Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Back to the food

It's been three long weeks of cooking, so prepare yourselves for a lengthly-ish post.
First up, is the Portobello Mushroom Tofu Quiche from ExtraVeganZa. I didn't have any portobellos, so I subbed porcini mushrooms, which, the dear Food Network chefs have taught me, are really just baby portobellos. The quiche was super yummy, but a little labor-intensive, since it involved a few steps, as well as making a crust. I'm sure I'll make it again though.
I was supposed to use red pepper strips, which would've been prettier, but I had yellow on hand, so there you go.

My sisters turned 20 last week (they are twins... hence the sharing of the birthday....), and we had a small family dinner for them at my dad's house. My stepmom, who, like most of the amazing people in my life, always makes an effort to veganize food for us, made a vegan version of one of my sisters' favorite foods: Jamaican patties. Mmmm. I haven't had these in years....like, maybe 7 or 8 years. Wow. They were awesome.
While we're talking about awesome people, I'd like to give a shout out to everyone else who has been sweet to us in the past few weeks: thanks to my friends Audrey, for the pizza and the soup, Nicolette for the sushi, Trina for the rad bean-cookies, and to my family, who are always super supportive, and always have chocolate soymilk around for Quinn. :)

Next up is two ED&BV recipes put together: Living Caesar Salad and Blackened Tofu. It was super-yummy, but I totally effed up the tofu and burned the crap out of it somehow. I know the idea was to blacken it, but not to burn it to a total crisp. Whatever. I scraped the badly burned parts off and dug in. My husband loves all things burny (despite the carcinogens), so he kept his intact and loved it.

At the farmers' market on Saturday, I picked up, among other things, a huge savoy cabbage. I've never seen a savoy cabbage before, but they are really ginormous. My husband was reluctant to get it, since I rarely cook with cabbage, but it's the dead of winter, and the market has some pretty slim pickens. I knew I had a recipe that called for savoy cabbage in my ReBar cookbook, so I went ahead and bought it. As it turned out, ReBar had two vegan recipes using my new giant cabbage. I made the BigBarn Bowties. It was described as "humble and earthy" (just like me!!! haha), and it did not disappoint. Topped with nutritional yeast, it was a lovely winter meal.

Shockingly, I haven't done too much baking lately. I certainly should be, with the ridiculously low temperatures here. Last week, aside from a batch of ExtraVeganZa's Carob Mint Oatmeal cookies (or something to that effect), Quinn and I made a batch of ED&BV's Oatmeal Raisin cookies (inspired by VeggieGirl), with the addition of some carob chips. Quinn always likes to have a job when we bake (when we make muffins, it's his job to line the tray with muffin liners), so I gave him the oh-so important job of smushing the cookies down a bit before they went into the oven.
The cookies were super yummy, and baking with the boys (Teague is usually in a baby carrier of some kind) is the best way to spend a morning.

Speaking of the boys, we have a lot to catch up on with Baby Teague's dining experiences.
First, blueberries! He loved 'em, no surprise there.
Next, butternut squash, which also went over very well.

Also on the menu, without pictures, are broccoli, blackberries, bananas, and peas. He doesn't dig broccoli on it's own, but doesn't mind it mixed with other veggies. Oddly enough, he really doesn't like blackberries either. Huh. Maybe the seeds?

And lastly, that sneaky guy tried to rebel against our vegan values and eat a cow! We caught you Teague!
"Crap! I've been outed!"

11 comments:

veganmomma said...

It sure sounds cold there, I'm used to leaving the house without a sweater around here, so I can't fathom what it would be like to live somewhere so cold!
I've never made much with cabbage before, so good for you for putting it to good use. It looked yummy!

Monika K said...

I don't know why I haven't tried the living Caesar salad before...it always sounds so good! The Jamaican patties look great - what's in them? Sort of like a Samosa?

Great post - hope you're keeping warm! (I can totally relate, my car was not happy about the -15 degree weather today.)

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

oh my goodness, so glad to see so much cooking and baking going on!! between that Portobello Mushroom Tofu Quiche, the Jamaican Patties (happy belated birthday to your twin sisters!), the Oatmeal-Raisin cookies (can't go wrong with ED&BV recipes - so happy you tried it!!), and Living Caesar Salad (I must try that - like monika, I don't know why I haven't tried it yet, haha), there's just so much deliciousness in your kitchen!!

Oh and as always, Quinn and Teague are too precious - haha, I love the caption under the last photograph!! :0D

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Wow, it's hard to believe you've been able to cook so much AND take care of a sick child AND deal with the freezing cold temperatures out there! I'm super-impressed!

Your quiche reminds me that I really want to make a quiche too. I'm thinking a mushroom-tofu quiche-- yummy.

Theresa Hannah said...

you bake the BEST cookies. so glad i live in the same city, and can partake once in a while. then again, that does mean experiencing the -46 C, too, which does suck. funny thing - i cooked with cabbage this week too! i guess cold = cabbage, who knew?

Julie said...

teague is such a cutie! OMG.

i love that raw caesar dressing-it's so good! that's a great idea of pairing it w/ the blackened 'fu too.

lastly, it's so refreshing to see that you have such support from your friends and family...

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

It's TRUE that I don't know what cold is... yesterday, after I posted about my sweatshirt, it got up to 65F (18.3C)!

Michelle said...

i LOVE that caesar salad.. i eat it at least 3-4 times a week! cute baby you've got there too!

Anardana said...

That quiche looks so pretty! How did she make those patties? I miss them.

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Haha you DO paint a grim picture of cold Canada!

I've only been to Canada once-- to Montreal-- but I really want to go to Toronto (in the SUMMER hehe) because I am a crazy hockey fan and want to visit the hall of fame :o).

But in the winters, I think I'll stay in good old Texas!

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Haha you DO paint a grim picture of cold Canada!

I've only been to Canada once-- to Montreal-- but I really want to go to Toronto (in the SUMMER hehe) because I am a crazy hockey fan and want to visit the hall of fame :o).

But in the winters, I think I'll stay in good old Texas!