On it like chocolate on strawberries!

All dressed up and everywhere to go! Chocolate-strawberry vegan cheesecake and cupcakes make you the most popular guy or girl at the party. Cupcake recipe is just the faithful old chocolate Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World one, topped with chocolate ganach. The cheesecake recipe is here at Bakingsheet. I just reduced the lemon juice, added some vanilla and baked a double batch in a homemade chocolate cookie crust.

New Farm Macaroni

Mmmacaroni and cheese- vegan style. Recipe is from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. I added some peas to the casserole and topped it with sliced fresh tomatoes and lots of paprika. Comfort food to the max.

If you're not familiar, the New Farm cookbook is great stuff. It's the favorite recipes of an intentional community called The Farm in Tennessee circa the '70's(complete with groovy cartoon illustrations and great vintage hippie action pics) . The Farm is still around, and besides pioneering simple down-to-earth vegan home cookery, they also were the first to distribute my beloved nutritional yeast (vegan dietary supplement and "cheesy" flavoring of the gods) and also apparently they also published a lot of work about natural birthing techniques. Anyway, it's cheap as heck used on Amazon, and you won't be disappointed, unless you're like looking for low-fat recipes or something. The brownies and the oatmeal cookies are particularly yummy.

Kitty pic for a good cause!

"Simone here, Jill's adorable rescue kitty here sporting my 'treats nao bish plz' face to remind you to please adopt an animal and to never ever patronize fly-by-night puppy mills and pet shops! 4 million adoptable cats and dogs are put down each year in shelters. I'm one example of an awesome rescued cat. I was found dumped in an abandoned part of the city, and then after I was rescued, I waited a whole year in a crowded cat rescue before I got a real home. Even after I found my home, I hid for weeks from the humans in the house because I was a scaredy-kitty, but now I *love* snuggling with my people, watching wildlife documentaries (OK, sometimes I fantasize about being a cheetah or a lioness!), meeting new visitors and obvs-- TREATS."

It's almost Halloween, when, sadly, many black cats are adopted as props or pranks nationwide and soon after discarded or worse, hurt because they're no longer "needed" for "decorations." Black cats (and black dogs) are already less likely to find a permanent home (seriously!) so give them a second look when you're out looking for a furry friend. Even if you have your heart set on a particular breed, there are lots of purebred animals in shelters and there are also plenty of breed-specific rescue organizations you can contact too. Just because an animal is in a shelter doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them. This campaign from Animal Care & Control of NYC does a good job of illustrating that. All these animals are "guilty" of is wanting some love!

Adopt A Pet, Save a life!
Black dog syndrome/ black cat syndrome

Perogies

Yukon gold potato-dill perogies served on a mound of perfectly caramelized onions. These were far and away the best perogies I've ever had, and I've had a quite a few. This recipe is in Vegan Brunch, my newest favoritest cookbook of all time. Tomas made them for me, so I'm not sure exactly how time-intensive they are, but from his exhausted state when I came home to find these cute little guys, I would assume they're a good bit of work. But the recipe make a LOT and they're all you'll want to eat anyway, so I say they're well worth it!

Bento Box: Curry Noodles, Avocado-Cucumber Roll, Steamed Dumplings

The curry noodles are whole wheat noodles with curry sauce (curry powder, vegetable stock with kombu and dried shitake, earth balance, chile flakes, tamari, cornstarch), sliced shitake and diced sweet potato. The sushi is cucumber avocado, nori and rice seasoned with rice vinegar and mirin with sesame seeds, and the dumplings are steamed from frozen, taro and red bean flavors.

Nacho!

Vegan nachos are really glorious with cold beer. Really. *Pats tummy* Multi-grain tortilla chips layered with vegan cheese sauce (nutritional yeast, raw cashews, cornstarch, tomato paste, lemon juice, oregano, pepper, onion and garlic powders, salt, turmeric), vegan sour cream (silken tofu, raw cashews, salt, lemon juice, umeboshi vinegar), guacamole (avocados, cilantro, lime juice, salt), black beans, chopped bell peppers and scallions.

"OhyespleasemorenaoNOMNOMNOM!" Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Pecan-Cranberry Filling and Orange glaze

So I made a pan of these for Easter brunch, to be enjoyed with some TLT's (homemade tempeh bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and vegenaise on whole wheat), curry roasted brussels sprouts and yukon gold potatoes, various fruit, tea and juice. Despite demolishing the other offerings, over 1/2 the pan of cinnamon rolls was gleefully consumed over the course of the afternoon, by, um, four people... And Tomas I had our way with the rest inside of two days.

Much thanks (and fat pants love!) to Katie from Don't Eat off the Sidewalk. Her original recipe here. My mods = double the filling, add pecans and cranberries to filling, and add orange zest to glaze recipe.

Better than Delivery Pizza

Vegan pizza bianca (white pizza): pizza dough from this, the easiest and fastest dough recipe of all time (generously pointed out to me by the wonderful queen of comfort food at Yummy Vegan dinners ) topped with cashew-tofu ricotta from V-con, and some chopped plum tomatoes, and sprinkled with fresh basil and cracked black pepper after baking. Simple, summery and a big hit with everyone!

101 Tacos, er, posts!

Happy 101st Bitchin' Vegan Kitchen post! Enjoy this celebratory taco! (Filling: soy beef, black beans, sauteed in olive oil with onions, bell peppers, garlic, tomato paste, vegetable broth, cumin, oregano, paprika, chile powder and salt, served in a corn shell with lettuce and tomato and guacamole: avocado, cilantro, salt, and lime juice.)

Note: it is impossible not to like this. True story!

Roasted kabotcha with broccoli and peanut sauce

Roasted kabotcha squash with broccoli, peanut sauce and brown rice. I got the peanut sauce recipe from The Enlightened Kitchen: Fresh Vegetable Dishes from the Temples of Japan. The author, Mari Fujii suggests it with fried kabotcha but I roasted it instead. This book is gorgeous by the way: color photos, diagrams, simple but elegant recipes. No onions and garlic though, as this is all vegetarian (mostly vegan) Buddhist temple-style cooking.

Japanese yam dumplings and sesame lemon asparagus

Behold: your inner dumpling.








In trying to re-create a favorite guilty pleasure from Vegetarian Dim Sum called, ahem, treasure balls, I stumbled across a magical flavor combination: Japanese yam (the purple ones that are white inside), Earth Balance, tamari, fresh minced ginger, garlic and sliced scallions. Difference that the infamous deep-fried golden dim sum orbs, but when stuffed into a little flour wrapper, a glorious, new dumpling is born. Served with some asparagus briefly boiled, tossed with earth balance, lemon juice and sesame seeds.

Chocolate chocolate chip pistachio cayenne cookies!

Recipe is a modified JOVB recipe; remove the peppermint from the chocolate cookies, add pistachios and cayenne. Yum.

Birthday Post '09

I turned 24 a few weeks ago and had a party at my apartment to celebrate. As usual, I went overboard with the food, and was stressing myself out about it, but everything went over well, so I was extra happy. The snack theme started as Latin-Middle Eastern fusion, but ended up being more eclectic than that. Good music, good booze, good food, cute new dress, lots of good friends. Thanks to everyone for coming :)

The Food:







Mini pita breads, with store-bought avjar (eggplant and red pepper spread), homemade chipotle-pumpkin hummus (chickpeas, canned pumpkin, tahini, lime juice, salt, powdered chipotle, paprika, fresh parsley), baby carrots, broccoli and red pepper strips.










Guacamole (avocados, lime juice, cilantro, onions, salt), chips, some chili-lime cashews from Trader Joe's. I make awesome guacamole. It disappears like whoa.













Coconut lime cupcakes (recipe in vctotw) with pomegranate frosting (eb, spectrum shortening, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, coconut extract, and the secret ingredient is pomegranate molasses, my new favorite thing) topped with coconut shreds and pomegranate seeds were a giant hit, and some yummy pistachio-rosewater cookies from veganomicon that my oven burned most of (TWICE!)









"Chicken" tikka masala skewers were some very fun party food (who doesn't like food on a stick?). The "chicken" is TSP (texturized soy protein) chunks rehydrated in veggie stock, tomato paste and liquid smoke, then squeezed out and marinated in plain soy yogurt with a packet of tikka masala flavorings, plus extra garlic, turmeric, paprika, cumin, lemon juice and liquid smoke. The chunks sat in the yogurt mix for a few hours and then we skewered them with pieces of white onion and green bell peppers and roasted them in the oven for a few minutes. Guests said this was very meat like. I also ate some of the unskewered leftover chunks and veggie pieces stir fried over coconut-almond brown basmati and it made an awesome morning-after-the-party brunch with tea, consumed while watching lots of DVD's.

Tempeh-tastic

Homemade tempeh bacon based somewhat on the VWaV recipe: steamed tempeh marinated in maple syrup, tamari, liquid smoke, orange juice, garlic and chile flakes fried in peanut oil. Roasted yukon gold potatoes (just with a little canola and salt,) and some mixed baby greens with maple-mustard dressing (maple syrup, dijon mustard, lemon juice, salt).




If you've never cooked with tempeh before, you should definitely give it a try. Tempeh is a Indonesian-style fermented soy product. It's made with whole soybeans and has more protein an fiber than tofu. You can pick it up at a well-stocked health food store or grocery usually in long cakes. I usually steam it first, to remove some bitterness and to tenderize it. Just a few minutes will do fine. Then throw it in a stir-fry, like this one...




Tempeh stir-fry: Steamed tempeh, steamed kale, broccoli, red bell peppers, sesame oil, peanut oil, scallions, minced fresh garlic, minced fresh ginger, agave, tamari, peanuts, sesame seeds, served over brown rice.

Samosa stuffed baked potato

This might be my favorite recipe from Veganomicon so far. The samosa stuffed baked potatoes are assembled much like traditional twice-baked potatoes, but instead of adding lots of cream, butter and cheese to your mashed potato filling, you add a mix of vegetables and spices traditionally used when making samosas, the Indian appetizer of fried dough with spiced potato and vegetables. The only additions I made were adding a little extra salt and some chile flakes to the mix, and sprinkling the top with paprika for the traditional twice-baked mystique.

Mushroom, onion and red wine tarts

Mom got me cute little tart pans; I thew together these babies to put 'em to use. Ingredients: (filling) mushrooms, onions, garlic, red wine, olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, red chile flakes, rosemary, oregano, thyme, (crust) whole wheat pastry flour, water, canola oil, salt. A little bit of bacon-flavored Cheezly is grated on top.

Peace and justice for people and animals...

I thought this would be a great article to post on MLK day. I didn't know prior to reading this, but Coretta Scott King was a vegan in the last decade of her life, something she learned about from her son Dexter. When you think about it, it makes complete sense than people dedicated to achieving justice for people would also be interested in extending their compassion to animals too. I know some vegans who have been told that their concern for animals is not important when there is still so much human suffering in the world, but the people pointing this out are probably not doing very much to help people or animals, at least not while they are picking on someone trying to do their best. It is entirely possible, and necessary to work on both fronts, simultaneously--and I don't think that this is any more difficult to do since going vegan is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. In fact, when you are consistent in the way you treat others (people and animals), I think it's incredibly fulfilling. So if you're thinking about going vegan, today would be a great day to start. :)

Oh, and who is the handsome guy in the picture? Why it's the very charming Dylan from Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, which I was lucky enough to visit over the summer. Dylan is rescued veal calf, a "byproduct" of the dairy industry all grown up, gorgeous and sweet as pie.

Must-have vegan cornbread recipe

If you have not seen this yet, do yourself a favor and check out this recipe for Dana Sly's Blue Ribbon Vegan Cornbread. I have made this many times, including for Thanksgiving with the family--it is always a hit. The bread is slightly sweet, and for the batch pictured here I added some chopped red bell pepper and scallions to the batter and it was great. I have also added jalapeno peppers in the past, and that was my favorite variation so far. It looks sort of speckled from the surprise ingredient--lots and lots of ground flaxseed. The flax keep the bread moist on the inside while the crust gets just a little crunchy. Flax is also incredibly healthy: lots of omega three fatty aids without the cholesterol, mercury or environmental consequences of eating fish. Keep on swimming fishies!

Vegan philly cheesesteak!

Tomas made the basic seitan from Veganomicon a few weeks ago, and when I put the leftovers into the fridge, right next to the Cheezly vegan cheeses I had given Tomas for x-mas, a cartoon light bulb brightened over my head: vegan philly cheeseteaks! Sorry the photo is a bit wonky from being taken at night/while I was starving and impatiently looking at a really delicious sandwich. We just toasted some regular sub type bread in the oven and sautéed mushrooms, green bell peppers and onions with salt, olive oil and red pepper flakes. The seitan was re-heated in a separate pan so it could get a little crunchy. For the sauce I made a roux of flour and canola oil, then added shredded nacho and white cheddar Cheezly, and added a little bit of garlic and onion powders, dijon, lemon juice and tomato paste. Totally irredeemable junk food—but totally delicious and fun dish to veganize since it seems just so improbable.

A word on Cheezly; this is the best commercial vegan cheese I have tried, but it is tricky to get in the U.S. Everyone seems to be out of it lately, I hope we can get it again soon!

All hail vegan caesar!

This is the vegan caesar salad dressing from Veganomicon with some garlic-y croutons, romaine, radicchio, endive, cannellini beans and sundried tomatoes. The dressing is satisfyingly garlic-y, omnivore approved, very easy to make and much healthier than the original version. Perfect work lunch.

Potato-beet gnocchi with garlic collards and tahini-lemon sauce

So I got a ricer for Christmas (thanks Mom!) and honestly the only time I can think of ricers coming up in conversation is when discussing gnocchi. I had tried to make gnocchi a while back and they had not come out so great, but I think I learned a few things about making this tricky pasta from scratch. For one, make sure to thoroughly mix all your flour and seasonings together thoroughly before adding your riced potatoes. Also, I found that my gnocchi cooked best when the water was at a rolling boil. Cooking them in small batches kept the water temperature up too. Ingredients: gnocchi: baked russet potatoes, white flour, white whole wheat flour, beet powder, salt. Greens: collard greens, minced garlic, olive oil, salt. Sauce: tahini, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, tamari, turmeric, water.