#57-65

I finally made the bread from Urban Pantry. I did put it together Friday night, and baked it on Saturday. It is a whole wheat and barley mix, all whole grains. I was expecting a bread that would need an axe to cut, or something that would need to be dunked in a gallon of liquid to deal with the dryness. However, this was an incredibly soft and moist loaf of whole grain bread, very much like sandwich bread in that sense, but also a little bland-tasting. To me it didn't feel like a loaf for eating just to enjoy the bread. I give this one a B.


After baking the bread, I also made two different recipes for roasted flavored chickpeas from Peas and Thank You. The pumpkin spice ones were hard not to eat all by myself as a snack as soon as they cooled off. I will enjoy adding these to salads, or just chewing on them alone. They are sweet and spicy and delicious. The lemon-rosemary were not quite as good, but it could be because the flavor is much stronger; these will work better as a topping than on their own and I think might make an interesting addition to an Italian-inspired pasta type dish. The pumpkin spice chickpeas (#58 for you all out there counting) are an A+, the lemon rosemary (59) a B+.

For dinner on Friday and the momentous number 60, I cracked open 30 Minute Vegan Taste of the East again and made the tofu variation of Peking seitan (or Daffy's relief). The sauce was amazing, though I think I may dry bake the tofu before adding it to the dish when I make it again, or I will try the seitan variation, or use the sauce with beans and greens. I'd give this one a solid B+.


We had friends over for dinner on Saturday, home-made pizza, limeade, broccoli salad, and for desert, another new recipe from Peas and Thank You, the almond joy cookie bars. You may notice from the picture that they are in rather abstract shaped bars instead of little rectangles or squares. I must confess, I couldn't wait long enough to take the cookies out of the pan and they broke apart because they were still a bit too warm. My fault! Or perhaps I should blame Sarah Matheny, since the cookie bars were just too awesome. I adore the cookie, chocolate, and coconut combination, and even my company, who confessed he usually doesn't like coconut, couldn't stop taking seconds and thirds. I give this one an A+.



For number 62, I made another East inspired dish. This time it was Japanese-style roasted vegetables. The recipe recommended a tomato, a zucchini, and some baby bok choy, but I had a lot of baby bok choy just waiting for some love. The marinade was slightly spicy and tangy, but it had an odd aftertaste. It was an edible and healthy lunch (as usual, I used about half or less of the recommended oil), but I don't think that I will use this recipe again. This was a C.

For numbers 63, 64, and 65, I made a rather involved recipe for Potato and Chickpea Enchilada Casserole out of Terry Hope Romero's Viva Vegan. It involved making tomatillo sauce (not salsa) as well as pine nut crema to melt on the top of the assembled enchiladas with their filling. It looked beautiful, and it took a lot of effort to get it that way. However, both the Baker and I felt it was lacking something. I wanted a little more chewy-ness to the filling, the Baker said the texture was okay, but that he thought the filling was on the right track, just was a little bland. He gave it a B-, I'm more of a C with this one. Both he and I rated the tomatillo sauce highly (A-), and will definitely make and use that again. The crema was a little off in texture, though I think I glopped it on just a little too thickly and it didn't get the chance to brown properly most of the way through.


Now that school has started, it is likely I will slow down a bit on the new recipes, especially since I've got tons of auditions this weekend. Who knows what opportunities they might bring!

Procrastination

I meant to make the whole wheat bread from Amy Pennington's Urban Pantry on Monday night. And on Tuesday night. And Wednesday night. And last night. I meant to let it rise in the fridge over night, and rise a second time in the morning, bake it and use it to make skinny Elvis sandwiches from Peas and Thank You, a lovely concoction of strawberries with a new take on Elvis' peanut butter and bananas in a sandwich.

Yet as each night wore on, I cleaned up after the messes of dinner and settled in to my evenings. As it got later, my commitment to mixing the bread dough together waned. I went to bed each night without making the bread, but since my strawberries were headed south, I needed to use them. So I used a corn tortilla instead. This made the sandwiches a little dry, but they were yummy nonetheless. I can imagine the sandwich filling being much more satisfying on a moister slice of bread cut in half and folded over.

Instead of 56 and 57, this only makes 56.

Perhaps I will put the bread together tonight?

#51-55

I've been cooking a bit this fortnight, and two cookbooks are to thank, for the most part. If you have not, I recommend picking up 30 Minute Vegan Taste of the East by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray, as well as Peas and Thank You by Sarah Matheny. Both have inspired me to try new combinations and new ingredients.

Dinner on Sunday, #51, was teriyaki tofu from 30 Minute Vegan Taste of the East. It was a dinner for one on Sunday since the Baker had to work late. This recipe was another success! The teriyaki was quite tasty, and though I pressed and baked the tofu a little before putting the sauce on, a step the recipe did not call for, the end product was quite tasty.

I was making this recipe when I wondered how often I actually make a recipe directly to recipe. I prefer to do that the first time through a recipe most often because I want to know what I'm operating with before I change anything, however, there are a lot of times when I add extra garlic because I know I would appreciate more, or transplant canned for fresh or fresh for canned (beans/tomatoes/etc.), or cut down on red pepper or some such to lessen the spicy bite for my tender palate. I know myself and the flavors of a number of major components of my cooking well enough that I can tell when I'd appreciate a change. All that being said, though, I probably make something to recipe the first time about 40% of the time. Or maybe 35%.

In this case, I will definitely make this teriyaki sauce again, and I will likely add it to tofu some of those times. I can imagine having this sauce on hand for a quick dinner of rice and beans and some greens thrown in. Another thing that really worked for me was the mere teaspoon of oil in the sauce and preparation. The amount of sauce for the amount of tofu, however, was a touch excessive.

Breakfast for the last two days has been my 52nd recipe, the chocolate cherry almond smoothie from Peas and Thank You. A mixture of frozen cherries, non-dairy milk, chocolate powder, and a few other items has stolen my summer breakfasty heart. I am usually an oatmeal kind of a girl, but sometimes during the summer (and record long heat waves) you just don't want a breakfast that steams. At her recommended serving size, it isn't big enough for my entire breakfast, but I'm thinking of combining it with her breakfast oatmeal bars or one of my very own whole wheat banana muffins. With that there may be just enough fiber to last me to lunch. You know, next week when school starts and I have to worry about that kind of thing again. I'd call this sweet but healthy and calcium-filled treat an A.

I made the blackberry basil smoothie from Peas and Thank You to have with my lunch. It too was good, but I did not like the basil/blackberry combination as much as I liked the cherry/almond/chocolate. It does not mean I will not make it again, however, and I think that I will also make it with strawberries instead of blackberries from time to time, and maybe switch out the basil for mint and blackberries. Overall, a solid recipe. A-

The jury is still out on the Ligurian basil pesto from Vegan Italiano. We got a ton of basil in the share this week, so we decided it was pesto time! We didn't have fresh parsley on hand, so we switched some out with baby spinach. We are saving the pesto for pizza night this week, so I can't tell you how it is yet- I will update!

Finally, my success with the Asian food in another book (and a trip to ye olde Global Foods) inspired me to try an Indian-inspired recipe from 1000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson. It uses a chickpea noodle called "sev" that are crunchy and remind me of chow mein noodles as well as cooked chickpeas in a spicy tomato sauce.


I halved the pepper in the recipe, but still ended up with a very fire-kissed mouth. I think it was tasty, but my taste buds might have been just a touch too burnt out to tell. I do know, however, I'd like it to be a touch "saucier." It felt dry to me, but I do know I enjoyed the crunch of the texture. The crunchy noodles gave it a little bite, on the tooth level, that I enjoyed. If I make it again, I would add a little more broth and tomato, maybe a little soy sauce(yes, I know, not incredibly authentic) or tamarind concentrate, and a little less pepper. Serving it on a bed of steamed greens might be nice as well.

I wouldn't be surprised if I made it to 60 before the start of school on Monday! I have truly enjoyed reading and cooking along with Sarah and her "peas" this week, and trying new Asian-inspired dishes. Sometimes it takes a new point of view or a new cuisine to break me out of a rut, and I have found them both!

Summer Lunch, #49 and 50

I had planned to make tomato rasam and chapati or roti, but with a lot of leftover bread from dinner last night and knowing we're having home-made pizza tonight, I decided on a somewhat lighter lunch. I still made the tomato rasam, and along with it drank some refreshing limeade with real brown sugar.

The rasam, a slightly spicy (which for me is pretty spicy) soup from The 30 Minute Vegan's Taste of the East by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray is pretty awesome. It is only the second recipe I've made from that book, and the first, a potato and spinach recipe that I was hoping would approximate the same dish I love at Saffron, was an utter failure. I couldn't eat more than a couple of bites. This was much different. I used canned tomato instead of fresh (mine moulded on the counter last night!) and I'd recommend waiting for the soup to cool about 10 minutes before eating, but it was amazing, if a touch spicy for me. The second bowl tasted better to me than the first, and after my second bowl I kept eating extra spoonfuls from the pot! Next time I make it, I think I will lessen the mustard seeds a touch as well, and maybe add the cilantro at the end, since I didn't have any on hand today. I'd give it an A. Some wilted spinach might make a good addition, too.

Cooling down my sensitive taste buds was a real brown sugar limeade from the drinks chapter in Viva Vegan. It uses a pure brown sugar called panela to make the syrup, along with 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice. I added about 25% more water than the recipe stated, and once I weakened it that bit, it was lovely. How refreshing and summery!

So here it is! I have made it to 50 new recipes this summer! I still plan on trying to hit 100, even if it lands me late in fall. When I do reach 100 I will celebrate with a run down post explaining what I liked most, least, and what has become a regular part of my cooking. Maybe I can at some point start posting original recipes too, eh?

#47-48

I feel like such a slacker only posting 2 recipes in the last ten days, but as I was remarking to the Baker, I've cooked myself one or two meals from scratch every day... it's just that I've liked so many recipes so far I keep making favorites that are in season. That, and last weekend Annie ended its' run, which marked me out for the count for most of the Friday-Sunday period. I also had to teach Saturday morning, and with the matinee and strike set on Sunday (and a party!) I was hardly at home for the greater part of three days.

For dinner last Thursday (before a brush up rehearsal) I made roasted cherry tomato and basil sauce to go on my whole wheat rotini from Vegan Italiano. It was pretty good, although I think the pasta to topping ratio was a little off. The way I made it (per recipe) I think was more of a B, but with a few more cherry tomatoes and an ounce less pasta, and maybe a sprinkling of breadcrumbs fried in garlic-olive oil or toasted walnut bits for a little more crunch on top I think would make this an A dish.

For dinner tonight, I'm having an old standby now, green beans and tomato, along with Scarlet Barley from Appetite for Reduction. Now, there are times when I make recipes because I want to make something of an ingredient I already love (brussels sprouts, for example), and there are times when I make something new because there is a particular vitamin or nutrient it is rich in and I'd like to make it a part of my diet. This is a recipe I made because I had a bunch of beets leftover from my CSA share.

I don't particularly like beets, I don't particularly dislike them. This recipe was pretty much the same way. I loved the texture of the barley-so chewy. I'd like to cook barley again this way with a veggie I'm more positive about. Maybe shredded parsnip, cinnamon, and apple? Or a carrot cake version with coconut, walnut, shredded carrot and a little raisin. I might also prefer a little orange juice in the mix of this recipe to the lemon juice. Yes, there go my sweet over savory preferences again. I'd call it a C+. If I liked beets more, this would rate much higher. The Baker says B-, since he likes beets more than I.

My plan for tomorrow is an Indian inspired lunch, tomato rasam and some chapati or roti. Here come 49 and 50!

#33-46

Last week was tech week and opening for Annie. I brought baked treats Sunday through Thursday, so my week was mainly centered around rehearsing and baking. I spent the rest of my days trying to sleep. I thought, however, bringing baked treats would be one way for me to add to my new recipe count without me being the one who ate most of the treats, or having to live off of leftovers for days and not getting to make anything else new. I was right, but by Thursday I was very tired of trying to come up with more new recipes that didn't require too many steps and were nut free (one of our orphans has an allergy, so I usually made at least one nut free treat a day, if not two). I also cooked a couple of things for myself as well.
I started with some basic yeasted bread from 1000 Vegan Recipes. I have cooked far too little from this book so far, possibly because of the overwhelming quality of having so many recipes. It's hard to decide what to start with. I make my own croutons, and it's cheaper to start by making your own bread instead of buying it, so I thought I'd start by making this bread. It was all right, it rose very well and had a nice bland taste that would work well with sandwiches if you don't want to distract from the filling. It had a short-ish rising time, so the taste wasn't incredibly complex. B
Next came a new green bean recipe. Green beans may be replacing Brussels sprouts as my favorite food. They are so versatile! I made green beans with tomato from Vegan Italiano. It is becoming one of my favorite books. The recipes are so simple and tasty, and this is no different. Basically all it is is beans, tomato, garlic, and a touch of oregano. Add a little broth so that it can braise over about an hour and glorious! A+

Now on to the goodies! I started with Veganomicon and 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes by making chocolate raspberry cookies, and blueberry muffins, respectively. Both got good reviews from my eaters, but the raves came for the cookies predominantly. The cookies were so good I had to eat more than 2 before bagging them up and taking them along. The muffins were good, but not excellent. The texture was just right, but there was something about them I'd like to tweak a bit. A and B.
The next day, I made chocolate cherry oatmeal cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. These were another smash hit I had a hard time not eating too many of. The chocolate cookies with chocolate chips and cherries had just a bit more gravitas with the oatmeal, which also helped them not be overpowered by sweetness. A+.
I'm not sure if I made them this day, but some time over the week I also made tahini chocolate chip cookies from 500 Vegan Recipes. They weren't bad, but they were the cookies that had the most left over of any baked treat I made last week with a cast with 10 kids in it; that should say something.

#39-42 lasted me a couple of days. I made 2 dozen basic golden cupcakes and 1 dozen chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World on Wednesday, as well as basic vanilla buttercream frosting, and made the cookies and cream variation after frosting one dozen cupcakes. I also made chocolate mousse to frost a dozen as well. I had leftover frosting, and in the end, made 2 more dozen chocolate cupcakes for Thursday. I ended up with a dozen basic golden cupcakes with chocolate mousse and a macerated strawberry slice on top, one dozen golden cupcakes filled with a couple macerated strawberries, a little buttercream, and buttercream and a slice of strawberry on top, and 3 dozen chocolate cupcakes with cookies and cream buttercream. I would be downplaying the compliments I got if I described them as "glowing" or "effusive." People loved these cupcakes. The chocolate mousse was the only down side; it was not bad, it just needed some work. It needed a little extra fat to allow it to be a little less solid and a little more malleable. I learned some new skills while making these (double boilers!), and was incredibly proud of how well they turned out. A or A+ for all but the mousse, B- for the mousse.

I also made a double batch of tofu brownies this week, and they turned out much better than the last batch. I took them out of the oven before they got too dry and they were awesome!
After all this baking I decided to cook a few things for dinner. I made a dried fruit pilaf and roasted green beans from Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen. Both were incredibly simple, but incredibly good. The pilaf was an A, and will be making it into my lunch rotation when school starts again. How can you argue with whole grain, figs and apricots? Unless you are gluten intolerant, that is, and in that case, replace the bulgar with millet or something! The green beans were crispy and tasty as well, with that lovely extra touch of toasty almond slivers on top. Donna Klein is quickly becoming my favorite cook book author, as her recipes are often filled with simple, whole foods that pack a tasty punch. Of course, the fact that I love Italian/Mediterranean food does help, since those are the foci of her books. The green beans were an A-. They were simple and tasty, but needed a little extra something. The flavors needed a touch more depth.
Monday night I broke out the Veganomicon once again, I found a good, reliable, simple soup. This soup was not quite as good as the Tomato Basil soup, but was easy to make and solid. The Baker even pronounced it "meaty." Said it smelled a little like sausage. Perhaps it was the onions, thyme and marjoram? The brown rice and beans also add some more fiber and texture.

Because the Baker did like it so much (he's eaten it leftover. Twice. That really is a recommendation, or he's feeling extra lazy this week!) I will probably make it again. And it is good. But the tomato-ness of the soup was a little overpowering to the point of-yes, I will say it-cloying. There are other tomato-based soups I like better, that have just that extra kick. This feels like their less interesting, but still nice, little sister. B

And today's slow-cooked collards from 1000 Vegan Recipes makes 46. These were okay, but they weren't something good enough for me to make again. I prefer my greens with a touch of fruit to sweeten them, and this was mostly savory. Then again, if I double the garlic, this could make the grade. I am not sure I am curious enough to try, but if you like ribbons of tender collards in a smoky vegan broth, this is the recipe for you.

So this was the past week and some change for me! The flurry of baking and cooking (as well as tech week, of course) has left me a little exhausted. I am hoping to make 50 by the end of next week, though. I just keep getting distracted by fresh fruit and salads. Mmmm... cherries.