Monday, June 29, 2009

Dig It.


Posted @ the home of my visual soulmate:
Left Hand Cuts the Right

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Twit, Tweet, Twiddle



I've started twittering, and since I suck at posting here lately, I'll try to at least start twittering any vegan food-munchies I'm chowing down on, in case you're curious. I'll tag 'em #vegan if you decide to follow.

I also popped a twitter widget in my side-bar (growr--that sounds all SORTS of naughty). But do know that if you become a follower, my twittering's not vegan-food-exclusive, so you'll have to contend with the massive quantity of randomnesses my brain is capable of spewing.

And it is BOUNTIFUL.

BE FOREWARNED.

I will post again soon. Promise.

Love you like a mofo.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Yes, I'm Lazy, But I'm Also Awesome and Have a Fairly Decent Rack, So Suck It

See, what starts happening is that I bust out ye ol' laziness, don't post regularly, food p0rn accumulates (stuffed under the mattress so your mom won't find it), and then I can't remember what the recipe was for the pic, and if it was at all good or not, or if it made me throw up chunky sparkles and rainbows for three days.

Like this cream of broccoli soup: I just looked through about 5 broccoli soup recipes I bookmarked, and I *think* this is the one I used, though I can't be certain.

Rainy Day Cream of Broccoli Soup




Vagueries: This one I *do* remember liking. I remember thinking that it reminded me of college, where I used to buy broccoli cheese soup and then plain noodles from the pasta bar and then dump the broccoli soup over the pasta and have broccoli-cheese pasta. *Sigh* The good ol' days.


This one I had to stare at for a little while to figure out wtf it was. And as senility momentarily slipped away, I realized that I think it was this Beer Pie (fuck Guinness), which I made one day with a bunch of substitutions.


"Fuck Guinness, I'll Use VEGAN Beer" Pie




Vagueries: I do remember that I was excited to find out that Pepperidge Farm (I think) puff pastries were vegan, so I decided to try using those on top instead of the crust recipe. I also didn't use the seitan log recipe--I think maybe I subbed in the packaged shit? Which probably ultimately explains why I *do* remember thinking that this recipe made WAY too little food, and that I could've probably eaten the whole thing in one sitting if I wouldn't have been disgusted with myself for doing so. It LOOKED pretty though.


Here, I tried to make my own Southern Fried Vegetarian "Chicken," and upon doing so, I realized my friend P has a special knack with it 'cause mine didn't come out NEARLY as good as hers did when she made it. Mine: Kind of doughy, and super-greasy. Actually, this whole meal sucked, that I do remember. In the back there are the lemony roasted potatoes from Veganomicon which I actually really like but this time came out inexplicably gross. So the long and short is: if I want Southern Fried "Chicken" again at some point, I'm batting my eyelashes gratuitously at Ms. P and maybe flashing a little nip.


Southern Fried Vegetarian "Chicken"




This one I think was Chipotle Split-Pea soup, and honestly, I feel like I was surprised at liking it for some reason, but that I did. But if my life was at stake in saying that, I must admit, I can't be positive.


Chipotle Split-Pea Soup




This, on the other hand, I *DO* remember, as it was THE most beautiful cupcake I've ever seen. I wish the camera had captured how vivacious the red was on this cupcake--I literally kept pausing while eating it just to stare at how lovely the color was--but it didn't. Nonetheless, I got it at Nature's Bin and haven't seen them there since. Obviously, it's a red velvet cupcake, and just thinking about it has got me all teary-eyed. Please excuse me. *sob*





This I think was the eggplant something-something from Vegan Planet. I remember thinking, Oh yay, a vegan eggplant parmigiana recipe!! when I decided to make it, and then suddenly realizing, Hey, wait a minute! The recipe doesn't even bread the eggplant!!! What the hell was I thinking! But now I'm not even 100% certain that's where it came from. I remember I was underwhelmed by the recipe though, but I *did* like the gomashio recipe that accompanied it. (Which is why I feel like it probably WAS from Vegan Planet since every time I make something out of that cookbook, I find myself extremely underwhelmed. Is it just me, or does anyone else feel this way too??)

From Vegan Planet, I think




And finally--at least for the time being--I made this fettucine dish.


Fettucine with Sausage, Basil, and Sundried Tomatoes




Vagueries: I left the fennel out of this since I knew the "sausages" I bought were plenty spicy/fennely, and I can only take so much of the stuff without feeling like I'm sucking on a big pasta-y rope of black licorice. Other than that though, I remember liking the recipe. Perhaps not being blown away by it, but I definitely think it was decent.



And that catches me up through mid-April! *Stuffing my food p0rn back under the mattress for now*

Stay tuned for more lazy catch-up!

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Since Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

This is my roof garden:



Isn't it just the loveliest? Doesn't it make you want to squeal with glee? Isn't almost impossible to NOT rip your clothes off while basking on it's beautiful gloriousness?

Perv.

This is Franny running across my roof in front of the garden, most likely to attack a bug. Or also, a leaf. Both are apparently her arch-enemy:



And THIS is my roof garden with Zooey in the right-hand upper corner, thinking that she will FINALLY figure out how to leap from the roof and be united with one of her many cat boyfriends. She's kind of a slut:



When people post pics of their individual plants on their blogs, I'm always kind of like, "Wow, dude. Your tomato plant is SOOOO much more interesting than ANY OTHER TOMATO PLANT I've ever seen. NOT!"

But I am conceited and also hypocritical, so today I am posting my own. And also because MY TOMATO PLANTS KICK YOUR TOMATO PLANTS' ASSES!

This is what I'm growing in my roof garden...



Tomatoes--roma and big boy. If you can tell me which is which just from the pics, I will send you $1.*







Flowers whose names I cannot remember:





Basil:





Your mom:





Green peppers:






Soybeans:





Don Knotts:





And then, I labeled all these plants, but the labels blew away. So these are some sort of lettuce that I cannot remember, peas, Moon flowers, and snake squash in no particular order. I STILL am not quite sure which is which, so it'll be like having my own garden surprise party once something finally appears other than leaves!










See. What did I say? MY boring pictures of plants are WAY more interesting than yours, my friends.

So don't even post yours.

It'll just make your plants feel inadequate.


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*$5 shipping and handling charges may apply.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Asparagus and Sun-dried Tomato Frittata

                          from Vegan with a Vengeance

N/A raved about this frittata so strongly (he said it was up there as one of the best things I've ever made) that I actually was a bit concerned that he was going to shit rainbows. Then again, part of me thinks that he may have just been trying to suck up to make up for a douchey comment he made to me right before we ate dinner. So really: it's hard to say.

But I guess that just means you should probably go ahead and make it yourself and be the judge.

Me, I thought it WAS quite good as well. But I also easily ate half of this and could've eaten more, so take that into consideration if you decide to cook this for company.

INGREDIENTS:
  • 1 lb. extra-firm tofu, drained

  • 1 T. soy sauce

  • 1 t. mustard

  • 1/4 c. nutritional yeast

  • 2 t. olive oil

  • 1 onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice [I omitted cuz N/A hates onions]

  • 5 stalks asparagus, trimmed and cut into one inch pieces

  • 1/4 c. sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped

  • 3 cloves garlic, minced

  • 1 t. dried thyme

  • 1/4 t. turmeric

  • Juice of 1/2 lemon

  • 1/4 c. fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400-F.

Using your fingers, crumble and squeeze tofu into a bowl until it resembles ricotta cheese. Stir in soy sauce and mustard. Add nutritional yeast and mix well.

In an 8-inch oven-proof skillet, saute onions in olive oil until soft about 2 minutes. Add asparagus and tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Add garlic, thyme, and turmeric, saute for one minute. Add lemon juice to deglaze pan and remove from heat. Add contents to tofu mixture and stir to blend. Fold in basil leaves.

Transfer combined mixture to skillet and press firmly into pan. Place skillet in oven and cook for 20 minutes. Transfer to broiler to brown top, about 2 minutes. Watch it closely! You don't want it to burn.

Let frittata sit for 10 minutes prior to serving.

Serves 2-4.


(Recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, reposted at Pink Stripes with a few alterations)