Operation "Let's Eat Some New Vegetables"

This is our first meal from Operation "Let's Eat Some New Vegetables." Said new vegetable is cauliflower, mainly chosen because 1) we never use it and 2) it was on sale at the grocery store. I got the idea for popcorn cauliflower from mollyjade on the ppk forums. You cut the florets off the head of cauliflower, toss with olive oil, and roast at 400 degrees F, stirring occasionally (which I did not do...woops), until the cauliflower is soft and the edges begin to caramelize (approximately 45 minutes). Serve sprinkled with seasoned salt or your favorite seasoning. It really did remind me of popcorn (probably due mostly to the seasoned salt, but still). Mission 1 from Operation "Let's Eat Some New Vegetables" was a rousing success.

I served the cauliflower with tempeh wingz from Issue 1 of Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk and some stuffed mushrooms. Said stuffed mushroom recipe was just kind of made up, mainly because I was missing ingredients for just about every stuffed mushroom recipe I found. They were good, but there sure were a lot more mushrooms in that package than it looked like at first glance. We had enough mushrooms to fill both a 9x13" and an 8" square glass baking dish.

And here's some more....

I finally got around to trying the pumpkin cinnamon rolls from the second issue of Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk. I have no clue why I waited so long to make these, because they are awesome. They were nice and soft with just a hint of pumpkin flavor. For those of you who haven't ordered the second issue yet, she put the recipe up on her blog. The only change I made was I used a 9x13" pan, as a 9" square pan just seemed to small to me. Normally I like my cinnamon rolls covered in cream cheese (Tofutti non-hydrogenated, of course) icing, but these were good with just the glaze.


For Hanukkah, I made the potato latkes from Veganomicon. Sorry I didn't get a very good picture of them. These were good, but I am undecided as to whether I prefer latkes with or without matzah meal. They had more body this way, but still...I'm just not sure. I like both, though. Last weekend we had a family Hanukkah celebration in Columbia, SC. We spent the night at my parents' house in Greenville, then drove down to Columbia just for the day on Saturday. I brought the leftover latkes to serve with dinner Friday night and my dad really liked them (I'm sure Momma would have, too, but she wasn't there...she went to go help out my sister with her new baby). At the family Hanukkah celebration, they made me some vegan latkes before they fried the non-vegan ones. My aunt even made me vegan cookies (Mexican wedding cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking, which she got me for Hanukkah).

I brought some dessert with me to the family Hanukkah, so there were vegan cookies galore. I got this sugar cookie recipe from A Veg*n for Dinner. I didn't use any food coloring for the icing, though, as I avoid artificial colors and the natural food colorings are just too expensive for me right now (and I've never seen them locally anyway). I also made the sparkled ginger cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance, but I didn't take a picture because I've also blogged about them before. I have learned that my family is scared of the word ginger, but if I call them "molasses cookies," they are okay. Crazy people.

This is the hot and sour soup with napa cabbage and woodear mushrooms (I may have muddled that name up a bit) from Veganomicon. My cabbage was being stubborn about coming off the head of cabbage neatly, so I cut it up in the food processor instead. The only other time I've had hot and sour soup was at a restaurant in Richmond, VA called Panda Veg. It was good, but homemade is better (and quite simple). Awhile back we were at a Whole Foods and we found this little package of dried woodear mushrooms for a reasonable price. We'd never even heard of woodear mushrooms, but we bought them anyway, then couldn't think of a use for them. Veganomicon arrived and ta-da, finally a recipe that calls for them. This soup is both spicy and filling and the leftovers reheat well.
Hanging out behind the soup are some homemade fried wontons. They would have been spring rolls, but I was having a ton of trouble with the rice paper wrappers. I got so frustrated that I defrosted the wonton wrappers that I had in the freezer and decided to use those. I know that wontons are normally boiled, but I already had the oil all set to fry, so I just went ahead with this. They actually turned out pretty well this way. The filling was napa cabbage, red cabbage, dried shiitake mushrooms, Morningstar Farms chik'n strips (they'd been hanging out in the freezer for quite awhile, so I figured I might as well use them in something), soy sauce, sriracha sauce, ginger, and garlic.

Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk, Issue #2

This is just a friendly public service announcement to let you know that Issue #2 of mrsbadmouth's zine, Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk, is now available. You can order it here.
I didn't test too much from it this time around, as things have been busy, but I still highly recommend it!

Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk!

Remember all those recipes I've been testing for mrsbadmouth? Well, her zine is done and you can order it here. It's only $2.50 through paypal or $2 through snail mail (plus an extra dollar for shipping if you are outside the U.S. or Canada). I definitely recommend it, if not just for the tempeh wingz alone!

Pictures of the recipes I have tried:

Tempeh Wingz

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Lemonade

Biscuits

Apple Zucchini Muffins

Vegetable Fried Rice

Tempeh Bacon

Tempeh Bacon on a TLT Sandwich

Tempeh Bacon and My Haul from the Nashville Farmer's Market

This is a tester tempeh bacon recipe for mrsbadmouth. I have never had pork (or turkey, or any other animal) bacon, so I don't really have anything to compare this to, but this is GOOD. I heart liquid smoke.
I had the tempeh bacon on a TLT (tempeh bacon, lettuce, and tomato) sandwich for lunch. I don't make sandwiches for myself very often, but I really enjoyed this.

On Sunday morning we went to the Nashville Farmers' Market. There was an international market in the interior part of the market. Check out my haul! I got tamarind paste, pomegranate molasses, tahini, and chickpea (besan) flour. I'll be using the pomegranate molasses in the BBQ pomegranate tofu recipe from VWAV. I've been wanting to try it for quite awhile now, but had never found pomegranate molasses before. I also got tomatoes (from FL...it's a bit too early for Tennessee tomatoes yet) and red and green peppers from the farmers' market, but I didn't take a picture of those, except for the tomato slices on my sandwich.

More Test Recipes

This non-traditional fried rice is a test recipe for mrsbadmouth. I don't recall if I've ever had traditional fried rice, but I really liked this one. The vegetables you include are really up to you. I used mushrooms, onion, green pepper, carrots, broccoli, and garlic. I was supposed to make this with brown rice, but I was all out, so I used the white rice I had in the pantry. I definitely won't mind making it again so that I can try it with the brown rice I should have used.

This is strawberry and vanilla bean haupia, which is a test recipe for lolo over at VeganYumYum. Haupia is a Hawaiian dessert and is a sort of coconut pudding (it's thicker than pudding, though). This was good, but is probably not something I will make often simply because vanilla beans are so expensive. I did really like the texture and flavor of this, though. If I make it again, I will probably serve the sliced strawberries separately, but that's mainly because my boyfriend is weird and doesn't like strawberries (he says it's a texture thing, as he didn't mind the strawberry sauce....yet he doesn't understand my dislike of raw bananas).

BBQ Ribz

We went to Nashville last weekend and I got a new bottle of barbeque sauce from Wild Oats. When I saw Susanv's post on barbecued seitan ribz, I knew just what to do with the sauce. These were good. I've tried the Gardenburger Riblets before and didn't really care for them, but I liked these and I'm looking forward to the leftovers. I followed the baking instructions on the recipe that Susanv linked to, since I don't have a grill (or a cast iron grill pan....yet). I served the ribz with mrsbadmouth's cornbread test recipe (I only made half the recipe, since I wanted to try making it in my cast iron skillet and my skillet is small) and some green beans from my boyfriend's parents' garden.

Check out my new sponges! I found them at Big Lots the other day. They were the same price as the regular ones, so of course I had to get these.

More Tester Recipes

I know that I just posted the tempeh wingz and the jalapeno poppers, but tonight I served the leftovers with a biscuit recipe that I tested for mrsbadmouth. I still prefer the biscuit recipe that my boyfriend's momma gave me (because they're fluffier), but these were a little easier since I didn't have to roll them out.


These are apple zucchini muffins that I also tested for mrsbadmouth. Historically I have not been a fan of zucchini (or squash), but I remembered having zucchini bread years ago and liking it, so I was willing to give these a try. I'm so glad I did. These are really good. Despite having whole wheat flour in them, they're pretty light, and they have a good flavor.

Bar Food for Dinner

I know these pictures aren't the best. Sorry about that, but we were hungry! I have made the tempeh wingz before. They are a test recipe for mrsbadmouth. We really liked them the first time we had them, so ouila, here they are again. I was going to try upping the spiciness a bit this time, but then I ran out of hot sauce, so I didn't.
The jalapeno poppers are a test recipe for lolo over at veganyumyum. Sorry I didn't get a picture of the filling, but you can see it over at lolo's blog. These were very good, but sadly my jalapeno was too hot for me and I couldn't eat more than one. I am convinced that I picked one up that was hotter than the others, as my boyfriend ate three of them and said he hardly detected any spiciness at all. Meanwhile my lips were tingling. D'oh. I have leftover filling and I'll be using it as a dip today for some whole wheat crackers.
The other part of the meal was just a can of hominy. Mmmm. We love the stuff and can quickly finish off a can just between the two of us.

Despite My Absence, I Have Been Cooking

Sem Aur Khumbi, from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. The English name of this dish is decidedly less exotic-sounding: Green Beans with Mushrooms. This was the first dish I made from the book, which I currently have checked out of the library. I added some of the Morningstar Farms chick'n strips to it. They really weren't necessary, but we had some hanging out in the freezer and my boyfriend really liked them when he tried them recently. This dish was really good and I would definitely make it again, although I'd probably cut back on the cayenne next time. The recipe calls for a whole teaspoon of it and I found it quite spicy (and I don't even have the spicier cayenne....the health food store had two different heat-levels in the bulk spice section and I bought the less spicy one--boy am I glad I did!). I served this over organic whole-wheat couscous. I was excited to discover that Fantastic Foods started making a whole wheat version.

Vegan with a Vengeance samosas (potato and green pea) with homemade mango chutney. These took forever to make, but they were really good. I was going to take the easy way out on the chutney and just buy some already made (either mango or tamarind), but all of the ones I found had either high fructose corn syrup or refined sugar, so I bought a mango and figured I would wing it on making my own. It worked out quite well.

Tempeh hot wings. I am testing some recipes for mrsbadmouth over at the Post Punk Kitchen, and this was one of the first ones I tried. I'd never had regular wings before, but I was told that this was a milder sauce. It was really good and I definitely plan on making this again.

Lovin' Spoonful O' Cornbread. This is another test recipe for mrsbadmouth. It is a sweet, moist spoon bread and we loved it. I was sad that we didn't finish it before Passover started. The recipe calls for creamed corn, but I didn't go with my boyfriend to the grocery store and he came home reporting that all of the creamed corn at Kroger's had refined sugar in it. As such, he bought me a regular can of corn and figured that I would be able to make my own creamed corn. I must say, homemade creamed corn is much tastier than the awful canned stuff that my daddy tried to make me eat when I was growing up.


Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, another test recipe for mrsbadmouth. The filling was much better than the store-bought crust. It's possible that I just don't like graham cracker crusts, but until I do some more experimenting, I am choosing to blame the Arrowhead Mills crust. My boyfriend didn't seem to mind the crust, though. I ate the filling out of my piece and he finished the crust. I like having a boyfriend that can eat more than I can. It means I waste less food.