Making Bread in the Middle of the Night

I'm lucky and usually don't have any trouble sleeping, but last night I just couldn't fall asleep. I lay awake for hours before finally deciding to get up and do something useful ... I baked.

After looking through my cookbook collection, I found a recipe for Ginger Bread in How It All Vegan. It was perfect, as I always have a stash of fresh ginger, and even had a little container of crystallized ginger. The only ingredient I didn't have was molasses, but figured it would be okay to use brown rice syrup instead.

I haven't baked anything for a long time (trying to limit my intake of white flour and sugar), but reasoned with myself that brown rice syrup made this a healthy-ish baked good. Still lots of white flour, but oh well. At three o'clock in the morning, it seems almost obscene to cook a pasta dish or make a big pot of soup, but baking felt right somehow. And the ginger bread is seriously good. It's moist and mildly sweet. I might add another 1/4 cup of crystallized ginger next time I make this, but otherwise I think this recipe was perfect. 

 

On a side note, I am now completely obsessed with canning. I want to go to an U-pick berry farm sometime very soon and try making preserves or jelly. I envision a pantry filled with homemade jars of fruit and veggies -- seriously, how wonderful would that be??

Anyway, I'll probably post again tonight, as I'm about to go into the kitchen to make some cassoulet for dinner!

Soup for the Fourth of July

No grilling out for us today. We decided to do things a little differently, and made a batch of Roasted Yellow Pepper and Corn Bisque from Veganomicon instead.

Now, here is soup done right. The sweetness of the bell peppers, corn, coconut milk, and maple syrup is a wonderful contrast against the hot peppers and limes. The maple syrup and lime combo worried me a little, but I knew from past experience that Isa and Terry (the Veganomicon authors) would never leave a vegan cook astray. How right I was.

I've been going through phases with cookbooks lately -- maybe you noticed my recent infatuation with The Vegan Table? Anyway, this week will be very Veganomicon-centric. Just to let you know.  

The Week in Review

Because it's been so long since my last post, I have a smorgasboard of food pics to share!

First off is Zesty Za'atar Pan Pizzas from the June 2010 issue of Veg News (and contributed by the super-fantastic Terry Hope Romero). J and I used to have za'atar bread at Zaytoons, this great Middle Eastern restaurant around the corner from my Brooklyn apartment. It was one of the foods I missed the most when we moved to Pittsburgh. So when I found za'atar spice at Whole Foods, I was so excited. And let me tell you, these za'atar pizzas did not disappoint.

I don't have a cast-iron skillet, so could not make cute little personal pan pizzas, just one large sheet of pizza. The pizza crust tasted great, and the kalamata olives, red olives made for very vibrant toppings. Yum! And it tasted even better the next day.

Needless to say, I will make these again.

Chili-Oil-Infused Soba Noodles from The Vegan Table was my next culinary challenge of the week. I loved how easy it was to throw the ingredients together, marinate the noodles (I substituted the soba noodles for mung bean noodles, which worked great) overnight, and toss in some grated carrots, sliced bell peppers, and scallions.  

Sesame oil and chili oil make a wonderful combination. The noodles looked simple, but tasted so flavorful. J and I both agreed that this dish was another keeper.

I get kinda ambitious over the weekends. Last Sunday I got it into my head to make homemade pickles. I bought a little baggie of spice mix from the store, but decided to leave it in the cabinet for now and made Dutch Lunch Spears from The Joy of Pickling.

I purchased two and a half pounds of cucumbers from the Farmer's Market, which made two quarts of pickles. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how these taste yet, because they need to sit for at least two more DAYS!!! So in the meantime, we can admire how pretty the cucumbers, sliced onions, garlic cloves, and dill sprigs look floating about in the vinegar mixture.

UPDATE: These pickles are great! They taste slightly sweet and crisp, in no way resembling the sickly sweet stuff you can get at the grocery stores. My copy of The Joy of Pickling belongs to the library and is due back soon, so I need to get my own copy ASAP for more pickling adventures!

I'm really into quick and easy summertime meals, and Orzo Salad with Lemon, Corn, Olives, and Basil fit into this category nicely. This recipe is from Supermarket Vegan, the cookbook I decided to get after making a great strawberry cobbler (and blogged about in an earlier post). I'm so glad I did. The orzo salad had a perfect summery taste, not too heavy, the corn adding a surprisingly complimentary sweetness to the olives.

There is some talk about having a pot luck at work, and if there is one, this is the pasta salad I'll bring in. It's perfect for vegans and non-vegans alike.

And now ... what happens when you don't carefully read through a recipe. I wasn't feeling very well a few days but was intent on having homemade soup. Specifically, the Rustic Tomato Lentil Soup from How it All Vegan. I love any soup made of fresh tomatoes, and was way too excited about the box of alphabet noodles I bought from the store. So anyway -- J and I did the veggie prep together, and then, because I was going to go lie down, I gave him the recipe and told him how long the soup should simmer, when to throw in the noodles, that kind of thing. Only -- I told him to use the whole box of alphabet noodles instead of the one cup the recipe specified. And what happens when you add too many noodles to a soup?

It ceases to be soup! I heard J shouting, "All the liquid disappeared!" from the kitchen. Ack! Poor J, this was his first attempt at making soup. I hope I haven't scared him away from a second try. Not that it didn't taste good. It did, but frankly, our version was pasta with a bit of soup added to it.

And now, for an endorsement: seaweed is good for you. Everyone should eat a lot more of it. Especially when it's mixed into a great side dish like Gingered Green Beans with Hijiki, from The Kind Diet. At this point, I think I've tried half of the recipes from the KD. I loved every single one of them.  

Anyway, back to the green beans. This was so good, I ate the leftovers for breakfast this morning. And I'm pretty traditional about my breakfast foods, so that tells you something.

Here's a picture of it, served with a nicely grilled soy cheese sandwich. Unfortunately, the cheese didn't melt, but it still tasted pretty good. And hey, who needs melted cheese when you have hijiki?

Onions and Garlic

This week we had a lot of (you guessed it) onion and garlic-based meals. I made the French Onion Pie from The Vegan Table, or to be more precise, french onion pies, because it actually made two pies. The filling was a yummy combination of caramelized onions, tofu, soy milk, nutritional yeast, and spices. I bought frozen pie crusts instead of making them myself, which were not only organic, but also tasted almost-homemade! Unfortunately, I don't remember the brand name, just that I found them at Whole Foods.

Anyway, the french onion pies were a great contrast of creamy, cheezy filling and tender pie crust. I served them with the Marinated Lemon Zucchini from Vegan Italiano. I marinated the zucchini overnight in an olive oil, lemon, and spice blend, and then broiled the veggies for just a few minutes. Perfection!

I've been really into making soups lately, and had a crazy amount of garlic bulbs lying around. It was the perfect excuse for making Glorious Roasted Garlic Soup from The Garden of Vegan. I must warn you that this packs a serious garlic taste. Wow! I love roasted garlic anyway, but paired with shallots, onions, and potato, it's amazing.

The rest of the week has been rather hectic, so I've made quite a few "repeat" dishes, ones that that are both simple to prepare and super yummy. Unfortunately, that means I don't have a lot of food pictures to show off this week.

Last night J and I went to WYEP's Summer Music Festival, a great free music festival we've never been able to make it to in the past. Happily, the line-up included Sarah Harmer, whose music I love! Here's a picture of her and her band onstage. I was so happy because they performed "Basement Apartment" and "Uniform Grey," my favorite songs from her first album!

The stupid camera ran out of batteries before Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea took the stage, so no more pictures. But let me assure you, they were very, very good. I'd never heard Nicole Atkins' music before and was very impressed. J, who played guitar for years, was particularly impressed with the female guitarist (whose name I don't remember), who shredded it up. I don't know a thing about guitar playing, but even I could tell that she was good. All in all, it was a great music festival, and the perfect way to end a particularly grueling work week.

I know Saturday is typically the start of my cooking-frenzy-madness, but it started out early in the morning with a blood test (successful this time, I'm always grateful when they can actually find my tiny veins!), and by the time we got home from running various errands, I felt way too exhausted to try a new recipe. The Nabeyaki Udon from The Kind Diet  is incredibly soothing to both cook (something about adding all the brightly colored vegetables, one at a time, to simmer in a simple shiitake mushroom broth) and eat. It's also one of my new favorite comfort foods, so I made a big pot of it, and we mellowed out in front of the TV.

Tomorrow I should be back to my cooking-like-a-maniac self, so expect more pictures very soon.

Sometimes Cooking is a Family Affair

This weekend my entire family got into a crazy cooking spree. It started with salsa. Two types of salsa, the tomatillo green salsa I've blogged about in the past from Viva Vegan!, and a red salsa (from a mix). We had to buy seven pounds of tomatoes.

My mother, hard at work boiling tomatoes and tomatillos.

J, chopping massive amounts of cilantro.

My brother, checking out the onions (a very serious duty).

A sampling of the finished product. The salsa was a bit salty, but had a mildly spicy taste from the banana peppers we added.

The green tomatillo salsa was really spicy this time, especially on Saturday. I remembered too late that I had seeded the jalapenos when I made this salsa before. It mellowed a little by today, however, and the flavor evened out to resemble the deliciousness I remembered last time. Here it is, in my cat-shaped shoyu bowl.

Another big project this weekend was making peanut butter mochi. I found the recipe here, from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin website. Last time I went to Hawaii, I had the most delicious peanut butter mochi, and wanted to try making my own ever since. I was a little apprehensive because I'd only made one variety of mochi before, a butter mochi that contained large amounts of (you guessed it) butter and was molded into a cake pan. But with a lot of family assistance (my Mom and brother basically assembled these on their own while J and I were making dinner), we produced a bounty of peanut butter mochi. We used Peanut Butter & Co's white chocolate peanut butter for the filling instead of plain peanut butter, and it turned out to be a wise choice. This is beyond amazing. You must, must, must, try this recipe.

A close-up of the mochi.

And since this post is so photo-crazy, who not add a few more? Here's one of our happy kitties.

And here's one of J and I, taking a break after an intense Strip District shopping marathon.

Oh Yeah!

To celebrate my mother and brother coming to Pittsburgh for a visit, we went to Oh Yeah! Ice Cream & Coffee Co.  J and I recently discovered that they have vegan ice cream options (thanks Nina and Jeff!), and were completely blown away by the delicious soy ice cream.

Last time I had the soy vanilla bean. This time I tried the soy chocolate with two mix-ins, peanut butter and Newman-O's. With a waffle cone, of course. Their swirl machine does a magical job of blending the mix-ins in completely, so that you feel that you're inventing your own flavor of ice cream.

Here's a picture of my brother, holding my waffle cone and his concoction of Big Lebowski ice cream with a brownie mix-in.

 Needless to say, I'm really hyped up about Oh Yeah! Ice Cream & Coffee. They offer 100 varieties of mix-ins, and I want to eventually try all of them (well, not the bacon, so almost all).

Stuffed Bell Peppers

This will have to be the shortest blog entry yet. I made the Elegantly Simple Stuffed Bell Peppers from The Vegan Table (yes, that cookbook again). 

Let me just say, this was both elegant and simple, and very pretty as well. I did omit the raisins and sub short-grain brown rice for long-grain. The ground almonds were especially nice mixed into the filling. Another summer hit, even though I did have to use the oven.