There's nothing like curling up on a chilly fall afternoon with some soy or nutmilk and some homemade cookies! Of course, a chilly fall in my area means temperatures anywhere below 70 ;)

I love making cookies for my friends, co-workers and various events, not just because everyone likes dessert, but because they are a great way to introduce newcomers to the vegan lifestyle! Everyone jokes with me about tofu, but no one jokes about my desserts (except for a few bad batches now and then!). These Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking, by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau were another hit. Sweet and sugary, and dare I say buttery (they had a whole stick of non-dairy butter in them!) they were hardly healthy. Many people also associate vegans and vegetarians with healthy eating and although that is certainly true (no cholesterol or heart disease from whole grains, legumes and leafy greens!) our desserts can certainly tip the scale in calories and sugar!
These were pretty easy to whip up, although I didn't really have enough raisins. I like my oatmeal cookies to be really "oatmealy" and to have a ton of raisins, two things that these were lacking for me. However, looking at a similar non-vegan recipe under the lid of the oatmeal canister revealed a recipe that was pretty much the same as this one! Three Stars ***, with good reviews by co-workers!



I'm glad I didn't have too many sweets to bake this week, and this Cumin-Lime Tofu really kicked the savory up a notch! The fact that I've made this recipe before means a lot, since I rarely make the same recipe twice!! Four stars for this recipe - tangy and light, but filling and crunchy with a crisp outside and sprinkled with chopped pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds). Even my omni husband enjoyed this and reached back for more! The only change I made in this recipe was to press the tofu (thus removing more of its liquid to make it more firm) and marinating it longer (to allow the tofu to absorb more flavor). Everyone always says that tofu "absorbs flavors really well," but that's not true unless you marinate for a reaallly long time. Otherwise, just the outer edges of each slice or block get the seasoning.

The tofu was made to go with this other recipe (both, by the way are from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan). This pretty dish is the Sesame Lime Soba Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms and Snow Peas. I just love mushrooms! I was craving this for a while. Again, not a very fall-like dish, but it was quick and easy for the busy fall I'm having. Just stir-fry the veggies, cook the noodles, and heat them up with the homemade sauce.

Top with the Cumin-Lime Tofu and presto! A vegan meal to inspire! Four stars for the soba noodles, by the way. I just couldn't get enough! And it wasn't heavy, either. The best part? Perfect for leftovers the next night - just like cold Asian take out! Tonight I tackle the last of my phyllo recipes for a while and later this week I plan on making a gluten-free soup for my next Veg Group meeting!

Good-bye Summer!

I'd like to say that we welcomed in autumn with some hearty, root vegetable meals, but it was more like a good-bye to summer! It was really nice and cool this weekend - felt like a perfect fall day - but on this first day of autumn it is over 80 degrees! Blech. So I had my last smoothie for lunch and some fresh fruit.

Pictured here is the long-awaited Moroccan-Infused Vegetable Phyllo Rolls, from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan (ED&BV). Since I made that spanikopita a few weeks back, I've been looking for ways to use up the extra phyllo. It's so easy to work with - I'm glad I tried it again! I think I'll try the Walnut, White Bean and Spinach Phyllo Rolls next week.
Here's a picture of those babies going into the oven, glistening with olive oil. Thank god it's heart-healthy! No cholesterol there :) My only complaint was that the recommended sauce was way too sweet. It overpowered the flavor of the rolls. And that's saying A LOT for me, since I have an incredible sweet tooth. Three good stars, maybe three and a half ***





My husband's meal of the week was the Mediterranean Tortilla Pizzas, from Dreena's other book, 'The Everyday Vegan.' These were not quite as good as the phyllo rolls, also because the sauce was too sweet - what a coincidence! The tomato paste in the sauce was just too thick and sweet for us. The toppings were awesome (roasted garlic, artichokes, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes = yum!!) and the thin, tortilla crust was different. A little hard to slice and eat, though - rather messy! Two and a half to three stars ** We made these together - not hard!






We had extra tortillas left over from the pizzas, so we ended up making Veggie-Sizzle Burritos (OK, so I made them while husband watched his football team - how stereotyped are we!) also from ED&BV. These were pretty good. My husband ate the two with the (non-vegan) cheese and went back for a third! We served them with some good salsa. Funnily enough, the Tostitos brand salsa is one of the most flavorful, fresh and simple ones out there! I like my burritos soft, not oven-baked, and I've made something similar myself before, but I was just so happy to have found another recipe that my husband liked. Three stars!***




My muffin supply in the freezer is getting pretty low, since I worked all summer, so this weekend I whipped up some Easy Pleasin' Oat Bars, from Vive le Vegan (yes, Dreena strikes again!). I always add dried fruit, and more than she calls for. They are nice and firm - one of my favs! Three stars ***
I did make the last hummus out of her ED&BV cookbook, which was the Kids' Dynamo Hummus. It has raw cashews, nutritional yeast and flax oil, all great ingredients. The flavor? Outstanding. A little cheesy, beany, and mellow - yum again! One of my favorites. Now that I've made all these hummus recipes, I can't decide which is my favorite? Possibly the olive-sundried-tomato one.

And that about wraps it up for this week of food! I'm off to make another Dreena recipe tonight, one with summer seasonings as we say good-bye to summer and hello to my favorite season!

Holy Kitchen Woman, Batman!

I can't believe how much food I made this week! I was writing in my recipe journal and realized that I had made seven new recipes this week! Let's get right down the vegan vittles, shall we?
First, these Peanut Butter Bombs from My Sweet Vegan TOTALLY redeemed the book for me (after the past few not-so-great results). They ROCKED! Sweet and soft and like eating a peanut butter cup cookie! Four stars! **** My only complaint was that the recipe didn't make as many as it said it would. Soooo... I had to make these next cookies as well (I was baking for teens that I work with).
Isa's Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies were hardly a thumbs up. At least, the way the recipe was written. When I got ready to "press the dough flat with my palms," it was still a gooey, liquidy concoction! I had to double the flour to get a good dough. At least they turned out OK. I guess I'm just not a big chocolate fan! I used blueberry preserves for the jam middle. Yum! Three stars, I guess ***


On Wednesday night, my husband helped me make the next dish (which he also chose), from The Everyday Vegan. These were Mexican Tofu Tacos. I've had plenty of vegan tacos in my lifetime. Tempeh ones, TVP ones, but I wasn't so sure how the mushy tofu would turn out. Well, with all the great veggies involved (minced carrot, bell pepper, celery and tomato) and all the great spices (not to mention the fresh avocado - yum!!!) these turned out GREAT! My husband and I gave them four stars **** A pleasant, spicy surprise. He put regular cheese on them, of course, but I didn't have any vegan kind on hand. They would have been better with some veg-cheese and lettuce.
Another night, I cooked these Mushroom Cashew Patties from Veg News for myself. They were wicked easy to make and used up some mushrooms and bread heels I had kicking around. Amazing flavor! Very soft and kind of crumbly, but I loved them just the same. Four stars! ****






Yet another four star **** recipe for the week... The Bliss of Krishna Tropical Rice Pudding (otherwise known as rice pudding), from the Vegan Fusion World Cuisine cookbook. Only the second thing I've made from this book (I've had it since this summer!) but awesome just the same. It used up some coconut milk I had (from the Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting from last week!) so all the better. An amazing treat for dessert or perhaps even breakfast? Basmati rice and raisins and macadamia nuts....mmmmmm.....
Of course, my husband's favorite meal was another savory, hot meal from the oven. This time, these Roasted Red Pepper and Mushroom Baked Wraps from Vegan Dad's blog. We used some lavash bread I had in the fridge, instead of tortillas, and double the portobella mushrooms, with baby bellas instead of the chanterelle. They also contain roasted red pepper (I made these myself - so easy!), lots of spices and some garlic hummus spread. I roasted the head of garlic in the oven as Isa suggests in Vw/aV, and added it to my favorite hummus recipe. So mellow and yum! Not vampirey at all....The lavash bread got nice and crisp.
I quickly steamed some farmer's market green beans and we had a meal!











Here's my wrap after I bit into it - so creamy and good! My only suggestion would be to add vegan cheese (the recipe called for some but I didn't have any) and we also thought that some different veggies would be great in here - maybe some red onion, too. It would make a great stromboli!! Four stars ****
The last recipe, I do not have a shot of, because I whipped it up for my Sierra Club Open House. It was the Chipotle Lime Hummus from Dreena's ED&BV. It was very, very good, too! Nice and spicy and different from all the other hummus recipes (included kidney beans). I think there are only two more hummus (hummuses? what's the correct plural?) I need to make from that book and then I will have tried them all! This one tops the bunch, along with the olive one, the white bean and thyme (I used rosemary) one and her Cannellini Yam one from The Everyday Vegan. What an incredible week! I'm exhausted just typing all this! Or maybe it's just the wine.... Happy Friday!

Going Gluten-Free!

Well, I'm not going gluten-free, but for my monthly Veg Group meeting, I thought it would be nice to try to make a gluten-free dessert. There are some folks who attend who are celiacs, and I realized that making desserts every time that had flour in them was just as bad as making vegetarian desserts for vegans! So, I gave Dreena's Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Cake a try. It included white rice flour, which I easily found at the Ukrop's grocery store nearby. Other than that, it was basically a Wacky Cake, which involves using vinegar and baking soda as the leavening. Pretty cool! It tasted decent, I think, and there wasn't much left after the meeting, so that was good for my hips - ha, ha. I used Isa's recipes for Coconut-Pecan Frosting and Peanut Butter Frosting with Chocolate Ganache (both from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) to cover the two layers separately, instead of stacking them, so that there would be more cake to go around. I thought both frostings were good, but the peanut butter one was a little "weepy," due to the natural peanut butter oils separating, I think. I just love the coconut frosting!!!
Here's the one with peanut butter frosting and ganache. Four stars for both! Yum!












Unfortunately, not all things can turn out so well. For Labor Day, hubby and I (OK, just I) fixed some traditional dishes: grilled corn, grilled okra....and BBQ seitan ribz. (Traditional to vegans! - Lots of family values here!). The corn was a disappointment. Despite being local and freshly picked, it was chewy and starchy. The okra was also local and fresh, but rather dry. I think I could have used more olive oil on the latter. Oh well - it was edible. Two stars for the veggies. Three stars for the good as usual seitan from Susan V.
The last food I'm posting this week is the homemade spanikopita! I've been dying to make these for years, but due to the fiddly phyllo (filo) dough and loads of olive oil, I was always hesitant. Well, with my new year's resolutions in mind (the year is a third over!) I decided to tackle it. Here is the mix, containing tofu, fresh dill and cooked spinach with other spices. Pretty good, but could have used some more garlic.



Next step - take the thawed filo dough out of the package in the fridge, lay out two tissue-thin layers (with olive oil sprayed or brushed in between) and score it the long way into thirds.

Place about a tablespoon of the filling at the top left corner of one of the strips.











Now is when being a Girl Scout came in handy. Just fold the left corner over, then down, then over, repeating like you're folding a flag. Easy! Tuck any lose end under and brush or spray with more olive oil. My heart is saying thank you already, but that's still a lot of oil!












Here is a sheet of the little guys, fresh out of the oven. I think I'm having oven problems, because (like last week's baked goods), I found that these were still underdone. They only got brown on the tips. Delish and authentic, but not brown enough.







I reheated these in my little toasted oven for a great lunch throughout the week. A nice break from fruit salad and smoothies that I ate all summer!

We're going to try some mushroom cashew patties tonight - wish us luck!

My Sweet Vegan!

I spent the week baking, it seems, after receiving the newest addition to my cookbook collection: My Sweet Vegan, by Hannah Kaminsky. I was impressed by her beautiful photos and by her talent at such a young age (19!). It also made me feel a little old (for those who know me - don't laugh!).

At any rate, I tackled my first recipe from the book on Monday night, as I prepared to take a sweet treat to my former co-workers at the school where I used to teach. They began their work week on Monday, and the kids go back to school the day after Labor Day. Being back just solidified the knowledge that I had made the right decision to leave. But it was good seeing my friends again and nice to share some vegan treats! I had a little nibble of this Lemon-Lime Sunshine Bundt Cake, and I have to say it was pretty good! I thought it might have been a little underdone in the middle and the glaze was too runny (easily fixed next time by adding more sugar) and maybe I could add some lemon or lime juice to the glaze to give it more of a citrusy tang, as the bite I had didn't blow me away. I don't know what my friends thought of their slices, but I think it earns a three star rating. It was really easy to make, too!
Next up was this Plum-Good Crumb Cake. I have been eating plums and peaches out of hand for several weeks now, and thought I could take a break and put them to another culinary use. This required a few more steps than the above bundt cake, but came together quite beautifully in the pan. However, as you'll see in the photo below, it sunk quite a bit. I think that the cake was a little underdone near the plums, possibly because of the large amount of juice in these particular fruits. Next time, I think I'll use fewer plums and squeeze them out a bit - but they were damn good plums! The crumb topping also called for a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, which I thought made the whole topping (which I usually loooove) really taste salty - not sweet enough. I would leave it out next time or just add a pinch. Of course, I am overly critical of things, especially things I make, because our neighbors loved it (I sent two of them a quarter of the cake) and it was really moist and delish. I think that even if you don't care for plums, you would like this! Three solid stars....
Of course, not all things can be rescued by a second try...












These Black-Bottomed Brownies, also from My Sweet Vegan, are a perfect example. I have only once or twice thrown out an entire dessert, and this was one that ended up in the trash. I just couldn't bare to serve it to even random strangers. The bottom was edible (1 star) but not that great as far as brownies go. The top earned zero stars - not only did it NOT bake well, so it tasted doughy, but the flavor was just - blah. I have an oven thermometer, and I followed each step carefully, but all I can think is that maybe I over beat the mixture. At any rate, I will try all of the other recipes before I tackle this one again - if I do! Blech.
Here is one up close - yech!













Of course, I can't leave you with a bad taste in your mouth (pun intended), so here are a couple more yummy shots. This one of my own recipes - really nothing to it - that we whipped up last night after a big trip to the Farmer's Market. I picked up some red peppers, organic zucchini and yellow summer squash, and we grilled them with olive oil, sea salt, and fresh ground pepper on our outdoor grill. Using regular linguine (I'm trying to let my husband "win" more when it comes to shared meals - I would have gone with whole wheat pasta!) and jarred Bertolli pasta sauce (the best!), it really hit the spot, especially with the nooch (nutritional yeast - a complete protein) and fresh basil (from my garden) that I added after this picture. The basil really made the whole dish! It was amazing and comforting and practically fat free :) I also added some raw cashews to bump up the protein (there's protein in veggies, pasta, and the nooch! - yay!). Three and a half stars!

My husband's dish was quite stunning, so I had to add a shot here - even though it has dairy cheese on top. I added a prayer for the cows (smile) (to learn more about why vegans don't eat dairy, go to the Vegan Outreach site).






Another spur-of-the-moment dish also came from the Farmer's Market, as I picked up a bunch of organic beets. You see, I grew up eating beets out of a can. With no other sauces or flavors added, they were quite nasty to my childhood palate. As my New Year's Resolution was to try new foods (cooking and eating), and as a co-worker had been reminiscing about how good roasted beets were, I thought I would give them a try. Following a recipe from the Fat Free Vegan site, I cooked up some lentils (great protein, once again!) and mixed up a fresh salad. Then I roasted the beets on a sheet in the oven, covered with foil, but only for about half the time Susan called for, as they were pretty small beets. I cut and peeled them later with my hands, which probably wasn't very smart, but I don't own plastic gloves and the juice washed off pretty well. I drizzled some balsamic vinegar and olive oil over the top. And the taste? Well, I'm a beet convert. Even on their own, roasted beets are great! Kind of like a water chestnut, which was my husband's first impression. Try them (you will like them, you will see! Thanks, Dr. Seuss)! I devoured this salad....Three stars.

And to end this post, a slightly blurry shot of my newest tattoo... I've been planning this one for a while...it's similar to the Vegan Society symbol (if you can't tell, it's a V with two leaves at the top). I chose it to symbolize my decade of commitment to vegetarianism and now veganism, and to remind myself that the pain of this tattoo is nothing compared to the millions of animals that die every year in the food industry. Plus, I can see it every day (not like my others) and it is so elegant. It already feels like a part of me! I think I'll have it touched up with some green ink later on, as the pure black looks a little like I drew on myself with pen - ha, ha! It hurt a bit more than my last one, but it was so quick, it wasn't that bad at all! But the best part? My tattooist said that he was going to start using vegan ink! (I asked after we had begun.) Four million stars for this one ;)

A Little Time on My Hands

Since I am no longer teaching, I don't spend the weekends doing newsletters! Instead, I can spend the time shopping for local produce at the farmer's market and then making delicious and often time-consuming meals like the ones that follow.
This first picture is from Veganomicon. It is the Corn and Summer Squash Bisque. It was completely delicious! With roasted yellow peppers, yellow summer squash and sweet corn, and coconut milk (blended with my handy-dandy immersion blender) it was heavenly. However, the TWO red chilies, three garlic and one onion also gave it a bit of a kick! I ended up scooping out as much of the red chilies as I could, but it still made me cough with the fumes as it cooked! I think that the peppers I picked up were too big. Next time, I'll just add a pinch of ground cayenne so that I can more fully taste the sweetness of this summer treat. A hint of maple syrup, lime juice and freshly ground nutmeg (that's what's on top in the photo, not pepper!) made the flavors sing. Three stars! (It would be four if it were less spicy). Oh, and it took about two hours to make, not the 1 hour and 20 minutes suggested.
Next up... sushi again! I was cleaning out my pantry (more on that later) and found an old can of inari sushi pockets. There are simply marinated and fried tofu pockets. I filled them with seasoned sushi rice pretty quickly. Yum! Four stars!







This is what the underside of the inari look like. It stays open and sets on the plate. Great finger food! I might make this for my next party.










The inari were a nice counterpart to the sweet and tangy Japanese eggplant, broiled with a miso-sake sauce (courtesy of FatFree Vegan), which I actually made for the first time last summer, as well as the Kung Pao Seitan, from Vegan Planet. We both just love this kung pao, and this time we used pre-made seitan (we can get it at a local store now- woohoo!), and it turned out great. Spicy, sweet, and mild - it was a yummy Asian night!

And, as I promised, more on why I was organizing my pantry.... A few weeks ago, my parents came down to help us work on the house. Well, I got the great idea to clean out a coat closet, add shelves, and turn it into this great storage closet for all our (my) appliances and extra cookware/bake ware that was cluttering up the rest of the kitchen and our poor pantry! So, here it is. It might look kind of cluttered itself from this photo, but it really is organized... I promise! I feel like I have a new kitchen now!

AR 2008 and Melons

Let's start with the melons....Here are the first two melons, harvested from my little garden. These are the "surprise," that sprouted from my organic bean packet a month or so ago. They are definitely cantaloupes or musk melons, whatever you call them, although my husband read something that stated that cantaloupes are actually a tropical fruit, and what we grow here are musk melons. At any rate, I was eager to taste my home grown treats...

Though they were misshapen, they were beautiful and perfect inside (which goes to show you how non-perfect looking produce is really just fine!). However, I was disappointed in most of the bites I took. One melon was clearly not ripe, though it was the right color, and the one that fell off the vine was barely sweet. I have a third that is sitting on my counter, which I will let ripen longer before I dig into it.




Of course, I have twenty other melons to taste!! :)













My mother-in-law came into town to help us with some house projects (What a doll! Our front bedroom is now two lovely shades of green). We made this pizza from the Vegan Express cookbook for her, with no sauce or cheese, but lots of fresh tomatoes, basil, canned olives and artichokes, and vegan mozzarella. I was really disappointed in the way that the veggies didn't stick to the crust and in the blandness of it overall. But I think it was all because of the grocery store tomatoes! No flavor - blah. Everything else was good, except the Rustic Crust as usual was a little underdone.... One and a half stars and a good reason why local or homegrown is better!

I spent Saturday at my first animal rights conference. They switch years between the East and West Coast, and the short drive to D.C. was a breeze with a fellow AR pal. Here is the welcoming table, early in the morning. It was so cool how I felt "at home," right away. The t-shirts, cool tattoos, dogs (the hotel made an exception), posters, exhibits, and general attitude of excitement, passion and acceptance made it an amazing day.

I went to several workshops, one of which was this panel of speakers about campaigning. I was thrilled to sit down and see none other than Howard Lyman (the Mad Cowboy) at the front table as a speaker! I couldn't believe my eyes. I had to take a picture for this blog :)





Another panel discussion I went to included Karen Davis (far right in pink) of United Poultry Concerns. I saw her in the lobby beforehand, and had to introduce myself. I had just read her article about animal welfare versus rights, and how we should stop apologizing for our beliefs, so I was thrilled to see her in person. I've never been much of a celebrity gawker, but these people have actually made a positive difference in the world, and were not just born beautiful or rich, so I didn't mind feeling a little star-struck.
There was a really cool set of advertisement posters (by PETA, I think, but I'm not sure) of which this was one. Each set contained a typical photo of an animal abuse or factory farm (like the hens crammed into cages below), alongside a photo of humans demonstrating the same (the women above the hens are crammed into cages as well). The shot of the boy getting his nose cut off (not really, of course) pared with the familiar chick getting debeaked shot, was my favorite. Gory and raw, but sometimes that's what gets to people!






Here is the exhibit hall right as it opened. There were sooo many booths I wanted to see, it was overwhelming! As the crowds grew, it was harder and harder to get a good shot, but I visited every single one at least once and got into some good conversations!







I was excited to stumble upon Pangea, selling vegan chocolates, donuts, jerky and belts, among other things. I got chocolates for my husband and mother-in-law.










Here was a great booth by Herbivore, selling those familiar t-shirts. I got one of their newest designs (see next pic) and the cute guy at the table tried not to pose :)
























Ragazzi vegan shoes! Need I say more? No peering into shoes to see if they are man-made or leather, just a plethora of great shoes and beautiful boots. All were soft and very nicely made. Too expensive for me, but a pair of their boots might make it onto my Christmas list!







Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe had the best selection of many things: tiffins (lunch containers) in cute cloth carrying cases, candy, jewelry, purses, wallets, and some cookbooks (we chatted about ED&BV!). I got a cool but delicate necklace (see next pic- hey -I was saving on shipping!).




















Then, it was time for lunch and I knew what I wanted! I had a grilled cheese sandwich, hot of the press and dripping with creamy cheddar Chreese! I hadn't had a grilled cheese sandwich in years. Despite the fact that this vegan cheddar was missing a bit of tang and bite, I bought a pound of the powdered mix (you just add non-dairy milk or water) for just six bucks. My husband should be happy!
Of course, the day wasn't all about commercialism or materialism, but it really was so thrilling not to have to read labels or ask, "is this vegan?" I spent the majority of my time in the workshops and raps, connecting with other ARs and vegans, feeling utterly happy and not at all out of place! In fact, one speaker asked all vegans and vegetarians to stand up, and only one person did not! Now I'm energized to start leafleting for Vegan Outreach and to continue helping dismantle the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act.