So Long

I can’t really believe it’s been so long since I posted, but that’s how life goes. Never have I been the most active blogger. I wouldn’t even really consider myself a ‘blogger’, instead I’m more of an internet journal-writer. This is more for my reflection and display of delicious food than for anything else. But really, nine months is kind of pushing it. It’s not like I haven’t done anything. It’s not like I haven’t eaten – which by the way is the main subject of this enterprise.

I think my problem stems from a couple things. The testing for Terry I was doing slowed down in 2012 (but dang I’m excited to see that cookbook all printed up because those recipes are awesome) so I took a bit of a break from cooking something new every day. At some point in the last few months I also updated the OS on my computer and my iphoto has not worked since. Yeah I know I need to get it fixed but my tech guru is also very busy and it never seems to get done. I get easily frazzled when messing with it and my lack of photos kills any inspiration I had to write. Going along with frazzled I’ve been very busy at work and when you work in a kitchen all day cooking and doing dishes the last thing I wanted to do at night was cook and do dishes. I’m hoping I can change that. Our CSA this year has helped but I’ve just been in a cooking funk.

Maybe it’s time to come up with a new incentive. Clean out the pantry, use old cooking ware and appliances, pick a cookbook and work through it. Something like that. For now I’ll leave you with a picture of something wanting to be cooked.

Testing, testing

Pineapple Curry – a Terry tester

My shepherd’s pie recipe

Our first Thanksgiving by ourselves. It was delicious. Clockwise, at 12 o’clock is mashed potatoes, then mushroom gravy, chickpea cutlets, green bean casserole, kale salad, cornbread stuffing, and in the center canned cranberry sauce (which is Nick’s favorites part) and some of his grandma’s cinnamon pickles. It’s just not a holiday without them.

Close-up

Scrap pumpkin pie

And the best was saved for last. This was from a Thanksgiving potluck we went to in November. It’s the chocolate tart from Vegan Pie in the Sky. With mimicreme healthy top it was like the French Silk Pie of my childhood.

Another

It’s all been so tasty.

Red Pepper Curry, Gyros, and a Cat

I’m much better at just posting pictures than dutifully writing posts. So here are some more testers from Terry’s cookbook-in-progress.

Red Pepper Tofu Curry with Coconut Quinoa and Roasted Vegetables. Rather labor intensive making the curry paste from scratch (it’s got cashews and ancho chiles in it!) but was pretty good. I loved the coconut quinoa (just coconut milk and shredded coconut mixed in).

The gyro seitan in the back there is another tester and it’s awesome. I made tofu feta, roasted tomatoes, hummus, and the cucumbers and steamed broccoli for a gyro feast.

It made me so happy. The only thing missing was the tzatziki sauce, so I’ll just have to make it again.

 

And just because, here’s a picture of our goofy cat.

Pictures!

Testers: baked tofu and avocado mango salad. Both are amazing.

(Local BBQ sauce and homemade mulled cider in the background)

Tester: Flying Massaman Curry (holy crap so good!)

And finally, the vegan vanilla cake I made for my niece’s birthday party yesterday.

Wagons Were Made to Fall From.

I always come to a point in the month where I miss a day. Then another. And then all ambition flies out the window. I’ve been busy with my new job and taking care of my mom who just had a knee replacement. So since the surgery I haven’t been doing as much cooking as normal. Tonight we had boxed black bean bisque and some olive ciabatta bread from the co-op. Last night we had takeout. The night before I ate out with my mom after her physical therapy. So not much to report.

Harkening back to my goals I have succeeded on a few. I made a bunch of French recipes and I mastered the bran muffins (though I haven’t posted about it yet). I did not make any bread from Bread Baker’s Apprentice because I don’t have a scale yet and think I really need one to be successful. Maybe next month. There’s always next month.

Thai Pizza

We don’t make pizza too often, but it is a household favorite. It’s usually his thing. He has his own crust recipe and is often the one who takes charge and makes the whole thing while I try to restrain myself from making little suggestions. This is hard for me, but I know I have to keep my mouth shut because I hate it when people butt in when I’m cooking. Needless to say it’s rare for us to really cook together. Usually one person cooks, the other tells stories and opens the wine. Our collaboration happens more in the planning stage. So when he suggested pizza the other night I said yes. But we didn’t have tomato sauce. I didn’t want either of us to have to run to the grocery store at seven so I came up with an alternative. Someone at work had made a curry pizza and that got my thinking. So instead of tomato sauce I made peanut sauce. Instead of sausagey crumbles we had teriyaki tofu, instead of olives a few broccoli. In the crust we worked in some cilantro, red pepper flakes, and garlic. In the end it was amazing and opens up a whole new realm of pizza ideas. Thanksgiving pizza? tandoori pizza? enchilada pizza?

Potluck Perfect

Last night I made Terry’s Pistachio Date Quinoa with Chickpeas. Talk about a perfect dish to bring to a potluck. It’s got pistachios, it’s got dates, it’s got crunchy onions, chewy dates, soft chickpeas. I loved it.

My standard potluck food is a dessert of some sort, usually a cake or bars, and some sort of salad. Rice salad, quinoa salad, bread salad, kale salad, anything that can be tossed with oil and lemon salad. So this was perfect and something I will make often.

I love potlucks. Part of it’s the food and vegan camaraderie, part of it’s that I met my sweetheart at a potluck. I was coming back up from a really low spot in life and inspired by the other awesome potlucks happening in the Square on the PPK I decided to host one for the Iowa folks. This was seriously outside my comfort zone. I barely knew one person coming and everyone else was only a screen name I’d talked to. Needless to say it went well. It went great. And I met this guy who’d ridden his bike thirty miles to get there and I couldn’t believe it. Now of course I ride thirty miles and think nothing of it. Anyway, he brought banana bread. He was cute and funny. Everyone had fun and I moved on. It wasn’t until months later when he was hosting a potluck that we met up again. Because of the flakiness and determination of different invitees I was the only one to come. We ate soup, we played legos, we made plans to meet up a few days later where we started falling in love and have been together since. So yeah, I like potlucks. But I don’t think any will top those two.

Testing

I got an awesome email this afternoon telling me I could be a tester for Terry Hope Romero’s new cookbook. After signing in I spent the next forty five minutes going through all the recipes hoping there was something there I could make tonight. I went through dozens of amazing looking descriptions only to get to the ingredient list and realize I didn’t have one thing. I could have still made stuff, but that defeats the point of testing, which is to make things as written to see how they’ll turn out for readers. I almost lost hope and was just going to settle for salad when I came to the Colombian Coconut Lentil Rice. I have that, and that, omg and that too! So I set out for the kitchen and came out with this.

So good, so comforting. I think this is going to be a lot of fun. And lots of pictures.

Chili

Fall means chili. I love chili and eat it year round, but it’s meant to be eaten in fall. That’s when it feels more perfect. Crisp days and the sound of wind blowing through fallen leaves. What’s even better is crock pot chili. Everyone knows the best chili cooks for hours and what better way than the crock pot. I have to admit, I often forget we own a crock pot. I actually can’t even take the credit for this pot of chili since he made it while I was at work. This one was perfectly spiced and had a good amount of liquid. I hate thin chili.

 

I was all set to eat my chili with just bread (don’t worry we had Earth Balance it just wasn’t on the bread yet) when he remembered we had some Daiya cheddar in the fridge and oh my. It made my night. Growing up my mom made lots of chili. Lots of incredibly spicy chili. So spicy I could barely eat it. To counter that my brother and I would load it up with cheddar cheese and saltine crackers until it was so stiff it wasn’t technically ‘chili’ anymore but rather some weird uncooked casserole. Luckily the chili in my life is not one-dimensionally hot. It’s full of spices and complex flavors that don’t need to be muted by add-ins. Though I still can’t resist the cheese-y stuff if I have it.

This doesn’t have much of a recipe. A big can of Mrs. Grimes Chili Beans, a can of tomatoes, some onions and a sweet potato, chili powder plus extra cumin and ancho, salt. I keep meaning to experiment and try other types of chili – white chili, beer chili, chili sin carne, etc. – but I love this and can’t seem to move past it.

Love

This is why I love him so much. Perfect stir fry with peanut sauce and lots of sriracha. I wish I could post more but I’m tired. After working today I went to my parents to help put away summer things and to assist my mom who just got home from the hospital after knee surgery. And then I came home late to dinner and a glass of wine. I love him to pieces.