Just Some Things

The other day, I read in VegNews that Wonderbread is vegan. Yes, Wonderbread is probably THE crappiest bread EVER. I've seen ducks choke on it because as soon as you add saliva to the mix, it basically turns into glue. But fuck if it isn't nice to have an easily accessible shit-bread that I can pick up last-minute at the grocery store if I'm hard up.



My roof-garden (basically a series of window-pots that have been doing SURPRISINGLY well out on my roof) is dwindling as autumn starts creeping up on us. My roma tomato plant has just two more tomatoes left before it kicks the bucket. My jalapeno plant has one more jalapeno desperately hanging in there. My basil suddenly got wilty the other day and hasn't recovered. My parsley has pretty much been the same flaccid size all summer. And my flowers (african daisies and zinnias) are shuddering and retreating against the chilly mornings. Despite all that, I've gotta say: I ADORE the fall and look forward to doing lots of snuggling with N-A and whipping up some nice hearty soups and stews.

But for nostalgia's sake, I share with you the tail-end of my summer bounty.

These are the (pitifully tiny but nonetheless DELISH) roma tomatoes that my tomato-plant birthed PLUS a red jalapeno from my jalapeno plant:




This is the Super Quick Basil Cream Pasta I whipped up last week, topped with fresh roma tomatoes and basil from my roof-pots:



This is Zooey coming to terms with the fact that the creeper plant from the trellis down below has for some reason decided this summer to take over the edge of my roof. Relatively nice for me though, as it's been acting like a kind of natural fence to keep her from jumping (and jump she does, believe me). Nonetheless, she got stung in the eye once because of it, so I think she's holding a grudge. Despite that, she sure does look cute amidst the green...



And finally, when we had the short bout of cool days the week I got back from Michfest, I whipped up some reruns for me and N-A. I feature them below, only because they're hotgoddamnsexy. If I were like brussel sprouts or green beans, I'd totally do them.




(Seitan-Shallots Marsala)


(Lemony Roasted Potatoes)

More Squishy-Love-Shared-Cooking!

N-A whipped up this pasta from scratch last week after we spent the humid summer afternoon lazing about. Maybe we should eat something, he said. Yes, maybe, I said. And so we did.

For some reason, I take the WORST pictures in his kitchen. Which is a shame because it's a damn cute kitchen. I must work on this. So please excuse the Bigfoot-esque quality to the pics:

The sauce was a mix of olive oil, ketchup, and seasonings. The vegetable portion consisted of red and green peppers, steak-cut shrooms, and portabellas. But what really made this noteworthy was the fact that he added strawberries to the mix. I was like, Wow, did you just throw STRAWBERRIES into that? And he was all, Yeah, pasta sauce always needs a little sweetness to it, and they kinda look like mushrooms but have a sweet kick to them. Brilliant? I think so. Because despite my skepticism, he was 100% correct. It was a nice burst of flavor to bite into a sweet strawberry every once in a while. And they actually complimented the sweet bitterness of the peppers quite a bit as well.

In return, I cooked an old repeat that I hadn't made in quite some time (Hit-the-Pan-Salsa Pasta), mostly because my jalapeno pepper plant has been BURSTING with jalapenos, so I wanted to finally use a couple of them (you can see them spooning below). I still dig this pasta sauce--it's perfect for the summer since it uses a wealth of fresh summery veggies. It also requires very minimal heat-producing time on the stove (five minutes at most), so you won't sweat up your kitchen. And it's not heavy or hot--it's a light, punch-filled pasta sauce.




On the side, I whipped up a very simple and yet AWESOMELY flavorful asparagus salad. I've made other versions before, but this actually is my favorite, and actually the simplest of all of them. And the balsamic is a much better choice of vinegar by way of flavor. Apple cider vinegar is kind of flat in comparison to the sexy depth that balsamic lends to strawberries. So yeah. There you have it.

SWEET STRAWBERRY-BALSAMIC ASPARAGUS SALAD

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 small container strawberries, rinsed and sliced


• 1 bunch asparagus, tough ends removed & cut into 2" pieces


• 2 T. balsamic vinegar


• 1 T. olive oil

DIRECTIONS

Toss your strawberries into a bowl. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the top of them, and let them sit for at least an hour.

In the meantime, heat up your olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Toss in your asparagus and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Toss in a little handful of water, and throw a lid over the skillet. Cook for a few more minutes, until asparagus is tender but not soggy. Remove from heat and let cool.

Add asparagus to the strawberry/vinegar mix. Toss. Serve.

Reruns

PSYCH!

Anywho.

Yeah, the remainder of my cooking this weekend was all reruns. (Oh, and a little bit of Nature's Bin yum-bumbly faux chicken-parmesan).

Saturday night, E and I made a nice juicy delish pizza, very similar to the last one I made but topped with pepperoni, garlic, basil, and mushrooms. Good shit.

Then for dinner for the week, I made Steph's Sockarooni Pasta. Have I mentioned how good and yet ridiculously easy this shit is? If not, I am now. I heart this pasta. It makes my inside jump for joy.

A DUET

THE PARM

THE 'ZA

THE SCRUM-BUMBLI-ICIOUS PASTA CON STEPH


...AND ONE MORE IMPORTANT RERUN!

Rerun

This weekend I made one of my favorite go-to recipes yet again: my friend Kristen's super-easy salsa chili. It seriously is one of my favorite easy-peasy recipes because it's beyond simple and because you can craft a completely different-tasting dish out of it each time with just a few very simple changes.

Basically, the main ingredients of the recipe that make it thrive are the three types of beans you pick out and the salsa. What's so delightful about it (and what I like to do each time I make it) is switch up the beans and salsa I use to get a completely different experience.

This time when I made it, I used kidney beans, black beans, and pigeon-peas (which I've never had before, and which ROCK). For the salsa, I used Arriba's Mexican Red Salsa which, as a stand-alone salsa I would NEVER EVER eat having tried it now, since it tastes more like a spicy spaghetti sauce to me than it does a tasty salsa--but it works well with the chili. It has a certain sweet zinginess to it that I found appealing.

It makes a buttload, so it'll make for a good number of lunches or dinners for the week.

And holy mother of god, if you top it with half of a diced up avocado like I did on Tuesday, you will just wanna explode all over the place. Good stuff.

Mocha Vegan-Mousse Pie

I was gonna do a re-run of my Orange You Glad They're Double-Chocolate Cookies for my mom this weekend as well but then decided to hold off and save those for a cookout instead on Sunday (that way my sibs could try them as well). So instead, I decided to whip up a vegan-mousse pie.

Mishaps ensued when I realized that my Mori-Nu tofu had an expiration date of 04/08/2006, so I ran it back up to the market to exchange it. The woman only had expired tofu but told me that Mori-Nu is so very vacuum-sealed that it lasts months and months after its expiration date. I was doubtful at first and explained to her that I'd prefer not to kill my mom on her mother's day celebration and/or give her food-poisoning, but the woman just looked at me and said, "Do you think I'd tell you to eat it if I thought it would make you sick, seeing as I *want* you coming back as a customer?" The logic made sense. Plus, she gave me the tofu for a $1. So I took it. I am a cheap whore.

Anyways, we lived through the weekend, you will be happy to know.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cube of Mori-Nu firm silken tofu
1 1/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 c. brewed coffee
1 T. maple syrup
1 graham cracker crust*

Throw the tofu into a food processer and blend. Melt your chocolate chips whatever way you see fit (I just do it in a pot on the stove--you don't need double-boilers and all that as long as you continuously stir and keep your eye on it), and brew your coffee. Throw the melted chocolate, coffee, and maple syrup into the food processer and pulse until fully mixed. The mixture will seem soupy at first, but it stiffens up in the fridge. Toss the tofu mixture into your pie crust and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours.

My mom a) hates tofu and b) loves chocolate mousse, and she ate two slices of this and remarked that you'd never guess it was tofu. So high-marks on the faking-it front.

I was pleased with the taste as well, seeing as I wolfed all of the left-over pie down in just two days.

VERDICT: A for filling; C for crust

Oh yeah, and I decorated it with toasted almonds, in case you were wondering what the hell was going on. Perty perty.

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*I used the graham cracker crust from The Garden of Vegan, but it was disastrously mushy, despite the fact that I used the low-range of liquid ingredients listed in the recipe--I ended up having to add more and more graham crackers and it STILL never solidified quite the way it should've been. Your best bet is just grinding up a couple cups of graham crackers and then gradually adding a bit of margarine or oil to it until it's *JUST* damp enough to stick together. I also recommend adding a bit of almond extract to the mixture for a bit of flare.