Vegan Baked Goods
So far, it's been our experience that baked vegan desserts leave a little to be desired. Bread doesn't seem to lose much in translation as often bread recipes do not call for non-vegan ingredients anyway. Most of the baked desserts we've tried however, have paled in comparison to their non-vegan counterparts. So when Jane received The Joy of Vegan Baking
Jane decided that she would bake at least two recipes a month from this cookbook. So far, we've had the Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (twice), the Blueberry Lemon Muffins, Mexican Wedding Cookies, and Peanut Butter Cookies. The Peanut Butter Cookies were made with Almond Butter however as Jane doesn't care for peanuts in almost any form.
The Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins were excellent the first time around, but didn't hold their shape well. In other words, they were falling apart even as Jane removed them from the muffin tin. However, they tasted great. They were amazingly moist and tender and the combination of bananas and chocolate always wins in my book. Jane thought that the muffins may have fallen apart because the bananas we bought were rather large. Since the recipe calls for four mashed bananas, rather than an actual measurement, there is a lot of room for error here.
After such an auspicious start, we had high hopes for the recipes that followed. Next in the cookbook is a recipe for Blueberry Lemon Muffins. They cooked up nicely and I thought they tasted good, but Jane felt they had a metallic taste and was thinking it was the baking soda / vinegar combination which is used as a leavening agent here. So, one for two.
Next were the cookies. We had Mexican Wedding Cookies at a friend's house this year, made with vegan butter in our honor. According to our friend, with that change she had a completely vegan recipe. They were excellent. So we had high expectations here. The cookies looked exactly the same. Unfortunately, these were dense and very doughy, not at all melt-in-your mouth as the recipe claimed. But not every recipe is going to work, so this didn't deter Jane from her next endeavor.
Almond Butter Cookies. These cookies were very good. The batch didn't last two days (it wasn't just us though, we had company and put out the plate of cookies)! Jane made half the batch as described and half with chocolate chips. Surprisingly, the ones without the chocolate chips were better! Both versions of this cookie would have benefited greatly from a glass of cow's milk. But we don't drink that anymore. Regardless, we will certainly be having these again.
And then it was back to the Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. This time Jane only used three bananas, and they were slightly smaller than the bananas she'd used the previous time. Also, she forgot to set the timer so they were slightly overcooked. They still had the same great flavor, but they were a tad hard and that definitely detracted from the experience. Alas.
I wonder what she'll make next?
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, or Not
Jane has Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
Recently, we went to our favorite local Indian restaurant and had a delicious, new-to-us, eggplant dish. As Jane was going through the Bittman Cookbook she found a recipe that looked similar to that dish. She actually called me to tell me about it and that she was going to prepare that recipe for dinner tonight. In response to "what are we eating tonight" I usually hear "dinner." Jane has long since stopped telling me what I'm getting since, on rare occasion, I might have suggested I'd rather eat something other than what she was preparing. So I knew she was pretty excited about this recipe since I was hearing about it in advance.
Unfortunately, the dish didn't live up to what we had at Akbar, the Indian restaurant I've been referring too. We were both pretty disappointed in the results. The dish looks pretty, and smells good, but it was kind of, well... not what we had at Akbar. So, this recipes not a keeper. But we're not through with this cookbook just yet.
Traffic
Grr. Some of you may have heard about yesterday's disaster on the 405 (Los Angeles freeway near LAX airport). A truck overturned and traffic was absolutely abominable in the area ALL day!!!! Needless to say, my commute was unpleasant, in both directions. Alhtough certainly not as unpleasant as the poor truck driver who perished in the accident.
I don't really deal all that well with traffic issues. I've been driving this same route for a long time and know exactly how long (to the minute) it is supposed to take me, and when my commute goes long, I start getting antsy. Jane is always threatening to take the clock out of my car so I'll be less frustrated. I'm not sure if that would be a larger benefit to me or to her!
At any rate, I love my wife. Since this is not a blog about marriage, I won't be writing about the times I don't totally love my wife or how difficult marriage can be... Not that ours is a bad marriage, but every marriage can be trying at times. On the positive side, there are moments that make you never want to be single again. Last night was one of them.
I finally arrived home after 1 hour and 16 minutes to find Jane hard at work in the kitchen. Apparently, after seeing the traffic report, she realized I wouldn't be getting home at a reasonable hour. So she made one of my favorites, the spanikopita recipe from Real Food Daily Cookbook
And for dessert, because I was so cranky, Jane whipped up a quick batch of muffins. This time she put in wheatberries for added crunch and the fruit was gooseberries. (Huh?) So, the muffins are crunchy and tart. I think they are very good, but Jane doesn't care for them that much. Also, she's still working on perfecting the basic muffin recipe... When she's happy with it, she's promised to post it for you all.
Oh, and Happy Halloween!
Looks Like Something the Cat Coughed Up
Our new vegan lifestyle has led to a huge increase in our tofu consumption. Looking to replace meat with some kind of protein, tofu has been the easiest choice. Of course, there is conflicting information out there about just how much tofu you should be consuming. Admittedly, I have done only the most cursory of online searches to solve this newest (to us) nutritional mystery. Since the new vegan thing is different enough, I'm not going to do any further research for now. Suffice it to say, there are other ways to get your protein. Jane usually makes a tofu
stir-fry once a week. And there's always a bean based dish or three. We've also had a few things with store-bought chicken seitan. And we've discovered that some grains have protein too! (Couscous and quinoa, for example.)
Looking for alternative sources of protein, Jane decided to try and make seitan at home. We've had seitan, or "wheat meat" as it is also known, in a few of the vegan restaurants we've tried and it's been mostly good. Time for an adventure in the kitchen.
We really both love the Real Food Daily Cookbook
Basically, you take some wheat gluten (Jane used Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten) and water to form the dough. That's the attractive picture at the top of this post. We've both made bread before and adding the water to the wheat gluten is pretty much like the beginning stages of making a loaf of bread. However, it really looks like cat puke, as any of you who live with the furry beasts can attest to! 
Then you boil it in water with soy sauce and ginger. Pretty simple. And pretty tasty.
For our dinner last night, Jane then made a gravy based on nutritional yeast and flour and which was rather good. She also roasted butternut squash with olive oil and brown sugar, salt and pepper. The picture does not do it justice. Dinner was yummy. Hearty winter fare. As usual, our entree was accompanied by a salad of mixed field greens with onion, apple, cranberries and a balsamic dressing.
Spanakopita
We've been vegans for a little over three months now. Since we're old dogs (in our 40s), it's been a bit of a challenge to change our way of thinking about what a meal should be, and that's been harder on Jane than on me, since she prepares most of what we eat.
To date, most of the recipes Jane has tried have been more than reasonable and there have even been a few that have been outright delicious. But nothing has come close to what she made for dinner last night. We had spanakopita, greek spinach pie, and it was restaurant quality food. And I don't mean Denny's! The recipe was out of Ann Gentry's Real Food Daily Cookbook
This will be the dish Jane prepares for non-vegan company. You have to get this cookbook!
Hearty Winter Fare
So, we went from brutal summer heat to winter overnight. We even had over an inch of rain (that's slightly less rain than we had all of last year!), which is highly unusual in that we normally don't have rain between April and October.
It's been like winter here. That was enough for us to break out the flannel house-pants and hearty winter recipes. Jane made a recipe called Lebanese Style Lentils with Pasta for dinner the other night. It's from the Dr. Neal Barnard Book on being a vegan. The pasta seems a little weird to me, but it all tasted yummy. It's got lentils and spinach and onions, etc. Next time, Jane said she'll skip the pasta and have a loaf of some crusty whole grain bread along with the dish.
Palak Tofu
In the past, Jane and I have truly enjoyed Indian cuisine. However, being vegan, we are a little reluctant to even try our favorite restaurants. Chicken Tikka Masala is not a vegan dish! And most of the dishes we most enjoy, even though they could be adapted with tofu, contain ghee and/or cream. Alas.
Jane recently bought The Accidental Vegan
This is another one for our rotation.
What’s Cooking?
Jane is the head of this household. So with her decision to become vegan, she took on the monumental task of re-learning how to cook. So far, she's doing pretty well. In the month that we've been "doin' the vegan thing" as she calls it, there's only been one "let's not do this again" meal. I don't recall what that was, and she tore up the recipe.
Last night we had Turkish Lentil Stew, a great big green salad, and a hunk of whole wheat french brad from Ralph's. For those not familiar with the store, Ralph's is a Southern California supermarket chain. Yeah, I know.... Ralph, food... not the best of connotations, but the market is close by, good, and surprisingly, stocks a large variety of vegan items.
Because it's just the two of us, we often have the same meal two or more nights in a row. Hey, I'm not cooking, and I'm not complaining! Besides, I often say, when it comes to food, I could be a cat, as I'm willing to eat the same meal over and over and over again.
The Turkish Lentil Stew is from Ann Gentry's Real Food Daily Cookbook
Lane
