Happy Birthday Amos!

For Amos' birthday I planned a kid-free getaway to our northern neighbor, Milwaukee. I reserved a bike at the indoor mountain bike park that looks completely amazing. What I'm really getting excited about is the vegan tot-cho's at Palamino.

Mexi Mac'N'Cheese

Half a package of TJ's Chorizo, cheapo noodles from our local grocery store and our basic nutri-yeast M&C base = Mexi Mac'N'Cheese.

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Pancakes With Brown Rice Syrup

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Pancakes With Brown Rice Syrup. I know we have posted a pancake recipe on this blog before, but I recently started making them with mostly oats instead of flour. Use quick oats if you want them a bit smoother or old fashion for that "oaty" texture.

‎1C quick oats
1/2 C flour or enough to make them pancaky
1T baking powder
1/4t salt
1C almond or soy milk

Layer with peanut butter and bananas and smother with your syrup of choice.

Sourdough Magic

Ok, so I made a sourdough starter by simply adding a cup of water to a cup of flour and let it sit out for a week covered with cheesecloth. After an unimpressive attempt at ginger beer I wasn't really expecting my sourdough to really work. I thought maybe we just don't have yeast in the air. Well, it worked and I have been exploring the world of sourdough.

After a few just ok loaves a sourdough bread I happened upon some sourdough crackers at a friend's house and could not believe how good they were. On the next store trip I picked up a box and it was gone the same day.

After a quick search I found this cracker recipe and adapted it using earth balance.

I did the first batch on a pizza stone and the second and third on cookie sheets. The final one I did on the pizza stone again after it had cooled a bit. The ones on the stone were a bit crispier and cooked much more evenly.

It has been years since I have had Cheese-It, but I immediately thought these taste just like them. Amazing good.

Wild Fermentation

I finally received the Wild Fermentation book I placed on hold at the library months ago. I skimmed through it and I have decided to try two different ferments to start. First, I am going to try and make ginger beer because it seems simple and only takes a couple of weeks. Second, I want to try to make tempeh. I found tempeh.info that sells starters and am about to place an order. I will post the progress of both projects once they are under way.

New Blogs

If I don't save blogs here I won't remember them. I don't usually have a whole lot of time to read online blogs/magazines/sites usually but my husband and baby are out and about and I found myself reading the interview with WoodlandBelle on Etsy which included some great links to some great new sites.

The Bright Side Project
Poppytalk
Pure Green Living Magazine

Now I just wish I had an IPad so I could lounge about on the couch and read on....

Miso Mac and Cheese

After buying Road's End macaroni n'cheeze regularly for a few years I decided that we could be making something very similar from spices and ingredients in our pantry. Our local ethnic marts have bags of pasta for 50 cents each and I usually add about half a cup of frozen peas or spinach at the very end of the cooking time. When I wrote on our recipe board that we needed to be eating more miso (so good for you) I had a stroke of brilliance and added some to our mac and cheese to substitute the sea salt I usually used. It proved to be rich and delicious compared to the somewhat pricey boxed mixes and only uses one pan which is great on a busy weeknight.

Miso Mac N'Cheese

You will need:
1 7 oz. bag of pasta (I also like to use brown rice pasta... so yummy.)
2-4 Tbsp. Miso (I've been using red miso recently)
1/2 Cup Non-Dairy Milk
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
1/2 Cup frozen veggies, spinach or peas work great here
Curry powder (optional)
Tbsp or so of flour (if needed for thickening)

Method:
Prepare pasta following instructions on bag. Add frozen veggies in the last minute of cooking time, drain and set aside.

In pan heat soymilk over low heat. Dissolve miso (a good rule of thumb here is 1 Tbsp miso per serving) in the warm soymilk. Stir in nutritional yeast. Taste and adjust nutritional yeast to desired flavor and consistency. Add curry powder if you are feeling adventurous. Stir back in your pasta/veggies and voila - you've got it!

I have made other variations of this without miso with things like garlic powder and Italian spices that have turned out quite good as well. So if you have no miso no worries - you probably have something on hand to make a delicious meal.

Fish Sticks

A article about a study where scientists are surprised that fish can distinguish shapes and colors from the New York Times. Duh. Oh and by the way fish can definitely feel pain as well. Thanks.

Pizza It

We made a pretty hot pizza last night with cabbage and thinly sliced red potatoes. Also on hand was some fresh rosemary and Teese from Chicago Soydairy. Put all that on top of a whole wheat beer crust and well - I wish I had taken a photo so it would've lasted longer.

Credit is due to my friend's new pizzaria Fame Du Lupo for the potato on pizza idea. Also to Silvio's Organic Pizza in Ann Arbor, Michigan that lists cabbage as a topping although I was too chicken to try it there. I wish I had because it was pretty darn good.

Dress It.

Recently I have been working like a madwoman on winter hats - as in I have 32 to make this week - but as the stars align I ended up reading in my Daily Bite about Vaute Couture's vegan outerwear. I would love to expand and become as successful as they appear to be. I think they are also located in Logan Square - who knew!

All that to share with you a really great reason from their blog not to wear wool.

Bring it.

My aunt just brought me (1) butternut squash, (2) huge spaghetti squash, (2) onions and about (10) pounds of wild oyster mushrooms. Yes. 10 pounds.

So tonight is sauteed oyster mushrooms with spaghetti squash : ).

Shoe it again.

These and These are also rad.

Shoe It.

The shoe bug is biting. Hard. I want these boots!! On sale at Vegan Essentials now... need to sell some hats...

Peanut Sauce

So I promised about four and a half months ago to post a recipe from Thailand. Well here we go. I am going to give you an easy one for now - easy for me to explain and post that is. I know you can buy this in a jar. But it tastes so good made at home...

Peanut Sauce

Raw peanuts
Oil
Red curry paste (I had to use my trusty stand-in siracha)
1 quite ripe tomato (medium or two smaller plum), chopped
Coconut milk
Sugar
Soy sauce (light and dark)
Lime juice or vinegar

Remove all skins from peanuts. In a wok on very high heat stir around peanuts (one soup spoon full for this recipe only, more if you need to roast peanuts) until they are well roasted (brown... not burnt). Set aside. Or now that I think of it you could probably just use a soup spoon full of un-salted peanut butter as well...

Anyway now that your peanuts are roasted in the same super-hot wok add one soup spoon of oil and fry one half of same spoon full of red curry paste (or siracha to taste) and the chopped tomato. Turn down the heat a little and fry until the paste is fragrant stirring frantically all the while. Add three soup spoons of coconut milk and one soup spoon of your roasted peanuts. Add one soup spoon of sugar, one of light soy sauce and a half of the dark soy sauce. Keep stirring! Now watch the consistency and add three more soup spoons of coconut milk. If it is still quite thick you may add soup spoons of water one at a time. Keep stirring for five minutes - the peanuts and tomato break down to make a rich and glossy sauce. Right at the end add one soup spoon of lime juice.

It helps if you imagine a cute Thai lady yelling faster!! as you stir and toss in ingredients.

Enough sauce for dipping spring rolls or what have you for two people.

Notes:

The soup spoon I am referring to is like one you would get at an Asian restaurant when ordering soup. All recipes I picked up in Thailand from our cooking class measure simply in bowls and soupspoons. It's great for doubling up recipes to feed two (since everything we cooked was for a single serving) and you can use one spoon for the whole recipe.

I have been able to find light soy sauce here in the states but not the dark. So I just use a combination of regular old kikkoman or san-j soy sauce along with the light in these recipes.

Mite it.

I have these in my yard.

I scream! For Avocado Ice Cream!

Well it is finally summer. Nevermind we were still wearing sweaters at night mid-July... I'm not complaining. We have been trying out a few new ice cream recipes and of course been using the old standbys. Even though there is temptation available nearby at Heavenly Gelato and Miko's just a walk away it is easier and cheaper to make it at home. (I mean a cup of sugar and four lemons cost what... oh about 1.50$) And since last summer everything in my life has been simplified so sorbet is in; cashew cream ice cream recipes from vice cream are out. And there are no photos since the camera only takes pictures of baby now. But on to the goods.

My favorite chocolate sorbet recipe from last summer, and fall and winter. Also fig ice cream (amazing) from when we lived in NOLA and had fresh figs from a tree down the street.

Here are links to the new favorites:

Lemon Sorbet

Mango-Lime Sorbet

Avocado Sorbet as well! Amos adapted a recipe he found on the interwebs that called for corn syrup (yuck). It turned out unbelievably creamy and rich and the lime is just the thing.

Avocado Sorbet:

2 ripe avocados
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Juice of 2 limes

In small saucepan heat water to boiling and add sugar. Stir until dissolved, remove from heat and let cool. Blend the cooled simple syrup, lime juice and avocado. Chill in freezer (1 hour) or fridge (4-8 hours) and freeze per your ice cream maker's instructions.

For my next post....

We took a vegan Thai cooking class in Chiang Mai! I promise recipes and general Thai cooking information to come!

The Equisite Art of Kaiseiki

Narita... if you have a layover or early morning flight definitely stay for a night.

I thought I would start posting a few things from our trip to Thailand and Japan! We have been super busy with the house and for those of you that don't know I am two days away from being 9 months pregnant so that's been on our minds as well....

Let me start with the exquisite art of kaiseiki - a million course meal served by a charming kimonoed waitress. We had our concierge make special arrangements for a vegan kaiseiki meal- what a treat!

After a taxi ride there - our hotel made up a special map with directions to the cabdriver - and a nice stranger putting us in the right spot we finally made it to the restaurant. Then we were stowed away in a nice little room with a sliding wood/paper door.

Here is how the kaiseiki meal went down:

Moshimo (this is what our waitress says before coming into the room and I have no idea what it means. Each time she does this she is kneeling outside the door, opens the door, gracefully stands up, takes about two steps into the room and kneels down again):























Soy three ways! Our concierge requested Natto for us. Thanks...

Moshimo:






















What is it? It is beautiful!






















Oh it is soup!

Moshimo: (At each course we get more tea and water...)






















Wow this is so good! Eggplant, Tofu and Mushroom in sweet soy sauce!

Moshimo:






















Oh my this is better than the last course! Roasted eggplant with a soy bean paste reduction on top. I wonder how many more courses there are... this has to be the last one it was so good...

Moshimo:






















Special Japanese potato and other veggies. Plus a cubist carrot. Also about here I think another tea was introduced...

Moshimo: (I think at this point in the meal we were becoming like Pavlov's dogs - salivation and pain all at the same time...)






















Veggie tempura! With lemon and salt it is really really tasty. Also natto tempura - I have a sneaky suspicion it was my previous natto coming back in fried form. Those Americans will eat anything if fried! Not fried natto my friends. Good try.

Moshimo: (Oh dear...)






















Oh brown rice! How filling! Also pickles and shitaake mushroom broth.

Moshimo:






















Oh dessert - melon and something else I did not quite catch the name of. And more green tea of course.






















So now we are here in our kaiseiki room - wondering what the proper etiquette for leaving is. But finally we crawl out (it's a little room sunken into the floor a bit) pay our bill, receive our gifts (yes gifts.... maybe they were prizes for finishing?), put on our shoes and then have a bowing showdown with just about the entire staff who has followed us out into the street and ends only when we back around the corner while waving and bowing and smiling like maniacs.

B-Day Cake

Since my baby is due in 2 DAYS I am going to work on making a b-day cake. After searching for a recipe for banana cake for ever online I remembered Kittee's website with the best cakes ever. Bingo. Banana cake with beet frosting : ).

No Way Out.

I'm looking for a way IN. From this article from the Bangkok Post the situation looks not so good.