Friday, December 29, 2006

Soup, Cookies and Xmas


Test kitchen Roasted Yellow Pepper and Corn Bisque. Sweet and spicy. Perfect for these almost chilly days in Portland.


Almond, red wine and herb stuffed mushrooms.


Keeping with the Italian vibe, whole wheat spirals with red wine marinara,, pan fried Tofurkey Italian sausages (my first time with these) and sauteed fresh and roasted garlic, roasted red peppers and spinach. All sprinkled with nutritional yeast - why not?


In another direction, here's pan fried tofu squares with soy vay sauce and crushed red pepper. Served with short grain brown rice and steamed broccoli and carrots. Sadly you can't see it very much at all, but we also had roasted delicatta squash slices with lime, sea salt and raw sugar.
My first batch of waffles on my new waffle iron from Thomas - classic blueberry. I used the VWAV pancake recipe and added a little more liquid, next time I'll try with some soy yogurt for moistness. I used Trader Joe's frozen organic wild blueberries and their grade B maple syrup. On the side is a panfried veggie sausage - wanted to keep things simple on christmas morning.

Onto the cookies and goodies for my gift baskets......


Almond chocolate chip biscotti and a candy cane chocolate chip cookie ala Fueled by Popcorn.
Speaking of popcorn, I meant to make caramel corn this season, and sadly forgot.
A couple more decorated biscotti.


Rumnog pecan cookies from the PPK test kichen. RUM. COOKIES.


Cocoa dusted truffles.

Cookie line up.

Coconut rolled truffs.


More cookies!

This one's kinda blurry, but here's me and Zelda on christmas morning. We only celebrate the commercial side of the holiday, and here's our wee tree with our gifts to one another and from Thomas' parents in Massachusetts. Thomas and I exchange gifts with the apartment in mind, aka fancy new Cuisineart coffee grinder for him, waffle maker for me~
In other news, 6 days till my sister arrives from New York for her visit!! I don't see this girl enough at all.

26 comments:

Dori said...

Love the way you caught the sprinkles coming down on those cookies. Great looking bunch of food, the mushrooms are my favorite!

I love my waffle maker, we have a tradition of waffles on January 1st each day.

Anonymous said...

Marty would absolutely flip for a waffle maker but I'd only buy him one if he promised to actually use it. I'd probably wind up making waffles pretty frequently but I'm really trying to get Marty to participate in meal prep more frequently.

Oh boy! I just ate dessert and am so stuffed I could hardly look at all of your cookies and goodies. It's probably best to blog with a full stomach. That way I don't want to quickly make everything I see. I'll have to tag these for later inspiration.

Happy New Year!!

Cherie Anderson said...

Oh, what is the soy vay sauce? Never heard of it!

Food looks so real and edible, even though it's on my computer screen. :p

Webly said...

Tommy is so nice!

One day I will bite the bullet and try your mushrooms.

Amey said...

Hi Jess!
I love seeing all your tasty looking holiday goodies. Yumola.

Also, that soup looks very nice. These PPK testing recipes are really tortuous for the rest of us!

Congrats on your new waffle iron! That's awesome. I've got a little one that makes one waffle at a time... but I'd like to get one of those that makes 4 at a time. Good idea to use some yogurt in those. The only time I made them they were much too dry for my waffle iron.

Funny, we also have waffles on Xmas morning... seems like a lot of people have that tradition.

:)

jenny said...

Those waffles look amazing!! The cookies are a great idea!

erica said...

Oh man, I never got waffles Christmas morning! I feel so deprived.

I really lust after those five-in-one grill/waffle maker/griddle/whatnots, but I can't justify the expense (I dropped hints for Christmas, but got a grandma caftan instead, darnit).

(oh, btw, would you believe my tofu at the party last night was SWIMMING in maple syrup? $%&^$%^!!!)

Unknown said...

Everything looks so wonderful! The mushrooms and the tofu are so awesome looking. You always make the most attractive tofu! I can only imagine how it must taste...

Anonymous said...

Everything looks great as always! I love those TJ's blueberries too, though last time I tried to make blueberry waffles my waffle iron got a bit gunked up.

And your Zelda reminds me a little of our sweet Violet...

Ria said...

Those cookies and stuffed mushrooms look fabu!!! I'm going to attempt banana bread soon. I have an odd craving.

Anonymous said...

i wish i had your cook/bake motivation. your stuff looks so good.

JENNA said...

hi jess, i've been M.I.A. from my blog for awhile due to holiday crazyness and sickness and just read your comment. I believe i got the Spritz recipe from the Post Punk website. They came out really good!

Happy New Year!

JENNA

laura k said...

All that food looks heavenly. Those waffles look so good--it makes me want to pull out my waffle iron. Those mushrooms sound excellent as well...

I made those cookies from Fueled By Popcorn too... wow.

Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan! said...

Rum Cookies! oh, my!

i am so in love with all of your food. yummmmmmy!

those mushrooms look scrumptious. i love little more than i do some savory stuffed mushrooms.

i really gotta embrace my italian heritage and get on the biscotti making. looks sooo good!

Brooke said...

Great lookin' shrooms!

bazu said...

I agree- those mushrooms caught my attention, even though they had to compete with those crazy good looking sweets. But then again, the sweets are so beautiful too....mmmm

Happy New Year! I hope you're enjoying time with your sister.

urban vegan said...

Lucky friends & family who get those goodies.

We love our waffle iron. I use it maybe once a month--but it's so much fun. You'll enjoy yours, too.

Happy New Year!

Renate said...

Love the close up pictues! I always have a tough time getting food pictures to capture the yummy taste.

Kris said...

Wow, it's all so great! Rum cookies? Wow! What did you think of the Tofurky? I used to have a waffle iron, but there was... an incident. Your goodie bags look great!

Caty said...

Everything looks really good. Your waffles look great, I made my first ever batch of waffles today and they looked nowhere near that good. And what trufle recipe did you use?

Happy new year!

Unknown said...

I love how those mushrooms look. I absolutely love stuffed mushrooms. Unfortunately at the restaurants there's always cheese in them. I should experiment at home with them. Thanks for sharing and hope you and your sister have a good time. I know when me and my sisters get together we're going to be causing lots of trouble. Good times...

Michelle said...

jess -- what kind of waffle iron did you get?

i've been wanting to get one, but i used to have a crappy one and don't want to get foiled again!

Anonymous said...

the pan fried tofu squares with soy sauce and crushed red pepper looks delicious. well your food always looks good. i love your photo with Zelda too.
have a nice new year!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Woo! Thank you to all of you pleasant commentors~

I have a question about making waffles - mine's an Oster, fairly cheaper model, and the waffles are cooking, but don't crisp in the iron, though they do when I take them out. I haven't found the right texture yet - suggestions?

Dori - I hate to admit it, but it's not a cool shot, it's actually a chocolate coated biscotti with sprinkles on it in the backround.

Cherie - Soy Vay is a line of chinese style sauces - I use the chinese marinade/hoisin sauce a lot for easy meals like that. It's a bit sweet for me, so I add some heat, though my boyfriend likes it as is. http://www.soyvay.com/
I've seen it both on the east and west coast, too.

Webly - I don't want to hurt you, please don't try my shrooms.

Chris - Thank you for the kind words, I send you guys warm wishes.

Erica - swimming in maple syrup?? huh??

Laura - Those cookies are great! I I wish I had the mint extract, though. I just used a lot of candy canes, which isn't a bad thing.

Karla - I know you have it in you
; )

Jenna - Thanks for the heads up! I've yet to use the press, but will shortly.

Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan & Pixie -
Try your hand at stuffed mushrooms! They are so good, and with so many variations. I made them a lot a few months ago, and remembered why I get so crazy about them when I made them the other night.

Kris - I was pleasantly surprised I liked the tofurkey - I'd never had anything in a hot dog shape before, and yeah I sliced these into rounds, but they were good stuff. Nothing I'd want on a regular basis, but they added to the usual pasta dish. A bit peppery and pricey are the only complaints I shall give : )
(cheaper at TJ's, fyi)

Renate - I am all about the close ups. I started doing them a few months back and have not turned back!

Michelle - The iron is a simple 19.99 Oster from Target. Oooo la la!

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