New Year! New Treat! (Happy Early Spring!)

It's been far too long since I've posted something new. As a matter of happy coincidence, I found myself baking last night. Zips had had a nibble of some delicious orange cranberry mini tea scones from Trader Joe's over the weekend. Wanting to have some tea and scones with our new evening ritual of watching Downton Abbey, we found ourselves without any kind of sweet treat. We combed the grocery store's bakery section for something tea/muffin/scone-oriented. Resolving to find something to cook at home, Zips came up with an excellent vegan cranberry orange scone recipe for which we already had everything we needed! (When I make these again-- and I will-- I'm going to add a tsp. of vanilla and some sliced almonds!)

Vegan Cranberry Orange Scones are freaking delicious!

Preheat oven to 425.

2 c. flour

1 c. whole wheat flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 c. dried cranberries

(2/3 c. chopped walnuts-- we left these out. As I said, I'd add maybe 1/2 c. sliced almonds instead.)

Mix these together and set aside.

1/2 c. veg./canola oil

1/2 c. maple syrup

2/3 c. orange juice

zest from 2 oranges

(I'd add 1/2 to 1 tsp. of vanilla extract here too)

Mix wet ingredients together. Then combine wet into dry ingredients until a thick dough forms. You can spoon these by large tablespoons onto a cookie sheet, or pat into a rough rectangle and cut into wedges (yields about a dozen). Bake for 12-13 minutes until lightly brown.

We drizzled a glaze over the top that was made of powdered sugar, orange juice, and orange zest. It really made these zingy!

Because these are vegan, I'm sure they're far better for us than the Trader Joe's (whose ingredients include both butter as well as buttermilk). And ours are freaking delicious! They're crumbly and chewy instead of hard and hollow (as some scones can be). And although we omitted the walnuts, I think because of the whole wheat flour they also have a nice vaguely nutty flavor. We're already going to need another batch. We're only up to episode 5 of the first season and we only have 6 scones left.

Starting the Holidays Early & Tarte au Citron

After having such a rough fall semester, Zips is feeling even more festive than usual. We've got our Christmas tree all set up. I've got orders to climb up on the roof to string lights before the week is out. Mixes of contemporary and classic holiday songs are blaring from every room. We even splurged on a light-up flamingo with a festive red scarf for the front yard (it suits the Southern New Mexico climate. Her name is Babs Johnson.) Zips found an amazing pinecone garland from West Elm, but it sold out almost immediately.

So I took it upon myself to put something together that might make her happy and approximate how cool this would've looked. There are a few pine trees on campus, so we drove out there and filled two shopping bags with the nicest ones we could find (and only when I dumped them out on my living room floor did I think about the possibility that critters might live in them!). I tied them in slip knots to some jute twine and ended up with about 14 feet of it! (hey the West Elm one is only 6 feet!) Now that I have this down, I should go looking for acorns too!

I put the leftover younger pine cones into a glass bowl for decor too!

Meanwhile, we've been growing several scrawny citrus plants for more than a year now. We've got a kumquat tree, several lime trees, a satsuma tree, and a dwarf Meyer lemon tree that has finally borne some tiny Meyer lemons! They're lovely, very tart, and floral. We had four ripe ones at once, so Zips suggested we do something special with them. In that same Good Housekeeping, there's a recipe for a simple lemon curd. So we decided to half it and make some mini Meyer lemon tarts with our baby lemons! From scratch!

Tarte au Citron:

1/2 c. sugar

1/3 c. fresh lemon juice

1 Tb. fresh lemon zest

3 Tb. butter

2 eggs

**You should prep and bake your tart crust beforehand and let it cool. I use a 1/3 c. shortening +1/3 c. butter + 2 c. flour recipe. Baked 2 mini-tarts crusts for about 15 minutes at 400.**

In a saucepan, melt the butter with the sugar, lemon juice and zest. In a bowl, whisk the eggs. Once the lemon mixture is melted/dissolved/incorporated, spoon a bit out and whisk it into the egg bowl. Spoon a little more in and whisk (in order to warm the eggs up a little). Pour the eggs into the saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens (about 15 minutes).

Then I poured the lemon curd into the tart crusts. I cannot wait to eat these! I'll wait until tomorrow, but it might be the first thing I eat on Thanksgiving morn!

Happy Holidays!

Zipper's Homemade Spiced Applesauce

As promised, during my month-long absence, Zips learned how to make applesauce with just a microwave and a food processor! Armed with a 5lb bag of apples and a couple of lemons and spices, we've had fresh applesauce 4 or 5 times in the two weeks I've been back. It's become a breakfast staple for me (with toast and peanut butter) and at dinner time too. It tastes like apple pie without anything bad! And no baking! And virtually no cooking!

Zip's Spiced Applesauce:

peel, core, and cut up 4 apples (your favorite crisp, tart variety)

place in a microwave safe bowl with

1/4 c. water

3+ Tb. sugar (to taste)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

And for the intrepid, add whatever other apple pie spices you like.

Cover and microwave for about 10 min. or however long it takes for apples to get tender. Pour spiced apples all the liquid into your food processor and process to desired saucy texture. Enjoy warm or cooled. Keeps for 3 or 4 days in the fridge. You'll never ever buy it in a jar again!

How did I live this long without eating this?! Zips has never even liked applesauce before now!

New Quinoa Side Dish & Zipper's Divine FroYo (but not at the same time!)

With dinner tonight, we needed a side to accompany baked Quorn chik'n cutlets and haricot verts. Seeing our bin of dry quinoa, Zips scoured the internets for a recipe for me to try out and found one that we improvised off of. The original called for diced bell peppers, which we swapped out for diced onions, and called for walnuts which we omitted. I also added parsley. It's fantastic, has subtle flavors, and makes a tasty, healthy side to your lunch or dinner. I bet it'll be good cold too!

Cranberry Coriander Quinoa (side dish)

Add 1 c. quinoa to 2 c. of boiling water and simmer for about 10 min. until the liquid is absorbed. While that's simmering, saute:

3 ribs celery diced finely

1/2 c. yellow onion diced finely

in 1-2 Tb. olive oil

and add

1 tsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. ground cumin

salt & black pepper

Saute until onions and celery are tender then add to the cooked quinoa. Toss in

1/4 c. dried cranberries

1/4 c. chopped parsley

and serve warm.

Afterward, we had planned on just macerated berries (that's fancy talk for slicing berries and tossing some sugar over the top and letting them sit until they get all juicy) for dessert, but Zips really outdid herself in deciding with all the yogurt we have in the house, it's a shame we've never tried to make frozen yogurt. So she did, ignoring all the imperatives she found online that you have to have full fat yogurt. We didn't, and it turned out just fine with the non fat Greek yogurt we have on hand.

Divine Blueberry Lavender Frozen Yogurt

2 c. plain fat free Greek-style yogurt

12 oz. (2 packs) fat free blueberry yogurt (we have Chobani)

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 Tb. vanilla extract

1 Tb lavender buds

Mix all the ingredients together until you're sure the sugar has dissolved. Then dump it all into your ice cream maker. The result is floral, tart, sweet, and heavenly (not to mention fairly guilt-free!)

I'm sure this is only the beginning of much experimentation in the FroYo genre of desserts I can't wait to see what she hankers for next.

Improving on Perfection: Crumble Topping

After the success of the banana raisin muffins, Zips has been on a quest to discover more and even better breakfast recipes. So she found a vegan blueberry muffin that looked healthy-- and they taste healthy. For me they had all qualities that I avoid in baked treats-- they were a bit dense, grainy, not terribly sweet. But these same qualities are why Zips ended up liking them a lot. She agrees they taste healthy, but in a good way. She likes how they smell like whole wheat. I'll spare you the recipe so you go find a better one. But these'll do in a pinch.

So rather than strike off in new territory this morning, I decided to just swap the raisins in last week's banana muffins for blueberries. And to be extra delicious, I decided to look for a crumble topping recipe.

And am I ever glad I did! It's super easy to remember the quantities of the ingredients-- just grab your 1/4 c. measuring cup.

Crumb Topping for muffins (and other things, I'm sure!)

1/4 c. all purpose flour

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. oats

1/4 c. butter (best if kept cold and cut into small pieces)

1 tsp. cinnamon

mix everything together with a fork until clumpy but well incorporated. Then fork pieces over each muffin-- whatever sort of muffins you decide to make.

It made the muffins smell and taste like PIE! I look forward to making more kinds-- I'm thinking of looking up something with apples and raisins. Oh, and despite Zips' love of blueberries, she likes the banana muffins with raisins better. But she loved the crumble!

Decadent Dessert (toppings!)

With Memorial Day weekend coming up and holiday weekend movies starting tomorrow, we decided to beat the rush and have a cookout today (Wednesday). After gorging ourselves on potato salad, veggie burgers and corn grilled over the fire, we scraped together change from the couch for some fresh strawberries and heavy whipping cream for dessert. Zips missed the episode of Barefoot Contessa I caught that featured her summer berry pudding (to be attempted sometime soon!) that she tops with some rum whipped cream. We still have some dregs of Bacardi, so we figured, why not?

Rum Whipped Cream (thanks Ina!)

half pint of heavy whipping cream

3 Tb. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 Tb. rum (the original calls for dark rum, I say use what you got!)

Since I've never actually whipped cream, I decided to be good and put the stainless steel bowl, the cream, and the beaters for the mixer in the freezer for about 10 minutes (this is supposed to be helpful). Beat the cream by itself until it's beyond frothy and starts to actually thicken. Then slowly add the rest of the ingredients and continue beating until stiff peaks form and all that. Goes GREAT with fresh strawberries. Would also be excellent on anything chocolate or coffee flavored. I'm interested in trying this with brandy instead of rum. We'll see. Enjoy!

Summer Fever!

We went to the local farmer's market yesterday morning and found it swung into high gear already. Locally grown produce, starter plants for herbs and flowers, a lady selling agua fresca, long lines for kettle corn. It smells like summer. We've got it bad. Just planted tomatoes and basil for the patio garden. Then, covered in dirt, I built a fire in the fire pit and grilled some veggie dogs and corn. Rather than buying that lady's agua fresca, Zips bought me a small locally grown watermelon (it's a little early in the season), and cut out all the flesh, whizzed it up in the blender, and strained it twice-- creating an entire pitcher of juice for the same price as a single styrofoam cup filled with melting ice and a little melon juice! Wanting to contribute more (and not overindulge in charred processed veggie meats), Zips found a recipe on the label of a can of garbanzo beans that looked good. The recipe is called "Rockin' Moroccan Pita" and involves cooking chicken breasts in cumin and chili powder, then tossing with garbanzos and stuffing it all into pita pockets topped with yogurt. All the elements are there for a new twist on a bean salad, so Zips took a 12oz. bag of Quorn chick'n tenders and grabbed a couple of ears of roasted corn and invented:

Mexican Double "Chick"pea Salad

blend together

1 Tb. ground cumin

1 tsp. chili powder

4 Tb. olive oil.

and toss in chick'n tenders, coating them thoroughly. Heat chick'n tenders in a pot (you can add 1/2c. water-- we did this in a pot over the fire and heated it until most of the water evaporated).

In the meantime, combine

1 16oz. can of chick peas (drained, rinsed)

3 green onions, thinly sliced

1/2 tomato, diced

1-2 cobs worth of roasted corn, de-kerneled

1/2 c. parsley, chopped

juice of 2 lemons

drizzle of olive oil

Combine seasoned chick'n to the bean mixture and serve warm or cooled.

I realize the bean company called this "Rockin' Moroccan," but with the cumin and chili and roasted corn, we agreed this tastes decidedly south of the border. The "Double Chick" comes from the combination of chick'n and chick-pea (and it's more fun to say than chickenchickpea salad) It's delicious!

My other obsession this weekend is the memory of the crepe suzette haunting me from La Creperie in Chicago. I already had a crepe batter recipe, so looked around for a Suzette a la Germain that resembled the orange-y goodness that we enjoyed. I settled on one, and realized partway through it that I had misread the directions, so improvised what I think is an AWESOME sauce:

Crepe Zipzette a la Germain (just the sauce)

Juice of 5 oranges

zest of 1-2 oranges

2Tb. sugar

1 Tb. butter

Heat these in a small saucepan about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in 2 Tb. Grand Marnier. Once I'd made a batch of crepes, I folded one in half, dipped it through the sauce and folded it again (now quartered) onto the plate. Drizzle with more sauce, and sliced strawberries, bananas, orange, and some whipped cream.

Try not to let your eyes roll back in your head too much!

The Glamorous Life of a Marathon Dissertation Writer and Cupcake Baker

I spent a lot of time in the late summer cooking, trying out new recipes, making pasta and home-brewed limoncello, knowing that before long, I would be in the middle of a new semester, swamped with student papers to grade and feeling the deadline to defend and deposit my dissertation loom large.

That's where we're at right now.

A year or two ago, I went to an academic conference and saw many of the scholars who populate my bookcases and essays. It was exciting. One of my favorite brilliant professors met us for sushi and sake (I'd never had sake before! I'm a complete lightweight!), and chatted with us as though we were people, friends, rather than as students. When we parted ways we spoke about the difficulties in writing, and I expressed anxiety about writing this dissertation. She hugged me and encouraged me to write, saying simply, "let's make a pact." This was a humbling and exhilarating moment for me-- thinking that someone I admire so much, whose work has helped shape the way I think about my own writing and critical approaches, could make a pact with me to write. This has been at the back of my brain, quietly urging me to keep going.

So for the past two months, I've been essentially living at my desk doing nothing but reading, re-reading, and writing (and rewriting!). I drink a lot of coffee. I eat trail mix and ramen and nori (omega 3's for my brain!). I obsess over my word count. I go through post-it notes like there's no tomorrow. I keep a pitcher of water and two sets of headphones by my side at all times. I wear wrist bands to stave off carpal tunnel.

(I feel like I should take up smoking, since all the best writers seem to chain smoke. Since I don't I've developed a habit of munching on mints as I type-- until I discovered that the icebreakers I've been downing mostly contain sugar substitutes called malitol and sorbitol, which, if you have too much in your system, can cause great g.i. distress!)

In any case, it's glorious. The cats stay up with me until all hours.

Here Mini implores me to quit typing and go to bed.

Here is one of my 2 crates of research (it is no longer in this fastidious order.) not to mention the piles of books on my table, floor, and bookshelves. Or the library books I have. Or the inter-library loan library I've accumulated.

And yet, in the backyard, I'm reminded that life continues on, that new life is growing even as I'm sequestering myself away so that I can finish writing my dissertation and finally graduate with my Ph.D.

We transplanted a patch of grass about 5" square, and it's sitting at the edge of our backyard patio, at the margin of our zero-scaping. Under the sod, we put down a layer of our own compost that's been accumulating and cooking for forever. And in the corner of this box of grass (that we call the "pet patch") emerged a cantaloupe vine. That has SIX cantaloupes on it. We didn' t plant them. We had no idea what they were for the longest time (watermelons? cucumbers? squash? pumpkins?) It's miraculous. Sometimes in the evenings, Zips goes out to water the plants, including the pet patch and the melons.

Since I've churned out 3 out of 4 chapters that will constitute the body of the diss, I've eased up a little bit. I've made vegetarian spicy sushi. A wonderful new puree of carrot soup that I'll have to post here.

Last night, Zips found and followed an awful (awful) recipe for carrot cake that was on the back of a raisin container (it called for shortening. it ended up with the texture of cornbread and tasted salty). So I threw it away and pulled out the vegan cupcake book. Every recipe I've tried, I swear, is amazing. The carrot cake cupcake is FREAKING DELICIOUS. The recipe makes literally 8 cupcakes, so there's no danger in overindulging (but you'll really really want to).

Carrot Cake Cupcakes (accidentally not vegan...)

2/3 c. flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cinnamon (I used closer to 1/2 tsp)

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

(I also added 1/4 tsp. ground cloves and 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg... why not?)

sift together dry ingredients

2/3 c. sugar (I'm out of white sugar, so used brown, and it tasted FINE)

1/3 c. veg. oil

1/3 c. plain soy yogurt (I'm out of soy yogurt, so used plain dairy yogurt, and it turned out FINE)

1 generous tsp. vanilla

Mix wet ingredients together until completely combined. Then add dry ingredients. Then fold in chunky bits:

1 c. shredded carrots (I grated one large-ish carrot)

1/4 c. raisins (and dry cranberries if you want to trick it out)

1/4 c. chopped walnuts (I skipped this)

Distribute into cupcake liners (fill 2/3 of the way) and bake for about 25 minutes, until they pass a toothpick test.

When they cool, frost with Cream Cheese Frosting (which you can also make!) Take a load off and eat one. Save one for breakfast (since they have carrots in them, they're healthy!)

So I have something to eat as I get back to work. Hopefully I'll post happy news soon. Either when I finish writing... or when we eat the cantaloupes!

Can you boil milk? Then you can make Chocolate Mousse!!

Easy Chocolate Mousse

1/2 c. soy milk

2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. (or more) brandy (or other liqueur of your choice)

1 Tb. instant coffee powder

10 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

12 oz. silken tofu

Blend silken tofu until smooth.

Heat the soymilk in a pan. When it boils, turn off the heat and add instant coffee. Pour chocolate chips in a bowl and add heated milk to it. Add vanilla and brandy and stir until chips melt into glossy melty deliciousness.

Add melted chocolate to blender and blend until completely incorporated. Pour out into serving cups and refrigerate at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours before serving.

Oh yeah...

... we also made graham crackers (though, not technically, since we didn't use graham flour)...

They're actually pretty easy and don't require any special ingredients you don't already have.

...and black and white cookies. I even purchased an old school ice cream scooper for these so they would be perfectly round and uniform in size (although I didn't realize they'd be as big as a cookie at a Starbucks!

Both were huge hits in the household (even though the chocolate half of the b/w cookie isn't as smooth as the white half). Oh, and both are from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar! You may as well just buy the book. Vegan or no vegan, everything in this is freaking delicious! (see also the carrot raisin cookies). I'm going to miss summertime cooking!

Farmer's Market Feasting

Nearly a year ago exactly, Zips and I discovered the Albuquerque Downtown Grower's Market. And on a spur of the moment flash of madness, on Saturday we got up at 6 in the morning, to drive three hours to visit it again. We were reminded how much we love farmer's markets with their crazy abundant variety.

We picked up a dozen ears of corn, carrots, peaches, grapes, potatoes, lavender...

A basket of these adorable pear-shaped yellow tomatoes...

And if you go, you must swing by the booth belonging to Black Bird Pies. They often give out sample bites of pie (this time it was their sweet potato pie)...

...and they have the most amazing fruit juices. Again, Zips chose watermelon papaya and I picked the thai basil lemonade and the raspberry sage lemonade. They were all equally awesome (and inspired Zips to concoct Sweet Basil Watermelon Water with our feast).

When we got home (after swinging by Bella Luca on the way home. I'll have to write about their cannellini and greens that I ordered!), we decided to gorge ourselves to celebrate the end of another summer, and rather than just fix the usuals for our Sunday dinner, to make everything with some new recipes.

I already have a great recipe for peach pie, so decided to branch out and make peach galettes. The peaches we got were the size of plums, but they actually yielded more fruit than I expected (I could have more than made a pie!)

Peach Galettes

I used a different dough recipe for the crust-- but now that I've tried it, I think I'd just stick with my usual pie crust recipe, just roll it out a bit thinner. The dough recipe was 1 1/4 c. flour with 8Tb. butter and 1/4 c. ice water. It only gave me 2 crusts, so I had to half it and make a third galette when I had excess filling. If I did it all over again, I'd just use a regular pie crust recipe that would probably give me 4 galettes.

The filling was 6 c. of sliced peaches tossed with

2/3 c. sugar

big dash of cinnamon (1 tsp.)

small dash of ground cloves (1/4 tsp.)

small dash of nutmeg (1/4 tsp.)

1 Tb. flour

juice of 1/2 lemon

Place the peach filling in the center of each crust about an inch from the edges and then curl the crust around the filling. If you get greedy like me, you can stack the peach filling a bit more after you've created the edges of the galette. You can even drizzle in a little of the juice. Just don't over-do it like I did and get the bottom of your crust soggy even before baking it.

Then bake at 400 for about 30 minutes.

Zips sliced up the yellow tomatoes, sprinkled some of our sweet basil over it and drizzled it with olive oil. Then scooped out some of our locally grown watermelon before juicing the rest of it and adding some chopped sweet basil to the juice (it was delicious!). I cubed the potatoes and carrots and roasted them with some olive oil and rosemary from our garden.
But another high point and new discovery was corn pudding. Corn Pudding. Two words I never imagined together. I couldn't wrap my brain around it. I had no concept of what it would taste like. But nothing about it looked bad, so I gave it a whack and am so glad I did!

Zipper's Corn Pudding

2 or 3 ears of fresh corn-- de-kerneled

2/3 c. milk (most recipes call for whole milk. I used soy milk. It was delightfully light and fluffy. Perhaps when I try this again with the southwestern variation, I'll use whole milk to get the full effect before experimenting more)

1 egg

1 Tb. flour

1 tsp. sugar

salt + pepper

Handful of basil or cilantro (I used basil-- about 8 or 9 leaves chopped)

Pulse half of the corn kernels in a food processor. I did this until I had a kind of sweet corn mush. Then add the processed corn to the rest of the kernels, the dry ingredients, and the basil or cilantro.

In another bowl, mix together egg and milk, and add this to the corn mixture. Then pour into a baking dish and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. I finally got to use these little individual pans for like the second time in ten years!

It was an amazing feast-- that has left us both plagued with food ennui. I'll have to think up something quick to make life worth living after having eaten this sumptuously! Isn't that what summer's for?

Just Like Berry Pie a la Mode (without the hassle of making a pie!)

Summer is ending too quickly. In just two weeks, we'll be back in school and then it's just full tilt until Christmas. Of course one of the best things about summer is fresh berries (even though we don't have access to a u-pick farm anymore), and Zips had a memory about vanilla ice cream with berries in a swirl of Chambord (black raspberry liqueur) syrup. There's literally no way to mess this one up!

Chambord Berries and Ice Cream

2 c. fresh strawberries

1 c. blueberries

1 c. raspberries

1/3 c. sugar

combine berries and sugar and simmer over low heat until sugar dissolves.

Add 1/2 c. Chambord

simmer for 3 minutes (don't stir too much...those raspberries are delicate!)

Spoon berries and syrup over vanilla ice cream. It tastes like the best berry pie a la mode!

C is for Cookie...and Coconut and Carrot and Cinnamon...and Crumbles!

Since all of my adult life has consisted of being a graduate student and teaching, I associate summertime with being on a TIGHT budget. Since I have foodie ambitions, I'm learning to combine having no income with being creative in the kitchen. Since a staple for us is a vegetarian version of ground beef (for tacos, chili, spaghetti, lasagna, etc.) I've worked out a recipe that replaces what we usually buy (Morningstar Crumbles) that uses TVP. TVP is just soy-based textured vegetable protein. It's the major ingredient in a lot of veggie burgers and veggie sausages, and can be found (dehydrated) in the bulk sections of groceries and health food stores. (Not much to look at, I know. Just wait.)

"Ground Beef" Style Crumbles:

2 c. TVP

2-3 cloves minced garlic

2 c. boiling water

2 Tb. Kitchen Bouquet

3-4 Tb. soy sauce

garlic powder

onion powder

salt

black pepper

cayenne pepper

Measure out TVP and put it in a large mixing bowl with the minced garlic. When you water comes to a boil, turn off the heat and add Kitchen Bouquet (this makes it a nice brown color without adding too much sodium), soy sauce, and spices. Combine thoroughly and then pour it into your tvp bowl (if you don't mix these together, the Kitchen Bouquet will turn some of the tvp--whatever it hits first-- a very dark brown and leave the rest of it rather blonde). Be sure all of the liquid is combined with the tvp and leave it to absorb the liquid (about 15-20 min).
Once the liquid has been absorbed, the tvp should be evenly brown. Now heat a large frying pan with a little vegetable oil. When hot, add the tvp mixture and heat it. Adjust the seasonings. For me, the onion powder (or granulated onion) is what evokes a kind of beefy flavor. Oh, and I didn't list it, but I use Fiesta brand fajita seasoning in everything. Depending on what you intend to use it in, you may also want to add oregano and other italian seasonings, or cumin and chili powder. Once the tvp has been heated through and browned even more, turn off the heat and let it cool. I did a double batch (4 c. tvp, 4 c. water) and made about the equivalent of three or four 12 oz. packages of crumbles from the store. HERE'S THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP: Once you've got your crumbles tasting the way you want them, let them cool, put them in a freezer bag, and FREEZE IT! It affects the texture once you're using it in a recipe. You can use it "raw" no problem, but if you freeze it, and then cook with it straight from the freezer, it seems more toothsome.

And for a new treat we have a new cookie recipe! These are AMAZING. Like carrot cake. Only better. With a great lemon glaze icing. It's adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, which, like its sibling, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World has the most amazing, creative, delicious treats. (including tiramisu cupcakes, which are the single best cupcake I've ever had in my life. Vegan or not).

But back to the cookies... These are the second recipe in the book. Second only to chocolate chip cookies (which I'll probably be trying out tonight). They deserve this position. They are soon to be classics in this house.

Carrot Raisin Cookies or as we call them Get Your Own

(Preheat to 350)

1/3 c. unflavored soy milk (or any other non-dairy)

1 Tb. ground flax seeds. (I didn't have this, so used 1 1/2 tsp. Ener-G egg replacer mixed well with 2 Tb. water)

1/2 c. canola. oil

1/3 c. dark brown sugar

1 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. orange zest

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

mix all these together. In another bowl, sift together

1 3/4 c. all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

mix these dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Then measure out:

1 c. finely shredded carrots (I used about 2 medium carrots)

1 c. raisins

1/2 c. shredded coconut

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

mix the chunky bits into the cookie batter and spoon out onto a baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes (I did 18 minutes). Let them cool on a wire rack. The lemon glaze that I overdid it on (to GREAT effect) is made up of 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar, zest of 1 lemon, and juice of 2 small lemons). I drizzled mine on WAY too early when the cookies were still hot (couldn't wait). But then I drizzled more when they were cooler (too much of a good thing is even better).

This makes two dozen cookies. I made them at about 10:00 last night. They were GONE by about noon today. You do the math.

Homemade Tortillas and Decadent Desserts

I've been a little ambitious lately. Especially since I've been kicking around a couple of kitchen gadgets like the pasta machine that I'm finally putting to use. Another gadget is a little tortilla press that's put ideas of making my own tortillas into my head. I found a recipe for flour tortillas that had ingredients that I already own, and I saw something recently with Bobby Flay or Rick Bayless using one of those presses, so I was inspired! Now this isn't something I looked in to extensively (for instance, I didn't even look at that link to see that flour tortillas are typically made with a rolling pin!). The recipe itself is a basic dough:

Flour Tortillas

3 c. flour

2 ts. baking powder

1 ts. salt

cut 4-6 Tb. vegetable shortening (I used about 5 Tb.)

1 1/4 c. warm water

The instructions I jotted down said to combine the dry ingredients, mix in the shortening until it's like a meal, and then to dump the water in all at once and mix it into a dough quickly. Then to knead the dough until it's no longer sticky, cover it, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Then pinch off 1" balls of dough and roll it in your hands into fat disks. Let the dough disks rest another 10 minutes, then with a wooden pin, roll them out into tortillas on a floured surface until they're pretty thin (the thinner and more circular, the better. But don't fret. It all tastes the same!). While you're rolling these out, heat a dry pan or skillet and cook your tortilla about 30 seconds on each side. You'll see the tortilla starting to puff up and blister. This is a good thing.

When you flip it over, you'll see it looks like a charmingly rustic version of what you get in a store!

Of course, I'm leaving out how sticky my dough was. And how, like the gringa I am, I tried to press out my tortillas with the tortilladora. I mean I've had it for years without ever using it! I even used plastic so the dough wouldn't stick to the press! Then Zips came into the kitchen, told me to lighten up, and grabbed a dough ball and a rolling pin and said I wanna try.

As you can see, the little round ones are a bit too thick to pass as tortillas (as one of my dear friends cautioned me, "don't make them too thick and end up with fry bread!")-- but brushed with a little butter and drizzled with honey or cinnamon sugar, they're JUST FINE!

The tortillas were destined for greater things. I've never made fajitas, but I have to say this worked out great! I just sauteed some green and red peppers with onion, and then added some "beef-less strips" (Trader Joe's has good ones, Morningstar has some too) with just some fajita seasoning and cumin. Everyone loved it and we'll be adding it to the menu more often. I didn't even want to add the guacamole, sour cream, or cheese. It was that good.

And the latest on the decadent dessert front is that tonight I decided to make Bananas Foster. If your household is anything like mine, there comes a time when your fruit bowl only has one thing left: bananas. Sure they were light greenish yellow when you bought them. They had a nice bite in your cereal, but yesterday or the day before, they reached that point when no one is going to want to eat them. They're not black yet. But the only one in the house going for them is that damn fly you can't get rid of. Just a one-way train to banana bread. So since I had 3 that were speckled with brown and soft to the touch, I decided to look for a recipe to use them in. This one is a blend of 3 recipes and the fancy restaurant around here that does a whole floor show (table-side preparation with flambe) and charges you per person when you order. Even though bananas cost less than sixty cents a pound. Oh, and you don't have to light the sauce on fire with this. Your eyebrows are safe.

Bananas Foster

2 Tb. butter (I use Earth Balance margarine)

3 Tb. brown sugar

healthy dash of cinnamon-- you can always add more

2 Tb. rum

1-2 Tb. fresh squeezed orange juice (I had half an orange and gave it a squeeze)

(When I make it again, I think I'll do that with a lemon too)

3 bananas, sliced (not too thin)

Melt the butter and stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, rum, orange juice. Let these mingle and begin to bubble. Once it looks nice and saucy, add the bananas. Cook until bananas are heated through. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Pass out from endorphins and sugar high. Enjoy!

What's Next? Homemade Vegan Donuts?

After those donuts we had at Herbivore, it's been a new goal to create and perfect our own vegan donuts. Hell, we'd settle for perfected homemade donuts. Especially since we've discovered that the closest gas station to our house has our hallucinogenic narcotic of choice: Krispy Kreme blueberry cake donuts. (**mmmmmm oooooohh** )

I'm trying to wean the household from getting these every couple of weeks by looking for healthier alternatives, which brought me to Vegan Yum Yum's post on baked mini-donuts. Our batter turned out much more liquid than how hers looks, and yes, those are blueberries that I added. Since these are baked (and we don't have a donut pan, but apparently really need one now!), I spooned about 1/4 c. of the batter into each part of a cupcake pan. So our donuts turned out as kind of dense but delicious muffins. I followed her glaze recipe, but then added some lemon juice and zest (since lemon goes really well with blueberries). For my chocolate glaze, I melted about 6oz. of chocolate chips with a dash of brandy (old fondue trick), a dot of vanilla extract, some soy milk, and a tiny dash of vegetable oil (this is a trick to help keep your chocolate glaze shiny that I'm sure I got from some health guru like Paula Deen). They were delicious. Not terribly donut-y, but close enough to get your fix. Did I mention they're vegan?

Spring and Summer Eats

Okay, first of all, I can't believe I haven' t yet posted a recipe for one of my favorite things to eat: Sticky Rice with Mango. And tonight's great new recipe is brought to you by a grocery store sample. Now, I'm not usually one to eat just anything that's sitting around in a dixie cup at the front end of a store. But we were stocking up on some munchies at our local veg-friendly co-op and there were little cups of a peanut noodle salad. Famished, I decided to check it out and feel so lucky that I did. I was also delighted that the recipe was printed out on a slip of paper, and is pretty much from scratch, with ingredients I almost always have:

Thai Peanut Noodle Salad

1 package stir fry rice noodles (Pad Thai noodles):

Bring a pot of water to a boil, shut it off and soak the noodles for 8 to 10 minutes until they are cooked, but still firm (not mushy). Rinse with cold water and set aside.

1 package firm/extra-firm tofu:

Cut into thin slices and saute until golden on both sides

Veggies:

green and purple cabbage, cucumber, carrots, bell pepper, green onions, cilantro

Sauce:

1/2 c. soy sauce

1/2 c. rice vinegar

2 Tb. sugar

2 Tb. minced ginger

1 Tb. minced garlic (2 cloves)

3/4 c. peanut butter

(the recipe includes 3/4 c. cold water, which I left out. I was afraid it'd be too watery.)

blend together in a blender and add

1/4 c. sesame

2 tsp. red chili flakes

Keep blending until sauce is smooth.

Toss everything together and chill or serve room temperature.

Sticky Rice with Mango

Sticky Rice with Mangos (quick n' dirty)

soak 1 c. sticky rice in 1 1/2+c. hot water for 10 minutes. Cover and microwave for 3 minutes. Stir and microwave 3 more minutes. Repeat until rice is cooked.

meanwhile, combine and bring to a simmer

1c. coconut milk

2 Tb. sugar

pinch of salt

pour 3/4c. over cooked rice and let it sit for 5 minutes. Spoon more over the rice and fresh mango slices when serving. (garnish with mint if you're feeling fancy). Aroi mak. Aroi mak mak. (that's Thai for "very delicious" and "very very delicious." Good to know.)

Long Weekend Cookout & Lavender Blueberry Ice Cream

This was, of course, our last long weekend before autumn holiday season (halloween not withstanding). Since the weather is finally starting to ease up, not scorching the earth in every waking minute, we decided to have a cookout. We made a foil packet with red potatoes and diced new mexico green chile (it was actually Zipper's grandma-in-law-- notoriously new-food-phobic-picky-eater-- who thought up this one. Genius!), veggie hot dogs and burgers, a purple cabbage and apple slaw (yum!), and corn on the cob. We didn't have any buns in the house, so I thought I'd try my all-purpose shortcake recipe-- and simply bake it in the shape of a bun. Althought it turned out a bit dense, and even though everyone agreed it was a bit like cornbread, it sure worked well as a dog-conveyance-device:

But the real winner today comes from Cathe Olson's vegan ice cream recipe book, Lick It! I have kept some lavender buds that I bought in the bulk section of some co-op with my crafting supplies for quite a while--- great for making scented sachets as gifts. Zips was reminded of this when flipping through the cookbook for something special for today's dessert, and landed on the page for Lavender Blueberry Ice Cream. After ransacking my sewing boxes, craft baggies, and desk, I finally found my ziploc bag of purple-y goodness and the game was on.
It turned out such a lovely color. The darker pieces are actually blueberry skin (not lavender buds, those gets strained out). It's heavenly. We all agreed we'd like to take a bath in it. It's a little tart, mildly sweet, smooth and floral. You have to try it!

Lavender Blueberry Ice Cream

1/2 c. plain soy milk

2 Tb. lavender buds

2 c. blueberries

1 (14 oz.) can coconut milk

1/2 c. sugar or agave syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Heat the soy milk until it boils. Remove from heat, stir in the lavender buds, cover and steep for 20 min.

Strain the milk (now purple) into a blender jar. Add remaining ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours (we poured it into a plastic quart container). Throw it in your ice cream maker and freeze away!

We served ours with a tofu 'whipped cream" topping from the same book (but it was just okay) and a sprig of mint. This has made Zips completely obsess over what else we can put lavender in to eat! Hopefully we'll try something soon. Happy Last Long Weekend!

BEST. vegan ICE CREAM RECIPE. EVER

So after making that last batch of Coffee Ice Cream, the motor on our Rival Ice Cream maker died (just died!), and with all these recipes to try out we had to replace it. In honor of our new model (the wooden bucket kind with the hand crank as a backup!), we've just been cranking out (tee hee) ice cream left and right.

Aside from the Vegan Ice Cream blog we discovered, Zips also found an ice cream cookbook I can't wait to get my paws on, Lick It! The base for these ice creams is coconut milk, rather than tofu or soymilk with arrowroot. The recipe for Vanilla was great, and I decided it would be even better if we tricked out with some cookie dough pieces, so I found a nice egg-less ice cream-ready recipe specifically for ice cream that makes the perfect amount and threw them in.

A sidenote: I love cookie dough as much as the next person (maybe more). But wouldn't necessarily say it's my favorite flavor of ice cream. And I'm also not a compulsive ice cream eater. HOWEVER, I've wolfed down a significant share of two batches of this recipe in the past four days. It's really that delicious! I made a batch of mango coconut ice cream at the same time, and do you see me ranting about that?

So:

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Prepare the cookie dough first

2 1/2 Tb. brown sugar
3 Tb. white sugar
2 Tb. margarine (Earth Balance works extremely well, since it has a hard consistency when chilled, a lot like butter)
1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tb. water
1/2 c. flour

Blend all ingredients into a dough (I just used a fork) and add about 1/4 c. chopped semi-sweet chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips. We formed the dough into a log wrapped in wax paper and froze it for about 2 hours.

1 can (14 oz.) coconut milk (full fat, not light)
1 1/4c. soy milk
1/2 c. sugar
1 Tb. vanilla

Blend together all ingredients and throw it into your ice cream maker. Add chunks of the frozen cookie dough in the last 5 minutes of your freezing.

Seriously, I don't even know if I'll ever look up another ice cream recipe. Ever. I'll just keep making this one. (okay, probably not, I'll just make this as a backup in case I don't like whatever else I make) (ps. the mango coconut was fine).