Pierogi, (and pizza and pasta)

pirogi with a grind of black pepper

As soon as I saw Maureen's post about pierogi, I knew I was going to have to make some. In fact, you might say I became a little obsessed. She claimed Ukrainian ancestry and I claim Russian. Either way, these dumplings make great eating.

Back in the days when I was young, and before I became lazy, I used to make my own noodles on a regular basis. I had, (and still have—somewhere) a hand crank Atlas pasta machine. Mostly the noodles were really successful, but there is one horror story that pops into my head when I contemplate stuffed noodles. It involved a very large dinner party and homemade ravioli assembled before the guests arrived, and stacked in a big bowl. Of course, the ravioli stuck together and turned into one massive bowl-shaped noodle. I'll let you imagine the poor frantic hostess salvaging what she could ... And I can't help thinking about the leftover pirogi in the refrigerator dish as I write this. But, of course, they are cooked and not sticky ... Right?


pierogi in the refrigerator— not sticking together

I followed Maureen's dough recipe with the following exceptions. I used white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose, and I used two teaspoons of salt instead of two tablespoons. Also, instead of rolling out the dough and cutting the circles the traditional way, I took small pieces of dough and rolled each into a circle like I would a tortilla or chapatti. I rolled them pretty thin and made each circle about 4 to 5 inches in diameter.

I had some leftover Bolivian cabbage and potatoes that I made into a filling. I sautéed three chopped onions and eight ounces of mashed-up tofu until it started turning brown, and mixed it with the cabbage and potatoes. If I hadn't had the leftovers, I might have sautéed shredded cabbage to mix with the onions, or baked some potatoes to mash with the fried onions.


pierogi happily boiling at the water surface, refusing to sink.

I boiled the dumplings five at a time in a big stock pot of water for 10 minutes. I guess they are supposed to sink and then rise to the surface when done, but mine never sank, thus the timer.

I made at least two dozen good-sized dumplings before I ran out of filling, and still had a chunk of dough left over that I'll probably make into noodles. (I ran out of patience long before the filling ran out, but that's another story.) I guess my dumplings don't look like "real" pierogi but so what. They were good, good, good! Thanks, Maureen.

The stock left over from cooking the pierogi was so tasty that we used it to make soup for dinner. (Couldn't eat any more pierogi - or much of anything else.)

I seem to be on some sort of carb-fest lately. Here's a glimpse of some other stuff I've recently cooked. I used the last of my refrigerated no-knead bread dough to make a mushroom pizza with vegan cheese. The dough had been in the refrigerator almost two weeks and developed a nice sourdough tang which bumped up the flavor.



It was accompanied by the rest of the bow tie noodles. I wilted a big bag of spinach from our CSA, then added some roasted tomatoes (from a can) and the noodles for a simple but delicious supper.



Ever since I roasted our garden tomatoes and made ranchero sauce, I've been using Muir Glen fire roasted crushed tomatoes instead of plain ones. I actually used them straight from the can for the pizza with just a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of oregano. Using roasted tomatoes makes a big flavor difference.

White whole wheat flour

I use white whole wheat flour in so many recipes I thought it might be time for a mini-post devoted to this excellent grain. I first heard the term at work when one of my co-workers was trying to add more whole grains to her diet. She asked me about the bag of white whole wheat flour she had just purchased and I assured her that whole wheat flour doesn't have the word "white" in it. Ahem. Then I went home and did a little research to find out that yes, white whole wheat is the real deal.

White whole wheat is a hard winter wheat with nutritional value equivalent to hard red wheat, but with baking and taste qualities more akin to unbleached white. It's a naturally occurring variety that lacks the genes for red bran color. It also lacks certain phenolic compounds that contribute to the stronger taste of red wheat. The taste of white whole wheat is milder and sweeter. It also seems to produce lighter and softer baked goods.

Ar first I was using it only in bread and pizza dough in the same proportions that I had used red whole wheat. I usually added up to half unbleached white to lighten the bread. Then I started using higher and higher percentages of white whole wheat until I was making the bread entirely with this product, with great results. I usually used organic 100% whole wheat pastry flour for cakes and cookies. I started experimenting with white whole wheat and was surprised to find that the white whole wheat worked great in those things, too. It's become an all-purpose flour for me, though I still often use whole wheat pastry flour (from soft white wheat) out of habit.

I've been purchasing Bob's Red Mill organic white whole wheat flour which I find at Whole Foods and at our local food co-op. Other companies offer it but not as an organic product. (Grains are subject to so much pesticide use that I prefer to buy organic products.)

You can read more about white whole wheat here.

Blueberry cinnamon buns (no knead)

We've been enjoying the fabulous Wisconsin Book Festival where for four days we can attend talks and readings of well-known and emerging writers, all for free. It started last Thursday and I rushed from work to attend a reading and discussion by my friend Susan who has been working on her newly published book for ten years. She was paired with another new writer for an engaging presentation. After that, I hurried to another location to catch a talk by Daniel Levitin, the author of "This is Your Brain on Music" and "The World in Six Songs." Incredible. Friday night we heard several people including Amy Goodman from Democracy Now. She gave an amazing, inspiring talk. She is both calm and forceful at the same time, and her efforts fighting for democracy, truth and fairness are inspiring. On Saturday we continued on the theme of political struggle and listened to three graphic novelists. One of them, Mike Konopacki, had just published a graphic history in collaboration with Howard Zinn. Another, Lynda Barry (the main reason I went to see this group) has a new book, "What It Is."

The New York Times says, “Barry is, underneath the wonky handwriting and the quirky, naïve drawings, a great memoirist . . . Like [Tobias] Wolff and [Dave] Eggers, she finds a tone that accommodates self-criticism and self-irony without tipping over into self-loathing . . . but what she is particularly good at is resonance.” This describes her presentation perfectly.

It's amazing to me how much I recognize and relate to, in what she says. She has a unique way of describing the world that puts pictures into your head as the words enter your mind. The book is so graphically beautiful I just had to have it. And, she's a hoot! If you ever have a chance to hear her in person, take advantage. I can't wait to read the book—so far I've just been mesmerized by the drawings.

This evening there was a workshop and presentation by food writers hosted by a restaurant just a couple of blocks from my house. The emphasis was on ethnic foods only one of the promised food samples was vegan.

Although there are are lots of other book events I'd have liked to attend today, we went instead to the Fall Art Tour. Artists in several rural communities about 60 miles from here opened their studios this weekend. My son is visiting from Seattle and he wanted to go.

Did I mention that today is my birthday? Last Tuesday I arrived home from work to an empty house. My husband "had to go out for a bit to meet someone." I was shocked when he arrived home with Aaron and the news that this was my birthday present. He'd flown Aaron home from Seattle for a week's visit! I took Friday, Monday and Tuesday off from work and have been having a great time.

Now to the cinnamon buns I've been craving for about two weeks, but haven't had time to make. With Aaron here it seemed like good timing to finally get around to it. Over at Ricki's blog, she's been making things with coconut, and we made and enjoyed her veggies, rice and coconut (but with a lot less coconut). Then she posted that very appealing raspberry coffeecake. And I started thinking that I didn't HAVE to use raisins in my cinnamon buns. Why, I could use anything I wanted, even blueberries...and coconut. I'd already worked out the dough recipe in my mind; now all I needed was time between book events to make them. I made them yesterday and I managed to pull them from the oven just in time to go hear Lynda Barry.



I'm embarrassed to admit that because I was so rushed, I actually forgot to add the cinnamon to my filling. To make up for it, I sprinkled the buns liberally with cinnamon before baking. Good grief.

Also, this dough recipe is enough for about 40 buns but I decided to make only 20 buns and a loaf of bread. The filling is for half the recipe (20 buns). If you want to make all 40, either double the filling or fill the other 20 with a filling of your choice. I was planning to use the filling part of this recipe, before I switched to blueberries.

Blueberry cinnamon buns

• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 cups hot water
• 1/4 cup sucanot
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 6 cups white whole wheat flour (or a mix of white whole wheat and unbleached white)

Filling

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups blueberries (I used frozen)
• 1/4 cup sucanot
• 1/4 cup unsweetened dried coconut

1. Add yeast to 1/4 cup warm water and set aside.
2. Put sugar, salt, oil and margarine in large bowl. Add 2 cups hot water and stir to dissolve.
3. Add three cups flour and mix with a spoon.
4. Add yeast mixture and remaining 3 cups flour. Mix well with your hand until everything is incorporated. Dough will be soft, a little sticky but not wet.
5. Oil bowl, cover and let dough rise at least 45 minutes. You can leave it up to two hours.
6. Roll out dough into a rectangle about 16" x 18." Cut the rectangle in half lengthwise.
7. Mix together the (frozen) blueberries, coconut, sugar and cinnamon and spread the mix on one of the dough halves, keeping the filling at least one inch from the the two long edges.
8. Roll up the dough in a spiral starting on a long edge. With the seam on the bottom, slice the long roll into one inch pieces and lay them cut side down in a large baking pan. A jelly roll pan works well. They should be about one inch apart.
9. Sprinkle with cinnamon and additional coconut if desired. Cover and let rise 30 to 45 minutes.
   
10. At this point you can fill the second rectangle or form it into a loaf, place it on a baking sheet, cover and let rise.
    
11. Bake in a preheated 350˚ oven for 25 minutes for the buns and 40 minutes for the loaf. Or until done.
12. Cool on a wire rack.

Raisin cake #2

In a previous post I shared very early childhood memories, and a wish to recreate my grandmother's raisin cake. Of course I realize that as long as I try to keep the cake relatively healthy and low fat, I'll never be able to have the cake exactly as I remember it. After all, my grandmother's cake was rich with butter. That said, this second version was so good that it never made it into the freezer as planned. Cake number one tasted great but was too soft and moist. (This isn't a bad thing—just not what I was looking for.) I wanted something firmer and more dense, but not heavy. I was trying for a texture more like a soda bread, but sweet like a cake. And the raisins and spices would be layered into the cake rather than mixed into the batter.

I bought a 9-1/2" bundt pan so the cake would look more like Nannie's. I planned to buy a Nordic Ware 6-cup or 9-cup classic pan, but our neighborhood kitchen store only had a 12-cup and it was enormous. It was also expensive. They had a Cuisinart 9-1/2" pan on sale for only $12.99 and it seemed really heavy and the right size, so I bought it. I was kind of disappointed at the extremely subtle pattern on the finished cake. Also, the outside of the cake wasn't as dark as I thought it should be. And I hadn't noticed that the pan is made in two parts with a seam that shows at the top of the cake. At some point I may still buy the 6-cup Nordic Ware—if I continue to make and refine this cake.



The cake was much closer to what I was looking for, and as I continue to make this cake and perfect it, I'll update the recipe. That said, we loved this cake just as it was.

I used white whole wheat flour because I was out of whole wheat pastry flour and it worked really well. I sifted it before measuring it to make it lighter.



Raisin cake #2

• 4 cups flour (white whole wheat or whole wheat pastry, sifted before measuring))
  
• 2 tablespoons potato starch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar (evaporated cane juice)
• pinch cardamom
• 1 teaspoon cocoa
• 2 cups soymilk plus 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Filling

• 1-1/2 cups raisins
• water
• 2 tablespoon margerine
• 1/4 cup sugar (evaporated cane juice)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice

1. Put the raisins in a pot and add water just to the top of the raisins. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down. Add the margarine, sugar and spices and cook gently until most of the water is evaporated and the you have a gooey syrupy base. Turn off the heat.
2. Put the soymilk and vinegar in a measuring cup and let the milk curdle. Add the oil and vanilla and stir together.
3. Sift together (or stir well) the flour, sugar, potato starch, baking soda and powder, cardamom, cocoa and salt.
4. Add the liquid ingredients and mix. The batter will be very thick and sticky.
   
5. Lightly oil and dust with sugar (evaporated cane juice) a 9-cup bundt pan.
6. Place 1/3 of the batter into the pan. Cover with 1/2 of the raisin mixture, keeping the raisins away from the edge of the batter as much as possible. Cover with another 1/3 of the batter. Then add the remaining raisins. Cover with the rest of the batter.
7. Bake in a preheated 350˚ oven for about 40 minutes, or until the cake tests done.

Rhubarb cobbler (wheat free)

I was thinking about what I should cook for the blog and every time I came up with an idea for something I wanted to try, a nagging thought kept annoying me. My garden is full of this year's rhubarb and my freezer is full of last year's rhubarb. I should make at least one thing with this plant that I used to love, but am now indifferent to, so I went outside and gathered a bunch of red stalks. And besides, my son recently asked for a rhubarb recipe, so here comes a simple and homey cobbler. You might want to serve it with vegan ice cream to dress it up.

I was planning to roll a square of pastry and cut nine rectangles with my pastry cutter (for nifty zig-zag edges) and place them window-pane style across the top of the rhubarb. Or maybe cut out leaf shapes and arrange them artistically. Sigh. Of course I reached for my same old biscuit topping and slapped it on. Of course. So predictable.

Ironically, the recipe I always turn to for biscuit topping is from my junior high school foods and nutrition cookbook. I just can't believe I still have the cookbook, let alone use it. It was so long ago. I don't remember much about junior high home economics beyond the time in sewing class that I sewed through my finger at the sewing machine about five minutes after the teacher jokingly warned us not to do that. Or the inedible cake whose center sunk to the pan bottom. Oh wait, there was a pink place mat and two napkins that I embroidered with slices of blueberry pie (little knots for the blueberries!) and cups of steaming coffee. Other than that—a wasteland.

Anyway, I decided to use the basic recipe proportions while changing the actual ingredients. I've been relying on wheat so much lately that I though it would be more interesting to change the flour. I used to use make cookies, cakes and breads with barley, spelt and rice flours, and it occurred to me that I've become too narrow and should probably eat a greater variety of foods. However, if you prefer using wheat flour, the quantity is 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached white flour instead of the barley and spelt. (Using spelt requires more flour than wheat.)

Rhubarb cobbler
• 4 heaping cups rhubarb, cut into 1" pieces
• 1/2 to 1 cup sucanot*
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon arrowroot

biscuit topping
• 1/2 cup barley flour
• 3/4 cup spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sucanot
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup soymilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Put the rhubarb in a large bowl and toss with the arrowroot until coated. Add the sucanot and cinnamon and mix. (*Different varieties of rhubarb vary in their sweetness, with some incredibly sour and some more mild. And different folks have different sweetness requirements. I like things a bit on the tart side so 1/2 cup of sucanot works for me. Maybe you need more to make your tongue smile.) As the rhubarb sits, the sugar will start to melt, so give it a mix every so often as you make the topping.

Sift into a bowl (or whisk or just mix well) the barley flour, spelt flour, baking soda, salt and sucanot. Add the oil and mix with a fork until it looks like crumbs. Add the vanilla to the milk then add the milk all at once to the dry ingredients. Mix lightly together until combined.

Oil a 9" x 9" square baking dish and fill with the rhubarb mixture, making sure to scrape out and add all of the sugar. Spread the biscuit mixture on the top. You can drop it from a spoon as individual biscuits or spread as one piece. Bake in a preheated 375˚ oven for 35 minutes. Cool.

Ginger-carrot quick bread

I watched this quick bread being made on Everyday Food, a PBS cooking show, and I just had to try it. Of course, they made it with white flour and white sugar, so the carrot juice turned it a beautiful orange color. The color was part of the appeal, but by the time I made the cake "healthy" and vegan, it was a much different color. It looked more like ginger bread, but I can assure you it tasted delish. Because I don't like pieces of nuts in cake, I ground up the walnuts in my food processor until they were crumbly. I think adding the ground nuts made the cake taste richer. It was really easy, too, especially since there was no carrot grating involved.

Ginger-carrot quick bread
3/4 cup sucanot (evaporated cain juice)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups carrot juice
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour*
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup ground toasted walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ and lightly oil a 8" x 4" loaf pan
2. Mix sugar, oil, vanilla and carrot juice in a large bowl.
3. Sift together the flour, ginger, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. (or just mix together well)
4. Add flour mixture to liquid mixture and mix just until combined. (In other words, don't overmix)
5. Bake 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack.

note: When I peered through the glass door of my oven half way through baking to check on this cake, I never thought it would turn out okay. It looked awfully wet. But it turned out great in the taste department. It wouldn't, however, win any high-rise awards, although it was entirely presentable. Mine took the whole 55 minutes to bake.

Note: * I just made this again and I used white whole wheat flour. The color was much better this time—more orange. The cake rose beautifully and was soft and delicious!

nutty linzer cookies

Yesterday, a co-worker brought cookies to work but I couldn't have one because she had added butterscotch chips to the recipe and it wsn't vegan. Ironically, she had started with a vegan recipe and made it not vegan. This was perfectly fine - I'm not much of a sweet-eater or a snacker, and if I do snack, it's usually on something like nuts or pretzels. I especially don't find sweets appealing in the morning. (Currently, I'm most likely to snack on pistachios.) However, the cookies were very interesting looking in a healthy kind of way, and in spite of their healthy appearance, they were receiving very positive feedback from everyone who was sampling them. Healthy cookies that people like? This was a recipe worth tracking down. I got the recipe from Jen, and traced the original to this Web site where they're called, "energizing linzer cookies." My version (based on ingredients on hand and personal preference) is below. I made 21 cookies, some with raspberry jam and some with chocolate chips. The chocolate chips didn't melt as I expected them to, but they tasted good. The raspberry filled cookies were much prettier and I preferred them. The cookies are sweet, but the jam I used, organic sugar-free raspberry jam from Trader Joes, was actually a bit tart, providing an unexpected but pleasant contrast. Unfortunately, I ate too many.

Nutty linzer cookies
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup toasted, unsalted almonds
1/2 unsalted walnuts
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup agave syrup (or maple syrup)
2 teaspoons vanilla
raspberry jam
chocolate chips

Place oats, almonds and walnuts in a food processor and process until crumbly. Add flour and flax and pulse until mixed. Add oil, syrup and vanilla and pulse until mixed and dough forms.
Form into balls (wet hands help) and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet.
Press a depression into each cookie with your finger.
Place some jam or chocolate chips into each depression.
Bake at 350˚ for 14 minutes.

P.S. I was much too stingy with the jam and chocolate chips because I was afraid they would bubble up and ooze over the sides. Next time I make these - and there will definitly be a next time - I'm going to load up that jam and stuff in those chips. Jen says I should fill up the jam and put chocolate chips around the edge. Maybe I will.

Pancakes with blueberry topping

Every once in a while I need pancakes. But does anyone really need another pancake recipe? No, I don't think so, but here's one anyway. I made these without looking at a recipe - no following directions to tax my bleary morning mind - and they are pretty basic. My husband and I both enjoyed the results. You could use maple syrup on your pancakes but I prefer blueberries.

First make the topping. It's basically the same as for the french toast post except this time I measured. Makes about two cups of not-very-sweet topping. (Pour the cold leftovers over your morning oatmeal tomorrow.)
Blueberry topping
1 cup organic apple juice
2 cups frozen or fresh blueberries
2 teaspoons arrowroot plus 1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Heat juice and blueberries to boiling. Add arrowroot to water and stir to dissolve. Add to blueberries and bubble gently, briefly, until thickened. Turn off heat and add vanilla. I like this on the tart side but adding a tablespoon or two of maple syrup, agave nectar, or rice syrup will punch up the sweetness and enhance the flavor. If you like your topping thicker, use only 3/4 cup juice.

Pancakes - makes about 16 medium
1-1/2 cups soy milk
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch cinnamon
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon sucanot
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Put the soymilk and vinegar into the blender to sit for a minute and curdle. Add the rest and buzz a few times. Scrape down the sides. Don't over-blend or the pancakes could be tough. We don't want that. Heat a non-stick griddle until drops of water hiss. Pour the batter into 3 or 4 inch pancakes. When the edges begin to look dry and bubbles form on the surface, flip the pancakes and cook briefly until the bottom is golden. (Flours differ in moisture content so you may need to add a bit more liquid to get the right consistency.)

How I learned to make pizza

When I was a pre-teen/early teen, my late father owned an Italian restaurant. Other than pizza and shrimp salad, I have no memory of what was on the menu. Those were the only things I ever ate there and pizza was the main thing. I really loved the pizza. When I discovered that my father was making big vats of pizza dough in the restaurant basement, I was shocked. No one had ever told me that HE was making it. I couldn't believe it. My father was not a cooking - cleaning - help - around - the - house kind of guy. He was a man who prided himself on never having changed a diaper for any of his three children. He went to work and came home and we kids were mostly supposed to not bother him.

When I found out about the pizza dough I was beside myself. I couldn't stop pestering and begging him to make pizza at home. After a couple months of incessant nagging he finally agreed, and this was the start of pizza making at our house. He made the dough and it was my job to grate the cheese (in those days real cheese) and make the sauce. I was probably about 11 or 12 at the time but I still remember it perfectly. It was an uncooked sauce that doesn't sound good but made a delicious pizza. I put tomato paste into a bowl and thinned it with water until it would drop from a spoon. I added garlic salt and oregano and a little sugar until it tasted like pizza sauce. It had to be a little more seasoned than usual so it would be flavorful on the baked pie.

Of course, now I prefer to have some yummy leftover tomato sauce on hand when I make pizza but if I don't...well... I'm not above opening a can of tomato paste and quickly making a sauce. I use granulated garlic or fresh smashed and minced garlic, chili powder and oregano. Maybe some dried onion flakes will be added or some hot pepper flakes. But a jar of Enrico's Pizza Sauce or Muir Glen organic pizza sauce are also reasonable alternatives to homemade.

I still love pizza, and have posted a recipe before this one. It was made with a dough based on Peter Reinhart's mimimal-yeast, slow-rising recipes from "The Bread Baker's Apprentice," a book I love, love, love, and highly recommend to serious and aspiring bread bakers. The breads and pizzas I bake based on the recipe I've worked out for my bread machine (forgive me Mr. R), are stellar. The pizza is fast, but the breads, while not requiring much hands-on time, take all day to rise before I bake them on my stone. The pizza is the thin and crispy crust type and incredibly good.
Here's another idea for a crust based on a fast and easy bread I've been experimenting with lately. It makes a softer, but delicious crust with little fuss - no bread machine needed. I used my variation of the recipe, but the original recipe and instructions are found here. To make pizza, you should let the dough rise once in the bowl, and then form the crust. I used a pizza pan for the crust because I thought the dough was too soft to get it easily onto the pizza stone, especially covered with all the toppings. Let the crust rise about a half-hour before adding the toppings. I used tomato sauce, Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet mozzarella, crimini mushrooms, broccoli, onions and sausage crumbles. I pre-heated the oven to 475 and baked the pizza for 3 minutes before turning the oven down to 350 and baking until done - about 20 minutes. Bake the pizza near the bottom of the oven for the best crust and check it for doneness before the whole baking time is up. The recipe makes two breads so I made one pizza and one bread.

Mini-doughnuts (in Seattle)

I don't know when I had time to surf the Web in Seattle, but somehow I ended up on the fabulous Vegan Yum Yum blog and became obsessed with the idea of making gnocchi and mini doughnuts—or at least with the idea of owning a gnocchi board and some mini-doughnut pans. Not long after the obsession set in, I found myself in an upscale cookware store with T and Babycakes and would you believe — they had both items. I bought one of each. The gnocchi board was cheap and I mean to use it in the near future. I only bought one mini-doughnut pan, reasoning that I could get another in Madison if it really appeared I would make mini-doughnuts. Well, I did make the minis in Seattle! I used the recipe from Vegan Yum Yum with a slight twist. I decided that instead of making a chocolate glaze I would make chocolate chip doughnuts. I didn't realize the batter would be warm enough to instantly melt the chips, creating chocolate mini-doughnuts! And being the vegan health-nut that I am, I used whole wheat pastry flour. I wish I had photographed them (very cute) instead of just the pan now that I'm home, but go look at the amazing photos on Vegan Yum Yum and you'll understand why I was so captivated. The minis were delicious by the way, and I intend to make them again — this time with a glaze. I have to say that it was a challenge getting the batter into the pan without covering up the center posts. When the doughnuts came out of the pan, the tops were a little weird and nearly closed, but the bottoms looked like baby doughnuts. I've never made these before so maybe it's bottoms up where baked doughnuts are concerned.

By the way, lest you think all we ate in Seattle were Chinese food, doughnuts and ginger bars, Ken also made farro soup, Tuscan stew and enchiladas. And our son made some great, savory black-eyed peas that I will try to make this weekend from his very sketchy recipe.

UPDATE:

Here's my latest attempt at the mini-doughnut thing. I did a much better job getting the batter into the pan (by using a teaspoon), so the tops looked like doughnuts this time, and I didn't have to turn them upside down. And I put the melted chocolate chips on top instead of inside. Still, I'll never be the sort of baker whose products win oohs and ahs for appearance - except maybe for my breads. These tasted really good, but next time I think I'll make them a little less sweet. And I tried thinning the batter a little before baking the second batch (still only have one pan) and the appearance of the baked doughnuts was much smoother. The texture was better, too. Perhaps the whole wheat pastry flour needs a thinner batter. In any case, the little doughnuts didn't last long!

Ten days in Seattle (part 1)

We were just in Seattle visiting family (oldest son N, daughter-in-law T, middle son A, girlfriend E. The occasion was to meet N&T's new baby, our first grandchild. Babycakes is fabulously adorable at five weeks old, and we had a terrific time helping out around the house and taking care of her. The delicious-looking veggies above were knitted for Babycakes by the very talented E. One rattles, one crackles—all are pleasingly soft and cuddly.

I could talk all day and night about the scrumtious baby but, this is a vegan food blog, and Seattle is a vegan's paradise so the rest of the posts concerning Seattle will be about food. The nature of the trip was more home-cooking than restaurant-going, but we did manage a few ventures out with Babycakes in tow. We cooked from this blog and others and even watched a cooking show that should result in a carrot cake at some future date. There were restaurant foods that I want to reproduce at home, too, but that will have to wait.
First, a little back story. With all the snow we've had, we encountered problems with a leaking porch roof. Then, two days before departure, a downstairs front room began dripping from the ceiling. We called our roofer who said water had leaked in from the porch roof. We called a house remodeling and roofing company who said it was from an ice dam. Both said it would have to drip out and then we could do repairs but not to worry. Ha. I wanted to stay home until it was resolved but Ken convinced me to go and he would follow as soon as possible. The night before departure we were in bed and I said, "did you hear that?" Ken said, "I didn't hear anything." I said, "I heard a ker-plunk." He ran downstairs and called me immediately to see that a large part of the ceiling had fallen and water was dripping many places other than in the buckets I had arranged in the room. We cleaned up the mess as best we could. All the furniture was already in the living room and hall, the rug was a disaster. Ken called the insurance company. In the morning, after taking me to the airport, he called our plumber for advice and a disaster recovery company was suggested. They discovered a slowly leaking pipe in the wall coming from the upstairs bathroom. The plumber came and fixed the pipe, the leak stopped and the disaster people set up air and infrared machines, or whatever, to dry out the ceiling and kill the mold. Ken left on Tuesday and the machines were removed on Thursday. Whew. What a mess. Guess we won't be having company for a while.

Friday, my first day in Seattle, I made a batch of ginger bars . For dinner we had some delicious leftover vegan paella that T's mom had made when she visited, and froze. She doesn't use recipes so I can't provide one but it tasted great. The next day I baked "Outrageously Easy BIG Bread" from vegweb. I found a link to the recipe on my friend Claire's blog. I pretty much followed the recipe except I used half whole wheat instead of all-purpose flour. It was as easy as described and had a nice texture and taste, but it was a little too salty for me. It was so easy that I began to wonder why I use a bread machine at home. (Just kidding-I know why...)

Seriously, it was really easy. I think using hot water made the dough form much more quickly than cool water does. Kneading it was no problem - I wanted the dough to be kneadable, but still soft. I also wanted to use less yeast and have it rise longer. This fits into my schedule better as I was able to let it rise as long as I wanted until I was ready to form the loaves. It also improves the texture. As long as you use a big bowl, you can pretty much let it rise as long as you want. I think I left it at least four hours on one of the rises. I baked the bread two more times in Seattle and again today at home and changed it a little each time. The original recipe can be ready in two hours but I prefer my version. I use three cups whole wheat flour for the first addition and three cups unbleached (or one cup whole wheat and two cups unbleached) for the second. I use one scant tablespoon of yeast, two scant teaspoons of salt and 1/4 cup of olive oil. I use enough flour to make a soft but kneadable dough and knead it briefly right in the bowl. I cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again then form the loaves. I let the loaves rise about 1/2 hour or until double. I preheat the oven to 475˚ and bake the loaves on a stone. I bake for four minutes and then turn the oven down to 350˚ and bake for about 25 minutes. This is a very soft and delicious bread. Today I made it with caraway seeds but I want to try adding kalamata olives next time. The instructions from the link "Outrageously Easy BIG Bread" are very complete so there's no need to repeat them here.

That night for dinner I made braised greens with tofu, cashews, and raisins over polenta. I love this recipe. T doesn't like raisins so I used dried apricots instead. I made a double recipe which served five big eaters generously and provided lunch for three. I put my youngest son, J, to work making steamed carrots flavored with dill and a small amount of sugar and olive oil. No one could resist the bread so we had that too.

Chocolate banana cake

Here's a recipe I found in Vegetarian Times that was easy to veganize. It has a great texture and is not too sweet. You can bake it in a 9 x 5 loaf pan or as 12 muffins. I don't think I mashed the banana enough but it was still really good.

Chocolate banana cake
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (that's pastry flour, stirred well before measuring)
1/2 cup evaporated cane juice (like Sucanot)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
almost 1 cup soy milk
3/4 cups mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rice vinegar or cider vinegar
1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips for glaze (optional)
extra chocolate chips (see note)

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Coat pan with oil.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in bowl.
3. Put vinegar in measuring cup and add soy milk to make one cup. Let stand for a minute to curdle. Whisk together soy milk, banana, oil and vanilla. Fold liquid mixture into flour mixture.
4. Put batter into prepared pan and bake 50 minutes for a loaf and 20 minutes for muffins., or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Cool 5 minutes in pan. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
6. If desired, melt 1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips in a small pot. Use a low flame and stir constantly (seriously, pay attention -it only takes a minute) until melted. Spread over the top of the cooled cake. This is a thin coating, more like a glaze.

note: This chocolate cake is relatively healthy with the whole wheat pastry flour and only 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of oil and all that banana. And I'm not saying you should change that, but you could stir 1/2 cup or more of vegan chocolate chips into the flour mixture before you fold in the wet ingredients. This is entirely optional, but maybe for a special occasion...

Lazy cooks read this: My friend Claire put chocolate chips on top of the hot cake where they softened, and she spread them into an icing. Now, THAT'S easy. Yikes.

Braised greens with tofu, cashews and raisins over polenta

Don't let the long title scare you. This fabulous dish is so easy to make you may find yourself standing around the kitchen looking for something to do. It's very versatile, too. You could leave out the tofu and polenta, for example, and serve the braised kale as a vegetable. Or serve it over basmati rice or rice thread noodles. I highly recommend trying the polenta, though. It's delish and serves four.

The polenta is based on a recipe from Passionate Vegetarian. The author says it's an old Tuscan peasant recipe. Here it is:
-1 cup course grind cornmeal (our co-op sells a bulk course grind labeled "polenta") or fine grind cornmeal
-3 1/2 cups water
-3/4 teaspoon salt
-1 tablespoon yeast flakes (not brewers yeast powder), optional but recommended

Oil a 3 quart oven-proof skillet or dish. Put all ingredients in dish and mix together casually.
Put the dish, uncovered, in a pre-heated 350˚ oven. Bake for 40 minutes, undisturbed. After 40 minutes, stir and bake 10 more minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for five minutes. Creamy, dreamy, heartwarming polenta. mmm.

I always make this polenta in a 3 1/2 quart enamelled cast iron casserole pan from Le Creuset. It's one of three pieces of this cookware that I own, and it gets used nearly every day. Because the pan isn't supposed to go directly from cold to hot, I put it in the oven when I turn it on to pre-heat, and start the timer when the oven reaches the correct temperature.



Braised greens with tofu, cashews and raisins
-1 pound kale (or other sturdy greens like mustard) I used a bunch of kale -no idea what it weighed
-2 tablespoons olive oil
-1/2 pound extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 teaspoon tamari
-1/4 cup cashews
-1/2 cup bread crumbs (one slice of bread should be about right)
-1/4 cup raisins
-1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
-one good sized carrot, peeled
-1/2 teaspoon natural sugar
-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (unseasoned)
-freshly ground black pepper

1. Rinse greens, remove thick stems, coursely shred and set aside.
3. Place the tofu cubes in a small bowl and drizzle with one teaspoon tamari. Toss to coat all the cubes. Let sit five minutes.
3. Heat one tablespoon oil in wok or skillet. Add the tofu cubes and cook over high heat until browned.
4. Turn the heat down. Add the mushrooms, cashews and bread crumbs and sauté until they are lightly browned. Stir in the raisins. Remove mixture from pan and set aside.
5. Add the other tablespoon of oil to pan, shred the carrot right into the pan, increase heat to high and add the greens. Stir to mix, then cover and cook about three minutes until the greens have wilted but are still bright green. (Be careful not to burn them.)
6. Reduce heat, stir in sugar and vinegar, and season to taste. Add the tofu mixture. Spread over polenta.

Sometimes I spread the polenta on a large serving platter and place the veggies on top. You can decorate with parsley and olives.

The whole vegetable part took about 15-20 minutes including prep time, so plan accordingly so you can have the veggies and polenta finish cooking about the same time. This part of the recipe is based on a recipe that I think is from the NY Times. I'm not sure though.

March 19 Update: I'm in Seattle visiting family and doubled this recipe to feed five or six adults with lots of leftovers. When I went to stir the polenta after 40 minutes, it was still liquidy. I panicked. Did I forget to double the cornmeal? Was the oven temperature wrong? Then I realized that of course, larger amounts of food require longer cooking times. Duh. After another half hour, it was ready to stir. In the meantime, I cut up all the ingredients and put them into little bowls, ready to go. When the polenta was done, I turned off the oven but left the dutch oven in there. Then I prepared the braised veggies, and I felt like a TV cook! You know how they make it look so easy in those TV kitchens by having all the ingredients in little dishes and just popping the stuff into the pan. Well, it really IS easy to have the ingredients on hand.

Fried rice

No recipe tonight - just a photo of the fried rice I made for supper. It was just a simple stir fry with lots of baby broccoli, carrots, yellow and orange peppers, onion, mushrooms and leftover rice. I seasoned it with a spice mixture from Penzeys called Bangkok Blend, and tamari. Even when I don't think I have enough energy left to make dinner, something as simple as this still beats some over-seasoned convenience food. Yeah.

Gingery bars

The house smells so good. And in spite of the endless snow, the kitchen is warm and spicy. I decided it was time to make something to distract me, however briefly, from the wreckage outside. This is a variation on an old recipe passed on to me by a co-worker.
Gingery bars
-3/4 cup organic sugar (evaporated cane juice)
-1/3 cup canola oil
-2-1/2 cups sifted (or well-stirred) whole wheat pastry flour
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
-1/2 teaspoon salt (scant)
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 cup soymilk
-1/2 cup molasses ( blackstrap, sorghum and Barbados will all give slightly different results. The ones pictured were made with sorghum)
-1/2 cup raisins (optional)
two bowls and a glass measuring cup
9 x 13-inch greased and floured baking pan (don't forget the sides)

1. Mix oil and sugar in larger bowl
2. Sift dry ingredients together
3. Combine soymilk and molasses in measuring cup
4. Add dry ingredients alternating with wet ingredients to sugar/oil mix
5. Add raisins
6. Spead as evenly as you can in the pan. Batter is thick.
7. Bake 20-25 minutes in preheated 350˚ oven (will still be soft-don't overbake!)
8. Cool in pan 15 minutes, then cut into bars. Makes 16 large bars or 32 smaller ones.

The bars are at their best when completely cool. They are addictively chewy and cakey at the same time. I froze my leftovers so I wouldn't eat them all at once. These are good! (And they taste good frozen, too.)

Here are two pictures of the street where we live—just in case you think I'm making up the stuff I write about the snow. They were taken right outside our house.



Update: Here it is March 16 and I'm in Seattle meeting my brand new, very beautiful granddaughter. Yesterday, everyone was craving a treat, so I made these bars. I made them with blackstrap molasses because that's what we had, and I over- baked them because the baby started crying and what with the diaper changing and comforting, we forgot about the bars. Babies will cause that to happen. The bars still tasted great! So, I removed the note about not using blackstrap, but I still recommend not over-baking.

update2: I got this recipe from a co-worker who got it from her grandmother. She even has a scan of a very old letter written to or by her grandmother that contained this recipe. My co-worker was stunned when I told her I had found the recipe on several places on the Web and that it wasn't original. Obviously it must have come from an old cookbook and no one remembers which one, or has chosen not to mention it. Even when I've changed a recipe, I like to credit the source, so if you ever come across this recipe in a book, let me know. I think the original bars were called "hermits."

Valentine dessert

When the kids were growing up, I always made a Valentine dessert. It was literally a valentine from me to them and it was a family tradition. Every year I tried to come up with a new version to bake in my heart-shaped pan. It usually involved some sort of cake, cookie, or pastry base with non-dairy ice cream and/or frosting and/or a red fruit filling or topping. It was usually pretty good and visually impressive. One year it was so good that I wrote down the recipe. (I must have it somewhere.)

This year I made a dessert for the blog. Maybe my heart wasn't totally in it like when I made it for the kids, but it doesn't look quite as spectacular as I remember. Maybe my little camera isn't up to rendering valentines or maybe I rushed. The yummy taste is there, but I'm sure you can be more artistic than I if you try!

This year I used the chocolate chip cookie recipe posted 1/15/08 for the base. I used 1/2 recipe and pressed it into an 8 x 8 heart-shaped pan. (I just went ahead and made the whole recipe, used half for the heart and made cookies with the rest. The cookies freeze well so I froze them.) I used a non-dairy vanilla ice cream for the center and a bittersweet chocolate frosting for the top. The icing is BITTERSWEET in a big way and will appeal to people who like bittersweet chocolate. If you like your chocolate sweeter, leave out the coffee and add a little maple syrup. I used frozen raspberries to decorate the edge because I had some in the freezer, but use your favorite fruit. I think cherries would be good. You could use fresh fruit if you add it just before serving. Just a thought - if all this seems like a lot of work, you could just serve the cookie with ice cream on the side! One thing I noticed, and should mention, is while this combination tastes great, the cookies are very crisp and a bit hard to cut, especially when frozen. You might want to assemble this dessert closer to when you plan to serve it so it doesn't stay in the freezer too long, or plan to let it sit out for five minutes or so before attempting to cut it. And use a sharp knife! Maybe slightly underbaking the cookie would also help. Mine will be in the freezer for five days before I serve it. It's in a freezer bag inside a plastic container. I'm hoping for the best!


Valentine dessert
Chocolate chip oatmeal cookie base (this is 1/2 of the normal recipe)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (stir it up before measuring)
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
1/4 cup Sucanot (evaporated cane juice)
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 or more tablespoons water

-Combine flour, oatmeal, Sucanot, salt and baking soda in large bowl. Stir in chips.
-Mix oil, vanilla and 1 tablespoons water in glass measuring cup.
-Stir the wet into the dry until flour is absorbed. Batter will be thick but if it's too stiff to work with, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
-Press into a lightly oiled 8 x 8 heart-shaped pan.
-Bake on center shelf of preheated 375˚ oven until lightly browned on the bottom, about 20 minutes (or until edges start to brown).
-Cool in pan 10 minutes, loosen edges with a knife and then invert over a wire rack. Tap the pan bottom gently to release the cookie. Carefully turn right side up.
The filling
Rinse out the pan and maybe oil it for the next step. I never do but maybe the ice cream would come out more easily. Anyway, this part can be interesting. I've noticed that some non-dairy ice creams (especially my favorites) seem to go from rock hard to liquid without passing through a soft stage. I used a rice-based product this time and was a little nervous about it liquefying so I cut hard chunks out of the carton with a butter knife and pressed it quickly into the heart pan with the back of a wooden spoon. It actually wasn't too bad. I used about 3/4 of a pint (got tired of pressing) but you can use it all if you want. When I had the surface all smooth and even I put the pan back in the freezer. Leave it there for an hour or two to firm up. While it's firming, make the frosting.

The frosting
My mother didn't make a lot of desserts but when one of us kids had a birthday, she was there for us with cake made from scratch and bittersweet chocolate fudge frosting. I never had much of a sweet tooth but I loved that frosting. Once in elementary school, when we had to memorize a story or poem to present to the class, I memorized the frosting recipe. I wish I could still recite it, but all I can remember is 11 tablespoons of cocoa and 11 tablespoons of sugar. Sound familiar?

Lately I've been using a frosting based on a recipe from Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon. Her recipe uses sour cream and I have substituted soy yoghurt. I've also made it slightly softer so it would spread easily over the ice cream. It's amazingly fast and easy and meets my need for chocolate to be as bittersweet as possible! With this dessert, even spreading on as much as my conscience allowed, I still had leftovers. (To spread on the leftover cookies from the other half of the recipe!)

Bittersweet frosting
6 ounces semisweet vegan chocolate chips.
one 6-ounce carton of vanilla soy yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon decaffeinated coffee crystals dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling water
-Put the chocolate in the top half of a double boiler and melt over hot water. Stir often. I just put a stainless bowl over a pot of boiling water and it works fine.
-Remove from heat and stir in yogurt, vanilla and coffee. Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and glossy. Place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to cool it down but not so long as to make it hard to spread.

Assembly
cookie-heart base
ice cream heart
bittersweet frosting
frozen or fresh fruit
unsweetened shredded coconut or other decoration of your choice

Place the cookie on a nice plate where it can lie flat. Get the ice cream heart from the freezer and run hot water over the bottom of the pan for about 10 seconds to loosen it. Run a knife around the edge of the ice cream. Dry the pan and invert the pan over the cookie. It should fit perfectly since it's the same exact size. Thump gently on the pan bottom, and with a little luck, the ice cream should fall right into place on top of the cookie. Good luck. When the ice cream is successfully in place, put the dessert in the freezer for about 1/2 hour or so, to firm up the ice cream.

Spread the cooled frosting on the frozen ice cream. Work quickly so the ice cream doesn't melt. You can frost the top and sides or just the top. I did just the top and left a little white showing. Put the plate back in the freezer and get the fruit for the edge ready. Put it in a bowl so you can get to it quickly. Get the dessert from the freezer and arrange fruit around the edge or however you see fit. Sprinkle with shredded coconut or decoration of your choice. You're done.

Chipotle black bean burgers / oven sweet potato fries

We just had a family cooking session. Our son makes great black bean burgers, and we invited him for dinner hoping he would make them. He came for dinner and ended up making the main dish — his excellent-tasting black bean burgers. I was the chopper and transcriber, running back and forth between the cutting board and the notepad trying to chop things one minute and write down the ingredients he was adding to the bowl in the next. My husband manned the oven and also made green beans. Our son does some extra stuff I don't do when I make burgers - I'm lazier than he is. He sautés the onions and garlic before adding them to the mix and I add them raw. He usually adds chopped mushrooms but we didn't have any. He added extra hot sauce and I don't. He always cooks the burgers on the stove and I often bake them. Are his better? Maybe.

Spicy Chipotle Black Bean Burgers
1 can black beans
1/2 cup frozen corn
2 cups dry bread crumbs (stale sourdough is the best) or about 6 slices crumbled up whole wheat bread)
1 very large onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 large stalk celery, chopped fine
1/2 to 1 cup chopped mushrooms (optional. see note)
1/4 teaspoon paprika
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced (These come in a small can. Save the rest of the can for another use.)

Put the beans, crumbs, corn, chipotle and bread crumbs in a large bowl. Sauté the onions, celery and garlic for a few minutes in a small amount of oil. Add the paprika and mix. Add the sauté mix to the beans and mush up well with your hands until you have a cohesive mixture. If it's too soft, add more crumbs. Form into patties and cook on a non-stick griddle in a very small amount of oil until browned and firm. Serve on whole grain buns with lettuce and toppings of your choice.

To go with the burgers I cut some sweet potatoes for oven sweet potato fries. Cut them into 1/2 thick fingers and mix them with 2 to 3 finely minced cloves of garlic. (about 1 tablespoon) Spread them in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet, spray them with olive oil (or toss with a tablespoon of oil before spreading on the sheet). Bake in a pre-heated 475˚ oven for about 40 minutes or until soft but slightly crisp. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

note: These burgers had a slight tendency to break apart but they tasted great. I had some leftover cooked buckwheat that we substituted for half of the crumbs and maybe that had something to do with it. Or maybe they weren't mushed up enough. Also, last time we had these there was about 1 cup of chopped mushrooms in the sautéed mix and they added good flavor and texture. I would definitly recommend adding them.

chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

My husband was getting jealous of this blog. If you've been reading, you know that for the past six or seven years he's been doing most of the cooking and now that I'm getting interested in cooking again, he's feeling left out. All the recipes and photos so far have been for my stuff. I mean, it is my blog. So, last night he said he was making cookies and wanted me to photograph them and post them. Uh ... that depends, I said. I'm not photographing lumpy, bumpy all-different-sized cookies. There are rules here. They have to be easy to make, delicious and THEY HAVE TO LOOK GOOD. With a huff, he went into the kitchen. I was called in a short while later with a frenzied, "We don't have any maple syrup!" He was in the middle of putting ingredients into a large bowl. "Use Sucanot, I said."

The next time I was called into the kitchen, he was arranging a batch of beautiful cookies on a plate, and I went to get the camera. They were delicious, too!
The original recipe for these cookies can be found in "Complete Vegetarian Kitchen" by Lorna Sass. We've altered the recipe a little to suit our personal tastes.

Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (about two dozen)
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (stir it up before measuring)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup vegan chocolate chips
1/2 cup Sucanot (evaporated cane juice)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 or more tablespoons water

-Combine flour, oatmeal, Sucanot, salt and baking soda in large bowl. Stir in chips.
-Mix oil, vanilla and 2 tablespoons water in glass measuring cup.
-Stir the wet into the dry until flour is absorbed. Batter will be thick but if it's too stiff to work with, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
-Drop by heaping teaspoons about one inch apart onto two oiled cookie sheets. Flatten and shape with your fingers to about 1/4 inch thick.
-Bake on center shelf of preheated 375˚ oven until lightly browned on the bottom, about 17 minutes.
-Transfer cookies to a rack to cool.
-These cookies freeze very well. They even taste good frozen!

note: I know these delicious cookies are fast and easy to make because my husband made them. I know they're probably foolproof for the same reason. Here's an example of what I mean. A couple of months ago he made me a frosted birthday cake. It looked amazing but there were problems. For one thing, he made two layers but didn't put frosting between them so when the cake was cut into pieces, (sawed into pieces would probably be more accurate) the two layers popped apart like a weird hinged thing held together by an outer edge of rubberized frosting. The cake was basically inedible. Although I ate my piece, my husband and son refused to eat theirs. The cake came to a good end, however. My husband added it to the compost to enrich the soil for next year's garden!

Tofu and kale burritos

We had something similar to this dish many years ago in a wonderful restaurant in Santa Fe. They were so yummy that I re-created the recipe when we returned home. It's been so long since I've made them that I can't clearly remember the original taste, but I was thinking about how delicious they were and, inspired by the memory, I made them for dinner tonight. The recipe made enough for two very overstuffed (as in hard to pick up but very satisfying) burritos. I think you can probably make more than two. These are really fast and easy to make even though the recipe looks long, and they taste wonderful. They go perfectly with oven sweet potato fries. (1/18/08 post)

Tofu and kale burritos
sauce
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon rice syrup
1 tablespoon fresh or bottled lime juice
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Put the mustard into a glass measuring cup. Add the other ingredients and mix. Add enough water to make about 1/3 cup.

Filling
1/2 (or more) large bunch kale, about 6 leaves
1/4 lb. firm tofu (water packed or vacuum sealed in plastic, not the kind in the box)
1 small peeled carrot
1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1 or 2 chopped green onions
1 clove minced garlic
1 minced chipote pepper in adobo sauce (save the rest of the can for another recipe)

Strip the kale from the ribs. (Hold the stem in one hand with the leaf's underside facing up and just slide the thumb and finger of your other hand firmly along the rib, taking the leaf off as you go. You should end up with a bunch of bare ribs for the compost.) Put the leaves in a large bowl of water and swish them around to clean. If the water looks dirty, do it again. Shake off the excess water and mound the leaves on a cutting board so you can shread through them with a knife. Move the leaves a bit and slice some more until they are roughly shredded. Now cook the tofu.

Cut the tofu into 1/2 inch cubes and saute with the garlic in a wok or skillet in a small amount of oil until the tofu starts to brown. Add the chipotle and about a tablespoon of sauce and toss and cook a minute longer. Remove tofu from the wok. Add the kale and cover the wok so the kale can steam in the water clinging to it. Turn the heat down a little so it doesn't burn. When the kale is nice and tender but still firm (in other words, don't cook it until it turns to mush - just until you can bite it easily-you want to retain some bulk and mouth appeal) grate the carrot directly into the wok and toss in the corn. Cover for a minute to heat the corn, but the carrot can stay a little crunchy. Add the tofu, the onion and the rest of the sauce and flip it all together.
note: I love raw onion but it tends to upset my stomach so I add the green onion to the wok just before the tofu is finished cooking, to take the raw edge off.
Tortillas
I use whole wheat tortillas from Whole Foods or from our co-op. My husband likes to warm them on a nonstick griddle but I do it right on the gas burner. I use a fairly low flame and keep counting to 5 and flipping the tortilla over until it starts to puff and gets some toasty spots. When it's ready, lay it on a plate, pile the filling in, fold in one end and roll it up. Enjoy!

Optionals
sliced black olives
avocado
hot sauce
parsley or cilantro
note: If you want to double the recipe to make 4-6 burritos, use the whole bunch of kale, 1/2 pound of tofu, a large carrot and add enough water to the sauce to make 1/2 cup. Taste to see if it needs more lime juice or other seasoning.

French toast for breakfast

What's come over me. I was lying in bed thinking about french toast and how I would make it if I weren't so lazy and the next thing I knew I was in the kitchen. No company, no kids — just two of us and I was pulling bread out of the freezer and grabbing for the blender.

First I made a simple topping starting with frozen wild blueberries (hey, it's winter) and apple juice, thickened with arrowroot. I didn't measure, sorry, but there was probably about 3/4 cup each of fruit and juice and a level tablespoon of arrowroot softened in a tablespoon of water and added to the bubbling fruit mix and cooked until clear and thickened. I ended up with leftovers.

Here's the recipe for french toast
Whole wheat bread slices (there's probably enough batter for 6 to 8 slices)
1-1/4 cups soymilk (plain or vanilla)
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon evaporated cain juice (Sweeten to your personal taste. If you're going to top the French toast with maple syrup or jam, you might want it less sweet. I used 1 teaspoon)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (to your taste)
pinch salt (optional)

Blend everything (except the bread, of course) for 2 to 3 minutes until it's liquified. Put the bread slices in a shallow pan and pour the batter over. Turn the bread to soak up the batter on both sides. You'll have to coat the bread in shifts, soaking the remaining bread while the first batch sizzles on the stove.

Spray a non-stick griddle (or cast iron pan or wok or whatever you have) with canola oil and heat until a drop of water sprinkled on the surface, hisses. Cook the slices over medium heat until nice and brown and no longer wet. Turn several times for even cooking. Put on plates and pour on the topping of your choice — blueberry sauce, maple syrup, all-fruit jam. Enjoy.