I'm Baaaaaaccckkk! Plum Crisp, Comin' At Ya!

I know, can you believe it!!!!!??? I am coming back from the hole you all (hi Mom!) thought I crawled into and am blogging again!!!! (At least for a post...) So many new things (marital status, job, kitchen, dishwasher, iphone app...) in my life, but I am missing cooking and a creative outlet, now that I am not wedding planning and find myself a little too busy with my job I thought I'd blog again!

Today I am sharing some individual plum crisps I made. Plums looked good at the farmer's market this morning, and I have some ADORABLE tiny individual purple Le Creuset dutch ovens (thanks to my in-laws) and I had a hard morning (teacher test!) so obviously I thought it was individual desert night-- not that I don't like sharing, but sometimes you need your own dutch oven full of crisp.

I don't really have a specific recipe for these puppies, although I do have a pretty foolproof crisp/crumble method, which I don't know if I have shared with you before. Basically, I chop up about 2-3 cups of whatever fruit I want to use (apples, pear, plums, peaches, etc.) and add a little sweetener (usually agave, maple syrup or honey), some cinnamon, vanilla extract if you like and a tablespoon-ish of flour and throw this in the bottom of my baking dish (or dishes!). I then mix together equal parts flour, oats, nuts, and oil (canola or coconut is good, melted earth balance will do too) and add a dash of salt. I usually do a half cup of each, but you can totally adjust this depending on the size of crisp/crumble you want to make. Gently mix the topping ingredients together with a fork until the mixture looks "sandy" or "crumbly." Pour the topping on the fruit and throw the whole thing in a 375 degree oven for however long it takes for the top to brown and the fruit to get "bubbly."

I know, usually when you bake the formula should be exact but this method really does create yummy crisps and crumbles every time, and you can totally experiment with fruits, spices, nuts, etc. Even if the results aren't exactly how you wanted them to be, you really can't go wrong with hot fruit, crunchy bits of nuts and oats and a little melting vanilla soy or coconut ice cream on top.

So there you go everyone (or just Mom!), just in time for fall! Hopefully I'll get my act together and get on this thing more often...

My homemade vanilla extract-- vanilla beans + vodka + 1 month to sit = PERFECT! Thanks Ina Garten!

Banana Nut Bread

It's recipes like these that prove that the old baking rule that you need eggs to make a moist bread or cake is crap! This bread is soooooooo good, and healthier than many other versions out there that are loaded with butter, eggs and sugar. I swear, you won't even know they are missing!
This recipe is originally from How It All Vegan! but I have modified it so much the past few times I've made it that it's pretty much a new recipe now... EVERYONE loves banana bread, so you really have no excuse not to make this the next time you look over to your fruit bowl and spy some sad, brown bananas :-)
Banana Nut Bread

• 2 1/2 - 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tbs. apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2-3/4 cup chopped pecans (depending on how nutty you want it!)
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour + 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• Cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until very mushy, then add the vinegar, oil, sugar and stir together. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, flax seeds, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and mix together gently until "just mixed." Fold in pecans. Spoon into lightly greased loaf pan and sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a knife comes out clean.


p.s. A handful of chocolate chips instead of or in addition to the pecans would turn this baby into the perfect desert to bring to a picnic- it wouldn't suck heated up with a scoop of vanilla soy ice cream on top either!

Risotto to help you win friends and influence people!

OK, even if you aren't vegan- this post pertains to you. If you want to impress someone who is coming over to dinner (date, in laws, friends, bridge and majong players, what have you) I have the perfect dish for you- this risotto.

I have attempted to make risotto in the past and frankly found it not only challenging but annoying to stand over the stove stirring forever. This recipe from the latest issue of Cooks Illustrated it surprisingly low maintenance and easily yields perfect results. I feel like I can post it here because I have veganized it, but if you must use non vegan ingredients it's obvious what you would substitute. But make it vegan people. It's yummier and saves the chickens :)

p.s. A Dutch Oven for this recipe is a must. If you don't have one yet (Mom!) you should get one asap- besides this recipe there about a million uses for them, and there are some cheap but sturdy ones out there!

Almost Hands-Free Risotto with Herbs

• 6 1/2 cups fake chicken stock (I used 2 Edward & Son's Not Chick'n Boullion cubes), vegetable stock would work as well
  
• 4 tbs. Earth Balance
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• Salt
• 1 medium garlic clove, pressed
• 2 cups Arborio rice
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 tbs. chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tbs. chopped fresh chives
• Ground black pepper

1. Bring broth to a boil in a large sauce-pan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and maintain a gentle simmer.
2. Heat 2 tbs. of Earth Balance in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. When the EB has melted, add onion and 3/4 tsp. salt; cook, stirring frequently, until onion is softened but not browned, 4-7 minutes. Add garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add rice and cook, stirring frequently, until grains are translucent around edges, about 3 mins.
3. Add wine and cook, stirring constantly, until fully absorbed, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir 5 cups of hot broth into rice; reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until almost all liquid has been absorbed and rice is just al dente, 16 to 19 mins, stirring twice during cooking.
4. Add 3/4 cup of hot broth, and stir gently and constantly until risotto becomes creamy, about 3 mins. Remove pot from heat, cover, and let stand 5 mins. Stir in remaining 2 tbs Earth Balance, lemon juice, parsley and chives; season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Now that I have made this once successfully, I am wondering how I could jazz it up next time! I had some wonderful risotto in December at a French restaurant with butternut squash, pecans and cranberries that might be interesting to try make. I'm honestly not nuts about mushroom risotto, so that's out... Anyone have any other ideas about different kinds of risotto you could make using this recipe as a base? :-)



Alas, I did not get a picture of the risotto when we ate it last night- this is the sad small portion of leftovers... you get the idea though!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I love it when a good cookie plan comes together!!! My mom used to make these cookies around Christmas time when I was a kid, and I have been dreaming of having one again ever since. My mom and I were inspired to try to veganize them them for Christmas Eve dinner, and dove into the process last night. I was pretty nervous about how they would turn out, as the original recipe calls for 4 eggs, but fortunately the results were chocolaty, chewy and tasted just as I remembered them.

Although I associate these cookies with Christmas/Hanukkah time, they would be delicious warm out of the oven on any cold winter night.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

• 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 4 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 Egg replacer eggs, preferably Ener-G brand
• 4-6 tbs. soy milk
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2-2/3 cup powdered sugar

In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. In a large mixing bowl, combine canola oil, melted chocolate, vanilla and "eggs." Slowly add wet ingredients to dry using a hand held or stand mixer. Add soy milk one tablespoon at a time until the dough is nicely combined and pulls together (it should look slightly sticky). Cover the bowl containing the dough and chill in the fridge for 30 mins. to an hour.

Once dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, lightly grease a cookie sheet, and take dough out of fridge. Put powdered sugar in a shallow bowl, and begin to roll dough into 1 to 1.5 inch balls. Once balls are formed, roll them in powdered sugar to coat completely, then place on the cookie sheet. Bake cookies for 10-12 mins, until they are cracked at the top. Allow to cool for 5 mins. before transfering to a cooling rack.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

My Dinner- Quick Chard Stew with Garlic Bread

Will be making this again- quick and easy and perfect for a chilly fall evening. Highly Delicious!

My Lunch

It figures the day after Vegan MoFo is over, I get it together to start posting again. Oh well. Sigh.

I have been trying to be better about using the contents of my fridge and pantry when I am hungry. I'm not so great at it- I usually get inspired to make something I don't have ingredients for, and run out and get them. Not super cost effective, and as the weather gets colder I'm not as motivated to bundle up and walk to the store. Anyhoo, today I threw together a nice sandwich for lunch, if I do say so myself. It consisted of:

• Toasted whole wheat sprouted bread
• Fresh baby spinach
• Thin slices of pressed tofu sauteed in olive oil and drizzled with vegan Worcestershire sauce
• 4 sliced kalamata olives
• Vegan aioli (a tablespoon of vegan mayonnaise mixed with half a clove of pressed garlic)

I'm not sure what I would call this sandwich, other than Yummers. The olives are a must, they give it just enough of a kick to make all of the flavors come together. With some red grapes, it was the perfect lazy Sunday lunch.

DIY Veggie Stock

I am sure a lot of people have much more exciting things to do on a day off then sit in their apartment making homemade vegetable stock, but I am not one of them.

Whether you are a vegan or not, chances are you use vegetable stock in your cooking from time to time. Sure, it's convenient to grab some prefab stock at the store, but read the label on one of those sometime- ick!

If you really want to make your food taste extra yum, you have to make your own stock. Luckily, it's pretty easy. There are lots of great resources out there on how to make your own, I particularly enjoy this post at vegan yum yum.

In my neighborhood, I can grab a huge thing of "soup greens" for about a buck fifty at the corner deli. Sadly they are not organic, but I can get a bunch of carrots, celery, onions, leeks, turnips and parsley for cheap. Does this type of thing exist outside of Brooklyn? I find it magical.


Anyhoo, basically I just chop up the aforementioned soup greens and throw them in a some heated olive oil in a large soup pot as I go. I then add eight or so whole peeled cloves of garlic, any fresh herbs I have on hand (this week it was rosemary), a few tablespoons of tomato paste and a few tablespoons of tamari. And salt and pepper, of course.


Finally I add about ten or so cups of water, bring the whole thing to a boil and then down to simmer for an hour or two. When the veggies look very brown, pale and sad I strain the broth a few times, let it cool, then freeze it or put it in the fridge for a couple of days.



It sounds complicated, but it's pretty easy peasy, and strangely therapeutic to make your own stock. And it really does make a world of difference in soups, sauces, etc.

Soul-ish Food

It's SUCH a good time to go to the farmer's market! I am trying to live it up, I know soon there will only be apples and potatoes for months... I built tonight's dinner around some collard greens I scored at the market this morning, and they were yummmmmmy.

I made some black eyed peas from scratch and added some onion, green pepper, and soy chorizo.

The cornbread recipe is here (I subbed agave nectar for the sugar).

The citrus collards with raisin redux recipe is here. I checked cookbook this is from, Vegan Soul Kitchen, out from the library a few months ago, I think I need to purchase it.

Roasted and Toasted Pesto

I make pesto pretty frequently. It's easy to throw together, pretty cheap, and makes whatever you put it on taste better. I do, however, get a little bored with the same old formula from time to time. Today I decided to try to "turn up the volume," as our friend Ina Garten would say (I know! Yet another Barefoot Contessa reference... sorry!!!) on my basic pesto. Adding roasted cloves of garlic and toasting the pine nuts really upped the flavor, and was worth the extra effort.

Here's the recipe for the new and improved pesto:

• 1 head of roasted garlic
• 3 cups fresh basil leaves
• 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
• 1-2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• 3-5 tbs. olive oil
• salt and pepper (to taste)

First, roast the garlic. Turn your oven up to 350 degrees. Peel the paper off the whole head of garlic as much as you can. Cut of the top part of the garlic, so a little bit of each clove is exposed. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, wrap in foil, and roast in the oven for about an hour, or until the head feels squishy when squeezed with an oven mitt. Remove from the oven and let cool for 25 minutes or so before proceeding with the pesto.

Preheat a dry frying pan on your stove for a few minutes. Throw the pine nuts in the pan and move them around every 30 seconds or so until they are nicely toasted. Watch them closely, they can go from perfect to burned in seconds! While you let the pine nuts cool, carefully squeeze out each clove from the head of garlic. You can use a fork to help the process along, being careful to remove all bits of the papery skin. Put cloves in the food processor with basil leaves, salt and pepper and lemon juice. Process until it becomes a thick paste. Add pine nuts and process again.

Once everything is combined, keep the processor going while you drizzle in the olive oil, one tsp. or so at a time until it is the thickness you desire. Taste and re-season as needed with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Enjoy on your favorite whole wheat pasta, as a base for pizza, on a sandwich, etc...

Savory (or Sweet!) Zucchini Biscuits

With a zucchini about past its prime in the fridge, I was all set to make zucchini bread this evening. But, I had a request for zucchini biscuits. Such a biscuit is not too common, but I welcomed the challenge and combined a bunch of biscuit recipes together. The results were so delish and moist, I highly recommend trying these next time you want to pretend to make a healthy biscuit! They are savory, but for those who just can't go without a little sweet in their biscuit, there is an option to add a tiny bit of sweetness before they go into the oven!

Zucchini Biscuits
makes 10-12 biscuits

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 or 2 dashes of cinnamon
• 3 tsp. sugar
• 5 tbs. cold butter of choice (I used earth balance)
• 1 cup (or a little less) soy milk
• 1 cup grated zucchini
• coconut oil + flaked sea salt for top (if savory)
• agave nectar + sugar for top (if sweet)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix flours, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar together. Cut butter into 1 inch cubes and then cut into dry mixture, using a fork or pasty blender. Add soy milk and stir until it just comes together. Gently fold in zucchini.

On a well floured surface, roll out dough to about a 1/2 inch thickness and cut our circles about 3 inches in diameter. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Either brush tops with coconut oil and sprinkle salt on top, or brush with agave and sprinkle sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes, rotating halfway through, if you have a slanted oven like mine!

The Best Pizza Dough Ever!!!

I have been on the look out for a great pizza dough recipe, and I think I have found one! Not only is this dough super easy to make, it tastes as good as the crust you would find in any respectable NYC pizza parlor. The pictures featured are of a "salad pizza" I made last night via the Delicious TV's Totally Vegetarian podcast. Thanks so much to Phil's wonderful mom, Anita, for this recipe!

Pizza Dough (for the food processor or mixer)

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 2 2/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tbs. olive oil (plus more to oil the bowl)

Mix yeast with warm water and sugar in a 2 cup measure. Let stand in a warm place for up to 10 mins. With metal blade in place in food processor (or dough hook in mixer), mix flour salt and oil together. With the food processor or mixer running, pour yeast mixture in a steady stream, but only as fast as the flour absorbs it. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Let processor or mixer run for 40-50 seconds until dough is kneaded, smooth and elastic. It will be sticky!

Transfer dough to a well oiled bowl. Rotate so entire surface is oiled. Cover with plastic wrap or damp towel and let rise in a warm place (80-85 degrees) until doubled in bulk, about 1-1 1/2 hours. Roll out dough on a floured board. Place on greased pan and top as desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until bottom of crust is browned.

Tempeh Kabobs

Since this summer I'm staying in a house that does has a BBQ, and I do have access to it (yay!) I thought I would do a variation on the idea of grilled tempeh. Tempeh is one of those secrets of being a vegetarian that for some reason is kept from non-vegeterians. This is frustrating for those who have embraced alternative protein sources, and I have found myself on more then one occasion defending it, and trying to convince meat-eaters that they would really like it. It's less of an acquired taste then tofu, and while I'm personally only in the mood for it ever so often, it's so very good grilled, as Lindsey previously demonstrated.

These kabobs are simple, straightforward, and full of summer. I used zucchini, red and yellow peppers, and one block of tempeh to make about three kabobs. Don't forget to soak the skewers first! (Mine still burned on the grill...not soaked for long enough? Any thoughts?) I brushed on a made-up sauce:

-lemon juice of half a lemon

-1/2 tpbs of Seseme Tahini

-1/2 tpbs Dijon mustard

-splash of tamari

Wisk together. Mostly I made this because when using a BBQ, it feels unnatural not to brush something on whatever you are grilling first. I'm thinking that pretty much anything you wanted to brush on would work...

Chief (my dad) gave me a lesson in being a grill-master, and also let me use his Weber. Thanks C!

Bunny Salad

Inspired by a recipe in this month's Veg News, and a salad I ate at Whole Foods a few weeks ago... Silly name, I know...

Bunny Salad

*1 cup water
*1/4 cup + 1 tbs. orange juice
*1 cup whole wheat couscous
*1/3 cup raisins
*1/2 cup diced carrots
*1 tbs. olive oil
*2 tbs. chopped parsley
*salt
*pepper
*1/4 cup toasted almonds (optional)

Boil water and 1/4 orange juice together. Once at a boil, add couscous and remove from heat, cover and let steam for 5 mins. Then lift lid and add carefully mix in raisins, fluffing couscous with a fork. The heat will make the raisins plump up, so let the pot sit uncovered for about 10 mins. Then carefully add carrots.

Whisk remaining tbs. orange juice, olive oil, parsley and a pinch salt and pepper together and then drizzle over couscous and carefully mix in with a fork. Top with toasted almonds, if desired. Can be served cold or at room temperature.

Vegan Breakfast Bread Pudding

Sometimes, I think about devoting a blog entirely to veganizing recipes from The Food Network, especially Ina Garten's recipes. I think I have seen every episode of The Barefoot Contessa, and many of her recipes lend themselves easily to veganizing, and they almost always turn out great. This morning I decided to take a crack at her breakfast bread pudding.

I was a little nervous about how this vegan version would work out, considering the original recipe is made with a custard of eggs and heavy cream. But, the results were so yummy I ate half of the whole thing in about ten minutes. I guess I can feel a little less guilty about it knowing the vegan version has way less fat and calories than the original one.

Below is the recipe with a bunch of modifications. To the top I added earth balance for some rich buttery goodness, and cinnamon sugar to give it some nice caramelized crunchiness.

Vegan Breakfast Bread Pudding

*I loaf (vegan) challah, sliced into 1 inch thick pieces
*2 cups soymilk (I used vanilla)
*2 tbs. whole wheat pastry flour
*3 tbs. corn starch
*1/3 cup agave nectar
*1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
*Generous pinch salt
*Handful of raisins
*1 tbs. earth balance (or soy butter of your choice)
*Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together soymilk, flour, corn starch, agave nectar, vanilla and salt.

Line the bottom of an 8x8 inch glass baking dish with half the challah slices. Sprinkle raisins in an even layer on top of the challah. Layer the rest of the challah on top of the raisins, and press the whole thing down as far as you can into the dish with your hands.

Pour liquid soymilk mixture over the everything until it just barely covers the top of the challah slices. Dot the top with small pieces of earth balance (just as you would when baking a pie), and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 35 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the liquid has formed a custard-like consistency. Serve with real maple syrup. Try to not to eat the whole thing in one sitting, although I won't judge you if you do ;-)

Vegan Zwetschgenkuchen

Say what!!???

Zwetschgenkuchen (pronounced svet-ch-ken-koo-gan, I guess) is a German plum tart. The word on the street is no one makes it like my great-grandmother, who served it with whipped cream.

I changed her original recipe (converted from metric and German by my mother and grandmother) to veganize it. The result probably didn't taste exactly like the traditional kind (which I have not had in a long time) but was yummy and gobbled up quickly.

ZWETSCHGENKUCHEN

Apparently this is tradionally made with Italian plums, which are not in season until August. Use whatever is ripe and looks good at the grocery store.

3-4 plums
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 Ener-G egg replacer "egg"
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 stick "butter" of your choice
1/4-1/2 cup water
cinamon sugar to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, "egg", sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Crumble butter in using your hands. Add a little bit of water at a time until the dough comes together. Form a ball and put into the fridge or freezer.

While the dough is chilling, carefully cut plums into small slivers.

Remove dough from fridge/freezer after about 30 mins. Roll out on a floured surface until about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. If the dough is not holding together well, knead it up into a ball again a few times, your hands will melt the butter a little bit and the dough will become more elastic.

Place the crust in a greased pie tin and fold sides down on the insde so the crust only comes up about an inch. Now arrange the plums in a circle starting at the outside and working in. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 40-45 mins until crust is browned and plums look cooked.

Serve with vanilla soy or coconut ice cream.

Vegan Pizza Party

Who doesn't love vegan pizza?! I have only made it twice now, both times it was very tasty. The first time, we purchased the dough already made from Whole Foods. This time, I made it from scratch from this recipe. I used half whole wheat and half all purpose flour, and although it was tasted OK, did not rise as much as I would have liked. I am willing to give it another try though. This recipe makes enough dough to make two medium sized pizzas, in case you are cooking with a non-vegan friend (ah hem, Mom, Phil!) who wants to add a little cheese to their pizza.

So, I made the dough, then got to work on some pesto to use instead of regular tomato sauce.

Here's my pesto recipe:

First, combine the following in the food processor
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 cloves garlic
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Large pinch salt
Small pinch pepper

Then add
Two heaping cups of fresh basil leaves

Keep the food processor running, and pour olive oil in through the feed tube until it is the consistency you want.

We brushed the pesto on to the pizzas, leaving room for a crust. To mine I then added some tofu-ricotta, basically pressed and crumbled tofu mixed with garlic, basil, lemon juice and nutritional yeast. I also thew some olives on top, and sun dried tomatoes in the last five minutes of cooking (they burn otherwise, I found out the first time).

The final product was quite a tasty pizza, that had a good amount of protein but not the fat of the usual cheese-laden kind. In the words of Oprah, "love that!"

Back on the Chain Gang

This week I conquered two of my fears: soba noodles, and kale. I've been meaning to try out soba noodles for ages, but never knew what to do with them...After reading this posting about soba noodles, I felt inspired, but wanted to cook something that also used portabello mushrooms and kale while watching the movie Ghost on television, possibly the strangest movie I've ever seen. Here's what I came up with based on that idea:

Portabello Mushroom and Kale Soba Noodles

two generous servings

two portabello mushrooms

1 bunch of kale

half of a tomato (except for Lindsey because she doesn't like them)

1 can of butter beans

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 1/2 tbps balsamic vinegar

1 tbps tamari

juice of half a lemon

splash of tabasco sauce

2 bundles of soba noodles

*how fun is it to have bundled noodles? seriously...I took a picture.

Ok so here's the drill: while you're boiling the water for the noodles, cook the sliced mushrooms, and then add the beans. After a few minutes, add the kale, and stir-fry together, and begin to cook the noodles.

Mix together remaining ingredients in a small bowl, and then add to the pan. Drain the noodles, toss in a little olive oil, mix together and presto:

Bonus: soba noodles are so good for you! They are made from buckwheat flour, and have nine (9!) grams of protein per serving. Add the protein from the beans and you're in serious business.

Salad... Ick?

I have always thought I hated salad. I would eat it sometimes when I was out to dinner, but I never made it at home. However, I recently tried making my own vinaigrette, and now I am throwing together a salad with dinner a couple times a week.

You could make this using a whisk, but using one of my favorite pieces of equipment, an immersion blender (thanks again, Mom!), makes the vinaigrette frothy and creamy.

Here's what you need, this is just a guess of the measurements, it's really a judgment and preference call. It's pretty tangy-tasting, so if that is not your thing use less lemon and garlic.

1/3 cup olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, pressed
Pinch salt
Pinch pepper

Put everything together in a bowl or the handy-dandy cup that comes with your immersion blender. Blend until creamy. Toss together with some mixed baby greens. Perfection!

Holy Hamantashen!

Today was one of my most favorite kind of days, a SNOW DAY! Apparently people who work in offices don't get to take snow days, so I had the apartment all to myself. I needed a project. After giving it some thought, I decided to attempt to make hamantashen, delicious three cornered cookies eaten on the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Why hamantashen you may ask? First off, I have never made them before. Second, I know I will be tempted with many a non-vegan hamantashen cookie at school in the week ahead, and I thought it might be a good idea to be armed with my own vegan version. Unfortunately, my beautiful baby-pink Kitchenaid mixer in currently in-transit from Colorado to Brooklyn, so this project proved to be a little more difficult than I had intended.

The dough recipe is hodge-podged from a few different places, but mostly inspired by a Barefoot Contessa recipe for rugelach I have veganized and used in the past which is so good it's addictive, with a few modifications (mostly because I was running low on some ingredients).

Hodge-Podge Vegan Hamantashen
(makes a dozen cookies)

The Dough
3/4 cups Tofutti Cream Cheese (at room temp)
1/2 cup Earth Balance or any vegan margarine (at room temp)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
5-6 tsp. vanilla soy milk

Cream together tofutti, earth balance and sugar in a mixer (I had to do this in the food processor, which was a bit more tedious but worked). Mix in flour, salt, and vanilla until combined. The dough will be crumbly, so just as you would when making a pie crust, add soy milk one tsp. at a time until it just comes together. Dump onto a floured surface, knead until it sticks together in a large ball, and throw in the fridge or freezer for an hour or so. While it is chilling, you can make the poppy seed filling.

Poppy Seed Filling
1/2 cup poppy seeds
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 tsp. corn starch
2 1/2 tbs. agave nectar
1 tbs. earth balance
zest of 1/2 lemon

Simmer soy milk and poppy seeds together in a small sauce pot for about 10 minutes. Add cornstarch and earth balance, whisking to prevent as many clumps as possible. Simmer for about 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Take off heat and add the lemon zest, and let cool.



Other (and easier) fillings include jellies and jams. In addition to the poppy seed filling, I used some raspberry jam I picked up at the farmer's market last week.

Take dough out of the fridge, and roll out with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Use a cookie cutter or a glass to cut circles a couple of inches wide out. Put a teaspoon of whatever filling you are using in the middle of the circle, and fold three sides up to form a triangle. Pinch the corners closed very tightly (especially if you are using jam) and put on a greased cookie sheet.











Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-50 minutes until just brown.


Conclusion: if you are looking for a project to take up half of your day, make hamantashen filled with jam (which I found to be the tastiest anyways). If you are looking for a project to take up all day and drive you slightly crazy, make hamantashen with poppy seed filling.

soggy rice, not so nice.

So, I do not have Ashley's gift for making perfect brown rice. I find brown rice extremely frustrating to cook, and have burnt or overcooked every single pot I have made in the past, including in my mother's rice cooker. I had pretty much surrendered to making white rice or, horror of horrors pre-boiled microwavable Trader Joe's rice. Not as tasty as brown rice, and not nearly as much nutritional value either.

But then, I started to receive my new subscription of "Cook's Illustrated" (thanks mom!) and my life has changed!!!!!

I don't think I can legally post the recipe or whatever, but let's just say you boil about two cups water, and then stir in about a cup of brown rice. You then might throw the whole thing in an 8x8 glass baking dish, cover it with foil, and pop it into a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes or so...

And I'm telling you my friends, perfect rice, EVERY TIME.

If you're feeling festive, you could throw in a handful or two of some frozen peas (my favorite addition to just about anything), stir it up, and pop it back in the oven for a coupple of minutes to warm them up.