Congrats to Sable

Eco goodness is coming to my house this week. I'm having a heat pump installed (the above ground kind). Overall, a lot less energy will be used (way less propane, but more electricity than our current system). We pay extra for wind powered electricity, so that is not so bad.

There will also be an air purifier and a humidifier added to the system. Hopefully my skin won't be so dry. Anyhoo, I'm excited.

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On the dog front, Sable was adopted this past Sunday by a really nice family. Here are a few pics of her hanging out.

Rewind to Indian Cooking, Fast foward to next week, oops, rewind to the present, then pause...

I just got back from my sister's wedding in SC. I flew out on a red eye, which was a huge mistake because I didn't sleep at all on the plane and was coughing and run down the whole time. My body is still trying to figure out if it wants to get sick or not, so I'll just drift around today like a zombie.

I, Bethany, hereby promise never to take a red eye without ambien. It may be the stuff of the devil, but it is better than feeling horrible for days on end because because of no sleep for 2 days.

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I have about a kajillion pics to download off my camera and sort through before I can post the teensy amount of food pics I took in SC. So I will post about some fantastic Indian cooking.

I bid for and won a cooking class at a NARN auction. My friends, Suzanne and Anthony, very graciously let us have the class at their home.

Here's Nitin, the super chef and our instructor, chopping away. He gets major points for being nice to me while I pestered him.
Here is the base of the curry bubbling in the pot. It was a game of sitting and waiting for the oil to make its way to the top after each addition of an ingredient. This bit of info is what I was missing in my curry making. Here is the final curry before the potatoes were added. My plate before I devoured it. All of the pot tending was worth it. I'm pretty confident, thanks to Nitin's excellent teaching, that I can make this on my own. Thanks, Nitin!!! I see this curry base becoming Mattar Tofu in my near future...

For dessert after the delicious Indian food, we had this very lumpy and lopsided cake that I made for Suzanne's bday, which was the day after the cooking class. What can I say, I need to practice at making layered cakes. I've been hanging out in sheet cake (that stays in the glass pan) and cupcake slacker land for a while now. Long gone are the days of the layer cakes with shocking blue frosting with little frosting cats prancing around on the top.

In the cake below, each layer is 1 batch of the toasted coconut cupcakes from VCTOTW. I was a bit nervous on how it would taste because of the lumpy dryness of it, but it was good. FYI - if you're going to use whole coconut milk while baking, water it down because that is what the recipe is expecting. otherwise, you'll get a lumpy looking dryish cake :) ~~~~~

I also made Suzanne some Nusseken, which I gave her on Sunday, the day after her bday. I got the recipe from Mihl. I used pecans instead of almonds (because I didn't have any). They reminded me of really tasty mini pecan pies. Everybody agreed either through verbal praise or by eating lots of them. Many thanks to Mihl for sharing this recipe.

I only remembered to take a pic just before the last 1/2 piece was eaten. I promise that I dipped both sides.

(side note: I only used 1/2 cup + 2 tbs of margarine in the topping instead of 1 cup + 2 tbs)

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Here are some pics of The Judge and Sable playing.

Almost off the ledge.
Boo hoo hoo! quit head butting me!
Are you ignoring me? One big head butt that starts at the neck...
and works its way down Sable's leg...
Until The Judge's head is on the floor and Sable is using him for a head rest. Oh, the life of a dog.

Happy St. Patty's day!

I'll be cooking up a pile o' food today for St. Patty's day. I'm on an upturn in my uneven "desire to cook" sinewave. Which is good news because when I'm on a downturn, the food isn't that healthy (enter the spud puppy, cousin of the tot).

The weather has been freaky here. On Sunday, I woke up to snow on the ground (grumble). It thankfully melted. There was also alternating sun and rain that day with high winds (almost the kind that will knock down trees), and some hail thrown in for good measure.

Here are 2 cooking classes that I completed sometime this year at PCC... Both were demo style (vs. hands on), so I got to lounge around while the instructors did all the work.

Romancing the Green (aka seaweed class)

The instructor, Ami Karnosh, is a nutritionist and she shared a lot of good info about how healthy seaweed is. A lot of it was new to me, so the class was a success for me. Seaweed kicks ass.

Fruity Spirulina Smoothie. Thanks to my sister, I was paranoid about spirulina. Then I thought about all the stupid info she has injected into my head and I thought what the hell, I'll drink it anyhow. Guess what, I'm still alive and my brain is functioning just fine. White Bean Spread & Delightfully Simple Biscuit Crackers. The crackers tasted good.

I wasn't a huge fan of the white bean spread because I tend to not like them. I prefer a straight up hummus. It also had too much of a seaweedy taste for me though I can't figure out why because I've had kombu before. huh. Star of the Party Hijiki Pate. This was good. I think w/ less tofu it would be better -- I'm a hijiki girl and I can't get enough of it's flavor.
Superior Potato Salad with Dulse. This was the best potato salad EVER. It had oil in it instead of veganaise, which I like because I prefer simpler ingredients when possible. I didn't notice an overwhelming dulse flavor (which by the way, I am a huge fan of).

Coconut Mango Jiggle. I made it at home (with pineapple instead of mango) and it was delicious. It is sort of like coconut jello. I think it would be even better w/ a small amount of nutmeg on top.

Meal Planning for Busy People.

Ok, I'm not that busy, but I thought it would help me speed up my time spent in the kitchen. No such luck. I already do the things she mentioned, but never thought of it in a formal way because they are kind of obvious. I prefer to take classes that demo more recipes, teach me some history or health info on the food/region the food is from.

I was fairly annoyed because I had emailed to ask if the recipes demo'd in class were vegan and they said yes. It turns out that 1 of the 3 recipes was not. She made the most dairy laden spanikopita ever. I was not happy at all and played games on my phone. I'm glad there is such a thing as tofu based vegan spanikopita. end of rant.

That aside, I did get 2 kick ass recipes out of the class.

Lentil base for Shepherd's pie & Spelt Biscuits. These lentils are very flavorful thanks to red wine and balsamic vinegar. I doubt I'd ever use them for shepherd's pie because they are so awesome on their own.

The spelt biscuits used coconut oil and thus had a nice coconut undertone.

They were so good, that I made them at home. Yes, most of the recipes in the classes that I take are really good, but it's saying something if I make them that quickly after I take a class.

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Sable and the Judge are sucking up sun together. Awww! hugs 'n kisses. More on their relationship later... Don't ask me why, but everybody seems to love lying on that thin once blue rug by the door. Well, I'm off to attempt corned seitan.

It seems like it, but I don't go out to eat all the time

Though it's hard to remember what I have made lately because I feel like the events of each day are blurring together into one big confused blob. Is spring almost here? Didn't think so.

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When are the new Go Max candy bars going on sale? I need my veganized snickers! And I also want to try veganized Three muskateers, milky way, and almond joy.

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Here are some of the things we made this month.

Raw Pesto with Zucchini noodles. This recipe was from the class I took last year. It's your basic pesto with soaked walnuts instead of pine nuts. I added the raspberries because it was for a Valentine's Day potluck. It was really good.



Eggplant Rollatini from Veganomicon. As with most pasta dishes, I liked this better after it had a chance to sit a day after baking. This recipe seemed like it had a lot of steps, but it was worth it.

I baked the eggplant strips instead of frying them. Next time I will skip the Almesan (sprinkles for the top) because it didnt' add much for me. I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to cram them into a round casserole dish, but I was worried I wasn't going to have enough sauce. Trust me, there are individual rolls in there.
I've made this scramble from Vegan With a Vengeance many times because it's awesome. I mention it (again) because I made it in my new mega cast iron frying pan. I made a double batch, so there are lots of veggies plus 2 lbs of tofu and it is barely 1/2 full. Once it's on the stove, it stays put because it weighs a ton.
We made the toasted coconut cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The coconut didn't make it into batter, but they didn't need it because the extract, coconut milk and coconut oil gave them a nice coconut flavor that you could easily taste over the chocolate. I used vanilla frosting, then dunked them in finely grated coconut. I should have made these a lot sooner, they are really great.

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Sable is playing w/ the new toy that has 16 NOISY squeakers in it. She really loves to destroy squeaky toys. This one might be too much for her because after 10 minutes she needed to rest.

I don't think she will ever break Kobie's record of 5 minutes to totally destroy a toy. And that includes ripping the many legs off the caterpillar toy one by one.

PS. I went to Wayward yesterday and had the lost souls scramble - again!!!

Letting it all hang out

Calling all Seattleites! NARN is hosting a brownie baking contest this weekend. $10 to be a judge (aka stuff your face w/ brownies).

When: Sunday, Feb 8th @ 4:00pm
Where: Wayward Cafe (901 NE 55th St, U-District)

I've got something else in the works, but thought I'd tempt you with some cheeZecake brownies. For the cheezecake part, I used the recipe from Philadelphia cream cheese, but subbed in toffutti for the cheeZe and Ener'g egg replacer for the egg. I also added in some vanilla. They tasted ok. I'd make them again.

Since I suck at making brownies, I used a mix, "Ooey Gooey Chocolatey Chewy Brownies" by the Craving's Place. It has huge pieces of chocolate that stay melty. You can see one on top of the brownie below.

PS. if you can't make it, the night before they are having an auction. I'll be baking something for that too.

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Cooking classes have started up again at PCC. The first class that I took was a bread baking class taught by George de Pasquale from the Essential Baking Company. Not only did he know his stuff backwards, forwards, upside down and sideways, but he was really funny.

He smacked down lots of myths and BS about baking bread w/ a starter. He showed us how to bake artesian crusty bread, baker's math and how to wield a spray bottle. Very cool. If you live in the Seattle area, TAKE THIS CLASS!!!!

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Ever seen a greyhound hoozit? I have. You don't really have a choice when it's displayed for all to see for long periods of time (just in case you didn't notice right away).

More snow!!!!!

I can't believe how messed up the weather is in the Pacific NW this year. Yeah, I know some of you love snow, so do I maybe once per year for a day or two. It's just not natural for my area to get so much. Global warming suxor!

While I'm not loving it, there are 2 residents that do.

This was Sable's first day in the snow.

Sable inspecting Kobie while he is busy. Somebody needs to learn some manners.

She is finally starting to run in the backyard. The point and shoot camera doesn't take very happy pictures in that part of the yard. Either that or we have a secret doorway to a planet that has a weak sun. The first picture was taken w/ the SLR in manual mode.

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Looks can be deceiving. I'm not eating a stack of jumbo pancakes, Andy just really loves to make stacks of small pancakes. I do love a river of syrup, though... More fun from the Candle Cafe cookbook.

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Last week I made one of my favorite yet simple meals, Enchilda Pie. It's comprised of layers of tortillas, black beans, Follow Your Heart mozzerlla cheeZe (optional), diced green chiles, and a ton of enchilada sauce. Then I put some salsa on top. I can't seem to find the right size tortilla for my round casserole dish (and I'm too lazy to make them). I guess it all works out because it allows the sauce to flow freely in the pan.

My new foster dog is here

I've been a total slacker w/ the blog lately. For some reason, I have lost my motivation to do anything.

I haven't tried that many new recipes that were worth blogging about, so you're not missing much. I've been sticking some of my favorites.

• oatmeal cookies from the Joy of Vegan Baking - they make about 3 dozen, delicious cookies.
• enchilada bake/stack up/lasagna. exactly the same as the enchiladas I have posted about before, but you just stack them up like lasagna.
• pancakes galore from candle cafe. Andy is really into making giant stacks of mini pancakes.
• white bean boursin from the ultimate uncheese cookbook
• The first of the 2 chickpea salad recipes on susanv's blog. this is the best sandwich spread. A good way to use up leftover celery. I just love it.
• frozen stuff that I made in December (empanadas, ravioli, stuffed shells). The stuffing in the shells held up well in the freezer, but the pasta part was not quite right. I think the trick is to not cook them all the way. Next time I'll just make eggplant parm and freeze that. or better yet, make pesto ravioli. the other 2 things were great.

Towards the end of this month a new round of cooking classes will start up, so you'll hear all about them.


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Last weekend, we went out to Bamboo Garden, a vegan Chinese restaurant in Seattle.


Corn Chowder. They have 2 kinds on the menu. This is the super thick kind. Yum. You can't go wrong w/ their soup.

General Tso's "Chicken". Delicious fake chicken battered, deep fried and covered w/ a spicy sauce. We almost always get this or the almond "chicken".

Szechuan Fake Chicken over Noodles. I forget the real name, but this was pretty good. Blurriness is due to relentless steam action.

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Yesterday. I brought home the new dog I'm fostering. Her name is Sable. So far she seems afraid of the cats. They tried hard to ger her to like them by warming up some of her beds.

And here she is... Hanging out in the yard w/ her sexy coat.