camp food

I just got back from another camping trip, and this one was a little more luxurious, shall we say, than my last trip, in the sense that we brought tons of food, including cold stuff in coolers, and did a bunch of cooking rather than living off energy bars, dried fruit, or packaged stuff that only requires the addition of boiling water. I had vague plans to photograph our meals, but that never happened, so I will instead just have to list some of what we ate, with the idea that such a post might help give ideas to other camping vegans. The night before we left I made banana bread (I reduced the sugar and used whole wheat pastry flour instead of AP), a half batch of Veganomicon's Prospect Park Potato Salad, and a half batch of Texas Chocolate Cake to take along, but otherwise we just worked with groceries. Here's what we had over the course of our 4.5 day trip.

We ate:

Breakfasts
-Coffee with almond or rice milk, which we brought in the 8oz packages so we didn't have to keep them chilled
-Banana bread, sometimes topped with Tofutti cream cheese (the non-hydrogenated kind)
-Bagels with Tofutti cream cheese, sometimes topped with Gardenburger breakfast sausages cooked in the skillet
-I brought stuff to make tofu scramble and had a package of dehydrated hashbrowns, but we never bothered making them
-I brought cereal but ditto above

Lunches
-Hummus, tomato, and cucumber sandwiches, seasoned with salt and pepper
-Veganomicon's potato salad
-Baby carrots dipped in hummus
-Fruit such as nectarines, oranges, apples, grapes, and watermelon
-Kettle chips
-Hint O' Mint Newman O's

Dinners
-Hot dogs cooked on the grill over the fire (we used Yves Veggie Brats) with corn on the cob (boiled on the stove, but could also have been grilled)
-Trader Joe's boil-in-the-bag Lentil Rice Biryani with boil-in-the-bag Chana Masala
-Boil-in-the-bag brown rice, kidney beans, and steamed carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower (we used the pre-washed and cut veggies from Trader Joe's), topped with FYH's low fat vegan Ranch dressing
-Capellini with TJ's tomato basil marinara plus a package of Lightlife Smart Ground, topped with grilled veggies and seasoned with garlic salt

Snacks
-Fruit (see lunch)
-Chips and salsa (why do I always crave this when in the mountains? I have no idea)
-Tamari almonds
-Primal strips

Dessert
-Texas Chocolate Cake! (this worked perfectly because it was chocolate and frosted, yet very stable/not subject to melting)

Other things we brought but never used: Popcorn, a can of Amy's medium chili, Imagine creamy tomato soup, stuff to make tacos, loads of energy bars, and loads more I can't remember. We were definitely well-fed on this trip!

texas chocolate cake

It has been a while since I posted. My work life kicked into super high gear in May and has only just calmed down. Well, ok, it actually calmed down a week ago, but then I went camping with a friend in Kings Canyon to celebrate the end of the school year (the end of grading papers! the end of dissertation deadlines! sort of!), so now I'm actually back, in the kitchen, occasionally making postable things. I'm especially looking forward to catching up on all I have missed in vegan blogland--have there been any serious breakthroughs in the last two months? Has a perfect tasting, melting, stretching vegan cheese been invented? I have no idea!

Anyway, explanatory preamble taken care of, I have a recipe to post. This is my veganization of my aunt's famous Texas Chocolate Cake, which has been brought to family functions since before I was born and is basically the best thing ever. Knowing how good it was going to be, I actually cut the recipe below in half when I made it last night because I didn't want my 2 person household to gain 100 pounds from this cake. The half recipe worked perfectly--I cooked it in an 8x8 cake pan for the same length of time, and that seemed fine. If you've never had Texas Chocolate Cake, you should really give this a whirl--it's seriously incredible. My husband and I are not huge chocolate people and he's not a huge cake person, but we loooooove this cake.

Texas Chocolate Cake
Serves: a lot of people!

Cook to a boiling point:
2 cubes/sticks margarine (1 cube = 1/2 cup; I like to use Earth Balance buttery sticks)
4 or 5 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup water

Remove from heat.

Add the following to above:
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 Ener-G eggs or 6 oz plain or vanilla yogurt (or, ideally, 1 Ener-G egg and 3 oz yogurt)
1/2 cup soy creamer
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Mix well with a wisk or spoon. Pour into an 11x17 greased pan or cookie sheet with sides. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Frost in the pan while both cake and frosting are warm.

Frosting:
In a heavy sauce pan, cook to a boiling point:
2 cubes/sticks margarine (1 cube = 1/2 cup; I like to use Earth Balance buttery sticks)
4 Tbsp cocoa powder
4 Tbsp soy milk

Remove from heat.

Stir in:
4 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Frost cake when cake has partially cooled (10-15 minutes) and cake and frosting are still warm. Sprinkle 1 cup or more of chopped walnuts on top of the cake after frosting. Cut and serve when cool.

t.u.h.'s jackfruit carnitas

We made jackfruit carnitas using The Urban Housewife's recipe a few nights ago. I got the jackfruit (young, green, in brine) from my local Asian supermarket and then followed her method for rinsing, squeezing, and then coating the pieces with spices, except that I was too lazy to do each piece individually so I just shook spices over all the pieces in the crockpot and then stirred them to coat before adding the onion, garlic, and salsa verde. When we served them we added lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, and other taco fillings rather than just eating them "carnitas" style because that's not really our thing. This was such a simple and yummy dinner, so I'm sure we'll be doing it again soon. If you haven't given Melisser's wonderful recipe a try, get on it ASAP!

healthy cranberry walnut muffins

I am FINALLY over that stupid cold, but it took forever to get better (9 days!), so now I'm way behind in my work, which has meant a lot of stress and very little bloggable cooking or baking. I did make myself some breakfast muffins, though, because I spent last week running all over the world and needed grab-and-go breakfast options.

12 muffins is often too much for my household, and it's definitely too much for me when my person is out of town (as it currently the case), so the recipe below only makes 6 muffins. I try to make breakfast muffins as healthy as possible by using whole grain flours, no refined sugar, etc., because I'm a hippie at heart, but substituting some white flour for the whole wheat would of course produce a fluffier, less dense muffin. You could also cut out half the canola and replace it with applesauce for a lower fat muffin, which I may do next time. They're good just the way they are, though, so maybe not...

Healthy Cranberry Walnut Muffins
makes 6 muffins
1/3 cup soy, rice, etc. milk
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup agave nectar
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup + 2 tsp whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup spelt flour
2 Tbsp ground flax seed
2 Tbsp rolled oats
1/4 tsp baking soda
scant 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup each dried cranberries and chopped walnuts

Directions:
Lightly grease half a muffin pan or line half of it with cupcake/muffin liners. Preheat oven to 325 F.

Mix the vinegar and milk together and set aside a few minutes to curdle. Pour the vinegar/milk combo into a large bowl and beat in the agave, oil, and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients and then mix them into the wet ingredients in several batches until smooth. Stir in the cranberries and walnuts.

Distribute the batter equally between the 6 liners or tins, then bake for 22-24 minutes until a toothpick or piece of dry spaghetti comes out clean. Overbaking will produce dry muffins, so do check them at the 22 minute mark. Cool completely on a wire rack before eating.

Store in a covered container. I think these taste better the day after being made.


Approximate nutritional information per muffin, according to NutritionData.com:
Calories: about 205
Fat: 11 grams (canola about 6, walnuts about 5)
Fiber: 4 grams
Protein: 4 grams
Also: 6% RDA of Calcium, 7% RDA Iron

dtv banana bread w/agave

I've been sick as a dog since Sunday with a cold that has also produced laryngitis which, as you might imagine, has been making teaching really interesting this week. Luckily I laid in a bunch of supplies before I got too sick, among them the banana bread pictured above. I used the recipe from Damn Tasty Vegan, except that I replaced the 1/2 cup of sugar called for with 1/2 cup of agave nectar, since sick people aren't supposed to have sugar. Because baked goods with agave nectar brown faster than those made with sugar, I also lowered the baking temperature to 325 F and just baked the bread a little longer to make up for it (I think about an hour). I also added 1/2 cup of walnuts, because banana bread isn't banana bread to me without walnuts. The bread came out really yummy, not overly sweet but sweet enough, so I'll definitely make it this way again in the future.

homemade vegan cheese and seitan sausage

In one of my more unlikely vegan cooking experiments, last night I made not just vegan seitan sausage, but also vegan cheese. The seitan sausage isn't really an experiment, since I've made it lots before. It's just sausage-flavored seitan o'greatness, as per this post. The only change I made this time was to add 1/4 cup of ground flax seed to the dry mix and then a tiny bit of extra water to the wet to account for the flax. I wanted to add the flax for a little fiber and to healthify the recipe slightly. In the end result you can't even tell that it's in there, so next time I may try upping the flax to 1/3 cup.

OK, but, the vegan cheese. Well, that certainly qualifies as an experiment. I have been interested in the theory of the block uncheeses from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook for a while now, but truthfully I have never been very wild about anything I have made from that book, so I was steering clear. Last night, though, it occurred to me that my problem with The Uncheese Cookbook seems to be about flavor and seasonings rather than texture (Joanne Stepaniak and I must just have really different palates), so I should just start ignoring the seasoning parts of the recipes and adapting them to my own taste. So, for my first experiment in uncheesemaking, that's what I did. I used the basic formula from the "Colby Cheez" recipe but then totally ignored the seasonings and came up with my own version. I thought I was most likely to enjoy something spicy, so on that theory, here's what I did. Notice that there's no soy in the recipe, making it suitable for those with soy allergies.

Spicy Sliceable Vegan Cheese
adapted from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook

1 1/2 cups water
5 Tablespoons agar flakes, or 1 1/2 Tablespoons agar powder
1/2 cup chopped raw cashews
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 Tbsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder
5-8 jalapeño slices (to taste)

Combine the water and agar in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, until the agar is dissolved (5-10 minutes). Next transfer this to a blender, add all remaining ingredients, blend thoroughly. Pour this mixture into a lightly oiled 3-cup plastic storage container (although I didn't oil my storage container and it worked just fine) and cool uncovered in the refrigerator. When completely cool, cover and chill for several hours or overnight. To serve, turn out of the container and slice. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator. Will keep 5-7 days.

So much for the instructions. How did it turn out? Well, like so:


It's pretty fun to have homemade, sliceable vegan cheese for sandwiches, and the spicy taste suits me very well, thanks. For lunch I ate a slice on a sourdough roll with a piece of seitan sausage and it was totally yum. I'm sure there could be lots of interesting ways to flavor something like this, but I was happy with this as a first effort. If you wanted to play with it, you could disregard everything in the ingredient list after nutritional yeast and just add your own spices and see what you come up with.

Because I'm a total hippie like that, it makes me happy that this vegan cheese is not super processed, that I know exactly what went into it, etc., etc. I suspect it doesn't melt, so it will probably be limited to sandwich-type applications, but anyway, I had a good time making it and am surprisingly enjoying the flavor.

falafel waffle!

I have been meaning to try falafel waffles ever since I saw this bit of genius on Don't Lose Your Lunch back in October. Well, today I finally did it and guess what? Falafel waffles are rad.

I never make falafel at home because it always seems like too much work to make the mix, form balls or patties, fry them (or broil them), and then eat them. In general, frying things seems like a ton of work to me for kind of a gross payoff, so left to my own devices, I don't tend to do it. The waffle iron is a pretty awesome solution to this problem because you don't need much/any oil (I just used a teeny bit of nonstick canola oil spray) and you don't have to monitor the falafel while it's cooking.

I decided to make these this morning, and I had big plans to make my own pita bread, my own falafel mix, etc. But then at the farmer's market this morning I bought some good, fresh pita bread and when I got home I was starving, so I lazed out by reaching for an old box of Fantastic falafel mix I've had sitting around for quite a while. The only thing I actually DID make was the tzatziki, which I made by just free-forming this recipe (and veganizing it, obvi, but that goes without saying). I was going to use some plain soy yogurt, but it turned out to be too old, so instead I used Tofutti sour cream plus a teeny bit of soy milk and lemon juice to thin it, then a teaspoon of crushed garlic, some hearty shakes of dried dill (didn't have any fresh), a little pepper, a lot of diced cucumber. If you've never had tzatziki, I highly recommend it as a compliment to falafel. I remember being 17 and traveling with my two best friends after high school. We got off the boat in Greece absolutely STARVING and there was a lady selling falafel pitas smothered in this totally incredible sauce (I was vegetarian back then). At that moment, it seemed like the greatest thing I had ever tasted. And it probably was.

Anyway, next time I'll make my own falafel, I promise. It'll be a while though, because the mix made 4 big falafel waffles, and I only ate half of one, so there's tons left over. I think I'll freeze the rest for some convenient lunches down the line. This was a super easy lunch, so it gets two big thumbs up from me. And I'm already trying to imagine what else I can cook in the waffle maker... maybe black bean burgers next???

P.S. Tofu Mom and Vegan Dad both have more detailed instructions for making vegan tzatziki. Tofu Mom's is dill-less for the dill haters out there, while Vegan Dad's is a little closer to what I did (although his recipe is more complicated). Check them out!

getting starter-ed with sourdough

Sourdough bread is my FAVORITE bread in the universe, but until I started seeing bazu and others posting about their sourdough adventures, it had never occured to me that I might make my own. I got my hands on some nice starter a few months ago, but it seems like I've been so busy that it was all I could do to keep the darn thing alive, let alone actually use it in a recipe. Well, yesterday I finally broke it out for a little baking. I decided to make rolls that I could use for little sammys rather than a big loaf. When they'd finished rising, baking, and cooling, I was so excited to bite into one and discover that--zomg!--they actually taste like sourdough! I can't wait to get a lot more involved with this starter. Bread, pizza dough, pancakes, who knows?

Ooh, and my copy of The Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide came in the mail today. Thanks to Celine for pointing out that Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe still has copies!

msv brownies

Happy to be home and back in my kitchen after my time away, I decided to whip up some My Sweet Vegan brownies last night. Every blogger review of these brownies that I have seen has described them as "fudgy," but oh my! I was not prepared for such intense fudgyness. I initially worried that I had undercooked them, since I have only made brownies two other times in my life and so do not count myself very expert in such matters, but after another 5 minutes in the oven, I decided that all I was doing was drying out the top, and so they must be meant to be that way. They're so rich that I had to cut them up into little brownie bites, but mmm, are they scrummy! I especially love the crumb topping; it's seriously incredible, and I will never make another brownie without it. My Sweet Vegan wins another!

good karma--san jose, ca

I was back up in the Bay Area last weekend for my grandmother's 91st birthday party. My husband, who was already up there, picked me up at the airport and took a starving me out for lunch. There are a few interesting vegan options a short drive from the airport, but Good Karma was the one we settled upon. Good Karma is a scrappy, slightly PFR-type vegan cafe located on one of the lovely tree-lined streets of downtown San Jose. Offerings vary from day-to-day and at different times of the year (for example, I was disappointed to discover that they didn't have any soup when we were there because, as the sleepy-looking guy behind the counter explained, "It's pretty warm outside now. People don't eat soup when it's warm." I certainly beg to differ, but oh well). The basic idea of the cafe is that you pick 1, 2, or 3 items from the glass case, they put them on a plate and heat them up, add rice, then serve. Everything is made fresh in their kitchen throughout the day, and they had a neat little assortment of vegan baked goods, as well (which I can't comment on because we didn't try any).

For my plate, I chose Thai-spiced tofu, steamed veggies, and mashed potatoes and gravy (I shocked the guy behind the counter by asking for a little gravy on my steamed veggies too... in case it's not obvious by now, I found this employee to be kind of a hoot). My husband chose these tofu roll things, a black bean-sauced tofu and veggie dish, and potato salad. We really liked everything, but I think the tofu and veggies with the black bean sauce was the best thing we ordered. Overall, Good Karma impressed me with great food that more than made up for its no-frills service and decor. I'll definitely be going back!

Good Karma
37 S. First Street
San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 294-2694

After lunch we thought we'd hit up the San Jose Museum of Art, but when we got there, they just had some Picasso and Goya work up; both of us have seen plenty of that in our lives, so we had a soy cappuccino in the museum cafe and then went across the street to the Tech museum instead.




The Tech museum was pretty interesting, and would be especially great for kids, so I'd recommend a visit if you're in the area.

All in all, it was a delightful afternoon!

mocked clam chowder

After seeing Metal Vegan's post about Mocked Clam Chowder, I decided I had to try it out for myself. The recipe is from Sarah Kramer's La Dolce Vegan, a cookbook I have been showing a lot of love to lately, and for good reason... it's awesome! Well, this Mocked Clam Chowder was no exception. What does a vegan mock clam chowder taste like, you ask? Well, first you make an oniony, carroty, potatoey base (actually, not very unlike the potato carrot soup I recently posted about), puree the base, then add in chunks of lightly fried, kelp-coated tofu, and then garnish the whole deal with some fakin bacon bits. I've never had real clam chowder, so I have no idea whether this is anything like it, but it sure was a satisfying soup!

fraiche--palo alto, ca

I was up in the Bay Area last week, my former actual and forever spiritual home. I didn't take pictures of much of my week of nice eating (some unphotographed highlights include the V'con Prospect Park Potato Salad my friend V. made and a yummy Herbivore lunch and Ritual Roasters vegan donut in the Mission), but I did get a couple desserts documented.

First up is vegan frozen yogurt from Fraiche, a gourmet yogurt shop in Palo Alto. Because of my husband's job, I end up in Palo Alto fairly often, so I have been meaning to try Fraiche ever since they opened but only got around to it this trip. Fraiche sells things other than frozen yogurt (including Blue Bottle Coffee, which some people go wild about), but that was what I was there for, so that's what I'll focus on. Anyway, the shop generally offers 3 flavors of frozen yogurt each day: a non-vegan "natural" and non-vegan chocolate flavor, and then a vegan soy "natural" flavor (guess which one I got?). The frozen yogurt may take a tiny bit of getting used to, since it tastes slightly "yogurt culture-y," as my friend J. put it (Fraiche claims the probiotic cultures survive the freezing process, so perhaps that's why), but once I did get used to it (only took a couple of bites) I liked it so much more than any other frozen yogurt I'd ever had. The toppings are ridiculously beautiful and generally pretty healthy: fresh fruit (strawberries, kiwis, blueberries, etc.), nuts, freshly shaved dark chocolate, agave nectar, and so on. My first trip I got chocolate and strawberries, but I felt like the chocolate sort of detracted from the yogurty experience, for me personally. My second trip I got strawberries and toasted almonds and OH MY was that unbelievably scrummy. Fraiche is pretty spendy, so come prepared to spend $5 minimum if you want toppings.

Fraiche

644 Emerson

Palo Alto, CA 94301

(650) 566-0055

I've already written about Herbivore in the past so I won't bore you with more, but I'll leave you with a couple of new pictures. My friend V. and I stopped in the Berkeley location one evening for strawberry rhubarb pie and carrot cake, both a la mode with Maggie Mudd ice cream. Yum!

roasted tomato pasta with olives and capers

I adore Sarah Kramer's La Dolce Vegan, but I don't use it nearly often enough given how good everything I've ever made from it has been. Inspired by The Little One's post a few weeks ago, though, I decided to crack it open and give "Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta with Kalamata Olives and Capers" a go. I didn't have cherry tomatoes and so had to use regular, and I subbed organic green olives for kalamata since that's what I had around. For the optional cheese I used medium cheddar Sheese.

This recipe was delightfully simple and super delicious, although I forked it up slightly by using waaaay more pasta than the recipe called for, which made for a low pasta to goodies ratio. Next time I'll use half the amount of pasta so that the tomatoes, olives, and capers don't get lost in a sea of penne, and then it will be just as Sarah Kramer intended, which is to say, perfect.

potato carrot soup

I have been eyeing this potato carrot soup recipe on VegWeb for literally years now, but I only got around to it this afternoon (a bunch of gorgeous farmer's market veggies were my inspiration). Well, I'm kicking myself for waiting this long because this recipe hit the soup trifecta: easy (think it only took me about 35 or 40 minutes start to finish, chopping, cooking, and all), cheap, and delicious. But wait, there's more! It's creamy, too! Am I selling you on it yet?

This isn't one of those recipes that needs to be followed exactly to be wonderful, so there's lots of room for adjustments to accommodate taste and/or what you have on hand. I personally used:

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion
3 cloves of garlic
3 stalks of celery
3 medium-large carrots
4 small-medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled (optional) and cut into chunks
about 3 cups of vegetable broth
a few shakes of pepper, basil, oregano, and salt, respectively
a dash of Tabasco (super optional)

Just sauté the onion, garlic, and celery in the olive oil until they're soft, add the herbs, carrots, and potatoes, and cook for 5 more minutes. Add everything else, cook until the potatoes and carrots are soft enough, purée as much or as little as you want (I used my immersion blender to purée it about 2/3 of the way, so that there were still some chunks but it was nice and smooth and thick), then eat!

It was so quick to whip up and seriously, seriously delightful. Nicely done, potato carrot soup, nicely done.

same old newman o cupper goodness

My class talked me into cupcakes for our last class meeting of the quarter, and I went with the old stand-by Oreo (Newman O's, actually) cuppers from VCTOTW. Sometimes I feel like a one cupcake wonder making these over and over again, but they're just such crowd pleasers. One student said, "these are the best cupcakes I have ever had! You should sell this recipe to Wonderland!" (apparently Wonderland is a [non-vegan] cupcake bakery or something). Guess we have to chalk another vegan victory up to ol' Isa and Terry...

super sour gummi bears

The last time I needed something from Veganessentials.com, I ordered a box of these vegan gummi bears. I had been eyeing them for awhile, but never bothered to buy them, for reasons unknown. My husband loves candy like this, so he really, really enjoyed them. They're organic, vegan, and flavored with real fruit (and tasted like it, but I mean that in a good way). Somehow their "real fruit-yness" made them seem sweeter than the non-hippy gummi bears, so I'd definitely recommend the sour over the original kind, which I think might be too sweet (although admittedly I haven't tried them). The box comes with four little bags, and they went perfectly with a movie. I wish they sold these in stores around here, but in the meantime, I'll definitely be ordering them again from veganessentials.

mango surprise

I went to the farmer's market yesterday morning and bought ridiculous amounts of produce for a tiny price. Before I could dig in to my locally grown and organic Cara Cara and Moro Blood oranges, tangelos, Fuji apples, sweet lemons, etc., though, I had some older fruit that needed consuming. So, I decided to make myself a nice fresh juice for breakfast to use some of it up.

My mom bought me the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer for my birthday three years ago, and I don't use it nearly often enough. I had asked for a juicer and was tickled to receive that particular one because of the awesome infomercials associated with it. I have to say, though, for once there's truth in advertising because it's a pretty great juicer. Anyway, flicking through the juice recipe book that came with my power juicer I stumbled across one called "Mango Surprise." Realizing that I had all the ingredients for it (1 mango, peeled and pitted, 2 kiwis, 1 large carrot), I went for it...



Oh. My. Gosh. I couldn't believe how good it was! Part of the reason why I don't juice that often is because I'm forever not liking whatever I make. But holy cow, this was friggin nectar of the gods! I will be making it OFTEN. Yumyumyum.

quinoa salad w/black beans & mango

Believe it or not, the above pictured mango is the first one that I have ever purchased. I think I was under the mistaken impression that I didn't like them, but as soon as I sliced it open and had a bite, I realized that it's actually papaya that I hate. Anyhoo, apart from a few stolen tastes, I used my mango to make the quinoa salad with black beans and mango from Veganomicon. It was so, so pretty (!), and really yummy and summery-seeming. It would be perfect for bringing along to a picnic or a summer bar-b-que. Or just for eating on any old day. I have to say, though, that it took me A LOT more than the 15 minutes the ingredients promised it would take to whip up. Between all the dicing (bell pepper, mango, scallions) and the washing, plucking, and chopping of the cilantro, it took me at least 35-40 minutes, so that was kind of a bummer. Maybe I'm just really slow, I don't know... No matter what, it was still fantastic-tasting, so I can't wait to make it again.

In other news, I started a new blog for my knitting projects. I really don't have much time to knit, but I thought it would be fun to have somewhere to post pictures when I do manage to finish anything. Everything I make is vegan, obviously; no wool, silk, etc. in my yarn. If you're a vegan knitter, too, and have a blog, leave me a comment somewhere or other so that I can be sure to link to you.

v'con v-day

We don't make a big deal about Valentine's Day around these parts, both because the holiday has always seemed a bit icky to me (in the way that it typically gets celebrated)*, and because by the time it rolls around, we've just celebrated an anniversary two weeks before.

Instead of the obligatory red roses and chocolates and heart-shaped everything**, then, we just do a casual dinner together. Yesterday we decided to go for Veganomicon's Caesar Salad and Pumpkin Baked Ziti With Sage Crumb Topping and Caramelized Onions. This was all very well, but we got started on the shopping a little late, and then had to hit up two different grocery stores to collect all the ingredients, so by the time we got home it was a little after 6:30pm and I was already hungry. Ok, starving. I snacked on whole wheat sourdough bread dipped in some fancy extra virgin olive oil and pomegranate vinegar that my friend K8 gave me for Christmas (have you had pomegranate vinegar before??? best thing ever!) to take the edge off, but it still meant that we cut a few dinner corners. The main one was that we made the Caesar dressing but then were too hungry to bother with the croutons, and so moved onto the ziti. We put walnuts in our salad instead, and they made a good (and healthy) crunchy substitute.

It felt like everything took forever to make, but that was probably just the hunger talking. At 8:37 we finally popped the Pumpkin Baked Ziti into the oven and sat down to enjoy our Caesar salad (minus croutons and plus walnuts) with a glass of wine and a lot of Sopranos episodes. The Caesar dressing is SUPER garlicky, but amazing, so I'm really glad that the recipe makes so much; next time I may cut the recipe back to two cloves of garlic, just as a sort of community-service type gesture, but it was delicious and I'm going to be enjoying it for days and days (just not before I have to be in a small room with other people, though).

And ooh, the ziti... it was so rich and yummy, and the crunchy topping was flavorful and amazing... it took a bit of work to put together, but the recipe makes for lots of leftovers when it's for just two people, so it's pretty much worth it.

These two were definitely the best things I have made from V'con yet and I can't wait for lunch time to roll around so I can have more!

*In case you're wondering, what grosses me out about Valentine's Day is the really depressing picture of love that it paints. If you live in a college town you see the same Fraternity Bro's lining up at the same supermarket to buy the same red roses as they uncreatively and impersonally fulfill the gesture of V-Day... Gross! V-Day totally underestimates and misrepresents love, if you ask me... Not that anyone did :)

**Although, don't get me wrong, homemade heart-shaped desserts are a really nice feature of V-Day!

super anniversary bowl sunday

On the year that my husband and I got married, Feb. 1 was Super Bowl Sunday, so in addition to our normal anniversary celebration, we treat the Super Bowl as a second day to celebrate. At this point we have two "traditional" foods that appear on our Super Bowl menu every year--Ruffles with ranch dip (made from non-hydrogenated Tofutti Sour Supreme) and mimosas to drink--but otherwise, I just get to make whatever party-type food I feel like making. Last year we made Super Anniversary Bowl brownies, and this year I decided to go with the 7 layer dip from Cozy Inside and the Icebox Cheesecake from My Sweet Vegan. I got both Cozy Inside and My Sweet Vegan for Christmas, and this was my first time using either one (shame on me!). I never had any doubt that I would love either book, though, since Celine has recommended both so highly and we all know she's never wrong. How did everything turn out? Well, see for yourself:

First, the "traditional" sour cream ranch dip. It's so gross, but my husband loves it so much (just because it's such a vegan novelty, I think), and at this point we both have a sort of Pavlovian response where Super Bowl = sour cream dip, so come Super Bowl, we both start craving it.


Next, the pièce de résistance: The 7 layer dip from Cozy Inside. This was SO GOOD! I made a few minor changes because of laziness and/or allergies: I left out the guacamole layer (I'm allergic to avocado), I used Soyrizo instead of regular TVP, and I used Tofutti Sour Supreme instead of making my own sour cream layer using the recipe in Cozy Inside (though I plan to try the CI recipe next time). Next time I might also double the amount of beans I used (from 1 can to 2), but that's just because I love refried beans. Anyway, words cannot describe the glory that was this dip, so I'll just let you see for yourself.

Here's the bean and Soyrizo layers:


With the "cheese" layer on top of that:

And the finished product.
Did I mention how yummy this was? We had lots leftover, and it made great taco fillings for a couple of dinners.

At some point during the year we always seem to be given at least one bottle of champagne, and we always save it for our Super Anniversary Bowl mimosas. Here's this year's model.


Last but not at all least, the icebox cheesecake from My Sweet Vegan. This cheesecake was unbelievably easy to make (!), and it came out sooo yummy and rich. Given how impressive this first try was, I can't wait to try out other recipes from the book (I've got my eye on the turtle sho