Lessons in Love: V-day feast, Temp Tatts, Contest Win, Two Pies and a Tester

I love temp tatts, and I suggest you get 'em on for this post!  

Emory's Flaming Panther

 Daddy's Cobra

Mommy's BBQ Dragon

I love blueberries.  And lemon.

 Homemade Blueberry Lemon Compote

 Over Hoecakes!

Next...I really loved this recipe!

 DIY Bisquick from Betty Goes Vegan.  So useful! So fun to make!

I needed it to make the amazing...

Cheezeburger Pie (this is SO good).  I love savory pies!

A delicious, cheezy, doughy bite.

Onto another tester from Joni's upcoming book, 

The Sesame Sriracha Sauce:

I am in love with Joni's new book!  And, now I'm more into spicy stuff than ever (and that's saying a lot since I always loved spicy stuff).

Sesame Sriracha Sauce over Korean Fresh Noodles with Organic Baby Kale, "Heathy Food" Vegan Shrimp (:-) and Black Sesame Seeds.  SO GOOD.

I had never, ever seen baby kale before, but Wegmans had it last week in the pre-washed salad greens-in-boxes section.  It's DELICIOUS and super convenient.  I hope they will carry it on a regular basis.  I LOVE BABY KALE.  

A more traditional, Asian presentation.

And this year, I made a special Valentine's Day Dinner.  I used two recipes from The Inspired Vegan:

Beet Tapenade Crostini and (from scratch) Jerk Tempeh and Peppers over Coconut Lime Rice. 

Molded Beet Tapenade Crostini.

Unmolded! Served with a surprise olive oil (see below!). 

Jerk Tempeh:

This was a wonderful Jerk sauce, even though it had, like 1,000 ingredients!

For dessert, I was out of my Whoopie Pies, but, my friend had made a batch of her own (a GF version of the recipe in BGV!).  She had extras leftover and was nice enough to 

re-purpose some of them over to me :-)  

These were SO delicious.  She promises to give me her GF recipe for them, guys!

I love whoopies!

And, I got a big box on my porch earlier this week...

What could it be?

 Ah ha! My prize from winning The Urban Vegan's Colavita contest!  

I got both the Private Selection and the Argentinian Fruity Olive Oils. SCORE!

I love winning :-)

And here's an early birthday present to myself (to fill all those future whoopie pies I still want to make!):

I was a little tired of the pastry bag thing (they always have some kind of issue), so I thought I might try this gadget.  Got good reviews on amazon, so, we'll see...

My birthday is coming up (I love my birthday!!) and I'll have more exciting stuff to show you and recipes to share.  If you can't wait, here's my birthday post from last year! Gonna be hard to top that...

Anyhoo, have a great rest of your weekend, everyone.  

(I love Mondays off for President's Day :-)

XOXO

Makin' Whoopie!

Yes, yes, yes...yes, yes!

Makin' Whoopie...with Betty!

Whoopie Pies, that is!

Heart-shaped Whoopie Pie Pan!  Get one for Valentine's Day!

You guys know how excited I am about Annie & Dan's book Betty Goes Vegan, right?

Well, I just couldn't resist the Whoopie Pies, so I made a batch of Red Velvet Pies with Vanilla Buttercream filling from the book for an early Valentine's Day treat.

The batter was very thick and fluffy!

I had to smush the batter into the cavities of the pie pan.  Kinda fun.

I baked them for 17 minutes, which was two minutes too long, I think...

The cake tasted amazing and the texture was spot on! But, since I over baked them a tad, they stuck to the pan where they rose above the cup cavities, and even though I loosened it before trying to remove them, most of them ripped off the bottom part of the cake (cleanly, though, leaving the heart-shaped part that baked in the depression still in the pan). But, not to worry! Broken hearts abound on Valentine's Day, especially depressed ones.

Good thing I can fix a broken heart :-)

A perfectly removed top. 

I actually just pushed the pieces together while they were still warm, like we sometimes do in relationships.

It worked out for the most part.  But, it cracked up a lot when I put the halves together and added the cream.  Kinda like when an already fragile couple (read: any couple!) has a crisis to deal with.  All the cracks are exposed.

But, just put enough (vegan!) buttercream on it, and it tastes great, despite the cracks. 

Love is restored, depression lifted! 

Anyway, this is a great recipe and I highly recommend it.

Betty Goes Vegan is so much fun!  

Happy Valentine's Day, guys.

XOXO

Sweet Chili Tofu, Korean Fresh Noodles and Betty Goes Vegan!

I made Joni's Sweet Chili Tofu tonight (but I pan fried it on my cast iron pan vs. grilling it) over Korean Fresh Noodles from my Asian Market haul with Broccoli and an Easy Asian Dressing.  This was an unbelievably delicious dish!

That tofu! Those noodles! That broccoli! OMG.

Marinating the tofu (it was already pressed in my TofuXPress) in the Sweet Chili Sauce: 

Pan Frying the tofu in one of my cast iron pans (the crepe pan, actually!). 

Served over Korean Fresh Noodles with Easy Asian Sauce, garnished with Scallions and Sesame Seeds 

My Easy Asian Sauce is EASY! 

This was one of my favorite Asian Noodle and Tofu dishes ever.  OMG.

And for those of you who know and love Annie and Dan Shannon and their Betty Crocker Project, their book came out yesterday (I received it yesterday because I had pre-ordered it on amazon months ago) and they were even on The Today Show! 

 There are so many amazing recipes in there, I don't know where to start, though I think Salted Caramel Apple Whoopie Pies is a good place!  Or maybe Inside-Out Peanut Butter Cup Whoopie Pies!  I may have just bought a heart-shaped whoopie pie pan, you know, for Valentine's Day Whoopie (Pies) :-)

XOXO!