Domestipithecus

I love produce weeks!

We have (as they say in the UK) subscribed to a box scheme. We get a box of produce delivered to our door every other Monday. For the last couple deliveries, we have gotten the mixed fruit and vegetable box. We were getting a lot of fruit as opposed to veggies and when we would look at what the all veggie boxes were getting, we would be all jealous. So we switched to all vegetables.

Boo and I love veggies. There are very few that we don’t like and the ones that we haven’t tried yet, as was the case for me with some chard one time, we are so excited to try. This is the list we got this time around:

1 Lettuce,Green Leaf
1 Peas,English(3/4 lbs.)
1 Tomato,Cluster(1 lb.)
1 Onion,Yellow
1 Chard,Rainbow
1 Spinach,Bunch
1 Asparagus,Bunch
1 Carrot,Rainbow(Bunch)
5 Squash,Zucchini
1 Tomato,Roma(1 lb.)
1 Potato,Red(1 lb.)
1 Bell Pepper,Yellow

I am so freaky excited it’s ridiculous.

Speaking of ridiculous freaky excitement. The blueberries and strawberries we got last time were starting to… fade. So I made sorbet! Its so yummy. I sort of used the recipe in my Kitchen Aid ice cream maker booklet. I cut the tops and softer spots out of the strawberries (I had a one pound container) and put them in the blender. Then I threw in the blueberries, about 4oz and about 1/4c water and blended. Then I poured in the simple syrup (made previously with 2c sugar and 2c water), blended and then poured into the already churning Kitchen Aid bowl.

The results (the picture sucks but whatever):

I also made some vegan sourdough english muffins.

Basically used an english muffin recipe but used warmed, unsweetened soy milk instead of regular milk or powdered. I had thought Dwight (my starter) had died when I went to Ireland for 3 weeks, but he’s alive and kicking and sour as ever! I love making things that look like they do in the store. I remembered the first time I made these I kept exclaiming, “They LOOK like english muffins!!”

These are more dense than the store bought ones and the holes (nooks and crannies) are not as pronounced, but I have read that the real English english muffins have much smaller holes than what we expect here in the states. And they taste great so who cares!?

Since we borrowed Veganomicon from Josh’s mom I have been obsessed. I love it. I want to make everything in it, except for that nasty portabella mushroom steak thing. *hurl* I despise mushrooms. They are disgusting and slimy and they taste like moldy dirt. You want to torture me? Make me eat mushrooms with cilantro. I’ll give away any secret I know to avoid putting that bile-rise inducing “food” in my mouth.

I have gotten better with the mushrooms. I can actually eat food that they have come in contact with. I didn’t used to be able to. I remember going to chinese buffet years ago, back when I ate meat, with my co-workers for lunch. I would go to get something from the buffet and I would come back to a mushroom on top of my peking dumpling. I would then have to give it to someone else and go get another for myself. I ended up getting a lot of dumplings for other people that way.

Cilantro I will never, ever be able to eat. That leaves out a LOT of food when you live in SoCal. They put it in EVERYTHING. When I first moved out here, I couldn’t figure out why all the food I had tasted like dirt. Finally, a friend figured out that it was cilantro. I didn’t even know what cilantro was. They don’t use a whole lot of it back in New Hampshire. Here, they use it like salt. *shudder*

Well. That was a rant.

What I had originally started this post for was to put up some pictures of things made from the book mentioned above, my own stuff and other new cookbooks.

Below is my own home fried potatoes with a tofu scramble from How It All Vegan! (minus the mushrooms). Isn’t it cool how the tofu looks like scrambled eggs?

This is my own roasted garlic mashed potatoes (roast 2 heads garlic and mash with 4 largish russet potatoes and some earth balance), corn and vegetarian bangers (sausage) from a mix I bought while in Ireland. I also sliced up and sautéed some elephant garlic to put on top of the potatoes.

This is my easy peasy (though I used corn) vegan shepard’s pie. Easy peasy because I layered the potatoes that were left over from above on top of a can of corn which was on top of onions and Boca Ground Burger that I had fried up. I used regular ketchup on top with onion powder, garlic powder and Italian Seasoning mixed in. This was incredibly yummy and tasted just like I remember from when I was a kid (except my mother, knowing that I hated peas, would use peas. Stupid peas.)

I love how the camera caught the steam rising from both plates.

And last, but certainly not least, Boo had flowers delivered yesterday. They are gorgeous.

I love me my Boo.

Lunch today is a Chickpea Cutlet from Veganomicon (which I just discovered I have been putting a wayward ‘r’ in) on a Kaiser Roll with some Vegenaise. I am in heeeaavveeen.

No picture, but I could eat these things every day… Wait I may have a pic of another time I made them (during my blogging blackout). Here it is served with a “beefy” onion gravy (Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix is vegan), alongside a “steak” of green cauliflower. This is also called Broccoflower but Boo and I decided to call it cauccoli because, well, we’re twelve and it makes us giggle.

These things are like crack. I just finished my sandwich and I want another.

Yes, finally, pictures.

I did this in Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. I used size 5 needles for the body and size 4 for the edging.

Cast on: Evening Nov. 5, 2007 Washed with Dreft and Blocked: Friday, Feb. 8
There were a lot of “I can’t deal with this project anymore so I am not going to” moments where I wouldn’t touch it for a long time.

The blanket was delivered to it’s adorable little recipient, Benjamin, a couple weekends ago.

Unblocked corner:

Blocked blanket:

Yes, I know. I have neglected this little blog for too long.

Coming soon, pictures of a finished Alphabet Blanket, home made paneer, wedding location update (we FINALLY found a place!) and all sorts of other things.

I promise.

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.

I have hardly been online as I have a deadline of this Saturday to finish the Alphabet Blanket. So. Not. Happening. My sinus/tooth-achy/sore throat thing came back. *sigh*

I did go to the dentist to make sure it wasn’t a toothache. I hate dentists. I love my dentist. He is the only one that actually took the time to figure out ho much Novocaine it REALLY took to numb me. I was always afraid of going because it always hurt. Apparently, I need lots of the numbing stuff for it to kick in.

The good news is, I don’t have any issues with my upper right teeth. The bad news is, one of the old silver fillings on my lower right side needs to go. It’s contracting and it needs to be replaced before decay gets underneath… or something. He said to plan on being there for a hour for my next appointment. An HOUR. *whimper*

Of course, the pain had all cleared up the day I went, and it’s back today. I couldn’t even knit. The pain was too distracting.

So now I have to get a store bought present for the baby shower. peh

The good news is that she’s not due until February. I’ll continue to work on it and not pick up any other knitting until it’s done, but I have a reprieve from marathon knitting sessions and stupid mistakes due to knitting too long and not paying attention as well as I could.

Next week I plan on making some paneer for a yet to be determined dish and some roti to go along with it. Should be fun! Stay tuned!

Yesterday I got some knitting done on the Alphabet Blanket (still no pictures) and I attempted the parsnip mash. I say attempted because it didn’t come out to my liking. They don’t have an exact recipe in the Cafe Paradiso Seasons cookbook I have just a “things to do with roasted roots” page. It’s almost to where I would think it perfect, but it needs a bit more work. I will try again after I finish the blanket.

I also roasted the first of too many pumpkins for my baking tomorrow. I am making my Vegan pumpkin cake with vegan cream cheese frosting. I decided to hold off on the pumpkin wontons until the weekend. I can send some in to work with CN. They are already jealous of him with me cooking these things for him all the time.

Yesterday I sent him into work with a loaf, homemade bread, veganaise and cranberry sauce sandwich. Basically the day after turkey sandwich that everyone loves, minus the stuffing and vegan.

Now I must head off into the kitchen and cut me open some pumpkins and scrape their innards out. The knit group meet tonight and since I missed last week due to illness I don’t want to miss another.

Monday, as you may have read, was super productive. Though I didn’t get any of the Alphabet Blanket knit, I did get much done in the way of home and hearth. This turned out to be a very good thing.

Tuesday morning I woke up ill. I had been waking a lot in the night and my throat was really rough and hurty. Yes, hurty.

I was out of commission until Thursday. I was up and about, but didn’t get anything done.

Finally, Friday I was able to be together enough to work on the blanket. Still no pictures, but I made it through the first charted letters.

Friday evening was an evening spent with old friends and co-workers at the diviest (divey-est?) bar in the old work neighborhood - “Roger’s Exciting Tattle Tale Room.” We just call it the Tattle Tale. It was pretty much the place to go for those early dot.com days. We were celebrating the company we had all worked for finally going public. Some of us are still working there, some of us left seven years ago. I left this past August.

We had all originally been promised we would be rich in a year (8 years later I’ll be lucky if I can put a down payment on a new car with the proceeds). Aside from us all having waited for soooooooo long, it was a very celebratory mood. I drank a little more than I should have, but CN took good care of me.

I knit some on the blanket today, so that’s progressing. I am going to sign off and make my list for WholeFoods so we can pick up the essentials as well as the Thanksgiving items for baking/cooking. I am going to make my vegan pumpkin cake with vegan cream cheese frosting. I am also going to give a pumpkin wonton recipe I found a try. I’m also going to do a trial run on the parsnip mash I have been dreaming about since I had it in Ireland and if that works out to my liking, offer to bring some of that as well.

Off I go!

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.”