I thought yesterday morning was cold. Especially when Grover escaped as I was letting when I let Tak out for her first pee. Chasing him around the yard for ten minutes all bleary eyed at 5:30am was not much fun. He runs, he meows, he runs some more. I think he finally let me catch him when he realized he was cold. It’s a good think he’s a handsome cat. See?

I'm too sexy for my fur, too sexy for my fur...
On to food. If you haven’t made the Cholent from Veganomicon, this is the perfect time for it. After chasing Mr. Short Bus cat around the yard, I swear I would have eaten this for breakfast if I’d had any left. So warming and satisfying. The tvp chunks have the perfect chew to them. It’s like the stew my mom made growing up without all the death. Hell, next time I might even make it with biscuits on top like she did if I don’t make it into a pot pie form.

Hey, so if I used whole wheat penne in the Pumpkin Baked Ziti recipe from Veganomicon that makes it have, like, negative amounts of calories and fat, right? Right? Sigh, I guess not. It makes an ass-ton too, so I’ma need to freeze some of it. It kind of dirties a lot of dishes and takes a while, slightly less then 2 hours from start to face stuffing, but like the Butternut Squash Lasagna, it’s worth it. I even made the bread crumbs for it from a bread I tossed in my bread machine at the end of last week.
Pretty in the pan.

All messed up on my plate.
Okay, so this isn’t so much a quick, throw it together on a weeknight after work kind of recipe. But it’s definitely worth all the pieces and parts that go into it. This is also the first time I’ve worked with a vegan béchamel sauce. It came out really nice. I was surprised. Makes me want to revisit some old ovo/lacto recipes I used to make. Oh yeah, I should say it’s from Yellow Rose Recipes. I’m tired or I’d rave more about it instead of just going to bed.
Okay, so the second recipe I tried from Veganomicon wasn’t a dessert, but it was indeed sweet like candy. The Sweet Potato-Pear Tzimmes end up glazed in a candy like coating from the mirin, maple syrup and juice from the pears. If you’re looking for a Thanksgiving size, definitely try this.

Tonight I made an old stand-by, Winter Squash Risotto from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure. If you haven’t tried pressure cooked risotto, you need to. Stirring is for suckers plus this only cooks for 5 minutes. Squash, sweet potatoes…can you tell I’m eating in the season?
