Hot Hot Hot !!!
By Monica on June 12th, 2008
It’s said that Illinois has two seasons: winter and construction. I’m adding a third season, which follows a never-ending winter, and that season is “Blast Furnace”. We’ve gone immediately from below freezing into muggy, humid, clothes-sticking-to-you high 90’s. And I am not a summer person… So my kitchen has stopped churning out breads and baked goods and has instead focused on foods which are quick and do not require turning the oven on.
I think I am officially the last blogger remaining who hadn’t tried V’Con Chickpea Cutlets yet, so let’s start there. I definitely appreciated the easy alternative to seitan, I tried them on the 2nd day (as recommended by other bloggers), and I didn’t have any trouble making the cutlets. I don’t think I’ll make them again, they were just kind of mediocre for me - but I did enjoy the innovative recipe.
Like most, I’ve been eating a lot of veggie burgers lately too, especially since Ray recently got himself a big ole’ griddle pan. Now the notorious Rayburger has been upgraded to Grilled Rayburger, ooooo, ahhh!
SusanV’s Cherry-Chocolate Mousse Pie, perfect not only because it’s tasty as can be, but also because it requires no baking or heat whatsoever. I even phoned this in with a store-bought graham cracker crust, shame on me.
And lastly, Rootbeer Floats. You know you want one.
P.S. - If I have any readers in the Raleigh, NC area, please email me. I have a few questions for the locals. Thanks!
I am a banana!
By Monica on May 29th, 2008
Yesterday Celine posted a picture of Don Hertzfeldt’s banana. (Sounds naughty!) If you don’t know who Don Hertzfeldt is, and if you also have a bizarre sense of humor, I highly recommend checking out this video on YouTube. Anyway, I’ve had bananas on the brain since.
So last night we had Banana Cake, using this VegWeb recipe as a very rough guide. I decided it needed more banana, chocolate chips, almond icing, and no oil. Take that, banana cake!
Chocolate Banana-Banana Cake
1 mashed banana
1 diced banana
7T applesauce
1T vinegar
1t salt
1t baking soda
1T baking powder
1t vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup water
3T cinnamon
To a large bowl, add the mashed banana and flour. Stir well. Add all the remaining ingredients except the diced banana, and mix well. When batter is sufficiently mixed, fold in the diced banana.
Pour into a greased 9×9″ pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
And even though I did just post a pizza shot earlier in the week, today is Thursday, and that means Pizza & Lost night again! This is technically from a previous Pizza & Lost night, but it’s what I’m having tonight too. These 5 Minute Whole Wheat Calzones were stuffed with hot giardinare, onions, black olives, and some fake sausage.
The “5 minutes” aspect is in regards to the rising time of the dough, which is about all the patience I have on Lost night. I’d much rather spend my time on the couch hoping my prayers have been answered and this week is finally the week Sawyer dumps that slutbag Kate, gets rid of that whiny Jack, and saves the island - all while being totally naked, of course.  Oh yeah… calzone dough!
5 Minute Whole Wheat Calzone Dough
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1T sugar
2T olive oil
1t salt
2 1/2 - 3 cups whole wheat flour
Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl. Stir in sugar, oil, salt, and 1 cup of the flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rest for 5 minutes.
Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Roll each out, stuff with goodies, seal, and bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
And lastly, just so you know that I do consume things other than pizza and cake, here’s Golden Tempeh Curry, a recipe from the March 2008 Vegetarian Times. I may lose my vegan-card for this, but I am not a curry fan. I keep trying different curries trying to find some I like, but this is the only one I ate even part of, and that was mostly just picking at the mango and tempeh. Still, an improvement!
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!
Chicago Green Festival
By Monica on May 21st, 2008
Last weekend was the Chicago Green Festival, and since Ray and I were in the area anyway, we headed to Navy Pier to see what vegan yummies and green innovations the show had to offer.
The first ‘innovation’ we came across was this blueberry cheezecake from Totally Vegan. I’ve never heard of “Totally Vegan” before and possibly for good reason, this was the worst cheesecake I’ve ever had in my life. Each bite was different, one chalky, the next runny, like it may not have been mixed well? After 2 bites each, it went into the compost bin.
Thankfully there was no shortage of other vegan vendors with other goodies to get that taste out of my mouth, like this delicious bread pudding from Karyn’s Cooked:
After sampling for a couple hours, we made it to the food court where the Chicago Diner, Soul Veg, and Temptation were set up. After harassing the Temptation staff about not bringing Teese for me to buy, Ray and I got two massive cookie dough ice cream cones, not knowing they would weigh about 2 pounds each! So good!
VegNews was giving out these handy totes for renewing your subscription. Mine needed renewing anyway, and then I had a new tote to carry home all of our free loot!
My favorite part of the Green Festival, however, was all the elephant poop. That’s right - there was a ton of elephant poop at the fest!
We learned that many organizations are now making paper products with recycled elephant dung in an attempt to foster a healthier relationship between elephants and the people of Sri Lanka. Apparently Sri Lanka is home to 1/10 of the world’s Asian elephants and they are being killed because they interfere with agriculture. Given that an elephant leaves behind 500 pounds of dung each day, and that their veggie-based dung is almost entirely cellulose (perfect for paper making), many organizations feel that utilizing dung for income is one way humans and elephants can coexist in Sri Lanka. If the elephant is seen as an economic contributor to the region, people may be more tolerant, and may even learn to value the elephants as a part of their world.
The paper is gorgeous, acid free, environmentally and animal friendly. How cool would it be to send out wedding invitations on elephant poop?! Check out MrElliePooh for more info.
And lastly, I am including a recipe for Aunt Yvonne’s Rhubarb Bread, a recipe from Animal Times. (You should get used to seeing a lot of rhubarb posts for a while!) I don’t know who Aunt Yvonne is, but she makes one wicked loaf of rhubarb bread!
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup silken tofu
1 cup soy milk mixed with 1 Tbsp. lemon juice (let stand 10 minutes)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups diced rhubarb
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts)
1/3 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. margarine, melted
Preheat the oven to 350°F
In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, vegetable oil and tofu and mix with an electric mixer until smooth. In another bowl, combine the soy milk, baking soda, salt and vanilla.
Alternate adding the soy milk mixture and the flour to the sugar mixture, beating well after each addition. Fold in the rhubarb and pecans.
Turn the batter into a lightly greased and floured loaf pan (8″x 4″x 3″).
Stir together the white sugar and melted margarine, then sprinkle over the top of the loaf. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.