My house's foundation. Diamonds. My abs. These are all things that I would want to be rock hard. However, not the new roll recipe I am trying for lunch. I should have known that when I kneaded the dough and it was stiffer than cement, or when I had to add an extra half cup of water and it was still bone dry. But that's how the parsley pesto rolls I made today turned out. Herby, whole wheat hockey pucks.
Let's take it back a notch here. It's a 500 Vegan Recipes day on the home front. I actually might make even more recipes this evening for dinner, but for lunch I made the aforementioned parsley-pesto, parsley pesto rolls, and carrot cumin soup with parsley pesto dollops which I had meant to make yesterday but could not until the Baker helped me to work the food processor.
The pesto we made last night. Since I had loved the parsley-pesto walnut sauce from Donna Klein's book, I was greatly anticipating this pesto. However, I don't really like it. I think the Baker put his finger on it why. He said it tasted to him like a combination of pesto and hummus. I know this makes me a bad vegetarian, but I am not a fan of hummus. This really saddens me, because I love chickpeas in all kinds of things, however, I don't like this beany pesto. I thought that if it were an accent in something it might be better, but it wasn't any better in the (hard) rolls or (baby food-esque) soup.
So, the rolls were not my first visit to the baking picnic. I've been making yeasted rolls since I was a pre-teen and yeasted home-made bread from scratch for about a decade. So, you've got to understand that this wasn't a first-time baking snafu. I think it's a lot of flour for 6 rolls, and not enough moisture. I'm disappointed because I've loved so many bread recipes out of this book so far. None of them, as of yet, have been yeasted, but the blueberry cornmeal bread is out of this world.
The carrot cumin soup was okay, but it looked a little bit like baby food. I didn't like the texture, but the taste was fair. However, it was not enough to make it into my soup pantheon. I don't think a soup with the main part carrot is really something I can stand behind. It's too sweet for my soup tastes, yet again. I have to stay away from these sweeter soups.
77 to go. It would be awesome if I could finish 30 before the end of the month!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
More New Recipes!
I did a bunch of cooking on Wednesday night. For #17, I made the fig compote from Italian Vegan Kitchen that I'd been threatening to. It is basically soaked dried figs, baked in a simple syrup, and lightly topped with toasted walnut pieces. I enjoyed it quite a bit when it was warm, but I probably should have toweled off the figs after soaking, they were a bit soggy in the pan. As they cooled down, they were also not as tasty. However, this was a fairly simply, yummy desert. A-
#18 Was a recipe for chard. I got a big bunch in my CSA box Wednesday, and decided to make quick work of it. One of the problems with having a list a mile long of lovely vegan cookbooks is that sometimes there is a recipe that I want to cook, and I'm sure it was in that book. No, perhaps in the other one? I think to find the recipe for chard and raisins with capers I must have looked through 10 books before it surfaced in Viva Vegan. Now, one of the reasons I needed to make quick work of this chard was that I had never last year found anything to do with my chard that satisfied me. I much prefer kale, and stick it into pretty much everything when I'm not sticking in spinach. For a chard recipe, and the first time I've ever had capers, it was not bad. Will I run out to the grocery store and buy chard to make it? No, but I can see making it again when I get some chard in my CSA share. B-
Wednesday really was a big orgy of cooking. Earlier in the day, I decided to use up some overripe bananas. But what to do? I love banana bread, but I thought there might be another recipe I could use these bananas in that would count to my summer goal. I looked through the index of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and spied a neat looking gluten-free cookie that used quinoa that didn't quite fit my bill, but made it onto the "gotta try" list, and spied two banana cookies. I decided to make the banana oatmeal breakfast cookies, as they required a bit less fat and no refined sugar, but relied on agave and brown rice syrup instead. I know it's not a kale salad, but why not?
My verdict was that they were all right. I was a little low on dried cranberries, and more of those might make these pop a bit more, but really, I prefer banana bread. The Baker, too, said that they reminded them of banana bread. In order to convince myself not to eat too many, I dropped off a bag at the gym, and the Daves loved them, or at least liked them enough to try and convince me to drop cookies off more often. Personally, they are all right, but I wouldn't sell my soul for them like the fig bars in the book. B
After a lovely trip to the Indian buffet yesterday afternoon for lunch, I decided that all that naan and white rice for lunch should prompt a healthier dinner. I went for a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, a balsamic strawberry salad. The balsamic strawberries are mouthwateringly good (I told you I love the fruity stuff!) and on top of arugula, my husband loved the peppery punch. However, I'm not as big on the peppery flavor, so next time, I think I will have my strawberries on baby spinach instead. I love this recipe. It is simple, flavorful, and healthy. I think I ate a bowl of strawberries covered in balsamic vinegar all by myself. And all without adding sugar or oil!
So balsamic strawberry salad made up #20, and I was poised to eat, I mean make, a couple more today. I got out my ingredients and started loading them into the food processor. This was my first time piloting the processor on my own, the Baker being at work. Then it happened. For the next 20 minutes, I pushed and shoved and wiggled, but I couldn't get the machine to close. This shut down the rest of my cooking day, as the planned recipes all hinged around the parsley pesto I was going to whir up in the food processor (from 500 Vegan Recipes). Drat. I made an old standby soup instead, and promise to get on with the pesto tomorrow after my hubby helps me figure out the processor tonight.
80 to go! Happy cooking!
#18 Was a recipe for chard. I got a big bunch in my CSA box Wednesday, and decided to make quick work of it. One of the problems with having a list a mile long of lovely vegan cookbooks is that sometimes there is a recipe that I want to cook, and I'm sure it was in that book. No, perhaps in the other one? I think to find the recipe for chard and raisins with capers I must have looked through 10 books before it surfaced in Viva Vegan. Now, one of the reasons I needed to make quick work of this chard was that I had never last year found anything to do with my chard that satisfied me. I much prefer kale, and stick it into pretty much everything when I'm not sticking in spinach. For a chard recipe, and the first time I've ever had capers, it was not bad. Will I run out to the grocery store and buy chard to make it? No, but I can see making it again when I get some chard in my CSA share. B-
Wednesday really was a big orgy of cooking. Earlier in the day, I decided to use up some overripe bananas. But what to do? I love banana bread, but I thought there might be another recipe I could use these bananas in that would count to my summer goal. I looked through the index of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and spied a neat looking gluten-free cookie that used quinoa that didn't quite fit my bill, but made it onto the "gotta try" list, and spied two banana cookies. I decided to make the banana oatmeal breakfast cookies, as they required a bit less fat and no refined sugar, but relied on agave and brown rice syrup instead. I know it's not a kale salad, but why not?
My verdict was that they were all right. I was a little low on dried cranberries, and more of those might make these pop a bit more, but really, I prefer banana bread. The Baker, too, said that they reminded them of banana bread. In order to convince myself not to eat too many, I dropped off a bag at the gym, and the Daves loved them, or at least liked them enough to try and convince me to drop cookies off more often. Personally, they are all right, but I wouldn't sell my soul for them like the fig bars in the book. B
After a lovely trip to the Indian buffet yesterday afternoon for lunch, I decided that all that naan and white rice for lunch should prompt a healthier dinner. I went for a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, a balsamic strawberry salad. The balsamic strawberries are mouthwateringly good (I told you I love the fruity stuff!) and on top of arugula, my husband loved the peppery punch. However, I'm not as big on the peppery flavor, so next time, I think I will have my strawberries on baby spinach instead. I love this recipe. It is simple, flavorful, and healthy. I think I ate a bowl of strawberries covered in balsamic vinegar all by myself. And all without adding sugar or oil!
So balsamic strawberry salad made up #20, and I was poised to eat, I mean make, a couple more today. I got out my ingredients and started loading them into the food processor. This was my first time piloting the processor on my own, the Baker being at work. Then it happened. For the next 20 minutes, I pushed and shoved and wiggled, but I couldn't get the machine to close. This shut down the rest of my cooking day, as the planned recipes all hinged around the parsley pesto I was going to whir up in the food processor (from 500 Vegan Recipes). Drat. I made an old standby soup instead, and promise to get on with the pesto tomorrow after my hubby helps me figure out the processor tonight.
80 to go! Happy cooking!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Recipes #12-16
I've been busy trying to catch up with recipes here on the old farm, I mean, suburban house. One of the recipes I'd been meaning to try was from Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a chickpea and quinoa salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Since it involves a recipe for salad and one for dressing it counts as two recipes. Score! I followed with two more soups and one pasta from Donna Klein's Italian Vegan Kitchen.
Let's start with the salad. My husband loved it, and the flavorful dressing, which prompted me to try and work through my fear of food processors. Making the salad was painless, and I like the concept, but in practice, the salad was far too savory for me. I haven't been a salad person for very long. In fact, it's been about 2 years that I've been eating salad, and so far for me to like them they need some sort of fruit component. I've liked apple pie salad (lettuce with an apple sauce with cinnamon), strawberry and spinach salad, apple and spring mix with a hazelnut or walnut or citrus vinaigrette. Those choices have expanded the foods I've eaten considerably, but I'm still not at a place where I can enjoy such a savory salad. I'm disappointed, but I can live with it. C for me, A for the Baker.
The next two soups were far too average as well. The split pea with tomato and spinach was all right, but it had a sweet tinge to it I didn't find appealing. The no-fat added minestrone had its heart in the right place, but since the veggies weren't sauteed in even a little oil, the recipe amounted to a boiled veggie soup. Neither of the soups were bad, both were good enough for me to finish. However, I consider myself a bit of a soup afficianado, and to make it into my soup rotation, a soup really has to have something special. I'm considering re-making the minestrone with a tablespoon of olive oil, and sauteeing the mirepoix first. It's likely that that might make all the difference. Split pea gets a C, minestrone gets a B-.
The next recipe is a keeper, if a bit saucy. I made spaghetti with rosemary and red wine red sauce. The sauce is pretty darn good, though with the 12 oz of pasta, overpowered the noodles a touch. If I make it again, I think I would even out the ratio of sauce to noodles a bit by adding the full pound of noodles. I also think an extra clove or two of garlic wouldn't hurt... no surprise there, huh?
My plan had been to make a fig compote for desert tonight and bring my count up to 17, but between the soup and the pasta for dinner (not to mention the bread and sunflower seeds I ate while waiting for dinner)and I found I was just too full to eat any more. Perhaps you'll see the fig compote here tomorrow. Until then, happy cooking!
Let's start with the salad. My husband loved it, and the flavorful dressing, which prompted me to try and work through my fear of food processors. Making the salad was painless, and I like the concept, but in practice, the salad was far too savory for me. I haven't been a salad person for very long. In fact, it's been about 2 years that I've been eating salad, and so far for me to like them they need some sort of fruit component. I've liked apple pie salad (lettuce with an apple sauce with cinnamon), strawberry and spinach salad, apple and spring mix with a hazelnut or walnut or citrus vinaigrette. Those choices have expanded the foods I've eaten considerably, but I'm still not at a place where I can enjoy such a savory salad. I'm disappointed, but I can live with it. C for me, A for the Baker.
The next two soups were far too average as well. The split pea with tomato and spinach was all right, but it had a sweet tinge to it I didn't find appealing. The no-fat added minestrone had its heart in the right place, but since the veggies weren't sauteed in even a little oil, the recipe amounted to a boiled veggie soup. Neither of the soups were bad, both were good enough for me to finish. However, I consider myself a bit of a soup afficianado, and to make it into my soup rotation, a soup really has to have something special. I'm considering re-making the minestrone with a tablespoon of olive oil, and sauteeing the mirepoix first. It's likely that that might make all the difference. Split pea gets a C, minestrone gets a B-.
The next recipe is a keeper, if a bit saucy. I made spaghetti with rosemary and red wine red sauce. The sauce is pretty darn good, though with the 12 oz of pasta, overpowered the noodles a touch. If I make it again, I think I would even out the ratio of sauce to noodles a bit by adding the full pound of noodles. I also think an extra clove or two of garlic wouldn't hurt... no surprise there, huh?
My plan had been to make a fig compote for desert tonight and bring my count up to 17, but between the soup and the pasta for dinner (not to mention the bread and sunflower seeds I ate while waiting for dinner)and I found I was just too full to eat any more. Perhaps you'll see the fig compote here tomorrow. Until then, happy cooking!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Recipes #9, 10, 11
Being incredibly sick for the last week put me behind in my cooking challenge. I was out with about the worst sinus infection I've had in a decade. I was hoping to get a leg up early on to make up for vacation next month, but here I am, running 4 recipes behind instead.
The Baker made me a tomato Florentine soup during my illness that was from Italian Vegan Kitchen. The soup was wonderful; a mirepoix with a few herbs including fresh basil, spinach, and ditalini. It was perfect sick food! I will definitely make it again, although it would definitely be better when adding my home-made herbed croutons! I made a very simple chickpea-tomato soup from the same book yesterday, pictured here. It is basically a tomato soup with rosemary and chickpeas, blended, then add ditalini. It too, was incredibly good (and made with half the oil in the recipe). I believe it will quickly become a pantry recipe, as there are very few evenings when I don't have canned tomatoes, garlic, and canned chickpeas and rosemary on hand. Use my immersion blender, and it can be ready in about half an hour.
In between the two soups, I got back out my copy of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and tried to assuage my oatmeal raisin cookie craving. The resulting cookies get a B from me, though it could have been my fault. The oatmeal, for me, was not mushed enough into the bulk of the cookie, and felt too grainy for my taste. I think I may have used the wrong kind of oats. It required quick cooking, and I don't think that's what I used. They weren't labeled as such. Of course, they weren't labeled slow cooking either, so I'm just not sure!
So, 11 recipes down, 89 to go! I am a little quick-breaded out for the moment, and am still waiting on the cherry tomatoes and basil at the CSA to come into season to start whipping out some more of the pasta and soup recipes, but so far, I'm overly fond of Donna Klein's Italian cook book. Now it's time for me to stick my nose into a book and figure out what's next!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Recipes #6 , #7, and #8
Sometimes the time gets away from you! I have only made three new recipes since I wrote last, though I have made more food from scratch than that.
One of the problems with cooking 100 new recipes in roughly 100 days is not that I don't have enough that sound interesting to me, but that even over the summer with a reduced teaching schedule there are constraints. The leftovers I have to finish eating (without the Baker's help the last few days since he's had some kind of stomach virus), as well as the unpredictability of whether or not I will like something after working on it and getting hungrier for 2 hours, and the huge bags of greens I've been getting from my CSA it means that I sometimes either don't have time or it doesn't make sense to make something new when I have so many pounds of salad greens and leftovers from a previous meal clogging my fridge.
One way around this was making cookies! I decided to make snickerdoodles from Kris Holechek's 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. I considered making the Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar version instead, but I didn't have enough Earth Balance butter. Kris' version substitutes some with applesauce, something I've been doing a lot with my baking lately.
The snickerdoodles, if I may say so myself, were pretty darn good. They did take longer to cook than expected, which happens a lot with my oven, and I did accidentally cook the second tray too long. The first was perfectly textured and chewy, the second, too hard. Also, I threw a lot of the sugar/cinnamon mixture away that I had rolled the cookies in; I think I would halve it when using it again. I also thought the cinnamon was a touch too heavy in the mixture.
The Low Down: Will I make them again? Very probably, though with all the baked goods I do make, I'm not sure they will feature in my rotation again soon. The breads and muffins I make require less fat and sugar, usually, and I don't have to get out the mixer. A-
The next thing I did was to make some seitan while baking up those cookies on Friday night. The jury is still out on the seitan, as I packaged it up and put it into the fridge for use in a later recipe. It was easy to make, and looked and smelled good however. It was Isa Chandra Moskowitz's recipe from Appetite for Reduction and I plan on making many more seitan recipes this summer for comparison.
Last night I made a socca, or a garbanzo bean flour pancake type recipe from Donna Klein's Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen. The idea of these had intrigued me for a while, and I thought my iron skillet sufficiently seasoned to try. However, while it was fairly simple to make, the results were not pleasing to me. It turned out the way it should have, it just didn't suit my personal tastes. Reminded me of an omelet, in taste and texture, and a slightly underdone one at that. I'm not a big fan of eggs, was one of the easiest animal products for me to give up.
It's just another one of those recipes that are just fine, I'm sure, but remind me why I'm the picky gourmet. Some things don't suit the kinds of flavor profiles that I like. That's okay. But sometimes, a new flavor profile is exciting or inventive in a way that expands my palate. I can't always tell when this will happen, and that is part of the fun of this journey. 92 recipes to go!
One of the problems with cooking 100 new recipes in roughly 100 days is not that I don't have enough that sound interesting to me, but that even over the summer with a reduced teaching schedule there are constraints. The leftovers I have to finish eating (without the Baker's help the last few days since he's had some kind of stomach virus), as well as the unpredictability of whether or not I will like something after working on it and getting hungrier for 2 hours, and the huge bags of greens I've been getting from my CSA it means that I sometimes either don't have time or it doesn't make sense to make something new when I have so many pounds of salad greens and leftovers from a previous meal clogging my fridge.
One way around this was making cookies! I decided to make snickerdoodles from Kris Holechek's 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. I considered making the Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar version instead, but I didn't have enough Earth Balance butter. Kris' version substitutes some with applesauce, something I've been doing a lot with my baking lately.
The snickerdoodles, if I may say so myself, were pretty darn good. They did take longer to cook than expected, which happens a lot with my oven, and I did accidentally cook the second tray too long. The first was perfectly textured and chewy, the second, too hard. Also, I threw a lot of the sugar/cinnamon mixture away that I had rolled the cookies in; I think I would halve it when using it again. I also thought the cinnamon was a touch too heavy in the mixture.
The Low Down: Will I make them again? Very probably, though with all the baked goods I do make, I'm not sure they will feature in my rotation again soon. The breads and muffins I make require less fat and sugar, usually, and I don't have to get out the mixer. A-
The next thing I did was to make some seitan while baking up those cookies on Friday night. The jury is still out on the seitan, as I packaged it up and put it into the fridge for use in a later recipe. It was easy to make, and looked and smelled good however. It was Isa Chandra Moskowitz's recipe from Appetite for Reduction and I plan on making many more seitan recipes this summer for comparison.
Last night I made a socca, or a garbanzo bean flour pancake type recipe from Donna Klein's Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen. The idea of these had intrigued me for a while, and I thought my iron skillet sufficiently seasoned to try. However, while it was fairly simple to make, the results were not pleasing to me. It turned out the way it should have, it just didn't suit my personal tastes. Reminded me of an omelet, in taste and texture, and a slightly underdone one at that. I'm not a big fan of eggs, was one of the easiest animal products for me to give up.
It's just another one of those recipes that are just fine, I'm sure, but remind me why I'm the picky gourmet. Some things don't suit the kinds of flavor profiles that I like. That's okay. But sometimes, a new flavor profile is exciting or inventive in a way that expands my palate. I can't always tell when this will happen, and that is part of the fun of this journey. 92 recipes to go!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Recipe #5
Tuesdays and Thursdays, for at least three more weeks, are my busier days. I teach from 9-1, get home at around 2, and have rehearsal for Annie in the evening (I leave at 6). Granted, it's not as busy as the school year, when I teach from 8:30 to 4:20, don't get home until 5, and then have to leave again at 6 for rehearsal, but it is busier than Monday and Wednesday when all I have to do is grade and work out.
So I knew yesterday that I would want to make something a little less challenging yesterday, which is why I opted for a simple side dish and only one recipe.
Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. I chose the Green Beans with Walnut Sauce in Vegan Italiano by Donna Klein. They are quick to make, and incredibly yummy. I ate them fairly fresh, and prepared the walnut sauce (which is more of a walnut/parsley pesto) in my blender, but it would have gone better in a food processor. Since I'm still afraid of the food processor and not sure how to use it, I went for the blender and had to do a lot of pulsing and scraping.
When I ate the beans, they were awesome, but I thought I would like to add another clove of garlic. One of the few things I love more than garlic is more garlic (except in cookies and cakes)! And fresh from the pot and blender, more garlic might have been nice. However, since I could not eat 1 1/2 pounds of beans alone, I put the rest in the fridge. After the Baker got home from work, he ate some and the garlic in them was much stronger. Perhaps after marinating, the flavors grew stronger?
I will make these again. And again. I'm not sure it's my favorite green bean recipe, but it is close. Grade: A
Recipes #3 and #4
Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero is a cookbook I fell in love with last summer when I first bought it. After a particularly bad experience trying dairy-free sour cream on my bean burritos using beans from her book, I've been on a very off phase with bean burritos. Also, when I got so many other cook books, I started using them.
Now that I have challenged myself to make 100 new recipes from my many cookbooks over the course of this summer, and I embraced Memorial Day Weekend as my starting point, I decided that I needed to re-embrace Viva Vegan. She's got a whole lot more in there than refried beans.
On Monday, when many of y'all were chilling at the BBQ, I was making Quick Red Posole (the stew pictured up there) and Orange Mojo Tofu. I also made some pineapple-lime coleslaw which, though awesome, is not a new recipe for me.
I'm a total lightweight, so I only put half the amount of ground chile powder stated in the posole. I'm sad to say, despite the many ingredients in the stew I usually like (tomatoes, onions, lime, cumin, etc.) it really didn't do anything for me and was still too hot for my sensibilities. My husband loved the soup, however. Will I make it again? Probably not. I didn't finish my bowl. But since the Baker loved it, I will grade it on a curve. C-/D+.
Why did I give you a pic for the soup, then? Why not the orange mojo tofu? Because the Baker and I ate the tofu so darn fast I was not able to take the picture. I won't lie, at first bite I didn't like it. I thought it was a little flavorless. However, I realized that our uneven stove allowed the orangey limey marinade to puddle away from the corner where the lower in flavor piece of tofu had cooked. The other pieces were awesome.
Will I make it again? Hells yes! In fact, if there were tofu in the fridge at present, I'd probably be making more right now.... Listen to me, people. This is the first time I've cooked tofu and loved it. This recipe is pretty awesome. A+
Recipe #2
I cooked the fig quick bread from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman on Sunday. I love homemade fig bars from my favorite vegan cookie book, so I thought this bread might be able to substitute for the cookies once in a while, while using a bit less fat and sugar. They don't go overboard with the oil, but I temper it a little as well by reducing the oil to 1/4 cup from 1/3, and filling the liquid measuring cup the rest of the way to 1/3 with apple sauce (no sugar added!) I do that a lot.
The bread calls for spelt and whole wheat pastry flour, two flours I'm also pretty down with, as well as some sugar and the usual suspects.
Would I make this again? Maybe. The texture was very nice and soft, and the bread was all right, but tasting it, it just seemed to lack a little something, and extra kick of something. I might try adding a touch more salt. Breads like this and cookies usually take 1/2 teaspoon, but sometimes I find 3/4 teaspoon makes these baked goods sing just a bit more.
I give it a B-/C+.
Recipe #1
From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World I give you the sexy low fat vanilla cupcake. I chose to put macerated strawberries on it as a topping, to continue to keep the fat low. I'd picked the strawberries just the day before.
This recipe worked fairly well. My husband demolished about half the cupcakes after dinner. Their taste was lovely and moist. The only down side was that they were a touch rubbery, as low fat baking can get some times.
My rating? B+. I will definitely make them again, and possibly as a base for some of their much fattier frosting options in the book.
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