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.).

Oh, hey.

How's it goin'? I disappeared from Blogger for a while. That was fun. Or something.

The holidays got a little crazy. I took Fred to Springfield for the first time. He met the entire extended family. That was interesting. Despite the giant spread they always have, nothing is vegan. Fred and I made an entire dinner for me. In hindsight, we should've made something much, much simpler, but we did a seitan en croute, mashed potatoes with Vcon mushroom gravy, stuffing with cranberries and pecans, and the VWAV gingerbread apple pie. My sister was awesome enough to make a three sisters chili which was pretty delicious.

Fred finally got to meet my brother. He also had his first horseshoe, this local dish that's something of an abomination to a vegan. Traditionally, it's texas toast open face with some ground beef, layered with french fries and covered with cheese sauce. It's intense. One of these days, I'll veganize it. I've been thinking about it for a while.

Christmas was strange, but only because it was the first time I didn't go home ever. Some awesome friends from work took Fred and me in for Christmas dinner. Our hosts made some awesome bruschetta, some amazing bread, and two cassoulets, one vegan for me, and one with pork for everyone else. The other couple brought a cheese plate and bottle after bottle of amazing wine. Fred and I made Vcon moussaka to bring along with the VWAV raspberry blackout cake. Everything was incredibly delicious.

Just before Christmas, my shoulder started feeling a lot better, so much better that I called my orthopaedist and moved up my appointment. I had a feeling that I could get back to work before the new year. He said I was improving a lot faster than he'd anticipated, so I was cleared for work. Yay! I started back on December 29. Thankfully, since I went back when I did, I didn't have to deal with all the insurance mumbo-jumbo of starting the new year/new month without working.

Prior to heading back to work, I ordered Appetite for Reduction and have been cooking the shittake out of it. There have been few non-AFR recipes around here lately. So many reasons why this book is so timely. Since I've gone back to work, my schedule is a little crazy. Most of the recipes are pretty quick, so I don't have to spend all day in the kitchen. I gained some weight during my leave, and AFR is all about making super-tasty healthy food. I'd also been thinking of incorporating more veggies in my diet, both in quantity and the types I buy. I started off exploring cauliflower and broccoli, two ingredients I've shied away from in the past. AFR is really showing how much I really do love vegetables. My 16 year old self would be totally freaked out by everything I'm eating these days.

I'm definitely glad to be back at work, but I had to step down from my position. Now I'm just a regular team member. I've been struggling to figure out what my place is there now. It's pretty clear that I'm well suited for more responsibility than most of my fellow TMs, but my TLs don't really have a plan for me yet. We've all been talking about it in the last week or so. Hopefully we'll get it figured out.

I hate when blogs say 'oh, hey, I'm back', and then they never post again. I'm fairly certain that won't happen, but I'm not making any promises. There's a cookbook challenge on the PPK starting tomorrow, so I'll try to blog about all of that. Here's hoping it goes better than MoFo.

MoFo Day 9! Chickpea Noodle Soup

I caught a cold over the weekend, so I’ve been hopped up on cold medicine since Sunday. Yesterday was bad--runny nose, stuffy sinuses, mild headache. My nose is still red and chapped from wiping it so much. When I got home from running errands, I had such an intense craving for Veganomicon Chickpea Noodle Soup, but I was too hungry to wait and make it.

Today, I had time. I love, love, love this soup so hard. It’s one of the first recipes I ever tried from the PPK recipe bank. The recipe isn’t on the PPK site since the revamp, but if you don’t already own Veganomicon, you need to buy it. NEED. Just do it. Not just for this soup, but for the general awesomeness.

This is one of my all-time favorite soups, and fall is the ultimate soup season. Even before I got sick, I knew I wanted to make it soon, but it’s so perfect when I’m under the weather. It’s warm and flavorful, simple and comforting without being unnecessarily complicated. It’s almost, almost worth getting sick.

ETA: D'oh! I was eating a bowl this afternoon, and realized that I'd forgotten to add the kale I usually add to this soup. I knew something wasn't quite right. It's delicious either way, but I do kind of miss the kale now that I know.

MoFo Day 2! Seitan Shepherdess Pie

First things first...internet is back! Yeah!

Back to business. A few weeks ago, I made the Tempeh Shepherdess Pie from Veganomicon. I totally loved it, and have been craving it ever since! I’m not the biggest tempeh fan, so I made a mental note to revisit it again using seitan. That time has come!

This afternoon, I made a batch of Simple Seitan, also from V’con. The instructions for the pie say to boil the tempeh. I knew that wouldn’t work for the seitan and I would end up with a giant blobby mess. So, I looked around the book for another method of prepping the seitan before assembling the pie. The instructions for the Almost All American Seitan Pot Pie worked perfectly the last time I made it. So I sauteed the finished seitan in 2 tablespoons of grapeseed oil for about 10 minutes and drained it in a colander. Making seitan is definitely a lot more work than buying tempeh, but I’m in a bit of a monetary crisis at the moment. Plus, I’ve been working on my seitan techniques lately after numerous failed attempts.

This was sooooooo good. I added some extra almond milk in the potato layer (on accident--chronic over-pourer), which made it extra creamy. I was afraid the seitan was a little mushy at first, but by the end of the piece I ate, those woes were long forgotten. The tempeh in my first go-round gave an almost lentil texture that I did like. Either way, this recipe is a total winner.

Fresh out of the oven.

A little steam action on the serving shot.