Last week...

Don't have much time but just wanted to jot down a few things that I've made over the past week.

I ended up making the cashew chili and the corn pudding for my vegan dinner party. It was great fun. So nice to have fellow vegans and vegetarians over who really appreciated the work that went into dinner. Not to mention nice not to hear "hey, this is actually really pretty good"!

I totally forgot to take pictures. Damn!

A couple of days later I made pizza with tofu ricotta, walnut pesto, mushrooms and olives. It was superb. I've made tofu ricotta several times before, but I think I nailed it this time. I plan to start using it to make homemade ravioli and everything. And I wouldn't even hesitate to feed it to my meat and cheese eating friends. They would never know.

I also nailed the tofu scramble. It's another thing I've made countless times (as most vegans do), but I'm always trying to make things better and better. And honestly, and not to be conceded, but I really don't think I could have made it any better. It was awesome. I made that with some french toast that I made with good sourdough bread and a custard out of coconut milk yogurt, soy flour, oil, soy milk and vanilla. It was after this meal that Husband declared he was going to be vegan. This was amazing to hear. Three months ago he was a beef eating bacon lover. Then he went vegetarian after watching Earthlings a couple of months ago, and is now planning to be vegan. That's so awesome. :D

We want to open a vegan restaurant. I think it's totally possible in this town. We have a lot of vegetarians and vegans in Fort Collins/Boulder, and I think a vegan place in Old Town Fort Collins is needed, and could be quite popular. It's in my 10 year plan. I even have an adorable name picked out. But I'm not telling!

I'm working a lot this week at the salon, so there's not a lot of time to cook. I'm still doing the personal cheffing, so there will be some cooking thank goodness! Night before last I made her some lemongrass risotto. That was fun. I think I'm going to throw some potatoes and dried peas into the crock pot with some veg stock, coconut milk, leftover lemongrass and curry for dinner tonight.

Oh and I almost forgot. I am deep into making cashew cheese! REAL cashew cheese that's being fermented as we speak. I'm on about day 4 of the process. Tomorrow I get to try it. I hope it rules!!

Dinner party preview

I'm having an extraVeganza for new years. A couple of dear friends are coming over with their vegan sister and boyfriend. I'm so excited to have an all vegan menu that nobody will look at strange, and there will be only minimal explaining to do. It's all so thrilling! So, I have a couple of ideas for what I should make. And here they are.

Cashew Chili, and a spin on The Veganomicon's Corn Pudding. I feel I need to bake something to munch on to go along with this, but since there's already corn pudding I don't want to make corn bread. Maybe some other type of rolls.

or..

Bowtie Vodka with Salad. I know this sounds very boring, but hear me out. The pasta sauce itself is so good that it forgives the simple assembly. So there. Also the salad I plan to make special. I've been wanting to try a recipe for marinated tofu turned feta, and vwav's tempeh bacon to crumble in. That with some dried cranberries, nuts and a good greens assortment sounds awesome!

OR..

I'm toying around with an Indian feast. This does sound most exciting I suppose, but also most time consuming. But that shouldn't matter since it's a dinner party right? Right. However, I do have to work until 5 or 6, so it has to be something feasible. Maybe I'll do some eggplant soup that I can do the day before (today I guess :P) and make something ultra fun and exciting like say, samosa's the day of. Yeah, that does sound fun!

Oh, and I promise to post lots of pictures of vegans eating vegan food. Also I took some good pics last night of the Faustess Cupcakes! I tried to get some decent pictures of pasta and garlic bread and a tofu scramble but as yummy as the dishes were the pictures came out looking most unappetizing.

Have a good day people!

Chocolate Weekend

Son has the flu. Poor baby. :( So, I'm cooped up, and feel down in the dumps. And what always helps the blues? That's right, chocolate. SO, after making a lovely dinner of creamy corn soup and tofu frittata I made the black bottom peanut butter silk pie and the Faustess Cupcakes from VWAV. They were delish. Isa, you never cease to amaze me. Speaking of Isa, I was thrilled to discover yesterday that she has a new book on vegan brunch coming out soon. Yay! Vegan with a Vengeance and The Veganomicon are hands down the vegan bibles to me. That and vegan dad's blog. Amazing recipes all around!

Husband is sick as well, and I'm not feeling all that wonderful either so I think something rather simple is in order tonight. Daughter is not sick and is spending the night at my mom's. Her beloved Mimi. So I think maybe some penne vodka or something sounds nice. Too bad I don't have any good crusty bread. Dang.

Oh! And I DID get a camera for Christmas, so as soon as I can figure out how to hook that baby up to the computer I'll have food porn for you!

Apple cake and Cupcakes

I really love that apple cake from The Joy Of Vegan Baking. It is so good. It's in the oven right now and it smells heavenly. Usually I make it with peeled apples since that's what it calls for, but this morning I rebelled and left the peels on. Hopefully I will love it just as much.

The bread from yesterday turned out okay. It's dry. I'm not sure how to make whole wheat bread moist though. That's always a big challenge for me. I'll just try try again.

I work late tonight again, so the apple cake is all that's coming out of my kitchen, except maybe a bowl of cereal when I get off work tonight. Happily though, tomorrows Thursday! And Thursdays are when I make Vegan Cupcakes at the Cupcakery!! I think tomorrow I'm making vegan pumpkin chocolate chip with cinnamon cream cheeze buttercream. Mmmm. Also tomorrow is Son's first birthday!! Boy oh boy, I can't believe how fast this year flew by. So, I need to also make some easy peasy vegan vanilla's for him to smear all over his face tomorrow.

Well, that's all for now folks!

Cookies!

I finally baked off those cookies, and really, I think they were maybe the best ever. I just had to squish in the chips that fell out before I put them in the oven, but they turned out beautiful.

I have some whole wheat bread dough rising, and I didn't time everything well because I have to leave for work during the second rising cycle. Guess that means Husband will have to bake the loaves for me. Eeek! :P

Oh I do wish I could stay home and bake all day.

Boooring..

Well, nothing noteworthy came out of my kitchen today. I started to make some chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and did manage to get the dough finished but have yet to bake them. I was feeling a little guilty about eating something sugary and fatty since the weekend is nearly over (cheat time), and I simply can't stop after just one cookie, and since that recipe made something silly like 30something cookies... It was just to much to process, so the dough is sitting in the fridge. :P

The cookie recipe was a version of the chocolate chocolate chip walnut cookies from Veganomicon, and I've used two recipes from that cookbook that both doughs come out so oily that the chips won't stay in very well. The cookies always come out great(!) so I don't want to tweak the recipe enough to mess up the final result, but I want to experiment a bit to see if there's a way to keep the chips in better. I'll ponder that.

I was going to make biscuits and gravy for dinner tonight, but didn't. Man I'm a lame cook tonight! Since I work at the salon tomorrow evening I won't be any better, but I'm getting some things ready to experiment on for Christmas dinner, so delicious posts to come. I promise!

Blogger Post take ONE

Well, my kitchen has been busy.

In the past week I've made as follows..

-The "Seitan O Greatness" log o veg meat.

-a vegan lunch meat log-o-meat thingy.

-hot chocolate pudding cake

-Some "tuna" salad which was amazing, so easy and totally cured my tuna sammy craving.. except I'm left wanting another one.

-Rosemary Focaccia bread

- a very good, but verrrry garlicky vegan caesar dressing.

I must be forgetting something..

I'm freezing so I want to go make soup or chili. Right now!

Pictures of my culinary adventures would really help this blog, and it is almost Christmas, and I think that maybe just maybe my mom got me one. Which I would LOVE and be SOO grateful for since mine broke. :( And then I will post photo's.

It's been snowing and snowing and I really need to go to the store and buy some rice noodles for tonights dinner, but after I worked at the bakery this morning I am really not looking forward to those slick roads again. I just don't love the winter, that's all. But in the summer I have spiders in the house, and I really really don't like them. Does that make me a bad vegan? Well, then tell me, how does one get over one's fear of them???

On Thursday I'm getting more done on my Vegan tattoo. Does anyone know how to say "Not Ours" in Latin or French?