Recipe Lust

I spent a lovely afternoon today searching through the VeganBaking.Net site. Gah, so many of my favourite things, veganized and ready to try! Puff pasty, pain au chocolat, condensed milk (for a Brazilian dessert that I'm told I have to try), vegan butter, french toast, pancakes, crêpes, chocolate-hazelnut cheesecake…that's only the sweet stuff, too!

So, on that note, I'm going to write out the ingredients for the brigadeiro before I forget. I was simply relayed this verbally, with no real instructions, so I actually have no idea how to truly create the dessert…only what's needed to do so.

1 can condensed milk (how much is this, anyway…?!)
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons cocoa

…That's it. Really.

Recipe Reminiscense

I've always loved reading cookbooks, and tweaking with the recipes (as any long-time follower can attest to!), and the switch to a plant-based diet is offering so many more challenges and opportunities that I'm really looking forward to.

For example: baked goods, quinoa, polenta (I've recently become able to stomach it), all the 'old favourites,' tofu smoothies, tofu stir-fries, and so many things more that I can't think to name at the moment!

The one thing I'd like more about not living in res would be the ability to freely experiment with my food….

I Can't

Okay. I can't do it anymore—after some personal searching, conversations, documentaries, readings…I'm going to do this.

I'm going vegan.

I have no idea how this will work. I have no idea what the reaction will be. I have no idea as to who I'll build a support from (aside from one).

But I'm going to do this.

Blueberry French Toast

(I forgot to post this last night…so I'll do it now!)

For breakfast today, I made French toast, trying to get in the continental feeling.

I made the recipe to serve one, so it's nice and easy to make.

1 large egg

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon Stevia (natural sugar alternative; equals about 8x sugar; two teaspoons worth)

pinch of salt

2-3 slices bread (slightly old is better)

butter/oil for frying pan

preserves (I used blueberry (yum), but anything else would work. I want to try with pumpkin!)

Beat first five ingredients in a shallow bowl until mixed fluidly. Soak bread in it, making sure to put both sides down into the mixture.

Heat butter in a frying pan/skillet, and slowly heat each side of the bread until it's golden-brown.

Transfer the toast to a plate, drizzle hot butter over it. Top with generous scoops of preserves.

First bite…mmmm!

Young Brocoli Ricotta Pasta

So for supper tonight, I made something new…and I'm going to skip straight to the recipe now!

(This is how I would prepare it if I were to do it again, but not exactly how I it today. I didn't have quite the ingredients for it.)

1 cup alfredo sauce
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
4 cloves garlic (or more…!!)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
4-5 young brocoli shoots, chopped
prepared pasta (with grooves or cups to hold the sauce)

Mix alfredo, ricotta, garlic and parmesan in frying pan, add brocoli. Heat on medium low, covered, for ten minutes or so, until it starts to bubble slightly. Mix, pour over pasta. Garnish with more parmesan and/or parsley.

This is nice, it's a bit sweet for me, but I really liked the texture of the brocoli—almost like asparagus, but crisper. I think it would work best with firm pasta, but I think every pasta is better al dente, so that doesn't mean much.

Here's the pasta, one-day old.
I forgot to take a picture from Friday night, so a re-heated Saturday is what you get! It was still good, though, and with everything mixed into one pot, heated quickly on the stove.

Let me know what you do with it, what are your variations?

Fritters and France and Friends(?!), Oh My!

I'm in the middle of cooking this recipe (oddly enough, I'm doing it almost word-for-word, which is really weird for me!), and thinking about my exchange. If you didn't know, I'm going to france at the end of this month (the twenty-ninth), and will have almost no chances to blog while I'm there. The company I'm going with strongly advises against brining my computer. I'll get into that another day, though.

Anyway, I bring my exchange partner back for August (we'll call her JR for the sake of argument), and I'm sort of worried about what she'll think of us here. From all accounts, French mothers are the cooks, laundresses, housekeepers. (I was told not to panic if my clothes disappeared, it probably means that Mom JR has taken them to clean…!)

Here, though, I cook, if anyone does. I do most of my own laundry (when it's not sitting in a heap, waiting to be folded). I don't rely on my mother for everything….

What spurred this on, though, was the thought of my 'cooking clothes.' Anyone would say they strongly resemble 'workout clothes'…probably because they're the same. When I'm cooking, I'm usually choreographing, too. I dance my way through chopping, mixing and baking; all with loud (generally latin and/or Zumba) music blasting. I'm sure I look a fright—chop-chop-shimmy-bounce-bounce-slice-pour-twirl!

So, if you walked in on that, what would your first response be?

Pack, Tidy, Eat

Another day of now knowing what to write. Hmm. I'm finalizing my stuff for Hawaii, as I leave Wednesday night, but it's not real yet. I still have things to throw in my bag, and a carry-on to pack and load into the vehicle. Then I have to tidy this my room, where a friend of mine, who will play house-sitter, will be staying. Other than that…make the bed, tomorrow I'll sleep on the couch so the sheets are fresh for her (read: freezing with not-ever enough blankets).

Anything else? Oh, yeah, I tried a new sandwich today for lupper, it was soooo good! Soft  Laughing Cow  cheese, finely sliced English cucumbers, and Indian na'an bread. Yum! I saw a friend put it together at our mutual Zumba® training, and decided to try it, because I know I love all the ingredients. It was so good! I have enough to make it for the rest of the week that I;m in town, so I din;t have to eat the meat-lunches that work serves. (Ick.)

Friendly Family

I have a bit of a guest recipe tonight—I conned my sister into eating supper, with the bribe that I'd feature her here, and put a link to her deviantArt.
Here is the cut-and-paste version of what she said: "scrambled eggs (obviosly) it has:4 eggs,a teaspoon of chopped ginger,1 red bell pepper,! slice of gouda cheese&franks hot sauce         i really felt like spicy food tonight lol XD"

For those of you who, like me, have difficulty reading that, I'll work at translating.

4 eggs
1 tsp chopped fresh ginger
1 red bell pepper (seeded)
1 slice gouda
hot sauce to taste

Scramble all ingredients together in a pan, cook through. Serve. She says it serves 1-2, depending on hunger!

Pesto Parm Pasta

Oh, how I love alliteration! Pesto-Parm-Pasta. Mmmm, sound good simply saying it!

Another picture-less recipe, but it's what I've got. This is what my lunch is for the next few days—I bought five re-useable containers to use for lunches/ to-go suppers, so this is one of my first pre-made sets.

Spaghetti Bean-olegnes

Well, I promised this recipe…so here goes. It's approximate, like all mine really are, but this is my best guess as to what went in.
Sadly, no photos…all of this is either eaten by now, or congealing in a fridge, waiting for me to take it as a to-go meal. Yay, leftovers!

Postponed

I promised my cousin I'd post a recipe tonight…instead, I'm postponing it. It'll be up tomorrow!

Cent-est

So I realize this is my hundredth post…and I thought I ought to do something to celebrate it. So, today's post will be a recipe…and a contest. The SixAwesomeCanadians member who can come up with the best name for said recipe will get the power to have me write a post about whatever they choose.

Ready?

Here goes!

'Nooch' Mac & Cheese

The friend that was supposed to come over today wasn't able to, so I shelved that recipe for another time…and came up with this!

For my first experiment with nutritional yeast (or 'nooch,' as I've read it called!), it's pretty good!

I cheated a bit this time, and added dairy cheese to it, but next time I think I'll try without, and go fully vegan that way. Recipe after the jump!

Silver Lining—And Coating!

What to talk about today? Not much…I suppose that I could mention that the person I was seeing, a friend of mine, has decided that a romantic relationship isn't what is best…. (This is entirely mutual, we want entirely different things, and it really wouldn't be fair to either of us to fake it.) We;re still getting together to try a new recipe, and hopefully I can convince her to watch a movie or two. The both of us have lists of movies the other needs to watch!

All in all, I'm glad with the way things turned out. I doubt that she'll ever read this, but I do need to make that clear. (In case any of you readers are madly invested in my love life and want to know I'm okay…I didn't think so either.)

So, I haven't asked a question in a while, and i feel like I should get back into that. Hmmm….
What has been the 'let down' that has most turned out amazingly in your love life to date?

Mental Monster Mash: BRAIN FOOD!

Mmmmmmm!

So, I don't have classes today, and I decided I wanted to experiment with something new for lunch. I made a (large!) variation on Iowa Girl Eats' Green Monster recipe…and completely mixed it around. (I can't ever seem to actually follow a recipe!)

Before I show you what I made, a reminder that SOPA and PIPA are still a threat. If we want internet free speech, we need to stress to the US congress members how important this issue is. There's even some Republicans and Democrats agreeing on this, so you know it's big!

Google has a petition you can sign, and I was able to, even though I'm not in the US. It's worth a shot.

Sign It Here!

So, here's what I made today!

What A Rush!

This weekend has been both hectic and oddly relaxed. Actually, I suppose the hectic started Thursday—I found out I'm eligible for a French exchange this summer, and I desperately want to go. I'd be spending July with a family in France, then someone in that family, my exchange partner, would come back to Canada with me in August. Wow. 

It's fairly expensive, for eight weeks, but wouldn't it be worth it? It's about four thousand dollars, plus spending money…and I'd be taking a sever loss of pay. So really, the financial cost is huuuuuge. Almost, if not more, than next year's tuition.

Speaking of tuition…Friday, I got a letter from my second choice school, saying they've offered me early/conditional acceptance to the program! Then Saturday (…yesterday!) I checked online for my first choice's decision, to see if they'd started processing my application.

Guess what?

Early Acceptance, baby!

Oh sweet mother of toasters. This is fabulous! The only things missing in my application are A) my final transcripts, which will be sent in June; and B) an application/ approval for residence. (At this school, any first-year under twenty-one is required to live in res. Fine with me!)

So wait, what does this mean? It means next year, I don't have to go to my third-choice school and stay out here in Asscrack, Alberta. (My school is is Lower Back, Alberta—slightly less stinky!) And while this means I am unable to go to my true fist choice, U of Stirling, I'm okay with that. I doubt I'd be able to handle the distance right away, anyway. And the price…one hundred thousand for my Undergrad degree. I'll go there for a Master's in a few years.

Now that that's all out of the way…I've been baking! My pudding for Book Club went well, and the author we had visit wants to read my stuff for when she does her Writer in Residence in March. Very exciting. 

As for today, I'm in the middle of baking right now!

The recipe is taking a lot longer to cook than expected, but that's normal for this elevation. I'm making White Chocolate-Orange-Cranberry Blondies. 

YUM.

Well, I suppose I should head off, make sure these goodies are all right. I'm so excited to eat one!

What's your favourite winter baking? Can you make it yourself or does it come from another's kitchen?

Fine White Powder

No, not crack. Snow. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of it. No busses today, the whole district is like 'whaaa…?'

On the plus, I made grilled cheese a new way (for me) today and it turned out really well. And I put supper into the crockpot at 1000h, so it'll be nice and ready when I come home from work again in a few hours. (I worked 0730-0930, now I'll do 1530-1730.) Supper ready means I actually will eat it, because it contains neither meat, leftovers or soggy unknown ingredients. I made it 100% today. 

Soooo…I shall share with you the recipe! (Remember that this is all approximate amounts!)

Mahara's Tofu Mac-and-Cheese