Christmas Bake Sales for Farm Animal Rescue

For those of you who don't know, large parts of Australia are on fire. And what isn't is in drought. This drought is hitting properties very hard, including Farm Animal Rescue. A refuge for rescued farm animals, their dams are dry and they are having to truck water into the property to keep the animals alive. They have a lot of costs at the moment, on top of the regular costs for caring for their residents. As part of their fundraising efforts, they had a run of three bake sales spread over eight days, all supported by wonderful local businesses. The bake sales were all very successful. and they have been getting some good donations on top of that, but obviously everything is still a struggle at the moment. This is what I baked for them over those eight days. If you have any sway with the weather, please send rain.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cozy Inside by Joni Marie Newman: A combination of the classic cookie flavours, it is hard to go wrong with this mix. The recipe just says to mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. I beat the peanut butter, sugar, and liquids together first and then stirred through the dry stuff. The dough is very goopy, and does benefit from firming up in the fridge a bit before scooping. I made a full recipe, but used and Australian TBS (20mL) as my scoop, so I got 28 cookies rather than 3 dozen. As they were bigger, I needed to bake them for about five minutes extra. These were great straight out of the oven, but froze very well also.
Rating: :)



Gooey Peanut Butter Creem Cheeze and Chocolate Chip Brownies from Cozy Inside by Joni Marie Newman: These are some very fudgy brownies. It has the option to use 2/3 - 1 cup of flour depending on how fudgy or cakey you want them, I used a heaped 2/3 cup. The batter melted peanut butter and chocolate in it, as well as additional chocolate chips. It is topped with a peanut butter and cream cheese swirl. I found the topping to be a bit thick, making it hard to spread and marble. Next time I would add a smidge more soy milk to loosen it up a bit, and perhaps a touch of maple syrup for a little bit of sweetness.
Rating: :)



Candy Cake Fudge Cookies from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: Chocolate and mint, for the most part, is not my choice. But it is a very popular Christmas combination. I made a half recipe of these cookies, and using an ice cream scoop to portion out the dough got 11 nice big cookies. Because they were bigger, I baked them for 20 minutes. I was worried at first, because the chocolate in the cookie dough melted a bit and puddled around some of the cookies in the oven, but it all worked out. I used a block of Alter Eco Super Dark Mint Chocolate in the dough, and I only needed one candy cane crushed for the tops. Isa loves coconut oil, so I used Nuttelex instead of that in the recipe. The mint was not that over powering for me in the end, the chocolate was so rich, that I didn't mind these at all.
Rating: :)



Gingered Cheesecake Bar Cookies from Veganissimo by Leigh Drew: These are SO GOOD! The cheesecake is based on cashews, no tofutti or bananas in sight. They cashews are blended in non-dairy milk that has been simmered with some fresh ginger and then left to steep, there in ginger in the base, and there is also chopped candied ginger scattered over the base before pouring on the topping. It is very gingery, which I loved. The base is a blend of gluten free flours and olive oil. I needed to bake these for about an extra 15 minutes in my oven before they were ready. These were so good, I cannot recommend them enough!
Rating: :D



(For The Love Of) Fruit Cake Bars from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero: I made a half batch of this cake bar, in an 8x8 inch pan. Instead of separate golden raisins and candied/glacee fruit, I used some ready made Christmas fruit mix. I also substituted the rum in the cake and icing in this recipe with rum extract and water. The cake itself was a little dry, and the icing was nice but didn't fully over it. But the flavour was good. I did almost screw up a little by adding too much baking soda, but I scooped most of that out gently.
Rating: :)



Harvest Cookies from Quick-Fix Vegan by Robin Robertson: The night before the final bake sale, I had an aesthetic baking fail (see later on in this post), and needed to make something quickly to replace it as my contribution. This recipe came through for me. Plus it had cranberries and ginger in it, so that is kind of Christmas-like, right? They have oats, cranberries, nuts, and sultanas in it, along with a delightful spice blend. I used an ice cream scoop to get nice bake sale sized cookies, and it made 14 cookies that I baked for 25 minutes. These were delicious, so I am glad I made them!
Rating: :D



Mincemeat Pinwheels from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin: I mentioned a recipe that was an aesthetic fail, and this was it. The recipe seemed simple enough, a jar of vegan fruit mincemeat, a sheet of puff pastry. Roll, slice, bake. But I think that my sheet of puff pastry and her sheet of puff pastry were different. I know they are, because hers seems to be a rectangle according to the instructions to roll from the short side, and mine were squares. Anyway, it was meant to be cut into 18 x 1cm pieces, I did 12. But it was so thin, and the pastry was so smooshy. My mum suggested in future to pop the roll in the freezer for a bit before cutting, and I would also suggest cutting them thicker. So while they tasted lovely, and didn't look totally horrendous, they were not for putting out a bake sale table.
Rating: :) (for taste)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Clinic boy Jed, sitting on his rocker/scratcher and having a good time.

Recipe Round-Up: The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook

The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is a giant tome with something for almost every holiday. While I spent a year making something from every chapter for each holiday, these days I just pick and choose what I want to make at any time of year! You can see what else I have made here.

Grilled Tofu with Peanut Sauce (Fourth of July) and Seared Dragon Green Beans with Almonds (Chinese New Year): Tofu and peanut sauce, sign me up! This recipe is for two blocks of tofu, but I only used one. While I halved the tofu, I still made a full recipe of the peanut sauce, because of course. The tofu is dipped in a soy and sesame oil mix before grilling. I just did mine inside on the mini George Foreman grill in batches, and then popped in the oven at 120dC while I was making the rest. This kept it warm, and also helped it firm up a bit as I didn't press it first. I also didn't put it on skewers, because honestly I am not the biggest fan of eating from skewers. I served it over some rice, and with the seared green beans. Mixing my holidays together! The beans were super fast and easy to make, and really had a great seared flavour. I loved the toasted almonds, though I found the amount called for was too much for garnishing the amount of beans. The recipe calls for searing in coconut oil, gross, so I used peanut oil instead.
Rating: Tofu :), Green Beans :)



Tater Tot Kugel and Stone Fruit and Lentil Salad with Creamy Mustard Dressing (Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur): Disclaimer, there aren't any tater tots in the kugel, but it is meant to taste like a giant one. Honestly, it did not, but it was still very tasty! I made a half recipe, and got four side serves from it (it says a full one serves 10-12, presumably as part of a multiple dish meal). This is definitely best served piping hot from the oven! The salad was a lovely and refreshing side. Mixed greens, nectarines (you can use whatever is in season), lentils (I used a tin), with a lovely dressing and pickled onions. I only made a small amount on the onions, mostly because my mum likes them. Pickled onions don't sit well with my stomach. I was out of white wine vinegar for the dressing, so I used some diluted sherry vinegar, which worked well.
Rating: Kugel :), Salad :)



Blood Orange Glazed Tofu and Pumpkin and Cranberry Risotto with Chestnuts (Christmas): When winter gifts you a short season of blood oranges, you make this recipe. Again, this recipe is for two blocks of tofu. I halved the recipe again, as I am only cooking for three people. I used garlic powder in the marinade instead of fresh garlic, and the marinade also has blood orange juice, ginger, maple, and soy. I marinated it overnight, and the tofu absorbed most of it. The recipe says to bake at 190dC, but I know how tofu bakes in my oven so I increased the heat to 210dC to get it a bit firmer. The risotto was lovely, sweet, and creamy. It went well with the tofu. For the risotto, I used a 1kg package for chopped butternut pumpkin, rather than chopping 3 pounds of pumpkin (sore shoulders, tough vegetables, convenience appreciated).
Rating: Tofu :), Risotto :)



BBQ Nachos (Super Bowl): I don't watch sportsball, and this particular sportsball isn't even a thing over here, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy watching what everyone eats for it. These BBQ nachos had layers of corn chips, a BBQ lentil meat mix, and queso, which you then repeat. Very important for optimal chip coverage! Then topped with pico de gallo, which I made without the raw onion or the jalapeno. I also left the jalapeno out of the queso, and used onion and garlic powder in place of garlic and onions. The lentils were meant to have some capsicum in it, which I also left out. And I used coriander for the final garnish rather than scallions. This made a huge casserole dish full of nachos, but really only served three or four as main meal. A great combination.
Rating: :)



Rice Paper Rolls with Red Curry Peanut Sauce (Chinese New Year): Rice paper roll wrapping is an art, and while sometimes I have the skills, other times it just ends up looking sloppy, like these. I was not super keen on the filling either - cabbage, carrot, avocado, coriander, and mint, it was just a bit meh and not very filling. I really would have liked some tofu as well. The sauce was nice though, and added some much needed flavour. Though I only used 1 tsp of red curry paste instead of 1 TBS to make it Susan friendly.
Rating: :|



Curried Pork Fried Rice (Chinese New Year): This was the first recipe that I ever made from the book! I took the option of using tofu rather than seitan, because tofu is my true love. The tofu was soaked in some beetroot mix and liquid smoke to give it a pinkish appearance and smokey flavour. Mine didn't keep the pink colour too much. I also sauteed the tofu before I added it to the rice to give it some firmness. I used a large bag of microwave jasmine rice, which was 3 cups rather than 4 cups, but I prefer a higher stuff to rice ratio anyway. There was also broccoli, carrot, and red onion in it... I kind of would have liked a bit of pineapple as well.
Rating: :)



Tofu Short Ribs with Gingery Mashed Root Vegetables (Chinese New Year): Guys, this is super good! Again, a two block tofu recipe that I halved to work with one recipe. Though I still make a full amount of the mash. The sauce is hoisin based, with five spice, and is so amazing! The mash is a combination of parsnips, turnips, and sweet potato, and I used Nuttelex instead of coconut oil. I also served with some green beans. Recommend!
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



These two little snuggle bugs!

Assorted Christmas Eats (with bonus I Made A Thing)

Believe it or not, my Christmas wasn't all eating out. And while we didn't do the traditional Christmas lunch this year, there were still a few things that I made.

Midsummer Salad from Bowls of Goodness by Nina Olsson: While all my US friends were deep in winter, here we are in summer. For my witchy pals, that means Yule in the Northern Hemisphere, but Litha down here in the Southern Hemisphere. This salad seemed appropriately named to make on the longest day of the year (or close enough, I think I worked all day on the actual day). Potatoes, lots of dill, spinach, cucumber, capers, chives, and some apple were all mixed in with a creamy mustard dressing. The apple was a wonderful addition, as its sweetness went great with the tangy dressing. The recipe calls for red onion, but as I don't do raw onion I added some celery for the crunch and it was great. This book is not all vegan, but has a vegan option for everything. The vegetarian version had eggs, which it says to leave out for vegans. I added some white beans to the mix as well instead. Served over some chopped baby cos.
Rating: :)



Party Nacho Platter from Vegan Yack Attack On The Go by Jackie Sobon: The last few years I have taken to making nachos for dinner on Christmas Eve. This year, that was delayed until Boxing Day as I was unwell on Christmas Eve and couldn't cook. But I had all the stuff, so I was glad I could still make it at some point! Corn chips are topped with a Buckwheat Taco Meat, queso (made using a Butternut Cheese Sauce base with some extras added in and some pinto beans, and I left out the jalapenos), tomatoes, avocado, coriander, and sour cream (I used natural almond yoghurt, which I forgot to put on until after the photos. I also left off the radishes and cos lettuce that the recipe suggested as they aren't my preferred nacho toppings. I also served them individually rather than on a big platter, so that my parents could top as they desired. I found the buckwheat taco meat a little underwhelming, I had to add extra water and cook for extra time to get it soft enough, so perhaps the flavours got too diluted. But it worked well witht he stronger flavours of the nachos.
Rating: :)



Banana Eggnog Pancakes from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: I made these for breakfast on Boxing Day, as there was no morning yoga class and I had a bottle of delicious, locally made nutnog in the fridge. The stars aligned. These had a lovely, sweet, mild flavour and were a fabulous way to start the day. I used a 1/4 cup as my scoop (rather than 1/3 cup) and got 11 pancakes (rather than 8). Served with some dried cranberries and some maple syrup.
Rating: :)



Nutnog Overnight Oats: Bonus recipe from me! Not that overnight oats really count as making a recipe? Anyway, I thought it would be a fun way to use my nutnog. And it was. I consulted the internet oracles for some inspiration, as well as following my own heart. This is what I did.

Mix 1C of rolled oats, 1TBS of chia seeds, 1.5C of your vegan nut/eggnog, 1/4 cup dried cranberries, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (you can add more or less, I probably added more because I am a cinnamon fiend). Leave overnight to soak and get delicious. In the morning, top with slivered almonds, pomegranate arils, and nutmeg. Eat! I don't add any additional sweetener, but you could mix in some maple syrup if you like things sweet.



And the other stuff...

Of course there were some delicious other eats as well. Such as this plate of cherries and vegan stollen (I love stollen, thanks Aldi!), with a glass of nutnog. And my first ever viewing of Die Hard.



A ham and cheese toasted croissant, using Tofurky Ham and Fenn Smoked Sesame Cheese. Other non-pictured things I made with the Tofurky included a ham and Daiya smoked gouda toasted sandwich, and also out traditional Christmas sandwich of ham, sweet mustard pickles, cheese (a Tofutti cheese slice), and a bit of Nuttelex.



And of course, some Christmas Pudding with Custard. I actually bought the pudding in January on a 50% off sale. It had a really long expiry date, so why not save some dollars and buy it super early. This pudding is delicious, especially with loads of custard.



There were of course other snacks and bits and pieces, but these were the most Christmas-related of them all. So, until next year... this year... whatever. Until next time it is Christmas.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Gizmo looking like the perfect present under the Christmas tree. This was also her last Christmas. What I wouldn't give to wake up one morning and find her under there again.

VeganMoFo 2018 #16: Menu: Show Them Your Curry from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook

Welcome to week three of MoFo! This week, my theme is menus. These are similar to recipe round-ups, except they focus on a specific menu suggestion from a book, and how it all comes together. Some may be more elaborate, some may be quite simple, but hopefully all are delicious.

I always make my parents a special dinner for their birthdays, and also for Mother's and Father's dad. My dad loves Indian, so that normally forms the theme of his dinners. Last year for his birthday, I made the 'Show Them Your Curry' menu from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It is actually in the Valentine's Day chapter, but whatever! Here's what I made, and stay tuned at the end for bonus cake! You can see what else I have made from this book here.

Potato Samosas in Phyllo: As I was serving only three people, I cut the recipe in half and ended up with nine samosas... which still only used half of the filling that I had made! Was I making them too small? I saved the rest of the filling and just ate it as leftovers with some rice and chutney another day. Confession: phyllo is one of my least favourite things to work with, and as you can see my rolling certainly needs practice. About half way through I was wishing that I had made a samosa strudel! Oh well, practice makes... not perfect but adequate? As well as potato they have onion, carrots, peas, and lots of spices in them.
Rating: :)



Pistachio Lentil Biriyani: I made this in a rice cooker for ease, first sauteeing the garlic in a pan before adding it. I also only used two and a half cups of water rather than three and a half cups, based on the instructions with my rice. This was a nice, fragrant rice dish, with lentils, pistachios, and raisins.
Rating: :)



Cauliflower Tikka Masala: I made a half recipe of this as well, baking it in an 8 x 8 inch pan rather than a 9 x 13 inch one. This is really easy to make ahead, but I gave it an extra 10 minutes in the oven to bake as it had cooled a bit before I put it in. I didn't have fire crushed tomatoes, so I just used a tin of regular ones, as well as some light coconut milk and water to make it a bit less rich for me. The cauliflower is roasted first, then layered in the casserole dish with the sauce.
Rating: :)



And here it is all together! Served with some Brussels sprouts, and some mango chutney. Happy birthday Dad!



Of course, you can't have a birthday without a cake. The cake comes from Blissful Basil by Ashley Melillo. You can see what else I've cooked from that book here.

Cadamom & Pecan-Pear Upside-Down Pudding Cake: I love upside down cakes! This is a lovely one, with some great flavours. Plus, pretty! I subbed Nuttelex in for everywhere that called for coconut oil. I needed to cook mine for the longer side, about 40 minutes all up, to make sure it cooked through. It is topped with a caramel sauce, but in all honestly I think it would be better without it. Just served with some vanilla ice cream. The sauce was a bit over-powering, though I did use peanut butter as the base rather than almond butter (that stuff is just so expensive), so that would have been a bit stronger in flavour. I also subbed Nuttelex for coconut oil in the sauce, which would have made it a bit saltier.
Rating: Cake :), Sauce :)





Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Gizmo and Sahara, sweet sisters, snuggling, making kind of a love heart.

Recipe Round-Up: The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook (A Year In Review Part 2)

Part two of my year long trek through The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Last year I challenged myself to cook a recipe from each chapter around the time of each holiday contained within. See part one here for New Year through to Easter.

Tempeh Shepherd's Pie with Whipped Sweet Potatoes (Passover): I made a half recipe of this, which gave 2.5 to 3 serves... according to the book a full recipe will serve 8-12, but I guess maybe serving with other things? The sweet potato is baked before being whipped. Mine was a largish one, and I was glad that I started early because it took almost two hours to roast until it was soft enough! I used Nuttelex for the whipping instead of coconut oil. The filling is based on tempeh, mushrooms and vegetables, with lots of flavour. It does have anise seeds in it, which I found tasted a bit odd. You are meant to pipe the whipped potatoes over the top in a pretty pattern, but I just spooned mine over.
Rating: :)





Spicy Chocolate Cupcakes with Hot Candied Pecans (Cinco de Mayo): I made these for a bake sale, where they were quite popular. My liners were more muffin-sized rather than cupcake sized, so I ended up with 9 rather than 12. They rose a lot when baking! The heat comes from cayenne pepper, which gives them a spicy kick. I went almost the full amount of cayenne, as I was making them for the sale. I only made a half batch of the chocolate glaze, which was more than enough and very runny. I chilled it carefully in the fridge to get it to a spreadable consistency. I also just made a half batch of pecans, using one pecan half per cupcake rather than a sprinkle of chopped pecans.
Rating: :)



Pan Bagnat (Mother's & Father's Day): Last year I continued my tradition of making my parents a Mother's and Father's day menu of their coice, so I only made one recipe for this chapter, around our Mother's Day in May as I was busy making them three course delights on the actual days (also in Australia, Father's Day is in September). I made a half batch of this chickpea and mayo-based filling, which filled three turkish rolls. It is a pretty hefty filling! And made for a fun, though saucy and sloppy, dinner.
Rating: :)



Crackly Potato Kabobs (Fourth of July): This was in the middle of winter, and while I do have a BBQ on the deck I wasn't really feeling like going outside. So I tried these in our little mini George Foreman grill. They were fine, but certainly didn't go super crackly like I think they would on the outdoor grill. Also the only small potatoes I could get were these weird 'low carb' ones (WHY?????), and they just weren't as potato-ish as they should have been. Although I still enjoyed them a lot, I will try these again with real potatoes on the outside BBQ now that it is summer! Also, the oil/lemon/salt/pepper mixture to coat them with was super oily, I had hard time getting any of the bits to stick to the outside.
Rating: :|



Broccoli Kugel and Brown Sugar Carrots (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur): I made a half recipe of the kugel and got four serves out ot it. I couldn't find the right noodles, so I just used some broken up linguine. I have no personal history with kugels beyond the few that I have made, mostly from Isa recipes. I always find them a little bland, but kind of comforting. This went nicely with brown sugar carrots. A half recipe of this just made three small serves, but you will want more than that. As well as sugar, they have a touch of orange. I didn't have any orange zest, so just used a tsp of ready made OJ.
Rating: Kugel :), Carrots :)



Spaghetti and Balls (Halloween): Being from the spooooky chapter, the balls are meant to represent a certain part of the anatomy, but I don't hold with food that looks like that, it is gross. Why do you try and make food that looks like gross body parts, America? So instead of coating the balls with almond ricotta and putting a cherry tomato on as a pupil (bleh), I just sprinkled on some ricotta and chopped tomatoes. Much better, and doesn't make me want to be sick while eating. I used 300g of spaghetti for this, instead of 450g, and I used some leftover pasta sauce from another recipe in another book. he tofu balls were really yummy, and held together well. It says that it will make 16 balls using golf-ball-sized scoops, but I only got 10. Maybe I don't know how big golf balls should be? I also used some onion powder in the balls rather than chopped onion, so that would have accounted for at least a little bit less volume. The ricotta was nice, though a bit dry (but I had to modify it to remove the coconut oil from it), and the chopped tomatoes added some nice freshness.
Rating: :)



Caramelised Onion and Cauliflower Casserole (Thanksgiving): This was a bit strange, I don't know really what I was expecting as I have never had anything like this before. It has a custardy base that is quite tangy, and overpowered the flavour of the cauliflower a little. The custard is made with silken tofu, lots of tahini, nooch and lemon, so it is quite strong and rich. I served it a side with some soy-glazed Fry's chicken strips and some green beans.
Rating: :)





Kasha Varnishkes (Hanukkah): I really liked this! Bowtie pasta, kasha, and lots of onions with mushroom gravy maybe doesn't initially strike as a winner, but it was. I only had regular buckwheat groats, so I toasted them for 10 minutes in a dry pan for 10 minutes to make them into kasha. I also only had 3/4 cup instead of a whole cup, so I adjusted the cooking water appropriately. My onions got wonderfully caramelised in about 15 minutes over a fairly high head as well. I served this with the option Fancy/Not So Fancy Mushroom Gravy from the Thanksgiving Chapter. I went with the Not So Fancy Gravy, which just meant I used regular mushrooms instead of fancy ones. The gravy was lovely, and I highly recommend it as it added such a wonderful flavour and stopped it from getting too dry. There is also lots of dill mixed through. This was great the night of, but even better than next day!
Rating: :D, Not So Fancy Mushroom Gravy :)



Cranberry-Spice Oatmeal Cookies (Christmas): The Christmas chapter has a whole lot of cookie recipes, Americans really like cookies at Christmas! I am happy to jump on board, and make an excellent choice with these beauties. Because we had so many other Christmas sweeties around, I only made a half batch (one dozen cookies). I had to bake them for 15 minutes, rather than 12, to get them looking good. The dough was quite wet, so be prepared to get your hands wet. But these are SO GOOD. They use pumpkin pie spice, which isn't a thing here but Isa tells you how to blend ginger, cinnamon and cloves to make your own. Plus cranberries and walnuts and oats. Amazing!
Rating: :D



I had a lot of fun with my challenge for last year, and it was something easy I could focus on during the rough times. I have made quite a few other recipes as well, which I look forward to sharing with you in a future round-up, and I have many more marked to try out.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This is Holly (tortie) and Aggie (black), two little cuties up for adoption at work!

Recipe Round-Up: The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook (A Year In Review Part 1)

Last year, I set myself the challenge of cooking a recipe for every holiday from The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook, the latest offering from Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Because of my work schedule, I wasn't always able to make something on the actual day, but I tried to make it within a week either side. Because there are a lot of chapters in this book, I'm going to break this post up into two parts.

Hoppin' John Bowl (New Year): My first dinner of the new year is always something with black-eyed peas and greens, so this was a natural choice. As well as the hoppin' john itself, it also had a fresh tomato and parsley salad, and a 'red hot tahini' dressing. I know you know that I made mine a 'very slightly warm tahini dressing' by decreasing the amount of hot sauce a lot, and making it up with some extra water. For the tomato salad, I left out the scallion as raw onion doesn't sit well with me, and for the stew I used extra celery in place of capsicum. We can't get collards here, so I had planned to use kale, but half of it was bad so I had to use a mix of kale and baby spinach. Served over rice, made four serves.
Rating: :)



Cincinatti Spaghetti (Super Bowl): It's all sportsball to me. We don't do the superbowl here (though sometimes they do screen it), but I don't watch anything ball sporty. But the food seems fun, and I like Cincinnati Spaghetti. Unlike previous recipes that I have made, this one uses avocado on top instead of a cheese sauce. It was nice, but I kind of missed the cheesy sauce, so I added some nooch on top. The spaghetti is mixed through with a kidney bean and lentil chilli (very mild on the chili powder, of course).
Rating: :)



Cold Sesame Noodle Bundles (Chinese New Year): These look super cute, right? Confession time, I just made these two as bundles, and just ate the rest as a yummy cold noodle salad. I used about 8oz of udon noodles instead of 12oz, and this is one case where the sauce really does make enough for the full amount. Mine was so saucy, but the sauce is so yummy so it doesn't matter. I decreased the sesame oil in the sauce to 1TBs instead of 1/3 cup, and made the rest up with water (though if using the smaller amount of noodles I wouldn't bother), and used garlic powder instead of fresh garlic. It is very fun to eat in the bundles!
Rating: :)



Broccoli Strata (Valentine's Day): Strata is always a bit strange to me, but I am intrigued by it. I made a half recipe of this as I didn't think it would keep well as leftovers, and I got two serves. Though they were fairly light serves, so this would be good with some extra sides, or make the full amount and have big servings. The custard is based on soft tofu, and it has plenty of broccoli in it as well.
Rating: :)



Blackened Scrambled Tofu and Garlicky Polenta Grits (Mardi Gras): I got three serves of tofu from this recipe (it uses a 375g block). I was glad that I halved the amount of polenta, as otherwise my preferred polenta:tofu ratio would have been off. I only needed to cook my polenta for half the time, and I started cooking it once the tofu was already sizzling away. The spice blend was lovely, of course I left out the optional cayenne. The scramble also includes some onion and tomatoes, which added a nice sweetness.
Rating: :)



Pesto Chickpea Salad Bruschetta (Oscar's Party): I don't watch the Oscars (it goes on forever and I don't watch many movies), but this chapter is still full of fun little appetizers. The bruschetta was a pesto mix of basil, coriander and mayo (also olive oil, but I cut back on that), that is mixed chickpeas and celery. It has miso in it, so is quite salty. It was nice on the toasted garlic bread slices, but I actually preferred it on some cucumber slices.
Rating: :)



Herbed Couscous and Kale Salad with Green Apple (St Patrick's Day): Another holiday I don't observe, but this lovely and refreshing salad is great for any time. The dressing includes parsley, chives, basil and thyme, and is beautiful and green. I cut down on the amount of oil in it, using some water with a bit of guar gum for the remainder. I had just over 1 cup of dried couscous left in my pantry, so I didn't quite get to the four cups of couscous the recipe called for, but it ended up being the perfect grain to dressing ratio. Baby kale is hard to find here, so I used baby spinach and also served it over some greens. The apple is a really nice, sweet contrast.
Rating: :)



Sweet & Smoky Glazed Tofu Ham (Easter): I'd had my eye on this recipe since the moment I got the book, it looks so great! I wanted to make sure that the flavour got right into the tofu, so I pressed it and poked it all over with skewers, then left it to soak in the marinade for about 28 hours. For the glaze, I didn't want to use whiskey so I just added an equivalent amount of the marinade. The tofu has an initial bake, then a second bake after the glaze is added. I only baked for about 20 minutes for the second bake, as the oranges started to burn a bit. It turned out perfect though, crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and smoky all the way through. I served this with mashed potatoes and roasted green beans.
Rating: :D





Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Check out this handsome fellow. He is a huge Maine Coon, but he managed to squeeze himself into a little tiny cubby hole.