From The Urban Vegan: Citrus Scented Berry Muffins and Rapini Paninis

Citrus Scented Berry Muffins

...except that I had local cherries in the freezer, so I used those. I asked the bottom shelf of my haphazardly packed freezer for berries, and it spit out sheets of nori and a block of adzuki beans. I didn't want to alter the recipe too much, so I opted for the more accessible cherries.

This muffin has nutritional value (soy flour and spelt flour make frequent appearances in UV) and tastes straight from the Blacksheep Bakery counter. Yeah, I like fluffy white bakery-style muffins, I'm human, but sometimes you want something more morning appropriate.

It's an easy recipe with a few extra special elements to give it that Urban Vegan edge.

I made these on one of Portland's first cool fall night, and my kitchen smelled wonderful.

Citrus Scened Cherry Muffins

Cafe Velo at the downtown farmers market

On Wednesday, I warmed one up in a toaster oven and had it with a cup of my

beloved Cafe Velo Stumptown from the nearby farmers market. I choose the Kenyan single origin roast, that promised the flavors of huckleberry cobbler and molasses.

The evening before, I made Rapini Paninis from The Urban Vegan for dinner. I used an organic french baguette from New Seasons and Mozzerella Cheezly. I thought for sure I wouldn't like this Cheezly after trying it from the fridge, but I'm satisfied & intrigued by it once melted. And how can you ever go wrong with rapini? Never.

Rapini Panini

Grilled Cremini & Garlic sandwich.

Chomp.

It was under 100F yesterday when I left work, so I stopped at my local New Seasons Market and picked up FOOD to COOK for dinner. I was surprisingly productive last night with my bit of cooking and cleaning for a party this weekend! I almost turned on my oven and roasted local red potatoes with dill and then considered roasting tempeh.... Thankfully for my cats, I held onto my sanity and simply ate my sandwich.

It was beautifully easy to assemble - I halved local creminis and tossed them in a golden balsamic vinaigrette with large slices of garlic, cooked them on my cast iron grill pan, threw them on top of baby spinach, in an organic olive ciabatta roll from New Seasons (splurge!) added a large slice of local tomato and there was dinner. If I hadn't forgotten my vegan staple jar of Vegenaise at work months ago, I would have likely added some.

Grilled garlic = amazing.

cookies, portabella cheezesteak & snow

Cranberry White Chocolate Biscotti -

 a tester for Terry and Isa's upcoming Vegan Cookie Book - cookie testing is back!  I believe the book is due out in late 2009.

Karla and I volunteered this past weekend as waitresses at the most recent Apron Activists dinner at Sweetpea - Dinner for the Doggies.  We poured 400 glasses of water and brought plates to and fro tables - I had Vegan Addict at one of mine, how a-dor-a-ble!  We were lucky to take home a cookie doggie-bag each after the guests had departed with theirs.  We usually go on a date to these dinners, like we used to at the Red & Black benefits, but our wallets needed a break and we decided to help out as we could.

The cookies: including sparkled ginger, peanut butter, chewy chocolate chocolate walnut and another cranberry white chocolate biscotti.

Philly Portabella Cheezesteak - a test recipe for Urban Vegan's upcoming cookbook! 

Bear with me with for the poor photo, but last week I made another one of 

Isa's Swiss Chard Frittatas.  I had previously made it as a test recipe for Vegan Brunch last winter and posted it here.  I had chard, tofu and wanted to use my oven and there ya go.  I love how easy it is - keep an eye out for this book!

And Portland has snow! Real snow!  It's may not be snowball fight snow, but it has yet to be rained or slushed on, and for that I'm giddy.  Photo by Karla.

More test cookies on my next post!

An Italiany Post

A collection of meals with an Italian vibe to them....
or at least tomatoes, or pasta or garlic or all of the above~

Exhibit #1:

Baked Chickpea Cutlet Balls served over fusilli pasta with homemade tomato basil marinara. With sauteed mushrooms and spinach with garlic, and garlic bread.
Carb-attack-amazing.

Exhibit #2

Pesto-Cheezy-Italian pasta bake.

This was made for a PPK Picnic this past weekend, and consisted of a silken tofu ricotta with pesto and chopped, fresh spinach, more tomato basil marinara, some almond ricotta, mini shells pasta, a miso-almond cheezy sauce, orange tomatoes and fresh basil on top.

Exhibits #3 and #4: Homemade pizzas.

The pizza above was marinara sauce, Teese, orange tomato, sweet corn and spinach.

This pizza has cremini mushrooms, orange tomato,pesto and almond ricotta.

Baked:
(sorry for the craptastic lighting)

Exhibit #5

Leftover pizza from It's a Beautiful Pizza, with tomato sauce, FYH soy cheeze (they're switching to Teese in a couple months, FYI), sundried tomatoes and black olives.

Exhibit #6

Mini grilled teese-basil-tomato on french bread.

Baked BeerBQ Soy Curls Sandwich

Say that 10 times fast.

Soy Curls are an Oregon based product that I first tried at a food demo by the lovely Julie Hasson (she enlists me as a cheering section). They are Oregon based and are like big, 'chickeny' strips of tvp waiting to be flavored. You can order cute bags of them online from Food Fight! or if you're in Portland, buy them in bulk from the store. I know this is a tad hypey, but they're a fun change of pace from tofu, tempeh and seitan and cooler than tvp. I'm not much for faux meat, but there's something to the tender texture of soy curls that can be somewhat crispy on the outside, and well absorbing of flavor and again, the texture works.

Behold the BeerBQ sandwich:


And how it came to be:

The key to soy curlin' is to flavor the hydrating liquid.

• My liquid was a mix of boiling water, beer (an organic IPA) and hot sauce.

• I then drained the curls, lightly squeezing them of their juices, and tossed with a bit of bbq sauce, tamari and more beer.

• They sat in this marinade in the fridge for a few hours, while I ran errands, which including picking up some parbaked organic panini rolls and pickles.

• Then it came to the matter of baking - I have panfried them before with success, but I wanted to use less oil. So I set my oven to 350F, threw the curls with a couple mists of olive oil onto parchment paper on a baking sheet, and cooked for 20 something minutes, tossing a couple times.
  
• Then I sauced them with about 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce, cooked an additional 15 minutes or so, tossed, and then turned up the oven for an additional few minutes.

• And then I bunned em. And ate em.
  

Time to buy some more.

PESTO MANIA 2008

Years ago in Cambridge MA, I had a roommate who'd often make a pesto pasta salad with red onions, and I never understood how that could be appetizing. I still don't have interest in it, but I have warmed up to the idea and flavor of basil. Heck, I cherish fresh basil now, and almost truly like pesto. Whoa.
I respect it's consistency and simple flavors (and oodles of olive oil, though I cut back on that myself). I like it as a spread, in marinades, dotted on pizza, soup mix-ins, etc.

This weekend I made the Classic Pesto from Vegan with a Vengeance with fresh basil from the farmer's market. This recipe is also the first pesto I've ever made, and the first thing I ever made in my first food processor. So many firsts! I subbed toasted almonds and pine nuts for the walnuts. It took me long enough as an Italian to enjoy marinara sauce, so I suppose it was time for pesto.

Because I don't eat that much pesto, I froze some in cubes, along with
Sweet Maple Basil Pesto from Veganomican that I made a couple weeks ago and
somehow survived this long.

Baked Pesto Tofu (tamari, pesto, water, olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, oregano)
and a salad - a simple lunch at work.

Kettle chips and a spicy version of the Veganomican cheezy sauce.
Snack Attttttaccckkkkk.

This meal isn't as wicked as it seems - it's half a sandwich! And a very delicious one at that with Baked BBQ tofu and greens. The BBQ sauce is Trader Joe's - it's good! Oh, and cheap.
I really like making my own as well, but I am all about the extremely smooth consistency (who wants to send me a Vitamix?) that the storebought one has.

On the side are some more chips with cheeze and sesame kale.

Lastly, a tulip to hypnotize you to buy me a Vitamix.

What? I'm kidding.

Cheezy

On the mean streets of SE Portland....


Things are going to get cheezy at Get Sconed!
Not just my writing style either.

Grilled Rice Cheddar and a side salad

Well, what was in the box on my previous post?
A box of samples from Galaxy Nutritional Foods!

I haven't tried any of their products besides the vegan cheddar block when I first went vegan, so call me intrigued. I am here to report back on what I think, and what I've done with them - I shared some with Veganshizzle as well.

I know it's a readily available brand of vegan 'cheese' across the U.S., and it'll be interesting to see where it stands against the likes of Tofutti, Follow Your Heart, Sheese, and Teese (just delivered!!) Cheezly is now available at Food Fight! as well, so I'm sure I'll splurge on that in time, but I am currently saving up for a vacation - Thomas and I will be New York the end of May to see my sister graduate college.

I also know that I don't here much buzz about Galaxy vegan cheeze these days, and I'm out to taste why or why not.

This is the company that also makes the Veggie Singles (not vegan) that you see even at the most random supermarkets.

I received Vegan blocks, Vegan slices, Rice slices and two type of organic hummus. Thanks for the opportunity to try all these, Galaxy.

I was most excited about the Rice cheeze slices - not only are they soy and dairy free, but the recent ad in VegNews appealed to me.

The verdict? Pretty darn good for a fake cheeze slice! I've only tried the rice cheddar so far, and it's comparable to the edible Tofutti American slices, but less buttery. I couldn't see myself eating these on a regular basis, but it wasn't bad, and it wasn't just so-so - I ate my whole sandwich.

In my recipe booklet that came with the samples, there were tips on how to improve melting and the general meal - ie. add spice to the vegan quesadilla by adding salsa and fresh herbs, and try leaving the cover on a bit during melting. The covering tip worked for me with my grilled cheez.

It's so melty! And doesn't gross out my mouth! Score.

I made it as 'normal' grilled cheeses are made - lightly earth balanced the outsides of the bread, placed a slice in, and for my sake, added some previously cooked tempeh bacon.

So far, I'm not dissapointed. I'm not in love, but I was pleasantly content with the Rice Cheddar singles.

On the other hand, I couldn't get the Vegan block Cheddar to melt. Hmm. We were dissapointed in this, because the flavor was alright. I plan on trying it in a mac and cheeze casserole next.

Nachos with cheddar, avocado, black beans and Trader Joe's 3 pepper salsa

Stay tuned for more.

You say Frittata, I say Swiss Chard Frittata!

Swiss Chard Frittata from the PPK Brunch Test Kitchen for
The Crack of Noon.
My first frittata! It's so pretty, if I do say so myself.

Sprinkled with some Sheese and broiled:

Sliced and plated with tempeh bacon, fresh orange and crisped lavash(Trader Joe's). There's also a banana smoothie in the back, but I was happily too full for much of it.

TLT. The tempeh lettuce tomato wich. With the last of the crenshaw melon, on Dave's Killer Rye Bread. What? What? Best bread in Portland, I say? You can now order online, too.

I made a ton of tempeh bacon for a PPK brunch potluck last weekend, and had so much I couldn't even fit it all in my pan to bring with. Boo hoo, Tommy and I had to keep some at home...


And amazing, amazing, amazing vegan soap by Tami's Soapworks. I haven't felt so darn clean and fresh in a while! I've used the zingy spearmint and rosemary (not pictured because it was in the shower already) and the refreshing daybreak is currently in rotation. Tami is also the super talented blogger behind the Kitchen Debate Blog - Thanks again!

get SCONED!

Happy 2nd Anniversary to...........Get Sconed!

Thank you one and all for reading and commenting!

I am very proud of my little bitty home in cyberspace amongst the bajillion other lovely veg blogs, and honored to share it with you.
I did a big recap of my first year last year, and to sum up this year, well it was a whole lot of learning and Veganomicon-ing with some Stumptown Vegan-ing thrown in. Being a recipe tester was ridiculously rewarding, and so was bringing SV to fruition with Webly.

2007 also had me finally writing out some recipes - eventually I'll make a handy link page, but for now here's some shots of most of them (psst, you can also click on the 'recipes' tag and wander around).
When writing my recap last year, I aimed to do this, and for a frequent recipe tester, seasonal produce lover and all around cook-as-I-go gal, I'm happy to feature them.....

Teriyaki Grilled Tofu

Italian fried zucchini blossoms

Peanut Coconut grilled tofu

Hazelnut and Red Wine stuffed mushrooms

Beer Battered Chicken style seitan

Hazelnut and Pear crisp
(so Oregon!)

Roasted Squash seeds

Herb Roasted Vegetable Sandwich

Cajun Chili Garlic yam fries

Raw Noodles, Cashew Cheez and Raw Marinara

Black Pepper, Red Wine & Lemon Sage seitan & green beans

Roasted Garlic, Wine & Veggie Sick soup

Lower fat New Farm Mac & Cheeze
I certainly didn't write this recipe, but I did lower a bit of the fat content and throw in more flavor, and it leads so many people to this blog, so enjoy!

Phew.