Life Happens…

This past year has not been kind to this blog. I’ve been quite neglectful of it.
The last few months have been quite hectic. I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my dissertation and applying for jobs. That took up a LOT of time. I finally did get hired – down in California! Visa/immigration issues have been quite stressful…originally I was slotted to start work at the end of June. I just found out that I won’t actually be moving until October, due to visa issues. I will be starting work in July, although working remotely from here in Canada. It’s a bit of a disappointment that my California adventure will be delayed, but at least I get to skip winter I suppose!

I do intend to start this blog up again though. It’s been long overdue.

operation use up pantry items

Between finishing up my dissertation and applying on a bajillion jobs, I haven’t had much time to cook anything overly exciting (nor the time to post about it if I did). With a move looming somewhere in the future (not sure where yet…depends on the outcome of the bajillion job applications) it is my mission to use up the abundance of items I have in my pantry. My cupboards are full of miscellaneous beans, grains, pastas, and other assorted goodies. Sometimes I use recipes, sometimes I throw a bunch of random things together and hope it turns out.
Like this stew. I had a tiny bit of red lentils and a tiny bit of split yellow peas so I combined them. I added some diced tomato, vegetable broth, onion, garlic, spices, and kale, and voila, a nice lentil-split pea soup (not the prettiest thing in the world I realize).

A few weeks ago my husband was in the Bay Area for a work trip. On the way home he picked me up a loaf of sourdough they were selling in the San Francisco airport. Imagine my surprise when I go to pick him up at the airport and he gets off of the plane with a bag of sourdough.

I had a sweet potato in my fridge that needed to be used, plus some butternut squash in my freezer, so I made a sweet potato-butternut soup to go with the bread.

Finally, I also had a handful of couscous left in a jar. Not enough couscous to really do anything with, so I combined it with some chickpeas and topped it with roasted butternut squash, zucchini, eggplant, and onion. This was inspired by a dish from The Kind Diet which I finally got from the library…I’ve been on the waiting list since it first came out months ago.

vegan mofo: last minute Halloween ideas!

I don’t have any exciting food to share with you today. But since tomorrow is Halloween I thought I would share some ideas in case anyone is looking for last minute things to make to celebrate. The husband and I are staying in and handing out candy (yeah, I’m the lame house that is giving out raisins and these other fruit snack things…but the kids get enough sugar on Halloween already!).

To celebrate, I thought I would try my hand at decorating some spooktacular (okay that’s just lame) cupcakes a la the Wilton idea website. If you’ve never checked that place out you should. A lot of it is selling their products, but you can get some neat ideas there: Wilton Idea Finder. I mean really, how can you beat something as cool looking as this?

What are YOU doing for Halloween?

vegan mofo: yet another new cookbook

I have a new cookbook as of today! But my credit card will be happy to know that I didn’t buy this one. The very talented Tami of Vegan Appetite had a giveaway awhile ago and I actually won! My prize was Raw for Dessert by Jennifer Cornbleet.

I haven’t ventured that far into raw ‘cooking’ (for lack of a better word). I had a look through this book and oh my gosh, everything sounds wonderful! I can’t wait to try out a few treats. Thank-you so much Tami!

vegan mofo: my very first PPK swap!

The fine folks over at the PPK organized a swap for vegan mofo. The way it works is you register with your name and address and you are matched up with a partner. You put together a care package for your partner with vegan goodies and send it to him or her, and they do the same for you. For some reason or another I always miss out on the various swaps that go on, but this time I was finally able to participate!

I was matched up with the lovely Celia of On Cardamom and Cast Iron. She sent me Peanut Butter & Co White Chocolate Peanut Butter (oh my gosh is it good!), Tings, some local strawberry preserves, MimicCreme, and Dandies (!!!!)….all stuff I am unable to get here. I am so grateful, thank you so much Celia!

vegan mofo: hurrah! new cookbooks!

When Urban Vegan was recently released I knew I had to have it. I had been good and hadn’t bought myself a new cookbook in awhile (I mean, how many barely used cookbooks does one person need?). Of course Amazon always suckers me in with their offer of free shipping IF you spend at least $36 (well, this is how Amazon Canada works anyway). And so I added The Vegan Table to my cart as well….I love Joy of Vegan Baking and I had heard good things about this book. Oh wait, that left me still $3 short of free shipping. *sigh* And so I crumbled and added Quick & Easy Vegan Comfort Food. Amazon…you are pure evil.

I haven’t had much of a chance to look through the books yet, but if there are any recipes you’d recommend let me know!

vegan mofo: first paid baking gig!

So today I baked things for my first real paid baking job! I was asked to make an Oreo cake (based on the cookies and cream cupcake recipe from VCTOTW), cinnamon buns (from Vegan Brunch) and chocolate truffles (Eat, Drink & Be Vegan). Unfortunately I didn’t get pics of the truffles, but here is the cake with ganache dripping down the sides:

And here are the cinnnamon buns, freshly glazed:

vegan mofo: The Vegan 100

Here is the newest version of the Vegan 100 I’ve seen floating around cyberspace. You know the drill:

1) Copy this list into your blog or social networking site profile, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out or italicize any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment on this post linking to your results.

The Vegan Hundred:

1. Molasses
2. Cactus/Nopales
3. Scrambled Tofu
4. Grilled Portobella Caps
5. Fresh Ground Horseradish
6. Sweet Potato Biscuits
7. Arepa
8. Vegan Coleslaw
9. Ginger Carrot Soup
10. Fiddlehead Ferns
11. Roasted Elephant Garlic
12. Umeboshi – I always see this at the health food store, but it’s crazy expensive
13. Almond Butter Toast
14. Aloe Vera
15. H and H Bagel NYC
16. Slow Roasted Butternut Squash
17. White truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Freshly ground wasabi
20. Coconut Milk Ice Cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Orchard-fresh pressed apple cider
23. Organic California Mango (in season Sept-Oct only)
24. Quinoa
25. Papaya Smoothie
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet or Habañero pepper
27. Goji Berry Tea
28. Fennel
29. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie
30. Radishes and Vegan Buttery Spread
31. Starfruit
32. Oven fresh Sourdough bread
33. Sangria made with premium fruit and juices
34. Sauerkraut
35. Acai Smoothie
36. Blue Foot Mushrooms
37. Vegan Cupcake from Babycakes nyc
38. Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh combo
39. Falafel
40. Spelt Crust Pizza
41. Salt and Pepper Oyster Mushrooms
42. Jicama Slaw
43. Pumpkin Edamame Ginger Dumplings
44. Hemp Milk
45. Rose Champagne
46. Fuyu
47. Raw Avocado-Coconut Soup
48. Tofu Pesto Sandwich
49. Apple-Lemon-Ginger-Cayenne fresh-pressed juice…with Extra Ginger

50. Grilled Seitan
51. Prickly pear
52. Fresh Pressed Almond Milk
53. Concord Grapes off the vine
54. Ramps
55. Coconut Water fresh from a young coconut
56. Organic Arugula
57. Vidalia Onion
58. Sampler of organic produce from Diamond Organics
59. Honeycrisp Apple
60. Poi
61. Vegan Campfire-toasted Smores
62. Grape seed Oil
63. Farm fresh-picked Peach
64. Freshly-made pita bread with freshly-made hummus
65. Chestnut Snack Packs
66. Fresh Guava
67. Mint Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
68. Raw Mallomar from One Lucky Duck, NYC
69. Fried plantains
70. Mache
71. Golden Beets
72. Barrel-Fresh Pickles
73. Liquid Smoke
74. Meyer Lemon
75. Veggie Paella
76. Vegan Lasagna
77. Kombucha
78. Homemade Soy Milk
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Lychee Bellini
81. Tempeh Bacon
82. Sprouted Grain Bread
83. Lemon Pepper Tempeh
84. Vanilla Bean
85. Watercress
86. Carrot you pulled out of the ground yourself
87. Vegan In-Season Fruit Pie
88. Flowers
89. Corn Chowder
90. High Quality Vegan Raw Chocolate
91. Yellow fuzz-free Kiwi
92. White Flesh Grapefruit
93. Harissa
94. Coconut Oil
95. Jackfruit
96. Homemade Risotto
97. Spirulina
98. Seedless ‘Pixie’ Tangerine
99. Gourmet Sorbet, not store bought
100. Fresh Plucked English Peas

Only 41….I suck.

vegan mofo: Tales of Thanksgiving

This past weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving. This year it was just the husband and myself so we tried to keep the amount of food to a reasonable amount. Tried being the key word. I know this picture doesn’t do the food justice….but everything was brown and smothered in gravy….it’s hard trying to make that look presentable. But here is my plate, in all of its glory:

I assure you, it tasted 100000000 x better than the picture looks. Here was the spread:

-Chickpea cutlets (Veganomicon)
-Cornbread stuffing
-Green bean casserole (Susan Voisin)
-Mushroom gravy (Vegan with a Vengeance)
-Mashed potatoes
-Poolish focaccia (Bread Baker’s Apprentice…not pictured)

I’ll be back tomorrow with tales of dessert.

vegan mofo: winter already?!

Look what happened yesterday.

And to make matters worse, it’s supposed to snow all weekend. What?! This is way too early for snow, even for the Canadian prairies! The leaves haven’t even fallen from the trees yet! Sigh…

Anyway, once I trudged home through the snow, I decided to use up some veggies by roasting them in the oven. Here is some eggplant, zucchini, and red pepper. I also threw in some tofu.

I also tried out a new type of squash (well, new to me). The lady at the farmer’s market called it an “African squash.” A Google search just revealed recipes for squash and yams and I was unable to find out too much information about it. But anyway, it’s about the size of a baseball and dark green, as you can see here:It was extremely difficult to cut in half…I ended up getting my knife stuck more than once. I roasted it up in the oven and to my surprise it was kind of stringy like spaghetti squash…in fact, it pretty much tasted like spaghetti squash too. Delicious loaded with salt and pepper.

Well, week 2 of Vegan MoFo is over! I shall return on Monday with tales of our Thanksgiving dinner. It’s just the two of us this year though so I am trying to scale back. Really, I am. *cough*