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.

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.

Voulez-vous des crepes végétaliennes?

Would you like some vegan crepes? Er, maybe I should ask you in Italian since these babies are seasoned for a more Mediterranean palate. In any case, they are le kick-ass. Totally impressive looking but not too complicated. The ratio of fancy lookingness to relative ease of preparation is just right for a dinner party or a night in with your kitties if you have, as I do, very judgemental animal companions. Another plus is that the various components of the dish (crepes, fillings, sauces) can be prepared in advance and assembled and baked the day of. Bon appetit, er mangia, er, NOMZ! to you friends. Special thanks to Roomie for helping out with the prep work.

You need:
*2 batches of somewhat thicker-than average savory vegan crepes. Make this recipe if you don't already have a favorite. Omit the vanilla and double the whole thing if you're wary of you crepe-making abilities and need to practice. I also used some evoo to make them too instead of earth balance and canola.
*2 jars of your favorite marinara sauce or a similar amount of homemade for the more impressive among us
*1 recipe of tofu ricotta from Veganomicon (firm tofu, cashews, garlic, olive oil, lemon, spices)
*1 can plain pureed pumpkin
*1-2 cups sauteed greens of your choice
*Spices! I used red chile flakes, oregano, basil, nutmeg, salt and black pepper.
*9 x 13 inch glass or ceramic baking dish or 2 smaller ones (how much space you need depends on how tightly you roll your crepes)

Make them:
1.) Make your crepes! Refrain from scarfing them all down immediately. I know, it's difficult isn't it?
2.) Whip up some vegan ricotta in your food processor
3.) Spread out a generous layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of your baking dish
4.) In a mixing bowl combine ricotta, whole can of pumpkin, greens and salt and spices to taste
5.) Fill crepes with the pumpkin-ricotta mixture, roll them up and lay them into your tomato sauce filled baing dish
6.) Continue untill dish is filled
7.) Pour another layer of sauce on top of rolled crepes
8.) Cover dish with foil and bake at 375 degrees until bubbly and thoroughly hot, about 25 minutes

Baking from Veganomicon

Quinoa muffins a la Roommate. These are healthy-type muffins that I would eat for breakfast with my usual pear-berry smoothie. Often on Sundays Roommate will make muffins for the week which is lovely, but she is prone to very bran-y or dense health muffins while I am advocating for blueberry or chocolate or something. These were a nice compromise since they stay light and fluffy. Also, since we had red quinoa on hand they came out looking like "freckle space muffins." Mmm hmm.



I made "Terry's Favorite Almond Cookies" to take with me to a volunteer shift at Bluestockings where they were much appreciated. The cookies come out nice and chewy and perfectly gorgeous but I think if I make them again I will *not* use the peanut oil suggested and opt for canola and also omit the sesame oil and replace it with more almond extract. A few people thought the cookies were peanut butter cookies and while I have nothing at all against those I really do want something distinctly almond flavored.

On a broader note; sorry I haven't been blogging much lately. I've been really busy with work, personal stuff and volunteering. I have been going to a ton of AR and food politics events and even joined a food justice bookclub so I should have plenty to blog about when I get my lazy butt around to it. I also got a free package from Pro-Bar that I will be reviewing and I was accepted to a "Food and Farm Action" advocacy training at Just Food this month. I think it will be really interesting to learn more about food policy and work on some new projects and I also think its important to hold a vegan perspective amongst food justice folks since they seem usually not to be AR type people. I will do my best to represent though really I just want to work on a project that promotes eating more vegetables-- who can argue with that, right?

Yuca tortilla

My friend Heather and I made the yuca tortillas from Veganomicon. The combination of soft mashed yuca, bell peppers, garlic and olive oil give the dish a slighty cheesy flavor and I also added spinach and mushrooms because I had them. We agreed this would be even better with cilantro if you have it.

Fancified Food

Dessert first: vanilla ice cream sundae with mango and mixed berry compotes, vanilla cookies and toasted cashews.











Roommate made the kabotcha-udon winter stew from Veganomicon. The broth is awesome, and you could totally just put whatever veggies and noodles you had on hand in this. It also tastes good with some gomaiso on top. Yum.











Roasted veggies (yukon gold potato, cauliflower, eggplant, red pepper, onion with canola and italian herbs) on brown rice pasta with earth balance, white wine, pignoli, lemon and black pepper.

Weekend Food

A out-of-town guest stays for brunch, and I make snacks for a night in with the girls...




Tofu scramble with baked sweet potato home fries: local tofu, soy sausage, spinach, chickpeas, mushrooms, earth balance, onions, garlic, tahini, tamari, red chile flakes, rosemary, oregano, basil, thyme. Sweet potato, olive oil, sea salt. Obviously, this was all covered in ketchup the second after I took the photo.





Brownies from Joy of Vegan Baking were moist and fluffy-- more of the cake-y variety-- and nearly fat-free. Still looking for the elusive fudge-type brownie veganized...









Sundried Tomato Dip from Veganomicon is simple and delicious if not super photogenic.

Sometimes I don't cook...

So Roommate was inspired to cook by our lovely new kitchen and promises to make it a weekly occurance. I hope so! She made the Pumpkin Baked Ziti with Carmelized Onions and Sage Crumb Topping from Veganomicon which was awesome. It's really mellow and creamy and a crowd-pleaser I'm sure. This would be a great Thanksgiving dish as its not too complicated or time consuming, it's made with familiar ingredients and best of all it can be made in advance and baked later.

VeganNOMNOMNOMicon

Veganomicon is out, and you just know I have a copy... I may have been distracted by the siren song of The Joy of Vegan Baking for a bit, but I suppose at some point I need to eat dinner before dessert. So I started testing some recipes for my very first vegan Thanksgiving and they all went over well with my little veg*n dinner party last night.


Here's the chickpea cutlet with mushroom gravy from Veganomicon served with some mashed potatoes (yukon gold, new potatoes, earth balance, vitasoy, salt, pepper) and some asparagus (with sesame, tamari, earth balance and lemon juice.) The cutlet was fun to make since I am usually too intimidated to make seitan-y fake meat-y stuff myself, and this was pretty easy. The flavorings were thyme and sage but you could always switch them up too. I think I'll make them again and use in sandwiches since they are so way better than any pre-made sliced "meat" stuff. Also, I'm realizing that I eat *a lot* of chickpeas. They're just so cute and versatile. Do all vegans do this? Am I going to turn into a chickpea? Do I sound crazy? Crazy for chickpeas?! Heh. Oh and the gravy? So good. I added a bit of chile to it which is obviously non-traditional but pretty much mandatory around here. I think next time I will add some rosemary too and maybe use earth balance instead of oil. Also, now that I've bought a big bottle of sherry you can expect that to show up more often since I don't plan on drinking that stuff, ew.



Chewy oatmeal cookies from Veganomicon. They say to use raisins, which are literally the only (vegan) food I don't much like, so I made them with chocolate chips instead. These are awesome, but make sure not to overbake them! Also note that this may be the most delicious cookie dough you will ever eat. I have half a mind to not bake the rest of the dough chillin' in the fridge and just eat it with some vanilla Soy Delicious. Yum...