Photo Dump! Part the First.

So, I've mostly been avoiding posting because I'm super lazy about uploading photos from my camera to the computer and then from the computer to the internet and then from some random place on the internet to my blog without uploading them everywhere individually. I think it's a giant pain. But! I just joined the rest of the 21st century and learned how to use Flikr like a normal person. Jeez, K. What is wrong with you?

So, here's a bunch of photos. Some I've talked about on the PPK forums, and I'll link to my thoughts/posts about them. Some are just here for kicks.

Here we go!

First: AFR 2nd Ave. Vegetable Korma - warming and delicious. Perfect for this crazy Chicago winter. There isn't as much rice as it seems. I made a little bowl of rice in the bowl so I could get it in the picture. Made awesome leftovers for work.

VCIYCJ Rocky Road cookies - I subbed Dandies for the white chocolate chips. I made these for myself first, and I think my oven was off. The mallows exploded and got a little hard. I made them again for a work meeting with much better results. They were softer, the Dandies kept their shape, and the omnis gobbled them up. So many compliments!

AFR Tortilla Soup - Super flavorful with a lot less heat than I expected from the 3 peppers in the recipe. Another winter winner. It's way better with real tortilla chips, instead of baked, FYI. The baked chips ended up a little soggy.

Candle Cafe Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart - I saw this at Whole Foods one day and had to grab it because I've heard such amazing things about Candle Cafe. It was really tasty and rich. I loved that it was more peanut butter flavored than chocolate flavored. I'm not really a chocolate girl. They had a few other items from Candle Cafe. I have to check those out soon.

AFR Caulipots and 40 Clove Chickpeas and Broccoli with a Gardein Chickn cutlet thinger - This is my new standard I-don't-want-to-cook-and-I'm-sick-of-soup meal. Caulipots! Such winners. This batch was a little persnickety. The cauli part of the caulipots needed to cook longer. I figured it out. The 40 clove was good, but I was expecting something a little saucier. When I made it again, I experimented with some different sauces and gravies. The AFR nooch sauce is awesome with the caulipots. And the Gardein. I also found some leftover V'con mushroom gravy in the freezer, so I had it that way one day. The AFR chickpea gravy is another natural, super delicious pairing.

Though I don't have a photo, I made another batch of caulipots, and kept eating them like this. They're also good with some VWAV garlicky kale. Holy crap, I shill for the Moskovitz empire a lot. VWAV was my first vegan cookbook, and the first cookbook I ever actually used. I'm on the bandwagon. Yep.

Breakfast! I made breakfast sammiches with VB Tofu Benny tofu, some store-bought tempeh bacon and AFR nooch sauce on an english muffin. So good! With a cara cara orange (my favorite citrus), some roasted sweet potatoes a la Vegan Brunch, and coffee from my old shop, this was a killer breakfast. And the ingredients reheated well for the rest of the week (though the potatoes were all gone that day. Nom.).

MoFo Day 12! Peanut Butter Pillows

Oh, boy.

Ever since I first bought Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, I've wanted to make the Peanut Butter Pillows. The picture in the book looks soooooo delicious, and peanut butter and chocolate is probably my favorite cookie combination. Shit. It's probably favorite flavor combination ever. Why have I waited so long to make these?

Oh, right. I'm lazy. But these were way easier than I expected. And they are superdelicious. I especially like the peanut butter innards. I think I might make some peanut butter cups with them at some point.

MoFo Day 8! Carrot Raisin Spice Cookies

I love cookies. I unnaturally love cookies. I would love to eat cookies for all my nourishment, but I’m pretty sure I’d balloon up to 1000 pounds. Fred (aka The Boy) bought me Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar last winter. One day it just showed up on my stairs from Amazon. I had no idea he’d ordered it, I just found it when I checked the mail one day. On the packing slip it said, ‘You better make me some damn cookies!!’

I always oblige that request, though probably not as often as I’d like. Fred is my guinea pig when it comes to cooking and baking. Thankfully, he loves everything I’ve ever made. But then again, he eats anything and everything.

Whenever I buy a new cookbook, I take a stack of tiny post-it flags and mark the recipes that sound best. VCIYCJ is one of the only cookbooks without any flags. Why, when I love cookies so much? Simple. Every damn page would have a flag, so why bother?

So, yeah. This weekend, I told Fred I’d make him some cookies because he’s been helping me out a lot since my surgery, and he’s just a generally awesome guy. Plus, I love him. His favorite type of cake is carrot cake, so when I told him I’d bake him cookies, I knew this time I’d make the Carrot Raisin Spice cookies. I haven’t tried that recipe yet, and they sounded awesome.

(For some reason I felt the need to pile all 2 dozen cookies on one tiny little plate.)

I refused to tell him what kind of cookies I'd made until he got here. His first reaction was that they tasted like crispy muffins, but in a good way. ‘They’re fucking so good,’ were his exact words.

I totally loved them. The orange zest and coconut give them an almost tropical flavor that I wasn’t expecting. The crispy edges with the chewier center were a great contrast. We ate them plain, without the suggested lemon glaze. I don’t know that they need it. They have the perfect level of sweetness, much of wich is from the natural sugars of the carrot raisins and coconut. I like glaze, but these were so amazing on their own. Totally going in my cravings list.