Portobellos

I'm not a huge fan of the big meaty portobello mushroom. Maybe because it's big and meaty? But I decided to give them a try at home and see what I could do with them.

What I did was slice them fairly thin and sautéed them in a pan with some garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Hello, simple! They seemed cooked enough - meaning they had shrunk down significantly - in under 5 minutes. I simply scooped them into some pitas with lettuce and not only was it tasty, it was so fast I barely knew I'd cooked!
I think some tomato slices would have really complemented the mushrooms, but I didn't have any.
Now that I have a portobello dish I really like, I may experiment with them some more! And maybe next time my photos will come out a little prettier!

Peppers!

Like many people, I have some trouble with green bell peppers. They can be hard on the digestion. But red, yellow, and orange are mellow, dreamy and oh so beautiful!

You can throw them into practically any dish for a little extra zing of color and flavor. For example this is simply collard greens sautéed with olive oil , onions and garlic. I threw a can of butter beans on top and while it would have still tasted fine, the look of it was a bit... blah. So I cut up a yellow pepper and threw it into the mix. Eye appeal makes a world of difference.


This is scrambled tofu (Vegan with a Vengeance) and Diner home fries (Veganomicon). While I've made this without the peppers because I didn't have any in the house, the addition of a pop of red pepper makes it so much more appealing! I also like to put some spinach into the tofu scramble for that 'Florentine' vibe.


I really love jalapeños and habañeros and all the other spicy peppers as well, but for every day the colorful bells always work.

Irish Soda Bread

There is nothing like Irish Soda Bread. When I was a kid we'd only ever have it for St. Patrick's Day - if then. But I never realized how easy it is to make. Really ridiculously simple - though maybe the traditional recipe is more complex. Since I've only ever made it as a Vegan, I can't say. But vegan is best, so why quibble? The longest part of the process is the baking.

Irish Soda Bread
1 cup soy milk (rice milk works too)
1 T. apple cider vinegar
2 ¼ flour
2 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
heaping ¼ t. baking soda
½ t. salt
½ cup (or more!) raisins
3 t. caraway seeds (if you like 'em - for me they make the bread)

Preheat oven to 350°.
Add the vinegar to the milk and set aside to 'curdle'. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Mixing the raisins into the flour coats them and keeps them from clumping all together in one place in the dough. When the oven is ready add the wet to the dry and mix just until everything comes together into a dough. Sprinkle a bit of flour onto a cookie sheet lined with silpat or parchment or just lightly greased. Form the dough into a ball, sprinkle a hint of flour on top and give it a little "x" slice across the top. Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Give it a toothpick test for doneness and if it sounds hollow when you tap it, it's certainly ready. Set it on a rack to cool or the bottom might get soft.

You can also throw the dough into a loaf pan if you want more uniform sandwich slices. Just remember to grease the loaf pan so you can get it out.


If you want that old-school bakery feeling, add a drop or two of green food coloring to the 'milk' mixture. Green bread makes me think of mold, but if you get a deep enough shade it's sort of festive for St. Pat's.

Soba Noodles with Cabbage and Miso

This is super easy and healthy comfort food.


Broth
2 cups water
2 t. Better than Boullion (or whatever boullion cubes or mix you like)
1 chopped carrot
1 chopped celery stalk
2 thinly sliced cabbage leaves (I used savoy)
1 BIG Tablespoon White Miso (you can use any style miso, I just prefer the white for this)

Boil a large pot of water for the soba noodles. Soba noodles usually come bound in serving sizes - one is more than enough for this amount of soup. While the water is boiling for the noodles, chop the veggies and start the 2 cups of water for the broth.

Throw the veggies and broth mix into the 2 cups of water - throw the noodles into the large pot of boiling water. Soba noodles take about 7 minutes to cook. When the noodles are almost done dissolve the miso paste into the broth - make sure not to let this boil any more as boiling will diminish the benefits of miso. Just let it simmer.

When the noodles are done drain them, rinse with some cool water and throw them into a bowl. Top with the veggies/broth mixture and sprinkle with some black and white sesame seeds (if you have 'em).

This literally takes less than 15 minutes to put together and it beats the hell out of packet or pre-made soups. Try it!

Warning! Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies!

The Veganomicon is a cook-book of pure, unadulterated evil. I am now its slave.

I wanted to throw something super-chocolatey into my holiday gifts and these Chocolate Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies sounded good. HA. Good? Talk about understatement.

Nothing out of the ordinary before they go into the oven.
But something wonderfully obscene happens to them after only 10 minutes of baking.
They taste like. . . is "heaven" overused? Well then, how about - these cookies are what brownies aspire to be. And I ADORE brownies.
I made them to be used as gifts, but now have to make another batch because after one taste I knew none of these cookies were leaving here except inside of ME! These are my new favorite cookie of all time.

p.s. There's ground flaxseed in there too - sinfully delicious AND a little healthy. See? Evil.

Lace Cookies

These are sometimes called Florentines, but I have always known them as "Lace Cookies". Though I've always loved them, they are not always easy to find and for some reason I never thought to make them myself. I always thought they must be really difficult. Uh. Not so much. I've veganized a recipe I found on the Food Network and let me tell you - not difficult AT ALL. A little time-consuming, but not difficult. Make these, impress the hell outta everyone, and delight in the fact that you made these simple and elegant cookies.

Vegan Lace Cookies
1 3/4 cups sliced, blanched almonds (about 5 ounces)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Finely grated zest of 1 orange (about 2 tablespoons)
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vegan cream (I actually used soy creamer)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
5 tablespoons Earth Balance butter
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pulse the almonds in a food processor until finely chopped, but not pasty. Stir together the nuts, flour, zest and salt in a large bowl.

Put the sugar, cream, corn syrup and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a rolling boil and sugar is completely dissolved. Continue to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, then pour mixture into almond mixture and stir just to combine. Set aside until cool enough to handle, 20-30 minutes. It is easiest to form if it is still warm, but not hot.

Form the dough into small balls (teaspoon size makes a big enough cookie - honestly) and place onto a parchment paper or silpat lined cookie sheet while you preheat the oven to 350. You can only bake one sheet at a time, really I've tried two and they don't bake evenly - so it's easiest to form all the balls at once. You can lay them out on some parchment - it helps save time and aggravation because once the dough cools it gets harder to make the balls (they sort of crumble apart).

You really do need to space them far apart - they spread like crazy. But if you have a mishap, don't worry - it's easy to fix, but you must be quick.
When you take them out of the oven, if you see any that have spread into each other, just grab a knife and push them apart, reforming a nice circular shape. They are still very pliable while hot so you have about a minute to accomplish this. If you wait until they cook you'll just crack them. So be quick!
After a minute, take them off the parchment and cool fully on racks. My advice is not to try to lift them off the cookie sheet with a spatula, they are too thin and it's easy to ruin them this way. Instead simply peel the parchment away from them - they pull right off.
You can leave them as they are - they are awfully nice this way.
OR you can get all crazy with yourself and add some chocolate. Either drizzle some over the tops, dip one end, or my personal favorite: drop a teaspoon of melted chocolate onto one cookie and sandwich it in with another. The chocolate spreads and does a little poke-out from the 'lace'. Very indulgent. Very delish.
You know you want to. Chocolate + almonds = yummy yummy heaven. So go for it.

Sugar Cookies

VEGAN SUGAR COOKIES
This makes between 3 and 6 dozen cookies - depending on cutter sizes.

1 cup margarine (Earth Balance-YUM!)
1 cup white sugar

2 whole egg replacements (Ener-G)
grated rind of one lemon*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

3-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. (you can wait on preheating the oven until you are ready to start cutting the cookies)

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar. Stir in the egg replacements, lemon rind and extracts until creamy and smooth. Gradually add the flour, baking powder and tofu cream cheese and mix until everything is incorporated.

I have always had trouble with my sugar cookies becoming tough. I found a tip at Kitchen Collectibles that helps avoid that by not having to add additional flour while rolling. FABULOUS!

HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess -- Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.

Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters.

Sprinkle the cookies with colored sugar or dust with plain white sugar unless you plan to ice them. Place about 1 inch apart on sheets - they don't spread very much, so you can actually smoosh 'em in closer if you need to.


Bake for 10 to 13 minutes until bottoms and edges just start to get light brown. If you are using dark colored, non-stick cookie sheets, check at 8 minutes to be sure they aren't burning. I hate these cookie sheets of mine. I could sure use some plan ol' non-nonstick cookie sheets. Hint, hint.

Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container. Then go make more...


because you'll probably have eaten all of them before you can give them out as gifts. Oh. Is that just me?


*I use dried grated lemon rind that I reconstituted. Very handy stuff to have on hand if you don't feel like grating lemons. You can leave this and the lemon extract out if you don't care for lemon - I have a weakness for those roll and bake sugar cookies but they aren't vegan - adding the lemon rind and extract makes these taste almost like the roll & bake kind.