Final Blogging Blitz of 2009

I decided, at the last minute, to clear out my memory card of all these holiday treats and recent eats... so I can start 2010 with a fresh menu and a fresh eye to blogging! I didn't want you all looking at my Christmas pies and saying "Oh, that's SO last year..." ! So, starting from Christmas Eve onward, here goes nothing:

Pumpkin Pie! I used my new letter cookie cutters! We had a big family dinner on Christmas Eve, and I made dessert, plus the totally amazing Caramelized Onion, Chestnut & Butternut Squash Casserole from Veganomicon... which came and went without photo-documentation. Highly recommended though!

Apple-Pear Pie!! A little less beautiful than its pumpkiny cousin, but still sooooo good.

One of my dad's Christmas presents! A few months back, my dad went to Boston for an astronomy conference (he's an astrophysicist! Hi Daddy!), and when he came home, he was telling me all about some amazing sweet potato & apple sandwich he'd had. So, I asked "What was the name of the restaurant?" He did some research, figured it out, and printed out the menu. All vegan! So, then, with the investigative help of some Boston-based PPKers, I had a local vegan go and eat and photo document the sandwich... she gave great detailed information for each aspect of the sandwich. So, I recreated it, tested it out for ourselves... and gave my dad the recipe and photos for Christmas, with a promise to make it for him whenever he wants! Once I get his seal of approval, I promise to also share it with all of you!

ps. coincidentally, my parents got me a panino press for christmas! I'm so stoked!!

For Christmas Day, we had a nice little mellow family lunch, with some leftovers and some new goodies. My mom made a huge batch of her totally STELLAR minestrone soup. Damn, that stuff is GOOD!

The meaties had turkey sandwiches, so I made some of Bryanna Clark Grogan's delicious "Breast of Tofu" slices for us veggies. Mmmm... they are so good. As I was driving across town to my aunt's house, these little tofu babies made my whole car smell like holiday heaven.

I also made a panforte for xmas day, which I've done for a few years now. I use the recipe in Donna Klien's book "Vegan Mediterranean Kitchen," and I've had great luck with it. It's a crummy picture, but such a delicious holiday treat that I didn't want to leave it out of the line up!

The day after xmas some of my oldest friends (read: friends I've known the longest, not the OLDEST!) and I had a nice little brunch get-together. As a the most happy recipient of Swell Zine in Bazu's recent giveaway, I made the Sweet Potato Cranberry Scones. What a score! I halved the glaze recipe and it was a perfect amount for me. These were a big hit with everyone, and they were so gorgeously pretty. Oh, and also, they were HUGE HUGE HUGE. Mmmm.

I was up in San Francisco recently, and FINALLY got my hands on some of these vegan cheeses I've been hearing so much about. So, a couple nights after xmas, my vegan auntie L & her also-vegan boyfriend came over for some seriously fun vegan pizza night! This pizza used Teese brand "cheeze", with fresh tomatoes, bell peppers, and olives. I liked the mild flavor of this cheeze, but it TOTALLY melted - like liquified. As I cut the pizza, there was just a huge puddle of cheeze all over the cutting board. I found that a bit weird, and un-food-like.

Meanwhile, this winner was made with Italian-Style Daiya-brand cheeze, sundried tomatoes, and fresh bell peppers. Yum! Perfect meltage! Crispy cheezy bits on the crust! I think I put a little too much on, and I've since experimented a little and realized that I prefer a light touch... but suffice it to say that I'm totally stoked to have another whole tub of it in the freezer! Pizzas! Quesadillas! Nachos! OMG!

Lastly, I leave you some of my last great pics of the 2009 memory card. Yes, I'll admit it... I bought Snoopy a Santa outfit. Dude, it's so freaking cute!! Funny enough, that crazy little dog really, really loves wearing jackets...

...but he's not really so crazy about the hat, truth be told.

I can't believe sweet, sweet Yummers Potatoes let me do this to him and take this picture. I love him so much!
Here's our doggie line up: Dottie Bonkers, Stevie Wonder, and Snoopy Snoppy... our sweet little canine buddies. They are wonderful!

Lastly, but not leastly, we were so lucky to have one of the lowest low tides of the year this week, especially today. With good weather and a quiet day... the doggies and I have enjoyed some long walks at beaches that are underwater most of the time. Today we had a long, luxurious walk and saw sea otters, herons, egrets, pelicans, seabirds, starfish, and thousands and thousands of lovely sea anenomes (sp!?). Most exciting of all, I got to check in on My Favorite Sea Anenome. I know you all must be thinking, "really, who has a favorite sea anenome?!" Well, I do. All Sea Anenomes are beautiful and amazing, and mostly they have this neat purply-fading-into-turquoise coloring. Last year, at the farthest end of the beach, at the lowest of low tides, on the underside of a big rock, I discovered this glorious lime-green beauty and fell in love. I was so happy to see it's still there, thriving and glowing and looking cool!

Here was tonight's sunset. So beautiful. Good bye 2009, welcome 2010!

COOKIE PARTY!! & Cookbooklette!

You know, for years now, I've heard about these fun cookie exchange parties... where everyone makes cookies, and then you get together and everyone takes home a few of each other's cookies. Sounds totally awesome, right?! Except, how fun is it to take your vegan cookies to a big party and come home with no cookies? Answer = No fun at all! Well, yesterday we went to a super fun all-vegan cookie exchange party over at our friend Sophia's place. It was nice to visit with our friendly pals, and there was some SERIOUS cookie abundance.

I've been in some sort of crazed baking mood... so I went a little nuts. First I made these glorious crispy almond cookies. It was my first time making them, and they turned out great. Crisp and not too sweet, but just right. A perfect Christmas cookie, by my reckoning.

Next, I made an old favorite: Glazed Gingerbread Tiles. I love love love these cookies. I'm usually a no-Earth-Balance kind of gal, but I'll make an exception for some special Christmas cookies. These cookies are chewy and dense and have quite a spicy kick - aided by a generous addition of black pepper.

Here you can see the little amorphous designs on top and the crackling glaze. Yummmm...

Finally, I made a recipe I've had my eye on for a while now - Peppermint Topped Brownies, from Sunset Magazine. So beautiful! I used the brownie recipe from Joy of Vegan Baking, then I made half the recommended amount of ganache (which was more than enough). I used mimicreme instead of whipping cream.

The peppermint toppers are made of melted hard peppermint candies. Check out this crazy wonderous beauty!!! I was totally stoked about the whole thing. It might have been different if I had used white parchment paper, but the recipe says to draw out this whole grid of 1 3/4 inch squares on the parchment and then to use that grid as a guide to score the candies when they come out of the oven - but I couldn't see my grid whatsoever, so I was left to eyeball it. As Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats said "Good thing you're good at eyeballing it!" So true!

Here's my smorgasborg of offerings that I brought to the party! ... and then here's what everyone else brought:

Coldandsleepy brought some super delicious Pecan Caramel Bars. This recipe is from Isa's new book Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. Crazy chewy, super sweet, and very good.

Sophia had about 75 persimmons on her dining room table, so it should come as no surprise that she made Persimmon Oatmeal Cookies. These were so good!!

The Lemon Family brought Carrot Chewies (also from VCIYCJ) - they were soft and chewy (as promised) and tasted just like the top of a very good carrot muffin. This amounted to our "vegetable serving" for the afternoon!

They also brought some beautiful Raspberry Oatmeal Bar Cookies from Joy of Vegan Baking. By accident, they forgot to put the jam in the middle of two layers of dough... and put it on top instead. It was less work - and still tasted great!! Note to self!

And Turnip's Mom brought two varieties: some joyfully rich Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies (freak out!) and some very nice Frosted Rum Nog cookies with just the right rummy-ness!

Table full of cookies!! I'll tell you what, it was a bit daunting, even for a well-trained sweetie eater like myself.

No one wanted to induce a diabetic coma, but we couldn't just swap cookies and leave without even sampling all the delicious wares, so we broke the cookies into smaller bits and sampled away. What a delicious and magical Yum Fest. It was so fun, and there was a perfect variety of flavors and textures.

Sophia's cat Gertrude totally stole my heart with her crazy antics and softie-softie fur.

Another kitty picture, because this is a vegan blog and I know you can take it.

Finally, after a nice afternoon chatting and visiting, we dove in and started divvying up the cookies amongst everyone. Frenzy of flying vegan hands!

Mr. ColdandSleepy was very orderly with his take-home arrangement! What a lovely bounty to consume and share with friends. Yay for Cookie Party!

When I mentioned that I've been in a baking mood, I wasn't really kidding. In addition to all that cookie party baking, I also finally broke open my copy of VCIYCJ and made the "kitchen sink biscotti" for our family dinner on Saturday night. I subbed out the the cocoa powder with 2 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour, and used some anise extract in addition to the vanilla. Then I added almonds and chocolate chips. I have been suffering from a years-long pent up desire to try my hand at biscotti, and I don't know why I waited so long. These were so great! Now that the dam is broken, I already have ideas for more flavor variations to cook up. More baking!

Last but not least... Another year, another holiday season... Faithful Readers, you know what that means...

Another Cookbooklette! Hoorah! Every year I compile a little hand-drawn collection of some favorite recipes I discovered that year. This year is exciting, because there's a recipe for DiSaronno cookies which I made up - all by myself - in honor of my grandpa. I know some of you fancy people make up recipes all the time. But I don't, so I feel all self-congratulatory about the whole thing. I've got 25 of these little cutie books to giveaway to my beloved friends in the blogosphere. International is just fine! Please, if you leave a comment asking for one, make sure to leave your email address or another way for me to track you down & get your mailing address.

Merry Holiday Winter Season!

So. Many. Apples.

We've got a sweet little apple tree out behind the garage, planted by the previous owners of our house. Each autumn, it starts pumping out the most amazingly delicious supply of apples. I don't know what kind of apples they are, which just makes the whole thing even more fun and exciting.

This year's crop has truly been Above & Beyond. We have soooooooo many apples. What you see here is well shy of half of what I harvested this week! I've made apple cake, apple pie, and have been eating about 3 apples a day for a few weeks now. The apple situation was getting overwhelming. Of course, I am also completely terrified by the idea of such delicious fruity-fruits going to waste... so I got to work.

First I set up two big batches of applesauce. 6 jars of a lighter, 100% apple recipe... and 5 jars of a slightly more cooked batch with a little touch of maple sugar and fresh cinnamon.

Then, I set up four batches of canned apple pie filling. Mmmm... it's nice to have these future pies all ready to go.

Finally, right when I was reaching my darkest hour of "how much applesauce can I really expect myself to eat this year?" and "how many apple pies will I really bake this year?"... my friend Jane saved the day with a suggestion to dry the apples! Bonus! What a great idea. So, I did a little research, and these came out great. We have a convection oven, which helped. For the first batch, I cut the apples about 1/4 inch thick, and convected them overnight (about 8 hours) at our oven's lowest setting: 170 F. They turned out crispy, which isn't what I expected, but was a welcome surprise - totally FREAKY GOOD. They are so sweet, they taste like apple-flavored candies. It's pretty crazy how sweet they are. Next, I did another batch sliced 1/2 inch thick and only convected them for about 5 hours, which resulted in a chewier dried apple. We got two big baggies per batch, and I love 'em!

Here's most of the bounty... You wouldn't believe how many hours I've spent washing, peeling, and chopping apples in the last week. But I don't want to be a complainer - I love our magical apple tree! I've got another 40-50 apples left - some good ones that I set aside for eating, and a box of uglies which I'll probably convert to dried apples sometime this weekend. The doctor shall be far, far away!

We Have A Winner!

Hoorah!

I put everyone's name in a hat, stirred 'em all around like a big pot of soup... and pulled out:

Jen E!!

This is super especially great because Jen E. is the first vegan I ever met (knowingly, at least), and I consider her to be the person who most supported me during my self-veganizing process. ALSO! Jen E. worked with Mr. VE&Ts and I, before we were dating, and I do believe that she was the very first person that I informed about our budding romance. We are a little bit of an odd couple, and most people at work were a bit surprised to learn we had started dating, but I remember Jen's sweet response, right away, was "Oh, I always thought you two would be a great couple." How Sweet! She knew before I did. : ) So, it seems especially joyful and fitting that Jen E. would win the vegan giveaway in honor of our 10 Years of Dating celebration!

Amey & Mr. VE&Ts say: "Jen E. is super awesome!"

Mmmm.... Tasty!

It always seems like when I come home from a trip, I head straight to the kitchen! It's all that pent up desire from seeing menu items that aren't vegan, or the total inability to find a place to make me vegan french toast...

So here are just a few of the many delicious things I've eaten this week...

First up, Thanksgiving Dinner! Here's my cousin Adam (in the background) and his gal Dana making some crazy delicious bruschetta for appetizers - they had roasted eggplant with fresh tomatoes & basil... and they were totally superb!

The plate! (Minus the cranberry sauce, and minus the wild rice stuffing which coyly escaped photo-documentation this time around!) mmmmm - much deliciousness. My bro's girlfriend made the garlic mashed potatoes, and they really stole my heart. I LOVE MASHED POTATOES. Oh dear, they were very good.

Here's a huge platter of my homemade tamales. I use the fresh masa recipe from Voluptuous Vegan and the delicious black bean filling from Veganomicon. I think this is the 3rd year now that I've made tamales for Thanksgiving, and they are really a great tradition. They are special and autumny - and they work well for soy-free and gluten-free diets, and appeal to pretty much all different palates. I mean, after all, who doesn't like mexican food?!

I also made dessert: A pumpkin pie with Gluten Free pie crust, which actually turned out pretty darned well for my first attempt at a GF pie crust...

... and a more traditional apple pie. Except I added tangerine zest and rum and nutmeg. And it was really really super good. It will not be the last time I make an apple pie with tangerine zest and rum and nutmeg. No sirree.

After a few meals of leftovers, I was right back in the kitchen. This is a (spicy!!!) Chickpea and Carrot Tagine recipe that I pulled out of the newspaper eons ago. It was quite good and packed a serious punch. On the right are some totally freak-crazy-good Nepalese Green Beans. I think these will be going in my annual Christmas cookbooklet. They are gooOOooOOd.

Last night, we had Lentil Stew with Winter Vegetables from an old issue of Sunset, and we loved it! I definitely recommend this recipe - packed full of veggies, greens, lentils and flavor - and pretty quick to prepare (maybe 40 minutes, start to finish?). Definitely a keeper.

Not pictured from this week: Pumpkin French Toast, Quinoa Pudding with Dried Mango, Coconut Tapioca Pudding, and 1000 sliced apples. Sometimes I'm just too busy eating to bother with photography!

p.s. tomorrow I pick a winner for my Hawaiian Giveaway!

Eating Local... Hawaii Style!

Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats and I just returned from a week together in Hawaii... celebrating 10 years of dating each other! We had a great time - and even had a community of giant sea turtles living in the water right outside the condo we rented. So cool!

We were staying in Napili Bay, on the island of Maui. Vegan food was a bit of a mixed review... though I certainly never starved. By and large, I found it pretty easy to get by, and even found a few real winners for eating out. But there is one area where Hawaii really, really excels for a vegan:

TROPICAL FRUIT!

You all know how devoted I am to eating locally grown produce. Here in Santa Cruz, that means eating a lot of apples and pears this time of year... soon the citrus arrives and also the pomegranates. So it's hardly a hardship. But, all the same, I almost never allow myself the indulgence of buying bananas or papayas flown all the way from Central or South America...

So, you can image how stoked I was on this gorgeous display of what passes for local fruit in Hawaii:

Guava, Papaya, Rambutan!, Apple Bananas, Pink Dragonfruit, and Pineapple.

Oh man, I was in heaven. Not to mention the lovely view from our place.

One of the most amazing things is how you just see this fruit growing EVERYWHERE. In fact, I picked these guavas up off the ground on a hike we took. Everywhere you look are coconut trees, guava trees, banana trees, papaya trees, sugar cane, mango trees (sadly, it was not mango season)... for a food-crazed freak like me, it's positively distracting!

These wonderful little bananas called apple bananas were available at the farmer's markets and they were so delicious. Little and sweet, but with a little tang of tartness, I was totally in love with them. One day I just ate 7 of them for lunch.

Also, these little rambutan were a big highlight for me. I've had fresh rambutan a couple of times before - but these were absolutely the most delicious ones I've ever had. They were juicy and moist, sweet and soooo delicious. Rambutan is similar to a lychee nut ... Mr. VE&Ts says they are like a juicy little coconut. I'm not sure about that... They are sweet, but not sugary, a firm but juicy flesh, a little hint of lemony flavor, with an almond sized pit in the middle. I ate as many as possible!

Another big star for me was this gorgeous pink dragonfruit. Like Rambutan, I'd had fresh dragonfruit before (when we were in China), but MAN this was a whole different story. The flesh is delicate and melts in your mouth. It's full of seeds, but they are not a nuisance at all - they are like little sesame seeds or quinoas as far as texture. The flavor is light, delicately sweet, and lovely to eat. And that stunning color... totally cool.

Sadly, we learned that in January, Maui will no longer be growing pineapples for export. What a shame. One of the gigantic landholders in West Maui has developed into massive golf courses, condos, villas, hotels, and so on ... and it all used to be pineapple farms. Apparently it is a difficult and demanding crop, and it's not as lucrative as more Ritz-Carlton hotels. Sigh. We made a special point to eat and enjoy as much pineapple as possible.

Here is a crazy little picture of me celebrating the local Apple Bananas, still on the tree. Future Yum!

Well, you can bring home as many pictures as you take, but you can't bring home rambutan and dragonfruit. You should have seen me, gluttonously scarfing down 1/2 a pineapple, an entire papaya, 2 bananas, and six rambutan on our way to the airport!!! I was determined to maximize my tropical fruit consumption to the very end!!!

However, I did bring home a few special little treats from Maui to share with you, my faithful readers. In honor of ten years of Mr. VE&Ts and Me, I'm offering a little piece of Hawaii to one lucky winner: Hawaii Candy Coconut Wafer Cookies (they look sorta like fortune cookies), totally delicious Dried Mango (no sugar), Dry Roasted Unsalted Macadamia Nuts, a mini jar of Maui Pineapple Jam, and a mini jar of Hawaiian Mixed Fruit Jelly (Lilikoi, Guava, Pineapple, & Orange). If you want to win, just leave a comment - and be sure to leave your email address if you don't have a blog where I can reach you. I'll pick the winner next Wednesday, one week from today!

Now I'm happy to be home, cuddling with our furbabies again, and hard at work in the kitchen getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow!

Toasty Autumn Suppers!

Monday Night: "Gingery Split Pea Soup" from Voluptuous Vegan

I love love love this magical recipe. It's basically a straightforward split pea, but it's a bit lighter than usual, and the peas are cooked with big slices of fresh ginger and - here's the real magic - a dried chipotle pepper. That smoky chipotle gives such a nice depth to the soup, and makes the whole house smell just amazing. It's an easy, low fuss recipe too... which is worth a lot in my book! The recipe calls for yellow split peas, so it's more golden than green.

Mystery Night (I don't remember): "Thai-Style Tofu & Vegetables in Spicy Coconut Broth" from "Fresh Food Fast."

Truth be told, this is one of the few recipes I've made from this book that we didn't love. It certainly wasn't bad - we both ate it and enjoyed it. But it's not the kind of thing I'm clamoring to make again. Most importantly, I've got plenty of other Thai tofu & veggie type recipes that are more exciting and delicious than this one.

Tonight!: "Braised Pinto Beans with Delicata Squash, Red Wine & Tomatoes" from Fresh Food Fast.

This recipe however, was a big redemption. It was great! Very exciting to use tomatoes AND delicata squash from our own garden! Also, Peter Berley (the author of FFF) points out how nice it is that you can eat the skins of delicata squash, so that no peeling is required. Very nice indeed. This recipe was perfect for our cold rainy night - tomatoes, squash, beans - a nice complete meal that took about 25 minutes from start to finish. Love it!