a few weeks ago, i couldn’t resist buying these sweet little brussels sprouts at the supermarket. don’t they look cute in their little disposable cup? i must have had sprouts on the brain after seeing this photo in my flickr feed. i love halved brussels sprouts roasted with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. i [...]

i don’t know what got into me over the weekend.  maybe it was a successful round of cupcake baking on friday night with improvised boozy frosting (more on that later).  or perhaps it’s the two ovens in the wall of our new place.  who needs two ovens?  have i said this before?  well, we do!  [...]

when i think of a vegan baked good, the word treat does not come to mind. i expect a dense and chewy lump of gross. the substitutions are fascinating and sometimes terrifying. there is a recipe in the joy of cooking that i visit once a year on those nights when dessert is required and the fridge holds no eggs. it’s the dairy-free chocolate cake (vegan) from the joy of cooking (page 932 in my edition). i like that vegan is in parentheses – it’s not the main attraction (even though it is with the term dairy-free at the start). i am not anti vegan, but for some reason i find that word kind of upsetting and it makes me fear the food i’m about to eat. actually, i think a lot of the food i make is vegan.

what am i getting at? well i think it’s time to be more mindful of the foods prepared in this household and their vegan status. sassy salsa? vegan. ugly oatmeal? vegan. quesadilla filling (minus the cheese)? vegan. (i’m trying to get jazzed about that word while going wildly off-track)

the cake!

dairy-free chocolate cake (vegan) from the joy of cooking

preheat the oven to 350 degrees. grease and flour one 8 x 8 inch pan or line the bottom with wax or parchment paper.

sift together in a large bowl:

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened nonalkalized cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

combine and add:

• 1 cup cold water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

stir until smooth. scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly. bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. slide a thin knife around the cake to detach it from the pan. invert the cake and peel off the paper liner, if using. let cool right side up on the rack. serve plain, dusted with powdered sugar, or: (here’s where i come back)

make an icing with powdered sugar and some kahlua, slather that on top. heat up some cherry preserves and throw them on, and top it all off with some slivered almonds. yumville usa!

every morning i enjoy a traditional breakfast consumed in a non-traditional way. ugly oatmeal while driving to work. for some reason it takes me a really long time to eat in the morning and ugly oatmeal travels well. why the name? take a look at the stuff! it’s so thick and delicious, you could turn the bowl upside down and it will stay put.

i’m going to share with you my process for making it:

ugly oatmeal

-serves 2-

3 cups water

1.5 cups rolled oats (i buy them in bulk from the market or health food store – they are nice and thick)

4 pinches salt (don’t forget the salt – it brings so much life to this dish)

i don’t measure the following ingredients. they get sprinkled in until it looks like enough.

dried cranberries

frozen blueberries

ground flax seed

wheat germ

sliced almonds

something sweet like brown sugar, maple syrup or agave nectar

bring the water two a boil, add the salt, oats and dried cranberries. turn the heat down to medium low (or it will spill over and make a giant mess) and cook for roughly ten minutes (a good amount of time for applying make-up and ironing work clothes). when the water is almost absorbed, throw in the frozen blueberries, wheat germ, ground flax seed and sliced almonds. stir in your sweetener and enjoy.

if someone tries to tell you that it looks gross, say “i know! it’s called ugly oatmeal!” and if they want to think you are nuts for cooking your oatmeal on the stove instead of opening up a packet of flakes and adding water from the cooler at work, let them. your meal is way healthier than theirs and you made it yourself! high five.

i’ve been so caught up in my employment life changes, that the 8 pounds of garlic sitting in the cupboard were overlooked. that ended today, when i decided to get my roast on. sadly, i am no longer within close proximity to my three favorite italian breadmakers in lovely schenectady, ny. what does that have to do with roasted garlic? the best way to enjoy the stuff is by smearing it on a perfect slice of italian bread.

maybe i’ll break the ice with a few office people and ask where i can get a good loaf of bread on my lunch break. i’m having a tough time picking out the foodies in the bunch. i don’t see too many homemade leftovers in the fridge while retrieving my own concoctions at lunch. i fear that i’m working in a chain food lovers environment and am not sure how to deal with that.

back to the roasted g. it’s so easy and delicious. grab a bunch of healthy looking garlic heads and peel off most of the outer skins. throw them on a piece of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle on the salt and pepper. have that oven nice and warm, around 400 degrees. loosely wrap up the aluminum foil (leave some breathing room) and place it on the middle rack for about 45 minutes. your house will smell so freaking amazing and you will be drooling when the time comes to remove that gift from the oven.

carefully open up the aluminum package and let the steam exit while you slice up that bread. if you have the patience, really let the heads cool before you peel the skins off and squeeze out the cloves. i can never wait that long and always end up with some finger burns. it’s totally worth it. pop a clove right into your mouth and savor the flavor. then call up your friends to tell them what you just did. keep the call short, because you need to focus on the amazing snack you are about to consume. pour yourself a nice glass of wine, sit down in a comfortable space and enjoy! (the heartburn won’t roll up for a little while)

i should also note that you can roast in advance (like i did in the above photo series). keep the cloves in an air tight container for up to a week (if they even last that long).

having a formally trained chef on the almost foodies mailing list is so awesome. we are planning another mexican themed potluck on wednesday. this dude very casually threw out a suggestion and then as an afterthought said “oh, make your own sour cream, it’s a very little effort job, plus it takes three days to culture so you’ll have a friend to watch on your counter.” say what? make your own sour cream? who knew? well, he knew. i remember reading about making crema in a rick bayless cookbook back in the day. it seemed like too much work for me at the time.

tonight i started the sour cream making process. it should be done just in time for the potluck on wednesday night. here is what i did (under the direction of trained chef dude):

2 cups heavy cream

2/3 cup buttermilk

mix together and pour into very clean pint glasses

cover with plastic wrap and make a tight seal. chef dude says put a rubber band around the plastic wrap. i used painters tape (hey, it was either that or yarn). mark the time you sealed them up, store in a cool, dry, dark place and then check on it in 36 hours. look for the separation of the solids. spoon out the clump of white stuff on the top, chill and whisk. discard the really thin liquid along with any orange stuff.

i feel a little weird posting the recipe without knowing how it will work out for me (or if i even interpreted it right). i am documenting the progress over on flickr. i’m pretty excited, but am trying not to get my hopes up too high.

i love being able to make a meal prepared with local food. it’s such a treat to get up on a saturday morning, watch a little 90210 while eating cereal, and then head out to the farmer’s market. i think next year we will go in on a csa. the market has been really overwhelming and so crowded these days. a csa seems like it would be so much easier to manage. plus you’d have to identify random vegetables and figure out how to prepare them. it would be like school – only fun! i recently stumbled upon the clever blog one local summer. they challenge you to prepare and eat one local meal a week. i rolled up too late to participate, but it’s nice to keep in the back of my mind while meal planning. here is a weekly staple in this household:

.:grilled spring onion bread with tomatoes and herbed chevre:.

.slice up a loaf of fresh bread (one inch thick)

.place on the grill until crunchy and marked with those beautiful lines

.cut up some fresh dill and chives and mix them into plain chevre with a little salt and pepper

.slice up a few tomatoes

.bring it all together by spreading the herbed chevre on the warm bread and top it off with the tomato slices

well would you look at that. (okay, you just did) i wrote a recipe. it’s dinky, but delicious. it still needs a sassy name. maybe.

i am constantly making mistakes and usually get so down on myself. i often wonder how i even pick myself up and move forward. usually a long cry is in the mix, followed by a self loathing trip to mcdonald’s. i used to buy a new plant, now it’s sneakers or a fun kitchen gadget. i wish i could pick up my old knitting projects (i used to make so many beautiful knitted chokers for that “business” i was “starting”), but that would mean i’d have to organize the brown room filled with my crafts and skfl’s comic books. maybe this fall. brown room, brown leaves, the need for warm knitted items. i’ll think about that for a while (aka put it off until i have to locate those iron on transfers).

there are so many things i want to do. so many things i keep thinking of, while revisiting that list of things i’m putting off. it seems that most of my time is spent worrying about what i’m not doing instead of actually doing something. how does that happen? how do you break through that? tonight i think i figured out a way. instead of focusing on myself, i went to work on a new recipe. i even wrote out the process first in my new little pocket journal (as it turns out a notebook with a little bit of bling is very inspiring).

unfortunately i forgot to write down the working name and it’s long gone (a glass of wine and a road trip to the ice cream stand is to thank for that). i think it was something corny like ‘quitters revenge’. yeah, i know. here are the ingredients (in no particular order):

- swiss chard – lemon juice – lemon zest – crushed red pepper – garlic scapes – garlic – vidalia onion – white wine – vegetable stock – parmigiano reggiano – orecchiette – olive oil – butter – sea salt – crushed black pepper

i think a tomato would have made a lovely addition, as well as a few chickpeas. the process is pretty standard. sauté the scapes, onion and garlic in the butter and olive oil. then add the wine, lemon juice and stock. cook that down, add the lemon zest. meanwhile, blanch the swiss chard and cook the pasta. bring it all together and add the cheese and you’ve got a meal.

luckily it was really delicious and boosted my confidence a bit. now if i could just figure out the measurements and then test it out with the tomatoes and chickpeas.  oh, and nail down that name.