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.