Domestipithecus

Last night I used Vegan Dad’s recipe for vegan “corned beef.” I’m not big into the steaming of seitan meats because I have texture issues with food, but I followed his instructions exactly.What resulted was a bit more rubbery than baking yet not as hurl inducing as boiled seitan. I just can’t eat seitan that has been boiled. The rubbery, blubbery blob that forms is enough to make me gag just thinking about it.

Anyway, instead of making the reuben sandwich on the linked page, I made corned beef hash. I cut it up unevenly, just some random chopping, to try and get the consistency of the real thing. Semi-recipe below:

1 recipe of Vegan Dad’s corned beef
2 russet potatoes
1 tbsp horseradish (though I think I would have liked more, all I had was 1 tbsp)
1 white onion, chopped
2 tbsp earth balance
seasoned salt, pepper to taste

1. chop potatoes into 1/2″ cubes and put into 10″ skillet. Cover with water and bring to a boil, then simmer for about 5 min. Less if you made the cubes smaller.

2. Drain potatoes and set aside. Wipe out skillet and put earth balance and onion in. Let cook at medium heat for 5-7 minutes.

3. While the onions are cooking, chop the corned beef into uneven, somewhat small pieces. You could also coarsely grate it and I think it would be fine. I actually only used about 3/4 of the recipe and left the rest to make a sandwich for Mr. Pithecus later.

4. When the onions are ready, add horseradish and distribute evenly.

5. Add potatoes and corned beef to skillet and mix. Then flatten in the pan and let cook until that yummy crustiness forms on the bottom. Then mix around and repeat for more yummy crustiness.

I served this with some mustard greens we got in our produce box this week.  I used this recipe. I did not like it. It wasn’t the recipe, Mr. Pithecus loved it. I just don’t really like mustard greens it seems. Way too bitter for me. I don’t like a lot of bitter. I will pick the baby arugula out of any salad (and really it looks like Sigmund the Sea Monster anyway) because it’s just too bitter.

No pictures because my camera is poopy and well, hash doesn’t look very good at all. It tasted awesome. Apparently, it was even better today, straight from the fridge.

I need to blog about a new vegan restaurant in Pasadena call My Vegan next. It’s yummy and happy and vegan vegan vegan!! AND THEY DELIVER!!!!

So we have two cousins of Boo’s that are going to have children this year. A third child for one and a second child for the other. I don’t know who is due first, but neither should give birth until I am done with the baby things.

For baby #2 I will be making Trellis from Knitty. I am making it out of the same yarn (had it left over) as I made the Alphabet Blanket for their #1 baby. I thought that would be a cute touch. I am also going to design a hat to go with it. Probably something basic with the twists from Trellis. It is going along pretty quickly, though when my confidence in how simple it really is goes up, so do my mistakes. I am almost done with the right/buttonhole side, but I have to rip back a bit because I screwed up somewhere and can’t figure it out.

Progress so far:
Back:

Left Front:

Detail:

I intend on making the same things for the baby #3 from the other cousin, but in a different color.

And going in backwards order from the entry title, I baked some cookies. Happy Vegan Cookies from VegWeb. Boo brought these into work today. We had a few last night as well. They are so good. I love the touch of cinnamon in the batter. I will be making another batch soon and freezing the dough in individual cookie balls. I like to be able to pull a couple of balls out of the freezer and pop them in the oven for a quick cookie or two. Also keeps Boo and I from eating too many at once.

I was using up some chocolate chips that aren’t vegan with the vegan recipe. Boo and I, starting in the new year, are slowly getting rid of everything not vegan (though we had already mostly been doing that). In dribs and drabs we are using up/gifting/giving away non-vegan stuff (like the chips). We don’t want to waste anything by just tossing it.

This made for some densely chipped cookies. More chip than cookie, but hey, nummy. And as of now, Boo has informed me that they are all gone, so I don’t think anyone complained.

Cookies:

So for dinner last night, I made my mother-in-law’s turkey/chicken “meat.” I made a double batch and formed half of it into a log for baking and slicing for sandwiches, and the other half into nuggets. Fried the nuggets up in oil (yeah, not too healthy but mmmMMM good) and made a ranch dip for them.

Frying up:

I had also spent the day simmering a Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup. I had a boatload of tomatoes from the box scheme and needed to use them before I had to throw them out.

We sprinkled in some Tabasco sauce to give it a kick. Also note that Boo and I love, love, love garlic, hence the two whole heads.

Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup
1 large onion, chopped
2 small carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 heads garlic, roasted (I roasted these ahead of time)
8-10 smallish tomatoes, cut in quarters, skins on.
1-2 tsp salt
(all herb additions are approx as I was throwing some in, tasting, and altering from there)
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp “italian seasoning mix” I used Ralph’s brand
A sprinkle or three of red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
oil for frying

1. In the bottom of a soup pan, add oil and onions. Cook until translucent (though if you want a slightly different flavor you can go until carmelized)
2. Add celery, carrots and salt. Cook for a few minutes.
3. Add parsley, bay leaves and seasoning. Mix around and let cook a few minutes more.
4. Add tomatoes and fill with water to cover. You can use veggie broth here. I used water so it wouldn’t be too salty and the onion/carrot/celery mixture would sort of make it’ own veggie “broth.”
5. On high heat, wait for it to boil then turn the heat down and simmer for um… well I let it simmer for about an hour.
6. Remove bay leaves, throw in roasted garlic and use an immersion blender (or you can do it in a real blender too, it’s just messier) to puree the stuff.

You can serve from here but since I hadn’t made the nuggets yet and I like my soup a little thicker, I let it simmer for quite a while. Lowest heat. It thickened a bit and was a near perfect consistency. This made enough for Boo and I to both have a bowl with dinner, sent a bowl into work and froze 3 Earth Balance containers full.

Mmmm soup:

Boo went out to drop a bunch of stuff to Goodwill, so on his way home I asked him to pick up a baguette for the soup. I like to eat my soups with a bread “spoon.”

This is our dinner spread:

Oh the ranch… easy peasy
Few blobs of Vegenaise, couple shakes of garlic powder, onion powder and dried parsley. Add water to make more liquidy… and there you go.

Whew, that was a long one.

When Boo and I would get back from our long runs while marathon training, I would cook up a tofu scramble to help feed our depleted bodies. It worked quite well except for the getting home from running anywhere from 10 to 18 miles and having to freaking chop veggies and cook.

One day I decided to get tortillas and make the scramble and assemble breakfast burritos the night before so we could just nuke them. They were fine like that.

Then, when I was having my mother, sister and cousin in the house the morning of the wedding (my family stayed here, his family stayed at his parents’ house) I made them up a week ahead of time and froze them.  That worked even better.

Now, I make a double batch when we are running out (about 3 or 4 left) and put them in the freezer so we always have a quick breakfast (or even a lunch or dinner if we feel like it). This is based on the tofu scramble in How it All Vegan.

I take two blocks of extra firm tofu, not silken, and wrap and press before even starting the fauxsage mix.

For the inside, I make a fauxsage (scroll down to see). I used to chop it up into small bits, but since we got a KitchenAid grinding attachment as a wedding gift, I am able to grind the thing up. This works so much better as it distributes wonderfully throughout the mixture. Much better than the chopped pieces.

This time I made an apple-sage sausage. Basically I used the pumpkin-sage recipe linked above, but used apple sauce instead of pumpkin puree and I upped the sage a little.

Once the sausage was done baking, I put it on a rack to cool and started preparing the veggies. This will vary depending on what we get in our box scheme and what I have already prepared, but frozen.

This time
1 large yellow onion - chopped small but no need for full on dicing
1 large green pepper - this was frozen this time so was already chopped
3 medium red potatoes - diced
4-5 cloves of garlic - crushed (though Boo and I love garlic so I usually throw in even more)
3 small vine tomatoes - chopped
Approx 1Tbsp curry

After I finish the veggies, I grind up the sausage - about two-thirds of it. It should be cool enough by this time. I save the other third for other things like country sausage gravy or pizza topping.

I lightly spray a large (I use this one) pan and put the potatoes in. Once they seem near done, I take them out and set aside.

Then the onions and peppers go in. Cook them for a little bit, you don’t want them all the way done or they will get crazy mushy. Once they seem cooked but still firm, add the crushed garlic. Stir that around for a couple minutes.

Add ground sausage. Cook for a couple minutes.

Add potatoes back in. Cook for a couple minutes.

Take the tofu and crumble it in. Cook for a couple minutes and then sprinkle in curry. I usually just add this from the container so the measurement is a guesstimate. I sprinkle some on, mix and if it looks like it needs more, add some.

Once the curry has been thoroughly mixed with all the ingredients, add in the tomatoes (juice and all). Mix it up and then let it cook a bit. I put the cover on to keep in the moisture, but it’s not necessary.

After that is all done I set the mixture aside and cook the tortillas. I just buy flour ones at the store. I cook them briefly over my gas flame on the stove, just enough to soften and brown in spots. Then I roll. Boo taught me how to do this well - he worked at Del Taco when he was younger.
Place a good amount on the tortilla (ignore the bit of filling I dropped on the counter)

Fold it in half and with a little pressure slide the top towards you, compacting the filling

Fold the sides in slightly diagonally so that the open part is a little slimmer than the bulk of the burrito

Et voila! A nice looking, tightly packed burrito.

I stack ‘em while I make ‘em

Then spread them out to cool before putting into freezer bags to await being eaten!

To cook after freezing
Wrap loosely in a paper towel on a microwave safe plate. Nuke for 1 1/2 minutes. Flip. Nuke for 1 1/2 minutes.

MMMM good eatin’.

Because Thanksvegan isn’t Thanksvegan without it. I lurve Tofurkey. My first and second vegetarian Thanksgivings I disliked it. Now I can’t think of the day without it. Weird eh?

The day was nice, but my sister-in-law had to go to the ER because her stupid contact abraded her ENTIRE cornea. The poor thing was in pain the whole day. They told her it should feel better today, but she has to go to en eye doctor person to get it looked at. She’ll be fine, but it just sucks.

Boo told her that at least it’s happening now and not the day before the wedding. I don’t think that was very comforting, but he was trying.

Anyway, without further ado, I present the Tofurkey Day goodies.

I baked Tofurkey. One for the meal and one for Boo and I to slice up for sandwiches for the weekend. I roasted them with one red potato, one sweet potato, about 8 cloves of garlic and one yellow onion. I tossed the veggies with a spray or three of oil, sage and thyme.

I made the basting recipe on the box, so no fancy stuff there.

Then there was the Sweet Potato “Buttermilk” biscuits. They were so good. Flaky and tasty. I used this recipe on Chow, but made “Buttermilk” instead of milk (soy, of course). One Tbsp. of vinegar and then fill to one cup. The recipe comments said something about them not rising much, so I figured the extra acidity would be perfect (as the commenter suggested). I got crazy flaky delicious biscuits. I did grate frozen Earth Balance buttery sticks and then refridgerated the dough for a couple hours before rolling, cutting and baking.

Before baking

After baking

Look how high and flaky!

I also made Easy as Pumpkin Pie ice cream pie. I got a chocolate cookie crust (yes I was lazy and bought pre-made) and drizzled some chocolate on top. Heaven. So amazingly good I almost didn’t want to bring it because we wanted it all to ourselves.

This was the spread at my mother-in-law’s with a good shot of her homemade “turkey” (includes the Tofurkey and biscuits)

Clockwise from the top left: rolls, Tofurkey, green bean casserole, mom’s “turkey”, baked sweet potatoes, biscuits, soysage dressing and in the middle, mashed potatoes. Cranberry stuff from the can and agave-cinnamon earth balance are on the periphery.

The gravy

A typical plate of food

And of course, there was wine. Frey wine

For dessert, my sister-in-law made an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. I only had the apple. It was awesome - and I don’t particularly like baked apple stuff. I heard from everyone else the pumpkin pie was great as well.

The pies and mom’s sampler plate The white on the ice cream pie is defrost stuff

Gratuitous puppy shot

That’s Maggie, Boo’s parent’s dog.

I hope everyone had a good day full of friends and family, and of course, a boatload of food.

Thought I would whip up some seitan o’greatness sausage last week because while perusing my usual food blogs I found a recipe for Pumpkin (Sau)sage (scroll down) on have cake, will travel!

I didn’t get many good pictures… my lighting was all yellow and my hand was not steady, but boy was it yummy.
We had it as our main course with cooked onions and a side of a pumpkin/zucchini thing I made up to use the rest of the can of pumpkin. Those pictures came out even more horrible so none of them will be posted.
Here is the one, somewhat passable pic of the “Fauxsage”

After that,  used some of it in our after-run tofu scramble we have on Saturdays and I used up the rest of it last night in an oven-roasted tomato/garlic polenta with garlic oven roasted zucchini. MMMM  It tastes even better after a couple days in the fridge!!

Not like I post every day usually, but this has been a pretty long absence.

We’re settling into the new place, slowly though. We don’t have a lot of storage furniture like shelving and such so there aren’t a lot of places to put things. The last place had so many built-in bookshelves and things that we didn’t need any. Now we have no built-ins. We have a fireplace so there’s the mantle. Currently it is holding all of the knick-knacks and such that I have so far unpacked. It is full.

We do like this new place, though it is more difficult to keep cool than the last one (no central air here). The landlord just told us how to turn on the attic fan, so that shoudl help some. She also told us we could put a window unit in the bedroom. We will probably need to do that seeing as it’s only June and it’s pretty hot. It’s only going to get worse from here.

In other news…

Boo and I are still training for the Pasadena marathon. The released the course and I have to say I am disappointed. It’s rather… crappy I think. Too many “run down this street for a mile and then turn around and come back” sections. I hate that during training never mind the actual marathon. Eh, it’s not THAT big of a deal. I’m just being whiny.

We have a catering tasting thingy-do this Saturday. We’ll also do a tentative set up for the reception site so we can put in an order for the tables, chairs and such.

We have a cake tasting July 19 with this place. Sounds soooo nummy. Hello pumpkin chocolate chip with maple cream cheez frosting! All her cakes are vegan and organic so yay!

We plan on asking a good friend of ours, D, to be our officiant. He’s a really great guy who we like a lot and he’s very articulate and witty. Boo and I are very excited to ask him as is K, his girlfriend, and our other good friend. We ran it by her first so as to not put him in an awkward position if it was something he wouldn’t really just not want to deal with, and she thinks he would be honored. That made Boo and I feel honored that she thinks he would be honored so there’s all sorts of squishy good feelings going around. So we’re getting together the weekend of July 13th so we can ask in person. We can’t wait!

I think that’s all the updating for now. I don’t feel like cooking tonight though so we will be ordering from Egg Roll Express. It’s OMG delicious chinese food with amazingly yummy vegetarian “meat” dishes like sweet and sour pork and kung pao chicken. We obviously haven’t had any of their meat dishes, but their fried rice is the best I have ever had.

I don’t think I’ll have to do much work convincing Boo.

April 5th, Boo and I had our engagement party at the house. It was supposed to be a housewarming as well, but we had received notice from our landlord that he was putting the house up for sale, so it turned into a houseleaving.

We had a lovely vegan BBQ with plenty of snacks and nummy desserts.

Setting up:

Backyard (the dark spots were hastily filled holes - we think the previous tenants had a dog or something):

Mmmmm beer:

The BBQ setup:

Table set up in the Wii room - yes we had a Wii room for the party (veggie platter with “ranch” dressing; avocado, sprout, white bean hummus rolls - some with loaf):

Hot stuff (Not-wings - both buffalo and not, veatballs and fixins for the metric ton or so of veggie burgers we had):

The bar:

The dessert table (Vegan Magic Cookie Bars, Fudge Drop Cookies (made and brought by my sister) and Banana Split Cupcakes - made by Boo’s mom - I think from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World):

And my favorite and proudest part of the whole party:

This is a snack platter made up of Cheddar Cheez, Jalapeno Cheez and Onion, Horseradish and Dill Cheez all from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook (well the jalapeno is just the cheddar with finely chopped jalapenos) and vegan pepperoni (veggeroni) from one of my favorite blogs, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

The party was great. So many people tried things that I know they would have never otherwise even thought about, and most were pleasantly surprised. We only had a few people who didn’t bother to try anything but the desserts and only one person who complained. We had given all our guests fair warning that all would be vegan and to inform us of any soy or wheat allergies (as most of the stuff was going to contain some of that). We also grilled up some portabello mushrooms for a handful of people.

Boo and I are baby-stepping to the vegan diet so we have decided to have a vegan wedding. We figure by then we will be mostly vegan - the exception being when we read ingredients and don’t recognize the animal ingredient. So we wanted people to not be afraid of the wedding and had the engagement party be vegan as well.

It was a great time and it was wonderful to have all those people we care about in one place. No I have to actually put the thank you notes in the mail. They are right there, just waiting… bah.

We got our first organic produce delivery on Monday. It was chock full of goodies. We ordered from Paradise O on the recommendation of a fellow Rose City Knitter, subliminalrabbit.

Just look at the veggie goodness! I have only used the red chard but I see in our future steamed artichokes, a yummmmy salad, possibly Aloo Gobi and Butter Paneer Masala and and and and and…whew. I’m tiring myself out just thinking about it.

Over Thanksgiving I made my pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting (all vegan). It came out better this year than last and I think it’s because I added more pumpkin puree so it was crazy moist. I always make cupcakes with any new cake experimentation first so I can taste it before subjecting anyone to a possible fail. CN has no problem with that as he gets to eat the test cupcakes.

After deciding that the cupcakes were missing something, I remembered that last year I had used Sugar in the Raw and this year I was using white vegan sugar. That made a difference in the taste so I changed the second batch to turbinado sugar (the same as Sugar in the Raw). I also added more pumpkin puree. I honestly have no idea how much pumpkin pie spice I put in, but it was until it tasted right.

The cake was fantastic, if I do say so myself. The frosting needs some help, but I’ll work on it.

Then there were the pumpkin seeds to deal with. A little kosher salt and peanut oil solved that problem.

Tuesday I had a dentist appointment. I had to get an old filling replaced. It’s all fine now. The only place that hurt when the numbness went away was the site of the injection of the Novocaine. I couldn’t open my mouth all the way for a day. So I made salami. Seitan salami to be exact.

I used the recipe in the latest issue of Cutting-Edge Vegan Cuisine newsletter by Bryanna Clark Grogan. It’s ok. Not “OHMYGODITSSALAMI!” but it’s close. It’s a little too moist for me so I put it in a very low oven to dry it out, kind of like with meringue cookies. Now it’s back in the fridge.

I also whipped up a batch of “Even Better than Veganaise” that I got the recipe for over at Epicurvegan. It’s yummy, though the recipe makes a lot. I will need to cut it in half next time. I have a picture, but it really doesn’t photograph well so I won’t be including it.

Now I have to go get ready for date night. I think we’re going to hit Crown City Brewery and add a couple more beers to our scorecard. There isn’t a lot there for us to eat, basically just a veggie burger and some sides/appetizers, but the over 100 different beers is worth a not so tasty dinner.

The rattie cage arrived and I put it together.

I only managed to hurt one finger and get a tiny scrape on my forehead. The boys like having all that room. It took a little bit for them to get used to it, but they really seem to like it.
Denver and Henson taking a nap and Henson exploring:

Today I did a lot of laundry. Crazy amounts. Tons even. There is one more load drying right now and I started when it was still AM o’clock I think.

Aside from the metric crapload of laundry, I also did a little baking. CN’s mother has this recipe for fake meat. It can be used as chicken, turkey or beef depending on how it is flavored and if you add any other textures. For example, for meatballs, adding italian breadcrumbs, lipton’s beefy onion soup mix (yes it’s vegan! scroll to “Staples”) and some Yves ground “turkey” or ground round will give it a meatball texture and flavor.

Today I made what we call “loaf.” Chicken/turkey flavored loaf that can be sliced up and used as sandwich meat substitute. I would love to give out the recipe, but since it isn’t mine I don’t want to assume it’s ok to post on the internet. I can tell you what’s in it and show you pics. If you figure it out for yourself…. hehe

Ingredients:
tofu
great northern beans
chicken flavoring (the stuff pictured is from an asian market but Wholefoods Market also has a chicken flavoring that is vegan in it’s bulk section)
wheat gluten flour/powder (Wholefoods bulk section - though you can get pre-packaged wheat gluten just about anywhere)
Oven 375

Here are the pictures:

Beans and tofu mixed:

Adding some of the chicken flavoring:

After adding wheat gluten:

his shows the consistancy it should be. The mixture should resist being pulled apart and bounce back slaightly when shaped:

I like to shape it into a rough loaf before putting it into the pan because it doesn’t like to be shaped much ad when you try and push it into a loaf pan it just doesn’t want to do what you want it to.

Once in the pan I cover with aluminum foil to keep it from drying out.

1 hour covered and about 15 additional min uncovered makes a tasty treat:

This is sliced and next to the bread machine wheat agave bread I made (well I put the ingredients in the machine and IT made it…

I’m going to go make CN a loaf sandwich for tomorrow. The key to making loaf sandwiches is to slice the loaf thin and put many layers…

This can also be formed into “nuggets” and fried to make, well, nuggets and with the addition of Red Rooster hot sauce, CN’s mom’s famous “Not Wings.”