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it’s not a good day for hollow chocolate bunnies. i think i may have flashed back a bit on the last one there…
Posts published during November, 2007
I have an unnatural obsession with rose flavored food. So when I saw this recipe in Veganomicon, I knew it was only a matter of time before I got all up into it. I mean, that bottle of rosewater in my fridge isn’t going to use itself, now is it? So since we’re having a cookie exchange with the vegan lunch group this weekend, I thought I’d bake up a mess of them. And they did not disappoint! Although my oven did. After having it all properly pre-heated according to my handy oven thermometer, after I put in the cookies it decided to shoot up 75 degrees. Grrrr. So about 10 of them are a little overdone. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to keep & eat them. Damnit! Oh, and the dough is really stiff. I can’t even tell you how happy I was to watch my Kitchen Aid mixer cranking away at it. Ha! Better you than me!
Since fennel is in season and reasonably priced, I thought I’d try something that takes a lot of it. Fennel Gratin out of Vegan Italiano it is! The capers and lemon juice gave it a nice sharp flavor. I wonder what the nutritional value of fennel is? Google says, it’s high in vitamin C, fiber and potassium among other things. Yay!
Just out of the oven
Dressed in fennel leaves and olives
On my plate…ignore the big black hair….
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“‘How about a Krispy Kreme-kind of Hanukkah?’ she says, suggesting Krispy Kreme bread pudding as a choice for dessert.” ow, my arteries!
Remember how I said I haven’t been to the store? Well, I lied. Sunday evening I went to the Taj Mahal market just before I gorged on Ethiopian food. I bought some odds and ends, beans and spices, plus some ready-to-eat box food. They have quite a few varieties that are vegan, so I usually stock up on them when I go by there.
They came in handy because tonight I needed food. And still haven’t bought real groceries. So I pulled down a ravi dosa mix I already had on hand, a box of sambar (spicy soup) and a box of dal palak (beans & spinach). I know dal isn’t what you normally put inside dosa, but it ate up fine, so there.
Cooking the dosa
Sambar heating up. Really other than making a bunch of dirty dishes, this was stupid easy.
Dosa ready for eatin’, one not yet wrapped so you can see the dal inside.
The dosa mix was literally “just add water.” I couldn’t believe how easily and quickly they cooked up. Next time maybe I’ll make a proper batch of Indian potatoes to stuff inside. Or a sambar. Or even coconut chutney which is the only thing I missed this evening.
Oh yeah, and everyone wave to the dust on my camera sensor. “hi dust!”
I have many pieces and parts of food around but no planned meals. I know a lot of people roll that way every day, but it’s very unlike me. I plan out what I’m going to eat for a week, go to the store and get ingredients, and repeat in a week. But Thanksgiving threw things off. I haven’t quite recovered from braving the DeKalb Farmer’s Market pre-holiday crowds. Noobs.
So time to improvise. Here’s what I came up with:
Seitan O’ Greatness Hash
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 medium yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1 cm cubes (yeah, I used metric, sue me)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup Seitan O’ Greatness, cut into 1 cm cubes
Salt & pepper to taste
Heat up oil over medium high heat in a saute pan. Add onions and fry for a minute or so. Add potatoes and turn heat down to medium. Cook stirring from time to time until potatoes are almost done. Add garlic, bell pepper, seitan, salt and pepper and continue cooking until potatoes are done. Note, I didn’t need any pepper because I used the higher amount when making the Seitan O’ Greatness. Also, the seitan is totally optional. Makes 2 big portions. I ate mine with a big pile of green beans.
Anyway, that’s about as close to a recipe as you’re going to get out of me. Well, unless I veganize the chocolate doughnut recipe that came with my pan for the Holiday Bake Off at Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe.
See, some people had a huge meal Thanksgiving Day. Other people, like me, ate normal amounts on T-day and use the extra time off to cook some of those time consuming items that don’t fit well into our daily lives when what we really should be doing is cleaning the house. Anyway, today’s decadence was the Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls from Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk issue #2.
I think the last cinnamon roll I had was a couple of years ago when I was in Washington D.C. and made multiple trips to Sticky Fingers Bakery. These were worth the long wait. And the prep time. I even held off on the morning coffee just so I could have the two together. The only problem I had is one that I always have…the rising. I’m not sure if I’m looking for something more dramatic than is going to happen or what, but whenever recipes say something is going to double in bulk, I just don’t see it. Judging from pics from other bloggers who have made these, I think I am short a little bit of rising, but they didn’t seem to turn out dense, so I think they’re fine. The pumpkin flavor was really subtle and seemed to add color more than flavor. Hmm…now that I’ve put down 3, I should work them off by cleaning the house.
Before glaze
After glaze
I’ve been seeing posts from people who have made this Seitan O’ Greatness for months and months and finally yesterday I made my own. I’ve made seitan plenty of times, but never baked it and never one with this much flavor in the dough. The texture comes out much firmer than the boiled seitan. This one will be perfect to use as sliced lunch “meat.” It’s much tastier than store bought fake meat. I had a few slices for dinner last night and the only downside I see is that it does get kind of dry when you slice and eat it that way. I think it’ll be really tasty chopped up small in a spaghetti sauce. I have this big ol’ log. Plenty to experiment with.
Today I’d like to give thanks for the fact that there is such a thing as a mini doughnut pan. And that someone has worked out a vegan doughnut recipe. And that I wasn’t too hungover this morning to put the two items together.
Here they are all nekkid straight out of the oven. I had pretty good luck getting just the right amount of batter in the pan. Only a couple started to muffin top on me. I doubled the recipe and ended up with 36 doughnuts. I only have the one pan and had to bake in 3 batches. The last batch was definitely more spongy and air-filled than the first. Keep in mind if the holiness bothers you.
For these I used the glaze in the link above.
And for these, I used the chocolate ganache recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.
Don’t you wish you’d saved room?
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you know, if you’re going to risk going to jail, wouldn’t you maybe aim a little higher than robbing A DOLLAR STORE???
abracapocus.org
i have a serious brain disease. please give me a cat.
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