i have a serious brain disease. please bring me a cat.
Holy crap! I think I went into an instant sugar coma after biting into these. Mine ended up muffining out out over the top and sinking in the middle. But the eat up just fine. And the little dent was the perfect place to stick the frosting. The black cherry preserves and small bit of whiskey add a lot of dimension to the flavor of the cupcakes also. Crazy good. Oh yeah, they’re the Brooklyn Brownie Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
When Leigh offered up some fresh dates she got from a customer at the store (thanks!!!) I knew exactly what I’d make. This is the Spice Island Banana Bread from Passionate Vegetarian. The vegan option, of course. I’ve never used fresh dates when making this. They left these moist little date bombs throughout the bread. Even after baking 55 minutes, I was wondering if it still wasn’t quite done. But I couldn’t let the outside brown anymore than it had. I think part of the problem is that I of course hacked into it shortly after it came out of the oven. Hey, I was hungry! The second piece I cut (hey, it’s dinner!) was a little drier so I think it’s fine.
In other news, I’m now pretty well convinced that my super power is getting a crazy amount of shit home in my car. Today I got a kitchen cart, a fold-out sofa bed, mattress, cover, two side tables, an area rug, 2 curtain rods, two bags of miscellaneous stuff, a bag from the liquor store, 2 gallons of paint and another bag of stuff from Lowe’s into my car and/or hanging slightly or even a lot outside of it. The key is to never go anywhere without tie downs. Fuck, now I guess I have to paint the 2nd bedroom and put together all this shit. I feel really, really tired all of a sudden…
Oddly enough, other than “Oh, I couldn’t do that” omnis seem to have this idea that being vegan is horrendously expensive. I’m not sure where they got this idea. *cough*wholefoods*cough* I can make my groceries be as expensive or as cheap as I need them to be. I figured this week was a pretty good one to document since I didn’t buy anything too out of the ordinary and I wasn’t particularly trying to conserve money. This week I’m cooking/cooked Broccoli Tofu Stir Fry from La Dolce Vegan, Beans & Brown Rice from La Dolce Vegan and Red Lentil Cauliflower Curry from Veganomicon. And I do keep some staples around the house, so each shopping trip might include some staples, but some things I will already have, like brown basmati rice this week.
2 1# packages of firm tofu
2 containers vanilla rice milk
1 container organic turbanado sugar
1 bag organic Ethiopian Limmu french roast coffee
1 bag (about 2 cups) walnut pieces
1 can pinto beans
1 can lentils
3 pounds yellow onions
1 broccoflower
1 green bell pepper
2 lg shallots
4 button mushrooms
2 lg jalapeño peppers
1 lg broccoli crown
1 bunch cilantro
2 med red onions
1 lg parsnip
2 lemons
2 limes
5 sm Gala apples
1 lg tomato
2 cups organic snow pea tips
4 organic bananas
1 bunch organic celery
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$34.15
Really, the key to keeping the expense down is…cooking. I certainly keep some veggie burgers around and eat the occasional riblets, but mostly I stay away from prepared foods. So my basket has a ton of veggies and maybe a couple of cans, boxes, etc. The checkers at Dekalb Farmer’s Market seem to take it in stride, but it really annoys regular grocery store checkers. Lucky for them, they don’t see me much.
With the cake finally gone, it was time to move on to the next food project. I had some pumpkin puree in the freezer so how about some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins? I used this recipe but instead of the whole wheat flour used unbleached white flour. Why pretend these are going to be healthy, right? Anyway, they’re yummy!
Seriously, how long did you think I was going to wait before breaking in the bundt pan? Apparently not much more than 24 hours. This is the Coconut Lemon Bundt Cake from Veganomicon. And it’s a very forgiving recipe. I actually ended up being short on sugar and probably subbed about 1/4 cup of brown sugar for some of it. I was also probably short a little bit of lemon zest. And then we have my fun-loving oven that decided to pop up by 100 degrees during the first 20 minutes of baking. I turned it down twice and never was able to get it all the way down to the suggested cooking temperature. No matter. It came out moist on the inside, lightly browned and a little bit crisp on the outside. I suspect the crispiness will go away once it cools which is always what seems to happen. But I love that the crazy oven temps didn’t ruin the cake. And just look at it!
