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.

#29-32

I've been falling behind considerably on my summer challenge. Part of the problem is that it's been close to 100 degrees for the last week here in the midwest, and I rarely feel like turning on the oven too much. I want to bake fairly badly, but turning on the oven seems counterproductive.

Another bar to cooking too many new recipes has been that I have fallen in love with several of the recipes I have already learned this summer. I have remade Tuscan Bread Soup 2 more times- whenever the CSA box has come in with fresh basil and tomatoes. I have loved a number of the soups I have made this summer. I have gorged myself on fresh fruit, including balsamic strawberries. Also, Annie is winding down. Tech week starts Sunday, so the show has been taking up a little more of my time. I also have developed one of my own recipes for a broccoli and cauliflower salad that I have been eating a great deal of. And occasionally, I have to let the Baker cook, too!

Despite that, over the past few weeks I have made 4 new recipes. After getting some fresh cilantro from the CSA box, I decided it was begging for some tomatillo salsa from Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero. it was so simple to make, and I learned how to operate my broiler as well. The salsa itself was very tasty, A+. I will use this recipe again, though probably not as much as the green sauce made with tomatillos in the same chapter that I made last summer. In order to keep our waistlines down, the Baker and I pledged not to buy ice cream or chips for home some time last summer, though we can have them when we are out to eat. The consistency of the salsa would be best for chips, whereas the sauce would have worked better on the burrito concoction I was attempting to make.

I also made the "white" seitan from the same book. Are there any experienced seitan makers out there? I think I overcooked it. So far my seitan experiences have not been incredible. I've made overly dry and overly wet seitan, neither of which was bad in taste, but not good in texture. I can only imagine there is a certain amount of user error and experience I need to develop to figure out how to best make good seitan. Considering the whole package, it was a B, and it reminded me of overcooked turkey.

Next up comes some more PPK food, but this time I have to rave. The Creamy Tomato Soup from Veganomicon knocked my socks off. It utilizes potatoes in order to give it that creamy texture, and I was concerned the texture of the soup would not resemble creaminess, but rather starchiness. I was wrong. It was pitch-perfect, though I think I will add spinach or kale from time to time to dress it up a little more. A++

Also from Veganomicon was the roasted potatoes I made for lunch today. Yes, I know I could have made roasted potatoes without a recipe, but I used this for reference, and I hadn't used the recipe before, so it counts, right? I tossed them in olive oil, rosemary, and sea salt, and had them with a side of roasted Brussels sprouts tossed with garlic olive oil and sea salt. It was a lovely lunch, and I say that the roasted potatoes will probably replace my occasional trip out for fast food French fries. These were close enough in taste, cheaper, and probably better for me. Besides, no place that I've been yet serves rosemary baked fries.

I may not finish my 100 recipes before Labor Day, as planned, but I will keep cooking any way. Summer ends September 21st, right? Maybe I'll make it by then. Maybe it will become a fall challenge. As long as I keep trying new recipes I don't care.

Does the fun ever stop? Recipes 24-28

Before leaving town, I made a few more recipes to try and up my numbers. I made a lovely Latin baked tofu from Viva Vegan for dinner Monday night (I think!) that both hubby and I loved. He liked it better than the orange mojo tofu, though I still preferred the orange mojo. It doesn't matter either way, both are scrumptious. Definitely will make again!
I also made a lovely dinner on Wednesday with fresh basil and tomatoes from the CSA share. Tuscan bread and tomato soup from Italian Vegan Kitchenwas easy to make, and very tasty, though it is more of a porridge than a soup. I actually have a picture of this, but it's kinda strange looking. It wasn't strange looking when I cooked it, honest. I must not be that good at food photography yet. Still, I'd call it a keeper. A+
Another quick recipe from the same book was a baked potato with bay leaf. I know, I know, hardly a complicated recipe, right? I cut a potato in half, put a little olive oil and bay leaf and salt in, and cooked it in the oven. I admit that I may have chosen this recipe in order to bump my numbers up a little bit without adding a lot of extra work or extra leftovers, but I really did like the idea of a baked potato cooked this way as well. I have been a little at a loss as whether I'd like baked potatoes any more without my sour cream, and thought that this would be an option worth trying.
The baked potato was good, and I might make one like this in the future at some point, especially since it is so easy and I almost always have bay leaves and potatoes on hand. However, it wasn't so amazing that I couldn't wait to eat another one. I'd call it an A-.
Although I almost forgot about them, I also made two new recipes from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar before leaving town last week. Wednesday I made the basic chocolate chip cookies, which were good, and soft. The only thing I have to hold against them is that they were not the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. I'm not saying this to knock them, I enjoyed them. However, they don't beat Otis Spunkmeyer (other than in Vegan Cred) and they don't beat the Baker's new veganized chocolate chip cookie which I am sure has way more fat and sugar, but is crispy and soft and sweet and salty all in the right proportions. It could have been my fault, but the cookies were so soft that they were falling apart a little. I probably should have baked them another minute, damn the instructions. (B +)
Now that I've made brownies with tofu, I feel like I've earned my vegetarian badge! I made the brownies that were termed more like the "box" brownies, since box brownies are my favorite kind. If you want cake, make cake. Cakey brownies are not my cup of tea. Now, to get the right consistency with box brownies, I have to take them out of the oven a couple of minutes early. This is not something I took into account with these brownies, and I got fair-tasting, a little dry brownies. This again, is probably my fault, and I should probably tinker with this a bit. My oven, when baking, almost always needs to cook things an extra couple of minutes past the max recommended time. I assumed this when I made these, and this assumption had me check them when they were already comfortably done. I will say that the batter was quite tasty, however!
I made seitan and green salsa today, but have not uploaded the pics yet.... will update you later. Happy cooking!

#21-23 Were Not Good Numbers

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!

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!