 degrees F (take your dough out first if you were proofing it in the cold oven!!).  Put your pizza stone or your magical Double Burner Cast Iron Griddle in the oven, too.  Once you are preheated to 500, allow the stone/griddle to heat up for 30 full minutes.  

When your dough is done rising, punch it down in the bowl.  Then, instead of "rolling it out," and dealing with sticky dough everywhere, I use a trick to shape my dough into a pizza.  I actually just push it into a pizza crust right in the bowl it rose in.  I use my fingers to push the dough right into the bowl, making a rough oval with even thickness. Don't worry that it is curved like the bowl, just get it to be an even thickness and the shape that you want.  (I should have taken a picture of this, sorry guys.  I will add one the next time I do pizza.)  Then I take it out carefully (It looks like a concave dough oval) and lay it on my prepared cookie sheet, and just using my hands/fingers, I continue to press it out into the perfect oval (my griddle is rectangular, so I don't do circle pizzas!).  The concavity resolves itself immediately once you lay it flat.  So easy!

Add your toppings.  

Work fairly quickly since if the dough is thin, the wet toppings can start soaking through and your pizza will stick to the peel.

Make sure your pizza slides around on the pan when you shake it gently.  If it doesn't, carefully lift it around the edges and push more cornmeal underneath it (the cornmeal acts as ball bearings for the dough to roll off the pan when you slide it).  You may have a stuck spot somewhere, I had one today close to the center.

Once your pizza is loaded with toppings and can slide left to right (towards the raised edges) and a bit back and forth (towards the open edge) you are ready to go.  Remove your hot stone/griddle from the oven.

Slide your pizza out the open edge and onto your (now very hot) stone/griddle.  Bake for 10-12 minutes in your (very well) preheated oven.  

When your pizza is done (it will be golden on the bottom, toppings will be cooked and starting to brown), remove it from the griddle using two heat proof spatulas.  

Or, at least, that's how I do it.

Put it back on your cookie sheet, and let it cool just a little bit.  

Lydia says now she's ready to serve!

Serve with Cranberry Sauce or Mushroom (or any other!) Gravy for dipping.

What kinds of pizza dreams do you have?

Research and Development: Thanksgiving 2012

I've been doing my research for The Big Day, guys!

These are both wonderful books.  I love Holly Garrison's The Thanksgiving Cookbook, which I took out from my library in August (early R&D!) then purchased (used, for a penny on Amazon!) because I love it so much.  I love her storying, her tone, the early 1990's vibe, I could go on and on.  I WON Meatless Celebrations, which I just got today in the mail!  I can already tell it's amazing.  Apple Rosemary Walnut Pie, anyone?

Because I live in New Jersey (though I work in Philly) I only photographed South Jersey restaurants due to logistics. I came in a very respectable third place in the Philadelphia Inquirer's Vegetarian Awareness Month Photo Contest 

and I won two cookbooks...

Kim O'Donnel's Meatless Celebrations and Bryant Terry's The Inspired Vegan.  

OH YEAH.  They work for me, now!

And work they shall...

CSA Week #24 (11/7/12): 

Rutabaga (does anyone especially dig this?), Carrots, Cauliflower, Kohlrabi, TONS of Sweets, Beets, Turnips, Spinach, Arugula and Spicy Mix

Pa came down this past weekend for a practice T-day visit :-)

OH YEAH.  The Vegan Cowboys in their element.

And I made a practice round of Soft and Hard Gruyere from the hottest new vegan cookbook on the market, Artisan Vegan Cheese!

With a little help from my old friend, Sandor.  

He has a new book out (an updated version of mine) you guys should check it out!

 Quinoa Rejuvelac. SO FUN.

 Soft Gruyere (above and below).

 Soft Gruyere is damn delicious!

Let's not talk about the Hard Gruyere yet, OK? :-)

And, I picked up my very last CSA box of the season tonight :-(

CSA Week #25 (11/14/12):

Cabbage (beautiful!), Cauliflower, Fennel, Parsley, Beets (in sink), Arugula (in the bowl in the sink), Carrots (oh yeah!), Spinach, Sweets, Daikon (behind the carrots).

Farewell, Honey Brook Farm! See you next season!

Only Sweet Potato Man can absorb the sadness of the next six months with no CSA:

Sweet Potato Man.  
He's restin' up for The Big Day, so don't wake him!

What am I making for The Big Day this year?  I don't know yet, I need to do more R&D. (Please tell my husband that cookbooks all over the house, fermented grains in jars and three different kinds of sugar on the counter=R&D).

I do know what I did last year, and it went something like this:

Vegan Thanksgiving Planning and Resources

The Gobbler (she's amazing!)

Isa's Seitan Roast (she's amazing, too!)

Vegan Fazool's Thanksgiving Feast 2011 

What are you guys making this year?  

*Update: OMG, guys!! After getting like three hours of sleep last night after I wrote this, when I was woken up this morning by the highly inefficient and super loud town leaf vacuum truck (that was on my small street for at least an hour from 6-7 a.m.) I thought, THANKSGIVING PIZZA. Homemade Organic Yeast Dough, Sweet Potato Puree Sauce (I'll make it with garlic, olive oil, onions, rosemary), Slices of Seitan "Turkey," like, perchance, Gobbler Slices or Isa's Roast?! Dollops of Homemade Vegan Gruyere Cheese, Sage Cornbread Dressing. Mushroom Gravy drizzled over everything!  Dollops of cranberry sauce? Some sauteed greens? Any and all feast elements can top this thing.  

Tasteful amounts of everything, of course.   
R&D BABY, R&D.   


I'm thinking of doing the T-day Pizza with The Big Day leftovers instead of the traditional T-day sandwich.  I am also thinking I may do it with the tester items I'm making now...


Sweet Potato Man must have visited me in my dreams last night!  Thank you, Sweet Potato Man!