Howdy. It was a mega sh*t day at work today (End of Fin Year) so I need something to cheer me up (and prepare me for a weekend of study) - sugar!!!
I've had a few celebratory occasions of late, a friend from work went overseas for a year (and if I didn't bake, not only would there have been nothing for me to eat, there wouldn't have been a celebration at all!) and my middle nephew turned four. He's REALLY into pirates at the moment (who isn't???) and I ended up buying him the exact same book as one of my brothers!! I went to Dymocks today and got him a different pirate book and a copy of The Velveteen Rabbit. I know it's a bit girly, but dammit, he is going to have the classics forced upon him (that's the Arts degree talking)...
Firstly, Theresa (Ms. Tropical Vegan in Townsville - link on the right 'cause I'm lazy - yay for Tez!) posted about some amazing looking hot chocolate a few weeks ago. We found a Cadbury Hot Chocolate in Coles (the mint flavour) that we think is vegan! Cam loves it (I'm not in love with the mint)... I always add a bit of cinnamon - it adds extra pizzazz!
Don't you love the swirly action? I thought it was mega cool (listen to me talking like a teenager - I've been watching way too much Clueless for Mr. Thesis!!)...
Cam made Margarita Cupcakes for a work BBQ (I skipped them 'cause I was on my sugar break). His work mates thought that they were very manly with the sprinkles!
He invented a cool way of transporting them though - another muffin tray on top (upside down) secured with zip ties (see, it is handy having a handyman around the house!):
And last, but certainly not least, feast your eyes on this!
Starting from the top:
4 Gingerbread cupcakes (VCTOTW), topped with melted chocolate and a piece of crystallised ginger
Second row:
Strawberry chocolate thumbprint cookies (VWAV).
Bottom row:
5 Gingerbread cupcakes
9 Carrot Cake topped with Cream Cheese Icing
All were AMAZINGLY good! I have to say that my favourites were the Gingerbread Cupcakes - OMG so tasty. Plus they had a crunchy top (and the chocolate matched perfectly).
Here are some cupcake closeups for extra p0rn....
I had Cream Cheese icing leftover that day, so I made another carrot cake batch & took to Ma & Pa's for my nephew's birthday. I decorated with three sultanas so they looked like a flower. Scrumptious!!!
Hope everyone enjoyed today's post. I have a friend coming over tomorrow for vegan baking - I'm not sure what I'm going to attempt yet - maybe a lower fat gingerbread cupper? I could replace half of the fat with applesauce... Any suggestions? :)
Let's cut the c**p and just say I'm a lazy blogger (and a lazy thesis writer - up to 2600 wds).
I'll do another update in a few days - the sugar kick lasted all of a week and a half - HA!
So here's what we've been a cookin' lately:
This was a roast dinner that we made - the roast is the brand spankin' new Sanitarium one (you'll find it in the cold 'health food' section at Woolworths/Coles in Australia). It is fairly tasty, but I'm sure I could do something better with homemade seitan. We had it with Rosemary ordinary & sweet potatoes, onions and mushrooms (and a mix of steamed veggies) covered with vegan gravy (the Orgran brand)... Mmm mmm mmm
Next we made Tofu Tacos from The Everyday Vegan. This recipe made A LOT of taco mix - we were eating with tacos and then with tortillas for the next three days! I added a lot of chilli, so it burned, but Cam likes it that way. I served with guac and refried beans (we were too cheap to add cheeze)...
Finally, Cam found a recipe for dahl on the PPK recipe listing (somewhere, I don't know exactly which one). It was pretty tasty, but we needed to grind the spices a little more. It was good the next day as the flavours had developed.....
And one more thing..... We went to my parent's house for dinner tonight (it was my middle nephew's fourth birthday (I ended up buying the same book that my brother bought - there appears to be only one picture book about pirates????)). Anyway, I snapped my mum's cat Nancy (aka Nancy Fancy Pants, Pantsy - we have a weird thing with animal names) curled up next to a decanter of port (it was right under the heater - it's COLD in Brisbane!!!) I want a fur coat (I mean I want one instead of skin - duh)..... Check it out!!!
Stay warm everyone! I'm off to bed to cuddle up to a hot water bottle (well, it's actually a bag of wheat that you microwave, but serves the same purpose).
Visit in a few days to see the mountain of sugar I've prepared - you'll enjoy!!!
And posts something on the blog. Hi everyone! I've been sick and hella busy for the last week or so, so I've been neglecting the blog. I went to a friend's wedding on Saturday, which was lovely. AND I finally got some work done on my thesis (10% down, 13,500 words to go!). But here's what you've visited for - THE FOOD!
I baked two batches of seitan on Monday afternoon (the recipe was Lachesis' ultimate baked seitan from the PPK boards). One was the original Seitan O'Greatness and the other's flavour was inspired by the VWAV tempeh recipe (the recipe I normally use to make Tofu Bacon in BLTs). I didn't bake the original Seitan O'Greatness for quite long enough, but it turned out to be really useful for use as a 'mince' substitute!
So on Monday night (which was pretty cold here in Brisbane) we curled up on the couch with a huge glass of red wine each and watched two episodes of the Sopranos and ate Italian food!
Garlic Bread (oh man, this was so garlicky & tasty!):
And Seitan Stroganoff:
To make:
Fry up about half a batch of Seitan O'Greatness with garlic(I'll leave the quantity to your own taste, we end up using about 3 tablespoons everytime - we like garlic breath), a chopped onion in olive oil. After the onion is transparent, add your pasta sauce (I make a bastardized version of Isa's pizza sauce & add more tomatoes). Serve over pasta.
Cam really loved these two recipes - I think I need to make more pasta sauce before adding the grilled seitan.
Going back in time now.....
On Sunday night my brother (who lives with us & works for a rockin' deli in a local suburb - their olives are the best) brought home about ten punnets of strawberries for us! I love strawberries (my favourite way to eat them is to cut them into pieces and eat with a fork)! So, we just HAD to make waffles! I made the Ginger Pear Waffles from VWAV, but we didn't have any pears, so I did it with apples.
We served with Strawberry sauce and Chocolate Soy Ice Cream. The batter made LOTS of waffles, so I basically snacked on these while writing my thesis (the sugar assisted greatly!).
On Tuesday, after what can only be described as the worst working day in my career thus far, I needed tasty food. Voila! Vegan Fajitas!
I marinated the seitan in a sauce made with Smoky Barbecue Sauce, Refried Beans (the only thing I could think of that would impart a 'mexican' flavour) and a lime-chilli paste.
I had to post a pic of the sauce - what is it with actors and sauces? Paul Newman has his salad dressings, etc and now Jack Thompson has a BBQ sauce? LOL.....
Seitan looked like this when it was marinating:
And when it was served with guacamole, refried beans, fried onion and mushroom, tomato and lettuce, it looked like this!
I think that's it for now..... We went to the Alibi Room on Saturday for breakfast - if it is possible, it was better than the week before!
One last thing, I'm going on a sugar-free kick. Yes, I know this means no cookies and cupcakes, but I'm getting tubby and more than a little concerned about my sugar intake (I really don't want diabetes). So Iron Chef Cookie will have to wait a few months.
Hope all the Aussies aren't freezing their arses off right now (I'm wearing four layers!) & hope everyone in NSW is doing okay after all the rain. **End Communication**
A friend told us about this place - OMG it was so good!
Here's what we had (Cam and I shared), The Kombie Driver's Breakfast (the $30 lovebirds plate):
It is indeed an ungodly amount of food:
The food was (clockwise from the top): Asian Inspired Scrambled Tofu, Hash Browns (they were mega tasty & spiced just right), Mushrooms and Spinach (drool), two Fried Tomatoes, Nuttelex (damn flash), Vegan Bacon (Cam loved it, but I have to say I prefer my Tofu Bacon over this, but it was smoky and tasty... Okay, I loved it too), half a dozen pieces of Sourdough toast (yummo!), and Baked Beans. I think my favourite thing was the mushrooms, but it ALL tasted great! The food was enough to keep us bursting for the next six hours (so we went and bought a Playstation 2 - long story).
You also get a tea/coffee and a juice. We screwed up and ordered shakes! Cam had a chocolate soy shake:
I had a strawberry soy shake:
I also got a green tea - they had a cool tea infuser, so I took a photo of that too:
I was so proud of us, we finished the whole plate (there was seriously enough food for about four people on the plate):
They had a few purty pictures around the place (the atmosphere was awesome). I took a pic of this one:
The Alibi Room is a funky cafe/bar in New Farm (720 Brunswick Street - www.thealibiroom.com) that serves omni and vegan food. They've made a real effort to have vegan friendly options on their menu, so please give them a try next time you're in BrisVegas. The staff were really cool, they had tatts and cool t-shirts! Atmosphere was great - they had lots of paintings (as above) & the vibe was cool, not yuppyish (as you sometimes get in New Farm).
Checkout their online menu - they do mexican & vegan pizza with Cheezly! According to Cam, who heard from a friend who heard it from his housemate, the bacon is made by the same guys that make Cheezly. That would be Redwood: http://www.redwoodfoods.co.uk
I've been craving Tofu Bacon (I get the recipe from Tempeh Bacon in VWAV, I really can't handle tempeh) for a few weeks now - we haven't had it since our four year anniversary about a month ago. So I got a bee in my bonnet and made BLTs! I marinated the tofu overnight (and got some marinade behind my ear, but that's an entirely new story) so it really soaked in. Make sure that you follow the directions from VWAV carefully, I always forget that you don't put the oil into the marinade - and the oil solidified on the bacon - it kinda looked gross, but it melted back after about 15 minutes on the bench.
I grabbed some fresh Turkish bread from Coles (it was on special - yay), an iceberg lettuce, an avocado, a coupla decent tomatoes, half an onion, half a dozen 'shrooms and some vegan soy mayonnaise. Assemble as you would a BLT.
We were a bit overexcited when we took these photos, possibly because we knew just how fantastic these would taste!!! So here's the BLT from a few different angles:
Open sandwich version:
Close up:
And from the side:
Ensure that you serve with an appropriately flavoured beverage. I chose to have a Mount Gay rum and Coke. Yum!
Except for the prep the night before, this is a really easy dinner (though there is a few dishes to wash, but it is really tasty, so hopefully your loved ones will be as overjoyed as Cam was and will gleefully do the dishes!). 11/10.
And the BLT smell will wash off with soap and water. But why would you want to get rid of that smell? Tee hee. Hope everyone's having a good week - I'm learning lots of new stuff at work & have discovered a way to include Richard Dawkins' notion of memes in my dissertation. It's always fun to use evolutionary theory.....
We're going out to a family get-together tonight (it's my aunt's birthday!) & all the omni's are having roast & veggies, so I thought I'd do a traditional type dish for us.
Voila! I present mini shepherds pies!
And I also made cookies for dessert, gee what a surprise! I got a cookie stamper last night (it kinda looks like a gun. Anyways, I was able to make purty flowers.... Recipe is Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies from La Dolce Vegan.
I'm snacking on a few right now with soy milk (as you can see)! Here's a closeup of the cookie magic:
I'm definitely looking forward to dinner & dessert tonight!!!
Update: everyone loved the pies (except my big sister insisted on calling them party pies - ARRGGHH!!!) and the cookies. But there's no surprise there, everyone always love my cookies. Maybe I should change the name of the blog to be Iron Chef Cookie? :)
Edit 28/05 (partly to get out of study & partly to share my easy recipe):
Contents of the pies:
Fry up a teaspoon/clove of garlic (of course I add about three, but then again, I hate vampires. No wait, I LOVE vampires!! Especially if they're on Buffy... But I digress) in olive oil. Add a whole chopped onion and fry until transparent. Add a tin of Sanitarium casserole mince (it's a wheat gluten product), half a dozen chopped 'shrooms, a handful each of frozen peas and corn, and approx three dessert spoons (heaped) of Orgran vegan gravy (available in the health food section of Coles). Add a bit of water (I'm not sure exactly, a slurp)? And stir until it looks tasty.
Add to the pie crusts that you've already blind baked in the oven (we've found that the low-fat puff pastry from the supermarket (not sure which brand) is vegan - not the butter one) and top with mashed potatoes. Make sure that your mash has extra margarine in it - it helps with the crunchy top.
Bake until you get a nice crunchy top - I usually check the pastry & chuck it under the grill to finish (I don't like burned pastry).
Enjoy!
