What’s in the oven?

By Monica on November 8th, 2007

Yes, the time of year is here when lighting the oven and having it heat up the entire house is a good thing!  My oven has been getting a workout lately and I suspect the end will not be in sight until early spring.

Up first is my modified old-time Czech stuffed pepper recipe, perfect for fall:

6 bell peppers
3 large onions, diced and divided
2 cloves garlic
2T vegetable oil, divided
1 1/2 cups TVP
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1T Braggs (or soy sauce)
1 cup cooked rice
1t dried parsley
1/2t salt
1/2t pepper
2- 28 ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes
1t whole peppercorns
1t allspice
1t oregano
1t marjoram
1c vegan sour cream

In a large skillet, heat 1T oil and saute 1 onion with the garlic until onion is translucent.  Add the TVP, vegetable stock, parsley, Braggs, salt, pepper, and rice.  Simmer until liquid is absorbed.  Stuff this mixture into your bell peppers, and place peppers into a deep baking dish or crock.

In a large saucepan, heat the remaining 1T oil.  Saute the remaining 2 onions until translucent.  Stir in tomatoes, peppercorns, allspice, oregano, and marjoram.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Cook on medium for 20 minutes.  Pour over peppers in the baking dish.

Cover peppers and bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours.  Remove peppers from dish and transfer sauce to a blender or food processor (or use an immersion blender) and puree until smooth.  Whisk in sour cream, pour the sauce back into a pan to reheat if necessary.  Serve the sauce over the peppers.

This next recipe for Squash Rolls was modified from one of those mini-cookbooks manufacturers send out.  It was in a Gold Medal flour themed book I found at a rummage sale and the only changes were using non-dairy milk and Earth Balance.  Easy enough, and these were great!  They’d be perfect for Thanksgiving dinner.  I used a carnival squash, but I think next time I’d use a butternut for a little more color.

5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1t salt
1 package dry active yeast
1 1/4 cups non-dairy milk, very warm
1 cup cooked and mashed winter squash
2T Earth Balance

If you have it, use a stand mixer with the dough hook.  Mix 2 cups of the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast.  Add non-dairy milk, squash, and Earth Balance.  Mix very well, then blend in remaining flour 1 cup at a time until dough is easy to handle.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes or until dough is elastic.  Place in oiled bowl and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

Grease 24 muffin cups.  Punch down dough and divide dough into 48 equal pieces.  (The recipe suggests 24 pieces, but these are the size of huge muffins at 48 pieces.  If you do 24 pieces, they’re going to be like football muffins!)  Shape each piece into a little ball and place 3 balls into each muffin cup.  Bake at 400° for 15 to 20 minutes until rolls are nicely browned.

And finally, a Cranberry Peach Upside Down Cake.  I have a bit of a love affair with upside down cakes.  They look like you put a ton of effort into it, when in reality you just throw ingredients into a pan on top of one another.

No recipe is really needed for this.  I used a cast iron skillet for variety and added some melted Earth Balance and brown sugar to the bottom.  Arrange some peaches however you like, throw a handful of frozen cranberries on top and then fill with your favorite yellow cake batter.  Viola!   It stuck a little when I flipped it, so excuse the poor picture here, but everything was so ooey-gooey and sweet that I didn’t mind!