The Postman Cometh
By Monica on May 27th, 2008
I’ve been blessed with two awesome mail deliveries recently: Bazu’s Infamous Sourdough Starter, and Amy’s Amazing Homemade Cookie Assortment. Both of these were WAY better than the electric bill and student loan statement that I can usually thank the postman for.
I’ve been eager to play with sourdough for ages, and Bazu’s starter did not disappoint. Within hours it was a bubbly, frothy bowl of goodness!
Thursday nights have become Pizza & Lost nights at my house, so the first thing I made with the starter was sourdough pizza crust. I found this delightfully simple recipe that needs only 1/2 an hour to rest/rise and it works perfectly.
Up next was a sourdough rye bread that Vegan Eats & Treats made with Bazu’s starter; it looked so good I gave it a whirl myself. The recipe made two gorgeous loaves, the only problem being that they both got eaten almost immediately!
Then I was lucky enough to win Vegan Addict Amy’s cookie contest, and this amazing package arrived a few days later, complete with an adorable whale card and cookies wrapped in biodegradable bags:
We had Oatmeal Raisin (my all time favorite cookie), Peanut Butter, Ginger, Lemon Zingers, and Snickerdoodles.
It was a very tough call, but the Lemon Zingers stole my heart. Thankfully Amy has the recipe online here. I strongly encourage everyone to try these out and also to encourage Amy to open a Cookie Addict store and start selling these babies! They are absolutely of professional bakery quality and right now I’d shell out big bucks for another Lemon Zinger!
And lastly, because I need to cram rhubarb recipes into every single post for the next 3 months to catch up, here’s a basic Apple Ginger Rhubarb Crumble. Last week Sarah Kramer mentioned such a crumble on her blog. I’m not sure if she has a recipe for it in one of her books for one or not, but she inspired this version.
Like most crumbles, there isn’t much of a recipe to follow and knowing me, I wouldn’t write it down even if there were. I peeled and diced a 3lb bag of gala apples, and diced an equal amount of rhubarb (maybe 8 stalks?). Into a 9×13″ pan both went, tossed with a couple tablespoons of flour, about 2 teaspoons of ground ginger, and a liberal smattering of brown sugar (~ 1 packed cup?).  Top with your favorite crumble concoction an bake at 350 degrees for about half an hour. Drizzle with some non-dairy milk if you’re so inclined.
Again, many thanks for Bazu and Amy for their generosity!
Romina says:
The best thing about the mail is you can’t send food through e-mail!!
YUM!! that pizza must have been amazing, and those cookies… perfect!
May 27th, 2008 at 9:21 am
VeggieGirl says:
Bazu and Amy are such generous bloggers - love the sourdough starter and the cookies!!
Wow, the pizza, sourdough-rye bread, AND the Apple-Ginger-Rhubarb crumble look positively mouthwatering. Yum!
May 27th, 2008 at 9:24 am
celine says:
hallo, thar, beautiful everythings!
May 27th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Shellyfish says:
Brilliant! That pizza looks like it should be at *my* house! That’s good mail!
May 27th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Mihl says:
Welcome to the ever growing sourdough owner family!
May 27th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Chocolatecoveredvegan says:
Oh wow, that’s a lot of cookies! You lucky girl!
And the crumble looks perfect. Sarah Kramer is a genius– I love her How it all Vegan cookbook.
P.S. Thanks so much for the picture– your duckies were so tiny and precious, just like mine! (I miss them… but at least I get to see them out at the pond.)
May 27th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Vegan Addict says:
Awww…yay! I am so happy you enjoyed the cookies. Many many thanks for your kind words.
Your pizza looks delicious! I have never had a sourdough crust…I am scared of sourdough starters, but perhaps I need to overcome that!
I still need to make a strawberry rhubarb pie too!
May 27th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
melody says:
Wow! What a mailbox full of treats..
May 27th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Vegan on stage says:
YAY FOR THURSDAY NIGHT LOST!!!! IM OBSESSED WITH THAT SHOW… i cant wait for this thursday!!!
how exciting to receive two packages of vegan yumms!!!! exciting@!!
YOUR PIZZA LOOKS BEAUTIFUL.. i cant ever get enough of pizza
May 27th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Liz² says:
ooh, sourdough pizza! was it everything you dreamed?
and I had no idea that vegan addict’s cookies were so professional! but they so are. :O
May 28th, 2008 at 5:28 am
Jennifer says:
Wow! I want that stuff to come in my mailbox, sadly I’m just on the student loan payment end right now.
That pizza! Sourdough pizza?! You know….Illinois isn’t very far, you COULD send leftovers (oh, and some of those cookies) my way.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:10 am
jessy says:
omg - sourdough pizza, sour dough RYE BREAD (could it get any better than that? i would eat tomato slices & vegenaise on that bread! mmmmm!) those cookies, and more glorious rhubarb! w00t! it all looks so darn delicious! what a happy mail day! hoooooooooooray!
May 28th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
catherine (FOOD SNOB) says:
I don’t even get a student loan bill every month . . . they just suck my checking account dry all on their own!! (Darn automatic transfers!)
P.S. The pizza looks incredible!
May 28th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Jess - The Domestic Vegan says:
Where to start…? WOW to everything. ::drool:: I want that pizza immediately.
I do agree that those goodies are MUCH better than receiving bills & the like in the mail… What an abuse postman.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Jess - The Domestic Vegan says:
And that was meant to say “what an abusIVE postman.” And it was to be a joke… But my typo ruined it. Lame.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
bazu says:
You are a blogger after my own heart! I just posted about Lost today- I’m so sadly addicted to that show! And I’m so glad the sourdough is working out for you- sourdough pizza crust is a revelation. Wowza.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Vivacious Vegan says:
Oh how fun to get 2 packages! I would love the lemon zingers. I’m going to go bookmark her recipe now.
May 30th, 2008 at 6:37 pm