Thanksgiving Practice

I love Thanksgiving. That might be a little weird as a vegetarian since it's a holiday that is centered a lot around eating a turkey, but I still love it. I actually love pretty much every holiday, so I guess that isn't too surprising. But Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that makes me feel warm and fuzzy - you get to reflect on your year and remember all that you are thankful for, spend time with friends and family, and eat lots of delicious autumn inspired foods!

This weekend I had a lot of cooking that I wanted to do  - including several new recipes I wanted to try out. We started off the weekend with Gingerbread Doughnuts (I finally got that doughnut pan - SO much better than trying to fry them!) - I used this recipe and mostly followed it with the exception of using a flax seed egg in place of the real egg and almond milk instead of regular milk, plus I didn't buy the mini-doughnut pan so this recipe made 6 regular sized doughnuts for me.

I'm so excited about the baked doughnuts - they were really easy and, at least compared to fried doughnuts, fairly healthy. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself!

I actually jumped ahead a little bit here, because my cooking actually started the night before with pumpkin pies. It's been years since I've made a pumpkin pie and the last vegan recipe I used was one that called for tofu. I only had a pretty junky blender at that time and the tofu never quite blended into the rest of the batter which made for some interesting textures. Since then I've just kind of steered clear of any pumpkin pies.

This year though I was thinking about how a lot of other food bloggers often make multiple versions of the same thing to determine the best recipe. I usually have too many different things I want to make to try multiple versions of the same thing, but I thought maybe this pumpkin pie endeavor would benefit from trying different variations.

It turns out I only own one actual pie dish, so I used my springform pan for Pie #1 and made a graham cracker crust with a little ginger added. For this pie I used this recipe which was designed to be vegan and gluten free (I guess not so much though with my crust now, but I'm not gluten free so I don't particularly care). This recipe used coconut milk to add creaminess and tapioca flour and agar-agar to make the pie set up firm. The pie is also not baked - you cook the filling on the stove after you've cooked the agar-agar for a bit, which I found sort of interesting.

Pie #2 was your more traditional pumpkin pie - in fact, I used the Libby's Pumpkin Pie recipe and just substituted the eggs with flax seed eggs. For the crust I just halved the crust recipe I've posted here before.

Both pies turned out decent - I'm not certain I was in love with either one entirely, but then again maybe I just don't love pumpkin pie in general - it has to have been at least 10 years since I've had a regular pumpkin pie so I don't really remember. Overall the verdict was that the filling from Pie #1 with the crust from Pie #2 would have made the best pie.

I also tried out this recipe for a roasted pumpkin (I used butternut squash instead) salad - I failed on taking on pictures of it since we were caught up chatting with our friends once they arrived for dinner, but it was actually a rather pretty salad. I was worried that it was going to be awful because when I tasted the dressing by itself I really didn't care for it, but once all of the flavors were together I think it worked a lot better. There are a few things I would change if I decide to make this to bring to Thanksgiving though - cooking the rice differently (it was a little mushy and I think a drier rice would have been better), and cutting the onions in half to roast even though they were small - I think the salad would have been better with more onions evenly distributed throughout.

I may still have to try a few more recipes before I decide on what to bring back to Washington with me this year, but I guarantee you something will have squash in it!

-C

Sunday Dinner: Spicy Italian Sausage Soup and Apple Pie

I missed writing about Sunday dinner last week - I was actually in San Diego (or really San Marcos) visiting a friend but we did make a nice dinner! She'd never had a delicata squash before so we made the stuffed squash I've posted on the blog before (veggie sausage, onions, mushrooms, apple, hazelnuts, etc) and it was a hit! I love making things that people have never tried and having them love it!

This weekend I knew I wanted to make soup since we had celery from the harvest box, still about a million carrots, and onions. Jonathan asked for sausage soup, which I had never actually considered as a soup ingredient. We did some searching and settled on a recipe for a spicy Italian sausage soup (I used the Field Roast version of Italian sausage of course). It turned out really good - I eliminated about half of the liquid from the original recipe to make it a bit more stew like and I think that was a good call, there would have been far too much broth otherwise. You can find the recipe as I used it below, or click the link to get the original recipe!

Spicy Sausage Soup (adapted from here)
1 package Field Roast Italian Sausage (4 links, ~3/4lbs)
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 stalks celery, diced
2-3 carrots, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp tomato paste
32 ounces vegetable stock (I actually used a vegan chicken flavored Better Than Bouillon)
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
4 medium potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
salt and pepper to taste

*Dice up the sausage and cook with a bit of olive oil until lightly browned - set aside.
*Saute the onion, carrots, and celery in olive oil for about 5 minutes - add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another few minutes.
*Add the stock, seasoning, and potatoes and cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
*Add the diced sausage and test for seasoning - enjoy!

 I also finally got around to making that apple pie that I have been meaning to for quite some time. We have almost as many apples as we have carrots to use up (18 lbs from the Harvest Box alone - plus the apples we got at the Portland Cider Festival!). Luckily Jonathan doesn't mind peeling and chopping apples - that's my least favorite part - so he did that while I made the crust. You can find the crust recipe in my post about blackberry pie - it didn't turn out quite as good as that one, but it was ok. Pie crust takes lots of practice I suppose! I think mainly I just needed to roll it thinner - there's always more apples I suppose!

-C

Sunday Dinner: Comfort Food

It's been quite a long time since my last Sunday Dinner post. Perhaps it's more of an Autumn/Winter sort of thing for me.

Yesterday, in an effort to make sure we continue to use up all of the produce from our Harvest Box, Jonathan and I went through the fridge and made a list of everything we had. It was a lot. It looked something like this:

Carrots (about a thousand)
Spinach
Beets (gross - I don't know what I will do with these)
Swiss chard
Kale (x2)
Beet greens
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Radicchio
Sweet Peppers (x6)
Eggplant
Potatoes (x3 bags)
Delicata Squash (x3)
Sunshine Squash

So I set out on a mission to try to use up some of this produce before the weekend was over otherwise there won't be any room for our new produce on Tuesday! My list now looks like this:

Carrots (still about a thousand)
Spinach
Beets (still gross, but I think I found a way to use them in a chocolate cake)
Swiss chard
Kale (x2)
Beet greens
Broccoli
Cauliflower (only partially crossed since I only used half of it)
Radicchio
Sweet Peppers (x6 x3)
Eggplant
Potatoes (x3 bags x2 bags)
Delicata Squash (x3 x2)
Sunshine Squash
Not quite the progress I had hoped, but it's a start. I also have plans to finish the kale, chard, and beet greens tomorrow so that will be helpful.

On to comfort food though - I definitely have seasonal cravings. I've been eyeing those delicata squash for awhile, I think they are best served simple - sliced, tossed in some olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted until tender. I've also been really wanting one of Field Roast's Celebration Roasts, but turns out I can't find it anywhere in Corvallis anymore! This makes me very sad.

The co-op did have their version of meatloaf though, which Jonathan convinced me to try even though "meatloaf" is kind of freaky. I don't typically attempt to recreate vegetarian versions of items I wouldn't have eaten in their regular animal product form, but since I was severely lacking in the other Field Roast departments I thought I might as well give it a shot. Turns out it's pretty delicious! I should have known - those people at Field Roast never let me down.

We ended up having "meatloaf", roasted delicata squash, rosemary roasted potatoes, and kale salad with cranberries and pepitas. I was pretty happy with all of the end results - I seriously love this season, hope you're enjoying it too!

-C

Apple Cider Doughnuts

I'd been dying to make apple cider doughnuts for at least the past month. I'd seen dozens of different recipes fly by on foodgawker and last weekend I finally felt like I had the time to try it out. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited to eat some delicious, fresh, apple cider doughnuts.

Let me tell you - I think I am giving up on my frying attempts. For starters, I hate frying things because pouring an entire bottle of vegetable oil into a pan makes me feel kind of gross and also sad, and secondly hot oil scares me. A lot. But the real reason I think I am giving up on frying things is I just don't think the results are worth the effort (and calories).

Now I'm not faulting the recipe I used - I think my biggest problem is I don't have a great thermometer and the oil may not have been quite hot enough. I also read that most doughnut shops fry in hydrogenated oil (not that I really want to do that either though) - but supposedly it actually keeps less of the oil from seeping into your food. I wonder what using coconut oil would be like - I did a little bit of reading and it sounds like you can use it for frying, but I suppose that would also be expensive!

Anyway, I think I am going to buy myself a doughnut pan so that next time I feel like trying to make doughnuts I can just make the baked kind! The good news was, the dough by itself was pretty delicious! If you're interested here is the recipe I used: Apple Cider Doughnuts.

The only changes I made were to use 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour instead of the graham flour and I used flax seed eggs instead of the real eggs (1 Tbs. ground flax seeds mixed with 3 Tbs. warm water = 1 egg). Perhaps you will have better luck than I did!  (Side note: I think if I had made only doughnut holes they might have turned out ok, the grease seemed to seep into those less).

-C

Baking Season is Back!

This may or may not be a good thing. I do love baking but I actually think I may have a problem... sometimes I end up baking just to bake! My recent obsession with foodgawker has led to finding several new recipes, so this weekend I picked two to try out: White Spice Walnut Orange Cupcakes and Brie and Pear Tarts.

It's not often that I follow a recipe exactly, especially when it includes a seasoning that I don't think I like (such as cardamom) but I decided to give it a shot with these cupcakes. I don't often bake with eggs either, but I thought I'd really try to hold true to the recipe. To be honest? They were ok, but not fantastic. Sometimes I feel like I must be missing out on something great by not eating eggs in baked goods (i.e. typically eating vegan baked goods) but whenever I step outside of those restrictions I usually feel let down. Truthfully - I think eggless baking is just as good, and it creeps me out so much less!

The absolute best part of this recipe is the frosting though - it is absolutely delicious! Although I do recommend cutting the frosting recipe in half - I have no idea who would need so much frosting! I think I was pretty generous and I still had a bunch left with only half of the recipe! Next time I think I will just make vanilla cupcakes and use this frosting.

This Brie and Pear Tart was one of the first recipes I added to my favorites on foodgawker and I have been itching to make it ever since then. I don't have a real tart pan, so I decided to make two individual tarts with these ceramic dishes I have instead. I pretty much followed this recipe exactly too (other than changing the dimensions of the tart)! I used a basic butter pie dough (minus the sugar) for the crust, Willamette Valley Brie, and two different kinds of pears. I couldn't get mine to look as pretty as the picture in the recipe, but I think it turned out pretty well in the end! Next time I'd use a little less sugar (I skimped a little already with this recipe) and definitely more brie - the piece we bought was really kind of small for this recipe.

Hope I'm not alone in my baking inspiration now that the weather is colder! If you're in need of new recipe ideas I highly recommend foodgawker - such a fantastic way to browse!

-C

Officially Autumn

The changing of the seasons is my favorite time - it all seems so new and exciting again! I've had a bit of a cold for the past few days, but that hasn't stopped me from jumping into Autumn food mode (and hey - colds are kind of part of the season too, aren't they?).

Here's a few photos from the weekend. Stuffed delicata squash on Saturday - this time the filling consisted of a vegan Italian sausage, onions, wheat berries, kale, and hazelnuts.

 More stuffed squash! <3

Sunday breakfast was round two of the tri-colored quinoa - this time combined with wild pears, dried cherries, and pecans.

Speaking of wild pears - Jonathan has gotten really into searching out edibles around where we live. This weekend he make himself a fruit picker (basically a pole with a hook and basket on the end) and came back with this bowl full of pears, apples, and plums! The pears are amazing.

Sunday Night Dinner: One of my favorite soups - Sweet Potato, Carrot, and Apple Soup (recipe below), with homemade French bread, spinach salad, and apple cider.

 

 By the way - the apple cider was totally homemade too! Jonathan's coworker has an apple press and a bunch of apple trees and was kind enough to let us try it out. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the process because Jonathan though that 9:30pm was a really good time to try this out, so we gathered apples and pressed all of the cider by the light of a headlamp. :)  The cider is amazing though - we only got about 2/3 of a gallon but I really hope we can go back (preferably in the daylight) and try it again!

Sweet Potato, Carrot, and Apple Soup

(Adapted from here)

2 Tbs Butter

2 Tbs Olive Oil

3 medium Sweet Potatoes, peeled and diced

3 large Carrots, peeled and diced

1 large Onion, diced

1 (or 2!) Apples, peeled, cored, and diced

1/2 cup Red Lentils

4 cups Vegetable Broth

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp: ginger, cinnamon, chili powder, black pepper, cumin

1/4tsp cayenne 

1. In a large pot, combine butter and olive oil - saute sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, and apples until onions are translucent.

2. Add lentils, spices, and vegetable broth. Simmer until potatoes are tender - about 30 minutes.

3. At this point you can either leave the soup chunky, blend a little of it using an immersion blender, or blend the whole thing in batches for a smooth soup.

Tastes like Autumn! Enjoy!

-C