Thanksgiving

This year I was lucky to be overwhelmed with invites to various feasts.  Unfortunately, I couldn't say yes to everyone.  Since I had promised to help make  vegan Thanksgiving meal with some friends, my schedule was quite filled up with cooking. 

In the afternoon, I bowed out of further cooking responsibilities and headed over to my family's for an omni meal.  It was nice to visit with everyone and I snacked  bit on the few vegan side dishes before heading back to the vegan meal.

We had a wonderful salad that was topped with grated beets, carrot, and rutabaga.  I didn't even think to take a photo at the time. The meal consisted of colcannon, homemade cranberry sauce, braised carrots, stuffed butternut squash, roasted asparagus, shitake gravy, and Hazelnut En Croute Field Roast.

The photo of my plate was taken with my phone as I forgot a camera.  Not bad, huh?  This was the first year we tried the En Croute Field Roast.  It is incredibly flavorful.  The stuffing is made with cranberries, apples and ginger and the crunchy phyllo dough crust is great.  It is a little expensive, but certainly easier to make than the homemade unturkey roast that I normally bake.

The stuffed butternut squash is a recipe from from Joanna's new zine called Potluck Mania.  The recipe is actually for quinoa stuffed acorn squash.  The acorn squash I grabbed from my CSA stash had started to go bad, so we subbed butternut.  Also, because we had some omnis visiting,  I was worried that quinoa might be too different, so I used brown rice.  Otherwise the recipe stayed the same and to be honest, it was a hit with everyone!  Here's the stuffed squash, isn't it pretty?

A couple of the folks that joined us, brought fresh mint and rum.  We had quite a few mojitos and by dessert time rolled around, I once again forgot photos.

The original plan was sweet potato pie.  Unfortunately, the sweet potatoes had seen better days, so we were forced to use canned pumpkin.  It was still delicious.  The other hostess also made cranberry kissel.  This is a Russian dish that is basically a fruit pudding.  It is simply, pureed fruit and sugar with a thickening starch.  She served it with some vanilla soy milk drizzled on top and sliced almonds.

It was wonderful, cruelty free meal.  Hope everyone out there also had a great Thanksgiving with friends and family.

Gingerbread Sourdough Pancakes

One of my favorites restaurants in Providence serves vegan gingerbread pancakes during the fall/winter season.  Since the sourdough at my house required feeding, it seemed like a good idea to adapt the standard recipe I use for sourdough pancakes.

The recipe I started with, is from this website.  When using their recipe, I always skip the egg replacer and most of the oil.  The sourdough I am using, seems to handle the lack of egg just fine!

These gingerbread pancakes came out perfectly.  They'll likely become a holiday staple at my house.

Jody's Vegan Sourdough Gingerbread Pancake Recipe

2 Cups of sourdough starter

2 Tbs of molasses

1  tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp of salt

a  splash of canola oil

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

optional: 1/2 tsp of instant coffee mixed with a few tablespoons of warm (NOT hot) water

Mix starter with molasses, salt, and oil.  Let sit for a few minutes.  Sprinkle baking soda and fold in. (Make sure you use a big enough bowl as sourdough can expand a lot due to the baking soda.)  Mix in the coffee and spices.  Then make your pancakes!

Boston Vegetarian Food Festival

My posts have been few and far between here. Though, I have been regularly updating Vegan Cookbook Challenge. Recently, I checked out the new pizza restaurant in Allston called Peace o' Pie. The entry is on my New England Vegan Dining Guide blog.

This weekend was busy. On Saturday, I headed to the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. This year they expanded to two days. Part of the reason was to help with overcrowding. To be honest, it was still pretty crazy. My goal was to get there early, check out the vendors, score some free samples, and leave as quickly as possible to avoid being pushed around by the mass of people.

The highlight this year for me was the Vegan Treats Bakery table. Those folks make some amazing stuff. I got two items: the Peanut Butter Bomb which I tried in NYC a few years ago and of course, I had to get a glazed doughnut too. There was so much amazing sugary goodness. It makes me wish I lived in PA, thought it is probably best that I don't!

Just a portion of the table:

There were many great vendors sharing samples of their products. I tried everything from veggie burgers to ice cream to sauerkraut to vegan chocolates. Here's a snapshot of the freebies I snagged. In addition, I picked up a bunch of coupons. The mac and cheese was a purchase as I haven't tried that brand yet.

Also this weekend, we drove down to RI to see the Jackolantern Spectacular. Here's a some of my favorite photos from that event.

Obama and the oh so scary double George Bush pumpkins

Corn, Glorious Corn!

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to attend a cooking class with Didi Emmons. She is one of the original owners of Veggie Planet in Cambridge and has authored a couple of vegetarian cookbooks. I'm a huge fan of Entertaining for a Veggie Planet.

The class was based completely around corn. There was about 30 students. Didi showed us how to make some of the recipes and then we broke into groups and cooked. After, we sat down and enjoyed dinner together. I met some great people. Here are some of the pictures I took!

Bowls and bowls of corn after removing the husks...

Corn stew with yellow tomatoes.

This is a Deborah Madison recipe from Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets.

The dinner plate wasn't incredibly photogenic.

It includes: corn on the cob with a spicy dressing, tomato and basil salad, the corn stew, and Didi's own corn pudding. We also had a delicious corn soup with avocado cream to start! For dessert we had some chocolate zucchini cake.

Pumpkin Ravioli and Amazing Brownies

I've been lax in my posting. Sometimes life gets in the way and sometimes I'm just not that inspired. This weekend a friend that also loves to cook called. We chatted and decided that we would get together on Sunday try out some new recipes. It was a great day and the creativity really sparked me to start blogging again.

Pumpkin pasta seems a little odd for this time of year, but Cindy had been bugging me to teach her how to make fresh pasta and this is my favorite kind. It is amazingly simple to create noodles with the pasta maker. Ravioli were honestly a little too much work and I'd likely avoid it in the future.


The pasta itself is just flour, canned pumpkin and some nutmeg. For stuffing we made a tofu ricotta with chopped up garlic, shitake mushrooms, and parsley. She grabbed some fresh sage from the garden. I sliced it up and sauteed the sage with some earth balance for a flavorful and simple finish.

The garden was brimming with zucchini and I stumbled upon a recipe for Zucchini Brownies over at VegSpinz, so we gave them a try. Honestly my expectations weren't high, but these completely blew us away. These are hands down the best homemade brownies I have eaten vegan or not in years. They're moist and rich and just incredibly good. Make them now!

No Excuses

Hi folks, sorry for my lack of posts for such a long time. Honestly, I don't have a good excuse. Once the summer rolls around I want to spend lots of time outdoors. I've been camping and hiking while trying to keep up with new server installations at the office.

A few weeks ago we picked blueberries and before that I picked strawberries with my aunt. This year I signed up for a share at the CSA again. Each year they get more knowledgeable and our crops are better. We've seen tons of greens, beans, onions, squash, zucchini and cucumbers. I'm looking forward to tomatoes and corn soon.

I'm not sure what to post first. Though, I owe the folks at LightLife a big thank you for sending out a box of samples earlier this year. One of the first recipes I cooked with their products was Tempeh Wingz from DEOTS.





This past week, I made some sourdough French bread. The recipe came from: The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook. This bread came out wonderfully and is my first sourdough loaf baked without adding yeast.

Here's a pic of some sauteed veggies from the farm with sun dried tomatoes.

Pittsburgh!

When I found out Chihuly's glass exhibit at the Phipps Conservatory was leaving on February 24th, I knew I didn't have much time to get there. A hasty trip was planned and I did some research to learn about vegan eats around the city. To my surprise, Pittsburgh was extremely veg friendly. Perhaps more so, than Boston.

Unfortunately, I've been sick since I got back which has prevented me from posting.

Here's a few of the more than 600 photos I took at the Conservatory:

Our first night in the city, we dined at The Church Brew Works. The brewery/restaurant is actually inside an old church. It was a very neat place and waiter/chef had no problem veganizing a dish for me. We shared a plate of the home made chips and I had an Israeli cous cous salad with tofu.

Day 1: Chihuly day time viewing

Lunch at The Quiet Storm

Cococino (Soy coconut cappuccino)

"Chicken Tenders"

Magic Snake (Seitan philly steak)

In the evening, we took the incline car up Mount Washington and viewed the city on a very chilly night.

Dinner at Double Wide Grill, a veg friendly BBQ joint. My camera was toast at this point, so pics from my phone will have to suffice.

I loved how they displayed the wines!

BBQ Seitan Wings

Pulled Seitan Sandwich

Double wide added pearl barley to their seitan which created some great texture. That is something I'd like to try in the future.

Day 2: We checked out the East End Food Coop for breakfast and snacks. What a great store! Besides the loads of bulk options, they had home made vegan baked goods/entrees.

The Mattress Factory is renowned as one the of best installation art facilities in the country. We stopped there to walk through some really interesting exhibits. The cafe there was veg friendly and I enjoyed some beet soup and a salad.

The Heinz History Center has 7 floors to explore. There was so much to see here that we actually ran out of time. From Lewis & Clark, to the history of the Heinz Company, to the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, to Pittsburgh's cultural history...this was one place I would like to check out again.

After this, we rushed to see the Chihuly again at night. The Phipps cafe was vegan friendly which I've yet to see at many Boston museums. I grabbed a Thai tofu wrap and some Thai tomato soup.
We shipped out of Pittsburgh the next morning and made it back to Boston just after a snowstorm started. Luckily for us, our flight wasn't canceled.

Falafel Waffles, Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, and Muffins

I've been sporadically checking out all the vegan blogs, but pretty lax in commenting. Though I often planned on blogging over the last few months, life got in the way. Thank you to all the folks that emailed or commented while I was away. While dealing with all the holiday hustle and bustle, I was finishing up PT for my knee. Everything seems to be going well. As usual work has been hopping. We've gone through a couple of office expansions and of course I'm responsible for coordinating the network and phone cabling. Things are finally winding down and now I'm trying to catch up on stuff I've been neglecting.

Back to the food...

Though Vegan MOFO is long over, I figure---why not continue with my alphabet tour as promised? The pictures for my next entry have been sitting on my camera for almost 2 months. I certainly feel like one heck of a slacker.

Falafel is the plural of filfil which is an Arabic word that means pepper. Most people know falafel as a Middle Eastern food made from ground up fava beans and/or chickpeas mixed with spices. The most common falafel is fried into small balls and served in a pita with tahini sauce and veggies.

Back in October, I saw this creative falafel waffle recipe on the Don't Lose Your Lunch Blog. Honestly, I couldn't wait to try it. I've got to say, this is good stuff.

What else has been cooking? Well, I ordered the latest copy of the DEOTS (Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk) zine from Katie. One of the most talked about recipes from this edition is the Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. These are incredibly good.

Tonight I finally got around to making the Orange Poppy Seed Muffins from Vive Le Vegan. These healthy little buggers are made with oat and barley flour and because of applesauce and orange juice, the recipe only calls for 3 tablespoons of oil. I really dig these, though wish they had more orange flavor. Maybe next time I will add some orange extract.

The photo above is the first blog pic with my new digital SLR. I've always wanted one, but the cost was prohibitive for me. Last week, I lucked out and found a beautiful camera on sale for over 50% off. Over the next few months, I'll slowly be learning the ropes.

Empanadas de Calabasa Sefardicas

The dish for "E" is empanadas. This recipe for pumpkin empanadas was also featured on Vegan Lunchbox. Because Sefardica or Sephardic in English is used in the recipe title, we know this recipe is both Spanish and Jewish.

In case you are unfamiliar with the term Sephardic, I thought I might give a quick explanation. Sephardic is derived from the Hebrew word for Spain and generally refers to Jewish people from the Iberian peninsula including Spain, North Africa, Middle East, and Portugal. Ashkenazic is derived from the Hebrew word for Germany and generally refers to Jews from Eastern Europe. Each group tends to have some different traditions. Most American Jews follow Ashkenazic tradition. Believe it or not there are quite a few other delineations that these groups can be broken down into, but this is the simple view.

When I was in Spain, I was definitely not vegetarian. Empanadas were a quick easy meal to buy on the go or pack for a trip. Sometimes the empanadas were like little pocket pies just as this recipe. Other times they would make the emapanada in three layers on a cookie sheet (dough, filling, dough) and slice it in squares. In the 5 weeks I was there, I only recall finding veggie empanadas once. Often I wonder, whether I'd notice veggie options more now. Maybe they were everywhere and I didn't see them because I wasn't looking.

Anyway, these pumpkin empanadas are a tad on the sweet side for me. It isn't because of the sugar, but more likely because of the apple in the filling. I'm a huge pumpkin fan and between the spices and the apple, the pumpkin felt a little watered down. This crust is simple and is definitely something I would make again. I'm always having trouble with the more delicate pie crusts.
BTW - Thanks for the concern about me and the car. My window is all fixed and I'm onto lots of other issues including PT for my knee that I injured snowboarding last year.

Avgolemono Soup

Today, I'm taking a quick timeout from my alphabet scheme, though we are still touring the world. Yesterday was a crazy day. My car was broken into at my office parking garage and that messed up my schedule for the night. After filing the police report, dropping my car off to get the glass replaced, and then getting a rental vehicle, I didn't have much energy to continue with my plan for "E".

On the way home, I did stop to pick up some parsley so I could make a tester recipe that I've been waiting to try. Yup, you heard that right. What do you do after someone breaks into your car? ---Go home and cook.

Suzie from One Chubby Vegan has started some recipe testing for her cookbook. As soon as I saw her post on the Avgolomeno Soup, I knew I wanted in as a tester.

Avgolemono is a Greek soup made with lemon. Eggs are used as a thickener. Could this be veganized? Well, Suzie did it and this soup is marvelous. Thick lemony goodness with seitan, rice and parsley.

Avgolemono Soup

Damper

Damper is a bread from Australia. The are many recipes, but all are simple. It was made from staples that the swagmen had on hand when they were in the outback. Generally you would mix flour, salt, baking powder, butter (if available), and water/milk/beer to form a dough. Then it is cooked on the coals of a campfire. Any Aussie will tell you to drizzle honey or golden syrup on the damper and serve it with billy tea.

Billy tea is also prepared over a campfire. You boil water in a billy (can) and add a fistful of tea per person. In a minute when the tea is done, you grab the handle with a bandanna and swing the hot can around in a circle. Really this is just for show, you could just as easily let the it sit for a few minutes to settle the leaves. Though swinging the billy in circles works, even if it is a bit dangerous.

For my damper, I used the following recipe:

2 cups of flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp (scant) salt
1 T melted Earth Balance
3/4 cup beer (approximate start with less and add until dough is smooth)

Mix, knead, flatten into a circle on the cookie sheet, and then bake at 425 for 20 minutes.

Damper

Damper sliced with agave drizzled on top

Here's an old photo of me (40 pounds ago!) enjoying billy tea in the Australian rain forest. It is way too early in the morning for me which explains my happy demeanor. Yes, our guide did actually swing the billy around the campfire!

Ceviche

Ceviche is a citrus marinated seafood dish that originated in Ecuador. While watching the news the other night, I saw a chef prepare Scallop Ceviche. Since "C" is up next, why not veganize the dish?

I pressed some firm tofu, cut it into cubes, and then followed the same preparation instructions as the scallops. After making some plantain chips, the ceviche was ready to serve. Though the dish is relatively simple to make, the presentation wowed a friend that joined me for dinner.

Tofu Ceviche

A couple of days ago I stumbled upon Meyer lemons at the store. I've always wanted to give them a try, so I was pretty happy to find some. Legend has it, the Meyer lemon is a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. This creates a sweeter citrus flavor. After checking some cookbooks and searching the net, I decided on Meyer Lemon Scones from a baking website.

The recipe was easy to veganize, just replace the butter with Earth Balance. I also made the scones slightly more healthy by subbing some whole wheat pastry flour and garbanzo flour. My only suggestion if you try the recipe, use powdered sugar instead of white sugar for the glaze. White sugar sounded wrong to me, but I followed the directions anyway. The topping is ok as is, but not a typical glaze. The scones are delicious.

Meyer Lemon Scones