A tester from Celine and Joni’s upcoming cookbook, 500 Vegan Recipes. Spread with a little apricot jam, these are a really yummy breakfast, or anytime treat.
I’m currently working on moving my main blogging over to another domain, mostly because I’d like to post about more than just cooking. I’ll keep this one for recipes and such, but I think another blog would be more appropriate for posting craft projects, photos and reviews of restaurant meals, and other random day-to-day things that don’t necessarily happen in my kitchen. I also think that I’ll feel less pressure to have recipes, something which has been keeping me from posting as often as I’d like in this blog, because I feel guilty calling it my kitchen, then not actually posting about anything having to do with it.
Well, these cookies were baked in my kitchen. They are test recipes for Isa and Terry’s upcoming cookie cookbook. Fudgy shortbread and delicious blueberry bars.
Apparently, there is a Worpress application on iPhone, which will make it much easier to blog on the go. In fact, I composed this while speeding through the streets of DC. Just kidding!! I’ve also decided that every post doesn’t need to contain a recipe, and every photo doesn’t need to be composed and perfect. As much as it kills me, it’s the only way I know I’ll actually blog on a regular basis.
This blog is about food. Good, vegan food. I started this to start writing more, and to connect with my fellow foodies, vegan and not. To show, like so many others out there, that vegans eat more than tofu and wheatgrass.
Speaking of which, these little babies are cinnamon rolls from Great Sage in all their gooey, sugary glory. Carl and I brunch there so often that the staff now know who we are. Pretty soon, we’ll be on a first name basis because we will definitely continue to eat there a lot.
What you don’t see is the zucchini and spinach quiche, roasted potatoes, and salad I consumed before this photo was taken. Burp…
Things got a little hectic at work, and most of my meals lately have consisted of cereal, fruit, soup, and sweets. Not much blog-worthy cooking has been happening lately. I haven’t forgotten about my blog, though, and even though I sort of blew it with Vegan MoFo, at least I did start this thing.
Stay tuned…for something.
I’m not doing so well with posting everyday, but things are getting a little less crazy around here, so I should have more time for cooking very soon. Maybe I’ll just have LuKi MoFo at some point.
I live about 30 miles from work, and some days, with traffic, it can take almost 2 hours to get home. So, by the time I get there, I’m ready to eat immediately. I try not to eat too much processed stuff, but some nights I end up falling asleep face first on the sofa with my hand in a bag of Snapea Crisps. If I’m lucky, by the time I’ve woken up, our dog will have left me a few.
Most nights, though, I at least attempt to make something nutritious, if not fancy. I do use a lot of pre-washed and cut produce during the week because it is really nice to be able to open up a bag, dump out some greens, and have dinner on the table in under an hour.
A few nights ago, I came home and wanted some sort of sesame protein, noodles, and a side of greens. I ended up making soy curls with a sweet/spicy soy sauce, adding chopped chard and red peppers, and serving everything up in less than an hour from the time I walked in the door. That time included petting and calming down the dogs, looking for a recipe for sauce before just making one up myself, and enlisting my husband to help with some of the chopping.
As with most dishes, I generally don’t use recipes, but here is a general guideline for the sauce I used. I tend to use a variation of this in most asian-style stir fry dishes I make. It provides a nice balance of sweet, tart, and tangy, and if you reduce it, it glazes up pretty nicely without cornstarch.
Infinitely Adaptable Stir-Fry Sauce
1/4 cup low-sodium tamari
1/4 cup orange juice
2 TBS rice wine vinear
2 TBS dry sherry,white wine, or mirin
3 TBS brown sugar or agave nectar
2 cloves garlic
1 rounded TBS ginger
1 tsp chili garlic paste
2 tsp sesame oil
Ok, so this is sort of cheating since, technically this survey was going around last year, and it is also a thread on the PPK, but weekdays are hard. Last night I had 3 buffalo chik nuggets, a handful of baked chips, and fell asleep. Hey, at least I’m posting. I really need to catch up, though, this is Day 8 of Vegan Mofo and I’m falling behind.
- Favorite non-dairy milk?
I like different types for different reasons. Rice milk is great on cereal, and I like cooking with unsweetened almond milk, but I love soy milk in my beverages and I love flavored Silk. I used to hate cow’s milk with a passion. I would make cocoa packets with just water, and I wouldn’t even drink chocolate milk. I am in love with soy milk, though. I started drinking it in my pregan days, - What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Now that fall is upon us in the DC area, I want to make some lentil, sweet potato, and chard soup. It’s nice and filling on cooler nights. It’s also time for freshly baked bread and cookies. Right now, though, all I can come up with are recipes for sweet rolls. - Topping of choice for popcorn?
I like sugar and salt with EB or just salt. Boooring, I know. - Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
I sent a cloud of greasy smoke down the hallway of an apartment building in college. Do not add frozen fries to oil you have left on high for 15 minutes. Also, my roommate had an asthma attack and several doors were coated in sticky grease. They probably still are. - Favorite pickled item?
Do green olives count. or are they technically in brine? I guess pickles, then. Crunchy, garlicky, pickles. - How do you organize your recipes?
Ha. Haha. Hahahahahahahahahaha. That’s hilarious!
- Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
When we are back in our own house again, we will compost, but for now it’s garbage or the disposal with recycling of all things well, recyclable. - If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
sourdough rosemary bread
oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, with raisins
Silk Chocolate - Fondest food memory from your childhood?
The first time I made bread, forcing my parents to eat food I added food coloring too, such as brown cake that wasn’t chocolate, green pancakes, and some sort of green/marble swirled cookies. Also, helping my mom out in the kitchen was always fun. She must have had a lot of patience because I was quite inquisitive…and bossy once I wanted the kitchen to myself. - Favorite vegan ice cream?
This isn’t a fair question! I’m partial to blood orange sorbet, though I suppose that isn’t an ice cream. Mint chocolate chip if I had - Most loved kitchen appliance?
My red Kitchenaid mixer. - Spice/herb you would die without?
Garlic, or cilantro if that doesn’t technically count. Then I could have both. - Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, Volumes I and II. The cookbooks were my mom’s and they are literally falling apart. Although, any cookbook that has a recipe for fricasseed muskrat is not “modern.” In all seriousness, though, I did learn a lot of really useful cooking techniques, and it helped develop my love for cooking. - Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Apricot or homemade strawberry. Just not grape. - Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
VWAV Spanakopita, or cupcakes. People cannot resist cupcakes.
- Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Again, it depends on the recipe or occassion. I like the ease and versatility of tofu, tempeh is great in wings or as bacon, and seitan is lovely in lots of different recipes. I’m just too lazy to make seitan most of the time, and the packaged stuff doesn’t do it for me.
- Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Probably brunch. I love being able to have sweet and savory all on one plate. It’s like being able to eat dessert and lunch at the same time. People frown upon that at dinner.
- What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Chips, a couple of sweet potatoes, probably an empty beer can or two.
- Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Spring roll wrappers, frozen banana chunks, carrot cake rice dream
- What’s on your grocery list?
Always orange juice and fresh produce, lately the revolving iten is soy yogurt
- Favorite grocery store?
It would have to be a tie between Roots Market for variety and Trader Joe’s for price
- Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
My mom’s bread pudding. I know there are vegan bread pudding recipes out there, but this stuff is special. It’s kind of like french toast, but more firm, with raisins, cinnamon, and crushed pineapple. One day I will make it!
- Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
I can’t pick! I visit lots of blogs, but I am pretty faithful to Have Cake Will Travel, Orangette, and 101 cookbooks for a while. My Google reader is full of great sites that I read as often as I can, though!
- Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
I was never a fan of milk chocolate, but I do love the Ricemilk Truffle Bars. Something about the bitter and creamy combo is just delicious! I’m sort of off and on with candy. Sometimes I’ll go for Sour Patch Kids or some random fruity vegan gummy.
- Most extravagant food item purchased lately.
Sun-dried Tomatoes and kombucha, which I really need to learn to make! Kombucha is so addictive, and so expensive! GT’s Divine Grape Synergy is my absolute favorite.
The good thing about committing to a month of writing (even though I missed a couple of days, there) is that I force myself to post pictures and write about things that usually get neglected. I tend to take pictures at parties and restaurant meetings and plan to post them or share them, I really do. Then, a week or two goes by, and it just becomes embarrassing at that point to bother. So they go into my permanent collection, never to be seen by anyone except for me.
I’m hoping that starting this food blog will encourage me to post those photos more often. Even though I love to cook, the DC area is full of vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants. Vegetate has amazing sliders and Happy Hour specials, Great Sage has a wonderful brunch and delicious desserts, and there are a number of other restaurants where it is easy for a vegan to find a great meal.
Last night, I went to Soul Vegetarian Cafe with friends Meghan, Karyn, Carolyn, and Laura. With the exception of honey in some of the desserts, the cafe is all vegan. Food is mostly served up cafeteria style, with several entrèes, carbs, and vegetables. They are famous for their mac and cheeze, though. Until last night, it had been several years since I’d been to Soul Veg, but I still remembered their creamy, tasty macaroni casserole.
After Soul Veg, we enjoyed Sticky Fingers for dessert. I was able to pick some goodies up earlier on my way to our meet-up. I may also have accidentally consumed a large quantity of homemade candy corn that Meghan and Carolyn made. Oops. No wonder I wasn’t hungry for most of today.
I’ve been thinking about cinnamon rolls and chocolate all week. Then, I got a jar of cherry preserves from one of my partners on swap-bot. So, this morning, before I got out of bed, I was thinking about what I could do with the preserves. I thought perhaps, pancakes, then waffles covered in warmed and thinned preserves, or perhaps folded into muffin batter.
Then, I decided to just wing it and make something totally new. Now, I do have a confession. When I decide I want soft, bready rolls, I can’t always wait to make dough, let it rise, roll it out, etc. Sometimes I’m hungry and I want to eat before well, 3pm. So, I sometimes keep a few canisters of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. No, they aren’t the healthiest, but neither is covering your breakfast in chocolate chips. So yes, sometimes, I am a cheater. They sure are tasty, though.
I’m sure this could also be done with real sweet roll dough, but that requires planning, and I get cranky when breakfast is late. Don’t judge.
I don’t think I can morally write out a recipe involving what basically amounts to canned biscuits, but here is what I did:
I opened up a canister of the rolls and pressed the triangles into one large sheet. Then, I sprinkled on a few handfuls each of Vegansweets White Chips, and Ghiradelli Semi-Sweet chocolate chips (vegan, but not all of the Ghiradelli chips are, so read the bag if you buy this brand). Then, I spread a few spoonfuls of the cherry preserves down the center, rolled up the dough loosely from the longest edge, cut it into 8 rolls, and placed them into an 8X8 baking pan lined with parchment paper.
Repeat with the other canister. Bake in a preheated 350º oven for about 25 minutes (honestly, I wasn’t paying attention and I never time things), or until golden brown.
I drizzled them with a simple glaze:
Cinnamon-Orange “Oops, I thought that was almond extract!” Glaze
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 TBS orange juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon (mine is really strong, adjust to your own brand/taste)
1/2 tsp orange extract
Mix everything together in a small bowl. Add a few more drops of orange juice at a time if necessary, just until the glaze is barely thin enough to drizzle from a spoon.
Makes 16 rolls
This year, I finally decided to join the rest of the civilized foodie world and finally start a blog. I won’t promise there will always be photos, or that I won’t be too hungry to take a decent photo before digging in, but I am going to try to write often.
This month is VeganMoFo, or Vegan Month of Food. I’ve already warned my family, and they are expecting frequent photos during meals. They’re already used to my kookiness, so they shouldn’t be too phased by my latest hobby.
Coming soon…
October 4, 2008 in Random | 2 comments
I don’t know how you dedicated food bloggers have time to eat. What with the cooking, and posing everything to get that one perfect shot! Several posts coming up this weekend, including some shots of Double Chocolate Cherry Pecan Rolls with a cinnamon orange glaze.
Later, though, I’m too busy eating.