Party Prep

So, I made the Linguine (I used Fusili lunghi) with Basil-Cilantro Pesto and Artichokes from Veganomicon last night:

I saute the canned artichokes in olive oil, red onion and garlic for a good while until they get nice and toasted. This time I also added a can of white beans and sauteed those (with the artichokes) as well for added protein and nutrition.  They kinda fell apart and coated the noodles, adding interest to the pesto. I love this dish.

And my niece's first birthday is this weekend, so for her party, I am bringing Happy Birthday Gingerbread :-)

 I used the recipe from Vegan Lunch Box, and added the chopped, crystallized ginger on top.

Tomorrow I will dust it in organic powdered sugar for that lovely first snow effect.

 And I made Tamari Roasted Chickpeas from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. 

I call these "popcorn peas," because they are kind of addictive like popcorn.  They will be a nice little snack for the party.

I used home made, from scratch organic chickpeas (pressure cooker, baby!) and organic, local (from my yard!) rosemary.

Can't wait to see my niece tomorrow!

What are you guys doing this weekend?  Do you have any special recipes planned?

Breakfast for Dinner

Just wanted to share.  I made both the Tempeh Bacon and Perfect Pancakes (with ground, raw organic walnuts) from Vegan Brunch for dinner!

Tempeh Bacon! I love tempeh bacon.

 I always steam the tempeh for about 10 minutes before marinating it.  It absorbs the marinade much better (put it in the marinade hot!) and it eliminates any bitterness in the tempeh.  I sauteed the tempeh in a cast iron pan, it really works well.  Oh, and I use smoked paprika (one tablespoon) to sub for the liquid smoke (I had a bad experience with one brand, I don't remember which one, and I don't know which brands are good, so I haven't gotten any more, and I use smoked paprika instead).

Perfect Pancakes

I always use all non-dairy milk (subbed for the water) in this (or any!) pancake recipe, as I prefer a slightly thicker texture to my pancakes.  I typically use soy or almond milk, or a combination of both.  Also, I could have cooked these a few more minutes, but it takes forever to make pancakes so I short-cut it a little bit (by about a minute, usually I do 3 min on first side and 1 min on second side, this time I did 3 minutes total).

What did you guys make for dinner?

Gordelicious Pie!

This is a fun, savory pie that can be made with any squash, potato or pumpkin.  It's GOURDelicious!

This is one I made this week with fresh sweet potatoes.  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

For the crust:
Blind bake a home made or pre-made crust (I use Wholly Wholesome crusts, they are delicious and vegan!) for about 8-10 minutes.  Make sure to prick crust with a fork so it doesn't bubble up, then lightly cover with a double layer of tin foil to prevent over-baking (though I forgot to cover it this time and it was fine :-) Once you are done blind baking the crust, turn oven down to 375.

For the filling:

In a food processor combine the following and process until well combined.

1 package 12 oz aseptic firm, silken tofu (regular or light is fine)
1 can organic pumpkin or sweet potato, OR, about 2 cups freshly cooked sweet potato, pumpkin, squash, etc. If you use fresh pumpkin or squash, you'll need to drain it well or add more dry ingredients (or maybe some breadcrumbs, etc.) to balance the moisture.
1/4 cup cornstarch or 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1 tsp Adobo
1/2 to 1 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
juice of one organic lime
1 tablespoon (or more or less depending on your tastes) of Cholula hot sauce
1 tsp sea salt or Kosher salt

Turn out mixture into a large bowl and add:
One can of rinsed and drained organic black beans
One cup of frozen organic corn
1/4 to 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped

Stir the mixture well to combine.  Taste for salt and spices and adjust as desired.  Fill pie crust with filling.

For topping, mix together the following and sprinkle on top of pie:
1/2 cup of chopped, raw organic walnuts
1/2 cup Daiya cheddar style cheese
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs (or you can add more walnuts!)

Bake pie at 375 for 45 to 55 minutes or until pie is set and edges of crust are just turning golden brown.  Let cool about 15 minutes before slicing.

Serve with hot sauce, vegan sour cream (I love Tofutti brand), chopped cilantro, and fresh guacamole if you've got it!

Enjoy!

Grandma Margie's Quickie "Meat" Balls

I needed to have spaghetti and meatballs tonight, so I whipped up some veggie balls quickly and painlessly.  Again, I was going for the flavors my mom uses.  You can find the original, from scratch, soy-free version with the secret ingredient, here.

For this quickie version, I just used a whole tube of Gimme Lean Sausage Flavor (which I had in my fridge forever, because I rarely use faux meat stuff) and put it in a big bowl with two minced garlic cloves, about a tablespoon of olive oil, about one or one and a half cups of home made, fresh Italian breadcrumbs (**recipe below), a teaspoon or so of really good 18 year balsamic vinegar (I might try a tiny tiny bit more next time but I just wanted to add depth and not have them taste like vinegar, so I stuck to a small drip), and probably around 1/2 a cup of organic raisins (I love raisins in my meatballs, if you don't, no worries, just leave them out. However, you won't be making Grandma Margie's meatballs!), a little ground red pepper and kosher salt (probably around 1 tsp).  You can't get away with mixing with a fork here, you have to mix it with your hands because the sausage mix is pretty stiff and to incorporate everything fully (especially the raisins) the only way is to mix it with the two things at the ends of your arms :-)

P.S. If I had fresh parsley, it would have gone in, about 1/4 cup, loosely packed.

**To make breadcrumbs, put: 2 slices whole wheat white bread, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried thyme, 1/2 tsp dried rosemary, (just use whatever seasonings you want, really) into your food processor. Pulse bread and seasonings into crumbs.

Once your veggie ball mix is incorporated, line a rimmed baking sheet/jelly roll pan with foil and oil it well with olive oil, like there should be a bit for them to swim in.  I use a large Oxo scoop to scoop the meatball mix out, then I roll it into a ball with my hands and plop them on the baking sheet.  Spray or brush exposed tops of veggie balls with more olive oil.  Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes, then take them out and flip them over, bake another 10 or so minutes.  You want them to be golden brown and perfect!

Serve with pasta and marinara sauce, what else??

This pic so needs a sprig of parsley, but I didn't have it! Oh well.

What did you guys make for dinner tonight?

Spiders, Eyeballs and Worms: A Home Made Halloween!

It's no secret that I love Halloween.  We had a lovely, smallish dinner party this year and I wanted to serve my old friends to my new friends:

These guys are so easy to make.  Just melt chocolate chips (I use a whole bag) in a large (I have a four-cup) Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave on like fifty percent power for a minute at a time, whisking or stirring after each minute.  I add about two tablespoons of non-dairy milk to make it melt evenly and make it a little smoother.  When the chocolate is melted, pour in a bunch of chow mein noodles (mine were vegan as far as I could tell) pretty much to the top of the cup. Stir them carefully with a spoon until they are all coated with chocolate:

Then I used a spoon to gently load my large, Oxo cookie scoop with chocolate noodles.  Press them into the scoop a bit to stick them together.  Then pop them out onto wax paper on a cookie sheet.  Then use your fingers or a fork to arrange the noodles to look like legs and add your eyes!  I used those cinnamon red-hots that you can get in the baking aisle, but you could use any kind of small eye-shaped candy.

You can also mix in coconut! After I made a dozen spiders, I still had chocolate noodles left over, so I mixed in some coconut and pressed some on top and made "eyeballs:"

Chill all your spiders and eyeballs in the fridge for a little while to let them set.  It doesn't take very long.

I also made a Baked Ziti with Basil-Cashew Ricotta and Marinara Sauce. The "worms." It was delish:

That's Aleppo pepper (a Turkish variety) sprinkled on top.  

To do the Basil Cashew Ricotta, use the base recipe for Cashew Ricotta here, then use one full cup or more of packed basil leaves instead of the 1/4 cup called for in my recipe.  Pulse the cashews and garlic, then add the basil leaves with olive oil and pulse some more, like you are making a pesto, THEN add the tofu and other ingredients to the processor.  Once you cook and drain your pasta, mix all the ricotta into the pasta while the pasta is still hot so it melts nicely and mixes in thoroughly.  I also add my marinara sauce at this time.  It also has a little Daiya Mozzarella layered in there.  Bake at 350 or 375 to heat through (about 30 minutes).

Halloween is a nice way to end MoFo.  It eases the pain a bit.  Have a great Halloween everyone!

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?

Thanksgiving Trial Run: Gobbler Loaf

As a possibility for Thanksgiving I made Tami's Gobbler Slices, twice!  They are really tasty and the loaf can be used as a "roast" just like turkey.  The first time I made them, I had to sub for a bunch of ingredients, the biggest sub being I used chickpea flour for about half of the wheat gluten since I only had about 3/4 of a cup in the house at the time.  Then I used extra soy flour to get the consistency of the dough right.  And I used cooked soy beans instead of white beans.  It was really my pantry's version of the recipe (what I had in the basement went into the "bird!").  I used some canned soy beans that I had down there (I still can't believe I didn't have any navy beans, so weird).  The texture was different than she intended, but I liked it a lot:

I served it like an open-face "turkey" sandwich with gravy, mushrooms and asparagus.

Then, I made it the right way after I had bought more gluten and the minute tapioca.  The texture was a bit "spongier" and moister (the chickpea flour one was drier, but not at all spongy).  Both versions were delicious, but I generally prefer less wheat gluten and more chickpea flour as a rule.  I think you can make it any way you want, it's a nice flexible recipe.

Blurry because I was too hungry to hold the camera still. 

After eating half my sandwich, I got a better picture.  Looks like the Day After Thanksgiving Sandwich!

One of the best things about this recipe is it is (basically) a steamed seitan recipe.  No baking, or worse, steaming and THEN baking involved.  Just steam it and you are done.  AWESOME.

Here's The Gobbler in the top of my steamer.  I adore this steamer.  (Bottom of steamer is not pictured, I was heating the water in it on the stove).

I love you, Gobbler Loaf!

What recipes are you guys testing for the holidays?