Watch this space

I have been away for a bit. After VeganMoFo, I was preparing for a two week trip to Japan, so all blogging was put on hold. I've been back for a few days now and I have a ton of photos to sort through, a cookbook review to do for Mylene and a million other things on my plate. We were photo-takin' fools while we were there - 1100 pictures we took! Plenty of food photos to share, too! Take a look. This is me, buying roasted corn that has been basted with soy sauce, from a vendor in Asakusa:
So, watch this space for lots of great things this month (what's left of this month!), including a review of a vegetarian restaurant I ate at in Kyoto last week. Here is a sign they had on the wall behind the seat I sat in:

VeganMoFo: Celebrating Breakfast, Halloween Style

This morning I made pancakes, the recipe from VWAV, with chocolate chip smileys. They kind of look like jack-o-lanterns. Sweet. But flipping them was a bad idea. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking when I made them. The chocolate melts when it comes in contact with the hot skillet. Wait. It melts? When it hits the hot pan? What the hell? Doh. Well, they still tasted great anyway and I managed to take a photo before flipping them. Forget the after shot.And since Halloween is getting closer we actually carved jack-o-lanterns. The first ones we have ever done as a family. Kelsey's says HALLOWEEN and the back has a star cut out. So cool because if you look behind the pumpkin you can see it glowing on the wall. Whoah. Mine just looks like a cat. Still cool. I'm going to buy a couple more tomorrow and we're going to carve them, too. Fun!

VeganMoFo: Celebrating Breakfast for Lunch! Mini Pumpkin Pancakes

I had to use my new bento set today so in the spirit of MoFo and my month of breakfast celebration, I felt that pancakes were in order. I roasted a couple of sugar pumpkins yesterday and set aside some of the puree for my favorite pumpkin pancakes and a smoothie.Today's bento contained coconut rice pudding (which I thought was perfect as my mid-morning snack), apples, roasted pumpkin seeds with raisins (I love the sweet and salty combo), mini pumpkin pancakes with maple syrup, and an apple cinnamon muffin with a couple of pretzel rods (afternoon snack).
This was just downright fun to carry into work today!

Mini Pumpkin Pancakes

Dry Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Wet Ingredients
1 cup soymilk
1/2 cup pumpkin
2 tablespoons maple syrup or brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Sift the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl stir together the wet ingredients. Add to the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until combined. Spoon just a tablespoon or two for each pancake onto hot skillet. Cook up and eat.

VeganMoFo: Major fun in the kitchen and a Layered Bean Dip

This has been a pretty freakin' fine day. My daughter may be sick and my husband may be jet lagged, but I am in my kitchen performing all kinds of experiments, creating meals and stocking up the freezer. I even have a new bento and carrying bag he brought home for me from Japan. I have to come up with a most awesome meal to eat out of it. A glass of wine helps this creative process. I am having some serious fun. I dream of days like this.

What's going on in this photo? Let's start from the left and work our way to the right.

First, the brand spankin' new and totally awesome bento set made by Zojirushi. It has an insulated canister
for keeping things hot or cold, two containers, chopsticks in a snap-shut case and a handy dandy insulated carrying bag for all of it. Too bad I can't read more than Zojirushi in the instructions.
Next, in the middle, is the experiment. Oatgurt, as seen in the Urban Girl Scout Cooking blog. I am really excited about this but it has me a little concerned. I've never done anything like this. I am hoping it will be a success. I will be writing about the results later this week.
And then pictured above the experiment is a lovely glass of white wine. This is essential. Period.
And finally, two sugar pumpkins and the seeds from two others. I've roasted the two pumpkins and will be roasting the seeds later tonight. The roasted pumpkins will be pureed and frozen for later. Perhaps I will make pumpkin silver dollar pancakes out of some of it and have a breakfast bento for lunch tomorrow using that awesome new set I now possess.And, finally dinner tonight. Sometimes simple is better. None of us feels like eating a "real" dinner tonight so I whipped up a layered bean dip that we will all three attack with some crunchy tortilla chips and completely devour in no time flat. There really is no recipe for it. I generally use what I have on hand. This is what is in my layered dip tonight:

Refried beans (that I made and had in the freezer, of course)
Smashed avocados (two, mashed with lemon juice and salt)
Tofu sour cream mixed with a bit of chili powder (homemade tofu sour cream)
Rotel (pulsed in the blender to crush)
Cilantro (small amount, chopped)
Sliced green onions

Ideally I would have sliced black olives on it, too, because I love them. So does my daughter, which is why I never seem to be able to keep even one can in the pantry. She has an olive radar. As soon as they enter the house she finds them and eats them. All. There are worse things she could eat so I don't complain too loudly.In the summertime fresh tomatoes are ideal for this. If fresh aren't available, use canned diced tomatoes or Rotel, like I used tonight. Salsa is also a beautiful addition to this dip. Use your imagination with this dip. The sky's the limit.

One more photo. Because I have a juvenile sense of humor at times, I have to share this photo of the pumpkins I took earlier today. I giggle every time I look at it.
Happy MoFo-ing!

VeganMoFo: Celebrating Breakfast - Biscuits and Gravy

This is comfort food all the way. I miss the snow whiteness of dairy milk gravy, but my version tastes far superior than the stuff made with dairy. Biscuits and gravy was one of the first things I veganized because I can't live without it. Sometimes I add vegan sausage crumbles to it. YUM! And it just happens to be David's favorite breakfast. He didn't have a decent breakfast while he was gone and I wanted to make sure he had his favorite food to wake up to this morning. The biscuit recipe is one I use from The Joy of Cooking. It is my favorite biscuit recipe, though I have adapted it to be vegan over the years.
Vegan White Gravy

1 1/2 cups soymilk (or rice milk or a combination)
4 tablespoons flour (I use all-purpose or a whole grain)
4 tablespoons Earth Balance
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder

In a saucepan, melt the Earth Balance and stir in flour. Cook it for about 5 minutes, stirring almost constantly, just so the raw uncooked flour taste disappears. Gradually add milk, whisking to prevent lumping. Add salt, pepper and onion powder. Cook and stir until it thickens and gets bubbly. Serve over biscuits.

Biscuits

2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons Earth Balance, cold and cut into pieces
3/4 cup soymilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the Earth Balance. Leave some bigger chunks in the mix so your biscuits are flaky. Stir in the soymilk. Don't over mix. Stir it just until it comes together and gently shape it into a ball, being careful not form the gluten in the dough. Move dough to a lightly floured surface. Pat out the dough to about 1/2-inch thick and cut into rounds. Place on lightly oiled baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Makes about 9-12 biscuits, depending on how thick you cut them.

VeganMoFo: Chipotle Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili

I haven't abandoned the breakfast theme. I'm just adding some other stuff since my photos on the other computer are most likely lost. Since my husband is home I wanted to make sure he had some good food (it's not easy finding vegetarian food in Japan) to eat when he got home. So I made this chili and cornbread. I've made this recipe lots of times before and my daughter hated it. Tonight, she volunteered to help make it and liked it. Something weird is going on here. It has to be the cold she has.

This chili was inspired by a post on VegPeople. I have altered it considerably from it's original version so it's my own original version now. I like to serve this with chipotle cornbread. It is simply my own cornbread recipe with a minced chipotle chili in it. Tonight I added the optional 2 teaspoons chipotle chili powder so it's extra spicy. To cut the heat a bit, serve it with a mound of rice or grain combo. Tonight was long grain brown rice and wild rice.

A note: I didn't have enough black beans tonight so I used a mix of black beans and red kidney beans. You can do the same thing, too! Also, I use beans that I cooked from dry. If you use canned beans, drain them and rinse them. Oh, and I use tomato sauce or tomato puree because my daughter is weird about tomato chunks in her food. I certainly think that diced tomatoes are the best, but it's great no matter what type of canned tomato you use.

One more thing. I have recently begun adding kombu to my dishes that have beans in them. The kombu adds a nutritional punch as well as the added benefit of making the beans more easily digestible. No bean music in this house!

Here is my recipe.

Chipotle Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili

6-7 cups cooked black beans
1 honkin' huge sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes (uncooked!)
1 can of beer
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, minced
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons chipotle chili powder (optional)
1 thumb-sized piece of kombu
1 15-oz can tomato puree (or sauce or diced tomatoes - fire roasted diced toms are awesome)

Soak the kombu in hot water to cover for 10 minutes. Drain it and mince and set aside.

Saute onions in pot until soft. Add the garlic and saute for another minute. Add the kombu and the remaining ingredients. Add just enough water to cover and simmer for 2-3 hours. Serve with a smattering of rice and a slab of cornbread.

When it rains it pours

That old saying is so true. It's been quiet on my blog this week but far from quiet on the homefront. The desktop computer decided to crap out on me, so every photo I had taken for my blog entries for this week have been (and still are) inaccessible. In addition, my husband has been overseas for the last two weeks on business, leaving me with no way to get the desktop working again because I don't know how to do it myself. I am utterly and completely computer illiterate. His absence also means that I have been a single parent for two weeks, which means I have had to make some pretty challenging parental decisions all on my own. Something I don't like having to do. Not that being a parent always means making tough decisions, it's just that when he left things seemed to fall apart. Other things cropped up while he has been away that I needed him here to help me with. Top that off with our daughter coming down with a nasty, nasty cold. We are taking an overseas vacation in two weeks. I need everyone to be healthy. Needless to say, on Thursday I just crumbled into a little heap on my bed and just cried and had my very own pity party. I need my husband here and I need him here now.

And he is on a plane home. Right now. A whole week early! I am the happiest person on the planet right now. The last two weeks have sucked. Big time. He will be home in eight hours.

So I spent some time taking some pictures the last couple of days and putting them on the laptop I am currently using. It's a nice little laptop. It's pink. My favorite color.

I normally have my morning coffee on Friday and Sunday. I decided that David's arrival home this evening was worthy of a nice big mug full of organic fair trade java with coconut milk creamer. This mug has become my most favorite. I can fit my whole hand in the handle, not just two or three fingers. It is handmade. I found it at Yellow Springs Pottery. Very cool place.

On Thursday I came home from work early and planted garlic. Two rows of organic New York White softnecks and one row of organic Russian Red stiffnecks. Next weekend I will be spreading a thick layer of compost over the rows (garlic is a heavy feeder) and then mulching in between the rows. Next years garden is under way!

I also got the crock pot going this morning with some beets that I bought at the farmers market about a month ago. Beets store well for a really long time. I love beets so much. Pickled are my favorite, but roasted in the oven or slow-cooked in the crock pot are just as delicious. Cooled, they can be sliced or diced and put on top of a salad. Eat them warm, straight from the oven or slow cooker with a bit of salt. Yum!

I have also been stocking up on winter squash, like butternut, acorn and little pumpkins. The pumpkins are going to be roasted soon and put in the freezer for things like muffins and soups. I just love squash of all kinds. The farm down the road from me sells them for just .50 cents each. Because they store so well for such a long time, I pick up several of them each week to store for the winter. I even got a couple of butternuts from a woman I work with whose mother grew a mountain of them this year. Thanks Barb's Mom!

Because my daughter is sick I have been drinking miso soup every single day to help boost my immune system and keep me healthy. My RA meds suppress my immune system, so when there is an illness in the house I do my best to make sure we are all eating well. I gave Kelsey a cup of miso broth yesterday morning and I became her least favorite person. This morning she got a green smoothie which she happily drank. Whoa. She really is sick! She also asked me if she could have an acorn squash for breakfast, too. That's not so unusual. She loves acorn squash as much as I do. All I do is cut them in half and nuke them in the microwave for about 7 minutes. Sprinkle with a bit of salt. I eat it straight from the shell. Good food in it's simplest form.

My "free time" (in quotations because free time in my life does not really exist), I have been perusing my cookbooks. These are the cookbooks I use the most. There are 57 of them pictured here. The other 44 are located in another part of the house. I have just a small obsession with cookbooks.

Now that I am done whining, I will end my entry with a little bit of geriatric doggie cuteness. This is Tiny and he is as old as dirt (something like 15 years old - we don't know for certain because we rescued him 10 years ago). He's missing eight teeth, is on anger management medication and has inverted testicles. You weren't expecting that last one were you?? We thought he might be part chihuahua but have come to learn that he is most likely a papillon. Whatever kind of dog he is doesn't matter to me and his little medical issues are besides the point. He's the sweetest little guy in the whole world (when I've made sure his medication has been administered!). And I love him with all my heart.