Corn crust pizza

I guess you can always revive a blog, right? This pizza got me thinking about the olde Veganic Verses. I am feeling very inspired by the newest vegan cheese on the chopping block, Daiya. I used the mozzarella-style Daiya in this recipe, and we had gooey, melty, yummy pizza 20 minutes later. Yes, it really melts. No, it is not a lie. Plus, it tastes good--NO weird soy aftertaste. I used frozen gluten-free cornmeal pizza crusts, topped with arrabiata spaghetti sauce. Broiled some poatato slices for the top. Threw those on there with some basil, red peppers, sundried tomatoes, yellow squash fresh from the farm, and chopped garlic. The two pizzas didn't stand a chance.

Chai Tea Cupcakes

Yes, this blog had been long-abandoned, but now that we're in cooking-mode again, we've reclaimed our little past-time.

I had never made cupcakes before, but have eaten plenty. My friend Carol suggested this recipe to me, out of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I don't have the cookbook (yet) but found a recipe here at the Post Punk Kitchen and adapted it. I used Rice Nog (already flavored) and instead of soy yogurt I used one mashed-up banana.

I first made a vegan cream cheese frosting for the top but it was too watery to pipe through a frosting tube, so I opted for the powdered sugar-and-cocoa mix seen here. They are AMAZING and this was much easier than I though it'd be. I see more cupcakes in our future.

Devil's Mess

This is our favorite brunchy thing to make when we have the time. Got all the ingredients fresh at the farmer's market this morning--'cept the tortillas, black beans & hot sauce. Oh, a squirt of lime, to keep away the scurvy!

This one's:

sweet potatoes

black beans

onions

garlic

banana pepper

radish

dill

cilantro

Gimme Lean veggie "sausage"

Ethiopian Food

I never thought we'd be able to pull this off. Living in a small town, we miss access to ethnic foods such as Ethiopian, so we decided to take the skillet into our own hands and make our own. The berbere (red pepper) spice was bought last time we were in Los Angeles--that big cup was just $5. The cookbook was bought from the same Ethiopian market there (Merkato). We didn't think ahead about the bread (injera) so just used wheat noodles instead. The lentil dish, potato dish and tomato salad were AWESOME!!! And tasted even better throughout the week. This was great, economically, too--we figured out that this got us about 6 meals for almost $1 each.

Spring Rolls

soak the rice wraps individually in warm water

spread on a clean towel & fill with rice noodles & whatever else you like (we did tofu, carrots, cucumber, mint & basil)

get an assembly line of friends to fill & wrap (note home made peanut sauce for dipping)

Voila--spring rolls! Dip, eat, repeat.

I've heard these called spring and summer rolls...but whatever they're called, they're easy & AMAZING! Our friends Annie & Steve showed up with many of the fixins and showed us how to do it. We got a little assembly line going, disproving the "too many cooks spoils the broth" theory and demonstrating that group cooking is lots of fun! We made 2 big batches of these babies. Not the best photos but we were too busy to be artsy.

What the heck is Caponata?

We had a gigantic eggplant from the farmer's market. We had some figs. What to do? After googling 'eggplant fig' we found this recipe and decided to try it. We followed it pretty precisely 'cept used red wine vinegar instead of white, and added a little banana pepper from our garden. Toasted some ciabatta and presto! Soooo sweet and savory and yummy. Seems like perfect party food and a good alternative to bruschetta.

Vegan Mac-n-Cheese

Baked version of the old favorite, using nutritional yeast, mustard, macaroni, Bragg's Amino Acids, paprika.

Thai Yellow Curry

The Mae Ploy yellow curry paste is vegan (watch out for the other ones--they have shrimp paste!) We got the paste at the local Asian market, mixed with coconut milk according to directions, and used local sweet potato & basil with onions, regular potato, tofu and bok choy for our veggies. Served over jasmine rice. Nice.

Chocolate Mousse Pie, Part 3

Yup, another version of our chocolate pie. You can never get enough chocolate pie. Notice the fresh chocolate mint, from our yard.

Mexican Lasagna

Aw yeah...a tasty casserole topped with trashy Fritos. The base is cornbread. From there we layered with refried beans, peppers, onions, and "taco filling" made by Fantastic Foods. The layers were separated by corn tortillas used like lasagna noodles. Topped it all off with a can of diced tomatoes, and added Fritos just before it was done baking (20 minutes at 350). After removing from oven and plating, of course each portion had to be smothered in home made garlicky guacamole. This is very hearty and we'll be eating it all week.

Mango Strawberry Smoothie

1 Fresh Mango

7 Fresh Strawberries

1.5 Frozen Bananas

OJ

Soymilk

Blender

Asparagus Risotto

This was made for a vegan pot luck dinner we went to Sunday night. 'Twas a hit. Shawna cooked the pasta just like I did with a previous risotto dish we posted earlier. I blended up EVOO with basil, spinach, flax seed oil, nutritional yeast, nutmeg, and pine nuts for the sauce. Then we stir-fried the asparagus until tender. 

Chocolate Mint Peanut Butter Smoothie

The picture is not nearly as exciting as the taste was. Rich is famous for his smoothies. This one had:

frozen bananas

soymilk

peanut butter

chocolate syrup

chocolate mint (fresh from the yard!)

Baby Pies

No, not pies of babies! Just little versions of the big ol' chocolate tofu pie we always make. Aren't they just cute enough to eat?

Kale and Potato Salad

It may not be the most gorgeous dish, but we did gorge on it. Kale from our friend Annie's garden was steamed and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Potatoes, sweet and regular, were roasted with a touch of olive oil, garlic, fresh oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary. Mix it all together, splash a bit of soy sauce, and there you have a healthy lunch.

Beet Juice

Beets, carrots, lime, ginger. Ain't it beautiful? Tasted good, too.

Whole Enchiladas

Ok, these were heavily inspired by all of the good-looking Mexican food over at Veg*n Musings.
I'd never made enchiladas before, though I've loved many. Her recipes made me believe I could try to make my own. I forgot to add sauce on the bottom of the pan, so they were a bit dry, but I'll remember that for next time. Still, muy delicioso.

For the sauce, I roasted tomatillos, jalapenos, Anaheim peppers, and garlic before throwing them in a pot to simmer with tomato sauce, cinammon, and maple syrup. The insides of the enchiladas are black beans, onions, and bell peppers. Topped with pumpkin seeds. Saved leftover sauce. Threw a side-salad of lettuce, mango, and avocado together. And then we made the nut cheese.

Ew. I know. "Nut cheese" is not the best-sounding food item, but it serves as a cheesy/sour creamy substitute sometimes. There are tons of versions of this on the 'net and in raw foods restaurants, but ours is:

1/2 cup of cashew pieces (unsalted)
dash of Bragg's Amino Acids
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
1/4 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of agar-agar (vegan thickening agent)

Whip it up in a food processor and ole! Que rico!

Indian food: fresh and pre-packaged

We may not have a good Indian restaurant here, but we have a good Asian market and fresh veggies. Pappadoms (the big peppery cracker-like things) came from the Asian market. Jalfrezi sauce came from a jar bought at Harris Teeter. Channa Masala is from a package from Tidal Creek Co-Op. Samosas--lovely samosas--made at Tidal Creek. Lettuce from our friends Matt & Alison's yard. Lentils from our stash...can't remember where we bought 'em. Kale also from Tidal Creek--and it's locally grown, too. Everything turned out pretty good & we have tons of leftovers for lunches. Rode bikes to a movie after eating all of this...

Asian Collard Rolls

The American south meets the far east here. These turned out way better than I thought they would. These were inspired by the Collard Green Rolls we had once in New York at Red Bamboo but those were fried in a spring roll wrapper. We also just bought some daikon radishes at the farmer's market & didn't know what to do with them, so this helped the dilemma.

Here's what we used:

fresh collard leaves

onion

firm tofu, sliced into thin strips

daikon radish

carrot

sweet potato, chopped really small

sesame seeds

soy sauce

peanut oil

white pepper

Here's what we did:

Washed collards really well. Boiled the collard leaves for a few minutes while frying the sweet potato, onions, & pepper in peanut oil. Also fried the tofu in soy sauce and white pepper. Thinly sliced the radish & carrot, and set aside.

Removed collard leaves from water. Cut out bottom of stem. Scooped potato, onion, and tofu into center, placed carrot & radish stick in center, and rolled up like a mini-burrito. Place seam-side down in pan. Repeated until we ran out of stuff. Sprinkled w/sesame seeds. Baked at 350 for 10 minutes.

While that was baking, we made the peanut sauce:

peanut butter

dash of flax oil

hunk of ginger

lemon juice

lime juice

garlic clove

soy sauce

cayenne pepper

Put it all in a food processor, add water as needed, and blend to taste.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler Crisp

There was a dinner party! We had to bring something! Fresh strawberries from Black River Organic Farm inspired this dish.

First we cut the rhubarb into little pieces, put it in a saucepan with some brown sugar & lemon juice, and carmelized the heck out of it. Added the strawberries, some cinammon, a teeny bit of grated fresh ginger, 3 drops of rosewater, and stirred until it was a batch of gooey goodness. Poured into a glass baking pan, and topped with crumble mixture made of: oatmeal, flour, Smart Balance margarine, brown sugar. Baked at 350 for 30 minutes. Cooled on windowsill so neighbors could follow the sweet smell, lifted by their noses, like in the cartoons.