Tak-Home-A

Award Winning Pie!

2012-01-10T05:50:00.000-08:00

I am so excited! My vegan eggnog custard pie won the Earth Balance Holiday Bake Off (pie category, one other winner). It looks like there were 76 entries, so top 2 from that is pretty good. I've been working on the recipe for years, so when I saw the contest, I figured this was a good time to finally figure out the details.

The pie is very eggy and custardy (hence the name) - you can kind of see the custard filling below. The crust is gingersnaps - my fave!

For the contest, I also worked to finally get my "gingersnap cupcake" recipe into shape. I was able to make great tasting cupcakes/frosting, but I just couldn't get them not to fall, so I never submitted it. Shame.

It looks like I win $400 to Whole Foods (woo hoo!) AND a year's supply of Earth Balance (OMG!), plus some other goodies - I'm so thrilled and honored. Plus some of the judges were the Spork Sisters, so that is really flattering!

Ethiopian Food!

2011-12-23T11:46:00.000-08:00

So I adore Ethiopian food. I LOVE the hearty veggie proteins and the spongy injera bread... yum yum yum. I do worry, a lot, however, about the vegan-ness of Ethiopian foods. Every time I go to one, they assure me they use oil and not butter when they prepare their vegetarian dishes, but I know that when making Ethiopian food, cooks use oil as the basis for cooking the veggies, but they often stir in Niter Kibbeh (I could have spelled that wrong), which is a spiced butter. I decided a while ago that I needed to learn how to cook this stuff myself so that I could avoid having to be concerned at restaurants.

I am testing recipes for Terry Hope Romero's upcoming cookbook, and she just added several Ethiopian dishes - so I jumped at the chance! I decided to kick of my Ethiopian cooking adventures with a bang - I prepared Terry's vegan tibs w'et (seitan in wine sauce), a kik alicha recipe I found online at "Confessions of a Gothic Homemaker," and a mesir wat inspired by another recipe I found online.

I wasn't about to throw learning how to use teff flour into this already messy mix, so I bought some injera bread at an Ethiopian market in the U Street area of DC. Every turned out great! I wouldn't say I'm a pro yet, but I had fun with the experience and I know the changes I'd make next time. Making my own Niter Kibbeh (Terry's recipe) was easy and fun and it really does add a delicious flavor, so this is a must if you want to try Ethiopian cooking at home too.

Here's a shot of the tibs and the split peas (my two faves) - yum! The tibs stew was a little liquidy, but other than that everything was perfect! We scooped it up with the injera bread and had a yummy dinner (and lunch and dinner again)!

A very cookie post!

2011-12-22T05:09:00.001-08:00

So because it's the holidays (or just because), it seems I've been eating lots of cookies lately! I wanted to share some of the cookie info because cookies surely make everyone happy!

Earlier this month, my office hosted a bug-themed going away party for someone who was leaving to start a new job at an association that deals with bugs. I volunteered to make ladybug cookies before I really thought about what that would entail. Luckily, between the wonderful internets and my own creativity (who knew?) I got the job done rather simply!

I started with a basic sugar cookie recipe - I used this recipe from Novel Eats (which the author took from another site), but instead of vegan cream cheese, I used soft silken tofu. The recipe worked perfectly - the cookies were tasty and also firm. As the author says, it makes a lot of cookies - so after two batches I just saved the dough for future cookie endeavors. I added LOTS of red food coloring to the icing to make it a good lady bug color.

The spots were easy to figure out - I used chocolate chips... but how would I make the line in the middle of the lady bugs?! I finally settled on marzipan. I had some of this yummy almond paste that I'd bought a while back because I just knew it would come in handy some day. I mixed some black food coloring into the marzipan (which took a lot of elbow grease) and then I rolled it into some lines for the middle of the bugs. Here's the finished product:

There were other bug cookies at the party, but mine were still a hit!

Just when I thought I couldn't get enough of the cookie adorable-ness, my office-mate Sarah brought me cookies for the holiday season! She's a great baker, so after we'd shared an office for a bit and bonded, I bought her a copy of Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar for her birthday. She has made me some yummy cookies from it before, but for the holidays she outdid herself!

This is a mason jar filled with peanut butter cookies and decorated with glittery snowflakes. LOVE! They were so delicious that I've already finished all of them. Well almost all of them - I shared some and saved one for Wade.

Yay for cookies!

Early (vegan) thanksgiving!

2011-11-15T05:35:00.001-08:00

So my mom is traveling over thanksgiving, and I won't see my parents over winter break at all because we're traveling to the panhandle of FL to see Wade's family, so we went to my parents' house a few weekends ago to celebrate my mom's birthday and have an early thanksgiving dinner!

My parents are totally down with (mostly) vegan eating for thanksgiving, so that is great. Usually, my dad has some sort of meat entree and my mom just has to make her real english yorkshire puddings (just can't figure out a good way to veganize those puppies... yet!), but other than that the spread was vegan!

There's the spread! We had a tofurkey, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted butternut squash, cabbage, green beans, asparagus, mashed potatoes, mushrooms/onions, tofurkey gravy, and probably even more...

Here's my plate (deeeelicious!):
And lastly, here's my mom enjoying her birthday celebration :)

#CreepyCocktails

2011-10-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

Julia over at SnarkyVegan sent out a twitter call for testers for some halloween-themed martinis - so I jumped on it :)
She sent out two yummy recipes, and last night I had the chance to try one of them. This "great pumpkin martini" was pretty yummy!
Here's the original recipe, which I tweaked a little (details below).

2.5oz Vodka
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
0.5oz Rum
"pumpkin mash" (2 tbsp pumpkin puree, 1 tbsp soy milk, 1 tbsp brown rice syrup and 1tsp pumpkin pie spice)

I didn't have rum, so I used kahlua instead and the orginal recipe was a little too strong for me, so I added extra soy milk once I had mixed the above ingredients in a cocktail shaker and poured it into a glass. The final result (kind of like a pumkin white russian) was yummy and actually pretty b/c the layers seperated. Here's a shot:Thanks for the opportunity to be part of the group, Julia. Here are a few blog links that feature these yummy halloween cocktails (and checkout our twitter hashtag - #creepycocktails):

amanda-eats-slc.blogspot.com

littlethingsbigthinks.com

wp.ne/p1NeEh-36

kohlrabiandquince.wordpress.com

thetastyvegan.com

Enjoy!

Thirty Before 30: DC Tourist Attractions

2011-10-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

As part of my “30 Before 30” list, I want to visit all of the fabulous tourist attractions in the DC-area. Over the last few weeks, I’ve checked a few off my list: I went on tours of the US Capitol, the National Building Museum (NBM), and Abraham Lincoln’s cottage.

I’ve read a lot about the Capitol, its architecture, and its interior, but it was still totally awe-inspiring to visit. The building itself is gorgeous. It becomes even more beautiful when you learn about the story of how it was built. The original Capitol was burned down during an attack, and construction on the new building (specifically the dome) was halted during the civil war because all non-defense related spending was stopped. President Lincoln, however (who was all around badass), wanted to continue building the structure to show that the Union would go on despite this conflict – he knew what its construction represented, so he got it done. Here are a few shots from the tour that I love.

Me outside the Capitol:

The artwork in the top of the dome (The Apotheosis of Washington):Wade and I standing by the artwork. You can't really see the artwork; it is big.

My tour of the NBM was awesome, too! The museum itself costs $8 to get into (which is weird in DC… everything here is free woo hoo!), but they do a free tour every day, so I went to one. My tour guide was very knowledgeable, and I learned a lot from him. If I had had the time, I actually would have paid to go into the museum, but I didn’t, so I’ll have to go back later. I don’t want to bore anyone with history, but the NBM started out as a municipal office and because many government employees had disabilities (because of being veterans), its construction was actually WAY ahead of its time with respect to ADA-requirements. It was also the first building in DC to have an “open interior.” I don’t remember the architectural term, but basically it isn’t a bunch of discrete floors. The main room is beautiful and spacious and opens up to the ceiling. The architect, who was a big deal back in his day along w/ L’Enfant and others, was really an engineer and he designed the building to enhance air flow and keep it cool. I could go on with more fun facts, but you should just do the tour yourselves. Here’s a cool shot of some of the structure.This past weekend, we went to Abraham Lincoln’s cottage, which is a little-known building near Petworth that is where Abraham Lincoln lived during the summers of his presidency (it was less hot than the Whitehouse and he liked the “commute”). I sadly don’t know much about Lincoln (other than the stuff that everyone knows) - I have been more into the study of our “founding fathers” during my time here in DC – but now I want to learn more! I learned a lot about Lincoln and his presidency, and found the tour very informative and interesting. The building doesn’t contain a lot of furniture, and they don’t know a lot of details about some of the rooms, but the tour was intermittently filled with audio and video testimony about Lincoln’s time, his presidency, and his family. It definitely made me want to learn more. Also, as a side note, I don’t know why this building isn’t more well-known. It’s a national trust site (so it costs money to enter), but it’s such a great way to learn about Lincoln and the civil war and other important factors in our history (there’s actually a museum onsite too). If you live in the area, chances are you haven’t even heard of this tourist attraction, so check it out! Here are a few pictures.

The cottage from outside:

Us on the cottage grounds:

Yay for visiting tourist attractions. I think the next ones on my list are Ford's Theater (continuing the Abraham Lincoln theme) and the new MLK memorial.

Testing for Terry: Sofrito Scramble

2011-10-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

I am super thrilled to be testing for Terry Hope Romero's (author of Viva Vegan) new book! For brunch on Saturday, I tried out her "Sofrito Tofu Scramble" and it was deelish! I have used her sofrito recipe from Viva Vegan before, and it needs to be prepared ahead of time, so I expected the same here... I thought i'd make Sofrito and then somehow mix it into a scramble.. but really it is just a tofu scramble using sofrito veggies rather than traditional scramble veggies. Here's a shot of all the beautiful veggies:

Below is a shot of the finished product. Instead of serving it with traditional corn wraps like the

recipe suggested, I served it over english muffins (because I'm a little lazy) and with a side of potato salad (because I had left over cold potatoes, tomatoes, and avocados). The picture doesn't show how BEAUTIFUL this dish is... the combination of textures and colors was really appetizing! Bravo, Terry - I can't wait til this book comes out!

Making (vegan) Cheese!

2011-10-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

So when I first went veg, the concept of making my own cheese intrigued me. I bought cookbooks with instructions, but soon realized that the process required the purchase of probiotic powder, cheese cloth, and a fine mesh strainer, so I gave up.

Recently, I realized that these products aren't really that hard to come by, so I decided to give it a go! Tal Ronnen's book, The Conscious Cook, includes a recipe for a "herbed cashew cheese baguette," so I made just the cheese part.

Now, despite not being THAT complicated, making cheese takes a while. First I soaked the cashews overnight, then I blended them with the probiotic powder and let them culture in cheese cloth for 16 hours and then I added spices, wrapped it and let it "set" for another 16 hours. However, trust me... if you like the taste of mature cheeses, this waiting is well-worth-it.

After, the cheese has set, the recipe says to roll it in some herbs. Next, I put it on a plate and served it with some cut-up English muffins. My cheese didn't "set" as much as I think it was supposed to because it was still pretty soft (would have been hard to cut into slices like the recipe for the baguette suggested), but spreading it on the bread made a great appetizer!

This picture is a little fuzzy, but these morsels of cheesy goodness on bread were deelish!
Overall, I'd say don't be afraid of making your own cashew (or other nut) "cheese" - the process isn't too difficult and the results are yummy!

Black Bean Patties & Brussel Sprouts

2011-10-18T05:04:00.000-07:00

So, black bean patties have scared me for a while. I have discovered that most of them aren't vegan, and when I tried to make my own, I quickly found out why... it's really hard to get them to stay together without eggs or another binding agent. I've tried many times, but never had any luck with it... they always TASTE good, but crumble when I try to put them in a bun... so I've sullenly eaten my crumbling beans over rice or with chips.

One of my friends at work told me the other day that the recipe she uses is vegan, so I figured I'd give it a try. Her recipe included rice and salsa, so I reckoned this might do the binding trick. It did! They turned out not only delicious, but in perfectly formed patties that even flipped over (when I did so carefully)! - I'll put the recipe below.
These black bean patties are a great food because they contain protein, grains and veggies, but I like to make sure I get lots of veggies every day (especially the green variety), so I decided to serve these up with some Brussels Sprouts. The blogosphere has been very active lately with recipes for these delicious "bitty cabbages" (as Meet the Shannons calls them :)), so I bought some at the store when I saw them on the stalk!

I decided to use MtS's recipe for "Brussels Sprouts in Sriracha Lime Sauce" because they looked awesome and because the recipe takes about 12 minutes to prepare (INCLUDING time to pluck and cut your Brussels).

These turned out GREAT! The picture is a little fuzzy but the sauce coats the beautiful green half-spheres in a pretty red glow.
I put the patties in some bread with greens and some spicy mustard and then served with Brussels on the side - all in all it was a delicious filling meal!

Black Bean Patties (a la Sarah Y)
1 can black beans
1 cup cooked brown rice (I used jasmine rice cooked in Better than Bouillon "no beef" stock)
1/4 onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup salsa
1 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1-3 tsp cayenne (depending on if you want them spicy)
dash salt
dash pepper
dash olive oil

Drain and rinse the beans and set them on a paper towel for 5-10 minutes so they can dry a little.

Preheat the oven to 350 and spray a cookie sheet with oil/Pam.

Mash the beans with a masher (Sarah kindly let me know that if you use a fork, it can take days), then mix in the rice, onion, garlic, salsa, chili powder, cumin, and cayenne. Mix together and add salt/pepper to taste and oil if the consistency isn't right.

Form into four patties and lay on baking sheet. Cook for 30-35 minutes, flipping at 20 minutes if you want to take the risk (they might fall apart).

Pie!

2011-10-17T15:08:00.001-07:00

So I haven't gotten my copy of "Vegan Pie in the Sky" yet (silly Amazon pre-order hasn't gotten w/ it yet...), but I did get a preview flyer at DC Veg Fest a few weeks ago.

Last week I decided to make the "chocolate caramel sea salt tart" and boy oh boy was it GOOOD!

The tart is made in layers. I used an almond crust recipe that I love (from an old VegNews...) and then you make 2 layers: a caramel layer and a chocolate/coconut layer. The caramel was deelish! I had a little bit of a hard time getting mine to "set,' (it kinda melted even at room temp), but the flavor is amazing. The chocolate layer was creamy and also amazingly velvety.

You chill each layer as you make it, so this tart took a while, but it was totally worth it! The book gives a tip to use a cold knife when you cut it and that helped w/ the caramel issue. I tweeted Terry Hope Romero to ask about the caramel and she said cooking it a little while longer will help with that. I'll definitely make this again, so I will try that!

Thirty Before 30: MLS Game

2011-10-11T15:22:00.000-07:00

So earlier this year, I put together a list of "30 things I want to do before I turn 30." A lot of them relate to vegan cooking and blogging, but there are some other things on there too - nifty things I just want to do.

#23 on this list is "go to an MLS game." I love european football... mostly just world-class soccer, but I genuinely like the game no matter the player caliber. I went to the Manchester United vs. Barcelona match here in DC in July, and really enjoyed myself. I can't afford to attend matches like that often, but a DC United match, I can swing... especially since Living Social sponsors a lot of their games and the tickets can come cheap!

So, we went to a match in September. The game was at RFK Stadium - which is in the district and close to a metro station (woo). Unfortunately it was raining... and RFK doesn't allow umbrellas... of any kind. So that was lame... but we left our umbrellas by the bike rack (and no one swiped them!) and headed in. Our seats were in the non-covered section, so we snuck a little farther back and sat under the second layer of seats so we didn't get wet.

The view was pretty good and the beer helped with the rain issues! This is me enjoying an $8 (!!!) beer:

Overall, the game was lots of fun! We left before it ended, and DC United didn't win (it was a tie), but it was fun to see a real game. Unfortunately, it wasn't even close to full... but it was a Wednesday night and was raining.... hopefully DC United get better turn outs when it's sunny!

Organization and housemate!

2011-02-27T16:56:00.000-08:00

So Wade has arrived! After 5 months of us living in different states, he's finally here. I haven't been able to blog because my computer had a virus (thanks to my friend Rahul for fixing my computer), but now that it is fixed, I am excited about blogging some more.

Since Wade was set to arrive, I organized my half of our closet! Shannon would be so proud :) I wanted to fold sweaters and commonly-worn long-sleeved shirts on top for easy access and then I hung up all my like objects in the same section.

When Wade was here for a week in January, we hit up the Takoma Park farmers' market and it was lots of fun... we went back this morning and got some great looking butternut squash, georgeous carrots and deelish sauerkraut! Pictures and food ideas to come :)

This next weekend I'm off to Austin, TX where I hope to hit up some interesting museums and restaurants. Updates as soon as life gets back to normal.

Happy Sunday!

Breakfast Making

2011-01-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

Sooooooo, brunch is one of my fave things in the world. Some days it gets the top spot... but any day it's up there w/ coffee, a chilly day outside and laughing my butt off with good friends. Making brunch is super fun and has become pretty necessary since I went vegan. In Jax, there wasn't hardly anything in the way of a breakfast place that served veg options (bagels and peanut butter all the way), but here in DC, there are a few good spots. I've definitely enjoyed all the brunch options at Sticky Fingers in Columbia Heights. Visiting NYC is the best by far however - so much vegan brunch!

I digress... back to how i cook myself brunch all the time. Wade and I love waking up and making tofu scramble, home-made toast and avocado, home-fries and brew-station coffee. When he was here the first week of the year, however, I wanted to stick to my impulsive cooking resolution.

We had some of the ingredients for tofu scramble, but not all of them. We'd made bruschetta the night before, so we had leftovers of that... I suddenly thought... hmmm what if I make an italian-style tofu scramble... Instead of an onion, I used a shallot... then i mixed in the bruschetta (tomatoes, garlic, basil, pine nuts, white vin) and some more italian spices (oregano, thyme). After it was all yummy smelling, i added the tofu and let it cook for a while like you do w/ regular tofu scramble. I threw in some daiya mozzarella style cheese at the end (over did it a bit i reckon), and it was deelish! Here's a picture of the pan:So that was a yummy breakfast... we combined it w/ homemade bread and avocadoes. And we went to starbucks b/c the brewstation is in florida...

So my next experiment with brunch will probably be something sausage-y. I'm excited!

I plan to do a lot of organizing this weekend - I think I'll post about it :)

I'll end w/ a pic of the kitties b/c i think they're perfect:

2011-01-12T17:03:00.000-08:00

Sooooo this past weekend I made a yummy dinner for friends to celebrate my bday. Yaeger is one of my bffs from college and her awesome fiance sean was in town from atlanta for the weekend. Wade was here too helping me get settled, so it was a great excuse to cook a meal. I made the stroganoff from Vegan w/ a Vengeance, wade and i made some bruschetta together and the dessert was a yummy chocolate cheesecake. I used the recipe here as a base, but i changed some of the ratios to make it a little creamier. Also, I improvised some and added some fake caramel and sweet cashew cream to the top. Also, i was a little ghetto w/ the crust and just used keebler. A little high fructose corn syrup won't kill me i hope ;).

So i'm not that good w/ "presentation" of food, but i have enough things i'm working on right now to worry about that! hah!

I had some leftover seitan, so i made a yummy sandwich (I heart trader joe's ciabatta bread!) which I ate w/ a potato and some greens - deelish!Tonight I'm just going to make enchiladas. Nothing fancy. The rest of the week is sure to be awesome because I'm having dinner w/ Erin tomorrow and then it's off to New Orleans for fun times w/ some old college friends for Mallory's bachelorette party. More next week!

Last meal without a table...

2011-01-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

Sooo another one of my new "age" resolutions is to get better at cooking. If anyone is actually reading this, they are probably like "wha, but you're a good cook?" (if i don't say so myself...), but I mean "cooking," and not "following a recipe." I love to make good food, but i've always been envious of those folks (ahem, shannon) who are not afraid to just throw stuff in a pan and see what happens... and they know enough about food to know what works together and how to cook certain things... and how to substitute!

So, i've been studying this skill for some time, and decided that 2011 is the perfect time to get the hang of it. I want to be able to come home and see what I have in the fridge and whip up something delicious. I want to look at one recipe and figure out how I could make it work with what I have... we'll see.

My first real go at this was a success! last tuesday, wade and i were planning a low key night of dinner and a movie (love and other drugs). i was supposed to go to the store during the day, but didn't have time... so I decided to make something what from I had in the fridge/pantry.

Tah dah!:

So the picture leaves something to the imagination, but that's a yummy lentil dish and pan-seared tofu! The lentils were cooked in left over spaghetti sauce and some spices along w/ shallots and celery. The tofu was inspired by the recipe found here. Because I wasn't having an "asian-type" meal, i made a sauce that wasn't soy-sauce based. I mixed some leftover cashew cream with cumin and cayenne - actually pretty deelish!

So there ya have it. More of these updates to come... I read the new Veg News today and have all sorts of ideas for my cooking adventures this week. I also picked up some yummy-looking b-nut squash at the Takoma Park farmers market - risotto this week I expect.

Peace, love and lentils,

New year, new house, new blog

2011-01-09T14:17:00.000-08:00

My bday is in early January, so usually, in lieu of new years resolutions, i make new age resolutions. One of my resolutions for my 27th year of life is to blog. I don't really know why, but I feel like I should. I have plenty of friends across the country and globe and this could be a good way for them to keep up with my life. But also, I think blogging helps you feel like you've left a mark. On whatever. Well, here goes...

On January 1st, Wade and I moved into our first place together. We've been together about 2 years now, so it's a good time to do so. Also, I moved to DC in September and he'll be up here in March permanently, so now was a great time to get settled. He came up for a whole week and did most of the heavy lifting. I'll be living sans-a-lot-of-furniture for a few months while I wait for him to get here, but i'm making do w/ a bed, a table, some shelves and a too-low-to-the-ground futon. Thank you ikea and craigslist (although i'm never going back to ikea!).

Before we got the table on Thursday, we had to eat... but where!?!?

That's our cat Mayhem being amused by our "table" for the night. Wade cooked amazing kale & white bean stew (from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's new cookbook) and I made homemade bread... great first home-cooked meal in our new home! (even if we did eat it sitting on the floor).

We had a really fun week, which I'll post more about later, but wanted to get started! Welcome 2011!