January February 2008 cooking and coughing

Here are the recipes that I made in January and February 2008. It's a lot considering I've been tortured w/ a cold. Here is my whiney saga:

• First real week in Jan: bad cold. cold ends that week.
• The rest of January - no more cold, but a dry hacking cough.
• February - take asthma type meds for 10 days.
• Apparently that is not enough to stop me from coughing. all that coughing and crappy lung action leaves me wide open for cold # 2 at the end of Feb.
• I go to the doc and get more icky asthma meds. What fun! Will it last another month? It better not.

VWAV / Veganomicon

Ethiopian Seitan and Peppers and a pseudo ingera. Yummy! I might have used up the last of my berbere on this even though I don't think they called for it. Berbere is an Ethiopian spice mix. I actually made that mix myself when I did a bunch of trolling around for recipes. At the time I also boiled, dried out, then ground up my own pulses for the recipes. I obviously had too much energy.

The injera recipe is something I found on the net a long time ago and i can't seem to resurrect it. This recipe is very similar to making pancake batter instead of waiting for the teff to ferment and be proper ingera (something I still haven't mastered). The result is like a teff pancake. It's not as good as the real deal, but it's good enough if your closest ingera source is a 45 minute drive.

Matzoh Balls - Totally worth the effort. Though there wasn't much effort, just lots of do this and wait type steps. I made the broth recipe (use peppercorns and bay leaves).

Lemon Bars. at first I thought that they were just ok. Then they grew on me. I'm starting to wish that i had some more. Notice how i did such a great job on the sprinkling of powdered sugar. glop glop glop.

Eggplant Potato Moussaka. Sort of looks flat and dry. The flatness is because i didn't make enough layers. I will use a smaller pan next time. It was very tasty.

Lemon Coconut Bundt Cake. This was good, but it dried out pretty quickly. Needed more zest in the cake itself. I added lemon icing, I'd say that is a must. I sort of like the lemon lime coconut cupcakes in VCTOTW better.
Acorn Squash Pear Adzuki Soup - This is a sweet delicious soup. I'd add hot peppers next time. The soy sauce sauteed mushrooms that go on top are soooooo good! I forgot to add the adzuki beans for the first couple of bowls (oops). I liked it better w/out them. That was the first time that I had adzuki beans and I think they are gross. The are too firm.

Black Bean & Acorn Squash Empanadas - These were good, but the crust was a bit dry. They can handle being frozen.

Mac Daddy - This was only sort of ok for me. Not enough grease for my taste. Though I liked the texture of crumbled tofu and pouring some of the cheezy sauce over the top.

Pineapple cashew stir fry - This was amazing and worth all of the prep. I didn't like the quinoa boiled in pineapple, so I used brown rice instead. Make double if you like leftovers.

Rustic Beans and Mushrooms - These were really good beans. Lots of mushrooms. I made the bake in the oven casserole option w/ the breadcrumbs.
Strata - This is a good breakfast dish. It looks flat because I used a pan that was too big.







Sesame salad dressing - I love this dressing. Very easy to make and tasty x 20.

Apricot BBQ Tofu - This was so good! Not sure if the tofu pressing part is necessary, but I did it anyhow. I used dried apricots instead of fresh ones.


Grilled Yuca Tortillas - I liked these, but they tasted better a couple of days into eating them. So maybe make the inside stuff and let it sit in the fridge for 2 days.

Vegetarian Times:

Chicago Diner Burgers - The continuation of trying all 4 burger recipes in the July/August VT issue. The Chicago Diner Burger was very strange to make, but was tasty. Vegan cheese in pic is galaxy foods - not the rice one. There is also some vegan macaroni salad from PCC. I'm way too lazy to make macaroni salad.

Uncheese Cookbook:

Lemon Teasecake / lime variation. It was sort of a mess. I will call it a work in progress, since i think i messed up and didn't have enough water in the millet.

Granola pie crust - I will use it in the future to make a crunch granola bar. I won't use it for a pie because the pie filling makes it soggy and it's very good as a granola bar.

Chedda Cheese Block - This was sort of gelatinous for a fake cheese. It tasted really good mixed with pasta - very tangy. At some point, I'm going to make a mac and cheese casserole using this stuff.

Some random cooking from 2006/2007

Recipes that I made in 2007 and remembered to write down... I took pictures of some of them.

2006 (ok, so not really "last" year).

Pineapple Upsidedown Cake - Since I was little, we've always included peaches. Here is a pic of a Pineapple upside down cake that has no pineapple.

Thanksgiving Dinner - Tofurkey & gravy, stuffing, wheat roll, rutabega, potaotes, squash, pickled dilly beans, something unknown, cranberry sauce.


Sugar Cookies. From an old Veggie Life magazine. Really thin and crisp. The white stuff is coconut.



2007-----------

Veggie Works:
Polynesian Tofu - this was ok. which is surprising. there is another dish in that cookbook, "Neptune's Gift", which is AMAZING!

Veganomicon:

Chickpea noodle soup - this soup wasn't a favorite for me. I think it would have been better w/ more spice. I haven't give up yet on
it, though.

Chocolate Smlove Pie - A while back, I made Chocolate Smlove Pie from PPK. I think that this is also in Veganomicon. it's really really good. i made them as individual sized pies.

Vegan with a Vengeance:

Gnocci - the best gnocci that I have ever had. I could really taste the potato. I froze some and they still tasted really really good.
So I'm not sure why the store bought ones have to suck so much ;-).

Chili w/ seitan - The best veg chili ever! I perfer it w/out seitan (just double the beans).

Salad Rolls - these were really good, but I sort of messed up the watering part and they turned soggy in the fridge. I read in
another cookbook that you should pack them wrapped up in lettuce. It keeps them moist but not super soggy.

Tempeh Sausage. These were ok, but sort of bland for my tastes. If I made them again, I'd spice them up.

Tofu Scramble - best ever!!! Made it a bunch of times. If you make a double batch and keep it in the refridgerator, you can have a decent bfast for 3 or 4 days. I reheat in a frying pan - not microwave, it's worth it.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:

You CAN'T go wrong w/ these cupcakes. Be sure to read tips in the beginning of the cookbook.

Boston vs. Brooklyn Crème Cupcakes - good. need to eat them quickly so they don't get dry. not a problem, though ;-).

Coconut Lime Cupcakes - super limey delicious. a moist cupcake.

Marble Cupcakes - They are so delicious. They have a nice tang to them. very dense and moist. worth my most unfavorite part of makng them - the swirling. i use vanilla frosting on them.

Red Velveteen Cupcakes - yum. though I was missing one of the key flavors.

Cappuccino Crème Cupcakes - very good. very moist. i frosted them w/ chocolate frosting plust chocolate ganache.

Cookies & Crème - these were good, but the suggested frosting came out dry. Next time I'll use plain chocolate frosting.

Everyday Dish DVD

Mint Melties - these cookies are very minty and yummy. I've made them a few times.

Internet Recipe Gambling...

Vegan Omelette for One - This was really good the first time I made it. I added vegan cheese to it. The second time, I messed it up so it was more like a scramble.

Coffee Cake - very dry. not sure what I did wrong.

Graham Crackers - these were like cardboard. I was sad. I need to find a recipe that uses real graham flour. The big pile is where I got sick of rolling and cutting, so I baked up a scrap pile.

crispy green onion pancakes - not good. I guess I'll have to go a restaurant to get these. Or keep trying. Hmmmm... I'll go to the
resturant. I lost the link.

Pigeon Peas in Coconut milk - I couldn't find pigeon peas, so I used black eyed peas. and added a ton of spices. very good w/ my
fake injera recipe.

Cheesy Quackers - these were really really good. they were gone before they cooled. I guess I was warned about that...

B’couscous I love you! - good, but a tad bit bland. with spices added, yum.

Corn Chowder - easy soup that is good. trick is to blend everything but the corn. then add the corn in. skip the salt because the
boullion will have enough salt. Though I agree that I too don't like an overpowering boullion taste.

Irish Soda Bread - this was a disaster. I've tried 2 recipes. one veganized, one not. I haven't given up yet...

Vegetarian Times:

Tempeh Burger - I was thumbing through the July/August VT issue and found a bunch of burger recipes that i wanted to try. The issue had 4 different burgers. one was a Tempeh burger that had beets in it for moistness. I don't know if it was because I got a dry beet, but it was only ok.

Nappa Cabbage Salad with Peanut Dressing - pretty good

Garlicky Spinach soup - pretty good

Chewy Granola Bars - I also found a recipe in a VT issue for Chewy Granola Bars. They are very sweet, but worth the sugar fest. I'm sure you could make them with less brown sugar than is called for. I added in dried pineapple, raisins and dates. Egg replacer = Ener'G.

Leftovers:
I used some leftover Rose drummettes (soy analog) from the Teapot in WA to make a sandwich. I put in green onions, follow your heart mayo, celery, salt, pepper. Simple but good. yes, the plate is the top of a tupperware container. I go all out for fancy pix.