Orangey Tofu and Mustard-Taters

I have actually been around some evenings this week, which means I've actually been able to do some random dinner-cooking for myself.

Tuesday night, I decided to make use of a block of tofu in my fridge that's just been sitting there, calling my name. I had a recipe in my Very Large Recipe Binder (which I think was from Fresh and Fast Vegan Pleasures) which was for an orange-glazed tofu of some sort or another, and since I realized I actually had all the ingredients for it, I decided to go with that. I'd also been eyeing a mustard-mashed potatoes recipe from this month's issue of Vegetarian Times (did you know that you can get a subscription for the VT for just $3.69 at budgetmags.com?? no kidding! go CHECK IT OUT), and since my fella isn't a big fan of mustard, I figured I'd try that out as well, since I was cooking solo.

The problem with the mustard-taters was that, basically, I didn't have any of the ingredients except for soy milk and mustard (and potatoes--though mine were red, not russet). So I decided to do my own mustardly thing with them instead.

Unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed by the outcome of either recipe. The orange-glazed tofu was good, but nothing special. Essentially it consisted of orange-juice, veggie broth, cumin, cinnamon, brown sugar and some other spices, all of which were drizzled over tofu that had already been frying in a pan for about ten minutes. It had a very light flavoring to it, way too subtle for my tastebuds. It looked pretty, and it was by no means gag-o-rific. But it wasn't anything fantastic, just kinda orangey.

And the mashed potatoes weren't all that either. I ended up using red taters, some soy milk, dry mustard, rosemary, and thyme. They weren't bad at all, but, alas, I had wanted them to *blow my fricking mind*, and they sure as hell didn't. Next time 'round, I'll probably actually *get* all the exact ingredients and try the recipe out exactly (since it claims that mustard and tarragon together will amaze your tastebuds). But, as I've said before, and if you haven't heeded my advice *HEED IT NOW!!!!* : toasted pine nuts on mashed taters--so motherfricking good. Oh my god. I don't know why, but they really really are.

So if you take anything from today's (relatively useless) post, it's the recommendation that next time you make mashed taters, you hook them up with some pine nuts. Hell yeh.