Thursday 29 November 2007

The Zombies are taking over...

This isn't a rather late Halloween special post (we don't celebrate Halloween in Australia). A friend of mine (from work) is going on maternity leave tomorrow, so I made Gingerbread men (she's having a boy). She also loves Horror movies. So I made Zombies!
Zombie cookie

The Zombie army, ready to take over work tomorrow:Zombie cookie army

Mwahahahahahahahaha! My evil plan is almost at fruition!

Tuesday 27 November 2007

Backlog catchup!

Here's what we've been trying from our new cookbooks!

Cam attempted a curry from his own recipe. It was pretty tasty. Still needs a bit of work though.
Cam's Curry Original

We've been making lots of this roast! It's the Sanitarium vegetarian roast. I made Sweet Potato Mash - where has this been all my life? I can't go more than a week without this roast.Sanitarium Roast, veggies and sweet potato mash

Creamy Chickpea Soup with Moroccan Spice Oil (The Voluptuous Vegan page 34). Like my smiley face? This was really runny, but super delish.Voluptuous Vegan Creamy Chickpea Soup with Moroccan Spice Oil

Yin Yang Salad with Peanut-Sesame Dressing (The Real Food Daily Cookbook p99). This contains 2/3cup of peanut butter. It's peanut-tastic!Real Food Daily Yin yang salad

Salt and Pepper Tofu (The Post Punk Kitchen Forums, here). My friend Kath loved this. We also had too much wine that night!Salt and Pepper Tofu

Caesar Salad with Roast Garlic Croutons (Veganomicon p81). I added Joni's Bakin Bits on the top. Yum! Beware: Those croutons are amazing (and amazingly fatty).

Veganomicon Caesar Salad

Cholent (Veganomicon p182). Cam made this one. We loved it!Veganomicon Cholent

If you don't have Veganomicon yet. WHY ARE YOU HOLDING OUT? Seriously. This cookbook rocks. I don't know how Isa and Terry are going to top this one.

Monday 26 November 2007

Oh yeah

Cam got into medicine. Woo hoo!

Brownie goodness

I made these brownies for Saturday night's election returns watching party. Suffice to say the brownies were awesome and I screamed like a teenage girl at a Beatles concert (circa 1965).Pumpkin Pie Brownie

They're Pumpkin Pie Brownies! Recipe is from Isa's old blog. You of course check her new blog on an hourly basis.

I've been enjoying my free time of late. I've been reminiscing while watching seasons one and two of Buffy and I think we're up to season five of the X-Files (yes, I was a geeky dork in high school - all the cool people were). I've also bought a flash new pushbike. It's silver and oh so rad. I'll see if I can get Cam to take a picture of me riding it on the weekend (if I'm not too busy making cupcakes for our next cooking lesson on Sunday).

We've got backlogged pics from VCON (of course). But I'm lazy and have to get up for work in eight hours.

Enjoy your newfound freedom people!

Thursday 8 November 2007

69th post - mwahahahahahahaha!

Howdy! So I've been free for four days now - I'm enjoying my freedom with a Mount Gay Rum and Coke (slightly tipsy = good!). Hopefully this will be the last catch up post. I want to post more regularly for the next few months before the insanity of uni starts back up for Cam and I (that's if he gets into Medicine - fingers crossed).

Okey dokey......

On Sunday we went to another Malaysian Vegetarian Cooking lesson! 'Twas fun. We're going to play around with the recipes a bit before we post them. In the meantime:

Vegetables and Vegetarian Ham in Black Pepper SauceVeggies and Veggie-Ham in Pepper Sauce

I'm fairly "anti" pepper, but this was really mild (you toast the pepper, so I'm guessing the cooking removes some of the pepperiness?). Veggie Ham is available from Asian grocers - but apparently there is only one brand of vegan ham. We're going on a hunt soon, so we'll have pics, etc for our Aussie friends!

Veggie Cake
Veggie Cake


This one's pretty easy - the veggies are carrot, cabbage, broccoli and ginger. Yum!

Fragrant Vegetarian Goose/GeeseFragrant Vegetarian Geese

I don't remember having this dish @ ID Cafe when it was open, but dang, it's tasty! It's pretty much tofu with tofu sauce deep fried. What more could a vegan want?

I finally got the courage to try the Tempeh Wings from Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk. Boiling the tempeh to soften it up reminded me of a quote from Aqua Teen Hunger Force:

Young Carl: (flashback to when Carl was a child and received carpet as a Christmas present) Hey! Look at my magic flying carpet. I'm flying around in Egypt land! Carl's Dad: Don't get too attached there, Aladdin. Pretty soon it's gonna be magic flying dinner. Young Carl: You cant eat carpet, silly daddy. Carl's Dad: No, not like that. you gotta boil it, so the glue gets soft!

But I digress:
Tempeh Wingz and Salad

And I made doner kebabs (we normally use "chicken" nuggets or felafel, but I had tempeh to use up):
Wingz Kebabs


Yummy.

Cam found these at the supermarket:
Fry's Schnitzels


So we had them with gravy and mashed potatoes
Schnitzels and Veggies


And with silverbeet (that'd be swiss chard to non-Aussies) and baked potatoes. Potatoes are topped with Tofutti Sour Cream and Joni's Bakin Bits. Why did it take me so long to try these?
Schnitzels, Silverbeet + Baked Potatoes

I made pie on Monday for lunch (my last day of freedom). Asparagus and Mushroom with gravy. Ridiculously easy. Fry mushroom and asparagus with vegan marg. Add tsp of stock powder and about 3 tsp gravy powder. Add about 50ml of water and stir until like this:
Asparagus and Mushroom Pie Filling


Put in pastry
Asparagus and Mushroom Pie Uncooked


Bake and eat!
Asparagus and Mushroom Pie Cooked


The burgers we ate before going to see Bad Religion and Strung Out. They rocked, and so do these burgers! There's fried Sanitarium Luncheon in there - I nicknamed it fried crack!
Burgers


Lastly, this was the view from my study on Sunday arvo. Isn't it purdy?
View from my study


Okay, so I'm planning to post tomorrow or Saturday. Is anyone interested in a step by step recipe for the tastiest miso ever? Or is that just silly?

Submission Complete!

Sunday 4 November 2007

I'm free!!!

Hey y'all - I've finally finished my thesis. Woo hoo! Just needs printing and binding. So happy (and nervous as hell)!

As previously promised, here's a few things we've been cooking lately. We went to a cooking class this morning, so I'll show a few things we made in the next few days (we'll post recipes when we've had a wee play with them).

Firstly, on the 10th October (has it been that long since we posted?), I made a tofu salad. Tofu recipe is Italian Marinated Tofu from Vegan With a Vengeance.
10-10 Italian Marinated Tofu

It was very tasty (we also crumbled in some Cheezly - I think it was the garlic and herb one). Doesn't the tofu look a little like it was barbequed? I love the idea of baking tofu over frying it - will definitely do this in the future!

Next, BBQ Pomegranate Tofu from Vegan With a Vengeance. This recipe is not that healthy. The sauce is scrumptious though. Another baked tofu <3 .="." span="span">
13-10 BBQ Pomegranite Tofu

I found some cheap veggies with noodles @ the supermarket that arvo to have with it - I just gave them a quick stir fry. This one's probably a nice fancy one to do when we have guests.

After we bought the Cheezly Cam wanted to make his own. The recipe is the Colby from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. It was good, but we're having agar issues. I got some fancy loaf tins the last time I was at Big W - aren't they cool? They're about 12cm long. I made my favourite Zucchini and Apple muffins in these last week. But I digress!

Waiting to set:
14-10 Cam's Colby in the pan

After it was set:
14-10 Cam's Colby - set

Sliced up!
16-10 Cam's Colby Sliced

We made an antipasto lunch - it was very civilized!14-10 Antipasto lunch

From the left we have: Semi-dried tomato stuffed green olives, Semi-dried tomatoes (yummo), Tartex pate, Kalamata olives, Chris' brand hummus, Sliced herb and garlic Cheezly, Sliced Sanitarium luncheon. We had it with crusty bread! 10/10.

I insisted upon making Squash, Fennel and Apple Soup from The Voluptuous Vegan again, 'cause it was so damn rad. Herb and olive focaccia on the side.
20-10 Soup and Foccacia

I kinda wish it wasn't getting hotter here - soup is healthy and yummy. And fennel! Who knew it was this tasty?

On the 21st (October) I went to a baby shower. It was nice! (I had too much champagne - everyone knows I'm not that excited about kids) The mum to be is an awesome chick that I work with, so I was happy to go to this one! On her request I made....

Oreo cupcakes (I couldn't resist making "baby" sized ones!) from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.
21-10 Army of mini oreo cuppers

As I recall, the rest of the packet of Oreos was consumed one night while I was struggling with chapter two!

I also made the Hazelnut Cupcakes. I couldn't be bothered making the ganache, so I just piped the YUMMY mousse over the top. Le sigh....
21-10 Hazelnut Cuppers with Hazelnut Choc Mousse

I think this decoration is quite effective. What do you think?

I couldn't in conscience waste half a pack of tofu, so I made a double batch of the mousse! Dessert the next day.....
22-10 Hazelnut Choc Mousse

When I die, can I be buried in this? (Just in case I'm not dead, so I can eat something!)

I tried my hand at Lolo's (VeganYumYum) Cappellini in Fresh Tomato Cream Sauce one lunch. It was good, so I used the rest of the sauce for dinner. I added a tin of lentils. I'm such a genius like that....
22-10 Lolo's Creamy Pasta Sauce & Lentils

This woman is a genius! Go order her book now!

I made some potato things for lunch one day (study requires fatty food - believe me, the diet starts tomorrow). I got the idea off the PPK boards (but seeing as they're down, I can't link it!). Basically the idea is this:
1)Grate one large potato into a bowl.
2)Chop up a spring onion/green onion/whatever the hell you call it.
3)Add in about a tablespoon of plain flour.
4)Add in some salt - maybe 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon?
5)Add in oil - I used Olive - about 1 teaspoon.
6)Mix together
7)Spoon onto a greased tray - I made about 5 from one potato.
8)Bake in a hot oven (200C) for about 10 or so minutes. Flip and cook for 5 or so more minutes until crunchy. This isn't really precise. Just don't burn them!
23-10 Potato thingys

I served with Tofutti Cream Cheese & Sweet Chilli Sauce. Heart attack-tastic!

Um, what else? Oh yeah! We had a roast the other night (the usual Sanitarium one) and we only had red onion. I had to take a pic - Pink Onion!
25-10 Pink Onion

We made pizza to use up some Cheezly (I insisted that we buy Cheezly expressly for this purpose, so....). The sauce is the Pizza Sauce from Vegan With a Vengeance and the base is my usual one. Toppings were chilli, Seitan O'Greatness, Mushrooms and Nooch.
26-10 Pizza

Lastly, from Cam, we have Malaysian Curry! I was at my sister's new house last weekend & I had to give half of my leftovers to my nephew. Even 2yr-olds love this stuff.
27-10 Malaysian Curry

What do I do now? I have all this free time. Oh wait - I have to go to work on Tuesday. Dammit! Hope everyone's good!