A Week's Worth of Deliciousness

This week has been packed with events featuring some darn tasty food!
To start things of last Sunday, Dane hosted his weekly Sustainability Sunday meal as part of the KC Vegan Crawl! We ate some good food and discussed closed loop systems, and how to apply those principles to small businesses. So good!!
He made Pomegranate Marinara over Penne Pasta and Fresh Spinach And Tomato-Basil Bruschetta on locally-made Farm to Market Baguette

For dessert, there were Chocolate Biscuits! Yes, two of the best foods ever, combined into one! Topped with Chocolate Sauce, Pomegranate Seeds, and Blackberries. Absolutely divine!!Our friends Kevin and Janae brought the appetizer, Kalamata Olive, Sun-dried Tomato, Artichoke, and Pine Nut Tapanade, with Organic Blue Corn Chips...it was so tasty that I truly could have eaten all of it!!! Monday night was our sewing circle! Of course, there had to be a potluck beforehand...can't sew on an empty stomach!

I made a Local Tempeh-Adzuki Bean Chili....Other vegan offerings were: Citrus-Mint Quinoa Salad, Coconut Curried Sweet Potatoes, and Salad with Carrots, Avocado, Berries, and Vinaigrette Dressing.....

There was even a vegan dessert! Our friend Megan brought Chocoalte-Chocolate Chip Muffins!! Perfect with coffee before stitchin' and bitchin'!And then yesterday, for my weekly vegan brunch at my place!! Lots of people came out despite the bitter, nasty cold and snowy streets! Yay community!

I made Tofu Benedict: Homemade English Muffins (a la Isa's Vegan Brunch), topped with Homemade Seitan Canadian Bacon (recipe to come soon!), Tofu Eggs, Sauteed Organic Kale, and Hollandaise (also from VB). And, since it was brunch, there had to be potatoes!! Homefries with Caramelized Onions! Yes!!

I had never made Benedict before, even in my omni days, and I was sooooooo happy with how this turned out!!!! Everyone else was, too!

And for one more nod to Isa's Vegan Brunch cookbook, East Coast Coffee Cake, with a Cardamom-Date variation! I am in looooooooove with this cake!! Heavenly! I was so blessed with so much great food and great friends this week....let's hope this next week is just as wonderful! :)

Vegan MoFo: Chili on a Chilly Day

It's Day 12 of Vegan MoFo! It has been cloudy, blustery, chilly for the past few days...perfect weather for a steaming bowl of chili. Since it was Sunday, I had my restaurant going at my house, chili just had to be on the menu! And, since I can't eat chili without cornbread, as it is a mortal sin, there was jalapeno cornbread, too! While I was at the farmers' market getting produce on Saturday, I came across what are probably some of the last squash blossoms of the season. I hadn't worked with squash blossoms yet, so I figured this was my last chance! So, they also came into play for my Sunday meal. It was fantastic! A big bowl of beany, seitan-y chili, topped with a fried squash blossom and served with a side of jalapeno cornbread

The chili: black, red, and pinto beans with local green peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, spices, and my ground homemade seitan....sooo delicious.
Whole grain cornbread, with locally-grown jalapenos

The beautiful squash blossoms, pre-stuffing

The squash blossoms are stuffed with a mixture of vegan cream cheese, toasted pecans, chopped kale, dried cranberries, paprika, sage, thyme, lemon juice, and agave. The batter was made of beer, soymilk, brown rice flour, garbanzo bean flour, and spices. These were an INSANE amount of good!! I'm pretty sure these were the peoples' favorite!

The stuffed blossoms, resting up for the big show!

The perfect place for a stuffed, fried squash blossom? Atop some kickin' chili, of course!

And the only dessert that goes with chili: Cinnamon Rolls! I made RRF's Cinnamon Rolls, available on the blog http://bjorkedoff.blogspot.com/. Some of the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had. period.Naked. Iced.

Served.

As the second leg of the KC Vegan Crawl, Dane made another awesome meal last night, too!! He has a fire pit, and this chilly weather was great for cooking over the open fire.

Kebabs, with my homemade seitan that Dane marinated, and all-local veggies!

Smore's roasting on the fire, getting all melty and gooooood. The marshmallows were Sweet and Sara's Vanilla Vegan Marshmallows, which are perfection!

Tester Chili and Sweet Potato Butter

Being a tester for Bianca's (Vegan Crunk) upcoming cookbook has gotten me really excited to cook recently! With only two dishes down, and I can already tell this is going to be a wonderful testing process and an even better final cookbook!
The first tester recipe this week: Chipotle Chickpea Chili! This is one hearty chili...packed full of beans, chipotle peppers, and a few other surprise ingredients...and it is really delicious! It was just perfect on a cold night like tonight! I served it with sauteed greens and some of my homemade whole wheat biscuits. And yes, that is my homemade sweet potato butter slathered on those little biscuits!
Since I'm not able to give you the chili recipe (I can keep a secret!), I will give you my recipe for sweet potato butter! It's made in the crock pot, but you could use a pressure cooker if you have that instead. Here's a picture of the little cubes going into the beautiful red crock pot:
Sweet Potato Butter (makes about 3 cups)
1 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 qt water
1 Tbs cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
pinch of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs maple syrup or agave nectar
juice of 1 lemon

In a medium or large crock pot, place the water, diced sweet potatoes, and sugar. Turn on to high and allow to cook for at least 8 hours, or until the sweet potatoes are very well cooked and the water has almost completely reduced. Add the spices, salt, maple syrup, and lemon juice to the cooked sweet potatoes. Stir and cover again. Allow to cook for 2 more hours on high. Turn off heat and allow to cool. Pour mixture into food processor or blender and puree until smooth...an immersion blender would work here too! Put into jars and refrigerate.
**If there seems to be extra water in the crock pot after cooking the sweet potatoes, drain a bit off before adding the spices, etc.**

The cold weather of winter has made me crave more rib-sticking and homestyle foods. Some examples from this past week:

Oven-"Fried" Zucchini

(based on my oven-"fried" okra recipe)

Hot Sauce-Glazed Tempeh (from Veganomicon) with

Maple Dijon Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Broccoli

--I will have the potato recipe soon...it's my WIP Wednesday dish!--

More tester recipes and homestyle cooking to come!

Chili and Cornbread--and other stuff, too!

Today being a rainy, dreary day put me in the perfect mood for making one of my favorite comfort meals: chili and cornbread! I love the combination of the sweetness from the cornbread and the spiciness of the chili. it's perfect.Tempeh Chili (with some Tofutti Sour Supreme)

Tempeh Chili (serves 8-ish hungry peeps)

2 T canola oil

2 yellow onions, minced

1 green pepper, minced (reds work here, too!)

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 jalapenos, minced

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 cup tomato paste

1 can red kidney beans

1 can pinto beans

2-8oz. packages tempeh

1 T hot sauce

1/4 cup Bragg's or tamari

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup chili powder

2 T cumin

1 T paprika

2 tsp cayenne

2 tsp chipotle powder

1/2 cup cocoa powder

In a large pot, heat 2 T canola oil over medium-high heat. Saute the onions and peppers until softened, then add the garlic, jalapeno, and spices, then reduce heat to low. Saute for 10 minutes. Add in the crumbled tempeh, return heat to medium, and saute for 5 more minutes. Stir in the cans of tomatoes, tomato paste, beans, Bragg's, hot sauce, and cocoa powder. Bring this all to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve piping hot with a dollop of vegan sour cream and a chunk of cornbread!

A slice of cornbread with Earth Balance and agave...

Whole Grain Cornbread (serves 8 to 12)

1 1/2 cups cornmeal

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 Tbs baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 Tbs sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 cup applesauce

2 cups soymilk

1/2 Tbs apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup water (to rinse out blender left-overs)

1 cup corn

1 jalapeno, minced (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly oil a 9 by 13 pan. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Fold in the corn and jalapeno. Blend the wet ingredients, except the water, together in a blender. Pour in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Pour water in blender and swirl around to get all the leftover batter, then add to bowl. Combine everything until just mixed, but do not over mix! Bake for 2o to 25 minutes, until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm, slathered with lots of Earth Balance and agave nectar!!

My slice of whole grain cornbread, served with some roasted local squash and breadcrumbs!

A few days ago, I made my favorite Thai Peanut Noodles for dinner, and it was really pretty...but I forgot to post about it! I used mugwort soba noodles, baked tofu, and a saute of garlic, ginger, onions, cabbage, carrots, and broccoli, then topped with my creamy, spicy peanut sauce that I have posted about before. If you've never had a good peanut sauce, give this one a try! For reals.

Thai Peanut Noodles

I have also made some delish desserts this week. I think frosting may be the most important part of a good treat, I must confess! Earlier in the week, I made the Toasted Coconut Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Holy Moses I loved these! I even made my own chocolate-covered espresso beans for the garnish...I was proud :) These are wonderfully paired with a nice mug of Tahitian Vanilla Hazelnut Yogi Tea with some Silk creamer and agave!!

Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting and Chocolate-Covered Coffee Beans

Thursday night, I made an AMAZING batch of Banana Brownies with Peanut Buttercream Frosting, based off of a recipe that I like to make at work. Probably the best brownies I have ever made. The peanut butter-chocolate-banana combination is HEAVEN. Yay for over-ripe bananas! And frosting!!

Banana-Chocolate Chip Brownies with Peanut Buttercream Frosting

Banana Brownies (makes 12)

2 large bananas

1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c canola oil

1 cup soy milk

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp sea salt

2 tsp baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly oil a 9 by 13 pan. Blend bananas, sugar, vanilla, oil, and soymilk in blender. Pour into a large bowl. Sift in the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into oiled pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely, then frost with PB frosting!

Peanut Buttercream Frosting

1/4 cup non-hydrogenated shortening

1/4 cup Earth Balance margarine

1 cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 T soy milk

2 cups powdered sugar

Cream the shortening and margarine together until well combined. Add in the peanut butter and combine some more. Sift in the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, adding in the soymilk between batches. After mixing the second cup of powdered sugar, add in the vanilla and whip for about 5 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Refrigerate until ready to use, then spread on cooled banana brownies.

Steve's hand, getting ready to put his brownie into his hungry belly...