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 17! Jerk Seitan

When I made pho the other day, I made a double batch of seitan. That second half paid off today. After physical therapy, I was super hungry. I had a quick banana to stave off hunger. Then I pulled out Vegan with a Vengeance and flipped to the Jerk Seitan recipe. I had everything to make it. Yay!

Well, I did sub out a red pepper for the suggested green pepper, because green peppers are unripened little devils. The sauce was really good. The spices were right on with the jerk flavorings I've tried in the past. I would have liked a little extra heat, but that's easily solved in the opening paragraph. Next time I try this, I'll add a serrano. I served the seitan with some brown rice and roasted sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, chili powder and ginger. It was a tasty, easy little dinner. And there are plenty of leftovers.

MoFo Day 5 (really late)! Filler post about cookbooks! Part the first.

I have a lot of cookbooks. Way more than I probably need. Definitely more than I actually use. But since I didn't feel like cooking today/eat anything interesting/do anything else even remotely blogable, this is what you get (in no particular order, which is how I do everything, 'cause that's how I roll). Onward!

1. Vegan with a Vengeance, Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

The first time I went vegan was on 1 November 2008 (oddly coincidentally World Vegan Day). I was dating this cute beardy vegan boy and it seemed like the thing to do. For Christmas that year, I basically just asked for cookbooks. The one I wanted more than any other was Vegan with a Vengeance, which my brother, who was 19 at the time, gave me. Best little bro ever! Two years later, it's easily my most used, most loved and most stained cookbook, and it really is the book that started it all. Prior to VWAV, as its fans so lovingly shorten it, I hadn't really cooked. I'd cooked, but not really cooked. Trial and error was the name of the game back then. I lived on pasta with jarred sauce, rice and curry packets, veggie burgers and an alarmingly small amount of vegetables. That vegan boy introduced me to vegan pizza. With mushrooms. Which I previously hated. But ate anyway. Because he was that cute*. He also started my love affair with Ethiopian food, which I would probably eat every day, if I could.

Favorite recipes:

-scrambled tofu

-cherry almond muffins

-chipotle, corn, black bean stew

-classic pesto

-sundried tomato gnocchi

-mango ginger tofu

-green thai curry

-sundried tomato pesto

-pumpkin oatmeal cookies

-PB oatmeal cookies (I always add chocolate chips)

-raspberry chocolate chip blondies

-ginger macadamia coconut carrot cake

-lemon gem cupcakes

-gingerbread apple pie

*Cute beardy vegan boy was cute, but it didn't work out. You know what did work out? Fred. Hi, baby! You're way cuter than the vegan boy (even though you're omni). A million hearts!